4,000 Days-No.9

After I finished reading this book, I wonder "how would this story be changed if the main character is woman?"

First, the main character, Warren Fellows, says in the book that the life at the prison was very hard like a hell. There were not enough food, the cell was very dirty and has no human right.
But I think, if the author was woman, she would spend much better life than men. Because women is not much strong as compare as men in health. The physiological function is differ between men and women so women should be more protected in health care.

Would the author try to escape from the prison if the author is woman? I don't think so. Because man is much stronger than woman in physiological function. Man has stronger muscles than woman and in case if they have to run fast to escape, it is hard for woman. Also women is much calm than men sometimes. Women can decide in calm and can consider the possibility carefully. Also in the history, the prison breaker are mostly men.

When I studied about the drug in school before, I found the data which shows the percentage in man/ woman who takes drug. I remember that the man has much higher percentage than woman. It might not be happened if the author is a woman.

The Enchanted Garden

From the title of this book, first, I predicted the garden that is really great and there are a lot of fun. After I started reading the book, I was bit confused because two boys are playing outside, not in the garden. After I finished the reading, I knew more about the title.

There are swimming pool, food, ping pong table in the garden. But the garden is not two boys'. There is a boy who looks unhealthy and it is his garden. For the unhealthy boy, the boys are enchanted but for the two boys, the unhealthy boy is enchanted. I see irony in this book.

I uses the reading strategy, Picture the story in my head. The expressions in the text about the garden are a lot. Therefore I pictured the garden in my head according to the text. I simply picture the garden looks like my condominium garden because there are swimming pool and ping pong table.

All the Years of Her Life

The story, "All the Year of Her Life", is about a boy, Alfred, steels things from the store and his mother, Mrs. Higgins comes to talk with shop owner, Mr.Carrs. Because of Mrs. Higgins persuades Mr. Higgins, Alfred doesn't go to police. Alfred realizes the mother's strength at the store and home.



This story can happen at Japan too. In Japan, many boys and girls shoplift from stores and it has became serious issue. When the shop owner catches the boy/girl, they call parents first. I have watched in TV many times that parents cry and asks the shop owner to not call police.



However, these years, parents in Japan have less responsibility in caring children. Therefore, the children who shoplift answer the reason to the police that they want to attract the parents' attentions. When the shop owner asks parents to come to the shop, some parents says that "it is children's responsibility and it is not parents' so it is okay to send thier children to the police. "I do not care. It seems very sad for me. Shoplifting is not only children's problem but also parents.

The Beautiful Garden

4,000 Days-No.8

I finished reading the book, 4,000 Days written by Warren Fellows. At the end, he finished spending 12 years at the Bangkok prison with the crime of taking drug. His 12 years at the Bangkok prison was horrible. He couldn't live normally. He had ate cockroach, sands, his nails, and many other things. He was in under control by guards 24 hours and had no freedom. The day came when he was released by the prison. He says in the book that "I can't even remember what I felt at this time. I suppose I was never going to believe it."

This words reminded me when I got the acceptance letter from university. I can't remember what I felt at this time and couldn't believe it when I just got the letter. I spent so much time in feeling pain and stress and the took few minutes to realize the reality. I had worried and couldn't believe the future while I was studying for the exam. After I passes the exam, my future started expand and I guess that Fellows felt same as me later. However, I know that the our situations were totally different but, at the core of our feeling, it seems same for me.

While I was reading the last parts of the story, I remember and compared the story with my own experiences and it helped me to image the picture, his feeling, and have deeper understanding of the story. I learned from this book that it brings us happiness when we have freedom and blight future.

4,000 Days-No.7

In the story that I am still reading, 4,000 Days by Warren Fellows, the author, Fellows, is now having hard time. He seems to have same mental problems from his stress and many kinds of feeling such as regret, pain, depression, despair, and hopeless. He lose a lot of hair, has hallucinations, and reduced wight.

To try to understand more about Fellows feeling and deeper understanding of the sistuaion of the story, I used the reading stratey to link my experience that is similar to his feeling.

I know that it is impossible to compare my own experience and his perfectly but I think to compare my worst and most painful experience with the story, it would help me to understand more about Fellows.

When I was studying for entrance exam for university, I felt so much pain and stress. It was the my worst period in my life. I was trying my best to improve my TOEFL score but the result didn't come well for long time. I wrote Japanese essay a lot but I couldn't get good comments from teacher. I spend much time and my parents spend money and I have responsiblity to enter university. It made me feel huge stress and pain and I couldn't beleive future. My goal seemed getting far away from me day by day. Because of the stress, I lost 3kg of my weight and my some hair at back head became white. I yell at my parents and gave them pain too. I wanted to run away from what I was doing and my future.

But I noticed that it wasn't the last chance. Even though I fail in the exam, I would still have chances in the future. It released my stress. I know that in the book, it is really hard time for Fellows but he still have chance to have better life in the future. I guess that he felt same as me that we have future and chances so he could overcome the hard period and to take the chance in good way, he decided to write the book to let people know his life at the prison and to alarm them.

4,000 Days-No.6

In the book which I am reading now, 4,000 Days by Warren Fellows, the author is now regretting the time when he took drug. He keep saying in the book that if he could rewind the time to when he took drug, it would be the greatest thing. But of course he can't .

I use a reading strategy to infer the reason and the situation surrounding him that made him take drug by my background. These days, there are more young people in Japan who take drug. It became easier to have drug these days. I wonder why young people are so interested in taking drug and I tried to get to the answer by using my background.

I think that there are the problems in society. If many young people feel against the society or depressed by the society, there pain or stress is released to doing something bad things. For example, if the society is not built as good for people, such as there are huge difference among people by money, education, or wealth, the rate of crime increases. Therefore, I think the society is important to being good system and should have trust from people. If people have dream or wish to be better person or life into the society, there would be less people who commit crime because they have hopes and goals. So I think that the good solution to reduce crime such as taking drug is to check the system of society. Among the society, education is also important. If the education at school, family, or society works well to teach children and people that the taking drug brings no benefit to you, then it would be the common understanding among people. It will help society and people to reject taking drug and extinction of drug.

Also people take drug to release there pain and stress. I have heard the story of taxi driver in Bangkok. According to the story, there are many taxi drivers who take drug because there are many heavy traffic jams at Bangkok and it is stressful to the taxi drivers to wait for ling time inside of their taxi. I infer the reason why there are many taxi drivers and it is to release their stress.

By using these background, I infer the the time and situation when Fellows started to take drug and the situation should be not so good. May be there were not enough toughs about drug or the young people felt bad at their society or politics. If Fellows could trust the society and believes that the society works well to make his dreams, wish, and hopes would come true, he might not have took drug. Therefore, in my opinion, the fault and responsibility is not only for a person who actually takes drug but also in the society.