Fictional Characters Gone Wild

In William Shakespeare's play, Romeo and Juliet, the protagonists go through a change that the society at the time did not approve of. As a young girl, Juliet was not expected to be her own person. She was supposed to be obedient to her father until she was married, and then be obedient to her husband. Juliet was already promised to Paris when she fell in love with Romeo. They were not officially engaged, but he had his mind set on marrying her, and her parents had their minds set on them getting married. There was nothing she could do to stop it. When she met Romeo and fell in love with him, she broke the standards of society. She refused to marry Paris, going against her parents. She and Romeo wanted to get married and spend their lives together. They got married in secret, going against their family's wishes. Romeo was too young to be married at the time, therefore he also broke the standards of society.

Inanimate Objects

Authors use specific inanimate objects as symbols to move the plot along. In Lord of the Flies, he conch shell is not just a shell. It symbolizes democracy and power. Whoever holds the conch shell is supposed to be the leader. Since Ralph is the one that found the shell and called all the boys together, he was given the title of leader. Also in Lord of the Flies, Piggy’s glasses are a symbol of wisdom. Piggy is logical and intelligent, when Jack’s hunters break the glasses; it symbolizes a loss of common sense and knowledge.

In Khaled Hossieni’s The Kite Runner, the kite starts off as being a symbol of friendship. Amir and Hassan flew kites together in competitions and for fun. They feel very close when working together to keep their kite up and knock others down. As the novel progresses, the kite becomes a daunting symbol to Amir. By the end, however, kites become a symbol of friendship again. 

And the Mountains Echoed

I started reading And the Mountains Echoed by Khaled Hosseini. I chose this book because I love his two other books, The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns. I’ve only read the first 20 or so pages so far. I almost never like the beginning of books. All that is in the first few chapters of most books are a description of the characters and setting. I like that Hosseini started this novel with a story. It’s different than most books in that way. After the story, however, he jumps into characters and setting descriptions. Right now I find the book pretty boring, but I’m sure that will change. 

Judging Blog

People are constantly being judged for being different. Everyone judges whether they mean to or not. There always have been and always will be racial stereotypes. I admit to jumping to conclusions about a person based on their skin color or general appearance.  It isn’t just a racial thing; it can be because of gender or appearance. The way someone dresses determines how people will judge them.

I have seen people being judge based on their race, but I have also seen people judge themselves on their race. I’ve seen people at school “act black” around black people, but “act white” around white people. I’ve joked about stereotypes plenty of times. The only way for people to stop judging each other is for the stereotypes to end. Unfortunately, it is very unlikely that stereotypes will ever die, and people judging each other will ever end.