Identify the title, author, and genre
In one paragraph, give a brief synopsis of the book.
In a second paragraph, discuss one aspect of the book that intrigued you in some way. It could be a character, a relationship, a particular scene or even a particular passage. In a nonfiction book, it could be the way the author developed an idea in a particular chapter or passage. Develop your discussion with specific details from the text as well as specific observations about what the writer is doing.
Then finally, discuss whether you would recommend this book to others. What kinds of readers would enjoy it? What was your over-all assessment of your reading experience with this book? What did you appreciate or find frustrating about this particular author.
Allegiant, Veronica Roth, Science Fiction/Dystopian
ReplyDeleteSynopsis of the book:
Allegiant is the last book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. In this book the faction society that was once known has been destroyed by the video that Edith Prior made showing that indeed there is another way of life outside the walls of the five factions (Candor, Amity, Dauntless, Erudite, Abnegation). After Jeanine Matthews’ death Evelyn Johnson becomes the leader of the people and gets rid of the factions, which are the only five paradigms of thinking that the people knew: honesty, compassion, bravery, intelligence, and selflessness. Many are lost and unsure of what to do and are easily persuaded to follow Evelyn’s tyrannical ruling. A group of allegiant form and plot to leave the city and see what is beyond the barriers. Tris (Beatrice) and Tobias (Four) join this group and along with four others, leave the city and find the place they once called home to actually be an experiment in Chicago set up by the Bureau of Genetic Welfare. They also learn rather abruptly that the bureau categorizes them based on their genes either being Genetically Damaged (GD) or Genetically Pure (GP). The Bureau of Genetic Welfare becomes their temporary home and they find out that the Bureau is plotting to restart the minds of all the people in the Chicago experiment. Determined to stop the Bureau from succeeding Tris and Tobias separated and a both go on their quest to save their home town clinging to the hope that not matter what happens they’ll still be together in the end.
SPOILER ALERT: I DO RUIN THE END OF THE BOOK!!!
The one relationship that intrigued me throughout the whole series is Tobias and Tris. Although they are the main characters of the book, I felt that their relationship in particular was the most relatable and admirable. I really admired how they both made the decision to be truthful in Allegiant. In Divergent and Insurgent the one thing that irritated me about their relationship was how much distrust they had. I felt that something needed to change and they needed to be honest with each other in order for them to stay together and that’s exactly what happened. Before they decided to leave the Chicago experiment, they had a heartfelt discussion on the Ferris wheel in Millennium Park and promised each other that they would be completely honest: “no more lies. Not ever.” I really admired that discussion and even though it was hard for them both to do, it made them really draw closer to each other and trust each other more.
Trust is key in any relationship because without it you can’t open yourself up to be vulnerable to your partner and then your relationship is just shallow. As shown by the title, I think Veronica Roth strategically focused on this point because it was important for Tobias to know that Tris’ death wasn’t another “Erudite headquarters, not a lie told to make [him] sleep while she went to die, not an act of unnecessary self sacrifice”. How horrible would it have been if Tris had died without Tobias knowing that she did indeed love him and “she didn’t want to leave him”. Tris made the decision to go to her death because she realized that she belonged to the people she loved and the “love and loyalty [she] gave them, formed [her] identity far more than” the Bureau or the words Genetically Damaged or Genetically Pure ever could. She was not purposely trying to die, but instead she just couldn’t let Caleb die for her because that was her flesh and blood and she couldn’t let the last member of her family die for her—it would be to similar to the deaths of her mother and father.
Continued:
ReplyDeleteAllegiant means “one who is loyal or faithful to a particular cause or person”. This describes Tris and Tobias perfectly. They do become part of the allegiant group that Johanna Reyes started and become loyal to the cause of stopping the Bureau of Genetic Welfare from destroying who they consider to be GD’s (Genetically Damaged people). They become faithful to each other and grow to really trust each other. And every day that they make mistakes they still continue to choose each other over other circumstances because the love that they have for each other is deeper than anything they’ve ever known and nothing can break that tie—not even death.
I think that this was a fantastic series and Allegiant was a great way to end it. I know that many readers were not satisfied with the ending because the main character died, but I actually really enjoyed it. I think it was necessary to heal the hurt that Tris had over the death of her parents. One part that really touched me in Insurgent was when Tris yelled “I’m not done yet!” into the abyss right before she was about to be executed! She wanted to make a blatant statement to Jeanine that she would never give up on her people and Jeanine could never defeat her. In Allegiant after David shot her and she was slowly loosing consciousness she pressed the green button to release the memory serum over the people in the Bureau and she had an encounter with her mother where she asks, “Am I done yet?” Her mother replies yes and then Tris dies. Yes this part of the book was very emotional, but I feel that Tris’ death was not only the ending of a life, but also a start of something new. Veronica Roth juxtaposed Tris’ death to Tobias’ growing relationship with his mother and him starting to learn that “life damages…everyone. We can’t escape that damage. But…we can be mended.” As we see there is hope for Tobias and he has started the healing process needed to move on with his life. This is something he was never able to do before, as shown with his relationship with his father.
Side Comment: I found it really interesting that their couple name is “FourTris” because that’s both of their nicknames. And their relationship is like a fortress—a place where they can both come for refuge and help each other through hard times.
Recommendation
I would definitely recommend this book to others! I fell in love with this series ever since I opened up the first book Divergent. This is a very relatable story and deals with prevalent issues of trust, honesty, governmental choices, love and pain. I feel that it is more geared towards teens and young adults. I appreciated how Veronica Roth was able to make a captivating trilogy that kept the reader hooked all the way through the whole series. She was able to make her characters real and tangible. The pain they felt was so relatable that the reader got sucked into their world. If you do decide to read this series, though, make sure you read it in order: Divergent, Insurgent, Allegiant. After reading the books I challenge you to go back and examine how the titles relate to the story itself, you’ll might find it quite interesting. Enjoy your read!!
Hounded
ReplyDeleteMatt Ziselman
Alanna Deery
The book Hounded was a comical memoir regarding the author and his three dachshunds. At first glance, the book seems like at light read, but as I read on this was not the case. The story is filled with important life lessons the author learns throughout his life and supposedly taught by his dogs. Every chapter is a lesson, some examples of these lessons are: ‘Try new things. Within reason’ ‘Be polite. You’ll make someone’s day’ ‘Listen, especially when there’s nothing to hear’ and ‘When the answer is staring you right in the face, stare right back’. These are all good life lessons that benefit the reader, something that I personally like to find in a book. I also love the fact that the lessons allow for many small stories within a story. It is a collection of plots, conflicts and resolutions that begin to mean more and more once you get to know the author.
I was intrigued by the author of the story and how he grew as a person over the course of the book. After all he started life with losing his parents, dead end jobs and depression and yet he was able to come out wiser and happier from this. With each chapter, as I had mentioned, there is a lesson. And with each lesson I see the author grow to be more understanding of how to use these lessons he learns and how to overcome obstacles that stand in his way. Although he finds the dogs rather annoying throughout the book he learns to be thankful for them and in the last chapter where his dachshunds draped around him he states: “I want them to stay right where they are…I will have free and full movement of my right arm, and my heart will not feel as full and warm as it does right now. I want my friends to stay”.
I would most definitely recommend this book. I would recommend this book to animal lovers especially, seeing as this is what the book is featured around. My overall assessment of this book is that it has very interesting views and made me think differently about the smaller things in life making it a very good book. And story that makes an impression on myself I consider a good book. It’s also honest and hilarious, very enjoyable. I really appreciated the language use in this book the most. Lines such as “My first intake of air feels like the first bite of a Granny Smith apple: crisp and sharp.” And “…a breeze winds through the trees, raining desiccated leaves of yellow and rust upon our heads” really drew me into the book.
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ReplyDeleteKitchen Confidential | Anthony Bourdain | Memoir
ReplyDeleteEmil Friedman
Anthony Bourdain’s “Kitchen Confidential” offers a glimpse behind the scenes into the mysterious and truly unique culture of the restaurant industry. Ultimately becoming the executive chef at an upscale French restaurant in New York, Bourdain describes not only his crazy path to success but also an in-depth “day in the life” as a head chef. (Since this book was written before Bourdain developed his television personality, there’s nothing about what Bourdain is currently doing.) Evidently standard in the restaurant industry, Bourdain was a misbehaving, drug-using teenager, but quickly developed a passion and drive for a food career. Working through entry-level jobs like dishwasher, busboy, and line cook, Bourdain’s rise to success was by no means quick or easy. He encountered a variety of setbacks, such as quickly-shuttered restaurants and completely nightmarish interviews (like accidentally answering the question, “What do you know about meat?” with an incorrectly witty, “Next to nothing!”). Eventually, though, Bourdain finds himself a set job and is finally able to truly develop himself professionally. He finally is in charge of specials, menu rotations, and his kitchen staff, and Bourdain becomes friends with co-workers who still work with (well, for) Bourdain to this day. The book ends with an account of a trip to Tokyo, which - though professional - Bourdain seems to view as more of a food discovery voyage than actual work. He describes the pleasure in eating a rectangular slab of raw eel, the ravenous sense one gets when eating a fried fish head down to the bone, and the angelic quality of the paper-thin chives scattered across the plate. Especially supported by this portion of the book, but shown throughout, Bourdain has a true love and passion for food, and it is ultimately this above everything else that led him to his success.
The most interesting portion of the book, for me, was the section about Bourdain’s “day in the life” as the executive chef at New York’s Les Halles restaurant. Usually I find these types of accounts interesting, but Bourdain took it a step further in that he described not only actions, but thoughts. For example, he develops the train of thought that he goes through on a daily basis upon waking up in the morning in rather remarkable detail: “It’s Friday, so the weekend orders will be coming in...I know what’s coming, and the general order in which it will probably arrive, so I’m thinking triage-sorting out what gets done first, and by whom, and what gets left until later.” Bourdain indicates what sorts of factors go into determining a restaurant’s daily specials: on weekends, when tourists and other “rubes” (one of Bourdain’s favorite terms) are the general clientele, specials with buzzwords like “shrimp,” “lobster,” and “T-bone” tend to sell well, whereas on weekdays, chefs generally get a little more abstract with specials like “saddle of wild hare stuffed with foie gras.” When it comes time for Bourdain to actually go to the restaurant in the morning, he sets up the scene for the reader in a way such that an image of the situation is impossible to not develop: “Salsa music is playing loudly over the stereo behind the bar…I sip my cardboard-tasting take-out coffee from the deli next door….” When it comes time for service to start, Bourdain - presumably accurately - conveys the sense of stress, drive, and hurried teamwork that goes on in a busy kitchen. Gas burners have to be rotated to accommodate the incredible amount of pots and pans that a restaurant kitchen is using at any given moment, and cooks on different stations have to coordinate their end times in order to ensure that garnishes, proteins, and sauces are hot, fresh, and ready at the exact same second. The best evidence for this kind of stress is the colorful (that’s a euphemism) language that restaurant cooks use behind closed doors. Regrettably, I don’t think I should develop that component of Bourdain’s writing on this blog!
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ReplyDeleteOverall, I enjoyed “Kitchen Confidential,” with a few reservations (pun intended). I described several problems with Bourdain’s style in terms of standard writing conventions in my “beginning of the book” blog, and these problems continue throughout the rest of the book. In addition, especially near the end of the book, chapters begin to blur different time periods and are written in awkwardly inconsistent lengths. Despite these issues, which are difficult to blame on someone who is a chef for a living, not an author, I would recommend this book to anyone who (a) has an interest in the restaurant industry, or (b) simply enjoys learning behind-the-scenes tidbits about various industries, like me. For those who intend to actually become a restaurant chef, I would think that some of the components of the book might give someone pause: it becomes quickly clear that the industry is filled with some - for lack of better words - nutjobs: drugs and alcohol are a huge deal, and professionalism is often tossed aside. With that said, the book is honest, relatively thorough, and gives genuine insight into a typical restaurant chef’s mind. What more could one want in a career-oriented memoir?
The Ocean at the End of the Lane Neil Gaiman | Fantasy
ReplyDeleteThe Ocean at the End of the Lane originally started out as a short story Neil Gaiman was writing for his wife, and later became a full novel as he kept writing. It begins with a middle-aged man returning to the town he was born in for a funeral, where he eventually ends up back at Hempstock Farm, where he used to play with a girl named Lettie, who moved to Australia. Seated at a pond near the farmhouse, he begins to remember his childhood in full. After the death of a South African opal miner who had been lodging in his house when he was seven, he meets Lettie Hempstock, who, along with her mother and grandmother, all seem to be something special to him. The suicide of the opal miner sets of a chain of events leading to a horrible creature, called a "flea" by the Hempstocks, being released. Using him as a door into the rest of the world, it manifests itself as a nanny, calling itself Ursula Monkton, and begins to ruin his life, causing his family to turn against him, even going so far as to make his father try to drown him. The narrator escapes into a field, and is brought back to Hempstock Farm by Lettie, where he then learns about their ability to "snip and cut," where they are able to cut out the narrator's father ever trying to hurt him. The Hempstocks then decide they need to call in "varmints" called hungerbirds, which devour Ursula and then, intending to clean up the scene entirely, turn to the narrator. In his defense, Lettie is severely injured, and her grandmother drives off the hungerbirds, saving the narrator. In present day, the narrator breaks out of his suddenly clear memories, asking the grandmother if what he remembered was all true, then asking why he came to the farm again, and learns that he had been there in the past, and suddenly truly remembers what happened the night with the hungerbirds. He died that night, his heart torn out. Lettie sacrificed her own life to save him, and brought him back to the farmhouse to see if it was all worth it. The narrator then leaves, and asks that the next time they write to Lettie, they send her his greetings; he has seemingly forgotten his youth at the farm, and drives off back into the city.
Childhood innocence is a very prevalent theme in The Ocean at the End of the Lane, with most of the book written from the thoughts of a child. His view of the world around him is depicted as a child would view it, for example, when he finds the opal miner dead in his father's car, stating that "The thing in the back seat that had been covered by the blanked... was not convincing either." (Gaiman 18) He has been told that the man is dead, but all he sees when he looks at the man's body is a wax figure, like he had seen in the Chamber of Horrors when he was six. He believes that "They could not truly look dead, because they did not ever look alive." (Gaiman 17) As a child, he doesn't truly understand the man's death, even though he knows that the opal miner has died.
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ReplyDeleteThe narrator's innocence, throughout the story, is slowly picked away at by the circumstances in which he has been placed. He is forced to deal with his own imminent death, the betrayal of his family, and the guilt of almost bringing the world to its own end. However, this innocence is preserved by the Hempstocks. In the beginning of the story, when the narrator remarks upon his time in his childhood house, that he had "no good times, no bad times." (Gaiman 4) Later, we learn that this is obviously not true, and that he has returned to his home and remembered his childhood many times since he first left. The Hempstocks have attempted to preserve what was left of his childhood innocence by "snipping and cutting" out what had happened to him when he was seven, to try and give him a normal life. In a sense, the book stands to show that one can not hold onto their innocence for their entire lives, that eventually, it will leave entirely. The narrator has returned back to the barn periodically for the forty years after he left, remembering, and then leaves again, forgetting. But, evident in his constant returning to the Hempstock Barn, that something within him retains those memories, something knows that his life was not all a perfect, neat ordeal.
Neil Gaiman is probably my favorite author, and I would highly recommend this book. The story quickly draws you in, never letting you stop to put it down. It is a book that all ages could appreciate, not just children teenagers. Neil Gaiman perfectly captures the experience and the wonder of being young with all of the subtle nuances in his writing, but in a way that rather than feeling like a children's book, feels wholly authentic. Even in writing this, I have made more connections throughout the novel. Nostalgia creeps in in a way that you wonder what happened to that child-like feeling of exploration and excitement.
Sarah Cook
ReplyDeletePerks of Being a Wallflower
Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky is a very relatable story. The main character Charlie is coping with the suicide of his friend, Michael. Not only does he have to deal with the loss of his friend but he has to start high school all alone too. In order to get through such tough times, Charlie starts writing letters to a stranger someone he heard was nice but has never met in person. Charlie faces many difficult situations through out the book. He has his first date and his first kiss, he deals with bullies, he experiments with drugs and drinking, and he makes friends, loses them, and gains them back. These are all problems a normal high school student faces through out their high school years. Charlie finds who his real friends are and makes the best of his life. With every challenge he faces he finds a way to over come it.
In this book there wasn’t one aspect that really intrigued me. I found the book so relatable it was scary. There are so many situations in the book that happen all the time in high school today. Charlie experiences many things students in our high school have experienced. He goes through a lot more than a normal teenager should have to go through. A part of the book I found interesting was the plot twist with his aunt. I would’ve never thought that his aunt would be capable of doing such a thing. She ruined Charlie’s childhood in more way than one. “But I kind of figured out that everything I dreamt about my aunt Helen was true. And after awhile, I realized that it happened every Saturday when we watched TV”(Chbosky 208). After finding out what his aunt did to him he was hospitalized for two months. Charlie over came very horrific things and made light of the situation. He is a very strong and brave character. If that was I in his shoes there is no way I could’ve survived.
Perks of Being a Wallflower is a well-written, inspirational book. I could read this book over and over again. The characters and events that take place in the book are so real and can be personal for some readers. I think that any high school student would enjoy reading this book. What I enjoyed about reading this book was how the author incorporated the letters he wrote to the stranger. This made the book very unique from other books I have read and it made the book more interesting to read.
Gideon Schmidt
ReplyDeleteBoys in the Boat (Daniel James Brown)
This book is about the rowers from Washington University who won gold in the men's’ eight at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin. It starts in 1933 when the boys are freshmen. Fall crew started in October and ended in mid-November. They were on the water again in early January to train for the racing at the end of the spring, which culminated with a win at the IRA national championship, winning a two-mile freshmen race over schools such as Syracuse, Cornell, California (Berkeley), Navy, and Columbia, on the Hudson River at Poughkeepsie. The next year, as sophomores and defending national champions, they continued to race that same boat but were constantly competing with a boat of upperclassmen to race as the first varsity eight. They shifted between varsity and JV status for most of the season, but won the right to compete as the varsity eight at the scrimmage with Cal to be held a few weeks before the IRA championship race. They won that race by a hair, but the JV boys destroyed Cal and the sophomores’ rowing suffered in the next few weeks and they raced as JV at the IRA championship. They won, and the varsity finished third, although coach Al Ulbrickson defended his choice, saying that the sophomores could not have won the varsity race. The next year, they began to train for the Olympics, although they had yet to earn the right to go. Ulbrickson started to mix up his crews, so the juniors (who two national titles in two years) and the seniors (who had less titles than that) were in the same boat. Also, in addition to training for the four mile varsity race at the IRA regatta, they trained for the two thousand meter sprint that would be raced in Berlin. They won the IRA regatta easily, then they traveled to Princeton to prepare to race five other crews to go to Berlin. Over the course of two 2Ks, they won the right to travel to Berlin. In Berlin, they won their heat and went straight to the final, skipping over the repechage, but drew the worst lane in the final and their stroke seat was sick too. But they caught the German and Italian crews in the last 500 and won gold by three tenths of a second.
The part that intrigued me the most was the concept of rowing a side-by-side four-mile race. In modern rowing, such a race would never occur in the spring, only in the fall. Spring races are sprints, either 500 meters (which is technically a dash not a sprint), 1000 meters (a distance usually reserved for young kids or shortened courses at regattas when something goes wrong), 1500 meters (the sprint distance for the scholastic youth national championship regatta), or 2000 meters (also known as 2ks, they are the standard for club, collegiate, elite, and masters rowing, as well as being the general standard for erg testing as well). Crews start side by side and the first to cross the finish line wins. In fall racing, races are longer, usually around four to five thousand meters, often with turns that can make or break the race for a crew. Crews do not start side by side but line up in order before the race, then are fired down the starting chute to the start line. Crews can and often do pass each other. It’s a fantastic feeling, to walk down a boat and push your bowball ahead-and horrible to have a crew do just that to you. But the concept of racing for that long next to five more crews is foreign to me, as it is to anybody who didn’t row before about 1960. The energy of a side-by-side sprint, expanded to last over 20 minutes, seems like it might be a lot of fun but it would definitely be torturous. Just reading about the strategy of a race like that, it makes one realize exactly how different yet interesting the older styles of rowing were. Then of course there’s always the good old 2K.
I would recommend this book to any person who rows. I would also recommend it to everybody who doesn’t row as well, but that they should be prepared to Google a bunch of words. Rowers will appreciate it because it’s an example of a lot of high-level racing, and it’s good history of the sport too. I think that non-rowers will also appreciate it because it is a tale of a lot of hard work with a good reward at the end.
ReplyDeleteRicardo Rivadeneira
ReplyDeleteWorld War Z
World War Z is a fictional story about a UN reporter who travels around the world a decade after a worldwide war against zombies to gather stories about individuals experiences during the war. He takes these stories and puts them into "An Oral History of the Zombie War." They are placed in chronological order, with stories from the beginning of the war placed at the beginning of the book and stories from the end of the war at the end of the book. There is no main protagonist, as none of the reporters experiences are actually shared but merely his backstory at the UN and the questions that he asks the people to prompt them into delving further into their experiences, and it more or less follows a ton of mini-stories of people from all over the world. The people can be from anywhere and have done anything, from being a soldier, to a politician, to, and this is a specific example, an astronaut stuck on the International Space Station.
World War Z was a very intriguing read because of the conveniently informative point of view. The whole documentary style -- reporter asking questions and getting back detailed answers -- allowed for World War Z to give you a very encompassing story about how a variety of places adapted or sometimes did not adapt. Another interesting aspect of the story is that many apocalypse-type stories are about the complete and utter failure of humanity, and while this book contains many human failures during the war, it also talks of occasional and overall success. Obviously the reporter would not be able to report about a war against zombies if humans hadn't won the war, but it realistically showed that it was not easy to win and things often fell apart several times before successfully coming together. This story to story point of view is what makes this book really unique and a great read. I personally think that this point of view is a lot better than any other apocalypse that follows merely one person with his/her family because it lets you understand whats going on all over the world with tons of different people, rather than the very narrow and more or less depressing experiences of one set of people. The whole eventual human success after trial and error definitely helps the book be more realistic than the average apocalypse story which generally shows the entire world falling apart in a matter of days and never possibly returning to the way things were. Its much more realistic to assume that people would be more successful in a situation like this than they are in most apocalypse stories. This realistic nature makes the book all the more believable, as if the way things happen in the book were the way they could easily happen in real life, which is another intriguing aspect of the story.
Overall, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who is even remotely interested in apocalypse stories. Most of the apocalyptic books that I've read give you a very narrow lens of what is happening, and I'm always interested in seeing the things people other than the main protagonist are doing. This book definitely shows not just what several groups of people did during the zombie apocalypse, but what the entire world did. It's a very interesting read even if you are not into apocalypse style books as it really tears apart human response to unbelievable things and iterates that response into the fact that their could be consequences to ignoring what seems impossible. I also thought that the book is virtually impossible to dislike, unless you dislike the overarching story of zombie apocalypse, seeing as you are constantly switching characters and are never stuck with one story or person that you don't like. It's definitely a good book that I would recommend to just about anyone.
Matt Ziegler
ReplyDeleteMichael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25
Richard Paul Evans
Science Fiction
The Elgen
This book is based on a group children who were born electric by a company called The Elgen. The protagonist is one of these children, named Michael Vey. He starts out with a rough life at school, constantly being bullied and getting in trouble for things he didn't do. He then, however, meets a girl named Taylor Ridley, who is also an electric child. They become friends and join with Michael's friend, Ostin, and form "The Electroclan". It turns out none of them actually knew they were electric until they met Dr. Hatch. Dr. Hatch is the one who is actually responsible for them being born electric. Once they find this out, Dr. Hatch kidnaps Michael Vey's mom. Michael, Ostin, and Taylor set out to find his mom. They believe she is trapped in the Elgen's facility in California, so they go there. They encounter some rough obstacles, but with the help of some of the electric children located in the facility, they take it over. However, the only problem is that his mother is not located in this facility, she is actually located in the Elgen's most secure facility in Peru. This, however, is important as a confidence booster for the Electroclan, as their next mission will be to find Michael's mother in Peru. This takes us to the end of the first book of a series which has three books so far.
One section of the book that intrigued me after I read the entire story was the first section of the book, which is about 65 pages. This part of the book is Michael's school life, which is pretty much the stereotypical "kid gets bullied, then meets a girl and everything's better" story. After I read the book though, I realized how important this section of the book really is. This is the section where Richard Paul Evans develops all of the preliminary personalities of the characters for the reader. It is also used to develop relationships that prove to be very important throughout the course of the story. I think Richard Paul Evans uses this perfectly, not only as a character development section, but also to set the pace for the book. It starts out very slow in this section, but once The Electroclan begins to try and take over the Elgen facility after being held as prisoners there, the story gets very exciting. I think that the first part being so boring brings out the excitement of the second part.
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ReplyDeleteI would recommend this book to everyone, and I am finding it frustrating that I have not found any other people who have read this book. This is easily my favorite book, and I look forward to reading the other books in the series. This is book is intriguing because I found the first part of the book boring, but I'm sure other people would really enjoy this part more than the faster paced part. For this reason, this book is suitable to anyone. I had an excellent reading experience of the book. This book actually had me staying up late reading, which while I enjoy reading, doesn't normally happen. I was very engaged in this book, and Richard Paul Evans did a phenomenal job helping the reader connect to the story. I didn't really find anything frustrating with the author, but I really appreciated his ability to use just enough details to help you understand what is going on, but still let your mind imagine, sort of like Hemingway. I think this is one of the reasons why this book is so fun to read, and one of the reasons that this is the best book I have read. One example of this is when Taylor is first being introduced to two of the electric children that will be helping them. "To her surprise there were two other girls. One was Chinese. The other was a blond with eyes blue enough that Taylor could see them in the room's lighting. Both of them were glowing."(Evans, 223). Of course, the author slowly reveals more details about the characters throughout the book, but that scene was the first impression the Evans left the reader with, which was very vague. This way, you can let your mind form its own idea of what the character's personality is, where they are from, and what they look like, among other things.
True Colors by Kristin Hannah
ReplyDeleteMelissa Stuart
Realistic Fiction
The Grey family has gone through their fair share of rough patches in their relationship. After the death of their mother, Vivi Ann became the star of the family and in their fathers eyes she could do no wrong. Winona was always jealous of Vivi Ann but that jealousy grows when Vivi Ann gets engaged to the love of Winona’s life, Luke. Winona hires a Native American man, Dallas, from out of town to work on the family ranch. Vivi Ann and Dallas instantly feel a connection severing her engagement to Luke. In their small town in Washington, outsiders are not exactly welcomed with open arms, making Vivi Ann and Dallas’ relationship the talk of the town. They eventually get married, and have a son named Noah, leaving Winona as the only unmarried sister. Despite their fathers and Winona’s disapproval of the relationship, the family is at least peaceful for some time. (Spoiler Alert) Until Dallas is arrested for first degree murder. Fighting breaks out when Winona, being the best lawyer in town, refuses to take his case and instead says “I told ya so”. Eventually Dallas is convicted, and later files for a divorce as he believes Vivi Ann needs to move on, since he was found guilty and was given life in prison. After a rough couple of years, everyone moves on, until Noah begins to ask about his father. He spends one summer working for Winona and learns a lot about his father in the process and reads an article about how the technology used to test DNA has improved. He asks Winona to try and reopen his father’s case and does a pretty good job of convincing her, because she agreed to help. After another long haul through the court system Noah turns 15, Winona stands up to her father, Aurora is divorced and Dallas is free.
The power of family is an amazing thing. After all, family is family forever. Family can change people for better or for worse. They’ll always do what they think is best for you, whether that means supporting you or not. All this is conveyed in Kristin Hannah’s novel True Colors. In the beginning the characters were all very clearly defined and unique, making it easy to classify Vivi Ann as the Id, Aurora as the ego, and Winona as the superego. Throughout the novel the girls change more than they could ever imagine. Each of them making mistakes forcing them to realize none of them are prefect. In the beginning it seems like Aurora is the only stable one, she is always putting out fights as opposed to starting them; she’s married and is the mother of two kids. Aurora changes the least in the novel. The biggest change for her is that her perfect family isn’t so perfect anymore. Her husband has an affair and she ends up getting divorced. She continues to be the one putting out fires and making sure everyone is happy. Winona becomes much more confident and forgiving by the end of the novel. She was so sure that Dallas was guilty that she and Vivi Ann weren’t even on speaking terms for some time, until Aurora fixed it of course. After hearing her nephew’s plea, Winona agrees to fight for Dallas, and after reviewing the evidence she is now positive that he is innocent. She also stands up to her dad after all those years of living in the shadows of her sister. During an argument with her father about how Winona is “wrecking the family all over again” by reminding everyone of the pain they went through years ago, Winona lets it all go and tells his exactly how she feels. After getting it all off her chest she clearly feels more confident in everything she does, especially when she is defending Dallas in front of the court.
CONTINUED
ReplyDeleteFinally, Vivi Ann, the one who changed the most. After Dallas’ conviction she falls into a depression and almost kills herself and Noah in a car accident. After that day she vows to leave the past behind her and be a better mom. Her demeanor completely changes and she does exactly what she promised although raising a troubled teenage boy ages Vivi Ann. For the first time ever, Vivi Ann realizes that her father will never accept Dallas, and now agrees with her sisters that he is simply a stubborn, angry man. She still shuts down every time someone tries to talk about Dallas and is doubtful when Winona tells her that he has a chance at being released. When Dallas is let out, it’s almost as if the two of them are young again, picking up right where they left off, except this time with the support from everyone, including the Grey sisters.
I would definitely recommend this book. I enjoyed every minute of reading and looked forward to reading it. There are constantly new developments in the story, it never gets boring. Although I don’t have sisters myself, I’m sure anyone who does have sisters would really appreciate this book and the messages within it. The relationship between the sisters plays a big part of the story but it by all means does not exclude relationships between fathers, husbands, sons, friends, mothers and even the horses on the ranch! I think what I appreciated most about this book is that it dealt with so many raw and real emotions and scenarios that it was easy to get so caught up in all the drama.
Paper Towns
ReplyDeleteJohn Green
Realistic Fiction
Paper Towns by John Green opens immediately with a description of the main character, Quentin (Q) Jacobsen’s crush on his next-door-neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman. The two were childhood friends, and as they grew older, as most playmates do, they grew apart, Margo becoming gorgeous, funny, and an all-around fascinating person, and Q becoming, well, kind of the opposite. One night towards the end of their senior year, after not talking for years, Margo slithers her way into Q’s bedroom window and demands he come on an overnight expedition around Orlando, Florida, and at the end of the night, not only have the two played a few more-than-playfully-humorous pranks on Margo’s ex friends, they have also broken into Sea World and visited the top of the SunTrust Building, from which they could see the repercussions of their antics being played out. Q thinks he has it in with Margo, but the next day when he goes back to school, Margo has mysteriously disappeared. This being a normal thing for the elusive Margo, nobody thinks too much of it. One day turns to two, which eventually turns to several, and people begin to worry. Q’s friends band together and make it a mission to help him solve the mystery of the missing Margo, leading to more than a few minor misdemeanors, and five unannounced absences from the students’ graduation ceremony.
One passage which especially intrigued me in Paper Towns was Margo’s reaction upon entering Sea World. On the way there, and all leading up to this particular scene, Margo was bursting with excitement, however when they get inside, she is somewhat disappointed:
“”I felt this exact same way when I got into Universal Studios,” she said after a moment. “It’s kind of cool and everything, but there’s nothing much to see… I guess the pleasure isn’t being inside.”
“What’s the pleasure?” I asked.
“Planning, I guess. I don’t know. Doing stuff never feels as good as you hope it will feel”” (Gre 77)
This part interested me, in part because she was just so sure that this was going to be the best night, and within a few minutes, that’s all gone. In addition, in reading this book, I realized that this whole theme of planning, excitement, execution, and eventually disappointment, not only really applies to this particular scene, but it also applies to the whole book. A major example would be Q’s expectations for the outcome of his relationship with Margo. It is evident in the book following this scene that Q somewhat expects to have a lasting relationship with her after their expedition. Basically the entire time, he is thinking about how he is so excited to be friends with her again and laugh about all the things they did to Margo’s ex-friends, and he plans all of these things in his head. However, when he actually gets to school the next day and it doesn’t happen, it is quite a let-down for him. One can easily put together how Margo’s feelings towards entering Sea World also apply to Q’s feelings towards his further relationship with Margo.
Everything about Paper Towns makes it a great book, I would absolutely recommend it to anyone. This is one of those stories that once you start reading, it is absolutely impossible to stop. It is incredibly captivating, and quickly after beginning, the reader becomes intertwined with the characters, and feelings, completely emotionally invested in the plotline for the time period in which they are reading it, and I personally think those are the best kinds of books. I would especially recommend it to readers who wholly throw themselves into their reading. John Green is a phenomenal author, and though some think he is overrated, I whole-heartedly disagree. His stories are wonderful, with just the right amount of angst juxtaposed with complete adoration between characters, making for a spectacular read.
The Face on the Milk Carton
ReplyDeleteCaroline B. Cooney
Julia Wagner
The Face on the Milk Carton is one of the books in the Janie Johnson series by Caroline B. Cooney. It is about a 15 year old girl, Janie Johnson, who one day at lunch recognizes a picture on the back of a milk carton of a girl who went missing 12 years ago. She recognizes the girl as herself and wonders if her parents kidnapped her, and if they are really even her parents at all. After this, many questions arise such as why her parents don’t have any pictures of her until she was five and why they don’t have her birth certificate. She later questions her parents and they explain to her what they believe happened. Later in the book, Janie discovers her biological parents live in New Jersey. As she puts things together from what she has learned, she realizes the facts don’t match up with the story her parents told her. She tells her parents what she found out and together along with the help of Janie’s neighbors, they try to find out what exactly happened. Because this is a book series, you never find out what truly happens but I plan to read the next book in the series; Whatever Happened to Janie?
*******Spoiler Alert! I ruin the end!!*******
A particular aspect of the book that intrigued me was the very end. Janie, Lizzie and Reeve (who are Janie’s neighbors) and her parents are discussing how they should go about meeting or talking to Janie’s supposed biological parents; The Springs. Janie’s mother reasonably suggested that Lizzie, who is almost a lawyer, should talk to the Springs first before they take any dramatic actions. After a while, though, Janie’s mother said that she couldn’t let another mother who has been worrying for 12 years not talk to Janie. “’A mother,’ said her own mother, ‘would need to hear her baby’s voice.’ Her mother’s face was so soaked in tears it might have been raining.” (Cooney 184) Then the mother got up and started to dial the phone. She started to call the Springs in New Jersey. Then Janie went over to her mom and took the phone. Mrs. Spring answered and Janie said “Hi. It’s your daughter.”(Cooney 184) and the book ends. This is what intrigued me because the mother decided to call New Jersey, not Janie. She was just persuaded by her mother. As I was reading the last few pages I predicted that the book would end with Janie somehow coming in contact with the Springs, but when I read that the mother set up the call I was surprised. Out of all the people I thought that Janie’s own mother would be the last one to encourage Janie to talk to her “real” mom.
I plan on reading the other books in this series. I really want to find out what happened to Janie 12 years ago but I also like this writer’s style. It is simple and the characters are well developed which is essential for such a dramatic story. The book is a quick read but still very interesting and I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who like a mystery.
In, The Book Thief, by Markus Zusak, is about a young girl named Liesel while she lives through the Second World War. What brings her peace of mind and an awakening throughout the novel is Liesel’s love of books. When she is first introduced to the reader, she is has just fallen in the snow next to a train station and uncovers The Grave Digger’s Handbook. This is a giant foreshadow not only to the fact that Liesel’s parents and brother die shortly after and how she will eventually meet death, face to face. Liesel is then brought to foster parents in Molching. Her adoptive father, Hans Hubermann and his wife, Rosa. Hans’s quiet voice but powerful actions will have an effect on Liesel as they, Liesel and the Hubermann’s, decide together to hid a jewish man. Han’s polar opposite, Rosa, with a quick wit and mouth like a sailor will show Liesel how to stand up for herself when she needs to. After years of living in Molching, making a good friend named Rudy Steiner, stealing a second book, and Germany beginning to lose its war, the Hubermann’s hide a jew in their house. This man, Max Vandenburg has a friendship that unfortunately ends with along with all of liesel’s family and friends with a bomb that lands on her house. The gift that Max bestows upon Liesel is a Book that teaches peace, not hate about his oppressors.
ReplyDeleteOne part of this book that found interesting was the fact that the narrator was death himself. What surprised me further was that he(I think that he was male, but I am not sure) was not a malicious entity, he seemed to be tired of his job and was happy to share the story of Liesel and her story. Death’s relationship with the characters was not one of bad intent but more of an urging to live. Not directly but silently cheering from the sidelines to keep going and to not give up. The novel also brought up war and its consequences. “They say that war is Death’s best friend, but I must offer you a different point of view on that one. To me, war is like the new boss who expects the impossible. He stands over your shoulder repeating one thing, incessantly: ‘Get it done, get it done.’ So your work harder. You get the job done. The boss, however, does not thank you. He asks for more.” I agree with this statement. Humans do not want death, they force it upon themselves when they go to war. The idea of life after death is very difficult to comprehend in this book. There is no mention of a heaven or hell for the people collected by death. Only that the souls are collected and death goes on his way.
I would absolutely recommend this book to other readers. It is a terrific read that will show you what was happening to the citizens of Germany during the 1930’s and 40’s. I would suggest that you read the book more than once. Upon the second read you see things that seem you surely couldn’t have missed the first time but did. It will give you a better understanding of the plot and a fuler knowledge of the life of Liesel, Death’s dilemma, and the people of Germany.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteLooking for Alaska By: John Green
ReplyDeleteBy Priyanka Vijay
The incredible book, Looking for Alaska, tells the powerful story of discovering your identity with help from unexpected people you encounter. Miles “Pudge” Halter was a very introverted boy at his public school with no friends, and he never felt like he belonged. He was craving the “Great Perhaps” and decided to go to boarding school in Alabama for a fresh start and hopefully to make new friends. Culver Creek boarding school turns out to be an anything-but-boring world, filled with smoking, drinking, and rule breaking. Miles meets Chip Martin (colonel), Takumi, and Lara, who end up being his best friends and Chip introduces Pudge to the love of his life; the most beautiful girl he had ever laid eyes on: Alaska Young. She pulls Pudge into her world, launches him into the Great Perhaps, and steals his heart. Alaska helps Pudge discover himself in ways no one has ever done before. Pudge truly realizes who he is and he discovers what his passions and goals are in life thanks to the amazing, quirky, and messed up girl he meets.
SPOILER AlERT!!!
One particular relationship in this book that intrigued me, was the dynamic relationship between Pudge and Alaska. Pudge was always referred to as “scrawny” and the thought of the edgy, mysterious, and gorgeous Alaska ever wanting to be his girlfriend seemed impossible to him at first. He got to know her and he fell for the mysteriousness, the charm, and the self deprecation. Every single interaction between Pudge and Alaska advances their relationship in a series of incremental steps that swing between positive and negative emotion, with each interaction more intense than the last. One encounter will leave Pudge feeling like Alaska is the greatest girl in the world, the next minute he feels like she's ignoring him or she's mean to him, and each time he experiences a swing between positive and negative he feels it that much more acutely than the last time. The relationship is not completely realistic because our opinions about people do not tend to swing wildly back and forth based on every interaction we have with them. The best thing Alaska did for Pudge was not the romantic influence, but the effect she had on Pudge’s life decisions; As Pudge says on page 172,”She taught me everything I knew about crawfish and kissing and pink wine and poetry. She made me different.” When Alaska died due to the horrible car accident she got into, she left quite the effect on pudge, seeing as he professed his love for her literally a few hours before she died. Pudge went through the grief phase, which I did not think he would get out of, frankly, but he soon realised that he shouldn’t be crying about it so much. It was okay to miss her but he knew remembrance was key,”Lara was right. We should do something for her. A prank. Something she would have loved. ‘Like a memorial prank?’ Exactly, the Alaska Young Memorial Prank. We can make it an annual event.” (Green 199). Instead of remembering the bad, Pudge decides he must focus on all the good that Alaska has created and the love he feels for her.
I would recommend this book to anyone who loves realistic fiction, love stories, John Green, and specifically, High schoolers. This book was very relatable and so powerful, it was virtually like a rollercoaster of emotions. The relationship that Pudge and Alaska shared, spells first love and I think that is so perfect and relatable for teenagers. This was such a fantastic read that I couldn’t put it down! I think everyone could find some part of this book relatable to their lives right now and I think everyone will be touched by this outstanding book.
Dilip Aaron
ReplyDeleteEnder’s Game - Orson Scott Card
Ender’s Game is a sci-fi story about boy genius Ender Wiggin who is chosen by an international military force to save the world from the buggers third alien invasion. Ender is taken to Battle School which is located in space, there he will obtain the proper training and instruction so that he can save the world. Ender is brought to the school with a group of new people which are referred as Launchies (newbies). Ender quickly stands out of all the Launchies because he manages to get far in one of the computer games called “The Mind Game” that no one else ever has before. Little does Ender know that military commanders are already taking notice of Ender’s growing skills and promise. Ender is soon promoted to Salamander Army where army commander Bonzo Madrid already hates him and wants him out. Ender is admired by the majority of the members in the army which infuriates Bonzo, Bonzo quickly gets Ender traded to Rat Army so that Ender does not get all the attention in Bonzo’s army. Rat Army is led by Dink Meeker who is one of the most exceptional leaders in battle school. Ender does very well in battles as he builds his reputation throughout the school, however with his popularity rising many other older school members harnash their hatred for him. Ender is confronted by four boys who try show him lesson, however Ender ends up hurting the four boys and Ender comes to the conclusion that the teachers are leaving him alone to fend for himself. Commanders next put Ender to the test when they give him his own army full of Launchies. Ender is given battles everyday to test his leadership and promise. Ender succeeds in winning every battle convincingly and unmercifully. Ender’s last battle comes against Bonzo, where Ender completely humiliates Bonzo which infuriates Bonzo to his limit. Bonzo attacks Ender in the shower to get his revenge from the battle, Ender brutally beats up Bonzo. Unknowingly Ender killed Bonzo and Ender is immediately transferred to Command School so Ender would not have to stay in Battle School facing the scrutiny of killing Bonzo. When arriving at Command School Ender is taken to Mazer Rackham the legendary commander who defeated the buggers in the second alien invasion. Ender goes through the tutorage of Mazer Rackham of how to command a fleet of ships to defeat the buggers. One day Ender goes through a simulation battle that challenges him in ways that he has never had before. Ender wins at a great cost, and he comes to know that he was actually commanding the actual fleet fighting the actual buggers. Ender feels that he has been used, but the teachers and commanders explain that they had to otherwise they could not defeat the buggers. Ender flies out to the bugger’s planet and finds a queen pupa sitting there. Ender feeling bad for the bugger’s race makes his final mission to find place for the buggers to live without interfering with humans.
Continue From Above
DeleteAn interesting aspect in Ender’s Game is the relationship between the adults and the children. Throughout the book, students at Battle School are often controlled and manipulated by teachers for their own selfish needs. However at certain moments the children manipulate the adults to express their ideas and needs. Ender’s brother and sister Peter and Valentine manipulate many of the adults on Earth to dominate the world’s political system. However throughout the book Ender is almost always controlled by adults for their needs of strengthening Ender to be their leader for the invasion fleet. The children may be smaller and less experienced compared to the adults however their ideas and emotions are more real than their older counterparts. Adults may be more experienced and intelligent than children but the ideas and creativity of children put together can overpower those of adults. The will power of outnumbering children easily overpowers a group of adults with creativity and teamwork. Children are not always taken seriously by elders because they feel they are superior and more intelligent than children. However, children must be taken seriously for they are not only capable of manipulating, killing, and hating, the worst features of adults, but they are capable of creating and helping.
I would definitely recommend this book to anybody who likes a good sci-fi fantasy book. This book is the definition of a true sci-fi story, aliens, space, futuration weapons and much more. This book hooked on to me for a week till I could finish it… 384 pages which was worth all of it. This book is full of suspense and action all they way from the get go of the book to the final word of the book. The strategic description of battles give you a clear image in your head of what is going on. I guarantee this book will be one of your top favorite books ever after you finish this amazing read, now go READ IT!
The Outcasts, by John Flanagan. Fiction
ReplyDeleteThe book, The Outcasts, is about a boy named Hal that was born in Skandia. Hal's father Mikkel was a great warrior but died soon after Hal was born, and Hal’s father’s best friend, Thorn, has turned into a drunk after losing his hand during a storm. Hal is an outcast in the town because his mother was a foreigner that was captured before getting married to Mikkel. The book is about how Hal, his friend Stig, and other outcasts, compete in and win the annual competition held among boys that are coming of age. They win the competition against all odds by using clever tactics and some of Hals personal inventions, which they pit against the other boys’ superior strength. They are also helped by Thorn, who turns out to be more than just a broken down drunk.
A specific scene in the book that caught my interest was when Hal learns from Erak, the leader of the town, that Thorn was the “Maktig”, or greatest warrior in Skandia before he lost his hand. This certainly surprises Hal, because as far back as he could remember Thorn was just the drunk and his days of prowess were before Hal’s time. He is also told that Thorn has big expectations of him, which doesn't seem to make sense to him because Thorn was the Maktig. The reason Erak gives is that Thorn knows that Hal has qualities and skills that Thorn never had. This is certainly a turn of events for Hal, and influences the rest of the book because Hal pays much closer attention to the advice that Thorn gives him throughout the book because he respects Thorn more. This attention also helps Hal along the way to win the competition.
I would definitely recommend this book to people that enjoy stories. This book would be enjoyed by people who like fantasy/sci-fi books and other forms of fiction. If you enjoy reading non-fiction this book will definitely not appeal to you because it is not a true story and the facts are mostly inaccurate. However, even though I like the book and would recommend it to others, there are a few things that I don’t particularly like about the authors style. One major thing that does not appeal to me is that you always can guess what is going to happen next and there aren’t many surprises in the book that you didn’t see coming. Besides for this, however, there are few, if any, problems with the book and authors style and it is an easy read even though it is 434 pages.
The Fault in Our Stars - John Green
ReplyDeleteThe Fault in Our Stars is about a sixteen year old girl named Hazel Grace, who was diagnosed with a cancer in her lungs that was proving to be life-threatening. In a weekly Support Group that Hazel was forced by her parents to attend, she met a seventeen year old boy named Augustus Waters. He understood what she was going through, because he had cancer in his leg, before needing to have it amputated. The two of them realized they had a lot in common, sharing their love of books and literature. Soon enough they had become inseparable, spending what might have been the best moments of their lives together. After months of being together, Hazel and Augustus found cancer getting in the way of their life again, as they had to deal with many hospital visits and treatments. All the while the silent killer was threatening to take away everything they had created together.
A big part of The Fault in Our Stars is how there are many references to a book called An Imperial Affliction, which was Hazel’s favorite book. She told Augustus about it, and after reading it, he was as in love with the book as she was. The book was about someone with cancer, but, like Hazel describes it, it is not a cancer book. In the story, the girl with cancer creates a club for people with cancer that try to cure cholera. The interesting thing about the book that Hazel finds intriguing is how it ends. It ends in the middle of a sentence, leaving it up to the reader to decide what happens afterwards. It can drive the reader crazy trying to fill in the missing pieces, when there’s no wrong or right answer about how it ends. Augustus and Hazel went on an amazing journey to talk to the author of the book about what really happened after the ending, but he had quit writing, and was not planning on making a sequel. Since she read An Imperial Affliction the first time, she wanted those questions to be answered. In the end of The Fault in Our Stars, Hazel finally pieced together the ending of the book, which, in turn, pieced together the ending of her story.
I would definitely recommend this book to others. I think it is a good idea to read this book because it opens your eyes to what people in this world with deadly diseases are going through. It is terrifying and devastating knowing that even though the cancers in the book are fictional, there are people that are suffering from similar feelings. I think people who read this book should be ready to be exposed to raw emotion, because the writing pulls you in, and makes you feel connected to the characters. I love how John Green used the writing style of a sixteen year old, but still seemed to express to the reader that she was very literate. I loved how there were references to other books in the story, and they made me want to go out and read them so I could relate to and understand more about what the characters were talking about. John Green created an amazing story with many references to other pieces of literature, and he created a strong bond between the characters and the reader. I can easily say it is one of the best books I’ve ever read.
Patrick Chi
ReplyDeleteBattle Hymn of the Tiger Mother
Memoir
Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother offers a highly opinionated view on what Chua believes is the “perfect” parenting method. Adopting the methods that she grew up with in her own childhood, Chua enforced strict rules that would shock any “Western parent” (as Chua puts it). These rules included no sleepovers, no playdates, no TV, no grades below an A, and so on. In addition to this, both daughters were required to learn how to play the piano (or violin), and practice at least 3 hours a day. This parenting strategy would work out for her older daughter Sophia; however, when it came to parenting her younger daughter Lulu, Chua notes it was “all-out nuclear war.”
One of many examples of said war was when Lulu wasn’t able to grasp a difficult piano piece: The Little White Donkey. Chua writes: “… I hauled Lulu’s dollhouse to the car and told her I’d donate it to the Salvation Army piece by piece if she didn’t have ‘The Little White Donkey’ perfect by the next day. When Lulu said, ‘I thought you were going to the Salvation Army, why are you still here?’ I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas or Hanukkah presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.” The harsh discipline of this anecdote is conspicuous, and would be considered extreme by many. On the other end, Chua notes that when Lulu finally was able to master the piece, she was beaming and wanted to play it over and over again regardless of the road she had taken to get there. This shows that despite the harsh discipline, Lulu had the capability to feel greater reward at the end.
However, as Lulu grew older, she began to rebel more and more, until at one point, she cracked. At their family vacation in Moscow, Russia, in which Chua had booked practice rooms for Lulu to practice violin, Lulu had her final outburst. In a heated argument, Lulu smashed on of the glasses in a restaurant and told her mother defiantly, “I'm not what you want – I'm not Chinese! I don't want to be Chinese. Why can't you get that through your head? I hate the violin. I hate my life. I hate you!”
Chua surrendered. The realization that what she was accustomed to at a young age was not necessarily what Lulu was meant to go through. The fact was is that there will never be a single, straightforward “right” way to raise a child; the need for there to be balance between freedom and restriction is essential. Contrary to what Chua had originally believed, complete authority was not always the correct way. This realization would cause a dramatic change in Chua’s personality in the ending of the book, where she finally begins to give her daughters more freedom to do what they want to do.
However, while the overall “storyline” of this book was already very interesting, what intrigued me the most was the fact that Chua considers her book as a “satirical memoir.” That is, Chua intended to make this book “funny” and like a “self-parody”; she makes it a book where she makes fun of herself. When I thought of the book from that perspective, the book actually immediately began to be a lot more coherent and understandable. The long and crazy descriptions about Chua’s parenting habits (such as the hundreds of copies of violin notes she’s written for Lulu) are examples of the extremes that Chua took to get her daughter to practice. Looking at it from this viewpoint, the book gains an almost comical nature, instead of just being an autobiographical memoir.
All in all, I thought that Battle Hymn of the Tiger Mother was a very enjoyable and fun read, Although there were some moments where I was thinking “Did she really do that?!” I thought it was very interesting to learn about the “Battle Hymn” of a “Tiger Mother.” Although Chua can get racist on some occasions, Chua’s memoir would be an appropriate read for any teenager to adult that is looking for an “outside perspective” and a little laugh.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteJonathan Rettig
ReplyDeleteCompany, by Max Barry: Satire
The novel Company, written by Max Barry is a satire that mocks the foolishness and heartlessness that exists in the corporate world today. The novel focuses on the main character, Stephen Jones, who was just recently employed as a sales assistant at a holdings company called Zephyr. Here, Jones notices a few strange things about the company and its employees. The first is that none of the employees have ever actually seen the CEO. The other strange thing about Zephyr is that none of the employees actually know what the main purpose of Zephyr is. They know that Zephyr is a holdings company and they sell training packages to Zephyr employees of other departments, but no one knows the main purpose of Zephyr. Jones feels the need to know what the company actually does so he tries to reach the CEO and meet in person. One thing that stands in the way of this is that Jones is not allowed to see the CEO and therefore on this search for the meaning of Zephyr, security is chasing Jones the whole time. Jones finally makes it to the elevator, where he presses the button for Daniel Klausmen’s (the CEO), office. To his surprise, the elevator takes Jones to the roof. Confused with security on his tail, Jones makes his way back to the elevator where he starts mashing the buttons out of panic. This takes Jones to floor thirteen, which there is no button for. As he steps on to floor thirteen, Jones is face to face with the CEO, Daniel Klausman who it turns out was secretly posing as a janitor since the beginning of Zephyr to watch over his employees. Impressed with Jones’ determination, inquisitiveness, ability to flee security and ability to find this hidden floor, Klausman explains to Jones that Zephyr is a fake company. The entire purpose of Zephyr is to set up a realistic work environment filled with real employees who are oblivious to what is actually going on, and observing them. Daniel Klausman uses his employees as test subjects in order to determine the best business techniques to use when managing a business. He then publishes these techniques in books and sells them to business leaders across America.
. The strange thing about this is that none of the employees other than Klausman’s task force called “Alpha” know about this. Because he is so impressed by Jones’ inquisitiveness and refusal to follow orders blindly and thoughtlessly like all the other Zephyr employees, Klausman offers Jones a position on Alpha where he will be very well paid for a better position. This is what Jones so desperately wanted but the only problem was that deceiving his friends and coworkers by spying on them and not telling them the truth was against Jones’ morals. This brought an internal conflict within Jones’ mind between doing what is right, and doing what is best for him, which is a common dilemma throughout the novel. Here, Jones decides to ignore his conscience and decides to join Alpha. Here he meets Eve Jatniss who seems like a cold hearted person with no morals who only cares for herself. Although he knows that she is a bad person, Jones is tempted by Eve’s physical beauty and even though she offers to sleep with him, Jones resists this temptation, realizing it would be unprofessional and screw up their work lives. Later in the novel however, Jones acts as a guiding figure in Eve’s life and teaches her morals, essentially making her a better person. Jones then starts a relationship with Eve, but unfortunately, this relationship and their difference of opinions screwed up their work lives. The fact that he was deceiving his friends slowly started to eat away at Jones’ conscience until he couldn’t take it anymore. He needed to put an end to Alpha and its corruption. Jones then started an uprising, along with many angry fired Zephyr workers against Zephyr management. They overthrew the management and because of this Zephyr ceased to exist. Alpha and its employees were then very angry at Jones for ruining the project they had been working on for over a decade but Jones knew he had done the right thing.
ReplyDeleteI find the main character Jones to be quite relatable and admirable throughout this novel. One of the characteristics of Jones I find most relatable is his internal struggle between what is best for him, and what is right. I personally deal with this conflict every day as I think many people do. What I find admirable about Jones is that in the end, he listens to his conscience rather than his desires and gives up his well paying, amazing job for telling the truth to the employees and ending the corrupt company, putting himself out of a job. I believe this type of sacrifice for what is right is one of the most admirable things a person can do. Although I do find Jones admirable, he also has his flaws, such as giving into Eve. Even though Jones know that Eve isn’t the right person for him, and that it would be unprofessional to get involved with her , he does anyways, because he too is human and makes mistakes. Another flaw in Jones’ character was accepting the job offer into Alpha in the first place. Jones knew that the job he was accepting was against his morals, but because it paid well, he was tempted into accepting the job offer. “’I don’t know if I’m comfortable with spying on my co-workers,’”(Barry 110). Although Jones has flaws, that is what makes him human. I believe that the fact that Jones told the truth to his coworkers in the end makes him an admirable character. I hope that if I were given that situation, I would choose what is right over what is best for me just like Jones did.
ReplyDeleteOverall, I would recommend this book to anyone that wants to read something entertaining. Although it’s rather shallow, and is slightly idiotic at times in an attempt to be funny, and probably won’t change your life, this novel is entertaining and brings up some interesting thoughts which is why I recommend it.
Anjuli Smith
ReplyDeleteBlood Promise
by Richelle Mead
Fantasy
**********SPOILER ALERT*************
Blood Promise is the fourth book in the Vampire Academy series by Richelle Mead. At this point in the series, Rose, a dhampir (vampire-human hybrid) is leaving school to go on a quest to search for her “soul-mate,” Dimitri, who was unwillingly turned into a Strigoi (bad, immortal vampires). She left behind her best friend, Lissa (who is a good, mortal vampire called a moroi), but is able to check in on her periodically through a one-way mental bond. Rose has travelled to Siberia (Dimitri’s hometown) to find him and kill him (to relieve him from his undead state), but instead coincidentally (very stereotypical, right?) ends up running into his family, who take her in as one of their own. After making a deal with a mysterious man named Abe, she leaves Dimitri’s family and continues on her search for Dimitri. (Coincidentally again) She happens to travel to the exact city that Dimitri has been hiding in (with his old teacher, Galina). Dimitri holds her captive in Galina’s manor, trying to convince her to let him turn her into a Strigoi and join him. She is lulled into a false sense of happiness at the manor due to endorphins released every time he drinks her blood (it essentially makes her like an addict longing for their next fix), and is only snapped back into reality when she realizes by using the bond, that Lissa is in danger from Avery (a new girl who pretended to be Lissa’s friend). Using her awesome guardian fighting skills, Rose is able to escape the manor and with the help of Dimitri, kill Galina and the remaining Strigoi there. Unfortunately, Dimitri survives the attack and follows her, but after a long fight she manages to stake him (the only way to kill a Strigoi). She is picked up by Abe and brought to a house to recover where she realizes that Avery is compelling Lissa to jump to her death. Using her mental bond and the help of a nearby moroi, she helps Lissa fight Avery and her henchmen and returns to the academy. Once there, she reconciles with her mother and Lissa, learn Abe is her absentee father and is given a second shot at graduating from the academy. At the very end, she gets a package and note from Dimitri which contains the stake she tried to kill him with and realizes that she missed his heart when she stabbed him, so Dimitri is still alive and looking for her so he can kill her.
COTINUED FROM ABOVE (ANJULI SMITH)
ReplyDeleteA big struggle that Rose has to face throughout this book was how different Dimitri was as a Strigoi from when he was a dhampir. “I knew him instantly, even though he’d changed...his eyes still reminded me of the Dimitri I’d known...there was just enough resemblance to stir my heart, to overwhelm my senses and feeling” (Mead 282). Firstly, I find the entire situation way too coincidental--Rose finding his family, Rose’s father being able to seek her out, Rose finding another spirit-user, Rose going to the same exact city Dimitri was hiding in...I think the author should’ve done a better job in trying to make the situation more realistic. Anyway, in a previous conversation (before he turned), Dimitri had told Rose that he would prefer to be dead than be a Strigoi, so once she realizes he is one, she sets out on a quest to honor his wishes. Another thing he had told her was that no matter how much it seems like it, a Strigoi is never the same person as who they were before they turned. A big issue for Rose is remembering everything he told her about Strigoi and what she has been taught about Strigoi too. He keep doing things that make him seem like the way he was, like when he asks her about his family while holding her healing ring. He has a “fondness in his face, true affection that startled me” (Mead 374). Though she has always been taught that Strigoi are evil and have no feelings, at certain times she is made to question that. Rose would always ask Dimitri why he wanted to turn her and I think his response was what was the final clincher for her. On page 355 he specifically says that if he turns her of her own free will it would make her a more important ally and that she’s “independent and strong-minded” which is what makes her valuable. She realizes then that he no longer sees her as the girl he loves. Even at the end she gives him a last chance and asks him why he wants her to turn for the last time and he responds with, “‘I want you’” (Mead 425). This proves that what she knows of Strigoi is true--they don’t really have true feelings. The interest that Strigoi-Dimitri had in her was for her fighting ability and to use her as a resource. He no longer loves her, because as a Strigoi he is unable to have feelings. So, since she realizes that the real Dimitri is long gone, that’s when she makes the final decision to kill him (however, she ends up missing).
I would recommend this book for those who enjoy young adult fantasy. The series is fast-paced and has many sub-stories within each book so it stays interesting throughout. I liked how fast I was able to read this series, yet still get the story out of it even though each book is about 400 pages. I didn’t like how clichéd and coincidental the author made the book. To make a book relatable (which is important for all books), she should’ve made it more life-like--in real life many of these occurrences would never line up. Also, at least at the beginning, she really stressed the idea of a “soul mate” and claimed that Rose’s soul mate was Dimitri, which I think is a bad perspective to take when they are both so young. It’s true that her audience is one that has just experienced their first love, but for her to promote the idea that your first love = your true love = your soul mate which cannot be anyone else. It is bad to have such a closed mind at that age and don’t think she should support it. Overall though, the book was interesting and enjoyable, so I would recommend it to whoever likes fantasy!
Allegiant by Veronica Roth
ReplyDeleteScience Fiction
Synopsis:
Allegiant by Veronica Roth is the third and final book in the Divergent trilogy. The series starts out with a supposedly utopian society which is divided into five factions all of which believe in different moral codes. By the third book, the factions have been completely destroyed by an internal revolt from one of the factions (the Erudite) and the city is under the leadership of one of the main antagonists, Evelyn Johnson. One of the main characters, Tobias, is Evelyn’s son but he isn’t on the greatest of terms with her. After the war, the two main characters, Tris and Tobias, along with some others, leave the city (Chicago), and venture past the fences that had contained them for so long. What they discover outside the walls is something none of them expect to find. They end up at Chicago’s O’Hare International Airport, where they later discover, their entire lives have been viewed on a wall of monitors. Turns out, their entire existence had been an experiment trying to cure a genetic disease, or what they refer to as damage. In the previous books, the people with cured genes, or the genetically pure had been referred to as Divergent, thus giving the series its name. This experiment is run by a bureau for genetic welfare, who as you later see has become increasingly corrupt. After the factions are destroyed, the bureau decides it wants to “reset” the experiment by erasing the minds of all the city’s residents. Being that Tris and Tobias are from the city and have friends and family there, they do not want this to happen. Throughout the story they battle personal emotions and problems outside and within the walls of the city, as they try to create a more peaceful world for themselves and the ones they love.
-Spoilers-
The scene in this book that affected me the most was one of the the last scenes in the book and to be honest, it broke my heart. Tris has an incredibly difficult relationship with her brother Caleb, who unfortunately, betrayed her and worked behind her back with the main enemy in the second book. When they go to stop the Bureau’s plan to erase the memories of the city, one of them has to volunteer to die, and Caleb, the traitor, is the one who is volunteered. The memory serum they plan to use on the city is locked in a high security vault, and if the doors are opened without the passkey, some sort of poisonous gas is released that no one can survive even with a gas mask. Tris tries to come to terms with this and goes as far as to go with her brother just outside the doorway of the vault. The two are found out however, and are attacked by guards. Tris decides to sacrifice herself instead because she believes she can survive the death serum. She does this and lives, but encounters the Bureau’s leader, David inside the vault. She has no way to escape and sacrifices herself, getting shot repeatedly but somehow still managing to release the serum and wipe the memories of the Bureau instead of all her friends in the city. This was completely unexpected for me honestly, but the way the author wrote it made it even more so. Throughout the book you expect her brother to die for her but Tris knows she can’t let him die if it’s only out of guilt. She says the only way a sacrifice counts is if it is out of love so she chooses to go in knowing she can survive the serum, only to be killed in the end anyway. The reason for this though, is because she finally realizes she forgives and loves her brother and would rather die out of love than have him die out of guilt. The other part of this that broke my heart was Tris herself.
After rereading Divergent, the first book in the series, I found a moment when Tris was once again near death, and she thinks to herself “Can I be forgiven for all I’ve done to get here? I don’t know. I don’t know. Please.” This is a sad moment because she is trying to sacrifice herself so she doesn’t have to kill Tobias. The last words Tris narrates in Allegiant before she dies are “Can I be forgiven for all I’ve done to get here? I want to be. I can. I believe it.” and that is the last thought she has in the series. Honestly, I don’t think it really hit me what had happened until I read that. And when I went back and reread Divergent and saw that first quote a few days later, it made so much more sense to me. Tris was never afraid to die, as you see when she repeatedly tries to sacrifice herself, but she is afraid that she won’t be forgiven for all of the terrible things she has had to do to get to her goal and to complete what she was meant to do on earth. She is so brave to save her brother over herself even though she is so unsure, and that is what makes her character so unique and interesting.
DeleteI would definitely recommend reading this book especially if you have already started the series. As much as I disliked the ending because I cried, (more than I would like to admit) the story itself left me unable to put the book down until the very last page. It was really well written and the author made some bold choices which I believe enhanced the story a lot. As much as I would have loved a happily ever after in this one, the ending gave you a clear end to the plot and it had a lot of deeper meaning beyond what the story itself told you. You should read this book especially if you were a fan of the Hunger Games and other books of that genre because it has similar ideas in it.
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ReplyDeleteThe Old Man and the Sea
ReplyDeleteErnest Hemingway
Fiction
The Old Man and the Sea is an enduring tale of an old fisherman looking for a last chance to redeem himself. The novel starts out with the old man (Santiago) having an unlucky streak of not catching any fish for countless days. His only companion is the young boy Manolin who sees the old man as his mentor and is constantly loyal to him. The old man decides to venture out alone into the sea in hopes that he will be fortunate and come back with a trophy fish. During his journey, he struggles with the madness of several sleepless nights while trying to maintain his hold on a giant marlin. In enduring the pain, he learns what he will do to keep the fish. When the old man finally captures the giant purple marlin, he is faced with the problem of sharks that leave nothing but the bones of the fish, showing how difficult it can be to attain something yet very easy to lose it. The old man returns to the fishing village with nothing but the skeletal remains of the fish, clearly disappointed in his failure. He is greeted by the young boy and even though he was not able to sell the fish’s meat, the giant fish is gawked at by the villagers; a bittersweet redemption for the old man.
Something that intrigued me while reading the novel was the relationship between the old man and Manolin. Manolin, a young boy in the village is the only one companion of the old man and sees him as a mentor even though he knows that, “There are many good fishermen and some great ones. But there is only you” (25 Hemingway). I found this relationship between the old man and the boy very touching, especially how the roles of a father-son relationship are almost switched around. The young boy always makes sure the old man has something to eat, tucks him into bed at night, and the young boy calls himself “thoughtless” when he forgets the needs of the old man.
Overall I would recommend this book. For readers who are into action or complex twisting story lines, this is not for you. But if you are interested in a book that you can sit back and enjoy reading while understanding universal themes, this is for you. While I did enjoy the book when I was reading it, I was never really hooked on it, though I was never bored when reading it. I really admire the way Hemingway created the characters and how they were very real and that you were constantly rooting for them. I also like how he uses many metaphors which give an alternate view on certain passages and he also puts in allusions that can be interpreted differently. However, at least in this novel, Hemingway wasn’t very detailed in his descriptions, giving incomplete descriptions of the scenery and the look of characters
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka, is a book that has absolutely messed with my mind. This book is absolutely mind-boggling. The main protagonist, Gregor Samsa, wakes one morning to discover he’s been turned into a giant insect, and the rest of the book describes his attempt to cope with the transformation as well as his family’s response and attempts to rebuild after their horrific incident. Gregor wakes up, and after realizing he can’t move, spends an hour trying to get out of bed to go to work. His mother, father, sister and boss all come to try and coax gregor out of bed. When he finally opens the door, he tries to talk and found he can’t be heard. His boss runs out of the apartment, and his father chases him into his room. After several days, his sister begins coming into his room on a daily basis to give him some food. She begins cleaning the room for him, and out of his family, she was the only one to give gregor any attention. She and her mother goes into his room to try and move some furniture, so that gregor can have more space to crawl. After realizing that his furniture is the only thing to remind him of his real life, he come out of hiding and escapes his room, all in an attempt to save his furniture. His father comes home and attacks gregor. He throws an apple at gregor that gets stuck in his back, gravely injuring him. It becomes harder for him to move and he stops eating. The rest of his family’s all get jobs after they lost their major form of income and they take in new tenants in the apartment. After they discover gregor, the new tenants decide to move out. This causes the family to decide to remove Gregor from the apartment and from their lives. After hearing this, Gregor goes into the room, and promptly dies from hunger.
ReplyDeleteAn interesting thing I found in the book was how the family and Gregor become farther and farther apart. Throughout the book, he calls his parents mother and father and Grete, his sister. About halfway through the book, after the incident with the furniture, he starts calling his sister Grete. And it isn’t till the last scene that he starts calling his parents Mr. and Mrs. Samsa. The family gives Gregor less and less attention. Grete, becoming sloppy with his care of Gregor, forbids anyone but herself to clean Gregor's room. She feels Gregor completely ruined her life, after all, she had to get a job, quit the violin, and give up any chance of going to college, a dream she and Gregor had attempted to accomplish. The love that Gregor has for his family never deteriorates even when they attack him. When the tenants become bored by her sister’s violin, he wishes that she could play for her everyday and never leave his room. He loves them so much, that he wills himself to die when they want him gone.
It is a very interesting book, and a well-written book. I’d recommend this book to anyone, not for its ridiculous plot, but for insight into the theory of existentialism. Franz Kafka was an existentialist writer dealing with topics concerning absolute absurdity, and although it is not one of the most famous or great existentialist pieces, such as the works of Nietzsche or Dostoyevsky,, it still introduced me into what existentialism was, because until I read the book, i had absolutely no understanding of what existentialism. It is honestly the weirdest book I’ve ever read, but it is a very good book and incredibly interesting. Most of all, it makes me glad i’m not a giant cockroach.
Another Heaven, By: Annu Subramanian, Realistic Fiction
ReplyDeleteAnnu Subramanian’s novel, Another Heaven, depicts a very delicate topic of terrorism. Tina Mathews, a young doctoral student from United States, goes to India to live with her aunt and uncle while gathering information and real life experiences for her thesis. She gets an internship with a well known person named Dr.Augustine. Tina’s train to her relatives place gets canceled due to a bomb blast in a nearby city. She begins to wonder why these blasts are occurring. At this point, the book takes a turn and changes to the terrorist groups perspective. Usman, the main victim behind all the blasts, has his original group of four people as his followers; Abdullah, Imran, Kumar, and Manohar. These people would rather die than give up the secrets behind their missions. As the next chapter transitions back into Tina’s point of view, she is staying at a nearby hotel with the help of one of Dr.Augustine’s students, Shaker. She comes across this woman who seems like she is being kidnapped, and the women even runs to her room “I….I came running from that room” she pointed at the other end of the corridor, “I must get out of here. Please don’t ask for details. Hide me. They torture me. Please hide me.” (Subramanian 31). After this encounter, Tina is even more curious about everything. She meets this guy named Mark who shows her a picture of the women that he is going to marry and it turns out that she is the girl Tina comes across at the hotel. This information changes everything because Mark was told that Maya (his fiance) died in a bomb blast. The rest of the book is about Mark’s and Tina’s struggle to find and save Maya. The book takes a turn here and goes to becoming Imran’s perspective. Imran comes across this poor family and sees a very determined girl who he thinks would be a very good candidate to perform some of their missions and goes and tells Usman. He also agrees, and tells a way to make Saira come to their side. Imran becomes good friends with her mother and earn her trust. With Imran’s help, Saira gets accepted to to an all girls school, and she says her goodbyes to her mother. The bus stops in the middle and everyone gets off except for one other man. He tries to violate her personal space but she is saved by Abdhullah. He brings her to Usman’s layer and they take care of her until she feels better. Meanwhile, Saira receives a letter from her mother telling her that Saira was an adoptive daughter and she should not go back because her mother cannot support two children. Saira being mad at this, writes her mom a letter saying to not worry about her and that she will take her of herself from now on. Saira turns herself in as Usman’s slave and becomes one of them, when Usman faked the letter from her mother.
One passage that really stood out to me in this is book was Usman explaining to Manohar the definition of an ultimate candidate. “ I also told you that disillusionment is the primary characteristic, a dominant trait necessary for a candidate. When a human hates mankind, order, and peace, you’ve spotted a good candidate. When that human’s bitter experiences thirst for anarchy, then you’ve selected a perfect candidate. When that human’s blood boils for more blood at the expense of his own bloodshed, then you’ve bred the ultimate candidate.” (Subramanian 67). This passage surprised me when I read it because it is terrifying to know how a person would think if they chose the wrong path in life. Usman is explaining that if a person is so eager to kill people even at the price of his/her life then they are the ultimate candidates for their missions. This passage portrays many lessons that can be learnt. One very important lesson that I learned was that to never let your mind wander onto a path that you know will lead you to misery and complications. Usman chose to go on a path that will put others lives in danger also while not protecting his own. There is no guarantee with his job. This has also altered his mind into thinking differently and negatively. These thoughts and actions will not lead him to success but closer to failure each and every time.
ReplyDeleteI would definitely recommend this book for everyone because there are a lot of life teachings in it, and people would benefit from it one way or another. This book is also very emotional, thrilling, and adventurous. I could not put the book down because each chapter would end with a cliffhanger making me want to read the next page. It was very interesting in the sense that lots of separate stories run side-by-side. By the end of the book, you will find out that every character from one story would have a connection or be related to another character from a different story. I loved the author’s style of writing, and it was not too abstract. Everything was easily understood which made the story more appealing to me. I think that this book is a great book to read, and I would definitely recommend it.
Lesley Yan Santos
ReplyDeleteHate List by Jennifer Brown
After the shooting, everyone expected Valerie to be able to quickly move on from Nick and the incident. With people like Val’s parents and Dr. Dentley forcing her to “recover”, she never got time to grieve and soak it all in. All of these people made the horrible mistake of blaming Valerie for the shooting even though she was innocent. Caught up in their own grief and anger, many of these people forgot that it was Valarie who stopped the shooting.
The first person after the shooting to take time to understand/listen to Val, was her new psychiatrist Dr. Rex Hieler. Unlike everyone else, he believed Valerie was innocent and let her recover at her own pace. What was most interesting was how he said, “The next time we get together why don’t we start by just learning about you, what you’ve been interested in, how life was before this happened, getting to know one another a bit, and we’ll move forward from there. Sound good?” at the end of their first appointment (Brown 190).
This served many purposes. First and foremost, talking about herself, would allow Valerie to focus on something other than the shooting for once. Revealing herself to Dr. Hieler would strengthen their bond with each other which was very important to Dr. Hieler as a psychiatrist. This would also allow Dr. Hieler to understand who Val was before the shooting and what might’ve caused her to write the Hate List in the first place. The “Sound good?” at end of this proposal was also significant. With these two words, Valerie had control over what she wanted to do as opposed to what was “expected” of her.
This particular question was ultimately important to Valerie as she was suffering from an identity crisis after the shooting. She struggled with the idea that people thought of her as both a hero and a murderer. She also struggled with the idea that her own parents saw her as a threat (both to herself and the world) and refused to give her freedom. Most of all, she struggled with the idea that Nick was a bad person as she could only see good in him.
Interestingly enough, her progress was reflected by how she saw the horses on her wall. As a young girl, she used to imagine the horses running away freely with her on the back one of them. By the end of the book however (after graduation as she decided to take a trip with an unknown outcome instead of going immediately to college), she sees the horses “as they’d always been, of course – completely motionless” (Brown 405). At first glance, this may seem like she is going backwards as she is no longer thinking of them as running “freely”. However this is actually a sign of progression. Instead of running away, the horses stayed allowing Valerie to stop and take the time figure out what she wants to make of her future (which is why she went on that trip). After the shooting, this was important as Valerie had a lot of things to work out for herself. As she starts to move on with her life, she may or may not see the horses running again.
Battle Royale
ReplyDeleteBy Koushun Takami (translated by Yuji Oniki)
Horror
This book was Suzanne Collin’s inspiration for the Hunger Games, and while both books have similar situations, the books themselves are very different.
In Battle Royale, forty classes of 42 eighth graders are randomly selected each year to participate in the government’s program. This program lets kids loose with orders to kill each other, and this is done every year in order to keep the government in power. Battle Royale is about Shuya and his classmates, who are selected. Collars that track their movements only monitor the kids. The novel switches to different perspectives of the kids and their fears and struggles to survive. Initially, most of them don’t want to participate, but as the game goes on, they realize that they can’t trust their former friends, and some commit suicide, some go crazy, and the rest are killed by the kids who are actively participating. The protagonist, Shuya, teams up with Noriko and Shogo, and together the three of them survive, and kill off the final contestant in a dramatic shoot out scene. Shogo then reveals to them that he participated in and won the Program before, and found a way to help Noriko and Shuya fool the computer system that was monitoring them, allowing them to escape. Hailed the victor, Shogo is taken back to the mainland. With Shuya and Noriko’s help, the three of them overtake the boat, but Shogo is shot and dies. Shuya and Noriko escape and flee the country as refuges.
Shuya’s choice to trust Shogo and Noriko in his group is a direct contrast with everyone else’s decisions in the story. Although the students are told to trust no one in order to stay alive, those that play by this rule end up dead. Even the other kids who form groups are unstable, and they end up murdering their allies out of fear because they do not completely trust them. Shuya’s decision to blindly agree to let Shogo join his group ends up saving both him and Noriko. I believe that the purpose of the government ‘s program was to use the fear of the children as a model to prove how effective fear is. Based off of this assumption, and details in the book, “ it was common for people to simply go missing” the country was run similarly to Orwell’s 1984, with spies everywhere, and people constantly living in fear of being killed for rebellious behavior or thoughts.
Stylistically, every part of the novel was described in vivid detail to the point where I could practically see the rotting corpses. In the middle of fighting, there were times when the characters would remember mundane things that the death and gore reminded them of. These little snippets of their memories that were triggered by the circumstances let the narrator flesh out the personalities and backstories of the characters.
I would definitely recommend this book. However, if blood and viscera make you uncomfortable, this might not be for you. Although the setting and situation of the characters in The Hunger Games and Battle Royale is the same, the characters in Battle Royale react differently, and everything is much gorier. I also got the impression the incapability of the children to fully adapt to the harsh environment was more realistic than in the Hunger Games. The romantic aspect of this story is also downplayed. While the characters do talk about their crushes on their fellow classmates, the question arises as to whether or not they will betray the people they were initially were attracted to. This book was captivating from the beginning and once I started reading I didn’t want to stop.
Dear Life, You Suck by Scott Blagden.
ReplyDeleteGenre: Young Adult Fiction Contemporary
This book starts off with a violent, aggressive and rude 17 year old sitting in the principals office for getting into a fight. Cricket Cherpins (That is his real name) is an orphan living in a Catholic boys’ home with 49 other young boys. He drinks, smokes, curses and fights with anything or anyone that gets in his way. He ignores all the adults in his life that tell him to pull himself together as he is almost going to be 18 and he’ll have to leave the Catholic boys’ home. His best and only friend, Grubs, is a drug dealer and has been for 8 years. Grubs has Cricket’s back in anything reckless he does. Cricket is obsessed with a girl named Wynona, he is convinced that he is in love with her and that she brings out the little good in him. When this book starts off, it’s written more as a personal diary with bits and pieces taken from here and there, Cricket doesn’t explain why or how he is the way he is. He doesn’t give the readers any background on his life or why he hates it. One day, in English class, they are given an assignment to write which is supposed to be a short, creative letter to someone or something, Cricket starts off the assignment by drafting a letter to his mother but then decides against it. He finally submits a letter, “Dear Life,
You SUCK!
I want out.
See you on the flipside.
Sincerely,
- Cricket”
Cricket is depressed and somewhat mentally unstable which is pretty clear from his behavior. His character is shown to be very tainted and in the beginning of the book, one would probably agree that he is not very likable. As the book unravels, Cricket is also shown to be suicidal.. Cricket hates all the adults in his life, he hates what adults do and what they enforce, he thinks it’s their fault that he is the way he is, still, we don’t get to know why he thinks this way. After a series of events, Cricket and Wynona start dating. (By series of events, I mean that he beats her boyfriend up). He opens up a bit to her and Wynona, although, sometimes scared by his behavior, pulls through. The only redeeming thing he does is that he fights and stands up for the younger boys, he puts himself in harms way standing up for them many times and tells them to fight the bullies. As the story continues, Grubs dies in a car accident which Cricket was also involved in. Cricket is seriously injured and in a coma. One of the nun at the churches (his only parental figure) stays up all night reading quotes to him from the Bible. Cricket is a very non religious individual “God punishing people for being good. God loving some people more than others. God asking fathers to kill their kids as proof of their faith. God giving kings special powers so they can slaughter entire nations. God not jumping in when His own kid get murdered. That's some crazy shit If that's the God they want me to believe in, no thank you. Ship me off to Hell right now so I can toss back a cold one with the zillion other people God never tortured with His infinite kindness.” but after he hears this, a very vulnerable, and deprived part of him is touched. Many people come to visit him in the hospital and he somehow realizes that if this many people care about him, there must be some good in him. At the end of the book, Cricket tells us briefly about his parents who abandoned him at the age of 10.
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ReplyDeleteCONTINUED
ReplyDeleteThis book is very hard to explain and talk about in a paragraph as it is nothing but pure feelings of Cricket Cherpin. I was convinced from the first page of the book that Cricket was going to kill himself or end up seriously hurting someone around him. I feel like this book is a representative of many teenagers lives, the struggle of a rough past and no hope for the future. Cricket is the same and he doesn't know how to deal with his struggles and the unknown. His parents not being in his life is a huge part of that, his personality has had no positive influence. He is a flawed person with nothing to love about himself, he faces the problems and undergoes character growth and stands up for what he believes in, which is often hard. Cricket has a great voice and persona , he’s intelligent and keen but is overlooked by his peers as a “freak”. He hates his parents for bringing him into this world and then leaving him, his past cascades his life. Wynona is in a corny, cheesy way the little love that saves him. He sees that he is not unwanted or as pathetic he makes himself to be. This theme when put in a bigger context, might be the story of everyone at some point in life, problems or struggles that get in the way of us becoming who we want to be and moving on in life. How often one might find them-self at a dead end of life and might need a little eye opener to realize that there’s more to it and the show must go on.
This book was absolutely amazing and I loved it from the very first page. The amount of wordplay and it’s illustriousness is inexplicable. I thoroughly enjoyed how Blagden has a way with words which gives the reader a whole new insight on its characters. This book was very vulgar, with a lot of swearing and many sexual innuendos, just a warning before you give it a go. It is hilarious and somewhat dark at the same time. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wouldn't mind crying and laughing at the same time.
The Witch of Blackbird Pond
ReplyDeleteElizabeth Speare
Realistic Fiction
The novel starts off with Kit, the main character, traveling to America in 1687 from Barbados, her home for most of her life, to visit her aunt that lives in Connecticut. She starts to talk with the captain’s son, Nat Eaton, and they get to know each other. When the ship nears the shore of America, Kit decides she wants to see America up close and gets on a small boat that takes her out to the shore. When the small boat is returning to the ship, a little girl named Prudence accidentally drops her favorite doll in the water and begins to cry. Kit, knowing how to swim from her time spent in Barbados, jumps into the water and retrieves the doll for Prudence. While Prudence is very grateful, the other passengers on the ship look suspiciously at Kit because it was very unusual for a woman to know how to swim. “The others stared at her in suspicion. As though she had sprouted a tail and fins right before their eyes,” (Speare 9). When she arrives at her destination, being escorted by Nat and his father, she is introduced to her Aunt Rachel, Uncle Matthew, and her cousins Judith and Mercy. Kit begins to work on the fields, work that she is unaccustomed to. She finds it very difficult and tiresome. She gets to know her family and discovers that Judith likes a man named William. At church, however, William takes a liking to Kit and approaches her. Eventually, the two of them start a relationship. After a few months, Kit is chosen to teach a group of students in a new school house, which makes her delighted since it means she won't have to be in the fields all day. Kit is fired after a few weeks for making the kids act out a scene from the bible, something that is considered a no-no. Kit goes to the fields to cry and wakes up in the house of an elderly lady quaker named Hannah Tupper believed by many to be a witch. Hannah is very nice and offers Kit cake and tea. Kit becomes friends with Hannah, and gains the confidence to approach the head of the school and get her teaching job back. One day, Kit walks into Prudence, the girl from the ship, and gets to know her better. Kit realises that she can't read and her mother won't let her attend school because her mother thinks Prudence is dumb. Kit takes it upon herself to teach Prudence how to read and write, and brings her to Hannah to help teach her. Kit gives her a notebook where Prudence practices writing her name. Not long after, an illness strikes the town and many people are sickened, including Kit and her cousins. The town blames Hannah for the illness and start to organize a witch hunt. Fortunately, Nat, a friend of Hannahs, brings his own boat up the river near Hannah’s house and takes Hannah away from the mob. Needing another scapegoat, the town accuses Kit of being a witch since she has been seen with Hannah. The notebook Prudence was using to practice her name was also found, which leads the towns people to believe that Kit bewitched Prudence. Kit is put on trial, and just before she is about to be sentenced to death, Nat enters the courtroom and proves the notebook was used for teaching purposes. Kit is let free, breaks her relationship with William, and marries Nat.
CONTINUED
ReplyDeleteThe part of the book that intrigued me the most was when the evidence against Kit was being read. I understand that, in those days, people didn't fully understand how things happened such as disease. However, the testimonies that some of the townspeople read made me question how someone could reach the conclusion that Kit was a witch. “Another woman testified that one afternoon last September she had been sitting in the window, sewing a jacket for her husband, when she had looked up and seen Kit walking past her house, staring up at the window in a strange manner. Whereupon, try as she would, the sleeve would never set right in the jacket,” (Speare 212). First of all, why would someone put a curse on someone so that they couldn't finish knitting a jacket? It seems incomprehensible that this kind of testimony could be used in a court of law, where there is only one witness, no physical evidence, and no clear motive. If this was presented in a court today, it would be immediately dismissed. This passage showed me how people will come up with the craziest of theories and stories to try and explain something that they don't understand, which appears to have happened a lot in the past. The author used this passage to show the ignorance of the people of that time, and that there was no real evidence against Kit being a witch, much like the witch trials that have, sadly, taken place in real life.
I would recommend this novel to anyone who wants a simple, well-written story that doesn't have a lot of difficult words. The plot of the story was well-formed, including complicated relationships between lovers, and the ending left me feeling satisfied. The only complaints I have about the novel are that there isn't a deep meaning to the novel, and that the author missed a few opportunities to add excitement and drama to the story by vividly describing the scene and the characters feelings throughout, which the story seemed to lack. However, it was an enjoyable book to read, and I felt an urge to continue reading throughout the novel.
Danielle Duguid
ReplyDeleteLight
by Michael Grant
Light is the sixth and final installment in the Gone series, which starts off when everybody 15 and older suddenly vanishes one day as a dome appears over the town of Perdido Beach and the surrounding land. Some of the children start to grow supernatural powers linked to the gaiaphage, a creature of darkness that lives in a mineshaft. In this book, the dome surrounding the children had just turned clear, allowing children to see their parents after having been trapped in the Fallout Alley Youth Zone for almost a year. Diana had just given birth to the gaiaphage, the residing evil force in the F.A.Y.Z. whom she affectionately calls Gaia. Back in town, nobody is doing any work that needs to be done to keep them alive. They are all at the dome seeing their parents. In a way, the dome opening up is definitely one of the worse things that has happened to the children. Nobody is working so people are starting to go hungry again. Another factor is that everything that they do is being broadcasted to the world. When the adults see children with weapons or even talking about some of the minor things that they have suffered through in there, they want to throw all the children in prison as soon as they get out. Inside the dome, Edilio convinces Sam, who can shoot lasers, and Caine, who can move things with his mind, to join together to go out and fight Gaia before she comes to everybody else. Gaia reveals to Diana that the all of her powers were just the powers of the mutant children and if one of them died then Gaia loses that power too. She also reveals that Little Pete, (Astrid’s, who is Sam’s girlfriend, little brother who had autism) was still alive in a way. Little Pete is the only one who can actually defeat the gaiaphage, and has immense power but he could not control it in his autistic body. Gaia plans to murder everybody so Little Pete can’t find a body. She starts with a massacre at the lake, where hundreds of children who don’t want to live in town live. Diana had run and tried to warn everybody. Sam and Caine don’t get there in time and Gaia murdered about 70 kids with her powers before Breeze, another mutant, is able to injure her. All the survivors at the lake head to Perdido Beach. Eventually Sam finds out that Gaia is using his light from his hands to kill people so goes to Gaia and tells her to kill him. Instead she makes him watch as she starts another massacre. The Breeze and a boy named Computer Jack, who had super speed and super strength respectively die through the battle and Gaia loses those powers. Sam is freed with the help of their friends and they chase her down to the dome where she starts to try to kill everybody down there. Caine had talked to Little Pete and sacrificed himself so he could defeat the Gaia. As soon as Gaia and Little Pete/Caine killed each other the dome opened up again. The epilogue revealed that Caine had left a note where he claims that he had a secret power where he could control everybody so it was all his fault. This is obviously not true but he did this to protect Sam in the end, who was about to go to prison with everything that had happened in there. In the end Sam, Diana, and Astrid move in together and Astrid decides to write a book about all of it so people know the truth.
CONTINUED
ReplyDeleteThe concept of this is very interesting as you see what the author thinks would happen if you isolate a group of young kids, just like in Lord of the Flies. He talks about how it is utter chaos until they try to form several different systems of government to keep people alive. Another interesting thing about this series the author shifts the point of view every couple of pages so you hear about 30 people’s point of view in all. The reader sees how everybody from the main hero to the his lonely friend, to the evil force called the gaiaphage and everyone in between.
I also loved how the author changed how the audience perceived Caine throughout the course of the books. He had started off as the main antagonist, a ruthless, charismatic, evil sociopath. Although these qualities still applied to him, you start to see how he does have some feelings, like his odd love for Diana and their relationship. What really changed my perspective of him is the two letters he left before he died, one for the public and one for Diana.
“...the rest of what happened was on me. Me, Caine Soren. You’ll probably be hearing a lot of crazy stories from kids. But what they didn’t know was that is was all me. Me. Me me. See I had a power I never told anybody about. I had the power to make people do bad things. Crimes and whatnot. Especially Diana, who never did anything wrong on her own or by her own will, I mean. She-and the rest of them-were under my control. The responsibility is on me. I confess. Haul me away officers.
Caine Soren
King of the FAYZ” (pg 400, Grant)
This was eye opening to me. Caine said this utter lie that would tarnish his name forever so that Sam or anybody else would not get the blame for everything that happened. It also reflects his personality, wanting to be known as the most ruthless kid around, and now he will live in infamy, with only the people in the FAYZ knowing the truth. The letter that Caine left for Diana was also very touching. He said that he loved her and he was sorry for ever hurting her.
I would absolutely recommend this book and this series to everybody, especially those who enjoy science fiction. Some may be uncomfortable because the blood and gore does get graphic at times. This series is a fantastic one that makes you want to keep reading. Michael Grant was great at constructing character that the reader can relate with and sympathize with so you will be hooked from the beginning.
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ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteGary Taubes is without a doubt a controversial author, made so by his outspoken views on holistic nutrition and the once seemingly simple science of why we get so fat. Why We Get Fat and What to Do About it describes in full detail these views and the history/science to back it up in a relatively easy to understand fashion. Taubes explains the overestimated and over advertised benefits of eating less and exercising more, discusses the role of genetics and people’s predisposition to become overweight, and debunks the over simplistic explanation of “calories in relative to calories out” that is preached by nearly every certified dietitian/nutritionist/doctor etc. in western medicine while backing his argument with evidence. Additionally, he recalls the path western medicine has taken in the past fifty years in order to reach to point of vilification of dietary fat, explains what actually makes us fat, and finally explains just what we can do to prevent, halt or reverse the seemingly inescapable reality that is weight gain that seems to plague the minds and bodies of western culture.
ReplyDeleteSo fat. Its a damn ugly word isn’t it? In today’s culture, body fat is considered so incredibly disdainful that we now have teenagers, and even 10-12 year olds starving themselves to death because either the media tells them (directly or indirectly) that this is what they are supposed to do, or because they fear the “epidemic” that is so increasingly prevalent, despite said social requisites. The thing is that there’s a lot more to body fat that looking sexy or not, we all know that. The real issue is the side effects of becoming overweight which are most commonly referred to as the metabolic syndrome, and it includes obesity, high blood pressure, diabetes, and of course, heart disease. Without the reality of these metabolic perils, I think that a lot more people would be comfortable with having “a little extra”. Now, heart disease is the single greatest killer of human beings in western society and its occurrence has steadily increased in the last fifty years , regardless of the change in dietary recommendations. We’ve all been taught that eating fatty foods, natural or not, will lead to an increase in blood cholesterol and therefore increase our chances of heart disease, but when one looks deeper into the science, they realize that there is so much more to it than, “too much cholesterol can clog your arteries and increase your risk of heart disease”, a phrase that is recurrent in AHA and USDA ads.
The reality is, more recent science shows that, contrary to the original advice, not all cholesterol is bad for you and some is actually great for you. The even more recent research shows that not even all “bad” cholesterol is inherently bad and may actually be good for you as well. We know this as HDL and LDL, and LDL actually comes in two forms, normal, big and fluffy LDL, and small, dense LDL. “The small and dense LDL particles appear to be the [harmful] ones to avoid… The large, buoyant LDL particles appear to be harmless.” (Taubes 193) Both HDL and LDL are not actually cholesterol, but cholesterol carriers and the profiles of our blood HDL:LDL ratios are reliant mostly on diet. The fact that fatty food does in fact raise cholesterol has been the primary argument against the theories of people like Taubes that carbohydrate is more fattening than fat and should be limited in most people’s diet. But what if high cholesterol isn’t bad (gasp!)? So if we are supposed to eat according to how the government tells us we’re supposed to eat (high carbohydrate, low fat), and this helps us to lower our cholesterol, how does this benefit us in any way besides giving us some extra padding, and therefore undoubtedly increasing our risk of cardiac events (assuming Taubes is correct in his theories). Well it appears that “carbohydrate rich diets not only lower HDL and raise triglycerides, they also make LDL small and dense.” (Taubes 193) Accordingly, when we restrict starch and sugar, “HDL goes up, triglycerides go down, and the LDL in the circulation becomes larger and fluffier.”(Taubes 194). Huh. Interesting. Taubes is not an actual scientist, but he sites all of his information from trustworthy studies and sources, so, although I don’t believe that an elimination of carbohydrate in the diet is necessary for those who have no conditions, I think that this shows that for most people, a restriction of dense carbohydrate sources and an allowance for some butter in your frypan is both a good idea for one’s aesthetic, as well as their internal well being
ReplyDeleteThis book is a great read as it is easy to understand and, whether or not you buy the arguments made in it, it really makes you think with a different perspective. In my opinion, those who have or are related to people who have had health issues or troubles maintaining a healthy body composition would find this book intriguing and maybe even useful. My only complaint is that Taubes, like I’d guess most other “gurus” out there are like, seems to preach his views as the one and only word of God and nothing else is valid. I would have liked to see side by side the arguments made in this book and an explanation for the numerous individuals who lead healthy and happy lives on, say, vegetarian or vegan diet/lifestyles which are usually primarily “carbs”.
Ashley Groesbeck
ReplyDeleteIn the book Life of Pi is a fictional story written by Yann Martel, the narrator has traveled from Canada to India where he meets an old man named Francis Adirubasamy. Francis offers to tell him a story about Pi Patel that will give him faith in God. The point of view is switched to Pi Patel who looks back on his earlier life and tells his story. He explains how Francis Adirubasamy was a business associate of his father’s as well as a competitive swimming champion who taught him how to swim. Pi acquired his unusual name from the Piscine Molitor which was a Parisian swimming club with two pools that Adirubasamy frequently used. Pi’s father used to run the Pondicherry Zoo and he taught Pi and his brother Ravi about the dangers of wild animals though a traumatizing experience of feeding a live goat to a tiger. Pi was brought up as a Hindu but he discovers Christianity and then later discovers Islam and he practices all three religions. Pi and his family sail on a cargo ship to move to Canada along with many caged zoo animals. While they are sailing there is a storm and the ship begins to sink, there is an explosive noise and everyone is running to safety. Pi ends up on a lifeboat with an orangutan, a hyena, a zebra, and a lion named Richard Parker, in the middle of the ocean. The zebra and the orangutan are killed by the hyena and then the tiger comes out of hiding from the bottom of the lifeboat and kills the hyena. Alone at sea with a tiger, Pi is in a very difficult situation with the absence of his family, the only thing he has is his will to survive. Pi lives off of the emergency rations in the lifeboat, filtered seawater and the fish that he catches. He does not only provide for himself, but for Richard Parker, the lion, who he is very frightened of but tries to tame in order to stay alive. Life at sea is dangerous and Pi becomes dehydrated as well as hungry. He meets a blind person at sea who tries to attack Pi in order to eat him because he is starving but Richard parker kills the man. The lion and Pi discover an island which they explore. While on the island, Pi finds many, many meerkats who live on the island. One night on the island Pi finds human teeth in the fruit of a tree and he thinks that the island eats people so he feels the need to set back out to sea. Finally, they come to the shore of a Mexican beach and Richard Parker runs off into the forest as Pi is taken to the hospital by some people on the beach. Pi is later interviewed about his story but the interviewer is skeptical. So, Pi replaces the animals as humans; the orangutan is his mother, the hyena is a mean cook, and the zebra is a sailor. They find the revised story more acceptable and they congratulate Pi for surviving his journey with a tiger.
At the end of the story I was intrigued by the relationship between Pi and the tiger, Richard Parker. I thought that an important theme throughout the book was friendship. An unbelievable and unlikely friendship was formed between Pi and the tiger he was at sea with. While Pi was on the lifeboat, he could have eaten all of the emergency rations and fish himself but he chose to also provide for the tiger, keeping them both alive. The tiger later repaid Pi by killing the blind man at sea who tried to attack Pi. Both, Pi and the lion have saved each other lives throughout the story. In chapter 57 Pi says, “Without Richard Parker, I wouldn’t be alive today to tell you my story.” which shows how much Pi appreciates Richard Parker. Pi also says “I’ve never forgotten him. Dare I say I miss him? I do. I miss him. I still see him in my dreams. They are nightmares mostly, but nightmares tinged with love. Such is the strangeness of the human heat. I still cannot understand how he could abandon me so unceremoniously, without any sort of goodbye, without looking back even one. The pain is like and axe that chops my heart.” The friendship of Pi and the lion is demonstrated by how much Pi misses Richard Parker.
Continued
ReplyDeleteWhen Pi lost his family and the other three animals on the lifeboat died, the lion was the only one Pi had left. Their relationship formed over being stranded together for such a long time and with their common goal of survival. Trust was gained by each other as they both proved to save each other’s lives. The friendship of Richard Parker and Pi contradicts the lesson Pi’s father attempted to teach him in the beginning of the story by feeding the live goat to the lion.
I really enjoyed reading this book and I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys reading fiction books. The Life of Pi is an amazing story that is unbelievable and seams unrealistic but it is still a great story with good morals. In the beginning of the book, it was a little confusing when the author switched the narrators because different characters are telling the story. I did like how the majority of the story was told from Pi’s point of view because it made the story easier to understand as well as making the story seam more personal coming from Pi himself. The ending of the story was also difficult to understand because although Pi changed the story for the interviewers, his original story was the truth. I did not like how Pi never saw Richard Parker again after they got the Mexican beach because it made the ending sad.