V For Vendetta Synthesis Page

Blog Review: Living in the Glass Castle

Link to Sara's Blog Post: http://sarafellman.blogspot.com/2014/11/blig-post-121-thirteen-reasons-why.html

            For my blog review, I read Sara’s 1st blog post on “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher.  The book is about a girl named Hannah, who killed herself, and left behind thirteen tapes giving thirteen reasons why she killed herself.  Behind each reason is a person that has done something horrible to her.  There are several things that make this blog post amazing.  One thing that makes this blog post great is the inferences based off of the text.  Another thing that makes this blog post so good is that Sara also makes many connections to the real world from the text.  This is why Sara’s blog post is so amazing.

            In Sara’s blog post, she makes inferences from the book and its characters.  One thing that really stuck out to me that she wrote was when she wrote that the author’s purpose was “having us readers, read Hannah’s voice as our own.”  This really stuck out to me because as she says earlier in the blog post, the book is told from the perspective of a character named Clay.  Hannah is just a narrator.  I have read this book before, and this inference made me look back at the book in a new light.  It made me realize that in fact, what Sara says here is true.  When you read this book, you do take on Hannah’s view of things.  Even though the book is told from Clay’s perspective, you see it through Hannah’s eyes.  Sara’s inferences about the book were profound and eye-opening.  They make you look at the book differently than how you would have, had you not read this blog post.  This, for a reader, is a very good thing because it opens you up to new perspectives.

            Another thing that Sara does in her blog post is to make connections to the real world based off of the text of the book.  One connection that she made was between Hannah’s deluded view of the world and how this relates to herself and everyone as a whole.   She talks about Hannah’s need for perfectionism and how everyone has this want for everything to be perfect.  In Sara’s words, “I can relate to Hannah; I want a perfect life, and if one thing is ruined, it upsets me, most people can say the same.”  This too, made me look back at this book which I had read, in a new light.  I had never considered Hannah to be a perfectionist, but this blog post made me realize that she was a perfectionist.  It also made me realize that everyone is a little bit of a perfectionist.  A blog post that makes you look at things differently and make realizations is a good blog post.

            All in all, Sara’s blog post about “Thirteen Reasons Why” by Jay Asher was awesome!  She made you realize new thing and look at things differently.  She did this through inferences and connections.  In her first blog post about this book, she said that she could relate to the character of Hannah, yet in the second blog post about the book, she talked about how she was disgusted by Hannah.  It’s very rare when you find a character that you can be both disgusted by, and yet can relate to it.  It’s even rarer to find someone who will admit this.  Reading Sara’s other blog post about “Thirteen Reasons Why” made this one stand out even more because it was so interesting to see her change of opinions.  All of these factors made this an amazing blog post.

            

Non-Fiction Critical Analysis 2: Hechinger's Field Guide to Ethnic Stereotypes

            In “Hechinger’s Field guide to Ethnic Stereotypes” by Kevin and Curtis Hechinger, the Hechinger brothers want readers to know that stereotypes are nonsense because we are all different, and therefore, should be ignored.  One way that the Hechinger’s show readers this is by listing out all of the different stereotypes of different ethnicities.  The Hechinger’s also use ridiculous “facts” to make stereotypes seem even more crazy and unsupported.  For example, according to the book, “Many Scandi-Americans… have spent so much time consuming dairy products, eating baked goods, and sitting out the snows on their living room sofas, they have fundamentally altered their genetic code.”  This quote is just one example of a crazy “fact” that is obviously untrue and supports a ridiculous stereotype.  Finally, the Hechinger’s use humor to make fun of stereotypes and show that they are nonsense.  All of these examples show and support how people should not be confined to stereotypes or to listen to stereotypes.

            The Hechinger’s want readers to laugh at the hilarity of stereotypes, and feel surprised at the assumptions of some stereotypes.  One way that the Hechinger’s do this is by using humor to make fun of and show the ridiculousness of stereotypes.  For example, in the book, the author’s say, “But recent improvements in down-coat technology have led to the dispersal of Latinos across the country.”  This is one of the many ways that the book uses humor to disperse myths about ethnic groups that stereotypes and generalizations bring and support.  The Hechinger’s also simplify the topic by using casual language.  This use of language familiarizes and connects the narrator and the reader, causing the reader to feel comfortable while reading the book, and allows them to feel surprised at certain revelations and facts that contradict stereotypes. 

            After reading “Hechinger’s Field Guide to Ethnic Stereotypes,” I agree with the Hechinger’s that stereotypes should be ignored, but I think that the way they supported and built up their ideas with humor was confusing and unnecessary.  Their humor was too forced and to me it ended up just being confusing and seemed at least a little racist.  I agree with their message, but I thing that they went about saying it the wrong way.