My Hometown

My hometown Bergenfield, New Jersey is like many cities in the north. Bergenfield is full of rich history and great food for visitors to partake in. The growth of Bergenfield began slow with small residents and then later started to form its own with the help of the state of New Jersey and New York helping to build the George Washington Bridge. When Bergenfield was discovered on June 25, 1894 by a railroad company the city was laid out as Bergen Fields stamped on the tickets.

This particular case is a murder case, the killing is described as a brutal fashion from someone with a deep hatred for the victim. This cold-blooded murder's remained a mystery that baffled the police for three years. The officers of the law would have never suspected the killer to be a 17 year-old girl. Christine Paolilla was just a bright little girl until a number of misfortunes happened to her family, that changed her life forever. Parents, Charles and Lori Paolilla with little brother John Paolilla. Her father died in a consruciton accident. After losing her husband, Lori started abusing drugs and eventually losing custody her children to her parents. Christine was diagnosed with alopecia which caused her to lose her hair, eyebrows,

On March 13th, 1964, in New York, a young woman by the name of Catherine “Kitty” Genovese was just coming home from her late shift at work. It’s three a.m., and as she’s walking to her apartment building, she notices a suspicious, hooded man some distance away. Rightfully concerned, she goes to the phone booth, aiming to call the police, but never makes it in time. She’s stabbed in the back, and then in her gut. When her screams cause the neighbors to turn the lights on, all they do

Our Town by Thornton Wilder continues to be a timeless theatrical work performed pervasively throughout the world. This play remains a modern classic due to Wilder’s ingenuity in capturing the quintessential expression of the life cycle. Wilder segmented his play into three acts; each act broadly encompassing a different phase in a person’s life. The play presents the audience with situations parallel to the ones almost everyone faces during their lifetime. This, in conjunction with breaking the fourth wall, allows for the audience to feel a part of the performance. The title of the play itself lends to this feeling, for it is not my town or your town, but it’s Our Town. This play emphasizes the idea that in the grand scheme of things, all

I shared in the first discussion for this book about the first killing I have known by someone close to me. A teen whose widowed father was dating my widowed mother. The partisan side of the victim’s family painted an overly exaggerated defense against him. I like everyone else wanted to witness the trial, but our parents would not allow us, and the school prohibited any student from missing school to attend unless they were called as a witness. On the day of the sentencing, I recalled my mother saying it was not a fair sentencing. I was barely a teen and all I can remember from the trial was that the judge

In the article, “On Punishments and Teen Killers”, by Jennifer Jenkins, publish in August 2, 2011, take a look at how this happen to her sister when she died

8. Shared experience with a classmate, both agreed it was a great play that involved the quality of life.

“Lost Names: Scenes from a Korean Boyhood”, is an extremely valuable novel. The novel, written by Richard E. Kim, focuses on a young Korean boy who lives during the Japanese colonization before World War II. Korea itself was under Japanese rule from 1910 until Japan surrendered in August of 1945. The way the Japanese colonized the Koreans was ruthless; not only did they drive fear into their hearts through physical threats, they also struck fear by manipulating their culture, their educational system, and using psychological threats to really put the Koreans under their thumb. The Japanese did not just colonize the Korean people; they began to turn them into another sect of the Japanese race. They took the Korean’s names, their religion, their language, they took their entire culture away and forced them to accept the Japanese way of life in hopes that they would not fight back, and that they would be completely under control in the Japanese rulers. They were successful too, as their reign lasted more than a few decades. “Lost Names: Scenes From a Korean Boyhood”, details that time in Korean history on a very personal and intimate level, and shows how terrifying colonization can be, in regards to the emotional and cultural condemnation by the Japanese people on the Koreans. The quote that is used in the third question prompt, “the real force of colonization comes not through physical coercion, but

This sudden accusation startled me. I didn’t know what was happening nor did I know how to respond to such a situation. Tears shed down my face for a false blame and I was in misery. I believe that I am a victim. I believe I could not have, not in a million years, committed a crime as such to kill someone so close to me. Someone that meant so much to me. Someone I loved as a dear family member.

One night, thoroughly past her bedtime, Georgiana crept stealthily downstairs to sneak a bite of pie, even though her mother would never approve. She immediately realized a heavy drape of desolation. The only noise was her heart beating to the rapid rhythm of the twitching fan. Georgiana thought that no one would be awake at one in the morning. She slipped through the doorway into the kitchen. For an instant, her heart stopped. A dreadful sight stood in her way. An innocent and isolated individual lay with his hand grasping for life, but it was already over. Taking a step back, she

Sookan and her family had just gotten news from her father, saying that him and his four eldest sons were safe in Seoul. Sookan was ecstatic to know that they were safe and well, but wondered why her family that was left behind in North Korea hadn’t been the first priority. “Mother stretched out her arms and Inchun and I ran to them.How good it was to know that father was alive and well, and that my three brothers were safe in Seoul. And how wonderful to know that father would be coming to take us to the South. Yet I wondered how it was that he had left us here so long. I wish that he had come for us earlier, as he had for his sons. Why had he left us for last?”(118) Sookan was the only daughter, and the second youngest in the household. Growing up, family is a very important part to anyone's life, and it’s extremely rare for you to questions your parents judgement or actions when you are growing up. But Sookan did just that when she asked herself if her fathers decisions on saving the eldest boys first was really the right thing to

While the taking of one’s own life is devastating, there can be worse fates, such as continuing life without the materials to live. In the story “Children of the Sea,” the reader learns of a series of events through letters a girls and her boyfriend write to each other. The boyfriend has had to flee Haiti because of his affiliation with a political radio station. The girl stays behind, and soon her father has to pick up his family and they move away from Port-au-Prince. Only after they have been

Imagine, you are a vibrant fresh – faced sixteen year old girl from the suburbs of Memphis, TN. Everything in your life is going well until one night everything changes. On May 19, 2003 you find yourself home alone when a strange masked man ravages your body without an ounce of sympathy. Once this brutal degradation of your body has surpassed, this masked man leaves you with a threat of death if you go to the police. Now, you have to make the difficult decision to stay silent, or potentially lose your life in the pursuit of justice. This is the nightmare that was Meaghan Ybo’s life (Haas).

Ellie and I lay in our beds, neither one of us knew what to say. In the other room, our host parents were arguing. We didn’t know what about, but we knew it was serious. Then we heard a “THWACK” followed by silence. Ellie and I sat up in our beds and looked at each other, I could tell she was as scared as I was. “Was that? Did he just?” she asked me. Then the arguing started back up again. We calmed back down until we heard it again. “THWACK” We knew then, the noise we heard, was him beating her. We got up, our hearts racing; neither of us knew what to do. We got our nerves together to go get help. When we opened the door to our room we saw the children sitting on the couch crying out for their mother. I could see the fear in their face and I knew something needed to change.

“What happened?” my parents asked with a comforting voices in cantonese. My sister was not able to answer my parents because she was really hurt and sad. Stupidly, I asked “Are you okay?” I knew my sister would either not answer me of scream NO. After a while, my parents told her “Calm down!”