Possible Interpretations of (The Lorax)

In many books, the theme is hidden, and it can be interesting to work out what it is. However, with The Lorax, it is the complete opposite. This book is about a natural paradise that slowly gets destroyed by the oblivious Once-ler who starts up a detrimental business. In the end, it is left up to a young boy to bring back the paradise that once was. I have always wondered about this theme. It is so obviously pointed at polluting companies in our world, and so obviously reprimanding them. But what about the story line makes it seem so black and white? These companies must be stopped. What makes a person want to single handedly bring back the nature in our world?

For me, this book was an inspiration. I've loved it since the third grade, when I was struck by its flat out honesty. Some of the things that really resonated with me were the incredible paradise Dr. Seuss shows. Then there is the barren wasteland it gets turned into. There is also the way the story is told from the destroyers point of view, and how deeply he regrets his decisions. What I think is extremely effective is the way the reader can relate with the Once-ler. Though we are inevitably going to end up being the little boy that gets handed the seed that could save the world, he's not our protagonist. We get pulled into the world with the paradise, and watch the Once-ler make all of his mistakes. In a way, the Once-ler also represents every single person who isn't doing something to stop the destruction of nature. He is us if we don't start to change. So this book with a straight out message does have a deeper meaning... Maybe the reason it affected me so strongly was because of the realization that though I am not trying to do bad things, like the Once-ler, I am hurting the environment. It is slipping away from all of us.

Another character in the book is the Lorax, the book's namesake. He is the one who warns the Once-ler to stop his business. Something that has always bothered me, is that if the Lorax saw what was happening with the environment and was obviously upset by it, why didn't he stop him. The easy answer would be that he wasn't strong enough, or didn't know how to, but I don't think that's it. One possible interpretation is in league with the idea that the Once-ler represents our factories and businesses. The Lorax could be our society warning to stop, and the Once-ler bad polluters not listening. That could be the reason the Lorax is seemingly flaky at times. Because our society's passion on the subject wavers. My other idea is that the Once-ler and the Lorax represent the greed and the conscience with in every single person. When we litter or drive our cars, we know what is happening, as the Lorax does, but the side of us that wants to do whatever the harmful thing might be, can argue and win over the other side of ourselves. As the Once-ler says: "Business is business and business must grow." Our conscience can't put up much of a fight once the argument is won. But as the Lorax does, it still resurfaces from time to time.

The Evolution of Thomas ( The Scorch Trials)

I recently finished reading The Scorch Trials, by James Dashner. This book is the sequel to The Maze Runner, in which a bunch of adolescents are being put through life-threatening challenges to see which are the best candidates to get the world back to the way it used to be. In The Scorch Trials, I feel that the protagonist, Thomas, has changed very much since the start of the series.
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At the start of The Maze Runner, he was thoroughly confused about what was going on. Therefore he turned on those who were in the same situation as him because he felt so lost. He eventually began to think of at least some of the kids in the maze as friends. I think he evolved in this way because he began to realize that they truly were no different from him, and he began to blame the Creators, the ones who had actually put him in the maze, for all of them being lost and hopeless. In this way he took on the burden that all of them held of not knowing who they were, and he found a new place to channel his anger at.

In the Scorch Trials, because he now shares this bond with those who have been wronged by the Creators, he has something to fire him up and make him keep going. This is the way in which he is so different than he was at the start. Like it says on all of the signs, he is the true leader. He has evolved from a scared little kid, to a guy whom many people depend upon. Also, because Thomas originally had no memory, he has had build new beliefs and relationships. He may have had his original personality at the start, but memories and feelings another thing that make a person. He develops as the series develops, and I have a feeling he is not done becoming who will end up being.

The Power of Perception: The Mark of Athena (SPOILERS)

I recently read the newly published The Mark of Athena, by Rick Riordan. This book is the most recent in a series of books that take place after The Percy Jackson series, which I still consider one of my favorite series'. When reading The Mark of Athena, I noticed a change from the way the books used to be. I'm not sure if it was me, not having read the series in a while and just having matured as a reader, or there was something that really was different. What I noticed was the way that I didn't connect to the books in the way that I used to. Also, many parts of it bored me. The characters just didn't seem as relatable as they used to.

What I first began to notice was the way that the characters that I'd known since The Lightning Thief didn't seem quite right. I had been excited to read a book finally from Annabeth's perspective, but was disappointed to find that her voice sounded no different than any other of Riordan's characters. What I had once considered Percy's personality now seemed to be everyone's. Also, Percy seemed not to be much like himself either. His humor seemed to be his main feature, when before his character had been so much more. Altogether, this aspect of the book left me very confused.

I was very unhappy when the book began to bore me. Maybe it was because of the change in characters, or maybe not. It just seemed as if unimportant moments dragged on forever. Also, the parts I'd been looking forward to (like Annabeth and Percy's reunion) were over in the blink of an eye. At every turn there was a new adventure, in a way that left me confused with all of the new Roman knowledge. Altogether, it was not the most gripping book.

All of my opinions left me wondering: Is something really different, or am I imagining it? This is what I believe to be the power of perception. Once I got it into my head that the characters seemed off, I inevitably ended up analyzing everything they'd do or say. I ended up really disappointed with this book. What I really want to know now is whether anyone agrees with me, so I can decide once and for all if I am just making all of this up.

Please Comment! :)

The Art of Anecdotes: The Glass Castle (Spoiler)

In the memoir, The Glass Castle by Jeannette Walls, she recounts the story of her crazily adventurous life through various snapshots of different moments. Where she doesn't have a little anecdote, she gives a detailed summary of what happened. The author moves forward in a quick sort of way, as she must with a book ranging from when she was three to well into adulthood. But even as she does this, she will zoom in on certain moments and really capture the feeling in them, and make the reader do the same. Maybe this uniqueness comes from  the fact that she can only remember and pinpoint little moments, but I love how the author makes me want to know more about their lives and fill in the blanks. She does this through capturing me in every single anecdote.

When Jeannette asks her dad to stop drinking as her 10th birthday present, the reader gets a little uncomfortable with her at the big favor she is asking him for. When he begins to drink again, one is deeply betrayed alongside her. I've had the experience of reading a book and caring about the characters, but I've never really related to a character the way I do to Jeannette.

I think its because of the way at times I envy the insane adventures she gets to go on. The way she describes the vast and beautiful desert is what leads me to feel that way. I also feel so badly for her when her parents do something especially out of the box, like taking her out of the hospital and taking off in the middle of the night, when she is not healed enough for it to be completely safe. When relating to that, the author gets me to do that through refraining from giving a lot of details. She lets you feel how you want to. She has people who disapprove of her parents who you can relate to, and then her own perspective, which is still forming.

The Non In Fiction: Perks of Being a Wallflower (Possible Spoilers)

The Perks of Being a Wallflower, by Stephen Chbosky, is a novel about socially unmotivated Charlie, who is learning how to live life for the first time. He has never really been a part of anything, and this book is about him getting that chance. When I first began to read this book, I could not figure out why it became so popular. It wasn't written extraordinarily, and the plot line just wasn't that interesting. Still I kept going, and it eventually dawned on me. It was just so completely real. And through this way of writing, Stephen Chbosky managed to get me hooked on the life of 16 year old Charlie.

The original things that annoyed me about the book all had to do with Charlie's character. He was pretty strange, and to be honest I was a little insulted that a 16 year old was expected to have as low an intelligence level as he seemed to have. But I came around to the letter-for-every-chapter style of writing, and the book's quirky and overall very genuine characters.

The things that hit me as being so real had to do a lot with the way Charlie's thoughts kept him locked in his head. He'd be in a very bad mood, and that would lead to him spending the whole day trying to figure out why. Another example would be the way when he wanted to block out a certain thought or feeling, he had to do something else to occupy himself, like reading until he was so tired that he couldn't possibly do anything but sleep. Although it may not always be as severe as it is with Charlie, I definitely know what it feels like to have trouble not getting lost in my thoughts.

The author also seemed to get lost in his own  thoughts at times. Sometimes I wondered  if he might even lose the reader when he left them with half-formed ideas and random pieces of information. In the end, this just made the book so much easier to relate to, because it was like you were really inside Charlie's head. In a lot of books you really have to infer how the character is feeling, but with Charlie, he'd just tell you, no matter how random it was. Charlie was so real that it made the book more real, and overall, better.

How to Effectively Pass off Blame (13 Reasons Why Spoiler Alert)

In 13 Reasons Why, by Jay Asher, the main character is one of 13 students blamed by their classmate, Hannah Baker for why she has committed suicide. The first person of the group is sent a box of 13 cassette tapes with each one centering around one person, and after listening to them all, they must mail them to the next person. I want to zero in on the idea of whether or not what Hannah did was unfair. This was originally brought to my attention by the character Marcus Cooley. He is one of the 13, and because of his guilt, he angrily says to our main character, Clay, that "Hannah  just wanted an excuse to kill herself." This infuriates Clay, but rather than making me angry, it left me wondering if maybe he was right.

These people on her list all had something to do with why she committed suicide, but their sins range from being an insincere friend to practically raping her. I have to say, she brought some of the things that happened to her on herself. Once she is relatively depressed, she shares a private and close to her heart poem written by her with a classmate. Thinking it is very good, he anonymously  publishes it in the school newspaper. He makes it onto her list of 13. He barely did anything wrong, and she knows it. She does admit it when speaking directly to him on his tape, but nonetheless, he will have to live with his guilt for a long time. I almost feel like she is intentionally ruining everyone else's life in return for the life she is losing.

Still, I feel like in a way, the tapes are her suicide note. She was never heard, and she has a right to some closure before her death. Clay is the only person on the tapes that she is not blaming, but more explaining things to. She knows that he will hear them, and she wants to give him an explanation. I think this is meant to make the reader who is relating to Clay blame Hannah less for all of the people she is hurting.Still, the reader has to try to put themselves in the other 12 people's shoes, and imagine what this would do to you if you received these tapes.

I also got to wondering if Hannah was just looking for some attention from the people that never knew the impact they had on her. I do not necessarily think that Hannah was seeking attention in the general sense, seeing as she asks them not to let the tapes be heard by anyone outside the 13. All the same, I do not think she wishes to be forgotten.

Please comment and tell what you think! :)

A Not-So-Secret Message

This post is a response to "Am I Blue?", by Bruce Coville. When I first finished reading this passage, I couldn't figure out what really caught me about it. There was something that felt very mesmerizing and heartfelt about this story to me. After thinking about it for a while I came to realize that it was the way the message was shown. I've never read a story where the message stood out so clearly. The way it was written, the plot itself almost seemed a little bit sloppy. It had an almost humorous story line to it, with a fairy godfather, and a day where anyone who is the least bit gay turns blue. The characters weren't even very intricate. Why I believe the author did this, was so that the story would not distract the reader from the message.

The message of the story was basically, lots of people are gay all over the world, and no one has the right to demean someone for being different from them. The author obviously thought this message was vital to get across, as they made no attempt to mask it within the story. He gave us a main character, Vince, who was easy to relate to, and a problem that people face all of the time. Even if you have not faced this particular issue, that by no means says that you don't know what it feels like to be singled out.

He added on to the empathy that he meant for the reader to feel by adding on some very strong examples. Melvin was a living (sort of ) reminder of the terrible things that can happen when people are homophobic. Because he was openly gay, he was killed. Then there was Vince who gets beat up because someone thinks that he was interested in "jumping his bones". These instances are there to horrify the reader into seeing the injustice of our whole situation.
  
Another thing the author highlights in this passage is hypocrisy. Coville ends up showing that the guy who beat up Vince at the beginning ends up turning blue himself when Melvin makes it blue day. He also adds on to this by showing that a very homophobic republican that Vince sees on TV is also gay.

In the end, this was a message shown via story that was very thinly veiled and was written solely to give readers a new perspective.