Month: November 2017

A Long Day’s Journey Into Night Play Review

A Long Day’s Journey Into Night is a play by Eugene O’Neill. The play is about Mary, Tyrone, Jamie, and Edmund. These four characters are very smart and seem very wealthy. The father, Tyrone, is extremely cheap and stingy, he is a businessman that buys land and rents it out, but he gets scammed a lot by in his mind, a friend, and he is into the theater and Shakespeare. The mother, Mary, has a bunch of things that happen to her. She is very caring, but she has a troubling past of mental and drug problems. She starts showing signs again in the play of mental illness and the characters become worried for her. The older brother, Jamie, is a very interesting character. He is kind of like the mentor to Edmund and he sleeps with prostitutes and drinks a lot of alcohol. He shows a lot of signs of jealousy at Edmund, he also seems very angry. The younger brother, Edmund, is kind of like the baby in the story. He talks a lot about philosophy, writers of philosophy, poetry, poets, and he also drinks a long with Jamie. He is sick in the play and the mother worries about him, but he seems content with his sickness. Edmund has signs of being very pretentious and stuck up.

I think that the idea in this play is very good and unique. I think that the stage directions in this play is extremely well thought out and great. The stage directions throughout the play definitely add a very strong feel to the play and gives a good punch to the story. They are very detailed.

I like the idea of the story and the play is very well thought out and put together well, but I did have some problems with the story. I think that the author had so many ideas for each character that he felt he should put in, that it seems more of a grocery list of problems and characteristics. It all kind of jumbles together and dos not necessarily work with the effect that the play has ultimately. The plot is very slow and it does not seem to build up for me. It was lacking action or even intense moments in the play. When a character revealed a big thing that happened, it’s more glossed over and there seems to be no reaction or turmoil from what they revealed. The big reveals of the mom, Edmund, and Jamie did not have a big effect of a big reveal of what was happening because too many hints and reveals was scattered throughout the play. The reveal didn’t have an effect that it should have had because all of the reveal was scattered throughout. I understand that the mom is very crazy and many of the characters seem crazy, but in this play, so many things were repeated more than once. At times a character would say something to another character that they already told another character, but it was done multiple times and that specific strategy even got repetitive.

The play has a great story and it is well put together, I just feel that it lacks excitement.

 

It’s Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini book review

This is a story about a young boy who started off quite normal. He lived a normal life, his parents were still together, his sister was a smart girl, and he didn’t have any home troubles. He wasn’t bullied in school, and he had friends that he enjoyed spending time with. His best friend’s name is Aaron and he spent most of his time at Aaron’s house watching TV and smoking.

We later see his character start to transform into a boy who is struggling with depression over something that he did not understand. From what we know about him there was no real reason for him to become depressed.  Something in his mind just clicked at a party when his friend starts to date the one girl that he was attracted to. We find out later on that his problem really was a chemical unbalanced problem instead of having some traumatic story to his problem.

This story was structured and written very well. I was drawn to the story from the very first page when it starts out with “Its hard to talk when you want to kill yourself.” This really brought me in to wanting to read this story because the subject is touchy and many people especially in this day and time can relate to that in some way. I loved the idea of it being a chemical imbalance because usually people think that there has to be a reason behind being depressed, and they mark off people who have problems with depression as just wanting attention. The story also has a way of showing the characters thoughts very well. The way he talks to himself shows us the destruction of his mind slowly and we can clearly see his age throughout the dialogue he has with himself and the “army guy” that is in his head. He refers to himself as soldier and the man that is in his head seems to always push him forward into doing certain things that need to be done. The use of this gives us so much about this character and really moves the story along.

The place he is placed into when he tries to kill himself really brings more into the story. He makes new friends, and he surrounds himself with people that are like him. I think that the idea of him being where he is with the people that are like him opens him up to the idea that he isn’t as crazy as he thinks he is and shows him that he isn’t alone with his feelings.

There are so many real characters in this story. We see development of all the characters in the ward that he is in. Ranging from a character who is a sex addict to some that are really mentally insane. We also see a character who just wants to get back on his own feet, and have his own home. This was all real to me, and this book really cleared some things up to me about what depression really is.

Animal Farm Review

Animal Farm, written by George Orwell in 1945, recounts the dangerous life of farm animals on their farm. The main characters are depicted in a simple format and writing style , but the entire plot of the story alludes to the communist party/ the Soviet related events that were unfolding in Orwell’s life as he aged. (Orwell is known for being against totalitarianism).The novel’s main characters are Napoleon and Snowball (pigs), the two leaders of the animal’s revolution in the story. They first overthrow their human owner with the help of the animal’s original leader, a pig named Squealer. They overthrow  Mr.. Jones, then move to the rules of Animalism, making sure the the main rule is “Four legs, good, two legs , bad.” Everything is fine at first, but when Squealer dies and Napoleon/ Snowball come into power, the rules become unclear. All the other animals still follow, although uneasily, and they build windmills, start trading with other farms(though at first the rule stated not to); they even set up battalions to defend the farm when need be.

The pigs begin to take more power then the other animals, despite the rules telling every animal that all animals are equal. The pigs are vicious, they relentlessly work the animals until each is gaunt and sickly. One valiant horse, Boxer, nearly works himself to death. He is not rewarded, but later in the story is shipped off to be processed into glue. All the animals start to question the rules when this happens, but none fight against it. The pigs being walking upright. They are fed more food than the other animals who work more. They even sleep in beds and carry walking sticks. All of these things are prohibited; somehow, the pigs still manage to twist the rules, all because they are in power. At the end of they story, the pigs are seen trading with humans, and the other animals cannot tell the difference between the pigs and the men.

This idea Orwell was trying to create was about how twisted the socialist rulew become once put into law. He was against both capitalism and totalitarianism in any form, but he blatanly bashed the communist system in this story without actually stating it. Napolean and Snowball are allusions to the men in power during communist times while he was alive. The entire story is an allegory to the problems in the Soviet system.

I enjoyed this book thouroughly; it provided me with insight into Orwell’s mindset on communism and explained using examples the way the socialist party fell apart under aggressive powers trying to take advantage of hard- working men and woman beneath them. In communism, the people in power have an easy life and the men and women breath do not. They struggle, they survive with the bare minimum. This book, although fictional, proves the communist system to not work.

I love George Orwell and his works. He has an amazing mindset on certain things and tends to be brutally honest in his work. My next book review might even be on his story, ” 1984.”

 

The Green Mile by Stephen King

Image result for the green mile book

Stephen King’s The Green Mile is a recollection by the elderly Paul Edgecombe of his days as a prison guard. Paul was a guard for the E block of the prison, where prisoners are kept until their executions via electric chair—the floor of the E block is bright green, earning it the title of the Green Mile. Paul finds his job to be a never-ending cycle of prisoner comes in, prisoner stays, prisoner goes, etc. Lately, he has to grapple with Percy Wetmore, a young prison guard who uses connections to higher-ups as an excuse to abuse the prisoners, and Eduard Delacroix, an insane but seemingly harmless inmate with an amazingly intelligent mouse named Mr. Jingles. While Paul and the other guards think nothing of the inmates, their minds change when they meet John Coffey—a giant of a man found guilty of the rape and murder of two little girls. Though Coffey is quiet at first, the guards soon realize that there is more to him than meets the eye—a superpower, perhaps, that doubles as a curse.

As with all of his works, King has an eye for dialogue and detail. I saw every image and heard every conversation as perfectly as possible. Though the characters use expressions we don’t in reality, they did not feel out of place. And though not every moment of the book is packed with suspense and drama, I rarely ever felt bored with it. The cuts to the present-day elderly Paul calmed things down, but did not damage the overall experience, something that most past-and-present-spliced books find difficult to pull off. Delacroix, Wetmore, Coffey, and Wharton were all characters with fantastic characterizations that made them stand out from one another. The plot of the book does not have a typical point-A-to-point-B formatting. The book does not build up to something over its course; arguably, the climax of the book happens a little over halfway through, with the rest tying up loose ends.

On the downside, some of these details can border on unnecessary—one will probably tire of how often the act of urinating is detailed in this book. The first part of the book that focuses so heavily on Mr. Jingles the mouse can also be irksome to get through. And though some of the characters stand out so greatly, others, mostly the prison guards, do not. In all honesty, the only thing I ever knew to differentiate them by was the knowledge that Brutal was the tall and muscular one. That’s it.

The book gives a message that can be hard to swallow: we will all do bad things, some more than others, and how soon we will have to make up for them is unknown. Characters like Wetmore and Percy, without giving away details, exemplify true evils in humans with no remorse for their actions. Meanwhile, characters like Paul and Coffey spend much of their time questioning their choices and wondering if they have done the right thing. The ‘twist’ in the book is also well-executed, as I legitimately did not see it coming, and the smaller ‘twist’ at the end further proves the book’s message.

The Green Mile is deep, dark, and contemplative, and I’d recommend it to everyone.

The term that will turn the heads of so many Mississippians… “Y’all”

“The summer of ‘86, DeVante got jumped by two old sixteen-year-old Vice Lords from West Jackson.”(Laymon)

 

This short story by Kiese Laymon, had to be one of my good reads for the month. The story “I Mean Y’all” was one I came across on his website. Also included in the tile was the description, a “short short short story,” and the purpose of me reading it was definitely not from the detail added to the title. The thing that caught my attention was the title itself, “I Mean Y’all”. The title brings so many nostalgic moments for me being a girl who grew up in Jackson, Mississippi. To many people, it may seem as just a southern slang, but to me, it reminded me of the people I’ve been around for so long. The way they talk, and the familiarity of the slang that I have grown so accustomed to.

Mr. Kiese Laymon does a great job of going straight into the story with detailing of the characters. Details that I can only imagine people growing up in the urban schools of Jackson, Mississippi will understand. His diction is very relaxed, and after a while of reading it, you can almost hear his voice telling you the story himself. For some, that may seem uninteresting, but I can most definitely say that if you have taken the time to speak with Mr. Laymon, you will soon see he is quite the character, and his work reflects his characteristics greatly.

Mr. Laymon has a way of writing works that take you along for a ride, and before you know it, you are being slammed into by a truck on a busy highway. His messages within his work are powerful, and they ease up on the reader in the swiftest way.

A disclaimer, however, that I must give is that this work, as well as many of his other works, are not and I do repeat not for the faint-hearted. It is a short story that is vulgar, honest, and very uncensored; however, I do believe that if the work were not written as it is, then it would miss the rawness of the content. Being a young adult such as myself, who has grown in the community of many other Jackson residents, South and West particularly, I am familiar with the language. The story felt like one I have heard of or even seen before. The people within the story feel like people that I know too well, and that is what I admire most about the piece. I enjoy the way it feels as though Mr. Laymon had the ability to capture the culture and characteristics of the people I have grown to know.

The story, although again its content is very explicit, is a read that I do not regret finding. The work inspires me to embrace my surroundings, and to keep my memories and experiences as close to the surface of my mind as possible. Because even years later, they may be as vital to me then as they were before.

Howl’s Moving Castle — Diana Wynne Jones

The Overview:

Diana Wynne Jones’s 1986 fantasy novel, Howl’s Moving Castle, is about Sophie Hatter, who after disrespecting a maniacal witch, is transformed from a beautiful eighteen-year-old woman to a ninety-year old woman. Unable to speak about her cursed, she is forced to move in with Howl Pendragon (or Howell Jenkins, if you go by his birth name), a wizard notorious for swallowing young girls’ hearts, Michael, his young apprentice, and Calcifer, a fire demon. She makes a deal with Calcifer, who promises to break Sophie’s curse if she breaks his.

(BONUS) The Characters:

Sophie is an extremely strange, but refreshing choice for a protagonist. She does not react to situations the way a normal person would. Arguably, this makes her less relatable, but she makes up for it by being interesting. In the beginning of the story, she acknowledges Howl’s handsomeness, but she is repulsed by it, rather than attracted to it. When someone calls her a witch and says she has accidentally cast a spell over Howl’s clothes to make him irresistible to all women, she shrugs and thinks to herself, “Well, that sounds like me, messing up as usual,” despite never having prior knowledge of any magical ability whatsoever. She is, however, easily influenced emotionally. She gets jealous whenever Howl is out courting, mad when her younger sister tries to convince her their mother is manipulating her, and irritated when Calcifer is not direct with her.

How(el)l Pendragon (or Jenkins) is the most vain, supercilious, cowardly, good- natured, cleverest, funniest deuteragonist I have read about in a long time. He is used to getting his way and is not above throwing temper- tantrums, including forcing green slime to ooze out of his skin, when the slightest thing does not go as planned. He takes pleasure sending people out to ‘blacken his name”, just so he will not have to do work. On sight, most people who meet him either fall in love with him or despise the very dirt he stands on. He is not to be trifled with, however. He has been known to intimidate people and even Calcifer, a fire demon.

Michael is a meek boy and there is nothing particular special about him, excluding his diligence. He loves like a normal boy and gets depressed over mediocre things like a normal boy. But I would say this works in his favor because Howl and Sophie have such unusual personalities, that more absurdness might make the book too off-putting.

Lastly, Calcifer. Calcifer is a bit of an antihero, being a demon, but being on the side of “good.” He does mostly what Howl says due to a mystery contract, but he will not stand to be disparaged. He argues with everyone is the house, and is even a little creepy just in his description.

It would be a thin blue face…very long and thin, with a thin blue nose….And those purple flames near the bottom make the mouth– you have savage teeth, my friend…

A Potential Turn-off:

I’ve thought long and hard about what could possibly turn someone off from this book. I guess the sheer abundance of characters might be it. There a lot of characters including: Sophie, Howl, Michael, Calcifer, the Witch of Waster, Sophie’s two sisters and step-mother, Howl’s sister, nephews, and ex-magic teacher, the King and his brother and daughter, Miss Angorian, a creepy scarecrow, a dog-man, and I’m probably forgetting more.

An Appealing Factor: 

Everything. Mostly Howl’s dry humor.

My Rating:

It’s been a long time since I got angry I had to put a book down. I rate Howl’s Moving Castle ten out of ten stars. Buy the book.

 

Quiet by Susan Cain Part III

Do All Cultures Have an Extrovert Ideal?

Soft Power

“In a gentle way, you can shake the world.” – Mahatma Gandhi

This section of Quiet by Susan Cain explores the different cultural outlook of the “perfect” or “ideal” boss.  Mainly looking into Asian countries ideals.

It seems that the extrovert ideal is not important at all to Asian countries.  Indulgence of sound is important to them, but it is opposite from Americans where the sound they should indulge in comes from.  Asian families would much rather instill a “listen before speaking” basis in their children.   Listening is much more important for finding information and making well rounded, well thought out decisions.

Personally, I think this is very important in the case of understanding Asian culture and people.  In fact, I think this rule is brilliant.  I do not find having grades for how much you speak in class, just to get a grade for being loud without understanding anything, is a good thing.  I think it is lazy teaching and shows that culture in America prizes loud and noisy people over well thought out and well aimed articulate people.  China and Japan prizes the quiet and well spoken people.  They are number one in industry for a reason, and I think this is a beautiful way of thinking because it prizes respect and thought over being spoken over and not thinking about things.  Obviously America prizes loud noisy people, our cabinet is full of them.  Our president is a perfect way to show this.  He is loud and intimidating, but as shown what has he to show he thinks?  Not much but his words.  His tweets sure don’t.

Back to the subject, the book gives examples of how surprised immigrants from Asian countries were to sit in an American classroom for the first time.  Susan Cain met and interviewed Hung Wei Chien, a mother in Cupertino, California who moved from Taiwan to the U.S. in 1979.

“I remember bring amazed.  It was linguistics class, and that’s not even linguistics the students are talking about!  I thought, ‘oh, in the U.S., as soon as you start talking, you’re fine.”   while as she reminisced about her time as a child growing up and attending school back in Taiwan, she commented “The teaching back home is very different from here.  There, you learn the subject, and they test you.  At least when I grew up, they don’t go off subject a lot, and they don’t allow the students to ramble.  If you stand up and talk nonsense, you’ll be reprimanded.”

This section of Quiet followed the differences in what the U.S. prided its students off of verses what Asian countries prided themselves off of.  It explains the importances they set on the basis of their counties and contributes to societal affairs and the economy of the country as a whole.

My take on this section of the book is that the United States puts too much importance on just talking instead of also talking to listen as well.  I believe there needs to be a balance between the two.  These are both incredible aspects to pride off of, but if there is not one to listen what is the point of talking and if there is no one to talk what is the point of listening?

Cogs of a Child’s Mind (a series)

This is part two of my misinterpretations of a variety of concepts as a child.  To me, these misunderstandings make the best of stories and show a peek at your perspective as a kid

2.  China is Part of the U.S.

Before I fully understood geography, I believed, deep down, that China was included in the U.S.  In my 7-year old mind, the whole country had just broke off from wherever it was and floated swiftly to America, crashing violently into the side.  This is how I reasoned all of the problems in America had arrived from poverty to international affairs.

In my defense,  my mother had told me that Wal-Mart was China’s creation.  She also told me that the reason all of my favorite local stores and markets went out of business was because Wal-Mart had all of those things so no one needed to come and buy from those small stores.            This made me angry.

In fact, I was very angry.  I was so angry that I vowed to never purposely step foot in Wal-Mart again.  Ever.  Why couldn’t people even of poverty, realize that supporting your country would increase the wealth of the country and possibly them?  (I never said I was an highly educated seven-year old)

Soon, Mom had to get groceries and most of the markets and small stores had been shut down, so, we had to go to Wal-Mart.

I still didn’t understand why.

I mean Wal-Mart is just a dumb place in general.  Like,  what does ‘Wal-Mart’ even mean?

Still, I stepped out of the car and soon decided that not going into Wal-Mart was quite unrealistic considering the many times Mom had left me.   Thus, I declared to myself that, when I was grown, I’d never go to Wal-Mart for anything.

Anywho, that was only a fragment of my thought process when my sister quizzed me on geography.

“How many states does America include?”

“50!  Wait, no.  51!  52…?”

“Um…What?”

“51.”

“Are you sure?”

“Duh,” I sang mockingly.

“Where do you get 51?”

“My brain,” I stated, curious as to why she asked.  “Colorado, Connecticut, Kentucky, China…”

My sister looked at me with a blank face that seemed to barely hold straight a smile before bursting into laughter so strong that she was knocked backwards onto the floor.

“What!?  It is!”

“Oh my gosh! You’re so dumb!”

“Um…no.”

“Um…yes.”

“It is!”

This went on until my sister walked by and we asked her.  China is not a state.   I repeat.  China is not a state, no matter how many Wal-Marts there are.

A Letter (pt.2)

Dear you (again),

You come back to me a month after we last talked, saying that you’re sorry? You’re sorry? You should be sorry. You made me feel like I wasn’t a person – like I deserved to be treated exactly as you did towards me on that last day we spoke. After you went on your little rant, talking about how I was a narcissist, how I never listened to anything you said, how I always talk like I am asking you for pity. I’m sorry, but I do not want your pity. You misunderstood my intention, and I cannot help that. I never said that I thought you were stupid when I had to repeat whatever it was that I had just said; it never even crossed my mind – those words came from you, not me. I never intended to make you feel that way, but you clearly wanted me to feel as horribly as you did about a month and a half ago.

Honestly, I’m not so sure I should have forgiven you as easily as I did. Maybe I only did it because I missed you. I missed having more than one person to talk to about whatever I wanted to. I missed being able to look at my phone and smile whenever I saw a message from that person I’d been waiting to hear from all day. I probably shouldn’t have. But I couldn’t help myself. I couldn’t help but miss you because you made me feel like everything was okay. Anytime I got to talk to you, I would get this huge, stupid grin on my face, and I would completely forget whatever had been bothering me. And it never seemed like that to you, I guess, because I’m terrible at expressing my feelings to other people. But trust me, it’s the truth; I have no reason to lie about this.

As an example of what you do to me, let’s talk about this: every time I would get a notification on my phone, I would secretly hope that it was you, even in that time we did not speak for a month. And when it was? Jeez, when it was  you, I felt like one of those giddy teenage girls that people always make fun of on movies and sit-coms. I’ve never had that feeling before. And I feel weird just typing it out, knowing that some of my classmates very well may read it. But it’s the truth. I don’t want it to be, but it is. I’m usually the type of person to hold grudges – believe me – and this one, I can’t seem to even mend, which is typically the easiest part for me.

Sincerely,

someone who wishes that when they said goodbye, they meant it

Feeling

I feel really great.  I’m happy, and I don’t really know why.  Nothing has really happened to make me feel like this, but I just do regardless of reason.  Last week, I don’t know why, but I felt really down.  People say that you decide the kind of day that you have, but I’ve found that that is absolutely untrue.  I tried everything I could to be happy, but I just couldn’t, and this week, I feel the way that I had been trying to without any of the effort I’d wasted last week.  I really don’t understand how emotions work, and I’d be fine with that if I know that I’d continue to feel the way that I do.  Of course I don’t and can’t know that.  I think I just have ups and downs.  I don’t know why it is the way it is, but it still is.  I think people like to tell themselves that they can control how they feel just to feel like they have more control over themselves than they really do, or maybe they actually do.  Maybe that’s just the way that I see things because I assume that the way things affect me is the way that they affect everybody.  I guess that that’s kind of a pretentious assumption, but I only really have my own perception to work with when figuring out how others operate.  I really don’t know that I do understand how others operate.  I’ll begin to think that I’m not like other people because I’ll think that I don’t like what other people like.  Say, for instance, parties; I always thought that I just didn’t really like parties.  I never understood why other people did, but recently that’s changed.  I’ve gone to parties where I was much closer with the people there, and I genuinely enjoyed them.  It makes me think that I am like others but just haven’t figured it out yet entirely, but that’s not all.  It makes me wonder if some of the stranger things that I like would be liked by others if they were exposed to them.  Maybe if other people tried it out, they’d enjoy watching terrible movies from the 70’s that have been posted on YouTube because the rightsholders don’t care enough to take them because they know that nobody would be willing to pay money to see them.  Maybe more people would enjoy playing old video games on consoles that don’t work with modern televisions if they could try them out, and not just the classics like Mario and Sonic games but games like Bonk’s Adventure on the TurboGrafx-16 which sold really poorly in the U.S.  Maybe that’s just where I really am different, but there’s a chance that it’s not.  There’s a part of me that really wishes people were more different.  I feel like these things are part of what makes me who I am, but I know that I can enjoy what others enjoy if I decide to.  Sometimes, it just seems like if I want to be able to relate to others, I have to hold back a part of myself.