Essay 7

Giving up the Games

An essay on sacrifices

By Emmanuel Perry

Pine Point School

January 5, 2012

      Sacrifice is what people do when you help someone else even though you could be doing something more of your interests. Sacrifice can also mean giving up one habit so you can proceed with another objective. Some of the world’s greatest inventors probably sacrificed many hours of rest to give us appliances that we take for granted, yet changed our world. I am not an inventor, nor am I a great historical figure or hero (yet), but I still have sacrificed to help others whom I care about in life.

      My father, john, went to high school, Norwich tech to be exact, to learn about electrical systems, plumbing, and basically anything that you would need fixed in a house. As the years went by, he has started to get tired more easily and may bonk his head or hurt his back. At times like these people could really use a hand. On the day I am about to recall, I just got a new video game that I was very enthusiastic about for a month in advance. I was having a great time saving princesses and such! Meanwhile, dad was busy moving heavy boxes here and there in the basement (we just moved). My hard working father comes up and asks mom for help downstairs, but she is busy with other household chores. I guess I had sympathy for him and asked if he needed help. By the time we were done, it was too late for video games yet I didn’t feel sad at all. I felt good helping someone out that day.

      In this story, compassion and sacrifice lead to another.  In my opinion, that is why most people sacrifice time, money, body parts, and resources for others. If you don’t really feel anything, are you sacrificing with an open heart? Is it a sacrifice if you are forced into the service needed? Sacrifices start with love and sympathy. Sacrifices can change others, the world, and sometimes you.

essay 6

Light:

An Essay on Light’s Effects on My Life

By Emmanuel Perry

Pine Point School

November 30, 2011

Have you ever considered how important light is? Most of us today usually take light for granted.However Charles Dickens did not take light for granted,which can be seen in his book ‘a Tale of Two Cities’. I think that the author Charles Dickens believes light is something that represents clarity and understanding. Thinking back on my life, I realized how important light was to me. Light has always symbolized comfort, safety and warmth. When we understand things we feel safe and secure. It seems that Mr. Dickens and I have some similar thoughts on the subject of light.

The theme Dickens used was that light symbolizes clarity and helps you to understand things better. For example, when Mr. Lorry was in a mail coach in the beginning of the story, he could not see who was calling him from the dark, misty night. Mr. Lorry stopped the coach as the guard ‘cocked his blunderbuss and stood on the offensive’, ready to fire upon the approaching being. However, as the messenger came into the lantern light, they found out it was Jerry, who is a friend of Mr. Lorry. Another incident of light was when Mr. Lorry and Lucie went to see her father, Mr. Manette. This mere shell of a great human being lived in a somber attic that was dim and devoid of light. The light was later let through a window in the ceiling so that the two visitors could see him. It not only helped the visitors to see his condition, but it also allowed Mr. Manette to see his daughter once again. In the prologue of the book, it talks about a time of light and darkness. In the text, it says ‘it was a season of light, it was a season of darkness’ which means that even though the time was full of confusion and doubt, there was clarity and understanding as well. In 1775, when the story takes place, people could not trust each other on a dark road at night. Yet at the same time, people like Lucie found out the truth about her father and how he has forgotten her. It seems that even if light brings understanding; not everything you learn is good.

Light has always brought me comfort when I am in darkness. Whenever I am in a car or just standing outside at night, I love to look at the stars-small dots of cyan blue that season the night sky with gentle light. Even though I do not like the darkness, the stars in the sky give off a dim light that makes me feel comfortable. I feel comforted because I believe that God is watching over me and reminds me about his love by using the stars. Campfires also make me feel warm and cozy when I go camping with my family. Under the starry night, a campfire can give additional light. The fire doesn’t just warm our hands, but our hearts as well. When I was younger, without the stars in the sky, without fires to be near, I would have a hard time sleeping in the night. The only way I could rest easy was by using a nightlight. It was not as warm as a fire, not a soft a glow like a star, but it still made me feel untroubled. I’m no longer afraid of the dark, but these sources of light still give me comfort.

Light is clarity, light is comforting, light helps you to understand things better. Light seems to be something important to Charles Dickens and me. To Charles Dickens, light helped people to understand things that were hard to see in the first place. Light is important to me as well because it gives me a pleasant feeling and also a feeling of security. Whichever way you look at it, light will always guide you through the darkness. Whether it is the darkness of life and you do not know what to do, or the darkness of the night that gives you fear; light will always be your guide.

Self Assessment

1. I am continuing to work on checking for small grammar mistakes.
2. This essay requires me to write about my own experiences, which I am very good at.
3. One possible weak point I see in this essay is that I had a hard time finding a quote for my first paragraph.

Essay 5

The Bright Side:

An Essay on Hope in the Hopelessness

By Emmanuel Perry

Pine Point school

November 17, 2011

Do you enjoy the wintertime? If you do, then I envy you, since wintertime is a time of dreariness and boredom for me, especially when it is cold and there is no snow on the ground to play or create with. There seems to be nothing I can do in this time of dark emotions. However, there are things I can do to make ‘light’ of the situation.

Winter time is full of many different fun-filled activities like sledding and town-wide snowball fights. However, there is a time between fall and winter I like to call ‘the time of darkness’ because there is no snow to sled in. Instead of snow, we have leafless trees with freezing bitter winds, not to mention the short daylight hours. Despite all this, there is still light in these dark days. One thing that enlightens me during the winter is drawing cartoons, a mixture of storytelling and art, whenever I feel down. The words ‘the ice is slowly melting’ symbolize the ‘ice’ of boredom slowly fading as I make my masterpieces come to life. When I finish my cartoons, I let my friends read them because I believe art is to be shared. I love seeing ‘their smiles return to their faces’ as they laugh and chuckle at my jokes. My cartoons also let me escape from the dreary winter landscape. As I draw them, I can go to warm places and do exciting activities that I cannot do now, such as swimming and traveling to many interesting places. When I draw my humorous cartoons, I can find light in the darkness of early winter.

The line from A Tale of Two Cities “it was a season of light, it was a season of darkness” talks about a time of happiness and a time of sadness. The ‘season of darkness’ can also have a literal meaning because winter is a long, somber season with short daylight hours. The cold weather and frosty winds sometimes wear down on people’s emotions. However, this season of shadows is also a season of light. Christmas, which occurs during this season, gives people a brief feeling of happiness again. It also has many lights during the night, brightening up the gloom. Lyrics from ‘Here Comes the Sun’ have similar thoughts about the cold, gloomy winter and the light within it. ‘It’s been a long and lonely winter’ describes the nights as long, cold, and unwelcoming.  The cold weather can really lower your spirits. ‘Here comes the sun…it’s all right’ means that spring will return along with the warm and wonderful sun. Both the song and the sentence relate to light in the darkness, finding hope in the hopelessness, and waiting for the light to return.

I believe that you cannot have darkness without light. There always has to be a bright side to things. For example, even though I cannot do as many things as I could in the summer, I can still relive those experiences in my cartoons. The dark days of winter are momentarily interrupted by the Christmas season of lights and joyfulness. When times get tough, and you don’t know where to turn in the darkness of boredom, remember that things will get better someday. Remember that the ice will slowly but surely melt, remember the sun will rise again, bringing joy and happiness back to the world.

Essay 4

Keep Moving:

An Essay on Letting Things Go

By:Emmanuel Perry

Pine Point School,CT

October 25, 2011

There is a song by U2 called ‘Walk On’ that talks about leaving the past behind and showing courage to move on (‘Leave it behind, you got to leave it behind’). I have learned to move on from my worries. Walter, from A Raisin in the Sun, had to face hardships as well and for the most part by himself. ‘And I know it aches, and your heart it breaks, and you can only take so much…[just] walk on’ means that even when it seems impossible, you need to just keep moving on.

This little problem I have is that I lose things really easily. It is not that these things are unimportant to me, it’s just that I never keep track of where I put them last. One particular time, I lost a video game system called the Play Station Portable, or PSP for short. It was one of my prized possessions (FAST), and I had just lost it! For many weeks I searched for it, but to no avail. I looked in my room, I looked under the couch, I looked in the coat pockets, I even looked in the bathroom, hoping I could find it (anaphora:I)(asyndeton). I never did find it because I probably lost it while doing errands with my mother.  I felt distraught for a very long time; however, I eventually realized that it was only another toy like the other toys I had lost in the past. After a few weeks without my PSP, I realized all the fun I was missing out on with my friends and family. Even though I have another electronic to play with now, the lost PSP taught me a lot about letting hard things to let go of go.

The song ‘Walk On’ by U2 relates to A Raisin in the Sun in multiple ways. The lines ‘Home... I can't say where it is but I know I'm going home’ is a reoccurring theme in the play. The Younger family lived in a very dismal (FAST) apartment and constantly dreamed of a wonderful home they could all live in. They finally got this dream home because they kept working towards their goal. They wanted to start anew and to never look back. They forgot about the past and walked on. In the story, Walter,the father, had a very hard time. Walters sadness relates to the line ’ And I know it aches, how your heart it breaks and you can only take so much’. His ‘so called’ friend Willy stole his money, his new neighbors were paying him to leave,his family seemed to have left him to deal with these problems alone(Anaphora) (Asyndeton). He later realized that money is not as important as family. He also realized that when he started supporting his family, they would support him. Walter learned that hard times are a part of life, he learned that troubles come and go, he learned it’s never to late to change and leave the past behind you(anaphora).

‘Walking on’ is sometimes challenging. If you have courage, however, you will be able to move on. ‘All that you break, all that you feel, all this you can leave behind’ means that it takes courage to leave hardships behind and to start anew. Courage is very important, it is a priceless trait that cannot be sold or stolen. Or in my case, it cannot be lost!

Self-Assessment

1. I am continuing to work on using commas and apostrophes properly.
2. This writing was thoroughly checked for errors or openings for improvement.
3. The writing styles that were supposed to be in the essay were added in after the essay was written and is not as good as they could be.

Essay 3

Eeyore: The Desperado

An Essay on Loneliness

By Emmanuel Perry

Pine Point School, CT

October 13, 2011

The song Desperado, made by The Eagles, is a song

about a person who goes his own way in search of things to

make him or her happy. However, most people have many

blessings to be happy about, yet people like desperadoes do not

see them and continue to look and lust for things they will never

have. A desperado also longs for companionship and needs

someone that will love them -- a friend.These people that are

similar to desperadoes in this song have to learn to ‘let

somebody love [them] before it’s too late’.

When I heard that the song’s name is Desperado, it got

me to wonder how a desperado is pictured in the song.

(desperado) sounds a lot like the word desperate meaning

that desperadoes are desperately looking for love,

desperately looking for satisfaction, desperately looking for

real happiness (anaphora). (Desperadoes) are looking

(forlornly) for some object, person, or other worldly

possession that will make them happier in life. The song

continues to say that these desperadoes have ‘some fine

things laid upon [their] table’ like shelter, food, and many

other commodities that they can be thankful for.

Desperadoes want something to make them satisfied when

there are many things they already have to be happy.

(Sadly, they ‘only want the things [they] cannot get’ and,

therefore, will always feel empty and ungrateful and always

want something newer or better than what they already

have) (polysyndenton).  Desperadoes are very lonely

people and need someone to love in their life. Maybe if they

find love, they will learn to be thankful for the other

blessings in life.

 In the story, Winnie the Pooh, there is an old donkey

named Eeyore. Eeyore always seemed to be lonely and

ungrateful, just like a desperado. First of all, Eeyore had a house

made out of a bundle of little twigs. These (twigs) were fragile

and fell over practically all the time. This house of (twigs) relates

to the lines ‘don’t draw the queen of diamonds…the queen of

hearts is always your best bet’. This describes love (queen of

hearts) and money (queen of diamonds) as cards that you would

use in a card game. Eeyore’s house of (twigs)  is very delicate

and collapses easily just like a house of cards. (The constant

collapsing of Eeyore’s cabin kept him in a crestfallen state of

mind and would stay away from his friends so he could finish

rebuilding it and therefore miss out on most of the adventures

the other characters had) (polysyndeton). When Eeyore was with his

friends, he would always worry about the future and wish he

were better off like having a better home and a more attractive

tail since his old tail was unpleasing to the eye. He really does

not know how well off he is since he doesn't appreciate ‘the

things left on his table’. For example, one blessing (anaphora)

was his many friends, another blessing ( anaphora) was a place

to call home, and lived in a wonderful meadow in the

‘Hundred-acre Wood’. ‘Your prison is walking through this world

all alone’ relates to Eeyore’s lack of communication with the

people around him. Eyore was always aloof from the other

characters in the story because he feared they would feel bad

for him and develop the same negative emotions he had. Even

though Winnie the Pooh tried to be his friend many times,

Eeyore would not change his mind and walked away by himself.

‘Desperado, why don't you come to your senses? These

things that are pleasing you can hurt you somehow’. Desperadoes

are desperate people,the’re constantly searching for things

they think will make them happy. The desperado desperately

searches even though the real pleasures in life are already ‘set out

on a table’ for them. ‘Desperado, why don't you come to your

senses?’ means that these people who act this way need to learn

to be thankful for the many blessings in their lives and to stop

being aloof from everybody else all of the time. ‘Better let

somebody love you, before it's too late’ means desperadoes need

friends to help them out when times are tough.

Self-Assessment:

○I am continuing to work on looking for small problems in my big

essays.

○This essay’s strong point was that all these ideas for the essay

came easily to me.

○I did not see the last part of the assignment where we had to

add anaphora, polysyndeton, and FAST words until the final night, so

some sentences may be a little confusing to read.