Green Mile Part 2: Mouse on the Mile

In my book Mouse on the Mile by Stephen King, it taught me that even the smallest things have a big purpose. It can make a certain group or person happy and forget where he is. It can also change the way of how a person once was. A greedy or evilish man to a nice or can understand people's emotion. The small thing cam affect how a person view things or learn the truth that he never knew before. No one ever realizes this until that thing leaves your life or you leave.

Paul, a man who works in the Green Mile sees a mouse come in the prison and Paul gives him food. Every sees him and start to call him Mr. Jingles because he is a unique mouse. Percy though hates it because he wants to be a tough man who he believes everyone should respect. The  mouse learns tricks and makes people happy; they forget where they are for the prisoners and the police forget all the people who have died in the electric chair. They see that Mr. Jingles only stays with Paul and the rest of the policemen when Percy isn't there. They think that it was just a mistake but later learn that Mr. Jingles is actually smart. They realize he is the hope of  prisoners and a warning for when John Coffey comes in that he is actually an innocent men.

Percy believes he is a man that people should respect because he is the nephew of the govenor. All he ever wanted was to be a witness of a exectution and then leave the job. Paul doesn't like the job, but after the years of working he got used to it. These are two different people who think differently. Paul wants the prisoners to do something right while Percy wants them to suffer for what they have done. Paul wants Percy to lteave because he thinks he has ben causing all the trouble. On the other hand, they might be afraid of John Coffey because he is 6''8 and stockey. Some of them are also racist. Paul thinks he will be the hardest to protect because he is African. In the world, racism will always separate people even if they are nice. There will always be a lot, but always a group or more who are racist.

After the book, John Coffey was in and Percy was in a fight. Percy would never learn that he isn't a man that he says he is. He only picks on the prisoners who are in chains and are about to die. He even picks on a mouse. Paul is a nice man and never wants to see people dead which he doesn't know.

Non-Fiction RR

In the article "Hurricanes and Human Choice" by Roger Pielke Jr. it showed how Hurricane Sandy was the strongest hurricanes in New York. It was rated 17 overall for how much money the damages will cost which is 20 billion. The past year, storms and tornados have made 553 people die from these natural disaters. This number of deaths was common around 1953 through 1954 when stroms like Sandy were natural. If other storms like Katrina and from  the 1900s then it would have made more deaths, more damage and more money to repair the damage. The only reason that these storms are big are because there are more people and more houses than there was in the 1900s so more money.

In the article, the author said "If the recurrence of the 1906 San Francisco earthquake today, for example, then it will cost more lives and more than 300 billion dollars." It shows how New York is weak if stuff like this happens. The geography of New York is bad when natural disaters come in because they are close to the water and the water is close to the buildings. There might be more disaters like this and people are saying that they have to be ready for when it hits them or they can die. They don't want to take risks.

"The Great Miami Hurricane of 1926 tops the list  as it would cause 180 billion dollars if it were to strike toaady. Hurricane Katrina ranks fourth with 80 billion dollars." Everything would pile up if it would hit New York. No one expected stuff like this to happen. Nothing like this ever happened before since two years ago and goes way back to the 1950s. Everybody thought it was a joke that a hurricane was coming until it hit them. No hurricane would hit New York because it would just die out and be a rain storm.

I have come to understand that weird stuff is happening and it is hurting us. People have lost homes and electricity. Some of them might have lost their loved ones too after this tragic hurricane. Gas is running out and transportation is very hard too. People lost hope and it is hard for them for missing a whole week of work and seeing how they can't go to work either. Though like we are, we will find hope  and over come this obstacle.

Improved Response

Ned Vizzini made a powerful book about depression and drugs and how it can affect us. In It's Kind of A Funny Story. It showed many people what can happen if you go the wrong direction and how lucky I am to be fine. I never knew how many people are depressed and how many lost their ways by taking drugs. It taught me everything you fought for and dreamed of doing, you will lose it by going the wrong way. Everything you prepared for is shattered and you go into a different world of being alone and lost. They have no job, no money, but all they have is an addiction or a problem.

Craig had everything he wanted. Friends, a home, and being in the top high schools of the nation. Everything he did he thought was because he was lucky. He studied the whole year and then he gave up on it. His friend Aaron made him do drugs. He was losing focus on school. He was very busy with homework that he had no time to relax. He couldn't handle it anymore. He was afraid if he told someone he was depressed and taking medication, people would think he is crazy. He was starting to feel alone. Never in my life have I felt that way before. I would sometimes think it, but never that lost nor alone.

When he was in the hospital, he met different types of people. People who cut themselves, did drugs, homeless people. It made him look like he was normal compared to the other patients. When Smity told Craig about his best friend Humble, Smitty said" He takes a lot of medication. Zorloft, vaccines you name it he takes it." It showed Craig that even how normal people might seem, you don't know their story. He liked Nia and found out she is depressed too. Craig wanted to do something to help them and show them the right direction. He wants to be on the right track, not going to the bad one.

Though Craig wanted to be with someone who is like him, he still thanks someone he doesn't know to not be "bad" or "messed up." All he wants is to live his life and not waste his life studying. Some don't realize people aren't as "normal" as they seem. They sometimes have to thank themselves for not being in the wrong direction. This is what it taught me.

Reading Response for independent reading book

In Power of Six by Pittacus Lore, John who is number four and the ones the Mogadorians are trying to hunt and the other 6 Lorien people, is confused and lost about evrything. He doesn't know what to do without Henri or where to go and find the other people who needs to unite with. He doesn't know what is the best of him when he is alone or trying to survive on his own and looks for places he has never been in.

When he went back to Paradise, Ohio, he went back with Sarah when he was supposed to help Six and find his chest then leave with the sundial Sam said about. All he wanted to do was come back to the place he had real friends with the place he actually called home. "I wanted to be in the place I made my first friend, the place I called home, the place I had  my first Legacies, but met my first Mogadorians." Everything was being just right and was hoping he can stay there forever, but with the mistakes he did, and what he did o expose himself he couldn't come back. Paradise is a distraction to him and it led him to trouble.

John wanted to be in one place because he didn't want to keep moving from one place to another. He lost it when he lost Henri. He found his way back when he knew he can't trust no one anymore or people he wants to be with them. He got his way back when he said he was going to get his and Six's chest back to them. On the other hand he was going to die because it was the headquarters of the Mogadorians and knew Bernie Kosar can't come with Sam and him or Six too.

Even though John lost his friend Sam, and couldn't find Six's chest found number nine who is as strong as John. Everyone has their legacies now and are stronger meaning they can beat the Mogadorians. John lost everything, but he has most of the numbers to save the world and though the charm is broken that means everyone can get killed now; the have their powers.

Final Draft of Drummer Boy of Shiloh

In the "Drummer Boy of Shiloh" there is a boy named Joby who is in the Civil War and is startled by what he hears, and sees. He sees the general and he talked to Joby about what the war really is, and how it will affect all of them and the country. If they lose then they will most likely die and if they win they still might die. Joby learned that he should be proud of who he is and what he is doing. A boy who is nine to thirteen is in the war? He must a brave boy. This is what the general wants to show Joby. How many boys are willing to risk their life in the war? No one which is what makes Joby special.

The general told him that he cried because he was afraid he wasn't going to come back home to see his friends and family. He wanted to show Joby that it is okay to be afraid because everyone deep inside that he or the people he meets he will not see again. He wanted Joby to also know that there are people like him who are young and are in the war, but are dead. "I fear it will be full of boys agian , just floating at sundown tomorrow, not caring where the current takes them." He wants Joby to show that he is smarter than all of them because he leads them like he is also the general. If he does it right then they will win because of him. Joby is the key to this battle.

The general wanted to show that even veterans are like him. They will always be afraid that they will cry for the possibility of them dying. If Joby is willing to take the risk of leading the general's men then Joby wil be remembered for what he has done in the Battle of Shiloh. Everyone will respect him for doing what no one could have done and that is to lead an army on a young age. On the other hand Joby could be a hero, but he will lose his life. He won't have the chance to live on and see him get a reward of being the bravest soldier in the war.

Joby is a special boy that he should be proud of himself. He is the only boy willing to take risks, and he might have left home for the war. No boy would do this. If I were in his time, I would be proud to meet this brave boy.

Reading Response for independent reading book

In It's kind of a Funny Story, it shows how a kid name Craig is all happy, living a normal life until he gets into a high school which is one of the top schools in the nation. He starts feeling depressed and wants to kill himself and instead goes to the hospital. He learns a lot about where he is and the different type of people he meets in the hospital and realizes that there are people out there that make him look like what he calls "normal" which he learns that there is nothing normal about the world and who he meets.

Craig sees that there are people who went to harder stuff than him. Bobby and Johnny who were together since they were 13 went around the whole city asking for money and then brought heroin and other drugs. "They were lost when they came here and were scared taking a lot of drugs and now lost their life and trying to regain it," said Smitty. Although there are like people like Hummle who needs to take at least 8 medications and Craig wants to change them, not wanting to be with Aaron, Nia or any of his friends because these people like Craig and Craig likes them too.

Craig learned that even if he isn't one of those people who have big problems, but to his friends, teachers and family he has big problems. He wants to change that and be Noelle because he can relate to her for they have been used by their friends and wanted to kill themselves. Craig sees himself as a special person because he is part depressed and part normal but on the other hand people might not like him because some people might think he is crazy and others wish they can be him.

Teenagers are pressured in a lot of things, school, tests, friends, family, trying to be popular, and other stuff. It can hurt them in a lot of ways that it can take them by killing himself, cutting themselves or doing drugs which will always end bad.

Other People's Responses

I liked Taiseer's response because it had his ideas and it was backed up by the quotations he put in it.  He thinks bigger by quotations in it to show what he is saying. He also shows us what the characters think in the story and how they don't feel like it was their fault for what happened. He tells us what happens in all 13 tapes and what happened in the last tape. This is what i like about Taiseer's response.

I also like Chris reading response because he puts in information about Steve Jobs, what he achieved in his whole life. He writes who he worked with, and what they came up with. He also talked about the college he went to and wrote his childhood too. He says what happened after and before he was adopted. In the end he writes what happened when he was  at the end of his carrer and what he had.