Samantha Kelly Lit and Media

Family can be a great source of joy and support, but when you do not have a good family by your side you can get easily lost. I have had the good fortune of growing up in a supportive household complete with both parents. This is often not the case. Your family is so important to the growth of young people. Sometimes children do not end up sharing the views and beliefs of their parents. After all, a person should believe what they do because they truly believe it, not because their parents tell them to. But, children often still want to please their parents even if they don’t share every view. I think this was at the center of the story in Marriage of a Thousand Lies . When Lucky and Krishna get married they see it as a way to please themselves and their families. I don’t really think it was a good way to solve their “problem.” Only pretending to agree with your family is not honest and it is not a way to have a good strong relationship. Maybe being honest with their families wou...

Cosmopolis is a window into the life of a young asset manager, Eric Packer. I have little in common with Eric, being a younger female from a totally different background. While I found the story of the life of Eric Parker sad and unfulfilling, it does prompt an interesting question. What is the meaning of anything? Eric was successful, young, good looking. He seemed to have everything anyone could every long for. It is the classic story. Character has everything they ever wanted, but still needs more. Why is this such a popular story plot? Because it’s a story we see in our own lives. We finally achieve our dreams and then what? Was that it? This can’t be it! You hear about Olympians working their whole lives for that gold medal, finally get it and then think now what. Their whole lives have centered around one thing and now that thing is no longer something to strive for. This is a phenomenon that happens to some extent in everyone life, but why? It’s because we put our hopes a...

My first introduction to the Wonder Woman franchise was the 2017 movie. I really did not have an interest in seeing the movie, not being a big super hero fan, until members of my family saw it and highly suggested it. I saw it and I loved it! It did not feel like a classic superhero movie. I came out of the movie really fired up and ready to take on some bad guys. Having such a love for this movie I never thought I would tell myself “I don’t think I can ever watch Wonder Woman again,” until after I read The Secret History of Wonder Woman .  I will say outright that I do not agree with most of Marston’s moral decisions, both professionally and within his household. To me his life was actually really sad. Marston’s life is very complex, as evidence by the fact we just read a whole book about it. I don’t want to seem like I am over simplifying an issue - I feel like I can write a whole book about my thoughts - but due the nature of a short blog post, but I will focus on Marston...

For someone who is a proud American, I have had very little exposure to westerns in any medium.  Reading True Grit was the first time, apart from the occasional Twilight Zone western themed episode, that I experience the genre. I really enjoyed this week’s reading a lot. I found the story and world building truly immersive, but in my opinion the most compelling aspect of the novel was the characters.  Mattie, Rooster and LaBoeuf. Each character was interesting in their own right but I found Mattie very relatable. Maybe it’s because I am a young woman, but I feel like we see a steadiness and self-confidence in this character that is relatable on all fronts. When push comes to shove would we all want to react like Maddie has? She knows what she wants and what she thinks is right and she does it even when a multitude of obstacles get in her way! So sure, so strong in herself. Writing the book from Mattie’s point of view, I think the author WANTED us to relate to...