Paper Moon

I am now reading a book called “Paper Moon”. It is about Addie Pray, an orphan who rides around with her “daddy”, also known as Long Boy and “does business”.  They cheat people out of their money for a living. But at one stop, Long Boy winds up in suspicion for the illegal transporting of alcohol. Addie does not realize how she has been changed by this business of hers and how it could change how successful she will become.

Addie and Long Boy do awfully well with their business. They can pick up 600 dollars at a time! But did Long Boy ever consider the future of Addie?  She is so used to business by age 11, once she is off on her own, it will be the only thing she knows. But this could hurt poor Addie. She needs to know that there is more to do in life than steal people’s money without them knowing. She is living on risk, and that is not healthy for a person, let alone a child of only 11. I hope that Long Boy will change his ways, as he seems like a good role model, but he is teaching little Addie to lie and cheat for money. I do not think this is right.

When Long Boy gets caught trying to exchange whiskey during the alcohol ban, he is charged for transporting illegal goods.  This could make not only him, but also Addie realize that this is a risky business, and as Addie grows up, she is liable to be caught in deep trouble. Because of this possibility, it is not healthy for her to keep living like this. This business is Long Boy’s only job that he must continue with. But Addie, she has potential. She is uneducated, but it is not too late for school, and she is very smart. But once she is alone in the world with no skills except robbing people of their money, this business is what she may naturally do. Addie may be benefited by this experience of being in trouble for doing business. Many people today are in this difficult situation as well. People with not a lot of money do not often get a good education because of the state of their neighborhood schools. Not getting a good education can lead to getting a low-paying job and that person’s kids will be stuck with the same ill-fortune. They are stuck in a poverty loop just because they were raised as so.

Without realizing it, Long Boy has been halting Addie’s chance of success as an adult by allowing her to help him do business. If he had or began to expose her to the life of a more fair businessperson or put her in school, she would be more likely to become successful and be in much less risk of going to prison.  She could have most certainly benefited from an education, but by getting caught, she and Long Boy are both learning how different their lives should be.

May Non-Fiction

I watched the movie “Girl Rising” by Richard Roberts recently*. Roberts wants the viewer to know that many girls do not get an education and around the world, there are very few opportunities for them to be educated. He also describes that educating girls could be the key to a better world. He also would like the viewer to know that some girls in the world must fight for their education which often turns out to be worth it in the end. The movie shows the stories of a few brave girls who fight for their rights and education. The creator, Roberts, gets this message across by including facts. In between each story of a specific girl, he uses that time to share “fun” facts about the education of girls and about girls all over the world in general. An example of these facts is that there are 33 million less girls than boys attending primary school. Another thing that Roberts does to convey this idea of educating girls is to show the stories of girls who want their education. One example is the story of a girl living in Haiti. She goes to school until the huge earthquake occurs and there is no money for the new school, now taking place in a tent. She goes to the tent but is sent away. The next day she returns and tells her teacher “Even if you send me away, I will come back every day,” and convinces the teacher to let her stay even though she cannot pay.

Richard Roberts hopes that the viewer will both feel upset at the horrible facts of the education and rights of girls, but he also wants the viewer to feel motivated to help those girls who cannot get an education. Some girls are able to educate themselves and that we should feel the same way. The viewer feels saddened by the awful things that happen to girls, but also feels hope for the future through the way that the girls shown solve their problems. One way that Roberts makes the viewers feel this way is by having both frightening and motivating stories. An example of a sad story is a girl who, on a very hot day, wishes to travel to get some juice. The day was hot so she did not want to walk so she took a ride from a man. The man did not take her to the market, but to his house, and then further and further away from her home. He later raped her at 11 years old, and soon after, she became engaged. This story is quite upsetting, unlike the story about a girl working at a radio station. She helps other girls solve their problems. This story was more hopeful to show that not all girls have these terrible experiences. Another way that Roberts makes the audience feel this way is by including hopeful facts as wells as upsetting ones. He talks about how difficult it is to educate girls, and also describes how if we educate girls, we could improve the world.

I loved the movie. I was an excellent mixture of hope and sorrow, and even was a little funny. I learned a lot about what it is like for girls to not be educated all around the world. I think that girls who go to school are so lucky that they can, it is important for them to see this movie to know how fortunate they are. I want to know more about the other issues that affect girls worldwide. I hope that more girls can solve their problems like those in the video did. I enjoyed the movie very much and I wish that there were more videos like this. The movie makes me think about how people don’t care as much about girls’ education as they do boys’ as they have always thought.

*I was not able to collect quotes when watching the movie, so I only have a few.

My Antonia

I am currently reading “My Antonia” by Willa Cather. The book is about a boy visiting his grandparents at their house on the Nebraska Prairie, where he meets a Bohemian immigrant named Antonia. The book describes in depth both life on the Prairie as well as the two children’s relationship to one another. I find that the boy’s reaction when meeting Antonia is a smidge surprising, and unnatural to a person like me, and I also think that the setting could be the cause of this.

The boy, Jimmy, does not seem frightened or nervous at all when meeting the Bohemian family. He seems confident and willing to listen to the family. Coming from New York, I would be a smidge shy, as many kids my age would, and I would also not run off holding hands with one of the people I had just met and “snuggle” with him/her at the edge of a cliff. Honestly, I find this a little straightforward and imposing. I find myself quite quiet (if you can believe it) around strangers, but especially foreigners. Once, my friend rented her house out to a Scottish family, who my parents then decided to invite for brunch. The aspect I found most threatening was how polite they were. People from not only Scotland, but England as well are generally more polite than New Yorkers. One example of their polite manner was when my mom asked the 5-year-old boy, Bruce, whether he wanted some more orange juice. He replied in his adorable Scottish accent, “I wouldn’t mind.” The way he said it was so polite, like someone would say at the inaugural ball. Anyway, Jimmy was not shy at all, and I believe that he is a very communicative person because he did not feel this way when meeting the Bohemian family.

I think that the setting is partly the cause of Jimmy’s straightforward manner. On the lone, open prairie, a person could walk for miles without seeing another person or house. Jimmy’s loneliness may have led to a desire to talk to someone other than his grandparents. The same goes for Antonia. She is Bohemian, and most likely is not used to prairie life. Both she and Jimmy probably got fed up with their family and wanted a change. I feel this way with my room. Do you ever get tired of the way your room looks and randomly move furniture around? It may sound a little strange, but I do this every few months, depending on how neat the change allows me to be. The point is that Jimmy and Antonia were bored with seeing the same people each day because it is rare to see people out on the prairie, so they did not feel shy at all when meeting each other. Because of my experience with this, I understand how frustrating it is to see the same people and the same furniture each day.

Antonia, in “My Antonia” causes the main character, Jimmy, to respond to her in an overly-confident manner. He, in my opinion, seems almost rude in the way he acts. This is why people are shy: because they don’t want to seem to imposing or act as if they have already met. There is a difference (obviously) between rude and friendly, but in this case, it is almost hard to tell them apart.

Sneeeky* Juliet

Everything a friend or family member does impacts your impression of them and you understand that person better, so what would happen if they lied about everything?  You would be getting to know a different person. William Shakespeare creates a character like this in the play “Romeo and Juliet”, where a dispute between families causes a secret love resulting in both lovers’ death. One of these lovers is Juliet (the other being Romeo), a seemingly innocent and sweet 14-year-old who is really quite naughty and mischievous. She manipulates her family throughout the play to get what would benefit her. Juliet uses society’s expectations of her to her own advantage to change her reputation for the purpose of spending more time with Romeo, and meanwhile covering her tracks. By doing this, she misleads her family to believe her to be a different person than she truly is.

Juliet alters her reputation in order to spend more time with her true love, Romeo. Her actions in the story cause her loved ones to think of her contrary to who she is and she is able to gain more time to spend with Romeo. In the play, Juliet drinks a poison that causes her body to appear dead when she is really alive. She intends to later wake up and escape with Romeo by her side. When her mother, Lady Capulet, sees her laying cold and limp in bed, she shouts “O me! O me! My child, my only life.” (4.5, 24). Lady Capulet has altered her opinion of Juliet -- earlier she felt controlling and gave Juliet no say in her own affairs, while now she unexpectedly seems so caring. Yet she is not so changed as she may seem. By using “me” and my” repetitively, she emphasizes her superiority over Juliet yet again. She, though, has no idea that Juliet has been manipulating her to not notice her time spent with Romeo. Lady Capulet knows that she has authority over Juliet, but still is kinder to her here. Lady Capulet will, because of Juliet, be a more positive person, especially towards Juliet When Lady Capulet says that she is her “only life”, she realizes not only that Juliet should not have died, but that she mistreated her in her only life. If she and Romeo were to survive everything and escape together, and Lady Capulet were to discover their trick, she would at first be angry, but in the long run she might act more compassionate towards and protective of Juliet. Friar Lawrence has this in mind when he describes to her the result of the poison he gives her. He says “Each part, deprived of supple government” (4.1, 104). He literally means that her body will be stripped of flexibility, but his word choice implies governmental or societal roles in her “death”. She has, ever since she met Romeo, been losing authority from her life. Juliet has been disobeying almost every rule she could. No one had real power over her, not even her beloved nurse who tells her to marry Paris in the end. Juliet went to extreme measures and changes her innocent reputation for the purpose of getting more time with Romeo.

Juliet uses society’s expectations for her to cover her tracks. Throughout the play, she does naughty and drastic things to be with Romeo. A fight breaks out between the Montague and Capulet families which kills Juliet’s cousin, Tybalt. When she discovers that Romeo is banished from Verona because he is the cause of Tybalt’s death, she is even more upset about Romeo’s punishment than she is about Tybalt. When her mother asks her if she is “Evermore weeping for your cousin’s death?” (3.5, 71), she replies with not only with little emotion, but sarcasm as well, “Yet let me weep for such a feeling of loss.” (3.5, 77).  Juliet is expected by her mother, family, and society to be agitated over Tybalt’s death (especially when few are aware of her secret love life with Romeo), so she acts as if that is her reasoning. She uses society’s expectations to hide her true obsession. Another example of this manipulation happens to prove a major obstacle for Romeo and Juliet’s relationship. Lady Capulet informs Juliet that she will be marrying Paris. At first, she expresses anger and dissatisfaction, but later apologizes for her disobedient ways. She is expected by everyone to marry whomever her parents decide upon, so she switches her reaction to keep her secret with Romeo steadfast. When she first learns of her marriage she exclaims, “He shall not make me there a joyful bride!” (3.5, 122), most likely causing suspicion about her reasoning. Such emphasis on the sentence shows she really means it, but Juliet is sneaky and actually does agree to the marriage. She says “he” in reference to Paris, not hinting that it is Lord and Lady Capulet who are forcing the marriage upon her. This, then, creates no problem with her parents over their parenting and therefore covering her tracks.

Juliet uses expectations to mislead her family about who she truly is. To them, she is young, and innocent. But in the story, she is really quite mischievous, tricky, and in love, yet this is the side of her hidden from peoples’ view. When Juliet apologizes to her Lord Capulet saying, “I have learned me to repent the sin/of disobedient disposition,” (4.2, 18-19), She also states that “Henceforward I am ever ruled by you.” (4.2, 23) She says “henceforward”, or from now on, a word used often in past legal documents, to make it official for her father when she knows she is going to “die”. Juliet misleads Lord Capulet to happily believe she has changed, when she is really being just as secretive and disobedient as ever. Juliet also uses her language to mislead people about who she really is.  Her language is especially crafted to have a double meaning. This occurs when she talks with her mother over how sad she is about Tybalt, but is really most sorrowful over Romeo’s banishment. She creates a sentence that says how sad she is about Tybalt, but doubling up so she could also be talking about Romeo. She simply states that she will always be upset with such a feeling of loss, yet she never states for whom her sorrow is directed to. This blanks spot is what not only protects her true secret, but it does not show her parents who she truly is and who she truly loves. Juliet misleads her family about who she actually is, and it harms them.

Juliet uses society’s expectations to gain more time to spend with Romeo, all the while covering her tracks, resulting in a family who is unaware of her true personality. She marvels at Romeo, ignoring the harm being done to her family who think she is a drastically different person. Do modern day people do this too? Do we concentrate on something important to us and not notice what is important to others? Do we shy away when family or friends attempt to get to know us? Just remember how everything turns out for Juliet who does these same things (I am not saying that this results in death, merely that there can be consequences).

*This is spelled wrong on purpose, for effect.

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.

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.

To Kill a Mockingbird 3

In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the plot continues to become thicker and thicker. At the beginning, Jem and Scout had fun with their friend Dill in the summer trying to coax Boo Radley from his house. But as the story progressed, more issues of racism came into play. The trial, as unfair as it seems, was a normal occurrence in the south. But Scout is a character that is against the racism, even just in her town and she knows what is unfair.

Scout’s Teacher, Miss Gates, teaches her class a lesson about Democracy and Dictatorship using World War 2 and Hitler as her example. But what made me physically angry at her was when she begins to talk about how because we are a democracy, we are fair to everyone. She says, “Over here we don’t believe in persecuting anybody.” Wait a minute there. She said that America does not believe in persecuting anybody while all of America and even herself are rude to African Americans all of the time. She lives during the civil rights movement! It is especially not right to say this after the trial that has just taken place. I do not think that it is right for her to be saying that then, but maybe she could get away with that now. But even saying this today would be risky because not everyone is treated fairly. This scene happens while the students are reading current events, but Miss Gates obviously doesn’t know about current events.

Because Miss Gates thought that it was right to say that America treated everyone fairly during the civil rights movement, it makes me think that she is not the only one. Maybe people didn’t include persecuting blacks as unfair treatment. The way I suppose the people think is “they deserve it so it doesn’t count.” But as we know, this is not only unfair, but also untrue. The fact that Scout catches this mistake and asks her father about it says that maybe Miss Gates is off her rocker, but at least some people have some sense.

Miss Gates is an angering character in “To Kill a Mockingbird”. Even before she said this, Scout never really liked her. Scout seems like she is opposite from the community in her beliefs and her style. She does not believe in persecution of blacks and she does not want to become what her society calls a “lady”. So in some ways, she is not a very realistic character, but I think she relates to girls in modern times.

To Kill a Mockingbird 2

In “To Kill a Mockingbird”, the story slowly unravels to a different story. In my last blog post, I said that the story is about two kids, Scout and Jem, who want to get Boo Radley out of his house. Boo has never come out of his house before and there are many rumors about him.  But the story slowly turns into a suspenseful tale about an unfair court case.

Every so often, the story mentions that Scout and Jem’s father, Atticus, is defending an African American in the trial. This is unheard of and is causing much distress in the community. Throughout the whole story, the kids struggle to not fight or hurt people who call Atticus names and tease him, because hardly any white person in the town wants him to defend Tom Robinson. What I find strange, is that no one seems to realize that it was not Atticus’s choice to defend Tom, although he will do a much better job than most. The judge chose him as the lawyer and he could not say no. What is even more interesting, though, is that the judge choses Atticus on purpose because he wants Tom Robinson to win (I’m not guessing----it says this in the story). I find it really interesting that some people try to hurt Tom Robinson, especially the people who go to the jail to try and kill him, while some people, like Judge Taylor, want him to win the case.

 I think “To Kill a Mockingbird” takes place near the end of the civil rights movement because of the fact that some people do care about African Americans, but earlier this was probably not the case. There will always be a few whites that care and do not approve of their harsh treatments, but because in this case it is a judge who cares, it makes me think that this trial takes place in the late part of that time period. Why does Judge Taylor want Tom to win the trial? The book never tells us this much, but I have a feeling that he, just like Atticus, Jem, and Scout, wants the way that blacks are treated to change. He thinks that it is unfair and if Tom wins, then that town is one step closer to integration.

In the civil rights movement, everybody had a different view. This is a theme that comes out in this story. Some people absolutely despise blacks, and some people don’t really care one way or another. Atticus considers them like everyone else, and Judge Taylor feels bad for them. This is what made the times so hard: the fact that every person thought something different. And it makes this story all the more realistic by having this be a theme.

To Kill a Mockingbird

I am now reading “To Kill a Mockingbird”. So far, it is about Scout and Jem and their friend Dill. Dill convinces Jem to want to see Boo Radley. Boo has some sort of mental illness and therefore if feared in the town. Rumors are made up about him, and his house is avoided. But Jem and Scout have a different relationship to him. Boo Radley seems to know what they are up to, and is even nice to them. But Jem and Scout have never seen him or been able to contact him. They are beginning to discover that he is friendly to him. I also think that Boo knows what else is happening in the town, and that is why he will not come out.

Towards the beginning of the book, Jem, Scout, and Dill try to look into the window of Boo Radley’s house. Boo’s father shoots at them and they escape, but Jem without his pants. Later, when he goes back to get his pants which were caught on the gate, they were neatly folded and sewn up as if he were expected. It does not say, but I think that Boo Radley did this to become friends with Jem and Scout. There is another example of his kindness as well. When a neighbor’s house burns in the middle of the night, Boo puts a blanket around Scout when she was shivering outside his house. She didn’t notice this act of kindness, but this was certainly an attempt to create friends. Boo is doing only nice things for the kids, and I think that he will continue to help them until they figure this out.

It seems like the townspeople are afraid of Boo because he has a mental illness. This is why they make up mean stories about him and are cautious around his house. This is also why he will not come out. He does not know anybody and he is afraid of how people will react to him. And as time progresses, he is losing his chance of being accepted as more rumors are created. Because he is acting as if Jem and Scout are his friends, it makes me think that that is the reason he stays in his house: because he has no friends. If people accepted Boo even though he has an illness, he would come out. Then he would be treated even better. This issue also comes up in modern times. In Newtown, a man with a mental illness killed people in a school. People are afraid of him, for the right causes, but also for the wrong ones. He did kill people, but if America helped people who are mentally ill even more, this may not have happened. This makes me realize how Boo must feel because I know how afraid we are of people like him. I would not like to be such a cause of fear.

Boo Radley is not what the people in “To Kill a Mockingbird” think he is. He is kind, and just wants to fit in. But because of all the nasty rumors, he feels he cannot come out and therefore is feared even more. He also has a sneaky friendship with Scout and Jem, and I think that this friendship may persuade Boo to come out later in the book.

The Help 4

I am still reading “The Help” (because I have to read other books for the book bowl), which is about Skeeter’s book. She writes undercover and interviews maids to see what it is like to work for white families. I think that the book revolves around Hilly, the president of the League. She knows almost everybody in the town and all of the characters are afraid of her. “Help”, the title of Skeeter’s book, causes quite a ruckus in Jackson, Mississippi, and of course, Hilly is in the center of it.

 Hilly is a quirky character. On the one hand, she is very nice to all of her friends and has them over to play bridge and hang out. She has a popular side of her too, the side everyone sees most. She knows everyone in the town and always must know what is going on. But, she has a gossip side as well. Whenever she has the smallest hunch about Skeeter’s whereabouts or anyone else’s, she tells everyone she knows. She hurts many people this way. After Skeeter publishes her book, Hilly spread both true and false rumors about who is in the book. She tells people to fire their maids, and even send them to jail. But because of this, people are starting to realize that Hilly is not such a nice person. One woman, Lou Anne, tells Skeeter that Hilly is wrong and that she would never send her maid to jail, or even fire her. I think that later in the book, this will start a wave of rebels against Hilly. I predict Skeeter will become president of the League because people (only the people who believe what Hilly said about Skeeter writing the book) know she wrote the book, but are proud. Lou Anne already told Skeeter that she was not going to vote for Hilly again. One thing I wonder, though, is if Hilly knows that people don’t like it when she gossips. Does she know that she is only hurting herself though she thinks she is hurting other people? I think that if she did know that, she would stop telling people all of these things. But the fact that she changed her mind and now thinks that the book does not take place in Jackson (it does) makes me think that she knows she is spreading some false knowledge.

Hilly finds it entertaining to hurt people. She is known for revenge and does a good job holding up that title. But if it wasn’t for Skeeter, Hilly may not be liked in the town anymore. The book is making people realize that she is selfish and wants to see people suffer. But that will backfire, and fewer and fewer people will like Hilly, the same thing that had happened to Skeeter.

A Troubling Portrait of Domestic Work non-fiction

In the article, “A Troubling Portrait of Domestic Work,” the author wants the reader to know that a new study or survey was distributed to 2, 086 domestic worker who said that they were not given breaks or paid much, sometimes less than minimum wage. It was also found that Hispanic workers were paid less than Asian workers and workers that sleep at their work place often hardly got much sleep. The article explains that domestic workers don’t have the usual rights as other working citizens do, and do not usually get insurance. The author does a great job of proving this point when he includes all of the different statistics and percents. It helps describe how few get any advantages even when they are working so hard. Another thing that helps the author prove his/her main idea is when he/she states,” Wages varied widely by ethnicity and immigration status.” This shows that even in these times, there are still racial issues, but it also tells the reader that it is very difficult to make a living from being a domestic worker with such widely ranged wages. It is very difficult to live the way that these people do while working very hard to make such a small amount. But not only that, the workers also may have to deal with racist comments and less pay because of where they are from.

The author hopes that the reader will feel that the way domestic workers are treated in America is unfair. He/she hopes we will want them to be fairly treated wherever they come from, get higher pay, and all of the benefits of being not only a worker, but also a citizen. They should have equal rights because they work just as hard as others do. The author, though, has a tough job. For someone like me, it is very hard to feel bad for domestic workers because I can’t really imagine how it feels or what it is like to be treated differently because of my race or origin or live off of a minimum wage. The author does this by saying that “Achieving basic rights shouldn’t have to depend, haphazardly, on the kindness of their employers. “ Being the last line, it somewhat sums up what the whole article talks about. It makes the reader realize that the domestic worker’s whole life depends on the kindness of one person, and no one should have to be in this position. The author also uses the word “if” to help him/her describe what life would be like if domestic workers were treated equally.

I think that the article has a way of stating the facts without using specific words that make it seem more convincing. I like how it does this without having to explain why what is happening is bad.  I would like to know more facts about domestic workers that are more unique. I would like to know how they feel about the unfairness of how they are treated. I feel like if they are citizens, they should be treated like it. I also don’t understand why they are not treated as workers when they work just as hard as many workers who are paid hundreds or even thousands more. I just don’t understand why. This article is good at telling me the basic facts, but it needs to explain them a little more.

The Help

I recently began reading “The Help”. From the amount that I read, I know that the book is about the relationships of whites and blacks in Mississippi during the time of the civil rights movement. It is told through the perspective of an African American woman who is a nanny and maid to Miss. Leefolt’s family. One of the things I find most interesting about the book is that it is told through the eyes of not only an African American, but also a woman. It is a perspective that while learning about this time never really saw. It makes the time seem different because now the reader knows how people felt being treated the way that they were, rather than just stating the facts.

In the first couple pages of the book, Miss Leefolt, the woman that Aibeleen works for, has a bridge game with many of her friends. They talk about gossip, but they also talk about how blacks are lazy and they cannot do much work. Miss Leefolt makes sure that Aibeleen is not in sight. She never describes how she feels about this commenting, but I know that the reason for this is most likely because she is used to it. What does that say about the community? For one thing, it means that they don’t think that blacks have feelings because they don’t make any move to be quiet around her. She is probably angry about these remarks, but making these rude comments with her in the room and right next door makes me think that they have no thought for blacks whatsoever. Another thing that this says about the community is that the African Americans no longer care strongly what the people say. Their rights are being completely ignored, as citizens and as people, and they make no arguments about the horrible things people say. I think that it takes courage to fight against it, but it is just as dangerous to say nothing.

I know that from what I know of myself, I would be afraid to stand up for my rights alone. This may be part of the problem. No one feels like they can say anything because nobody else is. But if it had kept going on like that, the civil rights movement might still be going on. I suppose something must have happened even in Mississippi to have this change. This may also change in the book as it goes along. I can’t believe that anyone could get used to living a life under that kind of hatred without saying anything. It must take a lot of courage to be quiet and risk you and your family’s future as well as risk your life to be free of it. No matter how many books I read or movies I watch, I will never completely understand what Blacks were going through in that time period.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks 1

I am in the middle of reading “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.” This is probably one of the most interesting and surprising non-fiction stories that I have ever read. It is about a woman named Henrietta Lacks who is diagnosed with cancer, but a sliver of her tumor is sliced off without her permission or her knowledge of it. These cells were used to try to grow them and see if they could be immortal, and they worked. These cells grew so much, that they were used to create the polio vaccine, and solve “every diseases that was known as ‘incurable.’” In the book, I noticed that, although it is non-fiction, there are a few issues. One of the obvious issues includes lying, and racism. But these things can be narrowed down to find what the author is really trying to tell the reader.

I think that one very important aspect of the story that may not be seen on the surface is transportation. People these days take advantage of transportation, kind of like Henrietta was, but that is not the point. Without the advanced transportation that is used, like airplanes, these cells would not be so widespread, at least not as quickly. It is very unlikely that people all over the world would be affected by the discoveries these cells helped make because the cells and the information would not be able to travel overseas. The transportation in this book matters a lot. It even describes how Gey, the doctor who first used the cells, had to find a way to transport the cells across the world without letting them die, so this is part of the story too. The transportation made it possible for the cells to reach other labs where more key experiments were designed and carried out. So, Henrietta’s time period is also to blame for the spread of her cells around the world.

Another undercover issue in the book is the media. It is almost entirely the media’s fault for giving the family no idea what happened to Henrietta’s cells. This is because, as it explains in the book, the media was not allowed to use Henrietta’s name in the magazines and newspapers. They used their names, such as Helen Lake, or Helen Landerson. This gave the family no information that this was someone in their family, and it led them out of even the suspicion that this might be someone in their family. The media made it impossible for the family to even find out if those were Henrietta’s cells. This is what I find really unfair. I think that the family would be more happy than sad to find out the news that someone in their family was drastically helping the world. If the media was allowed to say the name, than the family could be famous, when now, they are forgotten.

I think that in this book, there are many underlying issues that are things that the author put there both on purpose and accidentally. But it is these things that define the main cases of the story and build it up. Without the transportation, this could have only stayed in Gey’s lab, and without the media putting them off track, the family may have known sooner. These things are what turn the story around, and in this case, turn it in the worst way.