A Life of Hoping

Author's Note: This is a creative piece I wrote. I focused on using syntactical patterns.

A life of hoping. A life of wanting. A life of waiting. A life of wishing. A life lived by children. Children with no homes. They live everyday wishing for one loving person to come and call them their child. Whether not wanted by their parents or left without a home, they long for a figure in their life to guide them.

For Josie this was her life. She lived everyday in a different home with different people. Every night she would kneel  by her temporary bed and pray for a mom, a dad, a sibling, a place to call home.  This was her reality from the start. Her mother was a teen mom and knew she wouldn't be able to take care of her. As for her father, he was no where to be found. All 7 year old Josie wanted was someone to be there for her no matter what the circumstance. She wanted a place where she could call home everyday. Not just for a week.

Sure, she did stay with a few nice foster families but they never looked at her the same way they looked at their own children. She wanted someone who would look at her and tell her how proud they were of her.  A prayer was answered when the Jones's family came to a consensus on adopting a third child. After a lot of thought they knew it was what they wanted to do. Josie  would be a perfect fit for their family.

The day the news was delivered to Josie, that a family was interested in adopting her was a day of pure joy. Nothing and no one could ruin it for her. It was a dream becoming reality for her. After meeting the family she knew that the 7 years in foster care was worth it. She still had that chapter in her life but she flipped the page and started a new one. 

Questioning the Past

Author’s Note: This is a comparison piece I wrote comparing the two books Unwind and Fahrenheit 451.  

If  you're occupation was chosen for you the day you were born, would you question it? I think most wouldn’t. In the novel Fahrenheit 451, Montag, the main character was told he was going to be a fireman since the beginning. He would follow in his father’s footsteps. In the time of Montag, firemen did not put out fires; they started them. If any one was hiding a book of any sort in their house the firemen would be called and they would set the house on fire.  After many years of  loyal service and multiple burnings one event questioned Montag’s beliefs completely. It was night where a lady had been found with her books. Instead of leaving the house and watching her house and books burn , she stayed. She refused to come out of the house. She loved her books so much that she was willing to die with them, and she did. She stayed in the house and the firemen lit the books on fire. Montag watched the lady go up in flames and found himself seriously pondering the question of, what is so important about books, that a woman is willing to die for them?

In this particular scene Montag questioned his beliefs. Was being a fireman what he wanted  to be? Is it ok to burn books? What was so bad about books? All of these questions were questions he asked himself. He realized he didn’t believe it was okay to burn people's houses and books. He knew he needed to read books to understand the reasoning behind banning them.

Lev, a tithe, an unwind, an unwanted. Lev grew up in a family of ten children; he was the youngest. He parents strongly believed in giving ten percent of everything they had to the church. As Lev was the 10^th child, he was their tithe. He was to go to the Harvest Camp to be unwound. On their way to harvest camp they got caught in an accident and Lev was able to escape.  He found other unwinds and they began  to escape together. His Pastor was the one encouraging him to run away. He knew that a better life was waiting for Lev. He was smart and would go far. Lev did what he said and ran away. While he was running he questioned whether or not he wanted to be tithed. He believed he was born to be tithed, and that was what he should do. He ended up turning himself in.

Lev questions whether or not he wants to be tithed. He believed that’s what he was born to do. He questions whether or not he should keep running like his pastor told him, or stop and turn himself into the harvest camp. He decided that he should turn himself in so he didn’t have to run his whole life and so his parents wouldn’t have to worry about him anymore.

In both of these novels the main characters face tough decisions determining their future. They also questioned whether the path they are taking is the right one. In Unwind Lev turns himself in but in Faranheit 451 Montag changes and stops being a fireman.