Dynamic Characters

Victor Flores starts out as a young 15 year old boy living in Mexico. He is a very hard working boy, and is the man of the house since his father had died. His job and his life is dedicated to supporting his mom, brother, and sisters. The price of corn is dropping fast and Victor realizes he wont be able to even buy tortillas for his family to eat. He needs to find a way to get money and fast. Not long before, his close friend had left to go into the States to make good money to spend for himself. Victor decides he has to do the same. Not for selfish reasons though, but to send money home to his family. In the beginning, Victor was a very cautious boy. " 'It should be easy for you, Victor. Cmon, Tortuga.' Only Rico called me this. Mostly it was because of my cautiousness." As Victor learns more about how tough leaving home really is, he learns he has to do whatever it takes to keep his family from starving. Multiple attempts and many scars and cuts later, Victor finds out on his first real attempt that crossing the border may actually take his life. Victor takes weeks to eventually cross to Arizona, failing multiple times before. The journey always takes days of trekking in the extreme heat of the desert with little food and scarce supplies of water. In his last and sucessful attempt, he has to keep walking with a swollen leg from a snake bite, scare off jaguars, run from Border Patrol, climb mountains, and even climb steep slopes thousands of feet up. Victor learns that he should still be cautious, but some things you just need to do.

Cirque Du Freak Connection

I think Darren makes some good and bad descisions, and the people around him are affected or are simply crazy. For instance, Darren becomes a vampire to save his best friend Steve, even though Darren doesn't want to be one. When he leaves and Steve finds out, Steve thinks Darren lied and betrayed him and left Steve to die. What kind of best friend is that? Through out the whole series, Steve turns into a blood thirsty, revenge-bent maniac to kill Darren. Darren is a smart kid, and can think and stay calm in most situations, although he does need guidance from Mr.Crepsly and Vancha March some of the time. He is able to quickly adapt and blend in with the envoirment but usually things dont go his way for too long. He either gets busted or vampaneze chase after them, no matter where they go. I like how even though he's a half-vampire, hes still a human at heart and although he may act cold, really he is just a human like all of us. He cares, he loves. He has a girlfriend that loves him, he loves Mr.Crepsley and even cried when he was killed. He would have given everything up to save Mr.Crepsley or Debbie's (Girlfriend) life if Vancha or Harkat wouldn't have cleared his way of thinking. All in all, hes a good kid, and Darren Shan chose a good personality for the main character.

Reading Connection

Speak connects to me because she shows her troubles of being a teen, and a freshman in high school. Our troubles might not be the same, but the social life is similar. I have many friends I can talk to, but she doesn't. We both know how hard it is to make new friends. All the friends I have have been my friends since Elementary or Middle School. She has classes that she hates and likes, and so do I. I think we both know that the class isnt hard. It depends on the teacher that makes it harder than it really is. We both have teachers we love and hate (I dont hate you Ms.Crabtree, heh :) ) and we have similar views about parents. Hers love her and so do mine, but we both don't really talk much to them. The only words we say to them are probably "I'm back." Or "What are you doing?" She stays home most of the times, and so do I. She's lonely at home because of she has no brothers or sisters. I have a brother and sister, but my brother and I hate each other and my sister and cousins and uncles and aunts are in college, so this year, I've been lonely too, seeing as how they're 4 years older than me so that means they all went to high school together in Bravo, and when I become a freshman in Lincoln, they start their first year in college. They're either 4 hours up North, or all the way in Harvard. That's all. :]

Speak Quote

"Was I raped?" A quote from Speak. (Pg 164) Throughout the whole book Melinda tell us her story about High school and the hidden story of her being raped a few months prior to starting her Freshman year. That quote confuses me because it's near the end, and she knows she was raped, yet why is she questioning it? I thought at first MAYBE she wanted it and she didn't know. Maybe she actually liked it DEEP DEEP down inside her that she can't find it. I'm not saying she's a bad person, but that's just a possibility. Another possibility would be maybe shes confused. She knows she got raped, but she's not sure if it ever happened. She knows she called the police on the party that night, but maybe something else could have happened to her and she was delusional. Maybe she's making up an excuse for something else that could have been worse that happened to her. Don't get me wrong, I feel sympathy for Melinda, but there are many other possibilities that could have happened to her because no one was witnessing it happen, or no test was done to show she did.

Highlights and Lowlights for Reading this Year

The first book I read this year was Jarhead. Jarhead seemed like an interesting book, but was extremely confusing. Anthony Swofford often had flashbacks IN his flashbacks and just screws you up even more. He jumps from topic to topic so it gets to confused as to when or where the main story takes place. The book has a lot of humor and dirty jokes, violence and real opinions that aren't censored. Just real, hard, cold opinions and points of view. He reveals the truth about how tough and rough the Marines training really is. He tells you how the Marine recruiters bullshit most of how great and fun it is to be a Marine. The thing that bugs me the most is how he only tells the readers about the training and when it gets to the real war, he wasn't even in it! He was just guarding a tower with his friend and gets ditched while the rest of the MArines celebrate 10 miles away. This book is good overall and is quite funny at times but it has some crappy moments sometimes also.