Matthew Efstatihou

My journey through contemporary liturature.

[mde1031]

Finals...

Before:

During:

After:

[mde1031]

I'm Never Sure What To Blog About

Well, I'm just glad to see this semester come to a damn close. This class was a good one to take. I was glad to actually read books in real English. Although I know the tumblr assignments are going to be the death of my grade. (Whoops!) The Things They Carried was surprisingly my favorite. Such a fluid read and it didn't make me want to slap a small kid. That's always a plus in a society like ours. 

[summerbane]

A theme I gathered from the The Road was perseverance. In a time in which it was questionable whether or not it was even worth-while to stay alive, the man endured starvation, severely cold weather, and the loss of his wife just in order to keep hope alive for his son and himself. I think that message is one that a lot of people should hear and take heart to. Especially in our times now, people often give up just as things are getting hard. The man and his son persevered through and survived a lot more than most people in the world did. They were the good guys: they didn’t give up.

[mde1031]

Let's talk about perseverance. Perseverance was me finishing the book. As beautifully written as the book was, I need something with action, suspense, and scandal. Mainly scandal, I love a good drama. The fire that the two carried through out the book was amazing. With so much tribulation it's a wonder they didn't kill themselves. When the last twinkie become unwrapped that would have been enough for me. 

[mde1031]

I'm Just Not Meant To Have Children

After reading Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close and The Road I've decided children just aren't for me. My patients for constant nagging, questions and cries for attention just aren't my color. God, I hope I wasn't like that when I was that age. How any parents do it, God only knows. But without the dynamic those boys brought to their own story, nothing would have been the same. Had Oskar been 20 or so he probably would have had been an alcoholic with a slight cocaine addiction to coupe. Maybe we would have search under all the wrong skirts for love. Who knows? The young boy in The Road would have just been a young adult badass who takes out the bad guys with his father. Now that sounds like a better plot line. 

[mde1031]

While searching for inspiration on the tumblr posting that was already past due, I found this jewel. 

[modubbs]

Pretty racist …

[mde1031]

If it's so racist, why did you re-blog it? I'm not sure who you're calling racist, but it was written and choreographed by a black man. 

[mde1031]

While searching for inspiration on the tumblr posting that was already past due, I found this jewel. 

[mde1031]

Oskar Vs. Thomas Schnell Sr.

The grandfather really displayed some weak qualities with contrast to Oskar's. Oskar is out there, in your face, and too smart for his own good. His grandfather, however, exhibits qualities of a coward, and not all that intellectual. I mentioned in a previous re-blog about how much children can really teach us without knowing it. Whether it's how to be brave, share, or just be nice to each other. The grandfather could have really used some lessons from his own grandson. 

[alyssarlp]

10.9.13

After finishing this book I have realized a lot about life. Oskar’s determination and hopefulness is so strong for such a young boy. He never once gave up despite all his fears that he did in fact conquer. He grew and learned so many things, which I do believe was his dad’s mission. But...

[mde1031]

I really loved this book when I started and it was a quick and easy read until it ran dry (for me). It's amazing what little kids can teach us, fictional or not. Children around that age really bring us back to basics as human beings. For example: share, don't be mean, and often question, "Why?" 

[mde1031]

"...you can't love anything more then something you miss."

WOW! Talk about stiking a chord! You can't get anymore real then that. Sadly, as a culture we take the present for granted about dream about tomorrow. As much as bad things happen and as many times that we are all struck with tradgedy and death, we still go back to our same old ways. Maybe not at first, but over time we get comfortable with taking it all for granted. We know are not promised tommrrow and we know that we should say, "good bye" like it's our last time, but still we don't.

As many themes as this book has, wouldn't learning to say, "goodbye," be one of them?

[hellostephanymaurer]

I have begun reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close already for the second time in my life. The child who narrates this story is so sadly hilarious in this novel. That kind of makes sense right? I don’t know how else to describe it. I mean the entire situation that he’s in is just sad. But...

[mde1031]

You are so, so right. When I'm reading I have to remind myself that he is only nine years old so when you doens't keep it all togther I have to give him a little credit for keeping it together as long as he does sometimes. Bless his heart. This kid has no closure and is just too smart for his own good. Ignorance is bliss, if you're that young, soak it up when you can.

He mentions friends but doesn't have any interaction with them just like the grandmother and her renter. They're mentioned, but never brought into action.

[mde1031]

Life Without Love

These grandparents are going to have to give me an emotional break at some point. I'm reading and reading, waiting, hoping, and wishing that they would come to some sort of emotional break through and finally learn to make love. Where are the fireworks? Why don’t they both love the mess that they are? The couple doesn’t really seem to live and I wondering if that has anything to do with not being able to love.

Oskar certainly questions the whole idea of life and why is our insignificance so significant. Maybe that’s what our whole purpose in life is. Maybe we’re supposed to find someone to love. And even if that someone dies we still search for that someone to take their place. The mom has Ron, the grandmother has Oskar, and Oskar has the key.

[mde1031]

Finally, I'm done with, "The Things They Carried."

I didn't find this book hard to read at all until toward the end. After so many war stories I began to not care as much. After a while I felt like I was just numbly reading along. O'Brian is such a visual writer that it was like watching a movie in my mind, the way it should be.

With that I didn't feel too many emotions with this book. Even with the ending scene of Linda, which was the strongest, it just didn't pull at my heart that much. (Keep in mind I balled my eyes out in "The Notebook.") But what did, however, was the final line, "I realize it as Tim trying to save Timmy's life with a story."