Two Decisions, Two Worlds

Two Decisions, Two Worlds

In the book “Rules”, by Cynthia Lord, a 12 year old girl named Catherine, has to deal with a brother, David who has autism. Unfortunately, Catherine’s family revolves around his disability, and she has trouble making new friends. Wanting her brother to learn the rules she has written for him when he just so happens to become “normal,” she also wants to start making new friends. But having a brother with autism and making new friends just don’t mix well. Catherine deals with the struggles of taking care of her brother, and taking care of her own life with friends. In the end, Catherine meets two new friends, learns to deal with how her life is with David, and decides what was right for her own life.

In this section, from the middle of the book. Catherine realises how Kristi feels about her life, which helps her realise that her life is split down the middle too. Catherine wanted to tell Kristi how it was like for her, being torn between two worlds, the regular world and David’s world. But never had the guts to open up because she was too embarrassed to share about her life with her brother. “...I wanted to tell her I know how it feels to be split down the middle, too. Pulled between the regular world of school and friends, and David’s world where none of the same things matter.” (pg. 135) This quote shows that Catherine keeps everything inside and doesn’t like to open up to people about how she feels. It also shows that she doesn’t have much freedom, from always taking care of her brother and barely having time to take care of herself, friends, and her life.

I represented this scene with my collage by showing a girl walking on the road, and suddenly having to decide which direction to go since the road go two different directions. The girl of course represents Catherine, while the roads that are split into two are leading her to two different places represents the two worlds that Catherine is torn between. The yellow dashes on the roads represents the different fears she has when both her “worlds” collide, and the fear of David embarrassing her in front of her friends and acquaintances.

The girl stands in the middle of the road, looking at the roads in front of her, trying to decided which path she should go. This represents Catherine, making decisions that are always leaving her thinking which “world” is more important to me, which life should I take care of more? Deciding between taking care of David or her own life and friends. One road in the collage would represent David’s world while the other would represent her regular world. The blue background represents the sadness she develops throughout the book, or the sadness she has whenever her friends make fun of David or when David embarrasses her. The color of the roads are black to represent the dark times she goes through whenever she just wants to breakdown. I made the lines of the roads diagonal, to represent how sometimes Catherine’s life can be a bit unstable with all the drama that happens between her and David. Finally, I decided instead of having the girl facing forward, you just see the back of her head to represent the choices that shes making. But with all the drama, chaos, and struggles in her life, Catherine continues to push on to live a happy life and finds a escape to let her calm down.

This is important because in life, we get torn in between two things, but we just usually give up and find a way to forget about it. We get torn in two but we don’t try to make things right and make those things stick together. So next time you’re in this situation where you’re torn because of fear, just remember Catherine and how she pushed on to make her two “worlds” work out and balancing it out to lead up to having a happy life.   

World Religions

Do's and Don'ts of a Book Club

Types of Switches

Never Give Up

When lighting up the wicks on this candle, I decided to take a picture of it. Not only does it smell good and brighten up somebodys day, but to me, it has a meaning behind it. This picture of the candle represents never giving up. You just have to keep on burning, even when times are rough. Sometimes the flame is strong, and sometimes it's weak, but we always seem to keep on burning. When giving up, it seems like the flame is getting weaker and weaker, but when you keep on fighting for what you're doing the flame gets stronger and stronger, just like us. It shows that we have to work and persevere to get the outcome we want, and if we want the flame to keep on burning we can't let the struggles or the people blow them out.  

Never giving up - We give up from time to time, but we always seem to grow that confidence, and perseverance to push ourselves to work harder and to not give up no matter what struggles bring you. We all have to watch out for the flame, because sometimes it just won't stop burning. 

Literary Essay - Something to Hold

In life, we always have to face changes, it may be hard, but we all have to go through them. Whether is moving to a new country, moving to a new school, meeting new people, changes in family and friends, forgetting about the past. These are some of the changes the characters in Something to Hold by Katherine Schlick Noe. The author wrote Something to Hold by having characters facing many social issues, but continued on showing change for the better in each character after a turning point.

One character, Jewel, was before known to everybody as a bully; no matter who you were she bullied them. Jewel never opened up to anybody about her past, not even about the troubles she had with her alcoholic and abusive stepfather. With the story starting off with Kitty and her brothers being new to a place full of Indians, Jewel was always the one teasing them about their race. She hung out with the wrong crowd, and didn’t have true friends. Until one day, “Jewel rises up from her desk. Mr. Nute swivels his head and narrows his eyes at her. "What about the courage," "she says, looking around the room,” of the people who were already here?" "I am stunned that Jewel is standing up for me." (pg. 65) This shows the change of Jewel because she stood up to Kitty, the main character who was treated differently than everybody else. As a result of this, Jewel treated Kitty and everybody differently and even started to open up about her past, and stopped hanging out with the other bullies.

Another character that showed change is the main character, Kitty. This middle school girl, who constantly moves due to her dad’s job, just recently moved to the Warm Springs Reservation in Oregon. Her family is one out of a couple of other white families to live in this area. This makes Kitty have a tough time fitting in, having confidence, and not sticking up to the bullies. With being a different race than everybody else, Jewel, Raymond and other kids tease her. When one of Kitty’s brother’s friend, Howie was being made fun of by Raymond, Kitty sticks up for Howie by saying, “Why do you do things like that?” I yell at Raymond before I can stop myself.”Howie never hurt anybody.” I can feel my throat close up. Oh, God what am I doing?” (pg. 72) It is because of what she has seen bullies do, she decided to stick up for Howie after she realizes that nobody, including him deserved being bullied. She showed change by sticking up for not only herself but for other people. She grew confidence and wasn’t afraid to speak out.

Finally, Katherine Schlick Noe introduces the readers to Raymond, Jewel’s brother. Raymond does the same things as Jewel, bullying and teasing people, and treating Kitty and her brothers differently. One thing that affects Raymond the most is his abusive and alcoholic stepfather (Walter,) Raymond can never forget his past, and finds a way to get rid of his stepfather. One day when Raymond, Jewel, Kathla, and Kitty were walking on the streets, they soon were in a situation they never wanted to be in with Raymond and Jewel’s stepfather. This was the turning point that showed somewhat of a different side of Raymond. “A sudden movement catches my eye, and I’m startled by an explosion of shattering glass. The car. I spin around to see Raymond swing the bat high over his shoulder and blast out the second headlight.”(pg. 205.) And after Mr.Walters was caught by the tribal police, “Mr. Wewa studies Raymond, his face serious. “That was a dangerous thing to do,” he says. Then his eyes soften. “But it was also very brave.” (pg. 206.) After this turning point, Raymond has a different perspective on Kitty. And showed change in Raymond by letting him let go of his past, and not being afraid of his stepfather and the things that he has done to him. He also stood up to one of his biggest fears, that he had tried and tried to get rid of in the past, but finally had the boost of confidence to get rid of it forever.

To sum it all up, through her characters, Katherine Schlick Noe tells the readers how change can help you overcome your biggest social issues. It is important because if we don’t, without a turning point in our lives, without change, our lives would be very different. So lets let these turning points leave an impact on our lives, and make it a wake up call that this change is for the better, for not only you, but also for the world around you.