Happy Endings – Margaret Atwood

In the story, Happy Endings, by Margaret Atwood was a very different and unique story. The format of the story was very different from others because there were multiple endings. The plot of this story was a little shocking because of the events that occurred in each of the endings. The plot was interesting and kept the readers’ attention. There were different twists to the plots in each of the endings. People reading the story could also relate to the different situations that the characters were in. For example, their partner cheating on them, etc. Overall, this short story was not one of my favorites because of the different endings and the story line. However, this story was well written and it was a new way of writing a short story that other people may enjoy.

The Management of Grief - Bharati Mukherjee

In the story, the Management of Greif, by Bharati Mukherjee there are many unique characters. The main character is Shaila Bhave. She is also the narrator of the story. Throughout the story she is in pain because her husband and two sons were killed in a plane crash. Judith Templeton hears that she is mourning and grieving, so he tries to help her. Instead of taking his help, she tells him that his method is bad. There are many other characters in this story. For example: Dr. Sharma (the treasurer of the Indo-Canada Society); Dr. Sharma’s wife (she is pregnant with her fifth child); Kusum (her neighbor); Pam (Kusum’s daughter); Dr. Ranganathan; Shaila’s husband, two sons, and other family members; and other minor characters. All of these characters live in Canada. This short story is about their hardships of being Indian and living in Canada, as well as Shaila’s hardships of moving on with her life after losing her husband and two sons. This was a very moving story, and it showed a different perspective to life in Canada.

Winter Poem Response

Response to Sasha Grigorik's Poem:

I chose to write a response to this poem because I found it very interesting and descriptive. I like how the first and second line and the third and fourth line rhyme. The rhyming pattern effectively adds to her poem. This poem, written by Sasha Grigorik, provides a descriptive insight on Canada’s winter. She describes the snow, people in the distance, footprints in the snow, the water of Lake Ontario, and much more. She uses metaphors and similes in her poem, which also adds to the overall feel of the poem. For example, “the glare off the snow is charm to the eye” and “the distant vision is almost a dream”. She also refers to parts of nature that are also Canadian symbols. For example, she refers to the Maple leaf, which is on the Canadian flag, when she says “the maple trees are silent and sly”. Her poem creates a picture for the reader. When I read Sasha’s poem, I could picture standing on the hill at Appleby, seeing Lake Ontario and Toronto in the distance. Overall, this poem was very well written and it is one of my favourites.

In A Heartbeat

Today started off the same as every other Monday morning. Our alarm went off at six o’clock and my husband, James, and I woke up to our small, one bedroom apartment.
“Good morning, Mary,” he said, in the middle of a yawn.
“How did you sleep?”
“Good, thanks.”
“You better start getting ready or else you’ll be late.”
James and I had been married for two years now, and our lives pretty much revolved around our jobs. We were both journalists for the Toronto Sun. We worked in a high-rise building in the busy city of Toronto, Canada. Our small apartment was located about a ten minute walk from our work. We ate at an all-day breakfast restaurant most mornings. It was only four blocks away from our apartment. It was the perfect spot to eat at in the morning because it was right by Lake Ontario and we could watch the sunrise while eating our bacon and eggs. It seemed like we had the perfect life. Well, that was until right now.
“Mary! I need to talk to you,” said my boss, Mr. Ledger in his rough, harsh voice, “Come in here for a minute.”
“Okay, I’ll be right there.” I said, a bit annoyed since I was in the middle of a writing a column for next week’s paper.
I quickly saved my document and walked to his office. He had closed the door behind him just after calling me in, again. So, I knocked on his office door and waited for him to let me in. “Come on in Mary,” he practically yelled. That was the only thing that I did not like about this ideal life of mine. My boss was this short, scary looking man who had a huge ego. He never paid much attention to me other than to criticize my work every now and then.
“Okay, so here’s the scoop…” he started to say as his phone rang. “This will only take a minute.” And of course he answered it. He started talking to someone about the decrease in newspaper sales. I did not pay much attention to his conversation. Instead, I examined his office. He had two pictures framed on his desk. One was of a woman, who I was guessing was his wife, although I had never met her. The other was of two men fishing. They were young men and one of them looked like it could have been my boss except the picture must have been taken years ago. Then, my boss abruptly put down the phone and continued where he’d left off.
“There’s this story that I need you to cover. Since the newspaper sales are going down, we really need this.” He paused for a moment to clear his throat. “You know that baseball player, Jonathan Sloan?”
“Yes, I’ve heard of him.”
“Well, last year he quit his baseball team, the Blue Jays, and is now living in Nova Scotia with his family. I need you to write an article about him and why he left. And you better make it good, I’m counting on you.”
“Okay, Sir, I’ll get right to it.” I got up and began to walk out of his office when he stopped me.
“One thing.”
“Yes?”
“There’s a slight catch. No one knows why he left and he doesn’t seem to want people to know. That’s why this story is so important. We need to be the first newspaper to have the correct information.”
“So what do you want me to do?”
“I need you to travel to Nova Scotia.”
“No, I’m sorry I can’t.”
“I’m counting on you. You are a great journalist and we really need this story.”
I suddenly felt dizzy. He was counting on me? It seemed like he barely noticed me at work until now. How could he expect me to just pack my bags and leave this perfect life? I was married and I could not just leave James to go to Nova Scotia to write a story. Who knows how long that could take? I might not even be able to find any information. It’s not like Jonathan Sloan would just tell me, a reporter, everything that I wanted to know. If he wasn’t telling anyone, then it was obviously because it was personal.
“I can’t just leave.” I said; quiet enough that he would have trouble hearing me.
“Please, Mary.”
“I’m married and I can’t just leave my husband here and travel to Nova Scotia.”
“Well, if that is your only concern than I guess you can take your husband with you. And don’t worry, your flight and accommodations are all paid for.”
“And for James too?”
“I guess I could call the airline and get another seat.”
“I will still have to talk to him about it.”
“Of course, of course. Just get back to me by tomorrow morning.”
It wasn’t too hard to convince James to go. This would give him plenty of time to work on his articles, without having to see Mr. Ledger every day. We left for Nova Scotia the next day. I said goodbye to all my friends and family living in Toronto and headed to the airport.
“What flight are we on?” James asked me as we were looking at the large board of all the flight times.
“It’s the Air Canada flight at 6:30 am.”
Once we found where we had to go, we had to wait for about an hour and then we were flying in the air. I looked out the window and said my goodbyes to Toronto, not knowing how long we would be gone for.
The plane ride did not last too long. It was the perfect amount of time to get in a little sleep before meeting Jonathan Sloan and his family. We had called him the day before to tell them about our visit and to set up a time that we could meet them. They did not sound too happy about this on the phone, but they agreed in the end. After we got off the plane we took a cab to their house. Nova Scotia was exactly as I had pictured it. There were no high-rise buildings, the streets were not crowded with people and all I could see was farm land. We drove on a dirt road that never seemed to end. We eventually arrived at their house at exactly two o’clock in the afternoon. “Right on time,” James said as we walked up to their door. Their house was about the size of our apartment. The only difference was that it probably had a basement. A tiny woman answered the door.
“You’re here!” she said, “I’m Lucy Sloan and you must be Mary.”
“Hello Mrs. Sloan.”
“Oh please, call me Lucy. And who is this young man?”
“This is my husband James. He is also a writer for the Toronto Sun.”
“Nice to meet you, James.”
“And you,” he said as he gave her a warm, friendly smiled.
“Come in! Come in!” Lucy said as she opened the door wider. “It is so nice to have company over. There aren’t too many visitors up here in this small town.”
Her house looked to be at least fifty years old. Inside, it was full of antique looking furniture. Her kitchen was very small and it was connected to the family room. There were two doors on the right hand side of the room. One was open and it led into the basement. The other door was closed. It was probably her bedroom. There were pictures filling almost every part of the wall. Most of the pictures were black and white. She led us into the family room where a man was two men were sitting. One was a young man, who I recognized and the other was much older.
“This is Robert and Jonathan,” Lucy stated as she was introducing us.
We talked for a few hours, but I still had not asked the questions that I needed to. James looked at me, urging me to get to my questions for the article. He was probably getting hungry since it was almost six o’clock.
“So, Jonathan, why did you come back here, to Nova Scotia?”
“Well, I missed my family and I was tired of my life being just about baseball…” he started to explain. “I wanted to come back to the place where I grew up.”
“Are you planning to stay here?”
“I’m not sure yet. For the moment, I think I am.”
“But you left the Blue Jays so abruptly… why?”
“I don’t know. It just seemed like the right thing to do.”
“But it was right before the end of the season. You couldn’t just wait a couple more weeks? There must have been another reason for you to leave your team like that, without any notice.”
“I just knew that I had to, okay?”
I could tell that he was getting irritated. He had probably been asked this question many times before. “I’m sorry for intruding on your life here. I just wanted to know why you chose this. You had so many fans and they have no idea why you disappointed them by leaving.”
“You can’t always please everyone. I think you should be going now.”
“Please, I ---“
James cut me off by speaking. “Sorry for the intrusion Jonathan. We should go now, Mary.”
“But I ---“
“Goodbye Mr. and Mrs. Sloan.”
“Goodbye,” they both said in unison. Their voices sounded worried.
Just then, as we were turning away, there was a thump on the ground and a scream from Mrs. Sloan. My head automatically snapped around to see what had just happened. There, on the floor, was Lucy and Robert Sloan, kneeling around Jonathan. The thump on the ground must have been Jonathan. Lucy started to scream again, tears falling from her eyes. Robert ran to the phone and dialed a number so quickly that I barely noticed his hands move. I looked back at Lucy and ran towards her.
“It’s going to be okay!” I said, trying to calm her.
“No!” She said, her hands shaking as she tried to see if her son had a pulse or if he was breathing.
“Yes, I need an ambulance quickly.” I could hear Robert say in the kitchen. “My son, Jonathan Sloan, just collapsed.”
I was suddenly starring at Robert. I was waiting to see what he was going to say next. I wanted to know why his son had just collapsed. There must be a reason.
“Yes…” Robert said. He shot a quick glance at James, who had come over to where I was, and then to me. It seemed like we were starring at each other for a couple minutes, but I knew that not even a second had passed. Robert closed his eyes and tried to swallow. “Cancer.”
At that moment, my heart stopped. Is that why Jonathan suddenly decided to return home? Why he left his career? Did he want to spend his last moments of his life with the people that he truly cared about? How could this be? It was not fair. In a heartbeat, everything disappeared. I was no longer present in the room. I started to feel dizzy, but I realized that I needed to return to what was happening. I needed to help Jonathan. My questions could wait.
Once we go to the hospital, we rushed to the nearest nurse that we could find. “We need to see the doctor right now!” demanded Robert. I was helping Lucy run down the halls after Robert and James. They were wheeling a stretcher with Jonathan on it. Lucy was still crying and it was hard for her to keep up since she was shaking so much. When we got into the room, there were three nurses setting up the room for Jonathan and the doctor was checking him to make sure that he could help him. “He still has a pulse, but he isn’t breathing,” stated the doctor.
After waiting for almost fourteen hours, the doctor finally came up to us with news. Lucy began to cry again and I tried to comfort her as much as I could.
“It’s okay Mrs. Sloan,” the doctor began, “Jonathan is going to be alright.”
“Oh!” exclaimed Lucy, and she began to cry again. Only this time, they were tears of joy. Robert also began to cry. We all headed into the room where Jonathan was sleeping.
“The cancer caused his heart attack. We still need to keep him here for about a week before he can go back home. He will also need to take preventative medicine so that we might be able to stop this from happening again. Fortunately, his cancer does not seem to be getting worse. Although, he still needs to take it easy for a while. He cannot play any sports and he needs lots of rest. His condition is not too serious and I don’t think this should ever happen again as long as he keeps up with his medicine.”
“Thank you so ---” Lucy began to say, but could not finish. She ran over to Jonathan, who was fast asleep, and started to stroke his forehead and his hair.
From that moment, I knew that I could not write this story. My one gift to Jonathan would be to keep his secret safe. My eyes started to weld up and a tear rolled down my face. The most important thing in the world was your family, and Jonathan had shown me this. My rushed life in Canada’s big city, Toronto, seemed to not matter as much now. What mattered the most was my husband, James. I looked at him and said, “I love you.” He stared down at me and smiled, “I love you too, Mary.”
A week later we left Nova Scotia after we said our goodbyes. I promised Jonathan that I would not write the article about him. I didn’t care what my boss would say. I knew that I was doing the right thing. It did not matter that the newspaper sales went down a little. We were all blessed to be healthy and living in Canada.
For the next year, James and I took a break from work and decided to travel around Canada. We had never really been outside our busy lives in Toronto and we wanted to enjoy every part of Canada. We took our time as we travelled through all ten provinces and three territories, spending just less than a month in each place. Our time with the Sloan family had really opened our eyes to life and everything around us. We were so lucky to be together and to be living in this beautiful country, Canada.

Written By: Victoria Rochon

Poem Response

The Canadian's Home-Song Poem Response:

The poem, The Canadian’s Home-Song, gives a great and thorough description of Canada. The author uses a very unique rhyming scheme which effectively adds to the poem. The rhyming scheme for each paragraph is: A, B, C, B, D, B. The author, Duncan Campbell Scott, describes the weather, different types of trees, landscapes and animals in his poem. (For example: rain, wind, sparrows, lynx-cub, cedar, pine, etc.) He also mentioned snow-shoeing in his poem, which tells the reader that Canada has cold winters and a lot of snow. This helps to create an image for the reader. When I read the poem, I could picture Canada’s winter because of his great attention to detail. I chose this poem out of all the poems that we read because I think that the author describes Canada in a distinctive way that makes his poem stand out. I thought that the ending of the first and last paragraph (“To my own country” and “For my own country”) added a nice touch to the poem. He also added French to his poem, which demonstrated Canada’s culture and second language. Duncan Campbell Scott’s poem, The Canadian’s Home-Song, was a very unique and enjoyable poem to read.

Written By: Victoria Rochon

Outdoor Poem

Winter’s Day

The sunlight glistening off the snow
People’s faces with a winter’s glow
Ice freezing on the trees
A chilling, cool, winter’s breeze
Animals beginning to hibernate
The ice frozen for people to skate
All bundled up in your winter coat
In Lake Ontario, not a single boat
Snowflakes falling from the sky
The bare trees reaching high
The sun beginning to fade
The end of another Canadian winter’s day

Written By: Victoria Rochon

A Peace of Canada

Red
And white
Maple leaves in sight
As Canadians we
Believe, that we
Should achieve
Coming................together in peace,.............with the
Royal Canadian Mounted Police. Maple Syrup from
Our tree, Canadians living in harmony. The
Canadian geese take flight, as the sun shines bright
We keep the memories
From our past and hope to
Make
Them
Last

Written By: Victoria Rochon

Canadian Identity Poem

Canada: The place that I call home

Where the trees grow tall
There are four seasons,
Summer, winter, spring and fall
And these are all the reasons
This is the place that I call home

Fresh fallen snow,
White, with a glow
Children start humming
Christmas time is coming
This is the place that I call home

A lot of rain
Beautiful terrain
Flowers in blossom
Canada’s seasons are truly awesome
This is the place that I call home

Sap from the trees,
The buzzing of bees
Splashes from the pool,
Children finally out of school
This is the place that I call home

Leaves changing colour
The beauty of our country is like no other
The trees are now bare
Coolness in the air
This is the place that I call home

Where the trees grow tall
There are four seasons,
Summer, winter, spring and fall
And these are all the reasons
This is the place that I call home

Written By: Victoria Rochon

Canadian Poem

How Proud I Am Of Canada

How proud I am of Canada
The country of my birth
Described by other Nations
As the greatest place on Earth

My country is diversified
With many sights to see
From the mountains of the Pacific
To the maritimes by the sea

In between are the praries
Where the wheatfields grow so tall
While in Quebec is a culture
Not so different from us all

And then there is Ontario
Big and very strong
Whose strength and wealth
Help carry this great land along

In the North we have a presence
Of a people our hearts endear
For they manage to see the brighter side
Of a life most of us would fear

There's and Island in the Atlantic
A place called Newfoundland
That is home to a rugged people
And scenery oh so grand

And then there are the peoples
Who come from distant parts
Immigrants we may call them
But they're Canadians in their hearts

Immigrants is a word that
Describes us to a 'T'
And except for the aboriginals
Our Ancestors came by sea

Now some would like to criticize
For in their hearts they cannot see
The beauty of this country
And the fact that we are free

You don't have to lose your culture
To live in this great land
Just leave your ethenic quarrels
In your own Birth land

You can still enjoy your language
And the customs of your life
For your customs enriches this country
And with that we have no fight

So be proud of Canada
The greatest place on earth
And treat it like you would
The country of your birth

Walter Kenneth Lane Jr
(Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada)

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/how-proud-i-am-of-canada/