Hey everyone! Small change: we have moved this discussion over to Canvas! See below for instructions.
You will be writing a commentary on the book you will have finished for the Independent Reading Requirement this term. Post the commentary and your reply to someone else’s commentary on CANVAS! (slcschools.instructure.com –login: first name . last initial last 3 numbers in school ID @slcstudents.org –password: your usual password)
Requirements of this assignment:
-Each commentary should be at least 300 words long and written as a personal, critical response to the book
-Select at least one passage from your book that you think is significant, in terms of how you reacted to the book’s theme, problem, character development, or plot arc, or to the author’s style. Choose a chunk of text that you think shows something essential. In your commentary, quote—copy—the passage you chose, and write about what you think it shows about the book, the author, or your response to either.
-Cite the name of the author of the book and its title.
-Also write a 100 word response to another person’s commentary.
Ms. Sorensen's English Class 
The main theme of Catch-22 is how powerful and frightening bureaucracy can be. Throughout the entire book, soldiers are manipulated and used unreasonably by their higher powers. The soldiers have little say or control on how their lives play out and if they try to resist or argue they are punished and attacked with illogical explanations for why they can’t be reasoned with.
A perfect example of the illogical nature of the bureaucracy in the novel is when the main character, Yossarian, tries to claim he is insane in order to get discharged. They will not discharge Yossarian because every time he completes the requirement of missions he needs to do they raise the amount so he has to complete more. In an attempt to get discharged in another way, Yossarian claims to be insane so he can go home. The response he gets is that he must be sane because he realizes he gets to go home if he claims he’s insane. “ Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions”, this was a quote from Catch-22 that shows the bureaucracy in action.
I found certain parts of Joseph Heller’s writing to be very interesting and at times hard to follow. He used countless plays on words that made me have to read over certain passages multiple times. Although it got confusing at parts, it made the book much more interesting and fun to read to see what the next twist on words would be.
All around i really enjoyed reading Catch-22 and would recommend it to anyone looking for a classic book that is at times difficult but very fun to explore the different themes and twists throughout the book. Although the majority of the story is from Yossarian’s point of view, there are other side stories that are interesting and add on to the rest of the story.
Author: Joseph Heller
Novel: Catch-22
Commentary: Niko Dyer
(couldn’t get canvas to work so I had to submit it here)
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I really like the moral that you pulled from this story. It is very interesting that the story uses the theory of bureaucracy in the story.You explained the story very well in terms of what happened and how the moral/ theme ties to the actions. This book seems very interesting. When you said the book was a little confusing at times I like how you turned that into a positive and said it made the book more interesting and fun to read. Your commentary hit all the elements of a good commentary in my opinion and explained your book in a way that made me want to read it.
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I read the book, Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot by Ace Atkins. I really enjoyed this book. The main idea of this book in my opinion is to never give up on situations that seem impossible. Throughout the whole book situations and issues seemed to be recurring but the main character Spenser who is a personal detective always tried his best to help his client Kinjo who is a famous NFL player find his son who has been kidnapped. No matter what Spenser always is working one hundred percent. Spenser is a perfect example of a person that never gives up on situations.
One sentence from the book that really stuck with me while reading was, “Spenser puts together his own all-star team of toughs.” This sentence was made in the front cover of the book. This sentence shows that Spenser never gives up because even when people gave up on the case he made his own team to fight crime and come down to last people that could have possibly kidnapped Kinjo’s son. Towards the end of the book The feds gave up on the case because they stopped getting tweets from the potential kidnappers so they just assumed that the kid was dead. When this happened Spenser gathered his friends, Z and Hawk.
In the end people became desperate to find out what people did this. Spenser traveled to different states to find out while the police and feds just stayed in Kinjo’s multi-million dollar mansion drinking coffee and playing on their laptops. Spenser did everything he could possibly do and came out successful in the act. Spenser’s victory shows that if you try as hard as you can and never give up you will most likely turn out with a positive outcome. So the moral of the story is never give up and always give your one hundred percent while trying to succeed.
Stephanie Campbell
Robert B. Parker’s Cheap Shot
By: Ace Atkins
(I couldn’t post to Canvas)
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