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O.R. Post #2

The title of my book, once again, is The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold. It has been a couple weeks after Susie Salmon's death and it is hard for her family to cope. Her father resorts to drinking and staying away from the rest of the family. Her mother on the other hand, tries to pretend that everything is okay, and maybe Suzie will turn up. Her sister, Lindsay, practices how to keep a strait face and doesn't mention Suzie for as long as she can. Susies dad has a hunch about who has killed his daughter, Mr. Harvey, the creepy neighbor. This is infact is who killed Suzie, but there is no evidence that he did it.
All of this is still very hard for suzie to watch, knowing that there is nothing she can do...or is there? Suzie discovers that if she thinks hard enough about somethng, it appears. She wanted her father to know that he was on the right track with her murderer. At the time, her father was smashing the "sailboats-in-a-bottle" that he only made with Suzie. She thought long and hard until he saw her sign. She had her face appear in all of the little pieces of glass that now lay on his office floor. She was happy, yet she was lonely because she knew that she would never really be able to talk to them again. She wondered why she couldn't be with her already dead grandparents. Why was heaven so different then she had amagined? Her counsler explained that in order for it to be like that she had to not care about the people on earth, she had to let go. Suzie knew that she could never do that. So yeah.. that's what happened so far!

Why do people write memoirs?

I think that memoirs are a very important type of writing. Memiors, for one thing help relieve the pain. Many things that memoirs have been written about are painful experiences. I also think that those stories tend to be the better ones because we learn a very meaningful lesson. Also, I think memoirs are written to help writers to be better at description. Memoirs also tell a little bit more about the person. It is a way for the reader to fully connect eith the writer. I also think that memoirs help the readers gain knowledge. Not only can you learn a life lesson, but you can learn how other people handle various situations.
Through the writing of my memoir I have been able to truely express my feelings through writing and let my voice shine through. I also, as stated above, have been able to let go of some of the painful things that have happened and actually learn from them. Memoirs, in addition to helping the reader understand, helps the author further understand the situation. I think that when the right word choice and event is picked, a memoir can be a very strong piece of writing.

O.R. Post #1

The title of my book is The Lovely Bones by Alice Seabold. The main character in the novel is Suzie. Susie is just your average teenager who lived in the 70's. Suzie, like any teenager, faces many challenges. Surprisingly these challenges are not dealt with on Earth, but in heaven, where we first meet her. She tells the reader the story of how she was raped and murdered by her neighbor. She didn't even get the experience of high school before she died.
Suzie also shows us what heaven is like. She explains that heaven is different for everyone. In her heaven she has a high school, exactly like the high school in her town. She also goes to school, but her text books consist of Cosmo and Vogue. She also is able to watch watch what is happening on earth from up above. She watches how frightened and hopeless her parents are after they discover that she is missing. In heaven, she also finds many challenges, she doesn't know what to do or how to spend her time. This is when she meets her guidance counselor. She helps her "fit in" in heaven and tells her how things work. She tells her that anything that her heart desires will automatically appear, all she has to do is think it.

What types of things does Richard "hunger" for and what are the effects (positive and negative) of hunger?

Throughout the book, Richard seems to hunger for many things. The most obvious one of these would be food. Because Richard comes from a poor family, there is never enough food. He lives for the times when he move's in with relatives and there is always enough to eat (50). Besides food, there were other things that he hungered for. One other thing would be knowledge. Even when Richard was small he always wanted to know more. One time, Richard's mother was in desperate need of getting some coal, so she left Richard in charge of giving the repair man his money. When he came, Richard told him he was unable to count money, so the man taught him (23). When he had learned his numbers, he wanted more. Soon he went to school and ended up skipping a few grades because he always wanted more. These are only a few examples of what Richard hungers for.
Personally, I don't think there are any positive effects of hunger, but there are many negative effects. One negative would be the fact that it is hard to focus when you are hungry. Instead of focusing on schoolwork or whatever you might be doing, you tend to focus on how hungry you are. Richard learns this when he goes to lunch with the school kids (125). Also, being hungry can make you upset. You tend to get crabby and don't want to do anything or talk to people. It also can keep you from sleeping. I think this might have been a factor to Richard's violentness because he wasn't well rested and iwasn't thinking properly.

Is Richard a "bad" boy? When should behavior be blamed on the person and when should it be blamed on the environment?

If someone asked you, "How does one define a bad boy?", would you say a boy that acts out because he is beaten and comes from a broken home? I wouldn't. In the first chapter, we see that Richard gets beaten regularly. Most of the time he doesn't even understand why he is being beaten. I think this is the point where the actions he made should be blamed on the environment he is surrounded by. For example, think of when Richard visits the bar and learns bad words. If his father didn't leave for another woman, his mother wouldn't have to go to work. This means Richard would be under supervision and would have never gotten beaten for words he didn't even understand.

Although, I do think that actions that one knows is wrong, but continues to do them anyway, is bad. In the book, Richard describes how fearful he is of his father. He doesn't like the way his father drinks and is afraid to approach him because he is so afraid of being beaten. This fear begins to turn into hate. One day, while Richard's father is sleeping, a cat meows on the steps. His father comes out and in a sarcastic tone tells him that if killing the cat is the only way to keep him quiet, then kill it. Richard, even thought he knows his father didn't mean what he said, kills the cat. Richard knows this is wrong because he says, "Oh, yes... He had said to kill the kitten and i would kill it! I knew that he had not meant for me to kill the kitten, but my deep hate of him urged me toward a literal acceptance of his word". This is when, I believe, actions should be blamed on the person at fault.

done

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