Finishing Gathering Blue

       Okey dokey... This blog post is extremely late but better now than never right?

2 books down.

I have already read The Giver and I have just finished Gathering Blue by Lois Lowry. Leaving only The Messenger and Son left to read to finish up this series.

At first, the book Gathering Blue seemed a little slow and not very exciting. But as the book went on, it got a lot more interesting. This book doesn't really tie into The Giver very much, but now that I've started reading the third book, The Messenger, it makes so so so much more sense. The characters' interactions and stories begin to tie into each other; Jonas from The Giver shows up the third book. Because I have only just started The Messenger, the book hasn't exactly explained how Jonas got to where he is now, but it for sure does continue his story. Except it doesn't pick where The Giver left off, it jumps ahead a couple years.

I really like the third book better than the second. As I already said, the second book is slower. This one is more suspenseful, and is just, well...more interesting.

In the second book, the main character's (Kira) supposedly dead father is introduced and the third book shows his story, along with the story of a friend of Kira's.

I actually enjoy the way Lois Lowry has written this story line. It's intriguing and it allows to see all of the character's story connect with each other. Whereas in other books, one character's story is told, then it finishes, then another is told...etc. This particular way the story was written makes the reader have to read the whole series to know what happened to another. And I'm almost done!

2 books to go...

Columnist Packet Follow-Up

       The columns that I read were.. pretty interesting. And while all were good, I did enjoy the column "What will Kate Middleton's wedding dress look like?". I thought it was odd (well, maybe not odd but it was a little odd to me) how crazy and detailed people can get about a wedding dress. Okay, yeah sure it can be a big deal, but in my opinion, Kate's search for a dress is just an up scaled version of every other soon to be married woman. Which is why it was strange to see people get soooo excited about the dress. I also liked some of the language they used in this column, It was very artistic. One example is, "There has been a smidge of speculation in the vast blogosphere of fashion that Middleton might turn to someone like Oscar de la Renta or Vera Wang." I think what made this language and diction so fun to read is that I thought it really showed author's voice within the piece. They used fun, made-up words like, "smidge" and "blogosphere". 

       I felt like there is a lot of author's voice used in all columns. I guess that's what kind of makes it a column and opinionated. If you can really hear the author's voice, you can understand their tone and point of view towards a particular subject. Which is why I also really liked the column, "A ruff and ready playmate". I also found this one humorous and consistently used good voice. Such as when it said, "I suddenly experience a sensation of humid warmth...my right arm has disappeared up to the elbow inside the mouth of a dog...I am not alarmed... how a large, friendly dog says: 'Greetings! You have a pleasing salty taste!'"

       This one was also my favorite because it was really funny. And like me, most people (I'm assuming) like to read things that are comical and don't put us to sleep. 

Theme handout

Censorship diminishes individual thought

Timeline:

1. Montag met Clarisse and she changed the way he thinks. She made him more curious about the society.
2. After they burned the old lady and her house Montag started to question the procedure that the firefighters use. Also while Montag was in the house, he took a book from her house.
3. Montag pretended to be sick from the nervousness from stealing the book. He planned on involving Mildred with his crime. He had a change of heart towards Beatty.
4. Montag decided to go to Faber after numerous events in which he found a bible and exposed himself to Mildred, and wanted someone to help him in his new way of thinking.
5. Montag returned home to find Mrs. Bowles and Mrs. Phelps at his house. They angered him when they talked lightly about their husbands which caused him to recite Dover Beach despite Faber telling him otherwise causing Bowles and Phelps to storm off distraught and Mildred cursing him.
6. After the reciting of the poem, the call for a burning was actually for Montag’s house. At that time Montag and Beatty confront each other, causing Beatty to take out the device Faber used to communicate. The two fought until it came to gruesome end in which Montag burned Beatty before the hound came, for that is what is Beatty wished.
7. After this incident, Montag had officially became a convict. He had planted a book into one of his colleague’s home and had made the run for it after he learned that the hound was nothing but accurate. When Montag finally made it to the forest he had noticed a fire in a way in which he never had before and met the intellectuals/book people, who had noticed who Montag was and welcomed him. Shortly after meeting they were met with the site of the city’s aftermath from being bombed.

• The theme helps us understand the censorship that affects their everyday thoughts and opinions on society and law.

• Censorship still occurs today because children’s programs are censored of adult content.

Quotes:

“Are you happy?” she said. “Am I what?” he cried. But she was gone…” (Bradbury 8)

“Then he began to read in a low, stumbling voice that grew firmer as he progressed from line to line and his voice went out across the desert into the whiteness, and around the three sitting women there in the great hot emptiness.” (Bradbury 97).

“And then he was a shrieking blaze, a jumping, sprawling gibbering manikin, no longer human or known, all writhing flame on the lawn as Montag shot one continuous pulse of liquid fire on him...Beatty flopped over and over and over, and at last twisted in on himself like a charred wax doll and lay silent.” (Bradbury 113).