EXTRA CREDIT 1ST QUARTER-- response to The Lorax

"Why does the onceler not ever show his face?" -Daniel A. 807

In the lorax, all we see of the greedy, money hungry creature is his green arms.  The onceler  literally destroys the environment around him, defies the lorax's pleas to stop, and later when the lorax leaves, feels awful about it and holes himself up.  In response to Daniel's question, I say that the onceler never shows his face, because in a way of money and greed and regret, he is all of us with many faces. By that I mean, we are humans, bound to make mistakes, and since we now live in a world where money and power are the solution to almost everything, we can't help but to always want more of it to get ahead.  

It's obviously a bad thing to always want more, but are problems ever justified if we fix them?  In the end of The Lorax, the onceler gave the boy the last truffula tree seed for him to plant, and though we never found out what happens with the seed, we still get a feeling of hope from it.  Yet, I wonder, does fixing something make the problem go away completely?  It seemed as if even though the onceler did a notion of getting back a rich truffula tree forest, he still regretted what he had done.  In a way, we never can truly fix a problem, because the impact for that time being (before we fix it) will always exist.  Also, we can't just forget what we have done wrong, because if we did, we would never learn from our mistakes. 

That leads me to the next point of why didn't the onceler plant the tree seed himself?  Was it because he didn't want to start the problem of killing the environment again, or did he simply not want to be reminded of the wrong he did (further than he is reminded of it from all the barren gray around him already)?  To me, it seems a bit less greedy, the fact that the onceler gave the seed away to some boy to plant.  Some say it could be that he is too cowardly, but I think it shows that he wants to make a difference to the world by teaching others to help and respect the land they live on.  In a sense, I feel like the onceler knows he can't ever personally cover up his mistake, so why not let someone else get a chance to do a good thing.  

When we are kids, we are taught to be accepted as a kind person again is to say 'sorry', but as we get older we realize that sometimes, sorry isn't good enough.  In a way, I guess we learn it the hard way, simply realizing one day sorry doesn't go too far, but it's a lesson we all need to learn to take a step toward making less errors and more accomplishments.  I always thought the saying 'you need to fail to succeed' was BS, but in a way it is true, because if we learn that mistakes will be made, we will also learn that we should try to live without a lot of them, or learn from them and move on.  I guess we can never truly erase a mistake we have made, but we can always hope for a future where we progress beyond simply fixing the mistake we made, but making the world better on top of fixing the original thing.

Entry #8, Response on "Mother to Son"

In this poem, Langston portrays a mother (or so some think) to be speaking to her 'son' about how life can be hard, but we just have to keep going.  Knowing Langston Hughes (my teacher in 5th grade taught us about the Harlem Renaissance), he speaks a lot about racial issues, being he is a black man in the early 1900s where everywhere is filled with segregation.  I feel like even though he doesn't openly say the everlasting issue of race in this poem, he sort of implies it.  Langston Hughes is a person with certain qualities and feelings, and just because he is writing a very general poem doesn't mean he has to forget who he is.  As if Langston Hughes is a package, to write an amazing poem he sort of needs the whole package. 

Some people in 807 disagree with me, and say it is a poem intended for everyone as an audience.  As I was talking with my table, I sort of realized it's a mix of both.  I still feel the poem has a bit more of a sympathetic hand toward the African-Americans, since the language of the poem was of their culture (for example "I'se").  Yet, at the same time, the truth is we all have hardships.  As Pheobe said (while talking to her) "A crystal staircase is slippery."  I think by that she meant having a 'perfect' life is hard.  In a way, the further you get up a staircase, the further you have to fall, and on a crystal staircase, it would hurt even more.  And also, crystal is cold and unforgiving.  Crystal staircases are built to be symmetrical, and having a life without changes as you grow would basically mean your life is useless.  Who wants a life that they are living for nothing?

I wonder why everyone thinks there is a perfect life.  I honestly don’t think one exists, since we are humans (not robots).  Wouldn’t a perfect life be so boring?  I mean, like Sarah McLachlan says in ‘World On Fire’, “The more we take, the less we become.”  When I do think of the perfect life, I think everyone can agree we think of endless money, since that is what our world is based off now.  By having hardships, it makes every other small, good thing in life seem even better.  If we get used to no troubles, our expectations will always rise, and nothing will ever satisfy us.  We have to learn to live with the ‘tacks, splinters, and boards torn up’ to keep climbin’.  

Ms. Galang said that if we interpret this poem as different speakers, the message of the poem will be totally different.  I understand why that could be so, but since this poem is so true for everyone, no matter what the language is, it makes an impact on all of our lives.  Everyone can relate to a time where ‘there ain’t been no light”, no matter who we are.  

Media/News Immersion

Day 1: Friday the 22nd

1. Source: the NY Times. “Helping Schools’ Chefs Find Alternatives to Frozen Pizza” by: Susan Dominus

Summary: This article talks about how chefs and organizations are trying to help NYC schools become healthier, by teaching their chefs simple tricks to making food taste better and taking out the frozen food altogether.

Social Issues: The social issue in this article is our future, and what actions we are taking to make it a better place.  Health nowadays is a huge topic since we know the results of un-healthy ways, and so we are all frantic to make this generation a better one, but sadly this is hard since we are so set in our un-healthy diets.

b) Source: NY Times. “New Way To Help Chicken Cross to Other Side” by William Neuman

Summary: This article is about how companies are thinking of gassing chickens before  or instead of hanging and splitting their necks, to create a stress free death for the chickens.

Social Issues: The social issues in this article are animal cruelty and how the world is trying to help it.  At the same time though, it is a bit ironic to feel the need to have things we breed to kill have stress-free deaths.  If we really cared that much about chickens, wouldn’t we try to stop their unnatural killing altogether?  I know this is hard, but it is the best solution to solving animal cruelty.

Day: Saturday the 23rd

1. Source: The NY Times. “13 Are Killed As Gunmen Storm House In Mexico” by Elisabeth Malkin

Summary: This article is about how in a drug filled city in Mexico, 13 people were killed in their home while celebrating a 14 year old boys birthday.  Police/government are trying to figure out wether death was from revenge or drug reasons

Social Issues: The social issue in this article is revenge (being our nature), and taking much too drastic measures.  If the deaths were from revenge, then all I have to say is that it is so sad that when there is a problem, we almost always go to violence.  It may be the fastest way to solve a problem, but at the same time it usually has the most consequences for everyone.  

b) Source: The New York Times “Haiti Fears Cholera Will Spread in Capitol” by Randal Archibold

Summary: This article talks about how recently, near the capitol of Haiti, there was an outbreak of Cholera, which hasn’t happened in Haiti for a long time, even though sanitation there is limited.  People are trying to install bathrooms and clean water, since the conditions there are not developed enough to handle cholera.  

Social Issues: The social issues in this article are mainly poverty, in a sense, since because of poverty and corruption, Haiti doesn’t have clean water which carries cholera.    After the earthquake there, everyone did such a great job trying to help them, and I wonder if we will be able to do that again, since in a way cholera is less ‘public’.

Day 3: Sunday the 24th

1. Source: The New York Times “In Triple-Murder Trial, the Exhausting Routine of Deciding a Killer’s Fate” by: William Glaberson

Summary: This article is about a man accused of many murders, and wether he did some of them or not, and how his trial is going on the point of sentencing him to death.  Since his accused murders, apparently Hayes has lost much weight, witnesses say maybe because of his shame. 

Social Issues: I think 1 social issue in this article is the benefits/motives for crime.  Besides sex for a bit, what pleasure would you get out of raping then strangling someone?  Criminal’s minds are so much more complex than we think, and I find it interesting people are saying he lost the weight because of shame, because I ask if a person not afraid to murder would be ashamed of it (when he has murdered multiple times).  Hatred isn’t a phase, so something must be on criminals minds... 

b)Source: The New York Times “Latino Immigrants to Sue a Connecticut Police Dept., Asserting Racial Bias” by: Sam Dolnick

Summary: This article talks about how police officers in Connecticut are being racist when latinos do an innocent act such as questioning why they are being beaten (for no reason on police’s half). 

Social Issues:  It seems like no-one nowadays gives a crap about what was said in the constitution.  Everyone is equal!  We established that so long ago!  I find no reason how based on our background why we have to be treated as differently.  And what is up with policemen doing this?  Aren’t they some of the most honored people in communities everywhere?  I am wondering where this racism suddenly came from, and how we can stop it (like we have many times in the past).  

Day: Monday the 25th

1. Source: The New York Times “Chilean Miners Win Cheers and Lose Game” by: Alexei Barrionuevo

Summary: This article talks about how the Chilean miners were celebrated and praised royally not to long after their surface to the ground.  Even the president of Chile had them over for dinner. 

Social Issues: Even though this article is happy, it brings up the issue of fame (in a sense).  The miners are now ‘famous’ all over the world for their time under the ground, and it’s interesting that that got them famous.  I guess they say fame can spoil some people, but in a way I guess this ‘natural’ fame is well deserved, even though the miners seem a bit hungry for it now.  I just hope this doesn’t make the miners or anyone really think the key to success is having something drastic done to your life.

b)Source: The New York Times “Deadly Blast Hits Shrine in Pakistan” by: Reuters

Summary: This (really short) article explains the bombing of a shrine in Pakistan, the bombers placing the bomb on a motorcycle on the gate of the shrine, killing at least 4 people. 

Social Issues: Though short, this article mentions that the bombers attacked the shrine because of  religious differences.  Still, the world can’t agree on things, and so we decide to kill the enemy.  Obviously killing never is really justified, but killing based on differences in the culture topic is not only cruel, but so stupid, since differences are what ‘make the world go around’.  

Day: Tuesday the 26th

1. Source: The New York Times “School Sees Salvation in Recruiting Chinese” by  Abby Goodnough

Summary: This article is about how a small, poor school in Maine is trying to get Chinese kids to come there, because they will have to pay a lot of money to come to the school, and that against all odds has a fantastic arts program.  Not only did employees/staff of the school visit China, but the cafeteria staff are making chinese food, and writing some welcome words in chinese on their bulletin boards.  

Social Issues: I think this article brings up the fact of stereotypicalism.  In the end of the article, the author says kids in the school are worried that since they heard Asians were academically motivated, so their grades might slip.  I mean, I have heard this statement too, but I think it’s so wrong to say that before you even met any people like that (the town, Author says, is all white).  I think it’s ok to make some things like the cuisine maybe more homey for the new-comers, but it seems as if the school is using the Chinese kids for their money, which is wrong!

b) Source: The New York Times “Former City Resident Is Accused of Trying to Join Terrorists” by: Kareem Fahim 

Summary: This article is about how a former city resident was found to be involves in joining terrorists.  Apparently, he tried to fly to Pakistan on a one-way-ticket to train in making bombs.  Abdel, the man’s name, was arrested on Friday in Hawaii, and his maximum penalty is 8 years in prison.

Social Issues: This article brings up the point of race/beliefs, and betrayal.  Obviously, we don’t know why terrorists become terrorists, but in this article they did mention that Abdel possibly “ thought it (joining the US army while being a terrorist) was a game.”  I wonder what would make people want to literally terrorize people, because surely that shouldn’t be in anyones religion!


Reflection:
I found many similarities between most of my articles and their social issues.  One of the things that was pretty shocking was the amount of social issues that not only have been going on for millions of years, but also been have been tried to solve forever, and apparently we never accomplished solving them, like evil crimes and racism.  It seems as if we can't move on completely, no matter what we do to solve problems.  I guess we never will make the world perfect, but it seems as if (until now) I never knew how complex things in our world were.  Problems are never 1 sided, and by being more aware on what's going on around us, I know we can all try to solve them slowly, and make the world a better place for everyone. 

Appreciation on The Giver

Even as a young girl, I loved The Giver.  It perfectly encompasses our world with new twists and turns that rack your mind until you are sore, and relates to you to the point where you think it is not a mere book, but a crystal ball following our every move  When I read it, I get lost in this world, and always try to stay and live in it for a while, just to try it out.  Every time I read it, something new each page comes to me and goes into the big stewing pot that is called my brain, until a little while later it is spooned out at the most unexpected moment, to apply a bit of The Giver to my life.     

Jonas, the main character, lives in the world of Sameness.  While I was a little girl with not a care in the world, I didn’t see any relation between me an Jonas.  He was a pre-teen boy, so obviously we must have been on 2 opposite planets.  Yet, now, after I avoid the fact that he is a boy, the only thing I can focus on is how truly similar we are.  All we want to know is who we are.  We are both lost in this world, searching for ourselves blindly. 

 Jonas tries to be the best he can be, with good ethics such as respecting elders, and finding time for his ‘family’.  At the same time, just like any teenage boy, he has hormones and likes to play war games.  What makes Jonas relatable to everyone though, is the world he lives in.  Dictatorship and communism are pretty close to sameness -- right?  We may not have sameness, but houses, bikes, family dinners, jobs, death (no matter how many words you find for it, death is death), even the simplicity of childhood elements such as playgrounds, snack-time, and stuffed toys are shown throughout the Giver and our life.  Instead of having flying cars and clone machines in the future, Lowry makes the world ‘progress’ in the way of achieving life the easiest it can be -- without creating too much more to get there.  

Before I read this book as a mature teenager, me and many of my peers thought it would be a miracle to all be the same.  No more competing on who has the best clothes, how rich one another families are, how many friends we have, and how much money we can spend.  We have no idea what sameness would be like, but we all believe it would be better than what we have become familiar with, almost tired of.  Jonas never questions the world he lives in, until he matures and receives his job as receiver of memories.  When he gets the memories, his view changes on his world, and he starts to see how individuality and choices can be good.  In a way, I sort of matured or ‘grew’ with the Giver.  Part of ‘finding yourself’ is realizing that differences are what make the world go around, and that without them life is pretty useless.  As a kid, I read this book and drooled over their world, and know I look at it as the worst place you could possibly live.  Like Jonas, I have learned the value of genuineness just from 180 pages of pure genius.  

For us all, life is about growing and learning.  The Giver taught me so much.  Lowry creates the perfect nightmare that is so hard to stop thinking about, much less stop reading.  Jonas’s truth in who he is has a piece of everyone, wether they live in your community or elsewhere.  Even Lowry, as said in her Newberry Acceptance speech, has a lot of herself in Jonas.  Jonas is simply a normal boy that can relate to everyone.  This book will always be in my heart, and hopefully whenever I am struggling along with everyone else on how annoying it can be to not have the easy life of ‘sameness’, I know I will think back to this very book and continue on my path of my unique life, head held high and proud, and maybe someday you will too...

Entry #7, Research on The Giver

The Giver is a book I read as a kid and teenager, and though both times I got very different themes from it, I loved it all the same.  It taught me (in a nutshell) that differences make the world only better, and that pain and suffering can help us achieve happiness and balance.  I found not many connections with The Giver, and so to start off my research, I looked at Lowry’s background to see it there is any resemblance between her life and Jonas’s world.

While looking at a biography about Lowry, http://www.cliffsnotes.com/study_guide/literature/The-Giver-Lois-Lowry-Biography.id-113,pageNum-3.html, it mentioned that since her father was an army officer, she moved around a lot as a kid.  In my opinion, moving around constantly would not only be scary, but also exhausting.  Having to always be the new kid, and never truly knowing where your home is sounds awful.  In a way, Lowry’s strength through it all shows in Jonas, because he isn’t afraid to go out into ‘Elsewhere’, and his tolerance of having to be one of the only people that experiences pain shows more strength.  Another similarity I found between Lowry and Jonas is that when Jonas asked about love, his parents shrugged off the idea, because the community is built so that you only enjoy and deal with your family.  In Lowry’s biography it said ‘her step-grandmother merely tolerated her’, which shows I suppose that she knew a bit about what it was like to not be loved.    

As another form of research into Jonas’s world and Lowry’s life, I looked at Lowry’s Newbery acceptance speech, and it gave me a similar feeling that Lowry’s life did have a lot to do with Jonas’s.  In her speech, http://loislowry.com/pdf/Newbery_Award.pdf, she mentions how so many aspects of the book are based on her own life, from feeling trapped by her parents, to meeting an old, blind man who only remembers color.  It’s interesting how in a way, I was looking for the bad in their world, and the good in ours (because the book’s world is awful, so typically the more differences I can find, the better).  In Lowry’s speech, she touches up on feeling safe and comfortable in what we know, which I feel is one of the reasons we are sometimes hesitant to criticize our own worlds, because like in our world and in ‘the community’, since we don’t know much else, we don’t always know how anything else would be like. 

As my last bit of research, I found out that in 2011, they were coming out with a movie of The Giver.  Anxious to see the trailer, I went on youtube, but only could find kid’s school and personal project versions of what they think the trailer should be like.  I found them all to be similar, in the way that Jonas’s world looks so sad, scary, and gloomy.  It’s interesting, because I took the community as a happy place, (unless you know the truth like Jonas).  The thing about the community is that the people in it are (or at least think they are) happy.  They don’t know any better, so they live with and fine greatness in the life they live.  This simply shows how differently everyone interprets the book.

In conclusion, through research, I truly understand how this book came to be, and how our world is so ‘not what meets the eye’.  

Entry #6, The Giver

Why do we always seem to protect ourselves from reality?  It is like, we try to either ignore what’s happening, or we try and shield the youth by simply keeping them uninformed of what actually happens.  Parents and guardians say it is to protect the youth, but isn’t knowledge a better protection?  If we go into the world like a bright-eyed deer, we will have to learn about life the hard way.  How is this protecting?

In The Giver, their system of life is called ‘sameness’, which is when there are no colors, music, emotions, or hardships.  Everyone’s life is planned out, to when kids get their bikes, who people get married to, how many kids each couple will have, and what profession they will have for the rest of their life.  Also, their life has been built so that no-one experiences pain, sadness, or confusion except for the receiver.  The elders do this to ‘protect’ the people from everything wrong with the world, but when a few memories of hardship do escape, the world goes into panic. 

Is that how we want to live our life?  When the smallest mention of the past of hardships gets out, we all go crazy?  How is that protecting you?  I think in life we have to roll with the punches, and accept what will eventually come, not try and only live in the moment.  Yet, many people say that ‘living life in the moment‘ and not worrying about what is to come is the best way to live life, because you get the most experiences out of it.  My dad, for instance, never plans anything and just does things when he wants to, even when he knows nothing about something and embarrasses me by asking the stupidest questions.  I feel though, that if I was warned for instance how stressful middle school can be, I would get a little nervous maybe but in time that pays off because then I would know what to expect from middle school and how to prepare for the stress that may come.   

In The Giver, one of the first things that the elder told Jonas about his job as receiver is that it would hurt.  It would hurt a lot.  Jonas, like me, adapted to the warning and learned that though it will hurt at times, it can be so amazing other times.  I feel like we all have different styles of living our life, and I guess I can’t truly say which one is wrong or right because it all depends on the person.  But I will say that when parents say they are ‘protecting‘ their kids, they are usually just hurting kids the more they keep them uninformed.  No-one wants to be a clueless person in life, with no map, so though you may get nervous, I know many people that would rather be nervous then stupid.