The Call of the Wild is a book by Jack London that features a dog called Buck. I can't remember clearly whether I've read the book or not, but I think I might have. It was mentioned in the book Nothing But the Truth by Avi.

I haven't read much of Nothing But the Truth yet. What I do know is that the main character is a boy named Philip Malloy who is not very interested in language arts, and is rather disdainful towards The Call of the Wild. Indeed, he wrote something rather interesting as an answer to a test question. Here's a part from the book.

Question four: What is the significance of Jack London's choice in making Buck, the dog in The Call of the Wild, the focus of his novel? Is the dog meant to be symbolic? Explain your answer. Can people learn from this portrayal of a dog? Expand on these ideas.

Philip's answer: The significance of Buck in Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild is that Buck is symbolic of a cat. You might think that cats have nothing to do with the book, but that is the point. Dogs are willing to sit around and have writers write about them, which, in my personal opinion, makes them dumb. I think cats are smart. Cats don't like cold. A book that takes up so much time about a dog is pretty dumb. The book itself is a dog. That is what people can learn from Jack London's novel The Call of the Wild.

Although I find his response to the question amusing, it does show that he wasn't so serious about the book, and his teacher didn't find it funny at all. If I were to become a teacher, I suppose I might end up having to deal with students like him. I wonder, how would I grade students, if I were a teacher? Would I grade them strictly by set standards, or would I give them points for making me laugh?

Well, speaking of "What if", my teacher asked us an interesting question today. Here is the scenario.

- You are stranded in the desert with a total stranger. (You have never met them, you know nothing about them.)
- You have only enough water to keep one person alive (never mind how long for).
Your choice: Do you drink the water and save yourself, give it to the stranger and save him/her, or do you share the water and BOTH of you die?

Perhaps a person's answer to this question reflects their own values and personality.

I said that I would give all the water to the stranger. I have already seen many beautiful things, for I have traveled far and wide - I was even able to see the city of Sydney, my namesake. And I have seen small but beautiful things in my own hometown. I have also gotten to make friends (even if many of them have moved away, and it is hard to keep in contact, I still have memories, and I will cherish them). I have been able to learn to play instruments and learn to read and write and learn to laugh. I have already made some of my dreams reality. I still have goals I have not achieved, but I have already had so much. And I believe it is more than some people will ever get. If I give them the chance to live, perhaps then they can go on to do those things, to have some happiness.

One of my classmates said, "Well, what if the stranger is a criminal? Then would you want to save them?" I may be flattering myself by saying this, but I think perhaps if I gave them the water, then he/she would be touched by noble sacrifice, and would want to be a better person. He/she could go on to make changes in the world. I want to be able to inspire someone. (Though dying isn't the most ideal way of doing so, it is still a way.) And I can die knowing that I saved someone's life, protected the miracle that is the beating of our hearts.

Labels: avi, book, cat, choice, death, dog, dreams, hypothetical, inspire, laugh, life, memories, nothing but the truth, opinion, question, sacrifice, scenario, teacher, the call of the wild, water

Just a little while ago, I mentioned copic markers, right? Well, just yesterday, I went into a store called Memories Live On. I was trying to find a scrapbook because I need one for my French project (we are supposed to make a family tree, and write about our grandparents and direct family, and ourselves too of course). Memories Live On is a scrapbooking store, and also has some art supplies. When I went in, I wandered around, and then I saw the Copic markers! (They are not exactly cheap. Costs four or five dollars just to get one) They are some nice markers that have two different ends. If you take off the cap on one end, you get a chisel tip. If you take off the cap on the other end, you get a fine pointy tip. And the markers are cool since I tried them out and if you color a blob, and then put a different color on top, they sort of mix a little since they're kind of watery.

Anyways, I feel like I have some magnetic pull to me or something. If something is mentioned or shown to me and I remember it, then pretty soon I will see the same thing or something similar. It's kind of freaky, but it's kind of cool, too. (Nowadays I am immersing myself into superstition, heh heh... I count crows whenever I see them, and one of my friends keeps wanting to "read my palms")

Not only that, but I always gravitate towards my number in PE. We all stand on white numbers that were painted on the blacktop so our PE teachers can count how many people are absent easily. I have this tendency to always go to my number, so usually if someone wants to talk to me they'd probably have to move over to me, not the other way around. In fact, I once joked that I was attracted by unseen forces to my number since I almost always head there.

The other day, my father was watching a movie called Nothing But the Truth. It is based off of some real events. The movie is about a journalist who publishes an article, and people are pressuring her to reveal where she got the information, but she won't reveal the source. She even went to jail for it, as it was a very delicate matter (she had discovered the name of a CIA agent, which is supposed to be top-secret, and things like that). Only in the end of the movie did we find out the true source. Skip the next paragraph if you don't want spoilers.

Surprisingly, the reporter's source of information was none other than the daughter of the CIA agent. The reporter was on a bus with her son and his classmates since I think they were going on a field trip. And a girl asked the reporter what she was doing, since the reporter had her laptop. The reporter and the girl talked, and then the girl said that her father was a writer too, but her mother didn't like what her father wrote about...And so the girl kept talking and revealed that her mother worked for the government, and that she was in Venezuela. Let me explain... Someone tried to assassinate the USA president (a made-up one, not one of our presidents) and then not long afterwards the USA bombed Venezuela, since apparently it was thought that Venezuela was responsible for the assassination attempt. But the CIA agent was in Venezuela, and so she had said that it wasn't Venezuela's fault. The little girl revealed enough to pique the reporter's interest. The CIA agent was later killed. That's freaky, since that little girl had actually caused her own mother's death.

I know that it was probably very confusing, so if you are interested, you should probably watch the movie yourself. But do note that it is a pretty serious movie, so if you want a nice happy ending, maybe you shouldn't watch it.

Oh yeah, and my teacher has apparently planned for our class to read the book Nothing But the Truth during the school year. I wonder if it's the same or if it's entirely different.

Labels: coincidence, copic, counting crows, luck, magnetic, markers, memories live on, miracle, movie, nothing but the truth, number, palm reading, PE class, scrapbook, superstition, unseen forces

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