Another Perspective of "The Confessions of a Sociopath"

"The Confessions of a Sociopath" by M.E Thomas, is a memoir about being a sociopath. From reading deeper into the book we the reader have taken a journey into her mind, as a sociopath and as a human. There is a more elaboration on what it means to be a sociopath in my previous blog post.There are some realizations that she went through in becoming a sociopath.

As a sociopath M.E Thomas had many steps to realizing that she was a sociopath, it didn't come to her naturally. One example of this is when she was talking to her friends who was actually helping her find out who she actually was. "I didn't know what a 'sociopath' was nor did I have any inkling that I might be one" In this example she is showing us that even though she isn't looking for answers about who she is or why she feels different than everyone else, being a sociopath wouldn't be the first idea. Another example is how she could relate different societal issues. "It must be a similar feeling to that of people who discover themselves that they are gay or transgendered; in their bones, they'd known it all along" Here she is showing us that it is a feeling that one will feel when they know that they are different, and that when you discover yourself if good to know that there are others like you and feel the same way as you.

In conclusion we can see that not only when discovering your true self you can have doubts. But having people support you, or consulting with other people to help you realize what condition you may have is really helpful, Thomas had her friends that made her feel more human. She helped her realize what she actually knew all along, and she felt so different and didn't know what it was called. So the next time you feel that you may be different than everyone else know that someone else is like you.

Revised Blog Post "The Revenge of Seven"

         The story “The Revenge of Seven” by Pittacus Lore is about a group of teens that were sent to earth after the antagonists, the mogadorians, destroyed their old planet Lorien. The mogadorians are all about succeeding and progress so they came to earth too so that they could use all of their resources. The mogadorians also are tracking down the group of Lorien children, because those children can bring down the mogadorians. Another reason that the nine children were sent down is to restart the legacy of Lorien. The mogadorians don’t want these Loric teens to stop them. They promote what they call “mogadorian progress” where they control every planet in the galaxy by turning every living thing into a mogadorians. Through out the book they refrain from showing the opinions of the antagonists, the mogadorians, and only show the opinions of the Loric children that were sent down to earth. The reason that Lore doesn’t show the opinion of the mogadorians is because he doesn’t want us to believe that the mogadorians could actually be good, he wants us to believe that there are only two sides, those who are bad and those who are good.

          One of the characters is Ella, she is the tenth of the Loric children, her father was selfish and rich and wanted her to get to earth and continue her family legacy. All her life she thought that she was the same as the other nine that she was sent to earth with. She ends up finding out that her grandfather is the evil mastermind behind the mogadorians, Setrákus Ra, he ends up kidnaping Ella and raises her as a the mogadorians royalty. The whole time Ella tells herself that Setrákus Ra isn’t her grandfather and that he is very evil because he killed many of the loric children that were sent to earth, but as we read through the book we see that she sees that there is a possibility that they’re related, but regardless she refuses to believe that what Setrákus Ra plan is for the earth is appropriate. “Glorious, isn’t it?’/ His booming voice is like a bucket of cold water dumped on me. I spin around and press my back against the glass; feeling like the void behind me might be preferable to facing him. / Setrákus Ra stands behind one of the control panels, watching me, a hint of a smile on his face.” This is an example of how Pittacus Lore gives us really strong details to describe Ella is feeling and thinking, but barely shows us what Setrákus Ra is feeling or thinking when he sees Ella looking completely defenseless, he may be thinking about things that are helpful or the plans that he has for Ella, but because in the previous books we see him as the bad guy, when we read this we predict and assume that he is thinking about harmful and mischievous plans that will happen. Because Lore fails to show the side of Setrákus Ra it doesn’t let us have our own personal opinions on Setrákus Ra. Pittacus Lore has set up the two sides that we have to see, and is spinning us towards the protagonists.

Another example of how the mogadorians opinions aren’t shown is when one of the mogadorians actually starts to fight with the Loric. This character’s name is Adam, he was a mogadorian who was sentenced to death by his father because he didn’t conform to the mogadorian way. Instead of being executed he ran away and wanted to help the Loric. Because the Loric have Adam it makes their work easier to hack into the mogadorian information and also translate the mogadorians private documents. Throughout the story Lore puts examples of where Adam is being insulted or annoyed, but doesn’t say anything. “Marina’s still figuring out just how angry she wants to be, and I’m not going to get in her way. Besides, I don’t think putting a little fear in our mogadorian companion is such a bad thing. / I assume he’s just going to let the conversation die, but after a few minutes Adam speaks up.“ This being told from the perspective of one of the Loric, Six, she say things like “I think” or says  “I assume” instead of Lore telling us what Adam is actually thinking. Also during the few minutes that Adam was thinking he probably had many things to retort to the girls to make them feel more uncomfortable, but Lore didn’t show us the thought process that he was having. Lore doesn’t show us the side of this mogadorian, because showing us this side could make the reader think that the mogadorians has emotions, then that would make the reader wonder “are all of the mogadorians like this one” and then that would take us off the perspective that Pittacus Lore wants us to see.

            Pittacus Lore doesn’t want us to see the perspective of the mogadorians because we are supposed to see them as the bad guys that make the Loric lives miserable and horrible. By representing the mogadorians characters as evil he wanted to show that all of the mogadorians are the enemy regardless of whom they are fighting for and that the reader should be “rooting” for the Loric to win. But if we were able to read the opinion of the mogadorians, then possibly the way that we view the characters in the book could change, and the mogadorians strong belief in the taking over the galaxy could be legitimate. If we could read the mogadorians opinions as we do for the Loric children then we may change our side depending on how we feel about their plan.
The Original Blog Post