Feed: Final thoughts

The final pages of this book left me in a weird mood, making me feel not necessarily sad, but just a little indifferent. It’s not that I was expecting a happy ending or anything, but I felt like the book left me with so many questions.

When I first started reading this book I didn't think it would revolve so much around the relationship between Violet and Titus. I definitely thought that their love would play a significant role, but I didn’t think it would take up so much of the plot. I was expecting riots and social issues to take up way more of the story. I also figured that some kind of phenomenon would occur through the feed, and it would become shut down. The book just basically ended with Titus realizing that Violet did teach him a lot of important things, but who knows if he will ever do anything with the lessons he learned.

I want to know what was going to happen to everyone's physical body.. People were losing skin and hair. I don't understand why that wasn't made into a bigger deal. I guess it just made the ending seem so quick and abrupt. The combination of all of these unanswered questions that I have, and the slow ending to this book did not leave me with the plot twist I was hoping to see.

Although the break up between Violet and Titus was anticipated, I didn't think it would happen at all how it did. I hate that it was obvious when he started to lose his feelings for her, as he stopped replying to her messages and grew quiet.  It made me upset when he erased her memories and when he didn't care about the list of adventures that she sent to him. Even though it upset me… I can’t help to feel bad for Titus as well. Violet really did seem like she was trying to guilt him into staying with her because she was dying. It makes me feel bad for both of them.  Although I thought the ending of the book was pretty boring, and wanted to see something crazy happen, I still think it's sweet what titus did for Violet.

Now that I have finished Feed and Eleanor & Park, there are many similarities that I can make between the two. Both books ended with a breakup between the main characters, yet they both ended in kind words. The ending of Feed just made me feel sad, while Eleanor and Park gave me some sense of hope that the two teenagrs would talk again someday. In both cases it was the character from the poor family that was involved in leaving. Eleanor left the town, and Violet (basically) left the world. From the trend of these two books, it seems like the poverty side of the world are the ones who are going through the rough times. I am sure that is not in all cases, but it is true for the ones we have read about so far. Overall I enjoyed both books more than I expected to.

Feed: Middle section, second look.

The first part of this section of the book starts out with Titus having these intense, vivid nightmares about rioting, gunshots, and missiles being fired everywhere. I surprised so far that this hasn't been a main there so far in the book. I am waiting for something crazy to happen and for people to just rebel against the whole technology of the feed.

I think it's really weird that the people in this book will chat each other rather than talk out loud to one another, even if they are 2 feet away. It goes to show how socially slow M.T. Anderson sees the world becoming in the future. We are so dependent on our technology devices, that we sometimes struggle to have real life conversations.

From this section of the book, I am really feeling sad for Violet. The whole friend group doesn't much care for her and that's too bad. Titus seems like he's somewhat starting to get annoyed with her when she has her small outbursts. I feel like he genuinely does feel bad for her because of the issues with her feed, but I also feel like he gets mad about it even though she can’t control it. During the one party where Violet had an episode and had to ride in an ambulance, is when I could see signs of Titus starting to not care a whole lot about her.  I thought the way he reacted at the hospital was very insensitive. Violet was in need of a friend, but he totally acted like she barely mattered. He was just mad that the party was over. It is interesting to see how their relationship is playing out.

Feed: First Impressions

When I first started to read Feed, by M.T Anderson, I really didn't know what was going on. Early on within the first couple of chapters in this book, I honestly didn’t take Titus seriously when he talked about going to the moon. I thought the moon was just a metaphor for something else. It didn't take me long to find out that he was serious about this. Just casually going to the moon for something to do? That sounds unrealistic and gave me an uneasy first impression of this book.

It also took me some time to understand the whole concept of this “feed” that everyone seems to have. I find it so hard to imagine always having the internet on throughout the entire day just constantly swarming you with different shopping deals and photos and ads and just everything you could find on the internet. I don't even check my facebook everyday so the whole feed thing would just annoy me.

I think it’s interesting to do a little bit of comparing and contrasting this book and the previous novel we finished, Eleanor and Park. Both main women characters in each novel, Violet and Eleanor, are poor and both seem to be different than other girls. Their physical descriptions however are very unalike. There is actually a lot of things that are unalike or different between these two books. I just couldn't  get into this book as well as I could the last. The different form of English in this book killed me to read. Slang words and concepts were used in this book that haven't even been invented yet. I constantly had to go back and re-read a few chapters because I was very unsure if I had read or interpreted something correctly. Eleanor and Park was much easier to understand due to the time period of the book.

I'm not going to say I necessary enjoyed the book, but I definitely didn't hate it either. The first 150 pages left me sort of indifferent. I guess for me the book is too centered around the future of technology. I am not one to love the idea of how increasingly fast technology is expanding. So reading a book that is this far in the future is a little rough. Although I love having the internet, and I love having a smartphone, I find the idea of having a "feed" implanted into your body (or however that works) to be a little excessive. Maybe the author is trying to prove something about people being too dependent on the internet or their technology devices? Or maybe not. Surely when we get more into the book we will be able to make better connections.

Eleanor & Park: Final Thoughts

After finishing up the last hundred or so pages of Eleanor & Park, I cannot help but to feel slightly heartbroken and depressed.

From the very first page of this book, I knew the idea of a happy ending had very little chance of happening. I was just hoping that by some miracle, Eleanor and Park would find a way to be together. It is true that the book didn't end on a totally bad note. Eleanor finally wrote Park back and even said “I love you.” This small interaction didn’t seem like it was enough to me. Like any book that closes on a cliffhanger, it makes me crazily wonder what will happen next??!? I would doubt that Rainbow Rowell would make a sequel to this book, but it really would be nice to know if the two ever do see each other again. I have never read a book that leaves me with so many questions at the end.

There was a ton of surprises in the end of this story. What surprised me the most, (other than the fact that Eleanor and Park didn't end up together) was how Richie went absolutely crazy while he was out searching for Eleanor. I had no idea that it was Richie who was writing those awful words on Eleanor's books, and I never expected him to be so observant of what Eleanor does. Although I am upset that Eleanor had to leave Park, I am so relieved that she was able to get away from her stepdad. In the middle of the story when her mom mentions her uncle's offer to visit him over the summer, I had no idea that this was foreshadowing how the book would end. I actually thought that the small invite would never be relevant or even be mentioned again.

It is very interesting to me to think about what would have happened to Eleanor if Park wouldn't have been there to take her to her uncle's house.  Would she have eventually gone home? Would Richie have hurt her? What would she have done? It also makes me want to question what would have happened if instead of her going to her uncles, she went to Parks parents for help? There are so many loose ends to this story, it just kills me.

If Rowell wanted us to know the answers to these burning questions, she would have answered them. Some stories are more thoughtful when you don't know the answer to every question. Overall, I honestly enjoyed this book a lot more than I thought I would have, and I would totally recommend it to anyone.

Eleanor & Park: Second Impression

The deeper I read into Eleanor & Park, the more I fall in love with the story. I can imagine so many ways that this book could end. I keep wondering, “Will Eleanor and Park stay a couple throughout the book?”, “Will Eleanor's home life improve?” and even, “Is the drama as school going to get less harsh?.” I am very anxious to see how this book is going to play out.

This middle half of the book really opened my eyes to the amount of anxiety that Eleanor is suffering with. Eleanor feels very out of place and awkward around regular people, like Park’s parents. While at his house she has cried multiple times and even tried to leave a few times. I would blame her socially-awkwardness on her mother. Eleanor’s mother is very passive and for some reason allows Richie to physically and mentally abuse her and cuss at the kids. This type of at home behavior might definitely be the cause of Eleanor's anxiety.

The gender roles in this story are far from “traditional”. From the start of this book it was apparent that Eleanor dresses like a boy, and is not your typical girl when it comes to anything that relates to appearance. She doesn't even try to fit in with other girls. She is totally out of her comfort zone when Park’s mom does her hair and makeup in her beauty salon. My heart filled with sympathy over the fact that Eleanor didn't even want to look at herself after she is given a makeover because she thought she would look ugly. Similarly, Park is not a typical masculine character. At one point he even starts wearing eyeliner to school,, making his father very unhappy with him. Both characters are defying the norms of the time period.

I would also like to talk more about the financial situation of Eleanor's family. It is obvious to everyone that they come from a very poor household. My assumption is that Richie goes out and spends all of their money very irresponsibly. He was able to buy all of the children a present for Christmas, and he even spared $50 to give to Eleanor (even though her mom spent it on Christmas dinner). When Richie leaves money in his pants pocket, Eleanor's mom finds it in the laundry and spends it on toys and new jeans for Eleanor. If Richie is keeping that much money in his pants pocket, it makes me wonder how much he is really making and hiding from his family so he can spend it however he pleases…

Eleanor and Park: First Impressions

While reading Eleanor & Park by Rainbow Rowell, I found it almost impossible to put this book down!  Being  a person who is not particularly interested in young romance novels, I am very surprised about how much I am enjoying this love story.

Although this book is set in the 1980’s, while reading it I was never focused on the time period. Other than the fact that the Eleanor and Park trade tapes for their walkmans and read comic books together, I feel like these two characters can be very relatable to the current teenage generation. Books often appeal to people more if they can relate to them, and that is one of the reasons why I'm sure a lot of people would love to read this.

As I read this book, I am very wound up with emotions. I love that the book switches back and forth from the perspectives of Eleanor to Park. I think it really helps us feel what each character is going through. Getting to read about Eleanor's life makes me feel so much sympathy for her, especially due to her poverty stricken background. There are many tragic factors to her life. Her dad doesn’t care about her and is, for the most part, un-involved in her life, her step dad, Richie, acts like a dictator, and her mom never stands up for her when she is getting harassed. On top of it all, she has to share a room with her little brothers and sisters in a tiny house. Imagine a 16 year old girl having to share a room with a bunch of little kids and not having any privacy at all. The saddest part is that she feels uncomfortable sharing details about her life with Park. As readers we know that based on how he feels and cares for her, none of this would make him love her any less.

I would also like to discuss that there seems to be some obvious physical differences between Eleanor and Park, which is something that I don't typically read about. Usually if one of the characters is described as unattractive, it is just an internal feeling within the characters self esteem. In this book however, it is made very clear that Eleanor is a bit awkward on the eyes. A thin “Korean looking” boy who is slightly attractive, and a chubby red headed girl do not seem to match. With that idea in mind, I love the story much more so. This idea highlights a major theme throughout the novel that beauty is only skin deep and physical beauty is superficial and not nearly as important as a likable personality.

This is my first blog for this class.