Blog 1

I recently finished reading The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald and I will analyze the American Dream in The Great Gatsby and how it plays a role in the plot. The Great Gatsby takes place during the Roaring Twenties and is set in the fictional neighborhoods of West Egg and East Egg in Long Island, New York. The narrator of the novel is Nick Carraway, a man from Minnesota who studied at Yale, served in the military for a while during the war, and who has recently moved to New York to get into the bond business. He is the cousin of Daisy Buchanan, who is the wife of Tom Buchanan, the main antagonist of the book. Nick serves as a rational thinker in the book, in a way reflecting the reader's thoughts and disgust to the shallowness of the events and characters in the story. The book follows the events that happen that summer. Nick moves into the house next to the mansion of Jay Gatsby, a mysterious young man who has made a fortune through illegal activities after the war. Gatsby ...

I recently finished Michael Vey: The Prisoner of Cell 25 , and it was a very good experience. The book is told from the perspective of 14-year-old Michael Vey, a loner with a best friend named Ostin Lee. However, he is hiding a secret: he has electric powers, that allow him to send electric pulses through touch, basically like an eel. He is bullied in school, and one day he accidentally reveals his powers while defending himself. He soon finds out that his crush, Taylor, also has similar powers. Shortly after they all meet, his mother is kidnapped. Ostin, Michael, and Taylor set off for the West Coast looking for her. When they reach there, they meet other people like them. I won't say any more than this for fear of spoiling the novel, but you should definitely check this one out. The author, Richard Paul Evans, does an excellent job making a relatively cliche situation into one that can bring the reader in. What I mean by this is that the starting premise of the book is a 14-yea...

Recently, I found myself reading an “autobiography” of a professor who had written it after learning that he had developed terminal pancreatic cancer. What is ironic, however, is that the book, The Last Lecture , is mostly about him preparing for an assignment where the lecturer was to pretend that it will be his or her last lecture. In Randy Pausch’s case, he didn’t need to pretend, this was going to be his real “last lecture.” Many professors are actually assigned to give a “last lecture.” They are expected to give “final” parting ideas to the audience, talk about what matters most and “reflect” on their legacy. Randy Pausch, however, knowing that he had terminal pancreatic cancer, approached the assignment differently than other professors.  This book does not actually contain any of the “transcript” of the lecture, so to speak, but I was curious anyway and read the lecture transcript (There’s a Youtube video too). The lecture was mostly about him and his childhood drea...

I usually don't enjoy reading books in the fiction genre and I have a hard time finding really interesting books in the non-fiction genre. I mostly read political biographies and I've recently been reading a book called Shortest Way Home by Pete Buttigieg, who's running for the Democratic nomination during the 2020 election. Although I have not finished the book yet, I think that this book is really interesting and a good read for someone who enjoys reading non-fiction and provides a lot of political insight. This book is a non-fiction book and talks about Pete Buttigieg's life and plan for America if he wins this election. The book beings in South Bend, Indiana, where Mayor Buttigieg grew up. He talks about what it was like living in a small, Midwestern town in the '80s and '90s and also discusses the economy of the town. He goes in-depth about how the products made locally seemed to deliver quality, and they thrived in the community that was in South Bend,...

The Republic  is one of the most well-known books of philosophy in the world of academia, for good reason. The beginning of the book covers the idea of justice and what it might be. Socrates starts by discussing with Cephalos the concept of justice, and if there is a definition to it. Cephalos said that justice is to speak the truth and to give back whatever one has received. Socrates gives the argument of a friend who entrusts a set of weapons to you when he is in "right mental condition," i.e., not crazy. Then, he says, when he is not in the right state of mind he asks for the weapons back. Your friends would tell you not to give the weapons back. Cephalos then says that yes it would be just to not give them back to the friend when he is not in the right state of mind.  I personally agree with this idea, except for the fact that saying the truth is not justice. I believe that a fundamental part of justice is speaking the truth and supporting the truth. In this situation, w...

Recently, I was bored and wanted to read a book, so I went to the library (duh) and came across a book called Tattoo Atlas , by Tim Floreen, which I realized I could blog about. The book is science fiction, but is quite realistic and revolves around a research laboratory that is trying to cure a sociopath named Franklin. The book is told from the first person perspective of Rem Braithwaite, the main character whose mom is trying to steady Franklin’s sociopathic brain.  Rem has a relatively normal school life with friends, but constantly relives Franklin’s crime against fellow classmate and friend Pete Lund. Franklin, an outsider to his classmates, harbored and still harbors ill will to Pete and others because of inconsiderate words or actions and feels justified to have killed him. Rem’s mom, concerned for Rem’s well-being and jumping at an opportunity, admits Franklin to her research center and implants a chip into his brain that will allow her to “control” his brain’s feelin...

          I started reading this book, Our Kids: The American Dream in Crisis, around a week ago and finished it  3 days ago. It's written by Robert D. Putnam, a professor of Public Policy at Harvard University. The book looks into how different it is two grow up in the America of today compared to that of 50 years ago, and whether the idea of the American Dream is still real today or just a myth.           The structure of the books is discussing a different aspect of a child's bringing up and education and gives the reader two stories in each chapter - one of an affluent child growing up in an American city, and one of a poor child growing in that same city.           This book gave me a lot of insight into what it's like to grow up in America with different incomes and parents with different educational backgrounds. The book also shows ways in which the government can help close the opportunity gap whic...