Little Women (again)

             As I said in my previous blog post about this book (I’m sorry, it's really long!) each chapter is it's own little story with it's own little story. Well, the chapter I’m reading right now is about Meg, Jo, and Beth going to an island with Laurie, their friend. It starts out with them all getting invitations. Along with Jo's is a very big hat. It's a little joke between her and Laurie. She always complains that her face gets burnt in the sun, but she can’t wear a bigger hat because it's not in style. Laurie thinks that she is not the kind of person to let fashion get in the way of comfort, so he sends her the hat.

I think that this part of the story is it's own little moral in itself. Jo isn't the kind of person to care about style, and yet, she still shows concern for fashion. Even the people who seem not to care about things in the slightest bit think about them a little. Jo is a tomboy, or at least as tomboyish as you could be back then, and she really takes no notice of the latest fashions, but she wouldn't willingly cross a line and wear something crazy.

The thing is, she does wear the hat. It is not absurd, and she feels that there is no reason for her not to. Because she does wear the hat, it seems to me that she is going out of her way to be different, and to show that she doesn't care about clothing and being a proper young lady.

In it's own way, the fact that Jo wears the hat shows that she cares about fashion just as much as Amy, if you can believe it. She just chooses to wear everything that is not in style, rather then refuse to wear anything that isn't.

I think that I would rather be in Jo's position then Amy's. She is not afraid to wear anything she wants without suffering because of the clothing she is wearing because she feels the need to be in style. Although, there are disadvantages to being the way she is. She is the object of ridicule in many situations, and I'm not sure if I would rather be subject to that and be able to wear whatever I want then wear what is in style and suffer because of it. There is no way out!!

Well, the hat was very useful. It created a laugh at the start of the trip, breaking the ice, and it would serve as a good umbrella in case of rain. Plus, Jo was not sunburned, and there was no peeling skin on her nose. Always a plus.

Little Women

I'm currently reading Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott. If you aren't familiar with the book, it’s about four sisters, Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy. They live during the civil war, and they have to fend for themselves, because their father is at war. Their mother is still with them, but Meg and Jo, the oldest, still have to work. Each chapter of the book is essentially a life lesson; each one has some kind of moral. One that caught my attention was about Amy, the youngest.            

Amy is a persistent, materialistic schoolgirl. She is the only sister who goes to school (Beth stays at home and studies by herself), and she has many social issues with her classmates. She strives to please her friends, and so she is willing to do anything to get on their good side. In this chapter, Amy complains to Meg that she feels horrible because she has no money to buy limes. Her friends buy limes all the time and suck on them at recess. If you like someone, you give them a lime, and if you don’t, you eat one right in front of their faces without giving them even a lick. Amy tells Meg that some people are being mean to her because she has no limes. Meg, taking pity on her favorite sister, gives her a quarter. Amy gleefully buys 24 limes, all in one day. When she gets to school, she refuses to give any limes to the girl who was mean to her before. When Amy sneaks her great big bag of limes into her desk, she is tattled on. Her teacher makes her throw all the limes out of the window. After that, he hits her hand with a ruler three times, and makes her stand up by the blackboard until recess, instead of letting her go sit down.

I think that this one caught my attention because there are two sides to the story. Of course, Amy should've spent her money more sparingly, to prevent her from breaking school rules. The thing is, the teacher didn't handle the situation very well at all. I know that the times are different now, and corporal punishment was standard in school, but I would think that even then, having her throw away the limes and have her stand up by the board to wallow in her shame would be enough.

Then there is the tattletale. I believe her name is jenny. This young character Jenny can do nothing but wrong here, can she! This all wouldn’t have happened in the first place is she hadn't tormented Amy about not having any limes! Isn't enough for Amy not to have delicious limes to suck on like everyone else, but then to get ridiculed in front of her friends and peers! Then the tattletale epidemic after that! Why exactly did Jenny do it? I'm going to break it down.

Number one: Why Jenny made fun of Amy in the first place:

a. She was offended that Amy did not give her any limes

b. She wanted attention from the other girls

c. She was hiding the fact that she did not have very many limes

d. She wanted to provoke Amy into buying limes and giving one to her

Number two: Why she tattled on Amy about the limes in her desk:

a. She was angry with Amy for refusing to give her a lime

b. She wanted to get on the teacher's good side

c. She wanted attention from the other girls

d. She wanted to distract the teacher from the fact that she had limes in her desk

Number three: Why tattling was a very bad idea:

a. Everyone will be mad at her

b. Amy will be very mad at her, and Amy is a beast when it comes to revenge. See chapter 8 for proof

c. She will have lost any chances of getting any limes from Amy

Harry Potter 5

I have just finished re-reading Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. It was break. I was bored. Don't judge!! Harry Potter is God!!

I've always been the kind of reader who gets really into certain books, (e.g. Harry Potter) because of the interesting plot line. After having that experience with a book like that, I would expect it from other books, and not get it. I want that rush in my stomach while turning a page, knowing something is going to happen. While I admire J.K. Rowling for her genius plot, her writing is rubbish. See! I’m even using British words.

When I first read the 5^th book, I was in 2^nd grade. My teacher was impressed, but I told her I didn't really understand a lot of the words on the page, which is reasonable. Rowling didn't write the books for 7 year olds, and she uses some surprisingly challenging vocabulary. The climaxes of the books have no inner meaning whatsoever. The fact that Harry is fighting the Death Eaters has no substance at all. This is why, at age 7, I enjoyed the books so much. I didn't need to really read the book to enjoy it. I was an incredibly fast reader, not really taking in any of the words on the page. I read to know what happened next, not what was actually going on.

I re-read all the books all the time, especially the 6^th one, which is my favorite, closely followed by the 7^th. Each time I read them over again, I focus on a different aspect of the book. The first time, the plot, the second time, the details I missed the first time, the third time, the characters, the fourth time, the thoughts, the fifth time I have no idea. At least, this is what it was like for me with the 5^th book. This was the fourth time I read the book, but I was kind of in between characters and thoughts, because the first time really doesn't count, I mean, I was only 7 years old!

The character I focused on was Professor Umbridge. She is a horrible person, who has some really horrible views on things like half-breeds. Naturally, I agree with Harry and the rest of the Gryffindor that she is a horrible person and teacher. It is not Harry that I disagree with, it's J.K. Rowling. By creating an adult like that, she makes it seem like it's a good thing to do bad things to teachers because of the way they teach. The reasons that Umbridge acted the way she did about teaching was reasonable, because she honestly didn't believe anything harry said, and she thought the students and Dumbledore were going to try and fight against the Ministry so that Dumbledore could be Minister of Magic. If this were the case, it would be good for Umbridge to go to all the lengths that she did to prevent that from happening.

Rowling makes it okay for the students to do horrible things to the teacher. Because Harry Potter is such a popular book for small children, this is not a very good thing for Rowling to put in her books. It makes it seem like it's okay to misbehave if the adult in question has some different views on things than you.

ahhhh

ok, it works