The Illusionist

I know I am supposed to write about BOOKS i have read on my blog, but i felt the importance to write it on the blog because while watching this movie, many thoughts came to my head. Thoughts that I could not ignore.

While Eisenheim (Edward) was traveling the world, neither him nor Sofie (Duchess Von Teshen) forgot about each other.

While he and Sofie were only children they met and became friends. They had a special bond that really, I can't explain. It is as if they were made for each other even though they are completely different. As you can see, she is a Duchess and of a high classed family which is very respected throughout Vienna. While Edward was what in that time you can call a pesent. They were made to be with each other, but throughout the years, they always found a way to get back to each other, even if it means catastrophe in the end.

But as all stories go, they were to never be together because Sofie's parents wouldn't allow it. It reached the point that they never saw each other for a very long time, almost 15 years.

But as fate always plays a part in a movie no matter how subtle, or how expressed, they meet again. Life as it seems for them is really tangled because Eisenheim is trying to try to grasp on to his life and in a sort of way, find out who he is, and he finds refuge in his work.
Sofie, such a different person, she expresses herself and isn't afraid. But she is also like Eisenheim because she doesn't feel like she has found herself. She feels pressured into sometimes doing unwanted things.
She is cornered by doing what her duty tells her to do and what her "Duchess" side feels that is right. I don't think she connected with the real Sofie until Edward appeared back into her life. Same goes for him.

But you see in this movie they find each other again, changing some of there prospective in life and that makes then in a way whole new people. The funny part is that when they see each other again, Edward recognizes her almost instantly, although it takes her a while to figure out who he is. I think maybe her life is always yearning to see him again, but she is focusing on recognizing him the way he was. She can't see him changed and in a new way.

That is what he doesn't like because he fell in love with he Sofie that would take risks, with the Sofie that would cross all hurdles and conflicts just to be with the one she loved. Yes, I know she demonstrated it in some cases of the movie, but not as openly as she used to when they were kids. She has grown up, I understand that, but she has also become less of who she is because she is being controlled by the Crowned Prince (he forced fiancee). I think that Edwards problem is the fact that he is still in love with the Sofie that he met when he was a teen. The main question is that, will he even accept that she changed???

Poem To Social Awareness

I remember when you promised me you and mommy would love each other forever. 

I remember I was actually dumb enough to believe you.

What happened to the promise you made me? Did you keep it?

I don't care who's fault this was, I really don't. I just want to know why you lied to me? 

Do you know what it is like to live with you and mommy fighting all the time. 

I love you both.

I really do.

But have you ever stopped to think about how I was doing with all this? 

Life is hard for me but probably even more for you, so please,

JUST LEAVE ALREADY!!!!

Research Topic For Picture Book #1

Well the topic I choose to research was how feuding families can affect the lives of children. Reading an article from a newspaper I found on the internet called How Staying Together For The Sake Of Kids Can Lead To Binge Drinking, Early Sex, Smoking, And Poor Grades. What really made me think was the fact that I thought it was good if parents stuck together for the sake of kids was good because that would make the bond between the parents better because they would eventually have to talk it through with each other. But as I was reading this article, I realized that in some cases, being raised by a single parent compared to being raised by two biological parents who war against each other.

One of the main problems about being raised by feuding parents is the fact that children are prone to mental health problems if they are exposed to them daily. It also can lead to the child's relationship problems, they live in the constant fear of thinking that their relationship will fail which is really likely if they have lived through that as a child. That can cause some distress in the child in his/her life to come.

What we think doesn't affect children really does. I know parents do that because they think it is good, but really it is harming the child. In the end it is no ones fault. We all try our best to do what's right, even if it really isn't. But at least our intension are good...

Media Exploration For Social Awareness

Looking for data I came across this piece By Jim Dubreuil and Eamon MCniff. It  talked about how sometimes kid get bullied for the dumbest reasons. There is a whole array of reasons why kids get bullied and even others we dont know about. But the thing is, the more you think about the reason for being bullied the more obsered it seems to get and it doesn't have a reason behind it.

On the outside Tyler Long seemed to be a normal boy, but inside he had Asperger's Syndrome a type of autism, which was enough to get the kids at his school to bother him. Life for him was now not that easy, besides having to deal with his illness he also had to deal with being bullied. It came to the point that he just became a new person. He was a shut in and this took a huge toll on his self esteem. it came to the point where he could find another way out and he hung himself from the closet door. When his parents found him it was too late. Their beloved son was gone.

Stories like this aren't heard once in like 100 years. They are heard often and the scary part is that in some school systems, they don't do anything to prevent other incidents like these from happening. They just expect kids to start acting there age, usually repeating the same phrase, "Boys will be boys"

Link for this article: http://abcnews.go.com/2020/TheLaw/school-bullying-epidemic-turning-deadly/story?id=11880841&page=1

Social Awareness Project

When many people see something happening, they say nothing. They don't defend the person inflicted, they don't tell anyone to stop and they don't tell somebody. It is as if it isn't their burden to share, as if they didn't care...

What if it happens to you? Well, since you didn't help or say anything you deserve no help. People will just stare at you and think, 'poor person' but like you they won't say anything... For some reason somebody is always witnessing the happening and will never say anything. Don't you think it would be stopped if someone said something??

I think the common fear of most kids is that, if they tell someone, then they will be the ones who will be teased, called a tattle tale and then they will start teasing the poor kid, who all he did was try to help now is getting bullied himself.

What many people don't understand these days is, if you just think about making it better or just imagine the situation get better is like doing nothing because what is the point of thinking about it if you aren't going to do anything? Doing something is always better then nothing, because at least you attempt to make it better.

But what if it was a friend getting harassed? What would you do then? You see, the situation changes drastically based on who is the victim here. You know you would tell someone if it was your best friend. 

But just because you don't know the person getting hurt doesn't mean you should defend them any differently then if the person is your best friend or the person isn't, because just like your best friend would like to be defended or just like your best friend has feelings and doesn't like to be hurt, so does that person.

Just think about that...

Reading Response: One of Those Hideous Books Where the Mother Dies

Sudden changes happen and sometimes you can't dodge that speeding bullet ready to take something from you and could possibly change your life forever.

What I mean is, when you find yourself in a possibly life altering situation that could change your life you may feel   out of place. You may feel like taking chances with anything, just to try to evade the situation you have to eventually confront. For many people leaving what they already know and leaving so many memories behind to start a new life may be hard, and for each and every one of those people, they show or express their feelings about something differently then others. Some may feel like crawling under a bush and not wanting to come out, others many hold it in until they burst, others may take it cool and calmly, and others will get hysterical.

The way Ruby takes this is by trying to hide from her situation and tries to become invisible. She is leaving her home town in Massachusetts because her mother just died and the only person that has the right to take care of her lives in Los Angeles and it just so happens to be her father. But the matter of the fact is that she has never met her father because he divorced her mother before she was even born. And that is what scares her. She doesn't know what her father is like and the fact that she is going to meet and live with someone who not once in her lifetime of 15 years has gone to visit her is understandable. She feels a tangle of emotions. Hurt, betrayal, anger, and first and foremost, resentment. Since she never met him she is confused. She doesn't know weather to love him or to hate him.

Ruby has reasons to hate her father. He left her mother and her when it wasn't her fault, and the worst part is that he never came to visit, not once. Another reason is that he is a very famous movie star and he hasn't tryed to contact Ruby or her mother. She hates her father for all she sees. 

I can in a way feel for Ruby because she is feeling confused about how to feel. I know that when you are taken to a different place, you may feel confused, but that doesn't mean that you can just hate on the entire Los Angeles. But she does. Many people shut themselves their own world when they don't feel safe to come out. For Ruby, she does shut herself in but in a way she is still functioning like a normal teenage girl   

Ruby really surprises me every time I read this book. It just shows how much one can learn about other people that you never knew

What I love about this book is the fact that as you continue, you learn more and more about the characters history and that in a way really wraps things up. 

Entry #8 "Mother To Son"

The reason I love the poem called mother to son is because it is actually speaking the truth about motherhood and its sacrifices. You see, mothers while they enjoy being mothers, need to sacrifice a lot of things. They prefer to hurt themselves then to hurt their children and always do their best to put their children first. We all know that. But do we ever think about what the mother is leaving behind, what she is giving up just to make the child's life more enjoyable?

Just the fact that someone would write about this means that they actually care about what they gave up.
Their isn't a crystal star for the mothers. They get no rewards, they just give everything up to see us happy. They no longer have the opportunity to have their crystal stars. They need to be appreciated more often for what they do.

The Giver Appreciation

Lily. Jonas's younger sister. I feel like I appreciate her because she is the character that really keeps the reality into The Giver. Nobody seems to appreciate what Lily does and what Lily does is really important in keeping the book alive because she is actually, in the entire book, the one that is the closest to what we are used to and what we consider "normal". 

She is your average 7-8 year old. She is intriguing, curious and she sometimes doesn't care about the rules and regalements because she knows about them but to her she still thinks about playing, laughing and having fun.

She brings in a way, some sort of relief when ever she comes into the picture because she is balancing the story out. In a way Lily is an anchor, while the imagination ship is sailing, she comes in and puts a little reality into the story to keep it re latable to the people reading it. 

The reason I appreciate Lily is because she is the little piece of normality in this entire world of hulla-ballu. She keeps thinks normal around her brother and doesn't treat him as if her were different, as if he would have gotten a comment assignment. She still thinks the world they live in is all fun and games because she still has the innocent child blind fold on. She does not know how to distinguish pain from happiness, she hasn't had the chance to distinguish pain form happiness.

1st Draft of Appreciation

Standing out isn't something very approved upon in Jonas's community. For Jonas it is something he is forced to do or has to do, not only because he is chosen. But because he now had real feelings and knows more about life than even the head committee will ever know. Sometimes standing out IS a good thing, but for Jonas's community, it could very well be a life sentence...

The first time Jonas is forced to be different is in the ceremony of twelve, the skip him in the number order. They went from 18 to 20. Everyone of course noticed it and everyone was wondering  what was going on, and meanwhile Jonas was thinking to himself, "what had i done wrong?". Everyone thinks the Chief Elder had made a mistake but then she points our he had not been assigned, but selected. Well everyone is thinking, selected for what, well he is the next receiver of memory. He automatically know he's different.

Another way Jonas knows he's different is the fact that he has feelings and that no one else in the entire community besides him and The Giver has feelings. They don't know what death is and they also don't know what real pain is. They have everything protected for them. Everything is different for Jonas, which makes him different then the rest.

In conclusion, Jonas is really brave in the fact that he knows hes different and that the rest of his life is just hanging there in the balance and he doesn't know whats going to happen to him. He knows he can't go back to the community, and yet he is brave enough to leave...   He knows he's different. He knows it very well. But I think that just makes him stronger as a person

Expanding Our Knowledge On The Giver Through Research.

Well, the real purpose for me writing this isn't to just know what the author thinks about the book and how she feels about it. The real purpose of me writing this is to expand our info on the author to the reader, by that understand the book better because we already know about the writer and we know what she's like, so that really helps the reader comprehend what the author is trying to say better

Lois Lowry had a very peaceful childhood, pretty much what yo would see in every normal family. As a child she moved around a lot and that was because her father was part of the military. So pretty much her life was quite stirry and all over the place.
But what does that contribute to the book? Well, I think it is the fact that she saw so many different cultures and she lived many different experiences and I guess that helped her put all that together and make one perfect place.

Just by seeing what her childhood was like, it helps me understand how it really contributed to how she was raised and what she experienced we can learn alot about her.

Living in many different ways helped her aspect of life become more defined, it is as if it has helped Lois Lowry expand her universe and give her a stronger footing on what the world really is.

Entry #6 Elaborating On A Note

Perfect is never perfect.
What made me come to that conclusion is the fact that, in Jonas's world, there is no pain, no suffering and nothing is bad in his world.
I think having everything protected and having to baby proof the world for a little community of people that are novice towards the real world and all its dangers is just doing them bad.
What I mean by that is, they do a very good job of protecting them from everything bad, but it is actually hurting them because they need to experiment with the world and not just live by following a rule book, full on about instructions about how to live your life. That is modeling them to a soft life, of easy living and  that is never going to show them how to really live.

These people don't know about death. They only know about a thing thats called releasing which nobody really knows about, all they know is the person being released is never ever being seen again by anyone. They also don't really know anything about birth either since they are only allowed to adopt children and they are only allowed to have two children in a family unit, one boy and one girl. Even their spouses are chosen.
The people here have the freedom to choose taken away from them. Which is a bad thing because if everything is perfect then nothing is because the purpose of life is about making mistakes and trying to make them better, that makes you a better person because what is life without mistakes?

In Jonas's world, everything is perfect, but it is not so. Everything is controlled, which can be good, but in the future that could make the people wonder, what would life be without so much controlling? And really Jonas is really starting to notice that his world is changing and he is starting to realize that the world he lives in is really a cruel place with makeup to cover up what they try not to expose.

Really what this book teaches people is that the world cannot really come to a day when it is all perfect, and I know that what I am about to say may be irrelevant, but I think it best suits what I want to prove, The world shall not know peace and tranquility before brutal loss and pain.

What I Appreciate About Charlotte's Web Revised Entry #6

What I have really come to appreciate about Charlotte's Web is the fact that the characters really have there own individual personality, not like you see normally in other children's books where all the characters are flat and have no emotions, and the only way to distinguish them one from another is, Boy or Girl, and by names.

In Charlotte's Web, many, if not all the characters are very well developed. They all have an important role to play, in the beginning or at the end of the story. In the other little children's books, the characters seem 2 dimensional. In Charlotte's Web, the characters develop a certain personality that you might find in a yearling book. 

For example, when the lambs didn't want to play with Wilbur, they set him off crying, and then that is when Charlotte made her revelation and showed herself to Wilbur. And that really starts out what the real story is.
Another part where the lambs play a big role in is, when Templeton is trying to be rebellious, the eldest lamb always puts him in place and is there to chastise him whenever needed to.

Another way the lambs play a part in Charlotte's Web, is when the eldest sheep tell Wilbur that he is going to get  killed. Which sets up or builds up the main theme of the story, how to save Wilbur from another untimely death. 

Another example, how Charlotte, apart from being the main character has a lot going on. How she really has her own personal opinions about everything and everyone, although she might not express them as openly as Wilbur would. She really has personification added in to her, while she may act like a human, talking, thinking and everything, she still drags along with her her spider like features and that really makes her who she is.

This story really is one of my favorite childhood books I have ever read. But E.B White is a master, because he knows how to balance out his characters and the elements. Really good.   

What I Appreciate About Charlotte's Web Entry #4

What I really appreciate about Charlotte's Web, is the honest and sincere friendship to really, the end, and again continuing on from there.  

In Charlotte's Web, the friendship overcomes many obstacles, and one way or the other, they conquer it.
An example of what i am trying to say is, when Avery was trying to capture Charlotte and put her in a box, (and then after that God knows what he was going to do...) Wilbur was going hysterical and made Avery fall over, and there for, breaking the rotten goose egg and make then run off. Wilbur in a way DID save Charlotte's life. 

Another example of how friendship is a very big thing in this book, is when Charlotte makes her web in a different pattern just to show to the world how he's a very extraordinary pig, in every single way. So in a way she was sacrificing her web to save her best friend.

This book has many more examples, but these (to me) are the most essential to the book plot.

What I Appreciate About Charlotte's Web Entry #5

What I really have come to appreciate about Charlotte's Web as a book, is, that it is really double sided. One one hand it is tender and loving. But on the other it is really facing the reality of this world, talking about death, being mean to others, and many others.

For example when Fern saved Wilbur's life from death because he was born a runt, she was feeding his like a baby on a bottle, and pretty much all of the time she was raising Wilbur, she was tender and loving like her mother. While her brother Avery, in the same scene, is more violent. An example to support my statement is the fact that, while Fern is holding a piglet in her arms, Avery is holding a gun and a wooden dagger. Which really states the difference clearly


Another example of how this book is really mature is the fact that, when Wilbur felt lonely, he asked many of the barn animals if they would be his friend and they said very meanly and cruelly, "no" and gave him very mean and bad reasons why.
One- Because he smelled bad
Two-Because he was  in a pig pen and he the other animals could jump over.
Three-He was "too small"
      Things like these can hurt many peoples feelings and yet they are written in books like Charlotte's Web.

Another example is, well, death. In the very beginning of Charlotte's Web, the beginning theme is death.
The fact that Mr. Arable wanted to kill Wilbur when he was born because he was a runt, but then Fern comes and saves the day.

Another huge one is when one of the main characters dies, Charlotte.

I mean, this book if read bya 5 year old may not seem very bad. Because this book although it may have a very adultlike theme, it is put behind the lens of an innocent mind, so it isn't very hurtful.