Blog Post On Shug

I just recently finished Shug by Jenny Han and some of the really difficult or complex things in it was alcohol and divorce. The main character is Annemarie, and her mother drinks a lot and often neglects the family. Annemarie doesn't really care in the beginning of the story, she accepts that it is part of her mothers personality and that its okay. As the story goes on however, she sees that it something that is a real issue in her life. She says,"Mama drinks because she's sad, and she's sad because she drinks." This is an endless circle that can never be broken Annemarie feels. Towards the end of the book she and her mother talk, and she tries to tell her mother that she is disappointing to her, and that she hurts her.
Annemarie is often confused during the book, she has a father that is always away and a mother that she rarely can have a conversation with. She is even having doubts with her friends for who is really her friend. My family has never had to face any of her problems, and I know that if that happened to me I would feel crushed and helpless. Annemarie has no one to turn too, so she is locked in despair.  Her family and friends are everything to her, and without them she feels lost and confused, and she blames herself for things she couldn't have controlled. When something is going wrong, and you have nobody to blame, you blame yourself. Your brain thinks somebody was wrong, somebody messed up and ruined it, even though logically it wasn't you.
In Annemarie's town Clementon, alcohol is a common problem. Almost everybody in the town drinks, whether as an addiction or pleasure. At a sleepover that Annemarie goes too, the girls bring in beer and they are peer pressured into drinking it. Annemarie feels terrible after doing this, and regrets later in the night. She thinks, "I don't wanna be like Mama." I think that if the girls have started drinking from such a young age, when they are adults they will be constant drinkers. Annemarie understands this, but doesn't have the guts to tell the other girls that.
Divorce is also a small problem because Annemarie's dad is hardly around and when he returns to the house there is a huge argument between him and her mother. Annemarie is afraid of a divorce that might happen, but at the end of the book nothing has happened but Annemarie is reassured it won't happen. I feel that if Annemarie's dad was around, she would find someone to support her and help her with her problems, but since he isn't she is finding herself in a bad position to help herself.

Blog Post On Wuthering Heights

I am almost done with the book Wuthering Heights by Emilie Bronte. I feel that the book is a series of events that all can connect to each other. Because Catherine fell in love, that caused her daughters life to be hard and if she has children than they will have troubling lives.  It is cause and effect, with some characters being stuck in gloom alone with only their maid for comfort, and happy and with the person they love most. The mood of the book swings too, along with the characters.
The main character in most of the story is Nelly, a old maid that travels with a family Wuthering Heights, and Thrushcross Grange. Both are too large houses on the moor, a large grassy plain far from any village. Many characters are born here and the story is as her account of what happened there. She is telling it to a young man, who has just visited there and is wondering what the history of Wuthering Heights is. She tells of a family that goes through good and bad times and are moderately poor so they cannot afford a lot.
Like I said before, I think that the family will continue to have good and bad luck as the story goes on.  Catherine, one of the main characters father just died, and she is concerned on where she is supposed to live. She is almost completely alone in life and she does not know who to turn too. The only person she had been talking to was her father, but less so when he got weaker and weaker. I feel that as I read more into the book, I will find out what is happening to her and if the main character, the man who is unamed, will play a larger part in the story. Occasionally during the telling he stops and talks about what some of his thoughts are.

Blog Post On Huckleberry Finn

I just finished Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain and I liked it. I liked the themes in the story and how Huckleberry finally realizes that it is better to do what's right than to do what has always been done. He decides to free his friend than to go along what everyone else is saying. This is the 19th century, and slavery is a big deal. Huckleberry has always somewhat agrees with slavery, not as much as some other characters in the story, including his father.
Huckleberry and his friend Tom Sawyer set out to free his friend Jim, and while Huck is very into it and determined to save his friend. Tom Sawyer is more into the adventure of it, because it is of no great consequence to him. Even though they end up saving Jim, Huck realizes that he is not such a friend as he once was, and maybe he should be more careful around him.
Huck and Jim went on a series of adventures traveling along a river, they camped on islands and got very close. Huck had been kidnapped by his father and he escaped then later bumped into Jim on a deserted island. They formed a friendship there, and than decided to travel along he river. Huck made a dangerous choice there, because if he was caught traveling with a escaped slave he would be arrested.
He took that risk and ended up meeting many strange and curious people. He met many people and learning a good deal about life.
I can connect to this book because oftentimes I long for adventure and life that is not governed by strict rules. This is how Huck feels living with a widow who adopted him, and he probably would've left her after a while. He wants to have a taste of freedom, but not so much that he wants to leave forever.