Peer Response #2

The City of Ember

(Aleksandra's Blog)

                Even though I have never read the book "The City of Ember" before I felt like I had after reading this novel study. Everything was very detailed and descriptive. It made me feel like I was reading the book, but at a different angle. I liked the way that you had added enough content to describe the novel perfectly, but rarely ever got off topic and that's a very difficult balance to uphold. However you did manage to do just that. Sometimes you did get a little off topic, but it is understandable by the amount of content that you had. Speaking of content, I can tell that you put a lot of work into this and you didn't finish this in a couple of days. The amount of content is actually quite astounding and the amount of focus that you put into each and every single post is as well.

                Another point that I really liked (this is beginning to sound a little biased, but  assure you it isn't) is the way you analyzed the plot and the characters. You really found a deep meaning for each and every aspect of the story, and found why each character was important. I believe that that is a very important part of understanding the characters as, knowing why they exist is crucial to understanding anything else. You did the same thing with the plot analysis as you extracted the key moments of the plot and truly found their importance.

                The main reason for this assignment was to identify the dystopian society in the novel. I feel that you did this quite well, especially because the problems of this dystopia are not as apparent as a book like "Uglies". You really had to work hard to fully analyze the dystopia of the city. Even though there were some immediately obvious points, there were also some very hidden ones and those were the important ones. By reading your blog I can tell that you have successfully uncovered the truths of this society and that is why I truly believe that your blog is a very good one.

Happy Blogging :)

Peer Response #1

Peer Response

Beauty Is In the Eye of the Beholder

(Avel Ivanov)

                This is blog is interesting one to read. I really enjoyed reading it and some of the points were really intriguing. I especially thought that your view on true beauty was very interesting. How you explained that beauty is not a set thing and that everyone has their own way of being beautiful and not everyone's beauty is the same was very well done and I truly enjoyed reading it.  I found your pictures very interesting as well. They all had a deeper meaning than what they appeared to be, just like many aspects of this book. They brought many aspects of the true moral of the story to life. I especially liked the picture of "New Pretty Town" in the bird cage because that is how the citizens of New Pretty Town were. They were trapped in their own pretty minded world unaware of all that was happening around them.

Your writing was also conventionally sound as I did not find any major mistakes in your writing, and there were very view spelling or grammer errors and the ones that were there you fixed. You obviously put a lot of work into this blog and I commend you for that. Good job :)

Glossary

Bubbly- adj. This term is used in Uglies to describe the sense of adrenaline experienced by Uglies after doing "tricks" or other acts of breaking the rules.  E.g. "That was an awesome trick! I'm feeling so bubbly right now!"

Pretty Making - This term is used whenever a socially acceptable thing is done by a Pretty. This expression often has to do with cosmetic changes that a Pretty receives. E.g. "Wow that tattoo is totally Pretty Making"

Rusty - A word that refers to the humans of the old age, before the operation was invented. These humans were very destructive and were the benchmark of what not to do in society. A Rusty is just one human however when the word "Rusties" was used, it was often used to describe the entire Rusty society. E.g. The Ruins are full of Rusty machines of destruction"

The Smoke - A small town established by a couple of runaway Pretties, that oppose the government and the operation. The Smoke was later destroyed by Specials, but they soon rebounded and created "The New Smoke". E.g. "I don't want to be Pretty! I'm going to The Smoke"

Specials - Group of highly trained Pretties, that act as police and enforce crime. They have a distinct intimidating face to scare all of their victims. The Specials were the ones behind the burning of The Smoke.
E.g. "The Specials destroyed the Old Smoke, but now the Smokies have set-up a place called The New Smoke!