Book Review- Snow Bound

Snow Bound is an exciting tale written by Harry Mazer. The story takes place on Tug Hill in New York. It begins with a character, Tony, and goes on to discuss another one named Cindy. The two strangers become lost in the wilderness for an extremely long and cold ten days. Throughout these days, Tony and Cindy show many points about themselves.
Tony is around fifteen years old and new to his physical appearance as a teenager. He has just grown four inches, body hair, and unfortunately, pimples on his face. Although he seems to be spoiled, his imagination and determination also stand out. Tony also believes everything happens for a reason, like finding his dog, King Arthur. (p.11) He loves this dog more than anyone or anything else and is heartbroken when his dad chases King Arthur away. (p.18) Tony’s motivation forces him to take his mother’s Plymouth to find the dog. In my opinion, Tony is especially stubborn; however, I can understand the need to find someone or something can be especially important.
Cindy must be around the same age as Tony, but with a completely different personality and body build. First of all, she is a little bit on the chunky side and in this sense is very unfashionable. Second, because of these characteristics, Cindy is self-hating, which in return makes her unsociable and unfriendly. She has lived without a mother since she was three and visiting her grandma only makes her feel lonelier. She is just going to board the train from her grandmother’s, when she finds out the train will be late. Her motivation makes her feel the need to find a different way home, hitch hiking. My opinion of Cindy is relatively the same as of Tony; she is stubborn, but also cold-hearted. I do not understand how anyone can isolate themselves from society the way she does. (p.26)
Both characters wind up getting lost in the wilderness, when Tony picks Cindy up as a hitchhiker. Their wreck evolves when Tony tries to impress Cindy. (p.41) As they sit in the wrecked car, they become cold, so they turn on the heat. After they run out of gas, they make a fire in the trunk and use the blanket they found to cover up. Soon enough, the two are hungry, but Cindy has cookies that her grandma made. The next morning finally comes, and the characters are hoping for help to save them. They hear a helicopter, but the driver inside does not see them, this causes Tony to go find help. He leaves Cindy at the car in hopes someone will come back to save her. Tony finds a cabin with supplies in it and takes it back to Cindy. They sleep the night in the car and head for the cabin in the morning. The next morning they make their way to the cabin, however they make it to a campground not too far from town. As they walk over the hill an elderly woman sees them through her window and calls 911. As a result, the characters were saved and became very close friends. The past events changed each character in many ways. Tony went from being stubborn to actually caring, and Cindy realized like is not as difficult when talking to people. They both learned a piece of valuable knowledge.

Book Review: One Flew Over The Cuckoo's Nest

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest was published in 1962 and written by Ken Kesey. Kesey was inspired by his part time job, an ­­orderly in a Palo Alto Veterans’ hospital, and by a creative writing program at Stanford University. While writing the book, Kesey was experimenting with LSD, which made him hallucinate. These hallucinations influenced the narrator, Chief Bromden. (http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kkesey.htm) One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is based around a theme of man versus the outside world, also known as society. Throughout the entire story, a character by the name of McMurphy attempts to overcome his surrounding environment. He checks into the institution to get out of work at a farm, but soon realizes his plan is not working out. He then attempts to break out, but returns within weeks in a coma because of a lobotomy. Chief Bromden smothers him with a pillow to put him out of his misery (Book).

One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest is very mind challenging. Sometimes I found myself lost, but most of the time I could keep on track. Kesey uses such description that made me feel as though I was there myself. The twist at the end with the Chief and McMurphy came to a sudden surprise to me, but being a strong believer in putting people and animals out of their misery it came as a good one.

The only part of One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest I did not care for was the lobotomy scenes. I learned a great deal about them and I can officially say I am against them. I have such a strong feeling about this, and I feel as though it is murder of the human mind. However, I enjoyed this book so much, that I am eager to read it again and would suggest it to anyone.

References:
(2003). Ken (Elton) Kesey (1935-2001). Retrieved November 23, 2007 from http://www.kirjasto.sci.fi/kkesey.htm

Other Sources To Check Out:
http://www.amazon.com/One-Flew-Over-Cuckoos-Nest/dp/0451163966/ref=pd_bbs_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1196048993&sr=8-2

http://kclibrary.nhmccd.edu/kesey.html

I'm sorry i'm not PERFECT..

For everyone who has complained about my posts...I'm sorry mine aren't perfect like yours...but i have more important things to be doing other than sitting on this website all day. Thanks for the comments, however i will not be doing anything to make this any better. You're just going to have to deal with it.

Sincerely,
Jarrid Kranz

p.s. Thank You Ellen :)

3. American History of other 'witch hunts'

http://history.hanover.edu/early/wh.html
http://www.dailyvanguard.com/home/index.cfm?event=displayArticlePrinterFriendly&uStory_id=c84a5a19-268f-49a9-86ba-cff42d8c1eff

This site gave me several different links to other witch hunts. I found atleast three links that were able to help me out.

The second website explains how a Palestinian woman was "hunted" because she stood up for her country by hanging a flag outside of her door at work. This was pretty interesting and very unfair.

2. The interrelation of McCarthyism, the Red Scare, Arthur Miller and The Crucible.

http://www.123helpme.com/assets/15307.html
http://www.megaessays.com/viewpaper/88240.html

I found this site also very helpful. It discusses how people were frightened by the Red Scare leading to communism just like the Salem trials. Everyone joined in to stop witchery.

For the second website, I found the parallels between the three ideas. This gives a short but to the point description of each and then how they are connected.

1. Why Arthur Miller Wrote The Crucible

Why Miller wrote The Crucible.
http://www.geocities.com/ResearchTriangle/Lab/4191/MILLER/millers.html
I found this site very helpful. It talks about several reasons why he wrote The Crucible, including the fact that he was able to relate common instances to the fifties.

I discovered an even better website (the second link) to explain Miller's reasoning. The following is a quote from the webpage : "Few people reacted against McCarthyism in the fifties in the United States. Arthur Miller did by writing his play The Crucible in 1953. This paper answers the question: "Why did Arthur Miller write The Crucible?". It intends to give the necessary historical background to grasp the concept of McCarthyism."

Life in the Lab

Well we spend 3 out of the 5 days of school in this lab doing random stuff. On this particular day we were forced to create a blog account for our Honors American Lit. which is no fun at all. So i sit next to Jorden Arthurs my fellow classmate and bug the piss out of him while he is working diligently.