In Darkness (#4)

You know the phrase, "Don't judge a book by its cover," well of course you do, you have probably heard it so many times that its getting annoying.  Anyway, that is exactly what I did. The cover really pulled me in.  I dont know what it was about it, I think it was the fact that I am fascinated by history of segregation and slavery, not that I like it, its just interesting.  Anyway by looking at the cover I got about 70% of the wrong idea. It wasnt about slavery that much.  Except for when it talked about the past.  Although I still really enjoyed this book.
I would recommend this book to Tyler Clevenger, I truly think he would enjoy this book.  Its got all of the right pieces, it doesnt move too fast, or too slow. It has many characters to keep track of and learn about, and its fun to read, very action and emotionally oriented.

In Darkness (#3)

“I should explain something here. Thing is, people like to say bad stuff about vodou. The Kretyens, they have often made out that vodou is violent and dangerous and evil, when really it’s a religion like any other and it can be beautiful. So when I say this about the babies, I don’t want you to get the wrong idea. It’s not like it’s normal in vodou to grind babies up into powder. It’s pretty far from normal, in fact. It’s f****d up. But where I come from, it’s the same as anywhere else: there are always some people who are ignorant and superstitious. Those people, they thought the babies could be used for black maji, and that was why the babies would disappear.”

Excerpt From: Lake, Nick. “In Darkness.” Bloomsbury, 2012. iBooks.
This material may be protected by copyright.

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So basically this is a ridiculous part in this book, I just think its really funny and creepy to read.  Anyway the boy and his sister just found a baby that had some lump on its forehead in the trash crying.  Marguerite is a giver, she will go out of her way to help people.  So she is about to take this baby and try to get it somewhere safe with someone safe, but hes worried what people will think of them carrying this abandoned baby they found in the garbage.

In Darkness (#2)

This boy stuck in the hospital still hasnt said his name.  But he truly just wants his twin sister to be alive and his manman to be happy. He hasnt seen his sister since a gang killed his dad and supposedly    kidnapped marguerite (his sister).  I think one of the themes that is surfacing is that the greatest sacrifices give the greatest consecuenses, good or bad. He has joined a gang to help get money for his family, get it so many kids can go to schooling even if they cant afford it. He is in a feared but respected gang called Route 9.  He has had to kill before, although hes not proud of it, he did it for the people.  In this are in Haiti called the site, the government is pretty much just run by gangs and rich men, which are very scarce. This book is kinda weird in the sense that it is running in not one, but two time periods, every other chapter is called "Now" and the other is called "Then" which i think is very interesting.

In Darkness (#1)

In Darkness is a story about a boy in Haiti that has been shot and sent directly to the hospital.  While he is laying in his bed in the ER, there was an earthquake, which made the building fall in on him.  He is left in complete darkness and tries to call for help, with no luck.  He called himself the voice in the dark.  He tells us his life's story. 
He has a twin sister named marguerite, a mom, which he calls manman, also a father.  I think that somehow he will escape this deathtrap.  I think its really weird that none of his family was with him when he was at the hospital.  It leads me to believe that his relationship isnt very good with them, and/or they arent around to come, either dead, or dont even know hes there. Also I am really anxious to learn how he got shot, was he caught is some crossfire between gangs, is he in a gang, or was it a mugging gone wrong?  In a tv show that I love called Falling Skies, they are caught underneath rubble from an alien attack, anyway the way he is stuck, cant see anything or move very well made me think of this show.  I pictured that the entire time.

Poetry “If You Forget Me,”

This poem is a love poem.  It is called “If You Forget Me,” He is writing to her, saying that everything leads him to her.  But if she doesn't love him back, he knows it will be impossible to get to her.  So he will quit, and move on to go to another island of love.  He wants her to know that he will never forget her, unless she forgets him.  He needs to know that she is looking for him too, and its not just a one way street, that they are in this together, and forever.
It's a beautiful love poem that is way easier to understand than some of these others, but it still has a very deep meaning.  Love has to go both ways, or it doesn't exist at all.

Poetry “We Real Cool,”

Here is another poem that I read, and since it's so short, I will put it down below.

THE POOL PLAYERS.
SEVEN AT THE GOLDEN SHOVEL.

We real cool. We
Left school. We

Lurk late. We
Strike straight. We

Sing sin. We
Thin gin. We

Jazz June. We
Die soon.

This poem is actually pretty dark.  It starts off fun and loose.  By the time it gets to the end, it is very sad, and dreary.  It escalates so quickly that you never see that ending coming.  But I think that is what it is trying to portray.  How short life really is.  You might think you are cool, and you are totally different than everyone else by leaving school, and staying out all night, but eventually every one will die.  I think it's saying not to waste your life doing stupid things.

poetry “He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do,”

So, I decided to take a break from divergent, I just wasn't getting as into it as I thought I would.  So I have been looking at some poetry over the past few days instead.  This poem that I read was called “He Would Never Use One Word Where None Would Do,” Philip Levine.  It was a very cool poem, I definitely recommend going to the link and checking it out.  It seems to be about 2 guys, one older than the other, and he seems to have figured out that one of the best things you can give or receive is silence. Its kind of hard to understand.  Post in the comments on what you think it might be about.

He writes about a crisis in this poem.  But he doesn't specify what the crisis was.  It also said it was in May of '97.  So I researched about the spring of '97 a bit and found that the only crisis was in Asia.  Nowhere near where they are.  They are in New York, I know this because of the restaurant that they ate at.  It is in New York.  Maybe he has a personal crisis.  I wonder if there is something wrong with this older man. Maybe in some way, "he" isn't a man, maybe its an object that he is describing to make it sound like a man. Really the only person who knows for sure is Philip Levine.

I like to throw in quotations, and parenthesis a lot.  I like to use little side statements, that add that voice.   Like this, "All of those underground caverns and hidden passageways underneath a city really capture how, once again using the term, radical..."  These show that I like to make things very obvious in my writing.  Also I love using a little sarcasm, this only works for me with quotations though.

I use some pretty short sentences just to show that they are really easy to see if you read the book.  I only make long senences when I want to explain something that I think is more dificult to see to the reader.  This is an example of a short and sweet sentence, "She has joined the Dauntless." 

Divergent

First I am going to talk about how her making the decision to go to dauntless instead of abnegation affected her family.  If my parents raised me a certain way, and all of a sudden I first of all, left, but then changed my entire lifestyle.  I know that they would be pretty confused and angry possibly.  Think about it this way, if you had two children that you raised to be with you for the rest of their life,  then they stab you in the back and switch to a different family. Think about how hurt you would be as a parent.  I would feel like I didn't do a good job, otherwise they would have stayed.  I would be sooooooooo nervous for them, and scared that they would either die, or not pass the initiation.  Then they would become a factionless person.

I wonder how the rest of the society feels about these parents.  I would feel like they would start to mock you a little bit, for losing your kid.  But the faction abnegation is not allowed to judge, so really, would anyone even care?

We're raising our kids to go out and explore the world. But what happens when they do? By Krista Ramsey

This Column is all about the "loss" of your children when they move away, and how sad you are.  Then it explains that is is actually the parents' fault, they are the ones that pushed you so hard, and told you that there was a place for you somewhere in the world, and to follow your dreams.  They just don't realize that they are sort of pushing them away to do bigger and better things with their lives than just sit near home doing a job they may not love.  Click here to go see the column for yourself.

"It's the most humbling lesson of parenting: We may be in charge of the prologue, but only they get to write the story of their lives."  is the final sentence in this column.  It really puts your whole life into perspective I think.  It shows that parents have a huge influence on you when you are really young. But once your gone, its up to you to influence yourself into doing things.  You wont have parents to tell you what's a good or bad choice.  Its all you now!

She has a sort of "as a matter of fact" kind of voice in her writing.  Also she can be a little sarcastic which makes it fun to read.

If I could ask her three questions, I would ask:
How did you get the inspiration to write this piece on teens moving out?
What is the coolest place you have gotten to go to get a story?
What is your process for finding interesting things to write about?

Divergent

So, I never did finish reading this book last trimester. I'm glad that I didnt because now I have something to read.  First of all, I would like to say that I am really enjoying the book so far. I just finished chapter seven.  At this part she is getting a tour of where she will be staying for hopefully the rest of her life.  She has joined the Dauntless.  It is the most radical faction in this world.  They jump on and off moving trains, they jump across really tall rooftops, and many die.

In my mind, I compare this underground system of rooms to the teenage mutant ninja turtles underground sewer.  I know that sounds a little weird, but that is what it reminds me of.  All of those underground caverns and hidden passageways underneath a city really capture how, once again using the term, radical these guys are. they live underground and the only way down there is by jumping down into a dark pit that has a net in it.  CRAAAAAAZZZZYYY!!!

Fahrenheit 451 Montag Characterization

In Fahrenheit 451, the main character is Montag. He is a fireman, a husband, and friend. First of all, I will be honest and say that I didn't like him very much at the beginning. He was this "bad guy" fireman. The fire department in this book is much different, instead of putting out fires, they start them by burning books. Basically, he just seemed like another fireman. But what I realized later was that he is a dynamic character. This means that he changes throughout the book. By the end of the book, he was more of a revolutionist I guess.

He worked outside the law so he could have knowledge from books that he stole and then hid in his house. When I read this book, I picture a 30 year old guy that has a pretty wife, and a nice house in a utopian society. He had brown hair and blue grey eyes. I found a picture online that fits what I thought he looked like. Here he is.