Compare/Contrast

In the story 'The Bet', and in the story 'Harrison Bergeron', two men are given the opportunity to either be free, or live in solitude. In The Bet, the Banker challenges the Lawyer that he cannot stay in a house by himself for fifteen years. In Harrison Bergeron, the main character Harrison, is held back from being free, due to the fact his has about 4-5 extra handicaps that nobody else has. Both of these characters are underestimated by their piers and friends; but in the end they show everybody why they deserve to gain respect.

In The Bet, the Banker doesn’t think that the Lawyer has it in him to last a decade and a half in solitude confinement with no access to socializing or stepping outside the house. After a couple years, the Lawyer starts to read many books on how life can take a drastic turn, and how society in the world is today. He reads and reads until his eyes burn of fire. He begins to realize that he himself doesn’t need anybody in the world but his heart and his mind. He made it through the fifteen-year challenge, and now knows that he can do what he believes in.

In Harrison Bergeron, everybody in the future has handicaps due to the fact that they are all special in some way. Harrison on the other hand, a teenage boy named Harrison has a variety of handicaps that he must wear. A mean lady by the name of Diana Moon Glampers is in control of the society. She’s the only person in the world that doesn’t have to wear handicaps, because she is that special. After while, Harrison realizes that he’s much better than this; he takes action on everybody and himself by taking off all of his handicaps, and it seems that nobody can stop him. For once in his life he feels that freedom that only one woman has experienced, and it feels GREAT. He takes a ballerina and dances with her and floats in the sky like a feather with her. Harrison thought he was in control, until Ms. Glampers shot him down out of the sky with a ten-gauge shotgun, pummeling to the ground and THUD. Dead. Harrison thought he had reached freedom, but his life came to a sudden halt by one woman.

These two men are very sophisticated in what they do. The only difference between these two men that I saw was that the lawyer saw his life on his own and only by himself. He had no intention on hurting anybody or being better than everyone else. He knew that it only lead to more distractions and dysfunctions along the way in life. Harrison on the other hand took all action he could to show everybody that he could take control of the world. He would do anything to try and reach the top. He would kill, fight, lie, anything, just to be the leader. The Lawyer never saw that in his eyes. In the end, the Lawyer ran away from town, and Harrison was killed.

So what I’ve learned from reading these books is that if you want to succeed in life, and try to be the best that you can, think with your heart and not with your mind. It will lead you to great ideals and views.

The Son of America

Summarization: Little old man named Berl and his wife named Berlcha (Pescha), live in a little village in Poland called Lentshin. Berl was a farmer and cropper, while Berlcha worked around the house. One day their son who traveled to America some 45 years ago, shows up at their house. His parents are shocked at what they see. Samuel wants to help them out becuase he figures they are in trouble with money and health. Berl takes Samuel into the bedroom and shows him the boot filled with the gold coins that he had sent them. He takes a walk down to the synagogue, where an old man told him that God was the meaning of life. "If god gives health, one keeps on living." Samuel traveled back home to America. He knows that his parents don't need his help and that they were in good health all along.


Symbol: Money. Shows that Berl & Berlcha don't need the money to be happy with what they already have. That's why they still have all of it stashed away in a boot under the bed. The future in life isn't always needed for everybody.

Symbol: Berl & Berlcha. They have everything they already need due to the fact that they have been living for 80+ years. Not everything in life is needed for everybody.

Protagonist: Berl
Antagonist: Samuel
Conflict: Person v. Person

Exposition: We find out what kind of place Lentshin is
Inciting Event: Samuel arrives
Rising Action:
Climax: When Samuel tries to give Berl &n Berlcha money
Falling Action:
Resolution: Samuel leaves for America

Theme: Everybody does not need money to make it through life.

The Bet

Protagonist: Lawyer; The story mainly focuses on the Lawyer and why and how he has changed. He is the pro cause he holds the way society works.

Antagonist: Banker. He holds all the money if the Lawyer loses. He is the 'man'.

Conflict: Person v. Society; Society is what leads the Lawyer to make the bet with the Banker and made the view on the lawyers life change due to all the books he read earlier. The lawyer has given up on life since the books made him realize society isn't worth life.

Exposition: Finding out who takes part in the story
Inciting Event: The bet is made between the two men
Rising Action: Fires shots into the garden
Climax: The Banker reads the letter
Falling Action: Lawyer's gone
Resolution: The Lawyer runs away from town and the Banker puts the letter inside the fireproof safe

Symbol: Books; stands for the fact of how people are these days and how they write them

Freedom:

English Words

Rori has had a very recalcitrant attitude since regionals.
The woman had a very sublime smile
The grass have a verdant texture and feel to it
The Kake Thunderbirds were quite acrimonious when the lost to the Panthers
The ephemeral was very boring
I felt tremulous when i saw Kaitlyn walking down the hall.
The shadow created a great silhouette effect and i danced the night away
Brandy, who is quite psychopathic, lost her DDF debate
Mr. Fielding sedated the girls when only 2/5 made it to state
After the man and woman got divorced, the woman's heart was full of desolation.

The Californian's Tale

Protagonist: Henry
Antagonist: Henry
Point of View: 1st Person Limited
Conflict: Person v. Self

Setting: California, 1867, After Gold Rush
Characters: Henry, Joe, Tom, Charlie, Narrator
Dynamic Character:
Static Character: Henry
Symbol: Picture, house
Allusion: Gold Rush

Exposition: Learning what the place is like
Inciting Event: Shows him picture of his wife
Rising Action: Stay to meet wife, meets miners, reads letter, set up party, Henry worries
Climax: The clock strikes 9 and drug Henry
Falling Action: Asks what's wrong
Resolution: Wife is dead

Ideas

Losing the big game
Grandparents (Roll models)
Mother
Dad leaving
Bad relationships

Thrill of the Grass

1. "You always struck me as a man who dreams.." The man says to the man who once actually played baseball and misses it more than anything. He wants to play baseball again more than anything.

2. Protagionist is the Canadian Man in the ball field.
Antagionist are the people who layed the turf down.
Person v. Society. The man wants them to remove the
astroturf from the field so they have to do it themselves
but going on a strike.

3. 1st person limited

4. Inciting Event: Meets the other man in the ballpark
Climax: Comes back to park with people to tear turf

5.Man goes into ballfield, looks around. Remembers how much he misses the game dearly, and how bad he did in highschool. He notices the astroturf and doesn't like it. Thinks is kind of demeaning towards baseball fields. He wants to replace the field with real grass like normal. Gathers a group of people together create a protest to change the field. He gathers a group of people together, and the next day, they cut up the turf and lay new grass. He watches and doesn't help. What a JERK.

6. Home: He sees the field as his second home. He grew up watching baseball all his life.
Freedom: The field is his get away. He goes there to relax and feels like there's nothing around him to cause him stress.
Tech: Astroturf wasn't around since the 1980s.

English Words

The boy's insolence to the teacher brought his grade down an entire letter.

Devin's churish behavior ended him up back in the 9th grade.

Logan was irate when he got 11th in the race and wasn't able to go to state.

Mickey's car efficacy created a great up roar when he drove down the street.

She cajoled him into doing anything she wanted. He became WHIPPED.

This year, Skagway pummeled Kake at regionals.

Thomas has great perspicacity towards the game of basketball.

Kaitlyn had a lot of chagrin when she got an 98% on her math test.

Logan assiduously handled his itouch.

Kaitlyn maliciously took out every girl on the Kake team to get rebounds.

Cold Equations

People die everyday from natural causes. We lose all our loved ones in an instant and there's no way of every getting them back. But from Marylynn's sight, the only family she has is her brother. He is one of the crewmen who need the serum to survive another day. But there's only one flaw holding the crew back from not being able to travel the space 8,000 miles to inject the serum, and that is Marylynn. All she wants is to see her brother, but has no intention to try and save the others. Only wants her brother back. Is it her fault? But oh of course it is. She wastes the Stardust's crews time by asking if she can fly with them to retrieve everybody. Even when she know's she'll just be extra body weight. The ship can run on so much fuel to get to the planet. And if she were to get on the craft, it'd slow progress down a couple miles, which will cause the ship to drift into space, with no chance whatsoever of recovering. So the fact of the matter is, Marylynn is NOT one to go into space.

Freedom & Equality

Be free from one and not the same. Freedom is the passion of people being able to live their lives the way they want them to be. Equality is the similarity of one another. Not being equal is racist. Not being able to be free, is hatered. And my question is, who you like to live in a world where everybody is exactly the same and are equal in everyway?

My answer to that question is no. Who in their right mind would ever want to be the same as someone else? I have people in my class who cannot stand each other, let alone want to be the same as the other. Being equal to everybody else is not right. Every person is this world is different in some sort of way from one another.

Being able to have freedom in this world is pure. If everybody were handicapped like in the story, Harrison Berguron, there would be hell to pay. Nobody in their right mind would close to be locked up like prisioners, then have complete freedom in this world.


OFF TOPIC (Equality): Homeless Man & George Bush. Both came from a regular woman. Both had the same childhood and life. Why should being president have any effect on people should treat you from someone else?






OFF TOPIC (Freedom): Barack Obama (Africian American) running for president. 40 years earlier, cannot even ride same bus as whites.

Sarah Palin, went from small Alaska town mayor, to governor, to VICE PRESIDENT aside John mcCain!

The Pedestrian

As the Car began driving down the fog covered road, Mr. Mead could only stare out the frosty window of the car. "Where are you taking me?" Leonard Mead asked. The car did not hum nor said nothing back to Mead. As the car kept cruising down the dark road, it began to drizzle rain from above. Mead could hear the heavy raindrops crashing on the top on the car. It felt like hours and hours had passed by while driving. Mead has fallen asleep in the back seat of the car. When he had awoken, the car had been parked in a dark lot, which was not located in town. "Please walk yourself to the door, Mr. Mead," the car told him. Mead didn't want to take any chances of getting fully arrested, so he slowly got out of the back seat, and walked his way to the door. The building looked like a old warehouse that had been abandoned for decades. The door was painted with a faded black paint, and was rusted on the hinges. He grasped the doorknob, and walked inside.
It was as if Mead was in a fairy tale land. When he took a long look at the room inside, he saw what had looked like a replica of his own home. "What is this place?" Mead asked to himself. Mead was shocked as his eyes beamed throughout the room. He walked over to his 'desk' which was located by the window. He sat down and was amazed to how close everything resembled everything at his own home. In front of him was three sheets of paper, written in black ink from his ball point pen. He sat down at the base of his chair and began to read out loud was was written on the last piece of paper. "As he sat at the base of his chair and began to view his story, Leonard Mead decided to take a stroll down the cold dark road in the year 2053.."