Good Literature vs Good Stories

okay so i had a conversation with my boss about books and it got me thinking..what defines a great writer. Shakespeare was obviously a fantastic writer. However, I dont enjoy reading his plays. this also applies to many of the other novels we are FORCED to read for school. yes they are well written, yet the story is bland. i find myself way more drawn into books that are not written as well, but have a MUCH better plot. so which books are worth reading more? do we learn anything from "true" literature? or is a book simply just a book? merely something to be read and enjoyed.

OUR People

okay so i read this book over christmas break, as i was sick, and in the novel a 12 year old girl was living w/ her 17 year old brother in a crappy apartment barely having enough money to get by. they didnt want to be split apart after their mother died so they ran away. for months they traveled across the u.s to get to ft worth so that they could find her brothers father and maybe live w/ him. so my question is this...how come, after all the places they lived and the people they met, how come no one tried to help them. Why is it that their teachers, neighbors, preacher, and friends didnt try to do something to help them and give them a safe home? why didnt the waitress at the cafe the girl frequented try to do something? how come they had to travel across many states to get to Texas before anyone tried to help them for reasons other than their own personal gain? is our society really so selfish that someone cant help two children?
also in the novel, three kids, two brothers and a sister, (the oldest bein in 3rd grade) didnt go to school, their mother kicked them to the streets all day until it was night, and the only food they got was what they found out of a dumpster. How come no one did anything to help them either. Many people, myself included, dont want to help poor families that rely on the government for support and just sit on their butts all day or have sex w/ whoever their current boyfriend/girlfriend is. However, this got me thinking, we want to break a pattern of lazy people, yet we do nothing to help break that pattern. instead of complaining about the poor, how about WE teach their kids the importance of hardwork. if the parents wont do it, we must. we should not only look out for our own kids, but the kids of those who refuse to look out for them and protect them. i'm tired of seeing parents and their lovers murder a child. i'm sick of the stories about kids being murdered by another gang. lets get them out of the ghettos. lets show them a way of life that is far better than their own. lets quit giving jobs to people who are not from our country, who take jobs away from OUR citizens and give them to the 16 year old kids who need money to help support themselves when their own parents wont do it. If the parents wont teach them, WE should. We want to make a difference in our country, we want it to be strong and good again, well lets invest in something other than trees and animals. lets invest it in our people.

Is it Time to Grow Up?

so the last book of the series i'm reading by Lisa Wingate is called The Language of Sycamores. In the novel Karen, the main character, continually looks back at when she was younger and still innocent. She had dreams and hopes and still saw the world as a good place. However, as she got older, she became cynical and her days became monotonous. She was at constant compitition with her sister.
In today's society, adults can't seem to get kids to grow up fast enough. In Junior High priciples are trying to get us to already find a career and plan for college. Parents (and this is most disturbing) are pushing their young daughters to dress like a whore so they can be popular. Sons are being pushed to be the best at sports and be considered a star by the age of 10. Most of us didn't know or care about sex until junior high. now, i know 4th graders who know as much as I do about sex...and i'm a SENIOR! So when should we grow up? Is innocence and youth so outdated? And if it's not....what can WE do to change things back to how they are supposed to be? I have a 5 year old brother and it worries me about the society that he is living in. Some of the kids he goes to school with have mothers who are barely 20. I can name 5 girls right now who are pregnant teens. How did our society get here? I don't know about you, but I don't want not just my kids, but anyone's kids to continue to grow up in a society such as this. I want to get them back to youth and to stop forcing them to be as knowledgable about work, sex, stress, and death as I am...when I'm ten years older then them. So, are we going to bring a change to the future, or are we going to continue to let this injustice to children continue? And if we want change...what can we do to bring it about?...in fact, CAN WE?

Humbled Nose

A little more on Good Hope Road. The story was told in two points of view...a girl about 21 and an old woman in her 60's. The girl was always thought to be white trash and the old woman was one of those women who was part of the garden party. She snubbed her nose at the lower class and gossiped about everyone. However, a tornedo hits the town and the little white trash girl saves her life and the town drunk helps her with her memory (she's starting to forget things). She starts to realize that they are both good people. The girl was misjudged by people and never given a chance. The drunk was a good man who just had alot of crummy luck and missed his wife. Furthermore, when the girl's mother was dying of cancer he was the only one in the entire town who would bring them milk, eggs, and vegetables and ask about the family. So it made me start to think, do we misjudge those who APPEAR to be beneath us because they have less money or because of who their family is? I have often times been humbled by these revelations as i get to know certain people. However, we often find that trash is just that, trash. Often times people are considered trash because they are crude, low mannered, and drink all the time. But most of society does that anyway. Maybe they drink more expensive alcohol and go to night clubs rather than bars, but aren't the upper class doing the same thing as the lower class, everything is just more expensive? So i wonder, what makes the difference between "just having fun" and being trash? Are we really so superior? I think we have alot of gawl to snub our noses at people when we are guilty of the same crimes. Can you say "Hypocrite"?

Struggles

So, I'm reading this book from a great series by Lisa Wingate. It's called Good Hope Road. Anyway, on the first page the girl talks about a butterfly on her windowsill trying to emerge out of its caccoon. She thinks its so sad that it has struggled for hours and yet it has only gotten two legs out. However she later goes on to talk about how the butterfly must endure that because it's body is swollen and fat and there is no blood in its wings. Its struggle to get out is how it survives. If it didnt struggle the blood would not go to its wings so then it couldnt fly, so therefore it would quickly die. So my question is this...Often times in our life we go through struggles that seem never ending, all to reach a goal. Is the struggle worth the reward? And would we as a people not survive in the "real world" if we do not go through hard times as teenagers, when we are merely PREPARING for the "real world"?

Self-Esteem or Ego?

okay, so I'm reading this book called a Seperate Peace. The guy....we'll call him...Dan. anyway he has a best friend named Phineas who is crazy athletic and popular. However, he is also a really great guy. Anyway Dan gets it into his head that Phineas is trying to make him (dan) fail his class so that he (Phineas) can be more accomplished. Later on Dan finds out that that wasn't Phineas' intention at all. He just wanted to hang out w/ him (dan) b/c he was his best friend. So my question is....Do we create silent competitions w/ someone b/c we think they want to be better than us and we're trying to boost our self esteem? Or, do we create silent competitions w/ someone b/c we think we are just that awesome that someone would Want to Try to be better than us? Is it our self-esteem or ego?

Did Evil Posses?

In Macbeth, Lady Macbeth starts saying crazy stuff. She even goes to say she would kill a baby. Furthermore, she frames two innocent men for murder, and volunteers to go back into the dead king's room to plant the evidence. Death seems to have no effect on her. Previously she gave herself to evil and asked it to consume her. Has evil already consumed her? or is she simply doing whatever it took to get what she wanted?

Also, Macbeth asks for the ability to murder and not feel remorse. However, daggers soon start appearing in his mind. It was at this point that Macbeth realized murder was not only in his mind...it was festering. Was God trying to save Macbeth from murdering? Or was Macbeth simply starting to lose his mind?