Mercy by Jodi Picoult

Recently I just started reading the book “Mercy” by Jodi Picoult. This book is about a man who turns himself in for killing his own wife because she was dying of a terminal illness. I only just started reading this book so I don’t have that much information but what I know is kind of a big deal.

On one hand the first thing that comes into your mind when you hear that someone killed their own wife is that’s such a terrible thing to do why would anyone ever do that. On the other hand the man Jamie sort of did it out of love. It sounds insane but he loved his wife more than anything in the world and she was dying and he couldn’t bare to watch her die of this terminal illness so he killed her. I’m wondering is it in a way better that way. What would you do? If you loved someone so much and they were dying what would you do. It does sound a little crazy that he killed her, and honestly I just started reading the book so I don’t have a lot of information or really the back story of why he did it, so I can only guess.

Love is such a weird and strong thing and I people do weird things for love. From what I have heard he loved her with all his heart. Why did he do that. I want to know more about the back story to their relationship before she got sick. What would drive someone to do that? Just because you love someone so much? Also this man turned himself in after he killed her so if wasn’t like he planned to kill her and never find anyone out.

You don’t just turn yourself in usually. If you were a bad criminal who intended on killing you own wife then you wouldn’t have done it in the first place I don’t think.

 I wonder what’s going to happen to Jamie. Are they really going to put him in jail? Does he deserve to go to jail? What if his wife wanted him to kill him? Would anyone believe him? There are so many unanswered questions about this man that I don’t know yet. I mean can you really put someone in jail for killing someone they loved so much? Does that sound crazy? I mean a murder is a murder but it’s just so complicated.

This book is already a bit of a mystery and I really want to find out what’s going to happen to Jamie and why he killed his own wife. 

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult Part 2

I am half way through the book “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult. This book is very intense and as I said before is about a school shooting. So far we have found out who the shooter is. His name is Peter. Peter and another character Josie were best friends ever since they were little but when 8^th grade rolled around and the high school Josie ditched Peter for her cooler more popular friends. Josie watched her boyfriend Matt and his friends call Peter homo and would kick him to the ground and she wouldn’t say a word. When peter killed ten people on the day of the shooting including Josie’s beloved boyfriend Matt, she didn’t know what to feel. This is a really good book told from multiple perspectives.

Peter always seemed like a messed up kid and was bullied his entire life. It makes me think about the difference between killing 10 people and getting killed inside by bullies everyday of your life. For Peter to kill 10 of his own classmates was a dreadful thing to do, but also I couldn’t imagine going through life getting picked on everyday and watching my old best friend not say anything about it. Why do people kill other people? Do they even care about what happens after? I wonder did Peter do this to get revenge? Was he even trying to kill them or was he really just trying to find a way to kill himself? Peter could be considered a terrible person and in the book he is considered that by many people. On one hand killing kids is such an awful thing there are no words to describe it On the other hand was what they did to him almost as bad as what he did to them? I’m not saying I think that what he did was right or okay AT ALL but I’m saying that what those kids did to him wasn’t right or okay either.

I’m wondering if Peter regrets what he did. You hear all these stories about shootings but in the end the shooter ends up killing himself too. This story is a little different. Peter doesn’t kill himself. It makes me wonder about all the shooters that do kill themselves. Do they do it because they feel so guilty? Do they do it because they see police coming and they know they can’t deal with what they know the rest of their lives are going to look like from behind bars? Do they do it because they’re crazy? Do they do it because it’s easier then facing what you did? Do they do it because they consider themselves victims too? I don’t know it could be all of those reasons or none of those reasons. This is why I wonder why Peter didn’t kill himself. Maybe it was because he truly believed he deserved to live. Maybe he knew that it would just kill his mother who already lost a son before(her older son who died in a car accident). I don’t know. This also makes me think did Peter only do it for revenge against the kids who bullied him his whole life? If I were him killing them wouldn’t make me feel any better. Revenge is a nasty thing. Two wrongs don’t make a right, but I guess Peter didn’t feel that way.

Finally this book makes me wonder about Peter’s poor mother named Lacy. She blames herself for everything which in my opinion she shouldn’t. It isn’t her fault. I just can’t imagine being in her position. She tried so hard to be the best mother she could and then knowing that her son killed 10 people. For parents out there are they supposed to love their children even if their child did a despicable thing? Is their unconditional love really unconditional. Do parents draw a line somewhere? Do they still love their child even if there child is a murderer? I know that Lacy does still love him and goes to visit him everyday in jail no matter what. She tried so hard to give him everything and all the love he needed but she blames herself. How could you not blame yourself though? It’s such an intense and difficult situation to be in.

This is a really good book I really recommend it. It makes you think a lot about life and death and wrong and right.  

Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

I just started reading “Nineteen Minutes” by Jodi Picoult. This book is about a schools shooting and the different perspectives of the multiple people involved. One of the main characters Josie was shot but survived the book is mainly about her and her mother who happens to be a judge, and what happens to this girl and her life.

This book really made me think about schools and how safe they really are. I mean these kids in the book woke up one morning and thought they were just going to school on a normal day and then BAM suddenly this happens. It’s crazy to think about that. It’s also really scary because this also just happened in real life in Newtown Connecticut. When you think of schools you think of a safe place where children learn, not a place where there is blood and death. You might think to yourself this would never happen at my school, but I’m sure that the kids in this book thought that and the mothers of the kids in Newtown thought that too. Humans are extremely unpredictable, they are also scary, and crazy. People can do irrational dangerous things and no body knows why.  You can’t control anything that another human does no matter how hard you try, that’s the unbelievable scariness of the whole situation.

In the book everything just starts happening at such a rapid pace people are running and there is tons of chaos everywhere. When there are schools shootings I’m sure it’s really is like that. What are you supposed to do when that happens? When you see you’re friends and teachers falling to their deaths right in front of your eyes what in the world are you supposed to feel or think? The thing is you can’t even feel or think you’re just running trying to save your own life.

This book also makes me feel depressed. It’s just really sad to think about something like this happening to other people. Although it’s a book it has been happening more and more lately in real life. Thinking about high schools students getting shot, and then thinking about young children being shot just gets me really upset. How did these people get these guns? Why did they do these things? I wonder once you start killing if you just can’t stop. Do these people even think about what they’re doing when they do it? In this book I have yet to find out who actually was the shooter. I’m wondering if it was a friend of Josie’s. I wonder if it was why they did it.

We as people can try and try to figure out why certain people do certain things. Were they mentally ill were they depressed were they trying to get revenge? There are so many questions that can’t be answered. I’m sure that people are always trying to figure out the answers to these questions. What makes me the most sad though is I just don’t really know if they are ever going to be answered. Once it’s done it’s done, especially if the shooter killed himself as well.

Why are humans so cruel. I think people can definitely blame it on mental illness or being crazy and that could contribute to it but then again how could anyone kill so easy so fast without feeling bad. Do shooters even feel bad? Do they have time to feel bad, I don’t know. There are so many questions like I said before that aren’t or can’t be answered.

This book is already very suspenseful and sad. I really want to find out what happens in order to attempt to get some answers. 

Non-Fiction post- "On Staten Island relentless bullying is blamed for a teenage girl's suicide"

In the article "On Staten Island relentless bullying is blamed for a teenage girl's suicide" Vivian Yee wants readers to know about an incident that happened at the train station just outside Tottenville High School in Staten Island, where a young girl named Felicia Garcia who had been bullied, jumped to her death in front of a train. Yee wants readers to be informed about how bullying can force young teens to do drastic and dangerous things that can result in death. She wants them to be aware of the dangers of bullying and how it can affect others and themselves. She also wants her audiences to try to understand better if the reason that Felicia committed suicide was only because of the fact she was being bullied, or something else too.  Finally she wants to help people realize that even though there are laws that require schools to develop policies to get rid of bullying and stop any harassment of students by other students things like this still happen.

In this article Yee wants readers to feel suspense and shock. Yee is able to capture these emotions by opening the article by saying "Felicia rarely cried, so when her friend saw her sobbing alone in a hallway between classes at Tottenville High School she knew something was wrong." This is giving us some suspense, we don't really know what's happening but the idea of bullying gets introduced at the very beginning. It makes you wonder why this poor girl is sobbing. Yee then goes on to state that two night before Felicia had posted this message on twitter "I can't I'm done I give up" this also is giving you suspense like what is going to happen. Yee makes you feel shocked because right after she informs you this girl had "given up" she tells the readers that Felicia had hurled herself in front of a train after school on Wednesday. The shock of the train hitting her is like a shock to the reader. It really makes you think about why she did it. Was it because of the fact that she was being bullied or was it something else? It makes you feel terrible that this poor 15 year old girl killed herself. It also makes me really mad, if she was being bullied why didn't any type of authority step in? Schools need to be more aware about what's going on.

Yee also makes you feel really sympathetic because on the front page of this article there is an image of two girls hugging each other right outside a makeshift memorial for Felicia. Seeing these two girls crying and holding each other it lurches something inside of you. This girl obviously had some people that cared about her but I guess she didn't know that. It's so sad to think that someone that young would think that suicide would be the right answer. I bet the author choose this image to display the hurt and sadness of this girls death in order to make you feel sad. Once again it also makes me feel upset that this girl felt like she had to hide all her feelings. For example in the article one of her friends said "If you tried to bully her she'd laugh at you"I don't know if this was a defense mechanism for Felicia or what. It just really makes you think about what some people could have done to prevent this from happening in the first place. It makes you feel angry that this happened at all.

Finally the other thing that Yee really makes you think about is who should be blamed? They really haven't identified one person who bullied her on a regular basis, and even if they did what would they do to that person. It really makes you think about the power of the internet and the power of words. In the article Yee states "It is not clear whether anyone will be disciplined in Felicia's case." It's awful to think that no one will really be punished for this, but on the other hand would it get through to the kids anyway? I don't know. It makes me feel like something needs to be done about this kind of thing. Lots of schools are aware of bullying but they don't know how to get through to the kids.

My ideas about bullying really haven't changed because of reading this article it made my opinions stronger. I think bullying is a terrible thing that needs to be stopped. Yee made me think a lot of things about suicide and why kids do it. After reading this article I feel like I need to do something to help administrators open their eyes. People need to be informed about the horrors of bullying and why it needs to be stopped now!

Becoming Chloe Part 2

I am still reading the book “Becoming Chloe” by Catherine Ryan Hyde. In this book the main character Jordy doesn’t have a lot of money and ends up living in this under ground cellar with this other girl he comes to know over time. This girls name is Chloe and there is something a little bit off about her. She is 18 years old but she is totally like a child. Jordy and Chloe become closer and suddenly he starts taking care of her like his child. It’s very strange.

This is making me think about responsibilities that we as humans have. I understand that in this book because Jordy and Chloe sort of live together and depend on each other I guess Jordy would feel like he has to protect her but then again it’s also kind of weird. They became so close so fast and they barely even know anything about each other, or about their pasts. On one hand if I were Jordy I might feel like I need to get a job and live my own life and not take care of this strange child like girl. On the other hand I can understand that maybe they are attached and he cares about her.

In this book Jordy and Chloe don’t have any kind of romantic relationship, it’s more like father and daughter. It’s weird that he suddenly took on that role in her life. It makes me wonder about her and what might have scarred her in the past to make her so child like in the present. I think that in life some people feel the need to take care of and protect others, even when they might need their own protecting. Now that Jordy knows that Chloe is childlike and maybe has something wrong with her he feels the need to help her. That shows that he is a caring person but it also shows that maybe he is taking on too much. If I were him before I started “looking after” Chloe I would find out more about her, more about what she’s been through.

I don’t know why there is something off about Chloe but there is. In the beginning of the book she was being sexually harassed but seemed completely unfazed. When Jordy tried to help her get to a clinic she said that kind of thing happens to her all the time and nothing bad has happened before. Even when she was telling him all this she seemed childlike and laughing and weird. I don’t know if it’s her childhood or what she has been through that makes her so strange but I want to find out more.

I don’t know If Jordy is going to continue looking after Chloe but in my opinion he needs to get his life together. Instead of worrying about some girl he barely knows he needs to worry about himself and what’s best for him. It sounds kind of mean but he doesn’t know this girl!

Becoming Chloe

Recently I have been reading the book Becoming Chloe by Catherine Ryan Hyde. In the first scene the main character Jordy is in a basement that leads to the street and he hears a girl getting sexually harassed above him. He doesn’t know what to do. He decides to say that he’s calling 911 but the main harassing her won’t know it’s him because he isn’t visible. It was definitely the right decision because the guys ran away and then girl jumped down into the basement to thank him. Situations like that can be really tough. It makes me think about being a bystander and what you’re supposed to do when you’re in a situation like that.

It was definitely the right move that Jordy said he was going to call the police because he couldn’t just stand there are listen while this poor girl was being sexually harassed. In the real world when things go on like bullying, or harassment people tend to sort of stay back and out of the way. I can understand why maybe they wouldn’t  want to involve themselves, but on the other hand it makes me feel like that person would be kind of heartless if they didn’t. How could Jordy not do something when a poor young girl was being harmed. People are supposed to look out for each other in this world right? They don’t always do it but they should. Even if those guys hadn’t run away when he said that he was going to call the police it would be worth the risk of Jordy getting hurt wouldn’t it?

People are so self involved in this world that they don’t always want to help even if they know they should. Some might say “it’s none of my business so why should I get involved” but at a certain point it becomes the person’s business. In my mind if something terrible is happening right it front of your eyes but you do nothing to stop it then the person who did nothing to stop it is just as guilty as the person who actually committed the crime.

If Jordy hadn’t done something to stop this man from pretty much raping this girl then what would have happened to her. It makes me wonder about her, is she used to stuff like this? Is this man much bigger then her so she feels like she can’t fight back? Why isn’t she trying to fight back? It’s obvious what was happening in that scene wasn’t her choice. People do terrible things to other people every day, whether it’s a little thing or a big thing it’s something. Next time I see someone doing something to someone then I’m going to step in.

Now I do think there is a line though. It really depends on what’s happening. If there is a small argument going on and it has nothing to do with you then don’t get involved because it’s none of your business and no body can fix everything. What I’m saying is think about the situation before stepping in. It’s very important to speak up when something dangerous is happening or someone is being harassed and bullied, but otherwise maybe you should stay out of it.

Life is going to throw you many things and you can choose your battles but just remember to step up to the plate when you see something going on right in front of your eyes you know is wrong 

Pride and Prejudice -answering a social action reading question

I am currently still reading pride and prejudice. One of the social action reading questions I was thinking about was everything about justice. What exactly is justice and does it always have to be a knight in shining armor slaying the dragon—no. In this book Elizabeth is struggling with her life and who she loves, if she wants to get married or not. Since I’m still reading the book I don’t know what’s going to happen but I’m wondering is there really “justice to be served” in this book? I mean would Elizabeth doing what she wants in the end sort of be her justice? That’s what I’m thinking. I mean since the beginning her mother has been racing around and making judgments about men for her daughters to marry and if Elizabeth does something unexpected would that be like throwing it in her mother’s face to get her justice?

 All their mother does it try to get one of Elizabeth’s sisters to marry a man named Mr. Bingley and that’s literally all she seems to live for, I feel like if Elizabeth does something drastic it would kind of be like getting justice for all women in that time period. I mean as I was talking about in my last blog this is what all women seem worry and think about, is who they’re going to marry. In a way that’s all they do have to live for because if they didn’t then they would be looked down upon, but maybe if someone introduced them to a new way of life they might be able to feel like they had some freedom. What I’m trying to say is maybe all women would feel like they got some justice by realizing and knowing they had more of a place in life then to just marry and cook and clean. That would be like a bigger sort of justice and it might show their mother along with all men that women are just as important and that maybe they don’t even have to marry the first person who comes their way, or even anyone at all.

In a way since you’re mostly following Elizabeth’s story that you the reader would expect her to bring justice, but the outside world (inside the book) would not see her bringing justice. You would never really think that a girl from a family where all her sisters follow the rules of society and marry who their mother wants them to marry, would be the one to bring justice. I think the reason people wouldn’t expect it is because of the way society categorizes people and makes people seem one way just because of their race, or gender. For instance in this book you would never think of Elizabeth to bring justice really, but that’s only because of what she might come off to be in the book, to the other characters. This isn’t exactly fair but it’s just sort of how the world works, now I’m not saying she doesn’t have any of the traits that people think she has, because she is a very strong independent girl, but still people are so involved in their own personal gain they would never really think a girl like that would stand up and say what she wants to do in terms or marriage or anything else for that matter. 

Finally I think that in this book society, and Elizabeth's mother blocks justice. Since society has made up what a perfect girl should be like and do in that time period it's hard to go against it. I also think that since the mother has been dragged into what society has made her to believe is right-which is you have to marry to have a good life. In my mind I'm wondering who makes that decision and why? It's not fair shouldn't everyone get to decide things like that for themselves?