Week of Nobember 10 - 16 Entry #10

This week, I have read a 127 page introductory book about the Maldives. This was supposed to be a book for the research in writing class. The title of this book was Cultures of the World Maldives. I didn't expect this book to take so long, but it took me more than two hours to read it. This book had some interesting facts about my country, the Maldives. The book gave me a detailed list of information about the geography, history, government, economy, people, lifestyle, religion, language, arts, leisure, holidays, food, and map about the Maldives. I have even found some interesting facts about my country that the islands of Maldives are currently sinking, so the politicians there are looking for places our countries that will accept their people. Overall, I have found this book interesting and beneficial for my writing project.

P.S. Ms. Lilo, I was not sure whether I could count this book as my independent reading book, but this book took me around three hours to read, and this is an AR book. So, I have decided to do this book as my independent reading book.

Week of November 3 - 9 Entry #9

This week, I read The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, because we were going to read this in English class quite soon. Somehow, I have read this book in Korean before, because when I was in Korean school, we did this in my Korean class. Then, two years ago, I read it once more in English. Hence, now I know the story pretty well. The story is about Santiago, a shepherd, journeying to find the treasure he found in his dreams. The plotline is simple, but this book is very philosophical. It seems to have a lot of themes and have many universal truths embeded in it.
To me, this book was a good book. I just liked the story itself and it gave me some nostalgia of when I was in Korean school. Besides that, I also venerate Santiago for being able to take the risk of selling everything he has to go on a journey that is so uncertain. I wish I could do that, but I don't think it would ever be possible for me to do such a thing. Anyhow, I am looking foward to read this book again in English class soon.

Week of October 27- November 2 Entry #8

This week, my book ended. I have read the last three chapters of this book. The story basically continued on without nothing serious happening. Tom just hide in the woods avoiding the police because he has killed two people. When Tom's mom comes Tom, Tom says that he will follow Casy and live as a great soul. That is basically how the story ends. There is a short incident at the last chapter about the father of a boy being milked by Rose of Sharon. That was somewhat a shocking scene as well as being desperate and sad.
Overall, this book wasn't the best book in my life. The plot was not dynamic, but just calm and basically flowed like a small stream, making it too boring for me. Yet, I liked how Steinbeck portrayed the miserable lives of the tenant farmers of the late colonial periods. My big question for this book is "What is the theme of this story?" I think this story can be interpreted in many ways, but what I think is that human are greedy and cruel in nature, so that we make each other suffer. That is what the large landowners showed in the story. Now I have finished my book, I need to find my next book, but I don't think I will be looking for another classic for quite a while. I have found that classic doesn't fit me the best. Still, The Grapes of Wrath was a good book and I think it deserves to be such a famous (notorious) book.

Week of October 20-26 Entry #7

This week, I have read chapters 25 through 27. In this section, the reason why this book is titled Grapes of Wrath comes out. In chapter 25, we see how large farmers harass the tenant farmers by monopolizing the industry. Hence, small farmers' debts increase. The book says that "the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy." In the next chapter, Casy gets killed by a police, just for being accused as a communist. Tom takes revenge by killing the murderer police, but he gets hit too. After killing the police, Tom also runs away. Chapter 27 is about the tenant farmers and people who are looking for jobs. They are poorly treated with extremely low wages.
Now, the story is coming to an end and seems to reach some climax. Poor people are still being ripped off and now Casy has died. I start to kind of get the theme of this story in which poor people had harsh conditions in the colonial times. Again, if I was to live in this kind of condition, I would hate it. Also, I have thought that if I was one of the huge farmers who were monopolizing the market, I wouldn't do that. The acts of these people seem so inhumane and cruel. I would at least give some space for the small farmers to join in the market so that they don't starve.

Week of October 13-19 Entry #6

This week, I have read chapters 21~24. These chapters talk about how more big landowners push out small landowners and how the small tenant farmers live. Many aspects of farmers' lives are shown such as the Weedpatch camp and being baptized by preachers.
Now, I am starting to get a little bored to this book. The story just seems to be endless. The farmers just moved to avoid misery but it didn't end. They are just living hard lives. They drink alcohol, sing, get preached, look for jobs, but they fail. That's all they do and the mood of the story never seems to fluctuate a lot, which makes the book feel like watching everyday-life of a machine. Yet, the story seems to proceed little by little, which is at least a little relieving. However, I wish I could see some more progress to the depressing mood in the next chapters.

Week of October 6-12 Entry #5

This week, I have read chapters 18 through 20. Basically, the story continues to flow on. In chapter 18, the Joads get warned by a man and his son, who are coming back from California. They say that there are no jobs in California. In chapter 19, the perspective changes and the narrator explains a brief history of California. California was once part of Mexico. The story comes back again to the tenant farmers in chapter 20. Chapter 20 describes some more hardships of the tenant farmers. Grampa is dead, but the family does not have money to bury the dead body properly. Also, Tom and Casy meed a man named Floyd. Floyd explains that they cannot organize together to find jobs because if so, the police will arrest them. Despite Floyd's words, some farmers try to fight against landowners and, Tom and Casy attack the police. Casy takes all the blame and gets arrested.
Again, as I have written before, this story consistently changes perspectives, and it makes me so confused. I guess that is why so many people call it difficult and "classic," which always implies the meaning "boring." Anyways, the story just seems to flow on. Every time I read, the hardships the tenant farmer group faces changes. First was the landowners who drove them away. Second was the greedy salespeople, and the third was the police, who only favored the landowners. As I was reading this part, I have started to thank that I wasn't born at this period. The life of these people didn't seem hard; it was just hopeless. Nothing good happened for them. Some even died during the journey. Still, I start to find this book less boring, but more interesting because the introduction seems to be done. I wonder what will happen to Casy later on.

Week of September 29 - October 5 Entry #4

This week, I read 6 chapters, 12 through 17, of the book The Grapes of Wrath. This part of the book describes the journies of the tenant farmers. Eventually, all the farmers suffer under harsh conditions and cheatings of greedy salesmen. In the story, the tenant farmers who are moving are ripped off by car salesmen. Those salesmen change the parts of cars into cheaper, older ones. Later on, when the farmers move, those cars stop and farmers suffer finding replacements from nearby towns.
This book felt new to me because overall, I have never read a book like this. Before, I have always read si-fi and never experienced classic books like this one. So, I can't get used to the literary style of The Grapes of Wrath. The way Steinbeck descriptions of scenes sound different from fictions. Steinbeck seems to portray it so that the readers can actually draw the scene in their heads. This sounds great, but this makes the book somewhat boring. Also, the atmosphere feels exotic from what I have read and experienced. The overall mood of this book is so depressing I can't hold this book long. I think that is one of the reasons why I feel this book is so hard to read, but I think this is worth the effort. Another thing I felt about this book is that this book sounds too much like a story. Other books that I have read before seems to have a clear plot line around the main character with limited characters and conflicts, but The Grapes of Wrath just merely sounds like a "story" that just flows regardless of what the characters do. I am not sure how it will change later on, but until now, this book just sounds like a story to me. I wonder what will happen to the miserable farmers in this story.