The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon -- first 25 pages

The Shadow of the Wind, by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, is an amazing novel that places the reader in a sort of acid trip as different characters are introduced and their memories are displayed and the memories of someone else are shown within the memory of the first minor character. The protagonist's search for information on the unknown author, Julian Carax, and the few books he wrote.

Judging from this first section, do you think that when the protagonist, Daniel, will end up with the blind woman who is about twice his age -- from when they first met-- ?

Is it possible that Barcelo is the one who is trying to burn all of Julian Carax's books?

Theme in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis

The story of the four Pevensie children and their adventure from England to the country of a parallel universe known as Narnia. The theme of not trusting strangers (among others that will not be mentioned in this blog) is significant in the novel as twice in the book, there is a betrayal between two strangers. The white witch - formerly known as Jadis - persuades Edmund Pevensie to join her on her conquest of Narnia. As the story of Edmund and Jadis progresses, Edmund realizes that he is equvalent to a slave to her. He is mistreated in many ways and nearly loses his life when Jadis wants him killed. Edmund then realizes that she is the true evil of Narnia and joins his brother, sisters, and all the creatures of Narnia in the fight against her. Were Edmund not to trust the white witch - who was a stranger to him - he would not have helped her do bad things.

I enjoyed reading this book so much that the fourth grade was not the only time I read the text. This book quenched my thirst of good fiction.

Why did Edmund stay on the side of the which even after knowing how terrible she was?

The Da Vinci Code Theme by Dan Brown : adventure / human individuality

The Da Vinci Code, by Dan Brown, is focused on adventure - as the theme. The Da Vinci Code, like other novels, begins with an introduction to the problem and the characters. From there, the story unfold into a nose dive into the depths of the unknown and, sometimes, unexplored. Robert Langdon, the main protagonist, goes through an adventure to find the killer of the grandfather of Sophie Neveu - his companion. Through the novel, Langdon deciphers clues to get closer to the truth about Neveu's heritage and what her very existence means to the Catholic Church. Brown wrote this novel in segments that make the story resemble that of a movie in which the audience is at the situation of one character and is then shifted to that of another. Through this, one can see the way each character's personality is different and how each character has their own motivation to take a certain action.

I enjoyed reading this book as it was hardly boring or slow and the by the way Dan Brown wrote this piece of writing - resembling that of a movie - he makes it difficult for a reader to want to take a break.

Why were so many Catholics upset about this book - and its movie - when it is a work of fiction?

Third Chunk AKA chapters 5 & 6

In chapter 5, Levitt tries to figure out what makes a perfect parent. He explains that no book can teach a person how to be a parent. He claims that there are many statistics that a parent does not know that could be very helpful when it comes to letting their child play with who. He gives an example in which the child can play in either a friend's house with a pool or at a friend's house where there is a gun. He states that the hypothetical character's parents made a smart decision in protecting their child by letting her play at the friend with a pool than at a friend with a gun. He then gives his statistics "In a given year, there is one drowning of a child for every 11,000 residential pools in the United States. (In a country with 6 million pools, this means that roughly 550 children under the age of ten drown each year.) Meanwhile, there is 1 child killed by a gun for every 1 million plus guns. (In a country with an estimated 200 million guns, this means that roughly 175 children under ten die each year from guns.)" Later on, he claims that a child's genetics accounts for the child's behavior and such, but later he states that parents can make a difference in such a way that it seems that he does not really answer the question unless you ignore everything except the fact that parents should know more statistics or just keep an eye on their child themselves.

In chapter 6, Levitt attempts an answer to Would a Roshanda by Any Other Name Smell as Sweet? - or basically Does the child's name have anything to do with the their future. Simply put, the answer is no. Levitt mentions of a situation where a man names one child winner and another loser. Winner becomes a loser and Loser becomes successful. He then goes on about "blackest" names and "whitest" names, but in the end he claims that genetics and other factors in the person's background determine their chance for success.

Tone : serious

Rhetorical Strategies : Appeal to logic through statistics and some humour.

Questions : Since people's names don't determine their ability to succeed, then why do people categorize by name?
With no real unrisky paranting situation, how can a parent protect their child while not allowing the child to become too dependent?

Freakonomics Chapter 3 and 4 A.K.A. Chunk 2

Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner in the third chapter tackle the issue of drug dealers and why they still live with their mothers. Levitt describes how someone he knew from the University did research on the gangs and drug dealers for sociology. Levitt, as an economist, was asked by the sociologist to help him with a notebook given given to him by one of the members. Levitt looked through it and realized that drug dealing is run like any other business - Levitt compares it to McDonald's. According to Levitt, at the bottom are the people that stand at street corners waiting to run at a threat or sell his merchandise, then there are the ringleaders of the gangs - who don't sell drugs, but do distribute the money within the small sector, then there are the ones at the top - the ones that get the most out of it (of course there are people in between these three, but they are not necessary for this precis). The notebook contained numbers that explained the distribution of the money. From this information, Levitt discovered that the actual dealers aren't rich because they get a very small portion of the earnings - they work at about $3.30 an hour - and they need to take second jobs. Clearly minimum wage makes a person struggle to find a home so how difficult would it be at $3.30 an hour? Thus, the low pay for the dealers means that they can't even rent a place so what other choice do they have but to live with their mothers?
In chapter 4, Levitt and Dubner argue that the reason that there was a decrease in criminal activity in the late 1990s and early 2000 was not so much a larger police force or new ways to find who the criminals are, but that there was a case earlier in the topic of abortion. Levitt argues that because abortion was legalized, all of those children who would have been born - and because the parents did not want them, were drug abusers, and/or were raped - unloved and this is a serous marker of deliquency. Most, if not all, of these children who were not born would have become the next generation of crime, but because they were not born, there was not way they could comitt murder or any other criminal activities.

Tone: serious and excited (from saying all of these realizations)

Rhetorical Strategies : appeal to logic, use of numbers & statistics

Questions: Why do people work as a drug dealer if the pay is not good and they would be better off working at McDonald's at minimum wage?
Why can abortion not be controlled rather than legal or illegal?

Freakonomics Precis

Freakonomics, by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner, is about applying economic questions to normal everyday life. Steven Levitt - the economist - first applied his questioning to school teachers and sumo wrestlers. He claims that everyone wants to take the advantage, to take the upper hand. Levitt found a series of answers from a classroom. According to Levitt, there are teachers who help their students cheat to gain a bonus for an increase in class testing or getting that promotion he/she wanted. According to Levitt, sumo wrestlers enjoy staying at the top of the food chain, so they work together to stay there. Levitt claims that they switch off wins in order to all stay at the top. The entire first chapter compared the sumo wrestlers and the school teachers and ends concluding that they cheat in order to keep the advantage. The KKK was an organization that was based at first in terrorism and later in secrecy. They take advantage of others' ignorance. Real estate agents sell houses at a certain price and they, according to Levitt, settle for less because they don't gain as much at a higher price. A chart in the second chapter displays the decrease in the lynching of blacks over the years. This shows that it is working. The Real Estate Agent would sell their house at a higher price because they are the ones that gain the most. In the second chapter, Levitt compares the KKK to real estate agents and concludes that they both take advantage of others' ignorance.

Tone: excited and fast, the author placed the information in much the same way that one puts known information and makes connections that are important to them.

Rhetorical Strategies: 1. The use of statistics (the lynching chart)
2. The author uses the logical appeal as the information itself appears to be the workings inside of a person's mind.

Question: Why does the finnancial system work against the ignorant? How can a person use this knoledge and find a way to take advantage of the cheaters without blackmail?

Next Assignment

I await the next one