Month: October 2018

“Stop that!” Shouts a sibling, “why should I?” Demands the other. If you’re like most people, conflict is part of your daily life, even if it’s with co-workers rather than siblings and kids. Well, conflict is a central part of books too. I’m going to examine three interesting conflicts in The Gammage Cup. Nation against nation, society against a group, and self against self. These relatable conflicts make The Gammage Cup outstanding.

In The Gammage Cup the Mushrooms attack the village of Slipper-on-the-Water. The village is nestled between mountains, so the Mushrooms drill through a mountain to get into the valley. The Mushrooms have poisoned spears and are larger than the Minnipins. The Minnipins also are not trained for war. This conflict is short but urgent. It is completely in the end of the book, and also helps solve the other conflicts. Carol Kendal really adds tension and urgency with the poisoned spears and Mingys capture.

This conflict is solved at the end of the book. They kill all the Mushrooms. There is a happy feeling at the end even though others could attacking them the same way again. They have a ‘we will deal with that when it comes’ attitude, and it makes them seem overconfident although it gives a nice feeling to the end of the book.

The Mushrooms attack because of greed. They want gold, and the Minnipins have it. The Minnipins are living peacefully in their village when the Mushrooms invade after hundreds of years on leaving them alone. They always return because of the gold, which the Minnipins do not mine anymore because they don’t want it. This time, returning backfires on the Mushrooms.

The second struggle is against society. Muggles, Mingy, Sir Walter the Earl, Curley Green and Gummy group together against society’s requirements. Where they live green cloaks and doors are the only acceptable color, your house must be tidy, you should be married, you should have a willow tree in your yard, you should have two children, leaders are not to be questioned, and if you aren’t a leader your should humbly accept that you’re “simple.” They are non uniform in a world of uniformity.

Their narrow-minded neighbors complain, and even paint one of their doors, which is not painted green, in the middle of the night behind their backs. Eventually they are essentially kicked out of the village. While they are out of the village this struggle pauses, continuing in points throughout the rest of the book to be fully resolved in the end. After they are saved from the Mushrooms because of the group’s bravery, they admit they were wrong and have a change of heart, greeting the returning villagers with a rainbow of doors and cloaks, symbolizing their acceptance of differences.

In the third conflict Carol Kendal really hits home. Muggles, the main character, has inner conflict with herself. She has to struggle past who she thinks she is, who others think she is, and her own fear to truly be herself. Carol delicately deals with fear and identity in a way everyone can indentify with. This problem is solved early on, after Muggles decides what to do she makes her stand. She starts to say what she thinks, rather than what she thinks she should think, and she stands up for the others.

Before deciding she wavers as she deals with her fears and doubts and struggles past things she thought were true. She’s afraid of what others will think, of being different, and not being liked. She’s also afraid of the leaders punishment. She doesn’t want to be different, but she can’t be the same.

She also discovers things about herself she never would have otherwise. She finds she is thrifty, has good common sense, is brave and a natural leader. All the things the leaders told her she was not. In the end she proves them all wrong. She goes from being a slightly off Minnipin to a celebrated leader looked to for guidance.

The Gammage Cup is a good book because it relates with people. Warring, social standards, fear and identity. It addresses real life. Readers feel for the characters because they indentify with them. All because of Carol Kandal’s use of conflict in a believable way. While fights still go on in the real world, and are not always resolved so tidily, readers leave feeling they are not alone.

10/1/18

Happy October! Fifteen days until I get my braces off. So exciting, I can’t wait! Fall is my favorite season, and we’re starting to get ready for reds and yellows!

Today I started a new history book. The Story of Science: Newton at the Center. It’s in the same series as my last history book. It’s a little combersome right now, but it will help now that I’m done with the introduction!

10/2/18

Today we want on a field trip. We went to Motley Farms and saw pig racing plus did other fall stuff. We rode a hay ride, wandered a corn maze and got some pumpkins. We were gone pretty much all morning.

I am writing an essay on the conflicts in The Gammage Cup. There are three. One, nation against nation. Two, a group against society, and three, the main character with herself. I did some pre-writing today, hopefully the essay is just as good or better.

10/3/18

Today my friend, I’ll call her B, came over. Her parents are out of town and she’s staying here tonight and maybe tomorrow night. We pretty much did school in the same room ocasionally interupted by talking.

Literary analysis is complicated. (I started writing my essay today.) You have to not get caught up in the story! (I did) My first draft of two paragraphs is pretty good though. I forgot I didn’t have to write the whole thing today, and I was trying to before I remembered. That makes it incredibly easier!

10/4/18

My day was unknown. As in, I don’t want to take the time to think about how my day was because I want to be done with school so that I can do fun stuff. Math was frustating, I’ll tell you why. Negatives. Uggggggggg… I really don’t like them, they drive me crazy and make everything harder!

I got the history book I was supposed to start on Monday, yesterday. I started it today. I read all of the reading I was supposed to do the rest of the week. Which was the preface and first five chapters. (The chapters were also short and I liked the book. So it didn’t take long.)

10/5/18

Today was a Friday. I don’t know what else to write, but today was an ehhh Friday. I am done with week nine! My first term! Whooopie! I am a quarter of the way done with the school year, and I can’t wait ’till half!

Math was good. I am doing a short sentence journal. I can now do train problems. In math. I didn’t actually have a train problem, but I had knights and cars. They are fun. And easy. You are probably tired of this. I am too. Goodbye.

Melinda Trump arrived in Ghana on a goodwill tour of Africa. She handed out teddy bears and baby blankets herself, even holding some babies. She pronounced one such baby a “beautiful boy” while returning him to his mother. She is going to Malawi, Kenya and Egypt while she’s in Africa. The first lady will be in Africa for five days promoting her ‘Be Best’ campaign.

The Koreas agreed to start demining their border. They plan to evacuate Arrow Head Hill in the belief that remains of soldiers will be found there. Many of the fiercest battles in the war happened in that area, and traces of the thousands of missing Koreans may be found. The Demilitarized Zone areas were supposed to be nuetral strips, making it safer for both sides, but they turned into the most heavily mined and guarded border in the world, also becoming a cause of desputes between the two countries. South Korea started demining Monday and detected North Korean troops on the other side while they were working.

If you’ve ever been on an elevator you understand the sensation of feeling like you’re going up and down at the same time. They have a way of tricking you, teasing your senses. Elevators were a major breakthrough, and, with Elijah Otis’ safety break, they became a unique mode of transportation all over the world. People who had the job of controlling these thrilling machines were called elevator operators. I think being an elevator operator would have been an ideal job.

Have you ever read The Elevator Family? This book caught my attention for several reasons. One, I love elevators, they give you a feeling nothing else can. Two, it’s such an interesting thought. What if somebody actually lived in an elevator? Three, I’m a people watcher. I enjoy watching people, seeing their life unfold, guessing who they are, where they’re from, and where they’re going. Lots of people go on elevators, and being an operator gave plenty of opportunity to watch them. “It’s fun, I get to meet a lot of interesting people.” Said Eleanor Adame, a former elevator operator in Kansas. She had fun doing her work, which is a revolutionary concept in this time and age.

I like variation. I wouldn’t want a job where I did the same thing all day, every day. I wouldn’t even want to be in the same position all day! Elevator operators could stand, lean against the wall, and in some elevators, sit. Elevator operating took skill, each time they stopped at a different floor they had to stop at just the right time to line up the elevator floor with the outside floor. It was challenging, and took lots of practice. They had to go through special training before operating an elevator. Each day was different, different people, different floors, an interesting workplace, being in the middle of the action. Yes, you’re going to the same floors everyday, but different things are going on, different people are roaming around, and you do it all in a different order!

Now, I must devote a section to elevators themselves. I don’t know why I love elevators, maybe it stems from my relatives who have an elevator in their house, or that they were novel in the small town I spent four and a half years of my life in. Whatever the reason, I love elevators, and they would have been an unparalleled place to spend most of my life in.

There are many perks to elevator operating, variety, people-watching, and just elevators themselves. It would have been a great job to support me while I write, challenging and variable at the same time. I think operating an elevator would have been a spectacular job, and just maybe I could’ve figured out where that up and down effect comes from.

The Kurdish region in Iraq held elections. On Sunday they finally had them after a long period of waiting. This is their first election in five years. Millions were elegable to vote before the polls closed in the evening. Results will be announced soon.