Childhood In Randy's Last Lecture

He was born during World War I. He herd the old men tell the stories of what happened when they were in World War II. All of his family members went to some war in their life time. His Uncles Guadalcanal, North Africa and the battle of the Bulge, his Cousins stories of Korea. Then finally it was his and his brothers turn, they had joined the marines just in time for the for the Cuban Missile crisis. After that his friends going to Vietnam tasting defeat the only war that America has ever lost. Finally it is his sons turn and he gets the other end of the deal. He doesn’t know if his son will be able to tell him his stories of his war or if he will have to cry at his grave.

Randy Wilkerson, a young boy, walked the cold streets of New York on a school night after dinner. He stumbled upon an old woman with a beautiful old ring. After time went on, the old woman told Randy the back story of just how significant that ring was to her and her life. Randy, a lot like Greg Ridley, understood the importance of his life after hearing a back story from Lemon Brown’s perspective. In the story “Treasure of Lemon Brown” Walter Dean Myers, the author, establishes the theme by showing readers that what's important to someone, isn't something that has to do with money.

His father began to branch out and converted into well-known pastor. His father’s success was the reason for the family’s wealth. Over time things among his parents began to spiral downward. Between the age of 7 and 8 his parents had acquired a divorce. Jeremy’s father left the keys to the house and the cars with his now ex-wife, with no money. This major event force Jeremy, his mom and little brother to move back to New Orleans. Years went by and the two brothers were breaking into houses and vending drugs off the streets.

The novel really does illustrate the coming of age theme as John Grady progresses from innocence to experience. In addition, it is evident that John Grady’s view of the reality of the world has significantly changed as well. In particular, his break up with Alejandra alters his view of reality and shows how much he’s matured and understood about life. Shortly after Alejandra rejects John Grady, he “imagined that the pain of the world to be like some formless parasitic being seeking out the warmth of human souls wherein to incubate and he thought he knew what made one liable to its visitations. What he had not known was that it was mindless and so had no way to know the limits of those souls and what he feared was that there might be no limits”

As I stated before, my grandfather was in World War 2 and he really had a lot of things to be responsible for during the war. And pretty much everyone did. So I hear a lot about what your expectations are in war and how to deal with everything and some of the appauling tings that they did. So I can totally relate to these situations from a 3rd person perspective. Being told stories and stories about them from my grandfather is just so interesting and very frieghteing situations he’s been through. And he’s the total opposite from my dad, my dad’s never even shot a gun probably, knowing him no, he’s just a person I would refer to as a “Corporate Slave” someone who works all day and half the night for a big business and he works in a big corporate office at his computer all day, filtering in students for the college he works for. He’s very good at what he does though, I admire him for the serious effort he puts in. and he’s got a very promising position and he works himself tirelessly all the time. Although he does take his anger out on me a lot. And I do get mad, but I always think to myself, he’s doing this because he loves us. And that statement is true. We wouldn’t have the new house we live in right now, we wouldn’t probably have food in our haouse, probably wouldn’t be going to kennedy if he didn’t work. And as for my mom, she works herself too. But yeah, I just wanted to tell of my personal experiences, and I bring family into a lot of this is because family will

This chapter explained something to me that I never thought about. Randy explained what a bad apology is. I learned that there are two bad apologies. The first kind is “I’m sorry you feel hurt by what I’ve done.” (Page 162).

     Personal power has the ability to be essential to greatness, and at the same time is able to destroy a person’s nature. In the drama Macbeth by William Shakespeare, the main character, Macbeth, becomes corrupt through power that he gains. The play shows that even someone who starts out like Macbeth and does not crave power, will do terrible things to gain authority and power.

The temptation of power corrupts man, which results in the inevitable destruction of liberty, law and right for power can not co-exist with the former.

The most important thing my father told me was that working in the same field of work like him wasn’t worth it, my father was able to open my eyes and see that working a job like his for the rest of my life was something I didn’t

    "Authority poisons everybody who takes authority upon himself" (Vladimir Ilyich Lenin). This could easily be a comment on the story of Macbeth where an apparently respected Scottish couple have the opportunity to seize the highest authority, take it, and in doing so, poison themselves and their country. In Macbeth, the play's theme is the strife created by the wrongful seizure of power and the corruption of morals of those who acquire power by evil means. Power can be good or bad depending on the hands that it falls into. The dilemma with power that has been accomplished by immoral behavior, foul means, is that when you finally manage to attain it, it will always bring insecurity, bring

This week, I watched Dr. Randy Pausch’s last speech: Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams. I’ve talked a lot about his public speaking skills in my reflective paper, and I want to express my ideas about what he said in the speech.

Sorry is not hard to say to someone when you know you are wrong and you’re the person who causes it. Saying sorry does make the situation a lot better for you and the other person. Also, knowing when to stop and thinking before we speak would make the situation a lot better. Dr. Cullen had us do a breathing activity and explain to us that when you take a breath, it gives you time to think and stop you for saying something you’re going to regret

“The first thing you must realise is that power is collective. The individual only has power in so far as he ceases to be an individual.” (Orwell).

Tannen explains when talking about "apologies", when women apologize to much they make it look like they are at fault even though they may not be (328). This reminds me of my mother. Last week we went out to eat and she ordered some soup. When she took her first bite she noticed it wasn 't even hot. She called the waiter back to the table, apologized for bothering her, then politely ask her if she could bring her another bowl of soup because hers was cold. The waiter said she was sorry and that she would bring another bowl out right away. When the waiter returned with another bowl, my mom apologizes once again for any inconvenience she may have caused. I think my mom was just trying to be polite. Her apology as Tannen

“The way real life happens is never the way you would have imagined it to be”(McCourt). In the book “Teacher Man”, McCourt reflects on his life, the hardships that foreshadowed his struggles with insecurity, and the disbelief of his own success.