Kip is sent to a mental institution and upon release he is given another chance at life in a different state. He continues however to struggle with his guilt and doesn’t feel he deserves to be happy. Kip’s struggle and refusal to allow others to help him and to be happy is pointed out by his therapist who in a very notable passage tells Kip, “You think you don’t deserve anyone’s respect. Check out the people that have stood behind you. Had your back. Knew what you did and still treated you like a human being. Make a list. Can you be so awful if those people support you?”

Kip who is later called Wade when he moves from Alaska to start a new wife, is a character filled with many emotions. He is a complex character who is physically a typical child and then teenager, but he is far from normal. Kip’s character is motivated by constant feelings of guilt. First, he struggles with the death of his mother who had cancer but did not tell anyone she was sick until it was too late to be cured. Kip had read her diary and did not tell anyone that she was sick and he lives with a continual sense of guilt over her death. He later murdered a young neighbor when the child bragged about a new baseball glove and after four years in a mental institution, he is released but must live with what he did the rest of his life. He begins a new life and is actually happy and successful as a swimmer and high school student. He begins to drink and self-destruct as he feels he does not deserve to be happy. While the reader cannot help thinking Kip is a bad person for murdering someone, the reader also feels sorry for Kip as his mistakes continue to haunt him and he must learn to live with his mistakes.

The main character in the book was Seth Barham. Seth was easy to relate to, a normal kid who meets a friend, Jimmy, who has a passion for the sport of baseball. It is this friendship that drives Seth to fall in love with baseball but also challenges his moral convictions. While Jimmy is a dedicated baseball player, he is less committed to his schoolwork. Jimmy persuades Seth to drink and spend time at parties with his team mates. Seth is placed in a position in which he must make a decision to follow what he believes is right or stay by the side of his friend. While Seth doesn’t always make the “right” decision, at one point he chooses not to go out drinking with some of his teammates after a big win. He realizes quickly that he made the correct decision as he finds out two of his teammates were caught drinking and get suspended for the entire baseball season. Seth continues to stand by his beliefs and improves his skills as a baseball player while maintaining his grades and remaining on the school honor roll. Seth even attempts to help his friend when he realizes Jimmy is making decisions that are bad for him. Unfortunately Jimmy ends up dying in a car crash in spite of Seth’s attempts to help him.

Throughout the book the author does a great job in allowing the reader to get to know Seth, particularly his love for baseball. “My stomach knotted as I watched Cannon warm up. He seemed bigger and stronger and faster than ever. And what style! He did everything slow. He rubbed the ball up slow; he got the sign from the catcher slow; he tied his shoes slow. Then he’d go into his motion, and the ball would explode out of his hand.” (161) This is my favorite passage because it shows the reader that Seth is afraid to go up against Mike Cannon, the best pitcher in the league. The passage is important to me because it reminds me that a lot of people get nervous so I shouldn’t be so worried.

The topic of Truman Capotes “nonfiction” novel In Cold Blood drew me to read this novel. It intrigued me that Capote wrote about a true story of the murder of four family members on a Kansas ranch. While I had no intention of comparing novels, it appeared this book would be much different than a previous novel I read by Captote, Breakfast at Tiffany’s which I found to be a somewhat somber but probably realistic portrayal of life in a big city. What I found however is that Capote once again spent a great deal of time in letting the reader get to know the main characters of his book.

Capote is the narrator of the novel and takes time to describe the Clutter family who is eventually murdered. His description of the family members’ activity on what will become there last day, appears to lead the reader to understand that they are innocent victims of a crime and instill emotion. Capote also does not describe the actual murder until much later in the story when the criminals confess, in an attempt to capture the readers continued interest.

In addition to painting a picture of the victims, Capote spends a significant amount of time providing character descriptions of the two criminals as well as the main agent trying to solve the murder. His depiction of Perry especially when describing how he reminisces about his childhood when looking at some of his belongings, reminds the reader of the human nature of the criminals. His additional description of Perry including his difficult upbringing, lack of any family support, and possible underlying mental illness all serve to make the reader more sympathetic to the criminal. In addition, Capote describes the effects of the crime on the primary investigator, Dewey, who becomes consumed and is greatly impacted by his attempts to solve the crime.

While parts of the novel became somewhat drawn out, I found myself becoming more curious as to how the murder occurred and why Perry and Dick decided to commit this horrible crime. Capote does a good job at keeping the reader in suspense. The end of the book provides answers to those questions, however the reader is now faced with some mixed feelings pertaining to the criminals. At the beginning of the book, Capote describes the innocent family, making the criminals appear evil. As Capote allows the reader to get to know personal details about the murderers however, he makes the reader question whether or not the death penalty was the best end for both of these men.

Overall I felt In Cold Blood was an interesting read particularly since it is based on a true story. Capotes characterizations provided insight into how one crime can impact so many people and not just those that are close with the victims. His writing allowed not only a visual of the characters but also a more in depth view of who they were.

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Hughes uses a proud and determined tone throughout his poem. He uses a juxtaposition to refer to family “darker brother” along with slavery “they send me to eat in the kitchen”. He also uses symbolism referring to being at “the table” as a way to refer to being equal to white people in society. Finally, he uses imagery in his setting of patient eating in kitchen alone representing oppression as well as the food as a way to refer to his strength. Whitman on the other hand uses a lot of repetition/anaphora to stress importance and meaning. His repetition of “captain” and “heart” refer to his feelings that Lincoln was a man of great character. He also uses imagery by detailing the dead captain with words such as “bleeding drops of red” and “lips are pale and still”. Whitman also uses the ship as abstract/concrete language in “O Captain! My Captain!”.

By the time this note has reached the hands of its reader, I will be long departed from the city of Salem.  While I do not know as of yet where I will go or what I will do, I have left with enough money to last for a while, thanks in part to the contribution of the esteemed Reverend Parris.  I would like to say I will miss all the people of Salem, but I have never really felt accepted as a respected citizen, first as an orphan and later as an unmarried woman accused of a forbidden relationship.  But it was I who became the accuser of many.  With the accusations I must admit came increasing power; the power to change lives of those around me.

I have no real regrets; particularly my relationship with John Proctor. I loved him and only wanted his love in return.  But in the end, he did not love me back.  I will miss him as he was the love of my life. He was right about one thing however, I did blacken my name.   In the end, things changed.  I was once the one judged for my love of a married man and yet he was the one who was ultimately judged in the eyes of God.  An end that was truly unfortunate for him and many of those people who once had shunned me.  I am sure that leaving will not mean I will be gone from the memory of Salem; in fact I am sure that I will be forever remembered.

Sincerely,

Abigail

The title of my book is Breakfast at Tiffany’s and it was written by a man named Truman Capote. Breakfast at Tiffany’s is a book that is filled with trials and tribulations of a young woman named Holly as told by an un-named narrator who she meets while living in New York City. She is a young and unusual woman who lives a very different sort of life, including parties, a “job” visiting a mobster in prison, and many relationships with different men. The author uses a mix of drama, tragedy and even comedy to tell the story of Holly and the people around her.

What makes this book unique is that we are hearing about the story of Holly from a narrator who goes without a name or description. What we do know is where he lives, that he is an aspiring author, how he met Holly and later we learn that he has fallen in love with her. The conflict in this story becomes his feelings for a promiscuous, complex woman who has a very complicated past and a much different life than that of the narrator.

The narrator first encounters Holly when he overhears her buzzing one of the other apartment tenants to let her in because she lost her key. It appears innocent enough, however we soon have a glimpse into the real Holly when we hear her tell him “if you promise not to be angry, I might let you take those pictures we mentioned” (p. 12). We then hear the discussion between Holly and the man who took her home for the restaurant. The man has paid for Holly and her friends’ meal and he becomes upset when she won’t let him in to the apartment. The author uses Holly’s voice to give the reader a better understanding about who she is.

“The next time a girl wants a little powder-room change…take my advice darling: don’t give her twenty cents.”

The narrator later meets Holly one night when she crawls in his window through the fire escape. He learns that she visits a mobster in prison every week and receives $100 to deliver a “weather report” to his lawyer. We begin to understand Holly even more when she talks about her response to the lawyer’s offer to pay $100 per visit.

“you can do as well as that on trips to the powder room; any gent with the slightest chic will give you fifty for the girl’s john, and I always ask for cab fare too”.

The narrator becomes increasingly interested in Holly as he spends time with her and listens to her stories about her life. It becomes clear to the reader that Holly does not like to get close to people. She wants close companionship which is clear when she wants to sleep in the narrators bed the first night she meets him, but when he asks her why she woke up crying and talking in her sleep, she gets angry and quickly leaves.

“Oh for God’s sake….I hate snoops.”

The reader learns a great deal about Holly from her conversations with the narrator. We learn that she is involved with a mobster in prison providing “weather reports” to an outside lawyer, we find out that she is previously married, that she has an affair with her friend’s fiancé, becomes pregnant, but later is given a “dear john” letter when he returns back to Brazil without her. Holly in fact talks a great deal in this book, even admitting to her unconventional and promiscuous lifestyle.

“Really, though, I toted up the other night, and I’ve only had eleven lovers- not counting anything that happened before I was thirteen because, after all, that just doesn’t count.”

Overall, the author does a good job in giving the reader a view inside the life of Holly. Even though the story is told through a narrator, a man who met Holly and began to fall in love with her, we really learn about Holly from the character herself. Through her story the reader may find that they sometimes like her character, dislike her character, or even feel sorry for her. The author keeps the reader interested in the relationship between the narrator and Holly. In the end however, we learn that Holly has left New York for a different life without any note of where she was going. The reader should have anticipated this since Holly once told the bartender that “wild things” couldn’t be tied down.

“You can’t give your heart to a wild thing: the more you do, the stronger they get…If you let yourself love a wild thing, you’ll end up looking at the sky”

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The setting of the book is in the Bronx which is in New York, but there is a lot of talk about Cuba. In my head I can visualize what the Bronx looks like and being inside Yankee Stadium. The setting can relate to my own world because I like to play and follow baseball too.

In the book Heat there were no symbols that were represented in the book. The plot has an affect on the character because if people find out that Michael was born in Cuba, they might not let him play and he will get sent back home to Cuba. Michael changes throughout the book because he try’s to ignore the fact that people think he is too good to be 12. No character did not change in the book because they all wanted to get to the Little League World Series. Ramon made a questionable action when he tried to steel Mrs. Cora’s purse. Ramon is sneaky and Michael is an amazing baseball player, but they don’t have anything in common.

An important passage from the book is “Michael thought it was just something a father would say to a son. But he knew there was a look Papi would get when he said it, as though he were seeing things Michael couldn’t, back when it was just the two of them playing catch on that poor excuse of a field behind their apartment building in Pina del Rio, outside of Havana.” I think this passage is important because it is the first time that Michael realizes that he has an amazing arm.

This book is similar to a lot of sports books because it always involves a big game. So far I have not found any words that I did not know the definition of. I was surprised when Michael through the baseball from the home plate to center field and hit Ramon in the back of the head because that is hard to do. I have not found any of the parts of the book confusing because every scene is explained very well.

If I could ask the author one question, I would ask him why Michael cam to the United States instead of staying in Cuba where he was born because it doesn’t really say why he came to the United States in the book.

I would recommend this book to someone else because it is an exciting book that is intense at times because of all of the action. It is a great book and I am sure that many other people would like it too.

So far in the movie there have been a lot of good scenes, but one of them is my favorite. My favorite scene in the movie is when the mob of people surrounded Atticus because he was protecting Tom Robinson. The reason I like this scene so much is because Scout talked to Mr. Cunningham and she made the crowd of people go home and leave Tom Robinson alone.

I was a little disappointed with the movie because it would have been a very pivotal scene if they would have showed how Tom Robinson got shot. That scene was a complete change in plans for Atticus because now he is done with helping Tom Robinson out and he doesn’t have to go to the court house everyday now. I would have shown that he got shot because it is an important scene.

The book and the movie were almost the same, but some things were in different orders. A problem with having things in different orders is that it can be hard to follow. The book explained so much more than in the movie and the book was also easier to follow. Aunt Alexandra never came to take care of Jem and Scout in the movie and in the book, she wouldn’t go back home. Overall, I thought that the book was a lot better than the movie because it was easy for me to follow along and understand what happened in the book.