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Thursday, March 20, 2014

"Weetzie Bat" By Francesca Lia Block

                I am currently reading the book, “weetzie bat” by Francesca Lia Block”. This book is about a teenage girl named Weetzie. She meets a boy named Dirk at a bar and soon or later become best friends with him. They go everywhere together, to rock concerts, different bars, parties, etc. When they became really close, Dirk had confessed that he is gay. Thus, he and Weetzie decided to find “Ducks” (soul mates) for each other. They would search every party they went to, every bar, every concert, they pretty much search everywhere. Both Dirk and Weetzie had found people, but just not the right ones. For example, Weetzie kept going out with the wrong kind of guys, the ones that didn’t treat her right, meanwhile, Dirk just couldn’t find the ONE. Then, one day while Weetzie and Dirk were at Fifi’s house, Dirks grandmother, Fifi had given Weetzie a gift, it was an old dusty lamp. When Weetzie went home that night, she decided to clean the dusy lamp, suddenly, a genie came out of nowhere and granted her three wishes, one, was for Dirk to find love, two was for her to find “Her Secret Agent Lover Man” (her soul mate), and three was for her and Dirk to have a beautiful house to live in. Not thinking any of these wishes would come true, Weetzie never talked about it… that was until they did. Overall, a lot of things that I thought would never expect would happen. But then again, things that I did expect to happen, did.
                While reading this book many events occurred that I absolutely had no idea would happen. One example, was the genie coming out of the lamp. I thought it was just a gift that Fifi wanted to give her for good luck or something, but it was way different. Instead, she gave her last set of wishes to Weetzie. Another example, was for Dirk to be gay. At first, I thought Dirk only went up to Weetzie at the bar so that they could hook up or something, but then they started to hang out more, which made me think that he just wants to ask her out in a romantic way, not too slow or quick. But, he just confessed that he was gay. In addition, I never thought that the wishes would come true but they did. Dirk found his true love, in fact, his name is Duck. So did Weetzie, she found her true love, and his name is actually My Secret Agent Lover Man. Overall, a lot of weird and unexpected things occurred throughout the book.
                Although unexpected things happened, some expected things also happened. For example, I knew that Weetzie was going to find her true love because Dirk did, which means her wishes are going to come true. Adding on, I knew that Fifi’s house was going to become Dirk’s and Weetie’s because it was also one of her wishes. Another example is when Weetzie said she wanted a baby (but her spouse objected to that idea) and Dirk and Duck helped her with that. I knew that Dirk was going to help her have a baby because he himself wanted his own child, thus, Dirk, Weetzie, and Duck had slept together and Weetzie became pregnant. Moreover, I knew that My Secret Lover Man was going to get mad about the pregnancy because one, he didn’t want to have a kid, and two, it means Weetzie had cheated on him. Overall, a little expected things also occurred throughout the book.

                In conclusion, both expected and unexpected events occurred while reading this book. Adding on, this book was very interesting, however, it was also very weird. Overall, this book was very entertaining.  

Thursday, March 6, 2014

My Literary Essay

           In the book, “Paper Towns” by John Green, the Green talks about a senior in high school named Q, who has two best friends, Radar and Ben. Q is the average high school kid he has good grades, doesn’t get into trouble, has friends, not very popular, etc. However, one night, his crush, and most popular girl in school, Margo, came up to his window and asked him to help her on an eleven- step mission. At first, he was hesitant to go with her on a mission at night, but eventually, she convinced him to go with her. He thought it might make their relationship better, wishing that it might result in him taking Margo to prom. However, he never knew that it could’ve changed the way he acts, talks, and what he does. This made me think about if the author purposely tried to teach a lesson on why you shouldn’t change yourself so others will like you more.
            In the book, Q was a good, intelligent, and kind guy. He never would think to stay awake on a school night, or even on a weekend. He got lots of good grades, and never broke the rules. He did everything he could to stay on top of his work and keep everything going for just a few weeks until school officially ended. He was nice to his friends, helped them out when they needed it the most. For example, when Radar had girlfriend problems, he helped him out. Adding on, he barely got into fights with them, thus, they were very close. They would play games every day after they all finished their school work. Overall, Q was a very nice, intelligent person.
            However, he eventually changed after that night with Margo. He broke the rules, didn’t do his homework, went to bed late, and didn’t even study for his final government exam the next day. For example, Q took his mom’s car without her permission and left with Margo to help her with the eleven- step mission. In addition, him and Margo broke into three houses, Jason’s (Margo’s cheating boyfriend), Becca’s (Margo’s ex-best friend), and Chuck’s (the bully that bothered Q everyday) and spray painted their cars and house. Adding on, they broke into one of the most popular buildings in Orlando, Florida. Q even ran from a guy shooting a shotgun and the police. In fact, he skipped graduation (which he would’ve never done if he didn’t go with Margo that one night) just to find Margo when she never came back to school after that crazy night. Also, when he and his friends skipped graduation, he didn’t tell his parents, which is very usual because he never lies to his parents. Clearly, Q changed himself just for Margo to like him more so that he could take her to prom (which never really happened).
            After realizing this, I noticed that Green was probably trying to teach the readers a lesson on why you shouldn’t change yourself just for others to like you more. For example, at the end of the book, after all Q did for Margo, she still didn’t date him, nor did she stay friends with him, thus, all the changing with Q was a big waste. Adding on, Q could’ve gotten arrested when he went with Margo to get revenge on her boyfriend, Jason and her ex-best friend, Becca, this is something he would’ve never even thought about before, and he didn’t like getting in trouble, especially when it involves police. Another example of Q changing himself for Margo is when he spray painted her ex-boyfriend’s car, he would’ve never done that before because he knew that would have gotten him into huge trouble with Jason and his friends, but he still did it so he could look cool and “bad” in front of Margo. I think John Green purposely put these details in there to show that Q wouldn’t do these things normally, but he would just to fit in. Overall, I think that Green is trying to show us that changing yourself for others is not worth it.
            All in all, Q is a very intelligent teen that just wanted his crush to like him back, like all other teens. In result, he tried to be someone that he was not. Overall, I believe that John Green was trying to make his readers understand that changing yourself is never the answer to being cool, popular, or for your crush to like you. I think he was trying to send a message that being yourself is always the answer.