What Faction Do You Belong To?

     With all the hype about the new movie coming out this week, I decided to read Divergent, again (yes, it's that good). The storyline follows a dystopian society in which there are five different factions. There's Erudite (the super geniuses), Abnegation (the selfless people), Dauntless (the fearless fighters who like living on-edge), Amity (those who believe that kindness goes a long way), and Candor (honesty is the best policy).  At the age of 16, everyone takes a test to determine which faction they are best suited for.  Beatrice Prior, also called Tris, is divergent. This means that she fits into multiple factions, not just one like the society she lives in wants.  She has to keep this a secret because if the government were to find out, she will be killed.  

     If I were living in this society, I believe that I would be divergent, like Tris.  I wouldn't fit into just one faction, nor would one be perfect for me.  I try to be at least a little bit of all the five factions.  Most of the time I try to be honest, selfless, nice, smart, and brave.  But, if I had to chose one, I would pick Abnegation.  They don't have the best reputation in the book, but I still like the fact that they help people and put others first.  In this faction, I wouldn't be forced to be kind to everyone. I mean, we all know at least one person that needs to be told off at times.  I wouldn't be forced to tell the truth 100% of the time, and sometimes that's for other people's good.  Abnegation wouldn't force me to be constantly studying and have no life.  I wouldn't be forced to fight people for the fun and thrill of it in Dauntless.  

     As the great Marcus said, "In our factions, we find meaning, we find purpose, we find life" (Roth 43).  If you lived in the world of Divergent, what faction would you choose to belong to and why?

     

Why I Dropped The Book Thief

     There are so many reviews on amazon that rave about how amazing this book is.  "My own words escape me as I try to recount the beauty of this book in a short review" (Tamela Mccann). "I will tell you that this is an astounding book, a beautiful book, and a book that I know I will read again and again" (N. Gargano). "If you only read one book this year, read this one" (B. L. Medford). Because of all these reviews and the movie that had just been released, I decided to pick up this book.  

     Don't get me wrong, this book is a really good book about the holocaust.  Its just not my taste.  I've never really been interested in history, no matter what the event was.  I get it, you have to know what happened so history doesn't repeat itself.  But it still doesn't interest me.  I can sit through one history class a day and be fine, but when I go home and read about it, it just doesn't happen.  I find myself thinking about other things, then not knowing what happened at all in the book.  I think I have fallen asleep reading this book three or four times.  

     When you think about the overall meaning and events that happen in the book, it's actually really good.  Like I said before, it's just not my style.  This book touches on a lot of the harsh conditions and a lot of the events that happened in Germany during the holocaust.  It has a good lesson, and is presented in a really unique way.  Instead of being in the point of view of a Jew, it is narrated by Death, which you don't see much even in fantasy or other kinds of books.  The beginning of the book is really slow, then it picks up a little, then it goes back to being slow.  The second time around of nothing exciting happening, I decided I just couldn't do it anymore.  Sorry, Markus Zusak.

     Historical fiction is just not my thing.  Who knows, it could be yours.  Don't let me stop you from reading this book.  

Blog Reflections

This trimester, I barely read one book.  I am not much of a reader, and my goal was one, so I did meet my goal.  Goodreads wasn’t much of a help to me, to be honest.  I already knew what books I wanted to read.  I felt that it was just one more thing that I had to update and keep track of.  The recommendations that I was given didn’t seem interesting to me at all.  I liked blogging though.  I liked being able to read about other people’s books and what they’re reading to gain suggestions.  

Finding time to read was a struggle for me.  As I stated earlier, I am not much of a reader.  I have other activities that, in my mind, take priority over reading.  I knew that I had to read, so before bed instead of watching Netflix or some other distraction, I would take that 20 minutes to read.  This got easier for me as the book progressed and got more interesting.  Then, I found myself wanting to read.  I started reading for longer periods of time.  

One strength I had while blogging was finding things to blog about.  I think this is partially because I had such an interesting book.  There was so much going on in it, and I sometimes had a hard time narrowing my posts down to just one topic or event happening in my book.  

I think the quality of my writing has increased.  In my earlier posts, I hadn’t voiced my opinion in much that I was saying.  In my later and most recent posts, I have been telling my thoughts on certain things that have been happening in my reading book.  For example, in my post The Book Thief Storyline So Far and Prediction, I just told the reader of my blog about what was happening.  I said, “The part of the story that I am at now, is when the narrator is explaining what Liesel is doing and the struggles that she is facing at school, home, etc.”  This quote that I pulled from one of my posts tells us what is going on in the story, but it doesn’t go into much depth.  It is just a vague overview of that part of the story.  I didn’t say anything about what Liesel is actually going through or what my thoughts are about this part of the story.  Looking back on this post, I don’t even remember what those things that she was struggling with are, and I won’t be able to remember them unless I go back and reread because I was so vague.  In my later points, I have been getting better at adding more detail on what events happened, and as well as my opinion on what has gone on.   In my post entitled The Best Things About the Book Thief, I voice my opinion on certain topics, provided solid evidence of conflict in the book (through a quote), and gave a summary of what has happened.  

The Best Things About The Book Thief

In my opinion, The Book Thief is a really good book.  I really like the idea of the narrator being death (even though I haven't been officially told this in the book), and how it takes a really dark time in history and makes it humorous but serious at the same time.  I really like how the author chose to have it about the family that took a Jew in, not your typical Holocaust book, written about the actual Jew.  I think it is a great book to really learn about both sides of the story.  The author does a good job of explaining how dangerous the situation is for these characters. 

On pages 204, it tells us about how dangerous this situation is.  "'Next.'  He had to remain hard, and he needed to strain for it.  'They'll take you away from me.  Do you want that?'  She was crying now, in earnest. 'Nein.'  'Good.'  His grip on her hand tightened.  'They'll drag that man up there away, and maybe, Mama and me too- and we'll never come back.'  And that did it."

I really like this quote because it tells us the reality of what will happen to the characters if they are caught, in a serious tone, and it's easy for the reader to understand.  The first part of the conversation started with Papa telling Liesel that he will burn her books if she tells anyone.  It starts off not as serious, then when the harsh truth come our about what is to come for their family if they're ever caught is really shocking for Liesel and she is able to understand that she really can't tell anyone.  It allows for a lot of suspense for what to come in the remainder of the book. 

Vocabulary

Since this book takes place in Nazi Germany during WW2, the characters don't speak English at times.  Some of the dialogue in the book is written in German, then it has the translation usually in the next two or three sentences.

Most of the words that are in German in the book are cuss words, but sometimes they're not.  For example, a word that isn't a cuss word in the German language is "Mein Kampf" which translates to "My Struggle" and it it also the book that Hitler wrote.  (To learn more about this, look at one of my earlier posts about the historical references.)  Other German words that are used in The Book Thief are "schimpferei" which translates to "scolding" and "Führer" which translates to "leader" and in modern days is more commonly associated with Hitler.

Although there are some German words in the book, I do not think that the book is a difficult read, vocabulary wise.  I am able to understand what is going on most of the time, once I got past the beginning and introductory parts of the book.  So far, it is a really good book, and I would recommend it to anyone interested in historical fiction.  

Blizzard Bag Assignment

In my reading, Hans Hubermann has just taken in a Jew.  This arises some questions about who knows what, and I can now make some more predictions about what will happen in the remainder of the book.  For example, does Mama knows what Hans is doing?  Does Liesel know?  If she does, does she understand how dangerous this is for her and her family?  I can now make predictions, too.  I think that if the family doesn't already know, they will find Hans sneaking food to the Jew.  Liesel will hate Hitler even more for what she is doing to this innocent Jew, and they might get caught, or they might get away with it.

I do not have any questions about Romeo and Juliet.  

The Book Thief- Update

Since my last post, I have read some more in The Book Thief.  It is a really good book so far.  I am a little under halfway done with the book, and can't wait to read the rest.  Liesel has just gone to pick up the washings from the mayor's house, where he lives with his wife.  In a previous chapter, Liesel stole a book from a burning of all the books.  The mayor's wife saw what she was doing, but didn't say anything.  Then, one day when Liesel was picking up the washing alone, she was invited inside.  There, she looked at a huge room with lots of book cases filled with books.  The mayor's wife wasn't going to say anything to anyone about her stealing the book, which is a relief.  I can't wait to read more about Liesel's future visits to the mayor's house and to see if she lets her keep any of the books.