Dead Poets Society: A Summary - Max

 

        I am a very slow reader, so, although this book is only 176 pages, it took me a while to finish. This is my first actual book review blog post, and it’s about a story I love dearly. 

        I first watched the movie Dead Poets Society, directed by Peter Weir and written by Tom Schulman, a few months ago. I was immediately entranced with the story. I want to warn you, if you plan to watch the film; it is sad, and it includes suicide (the same goes for this blog post). I immediately bought the book after finishing the movie, wanting to see the story in a different format. The novel was written by N. H. Kleinbum. 

Usually, we are used to book vs. movie reviews being formatted with the book being created first, however, this is not the case with Dead Poets Society. The movie was made in 1989, with the book being published in 2006. And, another rare occurrence, the film is far better than the novel. 

 

Spoilers 

The story is set in 1959, at an all-boys boarding school in Vermont (named “Welton Academy), where Todd Anderson begins his junior year of high school. He is assigned one of the top students, Neil Perry, as his roommate, and despite their personalities being quite different, they become fast friends. Through Neil, Todd meets a new friend group; Knox Overstreet, Richard Cameron, Steven Meeks, Gerard Pitts, and Charlie Dalton. 

The boys’ English teacher has quite strange teaching methods. He is a Welton alum, named John Keating. He asks the students to call him “O captain, my captain,” in reference to the poem by Walt Whitman. Keating tells the boys to “Carpe diem!” (seize the day). He encourages the students to write poetry and express themselves. 

Neil Perry finds a yearbook from Keating’s time at Welton and the group of boys discover the “Dead Poets Society,” a secret club, that met at night and “... didn’t just read poetry. We let it drip from our tongues like honey. Spirits soared. Women swooned, and gods were created, gentlemen”. The boys revive the club; but not before Keating tells them that the only way to become a true member of the society, is to die. 

  The boys continue to meet in a cave in the forest on the school grounds' edge. Keating inspires Neil Perry to audition for a production of Midsummer Night’s Dream, while Knox Overstreet begins to pursue a cheerleader with a boyfriend. Neil’s father finds out about his role as “Puck” in the play and orders him to drop out, he, however, does not. 

Charlie Dalton finds a new sense of confidence and identity; telling the members of the society to call him “Nuwanda” (it’s kind of problematic, I know). He also invites a group of girls to their meeting, causing the annoyance of other members. 

When Neil’s performance rolls around, the group of boys and Keating travel into town to support their friend and student. Neil’s father attends the performance, however, and when it finishes, he drags Neil home immediately. 

The same night, once back at school, Todd Anderson finally has enough courage to write and share a poem of his own at a society meeting. While the boys are celebrating; Neil’s father lectures him and tells him that he will be taken out of Welton. He tells his mother “I was good, I was really good” with teary eyes after his father leaves. Neil later, when his parents are asleep, puts on his Puck headdress again, before sneaking down to his father's study, and shooting himself with the gun kept in the desk. 

Neil’s father asks for more investigation into the death of his son, leading to Mr. Keating getting fired. The members of the Dead Poet’s Society are brought to the headmaster’s office, one at a time, and told to sign a contract saying that Keating was responsible for the death of Neil. Charlie Dalton refuses and is promptly expelled. The other members sign. The book and movie end with the boys in their literature class, which is being taught by another man until a replacement is found. Keating walks through the classroom, holding a box of his things. Todd Anderson stands up on his desk (a practice Keating has previously shared) and says “O’ captain, my captain,” the rest of the society joins him in climbing up on their desks to show their respect. 

No longer spoilers

This movie is something I think everyone should watch at some point, I cannot say the same for the book. The book lacks certain details and changes some scenes that cause less depth to the story. It is well written but I think seeing the actual people go through the experience is much more effective and interesting. The movie is a little over two hours and is a great watch. 

- Sorry this was pretty long <3 

Four Legs Good, Two Legs [Insert Here]!

I'm sure everyone knows the outcome of the election. I have been lucky enough to be able to post my blog right after, and in this I will try yo relate literature to what we currently see in our government. Literature is political, and that much is made clear with how often books ae banned. The best books are books that criticize even the best governments, and there is no perfect solution. I did what I hope was the best option after I saw the results: I read Animal Farm by George Orwell in three days.

 Animal farm is a story most well known for its criticism of communism, which none can deny has a strong effect. What I see it criticizing more, however, is the consequences a lack of education can create in a dictatorship. It is so important to understand any societal structure can fall to dictatorship. Nazi Germany, one of the most famous dictatorships, was itself an authoritarian capitalist state. We are not immune to dictatorship. It is quite important that a country is criticized and changed frequently, as if there is no proper criticism, the nation cannot grow. Change is inevitable and important, and without it a country can collapse.

Spoilers for Animal Farm

 Snowball, one of the pigs who aided the rebellion against Mr. Jones and fought bravely in the Battle of the Cowshed before being outcasted, tried to aid the animals in getting a proper education. Though most of the barn animals never got past A, B, C, or D. There is a specific line near the end of the book in chapter ten which I find quite interesting, saying many of the newer horses cannot move past A or B in the alphabet. I believe this specifically dwindled from the four letters average from before, and stopped before C for a reason. The letter C is often joked to be the extra letter, given it can make a ‘K’ sound, ‘S’ sound, and a ‘SH’ sound in words such as chivalry. When you can understand that, you can start to sound out words better and memorize them. 

Education and literacy is incredibly important in a large country, as if we wish for people to have free speech it is vital they can comprehend others speech, and interpret them to their own worldview. If the new leadership in this country dismantles the Department of Education, Title I funding, Parents Bill of Rights, and many others, it is directly and negatively affecting lower class education in this country. They are fully aware of this, and are happy to use it to their own gain.

Dictatorship is famously found in communism, but that is not the only societal structure dictatorship can be found in. Dictatorship can be defined as such, “A government or a social situation where one person makes all the rules and decisions without input from anyone else.” This does not have to apply solely to communism. If a lack of education in this society combines with a lack of repercussions finds the Trump administration, there will not be any stops to such a dictatorship. In fact, this can be seen by both the movie versions. We see often on the internet that movies are just as information dense as books. Though, in both versions of the movie, the ending is made to be happy, with either an overthrowing or an escape. The condemning point of the book was that they didn't find escape. That there wasn't a happy ending. By erasing that, it does not give proper insight to how dangerous these can be. Without literature, we could not see that in context.

Boxer can be said to be the most tragic as well as the most complicit character. He takes blame for the
Benjamin the Donkey is such a vital character in Animal Farm, and not simply because he is the ‘odd one out’. He is an animal who knows full well the dictatorship that will arise,  but knows full better that speaking out will only serve to get him killed, such as the animals claiming to be in cahoots with Snowball after the windmill topples for the first time.
Without cause.
He, as I see it, is the stand in for people who do not wish for repercussions to affect them solely and directly. He is not a bad donkey for simply standing by when he knows better, but he is no better than the sheep bleating for Napoleon's greatness.

The sheep also play a significant role in showing how propaganda affects the masses. The sheep do not think before screaming 'Four legs good, two legs bad' at the beginning. It is implied they are taught this by Napoleon, as later in the story the sheep are taken into a separate area for a week, and come out bleating 'Four legs good, two legs better'. Any time the sheep bleat out this response, it is done for an extended period of time after one of Napoleons more controversial speeches. This undying devotion silences any protest from animals who start to question his leadership.
More equal than others.
This can be equated to anyone who finds undying devotion in right wing extremes, and the screeching of diversity being bad when points are made against such ideals.

Dictatorship is rightfully a terrifying thought. What we thought we were nearly immune to, we find ourselves falling to. Nationalism is a dangerous thought, when you cannot criticize nation on the basis of having it better than before, the nation can quickly fall with nothing proper to be done about it.

In the end, the animals don't escape, and it ends on the chilling card game, drinking beer with the humans.
In excess.
When the animals look back at Napoleon, Squealer, and the rest of the pigs speaking with the men, they can no longer differentiate who their oppressors are. There isn't a freedom for animals, and Mr. Picklington even congratulates the pigs on how little they give the animals, for the amount of work the unequal animals do. A minimum wage for an extremely laborious job. Who knows which was which.

misgivings of Napoleons dictatorship, and any time something goes wrong, he knows "I will work harder', and understands especially that 'Napoleon is always right'. he works himself without proper food or rest,

Without sheets.

and is literally lead to his death by Squealer and Napoleon.

Keeper of the Lost Cities: Neverseen

Sophie Foster is on the run—but at least she’s not alone this time. Her closest friends from the Lost Cities (Keefe, Biana, Fitz, Dex) have gone with her to join the Black Swan. They still have doubts about the shadowy, mysterious organization, but the only way to find answers is to start working with them and trusting. And as they settle into their new lives, they uncover secrets bigger than anything they’d imagined. But their enemies, the Neverseen, are far from done, and allied with the ogres to unleash a terrifying plague that threatens the safety of an entire species crucial to the elves, the gnomes. Sophie and her friends fight with everything they have—with new allies joining them (Tam and Linh)—but every choice has consequences. And trusting the wrong person could prove deadly.

The fourth book of the Keeper of the Lost Cities leads readers to follow a winding path, filled with mystery and shock. Here’s my honest review on this book.

The largest issue was that for the majority of the book no one had any idea what was going on. It was definitely the slowest book of the series as the plot didn’t seem to move forward. It was getting difficult to read as the characters seemed to always encounter more questions and problems, never finding the solutions and things only started to make sense in the last 20% of the book. If it wasn’t for Keefe, I would’ve stopped reading long before.

Keefe as a character shone in this book. Always described as the troublemaker and jokester, he always covered and hid his true feelings under his veil of unseriousness. However, he grew so much in much more complex ways than any of the other characters and it was great to see him as more than just the comedy relief. His progression made the ending all the more hard-hitting. Every single character is improved by Keefe being nearby, most especially Sophie. Even Dex is tolerable in this book because he and Keefe bond together to make fun of Fitzphie. Obviously, Team Foster-Keefe for life!

The Cruel Prince romantic connection?!🫣🦆

     At this point in time, I have been delaying an actual book blog, but I’m finally at a point in my book where I can talk about it! Over the past few weeks, I have been reading a book called The Cruel Prince. Many people know of this book and the series in general; I’m giving a head up now that there will be spoilers in this post. There are 2 main characters (I use MC as abbreviation), who are named Jude and Cardan!  

Jude has a slightly altered backstory opposed to Cardan’s, which is just the fact she currently lives with the man that murdered her parents. Somehow this was quickly normalized, and she continues living a regular life as if he didn’t, this kind of confuses me but it adds to the storyline. Jude has 2 sisters named Taryn and Vivienne; she shares a close bond with both sisters but has secrets she must keep from them to protect someone else. Another thing to add is that for a while Jude has been in competition with the other MC, Cardan, since they were younger. Since Jude wants to become a knight, entering the summer tournament that puts her in competition with her enemy further added resentment between the two. From the very first interaction we see between Cardan and Jude, there is certainly some sort of emotion in their relationship with each other. They seem to both act like they hate each other but secretly have feelings that say otherwise. There is a scene where Jude has been fed faerie fruit and she was going a little bit crazy because that is what the side effects of the fruit are, and while Cardan’s friends were making her do all these weird things, Cardan just simply redirected what she should do. He insisted she kiss his foot which she did not end up doing but it’s the simple idea that his hatred only lead him to allow her to be humiliated, but not physically hurt. 

Since that was Jude’s paragraph, it’s only fair that Cardan gets one too. Cardan is part of the royal family; he has 5 other siblings, and he is the youngest! His sibling's names are Balekin, Elowyn, Dain, Rhyia, and Caelia; Dain was the king-to-be but unfortunately that was sabotaged by Balekin. Cardan had an interesting relationship with his brothers, from Jude’s perspective when she was in the tower while Cardan and Balekin were training, she describes a rather brutal punishment towards Cardan. As I mentioned earlier, both Jude and Cardan were entering the summer tournament to become a knight which increased tension between the two. Because Cardan came from the royal family, he did have an advantage in the battle between their teams. Ultimately Jude’s team did end up being victorious and Cardan didn’t take that too well. Jude hated Cardan, but she still helped him at times where it seemed he did need it. After the coronation of Prince Dain when chaos broke loose, Jude navigates Cardan to escape the wild mess before either of them get hurt.  

Now for my personal thoughts on their relationship.  Overall, I think the both of them could make an impressively powerful duo if they worked together all the time. When we saw them together, they often rebelled against each other but as stated in both of their paragraphs, they can be beneficial for the other even if it isn’t meant to be that way. They obviously seem to have some sort of opening for new emotions each time they interact together, and I think they are in a good position at this point in the story. I’m not fully finished with the book yet, but I do hope to see more of them together and hopefully the examples of them helping each other can be added to. For now, I’m finished with my yapping...until next time! 

-Chloe B.🦆 

The Power of the First Line - Max B-M.

“And yet a really good first line can do so much to establish that crucial sense of voice—it’s the first thing that acquaints you, that makes you eager, that starts to enlist you for the long haul. So there’s incredible power in it, when you say, come in here. You want to know about this. And someone begins to listen.” - Stephen King

    It is often said that one should not judge a book by its cover, but no one talks about the opening line. The book's opening line draws the reader in, shows the novel's style, and informs the reader if they wish to continue. 

Moby-Dick - Herman Melville (1851) 

    This novel, which follows the story of a whaling ship captain's quest for revenge against a giant white whale, begins with the line; “Call me Ishmael.”

The opening line of the story is beyond famous. It’s the topic of many conversations about the author's intent with the line. One thought is that Melville wanted to indicate that the narrator may have been hiding something or acting deceitfully. He also possibly wanted to raise imagery surrounding the biblical figure of Ishmael, who was a castaway. The final theory about this well-known line is that Melville is creating a casual introduction. It allows readers to get comfortable with the narrator and first-person story that is about to play out. 

The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald (1925) 

The novel, the story of the enigmatic Gatsby who sought to become impressively wealthy to win the heart of Daisy (the woman of his dreams), opens with an introduction to its narrator, Nick Carraway; “In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I’ve been turning over in my mind ever since.” 

    During the first words, a few points are shared about Nick: he is looking back on life, he thinks his father is a wise man, he identifies with privilege, and certain life occurrences have opposed his thinking and perspective. This entices the reader to want to know what those events may be and what else entrances this mysteriously introduced character. 

1984 - George Orwell (1949)

1984, a novel about a man questioning the system keeping his futuristic but dystopian society afloat, starts with the line; “It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen.” 

Orwell begins the novel with a relatively simple declaration, but through it, he hooks the reader with many techniques. First, he combines two facts: it was a cold day in April and the clocks were striking thirteen. These two facts put together are stronger than either on their own and the dramatic nature of the sentence locks in the reader. Second, he uses sensory motion with his words, “were striking,” which allows the reader to visualize (physically and auditorily) multiple clocks striking 13 times.  

Snuff; My Review After Finishing a Book Series

 It's been a little over a year since I've started the City Watch series by Terry Pratchett, and I just finished the eighth and final book in the series, Snuff. This series was incredible, but to me the best part is watching as the books grew in writing style and format.

The start of the series was incredible, with the main characters going through the motions of a fantasy story, while obviously parodying the themes of normal fantasy. One in a million chances, and ideas of the sort. After just one book, I found myself liking the characters, but not yet truly caring about their eventual fates. I expected to get to the third book and drop the series, seeing as the last series I had finished was four years before.

However, as I was on the last 100 pages or so of the last book, I was enraptured by the characters, having grown to really care about every one since the point they were introduced. Even characters that only became a truly pivotal character in the last book tugged at my heartstrings. The writing itself had transformed from an author writing about characters, to a person writing about adventures as if he had been through it himself. He also found what worked for him best, using his humor to move the story forward instead of just using it in between lines.

Yes, every blog post I've made has been about Pratchett. No, I will not stop just because I finishes the series. There are thirty-three more books I've yet to read. Buckle up.

On the Come Up: Chloe L.

Sixteen-year-old Bri wants to be one of the greatest rappers of all time. Or at least make it out of her neighborhood one day. As the daughter of an underground rap legend who died before he hit big, Bri’s got big shoes to fill. But now that her mom has unexpectedly lost her job, food banks and shutoff notices are as much a part of Bri’s life as beats and rhymes. With bills piling up and homelessness staring her family down, Bri no longer just wants to make it—she has to make it.

Angie Thomas strikes again. On the Come Up is yet again another brilliant novel written by the popular American young adult author, best known for writing The Hate U Give. This novel tells the story of Bri, a sixteen-year old rapper, hoping to fulfill the expectations of those around her. She hopes to 'make it' as an underground hip-hop legend, aspiring to fill the shoes of her father, Lawrence "Lawless" Jackson.

Bri faces monumental obstacles throughout the journey to achieve her dreams. Though only sixteen-years old, she has a lot on her plate: from crushes, school, and tests to shots being fired in her neighborhood, gang violence, and her aunt selling drugs.

One big component of this book is family, just as it did in The Hate U Give. Pretty early on in this book, we find out that Bri and her older brother Trey lived with their grandparents for a while, when their mother Jay's drug addiction got out of hand. It's abundantly clear that Bri has had a rough time, with her father dying early on in her life, but loves her family to the ends of the earth. Jay forced herself to get off the drugs, overcoming drug stereotypes, which have been plastered all over her forehead by her own parents and those around her. Her past seems inescapable by her employers and distant relatives. The relationship of Jay, Trey, and Bri is a spotlight throughout the entire story, displaying the sacrifices they are willing to make for each other. One sacrifice includes Trey coming back home instead of completing his Master's degree at the university to help out with money and family.

Racial stereotypes haunt Bri and her family throughout the entire novel. Outside of her family and close friends, nearly everyone that Bri encounters sees her through the distorted lens of racial stereotyping. From the security guards to the media news, the world tells Bri that she is "thuggish" and "aggressive". Bri struggles throughout the novel to eradicate the ideas of these labels, but that pushback itself is seen as "further proof of her aggression". For example, Bri writes her verse, “On the Come Up”, in an attempt to fight against the perception of her being a "gangster" and a "threat", but many listeners interpret the song in the opposite way, believing it to be a call to violence against police, "confirming Bri's dangerousness".

Angie Thomas's writing is outstanding as the fear, anger, and frustration emitted by the characters can be felt by the readers.