I am just in the beginning of "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah. I find this story so far very moving and disturbing. Before he is recruited to be in the army, Ishmael sees a woman cradling a dead baby in her arms, he sees a man coughing up blood on the side of the road, and he sees many other sights that a seven year old should never see. Seeing these horrible effects of war really affect him. He feels really sad, and sick, and he really just can't believe that the war has really reached him and his town.
I also recently heard Ishmael Beah speak about his experience being a child soldier, in English class. He talked in that and in the book about being a child soldier and killing people. How after a while killing people is not difficult anymore.
I find it very interesting that one day something can totally horrify and disgust someone but another day that same person could be doing that exact thing that disgusted them and it won't affect them at all. What changed? I guess he just... got used to it. Got used to killing humans. Or maybe they didn't really get used to it, but instead maybe when you HAVE to do something you can't let your emotions get too involved and you have to just do it, not think about what your doing at all.
On the other hand, maybe Beah and the other boys were affected every single time they killed someone. In the video we watched in class and in "A Long Way Gone", Ishmael Beah talks about how once the war ended he would still have dream about the awful things and when he took a shower sometimes all he could see wasn't water, it was blood. So maybe while it's happening you don't really feel anything but afterwards it really gets to you. It's sort of like a delayed reaction.
Sometimes I don't really think about what I'm doing, but later it really hits me, that either I did something good or bad or insane. In real life there are so many choices we have to make every single day, especially as teenagers. Whether it's just simply deciding what to wear or deciding not to do your homework, or something really big that could effect our entire life. With all these decisions sometimes we don't really realize whether we made the right decision untill later, even if it's way later, like when your an adult and your like "Damn, I really wish I hadn't worn that outfit when I was 14, I wish I had worn the other one, then I wouldn't live in Australia in the desert..."
If you have ever made a choice but didn't realize the effects of it untill after, or you just feel the urge to...COMMENT:
Wednesday, October 24, 2012
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
What Kills You Makes You Stronger?
In the novel The Lovely Bones by Alice Seboldt, main character, Susie Salmon was murdered by her neighbor Mr. Harvey. Before Susie was murdered it seemed she was a sort of shy, very smart, very nice girl. When Mr. Harvey kidnapped her she did struggle, don't get me wrong, but she didn't lose her shyness and she still was not very loud, or angry as it was going on, just... sad, and scared.
Soon after Susie enters the inbetween land between heaven and earth where she watches everyone in her life's daily lives going on without her, Susie realizes that she can communicate with her family, especially her father and her sister. First she shows her father her face in a reflection, which triggers him knowing of her watching over him. Then she leads him to Mr. Harvey's backyard, where he sees her face again and becomes quite suspicious of Mr. Harvey. Later she shows her sister that it was Mr. Harvey who had murdered her. And this causes Mr. Harvey to get caught red handed for the murder of Susie Salmon.
It seems to me that Susie became more straight-forward and began caring about things in general more when she was dead. This may sound awful, like "oh she needed to die so that she became a better person" or something, but that's not what I'm saying. I just think that dying made her realize that she had taken things for granted and made her really feel a purpose, getting the man who had done this to her.
Maybe if she hadn't died she would have "grown" in these ways anyway but maybe it takes one big thing to happen so that all the little things fall into place. Like for example, losing a best friend or someone really important to you could cause you to realize how you have been acting a certain way the entire time, and it will make you decide to work on changing that little thing about you that lost you your friendship.
If you have ever had something big happen in your life that sort of put other small pieces together...COMMENT!!!
Soon after Susie enters the inbetween land between heaven and earth where she watches everyone in her life's daily lives going on without her, Susie realizes that she can communicate with her family, especially her father and her sister. First she shows her father her face in a reflection, which triggers him knowing of her watching over him. Then she leads him to Mr. Harvey's backyard, where he sees her face again and becomes quite suspicious of Mr. Harvey. Later she shows her sister that it was Mr. Harvey who had murdered her. And this causes Mr. Harvey to get caught red handed for the murder of Susie Salmon.
It seems to me that Susie became more straight-forward and began caring about things in general more when she was dead. This may sound awful, like "oh she needed to die so that she became a better person" or something, but that's not what I'm saying. I just think that dying made her realize that she had taken things for granted and made her really feel a purpose, getting the man who had done this to her.
Maybe if she hadn't died she would have "grown" in these ways anyway but maybe it takes one big thing to happen so that all the little things fall into place. Like for example, losing a best friend or someone really important to you could cause you to realize how you have been acting a certain way the entire time, and it will make you decide to work on changing that little thing about you that lost you your friendship.
If you have ever had something big happen in your life that sort of put other small pieces together...COMMENT!!!
Tuesday, October 9, 2012
A Life or Death Siduation
In The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold, 14 year old Susie Salmon was murdered by her next door neighbor, Mr. Harvey. This event very much traumatizes Susie's entire family (as I imagine it would many families in this horrible situation). Susie's father (who was especially hurt from the passing of his daughter) was in his office thinking about his daughter as she watched him from heaven wanting very badly to tell him that she can see him and is there for him. Then he saw her face watching him just in a reflection, but it felt very real to him, and she knew that she had just for that moment broken through the barrier between them, between earth and heaven. After that moment Mr. Salmon knew that Susie was watching over him and guiding him.
I wonder if this really happens to people. I mean one of the most frequently asked questions that has no known answer is where people go when they die, not their body but their soul, their personality. And I guess once someone close to you passes away you are thinking about that question a lot and maybe it does cross peoples minds that maybe this dead person is watching you, and that's what makes them see this person. Even if the dead person (wherever they may be) is controlling you seeing them but even so it would mostly be in your head (I believe).
My grandfather passed away a couple years ago and afterwards I tried to like see his face or whatever because people always said that's what happened but I could never do it. I mean we weren't really that close so maybe that's it but I just don't really believe that if you do see someone who died it's anywhere but in your head. I mean this book is obviously fiction but I have heard a bunch of people (including my parents) say that they can just like "feel their [the dead peoples] presents" or something. I really don't know, luckily no one that close to me has passed away.
If anyone close to you has passed away (you don't have to like talk about them in detail if you don't want to) and you feel like you still have some kind of communication with them, or if you don't, or if you do believe it's possible, or you don't : COMMENT. :)
I wonder if this really happens to people. I mean one of the most frequently asked questions that has no known answer is where people go when they die, not their body but their soul, their personality. And I guess once someone close to you passes away you are thinking about that question a lot and maybe it does cross peoples minds that maybe this dead person is watching you, and that's what makes them see this person. Even if the dead person (wherever they may be) is controlling you seeing them but even so it would mostly be in your head (I believe).
My grandfather passed away a couple years ago and afterwards I tried to like see his face or whatever because people always said that's what happened but I could never do it. I mean we weren't really that close so maybe that's it but I just don't really believe that if you do see someone who died it's anywhere but in your head. I mean this book is obviously fiction but I have heard a bunch of people (including my parents) say that they can just like "feel their [the dead peoples] presents" or something. I really don't know, luckily no one that close to me has passed away.
If anyone close to you has passed away (you don't have to like talk about them in detail if you don't want to) and you feel like you still have some kind of communication with them, or if you don't, or if you do believe it's possible, or you don't : COMMENT. :)
Tuesday, October 2, 2012
The Truth About The Truth
In the story "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Caville, sixteen year old Vincent is still very uncertain of his sexual orientation. Vince is called a "fruit" by another teenage boy who seems to often pick on Vince, named Butch Carrigan. Butch pushes Vince into a puddle to "teach Vince to look at him". As Vince lies in the puddle a flamboyant man named Melvin appears beside him who Vince later is convinced is his fairy godfather after making mud disappear from his pants and turning Vince's coffee into a Swiss double mocha. Melvin tells Vince about his experiences with his sexuality and being "gaybashed". Being a fairy godfather and all, Melvin grants Vince a wish. His wish is that for one day everyone who is at all homosexual will turn blue for everyone to see. This is to show how many there are that we would never expect and how they are constantly surrounding us without us knowing and yet we have still survived. Once Vince's wish is granted, he asks Melvin as his one last wish to turn Butch Carrigan blue, but to Vince's surprise that does not count as a wish, for Butch Carrigan was already blue.
If I was Vince I would probably do the same thing, I mean first of all it would be pretty cool and interesting if everyone could tell all of the people who are gay because of what color they were, it would probably change many people's views on homosexuality and the world. And since Vince has not had good experiences with Butch of course he would want to make him blue so Butch can see how it feels and everyone will know he's a hypocrite.
On the other hand, I bet there is a reason why Butch acts that way, like maybe his dad doesn't like homosexuals and raised him to be against them and to pick on them, so maybe that's why he picks on Vince in the first place, to make his dad proud. So if Vince made Butch blue, and his father found out his father maybe would do something bad to Butch because of his opinions on gay people. So I think that just because Butch picks on Vince (which I strongly disapprove of) doesn't mean that Vince should make it so Butch is blue, because he obviously isn't ready to come out of the closet and no matter what it is Butch's choice and Vince doesn't know why Butch is keeping it bottled up inside and picking on gay kids, so he shouldn't just think Butch is all bad and do something that for all he knows could harm Butch a lot.
I feel like a lot of people often are mostly thinking about themselves and don't realize how complicated each and every person's life actually is. I recently read "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky [SPOILER ALERT] and in the book the main character Charlie's deceased aunt molested him. But Charlie isn't mad at the his aunt nor does he love her less, because he realizes that someone did that to her as a child and someone did that to whoever did that to her and so on and so on. So you can't really blame Butch, because it's probably just how he was raised and what people learn to do at home and what people learn from their parents who everyone at one point looks up to and wants to do things like, is what people usually end up doing.
If I was Vince I would probably do the same thing, I mean first of all it would be pretty cool and interesting if everyone could tell all of the people who are gay because of what color they were, it would probably change many people's views on homosexuality and the world. And since Vince has not had good experiences with Butch of course he would want to make him blue so Butch can see how it feels and everyone will know he's a hypocrite.
On the other hand, I bet there is a reason why Butch acts that way, like maybe his dad doesn't like homosexuals and raised him to be against them and to pick on them, so maybe that's why he picks on Vince in the first place, to make his dad proud. So if Vince made Butch blue, and his father found out his father maybe would do something bad to Butch because of his opinions on gay people. So I think that just because Butch picks on Vince (which I strongly disapprove of) doesn't mean that Vince should make it so Butch is blue, because he obviously isn't ready to come out of the closet and no matter what it is Butch's choice and Vince doesn't know why Butch is keeping it bottled up inside and picking on gay kids, so he shouldn't just think Butch is all bad and do something that for all he knows could harm Butch a lot.
I feel like a lot of people often are mostly thinking about themselves and don't realize how complicated each and every person's life actually is. I recently read "Perks of Being a Wallflower" by Stephen Chbosky [SPOILER ALERT] and in the book the main character Charlie's deceased aunt molested him. But Charlie isn't mad at the his aunt nor does he love her less, because he realizes that someone did that to her as a child and someone did that to whoever did that to her and so on and so on. So you can't really blame Butch, because it's probably just how he was raised and what people learn to do at home and what people learn from their parents who everyone at one point looks up to and wants to do things like, is what people usually end up doing.
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