(2^3)-1

I am going to evaluate The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins for this journal assignment. With the movie rendition of the book being made and come to theaters relatively soon, the book series has become increasingly popular among younger readers. This book could be classified as a post-apocalyptic adventure book because it takes place sometime after a terrible tragedy hit the whole world and the book is primarily action based. It could be compared to other books or movies that have similar themes of gladiator based fighting and a post-apocalyptic setting. Some examples would be Gladiator, The Matrix and The City of Ember. The book doesn’t really offer anything else other than an entertaining story because it is a fictional story.

For evaluating this book, my first criterion will be whether or not the characters develop as the story progresses or whether they just remain static and the same. Another aspect I’m going to look at is the reality of the events happening in the book. Since it is a fiction novel, this may be hard to say if some of the technologies are realistic but the main part I would focus on with this aspect is the descriptions that don’t have to do with the futuristic technologies. Another criterion I would evaluate the piece on would be if the book was actually written well. If a book doesn’t flow or doesn’t make sense to the reader then it’s not a very good book. One criterion that may be subjective is how invested the reader is able to get with the writing. This is subjective because someone may be turned off from it while someone else may love it to death. Either way it is still a good way to evaluate the book. My final way that I would evaluate this book is the plotline. If a book has a good plotline then more often than not the book will be good. You can mess it up by having terrible characters or make it flow poorly, but if the core idea behind a book is original and compelling, odds are the rest of the book will be as well.

Six

Location, location, location

The autumn breeze flutters leaves on the trees as I step out of my dorm room. I breathe in a deep breath with a smile on my face as I walk down the steps from the West Quad to go to my class across the street at the IST building. A few short steps down the stairs and I reach the bottom landing, turning right to cut through the less traveled route I normally take. That’s when I see him.

A man with short cut hair and a light jacket is walking through the tunnel. I probably wouldn’t have even noticed him if it weren’t for his eyes suddenly widening behind his frames at the sight of me. He reached into his bag and pulled out a gun and cocked it with a click. I throw my backpack to the side and back up a few paces. He’s going to shoot me. I just know it. But I’m not going to go down that easily. He leaves the shadow of the tunnel and raises the gun, aiming at my chest. He pulled the trigger

I just barely dodge the first shot, jumping to the side in the nick of time. He’s cocked back the gun again though and is firing, again and again and again. It’s a miracle that I’m not shot yet. We circle each other for a bit as he waits for me to get closer so he can get a better shot. I notice movement behind him and I see a girl slinking in the shadows of the trees. She puts her finger to her lips and sneaks up behind the man with the gun. I’m not sure what it was but somehow he knew. He turned around and fired, right into her chest. I dived towards him but he turned around and I was shot as well. The man sighed a breath of relief and bent over to pick up what he shot.

No we’re not dead. Zombies can’t die silly.

Quotes:                                                                     

“People have tempers and not everyone can control theirs. Sometimes fights can break out and even plastic and foam can become dangerous.” –Rachel Bishop Freshman-English

“These guys are living out their video game fantasies in a safe way through this club.” –Anonymous Freshman-Business

“Impossible to stereotype because all sorts of people are in it. The Extremists who modify their guns like crazy and then the mild ones who just play to blow off some steam.” –Anonymous Freshman-Buisness

Facts and such:

“All of our games follow a common thread: we strive to bring people together for human interaction, physical challenges, and tactical game-play. Our events use traditional board and console gaming techniques in an exhilarating "real life" atmosphere.”

“The Penn State Urban Gaming Club is dedicated to fundraising money for charitable causes. For this purpose we have created the position of the Charity Chair”

<http://urbangaming.org/>

“HvZ is played at college campuses across the nation, said Castner. It was founded by students at Goucher College in Maryland, and other campuses have tailored the basic rules to fit their own schools.”

<http://www.collegian.psu.edu/archive/2010/03/22/post_132.aspx>

"But as Zombies' popularity has grown, criticism of it has grown, too -- especially since last April, when a severely disturbed English major named Seung Hui Cho armed himself with two semiautomatic handguns and killed 33 people, including himself, at Virginia Tech University. In the immediate wake of that shooting, Humans vs. Zombies became controversial, raising a collegiate version of the prevailing question of our time: What is the balance between security and freedom? And it prompts another fascinating question: What can a group of young people learn about one another -- and themselves -- by running around campus with Nerf guns for days on end? "

<http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/08/AR2008040802044.html>

Found this too

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mza1V20P2wg>

Four

The speakers who addressed the issue of drinking at Penn State did a good job of describing the situation in ways that their audience, which is anyone who happens to listen to the radio, could understand. They not only gave facts to support their argument but they also told stories from their own perspectives. The main reason that I think this issue was investigated was because the Princeton Review had rated Penn State the number one party school in America. With drinking always being a problem on college campuses, what exactly makes a school a top rated party school was an intriguing question to investigate. The speakers quote a variety of different people in the State College area from students at Penn State, to bartenders, pizza delivery guys and neighbors who live in the surrounding area around the college. The facts that the speakers provide are just that, facts. They aren’t biased towards not drinking or for drinking but they tell the truth about the subject matter at hand. Some of these statistics show how different groups are affected by this issue. One example of this would be the section of the talk where they discussed how different businesses were adapting and actually flourishing to the party school’s reputation. The owner of Maclanahan’s while not directly being affected by the drinking that happens at the bars still feels the effects of the party atmosphere that the school has.

I think that the point that the speakers want the readers to realize is that drinking on college campuses is a problem. The major problem for the universities being able to reach the students to make them realize what a problem drinking can be. Every year a new grade of students comes in and as they said in the talk, “they [The University Staff] have to start all over again.” While no one actually comes out and says that this is their opinion, by the stories that they choose to tell and the statistics that they decide to show it is somewhat obvious what their stand on the matter is.

This was really interesting towards me because when I first heard what we were supposed to write, an investigative journalism piece, I was kind of disappointed. I thought it was going to be a somewhat dry piece that I would read in the newspaper where all the facts are there but there is no real creativity. After listening to this talk I realize that just as much can be told about an issue by telling a story about it than just spelling it out plain and simple can. I really liked the stories that they incorporated into the piece because it gave me something to visualize other than just being read fact after fact. The only thing that I didn’t like about this piece was the topic choice. I agree that drinking on college campuses is an issue but it seems like it would be such a morbid topic to look into.