Character Connections

For my final blog of the trimester I thought I would go back and connect Jo to a different item since I have progressed in the book. Jo is like a car that you have had for a really long time. At first stuff is working and everything is good. but then something breaks and you have to get it fixed. Then a year later some new problem arises that you have to fix. Then there is a problem that arises that you kind of put off fixing like a recall on the car. All of these little problems are like Jo's conflicts in the book. She finds many problems in her life that she either gets resolved or puts them of like her letter from Mr. Lockwell. She put off the issue of Forrest Hearne's watch.   

Out of the Easy- Busy Night

I just finished a part in my book where a lot happened. I don't think it was the climax but a lot of Jo's problems either grew or shrunk in this section. It started with her talking to Mr. Lockwell who she was trying to get a recommendation letter out of. When she went in the only thing he wanted was to see her in high heels which she didn't where because she knew he didn't write the letter. He pretty much just flirted with her which she found disgusting because he is probably 25 years older and then  he offered her a job. She declined and took some of his stationary to write the letter herself. She started writing the letter with Patrick's dad Charlie who was very mentally unstable. They couldn't tell anybody about his condition because they didn't want him to get hauled off to an asylum. She put him in front of the typewriter hoping for a response from him. He only typed the letter "B" but that was a huge improvement. She decided to give him his medicine and see how it played out. She walked out for a moment and went she returned he was covered in blood and scissors were in his hands. He had a huge gash on his forehead and gashes on his arms. She panicked and held rags up to his head to stop the bleeding.
Patrick came in a moment latter and was freaking out. Willies sent a military doctor with Cokie. The doctor was drunk but he was able to sew up Charlie's wounds. Patrick was very mad at Jo for not giving Charlie his medicine and Jo felt terrible. Jo then went with Cokie to Willie's where she found Mr. Lockwell  who was have car problems. Jo promised to get a mechanic if he signed the letter he wrote. He agreed and she brought Jesse and he fixed it. So Jo is one step closer to going to a good college but is having more troubles with Charlie.
 

Out of the Easy- Conflicts

There are many conflicts in Out of the East both internal and external. At this time in the French quarter Jo is getting hit by a storm of problems. First of all she is trying to go to a good college but doesn't have the money, she is working two jobs everyday, her mother ran off with an abusive idiot, and on top of all of this she has a dead mans watch. She is having an internal conflict because she has mixed feelings about the watch and doesn't want to get rid of it. She feels like he was the only decent man to come to the area. She is also worried that Willie found out because for her 18th birthday Willie got Jo the companion watch to the dead man's. Jo is also in the process in blackmailing a man in the upper class to write her a recommendation for college after Jo caught him leaving Willies brothel. Though he is going to do it she is not quite sure that he isn't going to turn on her and wiggle his way out of their deal. Jo has a lot to worry about right now and is very stressed that she will be discovered with the watch or her mom will come back. Now for comments talk about whether or not you've ever been in this much trouble.

Blizzard Bag

1.) I am still reading Out of the Easy and I'm a little over halfway finished. At this point Jo is trying to leave the quarter and go to a women's college in Massachusetts called Smith. She has the grades but not the money and Willie doesn't want her to leave so she said that she will only pay for a local college. Jo also found Forrest Hearne's (a dead man) watch. She doesn't want to get rid of it even though it could get her in a lot of trouble with the law. She is also shocked when Willie gives Jo the companion watch for her birthday. Jo thought it was a way of telling her that Willie knew but she made no mention of it.

2.) So far I am enjoying Romeo and Juliet but mainly because of all of the dramatic irony. Since we all know the end of the story it is kind of weird to hear all of the hints that Shakespeare provide about the outcome of the story. I also find it funny on how quick Romeo and Juliet are to trust and love. It's like the second they see each other they have already decided to die if the can't be with on and other.
 This is the opposite of the character Jo in my book. She doesn't trust very easily even with the people she has known for years. Romeo and Juliet have known each other for only a few hours and have all ready decided to spend their lives together.

Jo

If Jo was a physical, tangible object she would definitely be a book. She would not be a book just because she works in a bookstore but because she is sort of closed to other people unless they put in the effort to get to know her. This describes a book because a person doesn't know what is in a book unless they put in the effort to read it. Jo is also very smart and full of knowledge, especially for her age. The people who just meet Jo don't always see the real Jo. She likes to trick them into thinking she is something she is not.  You can't judge a book by its cover with Jo like when she meets Charlotte she says her name is Josephine and lies about her parents. She does not tell her that her mother works at a brothel and she doesn't know who her father is. Also at the party at Charlottes uncles no one there knows about her family's past so she makes everything up about herself. The only people who know the true Jo put in the effort to get to know her.

Out of the Easy: Setting

The main setting of Out of the Easy is the French Quarter of New Orleans. This has major effects on the story. It is the worse part of New Orleans and this is where the protaganist, Jo, lives. The quarter is simple and some what nice in most areas. Since Jo lives in a bookshop she has it pretty good in the quarter. The other area of New Orleans in the book is uptown or otherwise known as the Garden District. Uptown is where all of the rich people live. Its is much nicer and safer than the quarter. This is what they might have looked like.

Uptown

French Quarter

As you can see, uptown is much nicer. Each of these places has an effect on the people who live in them. The people in the quarter have a lot less possessions but tend to by happier. People in uptown have many more possessions and nicer homes but end to be very unhappy. One of the characters in the book, Cokie, describes the people in uptown as "soul dead". Now ask yourself, would you rather live in uptown and be unhappy or live in the less glamorous quarter and be happy?

"Out of the Easy" First Impresions

I began a new book called Out of the Easy by Ruta Sepetys. This is a story about a teenage girl named Jo living in the French Quarter of New Orleans in the 1950's. She has an interesting and tough life and gets no help from her mother, who is a prostitute living in a cathouse. She isn't all alone. The women in charge of the area and the cathouse named Willie looks after her and all of the other more intelligent people in the area. She had Jo live and work at a bookshop in the quarter where Jo and the owner are good friends. The Quarter is shaken up when news of a man called Cincinnati was coming to town. He was a terrible man who stole Jo's mothers heart. For one he was terrible and two, it was against Willie's Rules. If this wasn't enough a good man from Memphis who was visiting was killed on new years day in 1950. The quarter was crazy. This is how far I' gotten and I ended with Jo investigating the death of the man. So far I really like it.