It's Kind of a Funny Story- Ned Vizzini post #2

I am in the middle of this book "It's Kind of a Funny Story" by Ned Vizzini. So far the depressed high school kid, Craig (the main character), has planned to commit suicide. He plans to, but he doesn't actually. He ends up calling a suicide hot line and then he admits himself to a hospital. He has just gotten to the hospital and I am at the part where he is getting a tour of it. I am really enjoying this book, but there are a few things I'm confused about.

One thing I am confused about is how the book just jumping to Craig making this quick decision to commit suicide. I mean I understand that he is depressed and everything, but I feel like there was not enough build up in the story. In the story, Craig is depressed about school and everything, but he doesn't seem to have a depression like "I want to make the decision to kill myself in five seconds". It might not be the way the story is written by the author, but it may just be reflecting the kind of depression we have today. I just might not be educate on depression enough to know why he made such a quick decision.

Another thing I am confused about is what the underlying cause to Craig's depression is. They talk a lot about it, but I have a feeling that they are not saying the real reason why he is depressed. I think that it might be that he's depressed because of something happening to him earlier in life. Craig explained that he knows the depression started when he got to high school, but maybe it was always there and that just "activated" it.

I might not know the answer to these confusions now, but maybe later in the story they will explain these things. I look forward to finishing the book.

It's Kind of a Funny Story- Ned Vizzini

        I have recently began reading the book It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini. I find the book quite interesting. It is all about this teenager Craig and the depression he is going through. I like books like these because they make me think about what it would be like if I were in the position of a depressed teenager, not that i want to be, but it is just interesting to hear about the experience. The character I would like to analyze in this post is Craig.

        Craig seems to be a nice kid, he has nice friends, he has a nice family, and he got into a nice high school, but under all that nice stuff, there is something wrong. Craig is extremely depressed. Craig, his friend Aaron's girlfriend,his doctors, and his family are the only ones that are aware of his depression. Craig seems like a person who would lead a perfectly normal social life, but he doesn't. In fact, he pretty much shuts himself off to socializing. Craig is the narrator so he doesn't just come out and say "I'm not social!", but he sure does show it. For example, his friend Aaron had a party and Craig just sat in the corner looking at records. Craig is not only shut off to socializing, but he is also shut off to other ideas than his own. For example, Nia (Aaron's girlfriend) was talking to Craig about how he should tell Aaron about his depression, but Craig was totally against the idea, and he had to come up with a million reasons why not to tell Aaron. Nia has really been the only one who has confronted him about how he puts walls up ("walls" to block off socializing and new ideas).

        I believe that if Craig did not block himself off to the world then it would help out a lot with his depression. But on the other hand the depression might be what is causing him to block himself off. In my opinion, that is what is really awful about depression. It is kind of like a cycle, you want to do good things things that will help you get out of depression but depression is holding you back from doing that.

Blog Review- Rosie Vasen

http://thebooknook13.blogspot.com/2012/12/the-perks-of-being-wallflower-2.html

        I thought that Rosie's post was very good. I have read this book Perks of Being a Wallflower and I thought is was a really fantastic book. After reading the book, and then reading Rosie's post I really agree with what she is saying. I noticed that Rosie's post did kind of question the character, and what Charlie is all about. She talks about how he really goes through a lot of struggles in his life. He absolutely does. I like how she refers to Charlie's life as "journey", because his life really is a journey.Another thing I liked about Rosie's post is how she made comments about the authors choices. She talked about how the fact that Charlie is writing to a friend that doesn't back makes you focus more on Charlie's adventure. I also think that this choice makes the story even more interesting.

        In this post Rosie also discusses how she thought that it was interesting how the person Charlie is writing to could know all about his life but not do anything to help. This makes me think about society and how we know about all these issues in society but we can't or won't do anything to fix them. I think that this post of Rosie's stood out among others because it really digs deep into what the author is trying to do. And it doesn't only do that, it also digs deep into the character at the same time. Something else I enjoyed about Rosie's post was her organization. Each paragraph had a focus and then they all came together in the end. she did a really great job!
       

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins

        This book Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins is the second book in the hunger games series. I have just began reading this book and so far it is all about everything that is happening a while after Katniss the main character won the Hunger Games along with Peeta. Peeta is another boy in Katniss's district. In the first Hunger Games book Peeta was the boy who was "fake" in love with Katniss in the Hunger Games battle just so that they can make it out alive.

        So far I have noticed that there has been no significant character change. Katniss still seems to be that quiet "keep your feelings to yourself" girl. The only change she has really experienced is the fact that she is making an effort to have a better relationship with her mother. Peeta also has not changed very much. He is still very generous, also quiet and he is still liked a little more than Katniss. Haymitch, the previous mentor if Katniss and Peeta is still a drunk and kind of old man. Katniss's mother is also still very nervous all the time. The only change she has made is that she is out of her shell a little more and is not still completely closed off to the world because of the death of her husband. All of these characters have not gone through significant changes yet, but maybe further into the book they will.

March Nonfiction Post - "Facebook Fever" by Nick Bilton and Evelyn M. Rusli

The article "Facebook Fever" by Nick Bilton and Evelyn M. Rusli is all about how the popularity of Facebook is increasing along with the stock prices. This article was written when Facebook had just started sharing stocks. This article discusses a lot about how Facebook started out with their sharing, and how the company has a very high value. The authors talk about how Facebook has started out with a very high initial public offering (I.P.O). This article also mentions the man who painted the walls of an office for Facebook, he was offered 60,000 dollars upfront or a stock for when Facebook goes public, that stock is now worth 200 million dollars.

The authors want the readers to think about how Facebook has had much success with their company. The authors show this by including all the perks of their business and all of the great profit they have made. They also want us to feel like making a company go public is a very profitable thing for a company to do. The authors make us feel this way by only talking about the positive things that come when companies like Facebook go public.

After reading this article I have realize that Facebook isn't only a social network for me my friends and also many adults, but also one of the most profitable companies ever. I also take away that sharing shares of a business is also very profitable. I think that the way everything works in stocks is pretty crazy when you can make such a profit. I also think that it is pretty amazing that such a young man (Mark Zuckerberg) can make such a huge company and get so rich so fast.

Non-fiction post- February- Stick Figure by Lori Gottlieb

        The book Stick Figure by Lori Gottlieb is about the author, Lori's, struggle with anorexia as an eleven year old child. The book is Lori's diary for the whole year of her being eleven. She writes about her family, how she got into anorexia and her journey through the eating disorder. The main idea of this book was to show the readers what it is like being an anorexic child. Lori Gottlieb does this by giving the actual diary of her childhood anorexia. She also does this by including all of the details about how she felt during her anorexia, what got her into anorexia, and everything that happened during her anorexia. The fact that her story is truthfully coming from the perspective of a child, herself, who actually went through this helps the readers understand the main idea a little better. It allows the readers to step into the shoes of this eleven year old anorexic child, if it was just someone writing a book about anorexia it would not be as plausible.

         In this book Lori Gottlieb includes how much she was influenced by media. Gottlieb wants us to know that things like magazines, books, and TV can really influence children to change the way they are just to be "perfect". Gottlieb wants us to feel like these types of advertising that influence kids to change the way they are, are negative things in society. The authors lets us know that children are easily influenced by media by including the part in her diary, that she wrote at age eleven, about how TV and books led her to be anorexic. For example, Lori says "Drink eight tall glasses of water every day, Thirty Days to Thin says." She is referring to one of the diet books she bought, they say that if you drink a lot of water, you feel full and don't eat. Lori talks about how she follows a lot of the "rules" in the diet book and takes tips from commercials. These are the things that lead her to just completely stop eating. She makes us feel that this is a negative thing by telling us the ridiculous things she did just to follow the "rules" in these diet books. For example, she explains how she refused to lick an envelope because she thought it might have sugar on it and that one book said "sugar is the enemy".

        This book has changed my way of thinking about this societal issue. It has made me look a lot deeper into it, and how it can so negatively affect our society. Lori Gottlieb lived in L.A. as a child and through out the year she was anorexic. Not to be super stereotypical or judgmental, but I have thought before that a lot of people who live in L.A. can be very superficial because of all the show business surrounding them. After reading this it kind of proved my point because all of the parents are always on diets and everything so it influenced the kids a lot. I also thought this book really helped me understand what the mind set is for someone who is anorexic. It's a great book! I recommend it!

Stick Figure by Lori Gottlieb

        I have recently began reading the book Stick Figure by Lori Gottlieb. This book is a diary written by the author, Lori Gottlieb, about her formal self. She was anorexic at age 11 and this is the story of it. In this book she talks a lot about self image and how she thought there were so many things wrong about her appearance when she was a child.

        In the book, Lori Gottlieb is eleven years old in 1978. She talks a lot in her diary about her parents and her friends and what it is like at school. She says that when she was in first and second grade she was pretty popular. She explains that she had blonde hair and that now it is brown. When Lori says that she is not really popular anymore, she says that part of the reason is because she has brown hair instead of blonde. She mentions that she read in a magazine that dishwater brown hair was boring.

         Lori seems to be very affected by these types of materialistic statements in magazines, but she says that she does not really care for make up and stuff like that. I feel like Lori might be lying to herself when she says that she doesn't care for make up. She says that she isn't that interested in it, but then why is she so worried about the color of her hair. Maybe it's because she really doesn't like anything about her to be boring. In fact in the book she says that she really thinks that it is good to be called "unique" because it means that everyone around you is boring, and she rather be unique than boring.
       
        I think that the reason Lori cares so much about her hair color is because it was said to be boring in the magazine. This goes to show that the way that media can change the way that people thinks has been going on for a while. I don't like the idea that things like magazines work so hard to have perfect models and stuff like that just so little girls can aspire to be "perfect" like the woman in the magazine. But I do know that some of the way that we react to magazines has to be in our control. I wonder why some, like Lori, get so influenced that it leads to something like anorexia.