March Book Club- Fahrenheit 451 Post- Reading

      I think all Dystopic societies that appear to be Utopic are never good. There's always some kind of catch, there might be handicaps, punishments, executions, or rules where people have no say in anything. I think the worst kind of "Utopic" society would be the kind where you are so falsely happy, that you don't recognize the government's oppression on you.
 
 In my opinion, I would rather be told that I have no choice of my own, opposed to being so falsely happy that I have no idea of what's going on. What the government is doing to their people in this kind of society is brainwashing them so that they will obey the rules, while being tricked into thinking it's "the good life". Another reason this is such a bad kind of society is because people have no say in the kinds of laws that the government enacts or who's in charge, this could be bad for the people in the society. This could also lead to downfall of the community and maybe even the government itself.
     The book I read this month was Fahrenheit 451. In this book, I think the society was mixed between the people being falsely happy and them being told what to do. In the beginning of the book, Guy Montag was talking to Clarisse (a 17 year old girl that lives next door), she asked him if he was happy with his job, or in general. He answered by saying "of course", and "why wouldn't I be?". Later in the book, he starts think about what Clarisse asked him. He decided that he was not happy. This book never really talks about or explains any kind of government. They are told though that things like books and newspapers are not to be read. This could give people ideas about what times before this were like. If anyone does have books, the firemen are told to go to the house and burn it along with all of the books. The person who has the books is usually executed somehow. Some people choose to burn with their books because they don't want to be pressured anymore like they already are. This book is set in the twenty- fourth century, and so unlike now firefighters are sent to start fires instead of put them out. Both of these kinds of societies relate to other books we've read too, like Lord of the Flies, Anthem, Harrison Bergeron, and even the movie Antz.
     
Even though many people wish for perfect Utopic societies, we honestly can't complain because even though we have many bad things in our world, at least we aren't living in a pure Dystopic society. Thankfully we have a checks and balances system in our government that cares about us and our well being. I'll take the uncertainty of the world today over a Dystopic society any day.

Fahrenheit 451 Pre-Reading

    In my opinion, a utopian society/ perfect society will never exist. There are too many differences and  bad things in the world for this to be possible. We all wish this could be possible though. 

  If there could be a utopian society though, I would have high hopes for it. There are so many bad/ painful things in society today that everyone wants to fix. So my perfect utopian society would be made up of the wishes of others and myself. Some of those things would be, not having to deal with world-wide issues like terrorism, poverty, governmental issues, and stress about decisions that are made. One of the most important things that needs fixing (to me) is sorrow/pain. One of my biggest hopes would be that there is no death of loved ones, and anyone for that matter. Nobody likes having to deal with the death of someone they loved. Hopefully no one would have to get hurt and deal with sickness or pain. Another great thing would be for all children to get proper education, and let their families have enough money to take care of themselves and their children. That's one of the biggest issues in the world today. Some kids have to go without food, clothing, shelter, and many other things they need because their families don't have enough money to support things like that. This is very sad because we have so much to be thankful for. I know I get everything like that that I need, and even extra stuff. There's some kids who literally get nothing. This is something that would be fixed in my society. Everyone would be equal is this area. Another issue that would be fixed in my society would be that everyone gets along. These days people are always wanting to fight about something or are being mean to each other. I would like to fix this so that we are all nice to each other. If I had the opportunity to create something like this, I wouldn't be selfish about the wishes for it. If these things could be fixed, it would benefit everyone and that's the goal here. 

  So, I would love for there to be a utopian society in the world today. I think it could fix so many issues that are important to everyone. 

Post Reading The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time

For my post reading, I am choosing to write about the quote, “Time is only the relationship between the way different things change.” I think this quote not only relates to the events in the book, but everyday life in general.

                First I’m going to talk about the many ways this quote relates to the book.  The first and probably most important example is how time is what allows Christopher to find his mother. So much had changed for his mother, including their relationship. Christopher’s father told him that his mother had passed away from a heart attack. He believed him because he had no reason not to.  When Christopher was in his father’s bedroom looking for his missing book, he found his book along with tons of letters addressed to him from his mother in London. He thought this could not be true because his mother was dead. He read a few and then his father found him and told him the truth about what had really happened to his mother. At this same time, his father told him the truth about Wellington, the dog Christopher was writing a book about. His father killed Wellington because he felt like the dog was more important his girlfriend than he was. The dog didn’t like him either so he killed Wellington to gain Mrs. Shears’ attention back. He told Christopher that he was sorry for lying so much, but after hearing all this news, Christopher didn’t trust his father so he ran away and later traveled by himself to London to live with his mother. This shows how time is the only relationship between change.

Another supporting example of this quote is how Christopher eventually found out who killed Wellington. For the first half of the book, it was about Christopher trying to solve the mystery of who killed a neighborhood dog named Wellington. He talked to many people about this but no one knew any beneficial information. Once his father found out he was investigating this topic, he became very angry with him. He took Christopher’s book that he was writing about the topic and hid it from him. Later Christopher finds out that his father had killed Wellington because of jealousy and needed attention. I think these examples best support this quote.

                This quote applies to everyday life in some of the same ways. To me, this quote mean that if you wait long enough, through all of the changes along the way, you will eventually find what you’ve been looking for. I think this is true for dealing with loss, unwanted change, love, and many other life situations.

                I really enjoyed reading this book, although at sometimes I thought it was a bit difficult to follow. I think this book taught some really good lessons that everyone can relate to.

PS: I also learned that this book was made into a famous Broadway play. J

Post Reading- The Other Wes Moore

     For my post reading, I will be responding to the statement, " The choices we make about the lives we live determine the kind of legacies we leave."
     In this book, both Westly Moore's have similar lives in the beginning. Neither of them had fathers for the majority of their lives, they both lived in bad neighborhoods, and their families had very little money. While these things weren't their choices, they made other decisions that determined their path. They were both introduced to drugs eventually. The "Other Wes" used more often than "Author Wes". While they both made bad choices, the "Author Wes" was able to turn his life around but the "Other Wes" wasn't. The "Other Wes" made a lot of bad decisions. He got into fights, threatened to stab another football player with a knife, used and sold drugs, became a father at a young age, and even shot a man.  These are some of the "Other Wes's main bad decisions shown throughout the book. The "Author Wes" made some bad choices too, (we all do) but he turned his life around by going to military school, staying clean, getting multiple good jobs, becoming a business leader, etc. The result of these boy's decisions will determine the legacies they leave behind. The "Author Wes" is leaving a good legacy because of the things he's done, and people will most likely remember him in a good way. The "Other Wes" is leaving a bad legacy because of the things he's done, and people will most likely remember him in a bad way. This is very sad that things have to be like this.
   As for me, I know I will make mistakes in my life, but I want to be a successful person who others like and want to be around. So, I hope to leave behind a good legacy for people to remember me by. I think we all do.

The Other Wes- Moore Pre- Reading

    For my Pre- Reading I'm choosing to respond to the question about what others expect of me. I think that most people have pretty high expectations of me, which is what I want. I want people to think highly of me. I want them to see me as a good, honest, kind, and dependable person.

 From my view I think people expect me to be a caring person. I am always as good to people as I can be. If someone needs help I always try to be there for them, even if all I can do is listen. People know that I am a respectful person because I always show respect towards others. This is what I want others to expect from me, I wouldn't want anything else. I think that my friends also expect me to be funny, because I always make people laugh. I like to make people laugh; it makes me feel good to see people smile. So I think people expect me to be kind, respectful, responsible, considerate, helpful, funny, and sweet, but most of all a good person and a good friend.  I think that I meet these expectations everyday. Even if I don't, it's not that I'm trying to be disrespectful... I'm just not perfect, even though we all try to be.

  So I'm glad that people have high expectations of me, it gives me motivation, confidence, and just an all around good feeling.

Black and White- Post- Reading

  For my post-reading I am choosing to write about the quote, "For better or for worse, you'll find out everything you want (or don't want) to know about this world".  This quote connects to the book and to life both in many different ways.
  In the book we all learn that the man that Eddie (white) shoots, recognizes Marcus (black) and accuses him of the shooting. Even though Marcus didn't shoot the man, he "confesses" to doing it. When he does this, Eddie's name is never mentioned. I think that by doing this the author is trying to show diversity and maybe even a little bit about how racism comes into play in this book. The book as a whole doesn't really ever come straight out and talk that much about racism and social diversity. The reason I have mentioned social diversity is because a woman also recognized Eddie from a previous stickup, and when it came time to get lawyers, Eddie was able to afford one because he lived in a higher class neighborhood with wealthy parents. Marcus lived in a neighborhood in the bad part of town with his mother and his younger sister. ( His dad died.) His family did not have any extra money to spare, this is why they started doing stickups; to get money. This is how the author hinted at racism and social diversity throughout the book. So, whether we wanted to or not we all learned something about how others in the world think about skin color, social classes, wealth, etc.
  Everyday we learn something new whether this is at school or outside of school, whether we wanted to know it or not. Sometimes these new things that we learn can be sad or scary, and some can be exciting. Some things that we eventually learn about include death, racism, war, sickness, poverty, and homelessness. In this book we learned about racism, poverty, people not telling the truth to save themselves, and sometimes even bad friends. We have all experienced at least one of these examples.
  So, no matter if you choose to or not, you will learn something new about this world every day. But when you do, don't reject it because you never know, you might learn something new about yourself.

   

Pre- Reading Black and White

For my pre- reading, I am choosing to write about "how I want to be remembered." Obviously I want people to remember me as a good person and a good friend.  Don't we all?

  I think we all want to be remembered as a good person who people liked. After we are gone, when people/friends think about us we want them to think happy thoughts, only good things. I want them to remember me as a person who respected herself, adults, and her friends. When people think of me, I don't want them to think, "oh remember her? Remember how disrespectful and rude she was?" That's not how I want to be remembered. That's why I always try to respect others and be as kind as possible to everyone. That's a good attitude to have.  I want people to miss me when I'm gone instead of them being happy that I'm gone. When my friends and peers think of me, I want them to think about how I was a good listener, how I helped them through tough times, how I made their problems my problems, how I would always support them in their (good) decisions and actions, and how I was an all around good person. That's how I want to remember my friends. I also want to be remembered as a person who tried to make something good out of every situation. Maybe some people want people to remember them as a rebel, or a person who "showed them". This might be part of the reason that we have crime, robberies, school bombings/shootings, and other bad things. Maybe these people want to be remembered as a bad person, or the first person to do something like that, thinking it will make a difference and therefore making others want to follow in their footsteps. That isn't at all me, I'm not going to do something to ruin myself just to be remembered as a rebel or criminal. None of us should, we should all strive to be good.

  So, I want to be remembered as a good person with all of the qualities I listed above, but most of all I want to be remembered as a person who loved being here, living life and enjoying it. We all deserve to feel this way. We need to cherish every moment and make it count, because we never know when we will start being remembered.