In the Odyssey, a book written by Homer, hospitality undertakes an important role. When Athena came to Telemachus’s home disguised as a stranger, Telemachus said to the “stranger”, “Greetings, stranger! Here in our house you’ll find a royal welcome. Have supper first, then tell us what you need.” (Odyssey 81). Like most rich people at the time, Telemachus probably did not care about the well being of his guest. He acted generously and kindly to help build his reputation and so that word of his hospitality could spread.

When we do good deeds, we do not stop to think whether or not we are helping others. We think of the prizes and rewards that will come through our kind actions, and most of all, we care about our reputation. We think that others will look up to us as great people and that others will strive to become more like us. But instead of appreciating others’ love, our human nature urges us to compete with them and show that we can be just as good-natured as they. We need to stop trying to impress others, and we should look to our hearts for answers.

Proposition: Even though many people are always looking to compete with us, we need to set our own limits and do what we think is right.

In the Bible, the brothers Esau and Jacob, the sons Isaac and his wife Rebekah, act differently from one another. The father, Isaac prefers Esau because, “Esau was a skillful hunter, a man of the field, while Jacob was a quiet man, living in tents.” (Genesis 25.27). But the mother, Rebekah prefers Jacob. Families like these grow further and further apart as family members feel less important. I believe that to grow closer together, families need to love each family member greatly and equally.

It happens often when a parent prefers one child to another, and the rejected child grows cannot find any more importance in the value of family. Whenever they think of the word “parent”, they think about the person who treated them so poorly. I think that for families to bond together, each person should strive to be the best person they can be without arising competition within the family. When we see competition, our human nature urges us to show that we can do things better than our competitors. We need to fight this want for dominance and look for the positive qualities in every person around us.

Proposition: Even though it may not always seem so, we must realize that every person is different and possesses his/her own special qualities.

In The Oxford Annotated Bible, God says to Abram, “And I will make my covenant between me and you, and will make you exceedingly numerous.” (Genesis 17.2). God tells all of his faithful followers that they will have multiple and numerous offspring. Why would God do that? He had already destroyed almost every living creature on Earth with a flood. But, God was not truly the great leader if he did not have any followers, therefore, he offered Abram an abundant amount of offspring. However, God did not really care about Abram’s well being; he cared about the minions Abram would produce for him.

I believe that in most cases, nations with the most faithful followers possess the most powerful leaders. For example, the president of the United Sates of America stands as one of the most important leaders of the world. I think that this is because many of America’s citizens collaborate well together to form strongly bonded communities. These communities work together to raise money and support their leaders and nations, and because of America’s huge population, many chances for these groups to from come by. I think that when people work together for a common goal, they reach it much more quickly and easily than if they were to work alone.

Proposition: For the progress of our world, people must work together to support the leaders they want even though it may cause conflict between other parties.

In English class, we are reading the Genesis portion of The Oxford Annotated Bible, and the story of God’s creation of the Earth describes the meticulous steps that God used to develop the world. But, after every step of creation, “[A]nd God saw that it was good” is written. God made sure that everything would act as a positive force in the world.

I believe that many people act in appalling ways without even thinking whether it is “good” for others. People hurt others feelings and hurt them physically, and they do not regret their actions until later on. And they think, “I should have thought about the consequences and effects before acting that way.” Everyone regrets some of their decisions, and learning from these mistakes will always hold an important purpose. When we learn from our mistakes, we teach ourselves to think about each of our actions that may affect others negatively. Then we will also influence others to conduct themselves in a more constructive manner.

I have seen people act selfishly and not think about others in their decision-making, and I have behaved that way too. In The Oxford Annotated Bible when God created the humans, he gave them dominion over all the other creatures of the Earth. And, He did not think about whether or not this concept would question his rule over the world. God could have made the humans like the other living creatures on Earth, and he would have possessed greater control. I think that as people grow older, they will learn to make less selfish decisions like God did, and they will understand that it is not always important to satisfy their own needs before others.

Proposition: Although it may sometimes seem less pleasing, working for the common good has become a huge step in the development of our world.

In The New Oxford Annotated Bible, it says, “Then God said, ‘Let us make humankind in our image, according to our likeness; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds if the air, and over the cattle, and over all the wild animals of the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps upon the earth.’” (Genesis 1.26). God, the creator of our planet Earth, created humans as superior beings, and he gives them the responsibility to take care of all the creatures of the Earth. But human beings take advantage of the superiority over other creatures on Earth, and they use their dominance as an excuse for insensible actions.

Many human beings think that because they have dominion over all creatures, they can treat the world as if it only belonged to them. For example, people are polluting the Earth more and more every day, and they are causing the destruction of many natural environments. Some of these animals seek refuge in unsafe places such as near the home of predators, and many animals end up dying.

Human beings need to work together to solve these global issues. Their dominion over other creatures should not be used against the Earth’s creatures, and they should take on more responsibility. Even if others are making these poor decisions, people need to stand up for what is morally correct. Less trees and animals will die because of this destruction, and people will begin to understand the importance of life. People who work for a better environment and for the good of the Earth will always hold an important purpose.

Proposition: Stopping the destruction of the environment has become the most important step in cleansing the planet even though many believe that it stands as an unnecessary precaution.

The hardest part of this essay was relating my body paragraphs to my thesis. I always strayed off topic, and by the end of a body paragraph, I would be writing about something completely irrelevant. I had to remain on topic without analyzing in a way that could bring up new, not pertinent ideas. So, I planned out each sentence before I wrote it down and proved its relevance to the topic sentence. I revised my essay meticulously, and I caught every small error that I could find. I grew proud of my work, and I ended up getting a good grade.

I learned that I tend to stray off topic all the time in my writing because I think so hard that I find new ideas often. I learned to control my thoughts so that they did not destroy my reflections. As my writing keeps on improving, I can stay on topic more easily, and I can narrow my focus so that my writing can remain organized.

Finding the right quotes took me a long time because they could not be more than fifteen words long or less and twelve words. For example, I was trying to decide between “Sure. I guess we’re both hired hands, Iorek…” (Pullman 202) or “’Oh, I like choice though,’ he said. ‘I like choosing the jobs I take and…” (Pullman 308). I felt that my second choice was a stronger quote, but it seemed incomplete. And, the first one did not give enough context clues. I decided to go with the second choice even though I did not know if it stood as the better choice. I consider this essay to be poorly written, and this essay does not possess any genuine strength. However, this left me a lot of room for improvement.

From this experience, I learned about many of my weaknesses that I had never thought about before. It made me much more aware of my feeble areas of writing, and now, I feel a lot more confident writing analysis essays. I have also learned to trust my own instinct when looking for quotes instead of doubting myself. This essay has broadened my insight of literary analysis essays, and it has helped me figure out many of my weaknesses.

I had to write this in-class essay in a period of fifty minutes, and our teacher wanted us to come to class without having made an outline. I did not feel prepared for this task, but now that I have practiced, I have become much more experienced. Though this project, my first in-class essay, I have learned to cooperate well with important essays, and as usual, I have learned from my mistakes. I used too many “to be” verbs in this essay, and “to be” verbs reveal weak writers. For example, in the sentence, “Boromir is a very arrogant person who is too confident in himself…”, I could have written, “Boromir’s arrogance leads to his development as an overly confident person.” Without “to be” verbs, my essay would flow more nicely, and I could entice my readers more easily. Many of my topic sentences were demeaned by my “to be” verbs, and my essay became a lot less interesting. But, I used a lot of specific incidents to back up my reasoning, and I gained a lot of points because of it.

I could not overcome the shock of the idea of coming to an in-class essay without an outline or notes. This concept had been introduced to me for the first time, and I did not think I was going to do well because of it. But, I followed my teacher’s instructions, and by the end of the class, I felt a lot more confident than I thought I would. The night before, I even looked up “how to deal with essay tension”, and the website I read told me to breathe deeply and stay calm. I laugh at this act now, but at the time, it proved to be reassuring.

I learned that I usually put myself down before an exam or a quiz and that instead of destroying my confidence, I should behave positively. With ambition and a positive attitude, I can work a lot better because I believe in myself.

I wanted to complete this project in twenty minutes to help prepare myself for my midterm exams, and even though I did not so too well on this quick response, I learned to write better responses more quickly. This was the first step of achieving my twenty-minute goal, and I learned a lot from my mistakes in this essay. I did not go beyond the text to explore the idea, therefore, leaving little close analysis, and I did not bring in any outside examples. Outside examples provide strong support, and without them, and the reader has a harder time relating the essay to their lives. However, I demonstrated that I understood the text well. Even though I included little analysis, the reader could understand what was going on in the story.

I had a difficult time trying to complete the essay in the twenty minutes I had allotted myself. I usually wrote slowly and meticulously, and changing this habit proved to be extremely hard. I sat down in front of my computer determined to achieve my goal, and made sure there was nothing in the room that could distract me. I began to work diligently, and to my surprise, I finished in time. I would not consider this essay satisfactory, but it was the beginning of a huge step in the development of my writing.

From most of my writing assignments, I learn that I can do anything if I give it my all. But from this assignment, I learned that if I work industriously without any distractions, I am capable of writing quickly. When I received my graded assignment from the teacher I knew that if I continued working like I did that day, the content and expression of my writing would improve also.

First, my partners and I listed examples that we could use in our project, and then we allocated the work evenly. We posted the work onto an Internet site that we still have access to. My goal was to complete the project efficiently and on time and to provide support for my partners. I did a good job of doing so, even though one of my partners disagrees with me. Our responses were thorough, and we did a great job of working together. We could have not used so many “to be” verbs, but learning how to write like that is a work in progress.

The most challenging aspect of the assignment was learning how to cooperate with my partners because many times, I would say something and someone would disagree. Instead of arguing with each other, we could have tried to solve the problem in a sensible manner. But, by the end of the assignment, I felt that we had worked great together as a team, and I was proud of my results.

From this experience, I have learned that I can cooperate with others well and that I love to help others. I feel great when I am able to help someone with a problem because I know that they will be open to help me in the future.