The Truth and Irony Behind the Republic's Prodigies.

spoilers for books Legend and Prodigy by Marie Lu

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Sarah Bolton

(image from Amazon.com)

https://www.amazon.com/Prodigy-Marie-Lu/dp/0142427551

 

"'You'll do just fin on your Trials,' he says when I finish. 'You and Eden both. If I  squeaked by, I know you'll pass with flying colors'" (prodigy page 53).

    The above quote is said by John, the brother of Day, one of the two main PoVs of Legend and Prodigy. He is saying that Day is smart, much smarter than himself, and that he will pass the trials. The trials are a test that will determine the rest of your life. The higher scores give you a much richer life, and send you to high school, maybe even college. Lower scores will put you in the slums, a place where poor people are fighting everyday to survive, especially with the plague. Poor people don't get to go to high school. However, if you don't pass the trials, you die. Day's family is a poorer family. Also going on during this time is the war against the Colonies, who are trying to take over the Republic, and vice versa.

When Day took the trials, however, he didn't pass them at all, and was taken to the labor camps. However, by some miracle, they didn’t finish the job, and he escaped, with a ripple in his eye and a scar on his knee. He went on to become the country’s most notorious criminal, helping the poor and punishing the rich, though never through killing. June, the other main PoV of Legend and Prodigy, the only person to get 1500/1500 on their score, was sent to find Day after the death of her brother was blamed on him. She ended up capturing him, and he was sentenced to death.

When doing research on him, June looked at his trial. His score is marked down as 674/1500, but in reality, it’s 1500/1500. He, like June, had gotten his trial perfect. The Republic didn’t send him to die. They sent him to the lab, to try and take his genes to make super-soldiers. The Republic is also behind the plague, and the murder of June’s brother, to stop him from telling the world about the plague.

The irony behind this is that he certainly did pass, but he wasn’t treated like it. He was basically treated like all the people who failed. The Republic was too absorbed by its class system, and didn’t want the people who were worse off to realize that they could be successful, and that it wasn’t reserved for people born of high status. This, combined with the plague, shows that the Republic is a dystopian government far too devoted to war and their image of a perfect society.

Who is Mr. Wormwood?

Who is Mr. Wormwood? By Ana Artz

Mr. Wormwood is a prominent character in the children's book Matilda by Roald Dahl. As the secondary antagonist, his actions affect the protagonist, Matilda Wormwood, his daughter, heavily. As a father he is neglectful towards his only daughter, but he loves his eldest son. All the time yelling at her for reading and telling her to be more dishonest like her older brother, Micheal, and the rest of the family. He views his son as perfection but never fails to kick Matilda to the curb. Mr. Wormwood works as a corrupt car salesman. He is the prime target of Matilda’s tricks, but he doesn't realize it as he thinks that Matilda is a stupid child despite her being a genius. He shows no interest in her, even when Matilda's teacher comes to his house in person and lets him know how smart Matilda is, he thinks that she's lying. Even at the end when Mr. Wormwood flees the country; he chooses to leave his daughter behind. Prioritizing himself, he doesn’t care what happens to her. 

One evening the Wormwood family sat down together in the family living room after school. Mr. Wormwood has a proposition for his son, prompting him to solve a complicated math problem. Mr. Wormwood has always wanted his son to take over his car sales business, so he figured that this would be good training. As they began to talk about the numbers Matilda's ears perked up, she could do this math in her head easily. When Micheal was thinking of the answer Matilda piped up, its “$10,265, that's your profit for the day” (Dahl 30). The rest of the family turned to look at her, Mr. Wormwood was enraged, he couldn’t believe that she had developed this number in her head. He started to scream and accuse her of cheating. This led to Mr. Wormwood storming out in utter disbelief, thinking about how impossible it would be for such a stupid little girl like Matilda to do such a thing. Matilda becomes extremely irritated and begins to plot a plan to get vengeance on her father for disregarding her. 

As the target of Matilda's tricks Mr. Wormwood’s day-to-day life is shaken up. After facing years of neglect Matilda makes a move to shake up her family's lives. One targets her mother, one the entire family, and the final one her father. Matilda intends for the result of these pranks to make her family pay attention to her and realize that she is in fact an important human being, but her family does not get the message. The prank that targets her father is replacing her father's hair tonic with the platinum blonde hair dye of her mother mixed with peroxide, as well as super gluing his hat to his head. Mr. Wormwood is blamed by his wife Mrs. Wormwood for the prank, she believed that he accidentally did it to himself. The couple squabbles as Matilda sits smugly nearby. Afterwards Mr. Wormwood has to end up cutting his hair and is angry, yet he doesn't know who did it. The event is one that he’ll remember, but not one that he learned from. 

Towards the end of the story Matilda has successfully defeated the Trunchbull and returns to her house happy that she got proper justice for her school. However, Matilda's dad has screwed up with his job and was finally found out as being a horrible and deceptive guy salesman. Matilda is upset about this and tries to fight her father's actions, but he says that they have to move to Spain before the sunset. Matilda runs in despair to miss honey, her teachers' house and asks her to adopt her, in the end the wormwoods say yes and part with her easily. Not caring at all if Miss Honey was a good person to take Matilda in. They never loved Matilda; she was always a speck of dust on a white shirt to them. Despite being the end Mr. Wormwoods character does not develop to become a better father, or a better person in general. The character of Mr. Wormwood is unique because usually in these types of stories the characters learn their lessons and become better people, but he doesn't.

Below shows Mr. Wormwood yelling at Matilda after she says the correct answer to his math problem.

Should Video Games Be Considered a Sport? By Irene Kim

Lyncconf Games 

        When I first saw this question in a New York Times article, I thought the answer was an obvious “No!” Why in the world would video games be considered a sport? But as I read some of the arguments against my answer, I started to understand a bit of why one would consider video games a sport. However, I still stand my ground. I strongly believe that video games shouldn’t be considered a sport.

Scrolling through the article replies, I noticed the major argument for the “Yes, video games should be considered a sport” side. Their main argument was that, although not all video games require physical activity, many do require lots of brain work (i.e. thinking and focusing). I agree that some video games require high-level mental work. However, Oxford defines “sport” as “an activity involving physical exertion…” To be qualified as a sport, there has to be physical activity involved throughout. Not just mental work.

Some may argue that there are video games with high physical activity involved. And, although I cannot think of one from the top of my head, I can agree with that statement. There probably are many video games out there that require lots of physical movement. However, “some” doesn’t speak for “all”. The ratio of video games requiring high-level physical exertion compared to those that do not is too low to be considered.

“What about hand movement?” one may argue. “You need to move your hands when you’re playing video games. Isn’t that physical movement?” This statement seemed completely ridiculous to me at first, but as I thought about it, I realized that there was a point. Moving your hands is most definitely physical movement. So wouldn’t it fulfill the criterion of physical exertion? To this, The Tribune states, “While playing a video game requires skill and some coordination, it does not incorporate enough physical aspects to be a sport.” Although there is some physical movement involved, there isn’t enough to call it an actual sport.

Ultimately, I don’t see why video games should be considered a sport. The definition of “sport” itself requires physical activity, something most video gaming cannot fulfill. Instead, I think video gaming, along with other activities involving high-level mental work but not quite physical movement (like playing chess and solving Rubik’s cubes) should have its own category. 

Works Cited

Burton, Adam, et al. "Point-counterpoint: Are eSports really sports?" The Tribune, 23 Feb. 2021, www.thetribune.ca/sports/point-counterpoint-are-esports-really-sports-02232021/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

Gonchar, Michael. "Should Video Games Be Considered a Sport?" The New York Times, archive.nytimes.com/learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/should-video-games-be-considered-a-sport/. Accessed 1 Oct. 2023.

Change

A Cuban Girls Guide to Tea and Tomorrow

By: Laura Taylor Namey

    A theme I see represented in this book constantly is the idea of change. Lila Reyes, (the main character) who lives in Miami, Florida,  has had to deal with plenty of change in her life over the course of a couple of months. She has experienced what she called "The Trifecta". First, her grandmother, who she loved dearly, passed away. Next, her boyfriend who she was dating for what felt like forever, broke up with her. Last, to solve her problems (or so her parents thought), she was sent to England for the summer, to help he recover mentally.  She did not like this idea, but she had no choice or energy to resist, or argue. 
   Lila's family is big on baking. Her grandmother owned a bakery before she passed, and it was also ways Lila's dream to take over one day. Once her grandmother passed away, Lila's passion for baking grew stronger, and her desire to take over became a determination, more than a dream. She had to adjust to what happened to her grandmother, and all she could think about was how she was going to keep the bakery intact. Once her parents suggested going to England, all she could think about was leaving the bakery behind, a not being able to take it over. Her parents wanted England to be a place where she could start over, and begin a knew journey for herself. Lila looked at is a punishment, and dreaded the idea entirely. 
   Once Lila got to England, she headed straight for her mom's friends bakery. The biggest change she has faced at this time, is navigating around a knew kitchen, and trying to bake again after what she went through. She didn't seem to understand why she was having such a hard time, and began to feel even worse than she felt while in Miami. She grows tired of all of the changes she's going through, as she has not found a solid ground, and space where she feels 100% content with herself. She messed up desserts she's done perfectly for years, she isn't thinking straight, and she just isn't in the right headspace. Though she soon realizes that England uses Celsius instead of Fahrenheit, she still feels disappointed in herself, and wishes she just stayed in Miami. Where everything was familiar, and the same. 
   In conclusion, change is a common theme I have noticed while reading this novel. Lila Reyes, a 17 year old girl living in Miami Florida, feels as if she has bee put through the wringer. Her life is changing every day, and not always for the best. One of the best things in her life is gone, and her passion for baking is drifting away with it. Change in this novel is introduced as a bad thing, or something that lacks joy. Although, I believe that Lila will eventually grow to see change as more than a bad thing. She will soon see the good in certain situations.