CTQ Number 5

     In life threatening situations, people show their true selves. The book 'No Saftey in Numbers' by Daynba Lorentz is an exciting book which takes place in a mall in the suburbs. On a busy Saturday a biological bomb in found in one of the mall's air ducts. The mall is locked down. Soon food and supplies begin to run out, and the people tyrn against one another. Although these people tend to form small, tightly knit groups, the groups themselves are in constant competition with everybody else in the m,all.

     Early on in the book, when there is still food and the bomb inst such a huge problem, the people begin to form groups.For example, Ryan and his football team join nup almost instantly. Mike says " stick with us!" as reassurs Ryan that he will watch his back. This shows that even early on in the book, people begin to look out for one another and portect each other. These little groups are very tightly knit, and hard to tear apart.

     However, these groups are ONLY looking out for themselves. When Ryan is beaten up by another guy (over some food), his group come after the people who beat him up. Ryan's friend Mike says, "you mess with my family, you mess with me." Although this sounds endearing, this little vengence fight results in one boy with a broken nose, and a few others unable to walk. This shows how the groups, although they watch out for eachother, are in constant competition with everyone else in the mall.

     In these types of situations, people show that deep down, they only care about themselves. All they want is their own survival. Although they may have formed small groups, they were in NO way untited. This book does not evision teamwork, rather, it shows how difficult it is for people to be selfless when they are in danger.

Critical Thinking Question (Number 8)

In the book Unbroken by Lauren Hillenbrand, Louie Zamperini survives catastrophic events. He survives out at sea for weeks with out food or water. He must capture rainwater and kill fish to survive. Then he is captured and brought to a POW camp in Japan. Louie almost died at that camp. The way Louie faced death, starvation, violence, and cruelty is truly inspirational.

There are some really straining issues in this book, such as POW camps. In these camps violence is a HUGE issue. For example on page 251, a commander began to beat Louie with a belt buckle, simply because he was the last to salute. Louie was knocked uncounsious. He was deaf in one ear for weeks. The same commander would beat Louie relentlessly, resulting in a sharp decline of his health, because he was not only being beaten daily, he was also severely malnourished. 

     Another issue (mentioned above) that Louie faced was starvation. Each day he was provided with only soup; vegetable broth with rancid rice. The food was "infested with rat droppings, maggots..." (page 197). The food also had gravel in it that cracked and pitted Louie's teeth. He was recieving only 500 calories a day, in other words, he was slowly dying of starvation. The men were also forced to carry out extremely strenuous work, which only served to quicken the effects of this dire malnutrition that the men faced.

     There are no more POW camps in Japan. But their effects remain apparent. There were many men that never returned home, because of starvation, sickness, or the kill-all rule. Still more were very sick or injured when they were rescued. They were not treated at all for sicknesses like scurvy, which were common in the camps. To these starved men, scurvy could be fatal. And all those who made it home were scarred for life. Many took up drinking or smoking. Some had behavioral problems, shell shock, nightmares, etc. One man slept with a gun under his pillow and a stockpile of canned food under his bed for the rest of his life.

     All in all, there were many really hard events that Louie had to endure, and although they may not be as large of a problem, they still affect people today.

Fly High Fly Low

When i was a little kid, my parents weren't always around to read to me. Somedays they were at work, or had had such a stressful time that they got home and collapsed into bed. Regardless, they always squeezed in at least little time to read to me. When i was 5 my favorite book was Fly High Fly Low. Sure, the words on the pages were not great in number, and the artwork was a little sketchy, but that those words, that sketchy image of a white dove in the sky made up my childhood.

Fly High Fly Low taught me that even if your situation seems hopeless, you cant give up. When Sid loses Midge and his nest, he is devastated. He searches high and low, flying blindly in the sky, even though he did not know where to look. In the end his efforts pay off and he is reunited with Midge. That part always made me smile, even as a small little kid, reading late at night by the light of my flashlight. It also teaches you that people can be trusted, when Mr Hi Lee helps Sid find Midge.

The latter lesson i can relate to on a highly personal level. Even as a little kid i didn't trust people. i hated being hugged, being taken are of by a stranger, and i ESPECIALLY hated asking for help, ESPECIALLY from a stranger. Therefore, this book had a big impact on my personality. i was able to see that people are kind, that they can be trusted, that its OK to ask for help. i realize that even today i am not the most acceptant, trusting person, but i sincerely believe that this book helped me in a significant way. Thank you, Don Freeman (author of Fly High Fly Low), for allowing me to have the opportunity to fix my additude towards people in general.

Banned Books Essay Draft

Classics today, banned tomorrow? Parents are pushing for the ban of Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card, although it teaches important lessons and all violence in the book is necessary to the plot. I think that parents should not ban this book, and others like it, because although it may be controversial, it is also a valued piece of literature.

            Parents claim that books written for teens, including Ender’s Game, are too controversial for their children. For example, the article Darkness Too Visible by Meghan Cox Gurdon, describes a parent in a bookstore, worried about the controversial topics she found on the shelves for teens. The parent claimed that the material on the shelves was inappropriate for her 13 year-old daughter, calling it “all vampires and suicide, self-mutilation, this dark, dark stuff.” The parent was unable to find a single book that she deemed appropriate for her child. She left the bookstore empty-handed. This shows that some parents today are cautious about purchasing books that may contain violence, suicide, or other dark topics.

            However, the violence found in Ender’s Game, and many other books for that matter, is needed for the plot. For example, on page 7 of Ender’s Game is a scene that such parents may find too dark. “Ender walked over to Stilson’s supine body and kicked him again, viciously, in the ribs. Stilson groaned and rolled away. Ender walked around and kicked him again, in the crotch. Stilson could not make a sound, he only doubled up and tears streamed out of his eyes.” This quote sets the scene for Ender’s enrollment in the Battle School, which is a central part of the story. It also reveals the calculating and cruel side of Ender, so that he doesn’t appear to be an innocent boy. This illustrates that the violence in Ender’s Game is crucial to the plot and for the development of characters in the book.

            The book also poses an important philosophical question about war and whether violence and retaliation can be justified for the sake of self-preservation. In the book, the government of Earth decides to attack an alien army that had attacked them in the past. After the battle is over, it is revealed that the attack may not have been necessary, because it was unclear whether the aliens were planning to strike again. However, the government decided that the risk of not taking action was too great, and chose a fight they thought they could win rather than risk defeat for peace. The concept addressed by this book is a deep inquiry into the nature of war, which children should be encouraged to think about and discuss.

            To conclude, despite the fact that parents may find certain books such as Ender’s Game disturbing, Ender’s Game poses a good question that may be hard to learn in everyday life, and the violence in the novel is completely key to the plot.  Books like this should NOT be banned, because they provide important lessons and ideas that are expressed in a creative way. If parents look beyond the violence and dark material in books, and try to understand the author’s purpose, perhaps they would see the value of books like Ender’s Game.

Monday Muses

Prompt: childhood

every young child's laugher or cry
overheard on slate sidewalk or
in front of a brownstone standing tall
brings me back to a time
that remains all but pushed to the back of my mind
the smell of rain in the morning
and the first time i walked to school
or sticky hands from ice cream
ducking away from the papery napkin
mom holds out to me
the dull thud of a soccer ball in the park
and the rush of the game that we won, 8-0
or the way the moon looks at midnight
and when i stayed up late
to see the stars
and then i blink
smile
and move on

Theme: The Shade of the Moon

     I have recently finished 'the Shade of the Moon' by Susan Beth Pfeffer. This book takes place after the moon has been knocked closer to the earth, wreaking havoc and killing millions. A few years after the tragedy society has been re-established, with new rules, new jobs, and a new class system that favors the wealthy. There are clavers; the rich who live in nice neighborhoods and have jobs like doctors, slips; the people who are not rich, but have passes that they obtained that allows them to lve i nice areas, and there are grubs; the working class, who are forced to live in slums, they have jobs like cleaners or bus drivers. I think that the theme of this book is that class separation is bad for society, in a social way.
     The first example of this is found on page 10. John says " our domestics are grateful to be working is Sexton."(domestics are cleaners and care takers, they are grubs). Notice how John says 'our', as if the people belong to him. He also assumes that these people who may have been artists, lawyers, or models, are happy to be working as cleaning ladies or nannies, just because the government doesnt need their skills anymore. This is showing that he thinks that they are below him, they must be happy just to get to work for him. He doesnt even consider that they might be upset that they have to live in slums because there is no more need for models or lawyers in this post-apocalyptic world
     Another example is when John's friend says "all grubs are bums". He thinks that just because his grandfather was a doctor, which allowed him to be a claver, he is better than the people in the slums, the same people who mine for the coal that heats the houses and farm the food he eats. this shows how separate the classes are socially. Even the claver kids hate grubs for no reason!
   All in all, this shows that a society with clearly divided classes is unstable socially. People, family, grow farther apart because of simple names. And when the time comes to work together, no one will be able to becuase the clavers think the grubs are below them. John has family in a grub area, and he has to pretend he hates them because everyone will make fun of him if he admits he loves his grub family. Therefore, classes are bad for society.
   

Reading Response; The Kid

    I'm about three-quarters through with the book The Kid, by Sapphire (sequel to Push). i have noticed an interesting trait about the writing in this book, it relates to how the main character, Abdul, speaks. Abdul is a young teenager who lives in Harlem in the 1980s and 1990s. (SPOILER ALERT) His mother died of AIDs and he has no idea who his father is. for a brief period of time he was in a catholic orphanage, but he was kicked out. He now lives with his cruel, uneducated grandmother. I've noticed that in the beginning, when he lived a sheltered lifestyle, he was articulate. As the book progresses and there is more and more negative influence on poor Abdul, his speech changes from that of an articulate boy, to a broken, often grammatically incorrect speech pockmarked with swears and slang.

     You see Abdul's speech as a boy, living with his loving mother, Precious, on page 28. This is right after his mother's funeral. He says "she's standing by the bed holding my good shoes. my suit is on the bed, folded up and wrapped in plastic."As you can see, this is a grammatically correct sentence, and it is rather articulate for a nine year old boy. this is before the negative influence that changes everything about. this is when he is still an innocent little boy.

    When Abdul is in foster care, where he is negatively influenced by the other boys, his speech has taken a drastic change. This is apparent on page 70, where he says, "Usually if ain't no guys playing basketball, but when we get up the stairs, i stop short. All kinda people in here today dressed in bright colored tights..." As you can see his speech is not grammatically correct, he uses words like 'ain't'. he also uses and double negative among other things. these are probably things picked up from the boys around him.

    When Abdul is living with his grandmother, the change is complete. the once articulate boy is saying things like, " what kinda s**** is that? i try think of something, anything but what im hearing." as you can see, he is swearing and his once-normal speech is broken. this is probably due to the way his illiterate grandmother speaks.

    i think that the changing of Abduls speech shows a change in character. he was once a normal, bright, happy boy, he spoke normally. then as he was influenced by the drug-addicts and uneducated people, more than his speech changed. He didn't act as intelligent, he did impulsive, even violent things, and fell to the level of those around him. Uneducated, finacially unstable, impulsive, and angry. the bright young boy had turned into a typical teenager of his neighborhood in that period of time. His speech change helped express that change.

Animal Farm Reading Response

First Reading Response of the Year!

Animal Farm by George Orwell

     In the book Animal Farm by George Orwell, a farm is taken over by its own animals, forcing the human owners to leave. The animals attempt to create a utopia, with fair rules and equality between them all. However, things don't quite go as planned. The pigs, the most clever of the animals, begin to manipulate the others. They slowly change rules and alter the equality on the farm, so subtly that the other animals don't even realize what is going on until the pigs are in complete control. eventually, even the dream of the animal-run utopia is swept away as the pigs begin to use the animals for a profit, just as their former, human owners did. I think that the message of this book is that people who have power or abilities that put them above the rest of people are easily corrupted even if the intent is good at the beginning.

    An example of this message is on page 35, where it says, "pre-eminent among the pigs were Snowball and Napoleon" (and pigs are recognized as the cleverest animals on the farm.) in the beginning the pigs are helping out by making fair rules of the farm and educating the other animals. soon after, however, (on page 51) Napoleon begins to restrict education only to pigs, which is an early sign of the discrimination that becomes so apparent by the climax of the book. While this may seem not that important, it shows that the equality the animals founded is already fraying at the edges. napoleon is not a cruel animal, but he feels that pigs are superior to other animals, which opposes the mindset of their civilization.

     Another example of this is found on pages 43, and 133. on page 43 the commandments of the farm are, "1.whatever goes upon 2 legs is an enemy.

 2. what ever goes upon 4 legs is a friend.

 3. no animals shall wear clothes.

 4. no animal shall sleep in a bed.

 5. no animals shall drink alcohol.

 6. no animal shall kill another animal.

 7. all animals are equal." which the animals use as their philosophy and basic rules of life. on page 133, after the pigs have taken over, and treated themselves to the luxeries that are banned from the other animals, the change the commandments to "all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others." this shows that the pigs have been corrupted and mistreat the other animals becuase the believe that they are entitled to it.

    all in all, i think that this shows that power does corrupt those more endowed than others. this world has a history of slavery and racism just because some people think they are better, and have the power to do something with it. with power, comes the responsibility for the people you can care for. just like a parent helps a small child, a leader must care for and protect a society, and not allow the power to make him or her think that they are all-powerful.