After Alex was put through the treatment that made him week and unable to cause any harm he was released early as promised but the world he went into wasn't the same as it was 2 years ago. As soon as Alex gets out he goes to a cafe where he sits in the corner alone. He then decides he wants to go back home to see his parents but when he gets there he is surprised to see another man in his place who has been renting out Alex's room. When he goes to see his room everything has been changed and is told that all of his belongings were taken by the police. Alex gets kicked out and he goes to the record store and the milk bar. As he travels throughout his day you can tell there are a lot of things that have changed and that the torture tactics used on him during his prison sentence really did work because he cant even work up the strength to get angry without getting sick. Alex starts being recognized by the people he has harmed in the past and after a series of events he ends up at the mans house who's wife Alex killed. This man is in a cult of sorts and basically ends up getting Alex to try and kill himself by jumping out of a building which doesn't kill him but actually turns him back to his normal self. He then goes back to his normal habits and gets new Droogs. One of the biggest things that I saw that was really similar to the real world ware some of the attitudes of people. There are a lot of people in this world and some of them can do things like Alex and his Droogs do and get away with it with no consequences. There are also people who don't take in things the same way we do which can result in them acting strange or in some cases violent. I think that this book may have been trying to show this part of people. One big take away that I got from this book is that you cant change a humans ways unless they want to be changed. I think that because of the way that Alex was before the treatments and because of how bad he really was he was so weak after because he had done all of these evil things for all of his life. I think this is what drove Alex the most insane and made him think about killing himself in the first place. I think that the ending of this book was pretty good. I think that there were a lot of ways that this could of ended and that the book was kinda foreshadowing a different ending but what actually ended up happening was kinda unrealistic but also a good ending. I would strongly recommend this book to a friend but not to anyone who doesn't like violence or gruesome acts. I think that this was a really good book and offered a really interesting perspective of the real world with a twist. The buttons below will take you to my reading partners blogs
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A lot has happened since my last post. A little beef sparks up between the main character Alex and his droogs which ends in a fight between Dim and Alex because he believes he should be the one in charge but the droogs challenge him. The droogs then say that they have a house they could rob that is supposed to have a lot of loot so they convince Alex to go with them. Alex and his droogs get to the house and Alex goes in alone to open the door but as he goes in he runs into the owner and things get messy. Alex then hears sirens and realize that his droogs set him up. Alex gets caught by the police and is arrested. After two years of being in prison one day his chaplain comes to him asking him about a program that shortens prisoners sentences. Alex, being eager to get out of prison, eventually gets into the program. He is at first taken to a cell all for himself and he is surprised how easy he's getting off. The guards start to bring him pills that he believes to be vitamins or supplements but when he gets sick after taking them he believes it was from being malnourished in the prison. Soon he is taken to a room where he begins his treatments. He is strapped down to a bed with his eyes held open and needles and wires going into him which he's still convinced are medicine. Over time these doctors try to make his mind relate violence with illness by poisoning him and making him watch clips of different violent and gruesome acts. By the end of his treatment he cant even bother to punch a person and as the doctors show this off to the minister Alex makes a fool of himself and is embarrassed not being able to harm a fly. This is the first book that I have that has been this descriptive and dark. While the book has been really dark so far it has been really good and there has been more visualization in this book then any other book I have ever read. I think that there is also a bit of a realness in the book even though there are a lot of difference in the book and the real world there are also a lot of similarities. I think that this book is very interesting and once I'm finished reading I look forward to seeing how Stanley Kubrick depicts it in his movie on based on the book. Below are buttons that will take you to the reflections of my classmates that I commented on. So Far in Clockwork Orange a lot has happened and I'm only on the 4th chapter. The story takes place in what seem to be more of a dystopian society and fallows the life a 15 year old boy named Alex and his gang of “droogs”. So far the book has talked about the things that Alex and his droogies do and it has been really dark. In the beginning all of them including Alex are in a “korova Milk Bar” which is basically a bar but instead of alcohol they serve milk laced with drugs so right away the book has a really interesting style and theme to it. The Book also has a language known as Nadsat made by the author Anthony Burgess integrated into the book. The story is mainly english but also has a lot of words in Nadsat for example one of the words you see a lot is “gloopy” which in the book means stupid or “Litso” which means face. So reading the book can be really challenging at times because of this language and because a lot of the words are in Nadsat I have to go to the translation list and find what the word means to understand what I'm reading which is something I’m not used to when reading a book. At this point even though I’m not that far into the book I’m starting to remember some of the words but I still find myself doing a lot of translating which I think is a good challenge. Only having read one other book that was somewhat similar to a Dystopian/Utopian society book this one is very dark in comparison and is extremely descriptive. The buttons below are the two partners who's reflections I commented on. CNN
“The Kentucky county where the water smells like diesel” Friday March 30, 2018 By Nadia Kounang The article “The Kentucky county where the water smells like diesel” is about the people of Kentucky that are suffering from water that is polluted beyond “federal Limits”. This article tells the story of many people that have worries of what kind of problems this could lead to in the future. The chemicals that are breaking federal limits are “trihalomethanes and haloacetic acids” which are acids are in the water due to a reaction that happens between the “chlorine used to treat the water for bacteria and organic matter”. The water in Kentucky is becoming more and more heavily polluted. This is do to old pipes that have been in use for nearly one hundred years and chemicals that are used to prevent other bacteria in the water. These old pipes were poorly placed in places that made them more susceptible to leaks. The article explains that in some cases when the pressure in a pipe is extremely high this can prevent leaks because the water will keep any debris out. Unlike this in Kentucky because of the leaks the water levels are very low allowing different things to go into these pipes. The chemicals that they use are put there in the first place only to prevent other bacteria remaining in the water. They have found that putting the chlorine into the water at a different spot may help temporarily. There has also been funding of $3.4 million in federal grants that has gone into the funding of the Martin County water system. This is not the only place that is having these problems and there are places that are far worse. This event happened due to not enough funding and the age of the pipes that are used in this town in Kentucky. This isn't the first place to have problems like these. I think that this is a very serious issue and is something that I think should have more focus on it. While my knowledge on water filtration and things like this is limited I would imagine that there are more things that could be done to improve the quality of water in places like these. I think that if there were to be more time and effort that was put into research on strong solutions this wouldn't be as big of a problem. I will be Commenting on Joe G. and Olivia T. Digital Portfolio. Samuel Gressitt Marilyn Icsman USA TODAY Published 5:58 p.m. ET Feb. 21, 2018 The article “At White House, students call for gun control as part of national protest” is about student protests. This article is about students that are protesting gun laws to prevent future school shootings. This protests took place in Washington D.C. in front of the white house on March 21. The protest was held by students. These students came from schools across the country to protest in response to the most recent attack that took place in florida. Students lay on the ground out front of the white house to represent the students that were killed. The protest took place when Trump was meeting with students parents and teachers where he promised to have tougher background checks and mental health checks for gun purchasers. These plans will hopefully prevent any future attacks similar to the ones in the past. This is hopefully just the beginning of restrictions. I think that protests like these, especially when young adults are the protesters it really stands out and makes more of a difference. Hopefully protests like these will continue to happen and students will proceed to use the voice they have. I think that if people continue to stand up against things that are wrong than they can make a difference. https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/onpolitics/2018/02/21/white-house-students-call-gun-control-part-national-protest/360663002/ I will comment on Olivia Trussell and Oliver Scott's Current event blogs. Week #4: Write a mini sequel By Samuel Gressitt The man continued to describe the stories as he saw them on the illustrated man. In the end of the book the traveler who is describing these stories says that he's seen all the illustrations except the spot on his shoulder which he said is filled with the future of whoever he has been around. The man than sees the illustrated man killing him and so he leaves and runs of to the nearest town. If I were to make a short sequel it would be about the illustrated man trying to kill the traveler as depicted in the illustration. I think that this book was very interesting and was very detailed. I think that the stories were very intriguing and had a lot of very in depth character relationships. If your a person who likes futuristic and sci-fi books then I would highly recommend this book. This book opened up a new style of writing and showed me some new ways to use words to change the emotions of a writing piece. The links to my reading partners DPs are below - The Illustrated Man -Week #3 : Put Yourself In The Book
By Samuel Gressitt The traveler has continued to describe the stories as he is watches them unfold on the Illustrated Man skin. The stories have continued to have a really mysterious and futuristic theme to them. They have also all been super descriptive so far and even though you don’t get much of a background on most of the characters and each story is pretty short you can still really connect to the characters. If I were in the book I think that there is one specific character that I would have connected with. This character would have been Saul Williams. The story that Williams is in is about a group of people that are forced to go to mars because of a disease that they have. These people basically have a year left to live after being diagnosed and have to go to mars so that they don't spread the disease to anyone else. I could connect to this character because he talks about enjoying the silence but still misses his home. I Personally value my alone time but sometimes miss being around people. I think that if I were to be one of these people on mars I would try to enjoy the last year that i have and i would In the same story there is a character that I don't think I would get along with that well. This character is another person on mars that has been there for a little longer than williams. He is a old grumpy guy who doesn't like talking who is very hard to talk to. There is one interaction between William and the man where William is trying to have a conversation with him but the man is being very stubborn and believes that because he is older he has more knowledge hence he is right. My reading partners DP links are below - The Illustrated Man -Week #2: Character Relationships
By Samuel Gressitt In the second section of the book there are four more short stories that the traveler is describing as he watches them unfold of the illustrated man. In one of these stories there are 5 men that crash land on Venus where the rain never stops falling. The only protection from the rain are the “Sun Domes” that are scattered across the planet that have an artificial sun in the middle of the room and food and warm coffee. This non stop rain ends up driving most of the survivors into a state of distraught until they sit down and slowly drown before they are able to reach a “Sun Dome”. The relationship between these characters is very intense and you can tell that there is a lack of trust which effects the lives of the people. I think that these relationships through the characters is really what drives them to death in the end. I think that if they had all stuck together and worked as a group to find a working "Sun Dome" than somebody else besides one of the characters would have survived. My reading partners are Olivia Trussel and Leah Maxwell - The Illustrated man -Week #1: Predictions By Samuel Gressitt “The Illustrated man” by Ray Bradbury is apart of the 1951 collection of eighteen science fiction short stories. This book has a very interesting plot that has definitely intrigued me so far. The book is about a man who worked in a freak show that needed something else to show. He went to a tattoo artist to add something else to his act. After he got the illustrations he was cursed. The pictures would move during the night telling stories of different realities. The traveller who's describing the moving images saw the illustrated man and invited him to stay by the fire for the night.
The story is more about what the tattoos depict while they are moving. So far there have been 5 stories that have been described all of which tell a very interesting and engaging story. I think that the stories that I have read so far have involved a dark mysterious theme that almost all have something to do with technology and their relations to people. I think that the stories also give some very deep perspectives. In one of the stories it depicts astronauts that have been stranded into space. This leaves one of the characters martin, talking about his life and how he envies another because of the things that he has experienced and how he will be able to die with those memories while martin will only be able to dream them. The illustrated man told the traveler that one of the spots on his back will fill in with the life of whoever he's around. I think that this may come into play maybe not in the next few chapters but eventually will create a conflict. I think the traveler will continue to describe the stories that he is watching unravel. My reading Partners are Olivia Trussell and Leah Maxwell. The buttons below will take you to their reading blogs. By Samuel Gressitt 'The only ones who lost'
CNN Updated 6:50 PM ET, Mon January 22, 2018 By Salma Abdelaziz, Arwa Damon and Muwafaq Mohammed, CNN This article is about the people of the city in Iraq, Mosul which is where ISIS battled the Iraqi forces funded my the US. The article depicts what is left of the city and tries to give an understanding of what the people are coming back to. It shows what these people are coming back for and what this means for their future. The city Mosul was taken over by ISIS also known as the “Islamic State of Iraq and Syria”. They took the city over to defend against Iraqi forces heavily supported by the us. This made this place a war zone and one of the last places this group was prominent. The battle between ISIS and Iraqi forces destroyed Mosul and killed whoever was in it including the innocent people that stayed in the city. Airstrikes and bulldozing buried people and left them for their families to try and find. After the defeat an estimated 9,000 people were reported missing. From August to December of 2017 3,000 bodies were brought to the local health department. Even 6 months after the defeat people are still coming back to find the remains of their family members. ISIS took mosul around the 10th of April 2014. The battle began on the 1rst of November 2016. On July 9th victory over the ISIS group was announced. This event occurred when the Iraqi army starting pushing ISIL out of cities that they had taken over by which led them to Mosul as one of their last resorts. The Iraqi army had 30,000 soldiers facing 1,500 but after 6 days the airport fell under the ISIL’s control. This lead to an estimated 500,000 civilians fleeing from the city. This event affected a lot of innocent people in a lot of different ways. Some people were left with piles of concrete that used to be their homes. Some people had to leave within a days notice and lost family and everything they owned. I think that this event has had a detrimental effect on a lot of people. Link to the original article: https://www.cnn.com/2018/01/22/middleeast/mosul-survivors-intl/index.html Ill be commenting on Dylan Lewis and Olivia Trussell's blogs. |
AuthorSamuel Gressitt |