Power Point of "The Twelve"

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Symbolism of South Africa

    In “Cry, the Beloved Country” Alan Paton, the author, uses symbolism to explain his message by describing the land of South Africa. I can tell that Alan Paton tries to make the readers understand that his characters, especially Stephen Kumalo, worships and cares deeply for the land. Alan Paton uses symbolism to explain that the land was cared for, free, and peaceful, but then it all became corrupted.

                Paton uses symbolism to make a point that while there were only natives in South Africa everything was taken care of, but when the Europeans came in, they corrupted the land. Paton states in the first chapter that the land was “well-tended, and not too many cattle feed upon it; not too many fires burn it, laying bare the soil.” Paton was making us, as readers, understand that the people had respect for their land, and did not neglect it. The people cared for their land, which could mean that the natives cared for each other. The novel goes from the people caring for each other and the land to the people not caring for the land. Then, the people stop caring for each other and the land. Paton later states, “Too many cattle feed upon the grass, and too many fires have burned it.” This antithesis shows that the land became neglected by the people. The land is now old and used.  Since the land is now corrupted it points out that the people now do not care for each other.

                “Below you is the valley of the Umzimkilu, on its journey from the Drackensberg to the sea; and beyond and behind the river, great hill after great hill; and beyond and behind them, the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand.” Paton symbolizes the freedom of the land. He makes it seem like you could look out and see everything. Which I believe when I can see everything I feel free, and like I can do anything, or go anywhere. The natives felt as they could go anywhere, and do anything.

            In the beginning of chapter one of Book one Paton describes the land as being peaceful. He states that “there is a lovely road that runs from Ixopo into the hills” and that there are “hills that are grass covered” and that “they are lovely beyond any singing of it.” It uses words like "lovely" and then he also calls the land "holy." I believe it gives you a sense of peacefulness. He is symbolizing the idea that there was peace in the land before the Europeans arrived. The natives worshiped their land, and the land was their sense of peace.

            Paton uses many pieces of text to symbolize the land. He uses antithesis to symbolize that the land is cared for, free, and peaceful, but then it is all corrupted. The land was cared for, and that symbolized how the natives had respect for their land. The natives felt free to roam the land before Europeans came. Then the land also symbolized peace to state how the natives felt as though the land was peaceful. The antithesis explains how the land went from being cared for, free, and peaceful to being filled with roads, crime, and hiding.

           

A Trip Through Memory Lane

I look at my phone when it vibrates as I receive a text from Katie.

            “Hey you wanna go to McDonalds?”

            “Sure.”, I text back as I am walking next door.

            We are riding in the car with the music blaring and singing all the words. We are slowing down to stop at the stop sign as Katie says, “Hey what are you gonna do when I graduate?”

            As she says that it hits me that next year she is graduating. We have been together ever since I have lived in Marion, and she is the only person who has always been here for me, besides my family. Everything goes silent, the songs on the radio are now not important. We are driving away from the stop sign and are about to pass this neighborhood where we see two girls, around the age Katie and I were when we met, helping unload a U-haul.

            I am riding in the truck with my parents and little brother, with my grandparents following closely behind. We are on the way to move into our new house. We pull into the drive way and everyone begins to help unload the furniture, toys, suit cases, and bags of clothes. I am just standing here helping as much as they will let me, but they usually just hand me little things at a time since I am only four. I am standing there as I watch this short, red-haired girl, appearing to be my age, walking accompanied by her dad outside.

            “Hey, I am Katie, I live right there,” as she points to the house next door.

            “I am Kayla!” I say glad to have found a friend.

            We continue driving along the road just looking out of the window. To the right are the A.S.A. softball fields.

            “Kayla are you ready for the game?” says Katie.

            “Yeah!” I say as I am putting on my cleats in the truck.

            “Let’s take a picture before the game!” she grabs her phone and my dad jumps in the truck.

            “Katie do you remember when we played on the Cardinals team together when we were little kids?” I say after we pass the fields.

            “Yeah. Do you remember when we were on the same soccer team?”

            “Yeah I remember, your dad was the coach and use to drive us to all the games.”

            “Katie I am open! I’m open!” as I run down the field ready to take the winning shot. Katie passes me the ball and I score. All of the parents at the game pass out juice boxes and one of our player’s mom walks up with a raccoon in a cage.

            “Katie, why does that lady have a raccoon in her hands?” I say very confused.

            “Kayla we are called the Raccoons…duh!”

            We are almost to McDonald’s as we pass the high school parking lot where we had all of our marching band practices.

            “Forward eight back eight,” Cracken yells telling us which direction to march in while we are doing fundamentals. “Okay now go to set ten! We are going to march it a couple of times.”

            We all run the set ten. Katie is standing way further than she usually is from me in this set and I realize I am too far up. We run set ten, four times and he says, “We are going to do this set one more time!”

“Katie, this is getting annoying, and I really doubt this is the last time!” I say as we march the same set for the fifth time.

            “Don’t worry it gets better, especially after we know everything!” Which she is right I later learn as we are on the way to competitions and games.

            “Katie do you remember the first game?”

            “Yes!” she answers but it is about the wrong topic, she tells me about our first high school softball game instead of the first football game we marched in, since we left from the same parking lot.

            We pull into McDonald’s and as we walk inside we are talking about everything that has happened in our lives from when we were four years old until now. We sit down in McDonald’s, eat, laugh, talk, and then leave. There is no more awkward silence; no more discomfort as “We Are Young” comes on the radio.

            “Tonight

            We are young

            So let’s set the world on fire

            We can burn brighter than the sun”

Reading...In My Life?

When I think of reading I automatically think of boredom, or headaches, but I also think about fairy tails and imaginary places to go to. Even though I may not enjoy reading I am glad that I was taught to read, because without reading we would not be able to do anything, or know half of the information we know, because how else would we be able to learn new information and then spread it around.

My mom, a first grade school teacher, and my father would read to me all the time when I was younger. We read multiple books by Dr. Seuss. My mom, the book worm school teacher, also taught me some what how to read all the simple words. They also taught me the ABC's. So when I entered preschool I was already singing my ABC's and reading like I had already been in school. Mrs. Fogelman, my kindergarten teacher, then taught me what my mom taught me plus many more things on learning to read. Also in kindergarten we learned how to write words, which then became small sentences in first grade. Being in a public school, I was forced to do AR, accelerated reading, from second grade until the end of our seventh grade year. Accelerated Reading is a reading grade that we had that required us to reach a certain amount of points, and we earned the points by reading multiple books and taking tests on them in a time period of nine weeks. I believe that this ruined reading for me. I think this because I was forced to read book after book as fast as I could, and so I could not really ever get into books.

So when I actually did start reading books without having to take tests and read them as fast as I could, I would not pay attention to the story, because I never did before. The only books that I have really paid attention to usually are topics involving romantic mysteries or vampires and werewolves. I have never enjoyed reading, but I have found a couple of books that have really interested me. My favorite books consist of: Twilight and New Moon, by Stephanie Meyer, and The Other Side of Paradise, by Steven L. Layne, and Great Expectations, by Charles Dickens, and also Romeo and Juliet, by William Shakespeare. Great Expectations and Romeo and Juliet were two books that I read in my Pre-AP English 9 class that I ended up becoming interested in, which surprised me. All the books I listed above, including the two I had to read for class, are books that actually made me want to keep reading and never put down. Now that I am in high school I usually only read when I have class assignments to complete, because I never have the time to sit down and get into a book. Since I can never get into the books I read I become bored with them. Reading for pure enjoyment has never been a part of my daily schedule, but when I actually find an interesting book I am not going to do anything until I finish it.

I am...

I am a trumpeter and an athlete
I wonder what the future holds
I hear my conscience telling me what is wrong and what is right
I see the world becoming a bad place
I want to have a successful life
I am a trumpeter and an athlete

I pretend that I am as good as Jennie Finch
I feel God's presence in my life
I touch the hearts of my friends
I worry about messing up
I cry when I lose the people close to me
I am a trumpeter and an athlete

I understand that Jesus died for me
I say never give up
I dream about being at the beach
I try to be the best
I hope I find my true love
I am a trumpeter and an athlete

Miracles Are All Around Us

     Miracles are all around in our everyday life. In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” an angel falls from the sky. People do not realize when a miracle is right in front of their face. Most of the time we, as normal people, are distracted by other things that are not as important.

     In “A Very Old Man with Enormous Wings” an angel fell from the sky. This angel was a proof of God and the people came to the angel in need of help, but the angel did not help the people so they became angry. When someone does not help a person they are judged or bullied. The villagers went to a “carnival attraction”, to see a “woman who had been changed into a spider for having disobeyed her parents”, instead of going to see an angel. I know that if I had the opportunity to see a miracle, like an angel, I would definitely be there.

     “The Bible” shows how Jesus is a miracle and talks about how some people would ignore him. The people would get what they wanted and then move on to other things. Another miracle that happens commonly is the appearance of a rainbow. People are distracted from the beauty of a rainbow, because they are too focused on the gloominess of the weather.

     Miracles slip past us most the time because we, as people, get distracted by the simpler things in life. We need to look for the miracles around us. Then when you find the miracle will you go pay attention to it, or be like the villagers and get distracted?