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.