Literature Circle - Half Brother

EQ: How does the relationship between Ben and Zan affect Ben and Dad's Relationship?

Half Brother by Kenneth Oppel

Pages 375-375

Status: Finish

     Throughout the book, I ask myself a question all the time. I wonder if Ben and Zan's relationship in the book Half Brother  by Kenneth Oppel affects the relationship with Ben and his dad. I finished the book not to long ago and seen pretty interesting changes too. Ben's dad, Richard, thought this was going to be easy and okay to let go of. Once Ben got used to the chimpanzee, Zan, he loved him too much, Ben could not let go. Once Richard announce the project is over in the late spring, Ben was devastated. His relationship was at steak at that moment. Ben fought Dad by attempting to push him to the ground, but Dad won. Ben got so mad that he actually stomped out of the house. Ben's love with Zan could question Richard's decisions about either family or project. Thanks to Zan, his relationship is worse than before. Later in the book, it heals for a specific event that I am not going to mention. All in all, Relationship between Father and Son could be affected by another person, or in this case, a monkey.

     Perspective can change the way you look at a topic. You can read something such as a book from a perspective of a survivor of 9/11 that shows what is happening down below. If you read a book about 9/11, it  would talk about the attackers and the buildings. The survivor does not know where that airplane is from. They just ran and took cover possibly with their families. The general book would talk about the screaming and the cloud of dust roaming the streets. It all depends where you stand in the book or anything you are reading. If I take this into Half Brother, the Ranch in Ben's family is different than what the owner thinks about the place. Perspective is very important in almost anything. You never know if it might change the meaning or not. 

     Books, magazines, articles, and the news can interpret the same topic differently. Just like I said before, it is based on Perspective. I found an article talking about Chimps in labs, which connect to our story. In the book, it says, "'But even if they were,' he said, 'should we be torturing animals so we can heal humans? Is that fair?'" This quote from page 165 talks about labs they might possibly send Zan to. Ben does not like the idea of torture, just for selfish needs. Ben thinks about the labs as a slaughterhouse. Ben has some pretty negative look at these labs. Let's see what the article says. In the article, "Chimpanzees in Laboratories" from Peta.org, it says, "Those who made it to U.S. laboratories suffered terribly and died young." As you can see, when chimps go to these labs, they decrease their life spam. They basically die in the next year! This is much similar to the book. One thing that is different, the article gives the history and other information on these labs, while the book does not. That is how different sources with the same topic can have a different meaning.