"The world is not a wish granting factory"

Almost everyone has read fairytale stories where the girl gets the guy and they ride off into the sunset and live happily ever after.  However, in reality, that  doesn't always happen.  The novel The Fault in Our Stars by John Green told of the bittersweet story of Hazel Grace and her life as a "side effect" of cancer.  Not to be a spoiler, but the ending was not completely happy.  And this just makes me love the book more, because I can connect with it better.  Hazel and her boyfriend Gus often say, "The world is not a wish granting factory."  This is proven in the book, causing a vivid reality for readers.

One way the world wasn't a wish granting factory for Hazel was when she went to meet Peter Van Houten.  In the book, Van Houten was her all time favorite author of the book An Imperial Affliction which also told of a girl with cancer.  This book, as well as The Fault in Our Stars was realistic because it ended in mid-sentence, possibly showing the reality of how death can arrive.  Because of this, Hazel's  need to know what happened, caused her to arrange to meet him in Amsterdam so he could answer her questions.  However, when she arrives, she uncovers that Van Houten is a pudgy, grumpy, rude and drunken man who refuses to speak of the book.  Overall, this shows the reality that some things you get your hopes up for, end up a disappointment.

SPOILER ALERT!!!!
Another way this book shows the reality of life is when Gus dies of cancer.  In the middle of the book, Hazel and Gus had finally got together and I was so happy for them.  But often, happiness does not last.  Unfortunately, Gus showed results of a cancer relapse.  It was heartbreaking to read about how Hazel took care of him everyday and how their love for each other remained strong throughout the rest of his life.  Overall, this too shows the reality of how life is not always a fairytale.

In conclusion, events in the book prove Gus and Hazel's saying that, "Life is not always a wish granting factory."  At some points, I wanted to throw the book across the room and yell, "How could the author do that to Hazel?"  But it also made me love the book for unleashing reality.  Of course, I'm not saying that everything eventually ends terribly, but not everything is a fairytale either.  The harsh reality of this book mixed in with the humor, love, and genius sayings really make it fantastic.

Hope can Lead to Possibilities

Many people and books and movies and t.v shows talk about the benefits of hope.  Others speak of their futures and possibilities.  For me, I have always put the to into the same category.  I've always felt that there aren't any possibilities unless you have hope in them.  As I read The Oxford Book of American Verse, put together by F.O Mattheissen, two poems by Emily Dickinson spoke of both subjects.  Her poems "I dwell in Possibility," and "Hope is the thing with feathers," allow me to express my opinions of hope and possibility using metaphors.

In the poem, "I dwell in Possibility," Dickinson says that it is "More numerous of windows,/Superior of  doors."  This makes me think about the saying, "when one door closes, another one opens."  This poem and the quote refer to possibilities of walking through a door or window into a place to rebuild and become successful.  However, neither mention how you get through the doors.  In the poem "Hope is the thing with feathers," Dickinson refers to hope as being a bird, "that perches in the soul."  And in my opinion, I believe this bird is the key through escaping the house mentioned in "I dwell in Possibility."  Birds use their wings to fly away, and I think these wings can be a metaphor for escaping through those doors or windows into possibilities.  In conclusion, by using doors and wings, Emily Dickinson has complied with my personal opinion that you can't have possibilities without hope.

Appreciation

     Never Have I ever, is the second book of the Lying Game series by Sara Shepard.  In it, Emma has been secretly used to replace her murdered sister Sutton.  Emma, coming from being an orphan who was jostled from one foster family to another to Sutton's rich, loving family, was shocked when she learned how little Sutton liked her life.  In Emma eyes, Sutton had everything, including an adoring sister and friends.  However, Sutton hated her family and was always ill-mannered towards people.  In the text Emma had said that she couldn't believe Sutton hadn't appreciated everything that she'd had.  However, Sutton who watches Emma like a guardian angel, brought up the point that she couldn't appreciate it until she died and lost everything.  This makes me think about why people are able to appreciate things.

     This book makes me consider that in order to appreciate things, you must first learn that not everyone has them.  For example, in the book, Sutton had money and a loving family.  However she didn't appreciate it at all until after she died and lost all of it and after she learned her long lost twin sister was suffering foster homes and moving away all the time.  Suttons friends are the same, always complaining about their lives or other people even though they have money, friends, caring family, etc.  They even prank people in horrible ways if they annoy them, instead of appreciating what they have.  Another example of learning to appreciate is when people learn to appreciate what they have because of things on the news such as the less fortunate in Africa or how many people's homes and lives were destroyed because of things like Hurricane Sandy.  Overall, I believe that appreciation often forms out of realizing what you life would be without something or suddenly gaining something.  For example, how Emma gained a family after having had only foster families who cared very little about her.  In the end, I agreed with Sutton when she said that she couldn't have appreciated everything when she was alive because she never knew what she had.

Who to Trust

In the book, The Lying Game, by Sara Shepard, Emma is a girl who is forced to  take the place of her dead long lost twin sister.  Originally, she had wanted to meet her sister and get to know her, but when she arrived, she received a note that said her sister Sutton was dead, and that if she didn't play along as Sutton, she'd be next.  After much investigating, she figured out that one of Sutton's closest friends was probably the killer.   This makes me think twice about trusting anyone completely.

The reason it makes me more tentative is because Sutton hadn't really ever thought her friends would kill her.  In the book, it said she trusted them with everything from secrets to her latest prank.  However, she was totally off guard when they tried to hurt her.  For example, the first time they intentionally tried to hurt her by choking her with her own necklace, Sutton had thought, "No one has ever gotten hurt before!"  Overall, she let her guard down when she decided to trust people.  I'm not saying that no one should be trusted, but we should be careful who you do.  Even if you think you know someone well, you can never be sure.  Sutton's best friends tried to hurt her after all.  This makes me think about stories I hear about someone marrying someone else just to get their money.  How many people have multiple personalities like these?

What Happens Without Acceptance?

Acceptance is something that is needed in order there to be a peaceful environment.  When people don’t accept things, there is often violence and hate, which can cause the unaccepted to feel and insecure and want to hide their true identity or thoughts.  All of these awful things are shown in the short story, Am I Blue? by Bruce Coville.  Many people in the story did not accept the idea of being gay, but all that led to was trouble.

            When there isn’t acceptance, there is often violence and hate.  For example, “It started the day Butch Carrigan decided I was interested in jumping his bones,” the main character Vince had explained before he told us how he ended up “lying facedown un a puddle.”  Vince’s fairy godfather Melvin was even beaten to death!  He had said, “I was walking down the street one day last year, minding my own business, when three bruisers dragged me into an alley, shouting, ‘We’ll teach you faggot!’  They never did explain exactly what it was they were going to teach me.  Last thing I remember from life on earth was coming face to face with a tire iron.  Next thing I knew, I was knocking at the Pearly Gates.”  When others didn’t accept that they might be gay, violence and hate took the place of acceptance and both Vince and his fairy godfather were physically hurt.

            When people don’t accept others, it can also make the unaccepted feel insecure and want to hide their true identity or thoughts.  For example, Vince told his fairy godfather Melvin to turn a bully named Butch blue so that he’d think he was gay.  Vince wanted to get back at Bruce for beating him up because he presumed Vince was “interested in jumping his bones.”  However, Melvin reported, “Butch Carrigan was already as blue as a summer sky when I got there.”  This makes me presume that the reason Butch had beaten up Vince wasn’t because he hated gay people, but more because he was scared he was gay.  I think he feared what others who didn’t accept homosexuals would think of him, and that he wouldn’t maintain his tough appearance.  The only way he knew how to handle this insecurity was by beating up Vince in an effort to mask his true identity.  I think this also goes for the Republican homophobe Vince saw on T.V.  When Vince was blessed with gaydar, he was able to see if people were gay by the fact of if they were blue or not.  The Republican was blue even though he was making a speech about “the great crime of homosexuality” and “the gay threat to American youth.”  Like Butch, the Republican was insecure about being gay, so he tried to feel better about himself and hide his true identity by saying he was against homosexuality.  If I were a friend or family member of these two, I’d want to reassure them that it is okay to be gay and not follow the status quo.  Overall, because so many people didn’t accept gay people, it caused the unaccepted (Butch and the Republican) to feel insecure.  It also influenced them to try to hide their gay identities.  This kind of issue occurs all the time in reality, and not just relating to being gay.

            In conclusion, if there is acceptance towards things, violence, hate, insecurity and the desire to mask one’s true identity can be avoided.  This makes me think that lack of acceptance is the reason or the bud of all of those things.  In my opinion, I also believe that if you give things a chance and try to accept them, you might find something wonderful or different from the assumptions and original thoughts others might have made.  Things might not be as bad as you presume.  You just have to learn to accept.  After all, Melvin had dreamed of everyone having gaydar so that homophobes “would find out that they had been surrounded by gays all the time, and survived the experience just fine, thank you.”

Risks Are Part of Life

     Remy Starr's life has always been organized.  In the book This Lullaby, by Sarah Dessen, Remy said herself that vacuuming in straight lines was a second nature to her, and her room had not one thing out of place.  However, when she started dating Dexter, she realized and was frightened by the idea that she was letting things "get out of hand" because she started to let some things slide.  However, throughout the story, Dexter always persuaded her to take risks and stop being so controlling over her life.  This made me realize that life would be boring and meaningless if you never took risks.

     Overall, I realized how boring Remy's life was because of all the rules she set for herself.  For example, she allowed no one to eat in her car, she had a plan for the summer (a summer fling that would have to end before college) and, well, she did the same things and went to the same places all the time.  Although she enjoyed a good party, she was generally afraid of stepping out of the lines.  However, Dexter tried to show her that eating a few french fries in the car wasn't going to kill her, and he taught her how to lay back a little.  He even made a speech once in the story about how he pitied those who never even wanted to try something.  I totally agreed with this because I always like to try things that my friends might be too scared to do.  Life has to have some meaning to it.  We can't always be robots.  I feel that life is a gift that offers you the chance to do things and most importantly, try things even if it means taking a risk.

     In conclusion, I think that you can't really live unless you take some risks.  This doesn't mean you have to be reckless, but I think you should make the most of your life.  I believe that people who are like Remy and are always very rigid may end up being very upset.  Afterall, Remy always seemed insecure in the book, while Dexter, who was up for anything, always seemed so happy.