Tuesday Write #7

To the boys on the island, in the book The Lord of the Flies by William Golding, the conch was a symbol of civilization. When the boys first found the conch they used it as an object of authority when it was decided that the only person to speak at the time was the one with the conch in hand. “I’ll give the conch to the next person to speak. He can hold it when he’s speaking.” However, many of the rebellious boys saw the conch as a worthless item, so they just blurted out statements when they pleased. By having the conch in hand, one would be the only to talk which represents order and law in civilization. Without the conch many of the boys turned to chaos and anarchy. When the conch along with Piggy were killed and destroyed it symbolized the death of civilization and reason. “The conch exploded into a thousand white fragments and ceased to exist.”      

The Hunger Games Book Review

Suzanne Collin’s “The Hunger Games”

Reviewed by Alex Intravaia

A country governed by corrupt leaders, a world where the rich get richer and the poor get poorer. A country where for some it is a struggle to find scraps of food while the rich eat until they are stuffed and cannot eat anymore. This is the country known as Panem, the aftermath of the downfall of the United States.

The book The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, takes place in future United States where the country has been divided into 12 districts. The main character, Katniss Everdeen lives in the 12th and poorest district where getting food only the table is a struggle. A “holiday” of sort is coming up and each district needs to offer up a male and female tribute to the event call the Hunger Games. In the hunger games, the 24 tributes fight to the death in an arena until one survivor is crowned victor. As the female tributes are being selected, Katniss’ sister Primrose Everdeen is chosen. Katniss ends up volunteering  as tribute and is then taken to the capital for the Hunger Games.

I enjoyed reading this science fiction adventure novel. There were many suspenseful scenes and relatable characters. “The world transformed to flame and smoke. Burning branches crack from trees and fall is showers of sparks at my feet” (172).   As I read the book it did a great job of making it feel like I was actually in the arena by using vivid description and intense action. Although the book was very well written, it did have some weak points. For example, there were a lot of words that may be unfamiliar to readers. “We walk toward the seam in silence” (12).  

Collin’s writing style really shined in this book. Her use of diction made you feel connected to certain characters and feel as though you were in the book. Her use of flashbacks were very interesting and added a lot of depth to the story. The only criticism I can give on the writing is the fact that some scenes were very descriptive and were well thought out while some scenes where just simple glances and were just passed over, this is noticeable when passing the nights and even whole days.

The Hunger Games  is a must read for all ages and genders. The book may be more geared toward teens but even adults and children will enjoy reading it. The writing had an excellent story that will intrigue all readers. This book also has cliffhangers at almost every chapter that will keep you reading until you finish. Overall, The Hunger Games  is a descriptive and captivating book that everyone will enjoy.

Malcolm Gladwell Blog Response

In Malcolm Gladwell’s chapter of The Warring Harding Error it surprised me that so many people based good leadership on exterior aesthetics. It surprises me even more that people encouraged Warren Harding to run for president even though he stated that he was not interested in it. “He was, most historians agree, one of the worst presidents in American history,” (Gladwell). Harding had the physical attributes of a good leader but as it turns out his intelligence of leadership lacked because most agree he was a terrible president. The message that I see in this chapter is the classic ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’.

This chapter is very useful in a discussion of leadership because you can point out what you would not like in a leader. Harding was physically strong and good-looking, which is naturally good traits of a leader, but there is also a second part of the leader equation that also needs to be filled. The second half is intelligence of a leader. The leader needs to be considerate and make the best decisions for the public. When only looking at half of the leader traits and making a decision we are creating unconscious biases. Fixing these biases is very easy because all you need to do is identify it and work towards adjusting the behavior towards it.

I took the IAT for the association between weapons and faces and also the preference over different raced children. My results did surprise me a bit because I thought, like most people, that I was not biased towards a subject. My results for the weapon IAT said that I had a “strong automatic association between weapons and African American faces compared to European American faces”. This surprised me because I rarely ever think of weapons and “Moderate automatic preference for European American children compared to African American children”. I always try to think of equality towards all races but it turns out that I have a preference European Americans. I think my unconscious biases are based on the fact that America advertises that European Americans are the most friendly race.