TBE #20

I FINALLLLLLY FINISHED THE BOOOOOK! WOOHOOOOO!!!

It's a good book!

The chapter that starts on page 164, was very confusing at first. They were talking about a misanthrope and how he only loved inanimate objects. I did not understand how it ties in wit hthe story but towards the end of the chapter it talks about how he is a psychic and peopel come to him for answers and how he can grant wishes. Then as I was reading page 173, and she says "My eyes...I want them blue." Then I realized it was Pecola. After reading this book I think she deserves it. She had to lie with her father raping her and getting her pregnant and her abusive mother who never believed her. The chapter before the last chapter is about Claudia and Freida selling seeds to people in order to get a new bike. They would ring on doorbells and get invited inside and tell Pecola's story. I don't get why they would do this then all of a sudden tell each other that they will pray for Pecola's baby to live and pray for Pecola. They also said they were going to give up their new bicycle and bury the money they earned so they can let God know they were being serious about it. IT was a sudden switch. But I think it was sweet of them to do it. In the last chapter it's just a conversation between two people but it seemed unreal liek a dream. I think it was Pecola as if she had blue eyes but I don't know who the other person is. Then it foes back to a narrator and tells us how no one can even look at Pecola anymore. She is also poor looking through garbages. This is a sad story. What's the moral of the story? I think it's that we should appreciate what we have because others have it ten times worse and nothing gets better for them.

TBE #19

Because Cholly was raised by his aunt, he never had a father figure. His father left his mom and his mom left him. So On page156, Cholly went searching for his dad and when he finally find him, his dad says, "Something wrong with your head? Who told you to come after me?" Cholly says, "Nobody." And later on, Cholly says," Tell that bitch she get her money. Now get the fuck outta my face!" This is really sad. This led to his epiphany to be "free to be tender or violent, to whistle or weep. Free to sleep in doorways or between the white sheets of a singing woman...He could go to jail ad not feel imprisoned, for he had already seen the furtiveness in the eyes of his jailer...Free to take a woman's insults, for his body had already conquered hers." On page 161, he explains how he rapes his daughter(Pecola).

TBE #18

On pge 145, it talks about the day of Cholly's Aunt's funeral and how he went to the woods with a girl and they were having sex. I just find it strange how they had sex at very young ages and had children. It also makes me upset that two white men were verbally harrassing them and telling them to keep going. It made me feel scared for Cholly and the girl, Darlene.

TBE #17

In the chapter "SEEFATHERHEISBIGANDSTRONGFATHERWILLYOUPLAYWITHJANE..." (it would have been easier if they also put a number -__-), It starts off by talking about Cholly( Pecola's dad) and his childhood. Due to his sad childhood, his actions as he gets older is very violent. When he was just 4 days old, he was placed on a junk heap near a railroad by his mother but his mother's sister, took care of him when she found him. When he was young, his auntie got sick which caused her death. In HTRLLAP it says that sickness has meaning to it so I looked it up. Aunt Jimmy was sick from a cold, because she was left outside after a rainstorm..but I can't put the pieces together. Her sickness is symbolic for something. Maybe it foreshadows Cholly's behavior..getting worse and worse? and Then leads to death? IDK.

While reading on page 143, I just realized there was more than one narrator. When they talk about the present, it's Caludia but when they talk abotu the other characters' and their past, it's a different narrator like he's 3rd person omniscient or something..idk who the other narrator is.

TBE #16

On page 126, Pecola's mother is speaking about her past and she says, "Head full of pretty hair, but Lord she was ugly." Does she literally mean ugly? I', wondering how she defines ugly. Thsi is sad to call your own child ugly, it makes me despise Pecola's mother. On page 129, there's some nasty imagery: "I think about the thick, knotty hair on his chest, and the two big swells his breast muscles make. I want to rub my face hard in his chest and feel the hair cut my skin," then it gets all sexual. In this book, color = life to them. They keep mentioning colors and how it makes them happy. Pecola's mother says like, "Only thing I miss sometimes is that rainbow. But like I say, I don't recollect it much anymore," to tell us that her and her husband had a connection and that rainbow represented their happiness but it's not really there anymore. And back to page 105, Claudia says, "The lakefront houses were the loveliest...The backyards of these houses fell away in green slopes down to a strip of sand, and then the blue Lake Erie...The orange-patched sky of the steel-mill section...this sky was always blue." Color meant a lot to them.

TBE #15

On page 97 the chapter starts off by describing twigs and I know they symbolize something but I don't know what. "Twigs shooting from forsythia and lilac.." I didn't know what forsythia was so I looked it up and it says that they form backbones. Maybe these twigs are people who are "backbones" for other people? They guide people or like lead people or help people put themselves together? As I kept reading, I noticed that the book just goes back in time and talks about every character and their story.

TBE #14

In HTRLLAP, there's a chapter about rain and snow. In this book, it is very cold and it snows. Snow is clean and warm, very opposite of the book. It seems like everyone is so cold and dirty( like the whores). On page 83-83, it's a list of what white women have. IT's all posittive things. The word "they" is repeated and it makes the sentences choppy. Is this to show that the white women have eerything and they are superior...so it's all about "they?" There's also a lot of imagery in this book. it's very descriptive. Especially when they talk about their sex life..it's kind of disturbing actually.

TBE #13

I searched up the name Maureen because in HTRLLAP said that names are significant but I don't know how "star of the sea" relates to Maureen. She is the "Star" of everyone because everyone loves her...but I still don't know if that's a connection to her name. On page 77, the girls see Mr. Henry, the guy who boards in their house, fooling around with the whore China and a lady called the Maginot Line. She's not very liked in this story and Claudia and Freida's mom calls says that she is "ruined." I searched up what a maginot line is and it's
–noun
1.
a zone of heavy defensive fortifications erected by France along its eastern border in the years preceding World War II, but outflanked in 1940 when the German army attacked through Belgium.
2.
any elaborate line of defense or set of barriers.


I'm still trying to figure out how this relates to her..

TBE #12

On page 67, the white girl who everyone adores, Maureen, asked Pecola what her name was and when she told her, Maureen said that Pecola is also the name of the girl in Imitation of Life, who hates her mother because she is black andn ugly. This is an obvious irony because Pecola feels ugly and ashamed of he color. On page 73, Maureen transforms into an evil, cocky girl becuase Claudia and Freida make assumptions because she is white. I think that Maureen is just a symbol for life. She's a girl that everyone loves but can quickly turn into something ugly. Just like events and problems in our lives.

The Bluest Eye #11

It makes me mad how three black boys harrass Pecola, and I think it's only to feel superior becuase they can't do it to white people and they feel inferior to the white people. The boys who harrassed Pecola are called the "Bay Boys," so I searched it up and there's a movie and a book about the boy who struggles growing up with deciding to become a priest, witnessing a murder, and girlfriend stuff. So I guess Bay Boys are just boys who struggle?

The Bluest Eye #10

In page 62, I find it ironic how they talk about a white girl with two baids in into two lynch ropes. Because back then, white people hung black people with lynch ropes. Also, they talked about how they praised this white girl and "black boys didn't trip her in the halls," but before I though the white peopel tripped and harrassed black people...? There's a lot of obvious ironies..or I think they're supposeed to be ironic.

The Bluest Eye #9

It's sad that Pecola questions about love because all she sees is abuse and pain from her family.
On page 57 it says "What did love feel like? she wondered. How do grown-ups act when they love each other?"

This book is also full of similes and metaphors. For example, "Winter moves into it and presides there. His eyes become a cliff of snow threatening to avalanche; his eyebrows bend like black limbs of leafless trees." This shows how their father is full of anger? I think. These similes and metaphors are important because it helps readers understand the story.

The Bluest Eye # 8

On page 51, there's a song that Pecola singsm about having the "blues" like being sad. I think it's ironic because she wants her eyes to be blue, and she thinks by having blue eyes she will be happy. On the next page, there's a conversation of Pecola and the three "whores," as Pecola calls them, but I don't really understand what they're talking about because of their horrible diction. There's a lot of sexual jokes that the whores say...well I take them as a sexual joke I think. Like Marie is one of the whore's and says "Well, I was little and cute then...Soaking wet." Then the other whore, China, says "well you ain't never been dry." If this is nto sexual then I am not sure what they are talking about.

The Bluest Eye #7

On page 44, Mr. & Ms. Breedlove are physically fighting but I did not feel the intensity of it because on the previous page it tells us that it's a regular process for their family. It seems so casual because after the fight, Ms. Breedlove tells her son, Sammy, to get some coal. Just like the fist page of the book, there's repetition in this paragraph: "Pretty eyes. Pretty blue eyes. Big blue pretty eyes. Run, Jip, run. Jip runs, Alice runs. Alice has blue eyes.." Who's Jip and Alice? On 47, the narrator says that "nobody loves the head of the dandelion. Maybe because they ae so many, strong, and soon." I think this represents the black people.

EDIT ESSAY 4:30-5:30pm

The Bluest Eye #6

As I got to page 43, I noticed there are a lot of references to God. I looked back at HTRLLAP and it says that the naming of a character is important. I searched up the name Pecola but I did not really find any useful information. Except there's a Japanese anime and the orphaned girl's name is Pecola. In The Bluest Eye Pecola is also like an orphan because she lives with another family.

EDIT ESSAY 12:30-1:30pm

The Bluest Eye #5

This book does not have chapter numbers but it has weird titles with no spaces, just all capslock. The "HEREISTHEHOUSEITISGREENANDWHITEITHASAREDDOORITISVERYPRETTYITISVERYPRETTYITISVERYPRETTYP" and the chapter after that is mainly about Pecola's family and what she had to live with. She is very unfortunate. The chapter starts off as "The breedloves did not live in a storefront because..they lived there because they were poor and black, and they stayed there because they believed they were ugly." The word ugly is used I think to show that they were ashamed of their race. This chapter reminds me of the book, Their Eyes were Watching God becuase their diction is similar and the wife of Mr. Breedlove says, "Not until you get me some coal. If working like a mule don't give me the right to be warm, what am I doing it for?" In Their Eyes Were Watching God, the wife always talked about how she always worked.

The Bluest eye #4

On page 17, the narrator, (one of the sisters, CLAUDIA), kept mentioning outdoors. She says, "Outdoors was the end of something, an irrevocable, physical fact, defining and complenenting our metaphysical condition. Being MONIORTY IN BOTH CASTE AND CLASS.." So it's about racism..not fitting in. The diction is also casual like the narrator would say "..we listened, avoided each other's eyes, and picked toe jam or whatever." So one of the main characters, Pecola, got her period and instead of "menstruating" they say "ministratin," ...lack of knowledge. In the next chapter, the title is called "HEREISTHEHOUSEITISGREENANDWHITEITHASAREDDOOR..." and theres no punctuation or spaces..i'm still trying to figure this out.

The Bluest Eye #3

On page 12, the narrator is jst one person, not as sisters. In the second paragraph it says, "
she sings to me: 'when the deep purple falls over sleepy garden walls, someone thinks of me..." I'm not sure what it symbolizes but I think it foreshadows an event in the future. I also noticed that they have winter weather in the fall. I still don't know the location of this place but it's where there is racism. The characters in this story are not we'' educated because their diction is very poor. For example, they say things like, "she wasn't never right."

The Bluest Eye #2

on the third page, the narrator starts off as "we" and I thought the story is told as a third person omniscient. i think there's significance in the lines: "...the marigolds did not grow...if we planted seeds, and said the right words over them, they would blossom, and everything would be all right." On page 5, it tells us that "we", as in the narrators, are sisters. On page 5, I also found personification and a simile in the line, "nuns go by as lust, and druken men sober eyes sing in the lobby of the greek hotel." I'm not sure where the setting is but in HTRLLAP, it says that the setting is very important. As I read further, I will find out.

The Bluest Eye (Toni Morrison) #1

Reading the first page, I realized that the sentences were really choppy, short sentences like "Here is the house. It is green and white. It has a red door." I first thought that maybe it's a little kid telling the story? Maybe this is stream of consciousness from when the speaker was young? I also noticed that it was full of anaphora. For example, See Jane. She has a red dress. She wants to play. Who will play with Jane? See the cat? It goes meowmeow. Come and play. Come play with Jane." This whole first page is structured this way. The second page consists of 2 paragraphs which are exactly the same as the paragraph on the first page (the same words) but the second page has no punctuation. I immediately think of stream of consciousness. The first paragraph of page 2 made me think that it was a flashback. As I read it, the tone I thought of was worried or scared. Then I read the second paragraph with no spaces and I thought maybe the speaker was telling a story really quickly because he or she was holding in so much that he or she had to let everything out. Or the spaces symbolize that his or her life was so hectic and full of problems that he or she had no time to breathe or maybe no time to speak his/her mind? I don't know what's going on...

Their Eyes Were Watching God #3

OMG I finally finished the book! So boring!!!!!!

So there's a simile on page 103 and i'm not sure it it's supposed to be a pleasant comment, aha. Tea Cake says, "Ah been wishin' so bad tuh git mah hands in yo' hair...It feels jus' lak underneath uh dove's wing next to mah face." I would'nt want any birds wing in my face! On page 114 I'm not sure what Janie is trying to say in her simile. She says, " Ah justlak uh chicken. Chicken drink water, but he don't pee-pee." Is she trying to say that when she recieves or has something or someone, she does not want to let it go? IDK. On page 117 I thought I noticed dramatic irony when Tea Cake did not come back and her money was missing because in the beginning of the story, it seems like it was not the beginning, it was the end of the story but then when I read the last pages..I thought maybe that's just what people assumed. I never heard the overstatement, "You done hurt mah heart, now you come wid uh lie tuh bruise mah ears," on page 137. On page 160 it says, " They seemed to be staring at the dark. but their eyes were watching God. " Ithought maybe they were saying God is invisble because during the hurricane he was not there to help them at the time. So Janie finally foudn the love of her life but then he dies, and with that, she died too, but not literally, just emotionally.

Their Eyes Were Watching God #2

On pag e40 when joe says "I God, yeah," is he calling himself God? He is trying to take over like he is some God. On page 49, Jeff Bruce was talking about Joe and how "he's de wind and we'se de grass." I began to feel sorry for Janie because once Joe started talking about taking over, I already knew that Janie would suffer from loneliness because he would take up all his time working, trying to be the boss. On page 53, I kept wondering what was so special abotu the mule, then I thought maybe it represented slavery...and as I kept reading I figured it was about women because they're always being pushed around byt heir husbands and having to do what they say and please them or else the women will get beat up. On page 54 I noticed time was capitalized again.. I'm still trying to figure out why. On page 71, Joe was implying that women are like animals: "Somebody got to think for women and chillun and chicken and cows..." Men were disgusting back then, thinking women are just made to serve them. On page 89 the horizon was mentioned again. I'm thinking that the horizon represents where wishes and dreams are granted..or maybe it represents heaven? On page 97 Tea Cake is introduced and I was analyzing his name. It is an oxymoron because tea is something you drink while cake is something you eat? Why is he called Tea Cake? Tea os supposed to "cleanse your soul," and it's healthy for the body. Cake is something that makes people happy and is eaten at celebrations. Maybe Tea Cake is "the one" for Janie.

Their Eyes Were Watching God #1

As I read the first page I really didn't know what the author was talking about. I know it's really significant because it doesn't tell the whole truth abotu the whole story. It most likely foreshadows an event in the future. I also noticed that Time was capitalized and the sun was personified as it "has left his footprints in the sky. Maybe the sun is a metaphor for God? I'm not sure. I read up ro page 35 and it still confuses me. All I know is Janie is trying to find real love and marriage. Their diction makes it hard to understand. On page 25, it says, "So janie waited a bloom time, and a green time, and an orange time," and I really don"t know what she means. I tried analyzing it like green is the color of envy and money..oh and life! and orange..I just think of the orange fruit.

The Kite Runner #5

I finallllly finished the book!!!!!!!!!!!! woohooo!!!



On 326 amir says," I can hear the smile in her words," he meant he can hear the happiness thourgh her tone (imagery). When Amir meets up with Raymond Andrews, Amir is upset that Raymond has an attitude and I thought, "was he being racist," but it turns out that the tragedy of his daughter reflects his personality. "In Kabul, hot running water had been like fathers, a rare commodity," is a depressing simile. On page 250 when Amir's mother says, "They only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something from you," also foreshadows amir's happiness in being able to adopt Sohrab but soon finds out that he has cut himself, causing him to lose a lot of blood. Ob page 347, the second paragrapgh is full of imagery and I caught myself having a hard time breathing as I read it. But it was a happy ending as Sohrab smiled when Amir flies the kite and cuts off the green one :D

The Kite Runner #4

On page 217, the pomegranate tree is mentioned. It says "..and the tree hasn't borne fruit in years," and I think it represents the relationship between Amir and Hassan because when their relationship was still acceptable, the tree was fine but as they faded the tree was unhealthy. On page 246, the simile, "returning to Kabul was like running into an old, forgotten friend and seeing that life hadn't been good to him, that he'd become homeless and destitute," is a sad thought. On page 250 when Amir's mother says, "They only let you be this happy if they're preparing to take something from you," forshadowed her death. That statement to is true, that's why i'm never content when something good happens because i'm scared of an unfortunate event that will happen to me unexpectedly. In not sure what's happening in the italisized text..like on page 287 is it stream of consciousness? On page 288 was an unpleasant simile- "the sound of my tibs snapping like tree branches.." ouch!!!!! I found the cacophonic words all in one line kind of. They're not complete sentences. On page 297 it says, "RUPTURED spleen. BROKEN teeth. PUNCTURED lung. BUSTED eye socket."

The Kite Runner #3

I'm actally on page 313 but i'm behind on blogging =/

on page 61, Amir's simile, "I felt his glare on me like the heat of a blistering sun," made me think that ther relationship with his father is horrible. Amir wants to make his father so proiud that he's super nervous for the kite tournament. As I was readin the last parapragh where Hassan encourages Amir, I thought to myself, "I wish I had the confidence of Hassan." On page 97, the personificatoin of "his eyes betrayed him," makes me disgusted that Assef is so fake. On page 101 I wondered why winning the tournament was so important to Baba..was it because Hassan was Amir's partner? the simile, "The husband's face had become as pale as the moon hovering above," proves the husband's pain when the Russian wanted to have sex with his wife. On page 136, I noticed the alliteration because of the repetition of S in the sentence, "I used to tell Hassan that Someday we'd walk on a Strip of Seaweed-Strewn beach, Sink our feet in the Sand, and ..."
There's a lot of personification in this book like on page 214 when he personifies time as a greedy thing, steals all tehj details for itself. I'm still trying to figure out what that means.

The Kite Runner #2

On page 25 I found alliteration, assonance, and consonance in one sentence: "sometimes, my entire childhoos seems Like one Long Lazy summer day with Hassan, chasing each other between Tangles of Trees in my father's yard, playing hide-and-seek, cOps and rObbers, cowboys and indians, insect torture-with our crowning achievement undeniably the time we plucked the stinger off a bee and tied a string around the poor thing (ooh and internal rhyme) to yanK it bacK every time it tooK flight." Verbal irony was present on pages 28-29 because Amir teases Hassan and says, "'Let's see. 'Imbecile.' It means smart, intelligent...'when it comes to words, Hassan is an imbecile.'" On page 46, Amir mentions circumcision and I never really knew how much pain it was until I read the simile, "But when the numbing medicine wore off later that night, it felt like someone had pressed a red hot coal to my loins." OUCH!



btw, im on page 200 but I don't want to go over the limit of 50 - 100 words (I already did but I don't want to make it way too long) so i'll just blog like maybe twice a day to keep up with my reading, LOL.

The Kite Runner #1

On the first page the author personifies the past clawing its way out and I believe that it's very true. Om page three Amir is very descriptive about Hassan and it made me wonder why he is so important in the story. I still wonder why Amir calls his father "Baba" instead of dad or father. On page 13, the simile, "...attention shifted to him like sunflowers turning to the sun," makes it obvious that Amir's father is well-known. Also on page 13, when amir talks about his father's snoring, it really reminded me of my dad and how I have trouble sleeping because I can hear him from next door. I noticed a lot of allusions to God as I read up to page 18.

WHAT is the WHAT #13

I FINALLY FINISHED THE BOOK! WOOHOOO!

So I did'nt blog about a lot of pages so I will now.

On page 231, Achor Achor finally arrives and I felt so relieved. On 236 when the officer arrives at their apartment, I thought she was just a fake officer and her tone seems sarcastic. As Valentino and Achor Achor are at the hospital, Valentino says, "I feel the disappointment...barking orders to each other."(242) The diction proves that hopsitals are chaotic like when he says "barking." On 258, I thought of Achak as a christ figure because he caught fish, he crossed rivers, he was in some type of winderness, and he was in company of thieves. These signs are all in How to Read Literature Like a Professor. But as I read the 4th paragrapgh I thought maybe Achor Achor was the christ figure. On page 318, Valentino says he was saved by a massacre. Ironic how massacres are supposed to kill you but it saved him. On page 338 when Achak had to cross the river full of crocodiles because he was running away, I felt scared and worried because there were two antagonists at the moment. So the WHAT in this story is Valentino's bravery, his willingness to finally speak up, and to fight for what's right. ..I think.

So next I think I am going to read The Kite Runner.

WHAT is the WHAT #12

I noticed so many similes and there's so much imagery that I don't think I can mention all of them. But anywho, on page 207 when Achak gets to ride the bike for the first time, I think it's a representation of Achak's life as he goes off on his own and faces many dangers. On page 220 Achak mentions his mom in her yellow dress again and I kept wondering why he mentioned herin her yellow dress. Then she is mentioned on page 451, when Valentino is told that his mother is still alive.I already knew that his mother was alive when Deborah said, "I came to know a midwife in MArial Bai, a very strong woman who wore most days a dress of faded yellow, the yellow of a tired sun."

WHAT is the WHAT #11

On page 202, the bicycle shows up again. Maybe the bicycle represents ..persistance? Like..the bicycle keeps showing up like it won't give up and it's still a great item to have and every boy praises it? I don't know. On page 204, the man that takes Achak into his home and feeds him says," I live nowhere. This is nowhere. When you leave here you won't know where you came from. I insist that you forget where you are already. Do you undertand me? I am not anywhere and this is nowhere and that is why I am alive." The consonance sounds anyWHERE & noWHERE make it confusing and I had to read this line a few times.

WHAT is the WHAT #10

On page 198, when Valentino speaks of a boys death, he says, "when his head touched the tree, the life in him would fall away and his flesh would return to the earth." Its euphony makes it seem less mournful and more like a celeration of the cycle of life. When Achak was describing the night he saw a tank and the rumbling of the earth, i was nervous for him because it was so intensifying. The way he was telling us how he did not know what to do and how he just had to run for his life made it so scary. As I was reading page 200, I noticed that he thinks of similies that are nto likely to be thought of..like when he says, "I had been running at top speed and then I was stopped, stuck like an insect in the silk of a spider."

WHAT is the WHAT #9

I find it ironic that on page 181, he mentions that "the Lost Girls are not to be trifled with, never to be underestimated. They are beautiful and fierce, their English invariably better than ours, their minds more agile and ready to pounce.." Not to be sexist or anything but usually people see boys as the superior ones. Like they're more strong and smart and stuff. I also think that it's ironic how Achak says, "his lies were gorgous.." on page 196, because lying is not supposed to be a good thing. As Achak says, "I was too tired to be angry, to react in any way. My muscles were weak.." on page 197, I hear him speaking like hes panicking, like an enjambment going on and on. I felt bad for him.

WHAT is the WHAT #8

When Achak woke up on page 158, he described it in a way for me to clearly visualize it. I know how it feels to see "pinpricks of white leap before my eyes..." On page 173, Phil Mays cries when he leaves Valentino after their first meeting. I'm not sure us he's cryinig tears of joy because he's helping Valentino, because Valentino's story might ewsemble a time in his life, or because he feels bad for Valentino. On page 175, Valentino personifies his stomach by saying, "I was at war with my stomach for my first year in America," and sounds real as if his stomach was a country or something. I thought it was a weird way to say his stomach is lactose intolerant.

WHAT is the WHAT #7 *revised

On page 119 when Dut is trying to convince Achak that Marial Bai is destroyed and no one is there anymore, his tone is assuring and convincing. Also on page 119 is a simile, "Deng very small for his age, with a head far too big for his frail construction, his ribs visible and slende r like the bones in the wing of a bird," which made it very easy to visualize. On page 120, Valentino tells Michael a story of boys who seemed fortunate but were not so blessed, and this story makes me realize that everyone has imperfections and struggles even if their lives seem so perfect. I think he blue dog represents something important because it appears on page 125 then shows up again on page 147. The color blue could be a representation of saddness but when I think of blue I also think of sky blue which is bright and makes me happy. i'm not sure what the blue dog means.

WHAT is the WHAT #6

I think that the line "You want to believe that you can see, but you see nothing," on page 96 in the first paragraph is an important line to this novel but I think I have to read the whole book to completely get it. On page 98, when Valentino(Achak) was telling his story I felt like I was him. It made me nervous and on the last paragraph it was stream of consciousness, which also made me more anxious to find out what happens to him. O page 103, when Valentino and the peoplehe stayed with encountered a man of Manyok Bol's militia, I thought they were going to be killed. The man's tone seemed so serious and makes me believe that he is right about them about to be killed if they keep going ahead. On page 107, Valentino is so angry and frustrated with the problems that keep coming to him. There's a repetition on the word "Damn," as he lets out his anger. It seems like he has given up on everything at this point. On page 116 I realized that the allegory continues in no order. Sometimes he is talking in present tense then all of a sudden he speaks about his past.

WHAT is the WHAT #5

On page 54, another handless man is mentioned. I believed that this symbolizes strength because people with both hands struggle to do many things today. Without hands is probably more difficult. I think this is a story of a man vs. himself because even though he has many people in his life, he faces many struggles that he has to overcome with his own actions, his own thoughts, and his own inner strength. Actually..now that I think about it, it may be man vs.society because a lot of the conflicts he encounters, many other people encounter also and he is struggling against different societies. Well, i'm really not sure.

WHAT is the WHAT #4

When I finished readin page 50, I realized that protagonist Valentino lived in an antagonist society. Although TV boy seems like an antagonist, he is really a protagonist while the burglars are the antagonists. This upsets me because it seems like TV boy was forced to do horrible things in order to survive. On page 62, the alliteration of "What is the What" has got me questioning what it is. As I read further, I kept looking for symbols that would help answer my question. The first thing i thought of when Valentino mentioned the soldier on the soccer field on page 65, with the scars on his head, was that he could be a christ figure because along with the scars on his head, he is good with children. Those are two signs of a christ figure which is mentioned in HOW TO READ LITERATURE LIKE A PROFESSOR.

WHAT is the WHAT # 3

On page 35, Valentino describes his mother as a strong, beautiful woman. He repeats the color yellow, which is the color of brightness, and is usually a positive connotation. This shows Valentino's loving affection and his deep connection with his mother. This reminds me of my relationship with my mother and how close we are. On page 37 Valentino tells the story of the fight between William K and Moses. I know this is significant and has a deeper meaning within the story but i'm not sure what it is. Also on page 37, he mentions a bike that seems christ-like because he says , "...Only as we are upon the source of light we can see that it's not some second sun but is actually a bicycle, absolutely new, polished to a gleam, magnificent." Many of the people thought the bike was precious and described it as "the most spectacular object in all of Marial Bai." The people also argued whether or not to take the plastic covering off the bike. Fighting over simple solutions shows the importance of it all.

WHAT is the WHAT # 2

As I was reading page 30, I realized it was stream of consciousness as he was talking to the TV Boy in his mind and telling his thoughts. Valentino tells many of his life events which are most likely allegories. When Valentino is telling TV Boy the story of the lion who ate one of his people(page 31), onomatopoeia is presented to intensify the scene. I'm not sure how this story is supposed to relate to the TV boy but there is some symbolism in the story, i'm just not so sure about what it is. On page 32 there's an enjambment when Valentino is continuing on with his lion story. He says, "..without him we would have lost many more boys, to lions and bombs and thirst," to show the enthusiasm for Dut Majok who saved many boys.

WHAT is the WHAT #1

As I read the first sentence, Inoticed it was in first person and present tense. It also seemed like it started off with an anecdote, but as I kept reading, it seems like the author is telling his whole life story throughout the entire novel. On page 7, I noticed the repetition of "I have..." to emphasize what the author has been through; to make us feel what he felt. Powder, one of the robbers names, is an oxymoron. Powder the robber is a tough, angry man while powder is clean and soft. On page 8, there is repetition of "we" to show that all of the Africans that came to America are all together facing the same problems and dificulties. On page 10, the autor states, "But everyone disappears, no matter who loves them," foreshadows the time when he is being robbed and says, "..and that is the end, for now, of Valentino Achak Deng." (24)

How To Read Literature Like A Professor

As I started reading the book, I already noticed many words that I was not familiar with. Throughout the book there are many references to books and plays that I have never heard of. This made it harder for me to understand what the author was talking about. This book informed me about the allusions to the bible and signs of Christ like figures. I also learned that seasons are important to the story. It can tell a lot about the plot and the characters.