The Book Thief 2

Mark Zusack, the author of The Book Thief, uses flashbacks and flash forwards through the story. This manipulation of time helps develop characters and the reader's interest. This is a big part of the story so far and it is really good to read because it does make things much more interesting and it is a nice change up to throw the flashbacks in there. The manipulation of time helps because it makes me appreciate events unfolding the story in a more enlightened way. By using the flash-forward the author is preparing me what is ahead so I will not be so shocked. The first flash forward that takes place is when there is a predication that someone will die on the train. This event leads to a question upon myself as to who this person who would be dying was. I then later found out who it was and I was shocked. It was shocking because it was Liesel's brother. The use of flashbacks in this story is used to inform the reader on what has happened that we are unaware of. An example of the author’s use of flashbacks is the Jesse Owens incident. Rudy painted himself black and came in first in running a race and Hitler was against everyone besides Germans. When Rudy was telling Liesel this story, Liesel had felt that she had actually been there. This flashback helped give me a better understanding of how Liesel felt and I would not have known how she felt if the author did not use the flashback. There are other techniques that are used, as in every story. But the flashbacks and flash forwards are very important to this story. Like I said before they enhance your knowledge of what is going on. They are able to tell you what has happened in the past and inform you on the future. Being informed on the future braces the impact of there being a crazy surprise that comes out of nowhere and then having the readers completely be lost and not like the book anymore. I believe this is a pretty good book so far and I am looking forward to continue reading on.

The Book Thief

I am currently reading The Book Thief and all though I have not finished the book; I think it is very good. So far I have gotten to the fourth part of the book. My favorite part so far is the fourth part. It is my favorite part because there is a plot twist. The Jew named Max had arrived at the Hubermann's door and the behavior of Rosa Hubermann was surprising. It was surprising because Rosa was really guarded and protected over Liesel, who is her adopted daughter, and I did not think she would risk bringing a Jew into the house. The Hubermann's are not Jewish so this could be very dangerous. This story takes place in the time of Adolf Hitler and that is why it is seemed to be risky. Another part that made this chapter interesting is the fact that Hans Hubermann told Max's dad, Erik, right before he died that he would do anything for him and years later Max showed up at the Hubermann's door. This was a complete shock to me when I found out that he was at the door. I felt that Hans was more motivated to help Max because he felt that he needed to keep his promise to Erik when he died. So Hans stepped up and is playing the role to keep him safe and protected. He is almost playing the new role of his father. Just based off of what has happened so far I believe that he is doing a good job. Max never really had a father that was there for him and it is comforting to Max that he now has one. I think Max is really going to enjoy the rest of his life now that he has a fatherly figure around all the time. Another thing that was shocking to me was when Max created The Standover Man for Leisel. This is significant because Max wanted to show Liesel his appreciation of him looking over him. It also was his way of saying thank you for being there. I think this part was my favorite so far because it was so touching and there was many events that took place and caught me off guard.

 

a walk

The poem A Walk by Rainer Maria Rilke is very good. The poet of the story is not from America, but from Bohemia/ Austria. That does not matter though because she uses the same techniques and literary devices that most poets use. She uses lots of imagery in her poem. All of the imagery in her poem has a purpose. The use of this imagery is to try to tie the reader in and make he or she feel as if she is experiencing the same thing she is. It also seems to use a little bit of third person in this poem. Her poem is talking about a situation in which most people know. This is not just familiar to her but to many others. There is always a meaning of every poem. I believe that the meaning of this poem is about life. She says," going far ahead of the road I have begun". I think that means that she is already on that road to what she is going to accomplish and be led to. She begins to describe the thing that has us grasped. When she says that, "so we are grasped by what we cannot grasp". I actually think that she is by an outside force like god. She gives hints like being grasped that we cannot grasp and it charges us, even if we do not reach it. This poem is saying that God is there to help us on our journey in life to get where we are meant to be. God does this unknowingly and even if we do not ask for god’s help, he is still there to "charge" at us and help us on our way. The author uses the personification of God being this wind. The literary text of this poem makes it really seem that it is really just wind that is blowing in the persons face as she is walking. But like every poem, it has more meaning than that. It is like a metaphor that God is the wind to our life. Rainer uses good use of literary devices like the personification and the imagery to show you that it is not just wind but really is God or an outside force. The line that gave this away to me was the very last line. "but what we feel is the wind in our faces". This is telling us that what we feel is the wind blowing at us, but what it really is is God. Rainer did an excellent job with this poem. At first I really had no idea what the author was talking about. I read it over a few times, because you can never just read a poem one time and know what it means, and I realized that this was not a literate poem. She made it seem very literal by the structure of the poem. The meaning behind the lines is what I looked for and I believe this is about how God is there to lead us on and carry us through life. He is there when we do not expect it and helps us when we do not need it.

crouching tiger, hidden dragon

I recently watched Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon in class the other day... i must say that it was not the typically movie you watch. It was a martial arts movie, with tons of action and lots of meaning behind the actions of the people. With all of the action in this movie there was a lot of fight scenes. I feel as if there is a purpose behind so many fight scenes. The purpose of these fight scenes is to focus into on how much martial arts and their fighting techniques mean to them. It is as if the fighting and learning the ways to fight are extremely important to them. I also believe part of the purpose is to intensify and to describe the meaning of their emotions. The way they fought with all the passion like jen and Li Mu Bai shows how much respect they have for each other. Also the fighting scenes shows how good their training and how good of fighters they are. For example when they can define gravity and fly, then they have reached a certain level where they are above others. Thats what i believe is the purpose of the fighting scenes.

The Lightning Thief

I started a new book a couple of weeks ago and it is pretty good. The book is The Lightning Thief. It is the first book in the series of five. It is really a good book. It brings all types of different formats into the book and has a little bit of everything for everyone. It is got action and talks about gods and goddesses. It has drama, romance; it has happy moments and scary moments. It is really an all around good book that I would recommend to anyone. So this book is about this kid whose name is Percy Jackson and he is a half-blood. Which is half human and half god. So there are more than one of these kinds of people in the world and he actually ends up in a camp called camp Half –Blood where only the half –bloods can enter. Percy is the son of Poseidon. So basically Zeus had his magical and powerful lightning bolt get stolen from him. So Zeus accuses Poseidon of stealing the master bolt and declares that if he does not have it back by summer solstice he will declare war on him. So Percy and his two friends, Grover and Annabeth, go out on a quest to find the missing master bolt. It is believed to be in the possession of Hades. So they begin their mission and have to find these pearls that will get them in and out of the underworld where Hades lives. But before they get there they have to go through several battles with people that are trying to stop them from getting the pearls. So while down in the underworld they learn that Hades does not have it. It was actually in Percy’s book bag. He later learned that it was planted there by Luke. Hades’s wife helped the kids get out safely with the pearls and Percy went to find Luke at the tower to get the bolt. In the end he was able to receive the bolt back to his Zeus so that they would not go to war. So Percy goes back to camp and there is where Luke told him he planted it and that he is working for Kronos and that Kronos is planning to defeat the Olympians. Percy then nearly dies from a scorpion but was saved by his teacher and some nymphs. This really was a good story and it’s much better to read then have me tell you about it. There is lots of imagery in this book and it is just an all around good book.

Mockingjay ending

I was able to finish the book Mockingjay. I have to say it was extremely good. There were certainly a few twists that shocked me and that is what made it so good. A major part of this ending was the whole shooting of the leader of the revolution. So Katniss realizes that the leader of the revolution was a bad person after president snow began to tell her that Coin, who is the leader, is the real bad guy. She was killing kids and doing things that she should not have been doing. She also inflicted pain to Katniss by killing her sister. So Katniss took in revenge and decided what was right. She decided that she does not need to kill president snow because he is already dying anyways and he is not the real problem. She also decides that she would vote in favor of having the hunger games again. Isn’t that what they were fighting for so they could stop things like the hunger games? It was a vote to see if they would want to punish the citizens of the capitol for doing that to the district. Then here comes the plot twist, she kills the leader of the revolution. How much more dramatic does it get? When I read that I was shocked that she had done that. It was pretty brutally done. So at the execution of President Snow she got the honor of killing him with her famous bow and arrow. But instead of shooting Snow she shot Coin and killed her. Like I get that she was a jerk and all but she did it on stage in front of everybody. That is crazy. The face of the revolution killed the leader of the revolution instead of going after the target they had all along. That is a shocker. She then was a mess for awhile. She blamed herself for the death of all those people and her sister. She had to go to trial and everything. Of course at her trial she was acquitted and was able to move back to district twelve with Peeta. Her and Peeta were able to have a pretty romantic relationship after Katniss regrouped and was not all depressed and grieving about the deaths all the time. She was able to put most of that aside and move on. She and Peeta also had children together. That to me was an amazing ending. When I do get time I will definitely reread that again because I thought it was a great book. I would recommend this book to everyone and if you have not read the first two, then you should do that too.

Mockingjay

I recently went to the theaters and saw Catching Fire. It was amazing. I thought that this was better than the first movie. It also resembled the book a lot. I talked to a bunch of people and they all agreed. I was very fond of the way it ended and right away I wanted to know what was going to happen next. So I got the next book and got started. This next book is Mocking jay. I have heard that this book was good but not as good as the other two. But hopefully it turns out to be better. This book starts off right where the second one ended. In the beginning it talks about how they destroyed her hometown of district 12 and that she was going to district 13. I think that was messed up to destroy the city. So it also says that Peeta was MIA. Katniss sees what has happened to her home and is devastated. She thinks that all of this was her fault and begins to blame herself for this destruction especially because she had been warned by President Snow that her actions could cause the world chaos. She also misses Peeta and wishes he was there when she passes by his family’s bakery. At this point the mood is sad and upsetting. But anyways Katniss is brought to district 13 to lead the revolution. I was shocked by this when it happened because in the books previous it did give clues that this would happen and I guess I did not pick this up right away. But I think it is great and needed to happen. Katniss is the perfect leader for a revolution because people have already started to gain hope and believe again that they can make a difference and change things. I have gotten about a quarter of the book done and I can’t wait to read more of it.