The Constant Battle: Book V.S Movie

         In my small book club of four (including myself) we've decided to read the horror classic: The Shining. The basic plot of the story is about a boy with an overprotective mother and a hot headed drunk for a father. Because of his family issues, it ended up with his father losing his job after violent actions. The dad found a job working at a hotel called the Overlook. The child was born with a sort of paranormal activity; going into premonitions and mind reading.  The Overlook was found out to be haunted and had a strange obsession to Danny's (the child) ability, so they put Danny's weakness, his father, on the verge of insanity. I started asking around on others input and I received mixed reviews outside of my group, including quite a lot of positive feedback on the movie. It was the opposite with our club. Everyone, including me, felt like the movie took out many of the important parts in the book, and our favorites as well. They missed out a lot of events completely, changed the hedge animals, and added unnecessary parts in the film. To be honest, the book is, in my opinion, better the movie.

           The director missed the most important parts of the book which impacted the story completely.  It was unnecessary to change them. For instance, instead of the badge animals, there was a badge maze instead. The animals created tension in the story by showing the slow process of Jack, the father, turning mad. While others weren't looking, the hedges moved, looking as if it would attack. In one part of the book, Hallorann the chef was scratched by the lion, tempting the eat him. The movie could of easily added them in, but the director changed it to a maze. The movie also cut out all the parts of Jack slowly turning mad. He looked mad the moment you saw him (and it didn't help that  Jack Nicholson was picked for the role.) The book had a type of writing that divided the people from each other. Each one had a separate way of speaking. It made the book unique. That would be hard to present on film. I could see what went wrong, but the excuses does not hide the fact that, although the movie is a classic, The Shining is best fit as a book.    

Expectable At Every Turn

      As a story progresses, parts of it change, like the character or setting. But what about the parts that don't change? If you look closely, you can spot familiar parts in the story. The Series of Unfortunate Events have clear and subtle hints of repeats as well, especially the fourth book, The Miserable Mill. When the three Baudelaire's parents die in a house fire, they have to move to different family members picked by Mr. Poe, a workaholic with a constant cough (which is either incurable or Mr. Poe refuses to go get it checked out.) The first caretaker was named Count Olaf, a man around middle aged who is, basically, is evil ( though most should call him mentally ill.) The Baudelaire's oldest sibling is a girl named Violet. After they became orphans, Violet got their parents money, who were quite rich. Count Olaf, being the greedy man he is, tries to steal the money away from them using crazy elaborate plans. With the help of Violet, Claus (the middle child and only male) and Sunny ( a toddler who only speaks gibberish) they catch him in the act, but alt the last second he runs away. From then on, they have been running ever since. In the fourth book, they're sent to a lumber mill. The owner, who is there new guardian, broke child labor laws and put them to work, insulting the toddler Sunny. They aren't even fed well. They have the tiniest breakfast, and gum for "lunch". They were only payed with coupons. This job is breaking quite a bit of rules. This book, technically for kids, has the same structure for children stories. That includes over exaggerated repetition.


     One that stood out to me was that, in the beginning of the books, it always starts with the children in a car to their new house. The writer, Lemony Snicket, usually writes how they feel about their new surroundings, which are mostly strange. In this book, the fourth, the kids are moved in an isolated place except for two houses, an eye doctor, and a lumber mill.  The rest of the area is filled with pine trees, and no people were walking about. From the looks of it, they were the only people there. In the car the wonder how long do they have to run to finally hide from Count Olaf. They also felt discouraged about their new home. Violet couldn't be inspired by anything, Claus couldn't see any libraries, and the only thing Sunny can bite are trees.

     Another one I found is that either the new guardian is mean, or killed. In the fourth book, their new guardian puts them to work at a lumber mill, even though it's dangerous to use humongous machinery art such a young age. He was big boned and always smoking a cigar, so you never saw his face. It is said by his companion at work in the book that "he had a tough life" but to the Baudelaires, it seems his actions can't overrule what he has treated them. It happened with other people, Count Olaf, Uncle Monty (nice but dies) and Aunt Josephine (annoying and dies.) All the murder is the doings of Count Olaf as well.

    Wherever they go, Count Olaf follows, and after the first book, he comes in a disguise. The second time, as a assistant, the third time, a pirate, the fourth time (which is one of the best disguise so far in my terms) a woman. It also seems to get more ridiculous as well. He was supposed to be a receptionist at a eye hospital, who wanted to have a family of (*snicker) "her" own. That almost got them in Count Olaf's hands until the kids revealed his true nature. After that, he runs away and never gets caught.

     The Baudelaire kids gone through so much, in a circle as well. They move to a shady place, meet their either horrible or soon killed guardians, find Count Olaf manipulating their fellow means of protection, showing his true nature to the unhelpful and infamous Mr. Poe, and Count Olaf running away so the Baudelaire children have to start all over. Even so, I have a feeling something is coming up later in the series. Something... unexpected.

Death: One Way Ticket To Depression

       
           Death can be powerful mentally, even if a fish or a distant relative. But if you know this person  (or animal) well, the impact will be much greater. There are stages you will encounter. It may be hard. Sometimes it can be powerful enough to take one's life.  If you pass, though, you will be stronger than before. The Tiger's Wife, is a good example of encountering death and how to deal with it. The main character, Natalia, has a grandfather who died mysteriously. She starts to unravel the truth of her grandfather with help from his book he kept with him all his life.  She needs to deal with the sudden event causing her to go through the trials one by one.

           Stage 1: Shock. People take this stage in various ways. Some are more emotional earlier, while some have no feelings or emotions until later, then you start to break. Either way, you are being impacted by the sudden news given to you. In the book, The Tiger's Wife, when Natalia is given the news about her grandfather, she was surprised at the fact that she wasn't devastated. But later in the book, when she is picking up her grandfather's bag, she starts to realize he is truly dead. That leads to stage 2: Remembering. After someone dies, you start to remember the memories you had together. In the book, Natalia starts to remember how much her grandfather impacted her life. Because of him, she is who she is. Her love for tigers, her job as a doctor, and her ways at looking at the world. She starts to relive moments of her childhood. For example, she was in a zoo with her Grandfather feeding the tigers and other animals and how she used a stick to drag it against the gates. She especially remembers the tiny details in the memories. Stage 3: Depression. After Natalia got his stuff, she was afraid of looking inside his bag. She felt as if she would open it, she would feel even more horrible than before. This is normal. Of coarse, you will feel depressed by the fact a part of your life is gone forever. This is the part on the trials that is where the only way to heal your pain is time, excepting the death, and a whole lot of alcohol. Your mental wounds will heal, but there will always be a scar in place.


           There are 3 stages you have to pass when dealing with death. It is like being stuck in cage with a tiger. You can try to run away, but in the end you can either give up, or take it on. Stage 1: Shock. It's the running away part in my simile. You are in shock and running away from the truth. Stage 2: Remembering. It's where you start to decide to either give up, or face it head on. Stage 3: Depression. That's the part where you are being attacked. You made your decision, you can give up later on, or not. Natalia, in the end, won the fight with the tiger. Some may not be as lucky, but she did. The trials of death are hard, but not impossible.

Should we Eat Meat? Draft

Should we eat meat? This question is known to trouble many people. We think, at first, the wrong in our doings.  People live among other kinds. Each of us is different, both body and mind. Though we, in a way, have similarities to other animals. The animals we eat, like chickens, cows and sheep, have faces and feelings and maybe, if not, thoughts.  So how can we eat them knowing that there are other forms of food like vegetables and grains, and we can live without eating meat. Then we think again. Some animals themselves are carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores. Carnivores are animals that eat just meat, specifically their own kind. Vegetarians eat anything but meat. Omnivores just eat anything edible. The animals never stop to ask themselves how many calories or if they’re eating is good for their weight.  They eat to live.  The problem with humans is that we second-guess ourselves with everything. When we eat meat, for example, we start to think, “Should we really do this?” We think too much. What made us think this way? Why can’t we just eat like other animals? Besides, meat is good for you and the environment. It has been around for forever and is a central part of our nature. So why give it up?

            The, so-called, animal lovers find eating meat abhorrent, almost nauseating at the thought of eating a living thing. Yet they are incapable of seeing the issue from another viewpoint. If eating meat is that disgusting, try explaining that to all the other animals out there. Most animals eat other animals.  Since the beginning of time, humans also have been hunting our own food. We have grown and evolved yet we still consume meat till this day. There has to be an explanation or a reason for our actions. We are designed to eat meat. We don’t have the right digestive systems and organs to digest plants well like herbivores, yet we have big brains and canines and opposable thumbs to hunt for meat. If we don’t eat meat, we are going against our instincts as animals.

While some say meat is unhealthy, research says otherwise. Meat helps your blood sugar levels stay stable due to its protein and fat levels. Steady blood sugar can prevent chronic diseases including two types of diabetes. It gives you nutrients like B12. Without meat, you aren’t nourishing your body properly. As written in the article, Why All Humans Need To Eat Meat For Health, ”Meat also contains vitamins and minerals that aid in muscle growth like zinc, which assists in muscle repair, and iron, which boosts energy levels and combats fatigue. Meat also contains creatine, a nitrogen-containing compound that improves protein synthesis and provides muscles with energy, encouraging muscle gain.”  Meat helps with muscle growth as well to help you body become healthy and strong physically and mentally.

            Eating meat is actually environmentally good for the earth.  The process of animals to meat in supermarkets is actually more natural than manufactured tofu to stores. As written in a contest winner article in the New York Times, “A well-managed, free-ranged cow is able to turn the sunlight captured by plants into condensed calories and protein with the aid of the microorganisms in its gut. Sun > diverse plants > cow > human. This in a larger ethical view looks much cleaner than the fossil-fuel-soaked scheme of tractor-tilled field > irrigated soy monoculture > tractor harvest > processing > tofu > shipping > human.” While vegetarians and vegans think eating tofu helps the environment, that piece of information seems to slip past them.  

            Overall, meat is not only a part of our nature, but is good for you and the environment. Eating meat gives us strength in, not just our body, but in our mind. It also more natural than manufactured food like tofu. We, like all other omnivores, also have the correct digestive system and intelligence to be an omnivore. Not eating meat is unnecessary. It’s the way we live, why can’t we accept that?  

            

Families and the Risk of Turning Into Tigers

     
       In our lives, we all have a special relationship, from our parents to our best friend. These people care for you and are the ones that influence and make you who you are. Without them you wouldn't be you. In the book, The Tiger's Wife, the main character, Natalia, has a special relationship with her grandfather. He taught her how to love tigers. He was stern but kind. He protected her and loved her. In the beginning of the book, you hear that he died mysteriously. Little by little, she tries to find the cause of her grandfather's death. Along her journey, we learn more and more about their relationship.

      He was always stern yet kind to everyone. At one point Natalia came back at 4:00 AM " eyeliner smeared and hair a mess following a prolonged encounter with Ori (her boyfriend)." He was worried sick for her and while he was waiting outside for her he was nagged by a prostitute. Natalia shooed her away but the grandfather instead gave the prostitute 50 dollars. Natalia asked him why and he responded, "You shouldn't be rude like that to anyone, we didn't raise you that way. For shame." Little events like this show his true nature, his true acts of kindness. The grandfather protects his family no matter what. In one part of the book, a strange man was talking to him at his house, asking about his family. We soon came to realize he was working for the Administration and was checking up on him because he is older than 50. When he mentioned the grandfather's family, he cringed. He didn't want for him to butt in on his own personal life, and he especially doesn't want his family stuck in his own mess. Lastly, he was the reason Natalia loves tigers. Since she was little, her grandfather bought her to the zoo daily. She would love to have a walk while he would tell his stories that we later figure out were actually true. " 'I once knew a girl who loved ligers son much she almost became one herself. ' Because I am little, and my love of tigers comes directly from him, I believe he is talking about me." Her life is being cared for by he grandfather the most out of everyone else.

     Natalia's  grandfather cared for her, her in tire life at that. He was kind supportive, stern, and gave her something she loves most of all, tigers. Without him, she wouldn't be the Natalia we would be reading about. We all have that someone. Our mentor, our supporter, some one we look up to. For Natalia, it's her grandfather. He used to tell her stories about the the undead man and the tigers wife. All true and intriguing, Natalia loved them. They soon would teach us for about his mysterious death. She tries to find out what happened to him. The one guy to love her, no matter what.

Books: Guides to all Teenagers ( Depressed Or Not )

Books are not just binds of paper tied together, but a way to think differently, feel differently, and see differently. It’s a new experience. There are moments when you really need a book to help you through difficult times. Books can help you, and can even be your guide.You most need a guide when you’re a teenager. At that time, you have to put up with a lot of responsibility. It’s when all these troubles come up. You need to put up with love, stress, education, your future, and so on. It’s a list that never ends. But books can help you, or even save your life. “ It’s Kind of a Funny Story” is a book about a kid named Creig that has to deal with depression. It got so bad he needed to call a suicide hotline. He is put into a mental hospital for adults, for the kid floor is being rebuilt. He has to deal with stress and love, and is trying to fill this empty hole in his life so he can truly be happy. We can understand his pain, for we can relate to his problems. It also teaches us what we truly need in our life. And when you put the book down, you feel determined to live life to the fullest, no matter what.

In our life, we feel many emotions and deal with many obstacles. In “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” Creig has to go through similar problems like us. In the book, his friend started dating his crush, while knowing Creig likes her. What he felt then was self-pity. We all feel that once in awhile, some more than others. When we feel that, most of the time it had a trigger, something that made us pity ourselves. His trigger was love, which is actually a fairly common source of self-pity. That emotion was connected to his depression. Another culprit was the stress he got from school ( also a common trigger) which got him paranoid. He got into a very serious and popular school, but leading him off track as well. Because of the stress, he thinks he isn’t smart enough to get by school, which makes him pity himself once again. Later in the book, His shrink, or some may call them psychologists, asked him what he wanted to do in his life. That got him thinking, what does he want to do? He couldn’t think of anything which, you guessed it, was the other reason self-pity took control of him. Think about it like this: Love, education, and preparing for the future made him feel various emotions such as stress, woe, and worthlessness. All those emotions are connected to self pity which triggers depression. We all feel these emotions, some more than others. Some less than Creig, but we have felt these emotions, for they are a part of growing up. When we read about people going through what we have been through,we feel intrigued to see what he does next and if it helped him. if it helped him, then it may help us. Some don’t even know they have felt that way until they read.

This book can also lead readers out of the dark as well. Books have a meaning and story, and also a conclusion and, the most important, the lesson. In this book, for example, you learn that you can be truly happy without having constant stress. There is a true way to be happy. Books can show you and guide you to safety. It can broaden your experience and knowledge. Even when you are going through a lot, books can teach you to stand up and fight your problem head on with a smile on your face. Creig realized what he truly wanted to do in his life is to draw. He loved drawing maps when he was a child and remembers that as he drew people, objects, and things from his imagination. He made his drawings look like maps as he filled the pictures with streets and bridges. He loved to draw, and he was truly happy. This teaches us that we can be happy just doing what we love. We can grow from that, and be successful and truly proud. We can learn a lot from one book. Teenagers, while going through a lot need this kind of help in their life. While they grow they can be strong and happy, just by one book.

Books can help you with almost any trouble you go through. Any dead end, or wall, or obstacle in your way can be beaten by a few words on paper. Yet books are more than that. Books have been around for thousands of years. Stories and lessons can make you feel many emotions, sometimes at once. They can be relatable and give you courage that could never have been found without the book. “ The pen is mightier than the sword.” A quote that is known throughout the world. There is a reason why too. No one can deny the potential a book can hold. “It’s Kind of a Funny Story” teaches you the right ingredients to be happy. This book is relatable and gives you bravery to face your future with a smile, something you need most as a teenager.

A Whole New World For The Mentally Ill

It’s Kind Of A Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is about a 15-year old kid with depression who checks himself into a mental hospital. He learns how to become truly happy with what he is doing in his life. I enjoyed this book all the way through with humor, wit and deep moments full of emotion.

            This book met many characters that pushed him along to find his “shift” or his point where he is not depressed any more. Especially a girl named Noelle. While trying to get used to the fact he’s in a mental hospital, Noelle teaches him that he not the only one feeling the pain he is going through. While his friends back at school treats him with no care, the people in the hospital welcome him with open arms. Noel and Craig’s friendship starts as friends, but ends up to be something more. She also helps him get over his old crush Nia, who says to be depressed as well. Nia starts dating his also supposedly friend Aaron. Other friends help him, like Bobby and Humble; help him through his depression and to his shift.

            The other reason he shifted was by what he wanted to do in his life that made him happy: art. He loved to draw maps when he was a kid. Later, he started to forget what made him smile. But when he was in the hospital, everything came back to him. He wanted to draw! Little by little, he started to make all different kinds of maps.  He started to become happy again. He started to shift.

            This book was amazing. The story was humorous and interesting, and very enjoyable to read. The characters told us a story with friendships and hobbies that helped a kid to fix his depression. I most definitely recommend this book to fellow readers. I hope you enjoy this book.