reading log

The Pearl-John Steinbeck
Published in 1947

Kino an improvised but also brave native who makes a living diving for pearls off the Baja Peninsula in Mexico. Kino lives with his wife Juana and his son Coyotito, who unfortunately gets stung by a scorpion within the first few pages of the book, his mother then calls for the doctor but their race and poverty work against them. The doctor would not treat Coyotito so Kino went out with his wife and baby pearl diving in the hopes of hitting the jackpot. Kino finally found the big pearl and at the same time Coyotito mysteriously heals himself.

word soon travel led through the town that Kino had hit the mother lode and dollar signs immediately start running through everyone's brains as they think they all think about how to get in on Kino's new- found wealth. After the doctor had heard the word he made his sincere apologies for being a racist jerk, he then goes to heal Coyotito but actually just ends up poisoning him and then and then cures him in a course of a few hours. With the intentions of finding the hidden pearl (but perilously when Kino had found it he buried it underground so that no one could find it.) Kino awakes in the middle of the night to find an intruder trying to steal his pearls the intruder then smashes Kino on the head before leaving. His wife calls the nurse and she insist that the pearl is pure evil and they better get rid of it, but Kino refuses.

The next day Kino goes to sell the pearl with many people eagerly watching over his shoulder but unfortunately people were offering him more than a third of what the pearl was worth, he decides to forget the buyers offers and goes straight to the capital. Kino is a home person so going to the north island was kind of a big deal Juana again tries to stop him, but Kino refuses to listen to her so Juana is helpless, but is she? Kino wakes up in  the middle of the night to find his find about 2 seconds away from chucking the pearl in the ocean. Kino then resorts in using his fist and starts beating his wife up. as Kino makes his way back to the house someone attacks him and their hut goes up in flame, Kino kills his attacker and he and his wife had to watch their hut burn down.

As the couple hit the road the next night they discover that trackers are on their tail. In a chase sequence. Kino tries to hide his family in the mountains as the trackers pursue them. Finally they rest in some cave above a little stream. The trackers stop deciding it is time for some action. Kino tells Juana to keep the baby quiet and makes his way down to the trackers. As he is about to attack he hear Coyotito cries out one of the men pulls out a rifle, just as he shoots in the babies direct Kino pulls a chuck Norris on the trackers and kills all three of them. Victory was his but no it wasn't as he heard a cry of death, coming from the cave. Everybody remembered the families sad return, as they walk into the town Kino and his wife are full of despair. Juana carries a bloody blanket with the remains of their son ( whose head was blown off in the rifle incident) and the couple walks down to the beach. Kino flings the pearl out to the sea and it disappears.

while reading this novel it really makes me angry when people judge others because of their color or that they don.t have much money which is so unfortunate because it happens to the best of people the ones that deserve it the most but when Kino had found the pearl he thought he was in luck, but he never knew that the whole time the pearl was making everything worse. I really enjoyed reading this book because it give me an understanding of just how unfair and cruel it was back in those days, and just how much money meant to people especially the ones that needed it the most.

Reading log 6

Reading log 6

My sisters keeper

My sisters keeper in a 2004 novel written by Jodi Picoult it tells a story of 9 year old Anna who sues her parents for medical emancipation. When she is forced to donate a kidney to her sister Kate, who is dying from Leukemia. This story takes place in Rhode island  in 2004, Anna Fitzgerald's older sister Kate suffers from a blood and bone marrow cancer (acute promyelocytic leukemia.) Anna was born to save her sister as her older brother wasn't a match Anna was the one to save Kate  at first this was successful but continued to spread through Kate's body as  she got older .

Anna was always willing to give things up for Kate, but when she turned 13 she is told she has to donate one of her kidneys due to Kate's kidney failure. Anna petitions for medial emancipation with the help of  Campbell Alexandra, so she will be able to make hr own decisions regarding her medical treatment and the donation of her kidney. This is done on the advice of Julia Romano whose job is to decide what would be better for Anna, Meanwhile Jesse Kate's brother who has spent most of his life being ignore in favor of his ill sister Kate and spends most of his time setting things on fire in abandoned buildings with homemade explosives and using illegal drugs. During the trial it is revealed that Kate originally told Anna to sue for emancipation because Kate didn't want Anna to give her kidney up as Kate was ready to die. but their mum Sara didn't seem to understand why Kate would give up so easy and not want the kidney because Kate already know he is ready to die, the judge rules in Anna's favor and grants Campbell medical power of attorney.

As a teenager this makes me sad to think that her parents only had Anna to save Kate, as Jesse wasn't a match. several times Anna would be pinched and poked for many years until she can finally stand up for herself and to have a say in what goes on with her body without her mum telling her otherwise, for example when Anna was younger many doctors would hold Anna down to get what they needed for Kate until Anna realized she no longer wanted to continue. At the same time i know that Sara only did what she could in order to make sure Kate was healthy and alive but with Sara doing this she never really had a proper relationship with Jesse for example as Jesse got older he became more vulnerable and sensitive as most of the attention was on Kate, which is why he was never home and doing illegal stuff with his friends, as Kate was the their main priority

Reading log 5

Reading log 5

The Help/Novel

The help in a 2009 novel by American author Kathryn Stockett. The story is about African Americans working i white households in Jackson Mississippi during the early 1960s. This novel was Stocketts first book which took her 5 years to write and was rejected over 60 times until someone accepted it. has since been published in over 35 countries in the world and in three different languages. in August 2011 over seven million copies were sold and spent over 100 week on the NY time best selling list.

This movie is set in the early 1960s Jackson Mississippi told from 3 peoples perspective Aibileen Clark, Minny Jackson and Eugenia "Skeeter." Aibileen was a maid who clean and looks after children  he first job since her son died from an accident on the job, and works in a white household where she looks after their toddler Mae Mobley. Minny was Aibileen friend who often tells her employees about what she thought, this resulted in her being fired 19 times. Skeeter is the daughter of a white family who live on a cotton farm just outside of Jackson Mississippi. skeeter just graduated from the university of Mississippi and wanted to become a writer. Skeeter was always curious of Constantine's disappearance, her maid that brought Skeeter up and cared for her. Skeeter never believed she would leave just like that no goodbye nothing, her mum would always tell her that the maid quit and went to go live with family in Chicago. Skeeter finally found out the truth about Constantine's disappearance eventually her mum told her that she fired her because she no longer wanted her to work there.

Skeeter then gains the trust of Aibileen through a friendship which develops when Aibileen helps Skeeter write a household column tip for the local news papers. Skeet agreed as it would help her get closer to becoming a writer. The Harper and row that asked for the household column tips eventually started paying Aibileen for her time. when Aibileen and minny finally agreed to tell their stories, they are both unable to get other black woman to tell their stories too. Skeeter researches the rights the the black woman have and dont have in Mississippi.Yule may is then arrested from stealing a ring from Hilly's home to pay for her two sons to go the college until Hilly refused.the other maid decided that they were willing to take a chance with their jobs and their safety, and join the book project.Together they wrote a book about their experiences as the 'help' to the white woman of Jackson Mississippi. not all of the stories were all negative some beautiful and generous, loving and kind events, while others are cruel and even brutal.  

As a teenager this made me feel quite upset and angry that the white people would treat the black people the way they did in those days it just shows how cold hearted and selfish those people were and that all they care about is themselves for example blacks had separate toilets separate neighborhoods and weren't allowed to eat at the same table as the white people.

Blacks had the same equal rights as the whites did. for example Aibileen and Minny decided if they voiced their opinion about how they got treated and felt about they way they got talked to by the white people. Blacks should be able to have flash houses with the whites cooking, cleaning and caring for their kids, for example blacks had full responsibility for cook cleaning and caring for the younger children while the white people went out for lunch while withe whites would be out doing what ever the could do to fill in the time, as a result of constantine taking care of skeeter when she was younger felt that she was the one that brought her up not her mum. in this movie i don't think that the whites realized if they put their feet in their shoes they wouldn't like it. for example when Aibileen got accused for stealing some silver kitchenware she was instantly fired from her job and never returned to work for them again