The Odyssey Part Two Quickwrite

Normally, if someone has been absent from home for many years, when the person think or feel upon returning home, the person will shout, announce his/her return in public, and thank to the God. The person will celebrate with a party, appreciate and embrace his/her family members for waiting so long, and ask his/her lover "Do you still love me?". In The Dark Divine, Daniel has left the Divine family for a dark secret. When he returned to the family, he couldn't face the family bravely and was despised by his friends. He didn't have a sweet, happy-ever after reunion, but he had to respond to his disappearance. Therefore, I think that whether the returning is joyful or gloomy depends on why does the person leave in the first place. If the person leaves for fighting for pride, honor, and beloved country, he/she will be treated as heroes or heroines. However, if the person leaves for escaping the bad things, he/she will be suspected and kept aloof with the family. It's quite painful that people couldn't reunite with their family with happiness, so I think we all have to learn to forgive the mistakes that the people have done before. We aren't saints at all and we'll make mistakes.

Difference Between The Cyclops in the Book and in Movie

There are differences of Cyclops in the real epic poem and in the movie. In the book, Odysseus and his men waited for one full day until he was prepared for stabbing Polyphemeus' eyes. He prepared the wood staff and three cups of wine while Polyphemeus was tending the sheep outside the cave. However, in the movie, Odysseus provided Polyphemeus a cup of wine right away after he swallowed one man in one night. The Cyclops fell asleep. Then a musician in Odysseus' group played the bamboo flute as a lullaby for Polyphemeus. Odysseus stabbed the Cyclops' eye, made it blind, and escaped at the same night. Furthermore, in the movie, Polyphemeus ate the musician due to anger while other men were escaping. The musician wasn't fast enough to escape from the atrocious Cyclops. The wasn't the musician in the book. In the movie, Odysseus and his men escaped the cave when Polyphemeus was blind with panic. In the book, they escaped by hiding under the sheep' bellies on next morning. There weren't any sheep in the movie. In addition, Polyphemeus threw an enormous rock at Odysseus and his men, but not in the book. At the end of the book, Polyphemeus begged Odysseus to come back, but it didn't happen in the movie. The movie shortened the dialogue between Polyphemeus and Odysseus due to time restriction. However, the movie did include the important points from the book and successfully shorten the additional details, but not the plot.

Odyssey Part One Quickwrite

I believe that courage, determination, and sacrifice make a hero. In different cultures, people have different standards for heroes, heroines, but courage, determination, and sacrifice are universal traits. They don't only reflect in my own culture. In Beowulf, Beowulf is an arrogant, over-confident warrior whom people regard him as a hero due to his physical strength. However, he is merely powerful, belligerent, but he isn't kindhearted enough to protect his people. Thus, I regard him as a hero, but I don't respect this type of hero. Perhaps in Anglo-Saxon literature, Beowulf is a hero. On the other hand, I strongly regard Joan of Arc as a determined, brave, and patriotic heroine who is willing to sacrifice herself in order to protect her beloved country. I respect and learn a heroine's qualities, behaviors from her. As for fictional hero, Robin Hood is worth to be exemplified. He robs from the rich and gives it to the poor. He is brave enough to commit such a dangerous yet self-sacrificing crime. He is also determined to help the poor, even though he suffers in poverty. There are many real and fictional characters who share the universal traits of a hero, and they are worth for us to learn and ponder our behaviors.

Deception

Not only propagandas can be deceptive, but also organizations, especially the ones with charity frauds. In 2007, the disastrous Hurricane Katrina struck people with terror. Nearly 50 people donated forty thousand USD to a fake charity, AirKatrina.com, which claimed to support the victims. The organization asserted to fly babies for transplant surgery and save the babies' lives. However, there weren't any flights nor babies. Sending unsolicited e-mails requesting money from an organization was a popular trick at that time. People tended to sympathize the victims without suspecting whether the organizations were fake or not. Unscrupulous people earned money by claiming a charity donation. Therefore, people must understand the organizations' identities before donating money. People can't easily believe in illegitimate organizations just because they claimed to support refugees, victims, and children. They must find a reliable trustful organization, such as the Red Cross. I personally abhor organizations which perform charity frauds because they abuse the point of saving people and discourage people from donating money. Who else wants to donate money to a fake organization? People tend to worry whether the organizations are fake and thus prevent them from donating since "worries" are troublesome. People's humanity should prevent them from tricking and deceiving innocent victims.

Blog-Quickwrite pg. 686

I have been misled by the appearance of my classmate. She seems kindhearted and always ardently volunteers to aid people. She seems introverted and genuine, but she makes someone as a scapegoat if she does something wrong. My friend once lost her bracelet and she concerned that there was a thief. I tried to find with her, but I could hardly find a lost bracelet in such a huge school. Then "she" asks me to do her a favor by delivering a box of candies to the teacher since she was busy. Unfortunately, I didn't realize that I was in danger. When the teacher opened the box, she was extremely surprised and inquired me that why did I hide the bracelet. I was so dumbfounded that my mouth kept murmuring illogical words that I didn't even understand. Since I was merely a silly 2nd grade student who couldn't react the plight aptly, I was suspicious of stealing. My tears burst out without my allowance and I couldn't prove my innocence. My friend no longer trusted me even I explained that it wasn't my fault. I didn't suspect "her" who took the blame for me. After 2 days, the teacher called me and her to the office and I realized it was "her" who detriorated my reputation and broke my friendship. The teacher suspected where did the box come from and proved my innocence. However, my friendship shattered as broken glass. My friend and I could never find the right feeling with each other. We gradually became apathy. It was a regret that I could never fix it. Still, deep in my heart, I could hear the echo of her voice and her splendid smiles seem to appear in front of me.

Historical Moments

There are moments in my life that I will always remember. They are memorial events which have both historical significance and personal importance. The first event was the 2285th anniversary death of Qu Yuan. Qu Yuan committed suicide by drowning himself in the Miluo river because the emperor no longer believed in him and listened to traitors. Qu Yuan thought that his sacrifice could warn the emperor and lead him to the right way. However, in my opinion, I don't think Qu Yuan is smart. I do appreciate his love and patriotism for the country, but the emperor doesn't care at all. On the anniversary, we students took graduation pictures in which my tears burst out immediately. I have such wonderful friends and classmates who respect and stand up for me. I am reluctant to leave the school and my dear classmates. However, the graduation was coming soon, which would mark a whole-new starting point. We classmates took amusing pictures which would make me laugh forever. The second event was the sixtieth anniversary of 228 massacre. My class visited the 228 Peace Memorial Museum and grieved over the victims' death. Taiwanese suffered severe trauma due to 228 massacre. 228 massacre was the memory in which Taiwanese didn't want to remember. I understood the truth of 228 massacre and lamented for the loss of all victims. I learned the cruelty of history and hoped that Taiwanese will no longer suffer in the tragedy. I realized that Taiwanese had the dark history in which people weren't willing to face. It was my first time to ponder the feelings of losing family and friends. I hoped that I didn't have to face the tragedy in my life and massacre would never happen in Taiwan again.

How to eat a Guava

My absolute favorite food are burnt cream and tiramisu. When I'm eating burnt cream, I feel that the fireworks are sparkling in the velvet night sky, and the meteors are shooting through the horizon. When I'm eating tiramisu, I feel that the autumn breeze is kissing my face lightly, the spring petals are fluttering, and the falling leaves are swirling. I associate both burnt cream and tiramisu when my family celebrates birthdays. The best burnt cream is in Royal Hotel Taipei, which is incredibly tasty. People have to "struggle" against each other and follow Darwin's theory, survival of the fittest. The topping of burnt cream has a hard layer of caramel, which is crispy, attractive, and gorgeous. The rich custard base seems a glitter, which enhances the quality of the dessert. As for tiramisu, my family often buys it in a famous dessert store, which provides various flavor of tiramisu. Tiramisu tastes better than Haagen Dazs ice cream. The egg yolks and ladyfingers ripple in tongue with a strong aftertaste. The world seems to turn around and butterflies flutter their wings and blossoms smile splendidly and all the beautiful wonders happen one by one. Tiramisu is amazingly soft and smooth as grease due to the mascarpone. It is even gentler than the baby's skin. I am always extremely joyful if my parents give me burnt cream and tiramisu as deserts since they are the best food memory to me.

Billy Collins Poem Reflection

After watching the beautiful-animated poems written by Billy Collins, I admire Billy Collins' writing style and his topics. Out of the five poems, Budapest, Some Days, Forgetfulness, The Country, and The Dead, I prefer Forgetfulness the most since I absolutely agree with the nature of forgetting. I am often a forgetful person, because I am somehow disorganized. I forget to bring my homework, do my homework, study the tests, and blah blah blah. I suffer in my forgetfulness, too. The speaker in the poem addresses that people will get older and start to forget things. The speaker forgets entire novel, planets, flowers, mythological river, and love poem. The speaker shows that brain is vulnerable since it can't keep long-term memories. I love how the author uses rich figures of speech, such as personification. For example, the quadratic equation "pack" its bag. I am interested in the topic "forgetfulness" because it's close to our daily life experience. Billy Collin has a humorous writing style which makes audience laugh heartily since we have similar experience. However, Collin also expresses the helplessness of getting older and becoming more forgetful miserably with a humorous tone. Since I wonder what's the "River L" in the poem, I research and discover that it's the River Lethe, which is known for the river of forgetfulness and is one of the five rivers in Hades. Although there is no rhyme scheme, the writing style greatly influence the audience along with the speaker's humorous tone, which is why this is my favorite animated poem. 

Narrative Poem Research

Birches
            
When I see birches bend to left and right
Across the lines of straighter darker trees,
I like to think some boy's been swinging them.
But swinging doesn't bend them down to stay.
Ice-storms do that. Often you must have seen them
Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning
After a rain. They click upon themselves
As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored
As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel.
Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells
Shattering and avalanching on the snow-crust
Such heaps of broken glass to sweep away
You'd think the inner dome of heaven had fallen.
They are dragged to the withered bracken by the load,
And they seem not to break; though once they are bowed
So low for long, they never right themselves:
You may see their trunks arching in the woods
Years afterwards, trailing their leaves on the ground,
Like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair
Before them over their heads to dry in the sun.
But I was going to say when Truth broke in
With all her matter-of-fact about the ice-storm,
I should prefer to have some boy bend them
As he went out and in to fetch the cows--
Some boy too far from town to learn baseball,
Whose only play was what he found himself,
Summer or winter, and could play alone.
One by one he subdued his father's trees
By riding them down over and over again
Until he took the stiffness out of them,
And not one but hung limp, not one was left
For him to conquer. He learned all there was
To learn about not launching out too soon
And so not carrying the tree away
Clear to the ground. He always kept his poise
To the top branches, climbing carefully
With the same pains you use to fill a cup
Up to the brim, and even above the brim.
Then he flung outward, feet first, with a swish,
Kicking his way down through the air to the ground.
So was I once myself a swinger of birches.
And so I dream of going back to be.
It's when I'm weary of considerations,
And life is too much like a pathless wood
Where your face burns and tickles with the cobwebs
Broken across it, and one eye is weeping
From a twig's having lashed across it open.
I'd like to get away from earth awhile
And then come back to it and begin over.
May no fate willfully misunderstand me
And half grant what I wish and snatch me away
Not to return. Earth's the right place for love:
I don't know where it's likely to go better.
I'd like to go by climbing a birch tree,
And climb black branches up a snow-white trunk
Toward heaven, till the tree could bear no more,
But dipped its top and set me down again.
That would be good both going and coming back.
One could do worse than be a swinger of birches. 


Robert Frost's Birches is written in blank verse, which means that it is mostly unrhymed with iambic pentameter structure (steady meter). Compares to other narrative poems, I think Birches isn't quite long. The speaker is probably an old wise man who has experienced the darkness of the world and I assume that the speaker is the author himself, because the speaker reminded his carefree childhood. The poem examines common life experience, in which the speaker is eager to escape from the Earth by climbing the birches to the heaven, but he wants to return to Earth, too. The poem examines that escape isn't the right choice because it's temporary and the speaker has to return to the "Truth". The speaker has responsibilities on the ground, though he wants to escape, he has to fulfill his missions. The author's tone is distress since he is in the dilemma, whether escaping or facing the truth that he has responsibilities. Diction influences the style since the author compares bent birches to straighter, darker trees; ice to sunny which creates a dilemma. I think that the poem has rich figures of speech. Cracks and Crazes is alliteration since it represents the wrinkles of old ages. Cracking ice is an example of metaphor because it is compared to both crystal shells and broken glass. The ice storm which bent the birches to left and right symbolizes that life weights people down with stress and responsibilities. The author uses simile to describe that the trunks of birches arching in the woods like girls on hands and knees that throw their hair. Dramatic irony occurs in the poem in which the author hopes to get away from the Earth but he knows that he can't escape from the reality. "One could do worse than be a swinger of birches." is an understatement in which a speaker says less than what he/she means. The last sentence leaves a lingering aftertaste since it seems unimportant but actually impresses the readers. Readers will think deeply, and smile at the bittersweet of the poem. I think that the author uses great imagery since he describes the birches lively. I can imagine how the thick ice crust covers the birches. The visual and auditory images clearly appear in my mind. I can visualize the ice storm and hear the wintry storm clicking in the breeze according to "Loaded with ice a sunny winter morning/After a rain. They click upon themselves/ As the breeze rises, and turn many-colored/ As the stir cracks and crazes their enamel." However, "Soon the sun's warmth makes them shed crystal shells/ shattering and avalanching gives me a warm touch. I think that the author's style is poetic and it created a rhythm when the author switches from the old age to the youth. I appreciate Frost's poems because he has the magical power which draws the readers to love his poems and understand the world in a different point of view.

Life- Extended Metaphor

Life is the round stick of wax with a piece of string through its center, which burns itself but gives off light to the others, and creates sunshine for oneself. It gives a warm glow to the world and flares in the darkness, but it burns brightly until it turns to dust and ashes. I compare life to a candle because a candle burns itself but lights up the world. I believe that the purpose of life is selflessness, which is similar to the function of the candle. A candle lives its life to the fullest potential and burns itself to dust and ashes. The value of life is how people are willing to sacrifice for each other and light up the world. Though supreme sacrifice is painful, people do live the fullest potential of life and understand the beauty of selflessness. Life is hard to describe, only when people experience own lives, they can understand how splendid the candle can be.

The Seven Ages of Man Quickwrite

I think that the seven ages of a person's life are infant, teenager, ambitions (dreams), adulthood, love, elderhood, realization, and childhood. I am an abnormal person, and thus my explanations are based on my thoughts and creativity. As the infant comes along the world crying, it begins its journey to discover the world. The infant is naive, innocent, but it will gain knowledge throughout the time. The infant then becomes a teenager, who is somehow rebellious and has his/her own opinions. The teenager faces the stage of growing up, so he/she needs to traverse the winding paths and overcome the difficulties along with family, friends, and teachers. While the teenagers are growing up, most of them start to think about the future and dreams. We all embrace beautiful dreams, though they are faraway, but it's possible to achieve the goals. We start to develop ambitions in order to fulfill self-esteem and try to make our dreams come true. The next stage is adulthood. People become mature, independent, self-sufficient, and most important, become responsible for their behavior. We learn to be responsible because we are no longer kids. Kids can make mistakes because they are still young, childish; however, adults are the models of kids. Adults have to become mature. (Sigh~) I don't want to become an adult! People might have true love and decide to have a long-term love relationship-- marriage in adulthood. When we are young, we might meet people who impress, amaze us, but they are just splendid passengers who decorate, enrich our lives. We will eventually find the true love who is born to belong to each other. I believe that true love will accompany us till elderhood. People become old in elderhood and they start to remember what happens in their wonderful, mediocre, or miserable life. They start to have slower pace of life since they have encountered all the difficulties through the wind and rain. Eventually, elder people might achieve self-realization, in which they understand nihility. Everything is nothing; nothing is everything. I believe in Buddhism and I hope to reach nihility in the future. Why do I believe that the last stage is childhood? Because I believe that elder people will rejuvenate. Elder people start to drop rice, can't hold the spoon firmly, which act like babies, because they are learning to become angels but can't adapt in the form of angels. At the last moment of living, people will suddenly remember all the beauty of life, become lucid, clear, and join the choir invisible along with a feeling of incredible freedom.

Disrespect

If I feel disrespected in a particular situation, I will smile fakely and pretend nothing happens. I'll try to act gently and treat the person as kind as possible, but I might blame at him or her secretly. Depends on our relationship, if the person is merely a stranger, I will think that he/she is rude, impolite, and I might not befriend with him/her. If I acquaint with that person, I think that the person needs to express his/her emotions and give vent to anger so I am willing to forgive and forget. If the person dare to affront me, I won't flinch from the discourtesy, I will strive to find solutions instead. For example, I will express my discontentment straightforwardly and ask the person to be polite. I won't bear the insult and hurt myself. Since I don't have rhetoric speaking skills, it's hard for me to use euphemism to express my feelings. However, I'll express my feelings indirectly in order not to hurt the person, but I hope to maintain my self-esteem.

Turning Point

Basketball team means a lot for me. It represents our wonderful tacit agreement, active partners, strong will power, and good sportsmanship. Joining basketball team is a turning point in my life since it gives me the enthusiasm and passion to play basketball. I love basketball deep from my heart since it's interesting and fascinating. If I have never joined girl basketball team before, I won't be familiar with such great partners, strict but thoughtful coach, and the sport called basketball. I envision that my life will be different since all the members in basketball team will probably look like strangers to me. Mr. Lee will only become the PE teacher who I will never find after school. I won't love basketball because it's another boring sport in which people fight for that ball. I won't enjoy the victory when shooting the ball. I will still have the boring every-day school life and waste my time after school. I won't be interested in basketball because I simply didn't know how to play basketball well. I will still become the Angela who was only good at swimming and ping-pong in sports. Thanks for my decision to join basketball team, I now have a different life and new hobby with all my great partners.

Selfless Sacrifice

Yes, I once had an experience in which I have to decide whether giving the chance to someone who I cared about or not. When I was in elementary school, we chose our model student according to his or her behavior, grades, and popularity among the students. There was a classmate whom I knew that she was about to transfer due to family issues. She was an well-behaved, kindhearted, and generous student. Though we weren't close, we still played together. She was intelligent, adept in running, and good at math. However, she was quiet and shy. Too quiet. Thus, she wasn't that popular among the playful, childish, energetic kids. On the Teacher's Day, our class chose the model students. Though it was a competition, I didn't really care about the fame and honor. I thought it was a leadership game and I loved games. I was a talkative, active, and immature kid at that time. Since my grades were good, all my classmates loved asking me questions. I liked to help my classmates and reply the questions because I could learn from their problems. Sometimes I was surprised by my explanation because I didn't know that I actually absorbed all the knowledge and could interpret in my own way. The girl and I were both the candidates. Fortunately, I won the leadership game. Yeah, I became the model student. However, when I turned my head around the class, I saw the girl's lonely expression in which I felt sorry for her. This was her last chance to become a model student in this school and compassion suddenly gushed out of my heart. A sense of giving in emerged in my mind and thus I stood up and "renounced" my prize. I didn't understand why did I make the decision but I thought that I might help the poor girl. Perhaps, it's sympathy which promote me to make the crucial decision. I am pity for the girl because it's her last chance. As for me, I still had many chances as long as my classmates still loved me, right? 

O. Henry

O. Henry, whose real name is William Sydney Porter, is a great American author. He married Athol Estes Roach and obtained a job at the bank. However, he was involved in the embezzlement, in which he stole money entrusted to one. Although he was sent to the prison for three years, he worked as a night druggist and published stories with his pen names. O. Henry then published prolific stories started in 1902. His stories often have surprised endings which amazed the readers. He depicts poverty and wealth carefully. The characters in his story are often ordinary men or heroes. He portraits love sensitively and has strong emotional feeling. He creates his style through dialects and figures of speech. The origin of his pen name is unclear, which may be related to a family cat or a book he read. Unfortunately, his bad habits of drinking alcohol deteriorates his health and a great author died in 1910.

Why do we have universal education, when did it start and why?

Universal education started in 1561 in Scotland because it could raise the youth of Realm. In January 1561, Scottish set out a national programmer for spiritual reform, including education. Since individual achievement and supremacy of Scripture are considered extremely important, widespread literacy is soon a significant goal. People need universal education because we need to gain knowledge, become civilized, communicate, and identify right and wrong. People don't want to become barbarians, and thus we need to become civilized. If people act like barbarians, World War III will happen and the society will never maintain peace. People gain basic knowledge of living so they can know what they need in order to survive in such dangerous world. People need to learn read and write so they can communicate with each other and deliver the right information. The most important part is that people need to identify right and wrong. They have to identify right and wrong based on moral standards and education. They need to make choices by themselves, instead of following others blindly. If people don't have this ability, they will always become the slaves of another. Furthermore, education promotes people to think, in which the enlightenment ideas are expressed by famous philosophers. These ideas then lead to revolution, such as American and French revolution. Therefore, we can discover the importance of education because it promotes people the ability to think, think, and think.

Cherished Item

If I could save just one item from a disaster-a fire, a flood, an earthquake, it would definitely be my stuffed elephant. As for many other people, I do believe that they would save money, electronic devices (iPhone, iPad, Mac), and valuable jewels, gold, stock.....,etc. However, my most cherished possession is my memory. Memory means everything to me. It means hope to the future, unfinished dream, connection to the unique past, and warning to the current situation. Memory is the true cherished possession which belongs to ONLY ME. From everything I own, why do I choose a not eye-catching stuffed elephant? Because my precious stuffed elephant represents my memory, my life, and my world. It connects my past, present, and future. It is my BEST partner since I was a 2-year-old baby; it is my sincere, trustworthy friend; it is my baby which I once gave birth to; it is my loyal personal listener; it is everything. My stuffed elephant represents EVERYTHING. No one/ stuffed animal in the world can ever represents its meaning to me because it represents worthy, valuable memory which brings me hopes and dreams.

Compare and Contrast "A Christmas Carol" Movies

The most obvious difference is that the Scrooge in Disney version is exaggeratedly greedy and stingy than that in Patrick Stewart's. Disney's Scrooge seems to be satisfied to engulf all the money in the world, because he hesitates and twitches before giving a penny. Stewart's Scrooge seems to be more serious and realistic while Disney's Scrooge seems to be more jocular and has black humor (according to his appearance). Disney's characters always have their own characteristics. On the other hand, Bob Cratchit is obviously different in both visions. He is depicted as tiny and weak in Disney's while he is tall and bold but he feared Scrooge pretty much. In addition, Disney's version is much more gorgeous and bright than Stewart's, whereas the Disney's spirits sprinkle magical dust while the Stewart's spirits transform and change the scene. Disney's background seems so magnificent while Stewart's background seems gloomy and portraits the polluted London under the Industrialized Revolution. Surprisingly, Stewart's Ghost of Christmas Past takes Scrooge back home, unlike the Ghost disappears when Scrooge seizes its hat in Disney's. When Scrooge visits Fred, Disney's Scrooge actually encounters an awkward situation in which Fred is asking guests to guess a riddle: Who's the savage animal, ass? When the guest is about to shout the answer (Scrooge) out loud, Scrooge knocks the door and enters. However, they still have a merry dinner. As in Stewart's vision, the guests are singing the carol with the intentionally repeated word "shy" while Scrooge is shy and embarrassed but he eventually en-heartens the courage and enters. At the end of the story, Disney's Scrooge sings the carol with the choir and carries Tiny Tim down the street while Stewart's Scrooge sings in the church and Bob's family visits Scrooge. Lastly, Bob narrates the ending in Disney's while Fred narrates the ending in Stewart's. 
The similarities between the Disney's and Stewart's are that they both start with the funeral of Jacob Marley. Both Scrooge loves to say "HUMBUG!" and is covetous and miserly. The Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come doesn't talk in both versions and seems cold-hearted. Both Scrooge wakes up from falling into the coffin but changes the behavior right away. The most important part is that both versions of A Christmas Carol do bring me a sense of thankfulness and touches my heart deeply. They remind me I should appreciate what I possess, and be grateful to people who I met, because they give me lessons. They make the audience feel benevolent and warm-hearted for watching wonderful movies which enlighten and stretch our minds far far away. Both movies are worth to watch whenever we are perplexed  because they widen our visions and bring us new hopes toward future and life.

The Victorian Workhouse

Look up information about the workhouses of Victorian times and write a blog entry about what you learned. Answer this question in your blog: Do you think Scrooge really understood what it would be like for people to be in a workhouse?

Workhouse was for people who were aged, unemployed, vagrant, orphaned, disabled, and unmarried and old women during the Victorian era. The workhouse was a place where the poor could live, work, and support themselves. It provided basic supplies, such as free medical care, food, clothes, and free education (besides reading and writing) for children and training for a job. There were dining-hall, dormitories, chapel, clinic and many other stores inside the workhouse. The poor and old were afraid of the workhouse because the government made sure they feared the workhouse so lazy people won't depend on the workhouse for everything and did nothing. Unfortunately, families were split up inside the workhouse according to gender and age. The poor had to wear uniforms so everyone outside knew they worked in the workhouse. The food was tasteless and people often did unpleasant jobs. Stone crushing (break the rocks into small pieces for building roads) and oakum picking (undo ropes covered with tar, which rub the fingers raw) were typical terrible jobs in the workhouse. I don't think Scrooge really understood what it would be like for people to be in a workhouse because he wasn't extremely poor and vagrant. Though Scrooge had a miserable childhood, he was merely isolated in school but he still received education. He was rich after he became a successful accountant. He didn't undergo and understand the poor situation in the workhouse and thought that the poor could live, work, and depend on the workhouse for everything. The truth was that the workhouse was even more horrible than the prison and people feared and wanted to get rid of the workhouse immediately.

Which Ghost Affected Scrooge the Most?

I believe that the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come affected Scrooge the most because Scrooge immediately changed his behavior after witnessing his death. Death symbolized that Scrooge won't leave footprints in the world besides bad reputation for his poor character. However, Scrooge did change "the shadows of what may be" after he realized that he was still alive. Scrooge was overwhelmed with happiness and he did honor Christmas day. He sent Bob Cratchit the largest turkey, attended his nephew's Christmas dinner, donated great amounts of money to the charity, gave blessings to people, and even raised Bob's salary. Scrooge wasn't stingy, self-centered, and greedy; he was generous, kind-hearted, and joyful. Scrooge took good care of Tiny Tim and treated him as his own child. Scrooge transformed so much that he represented the spirits of Christmas. He treated Christmas with sincerity and merriness, which influenced all the other people.

Theme for Liberty and Exile

Julia Alvarez's Liberty:

-Subject: liberty

-Character: main character escapes to America in order to reach freedom. However, she must leave her dog, Liberty, behind.

-Conflict: main character struggles to leave Liberty behind because Liberty is her friend
-Theme: One must give up something in order to gain another thing
-Explanation: the main character leaves her dog, Liberty, behind (give up something) in order to migrate to America and reach freedom (gain another thing)


Julia Alvarez's Exile:
-Subject: freedom
-Character: main character is confused because she escapes her country hurriedly. She feels helpless for the future in New York City.
-Theme: One must give up something for change but one has to face the unknown future
-Explanation: the main character's family loves their country but they have to escape to America in order to reach the idealistic freedom. However, the main character and father are worried because they have to face the unknown future in an unfamiliar place, New York City, and try to adapt the new environment.