After Winter break, we started reading a new book by John Knowles called A Separate Peace. It follows two boys, named Gene and Phineas a.k.a. Finny that go to a private school called Devon with other boys such as Brinker and Leper, in the U.S. during World War II. They're best friends and do everything together. Gene is the smart one of the two, while Finny is the more athletic one. They seem too be completely opposite from one another, but you know the old saying; opposites attract. While the boys seem to have so much fun together, Gene believes that there is something wrong about how friendly Finny is. He believes that Finny is plotting too ruin his studies, and makes out their friendship to actually be a competition. Due to this belief, Gene did something that he would regret. While on a tree with Finny, he jounces the limb causing Finny to lose balance, fall, and shatter his leg. Due to this injury, Finny can't ever play sports again. And although Finny seems to know that Gene jounces the limb, he refuses to believe that, even after Gene told him he jounced the limb. After this, Gene realizes that his competition with Finny wasn't a competition, but an actual friendship with a great friend. But his mistake is coming back to haunt him. Brinker has set up a meeting in the Assembly room of Devon to figure out what actually happened at the tree, and why Finny really fell. While the truth seems too be coming out, Finny can't handle it and he storms out of the Assembly room but trips as he is going down the stairs. This is where we stopped reading. By what I've read so far, it seems that all the peace at Devon has disintegrated in the flames of war that is spreading like a wildfire. The fire is growing bigger and stronger and destroying everything in its way. Conflict has grown between the boys, and it is eating them alive. They can't handle the pressure of joining or not joining the war, and seeing what happened to Leper has struck fear into them. The war has affected everyone and the boys are now feeling that affection. There is a war going on in the world we live in today, and even though it seems to not be affecting us, it is. The United State's economy has suffered due to the war in Afghanistan. I have an article here that gives us the negative effects on the economy that the war has: http://fritz11235.hubpages.com/hub/How-the-Wars-in-Iraq-and-Afghanistan-Have-Affected-the-US-Economy. A great man named Howard Zinn once said, in an interview, that "War is an addiction. And the U.S. must get out of the habit of war." Here is the full interview with him, http://m.democracynow.org/stories/9882, and I also added a video of one of his speeches about the war that can be found at the bottom of the blog. I agree with Howard Zinn. We must get out of thinking that we must be a military superpower. Why do we have to be a military superpower? Why can't we be a philanthropic superpower? Instead of dropping bombs on other countries, why don't we drop supplies of food and water to the countries that need them? War isn't the answer to all our problems, and the negative effects on war outweigh the positive. Let's not spread hate across the world, let's spread peace. That is my blog and thank you for reading it.
After Winter break, we started reading a new book by John Knowles called A Separate Peace. It follows two boys, named Gene and Phineas a.k.a. Finny that go to a private school called Devon with other boys such as Brinker and Leper, in the U.S. during World War II. They're best friends and do everything together. Gene is the smart one of the two, while Finny is the more athletic one. They seem too be completely opposite from one another, but you know the old saying; opposites attract. While the boys seem to have so much fun together, Gene believes that there is something wrong about how friendly Finny is. He believes that Finny is plotting too ruin his studies, and makes out their friendship to actually be a competition. Due to this belief, Gene did something that he would regret. While on a tree with Finny, he jounces the limb causing Finny to lose balance, fall, and shatter his leg. Due to this injury, Finny can't ever play sports again. And although Finny seems to know that Gene jounces the limb, he refuses to believe that, even after Gene told him he jounced the limb. After this, Gene realizes that his competition with Finny wasn't a competition, but an actual friendship with a great friend. But his mistake is coming back to haunt him. Brinker has set up a meeting in the Assembly room of Devon to figure out what actually happened at the tree, and why Finny really fell. While the truth seems too be coming out, Finny can't handle it and he storms out of the Assembly room but trips as he is going down the stairs. This is where we stopped reading. By what I've read so far, it seems that all the peace at Devon has disintegrated in the flames of war that is spreading like a wildfire. The fire is growing bigger and stronger and destroying everything in its way. Conflict has grown between the boys, and it is eating them alive. They can't handle the pressure of joining or not joining the war, and seeing what happened to Leper has struck fear into them. The war has affected everyone and the boys are now feeling that affection. There is a war going on in the world we live in today, and even though it seems to not be affecting us, it is. The United State's economy has suffered due to the war in Afghanistan. I have an article here that gives us the negative effects on the economy that the war has: http://fritz11235.hubpages.com/hub/How-the-Wars-in-Iraq-and-Afghanistan-Have-Affected-the-US-Economy. A great man named Howard Zinn once said, in an interview, that "War is an addiction. And the U.S. must get out of the habit of war." Here is the full interview with him, http://m.democracynow.org/stories/9882, and I also added a video of one of his speeches about the war that can be found at the bottom of the blog. I agree with Howard Zinn. We must get out of thinking that we must be a military superpower. Why do we have to be a military superpower? Why can't we be a philanthropic superpower? Instead of dropping bombs on other countries, why don't we drop supplies of food and water to the countries that need them? War isn't the answer to all our problems, and the negative effects on war outweigh the positive. Let's not spread hate across the world, let's spread peace. That is my blog and thank you for reading it.