Adventures

Authors Note:

I wrote this piece to illustrate the major themes in the book Palace of Mirrors. If you are planing on reading this book in the future I just want to let you know that I did talk about part of the ending. I hope you enjoy!

Can you imagine having to stay inside your neighborhood your whole life? Can you imagine having to stay hidden and unseen by anyone outside of your tiny town? Can you imagine knowing that something big is out there for you to get but you’re not allowed to get it?  This is exactly how Cecilia felt her whole life when she was stuck in her town and knew that the palace was waiting for her to come out of hiding and take her place on the throne. Throughout  the book Palace of Mirrors by Margaret Peterson Haddix it is apparent that during many scenarios courage and the ability to compromise is portrayed as a major theme in this story, as well as other stories found across the world.

If you want to have fun in life, take risks, and make your life full of adventures you’re going to need to have courage. The moment Cecilia said “Maybe… Maybe I should stop hiding,” was the moment it all changed for her. That was when I could tell how much courage was needed for Cecilia and Harper to run away from their moms and their safe town to go to the palace. They needed to have courage to face the cold, dark, danger filled outside world when they ran away in order to go on their life changing and fun filled journey to find their true calling in life.

After Cecilia got the courage to take a risk in life and go out to find her true calling, she realized she was going to need certain other skills to survive on her journey. The ability to compromise is an important attribute to have. It is apparent that Cecilia has that ability throughout her journey in the book Palace of Mirrors. After Cecilia arrived she was ready to take the throne as her own but she soon found out about the other 12 girls. All the other girls were hidden away in the palace and each of them claimed to be the true princess. After  they got the matter sorted out one palace guard smartly said “ Now we have 13 girls who all want the same throne, but yet none of them deserve it.” Luckily they soon found a compromise that used all 13 princesses to make the palace run smoothly, happily, and efficiently by using each one of the princesses’ different skills.

These themes like the courage Cecilia had to and the ability to compromise with the other 12 princesses are found in thousands of books across the world. One example is the book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. In The Hunger Games there is a girl named Katniss who lives in a poor district on the outskirts of town but the capitol wants to control everyone, even if they are poor. So every year the capitol requires one girl and one guy from each district to sacrifice their lives and compete in the hunger games. When Katniss’s younger sister gets chosen Katniss shows great courage and love and volunteers to not only  take her sisters spot but to save her sisters life. Katniss show great ability to compromise when she has to collaborate with the boy that got chosen for her district, Peeta, towards the end of the hunger games Peeta was her last hope of surviving and Katniss was his last hope of surviving and even though they didn't like each other they both had to compromise if they wanted to survive.

It is apparent that courage and ability to compromise is a major theme in this story, as well as other stories found around the world. Everyone in this world wants to be happy and enjoy life, but it’s hard to enjoy life just sitting on the couch in their house, that’s why it's important to have courage and be able to compromise along the way. If Cecilia had never taken those steps outside her town and decided to put her fate in her own hands she would have never ended up where she did. If she just stayed in her town all her life she would have never been able to change the palace’s history, or meet any of the other 12 princesses. If you always stick to the status quo you're never going to find your true purpose in life.

Fear While Hiking

Authors note:This is a creative piece I wrote in class one day about my exciting and exhilarating trip up a spectacular mountain.

It started as calm peaceful morning in Death Valley, the sun was shining, the mountain glowed with magnificent red-orange color, and there was happiness in the air, but this all changed as the day went on. Me and my family were spending the day hiking and we all wanted to get to the top, the mountain started off with a very well defined path but as we hiked up the twisted mountain and climbed around the boulder and the hike dwindled on the path vanished. We were hiking along when the path just diapered, gone, what were we going to do? It was already getting late and starting to get dark and after trying to find our way up the mountain with no path we needed to go back, there was just one problem, where’s the car? We  had been wandering around for so long we had no idea how to get back or even what direction to go to get back. Right then a huge feeling of fear rushed over us, an indescribable feeling that we wouldn't be able to get off this mountain before nightfall, a indescribable feeling that we would run out of food and water, an indescribable feeling that we would have to hike on the rocky mountain with no light. We all started panicking, we were alone on the mountain with no one else around but each other. So we started wandering around the area we were trying to find the path down. After wandering around for about another half an hour when we found the path to get down. At this point it was already late and getting darker and on top of that we had to still hike about one and a half more miles. By the time we got all the way down the mountain and to the car it was dark and starting to get cold but we made it back before any of those fear could become a reality. Although this day was filled with us being lost and being scared It was still a great time hiking with the family, and a adventure I will always remember. 

Something New

Authors Note:

I wrote this piece to show my understanding of point of view. I wrote this point of view piece on Humans are Different.

In the short story Humans are Different by Alan Bloch it is quite clear who the narrator of this story is, the robot. From this perspective, a lot of events and characters are portrayed in a way that create the reader to have a forgiving heart for the robot and his actions.

In the beginning the robot goes off to do research on another planet and he finds a lone colonist who has lost all connection to other humans, and they become friends. One smothering afternoon they were going for a stroll together when human said he was hot so the robot decides to check his thermos-stat and the robot thought something needed fixing. The robot pushed the needle into the humans neck to operate the cut-off switch, and he stopped moving, just like a Robot; but when the robot opened him up he wasn't the same inside. Then after a while the human just turned to bones.

In the story the robot made it sound like he was the nice guy but I think the human would have had something else to say about that. According to the robot, the human was alone and lost and the robot came and rescued the human but, what really happened? The human was actually doing just fine and on the planet he was on when the robot just came out of nowhere and wanted to be the humans friend. The robot was intruding on a perfectly happy human and the human just wanted to be left alone.  This is only one of the main ways that you can see the different outtakes a reader has on a story based on the person or thing that is telling the story.