Traitor (Blog 2 Summary and Aha Moment)

             The book then goes into the future and talks about Fergus' grandson, Danny who is an orphan from London. Danny who wants to join the military is rejected from being drafted. Later Danny finds out the reason why he can't get into the military. They wouldn't draft Danny into the military due to his grandfather Fergus' horrible past actions. Danny has sought out to make his grandfather suffer for his actions that he has done. Danny also had wanted to find his grandfather because some British military officers had made a deal with Danny. If Danny were to find his grandfather who had went M.I.A. then they would give him a scholarship. He swiftly accepts the offer and is out to find his grandfather, because the only way that he'll have a better future is if he gets a scholarship and succeeds in life.

          I had realized that there was an aha moment in my story. I had seen it when I had been reading the first 50 pages. Danny had realized that if he helped people out things would become better for him. I realized that this changed everything because it sent him on the path to success. This would change things because he could turn his life around by finding his grandfather. Though it could also change his life because he could find new things and meet new people along the way in his journey and have many new experiences that could influence what he does in life.

Traitor (Blog 1 Summary and Character Analysis)

         There has been a lot of action that has started in the beginning of the book Traitor. The book starts off telling us about a soldier named Fergus. Fergus has been in the army regiment for 12 years. He had recently chosen to be in a base camp very carefully, and that was a trait that helped Fergus. Fergus' carefulness was what has allowed him to be alive for the whole 12 years in the regiment. This book had started off with Fergus at an army camp helping new soldiers learn how to load, unload, and then strip their weapons to become prepared for battle. Then they had been attacked by helicopters which had came with out and warning and then had opened fire on Fergus and the 12 men with him.

 
    From the portion of the book that I had read I can see that Fergus is an intelligent and trained soldier. In the book it says "Fergus could load, unload and strip down a weapon with his eyes closed." This helps me to understand that he is an intelligent person and that he is trained because he knows how to do all this stuff well and can do it without needing his eyes. I also can tell that Fergus is a leader because in the text it says "but now he kept his eyes on the twelve as they copied his actions." This shows that people had followed the orders of Fergus because they knew how well he was at what he did and how he could help them to survive in this war.

Malcolm X Blog 4 (Summary and Conflict/Conclusion)

Im at the end of my book and it takes quite a sad turn. Malcolm X has been assassinated by a group of people while he was on the stage. He had been with a group of people including his wife. Many people had witnessed Malcolm X being shot in front of them but did nothing. Then there was a photographer who had taken some photos of men tearing apart Malcolm X's clothes and loosening his tie, and giving Malcolm X mouth to mouth respiration. This book took many tragic turns and this one hit me the hardest.

After reading this book I had came across one main theme in the book. I had realized that the theme had been that even though things come across in your life that you need to be perseverant. I think that this is the theme because in the book Malcolm had gone through several problems such as becoming an orphan, committing several crimes, losing one of the most important people in his life, and making drastic changes to his life. All though he had gone through several problems he had persevered through them and made the best of his life and things that he could do. Malcolm X had become one of the most well known civil rights leaders of the 1930s-40s. These problems helped shape him into a better person and made him think a way he hadn't thought before. These problems had also taught him more things and gave him new morals that he hadn't followed before.

My final thought after reading this book was that I think I want to look into more books written by the author Alex Haley. The way he writes pulls me in and engrosses me in the book and just makes me want to read more of the books written by him.

Malcolm X Blog 2 (Summary and Again and Again)

In the book Malcolm X had gone through several problems and bad experiences. He had done behaviors many times without caring or thinking about consequences. He had done drugs several times now and he had then started to sell drugs. He had then been arrested which had put him in jail for a while and that formed him. He had then converted to the Nation of Islam as his religion. The Nation of Islam had helped form him as a man and change how he acted for the better. These things had made Malcolm a better thinker and actually thought things through and grown from his experiences.

In my book I had started realizing something had kept happening again and again. Malcolm X had been repeating crime and crimes over and over. Malcolm X had moved to New York and that's when his crime life had started. He had began to do many different crimes all over the area of crime. He had done things such as gambling, drug dealing, pimping, robbery, racketeering, he had also done sexual acts with other men, normally for money. These behaviors had been repeated from the time that he was 14 to the time when he was 21 which was when he had finally been incarcerated

Malcolm X Blog 3 (Summary and Contrast and Contradictions)

         So far in my book Malcolm X had found out about Elijah Muhammad breaking rules and code and finding out that he had committed adultery. This had torn Malcolm X away from the Nation of Islam. This had changed and formed Malcolm X majorly because he had looked up to Elijah Muhammad. Now he has lost his source of inspiration and courage. This had made Malcolm X think and he had to think about his life now and how far that he had came. This made Malcolm X have to consider many things in his life and consider many things that happened to him.

        In my book Elijah Muhammad had been an inspiration to Malcolm X. He had been following him without knowing Elijah was against what he was for. He had been found out for committing adultery. This helps us to show that he was hypocritical and went against himself. It also shows how that Elijah had contradicted himself. He went against the codes and rules that they have under that religion and let people down by doing so.  This helps me to understand how people go against what they say and contradict themselves might be people that you look up to. 

Malcolm X Blog (Summary and Character Analysis)

While reading this book I had learned that Malcolm X was an Equal Rights activist. He also went through a lot of struggles during his life. When he was 20 years old he had been arrested. Malcolm X had also turned to a lot of bad solutions in his life. When he was arrested he had converted to being an African American Muslim, while doing so he became disconnected from the world around him. Later in the book he reverts to drugs as an answer to his problems, which doesn't work out so well for him. He also had started getting a gambling addiction which was another one of the problems that he had faced.

Character Analysis

I think that Malcolm X was a perseverant character. I believe this because even though he had went through struggles in his life he had still prevailed. In my book Malcolm had suffered a gambling addiction which had hurt him financially, he had also done several drugs which had messed with his health, and he had also been imprisoned. Even though he had those problems he had still become one of the worlds most known civil rights activists. I also think he is a perseverant man because he ended up becoming an orphan due to the death of his father and his mom being sent to a mental hospital. Even though he had those problems as well he still had became a big person and had been more than just book smart.

Goals

Academically, I want to become a better student. I want to do this because I normally slack off and it makes me do bad in school. The way I am going to achieve this is by doing homework and having a more positive outlook on school, and learning. I find this important because if you don't do well in school, well it shows that you can't do anything well, if you can't just get spoken to, then what really can you do? I also think it reflects character, if you want to do good in school, then you'll do good, and if you do good in school you'll excel in life and become a happier person. You can become anything you want if you put your mind to it, if you set a goal for something, it somehow seems, more achievable which makes it easier for you to do things in life.

I want to become a singer, an actor, or a writer. All of those things can show how creative you are and I like to think that I am an out of the box thinker and I can be unique. I like to sing and act, but sometimes I also like to write because all of my words, ideas, and thoughts can just flow and I won't have to worry about things going wrong or me sounding stupid because most of the time only I can see it. I want to become a singer because it's just so beautiful, the sound of music is a soothing drink of sweet lemonade on a hot Summers day. Singing, in general is one of my favorite things because you become the instrument, and not every person sounds the same so in a way we are all sort of our own beautiful instruments that play in different ways and can all come together to make something even more beautiful. Acting is just so joyous to me because it allows you to be someone else. You don't have to worry about the day to day troubles of your normal life. It's like an escape, even though it isn't always permanent it is a way to unwind and enjoy yourself and become someone or something else you wouldn't normally be. It just transforms you and makes things a complete different world for you and others around you. You could be playing a character, and your friend could be playing another but when you're on stage you aren't known as Evan, or Luke, or whatever your name is, you are known as that character and it allows you to be different or unique.