Thursday, August 26, 2010

Ashley's Blog 2: Favorite books


1. Dreamcatcher, Stephen King. This book was my favorite of all the Stephen King books I have read. I enjoyed it so much because I’m really interested in infectious/exotic diseases and this book was about an alien, Mr. Grey, who plans on spreading this macro-virus through the water system and infecting a large mass of people.

2. The Hot Zone, Richard Preston. This was one of the most interesting books I have ever read. Most horror books are not too bad because you know they are fiction, but this book was non-fiction. It was chilling to read how the deadly virus worked though its victims.

3. IT, Stephen King. This was the scariest book I have ever read because I think clowns are scary/creepy and the main character in this book is a shape-shifter who normally appears in the form of a clown named Pennywise.

4. Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, J.K. Rowling. This was my favorite book of the Harry Potter series because I really enjoyed reading about all the new spells Harry tried when reading the Half Blood Prince’s potions book.

5. Cell, Stephen King. Stephen King is my favorite author. I enjoyed this book because it is not just a horror story it is also action and suspense filled. The ending was very good because it left it open-ended so the reader would have to ponder what would have happened to Clay’s son Johnny. 

Monday, August 23, 2010

ASSIGNMENT 1: An outlook on The Screwtape Letters


The prominent theme of The Screwtape Letters concerned a demon in training trying to corrupt his first soul. The story was written from the point of view of the demon's mentor who was also his uncle. As the story progressed the reader was able to appreciate the difficulties a demon might realize in trying to corrupt an individual. Screwtape, the demon’s uncle, throughout the book, constantly needed to reassure Wormwood, the demon trying to capture his first soul, that the best path to corrupting a soul was to do it gradually and not by rushing in by tempting the Patient with every sin at any moment. It shows that it is tough work for demons to corrupt a soul and that they need to require a lot of patience in order to get the job done correctly. A demons primary job is to corrupt souls and have them sent to Hell. If a demon is successful in capturing a soul than they will be rewarded by the devil and promoted. However, if they fail at their assignment and do not bring the soul to the devil than punishment can be severe. Wormwood, who is an amateur tempter, doesn’t focus on the real things that one needs to corrupt a soul. Wormwood’s focus is diverted from his primary job of bringing souls to Hell and instead is distracted by the war. Wormwood falsely assumes that the war will provide easy pickings in finding souls that have been corrupted. His mentor tries to educate Wormwood that war is not the key to corrupting a soul that it is in fact everyday sins that cause the corruption.
One of the themes of the book is that human’s by nature are good, and destined for heaven. God provides humans a free choice in making their life decisions. The devil, on the other hand, must actively control the situation to cause corruption to take place.  In the book it is clear that The Enemy, which is God, allows his followers to create their own path and make their own decisions and does not need to coach how his followers should live, while with the demons they constantly need to persuade or push their patients to make, in the demon’s eyes, the decisions required to corrupt their souls. If the demons slack off for just a little while and allow their patients to make their own decisions they will by their nature do good as opposed to evil.
C.S. Lewis writes his story from a Christian point of view. He has a positive view on humanity, and feels when given a choice people will normally do the right thing. Writing this story from a demon’s point of view was extremely interesting, and certainly unusual. A reader could feel sorry for Wormwood, even though he was a demon. At the end of the story the reader was left with the impression that something terrible was going to happen to him because he failed in his assignment. Screwtape is almost joyful in anticipating the punishment that is going to be handed down to Wormwood from the devil. (518 words)