P.O.V.s in 15 Seconds

The book 15 seconds by Andrew Gross is about what happens when a highly respected surgeon is framed for double homicide. He gets arrested for a small traffic violation but as he is being released, a blue van pulls up and someone inside shoots the cop. After that the surgeon, Dr. Steadman, goes to his friend's house for help but find him dead. He gets a call saying that if he gets caught out turns himself in, the person in the can will kill his daughter. The reader knows the perspectives of Dr. Steadman and the local police, via officer Carrie Holmes. The only point of view the reader doesn't understand that of the murderer in the blue van.
The reader does not know what the person's motive is. Why did they choose Dr. Steadman to read frame? What do they want from him? My only idea is that the murderer is trying to get revenge. Steadman is a plastic surgeon, so maybe there was a failed surgery and someone wants revenge. the story would be very different if the murderer's point of view was included.
If the the story was written from the murderer's point of view the book wouldn't be a mystery. The questions wouldn't be Why?, but How? How will Steadman escape? Our maybe even, how will the murderer get what he wants? The fact that the point of view of the police is included makes the story much more interesting, especially because it was a cop that was murdered .
 In conclusion, the author uses different perspectives to shape the story. In real life situations similar to this one, not everyone gets to tell their side of the story. Many people and groups never get their voices heard. Besides people, nature and animals are unable to speak up for themselves. We need to stand up for these people and help them get their voices heard.

Teens on Television Entry

Teens on T.V.

I grew up on Star Trek and Wallace and Gromit. My nine-year-old sister is growing up on shows like Victorious, iCarly, and The Zac and Cody Show. This type of TV portrays teenagers as rich, white, and popular. I can’t think of one popular “teen” show with a main character who is a minority race, struggling with financial issues, or awkward and friendless. At least, these are the shows designed to be relatable for teenagers, but whose actual audience is my nine-year-old sister and her friends. I guess it makes her feel cool and grown-up when she can understand what those fake teenagers are talking about. These shows give her an image of what kids and teens are supposed to look like and do.  This image is not designed to show my sister how to be a better person, and how not to be influenced by the crowd. They are simply trying to attract young, impressionable minds, and win over kids so that they want to buy their shows.

Another thing I don’t like about these shows is that the families are always the same. The dad is always quirky and annoying, while the mom is bland and pushy. There’s also usually an irritating younger sibling to add drama. The only exception to these rules is iCarly. She has an older brother who takes care of her because her dad is overseas and her mom is absent. Also, her brother is never shown working, but they can somehow afford to live in a Seattle loft. This scenario is totally unrealistic and does not truly represent teens’ lives.

Another misleading thing about this type of TV is the issues the characters are dealing with. The main characters are never worried about the environment, their education, or anything significant. They are usually worried about whether or not they are going to get a part in the school play or if they are going to get asked to the prom. These issues are not designed to help kids deal with tough situations they are dealing with; they are simply designed to attract an audience and make money. The issues described in these shows are not issues that my nine-year-old sister should have to think about or act upon.

In a perfect world, kids would watch shows that would stimulate their creativity and thought as well as giving them an image of intelligence and independence to look up to. The shows I loved as a kid may not have lived up to this standard, but at least they made me think. They were imaginative and interesting. If I had watched different, more conventional shows, I think I would be a very different person than I am today. 

Book Banning Argument Essay

Dear Ms. Berner,

Sixth graders should be allowed to read whatever they want because books about real issues help kids deal with problems in their lives. This is an important topic because without these books students could feel alone or lost, and try to solve their problems in ways that are harmful to themselves or others.  Middle school students in tough situations need these Y.A. books to guide them through. Some people believe these books hurt kids, but I believe that it should be up to the child and their family to decide whether or not the book is appropriate.

Y.A. books help kids in tough situations deal with them in the best way possible. In his anti-book banning article, ‘Why The Best Kids Books Are Written In Blood,’ Sherman Alexi writes “I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life.” A book can be something for a kid to look up to when they don’t have anyone else to look up to in their lives.  Another writer who agrees with this is Ellen Hopkins, who described one of her book readings after which a girl who had struggled with addiction approached Hopkins and told her how much her books helped her. “She saw herself in those pages and suddenly knew she didn’t want to be there. That book turned her around. Today she’s been sober about two years…” This shows how these dark, intense books help kids deal with the challenges in their lives.

Some people believe these intense and descriptive YA books traumatize kids.  One of these people is Megan Cox Gurdon.  In her article, “Darkness Too Visible,” she says “…Books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures.”  These books do introduce some kids to tough subjects, but it is necessary for kids to understand these subjects so that they can defend against them. Maureen Johnson for the Guardian says, “If subjects like these are in YA books, it's to show that they are real, they have happened to others, and they can be survived. For teenagers, there is sometimes no message more critical than: you are not alone. This has happened before. The feeling that you are feeling, the thing you are going through – it is a known thing.” Kids need to be told that they are not the only person in the world with the problem they are facing. Sometimes Y.A. books are the only things that can deliver this message.

Another problem some people have with YA books is that they find them offensive.  Diana Verm and her father Alton Verm, of Montgomery County, Texas, were offended by the content of Fahrenheit 451.  She didn’t want to read a book with “cussing” and bible burning.  In my opinion, while these books can be offensive and difficult, it should not be one person or small group of people that decides whether or not everyone is allowed to read a book. Bill Moyers said, “Some of the most inspiring and mind-opening words ever written are threatened with removal because they offended a self-deputized vigilante who wants to deny an entire community’s curiosity and passion to learn.” This quote supports my claim that sixth graders should be allowed to read whatever they and their parents choose and that it should not be one person’s decision that decides it for everyone.

Books should not be banned from our school library because kids and their parents should be able to decide what they are mature enough to read.  Y.A., books can help kids avoid dangerous situations and can even save lives. Everyone should have the choice to not read something if they don’t want to, but we shouldn’t allow our decisions about what we read to be made for us.

Reading Response- Upfront E-waste

          Upfront’s article, “Where Your Cellphone Goes to Die,” by Leyla Arcarglu, is about what happens to our electronics when we recycle them, or don’t. Young children and women in poor countries melt down our computers, cell phones, and TVs to extract small amounts of valuable metals. They breathe toxic fumes and deal with dangerous substances with their bare hands. These people should not be allowed to continue this work, at least in the form in which it currently exists. Electronics manufacturers need to step up to make changes to improve these workers’ lives.

         This work puts human health and even lives at risk. The author writes, “In India, young boys smash computer batteries with mallets to recover cadmium, covering their hands and feet with toxic flecks as they work.” The author also writes, “The World Health Organization reports that even a low level of lead, cadmium, and mercury – all of which can be found in old phones – can cause irreversible neurological damage and threaten the development of a child.” Yes, this work does help the environment – if we don’t recycle, chemicals leach from landfills and hurt soil and rivers through runoff, and we have to mine more of them in destructive ways - but there are better options than this for how to recycle our e-waste.

         Some solutions to this problem are for Congress to pass the Responsible Electronics Recycling Act and for electronics manufacturers to make disassembly safer. The article describes the goal of the RERA as, “The aim is to stop dumping e-waste on the world’s poorest nations and thus to provide an incentive for safer waste management in the U.S.” If this law was passed, then children and women in poor countries wouldn’t be exposed to dangerous materials anymore. Another solution mentioned in the text is “changes in the way manufacturers glue, screw, and solder components together would make it easier to dismantle discarded phones and thus reduce the risks posed by crude recycling technologies, like those employed by children in Ghana.”

         While these working conditions are terrible, the people working on electronic recycling in poor countries rely on these jobs to support themselves and their families. If these jobs were taken away, these boys would lose their jobs and might have no other work. Companies can still improve the conditions for these workers while keeping these jobs in place by making it easier to disassemble electronics. That way, they wouldn’t have to smash and burn them, thereby exposing themselves to dangerous materials. Electronic manufactures need to step up and take responsibility for the damaging ways their products are being recycled.

         When we recycle our out-of-date electronic products, we put them in a box and feel like we’re doing something good for the environment. But most people don’t fully understand what “recycling” is doing to workers in poor countries. We are not being informed about how dangerous these jobs are, and how these workers are being put at risk just so that we can buy the latest iPhone and not worry about the environmental damage from throwing away our old electronics. These issues are hidden from us so we don’t have to think about them – the manufactures want us to continue spending money on their new products. It’s time for the public to be informed about the risks and issues around recycling these products so that we can improve working conditions in the poor countries that are taking our e-waste. There’s no quick and easy solution – if we pass laws that prevent us from sending them, the workers will lose their livelihoods and we’ll likely just send the dangerous work somewhere else. Something that we can do is hold on to our old electronics for longer and not buy the latest gadget the second it comes out. Also, we need to demand that manufacturers make changes to their products that reduce the risks of recycling. 

Tell the Wolves I'm Home

Jane Zeman

Reading Response- Tell the Wolves I’m Home

          The novel, “Tell the Wolves I’m Home” by Carol Rifka Brunt, is about a girl named June and her life after her uncle, who is also her best friend, dies. A couple of days after the funeral she is contacted by her uncle Finn’s secret boyfriend. In the story, different people cope with this loss in different ways. The main characters are June, her mom, and Toby, Finn’s boyfriend.

          June deals with the loss of her uncle by pretending to be in a different time. When she first finds out that her uncle is dying June says, “I closed my eyes and tried to make the diner disappear.” She attempts to make the problems facing her disappear by imagining they’re not there. June also likes to walk through the woods with a scenario in mind, pretending to be anyone besides herself. The author writes, “I tried to keep my mind on the story I was telling myself, where I was the only one strong enough to hunt for my village…” She is unsatisfied with her life so she turns to other lives to escape hers.

          June’s mom deals with her brother’s death differently than June. When she first tells June about Finn she says, “‘Finn’s dying June.’ She could have said that Finn was sick- even really sick-but she didn’t. She told me straight out that Finn was dying. My mother wasn’t always like that. She wasn’t always one for harsh truths, but this time she must have figured that it meant less talking, less explaining.” This tells readers that June’s mom deals with her issues the least she can. If she doesn’t have to think about it, it’s not there. Also, when Greta, June’s sister, finds an article about Finn (he’s a famous artist) in the New York Times and tries to read it to the family, June’s mom says, “‘Okay Greta, enough now.’ My mother reached for the paper.” She doesn’t want to think about her brother’s death.

          Finn’s boyfriend, Toby, is also devastated when Finn dies and he deals with it by drinking and smoking but also by spending time with June.  In the text it says, “There were dirty plates and glasses everywhere, records lying around out of their sleeves, and at least three ashtrays overflowing with tea bags and cigarette butts.” Without Finn, Toby doesn’t take care of himself or the apartment. He needs June to help him through life without him. When June has a lot of homework and can’t go over to Toby’s, he says, ‘“I could help you. If you think that would work. Keep you company.’

 ‘I don’t know.’ (June says)  

‘Oh go on. I promise it’ll be better than sitting home on your own.’  I hadn’t expected Toby to offer to help.

‘You don’t have to do that. It’s okay.’  He sighed.

‘I want you to come.’” This conversation shows that Toby really relies on June. He is not an independent self-supporting adult.

          The story is mainly about how June copes with her best friend’s death and what she discovers about his life, after he is dead.  She is not the only one that has to deal with Finn's death. Her mom and Toby both have their ways of coping.  This book showed me that big issues such as death can sometimes draw people closer, but it can also push others away. Toby and June never would have met, if not for Finn dying, and they became very close because of it. However June's mom became more withdrawn and far from her family. June and Greta's relationship suffered from her spending so much time with Toby. Everyone in the book deals with death in different ways, some ways have benefits and some ways have negative effects.

Faithful Elephants

“Faithful Elephants” Reading Response

9/27/13

The story “Faithful Elephants” by Yukio Tsuchiya teaches that war causes many different kinds of tragedies. The story is about a zoo in Tokyo during World War II that is forced, by the government, to kill all the dangerous animals so that they couldn't escape and stampede the city if bombs dropped on the zoo. Three elephants, John, Tonky, and Wanly, need to be starved to death, as their skin is too thick for the poison syringe. this book shows that there are more consequences associated with war than just death. Death is one kind of tragedy portrayed in the story. In this story, animals are slowly and painfully killed, but many people die in wars as well. Another tragedy in the story is that the people that survive remember horrors that they have witnessed.

War causes people and animals to die cruel and tragic deaths. The author writes, “…all of the lions, tigers, leopards, bears, and big snakes were poisoned to death.” These innocent animals would have continued living if not for the war. In the story it also says, “…Tonky and Wanly were dead. Both died leaning against the bars of their cage with their trunks stretched high in the air….” Animals are not the only ones who die in war, soldiers and civilians also die. It is unfair that these people and animals have their lives taken away like this.

Death is just one of the tragedies caused by war. Another is that the people who survive have to live with the memories of death and destruction. The author writes, “Seeing his beloved elephants die this way, the elephant trainer felt as if his heart would break.” The trainer does not die, but he is greatly affected by the elephants’ death. The zookeepers protest, “Stop the war! Stop the war! Stop all wars!” They are all so heartbroken by the elephants’ deaths. Many civilians and soldiers that are killed have families that survive. Those survivors will always remember the tragedies of war.

In conclusion, this book shows that death is not the only consequence inflicted by war. “Faithful Elephants” portrays this by describing the zookeepers’ and trainer’s emotions, not just by explaining how the elephants died. This story was very touching for this reason. Readers can see right into the trainer’s heart and feel what he is feeling. This story shows the injustices of war. This is very important because there are places being bombed right now, and people being killed, soldiers and civilians alike. This story should be read so that we don’t repeat the past and cause more suffering.

RR-The Great Gatsby

Jane Zeman 811 9/18/13

Reading Response - The Great Gatsby

           The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald is about social class, love, and death. Nick Carraway, the narrator, is a middle-class man who lives in a small house on the West Egg of Long Island, N.Y. There is a mansion next to his house. The owner of that house is Jay Gatsby. At first, Carraway thinks that Gatsby is just another self-absorbed rich man, but he doesn’t really know anything about him. Towards the middle of the story as he grows closer to Gatsby, his history and true feelings start to become clear. By the end of the book Carraway knows all about him and sees him for what he really is.

At the beginning of the story, the narrator doesn’t know much about Gatsby, but assumes the worst. He narrates, “…Gatsby, who represented everything for which I have an unaffected scorn.” He means that he doesn’t respect Gatsby, because he is rich. He says, “‘Who is he?’ I demanded. ‘Do you know?’ ‘He’s just a man named Gatsby.’ [She said] ‘Where’s he from I mean? And what does he do?’” Gatsby is very mysterious and aloof. Also, Carraway first meets Gatsby at a party in which none of the guests have ever met him or know anything about him. Carraway starts off without knowing anything about the man who will soon be his close friend.

          About half way through the book Carraway’s primary assumptions are gone and he is starting to learn who Gatsby really is. His friend Jordan knows more about it than he does and tells him about why Gatsby bought a place on Long Island, “‘It was a strange coincidence,’ I said. ‘But it wasn’t a coincidence at all.’ [said Jordan] ‘Why not?’ ‘Gatsby bought that house so that Daisy would be just across the bay.’…He came alive to me, delivered suddenly from the womb of his purposeless splendor.” This means that before, Gatsby was meaningless in Carraway’s eyes, but now he sees that Gatsby was motivated by love to move to Long Island. Another example of him learning more about Gatsby is, “‘…I’ve been in several things,’ he corrected himself. ‘I was in the drug business and then I was in the oil business. But I’m not in either one now.’”Gatsby is telling him how he made his money. Carraway thought that he had inherited all his money, but that is not where it came from.

          In the end, Carraway is fully informed and understands why and how Gatsby did the things that he did. For example, “I don’t mean that he had traded on his phantom millions, but he had deliberately given Daisy a sense of security; he let her believe that he was a person from the same stratum as herself – that he was fully able to take care of her. As a matter of fact, he had no such facilities – he had no comfortable family standing behind him, and he was liable at the whim of an impersonal government to be blown anywhere about the world.” These are Carraway’s own ideas and beliefs about how Gatsby did what he did. Also the author writes, “He talked a lot about the past, and I gathered that he wanted to recover something, some idea of himself, perhaps, that had gone into loving Daisy. His life had been confused and disordered since then, but if he could once return to a certain starting place and go over it all slowly he could find out what the thing was…” Carrraway is very good at reading into Gatsby’s thoughts and emotions.

In conclusion, Gatsby started out kind of mysterious, but Carraway was able to figure him out by the end. The information about Gatsby slowly trickled in from various sources throughout the course of the story. Gatsby seemed to be shallow and egotistical, judging from his house and his parties, but he turned out to be much more interesting than that. He was able to convince and manipulate Daisy into thinking she was safe and used Carraway to get to Daisy, but in the end he still thought he was a good man.