A Psycopath That Gets Away With It(Reaction #10)

   A Clockwork Orange is a dystopian novel written by Anthony Burgess, set in the future from when he wrote it in 1962. The language is very different from any novel written today, its a mixture of a lot of slang, some made up by Burgess, and some even being Russian. This novel is filled with rape, assaults, drugs, and alcohol, its not for the weak of heart. The craziest thing is that the protagonist is a young boy!  I know when my father was young he was bad, but he would have never have done the majority of what Alex does. It was a very thrilling and aggravating read, plenty of confusion but also very im sure for some people engaging. A lot of “Ews” and “Oh my gosh” while reading.  

    I believe the language of this book made it very hard to continue reading, I put it down twice before picking it up a final time to read it. This was a stylistic choice on Burgess part I believe, he wanted to make it foreign to the readers so that they don’t completely understand what was going on. The author of the Hunger Games, another dystopian novel, Suzanne Collins did this at the end of her second book(Spoilers) as the whole stadium is crashing down and she is being lifted up into the air by the helicopters its a very confusing read, it leaves the reader wondering what really just happened. I actually really disliked the novel because of this reason. Burgess is trying to confuse the reader, he tries to have them focus more on the language he’s using then the actual actions taking place.

    I have diagnosed the protagonist, Alex, with being a psychopath, someone that doesn’t care about anyone elses pain. He leads his gang in many horrible schemes and feels no regret from any of it. I was full of rage with every horrible act Alex, Dim, Georgie and Pete committed. It angered me even more that they were able to duck out of getting caught, even though they deserved it and no one was able to fight back. It reflects a lot on today’s society as well, such as rape culture, boys are getting away with a lot of horrible doings. They are able to get away with blaming it on the girl, and what she was wearing and how she was drunk. They get to walk away with a slap on the wrist while the girl has to live with the fact that she was used. In the novel Alex is probably one of the craziest characters I’ve ever read about, the way he describes his horrid acts like art. He believes the pouring of blood, a woman's naked body, or the screams he hears is all art. Its like a movie or music for him and its absolutely sick.  

    I find it so interesting when I read a book that seems to be about one thing, but ends up being about many things in society that are going askew. As a reader you really have to dive in deep and look between the lines to fully understand what the author is trying to say with his or her novels. This novel reminded me of Animal Farm and how it seemed to be about animals taking over a farm, it actually ended up being about dictators and the Soviet Union. I love that authors are able to voice their opinions on society in a creative way. A way that makes people want to actually sit and read about it.

Appreciation is all Some People Need( Poetry Reaction 9)

          For the most part people fail to notice all of the things one person does for another. They do not appreciate, all the hard work a certain person will go through just to make the other person happy. “Those Winter Sundays” by Robert Hayden portray a hard working father on a day of relaxation. Sundays are usually referred to a day of rest before having to go back to work the next morning. Some people don’t get those times where they could just relax, there is always something to do. These people that are always working are trying to better other people, in the case of the speaker, his father is waking up early just to chop wood to warm their house up and keep them warm.

In the Winter, houses can be very chilly, in the past the only way to warm up houses that didn't have heaters was with a fireplace. The only way to get the fireplace to light was to add in wood, and you would get that wood from chopping down trees, this is not an easy task. Someone strong has to be able to do it. In the case of the speaker of this poem, who seems to be a young weaker boy, his father wakes up much earlier than the rest of the household. The father sacrifices his rest for his family. Yet, he does not get recognition for this, his family just wakes up to a warm roaring fire, not even thinking about how the fire came to be.

We are already told that during the weekend this father does so much work that his hands have cracked. They ached, just from that we know he is a hard worker. He probably has to work day and night to get enough money to take care of his family. He still gets up on the cold sundays, and goes outside to chop wood for the fireplace. The child stays in bed while he listens to his fathers labor, he doesn't go to check on him, see maybe he needs help, no he just waits. This furates me! I believe I am one of these people that does a lot of work for her friends and family. Sometimes I’d appreciate if they would just notice and say “Samantha, thank you for all you’ve done for me!” That would be the best day of my life.

The best part of this poem is the last line “What did I know, what did I know

  of love’s austere and lonely offices?” I believe this is the speaker looking back at how his father used to do all these things for him. He must be realizing now, maybe he himself is a father now, looking back at all the work his own father did that now he has to do. Whats good about a relationship between a child and parent is that the deeds can be repaid. When the child grows older, than they will be able to take care of the parents. I cant wait for the day that I am able to support both my parents, because they have supported me my whole life.

This poem made me realize that in my family we need to say we appreciate each other more. I feel the need to stop typing now and go into my parents room to tell them I appreciate them. I know them to well they’ll probably think I want something from them. Its very hard to be a teenager in this household. When it comes to my friends, I have sllowly found myself doing less and less for them. I feel they don’t realize what I do for them, I try to help them whenever I can. I show my own appreciation of them almost every day. Though I feel that is slowly dwindling, its quite sad that I once saw them as people that actually deserved all my help, when I find they don’t do much for me.

Many Morals to go Around(Reaction #9)

 Opening up to Chicago 1950’s A Raisin in the Sun by Lorraine Hansberry was a very enjoyable read. It was fun to picture a lot of what was going on in each scene because each scene is painted out so nicely in words. Not only was the play written so nicely and with witty stage directions but it was packed with good morals for the play reader and watcher. Its funny thinking about something thats supposed to be for entertainment purposes teaching you something as well, it gives the reader life lessons they should know throughout their whole life.

An example of how the play paints a picture is right in the beginning Ruth asks her husband if she wants eggs and he tells her not to scramble them, but she immediately starts scrambling it. I read it twice and it made me laugh both times because I kept picturing a woman vigorously scrambling the eggs and snickering to herself as she did so because shes going against her husband's wishes. It gave humor to a scene that was otherwise about wants and desires from everyone in the family.

A key theme in this play is that money is able to buy happiness, and from all that i've ever been taught I know This isn’t the case, because you lose money, you have to pay for things with it. Its great when you have a large sum of it but when the amount dwindles so does the happiness it brought. We also find early on that there is a lot of ‘want’ involved in the play. Each character wants something, Ruth wants money, Walter wants to buy a liquor store to get more money, and Mama wants to have a nice house with a lawn to be happy. Its sad when people don’t realize what they already have, although they lost Mama’s husband, they still have eachother, its hard to be content with the things you already posses, its human nature to always want more and more. Its one of the 7 deadly sins, Greed, which the Younger Family must know about from their mention of God.

This play reminded my of a play I went to see when I was in Middle school. I believe it was called the ‘Curse of the Monkey Paw’ and it was about a family that somehow obtains monkey paw that grants wishes. And of course the family doesn’t think before they wish, though they were warned  to be careful what they wish for, which is another cliche warning we hear a lot. Well the son dies in a tragic work accident, and the rest of the family is so distraught about it that they wish, with the help of the monkey paw for him to come back to life. What the family didn't count of was that their son would rise from the dead and be all mangled up from the work accident and not back to normal. It was a very scary play for little middle schooler me.

Yet another moral I took from the play was that you can't always make everyone happy. When there a people in your life that want one thing, and you want another you can’t always make both people happy. There were many morals in this play that I took from it. Its good to read something like this, because somewhere someone is reading this play and really needed to see the actions that each character took to realize what they should really be doing in their own life. The play is there to be an example to people so that they realize their flaws.

Confident Women Unite(Poetry Reaction #8)

            “Phenomenal Woman” by Maya Angelou, a very empowered woman one that understands what its like to love yourself. In general this is a very empowering poem to women, it shows them all the things they should love about them self.  It shows that no matter what a women has they are still a women, whether they have big hips or small lips or anything someone believes to be different or not attractive, they still are a women, and they should be proud of it, no matter what. Women are truly phenomenal because they live each and every day passing people that talk about them as they pass. It may make them feel inferior but this poem helps them realize that they don’t have to feel that way.

The speaker of this poem obviously has a lot of confidence.  She would be able to stand tall and flaunt her whole body at a crowd of people laughing at her! Its a very empowering poem, it can show women of all ages and size that the first step to being phenomenal is confidence! Confidence in yourself really shows how you feel about yourself,  than it is projected towards other people. They pick up a certain aura about a confident women, or any gender in that manner. She’s so confident that she has the power to brings men the their knees. They are shocked by her confidence in herself,

This poem made me honestly feel proud to be a women. Though many people may bash on the gender, thinking females are weak, and don't have much purpose in life, this poem shows that women live for themselves, to be themselves, and to be fierce when doing so!  No one should have to impress anyone else, they should act and look the way they want to! The way they feel comfortable, they have to walk in their own body, no one else does. Its a much better trip when you enjoy how you get there.  

She mentions that she's not bowing her head, she's explaining why, like many other women, that she is not shameful of herself. She knows she's amazing. She has no reason to worry, even if someone tried to bring her down, as long as she believed she was awesome she would stay awesome. Its sad to know that many people base their thoughts of themslf on what other people think or say about them, especially when it’s negative. The speaker is saying to love yourself, be proud of who you are. This is a great message to I believe a lot of teenagers who always pick and choose what their least favorite body part is and how much they hate themselves.

I find that being confident not only boost your own spirits, but it give people around you a better view of yourself. I try my best to be confident in what I do, I make sure to keep my head held high. Of course, I have my down days, everyone does, but I quickly pick my head back up. I hope i’m never the reason that someone stops being confident in themselves, if anything I would want to bring their confidence up. It is such an amazing feeling to be able to walk past a bunch of people and not have to worry what they think or feel about you, because you only care about what you think of yourself.

War and Aliens, The Perfect Novel(Reaction #8)

   

Almost 24 years after WW2, Apollo 12 was rocketed off into space and scheduled to land on the moon. While on the moon astronauts took photos of their surrounding on the moon to send back to earth. These pictures allegedly showed UFO’s in the distance, which triggered a lot of people to start to wonder if they really do exist. All of that talk about other life in space may have led to many ideas of aliens actually existing. Slaughterhouse Five written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1969 may have been heavily influenced by these sightings to add extra terrestrial life into his novel. It’s an fascinating read for both war enthusiast and alien chasers. The novel is written like you're jumping from place to place in time, including WW2 and other occurrences in the protagonist's life. Its wild, but surprisingly easy to keep up with.

    The novel is extremely interesting, never a dull moment there’s always something to respond to, such as the vulgar language, gore, and absolutely impossible stories. Its crazy how creative Vonnegut had to be to have come up with some of the stuff that is mentioned in the books. I was so awe-stricken I know I would never be able to think up anything like it in my lifetime. ““They see them as great millipedes- “with babies’ legs at one end and people’s legs at the other,” says Billy Pilgrim. Who would ever think of this!? Who would think to add a story about alien abduction into a novel about World War 2. He was able to shape these aliens the way he believed aliens would look. Of course this actually happens a lot, writers making up their own creatures, its been happening for centuries even, all the way back into Greek Mythology.

    Another mention in the book that I felt was humerus was only a few pages in. The mention of anti-war books, and how hard they were to stop, he even compared them to glaciers. ““I say, ‘Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?” What he meant, of course was that there would always be wars, that they were as easy to stop as glaciers.” Its such an ironic statement especially with global warming actually melting the glaciers. You wouldn’t be able to compare war to glaciers anymore. At that time it was just supposed to be a statement, they believe glaciers couldn’t melt as immense as they have now, theres no way. They’re just as big as wars, theres no way of stopping them. For people that believe the war nothing but trouble then maybe this saying is a good thing. At one point in history people believed that the glaciers would always be around, but now they are melting away. Maybe sometime in the future, war will melt away as well.

    Its so great that I found a novel like this one, it was so captivating and exciting to read. I didnt want to put it down, it was never dull, lately most novels I’ve read have been very disappointing, and I’ve fallen asleep reading them. This novel restored my hope, it reminded

me that not all books that are AP appropriate have to be uninteresting and confusing.  I was even surprised that just the parts about the war were interesting, but I kept reading because of the aliens. It was such a strange concept that at any moment in our life, we could also be doing something else, which is the way the aliens saw everything. It also gives its readers a nicer perspective on death, and how at point in time a person might be dead but in many other points in time they were alive, living their life to the fullest.

Sometimes you Need to be Carried to Safety (Poetry reaction #7)

 

On hot days during the summer, or when on vacation, most people tend to visit the beach. No matter what they do, even if they were to go straight into the water, its easy to notice the imprint their feet leave in the sand. Sand is like a block of cement that quickly gets fixed, the imprints don't stay there forever, no matter what anyone tries to do to save the footprint in the sand. The poem “Footprints in the Sand” by Mary Stevenson takes a religious tone, but its easy to make ‘god’ in the poem symbolize really anyone that is trustworthy in the readers life, like a family member. The poem shows how when someone is in a difficult situation in their life, it may seems like they’re all on their own. In reality the person they trust the most is helping to the best of their ability.

From the first stanza its easy to tell that the poem is trying to bring in the fact that sometimes people will be by your side and other times you'll be on your own. Many people are promised by their faiths or family members that they will always be by their side. Its easy to notice them when they’re going through fun times. As soon as they fall into tough times, they’re focused on themselves, not the people around them. Its hard to see that their are actually people around them trying to help. After those hard times, people are able to look back on it and they think they got through it all by themselves, but really they were probably helped a lot, and they didn't even notice.

    At first I had read the poem and I had thought it would be about how when you aren’t in need people flock to you, they want to be around you and have just as much of a good time as you. When hardships strike, they run away from you, they don’t want to be a part of all that, they probably have their own problems. I figured the poem would end with something along the lines of sometimes you have to help yourself. I believe the ending truly shocked me. I wasn’t expecting that type of ending and it made me understand.  I realized that its true, there really is someone usually there for me, there is no way I would be able to get out of some of my saddest times without the help of someone.

    To survive in this world, I’ve been told that you need to have faith, whether you believe that or not, its all up to you, but there have been many times in my life that I was repaid for keeping positive thoughts. Its hard to see when you’re hurting that you weren’t always hurting, but you have been hurt before. I’ve always thought of life like a rollercoaster with a lot of inclines and drops. The inclines are the fun times, like I said before when everyones around you and you’re having a great time, and you’re caught off guard by the big drop. The big drop being sorrow, loss, anger, etc. You can’t drop forever, there will be at one point another incline, though it may be as small as some stranger complimenting you on the streets, or as big as winning the lottery. Those people or things are all carrying you back up, as if now you’re going up a hill and you’re so spent that you need someone to help you back up.  

Always Wanting What is Not (Reaction #7)

                        

After being discovered Mexico was colonized by the British and the Spaniards during the colonial era. Pearls became a currency for the people, men would go out in their boats and dive down into the water in search of clams that held the perfect pearl.  “The Pearl” by John Steinbeck tells a story of a young family, just beginning with next to nothing, besides a little hut to live in. After finding a perfect pearl the whole village hears of it. Although it seems like it will give the family a perfect life, it just turns everything bad. Evil consumes the family that only wanted more and more, until finally they realize the pearl is nothing but a curse.

In the novel Steinbeck makes a point of personifying the town that the protagonist live in. “A town is a thing like a colonial animal. A town has a nervous system and a head and shoulders and feet,” I appreciated this. It made the town feel whole, like they were all one person and they all cared about each other. It seems that this doesn’t really happen anymore, I barely know the people down the block, let alone my whole town. The whole town supported Kino when he went to sell his Pearl, and they all grieved for him when they thought he was dead. They were all in the same boat, their land was being taken over by colonizers and people that were cheating them of their money and they only had each other. Ones happiness was everyone's happiness, and ones sorrow was everyone's sorrow.

Since the whole town knew about Kinos newest fortune, they worried about him, none of them wanted his riches to go to his head. There was a lot of foreshadowing,  the readers know that Kino would turn crazy with power from his new found fortune, he believed everyone was out to get him and his pearl, he trusted no one. They had to run away from the town, the one thing that had supported his family for his whole life, because of a Pearl that he wouldn't get rid of.  In the end the one thing that he believed would make his life so much better, actually made it a nightmare.

The novel reminds its readers that always wanting more is not always a good thing. When you have too much you are punished. It reminded me of a poem that I used for poem in a pocket day in elementary school. It went like this:

As a rule man is a fool,

When its hot, he wants it cool.

When its cool. he wants it hot.

Always wanting what is not.

The poem tells its readers that mankind is never happy with what they have, although they think they might want something, once they have it they want something else.  Once they had found the amazing pearl they thought of what they would do with it. Kino wanted to sell it for 50 thousand pesos, he wanted to be able to actually marry his wife, afford clothing for his child, and a good education for him. Its sad that in the end they get none of this, but the whole message was that they should yearn for more and more.

    Steinbeck created this novel to teach his readers a lesson, be happy with what you have,  and don't be greedy. The one thing I would have changed about the novel is how in the end they lose the one thing that mattered most to both Kino and Juana, and it wasn’t the pearl. If only they had gotten rid of the Pearl Sooner, Juana knew it would cause nothing but trouble to the family, she was trying to avoid the death of her precious.