Solemn Faces

I just started re-reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak, after reading it in 5th grade and not really understanding it. So far, Liesel and her brother, who just died, are on the train to Munich where they're being adopted by foster parents. Liesel is sad because of her brother dying, and the discrimination because of Religion. 

The mood of the book so far is just an overall glum grey fog. Obviously, after Liesel's brother dies she has every right to be sad, and was expected to be sad anyway. The snow doesn't engulf the town and make it glimmer, it just makes it cold and sad. "Somewhere in the snow she could see her broken heart, in two pieces. ... She was being dragged away. A warm scream filled her throat." I think this very accurately portrays exactly how Liesel and the rest of Munich must feel because of the oppressing and depressing rule of the Nazis over Germany. I think that with Hitler being the Führer, all of the people opposed to him were just sad, which made someone like Liesel, being Jewish, sad. I think this is why Liesel sees the world as cold and dark and sad, and isn't very saddened by seeing her brother die. I find Liesel to be in a sort of trance where she's just sad and is ready to accept more sadness to come. I think Hitler is the direct cause of this and though he hasn't been formally introduced in the book, because Liesel stated the time period as 1939 and that she's in Germany I can tell that Hitler is the Führer, and is clearly making Liesel pessimistic and see the world as a cold dark place where nothing matters. 

I think in the real world this oppression still exists religiously. While there isn't severe persecution of one certain religion people still can look down upon one thinking that it's wrong or immoral. Even just being forced by a parent to believe something would be oppression, and this is still all nothing compared to Hitler hating one religion enough to attempt to kill them all. I think that The Book Thief is Historical Fiction although Liesel Meminger didn't exist (I think) but the time period and everything about Hitler and the Holocaust are true, but still relates to our world so much because these problems are still existent and still happen. 

Ed is the Hope

I'm almost done reading I am The Messenger by Marcus Zusak. The protagonist, Ed Kennedy, is a 19 year old cabdriver, who gets playing cards (specifically aces) in the mail giving him missions, through riddles. It becomes very clear that all of these missions are to make people happy, or make their lives better.

I think that Ed is the symbol of hope, because everything he does makes families and people so happy, and give them hope and faith in other people and humanity. Ed starts off by not caring about anyone or anything, being perfectly happy with his life as terrible as it was. After the first ace Ed doesn't care at all, I think that was because he just didn't want to do anything or have to care about someone else. The first ace forced him to see the social injustices in his world, and made him aware of what other people have to deal with on a daily basis. He sees a woman repeatedly raped, a lonely old woman, and a girl named Sophie trying to achieve her dreams facing poverty. I think he helped the old woman because he felt bad from his own family issues with his mother that he just wanted to help, and after feeling like he had a really caring mother, found he had actually made a difference to the woman, Milla. I think after this Ed felt like he might be worth something. Sophie wanted to be an athlete, specifically in track and field, and Ed saw that she thought she wasn't good enough because of her junky running shoes, so he gave her an empty box, after seeing her run barefoot in the morning. I thought this was such a great gift, because he knew that she really didn't need fancy expensive shoes to make her a great athlete, and this made me really happy seeing Ed make an actual difference in Sophie's life, even after she doesn't win the race while barefoot. When Ed finally returns to the abusive husband and almost kills him, he realizes that he isn't some prophet, or some great man going out to save humanity and bring hope. He think he's just as worthless again, and I really disagreed with him. I thought that Ed was really noble, after letting the man live, but scaring him out of the town. After the first ace I really saw Ed grow as a character, into what I saw as a symbol of hope. He was finally seeing his purpose, though he kept on driving his cab, and took this as a great opportunity to go ahead and take action against the social injustices he was seeing in the world around him.

In my life, to make a positive change, I've done charity work. My friend Akash started a charity called Kids For a Better Future several years ago, and I've repeatedly volunteered for that over and over. Last year we sponsored Seeds of Peace, which helps children living in the Middle East. Through fundraising I was not given an actual mission or an actual problem, but I was given the problems in the Middle East, and by fundraising, raised several thousand dollars for Seeds of Peace, and gave a little push towards helping resolve those conflicts, without having a specific direct conflict to resolve, but just to spread hope and make little things better like Ed did.

http://www.seedsofpeace.org

Shouldn't They Be Sad?

In Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles, two children living in the south adventure through town on a summer day as civil rights begin to stir and change everything. I noticed that this inequality of race doesn't really make anyone sad which confused me.

John Henry isn't allowed in the general store. He doesn't seem to mind standing outside while Joe goes in to get Ice Pops for them. I wonder if because life has always been like this for John Henry and his family that he doesn't think of life any other way. He doesn't want to stand up for his rights, and he doesn't want to make a big scene trying to change everything. He's fine with Joe going into the store and he doesn't get upset over it. Joe doesn't think much of his friend having to stand outside, it's almost tradition. Later on when Joe and John Henry see the pool as it closes, John Henry makes a transition from apathy to action, as he later goes in the general store with Joe to show that he isn't afraid, and won't have his opportunities denied because of his race.

I think that John Henry doesn't care at the beginning of the book because he doesn't realize how unfair segregation is. If he was an adult wandering through the town on his own he would see how intense the segregation was and how unfair it really was. I'm sure John Henry's mother tells him some things about how it isn't fair for them but I'm sure he doesn't know a lot of things and because of this he isn't so frustrated by this until the pool closes. The pool closing is an emotional climax for John Henry because he really wanted to swim in the pool and forget about the unfairness in the south and be just like Joe. He wanted to do everything Joe could do, with Joe, but because of the racial segregation John Henry cannot, and is upset by this. I think John Henry wants revenge, in a mild way. He wants to stand up for his rights and get revenge by swimming in that pool or going into the general store with Joe. When the pool closes, John Henry obviously can't swim in it now and I felt like that motivated him to go into the general store.

I've not been allowed to do certain things but not because of race, only because of age. For example, I can't drive. This is nowhere near not being able to swim in a pool or go into a store but it's something that eventually I can do. John Henry would not be able to one day swim in that pool. John Henry wouldn't just be able to go into the general store one day. This is his life and how it will always be whereas I, as I grow older, will have even more opportunities.

Too Easy to Trust

In "PLEASE KILL ME" by Legs McNeil and Gillian McCain I realized that everyone is very loose about trust. I found it very interesting how easy it was for the Ramones to form because of the time period and how easy it was for them to just trust anyone. For the most part they had met in clubs and such and even on the street. Nowadays people are more scared to start talking to just anyone on the street.

Joey and Johnny met so calmly just on the street and around the neighborhood, and ended up meeting Dee Dee at CBGB's. It's really interesting how something like doing drugs ended up bringing these guys together and they ended up being so close. I think that them being so calm and mellow from all of the drugs allowed them to just be nice and friendly, and made it super easy for all of them to become such close friends. I think that if they had met, sober, and showing their true selves they might not've clicked, and really began to like one another. From other parts in the book I've seen that they aren't all the nicest people in the world most of the time. I think they found it so easy to trust because they all weren't thinking straight and just decided that they all liked the same style of music and they formed a band.

Last spring I was in Central Park with one of my friends and met a street artist named Sara. We were able to all just trust hoping that we could have faith in humanity and assume only the best. In a time like now people don't exactly stop and talk to strangers on the street or in the park but random things like this happen where people randomly connect. I think this is what happened with The Ramones and what happened with Sara and I. While they ended up forming a band and becoming famous, she painted my skateboard and we wandered through Williamsburg meeting artists. Both groups met over art, one form or another, and decided to just trust and become friends, both with positive outcomes.

All The Laughter, and All That Money

"All the laughter drained out of Dicey, like all that money draining out of her checking account."
-Seventeen Against the Dealer, Cynthia Voigt

Dicey was robbed in the night, and all of incredibly well made tools were stolen, and some paint cans were knocked over. After this I began to notice that Dicey was acting like she had been drained of all life and happiness she'd ever had. This is a little before the quote. After the quote, in the new chapter, Dicey is just lost, and I was trying to track her mood going up and down. Nothing about anything she did seemed to change, and I thought that she was just so traumatized by being robbed that she was almost a robot, that she was just so dead to the world. After that I started watching the other characters and how she interacted with them was so sad. Everything she said seemed like it would've been said in a monotone voice with a sad blank face.

I thought after this that Dicey might be worried about being robbed again, now having a gaping hole in her shop's door. After I proved this to be wrong I realized she's worried about her mental and physical safety, not her financial safety. Everyone around her, especially Gram seems to worry about her mental state because she's become slow and inattentive and stopped caring about her business. I think the quote just shows what being robbed can do to a person mentally. She was laughing it away with Cisco at the hardware store as she buys new tools but deep down she's standing there dying inside. I think if one more slight accident happened at home or at her shop she would have a few dollars left in her checking account and she would probably not be able to handle it mentally.

I'm aware these things happen in the real world because you see this happening on the train and on the street everyday in NYC or you hear about it on the news. I don't personally know anyone who's been burglarized like this, and had it affect them so strongly but I can imagine it would. Being someone who has 9 cameras displayed in my room, I can easily imagine what it would be like to have them stolen, just like how Dicey must've felt when she had her tools stolen, knowing how sentimental they were to her. I see in the book how Dicey is mentally destroyed, and I can really see how I would be too, and how hard it is for her to get over it.

Reading Response 10/1/12 - Am I Blue?

Am I Blue? Bruce Coville


Vincent is unsure of his sexuality but deep down he knows he's gay, but won't admit it until Melvin shows him. I think he knows he is but he doesn't want to be labeled as anything, and because Butch Carraigan is already physically abusing him he doesn't want to create any more trouble for himself because he doesn't want more attention from others who might join Butch and hurt him also.
Vincent began acting gay when Melvin, his fairy godfather appears and talks about how they're the same, and Vincent says that he finds Melvin pretty. Vincent doesn't want anybody else paying any attention to him and doesn't want any help from Melvin, thinking it will cause more trouble with Butch and others who might attack him. Vincent doesn't want any attention called to him and Melvin and asks him why he walks like that, because he finds it odd, because he would call himself straight. Vincent is really just in denial and doesn't want anybody to try and bring him in, explaining why when Melvin calls him "honey" he rejects it and gets upset. Vincent later looks at another man and calls him "nice-looking", again proving he's really just in denial.

When Melvin explains how he got there, and that he's gay, Vincent asked if that meant he's gay. This annoyed me because I thought that Vincent could decide for himself and didn't need anybody there to tell him that one thing means another and decide his sexuality for him. After that Vincent even says "I had been trying to figure out the same thing myself for about a year now", which lead me to think that maybe Vincent did try to figure out for himself but he was so confused that he gave up and is now accepting help from others.

Later, every time Melvin refers to gays as "us" or "we", Vincent gets angry and tells him to speak for himself. When Melvin starts telling Vincent about gay fantasies he gets nervous because he doesn't really want to learn more about something that he's still in denial of, and still confused about. Vincent seems appalled when Melvin says he wishes all gay people in the country would turn blue so everyone would stop pretending they didn't know any gays. I don't get why Vincent is confused when he turns a little blue after he wishes for all gays to turn blue. He says that he was a little blue and this is when he changes as a character. I think this changes Vincent as a character because he finally has proof right there in front of his own eyes and can now fully accept his sexuality and can begin to cope with this and rebuild himself as a new person. This really is the real world because knowing there are gay people in the world, unless they all just woke up one day and decided their sexuality they must've been in denial and this is what Vincent is doing in the story.

Reading Response 9/23/12

The Drummer Boy of Shiloh, Ray Bradbury

How does the main character relate to the internal conflict?

The internal conflict is that Joby doesn't feel ready to fight, because he feels young, so he lays there and thinks about the battle and the soldiers, but he's afraid to fight, I think, because the general tells him about death in war Joby is afraid because he knows too much about what really happens. I think Joby would be better off not knowing as much as he does, and living in ignorance, because only then would he be able to go and fight, but knowing what will most likely happen, he won't fight, and this causes the conflict. Like when the general tells him that men actually die in war. This affects Joby because it makes him have an epiphany about life, and spontaneous death in war. 
Joby isn't the conflict, but the conflict is in him because he created it by deciding he was afraid to fight. He could've told himself he wasn't afraid, went, and fought, but he didn't, he created the conflict and told himself he was afraid. Joby doesn't fix his own conflict, but has others fix it for him (in this case, the general) and in this the internal conflict is resolved.
The main character relates to the internal conflict like they are brothers, in which they're very similar, and they complete each other even if it might not change the other for the better. The internal conflict is part of Joby, the part of him that shows fear, it's his brain saying "no" and Joby's conflict is how to get around this.

Reading Response 9/18/12

How does the main character relate to the internal conflict?

The main character, James, is creating the internal conflict inside of himself by overcomplicating things between him and Sammy. Both James and Sammy partially want to learn more about their dad but neither of them are willing to go as far as they may need to go to actually learn something about him. I think the whole search really is pointless and is destroying their relationship, they have to work much much harder than they're willing to if they want to accomplish anything, they're really just trying a little bit, but unless they try a whole lot harder they'll never really learn anything. So far all they've learned is that they can't work together and I think that if they actually applied themselves to their conflict, maybe it would actually resolve, but because they're both so stubborn and they're so unalike. I really do think they should just stop, because all of the people that they've talked to about their father just tells them how horrible he is, and the more they learn, I think the more they want to stop, but they've come far enough that they don't want to stop, because they could keep searching and find everything they ever wanted to know, maybe more. I really think they can't possibly figure anything more out because they're just going to talk to more people who have horrible stories about their father. James is the conflict as he causes it to grow and develop as he pushes it to progress into his life where he the main character is the problem, and Sammy and Robin and others are little problems that just revolve around the main problem, James.

Summer Reading Response

        Over the summer I read Night Work by Thomas Glavinic. One of the main features was symbolism. Everything Jonas does throughout the story can be looked at in a different way and using that you can really go deeper into everything he does, and thinks. The most important one was a pebble in the last scene. He's standing on a cliff and he kicks a pebble off, and he knows he'll never be able to find Maria and he should just give up, and I think that the pebble he kicked off symbolized his old life. He threw it away and it fell down the cliff and yes, he could've gone back and looked for it but no matter how long he searched he would never be able to find the pebble, similarly to how he lost his old life as he searched for Maria, and he knows he can never get his old life, one, because everyone is dead (including Maria) and two, he destroyed everything he has to search for her. I wish he hadn't wasted his life searching for her because he could've attempted to enjoy himself with all the free stuff he could ever want but initially he was trapped. He could drive wherever but other than that he felt that everything was futile, and I still believe he could've done more than to kick his life and the pebble off the cliff. I think the only right decision he made was stepping off the cliff after the pebble, knowing he had nothing to live for.