Blog Reflection

(I’m afraid to acknowledge that I have, unfortunately, neglected my blog. I’m not really sure why— I mean, I remember I have blog posts and comments to do. I remember how in the beginning of the year I was so excited to start having a blog like this and I guess I just stopped being excited. The same thing happened with a number of activities and classes and I’m ashamed to acknowledge that.)

*What did you learn about yourself as a reader from creating and keeping up with your blog?

~ Well, when I actually did keep up with my blog, I learned that, as a reader, I like to look at things and situations and such at a different angle/perspective. What I need to learn now, however, is when and how to apply my different angle. As in, when is it appropriate to mention? 

*In what ways did you benefit from the experience? 

~ The fact that my blog is a place to write about my favorite and most recent readings, is really beneficial to me because I get to write! I know I’m not so good at it but it’s something I enjoy— even if it is an essay. My blog was the only place I could actually write something that had some kind of meaning to me and I made a big mistake by not taking that chance to write. I really regret it. 

*Is writing online different than in a notebook? In what ways?

~ I think writing online is way different than writing in a notebook. Personally, I think it’s more accessible and also much more fun and my hand doesn’t get tired from holding a pen too long. 

*Can you imagine yourself keeping up this blog or creating another one? What would it be about? 

~ As much as the idea pleases me, I cannot imagine myself keeping up this blog because I’m irresponsible and lazy. I can see myself creating another blog for fun though! It would probably be about world news, social issues, special events in history, languages, or video games. Or maybe it could just be a blog where I post some stories or other things I’ve written. Or how a bout a travel blog? Yes, that sounds like such a great idea— I could start off small! I could take some pictures and write about places I’ve been to. Yes, I can see it now: My adventures in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico! My adventures in San Salvador, El Salvador! Or maybe I could run a food blog. I mean, why not? I love food…if it isn’t obvious already. 

Overall, the whole concept of having a blog for ELA is great and I actually really enjoyed it! Thank you Ms. Rear for this cool opportunity and also thank you for being a great teacher.

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (Literary Essay)

            Women, especially women of color, have been discriminated against throughout the course of history. They have been, for generations, raised to be submissive and women have been considered as property of  the male breadwinner. Because of this, many women, preeminently women of color, have struggled with identity and finding themselves in an ever-shifting world. Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism (edited by Daisy Hernández and Bushra Rehman) is a collection of writings by young women of color and they write about their experiences that deal with identity and family history, racism, classism, sexism and many other concepts. This book clearly displays how identity is much more complicated when you live in a society, in which you are not a part of the dominant culture. (Just like how gender/sexual/romantic identity is much more complicated to fathom when you live in a heteronormative society.) The women in this book also write about the many different factors that have molded them to be the person they currently are; the factors are different with every woman and not one is exactly the same. 

            The mothers/families of these women are an important factor to their identity. In the book, there is actually a whole section, "Our Mothers, Refugees from a World on Fire," devoted to mothers and how they have helped their daughters to be who they are. One of the writers, Adriana López, writes about her liberated mother (who is in the United States) and her aunt (who was still in Colombia when her mother was in the U.S.). She states, "My family's history has undeniably affected the person I have become. I know that Esthercita's [her aunt] wild streak and my grandmother's brave trip from the South to the North severed the patriarchal cord that strangled the women in my families for centuries. Today, in wartorn Colombia, where prostitution runs rampant, the number of young women bearing arms is increasing, and more and more women are being forced to head families and businesses because their men are getting killed off." Then she goes on to talk about her Tía Esthercita running a brothel to support herself, and her mother dealing with her own mother's death and getting a job and taking care of her own daughter, which was very challenging when she was all by herself. But that's the whole point—these women are all strong and independent and they have inspired their daughters and molded them, in a way, to be who they are today. Adriana ends her essay with saying, "There is one photo I own of Tía and my still quite sexy mother, who is approaching fifty, that fuels me—I am lucky to have them both as my feminine guides. Through them I have learned to be a liberated woman by emulating both their North and South American ways.... I thank them for showing me a new kind of feminism, one that includes plenty of pleasure." Another writer, Cecilia Ballí writes about her mother and all her hardships and progress in life. Her mother was a very ambitious person and although she didn't really get to have the dream job she had always wanted, she raised her daughters to be just as ambitious as she was and she taught them to never depend on a man. She helped them with their own dreams and lives, and she inspired them. "What people who think my sisters and I are too independent don't understand is that almost everything in our family is a group project, that one person's accomplishment belongs to everyone else. Our mother didn't get to be a chemist after all—didn't even get to middle school—but she has three college degrees hanging on her wall with a few more graduate degrees coming. And they are all hers as much as they are ours.... It is not just that her experiences help us put our own challenges into perspective, it is that they reside deep inside of us. It is that a little ounce of her is with us always, making us the women we want to be."

            In conclusion, there are many, many factors that have molded women of color to be the person they are today.  One major factor that most of them share is their mothers and families. The affect their families have on them is not always positive, but it has taught them more things about society and the world around them. 
             

             

             

Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism

         Colonize This!: Young Women of Color on Today's Feminism is a collection of writings by young women of color and they write about their experiences that deal with identity and family history, racism, sexism and many other things. As I was reading this, I thought about the authors and editors and what they wanted me to know. I think the authors/editors want me to be aware of the opinions and perspectives of women of color. They want me to see how they feel towards today's (white) feminism, how it affects them and their lives, feminist-wise. How do I know that this is what the authors/editors want me to know? Besides the fact that it's in the title, I know this is what the authors want me to know because of the format of the book itself. Like I said before, it is a collection of different stories from women of color. The stories talk about personal experiences, their childhood/life growing up, education and relationships, involving feminism. What does the author want me to think or feel? The authors want me to start thinking about feminism with a different point of view - the perspective of women of color. They want me to think white feminism and womanism (feminism focused on women of color) and see the differences and different experiences and struggles these women have faced and how it has affected them to be who they are today. I believe that the authors would like me to discover, on my own, how I feel towards this collection of writings. Here is a quote from the book that I'd like to add so you, reader, can get a feel about how this book works. "As young women of color, we have both a different and similar relationship to feminism as the women in our mother's generation. We've grown up with legalized abortion, the legacy of the Civil Rights movement and gay liberation, but we still deal with sexual harassment, racist remarks from feminists and the homophobia within our communities. The difference is that now we talk about these issues in women's studies classes, in classrooms that are multicultural but remains racially profiled."

"The Complete Adventures of Curious George"

         We were focusing on picture books/children's books, so I decided to do a synthesis page on a children's book: "The Complete Adventures of Curious George," by Margret and H.A. Rey. In class, we received a worksheet that we used to observe picture books and their illustrations. I basically used that worksheet as a template for my synthesis page.
       
         I noticed a couple of things about the illustrations. I saw that the illustrator (probably H.A. Rey) used a lot of the same colors--mainly blue, red, and yellow. But sometimes he used different shades of them so it looks a bit different. I also noticed that the illustrations took up a lot of the space (the amount of space varies, but typically the illustrations take up like a whole page or so). Details are kind of vague/broad, in a way, but the pictures really capture exactly what's going on in the story, so I think that's good. How do the illustrator's choices deepen or add to the meaning of the story? Well, in a way, the illustrations make the story a bit more clear and you can easily see how a character feels and their reactions to different situations (mostly due to George's "curious" discoveries or "experiments" or simple mistakes) which is a good thing to notice. It can show you what type of person that character is.

"When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present"

          The book, "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women From 1960 to the Present," by Gail Collins, focuses on women and how they began to fight against sexism and sex discrimination; how they started to realize that they were not happy with the lives they were living as homemakers and housewives. They wanted something more. They wanted to experience more than just marriage and children and chores. They wanted what only men could have and the women were definitely not happy about that. So some women started to get together and talk about how they felt and what they wanted to do.

          While reading this book, I started really thinking about the main issue being informed about, and I thought about the social inquiry questions we've been learning about in class. So I asked myself: Whose perspective is missing? (Also, keep in mind that I have still not finished the book, so my answers could, and will most likely, change.) In my book, so far, I feel that the black woman's perspective is missing; and maybe also black man's perspective. They have been mentioned a bit, but I haven't heard from them directly. I've mostly been hearing about the white male and female perspective. What is the effect on the story of having that side excluded? Well, we don't get the whole view if we don't have a black male/female point of view. They were also a big part of the movement. But once again, I just think I haven't gotten up to that part yet (hopefully...). The Message: Which type is it? It is a "bearing witness" message because it talks about the history/past of the women's rights [movements]/feminism and how they got here today. Is justice served? Not really, because women today still struggle to be [seen] as equal to men. But there has definitely been a lot of progress, which is wonderful! Who blocks justice? Men and the government block justice. Because it's mostly men that affect the government's decision (because they rank higher) and then the government makes the final decision.

          In conclusion, so far, in the book "When Everything Changed: The Amazing Journey of American Women from 1960 to the Present," a black male/female perspective is missing (and their perspective is quite important!), it is a "bearing witness"—it informs us of the history of women's rights/feminism, justice is not really served, and men and the government block justice.

Should Access to YA Literature be Limited? (Argument Essay)

        Nowadays, young adult literature has been containing more caliginous content (or so some say); and this has caused a stir among adults and teens all across the nation. Some say that access to young adult literature should be limited to teens due to the content it provides—they believe that said content is too much for the teenagers and that it will corrupt their innocence and/or happiness, and so they shouldn't be allowed to view concepts. Personally, young adult books should not be limited in any way—limiting access would not work and YA fiction can be seen as reassuring to its readers.
       
        Access to YA literature should not be limited because limiting it to children/teens will simply not work. In the article, "Should young adult books has ratings?" Patrick Ness, an author with a Carnegie Medal-winning novel, argues that rating systems for young adult literature won't work because, "children are great self-censors." He states, "'if it's got an 18 certificate for adults, then younger children will look it out when their parents are not around…. They know what they can read and they know what they want to read, and if you don't give it to them, they'll find it somehow." This is completely true when it comes to children and teens, in general. It happens with other types of media as well. For example, if a minor wanted to buy a mature-rated video game, they would still get it even if their parents or the seller didn't allow them to. They could get it online or ask to borrow it from a friend who was able to get it.

        YA books shouldn't be limited because it is comforting and supporting to the teens reading it. The author of the article, "Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood," Sherman Alexie states, "And there are millions of teens who read because they are sad and lonely and enraged. They read because they live in an often-terrible world. They read because they believe, despite the callow protestations of certain adults, that books—especially the dark and dangerous ones—will save them." This shows how YA books can be helpful for teens who are struggling. They (books) make them feel like they're not alone and literature encourages them.

        It's easy to see why some people think YA books should be restricted; these books can contain dark content that, according to some people (like Meghan Cox Gurdon), may alter a teen's thinking or perspective on life. Gurdon says, "If books show us the world, teen fiction can be like a hall of fun-house mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is…. It has to do with a child's happiness, moral development and tenderness of heart." I can see where Gurdon is coming from and her thinking process, but I just have to say that books don't show us the world. And not all teen fiction contains such "lurid" or "horrendous" content. Also, if the book has some dark concepts, the readers may be seeking it out for their own good. They want to know that they are not alone and that others have experienced what they're going through. In other words, these teenagers look for reassurance when they can't seem to find it anywhere else. Additionally, if the content in YA literature is too disturbing for the reader, then they don't have to read it! It's their choice if they would like to read it or not. And if one particular teenager doesn't like YA literature, that doesn't mean that a whole bunch of teenagers have to have it taken away from them.

        In conclusion, young adult literature should not be limited because any limitations will not work and the books, that are being challenged, encourage readers to thrive on, despite their struggles. To be completely honest, I don't even know what goes on in the minds of people who want to restrict particular books or genres to adolescents and teens. Reading is good for the mind, even if it has dark content and such. Those people in particular should look past the gory concepts and try to find an important lesson or moral reason as to why that book was written. As I said before (countless times), YA literature can have aspects that encourage teens to thrive on, or as Sherman Alexie would say, "to give them weapons—in the form of words and ideas—that will help them fight their monsters." Maybe those people could try and find the better aspects of young adult literature. What is something positive that YA fiction has taught you or made you think about?

"Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence"

          "Popular Crime: Reflections on the Celebration of Violence," by Bill James, is a book that focuses on popular crime in America from the 1600s to present day (well, 2011-12). Throughout the book, Bill James wrote sections that were about crime in general and he explained the analogy of crimes and such. Some examples: "On American Crime Rates," "On Why Certain Crimes Are Chosen for Fame," "On Weighing Evidence," "On the Evolution of the Legal System," "A System of Categorizing Crime Stories," etc. He would basically bring up an idea (a general idea) on crime, explain it, and tell us about crimes that supports that idea and how the crime supports it. While reading "Popular Crime," I also came up with an idea; well, it's more of an observation. (It showed up a lot and I'm sure James himself has already addressed it, so I can't take credit for it.) It is the problems that occur with/in a lot of crime stories and the negative (problematic) role that the justice system played in the stories.

          There were a lot of parts in the beginning, and throughout, the book that provoked my initial thinking/thought-process but one that sticks out the most was on page 101 and it says, "Pruiett, Rogers, Leibowitz and others defended legions of murderers with hardly a loss. We posed a moment ago the question: How is it even possible that they did these things? Or, stated more accurately from a historical standpoint: How did it happen that these things became impossible, since certainly they are impossible in modern America?" Then, James goes on an answers the question (but of course there's more to it when you look in depth) and I found that these answers are just a part of the central idea and that you have to find more evidence to support these "answers". 1) Bar associations in the years 1915-1940, (gradually) brought under control practices such as: jury tampering, suborning perjury, bribing judges and intimidating witnesses. •These are some practices that resulted in unfair solutions/convictions; these were major problems that occurred in popular crime stories and affected the outcome of them. 2) "The largest charge in American criminal trails over the last 100 years has been the accumulation of layers of pretrial discovery….the Supreme Court ruled that defendants had the right to know in advance what testimony would be introduced against them at trial." 3) "A dramatic shift in the ratio of acquittals to convictions….a high percentage of persons who were accused of murder in that era, were in fact, acquitted or found guilty of lesser charge."

          One part that really secured my thinking/reasoning—"Our system was a disaster [basically my point of view]. The system failed in these four cases; it has failed, at least so far, in the JonBenet Ramsey case, it failed in the assassination of President Kennedy—allowing the accused to be murdered—it failed in the case of the Black Dahlia. In cases like Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy and Jeffrey Dahmer, the system 'succeeded' only after many people were dead. This part really secures my reasoning because it gives some examples, vaguely, of when and how the system has failed throughout American history. There are other, more specific examples, as to how the system has failed. "In the O.J. Simpson murder case, the system failed in substantial measure because of the attention given to the case. In the JonBenet case, I think the same is true: that had the press never gotten interested in the case, it is more likely that the investigation would have been handled properly." This is problematic; it's one of the many reasons as to why results to crime stories turn out to be unfair and unjust. "It turned out, at that time [mid 1970s], 'life in prison' generally meant four to six years. The maximum sentence for murder in Kansas was called life in prison, but it was actually fifteen years to life. After fifteen years, you were eligible for parole. You were more than eligible for parole; you were legally entitled to parole, unless you had 'bad time.'" The system was so terrible because it lied and let criminals go when they weren't supposed to leave. "It was a fantastic system. It enabled prosecutors to go before press and announce that they had obtained a life sentence for A.J. killer, but it allowed A.J. to walk quietly out of prison five years later—sometimes less." This, again, goes with the fact that the system was terrible because it lied to the press and the people and just everyone. It was unfair because the criminal deserved to stay in prison, but he/she didn't.

          In conclusion, there have been many problems that have occurred in popular crime throughout American history and the system has been playing a negative role alongside. There were other things I noticed that were problematic in crime stories besides what has already been stated/mentioned. One thing, people don't take all clues/evidence seriously or disregard them completely. Another thing, technology for solving cases was very un advanced, so lots of things (evidence) were not analyzed thoroughly. That, and the system was unfair when it came to rulings. They even let criminals go when they weren't supposed to. Ultimately, popular crime in American history has had a lot of problems and the justice system has played a very negative role in them.