All Quiet on the Western Front

I’m still reading All Quiet on the Western Front, and although I haven’t had much time to read it, I am really enjoying what I have read so far. Baumer, the main character has described some of the setting, and I’m starting to understand the situation. In one of the scenes, one of Baumer’s good friends, Kemmerich is in the hospital, after being shot in the leg. Baumer and his friends Tjuden, Muller, Kropp and Leer go and pay him a visit. When they are there they realize that Kemmerich has had his leg amputated, but he is on so much morphine that he doesn’t realize it. Muller notices Kemmerich’s nice shiny boots under the bed, and is tempted to take them, knowing that Kemmerich will never find a use for them. This situation brings light back onto the fact of how valuable some things can be in times of war. Another situation that stood out to me was when Baumer and his friends were talking about one of their old schoolteachers, Kantorek. Kantorek had talked to the boys about how everyone had their time in war, and for some people it came earlier than for others, and how every mans contribution to the war would be different, but equal. Reading this, my mind immediately flashed back to a scene from The Five People You Meet in Heaven, when the Captain is telling Eddie basically the exact same thing. It’s interesting that there is such a strong parallel, because The Five People You Meet in Heaven is literally the last book I read, and I usually don’t read books about war, so finding something a similarity is odd. I am interested to keep reading and find out what happens to Kemmerich, and what happens to Baumer and his friends.

Outside Reading

So I have yet to find my copy of The Catcher in the Rye, but during my search for the book, I came across another book that seems very interesting. All Quiet on the Western Front by Erich Maria Remarque caught my eye because of the words BANNED BOOK printed on the binding. I'm not sure how the book found its way into my room, but in all the intrigue I picked it up and read the back. Claimed to be the greatest war novel of all time, All Quiet on the Western Front is the story of a young twenty year old man named Paul Baumer, and his experiences in World War 1. I have only read about ten pages, but I can already tell there will not be a dull moment in this book. It starts off in first person point of view, describing the camp where the soldiers have settled at for the night, filling up on beans and other food. It seems to be a good point in the war for the Germans, because Paul describes the surplus of food and cigarettes in their possession, and how rare this is. He goes on to depict an exchange of chewing tobacco for cigarettes, which reminded me of something my seventh and eighth grade social studies teacher once told us about. I remember her describing the barter systems during the war, and how valuable things like cigarettes were to people for whom they were hard to obtain. It made me realize how much we take some things for granted that are commonplace in our society, (obviously not cigarettes for me personally), and we don’t realize that these are not of abundance in other parts of the world.

Ethics paper annotation

Should there be more laws defending animal rights and addressing animal cruelty or should the government only focus on human rights?


Gruen, Lori. "The Moral Status of Animals." Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. 2003. 7 Dec 2008 .

Lori Gruen is a staff writer for the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Her entry in the Encyclopedia is fairly non-biased, because it addresses several different perspectives on the issue of animal rights and the reasons behind them, citing at least 40 sources. The SEP has been around since 1995, and comes from Stanford University, which is a very well known and esteemed institution. It's written for anyone interested in the philosophical views on various subjects. This article is far more in-depth than most of my other sources, and it explains both the absolutist and utilitarian positions, which is unlike most others. Instead of being one-sided, it questions the morality of animal cruelty, and discuss how the utilitarian point of view is not necessarily a vegetarian one.


Cummins, Ronnie. "Let Them Eat Feces." In Motion Magazine 21 OCT 1997 7 Dec 2008 .

Ronnie Cummins is the National Director of The Pure Food Campaign, which is a non-profit organization that focuses on ensuring safe and clean food production and consumption in the country. Her article was published in In Motion Magazine, which is read by many people involved in Human Rights and ethical issues, and contains essays on various popular issues, such as Healthcare, Education Rights, and Affirmative Action. This is a lot more one-sided than the SEP essay. It talks about how in an effort to cut costs, farm animals are being fed their own feces, which ultimately leads to contamination of meat. Farms are aiming to weaken laws against this kind of thing, which means animals will continue to be fed their own feces, something that is completely unethical.

The Five People You Meet in Heaven (SPOILER)

First of all, this has some stuff that is essential to the plot, so if you plan to read The Five People You Meet in Heaven in the future, I would advise against reading this particular blog. You’ll regret it, it’ll ruin the story. But anyhow, this weekend, I was driving back from Georgia, so I had plenty of time to finish The Five People You Meet in Heaven. Overall, I really liked the book, but either I just wasn’t as focused on the second half, or it wasn’t as interesting. The whole last part was somewhat a blur to me, and I didn’t really feel as though the ending was wrapped up. I will almost definitely go back and read it again though, because I think it will get better with more reads.
Going back to where I left of with my last post, after the Blue Man moves on to wherever people go after heaven, Eddie meets The Captain. The Captain was Eddie’s mentor during his time at war, and he had a big impact on Eddie’s life. There is a flashback to the time when Eddie and four other soldiers, including the Captain were held captives by an enemy army. They were forced to work in a coal mine under very poor conditions, and one of the men died. This had a huge impact on Eddie, and it was the catalyst in his and the Captain’s plans to escape. Finally one day, they escaped and set fire to the mine, but just as they were about to leave, Eddie thought he saw a little person in the mine and went back to save it, putting himself in grave danger. Now, the Captain reveals to Eddie that he was the one who shot Eddie in the leg, because he knew that if he didn’t Eddie would run into the fire and die. The Captain’s story teaches Eddie about sacrifice, and how it was better for him to be sent home from the war with an injured leg than to have died in that fire.
The third person Eddie meets is a woman named Ruby, who was actually the person that Ruby’s Pier, the place Eddie had worked most of his life, was named after. Although they had never met, Ruby explains to Eddie that when her husband Emile was dying in the hospital, he had shared a room with Eddie’s father, and learned about their family through him. Ruby talks to Eddie about how he needs to forgive his father for the things he did in his life, and explains to him the reasoning for his father’s actions.
The fourth person Eddie meets is his (ex)wife Marguerite. I think that for Eddie this was the ‘best part’ about heaven, because when people talked about Eddie, the first thing they thought of was how much he loved his wife. His visit with Marguerite is short, but it is clear that she was sent as one of his five people to show Eddie the meaning of love, and how much it can affect a person.
The fifth person that Eddie encounters in heaven is a little girl, who he doesn’t think he has ever met before. I should probably have mentioned in my first post that when Eddie died saving the little girl, as he slipped away into heaven he felt a little girls hands in his, guiding him. Obviously, I didn’t realize how crucial this was to the plot or I would have mentioned it. So anyway, a young oriental girl approaches Eddie and relates to him the story of how their lives are linked to each other. It turns out that the little girl, (who I thought was going to be the girl he saved at Ruby Pier) was actually the girl he thought he saw in the coal mine when it was on fire, and she was the one who had brought him to heaven. This was a very good twist at the end, because I hate really predictable books. Minus the last few pages, I enjoyed the book and I plan to read Tuesdays With Morrie in the near future, because I really like Albom’s style and characterization in particular.

OR Blog

This past week I have been unable to find my copy of The Catcher in the Rye so I have switched over to The Five People You Meet in Heaven, by Mitch Albom. I chose this book because I saw it sitting in my parents’ room and I was looking for something to read on my plane ride over break. The book starts out telling the story of an old man named Eddie, who works at an amusement park that when described reminded me of Navy Pier in Chicago. Since the book is about Eddie’s time spent in heaven, his death comes very early on. While trying to save a young girl, Eddie is hit by a free falling roller coaster car that detached from the ride. Eddie wakes up in heaven, completely unaware of his surroundings. In between sections of the book, flashbacks from various birthdays of Eddie’s are illustrated. A man from his past approaches him and begins to explain to him how heaven works. According to the Blue Man, whenever somebody dies, 5 people from their past come talk to them about their life and what its significance was. These people could be close family members or random strangers that they never even spoke with. The Blue Man was Eddie’s first person, and he explained to him how when Eddie was about eight years old, he darted in front of his car, and the Blue Man had to swerve and ended up getting killed by a semi truck. In my opinion, Albom chose to have the Blue Man be Eddie’s first person to show that although you may not realize it, everything you do affects other people and can have a big impact on their life.

The Catcher in the Rye, Blog 2

So far, I am really enjoying The Catcher in the Rye. It’s a nice change from some of the other books I have read recently, because it moves very fast and doesn’t give you random unnecessary details (The Odyssey…). I like this because while J.D. Salinger doesn’t feed you detail after detail, the ones he does include are very good imagery and stick with you throughout the book. Another thing I really enjoy about this book is the characterization that starts at the beginning of the book. In only 40 pages, I already feel like I know the main character as well as some of the supporting characters very well. I like this because the more you know of a character at the beginning of a book, the better you can watch them change and develop throughout the novel. A thing that’s weird for me though is the fact that the book is in first person, and it is from a teenage boy’s perspective. The last few books I have read have either been in third person (All the Pretty Horses), or first person from either an older person’s perspective (various Jodi Picoult novels), or first person from a teenage girl’s point of view (Twilight). This is interesting for me because I am getting a perspective that I usually wouldn’t get from a situation like the one the main character is in.

Q2 Outside Reading

For this quarter's outside reading book, I have chosen to read The Catcher In The Rye by J.D. Salinger. I chose this book because several people have told me that it's one of their favorites, so I figured I would give it a shot. I've only read about 10 or 15 pages so far, but I think i will really like it, and I am excited to get into the book.

Blog 7

This week and weekend I have been reading a lot about both SPS and OTEC, which are two of the several alternative energy plans I have had to read about for debate. I figured since I have been reading so much about these two in particular, I might as well blog about them. I have read through the majority of each file, each of which are about 100 and something pages, with cards (articles) by various authors. SPS, which stands for Solar Powered Satellites, is a plan that I had to argue in favor of this past weekend. The plan is that the US Federal Government, through NASA, will put SPS Systems into space. Some impacts that we have researched that will supposedly occur if the plan is not implemented include extinction, and trade wars, which will lead to global war and eventually nuclear war. Another plan I have read a lot about is OTEC, or Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion. This is the affirmative that I usually run, so I have learned a lot about it. The idea is that the USFG will put in these giant machines into the water that will convert the energy formed by the different water temperatures in the ocean, and turn it into useable energy. Not only will it be a very good alternative source of energy, but OTEC will also prevent extinction that would have been a result of the overfishing that is occurring in the oceans currently, and the stripping of the biodiversity of the fish, and it will also teach us a lot about space colonization. Between the two alternative energy plans, I prefer OTEC, because it has more positive side effects, and to me juts seems like a better idea overall.

Blog 6

This weekend I read the book Vanishing Acts by Jodi Picoult, and I absolutely loved it! The book is about a woman named Delia Hopkins who works as a search-and-rescuer in New Hampshire with her bloodhound Greta. She has a daughter named Sophie and they live with her dad Anthony, and Delia is about to get married to her fiancé Eric when one day her life is turned upside down. She finds out that her dad, Anthony Hopkins is actually not Anthony Hopkins- her dad kidnapped her from her mother when she was about for years old. Anthony is called to trial in Arizona even though the kidnapping occurred twenty-eight years ago, and most of the book takes place during the trial and the days leading up to it. The thing that I love about a lot of Jodi Picoult’s books is that the point of view switches back and forth between characters. This makes it a lot more interesting to read than if the story is being told from just one person’s point of view, because you can understand how all the different characters are feeling, and understand their point of view. It is especially interesting in this book, because for a good portion of the book Anthony is in jail and so you get a glimpse of what his life is like there, while at the same time the reader knows what’s going on with Delia, Eric, their good friend Fitz, and Delia’s mom Elise. As I mentioned in my second blog, which was about Breaking Dawn, I really like when authors use this technique. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Vanishing Acts, and I definitely will keep reading Jodi Picoult’s books.

Blog 5

I recently finished reading Breaking Dawn by Stephenie Meyer. Along with the other Twilight books, it is definitely one of the best books I’ve ever read. I really like the story as well as the writing. The very clear writing makes the plot easy to follow, and makes the book go by really fast. Since my last post about Breaking Dawn, a lot happened in the book. (Spoiler…) At the beginning of the book, Bella and Edward got married and then they went on their honeymoon. At this point Bella is still a human. Bella ends up getting pregnant with a half human-half vampire baby, and the whole Cullen family is worried that this baby will cause the death of Bella. Fortunately, Edward manages to save Bella right as she is on the brink of death, and turns her into a vampire. The middle part of the book is all about their child, Renesmee growing up. She is not your average human baby, or your average vampire baby, which ends up making the Volturi- kind of like the vampire government- very worried about whether this baby could be dangerous. The Cullens decide to get a bunch of their friends together to be witnesses to show Renesmee is not harmful. This was probably my favorite part of the book because each character was described so intricately that you could easily imagine each scene in your mind. Finally, the Volturi come and there is a confrontation between the two groups in the forest. After a lot of debate, Alice (Edward’s sister) comes to the rescue with another half vampire-half human baby to prove that they are not dangerous. This probably doesn’t sound very interesting because it is about vampires and is just not something that is easy to relate to, but once you start reading any of the Twilight books, you can’t put them down until the last word is read. Together these books amount to at least 2500 pages and these are probably some of the best 2500 pages I’ve read. Along with the 4000 pages of Harry Potter of course!

Blog 4

Article: “What Matters Most in My Work and My Life”
Tyra Banks & Dara Torres
Newsweek Magazine

For this week’s blog, I chose to write about an article I read in Newsweek. The article was about several famous women and how their life experiences have affected their careers. The two I found most interesting were by Tyra Banks and Dara Torres. Tyra talked about how she had never considered modeling until a girl suggested it to her, and she ended up loving it. She said that she found modeling to be very lonely, and talked about how she had decided to get out of the modeling business while she was still on top. She decided to use all her knowledge of modeling and the fashion world to create multiple television shows, including “The Tyra Banks Show” and “America’s Next Top Model.” Tyra talks about how if you really want something, you have to work for it and work very hard. She also encourages people to live up to their dreams. I thought this article written by Tyra was very interesting. It did a good job of summarizing her life and career and at the same time was very encouraging about going after your dreams. The second article was written by Dara Torres, an Olympic swimming medalist. Torres is 41 years old and she just won three silver medals in the Beijing Olympics. I find this to be truly amazing, because most professional athletes retire at a very young age. The article talks about how she was always very good at sports, and she is probably just genetically skilled at athletics. She talks about how much she loves being in the water and competing in relays, and how comfortable she feels in the water. Torres also said that she finds inspiring people so much more satisfying than bringing home medals. I think in this article, Torres did a wonderful job of showing just how much she loves her sport. She is a true example of how you are never too old to do what you love.

Blog 3

Article I Read: http://www.cnn.com/2008/CRIME/09/30/grace.beauty.missing/index.html?iref=mpstoryview

For this week’s blog I chose to write about an article I read on cnn.com. It was about a 30 year old teacher from Georgia named Tara Grinstead who went mysteriously disappeared one night. She had been at a dinner party with some friends and had left alone, saying she was going home. Nobody has seen Grinstead since that night- October 22, 2005. There were some signs of violence in her house and some suspicious things, like the fact that her cell phone was there and her purse and keys were gone. The police say that there were clothes lying around the house. Her family says that she never went anywhere without her phone and she would never leave clothes lying around, which makes the police think that some sort of foul play occurred. One of the major suspects in her disappearance is her ex-boyfriend, who was spotted hanging out with one of the cops that night. My guess is that he had some role in her abduction, but it’s being covered up by the cops. What interested me about this article was the date. When I read the headline and clicked on the article I assumed it would be a recent disappearance because it was one of the top new stories. The fact that Grinstead hasn’t been seen since 2005 makes me wonder if they have reopened the case or if there has been recent evidence that has brought the case back into the news. I think it’s really sad that it’s been almost three years and they still haven’t found her. I can’t even imagine what that would be like if someone I knew disappeared. Overall I found the article very interesting, and I hope she is found soon or that someone will come forward with evidence.

Blog 2

This week, I started reading Breaking Dawn which is the 4th installment in the Twilight series by Stephenie Meyer. I read the first three this summer and I absolutely loved them so that’s why I chose to read this one. The general plot is about a girl named Bella Swan who falls in love with a vampire named Edward Cullen. It sounds really weird and I thought it was going to be stupid until I picked up Twilight. The writing is a lot better than I expected it to be, and all four books are very captivating. When you’re reading about something like vampires, it’s hard to imagine what is going on because most of us have never seen a vampire before. That is what makes these books so good. Meyer’s impeccable amounts of detail make it impossible not to be picturing the entire story in your mind. Another thing that Meyer does in Breaking Dawn specifically is that she uses multipiple points of view. The Preface to Book 1 is from Jacob, Bella’s werewolf friend’s perspective, which is very interesting. Since all the previous books are from Bella’s view, it’s hard to truly understand her relationship with Jacob. Seeing it from Jacob’s side brings a whole new light to the matter. The rest of Book 1 is Bella’s thoughts, and Book 2 switches back to Jacob. The final book (3) returns to Bella’s point of view. This is really interesting for me because authors don’t switch back and forth between perspectives very often, and if they do it’s every chapter not every book. Usually I don’t like the change in point of view because it gets confusing and unless you stop reading at the end of a chapter every time, it’s hard to just pick up the book and start reading because you forget who’s section of the book you are in. Just like with the vampire topic though, I like the way Meyer chose to write Breaking Dawn. It helps you understand what is going on with Bella and with Jacob without being too back and forth. Another thing I love about the Twilight books is that there is not really a climax because the whole thing is just so intense! I am almost done with Breaking Dawn, and I’m bummed because it’s the last one. But I can’t wait to find out what happens!

Blog 1

I read an article in Newsweek today about Sarah Palin. I chose to read it because I am very interested in the upcoming election and I am curious about John McCain's VP choice. The article talked about the similarities and differences between McCain's choice and Walter Mondale's choice of Geraldine Ferraro in1984, something I hadn't thought about before. Ferraro ended up being a bad choice for Mondale- they only won one state. (This happened to be Minnesota) At first though, people were very intrigued by Ferraro and it was believed that she could really help Mondale win the race to the White House. But the craze died down shortly, and women started to get intimidated by Ferraro, afraid that their husbands would think them less worthy now that there were women going out and being Vice President. I think that’s really interesting that women would be that worried, because it’s not like Ferraro was just going to swoop in and steal there husband. The article suggests that the 'Palin Effect’ will die down- and I sure do hope it does. Another major thing that this article talks about is how so many people are only supporting Palin because of her gender and they want to get rid of sexism. I think this is really stupid because the whole point of getting rid of sexism is so everyone’s treated equally. Not voting for someone just because they are a girl is just as stupid as voting for someone just because they are a girl, in my opinion. And why didn’t these feminists stick with Hillary Clinton, someone who is both a woman and is a good politician. A thing that I liked about this article was that they did a really good job of showing both sides of the story. Newsweek is usually pretty left wing, but this article gave Palin a pretty fair chance which, although I do not agree with Palin one bit, made it more interesting to read. Overall, the article was really well written, and was 6 pages just packed with information.