Delirium

http://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/10342808-delirium

Delirium is a beautifully written book that takes place in the ninety-five days leading up to Lena’s procedure. As Lena finishes school and goes through the motions of evaluation and pairing. Lauren Oliver expertly weaves in the story of Lena’s upbringing and her friendship with best friend Hana. This is such a rich and detailed novel spanning the whole of Lena’s life.

There is nothing in this story that is predictable and the reader is repeatedly stunned by twists and revelations in the story. I loved the characterization of Lena and Alex and the description of Lena’s experiences as she comes to terms with feelings and emotions that she simply does not have words for.

Lauren Oliver has an amazing style of writing and is able to take the reader through a full range of emotional responses. Happy, sad, mad. We feel them all. It is safe to say that I felt devastated by the ending of the book and had certainly not expected to be put through the wringer again following some of the book’s more shocking turns. The author really shows the point of sacrifice. SPOILER  When Alex rescues her and they attempt to escape the city and Alex allows himself to be captured and shot on the spot to save Lena, thats a hige sacrafice. It really gets the theme of making sacrafices for the people you love. Lena doesnt even have a chance to grieve, she has to escape into the woods after seeing Alex get shot. 

Delirium Setting

Within the first few pages of the book we already know that it is set in the good ol USA. A quote from the book that shows that is, “Of course we aren’t totally free of deliria in the United States." Civilization is concentrated in those cities which escaped the severe bombings of decades past. Travel between cities is highly restricted. Electric fences separate the city from the Wilds—unregulated territory which was presumably mostly destroyed by bombs. It makes you think, what if our government said love was a disease? What if they prevented us from love? I wonder if the government would even be allowed to do that. I guess anything is possible. The US government in this book deprives its people from such an important emotion. They see only the pain love brings, they don’t see the happiness and wonderful things it brings. Any town or city could have been chosen for the setting in my opinion. No matter what city, there would be no love anywhere. (Thanks to the wonderful US government) But, it is set in Portland, Maine. No matter where you are in the US though, you can’t love, can’t choose who to marry and get told how many kids they can have. The government watches them like people watch a reality show. In the book, the US still celebrates some holidays. The government held the value of the fourth of July. A quote that proves this is, “the day of our independence, the day we commemorate the closing of our nation’s border" So there are some similarities with the world in this book and our world. Even though in that quote, the border closing really represents their total dependence for the cure of love. The US is totally cut off from the outside world. The people are not allowed access to the outside world. It's kind of like a communist country, but worse.

Kristy Ramsey

The column was about teachers having the responsibility to have a gun with them at school. Teachers would have guns at the school to be able to protect themselves and the students if a school shooting was to happen. http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/22/krista-the-very-poor-case-for-arming-teachers/5744065/
    "To ask them to conceal a weapon is beyond common sense or even professional respect." is a very well written line in this column. It is very persuasive. The way it impacts the reader is it sways them more to side with her that this is a bad thing to do. She definitely persuaded me. Her diction that she uses helps persuade the readers that the teachers having guns in way to far. The way she uses different types of punctuation and sentence lengths really makes the article more interesting and impacts us by knowing where Kristy stands on the situation . 
    Kristy always incorporates her own voice in her columns and uses her opinions, which is different than many writers. "To ask them to conceal a weapon is beyond common sense or even professional respect." I would like to ask Kristy if she ever feels nervous to side with certain opinions. That could upset many readers which makes me wonder is she gets nervous to add her opinion. This quote also shows how she puts her opinion in there. It shows her opinion that teachers should not have to have guns at school. I wonder where Kristy gets her ideas. 

Switched book to Delirium

I love dystopian books and so far this is a good one. Since dystopia is so popular, it would be hard to write a good dystopia book and have it become popular. It is an original plot line. A world without love. At the age of 18 you have to get a surgical procedure that makes it so you can never love again. They make the people heartless, but they dont literally take out your heart. It makes me wonder what inspired the author. I'm thinking maybe this great book could of been inspired by just a bad breakup. Im only around page 100, but I really enjoy this book. It makes me think what the world would be like without love. Lauren has an interesting way of writing it.  

There was something I read in there that really stood out to me and it was,“You can't be happy unless you're unhappy sometimes.” That reminded me of Fahrenheit 451 because a theme of Fahrenheit was engaging in difficult and uncomfortable thoughts are the only way to true happiness. Both the quote and the theme relate because they both say that you need to be unhappy sometimes to find true happiness. Specifically for Delirium, I feel the auothor is trying to get the point across that people need love, thats its just a part of human nature and she does a great job showing that through her words.

Lone Survivor blog post #1

Four US Navy SEALS departed one clear night in early July, 2005 for the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan border for a reconnaissance mission. Their task was to document the activity of an al Qaeda leader rumored to have a small army in a Taliban stronghold. Five days later, only one of those Navy SEALS made it out alive. The book and movie both follow this plot line.
This is the story of the only survivor of Operation Redwing, fire team leader Marcus Luttrell, and the extraordinary firefight that led to the largest loss of life in American Navy SEAL history. His teammates fought valiantly beside him until he was the only one left alive, blasted by an RPG into a place where his pursuers could not find him. Over the next four days, terribly injured and presumed dead, Luttrell crawled for miles through the mountains and was taken in by sympathetic villagers who risked their lives to keep him safe from surrounding Taliban warriors.
A born and raised Texan, Marcus Luttrell takes us from the rigors of SEAL training, where he and his fellow SEALs discovered what it took to join the most elite of the American special forces, to a fight in the desolate hills of Afghanistan for which they never could have been prepared. His account of his squadmates' heroism and mutual support renders an experience for which two of his squadmates were posthumously awarded the Navy Cross for combat heroism that is both heartrending and life-affirming. In this rich chronicle of courage and sacrifice, honor and patriotism, Marcus Luttrell delivers a powerful narrative of modern war.
I thought it would be a good idea to compare the movie and the book.  Mainly I compared the characters. The way they are described is very similar to how they actually look. Although I am not far, the movie seems to follow the book well. This book seemed so compelling because of the fact that it is a true story. Lone Survivor in the movie opens with a voiceover of Marcus Luttrell dying and is airlifted back to a military base. As the plane lands, Marcus Luttrell literally dies. According to Luttrell's memoir, however, he was not in mortal danger. After the Army Rangers rescue Luttrell, the Army Rangers "radioed into base that I had been found, that I was stable and unlikely to die." They also stop and have tea with the locals. I feel that in the book, the number of Afghan fighters has been exaggerated. I feel that is just a way to make it seem a little more interesting.