Book 4 Reflection

5 Reasons that Marjane Satrapi is a likable character.

She is the main character in the story. In all fairness Marji is the main character in the book, so the reader has to like the character someway in a sense. We know that most information about her, and that puts her to be in the best position for her to relate to the readers. I know that in a way I related to her. I too would like to be someone who has a big impact on the nation and defying everyone. Except the difference is that she actually does. All I can do is  hope that I will someday.

She is the youngest and does the most for the revolution in her family. Her parents are protesters but not at the level the Marji is at. Marji goes out of her way and takes her protests to her schools and other public places. She talks back to the teachers about the leader and tries to prove everybody wrong and the book wrong. She even asks to go to jail to talk to her uncle about his involvement in the war. Her father fought in a war earlier (is not sated in the book) and had passed mostly all of his knowledge down to Marji. Her mother's job before was not stated in the book, but by the way that she holds herself I can conclude that she used to be some sort of professor or teacher. Yet again, she also passed her knowledge down to Marji. Marji's grandma also passes down information about the leader to Marji. By the time she is 13, Marji has the combined knowledge of almost any male and her entire immediate family combined. 

The book is written to set her up as a protagonist. The book favors everything that she does and leads up to it in a sort of way that makes you believe she is always right and the perfect example of a girl. If you actually analyze the book or be metacognitive when you read then you'll realize what's really going on. There doesn't need a two to three page lead in for a thing that she does. Everything that she does is an example of good choices and actually using her brain. From background research and from my previous knowledge, the most famous revolutionary figures during that time period mad rash and unimportant decisions without thinking of who it would affect. Marji thought of everything. What will this decision effect? Where will I go from here? How important is my decision? Things like that.

From a young age Marji knew she wanted to be a protester. She becomes a young woman at a young age and wants to follower her mom and dad's footsteps of protesting. She originally wanted to be a messiah but in her religion, messiahs could not be woman and had to be a perfect example. Unfortunately Marji was a woman and she was definitely not a perfect example. I guess that's why people like her so much and why she is likable to me.

Marji considered herself as a woman when she really is just a young kid. She acts like a woman too. Smoking and talking back to her teachers and not listening to the leaders and enforcers telling her what to do. Marjane fully understands all of the politics of the leader before her teenage years. In some parts of her heart she is still a kid. She still follows the fashion trend of the teenagers of non- affected nations. They were allowed to wear whatever they wanted and Marji wanted to be like them. Free. So she does everything to be like them. Following fashion trends, habits, and culture.

Book Wishlist

https://www.goodreads.com/review/list/34048250-vinay-patnaik?shelf=to-read

Book 2 Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PNj95_Xd9tk

Book Talk

Book 4 Review

For book 4 I read Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi. It was a relatively quick book. I really enjoyed it, and the fact that a little girl is revolting at a young age and trying to make everything better for he and her people. She is not scared of dying and all she cares about is trying to make things better. I admire that. She believed in her own opinion and never let go of it. She even disproved and argued teachers about the govt. and politics. She even got kicked out of school for explaining what she believed. A fact just to emphasize that Marji was a revolter is that she never wore the head cover that she and all other woman of her kind were supposed to wear.

I am done with the book and I like everything about it. Every aspect of the book is good. Especially the fact that is is short and comic book like. Therefore making it a quick and easy read. I would recommend this book to anybody that wants a good quick read.

Book 3 Project

5 reasons why you cannot not call Louie Zamperini a hero.

Louie Zamperini is a veteran, survivor, and a hero of World War ll.  No matter what you have to respect him with a high level of integrity and honor. There could be a long discussion on all of the war heroes but one in particular is Zamperini.
He survived World War ll. You have got to respect a man/woman who has or is serving; but one who served in World War ll. That’s an extreme case. He served as an Army Airman which is now the Air Force, flying planes during WW ll was one of the most dangerous things to do. Bombs and missiles were shot at the planes constantly, and to boot that the planes weren’t even built with strong materials and had a lot of failures. Zamperini survived multiple crashes, one of these even consisted of being stranded in the ocean for multiple days without sane men and little rations.

Zamperini survived a Japanese POW camp. That is really impressive considering the way that the Japanese treated Zamperini and the fact that there was a low survival rate in the Japanese POW camps. The Japanese had many terrible and cruel tactics and torture methods to provoke and kill the prisoners. One of these being getting punched in the face as hard as they can by everyone in attendance of the punishment. Zamperini survived this punishment and many others.

Zamperini was also an Olympic runner. He broke multiple records in both America and the world. He had the record for the fastest mile alive. After just falling short of the gold medal in the Olympics a year before World War ll started, he and his brother Pete started training nonstop. He ran almost every hour of every day. He would run from his house, a mile to the pool, jump in the pool and sit on the bottom to control his breathing and endurance. That is a pretty impressive feat. He would often do this more than five times a day.

Zamperini put others before himself. When his base where he was stationed was raided, he tried as hard as he could to try and protect the others and get them to safety before himself. Unfortunately this happened more than once and he did the exact same thing. Some people died and some people lived because of Zamperini’s brave actions. Once when Zamperini and his squad were up in the air and they were getting attacked, many of the men on the ship got shot and needed treatment. Zamperini risked his life to protect them and dress their wounds. Fortunately two of the men were saved. Unfortunately one of the three men he tried to save died. Still Zamperini should be seen not only as an Airman but as an Airman and a legend.

The last reason why Zamperini is a hero is that he turned his entire life around. He started as a trouble maker, who didn't care about people or necessarily at all. During his early to mid teen years, Zamperini was inspired by his brother Pete Zamperini to join a team sport in his school so he can learn to gain friends. This somewhat works, but in a different way. Zamperini doesn't gain any friends but he develops a love for the track team. He felt as if he was one of them and was born to be a runner. Eventually this worked and he was accepted in his hometown of Torrance again. He wasn't seen as the menace anymore, but as the hero and legend of the town. After Zamperini had broken his first record, people came non stop to his door to congratulate him and give him and his family presents. After Zamperini was invited to the Olympics, the Zamperinis couldn't even get out of there front door without being bombarded with a frenzy of questions asking about how Louie was going to do in the Olympics or how special it was to Louie that he was being asked to participate.

These are just a few reasons why Zamperini is a war hero, survivor, and a veteran of World War ll and his time period. Surely there is more but then this would turn into a summary of his life.

Post 5

I believe for a book to be considered non-fiction, the book has to be at least 75 percent true. I agree with what Janet Fitch says "sit down next to me and tell me a story". It doesn't have to be 100 percent true. I personally think that there is no story that is 100 percent true. To me it doesn't have to be true because I personally just like the story. I don't care if it's a memoir and the plot involves aliens. As long as the story is centered around that and keeps me interested, I do not really care. Honestly who is going to write an auto-biography about themselves and not make up a thing or two about themselves to make them look better. It adds gusto to the story and doesn't make it bland. Unless the author actually has a truth to it. Like when I was young my house burnt down. That's true. Most people wouldn't believe it  and that's fine. But the people that do believe it, those are the people that like a story, and do not care about the political side of writing an auto-biography. I think that half-truths are okay. I mean the govt. is only telling half truths to us and nobody cares, but when an author does, all heck breaks loose. As long as the central idea that the memoir is based on is true then yea, I do not care if the rest of it is not. I think that David Shields is not correct because even though many books can be split into one broad genre, there needs to be some order to it. You would never know if a book is real or not. Unless the book says that it is "based on a true story". But if you actually think about it, all books are fiction, because no book is exactly true. Even if the author says it is; it isn't.