Social Awareness Project #3

 So this is my social awareness project number three. I have decided to write a reader response to Speak. I have already done a response to this book so I have decided to relate it more to social awareness and change the body paragraphs and basically everything. So the main character, Melinda has just entered high school and is already hated. Only cause she called the cops on a party that she was in trouble in.   

    Through the book she is constantly being tortured, people punch and slap and throw things at her all the time. Her teacher don't understand. Her parents just yell at her. Her best friend is goingthrough strange phases and won't talk to her. On the first day her best friend Rachel mouths to her "I hate you". Through the book Andy keeps popping up , constantly reminding Melinda the one day Melinda wants to forget the most. Rachel starts to go out with Andy Melinda tries to warn her about the real side of Andy. When her and Rachel finally talk and Melinda tells her what really happened at the party. Rachel dosen't believe her and thinks she is just jealous that she is dating a senior. Melinda is very loyal because Rachel hasn’t done anything for Melinda, in fact Rachel has just done the opposite of helping Melinda. But that   dosen’t stop Melinda from trying to warn Rachel. She has been knocked down the whole book and even in the end she is trying to do the right thing even though she didn't do anything in the first, and when even trying to do the right and look out for the people that hurt her and didn't even try to figure out what really happened, the people still turn around and leave her.

    Melinda life is pretty difficult and complicated right now. Also she  isn’t doing much about it.  Maybe it’s because she dosen’t think it’s going to get better, or whatever the reason she dosen’t do much about it. This reminds me of a book called The Letter Q. The Letter Q is about older gays writing to their younger selves telling them how things get better and they should stand up for themselves. This makes me think what if Melinda told people about her problem sooner? What would she write to herself? Would she tell herself to tell to tell people earlier?  Would she confront Andy? Not go to the party? There are a million solutions or things she could write to herself. But she must have been aware that she could have said something earlier and people might understand. Or maybe she thought people would just think she is lying. But at the end of the book everyone seemed to understand  the situation , maybe the people needed time to adjust. But the point is when you are older you get to look at all your past experiences and think about what you could have done different or what you think what have been better to do but what if these characters and people had these thoughts earlier maybe situations would have gone differently, people would have maybe made better decisions, helped themselves and others. This is another social  issue being gay and I have related it to Melinda's social issue that I went with peer pressure 

  So in this book Melinda has been through a lot of things mostly bad but she pulls through. And she really didn't treatment. She should have been comforted not shunned she should have been loved not yelled at. But it shows how strong she was and how she was breaking though, you could see by the end of the book she was in pieces she couldn't take much more of any of it. She was slowly breaking apart , little by little , with each comment, name , punch and memory. She is alone and has nobody to help her. Nobody, not her parents, not even a friend. The people who were supposed to be there, helping her.

Social Awareness Project #2

    So for this second ELA project I decided to make a creative piece. It is collage with newspaper articles I have read relating to social awareness. It has also word that I feel go with the specific pictures I picked. Also I added many question marks all round the words because what does these words really mean? They can mean so many things.
     Also for each article the situation is different. Like one is about gays getting terrorized the other one is about prostitution India and the other one is people standing up to their government. I mean I put down social justice, standing up for you believe in, fairness, social standards and society. I picked these words to go with each article. I feel each article is so different but so similar at the same time. They are different topics but they are all in the same boat, they are all part of sociel and they all have social standards and they all seem not getting treated fairly.
  

Social Awareness Project #1

11/23/12

    Today while reading the New York Times I found one special article that stood out for me in particular. The article titled “Cell phones Reshape Prostitution in India, and Complicate Efforts to Prevent AIDS” It described how in India prostitution has taken a new technology step. Prostitutes have been luring customers elsewhere. But this is a victory for some and for some it may cost their lives later. But although cell phones seem to be saviors it has made harder for the safe-sex government consolers to trace them. This makes me kinda happy that prostitutes are standing up for themselves in some way, but it also worries me, because it may lead to more diseases. Also this article really caught my attention because last year in E.L.A we read a book called Sold. It was about one young girl from Nepal, who was sold into prostitution, and this was upsetting to me, but it’s not that I didn’t think it was real but I suppose I didn’t think about it too much. But now I have this article and its real living proof about prostitution in India is serious. It was a real eye opener.

-Brigid

11/24/12

Today I was reading the New York Times today and an article that caught my eye was  “Violent Protests in Egypt As Leader Expands Power”.  It talked about how across protests have sprung up all over Egypt. Opponents of President Mohamed have been fighting with supporters of the president.  Fights have been back and forth. This makes me think about of government before the civil war.  Except we took a stand almost immediately, most countries people are still fighting their government for freedom when we are lucky and received it a long time ago.

-Brigid

11/25/12

    I was reading the New York Times again. This time the article that caught my eye was titled “Antigay Crime Remains Steady in Washington Despite Work of Special Unit” This article talks about a young man who was attacked for being gay. Also it discusses dozens of episodes similar to this one. Many of the cities leaders include gays, lesbians and bisexuals are doing everything in their power to stop these attacks. They say there were 53 attacks in 2011 alone. This speaks volumes to me. People it seems still have not gotten used to gays, lesbians and bisexuals. It makesme think of a quote in a short story called “Am I Blue?” It was when the fairy godfather, Melvin says “So straights would realize that gays are all around them, and they survived just fine, thank you. People would realize there are gay teachers, gay cops, gay parents and gay kids, the hiding would finally end.” This was a really powerful quote to me because I think of how I really don’t think about this stuff to much maybe because it doesn’t affect me personally, but I think how many gays I might see and I am not aware at all. Even more then that I don’t know what they might have to go through every day, mentally and physically.

-Brigid

11/26/12

    Again I was reading The New York Times today. Another article caught my eye “Congo Slips Into Chaos Again as Rebels Gain” It describes, in some very horrifying detail I might add, about Congo’s current condition. Very little water, prisons empty, 1,200 killer, rapist, rouge soldiers and other criminals. Whoa! This article scarred me. I know I wouldn’t handle living in Congo at all. I think of the strength the people must have since they are fully aware of what’s going on around them. How many people must be terrified. Also why does it seem no is helping them?

-Brigid

11/27/12

   Me again, guess what I was reading… The New York Times! Good guess. Now another article caught my eye again. It was called “Learning to Accept, and Master, a $110,000 Mechanical Arm” It discusses new technology. It takes specifically about a mans mechanical arm. It is an 110,000 robotic device. He is now learning how to use his new arm. This makes me very thankful that my body is healthy, and I still have all my limbs. Articles like this make me inspired and upset at the same time. They make me sad because that person has lost part of them but it makes me inspired because they recover so fast and are so strong about it. I hope if I ever have to go through something like this I can be like this man.

-Brigid 

 

Along For the Ride Reader Response #8

    In the book Along for the Ride the main charcter Auden is a girl who is very focused on her studies and dosen't have much of a social life. In fact she never much of a social life ever, especially in high school. Her mother is a hardcore professeur at one of the top colleges in the country and her father is a writier that always seems to have his head in his newest project. When her parents fought, which lead up to their divorce, so she would stay up all night even after they got divoreced and they stopped fighting. Her father gets renmarried and moves away. Soon her father invites her to spend a summer with him and his wife and their new baby, at Colby. First Auden is hesitent she dosen't usually do things like this. But she finally decides too. When she gets there she meets Eli and he gives her a whole new prespective on things.
     When Auden arrives she is very timid and attrachs attention though. As I said she didn't have a high school life. So she is very uneducated socially. So Jake (Eli's brother) hooks up with Auden. She says "I didn;t know who I was as I tumbled out of the sand dunes." She didn't know what was happing at first. So later in the book when people draw conclusions about her she was very surprised. She assumed that people wouldn't figure anything out and nobody would mind and pay no attention to her.
    Auden and Eli start to hang out she has learned about Abe and the car crash. But un like most people she treats him like a normal person, not someone who's gonna break down in tears at any second. She and him develope a close relationship during their "quest". These are different events Auden never got to get to do when she was in high school. They kiss at the one "quest" in the bar. But since then Auden is acting distence. Why though? Is it because of what her mother said, "A smart women knows a fling is always better." Myabe? But her and Eli were so close and they both made each other a new person.
    Auden has been changing I think as each page is turned. Eli really shows her how fun some things can be, but in moderation. Audens fear in the book was to end up like her mother. No real relationship. Just flings. Eli shows that relationships are much more fun. But she is scared so she sometimes resents Eli. But she opens her self up.

Hurricane Sandy Articles: Reader Response #7

     Both articles about Hurricane Sandy were very devastating and upsetting. But this article, I think I paid to the picture more. Yes I should have probaly should have picked the article by the context, but i think photos really show expressions, and can really show whats going on. It gives the reader a better idea whats going on, a visual view. So this picture is shot at the Jersey Shore, it shows a roller coaster in the ocean, almost totally under. Keep in mind this is a big roller coaster is a giant pieces of metal, which are very hard to move. This roller coaster isn't some wooden roller coaster, it is  big and made out of steel. I thought that not even a storm could move something this big. I guess this was an eye opener to me. I guess I was focusing on what was happening in my community, not everywhere else.
       In this article "Costs of Shoring Up Coastal Communities" it talks about the aftermath of Hurricane Sandy. It captures the real issues people are going through in all coastal communities. In text it says "most of the coastal communities have lost a lot of sand, most of it has been blown to the streets. The clean up will be very expensive and many people are wondering is it worth it? This is a common problem, deciding what you really need, because Sandy destroyed many things and its gonna be expensive to replace everything. Also in the article many people argue "the beaches attract a lot of storm energy." I think that people should focus more on personal problems first because peoples homes were destroyed and they need these, a beach isn't they need. They can repair it later but if you really wanna help out you should focus on the people, not inatimate objects, like the beach, they were affected by it the most.
       Another aftermath of Sandy was the death toll and many people loosing power. In the article it says "and the death toll is a little bit over 60." Imagine that was a close friend or family member of yours. I would, personally, be really upset. Some parents had to watch their children drown. That's a really big death toll. Its 60 deaths too many. The other big issue was many people lost power. The text says "more then 60 million homes lost power." Wow that's a lot people! Also it says shelters were packed. Also many people had to come back to the rumble that used to be their houses. They had no internet, TV, heat anything. The temperatures dropped that night, many people didn't have heat or warm food, or even a home.
      From this article I have recapped the three main problems that Hurricane Sandy has caused, money spending, deaths and lost power.  This article how lucky I really am. I mean like I said before i was only really paying attention to my community, I wasn't really looking at what has happened to everyone else. I think to get over this sitation we are gonna have to band together and help each other , not one community can fix it self. I think for the next storm we will know what to do. We will be better prepared. We are still dealing with this, and were gonna have this is the furture too. This should help us band more as a one giant community and help each other.