Sunday, December 5, 2010

Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls

This classic novel starts off with a young boy named Billy, who wanted hunting dogs. Unfortunatly, his father did not have enough money to buy Billy the hounds he dreamed of. Billy took charge, and worked to earn money reach his goal of owning dogs. When Billy earned enough money, he went into town and bought his beloved animals, which he named Old Dan and Little Ann. Billy trained his dogs to capture racoons and to obey him. His proudest moment was when his dogs caught their first racoon. As time went on, Billy began to notice that Little Ann was wiser and had more common sense than Old Dan. Old Dan got into trouble through out their adventures.
Due to the Billy's success with his hounds, Billy's grandfather entered him into a racoon-hunting contest. Although Billy did not have the best dogs in the contest, his presious Little Ann won the beauty contest on the first day. Although there was some mishaps that happened during the comptition, Billy and his dogs proudly walked a way with over one hunderd dollars!!
Billy was very prud of his dogs, and continued to hunt. One night however, changed his life. While the team was hunting at night, a mountain lion attacks Old Dan. Billy tried to save his dog, but in the end they saved him. Although they defeated the mountain lion, Old Dan passed away from injury. Billy was heart broken. This was not the end of his sorrows, however. Little Ann was so upset, she did tot want to love any more, and also passes away with in a few days. Bill's family was greatful for these dogs, because they earned money for them to move into the town. Billy did not want to leave his dogs though. When he went back to visit their grave, a huge red fern grew right where they were burried. This is a plant that only an angel can plant. Billy felt that his dogs were at peace now, and he was ready to move on in his life. He never will forget them though.

Questions
1)Do you think it is better to work for something that you want, or have it handed to you? Why?
2) Do you think that a person or animal can die because they miss another animal or person?

11 comments:

Kaitlyn H 11-12 said...

1). I think it is better to work for something rather than having it handed to you because then you'll appreciate the end result much more. If things are just handed to you, sometimes it is hard to understand all the hard work that goes into it.

Unknown said...

First question-
I think it is really important for people to work for the things they they want. In Billy's case, he didn't really have a choice because if he didn't earn the money himself he would never have gotten the dogs, and because he had to work for them and bought them with the money that he worked hard for and earned that it made the dogs that much more special to him.

Second question-
In real life, i think that if you lose someone that you grow up with you can lose the will to live..Not being hungry, not staying fit, just giving up on life. That could kill you. I think in Little Ann's case she grew up with Old Dan. They were always together, eating sleeping and hunting. I figure that because they were such a close team she just didn't know how to do anything without him. Plus even if she could do things without them i don't think she would want to.

Bojana Duric said...

1. I think it's better to work for something that you want because in the end the reward is so much better.

2. I think a person or animal could die because of grief from missing another animal or person. I don't think they could die just because of the missing part; grief has a lot to do with it.

MaryL11-12 said...

I think it's better to work for something because once you get it, it means a lot more. Uh, medically I've never heard of anyone or anything dying of a broken heart but I mean, if you're depressed enough then you don't eat or sleep, and lack of those can cause death, so yeah I guess it can happen.

Jacob B 11-12 said...

I believe it is always better to work for something than having it handed to you. you will appreciate it a lot more because you understand the work that went in to getting it

Heather M. 13-14 said...

in response to question 1, i believe that its much better to work for what you want, because when the end or reward is reached, you will feel better and feel like you have accomplished something. if you have something handed to you, than you won't have any idea of what was needed to accomplish it, and it may not mean as much to you as it could have if you had tried and worked hard for it

Hannah L 13-14 said...

To answer your first question, I think it is always better to work for something that you want rather than to have it handed to you because you always appreciate things more when you work for them. It is always more worthwhile to work towards something because then you don't take it for granted.

For the second question, I think that if someone has a really strong relationship they may die because they miss that person otherwise there wouldn't be people dying from missing their spouse because people actually do die from that so yes I do think it is possible.

Leah A 5-6 said...

1. I believe that it is better to work for something rather than have it handed to you. When you work for something you feel that you achieved it instead of received it. Also, you seem to appreciate what you wanted more when you worked hard for it instead of it being handed to you.

Mike B 13-14 said...

If you work for somthing you want the reward is much greater in the end. If you work for somthing you are rewarded with a feeling of acomplishment. If you are just handed things you dont appreciate things as much.

LeahS11-12 said...

2. I don't think that a death can directly trigger another, but the effects of the death very possibly could. Someone could stop eating because of depression caused by a death, for example. There is also the unfortunate circumstance of suicide that could occur from depression caused by a death.

Mrs. Sherwood said...

Thread graded, closed