People I commented on (first book) :

Hannah Jang

Jesse Par

Sophia Lee

Michael Shin

Josep Falta

Steven Kim

one for each

People I commented on (second book) :

Jesse Park : 2 comments
Josep Folta : 2 comments
Andrew Nam : 2 comments

6th Post on My Second Book: The Lord of the Flies

There are some current situations in the world that relate to the novel. After all, this novel represents the world we are living in. It shows the corruptness of human being, and how violent and wild we can get. How humans look for stronger, better leadership and power when things do not satisfy us, regardless of what is right and wrong. This book is showing the conflicts between two group: the group of people who lives by rules, stays peaceful, and do what is right, and the other group that follows the instincts, eager for immediate desires, and use violence to rule the others. There are still many countries and groups of people who are under this type of conflict. I just hope that the civilization wins over savagery, no matter where or by whom.

5th Post on My Second Book: The Lord of the Flies

The climax of this story is when Simon meets the pig head and have a conversation with him. The pig head says that the boys cannot kill the beast that easily, and he himself is the Bast. He also says that the boys are part of him, the Beast. This, like I talked about on the 4th Posting, is saying that the sinful, corrupt human nature is the Beast and that will bring devastating destruction and deaths to the small society of the island. Starting from that time, Jack and his followers start killing off Ralph's followers, starting with Simon who tries to tell them what he found out just a few moments before. The kids, like the pig head said, bring destruction and death to the smal island. The tension was building up between Ralph and Jack, and it starts blowing up after this incident.

4th Post on My Second Book: The Lord of the Flies

The passage I chose that is meaningful to me is the part when Simon talks to the pig head sticking to the pole in page 143. The pig says "There isn’t anyone to help you. Only me. And I’m the Beast . . . Fancy thinking the Beast was something you could hunt and kill! . . . You knew, didn’t you? I’m part of you? Close, close, close! I’m the reason why it’s no go? Why things are the way they are?" This passage is saying that the beast is actually the boys themselves. The whole evil spirit in this island was the human nature and savagery. He identifies himself as the devil and says that he is part of the boys. This passage, which I would say the climax of this novel, really gave me the creeps because this is telling the corruptness of human being. After the conversation, Simon goes to the boys to tell them what he had found, and gets beaten up to death by Jack and his followers just because they thought he was the Beast. Ralph and other "right-minded" kids tried to stop them, but they were going crazy and would not listen.

3rd Post on My Second Book: The Lord of the Flies

The main characters of this novels are Ralph, Jack, Piggy, Roger, Simon, Sam, and Eric. Ralph is the boy who everyone chose as a leader at the beginning. He tries to lead the group without any conflict. Jack is the leader of the hunters. Always hunger for power, he gathers Ralph's boys and become a new leader, becoming really violent, barbaric, and violent. He is like the terrorists and war countries of this world. Piggy always agrees and follows Ralph, and he is the "brainy" of the whole group, though he gets some severe disagreements from Jack and his friends. If Ralph has Piggy, then Jack has Roger. Roger is the "good follower" of Jack. He is also very violent, and he brutalizes the little children of the "society." Simon is the only boy on the island who stays "good" all throughout the story. He is shy, and he is always kind to the little children. Sam and Eric are twins. They were following Ralph at first, but later near the end of the story, Jack takes them and forcefully make them stay under him. They are like the weak countries and groups that has no power of this world.

2nd Post on My Second Book: The Lord of the Flies

This novel has many moods. At first it was hopeless because they landed on an island and there were nobody living there. Then, when they started getting things prepared to survive and have fun, the mood became happy and bright. After that, when Ralph, Piggy, and Jack were keep on having conflicts with each other, there were suspense and tension building up. Then, when Jack took his people and went out of the society, the suspense and tension blew up, and there was bitterness left behind. When Jack killed Ralph's friends and tried to kill him, the tension started building up again, and there was scariness all over the places. Finally, when the ship comes to the island at the end of the story, the mood changes to mild and peaceful. This novel saddens me because when I finished this story, it felt like this world is going to become like the kids in this novel. One strong leader will gather armies and try to rule everything, killing the ones who are against him.

1st Post on My Second Book: The Lord of the Flies

The theme of "The Lord of the Flies" is that people are sinful and corrupt, and without a leader that satisfies their wants, the whole society can fall down. This novel is representing the civilization. Simon is the peace-maker, Piggy is the scientific, rational side of civilization, Jack is the morale, violent side, and so on. In the story, Ralph became the leader of the group of boys, and gave orders to them for a while. Though he had done his best to be a good leader, or maybe he did become a good leader, but Jack did not like his orders, and he overthrew the so-called top class and became the new leader. He gathered Ralph's people with meat, which was the best food to eat around there, and started killing people who were still under Ralph. If the ship arrived the island a little bit late, Jack and his army would have killed Ralph. Though Ralph was good enough to be a leader, he did not satisfy the boys, and so they caused a coup detat. This shows how sinful and corrupt human beings are, because they were still little kids when they landed on the island, and they got no outer influence to become that violent and corrupt.

Entry #3: What quality would you like to have as a Greek god or goddess?

If I can have any Greek god or goddess' ability, I would like to have a flying ability, like that of Hermes. It is not really Hermes' ability that I want because it is his shoes that enable him to fly, but he owns the shoes, so I will just say I want his abilities. Because it is the shoes that enable him to fly, I would not change in physical way if I can fly like Hermes. I want to have a flying ability because I think it would feel good to fly in the air. I would go out and fly whenever I feel sad and depressed, and that would make me feel better. Also, I think flying ability can be really convenient. I can get to places faster and easier, and that is going to save me a lot of time. One of many other reasons I want to have the ability to fly is because flying ability is the least dangerous quality to have. For example, if I get an ability that is related to strength, like super strength or lightning bolts to throw, people might come to me to use me for bad deeds, and people around me could get dangerous, just like old animation movies. But the main reason I want the flying ability is: IT'S COOL~!!!

Entry #2: Greek Monsters

I researched about Medusa. She had two sisters who had snake hair and bronze arms with wings on their backs. Medusa was actually a really pretty lady, and she was going to marry one of the gods. Before she got the chance to, she made a bold statement saying that she is prettier than the fourteen daughters of Poseidon. When the they heard this, they got mad. They asked their father to curse her, and that is how she got her uglyness, snake-hair, and bronze arms. Because of her ugliness, her fiance left her, and her ugliness turned everybody who had eye contact with her into stone. Many kings sent brave soldiers to kill her, but none were successful, except Perseus. He was a son of Zeus, the king of all gods, and Danae, a human. One king wanted to marry Danae, so he tricks Perseus to go kill Medusa for him. Perseus, with the help from Athena and Hermes, who supplied him with winged sandals, Hades' cap of invisibility, a sword, and a mirrored shield, successively kills Medusa.

Citation: no citation used

Entry #1: Greek god or goddess

I researched about Zeus, the king of the gods and the ruler of Mount Olympus who is the god of the sky and thunder. Thunderbolt, eagle, bull, and the oak tree are his symbols. Zeus was the youngest of the children of Cronus, the father, and Rhea, the mother. His brothers and sisters were: Hestia, Demeter, Hera, Hades, and Poseidon. As soon as they were born, Cronus swallowed them all because there was a prophet from Gaia and Uranus that one of his own son will overcome him like he had done to his own father. But thanks to Rhea's help, Zeus did not get swallowed by his father, and he became the son to overcome his father with his brothers and sisters.

The personalities and the character traits of Zeus and Hercules are similar because Hercules is the son of Zeus and Hera, Zeus' sister. Except, of course, Zeus made many erotic escapades and Herc did not. Also, their stories are totally different. Herc thought he was a person, not a god. Zeus was a god to people, which meant they had to look up on him, but as Herc lived as a human, he defeated many monsters and gave a lot of helps to people, and became the hero of people all around Greece.

Citation: "Zeus." Wikipedia. Wikipedia. 11 Mar 2008 .

6th Post on my First Book: 1984

My favorite phrase from 1984 that is significant is this: "Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past." This passage tells the cruelty of the world Smith is living in. People had lost their freedom and right, and the ones who took the freedom is controlling the past, the present, and even the future. This phrase made the dystopian world become a real dystopian world, meaning without this phrase the story would not have been as perfect as it is right now.

5th Post on my First Book: 1984

This is the entry of my choice:
Even though it is a sad-ending story, the imagination and the creativeness of the author, George Orwell, is far too awesome. Just because of this reason, I love this novel. I totally understand what Winston Smith and Julie did, because like I said on other posts, if i were to live in that world, I would not even survive one day. If I can meet the author when he waswriting this novel, I would really want to ask these questions: what made you think/imagine that in the year 1984, the world you are living in will become like how you wrote about it in the novel? Was it your thoughts about human improvement and change over time?

4th Post on my First Book: 1984

I think there are current situations in the world that relate to the book. One of the examples is South Korea. South Korea is still under the control of communism, and people living there has limited freedom and beliefs. They were made to believed, or brainwashed, that their leader, Jung-Ill Kim, is the god, and they learn a -perspected history and background of the world. Unfortunately, most people there believe that what they learn is true. In the novel, everything in the world, laws, acts, and even people's thoughts, is controlled by a group of people, and everyone in that world is forced to believe that it is true. Unfortunately, the book gives no solution on how the current situations can be resolved or fixed.

3rd Post on my First Book: 1984

The main characters of 1984 are Winston Smith, Julia, and O'Brien. This book is written in Winston Smith's perspective. He is against the concepts of the Party. He meets Julia, breaks the laws of the Party, and finally gets caught by a spy and gets tortured until he gets brainwashed. Julia is the woman who breaks the laws with Winston. At the end she gets caught with Winston and also brainwashed. O'Brien, a key character of this book, is a powerful member of the Inner Party who tricks Winston into believing that he is a member of the revolutionary group called the Brotherhood. He gets Winston involved into the Brotherhood. But then in fact, he was a Party spy, and shows up to Smith in a cell to torture and brainwash him.

2nd Post on my First Book: 1984

This novel’s mood is gloomy and dark. This story stayed dark from the beginning till the end, but mostly near the back.
This “1984” saddens me a lot. If I was to live in that world, I would not even survive one whole day. The book describes the world as a miserable and unendurable place.

1st Post on my First Book: 1984

Okay, so the first book I’m reading is 1984. The climax of this book is when the main characters of this book, Winston Smithy and Julia, get caught by a Thought Police, Mr. Carrington, who they thought was trustworthy, for committing a thought crime. Winston and Julia were sleeping when the Police arrested them.
This event made me think that this world is full of mistrust and risks. I kind of feel sorry for Winston and Julia for getting betrayed by somebody who they trusted.