Callie M's blog

I’m reading Doormat by Kelly Mcwilliams. My overall reaction to this book is that teens really do have alot to wory about and alot of daily stress that they have to control.

I’m currently reading Doormat by Kelly McWillaims. The genre of this book is realistic fiction. The main plot of this book is that Two best friends go through the hardships of high school and try to find themselves. Suddenly, one of the girls gets pregnant and wants to be a model so slowly her dreams slipping away. She desperately depends on her best friend to support her and help her with managing her career as a model.

That’s as far as I’ve read in this book, I was very interested in this book because I can relate to it since I’m in high school. I’m about half way through and I really like it, considering I’m not that much of a reader I’m impressed with how good this book is turning out to be. I’m totally looking forward to finishing this book and my predictions is that she has an abortion.. She seems to care way more about her modeling job than the child inside her. I hope that everything works out for the best and hoping for a very intense ending

In the Book to kill a mockingbird Atticus sets a tone for the book about pride. He sets really good examples for his children Scout and Jem. One of the examples he sets is to not retaliate with someone. Atticus goes through a lot and never fights back or does anything mean or inappropriate to anyone. When Mr. Ewell spits in Atticus’s eye Atticus doesn’t retaliate and chooses the better way to handle it. It would’ve been really easy for Atticus to just hurt or do something back to Mr. Ewell but he didn’t and he simply ignored him instead. This shows how mature Atticus is and I think that most the reason he didn’t do anything back was because he wanted to set a good example for his kids. His daughter Scout got into a fight and he told her not to fight back and to act like a mature lady. If Atticus would’ve fought Mr. Ewell Scout would’ve been very disappointed and she’d probably start fighting again. Another example that Atticus sets is to not be racist. He stands up for Tom Robinson and believes that it’s not right to be racist and everyone should just get along. Atticus is the Lawyer for Tom Robinson and his children follow in his footsteps so he tries to create the path to a good life. He creates this path by making sure his children do the right thing, and that they get along with the people that could possibly help them in the future.  Atticus makes sure that Jem doesn’t pester Ms. Dubose and they end up becoming close in the end of the story. People respect Jem and Scout because they’re very loyal to their father and they respect everyone back. Without Atticus Scout and Jem would be less mature and less structured. Atticus is a very good parent because he’s taught them so many life lessons and he’s taken the role of their mother that died. It must’ve been really hard to deal with too young children that are having trouble growing up. I give Atticus props for being a great role model for his children and that he never gave up!  Atticus is a great person and he tries to make his children be the same way.  I think that in Scout and Jem will have very bright futures because of the things that Atticus has taught them.

Health is a very important topic. Most people choose to ignore it though because they don’t want to question what there really eating. All they know is that it tastes good. I think health is more important than people realize. Being healthy is a life style and a choice. If you make the right choices you can decrease the chance of you having a medical problem in the future. Being healthy is not a hard thing to do. All you have to do is cut back on unhealthy foods and fast food and start eating thing with less fat and calories. So if you do these things you can be a healthier person. Being healthy tells what kind of person you are.

 Children can help decrease the rate of obesity in the future, by starting now. Many adults believe it’s easier and faster to eat fast foods rather than cook fresh foods at home. But what they don’t see is that fast foods cause health problems, cost more money, and start bad eating habits. When parents take their children to fast food places they are giving children the green light to unhealthy eating. The parents that cook at home are more likely to have healthier children. When children grow up and cook for their families they could learn many skills from their parents that cook for them now. If we teach children to eat healthy they will follow us and continue eating healthy. The children now are creating our future, so we need to start being healthy and try to stay that way.

 As people we waste so much money on things that we want but truly don’t need. Many times people go to the grocery store and waste money on healthy foods such as expensive candy or unhealthy snacks. Instead of buying fatty foods that we don’t need we could start spending money on healthy foods that will benefit us.  By doing just this simple thing we can decrease the obesity rate and start becoming healthy. The main reason that I think people buy unhealthy cheap foods is because we don’t want to waste it on healthy expensive foods. Wouldn’t people rather buy more healthy food than more fatty food for the same price? When people buy healthy things to eat we benefit not only ourselves but our families. Good food changes the way people live, it makes people feel better and have better health.

 We can do so many things to help stop the increasing rate of obesity. don’t know why we aren’t though. Well the first thing we can start doing is try to inform people about how bad fast food is for people. But most people these days do know by now how bad it is for them and I don’t know what’s stropping them from. Another thing is that we can try to push more people to try organic foods because it is better for them. We can do this by trying to replace all this bad food in grocery stores and in fast food restaurants with more organic and healthier food that people will still enjoy. But what people still don’t get is that they still have the choice to eat healthy three times a day.

So over we have learned being healthy all depends on your life style. If you make the right choices through out life you will thank your self in the future. With the help of everyone we can change the future and change the way America is eating and make it better for life in the future. Even though being healthy is a hard thing to do it will thank you later in the long run. Decreasing the weight in obesity our country will look healthier. Small steps to eating healthy can change the way we live forever.

For my visual theme project I decided to create a poster representing racism make people act cruelly towards others. I choose to represent this because it’s one of the main themes of the book and racism is mostly the reason that Tom Robinson ended up in jail. ON our poster I had a picture or Tom Robinson, a dead mockingbird, and Camilla with a no sign representing the loss of innocence. The mockingbird and Tom Robinson are alike because in the story they put Tom Robinson in jail even though he was innocent. In the story it says, “Mockingbirds are good for one thing, to make beautiful music for us to listen to… It’s a sin to kill a mockingbird.”(90)  It’s also a sin to judge people just because of their race. I decided to do a poster because I thought I could express myself as much as I could on a piece of paper

The movie To Kill a Mockingbird is extremely different from the book in my mind. I was expecting the town to be a lot smaller and more in the country. And I thought that the characters looked different from what I was imagining as well. I prefer the book better because it’s a lot more descriptive than the movie. I can get a better feel for the characters while reading the book.  I think the character that was most portrayed in the movie was Atticus, He’s showed me a lot of strength and will to do the right thing for everyone.My favorite scene from the movie is when Atticus is standing in front of Tom Robinsons doors and Scout comes running over and talks to Mr. Cunningham. This little section form the movie meant a lot to me because a little girl made many men change there mind about wanting to take Tom. It shows me that young people can make a difference when they speak up about things. Scout is an important character now because she has showed people that she’s matured a lot and that she can make differences. I wasn’t disappointed at all by the movie. I thought it was very interesting but a lot different from the book. The movie really helped me understand what was going on because when I was reading the book I got lost sometimes. I’m happy that we got to see the movie because it made me enjoy the book more and when I was reading I understood who the author was talking about and it was just a great visual. I’d rather view the movie other than anything else.

The main setting of this section of the book is mostly in the court, and near Tom Robinson. The most important event in this section is when Tom Robinson was on trial for the rape of Mayella Ewell. I think that this is a very important part of the book because it shows how racist the characters are. I also think that Mr. Robinson is innocent and he should be released. In this section Atticus really steps up and tries to help Tom Robinson. It must have taken a lot for him to help Tom because he’s black and everyone was against him, but he still tried to help. This event could influence the plot of the story because there are two sides now and some of the people don’t like that Atticus is trying to help Tom, and things could turn bad. Atticus being strong encourages Jem and Scout to do the right thing and to stand up for what’s right. Scout gets more information on what’s happening and she tries to help too. The tone or mood of this section was very frustrating for me because I was on Tom Robinsons side and no one believes what he’s says and I have faith that he’s telling the truth. The section was also intense because I didn’t know what was going to happen next so I wanted to keep reading to find out.

I think that Maycomb is just like Sheboygan Falls because it’s out in the country and it’s just a small little town. There isn’t really much to do in the town and some kids get into trouble because there’s nothing to do. Everyone knows everything about each other in the town because it’s so small and we all know each other here in Falls.  I think that Scout reminds me of my little brother because he always wants to be involved and hanging out with me and my friends. Scout is really young and hasn’t really figured out her place, she’s just kind of floating along and trying to mature. This story is very much like other things I’ve read, it describes all the characters and describes many things about the town and the people that live there. There are several things going on in the book and it keeps me focused. Sometimes while reading this story I get confused because I’m trying to remember everything that is happening and all the people that are being introduced, so at times it’s very hard to fallow. When Scout, Jem, and Dill were curious about there neighbors the Radleys, It makes me think about my neighbors. At first when I moved into my house I was creped out by them but then I got to know them and they weren’t so bad. I think that the kids have to mature and be polite and get to know the radleys because the rumors that they hear are most likely false.

One important symbol in this book is the dog that gets killed by Atticus. This dog symbolizes the ignorance of the people in the town. I think that it represents ignorance because no one knew that Atticus was the sharpest shooter in the county, but yet everyone knew and would gossip about all the little things he would do. I can clearly see the image in my mind. The author describes everything with a lot of detail and writes with accents in the character’s voices. When the author writes like this it makes me a lot more interested in the book and it makes the book seem much more fun to read.  I think that the most important conflict is when Jem tries to mature and hang out with his sister and Dill. He reminds me of my little brother because he wants to be with me and my friends but we are at completely different stages in maturity. He doesn’t seem to understand the things that me and my friends do and talk about. This conflict wasn’t really solved yet because it will take time for Jem to mature and for now Scout has to deal with the things Jem does. There wasn’t really a set tone of the section; there was a mix of emotions going on between characters. I know what the tone was because there were many different conflicts through put the section.

While reading this book through this section I found myself thinking about many different things, I wasn’t focused at all. Something I was thinking about was how I can relate everything in the book to something in my life. I picked the first passage from chapter twelve. ”Jem was twelve. He was difficult to live with, inconsistent, moody. His appetite was appalling, and he told me so many times to stop pestering him I consulted Atticus: “Reckon he’s got a tapeworm?” Atticus said no, Jem was growing. I must be patient with him as little as possible.” (pg.115)  I liked this passage because it shows that Jem is finally growing up and starting to mature more. He is getting to his teen years and starting to feel like he doesn’t want to be by his parents and he’s having an attitude.

Another passage I picked was on page 139 of the fourteenth chapter.  “ Night”, I murmured, I picked my way across the room to turn on the light. As I passed the bed I stepped on something warm, resilient, and rather smooth. It was not quite like hard rubber, and I had the sensation that it was alive. I also heard it move. Pg.139.   I like this passage because Scout was freaking out because she thinks that she stepped on a snake. This passage is entertaining and I Enjoyed reading more. If I was with the author right now I’d ask if the dogs name Tom Robinson had anything to do with Rob Johnson because the names are very similar.