NAME: Faith Burila
DATE: October 17, 2010
TITLE: A Million Little Pieces
TIME: 2 HOURS
AUTHOR: James Frey
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 52
START: FINISH: 61 - 113
What is confusing in this book? Why? (Be specific) How did what you read today make you feel? Why?
During my reading this week, a lot of things happened. James (Drug and alcohol addict), had a very frightening dream. The chapter explained that he was in a room, alone, with bottles of liquor and wine everywhere, along with a large pile of white cocaine and a giant bag of yellow crack. There was also more items on the table such as glue, a pipe, a torch, and a can filled with gasoline. In this dream, James knew that no one was watching him and that no one could stop him from doing anything with the drugs or drinks on the table. He started with the alcohol, because his body was craving it. Eventually, he consumed everything on the table, and enjoyed the high. This kind of confused me at first because I thought it was real and not a dream. Thinking it wasn't a dream, it really disappointed me that he knew this was bad for him, but continued to do otherwise. I really thought he was going to do anything to get better and to become sober. Then I found out it was a dream.
Another thing that happened in my reading this week was James got into a fight with one of the patients in the clinic named Roy. Roy immediately dislikes James and tries to get him thrown out. He threatens James to clean the group toilets thoroughly and make them "sparkle", or else he will tell on him. This really annoyed me that someone could be so rude, but I later read that Roy has some type of personality disorder. James responds to Roy's threat by grabbing him by the throat, and throwing him against the wall. He does this several times until a few clinic workers come and stop the fight. I was really shocked by this, because I don't see James as a violent person. It made me think about James twice, and weather or not I should be on his side. Something that confused me in this part was James said, "The Fury has risen." I think he was talking about his temper, but he used this term a couple times and it's not clear to me what it is.
One last thing that happened in this book so far is he thought of his loneliness, eventually thinking about his friend Michelle. This part made me really sad. She was James' only friend. She was beautiful, popular, and got straight A's in school. She was the only one who saw through his flaws; the only one who didn't care that James was very violent and juvenile. During their 8th grade year, she got asked out by a high school student, who she knew her parents wouldn't approve of. James helped her lie to them, saying he was taking Michelle to the movies while she was really going on a date with the guy. On his way driving back to the Theater to take her back there, he tried beating a train across train tracks. Unfortunately, he was too slow and the train came in contact with the car. She was hit on the passenger side and instantly killed. James was blamed for this accident, and people continuously wanted to fight him for her death. This made me feel really bad, quickly seeing how bad his life was even as a teenager. I felt sympathetic for him, and it made me think about how tough his life is. I hypothetically put myself in his shoes, and imagined his life as a child, growing up and getting a lot of crap from people. This changed my perspective of him, and now I kind of understand why he is the way he is.
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