My Reservation

My Reservation

In the short book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie, the reader follows a young teen named Junior as he goes through his freshman year full of racists, hormones, and basketball. Arnold was born with water on the brain, and has mismatched eyes, brain damage, seizures, a stutter, and a lisp because of it. He wasn't supposed to survive a surgery given to him shortly after his birth, but he overcomes all odds and makes it through. On the Spokane Indian Reservation, he grows up bullied and called retarded, with only one human friend. His friend's name is Rowdy, and Rowdy has an abusive drunk of a father. Some of these tendencies seem to have been passed on to Rowdy as well, as Rowdy is one of the angriest people that Junior knows. On his first day of high school, Arnold throws a textbook a his math teacher and gets a suspension. However, a few days later his teacher comes by and tells Arnold that he needs to get out of the reservation. There is no hope on the rez, only disappointment and people who have given up.

One of the similarities that I draw between Junior's world and ours is the fact that there are little reservations everywhere. Sure, I personally may not be eating meals 18 and a half hours apart, but there are similarities I can draw to explain the hopelessness of certain situations. For example, the majority of jobs available today aren't what some people want. Arts, like singing, performing, or painting, are fields that have precious few jobs, and seem to be discouraged in schools today. Arts funding is now prominent among a school's fundraising goals, and multitudes of clinical studies say that arts are a fundamental part of education, but most school boards don't fund the arts as much as say, science or math. While I don't want to come across as saying science or math aren't important (especially not now, as the STEM fields are having an explosive growth), but turning the arts into an "add-on" or "option" in terms of funding isn't the correct way to go through things.

Native Son

Native Son

               Bigger Thomas seems like a normal black boy in the 1930s. He lives on the South Side in a one-room apartment with his mother and two siblings, and spends his time loafing around with a gang. He and his gang rob fruit stands or newspaper stalls and he does bad things in the back of theaters. However, he concealed within him a deep rage and hatred for white people, because they took away his opportunities and barred him from leaving the South Side. He was offered a job from the relief service, which he grudgingly accepted, and he went to report to Mr. Dalton. He chauffeured Dalton’s daughter, Mary, to a building in the loop. There they met Jan, her boyfriend. The three went out that night, and upon returning home Mary was so drunk Bigger carried her to her bed. He then saw her mother, Mrs. Dalton, in the room. To stop Mary from speaking, Bigger put a pillow over her. She died of suffocation, and he then decapitated her and threw her into the furnace in the basement. Then he acted like nothing was different. He quickly ran out once the reporters discovered that there were bones in the furnace, assuming them to be Mary’s. They then trapped him on a South Side rooftop, and quickly brought him to trial. Max, Bigger’s lawyer, argued that he had done this crime by instinct and he didn’t mean it. I don’t believe him. To kill someone is something that takes real willpower and effort to do – something that can’t be brought about by instinct alone. Bigger killed Mary by accident. He may not have deserved the death penalty at that time, but his mindset afterwards was that he was free, he was not guilty. Because his mindset changed from accident to intent, Bigger no longer deserved the right to call his killings an accident. He deserved at the very least life in prison.

City Lights & Church Steeples

City Lights & Church Steeples

             The Great Gatsby was a short, potent tale full of excitement and passion. Throughout the novel, we follow the eyes of Nick Carroway, an upper class man trying to make his own money in New York buying and selling bonds. A while after he arrives, he is asked to come over to his cousin Daisy’s house on East Egg, a rich neighborhood full of people considered “old money”. Carroway leaves his house in West Egg, a similarly rich neighborhood full of people considered “nouveau riche”, and goes to Daisy’s. He meets both Daisy and her husband, Tom Buchanan, as well as a Miss Jordan Baker, a golf superstar. The two of them hit it off, and eventually enter into a relationship together. Meanwhile, Nick is invited to a small party with Tom, featuring his mistress. Myrtle Wilson, Tom’s mistress, is everything Daisy isn’t – however, Tom doesn’t seem to mind. During the party, things get out of hand between Tom and Myrtle, and Tom ends up hitting Myrtle and breaking her nose. After that fracas, Nick returns home. A while later, he is invited by a butler to a party at his neighbor, Gatsby’s, house. At the party, he meets Gatsby – a model gentleman. Gatsby asks Nick through Jordan to invite Daisy over for lunch, and Nick obliges. Gatsby comes over as well, and Nick leaves to let them speak for a while. This sort of affair continues on for a while, until Gatsby and Nick go to the Buchanan’s house one summer day. Gatsby and Tom become enthralled in an argument, Daisy sitting to one side helpless, and Jordan and Nick simply watching. They decide to drive to town, and then the argument continues. After the finishing of the argument, Daisy and Gatsby drive home in Gatsby’s car – unfortunately, Myrtle Wilson suddenly appears and is run down. George, her husband, goes crazy, and eventually goes to Gatsby’s house, kills Gatsby, and then kills himself.

Janie

Janie

             Janie is an interesting character. She has struggled her whole life to find independence from others, but cannot find it because she is expected to have someone controlling her at all times. She first realizes this when her grandmother tells her not to kiss anyone because she’s liable to be a woman soon and should be married to Logan Killicks. Then, when she goes to marry Joe Starks, she realizes that although she is wealthy, she is distant from her partner, unlike how she envisioned love to be. She is never free, constantly forced to be a fixture in the town store, even though she yearns to join the others in playing checkers and talking about the mule. Once Joe dies, she is finally free – until Tea Cake arrives. While he doesn’t force her to do anything, unlike Joe, he dictates to her some things. He tells her to wear blue, as he finds her pretty in it. Tea Cake doesn’t control her in the same ways as Joe did – Joe controlled her with his wealth and his words, while Tea Cake controls her with his love and actions. When she does what he wants her to, he will comb her hair or help her in doing some task. Janie searches for freedom, but will she ever find it?

One Classmate I am Thankful for

One Classmate I am Thankful for

             One classmate I am thankful for is Victor Medina. He and I met in the summer of 2013, during Freshman Connection. He was the person that showed me how to get from the school to the Racine Blue Line stop. We became friends during Freshman Connection, and I may or may not have called him Victorious or Victor…ia’s Secret a couple of times… Anyways, once freshman year started up, I was very disappointed to see that I had no classes with him. I saw him sometimes during passing periods or after school, but I didn’t see him as much as I could have if we had a class together. When I walked into first period this year, I saw a familiar face sitting near the front of the room. It was Victor! All through this year, we’ve sat next to each other. We do group works together, and I’m interested where he gets his ideas from. They’re always on-point. I’m really thankful for Victor.