Book club reading repsonse: "The Lovely Bones" by Alice Sebold

In the book The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, there is a very major theme of loss, as nearly every single important character in the book loses something valuable to them, physical or otherwise. But the book isn't just about losing things, it is more about how loss can change us, and the affects it can have on our lives.

The most obvious loss is Susie Salmon's. She not only loses her body when Mr. Harvey kills her, but her friends, her family, and her life on Earth as well. This changes Susie by sending her to her heaven, but also by forcing her to move on. At first all Susie does is miss her family, until she realizes that she can watch them from heaven. As the book goes on and Susie watches her family and friends move on, she does, too. Near the very end of the book, Susie reflects back on what has happened over the past few years: "These were the lovely bones that had grown around my absence: the connections--sometimes tenuous, sometimes made at great cost, but often magnificent--that happened after I was gone. And I began to see things in a way that let me hold the world without me in it. The events that my death wrought were merely the bones of a body that would become whole....The price of what I came to see as this miraculous body had been my life." This quote explains exactly how Susie eventually deals with the loss of her body, and life. She accepts that although she is dead, the people she loves have moved on and that she has, too. She sees the things that happened after her death not with resentment or jealousy that those are things she is no longer a part of, but she sees them as more of a trade; she died, and in return these great things on Earth continue to happen.

Susie's family deals with losing Susie each in their own ways. The mother Abigail Salmon first struggles, and has to leave her family for a while until her husband has a heat attack. This makes her accept that Susie is gone and the family needs her. Jack Salmon at first focuses on trying to catch Mr. Harvey and accuses him of killing Susie. After Abigail leaves, losing her jolts him back to reality and he moves on, too. He starts caring for Lindsey and Buckley, his children. Even Mr. Harvey has to deal with loss. When his mother dies, it gives him certain ideas about how to live his life, but it also leaves him mourning for the rest of his life. Mr. Harvey was unable to move on in the same way that Susie and the rest of the Salmon's did.

All of this shows how Alice Sebold conveyed her theme of loss, and getting past it, in her book The Lovely Bones. Susie, the Salmon's, and their friends are able to get through everything and eventually to move on, and they are portrayed as the "good" characters. Mr. Harvey, on the other hand, doesn't move on as they do, and he is also the villain of the book. That just adds to Sebold making moving on seem more as a good thing, as something that should be done. She also effectively describes how hard getting past a major loss, such as the death of a family member or close friend, can be.

Non-fiction Reading Response

The article "Edward Snowden: Traitor or Hero?" from a February issue of upfront magazine is about the argument over Edward Snowden. Some people think he is a criminal for releasing classified documents, but others think he did the right thing and shouldn't be punished. The article starts off by explaining exactly what Snowden discovered about surveillance programs in the US, and how they were tracking things such as American citizens' phone calls.

The author of this article, Patricia Smith, offers a fairly balanced view on the issue. After explaining how Snowden was able to meet up with reporters and leak the documents, Smith goes on to explain the governments response to the leaked documents, and uses quotes from President Obama, and the Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, and cites the Fourth Amendment which prohibits "unreasonable searches and seizures". That quote from the Fourth is meant to be against the NSA's collection of data, and for Edward Snowden by saying the government had no right to be monitoring phone calls like that.

This article has made me think  much more about what is actually private for citizens of the US and what really isn't. Turns out that what we thought was private, like out cell phones calls, weren't. Also, now that I've read this article and thought about Edward Snowden, I think that although what he did was illegal, its good that he leaked those documents. If he hadn't, the surveillance might still be going on and fewer people would know.

revised reading response

"Alice in Wonderland" by Lewis Carroll

Imagine what would happen if you grew really tall overnight, and all your friends run away at school because of how tall you look. That's pretty much what happens to Alice, and throughout the book, other characters judge her based mostly on her physical appearance, mostly her size.

One of several examples in Alice in Wonderland of Alice's judgment by appearance is when Alice takes a bite of a certain half of the Caterpillar's mushroom. That bite causes her to grow a very long neck, so that her head is above the trees. While she's up there, a Pigeon attacks her, thinking she's a "serpent " and trying to eat its eggs. Why does the Pigeon think this? Because Alice has such a long neck, and is above the treetops. The Pigeon judges Alice by what it can see of how Alice looks, and decides that she is a serpent. This confuses Alice, and she wonders if she might really be a serpent, because she does have a very long neck. Because of the Pigeon's judgment, Alice gets confused about her own identity, although she figures out that's she's just Alice and not a serpent.That's just one example of how Alice is judged throughout the book based on her appearance.

While sitting in the King's court, Alice begins to grow again. Without meaning to, she knocks over furniture and some of the creatures gathered there to see the trial. The King doesn't seem to particularly like Alice, and he reads from his rulebook that anyone a mile high must leave the courtroom. Because Alice is pretty tall by that point, the King assumes she is a mile high, and demands that she leave the court. Alice defends herself against the King's demands, and claims that she isn't a mile high. (She isn't.) The King assumes that if Alice is tall, then she must be a mile tall, so he judged her on her height and tries to get her thrown out of the court because of it. That's a second example of how Alice is judged on her appearance, especially her size.

 Most of the times Alice gets judged, it is a negative judgment. Sometimes there are positive effects of being judged by appearance, but not usually. It's just like that saying, "don't judge a book by its cover". Don't judge people just on the way they look, either, because you never really know what the other person is going through. Just because a person wears glasses doesn't mean they're smart, just because a person is fashionable doesn't men they're vain. And there's so many more. Imagine you saw a person with a bright blue nose. Think how much that person would have to go through, being constantly judged for their appearance when it might be something they can't even control. Judgment like this is one of those issues that most people are aware of, even though they simply ignore them. It ties in neatly with stereotypes and bullying, and just like them it needs to be stopped before it can cause any more damage.

How do characters' perspectives of other characters change throughout a book?

SPOILER ALERT



The book "A Murder is Announced" by Agatha Christie is, (duh) a murder mystery in which the first murder is written up in the classified section of the local paper: "A murder is announced, and will take place on Friday, October 19th, at Little Paddocks. Friends please accept this, the only intimation." For most of the book that I have read so far, the main character is Chief Inspector Craddock. He is trying to figure out why Rudi Scherz not only put the ad in the paper, but then showed up a Little Paddocks with a gun and (seemingly) attempted to shoot Ms. Letita Blacklock before shooting himself in the head. As Craddock is the main character so far, we the readers get to read what he's thinking, and to know his impressions of other characters and how those impressions change as he learns more about the different characters. As far as Craddock goes, he really judges other people by pretty much anything.

One character of whom Craddock gets the wrong impression of is Miss Marple. At first, he believes her to be an old lady who is "completely ga-ga". In other words, dumb/crazy. However, once Miss Marple makes several intelligent suggestions and gives Craddock a theory with a motive for the attempted murder, he changes his opinion completely and thinks "She was sharp, after all." This is an example of how Chief Inspector Craddock completely misjudged Miss Marple, because she appeared to be a simple old lady and started of their conversation by being flustered at meeting the Chief Inspector. However, once Miss Marple shows that she actually is intelligent and not quite the average old lady, Craddock completely forgets his earlier opinions.

Phillipa Haymes, a young widow who stays/works at Little Paddocks and has a job at another place too, at first doesn't seem like anyone very important to Inspector Craddock. Mitzi, Ms. Blacklock's foreign chef, however, seems not only crazy but suspiciously so. When Craddock questions her about the murder, she gets defensive and mean, yelling at him that's she didn't do anything. Craddock also dislikes and mistrusts her because she's a foreigner, and speaks English with a very heavy accent and not really the best grammar. So when Mitzi tells Craddock a story about Phillipa Haymes, he at first does not believe it one bit. That is, until he questions Phillipa Haymes some more. Because he's thinking about Mitzi's story, he finds pretty much everything Phillipa has to say suspicious. When its revealed that Ms. Blacklock's will leaves quite a bit of money to Phillipa, Craddock finds her to be even more suspicious, and he believes Mitzi to not be as crazy as he originally thought. So as Phillipa Haymes became more suspicious in the Chief Inspector's mind, Mitzi goes from seeming crazy to credible.

Chief Inspector Craddock is a very intelligent man, and it seems like he's the one to solve the murder at the start of the book. However, Craddock has a flaw, and that is he really judges the other characters, sometimes quite wrongly. This flaw affects the way the reader sees the characters, because as Craddock learns new information so do we. As Craddock judges the people in the book by what they say, how they look, what others say about them, etc. his perspective of the character's changes, and so does the reader's.

"Alice in Wonderland" reading response

(So far I am mostly done with Alice in Wonderland,  but not into Through the Looking Glass, although they are out together in one book.)

Imagine, for a moment, that you grew overnight, and when you came back to school so much taller, all your friends ran away,  scared of your height. That's pretty much what happens to Alice in Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll, and is an example of one of the several social issues found in the book. This judgment based only on appearance, and is actually a pretty big problem.

One example from Alice of judgment by appearance is when Alice takes a bite of the Caterpillar's mushroom that causes her to grow a very long neck, so that her head is above the trees. While she's up there, a Pigeon attacks her, thinking she's a "serpent " and trying to eat it's eggs. Why does the Pigeon think this? Because Alice has a long neck. The Pigeon judges Alice by the way she looks, and decides that she is a serpent. Alice then gets confused for a bit, wondering if she actually is a serpent, as she does have a very long neck. Because of the Pigeon's judgment, Alice gets confused about her own identity. That's just one example of how Alice is judged throughout the book based on her appearance (and size).

Another time when Alice gets judged by her appearance is a lot closer to the end of the book. While sitting in the King's court, Alice begins to grow again. Without meaning to, she knocks over furniture and some of the creatures gathered there to see the case that's in trial. The King doesn't really seem to like Alice, and he reads from his rulebook that anyone a mile high must leave the courtroom. Because Alice is pretty tall by that point, the King assumes she is a mile high, and demands that she leave the court. Alice defends herself against the King's demands, and claims that she isn't a mile high. (I haven't read enough to know whether Alice actually leaves the courtroom, or if she stays.) The King assumes that if Alice is tall, then she must be a mile tall, so he judged her on her height and tries to get her thrown out of the court because of it.

Most of the times Alice gets judged, its a negative judgment. Sometimes there are positive effects of being judge by appearances, but not usually. It's just like that saying, "don't judge a book by its cover". Don't judge people just on the way they look, either, because you never really know what the other person is going through.

Monday Musings

To this day, whenever I try to read "Big Sister and Little Sister" (by Charlotte Zolotow) I cannot get through the whole book without breaking down, crying. I am not exactly the crying type. Thanks to three older siblings, I have a pretty good tolerance to physical pain, and I'm pretty good at not crying even when I feel like I want to. However, this book is definitely the exception. If we tried to read this in class, I would die, and it'd got like this: Ms. Galang reads the book out loud, students are either taking notes or trying to make it look like they're taking notes. Suddenly there's me! And I'm running out of the door, sobbing! Yeah, not a pretty sight.

Anyway, this book really means many things to me. As I do have an older sister, I can really relate to this book, and yet there are quite a few times when I really don't. When I was a bit littler, or at least before my older sister became a teenager, there were times when the events in this book really seemed to take place. Although my sister, (Re)Becca, was always bossing me around, it was because she was looking out for me. She'd hold my hand as we crossed the street, she'd help me find my classroom and introduce me to my teachers (and flip out when she couldn't figure where I'd gone), she'd teach me how to manage my time best while doing homework. Then as she got to about twelve, she became a teenager. I know, that shouldn't work--how can a twelve-year-old be a teenager? By acting just like one, of course. And that's what she did. Becca began chewing gum, playing more softball, getting more exclusive with her friends, and bossing me around--but this time without that whole bit of "looking out for me".

That's when I started to relate less to the book. The story's idea that the sisters are looking out for each other was nearly gone. Becca was no longer that caring or supportive of me, and yet I would still try and be nice to her, to be that little sister.

Why I even tried, I guess we'll never know.

Well, now that I'm reading what I just wrote, it's wrong. I tried because Becca was so nice to me, before, and now I was trying to be nice in return.

Now, things are a bit better. When I was littler, like many little sisters, I'd try to copy my older sister. But once I quit doing that and found ways to be me, ways to be different from the rest of my family, Becca sees me differently. Now, it's less like I'm her pestering little sister, and more like that friend who is just younger but still pretty cool. Or at least that's how it seems like, to me. She includes me more with her friend, asks me more about what she should wear (I am the more fashionable one, of course *insert winky-face emoji here*) , and asks about that new band her friends are talking about, generally I heard of them at least a week ago *another winky-face, please!*.

And yet, there are times where I'll take a step back and realize, we're back at the beginning, looking out for each other. And other times, I really just want to punch her. But I know if I had actually done that even once, I wouldn't be here to write about it.

Anyway, those are my thoughts on "Big Sister and Little Sister", by Charlotte Zolotow.

argument essay draft

Every now amd then, a few adults get it into their heads that some of the books that kids/teens are reading aren’t appropriate for kids to be reading, and so they try to ban these books. As young adult, or YA books have become more popular, more and more people are trying to ban more and more books. One of these challenged books is “Animal Farm” by George Orwell, which I have recently read.

Many articles have been published on the topic of book banning. Jen Doll wrote an article for the Atlantic Wire called “the Banned Books We Have Loved”. Among other things she talks about in the article, Doll lists several of the books that have been banned and writes the lessons that can be learned from reading these books. For example, from the book “Bridge to Terabithia”, Doll says “…we learned the importance of friendships and being open to those that might not seem ‘appropriate.’ We learned that death can be sudden and unexpected, and terribly tragic—but that we owe it to ourselves, and those we've loved, to go on. We learned that boys and girls can be friends. We learned to love deeply and protect our imaginations, and to respect and care for our friends and family”. Using “Bridge to Terabithia” by Katherine Paterson as an example, Doll was able to come up with so many lessons that are important and can a have a huge effect on kids’ lives if they know the lessons or not. Doll does the same for several other YA books, then closes the paragraph with the statement “Over and over again, the books worth reading were the banned ones.” Spot on, Ms. Doll.

One of the books on the very long that list of banned and challenged books is “animal Farm”, by George Orwell. The book was banked for containing violence, as well as some other reasons. An example of violence in the book is when the humans come back to animal farm and try to take control again. One of them shoots off a gun, and “The pellets scored bloody streaks along Snowball's back, and the sheep dropped dead." Quite a bit of violence in there, eh? And yet, this is a very important point in the book, and without showing that the character Snowball was shot, there would be a slight plot hole.

Another reason the book was banned is because the book basically shows how socialism doesn’t work. The US banned the book because they were afraid of insulting Stalin by publishing it, as Stalin was in power at the time the book was being published.

Despite the violence in the book, Animal Farm has some perks. It teaches kids to fight for what they believe in, as the animals do. They believe that they shouldn’t be under the farmer’s rule, and that they should all be equal. The book says “Man serves the interests of not creature except himself.” This shows what the animals thought, and so they took over the farm and got rid of the men there.

All this shows how books shouldn’t normally be banned, even if they do contain violence. Sometimes it’s better to ban a book then to insult another country and potentially start a war. Seeing as that’s a very specific cause, and a rather unlikely one, books generally shouldn’t be banned.

Childhood

It's about

Growing up

And quite about changing,

Going     all     the      way  

From

Pretty pink dresses

To black skinny jeans

 

From a princess on Halloween,

And a ninja on the next

 

From being so absolutely positive of being a cowgirl when I grow up

To not even knowing

Entirely

who I am now

From every morning,

Complaining and complaining

On and on about hair that went on and on

To cutting it all off,

Once with permission, and again without

 

From braids like Katniss

To bangs like Sara

 

From nothing but pink

To mostly black

 

From pop and back

To emo, then punk

On to the 80's, then forwards to 90's rock

And all the way back to indie

 

From trying to be just like becca

To counting down the days

Until she finally leaves for college

 

From that time when I wore a mustache all day long

Just for the hell of it

To getting really pissed when

I am stereotyped

And get stared at and redirected to the girls' section

When I shop sometimes in the boys'

 

From not caring one whit about school

To always completing the endless studying and projects and homework

That are just oh-so-important for

Everything

Although

It can be awfully hard to tell how,

Sometimes

 

From only having boys as my friends

To getting gossiped about for it

But then deciding the girls aren't really that bad

I happen to be one, after all

 

From being terrified to even cross the street

Being afraid of drains

Because there's an alligator

Living

Down in the sewer, of course
(or is it a crocodile?
Now I can't even remember)

To taking the subway

Alone

Everyday to school



And that's growing up

and Changing

and most things in between

                       For me.

'Beauty Queens' by Libba Bray


What do you first think of when you hear 'beauty queen'? Probably a girl who isn't very smart and is obsessed with her looks, right? Well, that's also what most of the female characters in the book 'Beauty Queens' might seem like at first, but as the plot progresses, it becomes apparent that there's quite a bit more to the girls then that first impression. A theme that occurs rather often in the book is women (and girls) don't have to be stereotypical, nor do they have to be the way other people ('society') wants them to be.

By being contestants for the Miss American Teen Dream pageant, the girls the book focuses around are shown on TV as being very stereotypical beauty Queens. But once their plane crashes on an unfamiliar island, the Miss Teen Dreamers are left to find themselves--as well as food, water, shelter, and as many beauty products as can be salvaged from the wrecked plane.

One of the characters, Petra, used to be a boy. But by changing gender, Petra really becomes herself, and not the way 'society' wants to see people--boys being boyish and girls being girly. At one point in the book, Petra says '' I'd say, I'm too f**king fabulous for one gender". This quote shows how Petra is who she, not he, really is.

And then there's also Nicole, who is the only African American contestant to make it into the Miss Teen Dream pageant. She is constantly being judged at back in her hometown because of her race. " I'd say I'm not a race, I'm an individual". Also, Nicole notices and often thinks about how on many kids TV shows, there's that "black sassy sidekick best friend" to the main character, who is often white, and that this character will have one or two 'sassy' lines, but then just fade into the background. But then when its just the Miss Teen Dreamers working together on the island, Nicole is just treated as an equal to everyone else.

And as a last (but not least important) example, there is Sosie. Sosie is hearing impaired, and a little confused about her sexuality, or at least simply doesn't want a label. She makes a joke at one point about having "majored in straight but with a minor focus in gay". Sosie also says "I'm hearing impaired, not invisible." These are both quotes that show Sosie being herself, and also being tired and annoyed at people stereotyping her.

In conclusion, the book Beauty Queens  by Libba Bray teaches the reader that its important to be yourself, not just the way society 'wants' you to be (especially for women/girls).

The character that its post is about is named Samantha Kingston, and she is from the book 'Before I Fall' by Lauren Oliver. (Due too budget cuts, we had to sell the stage. Sam, we apologize about that, and invite you to step up on this cardboard box and imagine it's a stage.)

So. Samantha. "Sam''. Where to begin? How about a summary of the plot.

'Before I Fall' is about Sam and her clique, Lindsay (she's sort of the ringleader of the group), Elody, and Ally. The book takes place on 12 February, the Friday before valentines day. At the school it's 'Cupid Day', where other kids, mostly freshmen, hand out roses. Its a sign of popularity to have a lot of people buy you flowers. Anyway, Sam and her friend's get through school, go to a party, get drunk, and end up in a car crash in which Sam dies. But wait, if she's dead, how is there a story? Is it told from the afterlife? Well, sort of. It's like Groundhog's Day but with rich 'badass' high school girls doing just about every awful thing they want to.

So Samantha's problem is what to do when that same day, Friday 12 February, happens again. And again. For a whole week.

A quote from the back cover of the book says "Readers will love Samantha best". Its a bit tricky to love someone who' is spending her time smoking, drinking, gossiping, bullying, keeping secrets and telling others', and worrying whether she should actually do it with her boyfriend or what. Or at least that's what she's like in the beginning of the book.

As Samantha repeats her day, she tries different things: chilling with a stoner girl who has many issues, cutting class, breaking up at different times with her boyfriend, kissing some other dude, seducing her maths teacher, getting drunk, overhearing the gym teacher and vice principle kissing and later blackmailing them, and plenty of other awful things.

But then there's one day where she spends it with her family. She takes her little sister for a walk in the woods, the. Goes to dinner with her family like she used to before she got so interested in popularity, etc.

And then on the last day, she finally does everything right. She gets a present to the stoner girl. She stops another girl who her clique had been bullying from committing suicide,. She breaks up with her boyfriend and kisses the one boy she actually loves. And then, at the very end, she dies.

In the very last few paragraphs of the book, once Sam has already died, she says how that last time only the good memories flashed before her eyes, and she notes that that last time it happened, she wasn't afraid. She wasn't afraid because in those last few days (or really day) of her life, she did everything right.

So even though Sam does quite a few awful things in her life, its the good she does that makes us, the reader, love Samantha Kingston best.

This summer, I read the Great Gatsby by F Scott Fitzgerald, partly because I had a copy on hand, had just seen the movie that spring, and because it was on the summer reading list. As I was reading it, I noticed that, in my opinion, the language in the book is nicer than the characters. Especially most of the women characters, who don't really have any character development. For example, I'll invite Daisy Buchannan to the spotlight. Daisy is seen as being attractive, as well as lovable. She also has a certain habit of murmuring instead of speaking clearly, causing the people around her to lean in. Nick Carraway, the narrator, points out that Daisy loves the attention that people give her.

Next, shall we invite the lovely Miss Baker to the stage? She is one of Nick's close friends, and goes with him to Gatsby's party. She seems clever enough, until we find out that she's a 'pathological liar'. Oh, and she cheats at golf. What a wonderful résumé.

Now lets add Myrtle Wilson, Tom Buchannan's very own mistress into the mix. She is described as being unattractive, as well as unladylike. Alright, that's fine. But then when Nick meets Mrs Wilson, he founds out that not only is she already married, she's cheating on her husband Mr Wilson by being Tom's mistress. And then she's also cheating in her own way on Daisy because she knows that Daisy is married already to Tom.

In this book, not only are most of the women characters shallow and not entirely likeable, but the men are, too. Let's take a look at this Tom. Mr Buchannan, please take the spotlight. When Nick goes to dinner at the Buchannans' estate, the talk during dinner is all about some rather racist book that Tom had just read. Tom is generally described as being conceited. Then Tom is very eager to introduce Nick to his mistress Myrtle, so he can boast about how much of a man he is and to make Nick jealous.

And now what about this Nick character anyway? Mr Carraway, the floor is yours. In the very introduction to the book, Nick states that he thinks of himself as having high standards because of his father. Later in the book, Nick says in a conversation that he doesn't like careless people. At the same time, Nick is friends with Gatsby, who careless at times, but has enough money that he can literally 'afford' to be careless.

So, after reading the Great Gatsby, I learned that there can still be a great book, with excellent writing and technique, and a fine story, despite having many not so nice characters.