Shadow Jumper Essay

Within his text, Campbell writes about the hero crossing the first threshold and entering a Special World. Taking this action signifies the beginning of the journey and the hero’s commitment to it. When related to Jack, the Special World he crosses over to is Christmas Town, where he begins his journey toward making people happy rather than scaring them. After being celebrated by the town for the best Halloween yet, Jack sneaks off by himself toward the outskirts of the town into a twisted hill above a pumpkin patch and graveyard, it is there he sits and ponders what he is feeling, and thus he begins singing "Jack’s Lament". Within the song he sings about how others view him as terrifying and displays a few the scare tactics he has, but the chorus of the song is what reveals the crux of his dilemma, "oh, somewhere deep inside of these bones, an emptiness began to grow, there’s something out there, far from my home, a longing that I’ve never known" . Jack is unhappy with the life he is leading and as a result has become massively depressed. Zero, his ghost dog, even tries to cheer him up to no avail. This leads to Jack wandering the forest until dawn when he stumbles upon a place he has never been to before.

Jack was living with family that was careless about him, but now he lives in a tree house alone but not for long. When he was in the cvc’s(it’s really in the beginning) getting a tiny screwdriver to repair walkie, he got attacked by a furious monster named Blarg! After running away from the Blarg to the treehouse, he began repairing walkie. The second walkie had his best friend Quint(who likes brussel sprouts,YUCK!). After he was talking to Quint, he went to Quint’s house

Freedom lies in being bold. The independence us teenagers yearn for is not simply handed to us, but earned through the trust of our parents. Striving to be adults, we try to grow up too fast as our parents grow old and we often disregard their want for us to be great, and their need to shelter us from the good and the bad; but what isn’t understood at a young age is that we let go of them because they don’t let go of us. We may refuse to consider what our parents have to say and their stance on things, thus creating a barrier in the parent/child relationship, evident in “Saturday Climbing”. This story by W.D. Valgardson follows the journey of father and daughter as they attempt to bond over a cliff-climbing adventure in the mountains with a team of other people. It is evident early on in the story that there is tension between the two though father, Barry, has made an effort to repair the damaged relationship. The adventure not only helps the two heal, but causes Barry’s epiphany around the subject of trust. The realization comes from a number of flashbacks, and most importantly, the desire Moira has to take charge and lead the pitch.

Jacks ineffective ability to think of another person’s feelings reflects on the people that surround him. This all changes when Jacks diagnosis of a tumor on his larynx turns him into the patient. His long waits in the waiting room and endless paperwork cause him to be frustrated. He is now the person needing empathy. Although he is a doctor at the very hospital where he receives treatment, he begins to see first-hand how his lack of empathy towards people and patients can make a person feel.

Lastly, Jack forms relations with the new outside world, and consequently he further explores his role within society. According to a specialist, Jack’s limited exposure to the world will create a barrier towards interaction with the community and environment. “‘Like a newborn in many ways, despite his remarkably accelerated literacy and

they had it. They have nobody but themselves which leads to nothing but evil. Isabelle-Marie

     The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a poignant coming of age story about a teenage boy named Charlie who is entering into his freshman year of high school and trying to cope with death, life, friends, and sexuality. Chobosky does a remarkable job at describing all of these issues through the eyes of a shy, introvert teen. The reader will be shocked, amazed, and grateful to join Charlie in his walk down the road of realization and growing up.

     The protagonist is a 9 year old boy, Dave Pelzer. The setting mostly takes place in his mother’s house. All of a sudden his mother and father started drinking and had problems in their relationship. His mother is always telling him

His “hysteria could rise up strong and try to kill him” (Cohen 196). The fact that Jack knows what might happen to him and yet he still attempts to venture outside, this shows how much ambition he has. Jack attempts to leave his house many times throughout the book, almost always failing or not going as expected. However, this shows perseverance. Continuously trying to do something, even though the odds are not in your favor. Later in the novel, Agoraphobia is described as “a baby rattlesnake, the fear has no control value, no stopper… if he had a support system… it might never have taken him so far inside his terror, so far inside that he’d fight it in degrees for the rest of his life.” This describes exactly what Jack goes through every single day. Jack must fight to overcome his sickness; he must face terror constantly knowing full well that he has already lost, there is no boing back. Even with Jack realizing he already lost, he continues to live and struggle. That takes a whole lot of perseverance to stay alive. The novel, Town House, takes a humours route to tell a serious tail. Perseverance helps the story to be a positive one, it gives the reader hope for characters. It is the very essence that gets Jack through tough

The Jack Roller A Delinquent Boy’s Own Story by Clifford Shaw was published in 1930 and it tells the story of a boy named Stanley. Throughout the book, Stanley talks about his life and the injustices that he dealt with. The downfall of his life occurred when he was just four years old when his mother passed away, leaving his father to take care of three children. Soon after the death of his mother, his father becomes an alcoholic and remarries a woman who has seven children of her own. This leads to twelve people sharing four rooms in a basement apartment. Stanley’s father did the best he could to provide a roof over his family’s head and food for them to eat, but he did not provide any love for his children, which in his eyes was all he needed to do. In addition, he was blind to the fact that his new wife was abusive to his children and that she would send Stanley out to steal food. Soon fate would take Stanley’s younger siblings out of their home and place them in a foster home. Unfortunately, Stanley was kept in the abusive and neglectful home. When Stanley decided, he could no longer take the abuse of his stepmother, he decided to escape from her by running away and living out on the street.

There once was a boy named Zits. He was half Native American, half Irish and completely parentless. He lived in many different foster homes until he eventually met a troubled youth named Justice, who filled Zits with ideas of violence until Zits opened fire on a bank. Subsequently, Zits was shot in the head and switched bodies throughout time and space. His journey continued as he was transferred through time and different individuals, all who related to his personality and had to make choices about violence. His story is one of self-discovery as he travels until he can return to himself and reverse his horrible actions in the bank. This story is the novel Flight by Sherman Alexie. In this novel, Alexie explores many complex themes, such as the effect of a father figure on one’s personality and how compassion can help heal a person’s soul. Throughout the novel, it is evident that Zits is strongly influenced by his parental figures or lack of them. In the beginning, he chooses to let his violent role models have total control over his version of right and wrong. After his journey of learning, he realizes that he has command over his thoughts and can choose what he believes. At the end, he also has positive role models, ones that won’t force him to be violent and care for him. Because of his change in role models and ideas, he becomes a more compassionate and empathetic person.

4. The climax of the story is found when Jack and his newfound friends come up upon some robbers in the house the animals and Jack were planning to occupy that evening. Jack skillfully devises a plan to rid the house of the robbers and uses his animal friends to help him. With teamwork, the plan becomes a success and they are able to spend the night in the house the robbers had just fled from. This paragraph from "How Jack Went to Seek His Fortune" unravels the climax of the story and allows readers to engage in a suspenseful event, and it states,

Like Beals and Brian, Moon Shadow can't be discouraged fast. It is a realistic fiction story written by Lawrence Yep, about a boy named Moon Shadow, his father left him a few months before he was born to go to america to make money. Moon Shadows’ mother was very busy with farm work, but managed a little bit of time to teach Moon Shadow how to fly a kite. His mother wanted him to know his father was a great kite maker. Even though his father left him he is not discouraged. He learns how to live without a father. His turning point is very hard to overcome, but Moon Shadow is determined to live a good life even without a father.

The phantom tollbooth is an great book.It’s plot is about a kid who thinks every thing’s a bore.Then a magical tollbooth mysteriously appears and he drives through cause he has nothing better to do.But when he gets there he finds places you would never expect.He meets boys who float off the ground and islands that you get to by jumping.I would prefer this book to anyone no mater how old or young.

After reading Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury, I became more aware of the magic of summer and what it means to truly live. The novel gave me a new perspective of thee idea that life is like summer where you’re alive and feel free, but how it sadly doesn't last forever. The novel opened me up to the idea of looking at person’s mental age instead of their physical age. The novel follows the path of Douglas, a twelve-year-old boy living in Green Town, Illinois. In the novel, Douglas strives to enjoy his summer and to live his life to its fullest. In his adventuring, he becomes more aware of the nature of the world and tries to make sense of life and death. At the same time, Douglas sees people as “machines” that serve a