The Change

Authors Note:  This is the character analysis I did for L.A. class.

Character Analysis

In the book Touching Spirit Bear there is a boy named Cole Matthews.  He has major anger issues and wants everyone to fear him.  He wants to be the top dog in his area.  Cole was abused by his father and his mom was a drunk.  Cole decided to break into a hardware store.  Cole then got ratted out by a boy named Peter Driscal for breaking into the store.  Cole got very angry at Peter and beat him up and smashed his head into the sidewalk.   Cole had to go The Justice Circle where he had to find out whether he goes to jail or a remote island for a year.   Cole ended up getting sent to the remote island to get rid of his anger.  Cole was still very angry that he had to go to the island.  The night he got there he saw what is called the spirit bear.  The spirit bear wasn’t afraid of Cole.  Cole got angry at the fact that the spirit bear didn’t fear him so he went to try and kill the spirit bear.  The bear attacked Cole when he went to stab it.  Cole was on the verge of dying.  As Cole lays there after getting mauled, he realizes what he was doing.  He realized that he was scared of the fact of being alone and he wanted to change.  His whole right arm was very injured he could hardly use it.  Cole went back to Minneapolis to recover in the hospital.

 After he recovered  he had to go back to the island to finish his year on the island.  That’s when Cole really wanted to change because he got a second chance instead of having to go straight to jail.  He went to a pond every morning to swim and to think even if the water was freezing, nothing would stop Cole from going to the pond.  After the pond he would get the same big rock every morning.  The rock was supposed to be his ancestors and his anger.  He carries the rock up a hill and then rolls it down.  It is supposed to roll his anger away.  He dances a dance every night on what he learned that day.  He even carves the animal that he sees that day into a big log.  This routine every day really calms down Cole and soothes him.  Cole is really changing the way he sees things on life.  Peter tried committing suicide twice during the time that Cole was at the island so Garvey decided to send Peter to the island to soothe himself like Cole does.  Peter stayed away from Cole because he was still terrified of him.  Cole tried his best to make Peter realize that he changed from his old ways.  Peter finally decided to start going to the pond with Cole.  Peter always pushed Cole into the water because he still hated Cole for what he did, but he always did it when Garvey wasn’t looking.  Then one day Peter decided to go to the pond with Cole without Garvey.  They went for the regular soak and then they got out.  Peter started to push Cole and Cole refused to fight back because he really did change.  Peter started striking Cole in the stomach and punching him in the face.  Cole still didn’t fight back.  He let peter beat him up without fighting back at all.  Peter eventually stopped.  Peter and Cole started becoming friends after Peter beat Cole up.  The time of being on the island was almost over and Cole carved anger into his totem.  Him and Peter carved a circle into the totem.  The circle represented that everywhere on the circle is a beginning and an end.  The following day they had to go back to Minneapolis.

The Hook

Authors Note: This is my prediction for language arts.

A couple years later Cody still had the gold hook that he melted into a block of gold.  He held the block in his hand and started thinking.  Cody wanted to give Clarence what he wanted.  So he grabbed a hammer and was on his way back to Marshall.  He scavenged through the woods to find where he had buried Clarence.  The gold block was bouncing around in his pocket as he ran through the dark, spooky woods.  He found an area that looked familiar and he realized that he had found where he had buried Clarence.  Cody found the place where the casket was.  He started digging with his bare hands to find the casket.  Then he hit a hard piece of wood covered in dirt.  It was still nailed shut.  He took out all of the nails with a hammer that he had brought along and opened the casket.  There lays the remains of Clarence with his hook not there.  "Ugh! It smells horrible!" Cody shouted in disgust.  He took the block of gold out of his pocket and held it tightly.  Cody took the gold block and laid it next to Clarence.  Then he shut the casket and jumped out of the hole.  He pushed all of the dirt back on top of the casket and he just stood there for a moment.  Cody then turned around and walked through the woods, found his car, and drove off back home.

Why I thought this was going to happen

I thought this was going to happen because Cody thought that something bad would happen to him for taking the hook from Clarences dead body even when he was told that he wanted to be buried with his treasure.

Words To Our Founding Fathers

Patriots Pen

What would I say to Americas founding fathers?  

The founding fathers were important because they signed the declaration of independence and wrote the United States Constitution.  Besides making us an independent nation, they created a standard for Americans to live by.  I think that it is amazing that the United States Constitution and the Declaration of Independence was written over 300 years ago and we are still using these rules.

I think that the phrase "all men are equal" is an important line because it helped abolish slavery and it is still used today.  If everyone is equal everyone will have the same opportunity for education, jobs, and health care.  Equality also eliminates segregation and discrimination. The other thing I like about the Declaration of Independence is that it was signed on the Fourth of July so that I get to see fireworks every year.  The Declaration of Independence gave us equality, life, liberty and pursuit of happiness.

The United States Constitution defined these rights in more detail.  Womens suffrage was important because all people, men and women, are equal and deserved to have equal rights.  Women should have the same voting rights or all rights as men.  Another important section from the United States Constitution is freedom of religion.  Freedom of Religion is important because in certain areas you can be killed for your religion.  In the United States you can be any religion that you choose to be and no one can force you to be a religion that they want you to be.

If the founding fathers wouldn't have signed the Declaration of Independence, we wouldn't be able to do half of the things that we are able to do.  Also, since they wrote the United States Constitution they allowed more rules that let us have the world that we have today. So if I met Americas founding fathers I would tell them thank you.

How Cole Changes

Authors note: This is my conflict/resolution piece for Language Arts class.

Touching Spirit Bear

Person vs Society

Conflict:

When Cole Matthews beats up Peter Driscal and sends him to the hospital and rehab everyone turns on Cole and the society wants to put Cole in the Juvenal Detention Center.  Cole has had a bad history because of his anger that he continually uses as an excuse to make bad choices. 

Resolution:

Cole and Garvey don't want Cole to go so Garvey comes up with the idea to send Cole to a remote island where he has to survive on his own for a year.  Cole gathers all of his supplies and builds a cabin/shelter so he can survive in the wilderness.  He goes to a pond every morning to think and he also rolls a rock that is supposed to be his ancestors down a hill to roll his anger away.

There Can Only Be One?

Authors note:   This is my retelling for the Hunger Games for language arts class.

In a futuristic world where there are no rules, two teens fall in love during a deathmatch controlled by ruthless humans, where only one can survive. Will the couple join each other in the great beyond or will they both overcome the odds and prevail victorious, surviving the cruel ways of the people who control the game to continue their love for one another?

Not The King

Authors note: This is my cause/effect for Touching Spirit Bear

When Cole was sent to the island and tried killing the spirit bear, the bear attacked him to the point where he was just about to die.  Before he was attacked, Cole wanted everyone to fear him and wanted everyone to think that he was the greatest.  After Cole was attacked by the bear he realized that what he was doing was wrong.  He then wanted to change the way he acted and wanted to be a nice person, but he still has some of his anger inside that he still needs to get rid of.

My Only Cruise

Authors note:   This essay is about the cruise I went on with my best friend when I lived in Florida

 When my best friend Drew from Florida asked me if I wanted to go on a cruise, I was shocked.  I had never been on a cruise before, I was so happy.  About a month later we were supposed to go on the cruise, but my friends parents were having family issues.  So we didn't get to go the first time.  But then about another month or two later, they told me that we were going to go on the cruise this time.  My friends parents booked the cruise three days later.  I was so excited for it.   About five weeks after, it was time to leave for the cruise.

Drew's  family and I arrived at the dock of the ship after about five hours of driving.  When I looked at the boat I was amazed, because I had never seen a ship so big.  Drew on the other hand wasn't as amazed as I was because he had been on a cruise many times before.  We had to wait in a line for about forty-five minutes because there were a couple thousand people going on this cruise.  After the long wait in line we finally were about to board the ship.  Then right when I was about to get on the boat, I all of a sudden got struck with fright.  There was a metal bridge that was probably around 20 feet long and was very rusted right over the water that was probably a good forty foot drop.  Every time someone walked on the bridge, it creaked.  It really frightened me.  I was nervous to walk over it.

When I entered the ship I was even more amazed than I was before.  I was on the second floor of the ship and it looked like a building in Las Vegas.  It had circular stairs and glass elevators.  It was covered in lights and had a bunch of resteraunts and bars.  It even had a casino.   It was the coolest thing I had ever been in.  Then we were all directed by the workers to the side of the boat for a safety presentation.  The presentation was about ten minutes long, it was really boring ,but then after the people were done talking is when Drew and I started exploring!

Drew and I walked all around the ship at least three times.  All the way to the top floor and all the way to the bottom.  At night we sneaked around trying to find secret passage ways that Drew's dad said led to the workers rooms.  We looked and looked, but didn't find one.  It was okay though we still had fun looking.  Then at around midnight we went swimming in the pool. Even at midnight there were tons of people in the pools and hot tubs, I was actually surprised there were still that many people.  The pool had two decks.  The top deck was for tanning and the bottom deck was shaded by the top deck.  Then probably around one in the morning Drew and I hopped out of the pool and dried off, we then walked back to our room and fell asleep.  When we woke up we went straight to the giant buffet breakfast that they make for the us every morning.  I smothered myself in all of the food.  After eating all of the food I didn't want to eat anything for the rest of the day.  We then went to the arcade room after breakfast to compete against each other in air hockey.  I had a blast.  We then went to climb the rock wall.  Drew and I raced each other to the top and I won!

The following day we arrived to the Bahamas.  When we got off the boat the place looked very poor.  Drew's family and I all walked to the actual village.  There were a ton of people asking me to buy their items that they built themselves for an over priced amount of money.  It was kind of weird.  I had to keep my hands in my pockets because Drew's parents told me that I could get pit-pocketed.  I ended up buying a couple neat things from the people.  I bought a bracelet for my mom, a mini guitar made out of redbull cans for my dad, and a fake camera made from coca cola cans for my souvenir .  All of the items I bought were pretty cool.  After that we just walked around looking at the village.  After about an hour of walking around we went back to the ship.  Drew and I went swimming for the last time because we had to leave in the morning.  We eventually went back to our room to pack up our stuff and we eventually fell asleep.

We eventually woke up and realized that our three days in paradise were over and we had to go back home.  We had to wake up around six in the morning to start getting off the boat.  I had an amazing time on the cruise because of the great food, the great entertainment, and over all an amazing time and a good way to spend a long weekend.  As I exited the ship I was kind of upset because the trip was over, but it was still one of the most amazing experiences I have ever had.  I will remember this trip for the rest of my life.

Moving to Wisconsin

Author's Note: This story is about when I moved to Wisconsin and had to start eighth grade in a new school.

When I moved to Wisconsin, I thought I was going to hate it because I didn't know anyone and didn't have anything to do.  I didn't want to move at all.  Eventually, a kid from down the road that I lived on named Michael came over to my house asking me if I wanted to hangout.  I said sure and then we went outside and played football.

Then,  a couple weeks later, Michael introduced me to another kid that lived down the road also.  His name was Carl, he was in the eighth grade also.  Carl, Michael, and I all played football for the Pewaukee Pirates, even though Carl doesn't go to my school.  Then when the football season started I became friends with almost every single one of the other kids, all of them go to my school.

Eventually, when school started I was pretty nervous because I didn't know anyone except for the people that I knew from the football team.  When I got to my locker a kid from my team had the locker right next to mine.  He, and a couple other kids from the team greeted me.  It was nice to have people that I know right there and it was nice to have somebody talk to right away.  As I walked to my first hour class I got lost, but I ended up finding my way there.  As I entered my first hour class, Mr. Baker for Tech Ed 1, I didn't see anybody that I knew so I kind of just sat there quietly.  My first hour class was the only class that day that I had that I didn't know anyone in.

In the end, it all turned out okay.  I'm happy here in Wisconsin.  I've made friends in the short time I have been here and, the teachers are very nice.  This made starting life as an eighth grader in a new school way easier.