A Million Little Pieces; Post Two

What is the main character's personality and what motivates them?

In the memoir A Million Little Pieces by James Frey, like I said in my first post the main character is James Frey. So far, James' personality hasn't completely shown through. Because James is going through treatment he is often on medicines and extremely tired. Most of the time he isn't feeling well because he is so used to being high which makes him sick. From what I have read in the memoir I can tell that he is pretty laid back, polite and motivated. James tries to go with the flow, when he is asked to do something he does it without complaining even if he doesn't feel well. Another personality trait that he shows is politeness, he seems like a tough guy on the outside but on the inside he's kind. When the doctors in the facility help him through his hard times, he makes sure thank them and treat them right. The last trait James portray's leads into the next part of the question. James is motivated.

He shows this through a variety of actions in the beginning of his memoir. Motivation is portrayed when James says, "I think about the ruin, devastation and wreckage i have caused to myself and to others. I think about how and why and what happened..." (26). I believe this shows that he is motivated to get back on track and take control of his life. One other thing he mentions is, " My life is Hell, has been Hell for too long. If I keep going I'm going to die. I'm not sure I want to be dead yet" (30). This really demonstrates that James doesn't want to die. He's ready to be a different person and keep living life, differently that is.

A Million Little Pieces; Post One

I am reading the novel A Million Little Pieces by James Frey. This novel is about a 23 year old man named James who wakes up on an airplane. He does not know where the plane was going to or coming from. James doesn’t have any memory of the past two weeks. He awakes to find, “My front four teeth are gone, I have a hold in my cheek, my nose is broken and my eyes are swollen nearly shut” (1).

James is an alcoholic and abuses drugs, “Pills, acid, mushrooms, meth, PCP and glue” (9). Shortly after waking he checks into a facility for treatment. As the novel moves on James’ appearance gets fixed, the hole in his cheek is sewn, a dentist fixes his teeth and a doctor re-breaks his nose in order to grow properly. Basically, we learn about the beginning of James’ recovery and what he is going through.

He works with many doctors and nurses to figure out how they will repair James. They take many surveys about how much drinking and drugs he does per week. Along with the surveys he is required to take certain antibiotics each day. Along with the doctors he becomes acquainted with he also meets a few new people who are going through treatment too. He comes across a bully, a woman named Lilly and his roommates, Larry and Warren.

Black Boy; Post Three

People write memoirs for a variety of reasons. In my case I have only written memoirs for English class. Other authors write memoirs for a living. The reason memoirs are written is to share with the reader more about the author. You can gain a lot of knowledge from reading someone’s memoir. Another reason why we write memoirs is for pure entertainment of certain moments in life that are memorable. One last reason why memoirs are written are to shares with others the lesson the author learned from their experience. For example in Black Boy, he wrote about the time he accidentally burned his house down because it was something he learned from and wants to remember what he did wrong.

The power in writing memoirs about our lives is voice. In writing memoirs we are able to share our side of the story. Through memoirs we are able to write exactly what we want and readers will know that it’s you telling the story. Voice is such a powerful thing in writing and I really think that it shows through in memoirs especially. By showing your voice through writing you are given the power to show different sides of your personality, which makes your writing well… yours!

Black Boy; Post Two

One specific thing Richard hungers for throughout this novel is simply food. During the book Richard often shows he feels hungry, we know this because he bluntly tells us and his father, the primary supporter of the family, left. His family is poor and early on in Black Boy his mother becomes very ill. This leads to moving in with the grandparents, which means more people need to be fed. The outcome of Richard’s hunger brings about many effects, both positive and negative. One positive effect of Richard being hungry for food is that he is determined to obtain a job, in order to sustain his hunger. He searches for jobs that his grandmother approves of which sometimes meets his need of hunger. Richard’s hunger leads to negative effects, which produces negative attitudes. Obviously, a negative effect of Richard’s hunger for food is being hungry all the time. His family cannot provide enough food to satisfy everyone, so hunger brings tension into the household. One example is early on in the book when Richard has been ordered to go to the market for groceries, he is so determined to get what is mother asked. His hunger leads to him bashing the bully’s skull so he can get the store without being mugged. This is an extreme negative effect that goes along with feeling starving.

Throughout the first eight chapters of Black Boy we see Richards increasing hunger for knowledge. His constant need for more hunger starts on page one and grows rapidly as the story goes on. In chapter seven and eight we see that in order for Richard to continue his schooling will do go to any extent. Richard begs for a job and finally is able to get one. Richard struggles to find respect, wage, hours, boss or work. He is often in and out of jobs. We realize that most of these things are unrealistic to find in a job. Richard goes against his whole family to overachieve his goals. Richard pays for clothing and books for school. He also walks for long distances through rough conditions to get there. The positive effects are that Richard will be very well educated and he will get a decent if not good job in order to work himself. This may also help his family get out of poverty. The negative effects are Richard’s struggles with his family and money in order to get the schooling he needs. Richard describes himself as being separated from his classmates, due to his deep interest in schooling and writing. Richard works through the struggles and strives to be more than his family.

Black Boy; Post One

The author of the autobiography, Black Boy, Richard Wright, makes many mistakes and gets blamed for them immediately. I think that there should be a difference between blaming someone directly or the environment. Many people get confused, when blaming someone; they don’t realize that there is a difference in the consequences when blaming the person instead of the environment. I don’t think that Richard is a bad boy; he grew up in an environment where his parents weren’t ever home to teach him properly. When someone does something out of line, many people jump to conclusions that the person knew that their actions were wrong and they still decided to take them.

Readers realize that Richard is always blamed for his mistakes before the blamer thinks about the situation, throughout the first chapter. At the beginning of the novel Richard was forbidden to make noise and he must stay inside all day because of his sick grandmother. Because of Richard’s boredom and curiosity he lights his home on fire. In this particular situation he is too young to realize that his actions of lighting the house on fire were wrong. After the house is well…gone, Richard gets beat by his father because he is so frustrated with his son. This is a situation where the person immediately gets upset with the young child when really the environment sparked his actions. Towards the end of the chapter we come along a situation where Richard has learned swear words at school so he decides to write these naughty words on his neighbor’s windows with a bar of soap. His mom beats him. This is an example where Richard was rightfully blamed because he was aware his actions were wrong yet decided to do it anyway. A time when you should be blamed and not the environment is when you know what you’re doing is wrong yet you do it anyway.

About Steph

My name is Stephanie but most people call me Steph. I am in Ms.F's Enriched English 10 class, this will be my second year in the enriched language arts course. I'm part of a six person family and two dogs. I am very involved at my church, St. Patricks in Edina, I love the community and being there makes me feel welcome! That's a little bit about me to get my blog up and running.