The book and the movie

By watching the movie Opal Dream and reading the book Pobby and Dingan, I found there could be many different things happens in two different things showing the same story. Both the movie and the book are talking about the lost of Kellyanne’s imaginary friend Pobby and Dingan. Kellyanne’s family meets many big challenges and does tons of work to find Pobby and Dingan to make Kellyanne better and to help their family became a better family again. During the process of these works, the family changes a lot with love and caring. However, there are many differences have been showed by the two ways of telling this story.

First of all, the personality of the chapters changed a little by comparing the book and the movie. For example, the book said that the father is a drunker and he is a totally drunker that he drinks to lost Pobby and Dingan. However, the movie shows a closer relationship between the father and Ashmol by seeing them go to claim together. Also, the father’s much more kind in the movie than in the book because he always smiles and being nice to the whole family. Then, for the mother, she isn’t focus on her hometown that much and she seems more sensitive in the movie than in the book. However, I think those changes of personality of characters make them better and more real person in the movie.

On the other hand, the ending is different. According to the book, Kellyanne died in the last scene of the book and the opal doesn’t come back at the end of the book. However, in the movie, it doesn’t tell if Kellyanne’s died or not and it leaves reader more room to imagine by their selves. Meanwhile, the funeral holder returns the opal back to Ashmol, and this make people feel more humanity in the movie than in the book. So, I like the movie better because it gave people more hope than the book does.

To conclude, both the book and the movie are really good to read and watch, even though the book was written in a much more childish way. Actually, I highly recommend people to watch the movie by seeing more details about the emotion and plot of the story. Lastly, I think it would make people to understand more information about the author’s mind.

The story below the truth

When do people know the information of astronomy? For me, it’s many years ago, even before I went to elementary school. However, it took thousands of year to make human know the truth of the galaxy. Galileo was the first person to point the Earth is not the center of the universe to the ignorant people that time. The fall production of Galileo, which was written by the famous playwright Brecht, was talking about the life of Galileo.

According to the play, Galileo discovered the use of telescope and found out that the Earth is not the center of the universe; the Earth was just going around the Sun. Actually, it wasn’t that easy to make people, who believed in God, to believe him as well. His discovery was kind of against theories that the pope’s saying. The Earth is not the center of the universe meant that there’s no reason to stand why it’s the God created the world. It was totally against the rule of the church and even his friends cannot really support him. Lastly, he surrendered himself to the power of the church and admitted that he was wrong. According all, it’s a sad story showed that it was not that easy for people to admit the truth.

I like this play because I really like the way that it showed people’s change from the start of the story to the end. In the first few scenes of the play, when his friend thought it was too dangerous to say something against all theories in thousands of years, Galileo was saying it’s not difficult for people to get the truth, but when they saw the truth they would lastly support his idea. He was clever and proud of what he has found. Then, he thought there’s nothing can stop him to tell people the truth. However, at the end of the story, the power of the church stroke him and made he noticed the truth wasn’t the most important thing but the power. He changed a lot, and he was decadent and lost in the end. The characteristic of Galileo was changing in a excellent way and make me to have plenty of thinking. It made the story has been told in a truly attractive way.

However, I think the play was too difficult for people to understand. I’m a international student, and the play used too many difficult language which are even a lot for English country students. So, it made me feel unsatisfied with understanding the details of the story. Even though it’s not that hard to understand the story line, I cannot understand all the points it showed from the play. So, I wish it can be simpler next time and then I can understand the ideas better.

Over all, I think it’s a good play to tell the story under the truth that even a little child would know these day. Also, I highly recommend people to watch this play with the interesting plot and great acting of actors.

Galileo Galilei

Galileo Galilei, often known mononymously as Galileo, was an Italian physicist, mathematician, engineer, astronomer, and philosopher who played a major role in the scientific revolution. He was born in 15 Feb 1564. His achievements include improvements to the telescope and consequent astronomical observations and support for Copernicanism. Galileo has been called the "father of modern observational astronomy", the "father of modern physics", the "father of science", and "the father of modern science".

His contributions to observational astronomy include the telescopic confirmation of the phases of Venus, the discovery of the four largest satellites of Jupiter, and the observation and analysis of sunspots. Galileo also worked in applied science and technology, inventing an improved military compass and other instruments.

Galileo's championing of heliocentrism was controversial within his lifetime, a time when most subscribed to either geocentrism or the Tychonic system. He met with opposition from astronomers, who doubted heliocentrism due to the absence of an observed stellar parallax. The Roman Inquisition investigated the matter in 1615, which concluded that heliocentrism was false and contrary to scripture, placing works advocating the Copernican system on the index of banned books and forbidding Galileo from advocating heliocentrism. Galileo later defended his views in Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems, which appeared to attack Pope Urban VIII, thus alienating not only the Pope but also the Jesuits, both of whom had supported Galileo up until this point. He was tried by the Holy Office, then found "vehemently suspect of heresy", was forced to recant, and spent the rest of his life under house arrest. It was while Galileo was under house arrest that he wrote one of his finest works, Two New Sciences, in which he summarised the work he had done some forty years earlier, on the two sciences now called kinematics and strength of materials.

In class writing

In the very beginning of the book, Pobby and Dingan, there is a quote says, “The secret of an opal’s color lies not in its substance but in its absences.” In my perspective, it means something that’s missing is more important than what’s already showed.

In the book, the family was week at first. So, when Pobby and Dingan have been lost, too many things happen to the family. They are actually imaginary friends, but Kellyanne is care about them. The family lost some morality in the beginning of the book, they don’t trust each other, they doubt each other’s decision and they are so cold for each member in their family. This is what the family shows readers at the first of the book, which can imply the “substance” from the quote.

However, when Pobby and Dingan are lost, the family starts to change. The father has been caught because of finding Pobby and Dingan across Old Sid’s claim. The mother is always homesick. The brother, Ashmol is not caring. Then, for Kellyanne, she’s kind of crazy and sick. After the father has been caught and the fire burns their house, it seems like the family would be destroyed. Nevertheless, just because of these things happens, it makes Ashmol wants to change the family.

He finds the main reason why the family became so weak is the lost of Pobby and Dingan, so he asked everybody in the town to help him finding them. He wished Kellyanne would be better and not making their parents to be so worried, so he sell to opal to hold a funeral for Pobby and Dingan. Actually, in the writer’s mind, the family eventually finds the opal because they get better and care more.

By doing tons of work, Ashmol finds Pobby and Dingan, he holds a funeral, he makes the family to be warm again. That is what’s missing in the beginning of the book, which implies “absences” in the quote. It means that sometime things that are missing can do more than things that have been already had. So when the family gets what they lost before, it becomes better and the relationship between the family members are as beautiful as the mysterious opal.

My thinking about Pobby and Dingan

Pobby and Dingan is a book written by Ben Rice. It’s about a family with a girl has two imaginary friends. I think it’s just a story about a tricky girl that has many troublesome ideas at first. The girl always thinks the imaginary friends are true and make the whole family in trouble only because she thinks her father has lost them. I really don’t think it’s a serious issue for a girl to lose some imaginary friends. In my opinion, imaginary friends are somebody would come when you want to see them.

However, by reading more about the book, my ideas changed. Also, I think I start to like the book now. I looked for some reasons why would a girl have imaginary friends. Based on the book, I think the main character Kellyanne has imaginary friends because of her family. I like a book because it’s a deep thinking book that the father is a drunker who only care about finding opals and never believe in his daughter; the mother supports her daughter but still focus on her homesick most of the time; and the brother Ashmol is a kind person, but he still never believe in the creative ideas that her sister has.

For example, the dad says, ”I completely forgot. They are out in the back yard watering the plants,” (Rice p.13) after Pobby and Dingan were lost, he doesn’t believe in they are true and he just make things up. For Ashmol, “I knew he had forgotten to bring back Pobby and Dingan from the claim, but I didn’t say about it. I wanted to see what Kellyanne would have to say about it, so I just sat there playing on my Super Mario with its flat batteries, hoping Kellyanne would come in from the kitchen and get all ratty.” (Rice p.12) He even knows what his sister would think, but he doesn’t care, and even wants to see that. The problems of their family make Kellyanne to be sick, and I like this way that the writer imply the book

After that, I still think there are some points that I don’t really like. For example, the plots go so fast, there are too many things happen in each chapter. It makes me feel it’s not enough to understand the ideas of the book just from these few chapters. For the start of the second chapter, “When Dad left for the claim one morning he volunteered to take Pobby and Dingan with him to get some exercise while Kellyanne was at school.” (Rice p.11) However when this chapter ends, “When the flames were out I went into Kellyanne’s room and told her what happened.” (Rice p.23), the house even starts burning. There are many plots happened in one chapter, and it makes me cannot really understand this amount of information.

To conclude, it’s still a good book for people to read over all. It’s really interesting to think of what the writer reflect in the book. Thus, I highly recommend people to read it and also think of it.

Rice, Ben. Pobby and Dingan. New York: Knopf, 2000. Print.

God, a special friend - revision

Do you always have somebody that in your mind to teach you and to talk with you? Marjane does, and that person is God. God seems like a person that’s all white, just looks like an angel. In fact that’s an old angel. In the book Persepolis written by Marjane Satrapi, Marjane, the girl has grown up in Iran, experienced many events, such as revolution, demonstrations and death. She became more mature when time passes and when she understands more. She is always encourages by God when she is young. God is really important to Marjane’s childhood life: he acts as a brother, a grandfather and a friend; he supports her dream; and he comforts her when she has been sad.

God has acted as many characters in Marjane’s life. She has no siblings, no close friends and no grandfather. Actually, God is just in her imagination, and she makes him to be her close friend, her brother and her grandfather. Marjane says, “The only place I felt safe was in the arms of my friend” (Satrapi 8) when God hugs her. God is so kind that he always follows Marjane and always stays with her just like someone’s grandpa. For example, when Marjane doesn’t want to be a prophet any more, the God doesn’t blame her and change to say something else. He says, “Tomorrow the weather is going to be nice.” (Satrapi 13) which makes people laugh. By acting a brother, he just stays with her and keeps asking questions to her just sometimes like a brother who wants to understand his sister. For example, when Marjane wants to try how it feels to be a cell filled in water, he just asks, “what are you doing?” (Satrapi 25) even though he doesn’t get the answer. Also, if Marjane has some secrets, she always wants to tell God, but not her parents nor her friends. So, God is so important to fill the places of some blank characters in Marjane’s soul.

Also, God always supports her dream and always encourage her. When Marjane is only 6 years old, she believes she’s the last prophet of the world, and God believes her, too. He gives Marjane his warm embrace and says, “yes you are, celestial light, you are my choice, my last and my best choice”. As one of the most important people in Marjane’s life, the support of God is really essential for Marjane’s dream. She has told her schoolteachers that she wants to be a prophet, but the teacher asks her parents to go to see her. Then, the parents seem like they don’t care about it, so Marjane could only tell them that she want to be a doctor instead of a prophet. Besides that, no one really believes her and support her. However when she tells God she wants to be a prophet, she’s been supported. Because of his support, Marjane found she’s been loved by God and he’s becoming more important in her life.

After that, God is the person to soothe Marjane’s mind when she feels sad or meets something sad. He is always staying with Marjane and always comforting her when she feels bad. For example, when Marjane feels sad because neither her mother nor father is a hero, God gives her his hug and calming her. Even the last time that God get into Marjane’s world, he says, “Marji, what seems to be the problem?” (Satrapi 70) Marjane asks him to leave because he does nothing and he’s not helpful when Uncle Anoosh dies. She was so angry that she and her best friend, her grandfather, her brother couldn’t help her. However, he still feels really sorry because he cannot make her better and he can do nothing. For God, he tried really hard to help Marjane whenever he appears in the story. He’s just like a grandfather that wants his little girl to feel good.

Admittedly, by acting as important roles in Marjane’s life, supporting her dream, and soothe her mind, the God is so important in the whole story even though he only has a few scenes to appear. Nobody can forget this kind and caring God by reading the book. So, why Marjane asks God to leave her life? I wish Marjane would forgive God and herself later.

citation:

Satrapi, Marjane. Persepolis:. New York: Pantheon, 2003. Print.