Reading Response to Cracked by K.M. Walton

       The book Cracked, by K.M. Walton, tells the story of a bully and the bully's victim and how the both end up in the same mental hospital.  This mental ward is specifically for children who have committed suicide.  They all have their different stories of why they thought it would be best if they weren't alive.  They work and support each other.  The bully, Bull, didn't actually try to kill himself.  He attempted at shooting his grandfather who was beating Bull, but somehow ended up shooting himself in the leg and played it off as suicide so he wouldn't go to jail.  The bully's victim, Victor, feels unwanted in the world.  He is a loner, and his parents hate him.  No one pays attention to Victor, except Bull.  Bull only pays attention to Victor when he is beating him up and abusing him.  Victor's only reason to not kill himself was his dog who he loved very much. But when his dog died, Victor saw no reason to keep him from ending his life.  This book shows the struggle of all of these kids and how Victor and Bull come to know each other better and work out their problems.
       Suicide in children is increasing rapidly nowadays.  I think this topic is just so depressing.  How can people possibly feel so bad about themselves that they don't want to live another second?  How can someone find joy in abusing someone to such an extent to where they no longer want to go on with life?  I simply do not understand.  Suicide is such a serious and depressing idea in our society today.  I personally like this book because these kids didn't attempt suicide for the most common reasons: bullying, cyber bullying, etc.  Those are common and terrible but I don't think people recognize that just not paying attention to your child can make them feel so unloved and terrible.   Most all of these kids in this ward were not given enough support to keep them from killing themselves.  This is so devastating I don't know how to comprehend it.  I am fortunate to have loving parents that have taught me so much.  But not everyone is as lucky.  I think that we need to find away to make everyone feel loved.  Everyone is special in their own way and no one deserves to think they are not good enough for this world.

Reading Response to Article 5 by Kristen Simmons

      I just finished reading a book called Article 5 by Kristen Simmons.  It is a dystopia about America after some HUGE war that changed everything.  The main character, Ember, was alive before the war and before the government drafted the only boy she had ever loved, Chase.  She remembers how everything used to be.  Though she hated the police (Moral Militia) she tolerated them being in her life. That was until they arrested her mother and executed her.  Her mother's "crime" did not deserve this at all.  The entire story describes Ember's journey back to her mother and how she is adjusting to the new Chase.  He told her that her mother was still alive to protect her feelings even though he knew she was dead.  Chase and Ember's love reignited after a lot of hardship and tragedy they experienced together.
       One element I found very interesting in this book is how all the sadness and anger has bonded so many people.  After the War a very strict government took over that hurt people every day.  Over time people started to stick together and form a resistance.  I think a main reason why people can bond over sadness is that there is just so much emotion and empathy that can be shared and related to.  People that have similar situations usually end up getting along, so if half the country all experienced the wrongdoing of the strict soldiers they were all able to form an alliance and friendship.  Everyone had lost so much and they needed people to be there for them.
       Another thing I found interesting was how even though someone can appear to have changed so much, they still are always going to be the same person deep down inside.  This was shown in the story when Chase was a sweet, kindhearted, protective guy who expressed his feelings before he was drafted.  Then after he met up with Ember again, which was to arrest her mom, he appeared to be a cold-hearted, empty-headed, soldier that didn't feel emotion or cared what happened to Ember.  Though throughout their journey and rebellion his old character began to show through again.  It started with the description of the pain in his eyes when he say Ember hurt.  Then it evolved to basically giving up his life to preserve hers.  This book had many different plot twists and I loved every minute of it.  I was never bored and looked forward to reading it.

Reading Response #3 to Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

       Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult is an incredible book.  It tells the story of a school shooter and how he is dealing with all of the pressure and realizing what he did.  This is such an interesting and conflicting element of the story.  I understand Peter's, the shooter's, side but also feel for all of the families that were either directly or indirectly affected by this terrible tragedy.  Peter doesn't feel what he did was wrong because he had no one.  All of the 'popular' had ruined his life so he believed he had the right to ruin theirs'.
       Another reason this book is so amazing is that there is a character for every reader to relate to, with their own problems.  The plot line is so intense that it is some times difficult to keep up with who is who.  There is everything from gay, to suicidal, to special ed, to popular, to nerd, to distressed mother.  I think it is interesting because all of these people are so different and have hardly anything in common. Though one thing that will bond them together for the rest of their lives, is the shooting.  This connects them in a way that nothing else can.  No one else, parents or police officers, can truly understand what they are going through.  The only people they can rely on to relate to is each other.  This is a really intense way for the author to bring all of the tons of characters with their different personalities together.
       Another issue in this book is gun violence.  I do not believe there is enough action against gun violence right now.  There have been too many school shootings, though gun violence doesn't just apply to this.  Though this is where the media stresses it.  This book truly touched me and made me realize just how hard it must be to go to school with people you know and love in the morning and then when you come home they will never be there again.  I really like this book and I would recommend it to anyone and everyone.

Reading Response #2 Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

       So far this book is really, really good.  I am so immersed in it and it is constantly exciting and shocking.  It is about a high school shooting.  An overprotected nerdy outcast, named Peter, decided to shoot as many people as he could in his high school.  He had been tormented and bullied and believed what he was doing was only fair.  Peter didn't see the wrong in what he was doing.  He thought that since the bullies never got in trouble for ruining his life, why was he getting in trouble for ruining theirs'?  He didn't see the difference.
       I think that this is a very important issue in today's society.  Gun violence is a very dangerous and terrible thing that needs to be stopped, but more importantly....the motives need to be stopped.  If Peter wasn't bullied and was actually helped by his teachers and parents than he wouldn't have found the need to murder people.  If people had treated him a tiny bit better, or if he had one single friend that could have talked him out of this.  Lots of kids would have still been alive.  I feel like this is a scary topic that is becoming more and more common because of the recent school shootings.  This is a common thing today that needs to be thoroughly addressed and stopped.

Sonnet: Fragile

All love is fragile, much like a mirror

Forcing you to see yourself much clearer

Though be careful, love tends to disappear

You should enjoy it, do not live in fear

When you drop a mirror, it will shatter

The pieces will never fit the same way

If you cut yourself it will not matter

The person you once loved has moved away

But these mirrors and loves have their upsides

They show you what you really want and need

To think of yourself for once and decide

If the best thing for both is to proceed

So I will leave it up to you to choose

Who you still want to keep, and who to lose

Reading Response on Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult

       In Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult there are many different characters that have not yet connected with each other, and there perspectives on their lives.  This makes summarizing the story so far a little difficult.  Therefore I have decided to describe the theme and lessons from one of the characters and her point-of-view.  This girl's name is Josie.  She is everything everybody wants, pretty, straight-A student, popular, and has a popular and hot boyfriend.  Though she knows that this girl that everyone sees on the outside is not who she really is.  She is afraid that no one will accept or like her if they find out the true her.  So she pretends.  Her days are full of fake smiles and fake looks.  Josie wants to let the world know who the real Josie is, but just can't bring herself to do it.
       I think that this is an important lesson that the author is trying to bring attention to the reader.  Many people, most all people actually, especially in high school are afraid to let there true self be exposed.  I think that this is because not many people can handle there true personality and looks being judged and criticized like they will in today's society.  It is easier to be fake and be what other people want or envy.  I believe that this is taking the easy way out.  Life would be more enjoyable if everyone was their true selves one hundred percent of the time.  Unfortunately, this is impossible.  I think Josie is already more advanced then most because she recognizes her true self and knows that what she is acting like is not it.  She understands that it is easier to be what people want then what you want.
       I hope that Josie will find the strength to show everyone who she really is.  This is a brave thing to do and requires a lot of courage.  I hope she will overcome her fear of being judged and criticized so therefore she can appreciate life more and not hid anything.  This book is inspiring.  It teaches us the values of the simple goal, "to just be yourself."

Literary Essay on the Theme "Lack of Voice" in Martín Espada's Poems

        The idea that many racially diverse people have a lack of voice compared to powerful, usually white, people is displayed in all three of Martín Espada’s poems that we read in class, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, and “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School.”  I feel that this theme slowly advances and grows stronger as the reader advances from one poem to the next.  In “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson” Martín Espada talks about what he wants to do when someone does something as simple as pronounce his name.  This poem never states how he actually does anything about the mispronunciation; it just talks about how it makes him feel.  In “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School” Hispanic kids are banned from speaking their native language (Spanish) in the bathrooms.  Here they both figuratively and literally don’t have a voice.  Then finally in “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May, 3, 1877” shows how to Mexicans were murdered for being racially different.  This theme of lacking a voice grows more intense through each of those three poems.

            In the first poem by Martín Espada, “Revolutionary Spanish Lesson”, he describes in detail what he wishes he could do when people mispronounce his name.  He never says that he actually does anything about it.  Espada shows that he feels disrespected when people do this, and therefore he wants to disrespect them by hijacking “a busload of Republican tourists from Wisconsin, force them to chant anti-American slogans in Spanish, and wait for the bilingual SWAT team to helicopter overhead, begging me to be reasonable.”  He wants to force people to feel like their culture and native country is being put down by forcing the Republican tourists to chant anti-American slogans in Spanish.  Though the reader is unsure if he actually says anything or just lets it go by.  I think Martín Espada wanted us to infer this.  I think that he is trying to prove that even though he might have said something about his name and the correct pronunciation, many others don’t and they need to gain their voice against “authority” again.

            The second poem, “The New Bathroom Policy at English High School”, shows the theme of a lack of voice for diverse people a little stronger.  Here the reader doesn’t have to guess whether the victim stood up for himself or not.  It is obvious that the Hispanic kids got their voice taken away, literally.  The principal banned them from talking in Spanish in the bathrooms.  This all occurred just because the principal was uncomfortable hearing them talk in this foreign language to him while he was in there.  This shows how selfish people of authority can be and how they can overuse their power and overstep their boundaries.  This is taking away some people’s basic rights, such as freedom of speech.  There is no good reason to take away this freedom in the first place.  This makes these people feel uncomfortable and unwanted, and it makes them feel like people are being ignorant against their culture, because they are.  These kids need a voice against power, because right now they are lacking one.

            The final poem, “Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877”, shows how two Mexicanos may have had a voice, but now they very forcefully have had it taken away from them.  These two people most likely were hung because they spoke out against society.  They have realized that they were being mistreated and tried to get their voice back, but were killed for it.  Though hopefully Martín Espada meant to tell as many people about this event as he could to inspire people to take a stand because they deserve to be treated equally as everyone else.  People should not have their life, and voice, taken away from them for their culture.  This is such a terrible thing that happened and I infer that Espada wanted us to remember that there are risks when trying to speak out, but it’s possible to have some big advantages and improvements of treatment come out of it. 

            Many racially diverse people’s voices were lacking in this time period against the authorities.  This was shown numerous times throughout Martín Espada’s poems, especially these three that we read in class.  His ideas and opinions on this theme grew and developed throughout them.  I think that he first was just stating his personal feelings, then he used some small evidence such as a change of a bathroom policy at a random high school, then he used some intense evidence that two people were murdered for either speaking out or their culture.