Something Wicked By Alan Gratz Analysis

Fear plays an important role in how we act and what we do. There are many examples on ways that people react to fear irrationally. Fear is a great strategy if used right. The fact about fear is that if evidence is present, true or false, people tend to react and believe it out of impulse. They think and act before they use common sense. Sometimes without even thinking, people face their fears of a certain situations that lead them no choice but to be courageous in a feared situation.

I chose to read and analyze the poem titled “Wallflowers” by Donna Vorreyer and it conveys a theme of social isolation. The speaker is referencing the “uncommon words” to the abandonment that the subject endures. They don’t fit a particular mold that people will recognize, people don’t tend to use these “words” as often as they may use other words. They feel as if their lack of recognition will decrease their value. The subject begin to realize that if they find community within each other then they can create their own little community to escape the loneliness that constantly haunts them. In the text it states, “I want to make room for all of them,” and one of the lessons that I have learned within my years of living is that when you go a

In the book Old School by Tobias Wolff, the unnamed narrator struggles through healthy imitation and plagiarism inside of the Hill school. While attending this school, the narrator enters a writing contest. The submission the narrator uses is of another person, but he claims the writing to be so related to him and how the writing is his life in a sense. The narrator ends up plagiarizing the piece and is expelled by the school. The school expelled him with thought of reputation and to set an example for the other students. Honor is what is said to drive the decision for expulsion, but was it just for the school. The school’s response to plagiarism wasn’t unfair, although it seemed harsh the school did it with thought of the narrator and the school in mind.

Have you ever wanted to read a book that makes you keep turning the page and you can’t put it down? Would you ever like to be always worried about a “Gardener” finding you? How would you like to watch people eat your favorite food but not able to eat it yourself? Well, the book called The Gardener by S.A Bodeen will not let your mind stop thinking about what happens next. You will not be able to put it down. S.A Bodeen was really good at creating tension, conflict, and foreshadowing. The events that create tension, conflict, and foreshadowing are when Mason goes into his mom's filing cabinet, when mason is with the girl, and when he returns the girl back to TroDyn.

In the words of Steve Lopez, “You're only as good or bad as your latest attempt to make some connection with the world.” The novel, The Soloist, by Steve Lopez is an insight to Lopez’s time helping and connecting with Nathaniel Ayers, a homeless schizophrenic. When Lopez meets Nathaniel he is awed by his musical talent and soon discovers he once attended Julliard, a prestigious school of performing arts. Lopez’s story was transformed into a film produced in 2008. Lopez’s character in the book and film share similarities and differences in his personal life, attitude towards Nathaniel, and struggles that contribute to the overall theme of the novel.

Imagine being a 17 year old African American kid always being judged just because of his skin color. Everywhere you go you feel like all eyes are on you, especially when you go to a school that only has eight black kids. That's exactly how Justyce McAllister felt in Dear Martin by Nic Stone. In the book, the main character Justyce goes through a lot of conflict involving his skin color. Even though he has a full scholarship at Braselton Preparatory Academy, and is a very smart student, he still gets judged. One important message that came from this book was don’t judge someone just because of their skin color.

Guilty! Most defense attorney believe in the principle that says,’ better 10 guilty go free than even one possibly innocent person being convicted’. In the novel Monster by Walter Dean Myers, Steve Harmon is a 16 year old boy from Harlem, New York that was accused of being a look out for a robbery. This robbery resulted in the killing of the of the owner, Mr.Nesbitt, and became a felony murder. Steve is put on trial that could result in 25 years to life in prison if he was guilty. He gets the verdict of not guilty since there is room for reasonable doubt, and is released from jail. Steve is definitely guilty since the jury was not able to read his journal and think his thoughts.

In Tobias Wolff’s short story “The Liar,” the protagonist, James, lies to help him construct a new identity outside of his family. James tells morbid lies about his mother in order to distance himself from her. Since, the loss of his father, James no longer associates with people who are like him. The lies started after his father’s death and his mother starts noticing how much differently he was acting. Since his mother is treating him like she is disappointed in him, James begins to devolve into a state of repressed bitterness. These lies are his way of expressing himself in a new reality to match his wishes. One example of this is when James says, “Felt like a failure. My lying had that effect on her. She took it personally… She thought

Sandra Cisneros is a famous poet from the late twentieth century. Most of her work is popular due to her profound thinking. Her work was very unique and incorporated an extraordinary type of dreamy abstraction. Most observers of her work can agree on this. My Wicked Ways, proved her talent to be “extremely electrifying”, according to the The New York Times Book Review. A poem written almost 3 decades ago, can be assumed to symbolize the childhood of the speaker. My Wicked Ways radiates an unsatisfied tone from the speaker, has a unique rhythm and meter of poem, and attributes different sound and consonants to help the poem flow better.

When we were younger, all we ever wanted was to be a ‘big kid’. We wanted to be able to do things by ourselves and have independence and freedom from our parents. In J.D Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye, protagonist Holden Caulfield finally had this ‘freedom’. But was it what he wanted? He was expected to act like an adult though he was still considered a child. Inside, Holden was struggling with the conflict of reluctance to become and adult because he thought it meant leaving behind his brother. He was pushing aside the fact that people change, and that change was not always a bad thing.

Holden Caulfield lives his life as an outsider to his society, because of this any we (as a reader) find normal is a phony to him. Basically, every breathing thing in The Catcher in the Rye is a phony expect a select few, like Jane Gallagher. What is a phony to Holden and why is he obsessed with them? A phony is anyone who Holden feels is that living their authentic life, like D.B. (his older brother). Or simply anyone who fits into society norms, for example, Sally Hayes. Holden’s obsession stems from his fear that he may become a phony one day. So, he spends the book running from adulthood by doing childish things and struggling to keep his life from changing.

Under the rubric of Commonwealth Literature, there is always a bewildering array of overlapping and intersecting experiences between ‘home’ and ‘abroad’. The ‘rootlessness’ which is central to an immigrant consciousness also connotes an underlying phenomenon of ‘give-and-take identity politics’ of a pre-defined identity along with the coterie of religious, cultural, racial, social values and norms thus become a site of hope, of a new beginning. All these issues come up in a unique fashion in One Amazing Thing by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni. This is unique from the perspective that unlike her other works where India is mostly viewed through the eyes of Indian natives, here in this novel there are some non- native characters who aspire to settle nowhere but in India with the hope of fulfilling their dreams which were otherwise lost in the materialistic soil of America.

The maze runner is a young adult, science fiction and post-apocalyptic book that has the purpose of introducing the reader into a fantasy world where things can get a little out of control and surviving remains the main focus. The story starts mysteriously with the title character named Thomas, a teenage boy, who wakes up with no memory after arriving with a moving box into a Glade surrounded by a Maze. The book explores different psychological stages of the characters and help up understand how it is like to live with no memory and surrounded by people you do not know. The author, a young man also, has a particular interest in adventure and survival plots due to their excitement upon readers.

From the outset, I have to say that “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger has been one of the most important and influential pieces of literature I have ever read. At its core, the book is a superb coming of age novel which discusses several extremely powerful themes such as the difficulties of growing up, teenage angst and alienation and the superficiality, hypocrisy and pretension of the adult world. These themes resonated deeply with me and were portrayed excellently through the use of powerful symbolism and the creation of highly relatable and likable characters. One such character is Holden Caulfield whom the story both revolves around and is narrated by.

Target by Jasper Johns stands 66 x 66 in the Art Institute of Chicago (Figure 1). The large size of the painting draws the viewer in. The scale also makes it so the viewer is forced to look at the painting, it is not something that can be ignored. Johns created this piece in 1961, and it was one of many works in his Target series. Target was his last major work in this series and it ended up being the largest as well. The painting is surrounded by a simple wooden frame. This painting was created by using encaustic paint. Encaustic painting is also known as hot wax painting, and it involves using heated beeswax to which colored pigments are added. This paint forms a surface of lumps and smears that gives Target a more worn look. Johns paints