A Separate Peace
                       By John Knowles


   I never talked about Phineas and neither did anyone
else; he was, however, present in every moment of every day
since Dr.Stanpole had told me. Finny had a vitality which
could not be quenched so suddenly, even by the marrow of 
his bone. That was why I couldn't say anything or listen to 
anything about him, because he endured so forcefully that
what I had to say would have seemed crazy to anyone
else--I could not use the past tense, for instance-- and 
what they had to say would be incomprehensible to me.
During the time I was with him, Phineas created an atmos-
phere in which I continued to now live, a way of sizing up
the world with erratic and entirely personal reservations, let-
ting its rocklike facts sift through and be accepted only a 
little at a time, only as much as he could assimilate with-
out a sense of chaos and loss.


   No one else I ever met could do this. All others at 
some point found something in themselves pitted violently
against something in the world around them. With those
of my year this point often came when they grasped the
fact of the war. When they began to feel that there was this
overwhelmingly hostile thing in the world with them, then
the simplicity and unity of their characters broke and they
were not the same again.

 I chose this passage because Gene realizes something new.
He realizes that it's time for him to grow up and face that he
can no longer spend his time playing around. There is a war
going on and he knows that he has to accept the fact that he is
no longer a child. It seems to me that John Knowles almost
created Phineas and got rid of Phineas just to show how short
 the period of being a child is. It was as almost if Phineas was
a representation of Gene's childhood.

                         A Separate Piece 
                          John Knowles


   The moment was past. Phineas I know had been even
more startled than I to discover this bitterness in himself.
Neither of us ever mentioned it again, and neither of us 
ever forgot that it was there.


    He sat down and studied his clenched hands.  "Did I 
ever tell, " he began in a husky tone,  "that I used to be
aiming for the Olympics?"He wouldn't have mentioned it
except after what he had said he had to say something
very personal, something deeply held. To do otherwise, to
begin joking, would have been a hypocritical denial of
what had happened, and Phineas was not capable of that.


   I was still hanging from the bar; my hands felt as though
they had sunk into it.   "No, you never told me that,"  I
mumbled into my arm.


  "Well I was. And now I'm not sure, not a hundred percent
sure I'll be completely, you know, in shape by 1944. So I'm
going to coach you for them instead."

 I chose this passage, because this seems like the new pivotal
point of this book. From here it seems Phineas is going to get
Gene ready for a possible Olympics. And through the train-
ing I think the two friend will get even closer. I also think that
Gene will finally get some attention from the boys at the school,
and won't be overshadowed by Phineas' previous popularity. I
think Phineas will see what being unpopular is like. Gene will
finally get to see what being popular is like. Overall I think they
will have a stronger bond between them, and move on towards
the Olympics.

               A Separate Peace
               by John Knowles


  The countryside was striking from here, a deep green
sweep of playing fields and bordering shrubbery, with
the school stadium white and miniature-looking across
the river. From behind us the last long rays of light played
across the campus, accenting every slight undulation of
the land emphasizing the separateness of each bush.


   Holding firmly to the trunk, I took a step toward him,
and then my knees bent and I jounced the limb. Finny, his
balance gone, swung his head around to look at me for an
instant with extreme interest, and then he tumbled side-
ways, broke through the little branches below and hit the
bank with a sickening, unnatural thud. It was the first 
clumsy physical action I had ever seen him make. With
unthinking sureness I moved out on the limb and jumped
in to the river, every trace of fear of this forgotten. 


 I chose this passage, because this passage to me was the
first pivotal point of this book.  Gene and Phineas up until
this moment spent their days swimming and doing a lot
of daredevil activities. And because of the accident Phineas
will no longer be able to do physical activities, and Gene
feels responsible for the accident. And at his point the
book turns kind of dark, and depressing.

                  The Great Gatsby


There was music from my neighbor's house through the
summer nights. In his blue gardens men and girls came
and went like moths among the whisperings and the cham-
pagne and the stars. At high tide in the afternoon I watched
his guests diving from the tower of his raft, or taking the sun
on the hot sand of his beach while his two motor-boats slit
the waters of the Sound, drawing aquaplanes over cataracts 
of foam. On week-ends his Rolls-Royce became an omnibus,
bearing parties to and from the city between nine in the 
morning and and long past midnight, while his station wagon
scampered like a brisk yellow bug to meet all trains. And on 
Mondays eight servants, including an extra gardener, toiled 
all day with mops and scrubbing-brushes and hammers and 
garden-shears, repairing the ravages of the night before.


    Every Friday five crates of oranges and lemons arrived
from a fruiterer in New York--every Monday these same
oranges and lemons left his back door in a pyramid of pulp-
less halves. There was a machine in the kitchen which could
extract the juice of two hundred oranges in half an hour if a 
little button was pressed two hundred times by a butler's 
thumb.


 I chose this passage, because this is a life I would like to live.
I could imagine myself sitting on the beach off of Gatsby's house,
tanning or swimming. I also imagine myself drinking glasses
and glasses of fresh orange juice. Although all of Gatsby's riches
and fancy parties were useless because when he died his so
called friends weren't there at his funeral. I think that I would
enjoy having money for a while, but I would want friends more
than I would want money. So either your rich and friendless, or
poor and have friends.

 
            The Ransom Of Red Chief
                    by O.Henry

    I waited an hour and then concluded the thing was square.
I slid down the tree, got the note, slipped along the fence till
I struck the woods, and was back at the cave in another half
an hour. I opened the note, got near the lantern and read it to
Bill. It was written with a pen in a crabbed hand, and the sum
and substance of it was this:

    Two Desperate Men:


Gentlemen: I received your letter today by post,
in regard you ask for the return of my son. I think 
you are a little high in your demands, and I hereby
make you a counter-proposition, which I am inclined
to believe you will accept. You bring Johnny home 
and pay me two hundred and fifty dollars in cash, 
and I agree to take him off your hands. You had 
better come at night, for the neighbors believe
he is lost, and I couldn't be responsible for what 
they do to anybody they saw bringing him back.
  Very Respectfully, 
EBENEZER DORSET.


  I love this story because it is very funny. Two guys who are broke kidnap a child in order to gain ransom from his father. The child doesn't want to go home, he only wants to play Indian with the kidnappers. The kidnappers send the ransom note and are replied with the letter above. The child was such a nuisance that instead of them getting the money, they paid the father to take back his son. In the end the kidnappers got nothing, and lost everything. This is why I think " The Ransom of Red Chief" is so funny.

          The Red Badge of Courage
                 Stephen Crane

   The youth, light-footed, was unconsciously in advance.
His eyes still kept note of the clump of trees. From all places
near it the clannish yell of the enemy could be heard. The
little flames of rifles leaped from it. The song of the bullets
was in the air and shells snarled among the treetops. One
tumbled directly into the middle of a hurrying group and
exploded in crimson fury. There was an instant's spectacle
of a man, almost over it, throwing up his hands to shield
his eyes.
   Other men, punched by bullets, fell in grotesque agonies.
The regiment left a coherent trail of bodies.
   They had passed into a clearer atmosphere. There was an
effect like a revelation in the new appearance of the landscape.
Some men working madly at a battery were plain to them, and
the opposing infantry's lines were defined by the gray walls
and fringes of smoke.

     The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane, is a story about the Unions side of the Civil War. In this book Crane shows the courage that the men had in fighting this war, and some of the hardships they had to endure. One of the things he shows is men dying right and left. He shows men dying in horrible ways. He also shows that the war wasn't a picnic and that it was a horrible thing. I do think Crane really shows us what the Civil War was really like, and what our forefathers had to endure.

                           Jane Eyre
                      Charlotte Bronte

 More than ten days elapsed before I had again any conversation
with her. She continued either delirious or lethargic; and the doctor
forbade everything which could painfully excite her. Meantime, I
got on as well as I could with Georgiana and Eliza. They were
very cold, indeed, at first. Eliza would sit half her day sewing, reading,
or writing, and scarcely utter a word either to me or her sister.
Georgiana would chatter nonsense to her canary bird by the hour,
and take no notice of me. But I was determined not to seem at a
lose for occupation or amusement: I had brought my drawing
materials with me, and they served me for both.


    More than a week passed by before I had seen or heard form her.
She continued either sad or depressed; and her mother wouldn't allow
me to see her. Meanwhile, I did as best as I could with Elizabeth and
Kitty. They were very boring, for sure, at first. Elizabeth would sit
her whole day reading, writing, and would hardly ever spend time to
play. Kitty would admire her self in the mirror for hours, and not
say anything to me at all. But I confident that they wouldn't ruin my
day: I had brought my ipod and gameboy with me, and they served me
very well.