George Saunders, “On the Importance of Kindness”

Ellen: a young girl in search of someplace to call "home". She endured a painful struggle just to fit in with the crowd. She was judged not by her character, but by the way she dressed. To offer us an example, Saunders tells us that she wore "these blue cats eye glasses that at the time only old ladies wore." In relation to the time period, those glasses were out of style. The audience understands that during this time, young girls who wore these glasses would experience teasing and bullying from the author's insight on this topic. Today's readers (especially those under 18) would likely not have any knowledge regarding fashion during the era of Ellen's childhood, nor would they have any idea how Ellen felt.

Not everybody knows the horror of being bullied, ostracized, demeaned. Not everybody has even seen this occur. Ellen would walk through the halls, "eyes cast down, a little gut-kicked." The imagery of this statement condemns the act of tormenting others. What looks like a joke to you, is a life of pain for them. Being able to see the scene, to feel Ellen's pain, offers a whole new perspective on the sheer magnitude of the story. Why must she be the one to go through such injustice? What prompted those bullies to do such unspeakable things to Ellen? As a society, there's one thing (among many) that we continue to do and never learn from. We resent the unfamiliar. During the Cold War, people hated communists. During the Iraq war and even today, people hated Muslims. And now, in Saunders' experience, people hated Ellen. Why? Because she was different.

Saunders tried to help, but his assistance was overshadowed by the malicious intent of the other students. It is Ellen's suffering that causes Saunders to remember her so fondly. Despite the fact that Saunders is telling the story, he connects it to everybody. He asks the audience, "Or, to look at it from the other end of the telescope, who in your life, do you remember most fondly?" This question proves interesting to the audience, showing that everyone has at one time been in Saunders' shoes. Everyone in this room, everyone who is reading this post right now, knows someone special in their life. My dad, the one who raised me from when I was an infant in New Hampshire to now, and he's still going. Every struggle and accomplishment that I've had, he's been there. With my sister away at college, he's all I have to talk to. Who in your life makes all the difference regardless of where you are?

Catcher in the Rye 17-18

"That's not how you write a W!" the teacher screamed before I frantically erased my handiwork. It was my first grade teacher, we'll just call her Mrs. Doe, that made writing the alphabet feel like defusing a bomb. The slow, steady movement of my pencil marked my survival, or my failure. Mrs. Doe walked across the room like a warden inspecting the prisoners.

I'm free from those people when I'm in my basement. Nobody talks about my mistakes or every single flaw about me. I live on my own terms, carefree. When I go down there, my drum set calls out to me, to beat rhythm after rhythm. Nobody is there to judge or patronize. It' just me, and only me.

Catcher in the Rye 15-16

Ding! The bell sounds as the students at Mason Intermediate rush away from the lunch room, making sure to put their trays away. One by one, they toss the trays onto the stack, no sense of order or cleanliness. After seeing the monstrous creation of the students, a loud voice in my mind screams at me to put things in order. Every day, this would be the pattern. I didn't care if anyone knew it was me. I didn't even care that I was doing a good thing. The fact that the others were being so disorganized just irritated me. If I didn't straighten them, who would?

Catcher in the Rye 9-10

    Disguised as a simple annoyance, an idea manifests itself inside of every living man, woman, and child. The rattle that happens in your car, the one that nobody else can hear. Screeching inside your mind lies a voice that can't be silenced, but at the same time can't be heard. The question is this: Why can't anybody hear the rattle? Why can't anybody stop the rattle and guide me to silence? Nobody ever will. The rattle is yours and yours only. Each individual faces a problem that only they can

perceive, ignorant of all others.

    Holden's rattle sings of his late brother, Allie. After pouring out a heartfelt essay about Allie's baseball glove, Stradlater dismisses Holden by saying, "For Chrissake, Holden. This is about a ****** baseball glove." Stradlater, while holding on to his own rattle, failed to hear Holden's. In a similar fashion, the dealership worker, after being unable to hear the rattle in Daryn's car, gives her the "It’s time for you to go home now, Crazy Lady" look. The rattle didn't appear, but it was still there.

    The most sensitive memories, the most painful, appear only to us. The rattle inside our brains every second of every day. Rattle, rattle, rattle, you hear faintly. To lower the volume is simple. To erase it completely is impossible.

      

Summer Reading Blog Post 4

The reason I chose this book, In Darkness, was because it seemed different from most other books. I didn't want to read a book about a sappy love story or some fantasy book that recycles elements from pretty much every other fantasy novel. This book was definitely worth my time. When I was reading this book, it had some brutal things that happen in real life. It had shootings, war, poverty, and desolation. It felt like the author knew that I could handle swearing and violence instead of trying to hide me from it. Even though it has all this, it still is poetic, and meaningful.

I would recommend this book to people who like action and are tired of the same old love story or fantasy novel. Someone who doesn't mind a little profanity but still would yearn for interesting things to happen. You may also like this book if you are interested in history. It tells about the revolutionary from Haiti, Toussaint l'Ouverture. It shows how he rebels against the whites to free the slaves of Haiti. It shows how he is connected to a modern day boy named Shorty and they both experience the lives of one another. If you're interested in an exciting, poetic, and historic novel, you would love to read this book.

Summer Reading Blog Post 3

One of the passages from the book that hooks the reader is, "I am the voice in the dark, calling out for your help. I am the quiet voice that you hope will not turn to silence, the voice you want to keep hearing cos it means someone is still alive. I am the voice calling for you to come and dig me out. I am the voice in the dark, asking you to unbury me, to bring me from the grave and out into the light, like a zombi."

During this part of the book, the main character whose name is later revealed to be Shorty, has been trapped in the darkness when a building collapsed under an earthquake. It shows that he still has hope that somebody might come rescue him from is dark, desolate prison. The author uses repetition in this paragraph to hook the reader and create a rhythm. The writing has a poetic feeling to it. It also provides a sense of wonder. What's going on? What happened to this person? Is he/she dead? The odd thing is, the character doesn't exactly know either. All that he knows is that he probably will stay trapped under the rubble in the darkness for the rest of his life, maybe even eternity.

Summer Reading Blog Post 2

One main character in my book is a child that gets trapped under building rubble after an earthquake. He doesn't tell us his name. His main goal throughout the story is to survive the wreckage. He constantly yearns for water and does lots of crazy things in order to survive. For example, he gets so thirsty that he drinks his own urine for sustenance. He doesn't know whether he is still alive or not. It's impossible to be sure of anything in the darkness in which he is trapped.

Another main character is Toussaint l'Ouverture. His desire is for the rebellion to succeed against the white slavers that rule his nation. He is tasked with leading the rebellion because he is chosen by an Iwa (vodou god). He also feels conflicted as to whether he believes in the vodou or the Christian religion.

Some themes that are beginning to appear is that the risk of death can make people do crazy things. For example, as mentioned before, the child drinks his own urine. Another theme is that people can do great things if they are passionate. Toussaint l'Ouverture wasn't very into the vodou religion. Some people also said that he was visually unappealing. However, he is passionate about leading the rebellion.

In this story, it doesn't say chapter numbers. It says THEN or NOW. THEN focuses on the story behind Toussaint l'Ouverture. NOW focuses on the child's story.