Blog Reflection

http://elleesreadingblog.blogspot.com/2015/04/gone-girl-1.html

I chose the blog post about Gone Girl and its connection to The Cellar. I mention the connection between the characters and the similarities and differences between them, "Some differences I noticed was the perspective from which the story was told. In The Cellar the perspective switched from character to character throughout the chapters, but was mainly focused on the thoughts and actions of the girl, Summer, who got abducted. In Gone Girl so far the perspective is mainly focused around the thoughts and actions of the man/husband of the girl that went missing..." This shows the connections between the two stories. Also I went into more depth in explaining why this was a good choice for the authors to make, "In The Cellar when the perspective switched around from character to character it gave you a sympathetic feel for all the people around Summer and the people trying to find her. In Gone Girl the focus on one character also allows you to see more in depth his perspective on what is happening in the book. Both of the authors were very strategic in there choices...". I analyzed the perspectives of characters throughout the books which also helps demonstrate their complexity and planned out purpose throughout both stories. 

I struggled with many things throughout this blog post, but it isn't important that I struggled it is important how I overcame. Throughout the year these blog post have been getting easier as I learn more ways to analyze books. The thing I struggled with most is finding what I wanted to write about and make it a good, interesting and detailed post. I worked through this struggle by using things we learned in class throughout the year and applying it to my posts. Even though it was a struggle to write these post sometimes I did have a strength. My strength was the ability to read and finish books on time and on schedule to actually have something to write about. I just went from one book to the next with the recommendations from friends and Goodreads. Overall throughout the year I have learned a tremendous amount of things just from these blog posts.    

Gone Girl #1

Gone Girl by:Gillian
 Flynn 
I just started reading this book and so far it is really good and interesting.If you haven't heard much about this book or the movie, it is a thriller mystery about a girl who goes missing and everyone I have asked that has read the book/seen the movie has given wonderful reviews on it and told me that there is a really surprising twist at the end of the book! 

I can relate this book to the book I just finished, The Cellar. This is because in both of these books someone goes missing whether it is a women who is married to a teenager still in high school. These books both have many similarities in writing style and plot, but they also have a lot of differences in the way that the authors share a similar story.

Some similarities are as a said someone goes missing in each story and the plot is focused around finding that missing character. Some differences I noticed was the perspective from which the story was told. In The Cellar the perspective switched from character to character throughout the chapters, but was mainly focused on the thoughts and actions of the girl, Summer, who got abducted. In Gone Girl so far the perspective is mainly focused around the thoughts and actions of the man/husband of the girl that went missing. This is important to the stories because it has different impacts on the readers. In The Cellar when the perspective switched around from character to character it gave you a sympathetic feel for all the people around Summer and the people trying to find her. In Gone Girl the focus on one character also allows you to see more in depth his perspective on what is happening in the book. Both of the authors were very strategic in there choices and the choices they made are what made the book outstanding, in my opinion.  

The Cellar

Summary: 

Summer is just a normal girl. She has a normal life. She has the perfect boyfriend and perfect family, well as close to perfect as a family can get. Until one day, she was at a club with her friends when she gets kidnapped. Summer ends up at a strange house in the cellar, hence the title of the book. She finds herself with 3 other girls and the man who kidnapped her. This man has OCD and everything has to be perfectly clean. Also makes the girls change there name and go by flower names. Poppy, Violet, Rose and Lily(Aka Summer). The spend there days catering to there kidnapper plotting there escape. To find out what happens read The Cellar. 

Rating: 

I rate this book a 8. I rated it this because it is very suspenseful and catches my attention early in the book and gets me hooked. Also the author incorporates great writing techniques such as; diction, syntax and figurative language. I didn't like the book because I thought the plot could have been developed better and I wanted the ending to be more creative. The book was just getting really predictable. 

Reviews: 

"The Cellar was an enthralling, quick read, but it didn’t feel completely polished in places, but the idea, and most of the execution was very well done"

"The Cellar was a perfect combination of enthralling, creepy, and just simply messed up.  I loved every moment of it – I was hooked in and couldn’t put it down"

The Cellar "About the Author"

The Cellar  By: Natasha Preston

So I just started reading this book called The Cellar and its pretty real and disturbing if you ask me. Its about this girl who gets kidnapped and is forced to live in this guys basement with 3 other girls that he calls is his "family". All of the girls are told to forget their old lives and even change their own names to the names of certain flowers such as; Poppy, Rose, Violet and the main character Lily. This book is about Summer's (AKA Lily) experience along with the other 3 girls as they battle to survive this man and their journey to freedom from him. 

Now that you know just a little bit about the book I would like to inform you on the author, Natasha. Natasha was born in a small town of England and is now married with 1 son. She stumbled across writing in a not so normal way. She claims that she found her passion through an app called Wattpad. She was inspired by the writing that she read on the app and decided to try and write some stories for the app. She mentions that this app gave her the "self-confidence" in herself that she had been lacking and has been writing ever since. 

Natasha has also written other books called Silence, Covert, Second Chance, and Broken Silence (sequel to Silence). When I read the descriptions to some of these books I can tell what genres she leans towards and what her writing style is. Most of her books have to deal with the aspect of horror (Covert and The Cellar) if not horror then human hardship (Silence and Second Chance). The books that contain more human hardship still contain parts of horrendous actions. If you want to find out more on Natasha Preston click on the picture below. 

http://www.teenreads.com/authors/natasha-preston

Examples of Satire

This is an example of juvenalian satire because the attitude of the writer is very attacking and bitter and shows anger in the topic throughout the cartoon. This is cartoon is hard to pin point a specific use of satire, but I am leaning towards invective satire because the cartoon doesn't necessarily use words or have an abusive speech, but it portray an abusive expression about our country. The abusiveness comes from the fact that we all no 1+1=2, but just because a higher authority person is saying it is equal to 5 and the bad, stumpy looking guy says the right answer everyone is to believe the more respected one. Now since I have explained this more I also realize that this satire might involve stereotypes as well. Not only because of the higher authority and such, but also because everyone in society is a product of there own community. This piece can be shown as society is forced to believe everything they are told from someone in a higher position, but I believe that people aren't forced they choose because that's how we were taught and automatically our brains (well the majority of our brains) go, judge and bias our opinions based on the outside before we even here a point.

Krista Ramsey : The Columnist

Jail Program Needs Volunteers Willing to Listen 

In the article above, Krista talks about how she has tried to avoid anything thing that had to do with inmates or a prison. Soon to realize that she would have to cover a story on the topic and when she does she comes to learn that these people may have done some terrible things, but they are still people and they shouldn't have to be cooped up. She then finds out about the program where volunteers come in and talk with these inmates for a good 20 minutes about anything from Bengals games to their rough childhood. (Click on the link above to find out more). 

"He who enters here leaves not hope behind"
This quote is important to this article because it shows that even though they are in prison for a crime and that they may or may not be proud of they should still carry hope and never leave it. There is syntax present in this sentence. The order of words is not sound like a normal English sentence. The author uses this syntax to make the sentence pop and stand out to the reader so it draws attention and shows a stronger importance.

Krista has a certain writing style like much of other columnists but hers portrays something different. It makes you feel connected to the world. Krista uses not big news highlights but tiny things that are happening around the community. In her article about the over use of electronics she states, " The kid who used to walk home from school looking at houses and trees now rides home staring at a screen not much bigger than his hand...". Also she uses syntax and diction to draw the reader in. In some of her other columns such as the one about QB's scoring great points for style she uses diction to make the sentence more dramatic, " That's why Russell is very adamant about taking a shower..." Words such as the one that is bold above are what make the column more interesting. Though in some of Krista's articles syntax is the key to interest. You can find evidence of syntax in her article about the inmates, "...  I’d written the statistics a hundred times, but the obscene cost of trying to contain and restrain thousands of inmates – some for decades, some for lifetimes – finally hit me" The way the sentence was stuctured adds a different level of  understanding about the topic and not only makes the reader want to finish but to understand the column. 

3 Questions For The Author

• What inspires you to write? Is it a family member or is it just what you love to do?
• What college did you attend? What was your major?
• Do you purposefully add diction or syntax or does your writing craft just come naturally?