Last time in the previous blog
post, In The Things They Carried I talked about themes and conflicts
that are currently happening in the book. I talked about how the troops fear
shame from their families. I also talked about Ted Lavenders death as one of my
conflicts. In this post I will post about a couple characterizations and archetypes
of what I have read so far.
LT. Cross is who I will be doing my
characterization on. Jimmy Cross is a young boy and doesn’t know much about
being a leader. Lt. Cross functions
as a metaphor for the war, specifically its lack of meaningful structure. Like
the war, Lt. Cross is characterized by a lack of purpose. Lt. Cross's role should
be a strong leader who gives his troops clear instructions for attacking the
enemy. The Vietnam War, however, makes this kind of leadership impossible
because the steps to achieve the objective of the war are undefined and
confusing. Similarly Cross is distracted with his profound liking of Martha. He
keeps wondering if Martha is a virgin. Now ever since Ted Lavender died, he
blames himself for what happened as if somehow it would be his fault.
Archetypes that relate to this book would be the situational
archetype of The Initiation. The situation that leads me to use the ignition archetype
is when Jimmy Cross discovered that he needed to be an actual leader. On page 25-26
it says “Jimmy cross reminded himself that his obligation was not to be loved
but to lead.” Cross figured that if Lavenders death was his fault that he
needed to step his game up and he needed to be a little more cautious in this
war because it was a death trap.
I am currently reading the novel The Things They Carry. While reading this book I have recently been looking for themes and conflicts. One theme I’ve noticed a lot this far in the book is that the troops have a fear of shame from their families and fathers. They say that the fear of shame is the only thing keeping them fighting in the war. On page 25 the novel says “They carried the soldier’s greatest fear, which was the fear of blushing. Men killed, and died, because they were embarrassed not to. It was what had brought them to the war in the first place, nothing positive, no dreams of glory or honor, just to avoid the blush of dishonor. They died so as not to die of embarrassment.” The troops knew that if they went back without dying or getting any medals then their families would think that they didn’t try their hardest. Lieutenant Cross, for example, is one person who felt like he didn’t try his hardest.
There are many conflicts going on in this book, because after all it is a book about war. One of the main conflicts is the death of Ted Lavender. While walking back from peeing Ted was “shot in the head.” Ever since then, Lieutenant Cross has internally had the conflict of blaming himself for Ted’s death. “He felt shame. He hated himself. He had loved Martha more than his men, and as a consequence Lavender was now dead, and this was something he would have to carry for the rest of the war.” Cross felt responsible for the death because he thought that he must’ve not been paying attention when he was really thinking about Martha.
Hey. Here we are
again my third and final post. This is gonna be a great post where I try to get
even more descriptive with my post. Then I will talk about the theme of the
book and what the author is trying to convey, I will draw a symbol for a
character and explain what the heck a symbol has to do with a character from
the hunger games, and lastly I will tell you guys how I would convince a
librarian to put this book in a library.
I’m just going
to reiterate what I said before because there isn’t much else to say about the
book for the most part but anyways. “The Hunger Games” is about a girl and a
boy whom defy all odds. They survived the Hunger Games and also the government hasn’t
killed them yet. I feel like the president is not happy and it will not take
long for him to kill one or both of them probably “on accident.”
In this book I
feel like the author is trying to convey that the government is starting to get
to controlling. I think Suzanne is trying to give us an example of what really
could happen if the government gains too much control. She is trying to convey
that if one day this does happen or something similar happens in the future,
there will always be that one person that wants to not conform to the rules or that
wants to break free somehow but subliminally blackmailing the government.
If I were to draw
a symbol for this book it would probably be a girl and boy running while
holding hands with fires in the background. I would want this to be my symbol
because it relates to the book and the characters in so many ways. The boy and
the girl represent the boys and girls from each district, but mostly Peeta and
Katniss. The holding hands represents the trust between each other and also the
disobedience towards the capital. Lastly the fire in the background represents
the danger involved the games and how the tributes are always trying to get
away from the danger to stay alive the longest.
This book is a
great book and I’m sure it has many awards. If I asked my librarian to put this
book in the library and she questioned it for some reason I would explain the
book to her. I would tell her hat this book explains a lot and can be read from
any age group in Timber Creek. I would tell her that this book is great because
it explains the possibilities of what could possibly happen if North America
was run instead by a totalitarian government. I feel like the librarian would
like this book and want to put it in her library because it is also a very
popular book and a lot of people read it. Also the book probably got a lot of
awards already.
Okay well thanks
for watching my blog. Come back and visit next time I post because I know you
must love reading these, whoever you are about. All I know is that there's about
60-100 of you so keep on coming back? Bye.
Hey guys, so this is my second post for the book Hunger Games. I feel like this was such a good book that I should write 2 more posts about it. So this is number two coming at you from
Colorado Springs, Colorado. “Mark, why are you there?” you ask. I’m over here because I am taking a tour of the Air Force Academy. If you’ve never been to Colorado I recommend you go, because it is truly breathtaking, literally and figuratively. Anyway, this post is going to be a continuation of the plot in more detail, and an explanation of what genre this book belongs in. I will also talk about an alternative ending to this book, and which specific people would not like this book.
So the book Hunger games like I said before is about a totalitarian government where the Capital controls all of the 12 districts. There used to be 13 but after a war between District 13 and the capital the capital blew district 13 to pieces. This was good and bad for the district. Good because it taught all other districts a lesson but bad because they lost one of their resources by doing that. Each district has a specific job for example District 12 is coal mining, and so they mine coal and ship it to the capital for them to have a good time and do whatever they need with it. So when they destroyed District 13 which I believe manufactured jewels or something, they lost that privilege. When Katniss and Peeta show affection for each other before and during the games they are basically rebelling against the idea of the games by not killing each other, thus essentially doing the same thing as District did. The good thing about the games for Peeta and Katniss is that it happened to be the scene of the woods which helped Katniss because she's been hunting in the woods since she was a kid. And Peeta was helped because he knew how to decorate cakes almost perfectly and somehow that translated into the skill of camouflaging.
If I were to pick a genre to put this book in I think I would put it in the genres of Science Fiction and action and adventure. This book is definitely a fiction book for sure and there is no possible way for it not to be. The book is set in a future corrupt north america where the government has split up into 13 towns or districts. The government wanting to prove its dominance makes the whole country send two teenagers from each district to participate in a killing match. The government in real life hopefully would not make a country do this. This book is science fiction for sure because while they are in the games the gamemakers use high tech technology to create the game arena.
This type of technology is not yet known and also why I put it in the genre of Science Fiction. I would also put this in the Genre of Action and Adventure because I feel in the beginning of the book there was a lot of venturing in the woods and especially in the games there was a lot of killing and explosions. Because of these killing and explosions including small teenagers this scares some parents and grandparents and keeps them from watching or reading the book for the fear of an uneasiness of their kids or their kids kids. I know this because for the longest time my mom told me it was a bad book and not to read it. Also my grandmom was scared to read it because she thought it was about cannibalistic vampires or the killing for no reason of kids and so I had to convince her to read it.
The way that this book ends is that Katniss and Peeta both survive the games after threatening to both commit suicide in order to show their love for each other and their hate for the Games. The president, enraged, killed the head gamemaker because he let there be two victors when there can only be one. An alternative ending to this book would be of the game makers changing the properties of the berries so when they ate them none of them would have died. This way the gamemakers wouldn’t be fired or killed. Katniss and Peeta would now have to fight the death or the gamemakers would have to try to kill one of them for there to be one victor like always. On the other hand this wouldn’t be a good ending because this would mean that the story couldn't continue in the next two books and so they’d disappear if this ending was actually the real ending or the next two books would change all together.
I hope you all enjoyed my second blog. PLEASE KEEP READING AND SENDING ME IN DONATIONS SO WE CAN KEEP THIS BLOG FUNDED. Donations of at least $20 can be handed to me in school. Again thank you for reading and I’ll see you all next time.
The “Hunger Games” by Suzanne Collins is a book about a controlled society that is run by the Capital. In a way, it is very similar to a program that my friends attended called Boys State, because all they did was follow orders and they didn't appreciate that too much.
The main character, Katniss Everdeen, supports her family by hunting out in the woods ever since her father died in a mine explosion. The actual games is a competition between all of the 12 districts. Every year, two people (a boy and a girl from ages 12 to 18) are selected from the districts to be placed in this government hosted killing fest. They are selected by chance out of a bowl at random. Each district brings its own competition with its wide variety of skills and talents. The Hunger Games itself changes every year to avoid any pre-knowledge of the skills that the tributes would need. The point of these games is for the Capital to prove that they have authority and that they aren’t to be tampered with. During the reaping Katniss volunteered for her little sister Prim because she doesn't want anyone in her family to get hurt. When Katniss went to the Hunger Games with Peeta Mellark, another boy who she knew as a kid in school, they did the exact opposite of following the rules. Katniss and Peeta played the game that you would play with your teacher in elementary or middle school where you do something that looks or seems bad, but is just for the purpose of making the teacher yell or get angry. They acted like they were in it together to win it, when they should be against each other. This included public displays of affection such as hand holding, saying that they love each other and at the end trying to die for each other. At the end of the games, when it was just the two of them together, they decided that they would rather both kill themselves rather than one of them dying and the Capital getting what they wanted.
This book is similar in many ways to the book “Matched”, in that they are both a utopian society and also both main characters are teenage female rebels.They both have a totalitarian government where all control is given to the leaders. This book is also related to the book “Maze Runner”, because they were stuck also in a place they didn’t want to be and the only way out was the maze, which changed everyday.
If for some reason Katniss spontaneously turned into a geometric shape, I feel like she would not be a circle, square, triangle, or something normal like that, I think she would be an irregular object. I feel Katniss would be half square and half circle because on one side she is the most responsible squared off person in her whole family, but on the other she is a crazy savage animal. When her father died and her mom went into a deep state of depression, Katniss supported the family and went out into the woods and hunted to bring back game for them to eat. She also helped out her mom and got her back to a state of almost mental health. On the contrary, she should be a circle because during the Hunger Games, there were no rules (edges), and she was not messing around (corners). If she felt like she needed to kill for her safety, she did. If she felt like she needed to make a real quick bed and sleeping environment out of the top of a tree, she did. Katniss did what she needed to do to get home safely to continue to support her family.
If there were only three scenes to be put into a movie from this book I would say the three scenes would have to be at home in the beginning when she is being chosen for the games, when she gets to the games and is fighting for her life and wins with Peeta, and the ending where Peeta and Katniss survive and a little clip of how unhappy their leader, President Snow, is. I think these three scenes are the most important because these are what the main idea of the story are. Without the first scene you wouldn't know what the Games are or why the people that are in them, are in them. Without the second scene you wouldn't know what happened with the people introduced in the first scene but you know for some reason they won and that they are for some reason not liked by the President. And without the third scene you wouldn’t know the resolve that happened after scenes 1 and 2, which would leave a complicated awkwardness to fix in the plot of the story.
Over all I think “The Hunger Games” was a great book. People from the tweens up should read this at least once, because it shows us what life could possibly be like if we elect the wrong type of government, and how good we have it now.
