Final blog post: My Recommendations

 Hello and welcome back to the Peerless Page-turner blog! We've come to an end of English and for my final blog post I will be recommending one of the three books I read for my reading study.

For my independent reading study, I chose the three books, The Picture of Dorian Gray, by Oscar Wilde, The Scum Villain's Self-saving System, by Mo Xiong Tong Xiu, and Shakespeare Saved My Life, by Laura Bates.  Out of these three I would recommended The Picture of Dorian Gray the most. 

I find old, classic novels tend to scare off most people my age; they are thought to be boring and full of old, stale, ideas. And while yes, I agree some classics can fall into that, The Picture of Dorian Gray is not one of them. The wonderful thing about literature is that humans have been the same since the dawn of time, we hold the same core ideas as those hundreds of years ago, and that is beautiful. 

Dorian Gray is a truly brilliant novel, written elegantly by my favorite author. The ideas discussed in Dorian Gray, are ideas that are still important today, even if it was written more than 100 years ago. 

Dorian Gray discusses youth and pleasure in an intelligent and well-done way, it is surprisingly the type of story I believe every teenager should read. Indulging yourself in every passing thought and pleasure is something that often plagues the minds of people my age; we've all had that thought, 'what's the worst that can happen?' Well, even though I am certain that nobody here will be selling their soul for eternal youth, I can tell you that Dorian Gray explores that exact idea, and let me tell you, once you finish the book your opinion on the nature of humans and pleasure will have completely changed. 

I implore everyone reading this to head down to their local library and pick up a copy of The Picture of Dorian Gray. I promise you won't be disappointed. 

Approach to the Inmost Cave- Shakespeare Saved My Life

 Hello and welcome back to the Peerless Page-turner blog!

Lets move into todays subject-- the Approach to the Inmost Cave. For this subject I chose my third and final book, Shakespeare Saved My Life. This book is a memoir, about a convicted killer turning his life around with the help of an English professor. 

In this book the ordeal occurs when Larry Newton, a convicted killer who turned his life completely around because of Shakespeare, gets sent back into solitary confinement. After being wrongfully accused of having a cell phone, Larry is sent back into a prison that only knew the old him, the violent, angry and depressed him. He is treated wrongfully by the prison guards and director, he is moved to another cell every three days, strip-searched twice a day, and his precious Shakespeare book is taken away from him. 

Conditions like these would drive anyone to insanity, and Larry himself writes: 

"First there are the psychological conditions: it keeps me anticipating harassment all day. That is as distractive as a drug addict awaiting his next lick. The moving keeps me isolated socially, and that creates a depressed mood." (Bates, Shakespeare Saved My Life, 272)

As we can see in this passage Larry is struggling, he is trying to focus on his work and not fall back into the deadly cycle he was trapped in before he found Shakespeare. But Larry is not so easily tempted by depression. With the help of Shakespeare and Dr. Bates, Larry changed his view on the world, he no longer feels contempt and hopelessness for his condition. Larry found meaning in his life, and that meaning has helped him to prepare for the challenges that face in him his 'Ordeal'. 

Early in the book Dr. Bates asks Larry if he thinks he'd ever kill again, when asked this, Larry has no answer, However, when facing his ordeal Larry says this:

"The answer is no, I will never kill again." (275) 

When faced with the same conditions that caused him to stab a prison guard years ago, Larry does not make the same decision, he does not lash out or try to escape, but instead swears to never cause violence again. That change in attitude, from an angry and violent person, to who Larry is in those passages, was the life-changing preparation that helped to face his 'Ordeal' and come out successful on the other side. 

Tests, Enemies, and Allies (pt 1)- Scumbag System

 Hello and welcome back to the Peerless Page-Turner blog! I hope everyone had a good weekend!

 Let's move into the subject for today -- tests, enemies, and allies. The novel I have chosen to explore this in is Scum Villain's Self-Saving System. As a fantasy novel it has very clear examples of tests, enemies, and allies.

I will focus mostly on the enemies that the protagonist faces.  

The person who has challenged my main character the most is Tianlang-Jun, an ancient king who was sealed under a mountain, and after 100 years returned with the goal of merging the demon and human realms. After the two main characters, Shen Qingqiu and Luo Binghe became trapped in the Holy Mausoleum, the home of Tianlang-Jun, Luo Binghe is knocked out and Shen Qingqiu must try to escape while protecting Luo Binghe from Tianlang-Jun, who wants to kill Binghe. 

While running from Tianlang-Jun, Shen Qingqiu had to carry the unconscious body of Luo Binghe, despite being heavily injured himself. The following two quotes show Shen Qingqiu's "toughness" during this scene:

"The more he walked the sharper the pain in his stomach grew, but he walked faster instead of slowing down. It was partly because he had an increased pain tolerance, but more importantly, he knew he absolutely could not collapse now." (Tong Xiu, Scum Villain's Self-Saving System, Ch 62)

"Shen Qingqiu couldn’t hear clearly through the buzzing in his ears and his sight was blurred, but he knew he had to drag Luo Binghe to the entrance and throw him through." (Ch. 62)

I believe these quotes showcase the courage and perseverance that Shen Qingqiu had when facing Tianlang-Jun. At the beginning of the novel Shen Qingqiu only cares for himself and his own life, but now, we can see that he's changed. In this scene Shen Qingqiu faces death, but instead of sacrificing Luo Binghe to save himself, he gives his own life to save Binghe. He is injured, in pain, and knows that he cannot beat Tianlang-Jun, but he is also determined to save Luo Binghe, even if it means he'll lose his own life. 

 In the end Luo Binghe manages to escape, but Shen Qingqiu is captured by Tianlang-Jun.  Shen Qingqiu's 'toughness', growth, courage and perseverance is apparent in this situation, which represents growth from what he was like at the beginning, where he was only focused on saving himself.