Every human being experiences a  point  when they need to mature and fend for themselves.  We can’t live as a carless child all of are life, but the coming of age is tough to deal with. When you do mature to that state where you understand who are and who are not the people you need to be hanging around with, but it takes courage to do something about it. It's hard to let someone go as a friend especially if they were the closet friend you had all through elementary school. Like a chain your friend ships evolve as does yourself. Your personal outlook on life, your beliefs all morph to yourself opinions.  Your opinions will never be the same as they were as a child thus the fact that if you loose common interest or beliefs it can tear apart your friendships. We all mature at different periods and begin to fend for ourselves.  If a friend was holding you back evolving into the person you want to be and getting themselves into serious trouble its very difficult to do the "right" thing. There's a difference between knowing what's right and what is wrong but actually taking action and risking the you relationship with a friend to possibly better both of your lives. The possibly part is the thing that catches most of us. Its nearly impossible to say you live with no regrets. As much as all of us would like to believe it there is always that part of our mind that wanders and tears apart every detail of a situation, and start to play the "what if" game with it.  From personal experience it is one of the hardest thing to do. Risk a great friendship to possibly better both lives, and even save a life.  Although no one views the world the same, and if you’re the one getting into serious trouble because a friend snitched on you it would be difficult to understand the caring gesture behind it.  The great deal of respect for a person that you would give up everything you have with them.

The vovux our group made is a series of word warped into a picture of a chain. Each link representing another step of evolution beginning with innocence and traveling to experienced. Everyday there's a progression of change, but we broke it down into core sections. The colors representing each stage. As an infant we are pure, white. Around the age of nine we begin doing everything to please our parents, and the progression of our life warps the personal decisions we make, and we become ourselves making the transition to self limited, and experienced. 

Honesty is Respect

If we respect each other why do we lie? Why do we hide the truth, and loose are honest opinions with a false alibi.  The fake images we see of people become a safety net for the person to hide themselves.Once you hide yourself and your beliefs behind a mask they become pointless.

Society today does not comprehend honesty. We believe that it is rude to answer a question truthfully becoming an automatic answering machine.  Truth is respect, but respect is difficult to express if you are frightened of the outcome, scared of others expectations, and there acceptance of your answer. Why don’t we accept the truth?

"People blind themselves from the truth"- Playto's Allegory of the cave: A conclusion we can also draw from Mark Haddon’s novel The curious incident of the dog in the night-time.  Mr. Bonne’s attempt to keep Christopher from the truth showed his lack of trust and respect for him. Truth is respect, but respect is difficult to express if you are frightened of the outcome, scared of others expectations, and there acceptance of your answer.  It’s easy to lie, therefore possibly the reason for his actions towards Christopher, but honesty is worth so much more.

Your Opinion is more meaningful than any lie even if it makes things better for a moment. In deference to someone be honesty. The truth may hurt, but can bring you closer to one another. Do not let your voice become lost in your lies.

"Courage is a kind of Salvation"

Each night the stories retold until burned into your memory. Unaware of its strength, because of how ancient it has become. You’re always prepared to be recalled to recite the passages for the final time, but for now passing them down secretively amongst one another to keep our literature alive. As long as I'm living the pages are safe, because no one can take what I know away from me. Somewhere inside I doubt that my knowledge will be protected, but I believe that somewhere I will be saved. The moments that are unknown you will fear, but the sacrifices you make will save you in the future.

Fear that lies hidden in the shadows of Guy Montag's past, and forces him to question the world and its moments to come. Forces the scars of Guy's past to become noticeable. Becoming scared and unhappy with his life, and frightened of the distopic fairytale vision that awaits him he begins searching for answers. Clarisse begins to show him the truth of his life, and slowly fear creeps into his mind. “But he knew his mouth had only moved to say hello, and then when she [Clarisse] seemed hypnotized by the salamander on his arm and the phoenix disc on his chest." The phoenix is a symbol of Montag as a loner about to travel on an adventure of rebirth as he questions his world, and the actuality of his job. Montag is terrified of his future, because he regrets his past and fears how it will affect his future.

The guilt builds his fear terrifying Montag even more. In the beginning of the novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury Montag says, "So it was the hand that started it all…his hand, with a brain of its own, with a conscience and a curiosity in each trembling finger, had turned thief… he could feel the poison working up his wrist and soon through his arms". He begins feeling guilty for what he has done, causing the death of an innocent woman. “They sat there looking out the front of the great Salamander as they turned a corner and went silently on” the salamander symbolizes the fire truck, and in this case Montag deals with the actual fire he helped start and the internal conflict or "fire" of the woman burning, and is terrified of the outcome of his future.

Fear has become a recurring factor in his life, until now. When Montag finally looks within himself to understand he cannot live life fearing the moments ahead or you might as well not live life at all. Montag takes his situation and turns his life around. He feels he needs to prove to himself that his past may have already been done, but his future is still up to him. He can release the poison from his body, and become himself again. Upon realizing this he risks everything he has for the existence of literature letting all the fear he has go. His sacrifices through running and hiding saved him in the end. Once finally reaching his destination across the river, and finding others like him who have memorized several different books. When the bomb exploded killing everyone, Montag was saved. His sacrifices he made saved him in his future.

"Courage is a kind of salvation" a quote said by Plato describes Montag well. Montag courageously got over his fears, and risked everything for the life of literature. Therefore salvation saved him in his end. You can’t let fear control your futures outcome. When your courageous salvation will save you in your future making all you risked worth it.

Pain Will Only Strenghen Us

Running, striding, running, running, running, falling, crashing. This pain strikes like a lightning bolt exploding in every part of my body. Each movement of my feet reminds me of the fall. A moment passes, and the pain continues. Standing, running, continuing. I have to finish what I have started, and I won’t give up. In the hardest of moments where pain questions are strength we prove our power, and show it only makes us stronger.

“What doesn’t kill me makes me stronger”- a quote said by Friedrich Nietzsche proves to us that what you are going through will only make you stronger in time to come. In Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury the protagonist Guy Montag discovers pain throughout the novel. An incident that he faced was when Clarisse died. He suffered through the pain of his loss, and managed to use it as knowledge. This pain can only strengthen Montag, unless it defeats him.

Pain is weakness leaving the body. After Montag had faced the death of Clarisse, he was stronger and more prepared for when he learned the truth about his wife. He also uses his experience of these situations when he hurt his leg, because instead of giving up he continued on and struggled through the pain but never gave up.

We can’t let pain defeat us we have to prove our strength. When we face the hard times, we can’t let them defeat us. They can only make us stronger, and help us in the future.

Patriotism in Our Country

Gathered around the table by your family, warm potatoes are passed around, and turkey begins being carved. You bow your head, and take a moment to realize what as an American we have to be grateful for. Today's society forgets about the great life we have due to patriotism, and how much there is for us to be proud of.

“We Americans suffer occasional setbacks, but we have so much to be proud of.”-as said by Dave Strang, proves to us that when there is the minor setbacks we face, but our patriotism to ones country is everything our nation stands for. Patriotism is the fight to protect our culture, love, and faith we owe to our nation. People who show their devotion to our nation keep the peace and stability of our government. Without patriots our country would be chaos.

Take the chaos in North Korea for example. Because no one there shows the love and apreatation they have for their country, no one cares what happen to their nation. Many have given up on their government, and will let their country get run over by others. Therefore patriotism is very important for the structure of a country.

In America some show their patriotism through fighting for our country. I come from a family of many who have served in the military. My aunt served 10 years in the navy, currently her son is enrolled in the navy, and serving overseas in California aboard a ship. This same cousin’s father and Uncle served in the navy for numerous years. Although being away from your family and friends is difficult, because of people like them who will sacrifice such things to serve our country keeps our nation under control.

We take our country for granted occasionally, but we need to stop and remember how without patriots and the men and women who sacrifice their life to keep the peace of our nation it would be chaos. Patriotism most definitely still matters and we need to take time to think about how life would be without it.

Power Will Corrupt

You sit there in the corner of the meeting room silent like a shadow in the dark thinking about the horrible tragedy that will occur once this is over. You’re a witness to scared to speak up. It’s easy for you to sit there, and think about how this is a terrible mistake to give someone total control, but much harder for you to actually let your thoughts be heard. When you have all the power it’s guaranteed to corrupt. This is exactly what happens in Animal Farm by George Orwell.
Many think that they will be able to control themselves, but in Animal Farm it shows that there is no true way around it. Boxer is a hard working horse taken advantage of. He does his best and has trust that Napoleon, their leader, will be faithful, but is lied to and disrespected. One of the first signs that Napoleon had too much power was that. When he began to take advantage of one of his most loyal followers. It shows that Napoleon knew that he had total control over the animals. He did not worry about them becoming upset, because he knew that they did not have enough courage to stand up to him. Napoleon beat his fellow comrades down until they had no strength to build themselves back up, to take him down. They were lied to over and over again until they could not tell the truth from the lies.
The lies did begin to pile on, until the animals believed every word that escaped from Napoleons mouth was the truth. In the begin of the growth of their society the pigs meant no harm. They had six rules that stated:

1. All animals are equal.
2. Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy.
3. No animal shall wear clothes.
4. No animal shall drink alcohol.
5. No animal shall kill any other animal.
6. Whatever goes upon four legs, or has wings, is a friend
7. No animal shall sleep in a bed.

These rules were expected to be followed by every animal, but as time carried on mysterious incidents occurred. The pigs did not treat themselves equally to the rest of the animals, because they felt they were more valuable, and intelligent. After awhile more extreme outbreaks transpired. One of the most important rules was “Whatever goes upon two legs is an enemy”. This rule was created because when you stand on two legs your mimicking the humans. One night Boxer caught Squealer and Napoleon walking on two legs! Another time they were drinking alcohol, and sleeping in beds. Boxer never spoke up about these occurrences because he was terrified of Napoleon. Napoleon handled the animals by killing them -- another rule that was broken.

By breaking these rules they slowly exactly what they did not want to become. They were exact images of the humans. The animals were lied to, and believed these propagandas, but even when they found out they kept silent, and went along with these lies. The pigs original intent was to treat everyone equal, but the power was to much for them. No matter how hard they tried they couldn’t help being corrupted by power.

Tom Sawyer Summative Essay

     As a child your imagination takes you to extraordinary places. Those times when you would play pirate by digging for the buried treasure in the sand box in the summer heat. This thought that when this treasure is found all your cares in the world will disappear, and happiness will flood inside of you. For you think that just one moment all your problems will be solved by your delight. The truth to the matter is that no matter how much money this treasure has to offer, it will never buy your happiness.
    
     Money ... money is all many of these characters can seem to think about. Around midnight lurking in the graveyard Tom, and Huck heard other voices directly next to them. Peeking out from behind a bush, Tom recognized the familiar faces, Injun Joe and Muff Potter. As they saw this terrible tragedy committed before their very eyes, Injun Joe had stabbed Dr. Robinson, and then convinced the innocent Potter that he had killed the doctor while drunk. All of this happened because of money. These men were going to rob the grave until something took a turn for the worst. Today money means everything; it gets the best of some, and makes people like Injun Joe do things they wouldn’t normally do otherwise.
    
     This thought of money got to Tom and Huck’s head too, as they headed of down the river to Jackson’s island. There they had decided to become pirates by searching this island for hidden treasure. Intrigued by the thought that when they found this treasure all their problems would be solved. That there would be no more talk of how to ever pay for things, and not only will this money cure there issues, they will become heroic characters. Ones who others look up to for risking there lives to find such a marvelous prize. A treasure that no one has ever been able to find before, but these two young men could. and when they are the richest men they will become famous. It’s just this: Money plays such an important role in the world that we would do such events for it. We have risked our lives for publicity. These kinds of things are crazy and unrealistic, but we do them anyway.
    
     This treasure that was found in the deep corners of the cave, and Tom had inveigled Injun Joe as to where to find it, Tom and Huck became heroes as they had wished. But was had was not wanted as they lived this actual experience. This treasure beheld more money than anyone had ever seen at once, $12,000. Happiness was not found with this treasure, and Tom and Huck both came to realize that the life they had was great. The careless life they lived in innocence was the key to happiness and they must to except this fact.