Quintessencial Soft Drink

Its a sweltering day, the sun beats mercilessly down upon the pavement sending heat waves swaying at ground level. The grass looks bent and dry, a sea of wilted flora that stretches on and on. Your sweat slowly rolls down your cheek and lands with an inaudiable splash on your shirt. Your hand makes its move towards the cooler, seeking salvation from this heat. It slowly reaches in and pulls out a red twelve ounce can out. Working together, your hands open the can with a pop and a small sizzle. Anticipation is hard to keep back. Finally, your hands help pour the carbonated sweet syrup down your throat; its cool, crisp, refreshing, and tart taste lingers in you mouth as the sweet nectar cascades down your throat. Coca-Cola.

Coca-Cola is the quintessencial soft drink not only from its national and international sales proof, but from its taste and blend of carbonation and sweet sugar. Not only does the sugar and caffeine add body to the taste of the drink, but its also there to give you that extra boost of energy during a long day, or keep you awake on those long nights of school work. It is also the perfect combination with another American classic, the Cheeseburger (with fries). Coming in a variety of different flavors now, like lime, vanilla, diet, cherry, and more, Coca-Cola has become more than just the same old thing. For generations to come, surely, Coca-Cola is here to stay.

180 Degrees

In Exodus, we have seen some incredible 180 degree changes in the Price Family's members' thinking, physical characteristics, living conditions, and personal views on life. Adah for one was the most obvious. After 15-16 years of walking like a cripple, she miraculously is able to walk straight after she starts college back in the States and cooperates in a test. It turns out that because everyone expected her to be a cripple because of her problem at birth, she had the mind set that she was crippled for life and her body, subjected to the years of being forced to walk like a cripple, just didn't know how to stand up straight. So in the test she was forced not to walk entirely, which eventually worked. Also, in accordance to Adah's new found strength, she has lost her interesting ways at looking at things, her backwards reading skills, and her abstract way of thinking. She becomes more linear, more on a well define path as I see it. She finds her niche in life, someplace and some mind set that she is satisfied with although she makes some sacrifices regarding her past to get there.

Leah is the next more obvious turn around. Back before stepping foot on Africa and during the Price Family's first year in the Congo, Leah was devout and sought the attention of her Father. She was diligent in her tasks to prove to Father that she was a good daughter in the eyes of him and the Lord (or her father's god). This blind ambition finally ended when she saw with new eyes (with the help of Brother Fowles) what her Father truly was. Through Exodus we see Leah as an independent and defiant young woman. She marries Anatole, lives in deplorable conditions in the Congo, has four children (by the end), and turns semi-pro-communists. Wow. Her view point and guidance comes from the new direction and new perspective on life she has taken on. Instead of becoming a fanatic Christian like Nathan Price was, she becomes questions Christianity and becomes detached from it. To me, it looks like Leah lives for the present. She looks at the present situation she is given and focuses on it. In this sense she becomes more adaptable.

Something else that we discussed about Exodus was the relation of the book to its cover. On the cover of the Poisonwood Bible we see clearly five drawings of cave man like people. There is one copper colored one, and four gold ones arranged in smallest to tallest from left to right, with the copper colored one before the smallest one (although its the biggest person there), almost as though he/she is the leader. I think that for sure the four gold people are Ruth May and the sisters arranged in order of birth from left to right. The copper one though could be either Nathan or Orleanna Price. I am leaning more towards Orleanna but who knows? The symbolism of the cave man people drawing and how its presented is vague. What could it possibly mean? I am not sure.

Evil Deed Live!

Through out most of Bel and the Serpent in the book Poisonwood Bible Adah seems to take a liking to palindromes. Here are some of the palindromes I found in Bel and the Serpent: "Eye on sleep peels no eye!" (343), "Lived a devil!" (360), "Evil deed live" (360, 362), "Eye, level eye!" (360), "Eye did peep did eye." (360). Also, she refers to a palindrome as an example of Ruth May's life when Ruth May dies: "The closing parenthesis, at the end of the palindrome that was Ruth May." (365). With all these Palindromes, there must be something significant about them, what they stand for or represent. Adah's observations and knowledge of the Congolese people and their culture is pretty impressive. Proof of this is in her explanation of the difference between the words Bantu and Muntu in Congo. When she explains to us the basic concept of what those words suggest about the Congolese people's culture and beliefs, we see that they don't believe someone truly dies. This concept is like that of the palindrome, it never truly ends, for you can go forwards and backwards and it will forever be the same sentence. I think that this section of the book focused more on death than any other topic. The chance of starving, the killing of beasts for meat, the death of Ruth May, and the death of a part of Orleanna when Ruth May died.

L.A.Z.Y

He swore he had lost something. That his present self was lacking in some way, but he didn't know what. His steps were slower, body weaker, mind heavier, and everyday would repeat itself in his memory, eventually becoming a haze in the back of his thoughts. What is this feeling? The responsibilities that were pushing and punching their way to the front for action were subdued, as though he was watching them all struggle in a caged state, their shouts and bellows fading into white noise in the background. He turned his back on them, hesitant at first, but feeling better with each step. Soon he was sprinting, the day was clear and the sun rose with all its glory. The smell of wild flowers and crushed grass settled in his nose and stained his feet. The plain before him stretched out for what seemed like miles past the horizon. Keep going, keep running. Desire spurned him as he raced into the lazy hills around him. Dandelions released their seeds into the air as he past, snowing down upon the land. The wind at his back gently pushed his feet forward, propelling him faster and faster. Where he met a stream he happily dunked right in, cherishing the refreshing feeling as he drifted downstream. As he got out, dripping buckets of water on the muddy banks, he noticed a forest now stood in his way. Further, further, keep going, keep running. The smell of earth and soddened leaves filled his lungs. Sunlight streamed through the cover of leaves at various intervals. He marched on, into the forest, deeper, further. The sun began to set after a while and the forest began to cast long shadows. The bird songs began to fade away as the insects began to chirp instead. The wind became colder, the sky darker, the clouds began to move in. With the brief passing of the sunset, the light was gone. The illusion broke, the trees began to wither, the ground became mud, the wind began to call eerily out into the night. He was scared, alone, misguided, and lost. He struggled to think of something, anything, but his sluggish thoughts leaked out of his ears like snot flowing down his face. His joy was gone, replaced by a sense of hopelessness, despair, and a fading self assurance. You are mine, you are lost, you are hopeless. Cold hands gripped his ankles as he started to sink. He called out for anyone, anything, for a savior as he tried to beat back the cold hands. The mud began to swallow him, slowly sucking his struggling body into its unknown belly. Give up, Give in, Let go. Soon the mud had him by the shoulders. His vision was blurred, his body was spent, and his mind grew numb. Was this it? Was this going to be the product of his existence? Is this all you got. The thought echoed through his blanked out mind and struck something. A tiny spark in a dark room. And the room exploded in light. The feeling swept through his body. He fought once more for his survival. Must you be pitied; must you be hopeless; must you be lost? His arms tore from the mud, grasping roots of some of the trees around him. His legs kicked and pushed at the hands gripping him, and slowly he could feel them weakening. Hand over hand, kick after kick he pulled and pushed himself painfully out of the swallowing mud. Finally the hands released him from their deathly grasps and he pulled himself out of the deep mud surrounding him. It wasn't over yet though as he slugged through the muck around him. Prove yourself to me, Prove yourself to you. After what seemed like miles his feet hit solid ground, the grass began to soften his feet, and the sun began to rise in the east. He entered a grey stoned building, its double doors wide open as other students past by him. The bell rang as he quickly headed toward his testing room. Once seated he picked up his test, wrote his name, and with a sigh and cold feet he began the test that he studied for two days earlier.

SAT: Learning For the Sake of Learning

Heres another practice SAT essay with the topic of whether we put too much stress on learning practical practices and not just learning things for sake of learning.

Sat Essay

In this fast pace world of today, where everything is turned into an efficiency machine, people go through their everyday job just to get through it, to get the pay check, and move on forward in there single minded lives. Who would stop to ever think, "Why is the sky blue?" "What forces were at work to create this universe?" "Where does the universe end?". The world 2.1 high efficiency software doesn't need visionaries; it needs practical people to keep things moving in the same fashion. People indeed put too much emphasis on learning practical skill because of the emphasis the world has on the need of workers and not thinkers, visionaries, and theorists.
Each day is a struggle for most people. A struggle at their job or school where the ones who shine move up on the ladder of success. Most of the people who can help you move up in your life, your teachers and bosses, care mostly about your work and efficiency at getting thinks done, over, moving on. Teachers and bosses can't personally know everyone they teach or oversee, its impossible. So what determines you as a good worker or an outstanding student is you grade, papers, work, and how much information you can cram into you brain. Society today and in the past has been run on the basis of practicality.
In the Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, we see how the people in Africa mostly focus their thoughts on the present and the small community around them. IN this place stuck in the past, nobody really cares about thinking of innovative inventions that could make their lives easier. They just go about their daily work. Just like this, working and getting paid has overcome the need of creative thinking. Money puts food on the table not thoughts. This is not particularly a bad thing, but not a good thing either.

Okay, I know I didn't get to finish this essay (which seems to be a bad habit of mine regarding SAT essays) but I think I improved a bit from my last essay (or maybe not depending on how you see it). I don't think that I have made a significant improvement on my writing technique and so I am not that happy about this essay, but then again, I don't think I would ever be happy with an essay that I have only 30 to complete with no references to help my thoughts. Oh well. Better luck next time.

Revenge of the Dead Beasts

In the Poisonwood Bible, a book by Barbara Kingsolver, in the section entitled: Bel and the Serpent, we come to the part where Leah hunts with the rest of the men and gets her first kill (pg. 348). After the big hunt, the village gathers around the pile of meat that was going to be shared about the village people. Instead, what happens is that the entire scene erupts in a violent scrabble for meat. The sacred idea of sharing amongst everyone was lost within the rage and starving bellies.

Leah gives us this quote from the scene: "We tried to ignore his strange remarks, but we all did hear him. In some corner of our hearts we all drew back, knowing he was right. The dead beasts in our hands seemed to be cursing and mocking us for having killed them. In the end we all crept home with our meat, feeling hunted ourselves. What was surely the oldest celebration of all, the sharing of plenty, had fallen to ruin in our hands." (p. 354). This quote shows how changes to village life were brought forth due to the changes around them. In the chapters before the hunt, the Congolese people in the village of Kilanga decide to vote on whether Jesus Christ is a savior and should be an official and overall religion for the Congolese people in Kilanga. They used the white man's idea of "Majority rules" and voted that Jesus wasn't so Bangala after all. As the new attachment to the white men's ideas become lodged into all the villagers minds, some of the old ways slowly lose affect on people. Like the belief in sharing things between the entire village instead of just keeping things entirely to yourself, as the Price family did with their supplies from home. This example might lead up to things in the future, changes brought about because of the changes in thinking. Metaphorically, this quote could be compared to the situation going on politically with the independence of the Congo and how the Congolese way of things were falling more and more into the hands of the white man, their ideas and thinking.

Mosquito Coast

In the movie Mosquito Coast, an American Inventor/Father takes a ship from America to a jungle somewhere in the region of Mosquito in South America. He brings his wife and four sons with him. It is not a vacation though, its a permanent residence he is trying to set up. He claims that America has grown corrupt and greedy that pretty soon a nuclear war will happen soon to wipe the U.S.A off the map. His family goes through many hardships during their stay, but he alone remains ignorant of whats happening to his family, pursing his dream with sacrifice to his family's well being. In comparison to the Poisonwood Bible, a book by Barbara Kingsolver, this movie is quite similar in telling a story of a plight of a family and the ignorance of a father trying to forge a new life in a foreign place that has no need of their alien customs and thoughts. The movie is also, in a way, different too though. It is different, in a big way, because of the reasons each of the Fathers have for going to a new exotic, in hospitable (for their families) place to live for a while. The Father in the movie Mosquito Coast wanted to get himself and his family away from the corruption of the U.S. and thought he would help his family by doing this. He was selfish in this thought because he didn't care what his boys or his wife thought about his plan as he pursued his own dream only for himself. Nathan Price from the Poisonwood Bible goes to the Congo because he believes he can enlighten and civilize the natives which would help him cope with his past sin (which isn't really a sin to the rest of us) of being the only person to survive from his platoon in WWII by accident. Also, he doesn't even care, from the start, about whether this experience will help his family or not. In a way though, these two fathers are similar too because of the way they don't care what the family's opinion is on their plan.