Animal Farm Connections

The book Animal Farm is related to the real world very closely. Other than the fact that it uses animals instead of people, it is a good book to show how corrupt governments can form. A text to world connection I found was purely the fact that it shows the pigs' rise to power. First it starts off as the leader, Snowball, and then it  turns into a tyranny when the forceful leader, Napoleon, attacks with his vicious dogs. A text to self connection I made, and this is probably true for most kids is the fact that my parents rule the house. No, it isn't a tyranny, and you have a lot of rights, but it is more related to when Snowball was in power. And a text to text connection I made was to the book, The Hunger Games. The connection isn't the actions in the book, but how the capitol forcibly took the power, much like Napoleon took power from Snowball. From my description given, what connections can you guys come up with?

Animal Farm--The Best thing about my book

Animal Farm is a very interesting book in the fact that instead of people, the government is made up of animals. One thing I found humerous about this system of animals is that out of all of them, the pigs are the rulers. This is making fun of the fact that the people in the government will do anything to get ahead, using the term,"They are a bunch of pigs." The author is using satire in this fact to ridicule that fact by turning the leaders into pigs. He is also making fun of rulers because the pigs get the most food and water and also get the most comfortable beds. When the farmer came back to try and take his farm back from the animals, the leading pig, snowball, yelled,"Charge," but he didn't even fight. He is ridiculing a monarchy in all of thesen facts because, in a democracy, the people are strong, and the animals other than pigs are strong. These animals include horses, dogs, sheep, and other stronger animals. What do you think, with all the other animals being strong, will they try to overthrow the pigs?

Animal Farm-- Why I chose it

Recently, I started reading the book Animal Farm by George Orwell. One reason I chose this book is mostly because it's a classic, and I have also heard it is a very good book. I saw this book in a book store as I was there to get Farenheit 451; so I picked it up because it sounded interesting. Apparently, it is supposed to be a book representing why the government shouldn't have too much power. As I have read into it a little, I have seen hints of the government kicking in. So far, the animals have run out their farmer and named their new farm, Animal Farm. They have also established the rulers, which are the pigs because they say they could make the best rulers. What do you guys think, will the pigs turn the new Animal Farm into a complete tyranny?

451 Most important quote

The most important line from part 1 is when Captain Beatty says, "We don't get overanxious or mad. We let the fireman keep the book twenty-four hours. If he hasn't burned it by then, we simply come burn it for him."(Bradbury 59) This is the most important line from this chapter because it is foreshadowing that Cpt. Beatty will become the main antagonist in the book by threatening to burn down Montag's house because he has the book. In the future, I think Beatty will become the main force against Montag, trying to stop him from collecting books. It is obvious that he has been collecting books because he pulled about 20 books out of his ventilator grate. Also, at the end of the chapter, he sits down and starts to read the books that he has revealed that he has. As he is starting to read the books, Beatty is knocking at his door to try and get back in to see that he actually does have the books. This shows that Beattyt will become the main antagonist in the story because he is already trying to make Montag not read books by trying to get rid of his confidence. What do you guys think? Will the main antagonist be Beatty, or someone else?

Blog Assessment

http://matthreadingblog.blogspot.com/2013/10/the-scorch-trials-theme.html

This blog post best exemplifies my ability to analyze the development in theme because I showed throughout the book what had happened leading up to my thought on what the theme was. I also provided a brief summary at the end explaining what important things have happened over the course of the book. I didn’t use quotes, but I think I still followed the rubric fairly well. Instead of quotes, I used a few words to sum up what happened in that certain part of the book. There are a few things missing from my post, but I think it’s enough for people to understand what is happening and what I’m talking about without using quotes straight from the text.

Choice #1

Some goals in reading I have for next trimester are to read something other than a series, finish The Maze Runner series, and finish at least four books. I hope to make my blog posts a little shorter for next trimester because especially my first blog posts were very long. I need to summarize what is happening more briefly and do more of the rubric writing prompts. Something I want to work toward next trimester is reading more each day. I feel I wasn’t reading as much as I was supposed to, so I will read more to accomplish my goal for next trimester. In writing I want to work towards creating better posts so they will be more enticing to people reading my blog posts. I got a lot of page views, but not a lot of comments and I feel that this was because either my blog posts were too long, or the content wasn’t very good.

Scorch Trials Final

After waking up, Thomas realizes that he isn't dead. He heads towards the door he last saw Theresa standing in and opens it. Theresa is waiting outside and hugs him. She says that she didn't know what she was doing and it was like she was under a spell. Thomas doesn't believe it and walks to where the groups were last seen. He rushes to catch up because he was asleep for a couple hours. As he catches up, he sees the groups standing around a white flag that says "end." Thomas gets a very bad feeling that they are in grave danger. Read the book to find out the end.

Scorch Trials 7

After talking to the girls from group B, Group A shows up to try and rescue Thomas. They end up compromising and start to work together. As both groups are heading towards where they are supposed to go, Thomas sees Theresa out of the corner of his eye. He follows her to find out it was a trap set by her and Aris, the boy from Group B. Theresa drags Thomas to a door and opens it. She throws him inside and says she never loved him and kisses Aris. She then shut the door and Thomas falls insantly asleep because of a poisonous gas inside. The rest is still to come.

Death Cure #2

Last time I posted, Thomas was talking to the rat man. Now in the book, Thomas is in an auditorium being spoken to by the rat man. He is telling all the kids that they can get their memories back and be tested for the flare and only a few of them are immune. Thomas is refusing to get his memories back while all the rest of the kids except for him and his friend, Newt. The rat man tries to force him to get his memories back and Brenda appears as a nurse and helps him break out. This is as far as I've gotten, but I'll post the rest of The Scorch Trials shortly.

Scorch Trials #6

Sorry I haven't posted for a week, I'll do three posts on what has happened while I wasn't posting. So summery number six of The Scorch Trials. After Thomas was captured by Theresa and the rest of group B, he was taken back to their camp. Thomas meets two other girls who tell him that something has been up with Theresa and that she had been obsessing over capturing him and how to do it. I want to save some other content for the other posts, I'll post twice more of what I should have in the past week.

The Death Cure 1

So last time I posted, I was almost done with The Scorch Trials, but since then, I have started reading the last book in the trilogy, The Death Cure. Usually the last book in the series is the most painfully slow of the trilogy and so far, it is. The book starts out with Thomas in a room all by himself. The room looks like a room where they would put people with sraight jackets on. Then, the man who told the gladers to go into the desert appears in Thomas' room to tell him why he is there. He says that this was the last trial and he would be out of the room soon.  I stopped soon after this point. Nothing of interest happened after he is told he will be out soon. I'll continue to read and post what I should have when I didn't.

The Scorch Trials #5

Now that I am farther in the book, the series is starting to make a lot more sense. So, after traveling to yet another city, Thomas and the rest of group A meet group B and Theresa. When Thomas goes to approach Theresa, she hits him with a staff that she has. After that, she tells the rest of group A that she is going to take him back to her camp and if anyone follow them, they will kill Thomas. When Thomas tries to speak to Theresa, she continually punches him in the stomach. After a long trip, they arrive at Theresa's camp and let Thomas out of the bag. That is where I stopped. I'll read more and post at a later date.

The Scorch Trials theme

I still have not yet completed the book The Scorch Trials, but I think I have read enough to figure out the theme. What I think the theme is that everything is not as it seems. This is because Theresa, which is one of Thomas' best friends throughout the first book, makes him think she still likes him, but betrays him and kidnaps him in the part of the book I am at. She beat him up for trying to talk and threatens to kill him. Also, when Thomas gets an infected wound, he wakes up in a ship, but soon goes back to the wasteland he is traveling to. Over the course of the book, Thomas has found out that he is in a part of another trial, went through an extremely hot desert and met two people whom he thinks have the flare. Things such as what I have described have also happened over the course of the book, so that's what I have read so far. Still an interesting book, I'm about 100 pages from the end and I'll keep updating until then.

The Scorch Trials #4

After being chased by the crank, and escaping, Thomas and Brenda make it out of the sewers and into the town. After getting into the town, they realise that it is almost night time and have to find a place to rest for the night. They end up sleeping in an abondoned car in an alley-- bad idea from the start. When they wake up they are confronted by a large man and a woman who have weapons.  They force Thomas and Brenda into a basement of an abondoned house where a party is taking place. After wondering around for a bit , they are forced by the nameless man and woman to have a drink. It is described that it burns their throat as it goes down, and makes them pass out. When they regain conciousness, the man and woman are standing in front om Thomas and Brenda, who are tied to chairs. Soon after they wake up, Minho and Newt come bursting through the dorr with guns and shoot the woman in the face and the man in the arm. They quickly untie Thomas and Brenda and make their escape to where the rest of the gladers and Jorge are waiting, but as they are making their escape, something very bad happens to Thomas which you will have to red to find out.

Scorch trials #3

In The Scorch Trials, a lot has happened since I have last posted and I have only read about 50 pages. This reinstates my saying that the book has a lot of action. I'll start off where I last posted. After being surrounded by the people, Thomas tells the group that they can lead them to a cure for the flare (the mysterious disease in the book). I don't think I've said anything about the cure before, but when the man comes to where they are at the start of the book, he tells them that there is a cure waiting for them at the end of the road where they need to go. So, only the leaders of the group join them, leaving the others behind. They act as tour guides through the city so the gladers won't get attacked by the cranks (people who have the flare). One of the leaders names is Brenda, the other's name is Jorge. They come up with a plan to lead the gladers as safely through the city. The first place they go is into the sewers after packing up food and water for the group. When they get into the sewers, they eat their first meal, and Thomas tries to separate himself from the rest of the group, but Brenda comes over to keep him company. After they talk for a little, part of the ceiling collapses in between Thomas and Brenda and the rest of the gladers. This also separates Thomas and Brenda from the exit, forcing them to find another way out. As they travel through the sewers, they hear a tapping sound that continually gets louder, then when they turn around to look, a crank is standing about 10 feet behind them. They start to run, but the crank alerts more of his friends to chase Thomas and Brenda. When they finally find a place to hide, a crank barges into the room, unknowing where they are. I know what happens, but don't want to spoil it, so I hope you get out and read for yourself!

Recommendation for The Scorch Trials

So far in the book, it is very exciting and very fast paced. It is interesting because at every turn of a page, something is happening. If it it is boring one moment, the very next sentence, something will happen. Out of five stars, I would give this book a 4.5. It is for either gender because there is a little bit of a love story going on within the story and, at the same time, it is an action/sci-fi book. This book is a continuation of the first one, and the main thing that the characters are trying to to is remember who they are and what is happening in the world around them.

The Scorch trials #2

Now that I am halfway through The Scorch Trials, there is a lot more detail about the world outside of the glade (the place from the first book). This book is still as fast-paced as the beginning and I am liking that about this series. Details that Thomas remembered in the start of the book are now making sense. Like a deadly disease that is spread out across the world called the scorch. This disease is just coming into detail, and some people that they just met are saying things about the scorch and a lot of other things that will probably come to light at the end of the book. So, i'll start where I left off from my first post. Thomas and his friends are trapped in the building for three days without food until one day a strange man comes to the building and gives them food and directs them to follow a path that leads to a desert. After he is done giving details about their "trial," he vanishes. The next morning the boys pack up and leave for the desert, facing impossible odds as they approach a far off city. But, as they approach the city, Thomas spots Theresa(the girl from the first book) and goes to her. She tells him how she got taken away from his group and how she is now with group B. After she is done talking to Thomas, she forces him to leave and get back to his group. After this event they get into the city and are surrounded by a group of people from the city. This is where I am in the book. So far this is a very good series and I hope you get out there and enjoy it for yourself.

The Scorch Trials

I have recently finished The Maze Runner by James Dashner, and it was a pretty good book. After reading that, I started reading the second book in the series, The Scorch Trials. So far, it is very interesting. The action starts out very quickly rather than the first book where the beginning was very drug out. It is a sci- fi book just like The Maze Runner. I like these kinds of books that start out fast, continuing from the previous book. So far, it is one of the kinds of sequels worth reading. There is a mystery from the very beginning with the disappearance of  one of the main characters which was the only girl in the glade (where Thomas was before the end of the first book). The gladers are trapped in a building with a strange boy who says he is in group B and replaced the girl from the first book. That is the main story line from where I am and I am very excited to read this book. Stay tuned to find out more.

Maze Runner #2

I have just finished the book The Maze Runner, and overall, it was a very good book. I saw my last post and saw some people wanted to read it, so i won't reveal the end, but tell how the main character, Thomas, developed over the course of the book. The setting starts out in a very dark box with little light, and Thomas doesn't know who he is. When he is lifted up to a place called the Glade, he meets two of the other main characters, Alby and Newt. After he is introduced to everybody, he meets Chuck, his best friend throughout the book. After this, he stars gaining memories about the world and other things he has forgotten. Basic things such as what things are called, and partially how and why he is there. When Thomas goes out into the maze, he remembers that he was part of the team that built the maze. Then a girl comes to the maze, which he remembers, but doesn't remember where she was from. By the end of the book, he remembers enough to escape the maze, but an immense challenge arises which you will have to read to find out.

The Maze Runner post 1

       The book I've been reading is something everyone has heard of, James Dashner's The Maze Runner. It starts out slowly, and the beginning it is very drug out, but it quickly picks up. It is much like the book Robopocalypse in how the main characters are trying to dodge killing machines and fighting for their lives. Only halfway through the book, The Maze Runner is a very action-packed book and a good page turner. At the part I'm reading, Thomas and two of his friends are stuck in the maze with killing machines called grievers and Thomas sees one in the distance. I predict that Thomas will run away and try to find a way to stop them, or just try and run until morning when the grievers go back into hiding. This book kind of relates to the early stages of the holocaust because Thomas and 23 other boys are put into the maze by other people to try and cure a disease. This is much like what Hitler was trying to do when he segregated the Jews. He thought they were a disease that would spread, but they really weren't. Chuck, Thomas' best friend in the book is like me. He is a bit on the chubby side and can't run. He is also a lot shorter than most of the guys there. I only say the short part because I used to be really short.  Thank you for reading.