Alyssa's English Blog

 The two most important elements of a story are the characters and the plot. I wanted to like  The Sun Also Rises,  but to be honest, I didn't like the story nor the characters in it. Almost all of the characters got on my nerves in some manner. The novel centered around Jake, Brett, Cohn, and a few of their friends. There was little to no growth in them, even by the end of the story. Jake was annoying because he was insecure and tended to take it out on others by being bitter with them. He especially bullied Cohn for his weaknesses, and hypocritically mocked him for his attachment to women. It would have been better if he had been able to make some kind of change for his character to grow. Jake also spent the entirety of the story emotionally tied to Brett, with whom he had a very complex relationship. Even though he should have seen that she wasn't an option for him, nor was she even really interested in him romantically, he continued to follow her around. His char...

The Plague shares many parallels with what we have experienced and are currently experiencing in 2020. Just like in the novel, many of us started out believing that nothing substantial was going to happen to us. Initially, we thought it unlikely that the epidemic would reach the US. Some people refused to change their ways in order to avoid being inconvenienced, thinking it was unnecessary. Even now, many people, especially young people, do not believe that Covid is a serious issue. They believe that it is highly unlikely that they would contract it, and if they did, that it would not be a big deal, despite the hundreds of thousands of people who have gotten sick and died. Likewise, the people of Ouran started out thinking that nothing was going to happen to them. They ignored the early signs of the rats and many tried to continue going about the routines of their daily lives. They wanted to go to work, to church, to cafes, and to the store just like we did. Unlike the novel, where the...