A Million Little Pieces #3

On Roy’s final night in the program, James decides it is time for him to give up and plans on leaving that night. He even returns the few pieces of clothing he has borrowed from others along with notes of thanks. He sits down to dinner with Leonard, the older man who just won’t seem to leave him alone, to eat his final meal. Leonard says one day James will get tired of being a jerk and talk to him and that he is going to keep sitting with him until he does but James just laughs in his face and walks away. James then sits through the lecture thinking how glad he is that it will be the last one. As he walks out the door he hears someone coming after him and turns. Its Leonard. He asks;

Where you going?
A hand on my shoulder. I push it off.
Stop for a second, Kid.
A hand on my shoulder. I push it off. Hands on both my shoulders. Stronger than I expected. They stop me and they turn me around.(105)

James finally agrees to stay for 24 more hours. The next day Leonard tells James his story and the fact that he confided in him and believes in him subconsciously convinces James to give it one more shot. When his 24 hours are up, he doesnt leave. When a people reach out so help someone, they often just give up after one denial and say they did the best they could when really, all they need is one more push in the right direction. If everyone actually tried to help each other instead of just doing what is convenient, the world could end up in a much better place. Leonard has realized this and intends to make James come to this conclusion as well.

A Million Little Pieces #2

The next section I read starts when James is moving into his room and being integrated into the general program. Everyone is assigned a chore which is called their “job” and his happens to be cleaning the bathrooms. One night James has what is called a user dream where he is doing drugs and drinking in his dream but it is almost real. He can’t get back to sleep therefore he decides he might as well get his job out of the way. The bathroom is sparkling when he finally falls back to sleep but when he wakes up, it is a disaster. Roy, a man who has been bugging him recently, is behind this mess. When he begins to yell at James and come after him about the bathroom not being clean, James beats him almost senseless. The supervisors automatically assume that he did it for no reason and was just being out of control which just makes him even angrier.

This instance doesn’t help him keep much faith into the program. The only person who sees through that is the psychiatrist, Joanne, which helps form a bond between them. This all comes back to the question of why the retaliator always gets the blame. Even though Roy started the problem, , that doesn’t make it the right choice. People are expected to fall apart when something terrible happens; it is the people who keep living their lives the same that are truly remarkable.

A Million Little Pieces #1

This quarter I chose to read the memoir, A Million Little Pieces, by James Frey. He tells the story the terrifying battle he fought against both alcoholism and heavy drug abuse. The book starts with him waking up on a plane, barely able to lift his head, with no recollection of how he wound up there or where he is headed. As he lies on the floor of the plane, he feels the urge to throw up, “I rub my stomach. I can feel it coming. Fast and strong and burning. No way to stop it, just close your eyes and let it ride. It comes and I recoil from the stench and the pain. There’s nothing I can do” (2). James knows he is out of control but that obviously is not making him want to change, he is too deep in his addiction. When he finally arrives in Chicago and is greeted by his parents who he feels a certain distance from which is obvious by their reactions to each other. As they are driving along in the car, his parents inform James that he is being admitted to a very respectable drug rehabilitation center in the Minneapolis area. He is aware that he will die soon if he doesn’t get help. Although his life is not that important to him, he does not resist which shines just a little bit of hope that he could get better. After he gets checked into the facility, he is analyzed by the doctors and begins detoxification. The extent to which James had submerged himself in these terrible substances is quite overwhelming and hard to imagine. He is an alcoholism is accompanied by the abuse of cocaine, pills, acid, mushrooms, meth, PCP, and glue (9).

The style of writing that is used really helps you get inside James’s head and understand him better. The areas talking about his feelings often use short incomplete sentences or even just one word. You can tell he wasn’t always that way and it’s shocking to see how fast one’s life can be turned upside down. When he is finally alone is his room, the realization of what he has done to his life begins to hit him, “I stand. I look around me. I don’t know anything. Where I am, why, what happened, how to escape. My name my life. I curl up on the floor and I am crushed by images and sounds” (11). I think it is impossible to completely understand until it happens to you. Even just one little mistake can reverse your entire universe

Should Homer be considered an early feminist or an old-fashioned sexist?

I consider Homer to be an early feminist because of the power he gives the goddesses. At this point in time, women didn’t really amount to anything other than staying home and running the household. Homer uses Athena and Hera to show that women could be much more. The Goddess Athena is shown as a strong character when she takes charge of Telemachus’s journey. When Telemachus is sitting at home worrying about how to deal with the suitors, Athena takes charge and plans a trip for him in search of his father, Odysseus. Another example of her being show as a powerful figure is when she changes into an eagle and flies away. Menelaus is amazed and they hold a feast in her name which shows how much they respect her. Hera is also a good example of women stepping up and being more powerful. In The Iliad, she stands up to Artemis and knocks her down when she is trying to help the Trojans. Hera also defies Zeus by going against him and helping the Achaeans. Although she knows they will eventually win, she hates seeing her beloved people dying and the fact that she goes against the king of the gods shows that she has much more a backbone then most women in those days. By using Athena and Hera Homer shows that women can be more than just the simple housewives they are expected to be.

Visual Analysis Post

The movie review I just a read was about Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, which is the first movie in the trilogy. The critic, Sean O’Connell, talks about how typically in Hollywood pirate movies are a no go but Pirates of the Caribbean could be the movie that changes that. He says that a big part in its success is how well it was made. With the technology available they were able to digitally turn real people into skeletons and back again which was a very intriguing aspect. Something I found interesting was that even after all that praise, the critic only gave the movie a 3.5. Its one of my favorite movies so personally I would give it a 5!


http://www.filmcritic.com/misc/emporium.nsf/reviews/Pirates-of-the-Caribbean-The-Curse-of-the-Black-Pearl

Relaxation

When i was younger and having trouble falling to sleep, my dad would always tell me to "say goodnight" to my body starting with my toes and ending with my head. He said that by the time i got to my head i would be completely relaxed and fall right to sleep but i thought it sounded ridiculous. That may sound a little funny to you too but I just read an article from the Mayo Clinic which basically says the same thing. The article talks about how even if you don't have a lot of stress in your life you can still benefit a lot from little relaxation techniques. One of the relaxation techniques was called Autogenic relaxation. In this technique you simply visualize a peaceful place and focus on either relaxing breathing, slowing your heart rate, or slowly relaxing one part of your body at a time, which is what reminded me of my dads old trick. With this relaxation tip you can gain more energy, better concentration, fewer physical and emotional responses, and overall more efficiency with your daily activities. After reading this article i am going to try and help my body relax more with these simple techiniques and i suggest trying them on yourself!