#39 Kindred

The first thing that you need to know about this book is that it hard to read, and definitely hard to write about. Thinking about slavery from such an intimate place, as we do from the protagonists perspective, was painful, and reminded me of how dark the world can be. It is not a happy book, and there is no innocent actor throughout the novel. People are driven by forces that I can’t even begin to understand in a world so far removed from my own that it’s genuinely difficult for me to sit with for more than 20 minutes without feeling a little nauseous. Many times over the past week have I failed to sit down and write this post, because of the uncomfortability I associate with this book. With that warning, below you’ll find the rest of my post. If you choose not to read on, I don’t blame you. But if you do, I hope you enjoy it. And if you haven’t read Kindred, I would strongly recommend it.

Kindred is a globally acknowledged science fiction novel which was written by Octavia Butler in 1979. It tells the story of a young black woman, Dana, who is uprooted from her life in 1976 and thrust into the 19th century. After some initial confousion she realizes two important things, she is in the antebellum south, and that she is called to this time when one of her ancestors (a young white slave-owner named Rufus) feels as though he is in life threatening danger. Over the course of the novel their relationship begins to change for the worse, as Rufus becomes more “a man of his time,” and their connection turns toxic. Throughout this entry, I want to discuss the transformation of these main characters and their relationship, from their touch-and-go beginning to the tragic yet inevitable conclusion that befalls them.

Dana is a young writer who has recently married to a white man 12 years older than her, both of whom became estranged from their families in order to marry each other. Her life is difficult but congenial, until she is thrust into the distant past and attempts to save a young white boy who she doesn’t know. After rescueing him she finds herself staring down the muzzle of a shotgun, and, fearing for her life, is transported back to 1976 where only a few seconds have passed. A few minutes later she is whisked back in time to find the same red-haired child, several years older, in his bedroom with the drapes on fire. After putting them out, she begins to piece together exactly whats happening. He is an ancestor of hers, and the only white one at that. When he is in danger Dana is called back through time to save him, ensuring that her lineage will exist. She takes up the challenge of raising this boy right – showing respect to the slaves that he owns, and trying to teach him some compassion that the boy’s father seems to be lacking.

Their relationship quickly flourishes as Rufus takes a liking to her, and she to him, but things don’t stay simple forever. After a dangerous encounter with a white patrol man she’s whisked back to her own time – back to the comfort of her husband and new house. Together, they prepare for the eventuality of another episode in the past. When the time comes they go back together. As a white man her husband fits in well visually, but internally struggles quite a bit due to the culture shock and his 1970’s progressive nature. Ultimately, they settle into their new lives: Kevin, Dana’s husband, teaching Rufus how to read, and Dana, as a slave, helping out with the other slaves’ chores. However, Rufus isn’t isn’t exactly the innocent boy that he was in their last encounter. He’s still kind towards Dana, but we see a more hostile side of him that only exposes itself when he feels pestered by his mother. When questioned about his behavior, Rufus states that he treats her this way, because he knows that she’ll forgive him despite his rude behavior. This insight about Rufus stays with Dana, and for good reason.

The days turn into weeks, and in the blink of an eye several months have passed. At this point Dana and Kevin have truly settled into their new lives. Like actors perfecting a role, they even begin to embrace slavery (the most significant tradition among many other antique practices), and it’s many cruel practices as normal. However, Dana is rightfully troubled by this development, and simultaneously begins to grow warry of their lives on the plantation. After disobeying a direct order from Rufus’s father, the owner of the plantation, she receives a whipping and, fearing for her life, is sent back to the present day. Without her spouse.

9 days go by without another episode. Dana sits alone in her house – to afraid to go out or drive, for fearing of being brought back in time when she’s in a dangerous place. To her, even driving could be fatal. In this moment Dana feels incredibly isolated, but her grim situation is dwarfed by the realization that for each day that goes by in her world Kevin will grow years older. She’s reasonably worried that he’ll change into a man of his time, or maybe he’ll no longer love her. However, when she next arrives in the past one thing is clear. Rufus is not the young boy she remebers. Her first sight is of Rufus being beaten by a black man, while Alice (Dana’s black ancestor, connected by the same generation as Rufus) trys to conceal herself, and fix her clothes which had been ripped apart from what can only be understood as an attempted rape on Rufus’s part. Eventually she convincing the black man to stop beating Rufus, saving his life, and her lineage. Dana scolds Rufus for his actions, but she finds it difficult to stay angry with him, understanding that, for Rufus’s time, raping a woman is far more commonplace than interracial marriage.

Once things have settled, she asks for a letter to be sent out to Kevin. He stuck around the plantation for a while, but moved up north to try and escape the harsh reality of slavery down south. When he eventually arrives Rufus lashes out, pulling a gun on Dana, and demands her to stay. In this moment we see the bond that exists between the two of them. Although it isn’t sexual, he’s become dependent on her, and the thought of losing her to another man is almost enough to get her killed. This dependancy seems to be the flip-side of his romantic dependancy on Alice. However, Dana, fearing for her life as Rufus aims the gun at her, teleports home.

With Dana gone, Rufus turns on Alice a bit. There’s no doubt that he loves her, but it’s a love tainted by manipulation, and the reality of the time that they can never truly be equals. Eventually, Rufus feels Alice start to change, and pretends to have their children sold off into slavery. She does not take this well, and ends up killing herself. In reality though, Rufus had only sent them away briefly to try and teach Alice a lesson. For the first time, Rufus feels like he is about to die, but he isn’t in any physical danger. The woman he loved died, and his world is crashing down around him. Suddenly Dana is there, and Rufus shows just how far he’s come from their first encounters. He’s become unhinged by the loss of a loved one, and he sees Dana as a near alternative. When she realizes what’s happening she tries to persuade him otherwise, at first gingerly, then begging. However, it’s clear that nothing will change his mind she is forced to do the unfathomable. She stabs Rufus, watching the life drain from his body until he is no longer alive. After he passes, Dana is ripped back to her own time, losing an arm in the process. In the final moments of the book Dana and Kevin are standing outside the plantation talking about their adventure and how their lives have changed.

Like I said before, this book was difficult to read for a number of reasons, but I absolutely think that it’s worth reading. If you have the time, and are open to reading something that will force you to be uncomfortable, I would suggest it several times over.

# 38 Atomic Habits

Atomic Habits is a novel written by James Clear, published in 2018, to help people understand the science and logic behind building and breaking of habits. The book frames life as a game of inches, where 1% improvements in behavior and routine day over day have compounding effects which, slowly and consistently transform individuals into their best selves. It’s important to remember that success isn’t measured in leaps and bounds, but in small, incremental changes; the inches we need are all around us. His book breaks down habits – both building and breaking them – into four foundational laws: making a habit obvious, attractive, easy, and satisfying. In this entry, I’ll share one major takeaway from each.

To begin with, the first law, make it obvious, is the primary building block of any habit. Habits are reliant on cues – triggers that prompt our brains to act. When a cue is obvious it is that much easier for us to slip into the groove of a habit. Fortunately, slipping into a new habit can be surprisingly easy with a little bit of strategy. If you want to drink more water you can leave full water bottles all around the house. If you want to read before bed put a book on your pillow so you have to interact with it before sleeping. The inverse of this is also true, where, for example, if you wanted to watch less television you could move the remote into a different room after every use. Or, if you need to focus on work, try placing your phone in a different room.

One key realization I had while reading this first part was that your behavior isn’t brought on by the cue itself, but by the context you create around yourself. Since learning about this principle, I’ve put the notebook that I’m using for learning Spanish in front of my computer so every morning I have to either practice or physically move it out of the way. Furthermore, I am becoming more intentional about remove my phone from my workspaces, or give it to a friend to minimize distractions. When you shape the environment around you to encourage/discourage certain actions, you play an active role in turning into the person you wish to become.

In the next section of Atomic Habits, Clear focuses on the second law ‘attraction,’ and how “the more attractive an opportunity is, the more likely it is to be habit-forming.” Science and biology are particularly prevalent during this part of the book, because the habits we are attracted to are often rooted in a biological desire. One example that comes to mind is social media: these apps (Instagram, TicTok, Facebook, etc.) have all been designed to keep you on them as long as possible with various gimics and mechanics that trigger your dopamine receptors. Spending time on your phone can feel beneficial before you open any apps, however, after the fact, you’re often left in a worse mental state than you were before. The reason for this is that after you’ve done an enjoyable action once, the dopamine spike becomes associated more with the craving than the actual reward. By this logic we can learn something important about our own psyche – the greater the anticipation of a reward, the greater the dopamine spike. You can use this knowledge to begin the process of ‘temptation bundling.’ This is a strategy that uses more probable behaviors to enforce less probable behaviors. Even if you don’t want to exercise or eat healthier (as examples), you can condition yourself to do it with the promise of something you really want to do along the way or at the end. Personally, I’ve been watching my favorite television show while working out. This way, I start associating working out with the enjoyment of watching tv! By capitalizing on my anticipation, I can make good habits irresistible and shape bad habits into undesirable ones. By understanding how your brain works you can intentionally create strong, positive associations with habits that are healthy and beneficial to you.

The third law is about making good habits as easy as possible, and discouraging bad habits by making them more difficult. It’s easy to get bogged down in searching for the perfect way to create change, but planning can only take you so far. Without action, there can be no results. Focusing on the process, rather than the outcome, can be helpful for making progress towards your goals. Another example that Clear uses, which I found to be powerful, was about a young man beginning to work out for the first time. He set the bar low, only going to the gym for five minutes, and then going home. Ultimately, he progressed to spending much more time there, however, at the beginning it was just about showing up, showing up, and committing himself to wanting to be in that space. Just putting yourself in an environment takes courage, and every success, especially the small ones, is worth celebrating. If you’re struggling to be consistent on your own, being around other people with shared goals can be a helpful encouragement. As you see the people around you working out, you become encouraged to work out alongside them, and it’s easier to stay. Moreover, this section highlights the power community holds – it’s much easier to maintain a habit when surrounded by people who have similar goals. As a student I’ve found myself surrounded by talent and passion. I have no doubt in my mind that my peers have pushed me further than I would have on my own. In this way you can actually use groupthink and herd mentality to your advantage in striving for success. Things can be made easier in a multitude of ways, from focusing more on the process than the outcome, to entering into community with people who have shared interests, and prioritizing action (however small) over finding the perfect path to success. As Voltaire once said, “The best is the enemy of the good.”

The last law focuses on making habits satisfying, while it’s inversion focuses on how to make undesirable habits deeply unsatisfying. At this stage, the focus shifts more towards the habit-building process after you’ve already begun developed them. As an example, using a habit tracker of some sort can be really helpful for binding you to a habit. Maybe after you complete a habit you mark your calendar with an X. Seeing a streak of X’s on your calendar becomes an inviting cue to continue, calling you back to the habit in a satisfying fashion. Alternatively, you could create a habit contract, which makes you accountable to your own actions: ask a friend if they’ll be your accountability partner, and lay out a series of punishments if you forget your habit. The higher the stakes, the more committed you become to maintaining your habit or working towards your goal. Personally, I like the idea of a contract with a huge negative payoff for not following through, but there are other ways to make your goals more attainable. One such strategy is that for every time you complete a habit you reward yourself. Say you are a frivolous spender – if every time you resisted the temptation of an impulse purchase, and instead put 10 dollars into a jar you’d likely accumulate a substantial amount by the end of the year – enough, perhaps, to fund a trip or meaningful purchase. I’m currently working to implement systems in my own life which make the goals I want to prioritize more satisfying, and I’m already seeing progress. Satisfaction is what binds us to a habit, but it doesn’t have to be that straightforward – with the use of these strategies you can cultivate fulfillment or introduce discomfort in ways that bring about personal growth.

Atomic Habits has given me – and so many others – the tools needed to achieve meaningful success. However, it’s up to me to implement them into my life. As a student only a year out from graduation this a moment of consequential change for me, and as the next chapter of my life begins books like Atomic Habits can help to create the footholds I need to achieve success. It’s helpful for me to write about this book because it internalizes the knowledge into my own life, and I hope sharing these insights can be valuable for you as well.

#37 A Wrinkle In Time

A Wrinkle in Time is a classic, written by Madeleine L’Engle, which is so well known, and so frequently read by middle schoolers that I’m surprised I never took the time to write about it before now. While I was rereading the book, the concept of ‘tessering’ really stood out to me. Additionally, the story explores conformity and individuality, as well as complex – issues that resonate just as strongly today as when it was originally published.

The novel itself was published in 1962, however many of the major ideas and themes throughout the book are still relevant today. The story itself centers around a girl, Meg Murry, who is often perceived by others as an oddball and a bit of weirdo. She feels a lot of pressure to conform to the society around her, and erase the aspects of her personality that make her unique. However, her mother reminds her that it’s okay to be different that “just because we don’t understand something doesn’t mean it doesn’t exist.” Essentially, her unique qualities aren’t negative, but rather they are valuable and irreplaceable. She also happens to be brilliant at math – when she doesn’t need to conform to the outside worlds rigid structure for how to complete assignments.

The theme that I wanted to discuss is this sense of forced conformity that arises throughout the novel. At Meg’s school the rigid structure for acceptance/success, makes it difficult for her to find her place and friends. Both the school and the students inside it encourage a set type of behavior, and unfortunately Meg doesn’t fit the model. However, her school isn’t the only place where we see this problem. In fact, the entire universe is under assault by a great evil and darkness which is pushing conformity and herd mentality. No where is this more relevant than on the planet Camazotz, which has been consumed by the darkness. Everyone on Camazotz behaves identically: children bounce balls on the side of the street in unison, men walk to and from work with an almost hypnotic gait, and even the mothers call their children at the exact same time, their voices blending into an eerie chorus. It’s a powerful and complicated image that Camazotz puts in the readers head. This level of conformity is extreme, but nonetheless it alludes to the real world. People today are so often encouraged to follow those around them, we lose our sense of individuality, our sense of self. Just as the citizens of Camazotz surrendered their autonomy to the darkness, modern society pressures individuals to conform, leading to a pervasive group think mentality. This phenomenon has become so prevalent in modern politics that it’s trickled down into our everyday interactions and social groups. The book furthers this point by showing that people who give into the darkness, and by extension conformity, experience some genuine pleasure by simply turning off their brains in following the orders presented to them. In a way, the people on Camazotz live very easy lives. The message of this adventure is clear to me, following along with what everyone else is doing may be easy, but it doesn’t mean its the right thing to do. Our perspective of Meg’s personal struggles highlights this internal conflict much more clearly, and it encourages us to be introspective about our own lives. I think that unfortunately this conversation about conformity is even more relevant today than when the book was originally published.

Furthermore, one of the most fascinating concepts in the text was the idea of ‘tessering:’ a method of travel used primarily by the witches in the novel to travel through space and time instantaneously. Beyond driving the plot ‘tessering’ also challenges our perceptions of how space and time works.

The concept is interesting to me in particular because, I’m currently taking a philosophy course called ‘metaphysics’ which talks about the fourth dimension as it pertains to our personal identity and the space around us. The concept of ‘tessering’ is interesting for me, because it overlaps quite well with our classroom discussions.

‘Tessering’ can be describe with a simple metaphor. Imagine there is an ant on your hand, and there is a line of string connecting your one hand to the other. In a 3 dimensional reality the quickest way for an ant to reach your other hand is by walking across the string until it reaches the other end. However, with ‘tessering’ you can just move your hands closer together, and while the string itself, which represents the original distance from one hand to the other, still exists it’s no longer the minimum required distance necessary to travel from one hand to the other. Now the hands are seemingly connected as if they were never far apart. You “wrinkle” the space and time required to travel from one point to the other. This nuanced perspective on space and time matches up quite well with the philosophical perspective most commonly known as four-dimensionalism. In 4Dism time becomes malleable, and so both the past and future exist alongside the present. Similar to the rooms in a school building, while you may only be in one room at a time, the others exist regardless of your presence. 4-Dism believes that those rooms are filled with every moment that has ever or will ever happen – we merely navigate the rooms one at a time. It’s fascinating to read a children’s book that discusses such complex ideas and the philosophical implications connected to it. Although there is more to talk about when it comes to 4Dism, such as it’s connections to physics and string theory, that’s a conversation for another time.

Taking the time to reread this novel as a young adult revealed layers of complexity that I hadn’t originally noticed or had the experience to fully understand. This timeless novel encouraged me to be both introspective and imaginative. It’s a story worth revisiting, not just because of its appeal as an adventure novel, but because of the ideas that challenge our natural ways of thinking.

#36 A Monster Calls

A Monster Calls by Patrick Ness is a beautifully written book centered on a young boy (Connor) whose mother is in the final stages of cancer.

At the start of the story, he talks about being plagued by the nightmare and the monster, however, at 12:07 a new monster appears. One that’s wise, ancient, and clearly here for a greater purpose than to terrorize his dreams. However, he’s not afraid of it because there are scarier things out there. In the style of a Christmas movie, it tells him that he has been summoned by Connor and will tell him three stories, once those stories are over Connor will have to tell one himself. The story in question relates to this mysterious nightmare that he fears so much.

The next day he goes to school, and there, a bully knocks him to the ground and punches him. A girl named Lily stands up for him and punches the bully, but when the headmaster asks what happened Connor tells her that the bully was only helping him (getting Lily in trouble for beating up the bully). She then asks Connor how he’s doing, and if he ever needs anyone to talk to her door is always open. When heading home we find out that Lily is the reason that the whole school knows his mother has cancer, and for that, he will never forgive her. She is the reason he’s been ostracized from his whole school, why everyone looks at him differently, and why he can never seem to get in trouble.

The Monster comes and tells him the first two stories, each teaches a different lesson. The first is the story of a good witch and a prince who slew the woman he loved to “save” his kingdom from the witch’s rule. The prince uses the death of the woman he loved as motivation to rally the citizens of the kingdom around him. They siege the castle and prepare to burn the witch, but at the last second The Monster reaches in and saves the witch taking her far away – saving her life. The second story is about an apothecary who (as the world starts to industrialize) loses customers and slowly becomes a crueler person and a parson with two daughters that preaches modern medicine and is the primary reason the apothecary is losing business. When the parson’s daughters become sick he pleads with the apothecary to save them, however, the apothecary chooses not to, and as a consequence, The Monster destroys the parson’s house. Because, although the parson was a believer, he abandoned his faith the moment it failed him – only then turning to the apothecary pleading for help. These lessons were meant to show Connor that most people aren’t really bad or good – the apothecary was a healer and saved lives, but still chose to stand by principle at the cost of the parson’s daughters’ lives, the prince grew up to be an amazing king but had to kill his only love to make it happen, and at the end of the day the witch wasn’t a bad person – they are usually somewhere in the middle.

As his mother gets worse, he’s forced to move in with his grandmother (who he despises) and his father comes to visit from America. Even as they try to comfort Connor he feels more and more unseen by the rest of the world, he would go whole days without talking to anyone or anyone looking at him. Then the bully decides that he’s had enough of messing with Connor, he comes up to him and says “Good-bye O’Malley (his last name), I no longer see you.” At that moment the time is 12:07, and The Monster appears in the school, and the third story begins. It’s the story of a man who became invisible, not that people couldn’t see him, people had just grown used to not seeing him.

Connor asked The Monster what the man did. The Monster replied, “he made them see.”

When the story was over everyone was looking at Connor, he had beaten the bully within an inch of his life. The headmaster called him and told him the boy was going to the hospital, and typically this would result in immediate expulsion. When he heard this, he felt a weight come off his chest. He was finally going to be punished, he would get what he deserves. However, the headmaster followed up by saying that the punishment made no sense in this situation because “he had bigger things to think about” and “what purpose could it possibly serve?”

All this time Connor’s mother has been getting worse, and she finally wants to have the talk with him. She only shows him, love, even though he’s too upset to say a word, and when it’s all done she promises him that no matter what happens or what he does, she’ll always love him. Even if he can’t say anything now, and later in life he regrets it, she wants him to know that she understands what he meant and that she forgives him.

After this, he goes to find The Monster and demands that it heal his mother. The Monster responds, saying that it was summoned not to save Connor’s Mother, but to save Connor. It tells him that the time for the final story has started. Connor is instantly transported to his nightmare where we see his mother standing on the edge of a cliff looking at him. Suddenly a monster starts climbing up the cliff, one made of fire, ash, and smoke, while still being full of muscle. It grabs his mother and starts to pull her down the side of the cliff into nothingness, but Connor manages to grab her hand. At the end of the Connor let’s go, and typically that’s where the dream ends, but not this time. He stands on the edge of the cliff with The Monster watching him, and it demands he speaks the truth or be left here forever. Connor admits that he doesn’t want his mom to go, but he’s in more pain because he has known deep down that she is going to pass away the whole time. So in the nightmare, he let her go, he could’ve held on longer, but in the end, his own pain was too great. Connor believed that he deserved to be punished for this hidden truth he had, but the Monster imparts one last piece of wisdom and tells him that that’s the most human thing someone can do.

When he wakes up, his grandmother rushes towards him. Asking why he went missing like that, and so on. She rushes him into the car and tells Connor they have to go to the hospital. When they get there his mother is in bed and is not doing well. He goes to hold her hand, and she sees him. At this moment he senses the monster’s presence and asks that it wait with him till she goes. This time he’ll hold on until he can’t, and although he knows it will be the most painful thing he’s ever experienced he knows that in time, he will get through it. When it comes down to it, he won’t let go, and although he’s afraid he’ll do it anyway. As the final pages wind down he looks up at the clock.

“11:46, 21 minutes before 12:07.”

I want to start off by saying a couple things. Firstly, I skipped a few key things in the book which make it that much better so please do actually read it. Also, I did cry – that may not mean anything, but it means something to me. This was a book I read as a kid, and I saw it on the shelf and decided to read it today, however, it’s still a very adult book in a lot of ways. I wanted to write this post while the feelings were still raw, but that doesn’t take away from the fact that this book is really amazing, and the artwork is beautiful. So in conclusion, I’m glad I had the time to re-read it.

#35 Egypt In A Time Of Revolution

This book tells the story of Egypt and the turmoil it had been going through. Throughout the nation’s struggle there have been many reports and logs on every event. The novel is a compilation of all of these things as well as the writer’s own personal twist on the events in egypt. Now, let’s look into what caused all of these riots and struggles in the first place. 

What’s most interesting about this specific revolution was that it was led in large by youth activists who believed that the police brutality and the unfair representation of the people was an injustice and immoral towards the people in their communities. This revolution was different from the previous ones because it was non-violent sit-out strikes. People made their voices heard by not working. They made their voices heard by standing up to the police and the army that tried to force them back to work. An army that was already small, and a police force that was one of the major causes of the strikes in the first place. They found that their lack of political freedom and freedom of speech was hindering them from becoming a better nation and people so they took it to their government and it actually worked. The Egyptian lower class was struggling to retain jobs and provide for themselves and their family as inflation continued to go up and their wages were going down, their country was on an economic spiral, and it was not headed in the right direction. A signal that the Egyptian police and military were weakened was their inability to enforce curfew among the civilians, extremely similar to what happened during the beginning of the Hunger games revolution when the government first started to lose control. The President had an Elite guard which were all loyalists but slowly they started to be replaced by the normal army, where less support could be found for him. On the eleventh of February 2011, the vice president of the nation spoke to everyone in Egypt telling them that the President had resigned and that martial law would be in place until a new president could be elected. Now this was a unique case out of the four revolutions we discussed. It’s clear that Egypt had issues, but they managed to solve them, or put themselves on the road to recovery without any major loss of life or bloodshed. Which shows how much our world has advanced in the past one hundred years, that we can go from mass executions of the upper class to a precise and largely bloodless group strike in order to effectively change the government.

 

#34 Catching Fire: Hunger Games

Catching Fire was written by Suzanne Collins, and it is the second of three novels. In following the theme of the last two books I will briefly run over the plot and then explain how the society that it’s set in contributes to the massive revolution that takes place in the third and final book. 

In the beginning of the novel Katniss is spoken to by President Snow, an awful dictator who shows the twelve districts no mercy. He tells her that she has become the face of the rebellion in almost all the other districts and that she must find a way to subdue them or her family will die. She is then thrown back into the games, where she makes powerful allies and as they survive in the arena it starts to become clear to her that something more important is going on than just a simple game. She realizes that they will start the revolution. At first she resists but it becomes clear to her that every time she tries to play Snow’s game she will lose so she finally decides that she’s gonna take the fight to him and not just lay down and let him ruin her life. The book ends with her breaking the force field of the arena and being carried away in a plane. When she wakes up she learns that she will become the leader of the revolution. The question stands though, why does there need to be a revolution in the first place? That is a question I will try my best to answer now.

In Panem there are twelve districts each of which contributes something that the other eleven don’t. For example district 12 contributes coal to society. These districts are separated though, and communication is extremely limited between them. Most people in each district live extremely poor lives, and only those that win the Hunger Games get a taste of what Capital life is like. To go along with this district two is where all of the man power comes from, everyone there is trained to be a soldier for the capital and are raised to believe that people from other districts are less than themselves. When people from district 2 graduate they become “PeaceKeepers” who are like policemen but much more renown for their abusive behavior towards anyone who disobeys the capital’s laws. This polarization between districts tends to keep them fighting amongst each other instead of seeing the true threat, The Capital. Now this is a reason for the people to be upset, but what really causes the uprising is the lavish lives that people in the Capital live. In the Capital they love to eat extravagant meals unlike anything the districts have ever seen and when they get full they drink something that “makes you sick so that you can go on eating.” Another sign of the governmental issues in Panem can be addressed by a conversation that President Snow has with Katniss “It must be a fragile system if it can be brought down by a few berries” this is relating to how she and Peeta beat the Hunger Games and both won instead of just one of them. Now this could be overlooked but it alludes to Katniss future role in the revolution as its leader. A phrase that the Hunger Games coined throughout the second and third book “The symbol of the rebellion” is used in reference of Katniss and the fire that she has stoked among the run down people of Panem, it’s important to note that in the beginning of the story these people had no spark to light the revolution aflame. Katniss became that spark and sometimes in the case of a rebellion all you need is a figurehead, and then you will fight for what you believe in. Without Katniss those people would have just stayed as what they were, but she made them more and made the whole revolution possible.

#33 Ten Days That Shook the World

This book is extremely accurate to the events that actually led up to the revolution, the reason for this is because of the fact that the guy that wrote it was actually there during the revolution. He followed the leninist leaders around because he was actually a big socialist, but his ability to put his reporting skills above his appreciation for socialism makes this one of the most interesting books about the Russian Revolution of 1917 to date. Now lets look closer at the event and see what about Russian society prompted the revolution.

The seeds for the Russian Revolution were planted when WWI ended, the ruler of Russia promised peace, a better economy, and food for all. These thing never came. In the 1900’s  Russia was known for it’s outdated economy and people such as farmers tended to suffer from it because they couldn’t actually get modern day technology in order to benefit their crops. For farmers it was harder to grow food because of how cold it is making the growing season only 4-6 months instead of the average 8-9 months in other Western European places. The only reason that they were able to stay afloat in this part of the economy is due to the fact that Russia has so much land that they can actually afford to have a shorter season because they have more land for growing than any other country at that time. They even managed to supply the U.S. with some food in the 1900’s. Still their minor advances in machinery they continued to fall behind in the economy. Another contributing factor was the years of hate towards the lower class by the Tsarist Regime. While peasants had been emancipated from serfdom they still had to pay a tax which restricted them from owning any actual land, this resulted in two things. First there tended to be riots where these lower class people fought for the rights to their land and were almost always turned down. Second, Because the serfs had been set free they had no where to live so they lived in little homes with large groups of people causing over crowding and the spread of diseases. This inability to let the lower class own any land resulted in about 2% of the Russian population owning about 25% of all land. Most of this stuff had been going on before World War One but when it came it brought chaos. People were forced to work in factories, where there was not much safety equipment if at all, they were underpaid and many qualified workers were enlisted into the army. This left only peasants to work, which resulted in awful equipment and anger from the enlisted at their jobs being taken. While the Tsar ruled Russia the people had no representation and the Tsar made no attempt to try and understand their peoples problems. After years of strikes and riots the Tsar decided to attempt to introduce something along the lines of a democracy for the people but when he realized that it wasn’t really helping him he cancelled it and fired the Duma’s who were the democratic leaders. This denial of the peoples rights to a voice of their own fueled them towards the revolution. After years and years of mistreatment the people finally fought back, overthrew the government and replaced it with a new leader, Vladimir Lenin. This officially ended the reign of the Tsar’s and brought temporary relief to the Russian population.

#32 A Tale of Two Cities

A note to the reader: the next four blog posts (including this one) will follow a slightly different layout, because I feel it’s more necessary to discuss a similar theme between these novels. This theme is the beginnings of revolutions – specifically the French Russian Egyptian and the revolution from The Hunger Games. I will discuss what caused these revolutions and I’ve found that they all share a similar trend that I will discuss in the individual blog posts.

This is the story of a family (a father and daughter) who were separated but they find each other again, they encounter other people who become a part of their circle but their world is shaken as the roots of the French revolution which had been placed years ago finally decide to overrun French civilization and as accusations start to fly about their party, they must flee France. The novel ends with the daughter’s husband in prison about to be executed but due to the kindness of their friend who sacrificed himself instead they escape. The man who dies was known for feeling like he had no purpose but in that moment when they killed him he found purpose in his life. But what caused these things? Throughout the rest of the post I will talk about what caused this upheaval and distress among the citizens of France.

The French Revolution of the 1790’s was the result of France helping America in their revolution. This heavy spending as well as that of the King at that time led them into a near bankrupt position as the royal treasure had been emptied and there was no money to go around. It certainly didn’t help that France had not had a successful harvest in over two decades. This caused simple things, such as bread to skyrocket price wise making it almost impossible for everyday people to survive. On top of these France had a distinct elitist section which was exempt from land taxes that the lower classes had to pay for. These elitists made up around two percent of the population but still held the majority of the power because of the money they had. The people had no true representation so they retaliated with strikes and other things along that line. Because of this France became very polarized, with everyday citizens who had been enlisted seeing other citizens as trash because they simply stood for what they believed in. This is an example of the Rulers turned allies against each other by forcing division between them. Eventually the Capital reached such a state of depravity that they went against the elites and began taxing their land as we’ll in order to continue living the lavish lives that were digging France even deeper into the ground. With this came revolution and as they started to gain momentum the murders began. First it was just a couple people but then it became clear to revolutionists that anyone that wasn’t with  was against them. They murdered anyone who was against them, killing over 17,000 people, some without a trial and some who died in prison. As it reached a fever pitch Napoleon came to light as an up and coming general. He made himself the first consul of France and ended the revolution. Then the Napoleonic Era where France became a super power in Europe began. This a walk through of what caused the French Revolution of the 1790’s, and when you think about it, it’s clear that the rulers didn’t see the power that every day citizens could have so they overlooked them and neglected them, forcing them lower and lower into poverty. Around that time there were philosophers who believed that if your government was mistreating you, you had a civil duty to stand up to your government. The rulers over-looked the power of the people and treated them in horrible ways and eventually enough was enough and those same rulers who were killing people with their awful laws were finally given the punishment they deserved.

 

#31 The Great Gatsby

The Great Gatsby was published on April 1925. It was written by F. Scott Fitzgerald who lived a life coming up from poverty into great wealth and popularity and then ultimately falling back into the background of society. The Great Gatsby is known for it’s symbolic colors and thematic locations such as the famous Vally of Ashes. The book is written from the perspective of a man telling a story about the summer he had and the people who he not only encountered but came to a deeper understanding about them at the end of the novel, whether good or bad.

The main characters are Nick, an up and coming bond’s man. At the beginning of the story he moves into a cottage next to an immense mansion owned by none other than the great Gatsby who is a wealthy but mysterious man. Gatsby is the next character, he is man new to wealth who doesn’t quite belong among the ranks of the upperclass but stays there all the same in desperation for a girl who is Daisy Buchanan. Daisy Buchanan is the “golden girl” she was born into a wealthy family with all the status she ever wanted and is renown for not only her physical beauty but her beauty within and the wonderful personality which seemingly is the source of Gatsby’s affection. Tom Buchanan is Daisy’s husband and is an immediate issue when it comes to Gatsby getting the girl of his dreams. Tom is extremely wealthy as well and it seems as though his status goes to his head for he is known to have other lovers and has forced Daisy him and his daughter to move many times in order to keep his other love interests at bay.

At the start of the story Nick has just moved into his new cottage on West Egg where all of the new money people live. This is important because of the fact that all of these people may be just as wealthy as those that live on East Egg (where Daisy and Tom live) but they desire the status that comes with having old money. Nick goes over to Tom and Daisy’s where they have dinner together with a mysterious guest named Jordan. While the dinner progresses Jordan mentions a “Gatsby” on West Egg, this name seems to strike a chord with Daisy and Nick realizes that his neighbor is the same Gatsby. The next day Tom invites Nick over for an outing where they go to the Valley of Ashes a place where all dreams are dying or have died. It is watched by the all seeing eyes of Dr. T.J. Eckleburg which seem to represent God watching the Earth and the moral wasteland that humans have made it into. Tom then picks up Myrtle (in the valley of ashes), the woman that he is cheating with, he converses with Mr. Wilson (Myrtle’s husband) about some car that he owns but then they head into the city where Nick gets drunk for the second time in his life and see’s how awful Tom is when he slaps Myrtle, Nick heads home because he snaps back to reality. Later that summer Nick receives an invite from Gatsby to one of his elaborate parties which are held every weekend all weekend. When Nick attends he meets Jordan again and they converse, wondering who Gatsby really is. That night Gatsby appears to them in a superfluous gesture right as fireworks go off and the music reaches a fever pitch, then summons Jordan into his study for some mysterious reason. The next day Gatsby comes over to Nick’s house and invites him on a trip to the city. Nick happily accepts hoping to learn more about the elusive Gatsby. Gatsby picks him up in a yellow car, yellow symbolizes joy at the begging of the story and then symbolizes the destruction that can be caused by wealth. As they travel into the city Gatsby tells Nick that he was an Oxford man and also received a medal of valor from some sort of military feat that he had done in his past, he says all of this while speeding and is eventually pulled over but the simple flash of a white card scares the policemen away showing the power that Gatsby has gained from his wealth. When they arrive at their destination they proceed into a secret basement where they meet a Mr. Wolfsheim a sly character who notoriously fixed the 1919 world series. Wolfsheim leaves quickly after and Tom arrives meeting Gatsby for the first time. He was disdainful at first and his opinion of Gatsby remains pretty constant throughout the story. Gatsby tells Nick that his purpose for bringing him out here was that he must go on a date with Jordan where she will explain further. Jordan reveals that night that Gatsby has known Daisy for five years and has been in love with her since their first encounter. Gatsby bought his house directly across from Daisy’s in hopes that she would one day wonder into one of his elaborate parties. This desperate need for Daisy is represented by the green light at the end of her dock which Gatsby is known to look to. This green symbolizes Gatsby’s dreams, how they are so close but just out of grasp and Gatsby believes that with Nick’s help these dreams can finally become reality and that green light will be put to rest. Jordan says that Gatsby wants Nick to invite Daisy over for lunch one day so that they can reacquaint themselves. From there the story really starts to pick up and finally reaches it’s shocking conclusion, but I’m not going to write about it because I’m concerned i might downplay the brilliance that is the ending of this book.

This book is an amazing book and I think that while its message may not be timeless because it was written for people in the roaring twenties I think it shows the importance that we can’t rewind time and sometimes we have to be happy with what we have, while that may not be the main message, that message is timeless.

#30 To Kill A Mockingbird

To Kill A Mockingbird is the revolutionary story written by Harper Lee in 1960. It shook the world and was black listed from being read in elementary and middle schools all across America for and as far as my research has shown it is still being black listed in some places. It is the story of a case. A case which rips a small Alabama country apart about a man who is being accused of raping a white girl, even though it’s clear that it never happened. The only thing that keeps the case going is the fact that the man is black (Tom Robinson) , and the man prosecuting him is white (Bob Ewell) , and it’s in the 1930’s when racial prejudices ran high.

At the start of the story, Scout ( the daughter of the attorney, Atticus) is an innocent girl who doesn’t see the lines between races or ethics but is quickly thrown into a changing world where everything she saw as a true or safe is being torn down. When the story starts Scout is hanging out with her brother, Jem when they meet a neighbor of theirs who is only their over the summer (Dill) . Dill is important to the story because his innocence never changes throughout the story, while Scout grows up Dill refuses to give up on his innocence and his belief in the good of all people. The case of Tom Robinson comes about when a lonely poor white girl is out in her front yard, her family – the Ewell’s – is extremely poor and is considered to be the outcasts of society even if they are white. One day this poor girl decides that she should invite Tom over to fix something for her, little does Tom know that she has feelings for him and then she throws herself on him and while he’s pushing her off Mr. Ewell see’s and lies about it in order to punish Tom and hide his shame that his daughter is in love with a black man. This results in the case which seems to shatter Macomb Alabama. Dill is a prime example of how things should have gone. Dill knew that Tom had done nothing, as did everyone else, but in the end the adults decided to convict where Dill would have let Tom go. The thing that’s special about Dill is that even after these serious flaws in humanity became present to him, he never stopped believing in people. Jem saw the case as a way to ruin his view of society. After he realized the fails of those humans who juried for the case he gave up on society which is a complete contrast to Dill’s idea about society.   Scout saw this case as a way to grow. It showed her the power that race has on society and although it may have complicated her life she grew from it and I feel as though even if it changed her world she felt more secure where she was at the end of the book then at the beginning. She realizes that the color of your skin or the myths people make up about you aren’t always your whole personality, and she shows just how powerful reality is vs. what society tells you things are.

I really loved this book, and even though I have read it a bunch of times I couldn’t remember all of the details and it made me realize that I need to reread this book. This book has a much more simplistic storyline but because of my amazing english teacher I am able to understand the deep symbolic meanings of the story, and that’s what I wrote about in this articles summary. I think anyone who is old enough to understand that racism exists and the issues that come with it should read this book just so that they understand even better the issues that are still around today even if the book was written about a time period almost a hundred years ago.