The Old Man and The Sea

In the book Hemingway used some great descriptive language. I loved the language in the book because it painted pictures for me. He also used some strong language. I didnt learn new words but I did learn how to use the words strongly. The language in the book is amazing and very powerfull.


The Old Man and The Sea
Ernest Hemingway
Classic

In this weeks reading I finished The Old Man and The Sea. It was a really great book. I read some reviews on the book and people said that this book was written during a time when Hemingway had "Forgotten" his writing. I think that is preposterous. I loved the book, it was a great read and just the description itself kept me interested.

To sum up the story in a nut shell, there is a old man who hasn't caught a good fish  in 40 days so he sets out to sea but decides to go a bit further this time. While he was at sea he caught a monstrous fish that kept him busy for 2 and a half days till he killed it. He experienced serious back pains and started to feel bad-mentally. He was experiencing black outs and dizziness.  If he hadn't caught the fish when he did he probably would have died. But never the less he caught it and hauled it to the side of his boat because it wouldn't fit on his  skiff, that's just how huge it was. Reality came into play later in the book, when i say it came back its just crazy to think that such a huge fish could exist. Because of the return of reality the cycle of life came. The blood of the fish attracted sharks. By the time Santiago(the old man) arrived home from sea the fish had been totally mauled by sharks and all that remained was the skeleton.

The morning after he arrived people saw the huge skeleton and measured it. Santiago was praised for the huge fish. Sadly the Old Man started to get very sick and i assume he died.

To Kill A Mockingbird

Title: To Kill A Mockingbird
Author: Harper Lee
Pages: 376
Genre: Classic

For this weeks blog post the question I have to answer is, How would you describe the author's use of language in this novel? Do you each enjoy how it is used? Explain? Have you learned a new vocabulary word while reading this novel?

My mum said, The story is set in America's South so you find some words are not pronounced properly giving the impression of a southern drawl. This language gives an authentic setting to the reader. So my mum said to me that she did not really find any words that she did not know. Because since she has read a few books that have southern language she now knows a lot of it. Same with me I have read quite a few books such as, The Help, The Secret Life of Bee's, etc. So I am quite familiar with it. But there are always words that I am never sure what they mean. Because there is about a word on each page that I would not understand I have just picked a random page, so I have turned to page 27 and have found the word erratic. erratic means, lacking consistency, regularity, or uniformity. It is in the sentence, 'She was furious, and when she was furious Calpurnia's grammar became erratic.'

One chapter in the book that I really enjoy is when Atticus leaves during the night to go work on the court case, and some of the other men come and they want to kill him because he was defending a white person. But Jem and Scout follow and when they meet him he is shocked but when they go out they see all the men. Atticus tries to protect Jem and Scout but Scout who does not exactly understand what is going on decides to make normal conversation. She asks Walters dad how is Walter doing, and she tells him that one day she invited him over for lunch. By Scout doing this she stopped all of these men from fighting, she stopped them getting into trouble. All because of her, she made these men think about their lives, their children, they would just be throwing it all away. Scout an 8 year old girl stopped them all from fighting.

I admire Scout's will and strength even when she is not trying she still is able to be a strong women. I think my favorite thing that I love about Scout is how she is a big tom boy. And when she might do something her brother will say to her, "Scout, I'm tellin' you for the last time, shut your trap or go home- I declare to the Lord you're gettin' more like a girl everyday!" (Lee 24).  and she will say that she is not. In away she has two sides, she looks up to her brother and she wants to be like him, as she will try and do everything that he does, and my favorite, how she loves her overalls. But then other times all she wants to be when she is older is a women. She wants to be a strong, fearless, independent women. As all the ladies of the neighborhood are at Aunt Alexandrea's for a brunch tea party thing, Miss Maudie asks Scout what she wants to be when she grows up as the quote says, 'Miss Stephanie was encouraged to puersue the subject: "Don't you want ot grow up to be a lawyer?" mildly enough, "Nome, just a lady." (Lee 254).

I really have enjoyed this book and I recommend it to anyone who wants to read a classic book but also shows some history if black and white. This book has now become one of my favorite books I really love it. 

Book: Cather in the Rye
Author: J.D. Salinger
Pages:277
Genre: Classic

"Where do the ducks go during winter?" "How the heck should I know?" "Ok, well where do the fish go then?" "Leave it up to mother nature, they stay under the ice ok!". Holden's conversations are very much alike to this one, he is full of ideas and silly questions. After reading chapters11-15 I have a pretty clear idea what to base my book report on. The author describes Holden as being a very party type guy, so my dinner party will be in a bar, most probably in Erne's, this is a bar Holden spends some time at. He meets one of his older brothers ex's and has a short talk with her and her new Navy boyfriend, she is nothing special thought. Ernie's is a bar where just about anyone can get a drink, even a 6 year old due to how dark it is inside. Finally Holden goes back to the hotel and meets an elevator guy who makes a deal with him, " five bucks a throw, fifteen bucks til noon",he accepts. Later that night a prostitute just about his age comes to his room with the drinks, Holden is a virgin and is constantly becoming more depressed telling her he can't do this. There are a few cool things the author tells us about Holden during these chapters, for example:

• He wouldn't mind to push a guy out of the window or cut his head off with an ax, but he absolutely hates fist fights, he hates looking at the other guys face
• He can drink as many drinks as he wants and he won't show it
• He has been really close to having sexual interaction with a girl, but he listens to the girl, meaning: if a girl playingly says 'stop it', most guys would keep on going, but Holden stops causing him to mess it up all the time

Even thought Holden seems like a pretty cool guy, he seems a little shy.
There are a few quotes I liked from the pages I read, two of them are:

1. ·         “I’m always saying “Glad to’ve met you” to somebody I’m not at all glad I met. If you want to stay alive, you have to say that stuff, thought.” -114
2. ·         “I swear to God, is I were a piano player or an actor or something and all those dopes thought I was terrific, I’d hate it. I wouldn’t even want them to clap for me. People always calp for the wrong things. If I were a piano player, I’d play it in the goddamn closet. -110
   
   
   I agree with the first one 100%, people always expect you to be kind and say Glad to've met you even thought you couldn't care less if you met that person or not. But of course it shows good manners, or even shaking hands, parents always teach you to shake hands with new people, it's just something we are forced to do. 
   The second quote I found funny, it is when he goes to Ernie's and Ernie is playing the piano, he is really bad at it but nobody cares and they just clap. I really don't think Holden is into piano playing xD
   
   
   How would you describe the author's use of language in this novel? Do you enjoy it? Have you learned new vocabulary?
   
   
   My dad and I both agree that Salinger is using very cool vocabulary and the type that back in the day would have been considered inappropriate, but it makes the story very real. My dad enjoys the language because it makes him feel young and he has to think younger, it also makes him think back to when he was a teenager and when he did the same things as Holden. I find the vocabulary just like the one we now-a-days use, so it is normal to me how the characters speak. We both learned a few new words, both in English and Italian (since my dad is reading it in Italian).
   
   
    

The 100 Year Old Man Who Climbed Out of the Window and Dissapeared Part 3

Author: Jonas Jonasson
Pages: 394
Pages Read: 394

After escaping from the clutches of the Pakistani secret police, Allan briefly meets Winston Churchill and then sets off for Sweden after having a short talk with the Prime minister about a new passport. As you would know if you read my previous posts, Allan was the man who solved the USA's biggest nuclear problem, building the Atomic bomb. But now the Russians wanted to know the secret to a nuclear arsenal too and so as soon as Allan settled down in a nice hotel in his home country, he was whisked away by the leading Soviet nuclear physicist to help the development of the Soviet Atomic bomb, in a submarine. He had one too many Vodkas on the trip and he later found out that he already spilled the beans, but more on that later. Before the Russians had kidnapped Allan, they had had the bright idea of kidnapping Einstein. Sadly instead of getting Einstein, they got his almost identical brother, Herbert, who for publicity reasons was known as his cousin. Sadly he had less brains than a tortoise and was immediately deported to the Gulag, a Russian correction prison. Allan met a similar fate, after departing from his now good friend Yury the nuclear physicist  he had a meeting with Stalin, which didn't go too well. Long story short he was also deported to the Gulag, on the same vehicle as poor Herbert Einstein  He spent five years at the camp, working with Herbert, until he decided, enough was enough, he needed Vodka. So he hatched an escape plan which mainly involved Herbert, his dimwitted companion. 

As Herbert was a known idiot, when he would make a wrong turn and accidentally end up in the guards office, he would only be shouted at, whereas others would be shot on the spot, so he "accidentally" found a rocket launcher in one of the guards' weapons rooms. Allan quickly blew up one of the containers, that was being shipped to North Korea. Sadly this was the one full of blankets, and not high explosives, but luckily, or not so luckily for some people, some of the prisoners tried to escape using the smoke as a shield. One of the guards immediately shot him down using a mounted machine gun and tracer rounds, but not before he accidentally hit one of the containers. This caused a chain reaction which in the end destroyed the entire Gulag  and the nearby city. Long story short, he escaped, met Kim Il Song, ruler of North Korea, and after quite a few plot twists ended up in Indonesia, where Herbert found the love of his life, Anastasia. They where both complete idiots, but that was okay, with the money that they had received from the Chinese ruler, they started a corrupt business. Anastasia rose up the ranks, until she became governess of Indonesia, at which point they all got bored and moved to France. He then found a communist traitor in the French advisory and became an American spy, he then met Yury once again and together they faked Nuclear weapons reports and sending the to the USA to calm down some tension, although when the found some things a little too boring, they made a crazy diagram, which in turn crumbled the Soviet Union. He then returned home to Sweden and Lived in a cottage with his cat, Molotov, before he accidentally blew the whole thing sky high. This then led to him going to the retirement home, which is where the whole book started. As for him and his friends in the present day, they where proved innocent and all moved to Jamaica together, to have a very long holiday.

The Alchemist (blog post 3)

The Alchemist

 Author: Paulo Coelho

Genre: Adventure


The protagonist of the novel is a shepherd. He is described very adventurous hence the genre. I think I appreciate this because if he wasn't adventurous then we would have a very boring story. Pretty much this whole story revolves around this character and his adventurous characteristics that take you to new places in the book thus sparking new stories, and quests. 

I don't know who this character reminds me of... I would say Indiana Jones because it IS adventure but they have totally different morals and things that they do.

The Alchemist

 The Alchemist

Author: Paulo Coelho

Genre: Adventure
 
My partner and I chose this novel because it is one of the best selling books in the world, a lot of people that have read this book have said that is is the best book they have ever read. Also my partner is one of the people that said this book is the best they ever read. This book also looked good because of all the translations this book has, it is the Guinness most translated book and I'm guessing a book that is translated into 56 languages is a good book. As well it has 20 million world wide sales.

The beginning of the story is very simple surprisingly. It doesn't seem as complex as other classical stories. It started of just like I would a few years back. I so far cant say anything for the book as I haven't read enough, but my partner likes it for sure as they recommended the book to me saying it is the best book they ever read.

1984

At first when i was reading my novel I tough the novel was about people being watched and always being under some kind of control.Trough reading the book i can see that there is more to the book.1984 is a political novel that was written with the purpose of warning readers in the West of the dangers of totalitarian government. Having witnessed firsthand the horrific lengths to which totalitarian governments in Spain and Russia would go in order to sustain and increase their power, the writer designed 1984 to sound the alarm in Western nations still unsure about how to approach the rise of communism. In 1949, the Cold War had not yet escalated, many American intellectuals supported communism, and the state of diplomacy between democratic and communist nations was highly ambiguous. In the American press, the Soviet Union was often portrayed as a great moral experiment. George Orwelll, , was deeply disturbed by the widespread cruelties and oppression he observed in communist countries, and seems to have been particularly concerned by the role of technology in enabling oppressive governments to monitor and control their citizens.

This book really god me interested in that time and what was happening.I just had to reasearch it and learn something more about it.

The theme of the book is control.

Because everyone all the time is being watched and controlled.