Reading Response on "The Pact"

          The suspenseful book The Pact by Jodi Picoult the main characters are Emily Gold and Christopher Harte. Both of them grew up together because they were neighbors and both of their parents were really good friends. Christopher was only a few months older that Emily. When Emily was thirteen, Christopher and her relationship evolved into something more that just friends. Right before both of them were going to apply to college Emily got pregnant but she didn't tell Christopher. She thought that this baby would get in the way of her dreams and Emily was the kind of person who wanted to have everything perfect. When she figured out that the baby would not let her be perfect and make her not go to college, she started to have suicidal thoughts. She knew that if she told Christopher he would want to marry her but she still wanted to go to college. Then she told Christopher that she didn’t want to live and he didn’t take it seriously at first but then he kept on trying to convince her to change her mind. At the end he left her to kill herself but he never heard the gunshot and then to keep her happy she told him to help her do it. Christopher gets charged of murdering Emily and most people think that that’s the truth but it’s not. Prior to this blame Emily’s and Christopher’s parents’ friendship breaks.  The author tells this whole story by telling one part from the present and then one part from the past. The way she does this makes the story even more fascinating.

            Jodi Picoult starts from the time that Emily dies than starts from their. After one chapter she includes a chapter from when Emily and Christopher were born. She went on like that throughout the entire book. Some of the chapters from the past were relevant to what was happening in the present. Along with that she kept on changing the perspective. This let you guess what was going to happen at the end and made the story even more suspenseful. All of this suspense was only because of the way Jodi Picoult wrote the book.

            That’s why this book was so interesting. The way the author wrote the book made you not want to stop reading. I wonder what path the author would’ve taken if she made Emily not die? Would she write the book in a whole different way?

            

Response on "House Rules"

         The astonishing novel House Rules by Jodi Picoult is about how one autistic boy, Jacob, goes through his life and how the people around him do too.  At age 18 Jacob gets convicted of murdering his tutor Jess Ogilvy. He doesn’t tell the truth to anyone because he thinks it could lead someone close to him to get into trouble and he probably doesn’t want that. He copes with everything but he doesn’t tell the truth but he avoids the truth. The way the author crafts the novel the story has a greater meaning and plot.

           The author separates the chapters into people with different perspectives of the whole stories. Those characters tell the story from their perspective and their emotions. Some secrets about the case are revealed throughout the story throughout the perspectives of many people. At the end the truth comes out to be nothing to do with murder and Jacob isn’t convicted guilty and neither is anyone close to him.

            The story tells you about the experiences of the people around Jacob throughout the whole novel. The author crafts it in such a way that the truth won’t be revealed through the same person who is trying to hide the false truth. It comes out of the person who is trying to hide evidence of being involved in the case.

Reading Response on Am I Blue?

People rush to figure out who they are in life. Are they straight or are they gay? Most of them are pressured by society who thinks they are gay. Inside the person is perturbed and doesn’t even know what they are themselves. They rush to make decisions and most of the time they try to avow to  themselves they are straight so that they won’t get pressured but sometimes the truth is that they are gay. They preclude the thought that they might be gay. Later on in life they know they made the wrong decision and they struggle inside themselves when people who are gay are taking the right path of their lives. In Bruce Coville’s short story Am I Blue?, the reader learns that you can and should take your time to figure out who you are even under all the societal pressure.

            The main character in Am I Blue?, Vince is the main character who is perturbed whether he is gay or straight. One day he gets bullied by Butch Carrigan and then he meets his fairy godfather who is Melvin. Melvin shows Vince how there are other people in this world who are gay. Through all of this, Vince’s status comes up a couple of times. At one part in the beginning it says, “ ‘Me being your first case. Does that mean I’m gay?’ I didn’t mention that I had been trying to figure out the same thing myself for about a year now.” This quote means that Vince is confused if he is gay or not. Later on in the story towards the middle it says, “ ‘Gaydar,’ said Melvin, stirring his coffee. ‘Automatic sensing system that lets you spot people of similar persuasion. A lot of gay guys have it to some degree or other. If it was more reliable, it would make life easier on us—’ I interrupted. ‘Speak for yourself.’ ” This means that Vince doesn’t want to accept that he’s gay because he doesn’t even know himself yet.

            So finally everyone should take time to figure out who they are before they make conclusions like Vince learned not to do. Vince went from rushing to figure out what he was to learning to accept whatever and whenever it comes to him. The reader learned to mainly take your time to figure out who you are and accept what comes to you. Like at the end of the story Vince’s thought was, “I’ve decided to save it when I really need it— m­­­aybe when I meet the girl of my dreams or Prince Charming. Whichever.”



Revision on "Drummer Boy of Shiloh" Essay

           In “The Drummer Boy of Shiloh” by Ray Bradbury, Joby is the drummer boy who we think ran away and joined the army. He thinks about hiding in the peach orchard and staying until the soldiers to the battle at dawn. He thinks about doing this because he is scared that he won’t return alive. The general finds him and speaks to him and changes his mind so that he chooses to go to battle and feel confident about it. Bradbury shows the reader to face life with faith and courage even when it’s most difficult.

          In the story Bradbury shows how Joby didn’t have courage in the beginning but after the General talked to him he had faith. In the beginning Joby thinks, “If he stayed very still, when the dawn came up and the soldiers put on their bravery with their caps, perhaps they might go away, the war with them, and not notice him living small here, no more than a toy himself.” Then the General says, “But if he beat a sure, steady, ever fast rhythm, then, then, their knees would come up in a long line down over that hill, one knee after the other, like a wave on the ocean shore.” That’s when Joby was completely convinced and knew that he a purpose to go to the battle. When the general asked, “You’ll run them through for me then, boy?” In response to what the General asked Joby gestured as Bradbury described, “The boy nodded mutely.”   He prepared himself, with faith and courage, for the morning when he would leave with the other soldiers to the battle.  

          So, Bradbury showed how Joby went through not having any courage and faith before the General gave him a talk. Then after the General gave him a talk he completely accepted the fact that he had to go to battle.  He showed how even though it was going to be a scary time they should all have faith in what they were going to do and enough courage to do it.

Response on "A Thousand Splendid Suns"

In “A Thousand Splendid Suns” by Khaled Hosseini Laila one of the main characters goes through a harsh time in Kabul. Before she even turned sixteen she lost everything to a war. She lost her brothers who died fighting in the war. She lost her friends where one got married and left and the other got blown up by a rocket. She lost her love who left with his family to somewhere safer. When she and her parents were about to leave a rocket fell on her house her parents died but she survived. Rasheed, a neighbor, found her and took her in. After she got better he tricked her into thinking that her love died. Then he asked to marry her. Since she was so sad, she said yes. Rasheed's other wife, Mariam, didn't approve of Rasheed marrying again but she couldn't do anything because Rasheed was very arrogant. Laila suffered through her married life with beating after beating. Laila changed from the beginning of her married life to the end.

In the beginning of Laila's married life, Laila didn't really say anything against what Rasheed said. When Laila, Mariam, and Laila's daughter Aziza tried to run away from their horrible life they got caught and were taken back. Rasheed gave each of them a good beating except Aziza. Laila couldn’t say anything or do anything but, that changed by the end of the book.

In the end of Laila’s married life, Laila spoke up against Rasheed and went against what Rasheed did too. When Rasheed didn’t have any money anymore after buying his son so many things he gave Laila the idea to send Aziza on the street and make her beg. When Laila snapped at Rasheed and told him that she won’t let her daughter turn into a street beggar Rasheed go angry. He smacked Laila in her face. Something that was very new was what Laila did next, she punched Rasheed in the face. Even though that didn’t stop him from hitting more at least she acted back.

            So that’s how Laila changed from the beginning to the end of her married life. When her married life was coming to an end she found out that her first love, Tariq, was still alive and that Rasheed tricked her into thinking that he wasn’t. One day Rasheed was beating Laila and Mariam killed Rasheed. Mariam turned herself in and Laila got married to Tariq. Laila learned to speak against what’s wrong.

Reading Response On "A Long Walk To Water"

               In "A Long Walk To Water" by Linda Sue Park Nya, one of the main characters, has to go through a lot of tough work. She has to walk back and forth all day from the pond and back to her house to get water for her family. She does this every day of the year. This shows everyone how so many people have so many hardships to go through everyday. 

                Nya has to walk to the pond and back to times a day everyday. Here we can't even imagine that because we live in the city and get water out of the faucets. We have to consider though that there are people out there who do this everyday instead of going to school and hanging out with friends like we do here. Nya has that lifestyle in Sudan. She's been doing getting water every day for eight hours straight. Eight hours of walking may not sound that bad but it actually really is when you hear that she's walking barefoot over sharp things and that she's carrying a container filled with water on her head. She's beginning to teach her little sister what she does so that when Nya won't be able to fetch water anymore at least her sister will be there.                                                                                                                                                       Nya had to go through this every single day of her life starting when she was a little girl and she might have to do it for the rest of her life. There are some people who help these people who struggle to feed their own family every day. Nya was just one story about this topic that the author wrote based off of a true story.