Dreamland

Author's Note: I wrote this piece to show my understanding of point of view. While reading this, look for content and look for good body paragraphs.

Caitlin: a 16 year old girl. On her 16th birthday her older sister Cass runs away from home.  In this book, Dreamland, by Sarah Dessen, she writes about how Caitlin and her whole family are heartbroken after they find out about the disappearance of their oldest daughter Cass.  This book is written from Caitlin's point of view, giving the readers opinions on how her sisters disappearance happened and how she deals with it.

The readers overall feeling while reading this is sympathy for Caitlin. Cass, her older sister, is basically perfect in every way. Caitlin just feels like runner up, always behind Cass. Cass: captain of the soccer team, class president, on the debate team and in student government… kind of hard to compete with that. Although Cass is amazing at everything and people get jealous of her, the reader can't help but love her. In a way, that's like my sister: smart, athletic, funny. I get jealous or mad at her sometimes, but of course I still love her.

Although the story is written in Caitlin's point of view, the readers feelings  towards the book would change if it was written in Cass's point of view. For example, if Cass felt trapped and suffocated in the life she was living: all of these extra credit activities; maybe her running away was for her own good. Instead of making her family happy, she decided to put herself first for once. Maybe the reader wouldn't feel as against Cass if they heard what she had to say.

Overall, the reader feels a bit of suspense, sympathy and laughter all throughout this book. It's the perfect book for a teenage girl with a sister, just like me. Caitlin feels really alone when Cass runs away, and I can't imagine how I would ever feel if my sister did that. This book is easy to relate to, and if not, it creates a lot of imagery to help you picture the story. The author, Sarah Dessen, should write another book to show Cass's point of view and her journey as she runs away. I'm not a huge fan of reading, but I would definitely read that book!

Him and Her

Author's Note- I wrote this piece to show my understanding of figurative language. While reading this poem, look for figurative language and voice.

Him: strong as a soldier.                                           Her: weak as a weeping willow.

He’d be fine without her.                                           She’d die without him.

He’s a player.                                                             She’s a lover and fighter.

He’s out partying with his buds.                                She’s face down on the bed crying.

He’s chugging sodas.                                                She’s shoving her face full of ice cream.

Woo! He yells with his buds.                                     Ouch! She whispers to herself.

His smile, dancing in the sunset.                               Her tears, running down her face.

   Analysis:

The tone that the author sets in this poem is sympathy for  the girl. She's heartbroken, moping around feeling like she's going to die; while he is out with his friends having the time of his life, without a care in the world, not even a care for her. Based on the tone that is set, the readers mood is going to be sad, but not a "my grandma died" sad, more of a "heartbroken sympathy" sad.

Another tone that the author sets is hatred, toward the boy. The reader doesn't hate him necessarily, they hate how he reacted to their break up: careless.  He breaks up with his girlfriend and he's just carefree about everything. She's sitting there crying while he's out with his friends. Because of the tone that's set, the reader feels anger toward the boy while reading this. The reader wishes that'd he'd just care more about her and her feelings.