Book 4 Reflection: Harry is an Epic Hero

An epic hero is a hero that participates in a cyclical journey or quest, faces adversaries that try to defeat him in his journey, gathers allies along his journey, and returns home significantly by his journey. The epic hero illustrates traits, performs deeds, and exemplifies certain morals that are valued by the society from which the epic originates. They usually embody cultural and religious beliefs of the people. Epic heroes have no superpowers but they're smart, brave, and have fears but overcome them to protect their friends, families, and countries. An epic hero can also be a warrior of some sort who performs extraordinary tasks that most find difficult. This hero is loyal, smart, and brave.  

            Harry is an epic hero because he goes through many challenges on his journey to find and destroy the horcrux’s made by Tom Marvolo Riddle, better known as Voldemort or the Dark Lord. At the end of his journey he finally found his ‘home’ of peace and tranquility as the last sentence of the book was, “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All is well” (Rowling 759). He gets ostracized as being “the boy who lived” and has to deal with people wanting to try and destroy him. He may not fear much as he fears dementors which is fear itself. He is a powerful wizard and will use his abilities to protect anyone in need. He is loyal, brave, and intelligent in many occasions.

            Though he does have a sort of ‘superpower’, it being the ability to produce magic out of a wand, he is an epic hero for what he accomplishes; the rid of the Dark Lord. After having Death Eaters, evil werewolves, and all powerful (besides Dumbledore and Harry of course) wizards that want him dead, he survives the challenges faced with his two companions, Ron Weasly and Hermione Granger. They help him fight the battles and take the load of saving the world partially off his shoulders, seeing as he is the only one who can defeat him, without the help from his best friends. Although Ron did leave them after a fit of rage, he pulled through and contributed to the end of the evil wizard, Voldemort.

            Harry demonstrates being an epic hero (the whole book series) when he is told by Dumbledore in the previous book, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, to go out and find the remaining horcrux’s that need to be destroyed in order to defeat Voldemort. A Horcrux is a powerful object in which a Dark wizard or witch had hidden a fragment of his or her soul for the purpose of attaining immortality. To create a horcrux you would need to kill a person. Voldemort had made seven of these horcurx’s, a diary, a ring, a locket, a cup, a diadem, and a snake. Also he accidentally made Harry his seventh when Harry was a baby because his curse on Harry rebounded and struck him weakening him and splitting his soul as he had killed Lily, Harry’s mom. Harry was protected by his mother’s love as she threw her body between him and Voldemort. Harry uses his knowledge of horcrux’s and finds and destroyed them, besides the ring because Dumbledore had already taken care of that one and the diary since Harry had already destroyed that one in the chamber of secrets in the second book, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.

            His quest had its bumps in the road as they were caught by snatcher, followers of Voldemort. In the beginning of the book they needed to transport Harry somewhere save as to keep him safe and to do that they needed to leave false trails and seven different Harry’s thanks to the polyjuice potion. Even with all of the precautions, he still found Harry, but his attempt was in vain as Harry had escaped and the journey began.

Wishlist

	Cover	Title	Author
		The Odyssey	Hinds, Gareth
		The Da Vinci Code (Robert Langdon, #2)	Brown, Dan
		Confessions of a Murder Suspect(Confessions, #1)	Patterson, James
		Yes Please	Poehler, Amy
		Seriously... I'm Kidding	DeGeneres, Ellen
		The Maze Runner (Maze Runner, #1)	Dashner, James
		The Scorch Trials (Maze Runner, #2)	Dashner, James
		The Death Cure (Maze Runner, #3)	Dashner, James
		If I Stay (If I Stay, #1)	Forman, Gayle
		Where She Went (If I Stay, #2)	Forman, Gayle

Good Reads

Tori's books

Bossypants

by Tina Fey

Gone Girl

by Gillian Flynn

The City of Ember

by Jeanne DuPrau

The Stinky Cheese Man: And Other Fairly Stupid Tales

by Jon Scieszka

Hyperbole and a Half: Unfortunate Situations, Flawed Coping Mechanisms, Mayhem, and Other Things That Happened

by Allie Brosh

Book Thief trailer

Book Talk Presentation

Book 3 Listicle: Five things why Tina Fey is where she is now

Tina Fey has been in about 15 movies and television shows. Her past is what guided her to where she is now. From her friends to her first job, they all are how she is here and how we all know her.

1- Her Scar

This is like a "miniature form of celebrity" as Tina would put it. It would grab peoples attentions when she would walk around and get questions such as, "How did you get your scar?" and "Did a cat scratch you?" In her book she said,"The grossest move is when they say they're only curious because "it's so beautiful." Ugh. Disgusting. They might as well walk up and say, "May I be amazing at you?".

2- Her Friends

Karen, Sharon, Tim and Triston. They were here friends through high school and according to Tina Fey, "Lots of teenage girls have taken comfort under the wings of half-closeted gay boys, but how many of us can brag that her two best friends in high school were twenty-five-year-old lesbians?" They were her comfort and her really funny best friends that got her through school.

3- Her first day job

While working at the YMCA, you meet many different people and many different attitudes. "The YMCA there was a great mix of a high-end yuppie fitness facility, a wonderful community resource for families, and an old-school residence for disenfranchised men. It may also have been the epicenter of all human grimness." as Tina Fey would have put it. Her and her co-workers would make comments about people as they walk into the building.

4- All the guys she has gone after

She has gone after many boys in her life. She says that another thing that she bonds with Tim is the similar guys that they go after. She even went hiking with a guy she liked and his annoying friend.

5- Her work on SNL

Her widely known job was on Saturday Night Live. Her friend, Amy Poehler, and her 'skits' were funny.
Her well known skit was with Hilary Clinton(Poehler) and Sarah Palin(Fey).

Truth and Nonfiction

I believe that if a book wants to be a memoir about someones life, then it would need to be at least 90-100% correct. I say this because different events can be stretched a tad to make the book seem more interesting, or the author's memory was a bit off and they can't remember the details of an event so the make something up. Some events that can be altered are things that have happened but won't change the plot or the subject of the story, or small details about how something looks, I'm not saying that if you live in a decent house and your life is a regular one that you can change that to make you live in a small rundown cottage on the brink of falling apart, because that will change how your character will see life. You are the character, but if you change details like that you won't be that character anymore, it will be someone else playing a false you.

David Shields is wrong, from my perspective. It matters to have the books labeled as certain genres because if you are looking for a certain book and you know it is a Romantic Comedy, you can just narrow down the search to a specific group. You don't have to have a book that is just one genre, you can mix them together and get a sub genre to correlate the book to. You can have a romantic comedy, instead of just a romantic book. The genre isn't limited to just one category and labeling books in certain categories of genres can and will help you find a book you like faster.

Blog Post #4

The book for my book 2 project is, The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

An important scene in the book that should be transferred into the movie is when Liesel's brother has just been buried, and she was dragged away. This shows the beginning of the struggles that Liesel went through, and the reminder of that time; the book, The Grave Diggers Handbook.

A point in the book that is something you can't get rid of is the fact that the Hubermann's have two children. If you have seen the movie you would know that they took out the fact that they do have two kids. This is important because this shows the hardships that Hans has to go through with his son.

Another important scene in the book is Max's dream to be a boxer and fighting Hitler. This is important because it is one of the most important parts that makes the character of Max, Max.

If I was creating this into a movie I would omit that the narrator is death. It would be confusing and hard to figure out if you haven't read the book.

I would also get rid of the scene where they, Liesel and Rudy, knock Otto Sturm off his bike. I hate this scene because it is just ruthless and unnecessary. After they knock him off his bike they presume to rob him of what he has, which bothered me.

Book 1 Project: Gone Girl Video Game

My idea to make a fan experience is to make it a video game. You would be Nick or Amy and either try to find Amy or escape from Nick. As Nick you would use the clues Amy left and all the hints from the crime scene to hunt down and find Amy. To go through the suspects and piece things together like Nick did, or plant the evidence to frame Nick like Amy did.

In the book Nick's wife Amy Dunne is missing and they don't know what happen to her. It was their fifth wedding anniversary and Nick comes down in the morning to his wife's disappearance. You would play as Nick to find the first clue to start the game. Using the clue you would find the next and next and so on. Like the book you would go through and find the suspects, or anyone who had bothered, stalked, or obsessed over Amy. And visit some of the places she goes to such as Costco, but not Sam’s Club because, “Republicans go to Sam's Club, Democrats go to Costco.” Or you could play as Amy trying to get away from her husband, Nick Dunne. You would go through and find the journal she wrote to get the police to suspect Nick and hide it where she hid it in the book. You would also go have the conversations she had during the book and before her “murder/ kidnapping”. Her talking with the neighbors or the guys in the mall. Planting the evidence and running away. You would go wherever she went in the book after running away. The people that she met and became “friends” with them and how she landed at Desi, a boyfriend from Amy’s past, home where you would have to have read the book to know what to do next.

The plot of the game with match that of the plot of the book but it would also add the option of going through Amy’s life and her back flashes through her rereading the journal to start after you find it. This will allow the fans to go through not just Nick but the option of Amy. And she needs to get away from Nick because, “Friends see most of each other’s flaws. Spouses see every awful last bit.” To start the game it would be easy to use a quote that sums of the book. The game could start out with the quote: “The worst feeling: when you just have to wait and prepare yourself for the lie” and start with whichever character you decide to begin with. This quote sums up the book because both characters have made up so many lies and to go with the lies you need to prepare what you are to say and have evidence to back you up.

The game would have to be for higher level teenagers for language, some intense scenes (most scenes with Nick and Andie), major alcohol consumption along with owning a bar called “The Bar” as the character Nick Dunne—or Lance Nicholas Dunne— and violence, such as beatings, murdering, and self-harming, with character deaths. You would either go from causing a crime scene to coming into the house to find a crime scene.  The difference between the characters are big and getting to see both sides of the story like in the book but in more depth is a major fan experience for anyone that has read the book and liked it. Adding Amy’s flash backs and causing the ruckus in their Missouri home.

 

“A lot of people lacked that gift: knowing when to f*** off.” 

What is a Book?

Books are imagination. You, as a reader, complete the book. The idea is given but the creation of the world in your eyes is dependent on you and how you interpret the book. The eBook doesn’t give you the feel of the book. It can hurt your eyes and you never get the feel of the paper that the books are made of. You don’t get to feel what the book is made up of. I personally like the physical book to hold onto. I get to feel what the author went through to publish it. The weight of the book helps you understand that every word that the author wrote was in your hand. With a kindle you don't get that feeling of the weight of the hardships to write the book. I don’t mind the e-readers but I would like to have the actual thing in front of me. My imagination goes wild when the authors don’t describe a setting or character fully, because it gives me a chance to imagine them in my mind. Books help you escape from reality. Every time I read I always lose track of time. The literal definition for a book is a a handwritten or printed work of fiction or nonfiction, usually on sheets of paper fastened or bound together within covers. But, book can take us on a journey or an adventure. Many books take us on a journey. The books that I have enjoyed and have been very engaging are Harry Potter, Percy Jackson, and other fantasy novels. When I read the books, I get to immerse myself and sometimes get lost in the world I finish the book too fast for my own good. I read to clear my head, and to get away from stress at school and all other places that give me stress.

Why I read

I read for pleasure. I like getting lost in the books and seeing what the characters are seeing. I read because books let my imagination go wild. I have the chance to create my own world that can be whatever I want it to be. Reading gives me a breather from all the stress I get from anywhere and lets me relax. I read when I don’t have to read from school. I read on my own and not when told to read by someone else. I have the freedom of reading whatever I want, when I want to. The choice it key, because when I have a school book I don’t have the motivation to do anything with the book and it just sits in my backpack. I don’t think I have finished any of the school books; such as: Fahrenheit 451, In Cold Blood, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Lemon Tree, and others. Forcing is not what to do to make someone read a book. It may be a good book but I wouldn’t know because I wouldn’t want to read one word of the book. I am also very picky in what I read. I love fantasy books, and many realistic fictions but some books I cannot read are, The Hunger Games, Twilight, and Divergent. I read because I can.