When I was in eighth grade, I had to do a U.S. history project. One night, my mom was helping me complete my project, but she was really frustrating me. I eventually got too frustrated, snapped at her, and she became upset. I affected her in a negative way by one action I made. Just like me, many other people affect others in their lives. In “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, Walter affects others and gets impacted as well. In “The Scarlet Ibis”, Doodle influences his own family in a great way. Finally, in the novel “Whirligig”, Brent impacted many, many people. My point is, the choices we make and the actions we take will always affect someone in a negative or positive way. In the story “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty”, by James Thurber, Walter Mitty impacts other people and is also affected. In the beginning, Mrs. Mitty stated: “We’ve been through all that,” she said as she got out of the car. “You’re not a young man any longer.” He raced the engine a little. “Why don’t you wear your gloves? Have you lost your gloves?” (Thurber 2). This clearly shows that Mrs. Mitty is always too worried about Walter, causing him to be bored all the time. This is important because Walter’s wife is impacting him in a negative way because she is always causing Walter to be bored. Walter Mitty himself influenced someone’s life when he remembered what he was supposed to get and said it aloud. He caused a passerby to laugh as she said to her spouse: “That man said puppy biscuit to himself”, (Thurber 6). This describes how Mr. Mitty brought joy and laughter to a random woman in a bit of an odd way. This is vital because Walter had affected a woman’s life in a positive way by only saying two words. This proves that even within Walter Mitty’s life, everyone is constantly impacting each other. Even in the story “The Scarlet Ibis”, by James Hurst, people are impacted by others’ decisions. After Doodle could crawl, his brother thought of him as “a burden in many ways”, (Hurst 3). Obviously, the main character didn’t appreciate some of the things Doodle did as a baby. This is very important because Doodle influenced his brother’s life in a negative way. However, on Doodle’s sixth birthday, the main character said, “Doodle told them it was I who taught him to walk, so everyone wanted to hug me, and I began to cry,” (Hurts 6). This clearly shows that by teaching Doodle how to walk, the brother made his entire family happy, which made both Doodle and his brother happy. This is essential because the main character did something no one thought could be done, and affected his family’s lives in a positive way by spreading joy. This proves the decisions made by characters in “The Scarlet Ibis” impact other characters. Most of all, the novel