He Doesn't Realize What He Has

Authors Note: I wrote in Gwenda's perspective because the book doesn't really explain how she feels.

The feeling of holding in your happiness is just torture to the soul and that’s how I feel right now.

“Ms. Davis, are you listening?” Said Jill

“O yes of course! Now what is it we are talking about again?” I quickly replied, hoping for a short response.

“Matthew is going to be taking part in our governments new program to help troubled kids such as Matthew,” as the social worker Jill nodded her head at Matt, “He will have a host chosen for him and for the next couple of months he will be staying with them in a small town hopefully improving Matt’s attitude and actions with work.”

“Psh! Matthew doesn’t have a bad attitude, he’s just plain out stupid!” I said while slipping a giggle or two.

Matthew, with his shoulders slumped complained, “You mean I have to actually work? That’s not fair!”

Ignoring Matt’s comment Jill continued to explain the LEAF project to me but all I could really hear was, “For the next year you won’t have to see this little twurp at all or put up with his un-thankfulness!"

“I don’t know why I care so much about what happens to this boy, I mean I never cared about him when we had to take care of him? I just don’t understand.”Matt’s Aunt could not stop talking about Matt to her boyfriend. She had to take care of him after both his parents died in a car crash. In a car he was supposed to be in. As Matt’s Aunt and her boyfriend discussed this, she couldn’t help but thinking how quickly he would come back and have to go to prison.

“You know? I don’t think that boy will even last ONE month there. He has always been creating trouble for us so there is no doubt he won’t last long with that Ms. What’s her name? Deveril? Such a weird lady she was.” Matt’s Aunt went on and on about what she thought would happen to him while her boyfriend had some ideas of his own which he wanted to share and so he did.

“I don’t know, you might be wrong. So yea his parents died and that has to be very traumatizing. Maybe some hard work would be good for the lad wouldn’t you say? Ms. Deveril lived on a farm so I’m sure the boy is hard at work.” 

As soon as he said that he regretted it. His girlfriends face just lit like a tomato and she liked like she was about to blow. “Are you kidding me! That boy has never done anything good! I am so glad he is gone, he never appreciated anything we did! AH!” 

She stormed out of the room only to say one more thing. “Oh and by the way you can sleep on the couch tonight you piece of junk!”

In the world many children are very trouble and Matthew is one of those kids. Gwenda Davis is the Aunt in law of Matt. There are two sides to this story, there is Gwenda's side and there is Matt's side. Gwenda doesn't even come close to being a good parent she always ignores him and treats him with disrespect but she thinks that she is taking care of him which is exactly the opposite of what is going on.

A Freeman That Is Not So Free

Authors Note: In this piece I explained Matt's story and why I think what will happen to him. I also hope that if anyone walking down the "Dark side of the path" will read this and understand that things would be able to get better if they just tried and found the right people. Just remember there is always going to be someone out there who has it worse than you.

Matthew Freeman, a young criminal, is all alone. Matthew has no body in his life except for his step aunt and her boyfriend, he has no parents and hates the fact he was supposed to be there when they died. Now forever he is traumatized from losing his parents at such a young age. For this to happen to anyone it would be unbelievably hard to get up in the morning and actually do something. Matthew is a very tough child but ends up going down the wrong path.

Matthew could be a good student and a good athlete but he shoved all of those things out of his head while living in the terrible household that was provided to him by his Aunt. He has started to steal things and definitely is being influenced by his “best friend.” This best friend is much older than him and is influencing him to shoplift and steal many things from stores and this can only lead to trouble. He has been caught many times and has a long list of criminal actions on his record. If I were Matt I would try to find an actual friend.

While Matt is walking down the dark path that will definitely change his life and what will happen to him in the future. Going down this path will only lead to bad things like the reality of Matt being put in jail, but one thing that certainly does not help this is that his Aunt Doesn’t show any care for him and doesn’t tell him what he should and should not do. I think that because of this Matt will stay on the wrong path d eventually in jail. There probably won’t be anyone in the near future to tell him what’s up and to get him to do the right thing, I think that Matt will continue to do these things and will eventually end up in prison, or worse.

There is only one thing that could happen to him from here on out if he keeps walking down the wrong path. He will probably stay on this path because he has no body in his life to actually care about him. Soon he will start stealing more valuable stuff and will get into more trouble. Matthew is just a boy with no body to really care about him, but he could come out of this slump and cross over to the good side. This is very unlikely to happen, but he is still a very strong kid with the will to do almost anything.

Death

Authors Note: I wrote my compare and contrast on this topic because I felt like I really understood this topic.

Death, It happens everywhere at a very high rate. Even though natural death happens often there was a time where death didn’t happen naturally but by somebody else. To the people this affects including relatives of the person that gets killed, this is a great tragedy. In the book Woods Runner young Samuel supplies for his family with meat from hunting but one day he came back to find out his parents and neighbors ad died a very painful and un natural death. And in the movie the patriot, Benjamin Martin ends up watching his two oldest sons die because of war. Death, happens everywhere especially in war. It is not always the same but always heart breaking.

In the book Woods Runner, Samuel is just a young boy but his experiences as a young boy are suddenly ripped from his very hands when he comes home to a burning house and his parents lifeless and scorched bodies. To me I think Samuel is very strong to be able to bury all the bodies at such the young age he is. This tragedy definitely changes him and bring out the grown up in him. He really grows up when this happens and makes a pledge to himself to kill whoever did this. Even though it isn’t technically the right thing to do he could just stop and go into his own world because he has nobody left in his life. How would you feel if your normal life and your parents whom you loved so much were just ripped away from you, and you couldn’t do anything about it.

There is a difference in losing your parents and losing your children. As a parents when you have children they love them more than their lives. I don’t necessarily think that is the way for ever child but it would still be heartbreaking to lose your parents. After Benjamin Martin tried convincing his son to not go to war he still does and later on his son stumbles into his house hoping to be taking care of with a battle wound. The next day Benjamin was housing the wounded soldiers of a war ad the British come and take is son. His second oldest son goes to try and save him and gets killed. Then later on after Benjamin get’s his son back loses him just weeks later in a battle. Because of this he basically goes crazy and goes on a rampage. Death can affect someone physically,  but especially mentally.

Even though the reactions and affects of death can be different they are always tragic. I personally have lost someone in my life and it was horrible. For even the toughest people, losing someone still hurts them even if it doesn’t look like it. There is a difference in-between let’s say losing your son compared to losing your parents. Most parents should be able to say that they love their children more than their lives but most children wouldn’t legitimately be able to say that about their parents. Both are tragic things that happen every day to anyone. Any death is a tragedy and everyone responds in different ways but one thing is for sure. Some deaths are different from others like a old person who regrets nothing and lived their dream throughout their life and has a peaceful death. Or something like a young person dying in a car accident.

Some children think they would be better off on their own without their parents but they don’t know what it would be like to have both of them die and then to be all alone. Would you rather have someone you love die a horrible death in a war or die sleeping with no pain? Even if someone died on their death bed it is still better and more peaceful. But no matter what death happens everywhere and no matter what it will not be good even if it happens every day. (Paulsen) (Emmerich)

Bibliography

Paulsen, Gary. Woods Runner. New York: Scholastic, 2010.

The Patriot. Dir. Rolan Emmerich. 2000.