Jared's Blog Post 4

For this blog post I am going to be talking about everything we have read so far, chapters 1-25. Over the course of the book, we have seen Matt change a lot. In the beginning he was a small, unknowing young child thrown into the world. By the end of the 25 chapters he has matured a lot, and knows more than most his age. I think that all of his experiences have changed his personality a lot. Everything from, being trapped in the room in the beginning to El Patron trying to steal his organs has changed Matt from a boy into a man. So far, i have enjoyed reading this book, I think that when Celia saves Matt from El Patron it was very heartfelt because even though it might cost her life, she did it for Matt. Tam Lin also did the same for Matt, he helped him to get into Aztlan and gave him the provisions to survive. Tam Lin and Celia both cared very much for Matt’s welfare and wanted him to survive and get to Maria and her mother. I have mixed feelings about El Patron, I don’t think it is right to be making clones or using those clones to keep himself alive. I also think it was kind of him to give Matt the childhood he never would have had, even though eventually he would have to take his organs for his own gain. El Patron seemed like a nice person at the start because he seemed to truly care for Matt, and want him to someday take his place, however as we got further and learned about Eejits and Clones we realize El Patron is a vicious ruler who kills for his company and had no plans to have anybody take over his ruling. I think there has been some very amazing character development with almost every character in this book.

Bradens Blog Post 4

I have read till about chapter 31 and I'm thinking the book is a bit weird and slow at this moment. I mean Matt marries Celia? She is his mother figure but otherwise the book has been pretty entertaining. There are quite a few spots where it was boring for me. El patron dyeing wasn't very much of a surprise. After he started to show the he didn't enjoy "life" as much i knew he was going to die. The story about how Celia got to Opium was interesting and the blog post we did on it was also intriguing but i find that this book is a bit boring. Not because of the pace just where it's going is easily predictable. if farmer had made an interesting twist at the end (other than Matt marrying Celia) i would have enjoyed this book a lot more. For instance Tam Lin is Matts dad (Just throwing stuff out there) but thats just an example and it would show why Tam Lin was such a father type to Matt. Also I'm wondering if Matt is put into power in Opium how would he dispose of all the Eejits and in what way would that really change anything? Anyways overall the book was boring but still entertained me enough to want to finish it.

Robinho's Blog Post 4

in this blog post we were told to write a free post on our thoughts and comments on the book. the book has taken a big turn in chapters 20 to 25. the man we thought was a good guy el patron turned out to be a selfish man who just had matt for his hart. i felt that  this was absolutely terrible. how could he do this to matt after 14 years don’t you think that he would have been a little attached to matt. it also was hard for me to believe that this was not the first time he has done it, no it was his eighth time. it made me reconsider the whole book. from the first time we say El Patron in the book we thought of him as the saviour that saved matt from the evil hands of Rosa. but it turns out he just used him for his organs. but when you think about it there were many hints and clues like when they were celebrating matt's party. or the gift that tam lee gave matt with the book on how opium is bad and the history of his home. or when tam lee was teaching him about climbing mountains and living on his own. it was all a plan to help save him once he needed to escape. it will be really interesting to see how the rest of the book plays out. i wonder if he will make it to maria. it doesn't sound like he is getting along very well with the keeper. but my biggest question is when he does get to maria how do they plan on finding their way to the united states of america and will they be accepted. i look forward to finishing the book now that we know these secrets, what secrets do we have left to uncover?

Bradens blog post 3

Braden's blog post 3
A reason why someone may immigrate illegally is because maybe their country is poor and/or oppressive where they can no longer support their families safely or even at all. America (not just the U.S but Canada or other north American places) has always been seen as a better future to the lower classes of the world. Coming to these places was like taking a leap towards hope for their families future. I think Celia turned into a Coyote for some of the same reasons i have listed. For instance right now Mexico is quite poor and I’m assuming that the same is with this book so she could definitely have been going to the U.S for a new life. But since El Patron the “ruler/Dictator” of Opium took here in (this is assuming that she had at least someone in The U.S for her) she saw a better future with a rich dictator than who was waiting for here in the U.S.

the story in this article relates to celia because she was also coyotes into opium and that is the main key information of this article. same with celia

Robinho's Blog post 3

At the end of Chapter 14, Celia explains to Matt her side of the story when she tried to escape and flee to the United States of America, the land of the freedom. During this she tells the story of how she and 30 others paid a guy to help them get to United States of America but lead them to the farm patrol. One person died on the journey because they fell in a ditch to avoid the farm. then when she was in custody with the farm patrol El Patron met her and notice she had a familiar accent. One like the one from his home town. He let her come and work with him instead of turning her into a Eejit like everyone else that the farm patrol caught. This is how she became a servant to El Patron. i think that illegal immigrant should be shipped back to countries they came from unless they claim refugee status. because we can't just let a whole bunch of illegal immigrants come in and take over

Jared's Blog Post 3

At the end of Chapter 14, Celia tells a story about crossing the Border into the United States. She tells us how she was taken in by El Patron, while the rest were turned into Eejits. I think this is a very interesting story, because we get to see some of what illegal immigrants go through. I think the reason why Celia turned to a “coyote” to cross the border was because the conditions were so bad were she lived, that she needed to get away, even if it meant trusting somebody you didn’t know. I think Celia was probably thinking that anything would be better than her current situation. Once they got captured by the Border Patrol, Celia was very lucky because she was not turned into an Eejit. I think that although the conditions might seem horrible, there is a better way to get into the United States, If she had not turned to a coyote and instead turned to the Government, she might have been able to enter legally. Even though I believe that, if illegal immiGrants enter the United States and are then discovered i think the United States should look into the conditions which they were living in before they turn them back. Having said that we shouldn’t just allow all illegal immigrants already there to stay. It’s quite obvious that immigration is a large subject over the whole world, where people try to stiffen up their borders to stop undocumented immigrants from entering countries. To learn a little more, here is an article: http://www.usimmigrationsupport.org/illegal-immigration.html  also for a real person’s story, go here: http://www.myimmigrationstory.com/

Playlist for El Patron

Song 1: Mars by HOLST. Our reasoning for choosing this song is that it reminds you of war. El Patron seems to be the centre of a large drug war. El Patron in also very old and would probably enjoy classical music such as this. It doesn't have any vocals and we think that El Patron is more of a quiet but deadly person.

Song 2: Saturn by HOLST. Our reasoning for this song is that Saturn is very old and knowing and El Patron fits that description very well. Saturn is also a very large and important planet, and El Patron is a very large and important leader. El Patron is probably the oldest person on the world at that point and Saturn is also the bringer of old age.

Song 3: Mass by Virtual Boy. (cut out by 2:00) Our reasoning for this song is that El Patron would probably enjoy classical music, and the start of this song would be very classical and we could easily see him listening to this song. After the 2:00 mark just the general happiness of the song could describe Matt. We are not doing him right now.

Song 4: Gangster Paradise by Coolio (clean). El Patron almost represents this song better than it represents him although with the clean version there is still quite a bit of stuff missing that explains his personality for most of this book. It starts to diverge from his general attitude  when the second verse cause it starts to talk about never hurting anyone but I'm pretty sure El Patron has hurt people.  

Song 5: Viva La Vida by Cold play. We chose this song because if you ignore the upbeat feeling of the song you can get the true meaning out of the lyrics. The lyrics specifically talk about how becoming old can change you and your values and people will think of you different, and might disrespect you. We think El Patron would listen to this because he could be worried about this happening, or could even think this is happening right now. For example when El Patron explains that he no longer takes joy in the demise of his enemy that’s almost a verse in this song (Metaphorically)

Song 6: Death and All His Friends by Coldplay. We decided to use this song, because listening to the song and just the title, gives this feeling of getting old, but in the lyrics to this song he says “I don’t want to follow death and all his friends” which could suggest that he doesn’t want to die, and El Patron doesn’t want to die either because he has accomplished so much in his life. He continues to implant fetal body parts into him to keep him alive at his age.

Song 7:  Zombie by The Cranberries: if you look at this song from the opposite side of the singers view it actually represents Mr. Patron very well, for instance he made the Clones and they are basically zombies (at least by what his song is trying to tell you not the normal brain eating zombie). Eejits fit the description of this too and guess who made them... El Patron.

Song 8:  Coming Home by City and Colour
We chose this song because, it has a little bit of an upbeat tune, and since El Patron seems to be softening up, this song is perfect. We think the message of somebody coming back home could represent El Patron preparing to die. This song also has a good tune, one that El Patron could enjoy. He has also had allot of experiences with things like what this song is talking about  

Song 9: Remember the Name by Fort Minor
We chose this song because it shows El Patron’s will to keep alive and his constant urge to be better, richer or have more power and his will to want everyone to know him, and have them under his control. There is a line where someone from Fort Minor says “ he is trying to take over the world” I’m pretty sure El Patron IS trying to take over the world.

Song 10: Secret Agent Man by Johnny Rivers
This is a good song to represent El Patron. For one its a older piece of music and it really reminds me of him because the song starts out like its hiding something from us. By the end of the song it feels like its told us everything. This relates back to El Patron because it starts out making it sound like El Patron is a really good guy that helps the world be a better place. Then by the end we realize that he is actually making the world a worse place.