Sam

3/10/10

English

Mr. Salsich

Forgiveness:

A Hard Thing To Do.

Forgiveness is something one must master in life. It is almost impossible not to encounter a situation at some point in your life when a person needs forgiveness. An example of forgiveness in the book To Kill a Mocking Bird, is illustrated throughout.

TS- For me, to forgive Bob and Mayella Ewell for what they did to the innocent Tom Robinson would be very hard. SD- However, when asked to walk in their shoes I still had a hard time finding reasons to forgive them. After all, they did come up with a whole swindle (Thesaurus Word) to kill a black man. For doing such a thing, I don’t think anybody should forgive them. SD-The only reason I would consider forgiving the Ewells is because of Mr. Ewell's drinking problem. CM-He obviously beat Mayella when he was drunk and blamed it on Tom. CM-Out of pure fear that her father may beat her, Mayella went along with the story about Tom taking advantage of her. He must have been drinking the night he accused Tom of beating Mayella and came up with a fake story about why Mayella was so beat up. CM- If he wasn’t drunk he may have not made this accusation. CS- I still don’t think in any way a man’s drinking problem should be the cause of an innocent man’s death. One must be accountable for their actions; one must realize that decisions have consequences; one must live with the outcome. (Tricolon)

TS- From time to time I encounter the situation where I need forgiveness from someone, or when someone needs forgiveness from me. SD- When I was about seven or eight years old, my friend was over my house for the day. CM- My friend made a remark to me that got me very upset. CM- While caught up in my rage of anger I told him, “well at least I don’t still wear diapers to bed”. I had obviously got him very upset, so he walked home in tears. I needed his forgiveness. SD- Another time that someone needed my forgiveness was when my friend stole my water balloons. Cm-Now, this problem may seem minor, but on this day I got very upset. CM-I was so mad, I chased him for a whole mile. CM- My friend finally gave me back the balloons and apologized, so I forgave him. SD- It’s hard to think of times when I had to forgive someone. CM- My friends have never done anything bad that would let me down.CM- The only times I get mad at my friends are when they do little things that annoy me.CM- For example, my friends and I used to punch each other for fun just to get the other annoyed. CS- Thankfully, I have never been in a position to absolve (Thesaurus Word) a person like Mr. Ewell or Mayella Ewell; I don’t know how I could. People like the Ewells who were so dishonest, so cruel, so evil, are hard to forgive. (Tricolon)

Once forgiveness is accomplished, both parties are morally balanced. Too bad Mr. Ewell and Tom Robinson never forgave one another. Tom would still be alive.

Self Assesment- Overall, I think I did alright on this essay, besides the fact that I forgot to include a self assesment and opening an closing paragraph. I think I would have got a much better grade if I had not forgotten these key items.

Sam

3/4/10

English

Essay 17

Ladies and Gentleman:

An Important Practice

In the world today, simple things like men being curteous to women have almost disappeared in parts of the country. Just a few decades ago, around the time of the book To Kill a Mocking Bird, being curteous to women was part of daily life.

TS-I definitely think that being a lady and gentleman are a major theme all throughout the book To Kill A Mocking Bird. SD- I do think Atticus is a gentleman. Atticus is polite to all ladies, including Ms. Dubose, an old snappy lady. CM-When Jem wrecked all of Ms. Dubose’s camellia buds because she was trash talking Atticus, he made Jem go over to Mr. Dubose’s house and apologize. CM-Mr. Finch could have easily told Jem not to worry about it, but he made his own son pay for his mistake. SD- Jem Finch is definitely in training to become a gentleman. CM- Ruining Ms. Dubose’s flowers was not the gentleman thing to do. However, when Atticus asked Jem if he committed the crime of ruining the camellias, Jem replied, “Yes Sir”. CM-The gentleman thing to do is own up to your mistakes and suffer the consequences.CM-Like his father, Jem is slowly learning the ways of being a gentleman. SD-The biggest gentleman in the whole story is Little Chuck Little.CM- In the class room, Little Chuck Little assists Ms. Cunningham when she saw a cootie. Little Chuck Little really knows how to calm down Ms. Cunningham, “Now don’t you fret , ma’am, he said”. Unlike the other kids he really helped his teacher out. CS-Like a gentleman Little Chuck Little helped Ms. Cunningham, like a gentleman Atticus complements Ms. Dubose, and like a gentleman Jem confessed to wrecking Ms. Dubose camellia’s.

TS- Being a gentleman are some skills that I still need work on. SD- One major area that needs to be improved to be a gentleman are my eating habits and manners at the table. CM- While eating, my family has always been annoyed at how fast and messy I eat. CM- At home I am a complete slob when I eat, but when in public I tend to be more conscious. SD- Another non-gentleman habit of mine is not holding the door for my mother and other women who are outside the Pine Point campus. CM- At school I always put out an extra effort to hold a door, but once outside of school I forget about the simple courtesy of holding a door. CM- Now, Little Chuck Little or Atticus would not be happy with my manners. SD- On the other hand, one of my gentlman characteristics is respect for other people, particularly not being outspoken.CM- I like to keep my opinions about other people to myself, that means not being judgmental of their life. CM- In the book To Kill a Mocking Bird, the character that relates to me in the way of not being outspoken and quiet is Mr. Radley who minds his own business(loose sentence). CS- I think I am a gentleman in a few ways, but still have work ahead of me.

After reading To Kill a Mocking Bird, my eyes have been opened to the importance of gentleman's manners towards a lady, especially in public. When reading about Little Chuck Little's manners toward Ms. Cunningham, I was very impressed. It motivated me to work harder at these gentleman skills.

Self Assessment-

I think this is going to be one of my best essays. I put a lot of time into writing it, and putting effort into my ideas. I also took my time carefully reading over my writing, correcting the many silly mistakes I tend to make. I put out some good ideas and made some good points about being a gentleman. Lastly, I did a good job relating the book To Kill a Mocking Bird to my own life.