Stolen Lives

Wow! What a book.

Stolen Lives by Malika Oufkir and Michele Fitoussi is one of the few books that after reading the first page shocks me and makes an imaginary voice in my head say “don’t stop! CONTINUE!” This amazing preface tells a little bit of the main character, Malika Oufkir, and gives a reader a clue of what the book will be about.

Michele Fitoussi was first shock when getting to know her best friend Malika. Only knowing the fact that she was kidnapped for two decades makes me sick. Malika has a lot of problems, “whom do you love, whom do you hate, when your own father attempts to assassinate your adoptive father?”(4) this question shocked me. Just the fact of living with adoptive parents is hard, imagine how hard it should be if you know your real father tried to kill him? Just by this quote I could infer her miserable life full of problems and misunderstandings.

I feel identified with Fitoussi, “I was perturbed by this woman. At the same time, she intimidated me,” (2) couple times in my life I’ve been in this positon. Being close to a person that has passed through hard problems in life and knowing through all the pain they’ve passed through, intimidates me. What to do? What to say? How to say it? This are all the questions that pass through my mind. I feel confused and a bunch of questions continue to go over my head.

 I would of done the same things she did, talk to Malika, “General Oufkir’s eldest daughter,”(1) her intrigue of knowing all the story is obvious. Just thinking in being in Malika’s shoes makes me feel shiver. All the trouble that she had passed through and all the pain she had felt makes me question even more. And here is when I don’t want to stop reading.

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My biggest fear in life is being kidnapped, this is the main reason I choose this book. Only by reading the title Stolen Lives, Twenty Years in a Desert Jail I could imagine what the book was going to be about. Someone had stolen the main character life by being in a desert jail. This is a genre that I love. And nothing better than reading a good book were you feel indentified with the characters and genre. I look forward to know more about Malika’s life and all the things she passed through, because being in jail for two centuries must have a lot to tell.

What Makes a Good Writer?

The nine basic marks of writing are essential in making a piece of writing interesting and understandable. The proper use of this marks embellish writing.

According to the Survival of the Fittest  by Nicholson Baker, we must “assume that commas have been around for at least as long as electrons.” Cool fact! Who came with this wonderful idea of inventing a mark that would indicate a pause between parts of a sentence?

Semi- colons are relatively modern. The first writer to come up with this was Pietro Bembo in his first edition De Aetne, this was two years after Colombus reached America. Having into consideration that since that time people already used marks of punctuation, impresses me. While America was full of indians that probably, had their own way of punctuating, in Europe people already knew how to write. They also knew how to express their feelings and connect to the reader in they way they wanted, with the pauses needed so their piece of writing sounded professional.

Various writers prefer to avoid semi-colons because they say this are old-fashioned and middle-class, but personally this is a perfect way to indicate interdependent statements. However, the excess of marks can make the writing unclear. “The American copy-editing has fallen into a state of demoralized confusion over hyphenated and unhyphenated compounds.” This is said because in the book of Parker the fist semi-colons arise, confusing society and making them use this marks without knowing how to. Baker,  was impressed after sending one of his manuscripts to a copy- editor and noticing that about two hundred of the hyphens were deleted. Here, he started learning more about the proper use of them.  

The concept of a colon was first used in medieval texts as an s. Every culture and period of time is known by their unique form of writing. As time passes the symbols change but the concept is still the same. As nations and cultures develop, their form of writing changes as well.

“Scholars are said to study litterae, “letters,” not words.” The first biblical pointillist, Cassiodorus, started to instill the idea of punctuation. He said that this concept made writing more attractive for the readers to read. Still, writers have to be moderate in the use of them.

Quotations are another big part of writing. These marks are the ones that “mark an intrusion into what is almost sacred, into closed world of subjective expression.” According to Q as in Quotation adding quotes to a text, measures the author’s enthusiasm on his will to open to the outside world.

Even though we have been taught since we were little the correct use of punctuation we continue to make mistakes. If these marks are used incorrectly, they have the power of changing what the writer wants to transmit. What we have been examining in class is essential for learning how to write, improving this skill can change our way of writing drastically. Learning how to use the other marks of punctuation can make our writing more professional., therefore we have to learn!

Teenage Boys and Brent Runyon

It is very interesting how Brent uses writing tricks to connect with the reader. “Stop tearing. They are tearing at me. Tearing away my skin. Please stop. Please” (pg. 26) reading this part of the book made me feel compassion with Brent. This was his goal, make the reader feel connected with what he is felling. Repeating the word “please” shows how he in a way feels stopped, he is forced, forced by a part of him that tells him to committee suicide.

Teenagers. Big word, thinking that one passed from being a little kid to almost a grown up, makes kids feel important and exited. This is the way Runyon feels. While writing he says such thing as “I hope I don’t get an erection” this makes the reader feel Brent’s immatureness when talking about erection. Teenage boys must connect with the way he describes his feelings. Talking about this is a thing that would never pass through a girls mind. Boys find this kind of topics more normal.

The way he refers to women also demonstrates his personality, “so many of the nurses here could be models. Especially Rachel and Barb And Tina, of course”  I can see how he enjoys when the nurses take care of him. All the boys would love to have pretty nurses taking care of them! Especially if they are the ones dressing them.  At least he finds some kind of distraction. All the day lying on bed, this should be very boring.

 “I’ve got these two great door-sized posters, both of the same girl in the same skimpy underwear…… She’s so sexy.” (pg. 192) the way he uses the word “sexy” shows his need of some distraction in that depressing hospital room. This is relates perfectly with how my friends buy the SOHO notebooks with the girls in bikini in the cover. As teenagers they need this distraction and fantasy showing how they are going through a phase. 

The Power of Word Choice

Throughout the memoir, Brent Runyon uses a unique choice of writing, he tries to appeal to us as readers by using language that we can relate to.

“I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish, I wish. I wish ” pg.106. Brent felt regret. How was he able to burn himself? I continue to ask myself that same question. Repeating the words over and over show the level of stress Brent is going through. He didn’t realize the pain he was putting himself into when he decided to commit suicide.

While writing Runyon continues to repeat the word “fuck”, he makes the reader feel his desperation. He fucks every single thing that goes against his wishes. “Oh, fuck God, this hurts” (pg 93) “fucking Jesus Christ this fucking hurts” (pg. 93).  In third grade my teacher always corrected me to say the word “Gosh” instead of “God” because she said I was disrespectful. With this on my mind I see Brent as a very disrespectful person that really doesn’t care how he refers to God. One shouldn’t use God’s name in vain. Christians who read this book could get disturbed.

Brent’s uses word choice so he can relate more to the readers, and like this express his feelings even more sincere. By reading the way he writer and the fact that continuously he repeats the f-words makes the readers also remember that he is just a teenager. His style of expression is very liberal.

The way Runyon chooses insulting words while he writes such as “that’s fucking stupid” (pg. 188) makes the reader feel intimidated by the way he writes. When he describes the scenes such as “then she put her hand on top of my penis, outside my pants” (pg. 103) I was disturbed. Now I understand why my teacher insisted that this was a men book. I ignored this comment and decided to choose it so here are the consequences. 

Visual Vocabulary

Here are some new words from the memoir The Burn Journals.

Pudding: noun. a dessert with a creamy consistency.

Crane: noun, a tall machine used for moving heavy objects.

Crimson: adj, a rich deep red color inclining to purple.

Arsenic: noun, the chemical element of atomic number 33.

.

Oozing: verb, flow in a very gradual way.

Rod: a thin staight bar of wood or metal

Violence, a Daily Issue!

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As time passes Brent is getting better. Now, he is more active in his writing. While writing Brent includes a lot of details that make the text more interesting to read. The TV program Cops, impacted me a lot and made me remember to a similar story about a woman that got beat up by her husband. This story was a big scandal in our society. All the news and popular magazines were talking about this. One day after a party arriving drunk to his house he was very angry because of a personal problem. He started to beat up his wife making her face deform and turning all her body to a gigantic purple stain. The next morning she couldn’t believe what had happen to her. All her face was hurt and she had no other way out than to go to the hospital to get professional care. This was a nation-wide scandal, she sued him for a lot of money. They went to court and the women won obviously, the man had to go to jail and in the process she dropped all the charges. Three months later they went back together after this big problem. This is a perfect example of how love can make people take bad decisions that at the end they make no sense at all.

Unfortunately, we live in a country that this same story happens very often.  Colombian women are exposed to this conflict daily, especially the ones in the low social status, man beat up their wife’s because they want to feel superior, specially when they are drunk. Most of the naïve women think this is ok because their husbands are the head of the family, this is all a problem of ignorance. In a developed nation’s society this kind of problems don’t happen, if it happens it will have sevier consequences making people scared of repeating it, while here the legal system takes for ever coming up with consequences that will fix this problem . 

Never Give UP!

During these few pages, Brent’s tone changed. Now he is a little more optimistic about his problem. He is looking forward to walk and feels that every day he is getting better. After the operation everything within him changed. He felt that the operation will help him go out of the misery he is living.

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He now describes his routine and explains every single thing he does. During his mom’s birthday he decorated every part of the hospital room, he was happy because of his mother’s amusement when she saw all the posters and balloons and stuff. While reading this I could connect it with a movie about a men that is in a pursuit of happiness, as well as Brent that is fighting over his injuries. This movie is called The Pursuit of Happiness, which is about a man that fights over all the possible problems human kind could pass through. It relates to this memoir of Brent Runyon because in a way Brent is fighting over all his injuries. When he starts to walk this shows how little by little Brent is overcoming all his problems and is reaching his goal of being perfect once again. Throughout the movie, the main character, Chris, fights and tries to overcome all the problems he faces. Chris’ life is very hard. He has to deal with his little son Christopher and with all his economic problems that he faces during the movie. Having all the pressure in him makes him fight over everything to make his life more admirable. The life of this character is a prefect example of how a person can reach what they want no matter what. This could be related with Brent. The only difference is that he put himself in this situation of not knowing what will happen with his life. Instead of enjoying the opportunity of life he just gave up and with the first problem that was in his way he decide to suicide. The end of this movie is very exiting, well, as the majority of movies it has a happy ending were the main characters life haply ever after. Since this piece of writing is a memoir, it is obvious that it will have a happy ending because the writer it telling his story. While Runyon writes he leaves it clear that he overcame all his problems but in a way he prefers to avoid the description of the entire situation, this brings him memories of all the things he passed through. Brent should take as an example the life of Chris. He faced every day a different problem and with his perseverance he managed to succeed and stand out. 

The Importance of Making Good Decisions

Brent is now more descriptive. He is aware of the damage he did to his body. When he starts to describe the way they bath him, it was very funny as Tina asked him if he has ever been to Boston, he says no and then Tina says part of him has been there, she is referring to the new skin they are putting in his body. I try to understand how someone can harm their body so badly, the way he describes all his injuries make me feel some shivers. Since little I’ve been taught that the biggest present of life is coming to the world, sincerely, Brent stresses me out. This teenage boy has everything to be happy, decides to make his life miserable because of a stupid little problem. I understand that he was scared because of the consequences of being expelled out of school, but I continue to wonder how there are other ways to solve these problems. Each page I read I become more secure and happy about myself because of having the life I have. I am stable emotionally and only reading Brent’s story makes me feel happy of all the things I have in life.

There are people dying of hunger and suffering because of real serious problems and boys like Brent that have everything only invent problems to make their life more interesting, I know this is a very serious blame that I accusing, but is what I personally think about this kinds of people.

While reading this memoir of Brent Runyon I analyze and think the kind of choices people make in life. These choices are the ones that shape each one of us. Our personality is shaped by the actions we make in life and this can change our life drastically. Brent is a perfect example of this, he was a normal teenage boy that is now psychologically marked because of the bad decision he took when burning himself. Not only the physical marks are going to stay in his body marking himself for all his life but also the feeling of disgust knowing that he tried to suicide. This is why from now on, every time I make a decision I will think on the consequences this decision will bring, if it is good or bad and how is this going to affect me emotionally. 

The Way Out

Until what have read, I risk myself to say that Brent’s tone is clinical, he never adds emotion to his writing, however I think this will change throughout the book.

Brent is writing about the things that are happening around him instead of talking about his feelings toward his situation. He tends to skim through his story leaving behind a lot of details needed to know him better. When receiving the tape with all his classmates saying hello I could infer the way he felt frustration. After all he has a psychological problem, he is a very popular boy that is trapped in a world of disappointment, however he is very exited because of Alida visit. Being in the hospital for that amount of time must be very frustrating, well he has nothing to do rather than sitting down and staring at the roof. From my point of view he is very confused, talking to Alida gave him some internal peace.

I really feel sorry for Brent’s parents, they should feel is there fault that their child committed suicide, every time he refers to the accident he says it was because he felt pressure form his parents. They should be very strict and pressure him to do well in school. It is very confusing how he sometimes says that he is a very good student. “They put me in this program for smart kids called GT, which stands for Gifted and Talented”, anybody that sees Brent by street thinks he is a very secure, popular and intelligent person. This is very tricky because as he has all this qualities he is a very weak person, that finds the way out blaming his parents after his actions. 

The Power of Influence

"I put my heart and my soul into my work, and have lost mind in the process."
Vincent van Gogh

Vincent can Gogh is one of the biggest influences for Brent. This popular impressionist artist could be a really good role model in a way, but in the other hand he can be a very bad influence for teenagers, especially for Brent that could feel indentify with his weakness. As well as Brent, van Gogh committed suicide, Brent specifies in his work, this is not the first time he tries to take the biggest present from life, I question a lot this type of persons. Brent was a fan of van Gogh and sometimes he can feel he is doing the right thing since his favorite artiste did this. Boys like Brent are more likely to start consuming drugs, these insecure and weak personalities find the way out to their problems in these substances. They are depressed and feel happiness by consuming drugs. These kinds of persons are the ones that end up screwing all their life up because of insecurity. Most of the people blame the society for all the problems of weak persons such as Brent, but after all we are society, and as much as people blame, they are blaming themselves.