Week 7- Entry B

Throughout the entire book, no one ever believes Jack. He always has outlandish ideas that tend to be correct hypotheses. He has been suspended from the police force, but keeps on doing what he believes is right; he attempts to solve the multitude of intertwining crimes. Jack's wife won't speak to him for a majority of the book and everyone else deems his crazy. Through all of this, Jack still works on the cases in front of him because he knows no one will solve them without his help. Jack tries to save his town of Reading time and time again even though no one thanks him for his hard work.

Jack is not the only selfless character in The Fourth Bear. Ashley also performs a heroic deed. He kills himself to save Reading. To extinguish a cuculear reaction taking place (I don't want to go into details, but if you wonder what this is, you would have to read the book.) he asks Jack to stab him and use his alien watery insides to douse the reaction. Wow. Sacrificing himself for everyone else. That is truly amazing.

As I read The Fourth Bear, I wonder if I could ever do such acts in real life. I suppose I'll never know until I'm in such a position, but I can still imagine. Ashley seems so set in saving Reading and Jack won't stop his job. I don't know if I have as strong backbones as these fictional characters have. I do hope that I would be able to act in a selfless manner like they do if the time should ever arise.

Week 7- Entry A

Vocabulary-

(p 315) cryptozoology- the study of evidence tending to substantiate the existence of, or the search for, creatures whose reported existence is unproved, as the Abominable Snowman or the Loch Ness monster.

(p 307) hull- the hollow, lowermost portion of a ship, floating partially submerged and supporting the remainder of the ship.

Figurative Language-

1. (p 318) " Pippa's pregnant by Peck." This line uses alliteration.
2. (p 294) "[...] Mary resting her head on Ashley's shoulder, his thoughts and memories seeping into her like a warming stew on a cold day." This simile uses as to compare the memories to stew.
3. (p 290) " 'It's a new development,' explained Ashely, pressing the button on and off so fast it sounded like a staccato bumblebee." The sound of the button and a bee are compared in this simile.

Quote

(p 293) "[...] networks are everywhere. The road and rail systems, the postal services, the Internet, your friendships, family, electricity, water- everything on this planet is composed of networks. [...] your bodies use networks to pass information; your veins and arteries are networks to nourish your bodies. Your mind is a complicated network of nerve impulses. It's little wonder that networks dominate the planet- you have modeled you existence after the construction of you own minds." I never thought of our world in this way, but it is so true. It's amazing how we create things to mimic our own ways of thinking. Just today, my French teacher told us how our mind likes to make connections. All of our information stored in our brains are networked together, so the things we create are also like this.

Theme-

Sometimes sacrificing yourself for a greater cause is the right thing to do.