The main character, Sue, was paralyzed with Guillain-Barre. Guillain-Barre is a disease in which the immune systems attacks the nerves restricting movement. She lost control of nearly all movement. The most control she had over her body was a blink of an eye along with the inability to breathe without a respirator. Throughout the book she goes through internal struggles which include anger, depression, vulnerability, and at times doubt.…
“Fast paced… And entertaining mix of intense action and goofy fun.” The book Slacker by Gordon Korman is about a kid dreaming to win a video game tournament. All until one problem stops him from doing that. In this 230 page book you will be amazed on what happens. This book is detailed when it changes character's point of views throughout the book This book is realistic fiction and is told very much like it could happen in our everyday life.…
David Brooks begins his satirical op-editorial “Fly the Partisan Skies” by classifying two different political parties; liberalism and conservative into two imaginative airlines; Liberal Air and Right wing express as a analogy. Throughout his editorial he utilizes a mocking tone and exaggerates the partisans stereotypes in order to ridicule their beliefs, and silliness. He mentions that in a Liberal Air flight it “will take off 45 minutes late, or whenever people feel like leaving” mocking the belief that liberals hold of equality, and that no one gets left behinds. Additionally, he explains that when boarding Liberal Air the pilots who look “Like Arlo Guthrie, will greet passengers at the door of plane to apologize for the oil they are about…
The Chosen, the novel by Chaim Potok follows the lives of two Jewish boys, Danny Malter and Reuven Saunders, set in Brooklyn, New York, during the time of World War II. A common paradoxical theme found in this novel is that through one’s loss there is also one’s gain. A quote from Reuven’s father, David Malter states this paradox perfectly; “No one knows he is fortunate until he becomes unfortunate” (Potok 87). To me this means you don’t realize what you have until it is gone or taken away from you. There are many examples of this found in the novel and also some examples of this I can relate to my own life.…
Journal 2 Response The second journal in The Alternative by Galen Leonhardy explores his various relationships with students, teachers, and parents. Leonhardy discusses personal dilemmas regarding the proper interaction, and reporting of incidents between himself and the students, along with their families. Leonhardy teaches at an alternative school, and most of these students and families have very complex and dark variables in their daily lives. Leonhardy tries to draw on various cultural experiences with the Nez Perce tribe and the movie Schindler's List to bring in lessons of racism and dehumanizing in hopes of enlightening his students on how to better interact with different people.…
This essay discusses the correlation of themes and topics from Dr. Dwayne Mack’s book Black Spokane and connects it to key aspects and themes from Let Nobody Turn Us Around, and from African Americans: A Concise History. All three texts encompasses important aspects of African American oppression, the fight for civil and equal rights. During the time of slavery, many blacks were treated horribly and were not treated equally to whites. Many white Americans’ embraced American ethnologist study which stated that white Americans were a superior race and that African Americans are a lesser race (Hine, p. 190).…
This dear America book is called my secret war, a diary of 13 year old Madeleine Beck taking place in 1941. At the start of the book it talks about how Maddie's father is a Navy officer and is on an aircraft carrier protecting the Pacific. She is now living in Long Island, New York. She is having trouble making friends and likes this boy in her class johnny. She and johnny become friends because he thinks it's so cool that she has a dad in the navy.…
In the midst of a war how people interact with others from different cultures or within their own, may be their making or breaking point. In the book Storming Heaven by Denise Giardina and in the movie Matewan, it is clear to see how the miners have conflict with the company, the scabs, and with themselves, and how the miners come together within their own group and with the scabs. Each of these interactions impact the fight for the miner’s basic human rights against the company men either for bad or for good. The first three-quarters of the book is filled with conflict as people try to figure out what is going on, how to deal with their problems, and who their friends are.…
On another token, point of view is another literary element that Mike Mullin showcases a number of different ways in a variety of unique purposes. Ashfall is a first person point of view novel because Alex Harpin is the protagonist presenting and narrating the about the novel in the story. The reader may trust that Alex is a reliable source of information and his retelling of how events occur are usually accurate the the most part. The first piece of evidence that displays the point of view is when Alex hears chaos outside of his house when he’s home alone and doesn’t know what’s going on until a few weeks later. Furthermore, the second piece of evidence .…
The Beautiful Struggle, written by Tanashi Coates is a memoir published May 6, 2008. Coates’s memoir gives you some insight of the upbringing and maturation of his life. In general the memoir gives you an outlook of how Coates and his siblings were raised including the struggles Coates went through that ultimately created a beautiful future for himself. This memoir also portrays the life of a conscious black family growing up in the 80s. Coates’s blunt style of writing expresses the authenticity of the narrative being told.…
As humans, we often assume that our sole purpose in life is to be happy at all times. Consequently narratives such as our physiological system, experience and culture systems on have taken advantage of this assumption and marketed happiness to vulnerable people who desire to attain happiness. In the article, “Immune to Reality” by Daniel Gilbert, the author discusses with the readers how our psychological system markets positive thoughts during negative situations in order to make us happy. Also, Evan Watters, the author of “The Mega-Marketing of Depression in Japan” explores how pharmaceutical companies market happiness through the sale of pills in Japan.…
Stuck in Neutral Book Review Stuck in Neutral is a book about a kid named Shawn, forgot his last name for lack of interest. He is paralyzed and stuck in a hospital for the entire book. That’s right the whole book, you think being paralyzed for real is boring? Just wait and read this book, somehow the writer manages to make it less entertaining than being actually completely paralyzed. The time that I read this was in circles with other students during freshman year so I never actually wanted to read it in the first place nor do I remember the details of the drama, but I remember enough of the book to hate it with a passion.…
The poem Blood by Naomi Shihab Nye emanates feelings of confusion and anger that people from many cultures in America have felt. This confusion settling in at the moment a young child realizes they are different and realizing that this difference makes them inferior. Why is that despite we are all humans beings, given life the same way, biologically structured the same way, and given the same fate in the end, that we are so different from one another? Naomi Shihab Nye is a Palestinian-American born in St. Louis, Missouri to a Palestinian father and American mother.…
“Idiot Nation” is a passage written by Michael Moore. In the passage Moore talks about his ideas and opinions on the American education level and schooling. His opinion is that American schooling and education is not at the level it should be. He also believes that no one is doing anything to help it get better. He supports these opinions by using memories from his past experiences.…
It is a common misconception that science and literature are opposed. The common belief held is that the two cannot coexist because scientists are too focused on science and authors are too focused on the humanities. However, there is much blending between the two, with many scientists becoming authors and many authors taking an appreciation to science. As evidence, Michael Frayn’s Copenhagen is a perfect example as to how the two can cohabitate the same plane of knowledge and work together in unison to create something more educational and entertaining. Copenhagen is a play written by Michael Frayn that highlights a meeting between two globally known physicists, Niels Bohr and Werner Heisenberg, in Bohr’s house in Copenhagen.…