The Bronte Sisters By: Catherine Reef Part 2

I finally finished The Bronte Sisters and honestly this book made me cry.  Since I have already written about the first part of the book, I'll just write a summary about the second part. So from where I left off things start changing for the three girls in a really good way. The girls, now women, write books and publish them with fake names. As you may know at the time women weren't allowed to do many things such as get jobs or write books, so they published the books as male siblings. At first they didn't really get much publicity or recognition but then newspapers started publishing their opinions. To most people the sibling's books were sad and inappropriate but then again their opinions started to change. Charlotte published her first book named Jane Eyre with the name of Currer Bell. Jane Eyre teaches people about the hidden darkness in the way that people hide the ugly things in their lives. Many people didn't know what to make out of a book that really told the truth. Emily Bronte, who published her first book called Wuthering Heights was even more criticized. Wuthering Heights told of a women who believed that earth was a glorious world and that she had no place in heaven. Again, in the 18th century people were very religious and discriminated anyone who didn't believe in their religion. Anne Bronte who published The Tenant of Wildfell Hall wrote about a women who went to live with her five year old son at Wildfell Hall. At the time it was rare for women with children to travel without their husbands, let alone live with out them. The truth was Helen Graham escaped from her husbands abuse and alcoholic abuse. This taught people that a women could be an individual and that sometimes diving into a marriage where you only cared about certain things could result in a terrible way.  Sadly the three sisters died one by one but the book as well as their stories went on.

The conflict in this book is person vs. self and person vs. society. The sisters all start dieing at a very early age (between 21 and 39). As said in the book "Critics and historians claim that if the three sisters would have lived on they could have been some of histories best writers." This shows that the girls had true talent but were never able to fully use it. None of the girls ever had children or were in a marriage longer than a year because of what happen to them. Its honestly a sad story but in a way the three sibling' lives went on, in their books and in the people who loved and remembered them. There is also the other conflict which is how people used to see women but the siblings not only proved people wrong but also got hundreds of people to change their minds and even started to name their children after characters in the sibling's books.

The Bronte Sisters By: Catherine Reef

My first third quarter book is a non-fiction, biography called The Bronte Sisters By: Catherine Reef. The book is about the lives of three sisters called Charlotte, Emily and Anne. I haven't fully finished the book so I'll write about what I have already read. Basically what I have read is a bunch of ridiculous social rules that the Bronte siblings were forced to follow. The book takes place in the 18th century during the Victorian Period so as many people may know during that time women were not allowed to do certain things because of their social status. It seemed to me as if the Bronte sisters were born in the wrong century because they were so full of adventure and intelligence something that was not "lady like" during their time. In one part of the book an English writer named Sarah Stickney explains, " Gentlemen may employ their hours of business in almost any degrading occupation and may be gentlemen still; while, if a lady but touched any article, no matter how delicate, in the way of trade, she loses caste and ceases to be a lady." The Bronte sisters wanted to be writers and people of importance but they couldn't simply because they were women. The only real choice in life for them was either get married to a rich man or work as a teacher. The sisters vowed never to marry unless they truly loved the man and sucked at teaching so their future didn't look so good at the time.

In the book their are three main characters, which are Charlotte, Emily and Anne. The three sisters are different in almost every way but do share a few characteristics. All three are very intelligent and are gifted in poetry, writing, and quick learning.  They are also alike in the fact that they are women who at their time don't have many rights yet try their best to defy their social rules in order to try and follow their dreams. Emily who is never afraid to show here intelligence was once talked about by a teacher named Constantine Heger who said "She should have been a man."Emily is also very shy and didn't make a lot of friends while Charlotte although a little shy had many." Charlotte also loved to learn and went back to school in her twenties to learn more. She studied in Brussels, Belgium until she was kicked out because she was suspected of loving a married man. Anne is the youngest but always seems to be the one who can keep a job and still be happy. Anne at 21, started working as a governess and later helped employ her brother for the same family. Anne was also described as beautiful by a friend of Charlotte who said, " had lovely violet-blue eyes, fine pencilled eyebrows, a clear, almost transparent complexion and curls who's unlike her aunt's were real."

Silence By Natasha Preston

The second book I read during Christmas Break is a realistic fiction called Silence by Natasha Preston. So the book is about this girl named Oakley( I know weird name) and how she wont talk. So her story is about how someone raped her and how it was all her dads fault. So her dad got into some kind of trouble with a coworker and to repay the debt he offered his daughter. Oakley was going to tell her mom but then her dad told her not to talk so she didn't. Oakley was about 11 and the story takes place when she's 17 so she hadn't talked since then. Then Oakley gets into this amazing relationship with her childhood friend and because Oakley trust Cole and because she wants her family to be happy again her father is afraid she'll finally speak.

The theme in the story is not to be afraid. Oakley was terrified of her father not she didn't speak for 6 years. She wanted a normal life again, one where she didn't feel like she was the cause of her families unhappiness and one where she could love her father again but she was afraid. Oakley was afraid that if she spoke about what happened to her, that her father would take her to her assaulter, that she would be seen as wrong, that it would destroy her family and that she would loose the Cole.

Anomaly By: Tonya Kuper

I got a book for christmas. The first book I read during Christmas Break is a science fiction called Anomaly by Tonya Kuper. The book is a debut but I'm hoping its the first of many books written by Tonya Kuper because after all its a really good book. So basically the book is about this girl named Josie and on her seventeenth birthday she starts experiencing weird things. She notices that every time she imagines something happening, it happens. One day during lunch, Reid Wentworth rides up to the school on a motorcycle to apply as a a mew student but also to flip Josie's world upside down. Turns out Josie is an Oculi, an ancient species that can change reality with their thoughts. Not only does Josie find out that she's Oculi but she's also being hunted down by an evil Oculi organization that wants her dead called The Consortium. Reid is sent by the good Oculi called The Resistance to guide and protect Josie and prepare her upcoming battles.

The conflict in the story is person vs society and person vs self. The first conflict has to do with the fact that The Consortium is hunting down Josie and her family to kill them. Apparently Josie and her older brother were two of the most powerful Oculi anomalies ever but Josie's brother was killed a year ago and know The Consortium is after Josie. The second conflict being person vs self is Josie's fears which are taking an impact on her life and training. Since Josie found out that the reason her brother was killed was because of his powers and how he was using them dangerously, she's scared of becoming her brother, crazy and dead. Josie's fears are making her hesitate in using her power's full strength, making her vulnerable.