Hey guys, so it’s been a while since I blogged, but I’m back! Although, it doesn’t feel long, we’ve done so much already! After reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, my Astu class, read an article by Judith Butler called Survivability, Vulnerability, Affect. There were many interesting points she talked about in her article that really made me think deeper.

There was a specific line in her article that really made me ponder. The line in the article was “we mourn for some lives but respond with coldness to the loss of others” (Butler 26), she is basically saying that we get sad and cry about some deaths, but we are react with coldness when certain people die. This made me really wonder. Further, our class was talking about this and a fellow classmate mentioned celebrities which made me think even more.

We cry over celebrities dying, but everyday there are people dying from wars but we don’t seem to acknowledge them. It reminded me back a few years ago I saw a comment on Facebook when Amy Winehouse died. The comment read “all she did was drugs, but the whole world is mourning over her, but there are people dying around the world who are not being recognized”, which made me think about myself. There was a time when I found out that Michael Jackson died, and I actually got sad, but when I found out a kid who got raped got killed. I felt more sad about Michael Jackson dying, although I know it is wrong, but I feel like I had more of a connection with Michael, even though I didn’t know him personally.

Although, I don’t know why many people mourn over celebrities even though they do not personally know them, I am one of them. I suggest it is because we personally feel we have a connection with the celebrities. That is why we mourn about celebrities and not strangers who die tragically.

Hey guys! So, it has been a while since I’ve blogged, but I’m back. And with winter break over, its back to work! So, here I am with another blog post. To kick things off, my ASTU class and I recently read a novel called Extremely loud and incredibly close By Jonathan Safran Foer, the novel is narrated by a nine year old boy named Oskar Schell. Oskar finds a key that belonged to his father, and goes out around New York to find out more about the key.

The novel is based on the 9/11 event, where Oskar’s father dies as he is in one of the buildings. Throughout the novel, Oskar goes to every single person who has a last name of ” Black ” trying to figure out what the key was about. He does this, because he wants to know more about his father, and he is looking for answers about his father. I can connect to this novel a lot, also this novel changes my perspectives on things as well. I can connect with this novel because at a young age, I lost my father as well, although he didn’t pass away, he just left my mother and I. And similarly to Oskar, I wanted answers about my father to. I similarly asked many people if they had known my dad because I needed some answers. I needed those answers to figure myself out. I guess I can somehow relate to Oskar because being left with some many questions is one of the worst feelings a child can feel.

Although, the novel is based on the tragedy that happened on September 11th, 2001, I see the novel and connect with the novel more through Oskar, as we were both looking for answers, and we were both trying to figure things out about our father.

Overall, this novel was a very good novel. I really enjoyed it and I highly recommend it! So, if any of you guys have spare time, and need a good read, make sure to pick up this novel.