10/18/2014

Our class is reading a new book called "The Color of Water". This has interrupted my current reading of "The Universe Versus Alex Woods" so I thought it would make more sense to post on TCOW this week. The book is about James McBride, the author of the book and the life of his mother. The chapters are the alternating stories of their lives. It is almost like James is making a comparison of his life to his mothers. So far i have enjoyed the book and the lessons it stands to make on race.

James reflects on the lessons his mother taught him and how she impacted his life. he describes her odd style of parenting and how she managed to raise 12 children of her own. So far I am enjoying the book and I think that it will coninue to get better.

9/28/14

     To start off this post, I would like to apologize that it was not posted earlier. This is the post from last week that I wrote on 9/28/14 but I left it in my drafts folder by accident and it was never posted. I'm still trying to figure out these blog posts every week- I think this was the fourth one? Im not used to this sort of thing and its odd having a scheduled post every week.

At this point in The Universe Versus Alex Woods, I am substantially sure that almost all (if not all) of the main characters have been introduced. I'm no fortune teller (although Alex's mom is) but I think that the characters at this point in the novel will follow and influence the plot until the end of the novel. For this reason, i think that this would be a good post to "determine a symbol for each of your characters"(thats straight of the prompts sheet.)

so here goes-

Alex- The Meteorite: I don't want to pick the most obvious option, but this is a very fitting symbol for alex because it symbolized a huge change in his life that separates him from many people because of the experience with the meteorite itself and because of the epilepsy that will follow him for the rest of his life.

Alex's mom- Tarot card: Alex's mom is a "psychic' which is a very large set apart from other people. She considers this her religion and it changes her outlook on life which makes it very easy to say that she is not the typical parent in alex's case.  

Mr.Peterson- Because this is for school, I will not explicitly name Mr. peterson's symbol but I feel that it is the most figurative way to symbolize his approach on life because of the things that he has experienced. Mr. Peterson has experienced some of the most horrible things in his life that some might consider things that no person should have to endure. Of these are the horrors of warfare with lasting injury to accompany the memory, and the loss of his wife. He has now almost given off on life and no longer seems to enjoy living. I will let you make an inference on what the symbol I chose for him is by using a quote from alex trying to understand what Mr.peterson was doing naively  by saying "... Mr. Peterson had gone outside for a herbal cigarette."