Student-written+EXAMPLES

All the following are sample Summer Reading entries including **double entry** (first the author’s words, then the student’s responding words/corresponding new ideas).
__//**Journal and Diary Entries**//__

//Redeeming Love//

by Francine Rivers

1-2. [this entry equals 2 chapters and is equivalent to 2 half-page diary entries]

Dear Jesus,

Please help me for I am in so much pain. Father, you told me to marry Amanda, and I did but now I am so confused. Father, you know me, and you know that pride means little to me even though Paul keeps reminding me of it. It is not my pride, reputation or life that was been wounded, but my heart. Jesus, I don't know what to do. Amanda is so hard and so reserved. I cannot see into her at all. We have made some progress since she has been here, but not enough, Father. I feel as if I am talking to a ghost. She has such a large wall up, Jesus, and I don't know how to help her. She is my wife and I love her so deeply! But, Jesus, she does not love me back and it hurts me so much.

I know living on a farm and learning new skills is very difficult for her. Please help me to help her understand that she is doing wonderful. Jesus, I cannot tell if she does love me and want to spend the rest of her life with me, or if she is just to afraid. She is such a mystery, Lord! I know that she just wants a cabin of her own where she can feel “free.” But Lord, she works so hard that she tires herself out. She works until she can work no more, and I don't understand her motives for why she drives herself so hard. Does she feel she needs to earn my love? If so Lord, help her to see that she doesn't need to earn her way into my love. She is not worth any less to me because of her past. Does Amanda feels that she is unclean and filthy because she was not a virgin when we were married, like I was? I tell her it doesn't matter to me, but she doesn't believe me. She has never believed me. Lord, please show Mara what is the truth when it comes from my lips and help her to let go of her past.

Lord, finally when I feel like things are getting better, she leaves me! Lord, she leaves me! She runs into a river to escape me or rides with Paul to Pair-a-Dice. Father, do you know what that did to me? My wife slept with my brother-in-law! Father, I can't get the picture out of my mind. I saw another man on top of her and I saw the look in his eyes. He was filth and dirt, God. Has she had to live with that forever, Lord? God, I get so angry when I think about it, but Lord, turn my anger into love and guidance for her. If she wasn't needing something, she wouldn't have done what she did. Help me to forgive her, Jesus, and help me to no longer feel what I do towards that vile man, Lord. Help me to understand that Paul and Angel and the man are all your creation and my bitter and harsh thoughts toward Paul and the other man are sinful. Father, help me to be sorry. Please change me.

God, I pray that you remove the wall and wear away at her hardness. Give me the tools to help her. Father, show her that my love is true and noble, and give my the strength to stand strong and not give into my physical desires. Lord, show her that she is safe here and she is free. God, take away her desires to leave, and any guilt or shame she feels about her past. Lord, let her leave prostitution in the past and help her to understand that she is no longer unclean, Lord. Please help me, and please help Amanda. You have to help her, for I don't know what to do and am helpless.

Maybe she loves me, but I am afraid that she doesn't know what love is, or at least what true love is. She won't tell me anything about her past so I don't know how to help her. I love you, Father with my whole heart, but I love Amanda so much! Father, is this how you feel? You love us so deeply, yet we don't love you back. At least, Jesus, you know how to help us see who you are and how to love you back. Lord, please turn her to Tirzah, the woman who accepts my love and is no longer bitter. Father, she needs you so deeply, and I pray that you will show her. Lord, above all, lead her to you. God, give me patience with Angel, and strength, kindness, love, gentleness, and more patience. Lord, bless her, for she is hurting and weak, but pretending to be strong. Break her so that you can rebuild her. Father, please, oh, holy Father, help me, for I don't know what to do. You are my only strength and my only source of all things good. Rain into my wife's life and help me God, for I am so hurt. Please Lord, give me her trust and her love, and together, we will plant seeds and water her, and together, you and I will watch her grow. I love you, Father.

Your Servant,

Michael

3.“'What's to tell? What I do is what I am. All it comes down to is you telling me how you want me to be. Be quick. Your time's almost up.'” (page 65)

At this time, Michael had come to the brothel to tell Angel that he was planning on marrying her and wanted to take her back to his home right then and there. This quote was Angel's response to Michael telling her that he wanted to get to know her a little better before they went to his farm. All Angel had ever known are people that didn't want her born and that don't want her around. The extent of her relationships are people that used her for one thing and one thing only. Because she was sold into prostitution at the age of eight, that is the only lifestyle she had ever known. Therefore, is is not surprising that she responds the way she does.

I was looking back at some of my Oliver Twist papers because I felt Angel and Nancy shared some similar qualities. I found a phrase where Sikes tells Nancy, “What do yo mean by it? Burn my body! Do you know who you are and what you are?” Very similar to what Angel said about herself to Michael.

As Michael tries to work his way into Angel's life, he soon realizes that she has a very thick and strong guard up that will not easily be broken down. It is interesting that instead of appearing ashamed, shy, or afraid, Angel almost always laughs off her situations in the presence of someone else, usually a man. Even when she is alone, she does not break down. She may handle her pain through facial expressions, body language, or her actions, but she does not cry and hardly ever laughs when alone. It is also described that Nancy didn't cry in front of people and also laughed her situations off, as if they didn't effect her. In this situation where Sikes speaks in such a judgmental way, Nancy laughs to his face, then turns her face aside where he cannot see and trembles, bitting her lip to keep back the tears. So, comparing these two girls, it is interesting that one (Angel) has herself believing that she is what she does and no one can talk her out of her current mindset. Where the other (Nancy) has it told to her face and she struggles to believe it. I know that in another situation, Nancy said, “and I wish I had been struck dead in the street...before I lent a hand in bringing him here.” Later in //Redeeming Love//, Angel leaves Michael so that he may marry again and have children through Miriam since she cannot bear him any children herself. She loved, worshiped, and finally felt safe and secure with him, but she tortured herself so that he may have what she thought he wanted most. Both girls are so selfless- it is incredible, and even dangerous at times. Angel is willing to give up the only human man that has ever shown her true love and kindness and Nancy is willing to give her life to save Oliver from beginning a life that she knows is terrible.

I wonder then, if it is a more gradual process to the hardness it appeared Angel had. She has been suffering in this life for ten or more years, which I am not sure Nancy had been. I am curious to know if it is just a process then, where you learn from the start that putting your own personal desires aside is the only way to make it through, and holding onto your wishes will only end up hurting you. Both girls had the selflessness, but only one of them had the hardness that strength to endure this selfless attitude. Which makes me think that more than anything it is a matter of time. I do wonder though what other factors there might be to explain this comparison? A possibility could just be the individual, and how they respond to conflict and suffering. I wonder at this though, since both grasped the key to success at the lifestyle they were so harshly thrown into. If they can learn and obey this, why couldn't they learn how to display what they had embraced. Because of this, I would think that Angel is the stronger of the two girls, because she does not let on that she is suffering, which is the only way to survive in the business she was in.

However, I heard a speaker say once, that if you believe a lie, you empower the lie. It is such a simple statement, but it does carry a lot of weight and a lot of truth. If Angel believes that being sold into prostitution makes her worth nothing, then she is empowering the lie, and it will begin to take a hold on her life, creating this hardness. Whereas it does not appear that Nancy believes this lie, because she does not have such hardness but a more innocent and softer demeanor. Which then, would lead me to believe that Nancy is the stronger of the two, because she does not empower this lie. So, I suppose that there is not true way to measure the strength or correct way of handling such a demanding life of these girls since there are such different ways of measuring it.

I wonder if this 'strength' is gradual or just the personality of Angel and if it really is strength, or if it will work against her, as a weakness.

//A Separate Peace//

Chapter 8

One thing I noticed in this chapter was that Gene was really starting to be humbled and realize the war that was going on around him and how lucky he is. On page 104, Gene is talking about how he is lucky to be so safe and not have to worry about being bombed or in danger. I think this was a good thing to realize because they are so separated from everything else going on at their boarding school, so they are very prone to getting selfish and proud. This ties into the title of the book also.

On page 105, I thought it was interesting when Gene said that he had to say his prayers quick because Finny thought that if you didn’t get it done in less than 3 minutes you weren’t trying. It just makes me think about what this says about Finny. God doesn’t require us to be perfect, because its impossible, but I think that Finny believes that he does. This could possibly explain why he behaves the way he does and will never fail at anything.

In this chapter Gene is growing in his independence and understanding his and Finny’s relationship more. On page 108, he says that Finny __needs__ him. Throughout the book so far, it seemed like the other way around, that Gene needed Finny in order to get along at Devon. This could start to bring up a lot of new behavior on Gene that we haven’t seen before this, because he starts to realize who he is and who Finny isn’t. The weird part was that on the next page it says that peace had come back to Devon when Finny came back. Is this because he doesn’t have to worry about filling in for him or that he is about to get back into the routine of before he left?

Chapter 9

“What deceived me was my own happiness; for peace is indivisible, and the surrounding world confusion found no reflection inside me.” (pg. 123)

This quote confused me for a really long time, because I didn’t understand what it meant at all, but now I think I understand it a lot better. Gene thought that he shouldn’t be happy because the rest of the world is so unhappy because it was wartime. He thought that there either is peace or isn’t peace in the world, but he felt peace at Devon, which confused him. He didn’t feel any of the pain of the war or the effects of it, because he was so sheltered at Devon. This explains the title of the book more, because Devon was separate from everything else going on, so they felt peace, even while the rest of the world was in turmoil. Throughout the rest of the chapter it keeps hinting at this concept, but narrows it down even more. Eventually he says that he became separated from the crowd at the Butt Room, Brinker, and all of his other friends to where it was only him and Finny, “where there was no war at all”.

One thing that surprised me in this chapter was on pg. 133, when it said that you have to be rude and edgy to be considered to have personality at Devon. Devon, this strict catholic school, has a lot of things about it that make it very contrary to the bible. This reminds me of “The Chocolate War” because that was a Catholic school too, but just like Devon the atmosphere wasn’t encouraging Christ-like attitudes and behaviors.

//Night//

1.“’Man raises himself toward God by the questions that he asks Him,' he [Moshe the Beadle] was fond of repeating. 'That is the true dialogue. Man questions God and God answers. We can't understand them. Because they come from the depths of the soul, and they stay there until death. You will find the true answers Eliezer, only within yourself!' ” (page 2-3)

I agree with what Moshe the Beadle is telling to Elie in this passage. It shows that the character is very wise, and that he understands you can't know everything. When he says that the answers come from the depths of the soul it has a great effect on me. It reminds me that you can't find happiness from anything except that which is in you- the Holy Spirit. I would guess that Moshe is telling this to Elie in order to cheer him up a bit. It is kind of ironic that Elie hears this, because later in the book he has nothing except what is in him. Moshe tells him that all you need is in you, and Elie seems to forget that when he later gets angry at God. When he felt that he had lost everything, all Elie had needed to do was look inside him and ask God for help.

//A Separate Peace//

Chapter 11

For a while now, one of the main questions was “are Finny and Gene true friends?” My question has been answered! I believe they are. Finny is showing love and kindness to him and Gene isn’t having crazy thoughts about Finny. I think Gene realizes that they are friends and nothing should get between them.

“White marble stairs” (177)

At the beginning of this trial I was wondering why Finny was letting this continue. When his injury first happened he didn’t care how it happened or who had done it. I wasn’t surprised that Finny would get mad at Brinker; I would. At the beginning of the book Gene said the marble stairs brought back bad memories. Something just happened to Finny on those stairs, but what?!?