How Is Will like me???

So, how is Will like me???? That's a pretty hard question, so I'll start with background and work my way through it. We had our first Literature Circle Discussion with the novel The White Mountains, on February 2nd, 2010(yesterday). I learned a lot about the different views of the text from my group. Some made many different inferences that I would've never thought of before like Sahi who interpreted that Ozymandias had a twin brother who mastered the Tripods and that's why Ozymandias was helping Will, to help save the world. This brought me to think, that maybe Will would help save the Capped (imprisoned) men and some women. It also brings me to wonder if somebody could be mastering the Tripods, and the master of the Tripods ran down from generation to generation, and the food they cultivated went to the rich family who mastered the Tripods. I think it'd be from generation to generation, because nobody could live for thousands of years(Ozymandias says that the Tripods have been ruling for thousands of years on page). This just goes to show, how from a single perspective you can draw many conclusions.

It's from my group that I heard and drew their many perspectives of Will's traits. I'll share them with you in this paragraph, with examples from the text of course! Will is disobedient, because he talked with Ozymandias even when his father told him not to talk with him for fear that the Vagrant would over influence Will. In many ways, Will is a free thinker, he thinks differently, thinks for himself and acts by himself, you can see this because he's not pushed into peer pressure. He chose by himself that he'd go to the White Mountains, he doesn't act differently towards Vagrants and he doesn't want to be capped unlike all the other boys. Will is naïve compared to us today, this isn't his fault because under the shadow of the Tripods many of the people in Wherton are naïve. This author brings the naïvety to our attention when Will doesn't know that LectCity could be electricity and doesn't know about volts, our unit of measurement for electricity. Will in a few ways is rather intelligent, compared to the villagers and knows about the Black Age because of Jack's impact on him, so he knows about the time of starvation, war and unhappiness, which is in fact not very different from our time in various places around the world! Will used to think that the Tripods saved them, but doesn't think this way anymore because the Tripods were hiding them from man-made objects that they were very capable of doing without them. The Tripods do this because they fear that they'll revolt thinking that they're capable of establishing their own lives. He knows about the White Mountains because of Ozymandias's impression on him. He knows it's a place where men and women can be free and live their own lives without being overshadowed and capped. Will was very friendly because he interacted with Vagrants despite the thoughts of the community. He's also independent because he makes his choices without help; like his choice to go to the White Mountains, and he doesn't rely on his parents a lot like we sometimes do for money and nearly everything! Finally, Will is a risk-taker, you see this because he took a risk by taking the very valuable Watch out to show to Jack, even with the risk of damage. He also took the risk of deciding to go to the White Mountains despite the dangers, labor and our everyday issues that he might face. This is all very overwhelming and I don't think Will is prepared for it, at all!

Now we know about Wills good and bad traits. Now I can connect them with myself. I know that I can be disobedient. Every kid thinks that they're right and their parents aren't, well at least I do! I admit that I make some mistakes and mess up a lot. When my parents want me to go to bed, I waste time or I do something else, like read. So I know that Will and I connect in that sense. Imaginary Check mark! I am a free thinker in a few ways, I don't do peer pressure (at least I think I don't) and I am individually myself and not anybody else, I might want to be somebody else but I can't change! I'm still that girl who laughs at the wrong times, but that's OK! I don't think I'm very naive, I know all I need to know about for now! Crossing that one off the list! In many ways I am pretty intelligent (you need to know that I'm trying really hard not to make it seem like I'm bragging!). I'll just put a double check on that one for now! I am friendly, I try to make new friends, I'm a peer helper so I made a few new friends with the new students, so in a sense I am pretty friendly but depend on really close friends for laughs and smiles! Independent....that is difficult, I am independent in a few things, like schoolwork, I like occasional group work to improve on collaboration skills, but there are many things I am dependent on my parents for, like food, a home, school and money, but it's the same for everyone, right? I don't qualify myself as a risk-taker, but I take risks, like on scary rides I push myself to do things, the DNA Mixer etc. I figure sometimes, you have to take risks to actually live your life to the limit. There was a really big slide at Luna Park and my brother, always the risk-taker went on it and my sister was below height, so she went on the smaller, but still pretty big slides. My brother went on it, so I figured I should be brave too! I bet you think, I enjoyed myself in the end, well think again!!! It was the most frightening experience ever, especially because you were in a sack and you had to push yourself off the edge of the slide and it really freaked me out. I took risks then, and I guess I still do. It's half and half on that one.

Thanks for going with me through this journey and finding out how Will is like me.

Kindly take your baggage and leave through the nearest exits!

Xie Xie!

Merci!

Gracias!

(Thank You in Mandarin, French and Spanish!)

:D