Charles Darnay

Charles Darnay, a character in A Tale of Two Cities, is a mysterious man. Up until the last few chapters we have read you haven't known much about him. But after reading these chapters, you actually know more than you think. Firstly you know that being of the lower class is a choice for him. " 'This property and France is lost to me,' said the nephew sadly; ' I renounce them' " ( Dicken's 117). You soon find out that Charles Darnay is related to Monsuier Marquee. But why doesn't he live there white them? This quotes gives you evidence of just how he is related to the Monsuier. Charles Darney is his nephew making him his uncle but why would he not want this life? Darnay not living with his rich family shows you a lot about his character. Just the fact that he is downright completely more than just money. He hated the way that his uncle and his people treated the people on the streets and he would not take it and or live with it. Darnay cares about the way that the lower class is being treated. This could be foreshadowing him maybe being involved in an uprising in the French Revolution. Who knows? Secondly you find out about his soft side. " Miss Manette I am a man of business. I have a business charge to acquit myself of. In your reception of it. Don't heed me anymore then if I was speaking machine truly, I am not much else, I will, with your leave,..." (Dicken's 36) Charles Darnay is a man of business to quotes his fictional self. Throughout the book you can get a certain pattern that he is almost always working. His job is usually all he cares about but know he cares about Lucie. That's it! That's his sweet spot. Lucie he is in love with Lucie and hasn't told her yet. He has opened up to Lucie and maybe this is foeeshadowinf a future between the the two of them. 

Light and Dark setting the Tone

Charles Dickens uses light and dark to set the tone of hopefulness and a happy future for Lucie and Dr. Manette’s relationship in the A Tale of Two Cities. Firstly, When Lucie first walks in the room, Dickens describes her using the word light, “…on her fair young face that it looked as though she passed like a moving light” (Dickens 32). This foreshadows how important Lucie is going to be to her father. At this point in the book, Dr. Manette didn’t even know if the baby was a boy or a girl or if he/she even lived into adulthood. The usage of the word light when describing Lucie sets the tone of hopefulness because Lucie is going to be there for her dad and help her dad get out of his state of darkness or depression after he was falsely accused of a crime and out into jail for 18 years by the aristocracy. Another time when Dickens used light and darkness is also when they first walked into the room. “…they gradually forced themselves into the room and through the blackness that had fallen on them” (Dickens 32). In this moment it is the first time that Lucie had ever seen her father and she was afraid on the travels to France, that her father wouldn’t be the same person he was before he was in jail. Dickens’s symbolizes Dr. Manette as darkness because he is depressed and on the edge of insanity. At this moment he still doesn’t even know that this is his daughter. The last way Dickens uses this to set the tone is when he is describing her hair. When Dickens is describing her hair he isn’t directly stating that her hair is the light but her hair can be used as a symbol for the light in Dr. Manette’s and Lucie’s relationship. “Her golden hair, which she wore in long curls, had been hurriedly pushed aside…” (Dickens 33). This definitely sets the tone of hopefulness because Dr. Manette finally pieces together the pieces when he recollects his wife’s hair and the distinct similarity to the woman sitting in front of him. After he says this, he takes off a necklaces that has a lock of hair in it, a golden piece almost identical to Lucie’s hair. The word golden can be synonymous to light in some ways and has a significance in Lucie and her father’s relationship because there is so much light between Lucie and his memories of his wife, Lucie’s mother, that you can see a happy future and is hopeful that Lucie can help pull her father out of his depression. Therefore the use of light and dark create a strong tone of hope and happiness in this chapter. There is a light at the end of the tunnel for Dr. Manette and with the help of his daughter the tunnel is a lot shorter and the light is a lot closer.

This picture is a scene from Charles Dicken's A Tale of Two CitiesIn this chapter I think Charles Dicken's is foreshadowing the later topic of poverty and the reasons for the French Revolution. Dicken's writes, "All the people within reach had suspended their business or idleness, to run to the spot and drink the wine" (Dicken's 20). After a barrel of wine had fallen and broken, everyone in he streets stopped to drink it off of the ground. These people are so desperate they jump at the chance to drink wine off of the street. Another example is when Dicken's writes, " ... And the forehead of the woman who had just nursed her baby, was stained with the stain of the old rag she wound about her head again." (Dicken's 21). This shows how desperate these people were. This mother took her head wrap off of her head, soaked it in wine, and then wrung it out into her baby's mouth. She gave wine to her baby because she had no way of getting water and her baby needed something. The last example, " It had stained many hands, too, and many faces, and many naked feet, and many wooden shoes" (Dicken's 21). These people living on the streets in Paris don't have she's and if they do they are wooden. Probably made poorly by themselves or friends. These people are among the many poor in Franc at this time and as we already know the French Revolution was a poor people uprising resulting in beheading s of the King and Queen. This scene is most likely foes adoring the start of the French Revolution :

The Importance of Family

I feel that family is very important for many reasons. Your family loves you, cares for you, and is always there for you. The function of family is simple, to create a safe place where you are comfortable and loved. In the essay Stone Soup, Barbara Kingsolver mainly talked about the judgment of abnormal families but she also states that family is an important thing and that it shapes a child’s personality.  Also in the story A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, There are obvious examples of family functions and importances. In my opinion, Betty Smith wrote the story with a main theme of family importance.

           The function of family as I stated before is to create a safe place where you are comfortable and loved.  At home I feel more comfortable than any place I have ever been. It’s the safest place I know, and I definitely have never been loved more than I have when I am at home with my family. Your family teaches you more important things than any teacher at any school could teach you. Your family teaches you how to be street smart while teachers teach you how to be school smart. Your family teaches you manners, how to love, how to take care of yourself, how to be whatever you want to be, and a million more things. Your family is always right there to give you advice and to help you whenever you need it. Family is so important to me because I have a huge family. It may not be abnormal or mixed but after moving here the holidays have been very lonely even though there are ten people in my house. I’m used to having my eight cousins, my five aunts, my five uncles, my two grandparents, my five brothers, sister, half-sister, and two parents. I play my worst in my sports when my family isn’t there. Some kids think their parents telling them to keep their heads up and telling what they did wrong on the court or field is annoying but I love it. Even if it doesn’t seem like it at the moment.  In A Tree Grows in Brooklyn, Smith writes, “Francie and Neeley got out of bed and they all sat around the table and ate after Papa had put three dollars down on the table and given the children each a nickel which Mama made them put in the tin-can bank explaining they had already received money that day from the junk…So Johnny and Katie talked away the night and the rise and fall of their voices was a safe and soothing sound in the dark” (Smith, 52-55).This quotes shows the safety that both Francie and Neeley feel. The sound of their parents voices calms them in the tough time they are going through and that is what family is for. The smallest actions can give the biggest sense of security. Another quote from A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is when Smith writes, “She listened to everybody’s troubles but no one listened to hers. But that was right because Sissy was a giver and never a taker” (Smith, 101). This quote shows how family is always there, because sissy even though she isn’t there 24/7 she is always giving advice and helping not asking for anything in return. A family is unconditional love. An example from Stone Soup is when Kingsolver states, “The cheering section includes his mother and her friends, his brother, his father and stepmother, a stepbrother and stepsister, and a grandparent. Lucky is the child with this many relatives on hand to hail a proud accomplishment. I'm there too, witnessing a family fortune. But in spite of myself, defensive words take shape in my head. I am thinking: I dare anybody to call this a broken home” (Kingsolver, 1). This quote explains how people see families that aren’t “pure” and although my older sister is my half-sister, which I’ve actually never been able to call her that, she is my family because family is not always about having the same DNA it’s about loving each other un conditionally and not caring what they look like what they wear or what they like. Because family is supposed to protect the others from the badness of the world. Your parents protect you every day. The smallest actions that you might take for granted are love. “Put your seatbelt on,” or “Do your homework.” If they didn’t love you they wouldn’t care if you had your seatbelt on or not and if they didn’t care about your future, they wouldn’t care about the grades you get. Another example from Kingsolver’s Stone Soup is when she writes, “I imagine it must be a painful reckoning in adolescence (or later on) to realize true love will never look like the soft-focus fragrance ads because Prince Charming (surprise!) is a princess. Or vice versa. Or has skin the color your parents didn't want you messing with, except in the Crayola box” (Kingsolver, 2). This quote supports my statement that family is love. Just like the recent legalization of gay marriage. “Love is Love.” There are all types of families. They don’t have to be married, of opposite sex, of the same race. Because those things don’t matter to love. My Aunt and Uncle aren’t married. They are filed as domestic partners because she feels that you get married to have kids and she physically can’t have kids so she saw no need for vows, but I’ve always called him Uncle Joe because he is my uncle, my family even though he isn’t married to my mom’s sister because if he loves my aunt he is family and that is that.

                In conclusion, Love is Love and Family isn’t DNA. Family is when someone is always there no matter what even if you can’t see it or don’t notice it, family is love and it always will be. Think of someone adopted. They call their adoptive parent their mom, and dad. They don’t care that they don’t have the same genes as them, they love their kid(s) and that’s all that counts. I am blessed to have the family that I have and I will remember to always be thankful for that.

Sacredness of the Ordinary

 
      

   It's neon green, a 32 drop 10, very expensive and very important to me. I can just imagine the amazing feeling when I swing and the handle spins, and the pop of the bat when I make contact with the ball

The ball is coming in, I load up and throw my hands to the ball. As I am following through the handle spins and makes my swing quicker. I drop the bat as I am watching the ball fly deep into the outfield, dropping. I round first base touching only the inside corner of the bag. Picking up my third base coach, I see that he is motioning me to go to third. As I round second base, still looking at my coach, I see he is yelling down! down! I fold my right leg under my left and a cloud of dust engulfs around me and the third baseman. Through the cloud of dust I see the umpire signaling with his arms that I am safe. I put my right hand over my left making the letter T with my hands signaling a time out. The umpire calls time and I get up to fix the base. My teammates cheering from the dugout puts a huge smile on my face and this will be my memory of my first hit with my new bat. 

        It was the most expensive bat at the time because it was the newest model. I wanted it so bad, but with how many kids there are in my family, I would never have imagined actually getting one. When my dad handed it to me, I was speechless. I unwrapped it from its plastic wrapping and used it for the first time in a batting practice for my club team. 

            The reason it is so important to me is because when you live with eight kids, you don't get very many things that are just yours and nobody else's. This is one of those things. Another reason it is so important to me is because having a bat like that, that everyone knows is expensive makes you seem more professional. A parent wouldn't buy their kid a 500$ bat if they weren't good at softball. This bag serves as a reminder that my family is there for me and believes in me and my ability to play.  Not very many girls have this bat and it makes you look really cool, and as I have already said, more professional. 

But I didn't get the bat because I wanted to look cool, I got it because I am a good player and I can hit the ball to the outfield and the bat improves my swing. 

            It's neon green, a 32 drop 10, it may be just a softball bat to you, but to me it's a reminder that I have a future in softball, that I am a good player, and that I have a chance to play in college. 

About Me

       My full name is Isabelle Grace Horton, I was born on June 1st 2001 in Kansas City,  Missouri. I lived i multiple cities in Kansas until I moved to Woburn,  Massachusetts a year ago. 

       I am very athletic, I get that from my mom. She played basketball and volleyball in high school. Later she went to the junior Olympics for volleyball. I follow in my mom's footsteps playing basketball, volleyball, and softball. I play tournament club softball, travel basketball, and high school volleyball. 

      I also come from a big family so the things I do outside of school are sometimes limited. I come from a family of ten. My mom, my dad, my older sister Maddie (21), older brother Ashton (16), younger sister Clara (12), younger brother Ben (10), younger brother Finn (9), younger brother Declan (4), and younger brother Keegan (1) 

       Other things I enjoy to do other than sports would have to be singing. I get that from my dad, he was in his high school choir, he was in the marching band, and went to college for musical theatre. I used to be in a show choir back in Kansas but we have been to busy since we moved. Another thing I like to do is draw. I like to draw themed collages for my friends. I also like hanging out with my friends whether it's going to the movies, or just ordering pizza and watching Netflix. 

      My name is Izzy Horton and I hope you enjoyed learning about me.