11/30/13

   Over Thanksgiving break, there were many specials on tv having to do with President Kennedy's assassination. I watched some of these specials with my dad, and he convinced me to read the book Killing Kennedy by Bill O'Reilly.  Granted with all of the eating and sleeping, I have only had the chance to read the first 20 pages.  But so far, I am quite interested and intrigued.  Yes the conspiracy is extremely interesting and even the facts leading up to Kennedy's assassination are interesting, but what I found interesting is the way the book is written.  Thanks to AP Lit, I found myself looking at the way the novel was written instead of just reading the book for information. It occurred to me that depending on the way the book is written a reader could be persuaded to believe that Kennedy was a great man or that he was an awful president.  The way the book is written could also influence the reader to believe the conspiracy against Kennedy or believe that a single man was in charge of his assassination.  In my opinion, O'Reilly does a pretty good job at stating the facts and keeping his opinion out of the novel so far.   It dawned on me though that an author has the power to make a reader believe or feel the way he or she wants by using the right syntax and diction.  A writer can make you hate a character by using negative diction or make you love a character by using positive diction.  How else do we have heroes and enemies?!  I do not read a lot of non fiction novels because to be honest I never found anything interesting about non fiction works.  Why would I want to read about something in real life when I could escape and read about a fantasy works that I only wish existed.  However, the more I think about it, I think non fiction works could be interesting. The author must have to focus on not sounding bias when writing non fiction novels. I know I would personally have a difficult time keeping my opinion out of certain real life situations. A question usually asked in English classes usually is "Can we trust the narrator and author?" "How do we know he or she is not biased?" After reading Frankenstein and Age of Innocence, it is common for authors to put aspects of their own life into their work.  If an author hates 15 year old boys who play guitar, then it is likely for them to negatively describe a character like that in his or her novel which could in turn convince the reader that 15 year old boys who play guitar are awful human beings.  How can we trust that not every author or narrator is biased? Is it possible for people to not be biased?  I think that no matter how hard we try, people will always sound at least a little bit biased.  The wording of every novel would have to be bland and perflectly worded as to not make people feel a certain way about a character or situation. Oh so complicated! Anyway it is time for me to either read some more or maybe go take a nap. We'll see which option wins!