June 14 Final Blog Reflections

While I’ve always deeply analyzed my books in ways such as Ms.Rear has set a precedent towards, I haven’t always known to write my ideas down. When my writing passion first took hold, I would spew out every last word in my mind until there was nothing left. Keep in mind that there is nothing wrong with following this mindset of spewing out ideas onto paper as a base layer for the writing, but I was simply relying on this as what my writing was. I lacked finesse, though I had my ideas. During the creation and tireless up keep of my blog, I realized that my weakness was not what was being written, but how it was being written. Not only did I learn to put a name to all my meaningless jumbled ideas, but I was able to grow from an average writer to someone who was able to feel confident about his writing.

When one writes an online piece, they write for the world, versus privately, where they write strictly for themselves. While the mere difference is clicking “Post” or “Save As,” each comes with a completely different mindset, which is not for everyone. When people write, or do anything online, for that matter, they are able to become whoever they want to be, and, in some cases, that is not who they actually are. The fact you never know for sure what or who someone online is means that every single person you meet on the internet creates themselves, based on how their mind perceives them to be, or how they want themselves to be.

This allows people to say what they want, do what they want, and act how they want, without the repercussions – essentially, it’s as if the whole world has their eyes shut tight and one is free to write what one pleases. This can go one of two ways – people are able to freely share their ideas and beliefs with the world, whether positive or negative, without fear of consequences, or, as the internet is more commonly used, as a mask and a barrier for bullies to hide behind to say what they want to a person, without actually being at risk of the person fighting back.

No matter where or what someone is doing, there are always going to be people who see both sides to someone. It is impossible to create a new you, because that would result in your destruction, rather people can choose what part of them is projected where and to who, but often parts slip through. All of everyone is always present, it’s just how it’s expressed that changes, and the internet is like a sifter that sifts out what one doesn’t want to show and releases the rest – but some naughty little pebbles always seep through with the sand.  

The Remaining Series

Currently, I am reading The Remaining by D.J. Molles, which is a book set in a post-apocalyptic world that is destroyed by a strange, unexplainable bacterium. The bacterium eats through the host's brain, leaving them with only basic, primal and instinctive functions. While the story mainly seems as though its purely for entertainment purposes, it also serves as view into what a lawless world, Molles' opinion, would look like. Throughout the book, the main character experiences run-ins with marauding vandals, psychopaths, and straight-up bad people. He also describes the massive-scale looting, vandalism, and even death, with D.J. Molles expertly incorporating every detail apparent in a societal collapse. The author describes how, essentially, criminals would rule the world in event of a governmental collapse of such a large scale. The story is an allegory for events as portrayed in the story.
In the beginning of the story, when the main character discovers what the world has become over the course of a mere two weeks, he is simultaneously shocked and frightened at how much the world has succumbed in the absence of government. There is not a shop that has not been looted. There is not a corner of the street that isn't covered in litter. There are dead bodies rotting in the gutters, hastily thrown to the side of the road. I believe that the writer is attempting to show the importance of order and society.

1984 by George Orwell

The book that I am currently reading is 1984, by George Orwell. While I’m not that far along in the title, it has so far been an interesting novel. It’s about a totalitarian society that operates under a strict dictator, who controls every single aspect of each resident’s life, from what they can own, how their furniture is organized, where they are allowed to live, and where they work, to every other task they complete. The dictator, who calls himself “Big Brother,” essentially ‘plays god’ with these people’s lives. Even after everything the main character had been forced to believe under Big Brother’s dictatorship, he still finds himself wanting out of the system and defying, but unintentionally – he thinks, at least. While I am only at the beginning of the book, so far the main character has had countless thoughts that, while cannot be described as rebellious, are not exactly pro-Big Brother either. It seems as the main character, deep down, wants to defy and break the bonds of the dictatorship on his mind, but doesn’t want to admit it to himself because of his fear of the consequences if he was discovered by the Thought Police that patrol every niche of Big Brother’s rule.

Blog Post April 19th

In the book, Gone, by Michael Grant, everyone over the age of 14 disappears, leaving kids to fend for themselves inside of an impenetrable dome. The book also serves, subtly, as a way to connect to kids and attempt to deal with the issue of teens and how they constantly struggle against their parents. Michael Grant describes what he believes life would be like if there were only kids in a world, and, in his version at least, the outcomes are not favorable.

For example, in the book, the narrator states that there are frequent battles throughout the kids, and they often end up gruesome. He also describes how the leader of the kids is bombarded with stress and accidents, from a scraped knee to house explosions due to the gas being left on. Overall, the author conveys a scene without adults to being, very negative at the least, and deadly at most. While the first few days without parents seem like a party of no rules, all junk food, and no one telling kids what they should and should not do, Grant proves that, in long term, it’s a nightmare. He tries to open the eyes of kids around the world to show, not tell, them how important parents really are while keeping it fun and interesting, even though they can be, at times, annoying.

Jitterbug Perfume by Tom Robbins Blog Post

English Language Arts

Jitterbug Perfume is not your average love story. Neither is it your average adventure tale.

The book, while tugging readers along with Alobar and Kudra through the ages, doesn’t seize life by the throat and demand to understand its meaning, but, quite on the contrary, the book, with the help of its characters and their accomplishments, allows life to approach it, and to inquire for what reason it does what it does.  

Jitterbug Perfume unearths the truth of the art of immortality, and how, as seen with Alobar and Kudra, true immortality is not the essence of longevity, and not of how long one can remain in one’s body, because, as Robbins repeatedly explains, everything living must, eventually, die. In Jitterbug Perfume, the two main characters meet a dying, yes, dying god who, up too his last moments of existence, joins them on their journey. Robbins describes how, as gods are immortal to things that kill those who are mortal, such as disease and bad habits, they’re only alive as long as people believe in them. So, simply put, it is belief and ideals that bring true immortality, not resistance to “death.” Continuing on this thought, through Alobar’s millennia-or-so long life, he realizes that he has accomplished, relatively speaking, nothing of substance, not including beating death at his/her own game (but for what?), while men and women who live to be a mere 60 years old have accomplishments that are as immortal as his body, yet their ideas are recognized for their great feats, while he (to those that have heard his tale) frightens those who are mortal with the unknown. With this, after his millennia of living, Alobar discovers that the true essence of immortality does not lie with the body, but with the mind.

Revised Blog Post Literary Essay 2

The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is about a boy named Jonas who’s different. He sees everything differently. He thinks differently. He believes for a difference. But he wasn’t always like this. Not until he met the Giver –not until he was chosen to be the next Receiver of Memory. Even though he can “See Beyond,” or see color in a bleak world, his ideas didn’t start until he had the knowledge to understand his world. The Receiver of Memory advises the Community, and then when the Receiver gets old, a new one is chosen. The Giver, the previous receiver, must pass on memories to Jonas. With that, Jonas realizes the truth, and knows that he must leave the community with a new child to find a new place to live, so that he and those who can see beyond can experience life – the way it should be. In Lowry’s book, she discusses the essence of humanity and, after the community submits their diversity with “sameness,” an idea where there is no love, no hate, and everything is the same, do they lose their humanity as well? Lowry uses Jonas’ quest throughout the novel to answer her own questions.

At the beginning of the story, Jonas is a scared 12 year old, who has been singled out in the ceremony where everyone’s jobs are chosen. He doesn’t understand why this is happening to him. He is afraid that something bad is happening to him, and, in a way, it is. He’s forcibly taking on all the pain and suffering of the community and the world in general. In the text, it says, “Earlier that day, dressing in his own dwelling, he had practiced the kind of jaunty, self-assured walk that he hoped he could make to the stage when his turn came. All of that was forgotten now. He simply willed himself to stand, to move his feet that felt weighted and clumsy, and to go forward, up the steps and across the platform until he stood at her side.”

As the story progresses, Jonas starts to uncover the truth of his bleak community, and how the true meaning of life had been stolen from them all. The Giver allows him to live to the fullest, as he does, unlike the rest of the community. The Giver teaches him to see beyond, and see the colors for what they are. He teaches Jonas love, he teaches him joy, and pure-happiness as well – but he also teaches him pain. Jonas questions his world for what it is and why it exists, and why people are denied the wonders he is granted through memory. In the text, Jonas asks his parents if they love him, and his parents chuckle, saying how he needs to remember precision of language. “’Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become obsolete,’ his mother carefully explained. Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory.”

At the end of the book, Jonas and the Giver realize how they must make a change in their people. If they were to leave, their memories would be released into the community, and then the people would have to bear them themselves – but Jonas and the Giver are not trying to ruin the people of the community, they’re trying to help them. So Jonas decides to leave so that the community will get his memories, and the Giver would stay behind to help the community deal with them, so that they could become wiser and stronger – so that everyone could know the true meaning of life with their emotions back. Emotions, along with brain capacity, are what mainly differentiates humans from other animals. Without true emotions, due to sameness as in The Giver, humans don’t have culture, they don’t have love, they don’t have happiness, and they don’t have hatred, so where does that leave them? What do we become when stripped of our emotions? We are stripped of the thing that makes us human.  

The Giver, by Lois Lowry is a story that uncovers the true meaning of life, what it’s like without it, and the measures people will take to achieve it – or, in Jonas and the Giver’s case, share it with others and do what’s right. Lowry gives the world an idea of what life without emotions could look like – bleak, boring, and asking to be defied because, as we witnessed in The Giver, a world of such would go against human nature. The book gives Lowry’s perspective to what life would be like in such a society, where there is no pain or choices, but more importantly, no freedoms, self-control, or life.

Revised Blog Post Literary Essay

In the book Divergent, written by Veronica Roth, the author paints a picture of a corrupt world rigidly defined by strict categories, and describes the negative effects of this structure and how it can lead to injustice in society. In addition, she offers some suggestions about how these types of injustices can be remedied. Roth approaches the topic of social injustice and class systems by presenting the readers with an almost-totalitarian society that is divided by different factions, or groups of people, each with a specialized trait. The goal of the creation of the factions was to eradicate harmful genes such as cruelty, selfishness, dishonesty, cowardice, and ignorance. The reader later finds out that people with these pure genes, known as the divergent, are being hunted down and killed by the government because of the fact that the way they think ensures that they can’t be controlled by the rigid class systems. The minds of the divergent can’t be confined to one way of thinking, and therefore they can’t be confined to one class, or faction, and controlled.  Tris and Tobias, two of the main characters, are part of the small amount of people with divergence. Throughout Divergent, Roth alludes to the social injustices that exist in our world today, and illustrates the importance of what it means to be part of something and truly belong.

 

According to Wikipedia, social injustice is defined as “a relative concept about the claimed unfairness or injustice of a society in its divisions of rewards and burdens and other incidental inequalities based on the user's worldview of humanity.” While Roth, on the surface, focuses on Tris and her emotions, she also plants underlying examples of social injustice that by the end blossom into large scale issues. In addition, she also demonstrates the differences in rewards and burdens that result from a highly structured society, and hints at the social injustices in our world today by comparing contemporary issues such as the current American class system, with the faction system in the book. For example, in Divergent, there are people known as the factionless, who live in poverty, don’t have anything, work the jobs no one else wants to do, and there’s nothing they can do at all to change their situations. On the other hand, there are people who control the factions – the Faction Leaders – who live in extraordinary wealth and can do just about anything they want. In the book Jeanine Matthews, the leader of the faction that cures ignorance, tries to take over the city by controlling the police force and the guards with a mind control serum – one that is only allowed to her because of her special rank. By comparing the lives of the faction leaders and the factionless, Roth illustrates the profound sense hopeless misery that these people living in poverty have to deal with every day.

  

The author also portrays how alienating totalitarian societies can be, by showing the process that Tris Prior goes through to find her place in her world. In the beginning, Tris feels like she’s out of place and doesn’t belong in her birth faction – the one that cures selfishness. Whenever she does something that any other one of her faction members would have done as second nature, for her at least, it feels forced and unnatural. While she loves her family and her fellow faction-members, she feels like she doesn’t belong among their selfless ranks. For example, at the beginning of the book, Tris thinks while looking at her brother, “He also fully inherited my mother’s talent for selflessness, while I barely did. He gave his seat to a surly Candor man on the bus without a second of thought.” Actions like these aren’t such that come naturally, and instead she feels like she needs to push herself and become something else to belong in her birth faction, but deep down, she just wants to be herself.  

 

I believe Roth’s book, Divergent, was written as cautionary tale about the negative effects of class structure and to illustrate the social injustices that result. These injustices exist in many cultures across the world, including the United States.  There are valuable lessons in it for kids, because, as the future of the world, kids will be the people who can bring change to our society in the future. Roth wanted kids to become aware of the negative effects of a societal class system. While the American economy can be extremely proficient at what it’s designed to do, it also negatively affects many people, offering some opportunities of a lifetime, and pushing others deeper and deeper.

 

Link

http://casadeliam.blogspot.com/2015/02/blog-post-febuary-1st-divergent-by.html

 

 

BLOG POST FEBUARY 1ST (Divergent by Veronica Roth)

Divergent

The book Divergent, by Veronica Roth, approaches the topic of social injustice and class systems by presenting the readers with an almost-totalitarian society that is divided by different factions, or groups of people, each with a specialized trait. The goal of the creation of the factions was to eradicate harmful genes such as cruelty, selfishness, dishonesty, cowardice, and ignorance. The reader later finds out that people with these pure genes, known as the divergent, are being hunted down and killed by people with damaged genes. Tris and Tobias, two of the main characters, are part of the small amount of people with divergence. Throughout Divergent, Roth hints to social injustice in our world today and describes what it means to be part of something and truly belong.

All the way throughout Divergent, Roth, the author, hints to social injustices in our world today by comparing contemporary issues such as the current American class system, with the faction system in the book. For example, in Divergent, there are people known as the factionless, who live in poverty, don’t have anything, work the jobs no one else wants to do, and there’s nothing they can do at all to change their situations. While, on the other hand, there are people who control the factions – the Faction Leaders – who live in extraordinary wealth and can do just about anything they want. In the book Jeanine Matthews, the leader of the faction that cures ignorance, tries to take over the city by controlling the police force and the guards with a mind control serum – one that is only allowed to her because of her special rank.

The book Divergent is also about how Tris Prior finds her place in her world. In the beginning, Tris feels like she’s out of place and doesn’t belong in her birth faction – the one that cures selfishness. Whenever she does something that any other one of her faction members would have done as second nature, for her at least, it feels forced and unnatural. While she loves her family and her fellow faction-members, she feels like she doesn’t belong among their selfless ranks. For example, at the beginning of the book, Tris thinks while looking at her brother, “He also fully inherited my mother’s talent for selflessness, while I barely did. He gave his seat to a surly Candor man on the bus without a second of thought.” That’s something that Tris would have to remind herself to do, instead of it just happening, like breathing.

I believe Roth’s book, Divergent, was writing as an allegory about the negative effects of class structure and to illustrate the social injustices that result. These injustices exist in many cultures across the world, including the United States.  There are valuable lessons in it for kids, because, as the future of the world, kids will be the people who can bring change to our society in the future. Roth wanted kids to become aware of the negative effects of a societal class system. While the American economy can be extremely proficient at what it’s designed to do, it also negatively affects many people, offering some opportunities of a lifetime, and pushing others deeper and deeper.   

Blog Review

For my blog review, I chose to read and respond to Toby’s Non-Fiction book, “Billionaire’s Ball.” This book, by Linda McQuaig, discusses the current state of the US economy, and how it affects society. As of now, it’s much like it was in the “roaring twenties,” just before the market crash and the Great Depression. Toby’s response to this book caught my eye because of the fact that I’ve read other books on a similar topic, of which I find very interesting, and because of the possibility and likelihood of another country-wide depression, maybe not on a scale as massive as that of the Great Depression, but one none the less.

I was drawn in to this post, not only from the topic, but also from Toby’s word choice and personal way of engaging readers with facts and statements that hook the reader, allowing them to be drawn in as I was and becoming concerned with the topic, as I became concerned. I have read books about the Great Depression, and if, as “Billionaire’s Ball” implies, we are soon to be heading down the road as the economy was in the 20s, where there are people who have acquired unheard of amounts of money, and then there are people who are living in the lowest reaches of poverty, making one single dollar a year to certain CEO’s $17,000.

Impending events, such as what may be the future for American’s as shown in this book, should be a huge concern of everyone, and, as I believe Toby and McQuaig have attempted to do with their writings, need to be recognized and taken heed of. McQuaig most likely wrote her Non-Fiction novel to bring awareness to America’s misfortunes during the Great Depression, and also to open the eyes of the public, (and most importantly the people who have attained these large sums of wealth) so that citizens will be able to stifle the new depression before it begins, and instead of being broken, again, by events such as country-wide economy drops, becoming ever so stronger.

The Culture of Beauty Non-Fiction Critical Analysis

The Culture of Beauty, by Gale Cengage Learning, in the Opposing Viewpoints Series, talks about how the media has been influencing and pushing teens, among people of all ages, in the pursuit of unreachable beauty. Beauty is increasingly becoming more and more important, beginning in the 1980s period, to now. “Since then, stories such as Cinderella and other ‘transformation narratives’ are increasingly being woven through popular culture, consumer advertising, media images, and television shows… illustrate, for many main-stream American women, Cinderella- like transformations.” The media sets unreachable standards every day, that so many people attempt to reach, and this ends up ruining so many lives, with stress and permanent additions to one’s life, for example, plastic surgery. On tv and in magazines, often, unreachable standards of beauty are portrayed, but with the help of photo shop, filters, and other photo-changing and enhancing computer affects. As computer programs’ boundaries are raised, so are the beauty standards. These standards, that aren’t surpassed or even reached by anyone, are what cause huge amounts of stress and ruin lives. Many people spend hours each day “preparing themselves,” as if they’re not good enough without styling their hair or applying make-up.

While, on the other hand, the book describes how the pursuit for beauty is what causes people to want to get to know you, and that “just because a woman would make a sandwich for a homeless person doesn’t make a man fall for her.” While who you are and your character are important, that’s only part of it. In the wild, animals release odors or exhibit colorful feathers or emit calls to attract and appeal to each other, when selecting a mate. This can be compared to humans, where we strive for media standards of beauty, such as styling our hair, wearing make-up – adding or changing ourselves to appeal to each other.

Striving for beauty can’t be considered bad, but it can’t really be considered good, either, mainly due to the fact that it’s a natural thing and there are always going to be “better looking people” and “worse looking people,” because the world can’t tie with itself. There are always people on top, and at the bottom. Equality and Life living in harmony is impossible, because in order to live you cannot just breathe, eat, and sleep – you must experience.

Social Action Reading Response

 
12/14/14

A Monster Calls, by Patrick Ness, is about a young boy, named Connor, whose mother is struggling with terminal cancer. A monster, unlike the one in his nightmare where his mother is taken by the monster that seems to be made of pure terror, comes to help him through his troubles. This monster is made of a yew tree, just like the tree in his backyard. The tree monster tells him stories every night about situations the tree went through in the past and how he, the tree, that is, handled them. The monster makes Connor tell his own story, too, consisting of Connor’s truth. Justice is served in this book, but not necessarily how most thought it would be, and not for who seems to be in need of it most. Justice is served for Connor, by the monster, by helping him uncover his own truth. Once Connor realizes his truth, and the true cause of his suffering, as well as his mother’s, he understands why he must let his mother go, no matter how much initial pain it causes them both.

          Justice is served in A Monster Calls. This is done by the Monster who helps Connor. The Cancer is what is upsetting the balance of justice. The Cancer enters Connor’s mother’s life, changing it forever - changing her and her son. Connor realizes that his truth is, with help of the monster, that he doesn’t want to see his mother suffer anymore. Every day he wakes up and sees how frail and tired she looks, even though she isn’t even close to an elderly age. For example, Connor repeatedly thinks how, “exposed and soft” he head looks without her scarf covering it, implying that almost whenever he sees her, it hurts him. Ness, the author, also shows how all of this hurts his mother. He mentions how it hurts her every day, knowing she won’t be around much longer for her son.

          Justice could have been served in another way, if that was possible. The point of serving Justice, is to make things right and the way they should be, and to end undeserved suffering. This could have been done by curing Connor’s mother’s cancer. Then, things would have been back to the way they were before the terminal cancer struck, and there wouldn’t be the agony every day for Connor and his mother, of watching a loved one suffer. But, realistically, this could not have happened. As of now, there is no cure for terminal cancer - only a treatment that may work for a fleeting moment – so how would a Yew tree be able to save someone? The only way to serve justice, in this case, was to end the source of suffering and move on.

          Connor’s truth, as he soon learns, is that he suffers because his mother suffers – because it hurts him to see her suffer. He knows she’s going to, eventually, die, and she knows it too, but he doesn’t know when, and neither does she. He realizes he just wants to get it over with, no matter how dark that may seem. As much as he doesn’t want her to die, he accepts that she will, and that is what he, the monster, is looking for as his truth, in order for justice to be served. The monster walks to help Connor, but in reality, it’s only Connor’s imagination helping himself, when no one else will.

 

Reading Response 11/30 using social action question

The thief lord

In this book, Prosper and Boniface run away from home, from their crazy aunt – but is she really crazy? The only perspectives included are those of Prosper, Bo, and the friends they meet on the streets of Venice. Often, books told from the perspective of children portray adults, particularly step-relatives, as pure evil. The reader is so engrossed in what Prosper and Bo have to say about their aunt that they only hear their side – only one side to the story.

Firstly, when their aunt hires a detective to track down the boys, once he meets them, he lets their opinion on their aunt sway his entirely. He goes from thinking, “OK, I will try this job,” to, “NO! I don’t want to work for these people!” He knows nothing of Prosper and Bo’s aunt that she said herself, because she said nothing of herself to him, just what the boys told him.

Then, again, when the aunt finally finds Bo, but not Prosper, Bo tries to make it seem like his aunt is abusive. They stay at a hotel while Venice police help to look for Bo’s brother. Bo throws things out windows, screams all the time, and tries to escape from her, back to his brother. When his aunt takes him to a fancy restaurant, for example, he yanks the tablecloth down and runs away in the chaos.

In this essay, I question whether or not only one perspective can tell a factual story, and what was found, when multiple are put together, is that that is not true. While one perspective may recall what happened to them, it does not hold what took place at that time. All in all, one perspective is a simple recollection, while many make up a great tale.

Young Adult Controversy -ESSAY-

 

Should access to Young Adult books be limited in any way?

 

Young Adult books are extremely helpful to distressed teens – they can help them get through troubling events or issues in their lives. There are people who praise these books and their authors more than life itself. Likewise, there are always people who don’t agree with the majority – there are always outliers – and that’s why a rating system should be put in place. It should not restrict any books from teens, but instead provide a heads up of what they’re getting into.

Young Adult books help teens face their real life issues based on lessons portrayed by their characters in their books. In Sherman Alexie’s article, he says how he “writes in blood because he remembers what he felt like to bleed,” implying he wants to help kids stop bleeding or get through it, because he knows that there is no way to not bleed. He describes how some times he feels like he’s writing to his former self. He also recalls “when I think of the poverty stricken, self-loathing, sexually and physically abused Native American teenager that I was, I can only wish, immodestly, that I’d been given the opportunity to read ‘the absolutely true diary of a part time Indian…”

YA books often address troubling events and issues for teens, usually from their young and immature perspective. For most people, these books teach children how to cope with their problems and “fight their monsters.” On the other hand, for some children YA books just cause added stress and anxiety about their world and their own well-being. “It’s not just the fact that these books feature terminally ill teens that makes them so questionable – they’re also aimed at children as young as twelve years old,” says Tanith Carey, author of an article dealing with the YA controversy. Twelve year old children don’t need to hear about the types of issues that YA books address, such as different types of abuse, drug use, and other dark things, since these kids are still young and haven’t yet been corrupted by the 21^st century’s technology and issues.  While Carey makes a reasonable claim, she doesn’t take into account the fact that any of these types of things could happen to a kid.  By reading about how the characters in YA books cope with difficult situations, it could help them cope with them if it happened in their lives. Yes, YA can be dark, but they provide sanctuary and aid for so many children that banning them could do more harm than good. Young Adult books do so much to relieve stress by helping teens cope with life. Many teens across the world encounter bumps in their lives, and YA books are what contribute to them getting through it. In Sherman Alexie’s article, a boy says to him, “I don’t want to be like my father, I want to be myself. Just like in your book.” He went to Alexie and his books to understand and find himself – to uncover his destiny.

One solution for addressing this issue is to add a rating system to YA fiction.  Young Adult books should have, not traditional age ratings or restrictions, but a recommendation to give people an overview of what they may or may not encounter inside. These ratings will be like those on video games, movies, apps, TV shows, and products. Ratings, instead of censors or bans, will allow kids and parents to choose books for themselves, without being shocked if it’s of a sensitive topic. “For children, we have to be careful. We’ve got to have a guide for parents.”

 

Young Adult books are too good for banning, really. Even if that were to happen, teenagers would find a way to read them anyway. They’re just too beneficial to take away. But there are always going to be people who take offense at or disagree with others – there are always two sides to a story. Due to this, there should be a rating system put in place to serve as an early warning. This way, people will know what they’re getting into before they put themselves into it. Teens know what they’re doing when they read – it’s their parents who need a little reassurance.

 

Legend Trilogy Reponse

The Legend Trilogy, by Marie Lu, is about the love between two people, and what they go through to stay together. The book follows the theme of how love is powerful and that destiny always guides us, using the tale of a boy from the slums who also happens to be the country’s most wanted criminal, and a girl from the country’s richest sectors who is the nation’s prodigy. The story takes place in a future totalitarian society, in what was once the US, that’s now the Republic of America, a small part of the original country because it was devastated by floods and a nuclear war. These two, Day and June, come from the complete opposite backgrounds, but, because of love and destiny, fall for each other. The book shows the power of love by showing how it can change your life, how it allows you to do amazing things, and how it also never lets you go once it catches you.

The story first presents the idea of how love can change your life. In Legend, June, the prodigy, turns her back on her country for Day, when they discover that it’s corrupt. She loses her family fortune, her high ranking military position, and her life as a wealthy upper class citizenship all for him. In the book, they discover that the country had been doing experiments on the poor sectors with bio-weapons, with hope that they would create a virus to use in wars. When Day is finally arrested, June helps him break out, revealing that she is no longer for her country.

The story also describes how love allows you to do amazing things. The Republic falls to a new leader, one who is thought to be a bad as the previous, but ends up having completely different ideas and wanting to change the country for the better. But, the people of the Republic don’t believe him and thoughts of revolution start to enter their minds. In the text it describes how June and Day realize that they don’t want to see their country fall, but that they want to see it change. They’re originally part of a plan to assassinate the leader with a resistance group, but June finds out the truth about the Republic’s leader and tries to warn Day. Because of his love for her he blindly ruins the assassination, hoping that June’s right. When Day is climbing the highest building in the capitol to address the Republic and save the nation, he’s still not completely sure of the leader, but is doing it for June. For motivation he thinks, “Imagine June is right behind you, cheering you on.”

The story also describes how “once love gets hold of you, it never lets you go,” meaning that no matter what happens along the way, the power of love still holds them together. In the text, June, when she is still a Republic Agent, is tasked with tracking down Day. She gets his family killed, and even though this happens he still loves her, even though it hurts him every time he sees her. She realizes this and tries to separate them so he isn’t pained anymore. Then, presenting her with the perfect solution, Day suffers from brain damage and loses all his recent memories, his memories of her. She tries to stay out of his life, so that he stops hurting so much, but destiny and love doesn’t let them go. They encounter each other again, several years later, and he says to her, “I feel like I should remember and know you, but right now I don’t, and it feels wrong. I hope we can become friends in the future.”

The Legend Trilogy, by Marie Lu, is a love story, which represents the theme and main idea of how love is powerful. Love brings Day and June together, from the most unlikely backgrounds, and then pushes them apart. But then, years later, they find each other again, no matter how hard June tries to stay away from him, because she loves him but she also hurts him. At the end of the book, June realizes she can’t simply avoid him, because no matter what they’ll always find each other, but what she can do is start over.  

 

 

Non-Fiction Critical Analysis on Sherman Alexie's "Why the best children's books are written in blood."

The article, “Why the best kid’s books are written in blood,” by Sherman Alexie, is about how YA books enormously help young readers to get through troubling times in their lives. To prove this point, Alexie includes aspects from multiple other writers and students, such as Meghan Cox Gurdon and students from High Schools that Alexie spoke as a guest at. Gurdon says in her article how modern YA novels are corrupting our youth and are giving them “bad ideas.” She says that the novels just put bad ideas in kid’s heads and give them dark and menacing thoughts.

Sherman Alexie wants readers to understand him. He wants them to know why he writes what he writes, and why others do it too. To show readers this, Alexie describes how, in his youth, he was constantly fighting his “monsters” – the problems and issues that faced him in life. He recalls that the only place that he felt “safe,” was in his books, and that the books gave him weapons – “in the form of words and phrases – to fight his monsters. He says that the reasons he writes now is to pass those weapons on to today’s youth.

Alexie’s article made me feel inspired – inspired to write or to help others. Sherman Alexie’s writing and explanations left me wondering why anyone could ever think modern YA to be bad. Even though on the outside they appear dark, sinister novels, their only goal is to make sure other kids don’t make the same mistakes that the authors made in their childhood. “I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.” – Sherman Alexie

The Giver Reading Response 4

The Giver, by Lois Lowry, is about a boy named Jonas who’s different. He sees everything differently. He thinks differently. He believes for a difference. But he wasn’t always like this. Not until he met the Giver –not until he was chosen to be the next Receiver of Memory. Even though he can “See Beyond,” or see color in a bleak world, his ideas didn’t start until he had the knowledge to understand his world. The Receiver of Memory advises the Community, and then when the Receiver gets old, a new one is chosen. The Giver, the previous receiver, must pass on memories to Jonas. With that, Jonas realizes the truth, and knows that he must leave the community with a new child to find a new place to live, so that he and those who can see beyond can experience life – the way it should be. Throughout the book, Jonas changes drastically – and in many ways.

At the beginning of the story, Jonas is a scared 12 year old, who has been singled out in the ceremony where everyone’s jobs are chosen. He doesn’t understand why this is happening to him. He is afraid that something bad is happening to him, and, in a way, it is. He’s forcibly taking on all the pain and suffering of the community and the world in general. In the text, it says, “Earlier that day, dressing in his own dwelling, he had practiced the kind of jaunty, self-assured walk that he hoped he could make to the stage when his turn came. All of that was forgotten now. He simply willed himself to stand, to move his feet that felt weighted and clumsy, to go forward, up the steps and across the platform until he stood at her side.”

As the story progresses, Jonas starts to uncover the truth of his bleak community, and how the true meaning of life had been stolen from him and the community. The Giver teaches him to see beyond, and see the colors for what they are. The Giver teaches him love, teaches him joy, and pure-happiness as well – but he also teaches him pain. Jonas questions his world for what it is and why it exists, and why people are denied the wonders he is granted through memory. In the text, Jonas asks his parents if they love him, and his parents chuckle, saying how he needs to remember precision of language. “’Your father means that you used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become obsolete,’ his mother carefully explained. Jonas stared at them. Meaningless? He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory.”

At the end of the book, Jonas and the Giver realize how they must make a change in the community. If they were to leave, their memories would be released into the community, and then the people would have to bear them themselves – but Jonas and the Giver are not trying to ruin the community, they’re trying to help them. So Jonas decides to leave so that the community will get his memories, and the Giver would stay behind to help the community deal with them, so that they could become wiser and stronger – so that everyone could know the true meaning of life.

The Giver, by Lois Lowry is a story that uncovers the true meaning of life, what it’s like without it, and the measures people will take to achieve it – or, in Jonas and the Giver’s case, share it with others and do what’s right. The book gives Lowry’s perspective to what life would be like in a total-totalitarian society, where there is no pain or choices, but more importantly, no freedoms, self-control, or life.

READING RESPONSE 3 ARGUMENT --EBOLA--

Africa is struggling with one of the largest Ebola outbreaks in history that has already killed more than all of the other Ebola outbreaks combined. Africa is in need of as much aid as we can give to the area, not necessarily as work towards a cure, but more towards containment to stop the virus’ spread to other countries. Without the support of the United States and other western governments, Africa has little chance of preventing this from becoming a global pandemic.

The healthcare systems of most African nations do not have the capabilities or resources to contain a disease of this magnitude. There is a lack of hospitals and medical facilities, as well as limited access to medications, antibiotics, and have few means of transporting infected. The US and other Western powers can send aid and teams to build and establish infrastructure such as medical facilities, which can help people in the affected countries get the help that they need where it is needed most.  Although these changes would take a while to fully implement, Africa cannot make these changes without the aid of western governments.

In addition, compared to population, Africa has a relatively small number of trained medical professionals who can combat the disease and stop the spread of deadly viruses such as Ebola. Even before this outbreak, Africa had limited doctors, and many of them were from aid organizations such as “Doctors without Borders.”  And now that many of them have died, there is even more of a need for trained professionals. American doctors with extensive medical training could travel to Africa to provide the much needed support and healthcare work to potentially prevent many deaths.

On the other hand, some may believe that this is a bad and unjustified idea due to the fact that many of the healthcare workers who have gone to Africa to help out have contracted Ebola. However, since Africa does not have a very strong infrastructure, many workers have been infected with the virus due to poor conditions near the infected Ebola patients. American doctors are much less likely to be infected because of their better training, resources, and protective equipment.

Africa needs us, American aid and that of the other Western powers, to help manage the spread of disease that they are unable to control. If we continue to send medical support to Africa, we will without a doubt be able to settle the storm that Ebola is and restore order to the region.   

Reading Response 2 - Faithful Elephants

In Faithful Elephants, by Yukio Tsuchiya, the author heavily relies on symbols throughout the text, such as cherry blossoms, bombs, and the elephants themselves, to communicate the deep emotion of powerlessness that seems to define every aspect of the story. Faithful Elephants tells of three elephants, John, Tonky, and Wanly, who are ordered to be put down because of the war, for fear that they could get loose. The story focuses on the suffering this decision causes the keepers, while they’re in the midst of seeing it through to completion.

One of the most important symbols in Faithful Elephants are the Cherry Blossoms that bloom in Ueno Zoo during the spring. The blossoms symbolize simplicity, peace, and life, and are described as being "in full bloom" at the beginning of the story.  Only the petals are said to be falling at the story’s opening, as if when you read the first sentence, you’ve taken a step into Ueno Zoo, where it’s warm and there’s a slight breeze, in which the flowers sway to as they fall. It’s a peaceful opening that leaves the reader naïve to what they’re about to walk into. The second time the Cherry Blossoms are mentioned takes place at the story’s closure, where, after all the keepers have gone through, the flowers are described as "falling on the grave like snowflakes".  Now, they symbolize death.

Another symbol seen throughout Faithful Elephants, are the elephants themselves. The keepers say throughout the story how the elephants are like their children, and innocent. It is also implied that they’re also the keeper’s source of hope. The keepers believed that, as long as the elephants lived at the zoo with them, they would survive too, and maybe the war would end. The elephants were hope in its tangible form – they were the only reason the keepers still had their hope to survive the war, and once the elephants were lost, all was lost.

The third of three important symbols in Faithful Elephants was the bombs. The “bomb dropping” was mentioned in the beginning of the story, as well as after the elephants had died, representing how the mass-confusion, fear, and hopelessness of the war was unavoidable. The keepers gave up once they lost the elephants, not just because they were like their children, but because they were their symbol of hope, and without them, they had no thoughts of a possible ending to the war. 

Throughout Faithful Elephants the author heavily relies on symbols throughout the text, such as the cherry blossoms, bombs, and even the elephants themselves, to portray the hopelessness and powerlessness that remains a constant from the beginning to its end. The theme of this story is that war causes suffering, and the keepers and elephants are just innocent victims. The author is trying to make his point by showing the reader how war affects people, and how innocent people’s lives were destroyed by WWII.

Reading Response 1 -The Grapes of Wrath-

The “Grapes of Wrath,” by John Steinbeck, tells of the Joads, who have lost their home and land to banks in need of land for cultivation. The family was forced onto the road, and from there set their sights on California, where there was rumored to be tons of work. Even though they suffer hardships and losses along the road, they don't lose hope. Eventually they reach the great state, but run into a new problem: the people. The Californians aren’t willing to pay the “Okies,” a term with a negative meaning describing migrants from Oklahoma, because they don’t want them in their state, or on their land.  And when there is work, there’s almost no payout for the workers because the powerful figures don’t want these new people to succeed or get paid, because if the new people are paid well they’ll stay. The rich and powerful people are afraid that if the migrants stay, the state will eventually be filled with poor and uneducated people.  Tom Joad, one of the younger family members, but one of the most influential by the end, undergoes some of the most dramatic changes. These changes are caused by his actions and those of others, such as Jim Casy, who had been a preacher but changed his ways to focus more on his philosophies.

In the beginning of the story, Tom Joad is viewed as a selfish, in it only for himself character who had been convicted of manslaughter during a drunken fight. He leaves prison in search of his home, and his family. On the way he meets Jim Casy, an ex-preacher who now takes on the role as philosopher and companion. At the time, Tom seems full of himself and narcissistic. He had been given new clothes from the prison that were of high quality, and instead of it feeling as if he was honored to be granted expensive clothes, he treated them as if they were just any old thing and creased the hat, ruining it, and scuffed and dirtied the expensive shoes in the dust.
                As the story progresses, Tom begins to change in the presence of Casy. His philosophies of selflessness and doing things for the good of a group instead of just yourself begin to rub off on him. Tom starts to change for the better of himself and his family. He starts to run errands and carry out tasks for everyone, and he starts to lose his slightly narcissistic thoughts.  When their car breaks down, Tom and Casy offer to stay behind with it while the rest went forward, but ma wouldn’t have it, so everyone stayed while Tom and Casy went to a nearby scrapyard to get the parts.

Throughout the story, Tom proves himself time after time. He doesn’t just do stuff for his family and the group, but for communities, camps, and travelers they meet along the way. When the Joads are staying at a Government camp, Tom volunteers as someone to guard against sheriffs who attempt to close the place down, since they can only enter in the time of a fight. So the sheriffs sent in people to cause fights so that they could come in and close the camp. Also, when the Joads are staying at a peach ranch with a strike going on outside the fences, Tom sneaks out and, while in support of the men leading the rally, attempts to moderate the anger between the Sheriffs and working men. At this time he reunites with Casy, who had previously been arrested after taking the blame for the Joad's attack of a sheriff. During the time when Tom had been trying to moderate, Casy had been killed by one of the sheriffs with a billy club. Tom had then retaliated, unintentionally killing the sheriff. But this time, unlike earlier, Tom had not killed in a drunken rage, but accidentally because he had lost a friend.

Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and the plight of the Okies, John Steinbeck illustrates how, even throughout all the Joads have been through, they’re still able to keep their dignity. In the modern era, young adults all over the world go through the phase that Tom is during The Grapes of Wrath: the transition from a narrow perspective of the world and thinking about only oneself, to seeing the world as a community and every person someone meets as equal to the next and oneself. Overall, this is what Steinbeck wants us to know.