Last Blog Post (WhO KNowS?)

This is a blog post to culminate my blogging experience.  From my very first (and might I add very disappointing) post about summer reading, to my latest post on my philosophical views, blogging has been something I will never forget. While it has had its ups and quite definitely its downs, blogging has been an important part of eighth grade. It has really helped me develop my writing skills and has shown me the importance of noting my ideas about the books I read.

First off, I learned that I do not enjoy writing post-its (which maybe I already kind of knew). However, while annoying, I found it helpful and very necessary to develop my thoughts about books. Being given a week to write a synthesis page before our final post definitely made my writing better.  I would also like to acknowledge that having all my reading responses in one spot rather than written on loose-leaf scattered among the contents of a folder is very convenient.

In addition, I think writing online is better than writing in a note book because even if you are absent you can still hand in your work on time. Although this means some of your privacy is sacrificed, it is a small price to pay. As well, there is more opportunity for personalization online. At the beginning of the year we chose colors, names, fonts, etc. to set a mood for our blog and we were able to change them at our discretion. That gave more personality and life to our blogs that a notebook doesn’t always allow. Nonetheless, there are definitely things that I wouldn’t write on the internet because it is a public record and not somewhere to put private things. Despite that, I find that for some reason many people are more likely to be themselves in a blog post than in a notebook entry (maybe it feels less formal?).

Personally, I feel that the blog format is not as formal as a notebook or typed paper. I like that about blogging. But as I said, there are things that don’t belong on the internet and I believe a massive number of kids my age don’t take that seriously enough. They post explicit pictures of various subjects and type things that they wouldn’t dare say to someone’s face. While the internet can be freeing, I think it is easier to hide behind a keyboard and be mean to someone than it is to be mean in person. To some extent I believe that people feel that what happens on the internet isn’t real, and that’s just not the case. At least with my generation there are too many things that are on the internet that shouldn’t be.

To end on a happier note, I don’t mind blogging. To be truthful it was a bit tedious at times but the overall verdict of blogging was a good one. I can see myself having a blog in the future (seeing as I already keep one about Doctor Who) and I look forward to that. In conclusion: blogging was good, the internet can be bad sometimes, and maybe I’ll have another blog one day. However, for now, this will be my last blog post.

Of Mice and Men (WARNING MAJOR SPOILERS!!)

The Book of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck is about two men named George and Lennie. George is small, bossy and clever while Lennie is big, obedient, and not the brightest but they are still best friends. They travel and work together and both dream of one day sharing a plot of land with their own shack and some rabbits to care for. However, Lennie is always messing up things for them. He has the mind of a child and doesn’t understand his own strength. He love to touch soft things like mice, but he always pets them too hard and ends up hurting them instead.

On the farm where George and Lennie work, an old man named Candy also works. Candy has a dog who is old, tired, and smells very bad. The other farmhands all wish that he would put the dog to sleep and get a new one because she is a nuisance. Candy doesn’t want to kill her though, he has raised her since she was a puppy and is very attached to her. Later on he decides to kill her to put her out of her misery, but allows one of the other farmhands to do the job. Candy is very mournful afterwards.

Then, at the end of the book Lennie accidentally kills the boss’s son’s wife and runs away. George knowing where Lennie is finds him and shoots him out of mercy because he knows the other farmhands will be much crueler. George doesn’t feel right about shooting Lennie even though the other workers think he is a hero.

I think John Steinbeck is trying to ask us whether or not it is moral to kill someone “out of mercy” or “for their own good”. In both cases the individual killed (either Candy’s dog or Lennie) would have suffered more if they weren’t killed when they were. Personally, I think it is rarely ever moral to kill someone. I don’t think candy’s dog should’ve been killed and in not quite sure if Lennie should’ve been killed either. I believe that John Steinbeck also thinks these characters should not have been killed. Both killers feel extreme remorse after their actions and seem to regret it.  I think Steinbeck was trying to make a point that it is not moral to kill people under any circumstances.

Son by Lois Lowry

The book Son by Lowis Lowry is about a young girl, Claire, who is given the job to give birth to children. She is not supposed to know where her baby goes, or who it is “assigned” to, but Claire wants to find out, and she does. She finds he is going to be killed because he is different. But, someone rescues her baby, Gabe, before she does, and she goes on a journey to find him. But the cost is her memory. I think a theme in the book Son, is that family comes first, no matter what. There are many instances where it is evident that Lowry is trying to communicate to the reader that message. I think this is important because it is a valuable lesson that relates to the real world in many different ways.

                One reason why I think that this lesson (family comes first) is a theme in the book Son is that, the main character Claire has a need to rescue Gabe, her son “I could walk out of here,” Claire thinks to herself as she holds Gabe (page 62) “I could leave right now. I could take him.” She really wants to take him from a place called the nurturing center so that she can take care of him, not some random family. Claire wants to be the one to help Gabe grow so badly that she is willing to steal him from the nurturing center. I think that she wants to be the one to do this for Gabe because here, in this point in the book, Claire feels like she doesn’t belong anywhere and having family means you belong somewhere. You belong with your family.

                Another reason why I think the theme family comes first is a lesson in Son is that on page 194 sometime after her and Gabe are separated, she has a conversation with her friend Alys:

‘”I must find him’ Claire whispered, finally.

‘Aye you must’

‘How?’

Alys stayed silent’”

She is explaining to Alys in this paragraph that she HAS to find Gabe. And later on she does, but she gives up her youth and nearly dies trying to find him and be with him. Claire puts family before anything else in this scenario. She leaves her love for Einar and her friendship with Alys all to find Gabe, her only family. But in a way Einar and Alys were also her family because she belonged with them as well as with Gabe once she finds him.

                The last reason why I think that family comes first is a theme in Son is that when Gabe is apart from Claire, even though he doesn’t even know who his mom is he has a passion and zeal for finding where he belongs and where his family is. On page 274 Gabe is determined to find his mom or “birthmother”:

“’what happened to the birthmothers? What happened to my birthmother?’

‘I don’t know, Gabe’

‘Didn’t she want me?’

Jonas sighed ‘I don’t know Gabe. It was a different system---‘

‘I’m going to find out.’”

In this quote, Gabe is determined to find his mom and belong somewhere, even though he has no idea how to find her or where he is going. I think that people put family before other things and want to belong because they feel safer and they feel loved. Instead of being the odd one out, they have family.

                All in all, a very strong theme in the book Son is that family comes first. This is an important theme because all people want to belong somewhere and when you are with family, you feel like you have a place in the world. I also think that this book is a reflection of our world where so many people are lost and have no one to be with or love. I don’t think anyone deserves that. I think something that someone can learn from this theme/ book is that if you don’t have any place you belong or any family you can find family in people like your friends and mentors.

The Hobbit

The book The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien, is about a character named Bilbo Baggins that goes on a very long journey. Bilbo is a hobbit (which are small, big footed and home-body type creatures) and the journey is to regain treasure stolen from the dwarves of the Lonely Mountain by the dreadful dragon Smaug. A pattern I have noticed in the book is that even though the hobbit seems to think he is very uncourageous, he saves the dwarves from harm multiple times. This is important because by the end of the book, Bilbo seems very brave indeed! But before Bilbo does any very courageous acts, he happens upon a ring that renders him invisible to others. I infer that it is the ring that makes Bilbo feel Brave.

                One example of Bilbo’s unexpected braveness is when he saves the dwarves from the giant monstrous spiders that try to eat the group of travelers (Bilbo and the dwarves). All the other dwarves get captured by the huge spiders and are stuck in the web, but Bilbo is not caught and is able to help them. This connects back to my theory about the ring, because the way that Bilbo saves the dwarves is by wearing the ring and luring the spiders away from their webs, and then slaying them. The spiders cannot see Bilbo and that aggravates them. Then, when Bilbo is rescuing the dwarves he takes the ring off for a second and that’s when things start to go wrong; “He had taken off his ring when he rescued Fili, and forgotten to put it back on” then after that line the spiders find them and Bilbo and the dwarves narrowly escape. However, I believe that the only reason he is able to do this is because of the ring that sort of protects him.

                Another example of the courageous Bilbo brought out by his ring is when the dwarves are caught by the elves of the woods and are locked up in dungeons. Bilbo was not captured because he wore his ring and followed the elves to their palace. After a little while he was able to set the dwarves free out of cunning and courage. He stole the jail guard’s keys and unlocked the prison doors. He then packed all the dwarves inside barrels that the elves shipped food in. The elves unknowingly shipped the dwarves to safety! This connects to my theme because saving the dwarves was very brave, and Bilbo did so with his ring. But as well, sometime when Bilbo was unlocking the dwarves chambers I read “And his heart was often in his mouth, in spite of his ring, for he could not prevent the keys from making every now and then a loud clink and clank, which put him all in a tremble” this quote shows that anything that reveals to someone where Bilbo is, he is quite afraid of. I think Bilbo actually becomes much less careful as the book goes on because of the ring.

My last piece of evidence is when Bilbo steals a bit of treasure from Smaug for the dwarves. The first time he does this, Smaug is sleeping, so Bilbo gets away just fine. However the second time he does this, he encounters Smaug. But, he is able to talk to Smaug while he was invisible, and Bilbo gets away. But while he is running away from Smaug, the dragon tries to scorch Bilbo with his fiery breath, “It was an unfortunate remark, for the dragon spouted terrific flames after him.” Bilbo gets scorched (nothing too serious) because he had the ring and was sure the dragon had no clue where he was, but Smaug did have an idea of where Bilbo was!

All in all, Bilbo feels courageous only when he has his ring on! I think this is a weakness, or will be his downfall because sometimes he is too sure the ring will fully protect him, and it doesn’t. Readers can learn from this because it shows the life lesson: Don’t be overconfident! That’s what happens with Bilbo! I predict that the ring might be Bilbo’s fatal flaw in the end!

Neanderthals Are Humans Too!

In the editorial Neanderthals Are People Too the author, Svante Paabo discusses the ethical dilemma of replicating a genetically accurate living Neanderthal. He explains how, because scientists have sequenced a genome of a Neanderthal, many scientists think we should create a living breathing Neanderthal for scientific study. However, this presents many problems. Paabo uses his grandfather as an example to argue his point. He explains how his grandfather died long before he ever had the chance to meet him. He admits that he had always wished he had been able to know him, but he would not want to replicate a twin of his grandfather. Paabo believes it is the same with Neanderthals. He says “In a civilized society, we would never create a human being in order to satisfy scientific curiosity.” His point is: we wouldn’t make a human to poke and prod at in the name of research why should the rules be any different for a Neanderthal? They are our ancestors after all.

I agree with Svante Paabo, it is not at all morally right to treat a cloned Neanderthal like a lab rat. Even though this Neanderthal is a clone it is still a human and a real person who has their own thoughts and feelings.

As well as thoughts feelings this clone will have new experiences. When you are born you do have a certain amount of inherited traits, but most of your lifestyle and personality is developed through learning and experiences. To use Paabo’s grandfather as an example, if you cloned a relative that has passed, they will start out with the same traits that your relative started out with. However any part of the person’s personality that was learned or developed will be absent. This new clone will develop different traits because their childhood environment will be different from that of your relative. The clone will not be exactly the same as your relative, and – I’m no scientist—but I think this could possibly happen with a cloned Neanderthal. This cloned Neanderthal will be living and growing in the twenty first century, a drastically different environment than what original Neanderthals experienced and that could impact how this Neanderthal lives and acts.

Paabo is absolutely right when he says cloning a Neanderthal for lab work is not ethical. It is unfair to the Neanderthal clone. Thankfully, some scientists have thought of alternatives such as growing Neanderthal tissue and studying that. It will be alive and observable, but it will be only a swatch of cells which is a much less harmful alternative. I do believe that research such as this will be useful to the future of science, but I also think we have to be careful about how we go about it.

City of Ashes

The book City of Ashes by Cassandra Clare is about a sixteen year old girl named Clarissa Fray (clary for short) who finds out that she is not quite who she thinks she is. She leaves her old "mundane" life behind her as she delves into the world of the demon killing shadow hunters, and realizes that she is actually a shadow hunter, not a human or a "mundane". In this book Clary meets a mysterious shadow hunter boy named Jace who's one passion in life is to fight  demons and put himself in the most dangerous situations. Jace's shadow hunter friends hate the fact that Jace is always putting himself in the most danger possible, but that all changes when he meets Clary. Clary and Jace have a very special connection and it baffles Jace's friends. Jace is not the caring type, but there is not doubt that he cares about Clary.

I noticed that when Clary is around Jace, he usually thinks twice about doing dangerously stupid things. one might say he is protecting Clary by not dragging her indo ridiculous situations, but I think that Jace is trying not to kill himself, because Clary is Jace's reason to live. Before Clary, although he had friends, Jace was all alone. he had no parents brothers sisters or relations of any kind. However he cares so much about Clary Fray that he thinks twice about charging blindly into battle.

Divergent

The book Divergent, by Veronica Roth is about a girl named Tris, who lives in a futuristic dystopian world where the people are split into factions based on what values they think are most important. The factions are Erudite which values knowledge, Amity which values peace and kindness, Candor which values honesty, Abnegation which values selflessness and Dauntless, which values courage. The factions were created because in turmoil, different people blamed certain qualities for their problems (for example abnegation values selflessness and blames selfishness and greed). However I believe that by breaking up the population into factions, the problems were made worse.

For example, the Erudite faction which once was a faction that valued wisdom and knowledge that was used to do good now is greedy and constantly hungry for knowledge. As well, dauntless, a faction that used to favor courage in sticking up for friends and yourself is now full of reckless and violent people with little sense of comeradery. I think that by breaking up into factions and just focusing on one value, they forgot all other values. The Erudite found knowledge, but lost Abnegation, the Dauntless found courage, but forgot Amity. The factions seem to think that since another group of people focuses on that value, they don’t have to, but the truth is the best type of person is the one who can be courageous, friendly, honest, knowledgeable, and giving all at the same time.