In the dictionary journey is defined as the act or process of travelling from one place to another. After studying these different stories on journey I can see that a journey is not only travelling, it is not just getting from point A to point B. It is about what you take with you along that journey, and what you get out of it, physically, emotionally and mentally. It is the ups of and downs in life portrayed through a possible adventure or the like. There is no one journey the same and each carries different challenges along the way with different obstacles needing to be conquered in an effort to reach the end of the journey.

'Maestro' is a journey through the life of an unpleasant but extremely talented piano teacher and his gifted studen

These four different stories about journey have taught me all about journey, challenges and response. Three of the stories 'Stand By Me', 'The Tomorrow Series' and 'Sleepers' involved journeys faced by children. These journeys were somewhat different to journeys that I have faced in my life. They were a lot more challenging and called for more willpower, strength and determination to respond to them.

'Sleepers' is about the journey of four young boys who were sent to a reform school for accidentally killing a man during a childish prank. The time spent in the reform school changed their lives for the worse, forever. They suffered extreme emotional, physical and sexual abuse whilst in the reform school and never fully recovered from it. They were confronted with many challenges -they had to face the abuse every day, living in constant fear. A quote from 'Sleepers' - 'It doesn't take very long to know how tough a person you are or how strong you can be. I knew from my very first day at Wilkinson (reform school) that I was neither tough nor strong'. This quote demonstrates just how difficult the challenges inside the reform school were. When they were older the time spent in the reform school caused two of them to become killers, cold and heartless, just like their offenders in the detention centre.

Every journey has challenges and therefore responses by the people involved. Journey has been portrayed in the text 'Maestro' by describing the life of Paul Crabbe as he studies the piano with Herr Keller. It leads to Paul becoming older and learning more about life under the guidance of Keller and in turn, Keller learning about life from Paul even though this contrary to what he might think. Keller's journey through life has presented many challenges, such as losing his family during the war whilst he was playing the piano for Adolf Hitler. His response to this was to go into hiding, his life was completely turned upside down and

Some common words found in the essay are:
Mozart Paul's, Tomorrow Series', Lorenzo Carcaterra, Challenge Response, Keller Keller, Adolf Hitler, Herr Keller, reform school, 'stand me', Paul Crabbe, John Marsden, 'the tomorrow, journey life, tomorrow series', Liszt Rachmaninoff, 'the tomorrow series', film 'stand me', film 'stand, school accidentally killing, challenge faced, school accidentally, accidentally killing, stories journey, sent reform school, middle war zone,
Approximate Word count = 1308
Approximate Pages = 5 (250 words per page double spaced)