Surviving the Applewhites Essays

In the book Surviving the Applewhites, written by Stephanie S. Tolan, a boy named Jake, who is an absolute delinquent, and recently burned down a school he was going to, is taken in by a homeschool in Wits End, ran by a creative yet crazy family named The Applewhites. Jake goes through the story meeting and gaining relationships with the whole family, then ultimately discovers he loves to sing, and that he doesn’t have to be a bad person. There are many different themes, but only one main theme.

One dissimilarity between the Von Trapp family and the Applewhites, is that the Von Trapp family loved music, whereas the Applewhite clan were very artistic. Each Applewhite did such different work: Randolph Applewhite -theater director, Zedidiah Applewhite- handcrafts wood furniture, Archie Applewhites- constructs wood furniture, Lucille Applewhites - a poet, Debbie Applewhite (Sybil Jameson)- wrote bestselling mysteries. The Von Trapp family loved music, but each had different personalities that

In the early 1970s Marshall Applewhite and his wife Bonnie Nettles founded Heaven’s gate. After surviving a heart attack he claimed that he had a near death experience. With this he claimed to believe that he and his wife were the two witnesses spoken in the Book of Revelation in the Bible. After a brief and unsuccessful attempt in opening a book store the two decided to travel around the US and giving talks about the system they had introduced. The two had combined Christian doctrine with the concepts

“If you can take it, you can make it. Keep on fighting!” This quote from Louis Zamperini states that you must fight until you reach success, and that you never should give up in what you believe in. From Louis Zamperini 's establishment of unassailable records to experiencing the harsh and horrible conditions of being stranded in the Pacific ocean for days, and becoming a prisoner in a Japanese territory is truly a remarkable story of his. Louis Silvie Zamperini was born in in January 1917 in Olean

The word “cult” is a very subjective term because there’s a small, but important distinction between a religion and cult. J. Gordon Melton, professor at Baylor University, makes the statement, “All cults are religions, but all religions aren’t cults” (What’s the Difference, Melton). The perplexing part to the uninformed is that cults may appear in a religion, for example The People’s Temple was a cult within Christianity. Ted Peters, theology professors in Berkley, California states, “Like Classic

when Adolf Hitler and his regime destroyed the Olympic stadium in Finland. With his dream diminished, he became a bombardier for the U.S. Army during World War II. His plane, The Green Hornet, crashed while on a search mission to find a downed crew surviving for 46 days on a raft, he and another pilot were discovered by Japanese. Then and there, Louie’s journey with excruciating lows and euphoric highs, had begun. In the novel, Unbroken, Laura Hillenbrand uses Louie’s traumatizing experiences to convey

Though WWII ended in 1945, countless American war veterans were still torn with mental illnesses, and over 40% of all enlisted men during the war were discharged because of traumatic psychiatric conditions. The story of Unbroken speaks about the life of a man named Louis Zamperini, an American olympic athlete in long distance running, who eventually was captured as a POW by the Japanese in the pacific front of WWII. This story, in both a novel and movie, defines years of trauma and suffering overcome

Louie’s spirit remained unbroken. When the Allies defeated Japan, the Bird went into hiding and ultimately avoided all punishment as a war criminal. After Louie was freed from captivity, he returned to California where he met and married Cynthia Applewhite. However, Louie still ran into many struggles; he fell into alcoholism, struggled with untreated PTSD, and struggled financially. His marriage collapsed, but Cynthia convinced Louie to attend a Billy Graham Crusade in Los Angeles. The program completely

Louie overcame insurmountable odds surviving 47 days stranded on a raft and then having the strength to endure the beatings given to him by the guards at the POW camps shows that he was never ready to give up; he proved to audiences that a regular man can become the hero of his own story. Louis