Wonder

     I've decided not to read the Divergent series a fourth time, as much as I want to (shocker, right?).  Instead, I've decided that I'm going to read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.  At the end of last trimester, we shared our favorite books that we had read so other people could find books that they might enjoy.  This book was shared with our class, and I thought it would be a really interesting book to read. 

     Wonder is about a boy, August Pullman, who was born with a facial deformity. He's been sheltered his entire life, up until the beginning of the book.  August is a good kid, he's just never been able to fit in.  Will he be able to make friends?  Will the people around him accept him for who he is, despite his face?  I'm excited to find out.

Tris Prior

     Let me just start out by saying that if you haven't read all three books in the Divergent series, and you plan to, stop reading now.  This post will spoil the ending for you, and trust me, you won't see it coming.

     In the start of Divergent, Beatrice was going on and on about how she wasn't selfless enough for her current faction.  She thinks to herself at the dinner table one night, "I am not sure I can live this life of obligation any longer.  I am not good enough" (Roth 35).  So, as we all know, she switched to Dauntless.  Sure, at that time she wasn't acting selfless, and it didn't come easy to her to help total strangers.  But by the end of the series, I think it's obvious that this is not true at all.

   

Tris helping Four through his fear landscape.

In the first book, she helps Four get through his fear landscape.  This was only a small act of selflessness, but it's where it started.  Even though it got a little bit uncomfortable for her, she still put him first and made sure he made it through the landscape okay.

     At the end of the first book, Caleb and Tris go to the compound where the attack was being controlled at.  She doesn't want her brother getting hurt so Tris goes into the control room, not knowing what was in there, and finds Tobias running the whole simulation.  She tries to snap him out of it, but she can't.  Tobias attacks her, and is about to kill her.  She accepts this, and right before she was about to die, Tobias fights the serum off and realizes what he's doing and stops.  The fact alone that she didn't let her brother go into the control room to make sure nothing happens to him, is enough proof of her selflessness.  Then, when she is willing to let Tobias kill her, so that she doesn't have to hurt him, is another selfless act.

     In the second book, Insurgent, Jeanine wants to run tests on all the Divergents. To get their attention, she makes people commit suicide unwillingly, by using a serum.  Tris decides that she can't just let lots of people die, so she turns herself in.  She knows that she is likely going to be killed, but knowing that she's saving more people, she is willing to die.  Once again, we see her being selfless.

     Again, in Insurgent, Tris makes selfless decisions.  When the characters were rebuilding the Dauntless faction, Tris was nominated to be leader.  She saw that Tobias wanted to be a leader, and thought he would be better at it, so she turned down her nomination.  Tris then nominated him for the position.

Tris has knives thrown at her so her friend doesn't get them thrown at him.

     Let's not forget Tris's most important act of selflessness.  At the end of Allegiant, Tris walks straight into the chamber with the Death Serum, so that her brother doesn't have to.  Caleb, her brother, the TRAITOR, volunteered to do it.  But no, she couldn't let him, instead she killed herself.  No, not almost killed herself, she actually did.  The serum she knowingly walked into, killed her.  Tris Prior killed herself, for her brother.  I tried to stop myself from chucking my e-reader across the room at this point, but it didn't work.  If that doesn't show how selfless she is, I don't know what does.

Divergent or Hunger Games?

     Most teenagers have read the popular trilogy, The Hunger Games.  So when they're recommended Divergent, their excuse is, "It's just like The Hunger Games.  I don't want to read the same story twice."  No.  Just stop right there.  They're not the same, at all. 

     Let's start from the beginning.  Yes, they're both stories of dystopian societies.  Yes, the main character is a female and she falls in love with a small love triangle.  Yes, the main characters have to fight for their rights as citizens and blah blah blah.  But really, that's only the basic stuff.  The story lines are completely different.  In The Hunger Games, the government is trying to punish society for rebelling.  In Divergent, the government thinks they're doing the right thing and actually creating a better society by having the factions and separating people.  The citizens of this society think that they have a nearly perfect society.  The citizens of Panem, with the exception of the capital, know that where they're living isn't safe and their government is corrupt.  And this is only the start of all the differences in the two books.

     Tris, the main character of Divergent, is trying to figure out who she is and how she fits into her society throughout the book.  Katniss is mainly trying to survive and figure out how to get people to like her.  This is the main character difference between the two.  Personally, I think that Tris is more relatable because most of us living here in Mason don't have to fight others for our lives, but some of us may be fighting ourselves to figure out who we are, like Tris.

Here is the trailer for the Divergent movie.  

 So you can compare the two without having read them (if you've been living under a rock), here is the trailer for The Hunger Games movie.

Divergent Book Compared to the Movie

     A few weeks ago, the movie for Divergent came out.  I went to see the premier of the movie since I loooovveed the books.  I've gotta say, the movie is closely tied in with the book, which isn't a surprise.

     There are a few differences, though.  Some are major, some aren't.  For example, they cut Tris's test short.  In the book, her test includes the room of mirrors, the dog chasing the little girl, and her not choosing anything out of the choices in front of her.  This is all included in the movie.  But in the book, her test then goes on to Tris on the bus and lying to the man who asked if she knew the person he was showing her a picture of.  This part of her test did not make the movie.  I feel that this was a significant part that was cut, since it shows that she wouldn't fit into the Candor faction.

     Another thing that was cut from the movie was when Peter stabbed Edward's eye during the night.  I'm not saying I'm upset this was cut, since that would've been really gross to see on a big screen.

     Also, in the books Christina and Will ended up dating.  Then, when Tris kills Will (SPOILER ALERT), Christina doesn't forgive Tris for a long time.  In the movie, Christina and Will's relationship isn't a part of it.  That's going to make it interesting to watch the second movie since Christina and Will weren't as close, Christina probably isn't going to be as upset when she finds out Tris killed him.  This will effect a huge part of the story, because for half of Insurgent, Christina is mad at Tris.

     These are the major differences that I noticed while watching the movie.  Although it seems like they are a lot different, they aren't.  Here is a scene from the movie that is extremely close to the way the scene happens in the book.  This clip is a love scene between Tobias and Tris, so if you don't like that stuff, sorry.

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.