Vanessa

**favorite literay device in literature: "Siddhartha"**
====**"** Most people, Kamala, are like a falling leaf that drifts and turns in the air, flutters, and fall, and to the ground. But a few others are like a star whic travel one defined path: no wind reaches them, they have within themsleves their guide and path."==== ====i like metaphors best because it shows y things in a different perspective. I especially like this one because it talks about how siddhartha considers that he is not like leaf (people that just go with the flow and follow others) he is like a star because he has a goal he wants to reach. i love the leaf comparison its perfect because a leaf just blows in the air and you never know where its going to land.==== ====**favorite characterization in literature:** my favorite characterization is from the Bluest Eye Toni Morrison does an excellent job at characterizing. i really like when Frieda is characterized a bit like her mom. **"**Then frieda, with set lips and Mama's eyes, snatched her coat from her head and threw it on the ground. She ran toward them and brought her books down on Woodrow Cain's head. The circle broke.====

Woodrow looked frightened just enough to gve her more courage.
====this is my favorite characterization because it shows how Frieda is taking on what her mother has taught her and is it shows her mothers influence on who she is becoming. I think it shows how Frieda exemplifies a strong young confident girl and how her mother has been there for her and shows that Frieda is becoming courageous and its a great way to characterize her for a young aged girl.==== ====**favorite quote in literatre:** My favorite quote is from the //Kite Runner// "People say eyes are windows to the soul" this quote i feel is very insightfulI. It refers to Ali and how he's kind of expressionless, but how he can reveal himself through his eyes. he doesn't need to say a lot because a mere gaze can say a lot about a person and they are mysterious. Eyes also see everything and can help you determine what a person is like.====

Nora. Pooh! we can borrow until then.
====Helmer. Nora! (Goes up to her and takes her playfully by theear.) The same little featherhead! Suppose, now, that I borrowedfifty pounds today, and you spent it all in the Christmas week,and then on New Year's Eve a slate fell on my head and killed me,and—Nora (putting her hands over his mouth). Oh! don't say such horrid things.====

Nora. They? Who would bother about them? I should not know who they were.
====Helmer. That is like a woman ! But seriously, Nora you know what i think about that no debt no borrowing. There can be no freedom or beauty about a home life that depends on borrowing and debt.We two have kept bravely on the straight road so far, and we will go on the same way for the short time longer that there need be any struggle Nora (moving towards the stove). As you please, Torvald.Helmer (following her). Come, come, my little skylark must not droop her wings. What is this! Is my little squirrel out of temper? (Taking out his purse.) Nora, what do you think I have got here.====

Nora. Money!!
====this is my favorite dialouge because it shows how helmer sees Nora as an inferior almost sees her like a child by the names that he calls her and by giving her what she asked for to keep her quiet. Nora seems to have an obssesion with money, but she really doesn't. This is a good set up to the rest of the play.It makes Nora seem very naive and innocent, but later on we realize shes a very couragous woman.====

**favorite theme in literature:**
====there are many themes i Swallows of Kabul, but my favorite is about love. One would do whatever it takes and whatever they have to when it comes to love- this is my favorite theme in //Swallows of Kabul// because it shows how characters are willing to do anything even if they have to take a risk for the one that they love. It shows courage and care for another person. Mohsen and Zunara had a great relationship and Mohsen would do many things to try and make her feel better about the Taliban taking over to make her forget. Musarrat however, was the one that showed her love for Atiq. When he fell inlove with another girl she was willing to kill herself to save Zunaira in order for Atiq to be happy. Although she would no longer be with him she was willing to give up her life in order for Atiq to be happy since she was sick and he was suffering seeing her so ill.==== ====i want to write about someone being left, but in the end they realize that they shouldn't rely on someone to get through something because it all depends on them.There is no one to blame but yourself. We are all in control of our actions so i want to make the conflict become a resolution through the character taking their own actions for their own benefit. I want to talk about getting through something difficult by yourself because no one else can tell you how to love your life. Thats kind of the direction im heading in right now.====
 * ====A favorite line of my own writing is..."I tell you what i see...nothing but the truth"- i wrote a story through the point of view of a mirror. Its something weird but i like that line because when you look into a mirror its just a reflection of the self. In certain situations people take things the wrong way and in the specific story that i wrote teenagers had a distorted self image and got mad when they looked in the mirror. The mirror in my story is innocent because its not the mirror's fault the teens don't see what the mirror sees which is just a simple reflection. I like the twist of writing through the perspective of an inanimate object in my case a mirror. I like that specific line because it shows that sometimes we overreact at the mirror when it can't really do anything its just glass.====
 * ====My favorite poetic device of my own is..."The dusty chocolate leaves footprints on the palm of my hand"- imagery/personification. i really like this poetic device i used because its very descriptive and it doesn't just flat out say it. I feel like i did very well giving the image of chocolatyness of the chocolate that was on the palm of my hand from the chocolate and i think its clever! and it kind of paints a picture of little footprints. I like that i showed rather than said the dusty chocolate was on my hand.It makes it sound better and more poetic, plus its more pleasing to the ear.====
 * ====My favorite characterization of my own is...====
 * ====My favorite dialogue of my own is...====
 * ====A setting I would write about is...mexico/USA i want to write about migrating how to the US to add adds to the struggles of the character moving to a country thats foreign to them, which adds to their conflict. I grew upin mexico so but have lived in the US soi feel like this would be a good setting to write about since i have a lot to say about both.====
 * ====A conflict I would write about is...: i have a few ideas of what to write but i want to focus on someone being left or a conflict about getting past a certain idea they have in their head. What i mean is that maybe write about an adult trying to move on after separating with the guy who was going to be her husband and try to raise her daughter without his help. Or maybe make it from the daughters perspective and how growing up without a father affects her negatively.====
 * ====A theme I would like to address is...(abandonment/independence)- "Don't rely on someone to do something you can do yourself"====

Where’s Daddy?
==== Its father’s day and all the kids are in class making a little something to say happy father’s day. The teacher approaches Esme and asks “why aren’t you working?” Esme looks down at her blank pieces of red, yellow, and blue construction paper and then back up at her teacher and says “I don’t have a dad.” “We all have a dad Esme” says the teacher and Esme responds by saying “I have a mommy and a grandma oh and uncles too, but no dad.” The teacher understands and says make one for your mommy instead or an uncle. Esme decides to make one for her mom since she has too many uncles. It’s a hot day in the small town in Guerrero and Esme walks home with her card in hand, and everywhere she goes she sees little boys and girls running into the arms of their dad’s, and she can't help but wonder where her dad is. She gets home and runs to her mommy and gives her the card. “What do you have for me?” mommy says as she picks up little Esme and sits her on her lap. “It’s a card I made for you.” says Esme. Esme looks up at mommy and asks “Mommy why don’t I have a daddy?” Mommy is caught by surprise and doesn’t really know what to say, but she knows she has to say something. “I have lots of work to do Esme mommy can’t talk right now go play outside.” “Mommy you didn’t answer my question where’s daddy?” She stands with arms crossed looking up directly into her mommy’s eyes. ==== ==== Esme is a smart little girl especially for her age before she turned two she was already all over the place scaring us whenever she would go out the door since she no longer found crawling necessary. Always waking me up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom since she didn’t want to go in her diaper and learning to put CD’s in the stereo since her grandma didn’t know. Esme is a quick learner but that’s not what makes her so smart it’s the way she looks into your soul with her mysterious dark brown eyes waiting for your response. I kneel down to her level and say “sweetie your dad went on a really long trip”, I can already see in her eyes that she’s not buying my story. “If he’s on a trip why doesn’t he ever call?” asks Esme. This isn’t going to be easy she wants her answer and she wants the truth, but she’s not ready for the truth yet. How am I supposed to tell my 4-year old that her dad has another family? She sees the sadness in my eyes and decides that right now is not the best time so decides to go play outside. She may have let it go right now, but I know she will ask again when she wants something she will do anything to get it. ==== ==== Mommy is keeping something from me I wonder why she doesn’t want to tell me where daddy went. Maybe if he did go on a long trip there are pictures of him. Esme goes to the room where all the albums are and lies in bed looking at all the pictures laughing at the pictures of her mom when she was younger and the pictures of her as a baby. She was so caught up at looking at the pictures of her mom’s big hair that she forgot what she was looking for. She put the albums away but one of them dropped and a picture slid out. She picked it up and saw a man with a woman a kid about her age and a baby. She didn’t recognize any of them. “Mommy!!!!!” there was no answer. “Grandma who is this lady?” she asked. Grandma had a startled look on her face the same one mom had when I asked about where daddy was. “Esme that’s your dad” she said my heart sank and I held back the tears as she explained to me that before he was with my mommy he had been with her and that those were the ladies kids. I threw the picture and ran out with tears in my eyes. ==== ==== Esme was too young to understand the situation and figured that her dad didn’t want her so he left to have a family with another lady. Since that moment Esme wanted nothing to do with her dad as far as she was concerned her dad didn’t exist. Esme and mommy back to her place of birth the US in hope of a better future for Esme and to try and forget about her father. As the years passed Esme’s feelings of hatred towards her father only grew more since she was constantly reminded him in school, however, this was not the reason she hated him most. She hated what he had done to her and her mom. How people saw her mom and how they underestimated her. “Oh poor Esme, she is really in need a father look at how she’s turning out.” That’s what the teacher had told mommy when they called her to school to discuss why Esme had gotten so defensive when asked about her father. As she grew older more and more grownups underestimated Esme’s full potential. They all said she was going to rebel and with time her grades would drop and she would end up being a high school dropout due to being a teen mom. It’s hard enough she grew up without a father, but now hearing this from the people that say they are friends and family? Its hurt mommy to hear them say all this, but it hurt Esme more to hear that that’s what they thought of her. ==== ==== I’m going to prove them all wrong! So That’s exactly what she did although she didn’t start off that great in middle school she finished with flying colors being the only female of her class to receive an award at the 8th grade graduation. When high school started she was taking regular and few honors classes and was doing her best, but she still wasn’t where she wanted to be. Sophomore year came and she was at her peak with almost straight A’s and only one B. Although her ACT score wasn’t amazing junior year it was decent. By the time senior year came she had gotten nothing lower than a B throughout her high school career and was in all honors and AP courses. She graduated as top 10% of her class and received a full ride to attend her dream university and is going to start her career as a nurse or maybe a social worker or maybe she will start her own business whatever she decides to do she knows she will succeed because she can do anything she sets her mind to. ==== ==== Even though she grew up without a father she doesn’t blame him for never being in her life. She‘s now old enough to understand the situation her mom was in and she just wants to thank her father. Sure he may not have been there to see her grow up and she wasn't going to use his absense as an excuse to fail. Her dad never failed, her he in a way was her motivation to prove everyone wrong, but more importantly for making her believe in herself. He helped her get through the obstacles no one believed she would get through and best of all she did everything on her own.She is the only one responsible for how she and her future turned out and will continue to be the key to her future because no one can do something that she can do herself. She has accomplished a lot without the help of ayone, but with the motivation of her parents both her mom and dad. Esme doesn’t hold grudges, so when her dad came back one day into her life after seventeen years she decided to let him in. They finally met and whether he decides to stay and try to start a relationship with his only daughter is up to him. She is open for anything and well in life anything even the most unexpected things are possible. ====

==== Reflection: I wanted to write a story of something i could kind of relate to because i wanted to make the story as real as possibe. I feel that if you feel the feelings you write about so will your readers. It's a bit sad but i also wanted to show how as a child things aren't understood because kids are kids. Esme the protagonist in my story hated her dad, but when she grew up and understood she learned to look past what he didn't do and thank him for what he did. In life people tend to look at the negatives first and i wanted to say through this story that anything is possible even if it seems impssible. We are responsible for how our future turns out and if their is an obstacle whether it's a person or even the person itself we can get through it and i wanted this to be the main message of my story. It doesn't matter what you've been through its what you've done to get past it.====