Book Review: Monster by Christopher Pike

1. Mary Carlson is one of the main characters in the story. She is a normal teenager of about medium build and strength, although she has the will power of a superhero! Angela Warner is the more important character who is also like Mary. The author doesn't give much information about their physical appearance, but I picture Mary about medium height with soft, brown hair, and Angela with blonde hair, and also not too short or tall.
2. Mary is beautiful and confident; she has a very nice appearance and comes off well to others, except when she goes off on her shooting rampage. She is determined and very smart. Angela is kind of the 'goody two shoes' in a way, and can kind of be described as the peacemaker. She, too, is very smart and has a good heart; she only does what she does for the best of the human race.
3. Mary and Angela both killed people because they wanted to stop the world from being taken over by these creatures. They didn't enjoy what they did, but they knew that it was the right thing, and that in the long run, it would save more lives than those of the ones they murdered.
4. Mary, as a member of society, knew she would be punished for killing, but she worked it out in her mind that going to jail would be an acceptable punishment instead of having the human race destroyed. Mary is determined, and pushes the authorities out of her mind, and ends up going to jail. Angela, on the other hand, didn't really think of her punishment, her determination is to kill the monsters and deal with the consequences later. She ends up disappearing, so she never is sent to the authorities.
5. Throughout the novel, Mary feels sorry for the lives she took, but in the same way, she was glad she destroyed them. At the very end, Angela is changed into some sort of creature that lives by the lake, but the book doesn't describe what really happened to her very well.
6. I don't think that I could kill anyone like Mary or Angela did, but then again, when the weight of the human race is on one's shoulders, people can do some pretty outrageous acts.
7. I think both girls were incredibly courageous and brave for the work they did by themselves. They were successful in destroying all of the monsters, and their lives were forever changed in different ways.

Christmas vaca in the sun!

So I just got home from Florida yesterday, and I couldn't have asked for a better way to spend Christmas! It was great to see my sister and the rest of the family again, I loved spending time with them! For most of the time it was sunny and warm, and it was so weird to go to the beach in December! We left the airport in Sioux Falls bundled up in mittens and winter coats and cold and arrived in Florida where it was hot and muggy! We got to go to Universal Studios in Orlando for a couple days and then we went swimming at Cocoa Beach and then to Disney World on New Years Day--it was all fantastic! It was so hard coming back because the weather was great (although the last day there was cold). I didn't get to see any gators, lol but that was okay! I didn't want to leave everyone...and the sun, but I had a great Christmas vacation, and it does feel good to be home again!

Thesis Statement

Thesis Statement: Walt Whitman's views of the new America and of the individual greatly influenced his works and helped him break away from traditional poetry.

Book Review: Nineteen Minutes

The novel Nineteen Minutes by author Jodi Picoult is about a school shooting that takes place in a present day New Hampshire high school. The book's two main characters, Josie and Peter, find themselves facing issues like popularity and true friendship. Josie and Peter had been friends from Kindergarten and loved to be around each other, but when they started to enter middle school, Josie started to climb the popularity ladder and left Peter behind. Growing up, Peter had constantly been bullied, and by the same group that Josie now belonged to. He didn't live up to the expectations set by his parents of his older, now deceased, brother Joey, and that made him feel inferior at home now (like he felt at school already). He felt that he couldn't talk to his parents or his one friend and felt that he needed to end this endless harassment and embarrassment. Through his intense knowledge of computers, he designed a shooting game in which you tried to kill the 'bad guys', which were the personalities of the people who bullied him at school, at in the game, he won. He then decided to play the real-life version of the so-called game, and came to school with guns and bombs one day. And just when you think the story can't get any more interesting, it takes an unexpected turn near the end that is shocking.

Bestselling author Jodi Picoult was born May 19, 1966 in Long Island, NY. She studied creative writing at Princeton and even had two of her short stories published in Seventeen Magazine as a new author. She found other jobs to support an income, and after several, various jobs, she went to Harvard to get her master's degree in education. Most of Picoult's novels discuss controversial topics and social issues that are being dealt with today that most other authors have not dared to write about.
"As a mom of three, I've seen my own children struggle with fitting in and being bullied. It was listening to their experiences, and my own frustrations, that led me to consider the topic. I also kept thinking about how it's not just in high school where we have this public persona that might be different from what we truly feel inside...everyone wonders if they're good enough, smart enough, pretty enough, no matter how old they are. It's an archetypical moral dilemma: do you act like yourself, and risk becoming an outcast? Or do you pretend to be someone you're not, and hope no one finds out you're faking?" -Picoult (Bookreporter)

I loved reading this book, but it also scared me a bit. Since this is such hot topic and since it is so real, knowing that kids in our school are bullied and harassed each day makes me fear that this could happen to us. Also, kids can relate to the fact that whether or not we realize it, we sometimes choose the need to be popular and accepted by others over friendship. The way that Picoult goes back and forth in time, showing different aspects of each side of the story made the book really interesting to read, and I never got bored reading it. This is a book that teens and adults can read because children as well as parents can relay to their own part of the story that relates to them. I think, without a doubt, that Nineteen Minutes is deserving of literary merit and everyone (mostly adolescents) should read it, as it teaches good morals about life.

Sources
http://www.bookbrowse.com/biographies/index.cfm?author_number=601
http://www.bookreporter.com/authors/au-picoult-jodi.asp

When it's my turn to bat...

I can remember when I was younger, dreaming about how fun it would be to finish high school and leave the house, but now that it is Junior year and that dream is quickly approaching, it's kind of scary. With colleges sending info about how I should choose them, and my mom breathing down my neck about which ones I'm seriously considering, I'm a little apprehensive about graduating. Since I have lived in so many different places and have had the opportunity to travel, it has opened my eyes about how vast this world is we live in, and all the different paths in life I can take. Knowing that my sister has moved out on her own and has started a whole new life for herself inspires me to think that I can do that too. I want to move back to the place I grew up and go to college and start a family some day, but I'm scared to leave my comfort zone behind and start over. I still think of myself as young and not ready to leave, and I wonder if, when the time comes, will I be able to step up to plate?

The Crucible

The Crucible, the Red Scare and Other Witch Trials

1. What was Miller's point in writing The Crucible?

http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/4191/MILLER/millers.html

This site shows the relationship between The Crucible and McCarthyism. You can find the answer to this question in the Abstract and Introduction.

http://www.evangelica.de/The_Devil_and_Arthur_Miller.htm

Okay, I know this is a lengthy site, but it discusses a wide range of topics: the many different views and reasons Miller wrote The Crucible, The Crucible and the relation to the Salem Witch Trials, and McCarthy and theocracy. Jump around on this page and you'll be able to find some good info (most of the info on Miller is in the beginning).

http://www.honors.umd.edu/HONR269J/archive/MillerCrucible.html

Here, Miller says that he wrote The Crucible out of desperation (6th paragraph). He also discusses the points he thinks his readers get from reading this play. Miller tries to explain the public's view when the play first opened and how it related to the whole Communist issue that America was dealing with.

2. How are McCarthyism, the Red Scare, Arthur Miller and The Crucible interrelated?

http://81.255.61.186/us/crucible/Coralie%20and%20Alix/Mc%20Carthyism.html

This site talks about McCarthyism, the Red Scare, and The Crucible and their similarities. It also compares The Crucible's characters to the Red Scare. Finally, it shows the relationship between the other two events to The Crucible's plot and setting.

http://www.steppenwolf.org/backstage/article.aspx?id=164

Wow! This site discusses how McCarthy used fear during the times of the Red Scare on Americans. It also tells how McCarthy "pointed the finger" at Arthur Miller after The Crucible premiered. It also describes what happened to his name in society after he was blacklisted, much like the controversy with John Proctor about how your name is what defines you in public. This is one of my favorite sites on the subject because it's short, to the point, and helped me understand the situation better.

3. Document other times in American history when 'witch hunts' were conducted and discuss the outcomes of the Salem witch hunt and the other witch hunts you find. What do they all have in common?

The KKK

http://www.iupui.edu/~aao/kkk.html

Scroll down to the heading that reads 'Origins of the Ku Klux Klan', that is where it really talks about how the Klan started and how it unintentionally had a snowball effect--kind of like the mass hysteria in the Salem witch trials.

Religious Witch Hunt

http://victimsoflaw.net/Religious1.htm

The article that really caught my eye, titled Mom's religion dominates custody hearing, shows how a woman's religious views were used against her in the outcome of her trial concerning custody of her two children. Click on the article, and read more about it--it relates to how the courts in the Salem Witch Trials abused their power.

About Me

Let's see...I am 16 years old, I have medium-length brown hair, and my eyes are all sorts of colors, like when I wear blue, the blue color in my eyes pops out, and when I cry, they turn green, so I guess that classifies them as hazel? Well, i'm not the tallest person in the world, but that's okay. I was born in Mt. Clemens, MI on June 27. I love to eat (especially chocolate) and I hate nuts. My favorite sport is competition cheerleading, but I also cheer for boys basketball and football. I love dogs, and am alergic to cats. I love to listen to music, mostly country and whatever is on 106.7. This past summer I went to Australia for 3 weeks and absolutely loved it! Well, i've got to get going b/c the bell is going to ring in a couple minutes..ttyl!