A Lobaton’s Online Journal

For many of us in the UK poverty isn’t seen as a negative thing. In fact during 2015/2016 8000 people sleep rough out on the streets. London is full of beautiful sightings but there are still a large amount of people who live on the floor. The poverty rate is growing by the years and this is chosen to be ignored by the government.

Poverty consists of multiple features. Almost a third of the UK population fell below the official poverty line at some point between 2010 and 2013. There’s such things as child poverty, food poverty and homelessness. These types of poverty occur because people’s benefits are being cut they can’t afford food, there are no job centers that are willing to provide them a job or a school wont be able to benefit a child with free school meals, as a result this gives a child a deducted chance of passing their GCSE’s

A personal experience of homelessness in poverty is 38 year old Mike. Mike’s benefits was recently cut off by the government and is under the capability to pay £423 of rent for his council flat in Balham. If he is unable to pay he will be evicted from his home and will be living with no roof over his head. Mike suffered a devastating stroke which was career changing because he was a plumber. Ever since his tragedy the DWP have been providing him with benefits to get him back on his feet. After 5 Months of benefits the DWP realized Mike is in good condition and is able to pay rent. Unfortunately for Mike, he has no job and no money. Mike has been searching for a minimum wage job but has received no luck. Sadly for Mike, he is constantly ignored by the citizens of ‘Great Britain’.Mike is now Constantly attending Food-banks to receive a decent amount of nutrition.

The people you’re about to meet aren’t as fortunate as you. Most people ignore them and a very small amount spare a bit of change. But the Government Politicians don’t do anything about this issue in England. The media decide to show these people because they think they are not relevant to our community. and will expose our Country. These people have been cut off benefits, evicted and lost their jobs due to serious injuries. The Government don’t care and job centers don’t give these people a chance, and because of this the poverty rate is so low and then the government complain about why is there so many people living on the street.

My Mum’s friend’s benefits have been cut and she cannot provide for her children and pay the rent she owes to keep a roof over her head. She has tried to save every penny to pay rent and buy food at the same time. Unfortunetly for her she has been going to food banks for her and her children.

In this essay i will be explaining how Ron Suskind presents the difficulties of Cedric’s education in part one and part two. This striking story is about a young man named Cedric who finds it hard to cooperate in school, Ballou High School. He is continuously getting verbally abused by mainly students and not being treated fair by teachers.Ron Suskind uses various languages techniques  to represent the difficulties in Cedric’s education.

A language technique that Ron Suskind uses is a metaphor, a quote in part one that displays Cedric’s difficulty in school is ”The arduous odyssey of Cedric”. Here, the writer compares Cedric and Odysseus. Cedric is on a long Journey to his objective similar to what Odysseus does. Arduous means long and tiring which relates to how long Cedric’s school journey is and odyssey is a Greek myth where a specific character named Odysseus is on a journey by himself battling monsters and dangers just like how Cedric does against the other students to become better then them, also he has to avoid other students picking on him because he’s smart and focused. Ron Suskind uses this quote to suggest that in Ballou High Cedric has a exhausting long journey that he has to face as an individual to reach is goal which is to make it into M.I.T. This will be a tough challenge for Cedric knowing that only a small proportion of people succeed in Ballou High and is almost certain that you fail due to the issues in the school. This displays one of the difficulties Cedric has to overcome in his education.

Ron Suskind uses another metaphor to describe the difficulties of Cedric’s education the quote he uses to display this is ‘I have to run twice the distance to catch up’. This suggests that this is just like a race because Cedric has to endure to reach first place and do better the everyone else in M.I.T since the are more fortunate regarding their school and social life. This also suggests that Cedrics old school, Ballou High, has pushed him back a position in the race and needs to endure even more to be level with the others. This quote shows how far he is from the Students who are already doing better then him which also relates to the quote Being a minority and a high achiever means you have to carry extra baggage. This displays that the differences between Ballou high and M.I.T because of how successful you have to be in your studies.

Ron Suskind uses another metaphor to describe the difficulties in Cedric’s education by using the quote “It didn’t come to much of a surprise to anyone in the school to the city’s most crime infested ward.” This quote implies that in Ballou High there is crime everywhere since recently a student was shot dead by another student. The word infested determines that all the tragic events that have been happening is unwanted like a disease. Crime infested ward means that there is a virus of crime going around throughout the whole city and its distracting students like Cedric

Another Language technique that Ron Suskind uses is a personification, he uses this language technique in the quote “Being a minority and a high achiever means you have to carry extra baggage”. The writer has used this quote to imply that Cedric is a part of the minority that needs to do extra to gain access to do well in education and be a high achiever whereas if you weren’t part of that minority you would have easy access to being a high achiever and making it to a good university just like what Cedric wants to do to get into M.I.T. Cedric isn’t doesn’t feel privileged enough to have all the educational resources that the people who are not part of Cedric’s minority.

Ron Suskind uses another personification to present another difficulty in Cedric’s education, this is used in the quote “Failure is persuasive even seductive”. The writer has used this quote to suggest that students in Ballou high are easily persuaded to fail in their education such as students dealing drugs, going prison and even ending up dead. This has a massive effect towards the students who want to be successful like Cedric. The reason why is because of all the chaos that is causes by violent and arrogant students who cause fights throws in a difficult barrier to get across for students like Cedric. The word ‘persuasive suggests that Failure in Ballou High is the only thing you can get out of it. This also means that a small proportion of students succeed and failure is persuading them to stop succeeding.

The writer uses a simile in display the quote “so much of what goes on here is like crowd control” this quote is used by the writer to implicate that most students are disruptive in school so if Cedric can not learn in school so he’ll have to teach himself outside school or at home. This is also evidence how Ballou High cant compare to how they teach in M.I.T which puts Cedric at a disadvantage. This quote links the quote “The Arduous Odyssey of Cedric” because it relates to how he is on a long tough journey reaching his goal to where only a minority reach to.

In conclusion Ron Suskind used various language techniques to present the difficulties in Cedric’s education in part one and part two. In my opinion the quote ‘arduous odyssey of Cedric’ is the most effective quote then all the others is because it specifies how much of a difficulty journey Cedric’s education is. My evidence of this is that Odysseus -the character from the Greek myth- is on a long journey as an individual who fights monsters and faces dangers which could ruin his chance of reaching his objective. This links to what Cedric does against the other students he has to be better then to get to M.I.T and teachers making hiss feel unprivileged of his education. Fortunately for Cedric he reaches his objective which is to get into M.I.T also like Odysseus when he reaches his goal which was to get to his homeland. This is the reason why I think the quote ‘Arduous odyssey of Cedric’ is the most effective quote to the essay question ‘Compare the ways in which Ron Suskind presents the difficulties of Cedric’s education in part one and part two’.

What Characteristics does the old man have that I could use to help me in my life?

Inspiring Characteristics of an Old Man

The Old Man and the Sea written by Ernest Hemingway is a great novel that won a Nobel Prize. This book is well known for it’s english but others read it for the life lessons it has taught us. It teaches us to never give up on your objecitve in life and just give your hardest to life. its teaches you all about perseverance, motivation, courage and endurance. But what this novel is about is an Old man named Santiago who has a very diificult time as a fisherman but does not give up on what a fisherman is meant to do.

One characteristic the old man has is endurance. Endurance basically means to endure a difficuly situation and not give up on it. the old man, Santiago had not caught a fish for 84 days. Most fisherman or people in general would most likely would of given up, even i would aswell. I would think this is impossible, and this is why I find the Old Mans Characteristics inspiring becasue although he had not achieved his goal of catching a single fish for 84 days he endured it and carried on. Enduring gives you gifts and this is what the old man shows and example of.

This old man didnt give up his career and dream. He did not go complaining to his friends saying he had given up, he pushed himself to keep up his goal. His luck was not great and we all understood that so he would go out in his small boat everyday into the deep blue sea. He took out his fishing pole and waited and waited being patient with his best friends who were the fish. After there was this one day where his pole started shaking the Old Man was delighted but it was not just the pole shaking, his boat was moving from side to side. He tried his hardest to pull the line but this fish was too strong it started to drag the old mans boat with it. The old man knew he got very far he could not give up now. This Fish carried on swimming it went from morning to night.

This shows how much the Old man could not give up on his dream. Santiago came up with and idea to tie the fish next to the boat and it went perfectly for the old man and he caught the giant fish. This was all about perserverence  and endurance towards the old man. He thought to himself that after almost 3 months of stress and no luck he had finally caught a fish but this wasnt just any ordinary fish it was a gigantic marlin, in the eyes of the old man this was one of the most beautiful things he has ever seen.

This is example relates to what i want to do in real life. My goal for life is to be a Pilot for the Royal Air Force and like the old man he did not let anything get in his way and i know i will never give up on my dream i will continue to perservere and endure myslef to reach my goal just like the old man. This is why i would like to use the old mans cahracteristics in real life.

An example of something who endures and persaveres is the Chilean national team. As some of us know Chile were the winners of last years copa America which is a tournament were every country in South America have a group stage and lea in to the quater finals , semi finals and then the finals.

Chile were very successful making it out of the group stage beating their opponents in the group stage. At this time chile were very under rated but one player that stood out the most was Alexis Sanchez who led his team to qualify for the quater finals. Chile were coming up against strong teams like Brazil, Argentina, Colombia and Uruguay but because they endured and never gave up on their dream just like the old man they managed to succeed.

They faced Uruguay who were 3rd favourites to win but with an outstanding goal from chiles full back Isla chile knew not to give up and carry on to the semi final. Chiles most under rated  player who was top scorer of the tournament Vargas endured and pushed his team by scoring two amazing goals taking chile to their dream, the copa America finals. Chile managed to beat Argentina. Chile were 1-0 down but they knew that they had to persevere and come back with a strong win. This happened for Chile as they scored two outstanding goals and winning the copa America. The characteristics chile used in the tournament are characteristics I would like to use in my life because I know when I want to achieve something I can endure and complete that goal.

The reason why I would live by the old mans characteristics is because if you never give up and persevere throughout your whole life you will succeed and be rewarded with good things. Just like the old man he was a teacher to the boy some people can do the same for their son/daughter. In my conclusion I would want to be similar to the old man as he is a good teacher.

The United States of America is one of the best countries in the world, one reason being they have one of the greatest presidents in the world Barack Obama. It has 50 states so it has a variety of places to live in, Washington DC is the capital where the white house is. USA has a total of 319.9 million residents. The United States have one of the best education services in the world, one being Havard which is the best University to go to in the world. As a result USA is a desirable place to live in.

History H.W

Dear Mr Muller

I am very concerned about our new leader named Adolf Hitler because it seems that we cannot trust him. My family are very wealthy. Hitler is very passionate and can change our dreadful Germany. Hitler believes that Jewish people should be killed and he treats them badly as if they were peasents that don’t deserve a life. I think Hitler is a good leader but he could be even better if he treated everyone the same. He only wants Blonde people with blue eyes, he wanted everything his way and perfect.

No-one feels safe around him but if we protest to anything he says we will be executed. If you ever join the nazi party always be careful what you say around him.

Please reply when you get this :’)

Kind regards

Arnold

Hunger Games Book Review

Hunger Games is one book of a trilogy and was designed for 12 boys and 12 girls to fight to the death. Katniss who is the rugged individual in the Hunger Games.

Katniss steps up for her sister in the Hunger Games and she knows its a death wish. She knows she has to survive to avoid death. Katniss is up against very powerful tributes which wont be easy. As and individual Katniss needs to hunt for food, survive the powerful tributes, and face the deep horrors of the arena.

This Links to the rugged individual because Katniss needs to survive and if she does not it means certain death. She is the hero of the games as she has to keep her ally Peeta who is injured. By her being the hero she can win the games by her and Peeta being the victors.