Is America Dishonest??? C from fielder

America. When people hear that word, what has happened, to make the United States what it is right now. They think of Freedom, rights to individual, and a right to practice your own religion. But one word that isn’t mention, that should be mention, is dishonesty. America is dishonest about their history, by glossing it over or by rewriting it.

Some Americans, and people around the world, only know the dishonest part about America, or the “glossy” part. Take for example Christopher Columbus. He was a great sailor, he found the United States of America, and was known as a good person. The thing that some people don’t know is that he was a killer. He killed natives Indians. Also, another example is the United States believed that “The Sons of Liberty” was a great group, especially what they did for their country. But did they know, AKA “a gloss over,” that they were a terrorist group. It is a shame for those people to believe in that myth

There are parts when the United States glossed up, and where people believed in it. Also another good gloss up is when they took the American Japanese citizen and put them in camps because they believed that they were spies, when they were really scared. Also when the United States went into the war in Iraq, we went in because we thought that Iraq had nuclear weapons, but they didn’t. Then the government stated that we would stay there anyway just to stabilize it. Well… look at the United States now, it is in a war with Iraq.

Although America did had some honesty in the past, and also they do say that they will learn from their past and try not do it again. But let me ask you this...Does it make up for all the lies the United States made??? Does it make the United States one hundred percent honest??? Does it show America, and Americans that they are better than the rest of the world or does it show they are like other countries that they do make mistakes, and lie sometimes???

Big Fish!!!! B+ from Fielder

Edward uses his big fish stories to teach Will lessons.

The first evidence to show how Edward used his stories to teach Will lessons is that his stories had a common message. One of these lessons that Edward taught Will through his stories was the value of hard work. When Edward saw his wife, he had to get a job at the circus for three years to find out who she was. Another example of how Edward’s stories showed the value of hard work was when Edward was catching the big fish. A fish ate his wedding ring and he spent many days out fishing for that one specific fish just so he could get her ring back. After Will heard these stories for all his life and also learns from them, he begins to tell some of these stories.

The second evidence that demonstrated Edward using stories to teach Will lessons is how he transmitted the value of storytelling to Will. You couldn’t see the
transition but you can tell when it happens. The timing was when Edward was about to die, he asked Will to tell him a story about how he dies, “You mean what you saw in the Eye? I dunno that story, dad, you never told it to me.” And Will told his father an amazing story saying that he turned into the big fish at the end and then Edward died. Another example of how Edward story telling transfers to Will is after he died. After Edwards’s death and funeral, the movie shows Will’s son talking about his grandfather’s death story. “A man tells so many stories, that he becomes the stories. They will live on after him, and in a way he becomes immortal.”

Is Odysseus a Hero?? B- from fielder

Poseidon must have loved Odysseus; cursing him to never return home is a great way to show it. He is a hero in his eyes for sure. In the movie “Hercules” from Walt Disney, Zeus said to Hercules that he isn’t a true hero unless he gives up something he holds dear to his life. So what did Odysseus do to make Odysseus a hero? Sleeping with other women beside his wife. Killing his men. Or saying to the Poseidon that he won the Trojan War when really the gods did. It sounds like he does a lot of heroic things in his life…NOT. If you think he is a hero, you better pay close attention he isn't.

Odysseus sounds like a hero when hedoes courageous things; but what he does is mostly stupid. When Odysseus was at the Cyclops Island, he could have got the things he needed and leave. He didn’t. He stayed and lost half his men to the Cyclops. Stupid. Plain stupid. “Ah, how sound it was! Yet I refused. I wished to see the caveman, what he had to offer – not pretty sight, it turned out, for my friends.” Also even though it was courageous that he stayed there and beat the Cyclops by poking him in the eye, but it could have cost him his life. Odysseus should have kept on traveling trying to find a way home.

Also when Odysseus was traveling the earth to find a way home, he helped people which made him seem heroic. Circle changed all of his men into animals; he had to sleep with her. It was right thing to do- even though he didn’t want to do it. But no hero would have betrayed his wife. Another example of Odysseus helping people is when he tried to control his son temper. If he didn’t his son would have died. At the end they both killed the guest out of anger because they all wanted to marry Penelope, Odysseus wife. Hercules wouldn’t have done that. A hero wouldn’t have either.