Christmas Time and Oliver Twist

Two things that I really love about holidays are having lots of time to read and seeing movies in the daytime when they are cheaper.

This week I realized a lot of things about living by myself. For instance, my house is silent quite often; therefore, I can read. However, my mom loves to watch TV, and she has surround sound and the TV sounds so good, but I can't hear the TV and concentrate on what I am reading. She and I have argued quite often this week about her turning the TV down some. After compromise on both of our parts, she was able to watch and listen to her TV shows, and I was able to finish and read Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens which is a novel that is a protest of the Poor Law of 1834 which dictated that all public charity must be channeled through workhouses. (SparkNotes)

Charles Dickens is a master storyteller. Two years ago I read A Tale of Two Cities with my ninth graders, and we all thoroughly enjoyed it. After reading A Tale of Two Cities, I needed more Charles Dickens so I read Great Expectations which is one of my all time favorite books.

Oliver Twist, just like A Tale of Two Cities and Great Expectations, has lots of characters. However, Dickens knows how to write about ALL of his characters in a way that makes them memorable.

There is one character, Nancy, who is a thief, drinks a lot, and is also a prostitute. Nancy risks her life and eventually gets killed in order to help Oliver. Nancy shows that a person can do some really bad things, yet be quite a noble person. Nancy, is a character, because of her tragic ending, who will be remembered for a long time. I was so sure that because she decided to help Oliver, that she would be saved, but that was not the case.

On the other hand, there are characters like Fagin, Sikes, and Monks who are evil to the core and show no signs of having any good in them at all. I was sort of hoping that Dickens would redeem those characters, but he didn't; they remained evil.

I found poor little Oliver's story to be sad yet engaging. There were times when I felt like I just could not read anymore about Oliver's bad fortune, but eventually, Oliver's story became brighter and quite intriguing. Oliver's life started off wrong, but it ended brightly.

Oliver Twist was written in 1838, and it is still a wonderful story. I am a true Charles Dickens fan, and I look forward to reading David Copperfield, Our Mutual Friends, Bleak House, and many more novels by Charles Dickens.

I know that Charles Dickens' name is associated with school books, and many people may think that school books are boring, but I can assure you that most school books are not boring and there are many good reasons why we are still reading them in schools today.

Read, Read, Read....

Charles Dickens born in 1812

I wonder what my readers are doing over this Holiday Break!

I got to go, off to the movies.......

The Kite Runner AGAIN!!

In preparation to write this post, I went back and read another post that I wrote almost exactly one year ago about The Kite Runner, and all that I can say is that "people do change and grow."

This is my third year teaching The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. I went back and forth trying to decide whether or not I was going to teach this book this year. I remember the last time I read it, I was thinking that it was just a good book but not necessary on my list of books that I really wanted to experience with my students again. However, after polling my class, I realized that quite a few of students had never read this book before, so I decided to give it a try again. And, I am so happy that I did.

This time around I really thought about what makes people good or not so good and the idea of redemption.

Amir, one of the main characters, really mistreated Hassan, who was the child of his servant. He mistreated him mainly because Amir's father was not giving him the attention that he desired. Also, Amir felt that his father really respected Hassan, and he was quite jealous of that. So, being a child, he took his frustration out on Hassan.

In class, we have been having the most lively discussion about the idea of whether or not Amir was a "bad person" because of the way that he treated Hassan when they were mere children. The class and I have been all over the place with this discussion. I am thinking today that humans want to feel accepted and that children, and even adults, will sometimes do whatever it takes to be or feel accepted. Amir did not know how to tell his dad what he needed, and maybe his Dad was "doing the best that he knew how to do." (If only parenting and children came with handbooks.)

I also thought about religion, and God, and discrimination, and living in Afghanistan and America......

This book really helps to generates lots of thoughts!

Next week, my students will do student-lead discussion on some of the themes in The Kite Runner: choices, guilt, father and son relationships, fear etc.

I am looking forward to the discussions, because this time around, unlike the last time, I do believe that this is well-written book that gives the reader so many things to ponder. (People do change!)

The Kite Runner is a little sad and also a heavy book, so why don't you read it after the holidays and tell me what you think?

Next, I am reading Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens. Please, get a copy, and join me in reading it?

Reading is so much fun when others are reading the same book with me. I guess that's one of the reason why I love teaching literature; I have a whole bunch of people reading the same book that I am reading at the same time.

Read a book and change your thoughts.