Kate's Book Shelf

English and Secondary Education Major at SHU 17

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It takes ten times as long to put yourself back together as it does to fall apart.

Suzanne Collins Mockingjay

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The Desolation and Rebirth of Katniss Everdeen (spoilers)

Mockingjay thrusts the Hunger Games reader into a depressed and dark state of Katniss's psyche and life. Katniss is disconnected to her own sense of reality and must often tell herself who she is and where she is. Our hero has fallen and it seems hopeless to refocus her.

Katniss has seen so much death by the time she finally breaks in Mockingjay. President Coin remarks that the games destroyed her. And she is right.

Katniss has lost every ounce of innocence she maintained through poverty, starvation, and suffering she endured living in District 12. She is dehumanized by the games, and has lost her ability to live without fear. 

She has witnessed so much, from senseless killing of the Games to the Capitol's glorification of murder. Not to mention the juxtaposition of the lavish grandeur of the Capitol versus the utter deterioration of the lower classes. Personally, if I witnessed half of what Katniss has endured I know I would personally lose hope in all humanity.

So what drives Katniss to regain her strength and lead a revolution against a dystopian tyrannical society?

It is her unscripted desire to help other people, and quite possibly the only light in this dark existential world. 

Katniss has a need to save people, from her mother and Prim to Peeta and the people of the Districts. This intrinsic sense of selflessness is the only thing that readers, or humanity, can cling to in a world dominated by capitalistic selfishness. While Katniss will never be able to fearlessly love someone, she will always be able to love. That is the only hope thew owrld will have, the ability to love through hardship. Only then will people be able to rebuild and move forward.

Do you think Katniss ever truly moves on after the Games? Or is she damned to forever live in a world of fear and death?

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I drag myself out of nightmares each morning and find there's no relief in waking.

Suzanne Collins Mockingjay

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If we burn, you burn with us.

Suzanne Collins Mockingjay

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The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo: Hero or Sidekick?

Larsson's The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo evaluates the dangers of being a woman within the scope of an exciting murder mystery, but what is Larsson really getting at? 

Let's begin with the two main characters, Mikael Blomkvist and Lisbeth Salander. Lisbeth is a strange girl whose shy but aggressive manner landed her in the welfare system. She's a quiet and observant computer hacker, who possesses a "take-no-prisoners" attitude. She is mysterious to the reader even though she is at the center of some of the third person narrator's focus. She has a hatred for men, and has endured severe sexual and emotional abuse. Lisbeth, however, is a powerhouse of a woman. She defeats her abuser by outsmarting him and hacking his computer. She then takes vengeance upon him and tattoos "Rapist pig" on his chest, promising to tattoo it on his forehead if he dares to try to get it removed. Lisbeth is a grade A bad ass, so why does she find herself attracted to a womanizer?

Blomkvist is a strange man, one I can't quite put my finger on. There is an underlying sense of indifference towards anyone, even his ex-wife, daughter. The only person he shows a genuine commitment to is his mistress and coworker, Erika Berger. Women seem to flock to him, even though the only attractive thing about him is that he is a mystery. He seems polite, but at the heart he is very self-serving. He is only attempting to solve the murder mystery of Harriet Vanger because Henrik Vanger is offering him hard evidence for an article against his enemy Wennerstrom. He uses people without regard to others, sleeping with whomever he likes at the moment. 

So why does such a strong woman like Lisbeth find herself attracted to him?

Taking into consideration the severity of Lisbeth's abuse, she has probably never had a man show her much more than an ounce of respect. Blomkvist is kind on the surface, but shallow in personality. She's attracted to the idea of what he is: a kind person. She projects an image of a man who will be there for her and care for her, when in reality, he doesn't do much past the bare minimum of social conduct.

But is Lisbeth wrong for desiring him? 

Maybe not. Lisbeth is just starting to establish what she wants in a partner. But the key words here are "starting". By no means do I want to suggest that at this moment Blomkvist is the knight in shining armor to Lisbeth's dark life. Instead, I want to pose the idea that Lisbeth is saving herself by helping Blomkvist. She is building her trust for men and healing herself after the hardships she endured. Maybe Blomkvist is not the one, but instead the right now. Maybe he is the one to start the process of Lisbeth's happiness. But the key word here again is "start". 

I think Larsson is saying just that: one person should be the start to healing, happiness, and fulfillment. But by no means should we ever rely on another to completely manifest happiness within ourselves. 

Let me know what you think, is Lisbeth a hero or sidekick?

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As a girl, she was legal prey, especially if she was dressed in a worn black leather jacket and had pierced eyebrows, tattoos, and zero social status.

Stieg Larsson The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo

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He often wondered whether it were possible to be more possessed by desire for any other woman. The fact was they functioned well together, and they had a connection as addictive as heroin.

Stieg Larsson The Girl with The Dragon Tattoo

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"Because you can't be as in love as we were and not have it invade your bone marrow. Our kind of love can go into remission, but it's always waiting to return. Like the world's sweetest cancer."

Gillian Flynn Gone Girl

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"There's a difference between really loving someone and loving the idea of her."

Gillian Flynn Gone Girl

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Review on Gone Girl: Amy Dunne as a Hero or Villain? (Spoilers)

Gone Girl is a riveting take on the damsel in distress. Amy Dunne is a damsel in distress within the confines of her own psychosis, slowly losing touch with all sense of her morality and sanity (or maybe she is instead becoming saner...). Gillian Flynn plays with the narration and the audience’s emotions with the dexterity of a skilled puppeteer. If you are looking for an emotional rollercoaster, this is the book for you.

The book opens with a very direct foreshadowing of Amy’s definite disappearance and possible death. Nick Dunne, her husband of five years, describes how he has always wanted to dissect her head, see what is going on under her long blond hair. While to some readers it may seem like a loving remark on her personality, Flynn uses it to hint at Nick’s desire to kill his wife. The mysterious disappearance looks staged, as the police quickly notice, but the question is by who?

The reader is thrust into the crowds, asking “Who took Amy Dunne?” I found myself in a detective role, looking for any hint of deceit from Nick or Amy’s diary entries. We see a beautiful woman created by the diary entries, a girl who wasn’t perfect, but just wanted her husband to love her. We also see a very dark shadow slowing coming over Nick, much like he was simply a storm brewing the entire marriage.

Flynn plays with the unreliable narrator in order to trick the audience into thinking one way, then leading them to the eventual truth. Amy Dunne frames her husband for kidnapping her in order to get back at her husband for cheating on her. Quite a natural reaction, huh? She declares that she needs to stop being the perfect Amy her parents said she always was, and cool Amy that she played for her husband; she needs to find herself. It’s almost admirable that she is able to simply disappear into the night to become whoever she wants to be. This is simply not a reality for woman: many young women looking to find themselves outside the label of others do not have the ability to sneak off and leave behind the life they once were so unhappy with.

Is Amy a hero or villain? In my opinion, she is both. She is the captain of her soul and has the insight to look at her life and realize that she isn’t living it for someone else. But her tragic flaw lies in her selfishness. She doesn’t simply disappear, she sets up her husband to take the fall. If she truly wished to leave her life, she should have simply left instead of ruining the remains of the reality she left behind her. Amy Dunne becomes more psychotic as the novel proceeds: she has simply used everyone in her life in order to make herself look better. She is on the quest for her own definition of who Amy is by destroying the lives of others. While I am all for women leaving people who mistreat them, I do not support destroying lives in the meantime.

So who do we sympathize more with? The man who was framed by a scorned wife for betraying her? Or the woman who is sick and tired of pretending to be happy but leaves major wreckage in her wake?

What do you think?

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65 Books You Need To Read In Your 20s

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