Ian > Recent Status Updates

Crusade, with a Negative connotation, as words such as 'adventures' would have been more positive.
Unequal, again carrying a negative connotation, as 'different' would have been a more neutral or positive term.
Mob is used negatively as well, as we talked about in the video; crowd or gathering would have been more positive.

As there are no set characters in the book, I'll talk about the setting. I feel like the main rules for living in Mississippi during the events of Freedom Summer are that colored Americans were accepting that they really couldn't do anything to change what was happening. They had to sit in submission. However, white people didn't have to struggle, and they were able to live without as many limits.

We are introduced to some of the people who had traveled to Mississippi for the events of Freedom Summer. We are also introduced to even more of the problems in Mississippi, primarily the level of violence between races.

I think the author's goal was to reach a wider audience with the experience of the people who lived in Mississippi during the events of Freedom Summer.

The official chapter of a book starts with a quote pertaining to the story. This worked for me as an attention grabber and made me interested in reading more.

I thought it would be interesting compared to the other books sounding boring.

done

Comp) The last time I had felt that sort of unity was actually here in Carlisle, after Lucy had passed, and there was a large gathering on the field. That sort of unity is very rare, but when it does happen, it is very powerful, and it felt that way in the moment as well.

Comp & Ap Lit) This song expresses a sense of resigned acceptance about the future that no matter how much we wonder, worry, or plan, we ultimately don’t control what lies ahead. It can also symbolize the idea of fate vs free will, and acceptance.

Comp & Ap Lit) I honestly don't know how it escalated in the first place. I feel that this fight was largely driven by Amie's fear of her own situation, and she handled it incredibly poorly. I honestly don't think string length even matters here, as the choice should be solely on the person making it, and that opinion shouldn't be as swayed as Amie was trying to make it.

AP Lit) I do somewhat agree with the shopkeeper. It makes sense that our main priorities shouldn't change due to an event like this. If I had received a string, my main priorities would be my family, my friends, and the things I enjoyed doing. That wouldn't change if I knew the length of my life; they would still be my priorities.

Comp) I think their situation can be associated with other minority groups, but I feel like their group is heavier. They are a minority because they don't have long left to live, rather than being a skin color that doesn't affect life expectancy. I think, though, they don't have much life left, they should still fight for their rights. What Anthony is doing is absolutely unfair to them.

Ap Lit) I would not know what Hank did. He knew he had a short string and still risked his life to get shot. Definitely not something I would do for someone I didn't know.

Comp) I don't think I would take a bullet for someone I didn't know, regardless of my sting length, as if I did, it might cause lasting damage, which would make it harder to live.

AP Lit update) Javier's admission during his support group session that he traded his short string for a long one was the most shocking thing said at the group session. It really went to show that the strings can be used as a tangible asset, which in this case would allow Javier to join the army.

Comp 1) I would open my child's box to just know how much longer they would have left to live. But I would not tell them their string length; I would keep it off limits until they were a certain age.

COMP) He is a really bad person and has stated that "She also recounted that freshman girls were warned not to drink the punch at Anthony's frat house, after several incidents in which girls reported loss of memory after the parties"(Erlick, 72). This really just shows his character and lack of care for the people around him.

Comp1. Hank deals with his string in a more mixed way; he thinks of quitting his job and obviously being upset with how short it is, saying, of course, he would have a short string. But overall, he kinda finds peace in it and decides to make the best of his remaining time.

A lot has happened since my last update, but the main character, Fletcher, dropped all crimes due to his newfound noble blood. This revelation made him a lord of land, and he now holds power at council meetings.

It seems like he is very heartless. His thoughts on revealing his opponents' strings look like a very cheap way to gain favor without doing anything difficult for himself. He only seems to want to gain status and doesn't care about the steps to gain power.

AP Lit & Comp 1. My belief in miracles is that miracles are always foreshadowed by other events. Usually, a "miracle" happens after something considerably bad happens, say someone is in a hospital and they have a low chance of recovering, but they still do because they were put in a situation to recover. But true miracles that don't have almost any way of happening and completely defy the odds are definitely real.

Comp 1. This incident was very tragic, an active shooter in a very sad hospital. The worst of it, though, is that the last line we see of Hank's perspective is him immediately recognizing the shooter, which obviously has implications for what will happen later on. This, I think, sets a tone for the fallout that will continue to happen in society later in the story.

I feel like I wouldn't actively try to "test" the length of my string, but I would definitely feel less worried about doing dumb things, knowing when I would die, and it wouldn't be by those said dumb things. But no,o wouldn't actively text my string to see if I could rewrite it.

AP lit. The POV in the story is more in line wth third person, specifically third person omniscient, meaning the characters are talked about by what seems to be a narrator but still express their feelings and conversations. This POV really helps feel emotion, which can be hard to do with so many characters; this helps the reader engage with the story more than if it were in first person all the time.

Comp I. Maura was completely disheveled by the box and wanted to open it to "see her fate." She handled the box pretty poorly, as most did, but her feelings were amplified by Nina harping on her about it being fine or not real. Amie was much calmer and collected by it and had a more twisted outlook on it. The world was in chaos, and she thought it was fascinating and was actually intrigued with the boxes.

Fletcher is currently on trail for his "attempted murder" of a very corrupt noble who has gained levels of power of the two years Fletcher has been imprisoned.

The characters' beliefs differ in that Nina is very emotional and takes the string very, very literally, as it directly affects her relationship, and she is very worried about it. She seems to tackle things from a very emotional perspective, while Ben is much calmer, even with his shorter string, which we can infer means he's quite a bit more level-headed.

The characters are almost entirely different, Nina's string is long while Ben's is short, you would think that means Ben would be more affected by his string length, but he almost seems at peace with it, while Nina is told to be crying in her work bathroom as her partner's string is much shorter than hers, which makes her very emotional. Ben handles the strings much, much better than Nina does.

The book does not start in "media res" as the inciting incident occurs as soon as the book begins, with everyone receiving boxes. If it started in media res, we would already see people discussing the strings, and if people died according to the strings' length, right now we don't even know if the strings tell life expectancy in the view of the characters. Though it would make for a more highstakes start to the book.

At this point in the book, we have been introduced to Nina and Ben and how they handled the idea of the box. Nina was more frantic about the box, as her friends were blowing up her phone about it, and she had gotten the box as soon as she woke up. Ben was on a plane when the boxes were delivered, and he handled the situation much better, thinking more logically about the boxes.