I am continuing to read Matched by Ally Condie. In this blog post, I'd like to touch upon the setting of the book, connections to another book, and lastly connections to life and humanity.
As I stressed in my last two blog post about Matched, the world Cassia lives in is very different from ours. In Cassia's world, everything is controlled and set to "perfection". I was thinking for a while about why that is so significant and what it may symbolize and I realized that the setting can really symbolize a whole bunch of other things in our real world. Which leads me to connect to life and humanity. Melissa's comment on my previous blog post also made me want to connect my ideas to the real world. One thing that pops right into my head, when I think about the setting and people in the book are the adults in our world. The Officials in the book represent the adults in our world, while everyone else below the Officials are the kids, teens, etc. Our parents are controlling most of the time and they always want us to do everything perfectly, and sometimes if we don't there might be consequences. What does this teach you about living in the world? I think it teaches me the opposite of wanting perfection. It teaches me that things can't be completely perfect. A few examples are when Cassia saw Ky's face on her micro card (it was supposed to be Xander), Cassia's father purposefully losing their grandfather's tissue sample, and Cassia remembering the words to the poem her grandfather gave her (she's not allowed to do that). These things show that no matter how much the Officials enforce perfection, things can't possibly be completely perfect.
Lastly, I want to connect this book to another text. Instead of another book, it was actually the movie The Hunger Games. I actually never read the book, but when I watched it some little things reminded me of some details in Matched. So for example, Cassia said that the Officials wore white and in the movie the higher authority (Effie, etc.) wore white as well, and it kind of made me start connecting the two texts. Another thing that made me connect these two is the general setting. in The Hunger Games, they are forced to do something no one wanted to do, while in Matched, everything is in control almost like how things are in The Hunger Games (they are almost controlled because they have to do something they don't want to). It's a little hard to explain, but I saw a slight connection between the two.
Thursday, March 29, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Blog Post #22: Matched
I am continuing to read Matched by Ally Condie. I want to continue my thoughts on the rules I see in the book. In my most recent blog post, I talked about how there seems to always be certain things to do, and certain ways to do those things.
On page 69, the main character Cassia was talking about how her grandfather had to go soon. She said, "We know which day will be the end of light and which night will be the long, last one...a triumph of planning, of the Society, of human life and the quality of it." This makes me think about, again, how the Society seems to always want think to be perfect, planned out, and have things a certain way. It makes me wonder why, what's the whole reason behind wanting this "perfect" world. Cassia also said "human life" and it makes me wonder, "is it really 'human life' when they want everything to be so perfect?"
In the next paragraph on the same page, I think Cassia told a lot more about eh background of this world of theirs. The last few sentences I found most interesting because it was kind of saying that the Society can be not perfect sometimes too. On the next page Cassia also said how her grandfather's death will be "expected...fair". I also found this interesting because again, the Society wants things a certain way so they would want people to die at a really specific time. But what I found weird was how Cassia said it was "fair". It makes me wonder how it is fair for someone to time your death. Yes, at the age of 80, you will have lived a long life, but not too long so that you will feel useless, as Cassia said. But at the same time, it just doesn't seem morally right to have someone die at that age no matter what. It almost seems forced.
On pages 113-114, I noticed again another rule. Cassia was running on what I suppose it a treadmill, but it is called a "tracker". It's supposed to "track information about the person running on it". Cassia said that if you run to far, you might be a masochist, an anorexic, or another type, and you will have to see an 'Official of Psychology'. But then if it's determined that you are running hard because you genuinely like it, then you can have a athletic permit, which Cassia does. This helps support my idea on how the Society is keeping everyone healthy and "perfect". I find it really harsh though because if you ran too hard without a permit, you will have to see an Official. I find that very judgmental and just strict. On page 114, Cassia says "I have to be healthy. It's part of what makes us great, what keeps our life span so long. All of the things that were shown in early studies to be good for longevity- happy marriages, healthy bodies- are ours to have. We live long, good lives....cancer, heart disease, and most debilitating illnesses are almost entirely eradicated. This is as close to perfect as any society has ever managed to get." Again, this shows how the Society likes everything to be healthy and perfect, and just the way they want it. Of course, everyone wants perfectly healthy lives, but in this case it almost seems to go overboard, too perfect. What I found different in this example though, is that Cassia even said herself how societies also try to get as close to perfect as they possibly can. So I wonder if Cassia, or anybody living in this world, enjoys where they are living and realizes what the Societies want: perfection
On page 69, the main character Cassia was talking about how her grandfather had to go soon. She said, "We know which day will be the end of light and which night will be the long, last one...a triumph of planning, of the Society, of human life and the quality of it." This makes me think about, again, how the Society seems to always want think to be perfect, planned out, and have things a certain way. It makes me wonder why, what's the whole reason behind wanting this "perfect" world. Cassia also said "human life" and it makes me wonder, "is it really 'human life' when they want everything to be so perfect?"
In the next paragraph on the same page, I think Cassia told a lot more about eh background of this world of theirs. The last few sentences I found most interesting because it was kind of saying that the Society can be not perfect sometimes too. On the next page Cassia also said how her grandfather's death will be "expected...fair". I also found this interesting because again, the Society wants things a certain way so they would want people to die at a really specific time. But what I found weird was how Cassia said it was "fair". It makes me wonder how it is fair for someone to time your death. Yes, at the age of 80, you will have lived a long life, but not too long so that you will feel useless, as Cassia said. But at the same time, it just doesn't seem morally right to have someone die at that age no matter what. It almost seems forced.
On pages 113-114, I noticed again another rule. Cassia was running on what I suppose it a treadmill, but it is called a "tracker". It's supposed to "track information about the person running on it". Cassia said that if you run to far, you might be a masochist, an anorexic, or another type, and you will have to see an 'Official of Psychology'. But then if it's determined that you are running hard because you genuinely like it, then you can have a athletic permit, which Cassia does. This helps support my idea on how the Society is keeping everyone healthy and "perfect". I find it really harsh though because if you ran too hard without a permit, you will have to see an Official. I find that very judgmental and just strict. On page 114, Cassia says "I have to be healthy. It's part of what makes us great, what keeps our life span so long. All of the things that were shown in early studies to be good for longevity- happy marriages, healthy bodies- are ours to have. We live long, good lives....cancer, heart disease, and most debilitating illnesses are almost entirely eradicated. This is as close to perfect as any society has ever managed to get." Again, this shows how the Society likes everything to be healthy and perfect, and just the way they want it. Of course, everyone wants perfectly healthy lives, but in this case it almost seems to go overboard, too perfect. What I found different in this example though, is that Cassia even said herself how societies also try to get as close to perfect as they possibly can. So I wonder if Cassia, or anybody living in this world, enjoys where they are living and realizes what the Societies want: perfection
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Blog Post #21: Matched
I am currently reading the book Matched by Ally Condie. I am up to page 58, and so far it's apparently about how you get "matched" to someone when you turn 17. We are first introduced to a girl named Cassia and her best friend Xander and they are taking the air train to the Match Banquet.
I find this story a little weird and off. First off, I noticed that there are a lot of rules. Right from the beginning on page 1, Cassia mentions "the Society". I noticed that 'society' was capitalized, meaning it's something that's official. I though about how weird that was because the Society sounds like a higher authority, but the actual name itself means everyone, a group of people, a community, etc. So i thought that was kind of contradicting. Then the author mentions emergency tablets that everyone carries on page 6: one green, one blue, one red. For a while the author didn't talk about it anymore, leaving a little tension/ suspense. I think this also shows that there are a lot of rules where Cassia lives because it said specifically that everyone carries it. I remember a little later on in the book (after Cassia got matched with Xander), when they went to the game center for a party, an Official announced over a loudspeaker that "someone has dropped their tablet container, please stand completely still and do not speak until we locate it" (page 50). This kind of scares me because the author still never said what the tablets are for, and everyone is making a big deal out of it. So therefore, the tablets are obviously extremely important. In that scene, it seems like everyone is also scared.
Another big rule that stands out to me is the thing with being "matched". When people turn seventeen, they go to the Match Banquet with their parents and they eat and stuff. But then toward the end, they get called up and Officials announce who they have been matched with, and give them a silver box that has all the information about their match. I see a big flaw in this kind of routine. I think I should call this a routine because it seems like everyone is used to it. They know it's going to happen when they turn seventeen, everyone does it. It's like getting your driver license kind of thing. The flaw I see in this is that they don't even know the person they are being matched with. Never seen them, never talked to them because they are from different provinces. Only rarely will you get matched to someone you know, and that happened with Cassia. This is kind of like a arranged marriage, except it's not even arranged by your parents. It's arranged by the Officials. Yet everyone seems fine with it. Are they clueless? Do they not see this flaw?
I noticed a few times the author mentioned something about making healthy offspring. I think that's one of the reasons for matching people. But the problem I see in this is that the Officials/ the Society almost want a perfect world. They want things to be a certain way: they want a specific person to be matched with another because they want a certain type of offspring. They want perfection. And another thing that bugs me is that none of the characters see these problems. It bugs me that this is their reality, their world, their everyday lives, and they don't see it.
I am really enjoying this book because there's still a lot more to find out about the world they live in. It's interesting to see how different their world is different from mine. It also made me realize that sometimes, this actually does happen in our reality. Sometimes, people want perfection so they do something unfair to get the perfection.
I find this story a little weird and off. First off, I noticed that there are a lot of rules. Right from the beginning on page 1, Cassia mentions "the Society". I noticed that 'society' was capitalized, meaning it's something that's official. I though about how weird that was because the Society sounds like a higher authority, but the actual name itself means everyone, a group of people, a community, etc. So i thought that was kind of contradicting. Then the author mentions emergency tablets that everyone carries on page 6: one green, one blue, one red. For a while the author didn't talk about it anymore, leaving a little tension/ suspense. I think this also shows that there are a lot of rules where Cassia lives because it said specifically that everyone carries it. I remember a little later on in the book (after Cassia got matched with Xander), when they went to the game center for a party, an Official announced over a loudspeaker that "someone has dropped their tablet container, please stand completely still and do not speak until we locate it" (page 50). This kind of scares me because the author still never said what the tablets are for, and everyone is making a big deal out of it. So therefore, the tablets are obviously extremely important. In that scene, it seems like everyone is also scared.
Another big rule that stands out to me is the thing with being "matched". When people turn seventeen, they go to the Match Banquet with their parents and they eat and stuff. But then toward the end, they get called up and Officials announce who they have been matched with, and give them a silver box that has all the information about their match. I see a big flaw in this kind of routine. I think I should call this a routine because it seems like everyone is used to it. They know it's going to happen when they turn seventeen, everyone does it. It's like getting your driver license kind of thing. The flaw I see in this is that they don't even know the person they are being matched with. Never seen them, never talked to them because they are from different provinces. Only rarely will you get matched to someone you know, and that happened with Cassia. This is kind of like a arranged marriage, except it's not even arranged by your parents. It's arranged by the Officials. Yet everyone seems fine with it. Are they clueless? Do they not see this flaw?
I noticed a few times the author mentioned something about making healthy offspring. I think that's one of the reasons for matching people. But the problem I see in this is that the Officials/ the Society almost want a perfect world. They want things to be a certain way: they want a specific person to be matched with another because they want a certain type of offspring. They want perfection. And another thing that bugs me is that none of the characters see these problems. It bugs me that this is their reality, their world, their everyday lives, and they don't see it.
I am really enjoying this book because there's still a lot more to find out about the world they live in. It's interesting to see how different their world is different from mine. It also made me realize that sometimes, this actually does happen in our reality. Sometimes, people want perfection so they do something unfair to get the perfection.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Blog Post #20: Nineteen Minutes
I am still reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. I'm becoming impatient with the book because there is nothing really happening in the book even though I'm up to around page 120. But on the other hand, I like that the story is being set up slow so that it makes you read on.
Even though I still don't know much about Peter Houghton (the school shooter) because he's not talked a lot about yet, I still want to talk about him and maybe what's going through his head right now. Right now, he is still in custody and haven't has his trial yet. There are very subtle hints relating to Peter and the school shooting (like if he did it or not). I have two opinions: either Peter didn't do it (and was forced to or something like that) or he did do it, but didn't mean to (like he regrets it now, etc.). These are my two opinions because firstly, on page 98, Peter's lawyer, Jordan McAfee came to talk to Peter. I think one of the first hints is when Jordan was quickly observing him: "...he was stunned to find that Peter Houghton had the ability to surprise him. Given the magnitude of the shooting and the damage wrought, the terror on the faces Jordan had seen on the television screen- well, this skinny, freckled, four-eyed kid hardly seemed capable of such an act." People always say, don't judge a book by it's cover. But sometimes, you can seriously just tell what kind of person that person is by just looking at him/ her. And I think this is kind of how Jordan felt. He wasn't completely convinced that Peter had done such a terrible thing. Also, speaking of judging a book by it's cover, it made me realize how the "nerds" in books, television shows, etc. are always described as skinny, freckled, and having glasses, just like how Jordan described Peter. In class, we were just talking about foreshadowing, and don't think it's exactly foreshadowing what kind of a person Peter really is, but it's kind of like giving a subtle hint, as said before.
Another example to show why those were my two opinions on Peter is also on the same page (98). Near the bottom of the page, Jordan explained who he was and said that he was the lawyer that was going to represent Peter. Then Jordan said, "From here on in, you're not going through this alone. You've got me." Firstly, it shows the kind of person Jordan is. It makes me think that he is a sincere person and that he truly does care about his clients. But, the point was that after Jordan said that, Jordan though he had seen "something flash in Peter's eyes when he'd said those words". This small little event makes the reader think about Peter, not just Peter the shooter. I think this was something that would be important for a reader to catch. Again, I think this might also be a little foreshadowing (into the past). When Jordan told Peter that he wasn't alone, and Peter eyes had said something, maybe the author was trying to hint that something bad had caused Peter to do this horrible act, like maybe Peter is alone/ scared of being alone. The "flash" in Peter's eyes also represented hope for Peter, in my opinion.
One last thing, on page 99, something weird happened. The whole time when Jordan was talking to him, Peter never said a thing. But as Jordan was getting ready to leave, Peter asked "how many did I get?". Jordan had hesitated, didn't turn to look at Peter and just said "I'll see you tomorrow". The author never described how Peter said it, or what his facial expression was when he said it, therefore it makes me feel like he said it in a I guess sincere, or caring way? I'm not sure how to describe it but it makes me feel like Peter cares. Not in any bad or evil way, though. But I do realize that that's all Peter said, it wasn't specified what he meant by that. I realized that he couldn't have necessarily meant how many people he shot, like maybe he was trying to refer to something else.
I still want to read further, even though the book is being set up at a very slow pace. I want to find out what happens later on, specifically with the character's emotional journey.
Even though I still don't know much about Peter Houghton (the school shooter) because he's not talked a lot about yet, I still want to talk about him and maybe what's going through his head right now. Right now, he is still in custody and haven't has his trial yet. There are very subtle hints relating to Peter and the school shooting (like if he did it or not). I have two opinions: either Peter didn't do it (and was forced to or something like that) or he did do it, but didn't mean to (like he regrets it now, etc.). These are my two opinions because firstly, on page 98, Peter's lawyer, Jordan McAfee came to talk to Peter. I think one of the first hints is when Jordan was quickly observing him: "...he was stunned to find that Peter Houghton had the ability to surprise him. Given the magnitude of the shooting and the damage wrought, the terror on the faces Jordan had seen on the television screen- well, this skinny, freckled, four-eyed kid hardly seemed capable of such an act." People always say, don't judge a book by it's cover. But sometimes, you can seriously just tell what kind of person that person is by just looking at him/ her. And I think this is kind of how Jordan felt. He wasn't completely convinced that Peter had done such a terrible thing. Also, speaking of judging a book by it's cover, it made me realize how the "nerds" in books, television shows, etc. are always described as skinny, freckled, and having glasses, just like how Jordan described Peter. In class, we were just talking about foreshadowing, and don't think it's exactly foreshadowing what kind of a person Peter really is, but it's kind of like giving a subtle hint, as said before.
Another example to show why those were my two opinions on Peter is also on the same page (98). Near the bottom of the page, Jordan explained who he was and said that he was the lawyer that was going to represent Peter. Then Jordan said, "From here on in, you're not going through this alone. You've got me." Firstly, it shows the kind of person Jordan is. It makes me think that he is a sincere person and that he truly does care about his clients. But, the point was that after Jordan said that, Jordan though he had seen "something flash in Peter's eyes when he'd said those words". This small little event makes the reader think about Peter, not just Peter the shooter. I think this was something that would be important for a reader to catch. Again, I think this might also be a little foreshadowing (into the past). When Jordan told Peter that he wasn't alone, and Peter eyes had said something, maybe the author was trying to hint that something bad had caused Peter to do this horrible act, like maybe Peter is alone/ scared of being alone. The "flash" in Peter's eyes also represented hope for Peter, in my opinion.
One last thing, on page 99, something weird happened. The whole time when Jordan was talking to him, Peter never said a thing. But as Jordan was getting ready to leave, Peter asked "how many did I get?". Jordan had hesitated, didn't turn to look at Peter and just said "I'll see you tomorrow". The author never described how Peter said it, or what his facial expression was when he said it, therefore it makes me feel like he said it in a I guess sincere, or caring way? I'm not sure how to describe it but it makes me feel like Peter cares. Not in any bad or evil way, though. But I do realize that that's all Peter said, it wasn't specified what he meant by that. I realized that he couldn't have necessarily meant how many people he shot, like maybe he was trying to refer to something else.
I still want to read further, even though the book is being set up at a very slow pace. I want to find out what happens later on, specifically with the character's emotional journey.
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