The stigma of dumpster diving

Eric Thomas

Mrs. Parkinson

English 3B

5 April 2016

                                                          The stigma of dumpster diving

The stigma of homeless people is that there lives are always bad. That they have nothing in there day that makes them smile or to look forward to. The author Lars Eighner wrote an article On Dumpster diving that calls to change this stigma. He shows that the life of a homeless person is hard it is not completely without joy. For example he says "( Eighner 718) He finds pristine ice cream, still frozen, more than he can eat or keep. He begins to understand: People throw away perfectly good stuff" from this you can see how small things like a tub of ice cream could really make there day and even though they don't have much they feel lucky to find that and enjoy themselves. He also says "we both know there is plenty more where what we have came from. Between us are the rat- race millions who nightly scavenge the cable channels looking for they know not what." (Eighner 713) this quote shows how he thinks the life of a homeless person is full filling and ever changing while someone of the middle class leads a more boring life due to how entrenched they are in a daily routine.

How do the diffrent animals in te story affect lennies view on life and his view of the world

Eric Thomas                                                                                                                              Thomas 1
Mrs. Parkinson
English 3B
March 14 2016

                                                                        Injury Activity
Lennie is naturally a very happy person. He is very curious and childlike in nature. Sometimes this friendliness and curiosity can get the best of him.  Some examples of this is when he touched that girls dress in weed or when he pets the mice to hard and kills them. In both situations he does not have any bad intentions but that does not come across in his actions. I think the animals in this book are teaching Lenni how to be more mature and put his childlike instincts aside to think about how others might feel about his actions. I say that because of this quote " I looked at em a lil, slim said not to pet them to much" (Steinbeck 69).  This shows how lennie is thinking about how the dog feels and putting his own instinct of petting it aside so that the dog is happy. I think this will continue to grow in lennie so that he can feel that same sympathy for humans as he does for the animals.

English Professor assignment

Eric Thomas

Mrs. Parkinson

English 3B

7 March 2016

Collage Professor Assignment

The Harlem Renaissance was a revolutionary time. We can learn a lot from the wriers of the time. I choose to study Countee Cullen. This was an exciting and hard time for many people. They can really show us how to break sociotys regulations and form new and forge a new path. For them the problem was ending racism and showing everyone how Aferican Americans are equal to everyone else. They took this problem head on, by daring to do what others told them was not OK. For example in Countee Cullens poem a white boy and a black boy walked down the street holding hands, and she had this to say about it "That lightning brilliant as a sword should blaze the path of thunder." (Cullen, Countee, Tableau). I think we can deal with many of our problems today like the writers of this time did. By daring to do things we think are right and to blaze a path of thunder to make our future better. 

Writing voice Mark Bezos

Humor
I had Mark Bezos and the lessons of a volunteer firefighter. The piece of writing voice that was very prominent in Marks speech was his use of humor. Mark added little tid bits of humor throughout the whole speech, this kept the audience engaged and listening to what he had to say. It also kept the speech from becoming very boring. One use of humor i really liked was when he grabbed his helmet and stood heroically and said "I know what you are thinking I am no hero" he said this after he explained how he saved shoes, creating a sense of irony.

Offer surprising information and observations
Another piece of writing voice that Mark does very well is the ability to deliver surprising information. Near the end of the speech Mark says "The act of kindness she noted above all others, someone even got her a pair of shoes." this is surprising because the whole speech leading up to that point he was explaining how unnoticed and unappreciated his act of getting the shoes was and how it did not compare to the real firefighters or saving the dog. Mark delivers this news in a very quite and calm way that makes it more impact to the listener. Usually speakers will try and be the excited during the part of the surprising news, but Marks simplicity some how made more of an impact which is really hard to pull off.

Deliver interesting information 
The last piece of writing craft that Mark makes use of is the delivery of interesting information and how he does it. for instance near the middle of the speech he says "he got to the captain first and was asked to save the dog, the dog" the repeat of the phrase "the dog" made it clear to the audience that this was a big deal and how much Mark was let down when he was not chosen to do it. Not only was what he said impact but how he said it. When he repeated the phrase "the dog" he also bent down a little bit and clenched his fist to emphasis what saving the dog meant to him.  

“I was glad those two nuns didn’t ask me if I was a Catholic. It would have spoiled the conversation if they had, but it wouldn’t have been different, probably. I’m not saying I blame Catholics.” This normal conversation ended and Holden said this quote. This shows how Holden doesn’t really like religions and how he looks down on them. We learned earlier in the book how Holden views himself as an atheist and he thinks all of the priest are phonies. This lack of religion seems to stem from his parents not being very religious. So Holden grew up in a house not firmly believing in any religion. Holden is also the type of person who thinks that anyone who does not think the same as him is phonies so naturally anyone who belies in any religion is just no good to him.   

The rattle in the car is like the baseball mitt because the car is just a regular car and the baseball mitt is just a regular mitt, but something happened to with the car and with the mitt that made it special to the narrator in some way whether it’s good or bad. The author of your rattle no one else can hear? Uses the simple idea of a rattle in the car to represent a mental problem associated with the car, this allows the author to just talk about a car rattle on the outside but if you read in between the lines you can see there is something deeper going on. The rattle represents a problem or memory the author has that is constantly bugging her and is intensified when she gets in the car.

 I definitely think the second half could appeal to Holden. There is a lot of bad things that have happened to Holden in the past and those are like his rattle they constantly hears them and they bother him. When the author says “I hear it, I see it, I believe it’s there I hope this moment of understanding and acknowledgement gives you some comfort. For just a moment, you’re not that crazy person.” I think this would really help out Holden because I believe he sees himself as sort of an outsider and when someone else acknowledges what he is mentally going through I think this would really help him. I think Holden makes himself to be an outsider from quotes like this one “Mother darling why won’t you give me tour hand” I was only horsing around naturally the stuff gives me a bang sometimes.” This quote shows how Holden does things that he knows is not socially acceptable but will do anyway to relief stress or fill an awkward situation.  

summer reading entry 4

The only thing that really drew me to read this novel was the author, John Green. His name drew me to read this book because honestly he is the only author on that list that I have herd of before. Also none of the other books really seem to pop out at me they all seemed kinda boring. I saw a lot of connections between myself and this book, I mean its about a boy going through high school starting to talk to girls making friends and dealing with peer pressure while also trying to balance his classes. And that is exactly what I am doing in my day to day life so I see a lot of connections between this book and me. I would recommend this book to anyone in around my age because like I said it relates a lot to my age group of people. I don't think It would matter if it was a boy or girl reading it I think both genders will like it just as much even though the book is told through a boys perspective, But the overall message and meaning of the book should communicate to any gender. Some older people than myself might also like this book because they can relate from when they were in high school but it is a lot more relevant to people my age.