Part one: social aspect & isolation
I think we were asked or should I say forced to stop using social media for a week because I think it was for us to feel isolation and what it feels like for a little bit. No matter what class book we are reading, some characters feel isolation and we did the challenge to kinda feel what they felt. I really didn't gain nor lose anything from this blog because I'm not a big social media type of person, I don't care what my friends are doing and where they are, just as an example. One thing I did gain was that I don't mind isolation from time to time. The next question I can't answer because it asked what events in the novel relate to your experience. My experience compared to Saul's is NOT even close on the same level so how the hell am I suppose to compare an experience. The only thing I can relate is that both of our Grandma's died, well mine didn't die from being frozen to death, just cancer. But I feel like Saul kinda just brushed it off, while it took me years to actually recuperate. A very intelligent student once said " Isolation can only be fixed by isolation" I just made that up but I think it is true because we mostly like it from time to time and the social media best explained that, to be isolated from the world which some crumbled and some don't, like what is said in Julian's blog which is said nicely "So if you take that source of information away from them for a short period of time they start to go stir crazy" http://doggydoggstyle.weebly.com/blog/blog-6 The source being social media. That is also very true. I may not always check or care but after a while I want to know things for example a status on facebook, pictures on instagram, gossip on twitter and neat things online. This can be said mostly said about young adults and teens who have this problem most, although the older folks are getting better at tech.
Part two: Phoniness & lying
Relationship between power, influence, and lying in the novel, well the novel ( Indian Horse) has a lot of times in the book where that comes into play. The novel suggest that Saul lies to us about getting sexual assaulted by his coach. Power is when the nuns had power over the kids and what they did to them ( Beat them and sexual assaulted them.) The nuns influence the children in a way that they didn't developed because them committed suicide at such a young age, and the ones that didn't commit anything will always remember what happened and the behaviour that they were taught. When they were in the school they were taught to stay quiet and to not speak, so now in Saul's older self he doesn't know how to really communicate what he's going through. Everybody is phony at one point in their life but certain situations make us phony for example in interviews people are extremely phony by being cocky, think they are all that. What situations do we accept phoniness and lying? Well I think we always accept lying and phoniness IF we can get away then I think it's fine. What events from the novel support these ideas? I feel that Saul is a little bit phony to the Zhaunagush (white people) and I think he is phony because he is Indian and trying to fit in. Emily had a great quote which we can ALL relate to and that is " Everyone lies. It's a part of our nature and we do it whether we like it or not." and that is so true, that quote is probably the most realistic thing I've read in this unit. Lying is part of our nature, I haven't met a single person that hasn't lied. http://readers-cove.weebly.com/ For me it just happens and I play along with it. Another student names Brianne's blog once quoted " When you have the power to lie, it can influence people to think its true. I choose this quote because really who would't but the main reason is because I thought it could connect really well with what Saul went through. In the book Saul didn't really tell lies it was mostly what he didn't say ( like the schooling.) He had power when he was on the moose team because he was one of the better players. Everything he told his team mates that he believed it and there were no questions asked. Closer to the end of the book Saul tells Virgil that he stopped playing hockey because he just didn't enjoy it any more but the real reason why was because he was getting fed up with everybody treating him like garbage. http://crazedwolf63.weebly.com/. Just for a little fun, have you noticed that believe has the word lie in it, can you beLIEve that!
part three: conflict & controlling identity
In the novel the unwillingness to accept the way others and or yourself see and understand you? Of course you would know by now that I don't care what people think about me or anything like that because I'm me and I just accept what I have. I'm a difficult guy to understand because I change my personality for every situation. In the novel support these ideas, In the novel Saul I don't think Saul cares about what people think either for example on the ice rink he doesn't what the white people thinks ( maybe inside he does?) and just plays the game. Tyler Relf a good guy said on his blog on identity " I believe it is extremely important to protect the identity you want others to think of you because what's the point of living if people don't even know the real you" I found this quote amazing to relate to the book because he tries really hard to make everyone believe that he is a totally different person then what he really is. One example of this is when he makes the moose team think that he is fine and witness wrong with him BUT really there is. He doesn't want anybody's help, he also discovers that no one knows the REAL him. So he tells Virgil what really happened to them. http://tylersblog2015.weebly.com/
part four: conclusion
I think these parts are a great insight into real life situations like isolation, lying, and conflict as I talked about above. Although some aspects were more valuable than others. One example of this is lying and phoniness, like I said in my past blog " Lying is becoming such a common thing, it is almost unnatural to tell the truth" But I'm not the only one I agree with, I also agree with Kayla and her quote is " If you lie to yourself and believe it, then you can almost believe anything." I choose this quote from her because when Saul is lying to everyone he meets about what happened to him at the school, although he still remembers what happened in a way, he starts to believe his lies. http://nightbookproject03.weebly.com/blog/if-we-can-control-what-we-lie-about-then-we-are-powerful. In the real world you meet phony people all the time, some are sitting in this very classroom, some more then others. Don't forget adults are phony too, like your parents, teachers of some sort. Some teachers lie that they like a student when we ALL know that they don't but I have to admit to I'm such a liar and I lie to people all the time for example that I like people when we all know I don't. Also for people who work, other employees can be extremely phony in certain situations because of their job aka sales reps. ALSO in the real world you and others face isolation like in the horrible book Indian Horse (I'll explain later.) In the book the kids in the school feel isolation in a way that they will never be the same again. But I don't mind isolation from time to time because it makes me feel at peace. So in that aspect I didn't connect to much from the book plus what we do here at school is totally different from the school there. WAY DIFFERENT. Finally, conflict well this can be a problem for everybody because everybody has conflict. Although we don't want it, we are stuck with it for the rest of our life's until we pass unfortunately. As a final say I didn't connect with the book at all but some aspects do come into everyday life including yours and mine.
FINAL REVIEW
It sucked. Everybody has an opinion ^ and everybody has a different opinion, but to me this book sucked. Some people say " I can't put this book down" I say " Can I stop reading, I'm falling asleep, this is stupid, what did I just read" and so on. This book was so boring to read and maybe it was boring because I didn't have any connections with the book AT ALL. To me the characters were boring and had poor character devolpment. When there was a death in the book I feel like it wasn't realistic, like I didn't feel the pain and neither did they. I felt the characters just brushed of a death like it was nothing for example Saul's grandma and brother SPOILER but doesn't matter because those deaths are probably the most exciting thing and even then it wasn't. I give this book 2/5, I thought it would be a fun book and expected something totally different, it's just meh.