Arthur's English Journal

I think if I was forced to give an honest answer I would say that I prefer the rain. It has that feeling of equality, like no matter how much money, no matter how much wealth you have, you can’t run from the rain. It’s about now that a hard slap to the leg brings me out of this sate of thinking. I look up and see Susan.
“You gonna move up now?” she says, knowing full well that she has all the power. I move over. She takes the place I have left for her, not a word of thanks leaving her overly worked lips. I look out of the window, the rain still pounding the cheap glass. I catch the eye of a woman walking along the sidewalk. She’s probably on the way to work, I can’t help but think that she’s just another forgettable office worker working at just another forgettable office. I wonder what she would think of me, probably that I was just another forgettable teen, on just another half empty school bus, sitting next to just another high-school slut and you know what, she would be right.

Ten minuets later, the bus begins to slow down, to let yet another poor kid onto this bus from hell. Despite the fact that I make this trip every day I still only ever remember three different stops. Firstly, Tim and Tina. Tim’s my best mate and Tina is his younger sister. The third one is Liam, I don’t really know if I can count him because he gets on at my stop, but I might as well. In all the years we have known each other we have never got to know one another. I think he lives about five minutes from my house, but in all our years of being neighbours I struggle to think of a time when we were neighbourly.

DAMN!! it suddenly occurs to me that I was supposed to complete a sheet for Math.

“What?” I realise that my sudden thought was actually said out loud. I begin to answer her, explaining the whole situation. Out of the corner of my eye I see a boy of about fifteen. Even with my bad memory I know that I have never seen this boy before. I start to turn my head but before I can really get a look at him he has pulled out a pump-action shot-gun and blown our bus driver away.

Chaos and panic explode from everyone on the bus. Liam stands up waving a revolver. At the back of the bus another kid who I only know by face stands up, he too holds a pistol. The bus roars into action and we drive off.

Ten minutes later, the kid who I only recognised by his face is standing at the front of the bus looking out the front window. The kid who shot the driver is behind the wheel and Liam is sitting looking straight at me and eleven other terrified teens. By now, they have crammed us into four rows of seats at the back of the bus. Despite the choas, I have managed to keep my window seat. Liam stands up and beings to speak.
“I know this might seem scary but I need every one of you to stay cool. Most of you probably won’t know what my name is. It’s Liam. The new boy driving is Casper and the other guy is Cameron.” From the back some dumb/brave kid stands and begins to open his mouth. Liam fires two rounds into the roof of the bus. The kid sits down, making his first wise decision of the day.

I look to my left and see the once proud and enigmatic figure of Susan has been replaced by a crying mess. It’s only now that I really get a sense of how important it is for girls to put makeup on.-

I wonder what time it is. Before I can stop myself I reach to my pocket and remember that all of our phones were taken. I’d be more angry but my birthday’s coming up and my Dad said he would get me one. I think back to the original question of what the time was. If I was forced to guess I would say it’s around nine, which means that unless Casper starts putting the peddle to the metal we ain’t getting to the school on time. So by my estimate that would mean the police would be alerted by no later than 9:30. Give them two or a bit hours to figure out what’s going on and track the bus down. Then an hour if they decide to give these guys whatever they want or half an hour if they come in all guns blazing. Then hour or so for questions and medical attention. Which means, by my estimate, this will all be done and dusted by around two. Or we’ll all be dead.

How the hell did it get this bad this quick? I planned every little detail, police, star, codes. In the distance a police siren wails but it can’t be close because it it was id be dead.
“KENNY, WE NEED TO GO!!”. The police car come round the corner and I scamper up like a desperate dear. I leave the dead body of my friend be hind.

“Would you not say that the key of life is to gain knowledge. I believe it is. I also believe that it is important to spread that word to tell eny body who will listen what you know. You must be magnetic you must have the grace of a fish while having the pacitence of a turtle. What you cannot do is become a broken tape repeating and repeating if you do that you will bore the…”
Max sits there listening to this man speaking. He is board. He is sleepy he is alseep.

Why is she in England?

15 pounds for half an hour. What mugs are paying that much. Back to the normal space. As I drive round to the normal space I begin to scroll through the convosations I had with my Mum. All I can really remember is that she said this girl was some sort of rebel and to make shore that I call her bye some nick name only problem is I can’t remember it.

Little girl: wants to be pretty, wasn’t to be Miss America. Practasis winning. Practises suprise.

Dad:
Dull looking but words he says are deep. Bit chaotic. Be successful

Son: like a man called Neiche who was a famous German philosopher and stays silent for some reason to do with Neiche.

Old man
Smokes weed. Lots of stuff on the wall. Doesn’t look like he has desires. Looks like he is doing it in the little girls room. Little girl could be in the room with him.

Mum: smokes. Family woman. Not glamorous. She seams to want to make her family live well. Cares about all her family.

Bro: suisidel says little. Wants to die

I’m the grandad.
I don’t really understand why they care so much. I mean I know that we’re all family but does family really need to sit round a dinner table. I’ll probably only speek to to Olive and I’m already sitting with her now so what’s the point in me wasting the little engery I have on walking all the way to the dinner table. I’d say Olive is defently the only person who I can really talk to any more. She is just so fearless. It’s probably to do with the fact that she hasn’t seen how shit and painful the world can get. Yeh I’d say it’s that.

My question is “how dose society view crime and how this is shown in different genres.

Films:
Bad Boys
The Departed

Books:
Wise guy
LA Confidential

Other Media:
Sin City: graphic novel
Smooth Criminal: Song

Top five books read to me:
1:) Barbar The Elephant: Fantasy
2:) Thomas The Tank Engine: Fantasy, Adventure, Action
3:) You Choose:
4:) Famous Five: Crime
5:) Robin Hood: Adventure, Love Story

Top five books I have read:
1:) World War Z: Horror, war
2:) Harry Potter: Fantasy, Action, adventure
3:) Horrible Histories: Factual, Comedy
4:) Wolf Of Wall Street: Factual, comedy, crime
5:) The Numbers Game: Sport

Top Five books I have read at school
1:) Macbeth: play, Tragedy, Fantasy
2:) Romeo and Juliet: Love story, play, tragedy
3:) Enders Game: Sci-fi, Action
4:) The Chrysalids: Sci-fi, Fantasy, Adventure
5:) Animal Farm: Fantasy

Top five books I have really tried to read
1:) The Hobbit: Adventure, Fantasy
2:) Casino Royale: Crime, Spy, Thriller
3:) Jack Whitehall’s Autobiografie: Life, Factual
4:) Fever pitch: Sport
5:) War Of The Worlds: Sci-Fi, Horror.

Top five books I really want to read
1:) Wiseguy: Crime,
2:) Transporting: Crime
3:) Nothing Last Forever: Crime, Action
4:) Fever Pitch: Sport
5:) Silence Of The Lambs: Crime, Horror, Mystery

What I lernt from this is that it I don’t have a specific area in books that I enjoy. I think that I enjoy and gain mostly from different types of books. The reason for giving up on The Hobbit was because I had just finished The Hunger Games sires, this led to me being board of that type of book. It was the same story with Casino Royal. I gave up on Jack Whitehall’s Autobiography and Fever Pitch because I had other books that needed to be read. War Of The Worlds was just to hard to read.

Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a proud, overly ambitious, woman. This is done by her saying and doing manly things.

“That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold”
This shows that Lady Macbeth is proud and pleased to be able to have participated in drinking. She is by herself when she says this, and I believe that this shows that she is pleased and proud to be able to have beaten men at doing something that is typically meant to be for men. Shakespeare uses “bold” to make Lady Macbeth seam drunk because people who have drunk a lot often seem cocky. This proves that she has actually drunk a lot and not just tricked the servants to drink more than her.

Shakespeare uses this quote to tell us something else. It shows us Lady Macbeth’s obvious disregard for class and social standing. For most of the play Lady Macbeth is shown to be like no other Jacobin woman, mostly through her murderous and controlling nature. But this quote may have been much more relatable for the people watching the play. This is because class was something that was more relevant to the people in that era. Alcohol, particular beer, was something that the people of lower standing would drink. So Lady Macbeth, who is of the upper class, drinking so much it would send others to sleep. This would have really shown Shakespeare’s intention to make Lady Macbeth an odd and unpredictable character.

The final thing the quote does is portray her as a social chameleon, trying to force her way into a man’s world by being able to drink a lot. Shakespeare could be saying that Lady Macbeth is actually very unsure of herself. This shows a lack of confidence and she is doing all this to seem more impressive. That idea adds an extra layer of evil.

Over all I believe that this quote, like much of Shkespare, has many different meanings. This quote effects the rest of the scene by not only telling the viewer what happened and how but also more about Lady Macbeth’s character and nature. Shakespeare presents Lady Macbeth as a person who has a layer of confidence that can be undone when you look closer at the metaphors and double meanings in her lines of speech.

This is one of the most entertaining books I have ever read. The Wolf Of Wall Street can make you laugh, which is something that I think most books forget to do.

I like this book because Jordan Belford makes no attempt to justify, to the reader, why he did the things he did. There are very few moments were the writer try’s to get are sympathy. He is fully aware the things he did were wrong but he also knows that most people want to live like that.

The writer is very clever. He is able to make the book a page turner bye very simple means, firstly the story he is telling is very entertaining and griping, secondly he can add suspense at every chapter. He is also very good at explaining how economics work and making the parts in the book that are full of economics, readably and fun.

The only things that this book suffers from are the fact that Jordan Belford is not a writer. There are very few moments of clever writing techniques and when they are used they feel very forced. The other thing is that this book is very long and can get a bit receptive.

All in all I would say that if your looking for a book full of sex then this is not the book for you. However this book is fun and interesting.

I think that Shakespeare has shown Macbeth as a over the top caricature who is always being extravagant even when he is being sad or scared. I think this is done by making Shakespeare reference religion, mostly Christianity, and have Macbeth question or challenge God.

In the play Macbeth says “both worlds suffer” this, I think refers to heaven and hell. This shows that Macbeth believes that his actions, multiple counts of murder, may shake both the place of good and the place of evil. In the times of Shakespeare religion was very strong and if a person was referring to the place of the Lord and place Devil in one word is a very symbolic thing to say as it could show that Macbeth’s good side and his evil side are now almost identical.