In "Catching Fire" by Suzanne Collins,  Katniss is changed by the games. When she pulled out the nightlock berries, because she didn't want to have to kill Peeta, one small act of defiance a spark that could catch and turn into a full scale rebellion. Because of this act of defiance other districts had small uprisings, Katniss is forced to convince President Snow and all of Panem that she was madly In love with Peeta, and she couldn't bare to not live with Peeta. Before she would never talk to Haymitch, she hated him. For example, On page 13 she went In to Haymitch's house, when she was delivering him more liquor her face wrinkled up In disgust, she didn't want to go anywhere near him. But now she went to him first, before talking to her closer friends, like Gale, or Peeta, or Cinna, who she trusts. She told Haymitch about her talk with President Snow. This shows that Katniss is being changed by the games.        

       


NOTE: The act of defiance where Katniss almost killed herself with the berries occurred In book 1 of the Hunger Games series, but It had a huge affect on this part of the second book, Catching Fire.
P.S: This was posted at 4:30 not 2:30. :)

Memoir

Charlie Muller 707                                                                          11/12/13

Final Memoir

I remember when I first heard the news that my parents were getting separated. It was on a sunny Thursday afternoon and I’d been playing outside at the park with my friends most of that day. I was in fifth grade and I didn’t have any homework that day because It was towards the end of the year and my teachers weren’t giving out homework anymore. I was playing some video game. My mom said she wanted me to stop playing because we had something “important” to talk about. I was very excited and enthusiastic. My mom was sitting on one couch and my brother (Ethan) and my dad on the other couch. The couches were connected so I sat half on one, half on the other. Everyone’s faces were very grave.

“What’s up?” I say smiling and cheery.

“Me and daddy aren't going to be living together anymore, we’re getting a SEPARATION.”

That word punches me in the stomach and knocks the breath out of me; SEPARATION.

“We’re gonna take a couple of months apart. Maybe after two or three months we might feel different, or maybe not...” My dad explains to me.

He tried to console me like I was a small, scared child. Well, I actually was a small, scared child. I was in a kind of shock. I blocked out everything my parents and Ethan were saying.

A beautiful red robin outside rested on a thin branch.  

I didn’t care what anyone was saying! Tears rushed down my face, my dad tried to give me a hug but I moved away.  I HATE EVERYTHING!!!!! MY LIFE SUCKS!

My mom tried to reassure me. Now I felt like my parents were competing over me.  

The squirrel on the telephone line in the backyard scatters across onto a small tree and chomps on an acorn. Squirrel’s lives are so effortless! They just sit around all day and eat nuts! I wish I was a squirrel. Then squirrels  go out on these crazy adventures, like running from dogs, and fighting other squirrels.

I guess you could say my life was about to become one big gigantic, unusual adventure! We all go on our own journeys, we have friends who help us on this quest of life.

I slowly start to walk away from the couches, down the stairs, I’m walking away from my once normal, carefree life and starting a new one with a separation, maybe a divorce and these things as I write this now, two years later. But even today, I’m still not ready to face them. But, you have to face whatever you’re given in life.

The U.S and Russia's short term relationship is very tense. The Syrian civil war is going on right now and Russia (Putin) is selling al-Assad billions of dollars worth of weapons to fight the rebels. But, Obama wants to take military action against Syria because of a recent chemical weapons attack by al-Assad on innocent men,children, and women in a Damascus suburb, killing 1,400 people. Obama hasn't and did not make an air strike on Syria and al-Assad, but instead offered that Syria gives up the rest of its chemical weapons. Putin has agreed to this and al-Assad also has agreed to this deal. Obama is very mad at Putin for continuing to sell these weapons because Obama, obviously wants Syria to become a democracy.

Also, In August Russia offered Edward Snowden  political asylum, meaning Russia well protect Snowden from being sent to the U.S. Edward Snowden is a former N.S.A (National Security Agency) contractor who "blew the whistle" and leaked confidential information about American survelliance programs, America spying on U.S citizens phone calls and texts and emails and using cameras all around the country to spy on everyday citizens.












Source: Upfront Magazine, Oct. 28 issue.

A New Cold War? by Patrica Smith.

With reporting by Peter Baker, Thomas Friedman, and Steven Lee Myers