Dear Reader,
I will be sharing about a book that I have recently read. The title of the book is Ten Mile River. The basic plot of this book is based around two teenage boys name Ray and Jose. These two guys live on their own and face a number of conflicts throughout this story. The theme that I took from this book is friendship. Ray and Jose are a perfect example of this theme. They have been best friends since they were in an orphanage together and eventually ran away together. It seems like they know each other just as well as they know themselves. They would do anything for each other and they can also trust the other with their life. I chose this theme because I was amazed to see how great a friendship can be.
"A Friend may well be reckoned the masterpiece of Nature."
Ray was a great man, and I am proud to say that he was my best friend. Growing up I was the only one he had and he was the only one I had. We did everything together. We were family. Sure we may have gotten into some trouble together but that didn’t split us up. Even when juvie tried to split us up they had no chance. I remember the day I got out of juvie. I escaped from my foster family that night and went to Ray and I’s clubhouse. There I found that Ray had done the exact same thing. We were inseparable. I am very fortunate to have had Ray in my life.
"A friend is one who believes in you when you have ceased to believe in yourself."
Ten ways to know if you have a true friend
· Someone who neither looks down on you nor keeps up with you
· Someone who speaks to you after others don’t
· Someone who deals with others faults as gently as if they were their own
· Someone who can step on your toes without messing up your shine
· Someone who will lend a helping hand
· Someone who lets you forget it after you mad a fool of yourself
· Someone who listens attentively while you say nothing
· Someone who thinks you’re a good egg even though you’re slightly cracked
· Someone who accepts your good as well as your bad qualities
· Someone who makes you happy
"The better part of one's life consists of his friendships."
Dear Jose
Thank you for being my friend. You have been there for me my whole life. I can tell you anything no matter how embarrassing it may be. You know me better than I know myself. I am so grateful to have you as my friend. My life has benefited greatly because of you. You toughened me up and made me the man I am today.
The first genre I chose was a Eulogy. In this Jose shares about his friendship with Ray. He includes some of his good memories with Ray. I chose this because I know how much emotion goes into these speeches. This amount of emotion is similar to the emotion that goes into friendship. Using a eulogy was an easy way to accurately portray how Jose felt for his friend Ray. The next genre I chose was the ten ways to know if… This is basically just giving examples of how someone is a good friend. It shows how a good friend would treat you in a given situation and also how they make you feel. I chose this genre because it goes very well with the theme friendship. It was easy to identify ways to know if someone is your friend. Another genre I did was the thank you note. This was a random note written from Ray to Jose about their friendship. The note says how Ray is thankful for Jose being his friend and how he has always been there for him. Finally, the last genre I did was a collage. The collage contains pictures of people with their friends. Also it has a couple quotes about friendship. This was important because it gives a visual representation of friendship. This project improved my understanding of the theme friendship. The different kind of genres helped give a clear picture of this theme. It was tough for me to put myself in someone else’s shoes and write a letter from their perspective, but it helped me know more about friendship.
