5.27.2008
Reflection
I learned how to better use garageband and how to post things on the internet. Now I know how hard it is to make a song and it isn't as easy as it looks. I don't think that I want do another song in the future, just because of the process its not something that I am interested in.
5.16.2008
5.13.2008
My Song
My Song
Sun fading in the horizon
Colors are flowing unto the sky
Making a way from here
Looking for something that I can not find here
(CHORUS)
I'm floating away from here
Looking for things too far and near
But the only thing that I can find, happens to be you wont you be mine
Trying to disconnect
With the you really meant
Trying to forget me and you
Looking for away to all new
(Chorus)
I really want you,
I don't know if you do too
I just want to be part of
I just want your love
I'm floating away from here
Looking for things too far and near
But the only thing that I can find, happens to be you wont you be mine
------------------------------------------------------
Just You and the Sun
I CLOSE MY EYES TIGHT and hope that you are there standing right in front of me, but the only thing I get is a rude, "Hey get out of the way!" that startles me and forces me along my way as I continue my worthless wandering down the sandy beach path. I look for a perfect spot to witness the anticipated event; far off I spot a bench facing in just the right direction to watch the sunset, just big enough for two, even though only one would be occupying it. So I walked over, sat down and tried to entertain myself. I found myself looking at the clouds for some odd reason, I guess because it reminded me of what we used to do together, as I looked I tried to make sense out of the giant puff balls, I wondered where they came from, and how they got here for me to look at them. I watched the different shapes, one looked like a heart, the other an elephant, but I started to get bored looking at them since it made me think too much. But something written on the bench caught my eye, "Jacob was here." What I was thinking is why would anyone want to put that on a bench? Its not like anyone knows who or which Jacob it is. No one really cares if a certain Jacob has been to this certain bench, unfortunately I pondered about it until I saw this little kid riding his bike across the path; he rode back and forth so he didn’t get too far away from his Dad. I don't particularly remember being a child, let alone riding my bike, only that back then life was a lot better than now, to be so care free and to have so much time to do what ever I want. That was the good life!
"Nicolas, come on let's go it's getting late, we wouldn't want to miss dinner!" His father had a sense of urgency in his voice. I remember when you use to call me to come for dinner, you would expect me right on time, not to be late, and if I was late then I would have make my own dinner the next night. I took that for granted; now I wish you were still here to make me dinner.
"Okay dad…" the boy said, he sounded so disappointed. He biked away along the path the way he came and followed his father home.
I turned to the ocean to find something new, I watched the waves hit the beached and followed their path, I saw a surfer and watched him catch a wave a ride it. He would paddle and then stand up on his board, you wanted to learn how to surf so badly, yet that day never came. I watched the surfer on the wave and thought of you.
Now that you have left, I look at all of the little things and think of you. It think of all of the things that you wanted to learn and do and achieve. Yet it cannot happen now. All I think of seems to be somewhat regret and somewhat happiness that you have left. Knowing that you are better off now than you were with me. I know that you must be happy, with all of the things that you ever wanted. I was getting a feeling of emptiness sitting here on this bench doing your favorite thing, watching the sunset. I look to my side and see that you are not there, that the spot that you normally sit in is filled by the pointless graffiti, "Jacob was here." I look at my watch and see the time 6:30 P.M. Just about the time that the sun is scheduled to set. I look out and see the huge red mass of the sun just above the endless ocean, its fiery red fingers coming off its circular body. The sky starts changing colors, farthest away is the deep blues then it fades to purple, red, orange, and yellow. The lining of the clouds becomes bright orange and the color pink shines through them. The sea becomes green and a thousand sparkles appear on the waters surface, paving the way to the sun, a path almost pleading for you to follow. As the bottom of the sun fuses with the deep ocean green it seems as though the sun is melting into the ocean with orange flowing off of it. The sun continues to disappear and dissolve as the mighty sea swallows it whole. You can see the heat rising from the sun giving everything around it a shimmering effect. It seems as though the whole world stopped to watch this particular sunset. The sun with different colors along the whole range, now is its largest, although you can only see half now, it seems its closer that ever, so close like you could just touch it. But as the last bit of the sun leaves this world, and the blues and the greens in the sky consume all the other colors, I close my eyes and imagine you and me, as we follow the sparkling path on the water, to the setting sun.
Sun fading in the horizon
Colors are flowing unto the sky
Making a way from here
Looking for something that I can not find here
(CHORUS)
I'm floating away from here
Looking for things too far and near
But the only thing that I can find, happens to be you wont you be mine
Trying to disconnect
With the you really meant
Trying to forget me and you
Looking for away to all new
(Chorus)
I really want you,
I don't know if you do too
I just want to be part of
I just want your love
I'm floating away from here
Looking for things too far and near
But the only thing that I can find, happens to be you wont you be mine
------------------------------------------------------
Just You and the Sun
I CLOSE MY EYES TIGHT and hope that you are there standing right in front of me, but the only thing I get is a rude, "Hey get out of the way!" that startles me and forces me along my way as I continue my worthless wandering down the sandy beach path. I look for a perfect spot to witness the anticipated event; far off I spot a bench facing in just the right direction to watch the sunset, just big enough for two, even though only one would be occupying it. So I walked over, sat down and tried to entertain myself. I found myself looking at the clouds for some odd reason, I guess because it reminded me of what we used to do together, as I looked I tried to make sense out of the giant puff balls, I wondered where they came from, and how they got here for me to look at them. I watched the different shapes, one looked like a heart, the other an elephant, but I started to get bored looking at them since it made me think too much. But something written on the bench caught my eye, "Jacob was here." What I was thinking is why would anyone want to put that on a bench? Its not like anyone knows who or which Jacob it is. No one really cares if a certain Jacob has been to this certain bench, unfortunately I pondered about it until I saw this little kid riding his bike across the path; he rode back and forth so he didn’t get too far away from his Dad. I don't particularly remember being a child, let alone riding my bike, only that back then life was a lot better than now, to be so care free and to have so much time to do what ever I want. That was the good life!
"Nicolas, come on let's go it's getting late, we wouldn't want to miss dinner!" His father had a sense of urgency in his voice. I remember when you use to call me to come for dinner, you would expect me right on time, not to be late, and if I was late then I would have make my own dinner the next night. I took that for granted; now I wish you were still here to make me dinner.
"Okay dad…" the boy said, he sounded so disappointed. He biked away along the path the way he came and followed his father home.
I turned to the ocean to find something new, I watched the waves hit the beached and followed their path, I saw a surfer and watched him catch a wave a ride it. He would paddle and then stand up on his board, you wanted to learn how to surf so badly, yet that day never came. I watched the surfer on the wave and thought of you.
Now that you have left, I look at all of the little things and think of you. It think of all of the things that you wanted to learn and do and achieve. Yet it cannot happen now. All I think of seems to be somewhat regret and somewhat happiness that you have left. Knowing that you are better off now than you were with me. I know that you must be happy, with all of the things that you ever wanted. I was getting a feeling of emptiness sitting here on this bench doing your favorite thing, watching the sunset. I look to my side and see that you are not there, that the spot that you normally sit in is filled by the pointless graffiti, "Jacob was here." I look at my watch and see the time 6:30 P.M. Just about the time that the sun is scheduled to set. I look out and see the huge red mass of the sun just above the endless ocean, its fiery red fingers coming off its circular body. The sky starts changing colors, farthest away is the deep blues then it fades to purple, red, orange, and yellow. The lining of the clouds becomes bright orange and the color pink shines through them. The sea becomes green and a thousand sparkles appear on the waters surface, paving the way to the sun, a path almost pleading for you to follow. As the bottom of the sun fuses with the deep ocean green it seems as though the sun is melting into the ocean with orange flowing off of it. The sun continues to disappear and dissolve as the mighty sea swallows it whole. You can see the heat rising from the sun giving everything around it a shimmering effect. It seems as though the whole world stopped to watch this particular sunset. The sun with different colors along the whole range, now is its largest, although you can only see half now, it seems its closer that ever, so close like you could just touch it. But as the last bit of the sun leaves this world, and the blues and the greens in the sky consume all the other colors, I close my eyes and imagine you and me, as we follow the sparkling path on the water, to the setting sun.
4.16.2008
A Unfortunate Sudden Demise
A Unfortunate Sudden Demise
The sleeping owl wakes from sleep disguise
For mysterious spirits of the night
Leave their misfortunes in his amber eyes
Taunting they urge him to take ceaseless flight
Slowly creeping in the bright midnights moon
A dull mouse hunting for the winter's food
Cloaked in darkness, a timely opportune
Ignorant of predator's hungry mood
Winged in quiet starless night, the owl hunts
Looking for his innocent soundless prey
Both hunter and hunted meet and confront
A swoop n' squeal end mouse's last day
For obtuse old mouse the story is done
Though tale of owl has just begun
Analysis
In my sonnet there are two main characters, they are portrayed in different places then they eventually in a violent even that leaves just one. It is about an owl that hunts and finds a mouse and eats it. The first stanza focuses on the owl in the story and explains and hints to what is coming. The second stanza focuses on the mouse ant its situation. The third stanza is where you find that they meet and the mouse gets eaten. The story as morbid as it may seem is not about but rather about life, life in the sense that people should live it out to the fullest before something happens.
The owl in my sonnet can be taken in different viewpoints. One of those viewpoints is that the owl in my story is death that death comes fast and in a swoop. The lines "for mysterious spirits of the night leave their misfortunes in his amber eyes," means disease or almost a warning sign of death coming. A sign that time is running out, in this case it is the owls hunger and that’s why it says, "Taunting him to take ceaseless flight." to go and look for food.
The other way that owl could be interpreted is as a person that takes advantage of opportunities that come around, to do things for their own benefit. Someone that is resourceful and opportunistic. Which happens to be at the opposite end of the mouse in the story.
The mouse in the story is a dull witted idiot. They didn’t see their life coming to an end, they just went with the flow and hoped that it would come out O.K. I believe the line "Cloaked in darkness, a timely opportune," means not a smart opportune but rather a opportune that gets lucky. Not real smarts but someone who relies completely on luck.
By taking the smart owl that is death, and the mouse that is a person the sonnet, symbolically shows how people that have a lack care of life suffer in the long run. That you need to give yourself guidance and be aware of your surroundings, the mouse did not see the consequences of his unawareness until it was too late. This is sort of like teenagers too, many of us don’t see how our actions can effect us for the rest of our lives and many of us are like the mouse, just traveling through life like nothing is wrong and we don’t learn our lesson until it is too late.
My sonnet and lesson in the sonnet about life and being aware of actions and consequences can be related to many instances in life. The fact is that many people find out this lesson too late just like obtuse old mouse. The last two lines sum it up; the only one benefiting from the mouse's stupid actions is the owl who got a meal. But its over for mouse no more chances to make it right. This is an important lesson for all of us to remember and keep close to us, reality is that sometimes there are no second chances that once you do it once its over, your done.
I'm not trying to say that death and misfortune is around every turn, I'm just trying to demonstrate how important caring about life is and that your actions have consequences, lets all try not to be a "obtuse old mouse" and let the owl get us.
The sleeping owl wakes from sleep disguise
For mysterious spirits of the night
Leave their misfortunes in his amber eyes
Taunting they urge him to take ceaseless flight
Slowly creeping in the bright midnights moon
A dull mouse hunting for the winter's food
Cloaked in darkness, a timely opportune
Ignorant of predator's hungry mood
Winged in quiet starless night, the owl hunts
Looking for his innocent soundless prey
Both hunter and hunted meet and confront
A swoop n' squeal end mouse's last day
For obtuse old mouse the story is done
Though tale of owl has just begun
Analysis
In my sonnet there are two main characters, they are portrayed in different places then they eventually in a violent even that leaves just one. It is about an owl that hunts and finds a mouse and eats it. The first stanza focuses on the owl in the story and explains and hints to what is coming. The second stanza focuses on the mouse ant its situation. The third stanza is where you find that they meet and the mouse gets eaten. The story as morbid as it may seem is not about but rather about life, life in the sense that people should live it out to the fullest before something happens.
The owl in my sonnet can be taken in different viewpoints. One of those viewpoints is that the owl in my story is death that death comes fast and in a swoop. The lines "for mysterious spirits of the night leave their misfortunes in his amber eyes," means disease or almost a warning sign of death coming. A sign that time is running out, in this case it is the owls hunger and that’s why it says, "Taunting him to take ceaseless flight." to go and look for food.
The other way that owl could be interpreted is as a person that takes advantage of opportunities that come around, to do things for their own benefit. Someone that is resourceful and opportunistic. Which happens to be at the opposite end of the mouse in the story.
The mouse in the story is a dull witted idiot. They didn’t see their life coming to an end, they just went with the flow and hoped that it would come out O.K. I believe the line "Cloaked in darkness, a timely opportune," means not a smart opportune but rather a opportune that gets lucky. Not real smarts but someone who relies completely on luck.
By taking the smart owl that is death, and the mouse that is a person the sonnet, symbolically shows how people that have a lack care of life suffer in the long run. That you need to give yourself guidance and be aware of your surroundings, the mouse did not see the consequences of his unawareness until it was too late. This is sort of like teenagers too, many of us don’t see how our actions can effect us for the rest of our lives and many of us are like the mouse, just traveling through life like nothing is wrong and we don’t learn our lesson until it is too late.
My sonnet and lesson in the sonnet about life and being aware of actions and consequences can be related to many instances in life. The fact is that many people find out this lesson too late just like obtuse old mouse. The last two lines sum it up; the only one benefiting from the mouse's stupid actions is the owl who got a meal. But its over for mouse no more chances to make it right. This is an important lesson for all of us to remember and keep close to us, reality is that sometimes there are no second chances that once you do it once its over, your done.
I'm not trying to say that death and misfortune is around every turn, I'm just trying to demonstrate how important caring about life is and that your actions have consequences, lets all try not to be a "obtuse old mouse" and let the owl get us.
4.09.2008
A Unfortunate Sudden Demise
The sleeping owl wakes from sleep disguise
For mysterious spirits of the night
Leave their misfortunes in his amber eyes
Taunting they urge him to take ceaseless flight
Slowly creeping in the bright midnights moon
A sly mouse hunting for the winter's food
Cloaked in darkness a crafty opportune
Ignorant of predator's hungry mood
Winged in quiet starless night, the owl hunts
Looking for his innocent soundless prey
Both hunter and hunted meet and confront
A swoop n' squeal end mouse's last day
For obtuse old mouse the story is done
Though tale of owl has just begun
For mysterious spirits of the night
Leave their misfortunes in his amber eyes
Taunting they urge him to take ceaseless flight
Slowly creeping in the bright midnights moon
A sly mouse hunting for the winter's food
Cloaked in darkness a crafty opportune
Ignorant of predator's hungry mood
Winged in quiet starless night, the owl hunts
Looking for his innocent soundless prey
Both hunter and hunted meet and confront
A swoop n' squeal end mouse's last day
For obtuse old mouse the story is done
Though tale of owl has just begun
3.03.2008
Missing Story
The Catcher in the Rye Missing Story
Jordan Kaneshige
Mrs. Shigemitsu - 7:30
Chapter 17
SINCE I DIDN'T want to go I decided to ditch her. I knew she was gonna be really sore about it. But I didn’t care. She probably didn’t care either. I can tell that she didn’t really like me to begin with. She was always looking at other guys and mentioning how she knew them and how this and that person went to the same school as her. But I can still see how she could be sore. Since there was this one time that I it happed to me. No kidding. She was this extremely phony girl, her name was Maya Overton, I was supposed to go to the movies with her to watch this stupid movie about a lady who's husband dies in the war in all, but she didn’t show up. So I went to the movie anyway. It was a good thing too, the movie was just about as phony as she was, it started with them zooming in on this stupid café somewhere in Arkansas where the two of them meet. They fall in love, get married, and have children, all the phony stuff. Then the guy gets drafted to go to war, and the lady makes these really phony tears come out of her eyes when she finds out. So after he goes to war, he gets killed. The lady was super messed up after that, and it ended up that she kills herself at the end of the movie. It was so ridiculous – strictly for phonies. Good thing she didn't come or I would've probably died. So anyway I didn’t really want to go with her so I started walking down to central park to go and see if the ducks came back, when I saw this really big flyer that said, "Big Baseball Game Today – 1 buck!" I thought about going but then I remembered that Allie used to play baseball and that made me depressed, so I kept walking down to the park.
While I was walking I saw this girl that was about Phoebes age dressed in these super old rag looking clothes, she had this old looking coffee can and was singing Home On the Range. I had nothing else to do so I walked up and gave her a nickel. She looked up at me with this face that you could just about get lost in. Her eyes seemed like a brown void.
"Thank you kind sir." She said. That just about killed me. It's like when ever you give a poor person some money they say, "Thank you kind sir, or, god bless you." Its like they want you to feel bad for them or something; what ever it is it damn worked. I felt so bad for her.
"Do you want to go get some hot chocolate?" I said, "There's a shop right across the street an–"
"No, I, I'd like to but I can't."
"That's O.K.," I said – I didn’t want to bother her getting money and all – and I dug in my coat pocket and found a dollar and dropped it in. But the next thing she did just about killed me, she ran up to me as I was walking away and gave me this big hug, then ran off and started singing She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain. Kids are so damn nice. I wish that every one of the adults would learn a thing or two from them. It's like people get phonier as they get older or something; that’s what I pondered as I made my way to the park. Once I got there I walked straight to the pond to go and check on the ducks. On my way I saw this older looking man that was yelling to himself.
"Why'd you do it Marge? Why'd you do it? I told you not to!" He just kept going on… " I told you! Why! Why! – " Just then the Central Park Police man came up to him. I could barley hear their conversation. The policeman said,
" Excuse me sir."
"Why, Marge Why!"
"Excuse me sir." But the man kept on yelling to himself, and he kept walking to. It was \
interesting because the policeman had to keep walking to keep up with him because he wouldn’t stop. The policeman then said something into his radio thing. "Excuse me sir!"
"What do you want!" yelled the man, "Who the hell are you!?" Then he punched the policeman right in the gut. The policeman grabbed his gut, obviously phased by the experience, then grabbed the man. But the guy just started flailing like a dying fish. I decided to walk away though, I don’t know why now, I mean now I think that it was really interesting.
When I got to the pond it wasn't frozen over yet, but there were still a lot of people there. Like there was this one family that the mother and the father were yelling their heads off at each other, while the kid was skipping rocks on the lake. He looked like he was having the time of his life, like he didn’t even know that his parents were at each other's throat, ready to kill each other. There also was this boy that looked lame, I don’t know why but you can tell when someone's lame, its just something that you figure out by yourself. The father was with the boy, holding his hand and walking along the path, stopping to look at interesting things in the grass. That’s another thing that gets me, when your he person that’s looking at the grass its really interesting, but if your looking at a person that’s looking at the grass, you think, "Why the hell are they looking at the grass?" Anyway, I started to get a little bored so I sat down on this bench. The bench had this big question mark on it that for some reason got me thinking. I thought about who wrote it and what it might mean. I eventually settled on a story that went something like this. This small young boy with his mom, and his mom didn’t want him to go and play near the lake because she thought it was too dangerous but the boy kept nagging her.
"Mom, please, I just want to go and see the fish." But the mom would reply.
"No, you can't go, I don’t know how deep it is and I don’t want you falling in." Just by coincidence there was a blue crayon next to him and he drew a big question mark on the bench. I really don’t know why I thought of that but, I did.
Then I remembered why I went there, for the ducks. I looked and they weren’t there. I was disappointed. I remember when Allie asked me whether I knew where the ducks went and I promised him I would find out. I never did, I never came through with my promise though, that is before he died. I was feeling pretty depressed, so I just sat there and looked out on the lake, at the lame boy, at the parents fighting, at the boy skipping the rocks on the lake, and I thought about Allie.
Analysis
I DECIDED to write a substitute for chapter seventeen. My story is about Holden walking to and through central park to go and see if the ducks are still there. On the way he meets some peculiar people. These people to me are a foreshadowing, or some type of analogy or mirror of Holden's life, or what he feels. Each situation in the story that I created related to a certain problem or experience that Holden had had or is going to have. Since J.D. Salinger likes to play so much with foreshadowing and analogies, I decided to target that in my story. Holden has a lot of problems that J.D. has in his character. The girl that he met on the street was supposed to show Holden's love for children and the fact that he likes them more than he likes adults. Its as if he thinks that they haven’t turned into phonies yet, that they are still innocent and that they have less worries that most people do, especially him. So in a way, Holden wishes that he to were a child. The he could just turn back into a care free child that gets to play and go on field trips to the museum with friends. Holden seems to be a lost person, and he seems to find his identity within children, and what they do.
They next part of the story has the crazed man that is yelling "why" I thought that the man was foreshadowing what Holden was going to become, what's in store for him when he becomes an adult. I believe that Holden would be yelling, "why" if he were in his shoes, because he would be questioning why nobody was his Catcher in the Rye. Why nobody saved him from falling off the cliff and turning into a crazy. The fact is that many people have tried and failed. It seems as though Holden seems as though he is alone, that nobody cares about him, but that is wrong.
The last part of my story is about the families that Holden sees in the park. I don’t really know why I put in the particular families I did, I was just writing what came to mind. But the lame child to me seems to be like Holden, and the father that is holding his hand is Phoebe. Holden always calls Phoebe, Old Phoebe, he seems to look up at her and see her as a person wise for their age. Well it seems to me that Phoebe seems to be the basis of Holden's moves and ideas, and is usually considered in his actions. So in effect Phoebe is leading Holden throughout life. The other family that I portrayed was the one with the fighting mother and father. The people that are fighting is life itself in Holden's eyes, problems, money, relationships, and the fighting couples child just simply ignores them and their fighting. This to me is another reason why Holden wishes he could be a child, that he wishes that the world would just melt away and all that was bad wouldn’t matter anymore.
At the very end I have him talk about Allie, I end with him going over all that he can see and have him end thinking about it all, I want the reader to wonder what he is thinking about, and keep the mystery of the book that J.D. so well portrays alive.
Jordan Kaneshige
Mrs. Shigemitsu - 7:30
Chapter 17
SINCE I DIDN'T want to go I decided to ditch her. I knew she was gonna be really sore about it. But I didn’t care. She probably didn’t care either. I can tell that she didn’t really like me to begin with. She was always looking at other guys and mentioning how she knew them and how this and that person went to the same school as her. But I can still see how she could be sore. Since there was this one time that I it happed to me. No kidding. She was this extremely phony girl, her name was Maya Overton, I was supposed to go to the movies with her to watch this stupid movie about a lady who's husband dies in the war in all, but she didn’t show up. So I went to the movie anyway. It was a good thing too, the movie was just about as phony as she was, it started with them zooming in on this stupid café somewhere in Arkansas where the two of them meet. They fall in love, get married, and have children, all the phony stuff. Then the guy gets drafted to go to war, and the lady makes these really phony tears come out of her eyes when she finds out. So after he goes to war, he gets killed. The lady was super messed up after that, and it ended up that she kills herself at the end of the movie. It was so ridiculous – strictly for phonies. Good thing she didn't come or I would've probably died. So anyway I didn’t really want to go with her so I started walking down to central park to go and see if the ducks came back, when I saw this really big flyer that said, "Big Baseball Game Today – 1 buck!" I thought about going but then I remembered that Allie used to play baseball and that made me depressed, so I kept walking down to the park.
While I was walking I saw this girl that was about Phoebes age dressed in these super old rag looking clothes, she had this old looking coffee can and was singing Home On the Range. I had nothing else to do so I walked up and gave her a nickel. She looked up at me with this face that you could just about get lost in. Her eyes seemed like a brown void.
"Thank you kind sir." She said. That just about killed me. It's like when ever you give a poor person some money they say, "Thank you kind sir, or, god bless you." Its like they want you to feel bad for them or something; what ever it is it damn worked. I felt so bad for her.
"Do you want to go get some hot chocolate?" I said, "There's a shop right across the street an–"
"No, I, I'd like to but I can't."
"That's O.K.," I said – I didn’t want to bother her getting money and all – and I dug in my coat pocket and found a dollar and dropped it in. But the next thing she did just about killed me, she ran up to me as I was walking away and gave me this big hug, then ran off and started singing She'll Be Coming Around the Mountain. Kids are so damn nice. I wish that every one of the adults would learn a thing or two from them. It's like people get phonier as they get older or something; that’s what I pondered as I made my way to the park. Once I got there I walked straight to the pond to go and check on the ducks. On my way I saw this older looking man that was yelling to himself.
"Why'd you do it Marge? Why'd you do it? I told you not to!" He just kept going on… " I told you! Why! Why! – " Just then the Central Park Police man came up to him. I could barley hear their conversation. The policeman said,
" Excuse me sir."
"Why, Marge Why!"
"Excuse me sir." But the man kept on yelling to himself, and he kept walking to. It was \
interesting because the policeman had to keep walking to keep up with him because he wouldn’t stop. The policeman then said something into his radio thing. "Excuse me sir!"
"What do you want!" yelled the man, "Who the hell are you!?" Then he punched the policeman right in the gut. The policeman grabbed his gut, obviously phased by the experience, then grabbed the man. But the guy just started flailing like a dying fish. I decided to walk away though, I don’t know why now, I mean now I think that it was really interesting.
When I got to the pond it wasn't frozen over yet, but there were still a lot of people there. Like there was this one family that the mother and the father were yelling their heads off at each other, while the kid was skipping rocks on the lake. He looked like he was having the time of his life, like he didn’t even know that his parents were at each other's throat, ready to kill each other. There also was this boy that looked lame, I don’t know why but you can tell when someone's lame, its just something that you figure out by yourself. The father was with the boy, holding his hand and walking along the path, stopping to look at interesting things in the grass. That’s another thing that gets me, when your he person that’s looking at the grass its really interesting, but if your looking at a person that’s looking at the grass, you think, "Why the hell are they looking at the grass?" Anyway, I started to get a little bored so I sat down on this bench. The bench had this big question mark on it that for some reason got me thinking. I thought about who wrote it and what it might mean. I eventually settled on a story that went something like this. This small young boy with his mom, and his mom didn’t want him to go and play near the lake because she thought it was too dangerous but the boy kept nagging her.
"Mom, please, I just want to go and see the fish." But the mom would reply.
"No, you can't go, I don’t know how deep it is and I don’t want you falling in." Just by coincidence there was a blue crayon next to him and he drew a big question mark on the bench. I really don’t know why I thought of that but, I did.
Then I remembered why I went there, for the ducks. I looked and they weren’t there. I was disappointed. I remember when Allie asked me whether I knew where the ducks went and I promised him I would find out. I never did, I never came through with my promise though, that is before he died. I was feeling pretty depressed, so I just sat there and looked out on the lake, at the lame boy, at the parents fighting, at the boy skipping the rocks on the lake, and I thought about Allie.
Analysis
I DECIDED to write a substitute for chapter seventeen. My story is about Holden walking to and through central park to go and see if the ducks are still there. On the way he meets some peculiar people. These people to me are a foreshadowing, or some type of analogy or mirror of Holden's life, or what he feels. Each situation in the story that I created related to a certain problem or experience that Holden had had or is going to have. Since J.D. Salinger likes to play so much with foreshadowing and analogies, I decided to target that in my story. Holden has a lot of problems that J.D. has in his character. The girl that he met on the street was supposed to show Holden's love for children and the fact that he likes them more than he likes adults. Its as if he thinks that they haven’t turned into phonies yet, that they are still innocent and that they have less worries that most people do, especially him. So in a way, Holden wishes that he to were a child. The he could just turn back into a care free child that gets to play and go on field trips to the museum with friends. Holden seems to be a lost person, and he seems to find his identity within children, and what they do.
They next part of the story has the crazed man that is yelling "why" I thought that the man was foreshadowing what Holden was going to become, what's in store for him when he becomes an adult. I believe that Holden would be yelling, "why" if he were in his shoes, because he would be questioning why nobody was his Catcher in the Rye. Why nobody saved him from falling off the cliff and turning into a crazy. The fact is that many people have tried and failed. It seems as though Holden seems as though he is alone, that nobody cares about him, but that is wrong.
The last part of my story is about the families that Holden sees in the park. I don’t really know why I put in the particular families I did, I was just writing what came to mind. But the lame child to me seems to be like Holden, and the father that is holding his hand is Phoebe. Holden always calls Phoebe, Old Phoebe, he seems to look up at her and see her as a person wise for their age. Well it seems to me that Phoebe seems to be the basis of Holden's moves and ideas, and is usually considered in his actions. So in effect Phoebe is leading Holden throughout life. The other family that I portrayed was the one with the fighting mother and father. The people that are fighting is life itself in Holden's eyes, problems, money, relationships, and the fighting couples child just simply ignores them and their fighting. This to me is another reason why Holden wishes he could be a child, that he wishes that the world would just melt away and all that was bad wouldn’t matter anymore.
At the very end I have him talk about Allie, I end with him going over all that he can see and have him end thinking about it all, I want the reader to wonder what he is thinking about, and keep the mystery of the book that J.D. so well portrays alive.
2.14.2008
2.07.2008
Short Story
Shadowing Holden
Sometimes you wonder, who made up all this stupid friends stuff? I mean it's like a pack of lies. Like having another job or something, having to listen to their ridiculous problems and all. After awhile you start to envy those depressed loaners, because after you look at your life, their lives don't seem to depressing. I mean me and James were best friends. In the same classes for 3 years, after that long you get to know someone. It was all fine, besides the "minor" disagreements and all that stuff.
It all started when James got his first girlfriend Lexi. Sure, it was fine at first us and the gang we all great friends. We were all fine. Then one out of the blue, Erika – James' friend – comes up to me and starts rambling this stupid idea. day
"Greg, Greg, Greg!"
"What!" She sounded like she found evidence of God or something.
"I think that you shouldn't flirt with James' girlfriend, cuz I think he's getting angry."
"What do you mean, I'm not flirting with her." Its like whenever you even talk to a girl everybody thinks you are "flirting" with her. It just kills me when some stupid person comes running up, just to tell you a pack of lies.
"Well it sure seems like you are."
"Well I'm not, and I don’t see anything wrong in just hanging out and talking to her. Do you?"
"No, I guess not but I'd watch out if I were you." She said as if she was my mother. She walked off as if she said nothing to me, as happy as she could be. I thought that since James was my best friend and all, he wouldn’t get angry at me. Well I was obviously wrong, especially when lunch began. It's like James was paranoid or something. That kills me when someone is always on their toes like that. Its as if they can't let their guard down. As if they're in a war or something.
"Lexi would you like a napkin?" I asked, "I'm going there anyways."
"Yea, sure that'd be great." She said. But as if by instinct James jumped up and quickly muttered,
"No, Greg I'll get it!"
"James I'm going there anyways." I countered
"No, don't waste the energy." He told me as if I had no legs or something. I hate it when people think that your incapable of doing something as simple as getting a fork and napkin. Its like, I can do it myself you know. I think that some people just get blind with distractions.
"Fine, I'll stay." I said in my sarcastic annoyed voice. That’s just one incident, the paranoia didn’t stop there, it continued, later that week in the library it happened again. I hold the door open he runs up and takes the job from me, letting us in. He turned simple courtesies into a battle. I think a person who gets to the door first holds it open. The person that offers first delivers, none of the stupid, "Oh it's O.K., I'll do it!" stuff that just kills me. James was acting like a complete fake; he was always on his best behavior in front of Lexi, never acting up, except for the boyfriend show off stuff. It's all just a show for the girls, trying to empress them with smiles, and manners; that just another stupid thing in life, that no one will ever see. Nobody sees it! But they are able to see the single guy being courteous, but of course they misinterpret it as something else. Some people are just idiots. James was a class A one too, of course he made himself an A+.
A month later he accused me of being with his Girlfriend! It shouldn’t have been such a surprise though, I should have seen it coming. He was staring at me always keeping a second eye when I was around Lexi. But it didn’t stop there, he had other ways of letting me down.
"I'll meet you at the hang out after school O.K.?" James yelled across the hall
"See-ya there." I was rushing to class, after forgetting my book in my locker. At the end of the day I went, as planned, to the hang out. I waited ten minutes then remembered that I had to write a paper for English and decided to start on that. Although usually I would wait till the night before, stress out, and turn in the most ridiculous paper every made. But I figured I had the time so I continued working. After the process of brainstorming, thesis making, and the completion of the introduction, I looked at my watch, it had been 45 minutes since we planned to meet. But like a good friend, I continued to stay there. But as usual at 4 o' clock my phone started to ring in my pocket.
"Hi Dad, yea I'll come down now." Packing up my things I thought, do I have bad taste in friends or what? To add to the drama later that night I get instant messaged that James and Lexi broke up that day, and they were really angry at each other. Later that month is when he accused me of being with his girlfriend, that we were secretly together or something. Well that’s just stupid, he was just trying to pass on his own stupid mistakes to someone else. I feel really sorry for him though. It was obvious, everyone could tell Lexi and James were having problems. James was being a class A idiot and Lexi was just trying to deal with it. It's pretty depressing to watch. With all of the heartbreak and all, it's like watching a sinking ship with two people on board destined for the bottom of the sea. At the end of the day, that kind of stuff just kills me.
Sometimes you wonder, who made up all this stupid friends stuff? I mean it's like a pack of lies. Like having another job or something, having to listen to their ridiculous problems and all. After awhile you start to envy those depressed loaners, because after you look at your life, their lives don't seem to depressing. I mean me and James were best friends. In the same classes for 3 years, after that long you get to know someone. It was all fine, besides the "minor" disagreements and all that stuff.
It all started when James got his first girlfriend Lexi. Sure, it was fine at first us and the gang we all great friends. We were all fine. Then one out of the blue, Erika – James' friend – comes up to me and starts rambling this stupid idea. day
"Greg, Greg, Greg!"
"What!" She sounded like she found evidence of God or something.
"I think that you shouldn't flirt with James' girlfriend, cuz I think he's getting angry."
"What do you mean, I'm not flirting with her." Its like whenever you even talk to a girl everybody thinks you are "flirting" with her. It just kills me when some stupid person comes running up, just to tell you a pack of lies.
"Well it sure seems like you are."
"Well I'm not, and I don’t see anything wrong in just hanging out and talking to her. Do you?"
"No, I guess not but I'd watch out if I were you." She said as if she was my mother. She walked off as if she said nothing to me, as happy as she could be. I thought that since James was my best friend and all, he wouldn’t get angry at me. Well I was obviously wrong, especially when lunch began. It's like James was paranoid or something. That kills me when someone is always on their toes like that. Its as if they can't let their guard down. As if they're in a war or something.
"Lexi would you like a napkin?" I asked, "I'm going there anyways."
"Yea, sure that'd be great." She said. But as if by instinct James jumped up and quickly muttered,
"No, Greg I'll get it!"
"James I'm going there anyways." I countered
"No, don't waste the energy." He told me as if I had no legs or something. I hate it when people think that your incapable of doing something as simple as getting a fork and napkin. Its like, I can do it myself you know. I think that some people just get blind with distractions.
"Fine, I'll stay." I said in my sarcastic annoyed voice. That’s just one incident, the paranoia didn’t stop there, it continued, later that week in the library it happened again. I hold the door open he runs up and takes the job from me, letting us in. He turned simple courtesies into a battle. I think a person who gets to the door first holds it open. The person that offers first delivers, none of the stupid, "Oh it's O.K., I'll do it!" stuff that just kills me. James was acting like a complete fake; he was always on his best behavior in front of Lexi, never acting up, except for the boyfriend show off stuff. It's all just a show for the girls, trying to empress them with smiles, and manners; that just another stupid thing in life, that no one will ever see. Nobody sees it! But they are able to see the single guy being courteous, but of course they misinterpret it as something else. Some people are just idiots. James was a class A one too, of course he made himself an A+.
A month later he accused me of being with his Girlfriend! It shouldn’t have been such a surprise though, I should have seen it coming. He was staring at me always keeping a second eye when I was around Lexi. But it didn’t stop there, he had other ways of letting me down.
"I'll meet you at the hang out after school O.K.?" James yelled across the hall
"See-ya there." I was rushing to class, after forgetting my book in my locker. At the end of the day I went, as planned, to the hang out. I waited ten minutes then remembered that I had to write a paper for English and decided to start on that. Although usually I would wait till the night before, stress out, and turn in the most ridiculous paper every made. But I figured I had the time so I continued working. After the process of brainstorming, thesis making, and the completion of the introduction, I looked at my watch, it had been 45 minutes since we planned to meet. But like a good friend, I continued to stay there. But as usual at 4 o' clock my phone started to ring in my pocket.
"Hi Dad, yea I'll come down now." Packing up my things I thought, do I have bad taste in friends or what? To add to the drama later that night I get instant messaged that James and Lexi broke up that day, and they were really angry at each other. Later that month is when he accused me of being with his girlfriend, that we were secretly together or something. Well that’s just stupid, he was just trying to pass on his own stupid mistakes to someone else. I feel really sorry for him though. It was obvious, everyone could tell Lexi and James were having problems. James was being a class A idiot and Lexi was just trying to deal with it. It's pretty depressing to watch. With all of the heartbreak and all, it's like watching a sinking ship with two people on board destined for the bottom of the sea. At the end of the day, that kind of stuff just kills me.
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