Post A

Hydra-trouble that cannot be overcome by a single effort because of its many aspects or its persistent and pervasive quality; "we may be facing a hydra that defies any easy solution"

Bourgeois- conforming to the standards and conventions of the middle class; "a bourgeois mentality"

I found the following to be a wonderful example of imagery:

"With regal grandeur, Hope paraded in and plunged herself into the chair by the sliding doors, throwing her two long legs over its arm. The skin on her calves was the color of taffy. It contrasted dramatically with the hem of her bleached jeans. She wore white sneakers without socks. Instead of shoelaces, she'd threaded a satin ribbon through the grommets" (162).
This passage defiantly painted a picture in my mind of what Hope looked like at that moment.

I also thought this was a good simile:

"A slender wrist grew from the man's white collar, sprouting five tapered female fingers like the hydra Alice had once seen under a microscope in science class" (154).

And I found this to be a good example of irony:

" 'I'm glad to hear that, Duncan,' said Odette, removing her own photographs from the easel, one by one, and sliding them back into her zippered portfolio. 'Because I think you've got a chance to win first prize' " (158).

I found this to be a good example of irony because Alice wasn't even supposed to be at this art university in the first place, she was told it was just a summer camp. Or maybe she was supposed to be there. Maybe Aunt Esme knew exactly what the university was.

"Alice stood stiffly while the small, soft thumb-so different from the tough skin that belonged to J.D.-ran over her mouth, slicking it with lip gloss. She'd felt she'd entered a huge pinball machine. Helpless, she could only roll along the tracks, responding to the pushes and the pulls, the bells and the thwacks. Alice didn't know how to stop the mechanism. Hope was the paddle. Alice was the ball" (167).
I think the significance of this quote is a tad obvious. Alice is being used by Hope. Hope is taking advantage of the fact that Alice looks much older than she really is. But Alice is used to this, which is even worse. It's sad.

I have been seeing a theme of self worth emerging from the book. Alice used to think her collages were nothing special, but she is now realizing that she could have the potential to be a wonderful artist.

Post B

My favorite part of this book so far is the entire chapter called The Swinger's Grin. During The Swinger's Grin, Alice decides to go adventure in the forest just to clear her mind and such. She climbs a big tree and talks about how the university looks so different from the height she is at. She then sees JD on the ground below and he joins her in the tree. I love this chapter because it really shows they have some kind of deep connection that can't exactly be explained quite yet. One quote I found kind of interesting:

"It's, uh, a game. See. Here's how it goes. It goes: on the one hand, and on the other. On the other hand of course, Alice, you could stay. You could take a toke of my smoke. Which isn't a wise course, not at all. But it may well be the more interesting one. For me, that is Alice. For me. I'm generally concerned primarily with myself, you see. But I do think about my fellow human beings. From time to time" (121).

I really just like the way JD's mind works, to be honest. Alice is given this decision to stay or leave. If she left, JD says he would never bother her again. But if she stayed, JD says to Alice he will never leave her side. He will always be there for her. He may get annoying, but she may learn to love him. I don't know why but i just really liked the thought of that. Alice of course chose to stay. If i were in Alice's shoes I would defiantly be a little bit frightened by JD because he's so up front about everything. Alice is only twelve and shes already met a man that drives her crazy. It's a good crazy, though. The author maybe went through a similar childhood? I am thoroughly enjoying this book so far.

Post A

Magnanimously- Courageously noble in mind and heart.

Benevolent- Characterized by or suggestive of doing good.

" 'Did I hurt you?' Alice asked. ' Not yet, kid, but keep trying. You can, Alice. And you will."
I think this is an example of foreshadowing. JD and Alice will most likely have some sort of fling in the future, and she may end up hurting him. I am sure this is also a symbol showing that JD has been hurt before.

"Through the leaves, JD's face appeared. His head was turned upward and she saw only his mouth. The thin, liver-colored lips were pulled back over the shining white teeth. He was grinning. The rest of his face emerged, tan against the green."
I think this is a wonderful example of imagery. It really painted a picture in my mind of what JD looked like at the moment Alice saw him.

"Up in the oak, the Little Studio appeared to be made by children out of Lincoln Logs."
This would be an example of a simile. Alice is comparing the university to a structure made of Lincoln Logs.

"Alice sat beside him. He put his arm around her. It hung around the back of her neck like a weight. But it felt so sturdy, also, and reassuring. She couldn't help but feel glad that such a person existed, a man who would catch her when she fell from trees, a man who wore rings with skulls and nymphs on them, a man who talked of fantastic things. He'd relinquished Alice's shoulder and had started crawling through the weeds. He picked up a shining object-the ring. But instead of letting Alice have it, he put it inside the pocket of his jeans" (133).
This quote talks more about how Alice sees JD as different than most people. She sees him as kind of a "beauty", someone different from everyone else. Magical, maybe. The thing with the ring is also very significant. JD talks about how many women have tried to pull the nymph from his finger, but no one has succeeded yet. He says the one to succeed is the one he is meant to be with. So even though the book may be leading us to believe Alice and JD are going to be together, maybe they won't be. Or maybe the ring has no significance at all, and its just there to confuse us. Hmm..

One theme I see in this book is a theme of independence. Alice is learning to live her life on her own, she is really deciding her destiny, making all her own decisions and such.

Post B

I think this book is about freedom, and how too much can be a bad thing. Alice lives alone with her Aunt Esme, who is sixteen, because her mother left her when she was young and her dad is in a treatment center for extreme depression. Because she lives with Esme she is introduced to sex and drugs at a very early age. Alice lives a bit of a dangerous life, and is constantly left alone to fend for helself. She is even sent away to a camp Esme isn't sure still even exists. The main reason she sends Alice away is so she can see one of her boyfriends in California. Alice doesn't really have any form of authority in her life. The book is also about self image.

"The Breasts, apparently, operated upon him like two tractor beams, magnetizing his eyes. She felt terrible. She felt she had exposed Superman to kryptonite. Mr. Mann was unable to see her face. He was weakened, hypnotized. He had no idea that she was his daughter's school friend, Alice thought. After a second he managed to break away from the unholy pull of her deformation" (27).

Alice is "developing prematurely" and she considers it a curse. She is only twelve and already has breasts and is five foot six. She gets made fun of by people in her class, and complimented by every man on the street. Self image is a very important thing for Alice, she wishes she could just be a little girl like everyone else. It is a large part of her life.

Post A

"He'd been living in the Bin for months, but he didn't ever seem to feel at ease there. This, too, Alice found depressing. She could envision him vanishing and someone else's father walking into Cell B and replacing him" (31).

I think this quote shows that Alice hates her father being in the Bin. He went there to kind of get away from his family, and she feels that all it is doing is simply killing him slowly. He seems to have no expression anymore, no happiness. He is slowly fading away.

Gesticulating (16) - making gestures while talking.

Ominous (21) - foreboding or foreshadowing evil.

When Alice meets J.D (Aunt Esme's drug dealer), she is shy and talks about how she feels different about him. She doesn't stay with him for more than ten minutes, but she can't stop thinking about him. I beleive this is an example of foreshadowing because I am positive he will have an important role in the book later on, maybe an important role with Alice.

"Alice had seen him take one of the yellow pills that resembled her daily vitamins as soon he'd walked into the Dollhouse" (1). This is a metaphor because it compares one object to another.

"They were under a spell- sleepwalking, drugged, or hypnotized" (26). This is a similie, because they really weren't any of the three. They were just "dead looking".

The Sea Inside

1. Watching The Sea Inside made me realize how sometimes you need to fight to survive; or for death. Ramon Sampedro's life was dramatically changed with one accident when he was in his early twentys. The area of the ocean by Ramon's house was tretchorous, and Ramon wasn't paying attention to the water when he jumped in, and it resulted in him being paralized. I think that any person should have the right to end their life if they're in the position Ramon was. His friends were willing to help him because i think they saw the pain Ramon was in (not physical, but emotional).
2. Ramon Sampedro and Jean-Dominique Bauby both were paralized, but i think they were having different struggles. Ramon was fighting to end his life, while Bauby was fighting for life. Bauby was trying to show people that he still had a fully functional mind, he just wasn't able to express it very clearly. Yet he still found a way to communicate with the outside world. He was a fighter, if you will. Ramon had decided he could'nt continue his life if he was paralized. He believed he couldn't simply love because of his condition. I believe the Diving Bell and the Butterefly was more powerful because Bauby kept fighting after his accident. He showed that life is a precious thing, and shouldn't be taken for granted.
3. In The Sea Inside I noticed that there were alot of close up shots throughout the movie. There were some different camera movements too, including panning. One scene that I noticed the camera angles was the scene when Julia is looking at the old picture of Ramon, before the accident. The camera shot is an extreme close up, and it really adds meaning to the scene. It seems to make it more dramatic.

In chapter fourteen Danielle is confronted by the 'man in the aviators', again. This time is different though. Since getting chased down the streets of Vietnam by an unknown man, she has been very scared. She stays up all night in her hotel room, unable to sleep because of the thought that the man knows where she is staying. The man comes to her hotel window at night, and tries to rob her.

"Before I had a chance to get out of bed, s sharp pain stabbed through my shin. I rolled off the bed just in time to see a metal hook-attached to a broom handle as long as an arm- jutting from the window ledge. From the floor, I watched it rise and descend, swooping near the backpack I'd left at the foot of the bed...Moonlight caught upon the jeans of the man with the aviator sunglasses as he crawled over the balcony and climbed down to the street."

Danielle was scared of the man before, and now she is terrified. The hook cut deep into her shin, by the bone. She tells the receptionist of the hotel tells her about how he knows the man before, he has been known to steal from tourists. The man is not from Vietnam. The receptionist tells Danielle he will take care of it in the morning.

This chapter also flashes back to a time where Kelly, Danielle's sister, got pregnant. Kelly grew up to be just like her dad, heavy drinking daily, arrogant, and tough. The pregnancy was caused by a one night stand and the father wasn't heard from again. When her dad found out about her being pregnant, he yelled at her. He yelled at her about how she is a slut, immoral, and can't raise a child on her own. When Kelly actually has the baby, her dad changes his mind, in love with the fact that he now has a grandson.

Danielle's dad's friend, Goodman, also dies in this chapter. They were taking turn blowing out tunnels, and he was caught off guard. The irony of Goodman's death; it was really Danielle's dad's turn, Goodman was just closer to the tunnel. When checking tunnels to make sure they are inactive, one has to be very stealthily and quick. Goodman was being careless, and paid the price. He was shot right between the eyes by a Vietcong and the back of his head was blown off.

"Dad picked up Goodman's burned-down cigarette and took a deep drag. He told me this story many times over the years, and every time he said the same thing: 'That bullet had my name written all over it. It was my turn, and Goodman took it.'"

Seeing Goodman die changed him. He couldn't believe it was actually happening. He was instantly filled with hatred, sadness, and fear.

Chapter thirteen bounces around a lot and talks about many different things. The first thing to happen in this chapter is another flashback to the day Matt got hit by the car. He ends up surviving, but can't walk for almost a year. The doctors are surprised because there is almost no way to reach the kids parents and they are out of town. When Danielle's dad finally does show up, he reeks of beer and doesn't sympathize, but continues to use 'tough love'. He says,
(watch the language ms. tholen)
"'Dumb little shit,' Dad said, shaking his head, 'running around in traffic like that.' Which in Dad code, was a prayer of thanks that his child was going to be okay."

It then flashes back to Danielle's childhood. She talks about how there was no supervision when she was growing up, so she was able to do whatever she pleased. Her dad didn't exactly play the role of a 'father' in this book; not caring about her grades, how many detentions she would get, curfew, things like that. It talks about how she would steal money from her dad's gun cabinet to buy acid. Any time her dad would confront her, however, she would lie and he would believe her.

"I stood and went back to my room. leaving him to believe that Kelly was the only thief in his house."

Chapters eleven and twelve tell more about Danielle's dad's experience in the war and more about the divorce. Danielle's mother looks upon the divorce like it never happened, and if Danielle were to ask her about her childhood, she would pretend to not remember. Her mother has decided to move on with her life, but her dad is still greatly affected by it, with drinking as the only way to drone the old feelings out.

" For a long time- even after the divorce became final- my father could not grasp that our life on Trussoni Court had ended."

Danielle talks about the first Christmas they celebrated after the divorce. The family (minus the mother) went to their uncle Gene's house. On the way home from the family dinner and such, Danielle's dad takes a wrong turn and heads toward the old house on Trussoni Court.

"When the truth hit him, he slammed on the brakes and cut the engine, leaving the truck mid-road. Folding his arms over the steering wheel, he buried his head in his hands and sobbed. We kids looked from Dad to the long empty highway, scared. We had never seen our father cry before. ..... 'Are you okay, Dad?' I asked him, touching his arm. 'Get in the house, he mumbled. 'Go on. I'm fine.' I think it was then, as I walked over the icy sidewalk, leaving my father to cry in his truck, that I began to hate my mother."

This quote shows that Danielle is more on her dad's 'side' involving the divorce. Even though her mother did hurt her dad, she must have been in a lot of pain as well during the divorce.

Chapter twelve talks more about her in Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam) and about her dad during the war. Danielle is followed again by the mystery man again, and ends up even being chased. I'm not sure who this guy is yet, but I'm sure he will have an important role towards the end of the book, once we find out who is actually is. Danielle ended up having to steal a bike just to get away from the man.
The end of the chapter is about her dad searching a tunnel (he was a tunnel rat in Vietnam). He describes the tunnel, saying how it is the most elaborate one he had ever been in. The one thing about scene that effected me is when him and Goodman found the hospital ward in the tunnel. Danielle's dad finds a dying old man and he tries yelling something to him in Vietnamese. Since her dad can't understand, he kind of just stares at the man, unable to look away from his eyes. With the old man is a boy, not older than 16, who is thought to be his son. Goodman takes the young man captive and kills the old man.

"When they were almost to the surface, my father paused in the darkness, as if held back by a kind of gravity. Years later, in the dim light of Roscoe's, he would tell me that he felt a pain he hadn't felt before, the pain of something inside of himself dying. He knew he had lost part of himself underground that day. What remained climbed up to the sunlight, and to the rest of his life."

He was deeply affected by the helpless old man being killed.

Danielle's life is changed in the end of chapter ten. It gives the gruesome details of her younger brother, Matt, getting hit by a car.

"He was just off the curb when a brown Mercury (going, the police report would later confirm, too fast for a twenty-five-mile-an-hour street; going, the police report suggested, at least thirty-five) clipped him with its bumper. My brother popped into the air, just high enough for the grill to get him full on. I saw a sparkle of sunlight on the chrome. I saw a blur of Matt movement as my brother was thrust backward. He hit the pavement headfirst and rolled, stopping at the curb, a few feet from where he started."

I stopped reading at the end of this chapter, and it didn't say weither he died or not. It described his body as twisted, his head a "red flower, broken at the stem".
This chapter also talked about how Danielle's dad has countless girlfriends. There were two different kinds of women in his life: the ones that stayed over night and were never seen again, and the ones that stayed around. He had lots of both. The book goes into deep detail about three of the girls who stayed around: Maria Vargas, Suzie, and Lolly Parsons. Maria is a Mexican girl that Danielle's dad has over to the house for drinks, but he never tells anyone that is is associated with her. He doesn't tell people about her because she is an illegal immigrant and he is a very "American" man (goes on about how his taxes shouldn't be used on food stamps for people 'like her'). Maria is also a married woman, but her husband is in jail. Suzie is Danielle's dad's Roscoe's girlfriend. She is a much younger girl, Danielle even thinks of her as the older sister she never had. Suzie is another one of her dad's drinking buddies and he is impressed how she can always keep up with how much he drinks. Danielle really likes Suzie because she says her dads temper dissolves when he is with her. Lolly is the crazy girlfriend. She is the type of girl everyone is warned to stay away from, but Danielle's dad doesn't listen. She is described as a home wrecker and a gold digger. She was recently send to jail for breaking and entering of Danielle's house and now her dad is attempting to get a restraining order from her. But Lolly still won't leave him alone.

The book goes back to the time where she was visiting Vietnam again. She sees the man in the aviators again, and he even gets very close to her. He comes up to her taxi, puts his fingers up in a V, and walks away. Her friends all joke about it and she says something that states this man is going to have a big role in the book maybe later on.

"Suddenly, I felt something that I had never expected to feel-that Vietnam might not let me off so easily. However illogical, I was sure, suddenly, that I had inherited a debt and this man had come to extract it. As he walked closer, I believed in fate, retribution. That nothing of the past was forgiven. Or forgotten."

It then goes back to life when Danielle was younger. It talks about how her dad was diagnosed with throat cancer. It talks about how it disappeared and returned, he had to go through chemotherapy. He is also diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. His report shows he is suffering from the following things:

Being overly alert
Felling emotionally numb
Experiencing feelings of paranoia, excessive sensitivity, or that like has "backed you up against a wall"
Experiencing physical reactions when you are reminded of the traumatic event
Reliving the traumatic even, acting or feeling as if it is happening again
Trying not to think about, talk about, or have feelings about the traumatic event
Having bad dreams or nightmares about the traumatic event
Not being able to remember an important part of the event.

He is told to go to therapy and other counseling. Even with the report on his illness, he still believes he doesn't have a problem. There are times in the book where he will be doing something and he will abruptly stop what hes doing, and start telling a story about the war. Danielle talks about how it physically pains her to see how in denial of things her dad is.

Chapter seven is all about a school shooting that happened at her school, Saint Patrick's Grade School. It was a day like any other, but a townsman came in and, to put it quite literally, shot up the school. His name was Brian Stanley, and he shot Father Rossiter, and other staff people, claiming God had sent him to do so. Danielle recalls how she hadn't been able to confess all her sins to the Father in time.

The book is also talking about how the divorce is being finalized and such. Danielle decides she would rather live with her dad rather than her mom.

"And I knew, by the way she turned away-pain giving her an elegance she did not have five minutes before-that she accepted my choice and that was my first step away from her would remain forever between us."

Danielle says this quote after her Dad gets upset and argues keeping the kids for the weekend (when its originally the mom's weekend). After Danielle decides to stay with her dad, her mom realizes it may be a permanent thing. Danielle misses her mom.
Her dad is a wreck right now. He is continuing to tell stories about the war (which Danielle's heard many times) and is still in love with Danielle's mom. Danielle is a twelve year old girl having to deal with many pains that divorce and addiction inflict. She tells about how sometimes her dad will leave her on the side of the curb, forgetting to pick her up to go to Roscoe's.

(This is more of a paragraph than a quote, but i think its pretty important.)

"On these evening, when I had been forgotten, I felt waves of desperate isolation wash over me, a sensation I would one day call depression but which, at the time, I designated as pure, pervasive cold. There was no remedy for it, no prescription, nothing I could do to nurse myself to warmth. I was utterly, hopelessly bone-chilled on a blasted-out-moonscape sidewalk. It made no difference that I had a room packed with books and clothes and CDs in the house behind me. I would not go inside. I would sit and wait. I would absorb the ice and the snow and the wait until I was frostbitten blue. I would hold out until the end, continuing the game of chicken I played with my father, wanting (for once) to win."

Hello, again. The weather outside is quite nice, but at the same time, scares me. I don't like winter. I want to be able to wander the streets aimlessly with nothing to do, but thats over. Eh, oh well. I'll adjust.
Any who. The book. Right. So my book is very interesting, very sad. Danielle is realizing how her family is slowly drifting apart. Her mom got a new job, and is now rarely home. With school, work, and partying late at night, Danielle rarely ever sees her anymore. Danielle's dad can also see what is happening.

"Maybe during the month my mother was building herself a new life, Dad could have changed things. Perhaps if he had talked to her, she would have stayed. But it was probably too late for talking. At that point, little could have been done. And besides, my father didn't believe in negotiation. Jabbering doesn't solve anything, he would say. He would never, for any reason, have admitted that he had driven her away."

He realizes he is losing her, and it is killing him. His drinking is becoming constant. He had cheated on his wife before, and hes realizing it may be a two way street. The book does a flashback, and talks about another hard time for Danielle's family. When Danielle was eleven, her mom had gave birth to a still-born. Danielle says her mom was in her bed for weeks and would rarely leave the room, she seemed to be ill. But one day when Danielle comes home from school, she sees her mom is not there. After her dad comes home, he tells the kids the news. Danielle is crushed. Even though she didn't know her mom was pregnant, for the brief moment she knew her mom had given birth (and it hadn't died), she couldn't wait to have another kid in the house. She thought that maybe there would still be hope for the family to stay together. Her dad leaves the kids alone for the night, and she is forced to be the parent of the house.

"I told them Dad's annoyance meant he loved us more than words could express; his drinking meant he sufferet more acutely than other people; his coldness was a cover for intense feeling. I apologized for Dad and forfave him in advance. I interpreted Dad and spoke for Dad. I convinced myself that I was capable of this. And sometimes I was."

books are fun

"Presently she began again. "I wonder if I shall fall right through the earth! How funny it'll seem to come out among the people who walk with their heads downwards!"
-Alice's Adventures Under Ground.
Lewis Carroll

Hello, silly blogger people. I am currently reading a book called Falling Through the Earth for my outside reading project. This book is about the Vietnam war, and how it was to grow up in the 60's. The book starts with Danielle Trussoni and her dad as run aways in winter of '85. At this point Danielle is only twelve years old.
After that, there is a flash back to Danielle's childhood. It talks all about her dads problems with drinking, and arrogance. Danielle's dad is a war veteran, and often times he is haunted by his time at war. Danielle's dad beleives pain makes one stronger. He is also a man that if he is confronted with a problem, he believes if it is completely ignored, it will go away. The first chapter also talks about Danielle's parents haveing marriage issues. Their relationship had started off as a typical American marriage, but after the war, things went downhill. All the arguing, denial, and stress get very overwhelming for Danielle's mom, and at one point she attempts to leave with the kids. They got a couple miles away, and then realized they had to turn back.

"She gave my hand a reassuring squeeze as we turned back, toward Trussoni Court. We had nowhere else to go but home."

In Danielle's early twenties, she decides to fly to Vietnam to learn more about the culture and how it was effected by the war. There, people view her as different, and a man even starts to follow her. She sees how things have changed since the war.

"He was wounded, but he had made it home. And he believed, like so many men after so many wars, that he could leave it all far, far behind."

first blog?

blog blog blog.