Hatchet - Blog Response #4

Usually people need motivation from an outside source to finish a challenge or task that has been put before them. Brian's motivation seems to be that his entire family is left back at home and misses everything he left at home. All the challenges he comes across makes him more determined and motivated to press on. If he wants to see his family again and not be lost in the wilderness he has to learn to solve his problems. He feels better about himself when he accomplishes these things and feels one step closer to being home again. When someone or something supports anyone to do a task, its easier to do what you need to do.

Catalyst - Blog response 5

Kate's friends take her to a diner far from where they live, to try and cheer her up. They were surprised when they saw that Teri was their watriess because nobody has seen or heard from her in a while.They noticed that she had a big letter M tatooed on her forehead. When she tried to act mean with Kate, Kate's boyfriend Mitch got loud with her and put her in her place. After that she quit her job, returned Kate her watch and necklace, and stromed out of the diner. After Kate and her friends left the diner, Kate went over to Teri's house. When she got there she saw all of the additional damage that Teri had done to the house. Then she offered to help her rebuild it no matter how long it takes.

From A Buick 8 Response #5

Overall i thought that this was a good book. It has alot of mystery and suspense but it tends to satisfy your questions towards the end of the book. I like that better than reading a book with a cliffhanger ending. Stephen King wrote an authors note at the end in which he explains where the idea for the book originated. The entire beginning of the story evolved from an incident he had while on a road trip. He tells how he could have disappeared into a river after falling down a slope, outside the gas station he was stopped at. He later turned this into the starting point of his story. He also used some of his own experience when explaining how a trooper was stuck by a car, simply because he was also hit by one. In both his experience and in the book, the coins were stripped from his pockets, as was the watch from his wrist, and a hat he was wearing was found 20 yards from impact. I think that using personal experience helps to originate better ideas for a good book like how Stephen King used his.

Catalyst - Blog response 4

One day while building the new house, when everybody was done for the day, they all sat around outside eating and talking. Then all of a sudden they realized that Mikey wasn't around, so they started searching for him, and couldn't find him. When Teri went in the house, she noticed that the gate to go upstairs was moved out of place. When she got up to Mikey's room she found him dead, because he had gotten electrocuted. They tried to save him but it was too late. That's when everybody found out that Mikey was Teri's son and not her little brother. After that Teri and her mother weren't the same. Teri stopped going to school and then one day she went back to her house picked up a sledgehammer and started destroying the house.

Hatchet - Blog Response #3

At chapter 13 in the book, it has been 48 days and Brian is still having problems dealing with being alone and not knowing what to do or how to accomplish things. He feels as if his family has left him behind. He has never been taught anything about surviving after your plane has crashed. He can't seem to catch fish with a spear or hunt anything for that matter. He eventually comes to think that he will not die and he compares the Brian he is now to the Brian he was before, weak. He starts to make the perfect bow so that he can catch fish faster. Brian is still gaining a lot of knowledge and what he learns paves the way for the next day.

Catalyst - Blog response 3

2/3 into the book Kate's neighbor Teri's house burns down and she finds out that Teri and her brother Mikey will be staying with her. Even though she isn't thrilled about the idea, she trys to make the best of the situation. But Teri with her bad and ungrateful attitude is making it hard for Kate. Since Kate's dad is a minister and cares about the Litchs(Teri, Mikey, and their mother), he raises money to get their whole house repaired. Since she is feeling down because she didn't get accepted, Kate starts to neglect her friends, her boyfriend, and her school work. Kate also arranges it so that Teri can help build her new house and have it done the way that she wants.

From A Buick 8 pages 269-295

This book has many parts of it that make you both confused and suprised. Things just happen to appear from the car and you have no idea where it came from. Even more weird, one of the troopers and a gerbil they put in the car, had disappeared. Nobody has any idea where they went but they know for sure the car had something to do with it. In a part of the story, the troopers dog that lives at the police barracks, attacks a creature that appears in the cars shed. The dog had took a chunk out of whatever the creature was. Not even an hour later, the dog began to smoke from his eyes, ears, and mouth as if it were on fire inside. It began to throw up its insides until a trooper took their beloved pet out of misery. Nobody has any idea what was in the creature that caused it to happen. It definitely wasn't something that i was expecting.

Catalyst - Blog response 2

1/3 into the book Kate finds out that she didn't get into M.I.T and since she didn't apply to any other schools she didn't have a back up plan. To make matters worst everyone she knows got accepted to their top schools, so even if she trys to talk to them about how she feels, they won't know what it feels like and wouldn't be able to sympatize with her. Then while helping out during a church event Kate finds out that her enemy Teri stoled the watch that her mother gave her before she died.

The Allure of the West

<i>Into the Wild</i>, Jon Krakauer, pgs 144-207 (end)

<i>Death of a Salesman</i>, Arthur Miller, pgs 1-97

So, I finished <i>Into the Wild</i> and started rereading a book that I'm studying with my AP Literature class.  As I read the first act of the play I was struck by the similarity between Chris McCandless and many of the characters from <i>Death of a Salesman</i>.  The main character of this story, Willy Loman frets over a missed opportunity to accompany his older brother to Alaska to make money. Instead he is 60 and stuck in a dead end sales job.  Interestingly enough, Willy's father abandoned <i>him</i> as a child to also seek fortune in Alaska.  In a weird twist, Willy is disappointed in his son Biff because he is constantly seeking work outside of the norm of the day.  He's worked on cattle farms and other jobs that Willy does not respect.  Biff explains that he likes these jobs because he's not stuck inside at a desk and can be out in the open air.

In American culture the west has always been symbolic of the open frontier, a vast unexplored wilderness where a man could make his living outside of the realm of laws and societal constraints.  It's interesting that these two books, written 50 years apart, have such similar themes.

Does anyone else know of any characters who seek a life outside of society?  Anyone have a friend or family member who constantly wants to go out on the open road?  What do you think drives a person to feel like this?

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<b>Dear Blogger:</b>  This is not a spam post.  I am mailing to publish this on all of my student's blogs in order to provide a sample and to engage in discussions.  Please call off the spambots.

The Hatchet - Blog Response #2

Already in this story I can tell that Brian will most likely gain alot of knowledge and determination. Most kids like Brian get taught life's lessons by parents and other older role models. When Brian is stranded in the wilderness he has to learn to fend for himself and that he is the only one that can help himself for miles around. He is only 14 years old and is already faced with the challenge of doing everything on his own and being completely alone. I believe that since he is being forced to do things on his own, his character will change and he will mature sooner. If and when he gets rescued, he would probably do things on his own as much as he can and be self - sufficient.

Character Bullet # 5

From a Buick 8 pages 253-267

In this part of the story i was reminded of a movie i saw recently. My book is alot like Stephen King's movie "The Mist". They have completely different settings and characters, but the unknown creatures that he describes make me visualize the ones in the movie. In the movie The Mist, one of the creatures 'tentacles' just dissolves away after touched with something. In the book that tends to happen alot also. When something appears from the trunk of the car, the troopers try to remove it from the shed where the car sits, and half of the time the object or creature disappears or dissolves when touched. There always seems to be that one character that is braver than the rest, and there is one in both the movie and book. I think its probably because they are both made from the same author but theyare alot alike.

Catalyst

The book I am reading is entitled Catalyst by Laurie Halse Anderson. It's about a girl named Kate, who is a straight-A student, minister's daughter, and unwilling family caretaker. In the book Kate thinks that she has everything under control but then later finds out that she doesn't. Also she is starting to get stressed out because she is still waiting to hear from the only college that she applied to, M.I.T.


I like this book so far because you can relate to it in one way or another. Especially because sometimes you think that you have everything under control and then unexpected things start to happen. Also the part about Kate waiting for her college response letter, I think that anyone who has ever applied to college knows just how stressing the wait can be.

From A Buick 8 pages 151-172

So far my book is pretty interesting but at times it also makes you uncomfortable. In a part of the story the narrator relates to the smell of something they are dissecting, to when the police have to report to road accidents. He describes the similarity as the smell of blood and busted guts, bones bursting through pants and shirts, heads twisted halfway around the neck (but still talking and screaming).
Police have to see this type of stuff all the time and yet they still go on helping people and putting their life on the line. Its something I've never thought about before. It makes you aware of all the things they do so that we don't have to witness horrors like that. My best friend is trying to become a buffalo cop and it bothers me because seeing things like that will mess you up, or at least i know i would be. Reading a book with reference to being in a police force made me aware of this. Although nobody likes the police because they do there job and give us speeding tickets, i think they deserve a little more credit for the things they have to deal with.

personal response/reactions bullet 1

Into the Wild, Jon Krakauer Pages: 1-144

So, the book I'm reading is about this early twenty something kid who
is pretty alienated. It's a nonfiction book, and since I haven't
summed it up yet in a previous response, it's about a kid who is
searching for meaning in life and seeks this meaning by exploring.
At the beginning of the book we find out that he ends up dying in the
middle of Alaska to exposure.

Even though I think I'm supposed to, I'm having a really hard time
identifying with the main character, Chris McCandless. I look at
the cover and there's this picture of Emile Hirsch portraying
McCandless. He's a good looking kid, and he's kind of sitting in this
"top of the world" type dominant pose. The author seems to really
identify with the character, and spends a couple of chapters relating
his own similar experiences. And McCandless is seemingly the rugged,
individualistic antihero that Americans celebrate.

But, I can't get into him, and I think it's because I'm a parent
now. I see the way this kid abandoned his parents, went off into the
middle of nowhere, took chances, didn't write home, and espoused his
theories on the way life works to whomever would listen, and I'm
like, "dude...call your mom, dad and sister. They're worried sick."
The kid is kind of portrayed as this spiritual, deep Thoreau quoting
prophetic figure, but he just strikes me as naive and self centered.
I don't know what I'd do if I was his parent. I would be devastated
if my son took off after graduating college and just disappeared.
It's really rather sad.

(By the way, if you're wondering, this response is to the 7th bullet
under character. The total length of this response is 279 words. I
summed up the book to start because I figured you'd need that
information, but then I really tried to stick to talking about
whether or not I identified with the main character and why.)

From A Buick 8 by Stephen King

From A Buick 8 by Stephen King
This book is about a police troop who acquires an abandoned car. When troopers further inspect the car, they realized that the car seems to open up to other dimensions, leaving unworldly objects and creatures behind.

One thing that i like about the book is how much different this story is from any other book I've ever read. It deals with things from other dimensions, which people generally can't relate to experiencing. Something like that makes it more interesting to me.

The Hatchet

Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
This book is about a boy named Bobby who takes a plane to go and see his father when the plane he was taking crashes into the wilderness. Brian escapes from the wreckage with a backpack and a hatchet his mother gives him. Brian manages to survive for 54 days alone.

One thing I like about the book so far is that the beginning lays out the setting very well and doesn't leave you hanging. Stories that lay out the setting so well in the beginning make it easier to understand. Brian is just leaving his house to go and see father.

Your 1st Post!

Today in class we will be posting to our blogs. To keep things simple, this
first post will be a kind of introductory thing. Here's what I'd like each
of you to write (make sure it is under your own display name):

1. In 2-3 sentences, give us a taste of the book. What is the title? Who
is the author? What is the "gist"? (It's about a girl who...)
2. In a separate paragraph of 2-3 sentences, finish this sentence: One
thing I like (or don't like) about the book so far is...