Blog Reflection

        This is my first year ever that I've had a blog and it has been an interesting experience for me. I learned a lot about myself as a reader by having this blog, I realized that I am better at thinking deeply about plot than I am about author's purpose or themes in the text. For example i would prefer to discuss what is happening in the story then to discuss what themes or messages the author put in the book.
        I benefited from this experience in a few ways. One way that i benefited from having a blog is that I can more easily keep track of my thinking when I read. For example, when I didn't have a blog to write my thoughts in, I would always have to look back at the book to remind myself what I read recently. But with a blog I can write down my thoughts and easily access my thoughts by looking at my previous posts.
        I think that people can be more real online or they can also make up personalities. If a person is happy with themselves and their personality, then the won't find the need to make up fake personalities and characters. But if a person isn't happy with themselves or their personalities, then they may find the need to make up characters online.
        I think that people definitely take advantage of being on the internet and people absolutely say things on the internet that they would never say to a person's face. I think people do this because anyone can seem threatening on the internet and it may seem like the internet can protect them so no harm will come to them so they can do anything.
        Overall, my experience using blogger has been a positive one. I have benefited from it on several ways, I learned things about my reading habits and about the habits of everyone on the internet, but despite all of these positive things I cannot see myself continuing this blog in the future because I really don't have want to have to be responsible for an ongoing project such as that.
     

Philosofamily Book: Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

        Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is a touching story about a boy named Oskar who lost his father in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11th 2001. As Oskar continues on throughout his life, he is having trouble getting over his father's death which is understandable. And Oskar begins to do everything that he can to still hold on to a little piece of his father. This raises the question: is it ethical to move on after someone you care about dies?

      When someone dies there are 5 stages of loss and grief. The first stage is denial and isolation when you refuse to accept that something like this could happen and you hide yourself from the rest of the world. The second stage is anger, this is when you begin to take out your frustrations on everything around you and you feel that what happened was unfair and it makes you hate everything. The third stage is bargaining and this is when you begin to think of the "what ifs" and you make promises to the world in exchange for what you want. The fourth stage is depression, and this is the stage where everything falls apart and it is impossible to be happy or to have anything make your life good. The final step is acceptance. People can look at acceptance in many different ways, they can see it as you realizing that all the other stages were irrational, or that you find that you want to move on. But moving on does not have to be the same thing as forgetting someone or something that happened. It just means that it is you not wanting to deny, be angry, bargain, or be depressed anymore. For example, for the people who died on September 11th like Oskar's father, we had our time that we were going through the stages of grief, but now people have continued to live out their lives and continued to be happy, but this doesn't meant that the people who died were forgotten, we still honor them and remember them in our hearts and we honor them every year on September 11th.

        So although this can still be challenged, I think that it is ethical to move on after suffering a loss because it allows you to be happy and you still remember what you are moving on from, because what you are really moving on from is not the person who passed, but the stages of grief that caused you pain. So in this sense, I believe that Oskar should be able to move on after his father's death, and so should anyone who suffers a loss.

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer

        Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close by Jonathan Safran Foer is about a boy named Oskar, who's father died in the World Trade Center attacks on September 11th. Before Oskar's father died, he always gave Oskar riddles and mysteries to solve. And the night before he died, he told Oskar that there was a missing 6th borough of the city of New York. Oskar was unable to solve this mystery because his father died the very next day. Then, months after the attacks, Oskar finds what he believes to be a clue. It is a key that he found in a vase with the name "Black" on it. Because of this supposed clue, Oskar goes on a journey to find what this key unlocks because he believes it is another of his father's mysteries. I think that it has nothing to do with any mystery and Oskar is just creating this illusion, because he doesn't want to accept that his father is completely gone.

        One reason why I think that Oskar doesn't want to accept that his father is completely gone is because he is always mad at his mother whenever it appears that she is being happy or having fun because he believes that this is the same thing as forgetting his Dad or getting over him. For example when Oskar heard his mother laughing and joking around with her "friend" Ron, he said "why don't you miss dad?" and they ended up having a conversation in which Oskar said all of the things that you should never say to a widow that is still secretly grieving for her husband including "I wish it had been you instead", Another example of this is because Oskar suspects (most likely correctly) that Ron and his mother are in a romantic relationship. This incredibly hurts Oskar because he thinks that his mother is replacing his father and in a way this is. And he tries to make her promise to never fall in love again. This all shows that Oskar doesn't want to accept that his Dad is completely gone.

       Another reason why I think that Oskar doesn't want to accept that his Dad is completely gone is because he continues to do the things that he did with his Dad  but he makes no changes. it is really sad because he looks through the papers for mistakes and  he invents things by himself when he would only ever do these things with his father. The most depressing part is that these things don't always work when Oskar does them by himself but he continues anyway because he doesn't want to accept that his dad is really completely gone.
    Overall, it is obvious why Oskar doesn't want to accept that his dad is dead, and that is because he loved him and he never expected that he would have to deal with life without him, so he is having a hard time coping. And the only way he keeps himself from falling into total depression is by not accepting that his father is really gone.

Why is Shakespeare's writing shown in "Spanking Shakespeare"

        Shakespeare Shapiro is a very clumsy, antisocial, and sometimes stupid 18 year old boy. And "Spanking Shakespeare" is about all of his misfortunes that he encounters in his senior year of high school. And as we read about his misfortunes, we see that he is not very good at talking. And then we read some of his writing and it turns out that Shakespeare is actually very intelligent but he just can't convey this without writing. I think that the writing is present in this book in order to show the difference between  how clumsy and stupid Shakespeare seems to how he actually thinks.
        One example of this is when Shakespeare was trying to tell a girl named Celeste that he had a crush on her. And as I have described before, Shakespeare is not very good at talking, so as you might imagine, Shakespeare sort of messed up. He said "Uhhhhhhhhhhh... hi Celeste... ok bye". And that is it. But as soon as Shakespeare realized that he had messed up he began to write Celeste a letter. And this letter turned out to be so well written that Celeste asked Shakespeare out the very next day. This absolutely shows a huge difference between when Shakespeare Shapiro talks and when he writes.
        Another example of this is when Shakespeare is in class. As is shown throughout the entire book, Shakespeare when he is in class he is often bullied alot. And when he tried to stand up to a bully he ends up looking incredibly stupid. But then Shakespeare wrote that bully a note, and we don't know what exactly he said, but after the bully read that note, he never bothered Shakespeare again. As is clearly shown, Shakespeare's writing is much more convincing than his speech and it makes him seem much more intelligent then one would think after listening to him talk.
    Overall, I think that Shakespeare Shapiro's writing was included in this book in order to show an unknown side to the main character, and by knowing this specific trait about him, it allows the readers to get to know him better and thus feel more sympathy for him when reading about his troubles.

Critical Analysis of "Should Chimps Have Rights?" by Veronica Majerol

        In the article "Should Chimps Have Rights?" by Veronica Majerol, the author talks abput how a

group of people called the Nonhuman Rights Project (NhRP) is trying to change how the law views

chimps. According to the article, "The group says chimps have such a humanlike intelligence that

they should be recognized as 'legal persons'- a prerequisite for having rights". Throughout the article

the author generally provides just facts about how chimps are extremely similar to humans. For

example, the author talks about how a 26-year-old chimp named Tommy is a pet that lives in a

cement cage. And it is these types of captivities that supposedly caused the NhRP to move into

action. According to the article the NhRP has already started a petition in order to attempt to get

chimps the title of "legal persons". And although the author provides several facts about the matter,

the author only provides only information on how chimpanzees are incredibly intelligent and are very

similar to humans and this all suggests that these chimps should infact be given rights. Although this

is not clearly stated in the article, it is suggested by what information is included. I think that this is a

very clever strategy used by the author because she is able to maintain her neutrality but she is still

supporting the idea that chimpanzees should have rights.


        Overall I enjoyed reading the article because it provided a lot of really interesting information

despite all of the suggestions that point to one side of the article. As for the argument itself, although

this article was interesting, I still don't think that chimpanzees should be given rights because they are

not humans even if the article says that they are very close to human.

Romeo & Juliet Literary Essay

      One of the most famous plays of all time is Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare. We read this masterpiece in class and we discovered hidden crafts used by William Shakespeare. But Romeo and Juliet was written so long ago that all the crafts used by William Shakespeare are completely up to interpretation. Shakespeare could have hidden messages within his writing and we just haven't found it yet. But Shakespeare does have a lot of clear themes in his play "Romeo & Juliet". And Shakespeare didn't put these themes in his play for no reason. Because many of these themes connect to send messages, like the themes of destiny and death. I think that William Shakespeare put these two connecting themes in Romeo & Juliet for several reasons.
        One reason why William Shakespeare included the themes of destiny and death in Romeo and Juliet is because he wanted to show that we are all destined to die. For example in the prologue Shakespeare tells us the destiny of Romeo and Juliet and that destiny is their death. The prologue said, "A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;" (Prologue.6) And as we go through the entire play, it is always in the back of our minds that these two lovers are destined to die. Another example of this is act 1 scene 4 when Romeo is about to go into the Capulet party and he says "I fear too early, for my mind misgives some consequence yet hang in the stars shall bitterly begin his fearful date"(1.4.115). Romeo is saying that if he goes inside the party then destiny will make something bad happen to him. And this is exactly what happened, because Romeo died because he was in love with Juliet whom he met at the party. Another example of this is when Romeo killed in act 3 scene 1, and he gets exiled, he still has hope because he believes that destiny plans to bring him and Juliet back together. But as explained in the prologue, destiny caused him to come together in the end, but they end up dying. And when both Romeo and Juliet die, we all knew that this would happen because this was their destiny. And when Romeo says "then I defy you stars" (5.1.24) he is saying that he is going against what he thinks fate meant him to do: live without Juliet. And so Romeo kills himself and meets his real fate, death. And Shakespeare was trying to say that this is the fate of us all.
        Another reason why Shakespeare included the themes of destiny and death in Romeo and Juliet is to show that while we are alive, we should enjoy ourselves, because we will all die eventually. He shows this by first in the beginning, telling us what is going to happen in the end, and then throughout the entire play he shows Romeo and Juliet rushing their lives by meeting, getting married, and ultimately falling in love in just three days. This series of events can be viewed in different ways. Some people can say that if Romeo and Juliet didn't rush their love than they would have been still alive. This could been shown when Friar Lawrence warned them against moving too quickly and he said,"Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast"(2.3.10). But, as the reader already knew, these two are already destined to die, so if the two lovers hadn't rushed their love, they may not have had the chance to spend that much time with each other. This may have been Shakespeare's way of showing us that we should live out our lives to the fullest and enjoy ourselves.
        Another reason why Shakespeare included the themes of destiny and death in Romeo and Juliet is to show that one can never know what destiny has in store for them because they can die at any time. William Shakespeare shows this in many ways. An example of this is when Romeo found put Juliet was supposedly dead. He expected his friend Balthazar to tell him that Juliet was all well but instead Balthazar tells him that Juliet is dead. He asks Balthazar " How fairs my Juliet? For nothing can be ill if she be well" (5.1.15-16). This shows that fate certainly did surprise Romeo and Juliet's "death" came at a very unexpected moment.
        As you can see, the themes of destiny and death are not just put in Romeo and Juliet for no reason. By putting these themes in this play, William Shakespeare was able to send several messages to both his audience and whoever stumbles upon his work. And if one can uncover so many messages from just two themes then it is highly possible that William Shakespeare has more messages in his masterpiece Romeo and Juliet that are still waiting to be uncovered.

What is wrong with Alice's Mom in "The God of Animals" by Aryn Kyle

        The book "The God of Animals" by Aryn Kyle is about a 12 year old girl who lives on a ranch in the west and all of the troubles she goes through. Her dad buys, sells, trains, and breeds horses while Alice works on the ranch with him. In the beginning of the book, Alice's best friend named Polly drowned in a canal. And the author describes how Alice's sister who was a champion in horse shows, left to run away will a man and she abandoned her family. As you can see, Alice faces a lot of hardships in her life, but one of the most mysterious and interesting hardship that Alice has to go through is the fact that her mother has not come out of her room in the house for all of Alice's life. But Alice doesn't actually know why her mother is like this. I think that her mother actual is sick with some dangerous disease like cancer.

        One reason why I think that Alice's mom has a dangerous disease is because she is always so weak. On page 56, Alice said, " My mother is always complaining that she is going to die any second" This suggests that Alice's mother knows that she has some some sort of weakness or disease that is dangerous because she believes that she can die from whatever it is that is wrong with her. Also she always needs assistance from Alice's dad. This suggests that she cannot accomplish certain tasks without help. All of this suggests that she may have a dangerous disease such as cancer.

        Another reason why I think that Alice's mom has a dangerous disease such as cancer is because she is always inside and she hasn't gone outside for as long as Alice has been alive. I think that this is because she is sensitive to the sun so she can't got outside. I believe this because whenever Alice describes her mother's room, she always states that the shades are closed and that the only light is the light from the television. Also when Alice is asked where her mother is, she always responds by saying something like "she's ill" or "she's not feeling well". And when she was especially pissed at a girl who asked where her mother was, she actually said "she has cancer okay?" I think that when she said this, she wasn't actually lying because she was furious when she said this.

        I think that the evidence in the text absolutely points to Alice's mom having cancer. I think that this is the reason that she is mysteriously staying inside all the time and why she is always in bed. Now readers can truly understand the extent of the hardships that Alice has to go through.