Blogger Reflection

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"What would you do if I died? If I died I would want to die too. So you could be with me? Yes. So I could be with you" (McCarthy 11). Throughout the book, you can see that this special bond still exist even when times get rough they pull through and love each other very much. But throught the book you can see that sometimes the dad has to go to extremes and protect his son and be a dad. "He cocked the pistol and held it on the man and the man stood one hand out at his side, the dirty crumpled paint mask that he wore sucking in and out. Just keep coming. He looked at the road. Don't look back there. Look at me. If you call out you're dead" (McCarthy 63). Things are starting to get heated during this time of the book.  In the rubric for a charater blog it says, "The student analyzes in detail how complex characters develop over the course of a text, interact with other characters, and advance the plot or develop the theme." The dad protecting his son from the gang member shows that he can interact with other characters by loving them but also caring enough for them, that he can protect them too. This also advances the plot because of the actions the dad is taking.

One thing that I struggled with during the blogger experience was taking the info from what I read and writing it on the blog. At first i didn't really know how blogger worked and all the gadgets you could use to link an article or paste a picture or video to further help describe what you were trying to say in your blog. Sometimes if i didn't know how to do something, or I hit a wall with trying to blog, I usually asked a friend to help me out. One strength that I had while blogging was getting evidence from my book and connecting that to the theme or charatcers and what helped to advance that in my book. Blogger has been very helpful in making me better at analyzing passages from a book and connecting that to charcters and themes throught the book.

Hatchet Links and Displays

Hatchet Book Recommendation

I would recommend this book to anyone I know. I just started reading this book and it did not at all start off boring like a lot of other books i have read. The author Gary Paulsen really ties you in with a lot of description and a little action from the start that really want to make you read more and more of this book. The Hatchet is also a Newbery Honor Book so you know it can't be that bad. "More smell now. Bad. Brian turned again to glance at the pilot, who had both hands on his stomach and was grimacing in pain, reaching for the left shoulder again as Brian watched" (Paulsen 10). You can already tell that the book is getting exciting and some action is about to take place.

Hatchet Analysis

"Help! Somebody help me! I'm in this plane and don't know...don't know... don't know... And he started crying with the screams, crying and slamming his hands against the wheel of the plane, causing it to jerk down, then back up. But again, he heard nothing but the sound of his own sobs in the microphone, his own screams mocking him, coming back into ears" (Paulsen 18). What is happening to Brian is unthinkable. Brian's pilot wasn't feeling so good and his stomach was hurting. The next thing you know the pilot is screaming and slamming back into his seat. The pilot was having a heart attack. Since the pilot just died, Brian had to take things into his own hands and fly the plane himself. A 13 year old flying a plane is not a very good idea. I infer that Brian will crash because he is a 13 year old and doesn't know how to fly a plane. But, I predict that Brian will still live after the plane crash because how else will the book go on.

The Road Tone and Mood

The tone of The Road I think is loving. The mood of The Road I think is aggravated. I feel aggravated when reading this book becasue they're in survival mode and live in poor living conditions. I feel bad for them that they have to live that way but the father and the son still find a way to forget about what is happening now and just think about eacother. One particular moment in The road is when the dad is talking to the son about protecting himself when he is gone "Take me with you, the boy said. He looked as if he was going to cry. No. I want you to wait here. Please, Papa. Stop it. I want you to do what I say. Take the gun. I don't want the gun. I didn't ask you if you wanted it. Take it"  (McCarthy 70) So you can see that the dad is talking with authority to his son. His tone impacted his persuasiveness because if he was talking quietly and shaky then the boy might not take him as seriously.

Book Recomendation

I recomend this book to anyone who likes action and cliffhangers. This book is very exciting and you never know what is to come next. The only think I don't about this book is the setting. Cormac McCarthy never tells you, but he does describe what it looks like and what the feel is. "It was snowing again, soft flakes drifting down out of the blackness" (McCarthy 31). There are also moments in the book when the little kid has to take charge of himself when his dad is gone. "Take me with you, the boy said. He looked as if he was going to cry. No. I want you to wait here. Please, Papa. Stop it. I want you to do what I say. Take the gun. I don't want the gun. I didn't ask you if you wanted it. Take it" (McCarthy 70). This book will have a lot of ups and downs and that's why this is a great book to read.

Links and Displays

About Cormac McCarthy

Cormac McCarthy is a very interesting author and books are very exciting and if you don't like reading, I would suggest that you read a book that he wrote or read The Road! If you want learn a little more about Cormac McCarthy or about his books, click this link. About Cormac McCarthy

The Road Characters

In this book the two main characters, the dad and the son, it doesn't tell us their names. I looked it up online and all it talks about is the dad and the son or the little boy, it never says either of their names once. At the beginning of the book the author gives you the feel that the dad and the son have a special bond and are for each other very very much. "What would you do if I died? If I died I would want to die too. So you could be with me? Yes. So I could be with you" (McCarthy 11). Throughout the book, you can see that this special bond still exist even when times get rough they pull through and love each other very much. In the middle of the book, while they were walking down the road, they spot a gang and book it to the woods and hide in the grass. If the gang finds them, they are as good as gone. "He slung their knapsacks over his shoulder and they tore through the crumbling bracken. The boy was terrified. Run, he whispered. Run. He looked back. The truck had rumbled into view. Men standing in the bed looking out. The boy fell and he pulled him up. It's all right, he said. Come on" (McCarthy 61). While they were hiding, a gang member starts too walk over by them and you could tell he was about to turn into dad protecting mode. "He cocked the pistol and held it on the man and the man stood one hand out at his side, the dirty crumpled paint mask that he wore sucking in and out. Just keep coming. He looked at the road. Don't look back there. Look at me. If you call out you're dead" (McCarthy 63).  I think we will be seeing this side of the dad a lot more throughout the course of the book. My thematic statement for this book is, if you care for other people, often they will do the same for you. This develops the theme because the dad is always watching out for his son and other people so nothing bad will ever happen to them. "I with I was with my mom. He didn't answer. He sat beside the small figure wrapped in the quilts and blankets. After a while he said: You mean you wish you were dead. Yes. You musnt say that. But I do. Don't say it. It's a bad thing to say. I can't help it. I know but you have to. How do I do it? I don't know" (McCarthy 55). The dad cares a lot about his son and would never want anything to happen to him.

This Book is...

I don't really know where this book takes place, it never really told me. But I do know it is somewhere that is very cold. It also doesn't tell me why there is not a lot of people living or alive wherever the father and son are. And why there is so much destruction and everything is everywhere not in the right place where it should be. So what i'm guessing is that there must of been a tornado or some other natural disaster that messed up this whole town and why not a lot of people are there. But other then that the book is really good and I think a lot of other readers would like this book as well because of how the author describes certain things and how he tells the book.

The Road Analysis

"The weather lifted and the cold and they came at last into the board lowland river valley, the pieced farmland still visible, everything dead to the root along the barren bottom lands" (McCarthy 21). This is describing the conditions that the father and son are in. All they are doing is trying to find a place to get out of the cold and rest. "Their feet were wet and cold and their shoes were being ruined" (McCarthy 20).  "They squatted in the road and ate cold rice and cold beans that they"d cooked days ago. Already beginning to ferment. No place to make a fire that would not be seen. They slept huddled together in the rank quilts in the dark and the cold" (McCarthy 29). I infer that the father and the son will always stay close to each other and will find a way out of the cold together. But on the way there might be obstacles like shortage of food or gangs trying to hurt them cause they also need to survive in this freezing weather. And maybe animals will come across into the father and son's way of trying to survive.

The Road Setting

This book starts off with a lot of imagery and you could picture what everything looks like because of all the detail. It really hooks you in from the beginning of the book. "They pushed on together with the tarp pulled over them. The wet gray flakes twisting and falling out of nothing. Gray slush by the roadside. Black water running from under the sodden drifts of ash" (McCarthy 16). This is describing all the snow that was coming down and they were trying to make shelter in the dark. You can already see the author being very descriptive from the start of the book. The setting of this book includes mountains and many rivers all during a nuclear winter where there is not a lot of life and only a father and a son trying to survive. This setting is hard to survive in and I think we will see a lot of challenges and cliffhangers during this book The Road.

Blind Side Theme

Danny Loehr

One of the themes of the Blind Side is helping. Leigh Anne was feeling down for Michael and knew he didn't have many things and she wanted to take him out clothes shopping. So after she got off of work, she went to Briarcrest and picked up Michael. Michael also struggles in keeping his grades up in school so he gets a lot of help with test by people reading it out loud to him and learning in class is also a struggle even though he knows the material, he doesn't know how to express himself in a classroom setting. "What did you have for lunch today?" Sean asked. "In the cafeteria," said the kid. "I didn't ask where you ate," said Sean. "I asked what you ate." "Had a few things," said the kid. Sure you did, thought Sean. He asked if he needed any money for lunch, and Mike said, "I don't need any money." The next day, Sean went to the Briarcrest accounting department and arranged for Michael Oher to have a standing charge card at the lunch checkout counter" (Lewis 66).

What this article is mostly about is Michael's past and what he did to get where he is right now. Also the writer of this article was relating another movie to the Blind Side and how similar it was to what Michael Oher did. Inspiring Article.