Unbroken

Louis Zamperini went from being an olympic athlete to a prisoner of war.

Unbroken begins with Louis being a troublemaker in the small town of Torrance. He was so bad that he punched anyone who angered him. He was so bad that he constantly was sent to the principles office for pushing teachers. He was so bad that he threw things at cops for fun. After Louis came to the realization that he needed to make a change, his brother introduced him to track.

Louis was a star from the beginning. Louis smashed Torrance High records and state records and national records for his age. He began rigorous training with his brother to reach his big goal: the olympics. Louis ran like the wind in hopes of making it to the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. Louis was a track prodigy and made it to the olympics, but years later, things took a turn for the worst.

After the outbreak of World War 2, Louis joined the military. He became a B-24 bomber crew member. On one of his crew's missions, the plane experienced technical difficulties and crash landed into the Pacific. 47 days at sea, 2 years a POW, a lifetime of pain and suffering.

As a POW in Japan, Louis-with many other soldiers- was brutally tortured by the Japanese. They unmercifully beat him and the other POW's daily, and only fed them just enough to survive. It was a terrible experience, and it would live with all of the POW's long after the war was over.

When your enemies try to break you, you must stay strong. You can not break. The story of how Louis remained strong, from long before the war to long after, is what makes this book so inspiring.

3rd Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

The Greatest Generation by Tom Brokaw
Decision Points by George W. Bush
Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury
Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand
     I did not meet my reading goals this quarter. I set them for the entire semester, not just one quarter, which is part of the reason I did not meet my goals. The other part is that I did not set aside enough reading time each day. I only read four books this quarter but I wanted to read five. Next quarter, I plan to set aside more time to reading each day so that I meet my fourth quarter goals.
     In fourth quarter, I would like to try and read six books to really challenge myself to read more. Reading six books will be hard for me, but I think that I can do it. Working towards reading six books in one quarter will force me to read every night. Also, I want to read three Alex-Award winning books to expand the genres I am reading. I read a lot of non-fiction in third quarter, and I would like to read more books outside of non-fiction.

Point of View - Rick Reilly

Rick Reilly is undoubtedly one of the best sports writers of all time. Currently, he is in the National Sports Writers Hall of Fame, and has 11 National Sportswriter of the Year awards to his name. Reilly has won countless awards for sports writing and journalism, including the 2009 Damon Runyon Award, and has co-authored many books. He is most well known from his columns in Sports Illustrated. Although many of his columns are comical, his point of view is definitely centered around sports. It’s obvious to see because he was a writer for a sports magazine and all of his columns are about specific sporting events, or are connected to sports in some way.  

Columnist Rick Reilly makes his point of view obvious to readers through his use of elevated diction to jab at or describe the main idea of each column. In Fiesta Fiasco, Reilly uses words like, “bespectacled”, “torrential”, “Unbridled, “jubilation”, and “siphoned” (Fiasco). Reilly also uses elevated words in Old-Timers Game like, “credenza”, “smiting”, and “platoons” (Old-Timers). In both columns, Reilly described the main idea of his column by using elevated diction. In Fiesta Fiasco he was taking jabs at referee Terry Porter for taking too long to make a call in a football game. In Old-Timers Game, Reilly described Julio Franco (an old baseball player) using elevated diction. Porter and Franco are both involved in sports, and since Reilly used elevated diction to describe them in his columns, readers can easily identify that his point of view is sports.

Watch the first minute of this video to see the call by referee Terry Porter.

Things I Learned Last Year

Dogs are something that my

parents do not want to get.

Sometimes medicines are

not worth the side effects.

Cam Newton, a man who's 

devoted his life to football, 

created the most popular dance

move right now, the dab.

Dj Khaled is a rapper, 

but he inspires everyone.

Some guys who now sit 

at my table in english, were 

not even in my class last 

semester.

     I liked 2015 a lot. It was a very fun year, and I was able to do a lot of fun things with my friends. I met more new friends this year than my past three years combined. I tried some new things that I was unsure about in 2015 that ended up being amazing. Overall, 2015 was a great year.

     The tone of my poem is very lighthearted. It is not complex, deep, or personal in any way. There is nothing personal about this poem because no big, life-changing events happened to me is 2015. I really did not learn any super personal things about myself of anyone around me. The tone of this poem reflects my 2015 year.

     Stafford's poem has very lighthearted stanzas just like mine. Most of his stanza's are random, ironic facts he learned. Our poems are very different though because he included some deep things that he had learned, whereas the entirety of my poem was random and has no serious topics in it.

2nd Quarter Poetry Journal Reflection

The Summer I was Fourteen

The clear-blue water was cold on our hot skin when we jumped into the pool. It cooled us off as we rose from under the surface. There was a cacophony of splashing and yelling as we jumped in and felt the water's cold hand grab hold of our bodies and pull us under. We entertained ourselves by playing pool basketball and tips. All of us together. Close friends and people I had just met having a great time together. We all raised ourselves out of the enormous, blue bowl and onto the boiling, gray pavement. We went under the sun umbrella to get out of the blistering heat. Everyone brought all sorts of food for us to eat. We feasted on pretzels and oreos as we talked the rest of the afternoon away.

I chose this piece because I feel that I did a good job describing the pool's atmosphere that day. I made a reference to another poem we talked about this year when I called the pool a "blue bowl". I tried to use personification when I mentioned the water taking hold of us and pulling my friends and I under. I tried to use descriptive adjectives to describe the pool and what was happening that day. I think that made it a better piece, and also more entertaining for readers.

2nd Quarter Independent Reading Reflection

This quarter I finished four books. This is one more book than I finished last quarter. I read the Color of Water by James McBride, A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, as well as Decision Points by George W. Bush.  My books were quite challenging for me especially because they were all long. It made me read a lot. I chose this level of rigor becasue I felt that in my last quarter of reading I did not challenge myself enough. I wanted to do better this quarter and to really learn from my reading. The best book that I read this quarter was Decision Points by George W. Bush. This was a great book because it was an autobiography that went deeper into various topics about our former president that I never knew before. It had some great stories and details about past events and other things that I never knew before reading it. I have discovered that I tend to enjoy nonfiction more than fiction. I like reading autobiographies and biographies and learning from other people's experiences.
I definitely achieved my reading goals from last quarter. I read more challenging books and I read not only fantasy books, but nonfiction which I have found that I enjoy more. For the third quarter, I would like to read five books with at least three different genres. This will help me continue to try out new genres and read more books. My second goal is to read over two thousand pages. Not only do I want to read more books, but I also would like to challenge myself to read longer books. I want to do this so that it will force me to read more often to reach that goal.

Puritans Prevention of Plays

The Puritans (group of reformed English Protestants) would like to shut down the Globe Theater. The Globe attracts many different kinds of people, from gamblers to beggars and all sorts of other rogues. The young, mischievous people love The Globe and all theaters like it. However, Puritans despise these new theaters due to all of the immoral activities that take place. The objections that the Puritans have about the theaters are quickly spreading among the respectable citizens of society. Many people are beginning to agree with the Puritan's views of the theaters. The Puritans are looking towards Parliament to take action against the theaters to suppress the bad activity that is currently taking place in the theaters.
The Puritans are gaining a lot of power in Parliament. The conflict between the Puritans and Royalists is starting to cause the outbreak of an English Civil War. With their recently gained power, Puritans shut down the theaters that they believe are metaphorical marketplaces of immorality. The people believe that the outcome of the war will determine whether or not the theaters ever open up again. The Puritans have already started to demolish the theaters so it seems unlikely that they will ever reopen. Participation in any plays could result in severe punishment by Puritan authorities due to new strict laws against the theaters. For now, I advise my readers to stay away from the recently outlawed theaters so that no one gets harmed.