D Velasco-Villalba's Online Journal

Should teens be allowed to access condoms?

Many different people talk about condoms and having sex often, in our current society. Condoms are used during sex to provide protection and to prevent people having sex, not to catch any infections or illnesses about sex. Most adults use condoms but others don’t, so why can’t, teenagers have the right to have condoms as if they do have sex and use them, they would be protected and also be safe while they do. Other questions may be that teenagers don’t have the right to be able to have sex yet, or are too young to be thinking about sex, but I disagree with this point, not all teenagers think about having sex or even the thought of having a condom at this age. There are many different reasons why people say why and why not teenagers should have access to condoms, my personal opinion is that I believe teenagers should be allowed to have access to condoms, or that the legal age limit of people to have condoms be lowered so that older teenagers can be able to get access of them.

First of all if condoms where made to be used when having sex, why can’t the migratory of people be allowed to use them, when I’m saying this I don’t mean to say that everybody can or should be using them like children or babies but, I mean to say why can’t teenagers have the right, to use condoms. On one side people could argue that us teens would have loads of sex or use them in the wrong way, but to be truthful this I not really the case. Most teenagers don’t think about sex or the use of condoms, at their age. Some talk about many different things or have other interests but this is not fair, on those teenagers who would like to have sex, or be able to have trust from older with the use of condoms. What adults don’t realize is that most things that adults do and due to people teenagers can’t be allowed to do, just makes them upset and feel that, just because we are younger we can’t have the trust or can’t have the responsibility, as adults.

One crucial point that I can point out, being a teenager myself is that when people say you can go to a clinic or a pharmacy and ask for condoms, we listen to it but, don’t do it. Not to say we should feel embarrassed about it but, it just doesn’t feel right. Most clinics where this is available adults can go there, which makes us feel discomforted. Clinics should be made so that only young people can attend to them, and other places where teenagers can go to get condoms and, sex advice. On the other hand I would understand why, adults wouldn’t like their children or teenagers to have condoms, at their current age. The reason of this is because they wouldn’t want them to be having sex at a young age or, be thinking about this now and should rather be thinking about school and their future. Another point can be that sometimes when having sex people can catch STI’s or STD’s and parents, wouldn’t want this to happen to their children as they would want them to be healthy and safe.

Having sex is a normal thing and happens in most people’s life, so I don’t know why adults are stopping teenagers from having sex, and not giving most of them condoms. In conclusion I believe that most adults should still be secured about teenagers or their children thinking about condoms and sex but, I strongly advise you to not take this out on all teenagers, as I don’t direct this at them. I know most teenagers wouldn’t be thinking about sex at a young age as this, but we shouldn’t stop others that don’t think in that way. I believe we should be more supportive and be there for them, as this would help them and not make them feel so scared or worry about what, could happen when having sex and having condoms.

Dear Ms Samantha Taylor,

I am writing this letter to strongly agree with what you say about teenagers in this article of yours. I have read through your article and would like to be on your side as this what they say about teenagers is not true, and is not the case, many points that you argued against were true to my belief as I am a teenager. I urge you to read my letter as explaining the points in the articles would make people view teenagers differently.

At the start of the article, you talk about the novelist Jonathan Franzen who talks strongly about teenagers being addicted to all the social media trends. This point that Jonathan makes is truly incorrect and you should agree with me as not all teenagers have links with social media or social sites via computer or mobile devices, also saying “teenagers” refers to the whole teenage community saying all teenagers are involved with social media and addicted to social network. All teenagers are different in their own way, but although they may do similar activities and have similar hobbies, they are all different and Mr Franzen is wrong to make this accusation about teenagers. Saying that teenagers have become “zombies” and “screen enslaved” is not the real truth, shouldn’t we also contrast adults that use the internet and social media every day?

And the many benefits social media provides students?

Another point Franzen made was that teenagers because of this social trend cannot communicate “face to face”, Decently we have improved the lifestyle of teenagers by developing local areas and building environmentally friendly places, to help both teenagers and the environment that are around them. For example, areas have been constructed like youth centres which offers teenagers an area to socialise with friends and other people and being able to play games and places to create and do. Facilities like this can take most teens off the streets to get out of unnecessary trouble and keep most of them entertained, and not to be bored at home. Parks also are a common place where teenagers can meet up and hang out in pairs, or in groups and communicate physically and not over social media.

As the article continues more and more accusations are being thrown at teenagers and most of them being linked with addictions to social media sites like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Vine and Snapchat. On the third paragraph where there have been inflictions made on teenagers becoming violent and aggressive due to recent games that have been released like Grand Theft Auto V, teenagers playing these type of games could cause them to be more aggressive, which would lead them to socialise differently between their friends and people they don’t know. On the other hand not all teenagers around the world or even here play video games, or even have violent games like Grand Theft Auto V as there are different types of video games that are not violent or bad.

Also, most teenagers have different interests and hobbies they do in their free time. Most teenagers I know have similar interests and liking which bonds teenagers together but at the same time, they might do things differently to other teenagers or have interests that don’t appetiser other teenagers. Most adults play more video games then actual teenagers. Carrying on the article near the end it talks about what us teenagers post on the internet and what we share with others, but are we not allowed to socialise in the ways that we favour. Teenagers are not too different to adults as some things adults post might shock us or surprise us, but we do not react or comment on that but they do on us.

How does Shakespeare and Shelley explore power and control through language, structure and characterization? n

In the book ‘The Tempest’ we can see that not only one character has power and control but there are many characters throughout the whole of the play that show there control and power over different people. The tempest is based on a storm that hits a ship in the middle of the sea, this storm was created by Areal (A spirit) who follows the orders of Prospero, here we can already see control being used by a character early on in the play having power over Areal. The reason that he created the tempest was because his brother Antonio and he hated his brother, the reason behind this was because he had taken his place as being the Duke of Milan and wanted to get revenge on him. The tempest destroyed the ship but didn’t kill anybody, this shows that Prospero has control to make damage but can control his power to not kill anybody.

On page 6, Prospero starts to talk about the past, he tells Miranda “Thy father was the Duke of Milan, and a prince of power” here we can see that Prospero is telling Miranda that he was a prince and a person of royalty, and with all people that are royal have power. Prospero had power as he was a Duke, after this Miranda responds with the lines “Sir, are you not my father?. Thy mother was a piece of virtue” the definition of virtue is the behaviour showing high moral standards, Prospero is showing that he can still have that power, but at the same time has to regain the power that he had lost. This is why we can see that Prospero wanted to make the tempest in order to get revenge on Antonio (His brother) and reclaim his power back. Prospero called Ariel, the character Ariel is a spiritual being that listens to Prospero, Prospero found Ariel somewhere on the island. He saw that Ariel was with Sycorax (The Sycorax is a witch that lives on the island, also she is a mother of Caliban) Prospero could see that Ariel was in trouble so Prospero decided to save Ariel from such a thing and lead him to safety.

Mary Shelley is the author of the book ‘Frankenstein’, this novel starts off in the North-Pole where a captain called Robert Walton and his crew are stuck in the thick sheets of ice during a mission they had set out to do, the ice all around them brings there journey to a halt as they try to break free to carry on. During this time out in the open the captain spots a man walking on the ice, this man was called Victor Frankenstein. The captain went out into the ice to see what was out there, he saw that the man was cold and looked weak by they way in which it was walking. Victor is invited onto the boat and the captain provides him with warmth and a place to rest, the captain starts talking to Victor about why is he out in these conditions alone and where he was off to. Victor from here starts to explain his whole story as to how he got to the North-Pole and what happened to him in the past.

At the start of Frankenstein we can see Victor starting of the story from a young age when he was a little boy, he lived with his family in Geneva and lived like any normal boy should. Time grew on and Victor started to grow up and changed from how he use to be, he still played with his sister and his best friend Henry but he didn’t seem the same, he starts telling the captain about what he wanted to do as he was all grown up. Victor decided that he should leave his family to go study at a university away from Geneva and do science as everything around Victors life linked into science and he wanted to see, how science really worked. He left his loved ones and set off on this big adventure that lay out in front of him, but his mate Henry secretly goes with Victor to stay with him. University in Ingolstadt was different for both of the young men but later on there lives would soon change.

The love affair between science and victor started in chapter 4 when victor goes outside after hearing lightning strikes outside, he leaves the building and can see a lightning bolt hit a tree and he was that the tree caught a light. He saw the lightning hit the tree change to fire and start growing and burning the tree, he could see the power of the lightning have over the tree, the tree although strong and tall didn’t have the power to overcome the lightning. he returns inside to dry himself off from the rain and this could have also, made Victor think some more. Everybody knows that water defeats fire the rain wasn’t enough to put the fire out that was growing on the tree. The next morning Victor leaves his house to see that the whole of the tree was burnt down to the stump. We can see that the fire had more power as it defeated the tree, leading it to have burnt down. This experience left Victor Frankenstein in a situation where he wanted to know and experiment how he too could gain that power that the lightning had over the tree, this was the start of Victors passions and obsession with science. Mary Shelley uses powerful language when describing the effects of the lighting when Victor sees is and his view of its power and how it burnt the tree.

Later on in ‘The Tempest’ we can see another example of power and control between Caliban and Prospero, Caliban is the son of the Sycorax and when Prospero and Miranda arrived on the island they saw that Caliban lived on the island, before they came to the island, Caliban had all the power and control of the island as it was given to him by his mother. Caliban knew all about the island and all of its secrets, but when Prospero arrived to the island Caliban made an idol of him and made him powerful, and fed him knowledge about the island. Caliban saw Prospero as a leader and someone who, would be their for him and support Caliban. Prospero began to have control of Caliban and this made him think that he was regaining power that he had, when he was Duke of Milan. Soon after Prospero takes more and more control over Caliban, we can see this how Caliban starts to be afraid of Prospero and listens to what he does, and what Prospero orders him to do.

After the tempest the ship crashed near the shores of the island and people one the ship, left and walked and wondered around the island. Two of which where called Trinculo and Stephano, these people were not like Antonio with a high position as these people where of a lower class, and worked on the ship. Separately they wondered around the island and were drunk and confused due, to the tempest. One of them found Caliban and was confused to see someone on the island. In response he went to Caliban but as Caliban saw the creature, he hid behind his cover and tried making himself small. Stephano looked at Caliban and though of him to be an ancient fish or a dead creature. Stephano then looks and talks to this creature and wonders what it could be, then he hears a strange noise that is aproaching him so he goes under the cover and hides. The noise that Stephano could hear was Trinculo singing and walking towards them, he was fully drunk and was lost and didn’t know where to walk, or turn. Trinculo too was confused of that Caliban was, but due to Stephano hiding under the cover as well he didn’t think that Caliban was a fish, but a monster. He begged for the monster to have mercy on him and then the monster started to scream and talk, Caliban felt something around his legs and screamed and moaned.

Once all this was over and Stephano and Trinculo greeted each other, Caliban addressed them as Gods, Trinculo gave Caliban some of his wine. Caliban bowed down to them and gave them all that he asked for, like what he done with Prospero he told them all the secrets and all about the island. What to know and the good and bad that was on the island. We can see that Trinculo and Stephano gained power over Caliban as he gave them information and knowings of how to be able to survive, and where everything was. And now they can get the control over Caliban and make him do, what they demand of him which we see on later in the story, as Caliban asks them to get revenge on Prospero, for what he had done to him and the Sycorax.

The Race

Soon came midnight and Ralph felt ready to go out and get this over with. He slowly left his apartment and walked quickly to the car park, got into his car and drove off into the night. He started to think who would be there at this one-time event. As all of these thoughts were going through his head this started to break him down and make him think hard. Suddenly his telephone rang, he stopped the car slowly in a lay by and answered the call. “Hey baby are you coming?” a voice said. “Everyone is here waiting, some people told me you are going to be racing ‘the hidden’… Is this true?”. He recognised the voice and knew that it was Ellie’s.

Ralph responded “Yeah I am on my way… did they say that?”.

He carried on talking for a while and wondered what people would think about him because of this decision he was making and whether people would be on his side or not, thinking of how people would respond to the choice that he had made. Ellie could notice that he wasn’t right. “Hey Ralphy, don’t feel down… I believe you’re going to beat him, honest”, but as hard and she tried, Ralph’s mind couldn’t stop thinking about the negatives of him losing. No matter how hard Ellie tried, nothing could save Ralph from his dark thoughts.

Ralph started to curl up and worried for a while, realising that everyone knew he wanted to race ‘The Hidden’. His body started to shiver and he could feel a cold wind blowing up his spine. His hands started to sweat and he could sense the pressure building. He didn’t want to lose and make a fool out of himself, all he wanted was to win the race and feel victory. He knew feeling nervous and scared wouldn’t help him in a good way, so he closed his eyes and took in a deep breath to clear his mind. He began to focus on the race and not worry about anything else, gaining back his confidence in winning. He hung up the phone and drove off.

Arriving at the location, he looked around to see that there was only one road surrounded by trees, forests and a mountain like figure in the darkness. He could hear the howling of wolves in the distance which made the hairs on his arms rise up. After taking a deep breath and a chewing gum, he opened the door and walked out into the light of the moon glowing over him and his car. Looking around he saw the vast crowd of cars and people standing around him. He could hear engines roaring and people shouting. He could smell the burning of rubber from the racing cars; he could feel the excitement of everyone around him and not see anyone who was upset even the slightest. All these feelings made Ralph feel relaxed and make him smile with joy. Ellie went up behind Ralph and hugged him, she was happy to see him smiling and not being looking worried.

Soon came time for the race to start, and Ralph felt ready. He turned to Ellie, hugged her and said bye to everyone and they wished him luck. Ralph walked back to his car, he could taste victory, sweet in his mouth like honey. He could still smell Ellie’s perfume which had that fruity sense to it. Looking in the distance he could see the single strands of grass swaying from the wind passing through them. The flag being lifted announced the start of the race. Getting into his car he saw the stitched up pattern of black leather on his chair and the faded raindrops on his windscreen. He could feel his heart rate increasing and the oxygen flowing around his body. Ralph paused, he could start to smell gas from his engine inside his car.