The Great Gatsby

Well to start off, pretty much the whole time I was reading, I was thinking of the movie "Oscar" which made me laugh a lot and it also made me want to watch the movie about thirty time throughout the duration of reading this book. A great way to start off I think. I was extremely angry when Nick arranges an affair for Daisy and Gatsby!! Why on earth would you want to do that to anyone? I know I certainly wouldn't want someone to help my boyfriend cheat on me so why would I help them? I really think it is besides the point that Tom was cheating on Daisy too. What I really don't get is how George can just walk right into Gatsby's mansion with a gun and shoot him. You'd think a guy with a mansion would have body guards or perhaps a gate? There were actually a lot of parts in this book that made me so incredibly angry. Like near the end when Daisy hits Myrtle with the car and then Gatsby and Nick think Tom might want to hurt her. It was okay for him to cheat on her, but now that she has gotten rid of his MARRIED lover he might want to do harm to her. This is the time when I think Daisy should have just told Tom to shove it where the sun doesn't shine cause if he loved her so much then he should have married her instead. I was a little bit annoyed that Daisy settled for Tom. In my eyes settling isn't living. We are so afraid to meet greatness head on that we stop ourselves short. I will make a promise to myself everyday that greatness won't be something I miss.If she truly loved Gatsby then she should have married him. I think the 20's were a horrific time for women and maybe it is harder for me to understand because I live in such a time that when I voice my opinion I sure as heck know there is a man who will take it seriously and if he doesn't then he isn't much more than one grain of sand on the beach.  I just don't see how women could let men run all over them. I've watched my mom let my dad do it to her and I sure as heck won't let someone do that to me. I think there were some parts of this book that I took a lot of personal interest in and really brought out how I felt and I think maybe that's why I enjoyed it so much. I also think maybe there were some parts of the book that I read too deeply into so there were places that I didn't read deep enough because I was so hung up on one section. I suppose that is a lesson well learned. I'll remember next time that I can't only read deeply the parts that I want to just because it's easier. I feel more empowered by this book. This is by far my favorite and probably one I will read over and over again because I know it's one of those stories that puts a fire in my eyes and a boom in my voice. This sounds crazy, but this book makes me want to be a motivational speaker. The possibilities are endless on injustices I suppose. Well I have finally finished my summer readings. Bravo, Tori, Bravo.

Heart of Darkness

This was the hardest book for me to read. I have always had trouble with language and metaphors and symbolism which is something I'd really like to work on this year. This book reminded me a lot of other books and movies. "Heart of Darkness" is filled with dark emotions. I went through and circled all the times I found darkness or death and Lord knows how many times I was circling words. The part in the book when it talks about the woods being like a prison door made me think of the "Scarlet Letter" and how symbolistic the door there was. I also thought of a movie when the boat becomes surrounded by mist. My favorite line in the book was "The rest of the world was nowhere, as far as our eyes and ears were concerned. Just nowhere. " because it just seems like today that you can be anywhere in the world in a matter of hours, but never have I felt like there was no world. I don't know if it would be a hopeless feeling? Maybe a peaceful one? How do you think of yourself if there isn't anyone else? There was another part in the book that made me think of the sequoia trees in California. It's almost like "Jurassic Park" because it's so old and prehistoric.While reading about the part when Marlow sees all the people in the trees I thought of the movie "last of the Dogmen." I thought it was interesting when Marlow said it was like asking a tree not to move in the wind and I thought that would be the most hopeless feeling. It's like in school when I have the greatest idea and then I suggest it and the people I'm with just ignore me. That's like the worst feeling ever. Marlow reminded me a little of Amir because they both seem to have a moral compass that is off at one point and they try to bring them back to the right direction. I think Marlow is not so much guilty because of something in his past, but it's almost like a survivor guilt. He really did nothing wrong, but he sees others suffering and feels guilty. Overall it was an okay book. Not my favorite, but not the worst I've ever read. I suppose it's on to my last book!

The Kite Runner

I used The Kite Runner to do the how to write annotation. It was kind of hard at first, but then I realized that it was like rhetorical analysis and we worked on that forever last year so it got easier as I went. I would like to try more writing like this. The author uses short and impactful sentences to bring the reader's attention to a subject. It also can be used as a bit of a shock factor. His one sentence paragraphs are followed by longer explanations of the previous statement. The author also used a lot of dialog which is something I think I could use a lot more of in my writing. I know there are instances when dialog is unnecessary, but I think if I could utilize it in the correct situations then my writing would be much better.  The way the author uses quotes and dialog is very effective. He doesn't just use words because they are words. He uses the words to inspire feelings and really bring real world realizations to the reader's eyes. Like when he is trying to prove that Sohrab's parents are dead and he is an orphan. The man asks if he has "death certificates" and Amir thinks to himself how they can ask for "death certificates" when in fact most people in Afghanistan don't have "birth certificates."
I really thought the book was about the point of Amir trying to atone for his sins in the past. It has an internal conflict throughout the entire story. On page 275 Amir takes a deep look at who he thinks he is and he says it is okay because that's "how you were made." I think that by trying so hard to save Sohrab, he is trying to repay Hassan for what he tried to forget in the past. In the end he runs the kite for Sohrab just like Hassan ran the kite for him 26 years earlier. Overall I thought the book was pretty good, but I didn't read it for enjoyment and I think it was better that I didn't. I got a lot more of a technique experience from this book than I did enjoyment from the wonderful story telling. I thought the book told truths that are often hard to face. It reminds me a little of The Sunflower in the fact alone that guilt is a thing that often drives people to do good things. There was a lot for Amir to learn from his sins in the past and in my eyes he pushed out the internal picture of the man he had seen himself to be before and he showed himself that because of the person he was at 12 years old did not mean he had to be the same "gutless" man later. I believe that a lot of Amir's "gutless" feelings came from his father and the way he interacted with Amir as a child. Like the part in the book when Amir is so excited because he won the poetry battle against his whole class and his father only had one word to say to him. "Good." Perhaps Amir wanted to prove to his father that he was more than "good" and he could do something that would make him even prouder than he ever was before.The kite running brings a sense of innocents and a connection among all generations. It seems like his sins begin with kite running and then his redemption comes with him running the kite himself. This book really showed me how different writing could be and it showed internal looks on guilt and human interests. I suppose it's on to the next book!