Sunny Youth Journal

The problem of drugs is one that has concerned people from around the world, who believe drugs are harmful and want to stop them.

In today’s short story, ‘Uncle Willy’, it is about a boy named Andrew and his community, which is in the South. There is a man in their town called ‘Uncle Willy’, though he isn’t anyone’s uncle. He is a bit like a fatherly figure to the boys of the village, though, we can say he isn’t a good one.

I personally belive that Uncle Willy is a bit crazy. First of all, he thinks that he can fly a plane before he even gets a flying license, or even getting any flying experience. In the end, he crashes the aircraft, and perishes. These actions are illegal today so he probably shouldn’t be doing that, especially when planes are not even that reliable, back in the 1930s. He is also a drug addict, and wants keep using them, which isn’t healthy at all. He still holds onto drugs even when the priest of the local church and the town’s women are both demanding that he should stop. To add onto all this, he is very racist, calling African Americans n———s, something very unacceptable today.

In conclusion, I think that Uncle Willy is a bit on the crazy side. He probably was trying to be a good person, but he is just not doing it the wrong way. He certainly lived a crazy life.

Uncle Willy is a story about a kid running away with a crazy man everyone in the little town calls Uncle Willy. Uncle Willy is a drug-addicted, childish man who is very popular among the children because they think he’s cool. The church people try to stop him from doing drugs so he sells his house to buy a plane and doesn’t know how to fly it so he dies.

Willy isn’t sad about the death of Uncle Willy, he feels betrayed by Job and how no one understands why he liked and looked up to Uncle Willy. He cries while they were going home not because Uncle Willy died but because someone in their group betrayed them and how now no one will understand why everyone looked up to him. He only thought about having fun, so whether he was crashing a car or crashing a plane, he wouldn’t fear death because it was all “fun”.

In the end, the kids look up to Uncle Willy because he does a lot of fun things with them. But in real like, his like is ruined and he only cares about drugs. (and fun.)

In the article New satellite maps show dire state of ice melt in Antarctica and Greenland by Brandom Specktor of Live Science, he talks about the large amount of ice melting in Greenland and in Antarctica. Between the two places, they have lost an average of 300 gigatons of ice, enough to fill three hundred thousand Olympic-sized pools, and contributing to a rise of 14 millimetres in sea level. If we act quickly to slow down the rate of global warming, there will be immeasurable consequences.

One way that a person can contribute to controlling global warming is by eating a more plant-based diet. This is because animal products use more resources to make as animals need more water and more nutrients than plants. Also, the gases that animals pass, mainly methane, contribute to global warming, and eating a more plant based diet can help reduce that.

Another way to control global warming is to drive less. Cars produce around 20% of all gases that contribute to global warming. Also, if you drive less, it will help reduce traffic congestion and the time that other people spend on the road(and producing greenhouse gases).

These are just two ways a person can contribute to slowing down the rate of global warming. Hopefully, as time progresses, more and more people will come to understand the effects of global warming and contribute to slow it down.

In Antarctica and Greenland, ice is melting alarmingly quickly. In the article,”New satellite maps show dire state of ice melt in Antarctica and Greenland,” pictures of the ice sheets show them losing ice rapidly. In fact, the change is so drastic, it can be noticed from space by satellites. In the article, the author discusses the possible consequences if this is allowed to continue.

Over the course of 16 years, a series of pictures taken by satellites show how the ice sheets are losing ice at a much higher rate than its gains. The article states, “All that melting ice was responsible for a total 0.55 inches (14 millimeters) of sea-level rise between 2003 and 2019…” As shown in the quote, the world’s ice sheets melting is causing the sea level to rise. Even though it’s only half an inch, because of how big the oceans are, to add that tiny difference in sea level means an almost incomprehensibly large amount of water was added into the ocean during that time.

This increase in sea level leads us the consequences of the melting ice sheets. If the ice sheets were to continue melting like this, the article say that, “That scenario would put hundreds of millions of people living in coastal communities at risk of losing their homes — or their lives — to flooding.” Scientists have also found that most of the melting ice came from ice shelves, which serve as structural support for the rest of the ice sheet. This means the melting ice shelves will in turn cause more melted ice from unstable ice further inland flowing out into the ocean. All the water from the melted ice would increase the water level more and more, resulting in lots of flooding and lives lost.

While climate change has been hanging over our heads for quite a while now, new findings are giving us a much needed wake up call to action. The melting ice causes sea level rise, which in turn will cause floods in the future. Hopefully this new evidence can make people more aware and start trying to reverse climate change and avoid melting the ice sheets in the future.

Many people may think of America as an amazing country but in reality, the system has a lot of flaws. There are a lot of long-term problems such as racism, but there are current problems happening that are getting extended such as COVID-19. Instead of looking at America as a great country, start acknowledging the issues and trying to fix them.

In Martin Luther King Jr.’s iconic speech, “I Have A Dream”, he dreams of a world where racism isn’t a problem. 100 years ago during his time, or around 150 years now, the Emancipation Proclamation was signed by Abraham Lincoln to end slavery. However, that did not solve the problem of racism. People of color are still being treated badly up to this day.

Another problem that is happening is America’s response to SARS-CoV-2. After several months, the rest of the world is slowly recovering from the pandemic. However, COVID-19 cases are still rising in America.

With the continuing problems, it shows that USA isn’t actually wonderful or responsible. Racism is a huge issue, along with the coronavirus pandemic and they don’t look like something that will be fixed easily. Start looking at these concerns and how to solve them, not how amazing America is.

People often feel they made a wrong decision, and they did that because they were influenced badly. Too often in our fast and ever-growing society, we see just that. We get influenced badly and pay the consequences. In today’s short story, some kids are faced with some tough decisions.

So there is a man. According to most of the kids in the town he is called Uncle Willy. He is a clerk at a shop. But there is one major thing that is off about him. He has a huge addiction to drugs. Since he is a huge friend to the kids, he gives them ice cream, the kids like and want to be like him. The kids want to be like him, which means they might do drugs as well.

But next let us look in the example of Michael Jordan. We all know him as the best basketball player of all time. But he started from humble beginnings. First he barely made the high school team, then told he wouldn’t be able to make the college team. But he would not let his doubters stop his dreams. So he persisted, and you know what? He became the NBA player he is now. But if he had been influenced to give up, he would not have acheiveved his dreams.

We looked at how Uncle Will probably will negatively affect those children and how MJ, did not let other people influence him, as a result become the basketball player he is today. Though we may not influence someone positively, we can always do our part!

As we all know MLK’s speech was very effective to the world. He said his dream. In his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. If it weren’t for him. Then I wouldn’t be writing this. MLK was a wonderful man made many changes and fixes a lot of problems. 

He became the leader and spokesperson of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1950s and 1960s. He gave his life to the community for the world just for peace. MLK said this speech because he wanted peace in the world. For little kids to be together. For people around the world to sit together, and for freedom to spread. 

MLK said his speech in front of thousands of people for the “Blacks”. This speech was a very powerful speech. Maybe one of the most popular speeches in humankind. He is one of the great leaders in this era. Saved many enslaved workers. He started for the history of their nation. 

This dream wasn’t any ordinary dream a kid wanted. Such as a dream toy or pet. This speech was a very big difference in changing lives. Just because of MLK we are all now safe and no more separation. 

I think that the story Uncle Willy is a very weird one. It is about a guy who does drugs and some people in the town are trying to help him battle his addiction. They eventually succeed but the boy and Uncle Willy both leave the town. Uncle Willy has a plane and wants to learn how to fly it. He doesn’t realize that he can’t learn easily, and one day he tries to fly the plane but sadly crashed.

Uncle Willy is a good friend of the little boy, but I think that even though the boy thought Uncle Willy was super cool that he shouldn’t have stayed with him. I feel like Uncle Willy just gets into a lot of trouble and gets addicted to bad things really easily. Uncle Willy seems like a dangerous man who is going to get into trouble at any time.

In the end of the story when Uncle Willy dies the boy says that he thinks that he helped Uncle Willy and that Uncle Willy knew. This leads me to think that Uncle Willy wanted to go. Uncle Willy thought that he had all the fun he had ever had and didn’t really care anymore. Uncle Willy knew he couldn’t drive the plane. He didn’t want to learn, he just wanted to use it to end it all. He had enough fun so now it was over.

Uncle Willy is an old man with an eagerness for fun. Though he is already sixty years old, Uncle Willy is still very much a child. A drug addict, he escapes the closed-minded society of his small town by getting high. Even in his death, he keeps his childlike innocence, maintaining his joy and simplicity.

Uncle Willy is still like a young child. He hides himself in his store, refusing any customers except for country people and African Americans. His friends and companions are the little boys who crowd in his store after baseball games. Instead of the men’s Bible class, Uncle Willy opts to attend Sunday school with his friends. In fact, when Rev. Schultz takes Uncle Willy to the adult Bible class, the narrator (one of the boys) notes that he seems to be asking for help and seems “littler than ever.” The boys identify with him, as they can feel something in him similar to them. Uncle Willy treats the adult world like an enemy, ready to choke him with their rules and warnings. Rather, he would like to remain free; he takes drugs, he tells the boys, because he “likes it.”

The crusaders who try to “save” Uncle Willy never succeed in crushing his spirit. After his first rehab, he seems dead, but on closer notice, his eyes are “anything in the world except dead.” Like a child clutching their favorite toy, Uncle Willy clenches on to his freedom. He gleefully defies Mrs. Merridew’s Christianity, tricking his sister into buying him a car to visit brothels on weekends. He returns each Monday “insensible on the back seat.” Rather than accepting Mrs. Merridew’s world where he is reborn into society, Uncle Willy promptly adopts a new sin, alcoholism.

Of course, the opposition only gets stronger. But Uncle Willy still does not cooperate, buying himself a plane to escape. Instead of dying in the asylum, he will exit the stage his own way. The narrator knows that it will be “Uncle Willy’s last go-round” and that he’s “against all the old terrified and timid clinging to dull and rule-ridden breathing.” Uncle Willie wishes to fly to California, where he can escape the confines of adult society and life freely. Even in his death, he has an adventurous and free spirit.

To the narrator, and all the other children, Uncle Willie is the “finest man…because he had had fun all his life in spite of what (the adults) had tried to do to him or with him.” Uncle Willy’s story is the story of every child: the battle between childish innocence and the adult world. Somehow, Uncle Willy died a child, escaping the confines of the rules and traditions that smother his spirit and destroy his innocence.

In William Faulkner’s short story “Uncle Willy”, he reminds us that our behavior will have an influence around others, shown when Uncle Willy isn’t exactly the responsible and righteous guy. However he’s nice and caring, portrayed when he always gives a prize to the winning team in his town’s baseball match. There’s nothing wrong with Uncle Willy, he is nice and fun, but he also lives an unhealthy life style and is really irresponsible. Our every actions are an influence to those around us and if we have a bad behavior, everybody, especially the young, will copy you. This leads to other people having a bad behavior and is a really horrible domino effect. We need to be aware of our actions and be responsible for what we do in our lives.

First of all, most of us have seen people smoke before. These kind of people in our society is growing by numbers day by day. Even though we have scientific evidence smoking is bad for you, why do people still do it? One person might smoke and convince his or her friend that smoking is fine. His or her friend might try and since smoking is addicting, then most likely the friend will be convinced. However social media is constantly portraying these bad behavior as something trendy, so other people will start to do it. One person’s action might affect thousands around them and if the reaction is bad, then this wound will not heal quickly. Not being responsible for our actions and thinking about the people around you will cause a bad domino effect in your community.

Secondly, people constantly say that parents should be a good example of a human being to their children. However, a child could learn from basically anyone and so if the child learns something bad, then the child most likely have a tendency to act it out.. The young will learn from our actions during our daily lives. The people around us will affect our growth, and if the people around us is giving off bad examples, then it will influence other people to do wrong. We need to be good examples for our younger generations.

Last, I want to address the problem of lying and scandals in our day to day lives. Lying on social media is really common, especially in our age. But humans can’t be born evil so why do we see a uprising of lies on news and online? It’s because of the internets influence. I’m not saying the internet is bad for us, I’m saying that the internet is really free, so anyone could post anything on the internet. Posting normal things like entertainment or blogs about vacation is good, it lets us obtain new knowledge about the world. However, the people that post fake news to cause distress and harm in our society is not just posting something fake; that person is causing others to realize “We can post fake things like that and nobody will ever know!” This is bad influence to others by one individual or group to spread lies and hate throughout a normal community. Even online, people can still be affected by irresponsible behavior.

All in all, William Faulkner’s “Uncle Willy” teaches us an important lesson ; to mind our actions and be aware that other people will be influenced by us, especially the younger generations. We need to take action and make it so we don’t have to worry about our community getting ruined or for other people to be unsuccessful. Hopefully we all can be responsible and set a good example for the people around us.