Independent Reading Post #4

After Mom and Jeffery came home, things started to go better. First, Steven was relieved that his brother did not die. Jeffery, Steven's brother, started to smile again in his daily life. However, Dad was still like a stone statue doing nothing. This book has unique style. I realized that while I am reading this book, I feel very happy and joy. However, after I read and close the book, my heart crushes. After all the happiness, I feel emptiness and loneliness just swooshing through my heart. I feel the pain in their family...



I finally realized that this book is not a comedy.....

Independent Reading Post#3

Book I read: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie

Author: Jordan Sonneblick

His Weekend was terrible; he could not stop thinking of his brother. He was thinking that he caused Jeffery’s Leukemia. His father still did not mention about anything, and he was feeling hatred toward his mom about not calling him for whole week. He was so worried that he even thought that Jeffery and his mom are having little vacation in Philadelphia and the doctor was wrong. After weeks past, Jeffery and his mom finally came back to home. Steven imagined Jeffery smiling in the car. However, when they came, it was different. His brother was sleeping in the car, which was very rare to see. When they got out of their car, Steven was shocked. He could see his mom was very tired and her eyes were red. Steven went to his mom and asked her “Why did not call me for whole week? The doctors were wrong right?” His mom was little shocked and asked his husband that why he did not tell Steven about everything. Therefore, there was one more family fight, and they went back to their daily life.
After I read this section, I was feeling very stupid toward Steven’s family. His family was very selfish, and blamed others for no reason. I hope they reconcile and become a big happy family. At last, I am enjoying this book very much.

Independent Reading Post#2

Book I read: Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pie
Author: Jordan Sonneblick

After Jeffery and his mom went to Philadelphia, Steven’s life became more tragic. He could not stop thinking about his brother, and started to miss his schoolwork. In addition, he and his dad did not get along and did not talk to each other for a long time. Even with these tragedies, Steven kept up with playing drum and practicing for upcoming jazz concert. When he was practicing his drum set alone in the school music room, he closed his eyes, blocked everything from the world, and just played the drum set. He flied through his drums and was very into it. After few minutes of crazy drum play, he opened his eyes. Here he was, in front of 10 to 20 people, played without noticing. People cheered for him. After this event, he went home and felt more optimistic, and prayed for his brother and his mom in Philadelphia.

The section I read, I was happy that I could see Steven going through the hardship by himself. However, I was very uncomfortable that he did not ask his father for any help. His father was too busy for his work and came home very late. In addition, Steven gives no respect to his father. As I read through the book and I realize that I am very blessed kid. I have my parents taking care of me and praying everyday for my success. I know realized that I have to be nice to my parents.

Independent Reading Post#1

Book I read: Drums, Girls, and Dangerous Pie
Author: Jordan Sonneblick

Drums Girls and Dangerous Pie has unique style of writing. As I was reading page by page, I could feel the main character talking next to me. This book uses first person point of view to make sure the reader gets the main point. The main character is Steven and he has a brother named Jeffery. Steven is a drum genius. His drum skills are so amazing. In this book, for few chapters at the beginning, it shows that Steven's thinking toward his brother. He really loves him but sometimes he gets annoyed. However, after few chapters, his family finds out that his brother has leukemia and his mom and his brother has to go to Philadelphia for hospital. Therefore, now on Steven and his dad has to work together as team and solve problems they face.


I think this book will be my favorite book. I seriously hate reading but, by reading this book, I cannot believe I am actually sitting at my desk and reading this amazing book. When it talked about his brother having Leukemia, tears dropped from my eyes. I was amazed with how author puts the word together to make you involve in the story.

Blog #5: Entry of the choice

Did George Washington exist?
As I read 1984, many doubts grew inside of me. Every time I see news, I always make questions and try not to believe all of it. Therefore, I came out of one question, “Did George Washington really exist?” Of course, all of the people in this world will say he did, but I might say he did but maybe he did not exist. I really do not want to think like this, but what if the government of United States was already became like a government in 1984, and started manipulating people’s mind. People who are living in 21st Century never saw George Washington, nor met him before. So, how do we know? They know by historical text, pictures, and the house he used to live in. However, what did the government in the 1984? They changed history and manipulated people’s mind. Yes, I am saying that we might be being tricked by government and became puppets of the country. Because, It is a piece of cake to change the history by President’s order. Unfortunately, we will never know the truth, and be puppets forever. Therefore, we put trust in authority and we have to just live our life. There is no way we can know the absolute truth in this world. It’s sad that the world became like this, but we can ask God for the truth and find it at the end.

Blog #5: The Passage

* please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you.
why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries and comment on what you think about the passage.

“Who controls the past controls the future. Who controls the present controls the past”. This quote shows strong sense of the mind manipulation. Just like the quote, the government in 1984 controls the past, which controls the future, and controls the present, which controls the past. In 1984, there are many examples of changing the past, present and future. The part when Winston changed the news about the decrease of the chocolate to increase in chocolate, after he changed, people believed it. In addition, Winston erases rebels’ history. Once thought police catches a rebel, he or she is brainwashed and confess in front of the tele screen. After they confess, government vaporizes them, and erases their history. Maybe people might say, “ Where is David? He was here yesterday” and ask the government. Nevertheless, government will say he never existed, and even though you do not want to believe it, it is easier to just believe what government tells you, or else you will be “vaporize”. Once you change the history, changing people’s mind is just piece of cake. Also, it shows how dangerous is the mind manipulation can be. The mind manipulation in the 1984 made human being like the product in the grocery stores, and made people worthless. Even I do not know is the government telling the truth, or is the information 100% accurate, maybe, the world we are living in might already became the society in the 1984 and mind manipulating us. We will never know the truth.

Blog #4: Mood(Book#2)

* What is the mood of this novel? Do you and this novel saddens you in
Any way? Why?

Mood is emotion of reader while reading a book. Mood of 1984 is very dark, gloomy, and depressing. As I was reading 1984, I felt very uncomfortable, and disturbed, because people’s life in 1984 is very miserable. Their life has no value to government. They are like products in a grocery store, so that government calls them by numbers. This shows that the value of human being was never existed. The society in 1984 is the successful government, which does not care about the people. The story is sad through out the book, but when I found out that human being has no value in this book, I felt very sad. Another thing is that current government is doing similar thing as the government in 1984. Treating people like products is already in this society. When we go to United States or another country, we carry our passports. However, I heard the news about giving us a card that has a certain number. For example, in the airport, instead of calling “David Song, please come up front”, they will say, “Number 1328453, please come up front”. Every time I think about this, always saddens me, because the society is becoming like a society in 1984. Even though many people are warning the government, they do not listen and do the best thing for the economic growth, not for the people. This novel 1984 is very depressing and sad story, that gives a government a last warning to watch out.

Blog #3: Cimax(Book #2)

* What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of?
This novel make you feel.

Climax is the “point-of-no-return in the story; the point of highest interest in terms of the conflict and the point of the story with the most action”(Mrs. Lavender). Climax of the novel 1984 is when Winston and Julia are caught and arrested by thought polices. It was the point when everything changed. The rebellious feeling against government collapsed. Once they were caught, there was no way that they can do the same thing next day. After the “point of no return”, Winston was tortured, brain washed, and “vaporized” by O’Brien. Mr. Charringnton tricked Winston and Julia that he was the thought police, and allowed Winston and Julia to stay in the second floor. The climax was so twisty that I got goose bumps after reading it. When Julia and Winston said, “ we are dead” after hearing women singing from the out side, another voice came from the picture on the wall, which was “disguised” tele-screen. Policemen of the government took him to the ministry of love, and tortured. In this book, after the torture and brainwash, the government made Winston to say he was wrong and killed him. Interesting thing is that the government is so successful of controlling peoples mind. I am a Christian, but what if Jesus said he was wrong and he was just pretending to be Son of God at the end. Just like 1984, the Christianity would never exist. In addition, even though you doubt about the fact, it is easier to just admit the fact that is on TV, because you are dead if you do not believe.

Blog#2: Current Situation(Book #2)

* Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to the Novel? What are they, and how do they relate? Does the novel shed any light on how current situations could be resolved or “fixed”?

The society in 1984 has very similar characteristics with the society in North Korea. First, mind manipulation of the civilians is alike. Big brother is same as the Kim Jung Ll the “dictator” of North Korea. The leaders mind control their people. Big Brother changes history, spread thought polices and “vaporize” people who are against him. In North Korea, Kim Jung Ll claims that he is the only God in this Earth, and they have to obey him to “live”. When I was in Korean Elementary School, I had a great chance to talk with people from North Korea. They told us that life in North Korea is very poor and depressing. They explained how cruel Kim jung Ll was and how many people are dying on the street everyday. In addition, people are watched everyday. Every single movement they make, every word they speak is monitored. The people who ran away from North Korea told me that there are secret spies that monitor people’s behavior every single second. Moreover, many people were killed during the process of run away. I saw the documentary that was about people running away from North Korea. Once, It had a scene that people are crossing a river for better future in South Korea but got shot at the back of their head and died. There are six North Korean Soldiers standing on the platform next to the river, and when they see a human crossing the river, they shoot and kill. Unfortunately, the world in 1984 is not a imaginative world that exist. The society in 1984 is just right next to us begging for freedom and change.

Blog #1: Theme (Book#2)

* What is the major theme of this novel? Why is this theme important to a teenager living in 2007?

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work. Theme of the 1984 is psychological manipulation. Throughout the novel 1984, the theme of mind control keep appears through readers’ mind. The party controls people’s mind. Party changes history, and makes new words. For example, Ministry of Truth controls the history. Winston Smith changed the news about 30 gramme of chocolate reduction to 30 gramme of chocolate increased. Just like this quote," Who controls the past, controls the future, who controls the present, controls the past”(page 32), shows that the Ministry of Truth is manipulating people’s mind. After the change has made, everybody believed it. Moreover, there is ministry that controls over dictionary. What it does is very simple; eliminate the words that have negative meanings. For example, if I am the ruler of one country and I do not want people to rebel against me, I can eliminate all the words that are related to rebellion. Let’s assume that my people said “I hate David, he is very bad leader, and it is not fair for us.” And If I eliminate the words such as hate, bad, and unfair, and replace it with positive meanings, than my people will not rebel against me since they do not know what words to say. Therefore, this theme of mind control is very important to teenagers living in 2008. These days’ teenagers seem to depend on the media too much. The society in the novel 1984 has very highly developed technology such as tele-screens, microphones, and other machines those track humans’ thoughts. What I want to say is that what you see on TV is not always true. Just like quote from i-Robot, “If you guys are relying to us, you are controlled by us." If we depend on the technology too much, we will be controlled by technology just like society in 1984. Society in 1984 is not far away!

Blog #6: Entry of my choice

I am a Zombie!

As I was reading Fahrenheit 451, it gave me the gigantic shock. I became a zombie of the media. Through this blog, I want to confess my addiction to media. This is my life. 6:50 AM alarm clock rings from my iPod, I take shower with music on. After, shower, I check my e-mail and eat breakfast. After the breakfast, I go to my grandpa’s car and go to school with radio on. In school, I listen to the music, text message (secretly), play phone game (secretly), and check my emails, and web surf. Even in class, media controlled me. 3:05 PM school ends, and I take taxi and go to hag won, with my iPod turned on. 5:30 PM, I go eat dinner, and my friends and I sit at the table which is closest to the TV. Some of them watch TV, some of them play phone game, and I watch TV and play game at the same time. Of course, only few conversations went on between us, before food comes out. When we are eating, we are absolutely silent. After we eat food, we go to studying room, and do our HW. In addition, my real addiction starts after all the academic stuff ends. 11:00 PM, I go home and since I do not have a television at Taejon, I download the TV programs that I missed. It is approximately three or four programs a day. I sit at the couch and bring one cup of orange juice, and watch it until midnight. Usually, programs are about an hour long. Therefore, after watching TV programs, I go to the face book and write comments on friends’ “wall”. Moreover, 2:30 to 3:00 AM I go to sleep. I know I am very addicted to the media. However, I did not realize until I read Fahrenheit 451. I found out my addiction grew very big. It is like a man smoking his cigarette, even though he knows it is ruining his life. I know it will take time, but now I want to declare that I will go against the ruthless media that ruined my life of 16 years. Additionally, I know for sure that it’s not only me that is addicted to media. I know YOU are addicted too but not recognized it. It is like cancer growing and growing, and still does not know you have cancer. People, media is ruining our life with fake information, what media tells you are not true. I thought it was but it is not. So, I strongly recommend you to stop before it is too late.

Blog#5: The passage

Please choose one passage from the novel that is significant to you.
Why is this passage meaningful? Please type it into one of your entries
In addition, comment on what you think about the passage.

“So! A book is a loaded gun in the house next door. Burn it. Take the shot from the weapon.” (pg 58, line 29)
Captain Beatty spoke this quote when he was telling Montag why books are bad. Reason why I chose this quote is, the Quote from Captain Beatty appealed very strongly to me. As you see in the text, it gave unique symbol of the books, the guns. However, this quote gave me an idea about Beatty is a hypocrite. From this book, I can tell that Captain Beatty also has books and read it before. It is interesting that books are loaded guns. What do people use to wipe out all the guns? They use guns to wipe out the guns in the world. People carry handguns, to protect themselves from gunshots. What do you see on TV when there is a robber who has a handgun that can blow citizens’ head? Yes, police use gun to protect the citizens. Moreover, the quote from the movie Training Day clearly states, “to wipe out all the drugs, we the cops have to know the drugs and know how to enjoy the drugs.” Isn’t it so ironic that people use same matter to wipe out the same thing? So for sure, I know that Captain Beatty read books to wipe out all the books in their society. It is so ironic that, we have to use the “bad” objects to wipe out the “bad” objects.

Blog #4: The Mood

What is the mood of this novel? Do you find this novel saddens you inany way? Why?

First, Mood is the emotion of the readers. As I read the Fahrenheit 451, the mood was very gloomy, and dark. From corrupted society, the society is controlled by technology. The scenery is very dark. Moreover, many people died. The old woman dies with books (which made Montag curious about reading), and Montag kills Captain Beatty. In addition, the mechanical Hounds are putting people to sleep which means to kill. As I was reading Fahrenheit 451, I realized that the society is also similar with society in the movie I-Robot. The quote the robots said was “if you guys are relying to us, you are controlled by us”. The people are just controlled by media and living like Zombies. The story saddens when Mildred stopped talking to the Montag anymore and watched TV. Because, I can see that the addiction to media can ruin one family and destroy one person. Moreover, I was shocked since, now the current society is becoming like Fahrenheit 451. The people are becoming zombies of the media. They go home, turn on the TV, and watch it for long time. In addition, it is true that communications between the families are getting lesser, and lesser. I felt uncomfortable after reading Fahrenheit 451 since it reflects current society. Even though, books about dystopia warn us, we just do not care about it and continue to live our life watching TV. Even though you do not want to admit, we are the zombies!

Blog #3: Climax

What is the climax of this novel? What happens? How do the events of this novel make you feel?

The climax of the Fahrenheit 451 was when Guy Montag killed Captain Beatty with the fire hose. This event is the climax of the Fahrenheit 451 since it was the point with no return. Guy Montag could not go back to time he killed the captain Beatty and save his life. Once he killed him, he could not remove his history of the murder. There was a fire alarm saying that the books had found. And the “fire fighters” went to the place where the fire alarm rang. However, the Montag’s wife betrayed Montag and turned him to the fire station. Mildred was so addicted to the media and thought the TV was her family that she turned him in to the government. In addition, after caught by captain Beatty, Beatty told Montag to burn his own house. However, Montag refused and had some conflict and Beatty punched Montag’s face and the green earplug fell off which the Faber was talking to him. Beatty held up the gun, about to pull the trigger, Montag sprayed fire all over Beatty. Beatty twisted like a squid and lay silently. I loved the quote he mentioned when he killed the captain. “You always said, don’t face the problem, burn it. Well, now I have done both. Good bye” (pg 121, line26) He now burned the Captain who was his problem. He killed him for his freedom. However, once he killed the captain, the mechanical Hounds were chasing after him and he could not go back to the city and live a life he used to live yesterday. That is why I chose the event for the climax. It was the point with no return, and point with highest tension. When I read the climax, I was very happy, since Montag got rid of his “problems” but somewhat nervous since he had to face other “problems” while running away from the “Hounds”. I know murder is bad but to get rid of the "problem" it was the good one ^^.

Blog#2: current situation

Are there are any current situations in the world that relate to thenovel? what are they, and how do they relate? does the novel shed anylight on how current situations could be resolved or “fixed”?

The ideal society in Fahrenheit 451 is corrupted and chaotic. However, Fahrenheit 451 is very similar to the society now. You will be very surprised after I say the similarities. First, bombs are flying over the city but people do not recognize it in Fahrenheit 451. In our society, bombs are flying over our heads too, but we do not care at all. We see news about war on Iraq but after few minutes we change the channel and found ourselves watching Comedy show and laughing like idiots. Second, I will first ask you one question. Can you describe the buildings around your house or the streets that you just walked by? I am sure that you do not even know the name of the buildings that is right in front of your house. Yes, people in the Fahrenheit 451 and we are living life meaningless. We are living our life so fast that we cannot even describe the buildings that we just passed by. Third, people are addicted to the media. People in the book watch the TV wall and communicate with them, and think that they are their family. You see what’s happening in our society? It’s becoming like the society in the Fahrenheit 451. Now days TVs are getting slimmer and soon will be the wall TV. And you know the seashell in the book? What do you that is? That’s the MP3s we are listening now. Yes, I know you got goose-bumps now. Now, you see what is our society going to be? Our current society is becoming just like the society that’s in the book. Therefore, the dystopia that is formed in the book is not so far from the society now. Ray Bradbury nailed what the world’s going to be in 1950’s. So, we should not think dystopia is far from now. Dystopia is waiting just right in front of us.

Blog#1: Theme of the book

The theme of Fahrenheit 451 is censorship. Throughout the book, the idea of censorship is floating around reader's mind. The ideal government in the Fahrenheit 451 censors the idea of knowledge to make people equal. Therefore, theme of the Fahrenheit 451 is important to teenagers because even in the current society the idea of banning the media and the information is becoming an issue.
Most of teenagers are open to all the information on internet, books, and televisions. In addition, the society is trying to censor the “inappropriate” information on the media. Such as dirty and violent internet sites, dangerous weapon related books or movies, and music that have cussing words. However, don’t teenagers have the “freedom” of choice? The government in the current society is putting us down by censoring all the “information” that we wanted to know. It is good that they censor the dirty information, but if there is good information then for sure there will be bad information too.
If the government is censoring the information over us, it means we are controlled by ruthless society, and do not even recognize it. The government cannot make the world perfect by censoring the information on the media, but will end up being corrupted nation. For example, Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain was banned in school because of “N” word that humiliated black kids in many schools. However, if the government tries to ban the information on the media, then it will end up censoring all the information and become idiotic nation that does not know anything at the end.
If that's true thenTeletubbies should be banned since, the characters are all the minorities in the society. Twinky-Winky is representing the gays; blue (men) and red (women) mixed and make color purple, which means homosexual. Even though he is a big man, he carries the red hand back, which emphasizes that he is gay. Dipsy represents the African Americans because he has dark face, and Laa Laa represents women, and Po represents the babies.
Therefore, censoring the media over the nation does not matter because there will always be the “bad side” when there is “good side.” It is impossible to censor the “inappropriate” information. Just like Guy Montag, there are people against their government. In addition, It is important to respect teenagers’ opinion and not controlling over us forcefully.