Author: ShirinaC

A Sound of Thunder by Ray Bradbury takes place in the future. Humans have developed time travel machines, and one incorporation allows people to travel back in time to kill dinosaurs. The people in the company have loads of safety measures so there would be a low chance of someone changing the future. However, one man, Eckles, does what they fear: He changes the future.

Eckles and his tour group go to shoot a T-rex. Its size was miscalculated though, and it was much larger than expected. Eckles freezes up and can’t move. He also whispers, which makes the dinosaur notice them. He runs off the path specifically designed so that no organisms were harmed. He smushes a butterfly under his boot and that causes a chain reaction. The current president, Keith, is nice and kind. After the butterfly is killed, the other candidate, Deutscher, who was a dictator and hated many people became the president.

One symbol in the short story is thunder. When the dinosaur comes towards the tour group, it came with flashing thunder. When Eckles was shot for changing the future, he heard a sound of thunder. In the story, thunder symbolizes death and danger.

The author does a good job using the symbol of thunder to foreshadow what was going to happen. If maybe humans never made a time machine, these dangerous events would have never happened. Our accomplishments, even if they seem great, can cause something horrible in the future.

Emily is the main character of A Rose for Emily. She lives a tragic life and there is a lot of gossip surrounding her. The story happens during her funeral, but has many flashbacks.

Emily’s father died when she was very young and she barely left her house after that. One day, she goes to a drug store to buy arsenic, which is a type of poison. The women in her neighborhood think that she is going to commit suicide. She starts coming out of the house more and is seen around a man named Homer Barron. The women then think that they are going to get married. They heard that she went to a jeweler and ordered a silver toilet set with the initials H.B. on them. She also bought a whole set of mens clothing and the women are certain that they were married. Homer went with Emily into her house and was never seen again. At her funeral, the women burst into a room that Emily never let anyone see. On the bed was homer’s corpse, and next to it was a strand of Emily’s hair.

No one knew what Emily used the arsenic for. I think that she used it to kill Homer. I think that she pretended to marry him so that she would be more respected. I still feel like it is horrible to murder someone though.

A Modest Proposal by Dr. Jonathon Swift concerns the problem of poverty in Ireland. Dr. Swift suggests that the rich should eat children, as it is beneficial. He says that people will get more food this way, and will also need to spend less money.

This is wicked and cruel. Even if it is beneficial, humankind should never stoop so low as to eating their own kind! In his own writing, Dr. Swift says that he does not want to do this himself. If he himself does not want to follow up on his own idea, why should others? Also, the audience must take into account the author’s social status. If he is part of the upper class, then he would just be saying all this just to benefit his own class.

If the Irish eat all the children, they would be bringing down destruction on themselves. For example, if all of the young children were eaten, there would be no more young people to grow up and start a new generation, which, over time, means the extinction of the Irish.

Because of moral principles and possible extinction, Dr. Johnathon Swift’s “modest” proposal will not bring any long-lasting positive effects, and should not be attempted.

In the short story Landlady by Roald Dahl, the main character Billy is looking for a place to stay. He see Bed and Breakfast and thinks that it would be a nice place to stay because of its cozy aura. When he rings the door bell, something strange happens. A lady appears and comes to open the door the second Billy puts his finger on the doorbell. He thinks this is strange, but he puts his thoughts aside because it is really cheap to stay there. A room is already perfectly set up for him, so he goes downstairs to sign in. He notices that there are only two names on the book, which he feels are familiar. Both names are also from two or three years ago. When he brings this topic up, the lady tries to steer the conversation away so Billy does not find out who they are. The lady also stuffs her pets! She also says that the last two people who came here to stay are still there. Billy may think that all the strange things that happen are no big deal, but I think otherwise.

I don’t think that the lady is trustworthy. She has unusual habits that seem dangerous. Plus, her neighbors seemed to have all left, or stayed in their homes for a long period of time. She also mentions that the two people are still living there. This brings me to think that they are actually dead and stuffed.

The relationship between Waverly and her mother in the short story Rules is very complicated. The mother is overprotective and wants to control the daughter, while the daughter refuses to be controlled. This causes them to constantly be annoyed with each other.

One Christmas, Waverly’s brother Vincent got a chess board from their church. Waverly played a few times with her brothers and became really good at coming up with strategies. She played with some older people in a neighborhood park and learned even more strategies. She starts beating everyone there and her mother enrolls her into a competition. Soon, her face is in magazines and newspapers.

Waverly’s mother likes to watch her as she thinks of more strategies because she thinks of herself as a protective ally. Waverly, however, cannot focus when she does that. But, the mother gets angry when she tells her to leave. After some time, her mother starts telling everyone on the streets that Waverly is her daughter and Waverly cannot stand it. When Waverly tells that to her mother, she takes it the wrong way. She thinks that Waverly is ashamed to be her daughter and gets really mad. Then, Waverly runs away.

As you can see, Waverly and her mother do not have a perfect relationship with each other. In fact, they are kind of enemies. The mother wants to take control of the daughter and the daughter wants to avoid that. So their relationship is kind of like a cat and a mouse. Forever chasing each other.

I think that coronavirus deaths should be counted more carefully. I feel like if the deaths are not counted carefully, people will think that the coronavirus is not dangerous when it actually is. I see many people not practicing social distancing out in public stores. Some people also don’t wear masks in public. This is rude and harmful to themselves, because they are increasing the risk of getting the coronavirus and spreading it on to other people around them. I think that if they knew exactly how many people were dying because of it, they would be more careful.

I do know that is is sometimes hard to keep track of these deaths because the coronavirus has similar symptoms as the flu. I understand that the doctors would be busy on other patients and not have time to keep track of everyone,(I think they are overworked) but I still want the counting to be precise. I mean, why do they put the numbers if they don’t put the right ones.

Overall, I believe that doctors and medical staff are overworked and need more time to rest, but I also think that coronavirus deaths should be counted more carefully. I think this because people will think that the coronavirus is less dangerous and be reckless out in the public. Also, knowing how many people are dying will cause more people to help donate money and masks.

Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his “I have a dream” speech on August 28, 1963 to a crowd at Washington D.C. He dreamed that someday children of all skin colors would play together. That the sons of slaves and the sons of slave owners would be able to sit together and talk. That all places would have freedom and justice. That people would not be judge by their skin color, but by their personality. He wanted justice and peace. For equality. But, after all these years, have we made these changes, or have we stayed the way we were before?

We have only fulfilled one of his dreams, and a few people are still not willing to do the rest. For his first dream, he wanted the sons of slaves and their owners to sit down and chat. But, they have probably passed away by now, and I don’t think that they have ever sat down to talk before. Also, most countries have banned slavery, but there are 10 countries that still allow it. In his second dream, he said that he wanted children of all colors to go hand in and and treat each other like brothers and sisters. I believe that this is the only dream that we have fulfilled. Children, regardless of their skin color, are allowed in school and play together. Children with different skin colors still treat each other the same. His last dream was that all nations would be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I would say that not all places have freedom and justice. Some people still judge others by their skin color and a few places still force people to labor. I don’t think Martin Luther King Jr. would be happy with this generation, but baby steps are still movement, we will get there someday, even if it takes a million years.

A few years ago, there was this hype about a new material called graphene. Graphene is basically graphite, but 2D and in a honeycomb shape. People had a bunch of crazy ideas about what we could make with it. People believed that we could almost immediately be able to create machines from sci-fi movies. But so far, we have made barely any progress. Some people are still overhyping graphene, while others think it is a massive disappointment. We have already create a few things with graphene and are getting ideas for more. Because these new ideas sound so promising, I think we should keep looking into graphene.

With graphene, we might be able to make something that can filter salt water. This could help many people who live in places with no fresh water close by. Because it might help so many people, it is worth looking into. Also, graphene can be made from waste materials like plastic and rubber. Plastic does not break down and rubber leaches hazardous chemicals into the environment when it breaks down, so this would be a great way to get rid of these harmful things into make something useful. These would be very useful inventions, so I believe that we should keep looking into graphene, even if it is a little pricey.

In The Lady or the Tiger, the king has a way of determining if an accused person was guilty or innocent. The guilty person would go into the king’s arena and face two gates. One gate would have a tiger and the other would have a beautiful maiden. If the person chooses the gate with the tiger, that would mean that he was guilty and deserved a punishment, which would be getting killed by the tiger. If the person chose the gate with the maiden, that would mean that he was innocent and deserved a reward, which would be getting married to the maiden. All of the people believed that this was fair because the person won’t know which door is which. It is also exciting for them to watch because they do not know which door the person will choose.

I don’t think the king’s ways are fair. Even though nobody knows what will happen to the person and it will therefore not be biased, but it is still not completely fair. The fate of whichever person is accused depends on chance. The door the person chooses does not necessarily mean that he is innocent or guilty, it is just random. Also, the person might be innocent, but gets killed because he chooses the wrong door, or vise versa. Overall, I don’t think that the king’s ways are fair.

When it was reported that COVID-19 was in the U.S., everything was put on hold. Schools closed and businesses were shut down. Everyone had to stay home and wait for the storm to pass. The news was filled with increasing numbers of cases and deaths. Experts predicted and every day people knew that it would damage our mental health. But because we did not measure peoples’ mental health, we did not know how much damage it would do, or understand why some groups of people are suffering more.

After surveying people about their mental health, the results were even worse than expected. Compared to 2018, participants were eight times as likely to have tested positive for mental illnesses. But some people are suffering more than others. Young adults, ages 18-44, were the most affected. This might be because younger adults were more likely to lose their jobs and because they were already struggling with mental health issues. Parents were also affected a lot especially because their kids are cooped in with them. It is hard to find time to manage your kids as well as get your work done.

There are also other examples that our mental health is suffering like how there are more mental health hotlines. Because this pandemic is damaging our mental health, we should be prepared for when people need mental help. This also shows how big of an impact COVID-19 has on us, and how many people of suffering from it.