Final Reflection

This semester, I have read (for this Etymology class) a total of 2500 pages.  At the start of this semester, I liked reading for fun when I had time, but I mostly just read books for class.  This semester, I got a chance to read the books I enjoy for school, which was really fun.  I loved reading fantasy, romance, and mystery books and I usually  read books during vacation when I had time.  This semester, it was very easy to find books that interested me.  My sister loves books and she has many shelves of books in her room and around the house.  Luckily, we enjoy the same kind of books, so there are always new books and series for me to read. 

I never had trouble meeting the weekly page quota and many times I read more than what I had to in the week.  The only problem I had was blogging those pages.  When I read, I tend to want to finish the book in a couple of days.  But then I had to blog the book so I would split up the pages of the book into sections for each blog post.  It was difficult for me because I would then have to reread the section to know which section I was blogging and also because I felt like I had to put every important detail of the book into my blogs.  I really had a hard time shortening my blogs and not including everything in my summary.

When I read, I usually read in my room on my bed.  I can't have music on and I always shut my door because I hate being distracted when I read.  I love losing myself in a good book.  I find it hard, though, to read during the school year some because if I'm reading a good book, I want to keep reading and then I don't get my homework done.  My favorite time to read is during the summer.  I love reading on vacations whenever my family goes to Florida when I can read on the beach or by the pool.  I have no worries or responsibilities so I can just read and read until I want to stop.  It's common for me to read a whole series over spring break or on vacation.

At the beginning of the semester, I really disliked poetry.  I never really understood some of it and I avoided reading it whenever possible.  However, over the semester I learned how it's more of an art form instead of just rhyming words.  The way the poet expresses his or her ideas is different from any other poet.  I really enjoyed how we read a poem a day and how we really looked into analyzing some poems.  Now, I actually sort of like poetry. 

Reading – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, p. 367- 400

In chapter 26, while the group carries out Beetee’s plan, Katniss and Peeta get split up.  At the end, Katniss remembers what Haymitch told her before the Games – “you just remember who the enemy is.”  She has always known, deep down, who the enemy is – who starves and tortures and kills them in the arena.  She turns to the force field and sees a wavering square, the chink in the armor.  She shoots an arrow at the mark and it vanishes, pulling the gold wire connected to the lightning tree behind it.  Lightning then strikes just at that moment and the force field around the arena dissolves.  Then the explosions begin.

In chapter 27, the Gamemakers are bombing everything then.  But suddenly, a hovercraft materializes above her and she is pulled up into it.  She thinks it the Capitol, who has come to make her death as slow and public as possible.  The first face she sees is Plutarch Heavensbee, the Head Gamemaker.  She goes unconscious.  When she wakes up, she is in some sort of hospital and is next to Beetee.  When she truly wakes up, she finds Haymitch is there with Finnick and Plutarch.  They explain that they are the good guys and that Plutarch has been, for several years, part of an undercover group aiming to overthrow the Capitol.  They are part of a now full scale rebellion and the rumors about District 13 are absolutely true.  Finnick, Johanna, and Beetee were both in on the plan, but Katniss and Peeta were not told any of it.  She finds out that while she lives, the revolution lives.  She is the mockingjay – the symbol of the rebellion.  She also finds out that Peeta was picked up by the Capitol along with Johanna and Enobaria.  She freaks and is drugged and put back in the little hospital on the hovercraft.  Gale is somehow there and comes to see her.  He tells her that both Prim and her mother are alive.  He got them out of District 12 in time before the firebombs.  Katniss asks, “They’re not in District 12?” and he says softly, “Katniss, there is no District 12.”

Oh my gosh! That’s so horrible! I can’t believe District 12 was destroyed.  What about all of the people in there?  I mean, Gale made it sound like not everyone got out in time.  And what about Peeta!  The Capitol is going to just torture him and he doesn’t know any information.  They might even use Peeta as bait or something to catch and kill Katniss.  That is so intense.  He better not die, because I would not be very happy if that happened.  Over all, I really liked that book.  It wasn’t all about the Games because it was more of the start of a revolution, but it did have the Games in there.  I also really liked the new characters in this book.  I kind of wish there was more of Gale in this book and the first book.  But I think he’ll probably be in a lot of the third book because that has to be about the rebellion.  I wonder what role Katniss will play in the rebellion.  I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.

Reading – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, p. 298- 367

In chapter 21, they run away from the strange fog, but Peeta has to be carried by Finnick because it affects their nervous system. Mags cannot keep going on with them, so she dies in the fog. They escape the fog and are then attacked by monkeys. Before one of the monkeys attacks Peeta, one of the tributes from District 6, a drug addict, throws herself in front of the monkey to save him.  

In chapter 22, the District 6 tribute is killed by the monkey. Their skin starts to become infected because of the fog, and Haymitch sends them something to heal them. They make camp at the beach, where Johanna finds them. She has Beetee and Wiress with her, and Wiress keeps saying “tick tock, tick tock.” Johanna tells Katniss that she got them for her, in order to be in their alliance. Katniss figures out from Wiress’ tick-tocking that the arena is a big clock.

In chapter 23, they realize that each of the twelve sections of the arena has a different challenge for them to face. They try to figure out what horror is in each section, and take time to regroup and strategize.  During this time, Wiress unfortunately dies.  Then Katniss hears a scream coming from the jungle that sounds like her sister’s scream.

In chapter 24, Katniss runs and tries to find her sister, only to discover that it’s a jabberjay that is only mimicking her sister’s voice. Finnick finds her and tells her it’s not real, but then he hears a jabberjay that sounds like a girl that he likes named Annie. Katniss hear’s Gale’s jabberjay next, and they suffer for a while until the hour ends. Finnick and Peeta and Katniss talk and bond when they get back to their camp.

In chapter 25, they get up and strategize more. Beetee comes up with a really complicated plan that has something to do with the tree that gets struck with lightening every time the clock strikes 12.

I think the arena in this book is really cool.  I really like how it’s a clock so they have to figure out when and where each “attack” will be.  I think it kind of funny that Katniss is really confused about the environment.  All she’s ever seen was forest, but now she is in a jungle and it’s completely new to her.  She and Peeta don’t even know what monkeys are.  I also like the fact that they have an alliance.  I loved her alliance with Ruth in the first book, but that didn’t last very long.  And Katniss and Peeta have always really been together ever since the first reaping.  So this is the first time that there is actually a group working together for a common goal – to stay alive.  It going to be weird though, when all the other tributes are dead and they will have to start killing each other.  I will definitely not like it when the alliance has to break.  But I guess I will just have to wait and see what happens.

Reading – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, p. 218- 297

In chapter 16, Katniss and Peeta train for the Games.  Haymitch tells them to make friends because they’ll need more allies this time around.  He tells them to make their own pack and choose who they like – who might be of some use to them.  When Katniss is at the knot-tying station, Finnick comes up to her and shows off, so she moves to another station. She meets the two tributes from District 6: Wiress and Beetee. They’re very strange, but she likes them because they seem nice. They see the Gamemakers and Katniss sees that Plutarch Heavensbee is the Head Gamemaker this year. Just above his head, Wiress and Beetee show Katniss that you can see a forcefield in between the Gamemakers and them. They tell her that most forcefields have a spot where you can penetrate them. During dinner, she talks with Peeta and he tells her that Johanna nicknamed Wiress and Beetee “Nuts” and “Bolts.” They meet up with some other tributes, including an elderly woman from District 4 named Mags. Katniss decides that she wants Mags on her team as well as Nuts and Bolts. Then they do the individual lessons, where they show the Gamemakers what they can do. I’m not going to say what Katniss and Peeta do, but it’s really intense.

In chapter 17, they talk about what they did for the Gamemakers. Then they see their training scores. They both pull a 12. Next, they have their interviews. I won’t say what goes on, but at the end of Katniss’ interview, Cinna has somehow managed to turn her dress into a mockingjay.

In chapter 18, during Peeta’s interview with the news, he shows Katniss up and tells the world that Katniss is pregnant, which is definitely not true. The crowd goes wild and people cry. At the end, each of the tributes hold hands and stand in one unbroken line, the first public show of unity among the districts since the dark days. Katniss gets ready to go into the games. Cinna is with her and gives her a prep talk before she is taken to the games, but just before she leaves, he is attacked and mugged by Capitol people, and taken away.

In chapter 19, the games begin. The tributes are on twelve spokes, each with two tributes on them, in water. They have to swim to the island where the cornucopia is. The cornucopia is filled with food, weapons, and other supplies. Finnick and Katniss cross each other and he tells her that they are allies, and he has the mockingjay wristband that Haymitch had. Katniss reluctantly agrees with him. They help Peeta and Mags and go find shelter away from the cornucopia. While walking through the jungle, Peeta unexpectedly hits the forcefield that surrounds the arena and is shot backwards onto the ground. Katniss listens for his heartbeat but just hears silence.

In chapter 20, Katniss freaks out because she thinks Peeta is dead. Finnick gives Peeta mouth-to-mouth and saves his life. They survive for a while. They find a way to roast meat by throwing it on the forcefield, because when it comes back, its cooked. When they can’t find water, Haymitch sends them a spial, which they stick in a tree to get water from. Then a fog comes and it has a weird smell, and then the team finds out that it blisters them when it touches their skin.

Wow, this is going really fast! This is a lot faster than the first book.  In the first book, there would be a whole chapter of Katniss just searching for water or something.  In this book, like 8 different things are happening in one chapter!  It’s only the first or second day, and yet so much has gone on in the Games and a lot of people have died.  I really like Finnick, especially because he saved Peeta.  He’s actually nice and not arrogant as he first appeared to be.  I like how Haymitch sort of just put him in Katniss and Peeta’s alliance.

I am so glad that last week is over.  It was such a busy week!  I had an AP test on Friday, the SAT on Saturday, dress rehersals all week until 9 each night, and then the musical Fri, Sat, and Sun.  Thank goodness its all done!  This show choir video really reflects how I feel now that its a new week.  (Plus I just love this song and its done by one of my favorite groups)

Anthology Project

Theme: Stars/Space

Poems:
"Winter Stars" by Sara Teasdale
"Naming the Stars" by Joyce Sutphen
"To the Moon" by Percy Bysshe Shelley
"The Sound of the Sun" by George Bradley
"Silent, Silent Night" by William Blake
"Bright Star, Would I were Steadfast as Thou Art" by John Keats
"The Starlight Night" by Gerard Manley Hopkins
"The House of the Sun" by Donald Davidson
"The Pieces That Fall to Earth" by Kay Ryan

Video poem:
"My Star" by Robert Browning

Reading – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, p. 164- 218

In chapter 12, Katniss and Haymitch talk. Katniss has a photo shoot for her wedding dresses. Then President Snow comes on the television and talks about the Quarter Quell. When the laws for the games were made, they dictated that every twenty-five years the anniversary would be marked by a “Quarter Quell.” On the twenty-fifth anniversary, every district was made to hold an election and vote on the tributes who would represent it. On the fiftieth anniversary, every district was required to send twice as many tributes. Now, for the seventy-fifth anniversary, as a reminder to the rebels that even the strongest among them cannot overcome the power of the Capitol, the male and female tributes will be reaped from their existing pool of victors. Katniss understands what it means: District 12 only has three existing victors to choose from, one female and two males, so she is going back into the arena.

In chapter 13, Katniss breaks down because she has to go back to the games. She goes to Haymitch and they get drunk. Peeta gets rid of the liquor. He talks to them and tells them that Effie is going to send them recordings of the living victors and that they are going to put on some weight to get strong and start acting like Careers. They train intensely for the games. On the day of the Reaping, Katniss is the only piece of paper for the girls so she gets chosen immediately. Then Effie picks Haymitch’s name, but Peeta volunteers to take his place. Finally, they leave District 12 without getting to say goodbye to their families and friends.

In chapter 14, Haymitch and Katniss decide that they will try to protect Peeta this time. They watch the videos of the past Hunger Games. Then Peeta and Katniss secretly watch the Hunger Games that Haymitch won back in the day. I won’t say how they went because I don’t want to spoil it (but it was intense).

In chapter 15, they get ready for the opening ceremonies. Cinna dresses Katniss in a vicious and killer-like costume made to look like deadly fire, because that’s her trademark. Cinna tells her to look straight ahead as if the entire audience is beneath her notice. Before the ceremonies begin, she meets some of the other previous victors, including Finnick Odair, who is very sexy. Peeta and Katniss decide to hold hands again when they are in the chariots, but they are angry at the Capitol. They are portrayed as star-crossed lovers from District 12 who suffered so much and enjoyed so little of the rewards of their victory. They don’t seek the fans’ favor, grace them with their smiles, or cast their kisses, and are unforgiving. After the ceremonies, they meet Johanna Mason, another victor. When they get up to their rooms, they find that Darius, the peace-keeper from District 12, is their new Avox. Sucks for him.

Wow, that’s really sucks! I can’t believe she has to go back into the Games again! Making the old victors go back to the Games was no accident.  President Snow obviously picked that Quarter Quell just because of Katniss and the uprisings that are taking place.  This is the first time Katniss has really freaked out and she totally loses it.  I would too if I had endured the Games once and then found out that I had to go back to them.  It is literally Katniss’s worst nightmare.  I’m about half-way through the book now, so the Games must be shorter this time because they took up the entire previous book.  I wonder what Katniss and Peeta’s strategy will be now that they are acting like Careers.  It’s interesting that Peeta is all set on making sure Katniss wins, while Katniss and Haymitch are set on having Peeta live (which he is not aware of).  They are at a disadvantage in a way because they will be the youngest tributes this time.  However, that can also be in their favor because they will be strong and their heads have been in the Games recently.  It’s going to be interesting, though horrible, to see how the Games play out.

This show choir video is from Los Alamitos from this year.  They did a Harry Potter themed show, and it is completely amazing!  It's combining two of my favorite things: show choir and Harry Potter. :)

Reading – Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, p. 90- 163

In chapter 7, Katniss meets Gale out in the woods by a lake.  She tells him how President Snow personally threatened to have him killed and both of their families and asks him to run away with her.  He says he will and he tells her he loves her.  She is totally taken back by this and says “I know,” and then tells him that she can’t think about anyone that way now because she is too afraid.  She says that maybe if they could get somewhere safe, she would be different.  He is disappointed, but still agrees to run away.  Then, she accidentally says something about the uprising in District Eight.  Gale is affected immediately and thinks that they have to join the fight.  He has always hated the Capitol and has always wanted there to be a rebellion.  Now that it’s finally begun, he refuses to go with her.  They get into an argument and he leaves.  When Katniss gets back to the town, she runs into Peeta.  She asks him if he will run away with her.  He says that he will go, but he doesn’t think that she will.  They are talking when they hear a strange noise coming from the square – a whistling, the sound of an impact, the intake of breath from a crowd.  When she breaks through to the cleared space in the square, she sees Gale.  His wrists are bound to a wooden post and the wild turkey he illegally shot in the woods hangs above him.  He is being whipped by a man in the Head Peacekeeper uniform who is new to District 12.

In chapter 8, Katniss cries, “No!” and throws herself directly between the whip and Gale.  She takes the full force of the whip across the left side of her face.  Haymitch yells, “Hold it!” and trips over a Peacekeeper lying on the ground.  It’s Darius, a Peacekeeper who was always friendly to Katniss.  He is knocked out with a huge lump on his forehead.  Haymitch yells at the new Peacekeeper and tells him that she has a photo shoot next week modeling wedding dresses.  The man recognizes her, but says that she interrupted the punishment of a confessed criminal.  Haymitch tells him that it is a huge problem and that he will be calling the Capitol.  When he asks what business is it of hers, Peeta tells him that Gale is her cousin and she is his fiancée, so if he wants to get to Gale, he will have to get through both of them.  The villagers around tell him that, for a first offense, the required number of lashes has been dispensed – unless his sentence is death, which they would carry out by firing squad.  He lets them go and they take Gale to Katniss’s mother, who is a healer.  There, Gale’s crewmates Bristel and Thom piece together the story of what happened.  The new Head Peacekeeper is Romulus Thread.  By the time Katniss showed up, he’d been lashed at least forty times.  He passed out around thirty.  After about twenty lashes, Darius stepped in, saying that was enough.  He grabbed Thread’s arm and Thread hit him in the head with the butt of the whip.  Katniss’s mom fixes Gale up.  Katniss does some rethinking and thinks that the people in the district may be right to rebel.  When he comes to, she tells him that she’s not going anywhere.  She’s going to stay right there and cause all kinds of trouble.  Gale says, “Me, too.”

In chapter 9, Peeta wakes her up and says that he’ll look after Gale.  She starts saying, “About what I said yesterday, about running…” and he says, “I know. There’s nothing to explain.”  He tells her to go the bed.  When Katniss, Peeta, and Haymitch meet up, Katniss says that she wants to start an uprising.  Haymitch tells her that it won’t work.  They come to the square and see that a lot has changed.  Peacekeepers, in white uniforms, march on the cleanly swept cobblestones.  Along the rooftops, more of them occupy nests of machine guns.  And an official whipping post, several stockades, and a gallows are set up in the center of the square.  They can see some streets away the Hob burning and going up in smoke.  They go check on their families.  The woods, of course, are absolutely forbidden, but one morning Katniss decides she has to get out for a few hours.  She makes it to the lake and hears an unmistakable click of a weapon behind her.  She spins around drawing back an arrow when the woman in the white Peacekeeper uniform drops her weapon, cries, “Stop!” and holds something out to Katniss in her hand.  It is a small while circle of flat bread with an image clearly stamped in the center – it’s her mockingjay.

In chapter 10, Katniss asks what it is and what does it mean.  A second woman appears behind her and says “It means we’re on your side.”  The two women are Twill and Bonnie from District Eight.  They stole the uniforms from the factory.  They are headed for District Thirteen.  Katniss is confused because District 13 got blown off the map, but they tell her that it got blown off the map seventy-five years ago.  Katniss takes them into the little cottage by the lake and cooks them some food.  Then they tell their story.  Katniss asks what they expect to find in District 13.  Every year the Capitol shows footage of District 13 which is nothing but rubble.  They say that the Capitol has been using the same footage for as long as anyone in District 8 can remember.  They say that if she looks very carefully when they show the Justice Building, up in the far right-hand corner there is a glimpse of a mockingjay as it flies by – the same one every time.  Back home, they think that the Capitol keeps reusing the old footage because it can’t show what’s really there now.  They think the people moved underground when everything on the surface was destroyed and that the people of District 13 managed to survive.  They think that the Capitol leaves them alone because, before the Dark Days, District 13’s principal industry was nuclear development.  When Katniss leaves, she thinks about what has happened.  “It means we’re on your side.”  That’s what Bonnie said.  Katniss questions what side, if she is unwittingly the face of the hoped-for rebellion, if the mockingjay on her pin became the symbol of resistance.  She stashes her weapons and then finds that the fence is alive with electricity.

In chapter 11, she climbs a tree and is able to jump over the fence, but she hurts her left heel and tailbone.  When she gets home, two Peacekeepers are standing in the doorway to her kitchen.  The woman remains impassive, but Katniss catches the flicker of surprise on the man’s face.  She is unanticipated.  They know that she was in the woods and should be trapped there now.  They say that Peacekeeper Thread sent them with a message for her and her mother adds that they’ve been waiting for hours.  Katniss knows they’ve been waiting for her to fail to return – to confirm she got electrocuted by the fence or trapped in the woods so they could take her family in for questioning.  They ask where she has been.  She crosses into the kitchen, forcing herself to use her foot normally, and says “Easier to ask where I haven’t been.”  Haymitch and Peeta are there playing chess and ask where she hasn’t been.  They have a little chat.  When she looks over at the Peacekeepers, the man’s smiling but the woman is unconvinced and asks what’s in her bag.  She is hoping for game or wild plants, but Katniss bought bandages and candy before she got home as an alibi.  She talks with her family and then looks at the Peacekeepers as if she’s suddenly remembered they’re there.  She asks what the message is for her.  The woman says that Head Peacekeeper Thread wanted Katniss to know that the fence surrounding District 12 will now have electricity 24 hours a day.  Katniss asks, “Didn’t it already?”  None of this has gone as planned for the Peacekeepers, but they have no further orders so they leave.  She tells her family that she was injured because she slipped and fell on some ice.  Her mom fixes her up and then Katniss talks to Peeta.  She takes some sleep syrup and then before she falls asleep, she asks Peeta to stay with her.  She hears him whisper a word back, but she doesn’t quite catch it.  For the next few days, she gets to relax.  Peeta comes everyday and begins to help her work on her family book of herbs.  It’s composed of page after page of ink drawings of plants with descriptions of their medical uses.  Her father had added a section of edible plants that was Katniss’s guidebook to keeping her family alive after his death.  The quiet, absorbing work helps take her mind off of her troubles.  One day, on the TV, they cut to what is supposed to be live footage of a female reporter, encased in a protective suit, standing in front of the ruins of the Justice Building in 13.  Through her mask, she reports that unfortunately a study has just today determined that the mines of District 13 are still too toxic to approach.  But just before they cut back to the main newscaster, Katniss sees the unmistakable flash of that same mockingjay’s wing.  The reporter has simply been incorporated into the old footage.  She’s not in District 13 at all – which begs the question, What is?

Sorry, that was a lot. But a lot of important things happened in those chapters.  I think it’s really cool that District 13 is coming into the series.  It was just barely mentioned in the first chapter of The Hunger Games, so I never really thought much about it until now.  The new policies and new Peacekeepers definitely show the change that is happening just because Katniss defied the Capitol.  I think it is cool that the Mockingjay is a symbol of hope now.  Although, that puts a lot of pressure on Katniss.  Whatever she does will affect the nation now.  I can’t wait to see where this is going.

I read an article called "Quality Time, Redefined."  It was about technology and how families may be in the same room together, but with everyone on a laptop, iPad, iPod, or watching TV, they aren't really together.  It also stated that "nearly 60 percent of American families with children own two or more computers, and more than 60 percent of those have either a wired or wireless network to connect to the Internet, according to studies by the Pew Research Center’s Internet and American Life Project. A third of all Americans log on from home multiple times a day, nearly twice the number that did so in 2004."  That is a really huge difference.  Family time is spent more with technology than with each other.  Some people have to e-mail their spouses in order to talk to them because everyone is so involved with their technology.  I think this is a little frightening and sad.  The new technology today can be useful as long as we don't let it take over our life.  I believe that families need to be less "wired."