Ocean Breeze

Cooger and Dark’s Carnival was completely normal to the whole community of Green Town, Illinois except to two young 12 year old boys. Will Halloway and Jim Nightshade discover that this carnival was abnormal and mysterious. When Mr. Dark realizes that Will and Jim saw Mr. Cooger on the carousel changing into a little boy he began a hunt to find them. Mr. Dark could not risk the boys ruining the carnival’s secret. Will ended up telling his father, Charles Halloway, about the evilness in the carnival and the carousel. The two boys told Charles to stay away from the carnival and that they were hiding in town to keep their families safe. Charles Halloway soon got involved in protecting the boys from Mr. Dark and the autumn people. As the boys hid all night in town, Charles Halloway went to the library trying to come across a plan to keep the boys safe and put an end to the carnival. Charles looked up carnivals in books and found out that the carnival only comes every twenty, thirty, or forty years so that they were forgotten.

While Will, Jim, and Charles were in the library Mr. Dark entered and called out to them. Will and Jim ran off to hide within the bookshelves as Mr. Dark and Charles Halloway talked. Mr. Dark tried to manipulate Charles into going onto the carousel to become younger. Charles Halloway deep inside wanted to be young again but was strong and would not listen. Mr. Dark then left Charles in search for the boys. He found them at the top of the bookshelves, terrified. The boys called out for Charles but as he entered Mr. Dark caught hold of him and broke Charles’ hand leaving him lying on the floor. He sent the Dust witch to come in the library to stop his heart. When the Dust witch entered the library to magically stop Charles’ heartbeat, Charles began to laugh at her. The Dust witch became scared of his laughter and ran away from the library in fear of the fact that her evil magic didn’t work of him.

The boys were taken into the carnival and put into the wax museum of the living, within the mirror maze. The boys were alive but they could not see, speak, hear, or smell for they were wax. The public was still at the carnival at that time and Mr. Dark was about to give his last act of the day. A bullet would get shot at the Dust witch and she would catch it without being killed. Mr. Dark called out to the audience for a volunteer to shoot the bullet and Charles Halloway went up onstage to volunteer. Charles’ hand was broken so he needed Will to be his left hand for him. He called out to Will, and when Will didn’t respond the whole audience began to chant out his name. Will soon came out of the wax museum and helped his father onstage. Charles carved a smiley face on the bullet and as it was shot the Dust witch fell over dead. When the public left they were told she just fainted, Charles’ and Will went off to find Jim. They entered to mirror maze, and Charles’ laughed causing all the mirrors to shatter. They then noticed that Jim was not in the maze but was getting on the carousel. Will does everything he can to get Jim off the carousel and eventually grabbed Jim’s hands and they fly off. Jim fell on the ground and didn’t move, seeming dead. Meanwhile Mr. Dark approach Charles as a little boy trying to lure him into a trap. Charles discovered that the boy was Mr. Dark and grabs and holds him tightly to his body. Mr. Dark being so close to Charles’ goodness falls dead.

Charles goes back to Will and Jim and seeing Will crying over Jim. Charles tells Will that Mr. Dark and his sort like crying, they love tears. The more you bawl the more they drink salt off your chin. Wail and they suck your breath like cats. Get up, get off your knees! Jump around! Whoop and Holler! Shout sing but most of all laugh, you need to laugh! Charles and Will begin to sing and dance around and around and as they laughed Jim began to open his eyelids. They begin to kill off all the evilness and Jim becomes alive once again. Together they ended Cooger and Dark’s carnival and started a stronger more loving relationship. It was a new beginning for Will and his father’s relationship. There was more understanding and love between them.

The decisions of whether to listen to his father or weep over Jim was a decision that could have killed or saved Jim’s life. The consequence of weeping and not listening to Charles could have caused Jim’s life and Will would have lost his best friend. Every decision made in “ Something Wicked This Way Comes” can help evil or good. Life decisions all have consequences and those consequences must but considered before making the choice. Will, Jim and Charles made very brave choices that ended with good results and a happy new beginning.

David Strorm was always afraid that his secret of communicating telepathically would get out, he would be considered a deviation and be sent to the fringes. In chapter 12 of “The Chrysalids” his secret was discovered. Two of the children that were able to speak telepathically, Sally and Katherine, were found and taken away. Discovering this David, Rosalind, and Petra were forced to pack up and head to the fringes where they would be safe. They were able to communicate with Michael and find out details of the search to find them. Michael was able to join the search because the community did not know or question Michael as being a deviant. A huge search party was sent out to find David, Petra and Rosalind. There was an award if they were found dead and a larger award if they were found alive. Their community wanted to find out more about their ability because they were scared about not being able to tell physically of this deviation.

Petra’s ability was much stronger then the others. As their journey began Petra discovered a lady who could speak telepathically but was really far away to the southwest. The women could only reach Petra and communicated to the others through Petra. They learned that there was a place for them where everyone could communicate telepathically. As the Sealand women described this place David realized it was the city from his dreams. This city had carts with no horses to pull them, and fish shaped creatures in the sky, that weren’t birds, just like in David’s dream. The sealand women told them they would come find them and take them to this city. The sealand women felt Petra was very special and whatever happened she needed to be kept safe.

David, Rosalind, and Petra entered the fringes and were captured by the fringe people. Spider-man was the leader of the fringes and David soon found out that the Spider-man was his father’s eldest brother. The fringe people were very unforgiving and had plenty of hatred in their hearts. Luckily Sophie, David’s childhood friend, found David and was willing to help them escape. A war soon broke out among the fringes people and the search party. Many lives ended in front of David, Rosalind, and Petra as they hid. During the war Petra was communicating with the sealand women and giving her directions as to where they were.

A fish shaped object soon flew towards them in the sky. David realized it was exactly like what he had dreamed as a boy. Petra grew exited because she new the sealand women was there to save them. As the fish shaped machine emerged over them it released cobweb thread down below. It was a sticky thread that covered men, trapping them. The sealand woman told David, Rosalind, Petra and Michael not to struggle but to relax in the cobwebs. The machine landed and the sealand women released them from the cobwebs. All the others who had struggled to get out of the cobwebs where now dead. The sealand woman took David, Petra, and Rosalind onto the fish shaped machine and flew off to take them to their new home. When they arrived at the city it was exactly like in David’s dream. They had finally found a place where they belonged. It was a new beginning, the beginning of a wonderful new life.

The life pressure that David experienced about being the true image of God was no longer a pressure in his life. As a child David was taught that if you didn’t look or act like the true image of God you were a deviant sent by the devil. You were not human and didn’t have a soul. David had felt pressure to hide his ability to communicate telepathically. In the city by the sea David, Rosalind, and Petra no longer feel the pressures to hide because everyone has this ability in the city. The life pressures David once had are no longer pressures in his life. David now has a place where he belongs and no longer has secrets.

Every child grows up being taught to act, look, and be a certain way. People are not just influenced by their family but by advertisements, media, television, movies and the internet. Teenage girls are pressured to be slim, popular, and beautiful. Media shows them that if a girl does not look beautiful or is over weight then they do not fit in. Teenage boys are pressured to be muscular, have lots of girlfriends, and be cool. When boys are undeveloped and scrawny or have never had a girlfriend then they are judged. The pressures to act and look a certain way are unbelievable in our society today. Just because you don’t look like actors or models on television does not mean that you don’t belong. Author Peggy Orenstein states in her book “ Young Women, Self- Esteem, and the Confidence Gap” that when young girls reach adolescence their academics drop because of self esteem issues. Many girls no longer ask questions is class for the fear of getting the answer wrong and being embarrassed. They are focused all on appearance, clothes, and beauty products instead of their studies. These pressures of both males and females lead to eating disorders, steroids, drugs, alcohol, and sex.

In the novel “The Chrysalids” David Strorm was the 10-year-old son of the very religious community leader, Joseph Strorm. David grew up hearing from commandments and teachings of his friends and family that God created man in his own image. He was told that “Each man should have one body, one head, two arms and two legs: each arm should be jointed in two places and end in one hand; each hand should have four fingers and one thumb, and each finger should bear a flat finger-nail, and so on”. If a child was not born with this exact image of God they were deviations sent by the devil. It was neither man nor women therefore it did not have a soul and was a creature. When a child was born with a feature that was not in the image of God then it was sent away to the Fringes, which was far away in the badlands.

When David was very small he had a dream about a city. It was a city on a big blue bay, with a waterfront and boats in a harbor. There were carts with no horses to pull them on the streets and fish shaped creatures in the sky that were not birds. This dream about the city was very strange for David because he had lived in the country his whole life and had never seen a city before. David was told by his sister never to tell anyone of this dream and for years he almost forgot. One day David was alone, playing on a bank where he met a young girl named Sophie Wender. Sophie seemed like a normal little girl until her foot got stuck in sand and as she removed her shoes a strange sight was seen. Sophie Wender had six toes. Though David knew that his family would say she was not the true image of God he still befriended her and never told anyone of her differences. David Strorm was not exactly normal himself. David had a half cousin named Rosalind Moron. Both David and Rosalind have the ability to communicate telepathically. Without being with anyone they can communicate with others through their ability involving shapes. The only person who knew of David’s ability was his Uncle Axel who told him never to reveal this gift to anyone.

David, Sophie, and Rosalind are all different from what they were taught as a true human being. All their lives they were taught about the true image of God. David was pressured by his family to believe in the true image and that there are deviations sent by the devil to influence and change our world. Does having the ability to communicate telepathically, or having an extra toe on each foot make a human being a creature without a soul? David grew up with so many life pressures to believe in certain facts. After meeting Sophie, David realizes that she is just a normal girl that has a small extra toe. He has grown up learning that even this small deviation makes her not human but David has to make the decision of whether his beliefs are true or not. The decisions that David makes throughout this novel because of pressures and occurrences may change David’s life views and believes forever.

In the novel “Something Wicked This Way Comes”, Jim Nightshade and Will Halloway were best friends living side by side. Jim Nightshade was thirteen years, eleven months, and twenty-three days old. Will Halloway was thirteen years, eleven months, and twenty-four days old. Will was born one minute before midnight on October thirtieth and Jim was born one minute after midnight, October thirty-first, Halloween.

On October twenty-third peculiar situations began to happen in Green Town, Illinois. Jim and Will smelled cotton candy and licorice on the streets when the theatre was closed, and an advertisement flew into their hands saying “ Coming October twenty-fourth, Cooger and Dark’s Carnival!” A carnival this late in the year was very unexpected and strange. Later that night Jim and Will snuck out of their houses to watch the Carnival being set up. The carnival did not have lion dust, pop bottles, and elephants like normal carnivals but was very quiet, shadowy, and dark. The boys saw shadows of men setting up and then suddenly the canvas was put up and there was silence, everyone was gone.

It was October twenty-fourth and the carnival looked normal but later strange occurrences began to happen. Mrs. Foley, Jim and Will’s schoolteacher, was at the carnival looking for her nephew when Jim and Will approached. There was a mirror maze in the carnival that Mrs. Foley decided to go in to search for her nephew. Will felt strongly that she didn’t go in the maze for people get lost in them, but Mrs. Foley went in anyway. Minutes later Mrs. Foley began to scream and yell for help. Will and Jim helped her get out of the maze and she told them that she had seen a girl, a young girl who looked a like she had as a teenager. Jim had also seen images in the maze that did not share them with Will. This was not the only strange occurrence but there was also a merry-go-round that was temporarily out of order at the carnival. At the merry-go-round Jim and Will met Mr. Dark and Mr. Cooger personally. There was strangeness about the men and the merry-go-round but the boys were told to go home. The carnival was closing for supper and will be opened again at seven.

Though told to run home the boys ended up in a tree watching Mr. Cooger and Mr. Dark and the merry-go-round. When there was no one around Mr. Dark went to the control box and turned the merry-go-round on. Will was very hesitant on staying but Jim was interested and intensely watching the two men. The merry-go-round was not an ordinary ride for it started to spinning and playing the funeral march backwards. Mr. Cooger got onto the ride and as the boys watched there was an unbelievable sight. As the ride spun Mr. Coogers skin began to melt into a child’s body. Each time the ride spun, Mr. Cooger got a year younger. Jim intrigued and Will scared they watched Mr. Cooger get off the ride, no longer a man but a 12 year old boy.

This is only the beginning of Cooger and Dark’s carnival occurrences. Jim Nightshade is intrigued by the darkness of the carnival, and the darkness of Mr. Cooger. Will Halloway was not intrigued but afraid of the carnival and what was occurring in it. The boys are both curious by the carnival but what will be the consequences if Mr. Cooger realizes what they witnessed? Will the decisions the boys make be dangerous? The consequences of the decisions made involving the carnival may change the relationship and friendship of the boys forever.

Marc Antony was a Roman politician and general. In Act 1 and 2 of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony was an important supporter of Julius Caesar. Antony always did what Caesar asked and helped Caesar make his way to the top. Through all of Act 1 and Act 2 Marc Antony was considered very epicurean. Antony was not considered a stoic man among the commoners but very epicurean enjoying parties, food, and material goods. In Act 3, scene 1 Caesar was murdered in the senate. He was stabbed first by Casca, then by the other conspirators, and last by Marcus Brutus. After Caesar’s death Marc Antony entered the senate towards the dead Caesar very stoically. He was very solemn, calm, and cautious contradicting the past assumptions of Marc Antony. Antony showing his true stoic side is what interests me the most.

In Act 3, Scene 2 of Julius Caesar, Marc Antony carried the body of Julius Caesar and set him in front of the Roman crowd. Antony was also given the opportunity to give the final speech to the Roman Citizens after Marcus Brutus. During Antony’s speech Brutus left the area leaving Antony to say whatever he wanted to the Roman commoners. Marcus Brutus allowing Marc Antony to give the last speech was a very unwise decision. As Antony is starting to show his true stoic side, proving that he is a very wise man. Allowing Antony the last words to the crowd could allow Antony to use his wisdom and use it against the conspirators to benefit himself.

Antony’s speech gave the impression that Antony was only pretending to be a dumb epicurean but was really a very smart young man. During Antony’s speech he said, “ Did this in Caesar seem ambitious”. This statement was telling the crowd indirectly that Brutus was a liar. Brutus had said in his speech that Caesar was a very ambitious man. Antony also said “ And men have lost their reason, Bear with me; my heart is in the coffin there with Caesar”. This was a very dramatic moment where Antony pretended to cry in front of all the Roman commoners to show how much he loved and cared for Caesar. By showing this emotion Antony gained attention and respect for the commoners. Lastly in Antony’s speech he pulled out Caesar’s will. Antony had not told the conspirators about the will, having lied to them. All the conspirators had left the area, so this did not matter. Antony knew that having the will of Caesar would allow full attention to him from the commoners. These three examples in Antony’s speech prove that he is not a dumb epicurean. Cassius was right calling him a shrewd contriver. Antony is a very wise stoic man, which he hides throughout all of Act 1,2 and partly Act 3 of Julius Caesar.

In Act 3 of Julius Caesar we discovered that Marc Antony was not a dumb epicurean like earlier events had acquired. Antony’s response to Caesar’s death and his speech to the commoners was all very calm, planned, and stoic. There are numerous interesting qualities of Marc Antony including how he was second next to Caesar in power, did all that Caesar asked, and was in charge of the military. The sudden change in personally coming through in Act 3 though was definitely the most interesting part of Marc Antony. The way Antony hid his true self among others and acted like he was dumb, as an epicurean amazed me and interested me immensely. Marc Antony is a very wise, stoic man as discovered in Act 3 of Julius Caesar.