Thursday, October 25, 2012
Free Write
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Shooting An Elephant Summary
Emily
Burleson
English
101-132
Mr.
Neuberger
11
September 2012
Summary
“Shooting an Elephant”
George
Orwell was a sub-divisional police officer in the town of Moulmein, in Lower
Burma. He himself was an Englishmen. This put him as a much hated man to the
natives. He was constantly ridiculed and bulled by the people while he was off
duty and sometimes on duty depending on the circumstances. While on duty one day, he received a call
about a wild animal on the loose causing mayhem amongst the people. An elephant
was on the loose; not a wild elephant; but a tame one that had went “must” with
the only person who could calm the beast, its mahout, being twelve hours away
due to a wrong turn. Orwell grabbed a gun, just a small one, not big enough to
do much of anything and took off to find the animal. The closer he had gotten
to the location of the elephant the more the native’s stories became unjust. It
wasn’t long before he realized he was on the right track. Women came stumbling
out of their bamboo shacks screaming at naked children to scurry away. He would
soon find a man stomped into the soft muddy ground. After this sight he sent
for an elephant riffle and bullets. He marched to find the creature with people
following him. The natives gave him information to the ware a bouts of the
animal and Orwell set his sights toward a field a couple hundred yards away.
Upon reaching his destination he watched the elephant grazing, being “no more
dangerous than a cow”. As he watched the animal graze in the field he became in
deep thought to himself, teetering on the notion to shoot the beast. There were
many factors that had to come into play when it came to the decision to shoot
such as the owner, the wellbeing of the animal and most of all how he felt
about shooting the elephant. In his mind it didn’t seem just to shoot. After
all, the animal was now not hurting anyone and was peaceful. To Orwell looked
at the now thousands of “yellow faces” that gathered to watch the killing of
the beast. Not for what it had done to their homes, not for the killing of a
man but for the pure enjoyment of seeing a show. Orwell thought to himself to
test the stability of the elephant. To walk about twenty five feet from him and
see what he did. That could be more dangerous than the alternative. In the end the
eyes of the people that had despised him won his decision over. He got down on
the road to have a better aim and shot the gun. He stuck the beast through the
ear and it looked as if it just stunned it. He took another shot and even that
didn’t seem to get to the elephant. Orwell eventually used all five bullets he
had for the elephant gun. The animal had finally fallen. He approached the
beast to find the animal was alive with a steady breath. Orwell sent for his
gun. Filled with guilt from what he had just done, all he wanted to do was put
the beast out of its misery to save it from the agony. The repeatedly shot the
elephant in where he imagined the heart would be. When that didn’t work he gave
up and left. It was too much to bear to watch what he had done. Later he
learned upon his leave it had taken an hour and a half for the helpless
creature to fully pass and by the afternoon the people of Moulmein to strip it
to practically bone. After the fact Orwell justified himself and what he had
done because the creature had taken the life of a man. Legally he was in the
right and that is all he had to cling too. Not everyone had felt that way but
in the end Orwell could live with the decision that he made on that day and to
him that is all that mattered. He shot an animal to avoid looking like a fool
in the eyes of people that never respected him in the first place.
The Lesson Summary
Emily
Burleson
Mr.
Neuberger
Eng.
101-109
04
September 2012
Summary
“The Lesson”
“The Lesson”
Nine children; Sylvia, Sugar, Junior,
Fly Boy, Fat Butt (Ronald), Mercedes, Rosie Giraffe, Q.T, and June bug all met
at the mailbox to go with Miss Moore to “travel”. The narrator of the story
Sylvia does not like Miss Moore at all and the reader sees this through the
whole short story. Sylvia is upset with her because she thinks she is a know it
all and took her away from the nice summer day that she could be swimming. Even
so before they go Miss Moore asks the children about money. Of course Sylvia
thinks it is a stupid question because she thinks she knows. The children go on
a cab ride with Miss Moore up town. Miss Moore asks Sylvia to count change to
give to the cab driver and gives her 5 dollars for the trip. The trip didn’t
cost that much so Sylvia kept the rest of the money. Upon arrival the children
find they are going to a toy store. The children line the windows of the store
to see what it has in it. As they go in and look at all the toys and Sylvia
sees a clown that does summersaults and chin ups that cost 35 dollars. After
seeing the clown she starts to think of what 35 dollars can buy for her family
and thinks it’s silly to spend that much money on toys. As they walk through
the toy store the children see a boat that costs over a thousand dollars.
Sugar, getting the point of the trip, says that it’s silly that people can
spend that much money on a toy boat when that much money would feed a family of
6 or 7 for a year. Sylvia gets upset with Sugar for voicing her opinion to Miss
Moore and for not listening to Sylvia when she tried to step on her foot to get
her to be quiet. When the children get back from their trip with Miss Moore,
Sylvia decides she is going to skip out on eating with Sugar and took off by
herself in a different direction to think about the day.
Descriptive Essay
Emily
Burleson
Mr.
Neuberger
English
101-132
25
September, 2012
Descriptive Essay
“That Night”
The speckled grey and dark blue seats
and black tinted windows seemed transparent compared to the bright starry night
and moonlight dancing a crossed his face. The leaves fell all around the quiet
abandoned farm and the shadows silently shivered with every short burst of wind
that swooped through the holler. Right in front of that big barn beneath the
trees that almost bury the circle drive sat that gold single cab short bed
Chevy like a duck in a pond on a calm sunny day. With my short legs across the speckled
grey and dark blue seat starring in his eyes, back to the steering wheel, I ran
my hand through his lusciously thick dark brown hair to the back of his head
and around down his cheek. The stubble on his face felt course against my soft
long fingers as I stare in his seemingly dark eyes and he starring back in
mine. It was a night that seemed endless
in our young lives, for it was that cool November night, staring in each
other’s night - lighten eyes with the soft caress of his palm against my cheek
that we fell in love for the first time.
I met him months before this when the
weather was warm and the worries were little. In the few short sentences he
spoke to me I knew he had to be mine. In those months that felt as if they were
years, here is where the journey led me. I couldn’t believe I was sitting there
so close to him. This was the man I so
badly wanted with every fiber of my being and now I had him within my grasp.
The only man that has ever made the slightest impression on me, the only man
that I can ever truly say I was determine to pursue but never in my wildest
dreams did I think I could get, and here he was under the cover of darkness
with me. For the first time in most of my small insignificant life I was
unconditionally happy for the man I had only found in my dreams was in front of
my eyes in the flesh.
He was wearing a black shirt with grey
colored designs on the front, light blue jeans with holes in the knees, dark
brown boots; a brown, black and grey coat and a dark blue Budlight hat. His
glasses slightly reflected the moonlight on his face. His smile shined almost
as bright as his seemingly dark eyes and I was mesmerized by the sight. I was
wearing dark blue jeans, black high heeled boots, a green tank top under a
white shirt and a dark blue Aeropostal jacket. KTTS played softly in the
background as we talked about any and everything pausing in between
conversations just to stare at each other.
In the rearview mirror the passing cars dim headlights seem as distant
as airplanes in the night sky. The only thing that mattered to us was right in
front of both our faces, each other.
The half crescent moon high in the sky proved
the night was carrying on like a feather in the wind. The dew settled on the
truck and fogged the glass. The crisp cold air filled the cab through the crack
of the black tinted window. We spoke of what we wanted in life, every goal and
every dream. The conversation came to a sudden close when out of nowhere he
kissed me for the very first time. I thought I was falling for him before but
that kiss was the icing on the cake. The fireworks exploded in my head as if it
were the Fourth of July and I was addicted to the drug he just released upon
me; his kiss.
As the night got carried away by time as
did we. That night was a mile stone in my life in many ways. It was the night I
saw the beauty in another as well as in myself. I never in my life had felt like
I did that late night, my heart felt as if I just ran a million mile marathon.
It was that night that I found I was capable of so much more than really I ever
thought possible. For it was that late night in front of that big barn in the
circle drive of an abandoned family farm under the starry night in November in
that gold single cab short bed Chevy truck where I fell unconditionally in love
with the man of my dreams. The only man I have ever truly loved I gave my whole
heart to that night and quite honestly I will never get it back. It was that
starry night in the moonlight he changed me forever just by looking in his
seemingly deep dark eyes.
Narrative Essay
Emily
Burleson
Mr.
Neuberger
English
101-132
06
September, 2012
Narrative Essay
“The Beginning of Baby Gunner”
“The Beginning of Baby Gunner”
Isn’t it funny how life doesn’t turn out the way you want it
to. It’s almost as if we have our plans and life has its own. Some would
consider it luck, others destiny or some could even think of it as fate. Whatever
it is, it’s not what I had in mind. If you would have asked me four years ago
how I pictured my life at the age of eighteen, it wouldn’t be where I’m at now.
No, not me. In my mind it was much different. Everything I have ever done lead
to where I am today. Every good, bad, stupid and smart decision I have made
lead me to a part of my life I never thought I would experience, at least not
now. I wasn’t expecting to be a mommy of a precious baby boy or a soon to be
wife. But, this is where fate or destiny or whatever you want to call it led
me. It led me to the most amazing thing I have ever seen, the start of my
beautiful family.
Senior year started much like any
other only I was legitimately excited to go back to school because I knew it
was the last year I had before college. I seemed to have my life figured out. I
started a job at McDonalds, my boyfriend and I just had our Two year
anniversary together, everything was going great and we couldn’t wait to live
life. Unfortunately, that feeling and mind set didn’t last too long. Two months
after I started my senior year we found out I was pregnant. That’s when
everything got really complicated.
It seemed the farther along I got in
the pregnancy the worse things got. At around six weeks I started bleeding. I
was rushed to the hospital and the doctors weren’t sure if I was going to
continue on. From there, they referred me to a high risk specialist. I saw him
and he suggested for me to take it easy, so I did. Things got better for a few
weeks until I was thirteen weeks along. I started having tremendous amount of
pain in my stomach, so again, I was rushed to the hospital. The doctors
announced the baby's heart rate was extremely low and called in the specialist.
From there I found that the placenta was tearing away from my wall. That’s just
the tip of the iceberg.
A week after suffering a placenta prevail
(placenta tearing from the wall), and my mom kicked me out. The following day I
was diagnosed with preeclampsia at a routine doctor’s appointment and put on
bed rest for the remainder of the pregnancy. Everything just seemed to be
happening so fast. It felt like all of a sudden nothing was right anymore. The last month was more hell than all of it
put together. He stopped growing, stopped moving, his heart rate dropped way
down with every slight contraction and movement. I begged the doctor for weeks
to make sure he was okay because I never felt him move. They didn’t believe me
and kept throwing kick count sheets at me as if I wasn’t already doing them
myself. I knew something was horribly wrong and if they wouldn’t listen then
what would I do? If I couldn’t help my baby then what good was I? Better yet,
if the doctors wouldn’t listen then what good were they? I had so many
questions going out but, no answers coming in.
Luckily my doctor went on vacation
on my 38th week, and I was having ultra sounds done. I had had those two weeks
prior to that and the ultrasound technician agreed that something wasn’t right too;
he hadn’t gained anything in three weeks. (Although honestly if you ask me if
she did her job like she was supposed to then she would have seen something was
wrong the first week). Anyways, she sent me to another doctor that was on call
for my doctor. He looked at everything for two days, the fluids, the placenta,
the umbilical cord. I mean he looked at everything more than once. The second
day he told me he would have to induce me or my son would die. We decided to
have him that day. I had a 2 hour notice before I went in to be induced. The
only thing I kept thinking of was my son’s life. I just kept praying to god to
let my son be ok. I went home and gathered mine and his bags and went to the
hospital.
I arrived at the room and got in the
gown and went to the bed. They put the IV in my arm and thirty minutes later
started the oxytocin. I could hardly take my eyes off of the monitor. With
every contraction his heart rate just went lower and lower. It was the worst
thing in the world to see. The doctor came in and broke my water to try to get
him to move along. I was in labor for twelve long hours before I got to meet my
baby boy. His daddy cut the cord, and my baby boy came out just fine. Once the
placenta was delivered it was 95 percent dead. The doctor said if I would have
waited any longer my son would have been dead too. Gunner Lea Terrill arrived
at 1:35am on June 23, 2012. He was 5.8 pounds and 19.5 inches long. He was bald
headed and had the most amazing cry I have ever heard.
I thank God every day I look in that
little boys eyes that he came out ok. I might not have been ready to be a mommy
just yet but that little boy is my world. He is everything to both me and his
daddy and has brought so many people so much closer than they were. So no, this
isn’t where I pictured myself at four years ago. I might not have always made a
wise decision or been the smartest person in the world. Call it what you may,
luck, fate, destiny, whatever it is this is where life has chosen to take me. I
am the proud mommy of a beautiful baby boy and the soon to be wife to the love
of my life. This is where I’m supposed to be and this is what I want to be the
rest of my life.
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