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.
 

Throw Away By Heather Huffman

Throw Away is about the love story of two characters named Jessie Jones, a prostitute and Gabriel Adam, a cop. Although I'm only half way done I know that Jessie's and Gabriel's love will only cause complications. Jessie, who fell into the wrong hands when she was kicked out of foster care at 18 tries really hard to stay positive about her job. Then her boss gets into trouble with the "big dogs" and attracts the attention from the police so he makes Jessie and her roommate work along a dangerous street so that they can report back to him anything they find unusual. Then Jessie meets Gabriel (on her day off) and without knowing he's the cop investigating her bosses case she falls in love with him. Things start getting worse and worse because first Jessie can't date, second her boss is getting into a lot of debt and trouble and third Gabriel is drafted and has to go to Vietnam not knowing that Jessie is now pregnant (Jessie doesn't know either). So now Jessie is trying to solve things her own way, which I don't think its a great idea because the way she's handing things is by living with Spencer to become a spy for the police. It's not like he's touching her or anything but I'm really excited to learn what happens next. I think Spencer is going to get beat up or worse killed. 

Tough Questions Note and Notice: 
So when Jessie starts dating Gabriel they always get into an argument about Jessie quitting her job but its not that simple. Because Jessie is Spencer's "favorite employee" he has her on a leash, repeatedly saying that Jessie is his property and that she will never have a life of her own. Jessie knows that if she tries to quite her job she could put both Gabriel and herself into extreme danger although it could also mean living her life with Gabriel. Gabriel has offered to take Jessie to the small town he grew up in, where he is sure Spencer and his screw won't find them but Jessie is hesitant. Jessie has to ask herself if she is welling to live a hidden and fear filled life with Gabriel or ending Spencer so that other girls can live their lives at the cost of maybe even getting killed.    

Night By: Elie Wiesel

So the book I'm reading in my Lit Circle is called Night by Elie Wiesel and the story is about the author's life during the Holocaust. See the events in the story happen very quickly and at the beginning of the story Elie and his family are very religious Jews who live in a community that is full of others like them. Then they start hearing rumors about the concentration camps and how the German military (Nazis) are conquering places in a matter of months but, they never really believe the rumors because, after all, its not happening in their community. Until the day did come when they are being moved out of the ghettoes and taken to an unknown destination. When they got to there distention they realized that they had been tricked and had arrived in a crematorium camp and they were going to get separated. Elie and his father were separated from the women in their family and they were then lead into a concentration camp, they were lucky. During the time that Elie and his father were in the concentration camp they had to do hard labor and survived only on soup, bread and coffee. I'd say the real story began during the winter of 1944. It was the start of the end of the Nazis so things became ruff, there were executions, beatings and less food. The concentration camp they were in got shut down and they had to run for miles to a far away deserted town until the Nazis could find another camp to send the Jews too. During their journey most died because of the snow or because they were shot by Nazi soldiers. By the end of the story Elie has to struggle to take care of his father, who became very ill and even though Elie nows that his father won't make it, he keeps taking care of him until the last day. Fortunately, as the Jews watched, the Russians were able to invade the camp and defeat the Nazi soldiers but even then, when the Jews were free they didn't think of revenge, only of provision.

The genre of this book is historical non-fiction. Elie Wiesel is a real person who went through something that really happened. Night is somewhat of a autobiography because the story is about someone's life written by that same person.

Holocaust Upstander/Bystander

After reading so much about the up standers and bystanders during the Holocaust, I think I understand a little about why people chose to stand up or stand by. First I would like to talk about why people became bystanders and stood by while they saw these horrible things happening to their neighbors, colleagues and friends. I believe the main reason why they stood by is because of fear. They saw how badly the Jews were being treated, plus the threat of being killed if they stood against the Nazis. People had to think about their families and themselves before they thought about other people. They were afraid for their lives and for those of their loved ones. Another major reason why people stood by was because they felt it didn't concern them. During Literature Class we read a poem written by a priest who spent eight and a half years in a Nazi concentration camp. In his poem he talked about how the Nazis came for the Jews, communists and trade unionist but he never spoke for them because he was none of those things. Until the Nazis came for him, then because no one was left to stand up for him he was taken. See being a bystander means being a person who witness but is not directly affected by actions of perpetrators but because they stand by and don't do anything they help shape their society in major ways. What the poem taught me was that because people never stood up for others the Nazis didn't have people standing against them so they did as they pleased, which was a major point in the Nazi success. On the other hand being an up stander means standing up for what you believe in and doing against what the perpetrator is doing. During class we learned about both Jewish resistance and non-jewish resistance. I know that the Jews could only do little because they had the Nazis against them but they managed to stand up for the reason of have the state of mind that if they are going to die they might as well die fighting. Jews started armed revolts in the ghettoes and attacked German tanks and soldiers. They joined Soviet partisan units to harass German soldiers and did everything to preserve their religion and traditions. Non-Jewish people helped too. Many people refused to join the German military and sheltered Jews in their homes. In fact they tried to assassinate Hitler although they only killed a high ranking Nazi Officer.

Since I started learning about the Holocaust, I keep asking myself whether I would have been an up stander or bystander. Honesty, I feel like I would have been a bystander because I would have been afraid. I'm always worried about the well being of my family so I think I would have been a bystander.