First Stone Lessons

In the novel, A Lesson Before Dying written by Ernest J.Gaines takes place in a small town located in Louisiana in the 1940s. The most important lesson learned in the novel is to fight for yourself and what you believe and also to never give up . In the novel lesson before dying lesson is proved through this characters; Grant, Jefferson, and Emma.

In “The First Stone” by Don Aker, he introduces positive change towards both Reef and Leeza. They both retain a rough instance in their time, but with the help of others they prevail. And if Reef were to never gain the opportunity to meet Leeza, they both may not have changed. Unfortunate coincidences can bring two seemingly, unconditionally different people – Leeza and Reef, Reef and Colville, Val and Leeza – together, and help them heal.

Criminal is a powerful word. It is to showcase that one has done something wrong. One, who has not succeeded to stay within the laws. When comparing to the book The First Stone, Reef Kennedy had made a terrible mistake which had affected many others as well. As he spends more time at the North Hills Group Home and the rehabilitation centers it is helping Reef not to fall back into his original habits. The quote “Once a criminal, always a criminal” should not be used as they characterize all law breakers, reminding us that certain individuals can learn from their mistakes, reconsidering that criminals can change.

The superficial similarities of two kids have an identical name, Wes Moore, grown up in the same neighborhood at the same time with fatherless families. Both kids had beaten into troubles with the police. However, their paths in adulthood diverged due to their personal choices, decisions, and values, forming two different experiences in career and life. Each one has learned many lessons from their courses in life which established their personal morality. In particular, the author, Wes Moore, was driven by positive outcomes from his negative conditions resulting from him a successful person in his adulthood. As a result, the inspiring story of the author, Wes Moore, could be described in three themes: Peer, Parent, and Family Support; Loss and Redemption; and Decision Making.

Bayard Sartoris, a young man whose childhood was plagued by the atrocities of the Civil War, shapes his morals as time progresses. In the earlier stories, such as “Ambuscade”, Bayard is on the verge of becoming a man yet still acts quite childish. Upon reaching the final story, An “Odor in Verbena”, he is a different person than before. In The Unvanquished, Bayard Sartoris’s defining moment is when he bravely chooses to confront Redmond unarmed, showing that he has learned much about honor and courage from his father and matured as a person.

Characters and humans in everyday life tend to find love in people they would least expect it to come from. The roughest and most callous people can sometimes have the biggest heart and provide the most important care. In Portis’s novel, True Grit, one of the main protagonist, Rooster Cogburn, has had a very violent past that has created an identity for himself that seems almost impossible to reshape. Even though Rooster is portrayed as an unsympathetic character, he acts as a father figure to Mattie while she is vulnerable after her father's death.

You can’t make everyone happy. Sometimes the decision of the judges only satisfy some people. In the novel The First Stone, by Don Aker, a young teen by the name Chad “Reef” Kennedy finds himself in a tough situation and his sentencing is being in rehab and doing community service. Reef is responsible for putting Leeza a young girl, in the hospital because of his actions. Since he is in rehab, many people wished he went to jail. Reef’s sentence was just due to his age, his troubled past (foster homes), and his need to take responsibility for his actions.

Lots of times we would consider T-ray the bad guy. It is very easy to point fingers at him and say he was the worst. But in these situations we never know the full story. The reason they got married is because she found out she was pregnant with T-ray’s daughter. These are very extreme situations that many times we do not want to be in. They can be very stressful and make us make all the wrong decisions in life. Of course T-ray was a bad father, he was not prepared. It is both their fault for not using protection. Either of them would have thought about it. So they both put themselves in that situation. And many of those times those marriages do not work. I sympathize because not many people understand the position he was in. I am able to understand

Want to learn a life lesson without getting in trouble? Life lessons are something we have to learn in order to be a better person, most times it takes a bad experience to actually learn. But they don’t always have to be bad. For example learning a lesson or theme from a story. In this case, on important lesson readers can learn from Richard Connell’s, “ The Most Dangerous Game”, is to take into consideration how others feel.

The Scott and Laci Peterson case is about his wife getting murdered (Laci) with their eight month old year baby. In December 24, 2002 Laci Peterson was called in missing from her home in Modesto, California. Her husband called in to report it; he says when he returned home she was nowhere to be found after his fishing trip. Although, he told Laci’s half of the family that he went golfing at Cuesta College in San Luis Obispo where his wife attended college there. Her body was found in the San Francisco Bay about four months later. Her body was found with no man-made wounds nor any bruising or marks. However, her limbs were missing and didn’t even look like a body after it was found.

“It is impossible to outplay an opponent you can’t outthink.” This quote by Lawson Little can be used to explain how in The Power of One, by Bryce Courtenay, Peekay’s ability to outthink his opponents is what drives him to victory. Furthermore, it does not have to be boxing that he out-thinks his opponents, there are numerous times where Peekay is shown thinking ahead of some situations saving him from misfortune, as well as outsmarting his opponents eventually leading him to victory.

The Catcher in The Rye by JD Salinger illustrates the journey of Holden Caulfield, the main character who travels the bumpy roads of adolescence into the daunting world of adulthood. Holden experiences many trials and tribulations of the real world as the adults in his life try to guide him onto the right path. Although others around Holden want to help him, he acts in irrational ways making it hard for them to alleviate his issues. Thus his decisions only make his condition of depression and post-traumatic stress disorder even worse. Because of Holden’s self alienating tendencies, and the depression that he gets due to the death of his brother Allie, his questionable words and actions can be understood and explained.

In James Heneghan’s novel, Flood, Andy goes on a journey where he develops into a new person. He develops into a greater person when he learns to be appreciative, to not judge others too quickly, and to be brave. Andy’s journey helps him to develop into a greater person, therefore his life improves everyday as he makes better choices.

Many things start the same, and end drastically different. The main character, of Challenger Deep by Neal Shusterman, Caden, follows the path of two contrary hero's journeys; with the same call to adventure and conflicting mentors and threshold guardians. As Caden embarks on his journeys of healing and illness, he has foil mentors and threshold guardians. In Caden’s journey to the bottom of the trench the captain helps Caden in every possible way, in addition the captain strongly opposes Caden’s “partaking in [the crows nest’s] odious liberations” (Shusterman 55), and even “order[s Caden] to kill the parrot” (Shusterman 250). The captain plays the role of the mentor in Caden’s journey to the trench due to the extensive help and guidance the Captain gives Caden, likewise the

In the short story, the plot events are an exploration of the title “The Stone Boy” written by Gina Berriault where it shows how the characters dealt with their emotions, specifically Arnold, who is known as the “stone boy”. Arnold is a nine-year-old boy and the youngest of his other two siblings, Nora and Eugie. Throughout the story, Arnold felt inferior towards Eugie, yet simultaneously admiring him as his role model. Then, one unexpected morning an abominable accident occurred. The event occurred when Arnold and Eugie decided to pick peas. “Get up,” Arnold repeated. “You said you’d pick peas with me” (p.2). As they went to pick peas, Arnold carried along a firearm with him that he uses for shooting ducks. However, when they went out to pick