(524)
Terrifying Weather
It
was the third time I had gone to Mexico and it was the middle of summer of
2004. I was companied by my grandparents, both my brothers, and 2 of my
cousins. One would expect to have sunny, warm and simple beautiful weather in
the summer especially in Mexico but it was the complete opposite that one
night.
The
day had started off like any other summer day: clear skies, birds chirping, the
sound of children playing outside, and the sun shining bright. I remember myself even lying under the sun
just listening to my surroundings. Everything seemed normal and joyful. Hours later, around 5 P.M., the skies
suddenly became gray without a warning and I couldn’t even hear the sound of
children playing or birds chirping. Thinking it was already late, I went inside
to watch Spider-Man. I became aware that it was barley 5 shortly after and
thought about it but didn’t think about it. It came to mind for about 2 seconds
and then the thought of the sudden weather arrangement left my mind in hurry.
It
began to rain pretty hard around 6 and all I thought was, “it’s just rain,”
and, “wow this rain smell is inhalable.” I stood next to the window next to my
bed for about 2 hours just watching the rain pour and pour nonstop. It was
amazing how so much water could fall from the sky so quickly. “I wonder why God is crying so much,” I asked
myself and with that I fell into deep sleep along with my brothers and cousins.
I
woke up 5 hours later in which felt like 5 minutes. I had been awoken by loud
thunder. The only people in bed around me were one of my cousins and one of my
brothers. I figured they had gotten up
before me. A large lightning bolt along with thunder struck close by. I jumped
in fear and ran out of the room without looking back. Luckily, I bumped into my
nine year old cousin. I had never been so happy to see him in my entire life. I
hugged him tightly. He saw how frightened I was and walked me to my
grandparents. They were both next to the door looking outside. They said that
it had been years since a storm like this one had happened and how weird it was
for it to have happened in the middle of summer.
I
sat next to them and watched the rain pour down. It was about 4 or 5 inches of
rain. Never in my life have I seen so
much rain. The rain didn’t give up; it still kept pouring like rain there would
be no more. Then lightening companied by
thunder took part too. I would hear thunder from my left and see bright white
and yellow and blue lightning come from the right. The lightning seemed to come
out of nowhere. The skies were completely smoky black. It looked like the clear
skies and sun had been captured and hidden forever without hope of them coming
back.
I
wondered if it was near its end. Then all of a sudden it was silent outside. There
was neither thunder nor rain drops. Everything had vanished except for the dark
and mysterious skies. Moments later something unexpected came from the sky. It
looked like piece of ice or salt. Then another, and another, then lots of them
fell from above. It was hail and it seemed completely fine at first because the
hail came in bean sized pieces but then after a minute or so it came down
harder. The roof sounded like it was being attacked by hundredths of crows one
after the other. The hail got bigger. They hail pieces were as big as two
grapes put together. Everyone in the house that was awake backed a foot away
from the door. It came to the point where thre3 four inch hail pieces fell from
the sky. They were the biggest I had ever seen before. Everything became silent
again and then thunder once more. This time it was harder than ever. It was
just thunder. All electricity wen away in a celerity after the hail
stopped. My grandma set up three
candles. She held one, and put the other two across the room on opposite
sides. Everything was dark and barely
visible thanks to the candles. Not even the moon light had a sign of existing
at the moment. The thunder sounded like big bangs on bass drums. BOOM! The
thunder lasted for another five minutes when I checked the time on my grandpa’s
watch. It was 3 AM. I had spent another 2 hours staring outside and I was not
sleepy whatsoever. I wasn’t sure if I wasn’t sleepy because I was scared,
because of mother nature’s noise, or because I just wasn’t sleepy. But what I
do know is that I had perfect timing. Right away when I looked up from looking
at the watch an incendiary
bright yellow bolt of lightning struck down right in front of me. It hit the
guava tree and it caught on fire. It was one of the scariest things I had
seen. It happened so fast too. First I
see darkness, then yellow and then fire. I was sad that the guava tree was on
fire but fortunately it began to rain again. It caused the fire to fade out and
the guava tree was fine. I was actually happy that the rain had come back.
After
seeing all this excitement and experiencing new things about nature I became
tired and sleepy. I showed off my expressions by yawning and asking my cousin
to walk me to the room. As he did, I rested in bed and shut my eyes. I slowly
heard the rain and thunder fade away slowly and before in knew it I was
dreaming about being at the beach.
(992)
The
Marbles
A
long time ago before the earth became existent, there lived 3 kids. Their names
were Sandra, Jack, and Daniel. They were close friends and coherent
to
each other. They all lived together in what one may call paradise. Everything
was perfect and they had everything they needed. The flowers blossomed in
bright colors, the skies always clear and sunny, the animals around them harmless,
and they had ever kind of vegetable and fruit to keep them healthy and strong. Nothing
ever went wrong as long as they obeyed their master, the great and powerful
Manji. He had powers that nobody else had. He had a cane that was considered a talisman
because
it would grant any wish he with just thinking of it. The great and powerful
Manji Koala only asked for them all to follow the rules in the cane book
especially rule number 1, which was the most important rule of them all. Rule
number 1 read, “Do not let anything in the shape of a sphere hit the Quenchi River.”
The
Quenchi River was very popular to everyone. It was their water source and
everyone visited the well-known river at least 5 times a day. The friendly trio
liked to play marble games on a hill right over the Quenchi River and one day
something happened that changed their lives forever. Sandra, Daniel, and Jack
were playing with their marbles. They were competing with each other to see who
could make their marble go into a dirt hole the fastest. Sandra defeated Jack
and Daniel and without thinking about her location, she jumped up and down. The
marbles were shook by her poundings and rolled down the hill. Jack noticed them
and tried to accost
the
marbles. They were heading directly to the Quenchi River! Everyone that noticed
the 9 marbles rolling downhill tried their best to try to catch up to them but
it was no use. Two marbles had fallen into the water and Jack caught up to the
third marble but just managed to touch it after hitting the water. All nine
marbles finally hit the water and everything became silent. Then a flash of
light came out of the water right where the marbles had fallen. The marbles
levitated into midair and it seemed as if it was growing. Everyone watched in
awe until the great and powerful Manji Koala climbed down his tree. He became
furious when he saw what had happened. There was nothing he could do for a can
rule had been broken. “You fools! Do you notice what you have all done? It is
the end! There is nothing I can do now. We have created something that we
cannot stop. We have created planets,” exclaimed the great and powerful Manjin
Koala.
The
marbles became ten times bigger than their size every second. Everyone began to
panic and then all of a sudden the planets got to the point that they were so
big that the knocked everyone off including the Great and Powerful Mangi Koala.
They thought all hope was gone, that it was the end as they fell. Until
suddenly the fell on the third marble that had fell into the Quenchi River.
That planet was named Earth. The first was named mercury, the second, Mars, the
third, Earth, the fourth, Venus, the fifth, Jupiter, the sixth, Saturn, the
seventh, Uranus, the eighth, Neptune, and the ninth, Pluto. They were aligned
exactly in the order they had fallen and they looked exactly how the marbles
did and Earth became their new home.
(597)
Narrative Responses
The
Tide Rises, the Tide Falls
When
I first read this poem I thought that it literally meant that the tide rises
and that then it falls as in it goes back and forth. When I read, “The little
waves… efface the footprints in the sands-,” I thought about how when I go to
the beach the tide gets rid of my footprints as well. It was after putting my
book away when I realized I wasn’t looking at the actually picture. I was
looking at the small pictures that lead to the big picture. I felt really dumb
when I realized the tide signified time and how it does the same thing over and
over again even if the traveler never comes back. I liked how Henry Wadsworth
Longfellow describes the foam of the waves as white hands. They aren’t actual
hands but it gives a small idea of a hand actually washing away the footprints
as if they were never there. The actual message that this poem was trying to
tell me was that nature goes on doing its daily routine even if there is no one
there to watch it. Death is something that happens to everyone and you never
return to life again but nature (the tide) will not stop for anyone.
(210)
Grass
When
I first saw the Grass poem without
reading it, I noticed how short it was. I thought to myself, “Oh, man. I am
definitely going to have trouble understanding this.” But at the end I was
wrong. It took me a while but I actually understood the message of this poem.
The message was that the grass is like a type of decoration to all the
disasters that we humans have made. The grass is a part of nature that somehow
repairs all of the scars made in battles. We forget about the fallen heroes of
wars too easily. We forget about all the people that died in wars trying to
fight for us and it’s is true. You don’t see people today caring about people
that died in war 10 years ago from today. It’s like we forget about the battles
of the past and the lessons from history. It’s the reason why we make the same
mistakes over and over again. The reasons for those wars are the same as the
ones we first started with. When Sandburg says, “Shovel them under and let me
work,” I think about someone actually working on something. The grass is
referred to as a person covering up the dead with green.
(211)
The
Earth on Turtle’s Back
The
Earth on Turtle’s Back, by Michael Caduto and Joseph Bruchac, was my favorite
story in the Prentice Hall Literature book so far. I enjoyed reading about how
the world came to be by just seeds and dirt on a turtle’s back. Caduto and
Bruchac used mostly personification and metaphors to make this Native American story.
For example, earths cannot grow on turtle’s backs and animals of course cannot
talk in actual life. I would think that any other person that would read this
story would take it seriously and just understand what it says but not me. I
thought that this story was actually pretty funny without intention. Like when
the pregnant woman fell her “grasp slipped off the tip of the branch, leaving
her with only a handful of seeds as she fell, down, down, down, down.” At that
part I imagined her falling and screaming and then stopping her scream to grab
seeds and then screaming again until the swans come to her. This story made my
head come up with a little movie about it with some behind the scenes parts
that the story didn’t say. The Earth on Turtle’s Back helped my imagination
blossom. When the pregnant woman fell down into the hole, it reminded me of
Alice from Alice in Wonderland because Alice also falls down into a hole and
ends up in a small adventure with animals and other creatures.
(237)
When
Grizzlies Walked Upright
When Grizzlies Walked Upright and the Earth on Turtle’s Back, were similar
because they were both myths and involved animals as having big parts in the
stories. I found it cool how Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz had the imagination to
create When Grizzlies Walked Upright.
They don’t just explain how bears became to walk on all fours, but they also
explain how the trees, rivers, and animals were created. They use good
imaginary as well. When they said, “So he carved a hole in the sky with a stone
and pushed all the snow and ice down below… known as Mount Shasta,” and also when
the writers say, “Get down on your hands and knees. You have wronged me, and
from this moment all of you will walk on four feet and never talk again,” you
can actually picture the Chief of the Sky Spirits doing that. These ideas of course doesn’t exist and
cannot possibly be possible because there is no such thing as carving into the
sky or telling dangerous animals what to do and them actually doing what you
say. When the Chief of the Sky Spirits orders the bears to walk on all four, it
reminds me of a story my grandma told me when I was four. I can’t remember it
very well but I remember her saying that snakes used to have two legs and that
an important woman was on a donkey and that a snake got to close to the donkey
and alarmed it to freak out and drop the woman. God got mad at the snakes and
made their legs disappear and that’s why snakes undulate
today.
(276)
Walden
This
narrative was my second favorite because although it was somewhat Thoreau’s
imagination, it was realistic and meaningful. Thoreau focuses mostly on
simplicity. I had never thought about simplicity before. In his perspective
simplicity is just the things one needs in life. He keeps it simple. When he
first moves into the cabin in the woods in the winter, I thought was crazy. I
mean it’s fine to move into the woods but not when it is “merely a defense
against the rain, without paltering or chimney; [when it has] the walls being
of rough weather stained boards, with wide chinks, which make it cool at
night.” I could just feel the freezing weather at night when I read that
sentence. Living in the woods, Thoreau also says, “I went to the woods because
I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and
see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die,
discover that I had not lived.” By this I think he meant that he just wanted to
live the simple life. He just wanted what he needed and not become selfish and
dependent like others in the world. This was wise of him because he was
generous but I would never be able to survive in the woods like that by myself
without heaters and stoves. Later he says, “I left the woods for as good a
reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives
to love and could not spare any more time for that one.” He knows that living
in the woods isn’t all there is in life. He won’t fall in like other people
have, as in the whole greedy and complex lives. Having less of something is
like having more of it. For example, the poor people have the more than what
rich people have. The poor people just have what they need and nothing more
unlike the rich. The rich are spoiled and get whatever they want and whenever
they want. The poor keep their lives simple.
(355)
Atlantic Essay Responses
Divine Soil by John Burroughs, River Driftwood by Sarah Orne Jewett, and Walking by Henry David Thoreau, were the three Atlantic articles I
read. In my perspective, I found it
pretty interesting how 3 completely different authors were all able to write
about Nature and expand on their thoughts on it but yet be able to give out the
same connection in different ways.
Out
of the three essays I read, Walking
was my favorite because it liked how Thoreau made it clear that one shouldn’t
go walking for exercise but instead to appreciate and enjoy nature. Thoreau’s
idea of walking is for one “to lose themselves… in the woods.” After reading
this certain essay, I reminded about the movie Into the Woods. Chris and Thoreau had very similar thoughts about
nature and society. Thoreau says, "To
enjoy a thing exclusively is commonly to exclude yourself from the true
enjoyment of it." This is very similar to Chris’ idea of happiness being
shared.
While
Thoreau focused more on nature and the get away from society, Burroughs essay The Divine Soil is more about the supernatural
and how it affects nature. I was somewhat confused about this essay because I
wasn’t very clear on what he was trying to say. It was like he was just writing
what he thought. First he talks about how, “[people] never learn,” and the goes
on talking about heaven and technically how we don’t appreciate nature because
we have brought the account that nature is, “too cheap, too common, and too vulgar.”
Then he begins to talk about spiritual roots and how they connect with nature.
Burroughs says that the spiritual root conceptions “[do] not cheapen or degrade
the spiritual,” and instead it elevates the material. The issue with this is
that he never says whether what he talks about is bad or a good.
Burroughs
also mentions existence and how things are linked together with survival. He
connects the food we eat with the thought we think, the poem we write, or the
picture we paint with the processes of digestion and nutrition similar to River Driftwood, by Sarah Orne Jewett. Jewett begins with the food chain. Every time
that a prey is consumed the consumer becomes a higher part of the chain. She
also gives the idea that, “we are not certain what an angel may be; but the
life in us now will be necessary to the making of one by and by.” I also
thought that she tried giving the idea that consumers don’t exactly appreciate what
we eat and we become what is eaten.
(434)
