Marwan’s 10th grade English blog

5. A muscle in my lower lip twitched as drool slowly dripped down the side of my chin. The lack of feeling in my sprawled legs over the side of the Lazy-Boy seemed to grasp the majority of my conscious attention. Although my vision was limited to the blood red Persian rug that belonged to my mother in-law, the repetitious ticking of the 9 foot tall cherry mahogany’s pendulum only enhanced my alliterative state.

1. How did the pitching coach get the author to stop “over thinking” on the mound?
By keeping his head quiet.

2. Why did Bryan believe it was better to learn a change-up first?
Because now he was thinking of the change-up as an antidote to his wayward fastball.

3. How does one throw a change-up?
By throwing it with the power of a fastball, but with the grip of making an “OK” sign and wrapping it around a ball.

4. Why does a change-up work?
It works because it fakes the batter out.

5. What makes a good pitching coach?
A good pitching coach is someone who can “self-coach”, and who can find mistakes in miniscule flaws.

1. What can we learn from the pitching coach that could translate to how we learn in school or with writing?
That when we try and learn something, we shouldn’t be thinking about a million different things, but we should keep our heads quiet and focus on what we need to accomplish.

2. What would the equivalent of a “change-up” be in writing?
Suspense techniques in Sci-Fi writing, when you think something is going to happen, but you change it and have something else happen.

3. Explain what you think the author means by the following selection:
You may not win all the time, but if you think about what you did wrong and how you can improve that to make yourself better, that is when you win.

Both dystopian societies in ‘Anthem’ and ‘Fahrenheit 451’ share similarities and differences that accentuate their own original worlds. While ‘Anthem’ radiates a more rigid, structured society, both worlds begin with a person(s) blind to what we know today as common knowledge, then ultimately have an epiphany about their domineering, controlling governments. The difference in realization of their governments’ outlandish tactics for managing their society is that in ‘Fahrenheit 451’, Montag become conscious over a longer period of time, while in ‘Anthem’ Equality recognizes this in a much shorter phase. The general public in both worlds are deprived of facts and knowledge about everyday things, which seems to be what both authors are trying to convey to the reader, that the government will try to censor more and more basic information to the public.
The qualities of the protagonists have many similarities in the sense of original thinking, and yearning to learn about the things they knew not of. I think the qualities of the protagonists augment the endings of the books, which I also find to be similar. Both endings give the impression of putting a stop to what was wrong in their community, and starting off fresh, a new beginning. I really appreciate the way both authors used this technique and find it to enhance the novel, and tell us as readers to do the same with our own lives, even if it may be something as small as cleaning your room, or beginning a new exercise routine.