Back to Basics

ANIMAL FARM VS. 1984         I finished reading  Animal Farm  by George Orwell and in this blogpost, I will compare it with another book of George Orwell,  1984 . I will use  Prezi  to present my analysis.    To learn how to use Prezi, check the video below: To learn more about Prezi, click on the links below: Video 1 Prezi Website

Animal Farm  by George Orwell is a satire and an allegory, but it helps the reader to learn and enrich their understanding of reality. In this blogpost, I will analyze two of the major themes of the book: the corruption caused by absolute power and propaganda. To have a better understanding of the social classes in the book, I created a pyramid chart with  Microsoft Word  in which I illustrate the hierarchy in  Animal Farm,  and compare it with the Feudalism Pyramid.           Napoleon became the ruler and leader of animal farm after he led and won the battle to overthrow their human ruler. Therefore, he gained absolute powers and ruled over the whole Animal Farm. However, Napoleon, along with the other pigs, soon became corrupted and made abuse of their powers. This theme is clearly introduced in chapter 3, "The pigs did not actually work, but directed and supervised the others. With their superior knowledge it was nat...

  I read  1984  by  George Orwell  recently and I was really fascinated by it. Therefore, I decided to read another book of his, and I found  Animal Farm .             Animal Farm  is set in a dystopian world in which animals rebel over humans, with the strong belief that "All animals are equal" introduced in the first chapter. Therefore, the major theme of the book is clear from the very first chapter, that all animals are equals, and humans should not rule or hold power over them. The book is probably an allegory, in which although set in a small farm, it represents how humans treat animals.            I was able to read only the first few chapters. However the first chapter, with the speech of old Major, the wisest and eldest pig of the farm, made me reflect. George Orwell immediately draws the reader's attention from the very first chapter. The use of persuasive language old Major used to...

May 14, 2017 COOKING FOR THE FIRST TIME             I must learn and master is cooking. In three years, when I will leave for university, I will have to cook for myself. For this reason, I shall use the three years I have available now, to learn how to cook, starting from a well known cookbook. I looked up on  Goodreads , and  Cravings: Recipes for All the Food You Want to Eat  by Chrissy Teigen was the most recommended. Obviously, this is my first cooking book and a few questions pierced through my mind as I have never analysed in my English class a cooking book. What makes a cooking book more successful than the other? Is it the recipes? Or maybe the way they explain the recipes? Or maybe just the pictures in it that attracts the reader? Here is a small analysis with an extract from the actual book:             The book follows the same structure and format throughout almost the whole book. ...

ROOM                Room  by Emma Donoghue was also labeled as one of the best books of the 21st century by  List Challenges.  I've been challenging myself a lot throughout this year, with books of different genres and difficulties. Now, since the end of school year is coming to an end, I choose to read this fiction book that I've been keeping a part for a very long time. First Impression         Room  is a fiction book, which narrates the story of a kidnapping case, in which a woman was kept captive in a room for 7 years. However, she gives birth to a child in Room. For the child, the room in which he was born in is the whole world. His mom lies to his child, for his own good, by telling him that the entire world is Room.         The major factor which differentiates this novel from the others is the narrator. The novel is narrated through the eyes of the 5-year-old protagon...

May 26, 2017 3.35MX 3.35M       I'm halfway through reading  Room  by Emma Donoghue. Although for the protagonists mother , Ma, Room is a prison, for Jack, Room is not just a simple noun, but his whole world. Jack was born in a 3.35mx3.35m room and has survived 5 years of his life in it. Everyday, Jack plays with Ma, observes Plant an its leaves, counts the cereals at Table,  and goes to sleep at nine o' clock in Wardrobe, because nine o'clock is when Old Nick enters. Old Nick is the man who kidnapped Jack's mom and imprisoned her at a young age in the cellar.        In this blogpost, I created a map of Room, with my skills as an architect, with the use of  SmartDraw , in order to approximately illustrate the living conditions of Jack and Ma.       This novel made reflect about a current issue I've been having. I have a small room! I have never been happy with it! However, through Jack's e...

This past week I have been reading the book, Escape from Camp 14, a biography written by Blaine Harden. The book focuses on the life of Shin, a North Korean man born in a goulag, who escaped to South Korea at the age of 20. I find myself devouring every page, it is a book so full of knowledge about a world I do not know: North Korea. This book has given me an insight on what is  occurring  in prison camps in North Korea. Where thousands of North Koreans are left to suffer every day from over 50 years.  I highly encourage all of you to read this book, it will open your mind to other parts of the world. To buy the book, click  here To read the ratings on Goodreads, click  here To read a news article and watch a video about Shin's story, click  here For today's blog post, I decided to write a journal entry from the perspective of the main character when he is being taken care of by psychiatrists and doctors. I hope this little extract will c...

From Success to Freakness        Just yesterday, I have finished the book  Think Like A Freak . I must say, I was a little sad, since the book ended at only 65 percent, not 100 like it usually does. Well, this might also be a positive factor, because it shows how much I liked this book. I think that I enjoyed reading and learning from this book so much because I am currently in a "psychology" obsession era. Indeed, I mostly read these types of books this summer. That's, why, I wanted to make a connection between the book  Outliers  by Malcolm Gladwell and  Think Like A Freak  by Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner. If you are interested in self improvement and creative thinking methods, I suggest you read both books. They both talk about our minds, and how everything we do and are surrounded by affect our success and our thinking. One difference, however, is that in the first book, Gladwell chooses to write about the roads to ...

Eataly Contemporary  Italian Cooking As many of you know I am vegetarian and have been for almost a year now. One of the positives I saw in taking up vegetarianism was a healthier lifestyle where I knew I would create an environment where I would be conscious of what I ate on a daily basis. This step would make be take accountability in my decisions and create a new responsibility of finding ways to nourish myself fully without meat. I knew this would sometimes mean making my own dinners as I recognize to others it seems as a disadvantage. WIht summer coming I knew I would have more time to experiment with ideas and I decided a cookbook was a good place to start. I also wanted to embrace where I was living as I have never cooked a fully Italian meal, so I thought that  Eataly 's  Contemporary Italian Cooking  would be a great place to start. I will be trying to integrate both of these topics in the meal I will be making!! In the video below I wi...

In the following blog post, I will continue writing about my spring break read -- The Secret Life of Bees. As previously mentioned in the last post I truly enjoyed this simple but heartfelt novel. Above you see a quote that I found on the internet when I looked up bees. I really appreciated the quote and I am going to make several connections to the bee and the protagonist, Lily Owens. Initially, I felt a connection between the insect and the girl because they are both theoretically not supposed to or be allowed to do what they are doing but nevertheless continue in their pursuit as it makes them happy.  A background of Lily Owens: Lily Owens is a 14-year-old girl that has a very difficult and somewhat messy life. She seems to be defying other characters preassumed judgments of her left and right. She is repeatedly physically and emotionally abused by her father whom she calls T. Ray.  These harsh actions against the young protagonist lead he...

Over the break, I started and finished the novel  The Secret Life of Bees  in which I finished in no time due specifically to its easy going pace and simplistic choices the author decided upon regarding literary features. I have been recommended this book by many of my friends and I was very excited to see if my expectations would be able to be met in which they were. The book is an in-depth coming of age historical fiction novel that I understand discovers multiple areas of prejudice during the time that the novel was set in. My favorite part of the book was the ending which was very happy but taught a lesson that allowed for a new way to look at the book along with other ways of life. In the following blog (first post of the final quarter) post I am going to take a specific look at how the title of the book actually relates to the plot and story line of the remarkably true and emotional experience that the main character, Lily Owens embarked on after leaving home....