Emma’s+Hero+Essay

__ The Giving Tree __ Love is something that will never die out. This is one of the main ideas in the book “The Giving Tree”. Shel Silverstein, the author, tells a story of an apple tree with unconditional love for a boy who spends his days underneath her branches. The boy eats her apples, swings on her branches, and sleeps in her shade. Seeing the boy so happy is the only thing that makes her happy. Unfortunately, the boy has to get older. As he does, he spends less and less time with the giving tree, but the tree still gives the boy her devotion every time he comes. The tree gives him her branches, her apples, and even her trunk to make the boy happy. The boy never shows much appreciation just more and more greed. In the end of the book the boy is finally content and all he wants is rest, and where’s a better place to rest than on the stump of an old tree. “The Giving Tree” can be represented by the relationship between King Khufu and the citizens of Egypt. The citizens of Egypt do whatever it takes to help King Khufu build his pyramid. They mine giant chunks of limestone, lift 2 ton blocks up the pyramid, and spends decades of their lives away from home. King Khufu just kept asking them to do more and more and they did everything he said. It made them happy to be helping their pharaoh build his resurrection chamber.

__Gettysburg Address__ The Gettysburg address was a 2 minute speech given by Abraham Lincoln to honor those who had died in war. Even though his speech was only 270 words the impact it made on people was great. His speech is one of the most important speeches in the world, even today. In some ways the people who fought in the Gettysburg are like the people who helped the pharaoh build his pyramid. The pharaoh is like the cause they were fighting for, the freedom of slaves and a united country. The citizens of Egypt died and worked to help build his pyramid. The people in the war died for their cause. Both in the end were left with something unforgettable, the Gettysburg Address, and the pyramid of the pharaoh.

__The Little Mermaid__ selflessness, sacrifice and devotion. These words all describe the story "The Little Mermaid", by Hans Christian Anderson. This story is about a mermaid who waits 15 years of her life to go up and see the humans. When she does she saves the prince and falls in love with him. Ater that she will do anything to become human and marry the prince. She goes so far as to give up her voice and suffer pain in order to see the prince. Once she's human she meets the prince, but even though he loves her he only loves her like a child. In the end another girlcomes whom the prince marries, and the little mermaid sacrifices her own life in order to save the prince. The little memaid, the protagonist in the story, is a very selfless characer. She is selfless because she loved the prince so much that she gave up her life to save him. I think this makes her amazing because not many people would suffer just so someone else could live.The little mermaid is also determined. She is determined because she did whatever it took to become a human and see the prince. This shows that she was willing to suffer pain like knives in order to see her true love again. As a result of her selflessness and devotion, The prince likes her, but not much. He finds another girl and the little mermaid turns to foam. The prince, the antagonist, is an ignorant character.I think that he's ignorant because he doesn't even know if the other girl is nice before he decides to marry her. As soon as he recognizes her he just knows he's going to marry her. He is also ignorant because he loves the little mermaid, but as soon as the other girl comes he leaves her and marries the other girl. I think that this shows he doesn't really love anyone he just thinks they're pretty. In the end he ends up marrying the other girl and in some ways killing the prince. All in all, this story shows that sometime too much devotion can be a bad thing and ultimately kill. The little mermaid may have killed herself through her devotion, but she did save her true love.

__Hero Essay__ The dictionary says that a hero is a person who is distinguished by courage and ability. To mean a hero is someone who does brave things and helps people. According to dictionary.com, a hero can be someone people think has heroic qualities or does heroic things. An unsung hero is a hero who does pretty much the same thing as a hero, but they aren’t rewarded. An unsung hero can be anyone that helps people. The whole world is covered with unsung heroes, and even though they aren’t celebrated and rewarded they are still just as brave and heroic as a hero. To me the definition of an unsung hero is someone who does something for others and sacrifices their own time to do it. Valerie Zeko does many of the things that an unsung hero does. For example, she sacrifices her time and energy to help her family every day. She gives them food, a home,and buys them clothes and other things they need.Every morning she even drives all 3 of her kids to three different schools all over town.This shows that Valerie Zeko loves her family and is willing to sacrifice her time to help them succeed. I think that anyone willing to sacrifice so much time in their life to help their family is an unsung hero. Therefore, she is an amazing person who loves her family and does everything she can to help them do well in life. This further shows that she has unconditional for her family and others, which I think is the most important quality of an unsung hero. To me the relationship between Valerie Zeko and her family is similar to the story __The Giving Tree.__ In the story the giving tree gives everything to the boy she loves. She gives her apples, her branches, and even her trunk to keep the boy happy. The giving tree is only happy when the boy is happy. The giving tree reminds me of Valerie, and the boy reminds me of her family. The tree gives everything to the boy just as Valerie gives everything to her family. The boy just takes all the gifts from the tree just like Valerie's family takes the things that she does for them. In the end of the book __The Giving Tree__ the boy appreciates whats left of the tree, the stump, and at the end of the day Valerie's family appreciates everything she does for them.