Group Inquiry Question Blogpsot

The main conflict in "Catching Fire" is that last year in the other hunger games Haymitch chose to save Katniss and get her out of the arena, but this year Katniss wants to get  Peeta out of the arena alive. She feels like she owes Peeta and she will do whatever it takes, because Peeta saved her last year. She tries to overcome this conflict by almost killing Finnick even though she was very good friends with him. She didn't want to have to kill him, but she realized that if Peeta were to survive, then Finnick would have to die. Also,Katniss makes Haymitch promise to make sure that Peeta survives, meaning Katniss would have to die. 

Nelson Mandela: Master of Forgiveness

Nelson Mandela's life was symbolized as him being very forgiving of  his country that put him in jail for acting against segregated laws in South Africa. He negotiated peacefully with his government and abolished the laws that he fought against as a young man. In the political cartoon Mandela's footsteps form the word FORGIVENESS because he could have been very angry because of his country's actions, but he chose to be accepting and forgiving of his country's decisions. Mandela negotiated with his captors instead of retaliating at them and putting them in jail. I think he chose to do this because he wanted to be forgiving and show his country that he was "The better man" and that he wouldn't give in to his anger. President Obama said, “We will not likely see the likes of Nelson Mandela again.” I agree with this statement because Nelson Mandela was a very remarkable man, he protested what he believed in and faced the consequences of his actions. Once he was released he showed forgiveness, he did not retaliate. Many people might choose to retaliate and not be forgiving and as peaceful as a man Nelson Mandela was. I would be willing to spend so many years in prison for a cause. For example, I believe that farmers in the Ivory Coast shouldn't be using slave labor to produce cheap chocolate. Source:http://upfront.scholastic.com/News/Nelson-Mandela
Questions from:http://upfront.scholastic.com/top_news
This Is the Online version of upfront, this article isn't In the print version of upfront magazine.

Katniss Character Change

In "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins, during the games Katniss sees Peeta with the Careers and instantly hates Peeta, and hates herself for ever trusting him. But really, Peeta is protecting Katniss by making sure that the tributes don't harm Katniss. He is being very self sacrificing. 
In "Catching Fire" (book 2 in the Hunger Games trilogy), after the announcement of the Quarter Quell Katniss realizes she isn't going to make it back home to District 12 and realizes that she owes Peeta her life, and devotes herself to making sure Peeta makes it back home to District 12. 
Before, when Katniss was mad at Peeta she was being selfish and too blind to see that see that Peeta was just protecting her because he cared for her. But now Katniss is being selfless because she is going to try her best to keep Peeta alive. This shows that Katniss doesn't like to be in anyone's debt, she doesn't want to feel like she owes something to someone. In "The Hunger Games" there were many times when she felt like she was again in Peeta's debt. For example, when Katniss was starving Peeta gave her the bread, this bread was very symbolic, she was given something for doing nothing. When Rue died she got more bread, I think bread symbolizes hope. By doing whatever it takes to save Peeta, she is relieving all of this debt she owes to Peeta.

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

The Hunger Games. Important Quote

A line in this story, "The Hunger Games" by Suzanne Collins  that made me think was on page 114. "Betrayal . That's the first thing I feel, which is ludicrous . For there would have to have been trust first. Between me and Peeta. And trust has not been part of the agreement. We're tributes. But the boy who risked a beating to give me bread, the one who steadied me in the chariot, who covered for me with the redheaded Avox girl, who insisted that Haymitch knew my hunting skills... was there some part of me that couldn't help trusting him?"  The word betrayal In this quote makes me think that Katniss actually cares about Peeta. At the beginning of the book Katniss hated Peeta's guts, literally she wanted to kill him. Before she was just doing everything she did, like holding hands with him on the chariot and acting like the team. She was faking all of it just to please the Capitol. This quote showed me that in this book Katniss is hiding her feelings, she isn't even aware of it. In the real world people have feelings that they hide or don't realize they even have.