Blogpost #3: What are the thesis and main points of your book so far? What points did you find most effective. Give examples from the text. Do you agree with the author's arguments and conclusions? What questions would you ask the author if you ever had the opportunity to meet him/her? Completed by Friday, May 23
18 Comments
Haley Rowe - I am Malala
5/22/2014 12:11:33 am
The main point of this book is standing up for women's education. Malala Yousafzai feels strongly about her right to education and every other women's right as well. She does interviews and gives speeches often on this subject matter.
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Madison Terry
5/22/2014 10:45:53 pm
So far in the book Dream New Dreams by Jai Pausch, her main point is emphasizing the effects the nasty illness cancer has on not only the person physically sick but also the caregiver of that person, that persons family, friends, coworkers and in this case even students. I find the emphasize on the toll it takes on ones loved ones is an interesting view on things because when you hear the word "cancer" you feel pity for the one who has been diagnosed with the illness and not necessarily the family.
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Johnny Dennis- Into the Wild
5/22/2014 10:48:17 pm
The main point of the book is to describe the reasons for young adults to leave society and become nomads and explain the McCandless story and get rid of any lies. As we learn about McCandless' story, in order to understand his frame of mind we look at other young adults like him and their reasons for leaving society. For example, we learn about Ruess who was about the same age as McCandless when he left society. Ruess has never been found but has left trace of him by carvings and leaving supplies behind. Most effective points are when Krakauer uses quotes from books relating to the events/thoughts happening in the chapter, an example is at the beginning of each paragraph. The most effective point is that the people who do leave society are not crazy, unintelligent citizens. The people who do leave society are the individuals who have a college degree and are well-off monetarily. An example is when Krakauer first introduces McCandless, "...coming from an upper middle-class family and a bright background, McCandless had his college paid off and had about $25,000 left after college." The quote shows that McCandless is not a poor, unintelligent citizen. McCandless had a college degree and was not about to starve unless he left. I agree with Krakauer in that if a young adult wants to leave society, there is nothing that can stop him. I also agree with Krakauer's statement that the citizens who desire to be cut-off from society are the citizens who are intelligent with college degrees. However, I don't agree with his statement that whoever wants to leave society has a minor mental issue or rough background. For example, Ruess left society based off a terrible childhood with brother dying and divorced parents. If I could meet Krakauer in person I would ask him how it was to travel around and follow McCandless' footsteps and saw how he lived and where he lived. I would also ask if the reason he did this was for the family's well-being or if he was emotionally attached to McCandless and wanted to know the full truth to rest his anxiety.
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Rocky Smith
5/22/2014 11:24:02 pm
The main points of the book is that you can make your dreams come true as long as you try. So far he is establishing the background information and telling his life story, he starts out by explaining his background, childhood and how he grew up. There are a lot of effective points in this novel, him just explaining everything he went through, and even though it was very unlikely for him to be anything, he still faced adversity and overcame the obstacles. For example when the author is referring to his mother when he was very young, " She'd often spend a couple days gone- no note, no goodbyes- but we know why she'd left and we knew what we had to do until she got back. I agree with the arguments and conclusions because even though he was at the very bottom of the bottom, and had basically nothing bedsides his family, he was still able to achieve his goals, and be something he never thought he was possible.
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Ian Grapes
5/22/2014 11:25:28 pm
The main point of the book Quit: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking revolves around the strengths of introverts and there function in society." Why shouldn't quit be strong? And what else can quiet do?". The book also touches on the things that introverts do better than extroverts. It also tells you not to be ashamed of or hide your introvertedness." so many people pretend to be extroverts". It reveals how to be yourself in an extroverted dominated society touching on the so called "culture of personality" and disproves the myth that loud and charismatic means better.
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Ian Grapes
5/23/2014 11:42:31 am
I tend to agree with the authors assertions. Unfortunately I cannot personally relate or comprehend all of them due to my ambiverted tendencies. If I were To meet the Author I would ask her about the role of ambiverts in society.
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Adam Haehnle
5/22/2014 11:27:33 pm
The thesis of Freakonomics is why and how people behave the way they do, why we use incentives, and how these actions effect our economy.Since Freakonomics covers many topics there are many key topics. One being the importance of incentives and people act based on whether the consequence will be positive or negative. Instead of believing something is pure look at the statistics and you may be surprised. Also when experimenting you must know the control/experimental groups, independent/dependent variables, confounding variables and operational definitions of variables. "so through complicated, haphazard and constantly readjusted web of economic, social, and moral incentives, modern society does its best to militate against crime." pg. 18
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Paige Walicki
5/22/2014 11:30:55 pm
In Dream New Dreams, the main points of the book is coping with the struggles cancer brings onto a family. Also shows how cancer affects all the people in the patients life, it demonstrates the cancer may be hard on the patient but is equally hard for the caregiver. When Pausch says "I not only had to accept the help from others, but I also had to come to terms with people being in our house more often and on a more intimate footing than normal"(pg 64). Which shows that in the state of balancing a family, cancer, and activities it is necessary to change the normal routine and get help from many to be able to balance your responsibility and still have time for a caregiver to take care of themselves. Therefore, I do believe Pauschs arguments are completely accurate because a person can only do so much in little time a caregiver has many obligations but, they are only human caregivers can not do everything on there own it is perfectly normal to need to ask for help in these situations. If I had the chance to meet Pausch I would ask her how she pushed on when she had no energy and had the urge to quit and If she regrets anything she did on her journey to care for the whole family in the face of cancer.
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Stacy Allen- Columbine
5/22/2014 11:31:37 pm
The thesis of the book so far is that the two Columbine killers left an unforgettable ghastly impression on the lives of Americans with their actions through Columbine. I'm not yet to the point where the author explains the psychological problems with the killers that lead to their actions, but many of the main points so far are that; 1. "The Columbine crisis was never a hostage standoff." (pg 83), 2. "Everyone was supposed to die." (pg 124).
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Becca Doran--Into the Wild
5/22/2014 11:32:08 pm
The main points that Jon Krakauer makes in Into the Wild are that the young man whose story he followed is not crazy, as well as the reasons that drove him to the wild and his eventual death in Alaska. His claim that Chris McCandless is not crazy is a very prominent claim throughout the book. Krakauer compares the motives of McCandless to countless other young people who also ventured out into the wild on their own such as Everett Ruess, a young man who felt stifled by society and eventually disappeared, who has a lot of similarities to Chris. I would agree with Krakauer in saying that Chris McCandless was not crazy, especially due to his reasons for leaving. He wanted to go into nature and feel it at its most raw form, and he wanted to become one with it. That does not make him crazy, he is just simply a young person who followed a dream. If I could meet Jon Krakauer I would ask him what drew him to the McCandless story. Was it the fact that he was so young? Or that it was just interesting like I find it to be.
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Nathan Smith
5/22/2014 11:42:18 pm
The thesis of my book is basically in the title saying, "The power of introverts in a world that cant stop thinking." Susan Cain divides the book into four sections which make up her four main points: "The extrovert ideal", "Your biology, your self", "Do all cultures have an extrovert ideal", and "How to love, how to work". I've only read through the second point, and out of those two I found the first one, "The extrovert ideal" the most interesting. In this section, Cain sort of criticizes the way children in this day in age are raised to become extroverts. She uses Steve Wozniak as an example that many great things do not come out of collaboration of many people, but an individuals drive and work ethic. She writes, "You might conclude that people who hope to be innovative should work in highly social workplaces. And you Might be wrong." She also goes on to cite one of Wozniak's memoirs where he explains that most engineers are "shy and they live in their heads". The reason I find this part the most interesting so far is because it's almost a picture perfect description of me. I do the best work when I'm by myself without the intervention of other's opinion, and I too live in my head. Sometimes I even say stuff in my head when I'm having a conversation with someone and forget to say it. Because her points are so accurate to my life, I agree with almost every word she's written. If I could speak to her I would love to ask her for the raw stories she has collected with everyone she had interviewed because as she said, "For the sake of readability," she did not include every part of her stories.
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Connor Swanger - David and Goliath
5/23/2014 06:29:01 am
The main points and thesis is that the author explains on how to over come situations in life that you don't think is possible, deaths, loss of job, injury, etc. I would want to ask the author on why he writes what he writes and what his reason is for making a book like this and what gave him the inspiration. I do agree with his arguments because they are very convincing.
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Kayla Hausfeld
5/23/2014 12:10:33 pm
Start something that matters.
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Ryan Ellison(Into the Wild)
5/23/2014 12:45:49 pm
As the novel progresses, Krakauer continuously reasserts the role of the wilderness and the frontier in the mind of individualist. He reassures the reader that individuals, such as McCandless, who tramp off into the wild are not crazy or mentally ill. These individuals crave an escape, as we all do, from the monotony of everyday existence. Krakauer uses numerous examples(even a personal anecdote),as well as expelling any harsh critics of such individuals, to reassert his point. I found that the various tales and legends fit perfectly into Krakauer's escapist motif. He recounted the adventures of Everett Ruess, who just like Chris, had gone off to commune with nature and find inner-peace. Another account depicted Gene Rosellini, who conducted his great "social experiment" in which he attempted to regress back into the state of nature. Following these examples was an excerpt from a critic of McCandless's, who ridiculed Chris on his naivety. Krakauer would go onto quickly leap to Chris's defense, and dispel every point in the critics argument. After reading his novel, and evaluating the authors stance, I whole heartily agree with Krackauer in his defense of such individuals. These individuals were more than what the critics surmounted them to. If I had the chance to meet Krackauer, I would ask him,in his opinion, what made these individuals different than the rest of us?Bravery, ambition, an inverted personality?
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Rick Hance
5/23/2014 01:37:03 pm
In Fast Food Nation, the author attempts in making a point on just how guilty fast food restaurants can be. He provides with plenty of examples of how businesses use their corrupt commercial ways in order to attract younger customers, hire teens that are in desperate need of a job while forcing them to work with no time for school work, and talks about just how unhealthy fast food really is. "And their success led many others to aim marketing efforts at kids, turning America's youngest consumers into a demographic group that is now avidly studied, analyazed, and targeted by the.world's largest corporations." I find the details on how children are selfishly used for money to be one of the most effective , considering the fact that children can be easily influenced by anything, so taking advantage of them, and tricking them into eating a fatty diet really just sticks out, and shows just how corrupt fast food corporations can be. Of course I agree with the author that these large businesses are willing to do anything to make a buck, whether it involves lying or cheating, but it does seem to be a bit exaggerated sometimes, and if I were to ask him anything, I would ask what made him hate fast food so much.
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David Spence (Fast Food Nation)
5/23/2014 02:11:56 pm
The author of Fast Food Nation creates an argument that fast food companies and not only their way of farming their materials, but how their way of serving food to Americans specifically. The point that I find most effective is that Fast Food is causing America to have rising obesity rates and are becoming "fatter". His reasoning is that since the fall of the Soviet Union in the 1990s, America was able to spring ahead in food production. I agree with the author's statements mostly. He makes extremely valid and effective arguments, and he seems to genuinely care about fast food ruining the nation and how fast food companies are horrible. The author also creates arguments against chemicals used in foods to make them taste better, and the morality of doing so. He brings up several points that the methods of keeping cattle in certain areas allows for the spread of diseases and allows for the nation to be open to E-coli and other nasty diseases that would only be reproduced through the storage of animals inhumanely. If I was to ask the author a question, I would ask why the author chose to take a stand against Fast Food, and not something like global warming or factory workers.
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Thomas Sisson
5/24/2014 02:22:51 am
Into Thin Air
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Christine Deaton
5/26/2014 11:13:23 pm
The main points in the book, A Mighty Long Way, is to show how colored people and non-american citizens were treated even after slavery was ended. Not many colored citizens were able to work and own their own land still in the 1950's. Discrimination is always going to be around, even to this day.
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