Water for Elephants: Week 6, Post B

"Let him examine me. Just let him. Today I am invincible" (279). This quote happens when Jacob is telling Uncle Al Marlena and Jacob's plan. He is afraid that Uncle Al might realize what Jacob and Marlena are doing behind-the-scenes and he is concerned that that will make Uncle Al not be so in favor of their plan. No one wants to get on Uncle Al's bad side, so that they don't get redlighted or something even worse than that maybe. What this quote means is that although Jacob feels nervous and is worried about Unlce Al redlighting (getting rid of) him, he feels like he's on top of the world at this moment. He is not worried about much (except getting redlighted), but even that isn't a big deal to him right now. He is in love, and he feels like his life is going really good because of that. I think that being in love does that to a person. It is an incredible feeling to be in love. You feel like you're on top of the world, and that nothing will bring you down from up there. Nothing can happen to make you life miserable when you're in love. This is exactly how Jacob feels when he is talking to Uncle Al. the reason he "lets Uncle Al 'examine him'". All because he is on top of the world and nothing can bring him down. This is an important quote that describing exactly how Jacob felt at that moment.

Water for Elephants: Week 6, Post A

VOCAB: 1. Surreptitiously (276): acting in a stealthy way
2. solicitous (262): mindful, regardful, attentive

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
1. "His voice drips with sarcasm" (277). This is a personification, because it's giving human characteristics to a nonhuman object: Kinko's voice.
2. "That sure sounds like Camel" (240). This is a simile, because it's comparing two objects with one another using the words like or as to compare them.
3. "August stares at her, as though he's simply awakened and found himself here" (246). This is also a simile, because it uses the word "as" to compare two objects.

QUOTE: "I'm afraid to breathe incase I break the spell" (273). This is a significant quote in this section because it is just after Marlena and Jacob realize that they are in love with each other. They are in love, and this quote means that Jacob doesn't want to do the smallest thing that might break their love or ruin it forever, because that is the only thing that both of them want at the moment.

THEME: The theme of the book in this section is that one has to appreciate every moment of your life, because you don't ever know when that moment may end or when it may never happen to you again. This goes hand in hand with the expression "live every minute to the fullest."

woah

LOL this is so funny... i just realized JUST HOW MUCH i write on this blog. that's pretty entertaining. i have, like, almost 30 posts in total this semester. that is CRAZY. woah. i didn't really ever know how wordy i was. lol this is a sad realization. i'll keep it up, but... yeah. lol ;P

Water for Elephants: Week 5, Post B

Dear Jacob,

You really have an amazing story. It’s so complex and with little side stories and it’s just so interesting! I love the side story of you and Marlena. Although it makes me sad and it’s kind of depressing that you can’t be with her, it’s really helping me be more interested in the book. It’s making me want to finish it! The rest of the book is good, but I don’t think it’s really the kind of book that I’d pick up on my own, but now that I’m reading it, I’m interested again. This feeling, sadly, comes and goes. I think that’s how it is with lots of books and their readers, however. It is so sad, your situation with Marlena, because you both love each other, but neither of you can do anything about it to change it. She is married, and I think she is probably regretting that decision of hers. I know that I would be regretting it. It must be very frustrating and painful for you to see her every single day and to know that you can’t be with her because of August, who treats her so badly. You must be pained to see her treated like this. You love her, and you know that if she was with you, she wouldn’t be like this. I think it’s good that you still get to see her everyday, however. This is lucky for you. What would be worse is if you were in love with her, and she had never met you in her life. That is a bad situation to be in. I’d actually consider you lucky.

Emma

Water for Elephants: Week 5, Post A

VOCAB:
1. sequester (205): to remove or separate.
2. amiably (213): friendly, sociable, agreeable

FIGURATIVE LANUGAGE:
1. “She clings to me as tightly as if I were keeping her from being sucked into a vortex” (215). This is a simile, because it uses the word “as” to compare something to another.
2. “’you’re sharp as a tack’” (217). This is also a simile because it uses “as” to compare something to another.
3. “Fate was smiling on us that day in June…” (231). This is a personification, because an object like fate cannot actually smile. This is giving a human characteristic to a non-human object.

QUOTE:
“That, or August has decided to keep his friends close and his enemies even closer” (213). This quote is significant because it explains the kind of relationship that Jacob and August have in this section. Jacob is not really too sure is August is really being nice, or if August is just ‘keeping his enemies closer’. This is important to Jacob because if he is on August’s good side, then he doesn’t want to ruin that. But if he is on August’s bad side, then he doesn’t want to do anything to make it worse.

THEME:
The overall theme of the book right now is that you have to respect everyone, even if they are ‘below’ you in social status, because you never know what they will do. Or, you don’t want to get on anyone’s bad side, like Jacob with August.

Water for Elephants: Week 4, Post B

Dear Sarah Gruen,

Now that I am more than halfway through your book, I am really starting to question my feelings about it from when I first started reading it to now. I like it, but it is a somewhat strange story. And I’m also not quite sure where you came up with all this information, or even what sparked your interest in writing about a man that ran away to be in the circus. I am not too sure, but I don’t think it seems like the story of your life, so I’m just curious to know where you got this inspiration. This book is good, and I like it, but sometimes I just tell myself, ‘that’s kind of odd…weird thing to write so much about…’ and things like that. I am positive that when I finish this book I will definitely understand much better why you wrote some of the things you did, but right now the whole thing is just kind of a mystery to me. It might just be me. Sometimes, there are books that I just don’t want to read at a certain time. This is probably one of them. It just isn’t making me very interested at all, and I never really feel like I want to read it badly. This is strange, because I usually feel like reading; like I want to read that certain book at that certain time. I always have enjoyed reading, but this book has been a turn-off. I’m not interested in it, and I just don’t like the plot and how it’s going. It might also be your specific writing style, but I don’t know. I just haven’t gotten into it like I always expect with books. This feeling of not wanting to read a book rarely happens for me, so this is the first time, and maybe I’m over-reacting, but I’m just not a huge fan of your book. By the way, it’s nothing personal or about you specifically.

Emma

Water for Elephants: Week 4, Post A

VOCAB: 1. calliope (162) - A musical instrument fitted with steam whistles, played from a keyboard
2. Vociferous (163) - Making, given to, or marked by noisy and vehement outcry.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
“Beaming like a proud father” (163). This is when August is beaming and getting really excited because the elephant, Rosie, is doing what he wants her to. This is a simile because it uses the word “like” to compare two things.
“Shh…” (165). this is an onomatopoeia, because it isn’t a real word that’s in the dictionary, but it’s a sound or noise said out loud by a character.
“Laughing at me, no doubt” (167). This is when Jacob is describing the look that Rosie gave him when he was trying to get her out of the innocent woman’s backyard garden. This is a personification because elephants can’t really laugh in real life.

QUOTE:
“Some things never change…and you can still tell the performers from the workers” (175). This quote is significant because it’s talking about the social status at the circus, but in general Jacob is mentioning that this is really the social status of the world everywhere one goes.

THEME:The theme of this book at this section is that you should help out your friends when they need help with something, especially if they’ve done something for you in the past.

2 debate articles found

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307H-0-5795&artno=0000265492&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=student%20backpacks&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=SMN0307H-0-5795&artno=0000159829&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=what%27s%20that%20beeping%20in%20student%20backpacks&res=Y&ren=Y&gov=Y&lnk=Y&ic=N

the first one is about how violence may be caused by everyone bringing backpacks around: this can be one of our arguments for disallowing them at school.

the second one is about how cell phone use increases with more people bringing their backpacks to school: this can be our second reason for disallowing them.

and tomas, the one that you found in class is a good one about how the heavy backpacks are extremely bad for our backs and can cause serious long-term back problems. this can be our third argument for disallowing them.

now, we just need a few arguments for allowing backpacks at school.

Water for Elephants Week 3, Post B

“I can’t find myself anymore. When did I stop being me?” (111). Jacob thinks of this quote when he is looking in the mirror at himself after Rosemary brings his breakfast into his room (110). When he looks in the mirror first of all, he says that he should be used to seeing what he looks like, but he just isn’t used to seeing the old man yet. I personally think that this is horribly depressing and I just started to cry when I read it. Can you even imagine that? Looking in a mirror, and seeing someone that you don’t recognize, even though it’s been you, for many years. That is horrible, just awful. As sad as it is, I can understand what he means. People obviously change as they grow older. In the second sentence of the quote, Jacob probably was thinking of a man that he knew as “himself” a long time ago, and he is just now realizing that he isn’t that man anymore. This would be like me saying, ‘Whatever happened to that cute little six-year old that wore dresses to school and was three feet tall?’ It just doesn’t make much sense to think like this, because you never will be the person you once were, and nothing can change that. Once you change, you’re changed and you can never go back. Once Jacob ran off to be in the circus, he was in the circus, and nothing and no one could stop him now. Because of how he changed (going to the circus), he will always be someone that was in the circus. Because he didn’t do any of his veterinarian’s essay at college, he can never go back to that college. So there are some ways that I understand what Jacob’s point, but in some ways it’s a pointless thing to say. Once you do something to change your future, you can’t go back to change your past.

Water for Elephants Week 3, Post A

VOCAB:
1. misnomer (91) : an error in naming a person or thing.
2. Gargantuan (125) : gigantic, enormous, and colossal.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
1. “her skin is mottled and cracked like a scorched riverbed” (125) This is a simile describing the elephant’s skin, but using the word “like”.
2. “Huh?” (121) This is an onomatopoeia. It’s a sound, not a real word in the dictionary.
3. “Sure, I said. Maybe if you’re a rutabaga” (110) this is a personification because Jacob is talking about how it might be fun to go participate in the bingo nights. He’s saying that if you’re a rutabaga it’d be fun. But rutabagas can’t go to bingo nights, so it’s giving human characteristics to an inhuman object.

QUOTE: “But I shouldn’t complain, this being circus day and all” (110). This quote is significant because it shows how important the circus is to Jacob even now, because he remembers being in it when he was much younger. He still enjoys the thought of the circus coming because he gets to go see its show.

THEME: The emerging theme of the book right now is still the same as it was in the last section I read.

A Civil Action Reflection

A Civil Action, written by Steven Zaillan and Jonathan Harr, is a movie about Jan Schlichtmann, a rich and self-centered personal-injury lawyer who is asked by the small town of Woburn to help them with their biggest problem ever. One mother named Anne Anderson lost her young son because of the contaminated water in their town. She called Jan while he was on a radio show once, and he, of course, said that he would definitely help the small town of Woburn with this problem. However, he didn’t really mean that. This is the point where the plot begins. I liked this film. It showed how one extremely over-paid and self-centered lawyer could be changed by such a small and almost meaningless town. Jan did a complete turn-around: he went from not caring about the families that had lost members (because of the water) to only caring about them, and nothing else, not even his money or his law firm collapsing underneath his feet. It was very effective in getting this point across. The characters played their parts very well, and made a huge amount of emotional appeals, to try to get the audience to actually feel the pain this town was going through. I think that emotional appeals always help someone get their points across to an audience because they make us think about people and experiences that we’ve had that dramatically changed our lives.


There were many dramatic aspects to this film, but I think two that most average people notice the most is actors and lighting. They are probably the two that audiences pay the most attention to. The first things you see, is the actors. But, you might not even see the actors if the lighting is very dim or very light. So I think the lighting plays an important role in films as well as everything else that makes it what it is. First of all, the casting for this movie was all chosen excellently. For example, John Travolta playing the part of Jan was perfect. He definitely can look like a self-centered personal injury lawyer, because of him looks and how good he is at acting rich and egoistic. Another example of extremely good casting is Robert Duvall playing Jerome Facher. In this movie, Duvall plays a kind-of ‘bad guy’ almost. I think he plays it well, and that he enjoys being the villain and crushing Jan Schlictmann’s dreams of winning the case against Beatrice. As a last example, Anne Anderson is played well by Kathleen Quinlan. She’s sort-of a deep person one might say, and she plays a character that fits her personality. I’d say that Anne’s character was soft-spoken, thoughtful, sweet, and definitely not self-centered. She is, in some ways, the opposite of Jan Schlictmann. The second important dramatic aspect of this film is the lighting. One good example of lighting in this film is when Jan and his partners at law are sitting in their ‘office’ with every light off except for a small lamp on the reception desk. This is when there are movers coming in to take all their stuff away because they need to get all the money out of it as they possibly can. All the lights being out in the office of the law firm is a really good choice of lighting because it shows how the lights have “gone out” in the hearts of the other attorneys in Jan’s law firm. Jan is the only one left that still has some hope of winning this case. Everyone else, especially James Gordon (their financial advisor) wants to just give up the case because they think that with no money left, no other employees besides the 3 attorneys and a secretary, there is no way to win the case. So they might as well just give up on it entirely. The lighting shows the audience all of this information by just being really dim. It was a good choice.


There are also cinematic aspects to every film. Two very important ones are photography and camera movement, because they give the movie lots of dimension and make it interesting to watch. One scene in the movie is good because it pans the site of the excavating and digging by the geologists Jan hired. Jan is walking by the work site and talking to Jerome Facher at the same time, so the camera pans their conversation, but behind them, the panning allows the audience to see just how big a project it is to figure out what chemicals were where at one time. There were other places where photography and camera movement were used, and they made the movie more interesting than if every shot was a still, medium shot just of people talking to each other. Another important one is editing, which also makes many movies more interesting than if all the shots were the exact same duration. I really liked how when in the end, Jan was realizing something about the case. It was as if his mind was constantly thinking back to things that had happened during the case for that brief two or three minutes of the movie. It was a really good use of editing because it left the audience wondering what Jan was thinking about and why all those little clips from earlier in the movie were so important. We don’t know what’s going on in Jan’s mind at this point in the movie, but we’re hooked, so we want to know what he will do with all those little flashbacks and realizations he just had. Sounds and music were used well too. Really classy and fancy classical music was playing in really nice high-end scenes. Like at the Harvard club, when Jan goes to talk to the man that might give him eight million dollars. It is a fancy place where a lot of rich people go, so they play music that very wealthy and smart people will know and appreciate. All these cinematic aspects of film make movies more interesting and much more fun to watch.


A Civil Action is much like the play All My Sons, in some ways. They both deal with ethical dilemmas that have to do with innocent people dying if they make a certain move. They both have a protagonist that is self-centered in the beginning and then changes at the end. Like Joe, the protagonist of All My Sons, he starts out by defending himself by saying that money and a successful business was more important than protecting the lives of twenty-one innocent pilots. Then he changed, and realized that what he did was completely wrong (in his opinion) and he had no other choice but to shoot himself on the last page of the play. He is like Jan because in the beginning, we see just how self- centered he is and how he wants to do anything but take on the Woburn case. The only reason he took it on was because the two defendants were Beatrice Foods and Grace Chemicals, two very large corporations that would get Jan a lot of money if he won the case. He took on the case because of his selfishness. But, in the end, he changes and money becomes less important to him than the families of Woburn. The only way that A Civil Action and All My Sons differ is that whatever Joe does now, it won’t change anything that happened. It was in the past, almost ten years ago, and he can’t change what he did then. But, Jan can influence what might happen in the future in the town of Woburn. If he wins the case and becomes able to clean the chemicals up, then no more innocent and helpless citizens of Woburn will die because of contaminated water.


A Civil Action was a good movie. I really enjoyed it, however some people might not like it. it was a kind-of political and law case thriller. Some people might not like this kind of film, but I think that these kinds of films are really interesting. But, if people like ethical dilemmas mixed into a political thriller, then they should definitely see it. the main reason I liked it was because Jan was changed so much by a small, simple and not wealthy town. His life changed completely by the end of the film. He’s in bankruptcy court, and the judge is asking him where all his assets went. But instead of using the word assets, or belongings, or money, she used the term “things by which we measure one’s life by.” I think this was the wrong phrase to use. This is because Jan doesn’t measure his life by material things anymore. He measures his life by the people you change and the things you do to help society. What are the things you measure your life by?

Water For Elephants Week 2, Post B

“I cling to my anger with ever ounce of humanity left in my ruined body, but it’s no use. It slips away, like a wave from shore…then I let myself drift because there’s really not use fighting it” (69). This is an incredibly deep and thoughtful passage in the book. I can’t believe how true it really is to probably many elderly people’s lives. I talked about this topic a lot in my last book’s blogging. I think that the two main characters of these two books have completely different opinions of aging. Morrie, from Tuesdays with Morrie, wasn’t ashamed of getting old, and, in the end, dying. However, the main character in Water for Elephants, Jacob has a different view. When he does become old and close to death, he will definitely be ashamed. He doesn’t want to be waited on at all, he wants to keep his independence and liveliness exactly the same as it was when he was young. Morrie actually kind of liked being waited on like a small child again. He enjoyed it every time that it could happen. Jacob really didn’t want to have to give up his liveliness and independence. He “clung” to it, but eventually gave it up. He couldn’t fight the aging process anymore. I think I probably have the opinion of Jacob. I wouldn’t enjoy being babied and waited on for everything.

Water For Elephants Week 2, Post A

VOCAB:
scuttle (51): a short, hurried run
maniacally (53): Characterized by excessive enthusiasm or excitement

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
“Falling back like a disgraced puppy” (53): this is a simile describing Camel when he tries to talk to Uncle Al. It uses the word “like” so is therefore a simile, describing something.
“Swallowed whole by people, horses, and wagons” (53): this is a personification because it gives human characteristics to some non-human objects and things.
“I’m blubbering like the ancient fool” (64): this is also a simile because it uses the word “like” to describe what he was doing.

QUOTE:
“ You want to drug me. You want to turn me into a jell-o eating sheep.” (69). This quote is talking about how Jacob doesn’t want to take a certain depression pill, because he doesn’t want to turn into one of the patients that eats Jell-O like a sheep that follows the flock and doesn’t do their own thing.

THEME:
This theme of this book in these three chapters was that you can’t let yourself become a sheep in old age. You can’t lose your individualism. Because once you’ve lost that, there is nothing else to life.

Water for Elephants: Week 1 Post B

Dear Sara Gruen,
Wow. I just love your book. This is a great story. The thing I love the most about your writing is all your wonderful descriptions of the things happening in the story. One thing that I think is cool is how this is just a novel, a fictional story. But you tell the story with such good information and descriptions that it sometimes seems to be like a memoir. What I also like about your writing in this book is how the main character is constantly flashing back to his time working with the circus. He’s in the nursing home in the present time, but they are little sections. Then right away, you might switch right back to an experience at the circus. And this is all without warning, which can be sometimes confusing, but if you remember the other half of the plot when you’re reading the other half, then you won’t be confused. I think that this style also keeps readers hooked on it. if something really interesting happens in one half of the plot, and then you immediately switch back to the other one for a while, then the readers (or at least I do this) really almost need to keep reading until you write something next that’s in that interesting part of the other plot. Thank you for writing this book! It’s great, I can’t wait to finish reading it! I’ll probably finish it pretty soon at the rate I’m going!

Emma

Water for Elephants: Week 1, Post A

VOCAB:
undulating (46)-to move in a smooth wavelike motion.
Proctor (21)-a person appointed to keep watch over students during an exam.

FIGURATIVE LANGUAGE:
“They pat and they fuss, and above all, they cluck” (19). Jacob’s parents died, so a few old ladies from his church come to visit him. This is the author’s description of these women. The ladies clucking like hens. It’s a kind of metaphor.
“But it’s difficult because he’s zooming away from me, receding to the end of a long black tunnel” (17). This is also when Jacob’s parents have died. This phrase is kind of imagery. It’s telling us what Jacob was feeling and seeing at the time.
“Snatches of sky peek through leaves, a mosaic blue and green that shifts gently with the wind” (22). This sentence is definitely imagery. It’s describing exactly what the sky looked like at the moment Jacob was looking out the window during his test.

QUOTE:
“Age is a terrible thief” (12). This quote is significant in the story because it’s about a man who is in the nursing home but is having flashbacks of his life in the circus. In this quote, Jacob is talking about how aging took his wife from him by cancer, and aging is the reason that he’s in the nursing home right now. Age took the things one usually enjoys in life away from him.

THEME:
The major emerging theme of the book so far is probably that you should go to college and start a successful life and not ruin your chances of being successful.

MORE BLOGGING! book is chosen.

I have chosen to read "Water for Elephants." I just realized that I could have never read a Jane Austen book, because the book we choose had to be from 2006-2007. Yeah, Jane Austen is just a bit too old to fit into that category.

"Our Endangered Values": Reflection

First of all, I would just like to point this out. We, America, should have listened to Jimmy Carter when he proposed all of his ideas for protecting the environment. We should have listened to him when he came up with the crazy thought that we just might be wasting our resources. I know that this is in the past, but maybe it will teach us a lesson for the future, so that if someone has a crazy idea that just might be true, we don’t just ignore what he or she has to say. So, I would like to talk about the first major threat that he mentions in this section of his book. It’s about how we must protect the major National Parks in Alaska, Wyoming, and Montana. I feel very strongly about this topic, because this summer, I went on a week-long trip to Glacier National Park, in Montana. The reason it was named Glacier is for all the glaciers that were covering that particular mountain range. Well, when my parents and I got there, we were a little confused. We still expected to see glaciers everywhere, covering the ground, and having snow and ice everywhere. Apparently, there are only a few glaciers left. In the forties there were hundreds of glaciers. Most of them have melted because of global warming. What was really interesting on this trip was that they had pictures everywhere of what the park looked like seventy years ago, and then looking at it now. The difference is huge. What used to be solely ice is now fields with grass and flowers. It’s lovely, but of course, they are not glaciers. This is when I realized that global warming is not just something that some politicians made up to help their campaign, but it is real. One can’t blame all of this on global warming, however. What President Carter mentions in his book is industrialization. This can also be blamed for the National Parks being so different. More people are moving to areas around the parks, more businesses are cropping up around them, and the worst thing of all is the people drive their cars through the park. This is releasing harmful gas fumes into the mountain air. This is so sad, because at the rate we’re ruining the environment, our grandchildren may not live to see a glacier or a polar bear. This is what President Carter was talking about in his book. I believe that we have the same opinions on the environment, and I really wish this country would have listened to him in the first place. We might be in a completely different situation.

MORE BLOGGING!

Oh my goodness! Guess what? I get to blog on another book! But this time, I get to blog on whatever book I want! I'm currently thinking between "Water for Elephants" and a Jane Austen book. The thing that would be nice about Water for Elephants is that I'm already reading it for book club! But I just LOVE Jane Austen. She's an amazing author. 7 MORE WEEKS OF BLOGGING!

The Sea Inside: depressing or thoughtful?

The Sea Inside, written by Alejandro Amenabar and Mateo Gil, is a film in which a man is quadriplegic, and he wants to be allowed to commit assisted suicide. I liked this film, but it was a bit too depressing for me. I much prefer movies that are kind of sad, but then end up happy. One could say that this movie ended up happy, but I don’t think so. Julia did not remember Ramón at all, and she was still sick. Before he committed suicide, Ramón didn’t even make up with his family. They must feel terrible that he is gone now and that they never said a true good-bye. I know I would feel badly. However, it was very successful in getting its message across to its viewers. Even though assisted suicide is still illegal in Spain and many other countries, it has probably changed the views of some people on that topic because they realized that a lot of people who would like assisted suicide are in Ramón’s position. And Ramon’s position was very sad and rather pitiful even. Viewers of this film would feel sorry for him and they might change their opinions.

Many films and books have things in common, like their literary aspects. Films have these even though they aren’t literature. One literary aspect of this film was the plot. It had a very interesting plot that made it a very climactic movie. There were twists and turns that made you want to keep watching. The characters also made the movie good. Most of the characters in it had a different opinion on whether Ramón should die or not. This created conflict within the characters, which made them clash a lot. Manuela, Rosa, José, German, Javier, Padre Fransisco, and Hermano Andrés all want Ramón to stay alive and they really don’t want to help him commit suicide. On the other hand, Julia, Géné, Marc, and Santiago all support him and would help him die if it was legal. Another literary aspect was the setting of the film. It was important because it was by the sea, which was a major symbol of the film. It was also in the countryside of Spain, so they were probably also very conservative in their view of pro-life or pro-choice. Spain is very Catholic, and the Catholic view is that assisted suicide is a complete sin. If they hadn’t been in Spain, they might’ve had a different opinion, so there wouldn’t even be a movie. There would be no conflict in it. The literary aspects are important to this film, because the film would be completely different without them.

But, there were also many cinematic aspects to the film that are unique to just movies. Like the music used in it. one example that I liked in the movie was when he was ‘flying’ to the sea, over the villages and mountains. There was a beautiful, very famous aria playing during the shot. It is beautiful, but it also makes the viewers feel sentimental and sad, which is what the writers wanted us to feel in this scene. It’s when Ramón is flashing back to when he dived into the ocean and became paralyzed. The viewers are supposed to feel sad for Ramón that he can no longer swim in the ocean, let alone go to the sea. Actually, in this same scene, the camera movement, photography, and editing are also interesting. The camera doesn’t shoot one view and then cut right to the next; it actually makes the viewers feel like they are flying with Ramón. I also think that the costumes were very appropriate in this film. All the characters that made up Ramón’s family were dressed as Spanish farmers, which is exactly what they were. And all of Ramón’s lawyers, who were probably from a large city, were dressed in clothes that habitants of a large cosmopolitan city in Spain could possibly wear.

The Sea Inside and the Diving Bell and the Butterfly are two true stories that have very similar topics. One similarity between them is that they are both memoirs of men who were dying. A second (rather obvious) similarity between them is that the two main characters, Jean and Ramón, are both quadriplegics. Yes, this is very obvious, but it makes one think that their messages might be the same. But they aren’t, which leads me to their main difference. Jean is almost optimistic about the remainder of his life. He wants to live it up while he can, and tell as many others as he can that life is really worth living. He wants to live his quadriplegic life to the fullest. He still wants to wear his normal clothes, and he still wants to see his family and friends. He just wants to try and continue his normal life, even though quadriplegia is not a normal condition. On the other hand, Ramón just wants to be rid of life. He wants to live no longer. The only thing that he wants at that point in his life was to commit suicide. That is the only thing that was on his mind. And he was also very selfish about this. He would accept no other opinions about it. I believe that Jean and ramon had completely different outlooks on life, and even though they are both quadriplegic, there is no way to say their situations are the same.

I would recommend this film to people. It’s a really good film with a good message, and it really makes you think about life. Although it was much too depressing for my taste, I liked the film. Its cinematic aspects were used brilliantly, and they all made the movie beautiful and touching. The literary aspects were also used well. They made the movie climactic and interesting. If there were no different cinematic aspects, it would have been boring and would have seemed tedious. When the shots changed, it got one’s attention and made the movie really moving. Without literary aspects, the movie would have also been extremely boring and without conflict or in the plot. So, overall, it was a very good film, and I’d recommend it to anyone looking for a movie that makes you think. My last thought: was it depressing? Or maybe just thoughtful?

Tuesdays With Morrie (pgs. 139-192) Week 5, Post A

VOCAB:
1. inherent (154): Occurring as a natural part or consequence.
2. innately (155): Possessed as an essential characteristic; inherent.

APPEALS :
1. Logical: pg. 161- when Ted Koppel from Nightline comes to Morrie’s house and asks him how bad Morrie’s ALS is getting. Morrie can only move his hand half-way up his stomach.
2. Emotional: pg. 163- At the end of the interview with Ted Koppel, Morrie starts looking up towards the ceiling and almost talking to God. Many people have seen this happen to people who are dying. Even though they were not the most spiritual person during their life, at the end they just want to be connected with him and the angels.
3. Logical: pg. 172- Morrie and Mitch talk about what the perfect day would be for Morrie. Morrie would do things like talk to his closest friends, go dancing, and go to sleep in a nice warm bed. It was simple, but that is the perfect day to Morrie.

QUOTE:
“None of us can undo what we’ve done, or relive a life already recorded. But if Professor Morrie Schwartz taught me anything at all, it was this: there is no such thing as ‘too late’ in life. He was changing until the day he said good-bye” (190). The significance of this quote is that you cannot relive your life, or change anything you’ve done in the past. What’s left is the future, and enjoying life then.

THEME:
The theme of this book at its end is that once someone dies, it’s only their body that leaves the earth. Their spirit will always be here with us, it will never die.

Tuesdays With Morrie (pgs. 139-192), Week 5, Post B

23 tissues. That's how many I went through in the last thirty pages of Tuesdays with Morrie. I wasn’t crying because it was incredibly sad like he had a hard painful death. It was just such a touching ending and it was the good kind of crying. The kind where it’s just so sweet and you just can’t believe that a thing like that happened. It also made me remember about when my grandparents died and how sad I was. I remember thinking, “why did this have to happen to me? It’s just not fair.” But after reading Tuesdays with Morrie, I realized that it happens to everyone, and it’s just death. It shouldn’t scare people. It will happen to all of us, and we’ll just have to get used to it. But we shouldn’t feel like we have to avoid it either. It’s going to happen whether we get used to it or not. This thought might scare some people, but it kind of makes me feel at ease with death and facing it. I don’t feel so worried about it or awkward around the topic. Now that I’ve witnessed it and felt its grief, it doesn’t scare me. I don’t want people to be really sad that I’ve died (when I do, years from now); I want them to remember me for the good times I enjoyed in life. This is the same outlook that Morrie had, that surprised so many people. It’s changed the lives and opinions of many people since the book was written and published. This was a wonderful book.

Tuesdays With Morrie (pgs 99-138), Week 4, Post B

In this post, I will analyze the protagonist, Mitch Albom. One characteristic of Mitch is that he is afraid of death. I think the main reason for his visiting Morrie every week on Tuesday (besides seeing his old professor) is that he wants to know what death is like. He really wants to know how to deal with it, and learn from someone who is actually going through it when he visits him. I believe that once Morrie dies, Mitch will finally know how he should live the rest of his life. He will know just how to treat people when he’s dying, and he’ll know what he should do to make it not seem so bad. A second characteristic of Mitch is his materialistic beliefs. He is a sports journalist who interviews athletes that really have it all. They are rich, handsome, athletic, and have the bset things. Everyone wants to be a professional athlete. They have it all. So whenever Mitch interviewed them, he felt like the things these athletes had were the most important things to have in life. This made him always want the best car, the biggest house, the most money, when in reality, it would make him no more impressive to anyone else in his life. The athletes he interviewed would think no differently of him, and people with not quite as much money as him wouldn’t look up at him as a role model, they would think he was a rich, stuck-up person who cares about nothing else but materialistic things. So when Mitch discussed these ideas with Morrie, Morrie told him that the material things in life are not important. The only thing that’s important is how you loved someone, what you did in your lifetime that helped others, and what you did to change the world in a good way.
I completely agree with Morrie on this. I try not to focus on the material things in life. More focus on what I’m doing and how I could be helping others have a better life. How I’m positively changing the world.

Tuesdays With Morrie (pgs 99-138), Week 4, Post A

VOCAB:
1. Detachment (pg. 119) The state of being separate or detached. The state of being separate or detached. Indifference to or remoteness from the concerns of others.
2. Inconsequential (pg. 127) of little or no importance, insignificant, trivial.

APPEALS:
1. (Emotional) -When Morrie is talking about how nothing that’s a material thing is important. I think this philosophy of life has impacted many people in their lives, changed them too.
2. (Emotional) - Mitch describes how he loves to see Morrie’s face light up when Mitch walks in every Tuesday. This happens to many people when they have a loved one sick.
3. (Logical) - Morrie tells the story about how his dad died when he was a lot younger. It’s an anecdote, and anecdotes are always a type of logical appeal.

QUOTE:
“This is our last thesis together…we want to get it right” (133). Morrie says this because it was the entire reason for Mitch Albom writing the book.

THEME:
The emerging theme of this book in the section I have just read is all about the importance of family, and being married and having a partner in life, your spouse or a really good friend.

The Diving Bell and the Butterfly Reflection

“Wow”. That was my reaction to The Diving Bell and The Butterfly. It was all I could think of. It was just so amazing! No offense to any of our past English teachers, but the books they have chosen haven’t been all that popular among the students. But this book was different. I actually really enjoyed reading it. It was a really moving piece about how this poor man had to endure locked-in syndrome for months on end, not able to move or take care of his own self while his mind was still free as a butterfly. I really enjoy reading books like this. Memoirs of people who have really full and wonderful lives, and then have months to think about things like their life’s philosophies. They tell us that we have to make every moment count, and to not let our lives be ruined by bad mistakes and choices. Well, how are we supposed to know what a bad mistake or choice is if we haven’t heard any examples of lives like this. Jean’s lifetime seemed like a waste to him. He didn’t do things that he realized were really meaningful to him. He realizes in his last months that the important things in life are bigger than being rich, important and famous. Even though that may seem like the most important things, they really aren’t. We have to treasure everything we do, or we’ll feel like we never did anything important to us. I think that a second point Jean-Dominique Bauby was trying to tell us about was how you can be having a wonderful life, and then have it all be gone in a flash. What happened to Bauby could have happened to anyone. It really could have, even though it might not be the most common disease people get. At the moment, no one can do anything to prevent it from happening. We don’t know when it could happen. Things that are good come to an end too soon. One of my favorite quotes is, “the people we love the most are taken from us too soon”. I believe that this quote is extremely true. Because taking the people we love the most is always too soon. We will never, ever be ready for it. This quote can apply to the things we love the most, too, not just the people. I loved this book. It really makes you think. It’s not just about things happening to some person that we’ll never know. The things that happen to this certain person actually make us think about us and how it affects us personally.

Tuesdays WIth Morrie (pgs. 47-97), Week 3, Post B

Dear Mitch,

You have really written a truly amazing and moving book. I can’t believe how much it has changed my views on life so quickly. I think that it’s so cool that you stumbled across your old professor by chance on TV one night. I mean, what a coincidence! What if you had been out doing something that night, making you unable to casually flip through the channels? Would you ever have thought about your old college professor again? Would you have looked him up to go see how he was? What if that thought came too late? You would have never seen him again. Your life might be completely different right now if that had been the case. You must feel so privileged to know someone like that so closely. I would have felt so honored and lucky to know him. Morrie sounds like a truly astonishing and great guy. Have you completely changed your outlook on life because of Morrie? I think that if I had known someone like this, my whole entire life would change. I would treat people differently. I would also spend my time differently. I think that I’d spend time doing things that were really important to me, like being with the people I loved and cared about. I would also do more things on the spur-of-the-moment. I wouldn’t waste my time doing things that I could consider less important to me. From what I have read in your book so far, it sounds like you have adopted these theories too. Which makes a lot of sense; because you personally talked with the man who wished he had done that sort of thing more often. Thank you for writing this book. It has changed my view of the world already, and I’m only on page 97.

Emma

Tuesdays With Morrie (pgs. 47-97), Week 3, Post A

VOCAB: 1. Clamor (-ing) (pg. 62)-1) a loud outcry, uproar. 2) loud demand or complaint. This word is used to talk about all the people that wanted to see Morrie, to talk to him and do the things that Mitch is doing with him.
2. Exuberance (pg. 82)-the state of mind of being abundant, luxurious, and high-spirited. This word was used to describe Morrie when he was talking to a friend about how he wanted to be healthy and active when he was older.

APPEALS: 1. Emotional-(pg. 95-97). When Mitch remembers things about his younger brother, he talks about how he and his brother were completely different people. His brother was always the one that was praised even though he did things that weren’t making the best choices. Most people can think about how different their siblings are from them. It’s an emotional appeal for them.
2. Emotional-(pg. 90). When Mitch realizes that it’s the first week of September, and that this is the first time Morrie won’t be going back to his school to teach another group of new students. This is a reality that must be really hard for Morrie to deal with after going back 35 years in a row. Other retired school teachers must know just how this feels like.
3. Logical-(pg. 48). Mitch brings food to share with Morrie. He brought food because in all the years they spent together, they always enjoyed eating together. This is logical because it makes sense that Mitch would bring food to him in the early afternoon.

QUOTE: “Once you learn how to die, you learn how to live” (82). I really like this quote. It does seem a little depressing, but if you think about it for a few minutes, you realize ust how true it is. The only way to know if you lived well and had a good life is to die, because that’s the end of your life. You can’t know how well you did something or how much you liked it until it’s all over.

THEME: I think the theme of this book is pretty constant so far. I believe that it’s still how everyone needs to stop and smell the roses once in a while, not let life disappear before your eyes before it’s all gone in a flash.

Tuesdays with Morrie (pgs. 23-47), Week 2, Post A

VOCAB: 1. Tabouli (pg. 28) -- a salad of fine-ground bulgur, parsley, tomatoes, green onions, mint, olive oil, and lemon juice. This is one of the things that Morrie is having for lunch while Mitch visits him for the first time.
2. Alienation (pg. 47) – the state of being withdrawn or isolated from the objective world, as through indifference or disaffection. This term is used when Mitch is talking about how he wasted away all his time since he graduated from college, how he alienated people be burying himself in his own accomplishments.

APPEALS: Emotional appeal - pg. 44. Mitch talks of the time when he lost his job because of a strike that happened in his workers’ union. I believe this is an emotional appeal because of how many others in the world have lost their jobs because of a union strike. Emotional appeals can relate to other people and make them remember things that were traumatic and important in their lives. This was definitely an important point in Mitch’s life because without the strike going on, he wouldn’t have been able to make the time to see Morrie every Tuesday for their “life lesson classes.” And these are the whole point of the memoir.
Logical appeal – pg. 45. “I picked up the phone and dialed Morrie’s number. Connie brought him to the phone. ‘You’re coming to visit me’, he said, less a question than a statement. Well. Could I? ‘How about Tuesday?’ Tuesday would be good, I said. Tuesday would be fine.” This is logical. It makes sense. Lots of people make arrangements to meet like this.

QUOTE: “So many people walk around with a meaningless life. They seem half-asleep, even when they’re busy doing things they think are important. This is because they’re chasing the wrong things. The way you get meaning into our life is to devote yourself to loving others, devote yourself to your community around you, and devote yourself to creating something that gives you purpose and meaning” (pg. 43). I really like this quote because it talks about how people can just go around their whole entire lives and never get to do anything that they really want to accomplish because they are too concerned with going with the flow, and paying hardly any attention to the world around them. People can do that, and then I’m absolutely positive that they regret it a whole lot later in life when they’re retired or the lives are just less stressful. I don’t want this to happen to me because there are so many things I want to be able to do. But I don’t want to do them and then never appreciate the fact that I did do it, because I’d want to remember forever how I changed someone’s life by what I did. You can’t go through your life without giving something purpose and meaning. It just isn’t logical. At some point in everyone’s lives, I’m sure we all really want to do something that will make a difference in the world. Some of us live up to that, and some of us don’t. That’s okay. Just so long as it has meaning and a purpose to you. I like to think of it as, “You must change your own life before you can change the world’s.” This is part of my philosophy of life, as well as it is Morrie's.

EMERGING THEME: The emerging theme of the book at this point is pretty much just to live life up to the fullest, and don’t waste your precious time on earth by doing things that aren’t that important to you.

Tuesdays With Morrie (pgs. 23-47), Week 2, Post B

Okay. So, I know that last week for my Post “B”, I did the significance of a quote that I liked. In this section, there is another quote that I absolutely adore too. So I just had to explain its significance because I liked it so much.
Here is the quote: “The whole time I know him, I have two overwhelming desires: to hug him and to give him a napkin” (pg 31). When I read this quote, I just started laughing out loud. It was so funny that Mitch felt so differently about this teacher that he loved. Earlier in the chapter, Mitch talks about how Morrie was a total slob, even worse than he was. Mitch loved this teacher so much that he just wanted to hug him. Also that he just enjoyed his teacher’s company so much. They would even eat lunch together and go out and once in a while spend time on the weekends together. Mitch loved his teacher so much, that all he could think to do to show Morrie that was to go up to him and give him a hug. It wasn’t the only thing Mitch wanted to give him though. And Mitch knows what he’s talking about when he says Morrie is an awful slob. He eats with Morrie often, so he knows how Mitch acts at the table. He talks when he should be chewing, and many other things like that. In this situation, all Mitch can think to do is simply give him a napkin. This was an incredibly funny quote to me. You can love someone very much, but also have fun and joke around with them. If they are really that special, then they won’t mind. They will still love you right back.

Tuesdays With Morrie (pages 1-23), Week 1, Post B

“After the funeral, my life changed. I felt as if time were suddenly precious, water going down an open drain, and I could not move quickly enough” (pg 15, ch. 3). This quote appears in the part of the book when Mitch talks about his life, and what he did since he said good-bye to his old college professor. Mitch’s favorite uncle had just passed away, and Mitch realizes that he needs to do something with his life, to maybe make up for not having accomplished anything yet. This quote is one very significant to me, because, like Mitch, after my grandma’s funeral, my whole view of the world changed. I also realized that I had to do accomplish something, or else I would really regret it later in my life. I wanted to become a famous musician (Mitch surprisingly wanted this, too). But, I became realistic and decided that I could also just enjoy playing viola for the rest of my life. Because of seeing so many different examples of healthcare while my grandma was sick, I found out that I was really very interested in the field of medicine. This is what I wanted to make at living at. I found something to do with my life that would impact and help many people. Like what happened to Mitch, a funeral impacted my life in a way that I would have never expected if I hadn’t experienced loss. This is the reason the quote is significant to me.

Tuesdays With Morrie(pages 1-23), Week 1: Post A

VOCAB: 1. (page 7) ALS-Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis, a disease that slowly breaks down the nervous system so that one's muscles stop working properly. This is the disease that Morrie is diagnosed with.
2. (page 21) narcissist-someone with inordinate fascination of one's appearance, excessive self-love.

LOGICAL/EMOTIONAL APPEALS:
1. Logical appeal-(page 11). The author talks about how Morrie's health slowly started declining, how he had to start using a cane to get around. This is a logical appeal because it is a fact of life, how as people grow older, their health gets worse. They are more dependent on other people, they depend on them for normal daily life things that you and I would not need any help to do.
2. Emotional appeal-(pages 3-4). In the book Tuesdays With Morrie, there are several parts in which the author stops to describe a memory-presented as a flashback. In the one on pages 3-4, Mitch Albom talks about his college graduation day. This is an emotional appeal because many people can relate to graduating and saying their goodbyes to teachers and friends. Since many can relate to this, it's probably emotional for those people. So, if people can relate and connect to the story in some way, they will be more inclined to read it and be affected by this memoir.
3. Emotional appeal-(page 8). For anyone who has dealt with someone close having a fatal disease, they understand what it's like to feel helpless. And like I said when I found out about my grandmother being sick, "The world and everything around us just should stop so that we can deal with this and grieve about it." I believe that all people have this feeling when having to deal with something like that. People can relate to it, making it an emotional appeal.

QUOTE:
"Do I wither up and disappear, or do I make the best of my time left?... He could not wither. He could not be ashamed of dying." This is the philosophy of the book at this point. The only thing that Morrie wants is to make the best of his last months. It has great significance because this book would probably not even have been written if Morrie had had a different opinion of his looming death. This is not just significant to the meaning of the book, but also to me. The last thing that I would want in my lifetime would be withering up and slowly deteriorating. I have personally seen this happen, so I definitely do not want this. Like Morrie, I'd like to really make the most of my last days. Spend time with old friends, talk about my feeling on death, and let people know that I was not ashamed of dying.

THEME:
I think the theme of this book so far is that you should make the most of your life. One really needs to approach life in the "Life is short" sort of way.

This has been an AMAZING book so far! I can't wait to finish reading it!

Hey! My name is Emma. This is my blog for English class, where I will be reading a book called "Tuesdays With Morrie", and then posting my comments on the book on this page. I will be posting twice a week on what I have just finished reading. Enjoy!