A Painted House by John Grisham

A Painted House takes place in the large farming community of Black Oak, Arkansas during the 1950's. Seven-year-old Luke Chandler live with his Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Pappy. It's cotton picking season and like every other year Pappy finds some Mexicans and Hill people, this year it's the Spruills, to pay to help pick it. As time goes on and everyone gets to know each other a little better, Luke realizes he has a crush on Tally Spruill who is reasonable older than, and Hank her brother is a real trouble maker. While in town one day Luke sees Hank get in the middle of a fight and ends up beating a guy to death with a 2x4. The next day when the a cop comes to the Chandler house to question the Spruills about the murder. Luke ends up getting asked about it and what he saw. This is when life seems to change for Luke. He lies about it in fear of getting beat by Hank. It's the first major lie he has told. As the story goes on, Luke is forced to keep more secrets; He saw Tally naked, Trot (Tally's little brother) is painting his house, and Luke's uncle is supposedly the father to a baby born into the poorest family in the town. Each secret effects him and the people around him.

Grisham uses imagery very well, and it really helps the reader imagine what the town looks like and what's going on. In this example Luke describing a field, "Around me, on all sides, neat rows of green and brown stalks stretched to the tree lines that boarded our land. At the top of the stalks, puffy bolls of cotton were popping forth... I saw an ocean of white. The fields were silent-no voices, no tractor engines, no cars on the road. For a moment, hanging on the trailer, I could almost understand why my farther wanted to be a farmer." (Grisham 22).

To me, the theme of the book would be that there is alway a path to a better life, and a new beginning.

Fallen Angels posted by Ryan Bednarski

Fallen Angels – Walter Dean Myers


Ryan Bednarski – Block A, Mrs. Brooks

Drama, action, and violence are what you will get from this book. With all the craziness and the sense of what is going to happen next is what makes Fallen Angels so good. It’s a about a black male name Perry around the age of 19 who enlisted in the army during the Vietnam War. He also had a bad knee that he thought would prevent him from doing any fighting. He thought join the war would be nothing, he couldn’t be any more wrong. He finally reaches Vietnam, or as they call it, Country, he goes through a series of patrols and battles that progressively get worse and worse. Throughout these conflicts he figures out how feels about certain things, like how he loves his brother Kenny, and his mama, and how life is in general. Throughout his time there he makes friends with in his unit. Peewee, being one of his best friends develops more and more throughout the story. Scarred by all the gore and violence, Perry struggles to cope with all the things that that he thinks of. Till finally they go one patrol were Peewee and his self get lose within the Vietcong patties, they stay there until daytime and lucky make it out alive. They later get patched up. Peewee gets sent home because we he was shot and Perry finally got his medical report for his knee that gets him out of the service. He and Peewee fly home on the same plane, and fall asleep in each other’s company.

It sort of connects to the world today because of all the things going on in Iraq, and the terrorist bombings and whatnot. But I really think it shows the pure senselessness inhumanity of people during times such as war time. There were a few symbols, but the one symbol that stood out to me was the one that Sergeant Carroll said about Jenkins when he died. He said that they were Angel Warriors that have fallen. Since they were so young, they were like angels, but they fought gallantly and truthfully. After Sergeant Carroll was killed in action, every single other character that died, I thought about them as an angel warrior. I pieced together their personality that was described in the book to how that would fit in to them being an angel warrior. I found that to be every interesting. This book definitely kept me entertained and on the edge.

The author used excellent symbolism, I mean; I have a vivid imagination that is decorated with the violence of playing video games. The author put in descriptions that were disgusting to even think about. It was awful. The way the author described how Perry was thinking and moving helped lay out the scene that he was fighting in. All the noises that were described seemed to play through my head like a CD.