Some plot changes within the storyline since the last blog post is that the Man dies and the Son goes and finds a different family to take refuge in. The Man does because he is attacked by a Wife and Husband. However the Man is already sick. He eventually prevails and kills the Wife and Husband. However since he is already sick his condition worsens and he ends up passing away. This leaves the Son alone. Therefore he goes and finds a family and he basically just travels with them.
Some similarities I see is people getting mad and attacking other people. I see this in the book when the Man is attacked by a Wife and Husband. It relates to the aspect of war and other violent occurrences. Another thing I feel that could relate to society nowadays is adoption. The boy is adopted into another family. This is a lot like adoption when an orphan is taken into the arms of another family. In the end I think the book was ok, in the beginning it was kind of a slow read but as the book progressed it got faster and more action packed. If you like action and a lot of fast paced things, I feel like this book could be for you, but there is a better fit for you. I will be commenting on Mariah and Ricky's blog
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From the most recent blog post, somethings that have changed in the book is where the Boy and Man are both still venturing along in the dystopian world, then suddenly the Boy and Man come across a big building. As you can imagine they are malnourished. They think to themselves that within the building there will be food and water or some sort of edible thing they can digest. The Boy and Man walk into the building and stumble across some sort of killing manifestation. The Man stay and watch to see exactly what is going on. To sum it all up, there are humans being sort of killed off in a way. The Man gets a closer look and realizes that they are cannibals and there are humans getting eaten one by one which is described in avery horrifying and gruesome way. The Boy lets the Man know that there is someone coming. There are 3 people heading their way and they turn out ot be cannibals. The Boy and Man are spotted by the 3 cannibals and they are in a mad chase. The Boy and Man eventually find refuge in the forest.
The only movie I can think of that reminds me of this book is Ready Player One. In Ready Player One there is a dystopia and the people are being controlled and being drained of their freedom. In this book there are people being kept in a basement without freedom and this also clearly a dystopia. Some similarities I see between today and the book is the fact that people are being kept in a basement not necessarily to be eaten but just lodged away. In the book there are people in a basement ready to be consumed by another human. In this current time there are people being trafficked and people being held as sex slaves in basements. There are also kids who have been kidnapped being held in basements as well as countless other situations I could list off. Also cannibalism, I am not exactly sure where in the world cannibalism exists but I know for a fact it does. In the book and this blog post there is cannibalistic acts mentioned numerous times. I will be commenting on Mariah and Ricky's blog
https://www.cnn.com/2018/04/10/europe/royal-wedding-guests-intl/index.html CNN April 10, 2018 Trump and Obama won't be at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding By Max Foster, Jeff Zeleny and Judith Vonberg, CNN This article written by Max Foster, Jeff Zeleny and Judith Vonberg by CNN is titled Trump and Obama won't be at Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's wedding. This article is about how both families under the name of Trump and Obama will not be attending the royal English wedding. You may be wondering, why will they not be attending the wedding, well that's why I am here to inform you. For starters, British royal weddings is usually the place where leaders of countries such as presidents and prime ministers meet and it's pretty much a royal banquet. However in this particular instance, the Kensington Palace announced on Tuesday that the couple will not be inviting political leaders to the event. This includes even British Prime minister Theresa May. The invites that were reported were only to personal friends of the couple. A quote from the article reads, “‘It has been decided that an official list of political leaders -- both UK and international -- is not required for Prince Harry and Ms. Markle's wedding," a Kensington Palace spokesman said. "Her Majesty's Government was consulted on this decision, which was taken by the royal household."’ However an unnamed source said that the couple hopes to see the Obama family in the near future, but no mention about President Donald Trump and his family. You may be thinking maybe the reason that the royal couple did not invite Trump is because of his somewhat crass decisions. Well you are partly correct. Since Prince Harry is a prince, he is deemed to be politically neutral. His significant other can have public political freedom. The article states, “Markle strongly criticized the now president in 2016. In an interview on The Nightly Show with Larry Wilmore in May that year, two months before Harry and Meghan first met, she described Trump (who was then a Republican candidate for the presidency) as "divisive" and "misogynistic." There was a speculation that rose indicating some sort of favorship if they were to invite the Obama family since they are friends of the couple but not the current President and his family. This event happened very recently, it has been reported on April 11th, 2018. This event took place in the Kensington Palace. The information was reported back to CNN and published out to the public. I feel like this event happened because of the sudden short notice of not inviting any leaders of any country to a royal wedding. In the past political leaders were always invited without doubt to the royal weddings. The royal wedding are also a place where presidents and prime ministers could “rub shoulders” with obscure European monarchs. But this one is different. As I mentioned above the people who are invited to the royal wedding will be personal friends only. According to some unnamed sources there will be about 2,640 people invited. The couple is to get married on May 19th. I think this is a very smart move by the couple. Since Harry’s significant other doesn’t seem to be a fan of Trump and also because they don’t want to show favoritism to their friend Obama. They decided to not invite world leaders. I also think this is a good change for the couple since their wedding will be unique and not like other royal weddings in the past. [I will be commenting on Cheyenne’s Blog and Matthew Mau’s Blog] CNN Money
February 22,2018 The Opioid Crisis is draining America's workforce http://money.cnn.com/2018/02/22/news/economy/workforce-opioid-crisis/index.html Lydia DePillis The article written by Lydia DePillis published on CNN Money is about the Opioid Crisis and how it is draining America’s workforce. The article talks about many situations of people doing Opioids which produces morphine-like effects such as pain relief or anesthesia on the user. The user gets addicted and they eventually get high on Opioids. When you have a mental state like this your judgement is clouded and you may do stupid things like rob a bank which can lead to the loss of your job and even jail time. This article includes an interview conducted by CNN with a past time Opioid addict. The interviewee is named Mike Harsanyi. He has been struggling with a heroin addiction, which is an opioid, for the past 6 years. After spending two spells in prison, Harsanyi is living a sober and clean life. He has been residing in Maryland for 5 months and currently looking for steady employment. The article then goes on to talk about jobs in Maryland’s Anne Arundel County which has an unemployment of 3.1% which is one of the United State’s lowest employment rates. However after doing some time for an armed robbery he did while high in 2015, Harsanyi has been turned down for jobs at many places such as Valvoline and Jiffy Lube. Sadly he is only occasionally able to pick up work as a tile setter for another recovering addict he met through his 12 step program. Not only is this effecting Harsanyi, but also other people looking to get employed. The article then goes on to talk about how a Princeton economist Alan Krueger found the increase in prescribing rates account for 20%-25% of the approximately five-point drop in the labor force participation. Krueger says that other countries face severe cases of drug addictions however they don’t face the type of opioid crisis that the U.S is facing. The Princeton economist shared some of his studies. It is a color coordinated map which shows the intersection of opioid prescription rates and declines in labor force participation. The map’s overall results tells the viewer that much of Appalachia and Rust Belt have economically depressed places, which has become similar with the narrative of opioid addiction as a disease of the downtrodden, fueled by joblessness and despair. Recently an economist from the University of Virginia by the name of Christopher Ruhm suggests that joblessness may have opened a large portal to the abuse of opioids, but this epidemic was also heavily spread through the availability of prescription drugs. This event happened due to the cause of joblessness and also from recent research, the availability of these drugs over the counter assigned to normal citizens by pharmacists. But how did people become so addicted to drugs in the first place. This begins with the addiction and introduction of the drug called Opium. Opium is a dried latex obtained from the opium poppy.Opium latex contains approximately 12 percent of the analgesic alkaloid morphine, which is processed chemically to produce heroin and other opioids. Opium was first found and made in the present day UK. It then spread to China by trade and by smugglers and the Chinese got addicted and death rates were upped by around 15% of the normal death rate. Opium eventually got spread world wide which is why there is currently an Opium Crisis in the US. I think that the Opium Crisis is something that should definitely handled for the better. There are two parties, the people that need the opium in order to survive and are actually prescribed by their doctor. Then there are the abusers. I feel like an effective situation for the people who medically use the opium could be for the scientists to find a different substance that causes the same effects as opium for the people that need it however there is twist. The twist is that the drug cannot be used for addictive purposes. This will render the users of the opioids empty handed which is honestly better for all. I have no idea how much this will cost, how much research this will take and if this is actually even possible. But if it is, I think this will be a more than logical approach to the Opioid Crisis. I will be commenting on Cheyenne Faulkner’s Dp as well as Matthew Mau’s DP Blog 4
Spinoff As I predicted, Louie was captured by the Japanese. On Kwajalein Island, where Louie was held. He faced solitary, dirty, wooden cell infested with maggots, flies, and mosquitoes. He went up against deprivation of food, water, and medical care. He was also beaten, interrogated, and routinely humiliated—all a foretaste of what his life would be like over the next two years.Louie was transferred among POW camps, but his time spent under the sadistic Corporal (later Sergeant) Mutsuhiro Watanabe was the worst. Nicknamed “The Bird,” this Japanese guard was Louie’s personal tormentor at both the Omori and Naoetsu POW camps on mainland Japan. He beat Louie daily, sometimes with his fists, sometimes with his belt, often with his kendo stick. The Bird starved Louie and all of the prisoners. He practiced ritual humiliation on Louie and the others, even making them lay face-down in human excrement. And he used Louie and the others as slave labor for Japan’s war machine. When the Allies defeated Japan, The Bird disappeared, hiding to avoid punishment as a war criminal. After Louie was freed from captivity in Japan, he returned to California and tried to resume his life. He met and married Cynthia Applewhite, a young girl from a privileged upbringing. He fell into alcoholism and wrestled with untreated PTSD. He struggled financially. He had near-constant nightmares about his time as a POW, waking once to find himself strangling his pregnant wife because he had dreamed she was The Bird. His marriage collapsed. In September 1949, Cynthia convinced Louie to attend a Billy Graham crusade in Los Angeles. Louie resisted, but he went…and went again. Finally Louie responded to Graham’s preaching and committed himself to Jesus. His life changed completely. Louie quit drinking, reconciled with his wife, and began the process of forgiving his captors. He dedicated his life to nonprofit work helping at-risk boys and, by all accounts, lived relatively happily for the rest of his life. If I had to write a sequel, I would make it continue down the path Louie was on where the book ended, when he helped boys who were at risk. Or, I would do an autobiography on “The Bird”. The Bird just faded away and I am wondering what happened the him, so doing an autobiography on him would be pretty interesting, especially getting to see things from his perspective. Another sequel could perhaps be a perspective from one of the boys Louie is helping. I think it would be interesting to see how Louie helps these boys and also to see what they go through and compare it to this book and see if there are any similarities within Louie’s young age and these boys. The main conflict to the sequel with Louie helping these kids could be one kid refusing to cooperate and Louie seeing all the bad choices he is making in public. A conflict to The Bird sequel would be The Bird hiding and avoiding consequences. It would be interesting to see it from his perspective and for me personally I think it would be hard for me to put the book down knowing if he was going to be captured or not. A conflict for the 3rd sequel about the perspective from the boys could possibly be the boy trying to get out of a gang but the gang members threaten the boy and makes him stay. I would recommend this book to a friend because for the most part, it kept me on my toes, eager to see what would happen next. Another reason I would recommend this book to a friend is because it is a good autobiography. It's not like those boring ones, its actually somewhat filled with action and its a good way to learn about World War II with the Japanese since the main focus of World War II is on the Germans. In my book Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand, the character Louie is trained and prepped for war. He gets sent out to Japan to fight the Japs and defend his country and its honor. He is led under the command of Russel Allen Phillips. Eventually he is captured and becomes a POW in Japan under the Japanese. There he is treated a lot like the Jew's in the holocaust camps. He is worked to death and malnourished. However along his rigorous trial he meets and becomes friends with the other POW's.
For this 3rd reading prompt we are asked who we would want to be friends with in the book. If I were a character in the book, I would want to be friends with Pete who is Louie's brother, Russel Allen Phillips, and the POW's. Why you may ask, well Pete who is Louie's brother was really a brother like figure to Louie and made sure Louie was on track. For example, he trained and helped Louie become one of the fastest mile runners in the history of runners. He also helped Louie join the Olympics team with encouragement and by being firm. He also told Louie that even though he is not going to get the gold in the Olympics he should still do his best since he would know that he did his best for the rest of his life. I would also want to be friends with Phil because he is a commander and a high ranking officer member which means he knows what he is doing. Phil is also going through the same things as Louie and getting some insight on that might be helpful. Also talking about the training and what works for Phil is good to note since I too could try that. The reason I would want to be friends with the POW's is because they are going through the same things I would be going through and it would be nice and somewhat easier if I had someone as a friend or someone to talk. It would also make the day feel shorter since having someone to talk to and someone to laugh with makes time seem to go by faster. Also laughter is the best medicine. If I were physically in the book I think I would try my best to cooperate under anyone since I am afraid of some authority. I would've also done whatever possible to evade capture even if that means ditching the squadron of people I am with. But overall in the beginning I would've never stopped running or let the Olympics not happen tear me down if I was in Louie's position. I think I would get along with Pete since he seems to be overalla really nice guy. However as of now in the book I do not think I would get along to well with Phil because he seems somewhat demanding but however I would still be friends with him since he is the captain and his has power. I also think I could get along with some people from the camp of POW's but not all. Probably the ones that seem most like Pete. I do not think I wouldn't get along with anyone however I do think I would just not really like them to much of however be too fond of them. Week 2
Character Relationships In the second part, our main character Louie is trained to take part in a crew that flies an aircraft called B-24. The famous nickname for this airplane is called a “flying boxcar”. As I predicted Pearl Harbor was attacked and the Americans were sent to war against the Axis powers. Phil, a character whom I will introduce very shortly will have him and his crew of soldiers sent to Oahu Hawaii to be trained in order to fight the Japanese. They are sent to the island of Oahu on November 2, 1942. Louie will later have to face hardships and trial being in an unfamiliar environment, holding a rifle and learning how to shoot it. I think he will be very uncomfortable since he has been on the track for so long, and is obviously very comfortable on the track. Suddenly putting him in a different environment from almost a solo sport of running circles to holding a gun and a bootcamp where someone is yelling at you is a detrimental change. So far there have seemed to be 3 core characters. Pete, Louie’s brother who is very close to him. Louie and himself and trying to fit into the new environment and who seems to be having trouble finding peace within himself since he just lost his chance at this gold medal. Along with Louie’s captain of his flying crew Russell Allen Phillips, or as his crew mates call him, Phil. I think Louie has a very good relationship with one of the characters. That one being Pete his brother since he has known him all his life. Pete was also basically Louie’s track coach and helped him become one of the fastest 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters runner in the history of running. I also know that Louie and Pete have a very strong relationship since when Louie was a younger boy he looked up to Pete. They way he dressed and the way he talked and bhis academics. They both were basically polar opposites at the time. The reason why I don’t think Louie has a strong relationship with the other characters which are Louie’s state of mind and this commander Phil is because, Phil was simply just introduced and new to the reader. And also because he is the commander and leader of the squad. This means he has more power than Louie and that probably intimidated Louie. The reason why I think Louie doesn’t have a good relationship with his state of mind is because he seems to let things get to him very easily and ruin all his pride and everything he worked for. For example, when the 1940 Olympics was canceled, “it’s like his speed left him” Laura Hillenbrand wrote. I understand it is a very big lose to loose something like that. But for everything he worked for, he just seemed to have thrown away. He was the fastest man to run the mile in the history of the world. He just let that go and get upset. I would say some good advice for the main character regarding his relationships with these few characters would to be keep in touch with his brother and send him letter and keep a war diary. For his commander Phil, I would suggest he could get to know his commander more and become comfortable with talking and becoming friends with him. Then finally for his state of mind, I would give the advice that he doesn’t give up so easily. Maybe training will build the perseverance for him to push through things rather than for things to be handed to him by talent like his running. I feel like as the story goes on he will send letters to his brother (Pete) giving a more in depth journal for the reader so they can really feel the emotions for the main character. As for Phil, I think he will be a great captain and will lead his squadron into war. However I feel like Phil might make an error and have his squad getting captured and becoming POWs of the Japanese. Then for his state of mind I think it will cause Louie to hesitate and not be the soldier he wants to or could have been. But however if he does turn for the better it will make him an amazing soldier and I think that maybe he could save his squadron from attacks from the Axis powers. Week 1
Predicting I am reading the biography novel called Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand. This book was published November 16, 2010. So far I have read around the first 70 pages of the book. So far the book talks about the main character Louie who was slower than everyone. When they were younger the main character or the person the book is about Louie would always look up to his older brother Pete seeing as he was the better looking, behaving and more intelligent child. Louie had pneumonia when he was 3 years old he was smaller than everyone in his class. His face was disproportionate, and he wasn’t a very bright kid. He struggled actually quite a lot in elementary school. Middle school wasn’t any better. He would often run away from home sleep outside for days and come home malnourished. I as the reader would say Louie’s life started and peaked when he was in 10th grade. His brother Pete urged him to try out track and field. Louie reluctantly tried it out and he eventually became the fastest american high school runner during his time (1933) with the help and training of his brother Pete. He was so fast he made it to the 1936 Olympics in Germany to run for the 5,000 meters. An event he had only competed in 5 times. He was the youngest runner to compete in the 1936 Olympics. He competed and finished in 7th place in the Olympics but on the last lap of the 5,000 meters he had the fastest time which was 56 seconds. When he got back to America he attended USC and became one of the fastest college runners . He was winning every race for the 1,500 meters and made it his goal to attend and get the gold medal in 1940 Olympics which was said to be held in Japan. When 1938 rolled around, WWII started and the world went into chaos. Japan was in war on the Axis side so the location of the Olympics was to be determined. He still had high hopes and continued to train on and run his best. As he continued training he met a student at USC who later turned out to be a Japanese spy sending American Intelligence to the Japanese government. Regardless he pursued training. He eventually got a mile time of 4:06.57 which was faster than the world record (4:07.89). That was the high point in his life. Then at the end of 1938 the Olympics was called off and his life went downhill from there. His speed left him and he began losing every race. He eventually quit track and training and fund a job working at a diner. He went back to his home town and he got a letter saying he was to be drafted into the military. At that point he could care less. The opportunity to get known by the world as the fastest man who has ran a mile thrown away. His brother Pete got a letter as well for draft. However Pete would just be a general station officer. Louie was to be trained and sent to war as a pilot. And that is all I have read. In the next section I believe that we will start to hear more about Japan and Hitler. Then soon we will hear about the tragedy of Pearl Harbor. After that I think Louie will be sent to fight as a foot soldier. If not I think he will be in a plane that is shot down and captured by either the Japanese of the Germans. The book hinted something by using the word was to describe Louie. I think Louie will be captured by either the Japanese or Germans in the story and so will his brother. But however I think that his brother will be the one to survive to tell this story of how it was like to be behind enemy lines and literally get tortured since some and most of the quotes are from the brother and not Louie himself. If Louie were to live why not just as Louie himself so you get the answer from the source rather than from 3rd perspective. So far I have enjoyed the book. I found myself reading more than I usually do. I usually read very little then fall asleep or get tired. But however when I was reading this book I couldn’t stop reading it. Maybe because I have read the running part and that is something I am interested in and something I consider to be somewhat fun and suspenseful, but I do think I will continue to like and grow on the book the more I read it. I was also reading it online and normally I would get distracted with something else like Netflix. Music, or Youtube but when I read the book I didn’t get distracted with anything which is not only why I read more than I usually do but also because I enjoy the book and want to see what will happen to the champion runner Louie. CNN January 20th, 2018 North Korean Athletes will Compete at Winter Olympics Laura Smith-Spark https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/20/asia/north-korea-south-korea-olympic-talks-intl/index.html An article typed and posted on the CNN site by Laura Smith-Spark titled North Korean Athletes will Compete at Winter Olympics is about North Korean Athletes competing in the world wide sports event during the Winter called the Olympics. This is a controversial topic because North Korea is held under the iron rule of the dictator and Military leader, Kim Jong Un. Their recent actions have been deemed by the public as violent and reckless. Seeing as they are not a friendly country or at least not at peace or a fit place for a pedestrian to exist, them being in a world wide sports event is something that is to be reported about for the safety and assurance of people competing and attending. According to the article written by Laura Smith-Spark titled North Korean Athletes will Compete at Winter Olympics, North Korea will be sending over 22 athletes who will compete in 3 sports at the Winter Olympics. Which is to be held in Pyeongchang on February 9th, 2018 . Ice hockey, ice skating, and skiing. However the North Koreans will be competing in multiple types of skiing events such as, ice hockey, ice skating, figure skating, short track, speed skating, cross--country skiing, and alpine skiing. The International Olympic committee President Thomas Bach says, “a meeting between delegations from the two Koreas and olympic officials was held in Lausanne, Switzerland. However at the end of the meeting, Bach reported back and I quote, “Bach said teaching this outcome ‘“was not an easy journey”’ but that he was proud of what the two Koreas… had achieved.” Another thing that seemed to be shocking was that the International Olympic Committee reported that both Koreas will be marching under the same flag during the opening ceremony. You as the reader may be wondering, well why the hell would I care about this flag and marching under it. This is because North and South Korea are basically polar opposites, and they’ve also been separated since 1945 after the Japanese’s rule was overthrown. You also may be wondering why the olympics? Well the Olympics is a creation inspired by the ancient Olympic Games. The Olympic Games is a series of sports performed by athletes who are qualified to be olympians. These athletes come from places all around the world to perform and do sports while millions watch. They were held in Olympia, Greece, from the 8th century BC to the 4th century AD. Baron Pierre de Coubertin founded the International Olympic Committee (IOC) in 1894, leading to the first modern Games in Athens in 1896. I think that it is good that North Korea is sort of expanding from their secluded habits and showing that to the world by going into the Winter Olympics. I think their act of them joining the Olympics shows trust or at least a gain in trust. Knowing their military arsenal, they could bomb or launch missiles at Pyeongchang. North Korea has been much of an outlier, sending various threats of missile launches and bomb threats. But letting them join in on a world wide event regardless, shows mercy and respect towards their people. I will be commenting on Diego Diaz's blog post along with Dylan Lewis's and Sydney Lorton's blog post. |