ATONEMENT

Since I stopped reading She's Come Undone, I've started a new book. Remember I was deciding whether to read Atonement or Their Eyes Were Watching God? Well, I'm going to read Atonement. Atonement is a much smaller book than She's Come Undone. It's by Ian McEwan and it was written maybe seven years ago in 2001. McEwan was born in 1948 in Europe. He's written so many other novels like The Cement Garden and his most recent On Chesil Beach. The language in Atonement is very mature, where I would have to pay more attention to it than other teen novels. The reading is going good so far. It's about this thirteen year old girl named Brionry and she's an amazing writer. In the beginning of the book, she's just written her best work and will be performing it with her unfortunate cousins for her older brother who is coming home. She wanted to play the lead role because she pictured herself as the lead. But she gave it to her cousin because she knew it'd be polite since they've been having problems.

That's all I know so far, but I'll keep you posted on it. I do know from reviews and the blurb at the back that Brionry's older sister falls in love with this guy that Brionry likes also and she gets really jealous and does something so bad. I can't wait to find out what it was. Atonement is actually a movie that came out towards the end of last year. It did really well at the box office and was nominated for a couple Oscars, including best supporting actress for the young girl who played Brionry and I believe for best picture also. When I'm done reading the book, I'm going to watch the movie and compare them. I'll also show clips of the movie from YouTube.

Atonement is about 300-350 pages long and so it should take me at the most three and a half weeks to finish reading. But I wanted to finish it quickly because I really want to know what she did. I also want to read Their Eyes Were Watching God next too.

<=That's Ian McEwan

This Just in! Extra! Extra!

I have made a decision to stop reading She's Come Undone by Wally Lamb. I admire Wally Lamb's amazing writing skills but this book is a little too raw and in some cases irritating to read. I think that the storyline is a good idea, but I'm up to this part where something that I find to be disturbing takes place and because of my morals and convictions I'm just stopping now. I know that I still need to finish at least one book and I haven't done that because She's Come Undone is like 500 pages long and I'm reading the minimum 100 pages a week because I have lots of reading for other classes, so obviously it will take me longer. But now that I'm abandoning this book, I have to start a new one. I was thinking of Atonement by Ian McEwan because I have that book currently or Their Eyes Were Watching God by Zora Neale Hurston, because I own that book. I don't know yet.

My schedule is opening up now that science fair projects are done and I'm a fast reader so I'll be able to finish my books so much faster. The only problem is that I am a very picky reader. I lose interest in a book so quickly it's not even funny. A book has to be super addictive if you want me to continue to read it. So, I'm going to reasearch some more titles and then blog later about what I decided on.

Symbolism

I think that there is a lot of hidden symbolism in She's Come Undone and even though I personally don't like Dolores but I like the book a lot. It's what you call different. I think that Dolores' weight issue is a symbol (a hidden one). She seems to have an eating disorder: binge eating or something like that. I'm not too sure what the scientific name for it is. She seems to eat a lot when she's upset or angry, but whenever she's happy which is weird, she's jumping all about and running around. I think that her battle with weight is actually a symbol of depression and low self-esteem. People with low self-esteem always think that the world is on their shoulders.

I think tha the other possible symbol in this book is one that I personally see but isn't necessarily--just know that I created it, okay? I think a good symbol is the bone and skull symbol. Why? Well, because she's dangerous to not only herself but everyone. She smokes, takes no responsibility, cares less about her health and her grades stink. Seriously, be for real. *_* You always see this symbol on tanks of deadly gas or places where no one but trained personnel can enter. That has Dolores written all over it. I think that she has the makings of great person with a great life despite the death of her mom and other sad events in her life, if she'd just care more. Dolores isn't always that bad. But she could be better.