Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Never Getting to Build the Glass Castle...

To be honest, recently I've been having trouble finding good books. I asked Ms. Robbins to find me a good book. Every time I ask Ms. Robbins for a book, she gets really angry, but she always comes through with the best books. The last one she recommended is The Glass Castle. This book was amazing in multiple ways, and has made it into my top five in the world.

To sum it all up in a paragraph, this book is this lady named Jeanette's memoir, recapping her entire life. The whole twist to the book is that it revolves around her parents, not her. And when I say her parents, I mean her dad Rex. Her entire life revolves around him. He is a complete genius, in every way, except for the fact that he's a lying, cheating, tax evading, alcoholic. He makes promises he cant keep, and when bills pile up, he has his family do the "skiddadle," meaning they run away from the tax collector.

The difference between Jeanette's parents, and most people parents, is that they don't play by the book. They have a complete opposite view of the world, and impose this on their child.

When thinking about this, the first thing that came to my mind was Cuba. I know it sounds like something random to think about when reading a book by an american, non political author, but it makes a lot of sense. Fidel Castro calls Cuba a communist society. The thing with communism is that with the right leaders, it would work out just fine. Cuba is supposed to be a government of the people. The only problem is, Fidel Castro is a dictator, and he rules Cuba like he's a king.

Jeanette and her siblings are Cuba, and her parents, especially her father, are Fidel Castro. He thinks his kids should be wild and free, but at the same time keeps a chain on them. On one hand I feel bad for Jeanette, but on the other I feel bad for Rex. He can't help his addictions, and he can't control his anger.

This is why I think people should stay by the book, because it benefits the whole.

Monday, February 7, 2011

All Star Mentors: The ones that lack but succeed

Molly Dore in Ms. Rear's class post about the book "The Dear One" had it's ups and downs. The only problem I found with it was that it was stuck in one paragraph land. Other than that, it was a great post. She talks about how everyone in life shouldn't be so judgmental. I liked how she said "So what I've learned from experience and even more from the story is give people a chance and don't be judgmental."

Dante Deblasio's post is pretty epic. Once again, in one paragraph land. But other than that, it was amazing. It made me laugh so hard when he talked about how why they shouldn't have published it. I haven't read it, but I guess I'll have to now because of how articulate he was about it.

Casey Gallagher's post really inspired me to look at art. It was perfect in many ways. He had the right amount of paragraph organization, and it was meaningful. It was really well described. Great job Casey