Hard Things in Motherless Brooklyn

There are many hard things going on in the book, Motherless Brooklyn right now. Mainly for the fact that the main character is different from many other main characters in other books. The main character in the book has a disease called tourette’s syndrome which causes random compulsions and twitches in the main character. This is also one of the hard things that happens in the book because it leaves him disabled and not par to everyone, like being able socializing with people. Which is exactly like what life is like with people with disabilities in our world to. Another hard thing that is happening in the book is the fact that Frank Minna dies. He’s the boss of a gang that adopts the main character, Lionel, and others to help him with his illegal activities.

The first hard thing that is happening in the book is the fact that Lionel has tourettes it makes him disabled, to the world. Without Frank he would seem helpless to the world because people see him in society as mentally challenged and crazy. An example was when he was at the hospital, his tourettes started to act up and he nearly had to be escorted out of the hospital by the security guard because the security guard was unsure why he was acting like that. Tourettes causes people to see someone as a misfit in society, which is what Lionel is even when he was at the hospital home. His compulsiveness made him do strange things, it made him want to touch everything he sees. This compulsiveness made him an outcast because people where afraid they were going to be touched by him. Lionel’s tourette syndrome has caused him to be an outcast and a distraction in society.

The second hard thing that is happening in the book is Frank Minna’s death. Lionel has been so dependent on Frank because he has no one else to help him in a world that has disregarded challenged people like Lionel. Especially since Frank is the one who basically adopted Lionel from the hospital. There are complications after the death of Frank, people start to fight over who should take over the gang, and many problems dealing with other members of the group. Lionel who is helpless by himself is lost without Frank Minna to help him in his life. Minna is like the father he never had before in his life, basically he’s losing his only mentor.

In conclusion, Lionel has to face hard problems with his tourettes and after he lost his only mentor Frank Minna. I could never  sympathize with Lionel, but I feel bad that he has no one as close as he had with Minna.        

Teen Angst? Nahhh...Character types

I am currently reading the book Teen Angst Nahh? By Ned Vizzini. The story is basically about Ned Vizzini’s life and how he faces common teen problems; the way he faces it turns out to be the funny parts of the book. The main character Ned himself faces many character changes throughout the book because of the decisions that he makes In his teen life. As I read through the eyes of Ned Vizzini I notice the many characters that surround Ned and influence him in many different ways. I notice the many archetypes of the book. Here are the archetypes that is recognized for each specific character.

The obvious hero in the story is obviously Ned, what defines a hero is someone who is not perfect, displays courage and self sacrifice. I can easily describe Ned as all three of these characteristics because the teenage life of Ned has to face all of this. An example of something  Ned’s not is perfect at is physical activities such as karate. Ned even says himself that he is bad at karate. He describes himself as inflexible so he can’t perform the proper stretches needed and he can’t do the techniques correctly. Even when Ned played soccer he said he was terrible because his team lost 0-12. This show how Ned Is a hero because he is not perfect at all at any physical activities, which is relatable to some teenagers at Ned’s age in the book. Ned also displays courage, when he actually has to fight against himself instead of studying, to go to a concert. This only proves more to the reader about how equal he is to us even though he is currently a writer. Ned displays these more charecters of a hero more than any other character in the book.

The mentor in the story would have to be Ned’s school conscious. Ned”s school conscious was the one that wanted to stay home and study instead of going to a concert. At one point in the book Ned describes that his hanging  out side wanted to sneak out the window even when his mom said no to going to the concert. His school conscious was the mentor and completely disregarded the hanging out part of the brain. This side of the brain told Ned that he had to study for the test coming up the next day. This mentor also experiences past experiences because it’s based off of Ned’s past experiences of not studying, so he does contain some wisdom. Mentor’s don’t always have to be a literal thing, archetypes can be internal too.

The Shadow in the story is definitely the other side of his brain, the one that was against the good side of Ned’s conscious. It’s the bad side of Ned’s conscious because it represents the darker side of Ned because it wants him to fail the same test because it focuses more on his social side of his life which he’s not very good at, which is why the shadow is very provocative. Also his negative conscious makes him do things that he feels that he would never do. Like in one part he never thought of smoking before, but when he went to a summer camp he learns about smoking and starts to smoke himself. His shadow is mostly based on his social life because as he even says he likes doing things he’s bad at because he says he’s supposedly good with everything, especially in academics. This is the shadow because of it’s negative influence on him.  

  The shapeshifter of the story is the Dad. I would say the Dad is because he doesn’t represent a father figure all the time, sometimes the Dad acts like a kid and leaves the house just to get away from the mother. The Dad always doesn’t necessarily set an example up Ned the Dad just supports him in not studying for the test. Like when Ned wanted to go to a concert, but had to study on a test the Dad just supported Ned because he wanted to see the band also, so he was on the negative side once in the story. Yet sometimes the Dad is on the good side by being firm sometimes about what he says like when he taught Ned when he was a kid. Ned’s dad taught Ned math which shows how he went to the good side A.K.A the mentor/studying side. So the Dad is pretty much unpredictable throughout the whole book.

In conclusion, all of the archetypes were very closely related to Ned (himself). Ned seems to be falling on the side of the shadow as he gets older in the book. I guess Ned is becoming more and more attracted to the negative side of things, he reveals himself as someone he’d never thought he’d be in the book.  

Antagonist

I am currently reading the book The Zookeeper's Wife by Diane Ackerman. The story focuses on the beginnings of world war two and about the hostilities shown towards jews during this time period. It's obviously a different take then what i would expect on a book about the time area  that this book takes place in, because of the fact that it literally takes place in a zoo which makes the book seem like it's a book on the biology of animals instead of the important events of the time period that it takes place in. the  book is starting to unravel itself as the book goes on.

As we can recall the antagonist doesn't necessarily have to be a physical living charecter in the story. The antagonist can be a force in the story and I would say that the antagonist in the story is the theme of war and Hitler. The antagonist in the story is war because of the fact that it messes up the flow of the protagonists life. War messes up the ability of Jan and Antonia too continue the productiveness of their zoo and to continue their research.This is what makes an antgonist an antagonist because it gets in the way of the protagonists want, because of the own wants of the antagonist. War causes Antonia to run away from her home with her son. It can also be considered Hitler because he's the cause of the problems that Antonia has to face. This is the humanistic version of the anttagonistt in the story

These two things you can tell is the antagonists of the story because Antonia even worries about her son. She says that how could a boy experience things like this, because Antonia has also been a victim of war losing two parents in the process of it. This shows that its a real big problem for her because she has too face the terrible parts of it and she doesn't want her son to experience it. showing the same emotions as it would normally be to an antagonist.

In conclusion, war and Hitler are the antagonists inthe book because they cause great problems of paranoia, transforming the charecters usual life.
  

    

Blog #2 choice #1 :The Giver (edited entry)

Dystopia means a society charecterized by human misery such as squalor, oppression, disease and overcrowding. Utopia is the complete oppisite meaning an imaginary place of perfection or an ideal place of state. Out of both of these Jonas seems to live in a Utopia. Obviously Jonas doesn't live in a dystopia because even Jonas claims that the citizens have never experienced the hardships of life, implying that their lives are orderly and seemingly perfect which relates to a utopian society.

Jonas's world could be either, only for him because of the memories that the Giver and the realistic society in general. The reason why the society is an utopia is because of the commitee that runs the  community. The commitee keeps the town perfect,so perfect that people never have to worry about major the problems that people like we have to face such as divorce and crime reason for this is the fact that the community doesnt make chooices for themselves, the choices are made for them such as marriage. Kids never have to face divorce again because the community creates compatible matches between women and men so that they are the only ones compatible with each other. Crime is never faced in the community because people never seem to be rebellious towards the community they all seem to be content with the fact that their live are run for them. Even in one part of the book Jonas admits that the community is so orderly. Everythiing about the community is made to perfection, everything seems to be fine. The community even criticizes the hyperbole use of the word starving because the commitee says that the people will never starve in the community, as Jonas was told. This shows how the community knows that it's perfect because everywhere inour present world has faced starvation once, and to not face it shows how much it's the ideal place to live.

The community in which jonas lives in can also be a dystopia because it is very oppresive of feelings. The society doesn't let the use of hyperboles in order to describe something,meaning that people ,can't express their feeling in a enthusiastic way like we do. It is also oppresive to the feelings that Jonas has because in the story when jonas asks his parent do they love him they said it's a meaningless word that has not been used. Which shows how the community has omitted words that express feelings of any sort. Jonas is also opressed because he can't explain anything the Giver has taught him because the commitee limits the community to feelings in the first place and to experience new things thats why Jonas is being oppressed because he can't express his feelings towards anyone in the community. Jonas' world can also be seen as a dystopia for the fact that he has misery from the memories transfered to him from the Giver therfore making his world full of misery.

To make our world a utopia there would have to be rules that are very strict, therules would also have to take away the freedom of the civilians, because freedom makes people do waht they want. Once you give someone the freedom to do anything they start to take advantage of it. It not only takes the government, but the commitment of the civilians. The civillians need to be able to obey the laws for the plans of creating a utopia to work. if people don't obey then you're not going to get anywhere  in creating a utopia. In ordder to becomea utopiapeople would also follow morals andhave trust in everybody because if everyone had trust in each other the world  would be easier to be a utopia because the trust would make them believe that we are doing a right thing by creating it.