Theme Development 11/13/15

Prompt - Allegiant Theme

     The book "Allegiant" has a lot of different themes in it; like many other books. Some of those themes included: friends and family, sacrifice, guilt, lies, identity, and many more. The theme of identity was one of the most important themes or key themes in Allegiant.

     This theme of identity was all throughout the whole Divergent series. It started when Tris had no idea which faction she actually belonged in and which faction to choose when she turned sixteen. This was because she got Divergent as a result on her Aptitude test which made her unique in a good and bad way at the same time. After she had left the actual city and went across the fence/boundary; she has been through a lot of loss during her journey of finding who she really was. This would be the theme of loss and maybe even guilt when she didn't help save some of her friends.

     The theme of friends and family was when she was finding out who her actual family and friends were and if they were not just pretending to be her friend. As for her parents; she was also finding out who they really were and they pasts'. The theme of sacrifice was when she actually did go back for friends in danger or volunteering herself for dangerous activities even if it wasn't the smartest thing to do. Another theme which is lies is when Tris lied a lot if it was for the bad or the good. An example was when she lies to help her friends in danger or something similar. There's a lot more themes in this book/book series, but I would say that the main theme is identity.
 

First Quater Reflection 10/28/15

     Now that it is near the end of the first quarter of eighth grade, there some things that I learned, and that I have learned from. Starting with my 40 book challenge, so far I am on my third book of the Divergent series. I have t had a huge amount of time to read, because of the rest of my homework; but I'm planning on reading more books and new series.

     I also haven't done many blogs this school year, but I think that I'm starting to remember the formatting from last year as this year goes on. The blogs that I've done so far, I would say that they are neutrally ok, but I have been learning a lot more about things like making my paragraphs in the corrrect format and being longer.

     The strategies that have benefited me for this year is my organization and the order that I do my homework in. One of the organization strategies that I'm using is to have all of my colors, pencils, highlighters, etc. in one big pencil case, and on,y one pencil and pen in a smaller pencil bag that I take to every class. One way that this helps me is for example when we are taking vocabulary tests. Then, I can just find a pencil right away. The order that I'm doing my homework in setting a time limit for each assignment which really helps me finish me a little bit better.

     I've learned some things of the world from a lot of the things that we did in class, especially the article of the weeks' that we do. Those have a lot of information of what is going on in the world right now, in the past, or in the future. I learned some things from another activity that we did in class which was a short story by Edgar Allen Poe. I learned things about the work by annotating the story and looking up the words I didn't know. This made me learn about the real world and some of the things or places that were or are in the setting of the story.

     My research skills have gotten a little bit better after some time. I have so far learned how to get better with my organization skills and finding good evidence. One of the assignments that I need research for is for AOW's. This is still a place I need to improve a little on.

Allegiant 10/14/15

Prompt - List three questions you have about what you read

     One question that I have about this book is about the structure of it. My question is: Why are all of the chapters alternating between the two main characters; Tris and Four? I ask this because I find it confusing how sometimes I'm reading about one event that's happening, then suddenly it moves to another event in the book. I mean, it is a good idea instead of making two separate books with the both perspectives in addition to the rest of the trilogy. The only thing that I didn't like was that it confused me a little bit.

     A piece from the book that made me have a question about what I was reading, was that on page 286, when Tris figured out that Nita was standing among the invaders and was with them, and if she knew that Nita was a traitor, why did she go along with Tobias' (Four) plan if she knew that Nita couldn't be trusted to steal the death serum? I actually couldn't believe that Tris went through with Tobias' plan of she knew he was wrong. I didn't expect her to go through with it because she is usually stubborn and independent.

     The last question I would have about what I read would be that: Is Tris going to stay mad at Tobias for what he did? I'm not sure if she's going to forgive him or break up with him for believing and going along with Nita's plan. I'm unsure if they will even talk, because in the book, it said that they haven't spoken in a long time. Those are all of my questions that I would have from what I read.

Life Lines Poem

"A different perspective of the world"

Living in a desperate time, among a desperate people, among wars, among famine, among epidemics, he found that he often held the keys to life.

He would travel any distance.

This is a country where you can just be one penny short at the grocery store and they still won't forgive you.

If you don't have money, they won't give you the real treatment.

You see how this treacherous world works?

I saw that most people used a different calculator. Beauty was external, money mattered, and so did skin color.

It didn't matter who the person was or how much they had. The poorest, most recently arrived refugee received the same welcome as the richest American.

No matter how much the strangers resembled beetles, my father always maintained that they can be angels.

His generosity knew no bounds...

Or that he might still be a hero, tragic and flawed though he might be.

OBAA and AOW Similarities 9/24/15

.    In the book Of Beetles & Angels and the article "Europe struggles to cope with migrants' march of misery" have a lot of similarities. One of the things that they have in common is that they both are about refugees/migrants. In Of Beetles & Angels; Mawi (Selamawi) and his family were refugees that migrated to the U.S. The article is about thousands of refugees, but only one in specific; her name is Tirana Hassan. She tweeted that she was exhausted (of being a refugee) and she didn't want it to be for nothing.

     Another set of things that the book and article have in common are the events that happen in them. For example, a bad thing that happened in the book was that Mawi's older brother Tewolde and his dad Haileab died; and in the article some refugees died from drowning on their journeys. These deaths had nothing in common in how they happened but they were both deaths that happened on refugees or migrants. Those were both bad events that happened; another bad event in the article was empty shelters being burned. Another thing that both had in common was that even though their was some bad things, there were good thing s that happened in both. In the article, the border between Hungary and Serbia reopened. In the book, Mawi got accepted into one of the best colleges; Harvard; then later on in the book, he graduated from there.

     War affects individuals by making them struggle a lot from many things. One thing that war can do to people is either kill them, or their family members. Another thing that it can do to them is make them have to move out of their hometown and lose their home, belongings, school, friends, and maybe even their families. War affects societies by maybe increasing unemployment. It increases unemployment because after war; there is no money left because it was spent on the economy.

Insurgent 8/16/15

Prompt - Tell me about the main character. What kind of person is he/she?

     The main character; Tris/Beatrice is a very unique kind of person. She has many different qualities in her personality. That's probably why she got the result of Divergent. She stood out from everyone else because she got three faction results: Abnegation, Divergent, and Erudite. These three factions made her Divergent.

The result of being Divergent made her have many different qualities. One of the qualities that she had was being brave. She was brave most of the time when she was on missions to save people from the mind controlled Dauntless soldiers or the Dauntless Traitors. One time that she was brave was when she went first to climb on a ladder that was only being held from one side to one window from another; across two buildings that was very high up. In the book, it said, ""I'll go," I say, before Marcus can answer, "I'm part Stiff too, right?""

     Although, when she wasn't being brave, she was being really careless and a little bit crazy. The reason I said this is because she was constantly putting herself in danger. One of the biggest dangers she put herself in was going to the Erudite quarters, straight to Jeanine! *spoilers* The reason that she did this was to save the people from being mind controlled to jump off the roof; there would be three people that were forced to do this until one Divergent would turn themselves in. Even though she was doing this to save people, it kind of was a suicide mission. The only reason she survived was because her enemy that owed her a favor faked her death by injecting her with something different than what Jeanine thought. If that never happened she would've been dead; but that's only one of her qualities.

Insurgent 8/13/15

Prompt - What have you found boring about what you've been reading? What made it boring? If you were the author, what would you do to make it more interesting?

     One thing that I've found boring in the book Insurgent is how it is way too long. I feel like there are certain parts/scenes that drag way too much. For example, one scene that was really long was when Tris was deciding on which door to go through of the Erudite building. The whole time it was describing that she didn't know what to expect in each door and she kept changing her mind.

     The main reason that makes this book boring is because it's too long and descriptive. One part that was way too descriptive was in chapter 41: ""Insurgent," he says. "Noun. A person who acts in opposition to the established authority, who is not necessarily  regarded as a belligerent."" This example shows how it goes into detail by even giving the definition of a word that was used in the book.

     If I was the author of this story; I would try to make it a little bit shorter and not as detailed so it wouldn't be boring. But, I would still make sure to make it not too short and rushed so it wouldn't be straight to the point either. I just think that a good amount of details is enough. Other than being too long, Insurget was actually a good book.