Author: EthanS

The short story “Rules of the Game” is about a young girl named Waverly Jong, and her struggles with a mom about her chess career, which was really pushed onto her by her mother. In the text, this may be normal for a parent to treat their child like that, but here is why it is wrong.

In the story, the mother was the main pusher for the chess ordeal. It started off only for fun, but one day, the mother sent Waverly to a chess competition, where she won, her mom told her to lose less pieces the next time she played. This really shows a poor understanding of how the game works, as the game is very complex and it is sometimes necessary to lose many pieces to win. Her mom did not really understand that, and was only focused on the idea of growth, and becoming perfect, which was impossible.

As time went on, things began to go downhill. Waverly became very famous, and the mother would brag to anyone that even looked towards her that she was Waverly’s mother. This really could have affected Waverly’s self esteem, as her mother never even congratulated her. This could have made Waverly feel like her mother was taking all the credit for Waverly’s work.

Doing this could have major effects on Waverlys health, leading to anxiety or depression, because of the need to improve, despite having no incentive to do so. At the end, Waverly got into an argument with her mother, Her mother basically ignored her from then on, and that was the end of that.

During the time of Marco Polo, people in Europe believed that Jerusalem was the center of the world, which the majority of the people believed. Marco Polo eventually found that many of the beliefs of Europeans were not true, and that there were amazing things out there. Marco Polo was able to see so many things in his lifetime, that he was put down in history, despite living a portion of his life being considered a liar.

Marco Polo would not have been able to see and know the world if he was not born into a merchant family. At that time, traveling was expensive and took a lot of time, so the only people who traveled the world would be merchants. His father and uncle were able to meet Kublai Khan, and when they took Marco Polo to the Mongolian empire, he was appointed as one of Kublai Khan’s advisors.

Eventually, Marco Polo was thrown in prison during a war, and had a lot of his money taken away from him by the government. When he was in prison, he talked with a writer and shared his stories, and when they were released, a book about Marco Polos adventures were published, and Marco Polo became known as a liar for exaggerating the Mongolian empire. However, even as he was on his deathbed, when a priest asked him if he was telling the truth, Marco Polo said that he was not even telling all of his stories, as he did not wasn’t to blow peoples minds.

“The Ransom of the Red Chief” is a short story about how two men that attempted a kidnapping and ended up losing money because of how they carried out they kidnapping. The story may have been a lesson about how people need to plan ahead, but from almost the very beginning of the text, is was quite obvious that the kidnapping was not going to turn out well.

First was when the narrator said that “it seemed like a good thing: but wait till I tell you.” This sentence is spoken by the narrator as he is reflecting on the experience, and from that first sentence, it is already implied that it did not go well. Another good hint about this was how the narrator described the experience as “a moment of temporary mental apparition.” Now, people would only reflect on a decision as a moment of temporary insanity if the idea went very badly. This already sets the idea that the kidnapping did not work.

Another thing was that when they found Johnny, they saw that he was throwing rocks at a cat. Unless this was a common pastime for children when the story took place, one can easily notice that a child throwing rocks at a cat has a messed up idea of right and wrong, and has lots of pent up energy. These two are not really good characteristics for a kidnapping victim, especially once we look at the two main character’s next mistake: The two kidnappers did not bring a rope or any device to bind the child. If they just brought a rope and tied the child up, Bill would not have gone through such torture, which would let the kidnapping go hundreds of times more smoothly then it did

One of the kidnappers next mistake was how they wrote their ransom letter. If the two kidnappers used a more forceful tone while writing the letter, maybe adding phrases that suggested that they could not guarantee the child’s safety or anything that would make the father more desperate or worried about the child, the father would me more likely to pay the ransom. Also, the fact that they signed the letter as “two desperate men” may have given the father the idea that he could use the kidnappers to his advantage. If they signed the letter as just “two men,” that would have made them seem more professional and tougher, thus giving a higher chance of the father paying the ransom.

In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, people in a village are required to attend a lottery every year. However, instead of earning money, the winner of the lottery is stoned by the villagers until they die. The reason for this lottery is unknown, as nobody seems to remember the true reason for the lottery. However, after analyzing the text, one can reason that the lottery is held is to make a sacrifice to Mother Nature.

Some evidence that the lottery is meant to be a sacrifice of some sort is based off the insistence of tradition. The lottery must be held annually, and always starts on the 27th of June, for no specified reason. Another thing is the Black Box. The Black Box has only been replaced only once, over maybe centuries of use, because the townspeople were nervous to disrupt tradition, even in just the black box. The townspeople take it even further by rebuilding the black box with pieces of the original. This could mean that the black box used to hold a special meaning to the townspeople, which again leads to the idea of a ritual. 

However, maybe the most prominent piece of evidence in the text is when Old Man Warner says: “Used to be a saying about ‘Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.‘“ While this could be meant just to show that the lottery’s importance, but again, this saying might mean that because we hold a lottery in June, we will get a good harvest of corn. This is further strengthened that corn is harvested in the fall, and that June is when the corn is first starting to come out of the ground and grow outwards, and is when corn is the most vulnerable to pests and drought.

Because of the idea that a tradition that was long forgotten must be upheld, and the old saying of “Lottery in June, corn be heavy soon.” One can reasonably conclude that the purpose of the lottery is to sacrifice to Mother Nature or some kind of deity to insure a good harvest in the fall.

The short story “Uncle Willy,” tells a story about a kind man, who had a few bad habits. Uncle Willy was a man who ran a convenience store. He was kind to children, and gave them ice cream and prizes. His neighbors eventually forced him to go to a rehabilitation facility, and when he came back, he had negatively changed in many ways. Eventually he had escaped, bought a plane, and died trying to fly it. The neighbors may have acted with honorable intentions, but had no right to do any of their actions.

The first reason for this is that while Uncle Willy did drugs, he did not harm anybody while he was intoxicated. He treated the boys who stopped by his store with kindness, and gave them free ice cream. Uncle Willy might have acted a bit strange, but his actions never affected anybody negatively. In fact, they sort of assaulted Uncle Willy but grabbing him by both of his arms and forcing him into Mrs. Merridew.

Next, the people in his town had no right to treat forcefully send someone to rehab. The reason for this was that Uncle Willy was obviously functioning perfectly well while under the influence of his drugs, and that he was an adult, which meant nobody had custody of him, which meant nobody police and authorities could tell him what to do. His neighbors obviously had no reason to do to Uncle Willy what they did, and also had no right.

Another thing is that if the drugs were not affecting him or anybody negatively, it would be pretty obvious that squirting the drugs would not do anything good for him, other than improving his physical health. This obviously didn’t happen, as when Uncle Willy came back from rehab, he had lost 20 pounds, had skin the color of tallow, and had forgotten the names of all the boys he had spent years talking to.

One might argue that Uncle Willy should have gone through rehab because his doing drugs was a bad influence for the boys he often talked to. However, it was obvious this was not the case, as the boys had no interest in him taking drugs, and often asked him if it was painful. This means that they boys were worried for Uncle Willy, and obviously thought that Uncle Willy doing drugs was just part of his character, and not something that they should imitate.

In the short story “Miss Awful,” the main character Roger starts off as a carefree child who tries to get out of doing work, and likes to play. His behavior is also supported by his teacher, who not only allowed this behavior but also joined in on these acts, such as lying on the floor. Eventually the teacher leaves for a while, and a substitute teacher replaces her. This teacher, named Miss Orville, is on the other side of the spectrum, as she is very strict, and does not tolerate any nonsense. All the children are not used to having this kind of teacher, and hate her. Over the course of a week, she talks to parents about how inadequate the children are, and ends up embarrassing both parents and children. Eventually, she leaves, and stresses how important education is. Throughout the the book, Roger goes through a change in character.

As we first see Roger, he talks playfully with his father, saying that he does not need to finish his homework and that he would rather got to the park. The next morning, instead of bringing pencils and school supplies to school, he instead fills his backpack with a water pistol, many baseball cards, and a variety of other toys. This shows that he does not take anything seriously, and that he is more into play than learning. When he gets to class, he is very surprised at the way Miss. Orville treats the class, and hates her. To make matters worse, he didn’t finish his homework, and also knocked over his backpack, which showed the teachers all the toys he brought. This causes the Roger to get in trouble. On the way home from school, he loudly complains about how Miss Orville confiscated his toys, and goes home straight away. He decides to get revenge by doing all his homework perfectly, thus giving the teacher nothing to discipline him with. Roger has not really started to develop yet, as he still does not like doing homework, but as time passes, he becomes more fixated on doing it perfectly, so that his original reason does not even matter to him anymore

As the week progresses, Roger learns that Miss Orville had to get evicted from her living space because the building was going to get torn down, which started to make him fell bad for her. On Friday, Miss Orville reveals that the old teacher would be returning on Friday, and when all the other students get back at her by killing her plant, she does not punish them and just stresses how important education is. Roger realizes at this moment that Miss Orville really cares about the children, and that her strict teaching methods were for his own benefit. At the end of the story, Roger is no longer playful, but rather more mature, and more aware of what being a good citizen is.

In the book “A Sound of Thunder,” Ray Bradbury tells a story in a future where time travel is possible, and used for leisure as a safari event. The story explains the potential consequences of time travel, and explores the butterfly effect. However, the story could also be used to show the negative effect humans can have on the world.

The problem is that ever since humans started the Industrial Age, they have been polluting the planet with greenhouse gasses, which has caused negative consequences to the environment. Since then humans have not done anything significant to try to fight climate change, partly because nobody really knows where to start. This is a big problem because places that usually contribute the least to climate change are usually the places that are the most heavily affected.

One problem is that nobody really knows who to blame. Western countries point out the China is currently producing the highest amount of greenhouse gasses, While China points out that the greenhouse gasses are produced to keep the people working and surviving, while Western countries also produce high amounts of greenhouse gasses, except those gasses are usually not necessary and are produced by luxury items, such as cars.

Another problem is that there aren’t many good solutions. Clean energy is better for the environment than using fossil fuels, but fossil fuels are still more efficient, and cheaper. This does not really give people lots of incentive to use renewable energy, such as solar panels or windmills. In order to second and third-world countries a better reason why they should use renewable energy as they become more developed, renewable energy must be able to be produced easily.

The short story “The Lady or the Tiger?” is about a trial system, that completely randomly decides if a person is guilty or innocent. If the person is innocent, the person is married to a lady that was chosen beforehand by the King, regardless of whether the man in the trial was married or not. If the person is guilty, he gets killed by a tiger. The main plot of the story is about the internal struggle of the princess, who has to choose whether to let her lover live and be married to a woman that she does not like, or to let him die painfully in the hands of a tiger. When the lover looks at the princess for help during the trial, the princess makes a short movement, which indicates the choice the lover should make. However, the story ends without us knowing whether the lover got killed or if the lover was married. However, what was it like for the King, who arranged the entire system of the trial?

Imagine the King’s point of view. The King is doing the things that a monarch would usually be doing, such as managing the food supply of the kingdom or seeing who didn’t pay their taxes, and minding his own business, when he hears that his daughter was in an affair with a man behind his back. The King is enraged, and tracks down the man and throws him in prison to await his trial. In the trial, the man will open one of two doors, one of which would hold a tiger ready to feast on the roles of the man, and another would hold a woman, who the King knew loved the man, and also knew that the man did not love her.

A few days pass, and finally the day arrives. The King watches as the man approaches the two doors. His daughter, who is seated next to him seems to be very focused. The man looks at both doors, and then back at the princess. In the corner off his eye, the king sees a small flash of movement from the princess’s direction. The King does not know to which door the princess showed, but it didn’t matter, as either way, the King would have his revenge. The man would either be torn to shreds by a tiger, or be trapped into a loveless marriage, where the man would suffer for the rest of his life. The man, looking more focused and confident walked over to the door on the right, and puts his hand on the doorknob. The King smiled, the man opened the door, and the confidence the man had shown opening the door quickly vanished, and out sprang the tiger. The man ran back, and right before the tiger got him, he looked at the princess, and through his pained expression, one could easily see what his was thinking: Why?

In the 2030s, NASA plans on launching people onto the first ever Mars missions. While this could lead to many potential discoveries and benefits, staying on Mars and surviving is a hard task. There are many risks associated with Mars, including radiation, and the lack of both gravity and oxygen. However, there are some things that we can do to improve the quality of life on Mars. One of the ways we could do this is to terraform Mars, which would greatly increase quality of life on Mars. The problem is, terraforming Mars is a very hard task, and it has a very controversial argument associated with it. However, despite the argument, the benefits of terraforming Mars far outweigh the potential damage we could do to Mars.

First, what does it mean to terraform Mars? Terraforming a planet is to change it to make it more hospitable for human life. Some ways of terraforming Mars include adding greenhouse gasses to the atmosphere to make it so that the temperature on Mars increases to the point where liquid water is stable on the surface of the planet. This, combined with adding minerals to the Martian soil to make it rich, and would allow plant life to grow on Mars, which would greatly increase the quality of life on Mars.

The problem is that while terraforming Mars sounds good, it could have some negative impacts on the planet and its potential life. While it has not been proven that there is life on Mars, to terraform Mars would be to ruin all chances of that life surviving on Mars. This would be similar to someone breaking into another’s home, and then adding poison gas into the house while preventing to owner from leaving it, which would kill the homeowner. So is it worth making the planet more hospitable to us while ruining it for potential alien life?

The answer is yes. This is because being able to create have humans on Mars would greatly benefit humans. Having humans be self sufficient on another planet would greatly reduce the chances of humans becoming extinct. Another thing is that there isn’t any proof of life on Mars. The Viking 1 lander landed on Mars in 1976, and after that many more landers and rovers all landed on Mars, yet aside from the fact that there used to be liquid water on the planet, there is no further evidence of life on Mars.

Establishing self sufficient humans on Mars will be very difficult, but terraforming the planet would make Mars a lot more hospitable, and would greatly increase the chances of human survival.

As technology further progresses and evolves, creating and spreading fake news becomes a lot easier. Fake news is able to spread very quickly across social media platforms, and it is very hard to stop the spread of this news. Fake news will also become more and more close to real news, which could lead to nobody really knowing the truth.

The problem with fake news is the sheer impact it can have on society. A single tweet the the White House was bombed and the US president was injured was retweeted thousands of time and caused the US lose 139 billion dollars in a day. Another problem is that as technology progresses, the harder it is to discern real news from fake news. In a few years, people will be able to create fake audio and video clips that are nearly identical to real video and audio clips. If this happens, the effect would be immeasurable, and nobody will be able to tell what is true and what is not.

In order to stop the spread of fake news, governments are demanding that social media platforms be transparent in how data is collected, distributed, and used. The problem is that if that happens, the data will not be secure anymore, which is also very important to people. This is called the transparency paradox, and is why we can’t have companies being transparent. However, it is still possible to keep data secure while having companies be transparent, however hard it might be.

One way that this might happen is that the social media platforms share their data with only the government, which is pretty much the most trustworthy source there is. That way the government can stop fake news from spreading, while not giving the data to everybody, which would keep it secure while preventing fake news from spreading. The problems with this is that this would give more power to the government, which would allow it to have more control about what we know. Another problem is that there is no way to keep the government silent with our data, which means we would again just be giving the government more power.