Above the Influence

            In the book Speak by Laurie Anderson many themes run throughout this novel, but one in specific is loss of innocence from the main character. Melinda is a girl who is very closed off from others and doesn’t really speak at all. She really starts to lose respect for others and herself throughout the novel and this does start to take a toll on her life.

One scene from the novel is when Melinda is at a senior party during the summer. Melinda probably thought that this was a regular party but she had no idea what she was getting herself into with her friend Rachel.  Once there Melinda starts drinking beer. At first she says that it tasted worse than cough medicine, but one at a time she pours the alcohol down her throat and this leads to Melinda getting drunk, which is her first encounter with growing up to fast. Another event that tells about Melinda’s loss of innocence is found on page 135. After she was all liquored up, Andy Evans, an admired senior, comes up and starts flirting with her. From there Andy takes things a bit too far and rapes Melinda before she can even say anything or cry for help. These main events are what destroy Melinda and show her loss of innocence to readers.

This theme can also be found in the book The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. One scene that describes this is when Ponyboy fights with Darry. Pony and his friend Johnny were sleeping in a vacant lot that night and Ponyboy fought with Darry. He hits him with all his might and Ponyboy decides to run back to the lot. This is when loss of innocence starts to occur in this novel. Afterwards the Socs show up at the lot and they nearly kill Ponyboy. With this happening Johnny’s reaction was to stand up and he ended up going too far. This resulted in Johnny killing Bob. Hinton definitely showed loss of innocence between the two characters Ponyboy and Johnny. 

            Most definitely both books show loss of innocence between each character. Melinda should not have done what she did at that wild party and Ponyboy and Johnny should not have made poor decisions to fight.  Both novels have main characters lose who they are and lose their own virtue inside them. Overall readers can certainly learn from this and apply it to their life because loss of innocence did play a big part in the book Speak and The Outsiders.

Chacter Analysis-Speak

      In the book Speak by Laurie Anderson the main character is Melinda Sordino. Melinda is the type of girl who is very closed off from others and doesn't really speak. She doesn't have many friends except Heather from Ohio. Melinda's attitude towards situations and people is very negative. She always stereotypes people in her school since she doesn't have many friends of her own.She believes that everyone if against her for calling the cops at a drinking party. Menlinda's overall attitude affects Heather because she's pushing her away. Also it affects her parents because Melinda gets bad grades in school and her parents get mad at her, but she has no explanation for this behavior. Overall Melinda affects the story with her beliefs, values, and attitudes very much because she is negative towards most things.
 

Love is Blind

I see you walk down the hall with my dark chocolate eyes staring at you

 Your wonderful scented cologne whirling through the air

Your caramel color hair swept to the side perfectly

Those striking defined ocean blue eyes you have wandering around,

but for what reason?

Looking for that perfect girl… how do you not see me?

You always get caught up in a love affair with those girls’ hearts

But why -- when you have me?

All I want from you is to feel your soft lips pressed against mine

I feel inside my heart pumping a thousand beats per minute just glancing at you

How do you not notice my affection towards you?

The Lottery Ticket

Author's Note: In this creative writing piece I was trying to accomplish good word choice. I hope you enjy it and I reached my goal.

It was a calm and frigid afternoon in the city of Reno. David had just gotten home from work and pried open a box of goldfish crackers to eat. He was awfully tired figuring he had a schedule full of meetings today. David briskly walked to his room to go put on some comfy sweats to watch his favorite TV show. While David was looking around he froze, checking his work pants pockets. He wondered where did my lottery ticket go? David panicked because the lottery numbers were coming out later that night on Fox 6 news and he was positive that he would win this time. David rushed out his front door down to the first level of his apartment building to go search in his BMW.

            David finally approached his car. He looked everywhere but the lottery ticket was nowhere to be found. Finally out of broad daylight David spotted his lottery ticket. It was in between the passenger seat and the seatbelt. Rapidly David clicked the lock symbol on his car remote and from there he ran back up to his apartment building. As he passed others going through his building everyone gave David a strange look. David thought it’s probably because of his casual outfit. He was known for dressing very professional and no one ever thought they’d see a man like David in Wal-Mart clothes. Finally David had reached his apartment door. He opened it very slow and this caused the door to creak very loud. David just made his way to the couch and took a long nap till the news would be on tonight.

            David woke up once he heard the weather man talking on TV. Immediately David sat up because he knew that the lottery numbers would be coming on next. He held the lottery ticket tight in his hand as he recited a pray in his head. At last here it was the Badger 5 was going by with its numbers, but that wasn’t the one David had. He was grasping the Mega Millions in his hand. Then came the Supercash, Megabucks, and here it was Mega Millions. The numbers corresponded correctly to David’s lottery ticket. He jumped up in excitement and thought about all the things he could do and have with all these millions of dollars. David truly was the luckiest person on Earth at the moment. He had won millions and millions of dollars and the first thing David was going to start out doing was quit his job. Overall it truly turned out to be the greatest day of David’s life.              

               

Cause and Effect

     Johnny is Caroine's brother and he is in injured and is in need of great help. Caroline and her grandmother,  Miz Melody, have to go out and find him so he can get better and come home. The events that happen prior to this are cause this probblem of Johnny being in bad condition.

     Caroline just knew of her brother being injured and in bad condition, as a loving sister she reports back to her family. Her family finally decides to send Caroline on a little journey to go and find him. A colonial, Rawdon, said yes to this idea but she needed to bring Miz Melody. Caroline and her grandmother start their trip but you have to remeber it's very dangeropus because this happened during the Revolutionary War. When they first set out they waste their time helping a starving family. Yes, this was very kind of them but the effect was that they were behind on their trip to go find their loved one. As night starts approachign Caroline and Miz Melody stop at a stream to get some water and cool down their body's. While they were getting water Caroline here's a very loud yell back at the wagon ehich they were traveling with. Caroline ran as fast as the wind only to find that a woman was holding a musket to her grandmothers head. The woman took both Caroline and Miz Melody back to her house where she was going to decide what she was going to do with them from there. I'm not sure what will happen to Johnny but I can imagine he's suffereing great pain right now. In tough times like this people can get very crazy and do stupid things like the woman who captured Caroline and her grandmother.

     Overall there can be many effects to problems you just assume something quickly about. right now things are left unpredictable for what will happened to Johnny, but many things have happened to go along with Caroline and Miz Melody's journey.

  

Point of View

Cast Two Shadows is being told by Caroline who is a fourteen year old living during the American Revolutionary War. Caroline is facing some hardships in her life because she witnessed both of her friends being killed by the Red Coats. You could tell when Caroline was discussing this event in the book many emotions were passing through her. You could definetly sence the pain in her that she had just seen a horrific thing. Furthermore another event that happened was when Caroline went and met up with her "secret" grandmother. You could tell Caroline was very scared because she didn't really know what to say. Also how she was teling it in the book you could sence that she was experiencing difficulties talking to her since they haven't seen each other in awhile and Carline just felt in a uncomfortable place.

Short Story

Heart Break

Sheila was unusually quiet on the phone as she listened to her boyfriend Mason going on about how she flirts with other guys. As he was talking Sheila processed these thoughts and quietly whispered, “What a jerk, I haven’t done anything.” Mason replied in a stern tone “What did you say?” There was an awkward silence between the two. “I didn’t say anything Mason,” Sheila said. As Sheila heard nothing on the other line she said “Hello.  Ummm Hello are you there?” Sheila had figured Mason had hung up on her. Many thoughts raced through her mind and Sheila was helplessly confused.

The next morning Sheila walked into school going the long way so she didn’t have to pass Mason’s locker and make any contact with him. Sheila quickly hurried because the one minute bell was quickly approaching. She raced down the hall and made it just in time before she would have been marked tardy. Sheila looked around and met eyes with Mason. She had totally forgotten that her 1^st hour class was with him. Sheila just reminded herself to keep a positive attitude and not think about what had happened last night.

Finally the bell rang and Sheila briskly walked to her locker with her best friend Ally. “Is something going on with you and Mason? You guys didn’t talk at all and were acting very strange,” Ally asked Sheila in a generous tone. “How about I’ll explain it to you during lunch because we have to get to class,” she replied. “Alright,” Ally shook her head slowly as she agreed. They both made their way down the hall as Sheila’s phone went vibrated. Completely thrilled, Sheila pulled out her phone to share the news that Mason had texted. “Alright I got to go. I’ll see you at lunch Sheila,” Ally told Sheila as she walked down the hall. Sheila looked at phone for this was a big surprise considering they just got into a fight last night about Sheila flirting with other guys. As she read the text her eyes started getting watery and a crying emotion started coming over her. The text read “Sheila I want you to know that you deserve the best your beautiful, but I can’t continue this way. I can’t keep seeing you flirt and mingle with other guys it breaks my heart. I guess this is goodbye for now.” Sheila quickly ran down the hall and went out the back doors of the school as she had tears streaming down her face.