Reading Response On Theme

The book "19 Minutes" by Jodi Picoult is one of my favorites. Its follows the stories of many different characters all surrounding a high school shooting. Everyone is questioning themselves and how the boy who shot everybody could have done what he did. I think that one major theme in the book is how people can be them selves, and how others opinions affect that.

I think this theme is true when it comes to Josie. Josie is about 16 and is in high school. She is the perfect popular girl with a boyfriend who loves her and a perfect life, well it seems. One thing that Josie struggles with is that she feel that she can't be who she really is or all her friends will abandon her. One example of this is that Josie is eating a bunch of french fries which she sees as looking delicious, but when her boy friend makes a comment about how fat she would be if she ate them, they suddenly become disgustingly unappealing. I think that here she is really being influenced by what others think, she can't be herself and just eat, because she criticized. I think this is only true in my life too. People can make huge changes based on what others think, therefore changing and masking themselves. Josie also used to be friends with this boy everyone thought was weird, but left him when the "popular" kids started to accept her. I think that Josie still likes him, but is too scared to loose her popularity by being friends with him. I think this is also mixed in with peer pressure. I end up feeling bad for Josie, because she stuck in this place where her whole life is fake, and she knows it. I think that the best friends are the ones that love you for who you are, not who you pretend to be.

I think that this theme also applies to Josie's mother Alex. Alex is a female judge in court. One thing that Alex has done is overcome being different and has learned to love herself for it. One example of this is that Alex talks about how she was the only female judge and kept pushing past others comments until she became this person that others support and respect. I think that this is something to really look up to in people. By making this choice she really inspires others to reach for their dreams and do what they really want to do. I really admire Alex's initiative, I think it would be hard to be the only one to do anything. I think that Alex really struggled with being who she was and how that fits with the court room. I think that somethings in life have to affect what we do. I think that for justice to be fair everything can't revolve around personal moral. I think that this must have been a hard thing to get over. Letting a criminal go free because there wasn't enough evidence, it comes with the job and there is nothing you can do about it.

In conclusion, these two characters are both intertwined around the theme of who they are as people, but have dealt with it in different ways. Alex chose to overcome it, while Josie gave into it and became someone else. I think that as time passes Josie will reach a point where she has to be herself, or she won't be able to deal with her life anymore. I feel that if Josie could only do that then she could grow to be an amazing person, like her mom. This doesn't just have to do with Josie, but anyone who feels they can't be them selves. 

Responding to Reading Responses

Stella Brooks

       I liked Stella's blog post a lot because I could really understand the point she was trying to get a cross. I totally can relate with being scared of monsters when I was younger. It is also true that fear can also be caused by people you can see on the street. I think that with monsters they are dubbed creepy, while you can't tell who a person is by just looking at them. I think that the unknown can be one of the scariest things, just because it's unknown.  I also liked that Stella's reading response was very thought provoking, without being too over complicated. I think she did a very good job.

Olivia Krent

     Olivia's reading response made me understand the book in a second even though I had never seen it before. I think this is a really good feature in this type of writing because sometimes it's hard to understand where the writers coming from if you don't understand the book. I think that she also brought up a really good point when it came to talking about how you can make everything perfect. I think that this is very true, we can strive to do our best but I don't think that it is possible to truly reach perfection.

Summer Book Reading Response

    Over the summer I read two books that really showed people trying to find right in  a world of wrong. These books were  Shine by Lauren Myracle and Sources of Light  by Margaret McMullan. Shine is about a teenage boy beaten horribly and left in  a coma at the hospital all just because he's gay. The book is told from his former best friends point of view as she searches from the person who hurt him, as she finally learns to get over being raped.  Sources of Light is about a girl and her mom living in Jackson Mississippi in the 60‘s. The book is about the high school girl trying to balance her feelings about civil rights and trying to fit in. I think that these two books relate to each other because they both are about how a high school girl tries to find justice for some of the worlds modern issues.

    In both books the characters are both battling over issues. In Shine, Cat had been raped by her brothers best friend. Cat shuts down and doesn’t let anyone in. She tries to find out why the people she once trusted didn’t protect her when she was being attacked. I think that what Cat deals with is heart breaking. She is left where she’s alone, and I think that it’s amazing when she finally gets over it and has her moment of strength it isn’t for herself, but for someone else. In Sources of Light Sam deals with fitting in. She isn’t as wealthy as all the other girls at school are and her mom is very over the top democratic, which is not at all common in 1960 Jackson. I think that Sam initially just wants to fit in and she doesn’t really care about the bad thing that come along with the popular people, their racial beliefs. As the book unfolds Sam learns to love and respect her mom for what she believes in and learns that there are more important things in the world than being popular. I think these girls both fight hard battles and in the end they both conquer.

    One thing that is the same in both of the books is that someone is beaten  horribly because people don’t like what they are doing and who they are. In Shine Patrick is beaten up because people don’t like that he is gay. In Sources of Light this applies because Perry, a man who photographed the protests for blacks equal rights, is beaten to death by a crowed of white men angry for melding in their business and supporting civil rights for the black. I think that this is really depressing that people could have so much hate that they could murder people in cold blood just for existing. I think that the reason that things like this happen because people are scared of things that are different, they turn their fear into anger. I think they people would be less scared if they could just learn about peoples differences and understand them.

    Another thing that is similar in both books is that their is a character trying to find justice for the wrongs in their world. In Shine this comes up where the main character, Cat, tries to find the person who attacked Patrick, and make sure that he pays the consequences. In Sources of Light this comes up in which the main character Sam finds pictures of Perry’s attackers on his old camera. She makes the choice to give the pictures to the police even though she knows it’s dangerous. In this way both characters are searching for justice, though they might do it differently. I think that this would be a really brave thing to do. I think this is the way that people overcome others hatred, by doing what is right and what you believe in.

    In the end, I wish I could have the bravery to do what either of these two characters did. I think that they end up being really strong people who aren’t afraid to challenge things they don’t believe in. When I step away from these two books they really inspired me to try to do what they did, and make the world a better place.