Discrimination

Note to Reader:

My story is about discrimination, a very important topic that’s affect millions of people over a long period of time.  Discrimination is “the unjust or prejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the grounds of race, age, or sex”.   Some of the first discrimination in history is towards women.  Woman had no rights or votes.  They were mostly house servants or were simply used for having children.  Although this has changed in many countries they are still very isolated in other countries.  Another type of discrimination that goes back to ancient Egypt is slavery.  In ancient Egypt slaves were used to build pyramids and in houses.  In the United States, slaves were first brought in 1619.  They were mostly used in plantations.  In 1859 slavery was finally abolished after over 200 years, and in 1920 the 19^th amendment granted women the right to vote in the United States.  Another type of discrimination is only India and involves their castes (each of the hereditary classes of Hindu society, distinguished by relative degrees of ritual purity or pollution and of social status).  The lowest caste is the “untouchables” who are basically born into slavery and there’s very little that can change for them. One obvious example of discrimination is World War II.  The Nazis fought against Jews (among other things) for no concrete reasons.

I chose this topic because it’s a very important issue that all children need to be aware of.  In general, it’s a very heavy subject, but told through a picture book it is a good way to introduce discrimination to smaller children.  For most kids they won’t realize the bigger picture issue, but they can at least understand that in this case, excluding the family wasn’t right.  I also chose this story because the more stories they read about discrimination and other topics like such, the more they’ll know that being prejudice isn’t the right way to look at people.  Personally, I grew up around hundreds of people of different “shapes and sizes”, colors, races, cultures and backgrounds.  When I was little it shocked me that in other times some of those wonderful people would be seen differently just because of how they looked.  All my friends are completely different but they mean a lot to my just the same.  Sharing this story and it’s lesson is my way to try to ensure that some children won’t miss out on a best friend, because the people that influence them told them other wise.  So in general I chose this topic to inform young children about a very relevant topic that will influence the way they live and whom they know.

There are many ways to deal with discrimination but the one that everyone should remember is to be tolerant.  In my story for example if the town had been more tolerant of new comers at first, the triangle family would never have been so excluded.  In our everyday life it’s very crucial to remember that everyone is different.  If your first impression isn’t what you see from afar, but rather what you know once you’ve connected with that person it could lead to much less intolerance.  Of course you can’t like everyone that you meet but you can’t let their looks influence your impression on them.  As the reader you should recognize this issue, apply it to your life in a positive way, and talk about it with other people.

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

Burned by Ellen Hopkins

What really hard things are happening in this text?  Are these things happening in the world now? Where?

Burned is the story told from the point of view of a teenage Mormon girl in a family of 6 other siblings, her mom and her dad.  Being the oldest, the main character Pattyn is usually the one taking care of everything. In the beginning, the only place she can find peace is in the library. Although on the outside, her family may seem like every other Mormon family attending all the proper meetings, Pattyn and her sisters have a tough life at home. Her father, constantly reminded of his time spent in war, has become an alcoholic; and he takes out all of his anger onto their mother. One day Pattyn starts hanging out with Derek and his crew. Soon she's partying, lying to her parents and experimenting with guys.  After punching a fellow classmate in the face, Pattyn is suspended and her father sends her off to live with her aunt on a farm. Rather then being a punishment, Pattyn quickly adores her aunt J, and her aunt likes her back just as much. She falls in love with a boy Ethan, but while they're living the best moments of their lives, her father has started a using his sister Jackie. Pattyn is quickly home, and things all fall back to the way she hated. 

One of the hard things that are happening in this text is abuse in the household towards the mother, Jackie and herself. Fueled by alcohol, her father Steven has no problem or remorse in beating him or her for displeasing him in any way. This is an issues that has happened all around the world and is still happening very much so. In the United States alone 4 to 7 kids die of child abuse everyday. That is an enormous amount. Due to alcohol or drug addiction, anger and many other reasons, child and partners are abused physically and sexually. Another issues showed in this book is conflict with religion. After a certain amount of things happen to Pattyn, she loses faith in religion, or at least the one she's been brought up to believe in. To her it just doesn't add up. She has many questions but no one seems to want to answer them. Things like why she has to marry another Mormon man, stop school and spend her life having kids, isn't the way she wants to spend her life. This is also an issue in many countries, especially for women. Based on religion many women are forced to act certain ways, do certain things and wear certain clothes that they may or may not agree with. But most don't have a choice in that matter. 

Although I haven't finished the book yet, it's been pretty good. It exposes the reader to opinions and sides that sometimes are addressed much.  The author does a good job in keeping the reader interesting and talking about these hard issues in a delicate and poetic way. The two main hard things that happened in the text that I have noticed is physical abuse and the life of strict religion, which are both two serious topics that affect many people in many countries. 

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Crank by Ellen Hopkins

Prompt: Who has “power” in your text? How does that power get shown?

Crank is a story about a teenage girl Kristina who sometimes goes under the alias Bree.  As Kristina she’s a straight A student, perfect daughter.  When Bree takes over, she becomes a smooth talking girl out for meth.  One summer she goes to visit her dad, and ends up trying meth for the first time, and soon she’s hooked.  Once home she does many things all ending up in bad situations to get crank.  The end of the book has gone through many things, such as dealing to other addicts in her town, raping her, discovering she’s pregnant, relapses, jail time, and meeting Chase, who is mostly a good and helpful guy. 

            Technically the “who” is crank in this situation.  The drug has complete control over Kristina, her actions, her behavior and her happiness.  Most of the time all Kristina thinks about is meth.  Where and who she can get it from, how she can take it, how long her stash will last.  The only real reason she was dealing meth was so she could have more of it for herself.  It had become an addiction and a lifestyle.   All the really thought about was her drugs, many times over family and friends.  Even though she was pregnant she couldn’t always stop her pull to crank.  It is shown throughout the whole book, but near the end when she’s going through withdrawal that’s when you see just how much power it had over her.  Fighting it seemed so hard for her.  The crashes were really bad too.  In those moments it shows just how much control meth had over her, because you could see how she somehow depended on it.

            I choose this question because it seemed fitting and a good way to show the affect crank had on her.  Although it dealt with several hard issues, Crank was a very well writing book, which invoked good points about the life of an addiction (through their point of view).  Because the author has experience, her daughter being a meth addict, it seemed very heartfelt and raw.   All in all, I really liked this book.

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Cut and paste advertisements: What do you believe the advertisers are trying to get you to think about?

In the cigarette ads from the 1950’s, most said things that were later proved to be completely untrue.  Presently, these advertisements would be categorized as “politically incorrect”.  The ads said things such as, “Chesterfield is best for you” and “more doctors smoke camels than any other cigarette.”   Both implying that they are good for you, or that doctors promote smoking- which they always tell people not to do.  By saying this, the advertisers wanted consumers and other people seeing these, to think they wouldn’t harm your health.  Given that these ads were a little older then when people started going into detail about what smoking could cause, it still was a lie most advertisers new the truth about.  Then there were other advertisements that would say “blow in her face and she’ll follow you anywhere.”   For this, the advertisers were trying to say that by smoking (around girls), it would make girls more into them.  All in all, to sell their cigarettes, advertisers lied and tried to please different groups.