“Godfather Death”
Imagine having to do whatever someone says no matter how much you disagree with it, or don’t like it. Sadly, this is a part of life. People have to obey their parents, teachers, bosses, and more. In the short story “God Father Death” by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, a boy has a different case. He was to do whatever his God Father says, but his Godfather is Death. This story teaches an important lesson to the doctor: if you do not do what you are told, there will be consequences.

In “Godfather Death” the main character, the Doctor, doesn’t have a name. This I found very odd because usually in every book every character has a name. But not only did the Doctor not have a name, neither did any of the other characters in the book. The doctor seems like a curious character. He was probably wondering what would happen if he disobeyed Death. I would do this too if I were him. I would think “what would happen if I did?” and I’m sure that’s would a lot of other people would think too. At the end of the story, The doctor starts disobeying Death. On page 11 of the book, the Doctor says “If I cheat Death this one time, he will be angry. But since I am his god son, he will turn a blind eye, so I will risk it." This is saying that the Doctor was just assuming that he wouldn’t get a punishment because he thought that his own Godfather wouldn’t do anything to him. He thought wrong. But the doctor had an acceptable reason: he was trying to save a life, the King's life. If I were the doctor, that would be a hard choice. Either disobey your Godfather without knowing what the consequence is, or save a king's life. If it were me, I would save the life. Soon, the doctor started to do this often to the point where he had to get his cruel punishment from Death.

Not only did the doctor get his punishment, but he also learned his lesson. By disobeying his Godfather, the doctor died. This was a excellent lesson teaching him and me that if we do not do what we are told, there will be consequences. For example, if you do not do what your parents tell you too you might get something taken away. Or if you disobey your teacher, you might get a detention. This was a superb lesson.

Overall, this was an excellent book. It had a great story along with a great lesson to be learned. I think the doctor had learned his lesson and got what he deserved.

"The Day of the Butterfly"

Imagine having one of your fellow classmates be diagnosed with a deadly disease. What if one of those classmates was an outcast? In the story “The day of the Butterfly” by Alice Munro a girl named Myra Sayla was diagnosed with leukemia, a deadly cancer, when she was only in 6th grade. The story is about how people’s feelings toward each other might change when something like this disease occurs. Myra, goes through a lot of troubles through this book.

Myra, who is the main character of the book always seems to be lonely. She is known for taking care of her little brother, Jimmy. Everyone thinks she’s an outcast and they don’t play with her. Their opinions might change when they find out that Myra is diagnosed with Leukemia. This often happens. People usually don’t notice something until it’s a life or death situation. This taught me that you shouldn’t look down on someone because you never know what’s going to happen in the future. This was also the case for Myra. Luckily, before the cancer, Myra found a friend while walking to school, Helen. Helen gave her the prize she found in her Cracker Jack which was a tin butterfly brooch. When I looked up the symbolism for a butterfly, It said that it was often used for a symbol of love and healing. This made sense to me because Myra was soon to get cancer. Helen was Myra’s only friend, but at least she had one.

Not only did Myra have one friend, but she was soon to get more. When Myra got cancer, her classmates opinions immediately changed when they found out. They all wanted to go visit her in the hospital and bring her presents. I, honestly would do the same, and I’m sure a lot of other people would too if they found out that someone they knew had cancer and had a chance of dying. This brought Myra to many friends and presents that she received. People finally acknowledged her. Even though she now had a lot of friends and presents and people who loved her, this wouldn’t last for long because Myra was soon to die. She would also not be able to take care of her little brother Jimmy anymore because Myra passed away that night.

This taught me that you should pay attention to the people who seem to not matter because something unfortunate might happen to them like it did to Myra, and they might need a friend to help them get through their situation. Even though Myra was an outcast, and had no friends throughout her whole life, it all caught up with her in the end.