I Was bored!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The Illustrated Man

Wouldn't it be strange to see a man covered in tattoos? I mean you see some people with many tattoos, but a person with tattoos that seem to change position? Eww! Also, what would it be like if you could see the future? Would you see yourself as a doctor or lawyer. You might be a teacher or a salesman. Could you see yourself strangling your wife? Hopefully you would not. This happened, however, in the short story called The Illustrated Man.

In the book called The Illustrated Man, a man works at a carnival named William . He gets fired because he is too fat to work anymore. He offers to become a tattoo freak in exchange for a job. William finds a mysterious old woman who offers to tattoo or "illustrate" him. He says yes, but the old woman tells him that a tattoo on his chest and on his back are not ready to be ready to be revealed. He reveals the tattoo showing himself killing his wife. The image becomes a real when he kills his wife because she yell at him. He tries to get the tattoo removed, but it is lodged in his bone (meaning he would have to die for it to be gone). Eventually he decides to get it removed. The freaks look at the tattoo on his back which shows freaks staring at a tattoo on his back etc.

There were many freak shows, sometimes with a tattooed man, during the 1840-1940 period. In 1841 a man named P.T Barnum owned an exhibit including freaks. One of them was a tattooed man. Not many carnivals contain freak exhibits nowadays. Anyways, how could that mysterious woman know the future? In the book she was described as old and wrinkly. Did she want him to die? Has she done similar things to other people? I think this old woman may be related to modern day fortune tellers. The tattoo lady was able to tell the future, but she could've faked it somehow. Maybe she noticed peculiar things about him to lead her to those conclusions. Also, if William had looked at the tattoo before would he have still killed himself? I wonder...

All Summer in a day

People settling on Venus. It seems like it will never happen, right? Maybe we will go live on Venus for one reason or another like global warming. What would it be like? Would it be hot with poison gases? It might be cool with powerful acids everywhere, but would it ever be always raining? Day in and day out rain, rain, rain. That would be a depressing sight. Would children only look forward to seeing how strong rain can be? Then life would be similar to All Summer in a day.

In All Summer in a day, Children live on the planet Venus because Earth is too expensive to live on. These children just see rainy weather all the time. Every seven years, the sun will come out. All the children look forward to it, but one of them is different. She is Margot who was born on Earth unlike the rest of the kids. The children think she is weird and don't like her, so the other kids lock her in a closet. They go outside to see the sun for the first time, but it begins to rain. They go inside and forgot about Margot. They let her out of the closet.

Actually, on Venus the wind speed is two hundred miles per hour. There are lightning storms, but not much rain. Where they lived it was always raining. I still don't see why these children do such a thing. They are so evil. If I were one of them, I would go against locking Margot in the closet. She may be different, but does she deserve to be treated that way? I mean some people in society thing that if you act a certain way you should just stay away from "normal" kids. They did not gain anything from locking her in it. They also forgot about her which is cruel.

The Gift

Imagine being able to travel to Mars. Looking outside a space shuttle seeing a large aurora of stars. Wouldn't this make a great Christmas gift? I think it would be better than a wrapped present. I would rather have the gift of seeing millions of stars than a new toy car. This is exactly what happens in The Gift.

The Gift is about a family on Christmas. The parents give their child a gift on Christmas which he admires greatly. However, the parents must leave on a shuttle to Mars for business. The boy wants to bring his gift with him, but the gift exceeds the weight limit. The family leaves in the shuttle without the gift or any decorations. The boy is very sad because he did not get a gift. His father cheers him up by letting him look out of a window, and he sees millions of bright, shining stars.

This story was amazing to me. It was great how the boy, depressed because he did not get a gift, was able to receive a gift that was even better. Some scientists say that space travel may be possible in the future. They speculate that chemically powered engines can take them to Mars. However, they say that it will take up a huge part of the shuttle, and it may not be save. The gift took place in 2052 so I wonder if there will be travel to Mars then. If space travel to Mars becomes possible, families, like the one in The Gift, may be taking their children to see the amazing light of the stars.

The Veldt

Children may not like their parents. They may think they are bossy or mean , but I don't think that children would want to kill their parents. Why would they? What force drives them to do it? About three hundred children kill their parents every year. That may not be a lot but in four years that is over a thousand parents dead.

In the book The Veldt two children get upset with their parents and kill them. The parents own a smart house but feel as if they need too shut down the house and take a break. The children are stunned. They like an automatic shoe-tier, but are horrified at the thought of tying their own shoes. The children lock their parents in a room with lions killing them.

What? Killing your parents over having to tie shoes is crazy! I tie my own shoes and don't want to kill my parents over it. The room had this mind scanner that projected images of thought. The children made images of lions real to kill their parents. The children only needed their parents for love and comfort. When they realized they did not want those anymore, they eliminated the parents. Smart houses exist, where if you are late from work you could call it and say , "Curtains close" and they will close. If we are not careful, we will have advanced too far in technology, and kids will realize that they may no longer need their parents.