To Kill a Mockingbird Vs Parallel: Comparative essay

Everyone makes decisions. Everyone is put into situations where they have to choose one path and what happens next is unknown. In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ by Harper Lee we can see the power of choices when the narrator (Scout Finch) tells the story of her father (Atticus Finch) and how his decision to defend a black man, who was charged with raping a white girl, affected him, his family and those around him. Similarly in ‘Parallel’ by Lauren Miller we see how Abby, the teenage protagonist’s life changes drastically as she makes different decisions in different situations that further leads her to a life she wouldn’t have expected. In both these text’s it is obvious that the decisions made, unravel many unknown consequences that we should be aware of.

A common theme that both these books primarily revolve around is the choice’s one makes. In ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’, Atticus Finch is repeatedly seen in a negative light for defending a black man in court. Not only was he disrespected by the neighbours who thought that “lawing for niggers” was a poor decision, but also by the kids in Scout’s school who ran around calling, “Scout Finch’s daddy defends niggers,” Besides that, even one of Atticus’s relatives called him a “nigger lover”. Nevertheless, Atticus was able to push through the insults since he was highly respected and honoured at the Negro church for his stand against racism. From this one decision Atticus made, many different opinions were created, leaving Atticus to settle the consequences.

In a similar manner, at one point in ‘Parallel’, Abby became a part of a huge fight with her best friend Caitlin in the cafeteria. Out of frustration, Abby told everyone that Caitlin had dated a married man, revealing a subject that Caitlin was very conscious about. Consequently Abby was in such a fluster that she, “a) lost her two best friends, b) failed her astronomy midterm and c) asked out a guy who was already dating someone else.” Repeatedly Abby asked herself, “How quickly can a person implode?” and the answer is simple. It just depends on the choices you make. The power of our choices is immense and we should be conscious of that.

It is quite clear that these two books share similar themes yet both authors use contrasting settings to highlight the theme. ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ is set in the 1960’s and primarily revolves around a family dealing with the consequences of segregation whereas ‘Parallel’ focuses on a teenage girl in the modern world and how her choices affect her. Both of these setting work well in order to express the theme yet in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ the setting choice seems slightly more effective. This may be because in ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ they are dealing with much more mature issues that leave greater impacts on larger communities compared to a teenage girls problems, which usually are much smaller when looked at on a vast scale.

In conclusion, both of these books are able to explain how the choices we make lead to unrevealed consequences, yet ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’ uses a more effective setting to convey this theme. After reading these two texts, the reader may believe that only negative results can be created through our choices but this is false. Positives results can also be created as long as the right decisions are made to lead up to those final results. This also doesn’t mean that every single small decision could cause a difference between life and death, but there is that possibility. This leaves the reader with the question of whether there is any way to know the consequences of our actions but that also is unknown.

By Aditi

Parallel: Author's Craft Essay

Everyone in life has expectations. Everyone dreams big and rarely ever does it follow through. In “Parallel” by Lauren Miller, the characters, just like real people, also face many situations where their reality is totally different to what they thought would happen to them. In the book, Abby, the female protagonist’s life is shown from two different perspectives. One being her life and the other, her parallel’s (a copy of herself in another world). Abby, being a teenage girl, often tends to over think simple situations and has great aspirations that don’t carry through. In this book, Lauren Miller uses inner thinking and symbolism to show how our expectations generally don’t match our realities, either negatively or positively.

In the beginning of the book it is mentioned that Abby had a plan. This plan wasn’t just any plan. It was ‘The Plan’. “The one that has informed every scholastic decision I’ve made since seventh grade, the year I decided I wanted to be a journalist.” This plan consisted of Abby going to Northwestern, majoring in in Journalism and landing a job at a national newspaper company, all before she turned twenty two. How she was going to do this; “a perfectly crafted combination of AP classes and total fluff electives with legit-sounding names.” Subsequently, Abby realised that one of the electives she chose, for her perfect resume, was canceled as the teacher wasn’t available. She had the choice of talking Astronomy or Drama instead, but neither would have helped her with her future career. She chose drama but her parallel took Astronomy. Both of these electives lead her to many wild and much different experiences than she would have ever imagined in the way she planned her life.‘The Plan’ in this book symbolises our perfect expectations and later how they can be changed by opposing ideas or our reality.

In addition to ‘The Plan’ Lauren Miller also uses inner thinking to describe how different expectations and reality can be. When Abby was talking to Josh, the guy she liked, about Megan, another girl who liked Josh, he seemed very hesitant about it. “Hope it works out! Obviously not.” She thought to herself as she replayed the conversation in her head. Immediately she expected that her chances with Josh were ruined by the conversation she had with him. Eventually, Josh explained to Abby that he actually did have feelings for her but was just unsure of what to say when she started to talk to him about another girl. Abby jumped to an abstract conclusion without understanding what she needed to understand. How Josh really felt. Without knowing much, she created unreal expectations which just made her more unsettled. This illustrates how the expectations we create in our head don’t seem to match what ends up happening.

When Lauren Miller was introducing Tyler, one of Abby’s first and best friends, she described him as a “walking contradiction”. She used different stereotypes as symbols and each of these symbols contradicted each other making our expectations of who Tyler would be, change by reality of him being something else, in the same sentence. She described him as “The city boy who plays competitive croquet” or “The jock who refuses to Jay walk”. When one hears city boy or jock, they begin to believe that this person is someone at at the top of the food chain. The popular kid. But when you hear competitive croquet and refusing to jaywalk you think of the complete opposite causing these stereotypes to conflict against each other. Each of these stereotypes symbolises a specific type of person that we expect to see but are contradicted by the reality of the opposite, telling us that sometimes our expectations don’t match our realities even in one single person.

In conclusion, Lauren Miller describes how different our expectations and realities can be using inner thinking and symbolism. It is true that sometimes our expectations and realities can overlap but that rarely ever happens. One thing that can cause reality falling short of expectations is overthinking. I personally over think situations too much and create these fantasies in my head which cause me to feel frustrated when the experiences don’t come true. Once we understand the power of our minds creation, we should be aware about what we expect so that if reality end ups falling short we won’t get upset. Sometimes though, our expectations can help us to dream big and aspire to accomplish great things. This leave the reader with the question, whether it is good to create expectations or not? and if so, what is the limit?

By Aditi

The Risk of Games that Simulate Violence

What we learn as kids remains with us for our entire lives, especially when they are being reinforced to us every day. You will never forget your ABC’s or 123’s, not just because you learnt them in kindergarten but also because you use them daily. Similarly, kids are beginning to engage in role playing games that simulate violence at such young ages, that they are starting to leave harmful impacts on the kids as they begin to play the games more often. The games that simulate violence have integrated into our society as something that is acceptable, when it really shouldn’t be. Technically we are teaching kids that it’s okay to run around with a gun and open fire, because that is what they are seeing in the games that they play. Role playing games that simulate violence influence children in perilous ways and should not be something that is tolerated by our society.

Role playing games are “the safe zone”. Just like it is mentioned in ‘High Jinks: Shoot Out’ by Guy Martin, games that simulate violence may be okay when they are being played, but outside the games, the safety barrier is removed and that same behaviour becomes unacceptable. It is hard to differentiate what is right and what is wrong, especially in a society which promotes games where the aim is to shoot someone, as a fun, free time activity. Activities like; laser tag and paintball give kids the thrill of holding a gun with the aim to fire at others. Who is to say that those exact kids won’t pick up a real gun and try those same things? No one can be sure, as children don’t have the same discriminative capabilities as the adults around them.

Now let’s look at the argument that many put forward, that violent role playing games help to improve problem solving and cognitive skills. If teens can easily catch on to these habits from the games, then how can we not expect them to pick up the harmful lessons as well? Many studies, including ones done by Palo Alto Medcial Foundation, kidshealth.org and helathline have proven that “violent content is linked to more agressive behaviour in teens”. Playing these games turns into a habit and starts to be incorporated into kid’s lives, leaving these harsh and negative thoughts running through their heads all day. This leads to pugnacious behaviour that could possibly threaten our society.

Another claim that many will make is that not all games that simulate violence lead to people open firing on the street. Not all farmville players are farmers and similarly not all Call of Duty players are trained shooters but these games increase the risk factor and the possibility of something going wrong. In Norway, during the summer of 2011, a man named Anders Behring Breivik shot 77 people on the streets without being provoked. In an interview with CNN he had mentioned that he, “played Call of Duty; Modern Warfare 2 as a means of shooting practise” leading us to believe that the violent role playing games can have a hazardous impact on the players. It turns out that this wasn’t an isolated incident. In the New York Times article, “Shooting in the dark,” they introduced the fact that “the young men who open fired at Columbine High School” in 1999 were also all video game addicts. This evidence points to the fact that there is a strong correlation between role playing games that simulate violence and the behaviours of children in ways that put communities at risk.

Out of the 41 million teenagers in the U.S, approximately 97% of them play some sort of video game. And out of all the video games sold in the U.S, 55% are categorized as either shooter, action of fighting games. Why are we promoting violence over sport, or combat over education? Our top selling video games should teach kids valuable morals that don’t pollute their brains with negative ideas. These so called sources of entertainment pose harmful threats on the people playing them as well as those around them. Understanding this could prevent an innocent citizen from being shot on the street because the shooter was heavily impacted by the violent games he played. I am not suggesting that these games be banned, but closely monitored so that risks are reduced and we can live in a safer environment.

By Aditi

Barbie: Your Implicit Worst Nightmare

The 5 year old girls stared at the moving screen with wonder. Mouths open and eyes glued as Ashley Tisdale strutted up and down the stage singing ‘Bop to the top’ from High School Musical. “She’s so pretty,” one of the girls managed to say, her heart beating fast, as the excitement grew within her. “When I grow up, I want to be just like her!” another one exclaimed. The girls were packed tightly together sitting on a black futon in the living room. They had closed the curtains to make it seem more like a movie theatre and were fidgeting in their seats, like any other 5 years olds would. “Don’t forget, shes so popular too,” said the third little girl. And just like that, Sharpay Evans became these girl’s role model, not because of her acting skills or the fact that she could sing well, but purely for the fact that she was popular and pretty.

It turns out this was not an isolated incident. These days media tends to corrupt young girls minds and snatch away their childhood by shaping them to believe that the only way to be happy, is to be perfect. Sadly they are not just being told this by TV shows and movies but also by their best friends, their dolls. To girls, dolls are everything. Girls have to take care them, yet the doll is still their role model. Girls spend countless hours playing with their dolls and it is known that the more time you spend with something the more influence it has on you. But what happens when that influence the dolls give are negative?

Bratz dolls come with high fashion clothes and accessories, that include, high heels, purses, makeup and even fashion magazines. The slogans that come with the dolls are definitely worse. They say things like “passion for fashion”, “above all else be beautiful” and even their sportz bratz says “It’s not about how you play the game, its about how good you look when you win”. There is even a Bratz boyz line of dolls which are supposedly the Bratz boyfriends. And even the Baby Bratz comes with studded earrings, manicured nails and designer diapers. Do we really want young girls wearing thick makeup, high heels and having boyfriends? I don’t think so.

Now lets not forget the worlds favourite doll, barbie. You're probably remembering all those times that barbie helped you get through those rough primary school years, but did you know all the harmful effects barbie was leaving on you? The average girls, aged 3-11 owns around 10 barbies and as mentioned before the more time you spend with something the more impact it leaves on you. Barbie has had a countless number of jobs in the past years including, teachers, doctors and even a army officer but yet what is her most famous and advertised look? A skinny teenage fashion designer. In 1965 Mattel came out with a ‘slumber party barbie’. This barbie came with a weighing scale set to 110 lbs as well as a book on how to lose weight, which said things like ‘Don’t eat’.

In the US there are approximately 5 million females under the age of 20 who have eating disorders. Out of that most people said they became conscious about their weight between the ages 4 and 6 and that their dolls had some impact on them. Little girls spend hours putting on makeup, ruining their hair with dyes and curling irons and even pleading their parents to buy them the trendiest clothes. In a survey of 9 - 10 year olds, 40% said that they had tried to lose weight. Of course this doesn’t just end there.

It is known that kids minds are more open and can be easily molded into acting or thinking a certain way. It is also known that the things you learn when you are younger stick to you forever, especially when you see them throughout your life. This is exactly what is happening to young girls now. It just moves from the perfect barbie dolls to the to the perfect models on posters and magazines.

Blayke Roberts a model for the ‘healthy is the new skinny’ campaign said, “People kept saying, ‘oh you won’t fit into that, i’ll just find someone else’ and hearing that everyday and seeing all these other perfect models every day really gets to you. I used to think maybe I am too ugly and fat for this. I went to extreme measures, like eating 700 calories a day, running over three miles a day and I eventually became so sick.” This is just one out of many examples of girls who have been harshly affected by the media around her. And all of this implicitly began with those perfect little dolls and perfect girls on TV.

Another woman in the UK, named Sarah Burge spent over 1 million dollars to achieve the barbie look and currently spends over 10,000 thousands dollars a year to maintain that look. As you can tell this all started by her playing with her little barbie dolls.

Adding to that, another negative impact caused by the media is the expectations. According to Akanksha Shukla, a grade 8 student, “In a lot of shows, the actors choose to play younger roles than they actually are. So even now when I’m older, when I look at TV shows and someone’s playing a 14 year old, they are not going to look 14, they look 16. And then I look at myself and say, I’m 14 but compared to them I look about 4. I don’t dress the way they do but I feel, should I be dressing they way they are? The idea that they paint is that you have to pretty, popular and somehow manage to stay smart and when I was younger I felt like I had to have that one best friend and I had to have a boyfriend and I had to have all these things and if I didn’t I wasn't a real teenager. It’s not always true, just the media makes it seem like that.”

Akanksha’s comments reminds us on how many mind games the media can play on a young girl's mind. It can make you doubt yourself, want to change yourself and creates expectations that are beyond reachable for the average person. Do we really want this to be what is going on in little girls heads?

Do you remember at the start of this article there were three little girls watching high school musical and wishing they were Sharpay. Well one of those girls was this reporter. Young girls don’t realize what is happening to them while it is happening to them. That is why we need to make everyone aware of the negative impacts media is leaving on little girls. I was lucky enough to have heard a talk from Dannielle Miller who inspired me to take a stand. Dannielle Miller is feminist, counselor and presenter of self esteem workshops for girls. According to her, here are some solutions to this horrifying problem.

The first thing you should do is deconstruct the media. This means that you should look at it from a critical angle and start a conversation with your friends or family about what it really means. Another thing you can do is reassure young girls. Go out and let them know what the media is actually doing and make them aware. If we can stop this problem right at the source, it could actually save many girls from disaster. The third thing you could do is connect with other like- minded girls. I’m pretty sure you would be able to find a couple girls that care about this issue and then don’t forget to speak up. Your voice is a powerful tool and if everyone was aware about what was going on, I could assure you that there would be change, and there needs to be.

Written by Aditi

#Bringbackcuriosity

What is the real reason you’re reading this article? Was it the catchy title? Did your teacher make you? I bet its anything but the fact that you actually wanted to find out more information. That you were honestly curious and wanted to find out more. These days, kids and adults have lost that interest to go and discover something new. Thanks to the easy access to the internet, and more importantly google, we are so used to typing in a question and getting the answer within seconds that we have forgotten the real meaning of research.

According to the Internet American Life Project we have become 'an easily distracted generation with short attention spans.' This means if we don't get our answer immediately we get frustrated, forget about it and move on. What would have happened if the apple fell on Newtons head but he wasn't bothered to figure out why? These life changing discoveries, like evolution, DNA and medicine, would have never been found if people weren't curious. Recently we have lost this curiosity and become so independent on the internet.

A few months ago, for a humanities assignment, Grade 7 students were asked to complete an essay on the Vietnam war. It was a dull day and the students were already getting bored, sitting in their seats. As the task was announced, the students burst into conversation amongst their friends, complaining and moaning as they knew that this task would be a lot of work and would force them to do a lot of research. Mr Murray, the humanities teacher, continued to explain the project while the students fidgeted in their seats and doodled in the corner of their books. Already the students were dreading the research as they knew it would be extremely boring and the information would be hard to find.

“On the bright side,” Mr Murray continued “I have created a planner that should make the research easier,” Some of the students faces lit up as they were looking for any possible way to make the project effortless in any sense. “Here is the summative planner, in the first column you can come up with specific questions that you would want to answer in your essay and in the second column you can gather some information that answers those questions.”

This idea encouraged the students as it meant that they could just copy the question into google, click the first couple links and jot down just about enough information to form a sentence or 2 answering the question. Still the students procrastinated till the last minute, dreading to the start the research.

As if doing their chores, the students finally began their work. “I don’t get this!” said Sophie, a girl in the humanities class who was re-reading the assignment. “Do you think I do?” Aditi, who was sitting next to her replied. “I don’t get why we have to do all of this research, can’t they just tell us, I’m not finding anything,” frustrated Sophie, banging on her computer keys. “Have you tried searching the question yet?

“Ya, I typed in ‘Did Ho Chi Minh make decisions that would benefit the people?’ and nothing came up. There’s just this long essay and I don’t want to read that.”

This sort of research is not useful for anyone. When asked how much students remembered from this project nobody said more than 70% and still there was a very small percentage that remembered that much. Teachers found that when students were given research topics they enjoyed they were able to go into full detail because there were so many resources online but in the same sense when students did not want to research the topic, they were easily capable of searching in Yahoo answers and getting information from un-credible sources.

When middle school students were asked what they think the definition of research was most of them replied by saying that it was finding information. Seika, a Grade 8 student said it was “Using resources to gather information for an assignment, project or just for fun,” to which Patrick replied which a laugh “Who does research for fun?” This is the perfect example of how research has turned from a ‘intellectual curiosity and discovery’ to a ‘fast paced, short term exercise aimed at locating just enough information to complete an assignment.’

Back at the humanities class on the next day, the students walked into the classroom and sat down in their regular seats with a fixed mindset. Mr Murray, encouragingly repeated the instructions again before letting the students continue their research. Grudgingly the students opened their laptops and began looking for the document where all their information was. They began searching for more information on their topic but still failed to see the point of the essay.

By this lesson Aditi had found a couple solid and reliable sources to gather her information from. Sophie on the other hand was still confused and kept sneaking looks at Aditi’s computer. “Where are you getting all your information from? The only website that comes up for me is shmoop and there is nothing good about shmoop!” Sophie irritatedly demanded. Aditi began reasoning with Sophie by reminding her that “You won’t get any information if you just search up the question, you need to understand what you are really asking and break it down.” Aditi explained “But that sounds like a lot of work and I don’t really care.”

“Yeah neither did I, but over the weekend I really started understanding the topic and I started liking it and that helped me want to find out more and then I was able to do it properly,” Aditi said. “Okay... but I don’t want to do it so then how can I get my information?” Sophie had begun to understand what Aditi was getting on to but was still very confused. “Just try to focus and be curious! Your from Vietnam so it shouldn’t be that hard,”

Sophie represents about 75% of our population these days. They are unable to understand the point of research and are not interested in finding out more. Aditi on the other hand represents that smaller population that understands why curiosity is important.

Even though students are capable of doing in-depth research for topics they are interested in, still very few people would go, experiment and find out new information without being prompted. Sometimes that spark of curiosity comes in our heads but we just brush it away because we are not bothered. Technology has turned us into thoughtless creatures who expect answers straight away and give up if their expectations aren’t met. We have to fight against this and bring back the curiosity.

Written by Aditi

Antartica? I thought this was Singapore?

“Can you turn the AC up?” A student in Mr Douglas's math class asked on a rainy tuesday morning. “It says its off but it doesn’t feel like it, I mean I’m Canadian and I’m still feeling cold!” Mr Douglas said, laughing to himself. The moment the students had entered the dull classroom, a chill ran down their spines and throughout the lesson they were fidgeting in their seat attempting to keep themselves warm but sadly failing. They couldn’t focus on their learning because of the strong, chilled air blowing down on them through the vents.

As soon as they were dismissed from class the students sprinted out of the ice box, into the narrow corridor hoping that they would ‘thaw’ as they got outside. “It was so cold, I was going to die!” one of the students exclaimed to her friend. “I know right, my teeth were legit chattering,” her friend replied. They walked fast to their next class in hope of restoring some heat in their bodies.

This wasn’t the only experience the students had with cold classrooms at UWCSEA. Many others have complained that the air conditioning is to low and should be increased to a higher temperature. There is also visual proof, of how cold the school is, by the number of students wearing sweaters to school.

Not only is sitting in cold class rooms uncomfortable for the students but it is also bad for their health.They are constantly going from hot to cold every time they step in and out of their classrooms. This can students to become sick from the rapid change in temperature. Another negative effect of keeping the air conditioning low is the environmental side. It would take up much less electricity if we kept the temperature lower and it would reduce the schools electricity bills. UWCSEA spends 60% of their electricity bills on cooling. This can be cut down by simply turning up the heat. It’s cheaper, healthier and more environmentally friendly too.

Written by Aditi

The Traffic Rush

A couple weeks ago a girl and her dad were driving to the nearby mall, Parkway parade. They were sitting in the car for 45 minutes to reach their destination, the same destination that took 15 minutes to reach 3 years ago. “I should have take the other route,” the girls dad said. “It wouldn’t have helped, there is a queue there too!” the girl replied. The 2 of them waited impatiently to take the next u - turn so they could finally enter the building but as they turned the corner and entered the parking lot, there wait wasn’t over.

It was a pandemonium! There were cars entering from all directions of the car park and the first couple floors were chock a block full. The ceiling hung low, making the parking lot seem even more claustrophobic. They had to climb up to the 6th floor to find one cozy parking spot next to to 2 badly parked cars. It had taken them about 20 minutes just to find parking!

This is only one example of the traffic increase in Singapore. According to many Singaporean residents it used to take people 10-15 minutes to get just about anywhere in Singapore but that time has now grown to 20 - 45 minutes. Many people all across the globe make jokes about how Singapore is so small and how easy it is to get around but now that really has become just a joke.
This reporter found that 5 years ago, from the fort road junction it used to take 7 minutes to reach Changi airport. Recently the reporter checked again and the time has increased to 17 minutes. This is a tremendous change and something must be done to stop the growth of traffic. The Singapore government makes the prices of cars extremely high but this doesn't stop the wealthy population from buying more and more. We need to turn the joke back into reality.

Written by Aditi

Too Cool For Rules

“Put your seatbelt on, the bus auntie is coming!” This is a normal phrase you hear while sitting on T2, a UWCSEA school bus. Generally all the older kids sit at the back of the bus and often think that they are too cool to wear their seat belts or that they are mature enough to make their own decisions. This reporter decided to see how things would turn out for a boy who just made the transition from primary school to middle school and the even bigger transition, from the front of the bus to the back.

The boy was just sitting quietly in his seat, obviously wearing his seatbelt. When the bus aunty started to walk to the back of the bus he stared at the commotion caused as the older kids scrambled around and quickly managed to pull their seat belts across the chest.

As the bus aunty turned around and walked back to the front of the bus, the older kids sighed with relief, laughed at the one kid who got caught and then continue to, what they would call talk, but the rest of the bus would call yell to their friends. The younger boy was frozen, his eyes fixed on the scene and how the routine seemed so normal for the older kids.

As they made it further down the bus ride, the older kids noticed the newcomer. He had now managed to get over his shock and was peering out of the window watching the trees pass by one at a time. One of the older kids leaned over to the younger boys seat and stretched his arm out, barely managing to press down on the seat belt buckle.

With a start, the seatbelt whizzed up across the younger boys chest, back to the side of his seat. Startled, the younger boy looked back to the snickering faces of the older kids and immediately pulled the seat belt back and shoved it into the buckle. “Hey,” one of the older kids called out “Don’t you know, its not cool to wear your seatbelt,” continued the older guy. Nervously the boy reached down to his buckle and released his seatbelt. “Now you're one of us,” the older kids congratulated him.

The next day the newcomer was sitting in the exact same seat but this time without his seatbelt. He was also part of the commotion this day when the bus aunty came to check on them. Later in the bus ride one of his fellow front seaters were aghast to see that his seatbelt wasn’t pulled tightly across his body. “What is wrong with you?” she called out to him. “Don't you know its not cool to wear your seatbelt,” the boy replied.

This reporter was dumbfound after hearing many other stories where students forgot their true principles to fit it. Why should students be allowed to cave into the fear of peer pressure? Why should students learn that if you want to be cool, you can’t follow rules?

Written by Aditi