Thursday, March 18, 2010

Tweak by Nic Sheff

I am not too for into this book yet, based on what I have read and heard about this book, it seems very interesting. It is a memoir about a high school boy, Nic Sheff, who starts off in high school as what some would call a model student. Nic got good grades, he was athletic and he also had two younger siblings that looked up to him. But the story is about how his life completely changes around when Nic starts getting into drugs. Not just casual, he becomes addicted to drugs. He starts to fail classes, he no longer plays sports, and he is no longer the older brother that his two siblings look up to. As a matter a fact, he becomes a bad influence on his younger sibling and his parents are forced to kick him out of the house. This book makes me truely understand the effects of abusing drugs and how it can completely change a persons life around. What i like most about this book is that it is extremely powerful and realistic; this makes it that much more interesting to read.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Lord of the Flies (Conclusion to the book)

I thought the final chapter of the book was very interesting. Ralph's group fell apart with the exception of piggy and all of Jack's hunters became just like him- cruel and evil. At the end, all of the hunters go after Ralph, hoping to find him and most likely kill him. Ralph hides in a thicket and the boys are unable to get to him. Jack eventually lights the entire forest on fire hoping to get Ralph out. Ralph runs towards the beach and the hunters chase him. On the beach Ralph runs into a naval officer who says his ship spotted the fire on the island. The officer realizes what was going on and what the the boys were doing and was disgusted. He then asks, "how could a group of boys have lost all reverence for rules of civilization in so short a time?" This is coming from an adult naval officer who clearly deals with much violence in the world. He seems to be saddened and disgusted to see how these boys have become on the island. To me, this reveals a lot about human nature and the importance of society. It also shows the importance of having rules and regulations. When people are not guided by the rules of society, they feel that they can do whatever they want and in this case and example would be Jack turning savage.