Revision on "Drummer Boy of Shiloh" Essay

           In “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury, Joby is the drummer boy who we think ran away and joined the army. He thinks about hiding in the peach orchard and staying until the soldiers to the battle at dawn. He thinks about doing this because he is scared that he won’t return alive. The general finds him and speaks to him and changes his mind so that he chooses to go to battle and feel confident about it. Bradbury shows the reader to face life with faith and courage even when it’s most difficult.

          In the story Bradbury shows how Joby didn’t have courage in the beginning but after the General talked to him he had faith. In the beginning Joby thinks, “If he stayed very still, when the dawn came up and the soldiers put on their bravery with their caps, perhaps they might go away, the war with them, and not notice him living small here, no more than a toy himself.” Then the General says, “But if he beat a sure, steady, ever fast rhythm, then, then, their knees would come up in a long line down over that hill, one knee after the other, like a wave on the ocean shore.” That’s when Joby was completely convinced and knew that he a purpose to go to the battle. When the general asked, “You’ll run them through for me then, boy?” In response to what the General asked Joby gestured as Bradbury described, “The boy nodded mutely.”   He prepared himself, with faith and courage, for the morning when he would leave with the other soldiers to the battle.  

          So, Bradbury showed how Joby went through not having any courage and faith before the General gave him a talk. Then after the General gave him a talk he completely accepted the fact that he had to go to battle.  He showed how even though it was going to be a scary time they should all have faith in what they were going to do and enough courage to do it.

Response on "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

In “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini Laila one of the main characters goes through a harsh time in Kabul. Before she even turned sixteen she lost everything to a war. She lost her brothers who died fighting in the war. She lost her friends where one got married and left and the other got blown up by a rocket. She lost her love who left with his family to somewhere safer. When she and her parents were about to leave a rocket fell on her house her parents died but she survived. Rasheed, a neighbor, found her and took her in. After she got better he tricked her into thinking that her love died. Then he asked to marry her. Since she was so sad, she said yes. Rasheed's other wife, Mariam, didn't approve of Rasheed marrying again but she couldn't do anything because Rasheed was very arrogant. Laila suffered through her married life with beating after beating. Laila changed from the beginning of her married life to the end.

In the beginning of Laila's married life, Laila didn't really say anything against what Rasheed said. When Laila, Mariam, and Laila's daughter Aziza tried to run away from their horrible life they got caught and were taken back. Rasheed gave each of them a good beating except Aziza. Laila couldn’t say anything or do anything but, that changed by the end of the book.

In the end of Laila’s married life, Laila spoke up against Rasheed and went against what Rasheed did too. When Rasheed didn’t have any money anymore after buying his son so many things he gave Laila the idea to send Aziza on the street and make her beg. When Laila snapped at Rasheed and told him that she won’t let her daughter turn into a street beggar Rasheed go angry. He smacked Laila in her face. Something that was very new was what Laila did next, she punched Rasheed in the face. Even though that didn’t stop him from hitting more at least she acted back.

            So that’s how Laila changed from the beginning to the end of her married life. When her married life was coming to an end she found out that her first love, Tariq, was still alive and that Rasheed tricked her into thinking that he wasn’t. One day Rasheed was beating Laila and Mariam killed Rasheed. Mariam turned herself in and Laila got married to Tariq. Laila learned to speak against what’s wrong.

Reading Response On "A Long Walk To Water"

               In "A Long Walk To Water" by Linda Sue Park Nya, one of the main characters, has to go through a lot of tough work. She has to walk back and forth all day from the pond and back to her house to get water for her family. She does this every day of the year. This shows everyone how so many people have so many hardships to go through everyday. 

                Nya has to walk to the pond and back to times a day everyday. Here we can't even imagine that because we live in the city and get water out of the faucets. We have to consider though that there are people out there who do this everyday instead of going to school and hanging out with friends like we do here. Nya has that lifestyle in Sudan. She's been doing getting water every day for eight hours straight. Eight hours of walking may not sound that bad but it actually really is when you hear that she's walking barefoot over sharp things and that she's carrying a container filled with water on her head. She's beginning to teach her little sister what she does so that when Nya won't be able to fetch water anymore at least her sister will be there.                                                                                                                                                       Nya had to go through this every single day of her life starting when she was a little girl and she might have to do it for the rest of her life. There are some people who help these people who struggle to feed their own family every day. Nya was just one story about this topic that the author wrote based off of a true story.