Journal #2

A long time ago, when animals had not been tainted by humans and ran rampant, there were a bear and a rabbit that were enemies. The bear and the rabbit had never gotten along, for the bear had eaten the rabbit's whole family. The rabbit was very scared of the bear, but at the same time, he was very angry at the fate of his family. One day, the bear needed somewhere to go, because humans had come and had driven him away from his home. The bear was afraid of humans, because humans had done to the bear what the bear had done to the rabbit. The bear quickly ran away, with the fear that the humans would follow and hunt him. The humans followed for a short time, but the bear soon had lost them. The bear had nowhere to go, because he knew if he went back to his house, the humans would be there waiting for him and would capture him like they had the rest of his family. The bear went to many people to try to find a place to stay, but since many of the animals were scared of him and his reputation of eating animals, many of the animals would not even answer his knock on their door. The bear finally made it to the rabbit's house. The bear was very slow to get there, because he had eaten the rabbit's family. The bear felt bad about it, but he knew that he had nowhere else to turn to. The rabbit answered his door, and when the bear very repentantly asked to stay with the rabbit, the rabbit immediately wanted to say no. He thought back to his family, and while he was thinking, he recalled his mother saying that he should always help others if he could, for that is what made a rabbit good. The rabbit consented and let the bear in. The bear almost did not fit, but the bear and the rabbit worked together to widen and deepen the rabbit's hole. They both eventually made it into the house, and they lived happily ever after in harmony as friends.

Journal #1

Native American Culture is very complex and complicated to understand. I do not comprehend very much of it at all, but what I do know is that they have many different ways that they believe that they are connected with animals. They have many different theories about how the world was formed, but they all involve nature, the sun and moon, or animals of some sort. They love storytelling, and they orally passed on their stories through many generations. They thought it was easier to remember them if they were passed on orally, so they had to tell the stories to each generation and make sure they had memorized them. They did this for hundreds and hundreds of years, because was they only way that they knew of that let them pass down their beliefs and culture for so long. They believed that one should only take what one needs from the earth, and to not kill or take from the planet any excess. They also thought that once one took something from the earth, they should use all of it and not waste anything. They used everything that they took, by making utensils from the bones, tents or clothing from the skins, and fires from the fat. Many of the Native Americans were nomadic, and they moved from place to place to follow the animals or to find grains and plants for food during the different seasons. They were a simple people, and while they played games and told many stories, they also worked incredibly hard for what they got. They were very giving, because they understood that when a person lends a hand to another person, they often will have that help returned when they need it. They were also trusting, because many of them had not met people that would play tricks on the Native Americans to get what they wanted. They were used to people that just asked for what they needed. The Native Americans were a very kind, trusting people, with a culture that is very complex and remains a mystery to many people to this day.

Symbolism Journal

There was quite a bit of symbolism in The Grapes of Wrath. Each character symbolized the rest of the world that was in the same situation as them. Ma and Pa were the parents around the United States, Rose of Sharon symbolized the young mothers everyone, and Ruthie and Winfield were the children. It symbolized what happens to people when they do not work together to do good for the world. It showed the chaos the ensued and the pandemonium that happened. The Grapes of Wrath had many symbols, and while some were not obvious, others were.

Gains of Conflict in "The Catcher in the Rye"

Once the conflict in The Catcher in the Rye had begun, it just kept on building and growing until it had almost become unbearable. In the book, conflict was gained in many different ways. Once Holden had started the ball rolling, it started more and more conflict to arise through many people and situations. Once Holden had left Pencey Prep boarding school, conflict was gained by just about everything that he did. Conflict was gained when he boarded the bus, because he could have easily been caught. The conflict grew even more when he interest the hotel, and when he left for the bar. There was much conflict as he was leaving the bar, because he was drunk and he started doing dumb things, such as calling Sally Hayes in the middle of the night. Since a lot of conflict had begun on Holden and Sally's date, there had to be a lot of conflict gained as well. Conflict was gained when they started to argue with each other about little things that did not really matter at all. They yelled and screamed, and even more conflict was gained when Holden told Sally that she was a real pain in his rear end. She got incredibly upset, and even started crying. Conflict had also been started when Holden had decided to leave New York, and also when he told Phoebe of his plans to hitchhike away. Conflict was gained when Phoebe decided that she would go with Holden. Holden did not take well to this idea, and he refused to let her even think about it. He said she needed to stay home with their family, but she would not let him leave without her. She had been crying, so to appease her, he declared that he would not leave New York and their family. There was much conflict in The Catcher in the Rye, and all of the starts and gains of the conflict centered around Holden Caulfield.

My Opinion on "The Old Man and the Sea"

The Old Man and the Sea is a very different book than both The Grapes of Wrath and The Catcher in the Rye. The Old Man and the Sea was a much shorter book, and I also enjoyed it a lot more than the other two. It made a lot of sense to me, and I really liked the lessons that could be learnt from it, such as patience, bravery, and heroism. The heroism was phenomenal in the book, and it made me wish that more people were like the Old Man. I thought it was very interesting how the Old Man knew all about the ocean, its patterns, the fish that swim in it, where those fish would be, the fishes' patterns, and weather patterns. He knew exactly what was going to happen, and the only thing that he could not know is whether or not the fish would bite his bait that day. He was a good man through conflict and trouble, and many people loved the Old Man because of how kind and gentle he was, no matter what happened to him. I did not like that the people in the story did not always like the Old Man, because he was obviously always nice and kind to them all, and he had never done anything against them. It made sense to me that they had not for a while, though, because if they had always liked him, then the lesson of perservering would not be so deeply ingrained into the story. It also made me upset that the Old Man could not bring the live fish in, because it only seemed fair that after he had done so much he would have been somehow rewarded. The Old Man was an incredible character, and I loved learning so much about him while I was reading the book. The Old Man and the Sea was a very good book that I really enjoyed reading, even if I did not like everything in it.

My Opinion on "The Grapes of Wrath"

The Grapes of Wrath was not a book that I enjoyed very much. I found it boring. I also thought it was odd that only half of the chapters were about the Joads, and that the other half were about other things. While the other chapters did tie in to the story, it would have made more sense to just explain what had happened to the Joads, and not the rest of America. The chapter about the turtle in the beginning threw me for a loop, because I was expecting the whole book to be about one family, like all of the rest of the books I have ever read. I also think that the characters should have all been developed equally, because some were developed more than others. The people that I was the most curious about were the ones that were not as developed. I would have liked to see their whole personality, not just how they act in one situation. It would have been more interesting to see Rose of Sharon while she was happy at one point instead of just always being upset. I also would have liked to know more about Ruthie and Winfield. There was not very much about them, because they always ran away. It seems like the author wanted to keep them away during the book because he did not want to have to explain them or write much about them. In my opinion, if the author did not want to include Ruthie and Winfield very much, then it may have just been easier to exclude them from the book. I did kind of enjoy The Grapes of Wrath, though. It showed how life was during the Great Depression and explained what the farmers and their families had to go through. It was also nice to see the individual struggles of everyone in the family. While The Grapes of Wrath was a decent book, I did not really enjoy it and I thought the ending was not satisfying at all.

My Opinion on "The Catcher in the Rye"

The Catcher in the Rye is not an incredibly long book, but it gets its message across just as well as a book that is twice its length. I thought the book was pretty good, and it was not something that I minded reading. The Catcher in the Rye did not have an obvious message, and it took me some time to try to dig deep and figure it out. It was a message that one must interpret, and it can be interpreted in many different ways. I took it as saying that people should stay in school and work hard to keep their grades up so they will do well later in life. The characters in the book were kind of flat, because there was not much explained about them. There was no information into their pasts, and one did not get to see many sides of their character. When one saw a character, one only saw a portion of how they act and how they react to different situations. The setting was also very different than most of the other stories that I am used to reading. I am not used to reding stories about boarding schools, and it would have been more interesting to me to read more about them. I also would have liked to know more about what the people liked to do then and how they lived. It would have been fun to read about New York back then and to find out if it was the bustling city that it is now. It was interesting to find out what a teenage boy thought about in those times, and it was funny to read about Sally. Sally was funny to me because she showed that people have been like that since the beginning of time and they will never stop being like that. The Catcher in the Rye was overall a decent book, but it did not go very deep into the character and the ending was very abrupt.