When It Happens

When It Happens
Archetypal Journey

In the fascinating book, "When It Happens," by Susane Colasanti, one of the protagonist Tobey, is going on an archetypal journey, specifically for loss of innocence. He's gets impacted by others around him in a positive and negative ways. Although I am not yet done with the book, I can still predict how different he would be after his journey ended.

Based on the story, Tobey's more like the class slacker, rock-star wannabe until Sara, his crush, gets near him. When he's with other girls, even Cynthia (sexy kind of slut?), it's no big deal to handle them. But once he sees Sara, his eyes would sparkle and he wouldn't even been able to speak. He starts to realize what's true love even though he is lacking the courage to speak it out loud. During his journey, he is starting to loose his innocence but in a he-will-mature way. Sara is the positive person that has affected him the most because it was her that forces him to think back at all the crazy things he had been doing. She is the person that gets him to mature. Dave is probably the negative person that has been constantly impacting him because he asked Sara out before him, but he could also be a positive factor because he forced Tobey to realize that he should step up and not be a wimp.

Later on in the story, like most stories, I can infer that Tobey will start to display more courage to get the girl she wants. He will learn that if he doesn't take the steps now, he will no longer have any to take. His journey will cause him to mature and become more like a hero. Living in the real world, we also have to be brave enough to take the first step or else once the right timing is gone, there will be no other chances.

In conclusion, these interpretation shows Tobey's emotional journey. He is starting to mature because of the negative factors and is motivated by the positive factors. He's becoming more like a different man and will become so after his journey is accomplished.

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place

The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place
Blog Post

At the beginning of the story, Margaret from the book "The Outcasts of 19 Schuyler Place" by E.L. Konigsburg, is forced to stay at Camp Talequa while her parents are away. During this time, she isolates herself from the others and refuses to participate in any of the activities. I believe that she chose to act this way because she wanted attention. But, if I were to be in her shoes, I would have done things differently.

Firstly, I can infer that she refuses to cooperate with the teachers because she wanted her family to be more concerned over her. Her parents left her to go to Peru and her uncles didn't invited her to come over to their house. Since she had no other options, she must spend the four summer weeks in the camp until her parents come back. To me, it seems that she has been abandoned. She described herself as "an only child" with "excellent traveling companion", who "never required extra bathroom stops" and "never demanded special foods". Additionally, she also said "regardless of how endless the car ride was, I never asked, 'Are we there yet?'". But at the end, no one wanted her to come along with them. In the camp, whenever the teachers tell her to do something, she always says "I prefer not to". I think that she just wanted the teachers to call her family or relatives so that she could get the attention she wants. She feels that her pride has been wounded and her heart has been bruised over the decisions her family made regarding to where she should stay so she chose to "scare" them by getting into troubles. To sum it up, she rebels since she wants to be noticed and cared by others.

My next point is that no matter how desperate she was in try to get attention I think it's better if she chose to have a great time in the camp and have her parents feel proud over her. If she pretended like she had a fantastic month there, then her family would also regret not being able to join her to have the "fun". Refusing to do what she should do only makes herself look bad. Her parents may only feel more stressful because of her actions and get angry at her for ruining their vacation. If she wanted attention, then she could get it by being a good kid and having the teachers praise her performance to her parents. That's indeed better than having them mad at her.

In conclusion, I believe that she decided to act in a rebelling way to get people to be concerned over her. In my shoes, I would have done the opposite thing of what she did to get positive attention instead of negative ones. Especially since she's an only child, she didn't had to compete with other siblings so that parents would care more for her. Yet, she lacks the care she wants. Making decisions can be easy but making the right decisions may be way harder.

Tangled Together

Tangled
Different Point of Views: Skye and Jena

According to the story “Tangled” written by Carolyn Mackler, there are many perspectives rotating around it. The ones that I find the most appealing are Skye’s and Jena’s. Since they live under different conditions, they tend to think things in different ways. It’s fascinating because I’ve realized how unlike people can view the same things.

To begin, Jena views Skye as a perfect, rich goddess that everyone admires. She has a cute boyfriend, goes to a classy private school, and has a mother who lives off of her grandpa’s oil trust fund that could last for decades. Not just that, Skye is also an actress that has been on numerous of films and commercials. She has a nice body and knows celebrities. Jena basically thinks that Skye is gorgeous and lives a wealthy life. She could get anything she wants before she even wanted it. She often desires to become like Skye because she is plain and thinks that she has no appeals to males.

On the other side, Skye compares herself to a day without sunlight. She feels that she can’t do anything the way she wants it to be. Unlike what Jena had thought at the beginning, she broke up with her awesome boyfriend who immediately found a new girl. Because she got so miserable seeing them together hugging and kissing the whole time she was at school, she decided to drop out and be home-schooled. She doesn’t really even have friends because she’s always practicing her lines or preparing for an audition. Sure, she’s been in many films but she mostly got the small parts. She went to tons of auditions but there’s probably only a few that actually gave her callbacks. And when she finally got the role she wanted, she’s forced to decide whether or not it was worth the consequences. She also often compares herself to other girls that went to the same auditions as her so that she can calculate her chances of getting a part. Her dad has died before she was born which she was told was because of a motorcycle accident, but she’s starting to learn some secrets behind it that her mother failed to inform her about.

I find the book attention-grabbing because the author puts several perspectives onto one book to show how different people would react to the same things. They are all somehow tangled together. I get to see both sides of the story, and I find it really interesting how Skye’s life is completely different from how Jena describes it. Without Skye’s story, I would have thought like Jena that she has a flawless life. This makes me think that how readers feel about the situation in a book also directly relates to how the characters feel about the situation because we see the scenes through their minds, their voices. These different points of views made me realize how reality could be totally unlike how you may have imaged it as. Through their perspectives, I can also conclude that money can’t buy happiness and that you can’t judge things solely by their covers and how you interpret it. Both sides give a different feel to the readers too. With Jena’s side, there is an envious, jealous mood to it, while on Skye’s side; it has this depressing and heartbreaking mood to it. It’s important to have these points of views to furthermore understand the story and dig deeper.

All in all, I get to see different sides of a character through different perspectives. Skye’s life is actually more ripped than Jena views it. To add on, the rotation of different point of views from this book is also similar to “Heartbeat” by Loretta Ellsworth. In reality, parents often lie to their children so that they only have to bare the pain by themselves. They don’t want to share their stress with the kids. We may think that they are happy but they may not be. If we knew their perspectives then we would also be able to understand the situation more. Too bad our lives aren’t like books.

Out of My Mind

Out of My Mind

In the story, "Out of My Mind", by Sharon M. Draper, a disabled girl named Melody faces criticisms and hardships because she is unable to communicate with the people around her. Everyone thinks she's dumb but that's not true. She's smarter than anyone in the class or maybe even at school even though nobody acknowledges her because she can even speak or walk. She has a long-lasting memory and can remember everything she has every seen before. But all these only existed in her head. No one knows that she's smart, no one even knows that she existed. Even her parents isolates her. I understand how her parents feel even though they treat Melody harshly because taking care of a disabled child is not easy.

When Melody's parents first learned that Melody was "stupid" and could not either speak or walk, they were disappointed and shock. I know a distant relative who's child has learning incapability and disability too. It takes a lot of patience and money to take care of that child. Sometimes they get really frustrated when their child doesn't understand something that they have been repeatedly trying to teach him. Melody's parents are similar. They try to do their best to take care of her but sometimes it's just too hard. She eats all over the place and rips everything she sees. Her mom especially, always had to clean up after her. I know that they try to help her overcome her obstacles but sometimes it's just a compete failure. They don't understand her and they, too, believe that Melody is just a hopeless idiot. My distant relative and Melody's parents are alike because they also cannot properly communicate with their child the right way. It also cost a lot of money for a family that's not rich. I understand how they feel because it is indeed hard to watch out for a kid who lives in a different world.

I really like this book because it clearly shows that you shouldn't judge things by the cover. No one would have ever realize that Melody was actually a genius despite the fact that she cannot communicate with people. She can remember everything that she had seen in exact detail like it has been video taped. But sometimes I feel that remembering may be painful. We people often forget only the bad things that has happened in our lives. That's how we managed to live even when we also have hard things in our life. Melody won't be able to forget. She'll always remember the smirks of her classmates, her parents hitting her, and the stares of her relatives. It's really depressing to always all the miserable events in detail.

Therefore, Melody has a life filled with hardships. No one understands her and she has to face all the tragedies all by herself. It's painful to be alone. I would highly recommend this book because it clearly explains the life of the disabled. It'll never be out of my mind.

Memories and Hope

Memories and Hope
Blog Post

Continuing the book, "In a Heartbeat," by Loretta Ellsworth, Eagan who dies after an accident, donates her heart to Amelia, who is saved because of this. The one who's now alive suddenly becomes different, liking things that she had never touched upon before. This seems like fate and that they were destined to exchange a life for the another. I feel that memory places a big part in the story. The book suggests that memory are significant and that it represents some one's personalities. Even if a person is gone forever, as long as you still remember that person, that person will still be living inside your heart. Hoping also means a lot to the author. Her life experiences are similar to the plot itself too.

Memories are important to everyone, of course. It's what make up who we are. Without it, we would be soulless ghosts that constantly forgets everything every seconds. Our decisions would be affected and we would have to continuously relearn things that we've learn ten minutes ago. We wouldn't know our names, our age, our parents, our friends. We would be nobodies. Connecting this to the story, Amelia starts to behave different then she used to be. She figured that she had obtained the characteristics of her donor as a matter of fact. Because of this, Amelia starts to experience and realize things that she never would have bothered to look at before. It's like she had went through a hidden world. Someone else's memories gave her a chance to look at things that were new to her. She develops interest for skating and even started to like purple lollipops, which was inherited by her donor. This made me believe that memory is significant for someone's growth. Even though Eagan is dead, her unique self is still there, just in another form. A part of her still lives within us, although it may just be in our memories. And if you think about it the other way, you also learn from memory because if you failed the first time, you'll know what to do the next time to do better.

I feel that the author, Loretta Ellsworth probably wrote the book in honor of her mother and nephew, who are a bit similar to Eagan and Amelia. Her mother and Amelia are alike because both have poor health although her mom did died from congestive heart failure, which was also Amelia's problem but was resolved with Eagan's heart. Her nephew and Eagan are also a bit alike because they died from an accident that costed their lives and are also both organ donors. She understand how it feels to lose a relative and feels that a part of them still lives in her memories.

And also, I think that she wrote this book to change what have happened to her mother. Instead of dying, this story brings hope to patients waiting for a new heart like Amelia. Hope is a small theme in the story because she wants to encourage patients to not give up and that miracles could happen. Stressing over something would only worsen the problem. It means the same thing as giving up.

Overall, memory and hope are essential aspects of the story impacts not only the characters in the story but also the author itself. Think about it, if you have good memories, even if the end of the world was coming, you wouldn't regret a single thing. And even if that day going to come, that doesn't mean that you have to stop hoping. Therefore, I believe that it's important to remember and to hope.

In a Heartbeat

Two Girls, One Heart
(Love at first sight?...nah, that's not even close)
Protagonists and their Perspectives

I was pretty much running out of good books to read when I spotted a copy of "In a Heartbeat", by Loretta Ellsworth, laying on the shelf helplessly trying to convince someone to read it. It's interesting at first because I've noticed that there are actually two protagonist. According to the part I'm up to right now, a girl named Eagan dreams of becoming a professional figure skater and to win the Olympics but is always fighting with her mother, who used to also skate, because of different opinions. Then one day she crashed her head on a sharp point in the ice rink and is therefore, dead. Amelia is the other protagonist who has a heart failure and is blessed with Eagan's heart in order to live a normal life. Eagan's behavior, personalities and words seem to live inside Amelia's new heart now. Based on what I'm reading now, I feel that it was the author's purpose for applying both of their perspectives in the story.

In Eagan's world, she seems to handle things too easily, causing her to not appreciate what she has that others don't have. She's always wasting time fighting with her mother and now that she's dead, it's just too late to fix the wound. She could have stayed alive if she was just a little bit less than half an inch away from the sharp point. There's nothing she can do when her heart's not even with her body, you know. Even if she's desperate to fix up their relationship, what else could she have done when her heart is beating inside a body of a stranger's? Her perspective is important in understanding that she should have done better things then to fight with someone who only wants the best for her. Time is priceless. It's like in the book "Romeo and Juliet" because people die so unexpectedly. Tybalt, then Romeo, then Juliet. Even though it was wrong for Capulet to suddenly force Juliet to marry Paris, it was understandable because life can be shorter than you think.

In Amelia's side, she seems to understand the pain of not haven't something. Because of her congestive heart failure, she is always home schooled and stays most of her life in the hospital with the tubes and pipes sticking in her body. She wishes to go on school trips and have friends who she could talk to. When she gets the chance to have a heart transplant surgery, she is overwhelmed with guilt but can't stop her happiness. It's strange that if you think about the fact that Amelia was allowed to stay alive because Eagan was dead. She has never experienced the fun of life and if you think about it, life and death is pretty much just less than half an inch away.

Both of these perspective are important to make readers think about how life could be so short and that there's no time to waste around. Eagan died so unexpectedly in an accident and Amelia, who had believed that her life would end soon, ended up have a new heart and a new life. Of course, you'll never know how something will feel unless you've experienced it before, and this was why two perspectives were given to readers in order for us to understand the best—or maybe the worse of both sides.

To be honest, so far, I'm really liking this book in which I had started yesterday. I was able to look through the minds of both of the characters that have completely different personalities and behaviors but are struggling in the battle of life and death. The two perspectives really made a big difference in the reading experiences and understanding the book better. A small mistake can cost a life and thousands of regrets and like I said before, time is priceless.

Comedy in a Minor Key

Comedy in a Minor Key
Blog Post

In the book, "Comedy in a Minor Key" by Hans Keilson, there was a couple who was nice enough to allow Nico, a Jew who had no where to go, to live in their house and stay like a hideout place. This story is not full of comedy and as a matter of fact, it holds more tragedies because afterwards, Nico ends up dying from a disease. The couple, Wim and Marie showed great bravery because of hiding a random Jew and risking their lives (possible to face consequences) because they live in a place where tit is controlled by the Nazis. I feel that the setting and time period showed great importance in the story. Without this, the whole story couldn't even take place. This story is also a bit similar to the story of Anne Frank's.

Firstly, the couple lived in a place where there were neighbors in all directions of their house. If the neighbors saw Nico, the couple could be killed for helping. I wouldn't be able to be like them and take chances to danger my life. They could not have predicted how long this mass murder with the Jews would last. It will stain their lives if they were caught doing such an "uncivilized" thing. The horrors they faced are just like the real event where Jews were quickly being eliminated. The setting is significant because it showed reality and represents the real scene. It showed how people felt during that time period. This story couldn't have occur without the Nazis occupation.

Secondly, the book is sort of similar to Anne Frank's life, although they were not arrested. She faces situations that were alike; for example, she also had to hide to escape from the Nazis persecution. Their family had to live secretly and have others to provide them with food and supplies because it would put them in jeopardy if they were to be discovered. They were arrested and brought to camp later on. Most of the people were dead from diseases. Nico was lucky that he hasn't been discovered but diseases were spreading like wild fire and he soon too, caught pneumonia.

I feel that it was generous of the Dutch couple to help someone that they hardly know because they are completely putting their lives in danger. They are just ordinary people, probably in the middle social class or lower but they still took the Jew in. They even had to help get rid of his body after his death. If I were to be in their shoes, I would probably get a broom and kick Nico out because I don't want to become a victim of the government. I won't take chances to get my family dead just to help a dude who has no blood relationship with me. It's cruel but this is reality. I guess I just can't be as courageous as them so blame Hitler.

Therefore, I believe that this story clearly shows the horrors at that time period. Many people would probably be able to relate to it. I feel that the author did a great job in describing the event with the characters. Keilson was in the Dutch resistance group during the war, which made it easier and more believable for him to write such a strong story. His experiences enriches the book and allowed the setting and characters to seem more interesting.

To Speak and Not Be Heard

Speak'ring for Thy Self
Symbolism

After a long time, I've decided to revisit the book "Speak", by Laurie Halse Anderson which is about a girl named Melanie who was isolated and disliked from others in high school. She gets raped and even the new girl Heather, ends up betraying her because she thought she was too boring to be friends with. Melanie has to draw trees for her art project for the whole semester and this makes me feel that the tree is kind of symbolic to her character. I also liked how the title has a bigger meaning then just any kind of titles. In all, these symbols are meaningful and important to Melanie.

When Melanie was first assigned to draw trees, she find it hard to believe since she think that it's too easy to do and that "anyone can draw a tree". But as the story proceeds, she discovers that a tree is not just a tree. It is like a mirror image of her. A tree does all it can to live. Drawing trees represents her feelings. They have flaws like her but will fight for the nutrients and water so that it can survive. She's like dead in her own world. She feels that she cannot change until the branches of sick trees were being cut down in her yard. It turns out that in order for the tree to survive, the damaged parts must be eliminated. This tells Melanie that she can still save herself by stepping up and speak for herself to get rid of her "damaged" parts. When she is troubled, she drew a tree that has been struck dead. The tree seems to symbolize her feelings and growth. She starts to grow out of the pain. Now that I think about it, sometimes trees are shaped to look like human features and maybe this is why Anderson chose this as the symbol. The branches stretch wide and large to show its beauty while Melanie just hides constantly in her closet. Her struggles are shown when she draws the tree.

The title "Speak" is important to Melanie because that is what she has to do. She has to speak up and prove to others that she can do just the same as others can. She has to suck up all the depressing memories and just live without any burdens from the past. She was scarred, true, because she has been raped and no body believes it, but later she found evidence to prove that it has happened. If she had not spoke up, nothing like this would have ever occurred. The final goal for her seems to be to speak up for herself.

I feel that the symbols in the story tells a lot about Melanie's personally. She is complicated and may seem strange to others even though she has a nice heart. She may have been lost, but she will surely find a way that will allow her to move on to the right track. Speaking up can be more difficult for her, but that's the only method. The trees and the title represents Melanie as a whole and her growing up. It's frustrating and truly sad when you speak and not be heard, to be annoyed and not be seen. Hiding seems to be the only thing that she could have done, but no. Speaking makes a big difference.