Coming of Age Blog Post 2

            In "the Truth About Forever"(by Sarah Dessen) Macy (the main character) has been pushing away her feelings and hiding her pain since her dad died. Ever since she got a new job at a catering business she has been letting go more. When her sister comes home with a plan to fix up her dads beach house Macy and her mom are unsure because they don't want to remember the past. Although Wes helped Macy probably the most when it came to coming out and finding herself her sister Caroline gave the best lessons on living your life. "'I know,' Caroline said. 'I understand how hard it has been for you. For both of you.'
     'I don't think you do.' My mom put her hand on her water glass but didn't pick it up or take a sip. 'Otherwise you would understand that this isn't something I want to talk about right now.'
     Mt sister sat back in her chair, twisting her wedding ring around her finger. 'Mom,' she said finally, 'I'm not trying to upset you. I'm just saying that it's been a year and a half. . . and maybe it's time to move on. Dad would have wanted you to be happier than this. I know it.'
      'I thought this was about the beach house,' my mother said stiffly.
      'It is,' Caroline said. 'But it's also about living. You can't hide behind work forever, you know. I mean, when was the last time you and Macy took a vacation or did something nice for yourselves?'
      'I was at the coast just a couple of weeks ago.'
      'For work, Caroline said. 'You work late into the night, you get up early in the morning, you don't do anything but think about the development. Macy never goes out with friends, she spends all her time holed up studying, and she's not going to be seventeen forever--'
      'I'm fine,' I said.
      My sister looked at me, her face softening. 'I know you are,' she said. 'But i just feel like your missing out on something you won't be able to get back later.'"(108-109) I think that this conversation meant that you need to express yourself and live life while you can, and not be held back by anyone else or your past.
             As the book goes on she starts to live a little. She goes out with friends and actually has life. She lets loose and lets people in. She lets go and starts to show what she's feeling. Her mom on the other hand doesn't do as well. The fact that Macy is hanging out so much is putting her mom on edge and when Macy comes home late her mom bans her from seeing them again or work at her catering job anymore. Caroline was happy for Macy and wasn't happy and one final call set her off in trying to convince her mother even more to just stop. "'Caroline, you have to understand,' my mother told her. 'This is important.'
      'No!' my sister screamed, the word suddenly just filling the room. 'This is work, and for you, it's never done. You promised me we'd take this vacation, and I've killed myself getting ready on time so we could have this weekend together as a family. You said you'd be done, but you're never done. All this summer it's been about these stupid townhouses, and two days after they open, you're breaking ground for something else? God! You'll do anything to avoid it.'
      'Avoid what?' my mother said.
      'The past,' Caroline said. 'Our past. I'm tired of acting like nothing ever happened, of pretending he was never here, of not seeing his pictures in the house, or his things. Just because you're not able to let yourself grieve.'
      'Don't,' mt mother said, her voice low, 'talk to me about grief. You have no idea.'
      'I do, though.' Caroline's voice caught, and she swallowed. 'I'm not trying to hide that I'm sad. I'm not trying to forget. You hide here behind all these plans for houses and townhouses because they're new and perfect and don't remind you of anything.'
      'Stop it,' my mother said.
      'And look at Macy,' Caroline continued, ignoring this. 'Do you even know what you're doing to her?'
      My mother looked at me, and i shrank back, trying to stay out of this. 'Macy's fine,' my mother said.
      'No, she's not. God you always say that, but she's not.' Caroline looked at me, as if she wanted me to jump in, but I just sat there. 'Have you even been paying the least bit of attention to what's going on with her? She's been miserable since Dad died, pushing herself so hard to please you. And then, this summer, she finally finds some friends and something she likes to do. But then one tiny slipup, and you take it all away from her.'
       'That has nothing to do with what we're talking about,' my mother said.
       'It has everything to do with it,' Caroline shot back. 'She's was finally getting over what happened. Couldn't you see the change in her? I could, and I was barely here. She was different.'
       'Exactly.' my mother said. 'She was--'
       'Happy,' Caroline  finished for her. 'She was starting to live her life again, and it scared you. Just like me redoing the beach house scared you. You think you're so strong because you never talk about Dad. Anyone can hide. Facing up to things, working through them, that's what makes you strong.'
       'I've given everything I have to support this family,' my mother replied, biting off the words. 'And for you it's still not enough.'
       'I'm not asking for everything you have.' Caroline put her hands to hr face, breathing in, then lowered them. 'I'm asking you to allow me, and Macy, and especially yourself to remember Dad--'
        My mother exhaled loudly, shaking her head.
        '--and I'm asking you for one week of your time to begin doing it.' Caroline looked at me, then back at my mother. 'That's it.'(326-328) This proved that Macy was getting better but her mom wasn't doing as good. I the end Macy learned just like the quote "learn to accept the things you cannot change and change the things you cannot accept". This is exactly what she learned. She learned to accept that her father was gone, and life continues, and she went outside herself to stop Wes from leaving and finally being together. As for her mom she came around and the book ends with all of them down at the beach house.

Coming of Age blog post 1

         My coming of age book is the Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen.  This book is about the summer of a soon to be senior girl in high school named Macy.  For the summer he boyfriend Jason ( who helped her get over her fathers death ) goes away for Brain Camp and leaves her with his job at the library with friends of his that she doesn't quite fit in with.  One day she meets a group of fun loving teenagers who work in a catering business.  When she gets offered the job she cant resist and from there her life and personality all starts to change for the better.

        This book is a great coming of age novel because it shows how life can be and how sometimes we try pushing things away; try not to remember the past.  But there will always be something to bring them back to the surface.  There's always something to help you grow again.  When coming of age there are always things that will set you back, but those things are the things that help you grow in the first place.  With people those moments could come when your 10, 14, even 26 and in between.  Everybody grows up at different times; some sooner, some later.

         In the book Sarah has her growing up topic as the fact that Macy lost her father but never grieved properly about it.  She never cried, and was always pushing it away that memory that was always there.  She was living what she thought was a perfect life; but in reality it had all the flaws possible.  In the book Sarah even portrayed a sense of growing up about Macy's mother who didn't grieve as well, and just buried herself in her work.  The only one who made it through the best was Caroline, Macy's older sister, she cried and cried and then moved on.  She didn't push away the past.  She let herself be sad; she let herself remember.

          When Caroline was Macy's age she was incredibly rebellious.  Grown up now she doesn't regret that time period of her life.  Although she's no longer like that she believes that every teen need a bit of rebellion to use so that they wouldn't miss out when they were older.  She believed having a sense of rebellion was a big factor in the process of growing.  In the book Sarah wrote "'But it's also about living. You can't hide behind work forever, you know. I mean, when was the last time you and Macy took a vacation or did something nice for yourselves?' 'I was at the coast just a couple of weeks ago.' 'For work,' Caroline said. 'You work late into the night, you get up early in the morning, you don't do anything but think about the development. Macy never goes out with friends, she spends all her time holed up studying, and she's not going to be seventeen forever---' 'I'm fine,' I said.   My sister looked at me, her face softening. 'I know you are,' she said. 'But i just worry about you. I feel like your missing out something you won't be able to get back later.' 'Not everyone needs a social life like you had, Caroline,' my mother said. 'Macy's focused on school, and her grades are excellent. She has a wonderful boyfriend. Just because she's not drinking beer at two in the morning doesn't mean she isn't living a full life.' 'I'm not saying her life isn't full,' Caroline said. 'I just think she's awfully young to be so serious about everything.'"(chapter 6 pg 109).  And so there are other moments in the book that show the issue but this is one. 

          Sarah Dessen did a wonderful job showing stages of growing up,, and just how difficult it could be. She showed one scenario of a situation where you have to over come and grow as a person. But she also showed how you need other people to help you through. How the right people can change everything and you not even know it yet. To live and to grow with a little help will give you the strength to finally be able to call yourself mature, an adult, is quite the process, and no matter how difficult if you just push through you'll be okay.

DON"T PLAGERIZE

            Question 1: The student added in the information with no way to tell if it was there's or not. To include the source they should said where they got the information from followed by underlining or putting the title in quotations (depending) with the author out of the quotations after. They then should put the piece of information in quotations and if possible shown which page(s).
            Question 2: From http://www.vangoghgallery.com/painting/starryindex.html , " A brief Understanding of the Starry Night Paintings"
'Below the rolling hills of the horizon lies a small town. There is a peaceful essence flowing from the structures. Perhaps the cool dark colors and the fiery windows spark memories of our own warm childhood years filled with imagination of what exists in the night and dark starry skies. The center point of the town is the tall steeple of the church, reigning largely over the smaller buildings. This steeple casts down a sense of stability onto the town, and also creates a sense of size and seclusion. '
               Question 3: -rewording
                                      -cite your sources
                                      -think before you do and know there will be consequences

2 Favorite Blogs

            My two favorite blogs were written by Sofia and Gabby. I liked Sofia's blog post "Picasso's La Vie"  because she talks about his life and the struggles he went through and how he expressed it in his artwork. She also gives her own opinion about his piece and tells what she thinks it represents. She gave you her thoughts about all of its features. I liked Gabby's blog post "Much Ado About Nothing, but still about something". I liked it because she gave her opinions and review of it and also explained why she thought these things.


            I learned from these pieces that I can still keep my kind of writing and yet also have an intriguing entry of my own. Gabby's showed that i can take my explanation of opinions to another level and Sofia's showed me that i can take my personal opinions to another level.

Paul Cezanne..

            Paul Cezanne was born in 1839 in Aix-en-Provence. He died the year 1906. Cezanne worked with impressionists but was interested in other forms of art. He wanted to investigate the form, color, and structure of objects and how they could relate to each other in a painting. Cezanne was the oldest child born into a wealthy family. His father wanted him to carry on the family business. He was forced to go to law school for 2 years before he was allowed to go to meet his good friend (Emile Zola) in Paris to study art. There he attended the Atelier Suisse school for arts. His favorite artist was Gustave Courbet. Later he met Edouard Monet, Camille Pissarro, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, and Edgar Degas. In 1869 he met an artist's model named Hortense Fiquet who became his girlfriend.
             Cezanne was known to be shy,awkward, and moody, and his manned often appeared rude. They say he was mostly self-taught and so this made him original. Even though he was self-taught he was determined to learn from old masters. The summer of 1870 he left Paris to go to the south of France so he wouldn't be called to serve in the french army.
             The pyramid of skulls was an oil painting, painted in 1901. This was shortly after the death of his mother (October 25, 1897). The painting was of 4 human skulls in pyramid shape. It was his only painting that was painted so close. It was said that he thought paintings were beautiful to paint. Inbetween the time the time of his mothers death and when this painting was painted he started getting sick. In one of his letters he wrote " For me, life has begun to be a deathly monotonous";" As for me, I'm old. I don't have time to express myself"; and " I might as well be dead". It seemed like when he painted this his mind was in a state of mortality that grew after his mothers death and so he started to fade into this state.

What Will Happen Next

            In Fang (by James Patterson) chips were falling into place. Max came back to the flock wen they were in trouble in Hollywood and after that Fang left and left Max heart broken. In between the Hollywood incident and Fang leaving Angel left to help one of the scientists the flock had met in Africa. Recently Max and Angel definitely hadn't been seeing eye to eye.
            When Fang left he just so happened to go to Angel's crazy scientist to try sending Angel home (even though Max had already tried). But when he got there he was attached and when he woke up he was strapped down on a gurney in a lab seriously injured. Angel didn't know that was going to happen to him and when he died and the scientist (Dr. Hans) wouldn't help him Angel tried to send out a thought to Max. Max got  there first and the flock (+ Dylan) got there a short while after.
             When the predictable fight broke out Max staid at Fang's side and desperate as she was took a vile with adrenaline and injected it into his heart. She new that if he had any chance that was it. Although Dr.Hans tried to stop her Dylan held him back and Fang came back (YEA!). You know you would think that finally when everyone was safe for a little while again things would be okay but nope. Yet again Fang left only leaving behind a note. And with that the book ended.

...

            ... Totally didn't see that coming. I can't believe what happened. By the way now into book 6 called Fang (by James Patterson) while in Africa, Angel said that Fang would be the first to die. That got me like WHAT?!! Still confused as to how she would know that and why she would say anything like that. When they were back home (P.S. they have a home now) after a vote because of a certain turn of events Max was voted out of the flock which got me to another WHAT?!! Another strange thing is that now Jeb's back and he keeps trying to take control over the flock again.
             When the flock was in Africa, Max was introduced to a strange (totally insane) scientist. With him he brought another kid like the flock which shocked everyone (including me). After Angel said that Fang was going to die was when they were introduced and Max's little voice (yes in her head) chimed in with a little fun fact. And I quote "He is your perfect other half". That got e to another WHAT?!! Ever since then, things just don't seem to get better for Max. When Jeb comes to visit accidents start to happen but only after jeb comes and when Max and Fang aren't there. This made me think that Jeb is up to something because of the way he's acting. Instead of supporting Max, he keeps getting in the way of her trying to lead her flock. When things go wrong instead of taking her side he accuses it of being her fault it's like he's trying to jepordize her. Putting up walls between her and the rest of the flock. This leading me to believe that Jeb is once again up to something (besides trying to get her and Dylan together).

Characters and Powers, Friends and Enemies

            The Maximum Ride books are very creative. I think the author did a good job making a fantasy series this long that isn't completely predictable/common. The author (James Patterson) got more and more creative with each new villain he made and how the others were eliminated. The story line never gets boring or old and powers he thought up are very easy to envy. Each flock member is special and unlike the other. And each villain different from the last and improved than the last.

            The first enemies in the story were Erasers. The were perfect flawless looking humans that morphed into man-wolves. They are very strong and were designed to track hunt and kill. The next was still Erasers but with wings. The next after that were Flyboys they looked like Erasers but were robots with an eraser sin coat grown onto them. Next you have mechanical like soldiers that are highly stealthy capturing machines and so on. Currently there are these slim dark robot creatures that have been modified to have machine guns welded into their arms. More always come and each time they get worse and worse, but never bad enough for the flock.

            The flock as you should knows consists of Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. As the story goes on the flock members have been developing new skills. They can all fly but Max can fly way faster then the others at around 230 miles per hour. She also has this voice in her head (I know that just seems like more of a problem which Max thinks too) it's very helpful and always knows the answers. Fang can now blend in with his surrounding if he's pretty still. Iggy is blind but you barely notice because his hearing and touch is incredible. He can also feel colors which is strange but good for him. Also he can see if it's mostly white surrounding. Nudge can attract metal to her. The Gasman and Iggy are both geniuses when it comes to explosives and can make a bomb with just about anything. The Gasman can also produce a green gas the totally reeks. Angel is the most special. She can read and control peoples mind, breath under water, talk to sea animals, and change her appearance. Total is angels dog that can talk and fly and Akila is a normal dog that he says is his true love. put all these members together and you get the flock.

            Put the characters together, a story line and a plot and you get the awesome Maximum Ride series. I've always loved these kind of books that are sci-fie/fantasy. For the author to have these ideas is extremely impressive which makes him one of my favorite authors. I do envy their powers. When i was little i used to believe that it was possible to develop one and I've loved these kind of stories since i could learn to read. If you read these books you will never be bored there's always action and even a little romance.