April Non-Fiction

I read the article “When your Data Wanders to Places you’ve Never Been” by Natasha Singer who wants the reader to know that a friend of hers was researching Multiple Sclerosis, and companies profiled her as an M.S. patient. Senator John D. Rockefeller does not think that it is okay for companies to use people’s private information. Do Not Track, an organization to prevent the tracking of people’s internet usage by companies, has not been helping as much as it was supposed to. Singer, by tracking the information of her friend, found that companies have used much of her information for consumer purposes as well as most other adults in the United States. Natasha Singer proves her main idea by saying that “In our data-happy society, the case of the mistaken M.S. patient illustrates a lack of visibility for people interested in how information about them changes hands.” She connects the example of her friend to average Americans who may also come across this problem with their private information. She also talks a lot about the opinion of John D. Rockefeller who says that “’People have the right to be private insofar as it’s possible in the modern world.’” He believes that people should be able to keep their information private, especially in this technology-crazed world.

The author, Natasha Singer, hopes that the reader will recognize that internet information usage is a major issue as technology expands. She wants readers also to be more concerned about their internet whereabouts and be careful about what they research and post on social networking sites. She convinces readers of this problem when she says that “data brokers can go in and buy all your health records, your financial records,” basically she is saying that people unknown to us take private information and use it for many purposes, and these people are often from companies that the target has never heard of or interacted with. Singer also says about her friend that “now she wondered whether one of those companies had erroneously profiled her as an M.S. patient and shared that profile with drug-company marketers.” She says that her friend was worried that this false information could cause companies to not allow her to get insurance. Natasha singer uses her friend as an average example of someone who could be harmed by companies tracking the internet to convince the reader how dangerous this is.

I think that this article is very important to teenagers because they do not always know what could occur with their Facebook messages or other social networking sites. It can affect them in ways that they would never think. This article makes me want a Facebook even less that I already do. I want to know about how businesses are able to take people's data and if they are really allowed to do that. In my opinion, people are putting their information online, which they wouldn't be if they were really worried about the wrong people taking their information like I am. In seventh grade, a teacher told me that colleges look students up online and may not accept people with irresponsible things up on the internet. I really liked the article, and with this new technological world, this information can help people to protect themselves and their information.

Dreams from my Father

I am now reading “Dreams from my Father” by Barack Obama. He begins with a short biography about his grandparents intertwined with the story of his own life. His father’s death begins the story. He talks about his life in Indonesia, and Hawaii and all the while, he talks about race. He enters a school where he and one girl are the only African Americans. That is the obvious theme in this book: race. But there is also a theme of afterlife: the way people treat family members after their death.

The book opens up with Obama living in the city where he talks about his father. He gets a call saying that he is dead and then thinks about all of the stories that his grandparents and mother have told about him. Because of this, he says that he thinks of his father as “more of a myth than a man.” This is a very good example of the portrayal of the dead. His father left him when he was young, so, at least to me, it hardly made a difference to Obama whether his father was alive or not. His mother and Grandparents are portraying him better than he actually was, and I think that this happens a lot. Many people are upset and don’t want to hurt the dead’s feelings, so they portray them better than they were. I do not approve of this because it gives the incorrect characteristics to children who may never have met the person.

The whole idea of the book is actually kind of creepy in the way that I know so much about the personal life of our president. I know everything that he was thinking when he was younger, and I know what his life was like as a child and in college. Why do some presidents write books about themselves, about their private lives? Well, I think that some of it has to do with their legacy. Obama hopes that America will remember him not only as a good leader, but also as a good person and role model. I definitely respect him more from the knowledge of his life that I have gathered from the book. I think that he wants his book to have this effect on people. He wants to increase his publicity so that after he has ceased to exist, he will be well remembered as an important part of American history.

The biography of Barack Obama, “Dreams from my Father”, is a well told story that is about race, but also leads to issues about death. The legacy of his father is not that great, at least to Obama, and the purpose of the book, in some ways, is to create lasting memories of Obama.

The Red Badge of Courage 2

In the book “The Red Badge of Courage”, the main character, Henry, enlists in the Union Army at the start of the Civil War. He is shocked at the true nature of battle. He discovers the amount of pain and death there is when faced with the terror of an actual fight. While wandering about the country side, Henry watches his friend die and gets terribly hurt himself. And yet, a few times he says that he would give anything to trade places with the dead. I think that it is his fear that is making him think these awful thoughts.

When Henry decides that it is better to die at war than live through it, he isn’t really thinking about what he means by this statement. If the people who have died came back to life, they would probably say that they would much rather live than die the way they had died. It is somewhat disrespectful to the dead in this way, so I think it is wrong for Henry to think like this. But it better explains how he feels about war because now I understand that he dislikes it enough to desire death. Because he repeats how he wishes he were in the place of the corpses so often, it makes me think that he is serious. I know that sometimes my friends are in an uncomfortable situation that is not actually that bad, but they say that they wish they would die. This is an instance where they do not actually wish to be dead. This is the way I thought about Henry the first time he said this, but then I realized that he is stating what he would truly want.

When Henry gets severely hurt when trapped in a stampede of soldiers, he is faced with the idea of death. I think that this will make him realize that he would rather be the way he was before than to die like this: painfully and slowly without anyone by his side or his family knowing that he has died. He will realize everything I have said about the disrespect he had been giving the deceased and how he probably did not even mean it (but lo! I thought of it first). To me, it is perfectly understandable to make the mistake of saying/thinking this when you are under the pressure of death every moment of the day, but the way things have been turning out for Henry, I know I would rather be in his position than another soldier who has died.

Henry is working hard to do well in battle, just like everyone else, and he is doing pretty well. But even so, multiple times he says that he wishes he were dead. This is reasonable in the fact that he is in a very difficult war and under a lot of pressure. But because he himself is having semi-good luck, it may be somewhat disrespectful to the dead, but also the wounded and even other soldiers who do not have such good luck.

The Red Badge of Courage

Henry Flemming enlists in the Union army during the Civil War in “The Red Badge of Courage”. His mother is unhappy about him going but helps him get ready. He marches off to war exited, but slowly begins to worry about himself. He wonders about how he will survive physically and mentally. The army marches around aimlessly it seems, giving Henry more time to think. He thinks about himself differently than I do myself, and differently than any of the other soldiers think of themselves.

What Henry is most concerned about in himself is whether or not he will run away from battle. He tells himself over and over again that he will just have to wait and see. He says that it annoys him that he does not know this about himself. I find that really unique: what angers Henry most is that he does not completely know himself. I know that I do not know myself at all. I can hardly ever predict what I will do in a situation or how I will act towards a specific person. It seems like Henry spends a lot of time getting to know himself because of how much confusion it brings him that he does not know if he would run from danger. Even though I am completely different, I understand why it is important whether or not a person runs from battle. It tests character in the most dangerous way. Henry’s thoughts remind me of the game “would you rather…” because I usually say what I would want myself to do rather than what I would actually do. I will never know if I would rather get eaten by a shark or jump off of the empire state building if I actually had to make the choice. This is how Henry Flemming is feeling. He knows what he hopes he will do, but he is unsure about what his reaction will be when he is actually in battle.

What somewhat satisfies Henry about his character dilemma is when he overhears another, very experienced soldier saying that if other people are fleeing the battle scene, he will as well, but if no one is, he will stay and fight. It reassures Henry to know that even the experienced soldiers might run away. But not only that, he is also happy to know that other soldiers are not sure what they will actually do when the time comes to fight. I am sure that most of the soldiers had this problem in their heads, but Henry turned it into a debate. It upset him more than others, and he was happy to know that other people felt the same way.

Henry Flemming is a unique character because of the way that he thinks of himself. He is frustrated when he does not know the way he will react to battle. I like this about him because it makes him stand out from the other soldiers. His character improves because of his dilemma.

The Chosen

In “The Chosen”, a boy named Reuven plays a rough baseball game with a group of Hasidic Jews who are supposed to be “monsters”. Their best player, Danny Saunders, hits a ball directly into Reuven’s eye. His glasses beak and the glass wedges itself into his eye. His wrist is throbbing from another tough catch and his head hurts from the blow. While recovering at the hospital, Reuven makes some new friends. Some qualities about Reuven are unrealistic and make him seem like a perfect person.

One example of when Reuven is a little too nice takes place a few days after the accident. One of his visitors at the hospital is Danny Saunders. The first time he comes to the hospital, Reuven gets mad at him, which is understandable. But the next time he visits, they become friends. Reuven forgets about how angry he was and that his new friend could make him blind in one eye. How could he completely forgive Danny Saunders for what he has done after just one visit? Danny Saunders is known to hit the pitcher (as Reuven was) so it was not a complete accident. It seems almost as if he was never even mad because of how quickly he forgave Danny. This forgiveness trait is an unrealistic trait, because many people would hold a grudge for at least a week or so. I appreciate that he is being nice, but in my opinion, that is just not the way things are.

Another example was during the baseball game. Reuven is hurt first by a really high and fast ball which he was able to catch. Afterwards, his hand and wrist hurt a lot whenever he would catch a ball. His coach asked him if he wanted to stop playing but he declined the offer. First of all, because the book describes the throw as very hard and high, it is not completely realistic that he would catch it. Their team is a pretty good team and there is always a chance that someone would catch such a difficult ball. But I still think that it is not entirely realistic that he caught it. Second of all, how could Reuven keep playing if he was in as much pain as he says he was in? It is brave of him and showed good sportsmanship, but if it hurt so much that he was still complaining later in the hospital, than he should naturally take a little break. Even though some people would do what Reuven did, the majority probably would not.

If Reuven hadn’t become friends with Danny Saunders so quickly or caught the ball (and if he did, sit out for a little while), he would be a more realistic character. A lot of people do strange but perfect things, but the average person would probably not do these things. Maybe Reuven is not an average person. Even though his actions are unrealistic for an average person, they make him a better person. This may be the reason why Danny Saunders wanted to become friend with him as well.