Grace's PRABE week 6 and 7
Week 6 and Week 7
Started and finished Mockingjay. Finished “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown.
I’m putting week 6 and 7 here together because I don’t remember which book I finished reading first.
-I read MJ the first time really, really fast, because the plot was just pushing me to the finish so I can find out what happened. There was no stop, switch to another book thing going on with this one. The plot was just so very intense and kept me going.
-When my sister-in-law finished MJ she told me she didn’t like MJ as much, that it was a bit “exhausting.” She said “it felt like Katniss was the girl who couldn’t die, let’s see how many times we can shot her, bruise her, and yet after all that she was still standing.” My response to her at the time was “well, they (meaning the author) can’t kill her because she’s the narrator and the book’s written in first person’s point of view.”
- I do kind of agree with my sister-in-law that MJ was exhausting, because the plot was so intense. Of course, the author couldn’t kill off Katniss. She was the mockingjay, the symbol of hope, the symbol of resistance and the rebellion. I didn’t think Katniss was “the girl who couldn’t die” though. I think it is sad and sorrowful to have a character so battered and bruised emotionally, and let’s face it, emotional wounds hurts far more than physical ones. And that is what happens in a war, what happens when we (meaning people, the human beings population as a whole) do things that are against humanity. Which leads to my next point of reflection…
-I remember mentioning the overall theme for Harry potter (see http://lifesend.livejournal.com/151967.html#comments ). One of my professors at Pittsburg State University said this about summing up the theme in literature. He said the best way to sum it up would be to choose one word that encompasses the theme. As I finished mocking jay I was thinking about what one word to sum up the series. The word “humanity” comes to my mind. The hunger games, the way the Capitol treated the 13 districts, was against humanity. I was aghast when Katniss voted for one more hunger game near the end of MJ. But, in the end, humanity prevailed. I think Peeta stands for humanity too (I wouldn’t use the word symbolize because I don’t know if I can effectively argue he symbolize humanity. There’s probably evidence in the text to support it, but I’m not going to write a literature analysis now.)
-There was a part near the end of the book that I thought was ironic. (or maybe ironic isn’t the right word, but spare me here, I’m trying to write (squeeze) 5 to 6 weeks worth of reflections into one afternoon, not write a literature analysis paper). The part where Prim dies. That is definitely a sad and sorrowful moment. The event that had the whole plot rolling, the event that started it all was Katniss taking Prim’s place in the 74th hunger games to protect Prim, and yet, in the very end, Katniss couldn’t save her sister. I was surprised that Collins had chose to kill Prim off, but for plot reasons I can see why it was necessary to do so. I had thought that Collins would kill off either Gale or Peeta, or both, to save Katniss from having to choose. But I think now that either by killing off Gale or Peeta wouldn’t have caused the same emotional wounds as killing off Prim.
-I had also thought (and this was when I was in the middle of reading CF) that Katniss wouldn’t end up with either boy, just by choice that she didn’t want to. I am glad that it was Peeta, and I think Collins gave a very good reason why in the book.
Reflection on The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I’m not sure if I have much to say about this book. I didn’t like it as much as I liked Brown’s Da Vinci Code. I had written a little bit about this book in week 4 and explained why I felt the plot wasn’t too intense. The beginning of the book was good, the plot was intriguing and I liked reading it, trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle. But then about two thirds or three fourths through the book I was getting tired of the endless puzzles and just want the book to end. I think I probably did read this book after finishing Mockingjay, so by that time I was ready for this plot to be over and done with. But, as I am thinking about it now, I think the plot to the Lost Symbol wasn’t as tight as the plot of Mockingjay. One thing that strongly stood out in my mind was a repetitiveness of the villain’s musings. The villain kept saying to himself “soon I will be reborn…I have cleansed myself…I alone will discover the divine secret….blah, blah, blah, blah…” This kind of mantra kept showing up over and over again, so by the time I was three fourths through the book I started skipping over that kind of monologue.
Also, at the end of the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, when the truth about the villain was discovered, like who it was and why he did what he did, there was a enlightened “aha” moment , for me as the reader, and (I felt ) for the protagonist Robert Langdon as well. I did not feel that way about the ending to this story. The identity of the villain was a surprise, but the reason why he did it, and all that crazy things he did, I feel didn’t justify (the reason doesn’t justify the action I mean). Granted, most villains are crazy madmen so their actions sometimes don’t justify except in their own twisted minds but for me as a reader when I got to the end I was like “really? That’s it?” And also I felt Robert Langdon missed the enlightening moment too.
In short, the Lost Symbol had a weak ending, in my opinion.
Started and finished Mockingjay. Finished “The Lost Symbol” by Dan Brown.
I’m putting week 6 and 7 here together because I don’t remember which book I finished reading first.
-I read MJ the first time really, really fast, because the plot was just pushing me to the finish so I can find out what happened. There was no stop, switch to another book thing going on with this one. The plot was just so very intense and kept me going.
-When my sister-in-law finished MJ she told me she didn’t like MJ as much, that it was a bit “exhausting.” She said “it felt like Katniss was the girl who couldn’t die, let’s see how many times we can shot her, bruise her, and yet after all that she was still standing.” My response to her at the time was “well, they (meaning the author) can’t kill her because she’s the narrator and the book’s written in first person’s point of view.”
- I do kind of agree with my sister-in-law that MJ was exhausting, because the plot was so intense. Of course, the author couldn’t kill off Katniss. She was the mockingjay, the symbol of hope, the symbol of resistance and the rebellion. I didn’t think Katniss was “the girl who couldn’t die” though. I think it is sad and sorrowful to have a character so battered and bruised emotionally, and let’s face it, emotional wounds hurts far more than physical ones. And that is what happens in a war, what happens when we (meaning people, the human beings population as a whole) do things that are against humanity. Which leads to my next point of reflection…
-I remember mentioning the overall theme for Harry potter (see http://lifesend.livejournal.com/151967.html#comments ). One of my professors at Pittsburg State University said this about summing up the theme in literature. He said the best way to sum it up would be to choose one word that encompasses the theme. As I finished mocking jay I was thinking about what one word to sum up the series. The word “humanity” comes to my mind. The hunger games, the way the Capitol treated the 13 districts, was against humanity. I was aghast when Katniss voted for one more hunger game near the end of MJ. But, in the end, humanity prevailed. I think Peeta stands for humanity too (I wouldn’t use the word symbolize because I don’t know if I can effectively argue he symbolize humanity. There’s probably evidence in the text to support it, but I’m not going to write a literature analysis now.)
-There was a part near the end of the book that I thought was ironic. (or maybe ironic isn’t the right word, but spare me here, I’m trying to write (squeeze) 5 to 6 weeks worth of reflections into one afternoon, not write a literature analysis paper). The part where Prim dies. That is definitely a sad and sorrowful moment. The event that had the whole plot rolling, the event that started it all was Katniss taking Prim’s place in the 74th hunger games to protect Prim, and yet, in the very end, Katniss couldn’t save her sister. I was surprised that Collins had chose to kill Prim off, but for plot reasons I can see why it was necessary to do so. I had thought that Collins would kill off either Gale or Peeta, or both, to save Katniss from having to choose. But I think now that either by killing off Gale or Peeta wouldn’t have caused the same emotional wounds as killing off Prim.
-I had also thought (and this was when I was in the middle of reading CF) that Katniss wouldn’t end up with either boy, just by choice that she didn’t want to. I am glad that it was Peeta, and I think Collins gave a very good reason why in the book.
Reflection on The Lost Symbol by Dan Brown
I’m not sure if I have much to say about this book. I didn’t like it as much as I liked Brown’s Da Vinci Code. I had written a little bit about this book in week 4 and explained why I felt the plot wasn’t too intense. The beginning of the book was good, the plot was intriguing and I liked reading it, trying to figure out the pieces of the puzzle. But then about two thirds or three fourths through the book I was getting tired of the endless puzzles and just want the book to end. I think I probably did read this book after finishing Mockingjay, so by that time I was ready for this plot to be over and done with. But, as I am thinking about it now, I think the plot to the Lost Symbol wasn’t as tight as the plot of Mockingjay. One thing that strongly stood out in my mind was a repetitiveness of the villain’s musings. The villain kept saying to himself “soon I will be reborn…I have cleansed myself…I alone will discover the divine secret….blah, blah, blah, blah…” This kind of mantra kept showing up over and over again, so by the time I was three fourths through the book I started skipping over that kind of monologue.
Also, at the end of the Da Vinci Code and Angels and Demons, when the truth about the villain was discovered, like who it was and why he did what he did, there was a enlightened “aha” moment , for me as the reader, and (I felt ) for the protagonist Robert Langdon as well. I did not feel that way about the ending to this story. The identity of the villain was a surprise, but the reason why he did it, and all that crazy things he did, I feel didn’t justify (the reason doesn’t justify the action I mean). Granted, most villains are crazy madmen so their actions sometimes don’t justify except in their own twisted minds but for me as a reader when I got to the end I was like “really? That’s it?” And also I felt Robert Langdon missed the enlightening moment too.
In short, the Lost Symbol had a weak ending, in my opinion.