The Bell Jar: What drove her to insanity?

 Warning: This post contains discussion of suicide, sexual assault, and depression, please skip this post if you don't feel comfortable reading about these topics. 

    The Bell Jar by Sylvia Plath is a semi-autobiography about a young woman in the 1950s struggling with clinical depression. Ester (the main character) is a college age writer who is praised for her writing skills. Throughout the novel Ester struggles to understand and follow the conventions for most girls her age. She is expected to remain a virgin, find a husband, get married, and have children. However, she wants to travel, write, and cannot imagine herself ever getting married. She is only respected by other girls when she dates an aspiring doctor, Buddy Willard. Buddy expects her to give up her poetry to marry him and raise a family. Ester is torn between different future careers and attempts to kill herself on multiple occasions before ending up in a mental asylum.

    "When I was nineteen, pureness was the great issue. Instead if the world being divided up into Catholics and Protestants or Republicans and Democrats or white men and black men or even men and women, I saw the world divided into people who had slept with somebody and people who hadn’t, and this seemed the only really significant difference between one person and another. I thought a spectacular change would come over me the day I crossed the boundary line."

    One factor that adds to Ester's madness is the double standard regarding her virginity. She was taught from a young age that women are expected to "stay pure" until the marry and have children. The idea of remaining a virgin does not affect her much until she finds that Buddy, the man she is expected to marry, has slept with a woman before. She is enraged by the hypocrisy of this and does not understand why Buddy did not need to remain a virgin even though she did. I think that Ester becomes further alienated when she realizes that the other women she is around are not bothered by this double standard.  Of all of the factors impacting Ester's mental state, I found this the most interesting. The obsession with female virginity is something that is still relevant today especially in some religious groups.

    After Ester learns about Buddy's past, she refuses his offer to marry him and leaves him. She then becomes obsessed with the idea to lose her virginity. She feels her virginity as something that burdens her and holds her back and wants to have a sexual experience to become more free rather than for her own pleasure. She becomes somewhat competitive and feels as though she needs to have sex to distance herself from Buddy. However in the process of meeting different men she is sexually assaulted. I found the scene where she is assaulted particularly engrossing because it further showed the hypocrisy regarding sexual interactions in this time period. While she is being assaulted she is repeatedly called a slut even though she is the victim of the situation. 

Eleanor Kraatz

Sometimes Dead is Better

    Pet Sematary is a scary story that will for sure keep you up at night. Written by Stephen King, it is not for the faint of heart. Pet Sematary follows the life of Louis Creech, a doctor who moves to Maine, and his family. However, in this horror story, Louis has to deal with a bit more than some simple doctoring. He gets to play god.

    

    As I said, Louis moves to Maine with his family, which consists of himself, his wife Rachael, his kids, Ellie and Gage, and his cat Church. Louis immediately notices that the road near their house is constantly being driven on by large trucks that go very fast. His new neighbor, Judd, comes over and helps the family get settled and also makes friends with them. A few days go by and Judd decides to take the family on a little trip into the woods near their house. He takes them to a place called the Pet Sematary, where children have buried their pets for generations. A key takeaway is the large deadfall of brush and wood blocking the rest of the way into the forest.

    Later, when Louis is at work, some students rush in with a dying friend that was hit by a truck. Louis is left alone with him, and to his surprise the boy speaks. The dying boy tells him that the soil of a man's heart is stonier, and calls him by name. Louis is shaken by the experience and tries to get it out of his mind. Later that night, Louis is woken by the same boy from earlier, who leads him to the Pet Sematary and tells him to never cross the deadfall. Louis believes it to just be a dream until he wakes up with dirt on his feet in the morning.

    Time flies by, and on Thanksgiving Day, the unthinkable happens. Church is hit by a truck. Judd finds him and calls Louis over, and after some thinking tells Louis to come with him, and to bring Church's body. Louis is so worried as what to tell Ellie that he complies and goes along with Judd. Judd takes them up to the Pet Sematary, where Louis expects to bury him, but Judd presses on, and goes over the deadfall. Louis hurries after him and finds himself in a darker area of the forest. Judd refuses to answer Louis's questions and instead brings him through swamps and dark areas until they reach the deeper end of the Pet Sematary, the Micmac Indian burial ground. Judd tells Louis to bury Church in the burial ground, and Louis does it. He is too tired to question what truly happened, but the next morning, when Louis finds Church alive, he starts to wonder.

    Pet Sematary is really, really scary. Trust me when I say you do not want to read this late at night. Also, the book is even scarier if you have not watched the movie yet. All scary things aside, I would recommend this book because it is well written, and I am definitely going to read some of Stephen King's other novels.

Okay for now.

Okay for Now is a novel written by Gary D. Schmidt. First published in 2011, it is a "sequel" to Schmidt's Newbery Honor-winning novel The Wednesday Wars. Okay for Now is an amazing book with a great plot, marvelous characters, and an admirable message. 

    Okay for Now is about a 14-year-old boy named Doug Swieteck. The year is 1968, and Doug is living through the Space Race, Lyndon B. Johnson's presidency, and the Vietnam War. Doug's life is not exactly a walk in the park, and he has to deal with an abusive father who got fired from his job for bad-mouthing his boss, a submissive mother, and two older brothers who constantly bully him. 

    On a visit to the local library, Doug becomes very interested in the book The Birds of America, illustrated by John James Audubon. Doug is intrigued by the pictures in the book and soon begins to learn how to draw, inspired by the birds' pictures. Doug's teacher is a librarian named Mr. Powell.

    Later on in the story, Doug meets a girl named Lil Spicer, the daughter of the local deli owner, and Doug gets a job offer from Lil's father to be a delivery boy for the deli. Doug and Lil begin spending a lot of time together, and eventually, Doug develops a crush on Lil. 

    As the story progresses, Doug flourishes into a different version of himself and an improved and happier version. Doug finds love, grows up, and when he realizes that pages of the book of birds or the Audubon book as it is called in the story go missing, he embarks on a quest to recover the lost pages. 

    One thing that particularly interests me about this book is the incredible case of character development. Throughout the story, we see Doug develop into a happier and more respected kid. As the story starts, we are introduced to Doug as a useless low-life with unstable home life, but towards the end of the novel, Doug has made friendships and has discovered a love and talent for drawing. 

    At the beginning of the story, Doug's relationship with his brother, who comes home from Vietnam, does not start in the best way possible, but once he gets a chance to have a deep talk with him, they find out that they have more in common than they had previously thought they did. 

    Some people believed Doug was a mirror image of his father and brothers, who are mean and despicable people. But it turns out that he has a much softer side that cares about the people he truly loves. 

    Overall, we see an enormous change in attitude from Doug, and the author does a splendid job of describing every occurrence in the story. This book makes you want to be beside Doug as he is trying to find out who he is, and it makes you want to get rid of all the bad people and obstacles he faces along the way. In my opinion, this book is a 10/10 and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for an engaging story to read.

A boy from the world above By Luca Zepeda

 Gregor the Overlander was written by Suzanne Collins and published in 2003. Gregor the Overlander tells the story of an 11-year-old boy named Gregor who embarks on a quest to find his long lost father. This story contains all the elements of a good fantasy novel, with personified animals and mystical worlds underneath the city of New York. Some people might consider this book to be more suitable for younger audiences but I was truly captivated by what Gregor experiences in this story, and in my opinion, this can be a book for all ages.

In Gregor the Overlander Gregor and his sister fall through an old air duct grate in their apartment building's basement. To their surprise, it leads to a world miles under New York City. This world is inhabited by humans with almost transparent skin, and the people co-exist with rats, bats, and cockroaches the size of humans. Gregor and his sister find themselves in a city that is on the brink of war, and the rats are trying to overtake the realm. The Regalian council believes Gregor to be this warrior, and they try to convince him to undertake the quest mentioned in the "Prophecy of Gray". This prophecy states that an Overland "warrior" will stop any attempt by the rats to take over the underground realm once and for all. 

   

 Character development is prevalent in the story, as Gregor learns how to live in this new world he has fallen into. However, I would like to focus on something that I enjoy from the book. In Gregor the Overlander there are two distinct settings: New York City and the Underland. Most of the story takes place in the Underland. Collins has done a remarkable job of creating a fantastical world that resembles a city that exists in the real world, or the Overland, and modifies it to fit the fantastical setting of the Underland. In the book, there are all sorts of customs and rituals that are unique to the Underland and have been created by the author to give the world an outlandish feeling. 

Another thing that I find interesting is the theme of this story. I believe the theme is "strength in differences." The Prophecy of Gray is about all races being equal. There must be two bats, two spinners (spiders), two crawlers, (cockroaches), two Overlanders, two Underlanders, etc. Although the city is at war and two species, humans and rats, are fighting to annihilate one another, in this quest, all species are equal, and that equality of being is the only hope of survival. This is clearly a message from the author about finding strength in the species’ differences, which can only be performed through equal treatment. I think this also speaks to issues that are going along in the real world regarding racial equality. 

All in all, this is a very interesting and admirable book. Everything about it is likable and the characters, the plot, the setting, etc. are all unique and splendid in their own way. I highly recommend this book to anyone who desires to read a fantastical story. 

I Need A Cure After Reading This A-MAZE-ing Book - Savindi

Warning #1: The Death Cure is the third and final book in The Maze Runner series. Therefore, this blog post will contain multiple spoilers for the two preceding books in the series. Also, there will be major spoilers for The Death Cure because I will talk about how the characters have changed throughout the series and also a major piece of information revealed in the book. I will also talk about my thoughts on the book's ending in this blog post because I think it is worth mentioning.   

        The third and final installment of The Maze Runner series is The Death Cure by James Dashner, and it seems fitting to make my third and final blog post for this semester about The Death Cure. Just like its predecessors, The Death Cure does not fail to keep you on your toes. The plot twists and turns, making you think hard about what is happening throughout the book. Many parts of the book make you think that you are getting answers, but at the same time, you still do not know anything. As I read the book, I kept second-guessing myself because I was not sure what information and what characters to trust. With the action combined with the amazing development, it truly is a thrilling read.      

Although the book was action-packed, I didn’t particularly like how the book was extremely violent and morbid in some scenes since it makes the story kind of hard to read. The book does not sugarcoat anything, so if you do not like very graphic books, I would not recommend this book to you. Another complaint I have about the plot is that it was slow in the beginning. Similar to The Scorch Trials, some parts of this book felt like the plot was just dragging along. However, the suspenseful and dramatic scenes near the end of the book made up for it. In fact, I liked the plot of The Death Cure much more than The Scorch Trials. 

Another aspect of The Death Cure that I like is the setting, which I used to dislike in The Scorch Trials. While The Maze Runner is set in the Maze (an elaborate, terrifying, and mysterious maze where the Gladers were trapped), The Scorch Trials and The Death Cure are both set in the world outside of the Maze. In The Scorch Trials, I really disliked the setting because it was very gruesome and violent. However, as more information was revealed about the setting, I began to appreciate how detailed and developed the setting is. 

Warning #2: In these next two paragraphs, there will be some spoilers about the setting that are not revealed until the end of The Death Cure. 

To elaborate more about the setting, The Maze Runner series is set in the future after the Sun Flares. The Sun Flares occurred years before The Maze Runner takes place. However, this event drives the story forward. Because of the Sun Flares, much of the world was destroyed, and the government concluded that only a portion of the surviving population could survive with the few resources left. Soon after, a man-made disease called the Flare was released, and it began killing many people. This Flare virus specifically attacks the brain, eating it until the victims, commonly called Cranks, lose themselves and become cannibalistic and savage. The reason for the release of the Flare is later revealed in the Epilogue of The Death Cure. In a journal entry, the leader of an organization called WICKED wrote, “Though I am fully aware that it was an act of desperation after the sun flares, releasing the Flare virus as a means of population control was an abhorrent and irreversible crime” (Dashner 725). This quote reveals that the Flare virus was released as a means of controlling the population in order for humans to survive. Later on, the leader of WICKED states that WICKED’s goal as an organization was to find the cure for the Flare in hopes they would “right that wrong” (Dashner 725). 

These pieces of information about the setting and WICKED really made me appreciate them. James Dashner put a lot of thought into the setting and WICKED, only revealing little by little how the setting and WICKED came to be, what WICKED’s goals were, and how the Gladers are tied to WICKED. This kind of development and storytelling is why I really love The Maze Runner series. It is honestly sad that I only began to love this aspect of the series after reading The Death Cure.

Warning #3: These next two paragraphs will have major spoilers about Newt, one of the main characters in The Maze Runner series, as well as a huge plot point in The Death Cure. Also, trigger warning, there is mention of suicide. 

Another thing I love about The Death Cure is the development of one of the main characters, Newt. The Maze Runner series is told through the perspective of Thomas, and one of his closest friends is a fellow Glader called Newt. When we first meet Newt in The Maze Runner, we see a guy who is kind, caring, and almost a motherly character. However, in The Death Cure, he gets the infamous Flare virus, which begins to eat his brain as the story progresses. He starts to become more irritable, and it is apparent that he is starting to lose his mind. This drastic change in Newt’s personality makes The Death Cure really interesting to read but also painful to read because Newt is my favorite character. 

In addition, we also see a huge side of Newt that we don’t see in The Maze Runner or The Scorch Trials, and that is his inner struggle. A notable characteristic of Newt is his limp, but in the previous books, he almost always avoided talking about it. Newt rarely talks about his struggles, but near the end of the book, he finally tells the truth to Thomas. He reveals the reason for his limp to Thomas, saying, “I tried to kill myself in the Maze. Climbed halfway up one of those bloody walls and jumped right off. Alby found me and dragged me back to the Glade right before the Doors closed. I hated the place, Tommy. I hated every second of every day” (Dashner 748). What Newt reveals in his last moments shows an inner struggle that he never showed in The Maze Runner or The Scorch Trials. It makes you empathize with the character, and, in my case, want to give them a hug. This scene is so heartbreaking, and it is probably one of the reasons why I love this series so much. The characters feel like real people, and they are so well written.        

Warning #4: I will now begin talking about my thoughts on the ending of The Death Cure, so there will be major spoilers.   

Another part I really liked near the end of The Death Cure was how it tied back to the first book, The Maze Runner. I was almost going to complain, saying that the Maze was almost never brought up again and seemed forgotten, but I was proven wrong. Near the end of the book, the Gladers find out that they have to go back to the Maze in order to save many people called Immunes due to the fact that they are immune to the Flare. In addition, the way the Gladers saved the Immunes and escaped the Maze for a second time was very similar to how they escaped the Maze in the first book. Although these last few chapters were extremely morbid and terrifying, I really like how James Dashner ended the series with what he started with. It connects well with what happened in the past books, and it ends the book and the series nicely.   

Not Warning #5: This section about my final thoughts is spoiler-free. I Promise.

        Overall, I loved The Death Cure and The Maze Runner trilogy though I'm not sure if I would recommend it. I would not recommend it if you don't like morbid or violent books. However, if you like to read books with an amazing plot, setting, and character development,  I would definitely recommend The Maze Runner series. The development, the plot, and the setting in the series are written incredibly well, and specifically in The Death Cure, the events feel so real and almost make you emotional. You know a book is amazing when you feel strong emotions because of it.    

Works Cited

Dashner, James. The Death Cure. Overdrive ed., Random House Children's Books, 2011. 3 vols. 

I Am Number Four, but that doesn't mean I'm the fourth book

     I Am Number Four is a book by the author Pittacus Lore, and is about a group of aliens, the Loric, who hail from the planet Lorien. It is also the first book of the series Lorien Legacies. IANF follows the life of John Smith, a Loric, as he struggles to blend in and hide from his enemies, the Mogadorians. I personally think this is a great series of books, and I am going to tell you all about them.

    John Smith is a seemingly average boy until we find out he is actually an alien  from the planet Lorien. When he was a child he was shipped off to Earth from the remains of his planet, along with eight other children. After Lorien was destroyed by another race of aliens, the Mogadorians, the children were chosen to save their planet. A charm was placed over the nine children so that they could only be killed in order. John is Number Four. His name is not actually John, but that is the name we are given throughout the book. John is in danger though. Numbers One through Three are dead, and he is Four. He is the next to die.

    John and his Cêpan, or guardian, Henri head to Paradise, Ohio to try to live life peacefully. There John makes friends with a nerdy boy, Sam, and gets a girlfriend, Sarah. Henri warns him to not get too attached to anyone in Paradise, because they might have to leave at a moment's notice, but John disregards that and proceeds to make friends anyways. In Paradise John learns to work with his special skills, called legacies, that act akin to superpowers. John develops telekinesis, heat resistance, and hand flashlights. John has to hone his legacies in order to use them in combat, and unfortunately Paradise is not always a paradise.

    This book was really good, and hard to put down. Since there's a good sized series of these books, I have been reading through them lately. I would recommend I Am Number Four to anyone who likes Sci-Fi, as well as people who like a good fiction novel/series. There is never a dull moment in the books, and they will get you hooked. I highly encourage giving IANF a try.

Of Mice and Men: Short but not so sweet

   

Eleanor Kraatz

 I decided to read Of Mice and Men because it was very short and I had it at my house. However, in its meer 100 pages it was incredibly eye-opening and sad. The book tells the story of two migrant workers; a small, smart man named George and his strong but mentally disabled friend Lennie. The book does not mention specifically what Lennie's problem is, but he has a terrible memory, poor social skills, and although he is kind, he panics when he is confused. This often gets him in trouble. For example, he becomes fascinated with a women's soft dress and wants to touch it, when he touches the dress the women screams which frightens Lennie. Instead of letting go he grips onto the dress much tighter which eventually leads to the woman telling others she has been raped, and Lennie and George must leave the town. He also is schizophrenic and tends to fixate on very specific things. Because of his issues he travels with George wherever he goes which is not normal for many migrant workers. 

    Although George and Lennie have each other one of the most prominent themes in the book is loneliness. In the story George, Candy (a worker on the ranch), Crooks (a black man working on the ranch), and Curley's wife (the wife of a worker on the ranch)  all admit to how lonely they are. The story also shows that even when people are isolated and long for companionship they still try to tear each other down. It was sad to see the characters, even at their weakest, still tried to crush others dreams and ambitions. 

    "Guys like us, that work on ranches, are the loneliest guys in the world. They got no family. They don't belong no place...They ain't got nothing to look ahead to." This is said by George in the very beginning of the book and is shown by many of the supporting characters. One of those character is Crooks, an old, black stable-hand. Because Crooks is black, he sleeps away from all the other workers and spends most of his time alone. The following are quotes from the book from when characters explain their loneliness to each other 

 "S'pose you didn't have nobody. S'pose you couldn't go into the bunk house and play rummy 'cause you was black...A guy needs somebody-to be near him. A guy goes nuts if he ain't got nobody. Don't make no difference who the guy is, long's he's with you." -Crooks

"I never get to talk to nobody. I get awful lonely" -Curley's Wife 

Despite knowing about each other's loneliness the characters don't provide each other with companionship. Instead they try and make them feel worse about themselves by telling each their dreams are impossible. It was sad to read because you would think that the characters would realise they do not need to be lonely when they are surrounded by other people. However, the characters allow fear and jealousy to make each other more miserable.