The Face on the Milk Carton Conflict

In The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney, there is a man vs. self conflict. Janie was trying to decide whether to call New Jersey and report her kidnapping or to just stay quiet. On page 166, Janie said, "'That other family - those people in New Jersey - you think I could just call them up and say, I'm fine, so stop worrying and don't bother me, either? They'll be in court, they'll call the FBI, they'll get lawyers." In this quote, Janie was talking to Reeve about how she didn't know what to do. Reeve told her not to call, but she was worried about the other family. She didn't want them to get her parents in trouble, or draw any attention to the situation. If she didn't say anything, the other family would still be worried, but if she did, people could get in trouble.

Also, another reason that this is man vs. self is that she was mad at herself for not fighting back when she was kidnapped. "'And the little girl that never looked back,' said Janie. 'I hate that little girl.' She began to cry. The tears made no noise and took no effort, but they burned fiercely, as if they were the acid remains of her horrible deeds" (166). Even though she was only three, she didn't think she was a good daughter since she didn't get upset or try to go back to her real family. She said she hated that little girl, which was her when she was younger. It made her very upset, and it made her debate on whether or not to call an even tougher decision.

The Face on the Milk Carton Predictions

I am reading the book The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney. In this book, Janie thinks that her parents kidnapped her, but she can't figure out how or why. I predict that even if she finds her real family, she will stay with her "parents". On page 121 it says, "'Nothing happened?' repeated her father. He had aged. Tonight he was indeed a grandfather. Lines creased his cheeks as if he had slept on a pile of books. The distinguished hair was just a tired gray. 'We paced the floor for hours in complete panic. Wondering if you'd ever come back. Wondering if you'd bother to let us know. And you dare tell me nothing happened?'" In this quote, Janie's father is telling her how worried he was when she had skipped school and was missing all day. This shows that her parents care about her, and she realizes that. Even if they may have kidnapped her, they still care about her and show her they love her. For this reason, I think Janie may want to stay with them.

Also, on page 124 it says, "And whether he was thinking of Janie next to him, or Hannah gone forever, she did not know. Think of me, Janie thought. I'm your daughter." Here, Janie is hoping her dad is thinking about her. Even though she is not his real daughter, she wants him to think of her like she is. Since she feels that way, she may want to stay with them even if she finds her real family because she thinks of them as her parents and she wants them to think of her as their daughter.

And lastly, on page 125 it says, "New Jersey must vanish. Jennie Spring must never be. She resolved to be Janie Johnson with all her heart, mind, and soul." When Janie first thought she was kidnapped, it was because she thought she saw her picture on a milk carton. The name on it was Jennie Spring, and it said she was from New Jersey. I think this shows she will want to stay with her parents because she is saying she wants to forget about what she saw on the milk carton and try to keeping living the same life. She wants to stay with her parents who love her, and that she's had a great life with so far.

The Face on the Milk Carton Character

In the book The Face on the Milk Carton by Caroline B. Cooney, I think that the main character, Janie, is hopeful. Janie saw a picture on the back of a milk carton of a little girl who had been kidnapped 12 years before. She thought the girl was her, and she couldn't believe that her parents would do that. On page 26 it said, "I'm sick, she thought. Deranged. Imagine imagining they kidnapped me! I mean, talk about proof of a loving family. From the folded laundry to the refrigerator note-". In this quote, Janie was thinking about all the nice things her parents had done for her. This showed that Janie was hopeful because she didn't want to blame her parents for kidnapping her. Instead, she thought of reasons that it couldn't be them. She hoped that she wasn't kidnapped, but if she was, she hoped it wasn't them who kidnapped her.

Also, Janie is very observent. On page 33 it said, "Her mother was beautifully dressed. She hung up her crimson wool coat and slipped off her high, slim heels. Her feet were very long and very narrow and finding shoes was a real trial. Janie's feet were short and wide. There's nothing in me that's like her, thought Janie. Is it because I have none of her genes? Because she is not my mother?" This showed that Janie is observent because she noticed how different she was from her mom, and the things she noticed were small things, like the size of her feet. Another difference she noticed was on page 34 when it said, "They talk more that I do, too, thought Janie. They spout conversation continually, both of them. I have more listening in me that talking." This quote showed that Janie was different from her parents because they talked more than she did. All of these things made her think that she really could have been kidnapped, since she wasn't very much like her parents. If she wasn't so observent, she may not have noticed these things.

The Host Setting

The Host by Stephanie Meyer takes place in the future, and although a lot of things are more advanced, some things are still the same as today. On page 70 it said, "I was packing my rental car with the few things I planned to take with me." Here, Wanderer was leaving to go on a trip. In this futuristic book, they still had cars that drove on highways just like we have today. Also, this was a rental car, and people rent cars today when they go on vacation or having their cars worked on. Since it is a rental car, it means she does not own it, and this shows that cars aren't a key to her transportation. In current day, people use cars on a daily bases. In this book, they regularly either fly or walk to where they need to go.

Also, places that we have today still existed in this book. "It was easy enough to find the freeway and then follow the signs out of San Diego. Soon there were no signs to follow, no wrong turns to take. In eight hours I would be in Tucson" (72). In this quote, Wanderer was driving her car from San Diego to Tucson, two cities that exist in current day. She was taking the freeway to get there, which is another way that is used often today.

Overall, this book has a lot of things in common with what we have today, even though it takes place in the future. Stephanie Meyers must think that there are things that people will continue to find useful and will use them in the future.

The Host Reading Skills: Checkpoint #4

I am reading The Host by Stephenie Meyer. I predict that Wanderer will be able to overcome Melanie's power because on page 48 it says, "Melanie squirmed, figuratively, in the recesses of my head as I tried to consider it rationally. Maybe I should give up... The words themselves made me flinch. I, Wanderer, give up? Quit? Admit failure and try again with a weak, spineless host who wouldn't give me any trouble? I shook my head. I could barely stand to think of it". I think that this shows she will overcome Melanie's power because she is very determined and doesn't think failure and giving up is an option. If she is determined, she will be able to complete her task.

Also, I am confused about how Melanie and Wanderer are able to communicate. On page 47 it says, "You murder an entire species and then pat yourselves on the back. My hands balled up into fists. I could have you disposed of, I reminded her. Go ahead. Make my murder official". From this quote, it seems like they are communicating through thought. How are they able to do that? Are most hosts able to talk to the souls? If not, what makes Melanie so special?

This book is also like the book The Demon King by Cinda Williams Chima because they both have people called "Healers". On page 3 of The Host it says, "The Healer's name was Fords Deep Waters. Because he was a sould, by nature he was all things good: compassionate, patient, honest, vituous, and full of love. Anxiety was an unusual emotion for Fords Deep Waters". In this book, the Healers are souls who help people and give souls to their hosts. In The Demon King, the Healers do similar things. they help people and care for them, and just like the description of them in The Host, they are compassionate, patient, and full of love.

The Notebook Links and Displays

In The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, it takes place in New Bern, North Carolina. This setting is significant because Allie and Noah met in this town when they were teenagers. They were also reunited in New Bern and spent a lot of time talking walks and going out on the water. This was also where they ending up staying for the rest of the book.

Also, the book took place in 1940, so things were very different then. They had phones and cars, but not nearly as advanced as today. They also talked about just finishing World War 2, and how many people were affected by that. 

 

 

The Notebook Recommendadtion: Checkpoint #3

I just finished the book The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks. It is a love story about two people, Allie and Noah, who get reunited after being apart for almost fifteen years. Allie is engaged, but when she gets to know Noah again, she debates who she should be with. On page 37, it says, "She heard the shock in his voice as he spoke, and surprising her, it all came together - being here, seeing him. She felt something twitch inside, something deep and old, something that made her dizzy for just a second. She caught herself fighting for control. she hadn't exppected this to happen, didn't want it to happen. She was engaged now. She hadn't come here for this". This book is very entertaining and hard to put down, with plot twists and cliff hangers making you want to read more. There is a lot of imagery, so you can picture everything that is happening. It is also written in third person, so you can know both character's perspectives, instead of only knowing one side of the story. The ending wasn't my favorite, but I still thought it was really good. I would recommend this book to any teenage girl who likes romance, or to anyone who likes other books and movies by Nicholas Sparks.

 



The Notebook Character

In The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, one of the main characters is All is. On page 137, Allie says, "'But I also want a happy ending without hurting anyone. And I know that if I stayed, people would be hurt. Especially Lon. I wansn't lying when I told you I loved him. He doesn't make me feel the same way you do, but I care for him, and this wouldn't be fair to him.'" This quote shows that Allie is considerate, since she cares about how Lon feels. She wants to stay with Noah, but she knows that she was already committed to Lon, and that she needs to keep a promise. She doesn't want to hurt Noah either, she wants to make everyone happy, but she knows she can't do that. She is under a lot of pressure, and she tries to make the decision that is best for everyone.

Also, on page 139 it says, "She emerged from the house minutes later with everything she'd brought and walked towards him with her head down. She handed him the drawings she had done yesterday morning." This also shows she is considerate because he told her she should start drawing again. She did, and gave him the drawings. She wanted to draw again to make him happy, and she ends up realizing how much she missed it. He is grateful for the drawings, and she made him happy.

Overall, Allie is a considerate person based on the things she does for others.

The Notebook Predictions

In The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks, one of the main characters, Allie, went back to visit her ex-boyfriend, Noah, three weeks before her wedding. She didn't know why she went back, but she felt like she should. Once she got there, they were reunited, and they caught up for all of the time they had been apart. As they continued to spend time together, they both started to act they they had feelings for the other person, even though Allie was engaged. Based off of how Allie and Noah thought and interacted with each other, I predict they will get back together.

One reason why I think this is becuase of Allie's thoughts when they were first reunited. On page 37 it said, "She heard the shock in his voice as he spoke, and surprising her, it all came together - being here, seeing him. She felt something twitch inside, something deep and old, something that made her dizzy for just a second. She caught herself fighting for control. she hadn't exppected this to happen, didn't want it to happen. She was engaged now. She hadn't come here for this". In this quote, Allie is seeing Noah for the first time since she was fifteen. She remembered what it was like back then and how they were so happy, and for a second she started to develop some feelings for him again. But she snapped out of it, remembereing that she was engaged and that they were just friends.

Allie wasn't the only one who had feelings for the other person. On page 76 it said, " And sometime after midnight on that clear October evening, it all rushed inward and Noah was overcome with longing. And if anyone had seen him, they would have seen what looked like an old man, someone who'd aged a lifelime in just a couple of hours. Someone bent over in his rocker with his face in his hands and tears in his eyes". In this quote, Allie had just left and Noah was thinking about everything that had happened. He still had feelings for Allie, but when he found out that she was engaged, she was heartbroken. After she left, like it said in the quote, he was sitting on the porch crying over her. If he was crying after one day, it will most likely get worse every time they're together.

Insurgent Theme

In the book Insurgent by Veronica Roth, there were a lot of lessons that could be learned from the characters throughout the story. Tris, the protagonist, had trouble telling the truth in the story. On page 424, it says, "He thinks I will be here, but I will be working against him, working with the father he despises. The lie - this lie is the worst I have ever told. I will never be able to take it back". She lied to the everyone - strangers, enemies, and the people who were most important to her. Tris believed that she was lying to protect the people she loved and she tried to convince herself she was doing the right thing. At some points, she was protecting them from enemies, like when Jeanine tried to kill the Dauntless, or when she kept Tobias away from his abusive dad. But other times, she lied to her friends thinking she was doing the right thing, but ended up hurting them later. When Tris teamed up with Marcus, Tobias's dad, Tobias ended up being really upset when he found out. I think a lesson Tris learned here was that telling the truth is best in the long run.

Another lesson Tris learned was to listen to what people tell you. She assumed that because of where people were from, who they were friends with, or thing that they did in the past, she shouldn't listen to or believe what they were saying. On page 413, Tris says, "'You like to be the only one that knows. You like that I don't know. It makes you feel important. That's why you won't tell me, not because it's indescribable'". If someone was from Erudite, a faction which was an enemy of her faction, she thought they couldn't be trusted. By the end of the book, some people who were the most helpful to her were from Erudite. Also, Marcus told her that he knew some valuable things, and that if she would listen to him, he could help her find it. This information could've saved her faction and kept the factions away from war, but since she had heard bad things about his past, she didn't want to listen to him. She ended up listening to what he said, and he was telling her the truth. If she would've had an open mind about all people and was willing to listen to what they had to say, she could have gotten help with a lot of things she needed.

Overall, Tris learned to tell the truth and listen to others. Both of these themes are thing that everyone can apply to their everyday lives.

Insurgent Predictions

In the book Insurgent, Veronica Roth writes very well, so you are able to make predictions. In this quote, the leader of the faction Amity says, "Johanna tilts her head so that her scar is again visible, and adds, 'I understand if this means I can't be a part of Amity anymore.' She sniffs. 'But please know that if I have to leave you, I leave you with love, rather than malice'" (445). From this quote, I think that Johanna wants to help them, but I predict that if she thinks something bad will happen to the people of her faction, she will escape. I also think that there is a situation where either the Amity or Dauntless people can be saved, and she would choose to save the Amity. I was a little bit surprised that she agreed to help them, so I wonder if she will back out.

Also, on page 452 it says, "Cars grins at him, and explains, 'If I touched you with this stunner right now, it would be extremely painful, and then it would disable you. Fernando found this out the hard way yesterday. I made it so that the Amity would have a way of defending themselves without shooting anyone'". The reason they made this was because the Amity wouldn't want to shoot anyone since they believe in peace. But because they are so peaceful, they may not even want to use this. I predict that they may end up getting killed from not defending themselves. I also predict that Tris may end up using this since she doesn't like to use guns after what she did in the past.

Insurgent Characterization

In the book Insurgent by Veronica Roth, the main character, Tris, has a very distinct character. In the book, Tris says, "Do this one thing for me. Tobias's dark eyes plead with me. But if I don't go to Erudite, who will? Tobias? It's the kind of thing he would do. I feel a pain in my chest as I lie to him. 'Okay.' 'Promise,' he says, frowning. The pain becomes an ache, spreads everywhere - all mixed together, guilt and terror and longing. 'I promise'" (313). In this quote, Tris is lying to Tobias when she tells him that she's not going to Erudite. She wants to go there so she can save her friends lives, but Tobias doesn't want her to put herself in danger. I think that this shows how Tris is caring and considerate about others, but it also shows how she is dishonest.

This quote also shows how Tris is caring and considerate of others. Roth says, "This is the last moment I will be able to turn back. The cold air stings my cheeks and my hands as I hesitate. I can walk away now. Take refuge in the Dauntless compound. Hope and pray and with that no one else dies because of my selfishness. But I can't walk away, or the guilt, the weight of Will's life, and my parents' lives, and now Marlene's life, will break my bones, will make it impossible to breathe" (319). This quote shows how Tris is caring and considerate, plus it shows how she is brave. She is doing it because she feels guilty, but at least she isn't backing down. Overall, I think that Tris is a good person who has accidentally made some mistakes that will bother her forever.

 

 

The Fault in Our Stars Characterization

In the book The Fault in Our Stars, the main character, Hazel, is a dynamic character becuase she changes very much from the beginning to the end. In the book, Hazel says, "Late in the winter of my seventeenth year, my mother decided I was depressed, presumably because I rarely left the house, spent quite a lot of time in bed, read the same book over and over, ate infrequently, and devoted quite a bit of my abundant free time to thinking about death" (Green 3). This quote is from the beginning of the book, and like it says, she was depressed. She didn't have many friends and she wasn't very positive at all. Since she had cancer, she always thought about how she was going to die, instead of thinking about all she could do while she was still alive.

By the end of the book, Hazel was a completely different person. Towards the end, Hazel said, "But, Gus, my love, I cannot tell you how thankful I am for our little infinity. I wouldn't trade it for the world. You gave me forever within the numbered days, and I'm grateful" (260). Here, Hazel is reading the eulogy to her boyfriend Augustus. She met him at Support Group and she went from being a depressed girl with no friends to being with the love of her life. He helped her think positively and enjoy life way more than she did before. This quote shows how she learned to love and think about things other than death.

 

 

The Fault in Our Stars Article-



This article is about the book and the meaning of it. It talks about how you can learn things though reading and what John Green teaches throughout the book.