Journal Entry #1
I chose Among The Hidden by Margaret Peterson Haddix for a couple of reasons. First of all, I read the book and the summary really did catch my attention because it’s a very interesting and different story as described. I found it interesting because I was curious right away just by reading the summary in the back, I had so many questions like for example, what would Luke and his family ever do if the population police came to detect their home? Will Luke and Jen be able to come out of the shadows? Will a time come when the shadow children don't have to hide anymore?. The summary really captured my attention and made me want to read this book about these unusual children who aren't supposed to even exist. Another reason I wanted to read this book was because of the genre, by reading the back and looking at the cover I recognised this book as a
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The majority of the books I have read in the past fall under this category, I enjoy reading books that have the genre of young adult fiction because the characters are usually developing and becoming more mature along with the book and young adult fictions always have a sense of reality even though it's a fiction book. This books reminded me of one of my all time favourite book called The Hunger Games series. By reading the book and recognising the genre I realised that this book was going to be similar to the hunger games because they both have the dystopia genre in common . In both books, the main characters are both living under the horrible laws of their government without happiness or joy. Therefore I chose the book because the story appealed to me and made me want to learn more about the
I read a book about the Boston Massacre the was originally named the bloody massacre. The amount of killed persons is generally accepted to be 5 people. The Fifth of March is a 1993 novel about the Boston Massacre (of March 5, 1770) by historian and author Ann Rinaldi, who was also the author of many other historical fiction novels such as Girl in Blue and A Break with Charity. This book is about a young indentured servant girl named Rachel Marsh who finds herself changing as she meets many people, including young Matthew Kilroy, a British private in the 29th regiment.
Deborah Tannen’s essay, “There Is No Unmarked Woman”, explores the idea of “marked” and “unmarked” words, styles, titles, and how females have no ability to choose an unmarked position. She also posits that “The unmarked forms of most English words also convey ‘male’” (88). Tannen is incorrect in her premise because females are able to choose unmarked hair and clothing styles, many unmarked forms of words no longer convey “male,” and men are marked just as often as women.
To begin, it is evident today that teenagers love being connected with their friends and family all at the tip of their thumbs. They love texting. According to a study by Amanda Lenhart, 88 percent of teens use a cell phone or smart phone of which 90 percent of them use text message. An average teen sends 30 texts per day. (Lenhart) As shown in this study, teens have easy access to text messaging. In her Ted talks called “Texting That Save Lives” and “The Heartbreaking Text That Inspired a Crisis Help Line,” Nancy Lublin talks about how she received disturbing text messages from young people that mentions how they’re being bullied, wanting to commit suicide, cutting themselves, and being raped by their father. She was exceedingly emotional when receiving these texts. She felt like she had to do something about it. So, with her knowledge about teens and the power of texting, Nancy Lublin created something that would help save these young kids’ lives, the Crisis Text Line. (“Texting”)(“Heartbreaking”)
Several types of societies exist in today’s world, dystopias - miserable societies of oppression- and utopias - ideal societies of political or social perfection. Dystopias are illustrated in The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury, which extensively follow the characters, Katniss Everdeen and Guy Montag, and their quests to rebel against government control. The Giver by Lois Lowry, an ostensibly utopian community, succumbs to the typical, corrupt dystopian society, where the government is in total control of every aspect of the community. Although each novel, on the surface, has a diverse plot, they share a comprehensive idea: the effects of the government on society. In The Hunger Games, the government, referred to as the capital, forces each district to select a male and a female to fight to the death, to keep the nation, Panem, in
The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451 are both great examples of dystopian fiction. A dystopia is a fictional world that takes place in the future that is supposed to be perceived as a perfect society, but it’s actually the opposite. Other things that a dystopian society might display are citizens both living in a dehumanized state and feeling like they’re constantly watched by a higher power. Dystopias are places where society is backwards or unfair, and they are usually are controlled by the government, technology, or a particular religion. The Hunger Games and Fahrenheit 451 are both in the dystopian fiction genre because the societies within them show the traits of a dystopia. Both of them also have characters that go against the flow of the normal world.
Perhaps no other event in modern history has left us so perplexed and dumbfounded than the atrocities committed by Nazi Germany, an entire population was simply robbed of their existence. In “Our Secret,” Susan Griffin tries to explain what could possibly lead an individual to execute such inhumane acts to a large group of people. She delves into Heinrich Himmler’s life and investigates all the events leading up to him joining the Nazi party. In“Panopticism,” Michel Foucault argues that modern society has been shaped by disciplinary mechanisms deriving from the plague as well as Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, a structure with a tower in the middle meant for surveillance. Susan Griffin tries to explain what happened in Germany through Himmler’s childhood while Foucault better explains these events by describing how society as a whole operates.
Imagine living in the most undesirable society, a society filled with poverty, disease, and filth, where the government watches, monitors and controls everything you do, a society in which you have no individual choice. A society where anything you think or do against the government can be punishable by isolation, torture, or death. Freedom is inexistent, and personal thought is prohibited. A society where your career and social status are pre-determined and you cannot alter it. And imagine that the government of this society did everything in its power to make you believe that this was the most ideal living situation for you. This is a dystopian society. Citizens in a dystopian society are often brainwashed or too scared to speak up against their government. Many books and novels were compiled with dystopian themes or dystopian societies in mind, and many of these books were inspired by actual facts and individuals. Now this brings up the question; does the dystopian genre reflect real world problems? The way I will be formulating the structure of my statement will be with three different books; Hunger Games, The Giver and 1984. Every single one of these books is set in the future, in which society has drastically changed and the way of life is extremely dreaded.
Ann Rinaldi has written many books for young teenagers, she is an Award winning author who writes stories of American history and makes them become real to the readers. She has written many other books such as A Break with Charity, A Ride into Morning, and Cast two Shadows, etc. She was born in New York City on August 27, 1934. In 1979, at the age of 45, she finished her first book.
Rebecca Krefting (2014), “an Associate Professor of American Studies, affiliate faculty to Gender Studies, and Director of the Media and Film Studies Program” (Skidmore), wrote an article called “Making Connections.” Krefting (2014) explains the connections between comedy and people, listing the reasons the world can build “Cultural Citizenship” through “charged humor” (p. 17-18)
Fahrenheit 451 is a perfect book to show the element of dystopia. People weren’t allowed to read, causing them to loose such valuable knowledge they need to make wise decisions. They also had no say in the government, the government regulated so much that they didn’t even let the people have opinions. Everybody had to be the same, and everybody was living in a horrible fantasy. People can’t communicate because there isn’t anything to talk about. They are all also tied up so much in their technology that they feel it’s their family. People need to be more aware of their surroundings and let others run their life as long as it doesn’t put someone else in harms way.
Most dystopian young-adult fiction that has been published within the past few years follows a similar formula. Divergent and The Hunger Games in particular are two book series that have striking similarities in the way the authors have set them up. They both take place in a future version of the United States run by a corrupt government, but they contain differences in the exact location and who runs the government. On the outside, the main characters appear very similar, even though there are some apparent differences after the reader gets to know both. In both of the series, the characters are split up into important groups that will determine how they live most of their lives, though they enter the groups in different ways. Divergent and The Hunger Games both have unique qualities, but the general outline of the two series is similar enough to attract the attention of readers who have already read and enjoyed one of them.
Cohen’s grandfather, despite being unable to hear and speak, lived a pleasant life filled with compassion, happiness, and humor throughout. Because Cohen could not communicate verbally with her grandfather, it appears that in the past, Cohen may have viewed his deafness as an inconvenience. In “Words Left Unspoken,” Leah Cohen, with sensory imagery conveys the successful methods her deaf grandfather utilized to communicate and the lingering regret she has over her inability to speak to him before his death.
In Sophie's World, Jostein Gaarder teaches philosophy and it explains basic philosophical ideas better than any other reading book or textbook that I have ever read. The many philosophical lessons of the diversified thinkers of their own time were dexterously understood. The author has a wonderful knack for finding the heart of a concept and placing it on display. For example, he metamorphoses Democritus' atoms into Lego bricks and in a stroke makes the classical conception of the atom dexterously attainable. He relates all the abstract concepts about the world and what is real with straightforward everyday things that everyone can relate to which makes this whole philosophy course manageable. ''The best way of approaching philosophy is to ask a few philosophical questions: How was the world created? Is there any will or meaning behind what happens? Is there a life after death? How can we answer these questions? And most important, how ought we to live?'' (Gaarder, Jostein 15).
Eva Hoffman’s memoir, Lost in Translation, is a timeline of events from her life in Cracow, Poland – Paradise – to her immigration to Vancouver, Canada – Exile – and into her college and literary life – The New World. Eva breaks up her journey into these three sections and gives her personal observations of her assimilation into a new world. The story is based on memory – Eva Hoffman gives us her first-hand perspective through flashbacks with introspective analysis of her life “lost in translation”. It is her memory that permeates through her writing and furthermore through her experiences. As the reader we are presented many examples of Eva’s memory as they appear through her interactions. All of these interactions evoke memory, ultimately through the quest of finding reality equal to that of her life in Poland. The comparison of Eva’s exile can never live up to her Paradise and therefore her memories of her past can never be replaced but instead only can be supplemented.
“Dystopias usually exaggerate contemporary social trends and in doing so, offer serious social criticism” (Burnett et al 77). It allows us to see the seeds of destruction in our own society from an outside or more removed perspective. While the depicted failed societies can seem hopeless, they represent hope in our own society. Recognizing a similarity between a dystopian society in a novel and our own society provides us the opportunity to change the direction which society is going.