The Russian Revolution

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Reuniting the Family and the Nation

       In the book ''Cry, the Beloved Country'' there are many themes the book revolves around. These themes include Christian values and kindness, the tension between urban and rural society, and the public significance of actions. Although the book contains all these themes, the theme that stands out and is the most important part of the book is reuniting the family and the nation. The book mostly revolves around Stephen Kumalo and his adventure going to Johannesburg to find his family members and bring them back home to be reunited. Stephen wants to reunite his family, so they can be back together again. Though on his journey he runs into a numerous amount of problems, and struggles to find his family members and get them back safety he never gives up and fights for his family. In the mix of Stephen's search for his family him and others try to reunite the nation, so the colored people can have the same rights and no restrictions like the white people.

       When Stephen receives the letter that his sister Gertrude is sick, he straight to Johannesburg to help her in her health. While he is in Johannesburg helping his sister, he plans to find the rest of his family members and take them back home with him to be a family again. Stephen runs into his first problem when he  arrives in Johannesburg, and is robbed of his money by a man that tells him you pay for the bus at a booth and he will take his money and pay it for him. Stephen never sees the man again, nor his money. Even though he faces a lot of problems, he gets some help on the way. He gets help with a place to stay by a friend, and stays at Mrs. Lithebe's house while he is in Johannesburg. He search for his sister is not that struggling as it is for his son, but he does face a inner problem when he discovers the life Gertrude was living.

      When he finally finds Gertrude he finds out that she was a liquor seller, prostitute, and she had a child she did not know where it was. When Stephen found this out he felt shamed by her acts, and the way she was living her life. Inside Stephan felt like he failed as a farther, and was very hateful to Gertrude cause the choices she made in her life. Stephen saves Gertrude from the life she had, and takes her back to Mrs. Lithebe's house to stay with them. After he finds his sister he starts his search for his son Absalom Kumalo. Trying to find his son and getting him back is harder to do then it was to find his sister. When he is in search for his son, Stephen gets a lead on where he is but every time he checks there he has already left. Stephen goes on a wild goose chase for his son, but he knows he is worth the chase to find.

     During his search Stephen witnesses people boycotting the buses, and standing up to get their rights and freedom. While the colored were boycotting the buses, the white people were helping by giving them rides to their destination. Even though they knew the risk they were at with the police the whites still helped them, cause they knew it was right and wanted the nation to come together. These people are trying to reunite the nation, like Stephen is trying to reunite his family. In both situations it takes a lot of hard work, struggle, and time. After all the time and searching it takes Stephen to find his son he finally finds out where he lives. Before he can meet his son something tragic happens that involves Absalom, and two other people. Stephan finds out that a man( Mr. Jarvis) was shot in his house, and his son was one of the suspects to the crime. Stephan was shocked by this news, and could not believe his son would do anything that was being  spoken of. Stephen tries to find him before the police do, but they get information on the location of Absalom and make arrest on him. Absalom confesses that he did shot Jarvis, but it was because he was afraid. Jarvis was one of the people trying to help reunite the nation, this is why everyone thought it was crazy that Absalom shot him. Now that Absalom is arrested it makes it harder on Stephan to get his son back with his family, but he fights for his son to bring his family back together. Stephan will go threw whatever it take to get his family back to him, and out of Johannesburg

      The book "Cry, the Beloved Country" shows us how important a untied family and nation is. Family is the most important thing in life, and should be a persons number one priority. without family it is impossible to be happy, because nothing in life can fill the spot of your family. Family supports you, loves you, and is there for you when you need them the most. Stephan is a great parent in this book, and shows us that his family is very important to him. A nation is just like a family, and should always be united. Without a united nation you can not have a government. If Johannesburg had a united nation it would not be a bad town like it is. If the nation was united the crime rate would go down and more people would have the freedom that they deserve. A united nation is just as important as a united family, without it united you have nothing.

Tyler's True Belief

                           My True Belief
         The world we live in today has so many changes overtime. There are some great changes like inventions that make our life go on with an ease. There are a lot of great changes, but other changes overtime has changed our world into a horrific place to live in. For example the crime rate has risen up dramatically overtime. There is more crime and murder occurring constantly now more and more. I believe that life is precious, and we should take into consideration that we should be gracious to be alive today.

        Every day we go on living our life, not knowing what will occur next. Our life is precious, and we should never take being alive for granted. Just the other day me and my friend were walking around our neighborhood, and all the sudden a car raced past us coming an inch from hitting me. If that car hit me I probably would be alive today. That incident got me thinking about how much life really means to me. I have never really thought about the consequences of my actions, but now I think before I act cause if the consequences are bad I have a goof chance of getting injured, or worse I could loose my life. I started to pay more attention from then on.

         There are people that can't even live there life they way they want to, cause they live in a dictator country. There leader tells them when to eat, sleep, go to work, or school. We have our U.S. troops in other countries trying to let other people have the freedoms we have. Our troops our helping these people while they are in there beautiful country. They are helping them build schools, houses, and other facilities to help the people, they also protect the people in these countries while they are there. Our country and nation is a very beautiful place, and is doing all it can to help other countries have the same right we have in the U.S.

         Be grateful we have so many rights, and we don't have one person telling us what to do. You should think about how great it is to be alive, and live your life to the fullest. Don't be frightened to try new things and step out of your comfort zone. meet new people and make new friends. Don't be frightened to spread your wings and fly. Your only live once, so take advantage of that. The incident that occurred with the car got me to start thinking. If I was to die would I of been happy the way I lived my life, and the accomplishments I made.

         Life is precious and we should be happy that we our alive to be able to live in this beautiful world. There are so many beautiful things about this world, and we have not even been able to see them. I went to Heber Springs a while back, and I climbed this beautiful mountain. The view from the top was so majestic and perfectly beautiful, it makes you think how beautiful life is,and how great it is to be alive. We should be very worthy that we have troops putting there lives on the line for us to keep us safe from danger. I believe we should grab life but the horns and live it to the fullest cause life is precious, and we should live our lives to the fullest.

Sugar Cookie Recipe

                                                    Mom's Sugar Cookies

Ingredients

• 1 cup of sugar
• 1 cup of butter( two sticks)
• 1 egg
• 1 teaspoon of vanilla
• 2 1/4  cup of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda

      Pre-heat the oven to 375 degrees. While the oven is heating up I ran to the cabinet to get a pan. I got the butter and greased up the pan, so the cookies will not stick to the bottom of the pan. Butter works better than oil to grease the bottom of the pan. After I greased the pan I make my way over to the fridge to get the ingredients to prepare the dough for the cookies. My mom made up a song when I was a little kid to help me remember the ingredients, but I can't remember that well now. I'm glad I have the ingredients written down on a note card, or I probably wouldn't be able to make the cookies properly.
 
     When I made my way to the fridge I got all the ingredients I needed to prepare the dough. I got out the butter, eggs, and baking soda. I went to the pantry to get the rest of the ingredients. I got the sugar, vanilla, and the flour. After getting all the ingredients finally together I got a big mixing bowl to mix them together. I used the special mixing bowl me and my mom used every time we made these cookies together when I was little. The mixing bowl has been in our family for a long time, and is very important to us.

     I remember when I was a kid my mom always said "Son when I am gone you will be the one to get the mixing bowl, and you will pass it down to your kids." This was one of me and my moms special family moments together.

      I got the ingredients, and started to measure out the ingredients. I needed one cup of sugar, one cup of butter(two sticks), one egg, one teaspoon of vanilla, two and one-fourth cup of flour, and one teaspoon of baking powder. I got all the ingredients in the bowl and was prepared to start mixing them. I got the mixer from the drawer, and started the mixing process. Every time I make sugar cookies I remember while my mom was mixing the ingredients she would always sign me songs. My mom has a great singing voice. When she sings she sounds like an angel. She would always sing me to sleep in her arms when i was a baby, and would stay asleep all night.

     By the time I got done mixing the ingredients the oven was pre-heated, and ready to go. I got the dough out of the bowl. The dough was so soft it felt like a cloud.
 
      My mom always told me " The dough were little clouds from the sky."

       I rolled the soft fluffy dough into balls to put them onto the pan to bake into soft, moist, cookies. I put the dough onto the pan, and slide the pan of cookies onto the bottom tray of the oven. We would always watch the cookies transform from their soft little clouds to the cookies we couldn't wait to sink our teeth into.

     When I put the cookies in I started the timer. You leave the cookies in for eight to ten minutes. It is really boring waiting for the cookies to get done, so I watched a little TV. When we waited on the cookies when I was a kid we would play little games to pass the time. We always have have fun in my house especially when we cook. When the cookies were done we each got a big glass of cold mile, and grabbed a handful of cookies. I always have a great time when I cook especially with my family. There are a lot of great memories in our house, and in our kitchen. We still cook as a family in our house and have a great time doing it. there is a lot of love and great cooking in our house.

        

Think

      

 A Very Old  Man With Enormous Wings: A Tale For Children

        In Gabriel Garcia Marquez’s story,"A Very Old Man With Enormous Wings," Pelayo and Elisenda discover an old man with enormous wings outside their house one night. The old man was found laying face down in the mud, being weighed down by the wings on his back. The gigantic wings on his back wouldn't let him move to get out of the mud. There were so many unanswered questions about the old man. Is it possible for a man to have wings? Is the man an angel? Why was the old man there?

       Pelayo ran inside frightened, and alerted Elisenda about the situation. They were shocked by what they were seeing. They didn't know what to do. They were scared to talk or mess with the old winged man, so they called over the woman that lived next to them. She was very intelligent, and probably knew what the old man was. When she saw the old man, she new right off the bat that the old man was an angel. This was a shock since no one has ever seen an angel before. The neighbor woman told them the the angel must have been coming for the sick child, he got knocked down by the harsh pouring down rain.

       They watched the angel in the kitchen, armed with a bailiffs club. When they got ready to go to bed he put the angel in the wire chicken coop with the hens. Like he was going to go anywhere, and when they woke up the next morning they found people outside trying to feed and mess with the angel. They we're treating him like a wild animal in a zoo. This is a terrible way to treat someone, and no one should ever have to be treated like that. The town priest Farther Gonzaga came by to see the angel. He thought that it wasn't a real angel, because he didn't know the language of God or how to greet his ministers. Soon everyone knew about the captive angel and people came from everywhere to meet and greet the angel. There was so many people that came to see the angel that they almost knocked the house down, and the had to call troops in with bayonets to back up the crowd. Elisenda had a great idea to build a fence around the house and charge everyone five cents to see the angel. This was outrageous the way they were treating the angel, and charging people to see him. 

       People came from everywhere to see the angel. The line was so long that it stretched acrossed the horizon. People even tried to feed the angel, but he would only eat eggplant mush. They were trying to make the angel do something, but the only time he moved was when they burned his side with a steer burning iron. This was a terrible way to get someone to do something. After he got burned, the angel didn't move for a long time. For a while everyone thought he was dead. That was not the right way to treat an angel. The angel woke up, and flapped his wings a couple of times. The wind from the angels wings stired up chicken poop and dirt. After this event occurred Farther Gonzaga held back the crowd's until the final judgment was made on the nature of the captive. Farther Gonzaga did the right thing, and no one was able to torment the angel anymore.

       While Farther Gonzaga held back the crowd's from the angel, carnival attractions came threw town. no one came to see the angel anymore, because the price was to see the woman turned into a spider was less, and people was able to ask her questions. People also got to examine her up and down, so they could see that she was real. With the money they saved Pelayo and Elisenda built a gigantic two story manison with  balconies, gardens, and high netting so the crabs couldn't get into the house during the winter. They also buit  iron bars on the windows of the house, to keep angels out of the house. One day their child got the chicken poxs, because he got in the chicken coop with the angel. When the doctor was taking care of the child, she listened to the heart beat of the angel. Their was so much whistling in the angels heart, and in his kindenys that it was impossible for him to be alive. The doctor thought every man should of had wings cause his wings were so natural. After the chicken coop collapsed cause of the weather, he started to go everywhere. Elsienda shouted that if was awful living with the angel. The angel survived the harsh winter, and improved the first sunny days. When Elsienda was cutting onions in the kitchen one day, She looked outside the window to catch the angel trying to fly. She watched as the angel flew, until he was no longer in her sight. The angel was no longer bothering her, and he was now just an imaginary dot on the horizon of the sea. You could say angles are real. 


      
  


           

Think

                                  The Life Of Phil Robertson

             
      Your life can change any minute. Your life can be outstanding one minute and terrible the next. life is a mystery and you don't know what will happen next. You can make the most of your life and make it the best it can be. Some people don't go anywhere with there life and just ruin it by doing drug's or drinking. These kind of people just waste their life's away doing these things. other people go to school, get a good job, have a family, and live a wonderful life. Phil Robertson did some really terrible things and was hanging around some bad people. His life was really unacceptable  until he turned it around and stopped doing all the terrible things he was doing.

   
      When Phil was young he was hanging around careless people and doing outrageous things. He would drink, smoke, and even took pills. He would get drunk all the time with his friends and smoke some drugs if they were around. He was living a terrible life. He even quit sports to party all the time with his friends to do drugs.  His wife Kay Robertson didn't like what he was doing and even left him until he stopped what he was doing. She took their three kids(Alan, Jason, Willie) and they moved into a low-rent apartment. When Kay came back to work from lunch  one day and Phil's truck was there. He told Kay that he wanted his family back, and that he wouldn't drink anymore and he was done partying all the time with his friends. Phil said, ''He needed help to quit'' and Kay said, '' The only person that can help you is God.''                                                                                                                                                   

    
        After Phil said he needed help, Kay called Bill Smith, the preacher. Phil met with Smith and his wife at Kay's apartment. Phil told Smith that he didn't trust him when they first met each other. Phil and Smith studied the Bible together for hours. Phil met with Smith again to have another meeting the next night. one day when Kay and the boy's came home, Phil left them a note telling them to go to White's Ferry Road Church. When Kay got to the Church, Phil was already in the middle of getting baptized. When Phil got baptized it turned his life around. He was twenty-eight years old when he got baptized and put his life back on the right track. Kay was happy to have her husband back and there boy's were happy to have their father back.                                                                                             

   
        Phil went back to teaching at Ouachita Christian School. He also started attending services at White's Ferry Road Church and studied God's Word with groups of friends or alone. He was really turning his life around, and doing it the right way. After a while Phil wanted to quit teaching and pursue his dream of making a living off of fishing. He told Kay, and she encouraged him to go threw with his dream. There family moved to a house by the river and Phil started his fishing career. Phil made more money off his fishing dream then his teaching career he had. Phil also went into craw fishing. He made great money and was living the dream he always wanted to live. One time Phil was duck hunting with his friend Big Al and he told him ''Man, you weren't calling those ducks, you were commanding those them!'' That's when Phil decided to make and sell his own duck calls. Phil didn't have any trouble making them, but selling them was when he really had trouble. No one wanted to buy his duck calls, but then he went to this store and this guy listened to his duck calls and wanted to buy some. After that Phil's started to sell duck calls. His business really took off when he started to sell his duck calls to Walmart. He was making big profits off of selling duck calls then.

    
      This was the beginning of Duck Commander and eventually Buck Commander. Phil wanted to retire from working at Duck Commander so he offered his son Jase the CEO job to run the family business, but he turned it down. After Jase turned down the CEO job Phil offered the job to his other son Willie because he was really the only person in the family that new about businesses and how to run one. Willie took the CEO job and now runs the family business. He made it into a big corporation and when you go into most stores now you see Duck Commander products and other accessories. Phil went from being a low down no good drug head to a Christian and big business owner. Phil's life changed dramatically and he still lives by the good word of God and goes places to spread God's word. Phil has a wonderful wife and five great sons that help run the business today. He lives a wonderful life now and is thankful for the things he has.  

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