Reading Response #6: Allegiant (SPOILER ALERT)

As I approach the end of the book, I find myself very frustrated and upset. There's only a couple more chapters left but I could not continue because it made me so mad. Maybe that was the reaction Veronica Roth was trying to get out of her audience or maybe I'm overreacting, but I was really hoping for a better ending. In the midst of all the chaos, Tris must make a final decision to sacrafice her life for her brother that betrayed her. Even though she has experienced many near-death tragedies, this situation is different because Tris acts out of love rather than revenge. The Abnegation side of her shows through as she chooses the selfless path and walks into the light of death. Miraculously, Tris survives the unstoppable death serum but as she is completing her mission of releasing a memory serum, she dies from the gun shots of the leader of the outside world. Tris is able to be reunited with her dead parents, but leaves all her friends and loved ones behind. It is so sad and depressing because I wanted to Tris and Tobias to be able to live happily ever after. Plus, Roth just kiled off the main character of the story! The rest of the book continues on with Tobias' point of view and he is able to reconnect with his mother who had abandoned him early in his childhood. The ending kind of ruined the whole series for me now because all I can think is that Tris is going to die, no matter how noble her actions were. The books ending reminds me of other tragic love stories such as Romeo and Juliet. When Tobias comes back to find the love of his life no longer breathing, he was in broken. He says, "I squeeze Tris's hand, praying that if I do it hard enough, I will send life back into her body and she will flush with color and wake up. I don't know how long it takes me to realize that it isn't going to happen, that she is gone. But when I do I feel all the strength go out of me, and I fall to my knees beside the table and I think I cry, then, or at least I want to, and everything inside me screams for just one more kiss, one more word, one more glance, one more." I find this similar to when Romeo wakes up and finds Juliet dead. He is so heartbroken that he can no longer live. I really don't like these depressing types of endings but oh well.

Topic Proposal- How media can affect our views and beliefs for the better

     Our culture today is full of media and it affects us greatly on a day to day basis whether we realize it or not. Media comes in many forms such as movies, music, books, news, radio, tv, and the internet. Most of the time it may seem like the media in the United States is centered around whats going to cause the biggest buzz or make the most money rather than what is actually important to hear and learn. To me it seems like a lot of our media is driven by money and popularity and it doesn't matter if the truth is being said or not. But I recently came across a documentary that really touched me and made me think. It's called Born into Brothels and it follows the lives of eight children growing up in the Red Light District of Calcutta. The living conditions are extremely poor and the women are forced into prostitution at a very young age. The children's teacher, Auntie Zana, shows them how to use a camera and lets them take pictures of whatever they wish. It is very special because you are able to see their world through the lens of a camera. She then tries to sell their photographs in order to raise money and hopefully send each child to a more safe and stable environment. I found the documentary very humbling to watch because I could not imagine living in those types of conditions. We are not able to choose where we are born nor the type of parents we have. The film proved to touch more than just me because it won an academy award for best documentary feature. It has impacted thousands of lives and opened the eyes of many to the outside world and how one person is able to make the biggest difference.

Reading Response #5: Allegiant

     With this book being the third and final book of Veronica Roth's Divergent series, I decided to slow my reading pace down so that it doesn't end too quickly. I have read a good chunk of it and I am about 2/3 of the way finished now. Once again, Roth picks up right where she left off. After the war of the factions, the factionless and their leader, Evelyn, rise to power. They believe in a world without factions and Tris discovers shocking news about the world outside. Tris, Tobias, Christina, Caleb, Uriah, Tori, Peter, and Cara go out into the unknown world in order to see what it holds. Tris is very hopeful to find a peaceful place where her and Tobias may finally live without fear or danger. Unfortunately but not surprising, the gang finds an even more twisted world on the outside. Everything they have ever known turns out to be a lie and once again Tris finds herself caught in the middle of all the chaos. Together, Tris and her friends must find a way to solve their problems with complications of prejudices and racism lingering around them.
     To an extent this book reminds me of a movie I once watched called The Truman Show. In this movie, Truman, played by Jim Carrey, lives in a world that is staged around him. Initially, Truman is unaware that he is living in a constructed reality T.V. show being broadcasted 24/7 around the world. As the movie progresses, Truman becomes suspicious of his perceived reality and embarks on a quest to discover the truth about his life. I find this to be similar to Allegiant because Tris also embarks on a quest to discover the truth about her life when she finds out that her world is not what she believed it to be. Tris describes the outside world like this, "The world beyond ours is full of roads and dark buildings and collapsing power lines. There is no life in it, as far as I can see; no movement, no sound but the wind and my own footsteps. It's like the landscape is an interrupted sentence, one side dangling in the air, unfinished, and the other, a completely different subject." Even though the two worlds portrayed in Allegiant and The Truman Show are two completely different scenarios, the concept is the same. And I am excited to see how the book ends!