Divergent Compare and Contrast

The book and movie Divergent is by Veronica Roth that takes place in the future of Chicago. Tris Prior was played by Shailene Woodly, Four (Tobias Eaton) was played by Theo James, Eric was played by Jai Courtney, Peter was played by Miles Teller, and Jeanine was played by Kate Winslet. The story is based on what life would be like in future Chicago. There are five factions by the names of Abnegation, Erudite, Dauntless, Candor, and Amity. Each faction has something special for peoples personalities. Therefore, everyone must choose 1 faction to which they belong to by taking what is called an aptitude test which tells them which faction best suits them for their personality. If you have more than one result, you are divergent. In the story, Tris Prior is divergent. It tells you the story of Tris’s journey on her new life and faction. Will she get caught and die or will she hide that she is divergent and survive? If she survives, then how did she do it?

In the book and movie there were quite a few things that were the same. One thing that was the same was the setting and the factions. Another thing was the choosing ceremony and the aptitude testing. Some other things that were the similar were how she chose Dauntless and met an amazing guy named Four.

One of the things that was different was how Tris got the flag in the game they played and instead of paint guns in the book it was a gun that simulated a gunshot wound for a few minutes in the movie . In the book, Christina got the flag at the top of the building, but in the movie it was Tris. Having this changed Christina and Tris did not have tension between each other like they did in the book after Christina got mad at Tris because she was receiving all the fame and attention.

The second thing that was different from the movie and book was how in the end when Tris and Four were trying to shut down the simulation, Tris struck Jeanine’s hand with a knife. In the book, this did not happen. Having this happen in the movie made the part much better and unexpected. It showed how much Tris wanted to Jeanine to shut the system down, and save her old faction.

In conclusion, this is one of my favorite books and movies. I thought it was ten times better than The Hunger Games because it made more sense and better graphics or detail. I loved the book and now continue to read the next one.  

7. You know what they say about assuming.

Why do people assume things that aren't true? In the story The Great Gatsby, Jay Gatsby was being called all these bad things such as a killer, and also just some random things like a German spy. How are people supposed to know if what was heard is true if you heard it from a different source, and not from the person him or herself?

There were some parts in the book where certain people as in Wilson, thought that it was Gatsby that killed his wife in the accident. All the people thought it was Gatsby that did everything. At his parties, people did not even know if he existed. This was also caused by assumption and rumors of the fact he was even real. Also at his parties, everyone called him a killer, bootlegger, German spy, Oxford man, and a pilot. Did they know it was true? How were they supposed to know if the information did not come from him? It's all assumption.

In the end, no one really knew who Gatsby really was except a few special people. The people that knew Gatsby were the people that knew the truth. They all knew that he was a semi Oxford man, he was not a killer, or that he really was a bootlegger. Lots of people just assumed in the story. In real life, a lot of people just assume things or jump to conclusions. People should take the time to know each other rather than just judge them by what they hear.

Writing Blog

I followed the blog http://writing-about-writing.blogspot.com/ because the girl who has this blog, Cally Taylor, writes books about romance and suspense. She is from the United Kingdom, and her first book Heaven Can Wait was written in 13 different languages. She is currently working on her fourth book.

Harrison Bergeron Comparison

There are similarities and differences between the movie and short story in our english book about the story of Harrison Bergeron. The movie was very much not how I imagined it in my head while I was reading the story, but I did think the movie was good.

I noticed many similar things from the story that were in the movie. Some of the things that I noticed were the same was that the reporter had a bad stutter without his handicaps. I thought Harrison was described the same overall, and how he broke into the ballerina performance.

There were many different things compared to the movie and the story. A few of the things I picked out during the movie was George seemed more distracted in the movie than in the story. Harrison also did not have a bomb when he came in to the ballerina performance. The "bomb" was not an actual bomb it was just something to turn the cameras back on while he was proving a point. In the story, Hazel was the one who started crying when Harrison got shot on live TV, but in the movie it was George. Also, the TV was off air in the story, and the TV was on when Harrison was shot.

 

Harrison Bergeron Speech

Kaylee Flaagan

Miss Fordahl

English 10

November 19, 2013

Harrison Bergeron

When I think of a short story with something I can relate to, I think of Harrison Bergeron. This story in particular, has stuck out to me very much. It is a very easy story to relate to, and makes you think. In this little speech, I will be talking about the author himself, how the story reflects on today's society, and what I think the people in the story are actually feeling towards everything.

Why do you think the author of the story, Kurt Vonnegut, chose to write about this particular story? Kurt is known as one of the most acclaimed satiric writers in America. Kurt wrote this short story because he likes to write about wars, brutality, and fear of technology. The main idea of this story does not really fall into any of these categories, but yet it does. Kurt tries to tell is how everyone should be equal. There should not be competition in who is prettiest or who is the smartest. Everyone should be equal.

This story compared to today, is very different. Nobody is different these days, everyone is different. Everybody wants to be different, nobody wants to be the same. How would any of you feel to have the same amount of intelligence as the person next to you? Would you like to be “equal in every which way?” as Kurt states in the story. Everyone wants to have their own way of standing out to someone, and being special.

All these people affected in this short story are feeling different towards all this sameness. I personally would not like to be like George and have a government transmitter to keep him from not getting smarter than the others since he is very smart. What kind of life would it be to be so smart but then get something like George and be the same as everyone else? There are ups and downs of being the same as the other people. Some positives would be how there would not be any competition with anyone, everyone would look alike, and even act alike. There would not be any weirdness or no one could be called ugly. Some of the downs would be how no one could be themselves, or be special in their own way. No one could also have amounts of intelligence or for example be more athletic than anyone else.

Overall, the author wanted to express how the world would be like if everyone was the same. He wanted to make us think of the ways it would be different and how we would react to it. He also wants us to think about if we would rather have it to be different like we are now, or to be the same as everyone else. As I said I would be both ways for many reasons. Thank you for listening.