The Philosophy of Addiction in Glass

           In the book Glass, by Ellen Hopkins, the main character Kristina ends up getting extremely addicted to crystal meth. Before she tried the drug, she was a quiet, studious girl. But after she experiments  with it, she creates an alter ego for herself that "Kristina" never could be, called Bree. Bree gets Kristina into situations Kristina never would have dreamed of, such as getting raped and getting pregnant because of it. This made me think about the philosophy of addiction. Once people have something they are addicted to, they physically are unable to cope without it. Addiction is classified as a disease, but should it be? I think all humans are addicted to something in their life, whether they know it or not. Glass also made me think about how a child should be raised. Kristina loves her child, Hunter, whether she wanted to have him or not. But he ends up getting taken away from her because she is considered an inadequate mother. But what is an adequate mother? And what isn't?
         Everyone on this Earth has something that they need. Something that isn't required to live, but it's a necessity. The wealthier the person, the more addictions they have. I think this is because they know that they can get more, and getting can be an addiction as well. Most kids expect presents on Christmas and on their birthday, because it's something that's expected in society. The media glorifies these things and recognizes that we have addictions, and they use that as a weapon against us. Even something as small as caffeine is definitely an addiction in the lives of most people. And companies like Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, and McDonalds even know that this addiction is huge in the lives of most of the working population. Most people can barely get out of bed without having some form of caffeine. Now Kristina's addiction is much more dangerous, but does that make it any less severe than the people who need to have a cup of coffee every morning?
      Also in Glass, Kristina is forced to give up her child because it is considered that she creates an unsafe environment to raise her kid in by social services. But what is an unsafe environment? Is love the only thing that is needed to raise a kid? Kristina definitely loves Hunter. But is that enough to nurture and raise a child with? Kristina is crippled with her addiction, and according to society, that makes her unable to raise her kid. But like I said, we all have our addictions. Whether they be to drugs, to people, or to anything in the world, all humans have addictions to certain things. People often say that love is a force so overpowering that it can accomplish anything. But can love alone raise a child? Something so fragile, and so vulnerable?
         In conclusion, many different philosophical themes are brought up in Glass by Ellen Hopkins. Kristina, the main character, is addicted to crystal methamphetamine, a drug that changed her entire world. But we all have our addictions, whether they be to little things glorified by the media and expectations put by society. Why is Kristina's addiction considered so shocking and so severe? Also, Kristina was raped and unfortunately got pregnant from it. Her baby eventually gets taken away from her, because she is considered unfit to raise a child. Kristina loves her child, but is that enough to create an environment it can grow and develop in? All in all, Glass is a book that made me think about many different things.

The Value of Life in If I Stay

             In the book If I Stay by Gayle Forman, Mia's life is altered incredibly when she is in a devastating car crash which kills her little brother and her parents. Mia is stuck in a realm between life and death in which she can choose to either live or die. Her boyfriend, Adam, her best friend Kim, and all of her relatives desperately want her to live. This book made me think about the value of a single human life and love as well. Adam and Kim and all of Mia's relatives claim to love Mia, but what is love? Is love something that is even real? And why does it matter so much that Mia stays and lives? Mia is one out of billions of people on this Earth. Why does she matter compared to any other human being? Why do people matter in general, anyway?
         The dictionary defines love as, "a profoundly tender, passionate affection for another person; a feeling of warm personal attachment or deep affection, as for a parent, child, or friend." The things that make us have affection for things lie in the world of science. When we get pleasure out of things and chemicals such as dopamine and serotonin are released in the brain, we as humans process that as a feeling of liking towards whatever the thing may be. If this happens enough times with the same exact thing, we claim to love it. This thing could include a person. And when it comes to humans, we all unconsciously desire love, unless a mental condition like sociopathy prevents us from doing so. We all are blindedly searching for it whether we know it or not. This is because most people believe that with love, comes happiness. But these two things are so similar. They're both surges of chemicals through the human brain, and they both are nearly impossible to find. When Adam wants Mia to stay, he's doing it because apparently, he loves her. But how do we even know what love is? How do we know when we are in love?
         If I Stay also made me think about the value of a human life. When Mia is critically injured and could possibly die, all of her relatives and the important people in her life want her to live so badly. Why does it matter if Mia lives? Mia was created equally along with the rest of all the humans on Earth. Why should she be valued over another person? Sentimentality is something that cripples everyone from seeing ethically. When people start to value people over other people, it isn't moral because all humans, value-wise, are the same. Happiness and love can actually make someone think incorrectly. Once people believe they have happiness and/or, they become so scared of losing it. This can be extremely bad when people are in ethical dilemmas. For example, when we read that article from The Ethicist in class about the woman who had the sister with Down Syndrome and Parkinson's disorder, the woman was considering putting a feeding tube in, because she wanted to keep her sister alive so badly because she loved her. But what if the person is happier dead?
        All in all, the book If I Stay made me think about the value of human life and love. While mostly all humans desire to be in love, love can blind us and make us ignorant and selfish. It's okay to be in love, but when love affects your ethics and morals, something has to change.
        

Character Relationships in Speak

Text-to-Text Connection: Flawless by Sara Shepard and The Crucible by Arthur Miller

In the second book of the Pretty Little Liars series by Sara Shepard, which is called Flawless, there is a text-to-text connection to the classic play The Crucible, by Arthur Miller. These books are different genre-wise, because Flawless is a coming-of-age book whereas The Crucible is a very dark and intense play where frivolous things like designer clothes and school drama are not at stake. But the thing that binds these two stories together is that a lot of unnecessary fear is generated from a sociopath in the town. The four main characters in Flawless are Hanna, Spencer, Aria, and Emily, who all have very dark secrets of their own, secrets they all told or accidentally revealed to Alison, their best friend who mysteriously went missing when they were 12. They all kind of drifted apart after that, slightly traumatized by the experience. Everyone then starts receiving strange texts messages and e-mails that imply that the sender knows their deepest secrets. The sender also signs all the messages “A”, saying they are Alison, who knew their secrets. In The Crucible, there wasn’t any text messaging or e-mailing technology, but everyone becomes so fearful of these “witches” because a witch could be your best friend, who’s planning to perform dark incantations on you any second, and in comparison to that with Flawless, “A” could be anyone. Also, Abigail accuses lower-class, unpopular as witches because it’s easier to believe, and the girls in Flawless think that people they don’t like, like their childhood stalker Toby Cavenaugh or geeky class president Andrew could be “A”. As you can see, these books are very much alike.

            In Flawless and The Crucible, a lot of paranoia is driven into the hearts of 4 girls and an entire town because of person who has no remorse for their actions, and they’re unaware of the consequences of their actions. In The Crucible’s case, the villain is Abigail Williams, who goes a bit too far in a scheme to save herself. To save herself, she accuses innocent people who don’t have a ton of power in the town and she has a stunning amount of charisma, and no matter how many people challenge her, she wins. For example, when Mary Warren tried to challenge her, Abigail won the judges over because she acted so amazingly well. In Flawless, “A” is not trying to save herself from being caught because she did a bad thing, it’s because she wants revenge on Hanna, Spencer, Emily, and Aria. But the very similar thing about these two people is that they have so much influence over people. They’re filled with this sickly sweet charm that just wins everyone over, it’s nearly impossible to defy them. For example in Flawless, Hanna receives a note from “A”, stating that if she doesn’t say that she makes herself throw up to the people who hate her and want to ruin her social life, her secrets will be revealed and other terrible things could happen to her. Hanna has no choice but to do it, because her secret being revealed is like her world crashing down, and her life is already pretty dysfunctional. So as you can see, charisma and influence really make these characters very similar.

            Adding onto how “A” and Abigail are so similar, it’s because they use fear as a weapon. These girls become so afraid because “A” could be anywhere, lurking in the shadows, plotting to destroy them. Same with The Crucible, because anyone can be a so-called witch. Your loved ones could easily fall into Satan’s clutches and possess you, making you turn into the Devil’s slave. “A” and Abigail use this to their advantage because the 4 girls are still slightly traumatized because of Alison’s disappearance, and anything about Alison said to the girls sends chills down their spines, adding to the terror of an anonymous person texting you, saying they want revenge. In The Crucible, everyone is so terrified of witches because of their ultra-religious life where they basically blame all their problems on the devil, and now people in their good, pious town are fraternizing with pure evil? To the Puritans, that is terribly frightening, and since everyone is so afraid of these witches, Abigail uses that fear against them and so does “A”.

            Another way that these two stories are similar is that the “victims” target unpopular and disliked people as their villains. In The Crucible, Abigail says she saw Goody Osborne, an unknown peasant, with the devil. People believe her because Goody Osborne doesn’t have a lot of say or power in the community, which made it easy to believe she was a witch. In Flawless, Spencer thought that Andrew Campbell, her main competition in school for grades, student government, and many extracurricular activities. Spencer wants to be the best academically, and her feelings turn bitter towards Andrew because she thinks he may be “A”, because he drives by her house every day, perhaps witnessing drama that Spencer goes through, and her first name begins with “A”. These are silly excuses, but Spencer is so afraid she’ll believe anything. Also, Hanna and Emily think that Toby Cavenaugh, their childhood stalker could be “A”. He watched them obsessively when they were friends with Alison, and he got put in a boarding school because his parents couldn’t necessarily control him. It’s very clear how these “victims” suspect unpopular people and enemies of being their villain.

            In conclusion, Flawless by Sara Shepard and The Crucible by Arthur Miller are two very similar stories. They are similar because the “victims” target disliked and unknown people as their “villains”, both of their antagonists use fear as a weapon, and also the antagonists are very charismatic and they have a lot of influence. Even though these stories are written from the perspective of very different time periods, and the issues are different, they have a lot in common.

Response by Paul Volponi

              In the book Response by Paul Volponi, the issue of racism and justice ties in together. The book is about a teenager named Noah Jackson who goes to a wealthy neighborhood with the intention of stealing an expensive car and then selling it to a chop shop in order to support his child, Destiny Love.  But when he goes to Hillsboro, a neighborhood which, he gets assaulted by three white men, who hurl epithets at him as they attack him, making people wonder if this was a hate crime or if the attackers knew that Noah and his friends were up to no good and they were defending their neighborhood. The neighborhood (Hillsboro) has a reputation for being racist because many hate crimes have been committed there, and that suggests it was a hate crime, and hate crimes are products of racism, I think the very complex and important issues of race and justice come together in the book Response because one his attackers, Rao, got only two years in jail for stealing Noah’s cell phone, earring, and attacking him. He could’ve faced a sentence up to 25 years in prison but instead he got only a mere two years. Also, Charles Scatturo, the main offender in the attack, lied to all the detectives and lawyers and they used all of that as evidence in the court. That shows how the justice could be altered if the jury believes all of the “evidence” that the defense uses. And when racial slurs were said to Noah, like the N-word, the defense blamed it on his culture, saying it’s used in friendship, and to look “cool”. If it was only in friendship, which it was not, the jury and all of the spectators going over this case could deny him the justice of his attackers because if they were trying to only look hip, what’s so bad about that? As you can see, there are many examples of the issue of racism and justice tied in together.

            Racism and justice tied in together when one of Noah’s attackers named Rao, who robbed him of his cell phone and diamond stud earring and brutally attacked him only got two years in prison instead of the maximum of 25 years, which he deserved. It never lists the races of the jury, but the two big neighborhoods in the book were East Franklin (a nearly all-black neighborhood) and Hillsboro (a nearly all-white neighborhood) and naturally, a case always wants a diverse jury. So probably, there were people from East Franklin and Hillsboro. Also, a lot of the people at Noah’s high school were wearing shirts that said “Free Spenelli”, who was one of the people who attacked Noah. So possibly, some of the jury members were against sentencing Rao because Noah was black, but Noah still didn’t any of his well-deserved justice. That’s how racism and justice ties in together when one of Noah’s attackers only got two years in jail opposed to 25 years.

            Another way racism and justice ties in together is that Charles Scatturo, the main offender, lied to the detectives and the jury, saying he was just protecting his neighborhood and it wasn’t because of Noah’s skin color. This could also alter Noah’s justice because sadly, there are always ignorant people in the world who will believe anything. Many ignorant people followed this hate crime and it got very famous, which means more people to unjustly judge this crime because of Noah’s skin color and what Charles Scatturo said. And what Charles Scatturo said they used in court as evidence, trying to sway people’s opinions. The ignorant people’s opinions could change them, depriving Noah of his justice.

            A final way that racism connects with the issue of justice in the book Response is that when racial slurs were hurled at Noah while he was being attacked, (Such as the N-word) making it be more susceptible to be a hate crime, the defense retorted that it was Noah’s culture, and the N-word is often used in friendship in the black community, saying that it couldn’t possibly be a hate crime then, because they were just saying it to look cool. That causes all the spectators and even the jury to think if they were just saying it to look hip; it couldn’t possibly be a hate crime. Blaming Noah’s culture is not just incredibly racist, but it keeps him further away from getting justice.

            In conclusion, in the book Response by Paul Volponi the two very intense and important issues of racism and justice tie in together because the only thing that’s standing in that’s standing in the way of his deserved justice is his race. Because of his race all these other dilemmas are put in the way of his getting justice, such as one of his attackers only getting 2 years in prison opposed to 25 years, Charles Scaturro lying and saying that the attack on Noah wasn’t a hate crime, and the defense blaming his ethnic culture for the horrid epithets hurled at him by his attackers.

The Theme of Adolescent Frustration in The Perks of Being a Wallflower

         In the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky the issue of adolescent frustration kept on popping up over and over again in the book. The book made me realize this frustration as no longer gross and desperate, but pure frustration that is full of longing and hope, with the ultimate need just to feel important to someone. In the book, the main character Charlie has all this frustration inside of him, such as being in love with his best girl friend and a dysfunctional family, he feels like he doesn’t belong anywhere. The intense need to feel something real and intimate is a huge part of this culminating adolescent frustration by Charlie. I saw quite interestingly that this frustration can be expressed by kids doing things at a very young age, like drug abuse, getting completely drunk and having casual hookups, expressing their emotional and sexual frustration. In the book, Charlie smokes weed and inhales some sort of powerful drug, gets wasted at parties and hookups with a girl. I have witnessed this occurring at my middle school and I didn’t really pay much thought to it, only maybe just kids trying to grow up too fast, but ever since I read The Perks of Being a Wallflower, I realized that kids do it because of something much more emotional and painful. It’s an escape to ease away all frustrations and doubts about their lives and themselves. As you can see, The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky made me see the issue of adolescent frustration in an entirely new light.

         Part of adolescent frustration as I saw in the text sexual frustration is a very dominating part of this frustration. The stereotype of an adolescent boy is all he wants is sex and hooking up with the hottest girls, but I saw that Charlie wanted an intimate soulful relationship, not sex. His first girlfriend, a girl named Mary Elizabeth, merely said hi to him every day and asked “What’s up?” But Charlie wanted more. He wanted to feel something real and pure, a connection between two beings that would bound them together for the rest of their lives. That is the exact stereotype of an adolescent girl. The girl wants this fairytale love story with a happily ever after, but Charlie’s sister had intense lust for this boy she was going out with and she even got pregnant with his child. She had had many previous boyfriends before that too. This showed instead of the boy always having an overinflated sex drive, girls can be very promiscuous also. Both girls and boys express their sexual frustrations by getting together and washing all that away. So the book showed me that sexual frustration is a very large chunk of all the frustration that an adolescent has.

          The book also showed me that a very emotional side of this frustration. Charlie is so frustrated with his life and everything because he feels as though he doesn’t belong. And in most cases, Charlie doesn’t belong. In his family he is the outcast, with a sweet docile mother, promiscuous sister, stern father, and football all-star brother, he simply doesn’t fit in. His parents have expectations for Charlie, more his father than his mother, and Charlie knows he doesn’t want to do what his parents want him to, but he doesn’t know what he truly wants. Sure he knows what he likes to do and what gives him pleasure, but he doesn’t know what he’s going to do with his life. And no adolescent does. Teens and “tweens” struggle to find their place in the world by trying out different things, such as drugs, alcohol, and casual sexual hookups. As I leaned from reading The Perks of Being a Wallflower, there is a deeply yearning and emotional part of this frustration in an adolescent.

       In conclusion, the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky really showed a completely different side to adolescent frustration. Before I read the book, I thought that adolescent frustration was gross boys infatuated with women and desperate girls wanting their happy ever after so badly. But since I read the book, I realized that the roles can completely switch. There are promiscuous girls obsessed with guys and guys who want their happy ending too. Charlie wanted a soulful relationship and his sister wanted to have sex. And I saw that kids abuse drugs and alcohol and hookup with each other because they don’t know what to do with their lives so they’re trying out different things. They desperately want to belong somewhere and feel important to something or someone, like Charlie, and really all of the teen characters in the book. Charlie is someone who wants to belong somewhere and know what path they’re going to take in life. So in conclusion the book The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chbosky really exposed what adolescent frustration truly is.

           

The Themes of Love and Ignorance in Weetzie Bat

        In the book Weetzie Bat by Francesca Lia Block, the theme of love often ties with ignorance. One of the factors that influences this is the setting. The book takes place in L.A. in the nineties, and it seems very similar to the setting of Romeo+Juliet. The descriptions make L.A. sound like a beautiful hot city full to the brim with overwhelming passion. Everything just almost seems hazy and unreal. Weetzie loves Los Angeles with all her heart because it's this shimmering, magnificent, sparkling city full of angels. But this traps Weetzie in a milky film of ignorance that becomes so thick and opaque that she can't see anything else. Weetzie is so full with love for her two children, Cherokee Love and Witch Baby, her best friends Duck and Dirk, and her boyfriend My Secret Agent Lover Man. With all this love in her way, Weetzie becomes to oblivious to all hardship that is going on around her. Another way that love and ignorance ties in together is that Weetzie starts believing that nothing bad can happen to her. She feels that her love is some sort of forcefield that can protect her from all the evil in the world. She feels like no one can ever leave her. When Duck, one of her best friends, leaves her because he sees the world for what it really is, she just is so very optimistic, trapped in a bubble of almost blissful ignorance. Weetzie is L.A., which is a paradise dripping with hell. But the paradise is so thick and blinding, you can't see the fiery depth that is purely Los Angeles.
        A way that the themes of love and ignorance tie in together is with the setting of L.A. The book starts out by saying, "The reason Weetzie Bat hated high school is because no one understood. They didn't even realize where they were living. They didn't care that Marilyns' prints were practically in their backyard at Graumann's; that you could buy tomahawks and plastic palm tree wallets at the Farmer's Market, and the wildest, cheapest cheese and bean and hot dog and pastrami burritos at Oki Dogs; that the waitresses wore skates at the Jetson-style Tiny Naylor's; that there was a fountain that turned tropical soda-pop colors..." The people that Weetzie is talking about are the people who see L.A. for what it truly is. The anti-paradise. Weetzie has so much love for the city that she becomes invisible to all the bad parts about Los Angeles. When she goes to visit her dad Charlie in New York City, she pleads with him to come back to California and live with her. I found his response extremely interesting. "'Weetzie, I love you and Cherokee and... Well, I love you more than anything. But I can't be in that city. Everything's an illusion; that's the whole thing about it-illusion, imitation, a mirage. Pagodas and palaces and skies, blondes and stars. It makes me too sad. It's like having a good dream. You know you are going to wake up."' Weetzie is stuck in this gauzy wonderful dream, and she's unaware that she's going to have to wake up.
        Another way that ignorance and love go together in Weetzie Bat is that Weetzie has this logic that love will be able to protect her from anything. As long as Weetzie loves, the bad in the world won't catch up to her. She describes this love that she has when she's sitting down eating dinner with her "family". "Weetzie's heart felt so full with love, so full, as if it could hardly fit in her chest. I don't know about happily ever after...but I know about happily, Weetzie Bat thought.". As long as she continues to love she will be happy, and nothing will go wrong. When her best friend Dirk got severely depressed about his boyfriend leaving him, she simply just rubbed his back, made him tea, and told him everything was going to be okay and that Duck (Dirk's boyfriend) would come back. She wasn't even that upset. As long as she had love, she would be perfectly fine. Another way Weetzie uses her love as a forcefield is when My Secret Agent Lover Man, her boyfriend leaves her, and she becomes shattered, because she realizes his love is gone. Part of her protection just left her. Now she is vulnerable to everything in the world and the "Hell-A." part of L.A. can touch her. As you can see, Weetzie uses love as a huge shining forcefield of ignorance.
      In conclusion, the two themes of love and ignorance go together in many different ways. One way that they go together is in the setting, which is Los Angeles. It's shown as this glistening, glimmering, fantastic city where nothing can go wrong. The city is pregnant with love and passion, and this coats it's citizens in a warm blanket of honey-ignorance. It's so sweet, and if the citizens of L.A. weren't smothered in it, they would lose their minds. Esepcially Weetzie. She has so much love for the city, it's almost ridiculous. Another way love and ignorance go together is how Weetzie believes love will block out and defeat all the maliciousness and such in her life. If she does not have love, her entire world will fall to pieces. But as long as she has love, she is invincible. Invincibility is ignorance. But all in all, the theme of love and the theme of ignorance tie together wonderfully in this book.
      

The Relationship Between Summer and her Dad in The Visibles

         In The Visibles, by Sara Shepard, the main character Summer has a very interesting and special relationship with her father. Her father is a man who becomes trapped in a downward spiral of depression and mental sickness after his wife (Summer's mother) deserts him with Summer and her brother, Steven. She wants him to have a good life, but gets nervous when he gets too happy. I think this is because she is scared of going back to way life was when her mother was around. Life when her mother was around was so frighteningly good that Summer is scared to feel a feeling that is burrowed so deep inside. An example of this is when her father fell in love with a nurse at the mental hospital and planned to move in with her, Summer questioned the move. Her father was in a fragile condition, but he was getting better because he met Rosemary (the nurse). Still, Summer didn't really want them to have a relationship because the exhilarating yet terrible feeling of happiness would resurface and cause all new kinds of change for Summer. Another display of Summer's relationship with her father is that even though she gets nervous when he gets happy, she is fiercely protective of him. When her father was getting electroshock therapy for his mental illness, a bunch of rowdy men were playing basketball beneath the building where the treatment was being administered, and Summer was able to hear all the vulgar and raucous shouting. She then visualized herself walking downstairs into the basketball court and shouting at the men for disturbing her father. She imagines cracking one of the men's skull open and just watching the blood trickle into the concrete. She feels like she is the only person her father has left and thus, she has to take care of him. These are two out of many examples of Summer's fascinating relationship with her father.
         Firstly, Summer has an interesting relationship with her father because even though she wants her father to have a good life and be happy, she gets really frightened when he gets too happy. An example is when her father found himself falling for a woman who took care of him at the mental hospital he stayed at and ends up moving in and starting a new life with her, Summer disapproves. "'I-we-decided today. I've asked her to come with me.' I laughed. 'What, as your nurse?' It just slipped out. A stiff silence followed. 'I'm sorry,' I backpedaled. 'I just... I don't quite understand. This is all a little sudden. I mean, what, you couldn't have just met the person- she's, what, an aide?- more than a month ago, right? That's the last time we really talked. Don't you think it's a little soon?'" This piece of textual evidence showed me that Summer also believes that her father is simply incapable of being happy, and even loving another person. I believe Summer acts like this because she, herself, is scared of things being happy and being okay. For most of her life, she wasn't okay. Her mother left the house when she was just starting out adolescence and she never saw her again. This feeling has become so unfamiliar and strange that it has burrowed deep down inside of her, afraid to let a decade of complex emotions just rush out like an ocean. If her father was happy, that would automatically make her happy, and that would cause her whole entire life to be simply flipped upside down.
         Another example of how Summer and her father's relationship is so intriguing is because Summer can be very overprotective of him at times. Like I said previously, Summer is sort of terrified of her father being happy, yet he is her father so she can be extremely protective of him. An example of this is when her dad is undergoing electroshock treatment for his depression because all the medication he took never seemed to work. On the sidewalk in front of the building where the treatment is being given, there are a group of plebeian men playing basketball in the heat. They are being very vulgar and rude, and Summer has this huge vision of her hurting the men. "...I pictured the brick hitting his head and cracking it open. I saw him falling awkwardly, a pool of blood running from his head, his greasy face contorted, the other men flocked around him." I feel this is because her and her father are the only two people they've really got. Her mother left, her brother is often absent in an attempt to get away from his messed-up family life, and her distant family in Cobalt, Pennsylvania barely cares about them anymore. They are attached to each other, and because of this no matter what, they will never stop loving each other.
         In conclusion, I found Summer's relationship with her father to be the most fascinating in the entire book. It was so dynamic and incredible that it moved me greatly. Summer won't let anyone really mess around with her father, yet when it comes to his happiness, it's questionable. But often, the way Summer acts is deeply psychological. She won't let her father of herself be happy because it will flood her with feelings that she had thought she'd forgotten. That would cause an absolute mess, bringing back 10 years of anguish and sorrow, so Summer obviously does not want to do that. She is protective of her father because he is the only person who will stay by her side no matter what. Everybody else has ostracized them, and they only have each other. But all in all, I enjoyed the book and I especially enjoyed the relationship between Summer and her father.
        
        
      

Cut by Patricia McCormick

         In the book Cut, by Patricia McCormick, the main character Callie makes a decision to speak up to her therapist and in group therapy. The book Cut is about a girl, Callie, who cuts herself. She gets an adrenaline high from cutting herself, and she is sent to a treatment facility called Sea Pines, filled with girls struggling with their own problems, such as substance abuse and eating disorders. Callie wants nothing to do with them, and is mute for most of her stay. But many difficult events happen to Callie, and she realizes that she has no choice but to speak up. For example, a girl in Callie’s group nearly starves herself to death and a girl who cuts herself comes to Sea Pines. Callie grows to love Sea Pines, and she begins to think of it as a sanctuary, even a home: “‘Well.’ A sort of smile passes over her face. ‘I’m glad you came back.’ ‘Me too.’ I suddenly mean this with all my heart.” Callie’s antagonist, though she didn’t know it, was her voice, and she made an arduous decision to speak up and use the unknown power of her speech.

         There were many things that influenced Callie to speak, but mostly there were two very important things. One of the important things was Becca, an anorexic, dysfunctional girl who had a heart attack. Callie had witnessed Becca vomiting in the bathroom, but she never told anyone. Callie had finally been talking to her therapist, and that was a big milestone of accomplishment for her, but she still hadn’t spoken up in Group. Becca’s caretaker Debbie became very melancholy and thought it was all her fault that Becca nearly died, Callie finally speaks: “Debbie turns to look at me. “‘What did you say?’ she whispers. ‘It’s not your fault,’ I say. ‘About Becca.’” She became very concerned for Becca’s health and she regretted not telling the members of her group. Something snapped inside of Callie. Another thing that helped Callie was her therapist: Callie’s therapist was the one person she really confided in at her stay in Sea Pines, and she was a huge source of encouragement. She said her voice was really not her archenemy, but really her friend:  “‘But Callie.’ Your voice is so quiet; I have to stop counting a minute to hear it. ‘You’d have so much more power… if you would speak’” Her therapist made her more confident at Sea Pines. Callie’s difficult decision of speaking up was made possible by her therapist and Becca’s health decline.

        The decision that Callie made to speak drastically changed her life. It changed her life because Callie became more sanguine at Sea Pines. She felt more comfortable and made friends with her roommate Sydney and a bashful anorexic girl named Tara. She got depressed at one point and nearly cut herself again, but she ended up giving the piece of metal to her therapist. She wanted to get better and go back to her old reality: “‘I want to get better.’ My dad starts patting his pockets like he’s looking for something. But I know he’s just trying to do something so he doesn’t cry.” If Callie hadn’t chosen to speak, she would still be maltreating herself and not being very productive. She would eventually “graduate” from Sea Pines, but she would still cut herself, and sooner or later maybe she could have met her demise if she kept on doing that. So the decision Callie made to speak changed her life in a positive way.

          Callie’s decision had a very big impact on her peers. When she was speaking to Debbie, she convinced Debbie that it really wasn’t her fault and she didn’t need to feel so guilty. She really rescued Debbie from staying Sea Pines for an extended amount of time because grief. Also, even though Callie had been too miserable to notice, not only her therapist wanted her to speak. People in her group like Tara and Sydney were trying to encourage her to not cut herself and to speak: “Sydney sighs. ‘Just don’t, you know… please don’t hurt yourself.’ Tears, warm and sudden, sting the corners of my eyes, but I don’t cry” People in group were really rooting for Callie all the way, but she didn’t really feel sentimental about Sea Pines until the end. Her group members never excluded Callie and they wanted to help her as much as her therapist did. They were very dedicated and were happy when she decided to speak. So, Callie’s decision to speak really impacted her group members’ lives.

          In the book Cut, by Patricia McCormick, the main character Callie makes a labored decision to speak to her group members. Her decision impacted her life and her peers, and the decision was influenced by so many people. Even though throughout the book Callie is a character who is oblivious to what could really happen to herself if she kept on cutting herself and didn’t speak. By the end, even though she didn’t really state it, she’s more aware because she gives her therapist the strip of metal. She doesn’t want to be that person. In conclusion, Callie made onerous decision to talk at Sea Pines.

Analyzing Characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare

            In the book A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare, there are many interesting and fascinating characters. The one character that I found to be the most intriguing was Helena, one of the lovers in the play. I found Helena interesting because no one actually loves her. Her best friend, Hermia, really only likes Helena because Helena calls her beautiful constantly and idolizes her. The man she loves, Demetrius, doesn't love her back and loves her best friend Hermia. Demetrius has these monologues where he's just expressing his hatred for Helena and he draws his sword upon her several times in the play as well. Lysander is constantly annoyed with Helena because all she does is mope around about how Demetrius doesn't love her. I was also interested in Helena because she will do anything for love from Demetrius. She has this one line where she is simply laying her heart to Demetrius, saying "I am your spaniel, and Demetrius, the more you beat me I will fawn on you. Spurn me, strike me, neglect me, lose me, only give me leave unworthy as I am to follow you". If she was his dog, and he beat her constantly, she would be happy just because she would be in his life. Helena is just as beautiful as Hermia, if not more, yet no one loves Helena, and even by the end of the play you know that no one ever will.
          One of the reasons that I found Helena intriguing is because no one loves her. Helena is a beautiful woman, and it is known. In the first act, Helena says, "Through Athens I am thought as fair as she". Yet Helena is not thought of very highly in Athens by anyone, even though she is very pretty. She lost her virginity before she got married to Demetrius, who left her afterwards. For a woman in that time period to do that is extremely scandalous. Hermia and Helena's relationship is very interesting. They are best friends and they have known each other since childhood, yet Helena just compliments Hermia over and over and that is their friendship. There are countless monologues where Helena is just being so frustrated about Hermia being so beautiful. Hermia doesn't really do anything to help Helena, and kind of just has this "Yeah I'm pretty, and you're just going to have to deal with it" attitude. Lysander finds Helena so annoying because whenever he wants to get with Hermia, Helena is in the way sobbing about her life. He finds her melodramatic yet very monotonous at the same time. And biggest of all, Demetrius doesn't love Helena. He loves Hermia and wishes to marry her. Helena wants him so amazingly bad, yet he will never ever love her. No one loves Helena. Demetrius has to be put under a spell to love Helena. I find this very interesting about the character of Helena.
          Another reason I find Helena so interesting is because she will do anything for love, specifically from Demetrius. In one scene where she is chasing Demetrius throughout the woods, and he takes out his sword and points it at her. Helena yells, "Stay, though thou kill me sweet Demetrius". This describes the painful love that Helena is experiencing in the play. Even if Demetrius plunged his sword into her heart it would be okay, because she loves him. This situation is so hopeless about how Helena would literally go to the ends of the earth just to be in the presence of one man. And what makes the situation even worse is that Helena lost her virginity to Demetrius, and he just left her without saying a word after. She had basically given up her purity and a good reputation just to be with Demetrius, who was probably drunk through the whole thing. And in the play, Demetrius is just absolutely terrible to her.  He threatens to leave her alone in the dangerous woods of Greece and even threatens her life multiple times. He blames her for losing her virginity to him, practically saying she was stupid to go and be with him because he will never ever love her. And even at times, he'll play with her mind a little bit because he knows she is completely in love with him and will do whatever he wishes, which I believe is the worst part. Helena will do anything in the world just to make this egotistical, cruel man love her. And he never will.
            In conclusion, I think Helena is one of the most interesting characters in A Midsummer Night's Dream because of how desperate and unloved she is. No one in Athens truly loves her. Most people think of her of as a disgrace because she slept with a man before she got married. Her best friend, Hermia, only hangs around with her because Helena showers her in compliments. Hermia never actually gives Helena any good advice about the predicament she's in, only accepts Helena's compliments by apologizing for being so beautiful. Hermia's lover, Lysander, doesn't like Helena either. Helena interrupts Lysander and Hermia's relationship constantly with all her problems, and this obviously angers Lysander. And the man Helena is so much in love with does not love her back. He, in fact, hates her with a fiery passion. Another reason I found Helena so fascinating was because she will do anything for love from Demetrius. Demetrius is simply terrible to her. He does not treat Helena the way she deserves to be treated at all, yet Helena never stops loving him any less. All in all, I think the character of Helena from A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare is very intriguing for these reasons.

Symbolism in Bruiser by Neal Shusterman

In the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman a very prominent theme is seeing life with “blinders” on or seeing life with these “blinders off.  Horses have these blinders to keep them from seeing everything. On people these blinders are nonexistent, but in ways they are much more powerful than the blinders on a common horse. As Brontë, one of the main characters explains, “Most of the time we don’t even know they’re there. Maybe we need them though, though, because if we took in everything at once we’d lose our minds.” Brontë is trying so hard to keep her blinders on and shutting her eyes away from the horrific truth, whereas Brewster (another main character) has seen the world for what it truly is. This theme kept on popping up discreetly over and over again in Brontë’s and Brewster’s actions and thoughts. So I think that the theme of living life with the blinders on versus off is very important in the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman.

A way that this theme shows is through one of the characters, Brontë. Brontë tries so hard to keep her blinders on and in doing so she completely denies all her problems. “‘No! They’re not getting divorced! They worked things out! They’re happy!’” The “they” that she is talking about is her parents, and they are on the verge of divorce and her mother is already seeing another man. Also, Brontë never fully realizes the consequences of her actions. For example,  Brontë will introduce Brewster to all her friends and he will begin to care about them, causing him agony because he takes other people’s emotional and physical pain away from the people he cares about. So you can see two ways of how the theme of having the blinders on versus off is shown in Brontë because she is trying so desperately to keep her blinders on and seeing reality.

            A different side of the blinders theme is shown in Brewster whose blinders are fully off. He sees the world in an entirely realistic perspective and he realizes reality while others, like Brontë, refuse to accept it. “… Who have devolved into Play-Doh pumped through sleazy suburban press, stamped into identical molds, all bearing chunks of bleak ice, comet-cold in their chests.” He sees straight through all the heartless people while other people will worship them as if they were magical, filled to the brim with mystical powers of only good. The theme of the blinders is also shown in another way through Brewster.

              In conclusion, the theme of living life with these protective blinders on and on was a reoccurring theme in the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman. As Brontë will state, “Can you imagine how terrifying it must be to suddenly realize that everything you believe about the universe was wrong? Most people don’t realize how terrifying that is until their world is the one being threatened.” Brontë clutches her “blinders” tight to her face whereas Brew’s blinders are off and he sees straight through every phony thing. So I believe that the theme of having blinders on versus off was a very prominent theme in the book Bruiser by Neal Shusterman.

The Theme of Love in Born Confused

              In the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, the theme of love is seen in three different perspectives. Dimple's mother believes that love is something that will connect you to that person for the rest of your life and it is a sacred holy thing. Dimple believes that love is a powerful and terrifying thing that sweeps you off your feet into a whole new world for the better or the worse of you. And Dimple's best friend Gwyn believes that love is something that barely exists and it is very rare. She also believes that false love is found all around. The way the book showed love in these three perspectives made me think about love in my life. I love my family and my friends, and I agree with all three of these perspectives. I believe that love can change your life and it is sacred, I believe that it is a terrifying thing that can switch your world upside down for better or worse, and I also believe that love nowadays is a rare yet beautiful thing. These three characters are all very different and their ideas on love are very different, yet I believe that one thing that all their beliefs have in common is that love is powerful. Love alters so many things in a person's life that it's breath-taking. Born Confused really expresses that in a wonderful way.
         Gwyn in Born Confused is Dimple's best friend. She and Dimple are so close that they are practically sisters. Yet Gwyn and Dimple are very different in the way that Gwyn has been used all her life for her body, and not her soul. Gwyn is a gorgeous girl, being described in the book to have lustrous blond curly hair and radiant blue eyes. Yet in the story, Gwyn dates guys who just use her for her body and she falls for every single one of them. And when they leave her, she gets extremely upset because she felt as though she has given something up all for a waste. She is anti-love, and sometimes even feels that love itself is a complete waste. Yet in spite of that, she continues to search for love, giving up her body and soul only to have it being used and wasted in the end. Dimple and her mother have both never been used like that, so obviously they have different perspectives about love comparing to Gwyn's view on love. Gwyn's perspective made me very sad, because she is only 16 and is a full grown woman in her soul because of the way she has been treated all her life. I think that possibly, sadly, Gwyn will have this outlook on love for all her life because of the way she acts.
            Dimple is the main character in Born Confused and she has just turned 17, which means she is thinking an awful lot about the life she has ahead of her. Part of that life includes getting an arranged marriage, which Dimple will comply to even though she may not be entirely happy with it. Dimple believes that as part of her womanhood, she should fall in love. This scares Dimple though, because Dimple has never been in love because her strict Indian parents forbade her to have a boyfriend or any type of companionship with a boy at all. Dimple is always surrounded by love: her parents love each other deeply, Gwyn falls for practically every boy around her, and her cousin Kavita has fallen very deeply in love with her roommate, Sabina. Dimple kind of reminds of Juliet in the beginning of  Romeo and Juliet in this way. Juliet sees love all around her, and when her parents arrange her to marry Paris, she agrees, because she is naive in the way she has never been in love before. Dimple wants love to happen to her so she can continue on with her life and be happy, yet love terrifies her because she has so little experience with love and she sees how powerful love can be.
          Dimple's mother always wants the best for what she thinks for Dimple. She wants Dimple to get good grades in subjects like math and science so she can be successful one day, and she wants Dimple to have an arranged marriage with another Hindu Indian boy. She wants Dimple to be confidant about being Indian, to have pride for her nationality, and to be a faithful Hindu also. Dimple's mother has an amazing relationship with Dimple's father that even though their relationship may not be shown as much or be as physical, their love is overpowering enough to last across an ocean and raise a child. Because of this love Dimple's mother shares with Dimple's father, she believes that love is a sacred holy thing that will connect you to that one person for the rest of your life. Dimple's mother believes that even if you stopped loving someone years and years ago, the love will still be there because once, that spark was special and it was sparkling. I personally think this is the best perspective of love to have. To know that love is something so special that it is holy and that love never runs out no matter how you may feel about the person is something so beautiful and tender. I wish all people could have that belief.
           In conclusion, three very different perspectives on love are shown in Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier. The first one is by Dimple's best friend, Gwyn, and her perspective on love is that love is very rare and it barely exists. False love is also found everywhere. The second perspective on love is from Dimple's mother, and that is that love is a sacred hallowed thing in which you are connected to that specific person for life no matter what. And the third perspective on love is from Dimple herself, in which love is a terrifying powerful thing. I agree with all three of these perspectives and I love how the author incorporated all of them into the book. I personally love Dimple's mother's view on love the most because it is so moving and gentle. If all people could see the wat Dimple's mother does about love, the world be a much better place.

The Issue of Identity in Born Confused

           In the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier, the main character, Dimple Lala, is an Indian girl who has an extremely strict Hindi family. But living in New Jersey and seeing the "American" lifestyle makes her wonder about who she really is as a person. Her parents want her to be an obedient desi girl who gets good grades and will go into an arranged marriage, yet Dimple does not wish to do that at all. Also, Dimple is very insecure of her ethnicity, with her large hips and brown skin. Dimple idolizes her best friend, Gwyn, for she is blond and pale and skinny. Dimple has trouble accepting herself, and she is struggling to identify herself as an American or an Indian. The American part of her is rebellious and free, yet the Indian part is bone-crushing reality, in which Dimple has to abide by her parents strict rules. Dimple knows that not all American people are good people, but there seems to be such a glamorous quality about the people to her. Dimple isn't quite sure what category she falls under either, considering she is Indian, but living permanently in America. Yet all in all, the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier says a lot of the issue of identity.
          The first part of Dimple Lala's identity crisis is that Dimple wishes to be American so she can fit in in New Jersey at her high school. The so-called "All-American Golden Girl" is a girl with blond hair and blue eyes plus a slim figure. There are only 2 Indian kids in her entire school, so Dimple is often sadly an outcast among her peers. On her birthday, Dimple goes shopping for clothes with her mother as a tradition. Dimple insists on going into a trendy new store called Style Child that her best friend Gwyn often goes to. In Style Child, Dimple sees a white studded miniskirt that she falls in love with. But when Dimple tries on a size 0 and does not fit into it, she gets very upset and keeps telling herself that she has to fit into a size 0 although it is completely unrealistic for any 17 year old to be able to fit into a size 0. When Dimple finally discovers that she will not be able to fit into the skirt, she breaks down crying and gets very displeased. Dimple's situation is something many girls everywhere have experienced, yet Dimple's was to be a certain race. This shows Dimple's confusion with her identity and her longing to be something else but knowing that she can't.
            Another problem Dimple has with her identity is that she struggles figuring out whether she is Indian or American. She visited India when she was little but she can barely recall any memories from those trips. She has lived in America all her life and is friends with American people and has dated American men. Yet both her mother and father are Indian, so she is biologically Indian. She is expected by her parents to be an Indian girl who follows all Hindi customs. This makes Dimple understandably very confused about her life and who she really is as a person. The other Indian in her school is proud of his heritage and wears a turban to school with his head held high. Dimple labels him a freak and refuses to acknowledge him. Yet when Dimple goes home and away from her school and her extremely American best friend Gwyn, she is Indian again. It's almost like Dimple is living a double life because she is so confused with her identity. She doesn't which one to choose because one is the life she was born with and the other is the life she wants so badly.
          In conclusion, Dimple Lala is a girl stuck between the confining yet familiar world of her Indian home and the so-called exciting and new world of being an American teenager. She is on the verge of an identity crisis and wants to be an American but knows it is impossible. She expects herself to be an American teenager, because, after all, she was born in the United States, yet she is Indian because both of her parents and the rest of her family is Indian. One thing that shows Dimple's lost identity is how she desperately wants to be an American girl like her best friend Gwyn, but her all-real Indian side is holding her back. Dimple most definitely knows that Americans are not the perfect people, but she wants to fit in with the rest of the kids at her school. Another thing that shows Dimple's identity crisis is that she is frustrated being stuck between two worlds: her Indian one and her new American one. Yet all together, the book Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier teaches a lot about the issue of identity.

Thoughts on Homosexuality and Religion in Sing You Home *Spoiler Alert*

            In the book Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult, the main character Zoe Baxter discovers that she is a lesbian after falling in love with her best friend, Vanessa. Before finding love with Vanessa, Zoe was married to a man named Max Baxter. After Max and Zoe split, Max becomes an alcoholic and gets into a terrible car accident. Yet after the accident, he finds religion and gets "saved" by Jesus Christ and Pastor Clive Davis. While he is in the church, he learns that homosexuality is a sin, and if a man lies with another man he will condemned to the fiery pits of hell. When Max discovers Zoe is a lesbian, he becomes terribly distraught and forces himself to believe that Zoe is just going through a phase, even though he full well knows that she is not. And when Zoe and Vanessa go very deeply into their marriage, they realize that they want to have a child. Zoe is infertile and had two miscarriages and one stillbirth, but Vanessa can still bear children. Zoe wants to use the embryos from her in vitro fertilization that she underwent with Max, but as a homosexual couple, they have to get consent from the other biological parent, Max, to use the embryo. This obviously causes feelings of tension and a trial is formed with Max wanting to give the embryos to his brother and his brother's wife, yet Zoe and Vanessa wanting to keep the embryo so Vanessa and Zoe can care for the child. This made me think about homosexuality and religion. Zoe, Vanessa, and their lawyer constantly refer to the Bible banning and allowing crazy, terrible things (like homosexuality) that is completely outdated now. It also made me think about it is not one's fault to be homophobic. It is incorporated into almost all religions that being gay or lesbian is a sin, and since the majority of the world believes in some sort of higher power, many people are against gays and lesbians. The book Sing You Home by Jodi Picoult really made me think about the issues of homosexuality and religion tied in together.
         The first thing in Sing You Home that made me think about homosexuality and religion was how the Bible bans and allows crazy things. For example, the Bible allows people to stone a girl to death if she is not a virgin and unwed, yet forbids people to eat shellfish. The Bible was also written 3,000 years ago, and this made me think about how blinding religion is. Sadly, in some religions I feel as if people follow some rules of their religion but not all. Especially with the religion of Christianity. In that specific religion, it sometimes feels as though someone read over the entire Bible and made a list of what the Bible says not to do and to do, but made their own version, leaving some of those things out and some in. Christians obviously will not stone a woman if she is not married and has had sex, but they will go ballistic if someone is homosexual. I believe that the Bible is extremely outdated and should not be used as a code to look up to because times have obviously changed in the past 3,000 years. And in the actual Bible, the sin of being a homosexual wasn't this huge overacrching theme. It was mentioned only a couple of times, yet people follow it so devoutly that I find it mind-blowing and very upsetting also. Zoe and Vanessa should have to jump through "1,168 legal hoops" to get married and have a kid of their own. Religion is something deeply rooted into American society, yet it allows terrible things and bans the tiniest things. I believe being a gay or lesbian is a tiny thing.
         Another thing that Sing You Home made me think about in terms of homosexuality and religion is that most of the time, homophobia is not someone's fault. Many religions, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and Hindu just to name a few, consider homosexuality a sin. Many many people all over the world practice these religions, which explains the extreme pushes against gay marriage and against gay and lesbians in general worldwide. No one is born homophobic. The people who are are taught something, whether it's in religion or not, and it's not how to be tolerant and accepting like people should be, it's how to hate. Many religious people dismiss being homosexual as something someone should choose to be, yet it is not. People can choose to be homophobic, but they can't choose being homosexual. I'm straight but I am accepting of gay and lesbian people. I hate how everyone seems to hate the gays all because of an age-old custom that happened 3,000 years ago. I know that it is most definitely nobody's fault, but it bothers me. In Sing Me Home, it upsets me how Vanessa and Zoe have to go though an entire trial just to have a baby. Same-sex couples take that for granted.
        In conclusion, the book Sing Me Home by Jodi Picoult made me think about many issues in the world, but it made me think about religion and homosexuality specifically. One thing it made me think about was how outdated the Bible was and how people pick and choose things they follow in their religion. Unfortunately, one of those things was homosexuality, and it prevents Zoe and Vanessa, who are completely in love with each other, from getting married. Another thing the book made me think about was how homophobia is not someone's fault because they are taught it in many religions all around the world. The movement against gay and lesbian people is so huge, but all because of religion. In a perfect world, Zoe and Vanessa could get married and no one would question it and no one would oppress them for it.
         

To Kill a Mockingbird Metaphor Analysis

           In the book To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee, there is a metaphor of killing a mockingbird that connects to two characters in the book: Tom Robinson and Boo Radley.  The metaphor is first introduced when Jem and Scout get their first air rifles and Atticus says to them, "'I'd rather you shoot at tin cans in the backyard, but I know you'll go after birds. Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but it's a sin to kill a mockingbird". Scout, confused, goes to ask her friend Miss Maudie about it: "'Your father's right," she said. 'Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird'". I think two possible characters in the story can represent the mockingbird. First, I think Boo Radley could represent the mockingbird because even though the entire town fears Boo, all he wants to do is "sing sweetly". He wants seclusion and just to go about his life. At the end of the book, after Boo saves the children from Bob Ewell by killing Mr. Ewell, and Atticus expresses how he thinks the case should go to trial. But then the sheriff, Heck Tate, says that if it did, all the woman of Maycomb would bring cakes to him and he would almost become a celebrity; thus killing the mockingbird because all Boo wants is seclusion and to be, really. And I believe Tom Robinson is also the mockingbird because all Tom wants is peace and to get by with his children and his wife, Helen. The mockingbird represents innocence, and innocence is killed by racism when Tom gets convicted of raping Mayella Ewell, a crime he did not commit. This is why I believe both Boo Radley and Tom Robinson represent the mockingbird in To Kill a Mockingbird.
          Firstly, I believe that Boo Radley is a mockingbird. Boo Radley is some kind of legend in Maycomb; he is basically the bogeyman of the town. One of the biggest rumors in Maycomb county is that Boo Radley stabbed his father in the leg with a pair of scissors, and the public response from the townspeople is overwhelming. Many more stories of Boo Radley surface, many sounding outrageous and false, and the children become fascinated with Boo Radley. Atticus knows Boo is an innocent soul who just wants to "sing" freely, because he constantly reprimands the children whenever they want to stake out Boo or reenact his so-called assault on his father, Nathan Radley. Scout, in the end of book, realizes that Boo is just yearning to be left alone from the scared yet prying eyes of Maycomb. "'Yes sir, I understand,' I reassured him. 'Mr. Tate was right.' Atticus disengaged himself and looked at me. 'What do you mean?' 'Well it'd be sort of like shootin' a mockingbird, won't it?'". Mr. Tate doesn't want Boo to go to trial because he would then become a celebrity, killing the mockingbird. It would be a sin to deprive Boo of this simple right.
         I also believe that Tom Robinson is a mockingbird because all he wants to do is be free and live as he pleases, happily, with his wife and children. Yet the mockingbird is wounded when he is falsely charged with the rape of Mayella Ewell and racism is the final blow that kills the mockingbird. The town of Maycomb is the South in the 1940's; a place plagued with racism at the time. In the town, the white people live in luscious ample houses and other whites may live on lush farms. While the white people live these extravagant lives, the black people are pushed into plebeian cabins in the far stretches of the forests. There, they are often persecuted by whites anyways, such as the Ewells. Yet all Tom is yearning to do is to "sing" as he would wish, yet racism is an iron fist that pulverizes Tom, killing the innocent mockingbird. "'The state has not produced one iota of evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross-examination, but has flatly been contradicted by the defendant". Before all of the courtroom drama took place, Tom Robinson was just another man wanting so badly to sing as he would like, yet killed by the cruel force of racism. That is a terrible sin, as Atticus said.
        In conclusion the metaphor of the mockingbird and it's death is a very powerful metaphor in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. I believe that there are two possible characters that represent the mockingbird, and those characters are the terrorist of the town, Boo Radley, and a simple black man who ends up a situation that was very unfortunate: Tom Robinson. Both characters just want to "sing" freely, yet forces such as racism and gossip chain these birds and choke their throats. Tom Robinson is eventually killed, metaphorically and in actuality, yet Boo Radley's need to sing is recognized and respected by Scout and her father. I found it interesting how Boo, the most feared man in town, lived and got what he wanted, yet Tom Robinson, a hardworking black man faced his untimely death. Either way I still believe that Tom Robinson and Boo Radley are innocent mockingbirds in To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee.

The Theme of Childhood Innoncence in The Catcher in the Rye

           I just finished the amazing book The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger. In the book, there is a very prominent theme of the main character (Holden Caulfield) and his feelings about childhood, how he cherishes childhood, and detests all adults, calling them "phonies". Firstly, when Holden is discussing a song (it turns out to be poem) but the lyrics Holden believes them to be are "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye". When his sister Phoebe asks him what he wants to do with his life, he answers, "'You know what I would like to be? I mean if I had my goddam choice?... anyway, I keep picturing all these little kids playing some game in this big field of rye and all...and I'm standing on the edge of some crazy cliff. What I have to do, I have to catch everybody if they start going off the cliff- I mean if they're running and they don't look where they're going I have to come out of somewhere and catch them. That's what I'd do all day". I think this represents Holden wanting the children to stay playing in the rye, and not have to fall off the cliff into adulthood. Another reason why I think Holden loves children and childhood is because when he goes to visit his little sister's elementary school and he sees "F**k you" written on the wall and he gets very upset. I believe this is because he sees the beginning of the corruption of children that sends them into adulthood. There are many other things that show how Holden loves childhood, but these two stood out to me.
        First of all, I believe that Holden cherishes childhood and children because of how he quotes a song that he heard that turns out to be a poem that says "If a body catch a body comin' through the rye". Holden then expresses to his little sister that he wants someone catching little children all day before they fall off a cliff. I think falling off the cliff symbolizes going into adulthood. This shows how much Holden hates adulthood also. I think Holden wants the children to stay in their innocence forever, playing in the rye. I think it's interesting how Holden says that the children would fall off the cliff if they don't look where they're going. I think the author J.D. Salinger was saying that childhood to adulthood happens unknowingly. We have no idea as the responsibility of being an adult keeps piling and piling on our shoulders. Holden wants to prevent the children from falling, but the cliff will always be there for the children to sadly fall off of.
       Another reason I think Holden loves childhood is because one day when he is visiting his little sister Phoebe he sees the words "F**k you" written on a wall. Holden immediately runs over to the wall and tries to wipe it off so the children won't see the profanity that was there. I think Holden acted the way he did because he wants to conceal all corruption from the children. Seeing those words on a wall for a child may be a little upsetting, but the child eventually gets over it. Yet Holden doesn't want to risk even that because any corruption makes them older and older. But soon Holden realizes that he couldn't erase all the "F**k you"s in the world and he's going to have to accept adulthood. This made me think about corruption makes us so much older. We could be only 6 years old for example, but we could have seen so much despair and wrong in the world, we could really be looking through the eyes of an 10 year old. Holden wants to stop that, but he can't.
         In conclusion, I believe Holden Caulfield wants childhood to last forever; he truly cherishes it. I know this because he fantasizes about saving children from falling off a cliff and watching them play in the rye forever. The rye, I believe, is the wonderful world of childhood. Falling off the cliff represents falling into the world of adulthood, which you are stuck in for the rest of your life. Another reason I think Holden loves children is because when he sees the words "F**k you" on a wall at an elementary school, he tries to erase it so the children don't have to see. The character of Holden Caulfield made me think about how corruption can make us grow older without time and how children must go into adulthood no matter what. Sadly, we cannot do anything to stop time. Holden Caulfield is a truly amazing character who understands the importance of time and being a child.

Review to Isabelle in 807's Blog Post

            Isabelle's blog post about the book Crank by Ellen Hopkins really stood out to me for a number of reasons. Personally, Crank is one of my favorite books so it was interesting to see how she saw it. I agree and disagree with her on many points, and disagreeing makes the post even better because disagreeing with her makes me think even more in depth about the book. I read this book in the 5th grade which was slightly traumatizing to me because I was so new to all the harsh issues this book presented, but now I can look back on this book through her blog post and realize all the hidden messages this book has. Her post also makes me think about the world issues in this book on a huge scale and how it affects me. The issue of drugs and split personalities with love still there is something Isabelle connected all together, and it is written simply yet eloquently at the same time. I truly enjoyed reading this post, because it was so well written and thoughtful about some things I would never think of.
         I agree with Isabelle that Bree was a very dominant force in Kristina's life because of all the terrible things "Bree" ultimately made her do. But Isabelle insists that she could have won over Bree and she was weak. Isabelle also says that Kristina made the worse possible choices, but I disagree with both of these statements. I think Bree was the monster who Kristina really can't win over. Addiction is a terrible disease that controls the mind with an iron grip, so it's perfectly understandable how Kristina keeps sleeping around and abusing drugs, because no matter how hard Kristina tries to wean herself off crystal meth she will always be addicted. Yet Kristina loved Bree, because she was daring and flamboyant and everything quiet, studious Kristina Georgia Snow wasn't. Kristina was weak but Bree was strong, and as I recall at the end of the book Kristina says that Bree will always be there, which shows that Kristina can never ever win over Bree no matter how hard she may try.
        Another thing I disagree with Isabelle about is how Kristina made the worst possible choices. I agree, the things Kristina did were terrible, but in retrospect it was all perfectly normal teenage behavior that is so common all over the world. I imagine how pious somber Kristina must have felt so trapped in her own skin. Teenage sickness is catching and when Kristina went to visit her absent father in Albuquerque, she was caught in whirlwind of teenagedom, and everything was so new and beautiful, almost because she felt like this was like living. I feel like all teenagers feel like making bad choices; it's universal. It's part of the American life. I don't want to say this, but I feel this takes off the edge off the choices she made. She was living, but she couldn't stop.
        In conclusion, Isabelle's blog post, while I disagreed on some points, was very good. It changed my view on Crank and made think about the book in general. Ellen Hopkins is also my favorite author so it made this post even more enjoyable. This post also made me think about the world, which is a very beautiful thing when writing can move someone to do that. All in all, I look forward to seeing more of Isabelle's blog posts in the future.