When I saw that 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' was on the reading list for this week my heart skipped a small beat. I remember reading the book for about 2 years ago for an English book report. At that time it made a hughes impression on me, the way it was written and the emotions that came along with this writing style. The fact that it is written from Bruno's point of view makes a part of the story based on innocence and naivety. In the Guardian (2006) they also claim that the point of view of 'The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas' is the most important element that really shapes the book into a great children's book. My first impression before reading the book again was that I probably would find underlying symbols and other elements that I missed reading the book for the first time. Due to that I was eager to start reading this book again.
The most impressive new insight I gained when reading this book was that this book really touches adulthood and childhood. When I read it 2 years ago I only paid attention to the part that touched childhood and not adulthood. Now I tried to pay attention to what makes this book a 'cross-over' book. The fact that the marriage between Bruno's father and mother is being destroyed by all the stress and amounts of work Bruno's father has to fulfil to become a good officer, but then again Bruno's naivety is present when he calls the man who visits (Hitler) 'The Fury' and Auswitch 'Out With'. In class we discussed how cross-over books can be precisely defined and I remember it being defined as: ' The great children's books are the ones that touch childhood and maturity'. I think that Bruno's character and the actions that adults undertake in his environment is a great example of quote.
There is another element that made me wonder whether it could really have been the case at that time. Bruno is 9 years old and I remember from my own History teacher that there was a lot of propaganda going on in classrooms as well, but Bruno seems to know nothing about Jews or the battle against them. I do not believe that boys aged 9 at that time did not know anything about Jews, especially with the in doctrinism at that time. This is on the other hand a great piece of writing from John Boyne since he really convinces the reader that Bruno is innocent and naïve and knows nothing about camps such as Shmuel is located in.
I believe that if you're reading this book when you are older that you mostly see the hard parts of the story. Speaking from my point of view I found the part where Shmuel is beaten because he got food from Bruno when Shmuel must wash glasses in Bruno's house is really a sick event. The beauty of the book on the other hand is that the ending really touched me and again...made me cry just like it did 2 years ago. The 2 elements of the hard truth and the childish innocence made it worth while to read.
I can identify myself with Bruno since he is very ignorant sometimes and to be honest I can be kind of ignorant as well. For instance that Bruno does not know what is going on I often have the same problem, I also believe in the positive qualities of human beings instead of expecting the worse.
Additional sources next to class discussion and notes made during the PowerPoint.
Hughes, K. , ( 2006), ' Educating Bruno' , The Guardian,
http://www.theguardian.com/books/2006/jan/21/featuresreviews.guardianreview18
maandag 27 januari 2014
woensdag 15 januari 2014
Book 5, 'The Hobbit ' J.R.R. Tolkien.
I was very pleased to see that fantasy books were the subject of this week. Harry Potter, The Chronicles of Narnia and of course The Hobbit are books I believe every child/ adolescent should have read! I read The Hobbit when I was much younger so my first impression of the book was different from when I was younger. I thought that since I have grown up I cannot have such an imaginary mind anymore but I still got it luckily.
The storyline is basically the same in most fantasy books, you have: the call, the journey, the obstacles, final ordeal and the goal. What intrigued me the most was what became clear during class discussion. Stephanie told us to type in on google: 'Tolkien' and World War 1', the results were spectacular because after discussing this with the group that has read 'The Hobbit' it became clear Tolkien used a lot of his experiences from WW1 in 'The Hobbit'. I did not notice did when I finished the book so this was a big revelation to me. One example is that Tolkien has experienced massive destroy of humans but also nature. The last one can also be related back to 'The Hobbit', when Bilbo makes his way back to the shire at the end of the book the whole shire is destroyed and is not the same for Bilbo. Tolkien has experienced the same when he came back from war , everything was destroyed and unfamiliar to him.
There are a lot of obstacles in 'The Hobbit' such as: Goblins, Spiders, Smaug , Elves and last but definitely not least Orks. What I, again during class discussion , found out was that Orks most likely represent the Germans during the first WW. It is shocking to me that such a harmless book to children can have much more to it than just what the surface shows us.
According to the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners fantasy can be defined as 'A story that shows lots of imagination and is very different from real life'.
This book can be defined as a fantasy book for sure because of the differences from real life that are shown in the story. For instance Elves and dwarves but the special element in this book is that you can relate to the Elves and Dwarves. They are a close community that stick up for each other and I believe we humans do exactly the same.
Therefore I believe this book is suitable for kids who are about 8 to 11 years old. They have a great imagination and can handle the exciting parts better than kids who are younger.
Of course Bilbo's name must be said once in a blog about 'The Hobbit'!
What I found special was that Bilbo was the only Hobbit who went along on this journey. Of course the book is called 'The Hobbit' but I think he entered the journey because he felt for the dwarves who did not have a home anymore while Bilbo was save in his home in the Shire. Bravery is a quality Bilbo develops throughout the book and it is moving to discover that while reading 'The Hobbit'.
I experienced reading 'The Hobbit' totally different than 10 years ago, because of class discussions and revelations I discovered about Tolkien and his history, but it was still worth reading every page.
J.R.R Tolkien
Additional sources besides class discussions, google: 'The Hobbit' + 'Tolkien' ( 9-01-2014) and notes made during the PowerPoint:
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners , 2002, ISBN: 0-333-99093-5
The storyline is basically the same in most fantasy books, you have: the call, the journey, the obstacles, final ordeal and the goal. What intrigued me the most was what became clear during class discussion. Stephanie told us to type in on google: 'Tolkien' and World War 1', the results were spectacular because after discussing this with the group that has read 'The Hobbit' it became clear Tolkien used a lot of his experiences from WW1 in 'The Hobbit'. I did not notice did when I finished the book so this was a big revelation to me. One example is that Tolkien has experienced massive destroy of humans but also nature. The last one can also be related back to 'The Hobbit', when Bilbo makes his way back to the shire at the end of the book the whole shire is destroyed and is not the same for Bilbo. Tolkien has experienced the same when he came back from war , everything was destroyed and unfamiliar to him.
There are a lot of obstacles in 'The Hobbit' such as: Goblins, Spiders, Smaug , Elves and last but definitely not least Orks. What I, again during class discussion , found out was that Orks most likely represent the Germans during the first WW. It is shocking to me that such a harmless book to children can have much more to it than just what the surface shows us.
According to the Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners fantasy can be defined as 'A story that shows lots of imagination and is very different from real life'.
This book can be defined as a fantasy book for sure because of the differences from real life that are shown in the story. For instance Elves and dwarves but the special element in this book is that you can relate to the Elves and Dwarves. They are a close community that stick up for each other and I believe we humans do exactly the same.
Therefore I believe this book is suitable for kids who are about 8 to 11 years old. They have a great imagination and can handle the exciting parts better than kids who are younger.
Of course Bilbo's name must be said once in a blog about 'The Hobbit'!
What I found special was that Bilbo was the only Hobbit who went along on this journey. Of course the book is called 'The Hobbit' but I think he entered the journey because he felt for the dwarves who did not have a home anymore while Bilbo was save in his home in the Shire. Bravery is a quality Bilbo develops throughout the book and it is moving to discover that while reading 'The Hobbit'.
I experienced reading 'The Hobbit' totally different than 10 years ago, because of class discussions and revelations I discovered about Tolkien and his history, but it was still worth reading every page.
J.R.R Tolkien Additional sources besides class discussions, google: 'The Hobbit' + 'Tolkien' ( 9-01-2014) and notes made during the PowerPoint:
Macmillan English Dictionary for Advanced Learners , 2002, ISBN: 0-333-99093-5
woensdag 8 januari 2014
Book 4 'Catcher in the Rye' J.D. Salinger
When I started reading this book it seemed to me that it was going to be an exciting book to read, although it was an old book , since Holden Caulfield mentioned something about a resting house/mental hospital. So I expected a book with all kinds of events that forced him to come to this mental hospital, it did though in some kind of way, but the way it is written makes is very hard/boring to read.
I read an article before reading this book and it said that the book was an essential document of American adolescence.(Yardley, J. (2004),'J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly', Washington Post). Looking back after reading it I believe this is true.
At the beginning a slight hint is given that Holden is a bittered person because of his departure form Pencey Prep. I believe his bitterness gets sort of 'worse' throughout the book but maybe that is due to the fact that we understand his situation better. With that I mean that we get to know that his brother Allie died and the fact that he distances himself from other people.
That is one thing I do not understand; he feels that he his alienated from the rest of the world but at the same time he tries to reach out to people by arranging all kinds of meetings by phone with all kinds of people. For instance that he reaches out to his sister Phoebe, Jane (Gallagher) and even a girl he has never met before but got her number from an acquaintance! I believe her name was Faith.
During the class session we discussed different types of identity crises such as, Moratorium, Synthetic Identity and Identity Confusion ( From E. Erikson). My interpretation is that Holden deals not only with Identity Confusion, but suffers slightly from Moratorium as well. Holden has left 4 Prep schools already and is now drifting around New York city, hopping in and out of bars. It seems to me that those are signs that Holden does not know where he belongs or what he wants to be or where he wants to go to; an Identity Crisis. The reason why I mention Moratorium as well is because Moratorium means that someone is postponing to grow up because he/she is not able to or not wanting to. When Holden faces obligations or pressure from people who urge him to aspire an Academic career he laughs at them or gets irritated, for instance with mr. Spencer.
His sexuality was something I could not quite determine. The incident of seeing a couple spit water in each others faces and getting aroused by it seems a bit strange to me. It makes me wonder whether he is gay or straight. The one thing that I am sure of is that because of all the girls/ adult women he meets and flirts with while he is very young himself indicate that he is troubled with his sexuality. The only girl I believe he really liked is Jane Gallagher, because of the memories he has of the summer they had met, but then again that led to a fight with his roommate so that gets negatively emphasized unfortunately. I found the whole book boring to read but I can understand that some people may find his character (being bittered and lost at the same time) admirable.
When I ( finally) made it to the end I have to admit that I was a bit moved. With his sister Phoebe in at the museum and the park and the fact that she says she is coming with him. He does get a bit more positive since he mentioned that he is going to applicate for a new school although he writes his story from some sort of mental hospital.
Word count: 595
Additional source besides class discussion and notes made during the PP:
Yardley, J. (2004),'J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly', Washington Post.
I read an article before reading this book and it said that the book was an essential document of American adolescence.(Yardley, J. (2004),'J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly', Washington Post). Looking back after reading it I believe this is true.
At the beginning a slight hint is given that Holden is a bittered person because of his departure form Pencey Prep. I believe his bitterness gets sort of 'worse' throughout the book but maybe that is due to the fact that we understand his situation better. With that I mean that we get to know that his brother Allie died and the fact that he distances himself from other people.
That is one thing I do not understand; he feels that he his alienated from the rest of the world but at the same time he tries to reach out to people by arranging all kinds of meetings by phone with all kinds of people. For instance that he reaches out to his sister Phoebe, Jane (Gallagher) and even a girl he has never met before but got her number from an acquaintance! I believe her name was Faith.
During the class session we discussed different types of identity crises such as, Moratorium, Synthetic Identity and Identity Confusion ( From E. Erikson). My interpretation is that Holden deals not only with Identity Confusion, but suffers slightly from Moratorium as well. Holden has left 4 Prep schools already and is now drifting around New York city, hopping in and out of bars. It seems to me that those are signs that Holden does not know where he belongs or what he wants to be or where he wants to go to; an Identity Crisis. The reason why I mention Moratorium as well is because Moratorium means that someone is postponing to grow up because he/she is not able to or not wanting to. When Holden faces obligations or pressure from people who urge him to aspire an Academic career he laughs at them or gets irritated, for instance with mr. Spencer.
His sexuality was something I could not quite determine. The incident of seeing a couple spit water in each others faces and getting aroused by it seems a bit strange to me. It makes me wonder whether he is gay or straight. The one thing that I am sure of is that because of all the girls/ adult women he meets and flirts with while he is very young himself indicate that he is troubled with his sexuality. The only girl I believe he really liked is Jane Gallagher, because of the memories he has of the summer they had met, but then again that led to a fight with his roommate so that gets negatively emphasized unfortunately. I found the whole book boring to read but I can understand that some people may find his character (being bittered and lost at the same time) admirable.
When I ( finally) made it to the end I have to admit that I was a bit moved. With his sister Phoebe in at the museum and the park and the fact that she says she is coming with him. He does get a bit more positive since he mentioned that he is going to applicate for a new school although he writes his story from some sort of mental hospital.
Word count: 595
Additional source besides class discussion and notes made during the PP:
Yardley, J. (2004),'J.D. Salinger's Holden Caulfield, Aging Gracelessly', Washington Post.
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