Writing topic: Sentence Structure

The chapter that I reviewed was the chapter on sentence structure and the challenges that multilingual students have when writing sentences. In the English sentence there has to be a link between the subject and its complement.  A complement is nouns or adjectives that rename or describe the subject.  An example is, Natalie smart. Natalie is smart. In every sentence a verb and a subject must be included. Some languages like Spanish or Japanese do not require a subject in every sentence, however, the English language does. Most of the time the subject shows before the verb but it does not always happen that way.

Another important rule is to not use both a noun and a pronoun to perform the same grammatical function in a sentence. In a sentence there is no need to repeat the subject in its own sentence. For example, the dentist she told me to floss. She is a pronoun and can’t repeat the subject which is the dentist. Also, repeating an object or an adverb in an adjective sentence. An adjective sentence is a sentence that starts with relative pronouns or relative adverbs like who, whom, whose, where, or when.  This is an example of a sentence that would not work.

 The dog ran under the car that it was parked on the street.

In that sentence the pronoun is that is the subject of the adjective sentence, so it which is a pronoun cannot be used as the subject.

The last rule that I felt that was important to learn is distinguishing between present and past participles used as adjectives. The way to distinguish between present and past participles is the present participles usually end in ing. I.e. confusing, speaking, and boring. Past participles usually end in ed, i.e. confused, spoken, bored. Both past and present can be used as adjectives.

What I can do to utilize this information is to apply it. I know now how to distinguish between past and present participles, so now when I write I will make sure that when I am talking about the past I will make sure that I use participles that end in ed. I will also make sure that I use a subject in every sentence. I am not bilingual so I don’t have the same challenges with English like someone that is bilingual might have. I put my daughter in a language academy charter school so she can learn English and Spanish at an early age. Spanish and English are very different languages, and some things that she learns in Spanish she will apply in English also. The information in this chapter is great for myself and for when I have to teach others.

What role does forgiveness play in Smoke Signals? 

In the movie Smoke Signals, Victor was a character that carried a lot of hurt and anger with him. The anger Victor felt came from the way Victor was treated by his father. Victor’s father, Arnold, ran out on his family and Victor was devastated. When Arnold died, Victor did not want to go into the trailer and get his father’s belonging. Victor was so angry that he couldn’t allow himself to obtain his father’s possessions and ashes, until he forgave his father. Arnold did not have to be alive for Victor to forgive him. Victor forgiving his father was more for Victor and not his father. It was for Victor to heal from the past wounds and move forward and grow. That is what forgiveness is all about. It is about not allowing oneself to be the victim anymore.

Forgiveness is an essential part of life. It is important in family, friends, love and even in strangers.  For example, when someone cuts you off on the road, holding the frustration, revenge and anger in won’t be good for yourself. It will result in negative energy that stays with you. That negative energy can sometimes be displaced on an innocent friend, family member or loved one. Forgiving someone does not mean that you condone what they did, but rather accepting the situation, moving forward and allowing yourself to heal.  It is possible to forgive another person and not talk to them. For example, in a relationship if your significant other has an affair, just because you forgave that person does not mean that you still have to stay with that person. You can forgive them and let them go, because it is not for them. It is for you. It is simply accepting the situation for what it is, being able to put it behind you.

Not being able to forgive someone is a personal battle. There is no way to make peace with yourself until you forgive. Even in major situations like murder. Some might say that in a murder situation, it is ok to not forgive. I think that especially in a major situation like that it is important to forgive.

Forgiveness is part of a healing process.  There are extreme cases in which some people might not be able to forgive an individual for what they have done or even when an individual cannot forgive themselves for their actions.  For those that cannot find the strength to forgive others, healing has not been able to take place.  In Victor’s case, the anger and resentment he felt towards his father was something Victor held onto for so long, even after his father’s passing.  Victor’s issues with his father could have been seen as the source of his attitude and mistreatment towards people, especially Thomas.  Victor was holding on to the hurt he felt from his father leaving and channeled the energy into violence and negative energy.  The victims of his rage never deserved what the way Victor treated them, but that was Victors way of not dealing with the bigger issue he was dealing with; abandonment.

When Victor forgave his father it helped him to realize how he was treating Thomas. He apologized to Thomas about the car accident, and then he apologized for all of the accidents from the past. I think that when you bring yourself to come to forgive, it changes you. When Victor gave Thomas half the ashes, he proved that he was a better person at that moment then he was before they took the trip. That is a major reason why it is important to give yourself the peace of mind and freedom of no burden and stress. It is necessary to free yourself of the little weight that sits on your shoulders from tension that is held in. It is good to move forward. Change is constant and very crucial element in the process of healing through forgiveness. By Victor forgiving his father was able to free himself from the control of his father.

It is not easy to forgive someone. It is a process and it has to be worked at even after making the change. There has to be a commitment to staying dedicated. For Thomas, it seemed like it was easy for him to forgive. There were many times when Thomas could have held a grudge for example when Victor beat him up or the many times when he was treated as an outcast. However, Thomas had the spirit of a child.  That kind of spirit is very unique and definitely contributed Thomas being able to forgive people better than most.

Forgiveness was a significant role in Smoke Signals. It showed that the importance of forgiveness. It showed what not being able to forgive someone does to a person. In the movie, Arnold accidentally started the fire. He never could forgive himself from what he did. He held onto that tough situation and letting it eat at him all the while. Arnold turned to alcohol and he tried to run away from the issue. It eventually killed him. That was an extreme situation of what can happen if you don’t give yourself the opportunity to heal and forgive. On the other hand, the movie explains through Victor forgiving his father the relief of what forgiveness can do. Forgiveness played a huge role in Smoke Signals.

One thing that I thought to be different from the film was how the character of Thomas was more examined. In the film, most of the flashbacks were about Victor whereas in the film we saw more of Thomas. It was interesting to see how intuitive Thomas is. The story explained how Thomas would just show up at exactly the right time and answer all of Victor's questions, without Victor even saying anything. It was like Thomas felt victor's worries and could read his mind. 

 I thought from the movie that Thomas was spirited and had positive vibes but the story was confirmation of his intuitive nature. This did not change the meaning or my perspective of the characters for me. It was good to hear more from Thomas and his explanation of things. For example, his story about when Victor's dad took him to Dennys. It just so happen that they ran into each other when Thomas was on a spiritual adventure. It wasn't like Victor's dad picked Thomas up and took him out to eat. 

Rules for Writers Chapter 52 Writing MLA Papers

When writing a paper in MLA style you have to form a tentative thesis. A thesis is one sentence statement of your main idea. Then you want to organize your evidence. Make sure that your evidence supports your thesis.  The body of the paper will be for your evidence, so that you can explain terms, provide background information and examples that support your claim.
When writing an essay you want to make sure that all of your sources are cited so that you will avoid plagiarism. Any phrase that is borrowed must be cited. The only information that does not need to be cited was anything that is common knowledge. There is different ways to cite sources depending on whether the source comes from a book or whether it is an electronic source. At the end of the paper you have to make a list of the work cited. It has to be an alphabetical order.
I will use this style of writing when I do my essays for now on. I will make sure that all of my work that I actually cite in my essay will be cited to prevent plagiarism. I will make sure that only the work that I cite will be placed on the work cited page at the end of my essay. The last paper I turned in, I put all of my sources on the work cited page even though some of the sources I didn't use in my essay. Now I know better. 

Smoke Signals

What do you think about the relationship between Thomas and Victor?

Thomas has this free spirit that I enjoyed watching. He thinks of Victor as his brother and considers Victor's dad Arnold to be like a father to him. Thoma's spirit was so open and free that he didn't get too bothered all of those times that Victor beat him up or bullied him around. What I think that Thomas didn't realize was how hurt Victor was inside. Thomas constantly talked positive about Arnold and that bothered Victor. 
Victor was a little jealous of Thomas, I think that is why he always picked on him. Thomas was saved by the fire by Arnold and Victor wanted to be the child that was saved. Victor didn't like to hear the stories about his father because he didn't experience the stories like Thomas did. He saw a different side of his dad. He experienced an alcoholic father that would slap him and his mother around. 
Victor eventually understood why his father treated Thomas like a son and was so great to him. Victor's father was responsible for killing Thomas's parents. He started the fire. It makes since that he tried his best to be like a father figure to Thomas. Once Victor figured out that his dad killed Thoma's parents, he knew that his dad was doing everything in his power to try and make up for what he did. When Victor gave half of his father's ashes to Thomas, that was his way of saying that my dad was your dad too. 
Their relationship needed work in the beginning  because of the misunderstanding and grudge that Victor held towards Thomas. Once those misunderstandings where cleared up, their relationship is destined for greatness.