Were Romeo and Juliet in Love?

For years Romeo and Juliet has been viewed as a role model love story. Growing up little girls fantasize about falling in love like Juliet did with Romeo, but little do they know that this supposed “love” ends in both of their deaths. As you get older and you examine the text you may start to wonder if Romeo and Juliet were ever truly in love. And it turns out that they really weren’t.

Romeo and Juliet thought they were in love due to their young souls and rashness. For example, even when Romeo says he has a feeling that going to the party will end in this death he goes anyway. This alone shows that Romeo makes decisions that are not wise. To make the situation worse he falls in love with Juliet and continues to chase after her even after he finds out that they come from rival families. This also shows how Romeo makes immature decisions and doesn’t think. Romeo didn’t put together the pieces that the thing that would cause his death is Juliet, which shows another level or immaturity. Additionally Romeo is just looking for a distraction from is heartbreak brought on by Rosaline, after he sees Juliet he says “With Rosaline? NO. I have forgot that name and that name’s woe.” This shows how immature he is because just an hour ago Romeo was saying that he would never get over Rosaline. This also shows that Romeo based his love for Juliet off of looks, because Romeo didn’t know Juliet and he kisses her after only a moment of knowing her.

Overall, I do think young love does exist, it just takes a while to form. Teenagers aren’t old enough to know all of the elements of a true good relationship. This does not mean that they can’t be in love, it’s just not the type of love that lasts forever. When adults find love they consider things besides their feelings because they have other things to worry about. But all in all, true love exists, it just might take a while to find it.

"Where She Went" Reading Response

In the book “Where She Went” by Gale Foreman, Adam’s relationships are heavily impacted by his actions. For example when he demands Kim to talk about Mia and he doesn’t, he blows up and ruins his relationship with her. This can also effect his relationship with Mia, the person he cares most about. Throughout the book Adam shows a habit of blowing up and getting upset because people bring up Mia. Another example of this is when Adam is at an interview and the reporter keeps bombarding him with questions and asking about Mia, that;s when he snaps. He starts to throw things and becomes panicked. This puts a lot of stress on his relationship with Aldous, because he has to deal with the publicity this story gets.
But all in all, every single mistake Adam has made since Mia left lead him back to her. With her help maybe Adam can heal and become who he was before.

"Cross-Dressers of the Civil War"

During the civil war over 600,000 men were killed, and even more were injured. the article “Cross-Dressers of the Civil war” by Veronica Majerol  is about the lives that weren’t counted. Throughout the Civil War many women dressed like men just to be in the army. There were many reasons for this, according to the article many women wanted love, freedom, or money. Back in the 1860’s, when the Civil War was going on, and long after that women didn’t get basic rights. Not only couldn’t women fight in the army, but they couldn’t vote, and were treated as “second-class citizens”. 

The reason women were once not allowed to fight in the army remains a mystery to me, one reason for that is “14 percent of women soldiers were promoted compared with 10 percent of men.” This shows what genuine hard workers women soldiers were. The article also discusses how “The army was no harder than the life they were already living,” Many women couldn’t make much money doing the jobs that they could actually get, when they were in the army they could earn more money. Now, women are allowed to be soldiers since the combat ban was lifted in 2013. It’s two years later and women fighting in combat is common, but unfortunately women have more battles for their rights to fight.

This article made me think about all of the right women have had to fight and how many more they need to. The author really makes you think about how lucky we are to have the rights we have today. Though women are looked at as equals now, we still aren’t treated like it. It’s hard for me to believe that there was once a time where women couldn’t vote, that makes it seem like a women’s voice isn’t as important as a mans. Luckily women have fought and earned the freedoms men were handed at birth.