Geography Matters By Thomas C. Foster: Chapter Summary

Both characters want to escape north due to their failure in school exams and their “crappy Saturday job at the meat works” (page 1) which had become full time since Christmas. Winton creates a sense that the characters feel trapped, “The southern sky presses down...”. This is indicating that the characters and consequently the audience are feeling a sense of being trapped. Their idea of travelling north is created through the old fantasy of “sitting under a mango tree with a cold beer, walking in a shady banana plantation with a girl in a cheesecloth dress” instead of being “anchored to the friggin place, stuck forever”. The boy’s relationship is bonded through similar attributes and desires. The feelings and actions of the characters makes the theme and issue relevant to teenagers in real life, therefore, the teenage targeted audience is

The Holocaust was one of humanity's darkest events and was the most devastating genocide in history. Even in the darkest event in history, there were those who didn’t give up hope and survived. One of these survivors was Elie Wiesel. He recounts the horrors he faced in Night, a retelling of what happened inside the concentration camp Auschwitz. Elie was only fifteen when he was deported in 1944. He tells the story about how he survived through the camps. With Night, Wiesel hopes that it can convince future generations to not make the same mistakes that were made which caused suffering and death. They often dealt with issues like starvation and selection. However death always loomed over them. Wiesel often uses words with dark connotations and meanings to describe the horror he experienced and to get his message across.

Throughout history, it has been evident that the setting of events will always shape how they occur. Be it from past events, the present, or even everyday life. Geography always plays a part in these occurrences. It will be demonstrated how geography affects how things happen by taking a look at The Crucible, “Geography Matters,” and my own life.

David Laskin’s The Children’s Blizzard explains the devastating force of an intense blizzard, which caught several people unprepared, and it tells the tragic stories of these people. On January 12, 1888 a massive blizzard struck the center of North America, killing between 250 to 500 people and affecting thousands. There were many factors that made this blizzard exceptionally deadly. Many farmers and children who were outside were unprepared to deal with any cold conditions, “a day when children had raced to school with no coats or gloves and farmers were far from home doing chores they had put off during the long siege of cold” (Laskin 2). The reason for this is because they had no idea the blizzard was coming. In this time the weather forecasts

McCarthy, Cormac. The Road. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print. The Road is set in a grim atmosphere. It is after apocalypse world where all signs of life are extinct. People and animals are starving, and predatory groups of savages wander around with pieces of human bodies stuck in their teeth. It is both oppressive and disheartening. McCarthy sets an atmosphere like one mediately after the world wars. It is not far-fetched to imagine the possibility of such a sad environment today. The novel tells a story of an unnamed man and his son in who struggle to survive in this horrific environment. I feel that the language in the novel is verbose. McCarthy is blunt in his descriptions. He uses repeated struggles and similar scenes forcing the reader to share the tough experience of the characters. I agree with the author that The Road is the picture of a post-apocalyptic world. I also agree with the opinion that suffering might never end, like the novel indicates through imagery at the very end. The author manages to combine happy moments with sad ones even though the sad ones takes the larger share. In addition, he accomplished his aim of having an audience that is glued to the book all along sine it is both engaging and informative. The author has a perception that the world is composed of more bad things than the good ones. This novel will be important to me as I explore the themes of post-apocalyptic fears and human struggles. However, I do feel that he leans too heavily on sadness

Because latitude and longitude refer to a specific location, absolute location can be described as the same thing (p.37-38). Absolute location helps people understand exactly where things are and majorly affect the culture of LA. Relative location, which shows where a place is in relation to another place, helps the native people of Louisiana know where things are located (p.37). Latitude and longitude also help mark political boundaries. Boundaries allow people to know where states or cities end and where another begins. These examples, help improve the understanding of where things are, therefore also relate to the culture of LA. Even though location is important to our understanding of culture, so are

Life was hard at the Cook’s Coffeehouse, there was little to no supplies left to cook with, and little to no food for ourselves. At one point we ran out of food so we had to close the coffeehouse which made it harder to live since we were no longer making any money.

The Road, written by Cormac McCarthy, is a novel that follows the journey of a father and son traveling south to escape the post-apocalyptic scene they were unfortunately put in. The father and son are survivors of some unnamed disaster that has occurred. As time passes by there is less and less food. There is also a lack of plants and animals. Other than scavenging for food, the only means of survival for some is cannibalism. Survival is started to feel unlikely. Throughout the story keeping faith alive or conceding was a constant battle due to these harsh conditions. From questioning the existence of God, to questioning the honesty of one another, and questioning whether they will make it to the south alive; the main characters struggle to keep faith alive. Being on the run and continuously having to watch your back from danger all over, results in a sense of weariness and hopelessness. In this story faith and doubt functions to exhibit the power and significance of each. One cannot exist without the other. Although doubt can be mistaken as a barrier in a situation, it acts as a tool that strengthens faith.

“Back Roads” by Vinnie Rotondaro and “A Winter’s Drive” by ReadWorks both have something in common, but the moods are completely different. Mood is how a reader feels while reading a text. Both of the short stories talk about going on road trips. “Back Roads” is about two guys going to visit their friend. They take back roads because they don’t like being rushed. On the roads, they see alluring scenery and it makes the ride much more diverting. “A Winter’s Drive” is a story about a man driving to Canada to see his aged house. He not only wants to see the home he grew up in, but he wants to recover a few hockey cards that were left behind from when he was a toddler. The mood of “Back Roads” is relaxed as shown through the scenery while the mood for “A Winter’s Drive” is anxious conveyed through the diction.

The thrilling novel “The Road” by Cormac McCarthy is a story about a post apocalyptic world following the lives of a man and a boy as they head south to escape the cold winter that is headed their way. Along with the cold of winter approaching they also have to deal with the new dangers of the land while traveling such as cannibals, robbers, and many more dangers. This is a tale of a unnamed man and a boy who must not only learn how to survive but find a inner “fire”, establish a code of ethic, and continue in finding reasons to live in this “new world”. With McCarthy’s unique approach to the characters of the book having no names or the cause of destruction of the world unknown it helps the reader feel the confusion and whats really important

We come to countless decisions in life, and there are issues we have to let chance take command. Robert Frost is greatly known for his realistic imageries and his illustration of the rural life. Explaining in his writing to help examine the complex philosophical topics like nature

Cormac McCarthy’s The Road is a novel based on a post apocalyptic world. The Road tells a story of a father and a son who are part of the small number of survivors. We follow the father and the son's journey, on the state road to the south. On their journey the father and son struggle to survive, while also facing some obstacles. Those obstacle include the lack of food, water and shelter. In Cormac McCarthy’s The Road and Alfonso Cuaron's s Children of Men show that love can give you the strength and transform pain and suffering into a greater power.

Raymond Carver’s short story “Popular Mechanics” was written in the minimalist style, but that didn’t stop him from using rich and full uses of imagery, symbolism and irony. Carver begins the story up by giving details on the weather outside than slowly comparing it to the drama going on inside his story. By using a mix of imagery and symbolism, the day gets darker as well as the story and gives off a feeling of melancholy. Though the communication is brief, Carver makes every word said important and meaningful. He uses irony throughout the entirety of “Popular Mechanics” and gets the purpose of the writing across while still adding emotion to the argument.

1.) Roughly how much of London 's story is devoted to describing the setting? What particular details make it memorable?

Throughout life, people are often faced with many decisions. Some of these decisions are easy to make, while others are excruciating, as they can be life altering. From a Christian’s perspective, however, people never have to make these decisions alone. God promises that he will never abandon his people, “Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid or terrified because of them, for the Lord your God goes with you; he will never leave you nor forsake you” (New International Version, Deuteronomy 31:6). In the poem, “The Road Not Taken,” Robert Frost uses beautifully crafted metaphors, imagery, and tone to convey a theme that all people are presented with choices in life, some of which are life-altering, so one should heavily way the options in order to make the best choices possible.