Divergent

Divergent, a novel by Veronica Roth, is a story about a dystopian, futuristic world. All the people are divided into five factions, Abnegation, Erudite, Amity, Dauntless, and Candor based on their beliefs on why the country went to war and failed in the first place. The story follows Beatrice, an Abnegation member who transfers to Dauntless, and her friends Christina, Al, Will, and Four, as well as her enemies through her initiation into Dauntless.
The movie and the book were similar in many ways, the movie had the all the main characters pretty much the same. The initiation was carried out in pretty much the same way also. The first part was physical, and they had to fight the other initiates, then the second part was mental and learning how to control your fears, this part was also pretty accurate. Another part that was the same in both the movie and the book was the capture the flag game that the initiates played. Although a couple parts were different, Tris still decides to climb the Ferris wheel so she can get a better view of everything and ends up finding the flag. This is also where Four confesses his fear of heights.
One thing that was different between the movie and the book was that the movie never showed Al's crush on Tris. Knowing that Al liked Tris made it more clear why he jumped into the chasm after she said she would never forgive him for what he did. In the movie it just kind of looked like he was a random guy who tried to kill her then begged for her to forgive him. I think it would have made more sense if they would have shown that Al liked her.
Another difference between the book and the movie was when Tris and Four went through Fours fear landscape. In the book it was kind of a way to show Tris what it would be like, and a way Four could show her that he trusted her. In the movie Four took her into his fear landscape to teach her how a Dauntless would react to different situations so the Dauntless leaders wouldn't find out that she was Divergent.
Although there were some differences between the book and the movie, I think they did a pretty good job getting everything important into the movie. There were some differences, but if they would have put everything into the movie if would have been about five hours long. I think both the book and the movie were really good, and I can't wait to read the rest of the series.

You shouldn't critique others

Haley Monsebroten

English 10

Miss Fordahl

February 18, 2014

There were many life lessons that could be learned from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. My favorite is that you shouldn’t critique others.

There always has been and probably always will be criticism in the world. People will always judge people on what they have or don’t have, the way they look, or the way they act. Nick states in the beginning of the book that his father taught him to reserve judgement for others that are less fortunate than himself.

The ability to reserve judgement for people is one of the greatest things you can do. You should not judge others until you have walked a mile in their shoes, you have no idea what they have gone through, or what they are going through. People also should not be judged on how they look, dress, or how much money they have, they should be judged on how they are as a person.

Nicks open mindedness allowed him to see what kind of a man Gatsby really was. He saw him as how he was as a person instead of how others saw him as a mysterious man who more than likely got all his money illegally. In the end, Nicks ability to see Gatsbys true personality was the only thing that kept his memory alive. After his death, Gatsby was blamed with murder, adultery, and bootlegging, and nobody cared about him enough to say it wasn’t true except Nick.  

 I believe the ability to see past what somebody looks like, and how much money they have and actually see somebodys true personality is one of the best qualities a person could possess. Most people think that having money and being popular is what life is all about, but when it boils down to it, none of that matters to the people who actually care about you. They see you for who you are, not what you have, and that is the most important thing in life.