Disease

As I continue to read, The Fault in Our Stars by John Green, I have realized that having a disease does not only physically affect the actions you take, but can mentally guide you to how you act towards others.  Now I'm not talking about how some diseases can turn you crazy, but more in how it can cause the victim to take into consideration the lives of those affected by their disease.  I have noticed this, because the main character Hazel has followed many routes she might not have wanted to do, to help others feel more comfortable with her cancer.

For example, she agreed to go to meetings with our cancer victims so that her mother wouldn't worry that she was depressed even though she would have rather read.  Another example is that Hazel refused to date Augustus Waters because she didn't want to let him down.  This is because his previous girlfriend looked very similar to Hazel herself, and had sadly passed away.  Because Hazel knows her disease will eventually cause a premature death sooner or later, she didn't want to put Gus through another dead girlfriend.  This personally made me sad because I think Hazel really likes Gus.  Overall, this book has given me new insight on how a disease such as cancer can not only affect them physically, but also affect life choices they make.

War, Violence and History

In the previous book I read, Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, much of the second half was about how the war and the Taliban had changed the city of Amir's childhood: Kabul.  It had also torn apart his nephew, whose parents were shot.  His nephew Sohab had said to Amir, "I want my old life back."  And Amir said he couldn't give it to him.  And now, as I read the Diary of Anne Frank, I see the reality of Amir's answer.  This is because as both books deal with war, I have noticed a theme.  It is that peace can never be completely restored after war.

I think this because in both books, war tears families and happy lives apart.  In the Kite Runner, Sohab's parents will never be given back to him.  The horrible executions he witnessed and the sexual harassment he faced will never go away.  Because of these events that war and violence created, Sohab had even tried to commit suicide and afterwards, became mute.  In the book, he was just ten years old.
For Anne Frank, she war forced her to live in fear for months and months, hiding in a cramped annex.  Later, most of her family and friends were killed in concentration camps.  Though it is joyful when wars finally come to an end, there is still so much suffering that the lives of people can never truly be restored.  War has so many effects on individuals and nations as a whole.  However, though these horrible events can never be erased, it makes me think of the importance of history.  It helps us learn through our mistakes what we should and shouldn't do.  I believe that one of the things that history has taught us is that we shouldn't spark war.