I knew a manonce who said, "Death smiles at us all. All a man can do is smileback." – Maximus, from the movie Gladiator

The meaning ofthis quote is that everyone will die eventually. The only thing you can do islive a happy life while you still have one. And when your time comes, there isnothing that you can do but smile.

This quotereally relates a lot to Deadline by Chris Crutcher, because one of the themes of the novel isdeath. In the novel, the main character, Ben Wolfe, is diagnosed with a rareterminal illness. The doctors estimate he has a year left to live. Instead ofgoing in for treatment that will not be able to save his life, just possiblyprolong it longer, he decides to live life to it’s fullest. And when his timecomes at the end of the year, he dies happy, knowing that he lived a good lifein that one year he was given. In this way, he “smiles” at death. Rudy, thetown drunk, also smiles at death, but not in the way that Ben does.  The reason that he drinks is because ofthings he did in his past that he regrets, namely causing a young boy to commitsuicide. For this same reason he commits suicide. However, Sooner’s death doesnot fit this quote. Near the end of the novel, he gets in a car crash and diesunexpectedly. He doesn’t even know that he is going to die, so he has no timeto smile at death. And he doesn’t get to live a happy last year of his lifebecause his dad broke his collarbone when his dad was drunk, so he could notplay football that year, which turned out to be the best season in years.

"By working faithfully eight hours a day, you may get to be a boss and work twelve hours a day."

Frost, Robert

I think that this quote is saying that if you work for a good amount of time, that promotion might turn into even more time with more responsibility. In the book that would mean that that the guys house who is going to get his house torn up is know having to go off. His job just got a little bit bigger and will be hard, but rewarding. If you stick to what you do loyally, then you might be able to have that work paid off, and you will be better off then if you stayed with 8 hours. The more you may do for a long time will also pay off. But having more responsibility may be harder, and you might not be as faithful. Then again, you will be able to command over other people who are working 8 faithful hours a day. Those people who then are working for 8 faithful hours will then get promoted if they stay faithful to that job. All of this is about being faithful and loyal to what you do, and it will pay off in the end. Then you will live be where you have always wanted to be, at the top of the list. 

"Cowards die many times before their deaths;

The valiant never taste of death but once."

-William Shakespeare

This quote is very applicable to my book.

Ben was scared about what it would to his family and his friends if they knew he was dying. His mother was having some emotional problems, and he didn’t want to worry her. Because of that, he had to tell his family, and his mother, later and he says that was even worse than if he had told them right away. They felt betrayed that he’d kept it secret from them for so long. If he had told them right away, they wouldn’t have felt betrayed that he had withheld it from them for most of a year.

Ben signed up for football because he was scared that he would miss out on all of life’s experiences, but because of all that physical activity, he ended up with his blood disease hurting him more than if he had relaxed and taken it easy. All that circulation of his diseased blood didn’t do him much good. Also, with all the friends and stuff he made with football, it hurt more people which in turn hurt him. He doesn’t like making other people feel bad. Making other people regret his loss is something that he doesn’t want to put a huge number of people through. If he had taken it easy, his death wouldn’t have bothered so many people so much.

In conclusion, I think if he hadn’t been so scared by his death and had told people, he would have had a happier last year and his life might have been a little longer. It mush have been hard to bear the weight of that secret. Not telling his parents. If he had just bucked up and told them, his final year would have been happier.

"no one ever lacks a good reason for suicide."

This quote relates to the book because she had thirteen reasons why she killed herself. The first reason was the one that started it all. Her first kiss/boyfriend, Justin, spread rumors about her being an easy slut. This lead to the second reason who put her on the best/worst in the freshman class as the best ass. Which spiraled into her friend hating her since her friend was put down as the worst ass. Event after event happened that possibly wouldn't have happened if Justin hadn't spread lies about her. In all, her life slowly fell apart during her three years at Crestmount High School. She had friends, but never close ones. She drifted away from people in Junior Year, Had all the signs of someone who was considering suicide; but no one ever noticed. So eventually she recorded her thirteen tapes, sent them off and swallowed a handful of pills the afternoon after she got home from school. High school drama may not be the best reason to kill yourself. But all the sense of safety in her world had melted away and she had no reason to hold any longer. So in her mind, as in mine, she had a good reason to commit the act of self murder.

Book Theme Quote Response

Better to die, and sleep

The never-waking sleep, than linger on

And dare to live when the soul's life is gone. -Sophocles

To me, this quote relates to the book I read, 13 Reasons Why, because it comes from the topic of suicide. The part “better to die, and sleep...” represents the obvious symbol of suicide and killing yourself. It’s like you’re putting yourself to sleep and never waking up. And the writer of this quote finds it better to commit suicide, but doesn’t mention the reasons why. The second part, “...the never-waking sleep, than linger on...” talks more in detail, what it would be like to be dead and to be “sleeping forever” The term “lingering” to me, sets a stage of continued life that never changes, and also seems kind of boring. And Hannah, one of the main characters and also the one to commit suicide, is just bored with her life. It becomes too much for her to handle from the rumors, to what has actually happened what she wished never happened at all. And the last part, “...And dare to live when the soul’s life is gone...”, represents a point in time when Hannah feels like her life is pointless and she isn’t needed. For the time that she is alive, she is “daring to live”, even though she’s not liking the life that she’s living. The specific part, “....When the soul’s life is gone...”, can relate to the status of Hannah’s life. For the time that she alive, she feels like the events that happened to her in her life did have an effect on her emotions, and feeling like she shouldn’t live because of her current happiness and the fact that her life is never going to change. One character relating to the quote was, of course, Hannah because she felt that, because the way her life was going with all of the events in her life, she felt that her life wasn’t as important. Another character is Clay, who feels totally opposite and wished that Hannah had reached out for help, but didn’t. So on one of the tapes, Hannah mentions it’s his fault that she killed herself, and she wanted him to work harder in preventing her death, which shows that Hannah wants to prevent her death, but has the stronger urge to ignore it. And there are a few events that make her feel bad about herself and her life, which lead her to suicide.

            “Why is it that hate comes out so easily, yet...love? It gets trapped inside.” Unknown. I read a book called A Child Called It by David Pelzer. This quote really relates to the theme of this book. The book is about a boy named David who lives a normal life with his family. But unfortunately his mother becomes an alcoholic and starts abusing David. Through out the rest of the book David has to fend for his life from his mother’s abuse. She sends him through awful tasks and chores that he has to do so he can get food and live. The quote I chose I think really reflects the overall theme in the book, hatred.

            This book first starts out while David fits in with his family and is loved by his mother, but than she becomes an alcoholic and she hates David. The quote says hate comes out so easily, which is true in the book. The mother has no problem hating and abusing her own son, but all her love is trapped inside. She abuses her son so easily and doesn’t seem to know what love is because it is trapped in her.

            Now this quote doesn’t exactly relate to the book because the mother still loves her other sons, just not David. So clearly she still knows how to love and has it but just doesn’t give it to David. So hate comes easily toward David but not any of her other children. She abuses David and treats him like he is worthless, while the other children she actually acts like a mother to. Overall though I think this quote shows and covers the theme of the book and really reflects how David feels in the story.

Ellie McIntyre

Stearns

English

Period 6

Theme- Suicide

Quote- “No one ever lacks a good reason for suicide.”

-Cesare Pavese

            Its strange how closely this quote relates to our book. When I was reading about this assignment, I thought oh great where am I going to find a quote that works and I can explain about! But sure enough, I scrolled down the list of suicide quotes and this one jumped right out to me. As you know our book 13 reasons why is 13 REASONS why Hannah Baker killed herself. In her case, she didn’t lack one good reason, for she had thirteen reasons that were strong and meaningful. This quote means that everyone who commits suicide has a reason; they don’t just do it to do it. A lot of the times none of us know what the reason was but in this books case we do. Three of the strongest reasons in the book I found were Courtney Crimsen’s story. Her story was about how Courtney basically was only friends with her to use her, and dumped her when she was not needed. Marcus Cooley also was a harsh story, in which he tried to take advantage of her on Valentines Day. The last reason that is strong is Zach Dempsey’s story. When Hannah wasn’t looking a stole her notes that people wrote to her, giving her compliments so every time everyone else read there notes and smiled, Hannah got nothing. All these stories gave Hannah a reason to be depressed, to not enjoy going to school and to consider suicide. After things didn’t get better, and it seemed like no one didn’t seem to want her around, she just decided to end her life.

“Perseverance is a great element of success. If you only knock long enough and loud enough at the gate, you are sure to wake up somebody.”

-Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

The Jews persistently trying helping each other endure the hardships of the Nazis show persistence in my novel. The Jews were fighting for their lives. They were also persistently taking risks such as hiding from the Nazis. Something that shows this is the quote from the book saying. “None of us can escape it. You must be brave… and who knows, maybe its not even your turn yet…” Another quote that shows why they are running away and why they are so scared. “ Everybody- every Jew from the train- got very excited and frightened.” “ Here was the first time I saw, with my own eyes, the swastika.”  

Tony Nguyen

LA 10 P.2

March 9, 2009

The Quote

            The quote “ truth is the only safe ground to stand on.” By Elizabeth Cady Stanton. I believe this quote means that telling the truth all the time is the best thing to do because even though you lie, there’s still somehow the truth will come out. Therefore sticking with the truth is the best thing to keep on mind. This quote connects and relates to the book because what it’s saying is true. If the dude in the book didn’t tell the truth, the evidence and witnesses would already all ready come up so he wouldn’t be able to win his case? Just because he told the truth, the probability of him winning the trial was a bigger chance. There are more evidence for his argument for his argument because there’s actually more reasons to defend and say. Another example of the guilty guy telling the truth is he’s most likely to win for telling the truth. Giving stories and lies will not keep him in the safe zone so it’s better off keeping it real. He kept telling the judge and juries what had really happened and people were leaning towards his side. But the lies on the side still have a chance of winning but the probability is lower. Final example is that even though everybody still thought he was guilty, they couldn’t really find hard proof evidence because it wasn’t true what they are accusing him of. All there evidence was straight talk. So if he actually lied, he probably would of lost the case immediately. But since he didn’t lie, they weren’t able to find any evidence and proof. Therefore sticking with the truth and being real about everything in your daily life is the best way to go. I most definitely agree with this quote. 

            My theme for the hitchhikers guide to the galaxy is selfishness. The quote I found for it is “We are not built for the mountains and the dawns and aesthetic affinities, those are for moments of inspiration, that is all. We are built for the valley, for the ordinary stuff we are in, and that is where we have to prove our mettle. Spiritual selfishness always wants repeated moments on the mount. We feel we could talk like angels and live like angels, if only we could stay on the mount. The times of exaltation are exceptional, they have their meaning in our life with God, but we must beware lest our spiritual selfishness wants to make them the only time.” I think this means that an individual should not try to be something more than they are. 

"A brother is a friend given by Nature." –Jean Babtiste Legouve

This quote is saying that your siblings are your ready-made best friends; they are there for you when no one else is from the day you were born and on. This quotation is relevant to my book Behind the Eyes, because the main character, Hector’s, brother dies. Hector’s family becomes involved in gang related trouble with the Discipulos and Filiberto, Hector’s brother tries to end it. Filiberto ends up getting killed and Hector feels somewhat responsible for not stopping him. Hector then stands up for his brother’s life and attacks the Discipulos gang leader. When he gets sent to the reform school, Forman, because of this he has a lot of time to think about his life and his family.

Throughout the book Hector realizes that even though his brother wasn’t the most wholesome person out there, he died protecting their family. The time Hector spent being angry at Filiberto turns into him realizing how much he misses him. Filiberto was Hector’s best friend and had done nothing but look out for him his entire life. Hector’s previous negative outlook on life starts to change when he reflects on his losses and soon becomes to determined to do something with his life. He doesn’t want to end up like his dead father and brother so he works hard at his new school. As Hector starts to see the good in people rather then bad, he stops being angry and starts making a difference in his school and in his family’s lives. Even though he doesn’t have his brother in his life anymore, he reaches out to his younger sister Aurora making sure that he can be the figure in her life that Filiberto was in his. The main theme of this book is friendship and family, because Hector finds out what family relationships really mean and how crucial they are in his life. 

“Whites must be made to realize that they are only human, not superior. Same with blacks. They must be made to realize that they are also human, not inferior.” – Steve Biko

To me this quote is trying to say that skin color does not make one race more superior than another. This relates to Soul on Ice because in the book Eldridge believes that the white people think they are more superior to him because he is black. So he decides he needs to punish all white people by raping white women. But I think that by raping white women he is trying to be inferior to white people when he doesn’t need to be, because skin color doesn’t make one person more superior than another. To me the trait that makes some one more superior is knowledge and education.

This quote is also saying that everyone is human no matter black or white they are both human meaning they are the same they just look different whites are not smarter or better looking then blacks and blacks aren’t better looking or smarter than white people.

"The worst guilt is to accept an unearned guilt."

-Ayn Rand, Atlas Shrugged, 1957

       I believe that this quote means that the people that are not guilty and take the blame for whatever reason will end up with the most guilt. Even if they knew they were innocent but they still take the blame.

       This relates to a lesson before dying because a man is accused of committing a crime. Jefferson a black man was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. 2 guys robbed a liquor store and murdered the owner. The 2 robbers died also and Jefferson was the only one who survived. The owner knew he wasn’t guilty but he died. Jefferson needed some liquor to relieve him so he took some off the counter. He figured he would take some money also because he was poor and no one in there would need it. The cops came and the saw him leaving with money and 3 dead bodies on the ground. This is where the quote comes into play because even though in the beginning he didn’t accept the guilt but the jury said he was. He had to accept the guilt and now he is set to die a guilty man who is not guilty. Now a teacher named Grant was told to go down to Jefferson to teach him. Before they sent Jefferson to jail they called him a hog. Jefferson’s aunt didn’t like that. What Grant is going to teach him is how to be a man. By doing this Grant is lifting the guilt off of Jefferson. That way Jefferson would be able to die as a man and not as something inhuman. Hence the title a lesson before dying.

"Faith is taking the first step even when you don't see the whole staircase." By Martin Luther King

The book Behind the Eyes relates to this quote. Hector is a good kid who regularly goes to church and is at the top of his class but gets into a situation where he beats up a gang leader and they are out to get him. The police decide it is too risky to keep him at home where they could find and kill him. They suggest he goes to a school for troubled youth far away where he would be safe. His father and brother have died, so he doesn’t care much for his life. Hector is hesitant about going and has little faith but decides to take the first step and goes and ends up liking it. Hector is forced by the judge, his mother, and sister to go to this school. He is at the school and acts like he is better than others because he believes he is smarter and a good kid. He starts to feel lonely and rejected and realizes that something about him has to change. One of his counselor’s talks to him and tells him he has to change. Hector starts to find the good in people and even teaches one of his fellow classmates to read. He realizes that he only has one life and he already saw his father and brother’s go by so quickly so he turns around his lifestyle. When he starts participating in the school basketball games, and socializing with his classmates the administrators of his school notice. SMU College offers him a scholarship and Hector finally feels proud of what he has done. Even though he doesn’t decide what he wants to do and if he wants to go to college he is so happy that he has the options now and he has that first step to do when he decides he’s ready.

“You have to look beyond race because as a human being you have to experience the person from the inside first.”

-Henrik Larsson

In this quote, Henrik Larsson is showing how to pass by racism. In the quote he basically says that it doesn’t matter what their skin color is and you first need to see how the person acts. This relates to Soul on Ice, there is a ton of racism at this time. Eldrigde, the main character in the book is very racist. In the book he writes about his dislike of white women, and also how he just doesn’t like white people in general. This quote shows what Eldridge isn’t doing and if he actually went by this quote he could probably get over racism, Eldridge has very strong beliefs about everything he does. This also can relate to other things than racism, many people judge others just on how they look and other qualities of them. Some will judge people on their physical looks and not like them but if they were to talk to them they could realize that they were different. 

“Holding anger is a poison. It eats you from inside. We think that hating is a weapon that attacks the person who harmed us. But hatred is a curved blade. And the harms we do, we do to ourselves.” –Mitch Albom

This quote explains that anger is something that can build up in you mainly being something that bothers you to the point that it is hard to keep it in you. It also says that hatred can be described as a blade that is easily used to harm a person only by the power of whoever uses it. This can relate to the book we are reading “A child called it” because the mother has so much hatred towards her own son which must have been a hidden act of hatred but started to show as he grew older. She would get so angry about all the little harmless things her son would do and would care the least bit if her older sons would do it. This meaning that her youngest son was just someone who she could take all of her anger or hatred. 

"It's not the load that breaks you down - it's the way you carry it." –Lou Holtz

This quote means that no matter what you’re going through, it’s only bad if you tell yourself it’s bad. In A Child Called “It” David experiences a lot of terrible things that no one deserves to go through. Although he has a lot of pain that he has to deal with, he handles it very well. After a long time of taking the abuse from his mother, David promises himself that he’ll stay strong and he won’t let her defeat him, no matter what. He knows there’s nothing he can do about her continuing to abuse him, but at least he can stand up to her disgusting games and do whatever he can to pass the time and reduce the number of beatings he receives. Throughout the book, David becomes stronger. Each time he’s abused, he thinks of new ways to resist his mother. For a while, he would watch the second hand on the clock tick by, knowing that within moments his brothers would come home and the abuse would be over. He would also fight back, so when his mother tried to feed him spoonfuls of ammonia or pick him up and set him onto the stove, she wouldn’t be able to keep up with his squirming, and eventually someone would come in the room or she would just give up. For a short period of time, David decided that he didn’t have a reason to tolerate the abuse, and so he would talk to back to his mom and brothers, try to run away, and not give in to his punishments. But after his mom caught on and started abusing him harder, David realized that that wouldn’t help him anymore. At the end of the story, David finally gives in to his teachers and tells them about the abuse, and his horrible journey finally comes to an end, all because of the strength he had throughout his terrible childhood.

“Suicide kills two people. That's what it's for.”

            This quote relates to my books theme of ‘Suicide’ in every way. I think it means that when someone commits suicide the person who kills him or her self isn’t the only one who dies. Everyone else who knew and loved the person is affected in some way, and each of them dies a little bit too. Also when the person is killing them self they know they won’t be the only one affected, but everyone else they knew would be as well. This quote directly compares to three events and characters in this novel. Firstly, Hannah, the girl who committed suicide, explains this quote completely. She made sure before she died that every person responsible in some way for her death would know it. She did this by making seven tapes talking about every person responsible and what incidents made them part of her suicide. These tapes definitely affected thirteen people in particular, but not just them, everyone else at her school and her family and the people she met. Her death affected everyone. Secondly, Clay Jensen was also affected greatly by Hannah’s death and the quote explains him. He had a huge crush on her up to the day she died and now even after her death listening to the tapes kills him. Lastly, the event where the boy Marcus is throwing rocks at this pervert’s (so Hannah says) window and Clay sees is an event that relates to this quote. The boy Marcus was clearly affected by Hannah’s tapes and death to be doing this. After the rumor about Hannah being ‘easy’ to get with came out lots of people took advantage of her and he was one of them. On Valentine’s Day he asked her if she wanted to be his Valentine and go to Rosie’s Dinner for a milkshakes. He told her he’d meet her there after school the day of Valentine’s Day. So she went, and waited. When he got there not only was he late but he tried to force her into kissing her. Freaking out she pushed him off and he left. She was crushed, again, and so he became another reason for her to commit suicide. When he found out that he was on the tapes and he was one of the reasons for her death he was angry and wanted to bring it out on everyone else on those tapes. So he threw rocks at someone from the tape’s window. He wanted to act like he’d never done anything wrong but he really did. Her death affected him completely. 

“The survival of the fittest.”

-       Herbert Spencer, Principles of Biology, III, Ch. 12 p. 165

         After the Moon was hit the entire population of the Earth became under siege from countless natural disasters, ranging from tsunamis to large volcanic eruptions. So may people died, in the billions. People are afraid and unless they can pull it together they’ll all die. In the beginning everyone is dying because they are caught in the mess, only those who realize what is happening around them are able to escape the flood and reach higher ground. For the moment they are safe but a new storm approaches and only the toughest and smartest will survive out of that small group. In the small town that Miranda lives in they are lucky that they live in the eye of the storm where it is not as brutal. But soon they will know the pain of everyone one else around them. Death is inevitable for everything and everyone at some point, but life will go on as it always has. The book has its twists and turns, where, the family has to adjust their lives to what happens. Catastrophic events such as epidemics, famines, droughts, volcanoes, floods, earthquakes, hurricanes, tornadoes, or blizzards occur anywhere around the world, even in places that they’d never occur or appear. Miranda, the protagonist, lives in this new world and takes care of her family, even though they’re on the verge of dying. Near then end, her entire family comes down with the flu, and cholera is still out there, everyone is weak, and their immune systems are not working, so they are very vulnerable to anything. They have all had thoughts of leaving the family because they know that they are a burden to the family, and to survive they will have to sacrifice each other. Hope is their only true ally that maybe something will come up and they will be saved. Every day is a blizzard in the last section of the book, and nearly everyone in that small town of Howell, Pennsylvania is dead. Hope is coming, but not just yet, they’ll just have to live a bit longer.

Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.

-Newt Gingrich

This quote is related to the book Maus because it is saying that once you think you’re about to give up, don’t. The definition of perseverance according to www.dictionary.com is steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., esp. in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement. A specific example of this in Maus is when Vladek had no job so he started selling clothes and miscellaneous items illegally. He had no papers to prove his business and if he was caught he could end up dead like his friends, but he persevered despite the danger and made a living. Another example of this is when he was put into a concentration camp. Sooner or later he was probably going to die, but he managed to escape. Lastly, Vladek himself is the best example in the book of perseverance. Throughout the whole book he escapes death numerous times, goes to war and survives being a POW, makes a living selling items illegally, and countless other examples. The book Maus is about perseverance and the will to live. It tells the story of the ultimate challenge: being a Jew during the holocaust and trying to survive. 

“Suicide kills two people. That's what it's for.”

This quote relates to the novel Thirteen Reasons Why, because throughout the novel the main character, Hannah, sends out tapes to the thirteen people who gave her a reason to kill her self. Explaining to them what they did that caused her to choose to end her life since they all hurt her in so many “harsh” ways. So she sends out tapes to them and the other people to hurt them back, to let everyone of them know how messed up of a person they are to do what they did to her. Basically to show them, that even though they might have not noticed what they were doing to her, what they did still effected her and caused her to make deep decisions in her life. This all relates to the quote, since suicide not only kills her, obviously, it also is killing the thirteen people because she is trying to put her hurt back on them. She was trying to get back at them for hurting her. To compare this with three of the events in the novel I would compare it with the events of the following. After what Marcus did to her, by invading her body, she got so overwhelmed by everything else and thought to her what would happen if one of the students never came back… how would people react? Would they even care that I was gone? Another event would be when Tyler invaded her privacy at her own house by being a “Peeping Tom” which made her feel like she couldn’t even be safe at her own home, when already she felt like her school hadn’t been a “safe heaven” for her. And lastly, the event that started it all, where her first kiss, Justin, gave her a reputation that made people believe she was someone she really wasn’t. 

"Fear less, hope more;

Whine less, breathe more;

Talk less, say more;

Hate less, love more;

And all good things are yours."

A Swedish proverb that relates to “Deadline” because Ben Wolf is dying from a terminal blood disease and only has a year to live. He makes the most of his time by being optimistic about life and he made a bucket list. He fears his death, but wants to go out with a blast and fit a lifetime into one year. Ben tries to change the townspeople’s views on racism by trying to change a street-name to honor Malcolm X, he hopes for a good life (or what is left of it), starts to take a chance and ask Dallas Suzuki out, and he tries his best to have the good things.

Even Dallas Suzuki, the love of Ben Wolf, had a bad experience in her past and tries to hide it. But as she does, she lives her life how she wants, playing volleyball, being successful in school, and has fun. She hopes for someone to love her and protect her, even when she herself is a strong young woman.

Rudy McCoy, a drunkard who has committed his own sins of drinking, molestation, and suicide. He tries to repent them by allowing Ben to help himself. He fears what his feelings hide, but attempts to have hope by getting healthy and sober.

This quote represents the book because most of the characters have problems and fault that you find out during the book, but they try to fix them and turn the situations slightly more optimistic. Ben Wolf wants to live as normally as he can, even with his disease. He does not really dwell on the fact that he only has a year to live and he tries to fit in as much as he can.