Journal Response: The Wednesday Wars By Gary D. Schmidt

An important theme in The Wednesday Wars is to being compassionate is an critical to a healthy friendship which is supported by three examples in the book: The first example is when Danny Humfer stands up for Holling when Mickey Mantle wouldn't give him a signed baseball. The second example is when Holling helps his sister get home, the last example is when Meryl Lee is crying when Holling brings her cokes. When Holling went to get a baseball signed by Mickey Mantle he is devastated because Mickey Mantle won't sign him one. Then Danny steps up to the plate and shows some compassion toward Holling. "Danny Humfer who stepped up to the table and slowly placed his baseball-- his baseball signed by Mickey Mantle-- back in front of the greatest baseball

Life is full of lessons. In the book Wednesday Wars Holling Hoodhood learns the importance of these life lessons. Holling Hoodhood faces many challenges that help him realize the importance of life lessons as they help him grow. The life lessons that he learns are mercy, courage, and friendship. In this essay you will see Holling Hoodhood's life lessons.

A seventh grader whose school is largely divided between Catholics and Jews. But, because Holling is a Presbyterian, he has to stay alone with Mrs. Baker on Wednesdays. Causing him to think that Mrs. Baker hates his guts. During these Wednesday's, Mrs. Baker makes Holling do extra work. Each time, he thinks that she was making him do things because she hated him. First she makes him do physical work, but after a while she has him learning Shakespeare. Games were being played between his dad’s company, Hoodhood and Associates, and other nearby corporations. Holling dislikes the fact that his dad will never care about what he asks if it might have the slightest chance of disrupting a deal. In a short amount of time, Holling starts

In his 1986 commonly known book, “War Without Mercy: Race and Power in the Pacific War”, American Historian, John W Dower, examined and explained the relationship in Japanese and Americans during World War II and studies links between culture, stereotypes, and ultimately the high levels of violence. From the start he mentions that “World War Two changed the face of the globe”. He further explained that during the Second War, society had to witness the rise and fall cycle of the empires and what it did to everyone. Dower’s statement of “… racism remains one of the great neglected subjects of World War Two” is definitely the most relatable and true quote from the entire piece. This is a large aspect that the world and society views from and that is why it is such a popular topic throughout the entire text. Even in today’s society, more parts of the world than others, racism still controls how we treat people, who we hire for a job, and what we say in certain environments. He goes on to mention the racist code words and imagery that came with the war in Asia and makes remarks in regards to the “dominant perceptions of the enemy” on both sides of the war. Part One of the book focuses on the relationship between the two whom are at war and the correspondence and differences between the “Enemies.

Joseph Conrad once observed that “a belief in a supernatural source of evil is not necessary; men alone are quite capable of every wickedness.” As a result of the violence that is necessary during wartime, soldiers are permitted to engage in savage behavior that is normally forbidden in society. In The Wars by Timothy Findley, however, soldiers act in violent ways even when they are not actively engaged in battle. The inherently savage nature of humankind is evident when Robert Ross kills the German soldier after the gas attack, when Robert is raped in the baths, and when Robert kills Captain Leather. These violent events that occur outside the direct action of the war demonstrate the evil inherent in

In the novel Tomorrow When the War Began written by John Marsden, we as the readers are asked a continuous question, would you love someone to the point where you would sacrifice your life for their safety? Marsden helps us understand love, innocence and maturity through the way he outlines this question in his novel.

The Past, an ever growing pool of time, is always biting at the heels of a person. It reminds him of what they have done wrong, done right, or when he did nothing. For most people, recalling the past leads to loose ends and blanks where memories should be. No matter how much a person may want to return to the past, it is not possible. It is lost forever. These forgotten moment lead to uncertainties and confusion in the present, and chaos in the future. Forgetting the past leads to spirals, spinning downwards as people look to what they have lost. They retrace their steps hoping to find a sliver of who they are and what may become of them. In the poem, Itinerary, Eamon Grennan shows how an individual searches through his past, but can never return to it. Through the poem and with a personal experience I will explain how individuals deal with uncertainties in their pasts.

“Dad's hands trembled slightly as he unrolled different blueprints. He had drawn frontal views, side views, and aerial views of the Glass Castle. He had diagrammed the wiring and the plumbing. He had drawn the interiors of rooms and labeled them and specified their dimensions, down to the inches, in his precise, blocky handwriting. I stared at the plans. "Dad," I said. "you'll never build the Glass Castle." "Are you saying you don't have faith in your old man?" "Even if you do, I'll be gone. In less than three months, I'm leaving for New York City." "What I was thinking was you don't have to go right away," Dad said. I could stay and graduate from Welch High and go to Bluefield State, as Miss Katona had suggested, then get a job at The Welch Daily News.

“The Cause of War” is a book written by Australian author Geoffrey Blainey. The book is a collection of studies from wars since 1700’s and it analysis the relation of rivaling nations. The book is divided in four parts it starts discussing the weakness behind the current theories of peace, it then moves to talk the “ingredients” which are key for a nation to determine whether they will go to war or not. Third part of the group is about some misleading theories of war, and the last part just deals with the variety of war.

"Guests of the Nation," a short story by Frank O'Connor takes place in 1921 during Ireland's fight for independence from British rule. Set in a small cottage in the countryside of Ireland, the story tells of two Englishmen who are prisoners and are being watched over by three Irishmen. The story tells of the relationship that develops between the captives and their captors and explores the conflict that arises when the soldiers are called to duty.

Wars can change the way a person acts, perceptions of man and unleashes the true self of human nature, which is exactly shown in the novel The Wars. The Wars is a 1977 novel by Timothy Findley that follows Robert Ross, a nineteen-year-old Canadian who enlists in World War I. After the death of his beloved older sister, in an attempt to escape both his grief and the social norms of the repressive Victorian era he enlists himself as a soldier in the Canadian army. However, throughout the novel, we see as the war progresses, it has corrupted the innocence and the pure heart of each and every character in the novel, including Robert Ross. From these events of corruption and the evils that are shown through wars, it affected character growth,

Many people say that the metal of a man is found in his ability to keep his ideals in spite of anything that life can through at you. If a man is found to have done these things he can be called a hero. Through a lifelong need to accept responsibility for all living things, Robert Ross defines his heroism by keeping faith with his ideals despite the betrayal, despair and tragedy he suffers throughout the course of The Wars by Timothy Findley.

As we all know, the year 1865 was an essential year for people in the United States. It was also a beginning for American people to unify their countries and also a beginning for slaves’ freedom. However, it was also the year 1865 when American people lost a great leader, Abraham Lincoln. In Lincoln’ s 200th birthday, Obama said, “It 's a humbling task, marking the bicentennial of our 16th President 's birth-humbling for me in particular, because it 's fair to say that we presidency of this singular figure who we celebrate, in so many ways made my own story possible.”(Barrack Obama. President Obama Speaks at Lincoln’s 200th Birthday Dinner.#Page 2) Actually, Lincoln has cleared the obstacles about the second development of the capitalism in the United States.

War is a dangerous game, many people would likely agree to this, however, very few have ever seen a battlefront. The truth is that war, no matter how awful we can imagine it, is always exponentially worse. In Timothy Findley’s The Wars, Robert Ross, the protagonist,­ faces a situation that he finds difficult to come to terms with, and when faced with a similar situation later on in the novel, he must take drastic measures to reconcile the uncertainties of the past situation. Timothy Findley suggests, through the life of Robert Ross, that one’s need to reconcile the uncertainties of past experiences dominate our actions when such situations come up again in our lives. In the words of Hiram Johnson, a US Senator during the First World War,

“Tomorrow When The War Began” by John Marsden, is a novel of survival, friendship, love and war. He uses many language techniques (e.g. simile, metaphor, personification, oxymoron, irony, symbol, allusion etc.) to get across to the reader the importance of each of the themes discussed. He also uses these techniques to set the mood in each chapter and to help emphasise each major point in the novel. “We’ve learnt a lot and had to figure out what’s important- what matters, what really matters.”- Ellie