Gone with the Wind Vocabulary

    The vocabulary in Gone with the Wind is very different from vocabulary we use today. The book was written in 1936, but its characters are based off of people from the 1860s. An example of vocabulary from the book is, "Their leisured world had been turned topsy-turvy, and their pleadings, prayers and advice availed nothing against the powerful forces sweeping them along"(Mitchell 131). When vocabulary like this is used in the book, it makes the theme and context of the story make more sense. The setting of the book is in the South during the Civil War. Because the characters are from the South, they already have a different accent and a different way of speaking, but the time period also plays a role in the sentence structure and vocabulary used. The vocabulary has helped me picture the setting and the characters, specifically Scarlett O'Hara, better. If the vocabulary was easy and the characters spoke like it were modern day, it would ruin the setting and this book wouldn't be a classic. Do you think vocabulary is important in a book? If so, what part of the story does it impact the most?

Breaking Night

  Growing up, Liz lived in a run down apartment with drug addict parents. Her parents cared about her, but drugs consumed their life. At the age of 15, Liz became homeless, her mother died, her father was also homeless, and she was on her own. She didn'
t go to school and had no direction in life. Yet she rose above her circumstances, and made something out of herself. She didn't let her background and past stop her from achieving success and is and inspiration everywhere for telling her story.

 The central theme of Breaking Night is determination to perservere during hard times. This theme emerges when Liz is living out on the streets alone. She decides that she will not be like her parents and will make something of herself. She becomes determined to finish high school and get into a good college. Liz changes what she is determined to do throughout the story depending on what situation she is in. At the beginning of her becoming homeless, she is just determined to survive on the streets. The longer she is homeless though, the more she realizes what a bad direction her life is headed and how lucky she is to even be alive. She starts to become determined to not only survive, but thrive during her hard times. She starts to have a different perspective on life. This quote from the book summarizes her renewed determination and outlook on life, " Instead, what I was beginning to understand was that however things unfold from here on, whatever the next chapter was, my life could never be the sum of one circumstance. It would be determined, as it had always been, by my willingness to put one foot in front of the other, moving forward, come what may" (Murray 321). This quote shows Liz realizing that her life will be as good as she is determined to make it. It is up to her to put her life back together and make a difference, and the best way to do that is to keep pushing foward in a positive direction, no matter what happens.

  My article is a book review of Breaking Night by the New York Times. It reviews the book and gives a quick summary of the story line. "Breaking Night Article"