My Home

We live in small flat. It is bright and airy. It has three rooms. It has small kitchen, a bathroom, and a latrine. It is pleasant. It is comfortable.
- flat, rooms, kitchen, bath-room, latrine, pleasant, comfortable, guests, neighbors, disturbances.
- bright and airy, our own corners, places for study, neat and clean, to put up with.
 

 We are four-Father, Mother, Sister and I. Sister and I have own corner in the house. They are our place for study. We keep them neat and clean.

Sometimes we have guests. Then there is trouble. We come in one another’s way. But we like the company of good guests. A small house is good. It can be kept in order easily. We have good neighbors. A child cries. A servant pounds spices. We can do nothing about them. We put up with them.

 I hope same think is with you'll always or sometime.I hope all will like this. 

Why We Remember Special Gifts

Receiving gifts is always very exciting. I think that all people like to receive presents from their relatives, friends, co-workers, etc. Personally, I am sure that a person does not remember all gifts he has received because it is impossible. However, I know that all people remember a few gifts that were special. Why people remember those special gifts?

First of all, I believe that people remember special gifts because they were from very close and dear people. For example, I remember my parents presented me a ring when I was sixteen years old. It was not an expensive ring but it was very valuable for me and when I left my home and moved to another city I often looked at that ring and felt like my parents were somewhere near me. I felt their support and understanding. It is like people who are close to us give their small parts of their sole with that gift. They want us to remember them and they want to make us happy. These gifts are very valuable for people of all countries and nationalities.

Another reason why people remember special gifts because they were exactly what people wanted to have for a long time, but for some reasons, for example, they just could not afford those things, they did not buy them. So, when they receive those things as gifts it makes them very happy and they remember those moments for a long time. When I was a child my mother could not buy me a bicycle because we did not have enough money at that time. So, when my grandfather bought me my first bicycle it was the happiest moment in my life. Moreover, he personally taught me how to ride and I spent all my spare time after that event cycling.

To sum up, I think that people remember special gifts because they presented with love

Why People Go To College

College is a place where people go to increase their knowledge, to prepare for a future career, to get a new experience, to meet new people. Of cause, different people have different reasons to attend college, but all of them want to change their life for better. In this essay I will give the basic reasons and explain why people go to college.

First of all, every person wants to improve his or her life. So, college is one of the places that helps one get more from his life, to meet more opportunities. Knowledge is a power that can be gotten through studding. After graduation people may get better job and completely change their career and life.

Second of all, people go to a college to get a new life experience, which is very important because students learn to take care of themselves. Many of them work during their college years and earn their first money. It is really great and exiting. They learn how to save money and keep house, how to arrange their time in order to get all things done etc.

Additionally, students learn how to co-operate and communicate with each other. Many of them have to live with a roommate. From the first sight, it may seem difficult to live with a completely strange person, but it helps one to be friendlier, more supportive and it helps you save some money.

In summary, I would like to add that graduation is one of the major goals people try to accomplish in their life, because after that many beautiful, exciting changes will happen. That changes will make a person proud of himself.

People attend college or university for many different reasons (for example, new experiences, career preparation, increased knowledge). Why do you think people attend college or university? Use specific reasons and examples to support your answer.

Children And TV

Some parents believe that watching television is bad for their children. So, they try to restrict their children from watching TV. However, other parents think that there is nothing bad in watching TV. Personally, I think that watching TV brings children only benefits unless they spend in front of TV set less then a couple of hours daily. For the following reasons, which I will mention bellow, I believe that television plays an essential role in child's development.

First of all, television helps a child to extent his or her range of interests. Children can find out many new things and make many exiting discoveries for themselves. In addition to these practical benefits television improves children's vocabulary, their memory and gives them the opportunity to gain more knowledge. I think it is very essential for a child. Of cause, someone can say that there are plenty of different recourses of information such as books and teachers. But, I think, in our modern world children must learn faster and use all contemporary technology in order to succeed.
 

Second of all, watching cognitive programs helps children to learn more about wild life, our environment and about the importance of preserving our forest and wild animals that live there.Scientists say that a child should not watch TV more then 40 minutes successively. For example, my mother always made us have a break after watching TV more then half an hour and let our eyes rest for several minutes before turning on the TV again. I think it is the best solution.

To sum up, I believe that television gives children and all people the opportunity to learn what can not be learn from books. Television and movies in particular allow people to feel the reality and see what they will most likely not be able to see in their lives. Personally, when I was a child I liked to watch cognitive programs about wild animals. Unfortunately, my family had only one TV, but
these programs were the only ones we all wanted to watch. So,
we gathered in our living room and watched them in complete silence and I always remember those moments with a smile on my face.

A Cap for Steve

When it comes to the word “family”, many different things come to mind, especially the bond between children and their parents.  For some, family comes to mind when they think of dinner every night together and how involved their parents are in their lives.  Someone else may think of family as people living together, and relying on each other within an economic relationship, but nothing more than that.  Although all families are different and unique, most have very similar conflicts along with comparable relationships.
 

In the short story A Cap for Steve, there is a father and son relationship that most people are familiar with.  Dave Diamond, the father, is a poor, quick-tempered man who knows the true value of money, and knows how to make every dollar count.  His son Steve is a shy twelve year old boy, who has a true passion for baseball.  Dave and Steve do not see eye to eye on many things, which puts a strain on their relationship.  Although Steve understands the importance of money, he can see past it.  Dave, however, is stricken by the power of money and power, and his pride is very important to him.  A Cap for Steve is a story of growth, and disappointment.  This story illustrates Steve’s first situation with major disillusion particularly dealing with his father.  Steve has a lot of hope and faith for his father, who ends up letting him down.  Both characters grow substantially throughout the story, along with the strength of their relationship.  In the short story, A Cap for Steve, Callaghan uses the story to show the power of money and pride, which opens our eyes to the disillusionment of a young boy, and leads to the growth of his father.

Throughout the story, the power of money and pride has a large effect on the protagonist Dave, and changes his behaviour whenever money is apparent.  Money is mentioned in the first sentence of the story, and is an important component throughout.  It is used in the beginning to develop the protagonist’s character, Dave Diamond.  A personality trait of his is that “he knows how to make every dollar count”.From the very beginning Callaghan clearly shows the importance of money to him.  Dave works hard for every nickel, and knows the true value of it.  He works very hard to make ends meet, and does not give himself many breaks.  Along with the value of money, Dave’s pride is also significant.  His pride is first hurt during his encounter with Mr. Hudson. Mr. Hudson is the father of the boy who bought Steve’s Phillies’ cap from someone else.  Steve accuses the boy of stealing his hat and demands that he return it.  Steve and Dave are then invited to meet Mr. Hudson so they can work everything out.  When Dave is introduced to Mr. Hudson, he is almost immediately intimidated by him.  Mr. Hudson is a powerful lawyer, who lives in the nice apartments across the park.  Although the dialogue between them is civil and friendly, Mr. Hudson has a demeaning undertone to much of what he says, and Dave is aware of it.  The word “shrewd” is used more than once to describe Mr. Hudson.  He took one look at Dave and knew that he was poor, and that he could buy the hat back from him.  Although Dave held is ground in the beginning, he could not refuse the twenty dollars.  He looked to his son for the decision of whether or not to take the money, but was blocked by the power of the money to see Steve’s true feelings.  Dave thought his son felt the same amazement and excitement when Mr. Hudson offered the twenty dollars.  He let the money get the best of him, and he chose the modest sum of money over his son’s happiness.  Although Dave saw both sides to every argument, in this story the option of more money prevailed and his pride was crucial to every decision made.

In this story, Steve is disillusioned with his father for the first time, and the young boy begins his maturation.  From the beginning Steve looked up to his father, and was terrified by the entire situation.  Dave knew that his son was counting on him, but in the end Dave shattered all the hope that Steve had.  Steve made it clear the importance of his cap, and from the beginning his father failed to see it.  After the Mr. Hudson incident, Steve told his father that he never wanted to be like him, which was when Dave truly understood the significance of what had just happened, and how much he hurt his son.  Many boys look to their father as somewhat of a hero, and, in Steve’s eyes, his father ruined his heroic reputation.  Another instance where Steve was faced with disillusion was again with Mr. Hudson.  In the beginning the author stated that Steve, “ought to know the value of money” because of how influenced he was by his father.  Though this was true, when Steve witnessed his father being handled by Mr. Hudson, he saw the true power of money, and how much more power Mr. Hudson had.  Steve saw the power of authority and was scared from the start.  He understood now that in many cases the best man does not necessarily win, but instead the wealthier man.  Steve’s character broke from innocence from both of these situations and substantially grew.  He went from a quiet, shy boy, to someone who could express his feelings and stand up to his father.  He felt great disappointment surrounding the Phillies’ cap, and Dave could not understand the importance of it to him.  

Dave thought all of the enchantment his son found through the cap was childish, and he did not understand his son’s true passion for it until the end.  The cap was priceless to Steve, not only because of where it came from, but what it meant.  With a cap comes authority, power and leadership, and Steve for the first time had these three things.  People in the neighbourhood looked at him differently, which was why part of him had been ripped out when his father sold the hat.  For twenty dollars he lost one of the most important things to him and he was struck with disappointment.  Things that may seem unimportant to some people are other people’s treasures, and Steve faced disillusion numerous times though this story over his Phillies’ cap.

Growth can happen at any age, and although Dave was a fully grown man with a job and family, his young son teaches him a lot throughout this story.  From the beginning, there was an apparent strain between Dave and Steve.  Steve looked to his father for help and understanding, but Dave did not realize this until then end.  Dave called his son childish, careless and was very irritated by his behaviour.  Dave did not have a proper understanding of his son until the end of the story which made their relationship grow.  Dave saw how much he hurt his son, and so he changed his approach.  He realized how much time he was missing out on with his son, so he went and apologized to him.  His apology led them to talk about spending more quality time, and ended the story on a good note.   The atmosphere went from dark to light, and there was finally some happiness in the story.  Along with the growth of their relationship, Dave also matured.  Some of the personality traits that were evident in the beginning of the story were much more hidden in the end.  Dave was seen as a jealous man from the very beginning.  It first began with the jealousy towards Mr. Condon, the Phillies’ baseball player.  He saw how his son worshiped Mr. Condon, and the wealth that he had, and Dave envied him. 

 Every father wants to be their son’s hero, and in this situation, Dave saw something different.  Dave was also jealous of Mr. Hudson, but in a different way.  He was envious of his power and wealth, but not the relationship he had with his son.  Steve taught his father at the end of the story that their relationship can mean more than anything else.  Steve opened his eyes to how blessed he is with his family, and that spending time with them is the most important thing.  Throughout the story, Dave sees Steve in many different lights, and in the end he sees how much he has grown.  Steve’s growth in turn helped Dave.  Dave considerably changes from the beginning of the story to the end, and Steve helps the growth process along.

In the short story, A Cap for Steve, Callaghan shows the impact of money and pride, the disenchantment that every child faces, and that growth can happen at any age.  From the beginning to end of the story, money is an evident theme.  Both Steve and Dave value money and struggle to make ends meet.  Steve is first faced with enchantment, and then has it stolen twice from him.  He and his father grow substantially from one another, and through the situation they went endured together.  Their relationship changes,and they grow closer than ever before.  This story shows the importance of a father in any child’s life, and exemplifies that money is not everything.  Sometimes children open the eyes of adults, and in A Cap for Steve, this is the exact case.  Callaghan uses the bond of family to tell a powerful story.  People all face some time of disenchantment with their parents, and can relate.

  

Dead Men's Path

"A Dead Man's Path" is a short story about a bright and ambitious headmaster named Obi who soon finds that his ignorance over the ancestry of his people can bring about the worst of fates. Tradition is the main theme of this story, as the purpose of the ancient path is discovered and the reactions from Obi and the villagers define the importance of tradition to everyone involved. As events progress, Obi ignores the culture that his own ancestors once followed, soon finding that the passion of a person's beliefs can overcome all obstacles- whether the headmaster wants that or not. It is because of these factors that "A Dead Man's Path" best illustrates the importance of respecting and remembering traditions that may seem odd and old-fashioned, but have lived long in the hearts of the people who follow them.

The story takes place in Africa, and Obi, the main character, had just received news that he would be running a school that had been in dire need of help within the region. Obi is a bright young individual, and both he and his wife act as representatives to a more modern way of viewing the world. Chinua Achebe further shows this fact very early in the story, on the third paragraph: "'We shall do our best,' she (Obi's wife) replied. 'We shall have such beautiful gardens and everything will be just modern and delightful.' They are energetic and spirited, especially Obi, who is ambitious enough to want to see that his new school will be the best that he can make it. It is not long before the new headmaster wants to make sure that the outside of the school is painstakingly beautiful for the inspector who was to come and look over the grounds. It is at that time that Obi comes across a scraggly individual who violates the grounds of the school by walking along a worn path that the school is a part of. Obi discovered from a teacher of the school just what the path was used for."It amazes me," said Obi to one of his teachers who had been three years in the school, "that you people allowed the villagers to make use of this footpath. It is simply incredible." He shook his head.

"The path," the teacher said apologetically, "appears to be very important to them. Although it is hardly used, it connects the village shrine with their place of burial." Obi would hear none of this nonsense, demanding that the path be blocked for fear of letting the inspector see random strangers who didn't belong on school property in the first place. In spite of the teacher's warnings of a possible uprising, Obi blocked the trail with large logs and whatever else he could find so that no one could go through that path again. The villagers refused to let the headmaster keep them from the path, sending forth a priest to spark some sense into Obi. The priest voiced the importance of that path to not only the villagers who used it, but the dead as well who walked among it. Our dead relatives depart by it and our ancestors visit us by it. But most important, it is the path of children coming in to be born.

 Obi only scoffed at the priest's words, explaining that "Dead men don't walk," disregarding his own ancestry for modern beliefs. The path was left blocked. Two days later however, a woman died within the village while trying to give birth to a child. The tribe took this as a literal sign that misfortune was coming to them because the path was closed. They became restless, for there was no way for the woman to rest in peace with the path blocked. Nor could her child have entered the world and walked the path to their mother. Seemingly overnight, the villagers tore down everything that covered the path, taking down the bushes, flowers, and even a few school buildings with them, and the next day the inspector saw nothing but a wreck, and a Headmaster who had thought only of himself and the modern methods he had stood for.

In regards to story elements used throughout the piece, it's easy to see that the narrator, though he does not actually take part in the story, sides with the villagers and their predicament from the tone he used in describing the pompous headmaster and his stern refusal to comply with the priest's request. Chinua Achebe writes, "Mr. Obi listened with a satisfied smile on his face. 'The whole purpose of our school,' he said finally, 'is to eradicate just such beliefs as that. Dead men do not require footpaths. The whole idea is just fantastic. Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such ideas.' There were two main characters throughout the story that we read the most about: Obi, who can be considered as either a protagonist or antagonist given the side you join when reading the story - And the village priest who can be considered a parallel character to the headmaster's intentions. The key concept of the entire story however, was the path itself: A road to and from the grave for the dearly departed. That was the entire focus of the story and tied the characters together as they formed opinions and, in the village's case, rebelled against Obi's authority.

On that day of days, when all that Obi had striven for had ended up a wreck because of the people he had refused to listen to, Obi, or at least the reader, might learn and understand that modern technology can prove anything. It can prove that we cannot literally fly. It can prove how the earth was made and how we evolved. Yet not everyone believes science or technology. As in the story, the villagers were so superstitious about the blocking of the path, that they attacked the school and everything that blocked the path: "The beautiful hedges were torn up not just near the path but right round the school...flowers trampled...one of the school buildings torn down..." Science has theories, not facts, and though we live in the 20th century, no one can know about what will happen to them when they pass. We have religion to base our customs on, for it makes the person able to rely on something when all they see is a depthless hole. What happens when we die? Many cultures can answer that differently. The Hindus believe that there is a hierarchy of sorts, and that people are constantly reincarnated until they reach true Heaven. Certain Native American tribes believed that their ancestors were the stars themselves, a new one to be added to that dark blanket of sky whenever someone passed away. We have no knowledge of the unknown but the beliefs that our ancestors held before us, which is why traditions, customs, all of those 'old' beliefs can and will be important.

According to Achebe's "Dead Man's Path", modern society should never destroy the basis of a person's beliefs. That is what Obi had done, with his smart response to the village priest, "'...Our duty is to teach your children to laugh at such idea."' It would be like saying to a Christian that there is no god, that praying is nonsense and the bible is just a story someone decided to create on an exceptionally boring day. The importance of a person's culture goes beyond just a person, connecting a society of believers to work towards a common purpose and a common goal. A German philosopher named Friedrich Nietzsche stated that he wanted his readers to open up and accept nature as it is in all its manifold appearances. In order to be able to interpret nature it is mandatory to imagine. In Achebe's story, it was to free the path so that those who died could rest and peace and the tradition of those villagers continue on, longer than Obi will ever live. Remembering and cherishing tradition is a key point of "Dead Man's Path", in which tradition and the beliefs of a group of people would always conquer against those who wish to thwart them.

 

Arrow of God

 Arrow of God is a 1964 novel by Chinua Achebe. It is Achebe's third novel following Things Fall Apart and No Longer at Ease. These three books are sometimes called The African Trilogy. The novel centers around Ezeulu, the chief priest of several Nigerian villages, who confronts colonial powers and Christian missionaries in the 1920s.

The novel is set amongst the villages of the Igbo people in Nigeria. Ezeulu is the chief priest of the god Ulu, worshiped by the six villages of Umuaro. The book begins with Ezeulu and Umuaro getting in a battle with a nearby village, Okperi. The conflict is abruptly resolved when T.K. Winter bottom, the British colonial overseer, intervenes.After the conflict, a Christian missionary, John Good country, arrives in Umuaro. Goodcountry began to tell the villages tales of Nigerians in the Niger Delta who abandoned (and battled) their traditional "bad customs," in favor of Christianity, stirring resentment from his traditional community.

Ezeulu is called away from his village by Winter bottom, and he is invited to become a part of the colonial administration, a policy known as indirect rule. Ezeulu refuses to be a "white man's chief" and is thrown in prison. In Umuaro, the people cannot harvest the yams until Ezeulu has called the New Yam Feast to give thanks to Ulu. When Ezeulu returns from prison, he refuses to call the feast despite being implored by other important men in the village to make a compromise. Ezeulu reasons to the people and to himself that it is not his will but Ulu's; Ezeulu believes himself to be half spirit and half man. The yams begin to rot in the field, and a famine ensues for which the village blames Ezeulu. Seeing this as an opportunity, John Good country proposes that the village offer thanks to the Christian god instead so that they may harvest what remains of their crops with "immunity".

Many of the villagers have already lost their faith in Ezeulu. One of Ezeulu's sons dies during a traditional ceremony, and the village interprets this as a sign that Ulu has abandoned their priest. Rather than face another famine, the village converts to Christianity.

The title "Arrow of God" refers to Ezeulu's image of himself as an arrow in the bow of his god