life and It's fables.

   
     I am currently reading Aesop's fables. This book is not a actual one story book. There are 284 stories jammed into one, 243 page book. Each story is made to make us think deeply about life. In one very interesting story, Mercury and the woodsman. This story is what really made me love this book. This is where I first started to see what this book is actually wanting me to see. When i read each story I am seeing many morals that should make my life better. When I read each story I am seeing different morals that can prevent you from causing harm or suffering to yourself.
   
     "Honesty is the best policy", "Rude shocks await those who take themselves credit that is due to others", "Never count you chickens before they hatch". These are all morals in the book that they either made clear or I found out myself. I believe that Aesop is trying to give us a feeling of what the world would be like if we all followed these morals. He isn't telling us this but if we look deeper and think about all of these stories as one and not 284 separate ones, it shows a story about a bad life and what may happen to everyone who does not follow each of these morals.

     It is hard to believe that 284 stories can fit on 243 pages but I don't believe we are supposed to look at it as separate short stories. It;s true that each can give you a lesson and that's what each is designed to do. However if you can read these stories as one 243 page story, the morals seem to come closer together and show us a life that has been forced to go through all of these stories and that one person is telling his life story,but with different characters in each story.

     These stories fit together like a puzzle and show us a life story. Each of these read separately you learn. But if you read them together you see. This book shows us an allegory of what our life would look like if we did the opposite of all the morals  in the book. Instead of  being honest we lie, instead of give credit, we take it for ourselves. This is Aesop's Fables.

Hard things in The Complete Horowtiz Horror

     In the short story Bath Night in The Complete Horowitz Horror Justice is served only when Isabel smashes the evil bathtub destroying the curse of Jacob Marlin, When the bathtub was destroyed, Isabel not only saved herself but everyone else that would bye that specific bathtub after her family was dead. 

     Surprisingly the people blocking justice from happening is Isabel's parents. They are the ones that didn't, and never would believe Isabel. They are the ones that thought the tub was perfectly normal. Her parent't never physically blocked her from smashing the tub, but it was because of their actions to Isabel after hearing such ridiculous stories that made Isabel resort to smashing it instead of returning it for some other family to bye. 

     Although, because Isabel's parents wouldn't sell or return it, they did help the justice in the story to be fulfilled. It's because they wouldn't get rid of it that caused Isabel to have to smash the tub. If her parent's didn't block Justice in the first place than Justice would have never been served. Do you understand me? If the tub wasn't smashed than the curse would have gone onto another family, and then another, killing every family it comes in counter with. 

     Just because I've never seen or used and evil, killing bathtub doesn't mean I don't understand what Anthony Horowitz is trying to get across by using Jacob Marlin and is evil Victorian bathtub. Anthony was trying to tell us that we shouldn't let other people control our lives. I believe that by making Bella's parents ignore her, and that influence what she does, is showing us that we should control our own lives and try to go our own path. Don't let that path be influenced too much by others. Then you will live a happy life the way you want it to be.

Justice in Return of the King

     When I think of Justice in the Return of the King I think of Arragorn, frodo, Legolas, and Gimli. Those four charaters are the peace keepers of the book and have one goal in life. Destroy the ring and Stop Sauron, from taking over the world and wiping out the human race.
    
     Justice is doing the right thing, and I think tolkein is using these characters to tell us that we should well, do the right thing, but in a different way. I think each character is and allagorical. For example: Aargorn, the soon to be king, is trying to tell us that we should give up many things to be able to help others. arragorn gave his life to help the entire human race. And  Frodo, the "ring bearer" who is destined to throw the ring into Mt. Doom, Is trying to tell us that no matter who you are, Wheather our the most important person in the world, or the random guy on the street, you should try to do what you can to make this world a better place.

    Although there are these people out there who try to do the right thing, there are also does selfish people who only care about themselves. These are the "Justice blockers" I guess in the real world. But in the book
Sauron is the main thing blocking Justice. He is the evil Eye that wants to have the ring of power and get his human form back. These people in the book and in the real world are called the evil characters but are they really? Is there a such thing as evil? Or are these people really just things that Just don't want justice in this world. Is that what makes a person evil? The definition of evil is Wicked and cruel. But are these people really cruel? Do they torture anybody? I think they're just selfish people who want power.

   

The Return of the King- Trust, what and who to believe in.

In my book The Return of the King by J.R.R Tolkein war is probably the largest issue being that the trio of Lord of the Rings is a fight between Orcs and humans. But if you look deeper into the book you will find that this war has started because of betrayal.Tolkein shows us this by making Saruman betray his apprentice Gandalf and helps Sauron create a army of Orcs to aid him in getting the ring and wiping out the human  race.

Betrayal is a huge issue in this world, whether it be between  friends, relationships, or allies of war. Betrayal isn't good for yourself or the other person(s). Many issues of trust have come up not only in this book but in the other 2 also. Several times has someone gone mad for the ring, and turned on all of his friends and allies. Just one of the many situations is when Boromir tried to kill Frodo so that he could control the ring and it's magical but evil power.

Another issue is trust. Trust sort of corresponds with Betrayal because when somebody betrays you it completely ruins the trust between you and that person. but in other cases there was no betrayal but the thing was evil all along. Take Smeagol for example. He was alternating his emotions to make him both good and bad, but eventually his bad side took over and bit Frodo's ring finger off making Smeagol and the ring fall into mount doom. But anyway Frodo trusted Smeagol to lead him and Sam to mount doom where they could dispose of the ring but at the right moment Smeagol leaped up at his chance and turned on Frodo for the ring.
 Sam never trusted Smeagol but Frodo was too blind to see that all Smeagl wanted was the ring. Frodo therefore Trusted Smeagol to guide them more than Sam to believe. This shows that everyone , not only Frodo should be careful who's life they put their hands in.

Tolkein was a genius to be able to put these issues in the book along side war without messing up the entire book.

The Phantom Tollbooth: Expanded Annotation

"It seems like everyone in this book thinks everything that isn't like what they do is very strange "

Every where Milo goes I've noticed that everyone thinks what Milo does is strange. The way he grows, how he doesn't understand numbers, and many more. The way that Alec thought growing up was strange and how the Mathmagician didn't understand how Milo couldn't understand a letter the Mathmagician sent to his brother where the words were letters. Just made me think, how does Milo not question these things that people do?

In this world there are some people who do question other ways of living or growing up. But I don't think those people think about it the same way Alec and the king do.

Although many people question many ways of living. Without some of it we wouldn't really understand how other people in this world live. In ways other than lowing up religious buildings, taking important hostages, and just plain death threats. If we question those special ways, we may have an understanding of how we all are connected in many ways. Just like Milo and everyone else. Milo learned a lot from questioning and so did we as the readers. If Milo can learn that much in one trip to somewhere, why can't we?

When I was 7 i didn't know so much about any religion (even my own). When I found out that my friend was a Muslim and they couldn't eat pepperoni on their pizza I was really shocked. How could someone not  have pepperoni? (of course now I don't have pepperoni on my pizza) But after the years of hanging out with them I learned why and didn't find it so weird anymore.

I wonder if  Milo spent more time with everyone else the same thing would happen. That they wouldn't find Human's way of living odd? If only we could do that for everyone else in the world to stop terrorism?

Charlotte's Web: Archetype

The Mentor- Charlotte is not only the mentor but the hero as well. She is a mentor to many animals at the barn but none more than Wilbur. She helped Wilbur understand that life isn't easy and safe like Fern's arms. She helped him realize life has it's risks and problems that he can't always change.

A definition for a mentor is someone who teaches someone else many things and helps the hero along the way. Throughout the book Wilbur was asking what many words meant, and learned a lot from those very tiny questions, and even when charlotte was just talking to wilbur she seemed to be teaching him stuff. And without Charlotte Wilbur wouldn't have had any advice to help him.

All though we could say that Wilbur was the hero and charlotte was the mentor. We could also say that Charlotte was the Hero too. Hero's tend to "save the day" in many books, and that's exactly what Charlotte did. She saved Wilbur from being turned into bacon from Mr. Zuckerman.

I can't see how People Think Wilbur is the hero except for when he saved Charlotte's egg sac. Other than that he didn't do anything to save anyone or go on a perilous journey or anything. I just think that Charlotte should be called the hero not Wilbur.

charlotte's web: connected annotation

Throughout the book E.B white gave many animals human faces. I think it's because he's trying to show us that the animals in this book act just like humans and they aren't just animals we kill and that we should respect them as much as we respect each other. Just like the the iroquois indians did. They would not waste any part of any animal, they only killed if they needed food. They would then use the bones to make tools and weapons therefore not wasting any part of the animal.

I know that E.B White loved animals and lived on a farm (as I heard from the annotated version of Charlottes web) and he would not like for animals to be killed just because their small, or some cruel people do it just for fun. He would want to save as many animals as he could and I believe that he gave these animals faces like us because he wanted to show the world that they or we are demented versions of the other kind. 

These pictures actually correspond to the theme of the book, and they help it get across to the readers. We should try to save animals as much as we try to save humans. When E.B white had the picture of Charlotte on her web up close is when I first realized that they had those special faces, and then I looked back and I saw that many of the other animals a few pages back had these faces too. At first I was very confuse at why, but then I heard that E.B White loved animals, and boom it hit me. E.B White must be using these pictures to show us something, something important...

When Avery was going to knock down Charlotte and put her in a box, he tripped and crushed the rotten egg Templeton had. I believe E.B put that part in there as a form of Karma. He was going to take Charlotte for no important reason and he got gassed by the stench of the rotten egg.

I believe that if we all respected animals more that we would live a better life.

Charlotte's Web: Expanded annotation

In Charlotte's Web Wilbur was having a very tough time getting used to the new farm life, he always needed someone to play with him. When everyone said no he got really upset and started to cry. I was really confused at why, when i read that part but then I looked back and realized the he was playing with fern everyday for the first month of his life. Because of that I believe that Wilbur became so dependent on having someone to play with every day.

When someone or something gets too dependent on anything, it really hurts when it gets taken away. For 

example, wilbur being dependent on Fern, or even the United States being dependent on Oil in the Middle East. I was just like Wilbur when i was 5. I used to hang out with my friend every Friday to Sunday. Every day he left I would get really upset and lonely knowing that i wouldn't be able to hang out with anyone for another 5 days.

If something gets losses something they love and want, they may start to get really upset and loss can lead to "dark side" meaning that they may start to take out their anger on others or worst case scenario if they lose something extremely important to them that can't be replaced they may kill themselves.

But in Wilbur's case when he lost Fern he wasn't going to commit suicide but he was going to die if it wasn't for Charlotte. Sometimes when someone loses something, another thing comes in a replaces it, that other thing may not be the same but it does help a lot. Just like Wilbur finding charlotte, but other times it doesn't work out like that.

Wilbur and Fern were lucky that no one got seriously hurt when being separated, but if they didn't meet Charlotte, Fern would be devastated when she realized Wilbur was dead. I do wonder what fern would do to her father and the Zuckermans. If she went crazy before she really got to take care of Wilbur, what would she do after she loved him more than anything else they actually succeeded in making Bacon out of Wilbur.