I finished the book Ways to Live Forever by Sally Nicholls. Throughout the story the main character Sam goes through a lot of character change. At first he seems kind of impatient and at sometimes rude but he becomes more appreciative and understanding.
When I first began the book, Sam came off as someone who is hard to be around a lot. For example: in the book it says "What's the point of being ill if you still have to do math?" This makes me think that Sam sometimes uses the fact he has leukemia to get things that he wants from people. It also makes me think he complains a lot. Not that it's a bad thing. I know if I had leukemia I'd be complaining a lot. It must be hard living with a condition as drastic as that when you are only 11 and you don't really understand how to handle certain situations on your own. Another example is when he and his 13 year old friend Felix are talking about why God would give them cancer and then he says "What does having cancer teach us?" This makes me think he's not looking at the bigger picture. It could teach how to be thankful as well as teaching how to stay strong and calm in certain situations in life even when things get bad.
By the end of the book, Sam changes a lot. He learns to be sort of a "better person".For example, he made a list of things he wanted to do and on that list it said "go up into a spaceship and see the planet Earth from space." This was obviously a near impossible task, so he climbed a tree and saw the moon. he says " And I know what I did wasn't the same as seeing the earth from space- it wasn't what I'd wanted, when I wrote it- but that's ok. It was the feeling I'd wanted and I'd got that." This shows he now has a completely different mindset. He has definetly grown as a person a lot. Also by this time, he has stopped taking chemotherapy, and he knows he won't have very much longer to live. I think he feels that's ok because he has accomplished something he wanted to do. The feeling of accomplishment made him feel kind of better about this situation.
It's nice to know that Sam grows so much as a person by the end. It also makes me realize that we as people sometimes act the same way Sam does in the beginning of the book, only we have a better life than he does. We sometimes don't realize that we have a lot and are really fortunate to not have a life-threatening disease like cancer. Which we should appreciate. I think we should all be like Sam is at the end of the book- being happy for what we have.
I think your blog post is great i also agree with you in the first paragraph i would also take advantage of having cancer if i had it but i think he's just taking advantage of having a sickness like you said "you are only 11 and you don't really understand how to handle certain situations on your own." sometimes something drastic as cancer can change a person mentally and physically. and you posted this on my bithday!!! (｡◕‿◕｡) ☜(⌒▽⌒)☞
ReplyDeleteReally good! I like how you talk about what you and Sam in common/ how you relate to him. I like how you talk about how the character changed over the book with a lot of example which helps me understand the character better, even though I've never read this book. You talk about "the big picture" and many different themes, which I think helps sum up the book.a
ReplyDeleteGood job Kim! I agree with Carolina. If I ever had cancer, I would also probably take advantage of it. But yet, I believe that if you want to grow as a person, you have to do some things on your own. Sam can't just rely on leukemia, to help him get through not completing things in life. One day, he will get better and will have to be on his own. Cancer isn't something that you can depend on, to get you out of things. You have to grow as a human being and realize yourself that you can't use something so serious as an excuse. In your last paragraph, I really liked how you related to Sam.I really likes how you talked about how we have a lot, and don't have to go through what Sam does.
ReplyDeleteKimberlee-- I think you did a good job with expressing the emotion hidden under Sams true personality. Since I read the book, I understand more, the point you are trying to get across. i think you did a good job with connecting Sams feelings and you did good with connecting how he feels to how you think you would feel if you were in Sam's position with leukemia. Also, I really like the last sentence and I agree with it. Good job!!
ReplyDeleteKimberlee, I think this was a great blog post! I loved how you were objective about Sam's attitude even though he had leukemia. I think this is a problem for most people struggling with any life-threatening disease in the real world, in the way they treat people, and the way they expect people to treat them. Since I haven't read the book, do you think Sam treats people differently because of his disease, or does he just get what he wants out of people because of it?
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