True Notebook Book Analysis

In True Notebooks, this is a memoir that you can see how important circumstances, experiences, people and events in the characters’ lives have influenced who they are and what they believe in. Those kids who lived at L.A.’s Central Juvenile Hall used to be good kids. Most of them are just like us. They were not gangsters when they were born. They should have gone to school at this age. They should have deserved a wonderful life. However, they couldn’t be the same as us due to any factors such as family support (or lack of support), social pressure, circumstances, peer influence, education, and community support. I think family support or lack of family support is the most important factor in determining how people become who they are. Family …show more content…
This can change a pessimist to an optimist. For example, Raashad is one of the kids in Salzman’s writing class at Juvenile Hall. When Mark Salzman told the kids to write down something and read that after they finished, Raashad wrote down something that might have already changed his personality. His writing was about the whole process of getting a phone call from his family. When he was sleeping, the night staff came to his door and opened it. He woke up immediately due to the sound of the key turning. After the staff told him there was a phone call for him, he felt nervous about his phone call. The first thing he thought was the police telling him someone in his family was dead. He was relaxed after he picked up the phone because that was his fiancé instead of a police. And his fiancé told him that she gave birth to a girl. Not only did this news make him feel happy, but this also made his body feel numb. After he read his writing out loud, he …show more content…
Lack of family support can make people become loners. For instance, Jimmy Wu is one of the kids at Juvenile Hall. He is Taiwanese. He used to have a complete family, a healthy younger brother, and a wonderful life. However, something terrible happened, and that was something he couldn’t control. His parents divorced when he was twelve. He moved out with his mom, and his brother stayed with his dad. Jimmy and his brother had been close since his brother was born. They only visited each other on the weekends. Because he thought his parents didn’t understand him, he started to be estranged from his parents. This made Jimmy become withdrawn. Separating siblings in the divorce is a kind of lacks of family support, and that is the usual one. Those kids used to talk to their siblings, play with them, and live with them. After they separate from their siblings, they always feel lonely. Lack of family support makes them become