Tuesday, December 20, 2011

Social Life Problems


The book A Walk to Remember by Nicholas Sparks is about a 57 year old man that flashes back to when he was 17. This book is an extremely strong book that deals with social issues. The main character, Landon goes through many changes in life as he learns what's right and what's wrong to do in life. Landon is also from a rich family, but his dad is a congressman and lives in Washington DC. Landon lives in North Carolina and rarely gets to see his father which causes a strained relationship between them.

In the beginning of the book, Landon main focused on popularity. He wanted to find a date to attend the school dance since he was class president. Landon wanted to find a pretty girl, but he couldn't find any. The result of this caused him to ask a religious girl called Jamie Sullivan. Jamie's personality is kind in nature, and is nice to everyone no matter what. She carries a bible with her where ever she goes. Her characteristic makes Landon reluctant to dance with her during the school dance, but when she saves him from Lew(a bully), he realizes that she's kind and softhearted.

His life is constantly being shifted by social problems he face, like his dad's relationship, and popularity.

In the middle of the book, Landon hangs out more with Jamie. Jamie asks Landon to participate in the Christmas Angel, while Landon isn't so fond of it he accepts anyways. During the time, he learns from Jamie about people and and organizations, and that she helps an orphanage. Landon became more soft heated and even cared about the orphanages and gave in money to buy presents for them for Christmas. He kind of shifts away from the popular people and starts to hang out with Jamie more. He gets mocked one time when Jamie asked if he would walk her home.

During the end, Landon realizes his true love for Jamie and tells her that he loves her. Jamie responds by saying that their relationship can't happen because she's dying of leukemia. This was a big impact of the book, a big social change in relationship that would shape his future forever. Jamie slowly dies and causes even more pain for Landon. He has undergone a lot of changes and pain, but I think that this was his most painful since she was the only person ever close to him.

In conclusion, I think that Landon undergone a lot of changes and social problems in his life. Who knew that Landon would fall in love with a girl that he didn't like. Social problems in the real world happens everyday, people go through even more depressing things than this book. Nothing can stop these problems, it just happens. Some problems can be solved, but some like death, and relationships can't be solved.

Tuesday, December 6, 2011

Life Is A Story- Life of Pi by Yann Martel


Life of Pi by Yann Martel is a very interesting book about a 14 year old boy called Piscine Molitor Patel.He changed his name to Pi because many people called him "Pissing Patel"  which he didn't like. Pi was born a Hindu, but as a fourteen-year-old he is introduced to Christianity and Islam, and starts to follow all three religions as he "just wants to love god."He tries to understand God through the lens of each religion and comes to recognize benefits in each one. His family owns a zoo, eventually his family encountered a ship wreck and they died except for Pi. Pi's ambitious struggles make up his true character. Getting trapped on a boat, he has to find food and water for himself and for the tiger that is also in the boat or else he will get eaten. Experiencing death, learning different religions to understand the world better, gathering food and living by himself makes his life very difficult. I think that all these difficulties make Pi a very ambitious and responsible person.

I infer this because first of all, if he doesn't go find food and water for himself, then he wouldn't live. This makes him ambitious to survive. This also makes him a responsible person since he now has to get his own food and water. There are many people in our world that also has to live by themselves because their parents aren't there to take care of them. I think that this book also teaches the readers more about society and a better understanding of society. I can also connect this book to another book I have read in my past years called Hatchet, it's very similar except the main character is trapped in an island due to a plane crash, and Pi is trapped in a boat.

Second of all, he's very ambitious  because he knows 3 religions, many people that I know of only know one or none. This shows that not only does he want to learn more about God and our society, he wants to learn more about different beliefs of different cultures. Since his family owns a zoo, Pi is also really interested in animals. I think that Pi's ambition to know more about animals moved  Knowing 3 religions is actually really hard to learn in my opinion, I don't even know all the beliefs of one religion and he knows three.

Even after all that he's gone through; he's still willing to live on and struggle on with his life. If I was Pi, and my parents died, I don't think I would have the effort to keep living and gathering food and water. I probably would be crying everyday. He's also a really caring and considerate person, not only does he feed himself, he feeds the tiger too. It must be really hard to find food near a deserted island, finding two meals a day must be pretty hard for Pi. 

In conclusion, I think that Pi is a very ambitious and responsible person. Adding to that, he's also a nice caring person since he saved the tiger. He put his life on the line just to rescue the tiger, he could've let him drown but he saved him. If I was Pi, I wouldn't have saved the tiger if it cost my life. I would've saved it only if it was right next to me. Pi is also brave since a tiger is a very fierce animal and you don't know what it'll do to you after you save it. Many people these days aren't really determined about their work or ambitious, I think that we should all become more ambitious towards our goals.