Creative Writing

Every family has their problems but, Ryan’s family has much more than their fair share. From the outside looking in you would never be able to tell, from the inside looking out you start to wonder how he ever found the strength the survive.
Ryan and his family lived in a well off neighborhood in a brick house with the typical white picket fence. He had one cat and two dogs who him and his twin sister Erika grew up with. To the people around them, everything seemed normal but, behind closed doors it was far from it. When Ryan was four his father killed himself while Ryan, his mother and sister were at church one Sunday morning. Ryan’s father was an abusive alcoholic and had been on a drinking binge for weeks. Truth is, Ryan’s father owned an Auto body shop and his place had went out of business. Being that Ryan’s father provided the only source of income he started to panic, which caused him to drink, very heavily. Ryan found him on the bathroom floor, he had choked on his own vomit.
Soon after Ryan’s mother, Nancy, remarried and moved Ryan and Erika to a new home with her new husband. Ryan and Erika were only five and were excited to be moving into a new, much bigger, much fancier house on the other side of town. Nancy’s new husband Joe, and her children seemed to get along great. Joe and Ryan went hunting together in the winter and fishing in the summer.  They did everything together and became inseperable.  Years went by and before Ryan knew it he had slowly started forget about his father and the scene he saw when he was just five years old. While Ryan found the father he never had , Erika was a different story. She craved her mothers attention and was losing it to Joe which caused her to resent him.  From the second she started forming educated sentences, they were used to go against everything Joe said.   Everything Joe asked from Erika, she made sure she did the opposite.
When Ryan and Erika turned sixteen Joe and Nancy threw a huge party in their backyard for the both of them. While the party turned out to be a great time and seemed to be brining everyone together, Erika went inside to check on the dogs when she heard a strange noise coming from the laundry room. It sounded as if someone had put sneakers in the drier which seemed weird to Erika considering the party. Why would someone be doing laundry right now, she thought? Before Erika could open the door it clicked in her head what she was hearing. But who? She opened the door and was disgusted with what she saw. She quickly slammed the door and ran into the backyard for her Mother and Ryan. She got their attention and told them they needed to come inside right away. When they got inside she told them how she had just seen Joe having sex with one of her best friends in the laundry room. Horrified, Nancy burst into the laundry room to find only Joe inside washing his hands in the sink.
“What’s the matter” snarled Joe “What’s all the commotion.”
“You know what’s wrong, you know I saw what you were doing with Jeanne.” Joe put on his best look of innocence and explained he was only helping her sober up. She had snuck a little bit too much to drink, Joe explained, and needed a few minutes to cool down,  she wasn't feeling well so he had sent her home, there was nothing to worry about.
“That’s bullshit, I saw it, you were having sex with her. Stop lying,” screamed Erika. While Erika and Joe went back and forth, Nancy sat down, her head was spinning from everything that was happening around her. Ryan sat with her and tried to calm her down.
“You don’t believe her, do you babe?” Joe said sweetly rubbing Nancy’s back. Nancy looked up and him and then to her daughter.
“Erika, sweetie, why would Joe do something like that with Jeanne. She’s only sixteen, he could go to jail. Are you sure that’s what you saw.” Erika knew what was happeneing, her mother was going to take Joes side. She was going to believe his lies. Before anyone could say anything Erika ran to her room. Ryan got up to go after her as Joe grabbed his shoulder.
“Let her be. It’s her party and she can cry if she wants to. But it’s your party too and don’t let her and her accusations ruin your time.”
“I just want to hear what happened and see if she’s okay” said Ryan.
“She’ll be fine. Nothing happened Ryan. Do you really think I would do that to you, to your mother. Erika will think of anything to make tension in this house and now she has taken it to far. Leave her in her room. Hopefully she never comes out.” Joe screamed the last part up the stairs in hopes to get a rise out of Erika. But no noise came from her room, only heavy breathing.

Old teacher, New Ways

I started observing yesterday and one of the teachers I’m observing for is relatively older than the rest. The class is made up of 18 boys and 3 girls and the boys rule the class.. they don’t shut up and they don’t even stay in their own seats. The poor lady sat in the front for a good 10 mins before the boys even realized that she was waiting for them to shut up. At first she started punishing them by taking points off their test they had recently taken but the boys straight out told her they didn’t care. Then she told them she was going to talk to their coaches and make sure something was done to punish them. All of a sudden they were quite. After class she told me how as she gets older the less of a connection she has with her students and less control she has over her class. She told me when she started teaching it was much easier for her to get their attention and keep them focused. She told me that her students used to see her out of the classroom and would always stop and talk to her, now they simple wave and walk by. As we were talking she started to tell me how she really wants that connection back with her students. Her idea was that she was going to start going to her students athletic games and even cheer for those who don’t shut up. At first it sounded kind of pointless but then i started to understand. She wants her students to be able to see her in a different light than just the old teacher that lectures the entire English class, she wants her students to see her outside of the classroom and maybe they will respect her more. Thinking about it, it actually seems like a really good idea and hopefully for her sake it works. I found it really interesting how even a teacher who’s retirement is around the teacher still cares about strengthening her connection with her students.

Revision 1

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” In other words, staying true to yourself and your beliefs in a world that is always trying to influence you to be somebody else is very rare. Instead of being yourself, we so often see everybody trying to be like each other, we’re so often told that it’s bad to be different, it’s bad to stand out of the crowd. This is shown to be true in Loser written by Jerry Spinelli and Feed by M.T Anderson. Spinelli uses characterization in order to prove to his reader that while every tries to get Zinkoff to change, he’s perfectly happy being who he is. M.T Anderson also uses characterization as well as symbolism to show the battle between being yourself versus being like everyone else.

In Loser by Jerry Spinelli, Zinkoff is very much like other children. He likes to ride his bike, play with friends and he enjoys spending time going to work with his dad. On the other hand however, Zinkoff is different from the rest of the children in his class. Zinkoff has autism and instead of feeling bad when no one wants to play with him after school, when no one picks him for kickball, or when his classmates call him a loser, he laughs and goes on enjoying his life. Zinkoff is characterized as clumsy and socially awkward, he makes up his own words and dances to the beat of his own drum. While everyone tries to get him to conform to society, he doesn’t mind being a little different. To everyone else he’s different, but he doesn’t see himself that way. While it’s clear in the novel that everyone wants him to be a little quieter, a little more careful, a little more like everyone else, he’s perfectly fine being him. By the end of the novel Zinkoff shows how being different doesn’t mean he can’t be a hero, when he goes out in a blizzard to look for a little girl who has went missing. He doesn’t realize that the little girl was found already and spends the entire night looking. Back at school, while kids are still picking him last and laughing at him they hear about the story and start to respect him for what he did and for being different.

While Zinkoff’s accomplishment is noticed and eventually respected, Violet in M.T Anderson’s Feed isn’t as lucky. Violet’s feed isn’t as up to date as the rest of the kids in her grade. While they all love the accessibility and easiness of the feed she believes its ruining them. Violet portrays the rebellious character and tries to break away from the feed, while the rest of society is trying to repress her unruly ways. Violet prefers simplicity and talking with her mouth rather than through brain waves however, many of the peers are so brainwashed by technology that they make fun of her for being “behind.” After a hacker set a virus on Violet and her friend’s feeds she spends her time recovering with Titus and teaches him her views on the consumerism the feed is sucking them all into. She tries to make him understand that the feed represents a world in which humans don’t communicate with each other verbally, a world in which technology rules the world. Most of all the feed symbolizes consumerism and the constant need to be like everybody else. In a world that is trying so hard to suck Violet in, Violet tries hard to resist, she doesn’t let her classmates bother her and she remains satisfied with the simple things in life. In the end Violet learns that the feed is stronger than her desire to be different. She resists an upgrade for her feed and dies due to system malfunction. We realize however, that her desire to be different was greater than her desire to live.

While “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment,” sometimes having such a strong desire to be yourself takes a turn for the worse, like seen in Feed. However, both Violet and Zinkoff prove that being yourself and resisting the power to conform can end in people gaining great respect for you.

Critical Lens Essay

According to Ralph Waldo Emerson, “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment.” In other words, staying true to yourself and your beliefs in a world that is always trying to influence you to be somebody else is very rare.  Instead of being yourself, we so often see everybody trying to be like each other, were so often told that it’s bad to be different, its bad to stand out of the crowd.  This is shown to be true in Loser written by Jerry Spinelli and Feed by M.T Anderson. 

In Loser by Jerry Spinelli, Zinkoff is very much like other children.  He likes to ride his bike, play with friends and he enjoys spending time going to work with his dad.  On the other hand however, Zinkoff is different from the rest of the children in his class.  Zinkoff has autism and instead of feeling bad when no one wants to play with him after school, when no one picks him for kickball, or when his classmates call him a loser he laughs and goes on enjoying his life.  To everyone else he’s different, but he doesn’t seem himself that way.  While it’s clear in the novel that everyone wants him to be a little quitter, a little more careful, a little more like everyone else he’s perfectly fine being him.  By the end of the novel Zinkoff shows how being different doesn’t mean he can’t be a hero, when he goes out in a blizzard to look for a little girl who has went missing.  He doesn’t realize that the little girl was found already and spends the entire night looking.  Back at school, while kids are still picking him last and laughing at him they hear about the story and start to respect him for what he did and for being different.  While Zinkoffs accomplishment is noticed and eventually respected, Violet in M.T Anderson’s Feed isn’t as lucky.

Violet’s feed isn’t as up to date as the rest of the kids in her grade.  While they all love the accessibility and easiness of the feed she believes its ruining them.  Violet prefers simplicity and taking with her mouth rather than through brain waves however, many of the peers are so brainwashed by technology that they make fun of her for being “behind.”   After a hacker set a virus on Violet and her friend’s feeds she spends her time recovering with Titus and teaches him her views on the consumerism the feed is sucking them all into.  While Titus never truly understands where Violet is coming from he loves her anyway and sticks up for her when everyone makes fun of her for being so different.  In a world that is trying so hard to suck Violet in, Violet tries hard to resist, she doesn’t let her classmates bother her and she remains satisfied with the simply things in life.  In the end Violet learns that the feed is stronger than her desire to be different.  She resists an upgrade for her feed and dies due to system malfunction.  We realize however, that her desire to be different was greater than her desire to live.  

While “To be yourself in a world that is constantly trying to make you something else is the greatest accomplishment,” sometimes having such a strong desire to be yourself takes a turn for the worse, like seen in Feed.  However, both Violet and Zinkoff prove that being yourself and resisting the power to conform can end in people gaining great respect for you.