Essay 9

Asia Carter

Hamilton Salsich

November, 18 2009

Grade 9

The presence of anger:

An Essay About Maya Angelou's essay "I know why the caged bird sings"

1) What makes you angry? 2) Is it the lack of respect? 3) Or is it someone not accounting for your feelings? 4) Either way there is always one point in time when anger rushes through your veins faster than the blood itself, Maya Angelou and I have to try hard to express it in the correct manner.

TS) How do you express anger? SD) Maya Angelou in her essay ,"I know why the caged bird sings" , has a lot of anger that she has kept within herself overtime.CM) Her now built up anger is made up from many times of being treated as unequal. CM) She knows herself that she is no different from most of the white people, yet the color of their skin separates them.  SD) She is so angry that she wishes she wasn't the girl she is. CM) She saw herself with, " long and blond" in the place of the "kinky mass that [her Grandmother] wouldn't let her straighten". CM) She saw herself as a white girl. SD) The main reason why she wanted to be a "white girl" was because she was fed up. CM) She knew that she had a lot to offer. CM) But because she was black her thoughts and suggestions were not important, she was not important. CS) Her anger built up and built up until she started thinking dramatic thoughts like shooting someone.

TS) What someone else does can seriously impact your emotions. SD) One thing that always gets me upset is when someone flaunts or boasts about something don’t have. CM) It makes me feel as if the only point they are trying to get across is that they have something that I want and I will never get. CM) I have no idea why this frustrates me so much but it does.SD) Like Maya another person’s ignorance or rudeness also gets me angry. CM) It makes me mad enough to “throw a handful of black in” their face. CM) I know its alarming to most that I get so angry, but it only takes two seconds to use your manners so why do people choose not to. CM) Because they are lazy.SD) I seldom get angry at things that could not be prevented. CM) By this I mean that I could never be mad at someone for their lack of education. CM) I only get mad at someone for their lack of using their common sense. CS) The world would be such a better place if people treated other the way they wished to be treated.

1)Now that I have experienced more my tolerance is low. 2) I have come to understand that people just done care anymore. 3) Thanfully what goes around comes back around. 4) I’m sure Maya Angelou would agree, the world has a lot of changing to do.

Essay 8

Asia Carter

Hamilton Salsich

November, 16 2009

My Breaking Point:

An Essay on War and Death.

1) What's the point of war? 2) Its hard enough to face one death at a time. 3) As I know from the death of my Grandmother. 4) War's repetitive death, and i cant imagine how that would make one feel.

TS) It's hard to imagine what is going through a soldier's mind. SD) The pain that William Manchester describes in "Okinawa: 'The Bloodiest Battle of All'" only gives a minor description of what he actually saw. CM)He described the how he couldn't even sleep at night because of the horrifying sounds of death near by. CM) There was barley any room so everything was so cramped up. SD) Can you imagine being so close to so many people who haven't eaten used a proper toilet, or washed them self in days. CM) Imagine sleeping in someone Else's excretions. CM) Once you go through something like that you are less than likely to keep you sanity. SD) Sadly the war was the "central experience of [his] youth." CM) It had an everlasting impact on Mr.Manchester that I'm positive he wishes he could have left back at the war. CM) He is left with knowing what people still go through everyday. CS) Mr.Manchester shares this pain with many other veterans.

TS) My Grandmother's death was definitely a "central experience of [my] youth."SD) I can remember the night of her death as if it were yesterday. CM) I was over my brother's house because my parents had gone to visit her in the hospital. CM) I was naive of the situation and I thought it was just another opportunity to stay up late on a school night. SD) I can remember thinking that nothing bad could happen to her and that she would be out of the hospital in no time.CM) When it was time to settle down and go to sleep, I really started thinking about what would happen if she did die. CM) I thought that was less than likely to happen so I just quickly said a prayer for her. CM) I asked for someone to be watching over her while in the hospital and I asked to in someway let her know that I will always know her as the strong loving character she was.  SD) When my parents finally came to pick us up, we were asleep. CM) At first the car ride was silent, not one person saying a word. CM) I didn't think it was appropriate to ask how she was until I saw one tear slowly make its way down my father's cheek. SD) I knew then that something was wrong. CM) I asked my father how she was doing and he said in a quiet voice " Honey, your grandmother passed." CM) I didn't have a response and because Kiona was sleeping the whole car ride she didn't know, so I tried to hold my tears in until after my parents told her.CM) I ran into the bathroom and started crying harder than I have ever cried before. Once Kiona found out I went onto my bed a cried myself to sleep. Like Mr.Manchester's wound from his experience with war, this "wound will never heal". CS) I wish that my grandmother was sitting next to me right now, but as Mr. Manchester knows somethings just won't happen.

1)  We don't know what we have till It's gone. 2) In my case it's my Grandmother, and in Mr.Manchester's case it's his sanity. 3) Make sure you count your blessings. 4) Don't take anything for granted.

Essay 7

Draft 1


Asia Carter
Hamilton Salsich
English 9
November 4, 2009

1) Have you ever had something that distracted you from living your normal life? 2) Have you ever felt like you were strongly attached to something that was no longer there? 3) Have you ever made the attempt to fill the now empty hole in your heart? 4) Has your stomach ever felt week because your longing to relive old memories?

TS) No matter what, life keeps going. SD)The theme in Loren Eiseley's essay "The Brown Wasps" is wether you like it or not, life will keep going. CM)No matter what you do or how hard you try you cannot stop life from continuing in its own manner. CM) Life will always have its own mind. SD)Its a simple fact " we cling to a time and place because without them man is lost..." CM)Your memories your old town or even an Alma mater can be comforting. CM) When you realize that your old town or Alma mater is gone or completely changed you get this sick feeling in you stomach because nobody will ever be able to get comfort from that place again. SD) Eiseley connects to his past through nature. CM) He is stuck on the fact that close to nothing is the same. CM) Every landmark that he knew as a child, gone. CM) Its a well known fact " the living revolve endlessly" around loss.

TS) I also have mourned over a tree. SD) When I was three years old I had a special tree right outside my room. CM) This tree was remarkable because when I chewed on it I could taste a hint of root beer. CM) Everyday I would go outside and sit on my special rock and chew on my special tree. SD) This little routine made me feel at peace with the world. CM) It made me feel as if nothing could go wrong. CM) This single tree ment the world to me. SD) Now that we have moved and my brother lives at that house the tree has been removed. CM) When I found this out I began to get a sick feeling. CM) That tree represented part of my child hood. CM) That tree was my special tree. CM) I still find myself today "attached by a thread " to that tree. CS) My tree.

1) Although you may wish that things could go back to the way they were there is a reason for the way things are now. 2) Some people who can accept this fact call it "living in the moment". 3) But living in the moment is one of the hardest things to do. 4) Even the smartest man can get stuck on the past.