Reading Response - The God Box

  Mostly everyone grows up with a person they look up to, a higher power, maybe a family member or an idol.  Someone can be inspired by someone to live their life a certain way, follow a way of life, or just believe or look at things with a different perspective.  But, sometimes all these beliefs can be ruined or destroyed by a threat of some sort.  Maybe someone has a different perspective than others, and it changes the way of life for others.  This is the case for Pablo, a Christian teenage boy in his senior year of high school who is struggling to accept his sexuality in the book The God Box by Alex Sanchez.  He is very religious and believes that he is sinning when he thinks about the same gender in a certain way, he believes that he is hurting 'God', or the thing in higher power.  One day, a new kid named Manuel arrives at the school, totally open about being gay, which concerns Pablo.  Manuel changes Pablo's whole life his perspective on his religion.

  We follow Pablo throughout the story, starting off with the introduction of a new character named Manuel who just moved to Pablo's school.  Pablo already has had some feelings for guys since he was younger and he didn't want some new kid announcing that he was gay out of the blue.  Since Pablo's girlfriend, Angie, felt bad for Manuel since he didn't really have any friends, invited him over at lunch and it seems that like Manuel already suspects that Pablo is secretly gay.  In the text, "During Bible Club, should I have joined Angie and Dakota in speaking up for gay people? Or should I have joined Elizabeth and Cliff in speaking out against them? Was I resisting evil by at least trying to keep my distance from Manuel? Or was I turning my back on him?"  Manuel is discriminated against and Pablo is conflicted if he should help Manuel or not.  He doesn't know if he should side with his homophobic friends or the friends who are trying to help out the new kid.

  Following all these conflicts, Manuel invites himself to Pablo's house and they start hanging out.  Pablo starts developing feelings for Manuel, but he starts questioning how Manuel can be Christian if he's gay.  Manuel opens up a whole new world to Pablo and it leaves him thinking if he can really love someone for once.  "When I got home that night, I prayed again: 'Please, God. Please make me feel the only thing missing in my love for Angie.' But when I climbed into bed and closed my eyes, it was Manuel's face I saw leaning over me, and his wavy hair."  It seems like he can't get Manuel to stop enveloping his mind, yet he thinks it's still wrong to like a guy.  He wants to love his girlfriend Angie, but he just can't seem to.

  After all of Pablo's thoughts, he realizes that he really does like Manuel, and he can't do anything about it.  However, he still couldn't accept it when it was too late.  Jude and Terry, the huge and terrifying homophobic jocks in the school attack Manuel right after Pablo left him in the lot of the mall.  Manuel gets a shattered knee, broken ribs, brain damage, vision loss and goes into a coma.  Jude and Terry get charged for attempted murder.  Finally, when Manuel gets out of his coma, Pablo kisses him, and he knew he found the one for him.  Pablo finally accepted that he was gay, and he says so in the text, "Our eyes met and locked, taking me back to that first morning in homeroom. Suddenly I understood the pull I had felt that day - and ever since. It was love, beyond all reason."  He was truly in love with Manuel and he wasn't going to let anything hurt Manuel ever again.  Later on he prayed and thanked for Manuel and Angie for understanding, and it really shows how Pablo changed in that one year.

  In conclusion, Pablo really did not deal well with higher power, or 'God', but everything turned out pretty well in the end.  Pablo had to deal with himself, trying to not be gay, when he couldn't change that, and Manuel with the people in school.  Pablo believed that 'God' would hate him for being gay, yet Manuel convinced him that love was love.  "Sometimes I grow impatient and ask, "What's your will for me now, Lord?"  If the answer doesn't come, I remind myself of Psalm 46: Be still and know that I am God.  And I try to wait patiently, taking hold of Manuel's hand."

Reading Response - The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

        People make new friends, lose old friends, or have both.  When you go to a new school, it can be fun making new friends or it can be the ultimate hell for you trying to relate to these strangers that seem like they will attack you at any second.  This applies to Arnold Spirit Jr. a fourteen-year-old who started going to a new school in a town that was much different from the school in the town in which he lives in, Wellpinit.  He left his best friend in that town, Rowdy, and he was enraged.  He did not treat Arnold with that much respect anymore.  Arnold did make some great friends at his new school, though, but Arnold does but made up with his long-time best friend, Rowdy in the end.  I think that their relationship changes drastically over the course of the book and their characters change as well.

One of the reasons why I believe that Arnold's and Rowdy's relationship drastically changes is that they don't know what to feel about one another.  For example, when Arnold first told Rowdy about his plans and decision to go to another school, one which his old school detested, Rowdy was angered.  "My heart broke into fourteen pieces, one for each year that Rowdy and I had been friends.  I started crying."  This text shows here that Rowdy was disappointed in Arnold.  Arnold started crying right after Rowdy said some hurtful things, which I believe should have even more hurtful coming from someone protected him and someone that he trusted for all his life.  Next, Rowdy starts screaming and crying.  "He wiped his eyes, stared at his wet hand, and screamed.  I'm sure that everybody on the rez heard that scream.  It was the worst thing I'd ever heard.  It was pain, pure pain."  This text shows that Rowdy really loved his best friend.  He was in pain.  His best friend who he relied on and cared for was leaving him to the school that he hated, and there was nothing that he could do about it.

Another reason that I believe that their relationship changes is that when they first played basketball against each other, Rowdy and Arnold had an odd encounter.  "I jumped into the air, heard the curses of two hundred Spokanes, and then saw only a bright light as Rowdy smashed his elbow into my head and knocked me unconscious."  I believe that Rowdy is extremely angered by Arnold at this point, since he feels as if Arnold betrayed him by joining the opposing basketball team.  Their relationship does take a turn for the better though, when they suddenly mutually decide that all this rivalry needs to stop, and Rowdy visits Arnold's house by surprise.  They started discussing Rowdy and him going to Reardan with Arnold, but Rowdy says, "I'm not nomadic.  Hardly anybody on this rez is nomadic.  Except for you.  You're the nomadic one."  I feel as if Rowdy is referring to the way that Arnold has always wanted to go ahead and explore what he can.  He moves around, in search for something.  After that, they play basketball until it was late at night, not keeping score.

I believe that their relationship drastically changes throughout the course of the whole book, and it shows that everything does get better eventually.  This took a whole year for their friendship to go back or become even better than it was before.  This change really develops the characters.  Rowdy realizes that his best friend needs to be independent and Arnold realizes that he wants to move on, but he will always remember his greatest friend.  Others can connect to this book because it relates with loss/grief, loneliness, partial racism, and everyone can relate with the comedy and just everyday issues of a teen.

Upfront Response

     
        "No Job? Get Lost!" written by Andrew Higgins, is about Svalbard, Norway, the most northernmost territory in the the nation.  This territory has extreme weather, and temperatures are very low.  That is not what is so particular about this small area, though.  Unemployment and homelessness is illegal.  The author includes reasons why Svalbard is, "Europe's closest thing to a crime-free society," according to others and why they believe that banning was a good action on their part.  People do carry around guns, though, and it's still practically a crime-less area.  Higgins adds proof that the obedience for the law is caused by strict gun laws and the banned unemployment and homelessness.

     In the article, the author mentions the governor of Svalbard, Odd Olsen Ingero, and how he said, "If you don't have a job, you can't live here,".  After that, the author explains why this rule has been put into motion.  "Banning homelessness and unemployment - a problem plaguing much of Europe - is meant to ensure that none of Svalbard's nearly 3,000 residents freezes to death."  This was a good piece of evidence because the governor is a trustworthy person, so most people should believe him, and it shows that this banning was only for the good of the people residing in this area.  Next, the author mentions that there are barely any attacks from others, but from polar bears.  "Polar bear attacks regularly make front-page news.  That's why nearly everyone in Svalbard owns a gun."  This shows that there is such little crime there, that they only really take big precautions for bears.  These people only use the guns for the animals if they ever attack and know that the government wants the best for them, seeing that they don't want anybody to die from the weather conditions.  

    In conclusion, this article really made me think.  It must be really peaceful in Svalbard, excluding the polar bear attacks.  Everyday there is something going on in New York, or even in Manhattan alone.  There is a lot of crime here, and if everybody was allowed to have a gun, we wouldn't be here today because of constant shootings, even more robberies, etc.  For people living here, it would seem very small and possibly too quiet there.  I'm just glad that things are the way they are now, not too quiet, not extremely loud where I live.  I consider this place home, and others consider Svalbard home.  There's not much of a difference.

Darkness Too Visible Response

   Megan Cox Gurdon, author of the article, "Darkness Too Visible," published on The Wall Street Journal, states her opinion on youngadult books and their content, and how terrifying they can be.  The author claims that young adult literature these days have dark themes, problems too grotesque or vulgar for teens to read, and topics that can be triggering to some.  Also, according to Gurdon, literature is much darker than they used to be years ago.

  In the article, the author states that fiction is getting extremely dark.  For example, she writes, "How dark is contemporary fiction for teens? Darker than when you were a child, my dear: So dark that kidnapping and pederasty and incest and brutal beatings are now just part of the run of things in novels directed, broadly speaking, at children from the ages of 12 to 18."  She is comparing books from modern times to books from a while ago, when the times were different.  She seems to be talking to adults because she wrote, "Darker when you were a child, my dear:…"  Next, the author writes, "The novel "Scars," a dreadfully clunky 2010 exercise by Cheryl Rainfield that School Library Journal inexplicably called "one heck of a good book," ran into difficulties earlier this year at the Boone County Library in Kentucky, but not because of its contents. A patron complained that the book's depiction of cutting—the cover shows a horribly scarred forearm—might trigger a sufferer's relapse."  The author makes a good point by discussing how this book cover may trigger the person that used to self-harm, or was self-harming at the moment.  She didn't want any more suffering because of these book covers.  The author does add the perspective of an editor who seems to disagree with her claim.  ""I don't, as a rule, like to do this on young adult books," the editor grumbled, "I don't want to compromise on how kids really talk. I don't want to acknowledge those f—ing gatekeepers."" The editor of Horn Book, does not believe that people should put restrictions on the content in young adult books.  The author, of course, quickly changes the perspective and continues to add details that support her claim.

  In the end, I don't agree with Gurdon.  There shouldn't be any banned books, unless it really has stuff that is unacceptable.  Books should include subjects that are a bit touchy so teens or young adults can learn more about these situations.  They might want to learn how to cope with a certain issue, or what to do if something terrible has happened to them.  They can learn from books, but only if they look at them from the right light/perspective.  But then again, if they misinterpret the information from books, they can still learn some good lessons.  Also, not all young adult books include subjects like these!  Of course, now more books do include this, but it's only to add some light to the subject.  I believe that anyone can read whatever they want, wherever they are, and whenever they are.  

Reading Response: Every Day

Everyone makes mistakes all the time, big or small.  The mistakes can affect people in different ways.  Anyone can usually go back and fix what they did wrong, but what A did cannot be taken back.  A, a character in, "Every Day", written by David Levithan, does not have a body.  He wakes up, each day, in the body of a random stranger.  One day, he possesses the body of Nathan Daldry, a quiet sixteen-year-old who keeps to himself.  A, however, wants to do something on that day, using Nathan's body.  What A does while using his body ruins Nathan's life drastically, and I believe that he is the most troubled character out of any other character in this book.

Everyone develops a crush in school, at work, or even somewhere else.  A's situation is different, though.  A is in the body of Justin, and Justin's girlfriend, Rhiannon, catches A's eye.  Ever since that day, A has been trying to somehow connect with Rhiannon.  With connecting with Rhiannon on his mind, A does whatever he can to do that in Nathan's body.  Already with this thought, he used Nathan and went to a party that was a while away from where Nathan lived.  A lied about who he was, and spent some time with Rhiannon.  Right after that, he realized that it was late and he needed to bring Nathan back to his house by midnight, as his body changes.  It was too late, and Nathan was found by the police on the side of the road.  A even says, "Poor Nathan Daldry.  He is going to wake up on the side of an interstate, an hour away from his home.  I can only imagine how terrified he'll be.  I am a monster for doing this to him.  But I have my reason."

Nathan's life was already starting to crumble.  He was interviewed and claimed this: “It was like I was sleepwalking.  The whole day, this thing was in charge of my body. It made me lie to my parents and drive to a party in a town I’ve never been to. I don’t really remember the details. I only know it wasn’t me.  I wasn’t myself,” he said.  He also told the news article that when he returned home, there was a mysterious e-mail on his computer.  Everyone thought he was a psycho when he claimed that the devil made him do it.  This was when I believed that things were really starting to go bad for him.  

Nathan's life was really in trouble when he decides to go seek help with his "possession" to someone that A is intimidated by.  He is desperate for answers, he just wants to know what is going on.  He feels alone in this.  He pushes A for answers with e-mail, for example, "All I ask is for an explanation.  I will leave you alone after that.  I just need to know."  A finally decides to meet up with Nathan, but after that, he just feels empty.  He doesn't know what to feel.  It was too much for him to absorb.

In the end, Nathan had to deal with confusion, and a lot of it, and the feeling that he was alone in his small world.  Nobody believed him about his "possession," not even his own parents.  He was desperate to know what happened to him, and who or what caused this terrifying experience.  He didn't get a happy ending, he was almost as confused at the end of the book as he was when he was first introduced as a character.  He became a different person.  A ruined him, and he will never be given his regular life back.

Parts of Speech Creative Writing Piece

Roses

Cole, tired but hungry, drooped down the stairs to the kitchen.  The tile, cold and firm, pressed against his bare feet.  His stomach grumbling, he headed towards the pantry and got some snacks, hoping to not make a mess while watching TV.  Wrapped in a blanket, warm and fuzzy, he lied down on the couch, opening his bag of chips, and groaning after the chips spilled out of the bag.  As he started picking up the chips from the carpet, he heard his favorite song coming from his phone.  Somebody was calling him.  

It was his mother, once again explaining what he couldn't do while they were out of town.  She started to explain why he needed to go to bed early, "It's healthy," and that he needed to brush his teeth.  His mother should have known from experiences prior to this night that he wasn't going to do what she instructed him to do.  He was always found in some sort of weird position on the couch, chips all over the floor.  

He groaned, knowing that they will be back at 2 AM and that he won't even do anything while they will be out of town.  He laughed at the show he was watching, but became agitated as he was getting a call once again at 10 PM.  Believing it was his mother, he answered in an annoyed tone, regretting it later.

"I am in your town.  Do you want roses?" a voice said, whispering. 

"No thanks buddy," Cole replied, thinking it was a prank call.  Confused, he looked at the number, wanting to know which of his friends was calling him.  To his surprise, there was no number.  It just said, "No Number Available."  Shrugging it off, he threw his phone on the other end of the couch. 

Two hours went by of him laughing and shoveling down food when he got another call.  Irritated,  he answered the phone once again and asked what they wanted.

"I am in your neighborhood.  Do you want roses?" The same person from before called again.  Astonished and not expecting to get another call, he stood up and tried to call them back, but to no avail.  Were they going to continue calling?  It was only two minutes later when he got another call.

"I am on your front porch.  Do you want roses?" Hurriedly, Cole hung up, terrified.  Who was this? He threw his phone on the couch once again and went to the kitchen.  

Pouring himself a bowl of chips, he became paranoid, and he looked around his house looking if anyone was there.  His heart was beating fast and loud.  All he heard was his foot tapping on the chips spilling out of the bag and into the bowl.  As he was about to leave the kitchen, he got startled when the house phone rang.  Relieved, Cole picked up believing that it must have been his parents.

"I am right next to you.  Do you want roses?"

Cole's parents were only slightly drunk from the beverages at the party when they arrived home.  Expecting to see their son asleep on the couch, they were surprised when they saw that the TV was turned off.  The father took off his shoes and locked the front door. 

"John, do you smell that?" the mother asked, sniffing the air and smelling the odd stench wavering through the air.  Heading towards the kitchen, she felt the damp carpet underneath here. 

"John, can you come over here?" she asked, her voice quivering.  As her husband neared here, her pale arm stretched out and pointed to their son on the cold floor.  Cole, mutilated in horrendous ways, was covered in scattered rose petals.  Seeing the bloody footsteps leading upstairs, the father called the police at once.  The mother just stood still, looking at a very peculiar thing on her son.  There was a small business card on his chest.  The mother, astounded, did not know what this card meant. 

Do you want roses?

Reading Response

       

        This summer, I read the book, "Attack on Titan: Volume 13", by Hajime Isayama.  It is currently one of Barnes and Nobles' "Biggest Books", and it was one of the most anticipated volumes of the whole series.  Everyone reading the manga was waiting for a long time for the book to be released, and we finally got what we expected.  Hajime Isayama does not cease to surprise me with his books.  His art style is nothing less than amazing, and the story's concept is extremely unique.  All the books are phenomenal, but this volume was something else.

        This story starts off with Eren Jeager, Armin Arlert, and Mikasa Ackerman watching the walls they built to protect all the civilians from titans, being knocked down by a titan.  Or to be precise, a 60 meter titan, which is almost 200 feet, looming over the wall, and then kicking it down.  That was in the first book, where they were 9 to 10 years old.  Now they are 15 to 16, and they are in the Survey Corps, which are soldiers who sacrifice their lives as they go outside the walls into titan territory.  In this book, the Military Police, who protect and are always at the side of the King, want to kidnap Eren and Historia, who was once the daughter of the noble Reiss family.  The Survey Corps cannot let that happen, as Eren is a human with the power to turn into a titan, and Historia has connections with the Church, which is hiding too many things about the titans, even though people who try desperately to make the titans to go, "extinct," are dying left and right.  

        But Hanji Zoë, Levi Ackerman, and Erwin Smith from the Survey Corps have come to the result that they have been killing humans the whole time.  They have figured out that the titans have once been humans, or that is what they have thought of so far.  All of the Survey Corps need to do something the walls, and the holes in two of them.  They decide to use Eren in his titan form, because he can learn to harden his skin, as three people from the Survey Corps could do, but they used it for a whole different purpose, and it was to destroy the walls.  The Survey Corps didn't even know that these three even were titans, and were shocked when Armin started figuring out it was the three.  One of those three, Annie Leonhardt, crystallized herself using the titans hardening ability.  The other two ran away with one more person that nobody expected to be a titan.  Aside from that, Eren needs to learn how to harden his skin, so they can use this substance to fix the walls.  Levi, Hanji, Armin, Eren, Mikasa, and others are trying to get Eren to harden his skin, but to no use.  

       Erwin makes a plan, not specified in the book, but Levi, Armin, Mikasa, Jean, Connie, and Sasha go to Trost District, where they get into fights with certain civilians.  This was as planned though, because Erwin knew that someone who is in touch with the Military Police who spots them will try to kidnap Eren and Historia, and they did.  But it wasn't them.  It was Armin pretending to be Historia, and Jean pretending to be Eren.  They were taken away to a secret place, where they were tied up.  The actual Eren and Historia were in a cabin somewhere, not being kidnapped, but trying to be kept away from public.  

      Armin, being a boy, was worried about them finding out that the person they saw wasn't Historia, who was a girl.  The man who made a plan to kidnap them ships cargo, and he was the boss of this whole situation.  One of his underlings decided to grope Armin, and he was in tears, hoping it would stop.  Jean, pretending to be Eren, was sitting across from Armin, and he couldn't do a thing.  Both were tied up, and were hopeless.

      They actually weren't.  Mikasa, Levi, Sasha and Connie were on the roof of this building, watching the whole thing, hoping to sneak in while the people were gone.  When they finally returned, Levi and Mikasa were hiding behind boxes and shelves, and when it was time to strike, they pounced on the workers, almost bashing their heads in, tying their hands together, and helped Jean and Armin.  Before they left, they took the boss and Armin was once more harassed by that man, except this time the man knew he was a boy, but said,"It's… all your fault… I used to be normal…but now look at me.  You have to do something about this."  He was obviously implying the worst.  Jean overheard that, and told Armin that he would take care of it.  Jean did some more damage to the man, along with Levi and Mikasa.  The book ends with Levi making a deal with the cargo boss and Levi and Hanji torturing Sannes, a Military Police guard.

      This volume was obviously something else.  There was much more drama, and there was much more information about what is currently going on with the Survey Corps.  My favorite character out of any book, out of all time, is Armin Arlert, and to see him go through that torture with that man made my stomach churn.  The text doubled with the images made this story much more visually clear.  This was one of the best books that I have read in years, and when I finished reading it, I was speechless.  It was so filled with drama, and there was no unnecessary part.  Hajime Isayama knows how to make a story, and one that has made many people fans of this manga.