Andrea Donoghue

10/20/16

Melinda Shroeder

English 101

Summaries

 In the short story Fish Cheeks, the author, Amy Tan, seems to be trying to get across a lesson learned by the girl in the story. She is so embarrassed by her family's traditions contrasting to those of the American boy whom she has a crush on. In the end the girl talks about how her mother told her that she must be proud to be different. She says how many years later she truly realized and appreciated the lesson. And realized her mother cooked all her favorite foods. The purpose of the story is to make people realize it’s okay to be different. You don’t need to be the same as everyone else. Be yourself.

  Superman and Me is the story of a Native American boy growing up on a reservation. He goes deep into the stereotypes of Native Americans, and how he overcame them. He tells about his love of books and how that is because of his father. Alexie talks about how he learned to read from a Superman comic book. I think that the purpose of this story is to show that it is possible to overcome diversity and stereotypes that you may think hold you down.

Choice of Analysis

  I choose to analyse Superman and Me. This is because I feel that this story is deeper, and has more meaning to it. Fish Cheeks is a great story, and I love the lesson behind it, but I feel that I can relate better to Alexie’s love for reading and overcoming stereotypes. I also love the way he saw the world in paragraphs. I don’t know how everyone else sees the world, but that seems different and unique to me. Lastly, in paragraph eight, he talks about being surprised how his life turned out, how he had  not wanted to be a writer, but to be a pediatrician.  I see that as you can’t necessarily predict how things will turn out, you can have an idea, but then change your mind, something can happen, or life
changes.

Citations

Alexie, Sherman. "Superman and Me." 2014. The Bedford Reader. 12th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print

Tan, Amy. "Fish Cheeks." The Bedford Reader. 12th ed. N.p.: n.p., n.d. N. pag. Print.
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Andrea Donoghue

10/7/16

Melinda Schroeder

English 101

Favorite Place Free Write

What makes a place great? Is it the place itself? Or something else? The people? The sights? What is there that makes it worth going to? For me it’s usually the people associated with the place. Without the people, what is there that could make somewhere so special? There’s gotta be something in the place that makes it worth going to. A place without people to make it special is just empty. Why would you go to an empty place?

   One of my favorite places, I go to after school. Not every day, but often enough. It gives me something to look forward to after brain-frying math. I go twice a week, every three days if you include the weekend. If I could go every day, I would. But it’s still the best part of the week.

  Being there is often the highlight of my week, since not much goes on around here. There’s often more than just one person to hang out with, and both people make the place worth going to. Without the people there, this place would not be as special.  

  I could go anywhere with anyone, and have a great time. If you had told me four years ago that this is somewhere I would be looking forward to going every week, I would have said you were crazy. It’s not something I would have expected for myself, but now I wouldn’t change a thing.

  I can get a lot done in a half hour, but I have to be careful not to do something stupid like stapling my finger (learned that the hard way). The things I do there might not seem like much fun, making posters to hang on the walls, or testing experiments, but I actually like it. So much better than math.

  Posters like Dory with “Just keep swimming” or a funny monster that kind of looks like Spongebob. There are serious ones too, like a dihybrid cross. But personally, I like the funny ones. The only thing, is that when I hang them up, I have to be careful not  to fall off a stool. I haven’t made that mistake (yet).

  A couple times before school started, I got to spend the whole day there. Every time I’m there, there’s something to do. There’s never a dull moment (usually). The best part is that there’s no math! Just kidding, even though that’s great, the best part is that I’m with people I truly enjoy spending time with. It’s time I wouldn’t give up for the world.