Blog #4-2

Unfortunately this is the last blog of the year:( But I hope you all have a fantastic Memorial Day weekend! As my final blog I figured I'd read The Fault in Our Stars by John Green since it has been one of the top trending books today. Green introduces the two main characters, HazelnGrace Lancaster a 16-year-old cancer patient and Augustus Waters another teen who appears to be in the same cancer support group as Hazel. They both share the same interests and acerbic wit which brings them so close to each other. After being diagnosed with thyroid cancer, Hazel had thought this was in fact the end however it was a completely new chapter. The book was a tragic love story but Green uses an abundance of imagery patterns to convey the audience in to feeling the true pain and emotion these characters faced. What approach would you have used for an audience to truly understand the meaning of the story? Although some may relate, others may not fully comprehend the purpose of writing such a phenomenal novel on how I see as true love that ultimately ends catastrophically. Not only does Green hook the audience into wanting to learn more, he wants the audience to imagine how they would be in this position.

There are many reasons why Augustus and Hazel would feel alone or empty inside yet Green focuses on the positivity. He speaks about wanting to leave a legacy and is optimistic throughout the novel despite Hazel's critical conditions. Green goes on to say that the meaning of "The Fault in Our Stars" is it was fate they were going to meet and cross paths. In fact, he quoted "But it is the nature of stars to cross, and never was Shakespeare more wrong than when he was Cassius note, 'The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars but in ourselves". The title also argues that some things is not always to be blamed on our fault because it is simply uncontrollable. How would you explain the meaning of the title of this novel? The beauty of the message is that despite the fault in our stars, although sometimes it may seem inevitable fate we can still live to make our own choices.

Blog #4-1

Good afternoon everyone! I recently just finished reading Cyberbully by Holli Kenley which was a novel about a young girl named Taylor Hildrege who is bullied on this new social media website "Cliquester". Taylor lives with her mother and younger brother who she adores dearly. In addition, her two best friends Cheyenne and Samantha have also been using the website since it has become very popular around the high school. What Taylor doesn't know is, so one has been hacking into her account posting inappropriate pictures and comments leading to nothing but tremendous embarrassment for her and her family. As the novel progresses Taylor meets a young boy named James on Cliquester who she is more than comfortable to talk with and seems to be the only one who believes her. She tells him everything, sent him videos of her younger self, and even sang to him but for James was never there to respond back. In fact, he never sent any pictures of himself nor videos, not even a podcast. One day one of the videos Taylor had sent him was publish out to the public for everyone to see and mock her. Her depression worsened to the point were she tried to commit suicide. Luckily her mother was their to guide her and take her to the hospital before it had been to late.

It all came down to one question everyone wanted to know, why did James choose to talk to Taylor? As though all of this could have simply happened at random, James seemed to be the only one who could be there for Taylor throughout the bullying but could never show his identity. In fact, after Taylor was taken to the hospital and the releasing of the video, James had deleted his account. The police had traced back all of the data that was said off of Taylor's account including I appropriate comments and they even traced off who James was. It had turned out Taylor's best friend, Samantha had been saying all the cruel, horrific things about her friend. Plot twist?! Why do you think Samatha would betray Taylor to the point were she attempted suicide? The authors purpose was to inform the audience about the ongoing problem of cyberbullying and the serious problem it may lead to if we don't act now. Kenley intended to show descriptively how the victim felt and the consequences of what may happen if you are the bully. Cyberbullying is the use of electronic communication to bully a person typically by sending a message of an intimidating or threatening nature and should be stopped immediately if you or someone you know is a victim.