Book Reviews?
Well, turns out I posted the wrong things for my summer homework assignment, so these are my accidents. I didn't want to waste them, so I thought I'd just drop them here!
Catcher being the first book I read this summer, I think I'll do my first blog post on it.
I wasn't sure what to expect with Catcher in the Rye, but most of the people who'd read it before me didn't enjoy it much. I tried to dive in with an open mind. As I read it, I couldn't understand how it was relevant to the whole "voice" theme. Holden Caulfield seemed to be a very ordinary boy with a voice that he already seemed very aware of. Then, as I delved deeper into the book, I realized that Holden was such a problem child, with so many quirks and personal dilemmas. The things that made him happy and the things that ticked him off were so bizarre and random, which he didn't seem aware of. To Holden, this was normalcy. So I came to understand that as the book went by that during the short amount of time covered in the book, Holden did become more aware of himself, and his voice.
In addition, I really loved the book. More so now than when I was reading it. It seems the more time I spend away from it, the more I want to reread it. I can identify with an excerpt from an interesting book I read called Six Word Memoirs, "Holden Caught me in the rye."
Now for the last book I read, Huckleberry Finn.
Since I never really understood what I was supposed to be highlighting, this book was a challenge. I wasn't sure what to look for, but I could see that Huck didn't understand the importance of his own identity/voice. At least not when he thought of Tom Sawyer. It was apparent that Huck thought very highly of Tom, so much so that when his incredibly clever and well thought out schemes worked out, his last thought was always along the lines of "though Tom Sawyer could've done it better, he's got style." I was glad towards the end that when we were introduced to Tom again (I didn't remember much about him from the beginning of the book), he ended up not being the great schemer that Huck had lead me as the reader to believe. While Huck still admired Tom for his style, inside he was practical and still very much himself. I think the incident with Tom being shot helped him believe more in his own ideas rather than Tom's, though in the end, his thoughts were still those of a child with a large imagination.
I enjoyed the book very much. Huck was a bit too calm of a character for me, but I admired his quick thinking and elaborate tall tales. Thanks to this book, I think I'll be reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer soon.
And finally, the book I read between the other two.
This book was the one I had heard the most flak about. Many of my peers found it hard to read, for various reasons, so I began with that sort of negative mindset. It did not last long. I found within these pages a wonderful main character who knew exactly who she was, and what she wanted. She didn't settle, when things weren't the way they ought to be, she moved on. I admired her ideals. This book, I think, illustrated best "the increasing awareness of the importance of identity and voice." As the book progressed, the main character Janie Crawford found more importance in herself and her own thoughts, and grew to be a person who could voice them.
This book was the greatest surprise to me. While it didn't have a happy ending (because I really do enjoy happy endings), I really enjoyed it. So much, that I read the "About the Author" extra, which I so rarely do.