Wednesday, April 27, 2011

The Importance of the Non-Important

     I know you haters of Manga may think that the books do not contain depth and meaning like regular books do, but you're wrong. Though each page may only contain 1-30 words, those words can be thoroughly observed. I don't read that much Manga books because many times, they are not accepted by certain teachers because of  the easy reading and unchallenging theories and understanding of the book, but when I do, I like to make sure that I have fully understood the meaning of the book/episode. Every book you read is challenging only if you take your time to analyze page by page. The volume of Naruto Shippuden that I just finished is #46. Now this volume has a lot to unpack because it is fillled with extreme action. In this episode, a ninja from the Ataski clan, Pain, has come to the leaf village in search of Naruto because he has a powerful beast inside of him, which they want to use as a weapon. The main issue in this episode is the meaning of pain and peace through Pain's eyes, and the meaning of pain through the villagers of the leaf village. Pain and the villagers of the leaf village obviously have different opinions of the word.
     To Pain, the meaning of pain and peace is that to achieve peace in the world, it has to feel pain. He explains this right before he performs a powerful jutsu that destroys most of the village. He also brings up this while Naruto and him are fighting. After Naruto sees that the village is almost completely destroyed, Naruto says "What part of this is peaceful!" and Pain responds with:
     "Your death shall lead to piece." What I think this means is that there will be piece for only the Ataski clan because, although I believe that Pain's theory is true, I feel that Pain is such an evil person that why would he want to bring any piece for the village. If Naruto gets captured, his death would mean that the Ataski now has the Nine-Tailed fox as a weapon, which would extremely boost the success rate of their plans. What the Ataski and the leaf village are in right now is a war. The theory does conect to war because that is what war does. It first creates destruction, then subsides to create a settlement, but many times, its only a settlement to one side and thats what is happening here.
     To the villagers of the leaf village, pain and peace means that a incredible miracle has to occur for peace to happen. What I think they mean is that there will never be peace, but it is possible to keep pain away from their village. I think many of the villagers see Naruto as a miracle because he was supposed to be looked at as a possible destruction for the entire village as he grew up, and he did for awhile, until he finally was able to make friends. Now, everyone can see how a boy who started isolated from the world, is standing up against a powerful ninja, who may mean the the end of the village.
     See, manga books can be explored just like regular books. I know I had a blogpost like this one, but the other one was based off the episode on television. Next time you see a Manga book, don't assume that you cant write a 4-5 paragraph essay because it may be packed with more information than a book with 700 pages.

Thursday, April 7, 2011

Monsters of MMP

     Have you ever wondered why kids are sometimes suprisingly depressed sometimes? Isolated from the world of joy that sits right in front of them. Why is this so? My first guess would be school work. I mean, most of the time, when I'm depressed, thats the case. When reading the book "The Monstrumologist," by Rick Yancey, realized that there are many other reasons of a kid's loneliness. Their parents, their guardians, the people they expect to give them a chance to be what ever they want to be. In the book, young 12 year old Will Henry is the assistant to a "doctor" who actually is a different than most doctors because what he studies are actual monsters. Whats the negative of the job? You can't live a normal life. You can't have relationships and have to lie about your job every time your asked of it. Will is and soon has to take over the responsibility due to a promise he made to the doctor if he would die. Parents/Guardians play a huge role in how their child/ protected engage the world and many times, the parents/guardians don't realize that they may wnat to live life the way they want to live it.
     The reason why I keep saying parent/guardian is because the doctor is not Will's father. Will and the doctor had nobody, Will wanted to join the doctor. In the book, there are some examples of why Will doesn't want to be an monstrumologist. For example, when the doctor is examining every inch of a corpse to figure out what type of monster killed it, he descibes it in such a grusome way and tells of the horrer it was at the sight of it abd the acrid stench of the corpse. This gives the reader a sense that Will sometimes regrets ever becoming the doctor's assistant. Another reason would be, not only is he only 12 years old, but being an orphan because of a fire that killed his parents, he was probably desperate to have someone be there for him and for someone to care for him, so, at such a young age, he would do anything just to feel love, even agree to be an assistant of a, some may say, a lunatic.
     When parents steer their childrens lives into the lives they want for them, this may cause the child to have a life that they may not want. The author of this book, Rick Yancey, wants the reader to know this because although parents want the best for the children, they can offer suggestions, but can't force them to be what they don't want to be. Everybody has a choice to do whatever they want with their life and no one should ever be forced to be what they don't want to be.
     When in this situation, children are trapped. They depend on their parents to enforce justice to them, but what if it's the parents who do injustice to their children. This is one situation that, may not be looked as a serious situation, but to many, it is tough to live life with it lingering in their households. This connects to the world in many ways. One main way is with education. Many children are forced to do good in school by making them do extra curiculums. They also place serious consequences on them to force them to put every effort of work into their school work. Why don't they just rebel? Its their parents. The ones who taken care of them sense they were born. They would feel like they're the bad guys. Also, parents don't realize what may be good for their child is mostly benefiting the parent more than the child. My brother is going to college and has broken down the schools that accepted him to 2 schools. My brother wants to go to a school that is big and the campus is beautiful, but my mom wants him to go to the other one, which offers a better education and has a better reputation. In a way, my mom is wavering between forcing him to go or just giving him suggestions to go to the school. If parents force their children to become what they want them to be, there wouldn't be much of a variety to this world. Have you ever wondered why kids are sometimes suprisingly depressed sometimes? I know I have.