Thursday, April 30, 2015

OMAM Conflicts (4/27/15) SPOILER ALERT

Sonny S.
April 27, 2015
Of Mice and Men Conflicts
Spoiler Alert!

Spoils if you haven't read page(s) 62-63
     A conflict in the story is when Curley picks on Lennie. Curley thinks he is the big tough man, and hates big guys for some reason. So when Curley sees Lennie in his own little world, Curley points all the attention onto Lennie. Curley picks on him, and goes at him. Once Curley starts a fight with Lennie, George yells at Lennie, to fight back. Despite Lennie not wanting to beat Curley, he had to defend himself, and George also said to (he always listens to George). The reason why Curley picked on Lennie, was because he was looking for his wife, and didn't know where she was... and just seen Lennie in his own, little, vulnerable world.

Spoils if you haven't read page(s) 91
     Another conflict in the story is when Lennie talks with Curley's wife. This may not seem like a big idea yet, but their conversation sparked something to happen. Lennie was discussing on how he likes soft things. Curley's wife said that her hair is soft, and she put Lennie's hand on her head. Then Lennie started pulling, Curley's wife didn't like this because she didn't want her hair messed up. Then Curley's wife started to yell, and Lennie already did one bad thing, he didn't want to do another... so he stopped her from screaming by covering her mouth and nose. While Curley's wife was struggling, Lennie moved her, and snaps her neck.
    


   

   

 

     

Wednesday, April 22, 2015

OMAM (4/21/15)

Of Mice and Men
Book by: John Steinbck
Blog by: Sonny S.
4.21.15
Pages read: 37
Prompt:
What is the atmosphere of the bunkhouse? And why might Curly's wife not have a name?

     In the story, "Of Mice and Men" by John Steinbeck, there are two men trying to use their perseverance and get through the hard times around the time period of the Great Depression and Dust Bowls. There are these two men who are migrant workers. Migrant workers are people who go from place to place looking for jobs. Most of the time, the jobs the migrant workers get are some sort of farming job, but that's only most of the time.

     Two men named George Milton and Lennie Small go on an adventure looking for a job. George is normally the person to take charge. George kinda like the boss of Lennie. Lennie on the other hand, is useful for other things. He's a big man, buffer than his last name, but he has a mental-illness that makes him lose track of things.

    George normally tells Lennie what to do, and on the part of the book I'm on now, George also speaks for Lennie. At the beginning of the book, George and Lennie walked 10 miles south of Soledad to reach an area where they can work and gain some money. They meet the boss, and many other people along the way. These men try to get through the hard times together.

     The atmosphere of the bunkhouse is a little bit more negative. Lennie also wants to leave because he doesn't like it there at the bunkhouse. Everyone is has a negative attitude. The person who seems to be the rudest in the book so far would have to be Curley. He is describes as a "short fighter" because he is a short man and always wants to start a fight. He also always wins the fight because the Boss of the ranch is his father. So technically, Curley owns the ranch, he is the boss of everyone else. He has special privileges, he is a higher rank than everyone else. George and Lennie, already dislike him, meaning they dislike the ranch. On page 33, George says,  "...if we can get jus' a few dollars... go up the American River and pan gold."

     I think Curly's wife doesn't have a name because it could be a sig of disrespect. Maybe she doesn't want to be known as someone in case something goes wrong. She just want to be a lady. She wants to be a lady that only people can describe, but no one will ever know who she is. She can also flee if something goes wrong, she doesn't have any form of identification, so no one can know of her if something goes really wrong, she can just make a name too, change her identity and leave.




Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Battle of the Books

Battle of the Books
4/15/15
Books read: 3

     Battle of the books is a opportunity for trivia. People form teams, and read to become the team that know the book the best. There are a certain amount of books for your team and you to read. Your job is to remember what happens in those books, and eventually answer questions about the books you read. There can only be a maximum of five people on your team, meaning that everyone has to read more than one book if you wanted to split up the books evenly.

     Today is the 15th of April. This is the day of the trivia. I read books called, Zebra Forest, A Dog's Life (An autobiography of a Stray), and Trouble. My job was to remember the main parts of the book, and battle against my peers until the challenge is over. Whoever has the most points, wins. There were two rounds, and there is a possibility of scoring 30 points for each round. If you were to do the simple math, that would be a total of 60 possible points.

     The first question for our team was about a book that we didn't have much knowledge about. It was mostly my responsibility to read and understand it... but I didn't get to read the entire thing because I was taking my time or reading a different book. The plus side though, was we got one point because I knew the author (1 point for author and 2 points for answering the asked question correctly). We scored a perfect score for the rest of the round. We ended up with 28 points for the first round.

     The second round was harder for us because we got the more, difficult/advanced questions, but we still pulled through. We ended up tying for second place... until we settled it with a sudden death. It was a very nerve-racking moment. If you were to count up all the points we had, it was 51 (58 if you were to count the sudden death). We took first place! We were so happy, and we will soon be going to the next part of the battle.