Lord of the Flies questions (Chapter 6 + 7)

Chapter 6 and 7

How do the other boys feel about Ralph/Jack conflict? How does this illustrate group mentality and barbarism?

The other boys are starting to lose their respect for Ralph as a leader. When the hunters go look for the beastie and they find the big rocks. They immediately want to abandon the search and create a fort or a “castle”. Ralph is the one who calls them back to reality and ensures that they maintain their attention on the task at hand. Jack wants to stay and build a fort as well and therefore challenges Ralph’s leadership.  The hunting party then goes on and continues to look for the beastie. At this point the hunters have lost some of the admiration they previously had for Ralph or “the boy with the conch” for going against their wishes.

Later all the boys are hungry and they find a pig but don’t manage to catch it. Although, Ralph feels very proud of himself for injuring the pig the hunters praise goes to Jack who injured himself while trying to catch the pig.

Through these examples we see that the boys have lost their sense of civilization and now rely on savagery. Therefore, the boy who is showing the better traits after this change in the group’s mentality is Jack.

How does Atticus’s parenting contribute to the growth and maturity of the children?

How does Atticus’s parenting contribute to the growth and maturity of the children?

By using different ways of teaching Atticus, allows his children to mature with good principles and behavior. As Scout and Jem come to Atticus for help through the stages of their life, they learn from their father principles and rules that can make their life as adults easier if correctly applied. As a single parent Atticus excels at raising his children even thought there is not a mother in the house to provide the guidance and compassion that mothers normally have a gift for.

Atticus Finch teaches his children to do what is right and correct, by encouraging them and demonstrating how attitudes can affect life: “If you’ll concede the necessity of going to school, we’ll go on reading every night just as we always have” (page 37) Atticus understands the pressure that Scout feels from her teacher but wants her to persist. This demonstrates Atticus wants Scout to follow her teacher’s instructions and learn to live with the pressures of life and at the same time to enjoy the activities she loves while learning more through additional readings. “Let’s get this: you do as Calpurnia tells you, you do as I tell you, and as long as your aunt’s in this house, you will do as she tells you. Understand?” (Page 142) This statement demonstrates that Atticus wants is daughter to demonstrate respect for everyone including servants even if that means she has to keep her opinions for herself. In this passage Atticus is trying to demonstrate to his daughter that in life she has to respect people even if she does not agree with their opinions. It is clear that Atticus cares about his children enough to demonstrate to them how certain behaviors can affect their life.

Atticus corrects his children’s behavior and language, causing their behaviors to alter towards some topics. “Don’t say nigger, Scout. That’s common.” (Page 81) This make obvious that even thought Atticus knows everyone in town use the term “niggers” to refer to black people he wants his children to be better than that. Therefore, we see that Atticus is a caring father because he wants his children to behave in a more caring and respectful manner and therefore become better citizens. ”Somehow, if I fought Cecil I would let Atticus down” (Page 83) in this quote Scout explains the reasons why she felt compelled not to fight. Her father taught her to be a better person and she respected his opinion. This demonstrates that no matter how much Atticus feels his children sometimes do not respect him because of the lack of a mother, they still do. It is clear that the principles Atticus teaches them so well that his children feel compelled to follow those teachings word for word given that they fear disappointing Atticus.

Lastly, Atticus wants to introduce some behavior changes in his life before he can teach his children. “The main one is, if I didn’t I couldn’t hold up my head in town, I couldn’t even tell you or Jem not to do something again.” (Page 81) This statement demonstrates that Atticus wants to apply correct principles to his life before teaching his children. Atticus believes that he can not demand from his children something he is not applying to his life himself. “Heck, can’t you even try to see it my way?... If they don’t trust me they won’t trust anybody.” (Page 280) Atticus wants to prove that Jem is innocent trough the law and not trough his own connections. His attitudes influence the reader to believe that Atticus has integrity because despite loving his son he believes that the law should demonstrate his innocence and not the connections that he as a father has with the sheriff. It is obvious that Atticus enjoys teaching his children not only trough words but through his example and the application of laws and rules.

Atticus sets a great model to what parents should be nowadays because through the examples mentioned above his children will eventually become adults with principles and those principles will help them succeed through their life. Although his children believe that the education he provides is very strict and does not allow them many times to do what they would like it is still very important to set the correct structures that will help them grow and mature. 

The Great Gatsby

Why does Fitzgerald choose to insert a quote at the beginning of the novel?

(Capturing Caely-http://capturingcaely.blogspot.com/2012/06/book-review-24-great-gatsby-by-f-scott.html)

Fitzgerald chose to include this quote at the beginning of the novel so the reader can have a perception of what themes and ideas the novel is about.

In the novel, Mr. jay Gatsby is a wealthy man who lives in West Egg. His large mansion does not cease to fascinate people and his wild parties make strangers travel miles just to experience it for themselves. But the character Fitzgerald creates (Jay Gatsby) rarely mingles with his guests and does not seem content with his life.  Therefore, this forces the reader to wonder about what the character of Gatsby wants. The answer comes through the narrator of the story (Nick Carraway) when he tells the audience that all the wealth his friend, Jay Gatsby, has and the majestic parties he makes are to reconquer his teenage love, Daisy Buchanan (Nick’s second cousin).

When Gatsby and Daisy were young and in love, they wanted to marry each other. But there was a setback Daisy was raised in a wealthy, respectable family, and her parents wanted her to marry someone of the same of higher status.

Gatsby was very poor and knew that he stood no chance in realizing the expensive dreams his sweetheart had. As a result, he became an officer and inherited all of his money from a “deceased friend” years later. But in that period of time, Daisy had already married Tom Buchanan. Consequently, Gatsby made it his life-long goal to reconquer the heart of the woman he loved. Not only did Gatsvy love the woman but also the wealth and status she represented. That is the reason why he built his mansion across the bay from her house and had many parties, in the hope that one day she would enter his life as a ray of sunshine.

Therefore, the quote by Thomas Parke D’Invillers ties into the novel, as a description of what the character of Gatsby was willing to do so that Daisy could return to him. Because of all the traits he would have if he would achieve the “lover, gold-hatted” status; he would be able to have Daisy crying “I must have you”.

Book Review - Mockingjay

Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins-Review

“It’s better to have loved and lost than have never loved at all”

In the book Mockingjay Katniss Everdeen misses Peeta. He is still in the Capitol and now the people of district thirteen want her to be the Mockingjay (or leader in their rebellion). But even though Katniss is with her family, she cannot concentrate in transmitting messages to the people of Panem. She wants Peeta. Gale realizes this and goes to the Capitol in a secret mission to bring Peeta back. He succeeds but Peeta is not the same person Katniss fell in love with. Will happiness with Katniss’s family last? Will the Capitol leave Katniss unpunished for what she has done against them?

After reading the book, I as the reader thought that there were two very important themes:
• War brings more pain than glory.
• Government is what people turn it into.

The themes are portrayed when the rebels turn against the Capitol, since they have been oppressed for so many years. This rebellion brings pain to the protagonist Katniss (since the story is told from her point of view: first person narrative) but also to the people around her. With the rebellion Katniss and all the people of Panem change the government to something that benefits all interests of the oppressed people.

The author came across this idea based on the story from the Greek mythology Theseus and the Minotaur. Where every nine years fourteen children, seven Athenian boys and seven Athenian girls, were given as tributes to the King of Crete, Mino and were thrown into a labyrinth to be devoured by King Mino’s Minotaur. It was one of her childhood favorite stories and she always thought it was unfair for kids to have to pay for what their parents had done. Also, since her father was in the Vietnam War she was found herself flipping through T.V. channels and all of those channels referred it, adding to her fears of her father’s possible death and therefore she used the idea in her book that the people of that community had to watch with anxiety the suffering of their own children. Lastly, her father new a lot about plants and different fruits that could be found in the wild, an idea which she used for the character of Katniss.

I thought that Suzanne Collins was trying to reach out or connect with teenagers and at the same time, she was trying to get the two main themes across, because teenagers will be future adults and if they think they can make a change like the one recently done in Egypt our collective future will be better.

Mutation by Robin Cook

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Mutation by Robin Cook Commentary

Mutation by Robin Cook Commentary

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Reading Log #4- The Red Pyramid

The Red Pyramid

While reading today, I was able to visualize Carter’s and Saddie’s surprise as they were left alone in their uncle’s mansion while he went to another dimension searching for their enemy and give them proper training. As they were searching in the library for something that would provide them with more information about their past and their newly acquired powers, they heard their uncle’s crocodile “Philip of Macedonia” fighting against someone. They rushed downstairs and found out that what their uncle’s crocodile was fighting were not people but instead serpopards . After sending the crocodile flying in the air, the serpopards attacked the shield that protected their house. Using spells, they broke the protective shield and entered the house. Saddie ordered her cat to protect them. Since the cat was under a spell (in which it’s main task was to protect Saddie) she immediately changed into human form and attacked the serpopards destroying them. Since they were afraid that other creatures would invade the house both of them ran out of the door together with Bast , directely into central park. There they met a cat that was missing an ear and had many scratches. They asked the goddess why didn’t she cure him and she responded that she couldn’t take away the cat’s battle marks because cats were very proud of them. This was the part I visualized best because the choice of words the author used were very descriptive and made the reader want to know more about what would happen to the main characters. While reading this today I was reminded of the book “Prey” given that Jack the protagonist had to run away from the killer swarm.

Therefore, I can connect most with Carter since he is shy and always does what is required of him. But, his uncle, strictly forbid him and his sister (Saddie) from going to the library. But instead of obeying the rules like Carter wanted, his sister influenced him into going there. In this case I would not be able to connect with Carter since I am not easily influenced by others. But independent of that I would love to have Carter as a friend. We share the same beliefs; therefore it would be easy for us to understand each other and to connect with each other’s life.

If I could jump in the book right now I would help Carter, Saddie and Bast escape Sequet . I would tell them that they should not quit on finding their father. Since I cannot go into the book and change anything, I have to be happy with predicting what will happen. I think that Bast will die protecting Saddie and Carter but that they will be caught before they can escape the vengeance of Sequet.

I cannot connect my life experience with anything that the characters have done. Since I have not experienced the death of either of my parents, I have not been kept away from my brother my whole life, I do not own a cat and do not intend to own one anytime soon and I have never gone from country to country travelling because of my father’s work. Also, being Portuguese and from the 21st century is hard to make connections with ancient beliefs of ancient Egypt. There are certain names of gods that are really important for us to understand some of the background information and if not researched those names can be very confusing.

To make the story more interesting, the author has used some of the literary features:
• Imagery
• Similes
• Metaphor
• Colloquial Language
• Motif

This makes the story credible but not entirely realistic. After scientific study proving that magic and multiple dimensions do not exist it is hard to trust the information in the book as truth even though the overall concept is very attention-grabbing.

If I had to analyze this book I would say that it is very appealing and that everyone who likes fiction books should read it. But I would also say that there is some information that the reader will find hard to connect with. But overall it is an excellent book!