1. Explain one or two ways my writing has improved (or not). Include a few examples from my posts over time, with analysis and links to the original posts, to illustrate how the improvement(s) happened.
          I feel like my writing has improved and changed since the beginning of the year when I first started my blog posts. Many philosophers have stated basically that if you have to do work, then you should choose to work on something you will enjoy and it won’t feel like work. I have done so with my blog posts. At the beginning of the year, I had little confidence, especially when it came to writing, and I never got good grades on past writing assignments and essays unless they were pass or fail essays. When I made my first blog posts, I didn't go into much description and could have written much better posts now that I look back. I only did the minimum of the blog posts, and now I feel  like an underachiever and that I barely did anything. Now I feel my more recent posts have been better. Even if I still did the minimum length of the blog posts, I still chose subjects that I found interesting.

At the beginning of the year, I remember wanting to be great at writing these posts, but I expected it to happen without me trying. At the end of the day, when I had to make my posts for the week, I remember just wanting to get it done a pick something randomly so I could watch TV and be lazy, which included one of my first blog posts, the one about Linguini’s. I even said that I was just picking a random topic because I wanted to get it over with. At the time, I thought that making blog posts were a bit of a drag, and it was just another homework assignment I had to get done. So I was a little surprised that I could choose whatever I wanted to talk about, and I couldn’t find anything to write.

“Well. I don’t really know what to write about or what to take about, so I’ll just make it         up as I go along... So maybe I’ll do that. I think one of the best pizza places I’ve ever been to is Amici’s so if you see it, immediately plan a time to go there, cause their pizza is awesome!”

Since then, I started choosing topics that wanted to talk about, or that I wanted to speak up about. I don’t exactly know or remember when I wanted to started to choose things I really wanted to write about, but I remember specifically that there was one topic that I really wanted to talk about, which was my post on the movie Food Inc.  

“I was looking at some recent posts made, and I saw something that I knew I could write a lot about in 14 minutes on Cristian's blog.

‘Sometimes it just hits me that we, humans, the animals that have an open         conscious and can feel love are the same animals that can a drop a nuke and comit genocide on a people because religious sterotypes. We are the animals that can make industries like Pixar and the Red Cross, but yet, we can also judge someone based on thier skin color or have rich and poor. Well, I think we messed up, big time.’

I was just watching a movie called Food Inc. and when I saw this post, I had to respond.”

I had always liked talking about documentaries like these, (i.e. An Inconvenient Truth) for whatever reason, so when I wrote this post, I felt like I had really accomplished something. It was one of those moments where you just realize something, and I realized that the blog posts served a purpose. It was to help you out in some way. For me, it helped me to improve my writing, because that’s what I wanted to do, be a good writer. So what I had to do in order to figure this out was write about the right topic. I’m not sure which topic it was where I really found the right one and started to love writing my blog posts, whether it was about food, The Kite Runner, or something else that I felt I talked a lot about. Whatever post it was though, I certainly found the right post and discovered that I the things I really wanted to talk about and found out how awesome blog posts were. So I would like to say that blog posts have helped improve me and my writing by knowing what I wanted to talk about and make a lot of ideas and comments on that topic.
    Another way my writing improved was in ways that I could make connections in books. In my blog posts, I usually made connections in books like Of Mice and Men, Unwind and The Kite Runner. I usually put in things like “maybe so-and-so happened”, or “what if the character’s intentions were to...”, so I felt by the end of the book Kite Runner, I had improved a lot. It was one of the blog posts that “changed” me, and gave me a different opinion of what I thought about blogs and the purpose they served. I felt like I did a very good job on the connections in the book Unwind as well.

“It is possible that something like this happened to Hosseni. Not all of this word for word, but maybe he did something small that he would never forgive himself for. Then he could have exaggerated greatly the amount of regret he felt and made it into a much bigger problem. Also, he may have based Amir on himself, maybe on the decisions he would have made as a kid: trying anything to please his father, being scared of bullies like Assef, and even making some decisions that may have seemed good at first, but later he realized that was the wrong choice. Then these may have affected his life. He may have even gone a long time in his life haunted by something he did, and every day wishing he could take it back.”

In this blog post, I felt like I kind of stated the obvious since it was a class discussion, and that was basically the only thing I talked about. I had, however, learned how to make starting steps to making these kinds of connections and ideas in books, starting with The Kite Runner (it was in my second or third post on The Kite Runner). In this next post though, for my Unwind book, I made many connections like this and  they were my ideas, so by then I felt like I gained some confidence through writing these blog posts.

    “A few chapters before this happened, a kid named Cyrus Finch (CyFi) was introduced in     the story. He was kind and was always in good humor, but later on, he stole gold necklaces, Christmas ornaments, and other valuable items. Later on, we find out that CyFi had been given a part of someone else's brain when they got in an accident. That someone stole valuable items, so at certain points, CyFi would be controlled by that piece of mind and start to steal things and talk differently. This could have been what happened to Conner. Maybe he had been given part of someone else's brain, and that person got in a lot of fights or had mental problems where they couldn't be around      crowds. This could have been why Conner would have sudden impulses to punch someone because they were being too loud.”
    So all in all I found a purpose for blogging this year. It helped me improve my confidence in writing as well. For example, I used to be unsure of what I should write, and when I was writing my first blog posts, I was constantly deleting what I wrote and changing it. Now though, I have confidence, in writing my blogs and I realize what a big help blog posts are to me and how much they may have affected my life. I think I will be writing blog posts for a long time.

Alex:
I think it's good that you give a setting to the story and sum up what happens (or has happened) in the beginning, so the reader has a basic idea of what the story is and what to expect. It's also good how when you talk about reasons for teenagers to read the book, you back it up with evidence and comparison to real life.

Melissa:
I agree with the previous comments on the TAGS, but othwer than that, it's a good post. The TAGS though is just the main thing, so make sure you add a descriptive one.

Roksor:
I think this is a good book review, but it could be helpful by putting the question down.

The Dead and the Gone Book Review Final

4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
                     In the novel The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the setting is in New York, and a nation-wide blackout has just started. Everyone goes into panic, and the main character Alex, along with his little sisters, Bri and Julie, must all survive with little food, water, and supplies until it ends.Thus, they must all stick together and ration themselves on food, but even then there is only so many resources they have to live. The only way they can get out of the mess is by leaving New York, but they would need passes for that, which is only for VIPs in New York. They can only rely on hope. There is not only a sense of hope that gives Alex, Bri and Julie have the will to keep on trying to live, but there is also a style that Pfeffer uses that makes the reader think they will all get the usual happy ending in many books. However, just as the reader and Alex think that it will happen, something prevents it and they are in a much worse situation than before.
                       This is shown when Alex sends Bri off to a kind of summer camp that trains her to become a nun. At first, this is for the benefit of all of them, so there will be more food to spare among each of them, but Bri is forced to come back and is in a bad condition.

"Alex recognized it as an inhaler. But Bri wasn't asthmatic.

'The doctor said I have adult on-set asthma,' said Bri. 'I have to stay indoors and not exert myself or get too excited.'"(p.178-179)

       Bri came back with asthma, so now she can't go outside to get her own food, or walk to school and get food, so Alex and Julie have to split their's with Bri, and they don't even get much. After about a month, Bri is running out of cartidges for her inhaler and needs more soon, or else she could die. Alex is then given an offer by a man named Harvey, who trades food for other valuables, to get two passes out of New York, but he wants Julie as payment. For a split second, it seems as though things look better, until Harvey says want he wants, so Alex declines. Then, a few weeks later, Alex is given three passes by a friend of his to go to South Carolina, and Alex, along with Bri and Julie, to the bus that is supposed to pick them up. But the bus has been canceled, and is rescheduled for another two weeks. He can't go with his sisters, since he turns 18, and they don't accept legal adults, and Bri and Julie feel the need to stay since Alex has caught the flu. More events happen, and in the end there is a "happy ending", but it comes at a great price.
          Another example is in the beginning of the story when the blackout has just begun and everyone (except Mami, Papi and Carlos) are home. For days, Alex, Brianna and Julie don't get any word from their mother or father. Their mother could be at the hospital still looking after patients and the blackout wouldn't let her call, or she could have died along with many others in a subway accident. Their father also could have died in a tsunami that hit some of Puerto Rico, or just had a flight delayed and the blackout wouldn't let him call. (They are sure Carlos is safe though because he sent a postcard and called.) However, they receive a call and everyone is sure that it is their father, but Pfeffer doesn't make it certain that he even called.
"'The phone rang when you were gone. I think it was Papi but I can't be sure...I'm sure it was Papi's voice...he said something about Puerto Rico', said Briana". (p14)
Though at first Brianna says she isn't sure, she speaks in a way that implies certainty that it was her father calling, but it could have been someone else trying to tell the family something about Papi, if something happened to him.All they can do however is hope that their family is okay, but they all know it would take a miracle.

The Dead and the Gone Book Review Final Draft

4. How would you describe the author's style of writing? What's your opinion of the style?
                     In the novel The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, the main characters are Alex, along with his little sisters, Bri and Julie, are all put in a situation where there is a massive, nation wide blackout and there is a fight for food and survival in New York. Thus, Alex and his sisters have to stick together and ration themselves on food, but even then there is only so many resources they have to live. The only way they can get out of the mess is by leaving New York, but they would need passes for that, which is only for VIPs in New York. They can only rely on hope. There is not only a sense of hope that gives Alex, Bri and Julie have the will to keep on trying to live, but there is also a style that Pfeffer uses that makes the reader think they will all get the usual happy ending in many books. However, just as the reader and Alex think that it will happen, something prevents it and they are in a much worse situation than before. This is shown when Alex sends Bri off to a kind of summer camp that trains her to become a nun. At first, this is for the benefit of all of them, so there will be more food to spare among each of them, but Bri is forced to come back and is in a bad condition.

"Alex recognized it as an inhaler. But Bri wasn't asthmatic.

'The doctor said I have adult on-set asthma,' said Bri. 'I have to stay indoors and not exert myself or get too excited.'"(p.178-179)

       Bri came back with asthma, so now she can't go outside to get her own food, or walk to school and get food, so Alex and Julie have to split their's with Bri, and they don't even get much. After about a month, Bri is running out of cartidges for her inhaler and needs more soon, or else she could die. Alex is then given an offer by a man named Harvey, who trades food for other valuables, to get two passes out of New York, but he wants Julie as payment. For a split second, it seems as though things look better, until Harvey says want he wants, so Alex declines. Then, a few weeks later, Alex is given three passes by a friend of his to go to South Carolina, and Alex, along with Bri and Julie, to the bus that is supposed to pick them up. But the bus has been canceled, and is rescheduled for another two weeks. He can't go with his sisters, since he turns 18, and they don't accept legal adults, and Bri and Julie feel the need to stay since Alex has caught the flu. More events happen, and in the end there is a "happy ending", but it comes at a great price.

Book Review for The Dead and the Gone

            In the novel The Dead and the Gone by Susan Beth Pfeffer, there is a sense of hope being the only thing that keeps all the main characters going. In the beginning, the family is separated from each other when the nationwide blackout hits New York: the mom is at a hospital in Queens, the dad in Puerto Rico, the oldest brother Carlos serving the Marines in California, and the remaining characters, Alex (whose is 18), and his sisters Brianna (16) and Julie (12) to stay at home and look after themselves. For days, Alex, Brianna and Julie don't get any word from their mother or father. Their mother could be at the hospital still looking after patients and the blackout wouldn't let her call, or she could have died along with many others in a subway accident. Their father also could have died in a tsunami that hit some of Puerto Rico, or just had a flight delayed and the blackout wouldn't let him call. (They are sure Carlos is safe though because he sent a postcard and called.) However, they receive a call and everyone is sure that it is their father, but Pfeffer doesn't make it certain that he even called.
"'The phone rang when you were gone. I think it was Papi but I can't be sure...I'm sure it was Papi's voice...he said something about Puerto Rico', said Briana". (p14)
Though at first Brianna says she isn't sure, she speaks in a way that implies certainty that it was her father calling, but it could have been someone else trying to tell the family something about Papi, if something happened to him.All they can do however is hope that their family is okay, but they all know it would take a miracle.

Response to Vignettes

I was looking at my fellow classmates vignettes, and I saw quite a few that interested me and I thought had a very good style of writing. One of them was on Cristian's blog.

I leave to you this thought of sadness and depression; of my mom so
terribly sick. She could catch a cold and die, and my brother could have
a seizure and go into a coma and die. We have been manipulated by life,
and now it is our turn to manipulate life, and live our own happy life.
We all have our stories to tell, and we all have our memories. We use
these memories as tools to discover ourselves and to define ourselves as
well. We use the past to shape our future and the hope for the future
to shape our present.

I think the way Cristian ended the story by saying how we define who we are by using our past, present and future was an excellent way to cap it all off. Though it was very sad indeed throughout the whole set of vignettes, the way the last few sentences are put it kind of makes it seem like there was kind of moral to the story, like whatever happens life goes on and the events that do happen will shape who we are and that is the key to finding out. It's like even though this is a very dreaded future, it would still make you find out more about yourself and make you a better person in some weird way.

Esperanza's Future

           Esperanza's future sounds like it holds a good one for her. I think Esperanza will become a teacher or some kind of job around other kids so she can devote her life not only as a teacher but to also helping out people that want to escape their lives like she did.  Esperanza was told by the three ladies that her house on Mango Street would always be a part of her, and that she couldn't just forget about it. She would however be happy in life, but in return, she would have to help other kids like her that wanted to change their lives and have a home somewhere else or be happier with their lives in any other way. She was also told that when Esperanza felt happy about her life, that she had to help other people who wanted desperately for their lives to be better but wouldn't have such a lucky turn of events that Esperanza had at the end of the book. Esperanza, at the end, seems happy with her life and seems to like her house on Mango Street instead of hating it. This, therefore, is evidence that she will stay near her house and help others who were in the same situation as she was.
            Esperanza is obviously going to keep her promise to the three ladies and make sure that many others in need can find a way to make their lives better and help "those who can't escape" as the ladies put it. She'll be there for them and be kind of like a mixture of a mother and a counselor. She'll give those kids help and stuff and try to give them more confidence so they can have better futures. Then she'll tell those kids in need to come back for the others like the three ladies told Esperanza, so that a chain reaction can start and continue and everyone will help each other escape their terrible lives and make a better one.

What would Cisneros Think?

In the novel The House of Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, there are manty qoutes that contain contrasts between how girls and boys are treated by their parents. However, it is clear that Cisneros wants both girls and boys to be treated equally by their parents and have the rules appply to all of the siblings. This is a shown in the vignette Boys and Girls which talks about how they are treated differently.
            "The boys and the gitrls live in separate worlds. The boys in their universe and we in ours... Nenny is too young to be my friend. She's just my sister and that is not my fault...She can't play with them Vargas kids or she'll turn out just like them. And since she comes right after me, she is my responsibility." (p8)
             This qoute contains quite a bit of information on how boys and girls are treated. For one, it says that boys and girls live in separate worlds, which could be influenced by their parents. They  might tell the boys to go play soccer or something like that, and they'll tell the girls to read or something. So maybe they lived in separate worlds because their parents indirectly taught them to. This could be the first sign where parents influence their children to be different and to have different lives. The second sign ties in to the first. Where it says that Nenny can't play with the Vargas kids and is under the responsibility of her sister, Esperanza. Therefore Esperanza's only friend (so far) is her sister. So apparently the parents want their daughters to be polite and obedient, which is unlike the Vargas kids that are crazy and disobedient.
             The second qoute that exemplifies how differently boys and girls are treated is in the vignette Sally.
"Her father says to be be this beautiful is trouble. They are very strict in his religion. They are not supposed to dance. Then she can't go out. Sally I mean." (p81)
              This qoute shows that Sally is limited to certain things by her father. She can't dance, she can't go out, and she can't even talk to other boys without the permission of her father. She is so limited that she desperalty wishes that she could be in a place where she could have someone to love and not be told what do all the time by her father. Her father probably does all of this because she's a girl and he wants to keep her safe or all his so she can always be his daughter and not grow up too fast. If it were a boy though, then the father would probably just accept he was growing up and would let him do whatever he wanted.

Bonds over Blood

Note: This is a fictional story, not my real life.                                                                       


                                                                       Bonds Over Blood

                                                                       Wishing for Impossibilities

            I've heard home is a great place. It's supposed to be where you belong and where everyone is nice to you. Home is your mother and father and little brothers and sisters that look up to you that have your own blood. I wish for that, a home with a nice house and parents that love me and brothers and sisters that will play with me and we can be happy together. Whenever I tell Jeffrey this, he's always replies,

             This is your home. The other children and I are your family now. Think of us as family because the ropes are only as strong as the bonds, so make your bonds with us strong. Forget about everything. Forget your sadness, and replace it with the joy you will find here. Forget your anger and replace it with the comfort from this orphanage. It will be for the best, so you can move on with what happened.  And I did forget. I forgot what me and my family did together, what they looked like and everything else about them. Except their screams. That and the sound of a swerving car and the smell of a car fire. I'd much rather forget that than everything else about my parents. I used to wish it whenever I thought about it. But wishing is for the gullible and for those that think if they talk to themselves about how much they want something it will come true, but it's all just false hope. I don't wish anymore. It's a waste of time and only makes you reflect on what already happened, and I don't need to reflect anymore on my parents' deaths in the car crash, when I could have died with them. My car door opened somehow. My seat belt broke. I fell out of the car safely. My parents crashed into the opposite car, and they died. I'm alive, but left to die from my own depression. I used to wish. I don't anymore. Otherwise I have to look back at what happened. I should have died happy with my parents. I'll never be happy.

         

                                                                      Irreplaceable

You are in my orphanage now, under my watchful eye, but soon you will have a new home with your new parents. That's what Jeffrey says to me all the time. Who would take me? Parents that want to adopt ignore the older kids, they want the younger ones to raise them like their own. The little kids are all cute and are always adopted. The older ones are thought to be a damper around the house because they might never accept their foster parents as their own and would never show the same love. I came here at 10, and have been around for 3 years. I'll be hear until I'm 18, no one would choose me. My friends leave as quick as they come.

             Mike and I have been friends since I came here, and he's been here about the same time as me, and we're the same age. The friendship between us was like the knot on a rope, a strong one. I tell him I want a home, but he's a bit optimistic. He too says that I am home and the orphanage is friendly and stuff like that. He doesn't understand though. No one does. As much as I'm good friends with them, they are not my family.

                                                                    A Promise

             Steve knows how to make an insult, how to taunt people and how to win a fight. This is exactly what he does to people he makes enemies with. And Jeffrey (being his usual optimistic self) refuses to see the bad in anyone, so he always thinks of Steve as misunderstood and just has a problem controlling his actions and his anger. He's the big bully in this orphanage, and he's got it in for me. During lunch on my first day here, I had tripped and all my food spilled on him. He made sure that I regretted that, and whenever I tell Jeffrey this, he always talks about me apologizing and how Steve goes through a tough time and stuff like that. Two years ago last summer Steve pushed me into a fight, and I ran outside so we could take it there. I fought back a gave him a good bloody nose. He looked up and saw everyone in the orphanage looking out the window gaping at what I had just done: I stood up to the alpha and got away with it. He swore that he would get adopted before I did. I don't have any hope that I would anyway, so he doesn't worry.

                                                             An Event of Hope

               Jeffrey says I'm a pessimist. He says I always look at the negative side of things and I rain on everyone's parade, scoffing and making sarcastic comments at people who hope for good things. Usually he's wrong, but this time he's right. A couple came in looking for a kid to adopt. Apparently they wanted one that was well behaved and obedient, because the man told me that I was to address him as Sir and his wife as Ma'am. They chose me. Me out of all people. I was overjoyed and Mike was happy for me too, but I could see his sorrow. I was the only friend he had that wasn't adopted, so we were great friends. I gave him a quick look of sympathy, but he didn't really catch it. When I finished packing my stuff and left the orphanage, I saw two things that upset me: Mike fiddling with two pieces of rope that when tied together, they would make a knot that was one of the strongest and represented the joining of two ropes looking distraught, and the menacing look on Steve's face as I drove away with my new family.

                Something wrong son? Sir asked.

                When I heard him say son, I was immediately comforted and replied, No. He gave me a glance. No Sir. Then he nodded his head approval.

                                                                      Making Up For It

                My new family was great. New parents, a new house, and I felt happy. I no regret surviving the car crash. My new parents have given me love to erase those thoughts. They turned out to be a little more strict than I thought however. I heard a shatter of glass one time and saw a beautiful glass that was treasured by Ma'am. She came in seconds after me, and wailed over the broken glass, and Sir came in and yelled at me so loud, I thought I would go deaf. He told me the glass was an extremely important family heirloom and to never do anything like that again. I told him it wasn't me, but he picked up a rock next to the shattered glass. He told me he wouldn't tolerate lying either, and anymore would earn me a ticket back to the orphanage. When I looked outside, I saw someone running away with a slingshot in one hand and a fistful of pebbles in the other. It was Steve.

                  The next day, Sir and Ma'am made me clean the garden as punishment. I was to clean up all the leaves and petals on the ground and water everything. There garden was beautiful and and a small pool, many bright pink and yellow  They saw that I was doing a good job on it, so they figured it was okay to go get some groceries really quickly and that I had the garden under control. As soon as they left, I saw Steve with a sly smile on his face. He told me that since he didn't keep his promise, he would have to make up for it by getting me into trouble again to send me back to the orphanage. With a triumphant grin, Steve pushed over a second antique item: The bird bath fountain that Sir specifically told me to be careful with. It was now broken. With that, Steve ran away, and left me with more than just a broken fountain: he left me with a future that once again pointed towards the impossibility of having any kind of family at all. I only stood there in silence, as I heard Sir stepping inside and dropped all the groceries upon seeing me.

                                                                  A Promise Kept

                     Steve succeeded. Sir sent me back to the orphanage, explaining that I was to disobedient and I disregarded the rules. When I came back, Sir and Ma'am came looking for another kid, so they chose Steve. He left with victory on his face, until Sir said that they'd send him to boot camp first so they won't get another kid like me. Steve was extremely lazy, a late riser, and always gave attitude whenever he was told to do something. He wouldn't last a day with Sir and Ma'am. He wouldn't get the special treatment or pampering that he always dreamed of when he would get adopted. That would never happen: Steve would have to be obedient, quick-thinking, and a hard worker, all things that Steve wasn't. It would be a long time before Steve got to move away from Sir and Ma'am.

                                                                  A Second Chance                       

                Steve's adoption wasn't enough to cheer me though. My second chance to get another family was gone. Mike was happy though to have me back though. He had finished tying to ropes together in a tight knot and was now swinging it around, pulling it and yanking it to test the strength of the knot. 

Stop being so happy, I just lost my chance to leaving the orphanage, and getting a family I said. That stopped Mike. 

But I am your family. So are Jeffrey and everyone else. All our friends in the orphanage are your family. 

Family is parents and a house and brothers and sisters, not other kids whose parents died.

Family is looking out for each other and showing love, and they don't even have to be rich or successful or even your own blood. It was unbelievable. He was brainwashed by Jeffrey into actually thinking that whole bonds thing. I  I heard someone calling me. It was Jeffrey.

Yeah? Who's this? I pointed to a young couple next to him.

This nice couple would like to adopt you said Jeffrey. I couldn't believe it. The chances of this were impossible. I was getting another chance to get a family. 

Yes I shouted. Of course I want to go!

                                                                      My Hidden Family

I packed my things and was right to finally make it right and be happy with a real family. This time I would never come back though. I said my good-byes and was about to get in the car. Leaving with a family was my dream and what I wanted more the anything in the world. Before I got in, I looked at everyone that I had befriended and thought back to what Mike had told me. I realized he was right and that whenever Jeffrey said that families are only as strong as their bonds, he meant that just because I don't get adopted doesn't mean no one cares about me and that I don't have family. The couple asked me if I forgot something, and I told them that I already had a family, but I didn't know it. I told them they would have to find another kid to adopt, because I chose to stay. I ran up to all my friends then looked at Jeffrey. He smiled as though he knew why I had made that decision. Because I already have family, and I found my happiness. Jeffrey was right. He told me I had family if I only treated everyone in the orphanage like that. I understand now that blood can be thicker than water but that only depends on the bonds you make for them and how much you care about them. So for you to decide whether blood will be thicker than water, and if you care more about blood relatives than your friends or not, because Mike isn't my brother, but we made a brotherly bond, and he is my family. And Mike has never been able to untie the knot he made.            

House on Mango Street Post #2: Trees

            In the novel The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros, trees show up a lot through the novel as a symbol. The first quote to talk about trees in the book is in the vignette titled Meme Ortiz. "This is the tree we chose for the first Annual Tarzan Jumping Contest. Meme won. And broke both arms." (p 22) The way the tree is talked about before this quote is presented is that the tree is so memorable and wonderful because it is a big tree and towers over all the other ones. A quote that shows up later in the book however, proves that looks can be deceiving. "Four who do not belong here but are here. Four raggedy excuses planted by the city." (p 74) These two quotes together show that the big trees are thought highly of and are the best tree, and small trees are just worthless and a waste of space. However, the big tree ends up being the cause of Meme's broken arms, and the skinny trees are comforting to Esperanza, she "understands them, and they understand her".
              The trees also symbolize Esperanza's life in a way. Esperanza compares herself with the skinny trees and talks about how they are basically the underdogs of other trees, they have a bunch of secrets they keep within them and that no one understands them but Esperanza. This can be therefore inferred that Esperanza is alone and everyone underestimates her.

House on Mango Street Post #1: Windows

            In the book The House on Mango Street, the auothor Sandra Cisneros has quite a few chapters that compare the main character's experiences to windows. The first qoute is when Esperanza talks about her great-grandmother and her sadness in life. "She looked out of the window her whole life, the way so many women sit their sadness on an elbow." (p 11) What can be assumed from this qoute is that looking out of a window is what people do when they have great sadness or are very distraught.
             The next qoute that refers to windows is when Esperanza talks about Mamacita and her life. "She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show and sings all the homesick songs about her country in a voice that sounds like a seagull." (p 77) What can be concluded about this qoute is that people who sit by the window might be missing something or someone and feel upset about it.
              Another qoute is when Esperanza talks about someone named Rafaela. "Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is  like Rapunzel's." (p 79) An idea of what can be drawn from this is that leaning out a window and looking outside of it is also for people that wish about their life changing or they could be somewhere else, basically the desire to have another life.
              The final qoute is when Esperanza is talking to Sally, or thinking about it. "And if you opened the little window latch and gave it a shove, the windows would swing open, all the sky would come in. There'd be no nosy neighbors watching, no motorcycles and cars, no sheets and towels and laundry. Only trees and more trees and plenty of blue sky." (p 82) This qoute talks about the final significance of thew comparison to windows. So now all the peices of the puzzle are put together: Looking out of windows is just like wanting something out of life and just thinking about wanting it but never doing it. This leads to a lot of regret and sadness because their life isn't like that. But Esperanza says that you have to open the window and make the life you want by doing something about it and trying to change tyour life. Windows are symbols of obstacles that you have to get around, and by opening the window, you get the obstacle out of the way and being able to get the life you want.

A Name

            My full name is Jesse Antonio Valdez. My first name, Jesse, isn't really important. I wasn't named after anyone, and it isn't a Latino name. It was just a name that my parents decided was a nice sounding name, so I got it. My middle name, on the other hand, is a Puerto Rican name that was given because my dad was Puerto Rican. He was also El Salvadorian, and his last name was Valdez which is El Salvadorian. So Puerto Rican for my middle name, and El Salvadorian for my last name. Funny how both my middle name and last name have some of my heritage in it, but my first name was chosen from one of those popular names books for parents, and has no Irish meaning. I think my mom originally wanted to give me an Irish name like Sean or something like that, but she and my dad ended up deciding Jesse. I am actually glad that I got that name, because Sean sounds too plain and "un-special", and I think Jesse has a little more meaning to it for some weird reason. I'm not sure if I prefer a more Latino name, like Jose or something, but I did get called Jose a few times before and it didn't sound that great. I look back at that now though and it sounds like a pretty good name.

The Color Purple Essay

The Color Purple Essay

In the epistolary novel “The Color Purple”, written by Alice Walker, the main character Celie and her sister Nettie are both very different people who go through very different experiences lthat include being abused by men, having to fight to protect themselves, and to reunite with each other after being separated. What should be taken into consideration, however, is that Celie often says she is ugly, whereas Nettie is said that she is pretty and smart. This information is vital because it provides evidence and my guess on why Celie and Nettie go though different experiences.

One of the ways that Celie and Nettie are different is when it comes to religion. Celie had a hard time believing in God due to her being raped, having her children taken away from her, and being constantly abused by her husband who she doesn’t even love. Later on, she decided to not believe in God at all because of these reasons and because God never helped her. In the end of the story though, Celie believes in God completely. One of these reasons is because Shug Avery talks to Celie about God. “She say, Celie! Like she shock. He gave you life, good health, and a good woman that love you to death.”(p192) Shug teaches Celie that everyone, even her, has something to be grateful for. Celie decides to believe this and her faith and loyalty is rewarded by being able to leave Mr._____, opening a pants shop while living Shug and Squeak (Mary Agnes), and getting her children and Nettie back into her life. Her final letter is to God and about her thanking God for everything. It states, “Dear God. Dear stars, dear sky, dear peoples. Dear Everything.” (p285) This proves that Celie finally believes in God and says that she is grateful for God giving her a better life and her children and sister back. Nettie is very different from Celie when it comes to religion. Nettie always believed in God no matter how hard life got for her, she prayed to God instead of not believing in him like Celie did. She might have gotten a better life than Celie because she believed, or she might have always had faith in God because she had a better life. It’s a chicken and the egg situation.

Another difference between Celie and Nettie is gender inequality. Refer back to the introduction paragraph that talks about Celie and Nettie possibly being treated differently and having different experiences because of their looks. This could be the key to how Celie and Nettie had different paths. If Nettie had been ugly in contrast to Celie, then he probably would have made Nettie marry Mr._______ and Celie would have stayed home with him. All Celie has ever know about husbands is that they abuse their wives and want them to do whatever they want, not what their wife wants. When Celie left Mr._____, she didn't normally like men or husbands. When Celie found out that Shug wanted to be with another man, she was extremely upset. "He's a man. I write on the paper. Yeah, she say. He is. And I know how you feel about men. But I don't feel that way." (p250) Another experience of gender inequality that Celie experienced was education and being successful. Some women got education and could even teach, but sometimes they weren’t allowed to or their parents didn’t see any necessity or good outcome or learning more, unless they were thought to become good teachers. An example of this is when Celie’s dad declines Celie’s plea to get more education. “You too dumb to keep going to school, Pa say.”(p9) Celie wanted to keep going to school, but since she might get married too Mr.______, her Pa didn’t see much use for Celie getting educated. Celie also was told that she couldn’t be successful and couldn’t amount to anything by Mr.______.
“You’ll be back, he say. Nothing up North for nobody like you. Shug got talent, he say. She can sing. She got spunk, he say. She can talk to anybody. Shug got looks, he say. She can stand up and be notice. But what you got? You ugly. You skinny. You shape funny. You too scared to open your mouth to people. All you fit to do in Memphis is be Shug’s maid.” (p205)

Nettie has experiences that are almost in complete contrast with Celie’s. She didn’t show and sexism or hateful thoughts towards men like Celie did. Throughout the book Celie hated men altogether. She had even nearly killed Mr.______ had Shug not stopped her. “Take off they pants, I say, and men look like frogs to me. No matter how you kiss ‘em, as far as I’m concern frogs is what they stay” (p 254). She never made her peace with men until she saw that Mr.______ had changed and became a better person. Then she hugs Nettie’s husband, Samuel, which is a big deal for her considering what she went through and how she felt about men. Nettie however obviously didn’t have these same feelings for many reasons, or so her letters don’t say anything about it. When she visited Samuel and Corrine, she didn’t say anything about her having hostile feelings towards him. She knew who Mr.________ really was behind all the smiles he gave her and how he treated Celie, yet Nettie didn’t express or bear any of Celie’s same feelings. She appeared to have known not to judge and automatically assume men are all the same even most of the men she encountered were a certain way. She demonstrated this by marrying Samuel and even giving Mr.______ a hug, so either Nettie got all of Celie’s letters and knew Mr.________ had changed, or she wanted to see if he had by exemplifying forgiveness despite what he did.

In the book The Color Purple, Celie and Nettie both have different experiences on things like religion, gender inequality, and how these things affect their forgiveness. The only explanation for why Celie and Nettie are treated differently by men is because Celie is not very attractive, whereas Nettie is. Alice Walker probably writes this book to show how some women went through gender inequality and also how men treated them during this time period, and how some still do. In other words, Walker’s main point is to express what women went through and how hard it was for them in certain societies when they had no help. If it wasn’t for Shug, Celie probably would have still lived with Mr. _______. And not everyone has a Shug Avery in their lives to help them.

Rebutal to Tony's post on DNA alteration

       I decided to make a rebutal on Tony's thoughts about DNA altering. Here's the qoute.

Parents should not be allowed to change their children DNA because there would be insufficient resources, it is unsafe, goes against some religions, and would split the human race into super humans and humans.

       There's a few things I disagree with here. The first one is when Tony talks about DNA going against some religions. Religion is not very good evidence to go against changing DNA. I think that there are also some religions that would have no problem with altering DNA. So don't bring religion into debates unless you're arguing about something that concerns religion.
       Another thing is the superhuman thing. How would altering DNA mean that people would become super humans. Altering DNA would probably just include stuff on hair color, eye color,or other small things like that. I'm not sure that making changes in DNA would mean that humans would have super strength or other things like that. It would probably be just small things on the human body. So super humans would probably not exist unless DNA alteration was greatly advanced over a long period of time.
       I also don't know how this would lead to insufficient resources. It would still be one person, no matter how much their DNA is changed.So would they eat a lot more or something like that?

Writing Prompt

             Celie's letters to God say many things about her beliefs. For one thing, she never asks God for advice by saying "What should I do?" or How should I...", so maybe she lacks certainty about God and whether he exists or not. She might just feel like she needs someone to talk to. Kind of like how people have private journals and or private diaries. Maybe she doesn't believe in God that much, and she just uses his name in place of Diary or Journal or something like that.  If she wants to believe in him, then maybe Celie thinks that she will start believing him by saying "Dear God". She never says for (so far anyway) that she prays for a better life or that she prays to see Nettie or her child, or anything like that.

"Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me." (p. 1)

            Celie asks God for a sign to know what's happening to her. She might have asked for a sign for a different reason in her letter. Possibly the real reason she asked for God to give her a sign is to find out if he is real or not. She might want to believe, but might just be having a hard time believing. Though maybe writing things down like this is her way of praying and she writes better than she speaks.
           Or, my last theory on why she writes  her "Dear God" letters is because she wants someone to find them. Possible people are her sister Nettie, her husband Mr. ______, her father, or maybe someone else that turns up in the story that abused her, made her life hard, or played some sort of significance in her life. If one of these people found them, then they would feel remorse and if Celie had a child that she loved, then everyone else would take care of him or her to pay their respects to Celie. Whatever it is, she probably doesn't believe in God, however much she wants to. She probably believes in him at the end of the story, or believes in something because the dedication page is "To the Spirit".

Debate: Opening Statement; How can we avoid Terrorism?

            Terrorism is like a grudge. People sometimes carry grudges against old enemies. Nations sometimes carry grudges against other nations. Grudges lead to hate, hate leads to a want for revenge, a want for revenge leads to plotting it, and plotting it leads to carrying it out. This is the future of terrorism.
           Terrorism lead to the war in Iraq, and more terrorist attacks against other nations will lead to more wars. Then the world will be full of ruin, despair, poverty, violence, and fear. When that happens, there will be nothing left to fight over. Grudges will remain held with other nations and there will only be war.
          There's only one way to prevent this from happening. Peace must be made with other nations. I found a quote from a website called commondreams.org.

" If you want other people to be nonviolent, you first have to be nonviolent. Renounce every trace of violence in your heart and your life. Adopt the wisdom and practice of active nonviolence, as Gandhi and Dr. King taught. Beg the God of peace for the gift of peace. Join your local peace and justice group. Stand up publicly for an end to war. Let your life be disrupted, and take a new, nonviolent risk for disarmament. Create new cells of active nonviolence. Embrace the religious roots of nonviolence. Study and teach the wisdom of nonviolence. Resist your local military and government violence. Stop business as usual, government as usual, media as usual, war as usual and demand peace, justice, and disarmament for the whole world, now. Announce the vision of a new nonviolent world, a disarmed world, a world without war, poverty, injustice or nuclear weapons."               

          Real efforts have to be made. Not the "well we tried" efforts. Don't ask other nations for peace. Tell them that peace is going to happen, because the world will get pretty screwed up if we don't put aside the past and start over. Tell them that this is what were going to do to help, and this is how much we just want to live in a peaceful world. We need to actually help other nations with whatever they need. Give money to the poor places, water and food to the starving and thirsty places, and give medicine to the sick places.Make sure every nation and continent has what they need to survive. How will America pay for it? It turns out America can pay for a lot of stuff if they put their mind to it. Give away some food, water, materials for building, medicines, and whatever else that the U.S. has a surplus of. The other option is to keep saying "we tried" and just let terrorism happen and wait for it to turn into a World War 3. Let it happen even longer and a century from now we'll be in World War 7. That's why we need to stop making plans on how to defend ourselves from threats of terrorism and start making peace with other nations and people alike.
          

           I was looking at some recent posts made, and I saw something that I knew I could write a lot about in 14 minutes on Cristian's blog.

Sometimes it just hits me that we, humans, the animals that have an open consouis and can feel love are the same animals that can a drop a nuke and comit genocide on a people because religious sterotypes. We are the animals that can make industries like Pixar and the Red Cross, but yet, we can also judge someone based on thier skin color or have rich and poor. Well, I think we messed up, big time.

          I was just watching a movie called Food Inc. and when I saw this post, I had to respond. People do these things out of greed. They either want money so they can be rich, or money so they can stay rich. Anything goes to achieve that goal. Killing, scamming, stealing, everything. On that movie, it shows the founders of McDonald's. They make everyone do only one job like putting lettuce on or something like that, so they don't have to pay employees much. Then they use the rest of the money for more Mcdonald's places and more products.
         Another thing on that movie is that a lady with a son had three hamburgers, and in 2 weeks, he died. The lady pleaded his case, and went through all this stuff in more than 1 month to see the owner of the company. The kept making sure they never saw her or never met her, because if it got out they would lose their company that wasn't even doing well. On top of that 2 more kids died from their products with the same disease that came from the burgers. The company denied it.
       

        This is part of my quickwrite in Mr. Sutherland's class on spirits. I also added examples that I thought of in books and reality. I said that spirits are emotions like happiness, anger, revenge, and so on that can control you in a way, like impulses and choices on split-second decisions. I have many examples that they are true.           
          In the book Unwind, one character named Conner had some problems that he talks about. He would often get in fights for no reason at all because there would be too much noise. He would just turn around and beat someone up.
          Another example (though I'm not entirely sure it's a true example) is the main character from The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time Inn, Christopher. I didn't read the book, but from some of the discussions I heard, Chris couldn't control his emotions and didn't know how to deal with them. That could be because he has so many spirits in him and they are all happening at once, so that he doesn't know what to do.
          Possibly even some people who have anger-management issues have a lot of anger spirits in them. You could call those spirits demons I suppose, and maybe things like meditation or that whole take a deep breathe stuff tames them in a way. Maybe some people write in journals ore diaries because they can think about their thoughts and know how they really feel. Kind of like with siblings are angry at each other and say "I hate you", then they probably don't mean it. Saying that, like swearing and yelling and punching stuff, lets out anger. Also things like being distraught and not eating or doing things that keep you unhealthy are ways of the spirits that have sadness show emotion. That's all I can think right now. I might think of some other examples.

Elite Colleges

            Recently, there was a debate on elite colleges and whether or not they help you to be better in life(at the website Room For Debate). Some of these debate responses were convincing and pursuasive, others weren't so good at telling me otherwise. One of these really convincing debate posts was titled "What You Do v.s. Where You Go" by Martha O'Connell. She really had an interesting post on elite colleges and she put in things that I didn't even know. One of them was that some celebrities were dropouts but ended up being rich and famous and have the most brilliant minds. These people include Steven Steilberg and Bill Gates. Both of them are very rich and famous, and they were dropouts. Most people would think that they went to some college that would be really selective and elite and expensive. Usually when I think of those kinds of colleges, I think of big chances of getting accepted into jobs that will make you rich and famous in whatever job you pursue. Another thing that Martha said that was surprising to me was,

"Researchers found that students who applied to several elite schools but didn't attend them -- either because of rejection or by their own choice -- are more likely to earn high incomes later than students who actually attended elite schools."

          This qoute in Martha's speech surprised me. I can see why this would happen though. If you want to just go to a good college like Harvard or something, then you think, "Oh, I graduated from Harvard, so I'm smart and can get any job I want". There's that versus someone who really knows their stuff and went to a community college. The second person would probably get more money and a way better job, and easier raises.
            The debator with the least pursuasive argument was Anthony P. Carnivale's Access to Money and Power. Sure, it had a few strong points in it, but the one thing that I caught was that he said,

"The elite colleges are increasingly white and affluent. The least selective four-year colleges and community colleges are increasingly home to disproportionate concentrations of low-income students as well as African-American and Hispanic youth."

             What Carnevale said was like a loophole in a contract. It was that one sentence that means either a lot of elite colleges are racist, or if they know these kids are wealthy, then they might demand money right at that time and no loans. But either way, that slims the chances of someone who really has potential for something, like a latino Bill Gates or a black Steven Steilberg. Because it is what you do, and not where you go.