2

At the end of the book, Joe realizes that he is the future. By that, he means wars and the outcome of wars are the future. He believes that once people see him, they will see how horrible war is and would never want to fight again, and that could possibly prevent the horrible future that Joe believes in.
He is pointing the gun at the people with the power because all they do is just to declare war against countries and send troops to fight for the country, however they never do

1

I don’t know what kind of situations I could compare Joe’s situation to. So, I’m just going to assume that I am in the same situation as Joe. I think I agree with Joe’s desires. I don’t think I would come up with his desires right away. It would probably take a while for me to accept that I am stuck and there is no way out but for me to work at a circus to make money. However, I do agree that it I the only way out of the situation and I think it is very realistic of him to figure out ways to get out of the hospital. Also, I would really want to communicate with people around me as well. I think wanting to communicate with others is such a basic desire that people don’t realize how important it is.

EX

First off, I thought the musical was fantastic. It was funny and interesting. Interesting because I had “gender stereotypes” in mind. Like every other fairy tales, the Queen appeared to be insanely unreasonably unkind. Also, the red custom she wore in the beginning of the musical reminded me of a devil. The queen was portrayed as a typical evil and stick queen. For example, in sleeping beauty or Cinderella, both of the queens are evil, and they always seem to have the power to be extra mean. Also, even though there were some qualities that I didn’t really approve of of the king, like when he would chase after girls and touch their butt, at the end of the musical, he was the “good” guy. He gained his power (symbolized with voice) back when the queen lost hers. Also, when the Prince started to sing, his voice changed completely to a “manly man” voice, instead of his rather girly voice. If he were to sing in his girly voice, I think how people would have interpreted the song would be very different, since princes are supposed to be manly and brave. Also, I can’t remember Elise Vreede’s character’s name, but even though she wanted to leave, not particularly to solve her problems but to avoid conflicts, people sort of stopped her so that she could depend on her future husband.
By the queen, the prince was pressured to be “perfect”, and by the society the female characters were pressured to be talkative, dependent, and more.

wants

Joe wants to be a freak-show person in the circus, which will help him get out of the hospital. He also wants to get out of the hospital because he wants to go home. Therefore, working as a freak-show person will allow him to make, which, he thinks, will ultimately allow him to go back to America. However, it is not easy for him to go back to America because people tell him that it is against regulations. (But, really there aren’t regulations; people are just telling him that there are so he would give up.) It is “against regulations” because the people in power don’t want civilians to see what war can do to people. They don’t want to impose negative views on war, because they think the military would collapse.

Injuries

I never thought it would be possible to have no legs, no arms, and no face. However, now that I think about it, even though it is sort of creepy to think about how a person without no legs, no arms and no face would look like, it is possible. For example, I think Joe would look something like Voldemord in Harry Porter--But of course, not evil. So, Joe has no legs, no arms, and no face. This affects him because he can’t see, he can’t smell, he can’t taste, and he can’t feel. This is important because since he can’t move much, he is stuck on his bed pondering all day. Because of the injuries, he is more aware of himself, but at the same time he can’t communicate with others, which makes everything hard for him.

Marriage

The definition he uses can be divided into three groups. He talks about the social status that marriages gives you, the benefits that marriage provide you through the government, and lastly the relationship. I agree with his definition, however more details could be added on to it. Because marriage is for everyone regardless of the gender, race, and etc, they should be based off of the things that you are not necessarily in control of. For example, you as an individual cannot decide the benefits for being married. Also, as a society, we decide what kind of social status we are going to give to married couples.

household

I understand where he is going with this metaphor of a single parent household possibly being an airplane that crashes, but I don’t particularly agree with him. How I understood the metaphor is that the household with “natural” parents will have children who will be successful, but on the other hand, because a single parent household is not a “natural” one, their children won’t be successful. I guess it all really depends on how people define success, because only about top 10% of the population has the “power” such as big money and fame. I don’t think it’s anybody’s rights to tell people what to do or what not to do. Because somebody believes that “unnatural households” wouldn’t be as successful as the “natural households”, that doesn’t mean that people should dismiss them.
I’m still thinking about different ways to “justify” the “unnatural households”. I think it has to do with different terminologies. Misha and I were having dinner one night and we talked about this, and he and I argued about the term “marriage” and the effect of the term “marriage” on the society. Misha told me that because marriage is a Christian term, it’s not fair for them for homosexuals to call their “union” a marriage. Although, I understand that I didn’t really understand the importance of the term. Things change, and people change, why can’t a term “marriage” evolve into something that means more than just a Christian term that describes a “union” of a woman and a man?