Sonny's Blues

            This story really caught my attention. Out of all the stories I must say this one was my favorite. The reason why it was my favorite was because I think people can really relate to it. I mean this is stuff that happens in everyday life. In the beginning of the story it really kept me on my toes. I had no idea what was going on and it encouraged me to keep reading. Honestly, for me I do not like reading at all, but this was actually entertaining. “I didn’t want to believe that I’d ever see my brother going down, coming to nothing, all the light in his face gone out, in the condition I’d already seen so many others.” This quote really stood out to me because I think so many people go through this every day especially with loved ones. I mean I don’t know how many times I can recall being in this exact place wondering why someone did someone and there was absolutely nothing you can do to help them. The worst part is watching someone you love being taken away from you for something they could have easily avoided. It does not even matter if they are being accused of something or just simply they did it. The state of mind you are in is totally different. Another thing that really shocked me in this story was how his brother found out about him through the newspaper. This would honestly hurt me! I could not imagine not hearing from anyone not even relatives, no one about your brother and you find out by opening the newspaper. There were also things that really upset me in this book and made me happy. One thing that I liked was how the two brothers reunited through letters. It just showed that he still has hope and encourages him to keep trying. One thing that I did not like was when he found out about his brother getting into trouble was what his friend had told them. I mean you can already tell he is in a different state of mind and as a friend I think people need to be very careful with their words. They do not understand the kind of impact you can really have on someone.

Graveyard experience

"I went to the Lakeview, Roselawn and Tiger Flowers cemetery complex for this fieldtrip, and I stayed there for at least 40 minutes."

 

 

Before visiting the Cemetery I was kind of creped out. I was thinking what could I possibly do here and I kind of thought it was really creepy. After being at the cemetery I had a change of heart. After sitting there for a while really had the chance to gather my thoughts. I am not going to lie at first I just sat there wondering what I was doing there, but after a while I started to take my thinking to a higher level. I started to think of how my Grandpa died and about all the happy times I had with him. I thought back to my childhood and remembered all the times growing up to last year we spent time together. Part of the time I was depressed about it, but towards the end of the forty minutes there I really started to be happy with God blessing him into my life. I thought about the book we read “A Grief Observed” and realized how sad it would be to lose someone you spent every day with. I thought of the times it would be hard to go through these circumstances. Then I started to think about how lucky you are to have a person so long in your life. This made me realize the importance of relationships.

After reading this book it really made me open my eyes to a lot. In class I was wondering why we have to go to a grave. I thought honestly at first this was a dumb idea. I did not seem to see the point of it. I just thought we were suppose to think of suffering, but when I started to read the chapters Lewis made some really good points that stood out to me.  First, he talks about suffering. He pretty much is saying that everyone is going to suffer at some time. We need to be comfortable talking about suffering because we as humans are all going to go through it. After reading this book I think I have an open mind to engage what Lewis was really trying to teach me. For a Christian stand point I feel like I was able to relate to him. I never really liked reading, but when I feel like I can relate it to things I am going through I actually started to enjoy it. I really feel like I am learning more just about Christianity and opening my mind to new ideas in this class than any of my classes so far.

A Grief Observed

Throughout the whole story I felt like it really revealed more and more as I read the story. At first, I did not quite understand until I really looked deeper into it. I must say reading this really made me value the relationships that I do have. I must say that I can relate to Lewis because last year I lost my Grandpa last year. This was probably one of the most difficult times of my life.  I really like how he talks about how God is involved in his life still. I mean you have to figure losing a wife is not going to be the easiest thing to go through. It would be really hard to focus on God going through tough circumstances but I guess that is the test we go through. You do not realize how much the things you go through can really affect other people by you just telling them your story.  I look at it like God is not going to put you through anything that you cannot handle.  Of course going through this you are going to have a different set of mind through these situations though. As I read this I just thought of all the people that are probably going through this right now. It made me really think about how I can help people and tell them how I dealt with it. The story reminded me of “Joel” just because of how sad and depressed it was.  I can also relate the story to the Blessed House” just because they both are in a relationship. Both relationships have problems, but different problems. I mean in the story though you really have to look at how we are looking at H’s side. We never really had the chance to get into deep conversation with Jack. I mean there are always different views from each person.  At the end of the story I felt like they just kind of left you there. I was engaged in the story and still wanted to know more. This story really made me think about people that lose someone in their life every day. I could not image the people that lose siblings or parents. I mean I lost my grandpa, but I think that losing someone closer would really be devastating. I guess what I am trying to say is reading this just really made me appreciate all the close people in my life.

Joel- moving and vivid

Honestly majority of Joel really seemed to be moving to me. Some of the texts I was not exactly sure what it meant, but I enjoyed reading it. One quote that seemed moving to me was “The LORD utters his voice before his army; Surely His camp is very great, For strong is he who carries out His word The day of the LORD is indeed great and very awesome, And who can endure it? This quote was really vivid to me and moving because I feel like the quote is telling us that God is the one in charge and only him. To me, this moves me because it is a just reminder that the Lord is always good no matter how much you change he will stay the same. When it says the Lord utters his voice to the army I think that means like God is speaking to his people, which would be all of us. I feel like he speaks to us and never forgets us not matter how much we sin. I mean how can that simply not move you? When it talks about the camp being great I relate that to the people and for the people who carries out his word means to always talk and tell about the Lord. You should not just keep it as a secret but yell it to everyone to hear. This is such an encouraging statement to me because once again it is a reminder. It’s like a line of encouragement for all of us who are Christians. Then it tells about how the Lord is great and awesome. I mean he has done everything for us. When it asks the question who can endure it I feel like we can never endure it all, but we can take his love whenever. This quote was really moving and vivid to me and inspired me about the Lord’s great love. Honestly, we as his people cannot just sit there and hear this without being moved.

Joel

Joel has probably been one of my favorites to read in class. I guess I can say that because it just seemed to me it was the easiest to understand, but I guess to some people that are not Christians it would be more difficult to understand. One quote that really was beautiful to me was “Consecrate a fast, proclaim a solemn assembly; Gather the elders and all the inhabitants of the land to the house of the LORD your God, and cry out to the LORD.”To me this quote really stands out to me because no matter where or what time it is you should always be calling out to God for the good and the bad. We can never control anything that ever happens to us in life and that is why we have to rely on God and people from the church. “And rent your heart and not your garments Now return to the LORD your God, For He is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in loving kindness And relenting of evil” was another quote that was beautiful to me. I mean we can always look at God as having unconditional love for us. He shows that to us by our actions. I mean I cannot even think of how many times I have sinned and God probably wants nothing to do with me, but he is so slow to anger and gentle with us. To me I look at this quote as an example of how all of us should be to our brothers and sisters. Of course it is hard and we are going to struggle but this quote is a constant reminder of how we ought to act. This quote was probably the one I really liked the most which was, “Tell your sons about it, and let your sons tell their sons, and their sons the next generation.” This quote was beautiful to me because I thought it was really significant and powerful. Of course we as Christian people have to constantly spread the word about God and Jesus. If we do not then many generations that come down will not know about it. I think that by telling people about God will end up making more and more people turning their ways and beliefs. Of course people will constantly sin but they can always repent. By telling people about the father can make such an impact on many people’s life today. It can really start to affect the whole world. If you just image if a friend would tell a friend every day about what God has done for us how many more people will realize things. The problem with people today, including myself, is the fact that we constantly change how we are by the people we hang out with. We hide majority of what we think about God and do not really talk about him as much with Christian friends as much as non-Christian friends.

The Colonel

Hass’s writing seems to be like he is writing from his past. The things he says and reflects back to makes me think of him as having moments that pass by too quickly. I honestly think about this all the time. Just like in school and college everything passes so quickly. I never really get the chance to just sit back and think about it. I mean each day by day just goes so slow but in reality when you look back it years you always just sit and wonder what happened to it. I mean just this last year the semester flew by like crazy. I feel like I just started but yet almost done. It makes me just really appreciate time and the people that are in my life at the time. Especially when you have friends come and go to different colleges you really start to value your time.

 This short story made me really think about all the relationships that I have had and sometimes I just take them for grantee. It is hard to realize a lot what you have until it is gone. Especially close friends because sometimes you just get so use to them being there. I mean of course I always have appreciated the people that were in my life. Sometimes though people need to be told that they are appreciated because they think you just take them for grantee. With friends I mean image you be told you are appreciated everyday by a friend it is going to make you feel good. The other people that never get told anything though have to sit there and wonder and really think about things. I mean I think it is really important to tell people how you appreciate it just makes the other person feel good.

story

Mark was always a shy timid guy. Most of the guys in his neighborhood always picked on him because they knew he could not stick up for himself. Growing up Mark was always quiet no one could ever understand why. I mean we all knew that his parents had passed away a couple years ago, but ever since then we didn’t hear a peep out of him.

No one on this street seemed to care about his feelings. It was mainly every man for them self. If you were caught walking around by yourself you were pretty much asking for it. They got the joy they wanted picking on him because that was their fun throughout the day. Even the days when Mark was not at school people just missed him because they had no one to laugh at.

Mark always walked with his head down. Mark was a cute guy a lot of the girls thought he was attractive. Even girls that were the most popular ones in school had tried to talk to him at one point. Mark would occasionally have a conversation with them, but it was no more than, “how are you doing?” No one really got more out of Mark at all.

Until it was his senior year in High School, Mark loved science and was really into his science class. His Professor Larry always tried to interact with the students and make them talk. He believed in dialogue for his teaching. Professor Larry was the hardest teachers to get an “A” in. For Mark though it was like the icing on the cake. He was naturally smart. The thing that really pulled his grade was talking to Professor Larry. A couple days a week Mark would stop by his office just to ask him questions on the papers. He tried his hardest in this class.

Once students started seeing this they wanted to be friends with Mark. They wanted him to tutor him. Mark of course refused to help out people. He did not want to interact with the other students in the class. Not only were those but the majority of the students that wanted his help were the ones that picked on him every day.

After school one day a couple kids named Jerry, Louis, and Josh were walking home. They lived a street away from Mark. When they were about half way to their house they saw Mark sitting on a bench starring off into space. They walked over to him slowly just staring at him. Josh whispered to the other guys, “Watch this, this is going to be funny!” Louis and Josh just chuckled at each other. Not knowing what was going to happen Mark looked up frightened not knowing what was going to happen. Josh went and sat by Mark and asked him, “How have you been?” Mark just glanced at him and simply replied straight and started to get up. Right when he was about to stand up Josh grabbed the back of his shirt and asked him where he was going. Mark started to turn red and told him he was going to go wherever he wants to go. Josh got upset with his slick mouth and punched him right in the mouth. Mark, with blood dripping down from his face, told him he was going to regret that and walked away. Josh just simply laughed and though it was hilarious what Mark just told him. As Mark walked away he continued to mock what Mark said. Josh, Louis, and Jerry just started laughing so hard that Mark could hear him.

Later the next day the boys all had the same lunch. A couple girls were talking about Mark and asked a group of guys what had happened to him. Of course, no one knew exactly what happened to him because Mark never talked. Josh, Louis, and Jerry just sat there and chuckled. Sally, which was one of the most popular girls in the school, asked Josh what happened to him because she said his lip looked really busted. Josh without answering the question just told her that if he watched his slick mouth then maybe he would not look like that. Right then Sally knew he had something to do with it.

After school that day the four boys ended up running into each other trying to walk through the door. Josh saw Mark out of the corned of his eye and decided to shove Mark right into the poll that was by the lockers. Mark hit the poll so hard he fell on the ground. He laid there for a couple seconds and could not get up for a couple seconds. Everyone that was around was laughing hysterical. Josh, Louis, and Jerry just walked away chuckling talking about how Mark claimed that Josh was going to regret it. Right when Mark heard this he got up quick to his feet and ran from behind and tackled Josh right into the ground. Mark jumped on top of Josh and hit right in the jaw. Before Mark could take another swing Louis and Jerry drug Mark off of Josh and began to punch Mark in the face. Right when Josh had the chance to get up Josh kicked Mark right into the ribs. Before they could get another hit in a teacher split all the boys up and told them to get out of here. The teacher held the three boys and let Mark leave first. Then about fifteen minutes later let the other boys leave and let them know they were lucky they were not getting sent to the principal’s office.  

The next three days Mark did not show up for school. Pretty much the whole school had heard about Mark getting beat up, but no one heard from him. The couple people that saw the fight said that Mark was probably in the hospital because he was so badly hurt.

The next day Mark showed up to school with bandages all over his face. Not knowing that everyone had heard about what happened to him. When Mark walked anywhere around the school people were constantly laughing at him. One guy came up to Mark telling him he should never mess with Josh again. Mark ended up leaving school early that day and never came back.

The next day of school Mark showed up with a smirk on his face. Josh was walking through the hall going to the bathroom with all his buddies. When Josh came out of the bathroom all people heard was BAM BAM BAM! Mark chuckled and walked away! People screamed and Mark walked away satisfied.

Character Trait

I choose to write about Twinkle for my writing analysis. I think Twinkle is a sensitive character. The reason why I think this is because she cried about the statue. This obliviously means that statue means a lot to her though. Twinkle is motivated as well though. She shows this throughout the story because she argues with her husband about the statue. She understands that his religion is going against this but she still pushes for her way. Not once does she try to understand his side, but she fights for what she wants. I would not really consider Twinkle as an understanding person. I think once Twinkle wants something she is not really willing to compromise, but I think this is not a good character trait especially in a marriage. You have to have at least one person giving in or else you are going to be like this couple and fight the whole entire time. On the other hand though, fighting for what you believe in is a good trait because at least she will get what she wants or at least attempt too. I think Twinkle likes to be controlling with the situation as well because even when the statue is in the house and her husband explains to her how people will look at him with it in the house she puts it behind the door. To me that kind of seemed like a joke in a way because it is like she is willing to remove it, but only to a certain way which is the way she wants it done. Of course hiding it behind a door is like it is not even there so why not just remove it. That part of the story kind of really did not make sense to me at all.