Medusa

Author's Note: This was written to put a spin on a classic character, Medusa. This story was written by Savannah Padilla, Christa Buth and me. This is about a young teenage, 21st century Medusa. 

“I don’t understand why she gets bullied at school! It’s not like she’s ugly. We didn’t have an ugly child, did we? No. We didn’t!”

I heard my mom scream at my dad as I was rubbing neosporin on the new additions to my bruised legs. Today it was a group of cheerleaders. As I walked out of class, and rounded the corner to my locker, they got me. Sky, their head honcho, grabbed my blonde curls and hurled me to the ground. Her prissy followers then proceeded to kick and slap me. Just another typical addition to my day. And like my mom said, I’m not even ugly.

I know exactly why she hates me. It’s because of the stupid, useless Brad. He asked me out and I said yes, but I had no idea that Sky and Brad were still going out. If I had known there is no way that I would have ever said yes, I would have been smart enough to realize that she would torture me for the rest of my high school years. One thing’s for sure, I wouldn’t be in this mess if Brad had never asked me out.

And because of him, my highschool life is demon infested. It’s as if the God’s themselves had come down and cursed me. I can’t wait till I’m out of this stupid school. I am so done with these people acting like they can talk to me and bully me the way they do. One day I will get my revenge, I swear it. One day they will fear me as I walk through these halls, they will fear my power, and my social ranking in this school.

Slowly, I am making my way through the halls, attempting to scoot by Sky and her possy. But I do not succeed, Sky steps in front of me, stopping me in my tracks.

“Hello Medusa. Or shall I say snake,” she hissed at me.

“Snake? What are you talking about?!” I asked confused.

“God, do you know anything? Snakes are hunters. They prey on the weak, and they have no heart. Very selfish indeed, they just go in single minded. All about themselves. And that is exactly you. Medusa the snake: Stupid, rude, ugly, cold hearted.”

“What!” I scream. That’s it I am so done with these people. I’m thirty seconds away from losing it. If I don’t walk away now I’m going to hurt someone. Too late, bringing my arm back for a wind up I swing forward, hitting the queen herself straight in her surgically enhanced nose. With a scream, she falls straight to the floor. Her minions crowd around her like vultures. Then in unison, they all turn towards me and give me the death stare. Like I had just murdered someone. I was so hyped up on adrenaline that I didn’t care that these blonde twigs were about to come after me. I stood there proud of what I’d done, glad I did it and ready to accept the punishment I’d be receiving.

Sitting in the principals office with my parents sitting across from me, staring down, not even making eye contact with me like, I was a total disgrace to the family. But still, I didn’t even care, I don’t care how mad I made someone, or how embarrassed my parents were. I am just so glad that Sky had gotten what she had coming to her. As the principal starts to lecture me, I stop him, cutting him off I say. “I’m dropping out of school.” Shock spreads to my parents faces, they stutter trying to say no, no she’s not, but I just look at them and say, “I’m done with this school, I’m done with these people, I’m just done in general.” I get up and walk out the door, with a wide grin spread across my face.

Analysis of Helen

Author’s Note: I wrote this to analyze the short story, “The Hysterical History of The Trojan War- Parody.” I will compare the character of Helen to the character, Karen from the movie, Mean Girls.

In the Trojan Horse parody, the character, Helen is a ditzy girl, who is considered to be extremely beautiful.  Helen is very popular in this parody and is wanted by many guys. She ran away from her husband and with Paris, and for no reason but because she felt like it. Helens character type is a common character type in movies, books and more. In movies, there is always the mean or ignorant pretty popular girl, who is only wanted and cherished for her extreme beauty. Helen’s character is similar to that of the character, Karen Smith in Mean Girls. Karen is a total “blonde” in the movie, talking with her is almost like talking with a 5 year old. But because she is so beautiful she is considered popular and has many friends.

In the parody the author tried to emphasize the pretty girl type of person Helen was, by making her a ditz, and a snotty popular girl. Helen’s character and Karen are two very similar characters. For example Helen made a stupid, not very thought out decision to run away with Paris and leave her husband behind, who thought that Paris had kidnapped her, and not ran away with Paris. Karen is similar to Helen, because of the fact that they both don’t think about their actions and what they say or do before they act upon their thoughts. Both these characters are considered to be beautiful and they both get whatever boys they want, but they are also very ditzy and ignorant.  They both use their looks and popularity to get them through life.  

The Truth In The Story

Author’s Note: I wrote this to analyze the historical events within the book, The Book Thief, which make the book historical fiction and if the historical events in the book stay true to what actually happened.

What makes historical fiction, historical fiction is true facts and references throughout the book or story. The novel, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is an example of historical fiction. The book is a made up story, but it has accurate references and facts from history. The Book Thief is about an orphan, Liesel, who falls in love with books, but is very poor so she must steal books in order to read them.  This story talks about Liesel’s life and things that are going on around her and how these things are affecting her life. The novel makes true references to actual facts and events in history, which is what makes it historical fiction, and it does a good job of staying true to what actually happened.

One example of true facts and references that the author used to make this book historical fiction is when the author refers to Adolf Hitler. Many times you will hear the characters say, “Heil Hitler,”(50) or questions like, “What does our fuhrer say?”(273) Adolf Hitler was a dictator in Germany in the time that the story takes place, and he was a very important person in history and affected the way this story was told majorly.  Throughout the book the author stayed true to the events, and made true references about and involving Adolf Hitler.

Not only did the book stay true to the facts and events in the time when talking about Adolf Hitler, but also when the author talks about Jesse Owens. Jesse Owens was a famous black Olympian for track and field. The quote, “Jesse Owens had just completed the 4x100m relay and won his fourth gold medal,” (56) shows how the author stayed true to facts about the time that the book took place in. The Author used real facts and events about Jesse Owens to help create a made up part of the book and made sure to stay true to the facts and time frame of the book.

Although the author talked about Jesse Owens and his story, and made sure to stay true to the facts, he also talked about how many Nazi’s boycotted and vandalized Jewish businesses. Throughout the book the author talked a lot about how Jewish businesses were being vandalized by Nazi’s and how they were being boycotted because they were Jewish businesses. The quote, “the Kaufmann Shoe Shop was reduced to broken glass, and all the shoes were flung aboard a truck in their boxes, (61)” shows how the book refers to this. Also, it shows how the author stayed true to what was constantly happening throughout that time and place. The author did a good job of staying true to what was happening in the time in history  that the story took place.

In conclusion, many times throughout this book the author proves to stay true to the time by writing about actual events and people in history. When readers read historical fiction novels, that stay true to the time and place, it seems that they typically get more engaged in the story. I believe that this happens, because they read about the true events and people from history in a new way, with a new story while  not changing what actually happened in history.

Trojan Horse

Author's Note: This is a reflection of the short story "The Trojan Horse," adapted from Book II of The Aeneid by Virgil. In this I will talk about the main conflict and how the conflict was resolved, and I compared the story to real life situations. 

The conflict in the story was person verses person, because the Greeks and Trojans are battling against each other. The conflict was resolved when the Greeks won, by hiding in a wooden horse and then getting into Troy and taking over the city and the Trojans. The devious part of this story was how the Greeks won the war against the Trojans. They won by hiding in a wooden horse and making it look like they left and gave up, when in actuality they were hidden somewhere else and in the giant wooden horse. Then when the Trojans took the horse into their city they came out and attacked when the Trojans were least expecting it.

Something like this could happen nowadays, because people are still crazy and devious enough to try this. Also because people would do and try anything to win a battle or war, but this is also a very know trick or story so it might not be very effective nowadays. This could not happen in a school or small workplace, because of the fact that, there wouldn’t be enough room for people to build something big enough to have a lot of people fit in. Also, because there aren’t any battles at school or in a small workplace that this way of battling would be effective. I have not seen this kind of thing in any movies, shows, or books. I have heard of it before, but other than that I haven’t seen it or read about it in anything.

Reverse Racism And Stereotyping

Author’s Note: In this piece I have written about stereotyping, and reverse racism. I compared those two topics to a short story that deals with those concepts and teaches you a lot about them.\

Everyday people make assumptions about people and based on many things such as, looks, where they live and much more. This is just like how the mom acts in the short story, “ After You My Dear Alphonse,” because she demonstrates reverse racism in many parts throughout the story.  “After You My Dear Alphonse,”  is about a mom and her son comes home for lunch and brings a friend of his with him. His friend happens to be black, and the story is about the conversation between the mom and the black boy and how she makes many assumptions about him, his family and his home life. “ After You My Dear Alphonse,” by Shirley Jackson, demonstrates reverse racism  and stereotyping in many different parts.

Johnny’s mom demonstrates reverse racism towards Johnny’s friend, Boyd. One example of how she does this is when she offers to give Boyd old clothes and things, but she is very insistent that he not turn the clothes down or be ashamed to need it, when in reality he doesn’t need the clothes he is not like a stereotypical colored person.  When Boyd says, “ I guess we buy about everything we need. Thank you very much though,” in response to Johnny’s mom’s offer. When he says this it proves that he is not in need of clothes or any kind of charity from other people.

Not only when Johnny’s mom offers Boyd clothes is she demonstrating reverse racism, but also when she assumes Boyd’s dad does a lot of hard manual labor in a factory all day. When Johnny’s mom asks what Boyd’s dad does for work, Boyd says that he works in a factory. Johnny’s mom responds to this by saying, “And he certainly has to be strong to do that—all that lifting and carrying at a factory.” She assumes that because he’s black, he is automatically doing some underpaid labor intensive job, but is sadly mistaken when Boyd responds and says, “He’s a foreman.” When Boyd says this once again Johnny’s mom’s stereotypical assumptions about black people are incorrect, and the reader can tell that Johnny’s mom is getting a frustrated that she is constantly sounding stupid in front of her son.

Reverse racism and stereotyping are not only found in story’s and books, but also in life. For example when you meet someone you automatically make an assumption about them based on where they are from and what they look like. This happens so many times each day, whether you mean to or not, it’s automatic. But something you can control is what you say and do when you stereotype someone. What many people do, and what Johnny’s mom did was treat someone differently based on where they’re from and what they look like, but if you don’t want to treat someone like that you should keep your thoughts to yourself and not say anything until you get to know them. I’m sure Johnny’s mom wishes she’d done that.

In conclusion, reverse racism and stereotyping is common, in life and especially in the short story, “After You My Dear Alphonse,” by Shirley Jackson. Reverse racism has a way of backfiring and making you look ignorant which was proven by the author in this short story. In addition, stereotyping is something that leads to reverse racism, so think about what this author has taught you in this short story. The next time you meet someone new, don’t judge and stereotype them, talk to them and get to know them so that you don’t end up looking like Johnny’s mom in, “After You My Dear Alphonse.”

Superficial Beauty And Culture

Author’s Note: I wrote this as a response to the story “Ribbons,” by Laurence Yep. In this I compare culture in  China and what they believe about beauty to what the US believes about beauty.

In China culture is very different than in the US. For example women in China are considered obsolete and meaningless. A long time ago in China it was considered beautiful for women to have very small feet. So parents in order to make sure they’re daughter can grow up to be considered beautiful and marry a rich man they made them bind their feet when they were young. This would make the feet not grow as much and when the feet did grow they would grow under the feet creating the “beautiful,” desired feet.

They’d wrap the feet in ribbons and this was how they bound their feet. For the grandma ribbons bring back terrible memories for the grandma. But for the granddaughter ribbons symbolized her love of dancing. Because of the different symbols for the ribbons it made it an important title with a significant meaning, which compares the thought of beauty between China and the US.

Not only in China is there superficial beauty but also in the US there is superficial beauty for girls and women. One example is that girls and women are mostly considered beautiful when they are thin, and have little to no fat on them. Also in the US beauty is shown by looking young and having clear, wrinkle free skin with high cheekbones and not having features or parts of your face that make you stick out such as a nose. Women in the US use surgery to make themselves look “beautiful,” this is similar to China in the way that they bound girls feet to give them the superficial “beauty.”

Who Am I?

Author’s Note: This was written to describe a specific character and give clues as to who we are describing so you can guess our mystery character. Christa Buth and I wrote this piece together.

I’m your friend till the end. I may look like a simple child’s toy, but trust me there is much more to me than that. You will see my bright red hair and overalls and think oh that’s cute. Little do you know, I have a plan. My soul is trapped due to voodoo and only one person can get me out of this body. I must kill everyone around him to get him alone, and once I do I must start my life over as a six year old.

You have seen many just like me, but I am different. I talk and walk, but here’s the catch, I have no batteries. As I spend more and more time in this plastic body, it is slowly becoming my own. If I don’t switch soon I will become a child’s companion forever.

You can burn me, drop me, you can smash my head ,but the only way to kill me is to stab me in the heart. But good luck killing me before I kill you. Many have found out my agenda, but I got to them before they got to me. So think twice before coming after me and getting in my way, you could end up just like them.  I may be a nice guy but trust me and my victims, I’m not a nice guy.

Just remember, “We’re friends till the end.”