Tales of the Madman Underground Post

            Has a loss ever affected your family? In the book Tales of the Madman

Underground by John Barnes, Karl, an 18 year-old senior in high school, has a mom

whose actions made his life tough. Ever since his father passed away, his mom has

picked off of him. Because of his mom, Karl’s life is all about work, 24/7.

            Karl’s mom’s actions make me feel sorry for him. For example, whenever Karl

makes money from his five jobs, his mom always takes it to buy cigarettes and alcohol.

This makes Karl have to work more than usual, and hide the money. This is important because this gives Karl another thing to worry about. He already has a bunch of burdens he’s carrying around. This makes Karl feel paranoid and upset. This makes the reader understand that Karl has a lot of pressure and that his life is like a scale. If he makes one side too heavy, his life will just sink.

            The reason for this is that his mom is trying to, still, cope with her husband’s

death. So, she’s always getting drunk, and bringing guys home every night. Another

reason may be that she’s upset she also lost her job as a substitute teacher for children.

She loved her job. Ending her job probably made her insecure of other jobs, making her

not want to work anymore. Thus, causing her to instinctively bum off of Karl.

            In real life, there are probably lots of teens with parents who are always drunk, so

they have to work for themselves, and care for themselves, just like Karl.

            What I’m really trying to say is that Karl’s life is really tough since his mom is

not even taking her role as a parent. In other words, she’s the child while Karl is the

parent. All she needs, really, is a helping hand to get her back on her feet. Since there are

probably many parents in the same situation, they also need a helping hand, which can

also save the children from the burden of money, bills, etc.

Summer Reading Summary

Over the summer, I read The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Macker. In the story, Emma, a girl in high school during the 90's, finally gets a computer and sets up an AIM account. She happens to come over a website called Facebook, in which she thought told the future. She lets her friend, Josh, into the secret. She learns things she is not supposed to know, and tries to change them in the present, making huge ripples through time. She constantly keeps changing things in the present to avoid the bad events in the future. Josh keeps telling her that she is being selfish and will just end up having a bad future every time since she's never satisfied. Emma tells Josh it's him being selfish because he's afraid that his future, in which he's married to the "hottest" girl in school, would also be erased. But that's not what he wanted. Because of this fight, their friendship was broken. In the present, and the future. I think that Emma was being selfish. Just because you don't like the way it turns out, doesn't mean you NEED to change it. Like that song, you can't always get what you want. In the end, the future Emma deleted her Facebook account, which made Emma realize the truth. Josh also realized that he didn't want to live with the future, but with the present. In the end, they made up and became best friends again. And a couple, leaving the future the least of their cares.