Life As We Knew It by Susan Beth Pfeffer by Teagan Smith

Week 1

teasmith1 — 2023-11-14 19:22:11 UTC

11/13 1-17

11/14 18-33

11/15 34-50

11/16 51-67

11/17 68-84

Loss of Connection

teasmith1 — 2023-11-17 19:46:49 UTC

In the book Life As We Knew It, the author creates a world where the characters have loss of connection. The novel starts where a asteroid hits the moon and now the moon is tilted and nobody has connection to each other to see if their okay. Miranda wanted to get in contact with her older bother Matt "So I went online,or rather I tried to go online, because our Internet connection was dead. "He's fine," Mom said when I told her "There's no reason to think he isn't fine. The moon is right where it belongs. Matt'll call us when he has the chance" (Pfeffer 21). Miranda and her family are wondering if Matt is okay in collage and when he is going to visit them. There's a ton of flooding and the family is worried about him and how he's doing, however with all the rain and thunderstorms, the power keeps on going on and off.

Fear of the outside world.

ashmalone — 2023-11-17 19:49:35 UTC

In the novel life as we knew it, the author creates fear of the outside world which is an aspect of the dystopian genre. It starts off with a girl finding out she will be the god mother of her sister. Later on, they find out that their will be a meteor that will hit the moon. Everyone is exited but also freaked out. They are outside watching it happen. After the moon looks bigger and closer. Everyone gets freaked out. The power goes out and the phone lines are disconnected. The next day people are rushing to the store and buying everything that they can. They all think that the world is going to end. "'Maybe I'm wrong,' Mom said. 'Maybe the world really is coming to an end.'" After a couple days the power was still going in and out. The phone lines were working, and they got up dates on what happen. It turns out when the asteroid hit the moon, it tilted it and put it out of orbit. After a while, it got normal. They just ignored it as if it never happened.

Week 2

teasmith1 — 2023-11-20 18:44:15 UTC

11/20 85-101

11/21 102-118

11/22 119-135

Dystopian Setting

teasmith1 — 2023-11-21 19:49:23 UTC

In the novel, Life As We Knew It, the setting is apocalyptic because seems to be the end of the world and a disaster struck the moon. In the novel, it states, "I hate the moon. I hate tides and earthquakes and volcanoes. I hate the world where things have absolutely nothing to do with me can destroy my life and the lives of people I love," (Pfeffer 132). The description of Miranda's feelings and the natural disasters seem to have taken a big role in peoples lives and affected them deeply. Nobody is doing well and people are running out of food quickly and this might be the end of the world if it doesn't take a turn. Setting also like this and other in the exposition, makes this society seem like a apocalyptic.

Dystopian Setting

ashmalone — 2023-11-22 16:51:35 UTC

In the novel, Life As We Knew It, the setting is apocalyptic. The community were the protagonists live seems to be the end of the world. When the asteroid hits the moon, it shifts it and makes the world weird and dangerous. "'Maybe I'm wrong' Mom said. 'Maybe the world really is coming to an end.'" (Pfeffer 20). Everyone thought they are going to die. With the tides distorting houses, to people running out of food very quickly. Settings like this and others can make this exposition fell like apocalyptic.

Week 3

teasmith1 — 2023-11-27 18:33:20 UTC

11/27 136-152

11/28 152-168

11/29 169-184

11/30 185-200

12/1 200-216

Customs+Rules

teasmith1 — 2023-11-29 19:44:02 UTC

In the novel, Life As We Knew It, The customs and rules are different from ours. Everyone including Miranda's family is basically trapped inside their house. Its too dangerous to go outside and people are leaving and moving because that's how dangerous it is. In the text, it states, "You and Mom shouldn't go out alone anymore. I guess it's safe going to Mrs. Nesbitt's, but no farther." "So we're all prisoners," I said." (Pfeffer 179). In this future society, the weather is dropped to low 40's at the end of August and nobody could be trusted anymore. Miranda is called themselves "prisoners" because they are trapped inside their homes until this situation gets better. Unlike our society, where you can go where you like to and get outside, this society is all twisted and a natural disaster can strike at any moment.

Customs & Rules

ashmalone — 2023-11-29 19:45:52 UTC

In the novel, Life As We Knew It, the customs and rules are different from our society. Everyone where the protagonist lives had to stay inside. When the asteroid hit the moon they told everyone to stay inside. "I stared out the window. The rain was still falling ad occasional flashes of lightning could be seen in the distance. The electricity was still out... I saw a lot of trees had fallen" (Pfeffer 34). In this future society, everyone must stay inside for there own safety. Unlike our society, where you can choose to be inside or out, this society has customs and rules that are different than ours.

Week 4

teasmith1 — 2023-12-04 18:36:10 UTC

12/4 217-233

12/5 234-250

12/6 251-267

12/7 268-284

12/8 285-301

Mood

teasmith1 — 2023-12-06 19:39:22 UTC

In the novel, Life As We Knew It, the overall atmosphere is darkness. In Pennsylvania, the whole state is basically gone and barley anyone is there. There's a death list with everyone dead on it and a lot of Miranda's friends and people she knew were on there. Then, she walked into her family friends, Mrs Nesbitt's house to find her dead. In the text, it states, "Mrs. Nesbitt died. I don't know when, but she was in bed and I like to think she died in her sleep.Her eyes were closed and she looked peaceful" (Pfeffer 240). In this dark world, everybody is dying or moving because of the natural disasters and the world is getting smaller and smaller. Unlike our society, where the moon isn't slanted and we have sunlight and breathable air, this society basically lives in the darkness and nobody ever cries anymore because everyone is dying and they are really kind of used to it.

Mood

ashmalone — 2023-12-07 18:56:59 UTC

In the novel, Life As We Knew It, the overall atmosphere is uneasy. Basically everyone in the town is gone. When the death lists come out there are friends and family that Miranda knows on it. "Mrs. Nesbitt died. I don't know when, but she was in bed...'She died in her sleep' I said 'Just the way she wanted'" (Pfeffer 240-245). At this point everyone is so used to people dying that they don't even bother to cry. "I sat silently by her for a while, mostly to see if I was going to cry, but I didn't" (Pfeffer 240). In this world everyone is gone. This is different from our society because we do not have a natural disaster that is killing everyone.

"I sat silently by her for a while, mostly to see if I was going to cry, but I didn't" (Pfeffer 240).

Week 5

teasmith1 — 2023-12-11 18:32:54 UTC

12/11 302-318

12/12 319-337

ashmalone — 2023-12-12 18:42:04 UTC

teasmith1 — 2023-12-12 18:42:49 UTC

teasmith1 — 2023-12-12 18:43:29 UTC

Symbolism

teasmith1 — 2023-12-12 19:36:20 UTC

In the novel, Life As We Knew It, a symbol that the author used is the pond. The protagonist, Miranda, still has hope in life because of the pond. She experiences joy when shes there and gets away from all the trouble at her house. The authors states, "I went to the pond. Dan was already there, and so was Emily, but Karen didn't show up. That day was a little grayish, but still murky and humid and hot, and the water felt great. We swam and raced and had a good time," (Pfeffer 92). The pond represents hope and happiness and she always had a great time at the pond. She could actually exercise and build muscle when she needed it because she was skin and bone and needed muscle to keep her warm in the winter. She new she needed muscles because it would really benefit her and her family in the winter but didn't know how to find a way to gain muscles. She could actually socialize with other people and even if it was grey and there were mosquitoes everywhere and the air quality was bad, that didn't matter. The author used the pond as a symbol to bring deeper level of understanding to the reader.

Symbolism

ashmalone — 2023-12-12 19:47:13 UTC

In the novel Life As We Knew It, a symbol that the author uses is a phone. The phone means connection. With out the phone they will have no connection with anyone else. "Dad called. Or rather he called and got through. He's been trying to call...several times a day for the past two weeks...We've been trying to call him and never get through." (Pfeffer 79). The phone goes out when ever the power does. When the power goes out for a long time, it makes the connection even less.