Rebellious Hero

Rebellious Hero: Mockingjay by Suzanne Collins. Published in 2010 by Scholastic Press and Imprint of Scholastic Inc.

            In the Mockingjay, it starts with Katniss being yet again shoved into another situation where she has to make a decision on whether she should change the lives of everybody in the Panem. You are welcomed into the story with a scene where Katniss is standing in the remnants of her beloved District twelve, where she recalls nostalgic memories. At the final moments of 75^th hunger games, Katniss was saved by District thirteen where she’s questioned on whether or not if she will take the position as the “Mockingjay,’ the public leader of the rebellion against President Snow. After accepting the position, her squad was dispatched to help the rebels in every district win over the community. Along the way, General Coin, the mastermind behind the entire rebellion, decided to have the Mockingjay air on the national screenings the slow demise of the current President Snow. Finally they were on the “boss-level,” going head-to-head with the capitol.

            Within the outskirts of the capitol, the side containing Katniss had already faced casualties and problems with trying to get into the center of the area. By the time they got through to where the civilians were evacuated, they lost more than half the group. Katniss was in a special elite squad that competed with the rest of the group in executing the mission of seizing control of the capitol and taking the President as hostage. Once Snow was captured and was sentenced to exile, Katniss realized the true objective of General Coin: to replace Snow with herself. At first, the idea was actually good, until the new President Coin showed her true colors in trying to haul up the 76^th hunger games. Instead of killing Snow, Katniss shot an arrow and killed Coin to save all of Panem from creating turmoil for future problems. Except instead of living happily ever after, she burdens the tragedies that had befallen her and all of Panem starts to once again, repair itself.

           

Quote:  “That’s when I make a list in my head of every act of goodness I’ve seen someone do. It’s like a game. Repetitive. Even a little tedious after more than twenty years. But there are much worse games to play” (Collins 390).

            This is part of the epilogue, where you see the aftermath of all the battles and events that occurred. Katniss married Peeta, but they both suffer from having nightmares about the past, even twenty years after the war because of the trauma they have been through. The couple started a family, where the kids are still to innocent from understanding the past of their parents. By far, this is my most favored quote from the book; it is a section from the epilogue where you see how Katniss manages. The last sentence of the quote is an allusion to the actual hunger games where it is compared to a regular memory game. Although the epilogue ended with the supposed star-cross lovers being united, it is not satisfying enough in my opinion; the book ends with a depressing after story.

Nightmares Becoming Reality: Hole in my Life

Hole In My Life by Jack Gantos. Published in 2002 by the Douglass & McIntyre Ltd.

Book Summary:
           Jack Gantos starts the book off explaining why the cover page is his mug shot. In the beginning he shows a small chunk of ignorance towards life, saying something along the lines of "trouble being possible to avoid forever," which is actually inevitable in reality. Drugs are a motif within the story; it either helps the protagonists gain popularity or gives him a rough time. Further into the book, Jack goes to St. Croix of the Key West to seek his purpose in life. He flees the area shortly after arriving, since tension rose between separate races. Things were not good at the moment; since cash was hard to come by, Jack resorted to selling hash with some strangers he recently met.
           The feds had tailed the group from the beginning of their scandal. A former alias gave them off, to reduce his sentence after being with drugs. During the journey, Jack had accounted all the events that occurred when he was selling dope into a journal. Within his trial, the journal was mysteriously brought up as evidence that wold guarantee jail time. Sent straight to jail, he lived in constant fear of anyone that lurked around the corner. Looking for ways to escape jail, a golden opportunity arose; Jack had applied for college from within jail and received an early dismissal from the parole board since he met the requirements. Hitting "rock bottom" a few times never hindered the main character from bouncing back onto his two bare feet, which eventually lead to his earned freedom.


Quote:
"All I had to do was have fun and be back by midnight. Cinderella rules" (Gantos 190).

Quote Explanation:
           Jack is contained within a jail cell and in desperate need of escaping early at any almost any cost. The parole board allows behaved jail inhabitants to stroll around the outskirts of jail as long as you return by after dawn. The author tries to build a connection with the reader by seeing if we know a well-known fairy tale. Cinderella's life is a ironic simile to Jack's, if you look through a symbolic perspective. The tower in which Cinderella's locked in is similar to jail for Jack, and his "knight in shining armor" is the opportunity to go to college. He's trapped within his "tower" which is guarded by a dragon that could represent the lawyer(s) and evidence against him.