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a true story about a high school football team, the Odessa Permian Panthers, in Odessa, Texas, during the 1988 football season. The book shows how important football is to the town, where winning the state championship is a way of escaping the struggles of life, including economic hardship. The story focuses on the players, coaches, and the community, especially on two key players: Mike Winchell, the quarterback, and Boobie Miles, a star running back. It highlights the intense pressure they face to win, not just for themselves, but for the town.

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Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger takes place in a small town called Odessa in Texas. Bissinger moved to a town in Texas as a football coach, taking charge of the Permian Panthers. This small town puts a lot of pressure on the team as they face injuries and personal issues. Throughout the season, the team realizes that football is not the only thing in life and that they have more to look forward to. I chose this because sports is something that I can relate to and I know what it is like to play under stress.

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As a younger person, you always try to be liked or be a likable person. It's normal, I however wasn’t very much of either. Imitating others' actions or attitudes was one of my own defenses against the world, not listening to myself but what others wanted me to be. As I grew older I began to realize I am quite different from the others, Never really having the same thoughts or emotions towards something that happens to all of us. However I was usually on my own having friends here and there but it's when you find that one person, That one friend who accepts you how you want to be seen. They can change your whole world within minutes and make you feel not so alone. I have never let that friend go, I couldn't. She not only discovered I'm not by myself but there are people who want you to be yourself, and eventually help you find your inner self, that not many people see.

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Orville Wright (born August 19th 1871), had not only invented but also flew the very first power controlled flight. They did this not just out of curiosity but also because it had never been done before, aside from the lighter wind powered flights which at the time were not the best option. As of today the power of flight is a main travel method across not only the US but also all over the world connecting countries. This leads to the creation of all of it. Orville wanted to not only just have the thought but he thought to try and fail repeatedly till it was done; He wanted to see his imagination come to life rather than just live inside him.

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Orville Wright (U.S. National Park Service)

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Orville Wright, working with his brother Wilbur, made the first heavier-than-air, powered, controlled flight by man, leading the world into the aviation age. Orville was born to Milton and Susan Wright in Dayton, Ohio on August 19, 1871. Orville was the sixth child of seven, but two of his older siblings did not survive infancy.

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I chose “The Great Gatsby” . It's a classic novel about a man who loves a woman who is married and he does his best to win her over. Gatsby becomes rich for Daisy, the woman he loves and makes her husband Tom jealous. While Daisy is stuck between Gatsby's love and Tom's money, Daisy stays with Tom and finds out how money and power influenced her. While the death of Gatsby she finds out how social status and wealth can lead to decline and not seeing others efforts.

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Maya Angelou's I know why the caged bird sings dives into connections between oppression and freedom. It displays the resilience of human spirit throughout the story. The caged bird is a metaphor for people trapped by restrictions placed by society, whether they be racial, gender, or class based. Through Angelou's depiction of her own personal struggles with racism, trauma, and personal identity, her story conveys how human nature is to desire freedom. This freedom is not only physically but psychologically as well, everyone just wants to be free of oppression. For example, Angelou's early experience with racism in Stamps, Arkansas. As a black girl growing up in the segregated south, she witness systemic oppression of her community very often. Like when her grandma, Momma, is disrespected by white children. Despite this occurrence, her grandma remains strong, showing the strength of character that survives beneath oppression. Despite the misfortune, the caged bird continues to sing, showing the human drive towards hope and survival. This shows a truth about human nature being the desire to rise above the limits and find your own voice, even in great challenging circumstances.

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In the book "Friday Night Lights" by Buzz Blissinger. Blissinger is a football coach who moves his family to Texas. With his intentions on being a coach he focuses on his players academic side as well as their devotion to football. He bring is multiple players who each have their own struggles. By the end of the book they have come close to meeting their goal of a state championship but fell short and got out during the semifinals. This relates to the universal theme of sports and competition because this football coach is all about winning while making sure his students stay well rounded with their academics too.

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Friday Night Lights, the non-fiction book written by Buzz Bissinger about how he moved with his family to West Texas during the 1988 Permian High School football season. Bissinger wanted to document the ups and downs of high school football. Much of the school’s energies are devoted to football—occasionally at the expense of academic harshness, and of fairness to students who do not play. This connects to the universal idea of dedication because everyone on the team is decicated.

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Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream is a 1990 non-fiction book written by H. G. Bissinger. The book follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas, as they made a run towards the Texas state championship. While originally intended to be a -type chronicle of high school sports holding together a small town, the book ended up being critical of life in the town of Odessa. It was later adapted into a short-lived 1993 television series, a 2004 feature film, and a second 2006-11 television series.

Bissinger was a journalist for The Philadelphia Inquirer when he was selected as a Harvard Nieman Fellow. It was while he was at Harvard that the idea to write a book focused upon the role high school football plays within American society, in particular rural society, took hold. Bissinger returned to The Inquirer briefly, received a Pulitzer Prize, and then took off in search of a community for which high school football was paramount. He settled on Odessa, Texas. Permian High School and its football team, the Permian Panthers, had a substantial, rich history of winning in Texas' 4A and 5A divisions, having won championships in 1965, 1972, 1980, and 1984. Bissinger moved his family to Odessa and spent the entire 1988 football season with the Permian Panther players, their families, their coaches, and even many of the townspeople in an effort to understand the town and its football-mad culture.

James "Boobie" Miles - Star halfback for Odessa high heading into the 1988 season. The previous season he had rushed for 1,385 yards and showed flashes of brilliance. This season would be the season for him to shine and lead the team to a Texas state championship. Boobie was being heavily recruited by major college football programs such as Nebraska, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Texas A&M and USC and had professional football aspirations before suffering a knee injury in the preseason. He would never recover 100% and eventually quit the team in a rage.

Mike Winchell, the starting quarterback for the Panthers. He is portrayed by Bissinger as a boy who is mostly level-headed, but prone to nerves. His play is unspectacular but effective. He feels a lot of pressure from the town and peers alike.

Brian Chavez - A very intelligent player. He is valedictorian of his class and attends Harvard University after graduating from Permian. He is a tight end and defensive lineman. He is mostly seen as an example of the good in Odessa, a diamond among rocks.

Ivory Christian, a Linebacker for the Panthers. A punishing hitter with excellent reflexes and athleticism, Christian is a religious person. He struggles to enjoy playing football, realizing that there should be more to life and spends much of his time in thought. He is the only senior player from the 1988 Panther football team to receive a Division I football scholarship, attending Texas Christian University.

Don Billingsley, a Permian fullback who frequently finds himself in trouble with the coaches. His father is a local legend for being a star player for Permian in the late 1960s, though Don is known more for his off the field activities, which at the time included drinking, fighting, and womanizing.

Jerrod McDougal, a Permian offensive tackle, who has sacrificed a lot to become varsity for Permian and, at 5'9", knows he is too small to play at the college level, so practices several times a day to bring himself to an advantage.

Gary Gaines, the head coach for Permian. A bright football mind who constantly deals with the pressures from the fans, the booster club, and the lofty expectations of being head coach for Permian.

In the 1988 5A playoff semifinals, Permian meets Dallas Carter Cowboys, a predominantly black team. In a hard fought game in the rain at Memorial Stadium in Austin, the Panthers are defeated 14-9. Dallas Carter, led by future Miami Hurricanes and New York Giants linebacker Jessie Armstead, goes on to win the state championship, 31-14 over the Judson Rockets from Coverse; Dallas Carter soon faced severe penalties for their grade tampering, giving the 1988 state championship to Judson.

Prologue

Bissinger discusses the Midland Lee game, as Permian's arch rival. The game is played on October 28, 1988. He introduces the characters of Gary Gaines, Mike Winchell, Don Billingsley, Boobie Miles, Ivory Christian, Brian Chavez and Jerrod McDougal and gives insight into their personalities, thoughts and their pregame rituals. Former star, Boobie knows his performance against Midland Lee will be important for his future. He hasn't played well since August when he injured his knee in a preseason scrimmage, but the coaches never put Boobie in the game. Permian puts up a valiant fight but lose 22-21. After the game, a furious Boobie storms out of the locker room and quits the team two days later.

Chapter 1: Odessa

Bissinger begins the book at the start of the 1988 football season in August and how Gaines is preparing for it. Bissinger then chronicles the history of Odessa. It was founded in the 1880s by land speculators from Zanesville, Ohio. They advertised the land as being as fertile farmland like in Kansas and Iowa. However, the settlers quickly discovered that it was dry and arid. The town saw little growth until 1926 when oil was discovered in the Permian Basin (hence the high school's name). Almost overnight, the town boomed and it saw more growth in a month than it had seen in ten years. The population increased dramatically and money was everywhere. In town, the roads were so muddy that the oil workers, (nicknamed boomers), often had to bring in cattle to pull the equipment to the oil fields. According to the book, "diarrhea, lawlessness, overcrowding, bad water, prostitution, and a rat problem" plagued the town. Out in the oil fields, the boomers worked round the clock to make their money. Meanwhile, Odessa High School's football team garnered success by winning the state championship in 1946 and making it back to the championship in 1953, thus laying the foundation for football fanaticism. Another boom in the 1950s led to the opening of Permian High School in 1959. Permian proved quickly that it was not going to play second to Odessa High. They became known as the embodiment of Odessa: small, white and overachieving. Meanwhile, due to demographic shifts and oddly drawn boundaries, Odessa High became populated with mainly poor whites and poor Hispanics-while a substantial majority of the city's relatively small black population ended up in the Permian attendance zone. This is not to say, however, that Permian didn't have its share of poor people from all major ethnic groups.

Chapter 2: The Watermelon Feed

Bissinger talks about the Watermelon Feed held at Permian in August as a preseason celebration. He then chronicles the history of Permian football. Since its founding in 1959, it had won the state championship in 1965, 1972, 1980 and 1984. Despite the fact that it only won one state championship in the 1970s, Permian had statistically been the winningest team in the state of Texas. Bissinger then discusses the pressure that Gaines is constantly under because of how intensely devoted the Permian fans are. High school football is used as a distraction for the once thriving community of Odessa which had gone into a slump when the second boom ended.

Chapter 3: Boobie

This chapter focuses upon the black star fullback, James "Boobie" Miles, who is Permian's ticket to the state championship. Bissinger uses Boobie as an example of the negative effect high school football can have its players. Boobie is not a good student and doesn't have to worry about grades because he will most likely get a football scholarship to a major college. The dream seems all too real until, in August, during a scrimmage in Lubbock, Boobie injured his knee. With the season opener only a week away, no one knows what to do. Now the pressure is on quarterback Mike Winchell. Meanwhile, junior running back Chris Comer is called up to replace Boobie.

Chapter 4: Dreaming of Heroes

This chapter focuses upon the life of Mike Winchell, Permian's starting quarterback. Mike lived with his mother. His father, Billy, died when Mike was just thirteen. Billy had always been keen on Mike's playing football when he was a little kid. Mike's older brother, Joe Bill, took over that role but, in 1988, Joe Bill had moved out. Mike was very intelligent and received an offer of admission from Brown University but had prospects of playing football only at a smaller college. Don Billingsley is Permian's starting Tailback and son of the legendary Charlie Billingsley who played football in the 1960s. Don, whose mother had been a Permian cheerleader while Charlie played football, moved from Blanchard, Oklahoma to Odessa in 1986 before his sophomore year. Don and Charlie had always had a rocky relationship but it was all made better by football. Don was always inspired by his father's stories and always tried to live up to him. Yet, sometimes he faltered because he sometimes fumbled the ball on key plays.

Chapter 5: Black and White

Bissinger discusses the issue of race relations in Odessa which he describes as the ugliest racism he had ever witnessed. The town didn't desegregate until the 1980s and even then the schools were racially divided. Many viewed football as exploiting the talented black athletes by using them and then spitting them out afterwards.

Chapter 6: The Ambivalence of Ivory

Bissinger begins by discussing the life of Permian linebacker Ivory Christian. He originally thought he would go to Ector High School, where many poor blacks went, until Permian was desegregated in the early 1980s. Ivory had ambitions of becoming a minister at a Baptist church. Ivory gains these ambitions when he has a life changing dream that involves a dark tunnel and light. Because of this dream, Ivory decides that he will change his partying ways and turn his life over to God. Because of this decision, he becomes ambivalent towards football, what it represents, and for its beginning the inner battle between Homeric and Christian values.

Chapter 7: School Days

Bissinger spends the chapter discussing the situation at Permian High School. He highlights the misplaced priorities as well as bad spending. More money is spent on sports medical supplies than the entire English department. The teachers make less money than the coaches who are financially at the mercy of the boosters who seldom care about education. Permian's SAT scores have plummeted dramatically since the 1970s and no one seems to care as long as Permian wins football games. As a result, everyone including the football players suffers. As the season progresses, Permian begins winning games.

Chapter 8: East versus West

Bissinger discusses the Permian-Odessa High game. The cross town rivalry is fueled by the cultural difference between the schools. For one thing, Permian also got the majority of the Ector County education budget while Odessa High typically got what was left (which wasn't that much). Odessa High had once been the beacon of hope in the city. It won the 1946 state championship and did well overall. Then, Permian opened in 1959. The middle class whites went to Permian and the Mexicans went to Odessa High. Also, Permian hasn't lost to Odessa in over twenty years. Permian wins the game 35-7.

Chapter 9: Friday Night Politics

Bissinger discusses the political views in Odessa which has long been a Republican voting city. The 1988 election is coming up and it is clear that majority of its residents are going to vote for Republican candidate and then Vice President George H. W. Bush, who lived in the area in the 1940s and 1950s. They had loved Ronald Reagan so the choice was clear. Many view Democratic candidate Michael Dukakis as far too liberal and think he is out to destroy their way of life from his comfortable home in Massachusetts. Meanwhile, Permian rolls over Midland High School winning 35-0. Bissinger also discusses the life of Brian Chavez, the Permian tight end. Chavez is extremely smart and has ambitions of going to Harvard. His father Tony is a successful lawyer originally from El Paso, Texas. Tony had enlisted in the United States Army after high school. After he was discharged, he took his GI Bill money and decided to take law classes at Texas Tech in Lubbock eventually graduating with a law degree in 1978. He supported the family by working as a police officer in El Paso. On his trips between the two cities, he drove through Odessa and thought it was dirty, seedy and trashy, and so decided to work in Midland. However, once he graduated, he got a job offer in Odessa and moved his family there. In 1982, the family moved to the Country Club estates, the nicest part of town. Tony was, in many ways, the embodiment of the American dream.

Chapter 10: Boobie Who?

Bissinger discusses Boobie's football career after his injury. He thought the injury wasn't that serious and constantly tried to convince the coaches he could play. He played as a backup in several games but never got any serious playing time. But as Boobie's career is falling Mike Winchell's is soaring.

Chapter 11: Sisters

Bissinger discusses the Permian- Midland Lee rivalry. Even though the two towns were very similar, the hatred ran deep. Odessans viewed Midland as a town full of rich snobs and Midlanders view Odessa as a city full of rednecks, money burners and drunks. In 1983 an article in Forbes magazine named Midland one of the nicest places to live in America. At the same time, named Odessa "Murder Capital U.S.A." with a record 29.8 murders per 100,000 residents. Bissinger traces the roots of the hatred to the second oil boom of the late 1970s and early 1980s. The boom had been brought by the oil embargo by OPEC as well as the Iranian Revolution, the 1973 Oil Crisis, the 1979 Energy Crisis and the Carter Energy Policy. Oil prices skyrocketed and for the second time in forty years the boom was on. People were making money left and right in both Midland and Odessa. There were stories of welders who could barely read making as much as $90,000 a year. Stories abounded of business men buying Lear jets and building huge homes for no other reason than the fact that they could. The oil executives thought they were in control of everything and didn't realize it was all circumstantial. Once the embargo ended, the boom was over. The final nail in the coffin was the closing of the First National Bank of Midland in October 1983 as a result of the 1980s oil glut and the Permian Basin never fully recovered. Bissinger also discusses the effects that the Reagan 1980s had on the Odessa-Midland Area.

Chapter 12: Civil War

After Permian loses to Midland Lee the fate of the season is unclear. Gaines is now under tremendous pressure and wonders if he will still have a job in a year's time. In two seasons Gaines had only gotten as far as the third round of playoffs. Boobie Miles quietly quits the team. Meanwhile, Jerrod McDougal, the Permian defensive tackle who knew he wouldn't play football in college, was devastated at the prospect of the season ending so early. Permian, Midland High and Midland Lee are all tied with one district loss each and only two can go to represent the district in the 1988 playoffs. It will be decided in a coin toss.

Chapter 13 : Heads or Tails

Permian ends the regular season beating the San Angelo Bobcats 41-7. But now it all comes down to a coin toss. Coach Gaines and Mike Belew drive to meet the head coaches of Midland High and Midland Lee. The event is held at a truck stop on the south side of Midland at 2:00 am local time. The location is undisclosed and it is broadcast live on TV. When the coin toss finally happens there it is originally thought to be a tie. Then it turns out that Permian and Midland Lee landed heads and Midland High landed tails. The two teams will continue their seasons while Midland High's season is over.

Chapter 14: Friday Night Addiction

The playoffs have finally arrived. Permian first defeats Tascosa High School in Amarillo 21-7. They then play Andress High School in El Paso in the Sun Bowl, winning 41-13. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, Permian beats the Irving Nimitz Vikings, a team ranked sixth in the state, 41-7. Bissinger also explores the fates of many famous Permian players and how many of them ended right back in Odessa. He cites these stories as key examples of the false world Permian football can have on its players. Permian then beats Arlington Lamar 21-7. But now it was on to play the team many called the best high school football team in the state if not the country-the David W. Carter High School Cowboys from Dallas.

Chapter 15: The Algebraic Equation

Bissinger spends the chapter discussing the football players at Dallas Carter High School, which is an all- black upper-middle-class high school. The football obsession at Carter dwarfs the one at Permian. Players skipped classes, left school to get lunch, and had their grades fixed by teachers so that they could play. This led to a court case when a teacher, Will Bates, refused to lie about the algebra grade of a key player, Gary Edwards. The case was won and Dallas Carter got to continue their season. During the week of the game the coaches from Permian and Dallas Carter meet to decide where the game will be played. They eventually agree on Texas Memorial Stadium at the University of Texas at Austin. They also agree on a racially mixed officiating crew to minimize any possible bias from that source.

Epilogue

A week later, Dallas Carter won the 1988 Texas state championship. For the players, the sense of entitlement and the feeling that they could do whatever they wanted to reach an all-time high. Gary Edwards got a full scholarship to the University of Houston. However, in May 1989, Edwards and several other players committed an armed robbery in Dallas. They were arrested and they were tried in September. It was then discovered they had committed as many as ten robberies prior. Edwards, who initially thought he would just get probation, was sentenced to 16 years in prison. After some review it was decided that because of grade changing on the player's action, Dallas Carter was stripped of its state championship.

Bissinger then discusses the fates of the 1988 Permian Panthers. Brian Chavez went to Harvard but quit the football team after only one day because there was no bond. He instead decided to play rugby. Boobie Miles played football at Ranger College, a junior college. Jerrod McDougal attended Odessa College and then Midland College. Although he missed football he could find happiness in the knowledge that Permian football would go on forever. Don Billingsley went back to Oklahoma and at first played football for East Central University but then he severely injured his knee and needed surgery. Ivory Christian went to play for Texas Christian University but quit playing football after his freshman year. Mike Winchell played football for Baylor University but said it wasn't as great as Permian and lost a lot of his abilities.

1989 saw the price of oil rise as high as $20 a barrel. Yet that same year saw 46% of the nation's oil imported, the highest in twelve years. As a result, West Texas continued to suffer economically. That year Odessa was named the second-worst place to live in America by the Places Rated Almanac. Meanwhile, Permian was dominating on the football field. They redeemed themselves, beating Midland Lee 17-13. Permian continued to win in the playoffs and eventually got to the state championship. Among the players was quarterback Stoney Case who would eventually go on to play in the NFL for the Arizona Cardinals and Baltimore Ravens. Before the game Gary Gaines told the players, "Everybody in this room has paid a dear, dear price. That ought to make your effort that much more intense, that much more fanatical, because of all the hard work and sacrifice that's gone into getting you here. It ought to make you play that much harder. You represent a lot of people. We're gonna represent them well and we're gonna win this sucker!" The players then took the field. Odessa had gone through a ridiculous amount of change in the 1980s going from a place where anything was possible to a place where nothing was certain and everything was finite. Yet football had always been there. Bissinger ends the book by saying, "It would always go on just as Jerrod McDougal had realized, because it was a way of life. The Permian Panthers ended the decade the same way they had begun it. Two days before Christmas, they became the state football champions of Texas."

While Bissinger, who had taken a leave of absence from reporting for The Philadelphia Inquirer to follow the team and write Friday Night Lights, was writing the book, the University Interscholastic League (UIL) investigated the Permian Panthers football program, alleging that Bissinger took players out to eat and paid for the meals while interviewing them for the book, a violation of amateur rules. It was reported that he also paid for Boobie Miles's car in exchange for an interview.

The book's release during the 1990 season coincided with the investigation of the team for holding illegal off-season practices, which resulted in the team being declared ineligible for the playoffs and thus not participating in the post season for only the second time since 1980. Permian's absence from the playoffs allowed San Angelo Central into the playoffs for only the 3rd time since 1966. The negative reaction to the playoff situation was exacerbated by the book, and many residents of Odessa received the book with responses ranging from mild indignation to threats of physical violence aimed at the book's author.

In response to the negative reaction in Odessa, a local bookstore cancelled a book signing by the author, and T-shirts possessed by locals bore the words, "Buzz off, Bissinger".

However, over time, the accuracy of the story has held up. The book has been reprinted frequently, including a 2000 reprint with a new afterword by the author detailing the team's accomplishments in the early part of the 1990s followed by the demise of the program in the latter part of the decade.

In 2002, Sports Illustrated named Friday Night Lights the fourth-greatest book ever written about sports, and its fourth place position made it the highest rated book focusing on football. In 2015, the book was reissued as a 25th anniversary edition and included a new afterword by Bissinger in which he provided an update on players from Odessa's 1988 team.

Censorship

Friday Night Lights has been a frequent target of censors; the book appears on the American Library Association list of the 100 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2000-2009 at number 89.

The book inspired the short-lived television series Against the Grain (1993) starring a young Ben Affleck.

A movie version of Friday Night Lights was made and then released in the United States on October 6, 2004. It starred Billy Bob Thornton as Permian Coach Gary Gaines. The film was a box office and critical success and, in turn, spawned the NBC television series of the same name, which ran for five seasons from 2006 to 2011.

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Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream - Wikipedia

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Friday Night Lights: A Town, a Team, and a Dream is a 1990 non-fiction book written by H. G. Bissinger. The book follows the story of the 1988 Permian High School Panthers football team from Odessa, Texas, as they made a run towards the Texas state championship.

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I did a three step process to go to a new middle school after graduating is 30 minutes out of the way, but it was so much better than the other ones nearby. I didn't want to do it at first but my parents motivated me to make the presentation. After I got done a week or two later we headed up to present it and I crushed it. Then I had to get lucky when I did the lottery and I did ! It took me a while to get acclimated to the school. Then my parents randomly said that we were going to move Arkansas to live with my aunt and uncle I didn't understand, but when they said its to help us financially it made sense. So we boxed up all of the stuff and took a dog with us. It was different but i was ready for the new experience.

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Through FFA you can meet many life long friends. For example, going to competitions and shows you will see many familiar faces which will become well known to you. I met one of my best friends through FFA. We met at a livestock show that we were both competing at and we started talking through his FFA teacher because she was a former intern here at Greenbrier. We have been friends for almost two years now thanks to meeting each other through FFA and our former intern. This connects to the universal theme of friendship and loyalty because this is how I met one of my best friends who has been my by side since we met.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

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I chose “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” because I thought it was the more interesting out of the bunch- an opinion I made by simply reading the title. The book was quite interesting, and while it was quite slow it did have its fast moments, to which would leave me turning pages faster and faster. The story is a neat one: A woman named Henrietta has cells that became immortal, but she and her family are not getting any recognition or money for it. Skloot wants to write a book about Henrietta, since it's her cells that gave the world so many cures and yet…no one knows anything about her. Her family, upset by the media, don’t cooperate much, but slowly they open up and Henrietta's story is told. Hence why I believe the Quest for Knowledge is a good universal theme to represent this book. Skloot works tirelessly to get information about Henrietta, even when there were points where she should’ve just given up. Now, thanks to her quest, the world knows more about Henrietta and can appreciate what she has done for us.

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The book The Great Gatsby is about a man who is in love with a woman who he had a vision of for 5 years. When he finally reunites with said women he tries to make her out to be this vision that he had in his head for the past 5 years. The thing is that she's a married woman, she's moved on with her life while he did not. Everything he did was for her, his money, the parties, all of it. She turned out to not be the woman he had made up in his mind all that time.

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I chose the “Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I chose this book because it sounded familiar and I didn’t think a lot of people would pick it. This book is about a guy named Nick Carraway that moved to New York and works in the bond business. It’s told from his point of view throughout the whole book. He was neighbors with Jay Gatsby who he watched throw big parties each night. Jay is eager to meet Daisy, Nick’s cousin. This book is mainly about the downside of having unimaginable dreams but it also connects love in there. He throws all the parties because of his love for Daisy. Jay clings to memories in the hope she will return and it will all be perfect again but in reality they are both flawed and it can’t be perfect again.

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Notes from Underground, Fyodor Dostoevsky. I chose this book because it's about an underground man who is lonely and isolated and speaks from an underground place, cut off from society. Before hiding underground he felt isolated at school and work. He seems to withdraw because he thinks he's smarter than others, while other times it seems like no one likes him because he's rude. It's most likely both , being rejected by others, he withdraws, which makes people dislike him which then leads to further isolation.

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The Great Gatsby reflects a power struggle between old money and new money. Tom Buchanan and Jay Gatsby. Gatsby tries to gain status and try to win over daisy, while Tom feels threatened by his rise. It also highlights how power influences personal relationships and social dynamics. The power struggle significantly impacts Daisy's decisions. She is torn between Gatsby's love and Tom's money and status. Eventually, Daisy chooses the security and power that come with staying with Tom, despite her feelings for Gatsby. Her choice reflects how power and wealth influence her decisions.

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The Great Gatsby

I chose "The Great Gatsby" because it is a classic novel that looks at the difficulties of the American Dream and how money and love can be temporary. Fitzgerald's writing draws the reader into the rich yet empty world of Jay Gatsby and his desire for Daisy Buchanan. The main idea of the book is about the false idea of the American Dream, showing how chasing after wealth can lead to moral decline and disappointment. Through Gatsby's sad story, Fitzgerald critiques the shallow nature of society in the 1920s, highlighting the emptiness that often comes with success. This theme relates to the common idea of seeking happiness, as it asks whether true happiness can be found through achievements alone. In the end, "The Great Gatsby" reminds us of the risks of chasing dreams without building real connections with others.

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I chose The Great Gatsby written by F Scott Fitzgerald as my reading assignment because its a very famous book and i've heard lots of great things about it so it piqued my interest. In the book the main character Nick Carraway moved to West Egg, Long island, and became neighbors with Jay Gatsby who was very wealthy and mysterious. Gatsy is known for his extravagant parties but is ultimately revealed to be deeply in love with Nick's cousin, Daisy Buchanan. However, Daisy is married to Tom Buchanan, a wealthy and arrogant man. As the story goes on, it becomes clear that Gatsby's wealth and status are built on debious means, and his sole ambition is to win Daisy's love. Despite his efforts, Daisy remains with Tom, leading to a series of tragic events. Gatsby's dream of rekindling his romance with Daisy ultimately leads to his downfall. The novel ends with Gatsby's death and Nick reflecting on the past and memory of Gatsby. This book has the overall theme of class and social status because of the division between the wealthy and the newly rich, and moral decay because of Gatsby's fixation of the past and his desire to recreat it with Daisy shows the impossibility of recapturing lost time and the dangers of living in the past.

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I chose the book Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger because before I read it I thought that there could be a bunch of things I could relate to since I have already played high school football for a year. Throughout reading the book I can relate a lot to the main theme of the book, which is playing football in a small town. This means a lot to not only the players but also the community that watches these games and hopes for the best for the team. There are also a lot of pressures in the game of football that I can relate to, every time I play I am always nervous that something will go wrong. For example, Boobie Miles, the running back for the high school football team feels immense stress and pressure to perform how the community expects him to, just how anyone is before a big game. He also suffers a big injury which really sets him back from where the game of football was going to take him. Though, with the support of his family and his small town he comes back from his injury and realizes that there is a lot more to football than just performing your best. You have to have a brotherhood and loyalty throughout your teammates and coaches.

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Friday Night Lights from H.G. Bissinger, is the book I chose. The reason I chose this book is because this high school football team faces a lot of struggles. This football team lives in a small town in Odessa Texas, small town football puts a lot of pressure on these boys they have to work hard for every position. They face family struggles, stress, and injuries. Throughout the season the team's only focus was football. Until, the end of the book they finally realize that there is more to life than football.

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Friday Night Lights Summary of Key Ideas and Review | H.G. Bissinger - Blinkist

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Gain a complete understanding of “Friday Night Lights” by H.G. Bissinger from Blinkist. The “Friday Night Lights” book summary will give you access to a synopsis of key ideas, a short story, and an audio summary.

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"The Great Gatsby" by F. Scott Fitzgerald follows the story of Jay Gatsby, a wealthy man known for his extravagant parties during the Roaring Twenties. Narrated by Nick Carraway, Gatsby's neighbor, the plot centers on Gatsby's unfulfilled love for Daisy Buchanan, who is married to the arrogant Tom Buchanan. As Gatsby tries to win Daisy back, the novel highlights the emptiness of his lavish lifestyle and the superficiality of wealth. Nick becomes entangled in Gatsby's world, discovering the complexities of ambition. Tensions rise during a confrontation between Gatsby and Tom, leading to tragic outcomes. The story explores themes of identity, disillusionment, and the symbolism of hope, notably represented by the green light at the end of Daisy's dock, which signifies Gatsby's unattainable dreams.

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The book written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby, is in the perspective of Nick Carraway, who mainly focuses on his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. After being drafted for the war, Gatsby came back to the woman whom he was in love with, Daisy Buchanan, being married to a man named Tom Buchanan. Gatsby wants to rekindle things, so he goes to extreme lengths to get Daisy back. After Gatsby and Daisy reunited, they then fell back in love with each other and got into an affair, which amplified his obsession with her. The book is connected to the universal theme of love’s many forms. This connects to the book because Gatsby is crazy about  Daisy and would do anything to win her love. He’s obsessed with her and is in love with the idea of Daisy instead of who she actually is. The book highlights the unhealthy aspects of love and the unrealistic expectations Gatsby holds.

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Walden, published by Henry David Thoreau, is a book about Thoreau’s experience in the wilderness isolated for two years as a social experiment. I first chose this book out of curiosity but after reading the short description of the book online, I was interested. While listening to the audiobook, Thoreau shares his knowledge of the things he learned and his new interests towards nature while at Walden Pond. As Thoreau continues his isolation in the woods, he has gone to believe that you can live a much simpler and happier life with nature. As the seasons pass and the more work Thoreau puts into cabin, Thoreau grows into a different person than he was before. This book connects to the universal theme of The Wisdom of Nature because without his experience in nature at Walden Pond, Thoreau would not have a better understanding of the world than he does now.

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I chose the book Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bissinger because I myself have had similar experiences to the characters in the book. The book Friday Night Lights talks about a team in a small town in Texas named Odessa. The town of Odessa has a very small community that revolved around high school football. This can be both a good and a bad thing. While the players have fun and get to live out their dream of playing for their hometown, it can bring a lot of stress to them. For example, Boobie Miles, the running back for the high school football team, experiences stress multiple times throughout Friday Night Lights. He feels immesnse pressure to perform and live up to the expectations that the community has for him. He also faces stress from his family. This makes it very hard for him to enjoy the game as much as he would like too. He ends up getting a big injury which sets him back very far. However, he gets through it with the support of his community. Throughout the book, Boobie and his teammates realize that even though football is a big part of their ocmmunity, there is way more than just football and they have to take in that they are just young teenagers and they need to live their lives for way more than just football.

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For my book I chose Friday Night Lights. I chose this book because I love the show, which I have figured out is nothing like the book but both have great qualities. The book follows a team from Odessa, Texas. This town has an extreme obsession with their football team. It shows the extreme pressure of being a football player in this town and how the community focuses so much on winning. While football has intense pressure, it shows the inside lives of the players and coaches, where they have many other pressures other than football. The star player named Boobie has a severe injury. He is not able to perform for his team. This connects the universal idea of fear of failure. If you cannot perform well and focus on Friday night, then there is a feeling of failing the whole town. They come to realize that there is more to life than football and try to find their identity outside of football.

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I chose to read “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I chose this book because I have heard about it before, and the plot seemed interesting. This book is written from the point of view of Nick Carraway, who moved from Minnesota to New York to work in the bond business. Nick becomes intrigued by the life of his neighbor, Jay Gatsby. Jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who throws lavish parties in an attempt to impress his former lover, Daisy Buchanan, who happens to be Nick’s cousin. Gatsby grew up poor, unlike Daisy Buchanan, who was raised in luxury. The two fell in love, but Gatsby and Daisy’s relationship was put on hold after Gatsby was sent to war, ultimately leading to the marriage of Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchannan. Gatsby becomes obsessed with Daisy and is convinced that they are meant to be together. As a result, he does everything in his power to impress and win her back, longing to regain what they had. However, it is revealed that Gatsby is only obsessed with the idea of Daisy and the luxurious life he has always dreamed of having. This connects to the universal idea of Exploration of the Self along with The Pursuit of Wealth because Gatsby’s obsession with Daisy is ultimately fueled by his emotional desire to reinvent himself and gain happiness through the idealistic life he always longed for.

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When I initially started reading I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings I wasn’t sure what it meant, I only chose the book because I’ve heard good things about the author: Maya Angelou. The initial few chapters were a little confusing to me when I started, however the first chapter that I really felt like I began to understand was in chapter five. To me that’s when it clicked and I remember audibly saying “That's why the Caged Bird sings.” Prior to that chapter I had thoughts of how the title was referencing the Hymns and songs that the slaves in the fields would sing as a way to vent their frustrations and as a way to enjoy life in the ways they could even under the conditions they were under. The book further expands on that idea of pushing through suffering even when hope is lost. As she grows up she is told and shown again and again that the whites perceive them as inferior due to their skin color. She finds her way through all the trials and harassment she faced through cultural works, for example, this book and like the title ‘A caged bird’ because even as she was trapped under social norms she had her ways of expression. In my opinion the theme of the book could go one of two ways: either Exploration of Self, as she spent time finding her place in a world where she was told over and over she was useless and inferior, or Survival and Hope as, once again, she went through all the events in her life and managed to succeed both socially and economically.

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The reason why I chose “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald is because I have heard from a lot of people that it was a really good book, and my mother also told me to read it since she said I might find it interesting so I did. “The Great Gatsby” is told from Nick Carraway point of view,  who is also Jay Gatsby's neighbor, watching Jay Gatsby throw lavish and extravagant parties. The Great Gatsby is about how he, Nick Carraway, moves to west egg, long island. He entails with jay gatsby who is obsessed with reconnecting with daisy, nick’s cousin. The Great Gatsby explores the many consequences of having impossible dreams and goals. The great gatsby connects to the universal of self-loneliness and the chaos of forgetting one's identity. Gatsby and Daisy struggle with their true selves by comparing the people they create themselves to be versus who they actually are. Overall, I really enjoyed the book and I would completely recommend it to people because it actually creates a sort of suspense and excitement I wasn’t expecting.

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I chose the book Friday Night Lights because before reading it I felt that I could find commonalities with the book. Such as playing football in a small town that thrives around football. The book follows a football team in Odessa Texas, jumping into the lives of the players, their coaches, and the community. It captures the intense pressure and high expectations placed on a high school football in a small town. It explores the American obsession with sports, highlighting how the town's identity and hopes are deeply tangled with the success of the football team. It relates to the theme family bonds because the whole team has to become a family to thrive, that's the way it works with all football teams.

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I chose the book “Great Gatsby” for my novel, written by F.Scott Fitzgerald. In the book, the Great gatsby had it out for this girl Daisy. He was so in love with her and needed to find her. His strategy was to throw huge parties every week with the hope that she would show up to one of them eventually. But in the end Gatsby got what he wanted. The universal theme of the book is Loves many forms. I chose this theme because everything that happened was based around love. Gatsby throws all of his lavish parties because of the love he had for Daisy. And he was destined to find her, eventually his plan worked. They fell in love and had an affair because of Gatsby's love for her.

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Walden, by Henry David Thoreau, is a reflective narrative based on the two-year experiment of the author himself. For his experiment, Henry Thoreau isolates himself from the world in a cabin by Walden Pond in Massachusetts. In order for him to live a more simple and self-sufficient life he spends time in the woods to reconnect with nature. As the seasons change Thoreau notices the influence that it has on both the landscape and himself. Thoreau faced lots of challenges during his two years, such as harsh weather and the physical expectations of self-sufficiency. He learned valuable lessons about resourcefulness, learning to manage his time, and the rewards of his hard work. This book connects to the universal theme of A Sense of Place. By isolating himself from others Thoreau’s experiment at Walden Pond helped him learn self-reliance, simplicity, and the relationship of humanity and nature. All the things he learned during the two years enriched his understanding of contentment and the meaning of a purposeful life.

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For my book, I chose The Great Gatsby. I have meant to read this book for a very long time, but never found the time to. The Great Gatsby is a novel published and written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The book is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, focusing on his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, the wealthy mystery man who hosts lavish parties, and no one seems to know anything about. The narrative told by Nick highlights the past relationship between Gatsby and his past lover, Daisy Buchanan, who is also his cousin. Daisy and Gatsby had a very meaningful relationship, however, when Gatsby was sent away to war, Daisy ended up getting married to a man named Tom Buchannan. After he returns from war, everything that Gatsby does is to impress his past lover. His mansion was decorated in such a way that Daisy would have loved, the parties he through were extravagant, in hopes that Daisy would attend. He also often gazed at the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, symbolizing his longing for her, and hoping to rekindle their past relationship. However, at the end of the book, we find out that Daisy was not everything Gatsby thought she would be. Gasby’s realization of Daisy relates to the idea of idealized love. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is based on an idealized version of her from his past. He clings to memories in the hope that his reunion with her will be as perfect as the first time, but in reality, they are both flawed, complicated humans.

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I chose friday night lights because it was the most intresting to me. The way it touches on many things about players the game and atomosphere is written so well and so truthfully. They even made a movie about it and while the movie isnt exactly about the book they are similar and on the same track. Its also based on a true story with true real life experiences so its not just someone from a outside perspective its from someone that truly lived this.

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I chose the book 1984 by George Orwell. This story is set in a dystopian future in the year 1984. In this world, the people are set up into two main groups. These are the party members and the proles. The party members are basically the government people and the people that follow the authority figure, Big Brother. Big Brother is basically in charge of everything. There are posters of him everywhere that say, “Big Brother is Always Watching.”. Another part of the government is the ministries. There is the ministry of love, the ministry of truth, the ministry of peace, and the ministry of plenty. There are also the proles. These are the basically poorer people who do not follow big brother, but they also are less intelligent. Another way that Big Brother stays in control is with the telescreens. These are screens that are on the wall that are always listening and watching. These screens are also always playing noise like music, just white noise, or announcements. These are used to basically brainwash the citizens. One goal in this world is to completely erase the past. This is done by the ministry of truth. The main character of the book, Winston, works for the Ministry of Truth. They go through all of the documents and change them. For example, in the book at first Oceania, which is where the story takes place, is at war with Eurasia. Then later in the book, they defeat Eurasia and then go to war with Eastasia. The  Ministry of Truth is in charge of going through all of the documents proving Oceania was at war with Eurasia and changing them to  make it seem like Oceania was always at war with Eastasia. The citizens believe this, because Big Brother says it and they listen to everything they say. In this society  there is basically no past. In the book, the main character Winston realizes that he hates Big Brother. He then basically goes on a mission to join the Brotherhood which is the underground alliance against the Party. Another character, O’Brien, helps Winston to join the Brotherhood, but he is not all that Winston thought him to be. This book connects to the Universalizing Idea of Dystopian Realms. In this book George Orwell creates this futuristic society to where basically the government has way too much power, and everyone is completely under surveillance. This is what Orwell wanted to warn us about. Although we are not completely under surveillance to the extent of 1984, today we do have technologies that can be seen as very similar to the technologies in 1984.

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Jadyn Atkinson- Friday Night Lights (Buzz Bissinger)

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Jadyn Atkinson- Friday Night Lights (Buzz Bissinger)

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"Friday Night Lights" is about the 1988 season of the Permian High School Panthers football team in Odessa, Texas. The book shows insight on the impacts of high school football on the plays, their families, and the community. It shows this by highlighting the intense pressure and expectations placed on young athletes. The players faced several challenges, including intense pressure to perform well on the field, balancing academics with their demanding football schedules, and dealing with injuries. One example of these challenges is Boobie Miles. He was a star running back who faced immense pressure to lead the team. His football career quickly ended when facing a serious knee injury. This affected his future, because many colleges did not want him anymore. This book connects to the Universal Idea of Lost and Found. For many football players, football is their main priority and key source of happiness. When injuries like Boobie experienced, they often will feel empty and depressed. This causes them to feel lost, not realizing how much their life revolved around football. They then have to rediscover themselves and move on with their life. As they do this, they are "found".

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The Universal Theme of The Great Gatsby Is “Love’s Many Forms”. Although the book describes the giant house and parties Jay Gatsby throws, we never truly find out about his fortune or life. Although it’s tempting to describe this story of a rich, successful, American man as the American Dream I don’t believe this was the main point. We do see his lavish American lifestyle but I truly believe Gatsby would have moved anywhere in the world to be across the way from Daisy Buchanan. To be more specific in the description of Love’s many forms you could describe Gatsby’s situation as unrequited love. He is loyal to the idea of Daisy he has made up although she is married. All the years from when they first met to when they had been reintroduced, Gatsby threw these parties not for himself but in hopes he would find her in the crowd. Gatsby is willing to do anything for Daisy and when she hits Wilson driving behind the wheel of his car, Gatsby is quick to take the blame so as to not let her get in trouble. Through his life after meeting Daisy up to his death he thought of her and the love they could rekindle. He died because of her mistake he was protecting her from and she drove away with Tom without going to his funeral. This shows the nonreciprocal love Gatsby had for Daisy up to the very end, and her content with her life with Tom.

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The great Gatsby is the "American dream" the book telling how to gain wealth and statues with one of the characters named Jay Gatsby, Jay is gaining wealth from selling things during the prohibition and earning money and with the amount of wealth he has gained he gets statues and throws these huge parties that everyone knows about and you would have to have a invention handed to you to get in.

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Connor Gartman - Jay Yelas Autobiography 

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Connor Gartman - Jay Yelas Autobiography 

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The Universal theme of my book is exploration of self. Yelas goes into detail about how when he was trying to pursue Professional Bass Fishing that he was hit with the problem that success without purpose makes you feel empty, but success with purpose (family and faith) does not feel empty and makes you feel more complete. Yelas uses examples of this by when he would go on a dry spell and then evaluate his situation to see if he had either his fishing over his faith or family and fix that while also still trying to get his fishing skills back up to par.

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In the book Friday Night Lights by H.G. Bisinger, not only is the story of the 1988 Permian High school football team told, but the story of their little town of Odessa, Texas and it's hardships through the years. The Permian High School football team had the biggest fan base of fall. The entire town showed up and showed out for their team. The town focused so much on their football team and the thought of winning, that they forgot that the players on the field were only kids, with an entire life and a purpose ahead of them. The pressure that was put on the kids by the football crazed town lead to a false identity for many of the players. For example, Boobie had a passion for football, and he was good at it too. But his season ended abruptly after a knee injury and left him with an emptiness in his life where football used to be. This relates to the universal idea of identity and self exploration because these players had so much pressure on them to win that they thought that was their purpose and made it their entire identities.

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In the book Friday Night Lights, there is multiple hardships among players, coaches, and students. But, my big concern is Boobie. You see Boobie was the starting running back for the Panthers, but right after training season, and before the actual season started, he blew his knee out to end his season. Ever though, Boobie never played a high school snap that season, the players look up to him because of his commitment for the team. Boobie was the greatest inspiration for this team.

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Anytime my family drives through Houston, Texas, I get horrendous memories. These memories are of a time when I was around 10 years old. My dad often traveled for his work and sometimes my mom, sister and I would join him. What happened on this random Saturday is something I only saw in my nightmares. Friday morning, we all hopped into my dad’s truck and we’re headed on our way. The drive was just a normal road trip with random bathroom breaks at gas stations and many naps. After what felt like forever, we finally made it. The rest of Friday afternoon was normal, however, I had no idea what was in store for the next day. The next morning, my dad had a meeting very early in the morning. This left my mom, my sister and I with no vehicle. There was also no where in walking distance. This left us to call an Uber. This was a new experience for us. Mom made the call and shortly our Uber was there to pick us up. Our plan was to go to the movie theaters, about 25 minutes away. However, our Uber driver had other plans. We got in the car and noticed that he did not speak English very well. This made it very difficult to communicate with him. As we started heading down the road, we noticed that he was taking a lot of back roads. My mom asked, “Why aren’t we taking the interstate?” From what I could make from his accent and multiple language changes throughout his sentences, he said, “the interstates are closed.” Though at first this might seem odd, we did remember that on our way up to Houston there was a lot of construction. However, shortly after he says this we started to get suspicious. He pulls into a Dollar General parking lot and goes into the backroad that leads to a Dead End. My mom had already been on the phone with the police for 5 mins now, although she wasn’t able to talk to the 911 operator she put the phone down so they could listen. When we were at the end of the road there was this old run down house. He parked at this scary house and looked back at us and demanded money in his thick accent which was hard to decipher. At this point in story is where the universal idea of Survival and Hope comes in. My sister and I instantly felt hopeless. We were both crying and freaking out, as we had no idea what was going to happen. My mom however went into survival mode. She started yelling at the man. He just kept saying, “get out, and give me money.” As my mom swears to this day, he looked down at her phone and noticed the police on call. After noticing this, he instantly panicked and drove us to the Dollar General that we had passed. As he parks, we try to get out until he locks the doors and one last time says, “give me money.” While he may have had the doors locked, we remebered you can just pull up on the lever to unlock the door. We hurried out of the car and into the Dollar General, where we found a close by worker. We told her the situation and she emediately called the police. The whole time, he is still sitting in the parking lot. About 10 minutes later he pulls out and leave. Not even 30 seconds later the police pull in. We filled reports and took procedures from that day on for our safety. Once again, this connects to the Universal Theme of ,Survival and Hope. We had to think smart and have a lot of hope to be able to survive the situation. This helped make sure the situation did not escalate and just maybe, my life was saved that day because of this theme.

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In the book In the Garden of Good and Evil the author uses characters, and setting to represent the “dark side” of the bustling Savannah. Upon arriving in Savannah the author is immediately overwhelmed with the bright lights, while also diving into the mystery of the darker parts. Getting into the first few chapters the author is introduced to an assortment of unique characters, each character special to the city.  With each character, the author then goes into a deeper dive of the very widespread categories that the city he is in holds. These characters describe the bright city of Savannah. The use of diction for the characters, relates to the universal topic the nature of humanity.  Each person is very unique and has a very specific buildup of their past leading up to the Future. No one is the same just like every city covering the city is not the same. there's so much mystery to be uncovered in this bright City and there's so much history and backstory to uncover as you explore. Looking back through the book I can only be even more impressed with the in-depth descriptions of the characters that relate to the big bustling city of Savannah Georgia.

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I chose The Great Gatsby because it was recommended to me by my aunt. Although this book can be considered a short read, it has great detailing and symbols within. Even though the detailing adds a lot of volume to the book, I found the book boring at times, and would not recommend it for that reason. To begin, readers meet a character named Nick, a man looking for an opportunity to make money. In order to accomplish his plan, he moves to become a bond seller. Once moved in, Nick meets his neighbor “James Gatsby”. A lot is said about him, but little is known. Nick eventually learns that Daisy, who is his cousin, and James once had a deep relation. This ended when James went off the war and Daisy found someone else. In order to get Daisy back, James becomes this great rich man and impresses her. Eventually towards the end of the book, a fellow friend, Myrtle, is killed. Her husband is convinced it was James who murdered her, so he plans his revenge. He arrives at James’ house, where he shoots him in the pool and then himself. Nick, after what all has happened, moves back home, and the book is finished. I believe that the theme of the book is that although past times can sometimes be difficult, we must move past them and better ourselves. This book also relates to the universal theme of “The Heart of Relationships”. This is seen with Daisy and James’ relationship.

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I chose the book “The Great Gatsby” by F. Scott Fitzgerald because I have never read it before, and it seemed like it would be an interesting book to read. Even though it did have some good messages behind it, it would not be my #1 recommendation for readers due to the fact that it could have been more interesting. In the book, Gatsby and Daisy have a relationship, but once Gatsby was sent to war, Daisy ended up in a relationship with Tom Buchanan. Gatsby still had the determination to get Daisy’s attention, and fight for something that he had loved. This connects with the themes that were present throughout the book which were “The pursuit of happiness,” and “ The Heart of Relationships.” Gatsby was continuing to fight for Daisy for his happiness, and their relationship was important to him.

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I chose the book The Great Gatsby because it is a well renowned book and has even had multiple movies made of it. I would say that this book is not as much of an amazing book as some say. This book connects to the universal theme of love’s many forms. This is because many characters in the story do not stay true to their love and this leads to tragedy. Most of these characters are married however almost none of them stay faithful to their partners and because of all of that one of the spouses is angered and ends up killing Gatsby.

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I chose The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald because it is praised for its exploration of human relationships and the way it portrays the complexities of love and identity. As I read, what stood out to me was how the novel portrays unrequited love and the destructive power of your past. A universal theme that could apply to this is tragedy and triumph. Throughout the book we see Jay Gatsbys rise and fall in his life. The triumph of his wealth and success was ultimately overshadowed by the tragedy of human corruption and his unfulfilled dreams.

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The book I chose was The Great Gatsby. The cover caught my eye, and it seemed like a book I would be interested in and could understand. The Great Gatsby is a novel by F. Scott Fitzgerald, published in 1925. The book’s narrator is a guy named Nick Carraway. He mainly talks about this next-door neighbor whose name is Jay Gatsby. Gatsby is a wealthy man, who used to not be so wealthy, who throws/hosts these extravagant parties, and it seems not many people know about them. He was in love with a girl named Daisy and was not allowed to be with her because he was not rich. So he became rich and hosted those parties in hopes Daisy would come back to him. Even though she was married to another guy, named Tom. I would relate this book to the universal theme of love’s many forms. I would relate this book to that theme because Daisy used to love Gatsby, now she’s married to Tom, but still flirts with Gatsby and leads him on, then finally cuts things off with Gatsby.

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The memoir I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou shows her learning who she is, while facing the harsh prejudice as a Black Woman. She had to learn how to cope with the racism she faced early on, and how to cope with her being physically violated at a young age. This memoir shows a great example of loss childhood innocence, since she speaks out about her experiences as a young girl.

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks- By Rebecca Skloot 

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks- By Rebecca Skloot 

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In the book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, Rebecca Skloot goes through progressive detail on not only the life she lived before she died, but the family she left behind that had no idea of her immortal cells. To begin, the book explains the life Henrietta lived before passing away. The text emphasizes the wonderful woman she was, she was fearless, smart, and independent. Something I internally connected to, was her obligation to keep her pain hidden from even Alher family. She never complained of the tumor she knew was evolving in her cervix. She did mention the concerning lump to her close girl-friends and they pushed her to get treatment. When she finally reported to the hospital, despite the racial discrimination of the healthcare system, they told her she needed to start radiation therapy promptly. On her first operation of radiation therapy, is the time when the surgeon took a sample to experiment on. Samples taken from her were not confirmed by her, which made her family very unforgiving to find out about. Her daughter, Deborah Lacks, gave Skloot many personal characteristics of Henrietta and emotionally provides her appreciation and love for her mom throughout the book. She expresses the anger that Henrietta's cells were taken from her, and that in the end, her name was kept a secret. Henrietta died on October 4, 1951, after the cancer progressively worsened and the radiation failed to succeed. Although, her family brings peace to her memory that she helps develop new treatments and cures more and more everyday from her immortal cells. The universal themes I connected to this book are The Power Struggle and Family bonds. Power struggle relates because Henrietta struggled to pay the bills and fight off her cancer. Although her family feel empathy for the girl they lost, they still come together to represent her and get her name known, for her immortal cells.

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For my book, I chose The Great Gatsby. I have been meaning to read this book for a very long time, but never found the time to. The Great Gatsby is a novel published and written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The book is told from the perspective of Nick Carraway, focusing on his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, the wealthy mystery man who hosts lavish parties, and no one seems to know anything about. The narrative told by Nick highlights the past relationship between Gatsby and his past lover, Daisy Buchanan, who is also his cousin. Daisy and Gatsby had a very meaningful relationship, however, when Gatsby was sent away to war, Daisy ended up getting married to a man named Tom Buchannan. After he returned from war, everything that Gatsby did was to impress his past lover. His mansion was decorated in such a way that Daisy would have loved, the parties he through were extravagant, in hopes that Daisy would attend. He also often gazed at the green light at the end of Daisy’s dock, symbolizing his longing for her, and hoping to rekindle their past relationship. However, at the end of the book, we find out that Daisy was not everything Gatsby thought she would be. Gasby’s realization of Daisy relates to the idea of idealized love. Gatsby’s love for Daisy is based on an idealized version of her from his past. He clings to memories in the hope that his reunion with her will be as perfect as the first time, but in reality, they are both flawed, complicated humans.

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Friday night lights is a book published in 1990 by H.G. Bissinger. The book takes place in 1988 in Odessa, Texas. At first glance it seems that it would talk about a team. Although it does talk about a team I believe it is more about a town that is centered around high school football. In this book there is a boy named Boobie. He is the most athletic and best player at football, but he gets hurt and ends up tearing a ligament in his knee. So the team has to do without him. This town loves football. Every Friday night the whole town is at the football field cheering on the team. After a while he pretends everything is fine and goes to a game. The coach doesn’t want to put Boobie in seeing he might get hurt worse, but with the team failing Boobie gets put into the game and hopefully wins the game. Soon after Boobie gets hurt and can no longer play football. The team now has to push on without him to get to the state championship and win. The whole town is pressuring them and they will let the whole town down if they don't win. With this pressure they push through they have to win one more game to secure a spot in the playoffs but they lose so it's a three way tie all in the hands of a coin flip. They win the coin flip with tails. They go on throughout the playoff until they are left with the final team to win the state championship. This team is big. They get hammered in the first half but eventually find each other and their perfect and it comes to a close game but ultimately they lose. Against all odds the town isn’t too mad and new relationships are formed and ultimately they learn there is always next season. The universal theme of this book is even after experiencing winning and losing, they come together.

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I Chose the book 1984 by George Orwell.

Winston Smith - Main character

O'brien - party member/ Main Antagonist

Concepts and ideas / entries

A lot of these concepts of a overpowering government can relate to today

Characters treated as kids and always watched

Innocent people get charged with crimes for weird rules

I chose this book because it seemed interesting to read. The more I read the more I began to realize how controlled Winston and the other characters were, but also how there is no escape from Big Brother. Throughout the book you mainly follow Winston's perspective seeing how he lives his life, he also avoids the government's laws and rebels to have some sort of freedom. I overall enjoyed this book and would recommend it if you like conspiracies and theories. The theme of this book is to prevent totalitarianism and protect your freedom. This is also a universal idea in itself.

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A few years ago my grandpa died of leukemia. And then just recently we figured out that my mother is lacking white blood cells, the cause of leukemia. She doesn’t have it but it is possible she could in the future. Ever since I figured out about that I have felt bad about never seeing her because of school and work. I have been trying to find more ways to spend time with my family, take them out to eat, go shopping, anything to have time with them. Anything could happen at any time and you never know when you could lose someone you love.

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“I Have No Mouth, and I Must Scream” is a short story by Harlan Ellison that explores the theme of humans versus machines through the terrible experience the last five surviving humans had to go through in a post-apocalyptic world. The malevolent supercomputer, AM(Allied Mastercomputer, has annihilated humanity except for these individuals Benny, Gorrister, Nimdok, Ted, and Ellen and tortures them endlessly. The story goes into the psychological and physical suffering AM puts the remaining survivors through, highlighting AM’s overwhelming power and the helplessness of the humans. This book shows the dangers of technology when it gains sentience and the potential for it to become a tyrant over its creators. Overall, it reflects on the fragility of humanity in the face of an all-controlling machine.

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i have no mouth & i must scream: stories

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20th century american novel and short story

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fiction / fantasy / collections & anthologies

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fiction / science fiction / collections & anthologies

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hard scifi; advanced technology; short story collection; short story anthology; tortured prisoners; essay anthology; essay collection; collections and anthologies; immortal prisoners; scifi anthology; scifi fantasy; scifi horror; dystopia; dystopian thriller; action and adventure; space opera; cyberpunk; artificial intelligence

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fiction / fantasy / collections & anthologies

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fiction / science fiction / collections & anthologies

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20th century american novel and short story

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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream: Stories

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I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream: Stories [Ellison, Harlan] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. I Have No Mouth & I Must Scream: Stories

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When I was younger every year when Christmas comes, I get super excited. I hang my stockings and imagine Santa coming down the chimney with gifts. My friends talk about seeing him on Christmas Eve, and I really believe them. I write him a letter with my wishes and hope he gets it. The lights on the tree make me feel happy, thinking about how he brings joy. Even if some say he’s a myth or legend, I loved believing in him because it’s what made Christmas so special to me.

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

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In Maya Angelou’s memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Angelou describes her journey of self discovery as an African American woman in the 1930s and 40s. She realizes that at an early age that black people are viewed as inferior to white people, which shakes her self confidence. The story explores how she copes with racism and sexual abuse. I chose this book because of the title, where a lot of characters could represent the caged bird.

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A Hangman's Diary: Journal of Master Franz Schmidt

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A Hangman's Diary: Journal of Master Franz Schmidt

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A Hangman's Diary written by Franz Schmidt including a foreword by C. Calvert, is a book that details many of the executions and punishments given by Franz Schmidt. The book itself is much older than the current printing, the current printing includes a foreword about the criminal process of Nuremberg for the time and what led up to the current system that Franz Schmidt would have been a part of. I believe that A Hangman's Diary can be presented for the universal idea of Crime and Punishment due to its educational nature on the process for those who have been accused of a crime and its punishment for many of these crimes. Some of the punishments included in the book include the Wheel, Hanging, Drowning, Beheading, and Burning (though burning seemed rather rare). A thief would usually be hung as hanging was seen as a dishonorable punishment, if the thief was lucky he would be upgraded to a beheading which was a seen as an honorable way to be executed. If a thief was hung his body would be left to hang there until it was rotted or had been eaten by the carrion birds. Some would be hung in public squares. As a rule of thumb, women were never hung. The only case where a woman was hung is noted by Franz Schmidt as exceptionally rare and a first for Nuremberg. Murderers were usually beheaded, but if the murder was exceptionally horrid then they would be broken on the wheel or killed and then exposed on the wheel. The wheel was a punishment where your bones would be broken with a wheel until the killing blow was administered some 30-40 hits later. Then your body would be strung on the wheel and left to stay as it was held up by a pole. Drowning was a punishment reserved for women who had committed infanticide, the original punishment for women who had committed infanticide was to be buried alive but the practice was seen as cruel so it was changed to drowning. With the help of Franz Schmidt, the punishment of drowning was upgraded to a beheading for infanticidal women. Though, from the details in the diary, it seems that many women were still drowned if the crime was horrid enough. I had chosen this book because I have heard about it before and it interested me, the topic of execution and old customs is a very fun topic to me, and I wanted to have an excuse to read this book and a way to force myself since I can only force myself to read books. I think that this was a very interesting and fun book. This book was originally published in the 1920's and you can tell from the foreword with how many old words there were, I had to look up many of the words. The foreword itself started out boring but when it got to the execution part and the process of how to determine if someone is guilty it got more interesting. Mainly because then it started dealing with how the criminal process worked in Nuremberg and the punishments that they would use. The book even details an execution that Franz Schmidt did not include in his diary, the execution of his brother-in-law. Now, when we get to the actual diary itself this was probably the most fun part of the book. It gives insight into how what crimes people would commit and be punished for and really makes you feel as if you were there with him hearing about these crimes. All of these crimes were horrid, but sometimes it is funny at what would get you to be executed. An example being that a butcher was hung for selling dog meat as mutton. But it's also fun for me to see the horrid crimes that were committed, and some of them stay with me. One specific one I remember is a murderer who cut open the stomaches of 4 pregnant ladies while they were still alive. I understand that people have not really changed over the years but it really is hard to believe that something like that could happen today, in the day and age that we are in. I would rate this book very highly and suggest it to anyone with the stomach to handle the contents within. This book taught me that the neck of a decapitated person can be called the "trunk" like a tree trunk, and that is indispensable knowledge. All in all, very fun book, 10/10, would read again, and I will probably read it again just to read the executions again.

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In her memoir, I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, Maya Angelou shares her experiences growing up in the south as an African American in the 1930s. When she is 3-years-old, her and her brother are sent to live with their grandmother in Stamps, Arkansas. In her time there, she discovers that she, as well as other African Americans, are viewed as inferior by white folk because of the color of their skin. Well established racism in the south inclines Maya to believe she is worthless. Throughout the book, she discusses her struggles with racism and sexual abuse, which she is able to overcome as reading becomes her refuge. She triumphs her trials and tribulations and is able to find intellectual rejuvenation against white supremacy. This correlates with the universal theme of the journey of self-discovery. Throughout Maya’s entire life, she struggles with identity and self-worth, but she is ultimately able to overcome her trauma and come out on top.

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The Great Gatsby By Scott Fitzgerald

The real reason why I chose this book Being 100% Truthful is because it was the shortest book of them all. But I did enjoy the story a lot. This book was a love story that never had a happy ending. Gatspy was supposed to get with Daisy but Daisy's deceptiveness and dishonesty got him killed. The universal Idea i Chose for this book was Secret and Lies. Because of all the lies daisy told Gatspy (or lead him on to believing) he ended up losing his life just because daisy is dishonest.

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The book Walden, written by Henry David Thoreau, is a book written almost entirely with metaphors, understood to be a self help book by some. This writing originally caught my eye due to the summary given to me by Mr. Kennedy. He described it as a book about a man who leaves the modern world to find himself, and he told me that reading it was life-changing to him. Walden explores ideas of self reliability, independence, and living a simplistic lifestyle in order to find ones self.

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When I was about ten years old, a young boy, I typically didn't spend much time outside. My family consisted of(and still does) 4 brothers and a sister (I was the oldest), my mother was a nurse before my brother was born but after the third child she began to stay at home to take care of us, my father worked as a roofer for as long as I’ve known. Since my family kept growing I kinda isolated myself from school friends and any activities that I could or would be invited to, I opted rather to play video games as they allowed me to connect with people without having to leave my home, a way for me to continue watching my siblings when needed and for me to make friends that I could talk to. This went on for a while and I thought that it would continue to go on for, well, until I graduated high school I guess. But life isn’t always so simple. One night when I was busy playing my game and chatting with online friends my mother passed in her bathroom. The design of our home put us at opposite ends, with me being on one edge and her on the other. I don’t quite remember why I went to see or how it happened but I did and I saw her lying on the ground. I won't go into much more detail but it was pretty traumatic for me and caused me to even further isolate myself in school. It was only after she passed that I realized how little I actually knew, how little I thought of her, and now that she's gone I regret that everyday, so I spend most of my time with people forming important connections and relationships with them. I believe this event relates to the theme of The Heart Of Relationships, even though my relationship with my mother was not particularly close, I feel like the status of my relationships have changed due to the loss of my mother and I don't feel the regret of not knowing someone well enough again. There's a common saying that you don’t know how important something is until it’s gone, I don’t want to wait until something is gone to determine its importance to me.

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I chose to read Walden by Henry David Thoreau, because it was about his experiences in the woods and I enjoy being in the woods so it sounded like a book I would enjoy. The book was very good because it taught me many different things. It taught me to live life simply because if you keep wanting more and more life can get out of hand. Be thankful for what you have and find excitement in anything that happens. This book goes with the Universal theme of journey of self discovery. The book Walden goes with this universal theme because Henry was trying to understand himself. He was also growing in becoming self reliant.

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The Great Gatsby is a book that was published by F. Scott Fitzgerald in 1925. The book is about a wealthy man, Jay Gatsby, being in love with a woman named Daisy Buchanan, and rekindling their relationship before Gatsby left for World War 1. Gatsby and Daisy were able to rebuild their prior relationship, but it leads to an affair since Daisy is married to a man named Jay Buchanan. The affair was eventually revealed to Tom and Gatsby demanded that Daisy tell Jay she never loved him, leaving Daisy at a crucial decision. Daisy’s husband Tom was having an affair with Mertyle Wilson, and near the end of the novel Daisy murders her in Gatsby’s car. George Wilson, thinking Gatsby murdered his wife, shoots Gatsby and kills him, and in the end, Daisy ends up picking her husband Tom even though she is aware of what was happening behind her back. The universal theme that this easily ties into is Secrets and Lies tangled behind all of the cheating and the secrets that are kept from one another.

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Apart from it being the length that was most attainable by the due date for this assignment, I wanted to read this book, because I had several family members who claimed to have enjoyed reading it. This book was about the story of a character named Nick Carraway, who moved to New York after returning from war, and becomes a part of his neighbor Gatsby's wealthy and lavish way of life. After learning that Gatsby has previously been in a relationship with his cousin Daisy, and is still madly in love with her, Gatsby asks Nick to arrange a time for them to meet up in hopes to rekindle their relationship and win her back from her now husband, Tom. Daisy and Tom’s marriage was filled with secrets and unfaithfulness, as Tom was already having an affair with a lady from the valley of ashes, and Daisy’s rekindled flame with Gatsby led to an affair as well. Although Daisy was aware of these affairs, she chose to overlook them in order to keep enjoying the comforts of her luxurious and wealthy life. However, these unfaithful acts inevitably led to severe consequences. Daisy hit Myrtle (Tom’s mistress) with a car, which happened to be Gatsby’s. In an attempt to save his wife, Tom told the deceased woman's husband that it was Gatsby that was responsible for his wife's death. Overcome by his own grief and desire for justice, Myrtle's husband found Gatsby and shot him in the comfort of his own home. I think that this story can best relate to the universal idea “The pursuit of wealth.” I think this because even if Daisy’s love was for Gatsby, her allegiance was with Tom, because of his wealth and fortune. These are the values and morals that are followed by her due to the influence that money had on the society of her time.

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The book I chose to read for this entry was I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou. In my process of picking out a book to read, I first scanned the titles of all of the books. Skimming past “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings”, I was immediately intrigued. Why did the caged bird sing? After seeing this title, I looked up the main themes in this book, as it was an integral part of the assignment as a whole, and I looked up the back cover of the book with a summary. The few words that both the back cover of Angelou’s book and the google search of themes in this book highlighted stood out to me greatly. After analyzing the choices of literature, I ultimately chose Angelou’s autobiography as I thought she would have a thing or two to teach me, which she did. I also thoroughly loved the idea that this book would actually make me think. Later, I also realized that she had a childhood in Arkansas as well, so I figured that fun little quip would allow me to at least relate in some way to her. As Angelou's autobiography starts out, it's set in the late 20’s as Maya is a 3 year old girl headed to Stamps, Arkansas with her older brother, Bailey, as their parents had just gotten divorced and they were going to live with their paternal grandmother, Momma. Throughout her memoir, set mainly in the 30’s and 40’s, Angelou explores themes of identity, racism, trauma, and resilience. As an insecure child Angelou felt waves of abandonment as her parents abandoned her and she found herself searching for stability. In Stamps she found stability through her Momma and Mrs. Bertha Flowers, and even her brother Bailey. Maya was a very observant child, but she found herself even more observant and even mute for a while after she had been sexually abused by her mothers boyfriend, Mr.Freeman. This cruel experience that she faced forever changed her. At 8 years old she went to trial for this assault, and came out believing that she was not worthy, and that if she were to talk, she would harm someone. She was the caged bird who had yet learned how to use its voice. During this time she finds comfort in literature, that's her stability. As she grew, sure she faced even more hardships like moving to San Francisco and having a baby in High School, but she also grew to be successful and in her resilience she found her voice and was able to express her true identity in a world that often seeks to silence it. Maya was the bird that sang to advocate. I believe that piece of literature is a work of art. This book is one of the most beautiful texts I have ever read. The perspective and mindset that Angelou holds is pulchritudinous. I am filled with astonishment over the metaphor of the caged bird. It just reminds me of the delicacy of life, yet the complexity. The way that she distinguishes her feelings of feeling trapped due to racism, trauma, and oppression through this metaphor is so intelligent, especially emotionally intelligent. Her ability to transform her personal pain into a source of empowerment is heartbreaking yet uplifting. She is so honest and vulnerable, allowing readers to genuinely feel connected to her struggles and all of her wins. Her book is not just a personal account of her life, I would also consider it a source of inspiration for anyone who has faced any adversity. Maya Angelou is a light of hope and a testament to what extraordinary will can do for you in a world that seems to be out for you. Her book is a key example of the theme of the journey to self-discovery. Even with all of her hardships, she was still able to persevere through in order to find her true identity (what I would say is the core theme of the book), her voice, and how to express it.

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Written by Maya Angelou, I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings describes the life of a black girl in southern America during the 1930's and 40's. Deep southern racism manifested from her youth leads her to believe she is less than others, even when she is only a little girl. Maya shares her trauma, discussing the occurrences of sexual abuse from her biological mother's live in boyfriend, who is later violently murdered. She forever caries the guilt and shame of sexual abuse, eventually not talking to anyone except her sister. She moves back with her grandmother, where she strengthens within her community finding religious revival against white supremacist. This ultimately relates to the universal theme of coming of age.

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

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I chose this book because it sounded pretty interesting. In the book Maya Angelou talks about her experiences as a black girl in the south. She explains how when she was 3 her parents got divorced which led to her living with her grandma, who they call mamma, in Arkansas. She explains how it was painful having been abandoned by her parents. She also describes how she was insecure about herself thinking she was ugly. Later on in the book she voices her struggles such as racism and trauma she went through. Maya went through a phase where she wouldn’t talk and was silent and her family got frustrated with her after she was doing it for a while. The racism was pretty bad and Momma wanted the children to be in a safer environment so she saves money so they can go with Vivian. They live with Vivian who marries Clidell and they move to San Francisco. Maya spent a summer with her father whose girlfriend had cut Maya in a fight. This caused Maya to run away and live with a group of homeless teens. Angelou then returns to San Francisco more confident and she becomes the first streetcar conductor at age 15. She then gets pregnant and hides it till she graduates high school. She was a confident mother to her newborn son. This relates to the universal idea of a journey of self discovery because Angelou went through a lot of things but in the end found out who she was.

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My personal experience with the central theme of crime and law is when my parents got a divorce four years ago. This relates to the theme because my parents both had lawyers and had to come to agreements on what they split. They had been married for 12 years and in a relationship since they were 16. This affected the way I looked at relationships because of how young they were when they met. It made me want to get married later on in life instead of so early because I felt like they didn't get to experience things they should have because of their relationship.

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I chose this book because as a football player I thought that it would be interesting to learn about another football team and their successes and failures. Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissinger is based on the town of Odessa Texas. Bissinger focuses his experiences as he shadows the Permian Panthers, the highschool football team, during their 1988 season. During his experiences with the team, he highlights the town's focus, which is on the football team. The town of Odessa finds community and pride centered around the football team, but sometimes to an almost extreme extent. Bissinger also focuses on Coach Gaines and some of the players on the team such as Boobie Miles, Mike Winchell, and Tim Riggins. These characters face high expectations from the community and are expected to perform well. The book also highlights the unfairness in academics that non-football players face. Football players have academics much easier due to the people wanting them to play. Academics are treated as non-important in comparison to football. This book relates to the universalizing theme of Sports and Competition. This is because the book is based on Odessa’s football team and their wins and losses throughout the season.

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“The Great Gatsby”, written by F. Scott Fitzgerald, a tragic love story with very real commentary towards American life. This Novel starts off with our narrator Nick Carraway, a war veteran, returning home from World War 1. Originally living in Minnesota he decides to travel to New York to get into the bond business. The New York setting is divided into an East and West egg. The West egg is classified as “New Money” and is the less fashionable of the two, this is where Nick settled. Also living on west egg there's Jay Gatsby, a mysterious but wealthy man, neighbors with Nick, living in a luxurious mansion in Long island. The east egg is seen as “Old Money”, with more arrogance surrounding it. Daisy Buchanan and her husband Tom Buchanan live on east egg, Daisy is cousins with Nick. Nick attends to one of Daisys and Toms dinner parties

where it's revealed that Tom has a mistress living in New York. We later learn that this woman is Myrtle Wilson, married to George Wilson, owner of a gas station and auto repair shop. We also learn that Jay Gatsby and Daisy Buchanan had a relationship in the past. This is where we learn one of the central conflicts of the novel. Jay Gatsby wants to win back Daisy after 5 years of being away at war, Tom is married to Daisy while having an affair with Myrtle. The main question is who is Daisy going to pick? Gatsby or Tom? At the end Daisy accidentally runs over Myrtle while driving Gatsby's car and George Wilson shoots Gatsby because of this incident. Ultimately at the end of the novel Daisy chooses Tom, Tom was there when Gatsby got sent to war and provided a wealthy status for Daisy. Wealthiness mattered much more to Daisy than Love could ever. I think this book demonstrates corruption and yearning, the valley of ashes is a great example of this. Nick spends a while describing this “valley of ashes” between west egg and manhattan where society breaks down and loses all rules and becomes corrupt. This is where you see the line between rich and poor, where you see what actually matters to some of these people and this government. There's many universal themes that could connect to this book but a big one I see is the pursuit of wealth. This book is about romance and what heavily influences romance during this time and in this book is social class and wealth. Even if Daisy did truly love Gatsby, she would of ever married him, she cared a lot more about Tom's wealth and status.

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I have been interested in politics and social issues for quite some time now, probably around 5 years at this point. My interest grew significantly during 2020, one of the most chaotic and aggressive election years ever in American history. While my interest grew, my bias grew towards one side. I listened to political news podcasts, read articles, watched videos, etc., but only on one side of the political spectrum. I believed I was correct in doing this and that I had no need to change my views or consider others. As time has gone by since 2020, I've still been paying some attention to politics and social issues, but I've realized that I was wrong in my ways of consideration, causing heavy bias and a skewed mindset. Since I've realized this, I've made efforts to get rid of my skewed mindset while still retaining my values and principles. I now attempt to view all issues, political or not, from a centrist standpoint without letting bias get in the way. This has helped in my understanding of many things, and has helped in settling things as well. This connects to the universal ideas of change and understanding.

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The Great Gatsby is written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I chose this book because it's the shortest option and I thought the cover looked dope. I connected this book to the universal theme of the nature of humanity. Examples of this are how Jay Gatsby throws lavish parties to try to impress Daisy, his lost love. However Gatsby's obsession with the past leads to his eventual downfall and death.

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, follows Nick Carraway and his trip to the upper east coast for a summer. Nick finds himself meeting up with his second cousin, Daisy Buchannan, and her husband Tom. After hearing about this mysterious charioteer Gatsby, Nick is invited to one of Gatsby's parties and meets the man himself. Gatsby is more pathetic than Nick first thinks but it is eventually revealed that Gatsby is madly in love with Daisy. Wanting to help is new friend/neighbor out, Nick gets the two alone together in which they have a very nice evening. Gatsby is even more madly in love now having spent time with Daisy, taking her to town in his car. This leads to Daisy running over Mertyl and killing her, in which Gatsby takes the blame and eventually gets killed for it. This story shows the lows that love can bring you to, eventually until you put their own life over yours as Gatsby did.

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Of all the experiences one from my time at band camp really stuck out to me and showed me the importance of my values. After a week of having fun at camp, I felt like I never wanted to leave. The final day was upon me and I was getting ready for my final performance when I saw my family in the crowd. At that point I had realized how much I missed them during my week without them, although I did have a fun time I had this underlying feeling that something was wrong but I couldn't pinpoint it until I saw them. The whole performance I saw them looking and cheering for me, it made me so happy I couldn't wait to be back home. After the performance we went out to eat and I will never forget that Big Mac, it was probably the best burger I have ever had just because of the circumstances. This experience taught me the importance of my family in my everyday life.

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I chose midnight in the garden of good and evil primarily because it revolved around legal court proceedings. In the book the audience follows the main character, a magazine editor, who travels around the US. At this time he is in a sweet town in Georgia and he decides to stay and reside there. He describes savannah and the social norms in great detail with other characters he meets throughout the book. Later on as the book progresses you also get to enjoy a murder case of a male shooter. This book connects with the universal idea of crime and law.

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I've had many experiences but one really stuck out to me. For many years of growing up I would tell myself I'm not growing up yet, or that I'm not ready too. But until my brother moved out it didn't feel real. Not only did my brother leave for college but he moved 22 hours away which made me realize that I couldn't run down the hall anymore to tell my brother about my day, I couldn't bring back our childhood memories anymore. He lived in Idaho for almost year, and thorugh out that year I notice it was time to realize that we are really growing up. He is now back in Arkansas living right next store to me with a wife, and 2 jobs.

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The Great Gatsby is an interesting book with a quite different approach on the time period known as the roaring 20s. This book is about a rich man in the 1920s, Jay Gatsby, who lives in a mansion and has a large, luxurious car. Gatsby, who was poor at the time, was in love with Daisy, who was wealthy, but went to fight in World War 1, and was separated for some time as a result. Daisy married a rich man named Tom, and when Gatsby found out, he was devastated. He bought a mansion and a nice car near her in an attempt to impress her. He often hosted parties with many people present, and eventually would invite Daisy to try to win her back. Gatsby is confident at some point that he won her back, but she doesn't separate from Tom, who had been disloyal to her. Tom tries to win her over again, and exposes Gatsby's sources of wealth. He's confident and assertive, so he sends her in the car with Gatsby. Tom's mistress, Myrtle, tries to flag down the car, but is ran over and killed. Tom and Myrtle's husband George were angry and upset, and George went to Gatsby's house and shot him in the pool, then himself. Not many attended Gatsby's funeral, the only notable ones being the narrator Nick and Gatsby's father. One of the main themes throughout this story is the destruction that comes out of chasing wealth and trying to win people over, and how corruption is present throughout.

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I chose Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil because the title intrigued me. The story centers on Jim Williams, who is accused of murdering his lover, Danny Hansford, and endures four trials before being acquitted. This narrative explores the universal theme of the balance between good and evil. Although Williams’s acquittal seems like a victory, his sudden death from a mysterious heart attack eight months later adds a poetic twist, evoking the idea of cosmic justice. This book captivated me not only with its plot but also with its deeper reflections on morality and the complexities of human experience.

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The help - power comes from risks - Baylee R

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The help - power comes from risks - Baylee R

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The Help, based on a true story from Alabama in the 50’s and 60’s, right in the middle of the civil rights movement really taking off. This book shows how 2 women, both black and working for white families as their help, can really make a difference in the world when they’re given the chance. Skeeter, the white woman who writes the help in the story, takes risks on these women, publishing their stories without their names attached so as to not get them into any trouble, risks her job and her pending marriage by publishing this book.  Aibilene and Minny, the two main women in the help both share their stories first, convincing other girls to share with Skeeter to make her book cause a change. These women gained a new power from this book being published, and knowing that their lives were being read not just in Alabama, but everywhere. Without them taking the risk, they wouldn’t have ever gotten the power to work for their rights as US citizens.

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I chose to read The Great Gatsby. I chose this book because this book was the shortest and because of the chase for love in this book. This book was not what I expected though. I think this book was a little crazy. The people in the book had known each other some way or another. Gatsby's way of trying to win back Daisy was weird, he shouldn't have tried to change or do everything to get her back.Gatsby was always trying to get Daisy's attention and love any way he could.

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The Great Gatsby written by F. Scott Fitzgerald starts his book with a quote from our narrator, Nick Carraway father saying, "Whenever you feel like criticizing any one, just remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages you have had." He then goes on to explain the setting which is a few miles away from New York city where there were two communities, the East egg and the West egg. He moved to the West Egg to learn the bond business, in a shack compared to his neighbor, Jay Gatsby, who was so rich and lived in a mansion. The West Egg was across the bay from the East Egg which so happened to be his cousin Daisy Buchanan and her husband, Tom Buchanan’s house. The whole book is a twisted love story with our narrator, Nick being right in the middle of all of it.  Keep in mind all of these characters are very messed up from the recent end of World War I. Tom had an affair with a girl named Myrtle Wilson in New York city who he does not hide at all. One day Tom takes Nick to meet his mistress which ends in a party with Nick getting drunk for the first time and Tom breaking his mistresses nose because he will not break up with his wife. The next afternoon, Nick gets invited to one of Jay's Gatsby's parties where he meets the mysterious man for the first time. Jay Gatsby’s Parties included a lot of drinking and his mansion being invaded with a bunch of nobodies which did not make much sense at first, but turned out he was hosting these parties in hopes for his last love Daisy to show up. Since this did not work, Gatsby wants Nick to invite Daisy to tea one day, so he could pop in and be reunited with her. Whenever they were reunited, Gatsby was very awkward and obsessive over Daisy. The next party that Gatsby hosted, Tom and Daisy showed up. This party consisted of Gatsby and Daisy dancing and sneaking off and Tom being un bothered by the fact knowing that Daisy is just leading him on. Tom, one evening invited Nick, Gatsby and Jordan to lunch where Daisy and Gatsby make eye contact and she mouthed to him that she loved him. Tom, again being unbothered because he knows that she is crazy and there whole goal was to give Gatsby false hope. Tom then decides that the 5 of them are going to the city together, where Daisy and Gatsby ride together in Toms car, and Nick, Jordan and Tom ride together in Gatsby's car. Tom stops to get gas in Gatsby's car at the place where his mistress and her husband work. Eventually Tom and Gatsby get into it over Daisy where Tom exposes Gatsby for being in sketchy businesses and Daisy finally stops leading Gatsby on saying,” Please Tom, I cannot stand this anymore.” With that being over Daisy and Gatsby start home in Gatsby's car, for whatever reason, whenever Tom's mistress jumps in front of Gatsby's car because she thought it was Tom, and she gets ran over, and Daisy and Gatsby keep on going. This made Myrtle Wilson's husband very upset and angry to where he went and searched to find who ran his wife over. Tom gave Myrtle Wilson's husband the name Gatsby and he went and shot Jay Gatsby and then himself although Daisy was driving and Tom was getting with Mr. Wilson's wife. This connects to the universal theme of secrets and lies because that's all this book is with Jay Gatsby dying because he still loved Daisy enough to take the blame for the hit and run. I chose this book because I was told it was the shortest although it was very complex and corrupt.

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I grew up in Missouri, in a tiny town of only 750 people. My elementary school had roughly 100 people total, and everyone knew everyone. There were no grocery stores or fast food restaurants around, so we would all go to the neighboring town, around the size of Greenbrier, for groceries and necessities. This was what I was used to, my small community where everything felt familiar to me. One day my dad got a job offer from an old colleague, but it was in Arkansas. He and my mom had long discussions on this but ultimately decided moving was the best choice for us, as it offered more money than what we had. My mom wanted my brother and I to be able to finish out our school year, so my parents did long distance until school was over. With my mom and I traveling to see him every other weekend in his apartment, as we were still house hunting. Eventually, the time came to move and my brother decided to come with us, instead of staying in Missouri with his dad. The day we left was filled with emotion. I was distraught, my grandma and I were both in tears, and I was not ready to go. The idea of leaving my home filled me with dread. I had not experienced any significant changes like this before, so it was overwhelming. It's human nature to resist change when everything you know is left behind. However it's good to let go of that and not let it hold you back from everything ahead of you.

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The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Ava Kelley 

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The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald - Ava Kelley 

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The Great Gatsby is a book published in 1925 by author F. Scott Fitzgerald. The book takes place in the 1920s, and is narrated by Nick Carraway. This story is about a very wealthy man named Jay Gatsby who is in love with a woman named Daisy Buchanan. Jay and Daisy had a relationship before he left for World War I, and he tries to get back in touch with Daisy. This ends up leading to an affair which lead to a series of tragic and unexpected events happening.

I chose to read this book because I have heard good things about it and it seemed like a interesting read. I had also watched the movie in the past and really enjoyed it. I thought that the book was very similar but yet different from the movie. Although some people believe that this shows the theme of the American Dream, I disagree. The universal theme that correlates most with this story in my opinion is Secrets and Lies.

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The book The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a story about a rich man who lives his life on lies. He lies about how he gets his money and how he lives his life, and these lies all lead to his death. All of his bad buisness deals and alledged connection are revealed along with his participation in an affair. In the end everything is revealed and it shows that all the secrets and lies we keep do not do us any good and in the end might only hurt us.

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This past August on the second day of fall camp practices, I had a terrible ankle injury. I didn't really think much of it at the time because it was just a sprain and I have played through every sprain I have ever had. So I kept practicing and it wasn't getting any better so I started to tell my parents about what happened. Again, not thinking much of my ankle I played in the Blue and White scrimmage which ended up hurting it even more. I told my parents I needed to go to the doctor for it because I had never had anything that hurt that bad even while just doing simple things like walking or jumping. So I went to the doctor and the doctor thought that I had a bad sprain on the tendon between your Tibia an Fibula, so with that being said I ended up getting an MRI which came back and said that that was the case. After we found out it was for sure torn surgery was like instantly mentioned which was super scary for me to hear. But I ended up getting surgery on it and I have had a very aggravating and cautious healing process that I have had to fight through. I have had to push myself to even be able to start walking again, let alone running or even playing football yet. And overall this whole experience has been like a mountain for me to climb, I have faced adversity and will continue to do so until I am back to normal.

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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

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Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt

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I chose to read Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil based on a recommendation of the school’s librarian, Mrs. Vint. It appealed to me because, unlike some of the other books on the list, it was relatively more modern, had focus on legal court proceedings, and the synopsis of the book caught me off guard. The back of the book shows off some of the characters that the author met during his stay at an unassuming town and I was interested to see how those people tied into the true crime aspects of the novel. In the book the reader follows the author, a New York magazine editor who would spend his spare time traveling around the US. After he stumbles upon the welcoming, sweet city of Savannah, Georgia he decides to get a second residency there. Berendt in the first half of the book spends his time describing Savannah through the people he meets. He learns about the rigid social structure, how closed off Savannah is from the rest of the world, and what the social norms are. In the second half of the book, Berendt has a spotlight on the murder trials of an acquaintance he met. He was Jim Williams, a rich man who made his money selling antiques, and refurbishing houses. I could explain the stories of all the different people Berendt meets, but I think they are better experienced if you read them completely from the book. My favorite people though were The Lady Chablis and Emily Kelly. I think that one of the core themes of the book was man’s need for discovery. The author moved to Savannah to escape the busy everyday life of the city, and to discover what made the town so unique. He went out to talk to as many people as he could to piece together this mosaic of how people from different social groups affected each other to make up this whole story of the reactions they had to the rare change that was brought to the city. It’s a story that dives into discovering the complex lives of the people of Savannah, so that’s why I believe the universal idea fits.

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midnight in the garden of good and evil book cover

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When I was younger my sport was always basketball, I had planned on doing it throughout my whole high school career. That was until one of my friends introduced me to volleyball. I had never even touched or thought about doing volleyball. After a little while, I was hooked. I had made my 7th grade volleyball team after trying out. My love for the game grew and grew as the years went on. My ninth grade year, I was getting to be a pretty good player and I had loved volleyball more than I ever had before. After a great school season, I was super excited for the club season. My season started off super strong and I was at my peak performance level that I had ever been at. My season was cut short though, due to a complete acl and meniscus tear. Recovery would be up to a year long. I had really improved after 3 months, but I still had to wait. After a long year went by without my favorite sport in my life I was finally cleared. I had put so much work in to get my muscles back and stronger than ever, so I was doing pretty well and felt really good about just getting off an injury. That was until I retore my meniscus in a hurdle incident. It made me feel like my year of work was just completely gone. I had to get another surgery and I felt like my life was over. My universal theme is fear of failure. I did not want to fail my team with yet another injury. I could not be there for my team in practices and I felt super defeated especially after just getting back. I had to learn to deal with injury and the exhaustion that comes with it, which took a little bit, but I eventually got there.

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The main reason why I chose this book was because I’ve wanted to read it for a while now, and this just gave me an excuse to. The Great Gatsby is an account on the life of the wealthy and poor social classes. Separated by East and West Egg, east being where the old money people lived, and West Egg being where the people who worked for their money resided. Poor people lived in The Valley of Ashes. Throughout the beginning chapters, Gatsby is characterized as very illusive and mysterious and this is established by him not being introduced until the 3rd chapter. When I first started reading this book, the main theme I saw was the pursuit of wealth. This was because Nick Carraway was trying to grow wealthy, selling bonds, and he surrounded himself with the wealthy. Gatsby could also be used as an example because of his climb to wealth. Looking at the book as a whole, the prevailing theme in my opinion is love’s many forms. This theme didn’t appear to me until after Gatsby had been introduced and I learned more about his story. He based a lot of his life solely on wanting to be good enough for Daisy and to be able to provide for her. He wasn’t always wealthy like readers initially had thought. His motivation was wanting to be with Daisy. He went to the effort of buying the house directly across the shore from where Daisy lived. I interpreted the green light that he would stare at as symbolism for his love for her and his hopes of being with her.

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Back During the summer mid June,  I lost someone who meant a lot to me and this had a very bad impact on my mental health. My anxiety skyrocketed out the roof and I couldn’t get my mind off of it at all. During this time I got really close to God. I started reading the bible throughout the day to the point where it was the only thing I was doing. I started praying throughout the day whenever I got the chance to. Ever since then I’ve devoted my life to God.

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The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is a novel written in first person limited from the perspective of Nick Carraway. The story follows Nick's interactions with Jay Gatsby, a young millionaire who is in love with a woman from his past named Daisy Buchanan. The novel tells of how Gatsby fabricates his past, claiming to be born into wealth, as well as fabricating his relationships, giving off the image that he has deep ties with the elite when in actuality they are mostly superficial and based on fake wealth. He does all of this in an attempt to attract Daisy.

Gatsby's obsession with Daisy quickly leads to his downfall, getting exposed for his shady business dealings and participation in an affair. The confrontations Gatsby experiences quickly lead to a series of tragic events which ultimately leads to his death. The story of gatsby ties back to the universal idea of secrets and lies (99), showing how Gatsby completely fabricates his backstory and wealth to impress and attract Daisy which ultimately leads to his demise.

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Free kindle book and epub digitized and proofread by volunteers.

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This story is told from the perspective of  Nick Carraway, who moves from the Midwest to New York for a job.  To sum up the book, Jay Gatsby and Daisy are lovers, but after Gatsby is sent off to war,  Daisy gets married to Tom Buchanan. Because of this, Gatsby is determined to do whatever he can to get her attention and marry her. Unfortunately, he gains his wealth through organized crime and he ends up dying because of Daisy. I connected this book to the theme of sense and sensibility because Gatsby is motivated by heartbreak to become wealthy and live an extravagant lifestyle.

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My family has never been too close to each other, always closed off and doing our own separate thing- our lives only interfered when one part of our family struggled slightly too much. Other than that, we each left each other's struggles to be dealt with privately. It’s strange, thinking about it now. My family has always wanted to help others, but never really wanted to help each other. I never understood the importance of family bonds until one summer…the summer of 2020. My Papa had recently started a charity, one that I helped out with every now and then. Farm 2 Table - we fed the homeless with the fruits and veggies we grew, purchased meat from local businesses, drove to a certain location and cooked food for homeless and poor people for free. On this particular summer though, my Papa wanted to go big. He created the event, “Smoke Out Hunger 2020”, meant to bring people around to eat and be entertained, completely free (but donations are always welcome). My family, for those few days of preparation plus the big day, came to Little Rock and helped my Papa pull this off. We spent hours in that kitchen, peeling potatoes, opening cans, there was a constant buzz of people chattering as we worked. There was unity, and a realization to be made: my family, though distant, cared. Despite us not acting as such, we were all very important to each other. I slowly began to understand just how important my family was to me, as why we needed family as I worked alongside them. I hold my family very dear to me now, and I never claimed they weren’t important to me ever again.

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Written by F. Scott Fitzgerald in the Jazz Age of 1925, The Great Gatsby is revered by many to be an American classic. The Great Gatsby follows Nick Carraway, a former U.S. soldier who served in the first World War. Seeking adventure and excitement after the war, Nick seeks to sell bonds and moves to New York in the fictional setting of West Egg located on the actual island of Long Island. Across the bay is East Egg, home to Nick's second cousin Daisy and her husband Tom Buchanan. Daisy grew up rich while Tom seemed to have peaked in life while in college. Along with these two, Nick meets Jordan Baker, a professional golf player who Nick starts to take a liking to. Beside Nick's house lives the great Jay Gatsby (whose real name is James Gatz). Gatsby was a wealthy man who lived in a mansion. Gatsby held parties often at his house which brought in huge numbers of people.

Gatsby is shown to have been in love with Daisy ever since they met which was the reason for all that he has done. Tom was shown to have been cheating on Daisy with a woman named Mrs. Wilson. On the way back from New York after a heated argument between Gatsby and Tom, Daisy runs over Mrs. Wilson, yet Gatsby takes the full blame for it. This eventually leads to his death at the hands of Mr. Wilson. Nobody shows up to his funeral except for his dad, Nick Carraway, and the priest. I chose this book because I had been wanting to read it for a while but had never got around to it. In the end, I really enjoyed this book and can see why it is regarded highly by many people. This book is linked to the universal theme of Sensuality and Desire. This is shown because everything that Gatsby did was for the desire to eventually be with Daisy and this passion is what eventually leads to his lonely downfall.

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The book I chose was the Great Gatsby. The Great Gatsby is a story that is told from the point of view of Nick Carraway, Jay Gatsby's neighbor and close friend. He tells a little bit about the story of Gatsby's life, and then he shifts to the present and also talks about Gatsby's love for Daisy Buchanan. Daisy and Gatsby had met and fell in love, but Gatsby had to be deployed overseas. While Gatsby was deployed, Daisy met a man by the name of Tom Buchanan, who she reluctantly married although she was still waiting for Gatsby. Carraway, the narrator of the book, moved in next to Gatsby and made friends with him. At some point Gatsby is shocked to find out that Daisy is Nick Carraway's cousin. They reunite, while still holding the same feelings for each other, and Daisy's husband isn't very fond of that. Tom is a rather brute person in my opinion, and although he loved Daisy, it doesn't seem that he cared too much because he was too concerned about being the "tough guy". This relates to the universal theme of secrets and lies because a lot of them were keeping secrets from each other.

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I chose to read The Great Gatsby, a novel written by F. Scott Fitzgerald. I chose to read the book because of the popular movie of the same name. The novel is about Nick Carraway telling the story of Jay Gatsbys love story. Gatsby throws massive parties to attract his old girlfriend, Daisy Buchanan, who is already married. Gatsby finally uses Nick to find Daisy so they can meet once again, but her husband ,Tom Buchanan, finds out shady things Gatsby had been lying about. The tragic novel ends when Daisy kills a women in Gatsbys car, leading to Gatsby being shot in his own home. This novel connects to the overall theme of secrets and lies, because there was lots of secrets and lies being told.

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Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance is an exquisite deep dive into the way the narrator views things through the use of imagery of the complex components of a motorcycle. The book starts off with the introduction of the narrator’s son, Chris, and his two friends, Syliva and John. Through the early introduction of these relationships readers can see that the narrator has a somewhat odd and different way of going about things. In later chapters readers find that the way the narrator thinks this way is because of an ¨alter ego¨ named Phaedrus. There is an explanation of romantic understanding vs classical understanding which really presents the idea that with both understandings coexisting, they can complement each other ultimately leading to a deeper appreciation for life and quality. This book is a great representation of the Nature of Humanity because it illustrates humanity searching for meaning in life through the interpretation of the narrator's journey and the reflection with his past life.

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zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance 

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The book that I chose was Walden by Henry David Thoreau. I chose this book because the idea of someone living alone away from society was very intriguing to me. I thought the book was very insightful. Thoreau has a unique way with words. He gives so much beauty and spirituality to nature. He is also very fond of simplicity, and I believe this is one of the core themes of Walden. He believes that if people slowed down and stopped wanting so many things they would feel more fulfilled. He thinks you should get everything you can out of life but you do this by slowing down and focusing on your life's meaning. This relates back to the universal theme of life's simple pleasures. We should always try and find joy in simple things. In Thoreau's case he found joy in the ice breaking on the ponds during the beginning of spring after a cold winter.

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For my book, I chose Friday Night Lights because I’m a big fan of football and love watching it. It just caught my attention and thought it would be interesting to read. In the book, Buzz Bissinger moves with his family to Odessa, Texas during the 1988 Permian High School football season where they are trying to make a run for the state championship. It talks about how there is pressure on the team and thinking they need to succeed or else the rest of the town will see them as failures. The town had an obsession with the football team and expected them to win. It also shows how it impacted the players and their families. Throughout the season they won their first game with a big blow out but then lost to their rival team ending the season 7-2. This book also talks about racism and how it affects the team. This connects to the universal idea Sports and Competition because the football team is going up competition trying to win the state championship and using teamwork to try to get it done.

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My mom is originally from Anchorage Alaska. Most of her family still lives there, so every other year we go up and visit. Normally we stay 1 week in Anchorage and 1 week in Kenai. Near the house my mom grew up in, there's a hiking trail that we would always go on. Once when I was about 6 or 7 we were walking on this trail and I heard a noise coming from behind me. My sister and mom had stopped to look at something and I figured it was a rabbit or something and tried to ignore it but I kept hearing it. I wandered off to see what it was and it was a baby moose. My little brain didn’t think twice before going up to it to try to pet it. Next thing I know my mom and sister start screaming and grabbing me and we start running onto the trail again. Except we aren't staying on the trail, we are booking it towards the road. When we reach the road my mom gets us behind a truck that's parked on the side of the road and get almost underneath it. Breathing hard, I turned to see why we had just sprinted away when I see that a moose had been chasing us. We stayed huddled by the truck for a good 15-20 minutes before the moose santured off back into the woods. We quickly walked back to our vacation house where I was given a long lecture about not touching wild animals. Still to this day I’ve yet to go on that trail again.

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I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou is an autobiography detailing the traumatic life Angelou faced. This book covers themes of abuse, trauma, racism, and identity, throughout the novel Angelou depicts the many challenges she experienced during her life such as being sexually assaulted by her mother’s boyfriend. I chose this book because the name sounded interesting and upon reading the basic summary and reading the book this book is definitely captivating but it also deals with a lot of sensitive themes. This ties to the theme of struggling to find security in one’s identity as Angelou’s past was very traumatic and she felt guilty about everything that happened.

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Since before I could walk I was put on a softball field. My older sister was a phenomenal softball player and my dad had big dreams for me. Since I was built like him and I had his athletic abilities, he made me into his sport prodigy. Until I started to hate softball. It felt like I was stuck in a never ending cycle. I started to resent my dad for forcing me into a sport I hated. So I quit. Fast forward a couple years, now I'm 7 years old. My cousin was being put into dance classes and my aunt didn't want her to be alone so my mom signed me up too. I enjoyed it more because it was inside, and my dad wasn't there to yell at me anytime I did something wrong. Eventually I started to take it seriously and so did my mom. After about a year of recreational dance, I was asked to join their competitive team. My dad didn't really want me to do it for many reasons. One being the dance community is super toxic, you're made to feel like you have to fit a dancer body style and although my dad was super tough on me, he didn't want me to go through that. Another reason, it's super expensive. But my dad caved when he saw that I genuinely enjoyed it. A couple years later a whole bunch of drama happened and covid started so my mom pulled me out of dance. That year was probably worse for my mom than it was for me. Eventually, I was asked back and I picked up right where I left off. Till I got injured last season. I strained my tendons and severely sprained my ankle. When it originally happened I was at a competition and I thought my ankle was just sore from doing 6 dances in the span of 3 hours. When the next day rolled around and it was so painful to walk I finally said something to my mom. She told me I was fine and I just needed to walk it off. So I continued to dance and do everyday things on tendons that were hanging on by a thread. I eventually made my mom take me to the orthopedic doctor. I ended up in a boot for 6 weeks and was forced to sit out the rest of the competition season. This ties back to the universal idea of the power struggle. It was a struggle to get back into dance afterwards because I knew I couldn't do it. It took me time but i'm finally starting to be back where I was.