Overall, I somewhat enjoyed to book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. It was a good story and I like how he wrote it with dual perspective. The reason I am not crazy about it is because the story that this young lady, Hannah, went through what seemed unrealistic and not enough to take her life.
My favorite passage from the book is the very last sentence in it. The main character, Clay, let Hannah slip by him without being able to help her through all that she was going through. Now that she is gone he regrets every minute of it. Lately he realized another girl in his class is slowly pulling herself away from everyone the same way that Hannah had. This passage is important to me because it shows Clays true character. He refuses to let this girl kill herself the same way Hannah did.
“Skye’s walking down the same stretch of hall where I watched Hannah slip away two weeks ago. And I start walking, toward her. The closer I get to her, the faster I walk, and the lighter I feel. My throat begins to relax. Two steps behind her, I say her name. “Skye” (169).
Clay is a male high school student currently in the sophomore grade. He is tall, attractive, and loved by everyone. Clay is one of the most down to earth characters I have ever read about. He cared about Hannah beyond comprehension, and although he doesn’t come out and say it, he misses her. While he is listening to the tapes that Hannah sent to him, he is genuinely hurt by her story. All of his thoughts are thoughts that I can understand and believe that an average person would think them. Clay actually believed the tape and was affected by it, unlike many of the other people that were mentioned in it. According to Hannah, he was the only person that was there for her. The sad part is, he came too late. He reached out to her and tried to help her, but she was too far gone and pushed him away each time he did so. His willingness to help Hannah shows what a caring person he is. When she pushed him away, he didn’t follow her. He did not know what was going on in her life. Now that he hears these tapes she sent him, he wishes he would have done something. But I think that the fact that he didn’t follow her shows humbleness. He was afraid to annoy and bother her because he felt like she was her superior. Overall, Clay gave me as the reader motivation to help others.
Thirteen Reasons Why Character Sketch
Thirteen Reasons Why
I am currently reading the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher. The genre of the book is fiction. I am currently on page 109 out of 184. So far the book has been fairly interesting but I hope that more comes because if the whole book keeps this same intensiveness I will be disappointed. The girl who committed suicide, Hannah Mueller, has made an audiotape for all of the thirteen people who led her to commit suicide. So far she has explained how she interacted with six different people. The main character, Clay, has yet to come up in the tape. I am enjoying this book a lot and am really looking forward to find out the ending. The only problem I am having with the book would be what Hannah Mueller says. From the people she has explained so far, it doesn’t seem like they have done all that much wrong to her. Yes they have been mean to her in ways they shouldn’t have, but I feel like she took it way out of hand. What those people have done to her should not have given her a reason to take her life. She comes across as a drama queen who overreacts to everything. I’m sure later on in the book I will realize that many more horrible things have happened to this girl to cause her to take her life, but as for now she has somewhat annoyed me. Hannah says in the beginning of the tapes, “And you, lucky number thirteen, you can take the tapes straight to hell. Depending on your religion, maybe I’ll see you there”(20). My prediction is that the main character, Clay, is going to be the thirteenth reason. He has yet to come up and claims he has never done anything to him, but I feel like he is hiding something from us.
The Catcher in the Rye
The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
My rating: 2 of 5 stars
A lot was going through my head while trying to choose an American Classic that I wanted to read. There were so many books, most of them I’ve never even heard of. Since I didn’t know many books, I went to others on their opinions of what I should read. Almost everyone I talked to told me that I should read The Catcher in the Rye by J.D Salinger.
Since I went into reading the book with such high expectations for it, I was quickly disappointed. The main character, Holden Caulfield, confused me a lot in the beginning. I could not figure him out. He is sad, lonely, and depressed. In all honesty, reading this book put me in an awful mood just because Holden was always complaining. Nothing was ever good enough for him. I didn’t understand how someone could be so angry all the time. He was constantly finding things wrong about people. I kept on reading and eventually he mentioned how there were few things or people that he does like. Eventually it all started to connect, he only found good aspects about things that he enjoyed with his brother Allie. Allie died when Holden was a child. It never says what age any of them actually were, but I’m guessing it was only a few years because Holden has yet to get over it. For a while Holden was outwardly admitting that he was insane. “Then all of a sudden, something very spooky started happening. Every time I came to the end of the block and stepped off the curb, I had this feeling that I’d never get to the other side of the street. I thought I’d just go down, down, down, and nobody’d ever see me again….Then I started doing something else. Every time I’d get to the end of a block I’d make believe I was talking to my brother Allie”(198). Holden was constantly running away from his problems. He would purposely do badly in school so he would be kicked out. During the whole book I kept on wanting to see Holden become truly happy and stop complaining. At the end of the book, he finally gets hope for his life. He realized that he missed everyone he mentioned that he hates so much. Holden never hated others. He only hated himself.
I read this book at the same time that I read Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck. Holden Caulfield and Crooks were not necessarily in the same situation, but had very similar feelings. They are both lonely and depressed. Crooks had no choice but to be lonely, he had no one that would talk to him. Holden on the other hand became lonely after he lost someone dear to him. The loneliness overtook both of them for a while to the point that they had nothing to do with themselves. Crooks tried his best to deal with being alone by reading books. I feel like Holden didn’t want to get better. He just sat there and sulked. The author made him this way to show the hopelessness that can overcome people when they have gone through too much to handle.
I give this book 2 out of 5 stars. It had a great story line, but the main character annoyed me to my breaking point. I generally don’t like people who complain a lot, considering we have so many opportunities for excellence. The fact that Holden slowly realized his problem near the end of the novel made me happy, yet the book in general was too dark for my liking.
Walt Whitman, Langston Hughes: Comparative Analysis
The poem I Hear America Singing by Walt Whitman has much to say about the American Dream. In lines 2-13 Walt Whitman gives examples of all the varied jobs and lives that Americans live. While they are doing whatever job it is that they do, they are singing. Walt Whitman adds the singing aspect as concrete and abstract language. In this poem he uses singing as much more than what the average person imagines it to be. Usually, I think of singing as a way of making music, maybe even expressing feelings. In this poem it stands for much more. The fact that they are all singing shows that they are unified together. But not only are they just unified by all being Americans, the fact that they are singing shows that they are all unified by a common theme: happiness. Whitman gives imagery by describing each of their jobs. He shows very distinctly that each one has a special job that belongs to just them that they must fulfill in order to keep America running strong. Though each person does the job they enjoy doing, they are all working for a common cause. They do this out of the joy in their hearts for America, and that is what unifies them. Because they each do what they choose to do, Whitman is indicating that they are living their American Dream. He ends the poem with, “Singing with open mouths their strong melodious songs”. Whitman uses this statement at the end of this poem to show how everyone has his or her own American Dream. He believes they can accomplish that dream by working hard and doing what they love to do.
Another poem that has to deal with the American Dream is I, Too, Sing America by Langston Hughes. Langston Hughes was an African American during a time era where he was not completely accepted. His poem was written in response to the previous poem by Walt Whitman. Langston Hughes assumes that America does not hear him singing. He calls himself the darker brother, meaning that he is still family with the rest of America, yet he looks and feels different than the rest of them. Lines 3-4 of the poem say “They send me to the kitchen when company comes”. This is an example of juxtaposition. Sitting down at the dinner table is a symbol of status in society. He is sent to the kitchen, which is a reference to slavery where the slaves had to make the food in the kitchen and were not allowed to eat with the family. The American society is segregating against Langston Hughes and every other African American because they look different from the rest of them. Although he is not treated as equal, he does not give up hope. Later on in the poem he mentions, “Tomorrow, I’ll be at the table when company comes”. He believes that some day in the future everyone will be treated equally. The day that this occurs will be the day that America is truly united. He knows that the American Dream is a possible idea, yet with all off the hate and violent oppression happening, it is being taken away from him. He believes someday the American Dream will be possible, but could not be until people change their views.
Goodbye Letter to Salem
Dearest Salem,
I am horrible sorry, but by the time you read this, I will no longer be with you. I am fleeing the city in fear of my life. It is too late not to try to convince everyone of my innocence, so I plan on coming clean. I am sure all of you fellow citizens would like to know the reasoning behind my actions, well here it is. I’ve thought long and hard over where I should start my story, and after many sleepless nights, this is what I have decided.
A couple months ago, John Proctor cheated on his wife and had an affair with me. At this point, I knew in my heart he was in love with me. He had been ever since I started working for him. The only thing that stopped us from being together was his cold-hearted wife Elizabeth Proctor. She forced him to star with her, and since he was such an honorable man, he listened to her. He did not realize that she was simply brain washing him. She got him to call me horrible names. He said to me,
“Abby, I may think of you softly from time to time. But I will cut off my hand before I’ll ever reach for you again. Wipe it out of mind. We never touched, Abby”(23).
No one realized that agonizing pain this had cause me. Everyone sees me as a strong lady, but they don’t realize that I have as many emotions as everyone else.
Being a woman during these times, I have never had any power. I am not a child, yet many adults treat me as one. Once the girls and I received the power to control the community, we knew we couldn’t let it go. It was then that I realized that I should use this power to make John all mine. Elizabeth would be a perfect witch. I knew the town would believe me if I set it up just right. I was so close to getting rid of the horrible lady, until she stated that she was pregnant. I still do not believe she was telling the truth to this day. But the town did believe, and they would never kill a pregnant woman. I realized my plan must change.
If I cannot have John all to myself, no one should. John put himself in the position to be hung when he wouldn’t shut up about his dumb wife! All I had to do was make sure he hept going with it. John admitted to sleeping with me. I was upset at first, but then came to the conclusion that this will hurt him much more than me.
John said to the court, “I have known her, sir. I have known her”(110).
He said this about me, meaning he slept with me. He was so close to staying alive, until he decided to tear the paper that held the names of those who spoke with the devil.
In conclusion, the reason I did what I did was all because of John Proctor. I am sorry to the town of Salem and all who were affected. John and I were in love, but I guess we just weren’t meant to be.
The Grapes of Wrath Review
The book Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is considered one of the most American of all the American classics. The book has many themes intertwined within it, yet in my opinion the most evident one is how important family is in tough times.
The house of the family was takem, so they have no boundaries of living together that makes them an official “family”. It is simply the love they have for each other that keeps them going. Throughout the book, many of the family members get downhearted and do not seem to have the will to continue on. Luckily for them, they have loved ones who care about them and push them to keep going. Our main example is the Joads. They are biologically related and grew up together. Another family in this book is the family of migrant workers. They must stand together for a common cause of fixing the corruptness that is holding them down.
“We’re Joads. We don’t look up to nobody. Grampa’s grampa, he fit in the Revolution. We was farm people till the debt. And then—them people. They done somepin to us. Ever’ time they come seemed like they was a-whippin’ me—all of us. An’ in Needles, that police. He done somepin to me, made me feel mean. Made me feel ashamed. An’ now I ain’t ashamed. These folks is our folks—is our folks. An’ that manager, he come an’ set an’ drank coffee, an’ he says, ‘Mrs. Joad’ this, an’ ‘Mrs. Joad’ that—an’ ‘How you getting’ on, Mrs. Joad?’” She stopped and sighed. “Why, I feel like people again.”
This book is very relevant to the book Of Mice and Men also by John Steinbeck. Both of them are about migrant workers living in California. The groups of men working in the migrant farm in Of Mice and Men also have grown a powerful family like bond that held them together through the difficult times.
The main character is Tom Joad. He is an example for everyone to live his or her life after. He was sent to jail for murdering a man, though it was not his fault. Not once in the book did I read him complaining how he was unfairly charged. He spent a long time in jail, and once he got out he never took life for granted. He lived each day to the fullest because he knew that this life he has could easily be taken from him again.
There is not an actual character that Tom Joad has a conflict. He has anger towards all the migrant farm owners for treating the workers with very low respect and police officers who threaten to burn down the “Hooverville” and start a riot in the government camp. These people represent all of the people in our everyday lives who try to bring us down. Tom knows he does not deserve to be treated as they are treating him, and decides he need to take a stand and stop the madness.
“Wherever they’s a fight so hungry people can eat, I’ll be there. Wherever they’s a cop beatin’ up a guy, I’ll be there.”
The Joads have been told by many on their way to California that there were too many people traveling there. They knew it was going to be populated, but their assumptions were not even to the amount of people that were there. The government, the police, and the migrant owners simply could not keep up with the increasing number of people traveling west. It was only a matter of time that riots would start and violence would take lives.
“They’s a time of change, an’ when that comes, dyin’ is a piece of all dyin’, and bearin’ is a piece of all bearin’, an’ bearin’ an’ dyin’ is two pieces of the same thing. An’ then things ain’t so lonely anymore. An’ then a hurt don’t hurt so bad.”
Obviously the genre of this book is American Literature, yet it is also Realistic Fiction. The Joad are not real people, yet I am sure their story is similar to very many migrant workers of the time. The Dust Bowl and the Great Depression were indeed true occurrences in American History.
John Steibeck uses Tom and his conflict to teach everyone something different through The Grapes of Wrath. In my opinion, I felt that this book was teaching me the importance of family. Tom was not the head of his biological family, but he slowly became head of the family of migrant workers. Though a well rounded family should have respect and responsibility split between everyone, there needs to be a leader. In now days, the family aspect of many events in life have fallen apart. Families don’t travel together, or depend on each other like the family in The Grapes of Wrath had. This book teaches us that without family, whether biological or brought together by a common cause, we are completely powerless.
“Maybe all men got one big soul ever’body’s a part of.’ Now I sat there thinkin’ it, an’ all of a suddent-I knew it. I knew it so deep down that it was true, and I still know it.”
I rate this book a 3.5 out of 5. I enjoyed the story of the Joad’s and the meaning behind the story. The aspect I did not enjoy was every other paragraph Steinbeck would through in a different story that was similar to the Joad’s yet completely irrelevant to the story. It was a nice touch that I’m sure other readers appreciated, but I personally got annoyed with reading it.
Devils and Dust
The song “Devils and Dust” by Bruce Springsteen is very closely related to the book The Crucible by Arthur Miller. The song is slow, and it gives me a depressed feeling when I listen to it. The harmonica is played slowly, which always indicates sadness. Also, the singer’s voice is raspy which makes me think of loneliness. This is very similar to the way I feel when I read The Crucible. The girls who are convicting all of the innocent people have to be depressed with their lives. Being young females, they live in a society where they can barely speak unless spoken to. They have little rights. Abigail is depressed because she is in love with John Proctor, a man who is married and does not love her back. John and his wife Elizabeth are talking about Abigail. Abigail wants Elizabeth dead so she can take her place. Elizabeth knows Abigail still loves John, yet John doesn’t understand the promise made in bed between the two.
“Elizabeth: John-grant me this. You have a faulty understanding of young girls. There is a promise made in any bed-
Proctor, striving against his anger: What promise!
Elizabeth: Spoke or silent, a promise is surely made. And she may dote on it now- I am sure she does- and thinks to kill me, then to take my place.”(The Crucible 61)
John Proctor does not love Abigail; soon she will realize that and become sad and lonely.
A quote in the song says, “What you do to survive kills the things you love, fear’s a powerful thing”(Springsteen). The girls are incredibly afraid they are going to be accused of dancing or sorcery. Abigail is afraid she is going to be caught for sleeping with Proctor. They blame an incredible amount of people just to cover their name.
The whole situation with innocent citizens dying is a horrible thing. The devil took over the mind of not only the accusing girls but also the entire community who believed them. They were said to be a God fearing society, yet their hearts were filled with only devils and dust.
The Shack Interview
The major conflict of the book is Mack’s youngest daughter Missy being killed while they were camping. After this Mack, goes into a deep depression he called The Great Sadness. This happened because Mack’s other two children flipped their boat while canoeing so everyone was by the lake helping them out. A murderer then grabbed Missy who was still in the tent and took her to an abandoned shack. The most exciting part of the plot is when Mack shows up at the Shack and realizes that God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit are physically there with him. The conflict is solved by Mack having heart to heart conversations with the 3 and also meeting and forgiving his father who beat him when he was little. I expected it to be solved by talking with the 3 of them but I never expected his dad to be there.
The shack is just like a normal cabin with one bedroom a kitchen and a small living room. The back seems to be amazing because it’s explained as having a huge forest and a river with a waterfall. I imagine the waterfall to be really tall and that there are many animals in the forest. I can relate this to my family. We go up north every summer and stay in a cabin that is by a lake just like the shack is by a river.
The shack is a symbol of sadness and hatred because that is the place Missy was raped and killed.
Mack changes so much through the book. He learns to let things go and to trust that things happened for a reason and there is no way to change things that already happened. Obviously God, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit don’t change in it because they never change. A questionable action would be Mack showing up to the shack in the first place. I don’t know if I would have had the guts to do that. It was definitely the right decision.
A passage that I thought was important was when Mack was talking to Sarayu about all the people he could see down below. “What’s going on?” “There is a man here who is having some difficulty keeping in what he is feeling. He is waiting”. “For what” Mack said. “You will see soon” replied Sarayu. “So then why”, Mack’s attention had returned to the troublemaker, “why is that one having so much difficulty and why does he seem focused on us?” “Mackenzie”, Sarayu said gently, “he is not focused on us, he is focused on you” What?” Mack was dumbfounded. “The one having so much trouble containing himself- that one- is your father”. This was really important of Mack because he never liked his father because he was drunk and beat him when he was young. At age 13 Mack left his house and his father and never went back. He promised himself that when he grew up he would be a much better father. Once he lost Missy, he thought it was his fault, and that he failed being a father.
This book reminds me of another book I read called All Unquiet Things. The main characters both have someone dear to them die and they are deeply disturbed and trouble by this. The difference is that in this book Mack was brought back to the place where she was killed and had to face his fears. In All Unquiet Things they were just trying to find out who the murderer was.
I did not know what the word vestige meant. It means a trace, mark, or visible sign left behind by something.
I was incredibly surprised when Mack got to the Shack and found it transformed into a wonderful cabin. “He had barley walked fifty feet up the rail when he felt a sudden rush of warm air overtake him from behind. Mack stopped and watched as all around him the white covering dissolved and was replaced by emerging radiant growth. “It was a very easy book to read. Not many parts were confusing. If I could ask the author one question I would ask him what gave him the inspiration and idea to write this book. I would recommend this book to others because it’s an eye opener and gives you a new perspective of the world that what we see everyday.
Visual Theme
We chose kindness and compassion because it was shown many times throughout To Kill a Mockingbird. In our picture we drew Mr. Radley putting gifts for the children in the tree, Mr. Raymond giving Dill some coke, Boo sewing Jem‘s pants, Tom busting up Mayella’s chiffarobe, and Reverend Skyes letting the children sit with him. Also we drew Boo giving Scout a blanket, the Finch’s inviting Walter over for lunch, Scout standing up for Walter, Calpurnia bring the children to her church, Ms. Maudie baking cake for the children, and Atticus defending Tom Robinson. Every scene that we drew represent what kindness and compassion is. These people did such wonderful things out of the goodness of their heart and not for any money or reward.
Movie Review
The book and the movie are alike yet different. They both say the same things and have the same story line, although they are in different order. The movie starts off right away having the kids complaining about how Atticus can’t do anything when it doesn’t mention that in the book until chapter 10. Also the book describes things a lot more than the movie. So far I like the book better because it does a much better job of describing aspects that are important to the plot.
I believe at this point in the movie, the character that is best portrayed is Scout. It really shows her innocence with things that she doesn’t understand. Also the movie explains how she doesn’t enjoy wearing dresses and gets in fights a lot at school. The one character that isn’t portrayed the same is Calpurnia. In the book is says she is extremely smart and reads with Jem and Scout a lot. I have not seen her read yet in the movie. Also the movie seems to be taking away the parts where she can show how smart she really is.
My favorite scene of the movie was definitely the part where Boo Radley comes out. All three of the children had wanted to see him for their whole life. They always thought he was such a mean person who would kill them if he ever saw them. They noticed that day that Boo was one of the nicest people there are. He saved their lives, he put the blanket on Scout when it was cold, and he gave them gifts through the whole in the tree. Scout really grew found of Boo Radley after this because he realized he was her neighbor, and it doesn’t matter what people say about him.
The only thing I was disappointed about from the movie was that they cut out a lot of scenes. There were many scenes from the book that I thought were important to Jem and Scout growing up that they didn’t have in the movie or they didn’t elaborate much on. I would have put more scenes in if I were making the movie. Also I would have had it end the same way as the book.
