" Nothing More Than Honor and Respect "

Red, White, and Blue

Soldiers shedding their blood for you

Battling out on the field

Protecting our freedom with a shield

Nothing to give more than honor and respect

Standing up to enemies that are a threat

Fighting to stay alive

Families praying for them to survive

Grieving with tears for those who died

Veteran's Day is a remembrance

The many men and women who got our independence

Without these people in our life

Our world would not be free

 No voice

Thank you to all soldiers for being a hero

Discharged, retired, or currently enrolled

Our world wouldn't be the same without you

"Here We Come World Series"

  T.V screens filled with emotions of many fans, waving W flags, screaming, tears of ecstasy, etc.  Fireworks exploding into the air as well around the Berwyn neighborhood, this celebration roaming through Chicago continues. Thousands or hundreds of people filled Wrigley Field on Saturday night, October 22, 2016, the Dodgers and Chicago Cubs played.

    The final score was 0-5. The Cubs have progressed to the World Series! Bryant, Hendricks, Rizzo and all the players from the Cubs,  forming a circle, jumping up and down vigorously. The Cub’s victory entering the World Series was the first since 1945 and the Chicago Cub's latest triumphs win at the World Series was in 1908. An interview was held after celebrating this victorious win, Anthony Rizzo was asked if he still had the ball from the final out, Rizzo replied,” Do I still have it? I’m sleeping with this thing tonight. Are you kidding me? We’re going to the World Series.”

    Following this, the Cubs will be playing the Cleveland Indians this upcoming Tuesday, deciding who will continue in the Championship. The Chicago Cubs have to win four games in a row to win the World Series.

1st Quarter Reflection Blog

      I have successfully reached the first quarter of Heritage Middle School. Although, there have been struggles in many classes, I manage to overcome them. In Language Arts class with Mrs. Larson, I have learned many things such as writing a newscast, blogs, article of the week, annotating articles, etc. One struggle that I particularly find difficult is the time. The time limit I have when assignments and homework are due, I stay up sometimes until 9:00 p.m. completing blogs. I do sports outside of school such as swimming and I end practice at 7:45 p.m., when I get home from practice, I take a shower. It is a lot of responsibility for me ,as a student, to turn in homework on time, ask for help, and satisfy my teachers with the work I do. It may mean to stay up late, but I am okay with that because the homework my teachers give me, prepare me for being even more successful in high school. My brother says,” In high school, you fail or you pass.” This quote that my brother tells me is true because in high school, it is the real deal. It becomes harder to manage your time in completing assignments and getting good grades because you get pressure from colleges, you want to fulfill them. It is important for me to do my work on time because the less pressure I have to stand within me to getting it in on time. It takes a lot of concentration, but I know I will get good grades by pushing myself to become a better student.

     Aside from struggles, Mrs. Larson gave us a 10 book challenge. Basically, the 10 book challenge is reading 10 books throughout the whole school year, but is optional only to choose 10 books to read. In ELA class, we have already read one book, The Giver. In the summer, our assignment was reading the book we chose to receive. My book was Papertowns. I have also read The Fault in Our Stars. This challenge Mrs. Larson gives us, is a really good technique for me because I occasionally do not read as much as I did in sixth and seventh grade. As the years have progressed, reading has helped me because I learn new words that I can use outside and in school.

     Now that I have reached the first quarter of Heritage Middle School, there are three quarters left to complete and I'm off to high school. Some goals that I would like to achieve in Language Arts class, is to finish my 10 book challenge first, I would also like to learn to give a presentation to practice public speaking without getting nervous. For my eighth grade speech, I want to act confident because this is my last year in Heritage and I want to make myself proud by acing my speech. One goal that I would like to achieve as well is going back into the beginning to learn about prepositions, interjections, and conjunctions. I would like to back to learn more about this because my map score was less than what I expected, I want to get a higher score. I would have to read the text and determine the preposition being written, since I didn't know, I obviously guessed. For me to be more certain of my answers in my map tests, I would be willing to go back and learn about this because I get more intelligence out of it and remember the concepts of my learning. In conclusion, my first quarter in Heritage Middle School has been going great with the hard work I put into my classes.

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The Giver Compare/Contrast

One event in the book,The Giver,that compares from a scene in the film was when Jonas is escaping the community. In the book, The Giver, Jonas makes a plan with The Giver to escape his community because Jonas realizes that Gabriel was decided to be released, Gabriel did not pass his maturity test. When Jonas is ready to make his escape, it says," First, he had left the dwelling at night. A major transgression."(165). This quote shows how important Gabriel is to Jonas, if this action of him breaking the rules is a way to save Gabriel, it shows his love towards him. The book and the film relate because he is willing to sacrifice himself for Gabriel even though Jonas is aware of the consequences he can get into especially with the Chief Elder. In the movie, Jonas leaves his dwelling in the middle of the night to go talk to The Giver about the plan. As Jonas talks to the Giver, The Giver shows him the map of the community and explains what steps is needed to follow in order to succeed. The outcome should be that Jonas will have to release the memories throughout the community. However, the Chief Elder appears in a hologram asking where The Receiver is. The Giver responds that he does not know where Jonas is, as well as the book. Although technology is more futuristic in the movie, the story is in a chronological order where the climax is beginning to develop. One event in the book,The Giver, that contrasts from a scene in the film was when Jonas's friends, Asher and Fiona, are not aware of his plan of escaping. The rules for the Receiver of Memory specifically states that no discussion of Jonas's training can be made with anyone. Jonas manages to make a plan without his friends knowing, he says," It will take everyone a while to realize that I'm not there at all."(160) This quote shows that Jonas and The Giver are helping each other with the plan of him escaping. The Giver will order a vehicle and help Jonas hide in the storage area. Then, The Giver would announce that Jonas was lost in the river, while Jonas is on his way to Elsewhere. On the other hand, the movie includes that Fiona and Asher are aware of his escape plan. First, Jonas leaves his dwelling and sees Asher standing in his way. Asher tells him to go back to his family unit but Jonas resists and punches him in the face. Jonas is on his bike, still riding, and he goes to the Nurturing Center to find Gabriel. He finds Fiona there and tells her of what he is going to do to help the community. She decides that she cannot go and creates a distraction for the agents 
chasing Jonas.

I think that the director'c choice of Brenton Thwaites to play Jonas was in incorrect way to describe him to the viewers because in, The Giver, Jonas was portrayed as a 12 year old boy with pale, blue, and lighted eyes. Brenton Thwaites does not look the way I imagined him because the fact that he is portrayed as a 16 year old made it difficult for me to process throughout the movie. I think that age affects the way Jonas is seen throughout the story because since The Giver is older, it is important for him to be seen younger and showing the bravery he has within him by only being 12. A 12 year old has the capacity to see beyond, have intelligence, integrity, and courage. An adult mastered all these things, they have been through their maturity years. I would have chosen Asa Butterfield to play the role of Jonas in The Giver. Asa Butterfield not only has the special physical traits that Jonas was described in The Giver, but he looks like a determined, young boy willing to receive memories and learn from the old. Asa Butterfield is also the main character for many movies. I can imagine Asa as the Receiver of Memory. I can see him transferring memories to Gabriel and definitely sacrificing his young self for the sake of others. His pale, blue eyes stand out and is important as an individual to mark a difference in an affectless society like Jonas's. In, The Giver, Jonas notices that Gabriel has the same eyes as him, it says,"Almost every citizen in the community had dark eyes. ...Jonas himself, and a female Five who he had noticed had the different, lighter eyes." (20). This quote shows that Jonas has to be unique from others. Jonas is Receiver of Memory, and this trait can help him be known as someone different in the community in a positive way. Receiver of Memory is the most honored job in the community. Asa Butterfield also looks like he is intelligent, a creative mind, others don't have. A boy who comes up with ideas of how to change his community, a boy who can step over boundaries, and who respects the rules. All in all, I believe that the character that should have been chosen to play Jonas in The Giver, would be Asa Butterfield because of his traits seen in other movies that would contribute well in The Giver film.

The medium that most impacted my understanding of The Giver was the film. The film most impacted my understanding of The Giver because all of the background knowledge and visualizations I had from the book, got transferred into a film. The film helped me make connections. For example, when Jonas is starting to notice the color red, I could see in the film, Jonas looking at Fiona's hair turning red. It was an " aha moment" for me as a reader because I realized what his reaction to seeing the color red was. Throughout the film, I believe that the climax, when Jonas escapes the community to help release the memories back into the community, helped me summarize the theme of the whole book. The theme was sacrificing yourself for a change. A positive one. In the book, The Giver, Jonas realizes that his family, isn't really a true family. A family are people who love you, support you, and stand by your side no matter what. Jonas does not experience that with his family. Jonas is given the memory of Christmas, where he sees family enjoying each other like how they are supposed to. Jonas asks his parents if they love him, their response, does not fulfill his question. However, Gabriel and Jonas have an inseparable bond of love. Jonas feels love towards Gabriel and tells him," Things could change, Gabe," Jonas went on. " Things could be different. I don't know how, but there must be some way for things to be different. There could be colors. "And grandparents. ...There could be love," Jonas whispered."(128,129). This quote shows that Jonas in the movie changed. Jonas started feeling love, war, cold, hot, etc. In the film, Jonas takes Gabriel with him t escape the community. At last, Jonas crosses the edge of the community. Jonas has so much love for Gabriel, he risks himself and Gabriel for the change in the community. The movie impacted my understanding of The Giver in a fantastic way because the plot of the movie followed the book's conclusion or theme. The book helped me visualize what was going on but the film helped me even more by showing me the characters, the community, and the problem. A reminder of the main points of the film. In conclusion, the medium that most impacted my understanding of The Giver was the film.

Giver Themes

        Jonas is a dynamic character because he changes throughout the book. Jonas develops as a character how to be selfless. In the beginning of the story, Jonas thinks about himself. Jonas realizes that the Ceremony of Twelves in December is coming up and it says,” He had waited a long time for his special December. Now that it was almost upon him,... Apprehensive, Jonas decided. That’s what I am.” (4). This quote shows that Jonas is not selfless because he himself feels nervous and doesn’t put anyone’s feelings above his. Jonas is worried about what career he will participate in, in the future. The Chief Elder decides the future for all upcoming Twelves in the community. It is extremely difficult to cope with the pressure of revealing what the career of your future is, especially with Jonas. Whereas to the ending of the book, Jonas learns how to become selfless. While Jonas receives memories from The Giver, these memories affect Jonas to see his community in a different perspective from how the people in the community see it. He sees colors, feels love, a sunburnt, snow, riding a sled, and painful things like war. When he feels love, he says,” But anyway, I was thinking, I mean feeling, actually, that it was kind of nice, then. ...I liked the feeling of love,” he confessed.” (126) This quote shows that Jonas feels love when he sees the family enjoying their Christmas holiday. This feeling of love leads Jonas to develop selflessness because he feels love for Gabriel, his safety becomes important to Jonas and he puts Gabriel’s feelings above his own. Jonas wants to escape his community because he finds out that Gabriel will be released first thing in the morning. He starts riding the bicycle with Gabriel and experiences starvation and cold, when he starts crying, it says,” He wept because he was afraid now that he could not save Gabe.” (174). This quote explains that the character, Jonas, has now become selfless because now he does not think about himself , he puts Gabe before himself. Gabe’s safety looks more important to Jonas than his own safety. In conclusion, Jonas becomes selfless throughout the book.


       Many themes are stated throughout The Giver, one theme I found was looking back into the past of your memories, creates wisdom.  In Chapter 14, Jonas is given the memory of riding on his sled in the snow, however, Jonas steers the sled a wrong way and the sled tips over . Jonas is in a lot of pain, he experiences a broken leg along with vomiting blood. Jonas realizes that he has to go through painful memories that the community doesn't, it says, " Why?" ... It gives us wisdom," The Giver replied. " Without wisdom I could not fulfill my function of advising the Committee of Elders when they call upon me." (111). This quote shows that looking back into the past creates wisdom because these memories get to teach Jonas to learn from his mistakes, without The Giver giving him these memories of pain, he will not learn how to make better decisions in the future. We also learn that from this quote, The Giver receives these memories to gain wisdom in order to help advise the Committee of Elders because they can't decide anything, there is no choices in this type of community.  The Giver prevents them from making the wrong decisions because that burden was given to the Receiver of Memory. Another theme I found in The Giver is the importance of the individual. Jonas has a distinct physical attribute that contrasts from the people in his community, he has pale and lighter eyes than everybody else. When he realizes that Gabriel has pale and lighter eyes like him, he says," No one mentioned such things; it was not a rule, but was considered rude to call attention to things that were unsettling or different about individuals." (20). This quote describes the theme of the importance of individuality because everyone in the community is adapted to Sameness, where everyone is alike. The people in the community do not feel emotions, do not see color, and cannot make decisions. The theme of individuality shows the reader that Jonas stands out in his community for being different and unique from others. Therefore, the importance of the individual is a theme in The Giver for showing the difference and distinctive traits of characters, such as Jonas.