Summary Of Jerry Spinelli's Staying In My Yo-Yo String

Old school conquers new school: A personal response to “An Ode to the User-Friendly Pencil”

Initially, our first thoughts of Jerry at the beginning of the story, is that he acts immature and is burdened within a circle of maternal protection. During the opening of the story, the author conveys Jerry’s relative childishness by labeling him as “the boy”. The author also uses the mother to demonstrate his youth and how he is trapped in a circle of maternal protection which leads us to think that he is lonely due to that reason. In this part, “His mother walks in front of him, carrying a bright white strap in one hand” tells us that because the mother was walking in front of him, it gives us the impression that the mother still thinks of him as a boy that needs to be protected from any potential harm. We see more of Jerry’s immaturity and how the burden of protection leads his actions as we go through the story. During the part where Jerry sees the group of boys acting free-spirited, we see that he is overcome with desire to be with them, probably because he feels that because he is always in the circle of protection making him feel lonely and isolated from everyone. At first, he is added into the group and begins to have fun jumping from the cliff into the water with the other boys. Later on however, he starts to act immature when he realizes he could not do the same thing the other boys were doing. That was, underwater for a long time and going through the dark tunnel and he becomes scared. In this passage,“... In a panic of failure, he yelled up, in English, “Look at me! Look!” and he began splashing and kicking the water like a

Example: I’m glad you’re sensitive to the neatness issue. I just think you need to pay attention to it.

Jerry, despite his relative decency, is victimized by the power structure of the school as well as his peers (Bagnall). “Choosing to disturb the universe means that Jerry himself is thrown into chaos” (Junko). His refusal to conform makes him the prime target of both the Vigils and the school officials, despite admiration from his peers. Cormier makes it clear that moral individuals can not survive unaided in a corrupt, oppressive system (Harris et al.). Jerry, while standing up for what he believes is right, is constantly torn down and abused by Archie’s goons. No one, not even his best friend Goober, came to his rescue to combat his oppressors. Arguably, “the reason Jerry was not saved was because he stood alone” (Harris et al.). Jerry stood alone in refusing to take the chocolates, his abuse by the Vigils, and his eventual physical and mental destruction by Janza. In fact, his destruction makes him into a martyr. His surrender in the end makes him an even more realistic hero and shows that it takes more people to fight powerful figures (Peck). Cormier challenges the perception of the modern “Superman” figure and replaces him with an “Average Joe”: a jack of all trades but master at none. Despite his defeat, Jerry’s legacy will live beyond him, whether publicly celebrated or privately discussed by Trinity students (Siegler). Jerry’s battle could have been won if his peers acted against the power structures as

Jerry: Selfish to Selfless We can learn a lot from how Jerry set aside the signed glove for his family. Jerry from "President Cleveland, Where Are You?" by Robert Cornier is an important character who shows selfless in the face of his own desires after being stingy with his money even though it was his dad’s birthday. Through his actions he demonstrates the story’s theme of putting family or group goals before your own. Jerry displays selfishness in the beginning of “President Cleveland, Where Are You?”

Jerry is haunted by his unimportance. He is unable to regain his composure after he overplays his rebellious actions. Defying the Vigils and Trinity takes its toll. Although

The characterization of Jerry illustrates the stages of maturing and becoming independent. In the beginning of the story, Jerry is depicted as young and immature. The immaturity of Jerry is shown when he is trying to capture the older boys’ attention. In order to capture their attention, “he began splashing and kicking in the water like a foolish dog.” This action conveys that Jerry is still immature, and wants to join the older kids. After seeing the boys pass through the tunnel, Jerry also wants to pass through in order to be a part of their group. In order

Foreman’s math teacher would go around the class and check everyone off for doing their homework, and his teacher would just drop off a box of colored pencils for him to use.

"Drawing is the art of being able to leave an accurate record of the experience of what one isn't, of what one doesn't know. A great drawer is either confirming beautifully what is commonplace or probing authoritatively the unknown.”

Sonny’s Blues is a short story written by James Baldwin. The story takes place in Harlem during the early 1950’s. The story talks about two brothers working on their broken relationship. The story begins with the narrator reading the newspaper about his little brother Sonny getting arrested, because he was caught in a heroin bust. In the story the author James Baldwin uses a biblical allusion, a cup of trembling, to compare Sonny’s suffering to the suffering servant, since they have similar suffering. As you read the story and the verse you notice a lot of similarity between them. Reasons why, because characters in both the story and the verse feel trapped in where they live, most of them suffer in life, many seek and get guidance, and most of them heal in certain ways.

At the start of Chris’s work process, he gets a 2 by 3 foot white board, then use a photo blue pencil to start his contouring, which allows him to think about where the figures are in the space he will use. Once he has photographed the page with the photo blue pencil, Chris then goes over the blue pencil with

Brother Leon won’t let you get away with it. “ By the end of the book Goober went to the rally when he was sick and tried to see if he could help Jerry possibly before it had begun or after it was over because he knew that he had no control of the unfolding events at the present time. At the very end of the book, after Jerry got beat up by Emile Janza, Goober helped Jerry and told him, “ Everything will be alright…” That was my idea of “good”, hole-hearted, honest, loyal, polite, and most of all a person who helps people when they are in need of help. Goober displayed those traits within the choices and responsibilities that he had throughout the book. Those are the qualities that I found very appealing and admirable. I admire him to the fullest extent and I would probably do the same thing if I were in hiss position.

He impressed his father when he was little by kite fighting, but when he grew older he stopped conforming and focused on his true passion: writing. Even though he had been a victim of conformity, he was able to stand up for himself and take a hold of what he wanted to do in life. This shows that even if peer pressure dominates a person’s life, they can still turn things around and head in the right direction.

Jerry tries to act older so that he can fit in with the boys. When

Response: I want people to notice how the characters are written. I don’t really use regular pencils but I did because in the future I might not have these awesome amazing mechanical pencils. It turned out pretty decent and I want to improve my characters even more.