Log 3

 Hi, this is Xenia. 

I found that I rarely mentioned the "content" of this novel in log 2, which caused many people to still not know what it was talking about. So, let me briefly talk to you about the plot of the first chapter.

In the beginning, there was a murder in a family. The author described the killer named "Jack" in detail, including his appearance, his actions, and even his opinions. Every member of the family was killed by "Man Jack", and the author always mentions him as "Man Jack" instead of "Jack", which makes me a little curious, except for the protagonist boy. The boy slipped out of the crib and crawled out of the window, but fortunately escaped from the massacre. The place where he finally arrived was a hazy and gloomy cemetery. Although Jack chased to the cemetery with extraordinary instinct, with the help of the ghost, the boy was safe again. The two big ghosts Owens there decided to take on the responsibility of taking care of the baby boy, especially under the entrustment of the baby boy's mother who had been killed by Jack. Then there was a forum of about three hundred ghosts in the cemetery, discussing whether to raise children, with the exception of the cemetery.

Interestingly, every ghost in the cemetery is equal. Everyone can say aloud that their opinions are respected, and they can vote because they are all dead, which makes them equal. This is a bit different from the world we live in. In our world, not everyone is equal and respectful when conveying ideas because of their different identities and positions. As for voting, not everyone has the right to vote in national elections; in addition, some countries even prohibit women from voting. However, ghosts can do these things without any restrictions, which is a bit ironic compared to our world.

When Mrs. Owens insisted on raising children, even though one person is a "person", one person is a "ghost". What's more, when the couple was alive, neither of them had children, nor did they know how to raise them. Knowing that there may be many difficulties, they still have to take responsibility. This plot reminds me of childhood memories. Since my parents divorced, I lived with my mother when I was in kindergarten. We quarreled almost every day, or we were scolded every day. The connection between us is so close that it seems impossible to strike a balance between us, and I am always under her pressure because I am afraid of doing something wrong and then being scolded again and again. After a few years, we stopped living together. She told me, "This is also my first motherhood. I'm still young, and no one tells me what to do or how to do it." This conversation is still in my mind now. Here, I believe I will not forget it in my lifetime, but I may not tell her. It is always difficult for me to love and maintain a relationship with others, and conveying feelings is no exception. If I reveal the "real me" like me and my mother, I am afraid that other people may stay away from me. She didn't actually leave me, but had her own life; however, I always feel that there is an invisible wall between us, even if we communicate with each other through social apps. This plot reminds me of memory, because the couple in the story has no experience in raising children, and no one will tell them what to do. But I think they will do a good job because I have read the introduction of the whole story, even if it is a bit cheated? I am still curious about what happened when the boy was growing up. I will keep reading and find out more interesting or touching parts to share with you. :)

Changes when stepping in another stage

A dog’s purpose by W. Bruce Cameron

    Previously on the former chapters of this book, Toby was euthanized due to being unadoptable.     

    After taking a long nap, Toby waked up, opened his eyes, and found that he was brought to not only a new period but also a new space. Everything around him was both strange and familiar with him. Familiar was that he still had siblings and Mother keeping company with him. Familiar was that there was still someone taking care of them. Familiar was that he was still a helpless and weak puppy. But his siblings and Mother were not the same dog at all. But the guy who took care of them was not as tender as Senora (the owner of the Yard) did. But Toby, himself, didn’t have the same appearance anymore.

    Being in a new environment, Toby always made comparison between past and present, trying to find the shadow of past. It makes me ponder that why people always feel like finding the shadow of past? I think it can be related to my own experience when entering in senior high school. Being in a new school, I missed my old friends in junior high school. So, I tried to find whether there were anything in common with my old friends, aiming to have a sense of belonging or something. By doing so, my new classmates would as if become my old friends that I was familiar with. In my opinion, the reason why people want to find the shadow of the past is because of loneliness and insecurity. They still look back to the past, missing people or things in days of old.

    Luckily, Toby was rescued by Ethan’s mother when he was dying in a car from heat exhaust-station. Being picked up and carried into a house, Toby had never imagined such a thing to be possible. What’s more, Toby got a new name which is Bailey. Then, Bailey began his second life with Ethan. Being with Ethan from the second they woke up until the moment they went to sleep, Bailey found what is so-called love this time. He realized that the love between Senora and Ethan were quite different. Senora’s love was general to every dog in the pack; however, Ethan’s love was full of sincerity that they were the center of each other’s worlds.

    Not only did Bailey find his new life of purpose, to accompany Ethan, but also he learn many things that he didn’t know before, and thus he started to enjoy himself. In my point of view, not looking back to the past is an important thing. According to the book, I observe some points that may be helpful to get rid of the past. First, find a new purpose when stepping to another stage in life. By doing so, it’s beneficial to have you pay more attention to the present instead of the past. Next, learn something new to enrich your daily life. Enrichment of yourself will be able to get a sense of achievement, which can make you consider that your life in this moment is much more wonderful than in the past. Last but not least, have someone keep company with you. Just like Ethan and Bailey in the book, they are the center of each other’s worlds, fulfilling each other’s mental needs.

    In conclusion, we should not spend in stagnation day by day. Instead, keep moving ahead and enjoy every moment is the most important thing I learnt from Bailey’s life in the story.

The call of the wild by Jack London: Fight against all the hardships

 

     Hi, it’s James, glad to share my thoughts again. In this reading log I’m going to share a new book I read in this 2-week, called ‘the call of the wild’.

     The call of the wild, describing a dog named Buck, whose adventure was full of many difficulties. The author of this novel isn’t merely telling what difficulties Buck confronted with and how he conquered them but also writing about humanity, relationships with his master, and the surviving rule of the world. Buck was illustrated in a human-like way, expressing his real thoughts in many affectionate words. Similarly, we, as human beings, were always on a life journey, which never be easy and stable, consistent of ups and downs. Reading it, I felt some strong, the same feelings toward Buck’s encounters; without further ado, let’s go through this thought-provoking story.

     In the beginning of the story, Buck had the first separate with his original master for being sold by dog-seller, leaving the environment he was familiar with and also away from the civilization. It was hard for Buck to adapt the whole new environment; after being shipped from village, Buck was no longer accessible to the civilization but destined to be sled dog in the snowfield. Faced with such a demanding environment, Buck was destroyed and injured all over his body, both physically and mentally, he left nothing completely. What’s more pathetic, these were what Buck’s following life be liked, his life was always moving his home, separating with his friends who just met shortly before; as a result, Buck became the strongest dog than anybody after standing again and again from those misfortune.

     Sometimes, we were all hurt by the reality, in new environment, I always have to find the most efficient and effective method to adapt it. How ruthless the society is that it deprived many people’s ideality and hope, as the saying goes “Survival of the Fittest”, I wasn’t truly aware until I gradually grew up, seeing and hearing more.  The part-time job working in 7-11 a few years ago, it’s the first time I understood how difficult it was after staying away from comfort zone; many annoying things that I didn’t do before, a strict store manager as well as all the wheeling and dealing between colleagues. I learned a lot from there; like Buck’s first time knowing what club and the fang taught him, I also understand how could I make myself fit them and get out of their quarrels unscathed, it’s not painful but a very necessary experience I must learn.

     In addition, after Buck get used to his new job, new identity, the call of the wild was really coming to him, which was the true pursuit in somewhere deep in his heart. In a specific plot, He looked his master called Thornton, loyally and affectionately, then in the night he turned to look another side which was a forest (the nature), now it was the time for him to choose whether accompany Thornton or go to the wild. When I was a kid, I always dreamed about the freedom which is no longer under control of my family; however, recently I was usually thinking my family and my dream life, the tug of war between them, as what Buck encountered, so I was felt immersed when seeing the plot, I know how difficult this question to me and Buck.

     In the last Wednesday on my way home, I was in the bus and very exhausted, thinking what I strive for, it came to my mind that it’s for my personal expectation, and to lead a better life. Arriving home, I go upstairs and my mom asked me whether having classes tomorrow and when, I noticed that her care to me from her words; then I went eating the meal cooked by my grandpa, the same question occurred to me again yet this time I realized that actually it’s not for my personal expectation, not just for leading better life or something like that. Take Buck an instance, he wasn’t only following wolves but also hunting some meals for his master, Thornton, as for me, I study for myself but on the purpose of making them proud of me, for having an adequate time to accompany them, it’s the initial and genuine motivation, although the wild seemed to be Buck’s true belongingness, I firmly believed it must be a place with Thornton. These feelings are far from those personal expectations, the carve for success, those indeed supported us to keep going but behind them must be other reasons, for me, it’s the impregnable relationship with family.

     Overall, this is a worthy reading novel and can provoke readers’ feelings to its plots, it’s not a normal book writing about dog story. You need to taste it patiently and sincerely; I believe you will understand the meanings behind among them. This novel also adapted to movie, which called the same as the novel “The call of the wild (極地守護犬)”, I also watch it after finishing the novel, the movie adaption put more emphasis on Buck’s and Thornton, and have very vivid description on Buck, despite the fact there are not too many scenes about how Buck changed from those hardships, it still the good adaption to his original. Hoped that you all can read this novel, watch this movie, and can acquire something from them. 

After being hurt, we grow.

 

Hello! This is Maxine AGAIN!

    As a coming-of-age novel, it contains more issues and meanings behind every chapter when I continue to read the contents. In the beginning, the main character, Esperanza, echoes others' perspectives without thinking deeply. However, after reading the remained stories, I find that she starts to disagree with others’ concepts and form her self-identity through back-and-forth viewpoint transformations. That is also the reason for me to keep reading and introspecting myself.

    Among the pages I read this time, the author devotes space to the description of Sally’s story since she is the pivotal point that alters Esperanza’s life and mental status.

   So, who is she? Sally, whom boys find desirable, is the shining star walking on the carpet that everyone will unconsciously glance over her. She looks flawless and dazzling but untouchable. Rumor has it that she is promiscuous that loves to drive men crazy and take pleasure in sexuality. However, Esperanza doesn’t care and tries to make friends with her. Once, Sally is sexually harassed by a group of boys, so Esperanza throws sticks to save her from the danger. Sadly, she receives waves of laughter and looks of contempt in return. The critical moment that she feels disappointed in Sally is the time that she is touched by an old man, but Sally leaves her alone in such a painful circumstance. Actually, we can see Sally is an unreliable friend who always chooses boys’ attention. But just as the author says, it is a way for her to use boys and men as an escape route from her abusive father. It is her approach to free herself, however, her choice indeed damages their friendship and Esperanza’s life.

    In fact, I can understand the fear and anxiety that Esperanza feels when being uncomfortably touched. While I was taking a bus a few years ago, I encountered a similar event that happened to the character. Since that day was a holiday, the bus was crowded with lots of people that everyone stood close to each other. Suddenly, I felt something hard kept touching me. Before long, I freaked out since my pants got wet and realized that it was his penis. I quickly changed my position and stood at a place that could see his face. He was a short man with strange outs and messy hygiene. At that moment, I was at the edge of bursting out crying. It was not only because I felt disgusted with his deed but more about why I dared not say it out loud. It turned out to be my nightmare and trauma that I didn’t want to mention during that period.

    I notice that the composer uses diverse writing skills to describe the diary-property story. For example, she likes to use metaphors and personifications to depict the figures or conditions more authentically, such as “The moon is a sphinx winking.” and “The dog leaps and somersaults like an apostrophe and comma.” Also, she loves to give funny examples to illustrate the character. For instance, she uses “a wide boat” to describe “an obese mother,” which enables me to pop out an image in my brain. I truly acquire lots of writing techniques to improve my ability about how to animate the characters from the paper and make my story look more interesting.

    When reading this book, I change a lot of my mindset and put myself in the shoes of Esperanza. I feel vivid as if I were the character facing different situations and coming up with relative solutions. The House on Mango Street is close to not only our daily life but also growing stages. For me, this novel is a mirror that I can examine my mental as well as physical statuses and recall something the same happened in my teenage. At the end of the story and me finishing the story, it seems that both Esperanza and I turn out to be maturer and more responsible for our own lives.

The most precious piece in the world

 

            Hi, I am Serena. Welcome to my last reflection on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

Finally, the five lucky kids entered the most famous and popular chocolate factory to be given a tour by Mr. Wonka himself.

Unfortunately, the thing was not going well in the tour. The first one was a greedy glutton boy Augustus felled himself into a garbage tunnel where delivers all of the rubbish in the factory because he tried to gobbled up the chocolate river. The second one was the spoiled Veruca was threw into the burner since she rode roughshod over Mr. Wonka’s warning. The third one is Violet, her whole body was all in the color of purple because she ate a chewing gun which was still under development. The fourth one was Mike who was squeezed into a truly small kid whose height was less than an inch. Lastly, Charlie was the only one who didn’t be punished but received the heirship of the chocolate factory.

In my opinion, Mike’s situation relates a lot to today’s social state called the internet addiction. Mike was addicted to the internet, his whole life was spent on blood-and-guts video games, his thoughts was filled with violence. Additionally, too much addiction to the internet, it will have a negative effect on the users who receive extensive information easily, gradually, they lose independent thinking, imagination, and brain petrification. Even though the internet is convenient, it still has several adverse effects on people’s mindset.

Originally, Charlie supposed to sell the golden ticket to support his family which was in need of money, in this case, I can see he loved his family and he was dutiful for them. In the story, he was naive and kind. I think kindness is the most valuable part in human, it will help you when you need the most. However, though most people see Charlie’s good side, there’s another thing which I doubt about is “Does Charlie deserves the heirship? Since the money contributed him to get the golden ticket was theft hat Charlie stole on the road.” Or can I say Charlie is not a naive kid, he just like the other four kids have a seamy side, and all of the kids in the book is not naive. It makes me wonder whether the naive people still exist in neither the book nor the world.

In the last part of the story, Mr. Wonka, Charlie, and Charlie’s grandpa are in a rocket lift which shooting speed is as fast as the rocket, they peered down at four kids in front of the chocolate factory gate, they all changed distinctly in the appearance, the fat boy became as thin as a straw after torturing in the garbage tunnel, and the squeezed boy turned out like a wire which is long and thin. Mr. Wonka said “ they all come out in a wash. ” He gave a lesson to these spoiled kids, he punished them mercilessly in different way, moreover, I think it also warned these parents should not spoil kids, it will end up hurting the children. In the story, it gives me a clear message is that the most valuable thing in the world is to keep a kind and naive heart permanently. Don’t despise it. Don’t lose it. It will be the precious piece you have ever had.

Learn to let go

 

(Jack: Susie's dad, Abigail: Susie's mom, Lindsey: Susie's younger sister, Ray: the boy Susie loved)

     After reading a few more chapters, I realized that the core of this book is not about whether the police would track down the criminal because in the following chapters, I found that plots about the police’s investigation have been cut down. Instead, it focused more on the lives of Susie’s family and their transitions. With the proceeding of the story, through Susie’s family, I’ve seen different kinds of ways to cope with sorrow and agony. In order not to be too redundant, I’ll just talk about Susie and her parents because I’ve noticed a big difference between them.  

     As time went by, the police didn’t bring any good news. They couldn’t find any certain proof to track down the criminal, nor could they find Susie’s body, and the only thing they were sure was that Susie was dead, murdered. When the police were nearly at the point to put “unsolved” onto Susie’s case, Susie’s father started to suspect Mr. Harvey through some unperceivable behavior and nuanced expression of Mr. Harvey which nobody else but he could have noticed, and he called it “father’s instinct”. However, his instinct didn’t mean anything unless the police could collect decisive proof to connect Mr. Harvey with the case. The undissipated love of Jack for Susie propelled him to go extreme. Dwelling on Susie’s death, he became frantic and absent-minded, all he thought about was to bring Mr. Harvey to justice. Or, if he couldn’t do that, he even thought of killing Mr. Harvey secretly as revenge. A plot that not only really touched my heart but also made me deliberate was that Jack followed a person who he thought to be Mr. Harvey to the cornfield where Susie was murdered in the middle of the night, with no one else around, with a mind occupied with anger and hatred, he knocked down the person from behind. However, it turned out that that person was not who he thought was. On the one hand, I felt touched (even though I know Jack was too reckless) because I know what Jack had done was out of deep love, he couldn’t care or think too much when it seemed like a good time to avenge his daughter. On the other hand, it made me think, whether the death will be willing to see the living mess up the rhythm of their own life and go all out for avenging them at all cost? As a bystander, I could foresee the outcome when seeing Jack tracking down that person, I knew that would be a mistake. To be frank, I’m sure Jack could have foreseen it if he had not been the person involved. Nonetheless, if I were Jack, I couldn’t guarantee that I would not lose my mind as he did. It took Jack several years to let go, in the intervening years, he could not look at Lindsey without seeing the shadow of Susie, he could not help but keep vigilant all the time and keep a million eyes on his two remaining children for fear of losing more of them. Until one day, when Jack stop seeing any Susie in Lindsey, when he was willing to let go of the hand of his only daughter and gave them to another man, the so-called son-in-law, I knew that Jack was ready to go on with his life.

     Susie’s mom, Abigail was sort of like an escapee when it comes to dealing with a tragedy. She knew the fact from the heart that her daughter was gone, but she just couldn’t accept it and she couldn’t even take one more look at Susie’s room again. Her soul somehow seemed to have floated skyward along with her dead daughter’s. Hopeless and helpless, all she wanted was escape, escape from the incident, escape from her family. When her husband was out there trying to bring the criminal into justice, she was making out with the police officer who was in charge of her daughter’s case. When her husband was moving inward to the family, she was moving in the opposite direction, drifting away. When I was thinking how a tragedy could turn her on and made her cross the moral line and how repellent it was, I read a sentence ”she was hollow and lost and abandoned up” and “she couldn’t even really feel him”. Then I realized, this was her way of escaping, and a way of feeling the warmth she couldn’t feel from her husband lately since her husband focused too much on their dead daughter. It was a wrong way, in my opinion, but was her way. Shortly after, she left her house, her family, the community, to elsewhere. I’ve heard of a saying that describes something like “People tend to change after a big incident.” I think that was what Abigail did. She had never wanted to be a housewife, she had her dream, but she compromised after giving birth to Susie. She used to choose to surrender to fate, but now, she changed, she chose to live her own life, to pursue her dream. Six years later, she came back after hearing that Jack had come down with a heart attack. She was planning to do a quick check and left again, but she stayed eventually. I think that was because all these years passed by, everyone moved on, the atmosphere of the house has changed, and so she could feel the warmth and animation in her family again. When she was able to step into Susie’s room again, I knew she has also moved on.

     At first, Susie was drowning in the unfathomable ocean of hatred. Apart from missing her family and the boy she loved, she was also bent on retaliation. I think it’s the normal reaction after the tragedy and I can totally relate to her. After all, if I were her, I would think about the same thing. However, with these things haunting her, she couldn’t stop seeing the whole incident again and again in her heaven. She thought that heaven should not be like this, that heaven should not exist anything she wasn’t willing to see. Until one of her friends in heaven told her that “You should stop desiring certain answers.” and until she saw how her death changed and tore apart the whole family, how her father and sister got themselves hurt trying to avenge her, she realized she should stop holding onto them, the living. After all, as her friend said ”When the dead are done with the living, the living can go on to other things.” I think what her friend said was right, even though the living can’t see the dead, somehow, they can feel them, they can feel the sense that the dead want them to retaliate. Stop holding onto each other doesn’t mean to forget, store each other in the heart is also a kind of remembering. There was a turning point where I noticed Susie’s change. One day, as usual, when she was overlooking her friend and the boy she loved from heaven, suddenly, she fell out of heaven into her friend’s body. That was totally a good opportunity to help solve her case, I thought. However, what Susie chose to do was surprising but afterward, understandable. She spent her back-to-the-Earth time with Ray, she had been wanting to kiss him again both before and after death, so she did, and some other intimate stuffs have also done. I did think she has dissipated a great opportunity to solve the case, but after further consideration, I understood. That was a symbol of her moving on, of her big change. She stopped dwelling on those unchangeable facts, instead, she chose to enjoy what she could enjoy.

     Even though this is not the core of the book, I still want to tell the consequence of Susie’s murderer. He wasn’t arrested, but he was dead eventually. He was hit by an icicle and fell into an iced river. Covered with snow, his body wasn’t discovered too soon. Finally, he was knocked down by something, not by Jack, but by an icicle, which was hard and cold, just like Jack’s broken heart. At some level, I think it’s a consummate ending, plain but strong.

Enter the wizarding world again

 

The book I chose is Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, a story that everyone knows. I have read the translated novels of Harry Potter years ago, but I can't remember clearly how novels were written, so to me, it can say that I'm read a new book while I know how the story developed.

The story began with Dursley family rather than introducing Harry Potter or how amazing this world was with magic, but in the beginning it did introduce the relationship between the Dursleys and the Potters. Because the Dursleys are all Muggles, readers who are Muggles as well could understand story well and felt how amazing that Mr. Dursley felt. Through Mr. Dursley's eyes, we could understand there was something happened unnaturally, and also became curious about why these weird things happened, what led to these things. Follow the story developing, we could understand that there was someone died and people who different from us were celebrating it. Those celebrations cause those unnatural things that Mr. Dursley saw. This was a quite happy scene but, on the contrary, there was a boy who just lose his parents.

I felt so sad when I read these descriptions of how people were happy, because before the book told us things about this boy, I already knew that there was a baby who was just born became alone on the day that everyone celebrating. Only few of these people felt sad for Harry and cared about how to raise this little boy, Dumbledore, McGonagall, and Hagrid.

The conversation of them revealed what the world was like in the book, as everyone know, it's a world with magic. At first, the cat that Mr. Dursley noticed which acted unlike a cat became a woman, and the old man turn off all lights of the street, and a giant(actually half-giant) rode a motorbike which could fly across the sky. In spite of forgetting how the story began in the novel, as a Harry Potter fan, I was so excited to knew that the Deluminator and Hagrid's motorbike appeared so early.

 To the chapter 2, the author started describe the life Harry passed with Dursley family. I have read an article which said the Dursleys were not bad to Harry. They didn't like the Potters, not to mention feeding their own son. But the fact was that Harry wasn't lack of food or clothes in spite of that they were Dudley's old clothes. However, I recognized that the Dursley was not too bad, but not good as well. They would bully Harry, especially Dudley. They gave Dudley too many things and spoiled him. When Dudley was counting his birthday presents, we couldn’t know how sad Harry would be. Harry was a good boy, once they accepted him to their home, they needed to love him. I understood that they were afraid of Harry, because they didn’t understand his power of magic. That’s Dumbledore’s fault. McGonagall asked him why he let the Muggle family raise Harry. Dumbledore said that Harry was better to live in the Muggle world because he had been famous in the magic world since he was born, he was too little. He said he would tell Harry things about him and his parents, and when he grew up, he would be older enough to deal with his reputation. However, he didn’t tell this Muggle family the details of Harry’s magic power, and he didn’t realize the complex relationship between the Dursleys and the Potters. Petunis didn’t like Lily, and Mr. and Mrs. Dursley had a bad memory about James. Perhaps Harry’s bad childhood was Dumbledore’s fault.

After reading the story again and thinking deeply, I have more thoughts of Harry than me before. He was a tragic character. He lost his parents and never had memories about them, became arrogant when he understood he was famous because You-Know-Who couldn’t kill him, be chased and there was always someone trying to kill him, so some of his friends were killed due to protecting him. We know that he defeated Voldemort in the end then grew up and got married, but he lost a lot of things as well. By the way, I always feel so sad that Snape and Fred were killed.

The Only Way to Learn

 

“Maybe I got stuck. Maybe in every life I am stuck. And maybe there isn’t a life where I’m not stuck.”

“Well, I think you are wrong.”

“Okay, then. I would like to try the life where I am not stuck. What life would that be?”

“Aren’t YOU supposed to tell me?”

 

            Slowly building up to the highlight of the book, the writer gave us a thrill of a ride. With every new life Nora tried, there are new characters, new life plots, and new relations. The different fates brought many more elements to consider. Nora’s can be seen to struggle with many considerations and many ‘if’s. Throughout the journey of conflicts, beautiful words of encouragement were present as numerous eloquent quotes.

           Before letting Nora decide, the librarian, Mrs. Elm, hands over a book titled ‘The Book of Regrets’. The number of regrets written inside the thick heavy book gave her such pain and misery that in a matter of seconds, Nora closed the book. Mrs. Elm said the agony was necessary for her to choose a life. She continued to choose a life where she and her ex-fiancé, Dan, were still together. Then, she chose a life where she went to Australia with her friend. Third, she chose a life where she didn’t give up on swimming. All of her choices come with new acquaintance such as, friends that were regular customers at Dan’s pub, a new stepmom, Joe’s husband, and many more. Each of Nora’s life has new characters with a new relation to her. Nora tried to act as she knows them while beating around the bush to keep up with the new life, but everyone noticed and could tell that the Nora they knew is different.

All the life she tried wasn’t a match for Nora. None of them feel like it’s ‘the right one’ for her. The author serves a realistic look at what could have been Nora’s life. The unthinkable elements and factors were detailed in each part of the story. I paid attention to the descriptive word choice the author used for me to picture the journey from Nora’s perspective. Reading it made me embark on a voyage into Nora’s shoes.  

The passage I read these past weeks were filled with so many amazing quotes. Let me share a couple of my favorites here. The first one is “Doing one thing differently is very often the same as doing everything differently.” This is very much emphasized in all the stories as Nora chooses one life over the other. The second is from a conversation between Nora and the librarian.

“Maybe I got stuck. Maybe in every life I am stuck. And maybe there isn’t a life where I’m not stuck.”

“Well, I think you are wrong.”

“Okay, then. I would like to try the life where I am not stuck. What life would that be?”

“Aren’t YOU supposed to tell me?”

I read this conversation more than two times. After a moment of contemplation, I finally realized the reason for what Mrs. Elm said.  It was “The only way to learn is to live.” The quote was once mentioned in the first quarter of the book, but I’ve only realized its meaning towards the highlight of the story. I hope in the upcoming chapter Nora can continue to try and welcome new things, while dealing with her anxiety and depression in the pursuit of happiness.

Log3

 

This is Leo, the article I'm bringing is log3 of American Psycho.

    As I mentioned, our protagonist is the elite of the whole society, he has got everything that everyone could ever possibly imagine. Ironically, it is the wealth of material that cause his poverty in mental richness. Is it really a good thing for a young man to own everything that doesn’t compare with his mind? Apparently, the answer is "no" for our protagonist, he had own too much and too smart to be a normal human being, who would cherish everything when everything just come into your side so easily, so automatically. This kind of value had poison his mind, viewing everything in the perspective of ruthless businesses man, or to be more precise, animal.

    There's novel often uses dialogues to express the characteristics of protagonist and his wall street friends. During the conversation I learned that most of his friends came with disgusting characteristics that won’t be tolerated in modern society, anti-jew, racist, sexist, you name it. But at the same time, these hypocrites do know that what they are saying isn't something that is acceptable to everyone, so they would use camouflage called social status to oppress anyone who they don’t like. When a woman is in the sight of theirs, no conversation with her is shown. The dialogues will always be how big her breasts are, how slim her waist is, how pretty her hip is, eventually, what designer's garments is she wearing. No personal value, characteristics involved, women are toys to play with since too many women kept flooding into them. When another stock managers outperform them, rather than admitting that there is lack of performance in their work field, attacking their opponent with their jew identities seems to be a better options. Since there's a lot of stereotypes relates money with jews, it makes them an easy target. When colored minorities need help, they'll put tags on races. "Most blacks are lazy.", "Asians are taking jobs away from local labors.", "South Americans deal drug to make a living." are often shown in conversations.

    Sometimes, when they got nothing to compare, there'll be a showdown between them. What we seen as boring or unworthy of our time are what they cannot give in. For example, business cards. Fonts, colors, thickness, special features are what they value a lot. Rather than introducing themselves, showing the power that I'm capable of using tons of money in design is what really matters. Other things like ties or wallets are competing under similar circumstances, materials are for show off, than practicality and original purpose come in second.

    From my perspective, the author is trying to show us how lost can we be when we have too much than what we actually need. In real life, we also compete for minor things. Over priced digital art, sneakers, designer clothing...etc. When we laugh at how stupid it is when they are showing off business cards, maybe they are also thinking about how we have absolute no place to mock them.

Things to do on 10/13

 Good evening all!

I have read many interesting posts and, likewise, many lovely and sincere feedback.

I hope you all get my idea of asking you to give each other feedback. Sincere and in-depth interactions among readers are most oftentimes the drive for more reading and sharing. It is said, "reading is a social act!"But, as a reading teacher, seeing some of you keeping identifying yourself as "not good at reading, nor interested in reading" makes me feel funny and sad. I do hope to change this situation for the better so that you don't suffer too much in this class, but consider this class fulfilling (definitely not making it easier!). 

So, for our class tomorrow:

1. We'll begin by browsing some of the logs you wrote and feedback to your log 2. I'll also show one of your senior's personal blog for an example. 

2. Then, we'll do student sharing as we did last week. Please be prepared to share and prepared to join the discussion.

3. After reading two professional essays (e.g., Snake and Still learning from my mother), one student sample essay will be given to show clearer structures for essay writing. I'll use this sample to talk about thesis statement and topic sentence as a review of your learning last year. You can also click the materials I uploaded (e.g., thesis statement, body paragraph) for references and self-learning. If needed, we can dig into those slides for more examples. 

4. Do not forget to bring your draft 1 of Essay 1 for peer review. You'll read your draft to a peer who will help you clarify if you do have a thesis statement and topic sentences for your essay.

5. If time allows, I'll move forward to video making examples.

ps. I have seen two log 3 uploaded. Please check the 'gradesheet' I uploaded, on which there are deadlines (due days) for all logs. Log 3 is not due until 10/19!

See you all in class tomorrow! 

Me Before You log 3

         After Louisa lost her job, she found a job which was a far cry from her last job. Her job was to take care of a paralyzed man, who was almost the same age as she. Although she didn't have any experience or ability of taking care of that kind of people, she still took the job, not because she was forced by the situation, but also because she was a optimistic person. She always  thought everything would become better even though the beginning wasn't the best. I think this personality is essential in our life, but we also shouldn't be too optimistic. Everything has its negative aspect, the difference is that it is slight or severe. Think every aspect of the decision before I make any decision is also an important lesson that my parents have taught me since I was a child.