Tuesday, August 31, 2010

Journal 2-Animal Hospitality

Once upon a time, ther was a tiger named Phil. Phil unlike opther tigers, was a very nice tiger. alomst every other critter who lived in the jungle respected Phil very much, with the exception of a grumpy old Toucan named Frank. The sad thing is that no one in the jungle really liked Toucan Frank. He had no friends. Therefore, Frank was not a happy Toucan like his cousin Sam. Of Course, Toucan Sam was very happy because he had all of the fruit-loops he could eat. One day, Phil saw Frank sitting alone in his tree looking very lonely. Since Phil was one of the nicest tigers anyone could find in the jungle, he figured that he could try and cheer Frank up by telling him a joke. "Hey, Frank, why did Michael Phelps win so many gold medals in the last summer olympics? Frank looked down and stared at Phil. "Because he's GRREAT!" Frank turned away and walked to the other side of the branch. This surprised Phil because he thought that Frank would enjoy a nice cereal joke seeing how Frank's cousin worked for Fruit Loops. After this reaction, Phil continued his nice relaxing stroll through the jungle. That night, it started raining and did not stop for an entire week. On the sixth day of rain, most of the animals in the jungle had to leave their homes because of the flooding. Phil the Tiger was the last one to find higher ground in case anyone was drowning. just as he was about to exit the water, he saw a beak sticking out of the water. Phil dove into the deep end of the water and pulled up on the beak and pulled a bird out of the water and brought it to shore. He realized that he had saved the life of Frank. When Frank opened his eyes hours later, Phil was standing over him and he realized that Phil had saved his life. "You're my best friend." said Frank. From that day on, Phil and Frank were best friends.

Friday, August 27, 2010

1st Post-What I Know About Native Americans

So, in all honesty, i really do not know much about Native American Culture. I know that Native Americans were here living in North America before anyone else. I also know that when Christopher Columbus came to North America, he thought that he was in India, so he gave them the label of "Indians." This term is actually not correct thought because of course, Native Americans are not Indians because they do not live in India. I also know that even though in the beginning when we first discovered that Native Americans live here in North America, there were many of Native Americans roaming around and about. When explorer came along though, they actually started killing of the native people in order to obtain land and other good resources that were valued in those times. Today in modern times, they are almost no Native Americans left here in America which is very sad. The European explorers could take out many natives at once because of the technology that they had at the time, all the Native Americans had were mainly arrows along with few other things to attack the explorers with. The explorers actually had guns and technology like that which destroyed the Native Americans. I know very little about the actual everyday life of Native Americans though. I know that they liked to live in teepees which were comparable to a very tall tent. Also, i know that they got a lot of their supplies from hunting other animals. For example, they not only got food from hunting, but they would use bones for certain supplies as well. Native Americans liked to use every part of an animal so that they could have plenty of supplies. With more supplies, they did not have to worry about getting more food and supplies, and therefore, they could focus more on their everyday lives. So, i guess that this information is most of the stuff i know about about Native Americans.

Thursday, August 26, 2010

Symbolism In Fahrenheit 451

In Fahrenheit 451, there are many symbols. In my opinion, the most obvious symbols are the Bradbury includes in his book are are futuristic society that the story takes place in and the ending of the book when the city is destroyed. The society represents many things including the many sins of mankind and the loss of morale and values. It represents the horrific things that mankind can do without feeling any guilt whatsoever or even without noticing them. The other symbol is the destruction of the city. This represents the sudden downfall of mankind in the story. Absolutely no one expects the city to be destroyed so quickly and randomly which also shows how oblivious and careless the people were. Bradbury also leaves the story open ended when the author does not give the readers ant hint if the plan of the vanished people will work when they return to the city. This represents the down and rather pessimistic view to the plan. It might not work. This event also represents the beauty of not knowing the future and the idea that trying something may or may not help make things right.

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Why Fahrenheit 451 Was My Favorite Book

Wow. I cannot believe that I am writing my last blog. Should I be happy or should I be sad? I simply do not know. I mean I am happy because I am just words away from being done with this blog, but at the same time, I am very sad because my summer is hours from being over. This is depressing. Anyway after I read all three books, I guess that it would be a good way to finish my summer blog by comparing the three books that I had to read and telling whoever is reading my blog which one was my favorite. Not to blow the whole surprise, but I think that without a doubt my favorite book with the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. Compared to the other two, this book simply destroyed them. The funny thing is that it was not even close. I think that more action was included in the two hundred pages of the book Fahrenheit 451 than the other two books combined. The Old Man and the Sea only had action when the old man was trying to pull in the massive marlin and The Grapes of Wrath just sucked. I do not even want to think about comparing the book Fahrenheit 451 to the book The Grapes of Wrath because one was so good and the other one was so bad. Anyway, if I have not made it clear, then the book Fahrenheit 451 was my favorite because of the nonstop action. I also like the science fiction plot of the book and found it much more interesting than the other two. Another thing that I liked about Fahrenheit 451 is that it was pretty gruesome in parts. I mean, a guy was burned to death. How awesome is that? Well, anyway, it was a wild ride, summer blog. Even though it was not very fun typing you, I am glad that I finished you in plenty of time. Knock on wood! Kirk OUT!

Type of Conflict Part Two

This is my second to last blog of the summer and I am pumped. Anyway I am actually going to start this blog early because I have a lot to talk about in this one. For those of you who did not read my last blog, it was about the type of conflict within the book The Old Man and the Sea. I concluded that it was man versus nature because the main conflict in my opinion was between the man and the sea. Believe it or not, this book actually had more than one type of conflict. Besides the type of conflict that we call man versus nature, there is another conflict that would be considered man versus himself. This conflict becomes known to the reader when the old man catches the marlin on the line. The battle between the old man and the marlin lasts three days but somewhere along the line there had to be an internal battle with the old man. I mean imagine that you are trying to catch one fish for three days. It task itself would be extremely tiring and you would think about giving up constantly. This is what we would cal an internal conflict. I am sure that when the old man was trying to catch the fish that he was thinking about giving up sometime. I mean, after a while, there is no way that you would not be extremely tired after the fish was fighting for so long. The man had to think about giving up sometime. There is also another internal conflict in the book. This conflict takes place when the other fishermen are making fun of the old man for not being able to catch a good fish. I am sure that there was a point where the old man just simply wanted to give up fishing to save himself from the humiliation. This is another example of an internal conflict taking place inside of the old man’s head.

Type of Conflict Part One

Yes! I am getting a lot closer to finishing my blog for the summer. I am preet sure that if someone like Katie McGraw saw this blog right now, see would probably be laughing her head off right now because she had all of her summer blogs done a really long time ago. At the same time though, I am glad that this is my third to last blog right now because I am sure that ther are people who are sitting at home who are a hell of a lot more stresses than I am right now who have ike twenty blogs left to do. I am happy with myself right now though. I mean it is not like I can be mad at myself right now. I sat down when I needed to and did my work. Even when there were distractions I always was basically abe to get enough of the blogs written. Anyway, I just recently realized that I have not written one single blog on the conflict of a book. To me, that is amazing because usually the conflict of a book or a story is one of the first things that a person will write about. Anyway, in the book The Old Man and the Sea, was a main type of conflict. That type of conflict was mainly man versus nature. I think that this was the main typ of conflict because in the book, the main conflict was between the old man and the sea, which I guess would count as nature. The main conflict in the story is how the man cannot catch a good sized fish anymore. He actually goes on a streak of eighty four days without catching a fish. To me, this is the main conflict because without this conflict arising, the old man would never have gone very deep into the ocean to look for a monster marlin to catch to stop the other fishermen from making fun of the poor fella.

Symbolic Quote

Wow. For me, this is pretty exciting. I only have four blogs left to do for the summer. Although at the same time I must admit that I am sad that summer is almost over. The countdown until school starts went from months to weeks to days to hours just like that. I must say that the thought of the beginning of summer is pretty depressing because of how much time I wasted that I could have been using on better and more fun things rather than sitting at home watching television on a perfect day. Although I cannot be too hard on myself because I did have a pretty active summer in the end and there were times where I actually did need quite a bit of rest. Anyway, on to the actual part of this blog that the people actually want to see! In the book The Old Man and the Sea, the old man states an interesting quote when he says, “a man can be destroyed but not defeated.” To me, this quote is very interesting because I actually find some truth in it. When you are reading a line like this, one cannot take the quote literally. If a person does, then he or she looks like a fool because they are probably really shallow because they cannot find a deep meaning in quotes like these. To me, this quote from the old man in the book makes sense because even when everything around you is falling apart, or some kind of task seems impossible, you must not give up. For example, when the old man gets cut, he actually becomes more motivated to catch the massive fish in the water rather than just give up and let it go. By saying this line, he is saying that no matter how many cut or how injured he gets from trying to catch the fish, he will never give up, and eventually he catches the fish.

Symbols of the Sea

Ok, I only have five more blogs to do for the summer. This is actually quite exciting. The first one went by pretty fast and so I am hoping that I can continue that effort and speed with the rest of them. Ok, back to the book The Old Man and the Sea. The Sea in the book is very important. That might sound really stupid seeing how the book is called The Old Man and the Sea, but give me the rest of the blog to explain myself. Throughout the entire story, the sea has many different symbols. In the book, this is the only singular item that very clearly symbolizes more than one thing. For example, the old man in the book loves the sea. For him, it is a place where he can be alone and where no one else is around. It is his place where he can escape. On a cam day, when things are going well for the old man he does not have to worry about catching a huge fish, the sea is his place for relaxing. Therefore, the sea is a symbol of relaxation. Another theme that the sea symbolizes is hardships in life. Sometimes, the sea can be the most comforting and relaxing place in the world, but when it is raining outside and the weather is bad, then the sea can be a major obstacle. When the weather is bad, the old man has to worry about catching fish while worrying about if his boat will be flipped by the storm or if it will start sinking. To me as the reader, I find it interesting that something that can be so relaxing and pure and beautiful can also be very scary and hard to face. In these ways, I find the sea in the book the Old Man and the Sea is a very interesting symbol of many thing which include relaxation and fear in some parts of the book.

The Ending to the Old Man and the Sea

Ok, so today, I have already done four blogs at work which I guess is good because I only have six to do right now which really is not bad at all. Hopefully these six blogs will go by fast so I can eat and have the rest of the night to relax. It is going to be really weird going back to school again. I mean it does not even feel like the end of the summer. I honestly have never felt this way about the end of summer before. Usually all I can think about is how terrible school will be and how I am going to find a way to get through it all. But unlike every other year this year is different. I am not thinking about tomorrow that much and instead I am focusing on these blogs so I can have something fun to do for the rest of the night. I really really hope that I can get these things out of the way and have something fun to do for the rest of the night before I start worrying about school again. Anyway I should probably start taking about the book The Old Man and the Sea now. I really did like the book the Old Man and the Sea, but one I have things where I have some complaining to do is at the end. First of all, wouldn’t anyone agree with me when I say that the ending of the book seemed really forced? In all honesty, if I did not know that I was on the last page of the book, I would have thought that I had missed a really important part of the book or something. It just randomly ended. I also would have been much happier if the ending was happier. The Old Man really deserves to catch and marlin and be able to keep it so that he could show it off. Instead it dies by getting eaten from sharks.

The Loyalty of Manolin

One thing that i noticed about the book The Old man and the Sea is that there are many themes that were put into this book. For example, one of the gratest themes that i noticed throughout the entire story was the theme of loyalty. this trait is shown by the character of Manolin. when the Old Man has gone eighty four days without catching a fish and his parents tell Manolin that he must go and find a new fisherman to learn from. Manolin actually does do this because he wants to obey what his parents have said, but at the same time he still like to hang out with the Old Man and give the Old Man some bait to fish with. This is extremely kind on the part of Manolin because no one besides the Old Man knows that Manolin is sctually spending time with him. it seem that throughout the book, Manolin is always there to give the old man lots of moral support which the Man need to need because the Old Man becomes worn down because of the stress and frustration that comes when the Old Man cannot catch a very good fish. it actually seems like the young boy is the only one who is there for the Old Man throughout the story which is actually pretty sad because in the story, at certain times, the man suffers from lonelyness when he is out on the sea which is sad because the only two people that know what he is truly feeling the the character of the Old Man and the person who is actually reading the story. i think that it is very good fot The old man to have the character of Manoloin by his side because he is so lonely. i know for sure that if i was a fisherman who was out on the sea for days at a time, i would grateful for someone who is loyal to me and who i van always count on.

Not So Much To Criticize About the Old Man

So, right now, i am in still in Disc Replay, doing my job. I am pretty bored right now and i do not have much to do so i guess i will just try to get another blog done. i am pretty happy because these blogs are not that bad. as of now, i actually do not know how many i have to do, but i feel that i might be able to get many of these blogs done her at work because it is not really that busy here at work. knock on wood. here at Disc Replay, the place is known for becoming really randomly busy at certain time which it just has. ok, so now once again, i should actually start this blog because once again i have to remind myself that writing down my really random thoughts actually does not do anyone any good. anyway, i guess that i will start talking about the book The Old Man and the Sea. ok, so usually i will always have a blog where i criticize the book i read. in all honesty, i thought that the book The Old Man and the Sea was a very good book. i mean, yeah every book has its boring parts and the book The Old Man and the Sea actually does have parts where it is very boring, but in all honesty, what book does not have a boring part? While i was reading the book, i was very proud of the Old Man for not giving up and actually catching the massive marlin in the end of the book. after he caught it though, it made me very sad that after all of the hard work that the Old Man spent trying to catch the big marlin, he feels bad for the fish because it ends up suffering a slow and painful death because it gets eaten by sharks when the Old Man it trying to take the animal to the shore of the land.

The Old Man and Perseverance

So, once again i am siting here at work and we have hit another part of the day where this place has turned into something compareable to a ghost town, so i guess that i will try and get another blog done for the time being. It is kind of weird because i could have sworn that i only did forty blogs and that i would have to do ten today, but right now, my blog is saying that i only have eight more to do, which i must say is quit sexy. Now i might as well actually start this blog because it is pretty dumb if people read this entire blog just to realize that that all i have been doing is writing down my stupid and random thoughts because that does no one any good in all honesty. anyway, in the book The Old Man and the Sea, the Old Man, Santiago, shows many good character traits. in my last blog i wrote about how the Old Man shows the character trait of pride in the book. Believe it or not though, this is not the only very useful and respecable trait that the Old Man shows throughout the book. He also shows the trait of perserverence. i think that it is very obvious how the Old Man shows perserverence in the book. He shows it whenever he catches the massive marlin when he is out as sea. the marlin actually fights to get off of the line for three days. to me, it is actually quite amazing that the Old Man never gave up trying to catch the marlin.the marlin actually dragged the man's boat out so deep into the ocean that the Old Man could not see any land behind him. if i could not see the land behind me, i know for sure that i would just let the marlin go because i would be afraid that i would get lost at sea and no one would be able to find me after a while.

One of The Old Man's Good Qualities

So, i am sitting here in the store Disc Replay. Right now, I am actually supposed to be doing my job right now, but luckily today has not been extremely busy, so i can try to finish these blogs at work which if i may so myself is honestly pretty clutch. in my opinion, i think that it is pretty funny that i can do these blogs at work. I must say that i must be pretty spoiled just because i know that other kids my age who have jobs do not have the same kind of freedom at their jobs that i do at mine so in that case, i should be extremely happy that i can get these done and not have to worry about doing them when i get home because i am always pretty or very exhausted when i get home from work because on Sundays, i always have to work form opening to closing which can be pretty exhausting sometimes, but i guess that i cannot complain because i only work on Sundays when soccer season comes around. anyway, i should probably start the actual blog part of this blog. There are many other themes that are shown in the book The Old Man Man and the Sea besides the simple theme of loyalty that was shown by Manolin in the book. in fact there were many very good character traits that were shown by the old man Santiago himself. one a the great themes or character traits that was shown by the Old Man in the story was pride. in many cases throughout the story, the man would show pride when he would catch a fish that was too big, he would never hesitate to the the little fishy back. to me, that quality is very very respectable. very respectable indeed. The Old Man also showed that he is very pround when the other fishermen are making fun of him for not catching a good fish in 83 days. he never talks back or gets angry because he is much too proud.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

The Unlikely Way How Book Burning Became Popular in Fahrenheit 451

One more blog to go! One more blog to go! One more blog to go! I am so happy that I honestly cannot see straight. I do not think that it is very normal to have eye problems when you are really excited. Oh well. I only have to write like three hundred more words and then I am done for the day. I am so happy. You have no idea. I am so sick of these blogs. Well I am not really sick of these blogs by themselves, but I am just tired of worrying about them and I am sick of just simply having to dealing with them. I am sure that anyone who is in my Honors English class can back me up on that one. These things are just awful to worry about when it is such a nice day out and they only thing really productive that you can do is sit here on this computer and write blogs about your feeling about books that you had to read over the summer. I am pretty sure that the only thing people are think when they have to read summer reading books is how much they want to burn the book…like in Fahrenheit 451! They is what his blog will be about I guess. Maybe in the future, one student will get so angry with his or her summer reading books that they will just burn them. I mean, that could be how the twisted society in the book Fahrenheit 451 started. Someone may have simply gotten sick of a book and then they burned it. I mean it is understandable actually. That one person could have started a revolution on book burning. It probably because so popular that that person actually came up with a name for that job. He probably called the profession, being a fireman. After all, the name actually does make sense and it does not take a long time to understand how the name came to be.

Al Joad in The Grapes of Wrath

Ok now I can see the end in sight. I am getting so close to finishing these blogs that I can taste it. I only have two more to do, so I am going to just try to plow through these last two so I can hang out with my buds on the last Saturday before my summer vacation ends. I know how typical it sounds when I say that that thought sounds really depressing, but it really does. Also, I should not be sitting at home trying to do blogs right now. These things are dumb. To be honest, I do not care what other people think about the books that we have all had to read over the summer. I am also sure that no one really cares what I think when it comes to these three books, so it just makes me mad that I am sitting here right now trying to finish these things. I actually find it more productive writing these random thoughts down more than anything else. Believe it or not, this is actually making me feel a lot better about finishing these stupid blogs. Anyway, I guess that I might as well start my second to last blog on the book The Grapes of Wrath now or else Mr. Langley might get mad that I have not shared any of my thoughts on the book inside of this blog. I think that in the book The Grapes of Wrath by the author John Steinbeck, the character of Al Joad is a respectable man. I think that he is respectable because at the beginning of the book, you can tell that Al basically idolizes Tom and wants to be a lot like Tom. Further into the book though, the reader can see that Al has matured because of the hardships that the family has had to face whenever they moved to California. It is really cool to see the character grow up and become an individual.

Uncle John in The Grapes of Wrath

Ok, so I am pretty happy that I only have three more blogs left to do today. I have almost accomplished my goal of ten blogs today which I must say is pretty impressive. I am pretty sure that I can do the rest of these blogs pretty easily simply because I have done so many other ones today. Three is really nothing compared to what else I have done. So, once again this is one of my last blogs on the book The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I am pretty happy that this is one of my last blogs about the book because in all honesty as many of you know, the book was awful. I did not enjoy it at all. It dragged on and on to the point where I had lost all interest in reading it and then it dragged on some more. In all honesty, I will never think about reading this book again. It was truly that bad. If you think I am kidding, then open up the book and read one page. I am pretty sure that that will convince you how bad this book truly is. But anyway, I will do I quick little blog on the character of Uncle John in the book The Grapes of Wrath. Now, I am sure that many of you who are reading this blog want to ask, what do we know about Uncle John? Well, all we really know is one of the events that happened earlier in his life that really affects him as a person. That event was when his wife was complaining about stomach pains when she was pregnant and he refused to get her a doctor. This causes their baby to eventually die. Even though we do not hear much from Uncle Tom in the book The Grapes of Wrath, I feel bad for him because he has been scared with such a terrible fate, the death of his unborn child.

Grampa Joad in the Grapes of Wrath

So, I took a break from doing these blogs and once again I am bored so I guess that I will just get the four more done that I planned on getting done by the end of today. The only problem is that I just woke up from a little afternoon nap, so I am really tired, and I have no idea what I want to discuss in this blog, so that is never good. Another thing is that my kitten is awake and she really wants some attention right now, so she is bothering me non-stop which is another distraction that is trying not to make these blogs easy at all. Ok so anyway, this blog is going to be one of my last blogs about the book The Grapes of Wrath. In the book The Grapes of Wrath which happens to be written by the author John Steinbeck. One of the characters that I found really annoying in the book The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was the character of Grampa Joad. I think that the character of Grampa Joad is very annoying because he is such a pesomist throughout the entire story of the book. He always has something bad to say unlike other and more respectable characters in the book. For example, when the family faces an obstacle early in the story, Tom will not really let it bring him or the rest of the family down, but then grumpy old Grampa Joad will come along and just complain about it as much as he can just to prove a point. As a reader, it really annoyed me anytime throughout the story when Grampa Joad had to share his opinion with anyone else. It just made me extremely annoyed because it is made obvious by the author of the story, John Steinbeck that the times in the dust bowl in really tough on the family and I am sure that having Grampa Joad around did not help much.

Symbolism of the Dog's Death

So, I have gotten five blogs done today and I only have five more to go which is not awful I guess. Once again, I am still extremely tired and I really feel like going to sleep right now but I cannot because I have to do these dumb blogs. Maybe I should have a soda with some caffeine in it to see if I can wake up from all of the caffeine. I guess that it is too bad that I do not drink soda during the soccer season because it is awful for your body. Oh well. After this bog I will probably take a short little break from these blogs to relax and give my mind a break. Although, it is not like I am using my brain that much for these blogs anyway because all I am doing for like half of the blog is just talking about really random stuff which is completely useless. My gosh. Word cannot explain how tired I am right now. This is so crazy. I do not think that this is normal. Anyway another symbol in the book The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck is the death of the Joad’s dog early in the book at the gas station. It is killed when it gets run down by some people who are on the road at the time. In my opinion, the author John Steinbeck includes this event because it is simply foreshadowing for the events yet to come. The dog is killed in a sick and twisted way but it just warns the reader of the story that there is more to come later in the story and that this event is not simply the only tragedy within the book The Grapes of Wrath. For example, many bad thing happen after this event when the Joads arrive in California. Some of these events include when they cannot find good jobs and when their home get wrecked by a storm.

Symbolism of the Stillborn Baby

Wow. This kind of sucks right now. I have six more blogs to do today which really is not terrible at all, but I suddenly feel like I have just hit a wall. I suddenly cannot think of any more topics to write about and I suddenly got really really tired which obviously does not help at all whatsoever. Wow I really have six more blogs to do today. This is awful. I randomly just feel like going to bed. It is probably because I just ate and now I am starting to fall into a bad food coma. Why did I eat so much in such little time? I should have known that I would get tired as soon as I finished my meal so quickly. The worst part of this is just thinking about the six more blogs I have to do right now. It honestly feels like I will never get these stupid things done. I feel like just laying down on the couch, and turning on the show The Office because I really feel like I need to relax right now, but at the same time I have to do these darn blogs. Gosh darn it. So, I think that at the end of the book The Grapes of Wrath, there are some interesting symbols, one of them being the symbol of the birth of Rose of Sharon’s stillborn baby. This event is interesting to me because it seems like after all of the thing that have gone wrong for the Joad family, that this will end the streak. Instead, this is one of the most tragic events of the story. Even though this event is very very sad, it actually does not affect the family as horribly as the reader might think it would. It is not that bad because at the end of the story, a man is dying in a barn and Rose of Sharon nurses the old man back to health which is a happier, but kind of strange ending to the book.

Pa Joad is a Poor Man

I only have seven more blogs to do today! That is really good because I know that I can get them all done because I actual did exactly seven yesterday. The fact that I am getting these done so quickly makes me happy because I will have more time to hang out with my friends on this fine Saturday afternoon. I know that I have mentioned something about hanging out with my friends on just about every bog that I have done today, but you have to realize that I am very excited just to get done with these blogs. Once again I wish I was Katie McGraw and I had these blogs done like a month ago so I would not have to spend like two and a half hours of my Saturday these things, but I cannot really do anything about it now because I did not start these blogs until this month which was really dumb on my part. Ok, so I should probably start writing my actual blog now because I have just wasted like half the space of this blog basically typing non-sense which is also fun to do and completely pointless. Ok, so throughout the book The Grapes of Wrath, I always found myself feeling bad for Pa Joad. He always wants to be the leader of the family, but everything wears him down so much in the story that he basically gives up the title. By the end of the story, he has become so worn down that he actually does not really have any say in what the family does, he just kind of blindly follows whatever Ma Joad does. I felt really bad for him by the end of the book because it seems that the move to California has worn him down the most out of any of the main characters when it was his farm that got shut down and it was his idea to move to California for a better life.

Defending The Honor of The Grapes of Wrath Part Two

Yay! I only have eight more blogs to do for the day! These things are actually going by pretty fast. Hopefully I can keep it that way because then I will have time to do something tonight because I will not be busy working on blogs tonight, so that will be nice. So this blog is going to be a follow-up blog to the last blog that I wrote. For those of you who did not read the last blog that I wrote and you are just randomly looking at my blogs, then my last blog was actually defending the book The Grapes of Wrath. I know that that sounds crazy to some of you people but try to just understand where I am coming from. I said that Grapes of Wrath is a horrible book to read because it is so long and it has almost no historical significance or action which is very true. But think about what the book was truly about. It was truly about human nature and morals. Why else would the author John Steinbeck write a whole chapter about a turtle getting run over by a truck? He was just comparing the different ways that people live life. To me it is actually interesting that because the time in the 1920’s were so tough, there were almost no good-hearted people involved in the story other than most of the Joad family. There were people stealing things, people running over turtles and people selling broken cars, but through all of the madness that was encountered by the Joad family throughout the story, most of the Joads kept their morals and good human nature unlike almost everyone else in the story. Son anyway, I do not think that there is any historical significance or fun involving The Grapes of Wrath, but in the end, I do not think that we truly read the book for these things. We read the book because of the lessons and values that it includes.

Defending The Honor of The Grapes of Wrath Part One

Alright, I only have nine more blogs to go. That first one was not really bad at all and I hope that these blogs will continue flying by because then I will have free time and I will be able to hang out with my friends on a Saturday night. Before I do anything though, I must knock on wood after saying anything like that because that could have cursed me for the rest of the day. It also makes it these blogs a lot easier when you know what you are going to write about. I mean, it is a bad feeling when you start a blog without having any idea of what you are going to writing about because it makes the blog that much more painful and time-consuming to write. Luckily, I already know what I am going to write this blog about, so hopefully that will make it a lot easier. Ok, so after the book the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, I thought it was awful and way too descriptive and it had no action in it at all and I am sure that many of you in Honors English will agree with me. when I got done with the book, I was extremely frustrated and I thought that reading the book was a big waste of my time, but believe it or not, I am about to defend John Steinbeck’s honor. Ok, so usually, as students in Honors English we read books like these because they were simply popular back when they were written or they have some kind of historical value to them. I was pretty angry when I finished this book because it pretty much had no historical value. Honesty, for being over 500 pages, it makes me pretty mad whenever I only earned one or two things about the dust bowl, when the book is actually supposed to have some really good historical significance to it.

Good Thing Ma Joad Can Keep Her Cool

Ok, so today I am bored again so I might as well do some of these blogs right now before I actually have something to do and I cannot because I have to do more blogs. Today, I am planning on getting ten blogs which if I get that accomplished, then I must say that I have done a heck of a job for the day and I deserve a break. So, over the next two days I have to write twenty different blogs which is a lot but I am not worried about getting the blogs done because they do not take that long for me to write. My main problem is that I get side-tracked easily, so it is during those times when I struggle getting these things done. Anyway, on to the actual blog part of the blog. One of the main characters in the book the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck was the character of Ma Joad. In my opinion, the character of Ma Joad is very important because she is basically the calm voice of the entire family. Throughout the story, the reader actually notices this, and sees that when the Joad family has encountered a tough time in the story, Ma Joad is always relaxed, which helps the other members of the family relax. For example, these character traits show from the character Ma Joad whenever the Joad family is crossing the California desert. Whenever Ma Joad looks at Granma, she can tell that the character of Granma is dead. Luckily for the rest of the family, Ma Joad kepps herself calm, and therefore the family does not have a panic attack while going through the middle of a desert. Let’s be honest. The last thing that anyone wants to hear while going through the middle of a desert is that someone in the car with them has died. That would be a scaring moment, and I do not think that the Joad family would have continued on.

Friday, August 20, 2010

Analysis of Chapter Seven

Ok so this is my seventh and final blog of the day. I must admit that I am very happy with my progress because I did not think that I could get seven blogs done because I am slow at typing and I usually get distracted or I run into a writer’s block, so I am very proud of myself today that I got this many blogs done. This will be the last blog that I have to do before I go to then and then I will go play music with Matt and Alex at Matt’s house. So, I would like to dedicate this blog to Destiny’s Child because they have stopped making music for a while and it seems like everyone has forgotten about them, so I would just like to remind them that I have not forgotten about them and in their honor I would like to say that “I’m A Survivor.” Anyway, so in Grapes of Wrath, there is one particular chapter that I find quite interesting. That chapter is chapter seven where the narrator is explaining how salesmen in the dust bowl are selling cars for some quick cash, but all the cars that they are selling have awful parts and that they are bound to break down within about ten miles from the point where they get taken off of the lot. In all honesty I would be quite scared to sell one of those cars to someone. I mean, what if somebody got really mad and came back and wanted to beat you up out of anger? And also wouldn’t it just bother someone to do that because of the horrible morals and nerve it takes to sell someone a car that does not really work? It would just bother me if I sold someone a car that was not working very well when that person had spent good cash on it. That just would make me feel awful.

Chapter One is Pointless

Ok so this is m sixth blog today. I should probably have a little more today but oh well because I got side tracked with some Youtube videos. It’s not like I can be mad at myself for doing that though because I am pretty sure that that happens to everyone when they get bored so it is whatever. Another thing is that I cannot be mad at myself when I just watched Kurt Cobian jump into a drum set. That is just crazy. Whoever is reading this blog, you have to see this video. Just ask me about it and I will show it to you. Anyway, this blog goes out to the band Nirvana because they have distracted me from doing my blogs, so thanks Nirvana. Anyaway, this blog is once again going to be about the book The Grapes of Wrath. Once again I have found a part of the book that is completely useless and should just be skipped in all honestly because the reader gets nothing out of reading it besides frustration. I really do not know why I have not written a blog about this part earlier because I am talking about the whole first chapter to the book The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. I understand that every book needs an intro to the story but the whole first chapter is just pointless to read. The author should have just cut out the first chapter and started on the second one where there story begins to unfold. Well, I guess the first chapter would not be so painfully boring if the author John Steinbeck had not put so much pointless detail into it, but the reader has to realize that all John Steinbeck does is put useless details into this book. To sum the first chapter up for you it is just about how everyone in Oklahoma is having trouble growing crop because of the dust bowl and lots of farms are even getting shut down because they cannot make money. Would that have been so hard to writhe after all?

Connie is Absurd

Ok, so this is my fifth blog today and I am so pumped. These things are just flying for me today and they are not bad at all. I wish that all of my blogs were this easy to do because that would save me lots of time. I bet that this is what Katie McGraw felt like when she got all of her blogs done earlier this summer. I am not going to lie Katie, that is quite respectable. I envy you so much right now because I have like three days to do twenty five blogs. How much fun is that? For those of you who are in the same situation as me right now, I am sure that we can all agree that it is not that fun and we all wish that we are Katie McGraw right now. Anyway, on to the actual blog part of this blog. Ok, so right now, I am going to write a quick little bog on how dumb Connie in The Grapes of Wrath is. For those of you who have not read the book the Grapes of Wrath, Connie is Rose of Sharon’s husband. I think that I have good reason to judge him as being an awful person because as soon as the Joad family gets to California, Rose of Sharon’s husband, Connie leaves her. Now, I know that this is a big deal in itself, but the thing that makes me extremely angry about the whole situation is the fact that Rose of Sharon is pregnant. Now, what kind of selfish husband would do that? I’ll tell you what kind of husband. A selfish kind! That’s right. The other thing that strikes me about Connie leaving is the fact that no one seems surprised in the Joad family by what has happened besides Rose of Sharon. I think that it is irresponsible and unkind of the members of the family to let that happen without making him pay the consequences. It is simply absurd.

Rose of Sharon is Respectable

So, this is my forth blog today which makes a pretty happy person because it seems like I have flown through the other ones I have done. Not to mention, my little kitten is sleeping in my parent’s bedroom which helps a lot because now whenever I am typing something, I do not an innocent little kitty trying to bite my fingers off because she thinks that they are toys for her to play with. Anyway since I am on a roll here with the book The Grapes of Wrath, I might as well not stop talking about it because these blogs seem to be going by pretty fast. Knock on wood. Anyway, another character that I thought was very respectable throughout the book The Grapes of Wrath was the character Rose of Sharon. It was only until the end of the story where I started to notice it. I really felt bad for her after she had lost her husband and baby back to back. I mean, I know that being in California without good jobs and harsh living conditions was hard on the entire family, but in my opinion, I think that the move to California was the hardest on Rose of Sharon. I think this because first of all, there is no way that when a woman is pregnant, that she will want to stay in a car for that long. And you also have to realize that back then, there were no such things as expressways and interstates and that cars could not go fast at all compared to seventy miles per hour, so that car ride would not have to be easy on a pregnant woman. Another thing is that when the family got to California, and they finally realized that it was going to be a lot harder to find a good job than they thought, her husband left her. Anyway, it is respectable for Rose of Sharon to be able to move on after these bad things have happened to her.

Tom is an Admirable Man

So, after reading the book The Grapes of Wrath, which happens to be written by the author John Steinbeck, I found one particular character quite interesting. I honesty cannot believe that I can truthfully say anything close to that about this awful book, but one character did stick out to me. That was the character of Tom Joad. Tom Joad is the main character of the book The Grapes of Wrath. He is what one would call the protagonist. I think that it is very interesting how quickly the author John Steinbeck has the character of Tom Joad grow into the character that would be considered that main protagonist of the story because of how the author introduces the character of Tom Joad. The author John Steinbeck introduces the character of Tom Joad as soon as Tom gets out of jail for murdering a man. It actually amazes me how throughout the story, even after being in prison for four years that Tom never really looks back on this incident and instead focuses more on being a good father rathe than looking into the past. Because of this trait that Tom Joad possesses, his moral and leadership gives the rest of the family some hope and comfort on the way to California and it helps the rest of the family stay positive when it looks doubtful that there are any jobs in California. One character trait that Tom Joad possesses which no other character possesses throughout the story is that whenever something not so great happens, it really never seems to affect Tom in the same ways that the event will affect others. It seems that throughout the story, whenever the family encounters a bad situation, the optimism and leadership of Tom is never shaken. I think that it is quite respectable how a man can do that after he has not seen his family for four years. Tom is an admirable man in the book The Grapes of Wrath.

Do Not Read Chapter 3!

Wow. Really John Steinbeck? You have got to be kidding me. so, for any of you blog readers who did not read the last blog that I posted, it is about how the author of The Grapes of Wrath, John Steinbeck includes the most pointless details in his story and how if a modern day writer wrote this story again, that they could easily cut the word count in half. So, here is a perfect example of that in the book The Grapes of Wrath. The sad part of my example is that I am using a whole chapter to as my example to show how John Steinbeck rambles on about nothing in particular and that when he was writing this story, he had nothing better to do than decide how he was going to bore the reader to death with this book, by going off onto the most pointless details throughout the story and including absolutely no action just to get on the reader’s nerves. Ok, so for whoever read the book The Grapes of Wrath, would anyone like to tell me what happed in chapter number three? Anyone? Anyone? Bueler? Guess not. Well for anyone who has not read the whole book, here comes a spoiler alert. In chapter three absolutely nothing happens! Believe it or not, it is actually true. For anyone who does not believe me, try treading chapter three. So, I never thought that it was possible, but there is actually a chapter in this book where the author talks about absolutely nothing. I guess the author is talking about a turtle or something. I don’t know. It beats me. I guess that a guy hit a turtle on a highway with his truck and the turtle had trouble flipping back over to save its own life. So, that sums it up for you. For anyone who has not read the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck, take my advice and skip chapter three. It will save you time and you will not be as angry at the book.

The Grapes of Wrath = BORING

So, I am really bored and I have nothing to do right now before soccer practice, so I might as well write some blogs while I have the free time to do them before I go back to school on Monday. These blogs are very time consuming. Very time consuming indeed. It is times like these where I wish that I had pulled a Katie McGraw and just got my blogs done earlier so that I would not be sitting here right now with three days left of summer and more than half of my blogs to do before I go back to school. Anyway, this blog is going to be about the book the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. First of all, I would like to say that for any of you who plan on reading this book for fun, you might be crazy. In my opinion, the author, John Steinbeck had nothing better to do but bore the heck out of the readers of his book and include absolutely no action within the story to keep the reader nice and bored for the month he or she has to read this novel. In all honestly, I would not recommend this book to anyone no matter how interested they are in the history of the dust bowl. This book is simply not worth the historical and educational values. I know that back in the old times when this book was written, the authors were much more descriptive about what happened in the story, but really John Steinbeck? I bet that a modern day author could cut the word count in half at least if someone were to write this story again. That is in all honesty no exaggeration. I bet that everyone who has read this book in Honors English at Pleasant Plains High School would have to agree with me. it is crazy how much Steinbeck goes off onto the most pointless details on nothing having to do with the story.

Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Morals to the Ending of The Grapes of Wrath

So once again I am very very bored. I guess that I will just write another blog. Unlike a lot of my other ones, I guess I will write this one about the book the Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. Somehow, this is only my second blog about this book. Almost all of my other blogs are on the book Fahrenheit 451 by the author Ray Bradbury. Actually let me make a correction. All of my other blogs have been about Fahrenheit 451 except for one. So, this one is going to be about the ending to the book Grapes of Wrath and the overall lessons and morals learned from the ending of the story. To me, the ending of the Grapes of Wrath was very interesting. I thought that the author wrote the ending of the story to teach the reader many valuable lessons even though the story kind of has an open and non-conclusive ending. I think that the main purpose that John Steinbeck had when writing the ending of the story is that even when everything has gone wrong, that does not mean that you as a person have to be very cruel to others. In the book after the Joad family has lost their home, a child, and all hope seems lost to them because it seems that they cannot continue living in California, the family cannot see this old man die and so Rose of Sharon nurses him back to strength. Even though the author has not included any foreshadowing if life will get better for the Joad family, I as the reader find it interesting that the Family has not lost all of their morals after the hard time that they have had trying to find a good and manageable life in California. I think that even though the author has not included anything about how the family’s life will go after this event, I think that the family will be fine because they are still good people and they will keep moving on with life and do just fine in California in time.

Bradbury's Influence

I am really bored, so I figure I might as well just write more blogs. I guess that I will just write this one about Fahrenheit 451 again. So, even though the book Fahrenheit 451 was an easy read and kind of random at times, I actually enjoyed it quite a bit. Even though the book had its parts where it dragged on, it would tend to jump right back into the action as soon as possible. That is what is good about the book Fahrenheit 451 because it is very short. There were part of the book where I wanted to put it down because they were boring, but I also just got through the boring parts because I knew that the part would end quickly and they book would continue with a part that is action packed. Another thing that I liked about the book Fahrenheit 451 is the interesting topics that the author, Ray Bradbury brought up. For example I thought that I was interesting how Ray Bradbury described the reason that that evolving society did not like need or like books anymore. In fact, I wonder what drove Ray Bradbury to write the book Fahrenheit 451. What in the world would influence someone to write something like the book Fahrenheit 451? I simply do not understand it. Could Ray Bradbury have just been sitting around or lying in bed one night when suddenly the idea of a society that no longer needed or wanted books hit him? What about examples of technology throughout the book Fahrenheit 451? To me, I have no idea where anyone would get the idea of an eight-legged robotic creature that would chase fugitives around and kill them. How in the world would anyone come up with that? Was the author Ray Bradbury on drugs when he came up with the ideas of these things? Was it like Louis Carroll when he wrote the book Alice in Wonderland? That would be baffling.

Fahrenheit 451 is an Easy Read

Ok, so I am one again writing this bog about Fahrenheit 451. This blog is going to be about how I realized how easy of a read Fahrenheit 451 is. I mean I was on vacation, I read it in like two days. Quite frankly, this book is a joke to read. I mean it is not like I had two sit down for multiple hours at a time to hope to finish the darn book. It honestly took me like two days to read and it was a joke. It is not like the author, Ray Bradbury, made the language within the story very complex at all either. The structure of the sentences got very repetitive also. The author, Ray Bradbury, used a lot of simple sentences which made me kind of bored with the writing. Actually, I take that back. Now that I think about it, the author, Ray Bradbury, did not really have a repeating sentence structure when writing the story. Now that I think about it, Bradbury did vary the sentences very well. I am sorry to whoever is reading this blog that I keep contradicting myself. I am quite simply just trying to this blog done. Anyway, I wonder what I will think of the book, The Old Man and the Sea because that book is really really short. I mean even shorter than the book Fahrenheit 451. My inside sources tell me that the book The Old Man and the Sea can be read in like one day. That actually makes me pretty happy. I mean why would that not make someone happy? If every summer reader book was that short, I would probably start dancing in the rain. It is not like I never dance in the rain but, if every summer reading book was that short, I would probably do it with more emotion than I usually do. Yeah. That’s right. Sorry, what was I talking about? Oh well I am done with the blog.

Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Effect of Clarisse

So, this is my last blog for the day. After I write this one I have to go to soccer practice for two and a half hours so that will be fun. I have already done five blogs today and this will be my sixth. I must say that I am very proud of myself getting this many blogs done today. I certainly did not wake up this morning thinking that I would be this productive today, yet here I am doing my sixth blog today so I guess that I can never say never. Anyway, in the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, something strange happens. Clarisse goes missing! Oh no Montag! What will you do without her? Apparently you will definitely become a changed man because that is what happens in the book Fahrenheit 451. Does anyone notice that who read the book last month? Montag changes so much after Clarisse has gone missing. In my opinion, what kind of happens to Montag is that whenever Clarisse goes missing, since they do not talk in the mornings anymore, she cannot give Montag broad topics to think about anymore, so what he kind of does is he makes it his responsibility to find broad topics in the world that will make him think in a way that he never has before. In my opinion, that is kind of why I think that he is hiding books in his pillowcase. He wants to discover things that no one in the futuristic society really knows or cares about. To me, I think that it is amazing that a few simple conversations can influence someone so drastically. After he has the conversations with Clarisse, the rest of the book is basically about how he is trying to find answers and explanations for the things that Clarisse has told him about. Montag also might be trying to expose himself to more broad topics that might remind him of Clarisse or might give him the feeling that he know nothing so he can learn more about the world before.

The Scene For Idiots

This blog is once again about the thrilling novel Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I remember when I was reading the novel; there was a certain part that just stuck out to me. That certain part was the part when Mildred has her friends over. I tend to think that the first impression that anyone gets from Mildred’s friend is that they are extremely stuck up. I mean don’t they kind of have to if they are friends with Mildred? Mildred only wants what is good for herself, seeing how all she does is sit around the house, watches television, and then comes along with the occasional suicide attempt. So, these friends of hers all have to be moron’s right? They basically prove it in this scene though let me tell you. Although I would have to go on to say that everyone involved in this scene looks like a moron. Anyone who has read this book probably agrees with me. It is not only the women who look dumb but it is also Montag. What an idiot. Why in the world would you pull a book out in front of them when you are a fireman and you know that it is illegal to do such a thing? Answer me that Montag. Answer me that. Another thing that you do that is just dumb is that you choose the worst passage in the book. It would have been better if you chose one that was not so cheesy but no. after he reads this passage though, apparently there is a competition in this scene to see who is the biggest idiot because one of Mildred’s friends starts crying because she is so upset with the passage. How funny would it have to be to see this scene take place in real life? I would be laughing so hard at everyone. So who do you think the tru idiot of the scene is? I would probably have to hand the trophy to Montag.

The Character of Faber Part 2

So, my little kitty is still sleeping in my lap. I am very very glad that I am getting through the blogs as fast as I am before soccer practice. So for all of you guys out there who are fans of the show the Office, this one goes out to you because that show is honestly getting me through my blogs right now. This blog also goes out to all of the character of the Office. That list of characters includes Jim, Pam, Michael, Jan, Stanley, Holly, Kevin, Oscar, Phyllis, Karen, the Temp, Angela, Kelly, Roy, Darrel, and of course Dwight. So, for the entire cast of the Office and all of the fans of the Office, this one is for you. Ok, so I am continuing with the Faber blog. The thing about Faber is that he creates this plan for Montag to save book and to turn the twisted society back to the way things were, but this gets Montag into lots and lots of trouble. I mean, I know that Faber warned Montag that this would be a very very difficult process and he could get in trouble by doing it, but it bothers me as the reader to see that Faber was not right there next to Montag trying to get the plan accomplished. I know that in the book Faber mentions that he is kind of a wimp for not being there with Montag, but because there are very good friends and they share the same interests in wanting to change the society, it still bothers me that Faber was not there for Montag throughout the entire story. By the end of the story, though, Faber gets on my god side again by helping out Montag with the chase against the evil hound. Faber gets Montag to stop at his house and they change clothes to get the hound to not be able to follow the scent of Montag any longer.

The Character of Faber

So, my kitten is still asleep on my lap thank goodness. I was just freaking out because I just got this call on the house phone that woke the kitten up. It actually made me pretty mad because it was not even someone that I knew. It was just a dumb too-free call. That stuff just makes me mad. I was ready to just pick up the phone and start screaming at the person, but my better half got to me and I just let it go to the answering machine. Luckily for me, right after I sat back down in the chair next to the laptop that I am typing on, the cute little kitten hopped right back up onto my lap and went right back to sleep. Thank gosh. If this little kitten would have started bothering me again, I would have been extremely, extremely angry with the person who called our house phone. Anyway, now to the blog part of this blog. So, once again I am writing this blog about the book Fahrenheit 451 which is a well written story by the author Ray Bradbury. One of the characters that the author, Bradbury introduced me to was named Faber. The character, Faber is a very very interesting man. Back in the day, he used to be an English professor. How lucky is it that Montag just happens to know a former English professor? Can you say very lucky? Anyway, unlike about nine tenths of the people in the futuristic society of Fahrenheit 451, Faber actually knows what is inside the books that people want to hold onto. He comes up with a plan for Montag to be able to keep his books and try to turn the society around back to the way it was. That is a very very bold move Faber. Anyway, the one and only problem that I have with Faber is that he actually just Montag into lots and lots of danger coming up with this plan.

Why Mildred Could Be Replaced With A Crash Test Dummy

So, it is about time little kitten! After three hours of chasing me around the house and chewing on all of my fingers and toes, you are finally asleep on my lap and you are finally giving me some nice quiet relaxing time to do my blogs. What a relief! So, last month I read the book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury and it was a very very good book. Bradbury is a very descriptive writer who can bring out the emotions of a character in one of his books very well to make them seem like a person in real life. It is truly baffling. So, anyway, when I started reading this book last month, from the beginning, there was a character who puzzled me quite a bit. Usually when a character catches your attention at the beginning of a story, it is a main character, but this character really is not one of the more main characters. The one character that definitely puzzled me was Mildred, who is Montag’s wife. So, the author, Bradbury does not give the reader a pleasant introduction to the character of Mildred seeing how the first time she comes into the book, she is trying to kill herself. Another thing that caught me off guard with Mildred was not only the fact that she never thanks Montag for taking her to the hospital and saving her life, but she really never does anything throughout the book. I mean, in my opinion, the author, Ray Bradbury could have replaced Mildred with a crash test dummy and no one would notice the difference. In fact, that is what I am going to call this blog.I mean honestly! What does she do throughout the story that makes her look like an active human being? Absolutely nothing. First of all, she has no job. That’s a good start. And all she does all day is watch her three-walled television. Maybe she wanted to kill herself because there is no difference between her and my cat Max who weighs 25 pounds and does absolutely nothing all day.

Tuesday, August 17, 2010

The Hound

So these blogs are getting really hard to when you have a kitten that is ten weeks old trying to walk all over the gosh darn keyboard! They are also really hard to do when you have just woken up from and nap and you keep making spelling errors because of exhaustion. Ok so finally I can type now because this cute little kitty is sitting on my lap and not trying to get attention by walking all over the key board. So, this blog is once again about the Book Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. To me, this book includes very interesting futuristic technology, but I noticed a few flaws with the way that the author to the book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury presents some things. For example, in the book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury includes this robot creature that is like a mixture between a dog and a spider because it has eight legs. In the book Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury’s characters refer to this robotic animal as a hound. The job of this hound is to hunt down and kill fugitives that have escaped the police of the futuristic society of Fahrenheit 451. Normally the police in the book catch nearly all of the criminals, but when one of the fugitives get away, the police summons the hound to track down and kill the fugitive by following the scent. One thing that I noticed that was really weird about the hound was that it basically attacked anything it could. The thing was basically not trained at all whatsoever. In fact, there were many instances throughout the story where Montag was afraid that the hound would attack him inside the police station. Whenever I read these passages, they made no sense to me. How could the hound in the story be disciplined enough to track down anyone by smell if it would try attacking anyone? Wouldn’t the hound just see someone while it was trying to chase a fugitive and start chasing that person instead of the fugitive that it was actually trying to catch?

Conversation For The Ride Home

So, this blog is once again going to be about the book Fahrenheit 451. Unlike my other blogs though, I was inspired to write this one from someone else besides myself. I was inspired to write this blog after reading Matt Vermeersch’s blog on how awkward the fire truck ride would be after the lady in the book Fahrenheit 451 decided to be burned alive with her house. So, this one goes out to my pal Matt Vermeersch…and whatever else inspired me to write this 325 word blog. So, not only does this go out to my pal Matt Vermeersch, but it goes out to whoever is bored right now, God I suppose, the little kitty who is currently sitting on my lap right now, who currently does not have a name, the entire cast of The Office because I am watching that show right now and my other cat Simba, who keeps giving me dirty looks because I am paying more attention to this little kitten than him. Sorry Simba. Anyway, I just wasted 172 words on that intro so I should probably get to the blog part. Or not. Ok so anyway, that fire truck ride would have to be so awkward. I mean what would you say after you saw something like that? If I had seen that, I would probably be in the back of the fire truck crying or shaking out of pure shock. The thing that I find very weird about this event is that it seems like Captian Beatty was not even affected by what had happened. He just acted normal after what he had just seen. Montag on the other hand was deeply affected by what he had seen. The reader can tell because the author, Ray Bradbury includes times in the book Fahrenheit 451 when all Guy Montag can think about is the image of the lady being burned to death along with her books in her home.

Random Death of Clarisse

So, last month I read the story Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I must say that this story is quite baffling at times. I am sure that those who read it last month will probably agree with me. And for those of you, who have not read it, I suggest reading this thrilling novel but if you do not want to or you do not feel like it then just agree with me. Anyway, back to the actual blog part. One of the main events in the story that I found quite random or baffling was when the reader finds out that Clarisse died. I thought that this part seems very random and forced. I think that the book Fahrenheit 451 would have been much better if the author Ray Bradbury would have kept the character of Clarisse in the story. To me it would have made the story much more interesting and enjoyable if Bradbury kept her in the story. One thing that I thought was stupid about the way that Clarisse dies is that one day she randomly gets hit by a car and that is it. How random and forced does that seem? For a character that is very significant to the story, I would expect a death a little more significant and not so random and forced. Maybe the author could have included some foreshadowing to not make the death seem so forced. Another thing I would have considered doing if I was Bradbury is that I would have left Clarisse alive for the whole story. To me, the book would have been much better because of the broad topics that the character of Clarisse brought into the story that made the character of Guy Montag and the reader actually think about. The story would have been much more enjoyable for me and would not have as much of a depressing mood if the author, Ray Bradbury had kept her in the book Fahrenheit 451.

Does Mildred Have A Heart?

Oh boy. Wow really? To all of you Fahrenheit 451 readers out there, answer me this. Does Mildred, who is Montag’s wife, have a heart? I am actually starting to believe that she does not. First, at the very beginning of the story, she tries to kill herself. Montag walks into the room and realizes that she has swallowed all of her pills. She tried to overdose and hoped that Montag would not notice. Hey, Mildred, aren’t you so grateful that you have a husband that cares about you to take you to the hospital and save your life. After that she denies that it ever happened. Are you kidding me Mildred? You do not even want to talk to your husband about why you tried to kill yourself? I can tell that you love Montag so much. So, that was an interesting introduction to Mildred’s character. The thing that truly gets to me about her is when she rats out Montag for having books. She said she would not and then she did. That part of the story just made me so angry because she knew that Montag loved those books and that he wanted to know what was inside of them but she just called Beatty anyway. The thing that was awful about that event was that Captain Beatty actually made Montag burn the house down and all of his books with the flamethrower. That part made me really want to hurt Mildred. No wonder Guy Montag enjoyed being around Clarisse more than his own wife. Because Montag’s wife, Milded does not have a heart. The only thing that Mildred does throughout the whole entire story is save a couple of the books that Montag has in his possession by burying them in their backyard. That is the one and only thing that she did for Montag in the entire story. It seems like she does not even love Guy Montag. It makes me extremely mad.

Really Montag?

Wow. Really Montag? Twenty books stashed away? As the great Kirk Gower would say, “That’s baffling.” Oh wait, I am Kirk Gower. Does that mean I have to put that in quotes? Do you put something in quotes when you are quoting yourself? I just baffled myself. Oh wait, I forgot for a second that I am still Kirk Gower and Kirk Gower does not become baffled. Anyway, what the heck was Montag thinking? Did Montag really think that he could get away with illegally having all of those books? Although once Captain Beatty came over to Montag’s house, you have to admit that it was pretty obvious that Montag was going to be caught for having all of those books. Seeing as how Guy Montag is a fireman, he should know that most people that have books in their possession, get caught and get them burned. That is why Guy Montag is very dumb. He even tries to keep them hidden away after he sees that one lady burned alive after she is caught for having books in her possession. Why would you not get rid of them? I mean it is clear that Captain Beatty knows what you are up to after he comes over to your house so it is just dumb to keep the books hidden and simply hope that no one will find them. Wow. Great job Guy Montag. That plan worked out very very well. I applaud you sir. The worst part about it is that he pulled a book out in front of Mildred and her friends. What an idiot. You honestly think that reading them one stupid poem is going to change their minds about books? Well that worked out really really well because you made one of Mildred’s friends cry because she was so darn upset? Tell me Montag, how safe do you think your entire stash of book is now? On the scale of Kelvin, I would give them an absolute zero.

The Title of Fahrenheit 451

I thought that the title of the book Fahrenheit 451 was a good one. I thought this because it relates to fire and burning by including the word “Fahrenheit” which was mainly what the book was about. The title of Fahrenheit 451 truly caught my attention and got me very excited to read the book. The 451 is also significant in the book because that is the number that Guy Montag has on his fireman’s jacket. I honestly do not think that there could be a better title that Ray Bradbury could give this book to catch the eye who someone who wants a quick and exciting read. In fact, that is why I picked up this book and started reading it for my book of choice. The title “Fahrenheit 451” literally jumped off the page and got me wondering what the story is about. When I read the synopsis of the story on the back of the book, it got me excited about reading the book and so I decided to read it and I am now glad that I did. If the title of the book would not have been so great, then I probably would have read something else instead that would not have been as interesting of a story or as quick of a read. I would find it interesting to know how Ray Bradbury came up with the title of the book seeing how the two terms “Fahrenheit” and “451” together do not have any significance in the story. I actually find it very strange how the author, Bradbury, came up with the title, seeing how the two terms combined have nothing to do with anything in the story. Maybe he simply could have thought that the two terms sounded very interesting together so he just decided to make that his title. If this is how he came up with the title, then he certainly did a good job because the title definitely caught my eye and made me wanted to read the story.

Monday, August 16, 2010

Why Captain Beatty Wanted to Die

In Fahrenheit 451, after Captain Beatty drives to Guy Montag’s house and makes Montag burn all of his books and house with the flamethrower, Guy Montag becomes so infuriated with Captain Beatty that Guy takes the flamethrower and burns Beatty alive with it. After running away from shock and out of fear that the police will catch him, Guy Montag realizes that when he had the flamethrower pointed at Captain Beatty, he made absolutely no effort to stop Montag or get out of the way of the flames. Captain Beatty basically committed suicide. My question to the other readers of this book is, why did Captain Beatty want to end his life? There could be many reasons for this event, but the answer to this question is not made clear by Ray Bradbury in the story. One of the possible answers to this question could be that Captain Beatty suddenly felt extremely guilty because of the fact that he made Guy Montag, his loyal friend and co-worker, burn down his house and destroy the books that he loved. He also basically forced Montag’s wife to walk out on him. Beatty may have just been freaked out at the sight of the burning house and wanted to punish himself. Another reason that Beatty wanted to die might have been because he actually did love books and did not want to see them burnt. Captain Beatty could have seen the books being destroyed by Montag and could not take the pain anymore and wanted to be put out of his misery. Another reason that Beatty may have wanted to die was because he realized that he actually hated the fast-paced futuristic society that he lived in. Since he knew what the world was like before, he could have realized how messed up the world had become, with people murdering other people for fun, and people not having to worry about horrible consequences. He may have realized these things and may have not wanted to go on living anymore.

Why Captain Beatty Hates Books Part Two

Another reason that Captain Beatty hates books might be because he loves how the absence of books has made the futuristic society so fast-paced. As Captain Beatty describes in the book, in the futuristic society, no one wants to take the time to read books. Since the technology is so advanced, people enjoy movies more because they can see what is happening, or people think it is dumb to waste the time to read books because people can simply learn the morals of the story in the real world. Also, in the future people hate to worry. The society has tried to take all of the worrying out of everyday life by getting rid of books because they give people thoughts that are so broad that they actually make people worry about. For example, no one wants to read the Bible because after reading it, they will worry on a daily basis if they are going to heaven or hell. While reading the book Fahrenheit 451, at his part where Captain Beatty is describing why firemen burn books, I thought that the reason Captain Beatty hates books is because he loves the extremely fast-paced society that they live in. I thought this until the part when Montag burns Captain Beatty to death with the flamethrower. I thought that Montag was simply crazy when he burned Captain Beatty. The thing that I had not noticed until the author, Ray Bradbury had pointed it out to the reader was that when Montag was pointing the flamethrower at Captain Beatty, right before Guy scorched him, Captain Beatty made absolutely no effort to defend himself or move. It had almost seemed like Captain Beatty wanted Guy Montag to burn him to death. This is why I do not think that Captain Beatty hated books because he loved the fast-paced society that the absence of books had brought because when Guy Montag had the flamethrower pointed at Captain Beatty, he made no effort to move.

Why Captain Beatty Hates Books Part One

As many of you who read Fahrenheit 451 know, the character of Captain Beatty hates books. In the story, Captain Beatty is a fireman. A fireman in the futuristic society of Fahrenheit 451 is much different than a fireman in today’s society. In today’s society, a fireman is meant to put out fires, but in Fahrenheit 451, a fireman starts fires. Anyway, while I was reading Fahrenheit 451, I was wondering, why Captain Beatty hates books so much. There could be many reasons to explain this behavior, but one reason why Captain Beatty hates books is not made clear by Ray Bradbury in the book. of the reasons that Captain Beatty hates books might be simply because of his career. As a fireman, it is Captain Beatty’s duty to find books that are in the illegal possession of people and burn the books. So, because it is simply illegal for people to own books, he might simply hate books for this reason. Although, I actually doubt that this is the main reason why he hates them. I do not think this is the main reason because when Captian Beatty comes to Montag’s house to see why he has missed work, Captian Beatty claims that every fireman come to a point in their carrer when they wonder what is inside the books that they are burning. Captian Beatty then claims that he knows what is inside the books that the firemen burn, and that they are not worth the trouble that people go through to keep them. To me, I do not think that Captian Beatty can truly hate books simply because he has to for his career when he knows what is inside him, so his career itself cannot answer completely why Captian Beatty hates books. Another reason that Captian Beatty hates books could be because he loves what the absence of books has done to the futuristic society and how fast paced the absence of books has made living in the futuristic world.

Saturday, August 7, 2010

The Ending of Fahrenheit 451

So, was anyone frustrated by the ending of Fahrenheit 451 besides me? I mean, I'm glad that Montag got away from the city by escaping the police and the evil hound and met other people that were influenced by books like Montag, but I did not think that the author, Bradbury, concluded the story very well at all. It basically ends when the fugitives decide that they will help the war-torn city rebuild and they will try and pass on the word of the stories they know to try to give people hope and return the society to normalcy. The thing that annoyed me the most about the ending is that the author does not give any clue to if the plan of the fugitives will work. The ending is supposed to be satisfying because the stories, theories, and morals that are put into books did not die. To me though, that is not good enough. Once the city gets rebuilt, I can just as easily see the society going back to the ways of madness rather than living with the morals we do today in our society. I thought with such a depressing story that Bradbury could give a little more than a hint of optimism to end the story. The other thing that annoyed me about the ending was the fact that the war was delivered so randomly. I mean I know that Bradbury gave small hints about it throughout the story, but at the same time there where entries in the story that claimed that in the futuristic society, war is not that big of a deal because of how much of a powerhouse the U.S. is and becaue of the futuristic technology put into weapons. I also thought that it was really weird how once Montag escaped the city, it was just randomly blown up. did anyone else think that that seemed really forced? If you did, then please leave your comment below.

Clarisse in Fahrenheit 451

In the early pages of Fahrenheit 451, Guy Montag meets a seventeen year old girl named Clarisse McClellan. This early encounter between Guy and Clarisse basically begins the main plot of the story. Clarisse quickly becomes unique to Montag not only because of her strange habits of hiking and playing with flowers but also because of the questions she asks Guy about life and the interesting topics she brings up about the world before it turned to madness. Another strange characteristic that Montag notices about Clarisse is that even though she says that she does not attend school, she seems much more wise than anyone Montag knows. In their conversations Clarisse mentions her uncle a lot and how she learned a many things about the former world from him which causes Montag to begin wondering how their futuristic society came to be so twisted. As they talk more and begin to see each other everyday, finds that he actually seems to like Clarisse or he has a need to see her that is greater than the need to see or spend time with his own wife, Mildred. Eventually, Guy stops seeing Clarisse because he does not see her walking by his house again in the morning anymore. When mentioning Clarisse in a conversation with his wife Mildred, Guy finds out that Clarisse has "gone away." Later in the story, Captain Beatty tells Montag that Clarisse was killed in a car accident. I find the character of Clarisse McClellan very interesting. I find it interesting how Bradbury includes her character in the story because she is not one of the main characters in the story, yet I think she played the most important part in the book Fahrenheit 451 because of the way she begins the plot to the whole story. Without her, Montag would have never had thoughts about the society before his time and how the job of a fireman came to be. More importantly, without Clarisse, Montag would never have tried to save the books and save the society.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

Technology in Fahrenheit 451

In Fahrenheit 451, Ray Bradbury writes a lot about the adaption of technology in the futuristic society compared to when the book was written in 1950. I find it very interesting what Bradbury has included. For example, the cars in the story usually go over one hundred miles per hour. Therefore, the billboards along the road have to be very, very big. Bradbury states in the book that the billboards are built over two hundred feet long so that people will be able to easily read the ads on them as they speed by in a car. I never thought about advertising in the future like that. I figured that in the future, cars will be able to go a lot faster than they do today, but I never thought about the effect that fast cars would have on billboards and advertising. I found that very interesting. It makes me wonder what else businesses would have to do to adapt their advertisements in a futuristic society. Another thing that I found interesting in Bradbury’s was the “hound” that the police use to catch convicts. Obviously, today the closest things we have to a “hound” are actual dogs that are used to sniff out the path of convicts to catch them. It makes me wonder if we will ever have the technology in my lifetime to be able to build a machine like that. It would be unbelievable if there was a machine that could hunt down criminals to the point where it was nearly impossible to escape. It makes me wonder if there would be dramatic drop in crime because criminals would know that it would almost be impossible to escape the law enforcement. Other than those two examples, there were not many more examples of futuristic technology that stood out to me besides the concepts that Bradbury presented with the two hundred foot billboards and the “hound” that would be used by the police. These concepts made me interested in the book and I did not want to put it down.

Fahrenheit 451 and Religion

In the story Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, Bradbury explains that in the future people are too impatient to read stories, but another reason they do not read books is because they do not bother thinking about thoughts and opinions put into them. For example, people in the futuristic society do not think about concepts about God or the universe. When I was reading Fahrenheit 451, I seemed to notice that there are other things that contain subjects and concepts that make people think deeply about other than books. For example, there was nothing included in the story about music within the society of Fahrenheit 451. I wonder what they listen to. It is not like there cannot be any music to listen at all, right? Today, there are many songs that give the listener very much to think about. In fact as many people know, there is a whole Christian genre where people like to express their feelings and worship God. What would happen in the future to a music genre like that? Would people just stop singing about Him? What would happen to religion in general? There is absolutely no way that religion can die. There are too many followers. I am actually amazed that there was no discussion in Fahrenheit 451 about religion. There have to be people in that society that are touched by religion and would try to spread the word of God. To me, that is a huge whole I the plot of the story. If there are people in the society of Fahrenheit 451, who believe in God, then wouldn’t they want to spread the word of Him? Today, people are extremely devoted to God, so they try to live life on His guidelines and by the Bible. Aren’t there people who would be like that in the society of Fahrenheit 451? I cannot believe that there wouldn’t be. Anyway, I cannot believe that there are not people in that futuristic society who are not religious enough to try and pass on the word of God.

Afterthoughts on The Grapes of Wrath

I finished reading The Grapes of Wrath last month, and overall, i was pretty disappointed. I understand why we still read it, and the historical value it contains. That is not why i was disappointed. Overall, I thought that the Joads made some very bad mistakes when traveling to California. Besides the fact that they do not listen to the multiple people that tell the family that there is nothing in California, their motivation to keep going is hope that they will get lucky and find jobs for the whole family that no one else in California has found. So let me get this straight, the Joad family is going to leave their home, go to California, and simply hope to find jobs? Bold move Joad family. Bold move. Ok, so they get to California, and there are absolutely no jobs. Surprise there. Now the Joads do not know what to do. Luckily, after living in California for a while, they find a job picking peaches, but even when the whole family is working, they do not earn enough money to support their living. Over the next couple of days, the wages get lowered, so the family has to find a new job. Luckily, the family finds another job picking cotton. This job gives the family enough money to the point where they can continue their way of living. I just think at this point of the story it is ridiculous how lucky the family is that they found jobs to suit all of them. Anyway, the rest of the story is basically pointless. The family’s house gets destroyed and they have nowhere to go. That is honestly how the story ends. It is almost a completely pointless ending. Overall, I did not like the book The Grapes of Wrath. There is some useful historical value in the book when it comes to the dust bowl, but other than that, this book is not very enjoyable at all. I basically would not recommend this book to anyone, even if they are interested in the history with the depression and dust bowl.

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

1st Post!

I just got done reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburry, and I honestly thought it was a very good book. It was much better and quicker read than The Grapes of Wrath in my opinion. One of the things that i liked about Fahrenheit 451 is the fact that it is very fast paced. the author, Ray Bradburry jumped right into the action and did not let up for the rest of the story. I was very interested in the plot of the story and how the characters reacted in certain situations. For example, I liked how Montag became so infuriated with Beatty that he finally burned him alive with the flamethrower after Beatty forced Montag to burn his house down along with the collection of books in his possession. While reading the story, I could tell that Ray Bradburry put plenty of emotion into writing Fahrenheit 451, causing me to not want to put the book down at all. While reading the story, I was also fascinated by how Bradburry understood the evolution of futuristic civilations and one day that people will adapt to make life so fast-paced that people will be too impatient to read books, making books almost completely useless. I also find it interesting how Bradburry tends to make the futuristic world seem fake because of the way the hound chase ends. When Montag jumps into the river, even though the police know the he has jumped into the river, the hound turns around and finds some other random citizen to murder because the police cannot chase Montag down the river. The interesting part about this scene was hoe the public was convinced that the citizen who was murdered was Montag. It almost reflects society today. That part of the story made me think how pathetic it is that today in this world, there are shallow people who believe that everything that happens on reality television is real. Anyway, I truly did enjoy reading Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradburry. I would recommend this story to anyone who enjoys the science-fiction genre. The action in the story was absolutely non-stop and it was a quick, very fast-paced book to read.