Treasure Island
Journals Writing about your favorite book If you are a fan of adventure books, Treasure Island is what you are looking for. It is not because I’m a fan of the book, but is Treasure Island itself is one of greatest fictional adventures in the pirates’ world. Robert Louis Stevenson, who is the author of this book, tells the story under the narration of the young Jim Hawkins. Jim and his mother own an inn, living a normal life. But when the destiny comes and knocks the door, his life changed forever. A treasure map from an old pirates who stays in his inn somehow comes to Jim’s hand.
Not long after that, Jim is forced into the adventure to the pirates’ world to find the treasure island. There are many unforgettable characters, such as young Jim Hawkins, kind-hearted Captain Smollett, brave doctor Livesey, and the one-legged cook Long John Silver, who is firstly appeared to be a funny and friendly person and the next a dangerous pirate leader! My favorite part of the book is when Jim has to say goodbye to his mother, gets extremely critical of his replacement at the inn, and then goes on to forget all of those things when he gets to Bristol and experiences things he’d never dreamed of.
I love this section of the story because it’s one of the few periods in this novel that show the simplicity of innocence, and that’s what Jim really was: an innocent. This is again show how talented the author is. He describe each of his characters distinctively and freely. Each character in this adventure has free will and do anything they want. There are no restraints such as good man always do good things in this book. The one-legged cook plays the two-face games easily and smoothly as if it is his nature. This man is opposite is the young Jim Hawkins.
While Jim shows his bravery toward hardships and treachery during his adventure, Long John Silver always lean to the side which gives him the most benefits. That is why Jim has many friends around him while John has no one. It seems that Jim push away the obstacle and treachery while John pull it toward him. It is interesting that despite of all those settings, Long John is still a Jim’s so-called friend, who help each other in the adventure. This book was a part of my childhood, but of course, in Vietnamese language translated. It was lucky that the book is interesting in any languages translated. Let us make a special effort to stop communicating with each other, so that we can have conversation” As I know, this is a famous quote of writer Mark Twain. The meaning of this quote is that people spend too much time talking but they don’t listen. Communication and conversation seem to have many similarities. However, in my opinions, a conversation is much more complex and interactive than simple communication. While communicate, you often focus on speaking. It means you are basically conveying your own ideas to others, but during a conversation, we don’t only speak. We also listen to other people’s ideas.
In addition, I believe that our speaking are more likely responses to others’ opinions or arguments. In a conversation, people often interact with rather than dominate others with their own ideas. They together build up and support the general topics. While most people think it is easy to make a conversation, they are actually wrong. Conversation is listening as much as talking. The ability to listen is as important as the ability to convey ideas. That is the meaning that the quote wants to convey. Many people say that “Pumped up kicks” is a better song about abusive school kids than “Jeremy. However, most of them do not know what makes those two songs so popular and why their lyrics, melodies and public receptions, not other songs’, are compared with each other. By comparing those two songs in those characteristics, we can reveal the uniqueness of each song and know more about what “Jeremy” and “Pumped up kicks” want to convey. Both of these songs are about kids who lack of care from family and society. Pearl Jam started writing this song when their leader Eddie Vedder read about a high school student suicide in front of his classmates and decide that they have to do something about it.
It is also about the kid who engaged in a gun shooting that Vedder knows back in his high school time. As we go further in lyric of “Jeremy,” we can see the kid named Jeremy who is ignored by his parents and his friends. His classmates treat him as wicked, having problem kid. Jeremy doesn’t know what to do and whom he should share his feelings with, so he represses it until he can’t bear it anymore and ends up shooting himself in front of the class. “Pumped up kicks” is more likely a warning about gun violence among youth. The song is about a kid playing cowboys with a “six shooter gun. As the kid named Jeremy in Pearl Jam’s song, this kid thinks he can rule everything because he has a gun. The image of a “cowboy” is similar to “King Jeremy” because they both have a gun and they are lonely. In Pump He is bullied and his dad beats him when he is drunk. He has a gun and he is going to shoot the kids with those fancy shoes to get pay back on his father and the kids who have bullied him. In the chorus, Mark Foster writes “better run, better run, faster. ” That makes us feel like we are watching a chasing game where everything is speedy and furious.
Despite having different lyrics, both of these two songs talk about regrettable consequences which result from the ignorance from the family that lead the kid to unsteady, unpredictable behaviors. Critical reaction also triggers a controversial topic between the two songs. As we know, both “Jeremy” and “Pumped up kicks” is talking about the abused school kids. Both of the two songs got huge attentions from the public when they are released. However, “Jeremy” had to face much more negative reception from public. In this video, we are telling about the life of a kid named Jeremy.
Words such as “bored,” “problem,” “harmless” or “wicked” appear frequently. His parents, his classmates seem to be motionless whenever he tries to express himself. Especially the scene Jeremy putting the gun in his mouth has made a big impact on people who watch this video. With this video, Pearl Jam wants to show us the painful reality of being ignored and being unable to share the feelings with others. They want people to take an action so that there won’t be any kids have to face the same problems as Jeremy. “Pumped up kicks” did not have such a strong negative effect on listeners like “Jeremy. The music video “Pumped up kicks” shows how the Young enjoy their life. They find the place for themselves, where they have friends and not to be ignored. Although the lyric is about an isolated psychotic kid, the video expresses that idea in a more comfortable way than the video “Jeremy. ” In the video, there is not any kid carrying gun around and chasing other kids with “pumped up kicks. ” That is why people feel this song more acceptable. However, the statement was that people should not sing and dance the song in funny mood because this song did not bring a positive message.
People seem to care more about the funny tunes than the real message that the song conveys: violence and ignorance, abusive kids. Drinking age often trigger controversial debates in America about which age is suitable for minors to drink legally. Some people argue that age limit should be lowered to 18. They support their opinions by claiming that the 21 age limit fails to decline the number of kids using alcohol, and lowering drinking age to 18 will be more suitable comparing to voting, having driver license or signing up for U. S. Army.
Lowering drinking age to 18 seems to be more fair to minors, but the changes it propose would in fact damage American youth. Some people believe that setting the drinking age to 21 is a failure because 21 age limit hasn’t stop minors from drinking. They claim that kids often drink before they are 21. They still drink whether ignoring the age limit. That is why they believe the 21 age limit should be changed into lower age limit, such as 18. However, it is not the age limit that makes minors decide to drink or not. When the 21 age limit law takes place, it stops minors from buying alcohol from any bars, stores or restaurants.
Current drinking restrains many college students from buying alcohol easily and thus slowing down case of drinking among youth. Some argue that 18 age limit is more suitable than 21 age limit. When kids are 18 years old, they become adults and they have the citizenship. They have the rights and responsibilities for what their behaviors. They can vote, have driver license, sign up for U. S. Army and of course drink if they want. In my opinions, lowering drinking age to 18 may result in potential effects that we don’t even know. Drinking is different from having a driver license or voting.
If we lower the drinking age, it will create a stimulation among young. They will think that drinking is a good behavior and start drinking more and more alcohol. They spend more time to get drank rather than studying. Also, it drinking accompany with driving, minors can cause accidents and face legal troubles for months or years. It may ruined up American youth. Through the current drinking age limit doesn’t have clearly effect in lowering the number of minors using alcohol, it still prevents majority of college students from buying alcohol and thus reduces the amount of drinking ases and drunk driving among minors. Also, 18 drinking age limit has more disadvantages than advantages that makes it not feasible to replace current drinking age limit. Special situations define person. In our life, we experience many situations that show us and others who we are. It happened to me when I was in high school. I had a close friend and also my classmate in high school. We are the two best student in math. I couldn’t control my jealousy and thus lost one of my best friend.
We still met after that but our friendship was not the same as before I remember the sentence that my old grandpa used to say when I was small: “Everyone is hungry for something: happiness, love, desire…. “With me is being number one. Sometimes the desire of being number one dominates me and leads to negativity. However, I don’t think jealousy is a bad characteristic. It is a part of human nature. Attempting to remove jealousy is attempting to remove the incentive for you to develop. It is better if you learn to control jealousy. You will have incentive to be better off if want to be number one.
