Review of Abbot Howard “Abbie” Hoffman’s Steal this Book
Abbot Howard “Abbie” Hoffman, a political and social activist as well as the Co-founder of the Youth International Party (“Yippies”). Typically a trouble-maker, a jokester, and a rebel in high school, carried over as he began the Yippie movement, a series of protests and events targeting United States government.
The introduction began with Abbie’s impression about his book, claiming it serves as “a manual for survival in the prison that is Amerika” (7). Hoffman altered the spelling of America, replacing the “c” with a “k” to emphasize that American law doesn’t represent justice to communicate the impudence he with-held towards America. The book was divided into sections: “Fight!”, “Survive!”, “Liberate!”. Each section title served a purpose assembling a three stage guide with informative steps, forming the layout to be like a manual. Hoffman anticipated when he started constructing the book. He touched upon foreign and domestic conflicts posing a general focus regarding government and laws, e.g. Vietnam or the Presidential corruption. Hoffman’s intentions were to rally readers to inherit a self-sufficient lifestyle. In addition, he preaches revolution, to facilitate the development of a “take no shit” attitude mirroring his own.
Steal this Book is a pocket knife of words that penetrate the nation’s heart, similar to the bible represented as the sword. Both nourish the mind with the power to overcome the inevitable, which in this case, the high authority of America.
Hoffman’s appearance reflected the average typical hippie with a “druggy” psychedelic swagger, long hair, no care, but his diplomatic intellect was beyond the measures of the legislation directing America. It surprised me one man can accomplish extraordinary measures after growing up with an anarchy bearing infused with oodles of drugs.
Hoffman’s proactive criticism compelled the reader to take his side contesting the uncompromising law. For instance “I believe in compulsory cannibalism. If people
never steal. The idea was implanted into the child, so whenever a thought of stealing comes up; the child will remember what he was told. If the child was not told stealing was not allowed; then the child will probably steal because he saw someone else stealing. By seeing others steal, a child will think it is allowed; since us human beings learn from what we see. Many say human kind is inherently evil, that there is evil in all of us. William Golding strongly confirms this point in the book, The…
The book thief 06/09/14 Summary Liesel Meminger is a nine-year-old girl living in Nazi Germany in 1939. Her mother, who is a Communist, is taken away and forced to give up her two lovely children, Liesel and her brother, Werner Meminger, for adoption. As they are on the train to Molching, Her brother dies, and the narrator, Death, sees her for the first time. They dig Werner's grave by the train track. At the funeral, Liesel picks up a book called The Grave Digger's Handbook accidentally…
THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak PART TWO A GIRL MADE OF DARKNESS Death offers a glimpse of what will become Liesel's second stolen book. The first book she stole was on January 13, 1939. The second: April 20, 1940. Death explains that Liesel Meminger will steal her second book, The Shoulder Shrug, from a book burning on Hitler's birthday and hints at many of the events that follow. She steals it out of anger and hatred, feelings that Liesel associates with Himmel Street, her mother, and the Führer…
engulfed in an oppressive flame that he created by his ignorance of the world he lived in. In the beginning of the book, his emotion about the world around him is that his world is fine. “It was a pleasure to burn.” (Bradbury 1) Since he felt that way, the world is fine around him. He met the new neighbor girl. Clarisse spoke with intelligence and asked him if he has read the books he burns. She also asks him if firemen ever put out fires instead of create them He laughed but she slowly was making…
consequences of his actions unlike Tom. Yet, Tom counters this sensible view with his romanticism, which controls Huck. “Then Tom said he hadn’t got candles enough, and he would slip in the kitchen and get some more. I didn’t want him to try. I said Jim might wake up and come. But Tom wanted to resk it; so we slid in there and got three candles” (Twain 14). Here Tom has influence over Huck as he gets him to come along with him as they steal the candles. Huck is highly impressionable, and, in truth…
Huck sees and interprets the world realistically and in practical terms whereas Tom, a true romantic, believes the world operates like the stories in his books which makes Huck much more understanding. A great example of their contrasting ways of thinking is in their differing approaches to rescue Jim from his imprisonment. Huck plans to simply steal the key, get Jim out, run to the canoe, and escape down the river on the raft. Huck's plan to get Jim out of captivity is straightforward, simple, and…
Aaron Yuan Miss Given Honors World Literature 05 February 2018 Response #3 This novel is ultimately based on storytelling. Every girl has their own point of view on the Congo, a country that they are not native to. Some of the girls point of views are negative while some do not really have an opinion. Ruth May, for example, made new friends in the Congo by playing games with the children and even observed and conformed into the Congolese culture, while Leah did not. Leah wanted to do things with…
convenient, it is not safe. This article gives you Five Reasons Why Your Online Business Isn’t as Secure as You Think. Viruses Your computer gets a virus and crashes. The only regret would be the work you saved on your hard disk. You will definitely regret more if any of those documents had information on your online business. This is one of the disadvantages of having an online business. Should a virus attack your laptop, you may literally lose everything. This vulnerability makes online businesses…
deontology, and virtue ethics. The theory of utilitarianism, you see whether an act is the right thing to do or the wrong thing to do. You have to look at what will result from the act and you should choose the act that has the best results. In our book, Ethics and Social Responsibility it explains that utilitarianism is best described as “if there is only one cookie left in the cookie jar and you have two kids, they would split the cookie”. Utilitarianism is a little difficult to make valid because…
and philosophy while Spartans taught their children to lie, to cheat, and to steal. Athens fostered an environment so rich in education that People like Socrates, Plato, Aristotle flourished there. In Sparta, when young boys were born, and if they were not one hundred percent, they would be left out to die. Spartans took boys from age seven to be in the military and to train for war. They also taught the boys to steal from local markets, yet if they were caught, they would be whipped. Boys most…
