Fast Food Fix

Xavier Markowitz

 The Gaza Strip(A 140 square mile area) is home to 1.7 million palestinians. Egypt and Israel are both blockading it from the outside world. There is something that these people really want; and that is fried chicken. With a four hour delivery time and a $27 price for for 12 pieces, this is not your average fast food restaurant. They are smuggling fried chicken out of Egypt, through an underground tunnel, and past guards so people can eat fried chicken. These people are seeing that they are being deprived of an everyday item and they are determined to get what they want.

The young man who arranges the deliveries says "It's our right to enjoy that taste the other people all over the world enjoy" This quote shows that these people see that they are not being treated fairly by Egypt and Israel. These people are very determined because the article says "The passage of goods and people into and out of Gaza is severely restricted". They are breaking very serious rules by importing fried chicken into Gaza. These people are being treated unfairly and they are doing something about it.

This relates to teenagers because although these people are rebelling against something small like fried chicken there is something more on the inside. These people have seen unfairness and they are trying to stop it by breaking the rules. By doing this they have shown their captors that they are determined to get what they want. I'm not saying that teenagers should break the rules, I'm saying that if someone is giving you a hard time or stopping you from doing something simple it is good to put things into perspective.

The Power of Friendship

by Xavier Markowitz

  I am reading The Death Cure by James Dashner. It is the third and final book in The Maze Runner series. There is a group of main characters throughout the story but there are two that are very close. Their names are Minho And Thomas. I think that they affect each others personality and actions. "He hadn't realized how important it was that Minho still believed in him. It went halfway to giving him the courage he needed to do what he had to do". I think this quote from the book is a meaningful line because it shows how close these two characters are.

These two characters have affected each other in a big way and I think this quote shows that. When it says, "He hadn't realized how important it was that Minho still believed in him". This tells me that Thomas cares what Minho thinks about him but it also shows that Minho cares and believes in Thomas. Throughout the book Minho holds up a tough guy exterior but I think this the quote shows that he cares for Thomas. When it says, "It went halfway to giving him the courage he needed to do what he had to do". This tells me that Minho affects Thomas's actions. it tells me that Minho gives Thomas courage to do things that he might not do otherwise. I think this entire quote tells me that Thomas cares deeply about what Minho thinks of him.

I think this quote could connect to teenagers because it shows that friends are an important part of your life. I think this because when it says that Minho gave Thomas courage to do what he had to do it shows that friends will give you courage to do things. They are able to do this by believing in you. The quote shows this in the first sentence. By becoming really good friends Thomas and Minho were able to affect each others actions. I think that Thomas and Minho's relationship connects to teenagers in a big way.

The Crisis in the Middle East

By Xavier Markowitz

In 2011, a multitude of protests happened around the same time in the Arab world. They toppled long time rulers in Egypt, Tunisia, and Libya. These protests also started an uprising against the Syrian dictator, Assad. This made people very optimistic about the future of the Middle East; they thought that the region might become democratic. It was called the Arab Spring. Three years later, Libya is becoming increasingly violent, Syria is in a civil war, in Tunisia the government is fragile and in Egypt the military has thrown the president out and killed hundreds of his supporters. I believe that the Arab Spring failed and the Middle East will not become a democratic region.

I think the Arab Spring failed because the countries that had protests were unable to build stable governments. They were not able to do this because the dictators had left the countries in a fragile state. I think that the Middle East will not become a democratic region because of Egypt. It is the largest country in the Arab nation with a population of 82,000,000. It is often thought of as the trendsetter country. Egypt's military is becoming stronger every day. They use tanks, snipers, and tear gas to attack protester encampments, and have turned Cairo into war zone. Some people worry that if Egypt can't become democratic, the entire region will become a land of dictators. "If democracy can't take hold there, some experts worry that the entire region is in danger of slipping backward into despotism." (Upfront Magazine) I think this is a meaningful sentence because when it says "slipping backward" I think that means that the countries will be even farther back along the road to democracy then when they started. I think this truly shows the gravity of the situation.

The Arab Spring and the crisis in the Middle East makes me think deeper about humanity because it shows that without political cooperation, the countries could not create order when they wanted to. Although they stood up for themselves they could not make a running country because everyone wanted different things. In Egypt, some people wanted the president out and some people wanted him to stay in office. While people were arguing, the military took over the country and killed most of the president's supporters. This shows that without cooperation between countries they could fall into war.

I just finished reading The Maze Runner by James Dashner. Thomas wakes up in the lift with no memory of his past life before being in the strange dark elevator. When he gets helped out of the lift by a crowd of boys he discovers a large area enclosed by stone walls, called the Glade. For two years every 30 days a new boy comes out of the lift. Not one of them can remember anything about their past, but Thomas feels he is different. Shortly after he arrives, the first girl to arrive at the Glade comes out of the lift; her name is Teresa. Surrounding the glade is a large mysterious maze, but before they try to find the secrets of the maze, they must unlock the secrets within themselves. Throughout the book James Dashner tells you to never give up and be brave even if there seems like no solution to your problem.

Dashner expresses this towards the end of the book. The first time is when Teresa triggers the "Ending." The sky turns grey so there is no sunlight to water the crops and Grievers (who are monsters from the maze) come out every night and kill one boy from the Glade. This makes all the boys feel hopeless because the maze seems unsolvable so they would all die from hunger or Grievers. I think Thomas is really brave because he ran and got stung by a Griever on purpose just to get his memories back so he could free the Gladers from the maze. SPOILER... After Thomas and the Gladers get out of the maze they realize it was a test to see if they would give up, because solving it seemed impossible. Throughout the book no one gave up when it came to solving the maze and most of them made it out.

I think that never giving up and being brave connects to teenagers because sometimes when we are doing our homework or studying for a test we feel inclined to give up when it gets difficult. This book shows that no matter the circumstances there is always a solution to your problem. Instead of giving up immediately and not thinking about the problem, we should stop and try to find an answer. Also we should try to be brave sometimes. Whether it is when we raise our hand in class or try to do a cool skateboarding trick, we should be brave and take a chance. Sometimes we might do well and sometimes we might fail. I think this book connects to teenagers because it shows that you should never give up and be brave.

Authors in a story sometimes use literary devices to describe something instead of saying it directly.  Many times this makes the story much more descriptive and interesting. Some examples of these are metaphor, simile, imagery, vignette , alliteration, oxymoron, foreshadowing and so on and so forth. The book I have been reading is The Ultimate Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy by Douglass Adams. Douglass uses a lot of literary devices when he is writing. Some of them are pretty silly. Here are some examples.
"How do you know" said Zaphod in a voice that would make a vegan snow lizard feel chilly. This is a metaphor. Here is another example.
Those-very view-who witnessed the event and survived swear that the whole hundred thousand square miles of desert rose into the air like a mile-thick pancake and flipped itself over. This is a simile. Douglass Adams uses metaphors almost to the extent that they don't make sense but this makes his books much more descriptive and fun to read.