Hey Nostradamus! Heather

     In this chapter we are introduced to a new character, "Heather".  Heather met Jason at a Toys' R Us and since then has been his girlfriend. Heather is seven years older then Jason and works as a stenographer for the court. Unlike Jason and the rest of his family Heather has managed to have and keep a decent relationship with Reg. In her section of the novel Heather tells the story through her point of view as if she is keeping a diary. Rather then dictate the case before her, she vents to the reader about her relationship with Jason on her typewriter in court. Heather's relationship with Jason is based upon made upon characters and they seem to have been in a common state of depression when they met. In this section of the novel we find that the main focus is about the random disappearance of Jason. Heather is contacted by a lady named Allison who introduces herself as a phony psychic. Allison however, has had a recent encounter and keeps receiving messages from the world beyond that has lead her to Heather. When Heather finds out that the messages Allison is receiving are from Jason, she becomes obsessed with Allison because it is her only connection after months that she has had with him. It is still a mystery weather he is dead or alive. Heather is determined to find Jason no matter how crazy her approach may be. She tends to vent with Reg and we start seeing another side to Reg. Still his rationalizations are based on religion but in this chapter he is not perceived so much as a radical and "seems" more understanding.
      This chapter is really interesting because I felt that Coupland changed the mood completely. Maybe its because rather then focus on the massacre Heather is introduced and its about her experience with Jason and the family. I feel that every page is more interesting and Coupland keeps finding something new to add every section. Jason is now missing which I feel Coupland removed to show more thoughts about his new girlfriend and especially to talk abut Reg more. I didn't like Heathers section as much as I liked Cheryl's and Jason's. I think that the disappearance of Jason is what kept her section of the novel more interesting. 

Hey Nostradamus! Jason: Part two

In the second part of this section Jason shows more into detail about his current life and what happened the days that followed the massacre. As he continues the letter to his twin nephews he tells them how he received three letters himself, one from each member of Cheryl’s family. The two letters from her parents were similar as the both wrote to Jason in an apologetic manner for not being there to support him after being accused as the "master mind" behind the whole massacre and for not letting him go to Cheryl's funeral. However when Jason reads the letter that Cheryl’s brother Chris wrote to him it contradicts everything that Cheryl’s parents had wrote and Chris tells Jason that he had known what the three shooters were like and knew Jason could not possibly have had any part with them. Suddenly Jason receives a phone call from the hospital that tells him his father Reg is ill. After picking up a couple of items for Reg Jason goes to the hospital and decides to deliver the items personally. Finally Reg and Jason are together in the same room for the first time and Jason confronts his father about his comment after the school massacre about him being a "murder". After a few words Jason leaves because he feels that still his father has not changed. Then, after days of drinking, partying, and blacking out Jason wakes up to find himself in a situation familiar to him before. He is in a “kill or be killed” situation and as he walks along a river to possibly meet his demise when he picks up a rock and is ready to launch it his "opponent”, he realizes that they are the same actions as the day of the massacre. Jason has an epiphany and suddenly feels that all the hate and bitterness from his heart have just left. After the week of black outs Jason reveals a secret to his nephews. He tells them that the letter he is writing to them is important not because they are his nephews but they are secretly his sons. After the death of his brother Kent, his wife Barb was desperately longing to have children. To her is was something that would keep her closer to Kent, since he could not have children Barb asks Jason for the favor and  agreed on the condition that they get married. They go to Vegas again and it seems as if time keeps repeating itself as he is put in similar situations that he had back in 1988.

            In this second part of the chapter I feel that Jason’s life might be changing for the better in ways that besides the obvious epiphany he does not realize. The fact that he had the courage to finally ask Reg about his comment was a turning point because it was not only the first time they really had a conversation in awhile but it was a conversation that I felt allowed them to vent to each other. I also think that despite Jason trying to grow up the opposite of his father he seems to be growing up just like him. Jason refers to God a lot more in the second section and still analyzes some of his situations in terms of religion which I thought was interesting because he had supposedly denounced it. In this second portion I found out the twins are not his nephews but his sons. It was not that much of a shock because I was curious the whole time as to why it was so important to write a letter to his nephews and finally the big secret is revealed. I have a feeling that maybe Reg knows that they are Jason’s sons and not Kent’s because he had said Barb was sneaky and wasn’t the right one for Kent. Maybe he doesn’t like her because he knows the truth.

Hey Nostradamus! Jason

     In this chapter Jason is further introduced into the novel and the section is now being told through his point of view during and after the school massacre. After being shocked by Cheryl's news of her being pregnant Jason continues his day in somewhat of a daze and is anxious to continue his talk with Cheryl during lunch. Jason is also part of the Youth Alive! group and unlike Cheryl who has chosen to remain silent and ignore their irritating "friends" Jason can't take it anymore and lashes out at one. As Jason makes his way toward the cafeteria he hears the gun shots and runs towards the cafeteria despite many teachers trying to stop him. When he gets to the cafeteria and sees the shooters Jason picks up a rock and launches it at one of them killing him instantly. After that fellow students work up the courage and take the other two down since they were already killing each other off. Jason runs to Cheryl to find her dead. After the massacre Jason is in a daze and taken home where his father Reg who is a radical Christian accuses him of being a murderer instead of a hero for taking down one of the shooters. In the next few days Jason is then publicly accused of being the "mastermind" behind the whole shooting scheme. He becomes the neighborhood outcast and feels betrayed by everyone who knows him. Jason is telling his section of the novel in a form of a letter that he is writing to his twin nephews; which are his older brother Kent's sons. As an adult Jason is quiet and to him self. He has never been able to get over the death of Cheryl and the negative words his father constantly cast upon him. He works as a type of home furnish-er and is a single thirty year old whose best friend is his dog Joyce. After finding out the his older brother Kent has died he battles with the decision of going to his brother's memorial. Jason ends up going where he sees his father for the first time since the day of the massacre. Still bitter towards his father Jason ignores him as he has a conversation about cloning with some of Kent's old friends. When Reg comments that clones can never be human because they have no souls and therefore the twins being clones of each other, one must not have a soul. Reg is kicked out of the memorial by Barb, Kent's wife and Jason sees that his father still has not changed since they has last spoken.
     I like that Coupland is not just sticking to Cheryl's point of view and switches to Jason so that the reader can really see all around what happened that day and the days that followed. I feel really bad for Jason having to live through that and not having his father's support. I think that Reg is the perfect example of how Christianity can seem hypocritical throughout the novel. He has taken the bible to its literal context and therefore his views are looked as arrogant. Jason section of the novel was a lot more sad which I found ironic because I would think Cheryl's section would be more sad since she is the one who died not Jason. Dealing with a loss of a loved one is always hard and since Jason got ridiculed and looked down on after the massacre instead having the support that one needs during hard times like that made him the depressed man that he is now.

Hey Nostradamus! Cheryl

     The first section of the novel Hey Nostradamus by Douglas Coupland starts with one of the protagonist Cheryl who is writing in the year 1988. The story is being told through Cheryl's point of view who we find is telling her story from beyond the grave. In the beginning Cheryl starts off the chapter by giving the reader a mental picture of her whereabouts in her house and what she is thinking as she is getting ready for school. This is important because she is able to connect more to them by letting them know what she is feeling and seeing step by step. Cheryl is seventeen and part of a group called Youth Alive!; a group of very faithful young Christians; which she joined being the new girl in town to get close to a boy she likes named Jason. After falling in love with Jason they begin to date and then secretly runaway to Vegas to get married. It is October 4th 1988 and she has just found out she is pregnant and is on her way to school to tell Jason. After a short and sour discussion she progresses through the rest of the day having to deal with her fellow Youth Aliver's who have been continuously inquisitive about her relationship with Jason. That day Cheryl decides to have lunch in the cafeteria to continue her talk with Jason, instead of going out with her Out to Lunch Bunch; a group within Youth Alive! that is made up of only girls who go off campus to have lunch and confess their "sins". However a terrible accident happens that day and three fellow students walk into the cafeteria with guns and start a massacre that kills many students including Cheryl.

     I am really enjoying this novel so far. I feel like by Cheryl giving details step by step of her whereabouts in the novel I can really get a feel of what is going on. Through out the chapter Cheryl includes small prayers to God by her and other students and parents of students. I think that by doing this it has allowed me to really feel the grief of what is going on while the massacre is taking place. I feel that it puts a lot of the Christianity portion of the novel into perspective without Coupland including any of his own judgement. I thought that it was interesting to see the way the Youth Alive! students acted I felt that it was hypocritical because they are supposedly living life the way God would want them too but they are the most judgmental towards Cheryl and judgement is not something that their faith tells them isn't right because only God can be the one to judge. Although the story is fiction I feel that by Coupland letting his protagonist tell their stories step by step it makes it seem like it is real, and also because this is something that can really happen. He lets Cheryl show her last thoughts and feelings before she dies.

The Library Card

“The Library Card” by Richard Wright is a fictional story about an African American boy who stumbles upon an artical written about H.L. Mencken and is suddenly intrigued by the name. The essay takes place during segregation therefore he can not go out to a library and check out books on his own. Richard knew that the white men in his workplace have asked him to go to the library to check out books for them before, so he began to analyze each worker to see who he was going to ask for their permission to check out books under his name. Richard finally comes to the conclusion of asking Mr. Falk who is an Irish Catholic feeling that he would be the less judgmental and not question him to much as to why he was so curious to read books about Mencken. After Mr.Falk gives him permission he was free to check out books on Mencken, however once he read the first two he couldn’t stop wanting to read more and more books by him. Richard became passionate about reading and felt like reading had become his own personal drug. At his own risk Richard continued to check out more books despite being frightened what his fellow co workers both black and white would say about him reading such material. He felt that reading such books was like carrying a secret or “criminal burden”. After having read so much Richard noticed that he was starting to look at the world differently. He began to feel distant from the people he had once thought to be the same as him. He was intrigued by the new outlook he was starting to have but also sad and mad because he had finally opened his eyes to what the world around him truly was and felt like he had been lied to “to feel that there were feelings denied to me” he almost resented his new point of view. By reading so much Richard longed for a better life where he could become a professional a thought that once seemed so foreign to him. After obtaining so much new information from all the books he had read on books not only by Mencken, but books also by Sinclair Lewis; Richard felt like he had become so distant from the world around him and scared because the distance had only been increasing with each new day.
     I really enjoyed this story and how literature changed Richard’s life. I think its true that books once you start reading you become so intrigued that you just want to keep reading them. Once you start engaging your mind to new ideas like he did by reading Mencken you do start looking through a different point of view. I liked how he took reading and the knowledge it gave him used it as a weapon to use in the world and was able to take a lot out of it. I think that when a person reads like that and is able to take something back out his/her reading that’s when your truly becoming a good reader. However I felt that he should have not been scared despite the times he was growing up in because nothing should stop you from expressing what you believe in.

Only Daughter

In Sandra Cisneros essay “Only Daughter” Cisneros shows her audience how being an only daughter in a Mexican working class family of nine, of which she is the only girl; has influenced her as a writer. Cisneros emphazies that instead of telling people she was just the only daughter in her family she should be more specific in saying that she was an only daughter of a “Mexican” family because this detail was very important on making her who she is. It is being part of a Mexican family that creates the bases of her writing. Cisneros explains that she was constantly looking for father’s approval not only as a writer but as the “daughter” in her family. She highlights the importance of being Mexican and how that separates her writing from the rest. It is in seeking her father’s approval and being a Mexican women that she set the bar for herself to prove that college was more then a place to go find a husband like her father thought. It was in writing that she would distinguish her self from the rest of her family and their traditional way of thinking. She wanted prove that she could be as equally successful as her brothers who were always getting the support and approval from her father that she had wanted. It was in this aspect of her life that she is now the successful writer that she is today.
     I really enjoyed this essay because Cisneros really shows how different education and being a young women in a traditional Mexican family separates her from the rest. Being a young Mexican women myself having your families approval is something that is constantly at the back of my mind in everything I do. It’s almost what creates the bases of all the decisions that I make for myself. When your part of traditional family it definitely makes doing something “untraditional” a lot harder, especially now living in an era where tradition is not something is followed the way it once was. The examples that Cisneros uses in her essay were easy to relate too and I think why I liked this essay better then the second because I was able to connect to her on that level. I do not have any brothers but I am the oldest daughter out of four so the standards are set really high for me. I can understand Cisneros constant strive for approval because since family is very important in Mexican tradition your family’s approval is that much important as well.