Final Post

I don't know how I feel about this book. I thought, overall, that it was ok, no more, no less. I don't know that I gained a whole lot from reading this novel based upon what I inferred from it. I won't discredit the piece enough to say it was pointless, because I do actually agree with what I felt the author was trying to communicate, but I was not in love with how the theme was expressed. I think the author was trying to express the preciousness of life and the differentiation between "increasing" and "adding" to life. Some of us merely "increase" our life by keeping our heads down, playing into the role that society has dealt us, as our chronological grows, "increasing" ever so quickly towards an eminent death. The difference between this and "adding" to life, in my opinion, is the person who does not just go through the motions of his or her life, but truly lives a life that is actually worth living. This is a theme that I think many people struggle with. They say that, as you get older, each year goes by faster and faster. This saying, although obviously not factually accurate, personifies the idea that young children live life care-free and focused solely upon what makes them happy. The older you get, the more responsibilities you are given, the more constraints you are placed under, and thus the faster your life seems to go bye, because you aren't truly taking the time to appreciate everything that life is offering. The goal of writing this book seems well-intentioned as I think it is an attempt at trying to act as a wakeup call of sorts to people living their life focused on obtaining certain situations. It's a sad fact that I think we are all guilty of. We live our life, from the age of elementary school, more or less, focused on certain milestones in our life that we imagine as so great. We think, oh then! When I turn this age or when I have this many zeros on my bank statement, then I will truly live my life and be happy. The sad truth of this is that these "milestones" that we slave away trying to obtain are never near what we hope for them to be in our mind. So, we just think to ourselves, when I get that next promotion  or when I get to that age. It's a vicious cycle that people have an incredibly difficult time breaking out of because of the fact that our society encourages it so aggressively. After all, the society that we developed needs people like this to function efficiently. It's not until our society as a whole changes that we can modify what we are actually living for. That's what I think the author was trying to convey, that until we can get out of this vicious scheme that we have created, people who recognize the monotony of it all will continue to commit suicide, people, like the teenage boy in their high school, will continue to be forgotten and life will continue on in a sea of dullness.