reading response #5

 I am currently reading the book The Lovely Bones  by Alice Sebold. In the book a girl named Susie gets raped and killed. Everyone takes her death really badly. People start getting problems and everything just goes down hill. Her mother leaves while her grandma moves in. Even her school friends life changes drastically.Even though Susie is dead, she is still apart of their lives.
  One thing that i noticed is that Susie  is still very important in their lives. From heaven she watches down on them all the time. She takes everything in on what their doing. She takes note on what happens. She also has the same feeling that she would on earth as she feels on heaven. I don't feel as if she has wisen up.
   But Susie is also there physically. She goes and watches her family. Her brother tells his dad that she is in the room with him, watching him. She goes down and watches them. I think that she doesn't miss them more than they miss her. I feel like shes more mellow. I also feel like she wants to visit everyone she loved or that were important to let them know that they were important.
   This proves how close to her loved ones lives she is. All the people that she visits, don't really have a problem with it. They only loved her so much. I think even though shes not alive, shes there, with them.

reading response #4

    In the story "The Drummer  Boy of Shiloh" Joby is a young drummer boy of to war with some soldiers. However, Joby feels as if he plays an unimportant roll in the war. He is very upset by the thought. The General and Joby have a talk and they connect. The General helps Joby realize that he is important and can help the situation.
     At first Joby just thought he was a useless toy in the war. On page 51 Joby says that he is no more than a toy himself. "Me, thought the boy, I got only a drum, to sticks to sticks to beat it and no shield" I think this proves that he feels unimportant. Its basically like getting leftovers. I think Joby feels really insecure about being in the war. I feel that he feels that way because he may be intimidated by the fact that he is really at a war. I also think he feels lonely because he doesn't have his family.
     Joby started crying. That is when the General comes in. He hears Joby and talks to him. While the General is talking to him, Joby thinks that the general is how a father should smell. That also proves that Joby might be a bit lonely because hes thinking about fathers. I think the General actually sat down and talked with him because he might have felt lonesome himself; I think the general was glad that he talked with Joby. I think he needed to get it off his chest.
      The talk with the General really Joby's self esteem up. Joby thought he was merely a useless toy. Now Joby feels confident about what he is, a drummer boy. He has respect for himself. He is the heart of the troops and he keeps the rhythm that they walk to.  He turned his drum facing the sun and went back to sleep.