Themes

I think the theme in these stories is family and relationships. All of the main characters in the stories seem to have parents that either have never truly bonded or related to them or have betrayed them at some point in their lives. In "The Life You Save May Be Your Own", the mother didn't seem to really know her daughter. Whenever Mr. Shiftlet came around, she was all to eager to have her daughter marry him. In addition, I think that the mother betrayed her daughter at the end because she had her marry a man that she did not know very well. In "Rules of the Game", Waverly's mother did not really understand her feelings. Her mother did not understand chess, and always expected her to do better. She also betrayed her daughter by constantly showing her off. Though the mother did not know it, this hurt her daughter because she was embarrassed. In "The Book of the Dead", it is obvious that Annie has a very close relationship with her father. She looks up to him and is inspired. However, her father has been telling her a lie for her whole life. She ends up not having the true, close bond with her father that she thought she had. In "Teenage Wasteland", obviously Donny did not get along with his parents. They did not seem to understand him at all, nor did they seem to know much about them. All of the stories deal with parents and their children. In all of the stories, the parents made some sort of mistake while dealing with their children. I think that this shows that the children are not always at fault, though I believe that Donny was. Each of the children have something that happens in the story to make them upset with their parents.

"Teenage Wasteland"

This story really made me upset. It was probably my favorite of the four stories. The Donny was just weird. It was so annoying that he wasn't trying at all in school. I could relate to him somewhat. I understand that sometimes you just get burnt out, but I don't think that this is what happened to him. He just plain out didn't care. I thought that he needed to work harder. I suppose my opinion may be biased as I tend to try to follow through and do well at whatever I choose to do, but Donny just seemed lazy to me. I can understand why his mother sent him to therapy with Cal, he really needed help.

I thought Cal seemed shady from the very beginning of the story. Maybe i'm just crazy, but I don't think that I would send my son to see him after the first few sessions. I do think that Donny had some issues and needed help. Cal took it to the extreme though. It got to a point where he did not allow Donny's mother to say or know anything about his school life. Cal was sheltering Donny, giving him whatever he wanted. It was ruining his life. Obviously if Donny's grades are dropping, it isn't helping. Donny was definitely responsible for the beer found in his locker. I think that this is the first time that Donny's mom finally decided to question Cal.

It is really sad that Donny's sister gets ignored. She was mentioned very few times, but when she was mentioned it was because she was being ignored. Donny's mother spends so much time contemplating about what she did wrong with him, what she would have done differently. The thing is, she can't do anything differently. The past is the past. She needs to wake up and realize that she still has another child that she is responsible for. She may not have another chance to raise Donny, but she does have a chance to give her daughter whatever she feels was missing from Donny's life.

I don't understand why Donny ran away. He had a great life. He had so much before he started seeing Cal. After he started sessions with Cal, he had everything he could possibly want. His parents basically stayed out of his life, he really liked going to Cal's, he had friends, a girlfriend, etc. I think that Donny always took things to the extreme. As for whether or not Donny would have left if he hadn't gone to Cal's, I do not know. I think that Cal and his other students had a very bad influence on Donny. However, Donny was very independent. Cal seemed to help him enjoy life a bit more. I think he would have left eventually, but not necessarily at the same point in time. I don't think he would have been expelled if he didn't go to Cal's. If he hadn't been expelled, he probably wouldn't have run away when he did.

Comments were made to Lisa (http://lisaworldcultures.blogspot.com/) and Sam (http://samworldhistory.blogspot.com/).

"The Book of the Dead"

I thought that this story was really weird. I understand where the title is from, he talks about the Egyptians a lot and it was mentioned that he read the Book of the Dead. At first I didn't really understand how this was the highlight of the book. Why was it important enough to make it the title? Now I think I understand it. The whole reason the father went missing is that he was disposing of his daughters sculpture. His reasoning had to do with the Book of the Dead. He said that your heart was weighed against the feather of truth. He told her that he did not deserve a statue. I suppose that it would be hard to finally tell your daughter the truth after so many years. Her whole art career was inspired by her father. It seemed like every piece she talked about in the book somehow related to either her father or to the prisoners and the unjust treatment they received.

At the beginning when Annie was talking about her father going missing, I thought he had Alzheimers or something. It was a little confusing. When I found out that nothing was wrong with him, I was really confused. I mean, why would he just abandon his daughter. She seemed genuinly worried too. It made it seem like he had gone missing before or something. When she finally found him, he came bearing bad news. I think Annie would have rathered him go missing for several more hours than have to hear what he had to say about his life and her art piece. He told her that he had gotten rid of the sculpture. I think she was really confused by this. He told her that he didn't deserve it and that it was basically haunting him, and that he did not want to take credit for something he did not do. He told her that while he did get his scars in the prison, he was not a prisoner. He was actually a guard at the prison. I felt really bad for Annie. All of her art has been inspired by her father. Now she finds out that everything he told her was wrong. It is really sad. I think that her father should have either told her the truth earlier or not told her anything at all about his scars, because that lie really ended up hurting Annie.

Comments were made to Jessyca (http://jessycawithay.blogspot.com/) and Kyrstin (http://kyrstinsblog.blogspot.com/).

"Rules of the Game"

I liked this story a lot more than I liked "The Life You Save May Be Your Own". I thought it was weird that Waverly was named after the street that she lived on. I've never heard of anyone doing that before, but maybe people really do. I thought it was sort of sad how Waverly was so excited about getting life savers for Christmas. It really shows how much children expect these days. I know many children who would be very upset about getting a few packs of life savers! It seemed strange that some gifts were so nice while others were not. I suppose that this is due to the fact that they are donations from people.

Waverly really liked playing chess. I did not really understand what her mother meant at first when she spoke about "American rules". I wondered if the Chinese have different rules to playing chess. Now I understand what she was saying. Americans have rules, but they don't really know why. Waverly's mom told her that the Chinese would go and find why the rules are the way that they are. I think that this is pretty true. When you play a game and you read the rules, you just follow them. Waverly did not though. She studied chess, and spent a ton of time practicing. You can tell that she is very dedicated, especially because she is so young.

I thought Waverly was sort of using her position. I mean, she made her brothers sleep in another room so that she could concentrate on playing chess. I understand that she needed it to be quiet, but forcing your brothers out of their bedrooms is a bit extreme. She also got excused from many things that her brothers had to do. She did not have to do chores. She was so lucky, but when her mother would try to show her off she would get mad. I think that it was very important that her mother taught her the rules of "the game" or life throughout the novel. Waverly is going to be an amazing person. She is very smart and dedicated. She needed to know that she can't always have what will make life easier for her though.

Comments were made to Alaina (http://a-snurbshe11.blogspot.com/) and Sarah (http://wallaceworldcultures.blogspot.com/).

"The Life You Save May Be Your Own"

This story was very strange. It seemed to be filled with a lot of deceit. I found a lot of the story pretty hard to believe. Mr. Shiftlet basically just showed up at the lady's house. She did not know him. She immediately gave him work to do and offered him the opportunity to sleep in her car for free. I know that the car did not run and that it did not have much value, but this still seems weird to me. You would have to be a pretty trusting person to allow someone to sleep in your car. How does she know that he isn't a serial killer? That would be the perfect opportunity to kill if he was one.

Mr. Shiftlet seemed pretty suspicious to me from the very beginning. He seemed to agree with anything and everything the old woman said. He said things that he knew she wanted to hear, especially when it came to her daughter. He said that she should never let anyone take her away because she is precious. However, the old woman started to trust Mr. Shiftlet, and she allowed him to marry her daughter. I can't believe that she did this! Mr. Shiftlet has not even been around for very long. Her poor daughter, who is a deaf-mute, doesn't seem to be allowed any opinion on the whole matter. I just don't think ordinary people would do this.

I think the old woman should have started suspecting something was up when Mr. Shiftlet was begging her for more money. I know that she did not give him very much, but I don't think he had a right to point this out to her. He had no money, and to my knowledge spent nothing on the entire wedding. He did not pay for the car. Unfortunately, the old woman fell for his tricks. He haggled some more money off of her, then ditched his new wife in a restaurant somewhere. I don't think Mr. Shiftlet should have gotten married. Marriage is a rather big commitment to make for $17.50. I think that scams are bad enough, but dragging that poor girl into the scheme was truly heartless.

I think that both the boy who was hitchhiking and the cloud at the end of the story represent Mr. Shiftlet's past and future. The boy represented his past because Mr. Shiftlet felt some sympathy for him and shared a story about his own life with him. The cloud represents both his past catching up to him and his future, which is going to be hard and troublesome because of what he has done.

Comments were made to Kyrstin (http://kyrstinsblog.blogspot.com/) and to Lauren (http://laurentheeclecticishere.blogspot.com/).