One of my least favorite reads of the summer, 'A Separate Peace' was slow and repetitive. The whole book was about two kids being friends but one hating the other because of his athletic skills. How can an author write a whole book on jealous teenage boys? It didn't make sense to me. The repetitiveness was overbearing, I felt like all the author talked about in the book was Finny's leg being broken and Gene feeling guilty about breaking it. I honestly don't have too much to say about this book.
The ending also bothered me. For Gene to apologize to Finny and then have Finny just die was horrid. You would think that Gene would be the one to be punished for his jealous actions throughout the book, but no, the good kid, who never did anything wrong, died.
Friday, August 20, 2010
The Crucible
When I first got my summer reading books, I was most excited to read 'The Crucible.' I did a report on the Proctor Family that was involved in the witch trials, so I was very excited to learn more about them in this book. I must say, though, it was a hard book to read, because of the 'play' aspect of it. It was hard to keep track of the characters, and very hard to understand their reasoning for things.
Frankly, the story is disturbing. It's one of those stories that leaves so much to the imagination that it becomes more disturbing. First off, Abigail having an affair with a much older, married mad, John Proctor, the syptoms of being 'bewitched', and the general concept of these witches and what they do are all very disturbing things.
This book was very interesting, but a very difficult read. It was slow and the concept of the witch trails, in play form, was hard to grasp.
Frankly, the story is disturbing. It's one of those stories that leaves so much to the imagination that it becomes more disturbing. First off, Abigail having an affair with a much older, married mad, John Proctor, the syptoms of being 'bewitched', and the general concept of these witches and what they do are all very disturbing things.
This book was very interesting, but a very difficult read. It was slow and the concept of the witch trails, in play form, was hard to grasp.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
The Scarlet Letter
This was a great read! It was almost chilling in parts, which is something different.
I liked this book because you can so easily relate it to alot of events in our culture today. Adultery, obviously, being the main one. It's almost odd to hear that the same thing that has happened to people like Tiger Woods and Jesse James happened way back when. It really showed me how much America hasn't changed in years.
One character I want to really focus on is, Arthur Dimmesdale. The man was crazy, if you ask me. The way that he would torture himself for his sins was insane. He was messed up. It was really surprising to learn that he was Hester's lover. I wasn't expecting it.
I really felt bad for two characters in particular during the novel: Pearl and Dr. Chillingworth. Pearl suffered so much because of her mothers mistake and had to go through public torment for a really long time. That brings me back to how much America hasn't changed. The public eye is always on so many celebrities who have 'messed up', even if it wasn't their fault for their misfortune. Pearl reminded me alot of that.
Dr. Chillingworth had no need to be treated the way he was in The Scarlet Letter. His wife cheated on him with someone much younger, while she was waiting for him to get to America! Ok, maybe she was suffering depression or something because she was missing him, but it shouldn't have been a reason to have an affair with someone else.
The best part of the novel, to me, was hearing that Hester got burried next to Dimmesdale and their tombstone just had a single scarlet letter 'A' on it. So mysterious.
I liked this book because you can so easily relate it to alot of events in our culture today. Adultery, obviously, being the main one. It's almost odd to hear that the same thing that has happened to people like Tiger Woods and Jesse James happened way back when. It really showed me how much America hasn't changed in years.
One character I want to really focus on is, Arthur Dimmesdale. The man was crazy, if you ask me. The way that he would torture himself for his sins was insane. He was messed up. It was really surprising to learn that he was Hester's lover. I wasn't expecting it.
I really felt bad for two characters in particular during the novel: Pearl and Dr. Chillingworth. Pearl suffered so much because of her mothers mistake and had to go through public torment for a really long time. That brings me back to how much America hasn't changed. The public eye is always on so many celebrities who have 'messed up', even if it wasn't their fault for their misfortune. Pearl reminded me alot of that.
Dr. Chillingworth had no need to be treated the way he was in The Scarlet Letter. His wife cheated on him with someone much younger, while she was waiting for him to get to America! Ok, maybe she was suffering depression or something because she was missing him, but it shouldn't have been a reason to have an affair with someone else.
The best part of the novel, to me, was hearing that Hester got burried next to Dimmesdale and their tombstone just had a single scarlet letter 'A' on it. So mysterious.
The Great Gatsby
After ready The Great Gatsby, I can honestly say it's one of my favorite books. I loved the mysterious elemant of the book and of course the 'love' part. Frankly, thought, this was sort of a depressing book from the love loss to the deaths.
One of the things that hit me hardest while reading this book was when Tom and his secret lover, Myrtle, are at the apartment that Tom uses for the affair and Myrtle is giving Tom a hard time about his wife, which ends in Tom breaking Myrtle's nose. For something like that to happen to a woman because of a man back in those days was just very hard for me to grasp. Did anyone else have a hard time understanding that?
The characters in this book were so well written, I felt like the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, did a great job at letting us get into the characters mind, but still leaving some of their reasoning to the imagination. The characters, though, at the begining were very hard for me to understand. I couldn't keep track of them! Who was Daisy married too? How was she related to Nick? Who was Jordan dating? It definitely took me a while to understand who was who. After I did, though, the characters reasoning for things, and their actions made total sense.
I personally think that what really made the novel great were the characters. Some may disagree, but that's really what made the novel a great read for me. I felt like I could get inside the characters brains and really contemplate what they were doing during the novel.
One of the things that hit me hardest while reading this book was when Tom and his secret lover, Myrtle, are at the apartment that Tom uses for the affair and Myrtle is giving Tom a hard time about his wife, which ends in Tom breaking Myrtle's nose. For something like that to happen to a woman because of a man back in those days was just very hard for me to grasp. Did anyone else have a hard time understanding that?
The characters in this book were so well written, I felt like the author, F. Scott Fitzgerald, did a great job at letting us get into the characters mind, but still leaving some of their reasoning to the imagination. The characters, though, at the begining were very hard for me to understand. I couldn't keep track of them! Who was Daisy married too? How was she related to Nick? Who was Jordan dating? It definitely took me a while to understand who was who. After I did, though, the characters reasoning for things, and their actions made total sense.
I personally think that what really made the novel great were the characters. Some may disagree, but that's really what made the novel a great read for me. I felt like I could get inside the characters brains and really contemplate what they were doing during the novel.
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