The Lottery Ticket

I did not like this story. I think it was written well, but the plot was very plain to me. It was a good idea but it was really obvious where the story was going. I did not like how the man began to turn on his wife. Yeah, greed can do that to you but it was a little fast and necessary. It goes to show how pathetic some people can be, but I still did not like the story. There was not a lot of description in the story either. I like description. It was just the husband ranting on about what he wanted to do with the money, and then turning on his wife because it was her ticket. Then how she was going to turn on him and he had no proof of this! I think the story was boring too, not much excitement. There were good aspects to it and the beginning grabbed my attention, but not the rest. All in all, I did not like this story. It was uninteresting and plain, atleast to me it was.

SURPRISE MIDDLE!

I was reading my ISU book, "The Curious Incident of the dog in the night-time", and I read the most surprising twist I have ever read! I did not see this coming. Most books I read I can guess what might happen in the future, but this one threw my off!

First off, Christopher found out his mother is not dead! I was in shock! Christopher had found letters from his mother ever since she had left. I couldn't believe his father would have done that to him. I understand his father was hurt, but he should of Christopher the truth. It was very mean of him to do that even tho the father thought he was protecting him. It was unfair to the mother and Christopher.

Second surprise was Christopher found out who killed Wellington, that dog from the begininng of the story. It was his father!! When christopher found this out, he could not stay in the house with him. His reasoning was, if father could kill Wellington he could kill me. So he hid in the backyard behind the shed wondering what he was going to do and where he was going to go.

Third surprise was Christopher actually is leaving to go live with his mom in London. He has no idea how to get there and he hates crowds. Im really proud he is going to find his mother, but I feel bad for him because he could get overwhelmed and lost. I don't want to see that happen to him. I'm sure he'll be fine.

Now, I am really excited to finish the book. I wonder if he acutally gets to his mothers house. Does his father find him? Does he make friends on the trip? I have no idea how this book could end and I'm really excited to finish it.

The Cask of Amontillado

In our ENG3U class, we read The Cask of Amontillado. I found this story really creepy! Encasing people in walls alive! That's so freaky. I would be afraid to live back in those days. I felt really bad for Fortunato to have to die that way. Did he really deserve it? I'm not really sure. The story doesn't explain what Fortunato did, only that he "wronged" Montresor. What was that wrong!? I want to know. Makes me very curious as to why Montresor had to avenge himself.

I did find it funny and ironic how Forunato's name was Fortunato. Meaning lucky, and he obviously was not lucky! There were many ironic statements in the story. Example, "The cough is a mere nothing; it will not kill me. I shall not die of a cough" and Montresor replies, "True -- true" and it's funny because it is true, but Fortunato doesn't know what Montresor is truly planning. Unfortunately for Fortunato, he will die in the wall. That's a really scary thought.

Aside from the story being outrageously odd, it was a good plot. It was interesting and kept me wondering what is going to happen. Always that question of "what's going to happen next?" I liked how the beginning of the story starts at a carnival, so Fortunato is in a jester's outfit. But it ends in the dark tunnels of the catacombs. Since Fortunato is drunk, he's oblivious to what's happening when Montresor chains him to the wall. Shows you how alcohol is bad. Don't get drunk if you've wronged a friend! I like this story though, even if it is scary.

So Curious

Asperger's Syndrome is kind of confusing. I should look up all the aspects of that syndrome so I can further understand this book. Christopher is always stating how he doesn't like strangers, the colour yellow means he will have a bad day, but red will be a good day. He does that with cars, yellow cars mean bad, red cars are good. But I don't understand why he thinks that way. Obviously it is a part of the syndrome, but why?

If I were Christopher I would be able to understand his situations. Like when he punched a police officer. He doesn't like to be touched, which is a part of his syndrome, and when the police officer touched him he decided to punch him to get him off. When Christopher was taken to the police station, his father was livid! If I were his father I would be livid too. I felt bad for Christopher because they were accusing him of lying. The reason the police officer was around Christopher was because the dog was murdered. They were blaming Christopher, but Christopher didn't! He hates lying.

Christopher also does not understand things that are not thorough. Like "Keep Off The Grass". He does not understand what grass it is. I would hate living life that way, but obviously Christopher cannot help that and its the only way he'll ever know. He thinks it should say "Keep Off The Grass Around This Sign" or "Keep Off All Grass In This Park". That is more thorough so people know WHAT grass to keep off of. There are a lot of situations like this one.

Fortunately, Christopher is very smart. He excels well in math and science and wants to go to university for them. In the book it shows some of his theory's and equations and I'm flabbergasted. I could never do that stuff. I guess that's an outcome of the syndrome. He's quite the character though. A good child too, except for his 18 behavioural problems. He listed them. But I am excited to find out who killed that dog and if Christopher can figure it out. He's off to a great start!