Reading Response on “Where the Sidewalk Ends” by Shel Silverstien:

           

The first thing I read written by Shel Silverstien was the book, The Giving Tree when I was a little kid. After that I enjoyed the book so much, me and my dad got his collection of poems Where the Sidewalk Ends. Out of all his poems my favorite was “Where the Sidewalk Ends”. It means a lot to e and was a big part of my childhood, which is why I have chosen to annotate it and analyze it.

            The poem is about the contrast of an industrialized world and a beautiful, natural place. The first and second line “There is a place where the sidewalk ends, And before the street begins…” (Line 1 and 2) begin to describe this. The rest of the stanza, one of the literary devices he used in this poem, describes the beautiful forest type environment. But the next stanza describe the exact opposite. “Let us leave this place where the smoke blows black, And the dark street winds and bends…” (Line 7 and 8). These lines represent the dark and industrialized side of this poem.

            There is a very strong and confident tone in this poem. There is a lot of end-rhyme though out the poem. In the first stanza “…white…bright…flight…” are the rhymes. They almost enchant the poem and make this place seem even more wonderful. In the second stanza “…grow…slow…go…” are the rhymes. They do the opposite and make the industrialized environment seem worse. These end-rhymes show lots of confidence and forwardness throughout the poem.

            If I had two describe this poem, I would say it is very encouraging and thought provoking. The contrast between these two worlds, shown in the last paragraph, makes me think about what I can do to make these two worlds come together. How to take a very industrialized area and turn it into something more eco-friendly. It reminds me that we need to value our resources in the world and I understand that now more than when I was a kid.

Six Word Memoir

Live

Love

Eat

Sleep

Ride

Die

I was inspired to write this poem by the biggest things in my life. I also think of it as a time line of my life. That’s why it starts with live and ends with die because that is the life cycle and those are the two biggest things in any person’s life.

Walking Into Oblivion

I’ll walk for me.

I’ll walk for me, and only me.

I’ll walk through snow,

Rain,

Wind,

And hail,

For me.

I’ll walk away from you,

To find myself.

I’ll walk for me.

      This poem was about how sometimes people need a break from one and another, and they will just need sometime alone. I found that this poem helped me learn more about myself and then I learned more about other people.

Reading Response

Many people have different meanings of the word "fair". The book The Spectacular Now by Tim Tharp, is about how high-school-er Stutter tries to open up one of his classmates, Aimee, to the "real world". I believe that the characters in this book are treated unfairly in many ways and put in many unfair situations.

Many kids parents might say "I don't care" but the main character's parents really don't care. They don't care about them. The first example of this is when one of the main characters, Stutter, blacks in the middle of town after a night of drinking and driving. "And that's the last thing I remember before waking up under a dead tree..." (Page 69, Chapter 15). His parents don't call him or worry about him at all. He never said he was staying with a friend so they have no idea where he is and they clearly don't care. Another example of parents not caring is when Stutter goes to Aimee's house for the first time. "As for the inside of the house, it's an absolute sty-clothes piled on the backs of the faded sofa and recliner, fast-food sacks gaping open in the coffee table..." (Page 108, Chapter 25), This shows her parents don't care about how they live or their health. Aimee also does her mom's job on her own most of the time and get barley any allowance out of it. Stutter and Aimee's families need to care for their children and make sure they have the support they need. These kid didn't do anything to cause being put in this situation, so why should have have to support themselves?

A lot of people also do things with out asking other's permission, which is exactly what Stutter does to Aimee. One example of this is when Stutter decides he want to help Aimee become less anti-social and be able to stand up for herself. "See, by letting her help me, I'll be helping her. She gets confidence and I get the satisfaction of bringing confidence to someone who needs it..." (Page 104, Chapter 24). Even though Aimee does open up that could also be worse for her. Before Stutter "helped" her she had a certain way of thinking that could help her have more structure. Stutter has no structure and a girl like Aimee needs a lot of structure in her situation. It was very unfair that jsut because she wasn't like Stutter means he has to "help" her.

Stutter and Aimee's parents don't care about them but Stutter also doesn't care about Aimee. Even though he thinks he's helping her and all he really ends up hurting her worse than he could have ever imagined. After they start hanging out Stutter and Aimee start to date. After they graduate Aimee has plans to move to St. Luis and want Stutter to come with, but after just having a visit with his estranged father he hesitates. He knows that he is going to end up like his drunk, unemployed, and horrible dad and doesn't want to bring Aimee down with him." (Page 284, Chapter 64). Stutter is completely wrong. He was the one who made her motivated enough to move and now he's going to bail. This is unfair. You can't help someone in a time of need and bail on them when they most need you.

Reading and writing about this book has made me think that if yo don't want to end up exactly where you started, you need to treat others fairly and make sure you are treated fairly to. What you do is what you'll get and that's exactly what happened to Stutter. It also makes me think about how there are everyday things that aren't fair, but sometimes you just have to try your best even if it doesn't work out.

Author's Note Fisrt Draft

          Since the year 2000 twenty five more states have enacted felony laws that prevent animal cruelty, but just because its illegal doesn't mean people won't do it. Every year almost two thousand animals are involved in abuse. Over fifty percent involve dogs and eighteen percent involve cats. 

          My family has always loved animals. I have a cat, my sister does,  my grandma has a dog, and so on and so forth. I care so much about this subject because all animals are equal and deserve to be treated with the same respect that humans have. Half of the time, when I eat dinner my cat will sit at the table with us if he wants.

         This can change. Studies show that most animal abusers were abused when they were young. They fail to develop empathy, and with out this they cannot recognize their victims pain. If we don't stop kids or anybody from abusing animals they will be most likely to hurt humans and not just animals. Human abuse is already bad and we can't let animal abuse get out of control either.

Synthesis Page