Sunrise Over Fallujah Book Report

Gerald Graff’s argument on how educational systems are missing a great opportunity to tap into “street smarts” and focus them into a path of academic work is indeed convincing (Graff, 198). After all, anyone who’s been through the American educational system knows odds are often stacked against the “street smarts.” This is especially true in english classes, where one is often required to read boring and somewhat heartless books like, 1984, Beowulf, and the majority of Shakespeare’s classics. This is not to say these books are bad or shouldn’t be read during one’s schooling years, instead, the problem is one of apathy. For instance, in my high school years I never even remotely liked to read books Othello, but I loved to read magazines and

Lice. There is an abundance of lice in your head, and there are more eggs than lice. You get used to it. You’re starving, beaten, and dying of disease. These are just a few things you have to deal with. Milkweed, a historical- fiction book written by Jerry Spinelli, is about an orphan boy named Misha who lost his identity in Nazi occupied Warsaw, Poland during War World II. Throughout the book, Misha has to overcome obstacles, which demonstrates the theme the will of survival.

“That’s what stories are for. Stories are for joining the past to the future ... Stories are for eternity, when memory is erased, when there is nothing to remember except the story” (36). The Things They Carried is a captivating novel that gives an inside look at the life of a soldier in the Vietnam War through the personal stories of the author, Tim O’Brien . Having been in the middle of war, O’Brien has personal experiences to back up his opinion about the war. In The Things They Carried, O’Brien reveals his view on war through telling his readers how the Vietnam War had no point, was emotionally devastating, and displaying that there is no purpose in war unless the soldiers know what they are fighting for.

Mike Rose shares his personal story to the public in “I just wanna be average”, as he reveals the many flaws within the educational system of a high school in an economically depressed neighborhood in Los Angeles. He effectively directs his arguments towards both educators and parents by utilizing emotional and logical appeals. By convincing the audience to fear that children placed on remedial tracks are being hindered rather than assisted, the author causes both awareness and a feeling of duty to change the way we handle teaching children.

Wayne Dyer once said, “The highest form of ignorance is when you reject something you don 't know anything about.” In the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, ignorance is a common theme portrayed throughout the novel. It sets the impression of how all of the characters feel due to a society that has outlawed books. Guy Montag is a firefighter, whose job is to burn the books. Yet, he often steals them without the chief firefighter, or anyone else knowing. This is until the day he meets Clarisse, who looks at the world in a different way than anyone else. Then, shortly after, he has to burn down a house full of books and burn the woman inside also because she refuses to leave. This causes Montag to realize that books should not be burned and have great significance in the world. He then shows his wife the abundance of books that he has collected from his job, and his wife, Mildred, becomes concerned. This later causes her to make up lies to cover the fact that Montag is breaking the law of owning books. The ignorance shown in the novel is greatly illustrated on page ninety-five, due to the encounter of the

Charles Baxter’s “Gryphon” provides an interesting look at standardized education and the way society views those who deviate from it. Baxter shows this through how the narrator Tommy views his new substitute, Miss Ferenczi. The character Miss Ferenczi tries to revolt against the clinical and strict standards of society and positively impact the morality and ethicality of herself, Tommy, and the fourth graders.

The first time one is able to comprehend the meaning of a word is a momentous childhood moment that is forever engraved in one’s memory. Books and reading are significantly impactful to people’s lives; Mark Twain said that, “books are for people who wish they were somewhere else.” This statement is apropo for Sherman Alexie, who was a Native American living on a reservation during the time he learned to read. Sherman Alexie convinces his audience that an education is crucial to being successful by using personal anecdotes to captivate and create a connection with his audience and repetition to reiterate the importance of having an education.

We can all agree that war is dreadful. The impact to citizens and soldiers during times of war is significant and widespread. The fictional works: The Shawl, The Red Convertible and The Things They Carried, allow insight into the impact that war has on individuals. Although these stories are works of fiction, they all resonate real struggle and unbearable circumstances. Throughout these stories, the characters are continually impacted by their surrounding circumstances. These master works of war torn fiction, allow the reader to experience the impact war infuses on soldiers and citizens alike. Through powerful narration, these stories reveal how their characters are impacted physically, emotionally and psychologically by the war that surrounds

Our lives and how we grew up has a lot to do with our identity. Where you came from, and your experiences have molded you into who you are today. Today you see many writers use their personal experiences to show portray the concept to the audience. In this essay we will explore personal experiences of both Malcom X in “A Homemade Education” and, “Learning to read and write” by Fredrick Douglas.

Lead: One person can help make another person’s life better. Evidence from Kaffir Boy: In his memoir Kaffir Boy, Mark Mathabane recalls how his mother fought the racist Apartheid to allow him to attend school. “‘ But what a battle it was. It took me nearly a year a year to get all them papers together.’” Analysis:By giving him an education, she gave him an opportunity to have a life his illiterate friends from the gangs never could. This enabled him to escape the black ghetto of Alexandria, go to college in America, write a bestselling book and have a life far better than that of his father or mother. This shows not only that a person 's life can be improved by others, but that education can create opportunities even in the most structurally

In today’s world education plays a vital role in everyone’s life. No matter what you do or what you intend to do, education is needed. It was clearly not the same in Frederick Douglas and Bich Minh Nguyen’s world. In both cases the author’s education wasn’t needed and took a back seat because of their race and other factors. Frederick Douglas the author of the article “Learning to Read and Write” shares his experience of how he educated himself but it didn’t bring any change in his life. Similarly Bich Minh Nguyen the author of the article “The Good Immigrant Student” shares her experience of how she wasn’t given importance based on the fact that she was a foreigner despite her being smart. Education maintains social hierarchies among minorities

The book Sunrise Over Fallujah by Walter Dean Myers is about a young man named Birdy that is serving in the Iraq War as part of one of the Civil Affairs units. Overall Sunrise Over Fallujah was an accurate representation of the Civil Affairs units, what they did in the Iraq War, and certain challenges that they faced. The book described in detail what would have possibly happened to a Civil Affairs untits while serving during the Iraq War.

America’s war heroes all have the same stories to tell but different tales. Prescribed with the same coloring page to fill in, and use their methods and colors to bring the image to life. This is the writing style and tactic used by Tim O’Brien in his novel, “The Things They Carried”. Steven Kaplan’s short story criticism, The Undying Certainty of the Narrator in Tim O’Brien’s The Things They Carried, provides the audience with an understanding of O’Brien’s techniques used to share “true war” stories of the Vietnam War. Kaplan explains the multitude of stories shared in each of the individual characters, narration and concepts derived from their personal experiences while serving active combat duty during the Vietnam War,

Although the book, Black Hawk Down, is based on true events a reader is still able to find a prevalent theme throughout the chapters. The author Mark Bowden recaps an operation based on true events and displays all the things that had went wrong throughout the operation. The operation takes place in Somalia and it was predicted to only last an hour, but to the militia’s surprise the operation took even longer. Bowden often decides to change up the point of view from chapter to chapter, jumping from the different character’s point of view. Bowden shows how the different views of fear can affect different people. Through his different characters the Deltas, The Rangers, and The Somali people, the author further creates an overall theme of fear.

In A Cold Manipulation Of Language, Melissa W. Noel analyzes Capote’s In Cold Blood to help students develop an awareness of the author's’ intentions and to understand how writers use language to change readers perspectives (Noel 51). According to the March 2011 edition of the English Journal, authors will habitually use literary devices like “tone, diction, syntax, attitude, and style” to manipulate language in order to have their desired effect on the intended audience, much like Henry James does in the Turn of the Screw (Noel 51). A literary device James uses frequently throughout the Turn of the Screw is ambiguity, a term coined to describe when a phrase or word has more than one meaning. The way James constructs sentences is done very