Dystopian

I woke up, to the sound of this rusty old alarm, as per usual, in this tin shed, I call  home. I proceeded to get ready for school, like every other day in the year, to train to become an ambition-less 9 to 5 office slave, owned by that rich bloke across the street. I walked to the train station, whilst looking at the dim skies, polluted by business owners, only seeking profit. I waited for the train, as the sickening odour of sweat travelled through my nostrils, but its nothing I’m not used to, living in this wasteland we are forced to call a city. I’m at school, glaring at these rotten, mouldy patches, on these century old walls, waiting for the deafening high pitched screech of the alarm to end this hellish nightmare.

Satirical

I awoke in joy for the first day back school at 6am after doing my course work the previous night till 1am.

I hurriedly got ready, as I was becoming late for school, which I’d never want to be, as I want to fulfil my learning in life, and do quadratic equations, as there’s nothing more I’d like to do in life.

School. It’s an amazing thing. There’s nothing a 15-year-old boy loves more than getting up at 6:30, eager to educate himself. The excitement of what you’re going to learn in Maths becomes more exhilarating as each day goes by.

The best part of school is the late detentions, they’re a great way to think about life and how wonderful it really is, being stuck in a cramped room with 30, sweaty 15-year-old boys.

Oh joy! Maths, how I love learning about quadratic equations, which are an essential necessity to living my everyday  life. I don’t know what I’d do in life without the knowledge of how to do quadratic equations.

Unfortunately maths does not last forever and you have to go to break, but don’t worry as the canteen food is brilliant! Low protein food, with as little meat as possible, to efficiently tackle obesity, they’ve even minimised meal sizes, as there’s nothing worse than teen obesity.

Science, it’s a beautiful subject, you can learn all about how limestone erodes, which is an essential piece of knowledge for your everyday life. The roof has leaks in it, allowing a free flow of water dripping down onto your book, but of course this is done intentionally, to allow a more calm atmosphere in the class. When it comes to practical lessons, our school provide the most excellent service, instead of them forcing us to risk our lives using the Bunsen burners, we can watch a more calm video of a person doing it on the internet, as the school truly cares about our well-being.

Now it is English, I love English, of course not as much as maths, but it is still an outstanding subject. I am given the opportunity to do overwhelming amounts of course work, in order to truly bring out my talent. We are given re-used books from since the school  was made, to help the environment and cut on deforestation. The books are in immaculate condition, as our students would never, ever even think about throwing or vandalising them, as our school has the best behaved students. This is clear from the satisfactory mark we attained from Ofsted, as they can clearly notice how exceptional our school is.

I do love “zooming” into how Scout resembles a mocking-bird, in ‘To Kill a Mocking Bird’ and the endless amounts of summarising ‘Touching the Void’ bring me a vast amount of joy. I feel that five days of English lessons certainly isn’t enough for me, so I attend weekend interventions, to really bring out my skills.

But our school makes up for this, as they enforce extra curriculum maths, so I can put my mind off the vast amount of English work, and focus on Maths, which is all i hope to do.

Our school is a truly amazing place with 1st class antique walls which date back to the titanic era, blood stains and all other aesthetic decorations, to truly bring out the colour in these vibrant walls.

Our school care a lot about animals, and provide housing for rats in our walls, ensuring the survival of the plague  carriers. Our canteen hall has been specifically engineered to house pigeons. We have many gentle, animal loving student in our school, who would never thing of harming a bird. Some say the bird poo holds the walls up, which is specifically done to be environmental friendly and tackle global warming.

The worst time of the day is when school ends, especially on Fridays. All I want to do is learn, now I must leave the wonderful world of school and join my disgusting friends for a “gnarly” skate session. Skateboarding, a sport which sickens me, which I am forced to do when all that is in my head is the though of quadratic equations.

In the book Jem had to come to a realisation about the society.

Jem had realised that the people of Maycomb, Alabama are very racist in their court case with Tom Robinson.

There was no evidence in court  that Tom Robinson had attacked and raped Mayella Ewell, however  he was still charged as guilty in the court case.

Jem coming to the realisation about society being racist is evident in the book, as when in the court case when Tom Robinson is charged as guilty Jem begins to cry and says “It’s not right”.

Jem comes to realise that the area he lives in is not all equal and there are classes of people such as the Cunningham’s who are the poor people in their society, and even if they become rich and dress well, and become better people, they would still be treated the same, like lower class people who will never be accepted by society.

Jem talks to scout about the classes in maycombs and says”Our kind of folks don’t like the Cunninghams, the Cunninghams don’t like the Ewells, and the Ewells hate and despise the coloured folk.”

Group work: Thabit, Jakob, Louis & Henry

Thabit s peice on effect on the people.

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The book, to kill mockingbird is set during the 1930’s when the Great Depression happened in USA and affected the whole world.

The depression was caused by over production, meaning that the price for goods was majorly lowered, to a point farmers could not make a good living, as their products were so inexpensive they couldn’t make any money.

Farmers were the people hit the greatest by the depression.

The book is set in the fictional town of Maycomb, Alabama, USA, during 1930’s, which is evident from when Atticus talks about the farmers who got hit greatest by the depression “The Cuninghams are country folk and the depression hit them the hardest”.

In to kill a mocking bird, the Cunninghams are the poorest people who lived in maycomb.

In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the courthouse describes the views of the society at the time.

“The concrete pillars supporting its south roof were too heavy for their burden.”

“Greek revival columns clashed with the big nineteenth century clock tower housing a rusty unreliable instrument, a view indicating a people determined to preserve every physical scrap of the past.”

The quotes are saying that the concrete pillars are strong, but too strong for the task it needs to do, whilst there is a unreliable rusty clock.

The concrete pillars, are from the Greek times, were there was a greater, more reliable and less racist than the current justice system in USA during the 1930’s.

The pillars represent, a sustainable, and reliable strong justice system, but the rust old unreliable clock, resembles newer, unjust racist beliefs, that are very unreliable.

“View indicating a people determined to preserve every physical scrap of the past.”  This suggests that the people, who are in the courthouse, such as the judges, are determined, to keep every belief of the past, such as the racist beliefs, that black people should not have as many rights as white people, and this is evident as this was the belief of many people at the time.

“The pillars were all that remained standing when the original court-house burned in 1865”

The civil war was during 1865, and was caused due to people in the north wanting black people to be free, but in the south of USA people wanted black people to remain as slaves.

The pillars remaining suggest that the original beliefs, during the ancient Greek times, that were not racist, and a more fair system, was the one that remained standing, whereas the rest of the courthouse gets burned in the civil war.

In the book To Kill A Mocking Bird, set during the racist times of the 1930’s in a fictional town called Maycomb in Alabama, USA based on Monroeville, the place where the author, Harper Lee lived in. The time that the book is set in is evident when Atticus talks about the town being hit from the depression.

In the book the racism is portrayed in the eyes of Scout, who is a young girl, based of the author. She is based on the author, as the town is based on Monroeville and in the book Scout is 7-9 and the time is set in the 1930’s which is evident from Atticus in the book when scout asks Atticus if they are as poor as the Cunningham’s and Atticus’s response is ” Not exactly. The Cunninghams are country folks and the depression hit them the hardest” The depression happened around the 1930’s suggesting that Scout is based on Harper Lee. As well as this Harper lees father, Francis Cunningham Finch Lee was also a lawyer, such as how Atticus is in ‘To Kill A Mocking Bird’.

In the book, Harper Lee’s moral views are from the eyes of Scout in the book, a young, age 7-9 girl with not many views on society and black people, unlike most other character set in the book.

In the book, Scout witnesses the racism in the fictional town of Maycomb, as her father Atticus is a lawyer for a black male, Tom Robinson, and many characters in the book oppose Atticus’s action of helping a black person, Scout does not question it, or have any opinions on it, leaving it to the reader to develop their opinion on the racism in Maycomb, instead of a biased opinion of another character.

An example of this is when Scout’s aunt says that Calpurnia, is not a role model of a lady for Scout, even though she has all the characteristics of a good role model. Scout has no opinion over this, but from the context of the book it suggests that it is because she is a black lady, the aunt believes she cannot be a good person.

Overall in the book, Harper Lee does show Scout has any moral opinions of black people in  the book, and leaves it to the reader to develop their own opinions, based upon what they read.

Title: American Sniper

Author/Director: Chris Kyle, Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice

Text Type: Auto-biography On Modern War

Information on Genre, Style and Theme:

The book ‘American Sniper’ is a autobiography, written by Chris Kyle, about his life as a navy SEAL’s (SEa Air Land).

The book starts from much further along in the book, when Chris Kyle is on a roof top as a  sniper for his first time, on watch for the US Marines, as they capture an area in Iraq from Saddam Hussein.

Chris Kyle is looking for anyone suspicious and sees a  women, wearing a robe, and takes no notice of it.

He sees the women pulling out a Chinese frag grenade, and calls in to the coms for permission to take a shot, At that moment after he takes the shot, it becomes his first kill as a sniper.

The book then goes back to his earlier life, before joining the Navy SEAL’s, when he was a cowboy and how he was raised by his parents to be very a very patriotic person, as his family used to be serviced in the US military.

Chris Kyle went to enlist for the US Marines, and the US Marines area in the recruitment center was closed, and a man in the Navy area called him over offering a opportunity to do the Navy SEAL’s BUDS (Basic Underwater Demolition/ SEAL) training. The BUDS training is the most physical and mentally intensive training program in the whole of the US Military, and passing the BUDS allows a person entry into the Navy SEAL’s.

Chris Kyle goes through all of the BUDS, and gets allowed entry into the Navy SEAL’s.

When Chris Kyle gets deployed in Fallujah, he decides to help the Marines in the battle situation.

The book from here onward is all about Chris Kyle’s experiences as a Navy SEAL, and the people he fought in war with, as in one chapter when he has to pull a young 19 – 23 year old Marine, who got gut shot, out from open area. The marine then tells him not to tell his mum he died in pain, and at this moment Chris Kyle doesn’t even know the Marine.

Chris Kyle is well know among the US Military, as he has the most confirmed sniper kills at 160, and  255 claimed kills.

Anti-Hero:

I chose this book as a anti-hero text, as Chris Kyle, being a soldier, Is a anti-hero.

He is a anti-hero as he kills people, terrorists, who do wrong, in order for what he believes, his country to be protected, and to protect his fellow soldiers lives.

Even though Chris Kyle does what he believes to be the morally right thing to do, he has joy in killing of the insurgents, and in the book he describes it as he tries to be creative with his kills. this is evident in the book when Chris Kyle shoots the beach balls that the insurgents are using to float on the river to get across, then causing them to drown, if the Marines didn’t shoot them first, to put them out of their misery, of drowning.

For these reasons the book ‘American Sniper’ Is a anti-hero text.

Sight

I can see the streaks of a gunfire as the riot squad tear down the doors. I can see suppressive fire whizzing past my eyes. I can see walls being blown out by mortar fire. I can see the light of the door, i can see the streets leading to Odessa street.

Sound

I can hear the loud thud of gun shots of the .22 and AK rounds behind me and the screams of suppressed SA-80’s. I can hear rapid and constant fire. I can hear  the screams of mortars.

Touch

I can feel the shrapnel, spread all over the floor. I can feel the blood, dripping from my wounds. I can feel the heat, of another explosive. I can feel the dust hit my face.

Taste

I can taste the led in the air. I can taste the dust in the air, from the buildings, torn down by the rapid fire. i can taste the blood, dripping down from my wounds.

Smell

I can smell the led in the air. I can smell the dust in the air, I can smell the sweat in the air, running for safety. I can smell the open air, no longer fresh from bomb fire as everything goes down.