Theme of "An Abundance of Katherines"

After finishing my second consecutive John Green book, An Abundance of Katherines, I am enthusiastic to say that Green's writing does not disappoint. From my last post, a lot of major events happen. For one, Hassan gets cheated on by his trendy girlfriend by someone whom I am not going to name to prevent a spoiler. End the end however, Colin finally comes to the conclusion that the future is going to happen no matter what efforts you go through to stop it. He realizes that the past can build up to events in the future, he realizes that these events can have nothing to do with events in the future, he realizes that he needs to let his life go and start reinventing a new self.

In our society today, we are often so focused on our futures that we don't concentrate on the present. Teenagers, like Colin, Lindsey, and Hassan, are so focused on their futures at college, in love, and on their career that they don't self reflect enough to reinvent themselves into people can easily achieve these goals while savoring the present.

One of my favorite quotes from the last chapter of this book is: "And when Hassan turned over his full house, Colin all of the sudden realized: you can make a Theorem that explains why you won or lost past poker hands, but you can never make on to predict future poker hands," (Green 389).

This is one of my favorite quotes because this is the big moment when Colin realizes that he will never be able to predict how long his relationships are going to last.

We can apply this to our lives, too. Instead of spending our time being infatuated with the future, focus on the present and the small things that you can do to get you to this goal.

http://johngreenbooks.com/abundance-of-katherines/

This link is a review of An Abundance of Katherines done by several people. This way, you can see what other people also think about the book.

Character Development throughout "An Abundance of Katherines"

Currently in An Abundance of Katherines, Colin and his best friend, Hassan, went on a hog hunt for the hated Feral Hog. While running through the woods, the boys get tired and decide to relax for a while. Unexpectedly, they are charged by a massive beast: the Feral Hog. Colin shoots at the monster and scares it away without harming it. During the process of shooting at the hog, Collin took down a wasps nest. They run away from the angry insects as quickly as possible but still manage to get stung several times. Colin leads them out of the woods and back to the store, where Hassan finds his girlfriend cheating on him. Devastated, Hassan runs toward the cheating scandal at the end of the chapter.

At the beginning of the book, I wasn't too impressed with the main character, Colin. I thought he was overly-obsessive and egocentric. As Colin meets more characters throughout the book, he starts to become more open minded. Colin was very socially awkward and attention seeking. But now he is turning into a less awkward person, with the help of Lindsey and Hassan. Although he still continues to work on his love formula, he learns to learn more about himself and love. I hope to see him change even more as I continue reading.

My favorite line from my chapter was "By slowly, things returned to status quo: Lindsey had a boyfriend, and Colin had a broken heart and a Theorem to finish," (Green 288). This is my favorite quote because it is so relatable; we all have those times when things happen but eventually turn back to normal.

http://www.goodreads.com/quotes/tag/an-abundance-of-katherines

The link shows quotes from An Abundance of Katherines that represent some key themes in the book.

How Society Affected Collin in "An Abundance of Katherines"

Society: where people come together to form a community. Now-a-days, society is more of a place where one's opinions and views are altered to "fit in" and be "normal. We have all witnessed this; the most common, someone being called weird for believing something different. The worst part is that none of us realize that this is happening. Society plays a huge role in "An Abundance of Katherines". 

Collin, the main character, is so obsessed with love, he can hardly do anything else besides try to create a theorem of why none of his relationships have worked out. Collin, being the ex-child prodigy that he is, tries to write and rewrite a literal equation and formula to describe the heartaches and misfortunes in his love life. In our world today, love is emphasized as the most important aspect in someone's life. The older you get, the more serious your partner and you should become in a relationship. Collin is so infatuated by this that he is oblivious to half of the world around him. He doesn't make friends easily and doesn't know how to understand sarcasm. If Collin were to stop being so preoccupied by his theory, he could become a much more likable person and would probably find it easier to get a girlfriend if he possessed these traits. 

http://temple-news.com/living/coupling-becomes-obsession-in-society/

The column above is another viewpoint on our society's obsession with love and marriage.

Predictions for "An Abundance of Katherines"

After finishing The Fault in Our Stars, I decided to continue my trend by reading another John Green book. With high hopes, I started An Abundance of Katherines. This book is about Colin, a ex-child prodigy who just graduated high school. On the same day of his graduation, Colin was dumped by his girlfriend, Katherine. This was the 19th consecutive Katherine Colin had dated since the third grade; all of them had dumped him and left him broken hearted. Colin decides to go on a road trip with his best friend, Hassan, to try to get his mind off the break up. They drive for about 12 hours south of Chicago when they end up in a small Tennessee town, Gutshot. They meet Lindsey, a worker at a local convenience shop. They get a job with Lindsey's mother, who knows Colin from a show he participated on when he was a child prodigy. While in Gutshot, Colin tries to figure out the purpose of his life, knowledge, and love through logic. He creates equations and diagrams to try to help him solve these problems in his life.

As I continue to read this book, I predict that Colin will end up really liking Lindsey. Based on their flirty interactions, I believe that Colin already likes her but just doesn't want to admit it to himself because he consumed in the fact that the perfect girl for him will be named Katherine. I also predict that Hassan will also start to fall for Lindsey, causing problems in Colin and Hassan's friendship. As well as conflict between Colin and Hassan, I think Lindsey's boyfriend, Colin (not the main character, another Colin), will also get involved in the competition for Lindsey. I'm excited to see how the see how the next events in the book compare to my predictions and how they escalate.

http://www.teenreads.com/reviews/an-abundance-of-katherines

The link above is a review of this book.

Krista Ramsey Research

"Locking into the magic of Legos", one of Krista's columns, is about the importance of Lego's, and toys in general, in a childhood. Not only do Lego's provide a good time, but they also help the child learn important life skills, such as the reward to building something.

http://www.cincinnati.com/story/opinion/columnists/krista-ramsey/2014/02/15/krista-locking-into-the-magic-of-legos/5521245/

"Like sparklers and hugs, Legos are things a child can never have enough of. Wise parents not only understand this, but support their child's Lego habit, sometimes to the tune of hundreds or thousands of dollars over the course of a childhood. Really smart parents know better than to total it up." This little paragraph is my favorite part of the column, not only for its relaxed tone, but also the relatable humor. Being a former Lego-lover myself, my parents and I know the const of Legos and the excessive amount the child "NEEDS" to have. The diction in this entire article is elevated, benefitting the witty mood the author possess. Krista starts this small saying by using a medium sentence, then transitions to a long and involved sentence, finally ending the paragraph with another medium sentence. The writer writes in a very informal and relaxed way throughout the entire article.

Questions
1. Where do you get your topics to write about?
2. What qualifications did you have to get to become a journalist?
3. What kind of background information do you have to research before writing a column?

"The Fault in Our Stars" Book Review

After finishing The Fault in Our Stars, I have come to one conclusion: this is one of the best books I have ever read. This novel is an emotional rollarcoaster of a story that is amazingly written. The book takes place in modern day Indianna, with a terminal cancer pacient, Hazel. Hazel's caring (maybe a little too-caring) mother forces Hazel to go to weekly support group, where a cancer survivor attemps to inspire the viewers of the meeting. Hazel hates going to these sessions but she attends anyway to preserve her mom's feelings. At one of the support group meetings, she meets Augustus, a 17 year-old cancer survivor who seems to enjoy Hazel's presence. As the two become friends, they spend a lot of time together and Hazel introduces Augustus to a book in which they both share a common love for, Imperial Affliction. Hazel and Augustus end up getting Augustus' Wish (Wish Foundation) granted and go to Amsterdan to meet the author of the book. After having a nice dinner together and meeting the disappointment of the author, Hazel and Augustus travel back to Indianna with upsetting news. The two spend as much time together as possible. In the end, true love is described as the common feeling between the lovers.

John Green, the author, is very witty and his writing style also obtains this quality. Since the book is written in Hazel's point of view, John writes her voice as very sarcastic and intelligent, to a point where it's as if she knows everything. The intended audience of this book could be anyone. Even though it is necessarily a "love story", the hilarious novel could appeal to any audience that reads it. John Green is a fantastic author and this book is definitely a five star book.

Why the John Green Wrote "A Fault in Our Stars"

Along with Fahrenheit 451, I have also been reading A Fault in Our Stars, which is now one of my favorite books. A Fault in Our Stars is about a girl, Hazel, who has thyroid cancer and dysfunctional lungs. She meets a boy, Augustus, at a support group she goes to and becomes very fond of him. Like Hazel, Augustus also had cancer but had been cured. The feelings happen to be mutual and together, they venture to Amsterdam to meet the author of their favorite book. After meeting the author, who turns out to be a total jerk, the two site-see different places for a while. While site-seeing, Hazel notices how uncomfortable Augustus looks doing basic and easy activities, such as walking and climbing stairs. When they get back to the small hotel, Augustus reveals that he had a reoccurrence of the cancer, except this time it was all over his body. I am now reading the part where Augustus is in a new trial for some medicines, hoping to cure his cancer.

While reading this book, I often wonder why John Green chose to write about such a sad, frightening topic. Has he had experience with cancer himself? Did someone he love have cancer? How did he know the feelings these teenagers were going through? The book is written entirely in Hazel's perspective and her witty thoughts and comments would have made me believe that the book was in-fact written by a teenager going through these problems herself. After some research, however, I learned that John Green did know a teenage girl going through this situation who totally changed his view on cancer, sickness, and death. Before meeting Esther Earl, cancer victim who was close with John, he had been struggling with writing this book. After meeting Esther, he got many new ideas and views on cancer and death.