Book Structure

In Looking for Alaska, the structure of how the book is layer out is worth discussing.  The whole book is set up in a way that not all books are set up. There is a big event that takes place halfway through the book. This meaning "before" would be before the event. Each short chapter is labeled to indicate how many days before or after that event halfway through the book takes place.  It's like the book is placed as a big countdown. So once its one day before, the next page would be one day after. As you start reading and discover that the first little chapter is taking place “one hundred thirty-six days before," but before what? Before long, Miles meets Alaska, Colonel, and Alaska's friends, Takumi and Lara.   

 


Miles is learning a lot about life and school. He spends a lot of time hanging out with friends. He’s breaking the rules a little bit by drinking and staying up late…What could go wrong?  As the number of days before the big event occurs, our anxiety increases exponentially.  Why? We still our never told straight up what before and after means. The events are getting bigger.  Miles and his friends are planning a big prank and he’s getting closer to Alaska, which is what he wanted all along.  Here’s a graphical representation of how we’re feeling as we read:

Text-to-World

In Looking for Alaska, I've realized that Pudge and Alaska have a bond. But Pudge pictures their bond as more than friends, but Alaska has a boyfriend. This puts Pudge is the situation of jealousy. Jealousy is a big problem in teenage years involving girls and boys and who likes who. This would be Text-to-World because anyone around the world can feel this. It isn't something that just happens in one country. But even though their relationship is close and Pudge doesn't really have a strong opinion about anything. I can still tell by the way he talks about her. He says things like "they were acting so cute with each other but I wish it was me" or things relating to how he feels about Alaska being with Jake, her boyfriend.

Alaska almost acts kind of flirty towards Pudge which could maybe give Pudge the wrong idea. I hope Pudge and Alaska gain a stronger relationship with each other and towards the world. I feel like something big is going to happen involving adventure with each other.

Blog Assessment #1

Some specific phrases that show my writing voice would be “That made me think about how when we are kids, we dream about becoming this great person when we get older and we want to be able to do things that older kids do. But once you're growing up, it's a trap.” This shows my personality as a writer because I really like to look deep into the meaning behind what the writer is trying to show and how it’s impacting the characters. So in this case, when Alaska talks about her name and how she got it, it made me think about how life works and how you’re getting older every second. My personality relates to this because I like acting like a little kid again and once you grow up, you’re stuck. You can’t go back, so you have to embrace it while it lasts.

An example of diction that I included in my blog is, “Even though them just meeting doesn't mean they are going to be "best friends" you can already sense a feeling of them being close in a way that can't be described. Hopefully as the book continues the sense of strong friendship increases.” This is an example of informal diction because it represents the plain language that is used every day like strong friendships being made. An example of syntax that I included in my blog is, “This situation seems wrong to both Alaska and Miles, but Alaska is the only one to actually stand up for him, acting like a sister to him.” This is word order/ sentence structure because Alaska isn’t actually his sister so saying “like a sister” is a simile talking about their relationship in the story.

Her Name

Looking for Alaska continued...

While Pudge and Alaska are together, Pudge likes to find out more about her. He asks her questions and makes comments to find out Alaska's life before the boarding school in Culver Creek, including how her name came to be. Pudge asks Alaska how she got her name and what's the meaning behind it. "Not to ask the obvious question, but why Alaska?" he asked. At first you would think it would just be a one sentence answer on how she got her name. But it was much more. She told him about how her parents couldn't decide so she went by "Mary" at one point, and then on her seventh birthday her parents let her pick. She picked Alaska. Why? I asked myself and so did Pudge. It means "that which the sea breaks against" and Alaska said she liked that. But what really made me think while I was reading was when she said, "But at the time, I just saw Alaska up there. And it was big, just like I wanted to be.

This part of the story I thought has a lot of meaning and weight to make me think about. She picked her name based on a state that she liked the meaning to it. But also because it was big, and that's what she wanted to be. She wanted to grow up. That made me think about how when we are kids, we dream about becoming this great person when we get older and we want to be able to do things that older kids do. But once you're growing up, it's a trap. You want to be a little kid again. But you can't take back the time that she once had as a little kid.

Krista Ramsey

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/15/krista-locking-into-the-magic-of-legos/5521245/

Legos are something that kids will never have enough of and they are something that gives kids freedom of adventure and being whoever they want to be. This is a summary of this article because it explains what legos mean to kids and how much they enjoy them.

"Like sparklers and hugs, Legos are things a child can never have enough of. Wise parents not only understand this, but support their child's Lego habit, sometimes to the tune of hundreds or thousands of dollars over the course of a childhood." 

This line has an impact on the reader because it tells us how legos are loved by kids and it will always be a part of their childhood. Some observations of syntax that I noticed is that the word child is used more than once. This is used to get the point through the reader's heads that children are the one's that love legos.

Ramsey's writing style is that she writes in short small paragraphs to make it easier than if it was one big chunk. She also includes questions for the reader to think about. 

Questions:
1) Have you always wanted to be a writer?
2) Before you became a writer, what was one of your job options that you thought about?
3) If you weren't a writer, what do you think you would be doing now instead?

Developing Characters

As I continue to read Looking for Alaska, I have found that Pudge and Alaska have started to make a lot more effort to speak and communicate to each other, even though I'm not very far into the book. For example, both of them are in a religion class together and Pudge seems to be very interested in what the teacher talks about but gets distracted with the outside world. When he is caught off guard looking out the window, Dr. Hyde, the religion teacher, tells him to leave the classroom. This situation seems wrong to both Alaska and Miles, but Alaska is the only one to actually stand up for him, acting like a sister to him. After he gathered his belongings, Alaska tells the professor that this is BS and why would he get kicked out for looking out of a window? It makes sense to me but after that, he tells both of them to leave. 

They start to enjoy each other's presence and make an effort to talk about what's going on in their lives. When they go to this field of clovers in a park with colonel, they have a lot of fun. Even though them just meeting doesn't mean they are going to be "best friends" you can already sense a feeling of them being close in a way that can't be described. Hopefully as the book continues, the sense of strong friendship increases. 


This link shows how to see how the characters are developed.


http://www.charactercincinnati.org/sixsteps.html

Meet Alaska

I have recently been introduced to a new character in Looking for Alaska and her name is Alaska.
Since the book is in First person, Miles Halter's view, him meeting Alaska was different than if I was meeting her. Miles sees her as a very attractive girl and so far she hasn't really made a great deal of conversation with him. Chip takes Miles to her dorm room to get cigarettes, even though Miles doesn't smoke. Both of the boys go down to the creek to talk and then Alaska comes down to meet them. Miles is just stunned at how beautiful she is and describes her features very thoroughly. Since Chip is older than Miles, he tells him about the school and who to avoid. Alaska tells both of them about some weird experiences that she had over the summer and Miles doesn't seem very interested in her story but seems very interested in Alaska herself.

I have a feeling that Alaska and Miles are going to get to know each other alot more and discover the world around them with Colonel. I found this drawing that I thought was really cute and was similar to what I pictured the characters would look like. The only thing was that Colonel looks like he is  mad for some reason and I'm wondering why that is. Alaska looks super happy to be with them but mostly Pudge because she has her arm around him so I think that's a sign that something is going to happen.

Starting Looking for Alaska

I just recently started Looking for Alaska. So far it seems pretty interesting but not much has happened. The main character, Miles, goes to Culver Creek Borading School and he likes a famous poet named François Rabelais. This takes place in Flordia when the school is located. I'm curious as to what is going to happen to Miles and what he will experience through the time he goes to school here and who he will meet. So far, Miles has met his room mate named Chip, or Colonel. He is very good at memorizing things and seems pretty interested in learning about Miles. Chip calls Miles "Pudge" because he's so skinny so he is making a joke about it.

I predict that Miles will meet the other people at the school and in his dorm. He is going to experience alot of new things and learn more than he could ever imagine. The whole book is in a point of view where the beginning is before and then half way through the book, is after. I'm curious to know what that exactly means. I think it has something to do with before Miles does something involving the "Great Perhaps", the poet, and then what happens after.

Characterization: Fahrenheit 451

I think Clarisse is a good character for characterization because she has a lot of qualities that make her different. I picture her being very intelligent, young, and always having a tired look on her face. She loves to read even though it's not legal. She trys to show Guy that reading isn't a bad thing and that firemen shouldn't burn the books. A quote by her that kind of shows her personality would be,"I'm antisocial, they say. I don't mix. It's so strange. I'm very social indeed. It all depends on what you mean by social, doesn't it? Social to me means talking to you about things like this." This shows Clarisse likes talking to Guy Montag and she thinks the way they talk to each other, is her only way of being social. It seems like she doesn't have any friends because of her reading "obsession"

Even though she doesn't like the burning of the books, I think she is more mad than confused. Her family has a past with firemen but she trys to put the past behind her. Guy pictures her like a daughter he never had, which is strange because she seems to act very smart. Smarter than Guy because she reads and he burns.

Final Blog Reflection

http://baileysreadingblogg.blogspot.com/2014/01/character-development.html
In this blog post, I think it best shows complex characters and analyzes development because it is showing the development of how the characters are reacting to each other and how their realationship is growing. It also shows how Hazel feels towards Agustus and that her feelings towards him may change in the near future. I think this showed the expectations of character by talking about how Hazel's life is changing since Augustus came into, and this is the main part of the story.

My goals that I have for next trimester for reading is deffinately reading more often and making sure I balance my time for reading because I often forget to and I end up doing it last minute. For writing, it would probably be making sure I cover alot of information and focus on one thing rather than ramble about a part in the book or just write summaries, which I tried to stay away from. I tried to overcome this problem by creating titles for each blog post that corrspond with what I am writing about. I would really like to improve on reading more books and trying to manage my time for more reading. In my writing I would like to improve on explaining more details and really going in depth on what I read.

Final Summary

I finally finished the Fault in Our Stars and it was such a good book, but very sad overall. A summary of the rest of the book would go something like this...  Hazel and Augustus go to Amsterdam together and have a ton of adventures. A month after returning from Amsterdam, Hazel goes over to his house and she tells him that she wants him to write an obituary for her. They spend a lot of time together after that and Augustus' dad tells her that he's thankful for her. Hazel's parents tell her that she can't keep spending this much time with him, even though she has very limited time. She goes to Literal Heart of Jesus and Augustus tells her that he is preparing himself from death. Hazel gives her eulogy and talks about how she's glad she and Augustus got to have infinities.

In the middle of the night she gets a call that he is dead. Her parents try to comfort her but nothing helps. She goes to his funeral and kisses his cheek as he lays in the coffin. When she gets home, she goes to the bathroom and locks herself in there. Her dad tells her that it was a privilege to have known him and he tries to make the whole situation suck less. She goes to Augustus' house and lays in his bed and it smells like him. After she goes home, she makes her mom promise that they will have a life after she's gone and not to always worry about her so much. She sends emails to the writer of the book she loved and asks him if Augustus ever sent him anything. He emails her back with four attachments about the ending of A Imperial Affliction Augustus ended for her. He wrote, "In life, you don't get to choose whether or not you get hurt, but you do get to choose what hurts you." So, in the end Augustus is happy with his choices and Hazel is too.

I really enjoyed this book even though it ended with Hazel being alone and not with Augustus, it kept my interest and I definitely would recommend it.

Imagery

I am currently about half way through The Fault in Our Stars and I have found a lot of examples of imagery. One example is, "As the phone rang, I sat down on the grass, which was all overgrown and dandeliony. That swing set was still back there, weeds growing out of the little ditch I'd created from kicking myself higher as a little kid...The sky was gray and low and full of rain but not yet raining."
In this part of the book I can really picture in my head what it would look like outside and the swing set that Hazel described. Picturing what it would look like outside really describes the mood that she was in at the time. Dreary and Hazy. Usually when it looks like this outside, it just puts me in a bad mood. That's how I think she was feeling when she picked up the phone.

Hazel also seems to be feeling kind of lonely in the past couple chapters that I have read and she doesn't say why but I can tell by the way she talks to her mom and to Augustus. Hopefully everything clears up and there is more to see in her then just her loving Augustus but barely showing it.

Upcoming Movie

I have recently found out that The Fault in Our Stars is going to be a movie! I think this will be a really breath taking movie. Even though I am only half way through the book, I can tell making this movie will be very interesting. Just looking at the movie cover picture, it shows that Hazel and Augustus really like each other and they are passionate about being together. I am excited to keep reading to find out the ending and to see the movie. I hope the director of the movie will catch every detail in the book to make the movie pretty exact.

I have also watched the preview for the movie and the characters features are very exact to what I imagined them to be. Hazel has clear tubes that go in her nose like described in the book and her hair is sandy blond. In the preview, I catch a part where Augustus tells Hazel he loves her, so in just that part it shows the way he looked at her and cares for her.  

Character Development

Continuing in the Fault in Our Stars... Hazel Grace goes to visit Augustus and his friend Isaac. Both of the boys are playing a game and yelling at each other, while Hazel comments every now and then. Augustus and Hazel both love The Prince of Dawn, the book Hazel told Augustus to read. Hazel is deeply feeling things about dying and how she is very worried, but her talking to Augustus makes her feel better. I think Hazel is really starting to figure out that she likes Augustus a lot and that she loves being around him. Talking to him for her makes her feel a lot better. 

Hazel writes a email to Mr. Peter Van Houten, the writer of the book they are reading. She wants to know if he will write more books because both Hazel and Augustus love them. She really likes having someone with her who can relate to the book. Hazel is starting to really develop in the book.