Dialectical Journal #22: Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
“’Perhaps roused by the sound of Fred and their father’s arrival, George stirred.            ‘How do you feel, Georgie?’ whispered Mrs. Weasley.            George’s fingers groped for the side of his head.            ‘Saint-like,’ he murmured.           ‘What’s wrong with him?’ croaked Fred, looking terrified. ‘Is his mind affected?’            ‘Saint-like,’ repeated George, opening his eyes and looking at his brother. ‘You see, I’m holy. Holey, Fred, geddit?’            Mrs. Weasley sobbed harder than ever. Color flooded Fred’s pale face.”	74	(R) I absolutely love the twins, Fred and George! They are always joking around and act like they don’t have a care in the world, but they care very deeply for one another! And even though George had just lost and ear he wasted no time feeling sorry for himself. Nope, he started joking around immediately. If I was him I would have cried myself a river and then attempt to drown myself in it. I think they are fantastic, those twins.

Dialectical Journal #21: Catching Fire

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “When I swim back into semiconsciousness, I can feel I’m lying on a padded table. There’s the pinching sensation of tubes in my left arm. They are trying to keep me alive because if I slide quietly, privately into death, it will be a victory. I’m still largely unable to move, open my eyelids, raise my head… yet I manage to swing my arm around until I rip the tubes out. A beeping goes off but I can’t stay awake to find out who it summons ·         The next time I surface, my hands are tied down to the table, the tubes back in my arm…. Directly across from me I see Beetee with about 10 different machines hooked up to him. Just let us die! I scream in my mind. I slam my head back hard on the table and go out again."	·         382	·         (R) 1) WHERE IS PEETA???? ·         2) Even though I know Katniss must be scared out of her mind, being picked up by a hovercraft that she believes is filled with capital witches and all, but I can’t help feel she’s taking things a bit too far. Slamming your head on a table? Really? Then again, on top of all the stuff that’s happening around her, PEETA IS MISSING! Suzanne Collins can never leave that boy alone! It’s not fair! I wish Katniss would stop being sick and crazy and go find him. I mean, where would this story be without the boy with the bread?

Dialectical Journal #20: Catching Fire

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “As we near the force field, Finnick suggests I take the lead. ‘Katniss can hear the force field,’ he explains to Beetee and Johanna. ·         ‘Hear it?’ asks Beetee ·         ‘Only with the ear the capital reconstructed,’ I say. Guess who I’m not fooling with that story? Beetee. Because surely he remembers that he showed me how to spot a force field, and probably it’s impossible to hear force fields anyway. But, for whatever reason, he doesn’t question my claim.”	·         362	·         (R) I’m curious to why Beetee didn’t question Katniss on the “super hearing” she seems to have. He seems like the type that would take any opportunity they had to learn something new. Perhaps he was smart enough to figure out that Katniss wanted to keep the ability to see force fields a secret. I’m not exactly sure why she wants to keep it a secret, anyway. Maybe just so she can have something on the Capital that they don’t know about, like how to make out force fields.

Dialectical Journal #19: Catching Fire

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “Finnick is trying to tell me something, but I can’t hear him. What I do finally hear is another bird starting up somewhere to my left. And this time, the voice is Gale’s. ·         Finnick catches my arm before I can run. ‘No. it’s not him.’ He starts pulling me downhill, toward the beach. But Gale’s voice is so full of pain I can’t help struggling to reach it. ‘It’s not him, Katniss! It’s a mutt!’ Finnick shouts at me. ‘Come on!’ He moves me along, half dragging, half carrying me, until I can process what he said."	·         342-3	·         (R) Katniss, at times, can be such deadweight! If I was Finnick, I would have left her to run around, or whatever it was that her little brain desired, and gotten myself out of there! That girl knows that Gale is not actually in the arena and chasing his voice would do more harm than good yet she still tries to chase it!!! She was the one who found out that the voices were coming from mutts anyway! I mean, come on Katniss! I know rationality is not one of your strong suits, but pull it together! For Peeta’s sake.

Dialectical Journal #18: Catching Fire

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
·         “This seems to draw Wiress in her direction and she careens into Johanna, who harshly shoves her on the beach. ‘Just stay down, will you?’ ·         ‘Lay off her,’ I snap. ·         Johanna narrows her brown eyes at me in hatred. ‘Lay off her?’ she hisses. She steps forward before I can react and slaps me so hard I see stars. ‘Who do you think got them out of that bleeding jungle for you? You-‘ Finnick tosses her writhing body his shoulder and carries her out into the water and repeatedly dunks her while she screams a lot of really insulting things at me.’	·         320	·         (R) I feel kind of happy that Katniss got slapped. It didn’t happen at one of the more convenient parts, but it still happened! Johanna, though, seems to be a mad woman. I thought Katniss had trouble controlling her anger, and then Suzanne Collins brings in this girl. I’m a bit leery of  Peeta and Katniss forming an alliance with such an unstable person. But Johanna gets stuff done, which counts for something. Also, she seems like the kind of person who tells it like it is, no beating around the bush. Even if she’s a little crazy, hopefully she’ll help the group get farther in the competition.

Dialectical Journal #17: Catching Fire

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
“Finnick’s back by my side, Peeta hanging over him. ‘It’s no use,’ I say. ‘Can you take them both? Go on ahead, I’ll catch up.’ A somewhat doubtful proposal, but I say it with as much surety as I can muster.            I can see Finnicks eyes, green in the moonlight. I can see them as clear as day. Almost like a cat’s, with a strange reflective quality. Maybe because they are shiny with tears. ‘No,’ he says… ‘I’m sorry, Mags. I can’t do it.’            What happens next is so fast, so senseless, I can’t even move to stop it. Mags hauls herself up, plants a kiss on Finnicks lips, and then hobbles straight into the fog. Immediately, her body is seized by wild contortions and she falls to the ground in a horrible dance.”	301	(R) I don’t know a lot about Mags, but I feel that if I did, I would finally have a favorite female character in this book. I think it’s incredible that she gave up her own life in order to save Peeta’s. But now Finnick is sad!!! These people rarely get to be happy. I don’t understand how the people of the Capitol can enjoy this. What is entertaining about watching 24 kids, or currently 24 victors, fight to the death? Or be killed off by malicious Gamemakers?

Dialectical Journal #16: Catching Fire

Passages From The Text	Pg #	Comments & Questions
“’ You were dead! Your heart stopped!’ I burst out, before really considering if this is a good idea. I clap my hand over my mouth because I’m starting to make those awful choking sounds that happen when I sob.            ‘Well, it seems to be working now,’ he says. ‘It’s all right Katniss.’ I nod my head but the sounds aren’t stopping…            ‘It’s okay, it’s just her hormones,’ says Finnick. ‘From the baby.’…            ‘No. It’s not-‘ I get out before I’m cut off by an even more hysterical round of sobbing that seems to only confirm what Finnick said about the baby. He meets my eyes and I glare at him through the tears…            I expect to see a smug or sarcastic expression on his face, but his look is strangely quizzical. He glances between Peeta and me, as if trying to figure something out, then gives his head a slight shake as if to clear it.”	281-2	(R) I really, really, want to jump into the book and give Katniss a good shake. SHE IS IN LOVE WITH THAT BOY. What needs to happen before she realizes this? He died and she still hasn’t come to grips with that little fact. Finnick, I gather, was informed of Peeta and Katniss’s “arrangement”. I think that was why he looked confused. He probably was not expecting Katniss to start bawling like that. Probably because he didn’t think she actually cared.