How It Changed

Author’s Note: In this essay I will demonstrate my knowledge of text to world by explaining what happens in the book Between Shades of Gray, by, Ruth Sepetys and comparing it to real life as today.

Imagine a bunch of police storming into your house and taking you away, without having any reason and shoving you into a tiny truck with other people and driving away and never being able to see your house ever again. This is what exactly what happens in the book, Between Shades of Gray by, Ruta Sepetys. Lina who is the main character in this book had to go get thrown out of her own house by the police. Every since that day her life completely changed. This novel shows how cruel people would treat other’s back then in the 1940’s and how much people have changed since today.

The main character Lina was like any 15 year old teenage girl that had a great passion for art and she had a wonderful family that cared for her so much. Until one day a group of police stormed into her house and grabbed her family and took them away to Siberia while her father was sent to prison. And now she would do whatever to get her family back together with the help of her mother and younger brother Jonas.

Lina, her mother, and younger brother faced many harsh punishments by the police that had taken them away from their home. For example they would not be able to take showers and were forced to work outside for many hours while they would get very filthy and stinky. Then they would be shoved inside a train with many other people in it so it would get very crowded “I counted the people-forty six packed in a cage on wheels, maybe a rolling coffin” pg.35. This kind of abuse does not happen anymore today, especially since there is a law that states how people can’t barge into your house without your permission and can’t be treated like a slave under any circumstances. Not only that but we have showers in our houses that we are able to take anytime that we desire too and not stay filthy and clean ourselves. The way the police treated them, was very wrong and rude

Another way the police would treat them very horribly is that they would basically treat Lina and all of the other people just like animals. When they would nothing wrong the police would either spit or shoves them to ground and embarrass them in front of everybody. Also, they wouldn’t give them enough food to them and if the police thought they were acting too badly for them wouldn’t give them anything to eat for the rest of the day “No bread today, you ingrate. Get to work!” pg. 313. This just shows on how cruel the police would treat people back in 1941. This has changed dramatically today because all of the polices today just want to help out people make sure they’re safe and doing the right things, the last thing the police would want is someone to get hurt.

The police made life for Lina and her family very difficult and horrible. The way they treated and spoke to them made them very uncomfortable. Throughout the whole novel it shows how poorly treated everyone was treated and the bad guys that were in the book are actually the good guys we have today in society. The police would do anything to make sure people are doing what they are supposed to be doing, there is a lot that has changed since back then to now and it changed it a much better environment.  

Video Analysis

When I read the story the A Clean, Well Lighted Place and then saw the movie I feel like in the film the actors did a really nice with their facial expression. Just how they young waiter would get really upset on how the old  man wouldn’t leave and just sit there and keep drinking. He did a very well on being upset and annoyed at him. Just like the younger waiter did really good with facial expression same with the older waiter who was actually defending the old man. It seemed like the older waiter was getting teary eyes every time the young waiter would say something disrespectful about the old man. Also, the music that they played in the background went really well with the scenes they shot. Especially at the beginning of the film it had a little creepy tone to it and that made me kind of think that something in the story is going to be wrong or something unusual is going to happen. 

When we watched the video I did enjoy it. I liked how they characters interacted with one another and had different points of view on one another. Also, the actors did well on playing their parts and getting really into character. But, I didn’t enjoy the place that this scene took place, even though it was supposed to be a clean café, I feel like it should have been a little more such as, more color and bigger and the camera should of viewed it the we could be able to see the whole café. The way they showed it made it seem like a very dull place and made the story a little less exciting

A Clean, Well-lighted Place Hemingway response

"We are of two different kinds[IA1] ,"

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 [IA1]I think this is a good quote for the story because it really explains how both of their points on the old man and how one get the old man and the younger one doesn't care as much

"You have youth, confidence, and a job," the older waiter said."You have everything." [IA1] 

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 [IA1]I think this really shows on the point of view on the older waiter because he might have gone through some things like the old man has and that’s why he is defending him

"You should have killed yourself last week[IA1] ,

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 [IA1]This just shows how selfish the waiter is and doesn’t care about the old man what so ever

Those Feelings You Get

Author’s Note:  I will be analyzing the poem “Summer Grass” by, Carl Sandburg and talking about what figurative language he used. I will also explain what this poem reminds me of.

Everybody has emotion and feelings, either there good or bad everyone gets some sort of feeling. In the poem “Summer Grass” by, Carl Sandburg, the way he wrote this poem was as if the grass has feelings just like us and will do whatever to get what it wants. 

In the poem he used a lot of  figurative language such as  personification and hyperbole to really show the readers how the grass and rain were looking and feeling like. He mainly used personification  throughout his poem since he is talking about the feelings of the grass. In this stanza “Summer grass aches and whispers” this shows how what the grass is doing and feeling. This is a good example of personification because he is saying how grass is aching and whispers and since grass don’t literally do that and people can this shows how he is saying the object as if had the feelings if a person.  The author’s tone is really mysterious by the way he describes the rain and the movements of the grass makes you wonder of the rain and how it slowly comes down.

Since the tone is mysterious he also added hyperbole in his poem to really show and describe the way the grass and the rain are feeling so he could exaggerate to put a vivid picture in the readers mind .  When he said “It wants something: it calls and sings; it pours” the grass can’t literally call or sing,  what he is really trying to say in here is how the grass is wanting something so he just emphasis of saying the grass is calling and singing to show it how the grass is in need of water. That’s show how that would be an example of a hyperbole. The author’s tone really impacts this because it sets the whole mood for this poem by being mysterious and making the readers really think about the poem.

The overall impact the figurative language had on this piece can really show a clear picture in the readers head. The way he used the language really helped to express  what his meaning was in this poem. The way the author explained how the grass wants rain that just makes the poem a little gloomy because when we think of rain we think of a sad day and not exciting and just putting rain in the  poem can really  effect the overall tone because the poem won’t be as happy and cheerful and even though it might have a cheerful tone to the title they always have some sort of twist in the story.

           

Since this story may have a twist to it, this poem reminds me of how little kids act today. Just as he said in the poem “it calls and sings; it pours out wished to the overhead stars”.  To me this is saying how it is pretty much whining to the sky to have rain pour down upon it. Just how kids will keep on whining and do whatever It takes  to their parents  to get whatever they want like a toy or candy. Just how the grass loves the rain, that’s the same feeling the kids have about their candy and toys.

Even though the poem “Summer Grass” may sounds like a fun and cheerful poem, it really changed the meaning when he wrote about it. Since he used a lot of  imagery and hyperbole in his poem to really show and express to the readers on how the grass really does have feelings and when it gets what it wants it gets happy as a child with mountains of candy.

            

The Ransom Of Red Cheif

This story is about a young boy named Bill got got kidnapped by these 2 guy and they decided to write a letter to his father to pay them money and the father wanted the kidnappers to pay him money for kidnapping his son. But, in this story I think the most important quote is "He's all right now," says Bill, rolling up his trousers and examining some bruises on his shins. I think this quote is important because this just shows how tough the little boy is and he's not going to easy to fool. And the kidnappers are already thinking of not keeping  him anymore because they didn't think he would be this hard and challenging to handle.