Smoke Signals, the movie Dialogue

What do you think about the relationship between Thomas and Victor?

Watching the movie, it seems like Thomas and Victor have a hate/love relationship. While Victor seems to despise Thomas throughout scenes, Thomas does come in the clutch, and he does help him. For example, when Victor needed money to go get his fathers ashes and remains, Thomas asked to go, and offered him a jar of money. It is thomas' loyalty and cheerfullness that keeps Victor from hating him throughout the story. Through Thomas, victor also finds ways to look at his father in a better light. This brought Thomas and Victor closer together, securing the relationship. 
So we can see although the relationship seems like it is full of hate, and at times Thomas does annoy Victor, we can also see love between each other, and feeling of attachment. I feel that without Thomas, Victor wouldn't have gone through a life changing experience.

Rules for writers ch 48

This weeks rules for writers was on something a bit different than essay writing. It was about arguments and how to provide a fair, fact filled argument, and how to avoid a stereotypical, generalization in your arguments when trying to express an opinion. It Is very important to avoid things like this to: 1.better show your opinion and to 2.actually win an argument. When people argue some tend to make things like assumptions, hasty generalizations, or bring up unfair emotional tactics. This chapter teaches us how to distinguish this and gives us good examples of them. To summarize what I learned, I should probably look up the complete facts, use unbiased information, don't group people infairly and watch for proper statistics when making an argument
I think that this weeks reading will help me make a persuasive essay and debate. I will always make sure to check facts on both sides before developing a full oohing about things.

Happy Endings,” “Obituary,” and “Oompah Loompah” Dialogue

b.     What’s your response to Mr. Harvey? 
Mr. Harvey sounds like a more traditional teacher in the 1960's-80s. From what i have read, some teachers back then use to be a lot more strict, and serious about teaching. Mr Harvey uses threatening and powerful word to explain the importance of english, but this is not always a good thing. As we can see by the reading, Mr. harvey made most of the kids nervous and scared, which got in the way of learning english. He told the kids that they were dumb, and that he was smart. He forced them to talk out loud, when they knew that they would screw up. This creates a tension that is not good for a learning environment.
Although he seemed like a bad teacher to me, his statement is pretty important. To make it in America, it is important to not sound illiterate. It will make job searching a lot easier, and you can be more successful in life. But just because you are illiterate that doesn not mean you will automatically not be able to get a job, it just means it will be alot harder to get one.

Essay 2 Workshop

Essay 2 Workshop

            In the book, “College reading & writing” I have noticed something that has reoccurred between two stories. The two stories, “The Joy of Reading and Writing: Superman and Me” and “Shooting Dad” have a common theme of the main character struggling with being different than the surrounding characters and the significance of that theme is how they deal with those struggles. “Shooting dad” is about a girl facing the problems of being the opposite of her father. “The Joy of Reading and Writing” shows the struggles of a boy into more academic hobbies than his classmates.

            In “the Joy of reading and writing”, the main characters struggle is with other Native Americans in his reservation. “A smart Indian is a dangerous person, widely feared and ridiculed by Indians and non-Indians alike. I fought with my classmates on a daily basis. They wanted me to stay quiet when the non-Indian teacher asked for answers, for volunteers, for help.” This explains the main theme of the story. The author had a very hard relationship with other kids growing up simply because he was into things that they were not: books and knowledge. He notes that Indians in reservation already expected to fail in the “non-Indian” world. He was the exception, and other Indians didn’t like that.

            When using the same theme as “the Joy of reading and writing” in “Shooting Dad”, we can see that Sarah Vowell’s struggle with being different was with her father. She has completed opposite views with her father. Her father is a conservative, while she is a democrat. Her father has a love for guns, while she hates guns. She even notes a point in her life when their house had sections for her and sections for him that were separated by her hobby of music and his hobby of guns. This struggle really got to her by the time she was older, and she wanted to find something in common with her dad so that they could interact with each other. I think the cannon he built were a great idea for her to join in on, and it really brought a closing to the theme of the story.

            The significance or purpose of these themes in the story is to show how people can deal with the struggle of being different from others. Each main character dealt with there problem in different ways. It seems like the character in “The Joy of Reading and Writings” deals with be different by showing that he was successful because of his academic hobbies. He became a famous writer by being different than the ones who would follow the traditional lifestyle in the reservations. “I am smart. I am arrogant. I am lucky. I am trying to save our lives.” This is a statement he says in the story, trying to show that all the studying, writing and reading saved his life. This meant that any Indian who didn’t do this in the reservation ended up with a wasted life, and strained more than he strained when he was a kid. In “Shooting Dad”, Sarah Vowell deals with the same struggle of being different another way. She decides to find some connection with her father by calling and asking to see the newest gun that he was working on. This gun happened to be a canon. Through this idea she finds out that she isn’t so different from her dad after all, and finds common traits that her and her father shares. Obsession is a big trait that they both have. While he is obsessed with guns, she is obsessed with music. After doing this she seemed to have gotten past her difference with her father, and they began to get along a lot better.

            As different as the stories seem, I think that these two stories share the same theme and significance. The struggle of being different with your father or a group of people can be dealt with through different ways. This could mean not joining the other group and instead following that different passion and becoming successful. It could also mean trying to connect with your father’s passion and find a common ground. Both stories had a good ending, and in that ending showed really what the purpose of the writing was. What I got from it was that being different can be a great thing.

Writing Topic: Rules for Writers chapter 4

This chapter, to me, was about getting the bulk of an essay done. It was titled:"Building Effective paragraphs", and its purpose was to help us figuring out how to bulk up an essay more. It also talks about sticking to the main point and not staying off topic when writing paragraphs. This is something that is very important to think about when you think your paragraph is too short and you want to fill up more writing space. Its not good to write things surrounding the topic, but still doesn't really fit the thesis, or idea. MAking sure that your paragraph follows the pattern your trying to portray when talking about your thesis. IF you already said something don't repeat it in other words.Topic sentences are also important in this chapter. It is the statement within your paragraph that summarizes the paragraph. It's almost like an introduction to the details that follow in your paragraph. There is other material that could go into paragraphs that this chapter follows with including: Analogies, comparisons, and causes and effects. These tools help give out the meaning of your essay, and help explain your thesis whether its a persuasive essay or just a normal essay.
I will use topic sentences and follow the pattern of my essay to better organize my thoughts when writing. Topic sentences  I think are very important. If your writing a paragraph, and it happens to start going off topic, a topic sentence is a good format to follow. It helps get me back on track to what Im writing.