Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, Wendy Mass, November 2006 In the book Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life, a little boy, Jeremy, receives a gift from his father that passed away. In the gift holds the meaning of life, so Jeremy and his best friend Lizzy go on a quest to find out what exactly that is. I personally like this book because it has some adventure and humor along with meaning and practicality. This book isn’t necessarily informative, it is fictional. But it isn’t the type of fiction where they have superpowers or anything, it still stays along the lines of a regular teenage boy’s life. A brief summary of the book begins when they explain what happened to the father. The father, Mr. Fink, died in a car accident a few months …show more content…
before he turned 40.
Now what is a little suspicious about his death, that you later find out in the book, is that at the age of 13 a fortune teller predicted that he would die at the age of forty. His death took place five years before the current time in the book. One month before his thirteenth birthday, Jeremy Fink and his best friend Lizzy are hanging out in his apartment when the mailman delivers a package for Jeremy's mom. Lizzy manages to convince him to open the package. Inside the package, they discover a wooden box with four keyholes and the words, "The meaning of life; for jeremy to open on his 13th birthday." Jeremy recognizes the box as a gift from his father. A note that came along with it, explains that the friend taking care of the box lost all of the keys. Determined to open the box, Jeremy and Lizzy contact a locksmith who explains that he is unable to pick the locks or break the box open without destroying the box and possibly its contents. The two friends set a goal to find the keys by the end of the summer so Jeremy can still open the box on his 13th birthday. During the adventure Lizzy gets them into trouble for destroying property and they must spend the summer doing community service. Jeremy and Lizzy are assigned to work for Mr. Oswald, an
antique dealer getting ready to retire to Florida. He sends them to deliver some special antiques. On the first delivery, they realize they are returning items to the original owners. The people Jeremy and Lizzy meet help him learn important lessons about life by sharing their perspectives. Later, Mr. Oswald gives them an old suitcase with a whole bunch of keys, where the four keys for the box are found. On Jeremy’s 13th birthday, he opens the box to find the last card to Lizzy’s collection, a bunch of rocks, and a letter explaining what the meaning of life to his father was and what those rocks were for. Overall I liked the book. I think it was light as far as the mood of the book and I liked the characters and the relationships between them. I think I like Lizzy’s character the best because I can relate with her the most. I don’t like the moments that felt dragged on, for example when they were on the boardwalk trying to find the fortune teller. Also when they were at the lake and were describing the scene and setting, while descriptive, the main purpose was to just drag the story along while they came to the important part. But I did like their encounter with Mrs. Billingsly and her story about her and her friend, and what was the story behind the winnie the pooh book. This book is a good book because it has adventure and a little humor along with some meaning and practicality, if you like an easygoing book that keeps your mood light then this is the book for you. I did like reading this book, even though I had to keep reading it in sections due to time. But it does have some nice main events that tie the story together. You should really check it out.
The book is narrated by a little girl named Jook-Liang (or just Liang). You are introduced to her and her family who live in Vancouver B.C. during the Great Depression. She lives in a rundown house with her father; her real mom (who she's made to call Stepmother); the "old one", the children's grandmother-- Poh-Poh; and 3 brothers. The oldest Kiam; second oldest-- an orphan the family adopted Jung-Sum; and then would be Liang; and then the youngest child Sek-Lung (or Sekky).
In the story, Fink never writes to us about the characters specific actions. Anything to be learned
The book begins with a writer named John researching for his book about the day the atomic bomb was dropped. He talks with Newt, son of Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the creator of the atomic bomb. He then goes to Illium, the town where the Hoenikkers grew up, and there he learns of ice-nine, one splinter of which could freeze all the oceans of the world. John soon discovers that Frank, the other son of Felix, is on a small island called San Lorenzo. He goes there to research more for his book. On the plane he meets Newt in person, who turns out to be a midget, and the Crosbys, a married couple. John reads a book the Crosbys give him on the plane all about the religion of Bokononism and it's customs. One custom is Bokomaru, touching the souls of feet together to grow closer. He also reads of how Bokonon, the creator of Bokononism, was outlawed.
Consequently at this same time Jeremy is also beginning to discover his relationship has had a severe change which he realizes when China calls him and ask--"I want to see it," she sobbed. "I want to see our daughter's grave."(623)" The mere utterance of this statement seemed to freeze interpretation.
Wolf’s “The Meanings of Lives”, states a meaningful life must have some subjective and objective element to it and must be somewhat successful; Wolf’s idea of subjectivity is that projects and activities eventually make life meaningful. The projects must fulfill certain circumstances on the subjective and objective side. I’m going to introduce Wolf’s “fitting fulfillment” idea, raise a point against it and argue her idea, that success defines a meaningful life.
The pieces of the book come together in the end, where a helicopter leaves the bus in which McCandless died. Krakauer included specific enough details to understand the entire story. He provided an emotional ending that leaves the reader with many thoughts.
At the beginning of the first chapter entitled “October 23, 1983,” Erin Vincent is extremely worried about her parents’ whereabouts. She begins
In “Meaning of Life”, Richard Taylor begins with questioning the meaning of life. He mentions this is rather hard to do and decides to define what meaninglessness is in order to understand the exact opposite: meaningfulness. Taylor asks the reader to recall the famous myth of Sisyphus to come about the definition of meaninglessness. He states that Sisyphus was condemned to roll a large boulder up a hill, only to have that boulder roll back down the hill, forcing him to repeat the task forever. Despite all his efforts, his existence amounts to nothing more than endlessly repeating the same task, which itself contributes to no greater goal or purpose. This, Taylor suggests, is the very image of meaninglessness. He defines meaninglessness as the following: “Meaninglessness is essentially endless pointlessness, and meaningfulness is therefore the opposite” (270).
In conclusion, this was an awesome story. The above questions were the catalyst to the real truth that would make the brother to that little girl free at last. His son was determined to break the cycle and remedy this generational condition, although the means by which he used were terrible. But, he would get through to his father. He shed light in the dark place by first beating his father into sobriety, so that he could think clearly. He then helped his father to open up to the discussion concerning the secret he had held on to for so long. Then, he also convinced his father to burn the “Shawl” of his deceased sister. And finally, his father realized what the true story was. A story that would in turn loose the tie that bound them all together with generational sorrows.
The book begins as a mystery novel with a goal of finding the killer of the neighbor's dog, Wellington. The mystery of the dog is solved mid-way through the book, and the story shifts towards the Boone family. We learn through a series of events that Christopher has been lied to the past two years of his life. Christopher's father told him that his mother had died in the hospital. In reality she moved to London to start a new life because she was unable to handle her demanding child. With this discovery, Christopher's world of absolutes is turned upside-down and his faith in his father is destroyed. Christopher, a child that has never traveled alone going any further than his school, leaves his home in order to travel across the country to find his mother who is living in London.
After this event, the reader can really see that deep down, the protagonist loves and cares for his father. As he hears his father enter the house babbling gibberish, he begins getting worried.
The modern concept of marriage is different than what it was many years ago. The realities of love and marriage are constantly being challenged by highly educated and working women. Jhumpa Lahiri, through her novel The Namesake, narrates the story of the Gangulis: a Bengali family who immigrates to America. Ashima, the mother, gives birth to Gogol who represents the second generation of the immigrant family. The novel examines one outlook on modern marriage: using love to satisfy temporary needs rather than having a relationship dependent on actual feelings of trust and loyalty. Lahiri shows this outlook by providing a detailed view into Gogol’s series of unsuccessful romantic relationships,
Existentialism is a phiosophy which revolves around the central belief that we create ourselves. External factors are not important. It is the way that we let external factors affect us that determines who we are. As individuals we all have the freedom to choose our own path and that is what life is all about. Along with the freedom of choice comes the responsibilty of one's actions which can make some people anxious but give others meaning to their lives. To overcome this anxiousness and accept responsibilty is to meet the challenges of life and to truly live it. I can adopt the existentialist approach which states that to live life is to experience happiness and absurdness and to appreciate both as a part of life.
What makes a meaningful life? It varies for each person as we are all very unique and different from one another. Even the definition of what is meaningful will vary as it may be making an imprint/significance in their lifetime or a happy life is enough to be meaningful. Though there is so much variation among the definition, there are some essentials that could relate across the board. The recipe to having a meaningful life may contain the ingredients of: happiness, fulfillment, authenticity, living more fully in the present and having a sense of purpose.
I have always been to asking myself what is meaning of life? or what I supposed to do ? or what I have to achieve? . Meaning of life what 's you have been given? what you have given by different kind of human? Or what I believe or what I do not believe in life .Everybody have Meaning of life it depends between person to person, I found myself when I was young because my parents always talk about experience in their life.Throughout my entire life ,I have wondered about the significance meaning of life that has beneficial for the people, because the life is beginning odds and ending odds .Even though struggle of life, I believe meaning of life are ,regional ,ambition, participate ,achievement ,and happiness .Due to this, I