What He Wanted To Be

I recently finished "The Fault in Our Stars" by John Green, which I found to be possibly the best book I've read all year. (I finished it over a week ago and don't have the book with me so I don't remember every single detail).  In the book, two teens fighting different types of cancer, Hazel Grace and Augustus Waters, bond over their similar opinions and thoughts about life and literature. They travel to Amsterdam to meet the author of the book they both came to love only to find out he's a rude drunk. This led me to think that throughout the book several people end up being very different than they appeared to be.

First, Van Houten turned out to be a drunk. When Hazel Grace first introduces "An Imperial Affliction" to Augustus neither of them have any clue what the author is like as a person. I think Hazel and Augustus assumed because of his views expressed in the book, (though Hazel never really says clearly what these views are) they assumed Van Houten would be just like them and share their ideas because he wrote about them in his book. I think who Hazel and Augustus really should've met was the character from "An Imperial Affliction" because Van Houten might not've necessarily agreed with the thoughts he wrote about and gave to the character in his book. I think Van Houten didn't write about himself in the book, but what he wanted to be. I think Van Houten wanted to be like Hazel and Augustus and wrote like he was, which I think made him angry when they come to him and he sees what he wanted to be.

I think in the real world it's easy for someone to want to change themselves or to want to be something they know they aren't, and I think accepting this can be really hard. I think if you really aren't what you wish you were and you can see a perfect example of what you wish you were right in front of you that you'd react just like Van Houten did. I think Van Houten saw the change he wanted to make, but because he knew it was so intangible that it upset him so much.

The Non-Conformist

I chose the song Dear God written by XTC.

I think one main theme of the song is conformism. The last stanza of the song starts off with
"I won't believe in heaven or hell
no saints, no sinners, no devil as well". I think this excerpt shows that the singer basically doesn't want to conform. He doesn't want to believe in what someone else may believe in, or want him to believe in simply because he doesn't believe in this and wants to find something that he does believe in, and won't just believe to fit in. The whole final stanza is sent very powerfully by how it's sung in the song, being much louder and more direct. Halfway through the stanza the singer even calls religion a hoax which stood out to me as a really powerful line. I thought it was especially powerful because the song is sung to God, yet the singer is singing about how he doesn't believe in God and says
"That father, son, and holy ghost
is just somebody's unholy hoax". This felt really powerful because it felt like an insult to all of religion and just everything, not one aspect that the singer felt was wrong but just everything overall.

The beginning of the song is sung by a child, which I also thought was really strong because it shows that someone who is much younger, and so much less sophisticated as a thinker, can still doubt something and know that they might not believe in it just because someone else does and told them to. At the end of the first stanza the child says "I can't believe in you" which made me question why the child said "can't" versus "don't" which the adult says in the last stanza. I thought that either the child really was told by someone, or even threatened not to believe in God, whereas the adult just doesn't believe in God. I think that maybe the adult, who doesn't believe in God, told the child, that they couldn't believe in God.

I think this song extends to the real world through religious persecutions like the Holocaust. I think the child's motivation to disbelieve in God ultimately comes from the parents who might've told their child that they can't believe in God. I think that the song powerfully displays how a child can still be oppressed by a parent and not believe something because they think they can't, but still not try and just fit the social norm. I think the child in this song is still being a non-conformist even by giving in to what the parents are telling him to believe, because they still aren't giving in to actually believing in something, just not believing.
I realized from the beginning, that the non-conformist isn't the main singer, but actually the child in the beginning.

Revenge

I'm reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. Liesel and her foster dad, Hans, are at a parade of Jews that are being marched to Dachau to a concentration camp. Hans sees one man who comes up to him and Hans gives him a piece of bread. This is followed by Hans being beaten in the street along with the man, and a lot of dirty looks in the days following.

I think that Hans felt that he had to give him the bread. Hans has this view of Germany and how the Nazis have destroyed his homeland that he feels the need to help the ones who are being hurt by the ones who are hurting him; the Nazis. Hans only wants to good, which is a reoccurring theme in the book. Hans starts off by adopting two children, (Liesel's brother dies on the train heading to Molching), and then goes on to adopt a Jew, Max. Hans works extra hard to ensure that Max can be fed the little that they are able to give him, and to ensure that he can stay in the basement and write and paint. Hans goes out of his way to protect Max and worries not only about himself being killed for hiding Max, but what would happen to Max if he were to be found.

Hans is completely selfless and wants to even bring him along when the bomb raids begin, though he knows that he would certainly be killed.
' "It's a shame we can't take you with us. It's a disgrace."
"It's how it is." ' - Page 372
This quote just further proves Hans' selflessness, and love for all. Hans wants to bring Max to the Fiedler's basement to protect him from the possibility of radiation from the bombs in their basement. If Himmel street was bombed, and everything was destroyed, even possibly everyone in the Fiedler's basement, no matter how deep it is, all Hans is concerned about is if Max will be alright in their not as deep basement six doors down.

When the bombs do inevitably come, and the ash washes over everything, Hans wants to go out and help.
'At home, Pap told Max all about it. "There's fog and ash--I think they let us out too early." He looked to Rosa. "Should I go out? To see if they need help where the bombs dropped?" ' - Page 383
Hans again, is willing to risk his health to go out and save people from the ash, and risk getting something like Lung cancer, just because there's a possibility that someone needs help.

Hans is a perfect role model of someone who just cares and loves too much to a point where he can be stupid, and has to be told by others (Rosa, his wife) to stop.

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.