Independent Reading - Blog Post Two

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Name: Alli

Date: February 1

Time: Two Hours

Pages: 1 - 159

Total Pages: 159

Question 1: What do you think about a particular character's actions? Was he/she right or wrong to do that?

Response: As I said in my last post, Liz was depressed and obsessed with watching her former life on Earth, never attempting to start fresh in Elsewhere. As she watches her family and friends through the binoculars on the Observation Decks, she tries to find the cab that hit her and caused her death. When she finds out the name of the cabbie, she wants to tell her family who it was so that they have to go to jail. "They should pay", she had said. To tell her family, she has to make Contact with them, which is strictly forbidden in Elsewhere. I thought that these were both bad decisions. The man who had hit Liz probably had a good reason for not stopping. From what Liz had learned from watching him, the cab driver seemed like a good man who wouldn't have hit Liz and not come back, without a good reason. But But before Liz tries to make Contact with her family, she watches the man once more. She sees him with his son who had gotten sick at school. He then offers to drive his son home, putting his family before his job. Liz then realizes that she could never turn him in. I think that this is the best decision she makes in the book, and leads to even better outcomes. From this Liz stops being depressed by getting an Avocation, making friends and getting a dog.

Question 2: What was one of your favorite lines (or sentences) in what you read today? Copy it down and tell why you liked it.

Response: In the park, Liz meets a dog who gives her some advise. "'My advise to you is to stop being lonely and stop hating it here. That always works for me," says the dog. "Oh, and be happy! It's easier to be happy happy than to be sad. Being sad takes a lot of hard work. It's exhausting."'

I especially liked this line because although this dog's message sounded cute, there is a much bigger importance to what it had said. I thought this was important but simple message for Liz. She is being depressed, and although I am sympathetic to her, she can decide whether or not she is happy or sad. No one is making her be depressed besides herself. Liz said she was lonely, but id she became closer to Betty, Curtis, Thandi, and everyone else who had tried to help her and be her friend, she would be lonely. She also said that she hated it in Elsewhere, but no one made her hate Elsewhere. If she had a better outlook on life and took this dog's advise, she wouldn't be depressed and lonely. It is all up to her if she wants to change, and in my opinion she should. It would make her feel better and benefit her in many ways.