Final

Prompt 1:

Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

At an early age, my parents separated. Because of this, my life has been truly shaped by living with only one parent, my mom. My mom has always been an avid participant in my life. Simply put, she has always been there for me. I have come to rely upon her more than anyone else I know. Throughout this whole experience, my dad has been living merely ten minutes away from where both my parents used to live. I have always tried to sustain a relationship between my dad and I. He is of coarse, my dad, but we have always had problems affecting our relationship. Because of this, he and my sister have always been closer. I have in result, had to deal with the rejection of my dad. A part of me has come to be very independent, not relying on anyone, and only believing in myself because of this. As my mom is closest to me, she understood the experience I was going through and gave me my freedom at a young ago. This freedom has had a huge impact on my life. 

Before I gained my freedom, I always tried conforming to my father’s wishes, doing everything I could to make him happy. I never thought about myself and how I could be happy. I recently discovered how I could become happy though. In a sense, I “relaxed.” Before, the world I knew was shaped in a very geometric concrete way, allowing no change; the world I live in now is much different. You could say it is abstract. I have learned to have fun.

You may be wondering how this has shaped my future dreams and aspirations. Before this change, I had extremely high expectations of my future. I wanted to go to the top colleges in the country, get the best jobs, and make the most money. The problem with this is that there is no fun involved in the process. I never though about actually finding a school that I liked, or a job that I would enjoy. I was still stuck in a box of conformity. I now know that this is not the case. When I grow up, I want to have fun, enjoying every second of my life, knowing that I made the right choice. My life is not going to be ruled and controlled by people like my father. I am my own person, free to make choices that I want. 

When I was younger, I was an avid swimmer. I have swam for at least seven years and have been on at least four swim teams. I loved swimming for many reasons, one of which was a sense of freedom it gave me. The problem with swimming was that I usually was not swimming the way I wanted too. My swimming career manly consisted of extremely monotonous, boring exercises in the pool. My dad loved that I was doing this, and in a sense forced me to keep swimming. I wanted to find a better way to enjoy it, but never did. Once my parents separated, I finally got to quit. My dad would say this is a failure, but to me, it was a rebirth. I plan to keep swimming in the future, my freedom guiding the choices I make as an individual. Swimming is one of the many positive effects freedom has given me. 

Prompt 2:

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?

One of the biggest talents in my life is my early introduction to computers. At a young age, I became enthralled with computers; I wanted to know everything about them. My grandpa knew someone who showed and trained me how to use and fix computers. That started my first job, fixing computers. I slowly learned everything about computers, from fixing them to learning how to better use them. I am very proud of this quality because of the work and hard effort I put into learning it. It was very hard for me; it took a lot of time and training. It reflects one of the many hard experiences I have had to personally go through in my life. 

Throughout my life, I have had to make hard choices that would ultimately shape my future, one of these being computers. I put time and effort into learning a joy I found in my life. I feel this shows the dedication I have put into striving for success. I want to learn new ideas and become more educated about the world around me. Learning has always been fun for me because I want to be educated. This education has led me to strive for success. 

My joy for computers is only one of the many other interests I have. I plan to follow these interests into college and maybe even my future careers. I am motivated to learn and follow what I enjoy learning. Overall, I think enjoying something is what motivates me to learn. Because I enjoyed learning about computers, I learned a lot about them, and could potentially follow this topic into college. I plan to do this for anything else I enjoy. 

Connecting the first and this prompt together, I feel that I freedom I have acquired has greatly helped me find things I enjoy to learn about. Before, my life seemed very boring and generic, but now, I have many possibilities. I have discovered many new potential “pathways” for myself. My life will be very enjoyable and successful in the future. I am prepared to do my best to make it this way. 

Final Draft Book Review

My book, "The Last Town on Earth" by Thomas Mullen is a fictional story based on a little-known historical footnote about a small town called Commonwealth and their survival throughout the Spanish Flue epidemic, a disease which started during World War One and was brought back to the United States. 
 
Basically, Commonwealth decides to quarantine itself off from the rest of society while the Spanish Flu epidemic is occurring. Their basic goal is to stop the disease form spreading into their town, like the many others surrounding them. 

 "The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value-love, patriotism, community, family, friendship-not to mention the town's survival, is imperiled."

 I think that this story focuses on the human aspects of emotion and survival. Obviously, Commonwealth is threatened by the epidemic raging outside of their small town. Many are forced to choose between life and death. Survival becomes the main concern of Commonwealth's society. With this change in morals, the town itself changes too. Conflicts occur, threatening as stated above, every human value, and the town itself. In essence, I feel that it illustrates the "animal" in us and what people are willing to risk for survival. 

"The Last Town on Earth" illustrates an image of a small town desperate for survival, but that the same time, uses historical events to connect to current modern times, such as the bird flu. This book is a great read!

Throughout the experience of reading my book, I have come to realize Thomas Mullen's writing style. In "The Last Town on Earth," Mullen does not use any special style of writing; what I think is special about it is that it subtly allows you to slip into the world he created.

"The doctor passed only two other autos during the fifteen-minute drive, saw but a lone pedestrian even though it was noon on Sunday, a time when people normally would be returning home from church, visiting with friends and family. The flu and been in Timer Falls for three weeks now, by the doctor's best estimation, and nearly all traffic on streets had vanished. The sick were condemned to their homes, and the healthy weren't venturing outside."

I feel this is a good quote to show his style. When reading this, I am immediately pulled into the doctor's point of view, seeing what he sees as he drives his car in Timber Falls, and feeling shock of the flue on his mind. Much of his writing pulls me into the book like this.  He does an expert job of allowing the reader to enter the world of any of the characters presented before them. When you are put into each character's mind, you realize that they are making extremely honest, life-changing decisions that challenge current moral issues; in essence, he puts the reader in the characters place and makes them think about what we would also do in their position. I am completely immersed in his world. He obviously took quality time to write his book. Each page is as thrilling as the next.
 
Thomas Mullen began writing this book simply because of his discovery of the 1918 flu pandemic, and also because of his interest in the epidemic. He did not discover much information about towns that specifically quarantining themselves off from society; he said this gave him room for creativity throughout the story. Mullen felt that the 1918 flu was a major even that had been "forgotten." Also, during the time he was writing the story, the bird flu was a cause of sickness in the United States. He thought the 1918 flue shared common similarities with the bird flu, and that this book is relevant to society because of it. 
 
Compared to other book I have read about epidemics like this one, I have not found them as impressive as this. Firstly, the ones that I have read are extremely cliche. They all are extremely dramatized, focusing on the events themselves and simply "how many people died." Also, they did not allow me to understand what any of the characters were experiencing, or even the world around them. Much of the other books simply focused on the "epidemic" view of the situation.

Peer Review Comments

*For Nawara: 

1. Your rough draft is very good so far. I am very impressed with how you connected children with social orders today to Enders Game; it is a great analysis. What you said is very true. The quotes that you used were also very relevant and useful to your topic.
2. One question I have is about the camp mentioned at the second to last paragraph. Do you mean the training school or the planet he was sent to?
3. Maybe you could also talk about how the training school environment Ender was in affected him.
*For Amber C:

1. You tell the story of the countless times that they meet, and the problems that occur throughout each reincarnation, but there is not DEEPER MEANING(analysis) to it stated. It would be much more interesting if you told of the meaning of the green gem, etc. . Also, you need more concrete details to support what you say. 
2. It also seems like the different topics of the review need to be integrated together more smoothly. The paragraph transitions can be rough. 
3. Fix grammer mistakes. 
*For Amber G:

1. I really like your analysis of Talon. It really makes sense how you say his character was shaped by the life he lived on the streets, and how he really is an adult in a child's body.
2. I really the dialogue you used to convey his character. "Talon makes Church officials laugh with his childish suggestions, he makes Knights blush with his perverse comments, he makes nobles confused and he makes other thieves jealous. Talon has such a broad character that fits perfectly inside the small stature of a young thief." It really allows me to see him in the book.
3. Maybe somehow make a deeper analysis of the character....go into greater detail about how his character was shaped, connect that idea to something else, ect. lol. 
But overall good review.

Essay RD

My book, "The Last Town on Earth" by Thomas Mullen is a fictional story based on a little-known historical footnote about a small town called Commonwealth and their survival throughout the Spanish Flue epidemic, a disease which started during World War One and was brought back to the United States. 

Basically, Commonwealth decides to quarantine itself off from the rest of society while the Spanish Flu epidemic is occurring. Their basic goal is to stop the disease form spreading into their town, like the many others surrounding them. 

"The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value-love, patriotism, community, family, friendship-not to mention the town's survival, is imperiled."

 I think that this story focuses on the human aspects of emotion and survival. Obviously, Commonwealth is threatened by the epidemic raging outside of their small town. Many are forced to choose between life and death. Survival becomes the main concern of Commonwealth's society. With this change in morals, the town itself changes too. Conflicts occur, threatening as stated above, every human value, and the town itself. In essence, I feel that it illustrates the "animal" in us and what people are willing to risk for survival.

Thomas Mullen began writing this book simply because of his discovery of the 1918 flu pandemic. He did not discover much information about towns that specifically quarantining themselves off from society; he said this gave him room for creativity throughout the story. Mullen felt that the 1918 flu was a major even that had been "forgotten." Also, during the time he was writing the story, the bird flu was a cause of sickness in the United States. He thought the 1918 flue shared common similarities with the bird flu, and that this book is relevant to society because of it. 

"The Last Town on Earth" illustrates an image of a small town desperate for survival, but that the same time, uses historical events to connect to current modern times, such as the bird flu. This book is a great read!

Throughout the experience of reading my book, I have come to realize Thomas Mullen's writing style. In "The Last Town on Earth," Mullen does not use any special style of writing; what I think is special about it is that it subtly allows you to slip into the world he created.

"The doctor passed only two other autos during the fifteen-minute drive, saw but a lone pedestrian even though it was noon on Sunday, a time when people normally would be returning home from church, visiting with friends and family. The flu and been in Timer Falls for three weeks now, by the doctor's best estimation, and nearly all traffic on streets had vanished. The sick were condemned to their homes, and the healthy weren't venturing outside."

I feel this is a good quote to show his style. When reading this, I am immediately pulled into the doctor's point of view, seeing what he sees as he drives his car in Timber Falls, and feeling shock of the flue on his mind. Much of his writing pulls me into the book like this.  He does an expert job of allowing the reader to enter the world of any of the characters presented before them. When you are put into each character's mind, you realize that they are making extremely honest, life-changing decisions that challenge current moral issues; in essence, he puts the reader in the characters place and makes them think about what we would also do in their position. I am completely immersed in his world. He obviously took quality time to write his book. Each page is as thrilling as the next.

Compared to other book I have read about epidemics like this one, I have not found them as impressive as this. Firstly, the ones that I have read are extremely cliche. They all are extremely dramatized, focusing on the events themselves and simply "how many people died." Also, they did not allow me to understand what any of the characters were experiencing, or even the world around them. Much of the other books simply focused on the "epidemic" view of the situation.

Book Review #2:Last Town on Earth

Throughout the experience of reading my book, I have come to realize Thomas Mullen's writing style. In "The Last Town on Earth," Mullen does not use any special style of writing; what I think is special about it is that it subtly allows you to slip into the world he created.

"The doctor passed only two other autos during the fifteen-minute drive, saw but a lone pedestrian even though it was noon on Sunday, a time when people normally would be returning home from church, visiting with friends and family. The flu and been in Timer Falls for three weeks now, by the doctor's best estimation, and nearly all traffic on streets had vanished. The sick were condemned to their homes, and the healthy weren't venturing outside."

I feel this is a good quote to show his style. When reading this, I am immediately pulled into the doctor's point of view, seeing what he sees as he drives his car in Timber Falls, and feeling shock of the flue on his mind. Much of his writing pulls me into the book like this.  He does an expert job of allowing the reader to enter the world of any of the characters presented before them. When you are put into each character's mind, you realize that they are making extremely honest, life-changing decisions that challenge current moral issues; in essence, he puts the reader in the characters place and makes them think about what we would also do in their position. I am completely immersed in his world. He obviously took quality time to write his book. Each page is as thrilling as the next.

Compared to other book I have read about epidemics like this one, I have not found them as impressive as this. Firstly, the ones that I have read are extremely cliche. They all are extremely dramatized, focusing on the events themselves and simply "how many people died." Also, they did not allow me to understand what any of the characters were experiencing, or even the world around them. Much of the other books simply focused on the "epidemic" view of the situation.

First Book Review: The Last Town on Earth

My book, "The Last Town on Earth" by Thomas Mullen is a fictional story based on a little-known historical footnote about a small town called Commonwealth and their survival throughout the Spanish Flue epidemic, a disease which started during World War One and was brought back to the United States. 

Basically, Commonwealth decides to quarantine itself off from the rest of society while the Spanish Flu epidemic is occurring. Their basic goal is to stop the disease form spreading into their town, like the many others surrounding them. 

"The encounter that ensues, and the shots that are fired, will have deafening reverberations throughout Commonwealth, escalating until every human value-love, patriotism, community, family, friendship-not to mention the town's survival, is imperiled."

 I think that this story focuses on the human aspects of emotion and survival. Obviously, Commonwealth is threatened by the epidemic raging outside of their small town. Many are forced to choose between life and death. Survival becomes the main concern of Commonwealth's society. With this change in morals, the town itself changes too. Conflicts occur, threatening as stated above, every human value, and the town itself. In essence, I feel that it illustrates the "animal" in us and what people are willing to risk for survival.


Thomas Mullen began writing this book simply because of his discovery of the 1918 flu pandemic. He did not discover much information about towns that specifically quarantining themselves off from society; he said this gave him room for creativity throughout the story. Mullen felt that the 1918 flu was a major even that had been "forgotten." Also, during the time he was writing the story, the bird flu was a cause of sickness in the United States. He thought the 1918 flue shared common similarities with the bird flu, and that this book is relevant to society because of it. 


"The Last Town on Earth" illustrates an image of a small town desperate for survival, but that the same time, uses historical events to connect to current modern times, such as the bird flu. This book is a great read!

Family History Connections

Throughout the many family stories that I read, I found a theme of families who were affected by war. I am doing a comparison of Jasiu, Crystal, and Tiffany's stories.

"My grandma told me what it was like to survive under Russian control. Though not know to be as horrible as the Nazis, they did do some unbelievable cruelty that matches up with the germens. It was not safe for anyone to go out on the streets anymore. Piss a Russian soldier off and pow! Pow!"(Jasiu)."

Throughout Jasiu's story, the cruelty of what Polish people faced from the Russians was told rather than what they faced from the Germans.  This greatly surprised me. I never realized that the Russians were so cruel to the Polish people. In his story, Jasiu described that his grandmother went to church, when some Russian soldiers entered and began killing the people inside. Luckily for his grandmother, she hid, but had to endure the sight of dead bodies and the smell of burning flesh after the Russian soldiers burned the bodies. 

"People in the village were shouting that the Japanese were coming into the village. Many fled but my grandma's grandmother decided to use the extra time to hide the little food that they had left in the house."(Crystal).

Crystal described the invasion of China by the Imperial Army. Apparently, many of the Chinese people faced many horrors from the Japanese. In particular, she described the account of her great grandmother's encounter. When the Japanese invaded her village, her great grandmother and grandmother decided to stay behind to hide the food that they had. This is because during the war, food was hard to come; also the Japanese looted any food or materials they found in Chinese homes. Her grandmother was caught trying to hide the food and was almost killed because of it.

"How would they get to America? It was by helicopter. My grandfather was a general so he ordered planes to head up north, but he saved one just for my family. We had to wait on the roof, but the person riding the helicopter took his own family to America."(Tiffany).

Tiffany's family was affected during the Vietnam war. During the war, her family tried to flee Vietnam, failed, and instead had had to resort to going from country to country until they reached the United States. Luckily, the reached the US eventually. They were forced to flee to the US.

As  you can see, there is a strong theme of war throughout the stories I have found.