BLOG REFLECTION

     I feel that this blogging experience has taught me to pay more attention to relationships and making further question about certain things in the book more. I start thinking deeply about the book. More than I did before. I feel blogging has opened my mind to understand the book in a better way. Writing online is different than writing in a notebook. One way is that when you write in your notebook you can express your thoughts more freely because it's in your personal journal. On a blog you are expressing your thought to everyone who can read your blog. Another way is that on a blog your ideas have to be organized and thought out rather than your journal where you can have parts everywhere.
     I agree that sometimes people do create online personalities. When your online you can be whatever you can. Unless someone knows you personally you can pretend to be anyone you want. So some people project the best of themselves or their fake selves because they have the opportunity. People do abuse sites like Facebook. Only some people. People type things that they would never say to your face. People type it because the worse respond they can get is an angry comment in caps. When you say something hurtful to someone's face you get a reaction and depending on how hurtful physical confrontation. This is in the middle of good and bad. Sites like Facebook and Instagram allows people to interact and share news, make new friends and share experiences. Of course this comes with the downfall of cyber bullying.
     This was actually my second blog. I made a blog in seventh grade for ELA. I guess I can imagine myself keeping another blog. It would be about random things honestly. I feel blogs are ways to share information and express your thoughts.

V for Vendetta Philosophy Blog post

     The graphic novel V for Vendetta by Alan Moore is filled with big philosophical questions. The story is about a man by who goes by an alias of V. It's also about a woman by the name of Evey who V takes in and helps her understand the world they live in. In the novel V goes around spreading his own justice and basically giving people hope by publicly fighting for freedom. This is where the philosophical questions come from.
     One philosophical question was is vigilantism okay? V is a straight on vigilante. He serves own justice on people who did bad things to him in the past. For example he murdered a priest. Right before he murdered the priest, the priest was about to rape a young girl. The priest later after his death was found in possession of child pornography. Luckily V saved the girl. Was this right? That was the big question. V without hesitating brought his own form of justice by killing the priest. That proves V is a vigilante. I personally believe that vigilantism is okay to a certain extent. I believe if your a vigilante that you should set your rules about your own justice. I don't agree with V's actions on always killing the bad people. I believe a vigilante should bring someone to justice without stooping to their level of "badness". For example, this might sound childish, but Spiderman is the perfect example. This fictional superhero fights crime and isn't apart of the police. He is a vigilante and he choses not to kill people. Instead he exposes crime and brings them to prison where he thinks they should be in. He doesn't want to stoop down to their level which is why I believe that vigilantism is okay as long as your justice isn't out of revenge, and as long as we set rules for our own form of justice.
     Another question in this book was whether we should act upon revenge. I believe that most of V's actions that he made and that the reason he became a vigilante was because he wanted revenge. Revenge is a powerful thing that can ruin even the most sweetest of people. All the deaths that V caused, I believe were out of revenge for what they did to his mind and what they made him suffer. V is a prime example on why we shouldn't act upon getting revenge. Revenge is bad. getting back at a person makes you the same jerk that your mad at. if V didn't revenge maybe his actions would have been different. He certainly wouldn't have killed all those people. He might have even become a greater "hero" by not acting like a villain. Revenge blinds us, and as a result our actions aren't clear. We end up regretting what we did later.
     In conclusion, vigilantism is okay and we should never act upon revenge or to get revenge. Vigilantism should be controlled to a certain extent so that your justice is ethical. Also revenge is a horrible things that blurs your morals and what you believe in.

BLOG

     The book Drums, Girls and Dangerous Pies by Jordan Sonnenblick was fun to read.It's protagonist was Steven Alper. Steven is just a ordaniary eigth grader who is a bit nerdy. He likes the to plsy the drums and also likes a girl named Renae Albert. The one thing he doesn't like so much is his brother Jeffrey. All of this changes because Jeffrey is found to have leaukimia. He goes through many different situations regarding his brother. This is why I think that Steven matured throughout the book.

        In the book, one of the problems was when Steven's family were having money problems. Jeffrey's treatment and hospital bills were racking up a lot of money. Steven wanted too help his family really bad. So that Saturday he went to his druming teacher and told him that he had to quit cause he could'nt spend that money anymore. Giving up something you really desire shows a lot of maturity.

         Another example in the book is when Renae Albert came to tutor Steven. Steven was falling behinfd in math and needed a math tutor. So Renae went to help. But when she came to Steven's house she was sick. Now when you have leaukimia you have a really weak imune system. SO you can't afford being sick. So what Steven did to save his brother is that he said Renae couldn't enter. Steven has liked that irl forever and he had to kick her out to protect Jeffrey. That's pretty mature.

        Finally the last example is at Steven's big concert. Steven had a huge drum solo and he had been practicing for it for a long time. He was going to be the star. He was going to have fame. All he needed to do was to go out there and do what he does best which is playing the drums. But sadly Jeffrey had a fever right before his performance. Steven could've stayed and played. But he decided to go calm his brother and acompany him to the hostpital thus missing his performance. That was really showing maturity.

             All in all Steven's actions showed lots of maturity. He sacrificed many important things for his brother. The book was overall outstanding.

Tweak

      In the book TWEAK the main character Nic is changing. From what I have read so far he has gotten back with a former lover Zelda, and has been continuing to trust God with his addiction and stuff. I truly believe that Nic is changing. I actually think that he is comitted for real to become sober again. I think so because he has been faced wih many oppurtunities but still doesn't turn in and he has a better connection with family that he doesn't want to hurt again. Nic Sheff has gone through hell with his addiction, and I think he wants and needs a change in his life.

       I honestly believe that Nic can become Sober again because he has overcome temptation to do drugs. For example he was dog-sitting foir his mother. He was faced with stealing money and buying crystal meth. But he refraimed and didn't do it. I think that proves that he wants a better life. In the past he would've taken the money and he would've ran off to buys drugs. But he has more self control now. He clearly isn't thinking the same way as he was before. 

      Also he's going to stay sober because he really has good connection with his family and he doesn't want to ruin it. When Nic went on vacation with his step-mom and father he played with their kids. He felt that he couldn't hurt his family anymore. He saw that he was getting reconnected with his family and that he couldn't turn his back on them again.  That's why I think he's going to stay sober. He now has a newly acquired willpower that will aid him in his new life.

                       All in all Nic is going to stay sober. He is because he faced challenges and overcame them and he loves his family too much to hurt them again. He isn't going fall back into what he was before. Hopefully he has the strength to overcome his struggles.

Non fiction Critical Analysis

      In the very interesting article "Bagging Plastic" by Veronica Majerol the issue is about plastic bags. Their has been a long debate about whether we should continue using plastic bags. Marine biologists and environmentalists all agree that plastic bags are damaging the environment. The main idea of this whole article is whether or not plastic bags should be banned. Some people say yes, others say no for different reasons. The details that Majerol put inside the article helped me understand the main idea more. For example "The idea that we grab for a plastic bag in a grocery store has become a part of our culture" this quote got me thinking about our culture, and how this is true. The stores that I go to always give me a plastic bag, and I have gotten so used to that idea that I wait for the person to hand me my plastic bag. Also when she Majerol mentions that we use about 100 billion plastic bags a year and generate about 32 million tons of plastic waste. This got me thinking about how this is a huge problem. This made me understand why the debate is taking place in the first place, and that's because of all this plastic we are generating. Finally when Majerol mentions that plastic manufacturing uses millions of barrels of oil a year. Which helps me understand the environmentalists point of view more. Our natural resources are getting drained. These details make me see the importance of this issue.
      Majerol wants us to think about how plastic bags are affecting the environment. She wants us to feel bad about the effect of these everyday bags. The author achieves this by interviewing lots of people that are for and against the idea of the ban. "The bans, she says, are about trying to reduce pollution little by little" from a high school junior Zola. This made me feel that this ban will do good. Pollution is an ongoing problem that affects everyone living on this earth. Also Majerol adds lots of facts about how much waste we produce and how much waste travels into the water and affects the marine life. Marine life are extremely affected by plastic bags. Some mistake these bags for food so they eat it and their stomach can't digest it.
      I think that we should we should regulate the number of bags or give a choice of buying cheap reusable bags. I understand both sides of the argument. Many jobs will be lost if we get rid of plastic bags. But on the other hand we save marine life and the earth. I'm in the middle of the argument or undecided.

Romeo and Juliet Literary Essay

      In the tragic story of Romeo and Juliet both of these lovers are the main characters. the story itself is a romantic tragedy that shows that sometimes you don't get that romantic happy ending. This story has a various amount of themes. Such as fate, young love, suicide and death. But there are two themes that stand out the most. These themes are rivalry and deception. These themes are relevant because each theme plays a vital role in many scenes and together these themes are the reason this story is a tragedy. Individually these themes are important and together they are the reason the story is what it is.
      Rivalry is an extremely important theme in Romeo and Juliet. It's how the problems begin. In the prologue it says "Two households, both alike in dignity, In fair Verona, where we lay our scene, From ancient grudge break to new mutiny, Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes" Shakespeare is saying that this "ancient grudge" that these to families have will cause tragedies. So Shakespeare is basically telling us that because of the rivalry bad things are going to happen. We know that the bad things will be the death of Romeo and Juliet. This theme is so important that Shakespeare even points it out in the prologue, before we even begin the play. Rivalry is an important theme because it builds into big issues. For example with Tybalt. Tybalt starts off with a strong hate towards the Montagues. When he finds out Romeo is at the Capulet party he freaks out. He says Uncle, this is a Montague, our foe, A villain that is hither come in spite, To scorn at our solemnity this night. (1.5.69-71) This quote says that he can't stand having a Montague near him, and that the only reason he is their is to mock their family honnor and pride. This leads to Tybalt getting angry and next going to confront Romeo. Romeo refuses to fight so Mercutio fights and Tybalt kills Mercutio. Then Romeo kills Tybalt. All of this sparked because of the family Rivalry. It's an eye for an eye situation. If both of these families didn't have this rivalry then Romeo and Juliet would end up in a happy way. But because of Rivalry it doesn't. 
      Deception is also an important theme in the play. Deception is shown primarily in two events. The first is when Juliet decides to deceive everybody by making a plan to drink the poison and pretend that she is dead. After the argument with her father about marrying Paris Juliet decides to trick them so she goes along with marrying Paris. "I met the youthful lord at Lawrence's cell  And gave him what becomed love I might, Not stepping o'er the bounds of modesty. (4.2.27-29) This quote shows how Juliet tricks her father by pretending to go along with the marriage, but really she is planning to fake her death. Another part where there is deception is when Romeo is about to kill himself. " Here's to my love! [Drinks.] O true apothecary! Thy drugs are quick. thus with a kiss I die. (5.3.122-123) Juliet's deception led her lover Romeo to kill himself with these final words. 
      These two themes together are the reason why the story is what it is. A tragedy. Rivalry between the families caused important deaths. Mercutio, Tybalt and Prince dies because of this. Both Romeo and Juliet died because of deception. " Yea, noise? then I'll be brief. O happy dagger! This is thy sheath; there rest and let me die." Rivalry led Juliet to have to fake her own death. So then she deceived everyone and made Romeo believe she was dead. But Romeo couldn't live with that so he killed himself. Which led Juliet to kill herself. If there wasn't any deception Romeo and Juliet would still be alive. If there was no family Rivalry then both lovers could get married and live happily.
      All in all, Romeo and Juliet has many themes. Two of the most important themes are rivalry and deception. These two themes individually are important and together the mold the story and make it what it is. If it weren' for these two themes the most famous love story would end in a more happy, and romantic way. But since these two themes were involved they ended up in a sad tragedy.

BLOG POST. RELATIONSHIPS

            In Paul Volponni's Hurricane Song the main character is Miles. Miles is a football loving teenager living in New Orleans. He lives with his father and and his uncle. Everyone is chosing to evacute New Orleans in fear of Hurricane Katrina. Miles and his family chose to evacuate out of the city put then evacuates to the Superdome. Throughtout their horrible time at the Superdome  the relationship between Pops and Miles grew. This led me to believe that relationships grow stronger through hardships.

             The relationship between Miles and Pops grew. For example in the beggining Miles thought that all Pops cared about was his music. Pops would be obsessed with his night club and playing music. music was basically his life. But while in the Superdome Pops proved otherwise. Specifically while a gang started a fire and Pops franctically grabbed Miles and his horn. Usaully when there is a fire you grab the most important things. So this symbolized that Miles was important to pops and pops was starting show it more. Miles finally felt that he mattered to his father. Another example is when Miles distracted the officers so Pops could jump then Miles himself jumped to go with Pops. This showed that Mils loved his father that he would go and follow him and make him happy. He was willing to pay the consequences with the cops for his father. Another example, would be when they find the club his father loved all destroyed by the storm. Miles feels horrible. Even if that club and that music that Miles hated because it took Pops away. He knew that this made his father happy and that he should except that.  The final example would be when Miles is wrestling a thug and Pops uses and breaks his horn saving Miles. Miles now knew that his father truly loved him and Pops showed that love to Miles.

              This connects with teenagers because a lot of them feel like they are against the world. More against their parents. They feel neglected and feel that no one loves them. Just like Miles. This connects to parents aswell because they might not know that they are not showing their child love or that their child is lonely. All in all, relationships grow in hard times. Relations get tested and the true ones prevail.

21st Century Slavery BLOG POST

      In "21st Century Slavery Millions of people are living as modern day slaves- including in the U.S" by Alessandra Potenza the main idea is that slavery is bad. The whole article is centered around slavery. The author first talks about how we thought slavery was a thing of the past. Another detail that the author shares with us is the little captions on the pictures. These captions tell you exactly what kind of labor it is and what they are working in and how old. This really helps me understand the slavery problem. There are 14 year olds working granite mines. This helps me know that the main idea of this passage is that modern slavery is bad. Also the excerpts at the beginning make me feel guilty. They make me feel as if it's my  fault that modern slavery is in my country too! "I own you," the boat's captain told him. Min Min was forced to work up to 20 hours a day, seven days a week, with no pay and little food." This quote made me feel bad for Min Min. He was told that he was getting a job but really he was sold into slavery. This despise slavery which is ultimately what the author wants me to do.
      I believe that the author wants us to feel hate for the sick people who make these innocent into slaves. These people are tricked with promises of a better life, but really they are going to be working for no, or little pay. This unfair. The craft moves that the author uses is putting in anecdotes. This tool puts me in the shoes of the person enslaved. It really gets me thinking about how the world hasn't really progressed and learned from our previous mistakes. "One day when the boat docked at a village after months of being at sea Min Min tried to escape." These sentences make me think different scenarios that involve me frustrated and angry at the people who enslaved me. Another craft move the author uses is a map. he puts the map up to show us the different countries that still have modern slavers. When i saw the map I was surprised that all around the world this is happening.
       I agree with the author. Modern slavery should be abolished. Why can't people except that this wrong? Didn't they learn from before? This truly get you thinking.

LITERARY ESSAY

Literary Essay

Jose Guzman 805

Theme is a big part of books. Some themes are present and some are hidden. In the book Legend by Marie Lu Day is the main character. Day is a “rebel”. The government also known as the Republic hates him. Day is an athletic thief that has a grudge against the Republic. He was experimented on and has limp because of them. He steals and destroys thing from the Republic. After examining the actions that Day took against the government, and the people I have come to the conclusion that the theme of this book is person vs. society. The actions that Day takes in this book affect everyone positively and negatively.

The theme that is present inside Legend is person vs. Society. Day’s actions affect the government greatly. For example Day likes to mess with the Republic. Day steals supplies from the Republic. Day is known as the number 1 most dangerous criminal. No one knows who Day is or how he looks like. He makes the Republic look bad. They are focusing half of there energy on finding Day. Day’s destruction upon Republic’s ships affect the war they are fighting. “There’s my criminal report. It lights up the Jumbotron like always.” This sentence proves that The Republic is desperate to find Day. In our world policemen usually show the picture on T.V and hand out fliers. They don’t frequently post the criminal’s picture on a huge Jumbotron. He drives the Republic so crazy that when they do find him they kill his mother and take his older and younger brother. “The captain lifts his gun and points it at my mother. Then he shoots her in the head.” This proves that Day’s destructions and thievery has systematically corrupted the minds of the Republic. In order for you to kill an innocent human being you must be cold hearted. Which is what Day drove the republic to be.

The theme person vs. society is relevant because Day’s affects the innocent people. Although Day isn’t trying to cause harm to people he still does by his actions. For example there are more patrols going into the slug sector. The slug sectors are where the normal people live who didn’t score high enough on the examination to get into a rich house but didn’t fail. These people are all innocent. The Republic of course thinks that one of them is Day. They think that because no one knows who he is, and the best bet is a “slug”. Now these people have to worry about every single action they make. “I’m afraid that’s as long as I can keep you. The patrol is going to do another sweep soon.” This means that these people are being checked upon every few days for weird behavior and to see if anyone is hiding Day.  All of these examples show how Day’s actions affected society in a negative way.

Although Day’s actions had negative affects some were positive. For example Day gives the citizens hope. They finally have someone to believe in. Actions against the community are what the theme person vs. society is all about. At the end of the book Day is going to be executed publicly.  “ A group of protesters that was fairly large have streaked their hair scarlet to symbolize Day.” The punishment for these followers was death. These people felt that Day could lead them into a new era that they were willing to die. These people were so filled with hope. They truly felt inside that Day was changing the future. Also Day positively affected the Patriots. At the end of the book he joins the Patriots which is a group fighting a war against the Republic. He becomes a nice asset to have.

All in all, the theme that is shown in the book is person vs. society. In order for the theme to be person vs. society there has to be issues that affects the community. Day has caused issues that affected the community positively and negatively. The issues that came up from the day ultimately affected the community. Overall Day is a huge impact in society.

NON FICTION BLOG POST "Time for a Raise"

     In the article "Time for a Raise?" by Patricia Smith the issue addressed is should minimum wage be raised. The main idea of this article is that the federal minimum wage should be raised so that workers can earn more. The author shows this by giving us quotes from important political figures and from minimum wage workers. "No one who works full-time in America should have to live in poverty," said Obama. This quote tells us that minimum workers aren't really making a living. They are living poverty. Which makes us think that their wages should be raised because they are full-time workers. The author also shows this by putting a political cartoon that explains how minimum wage workers have more than 1 job in order to maintain themselves with the basic needs. I felt the author put explained how much money they earn a week and year and compared those numbers the average numbers that people spend a year for basic necessities to show that the workers are getting underpaid.
     The author wants us to feel bad and to have sympathy for these workers. the author describes work at a fast food restaurant to show what they normally do. They show his to prove that these people work hard for the little that they gain. Another craft move is adding lots of quotes from real workers. "It's a constant struggle" said Roberto Tejada who works in a Taco bell. he adds these quotes to show us how the workers are struggling even with a full-time job. Also the author added a really sad looking picture of a worker, and added a graph. The picture is there to make you feel sad for the person who works that much. The graph is there to show you the age ranges of workers who work on minimum wage.
     I agree with the author. Minimum wage should be raised. These people work hard everyday. you know you have a problem when you have a full-time job but you are still short of money. That's always been the way to obtain money by working. If jobs aren't paying enough anymore people would have to resort to other ways in order to obtain money for food.

Insurgent by Veronica Roth Spoiler

          Recently, I have been reading an amazing book called Insurgent by Veronica Roth the second book in the Divergent trilogy. This book is absolutely amazing. So far the first two books have been really good. In this book Tris is still dealing with the challenging and traumatizing events that happened at the end of the first book. Tris is left feeling unworthy of her friends and unworthy of her heroic parents. A lot of injustices are happening in Tris's world.
          Justice is kind of served. throughout the whole book Tris's objective is to find out what her parents died for, and to escape from the Erudite because they are hunting her for her Divergence. The beginning and the middle of the book we see Tris struggle a lot. Towards the end it changes and Jeannine, a big antagonist dies at the hands of Tori the sister of a boy who got murdered for being Divergent. She was the main hunter of the Divergent. Also they end up finding the truth abouth Tris's parents. but they struggled to get there. A new problem emerged with the factionless. For justice to be fully served the factions would have to disappear and all of the people would have to form a new Government.
           The person who is blocking justice is the entire Erudite Faction. They want to be able to control everyone with simulations. They are the ones hunting the divergents because they defy the simulations. If these people weren't here all of the factions wouldn't be falling apart right now. Also without Jeannine Mathews Tris's parents could've released the important information for everyone to hear.
           All in all, Insurgent is an incredible book. Justice will be served once the faction are completely destroyed.
         

BLOG REVIEW

In Daoud's blog post about A long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah I felt that his ideas were focused and his first paragraph ideas were planned out. I could tell that he had an objective to prove his point in the 2nd paragraph by the main points of evidence he was using. This blog post was very well written and thought out.


I felt that Daoud's first paragraph was though out really well. I think I could really improve on my introductions. Daoud has a simple summary of what happened to the main character, and how he got rescued by the UNICEFF. Then he starts expressing his ideas which are that the number of child recruits have dropped because of the extraordinary efforts of the government. He was saying that because of them there isn't as much of these kid soldiers. Which he later on proves. I think that child soldiers is child abuse. Your forcing an innocent child to face the struggles of war. You hear stories on the news about how military men are never the same when they come back. imagine what war does to children. Grown men still have nightmares about the battlefield, but what about the children. we need to get the word out that this is abusing the children. A child's worry should be trying to hide their gum in class, or trying to make up their homework for math 5 minutes before class. No child shall ever go through this.


I also felt that Daoud did a good job on proving his point with details. He included actual page numbers from the book and summarizing the content to help him. When I finished reading this post, I felt convinced that this problem is minimizing because of the valiant efforts of UNICEFF. His evidence was spot on. I think I would like to read the book. Reading this book would give me a new level of understanding. I feel that reading this book would give a layer of sadness. I would like to see what the author says about this topic. This would be a real serious book.


Daoud's blog post is filled with detail and filled with good pieces of evidence. His objective was clear, and at the end of the post I agreed with Daoud. Daoud did a good job explaining his point, and expressing good details.

Living Illegal BLOG POST

In the non-fiction book Living Illegal by Marie Friedmann Marquardt the main idea of the whole book is that Illegal aliens suffer a lot. The book has different sections about illegal Mexican immigrants, and how they suffer, cross the border and how they live their lives here. The author shows this by using a lot of anecdotes. Most of the chapters inside the book include at least three anecdotes. These anecdotes are used to show how much these people suffered. These anecdotes are really detailed descriptions of what happened. Another way the author shows this is by interviewing many people to see their side. Which shows us other perspectives on the same issues. He supports this idea by also listing specific ways that they suffer and comparing it to ways other races are treated.


I feel the author wants us to feel ashamed about our action towards these people. He wants us to feel really bad about what we have done. We have discriminated them by using stereotypes and by using violence. he also shows this again with the strong anecdotes. These anecdotes talk about how when they were first in the country, they were treated really badly. Some of them were beaten viciously and left to die. Others were looked down upon by other people.




I think the author is right. We should feel ashamed for all the things we have done to these people.