6-10-21

This morning, my son completed his final assignment, so he is officially finished with school for the year. He is more than ready for sixth grade. 

For his final essay, he needed to argue who is better with a bow and arrow: Katniss Everdeen or Hawkeye. There was never a doubt in my son’s opinion. Even before he read Hunger Games, he was convinced Hawkeye was better. I know, I’m against my son watching too much television. But usually, when you watch the screen it’s a passive activity. I can be a little more accepting of my son disappearing into movies if he watches them actively and attempts to analyze or critique the script, the acting, or even the characters. If he is taking note, if he actively searching for something to build an argument, I’m slightly less strict about his sprawling on the couch to watch TV. And when I’ve incorporated movies into his school work, he has always been very diligent and meticulous about taking notes. He doesn’t complain. I guess he too sees this as a compromise. If it shuts Mom up and she’ll leave me alone, I’ll do it.

I hardly helped him at all with this essay. He wrote an outline on his own — organizing his thoughts and argument as he saw fit — and then he finished a rough draft in two days. When I expressed surprised that he wrote three paragraphs one morning, surpassing the twenty-five minutes I set on the timer, he explained, “You said when this paper is done school is over. I don’t want to wait.” 

Reading his draft, there was little for me to comment on. I made a couple of suggestions and asked him to give me a bit more detail in a few places, but that was it. Oh, and grammar. He still has to work on grammar — capitalizing proper nouns, adding commas, not forgetting apostrophes. I’m hoping that in time, the rules will start to make sense and that he’ll begin to take more time proofreading and self-correcting his own work. If we end up homeschooling next year, that will be my focus.

Until then, this is a wrap. G3 promised me that he would keep writing over the summer. Only fiction though, “Nothing boring.” If he writes any more stories, I’ll be sure to share them with you.

Who Is The Better Archer?

Bows and arrows are one of the most powerful ancient weapons. They are weapons of death, but it does matter who uses them because the archer tells the arrow where to go. I noticed that Hawkeye, from the Marvel Comic Universe, and Katniss, from Suzanne Collin’s Hunger Games, are famous for their weapon skills. Hawkeye is more of a secondary hero, whereas Katniss is the main character. In this essay, I will explain how Hawkeye is not just a better archer, but a better person and a better fighter overall. Hawkeye is more versatile in his ability to use multiple weapons, he saved more people, and he is a superior archer. Then, for Katniss, I will say why she is okay.

First off, I want everyone to know that Hawkeye is good with a bow and arrow, but I will get to that later. I will talk about how Hawkeye is more versatile than Katniss. In Avengers Endgame, we see that when Black Widow goes to get him he has become Ronin. Ronin does not use a bow, he uses a sword. We also see and hear about how he kills bad guys with this weapon for five years, so we know he has to be very good. Hawkeye’s bow turns into a staff. This is helpful. When he has used all his arrows he can still use a weapon and kill bad guys. We know he is skilled because we see him use it well when he beats Black Panther with a staff in Civil War.  In Age of Ultron, when the superheroes go to Hawkeye’s home as a safe house, Iron Man is playing around with a dart board. Then, when Iron Man gives a speech, three darts fly at the same time into the bullseye. The next image we see is Hawkeye smiling. So we know Hawkeye threw the darts and is good at it. Last but not least, Hawkeye can fly a Quinjet. Since these planes have bombes and guns on them, I consider them a weapon. And if you are not good at driving the Quinjet you will crash, so you have to be good. In contrast, Katinss can use a knife, but she is really only good with a bow.

In the movies that Hawkeye is in, he saves more people than Katniss does. To me, at least, he seems to be more compassionate because of this. In Hunger Games, Katniss saved only three people, her mother and Prim by hunting for food and Peeta in the arena. Hawkeye, however, helped defeat three major bad guys: Loki, Ultron, and Thanos. Each of these bad guys threatened much of Earth’s population. Loki was going to kill almost all of New York to become king of the world. Ultron made an asteroid to wipeout the Earth’s entire population. Thanos killed half of every living thing. Hawkeye risked his life by going back in time to get the Infinity Stones so that he could undo the deaths. He fought Black Widow, his best friend, to determine who would jump off a cliff to die so that the Avengers could get the Soul Stone.

Last, but definitely not least, Hawkeye is a better archer. In this paragraph, I will explain why Hawkeye exceeds Katniss in archery in every way. There are many reasons why Hawkeye is a better archer, but I will focus on three. Number one, he took down Vision ( a high tech robot with the mind stone) with only four arrows. I would say that’s a good feat. Number two, in Civil War, Hawkeye shot at both War Machine and Iron Man while they were in the air. Lastly, in TheAvengers, Hawkeye could shoot at aliens two blocks away and hit them. Now, I bet you, Katniss could not do that. 

Despite not being as good as Hawkeye, Katniss is okay. I mean, she can shoot an apple out of a pig’s mouth kind of far away. That is pretty cool. It is like a party trick. Also, she can shoot every animal in the eye and not ruin the pelt. That is not a party trick. Lastly, Katniss survived for five years on nothing but the food she hunted. That is awesome.

Now you see why Hawkeye is a better archer along with being a better hero. I hoped you enjoyed this last essay of the year. Good bye. 🙂