Erika's Blog

     This week we were supposed to write a blog based on this quotation,

“We must live, and when this is all over, we must work to make the world a better place.  And if we die, we will die knowing that it was not our fault, that we did our best, and we can go to our deaths in dignity… I want you both to live…And to remember...You must choose love.  Always choose love.”  

(from Daniel’s Story by Carol Matas, page 70) and I kept thinking about a time when this applied to me or someone else. But then I realized that I see examples of this quote all the time, and always in books. In most books there is a similar theme especially in distopia novels, where as they're are usually two sides bad and good, heroes and villains, great and evil. And I realized that most of the protagonists have one thing in common, they would do anything for the ones they love. (SPOILER ALERT) Think about it in Divergent, Tris Prior loses her life for the greater good of the people she spent most of her life trying to protect. In Harry Potter, we saw evidence of this sacrifice in the first chapter when Lily and James died protecting their son Harry so he would live. In the Hunger Games, Katniss offered her self in return for her younger sister Prim who was to be sent to her definite death when she was picked to participate in the Hunger Games. In The Book Thief Hans teaches Liesel how to read and takes care of her and even trades sixteen cigarettes because he knows that when Liesel gets the books that he has just traded them for she will be ecstatic, and that is an example of some kind of sacrifice doing things you hate knowing they will make the person you love most happy. The reason I love all of these books was because they all made me feel sad or happy or made me laugh out loud and those are always the best kinds of books, the ones that make you feel a million different kind of emotions all at the same time. So I guess Erika in Daniel's story was right "Always choose love." And the more I think about it that's the whole reason we all love these books because in this day and age most people root for the underdog because I think they see a little bit of themselves in them and the fact that these ordinary people did amazing things all for love gives us hope that if we make those kinds of decisions in real life we will become these extraordinary people. Even though most of us already are.