Aisa Radoncic

813

Due Date: May 16, 2014

Romeo and Juliet

The story of Romeo and Juliet is about a boy and a girl, one Capulet and one Montague, falling in love with each other. The story of Romeo and Juliet ended in tragic deaths. But who should we blame for these deaths? Of course there are many controversies on this. But I believe that the blame should be on Romeo because he acts before he thinks, he falls in love too quickly, and he is selfish.

For example, Romeo acts before he thinks. In Act 3 scene 1, when Tybalt kills Mercutio, and Romeo avenges his death by slaying Tybalt. You can tell that he acted before thinking because later on in line 142 (same scene) he says “O, I am Fortune’s fool!” Which shows that he knew what he did was wrong right after he did it. This relates to the death because when he found Juliet “dead” in 5.3, he immediately drinks the poison. He doesn’t even think about later on in life. He just immediately overreacts and drinks the poison, not thinking that maybe later on he could get over her like he got over Rosaline.

Another reason is that he falls in love too quickly.  For example, in the beginning of the story (1.1), he claimed that he had such a strong love for a woman named Rosaline. He even said “Tut, I have lost myself. I am not here. This is not Romeo. He’s some other where.” Saying that his love is so strong and the fact that she can never marry, is changing him into a new person. Then later in 1.5, he gets over Rosaline right when he sees Juliet. This relates to the death because if he didn’t fall in love so quickly and actually got to know her before “falling in love,” maybe they would’ve made smarter choices like not killing themselves for someone they met a couple of days ago.

Finally, he is selfish. For example, he kind of made Juliet fall in love with him. Like in the balcony scene, Juliet said that she thinks that it’s moving too quickly, but Romeo insisted that he needed her love. He was only thinking about what he wanted, not even taking Juliet’s feelings into consideration. Also, when he drank the poison, he was selfish and didn’t think about anyone else who would miss him when he died such as Friar Lawrence. He just thought that he couldn’t live his life without Juliet. Which is another example of overreacting and acting before he thinks.

As you can see, The tragedy of Romeo and Juliet had many people to blame. Like Juliet, Friar Lawrence, or pretty much any character in the whole script. But the person I believe caused it the most was much Romeo because he acts before he thinks, he is selfish, and he falls in love too quickly. As the Prince says “For never was a story of more woe than this of Juliet and her Romeo.”

Sonnet

Aisa Radoncic

813

Sonnet

Shall I compare thee to a sunny sky?

No, thy eyes art bluer and more lovely

I shall dread the day we must say goodbye

For when I see you, my heart gets achy

When I look at that face, as white as clouds

Thy cheeks are as rosey as the sunset

I can spot that heavenly face in crowds

Size is pointless, no need for a corset

All thy makeup does is mask your beauty

I don’t need anything but that warm smile

Oh my honey, you are such a cutie

For thee I’d walk way more than a mile

Don't worry baby, when push comes to shove
Thou shall be the one I will always love!

Aisa Radoncic 813 Martin Espada Essay The poems, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” and “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” all show power. Mostly it would show how people take advantage of their power. Martin Espada’s work really reflects his views on racism, discrimination, and power. He feels as if the typical ‘white’ person acts as if other cultures don’t matter to them. For example, in “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” he expresses his feelings on how he feels when someone mispronounces his name. He starts by describing the look of Che Guevara. As if he is some sort of sign of rebellion. He goes on talking about how he hijacks a busload of white Wisconsin tourists, forcing them to chant anti-American slogans. Later he tells that the bilingual SWAT team begs him to be reasonable. (Figuratively of course.) His power is taken away by the ‘bilingual SWAT team.’ It is as if they are taking his culture and beliefs away. In “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” Martin Espada tells a story of how a English High School principal overhears 2 boys speaking Spanish in the bathroom, but the only word that he understood was his name. Later on, he banned Spanish in the bathroom. Martin now says sarcastically, “Now he can relax.” He is showing that the principal is both misusing and abusing his power. He shows this by saying that just because the principal heard his name in a conversation that he could not understand, he bans that whole language. Lastly, in “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877” he tells about two Mexican people being hanged in front of forty white people. In the end he tells about how after they’ve been hung in front of the crowd, they all crowd together to take a photo with the hung bodies. This poem shows the Mexicans getting their power taken away by white people, or even the white people abusing their power. The Mexicans are getting their power taken away by the white people because they were captured and forced to be hung. The white people are abusing their power because they know that the Mexicans can’t fight back because there are two of them, and 40 white people. Also, not only do they completely disrespect them because of their culture, but they also take a photograph, showing that what they did was some sort of an accomplishment. As you can see, Martin Espada’s poems, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson,” “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School,” and “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, all show of people either misusing or abusing their power. He also talks a lot about discrimination and racism.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

Diary of a Wimpy Kid; The Third Wheel In the book, “Diary of a Wimpy Kid; The Third Wheel” by Jeff Kinney is about a boy named Greg who is trying to get a date for the Valentines day dance. I think there is a theme in the book. I think the theme is that you shouldn’t be desperate to get a girl. Greg wants a date to the dance, he just can’t get one. In his school they have these things that are called “Candy Grams.” Candy Grams are when you send someone a letter and a piece of candy. The letter should say something about how you should take that person to the dance, or if they wanted to go to the dance. Within two weeks, everyone had a date, or a Candy Gram except Greg. He was going crazy. He got so desperate that he started getting himself Candy Grams. In the end, he and his best friend Rowley, ended up asking a girl if they wanted to go as a “group of friends” and then Rowley and her started going out. Hence the name “the third wheel” As you can see, I think a theme in the book is that you shouldn’t be that you can’t be desperate to get a girl. I think that this theme is true. I believe it is true because it got Greg into a lot of trouble and may have taking the chance of him ever going out with a girl again. He got himself into making girls think he is crazy. Because he just seemed so desperate asking out every girl in school. I also think that he was choosing people way above his standards. He doesn’t ask out unpopular girls, only the popular ones. And one time he was going to ask a girl out. The girl was drinking water when he was going to do it. She knew he was going to ask her, so she kept drinking water till the late bell rang. So that is why I think Greg is desperate for girls.

Be More Chill

Aisa Radoncic “Be More Chill” In the book, “Be More Chill,” by Ned Vizzini is about a teenager named Jeremy Heere trying to be the popular kid in school. He can’t do it by just being him, so he buys this supercomputer pill that tells him how to be cool in every situation. The pill has a voice and speaks to him in his mind. The pill called, “squip” tells Jeremy how to get all the things a teenage boy would want most in life. The squip instructs him on everything from what to wear to how to talk and walk. The squip turns Jeremy from a complete geek to the coolest kid in class. I noticed in my book that Jeremy needed the squip in the beginning, but towards the end, when he uses the squip, it gets him in trouble. I think the squip gets Jeremy in trouble. For instance, when Jeremy wanted to have a conversation with his crush, Christine, the squip said, “WHAT ARE YOU DOING? LEAVE CHRISTINE ALONE. CHLOE IS GOING TO LEAD YOU TO A ROOM FOR ECSTASY-LADEN SEXUAL SHENANIGANS! REMEMBER, CHRISTINE WILL COME LATER...” Of course, Jeremy listened to the squip. He followed Chloe to the basement and Chloe’s boyfriend, a football player, ended up chasing Jeremy around the house until he lost him. This shows that what the squip said got Jeremy into trouble. Another way the squip gets Jeremy in trouble is the squip tells Jeremy to interrupt the school play and ask out Christine out. “CHRISTINE LIKES YOU MUCH MORE THAN YOU REALIZE. THAT’S WHY WE’RE DOING THIS. I WOULDN’T BE SENDING YOU OUT ON A LIMB IN FRONT OF ALL THESE PEOPLE IF I DIDN’T KNOW IT WAS GOING TO WORK.” When Jeremy did what the squip told him, he got rejected by Christine and made her furious at him. The final time Jeremy got in trouble from his squip was when the squip started to speak in spanish. Jeremy was in a bit of a pickle at a party that he went to. And when he turned to the squip for help, the squip could only speak spanish. “PATO Y JAB, JEREMY! GOLPEELO CON EL PIE EN LAS BOLAS!” Which means, “Duck and jab, Jeremy! Kick him in the balls!” Jeremy doesn’t speak spanish so he couldn’t understand what the squip was saying, so he almost got beat up for the squip’s mistake. I believe this pattern occurs because Jeremy lets it happen. He listens to whatever the squip tells him to do even if he knows that it’s wrong. I think that this shows that many teenagers of that age have a little voice in their head telling them to do the wrong thing, and they listen. I infer that Jeremy will do worse things in the near future because of the squip. As you can see, I think that the squip helped Jeremy in the past, but is making him get into a lot of trouble.

The Letter Q

Aisa Radoncic 813 “The Letter Q” In the book, “The Letter Q,” written by many different writers but edited by Sarah Moon and James Lecesne, I noticed a pattern. The pattern that I noticed is in the book, everyone (so far) gets bullied as a child, and as they get older, there life gets better and better. Here are Martin Moran, Erik Orrantia, and Arthur Levine’s stories. As a child, Martin Moran was having sexual relationships with another boy for three years until he was 15. He hated the life that he was living, he felt as if he was doing something wrong, so he tried to kill himself. He tried to do it with his mothers pills, which didn’t work, all he ended up doing was throwing up all over his bedroom floor. So he decided to take his father’s gun. He was shaking with anger as he put the gun up to his head. As he was pulling the trigger, his inner self who knew that he still wanted life must have caused the gun to shift away from his head and he just missed the bullet. He put the gun down, and started to live his life. He became a writer and moved to N.Y.C to begin his great life. When Erik Orrantia was a child, he was called really mean. He had a rough time going through his childhood, He wasn’t sure about what he was going through, he thought that there was something wrong with him. He was different than everyone else. But as he got older, he started to embrace the names that they called him. He enjoyed being gay, it was him, not something he was trying to be. Finally, when Arthur Levine was young, his parents could tell that he was gay. He was playing with dolls, and 98% of his friends were girls. His parents took this as if there was something wrong with him. They made a rule that Arthur can only hang out with girls for 2 days in a row, then he had to hang out with guys. His parents didn’t know how to handle this so they gave him little hints such as, “Is anything BOTHERING you? We will gladly pay for you to see a psychologist.” But as he got older, all that tension seemed to slowly knot away until it was completely gone. He got married to a wonderful man, and has a family. As you can see, I found a pattern in my book, which is that the writers in my book got bullied as children, but their life got better as they got older. I think this pattern occurs because people find that being gay is a bad thing and that it shouldn’t happen, so they make fun of it. I think the writer’s messages are that you shouldn’t make fun of someone just for the person that they are attracted to. I think this pattern tells us that there are so many people getting made fun of by something they cannot control, and that there are many people that have a story to tell about it.

Ms. Berner

Essay Dear Ms.Berner, A question is being asked in schools everywhere. Should young adult books be banned in the sixth grade library? Banning books take away a young adult’s connection to something that relates to their problems that they suffer through and may not have anyone to talk to. Young adult books are needed to teach young adults about real life situations because many parents don’t like to talk about “darker” subjects with their children. Since many parents don’t like to talk about uncomfortable subjects with their children, they push back “the talk” and their kids have already been exposed to this through, television, online activities, or personal experience. Going through something on your own, without any prior knowledge can end up really badly, if parents aren’t going to discuss these topics with their kid’s they’re going to learn it somewhere. Whether they learn about real life situations from a friend or video, it might not be correct information, so why not let them learn from a book which are always written with prior research and based off facts. If you’re not going to talk about it with your kids, let them learn it from a young adult book, good and factual enough to get published. Young adult books are needed to teach young adults about real life situations because parents don’t feel comfortable doing that. Young adult books are needed to teach young adults about real life situations because young adult books are written to portray the time period it was written in, whether it be now or 40 years ago. Many writers, including Meghan Cox Gurdon bring up “Judy Blume” and “Lauren Myracle,” two different young adult books about similar topics. “Judy Blume” was written in the 1970’s and talks about teenagers losing their virginities, an event that took place in teenager’s lives in the 70’s, people lost their virginities, so there was a young adult book about it. Now there’s the book “Shine” a book about a 16 year old girl trying to recover from a sexual assault, because that’s more common now-a-days, whereas in the 70’s, it wasn’t as likely to happen. We need young adult books to teach us about real life situations in the time period we’re in or grew up in or else they’re not young adult books, they’re young adult books for our parents. They wouldn’t teach us about our current life. Young adult books are needed to teach young adults about real life situations because if the “gatekeepers” of young adult books are adults, they don’t know what your life is like, and what you need to know. Article writers like Meghan Cox Gurdon write about how the “gatekeepers” of young adult fiction should be adults. But Meghan Cox Gurdon isn’t a teenager nor a parents, so who is she too decide who can read young adult fiction? Parents know what they want their kids to know. Journalists and librarians don’t come into the equation. Young adult books teach us about real life situations we can be in, but if we can’t decide which books we read, it doesn’t help us with our situations, it leaves us trapped in the dark. Young adult books are needed to teach us about real life situations. As you can see, Banning books take away a young adult’s connection to something that relates to their problems that they suffer through and may not have anyone to talk to. So Ms. Berner, you decide. Do you want to take away a young adults right to be knowledgeful of the real world and all it’s problems and prepare them for the rest of their lives, or block them from that knowledge and let them grow up as immature adults?