A Principle to Keep

If our world ever came into a post apocalyptic state, some principles that would be necessary to hold on to would be kindness and forgiveness. In a world where there is nothing left, we should not simply make things worse by acting cruel toward one another. When there are only few people left, one would probably want the accompaniment of another. By maintaining friendly attitudes, humanity could stay in tact. One act of kindness would be to share resources. Although one might feel that it is an “every man for himself” situation, you would be more likely to succeed in surviving if you are not alone. As far as forgiveness goes, you should always forgive your peers and treat another as you would want to be treated. As I said before, everyone needs to work with one another instead of against one another. Think of it this way: What if, in our modern day, people did not speak kind words? What if people did not use manners, or did not apologize for their wrongs, or did not accept apologies? However, most people are polite to other people these days. But, what if we stopped showing kindness or forgiveness when our world needed it most? Our world would turn to even more chaos. There would be no trust, no loyalty, no friendship. Many people would not be able to survive on their own. If you ask me, an overall good attitude is the most important principle. One smile can go a long way.

A Classmate I'm Thankful For

This year, I am thankful for my classmate, and one of my best friends, Alex. Alex and I have been really good friends since the beginning of freshmen year, and I can't see us drifting apart any time soon. I'm grateful to have her as a friend because whenever I am stuck with homework or life, she always has the answers. She is also very trustworthy and smart, and I can always count on her to be honest with me, even if the truth is ugly. Alex is also very understanding and overall a great person to be around. I am thankful that she is a part of my life.

Margaret

In the short story The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber by Ernest Hemingway, there is definitely a surprise ending. In an "attempt to kill the bull," or as the author would like you to believe, Margaret actually shoots Francis in the back of the head. After the event takes place she is crying and kind of acting like this was all an accident, but the Hunter, Robert Wilson, is accusing her of the murder of her husband. If you ask me, it seems that she shot her husband on purpose, and Wilson was right about her all along. When you look at Francis and Margaret’s relationship over the past few days of the story, they have been arguing a lot, going back and forth between who is superior in their marriage. She even cheated on him right in front of his face when she kissed Wilson and later left the tent in the middle of the night, then lied about it. As the short story states, however, neither one of them would be willing to leave the other because they simply have it too good with one another. Margaret was in it mostly for the money, while Francis stayed simply because he was not good with women. Over the past few days, Margaret had begun to feel superior to her husband because of his hunting failure. This made her feel more confident in the fact that he would not leave her. Toward the end of the story, when he has a successful hunt, he begins to gain confidence in himself. This probably threatens Margaret, since she wanted to be the one to call the shots in the relationship. Also, she feels that he now has the power within himself to leave her. When she sees her opportunity, she shoots and kills him because this way he is unable to leave their marriage, and it gives her the upper hand once again.

What did Margaret do?

     In The Short Happy Life of Francis Macomber, Hemingway includes a very unexpected ending. From the title, we know that he had a short life, so one may be able to predict that he dies somewhere in the story. However, it would be quite difficult to predict the actual ending. At the end of this short story, Francis becomes really excited and confident in himself, so Wilson decides they should go back and finish off the bull. Once they are face to face with the bull, they are struggling to kill it. They shoot it many times, but each time they somehow miss their mark. Seeing the men having trouble, Margaret takes the gun from beside her and shoots it; however, instead of the intended target, she hits Francis. Now, in the literal sense, this is the complete answer. She shot her husband. But why? The story makes this incident seem like it was unintentional. To me, it seems that Margaret intentionally meant to shoot him because she wanted to leave the marriage. In the story, Hemingway says that Margaret would never leave Francis because he had a lot of money and he would only make more. It also argues that Francis would never leave Margaret because he was not very good with women, and he was afraid that he would not be able to find another if he left her. So basically at this point in their marriage, they were stuck in a dead end relationship. I think that on some level, Margaret could no longer stand the idea of staying with Francis, so in that moment she shot him. Besides what she did literally, she also set herself free, physically and emotionally.

6 Six Word Sentences

In that moment, she only sighed.

I wish you wouldn't leave again.

Some things will just never change.

This is so far from over.

Sometimes, just think: all or nothing.

I'm too busy, overwhelmed, and tired.

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

    If you ask me, the character of John Proctor is neither a hero, nor a stooge in The Crucible. However, I feel that he had the potential of being an aspiring hero in the play. Obviously Proctor is no saint. Some reasons that cause me to believe so is the fact that he does not go to church every Sunday, he can not name the Ten Commandments, and only two of his three children are baptized. He even committed lechery by "getting to know" Abigail. So why, then, do I think he could in fact be a hero? Well, despite the fact that he has made lots of errors and proved unfaithful more than once, he was the one who began to suspect that Abigail and the other girls were lying about the witchcraft just so they could get attention. Also, he was the one who wanted to take the matter to the court and try to free his wife, along with hundreds of others accused. He even admitted to his lechery in an attempt to make the judges believe his evidence. In fact, Proctor could have been the hero at this point, had Elizabeth not lied about why she fired Abigail from being their servant. Although John Proctor's evidence and claims were overlooked by the court officials, it was the thought that counted. Just the fact that he tried to help and tried to free the accused rather than just sitting around and watching it happen, not caring about anyone other than himself shows that he is most definitely not a stooge. While these claims may not prove that he is also not a hero physically, he had the mentality of a hero throughout most of the witchcraft nonsense, and this is why I believe that he could be a hero if more people had believed his claims and worked with him rather than against him.

There Goes the Neighborhood

     

When two or more groups settle into the same area, anything can come of it. Some people will get along better than others; however, if it is anything like the European settlers and the Native Americans, there may be some serious conflicts between the groups. A more modern day connection I can make to this is when you start living somewhere and you have to live with a roommate.

Some benefits of two or more groups sharing the same living space is trade and/or collaboration. At first, the Natives and Europeans lived together in harmony and traded goods and lived normal lives. Also, In my opinion, if they would have been able to look past their differences, they could have worked together in building our nation.

Sometimes, however, settling together can cause major discomfort, especially if you are nothing like the other group of people. In the case of the Europeans and the Natives, they lived very different lives and had different beliefs. At first, they lived together in harmony and traded goods and lived normal lives. After some time the Europeans wanted to expand and they took lots of the Native Americans' land. This led to many feuds and they resented each other for most years. Another reason the two could not get along was because the Puritans could not convert the Natives to their religion, and they ultimately declared them to be demonic. Since the Puritans had such strong beliefs, there was no way they could live with each other in peace.

        These points can both connect to living with a roommate because if you get along great with the person you live with, everything in life will occur smoothly. On the other hand, still going along with my modern day connection, if you can't stand the person you live with and there is just constant fighting among the two of you, everyone's lives are going to be just that much harder and someone might even end up leaving the area. So overall I think sharing the same living space can have its pros and cons.

Me

My name is Sara Woods. I live on the far southwest side of Chicago in Mt. Greenwood with both of my parents and my three younger siblings; a sister named Nora and two brothers named John and Joey. I also have three pets; a dog, a cat, and a turtle. Outside of school, I like to play sports, read, and spend times with friends. When it comes to sports, I would say I am a pretty good athlete, but the sports I'm best at are soccer and volleyball. I played volleyball for six years for my former elementary schools and one year in high school, but last year was my last year because I decided I would rather play soccer. I have been playing soccer since kindergarten, so after this season it will have been about eleven years since I started. Besides playing for our school's team, I also play for an Under-18 travel team. My favorite book is called Looking for Alaska by John Green. I enjoy reading any books that he has written. I also usually like mystery books. When it comes to school, I would have to say that my favorite subject is math because it comes pretty easy to me. My least favorite subject is probably history because I find it kind of boring and it is hard for me to focus in class.