The End

During this semester of literature class I felt as though as the semester began that I would dread this class because I was not a fan of reading or writing at all. With all the different novels and different things we began to read i realized myself being challenged by the readings. I actually began to enjoy reading and writing about the things that i learned during the readings. Blogging about my thoughts about the reading really helped me to solidify my thoughts on different things that i learned in each  book. The Hunger Games was probably my favorite novel that we read as a class. It opened up a whole different thought about what we are entertained by. It made me really sit back and think about what entertained me. It made me feel guilty about getting pleasure out of reading or watching a movie where people are getting hurt. This semester also really got me to go out there and find my own things that are good for you. I want to gain more knowledge about all aspects of life and i know now that a big way to gain knowledge is to read and to explore the arts. I really never knew that i would respond to literature in the way that i have. Reading good literature makes you look at yourself and really begin to question the things you do. I learned a lot from my classmates and especially my group mates and of course Dr. Mortimore.. I felt like my group and I got along really well and we all discussed everything thrown at us very well. Literature is important and I know that now.

To read or not to read

There are so many different books in this world. Books link us to our past. Without the books that we have now, we would not be able to know much about the past and be able to move forward. We would not be as advanced in technologies that we have now if it wasn’t for the books that people have written for us to use to learn from and develop. I by no means see myself as much of a reader, but ever since the start of this lit class I have been more open to reading. It is actually becoming more interesting for me to sit down and read a book. I am realizing how important reading really is. Reading is very important, especially because I am a college student and reading is always needed. I have realized that I need to read more, and it is helping me with my grades. I have seen an improvement ever since I have started reading more. There are many different kinds of books in this world. There are books for ever person; it doesn’t matter if you are interested in sports, cooking, fiction, nonfiction, or anything else you can think of. There is definitely a book for you. I think that it would be a very negative effect on people if books were completely gone.

I think that without the books that we have and the ones that authors will continue to write us as a society would suffer. We do have the internet and Google and different things, but technology always breaks. Books are pretty much not breakable. All you have to do is open a book and begin to read, you don’t have to log on or turn on a computer to do so. Even though we do have all this technology people always turn back to books to educate themselves. Books should be a huge part of everyone’s life.

If we continue to “burn books” our society will continue to decline. We cannot always rely on “Google it”.  I believe the reason why we are always relying on our technology is because we want everything to be faster, we everything to happen right now. We don’t want to take some time out of our “busy” schedules to do things the old fashioned way. It really is not that hard to sit down and read a book instead of sitting in front of our televisions or computers and watching Jersey Shore re runs. When you read it is a proven fact that people become more knowledgeable. With the help of reading you become smarter and have a wider vocabulary and learn the views of others instead of your own. I know that when I am older I am going to enjoy sitting down on my recliner after a hard day’s work and enjoying a nice book. Hopefully we don’t burn too many books by then.

To be entertained....

To be honest I really wasn’t looking forward to reading The Hunger Games that is why I put off so long to read it. I ended up reading it the two days before we had the quiz. I was really surprised at how great this book really was it held my attention the whole time.  I am not much of a reader, usually just when it is about sports especially when it is about the Phillies is when I read. The book was incredibly interesting and once I started reading it I couldn’t put it down. I found myself reading for 3 and 4 hours at a time. This book was surprisingly similar to the lottery where picking people to be sacrificed was such a normalcy. The shocking thing is that not 23 people are given up in The Hunger Games, not just 1 like in the lottery. It is really sad that people get entertained from watching people die on television. It is different when we watch movies, but in the Hunger Games people where dying in real life and people still got a kick out of watching it. I know I would not be able to sit back on my couch and watch something on tv where someone is actually dying. That is just unreal.

I didn’t know what to think for the 24 kids that where put into the games. I just couldn’t see myself in their shoes. The person I really looked out for in this book would have to be Katniss. She was my favorite character because I would do the same thing that she would have done to save her sisters. I have 5 younger brothers and sisters so I know what is like to feel very protective of them. I would sacrifice myself over them in a heartbeat.  I have the same type of responsibilities for my family like Katniss has for hers, maybe not to the extent of going out into the wild and grabbing food for breakfast, but making sure everyone eats their breakfast is more my job.

This book shares many similarities to the other book we read 1984. In both of these books the authors preach the point of watching over their people and keeping in complete control. The people in charge use scare tactics to get their people to cooperate with how they want their country ruled. Although Big Brother was not broadcasting the peoples’ lives, they were watching over their every move. In both books the people talk about different consequences for going against the rule of the government.

In the Running Man, a man is on a tv show where he is put through various tasks and has to survive. The thing of it is he is actually doing all of the stunts for real and could die. This goes hand and hand with the Hunger Games because the children are aired on tv and have to try and stay alive infront of every one watching.