Aaliyah El-Amin's Milestones

This essay i really liked. I definitely agree with everything she says. When I was younger all i wanted to do was play outside all day long with my friends. I didn't even really kno what sex or drugs were until high school. Now a days, most kids barely go outside. They sit inside with their electronics. Whether its sitting in front of the tv all day watching cartoons or playing on their parents computer. I think its rediculous that 12 year olds have cell phones and their own computers now. It makes me sad to see that my 12 year old neice acts more like a 16 year old then a 12 year old.
I believe its only going to get worse too. These kids are growing up to fast like they are because people that are still kids themselves are the ones trying to raise them.
This essay just made me think about how horrible i think this world is becoming which i probably shouldn't get into.

Richard Wright: The Library Card

I'm not completely sure if i like this story or not. It took me a few paragraphs to get into it. To me the story has kind of a weird vibe. I don't like the way he makes the character seem like he's going crazy beccause of the books he's reading. As a reader i can definitely relate to the feelings he gets from books. Some books do make u think about your life and the world around you.. not always in a good way.
This story did have some depth to it and the mood was kind of depressing. It's probably the time period and events in that time period that make me think this way. I think he wrote this to show people that you can do whatever you choose to do. Even when it doesn't look like you have a chance, if u put your mind to something you can achieve it.

Annie Dillard's from An American Childhood.

I liked the light-heartedness of this story. To me it seems like she wrote it just for fun. But maybe she wrote it to teach kids not to throw snowballs at cars, they never kno what might happen.
It made me laugh that someone would run so far and be so determined just to yell at some kids throwing snowballs. It's kind of rediculous. I was sort of hoping something more exciting would happen though. I liked how the kids were more punished by having to run as much as they did rather then by the yelling the man did.
I thought her description of the chase scene was good, i could picture it very well in my head. This excerpt makes me wonder what the whole book is about and want to read some more.

George Orwell: A Hanging.

This essay wasn't too bad. Still has some grammatical errors which i don't like, but it makes me think that its just the style of the writer. The writer does make me wonder where the story is taking place and when. He talks about Indians, Eurasians, and Burmese, but then has characters saying english words like bloody. I'm not a big fan of violence or gore so the story wasn't too interesting to me. I do like how at the end of it it becomes sort of lighthearted after such a terrible thing has happened.

George Orwell: The Spike

I had a hard time getting into this essay. Either i've never seen this style of writing before or it had a lot of grammatical errors in it and made it hard to concentrate and understand what i was reading.
I'm still a little confused about what exactly a "spike" is. Is it a homeless shelter? a prison? The beginning talks about how they were sitting on the green waiting for the spike to open like its a place they want to go to, but then the rest of the story makes it sound like a prison. At the end they are let go to look for work and stuff on their way to the next spike? I really just don't get it. So overall i just didn't like this essay at all. The way it was written, the words used, or the point of the story. Maybe i just need to be more educated about the background of the author.