After doing a second read through of this dystopian world in which the main charter Katniss Everdeen lives, I realized that many elements are rather disturbing to think about.

For one thing, using the Districts’ children as a form of punishment after a lost rebellion is gruesome, especially when a lot of them are not even fit to be in the games. Making a spectacle of the male and female tributes of each district, and having people sponsor them is much like appraising cattle to see their worth and what someone does to see how much use they can get out of it.

The Capitol uses the deaths of minors as a horrific form of entertainment, broadcasting it all over Panem. The deaths of each tribute are shown live, both through a screen and for the other tributes to see in the arena. To think that twenty-four people enter and one leaves, except in the case of Peeta and Katniss, is despicable.

Reading and watching the deaths in the movie were definitely not easy to digest. For one, Glimmer’s untimely demise by tracker jackers, showing how fast the venom in its stingers can travel, depicted her so misshapen that all you could see was a body full of swelled lumps. Thresh’s rage-induced kill focused on Clover, who taunted Katniss about killing Rue. The very large tribute used his brute strength to keep Clove in place while he smashed her skull in with a rock. Cato, the most gruesome death of all, was mauled by muttations created by the game makers and eventually had to be put out of his misery by an arrow Katniss shot from where she stood on the Cornucopia.

The muttations in question were wolf-like, and at times could stand on two legs. They chased at an unnatural speed and were rather intelligent, as they toyed with Cato as he was mauled, taking small pieces of him at a time, watching him die a slow, painful death. What was even more shocking is the descriptions Katniss provides. In her own horror she states that the creatures looked like the fallen tributes, with the same eye color, shape, and hair color as their human counterparts. They even had collars with their District numbers. It made me wonder if the wolf creatures were actually the tributes at one time, turned into the hideous beasts read towards the end of the novel.

Although it’s more subtle, there’s a nod toward the capital’s mistreatment of the Districts and the corrupt nature of President Snow’s rulings. Katniss, only a sixteen year old girl at the time of the first book, is the face of rebellion in the subsequent books. What makes the young woman so well known are her actions while she’s a tribute.

It’s Katniss’s bold act of volunteering as tribute that first garnered interest. From then on, a chain of events happened that caused her to become a favorite among, not only the Capitol, but the districts as well.

Shooting an arrow at the game makers, effectively hitting an apple that was stuffed in a roasted pig’s mouth, showed a dangerous amount of power. Wearing the mockingjay pin was a symbol of the lack of control the Capitol actually had, based on the actual bird in the novel. Decorating Rue’s grave with wildflowers showed that Rue was not just a tribute or an object, but a child to mourn and a real person. The poisonous berries Peeta and Katniss were going to eat, sacrificing themselves so that there would be no winner of the seventy-fifth Hunger Games, was an act of rebellion.

In truth, the novel touched on a world whose government was slowly starting to crumble, Katniss Everdeen the catalyst of it all.

The novel Beloved by Toni Morrison is a classic book about a woman desperate to save her family, who does something horrifying because she thinks she has no other choice.

The premise of the novel describes a young woman named Sethe, who starts out as a slave in Kentucky on a plantation called Sweet Home. Though the novel jumps from one time period to the next, the main story is of her escape and the consequent actions of that escape, almost twenty years later.

Sethe has four children: Buglar, Howard, Denver, and the baby she “never got to name”. Denver, the youngest, was born while Sethe was on the run, and helped by a young white girl named Amy. When Sethe eventually makes it to her freedom, in the form of her husband’s mother, named Baby Suggs, she is reunited with all her babies for a blissful few weeks.

Tragedy comes in the form of the schoolteacher who runs Sweet Home, who tracks Sethe down. The moral question comes into play of whether or not what Sethe did was horrifying or something to save her child from a fate worse than death.

In the gruesome events that followed, Sethe goes out to the back shed and takes a hatchet to the baby that was never named, cutting her neck to the point where her head almost falls off. When she is found, she is taken to jail with her youngest daughter, but then released after a certain amount of time.

Eighteen years later the ghost of the little girl Sethe killed haunts the house she and Denver live in. A friend from the past, Paul D, makes his appearance and so starts the events that bring that baby ghost back to life.

Beloved comes to Sethe’s house in a black dress of lace and silk, buttoned up to her neck. She is a young woman, perhaps in her twenties, and is almost baby-like in appearance and demeanor.

While Denver and Sethe are oblivious to what is going on, Paul D sees what Beloved is doing to the family. She is anything but a benign presence, and something sinister lurks in dark corners.

As the reader learns, Beloved is attached to Sethe in multiple ways. She is never far away from her mother, and Sethe is enjoying that because she gets her daughter back after loss.

Beloved proves to be a dangerous force, almost choking Sethe to death, forcing sexual interactions with Paul D, and eventually driving Paul D out of the house. Beloved becomes entirely dependent on Sethe, breaking the family apart as a whole. There is a malignancy in Beloved’s attentiveness to her mother, because all that time was lost. Beloved was “on the other side”, and was never even given a name. The years she was a spectral figure hindered her from spending time with her mother; as an actual person, she is greedy for her mother’s love and doesn’t want anyone else to have it.

When looking into the perspective of both Sethe and Beloved, whose reaction is more valid? Was Sethe killing her own child to save her from slavery really so horrifying? Is Beloved’s clingy, obsessive behavior appropriate, or does the young woman have a darker purpose?

https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0120603/

Source:

Morrison, Toni. Beloved. Penguin Books, 1987.

Because we are in Spooky Season territory I felt it right to introduce a book that, although I had to read for another class, was still pretty good. This week isn’t going to be very informational; instead, I will be focusing on a more theoretical perspective.

For those that have not read Shirley Jackson’s classic, which has been adapted to film as a Netflix series, The Haunting of Hill House is the story of what might seem to be an ordinary object: a house.

“Whatever walks there, walks alone” is the first and last sentence in the book, which is enough to give the reader chills. The book isn’t like many of the modern horrors of today’s world, but takes a look into the deeper psychological terrors that people hide.

One thing that resonates with the reader is the fact that one of the main, and probably most prominent characters, Eleanor, has become susceptible to the house because she wants a family, a place where she belongs. At the beginning of the novel it is noted that Eleanor is single, was a caretaker for her mother until she died, then moved into her sister’s house because she had nowhere to go. That being said, Eleanor’s family, what little she had of it, did not like her, or barely tolerated her. When she takes the offer from paranormal seeker Dr. Montague, she immediately accepts.

Upon arriving at the house is it clear that something is wrong with it because it is a looming, miserable structure. The characters Eleanor, Theodora, Dr. Montague, and Luke, all have their doubts about the house, because right away it appears to be strange.

The housekeepers Mr. and Mrs. Dudley mention quite profusely that they do not stay after dark. When dark does come, the elements of a classic, old school horror story come out.

What the reader first notices is the feeling of cold, which is a sign of some sort of other in the house. Then, Theodora and Eleanor find fear at their doors, literally, when knocking starts, progressively making its way down the hall. That is, until it gets to their door and pounds on it so hard that it looks like it will fall off its hinges. Childlike laughter follows in an eerie echo, bouncing off the walls.

Another case is the cold spot by the nursery, which is the only cold place in the house. When doors are propped open they suddenly close when the characters are away for a few minutes. Theodora’s clothing becomes covered in blood; in fact, the entire room becomes engulfed in red. At night, the house leads Montague and Luke on a wild goose chase after a dog they cannot seem to catch.

What part psychological torment has to play is all dependent on Eleanor. As she is the weakest link in the house, having been desperate to find somewhere to belong, she immediately finds family within the ragtag group of people that have gathered.

The house starts picking her apart day by day, using her own mind against her. Although the rest of the characters are in fear of what is going on, Eleanor seems to find happiness while being there. Multiple times the house tells her that it wants her to come home, which she seemingly does not have prior coming to Hill House. It pulls her in with false promise, an attempt at finally having someone or something to hold on to. As the story goes on she becomes more unhinged, looking at the other characters through a detached lens.

By the end, it is clear Eleanor never has plans of leaving the house, even though it’s driving her insane. She climbs to the top of a rickety tower, where someone committed suicide once before, and is about to plummet to her death, when she is saved by Luke. When she is deemed unstable, the rest of the characters try to send her home.

What no one knows until the final moments is Eleanor’s choice to stay or go. Instead of driving down the path that leads away from the house, Eleanor turns around and commits suicide by running herself into a tree. The question that remains is if she willingly did this herself. The last thing she thinks is why she’s running into the tree and why nobody is stopping her.

The sad part of the novel is knowing that even though by dying Eleanor thinks she will have her family, after death she will only ever be alone. Because whatever walks in Hill House, walks alone.

The historical fiction novel The Outlander shows a world in which a woman named Claire travels to Scotland, but in 1743, hundreds of years before her own time. The novel I read this week, is the second book in the nine-book series, called Dragonfly in Amber.

While she is in her own time, Claire is married to a man named Frank Randall. When she travels to Scotland, Claire is forced to wed James (Jamie) Fraser. In both cases, Claire falls in love with the men, but is torn between the two. The reader cannot help but fall in love with both men through all their values and faults. The question to ask, however, is who is the better man for Claire?

Frank is dark-haired and bookish. After returning from the war he plans to become a historian, and is very in love with Claire, who was a British army nurse while he served. After Claire returns at the stones, he also helps raise his daughter…who is not actually his, but Jamie’s. Even though the girl was not genetically his, he chose to be the best father he could be, if only to protect Brianna (the name of the daughter).

Although Claire is pregnant with another man’s child, Frank’s response is to keep Claire safe from any scandal. He moves the two to America when he is offered a job opportunity, and to raise their daughter. Frank, even if he was very angry at his wife for falling in love with another man and getting pregnant, decided that he could never let her go when she needed protection and for the sake of her well-being.

Seeing Claire’s love of nursing and taking care of people, he encourages her to go after her dreams of being a surgeon. He watches their daughter while she finishes taking her classes.

On the other hand, when Claire returns from Scotland and tells Frank her story, he does not believe her. In fact, he has her go through an assessment by a psychiatrist. After that, he also accuses her of cheating on Frank with one of his close friends.

Believing that Jamie had died in the war in his own time, Claire gives up any notion that her husband would be alive. Frank hid the truth from Claire, never telling her that Jamie had survived the battle after he found records saying Jamie lived after Culloden. In his fear of losing Claire again, he decided the better option would be to never admit her other husband’s survival.

Jamie, the rather large, red-haired Scot, is a very stubborn, but devoted and loving husband. Claire is accused of witchcraft after she reveals too much of her knowledge of the future. Instead of Jamie turning her in when he finds out where she’s from, he decides to save her from her fate because of his pure love for his English wife (who he calls “Sassenach”).

When he realizes that Claire’s life in Scotland would be in danger during the battle, he decides to let her go back to the stones and return to her time to save herself and their future child. Jamie is also very supporting when he learns that Claire has become a surgeon. He lets her go to a hospital while the two are in Paris, and attend to the sick and injured because he knows Claire will go stir crazy if she doesn’t have anything to do.

Jamie is overjoyed when he is told that Claire is pregnant. He is caring and grieves with his wife after the first baby is stillborn. Even when he sends Claire away when she is pregnant, his only thought is to keep Claire and their future child safe. When Claire and Brianna return, Jamie quickly finds love for his daughter, even though Frank raised her.

One bad thing about the Fraser man is that he has a big temper. He is always quick to apologize when he gets too loud or realizes when he is wrong, but there is one instance that all fans of the book will point out is unsavory. After Claire disobeys Jamie’s word and gets into trouble, Jamie’s response is to teach her a lesson by flogging her until she subsequently has a hard time sitting down the next day.

Both Jamie and Frank have their pros and cons, but who is better for Claire is a question best left to the reader.

Sources:

Banks, Kayleigh. Outlander: Jamie v Frank: Who Was Better for Claire?, ScreenRant, 11 Oct. 2019, screenrant.com/outlander-jamie-frank-claire/#pro-frank-helped-to-raise-brianna.

Gabaldon, Dianna. Dragonfly in Amber. Dell (Penguin Random House LLC), 1992.

As magic and mystifying the reader goes, The Chronicles of Narnia, specifically, The Magician’s Nephew and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, do not disappoint. The first story, before the Pevensie children arrive, tells of the creation of Narnia.

Focusing on this creation, there first has to be a creator, which happens to be Aslan. Aslan is a lion that uses the song of his roar to create this mystical place, much like the word of God when he creates the world in six days, with one day of rest after. In fact, many of the things Aslan does or simply is, have biblical connotation.

In the beginning, the world was dark, and then, “Let there be light!”

Both lion and man gave the world its light, then the sky and surrounding land, the sun, the moon, and the stars, creatures that swim and creatures that fly, and finally, animals that live on land. They are powerful figures of great importance to the beings they rule over.

So where does the fallen angel Lucifer (also known as Satan) fit in all of this? The White Witch is the evil in Narnia, as the devil is on Earth. She is the bringer of all misery and chaos to the land, and a big part of what makes this biblical is that Aslan is to come and be a savior to all, as God is prophesied to end all pain and suffering.

The White Witch also steals and eats a fruit from the tree that Aslan specifically warns should not be eaten, much like when Adam and Eve are warned not to eat the fruit in the Garden of Eden. Although she gains power in the centuries that pass since the creation of Narnia, the witch realizes that her hold on the land is limited and fading fast when the sons and daughters of Adam and Eve, as well as Aslan, come to the realm.

As the story goes, with a great shake of the lion’s mane, Aslan will rid Narnia of winter and spring will rise. The witch tries to stop this by shaving off Aslan’s mane, and then killing him on a stone slab. This is remarkably like when Jesus is crucified, laid out bare and dying for everyone’s sins. Fortunately, resurrection causes both Jesus and Aslan to rise up from their graves.

Many, if not most, elements in both of these stories have biblical meaning. C.S. Lewis, a Christian himself, may have kept these points in his writing secret, just so others could speculate and delve into the deeper meaning of his work.

Sources:

“Accounts of Creation – Creation – GCSE Religious Studies Revision – WJEC – BBC Bitesize.” BBC News, BBC, 2023, www.bbc.co.uk/bitesize/guides/zg3vxfr/revision/1.

Bray, Phil. “Aslan (voice of Liam Neeson) in “The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe””. Deseret News, 10 Dec. 2010, https://www.deseret.com/2010/12/9/20679596/heart-of-a-lion-lessons-about-christ-from-lewis-aslan.

Hoyt, Kristine. “BYU Forum: A Deeper Theme in ‘The Chronicles of Narnia.’” News, BYU University Communications, 25 Sept. 2017, news.byu.edu/news/byu-forum-deeper-theme-chronicles-narnia#:~:text=“The%20whole%20Narnia%20series%20is,Aslan%20is%20not%20as%20obvious.

Smith, Scott. “The Lion, the Witch, and The Wardrobe: The Complete Guide to Christian Symbolism and Bible References in C. S. Lewis’ the Chronicles of Narnia.” All Roads Lead to Rome, The Scott Smith Blog, 10 Nov. 2020, www.thescottsmithblog.com/2018/08/the-complete-guide-to-christian.html.

A very popular movie, directed by Steven Spielberg, called Jurassic Park, is a marvel for the ages. Although most know of the movie, it is less known as a book by Michael Crichton, who created the eerily accurate descriptions of what dinosaurs would look like in the twentieth century.

The book and the film are similar in many ways, but there are some obvious differences for those that have read the book. Although in the movie the character John Hammond was lovable, and almost dopey, he was actually one of the most prominent bad guys in the novel. His initial goal was to create money off genetic advances from modifying animals, but eventually came up with the idea of Jurassic Park, as a way to make more money and have the first ever recreated dinosaurs known to man. He is cruel and does not listen to his employees when they mention danger, and does not care about the obvious flaws in his own system, which become more prominent as the novel progressed.

The two children, Lex and Tim, have their ages switched in the film. In the novel, Tim is older and Lex is younger, although the two bicker like they are younger than they actually are. Lex, in the book, is like her father, who enjoys sports, and always carries a baseball mitt, whereas in the movie she is adept with the inner workings of the computer. What is accurate, is the interest that Tim has in dinosaurs, and his fascination with the paleontologist Alan Grant.

The Tyrannosaurus Rex, who escapes from its enclosure and destroys two road cars, actually had a juvenile Rex living with it in the book. What saves Grant and the kids from being eaten while they are floating down the river (in the book) is the juvenile trying to steal a kill from the older dinosaur, causing the larger Rex to swim back to shore to protect its food.

Jurassic Park the movie has some particularly gruesome scenes, but the book has more gore. Crichton goes into disturbing detail with the characters’ and dinosaurs’ deaths, describing the disembowelment of Dennis Nedry, rocket launchers shot into a group of velociraptors, and Ian Malcolm’s terrifying run-in with the T-rex, in which it grabs him by the torso, shakes him, and then throws him, causing a nasty break to his leg.

These are just a few of the differences between the movie and the film, but there are plenty more that have been discovered while examining both.

Sources:

Crichton, Michael. Jurassic Park. Ballantine Books, 1990.

Glennon, Neave. “Jurassic Park: The 10 Biggest Differences between the Movie and Michael Crichton’s Book.” MovieWeb, movieweb.com, 5 Aug. 2023, movieweb.com/jurassic-park-biggest-differences-between-movie-and-book/#the-deaths-are-different.

Spielberg, Steven. Jurassic Park. 1993. The New York Times, https://www.nytimes.com/2018/06/11/watching/jurassic-park-movies-streaming.html