Non-Fiction Critical Analysis

 The Platypus Is Cute But Far From Harmless by Henry Fountain

The article The Platypus is Cute But Far From Harmless by Henry Fountain from the New York Times Science Times, is about how dangerous platypi can really be to other predators. Many people thick they are harmless because they are so charming and likable. Henry Fountain interviewed an expert to tell us more, and wrote the article to inform us on how threatening these lovable mammals are. He interviewed experts to show that this issue is the legit. For example, “Dr. Maturin states ‘A platypus is among the few mammals that produce venom.” This example shows that Dr. Maturin nows what he is talking about and that Fountain knows what he is writing.

Interviewing experts makes it seem real and more reliable then just researching things on the internet. That is why he interviewed Dr. Maturin. Dr. Maturin also stated, “That a new study shows that [because of the venom] they can be [more] harmful to predators [than we thought].”
“… That can produce venom (only the males can produce the venom). That same study also proved “that is more harmful because we didn’t know what chemicals were in the venom. The chemicals in the venom are very toxic. Another study is trying to show what is really in the toxic chemicals that make it so painful. For example, “Using high-performance liquid chromatography and other techniques, Masaki Kita of the University of Tsukuba, Daisuke Uemura of the Nagoya University and colleagues analyzed venom samples and identified about a dozen peptides, small chains of amino acids that are the building blocks of proteins.” Experts and people studying to become experts in an area, know what they are genuinely talking about which is why they are so reliable.

I think this article was helpful in answering questions about the unknown venoms in this incredible animals. And it informs the reader about how harmful these cute mammals are. And most importantly that we need to protect these animals since they currently only found in Australia, and are or is on the verge of going extinct. But for me it raised more questions than answers like: why don’t females have the venom? How will the females [in that case] protect themselves? How do they produce it? Where is it stored? Maybe other studies and articles and experts can tell me more.
 

Blog Post on Independent Reading Book

 The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot

The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot, is about an ordinary girl who lives in New York and goes to school and isn’t exactly popular, but one thing happens that flips her world upside down, and changes everything. Her father comes to town with some news about his country Genovia. It turns out Mia’s father is the Prince of Genovia [which Mia never knew], which means Mia is Princess of Genovia, when her father is ready to give up the thrown. Her father had cancer, and they got rid of it, but when it came back, her decided to tell Mia, since he realized his time is short. Even though her life got turned upside down, and she changed in many ways, she still kept a bad habit; lying.

First, [before Mia life changes] she lies to her mother and her close friends, just out of habit. For example, she lies to her mother about her feelings for multiple things. One, her feelings about her relationship with her father [since they aren’t married], second, about her feelings about her friends, and thirdly, about her mother dating her algebra. Mia is currently failing algebra. Her mother then tells her to write down her feelings in a journal. Clearly, I think Mia has trust issues with her mother, and with people she is close to.

Also, Mia lies to her best friend about a couple things. Mia lied to her best friend Lily, who she has known since kindergarten, about her feelings about her mom dating her algebra teacher. In addition, Mia lied about her liking Lily’s older brother Michel, because Lily thinks it would be so weird if Mia and Michel dated, since Mia was friends with Lily first. Lastly, Mia lied about the secret that turned her life around. Mia didn’t tell anyone, but when the press found out, and Lily found out she wasn’t one of the first people to know, she got really mad at Mia. For a while it was hard for Lily to forgive Mia, since she lies all the time. Lily wants Mia to stop lying, because if she doesn’t stop she is just going to keep doing it. 

In conclusion, I think Mia lies to people is because she is scared to deal with the reaction of the people who find out the truth. But when she does she their reaction she keeps not telling them, because she still doesn’t want to deal with the consequences. But she keeps doing it, and it because a bad habit, that keeps going around and around like a cycle that never ends, because she is scared to break it, and deal with the truth, whether or not the truth will hurt people, Mia needs to learn who to tell the truth the first time, and break her bad habit.

An Old Blog Post Turned Into A Literary Essay

  Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Vanleer

The book Between the Lines by Jodi Picoult and Samantha Vanleer, involves a girl who is a very introverted 15 year-old girl, Delilah, who finds a magical book. The characters in the book are living, and Delilah has a connection with the main character Oliver who is a prince in the book. Oliver is part of a fairytale, and she is a real person in real life, and something magical happens when their worlds collide. The book has three different perspective, with each perspective, it gives you a deeper look into the characters to get to know them better. Also, Between the Lines has characteristic magical realism.

There are three perspectives written in this book. One is Delilah’s perspective, the other is Oliver’s, and the other is the fairytale that Oliver lives in as Delilah reads it. Having different perspectives is a literary device that helps the reader really apprehend the characters, the plot, and how the characters feel. For example, when Delilah discovers some sort of love connection between them, he doesn’t tell Oliver, but you know, because she thinks about it all the time. Also, the fact that Oliver is in a book, he feels that it is a bit weird, but she never tells this either. She never talks about how she feels since she is introspective. In addition, she only has one friends Jules, who isn’t that great about talking about feelings. Oliver’s perspective is really interesting because even though he is fictional character in a book, he is still a living being, and has emotions. He talks about his feelings and emotions, in his world, in his fairytale life. For example, he talks to his best friend who is a dog on the beach, in his book. The third perspective helps because it is a neutral setting. Even though it is Oliver’s world, his thoughts are only written on the page of his fairytale book [nothing about his feelings about Delilah]. And there is nothing about Delilah mention. It helps because even though it seems like there isn’t a perspective, there is because it is the readers. Clearly, the different perspectives help comprehend the story and help analyze the characters.

Magical realism, is when there is something magical happening with realistic characters. For example, Delilah is realistic person in the book [Between the Lines] but Oliver is a person in a fairytale. The magical part is that Oliver is alive, and that they meet, and have a love connection. Truthfully, that isn’t realistic, but it is books. The magical realism about these two people/characters in the book, help make the book unique. For example, when Delilah takes out a children’s book from the library, she would’ve never known the characters are alive if it weren’t for their odd love connection when she admires how heroic Olivier is portrayed. Magical realism is a literary device that is quite common, but most of the time the lives of two people’s worlds don’t meet the way they do in this book.

In conclusion, there are many distinctive literary devices used to help bring Oliver to life to Delilah, and help bring Delilah to life for the reader. A tangible feeling for the two of them is love, they describe it as though they feel it, like when Delilah holds the fairytale, she feels the love connection between them grow, and when they’re apart, she feels the connection weaken. The perspectives may perplex one, only in the way that you are reading a book about a girl reading a book that comes to life. An idea in the perspective’s of the characters is the concept of knowing if something is real. Delilah confides in Oliver how her life may not be real, [when Oliver said his isn’t] which is true to the reader, but to Delilah its real. The mystifying parts of book are explained with literary devices, even though there are some mysteries in the book, but sometimes that can be a good thing.