Creative Writing Being There

It began as a whispering in the air. The day had been beautiful and the sky was like a dome of plasma blue. Large pillows of clouds were forming, blotting out the stained gold of the fun. Your eyes caught the first droplet of water as it cascaded from the ridge in the roof adjacent to the side of the classroom. Droplets of moisture began to drip from the leaves hanging limply from the trees, they were sprinkling onto the grass like a gardener’s hose. It was a Noah’s Ark convulsion of rain, an unending hurl of water sluicing from the sky.

You glanced outside, and noticed the rain had at last ceased, the wind now toyed with the leaves. From inside the classroom, envious of the outside world; the grassed field lying out like a wet blanket, the weathering trees that battled back and forth in the wind. you confined in the stillness of outside yet felt consumed by what the classroom entailed.

There were kids running around, aimlessly. Desks were turned on their backs, chairs barricading against windows, doors, and hurling left to right and center. A mass destruction of supplies. The troublesome teenagers were defiant in wearing their school uniform, they were rebellious in their acts of hanging their navy jackets around their shoulders, against the school’s policies. The teacher was dismissive, accordingly late and careless. The students were easily distinguished by the massacre of stripped burgundy in their hair, and as they pulled out their iPhone X’s the sound of camera shutters allured the room.  

Students hammered on the remaining desks as they tipped and gathered balance before cowering over onto the ground. Blaring ear-splitting music; the deafening dissonance could be heard down the hall, thumbing against the vinyl floor.

You cuffed your headphones over your eyes, eyes wrenched shut as your body pivated back and forth in the chair. The madness and incalculability of the classroom let out a wave of incomprehensible frequency – spilling into the tunnel of your hypersensitivity. You could never tell your classmates to quieten down, your social communication was weak. Eye contact from another individual was enough for you to spiral and abruptly cause a scene. It was any excuse to metamorphosis into a raging tantrum. Each time you were tormented by sound, people, and lack of routine.

Noise grew in the classroom. Paper planes were being manufactured with great focus, flown from A to B whilst brushing the tip of your head along the way. Your breath turned from quiet and regular to a pant and gasp for air. The air had ever so suddenly become thick, the air was too difficult to draw in. Tension grew in your face and abdomen, a primal surge to flee become too overpowering to avoid. Racing to the bathrooms, your stomach contracted so violently you reached the bathroom just in time. Chunks of the morning’s breakfast covered in creamy chyme from your stomach propelled into the toilet, splattering the sides of the basins. Heaving again and again, you were weak and collapsed to your knees and retched.

Not again. Hopefully tomorrow would be better; the teacher would turn up on time.  







2.5A “Perseptives.​”

An inspirational speech doesn’t need the audience to take action. It’s intention is to create an uplifting emotional experience that leaves the audience feeling inspired. The goal of a motivational speech is to motivate an audience to take a specific action, usually in regards to personal or professional growth. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences.  A great speech isn’t just about soaring rhetoric. It’s about structure, timing, message, and other key components Minutes last forever when you’re stuck listening to a boring speaker. We’ve all been there, and with the season of graduations and commencements upon us, many of us will likely be there again. How many times have you heard someone give a talk, and walked away asking yourself, “What was he or she even talking about?” there are many great inspirational and motivational speeches that many of us are yet to know about  Steve Jobs gave a speech in 2005 at Stanford “How to Live Before You Die”. This was a masterful speech organized into three stories: how taking calligraphy courses later impacted the MacBook (a story about connecting the dots), being fired from and returning to Apple (a story about love and loss), and what he learned from his first diagnosis with pancreatic cancer (a story about death). Will Smith: Speech from The Pursuit of Happiness in 2006  J.K. Rowling: gave speech “The Fringe Benefits of Failure, and the Importance of Imagination” in 2008, I’m here to deliver an inspirational speech to you today about two peoples speeches that are extremely important and relevant to us and hopefully you may take some inspiration out of them. A man by the name of prince ea has a degree in anthropology, and writes amazing inspirational speeches and talks about our daily problems as society he said.  Did you know the average person spends 4 years of his life looking down at his cell phone? Kinda ironic isn’t it. How these touch screens make us lose.. Touch. But it’s no wonder in a world filled with iMacs, iPads, and iPhones so many I’s, so many selfies not enough us’s and we’s. see technoloGY has made us more.. Selfish and separate than ever. Cos while it claims to connect us connection has gotten no.. better. Let me express first Mr. Zuckerberg not to be rude but you should reclassify facebook to what it is an anti-social network cos while we may have big friend lists so many of us are friend Less. all alone cause friendships are more broken than the screens on our very phones we sit at home on our computers measuring self worth by numbers of followers and likes. Ignoring those who actually love us it seems i’d rather write an angry post than talk to someone who might actually hug us. Am i bugging? You tell me? cos i asked a friend the other day let’s meet up face to face he said “alright” “what time you wanna skype?” i responded with omg srs and then a bunch of omhs and and i realized what about me? do i not have the patients to have conversation without abbreviation? This is the generation of media overstimulation. Chats have been reduced to snaps. The news is 140 characters. Videos are 6 seconds at high speed and you wonder why ADD is on the rise faster than 4G LTE but get a load of this studies show the attention span of the average adult today is one second lower than that of a goldfish so if you’re one of the few people that have yet to click off or close your mind to what I’m saying congratulations let me finish by saying you do have a choice yes but this one my friends we cannot autocorrect we must do it ourselves. Take control or be controlled. Make a decision me? No longer do I wanna spoil a precious moment by recording it with a phone I’m just gonna keep them. I don’t wanna take a picture of all my meals anymore. I’m just gonna eat them i don’t want the new app, the new software or the new update. And if I wanna post an old photo who says I have to wait until Tuesday? I’m so tired of performing in the pageantry of vanity and conforming to this accepted form of digital insanity call me crazy but i imagine a world where we smile when we have low batteries. Cos that’ll mean were one bar closer to humanity ill let you think about that for a moment. Inspiration from this speech. didn’t come from telling you to what is bad or what is good it was told with what is going wrong given my facts and then saying how it could be better. A man by the name of mark twain once said “i never let my schooling interfere with my education”  it is said that a child educated only in school is an uneducated child. What does that mean? It means that true education is not merely learned through a textbook and the way to prove that one understands something is not merely through a test. This is the old way “the chalk and talk way” the way of memorizing facts and dates, then taking a test and then forgetting about them a week later. What good does that do? A man by the name of Howard Gardner came up with the theory of multiple intelligences. He said that there are auditory learners, kinesthetic learners, people that learn from touch, people that learn through stories, see we all have different gifts and strengths. And to create an educational system where only one type of learning is preferred, is absurd. Not only unfair, but it sacrifices the god given abilities of students; and the good of the world. He said the best advice he could give a student, is figure out how you learn. Just because you failed a test, doesn’t mean your slow. Just because your having a hard time understanding something doesn’t mean its impossible. Because there are no bad students only inflexible teachers. yeah, he went there. He explained that in year three his teacher ms Williams wanted to hold him back she told him he was slow. he said they are not gonna like me saying this but when i was growing up my parents thought that i had mental disabilities. No. i just wasn’t understanding in the way that they were teaching. A few years ago prince ea graduated magna cum laude honors with his degree in anthropology, Anthropology is the study of humans and human behaviour and societies in the past and present. Social anthropology and cultural anthropology study the norms and values of societies. Linguistic anthropology studies how language affects social life. So you can see where his speeches come from his knowledge. He continued to say and ended his speech with The same man who took us to the moon, Wernher von Braun, failed math class twice. See nobody is slow but the secret is you must figure out how you learn and learn everything you can about what you love and i promise life will become a lot easier.

I like to show you a video now this one you want to pay attention to.

“ You are still alive act like it”

A man called Simon Sinek writes inspirational speeches people have said he is the “man everyone loves to listen to”  “when he talks it is impossible not to listen.” This is because he knows what he is saying is true he speaks about things people don’t want to hear he backs himself with facts and talks about the issues of society  “People don’t buy what you do they buy why you do it”

“Great companies don’t hire skilled people and motivate them, they hire already motived people and inspire them,” Simone said he has a clear vision on what he wants the world to be. A vision where the vast majority of people wake up every single morning inspired to go to work or school, feel safe when their there, to return home and to feel good at the end of the day. He once spoke at a conference where he didn’t have a speech prepared he said “I have yet to experience where someone hasn’t asked me the Millennial question, he said the Millennials is a generation which is a group of people who were born approximately in 1984 and after and are tough to manage,  they are accused of being entitled, and narcissistic, self interested, unfocused and lazy but entitled is the big one. And because they confound in leadership so much what’s happening is leaders are asking the Millennials what do you want? And the Millennials are saying we want to work in a place with purpose. Love that. We want to make an impact ya know whatever that means. We want free food and bean bags, these are his words not mine and so somebody articulates some sort of purpose their lots of free food and there are bean bags and for some reason, they’re still not happy. And that’s because there’s a missing piece what I’ve learned is I can break it down into four pieces. There are four characteristics. There’s parenting, the other one is technology, the third is impatient and the fourth is the environment. The generation that we call the Millennials too many of them grew up subject to.. not my words.. failed parenting strategies where for example they were told they were special, all the time, they were told they can have anything they want in life just cause they want it. Some of them got into honors classes not because they deserved it but because their parents complained. Some of them got A’s not because they earned it because the teachers didn’t want to deal with the parents. Some kids got participation medals for coming in last and the science is clear. It devalues the medal and the award and those who actually work hard. And it actually makes those who come in last feel embarrassed because they know they didn’t deserve it so it makes them feel worse. You take this group of people they finish school and get a job. There thrust into the real world and in an instant, they find out there not special, their mums can’t get them a promotion, that you get nothing from coming in last, and by the way, you can’t just have it cause you want it. And in an instant there entire self image is shattered so you have an entire generation that’s growing up with low self-esteem the other problem to compound it is we’re growing up in a facebook Instagram snap chat world so were good at putting filters on things we’re good at showing people that life is amazing even tho I’m depressed right so everybody sounds tough like they got it all figured out but in reality there’s very little toughness and most people don’t have it figured out and the more senior people say well what should we do? This is what you gotta do! Yet they have no clue so you have an entire generation growing up with lower self-esteem than the previous generation right through no fault of their own now let’s add in technology we know that engagement with social media and our cell phones releases a chemical called dopamine so you get a text it feels good right. we’ve all had it when you feel down and a bit lonely you send out 10 texts to ten friends hi hi hi hi hi hi hi hey hey hi cause it feels good when you get a response. It’s why we count the likes it’s why we go back 10 times to see is my Instagram going slower, did I do something wrong, do they not like me anymore? And then there the trauma for us to be unfriended because we know when you get it, you get a hit of dopamine it feels good it’s why we like it. Dopamine is the exact same chemical that makes us feel good when we smoke when we drink and when we gamble. In other words, It’s highly addictive. We have age restrictions on gambling and alcohol and we have no restrictions on social media and cell phones which is equivalent to opening up the liquor cabinet and saying to teenagers and saying oh, by the way, this adolescent thing if it gets you down. That’s basically what’s happening. You have an entire generation that has access to an addictive numbing chemical called dopamine through social media and cell phones as they’re going through the high stress of adolescence why is this important? Almost every alcoholic discovered alcohol when they were teenagers when we’re very young the only approval we need is the approval of our parents and as we go through adolescence we get this transition to get the approval of our peers very frustrating for our parents very important for us it’s a highly highly anxious period of our lives. we’re supposed to learn to rely on our friends. some people quite by accident discover alcohol and the numbing effects of dopamine to help them cope with the stresses and anxieties of adolescence unfortunately that becomes hardwired into their brains and for the rest of their lives when they suffer significant stress they will not turn to a person they will turn to a bottle. Social stress, financial stress, career stress. Pretty much the primaries of why people drink. What’s happening is because we’re allowed unfettered access to these dopamine-producing devices and media is becoming hard-wired and what we’re seeing is as they grow older too many kids don’t know how to form deep meaningful relationships. Their words, not mine, they will admit many of their friendships are superficial they’ll admit they don’t count on their friends, they don’t rely on their friends they have fun with their friends but they also know their friends will cancel on them as soon as something better comes along.  Deep meaningful relationships are not there because they never practiced the skill set worse they don’t have the coping mechanisms to deal with stress. So when significant stress comes into their lives there not turning to a person there turning to a device to social media they turn to things that offer temporary relief, we know the science is clear we know that people who spend more time on facebook suffer higher rates of depression than people who spend less time on facebook these things balance alcohol isn’t bad too much alcohol is bad, gambling is fun, too much gambling is dangerous. There’s nothing wrong with social media and cell phones if you can imbalance. If your sitting at dinner or lunch with your friends and your texting someone that’s not there that’s a problem that’s an addiction and like all addiction in time it will destroy your relationships, it will cost time and it will cost money and it will make your life worse it just like you walk into the classroom the teacher hasn’t arrived yet, and straight away everyone is sitting on there phones, we all sit here like this, teachers here, okay, no! That’s not how relationships are formed. Relationships are not formed through a screen they are not formed through intensity but through interaction and consistency now you add in insensitive patience they’ve grown up in a world with instant gratification you wanna buy something you go on Amazon, it arrives the next day. You wanna watch a movie you long on and watch a movie, you wanna watch a tv show minge you don’t have to wait week to week to week right. I know people that skip seasons just so they can binge at the end of the season instant gratification, if you wanna go on a date you don’t even have to learn to be like heyyy you don’t even have to learn to practise that skill you don’t have to be the uncomfortable one swipe right. you don’t have to learn the social coping mechanisms right, everything you want you to have instantaneously everything you want instant gratification, except job satisfaction, and strength of relationships, there ain’t no app for that. They are slow, uncomfortable and messy proceses. This inpriation speech speaks to many of us here todayn as we are adalesmace stage in our lifes where technology is surrounding us. It is importsnt to remmember to put your phone down for a hour a day, to speak to the people in your lifes without a screen pressed to your face. An inspirational speech doesn’t need the audience to take action. It’s intention is to create an uplifting emotional experience that leaves the audience feeling inspired. The goal of a motivational speech is to motivate an audience to take a specific action, usually in regards to personal or professional growth. Such speakers may attempt to challenge or transform their audiences.  A great speech isn’t just about soaring rhetoric. It’s about structure, timing, message, and other key components because minutes can have an everlasting effect.

2.1 Written Text Essay: The Book Thief

Analyse how language features revealed the writer’s purpose in the written text(s).

Imagery and the point of narration of “Death” imagery helps with the aspects of death

  • Imagery: Colours represent the time of day, experience and feeling when someone dies
  • Personal pronouns: I, Me giving a first-person perspective
  • Questions
  • Repetition

Death states that “I’m always finding humans at their best and worst. I see their ugly and their beauty, and I wonder how the same thing can be both” (Zusak 491).

Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief is a novel that portrays the struggles of a young German girl living in Nazi Germany during the Third Reich. The main character, Liesel Meminger, tries to survive through World War 2 while trying to learn how to read and write. This scared German girl, Liesel, fought and battled to survive in a war-torn society holding her tongue when there was injustice and learning the ropes of living in fear.  Throughout the book the author wants the reader to see that words are not just an idea or story, but a power to control a person’s mind or action but also that words show imagery. this is shown through the narration of death such as personal pronouns and the words that death uses to create images such as colors.

The language features imagery, as well as the power of word, comes together to reveals the writer’s purpose in Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief. Imagery is shown through the narration of death as colors. He states “people observe the colors of a day only at its beginning and ends, but to me its quite clear that a day merges through a multitude of shades and intonations, with each passing moment. A single hour can consist of thousands of different colors. waxy yellows, cloud-spat blues. murky darkness. in my line of work, I make it a point to notice them.” in this line he uses his power of words of colors to create an image of what he sees.  The imagery which is perceived by the reader through death is revealed through colors, in deaths eyes. Colors represent the time of day, the experience of a person(s) dieing but also the feelings of the person(s) death. he looks at the human through colors.

Death is evident throughout the novel and the different individuals that Liesel met throughout the story all shared something in common with her, death. Where people were killed themselves or experienced a tragic loss.. Regardless of what was the cause or how it occurred the connection was the result. Death. For example, the death of both Frau Holtzapfel and Ilsa Hermann sons or the death of everyone on Himmel street. From the death of her foster parents and the passing of her brother, death was always a factor.  Markus Zusak brought together every piece into one strong cohesive idea that is death and the way death was perceived. The author not only uses death as a “character” but he uses it as the narrator. He gives death human-like qualities and emotions. He personifies it as a character who has thoughts and can tell the difference between right and wrong. Death is portrayed as having characteristics of a human but it also inhuman as well. Death’s words are very strong and moving. He doesn’t fall far from the power of words himself. He gives a very strong narration, a very unique style of telling the story, his words consist of pity, envy, and compassion, for example, “Still, they have one thing I envy. Humans, if nothing else, have the good sense to die” (p. 491). therefore, it can be said that he is telling a story that revolves around him. Death is jealous, he is stuck in this world of constant war and hate and there’s no way out.

The power of words is also very crucial.  In the opening of the novel Liesel was a scared young girl and didn’t have much of a voice but as she matured she became a lot stronger and smart with her words. Throughout the stealing of the books from Ilsa Hermann’s library, Markus Zusak reveals through the power of words that is wasn’t just a simple robbery of a book it was much more.  Every visit to Ilsa Hermann’s library and with every book she stole was her way of fighting back and taking what was rightfully hers. Her words. Leisel finds her words not just by stealing from Ilsa Hermanns library but also at different moments such as, standing up to Ilsa Hermann or writing her own book. The power of words can be a very dangerous thing but also can be a positive thing depending on how we use it. It can be used to cause death or used to cause happiness. Leisel had many connections throughout the book such as her foster father Hans, her best friend Rudy, Frau Hotzlphel and max the hiding jew but also with other characters. Through the power of words and death, in the end, Liesel had left were her words, the words she desperately fought to get back but by the cost of her friends and family’s death.

The vast amount of language features that reveal the writer’s purpose in this novel is on every page, such as the power of words, death, and many others. But the most significant two: the power of words and death intertwine with one another. For example, Hitler’s was able to manipulate the minds of Germans to think the only way for Germany to “flourish” was the beliefs of extermination of the Jewish race He used his power of words to strike fear into the heart of many. He didn’t require any sort of gun or military weapon to be feared, with his words he was able to cause the death of millions of human beings.

   

Theme:

Markus Zusak’s novel The Book Thief is a novel that portrays the struggles of a young German girl living in Nazi Germany. The main character, Liesel meminger, tries to survive through World War 2 while trying to learn how to read and write. This scared German girl, Liesel, fought and battled to survive in a war-torn country while holding her tongue when there was injustice and learning the ropes of living in fear. Throughout the book the author wants the reader to see that words are not just an idea or story, but a power to control a person’s mind or action, and this saved Liesel in the end. Markus Zusak, illustrates many different themes but there are two themes that are consistent throughout the book, are death and the power of words, the demonstration of these two themes are redundant throughout the course of the novel and all leading back to Liesel. Liesel Meminger, shows that literature can do much more than a bunch of words on paper, but the power to help people, for example, reading helps relieve stress or trouble, “don’t worry Liesel, Papa said. Just keep reading (105).” Bad nightmares occurred during Liesel’s first few days at the Hubermann household. Hans read to her almost every night to get her nightmares away, “Hans Hubermann sat sleepy-eyed on the bed and Liesel would cry into his arms and breathe him in, (37)” To begin, the narrator of the novel “death” says that Liesel is a girl “with a mountain to climb” (Zusak 86). This quote implies that she is learning to read and write, she has to overcome her struggles and find her words.

2.9 reading response 6: if I stay


“Life might take you down different roads. But each of you gets to decide which one to take.”

If i stay is a film first a novel written by Gayle Forman about grief and survival through a younge womans experance. The main character, Mia  (Chloe Grace Moretz), lives in Portland with her family of musicians. Former rock-star, guitar and drums pounding parents, who now live as a  stay-at-home-mom and schoolteacher. drums the tabletop with spoons even Mia’s little brother is a born rock star. But Mia doesn’t fit the family rockstar mold, She’s embraced the cello, listens to Beethoven instead of Alice in Chains, and is now awaiting the school’s response after auditioning for school at Julliard in New York, Aside from her college and career choices,  she has a loving boyfriend Adam (Jamie Blackley), because he is touring as a lead guitarist/vocalist for his rising rock band Mia struggles in spending time with him “Our lives are lived not just for ourselves but also for others,” her dad says. “We sacrifice for those we love.” Mia’s little brother remarks, “Life isn’t fair.” And her mom adds, “Life is this big, gigantic, stinky mess, and that’s the beauty of it, too. No matter what you choose, you lose something.” I believe because of a common theme lived and taught by her parents: self-sacrifice, Mia and her family get along well.

my thoughts are the director wanted the film to portray how normal your life can be and how it could be forever changed by just one action In this case this action was one truck. One accident and with this accident Mias life impacted forever. This film follows Mia and her experience through a car crash and her life before it. Mia was able to have an outer body experience that enables herself to observe what’s happening all around her, she reflects on herself while she’s in a coma. Mia had to make a choice and decide it is worth it to stay alive? Die and Leave her boyfriend, her grandparents and friends? Or stay and live without her parents and brother? My perspective on the ideas of the film is the main theme of the film is choice. You always have a choice. And it is up to you to decide which choice is the better one, Another theme that intertwines is a sacrifice, Mia had to choose to live on, or give up. Though, with every choice she had, there was a sacrifice that had to be made. 

The element of choice between life or death comes up. “Do you think she decides?”

“Decides what?” Gramps looked uncomfortable. He shuffled his feet. “You know? Decides,” he whispered. An example of choice is shown when Mia realizes she is the one who has to decide whether she gets to stay or go “How am I supposed to decide this? How can I possibly stay without Mom and Dad? How can I leave without Teddy? Or Adam?”  “And that’s how I know. Teddy. He’s gone, too.” I believe the only reason Mia was holding on to life was that she wanted to be there for her brother and her boyfriend Adam after her parents were killed in the crash, but after her brothers passing I think she questioned if Adam was enough for her to keep on fighting?

“Sometimes you make choices in life and sometimes choices make you.”  This is wisdom from Mias Dad, and it can be applied to every choice Mia makes (or doesn’t make) in the film. Life vs. death. Adam vs. music.  Which choices does she make, and which choices make her? “Why can’t someone else decide this for me? Why can’t I get a death proxy?” from my perspective in the film Choosing between life and death is a hard one for Mia, but i questioned would she really want someone else to decide it for her? Her parents did not get a choice.“Dad was wrong. It’s true you might not get to control your funeral, but sometimes you do get to choose your death.”  “Did Mom and Dad decide?” I believe the important word here is “sometimes.” Mia is a rare case. If your brains are splattered across the pavement, like her dad’s were, there is no choice. But with mia she does have the chance to choose life instead of death.

Another example  “… I need to hold his hand… I aim every remaining ounce of energy into my right hand… I summon all the love I have ever felt… and then I squeeze.” this shows me that Mia fought her way out of her coma for Adam and shows she truly did love him.

My thoughts on if I stay is this is a film where I could see how emotionally manipulative it was being to the audience and then occasional I would let it manipulate me anyway where I would suddenly get a little squeamish, it made me think about her life and I believe it makes the audience want to choose for her, you as the audience get to see her past and weigh up the elements of the decision. It also unconsciously made me think about the choices that you make in life and imagine as tho you had been in an accident and wonder what choices you would make for yourself. 

2.4 Wilfred Owen essay

“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.”

 

“Anthem For Doomed Youth” written by Wilfred Owen. Analyses one of the main issues Wilfred strongly holds as a belief is the disapproval of the war because of the number of traumatic experiences and horrific realities of the war he Experienced.  Wilfred Owen represents this through the many language techniques he uses to convey his issues and to help the reader understand the “pity” of war; such as similes, imagery and emotive language.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on 18 March 1893  He was the eldest of Thomas and Harriet Susan’s four children; his siblings were Harold, Colin, and Mary Millard Owen. Wilfred was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry focused on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare.  Wilfred’s work was heavily influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in sharp dissimilarity both to the public cognizance of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published after his death – are “Dulce et Decorum est“, “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility”, “Spring Offensive”,  “Strange Meeting” and “Exposure”

I believe as the reader that Wilfred Owen is trying to illustrate the younger generation is doomed as they think war is glorious, this is shown by the title. “Anthem for doomed youth”   The war portrays that it’s exciting to fight for your country but he’s proclaiming it’s not through the words in his poem such as “The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.”  The images he portrays through his words are graphics and detailed. They make the reader unconsciously imagine the true action of the war. Wilfred Owen details, explains and makes you picture that many soldiers died as in the first sentence of his poem of a simile;  “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” Wilfred uses emotive language throughout his poem to show the grip of the poem and the realization of the reality of the war.

I believe the emotive language Wilfred uses In the poem affect our understanding of what is taking place as he uses intricate words to describe the war and what is taking place such as “demented” and “drawing down of blinds” as well as “orisons” Wilfred portrays the feeling of sorrowful and despair through the descriptive words of actions that played out in the war; “anger of guns” “wailing shires” “sad shires” “goodbyes” “drawing down of blinds” 

The simile Wilfred uses “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” is used to show that Wilfred questioned this as cattle die off in large quantities he relates this to the war through the multitudes of soldiers dying in front of him. The bells are used to represent\tell the town or community the passing\death of someone. Wilfred questions the “passing-bells” as there were no bells fo his fellow soldier’s deaths. wilfred states  ” only monstrous angry of the guns”  and “only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle” showing that the bells were only used for awareness of the enemy of the war and not the enemy of death. 

 

2.9 reading response 5: Mitch James

personal response of Mitch James story of how he came to be a singer-songwriter and his new debut song 21. 

Mitch James is a New Zealand singer-songwriter producing no fixed abode, all the ways to say goodbye, move on, saving time and his new single 21. Mitch James began his musical journey at age 14 by teaching himself the guitar. The Auckland born and bred musician would spend his morning tea and lunch times at Saint Kentigern College using the school’s music room playing guitar, where he learned from YouTube videos. “every moment spent in the music center, just playing guitar.” At age 17, Mitch left school and got a job cleaning cars, saving up enough money for a one-way ticket to London, where he hoped to build an audience. Arriving in London with a £20 note, zero contacts and no experience performing live, he attended open mic nights, hoping to land a paid performance gig. However, the Ed Sheeran blueprint Mitch was influenced by, of going to London and gigging every night to land a recording contract, didn’t get off to a good start. “I didn’t realise that the tube into London was more than £20 so I had to jump the barrier, got off at Hyde Park, jumped the barrier there, then the hostel I was staying at was £18 a night, so I went and got a bottle of water, slept, woke up and started busking the next day.” After the rude awakening experience of his first day in London, Mitch took up busking as his everyday work, barely earning enough for dinner and a hostel bed. Many times he would ask at his gigs “has anyone got a couch for me to stay on.” Eventually, he landed a paying gig, but after only a few months, the venue shut down, and Mitch began busking around Europe, before ending his three-year venture in Europe and returning home. Instead of returning to Auckland, Mitch moved down south to Dunedin, where he posted covers of songs on his YouTube channel. Fellow Kiwi artist MAALA recommended him to Sony, who later signed him. On December 2, 2016, his debut single “No Fixed Abode,” which is a reflection of his time in Europe, was released. A week later, his second single “Move On” was released, which picked up nation-wide airplay in New Zealand. After both singles received millions of streams on Spotify, Mitch announced that he would release his debut EP in 2017. “There are 3 flats together on Castle St, 1 where my mates stayed, 1 where I stayed on the couch and 1 with a girl I used to sort-of see. My mates were idiots and stole their quiches, broke windows, the whole 9 yards. I was the middleman for all of this shit.”

 

Mitch James recent song 21 which I believed to be about how he wants to go back to the age of 21 and how he remembers the old times; with his ex-girlfriend, smoking, drinking, questioning that he is missing home and how he thinks he’s lost at the age of 23. “Stealing bottles that we’d drink out in the street Pulling smoke into our lungs, Who would have thought I’d be so lost at 23? Oh lord, take me back to 21” I hear the ake in his voice and the questioning he’s asking himself through the lyrics. I felt a connection to this song as I feel it relates to the generation I am growing up in, it reflects on how you should value each stage of your life and the actions/decisions you make as decisions had choices and choices have consequences, good and bad. 

mitch James shows gutty determination, and belief in himself, he shows his audience that if you have a goal or dream, take the chance, take the long road, try and never give up cause that dream can always turn into reality. 

overall my personal opinion on the song 21 by Mitch James, is emotional, inspiration, specific, and he uses his expression of his feelings through lyrics and chords. 

 

[Verse 1]

I thought about the place tonight

Where we both used to drink

And I remember when a neighbour broke your window

And when it used to rain

The water wore away the paint and left a puddle on the floor under your table

How ya been since the last time that I saw you?

‘Cause I think about it often

And I miss you if I’m honest

 

[Pre-Chorus]

Yeah, I think I’m doing fine, but I don’t know

‘Cause the nights can get so cold

And I’m always thinking back to when we were

 

[Chorus]

Stealing bottles that we’d drink out in the street

Pulling smoke into our lungs

Who would have thought I’d be so lost at 23?

Oh lord, take me back to 21

 

[Verse 2]

I know it’s not that long, but it seems longer on my own

And I am missing home, more than you could know

And yeah, I bet that nothing’s changed

The place will always stay the same

I wish I could say the same about me though

Do you remember us the same way that I do?

Do you think about it often?

‘Cause it’s all I seem to do

 

[Pre-Chorus]

Yeah, I think I’m doing fine, but I don’t know

‘Cause the nights can get so cold

And I’m always thinking back to when we were

 

[Chorus]

Stealing bottles that we’d drink out in the street

Pulling smoke into our lungs

Who would have thought I’d be so lost at 23?

Oh lord, take me back to 21

Oh lord, take me back to 21

 

[Chorus]

Stealing bottles that we’d drink out in the street

Pulling smoke into our lungs

Who would have thought I’d be so lost at 23?

Oh lord, take me back to 21

Oh lord, take me back to 21

Oh lord, take me back to 21

 

 

 

 

2.9 reading response 4: Still Me

“You shut down a library Louisa, you don’t just shut down a building, you shut down hope.”

―  jojo Moyes , Still Me

Jojo Moyes’s character Louisa Clark returns following Me Before You and After You in a new novel that follows the irresistible Lou as she travels from her home in England to New York City, where she is hired by the multi millionaire Mr Gopnik in order to be an assistant to his much younger wife Agnes. Jojo Moyes portrays Louisa Clark as a  fashionista, funky and quirky young woman who wears her heart on her sleeve. Lous humorous yet touching interactions with ever-friendly Ashok and neighbor Ms De Witt highlight her humanity and desire to fully live her life. As Lou is exposed to the lifestyle of the very rich, she maintains her integrity and discovers that the benefits of wealth cannot guarantee real happiness. Moyes’s many readers will be enlightend by the humor,  realistic and well-developed characters such as Ms De-Witt and Ashok as well as louisa herself

“You always have one foot in two places. You can never be truly happy because, from the moment you leave, you are two selves, and wherever you are one half of you is always calling to the other.”  ― jojo moyes, Still Me

Jojo tells us about Louisa after Will’s death in the sequel “after you”  An accident forces Lou to return home to her family, she can’t help but feel she’s right back where she started. Even though her body heals, Lou knows that she needs to get back to living her life following Wills words to “ live boldly, push yourself, don’t settle, just live well, just live”   Which is how she ends up in a church basement with the members of the Moving On support group including a young boy who helps her find love again after Will, the one man who might be able to understand her. Then a figure from Will’s past appears and ruins all her plans, driving her into a very different future… For Lou Clark, life after Will Traynor means learning to fall in love again, with all the risks that brings getting over the grief of Will and continuing on with her life through meeting Wills unknown daughter and sam the handsome paramedic

“Still me” the third book of the series,  Louisa has left her too-perfect paramedic boyfriend Sam on the other side of the ocean and is ready for her new life in new york. Throughout the novel Jojo continues to relate the novels catchphrase  “Live boldly” Where Lou follows Wills advise and pursues to fully live her life! She says, “I looked up through gritty eyes and there it was across the Brooklyn Bridge — Manhattan — shining like a million jagged shards of light; awe-inspiring, glossy, impossibly condensed and beautiful, a sight that was so familiar from television and films that I couldn’t quite accept I was seeing it for real.” the reader gets a peak on New York’s skyscraper-high society: “glamorous charity balls, exclusive luncheons, and a gleaming house buzzing with cleaners, florists, pet behaviorists” However, characters emerge, weighing down the excitement: from Ashok, the big-hearted doorman, to Tab, the Gopniks’ daughter, to Ilaria the maid to the Gopniks themselves and the fashion queen Ms De-Witt. Moyes doesn’t spend enough time with anyone in Louisa’s life and so their predicaments feel paper-thin. Louisa helps ease Agnes Gopnik’s discomfort as an outsider in a new social class, as the young, second bride of Leonard Gopnik Meanwhile, paramedic boyfriend Sam’s new co-worker, “who sounds and looks like Pussy Galore,” seems to be angling for more than a work relationship. Louisa is torn between her life in england with her handsome boyfriend as well as the time she spent morning over Will and the new life in new york with the advise of Wills words to live boldly.  Louisa’s sympathetic nature and her easy humor that stands up even during tough times are endearing qualities. By the time Louisa takes the advice from a no-nonsense neighbor ms De-Witt, “You know, I think at some point, dear, you’re going to have to work out who Louisa Clark really is,” Louisa learns she going to have to find herself, this time by her own and without Will Traynor or Paramedic Sam.

Throughout the novel Jojo moyes makes the readers continuously think and refer back to Will Traynor and his message of “live boldly” despite not being mentioned at certain times this makes me as reader think about all of lives hardest choices and with choice comes sacrifice. 

2.9 reading response 3: Me Before You

“Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.” – Will Traynor Me before you”

Jojo Moyes’s character Louisa Clark is brought to live in the novel ‘me before you’ that follows the irresistible Lou through one of the most memorable and important times in her life. Jojo Moyes portrays Louisa Clark as a  fashionista, funky and quirky young woman who wears her heart on her sleeve. Lou and her humorous yet touching interactions with quadriplegic Will Traynor and nurse Nathan highlight her humanity and desire to fully live her life. As Lou is exposed to the lifestyle of the paraplegic, she maintains her integrity and discovers that the benefits of living cannot guarantee real happiness. Moyes’s many readers will be enlighted by the humour, realistic and well-developed characters such as Will Traynor and Nathan as well as Louisa herself.

The message Jojo Moyes continues to portray in her novel is to live boldly! The first novel Me before you is a moving and emotional novel also created into a film which tells of how a young lady named Louisa Clarke takes up the job of looking after and brightening the spirits of a young paralyzed man named Will Trainer. It is a funny, creative and exciting film that will have you laughing and crying at the same time.

Will was a young business executive and extreme sports enthusiast whose life was forever changed two years earlier when he was hit by a motorcycle while crossing the street, leaving him almost completely paralyzed. Will is filled with resentfulness, he has an unfriendly attitude over losing his once-wonderful life. He also struggles with chronic pain and finds little joy in existing anymore.  Lou has never fully lived; Will has, but no longer can. In Lou, Will discovers an unexpected outlet for his energies: teaching her how to exert her own individualism. “You cut yourself off from all sorts of experiences because you tell yourself you are not that sort of person ” he scolds her. “You’ve done nothing, been nowhere. How do you have the faintest idea what kind of person you are?” Frustrated by her inaction, he rails “Promise me you won’t spend the rest of your life stuck around this bloody parody of a placemat.” “Then tell me where I should go,” Lou replies. Deciding that the only chance she has of getting Will to take an interest in his own future is to make him take an interest in hers, Lou then learns the truth about why she was hired as Will made his mother promise to take him to an assisted suicide facility in six months to end his life after a previous suicide attempt. Lou is intended to be a ray of sunshine to dispel the storm clouds that lend to Wills sagging spirits and boost his desire to live. Lou is set on making Will happy and changing his mind about his decision by heading to the racetrack, taking him to a Mozart concert, accompanying him to his ex fiances and ex best friends wedding and going on a swoony trip to Mallorca were they both find love, But love wasn’t the cure to Wills decision,  Before his death, Will writes Lou a letter that specifically requests that it only be opened while Lou is at a Paris café. So she goes. The letter says that Will has left Lou a small amount of money so she can go back to school and follow her dreams. It also expresses Will’s sadness at causing her pain, though he hopes that she will emerge from the other end of her grief as a better person. Will tells her to “live boldly”  “You’re going to feel uncomfortable in your new world for a bit. But I hope you feel a bit exhilarated too. Live boldly. Push yourself. Don’t settle. Just live well. Just live. Love, Will.”

The character i liked most in the film Me Before You written by Jojo Moyes was Louisa Clarke/Ms Clarke. lou taught me that anything is possible if you can believe in it, Louisa had a high desire of determination to succeed at connecting to the other main character Will Trainer. Louisa was a very outgoing, funky, stay at home character who enjoyed a quiet life. I enjoyed reading about Louisa because she was kind, she gave more to her job than she was asked to and was a fun character to read, she wore funky clothes, always had a bright smile and always wore her heart on her sleeve.

In the novel the setting made me realize how beautiful other parts of the world can be. The novel was set in the countryside of england on a family’s castle estate surrounded by a village with beautiful gardens and lovely scenery. In one part of the novel they go up to the castle and look down at the grounds below and imaged life in a different way. That is when i realised that life can be hard but there are many good points to living and that the world is beautiful even if your looking at it in a different way like Will Traynor did.

“Clarke this is my decision” Will Trainer decided to end his life by his own choice with support by his family and a medical team in switzerland. “I gave them six months” Will was a very persistent person and kept to his decision to end his life in spite of the feelings of his family and the one he loved. I think this relates to euthanasia know as the practice of intentionally ending one’s own life in order to relieve pain and suffering, in some countries there is a divisive public controversy over the moral, ethical, and legal issues of euthanasia which is being discussed around the world. Will decided to end his own life due to emotional and physical pain from being paralyzed and being in a wheelchair and the thought of the past and the experiences he insured.

Throughout the novel Jojo moyes makes the readers continuously think and refer back to Will Traynor and his message of “live boldly” despite not being mentioned at certain times this makes me as the  reader think about  the reality of the way thousands of people living with disabilities live and feel shown by Will, as well as the anxieties and holdbacks everyone experience in there life shown by louisa.  

The idea the novel Me Before You i believe portrayed is you can still take a chance even though you might lose. Louisa Clarke knew she was going to lose the life she was dreaming of by losing Will but she still took a chance at loving him. This taught me that even though you might lose you should still take a chance at trying cause you never know what might happen.

I really enjoyed reading the novel Me Before You and looking through the eyes of the characters. It was a very moving, and emotional novel filled with laughter, and a lot of tears that brought the charatiritcs of the charators alive and made us as the reader feel theres emotions!

“ you only get one life, It’s actually your duty to live it as fully as possible”- Will Traynor Me Before You

2.9 reading responce 2: Wilfred Owen

“My subject is War, and the pity of War. The Poetry is in the pity.” – Wilfred owen

“Anthem For Doomed Youth” written by Wilfred Owen. Analyses one of the main issues Wilfred strongly holds as a belief; the disapproval of the war. this is because of the number of traumatic experiences and horrific realities of the war, he had and was experiencing.  Wilfred Owen represents this through the many language techniques he uses to convey his issues and to help the reader understand the “pity” of war; such as similes, imagery, emotive language and comparisons.

Wilfred Edward Salter Owen was born on 18 March 1893  He was the eldest of Thomas and Harriet Susan’s four children; his siblings were Harold, Colin, and Mary Millard Owen. Wilfred was an English poet and soldier. He was one of the leading poets of the First World War. His war poetry focused on the horrors of trenches and gas warfare.  Wilfred’s work was heavily influenced by his mentor Siegfried Sassoon and stood in sharp dissimilarity both to the public cognizance of war at the time and to the confidently patriotic verse written by earlier war poets such as Rupert Brooke. Among his best-known works – most of which were published after his death – are “Dulce et Decorum est”, “Insensibility”, “Anthem for Doomed Youth”, “Futility”, “Spring Offensive”,  “Strange Meeting” and “Exposure”

I believe as the reader that Wilfred Owen is trying to illustrate the younger generation is doomed as they think war is glorious, this is shown by the title. “Anthem for doomed youth” as anthem is defined as an uplifting song, doomed is defined as unfortunate and inescapable outcome where youth is defined as the leaders of the future. Three very different words coming together to show that the leaders of the future are “doomed” as war is not all that glorious. The war portrays that it’s exciting to fight for your country but wilfred is proclaiming it’s not through the words in his poem such as “The shrill, demented choirs of wailing shells; And bugles calling for them from sad shires.”  The images he portrays through his words are graphics and detailed. Wilfred make the reader unconsciously imagine the true action and feelings of the war. Wilfred Owen details, explains and makes you picture that many soldiers died he describes this through the first sentence of his poem of a simile;  “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” Wilfred uses emotive language throughout his poem to show the grip of the poem and the realization of the reality of the war as well as comparisons to show the difference between war and life

The simile Wilfred uses “What passing-bells for these who die as cattle?” is used to show that Wilfred questioned the war as cattle die off in large quantities he relates this to the war through the multitudes of soldiers dying in front of him. The bells are used to represent\tell the town or community the passing\death of someone. Wilfred questions the “passing-bells” as there were no bells for his fellow soldier deaths. wilfred states  ” only monstrous angry of the guns” and “only the stuttering rifles rapid rattle” showing that the bells were only used for awareness of the enemy of the war and not the enemy of death.

I believe the emotive language Wilfred uses In the poem affect our understanding of what is taking place. It also gives us imagery of what is happening at the time, wilfred  uses intricate words to describe the war, the feelings he has of the war and his experience such as “monstrous”; “demented” and “drawing down of blinds” as well as “orisons” Wilfred portrays the feeling of sorrowful and despair through the descriptive words of actions that played out in the war; “anger of guns” “wailing shires” “sad shires” “goodbyes” and “drawing down of blinds”  The poem can be read in two parts that in the first octet wilfred owen makes a catalogue of the sound of war, the weapons of destruction such as “guns”; “rifles” and “shells” which are links to religious imagery such as “orisons”; “bells” and “prayers” , in the second stanza wilfred owen explains a different point of view of the war; the families of those who died in the war such as “candles”; “holy glimmers”; “goodbyes” and “drawing down of blinds” The emotive language used helps us imagine the war and what was happening through wilfred owen’s point of view.

Wilfred owen uses a lot of comparisons throughout the poem, one of these is a simile between what would happen to a soldier killed in battle and a typical funeral in a church. For example he compares the noise of gunfire and church bells. The rapid rifle fire and the prayers. The wailing of shells and the choirs, Additionally wilfred owen compares the events of war burial rituals. Wilfred describes how those in war do not receive proper funerals. In the first stanza owen references the “monstrous anger of the guns” to “passing bells”  and “rapid rattle” to “hasty orisons” usually at funerals or ceremonies for the dead there are bells ringing and prayers being said. But wilfred explains the concept that at war there are only the sounds of guns being fired and at war instead of honoring those who have fallen, more are being killed by the same weapons

After reading “Anthem for doomed youth” the readers entire perspective on war can be changed, wilfred owen paints the horror of war in sensational manner that gets his message across to the audience well, through his poem owen gently influences the readers thoughts on war and those who fight in it.

2.9 Reading response 1: The Book Thief

The Book Thief

“A girl, some words, an accordionist, some fanatical Germans, a Jewish fist-fighter, and quite a lot of thievery.” written by Markus Zusak a brilliant novel, “the book thief”  achingly sad, and an intricately structured book about Nazi Germany, narrated by death itself. It is 1939, in Nazi Germany, “death has never been busier and will become busier still”, Death tells a story of a young girl named Liesel, Liesel’s life is changed when her little brother dies just before Liesel’s mother leaves her with foster parents in a dismal town in southern Germany.

“You will know me well enough and soon enough, depending on a diverse range of variables. It suffices to say that at some point in time, I will be standing over you, as genially as possible. Your soul will be in my arms. A color will be perched on my shoulder. I will carry you gently away.” I am introduced to this death-as-storyteller concept that begins “the book thief” Death narrates this story, describes main characters and gives his own opinion about humans. In the book thief, we have a kinder, gentler death, who feels sympathy for his victims. In page one death writes himself as; “I can be amicable. Agreeable. Affable. And that’s only the A’s.” Markus Zusak writes of death and the way the book is narrated by death gives a “unique and compassionate voice to a narrator who can comment on Human’s inhumanity to Human without being ponderous.” I hear the depth of German life – which is one aspect of what makes this book so interesting and gripping. From the point of view of Death I see the world – and the war, through the detail Markus Zusak manages to convey in this “great literary masterpiece of a novel”.

my perseptive on the main character Liesel also know as “the book thief” she is a brave, inspiring character that makes young adult readers fall in love with her personality and determination. Death says that Liesel is the girl “with a mountain to climb.” Liesel’s first mountain to climb is learning to read. “And she loved the fact that despite her failure in the classroom, her reading and writing were definitely improving and would soon be on the verge of something respectable” I believe Liesels main mountain to climb is the way she is passing from being illiterate to understand how powerful words can be. I found that Liesel is a strong independent 9-year-old girl, she stands up for herself and is kind-hearted. Liesel’s birth mother could not afford to care for Liesel or her brother any longer so she thought that the best thing to do for her children was to send them to a better family. On the way to the foster home, Liesel’s brother died, i believe this would be the first of many deaths Liesel would have to encounter over the next couple of years. Later, Liesel attended her brother’s funeral where she stole her first book called, The Grave Digger’s Handbook. This is when the narrator; Death met Liesel for the first time. After her brother’s death and burial, she is taken to live with foster parents Rosa and Hans Huberman. she becomes best friends with the “lemon sunshine-haired” boy who lives down the road and connects with the “ghost” in the basement 

i found Hans Huberman to be a kind-hearted, warm and caring character who Liesel looked up to as a fatherly figure, i read Hans as a sympathetic man who represents self- sacrifice and wisdom of experience. Hans has many talents such as painting and playing the accordion which is shown throughout the novel, Hans was a huge influence on Liesel and taught her how to read and the importance of words. “Sometimes I think my papa is an accordion when he looks at me and smiles and breathes, I hear the notes.” 

As I read I found Rosa Huberman, on the other hand, is harsh, strict and complicated at times. Rosa Huberman rules the household with an iron fist, she has a quick temper and is known for straightening out previous foster children, however, though she often swears at Liesel, I think she cares very much for her as well as her husband Hans. Death describes rosa as “an attribution of Rosa Hubermann, she was a good woman for a crisis.” Rosa implicates to be like a sour woman with her wooden spoons and constant scolding at the beginning of the novel, though towards the end Rosa changes from a mean foster mother to a comforter and even a role model.

Rudy Steiner was Liesel’s lemon/sunshine-haired best friend and partner in crime. I found Rudy was an amazing, beautiful, relentlessly loyal and inspiring character in the Book Thief and had “bony legs, sharp teeth, gangly blue eyes, and hair the colour of a lemon” Rudy wanted to be the “faster runner alive” and looked up to and adored the famous Jesse Owens; Jesse Owens was an American track-and-field athlete who won four gold medals at the 1936 Berlin Olympic Games. Rudy admired Jesse Owens so much that he painted himself with charcoal and tried to reenact the race where Jesse won a gold medal. “He smeared the charcoal on, nice and thick, till he was covered in black.” “I was being Jesse Owens, He answered as though it was the most natural thing on earth to be doing.” “You know, Papa, the Black Magic one.”  “I just wish I was like Jesse Owens, Papa.” Rudy, “the boy who refuses to fear the opposite sex” loves Liesel from the moment he meets her, befriends her and can’t help asking her for a kiss any chance he gets,  i believe with his daring, carefree, and kind attitude and  his love for adventure and reckless schemes, he is the perfect best friend for Liesel.

Max Vandenburg is a Jewish man and is the son of the man who saved Hans Huberman’s life in world war 1.  Max’s father is also the owner of the accordion Liesel adored, and looked to as safety and reassurance.  The Huberman family take in the risk of hiding max in their basement due to a promise Hans Huberman made to Max’s father before his death. Throughout max’s time in the Huberman basement, Max and Liesel become close friends and I believe are similar in ways. They share a history of fist-fighting and a respect for words. They both have nightmares about their pasts, and they both see Hans Hubermann and his accordion as a source of safety. Max writes books for Liesel about all that she has done for him and about how her words and her tears are able to save him and give him strength. He and Liesel become great friends during their time together.

I read Liesel’s gradual shift from frightened, to accepting, to strong, shows bravery is born from experience. Death tells a story of Liesel and her life through the time of Nazi, Germany. From stealing a ham from Otto Sturm who was delivering the ham to the priests, to hiding Max who was a Jew, To when Liesel risked her life for Frau Holtzapfel’s and her son’s safety. “While Liesel sometimes joins up with a gang to steal food, her only thieving passion is for books. Not good books or bad books — just books. from her bedroom to the bomb shelter down the road, reading helps her commune with the living and the dead — and finally, it is the mere existence of stories that prove to be her salvation” (John Green).

After a bombing where there were no sirens, Liesel found out she was the only one on Himmel Street who had survived. “There was only one body now, on the ground, and Liesel lifted him up and hugged him. She wept over the shoulder of Hans Hubermann. Goodbye, Papa, you saved me. You taught me to read. No one can play like you. I’ll never drink champagne. No one can play like you. Her arms held him. She kissed his shoulder- she could not bear to look at his face anymore- and she placed him down again. The book thief wept until she was gently taken away”.  Although Liesel was the only one who had served on Himmel street she stayed strong for herself. I think The pain that Liesel had experienced in her early years, gave her a sense of bravery for the future.

Throughout the book, I belive Liesel turns from a scared young girl who barely talks, to a confident woman with a strong opinion about life where her courage and bravery made an impact on everyone around her. I found Liesel was an inspiring character in the novel, many messages are portrayed through Liesel’s actions throughout the novel and Towards the end of the book, Liesel’s courage and strength are admirable. Liesel shows me that if she could survive this horrible event, that anyone could. It teaches readers around the world to keep trying and eventually they will have the courage to stick up to some of life’s hardest problems. Everyone she loved and cared about died and she had nowhere to turn to. Instead of giving up, she kept fighting which makes her an extremely brave character with determination with admirable qualities.