Friday, December 16, Topic choice - 2
In the book "Looking For Alaska" by John Green, the main comflict to me so far is Pudge almost drowned. The problem started because he is a new student and apparently being thrown in the water is a ritual they do to new students. They throw them in the water with the ability to easily swim back to their room. But to Pudge they duct taped him in three layers. Later the author states, "Last night--before they woke you up, I guess--they pissed in my shoes"(p.29).
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Friday, December 16, Topic choice #3 - Plot
In the book "Looking For Alaska" by John Green an important scene has appeared. It is happening to Pudge at boarding school at night. The scene is Pudge being ducted taped and thrown into the lake. As stated by the author, "The water had seeped under the duct tape and loosened the adhesive grip on my skin, but the tape was wrapped around me three layers deep in places, which necessitated wiggling like a fish out of water"(p.26). He had survived the throw but was wrapped like a mummy when he was thrown in the water. Pudge has just started school and already he has had a near death experience. Also on page 27 it says, "It happened to me. They threw you in the lake. You swim out. You walk home." It seems that it is ordinary to be thrown in the lake. But later on in the book I predict that they are excessively picking on Pudge because he was duct taped. How he will handle the situation is still unclear. Topic choice #1 - Characters
The book I am reading is "Looking For Alaska" by John Green. The main character is Miles Halter whose nickname is "Pudge". He is going to a boarding school called Culver Creek. His roomate is Chip Martin or "The Colonel" who is a third year and his friend is Alaska. Alaska is a third year student as well. Chip is a dynamic character because already told in the story he was smart but didn't really "live" until he met Alaska. On page 20 it says, "So Chip became the Colonel--the military-style plannerof their pranks, and Alaska was ever Alaska, the larger-than-lifecreative force behind them." Whether Alaska is dynamic or static is still unknown and Miles being static or dynamic is unknown too. Also since Miles is a new student at a boarding school he is not used to the weather as stated in page 6, "This did not prepare me for the unique sort of heat that one encounters fifteen miles south of Birmingham, Alabama, at Culver Creek preporatory school." I predict Miles will be dynamic character progressing through the story. Topic choice #3 Plot
An important scene in 1984 by George Orwell is when Winston's secret room had a telescreen behind a painting on the wall. He was disobeying the law in his secret room until he and Julia got caught by the thought police. This scene is important because Mr.Charrington, the person who sold the room to Winston, was a member of the Thought Police. The Thought Police uncovers and punishes thought criminals. Thoughtcrime is illegal thoughts showing beliefs or doubts about the current ruling party. The character reacts confused and alerted as shown on page 278, " ‘We are the dead,’ he said. ‘We are the dead,’ echoed Julia dutifully. ‘You are the dead,’ said an iron voice behind them. They sprang apart. Winston’s entrails seemed to have turned into ice. He could see the white all round the irises of Julia’s eyes. Her face had turned a milky yellow. The smear of rouge that was still on each cheekbone stood out sharply, almost as though unconnected with the skin beneath." They were stunned that an echo appeared out of nowhere. It was a telescreen which monitors your behavior to see if you are not breaking any laws. This scene would fit into the rising action of the story because the story does not fall after that. For example on page 299, " You can take the whole lot of them and cut their throats in front of my eyes, and I’ll stand by and watch it. But not Room 101!’" Winston eventually goes into room 101. In the end I predict that Winston will be reformed. Topic choice 1 -- Characters
Continuing the book, 1984 by George Orwell, new characters have appeared. Now there is Julia, O'Brien, and Goldstein. Julia is important because she is Winston's, the main character, lover. Even though everything was going well, if someone is put against their worst fear they would gladly hand their punishment to others. This was shown on page 362, "But he had suddenly understood that in the whole world there was just ONE person to whom he could transfer his punishment— ONE body that he could thrust between himself and the rats. And he was shouting frantically, over and over. ‘Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia! Not me! Julia! I don’t care what you do to her. Tear her face off, strip her to the bones. Not me! Julia! Not me!’" He was being punished in room 101 for breaking the rules of thoughtcrime. The room changes you and punishes you with many different methods. Winston's was being tied up on a chair while being covered with rats. It worked because he stated with their love they will not convert to their methods but he frantically gave her up to face his terror. If he had not met her, the punishment would not work. To continue, O'Brien is important because he is an agent to the thoughtpolice and is completely loyal to Ingsoc and the party. He tortures Winston to cure him from his "insanity" and states reality is simply what the party says it is. On page 359, "‘By itself,’ he said, ‘pain is not always enough. There are occasions when a human being will stand out against pain, even to the point of death. But for everyone there is something unendurable—something that cannot be contemplated. Courage and cowardice are not involved." This was the scene with the rats. Finally, Goldstein is important because he is the leader of the Brotherhood which one of the two opposing forces in Oceania. He is a partner with O'Brien leading Winston through the process of changing. These are the rest of the main characters. -- Topic choice # 5 GATE Depth and Complexity Icons The parallels between 1984 by George Orwell and today are strikingly relatable. The people there are growing from their government as are we. Their community works together to make an effort like in page 47 " Anyone under forty-five is perfectly capable of touching his toes. We don’t all have the privilege of fighting in the front line, but at least we can all keep fit." Their community comes together by working together keeping fit to encourage soldiers on the frontlines. We also as a community work together to make an effort. We believe the world can not and will not get better if everybody did nothing to contribute to our freedom and lifestyle we have. Also in page 63 " At any given moment there was some necessary article which the Party shops were unable to supply." This shows nobody can have unlimited sources to everything and nothing ever last forever so supplies at times are scarce. This is a problem we also face today because people would rather litter that recycle but without recyclables we will fall into hoarding and crime which is also happening in the book.
Topic choice # 1 - Characters (8-10 sentences)
The book I am reading is called 1984 by George Orwell. The main characters so far in this book are Winston Smith, Emmanuel Goldstein, and Big Brother. Winston Smith is important because he is the protagonist in the story of a overly involved government. Goldstein is the opponent of Big Brother leading Oceania towards his group the Brotherhood. Big Brother is a god-like figure for the people of Oceania and acts like a symbol of power. Big Brother is not a person but merely an imbodiment of his party. Winston is a dynamic character in the story. For example , he did not agree with Big Brother but he did not do anything about it. In the text, "Whether he wrote DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER, or whether he refrained from writing it, made no difference"(pg. 24).This means no matter what he did it would be useless to him either way. But he slowly changes throughout the story thinking he could find safe spots to avoid the government and disobey it. This was said in (pg. 36). "Now he had recognized himself as a dead man it became important to stay alive as long as possible." This explains he would not accept defeat of having the government or parties cintrol everything but would survive or overtake it. |
Author8th grade student at Mendez Fundamental. Archives
December 2016
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