Preview

Character Analysis Of Doug Swieteck In 'Okay For Now'

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
758 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Character Analysis Of Doug Swieteck In 'Okay For Now'
Doug Swieteck is a boy who is abused by his father in the novel Okay for Now by Gary D. Schmidt. The abuse of Doug is shown very well in Audubon's picture, the Brasilian Caracara Eagle. In the picture, there are two birds. One of the birds is on the branch getting attacked by the bird that is above it. The bird that is the attacker is like Doug's father, Mr. Swieteck and the defenseless bird that is below is like Doug. The similarity between the birds and Doug can be seen in the opening scene of the novel, when Doug has been given a signed Yankees baseball cap from Joe Pepitone. Unfortunately, Doug's brother takes the cap and gives it to his friend who gives it to another friend named Glenn Dillard. While driving in a car with the top down, …show more content…
In the picture, there is a bird that is sitting on a rock. He has, after much hard work, finally caught his prize: a fish. The Belted Kingfisher is just like my experience with basketball. Before this summer, I was not very good at basketball. I could not make any shots, and whenever I tried to dribble, somebody would steal the ball away from me. As school ended, I was feeling dejected. Then I decided that I would get better over the summer and try to make the ninth grade basketball team. But there was a problem. I was going to India for the whole summer, as usual, and I did not have a hoop or a basketball there. When I got to India, I asked my uncle if he could buy me a basketball and find a court for me to practice on. He found me a basketball, but he was still trying to find a court. When I got the basketball, I knew that if my uncle did not find a court, then I would not get better, Therefore, I decided not to waste any time. I practiced my dribbling every day for at least an hour. Then two weeks before we were going to leave India, my uncle found a court. Unfortunately, it was not in the way that I had expected. I had expected there to be an empty court. Instead, I would play with a team from a local school. At first, I thought that I would do terrible, but to my surprise, my hard work with the the ball paid off. My dribbling skills had gotten much better, and during the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Krakauer wrote that Chris McCandless was, "green, and he overestimated his resilience, but was sufficiently skilled to last for sixteen weeks on a little more than his wits and ten pounds of rice"(Krakauer 182). In this quote it seems that Krakauer thought that McCandless was well equipped with his skills, so that made moderately prepared to survive in any situation. I feel that McCandless was rather prepared, yet again he never could have been fully prepared for the unexpected. My opinion is that McCandless was vaguely aware of the struggles that he would encounter in the Alaskan wilderness such as his epiphany that "happiness is only real when shared" was realized when his body was dying of starvation. I believed that he found what he was…

    • 148 Words
    • 1 Page
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    When Scottie Everett was told that volunteering hours were required to graduate, she couldn't help but avoid the subject. She was always the reserved, safer than sorry friend and knew her oldest best friend, Juliet Montres would not take no for an answer on where to apply.…

    • 193 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The main character in my story “The Big Field” written by Mike Lupica, is a fourteen year old boy named Hutch. He plays in a minor league baseball team in Florida for the Cardinals. He wants his team to win the championship. They can win the championship by playing their hardest and working together. Hutch is athletic, short tempered, and determined.…

    • 459 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Mark Watney (the main character), in my opinion, would make a very gook friend. First…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Response: The character I am choosing is Johnny and I chose him because I think he has the biggest mental/identity change in the book. An example is on page 11 when Ponyboy says, “Johnny Cade was last and least. If you picture a little dark puppy that has been kicked too many times and is lost in a crowd of strangers, you’ll have Johnny. Ponyboy and most people thought he was a person who is so afraid so he joined a gang. But, later in the book he becomes a hero and a stereotypical good person. An example of this is when he rushes into the burning building to save the children even though he had MAJOR injuries along the way. He saves children he acts as the older brother figure to Ponyboy when they ran away and, he keeps the gang all together.…

    • 205 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Andrew Cooper retired when he was 65. He’s 86 now. He spent over 40 years building a business and supporting his family. He gave Cooper Construction over to me when he retired. His hair is losing color and now he has wrinkles on his face. I’m his son Rodney and I go to work at Cooper Construction every week and run the business the way dad always did. My wife spends her days taking care of dad. It’s hard for him to do much with Parkinson’s disease. This is his story.…

    • 1075 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I have read two-thirds of, It's Kind of a Funny Story. I was supposed to stop at half way, but it is so good that I lost track of time. Craig Gilner is such an intense character with many difficulties trying to manage his stressful life. He has support from numerous people, including his family and his friends. One goal Craig is approaching, is to be a better Craig. Checking himself into the hospital for having suicidal tendencies was already a big step in trying to reach this goal. That shows how much he wants to change, when things could have very easily went a different way. The actions that Craig took that night when he called the suicide hot line demonstrates the kind of person he wants to be. Craig realizes that he needs to get better, which makes me think his motivation for completing this goal is fantasizing about how great his life is going to be when he…

    • 711 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Growing up with a dad who was All-State for Basketball, and a Grandfather who played Division I basketball; I was always expected to be good at ball. I was always decent but never quite lived to expectations. When I turned 12 years old, I was diagnosed with Type 3 scoliosis, which limited not only my quickness but my ability to twist and run normally. The basketball dynasty was coming to an end as I had lost a lot of athleticism. I was always on the middle team, not very good, not very bad, but I always tried new moves; which made me hard to guard. I finally quit all sports because my back couldn’t handle the stress, and I wasn’t prepared to go into surgery. One day as I was watching…

    • 332 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    An individual possesses one of two mindsets: either the fixed mindset, or the growth mindset. In the former, someone believes that his talent and intelligence is present inside of him at birth. He is born either smart or dumb, and there is no use trying to get better at something that he is initially not skilled at. Furthermore, his success is a measure of how naturally good he is at something. To the latter, success is defined by his ability to face challenges and make mistakes. To a person with a growth mindset, failure is simply room for improvement. In Mindset, Dr. Dweck proves the existence of these two divergent systems of thought, and declares that everyone can alter their beliefs and acquire the growth mindset.…

    • 938 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    “She’s super annoying.” “He is literally the dumbest person I know.” “She’s a fake.” The problem with most of these high-school judgments regarding other people is that they lack evidence, and rely on others’ preconceived notions, that may not be accurate. I admit, even I may judge a person solely based on what I hear from my friends or just because I do not like him, without any actual concrete proof of his actions. But not Holden. Even though Holden is judgmental and critical, often calling people phony or unintelligent, he “never lets anything stand by itself.” Holden doesn’t care if he’s criticizing his best friend or worst enemy, as long as he has the appropriate evidence to back it up. That is the key to his authority. Holden is able…

    • 834 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    I have always strived for my best in everything I do. I never accept failure; however during my sophomore year of high school, I was put through a difficult challenge. I have always dreamt of becoming an athletic student but I have always never gotten a chance because of my discouragement that I would not make the team. In my sophomore year, I decided to try out for the tennis team. I was confident of my status as the new athlete in the Dominion High School tennis team. After the week long try outs, I was given the disappointing news that I had not made the team. I was very disappointed but that did not stop me from continuing to work hard and work on my mistakes. Throughout the summer, I practiced with former Dominion High School tennis players…

    • 201 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    When I walked into the store I headed right to the sports section and picked up NBA 2K16, I had been waiting to get this game for weeks, I was hype! Once we concluded our terrible shopping trip I was finally home, and the first thing I did was run up to my room and put 2K into my Xbox One. Once I opened the case however, I felt a strong force pull me down, like a seatbelt in a car. When I opened my eyes I was standing face to face with NBA superstar Kevin Durant, my favorite NBA player, he dominated the NBA with his ability to score with amazing ease. “Don’t just stand there man, shoot it!” Kevin exclaimed to me as he passed me the ball. I threw up an easy corner jump shot and it went in with a nice sound as the ball glazed through the net. “Ok I see you” Kevin said to me as I got my rebound and passed him the rock. He went back towards the half court line with the ball and started sprinting towards the rim, I opened my mouth in awe and I watched him soar into the air and 360 dunk! “Not bad, didn’t mean to dunk it so hard though” KD said as my eyes were as big as golf balls in straight amazement. We ended up playing a game of 21, which he obviously kicked my butt in, but I had a great…

    • 1670 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The season was going good and going by fast, our record stands above 500. Our last tournament was in Lawrence Kansas. We played one game against the “Kingdom Hoops,” and we played amazing…, in the second half. In the first half we played super sloppy. We ended up winning the first game by about twenty points. We had to travel to another gym for our next game.…

    • 994 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    My summer was an inch away from being perfect. I had a good GPA and people to hangout with, but I was missing one thing: starting on the basketball team. Basketball was going great beside that one problem, but I just could not remove the obsession of starting from my mind. Basketball and happiness go hand in hand for me. Over the next month basketball and my attitude started spiraling downwards and brought my happiness and friendships with them. I isolated myself from nearly everybody and dreaded basketball more and more every day. It’s funny how one thing can truly control your life. I understand if your a professional athlete or your in love with a women, but I was just a sixteen year old who loved the game. I understand that you need to treat sports as not a job,…

    • 1145 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    One extremely important activity outside of the classroom that has helped me grow as an individual is Church League basketball at my local YMCA. From the outside looking in this league seems to be a form of glorified pick-up basketball with referees and a scoreboard but there is so much more to it. Almost half way through my junior year my father convinced me to try out for the varsity basketball team at school in November to which I hesitated at first but later gave in and tried out only to be cut. At first I was upset because I had never been cut from a team and I was unsure of how to handle it and what to do with my free time. This prompted me to reach out to God and ask him for a sense of direction and purpose in this time of my life to which He responded with a friend inviting me to Church League basketball. Once I experienced a few scrimmages and practices I decided to commit to playing Church League and coming to all of the…

    • 539 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays