The Last Blog Post

This my last blog post. Once I've said it everything seems so final. The year is almost over and I can still remember the first week of school as if it was yesterday. Surprisingly for me, I enjoyed blogging about books I read and what I thought of them and how they changed the way I thought about the world in general. In sixth and seventh grade I hated the way that we kept track of our reading. It wasn't creative, it was just tedious, and we weren't being asked what we thought of or learned from the book. It was simply proof that we had been reading. I am really glad that we were able to blog this year because it helped me to write about what I thought and what I was thinking. 

I have always been the kind of reader who, when given a book could read it through in one seating if it's really good. I'm a fast reader and I get absorbed in the stories, sometimes I won't even realize what’s going on around me until someone actually tries to get my attention. But it's different when I'm reflecting on a book that I read; I tend to go more into what the story reminds me of, how I connect it to other things, or what the kind of story in general makes me think of. I automatically veer away from talking too much about the book in particular.  I think sometimes it would be better if I kept on topic a little more, but that's something that I'm just going to have to work on.

Writing online is harder for me than writing in a notebook because I know that it can be seen and judged by other people. It would definitely be easier for me to write on a blog if my identity was a secret. But for this blog, having my name and class and being open to my teacher and other students, I think twice about almost everything that I write because I care what people's reactions are going to be. I'm not sure if it's a good or bad thing but it's there for now. For some people I think that writing online would definitely be freeing especially under a pen name. When you're writing online, you are in complete control of what people see. You are able to edit everything before it is seen by others. But the other side is that many more people can see your writing if it is online, that might be frightening depending on how open your writing is and whether it can be traced back to you. I think that some people take advantage of being anonymous and say harsh or cruel things and I wish that people wouldn't do that. But other people portray their best selves online, there's no strings attached and I think that helps some people. Other people put stuff online that they shouldn't and they don't seem to realize that it can affect them. Writing online can be different for every person who does it.

There are a bunch of sites that allow you to put your opinions and comments up for people to see. I think it is really good to share what you think and hear what other people have to say. As long as you are open to other ideas then I think it is really beneficial to be able to do this. But some people use these sites to vent and put other people down. It's wrong for people to do this and I don't think they should be able to do that. There are other sites, like Facebook, where you show who you are. I think these sites have their benefits but they are definitely abused. Some people say things online that they would never say in real life. I think, that if there is something you wouldn't feel comfortable saying to someone's face you should not say it online. 

I probably won't continue this blog, but I might start another one. It would just have some of my stories or loved websites and songs and links to other blogs that I like. It would be most definitely be filled with fan art. It would be about the things that I love and I want to share with other people. 

Goodbye blog.

The Schwa Was Here

I just started reading "The Schwa Was Here" by Neal Shusterman. It’s the first book to break my Jodi Picoult cycle and it is a very different type of book. It's about a boy that the other children call the "Schwa". The "Schwa" is a boy who people don't notice. His friend, Antsy, calls it being functionally invisible. When the "schwa" is in a classroom with nine other people the teacher would only count nine students, if a group of people are standing in a circle they will not notice the "schwa unless he does something to draw direct attention to himself. He can overhear people talking about him because they won't see him even if he's standing a foot away in plain sight. When he meets Antsy, they conduct a bunch of experiments on whether or not people notice him and soon enough they are making a lot of money from people daring him to do things without getting noticed, like stealing donuts from the teacher's lounge or walking into the girl’s bathroom. 

The book is partly about the science fiction aspect of a partly invisible boy, but it is also about kids feeling invisible. The narrator, Antsy, lives in a big family where he can go unnoticed most of the time and at times he likes it but sometimes he doesn't. There's a contrast between the fiction of the invisible boy and the reality of a boy who feels invisible. I know that a lot of people my age feel unnoticed and some of them are. People just want to be noticed, to be acknowledged, to be seen. The book sends the message that you can make yourself noticed no matter who you are without being harmful to yourself and others. It manages to send the message while telling a comical science fiction story about a boy who actually is invisible. It in a funny way puts the other problem in perspective.

It's a book about invisibility whether it's wanted or unwanted, whether it’s real or metaphorical, whether it's helpful or not. It's a book about the two ids that have to learn how to deal with it or find a way to get rid of it. It’s a science fiction story that incorporates a story about a boy realizing that he wants to change and that he has to work hard to do that. Neal Shusterman is an amazing author and I would completely recommend his books.

The Tragedy of Romeo & Juliet

“The Tragedy of Romeo and Juliet” written by Shakespeare, is known as the most famous love story of all time.  It’s a beautifully romantic drama with a tragic ending. It usually is thought of as the ultimate love story, but it’s also about so much more. A main theme in the story is loyalty. There is Romeo and Juliet's loyalty to each other, there is Tybalt's loyalty to Lord Capulet, and there is the loyalty between Mercutio and Romeo. Throughout the story, Shakespeare is able to portray the many loyalties that characters have to each other. The reasons behind these loyalties are mainly: love, family, and friendship.

            One of the most important loyalties in the story is the loyalty that Romeo and Juliet have to each other. It starts before they even know each other’s names. Once Juliet has met Romeo she claims that if she could not have him she would never be married. She pledges herself to him before she knows his name; it goes to show how loyal she is from the very start. The loyalty that they have for each other occasionally conflicts their other loyalties. When Juliet is talking about Romeo she says “Deny thy father and refuse thy name, / Or, if thou wilt not, be but sworn my love, / And I’ll no longer be a Capulet.”(2.2.37-39). Juliet is willing to give up her family for Romeo, whereas Romeo tries to take on Juliet’s family as his own. He acts as though her cousin Tybalt was his own family. When Tybalt challenges Romeo Romeo’s response is “I do protest I never injured thee / But love thee better than thou canst devise / Till thou shalt know the reason of my love. / And so, good Capulet, which name I tender / As dearly as mine own, be satisfied.”(3.1.69-73). Tybalt has a vendetta against Romeo, but because of Juliet, Romeo refuses to fight with Tybalt and claims to love him as family. The loyalty between Romeo and Juliet isn't one of those things that is started early on and doesn't last very long; it was so strong that they wanted to be together in death. Their loyalty to each other lasts throughout the entire story, and in the end the actually do die for each other.

            The biggest feud throughout the entire play is the one between the Montagues and the Capulets. Almost all of the characters side with one family even though no one seems to know why the two families hate each other. In the beginning it is stated rather simply by a Capulet that “The quarrel is between our masters and us / their men.”(1.1.20-21). the true feud seems to be between Lord Montague and Lord Capulet, but everyone is pulled in by their blood relation. One of the clearest examples of family born loyalty is Tybalt’s loyalty to the Capulets. At his Uncle’s party, Tybalt is the one who caught Romeo and his friends crashing the party. His immediate response is “This, by his voice, should be a Montague. - / Fetch me my rapier, boy.”(1.5.61-62) and “Now, by the stock and honor of my kin, / To strike him dead I hold it not a sin.”(1.5.66-67). He feels that Romeo is disrespecting his family so it would not be wrong to kill him. Although Tybalt is impulsive as a character and the choice to start a fight was his own, his real motive is to protect his family and its honor. Tybalt’s overall hatred towards the Montagues is brought on only by his Uncle’s feud. Tybalt feels the need to protect his family from the disrespect that he believes the Montagues are showing. This is despite the fact that he doesn't even know what his uncle's feud with Lord Montague really was.

            Another strong loyalty in the play is Romeo’s loyalty to his best friend Mercutio. It is so strong that at one point it overshadows his loyalty to Juliet. Mercutio has taken on the Montague’s side when it comes to the huge feud between the families. When Romeo is challenged by Tybalt and refuses to fight, Mercutio takes on the fight as his own. Romeo and Mercutio were incredibly close, so when Mercutio is killed, by Tybalt, it sets Romeo on the war path immediately. Romeo finds Tybalt and says “Mercutio’s soul / Is but a little way above our heads, / Staying for thine to keep him company. / Either thou or I, or both, must go with him.”(3.1.131-134). He says this referring to Mercutio's spirit and saying that he needs someone to die now to keep him company, It will be you, or me, or the both of us. Romeo is in a rage, because his friend had an untimely death, and at the least he shouldn't die alone. Romeo doesn't fear for his own life, he goes as far as to welcome death if it means that he will be able to keep Mercutio company. He was willing to kill or even die for his best friend, nothing else mattered.

            The loyalties in this story are amazingly strong and are shown for a variety of reasons. I thought that the best character relationships to represent these loyalties were Romeo & Juliet, Tybalt & Lord Capulet, and Romeo & Mercutio. They were the strongest loyalties in the story for love, family, and friendship. The scenarios in this story are very extreme compared to current family feuds. Nowadays you don’t try to kill someone simply because he came uninvited to your Uncle’s party. You might take on some of your friend’s battles metaphorically but there is not so much sword fighting now.  And when you get married you will have new in laws but hopefully they won’t be out to kill you for disrespecting your new father in law. The Loyalties in the play were more pronounced due to the lifestyle back then but these types of loyalty still do exist. It’s a part of everyday life, just without all the swordplay.

Perfect Match 2 (Spoiler Alert)

It wasn't until the second to last page of the book that I understood what the title was for. I had been trying really hard to figure it out and I was making all these wild connections to things that could have possibly fit. But nothing really made sense, until I read the last chapter. Usually the books I read, (mainly Jodi Picoult), have titles that interconnect with the story in a variety of ways and all of the characters have moments where you, as the reader, make the connection and are able to figure it out. It is usually mentioned in dialogue   at least once in the book. Or it's just blatantly obvious and you don't even have to think hard to figure it out. But this book was different; there were no subtle hints in the conversations, it didn't really weave through the book and relate to all of the characters, and it wasn't really clear why it was the title. 

When I first started to try to make connections I focused on the characters relationships  I tried to see if any of the characters were each others perfect match. But I couldn't really find anything; Nina and Patrick were definitely not perfect for each other because they both had really time consuming jobs and while Patrick was in love with Nina, Nina was already married and was not really in love with Patrick - she cared about him, but she wasn't in love with him. They did grow up together and they had the boy loves the girl-next-door thing going on for a while. In the beginning I thought it was going to be them but as the story went on you could tell that Patrick had lost his chance. As much as you pity Patrick and wish there was a way for them, it's pretty clear that it just wasn't going to work out.

The next character I focused on was Nathaniel. I was looking at his relationships with all the other characters. For a while I supposed that it had to be Nathaniel and his mother, Nina. Nina loves her son enough to commit murder (later ruled out to be manslaughter) and the only person that Nathaniel lives for is his mother, yes he loves his father too but he is more emotionally attached to Nina. When Nina is taken to a prison for a short time Nathaniel regresses so much that he needs therapy to teach him how to talk again. But while they do love each other and Nina definitely goes above and a bit too far beyond to prove her love for Nathaniel their relationship would be incorrectly labeled if you called them a perfect match. They were a family, they loved each other, but they weren't perfect for each other.

I skimmed over a couple of the other character relationships but none of them seemed to really make any sense with the title. Nina and Caleb are married but they don't agree on many things and they aren't very similar at all. Caleb and Nathaniel were just a typical father son and just lacked the intense connection that Nathaniel had with his mom. Patrick and Caleb both loved Nina but one of them got her and the other one didn't, and they weren't friends, they simply tolerated each other, and Caleb sort of pitied Patrick for being in love with his wife. Patrick and Nathaniel were really close because Patrick had a love for Nathaniel because he was Nina's son. I thought about the other more minor characters but none of them fit at all.

Then in the very last two pages of the book I finally got it. It was a relationship that I had sort of skipped because it didn't seem to stick out much. But on the second to last page you find out how Father Gwynne really died. Caleb poisoned him ! I was really surprised because Caleb seems like the sweet law abiding person in this story but he kills someone. Nina and Caleb both killed to protect their son; Nina killed Father Glen and Caleb killed Father Gwynne. The two that murdered out of love end up together, what a completely perfect match.