East of Eden by John Steinbeck
Dear Book Club,
I am currently reading “East of Eden” it is written by John Steinbeck and is 691 pages long. I am currently on page 377. “East of Eden” starts off introducing you to the Hamilton family who does not have that much money and yet they are very satisfied with there nine kids and small dusty ranch located in the Salinas valley just outside of King City. After you learn some about the Hamilton family you meet the Trask family. You learn that Mrs. Trask has just had a baby named Adam and her husband Cyrus Trask has just come home from the war with one leg. After he came home for some reason she felt that she needed to make a sacrifice to her god and she was found dead in a pond two weeks later. Mr. Cyrus Trask finds a new wife and has another son Charles. Adam and Charles grow up and when Mr. Trask decides to send Adam to war Charles gets jealous and beets his brother up even though he loves his brother very dearly he has a very bad temper. Next you meet Cathy a very odd little girl she is considered very beautiful and has her own way of always getting what she wants. Her parents are very over protective of her and are too blind to see that there daughter is a monster deep inside. She starts to get into to trouble and just as she gets her parents trust back they mysteriously die in a fire while she is gone. And she decides to get in a very risky business that gets her into a lot of trouble. Towards the end of the book the main characters connect in many different and interesting ways.
The main character I am going to describe in “East of Eden” is Samuel Hamilton the father of the large Hamilton family. My name is Samuel Hamilton. I am an Irish man I have a beard that is turning white and it is starting to grizzle up. I am a fairly big man and my cheeks are mostly pink and rosy from being out in the sun so much. My hands are always stained with black from the forge. And people tell me my eyes are light blue. I have many wrinkles around my mouth and eyes from laughing so much and I have never won an argument with my wife Liza. My nine children have told me I am very wise for I once told a man “It’s hard to split a man down the middle and always to reach for the same half.” I feel that sometimes if I really try I am able to look deep inside a person and see the real person that they are. I remember eating dinner one night at my friend’s house and looking into his wife’s eyes “her eyes had no message, no communication of any kind.” For that’s when I knew my friend was in trouble.
In conclusion, Samuel Hamilton is a very important part of the story for if he wasn’t wise he would not be of much help to his friend and if he couldn’t see deep inside of a person he would not have been able to prepare him self for the damage that is going to come. I like Samuel because he really takes the time to know and learn about someone. One thing I dislike about Samuel is that he seems to never have the courage to stand up to his wife. I have enjoyed this book very much so far and am excited to see what will happen next.
Kori Gibson (10th grade)
The Five People You Meet in Heaven by Mitch Albom
Dear Book Club,
I have currently finished reading “The Five People You Meet in Heaven” by Mitch Albom. It is 196 pages long and is about an 83 year old man who is living a lonely life working as the maintenance man at the ruby pier. He has worked at the pier for most of his life. On the day of his 83rd birthday a tragic accident happens. One of the carts on the free fall ride had come loose. Just as another worker was about to release the cart, Eddie noticed a little girl standing at the bottom of the ride. Once the cart was released it was going to kill the little girl. Eddie dove for her, pushing her out of the way. Just as he did, the cart fell on him and ended up killing him. What happens next he would have never expected. He is back at the ruby pier, only it looks just like it did when it first built. There he meets a man, who teaches him a lesson about his life. The man tells Eddie that he will meet four more people after him. He meets each person, and learns how closely intertwined his life was with theirs both knowingly and unknowingly and in turn learns something more about himself. Through their stories, he finds the meaning of his own existence.
My name is Eddie and I am one of the main characters in “The Five People You Meet in Heaven”. I am 83 years old and I have short white hair, thick forearms, and a faded army tattoo on my right shoulder. My left knee was wounded in the war, so now I use a can to get around. I keep a cigarette behind my left ear and wear an old linen cap, along with my brown uniform. I feel like one of my main characteristics is being brave. When I was at war I was captured by the enemy along with a few of my other fellow soldier friends. We were there for about five months. At the end of the fifth month, I decided we had to escape if we wanted to survive. So I pretended to entertain the enemy by juggling a few rocks. Once we knew they were distracted, we chucked the rocks at their heads, killing them. We then were able to escape. I believe I am also tough. When I was a little boy my dad used to come drunk and beat us with a belt. I took the pain for most of my younger years until I came back from the war. One night my dad was yelling and tried to hit me. I stopped him before he was able to hit me and instead I hit him. That was the last time he ever tried anything like that again.
In conclusion, I admire Eddie’s character traits. Without them the books plot would have turned out differently. If he wasn’t brave, he probably would have ended up dying as a captured soldier instead of a free man. I also admire that he risked his long, fulfilled life to save the life of a young girl who has not yet experienced the world like Eddie has. Overall I enjoyed this book and encourage others to read it.
Jourdan Tappeiner (10th grade)
Around the World in 80 Days by Jules Verne
Dear Book Club,
“Hello, my name if Phileas Fogg. You probably already know that I am a gentleman from the Victorian period and I live in London. I am quite famous for a wager which I placed with other gentlemen from the Reform Club in town where I stated that I could make a journey completely around the world in 80 days. It is lucky for me that I am independently wealthy and can take time to do such adventures and could put up the 20,000 pounds. For the most part I am a predictable and highly routine person though during the trip I did abandon my routines to accomplish my dream. I was a man of distinction in my dress, keeping my beard trimmed to perfection and as well as my clothing.Before leaving I had let go of my former valet because he brought my shaving cream at 84 degrees rather than the desirable 86 degrees and hired a frenchmen named Passepartout who ended up being my assistant on the world trip. Passpartout helped me through the struggles of traveling through Asia, America, and Europe.
It is said that I can be risky at times and I guess that is fairly accurate seeing as though a bet of that quantity of money is always dangerous. Additionally, it was risky behavior when I think back to a time in Calcutta when Passpartout and I saw a woman being prepared for suttee which is the Hindu practice of human sacrifice where a widow gets burned alive with her dead husband so they may go to the afterworld together. I had to make a complicated and devious plan to rescue her from her death. We traded the dead man’s body for Passpartout’s and he pretended like the husband rose up, grabbed her and ran away. At that point she left India with us, thus becoming part of our group.
One of my strengths which helped accomplish the wager is my self confidence. Just making the wager I guess would show a self confidence but it was this trait that made me win. Many times we missed our original train or boat connection and Passpartout would get very worried that we would fail. He would pace and get irritable, whereas I stayed calm and mentioned that it was part of my plan. I always knew the world does not always follow a scheduled itinerary. This strength helped me save Aouda, for without it we would not have tried to fool the Brahmans.”
As the reader of this book by Jules Verne, I have only gotten through the first section but both the qualities, self confidence and risk taking are integral to the plot of the story. Without these, it would be impossible for the story to proceed. Since I am not very far into the book I don’t know fully how I feel about this character but so far I do not like the way that Phileas Fogg needs everything to be so precise because it is unnecessary and can limit joy. I also do not like his riskyness although it was useful to him. His self confidence may or may not be something I admire depending on his quantity.
Cheers,
Cody Leeds (8th grade)
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