Big Question for Interview with the Vampire

Can time really heal all wounds, or does the the fact that you're alive forever watching those you love die off just create more wounds? 

I think Anne Rice (the author of Interview with the Vampire) would say that although many wish to live forever, if they were to actually be given their wish they would find that actual result to be a little lackluster. Granted, immortality will have it's perks, but the material things that immortality will focus on will eventually lose their beauty. You will begin to miss the intangible things you never realized you took for granted. The sun, food, the interaction with people. These things you will never be able to replace. Honestly, I don't think time will heal these wounds. After so long the things that we cherished the most lose their beauty of life. Why? i think because we cherish all these things because we know we only have a certain amount of time to enjoy them. But then when you have these things and you don't treasure them it takes losing them to show yourself how much you really loved them. 

The Sneetches Allegory

The Sneetches, on the outside it looks like the usual strange Dr. Seuss story, but in actuality could it be about something more? The Sneetches can easily be described as an allegory story. Hidden in the fun cartoons, and the wacky rhymes there is another meaning to the story. The way the star-bellied Sneetches treat the plain-bellied Sneetches easily resembles the way some people treat one another. “High class” versus “Low class”, black versus white, you could even go so far as to compare it to the superiority Hitler and The Nazis felt over Jewish people. In the beginning, the Sneetches are separated, star-bellies and plain-bellies. You see how the star-bellied Sneetches believe they are the best Sneetches there are, discriminating against the plain-bellied Sneetches simply because of their appearance. Sound familiar? Sounds an awful lot like how minorities have been treated in the past, and how some are being treated today. The star-bellied Sneetches refuse to let the plain-bellied Sneetches do anything with them because they are beneath the star-bellied Sneetches. Then along comes Sylvester McMonkey McBean. At first it appears that McBean plans on genuinely helping the plain-bellied Sneetches fit in. He charges them a small fee and gives them a star on their bellies. Once all the Sneetches have stars on their bellies, the original star-bellied Sneetches no longer want the stars on their bellies. Again, here comes McBean, offering a “solution” to the original star-bellied Sneetches. He charges them an even larger fee to remove their stars. You later see that McBean represents something more. You realize he is using their ignorance and prejudice to exploit them for his own financial gain. Again, sound like something you know? Everyone these days does that, they play off other people’s judgments and prejudices to gain something, usually money. Whether it is the media, store owners, major companies, anyone trying to sell a product or good. By the end of the story after the only person to benefit from McBean’s machines is himself, he says, “You can never teaches a Sneetches.” We are the Sneetches, we need to learn to stop judging each other and stick together. If we do that we will be stronger, and we won’t be taken advantage of by big, money-hungry corporations only after our money.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner

A characteristic of romantic literature in The Rime of the Ancient Mariner is the love the Spirit from the Land of Mist and Snow felt for the Arbatross. The Spirit from the Land of Mist and Snow loved the Arbatross so much that when the Mariner killed him he made the Mariners life on this boat a living hell. Instead of going about losing his beloved Arbatross reasonably he went straight to revenge (Intuition). I think The Rime of the Ancient Mariner also put spirits, and ghosts, and angels over what actually happened. Honestly i think this guy was just out on the water too long and he started hallucinating.

Mighty Be Our Theme

So, I think I've decided on a theme, I'm not really sure how how to put it though. Part of the theme would be persistence and courage, but also a lot of the book has to do with rising from the ashes, something like that. I'm just not sure how to describe the way Leymah Gbowee talks about this theme. It's kinda difficult to do because it's a memoir, someone's life...how do you give someone's life a theme??

Domestic Life

Now the books getting into Leymah's personal life. It describes her unhappy marriage to a man who beats the crap out of her. She tells you about how much she really loves her kids and the sad way she has them. Honestly, reading this book makes me feel really...sad, but also grateful and appreciative. It makes me happy that I have so many nice things, happy that i have clean clothes, food, and a roof over my head. It makes me think about my mom and all the things she does for me, and i would be kinda screwed without her. In Mighy Be Our Powers it tells you how Leymah pulled herself out of a suicidal slump just because of her kids. She was able to bring herself back from a place so dark she didn't think she was going to come out of it, just for the sake of her kids. It just, makes me think about my mom and how much our family depends on her and how she would do the same for me and my brother

Mighty Be Our Powers Begins

The book Mighty Be Our Powers is a memoir about a woman named Leymah Gbowee.  Right now, in the beginning of the book it is just describing what growing up was like for Leymah and her family. When she was younger, growing up in Monrovia, Liberia, you would grow up with not just your immediate family but your extended family (grandma, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc.) as well. It takes you from them being young and seeing how fortunate Leymah and her sisters were growing up, to them having to flee their home from Liberian rebels who invade their village. The only questions I have right now about the book is, these are well-educated women, the signs that war was coming were obvious, why didn't they do anything to prevent it instead of letting it happen and then trying to fix it? I mean, I know that sometimes the news can be misleading but it showed the rebels rampaging through villages and the destruction they leave behind.

The majority of questions that I have are with not only Liberia's government but our own as well. The United States was all fine and dandy with just standing by and watching Charles Taylor and his band of rebels pillage and destroy everything they came in contact with. They chose not to step in and intervene because the Cold War was ending and Liberia was no longer an asset. How could anybody think that's right? Like, seriously? We intervene all the time with matters that don't involve us, and try to "Help" people who don't want our help but when a country seriously needs our help we're nowhere to be found? How does that make any sense?

And the Liberian government? Now I don't necessarily have a problem with the whole government just mainly President Doe. You see a group of angry citizens running up through Liberia, obviously angry with YOU, killing, raping, and demolishing everything they pass just to get to you and you just let them? Why didn't he send in some soldiers to stop them? Why didn't he try to extend that olive branch to them? Innocent people were getting hurt and killed because of him and he was doing nothing about it.