Little Brother
          I can't believe that Marcus ignored Van's advice. She told him that if he swapped the tags on people that identified them that they would get in trouble. Innocent people would get in trouble because of him. I don't think Marcus even cares about the other people and who he'll effect if he goes through with his plans. He obviously doesn't. Even though Marcus is smart, he's really stupid too. He should have taken Van's advice! Or t least have thought about it! He didn't even take it into consideration which makes me think he isnt that smart at all. Sure enough, everyone is sueing the police for them searching them and questioning them to why they on't have the right info and such. Does he not know what those people must be thinking? Does he not know how they feel about this? I think the payback on Marcus's dad was pretty nice. He got searched....twice. That's what he gets for siding with the government at first and not his own son.

 Ender's Game
          I have already finished reading the book a while ago, but I I'm trying to keep the chapters going the same instead of being ahead in one book, but I honestly dont care. Anyways, I just got surgery on my arm, so i can onlyt type one handed. I don't think I can type with an arm that has 20 stitches in it quite yet.

Little Brother and Main Characters

Little Brother
          The men who follow Marcus into the restaurant who claim to be cops don’t seem like cops to me. Cops are nice but strict at the same time and they arrest people endless they have evidence of them committing the crime they are said to have committed. I know that cops are nice and they listen to each side. Of the story all the time. My grandfather is a cop and a bunch of my relatives and friends are too. Marcus's mom is a tough lady. I like her. He didn't like how the cops were questioning her son and I thought she did a good job at holding them at bay and not letting them do whatever they wanted to Marcus and his things. His dad however, sided with the police but he wasn’t there to actually say anything to the cops. I don’t really like his dad too much. I'd believe my kid no matter what, but I'd also get both stories to see the difference and then figure out what to do. I wouldn't automatically believe someone if they told me something. I'd need proof to be sure if it’s true or not. Besides liking Marcus's mom, I like Van too. She gives important insight to Marcus. All he thinks about is bringing the government down and freeing Daryll, but Van thinks about the people. She doesn't care about herself at all, only the people around her and the people she cares about. I think more people should have that quality because it’s an important one. No one should be self absorbed. Marcus is lucky to know her and have her on his side because he usually forgets when he does something what'll happen to the people it'll affect.

               

Main Characters

          Ever notice how the main characters of a book are usually the ones who are destined to do some great deed? Some characters save the world; some find some kind of object, some do something heroic and etc. I believe that's because ever book needs something in it to make people want to read. Would you rather read something about a battle and adventure than something about an average day at school? I guess it really depends on what you like to read. I know for me, that I like reading something with lots of action so there's never anything boring in it. Ender's Game is a book like that. Something new is always happening. Not too fast to be confused, but enough that you can't get bored reading it. Little Brother is a book I consider to have action, but not enough. It certainly does have action, but it seems so close to our time and like it'll never happen that it just doesn't really interest me. I like to read about things that won't ever happen, or about things that do not exist because it gives you a change to think and imagine and dream. Books like that are what I consider to be the best.

I lost count on what chapter I'm on....anyways, here's today's blog

Little Brother
          So Congress added a new law. Now there really is no privacy among the people. If I was there, I'd rebel just like the Turkish clerk who owns the coffee shop. I wouldn't want people being traced. People deserve to be free and not traced. We fought many wars to gain our independence and most importantly, our freedom. Now the government in the book is trying to take away the country's freedom. The people of the Untied States are not going to like this....
          There are also cameras in the classroom. No where is safe. I'd probably wear a blanket over myself or something to cover myself up and away from the cameras. It's creepy to be watched all the time. If i was trying to sleep or say something private to one of my friends, it would all be caught on tape and that's just not cool. Not cool at all.
          I don't really like Charles. He seems like one of those kids that thinks he's always right and never wrong. He also seems like a teacher's pet in a way. He points out everything that is stated but he doesn't keep in consideration what it means to the rest of the people around him and himself. It's like he doesn't even know what he's talking about even though it looks like it.
         I don't understand the technology in this book. Like I don't understand how and what it is. I never really was into gaming and computer games and I don't think I ever will be. They just don't interest me. That's one difference Marcus and I have. I also don't cry every time I'm in a tough situation. Sure, I'll be frustrated and scared, but I at least I have the dignity to not cry.
           Ender is by far the smartest person ever. the first time he goes into the null gravity zone, he figures out how to use his suit, push off walls, control his rebounds, and how to have no scene of direction. whatever way you're standing at the moment is right. there really is no right or wrong was to stand and move in null gravity. his level of intelligence is way more advanced than most of our intelligence levels. it amazes me. I'm not even as smart him and I'm pretty smart. its a trait that you have to admire in him. it sets him apart from  the others and that's a good thing in my opinion. I dont want to read a book about a character that's boring and fits in with everyone so that they have all the same personalities. the story would become boring and I wouldn't waste my time reading a boring book. I don't think anyone would.

General thinking for both books: how both books relate to me so far

I didn’t blog Friday because I was in a car crash and I was injured and I wasn’t really up to writing blogs and thinking hard if you know what I mean. I was mainly thinking about rest and not blogs. I’ll make it up soon, I promise.

General Things

I finished reading Ender’s Game, but I’m not quite done with Little Brother. So far I like Ender’s Game more for some reason. I think it’s because it’s about a boy who has so much expected out of him that he feels he has to do it even though he rebels against it sometimes, but there’s one person or thing keeping him going. It reminds me of me. I am only 14 and so much is expected out of me and I try to live up to those expectations. I try to have perfect grades and I try to be the best singer and athlete I can be. I’ve broken bones and risked many things for trying to be the best I can be and I understand how Ender feels.  He just wants to do his best and be the best he can, but gets tired of trying to do what other people want him to do and he finds it hard to something that he likes to do because the things that he tries to do are what he’s good at. He’s good at the mock battles in the Battle School and he’s a good commander and he accepts the fact that he’s the one who has to save the human race but he wants to know why people want him to be that person. I’m good at sports and I’m a good singer, but that doesn’t necessarily mean I want to do those things. Ender would rather stay on his lake and do nothing at all. I’d rather be riding and working with horses. But we both know we can’t do those things. He knows he can’t because people will force him to do what they want him to do even though they don’t want to force him to do anything. I know I can’t ride horses because my family doesn’t have the money. We both have things that make us go on. Valentine makes Ender go on. She is there to urge him on because she knows that Ender has to save the world before they’ll let him go and she loves him. Ender also loves Valentine with all his heart. The thing that drives me on is my goal/dream to actually be on my own and own a horse. That’s my life’s goal. It’s all I want really. That and my cat. I love my Misty cat, but she doesn’t exactly drive me to do anything. She does make me finish my homework though, so that I can pat her, but she just helps me get through the day, not my life’s work.

The reason why I don’t really like Little Brother is because I don’t know how to relate to him. The story is interesting, but I can’t find myself in any of the spots he was in. I don’t think I’ll ever be kidnapped, or tortured. At least I hope I don’t find myself in those positions. But I can relate a little bit to his fear. His fear of not knowing what to do or what is going to happen to him, I mean. When he was kidnapped by the government, he didn’t know who they actually were and he didn’t know where he was going. The worst thing though, was that he couldn’t do anything to save himself. I could feel some of those feelings when I got in the car crash. I didn’t know what the guy in the car that was driving straight towards us was doing and I didn’t know that we were going to crash. I thought he would have moved at the last second, but no. He just crashed into us head on. I also didn’t know what going to happen to me. I didn’t know after we crashed if I was seriously injured. I knew my chest hurt from the seatbelt and my face from the air bag and I couldn’t hear anything from the loud noise. I also didn’t know how to really help myself. I was alone when we got to the hospital and the only comfort I got was from the firefighter who stayed with me and talked with me. I was scared out of my mind the whole time. Marcus was scared the whole time too. So I guess we do relate to each other a little bit. Hmm, well I kind of like the book a little bit more now.

Ender's Game Chapters 4+5

       (End of chapter 4) Gaff is talking to Anderson about Ender. They both believe that he is going to be the best commander the world has ever seen. The weight of the world if on Ender's shoulders and he's still only six. How do they know that he is the right one? He's in a way like every other kid, although he seems to be way more intelligent than the others by the way he talks and acts. His smartness and intelligence is also shown when he beats the older boys on a computer game. The first time he ever played it, the other boy won. The second time, he won but it took a little bit because he was still figuring out the game and then the third time he won quickly. It only took him one time to lose for him to figure how to win and do moves with the controller that no one has ever seen before. Ender is no normal six year old. In my opinion, I think he's not six at all. I think he's at least fourteen by the way they describe how smart he is.
        The boys that were on the same ship with Ender were all put in the same room and they gave him the  room that was supposed to be given to the leader of the room, like the commander. They didn't do it on purpose though. They really meant to give him the worst room since it was a lower bunk and by the door. The boys don't really like Ender at this moment. To them, he's a showoff, a danger, and a teacher's pet. He was "the best of the best" and they didn't like it. They all want to be commanders too, but they're only six years old so they think everything is a game to them and they all want to have fun and win, and definitely make sure that Ender loses. Little do they know that they are helping him become smarter and more able to figure things out on his own. They also help him make true friends.
        T

Little Brother Chapter 4 + 5

Little Brother

            (Chapter 4+5) Cruel punishment is placed on Marcus and the cruel punishment such as the no bathroom breaks, the plastic cuffs, the messing with his head, all violated rules of the Bill of Rights. The Bill of Rights states that you have the right to have a lawyer, which the lady with the bad haircut wouldn’t let him have one, he couldn’t speak without permission, he was kept in a cell with no real evidence to support that he was the terrorist in the first place, and most importantly, he wasn’t free. He wasn’t sentenced to jail, he was kidnapped and kept there against his will and they threatened him which violates the Bill of Rights. They were supposed to be from the U.S. government, but how could they if they were violating the very rules they stand by and protect? They were doing those cruel things to teenagers, which really goes against the rules. They had no solid evidence that he did it, yet they still made him go through what they did to him and still threatened him that they would be watching him all the time and they he was kind of like a wanted man now. He would always be suspicious to the government if he was in an area where something major happened.

            I also wonder about Daryll. He wasn’t imprisoned with Joyl, Van, and Marcus. He also didn’t become free along with the rest of his friends. Well they weren’t really free since the government was watching their every move. But Daryll wasn’t seen again since they were kidnapped by the government. He was also wounded. I believe that Daryll is dead. He was wounded and the government agents thought they were terrorists so they probably didn’t care since they just assumed that they were the terrorists. From the blood loss and the government thinking that the teenagers were terrorists, I believe that they ended Daryll’s pain, or just left him there to die. If he was left there, he would have been killed anyways because of the bomb on BART and how many people were drowned.

            So far the book is pretty interesting. It’s a bit confusing at first, but they when you read it over again you understand it a little better. I also think that Marcus should act a little bit more like a seventeen year old. Most seventeen year olds don’t cry when they get frustrated. They think it through. The other characters in the book seem ok to me. I also think that Van and Marcus are eventually going to start liking each other. It’s hard not to bond closer to someone when you get into a situation like the characters in the book got into, but I don’t think anyone is ever going to get in a position like them.  I wouldn’t know if our government is really that cruel or not to its citizens even if they are supposedly terrorists. I honestly don’t know a thing about how our government really treats people when confronted with them alone. It’s never happened to me before, and I really hope I don’t have to meet a government agent for something bad.

Ender's Game chapters 3 + 4

This post will be all of Ender’s Game since my computer isn’t cooperating with me to open up the file for Little Brother

Ender’s Game

                Chapter 3 is very interesting. Colonel Gaff comes to tell Ender that he has passed and is accepted into the Battle School where he would train to become a commander. I don’t like the ways that Gaff used to make Ender want to come with him. He told Ender that his parents really didn’t love him and that he was just a burden to them. We don’t know if that was true or not, but every parent loves their child to some degree. Valentine is the one Ender would miss the most. Valentine is the only one who really cares for Ender very deeply. She loves him and he loves her. I think it’s sweet and nice of her. Peter hates Ender, so it seems reasonable for her to love him to balance out the love and hate in the book.

                In chapter 4, Ender is launched to the new school. Ender is very smart. We can tell because he notices the officers on the launch watching them and analyzing them. He also knew that running to the cameraman when he was getting onto the spaceship to say goodbye to Valentine would be a bad idea. He also knew some things about null gravity and that you can be in whatever direction you want to be in. There’s no such thing as up or down. Gaff made it clear to the other boys that he thought Ender was the best student out of all of them; so obviously, the other boys disliked him for it. They are secretly jealous of Ender. This school was a major thing for boys to go to back on Earth. They are the future of the Earth’s future. These boys will be trained to help save the earth and they were specially selected to be trained. Ender also has his moments when he hates himself. He hates to cause other people pain like the boy he flung over his seat who crashed into the wall and broke his arm. Ender doesn’t mean to hurt people and he feels as if he was Peter who caused pain to people on purpose. Ender was afraid of Peter and he was more afraid of turning into Peter himself.