Final Reading Response

       My book club has just recently finished the book Divergent by Veronica Roth.  This book is about a female protagonist, Beatrice, who grows up in a city, Chicago, where people are put into factions that make them think a certain way.  However Beatrice is “divergent”, so she has the power to think differently then the factions want you to.  When Beatrice finds out she is divergent, she starts to change from a good girl who follows everything her parents say, to a very independent person.
Beatrice finds out she is divergent through a serum that helps determine what faction a person is best fit for as an adult.  Before a person gets the serum, they live in the faction their parents chose after getting the serum.  Beatrice grows up in Abnegation where you aren’t expected to question anything your elders do.  For example: in the beginning of the book when Beatrice’s parents have to discuss something important, they send her and her brother up to their rooms.  Even though she is curious about what her parents have to discuss, Beatrice goes to her room without arguing.  The reason she goes to her room is because she convinces herself it is wrong to be curious, since that is not the Abnegation way.  At this point in the book she doesn’t know that since she is divergent, she doesn’t actually belong to any faction.  This means she isn’t suppose to act and think like any faction says you should.
When the serum results show that Beatrice is divergent, Beatrice doesn’t completely know what that means, but knows she was never really tied Abnegation rules.  During the choosing ceremony she doesn’t choose Abnegation, but instead chooses Dauntless where she feels more free.  During Dauntless initiation she fights willingly, “My mother and father would not approve of my kicking when she’s down.  I don’t care.” (Roth pg.155).  Before she found out about her “divergence”, violence wouldn’t even cross her mind.  When the fighting starts between factions, Beatrice ends up shooting some people.  Her father doesn’t approve of this action, but instead of feeling immediate guilt, Beatrice explains to her dad that she would have gotten killed herself if she didn’t shoot those people.  In the beginning of the story Beatrice would have just assumed that her father was right, and wouldn’t have tried to justify her reason.
Beatrice, the main character, is what made Divergent such a great read.  Her dramatic change from an innocent girl who always did what she was told, to an aggressive girl who made her own decisions was so interesting and exciting to read about.  Her finding out about her divergence, made her stand out from the other characters and helped complete her change.

RR to Poetry (final)

“The red emblem of michael looked as if it could fly”.  This is one of the many examples Reg Gaines, author of the poem “Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans”, uses to show how Air Jordans taunt people.  Gaines uses the importance of Air Jordans in the poem as symbolism.
Kids have always cared about their looks, but kids now, have taken it to another level.  Kids now a days feel like they have to dress up nicely.  And they don’t do it to impress girls, they do it to make sure they don’t get bullied.  A part of dressing up well, is the sneakers you wear.  If you’re not wearing a brand shoe like Nike, Jordan, Adidas, that’s eighty dollars or more, you’re most likely to get picked on.  There’s a flip side to that as well.  If you’re wearing a flashy sneaker, or a pair that stand out, you run the risk of being jumped by someone who wants them.  People are very greedy these days, and will do anything to look good.
The main character in this poem murders an innocent person for their new Air Jordans.  The main character is a teenager in poverty who lacks the money to buy expensive nice looking clothes.  In the beginning of the poem, the character is looking for new sneakers because is current ones are worn out and ratty-looking.  The speaker uses similes to show how much the character cares about his looks on the outside:  “but I really must get some new gear soon/or my ego will pop like a ten cent balloon”(Gaines 17-18).  The character decides he’ll have to murder someone for a new pair of “fly” shoes.  He then proceeds to ditch school and find his victim at the park.  Almost immediately he spots sneakers he likes, plain white Air Jordans.  He chases down the owner of the pair of Air Jordans, and shoots him in broad daylight.  Afterward he shows no sympathy at all, “the very next day I bopped into school/ with my brand new Air Jordans man I was cool/ I killed to get them but hey...I don’t care”(49-51).
I can make connections between “Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans” and incidents in real life.  In the poem, the main character killed someone to get his Jordans.  In real life there have been many cases where someone was murdered over exclusive, or new Jordan brand sneakers.      Two years ago a young man was murdered in Houston over his newly purchased Air Jordans.  According to the article “2 Charged In Killing Over Air Jordans”, “Neal Bland, 18, and Kegan Arrington, 19 are charged in the Dec. 21 shooting of Joshua Wood...”.  Bland and Arrington were both very young adults at the time and they committed a murder!  None the less over Air Jordans!
After reading this poem, I realized that the situation the main character put himself in sounded so familiar because you always here something like that happening on news when a limited edition Jordan sneaker releases to the public.  We care so much about these sneakers that we forget about the more important things in life, like how we are as people on the inside not the outside.  Hopefully readers can learn from this poem, and stop caring about how they look so much.

Christian, Carol. "2 Charged in Killing over Air Jordans." Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers, 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

RR to poem draft #1

“The red emblem of michael looked as if it could fly”.  This is one of the many examples Reg Gaines, author of the poem Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans, uses to show how Air Jordans taunt people.  Gaines uses the importance of Air Jordans in the poem as symbolism.

Kids have always cared about their looks, but kids now, have taken it to another level.  Kids now a days feel like they have to dress up nicely.  And they don’t do it to impress girls, they do it to make sure they don’t get bullied.  A part of dressing up well, is the sneakers you wear.  If you’re not wearing a brand shoe like Nike, Jordan, Adidas, that’s eighty dollars or more, you’re most likely to get picked on.  There’s a flip side to that as well.  If you’re wearing a flashy sneaker, or a pair that stand out, you run the risk of being jumped by someone who wants them.  People are very greedy these days, and will do anything to look good.

The main character in this poem murders an innocent person for their new Air Jordans.  The main character is a teenager in poverty who lacks the money to buy expensive nice looking clothes.  In the beginning of the poem, the character is looking for new sneakers because is current ones are worn out and ratty-looking.  The speaker uses similes to show how much the character cares about his looks on the outside:  “but I really must get some new gear soon/or my ego will pop like a ten cent balloon”(Gaines 17-18).  The character decides he’ll have to murder someone for a new pair of “fly” shoes.  He then proceeds to ditch school and find his victim at the park.  Almost immediately he spots sneakers he likes, plain white Air Jordans.  He chases down the owner of the pair of Air Jordans, and shoots him in broad daylight.  Afterward he shows no sympathy at all, “the very next day I bopped into school/ with my brand new Air Jordans man I was cool/ I killed to get them but hey...I don’t care”(49-51).

I can make connections between Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans and incidents in real life.  In the poem, the main character killed someone to get his Jordans.  In real life there have been many cases where someone was murdered over exclusive, or new Jordan brand sneakers.      Two years ago a young man was murdered in Houston over his newly purchased Air Jordans.  According to the article 2 Charged In Killing Over Air Jordans “Neal Bland, 18, and Kegan Arrington, 19 are charged in the Dec. 21 shooting of Joshua Wood...”.  Bland and Arrington were both very young adults at the time and they committed a murder!  None the less over Air Jordans!  You see, this type of stuff happens in real life too.

After reading this poem, I realized that the situation the main character put himself in sounded so familiar because you always here something like that happening on news when a limited edition Jordan sneaker releases to the public.  We care so much about these sneakers that we forget about the more important things in life, like how we are as people on the inside not outside.  Hopefully readers can learn from this poem, and stop caring so much.

Christian, Carol. "2 Charged in Killing over Air Jordans." Houston Chronicle. Hearst Newspapers, 29 Dec. 2012. Web. 10 Feb. 2014.

RR to "The Garden Of Beasts"

The Garden of Beasts by Erik Larson, makes me think about how unfair justice is in this world.  I haven’t finished this book, but so far a lot of injustice has been performed.  This book is set around World War 2 (WWⅡ), in Berlin, the capital of Germany.  There was a lot of horrible acts committed by Nazis toward Jews in Germany during this time period.  None of the Nazis where punished for these acts though.
I’m less than halfway through the book, so the Nazis haven’t decided to terminate all Jews in Germany yet, but they have decided to make it a priority to publicly embarrass all Jews.  In one instance when a Nazi parade was happening, an innocent bystander was attacked by a group of Nazis because he looked Jewish (Larson 104).  Also the police where two feet away from the incident, but ignored the man’s pleas for help, and instead smirked down at him.  These two police didn’t care about the man.  In fact they where so amused by him getting beaten up, that they failed to do their job, protect people from crime.  The Nazis specifically targeted Edgar A. Mowrer, a reporter for the Chicago Daily News at the time.  They wanted him out of the country so much “They followed his friends and made threats against his bureau staff.” (75).  Mowrer eventually had to leave for his own safety, but it was against his own will.  The only reason the Nazis were angry with him was he wrote the book, Germany Puts the Clock Back, which talked about how the Nazi regime was a horrible thing for Germany and its people.  This book said the truth, and Nazis despised it for that.  They were scared people would read it and actually listen to what the book said, turning everyone against them.
What they did to the Jews during that time was so unfair.  The Nazis discriminated against the Jews just because they believed Jews were evil and bad for Germany.  The only reason this stupid belief even happened was because Adolf Hitler needed someone to blame the depression Germany was going through on.  Hitler led a Nazi regime of terror, distrust, and violence that no one tried to stop until the damage was done.  Almost 6 million Jews where murdered by the Nazis (*not just in Germany).

Non-Fiction RR #1

Rethinking Juvenile Justice by, John Schwartz, is about how it’s becoming harder to try teen offenders in an adult justice system.  Schwartz isn’t biased in this article, but some of the experts he speaks with in this article are.  Some of these experts are excited with the progress of getting juvenile offenders out of the adult justice system, and others are not excited at all.  Nicole Miera, sister of James Stewart, a 17 year old boy who committed suicide after being transferred from a juvenile detention center to an adult jail, also shared her thoughts on the changes taking place in justice for juveniles.
  In many major cities in the US, including New York City, Chicago, and Washington, change is happening in court systems.  These cities are trying to keep juveniles who have committed small crimes like, theft, and fighting, out of the criminal justice court.  The Annie E. Casey Foundation works with many counties across the US to have different choices for teen offenders.  Due to these changes, jailing juvenile offenders has become a less popular option.  Mark Soler, executive director of the Center for Children’s Law and Policy, says, “If you’ve got kids who are really violent and a threat to their communities, then lock them up”.  He then goes on to say that if you have a safer and easier teen to handle in your community, handle them because it cost a lot less money.  What Soler is trying to say is, jail the really bad kids, and keep the kids that can be easily supervised out of jail all together.  His reason to do this would be you can save so much more money, since states are looking for ways to cut costs.
However, not every one agrees with that approach.  Kent Scheidegger of Criminal Justice Legal Foundation thinks this national trend of keeping juvenile offenders away from the adult justice system will be taken to far.  He states that this process could also be unfair to the victim of the crime.  Nicole Miera thinks juvenile offenders should be evaluated.  She believes, “Some juvenile offenders show such cruelty and viciousness that they should be charged as adults...”.  She then brings in her brother, saying he was different because he didn’t try to go out and murder  someone purposely (he ran over and killed someone while drunk driving).
From reading Rethinking Juvenile Justice, I found out lots of people have different opinions on this subject.  I have also found out, that each opinion has a lot of evidence to back it up, but also take it down.  Whatever decision is made about juvenile offenders in the adult legal system will be a very tough one to make, and no doubt anger some party of people.  

Works Cited

Schwartz, John. "Rethinking Juvenile Justice." Upfront 09 Dec. 2013: 8-11. Print.

Revised Response to Never Fall Down

    I’ve recently just finished the book Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick.  The main character in this book, Arn, was an eleven year old boy when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia.  The book is told from Arn’s point of view, who like all the other people from Cambodia became enslaved by the Khmer Rouge.  In this book there’s two interesting perspectives missing though.  Those perspectives are the Khmer Rouge’s and Peter Pond’s, the man who adopted Arn.  These two perspectives could differ greatly from each others and Arn's, making the story much more intriguing.
   
     I think seeing the story from the Khmer Rouge’s view would be so interesting because they’re the “bad guys” in this situation.  They killed so many people ruthlessly, including fellow soldiers.  Lots of these Khmer Rouge were teenagers and carried out orders because of fear.  When Arn was finished practicing on his instrument, he asked the soldier who supervised him, why the Khmer Rouge killed.  The soldier answered by saying, “They kill only so they won’t be killed themselves.” (McCormick 96).  This shows me that the Khmer Rouge were just as scared of dying as the slaves were.  They may have not wanted to slaughter people, but they did to protect their own lives.

     Peter Pond is an american dad of three who adopted Arn, and two other kids from the orphanage in Thailand.  One thing I wonder is, why did Peter even cared so much about those kids from the orphanage in Thailand?  He cared so much about the kids he got “very worry about the sick kid, very angry if one dies.” (159).  This strikes me odd because he didn’t even have to be in Thailand, he could’ve be in America living the good life with his wife and kids.  If we would have been able to see through Peter's eyes his motives would have seemed more clear and less confusing.  

     Overall this is a great book, and is written so you could see through Arn’s eyes.  But I also think having these two other important people(s) view of what was going on would have made this book better.  You could see how the enemies saw the war and enslavement, and how Arn looked through a wealthier american’s eyes.

Response to "Hoops"

RR to Hoops

Hoops, by Walter Dean Myers was a great book to read.  This book was about a seventeen year old boy, Lonnie, living in Harlem trying to make it to the NBA with the help of his coach.  The theme of money however, added twists and turns, and surprising new discoveries to the book.  By the end of the book not only was Lonnie affected by money, but also side characters, his best friend and his girlfriend.
          For the main character in this book, Lonnie Jackson, money was always an issue.  Like many others in Harlem at the time, Lonnie and his mom struggled in poverty.  What made there situation even worse was Lonnie's father had left them, and his mother wouldn't find a job.  Since his mom was unwilling to find a job "By my senior year she was on my back just about all the time, too." (Myers 2).  Lonnie said she was always pestering him about going to college, and this really annoyed him.  This bugged [Lonnie] because even though he wanted to make it to the NBA, college wasn't really a reality with no scouts coming to see him play.  Plus he knew she was relying on him to make some good money, and get them out of poverty, and he felt that wasn't fair.    
            Having not enough money wasn't only a problem for Lonnie.  Paul, Lonnie's best friend, stole checks from peoples mail just to get some money.  His sister, Mary-Ann(also Lonnie's girlfriend), stole all of Paul's stolen checks to help raise money to bail her mother from jail.  But she got caught and one of Paul's associates, Lenny, beat her up without Paul knowing.  When Paul did find out, not only was he angry, but it made him realize he shouldn't have stolen the checks in the first place.  When Lonnie confronted him, he broke down and admitted, "You see me hanging out with Lenny trying to get into that middle-class thing..."(90).  This was Paul's way of being honest, but also realizing stealing wasn't the best way to try and make money.    
            In Hoops the theme of money interfered with Lonnie's basketball dreams, which made the book interesting and exciting.  That's why money figured as a big piece in this book.  Whether you were trying to make money, or stealing money, it was everywhere in this text.  Overall this was a well rounded book. 

Response on "Never Fall Down"

       I’ve recently just finished the book Never Fall Down by Patricia McCormick.  The main character in this book is a boy, Arn, who was eleven years old when the Khmer Rouge took over Cambodia.  The book is told from Arn’s point of view, who like all the other people from Cambodia became enslaved by the Khmer Rouge.  In this book there’s two interesting perspectives missing though.  Those perspectives are the Khmer Rouge’s and Peter Pond’s, the man who adopted Arn.

 
     I think seeing the story from the Khmer Rouge’s view would be so interesting because they’re the “bad guys” in this situation.  They killed so many people ruthlessly, including fellow soldiers.  Lots of these Khmer Rouge were teenagers and did things out of fear.  When Arn was finished practicing on his instrument, he asked the soldier who supervised him, why the Khmer Rouge killed.  He answered by saying, “They kill only so they won’t be killed themselves.” (McCormick 96).  Those shows me that the Khmer Rouge were just as scared of dying as the slaves.

     Peter Pond is an american dad of three who adopted Arn, and two other kids from the orphanage in Thailand.  One thing I wonder is, why did Peter even cared so much about those kids from the orphanage in Thailand?  He cared so much about the kids he got “very worry about the sick kid, very angry if one dies.” (159).  This strikes me odd because he didn’t even have to be in Thailand, he could’ve be in America living the good life with his wife and kids.   

     Overall this is a great book, and is written so you could see through Arn’s eyes.  But I also think having these two other important people(s) view of what was going on would have made this book better.  You could see how the enemies saw the war and enslavement, and how Arn looked through a richer american’s eyes. 

Prompt

     Something I recently did was practice for my AAU team, the Brooklyn Kings.  I made the team two weeks ago due to the fact that I had worked hard during tryouts.  I also worked had during summer vacation.  I went to three basketball camps, including a sleep away camp in New Jersey.  Making the team has also boosted my confidence.  I know feel like I have an even better shot at making the school team this year because AAU is highly competitive, and playing in AAU will only get my game better.
     Making this team has motivated me to be organized, and plan my time.  The team practices two times a week, and that makes my schedule very busy.  But I know school is the main priority before basketball.  If I don't do good in school my mom definitely won't let me play, plus the coaches will check if your failing, or not.  If you are they won't let you play, and as you can tell I'm really excited about this team.      

Draft 2

Coraline by Neil Gaiman should not be banned. Even though it's a horror book and it contains some dark images, teens wouldn't get scared or influenced. Some writers even think younger audiences could handle this book. Another reason this book shouldn't be banned, is because it teaches you to respect your parents. This is a very positive lesson that many teens could learn. 

     This book shows you how much you need your family as a teen.  When Coraline wins her family back she loves them like never before because she knows she could lose them at any moment.  For example:  "Coraline hugged her father until her arms begin to ache.”(Gaiman 140).  This shows that Coraline not only loves her dad, but she also learned her lesson about how bad you can feel if you don’t show any affection to your parents, and they’re suddenly gone the next day.  Lots of adolescents also feel that their parents are overprotective.  In this book it shows why you should trust your parents and listen to their rules, even if they might sound ridiculous.  Coraline doesn’t listen to her mom, and she temporarily loses her parents.

 
     Many parents argue that they have never seen a book for teens with images so dark, and then they read Coraline.  They say [Coraline] is in the horror section therefore it shouldn’t be read by teens.  Many parents say that their kids can’t handle the dark images in this book, like monsters, and witches.  This book also talks about tough subjects, that parents don’t want their kids learning about.  For example one subject that parents think isn’t age appropriate, is kidnapping.  In the book, [Coraline] gets kidnapped by a witch who pretends to be her mother.

 
     The thing, is even though this book is categorized in the horror section it’s not even scary.  And that’s coming from a teen all you parents!  The reason this book wasn’t scary was because it was so unrealistic, that I knew it wouldn’t happen in real life.  Any teen should be able to tell the difference from this book and reality too.  This book is child friendly too.  Diana W. Jones wrote a comment on the first page book saying this book has things "children will love.".  Another reason this book is appropriate for teens, is because Coraline is easy to relate to.  Coraline is a teen herself, so she’s going through things many of us adolescents are going through as well.  Therefore we could connect with her and the book.

 
     Coraline is a great book because it has so many positive lessons.  It shows in how she treats her mom and dad after she gets them back, with much love and care.  She’s also never rude to her parents again.  Coraline also learns to get over her fears, which your child could learn by reading this book.  Coraline should not be banned!   

A carnival of children

People in the daytime streets

Ring-a-levio warriors

Stickball heroes

Hide-and-seek knights and ladies

Waiting to sing their own sweet songs

Living out their own slam-dunk dreams

Listening

For the coming of the blues

I chose a stanza from “ Harlem: A Poem” by Walter Dean Myers to write my final response of the semester on.  Walter Dean Myers’ purpose of this poem was to describe life in Harlem.   I feel like the stanza ( seen above ) describes a street in Brooklyn, even though this poem is about Harlem, and thats why I chose it.  In this stanza Walter Dean Myers talks about the different stories of different people on a street.  He also talks about kids dream chasing.
I first made a connection with a Brooklyn street and this stanza when it talked about “ Stickball heroes”.  My dad always tells about how when he was a kid, him and his friends used to play stickball.  All the boys on the block would come out, and play from sun up to sun down.  I also made a connection with the first two lines of the stanza, and a Brooklyn street.  The first two lines talk about streets filled with children and adults during the day.  In my neighborhood, streets and avenues are busy with people during the day.  All of the culture you find in these two stanzas, you can find on a Brooklyn street.
This stanza also talks about dream chasers.  These dream chasers happen to be kids looking for a way to get famous.  In Brooklyn lots of kids have big dreams they hope to acomplish.  The first line I saw this theme in was when he said, “ Living out their slam dunk dreams”.  In this line he’s talking about all the little boys who want to make it to the NBA and get rich.  He’s also talking about the boys, turned teen, turned me who are fulfilling this dream.  
I chose this poem because it was about something I could relate to, city life.  From dreamers to legends, these are some of the people you experience if you when you come to Brooklyn.  Everything about this poem tells me Brooklyn culture.  

Blog On “ Coraline”

By: Neil Gaiman

     I recently finished the book “ Coraline” by, Neil Gaiman, for my book club.  Our book club chose to read horror books, and I picked Coraline as my book.  Surprisingly the theme in “ Coraline” seemed to be the importance of family, not violence or any other usual horror story theme.  Through most of the book the main character, Coraline, was fighting to get her parents back.  Through this tough journey she learned not to take people for granted, especially her parents.  When she finally wins her parents back, she loves them and respects them like never before.  

     Before Coraline lost her parents, she was disrespectful to them and very ungrateful of them.  For example her dad would make “ special recipes” and she would be disgusted, and make herself frozen pizza.  This shows she’s ungrateful because her dad takes the time out of his day to make Coraline and her mom food, and Coraline doesn’t even try it.  Also when Coraline’s mom offers Coraline to come to the supermarket with her, Coraline says no because she’s “ had enough” of her mom.  That’s not only disrespectful, but also shows how ungrateful she is to have  two parents that love and care for her.  Before she loses her parents, Caroline doesn’t even realize how lucky she is to have two parents!

     This changes when she lost her parents, and when she got them back.  When she realized that her parents were missing, Coraline got scared.  All her life her parents protected her, and never left her alone for long periods of time, now she was all alone.  She was also very sad.  She missed the warmth of her parents, and her dad’s recipes.  You could tell she felt awful in how she  treated her parents because she was always regretting being rude to them.  So when Coraline won her parents back she made a change and started treating her parents better.  She even decided to try one of her dad’s recipes, and she liked it!

     Coraline always loved her parents, but at first decided not to believe she did.  Once they went missing she showed she needed them and loved them.  If they had gone permanently missing Coraline would have been distraught.  In the end Coraline learned the importance of family.        

 Reading Response To “Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People and War”

By Yukio Tsuchiya

“ Faithful Elephants: A True Story of Animals, People and War’’ by, Yukio Tsuchiya is a story filled with death, sorrow, and many emotions.  In the story the three most important deaths, are the elephants’.  The elephants’ deaths represent the consequences of war.  John, the first elephant to get killed, dies almost on his own, yet his death still stands out to me.  Tonky and Wanly die together.  These two deaths stir many emotions not only from the zoo keepers that are forced to kill them, but from all of the zoo keepers that work in the zoo.

John is the first of the three elephants to die.  In my opinion John is the strongest of the three elephants because the zoo keepers try to kill him two other times without success, before they’re forced to starve him.  This is what the story says when it talks about the first time they try to kill John, “ John loved potatoes, so the elephant keepers mixed poisoned potatoes with the good ones when it was time to feed him.  John,  however, was a very clever elephant.  He ate the good potatoes...”.  This shows me that not only is John clever, but he’s a warrior too, being able to realize he’s trying to be killed and not give in.  They end up having to starve John.  John being the warrior that he is, lasted seventeen days before starving to death.

That leaves Tonky and Wanly to be killed.  Tonky and Wanly die as one.  When the zoo keepers describe them, they describe Tonky and Wanly together as if they’re the same elephant.   I think their attachment makes the zoo keepers decide they want to starve both of them at the same time.  Unlike John though, their deaths fill the zoo keepers with sorrow and anger.  It says that when their elephant trainer first found out that Tonky and Wanly died, “ He buried his head in his arms and cried...”.  The zoo and the elephant keeper loved these two elephants, and showed so much emotion when they both died.  At first they were sad, and then they became frustrated with the war because it forced them to kill the elephants.

The elephants’ deaths during the war hurt and affected the zoo and the zoo keepers deeply.  The importance of the elephants’ death shows because after the war the zoo gave the three elephants - John, Tonky, and Wanly - a monument in the zoo.  The zoo keepers didn’t get as emotional for John as they did for Tonky and Wanly.  John’s death was just as important as the two other elephants because the monument was dedicated to all of them.  The three elephants will always have a place in the zoo.  

Character Response To

Ready Player One  by, Ernest Cline

“ Ready Player One” by, Ernest Cline, is a sci-fi book set in 2044 where people spend more time in an online virtual utopia, OASIS, than on  Earth.  OASIS was originally created as a video game, and many people treat it like a video game, making their avatars wizards with magical powers and things like that.  When the creator of OASIS dies, a hunt is setup where you have to clear three hidden gates.  The first person to do all of that takes over the whole game!  The main character, Wade, goes through many changes when he becomes one of the few people to clear the first two gates, and eventually the only person to clear the third and final gate.

Before Wade cleared the first gate, or any of the gates, he was a different person mentally, socially, and physically.  Mentally Wade had low self esteem.  For example on page 30 Wade says, “ I was a painfully shy, awkward kid...”.  Socially Wade had no friends in the real world and only one in OASIS.  He also didn’t like being around people.  To prove this on page 25 he says, “ This van was my hideout, out of sight and very isolated...”.  I think Wade’s weight had something to do with Wade being socially awkward, and having a low self esteem.  On page 30 Wade says, “ I was overweight, and had been for as long as I could remember...”.

However, after Wade cleared the first gate and eventually the last two gates, Wade changed for the best.  Wade’s self esteem was high as ever.  He even became a little bit overconfident after clearing the first gate, taking a break from the hunt to enjoy his fame after becoming the first person to clear gate #1.  Socially Wade had become a celebrity and a hero.  On page 214 he even said, “ The usual suspects crazed fans, and wannabe disciples..”.   This was definitely a big jump from when he had no friends before the hunt started, now he has fans and was a role model.  Thanks to Wade’s huge popularity growth he decided he wanted to look presentable to himself and the rest of the world.  By that he meant wanting to get into shape.  On page 197 he says, “ The pounds began to melt off , and after a few months, I was in near-perfect health!”.  This was a huge change for Wade and it showed me something about Wade.  It showed me that if Wade was motivated he could do anything he wanted to.  It took months, but he stayed committed to the workout plan and diet and exceeded all of his goals.  Also, he diminished all of his weight problems.

All in all, I think winning the contest, and just competing in it helped Wade out a lot.  He changed for the better and saw that he could do things.  Surprisingly the hunt also helped Wade realize that OASIS wasn’t everything.  Things like friendship and change, helped a boy whose escape was OASIS, escape the idea that OASIS was life       

“Before we were Free” By, Julia Alvarez

In “ Before we were Free” by Julia Alvarez, the lesson is to fight for what you believe in.   This book is set in the Dominican Republic in the 1960s during the Trujillo dictatorship.  The main character, Anita de la Torre, is a twelve year old girl who’s father is in a plot to take down Trujillo.  In the beginning of the story Anita’s cousins move away to America, while Anita’s family stays and plot how to fight the cruel dictatorship.  During all of the chaotic things that happen while trying to take down the dictatorship, Anita’s dad is killed and her sister moves to the United States for safety reasons.  By the end of the book what’s left of Anita’s family, Anita, her brother and her mom, are forced to leave the country.

  Anita’s dad is what you would call a freedom fighter because he organizes riots against the dictatorship of Trujillo, and participates in the assassination of Trujillo.  When Anita first learned this about her dad, she wanted to leave the country just like her cousins so they wouldn’t get killed by the government.  But the more she learns about the horrible way Trujillo treats the people of her country the more she wants to help her father take him down.  And in some ways she does, like the time when the SIM (the secret police that work for Trujillo) came to her house while her dad was having a meeting about organizing riots with other rebels.  She warned her dad who broke up the meeting and the other rebels left undetected.  Anita’s dad’s plan to kill Trujillo works, but the head of the military, the most important piece in the plan, double crosses the rebels.   He tells Trujillo’s son who was responsible for killing his dad.

     As you could expect, Trujillo’s son isn’t very pleased with his fathers death, so he places a price on all rebels and their families heads.  This is why Anita, her brother, and her mom have to flee from the Dominican Republic to the United States.  It takes a year but the United States government convinces Trujillo’s son to stop the bloodbath and give up his power.  In the end Anita’s dad got what he fought for, freedom for his country.  The dictatorship didn’t end right away, but it did all because the rebels fought for what they believed in.