Blog Post #28: Last Post

          I definitely learned to be more responsible and serious when creating/ keeping up with my blog posts. At first, it was hard to get used to because I've never done something like this. But then eventually, I got used to it and it was just like a habit/ routine, like my everyday homework. And I really liked having to do these blog posts for that reason. I benefited greatly from doing these blog posts also because it made me realize how much deeper I was able to talk about the book. As I was doing the posts, I realized that I do have alot to say about the book and the themes inside the book.

          The main difference I felt between writing online and in a notebook was that it was less tiring, therefore I wouldn't dread doing it. It was so much easier to write online just because typing is so much easier than actually writing, because I think so much faster than I can write. Other than that, writing online would feel more official than in a notebook. I'm not really sure how to explain it. I think it was also a lot more fun/ creative because we were able to design our blogs however we liked so it would be interesting to see. Whenever I go to view my blog, I feel proud/ satisfied because when I look at my posts, everything is all organized and dated and everything.

        I think it's half and half. A lot of people are more real online, but at the same time a lot of people create online personalities too. I think people are more real online because they're not actually talking in front of people, so they won't be afraid to say certain things, whether it's in a good way or bad. But I also think a lot of people create online personalities that project the best of ourselves too. Some might say something just to make themselves look good, or they won't be themselves because they're afraid to show it.

        I think that teenagers do abuse the freedom that being online gives you, and yes, they do type things they would never say to a person's face. They think that just because the other person can't see them, they have the right to type something they wouldn't say to the person's face. I think those people are cowards deep inside because they know that when they say something, the other person can't do anything about it.

        No, I can't imagine myself keeping up this blog just because I've always thought of it as like an assignment for 8th grade, even though it has almost become a routine. But, I think I will start a blog that's not school-related, like a personal one. I'm not sure what it will be about though. In general, I think blogs are a great way to express how you feel, whether it's through words, or quotes, or pictures. Some don't like the idea of blogs because they think of it as something for school, and anything that has to do with school is unappealing to them. But if you think about it, through blogs we can express how we feel and what we are thinking. Other people may even have a better understanding of us. Blogs are actually okay, we just have to get creative with it.  

Blog Post #27: Room

          I am still currently reading Room by Emma Donoghue. So far, what has happened is that they are staying in the hospital now, in the process of recovery. I found that Jack was constantly mentioning Room, saying stuff like he wants to go back to Room, or he wants one of the books from there, while Ma was trying to tell him that that's not where they belong and they won't ever go back. Jack doesn't seem to quite understand though.

          At first I didn't really get why Jack was wanting to go back to Room. Why would he want to go back to such a horrid place? But I realized that Jack is still such a young kid. He spent the first 5 years of his life living there, nowhere else. Room was practically a home for Jack. On page 234, when a news reporter is interviewing Ma, the reporter asked "did you feel bad about deceiving him?", the 'him' being Jack. (she was supposedly 'deceiving' Jack because "everything he saw on TV, or heard about from his books were just fantasy".) Ma then argues, "what was I meant to tell him -Hey, there's a world of fun out there and you can't have any of it?". It's really hard for Ma. She's right: she can't tell Jack about the world outside, but in my opinion, not letting him know will and has probably caused the same, if not more damage. It's hard for Jack too. He's getting introduced to so many new things that he thought only existed on television. He had thought Room was his home.

          I am towards the end of the book. But one thing I found weird was that they were free so easily, or fast. I expected them to have escaped more towards the end of the book. I really enjoyed this book so far because it shows a lot of emotional and mental strength both Jack and Ma had to have in order to get through this. Just right now though, what happened was that Ma purposefully overdosed on her medicine in an attempt to commit suicide. I am interested in reading further because Ma was going strong. I thought she had recovered so quickly. But now that I think about it, I think it was the interview that brought her down. The reporter asking her such questions made her realize what was really happening. It was all so real, but then it just got realer...

Blog Post #26: Room

          I am still reading Room by Emma Donoghue. I am starting to see Ma sort of evolving. In the beginning she seemed helpless, like she wasn't really trying to get out of Room.  But on page 105, Ma says to Jack that they must get out of Room. I think as Ma tells Jack more and more about the outside world, including how she got kidnapped by Old Nick and about her parents and brother, she starts to get more and more desperate to get out of there. If I were to put myself in her place, I think I would've gone insane already, sitting in that Room for 7+ years, not knowing if you could ever get out.

         On page 104, we see a flash of lost of hope from Ma when she says, "nobody's going to rescue us." Following, Jack says, "you don't know everything there is." Jack then narrates, "her face is the strangest I ever saw." At first I was wondering what Jack meant by that. What was her facial expression? But, I think Ma was upset by that comment. Maybe offended? Se was upset with that comment because she knows she doesn't know everything there is, and she hates the fact that she doesn't know. We got a little background info when she was telling Jack how she first got kidnapped by Old Nick. She was kidnapped when she was 19, and I think it angers her. She hates how she was taken away at such a young age, and she knows she got a lot of opportunities taken away from her as well. 

         On page 105, though, we see strength build up again in Ma, when she says to Jack that they have to get out of Room. That shows that Ma is truly a strong person. When she thinks of the bad things, she tries to figure out a way to fix that and she builds confidence in herself. I really like the character of Ma because of that. 

Blog Post #25: Room

          I am currently reading the book Room by Emma Donoghue. I'm still all the way in the beginning, but I have already noticed some issues/ themes occurring. The book takes place in, I believe a basement or some other small compact room. We get introduced to Jack, 5, and his mother (Ma). One issue I already see is imprisonment. I can tell that Jack and Ma are locked up in Room because Ma tells Jack about when he was born on the rug in the Room. On page 7, they compare each others' features and Jack says how his hair goes all the way down to his middle, while Ma's hair is just on her shoulders. It implies that Jack has not cut his hair in forever, but it makes me wonder then, how does Jack's mom have her hair short like that? I already feel bad for Jack because he's so I guess, "pure". He's young so he doesn't know what's going on around him, why he's imprisoned in the Room.
         
          I also noticed how the author, or rather Jack capitalizes certain words, such as Room. Table, Wardrobe, Bed, Shelf, etc. Jack's mother though, doesn't have any of that capitalized when she's speaking. I find this interesting because it may show something about Jack. It can show that the things around him have a significant connection to him, or he likes to think of them as I guess, his "friends". For example, on page 6, he said he "stroked Table's scratches to make them better.." You might think that it's just the behavior of a 5 year old, and maybe it is, but the fact that those words are capitalized, it stands out to me.

          I don't know much about Ma either, but from what she says/ does, I can make an inference. As a kid with curiosity, Jack asks a lot of questions, such as "was I minus numbers?" and "will my nose fall off and an adult nose grow?". I noticed that his mother is very willing to answer questions and wants to help Jack know. I also get the sense that she's a gently woman. She has kind words and she brings knowledge into Jack's mind. At the same time though, I feel that her being gentle is a disadvantage to her because of the very fact of where she is right now: imprisoned inside a Room. Of course, I don't know the background yet of her imprisonment, for example why she's in there, but I also got a hint of who maybe put them in there: a man named Old Nick. On page 5 on the bottom, Jack wants to hang up a picture that Ma drew for him. But she shakes her head no, and says "not there." Then Jack simply says, "she doesn't want Old Nick to see." It makes me wonder who exactly Old Nick is, why Jack has decided to call him that, what Jack thinks of him, and etc.

         I am already interested in this book, because it presents some interesting issues/ themes. I want to find out more about the characters and their imprisonment. This book also reminds me of the book The Boy in the Basement. I read that book in 7th grade as a class and it was about a teenage boy who has been imprisoned in a basement for many years. I feel that both mother's in both books are similar, except the mother in The Boy in the Basement was not trapped with the boy. I find them similar because they both seem to remind me of women who stay in abusive relationships (not necessarily the women who stay in those relationships).

Blog Post #24: Just Another Hero

        I am currently reading Just Another Hero by Sharon M. Draper. I am up to page 40, and so far it's just talking about the lives of a few senior students. The author puts only Arielle Gresham and Kofi Freeman's point of view in the chapters that I've read so far, but we also know some other characters too: November, Jericho, Osrick, and etc.

          Firstly, we meet Arielle. She talks about how she used to be popular and used to be with her usual group of friends. On page 5, she said she had "treated her friends like dirt". She says that in the beginning of the school year, she had a boyfriend to flaunt and lots of girlfriends to hang out with. The ultimate "popular girl". She tells that because she treated them like dirt, she lost all her friends in a few months. For example, she reminisced about her past, about how she laughed at her "friend" November, who got pregnant last year. Arielle would laugh and say that she was fat and stupid to get pregnant. She says "she's never even told November how sorry she was about Josh's death", Josh being November's boyfriend. I found that funny because Arielle had called November her friend. Even if they're not friends now, how were they friends before that, with Arielle treating November like that? She also thought about another girl she made fun of, and thinks to herself, "how could I have done that?" I think right from the start we are taught an important lesson. When you treat someone like dirt, you will get the same treatment after along with regret. To make it more generalized, it's like the saying "that's what you get".

         Josh Prescott was November's boyfriend. He died a tragic death. A group of boys had to jump from a second-story window as part of pledging a club called the Warriors of Distinction. From this event, I could tell that some people in their high school are immature. Not only that, but I think that their school is the kind of school with people in it who have expectations. High ones. They expect you and want you to be something. In the very beginning of the book Osrick Wardley got bullied by two big guys. Arielle heard the noise and went to see what was wrong. One of the guys was filming and the other was tormenting Osrick. They even took off his pants and threw them in the pool. Arielle had described him as "a magnet for guys who liked to act tough" it's obvious Osrick gets bullied a lot of times. This shows the way some people in her school think: if you don't fit in the group, you don't belong and you should be ashamed. It's sad how this really happens. I think it's the high expectations that cause situations like these in schools.

        Something else that doesn't really relate to the previous two paragraphs is Arielle's step father, Chadwick Kensington O'Neil. Chad gives Arielle and her mother money, but at the end of the week, every single little penny has to be counted up. All receipts must be kept to keep track of what/ how the money is being used. When he tallies up the total amount, he sees how much money has to be left over and he must get back the exact amount of money that is left over. After Arielle's mother's expenses, were tallied up, Chad asked for Arielle to go into his office. I found something wrong with that because it seems like Chad is the master. The way he orders them around, the way he gives them money but has to have everything tallied up. When Chad discovered a Coke stain on his expensive carpet, he punished Arielle by saying she has to pay for it, but it's basically her getting no allowance (because she has no other money than her allowance, which is given to her by Chad). I can definitely see that Arielle Hates Chad. When she finished speaking with him, she tells her mother how she feels, how Chad is a control freak, how she's disgusted that her mother gives Chad all her money, etc. But her mother says that it's just a "minor inconvenience" and then says that she will buy Arielle a new outfit after that. There is clearly something wrong with bother Arielle's mother and step-father. Her mother wants the money, period. She likes that Chad gives her money, even if it means giving her own salary into his bank account. We can see that she wants to please Chad any way possible and she never wants to upset her. She seems like she's hypnotized by Chad. She thinks it's fine what Chad does, even when her own daughter doesn't approve of him and confronts her about it. She kind of reminds me of women who get physically abused, yet are still staying with who ever is abusing them.

          I'm only in the beginning of the book and I can already see themes/ issues of the characters in the book. I actually didn't look forward to reading this book because it looked like just another one of those books about bullied. But I like this book especially, because the emotional feelings are described well. I think Sharon M. Draper did a good job on the character's traits, emotional-wise.

Blog Post #23: Matched

          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.

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