RMST Blog

 The Amulet was a book that surprised me. Initially, I thought we would be looking at a typical horror story with detailed violence, but this one was a different kind of horror. I believe that I can call this book a horrific one because being stuck in one place and not able to leave is claustrophobic. On top of the movement that was going on, the fact that someone could take her is terrifying. Especially if you are a young student trapped, I couldn't imagine how scared and confused I would be. She was stuck in the Philosophy and Literature section of the university, which she repeated a lot in the text. This repetition is significant because she was able to read literature and occupy her time in remembering her past and engaging in poetry. In the time she spent locked away, she was lonely, and feeling needs of deprivation and hunger started to arise in her. As human beings, we seek out interaction and personal relationships. A human cannot survive in isolation; it has significant d...

The Old Gringo was a book that caught my eye at the beginning of choosing our texts because it was somewhat a romance. I did not expect this book to be all about love, but more themes of war and violence in the story. The Old Gringo was an engaging text about a man known as "Old Gringo" who came to Mexico to die. At the beginning of the novel, there was repetition with the words, the old gringo has come to Mexico to die. I believe that this repetition forces the reader to know what the gringo's intentions were at the start, to see later that at the end, he has somewhat found a purpose to live. The Old Gringo travels to Mexico, meets Arroyo, and asks him to join his army. After proving himself, Arroyo lets him join, and he meets a lady called Harriet. He quickly falls for her, despite not wanting to but lets himself anyways. Harriet feels like she must protect the old man, so she joins the army to assist onside. The Old Gringo gets into a fight with Arroyo, and Arroyo betr...

The W or Memory of Childhood is a book with two stories, the first being W, and the second being The Memory of Childhood. W was a fantastic story of a man who was on the search for a boy but came across a mysterious island (W) and quickly emerged into their society. W is not the pretty island we think, however. Their morals and sins are based on a game like the "Olympics," and people must survive, but only the fittest do. This shocked me, and the details in the story made the island come to life. The second story is a memoir of Perec's past childhood. He is confused because he has many gaps in his memory and cannot remember his childhood clearly. This fogginess is something that I believe definitely is from PTSD from the war and violence when he was a child. I learned in my psychology class that the brain would adapt and forget specific memories if they are too painful and cause a blockage in your memory. This is apparent in Perec's story as he continuously mentions h...