Twilight

Rose McKay                                                                                                               808

                 The banned book Twilight by Stephanie Meyer is a gripping dark romance about a love between a human named Bella and a vampire named Edward. Bella moves from Arizona to live in a small, hidden town called Forks in Washington State with her lonely dad. In Forks, Bella goes to a new high school and everyone welcomes her. She meets Edward and eventually falls in love with him. Edward lives with a group of vampires who have made a decision to only drink animal blood. They call themselves “vegetarians”. Edward is 17 and has been 17 for a long time. He has the ability to read people’s minds and yet, he cannot read Bella’s. This makes her intriguing to him. Twilight contains a lot of symbolism that relates to loneliness and yearning.

                  The setting of the book represents Bella’s inner life. The description of Forks is of a gloomy, dark, gray place with not much life to it. This is how Bella feels in the beginning of the book. “Thick fog was all I could see out my window in the morning, and I could feel the claustrophobia creeping up on me. You would never see the sky here; it was like a cage.” On top of this, Bella’s relationship with her dad is unsatisfying.   She doesn’t feel close to him at all, especially having lived with her mother in bright, sunny Arizona. She comes to Forks with no friends. She is lonely without her mother and doesn’t connect with her father. He is not very talkative which makes him seem gloomy. Maybe living in Forks for his whole life made him this way. Bella doesn’t want to be trapped inside of Forks like her dad who has never left. She feels stuck.

                  Being a vampire symbolizes loneliness.  Vampires don’t age but the humans around them do.  Time stands still for a vampire.  For Edward, the people who he might fall in love with who are not vampires will eventually die. This is really heartbreaking. Twilight shows how lonely it would be to be a vampire.  Not only is it heartbreaking, it is isolating because as a vampire you cannot expose yourself to the human world.  You are always hiding your true identity. In one scene, Edward is talking to Bella about the first night he spied on her. “That was the first night I came here. I wrestled all night, while watching you sleep, with the chasm between what I knew was right, moral, ethical, and what I wanted.” Edward is trying to make a decision. If Edward makes the choice to love Bella, she will eventually grow old and leave him. He doesn’t want this to happen. If she wants to, Edward could turn her into a vampire, but he thinks that is ethically wrong. This dilemma could make someone very lonely. “His fingers were ice-cold, like he’d been holding them in a snowdrift before class. But that wasn’t why I jerked my hand away so quickly. When he touched me, it stung my hand as if an electric current had passed through us.” Bella loves Edward and they have a strong connection. Bella feels close to him more than she does to her own family.

                   Being a vampire also symbolizes a different kind of family. A doctor and his wife, Carlisle and Esme, take in Edward.  Before they were vampires, they were not related. Carlisle and Esme also adopt three vampire couples. These vegetarian vampires have formed an entirely unique way to belong and to exterminate loneliness. This family eventually accepts Bella as one of their own. Even though Bella is not a vampire, she still needs love and a home to feel welcome in. Jasper, one of the shy vampire sons says, “’Bella,’ Jasper said. ‘You have nothing to worry about. You are completely safe here’” This loving family takes care of Bella. They treat her like she is special or meaningful. When Bella first meets Edwards parents, Esme says, “’that’s why I am so happy to see that he’s found you dear.’… ‘He’s been the odd one out for far too long; it’s hurt me to see him alone.’” What Esme is stating is that Edward hadn’t found the right girl yet partly because he is a vampire and partly because he’s had to keep his vampire nature a secret. When Edward finally meets Bella, his family is happy for him, even though Bella is a human.

                  In conclusion, Twilight contains a lot of symbolism. The bad weather symbolizes Bella’s inner life. When she first moves to Forks, she feels trapped and lonely. Twilight also speaks to the themes of love, family, and loneliness. If a vampire falls in love with a human, they are stuck in time and cannot form a relationship with them. This is very sad. The deeper meaning of Twilight is about putting your self in the shoes of Edward. Living your life, watching people die around you and knowing you will never die. But yet, you can create an alternative family with other vampires who you love.

Rose McKay                                                                                                            808

“If I found a magic lamp and I could have one wish, I would wish that I had a normal face that no one ever noticed at all.” The book “Wonder,” by R. J. Palacio is about a boy named August who has a physical deformity. He has been homeschooled his whole life and is now attending middle school for the first time. Starting 5^th grade is really hard for him at first. He feels very self-conscious of the fact that he has a physical deformity and looks different than everyone else. At this point in his life, he is used to people reacting to his deformity in negative ways. He copes with this is by putting his head down and not making any eye contact with anyone. At school, it is really hard for him to make friends. Although, he does make two new friends that are very loyal to him, Summer and Jack. He realizes that his true personality shows when he is talking to Jack, who eventually becomes his best friend. By the end of the book, Auggie is then less self conscious and more confident. He realizes his own courage and strength. He also realizes that people can change and he can too. Throughout the book the author shows the reader how children can become better people and build character. She shows this by shifting points of view, focusing in on themes of friendship and betrayal, and change.

 One of the themes in  “Wonder” is about friendship and betrayal. On Halloween Auggie comes to school with a mask and nobody knows who is underneath this mask. In the classroom he overhears Jack, someone he believes is his friend, talking about him behind his back with the popular kid, Julian, and his followers. He feels terrible listening to Julian, but he feels even worse when he hears Jack say, “‘if I looked like that, I think I’d kill myself’. ‘You would not’… ‘Yeah for real’… ‘Then why do you hangout with him so much?’ ‘I don’t know…’” After this scene, it is clear that Auggie feels a huge sense of betrayal and loss of friendship. Later in the story though, we find out that Jack doesn’t even like the kids he was talking to. He joined the group of bullies because of the peer pressure that Julian puts on kids. During the school year, Jack and Auggie sit next to each other in almost every class. Jack starts to realize that Auggie is really funny and they have a lot in common. At the end of the book, Jack says, “Like, if all the guys in the fifth grade were lined up against a wall and I got to choose anyone I wanted to hang out with, I would choose August.” This shows that over time, Jack is able to see past Auggie’s deformity. It shows he doesn’t like August because he feels bad for him, but because Auggie is fun to hang out with. We wouldn’t necessarily believe Jack to be truthful if the author hadn’t switched perspectives throughout the book.

“Wonder” is set up where the reader gets to go into many characters’ minds. This is called shifting points of view. The first telling of the story on Halloween was told from Auggie’s point of view. Later on in the story, we hear the incident again from Jack’s point of view. After the incident on Halloween where we hear Jack talking about Auggie, Auggie says, “I was pretty sure I would never go back to school again.” This makes us feel angry and hurt because we trusted Jack because Auggie did. Now Auggie doesn’t want to go to school and that was the one thing he conquered. In the middle of the story, we go into the mind of Jack. We see that he actually doesn’t like the kids that he was talking to about Auggie and we feel empathy for him. If we didn’t go into the mind of Jack, we would not trust him. He says, “And I don’t know why I said that stuff. I was just going along. I was stupid. I am stupid.”  This shows that Jack actually feels terrible for what he did. If we hadn’t read this scene, we would not trust Jack.

Everybody in the book changes. Even in the smallest ways. It was really hard for Auggie to go to middle school. “I don’t want to go to school,’ I answered, folding my arms...’Maybe I’ll go next year,’ I answered, looking out the window. ‘I’ll be the only kid who looks like me.’” Auggie had to face the fact that kids might judge him, but he still went to school everyday. It’s one thing to handle going to a new school after being home schooled your whole life, but it’s another having a physical difference that you fear everyone will make fun of. I don’t think Auggie would have wanted to go to school if he hadn’t had a friend like Jack. Auggie let his true personality show when he was with him. Throughout the book the author shows the reader how children can become better people. One scene that illustrates this is when the whole grade was at a country fair. Some 7th graders from a different school were bullying Auggie and Jack. The popular boys, who were once on the side of Julian, who used to bully Auggie, stood up for them. They changed because they realized that Auggie is actually a good person inside and it doesn’t matter what you look like, it matters what is within. Also, Olivia (Via), Auggie’s sister, changes a lot in the year that the book takes place. She begins high school and doesn’t want to be identified as the girl with the brother who has a deformed face. “… In middle school, a lot of people didn’t know about August…Or if they knew, it wasn’t nessecarally the first thing they knew about me. Maybe it was the second or third thing they heard about me. ‘Olivia? Yeah she’s nice. Did you hear she has a brother who’s deformed?’” At her middle school she was known as the girl with the brother with the deformed face. But now that she is in high school, she wants to have friends who don’t know about Auggie. She doesn’t want her life to revolve around him.  In one section, (told from her point of view) Olivia is supposed to perform in a play and she doesn’t tell her parents because she doesn’t want Auggie to come and be seen by her new friends. But in the end, she realizes that her friends should still love her even if they find out about her brother.

In conclusion, Wonder is about a boy who changes and grows, socially and emotionally, ten times bigger than who he was before. He makes new friends. He realizes that he can be out in the world and be less self conscious and more confident. The whole book is about trust and forgiveness and love. All of the characters in the book have some hidden insecurity and throughout the year, they push past their fears. For example, Jack is afraid of what kids will say if he is friends with Auggie, but he learns that it is not their decision, that it’s his. Via is afraid of being identified as the girl with the brother with the deformed face, but she learns that people love her for who she is. People love Auggie as well. Auggie was once afraid of living in the real world but he pushed past his fear and learned that some people will love him for who he is not what he looks like.

Reading list-

What Is The What: August 22nd - not done yet (538 pgs)

Thirteen Reasons Why:  september 3rd - september 16th (288 pgs)

Speak: - September 17th - October 1st

Island of The Blue Dolphins: October 3rd - October 16th (188 pgs)

Wonder: October 25th - November 1st (308 pgs)

Brown Girl Dreaming: November 2nd - not done yet (325 pgs)

                                                                     Ashes essay

Rose McKay                                                                                                                             808

“…Dad used to promise me the stars for a necklace, but like most of his promises, that one never quite happened.” The short story “Ashes” by Susan Beth Pfeffer is about a girl named Ashleigh whose father tries to manipulate her into “borrowing” money from her mom. Her parents are divorced so this puts her in an uncomfortable situation. She has complicated feelings about her father. Sometimes it seems like Ashes is put into her dad’s role - the parent. This short story shows that love is complicated and you cannot always get the support you need from a parent.

            Firstly, Ashleigh has mixed feelings about her dad.  She loves him to death but knows that he is not always reliable and sometimes is careless. She loves him because he leads her to believe he is a kind and warm person. “’I saw a woman stranded on the road.’ he’d say, ‘So, I changed her tire for her.’”  Ashes’ dad has time to help people on the street, but he doesn’t always take care of his own daughter. This section of the story gives evidence of a kind, warm man, but on the inside, he might not be very together.  “…When dad forgot to pick me up at school, or didn’t have the money for a class trip…” This quote shows how unreliable and neglectful her father is. The reader could assume that Ashes feels embarrassed by her father’s actions.  Readers can feel close to Ashes because they can imagine what it would be like to have a parent who doesn't show up.

            Furthermore, Ashes’ dad manipulates her in many ways.  In the beginning of the story, Ashes’ dad says, “‘you look radiant…you get more and more beautiful. Turn around, let me admire every single inch.’  So I turned around.  I was wearing jeans and a bulky brown sweater mom gave me for Christmas.”  Here, in the story, I think Ashes is starting to know that her dad is not acting normally and something is wrong.  She knows that whenever he compliments her, he might not be telling the truth.  This hurts her but at the same time, she realizes that her dad does love her but he is not reliable. When they get into the diner the father says, “’you have flare, Ashes. Style.  You do something like that, you’re sure to make your mark.’  Last week he told me to be an astronaut.  The week before that, the CEO of a Fortune 500 Corporation.  And the week before that he’d been stunned by my spirituality.”  This quote shows that Ashes is aware and has been aware that her dad finds ways to try to make her feel good about herself.  At first the compliments made Ashes feel good but then the light dimmed and she started to realize that the compliments had no meaning.

            Lastly, parents are not always reliable or honest.  Sometimes they are so preoccupied, they don’t even see their own children. “’What is it?’ I asked him. ‘It’s nothing,’ he said.  ‘Oh, hell Ashes, you can always see right through me.’  He had been the one who had been looking right through me, but I didn’t say anything.”  He doesn’t “see” how his behavior affects Ashes at all. At this point in the story, Ashes knows that her dad owes someone money and neither of them know what they are going to do to him if he doesn’t pay it back. She is very worried for him. Should the daughter be worried about the parent or vice versa?  Earlier in the story, Ashes dad said that they should get diner food instead of pizza. He is trying to paint a pretty picture that everything is okay and that he has so much money and can do anything.  At the diner, Ashes asks her dad if he has the money to pay for dinner. All her dad gets is a coffee. Not ordering food is evidence that he has no money. She now realizes he is in trouble.

            In conclusion, the main point in this piece is, love is complicated.    I think the title of the book represents the disintegration of the family. Ashes is the nickname her dad gives her. Her mother hates the name because it represents cold, gray, dead things. I think her mom feels this way because she knows that the family is falling apart and it is almost dead. Another way of looking at the title is that it could represent what is left behind after a fire. A fire is a warm safe place. It is very comforting. A fire might represent the family and when the dad broke off and left, Ashes was all that was left behind. Her dad betrays her, confuses her, and manipulates her. He is a very careless parent. Ashes realizes that she needs someone stable in her life, which is her mom, but her dad is so much more fun to be around. You can’t always get the support you need from a parent. This is what Pfeffer is trying to show us.

Blog Post 9/15/14

The Fault in Our Stars by John Green is a romantic novel about a girl named Hazel grace who is diagnosed with thyroid cancer. She starts going to a support group for cancer survivors. She meets a boy named Augustus Waters. Augustus had a type of cancer that causes him to loose his leg. They fall in love and are inseparable. Hazel gives Augustus a book that she loves called An Imperial Affliction. Hazel loves this book because she can relate to the character Anna who has a rare blood cancer. After Augustus reads the book, they bond over it because they both want to know the ending. The author ends the book before giving a conclusion on what happens to Anna's family and friends after she dies. Augustus uses one of his cancer wishes was to take him and Hazel to Amsterdam to talk to the author. The author does not give Hazel and Augustus any answers. Finally Augustus tells Hazel that the doctors say that the cancer has spread through his whole body. For the last weeks of his life, Hazel is always by his side and caring for him.

            Firstly, the title of the book is very interesting. Can you change your destiny? What if you are handed a life that is not so easy? “Its written in the stars” means it is meant to be or it’s your destiny. In the book, Hazel didn’t know that she would be diagnosed with cancer, but she was and it wasn’t her fault, and she can’t change it. Hazel wants to go to the author of her favorite book because she wants to know what happens to the parents after Anna dies. Hazel wants to know this because she is in the same situation and she doesn’t know her fate. Hazel wants to know if people will notice that she is gone. Because her future is not certain, she wants to know how her parents will react when she's gone.  

            Furthermore, Hazel doesn’t treat Augustus any differently after she knows he is going to die. It must be very hard to let go of someone you love. Hazel says, “I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn’t trade it for the world.” I think this is super sweet and loving. It probably took Hazel a lot of courage to stay with Augustus before he was about to die.  She is very loyal to Augustus.

            In conclusion, this book shows young teens that you shouldn’t give up. This relates to my real life because I don’t know my fate. I don’t know what I will be doing 5 years from now, let alone 10 or 20. What the hidden metaphor in this book is, is that sometimes you don't have the ability to choose, life just happens whether you like it or not.