Reading Response for "IDENTICAL"

     I am currenly reading the book Identical by Ellen Hopkins. I would tell you what it's about, but I can hardly decipher that myself. This has been one of the most intriguing writing forms I've ever come across as a reader. The book Identical is not only written as an anthology of poems that make up one story, but its also told from two perspectives. I'm utterly perplexed by this book becuase it constantly goes in and out of the two different view points of these two completley different identical twins. Kaeleigh and Raeanne.
      Each chapter repeats it's self (these chapters are very brief), in the two different perspectives of the twin sisters. The poems are set up with putting key words that describe or sum up the main idea on the left side of the page, while the actual story is on the right side of the page (I thought this was significant because in English we read left to right, so it's almost like the main idea's hit us first, and then the details emerge later to fill in those empty spots ). In all the chapters that are "Identical" to each other, the key words are all the same while the actual story is told differently between the two different view points of the twins. This may sound irritating to read the same thing more than once, but I admire it because I think author is really putting significance into each word that goes into the book by repeating it twice. And the different and disturbing emotions and messages of these characters really sink into you.
     (Kaeleigh is the good one. The good girl with an awfull past, both twins take after one parent. Kaleigh takes after Dad. The father, while Raeanne takes after their mother. I really admirer Ellen Hopkin's way of contrasting these two twins using their parents. *SPOILER* The father in this story is very ill in his mind (obviously) because he molested Kaeleigh when she was young. With such a trauma as a child this has caused Kaeleigh to be disturbed as well. Instead of facing fears in an inappropriate sexual way like her father, Kaeleigh finds herself doing gory things like hurting herself to let out the anger and confusion she holds. And, her and "Daddy" both hide the same secret. Raeanne on the other hand always knew about what happened to her sister, but she's always avoiding the truth. She just wants to have a good time and rarely thinks of others just like her mother who became a politician just to escape the family she dreaded and didn't want to deal with. 
       I feel like this story has a powerful element of denial in it. In school, through out many grades I was always taught about the elements of a story and how it should have the quest, or a goal that the main characters are trying to achieve. In this anthology of poems I feel that there is no outer quest, but instead an inner quest the sisters share which is to avoid the issues in their home life. They are two different people that deal with things in different ways, but they both are secretive and fake. In public, like at school ex... it's like nothings wrong with them, and their peppy, happy and pretty California girls. This whole book is written in an anthology of poems webbed together that express the feelings of the boiling, hidden emotions that are bottled up but just ready to explode. As the story moves on, the outer shells of the two main characters start to crack.

MOCKINGJAY social issues.

         I feel that the book I am currently finishing, "Mockingjay" is pretty perfect for looking for, and unravelling hidden messages about social issues. I have already talked about the social issue of the power  and miss use of power in governments. But, I have also noticed the issue of sexism and if I wanted to take it further I would say its sexism of women and Men in the publicity of the army.
          Katniss, the main character of this series has been brought into one of the largest wars in the history of her world...(technically its our world too, just in the future) No one has prohibited Katniss from doing anything because of her gender. Its kind of the exact opposite. They are using her for her gender. Because she is female, she's been publicized as a symbol of innocence. The rebells (people in war rebelling against their capitol) want to be looked at as "week" so the capitol will 1. not bomb them, and 2. will let their guard down. they use Katniss, (who pretty much represents all rebels), to achieve this ware tactic of seeming weaker than they are. Katniss is used when there's publicity for example she's put on the camera with frilly dresses, hair bows, and is told to say fake stories about pregnancies and marriages.
          This is an issue of sexism because its boxing in, and sealing these stereo types in society that women are all innocent, naive, and cant take be taken seriously, and men are stronger and cannot be underestimated because they will fight back. Every year the deaths of women in the army are less than a half of the deaths of men in the army. (even though there are more men in the army (I'm inferring)
these statistics just support my idea about this social barrier in the society of Panem (country in Mockingjay) and, in our society.
          This is contrivercial because there are certain moral rules that are right, but create sexist ideas. A man should never hit a women, and this rule is right, but it supports this idea that women are all innocent and should be ignored when it comes to acts such as war. In the book Mockingjay, the people are using Katnisses gender as an advantage. But using this as an advantage creates a dis-advantage when you're on the other side. What if Katniss was part of the formal government that wanted to be looked at as all powerful. They would not want Katniss as their leader because, her gender would make them look un-powerful due to this idea that women are not equal to men, cannot participate in war or violence and, should not be taken seriously.
           Katniss would have been shunned out of what she wanted because of her gender. This is an example of the hidden issue of sexism of women and men in the army in the book, Mockingjay.

Was "Justice" Served?

            A couple days ago in class, we read a passage about a young boy living in the fifties during segregation. Basically this passage was about how this boy could not try out for the lead part in his school play, due to his skin color. (all the kids were technically black in this school, but the kids with lighter skin got the leads like prince charming, sleeping beauty ex... while kids with very dark skin played the "evil" fairies). The main character in this peace got the part as an evil fairy, and then ended up fighting leonard the lighter skin boy who got the main part, and won. Now, was justice served? In my opinion I feel that justice was definitely NOT served, heres why:
            The reason I think that justice was not served in the end of this passage is because, I feel that in order for justice to be served things have to change. And the "people" have to know that they are wrong.
The reason that the people have to know that they are wrong, is because "people" (meaning many human beings) are what control justice and are what stand in the way of justice. You can say that the what stands in the way of justice is "society" well, thats the same thing. What is society? People. Without people there would be no meaning to society and it is people that follow, create and rebel against it. The society in this situation, is the people in this town and how they think that being as light as possible in skin color makes you somewhat superior. In this passage the main character did not prove or convince anyone that they are wrong, he didn't even make anyone think twice about the rules there society lives by.
             Since people are the ones that shape society and were powerful enough to get these ideas and connections of racism, beauty and superiority into everyones head, they are also powerful enough to change these mental barriers in society. This connects to my second argument on why in order for justice to be served,  there must be change. Justice is obviously not served if the same unfair situation does or is going to repeat its self in the future. Well, in this passage even though Lorence, (i think thats his name?) feels better after he wins his fight against the lighter skinned prince charming, he does not change anything for anyone. He did not convince anyone about the unfairness that occurred during his audition. In the future I am sure more and more black (dark skinned black, not brown) boys and girls will want to be prince charming, or sleeping beauty, but will not get the part they want, and their ideas about how this is un-just will be shunned out of the minds of society and these thoughts will be ignored.
              During class many people argued that "he got his own justice" In my opinion that makes no sense at all. Serving your own justice is not justice. Think of it this way, If you were accused of murder and you new you were innocent and that you didn't do anything, and you new you were right, is that justice, is that enough? No, you could call it self justice, but in order for it to be justice you would have to convince people that you did not commit the crime and you would have to be freed of your punishments. Changing your life forever.
               Thus, in this passage, Justice (self justice is NOT justice) is NOT served because Lorence did not convince the people (who are society) of anything. He did not change anything and left his community with the same problem they've always had, and leaving the passage with an un-just ending.
            

SOCIAL ACTION READING RESPONSE FOR MOCKINGJAY

       The book i am currently reading, "mockingjay" is about a teenage warrior in a futeristic world rebelling against a dictating "capitol". A story like this obviosly has many different angles and perspectives to look at it, and in this story with such powerfull social issues, there are many different ways to discuss them due to everyones point of view.
        One issue that I think is the biggest and pretty much shapes, and dictates the entire book is how the "captiol" this new futeristic nation that has sprung from the ruins of north America, that now dictates the entire contenent, and can pull any strings they want. The "capitol" is such a powerfull government that they can do things from, helping anyone, to destroying anyones land, making them slaves or killing there children and having them watch. And this all just to keep order.
        The reason this figure or symbol called the "capitol" is a large social issue is because it's all about the government and the state and how much power a government can have. We all live in country's with a government, no matter how big or small and (in our country) we have the right to vote on how powerfull our government is. This, just makes this topic even more contrivertial because theres to sides to everything and every side has its ups and downs. If our government is powerfull we can accomplish more good things, but the government can do just as many bad things as well just like the "capitol". When are government is too small we are not harmed but we are also not achieving anything.
          This social issue is so powerfull it could cause wars (like in the hunger games series) and somone could even write a whole series about it.

ARCHYTYPE ENTRY FOR CHARLOTTES WEB III

         We've been reading the book Charlottes web, and learning about archytyp's. I've noticed that Avery Arable, (Fern's brother) falls into the shadow archytype. The reason Avery is the shadow character is because he is the exact opposite of fern, and really he's the only thing thats greatly endangering Wilbur's quest.

        Avery is the opposite of Fern because Fern, is the character of life, and kindness. Fern is introduced as the character who saves Wilbur's life and without her he wouldn't even be alive. Then, she nurtures Wilbur like a baby, rolls him around with a stroller, feeds him warm milk and always keeps him close to her. She's also curious and thinks everything has a purpose. Avery is the exact opposite of that. All he does is look for things like frogs so he can kill or torture them. He doesn't wonder about anything, all he does is spot things like Charlotte and do repulsive actions like try to capture them.
        Another most important reason why Avery is the shadow character is because he's the biggest threat. Wilbur's quest is to use charlotte to create these webs that will win him the festival, and make him so important that the farmer won't kill him. The farmer isn't a shadow figure because its almost like he's just mother nature or... fate. He isn't trying to prevent Wilbur from reaching his goal, he's just the consiquence that will happen if Avery the true shadow character captures charlotte and prevents Wilbur to become anything special. When Avery tries to capture Charlotte, is when i think its obvious that he's the shadow character. No one els would bother or care to capture Charlotte, only Avery.
           THUS, Avery Arable is the shadow character of Charlottes Web.

CHARLOTTES WEB ANNOTATION II

           In class we talked about noticing things that E.B. White is actually directly saying to us. It's almost as if he's still telling the story but shoving the lesson/thought through our mind using tools like dialouge, description and thoughts. I noticed that it was very similar to journalism. The writer act actually put there opinion in the story so they hide it using things like quotes.

        A lesson that I think E.B. White was trying to sneak into the book was that, don't rely on luck. Effort, concistincy is what will get you far in life.  Goose states this on page 43 chapter 6. It's right after goose has her 7 baby ducklings and charlotte says "seven, what a lucky number!" Goose actually replies "Luck had nothing to do with it, it was all good management and hard work"
         It may seem like a normal and not important comment but I think that teaching this lesson is very important when it comes to this book. As you know Wilbur has charlotte to spin webs for him so he is lucky, and making it far but what E.B, White is saying don't rely on luck because luck will not always be there. Which is connecting to the fact that charlotte dies in the end of the book. (I could only make this observation because I know how the book ends.)
          Thus, E.B White has impressed us again by sneaking in a clever lesson through Gooses dialouge, that actually connects and gives almost a hint/spoiler to what's going to happen to Wilbur who is always relying as luck.
            To conclude this, if I was in second grade I would not have noticed this thoughtful idea.

CHARLETTES, EXPANDED ANNOTATION

           I've noticed that wilbur's childhood went by very briefly and although people (meaning the farm animals) might think that he's just a baby and he's niave and that he should grow up, Well I think that they're the ones that are niave because there not wondering what wilbur's backround situation is. I think wilbur is like those some of those kids that don't have a choice, and they just grow up quikly and early when they're not ready. 

     It's almost like E.B. White is trying to teach us a lesson through wilbur's abondomnent and him having to adjust to a new situation. Because basically your going to have to grow up sometime and the lesson is to charish your childhood when you can, because everyone grows up at a different pace and some are going to be forced into adult hood when they're not ready. Just like Wilbur.
     This point also has two sides to it, E.B. White is trying to teach us to wonder and respect other people because you don't know what there situation is. Ths point is made clear because the barn animals are niave in their own way because they don't care what wilbur's situation, is they don't know that wilbur was raised by a little girl who he loved, and then was abandoned by her. The goose and the sheep just feel that he should grow up and explore the world, but they don't get that wilbur is still just a frail child.
      Thus, you should always wonder, and be respectful of other peoples backrounds.