Lassie: Come Home

1. Significance

This book is about the unbreakable bond of boy and dog. Be ready to go on a journey that you wouldn't believe. This tale is for those who love adventure and believe in happy endings. It is quite perky, and a children's novel. It shows you can't own things that wish to be with one it loves.

2. Perspective

The main character of this book is a collie named Lassie who lives in Yorkshire, England. Lassie is called the finest dog in all of Yorkshire. She is sold by her loving family to the Duke of Rudling, because her family couldn't afford her anymore. The boy is the only son in that family. His name is Joe Carraclough. Lassie comes to his school everyday to pick Joe up. You, the reader, are in the perspective of humans who are affected by Lassie's journey. Sometimes you are just following Lassie, but never in her mind.

Eric Knight, thew author of the book, was born in Yorkshire, England. 1897.

3. Evidence

When Lassie is sold, she keeps returning to Joe at the same gate she always is after Joe is out of school. This upsets the Duke of Rudling very much. He goes to his estate in the Northern most tip of Scotland. Lassie is persistent and breaks free at the time Joe gets out of school. She then starts her journey home. This is evidence for the unbreakable bond of a boy and his dog.

4. Connection

Lassie has an amazing homing sense which most dogs have. Same as with her timing sense. She knows exactly when Joe is out of school. All dogs share these qualities. It also leads to the fact that most domesticated animals won't run off into the wild and have a jolly ole' time. A lot might die because of strange things we have bred them to look like and do.

5. Supposition

I think this book could be a little more descriptive of the scenery, and people. It barely scraped the top of what everything looked like. It did have a good way of following the main character, yet never actually "being" the main character. Overall a wonderful book.

Gulliver's Travels

1. Significance

This book was originally written as a political satire on English politics. It is about a man named Gulliver who is shipwrecked many times in distant, strange lands. One land is the flying island of Laputa who are so taken up by their own thoughts you have to hit them so they will notice you. They are very advanced in science and music and cared for nothing else. Gulliver leaves and enters a mysterious and dangerous land. 

2. Perspectives

Jonathan Swift was born in Dublin, Ireland in November 1667. He was very interested in politics, and used this book to criticize all he thought was unfair in English politics.

Swift died on October 19, 1745

3. Evidence

Swift's many arguments against old English politics and humans in general, is this: Humans believe themselves to be superior to everything and everyone else, yet they are so far from anything close to perfection. The evidence is the talking horses and the yahoos. The yahoos symbolize humans. They are barbaric and savage. The talking horses, the Houyhnhnms, symbolize perfection. These two creatures are very, very different from each other. Humans are as bad as yahoos are.

4. Connection

Lilliput symbolizes England in the story and Blefuscu symbolizes France. The book compares these two countries in that way. In Brobdingnag the king shows dislike to the English government showing we are not perfect. The king in these exact words said "I cannot but conclude the bulk of your natives to be the most pernicious race of little odious vermin that nature ever suffered to crawl upon the surface of the earth." This book shows in the real world only imaginary creatures like the Houyhnhnms can be perfect.

5. Supposition

I think this book could be improved if it weren't so boring at times. Sometimes it went 0n about things that didn't really matter at all for the purpose of the story. I also think Jonathan Swift could have put Gulliver's travels into one. Gulliver returned home after every adventure. To me it seemed a bit too lucky to return home after being in a magical land three times. Otherwise I think Jonathan Swift was very excellent at getting his very strong point across. 

A Little Princess

1. Significance

This book is about a girl who even when the darkest of times comes her way, she is able to keep her head high, and give to those less fortunate even when she has almost nothing to give. This book represents that even though you think your life is horrible, there are people less fortunate, and you need to keep your head up, because if you don't, you will surely drown in your own misery.

2. Perspective

This book is told in the perspective of an eleven-year-old girl in about 1909. She is at a boarding school in England. She is the daughter of a rich captain in the British army. She lacks a mother. She is smarter than her age, and likes to pretend a lot. She is loved by everyone. She becomes a slave after her dad dies leaving her with nothing because he invested all his money in a a failing diamond mine in India.

Frances Hodgson Burnett's father 1854 leaving her in poverty in Manchester, England. Her family moved to Knoxville, Tennessee where her mother died in 1867 leaving Frances in charge of four younger siblings.  She then married and created books and plays. She had married twice in her life. Her most famous works are, The Secret Garden, Little Lord Fauntleroy, and of course, A Little Princess which was originally  called Sara Crewe. 

3. Evidence

I think the argument that Frances is trying to make is what I put before, if you keep your head up, you won't grown in your own sorrows, and that, even though you think your life is bad, someone else's is always worse, and if you can help them, even in the littlest way, you could help someone else from drowning in sorrows. I think an example of this is when Sara Crewe, the main character, finds a four-pence, she buys half a dozen of rolls. She gives five of these to a beggar hungrier than her. She leaves only one roll for herself. Another example is that, Sara is always pretending things and telling stories to others to keep them and herself happy.

4. Connection

This book shows the good side to the human spirit. Sara Crewe was shown nothing but cruelty from Miss Minchin who controlled the boarding school. This only happened after Sara lost her money. It shows that the world shows kindness only to those that can afford it. It also shows that people as a whole can be the most wonderful and evil of creatures. On one hand we have Sara that shows nothing but kindness, and tenderness to others. On the other hand, you've got Miss Minchin who gives Sara a home after Sara loses all her money. Miss Minchin calls this an act of charity, which it is, but she shows nothing but cruelty to Sara. She doesn't even give Sara enough food to sustain Sara and gives her all the odd jobs she can.

5. Supposition

If you changed the fact that Sara's dad lost all of his money, Sara would have finished boarding school and lived a happy life. Miss Minchin's bad side would have remained hidden. The other slave would have always lived like a slave. Sara would have never been able to help her. Sara would never had really known the importance of friends.

White Fang

1. Significance

This book matters because it shows how a little patience and kindness can change even the meanest of creatures. I believe this lesson is relevant to everyone. Why? Because everyone deserves patience and kindness because without it, no one would care. They would feel like nothing because no one gave them kindness, or was ever patient with them. I think you should read this book, because not only is it a cool story, it shows how someone else's hatred can make a very horrible creature. You would know what I'm talking about if you read this book. That is why this book is significant.

2. Perspective

Jack London wrote this book. It was written in 1905, I believe. Jack London grew up in poverty. He was a socialist, and an individualist. He believed in the salvation of others. I believe that influenced his book White Fang. I think Jack London, in a weird way, wrote about himself in the book White Fang. Jack London is writing about animal abuse, in my opinion. I think he is telling us to put out a little patience, and a little effort in anything you do, and you will end up with something beautiful. Jack London is very against hatred and animal abuse. That is the authors perspective.

3. Evidence

Jack London provides evidence for these two arguments; Someone else' hatred can create a horrible creature; and, a little patience and a little effort can create something beautiful. His evidence is what happened to White Fang. White Fang is a half-wolf (I think it might have been 3-quarte-wolf.). White Fang was found by Native Americans along with his mother, Kiche. He is bullied by another dog named Liplip. Who is later joined by other dogs. White Fang learns to fight and thus becomes a bully himself. Then his master brings him to a settler's camp. He is bought by a guy named Beauty Smith who treats White Fang badly so he fights more aggressively. One time someone found out what was going on to White Fang. He rescued White Fang. He then took the trouble to accustom White Fang to life around friendly humans. That was no easy task. He was called the Love Master because he showed White Fang love.

4.Connection

This connects to the real world because a lot of people bully, and mistreat others, which causes the bullied person to become nasty to others, whom themselves become nasty people. If you show a little kindness like the Love Master did to White Fang, you also might be able to stop the chain reaction of nasty people.

5.Supposition

I think if you took out LipLip, the dog that bullied White Fang in the first part White Fang would be not as viscious, which could mean two things. One it could mean, he would have never been seen fighting by Beauty Smith and bought and abused and he would have never met the Love Master. It could also mean, during one of the famines the Native Americans went through, which all the dogs abandon their homes until there is enough food in whhich case they would return.; White Fang would have died from another dog because he hadn't learned to be so tough and viscious.