Prediction (Continuation of a Poem)

Author's Note: This piece was in response to Edgar Allan Poe's poem, Alone. Although I have a very different poetry style than his, I focused more on connecting the ideas rather than the writing style. I also wrote a short response to illustrate why I said what I did. The part in italics is what I wrote, the rest was from Edgar Allan Poe.

From childhood's hour I have not been

As others were; I have not seen

As others saw; I could not bring

My passions from a common spring.

From the same source I have not taken

My sorrow; I could not awaken

My heart to joy at the same tone;

And all I loved, I loved alone.

Then—in my childhood, in the dawn

Of a most stormy life—was drawn

From every depth of good and ill

The mystery which binds me still:

From the torrent, or the fountain,

From the red cliff of the mountain,

From the sun that round me rolled

In its autumn tint of gold,

From the lightning in the sky

As it passed me flying by,

From the thunder and the storm,

And the cloud that took the form

(When the rest of Heaven was blue)

Of a demon in my view.

It showed me a certain horrible scene,

Upon a seemingly invisible screen.

Though it scarred me for much of life,

It later led me to find my wife.

I realized that although the tragic pain,

The demon's efforts were not in vain.

They were only to protect me,

And keep me from falling into history.

And when this occurred to me,

It changed me very drastically.

Although it seems I'm free,

I sometimes consider trying to flee.

In my mind I hear the demon's cries,

Telling me to look into its eyes.

To this demon, I have a certain respect,

A belief that I adhere and protect.

Why should I stop and take a stand,

When the demon is the one holding my hand?

Leading me through life happily at last,

Keeping me from remembering my past.

At last I am not alone,

I've finally found a home.

Not one that I will soon forget,

Not one where I will fret.

But one where I shall stay,

And live away my every day.

***

The poem, "Alone", by Edgar Allan Poe is all about regret, sadness, and the overall feeling of being completely and utterly alone in childhood. At one point, it says, "… and all I loved, I loved alone." To me, this shows the complete despair that this poem is about. Imagine that you are really passionate about something, and everyone else hates it, no one agrees. You would be feeling like quite the outcast.

To help me write a continuation of this poem, I used specific lines from the original poem that really conveyed his true emotions to predict what might happen later in this person's life. One example is when it says, "… My sorrow I could not awaken." I used that phrase and several other lines into the story to come to the conclusion that he had no hope or faith that anything would get better for him. I predicted that when the demon came along, it would be the one thing he wouldn't be separated from; it would be a friend when there were no others.

Although it never directly references the fact that his life would get better when he grew up, he talked a lot about how his childhood was the problem. This made me believe that when the demon came along, his life would change for the better. The best supporting text for this belief was when he said, "From every depth of good and ill, the mystery that binds me still." This line was written to sound as though he was much more mature and happy, but also still thinks about that experience.

All these facts and others in the poem gave me enough supporting evidence to make a logical prediction about what would happen with the man and the demon. However, most of my supporting evidence gave me predictions, not because of the text that was in them, but because of how they were written. As Edgar Allan Poe said himself, "Experience has shown, and a true philosophy will always show, that a vast, perhaps the larger portion of the truth arises from the seemingly irrelevant." Although the writing style may not seem like the most trustworthy place to gain predictions, it may create the most vivid picture of the future. This vividness is mainly how I continued this poem with the most logical prediction in my ability.

3:15 -- Prediction

Author's Note: This is a reading lab assignment for the reading skill of Predicting. We watched a video about the book 3:15 which helped illustrate just what happened to Troy.

In the story, 3:15, Mr. Mason changes loud mouth kids to super quiet ones by some substance in a jar. I think that in this jar, there is some potion that gets into your body through your nose or mouth. I think Troy screamed because it stung or something, or he knew he was being changed. I think that in the future, Molly will convince Mr. Mason to give Troy some potion that changes him back. Mr. Mason will give in because Troy said that he was his favorite teacher.

This book is similar to many fiction books, the main character's world gets messed up, but one of the supporting characters helps fix it. For example, in the book, The Lost Hero, the main character, Jason, loses his memory, and the supporting characters, Piper and Leo, go on a long, difficult journey to save Hera so Jason can get his memory back. 

At the end, we figure out that what the jar does is it sucks out the soul of someone. Mr. Mason has a hidden shelving unit of jars, which hold the souls of all talkative students before Troy. My prediction was close but not right on. It still does change people, but it doesn't go into your body, it comes out of your body.

Lina's Journey -- Character Development Piece

Trapped in a world full of terror, starvation, and dictatorship. Controlled by young men who will do anything to make you miserable. Eating nothing but a few pieces of bread every day, after working for up to 12 hours straight. This was the sad life for many innocent Jews during the Holocaust. Many people died from illness and starvation, while others were thrown into gas chambers and tortured to death. Eventually, the only ones that were left were those that truly believed everything could go back to how it was before the Holocaust.

In Between Shades of Gray, Lina and her family were one of these families that was taken from their homes, from everything they ever knew, and forced to work in labor camps. They have a firsthand experience in the everyday horrors that occurred in the Holocaust. Living through this terrible time is something that I can only dream about.

In the beginning, Lina is living a seemingly perfect life. Money, food, and art supplies are plentiful and she has opportunities blossoming for her in the art world. But when the NKVD's practically knocked down her door and shipped her and her family away in cattle cars, she was left confused and terrified.

As if being packed into a tight space with very little air isn't enough, Lina is separated from her father. When she finds out he's in prison far, far away, it gives her even more motive to find a way to contact him. Since the NKVD's read all mailed items, she decides to communicate through art. In the story it says, "I had to speak. I'd write everything down, draw it all. I would help Papa find us." The idea of passing along letters to try and reach an endpoint of her father's jail is similar to the idea of the Underground Railroad in the civil war. Both include hiding items or people  and passing them along from "station to station," while hiding them from the enemies.

One of the most intimidating events in the story is when Ona gets shot. The poor woman's baby died, and she is grieving; perhaps a little too loud. The guard standing by gets annoyed, drags her out and shoots her in the head. Lina is absolutely shocked. It is at this  point when she starts realizing the severity of what's happening in this war. Visions of stacked corpses, and a repeating image of Ona's death begin disturbing her. However, instead of being the type of person to want to sacrifice her own life so she wouldn't have to live through this torture, she picked herself back up and became even stronger.

Towards the end of the book, even though she is skinnier, less healthy, and weaker, she has a stronger heart. Instead of saying positive things just so her brother Jonas wouldn't be scared, she began saying positive things that she actually believed. Also, influencing her brother  became a very important thing. He was just a young boy with so much responsibility.

At one point, she grabs him by the shoulders and says, "Jonas, listen to me. We are going to live. Do you hear me? We're going home. We're not going to die." She gained confidence and began to truly believe that they would make it through the war.

Lina is very similar to the character Francie from  A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, because they both deal with great loss in their lives and are struggling to get by. Both eventually become personally responsible for supporting their family, as others in their family have limits greater than theirs. I believe this makes both characters stronger, more independent, and more responsible.

Although her journey was rough, Lina found the strength to make it and influenced others along the way. Living in this time was a struggle, but in the aftermath, a huge honor for Lina. To say that she lived through such a traumatic time and survived would be quite the story to tell to her children and grandchildren; once they were old enough, of course. But I question, what kept her alive rather than other strong-willed people in the labor camp? Was it the hope that one day, she would return to her beloved home, or was it the determination that she, no matter what it should take,  would find her way back to her love, Andrius?  

Prediction from Thank You, Ma'am

My friends and I ran down a back alley behind the bank. I was getting an uncomfortable sensation that seemed to be spreading from my brain, down, and then circulating through my body. I had never gotten this feeling when I was making trouble before, so why now? I stopped. My legs wanted to keep going, but my brain was commanding them to stop.

"Hey man, what are you doin'?" Blackjack asked. We call him Blackjack because his most famous crime was running into a casino, knocking out a blackjack dealer, then stealing the money out of his pocket.

"Yeah man, we are running on a tight schedule here, " said Wiz. Wiz was the brains behind our operations, and he was always concerned about details.

"I can't do it guys," I said.

"Yo, man up. Don't you want yo share of the 500 g's we's about to steal?"  Blackjack asked.

"No I mean… I… Well, I would but Mrs. Jones wouldn't be wantin' me to be startin' this up again." I said.

"Ohh, you scared of a little old lady that you tried to pickpocket?" Wiz said.

"Yeah, she could really get you fo' this one." Blackjack said, while him and Wiz started shoving each other and laughing hysterically.

"She cared about me more than you do," I said, "You just want me fo' my skills, I know neitha' of you is knowin' how to pick a lock, or break into that there bank vault." "Ha, you's guys wouldn't be what you are without me, but you couldn't care less about havin' me as a friend, no you don't. So I'm gonna be startin' my reputation up fresh, now, I quit."

"Alright, be that way. We know how to pick a stupid lock, don't we Wiz," said Blackjack.

"Yeah, sure man. We don't need you to help, it just leaves mo' money fo' us, 25 g's each," said Wiz.

"Yeah, see ya man." said Blackjack, as him and Wiz high fived.

And I did leave. I straightened myself up, found a good friend who let me use his shower, and never did nothin' bad again. I graduated high school, went to college, and then got a job as a lawyer. And boy, did I do a lot of cases against Blackjack and Wiz, cuz they always got caught. I know that either of them ever did find out how to pick a lock. Anyway, I got married, had kids, and lived a perfectly happy life.