New Semester- New Start!

This is the new start of the second semester and also the 3rd quarter. My class will soon be finishing A Midsummer's Night Dream by William Shakespeare. We will soon be reading the novel Into the Wild, and I'm very excited about that, because i hear it's a great book. I feel like I've adjusted to John Carroll very well since the beginning of the year. I feel very good about the greats I'm getting and I'm still striving for more!

Character Essay

Katie H.

Mrs. Zurkowski

English 9 Greens

Character Sketch Essay

If you asked any teenager about their parents, they’d say they were embarrassing. This is an understatement for Hannah James’ parents. Hannah likes the low profile, making herself invisible, but her mom and dad are just the opposite. In the book Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott, Hannah James is just a normal 17-year old girl that lives under the radar in high school and works at BurgerTown. She lives in a small town known for nothing special. But her parents on the other hand are pretty well known. People remember her mom as “The woman in the Super Bowl commercial only wearing a pizza box!”, and as an actress in the movie Cowboy Dad. Her mom’s fame didn’t last long, but her dad’s sure has. Hannah’s dad is the famous Jackson James, founder of jacksonjamesonline.com, the home of JJ’s Girls, and current star of the TV show JJ: Dreamworld. Throughout this book Hannah’s going to go from a girl that has a crush on a someone that she insists is her soul mate, and feeling like she’s stuck in between her father’s publicity and her mom’s web chat life, to a girl that has finally met the right guy, and finally know who she really is.

The first major event that happened was when Hannah went to go see her father in New York. Hannah hadn’t seen her dad in over 5 years. She never thought he would call her, but he did call, although there’s a twist. Hannah’s father, Jackson James, truly only cares about himself. He did call Hannah to ask her to come to visit him in New York, but it was because his show needed more viewers and the producers thought that Hannah would attract younger viewers. When Jackson takes Hannah to a restaurant he starts treating Hannah like a princess, like how he acted when Hannah was younger, but it was all part of his plan. The worst part was that Hannah was falling for his “caring dad act”. She thought he might’ve changed. For example, after he asked Hannah to stay a little while longer he said this to Hannah, “I’ll send the girls out and stay in with you. We’ll send someone to get my favorite movies and then we’ll relax, have some popcorn, and keep catching up. I’ll call my assistant and have her take care of everything, alright, Princess?” This really made Hannah fall for his plan. This all turned around when JJ’s Girls showed up out of nowhere with the cameras. Once one of the JJ’s Girls spilled about Jackson having plans set for a big party tonight instead of staying in like he said, this became the last Hannah. She got so angry, she ran out of the restaurant and when Sandi, a JJ’s Girl came running after her asking her why she was leaving Hannah replied, “Well, see, my train ticket clearly says I’m leaving today, in just a little while even. Strange how last minute the whole party thing seems, huh? Almost like I don’t know, a ratings stunt, or something, anyway, I should get going.”

The second major event was when Hannah’s supposedly soul mate, Josh, came over to her house. Hannah was so exciting and nervous at the same time, she has her mom let Josh in, and when Hannah was coming down the stairs she saw Josh looking in awe not at her, but her mom. She thought Josh was into her when it was really that Josh was into Hannah’s mom. When Josh was talking to Hannah’s mom he said, “It’s so great to see you again, my older brother loved Cowboy Dad. When I was little, we used to watch episodes he recorded, and I thought you were the most beautiful woman ever.” Hannah couldn’t believe she didn’t realize this before. Josh even brought lilies and mint chocolate candies, which were Hannah’s mom’s favorites not Hannah’s. Once Josh was alone with Hannah he said, “Wow, she’s amazing, I’ve been dying to meet her- for real, you know- and when you agreed to let me come over- well thank you. You’re so special.” After that Josh starting kissing Hannah, and Hannah was shocked that he seriously just did that after how he was acting around her mom. And she realized that Josh was just like Jackson and so than she left Josh with her mom at her house.

Later that night Finn, soon to be the right guy, came over to talk to Hannah. Hannah’s mom walked in to Hannah and Finn kissing, and she was very shocked. After Finn leaves, Hannah and her mom have a long talk. And after Hannah’s mom says how she’s made some mistakes, and that she doesn’t want Hannah to end up like her, Hannah replies saying, “I’m not you. I don’t- I did like Josh, you’re right. But I didn’t know him. I just saw him at work and school and I thought… I thought he was the perfect guy. The opposite of Jackson. But he wasn’t. And when I figured that out, I left. I shouldn’t have stuck you with him, but I did. And I’m sorry about that. But I’m not sorry about anything else.” Then she went on saying, “I’m not you, and I’m not Jackson either. I can finally- I can finally see that now.” So Hannah realized that she was not either of her parents, she was just Hannah. She finally found out who she really is, and she’s happy about that.

Hannah James’ transformation is teaching that it doesn’t matter what your parents are like, or what they did in past, it doesn’t change who you are. Don’t let your parent’s personalities overrule yours. You are your own person. And so in the book Something, Maybe by Elizabeth Scott, Hannah went from a girl that had a crush on someone that she insisted was her soul mate and feeling like she was stuck in between her father’s publicity and her mom’s web chat life, to a girl that has finally met the right guy, and finally know who she really is.