Tuesday, April 26, 2011

My Ending

“Rudy Steiner slept” but not like momma and papa. Rudy laid unconscious on the ground. He was mistaken for dead, but inside him his heart was still beating and he was breathing very softly (Zusak 498). He laid there while his mind went somewhere else. His thoughts were with his parents, his brothers and sisters.Then he thought about a girl, yes Liesel Meminger he wanted to get up and go to her and protect her.
   Two months later, Rudy Steiner woke once again. He had been in a coma not aware of anything and waking up to a new and different world. He woke and saw that right next to him, on a chair, sound asleep and with a book in her hand was Liesel. He tried calling her, but no words come out. Then he called her name once again, this time a whisper followed but not loud enough to wake up Liesel. Rudy was getting ready to call for Liesel again when she awoke. She jumped up to see that Rudy after two long months of waiting was finally awake. She wanted to hug him, but instead she said,  “Saukerl it was about time.” Liesel with a smile on her face and tears rolling down her checks. She couldn’t help but to just look at Rudy. Tears kept coming when she saw herself in Rudy’s eyes once again and then those happy tears soon became sad tears, for Liesel knew that she had to tell Rudy that his family had not survived the day of the bombing. After a few hours of talking with Rudy she had told him everything from the cleanup of the town, to the day that the Americans freed them.
  Many years later and to finish off this story, Rudy and Liesel Steiner had “lived to a very old age, far away from Molching and the demise of Himmel Street” (Zusak 543).  They lived a happy life but never forgot what they once had lived and always remembered their love ones. Liesel and Rudy had four children Brandon 25, Max 23, Hans 20, and Rosa 18. They were very proud of their parents and looked up to them for how brave they were  throughout their lives. They would tell their friends about their parent’s life story and how they didn't know if they would had made it if they had to live in a world were people got treated like animals and everyone believed and followed one man.

                                                                 Work Cited
Zusak,Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alred K. Knoph, September 2007. Print.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Liesel Reads To The Crowd

When the second air raid happens on September 19, it was all pretty much the same get up head to the shelter and pray that the bombs wouldn’t hit them. On this day everyone was just very nerves yelling out, crying just pretty much acting like normal human begins afraid to die. Liesel not wanting to be aware of what is happing starts reading her book “The Whistler” when she does she can’t really hear herself so she reads out loud. Ruby looking around at the time sees that Liesel is reading and gets his brothers to listen to her. “Rudy who noticed, paid attention to what Liesel was reading, and he tapped his brother and his sisters, telling them to do the same.” (Zusak 381) Shortly after everyone start to quiet down to hear the girl that at one point couldn’t read or even imaged herself reading to a crowd of people.  Liesel not wanting to look up and see all the eyes that where focused on her keeps reading.” A quietness started bleeding through the crowded basement. By page three, everyone was silent but Liesel. She didn’t dare look up, but she could feel their frightened eyes hanging on to her as she hauled the words in and breathed them out.” (Zusak 381) Liesel reading clams everyone down and kind of makes them forget for a little bit of what is going on. Frau Holtzapfel asks Liesel to keep reading and asks her why she had chosen that book since he always was whistling. I think that Frau has changed because of all the scary things they have gone through. What I say is of course who wouldn’t change how they are when going through all that bombs, life threats, and never having peace. I have never really been in a situation that I had to comfort someone as scared as the people in the book. I have been there to comfort friends that have been through or are going through hard situations. What I mostly tell me friends is that everything will be okay that things happen and there’s nothing no one can do to stop them. My relationship with my friends well the ones who did take some advice I would give them got stronger and they trusted me more because they knew all I wanted to do was help them.

Tuesday, March 8, 2011

My future goals

One goal that I have for my future is to work in the fields that I have already given thought to. The first field that I chose is to become a probation officer. For this job I would have to have a bachelor’s degree in Criminal Justice. I chose this carrier because I meet this lady named Kelly that of course works as a probation officer and I guess you can say that she inspired me. From that day that we talked I stared researching more and more about it and yes I came to a conclusion that’s what I wanted to do. Some things that I am doing to reach my goal are to get a high school diploma and move on to college as soon as I can the harder I work the quicker I can start and that’s my motivation.
One other goal that I also have is to study languages, so that I can become a translator. To be honest this carrier had not crossed my mind at all. Not long ago did I see an old teacher and she asked be about school and what was I thinking about majoring in. I told her that I really wasn’t sure. She then told me about how I would be really good at translating and that if I studied that I could translate in a court room, and in a class room basically that I could translate anywhere and how translators are always needed. Then she told me what actually made up my mind about this carrier she said translators make a lot of money and well who doesn’t want to make a lot of money working in something that they love. Some of the things that I am doing to reach this carrier goal are to keep moving forward with my education and to stay motivated in my goals because I really want my dream jobs to become a reality.
When I finally reach my goals I will be very proud of myself just to know that with hard work and determination one can do just about anything they seat their heart to. Also I want to be able to look my son in the eyes and tell him “yes mom made mistakes but because of you I turned them all around and became someone that you will be proud of!”  

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Max and Liesel

Max Vandenburg and Liesel have a lot of similarities in there life’s they both have nightmares about something horrible that happened to them and they still can’t heal from that experience. Also they both suffer from survivor’s guilt  they don’t think that they should have lived and had there love ones pass on.

Some of the differences about Max and Liesel are that Liesel got away from being treated bad well somewhat.”You could argue that Liesel Meminger had it easy.” (Zusak 161) Max on the other hand had to go into hiding not seeing daylight in a long time always with a fear that someone would find him and take him away.

 When Liesel hears about what Max has been through she in some way knows what he means and feels bad for him. Liesel respects Max and knows that he has a lot to tell yet has a hard time trusting others. When Max finally trusts Liesel enough they share life stories about each other. When Liesel hears all that Max has been through she sees how very lucky she was to end up with the hubermann’s.

I can’t really say that I can relate to Max or Liesel about the survivors guilt thing. I haven’t been in a hard situation like them when someone dear to me dies because of horrible events. On the other hand I can relate to them when they have nightmares about the things that have happened to them. When I have something going on or I keeping a secret about something I have horrible nightmares.

 “ The Standover Man” that’s the title that Max Vandenburg gives the book that he gives Liesel on her birthday. The way he makes it was he used a different book and painted over the letters. When Liesel gets it she loves it she can’t believe that Max would go through the trouble and give her something when he doesn’t even have much to give. The story is about Maxs life  important events he has been through and about how people are always standing over him.
“All my life ive been scared of men standing over me.” (Zusak 225) but now he knows that the best person to stand over him is Liesel.

Tuesday, February 1, 2011

My Journy To Gateway

My journey to gateway has been one that I am very thankful I took! Before I heard about Gateway I was not going anywhere with my life. I was living day by day seating in front of a T.V screen, crying at nights because I was pregnant and didn’t have much to offer to the life that I was carrying inside of me.
 I knew how to hide very well how miserable I really was, and thinking of myself as a loser. That thought crossed my mind often and it didn’t help that My mother would tell me who my younger sister would graduate before me and this and that. Don’t get me wrong I am very proud that my sister didn’t commit the same mistake I did but I couldn’t help to be jealous of her. I didn’t like having that feeling of jealousy towards my sister that’s when I decided to get a GED. I went a few times but it was wasn’t a consistent thing I never felt comfortable with the fact that by the time I was done it wasn’t a High School Diploma that was going to be handed to me.  
After trying to better myself with a GED it just never worked for me. I gave up on going, thankfully my moms friend who also happens to be a former employee in the Gateway To College program told me and my mom about it. I loved it right there and then I was happy that not only was I going to receive a high school diploma but also I was going to receive college credits foe FREE not everyone gets that lucky.
Gateway was my way! The opportunity that I will forever be grateful for!!

Wednesday, January 26, 2011

The Grave Diggers Handbook

Liesel hides The Grave Digger’s Handbook under her mattress because she is scared that if her foster parents would find it they would get rid of it. One of the reasons why she didn’t want them to take it from her was because the book represented the last time that Liesel saw her mother and second because it also was the last time she saw her brother.

Why it is Ironic that Liesel steals books because she doesn’t know how to read them. When her foster father Hans Hubermann finds Liesel’s book he actually thinks its funny, so much that he couldn’t even hold his laugh in. He also couldn’t resist and he would make jokes about it to Liesel, that if when he dies she better bury him the right way and so on. Once Hans got past the joking and laughter he offered to read the book to Liesel.

Liesel of course was very excited finally she would know what the book was all about and understand what the words in sliver writing said.  Hans that night started reading to her and from that day on he realized how important it was for Liesel to learn how to read and how to write! I guess one can say that night Hans Hubermann without really knowing it or thinking twice about it became Liesel’s teacher.

We teens don’t really appreciate the chances we have of learning how to read and write. If we think about it we have more opportunities to learn now then people back then.