Never Quit, By Jimmy Settle

Several characters are introduced throughout this memoir, some were very close friends others he did not care too much for, but he fought for all of them the same; as soldiers. Having performed his duty in

The main character is sent by his father to stay with his grandmother. This is where you learn that the strong heart runs in the family. This is true because she is a seventy-eight year old woman and will still patch out two acres of corn and make enough bread for the winter to do what she can to keep her family feed.  In her old age she hasn’t kept the best health. Some days she is too sick to get out of the bed. The main character takes care of her he cooks all the meals for her and helps her start to feel better. Living with her he hears stories of his father and how he is an honest man. Also his grandmother tells him about his grandfather and all the great things he would do.  Living with his grandmother is a great experience for the main character because she brings him history of his family and teaches him many things on how to live a content life.

Essayist and novelist, Brent Staples, in his essay "Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space" describes the accusatory altering effects of racial profiling and stereotyping occurring within the cities of Chicago. Staples purpose is to express to the reader the shift of the atmosphere when a black man enters a room. He creates an accusatory tone to show that he's an innocent man incriminated of committing crimes due to his ethnicity. Staples states “the ability to alter public space in ugly ways” he builds credibility by allowing readers to speculate on racial profiling through his personal experiences and appealing his readers with both logic and emotion to support his viewpoint.

In the story “Stop the Sun” there are two themes. One is to never give upon trying to understand someone or something. The second one is sometimes war can affect people forever. Terry feared to go out in public with his father because the war made his father act strange. Terry wanted to understand what was happening with his father so he could him. Terry learned the horrible things that his father had faced in the war. He also learned that his father was the only soldier out of 54 men to survive. Terry had to change to understand what his father went through. In conclusion Terry played one of the main parts in the story. Such as he created the theme of the story and he also learned to better understand his father.

In the book, I Survived Hurricane Katrina a boy and his family struggle to survive Hurricane Katrina.The boy is split from his family and has to depend on himself, as well as the people around.The author's purpose of writing that book is to educate about what happened in hurricane katrina.This book kind of did change me because it made me more aware on the topic of hurricanes, and the destruction that it causes.

Personally, the book taught me a lot about how people deal with situations when under pressure, people’s need for power and how easy it really if for a war to break out and I found that in my mind I could easily link what was going

“I am just going to Joliet Junior College”, said about half of my classmates my senior year of high school. People everywhere make community college out to be something that is looked down upon and for people who were not as bright. In his essay “Blue Collar Brilliance”, Mike rose explains the reputation community colleges have acquired over the last few decades depicts two year schools as a place for people who could not make it into “real colleges”, also known as four year colleges (276). Although four year universities have reputations for quality education and excellent programs, students can get the same quality, if not better education at a two year college at a better convenience.

“Start Where You Are But Don’t Stay There” by Richard Milner is a book about dealing with diversity in the classroom in today’s day and age. It holds a focus on allowing all students to be successful academically and throughout their lives. Milner talks about several different case studies in which teachers must help students who are struggling. It goes through scenarios with Mr. Hall, Dr. Johnson, Mr. Jackson, and Ms. Shaw, who are all struggling with diversity in different ways. This book holds an importance in expressing ideas and concerns of equality in schools, and I believe it would be beneficial for all aspiring educators to read it.

Jamie Fader’s book Falling Back which was published in 2013, is based on ethnographic research over three years, from 2004 to 2007, of black and latino males on the edge of adulthood and that were incarcerated at the Mountain Ridge Academy reform school located in a rural area: “within a dense forest in western Pennsylvania, is Mountian Ridge Academy … ninety-acre campus contains eight dormitories, each of which houses thirty-two young men between ages 14 to 18” (p.1). The criminal thinking approach was intended to help young people identify the patterns that had led them to delinquency and replace it with corrective and prosocial thoughts. These young boys had been involved in drug offenses and violence within their suburban communities and were now in the process of behavioral change in order to help them reflect and be able to make better decisions which would lead them to a better life.

The most significant part of the entire text is that most of the readers will never feel the pain of author. The ability not to be able to relate and understand someone’s struggle is very impactful.

Flanagan. It is about a boy named Will who goes on a journey, with companions. His companions get captured, and he is their only hope. His issues are self-doubt, and thinking that he will never be as good as his mentor. “‘But what if I make a mistake?’ Will asked” (158) Will is talking to a friend about when he graduates and won’t have a mentor anymore. The quote shows Will’s self-doubt, that he’s not sure he can do it. This is just one part of Will, that makes him such a great main characters, really engaging to read about.

Jimmy Cross, a college student, is carrying a great burden being the lieutenant of his group of soldiers. A chapter from The Things They Carried titled “In the Field” states, “Jimmy Cross did not want the responsibility of leading these men. He had never wanted it … he had signed up for the Reserve Officer Training Corps … because it seemed preferable to letting the draft take him” (160). The use of the word “never” to describe Cross’s want for being a lieutenant displays that at no point in his life had he ever desired to lead a band of men in the war. Even though Cross in no way wanted to direct this group of men, it seemed like a better option than being drafted in the war. To him, being drafted in the war sounded even less desirable than

the most important literary elements in the story. He takes a young black boy and puts

The main character that the book is based on is Drew Robinson. Drew, also known as True, is a sophomore in high school in Queens, NY and loves the game of basketball. He is arguably the best high school basketball player in the area. True’s best friend, Lee Atkins, is a senior at the school. Since he is in his last year of high school basketball, all Lee wants is to make a run in the playoffs and win the championship game. True’s mother is Darlene Robinson. Darlene got a job in California, thanks to a man named Mr. Seth Gilbert, who saw True playing an AAU basketball tournament. Mr. Gilbert wanted him to attend Oakley High School in CA to play for Coach DiGregorio. Mr. Gilbert believes True is the best player and that he will make it into the NBA. So, Mr. Gilbert helps True meet some people who can help him become sponsored. When True goes to play basketball by himself at Morrison Court, he keeps seeing a ghost man. He finds out that the ghost man is Urban Sellers, a basketball player who ruined his career before he was even out of high school. Seeing him made True not want to make the same mistakes. Callie Mason is on the girls’ basketball team and True has a crush on her. He even sneaks into the gym to watch the girl’s team practice from time to time.

This book represents a celebration of unity in which it is proven by Atreyu and Bastian who set the stage and begins what has to be begun.  Bastian plays the role of a heroic human being in a human world reading nothing but a book called The Neverending Story while Atreyu characterizes an immortal hero living out struggles inside the book.  Their separate worlds are furnished together to bring a united conclusion, but with the reality and truth of their past, they are again separated; but in a resolving mood.  This coming together of reality and fiction associates with the reader’s mind because it justifies and gives a reason to connect with The Neverending Story by Michael Ende.  Thus, this book deserves to be a significant part of the canon because it deepens the realistic illusion that stories come from other stories, it is identical in many ways to the monomyth cycle (by Joseph Campbell), and finally it reminds the reader of the need of belonging and love.