Cellar of Horror Gary Heidnik 2nd Quarter SSR Blog

            The character I chose was Josefina Rivera who happens to be a real person who did incredible things in real life. My book is about a psychotic man who kidnapped, raped and held young women captive against their will in hopes of getting them pregnant. One of his seven victims Josefina Rivera to me would be the hero of this story. She risked her life several times to save the other girls from suffering abuse by persuading Hiednik not to or take their place instead. Gary Hiednik's goal was to create a baby factory which is why he tried so tirelessly to get the girls pregnant. Josefina, however, prevented him from ever reaching his goal. She gained the trust of Heidnik slowly but surely, she always offered to take someone's place, she took care of the other girls for Gary and occasionally cooked meals. Eventually, she gained enough trust from Heidnik to go visit her family and return back to captivity in a cold basement. She immediately ran to the police and Heidnik was sentenced to death. Without her bravery, the lives of these women could've potentially ended tragically.\

           In an odd way, I can connect to Josefina because she had to play the long game and be patient to escape and I feel I've had to play the long game and be patient to reach my goals. My situation isn't anywhere close to being as harsh or extreme but I feel like I had to be patient as well. My freshman year I wasn't good enough to be on a relay so I worked hard and waited for the position to open up and eventually my 11th-grade year I was put on it.

1984, SSR 2nd Quarter Blog Post

During the second quarter, I read George Orwell's novel, 1984. The novel is set in a totalitarian state known as the Oceania. The head of the totalitarian is known as The Party, they absolute control over everything, including people's lives and their minds. the protagonist of the novel is Winston Smith, who has a job at the Record Department store in the Ministry of Truth city. His work is revolved around making record of events that take place in The Party, such as doctoring photographs and writing newspapers to meet with The Party's demands. From the very start of the novel, it becomes obvious that Winston is a curious person, he is curious to why The Party is going through all the pain to ensure that history is rewritten just to favor it. He is the only character to sense that something must be wrong somewhere and as result he feels an intense disliking for his employers. Luckily, since he comes across these documents from ancient times, he is able to see how previous powers ruled. He then gains knowledge of how democratic institutions were laid out, that enabled people to select the leaders of their choice and the rights along with freedom. He then makes it his number one priority to avenge the past fallen leaders, which makes him rebellious. He begins to owe to the fact that he was aware of the regimes goal to destroy humanity completely. He keeps a diary, and writes all of his thoughts and hatred against The Party, where he constantly scribbles the words "DOWN WITH BIG BROTHER". Keeping a diary or any other literary device is forbidden by The Party.

I feel like that I connect with Winston because sometimes I feel as if I am trapped in a endless cycle of going to school, work, and then home everyday. That's what he feels like in his own world, except his circumstances are far worse than mine. I am almost out of my trapped bubble because soon I will be getting ready to leave for college, but Winston will be trapped in his forever because The Party just has total control over everything, making it almost impossible to attempt rebelling.

The Jeffrey Dahmer Story An American Nightmare

Disclaimer:  I won't being going into detail about this book because it is about an actual murderer and might be too intense for some to read this blog post.

For the second quarter I had chose a true story of an actual murderer Jeffrey Dahmer His crimes were set in the 70's leading into the early 90's. This book didn't have many characters unless you count the five minute victims that lived inside the book. Even though I don't like Jeffrey Dahmer or what he had done his backstory is actually interesting. He came from a home that showed him nothing but neglect along with a mother who was unstable mentally. Dahmer's parents eventually divorced while he was in high school because of his mother being unstable but both of his parents wanting custody over Jeffrey's younger brother but not him. This lead him down a very dark path in my opinion and you get to see through certain chapters how Jeffrey as a person actually lost any sense of morality. Everyone in his life had left him and it left some damaging effects on Jeffrey. He did confess to the police that all of his victims were going to leave him and all he wanted was for them to stay. This actually brings up the well controversial question, are people born evil or are they made? In the beginning it shows that Dahmer had some issues but nothing a doctor couldn't assist with but through it all in the very beginning, before he had committed any crimes the novel did show his as someone who wanted to be loved and appreciated but had no luck. As time goes on the novel does thoroughly show how he was hooked on the idea of love until it manifested into something toxic. I personally couldn't relate to someone like him but maybe if someone where neglected at home they could connect on that very small scale. The book was entirely focused around him the whole time and it was a bit intense at times but it gave a good insight into who he is before and after everything he did.