FINAL PRESENTATION

Here is the link to my prezi that is for my presentation

http://prezi.com/es6jlxqp3wjc/how-to-research/

Hope you enjoy :D

I CAN READ (kinda)

this was not easy

CONNECTING THE DOTS

When I first saw this assignment I only thought why, why does it have to be that long? So I knew right from the start that I would not do anything that weekend. After writing the paper I realized that I went on and on about things I really didn't care for. Maybe I could've related it to some passions in my life, such as music/dance. I put the two together because starting with music I listen to it, I feel it, then it flows through me, then I let it out by dancing. Are there problems considering racism in that area? Heck yes. People assume that blacks and Asians can dance or are born to dance. Not only does it suffer with racism but it also isn't allowed to be expressed. The freedom to express who we are doesn't exist with dance. There are PUBLIC places where it is prohibited. So they give it limits which is unfair. Maybe I could relate my paper to that. Just maybe. 

RESEARCH TERM PAPER

Jorge Garcia

Dr. Preston

Expository Composition

10 November 2013

Stereotypes: Racist or not?

Stereotypes, as Saul McLeod said, is a fixed, over generalization belief about a particular group or class of people. Now this can be seen as a good and a bad thing. Many problems with this is that many people have different views on the line between fun and racism. Nowadays saying stereotypes to people you know is considered signs of affection but saying them to the wrong crowd creates many problems. Where do stereotypes cross the line and become racist? Can stereotypes really be a good thing? How do these groups see themselves and how do they see others?

  First off what is a stereotype? How is it defined? Well in the Oxford Pocket Dictionary and Thesaurus a stereotype is define as: a person or thing that conforms to a widely accepted type. This was a strange definition because it claims the stereotype is the person. Going further however I looked up the word stereotype on two other websites. On the urban dictionary it is defined as: a term used to define all people of a certain belief into a mostly negative category that may only reflect a selected few of the racial demographics. This appears to be more accurate to the common knowledge of a stereotype. Finally I looked up stereotype on thefreedictionary.com and there it was defined as: a conventional, formulaic, and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image. Again seems to be a better definition to the common knowledge of it. Now as far as examples go it should be obvious to what a stereotype is, but I did find several good examples on yourdictionary.com and this includes: 

• Mexican stereotypes suggest that all Mexicans are lazy and came into America illegally.

• All Arabs and Muslims are terrorists.

• All people who live in England have bad teeth.

• Italian or French people are the best lovers.

• All Blacks outside of the United States are poor.

• All Jews are greedy

And the list goes on. Really good way to put all the stereotypes into the minds of others. Now are they good or bad?

  Stereotypes can be seen as both good and bad, each having their own advantages and disadvantages. In the article by Saul McLeod he mentions both an advantage and a disadvantage for stereotypes. For an advantage he lists that it enables us to respond rapidly to situations because we may have had a similar experience before. Now I was very unsure about this as an advantage, it basically says we would be quick to judge anyone of a certain group that we’ve had an experience with. For example if you have worked with an African American and you’ve heard stereotypes that they were lazy you would quickly assume that that particular African American is also lazy. Which leads me to the disadvantage stated, which is that it makes us ignore differences between individuals, making us think things about people that might not be true. To me these are both the exact same thought, and in reality they are both a disadvantage. Overall it says that we need stereotypes to be quick to judge and that they are a supposed bad thing because we think of any group as a whole and don’t recognize the individuals. Well if that is the case then couldn’t we just stop being quick to judge? Would that not solve both those problems, since we wouldn’t be quick to judge we wouldn’t think of people as a group and therefore recognize them as individuals. It seems simple but it truly isn’t. 

Stereotyping serves another purpose, it helps us simplify our social world. That is still under the article by Saul McLeod, he claims that stereotyping reduces the amount of processing we have to do when we meet a new person. This is a bad thing but let’s face it we all do that. We can all deny it but honestly it happens, it’s the way we now all think. Whenever we see a person of a certain group we do stereotype and assume something of them, literally can be anything but we all assume something of them. In fact as I am writing this the reader will notice that I am using words like ‘them’ and referring to a group. Well like I said it makes classifying easier and even though I had not mentioned it before any reader knew exactly what I was talking about when I said ‘them’. We as a society are so use to that that we do not even notice it when we classify people. For the most part all of these stereotypes have been negative. In the Katz and Braly report they have gone to white students at Princeton University in 1933 to perform this questionnaire regarding other ethnic groups. What really surprised me was that few students there expressed any difficulty in responding to the questionnaire. Not surprisingly they all came up with similar results, so even back then there were certain stereotypes about groups. The flaw I found in this experiment I that only white kids were questioned about this, why only them? Was it because they were at Princeton? Was it because they were white? Why not give this questionnaire to a group of a high diversity? Would that not give better results? The reason I ask is because the white students who took the questionnaire described themselves as industrious and intelligent. I’m wondering, if each group was given the chance to describe themselves would they all do the same? Towards the end of this questionnaire they do point something out, that the questionnaire isn’t a good way to test stereotypes because people can lie. They can simply do that because they would love to see their ethnic group as the top of the charts. 

  Now switching gears a bit when are stereotypes a problem? It seems that many people believe it is one of the top problems in our society. In a blog created by Eric SCT there is a post where he argues that stereotypes and racism are really bad and should be stopped altogether. I’ll admit this post is not written well at all, it has too many mistakes and does not give any real evidence of anything. Although one interesting point given was that he compared racism and stereotypes and concluded that both had different meanings but were both generally the same. Now this was interesting because I always saw them as different, like stereotypes lead to racism. Saying they are the same brings about a whole new perspective of things, what if while you are messing around with your friends and start mocking them with stereotypes you’re actually being racist towards them and don’t even know it. What if there is no real line between stereotypes and racism, is it possible they could be the same thing? I can ask many people about this and probably get a wide variety of answers. Going into my perspective I do believe that there is a line between the two, but the line is in different places depending on the person. If the person is easily offended then the line is very thin, if the person is okay with it as long as the person knows you were kidding then the line is pretty far. From my experiences I can say that I am one to tolerate all of it when it comes from friends that are close to me. Now when it is someone that doesn’t know me then I get offended. There was one day where I was with my uncles and his cat got out and went into someone else’s yard. I went to the house and knocked on the door, a white middle aged women opened the door and smiled. I greeted her and she instantly said, “Oh good you’re here. You guys did an excellent job in the backyard and I have your money here.” She walked back and grabber her purse and handed me money. She smiled waiting to see what I’d say and I looked at her smiled and said, “Thank you ma’am, I’ll see you later.” Yes I did take the money, for two reasons. One she assumed that I was her gardener just by the way I looked, and two why would I correct her when she handed me money? I’m human, and I can say that many people in my position after being offended would have done the exact same thing. 

  Now after asking several peers if there is a line between stereotypes and racism 100% of them came back and said that there is a line there. From what I got from them, they say that stereotypes are pure assumption of groups of people, it’s what we think they are capable of. Stereotypes could be right or wrong but they are still all noted when we meet a new person. Now what was also noted was the way we use stereotypes, the type of tone we give when they are being used. A bad enough tone gives off the impression that they are being used to provoke racism and then a bad impression is made on your character. That came as a whole new idea to me because I never expected the one saying it to intend it to be racist, I always looked at it as the person hearing it taking it the wrong way. Also someone mentioned that it could be seen as racism being taken as the joke and stereotypes being seen as offensive. One pretty good point, can racism really be seen as a joke? Or would it really just be the stereotypes? This can be seen as confusing but we all think in different ways.  This is why we need to ask questions, your viewpoints are not going to be the same as everyone else’s. 

  So where does all this thinking come from? When did we all start thinking this way? According to the article by Kanatiyosh@aol.com all infants are boring pure, so we all must learn the stereotypes and about racism at some point in our lives. The beliefs are that the world today focuses too much on the individuals and should be more concerned about the children. Since children are the future it is believed that if we are to teach the children about racism and stereotyping we have failed. She has gone back and described many experiences her grandmother went through as well as her friend regarding dolls. Now the grandmother was always told that her kind (being Native American) was always going to be less important that the others who were white. Most of this went back to her doll, the grandmother owned a blue-eyed and blond haired doll, it was told that that doll was beautiful. When that was mentioned the grandmother only felt worse about her own appearance. Now on the other hand the friend mentioned here was never allowed to play with dolls like that, only ethnic dolls. Both situations are considered racist, one is saying that the blonde doll is the only beautiful doll and the other is saying that the one blonde doll is prohibited. The main point of that was to say that we should give every child dolls representing all races and show them that all of them are beautiful, not some but all. Dolls in this whole scenario represent people, and showing children at a young age that they are all beautiful is one great idea. Although from the grandmothers experience we can see that even with us teaching them that they are all beautiful won’t stop others from teaching them they are not. It is from others that children learn about racism, and others learn it from actual people that are racist. It is a never ending cycle and they will in one way or another learn about stereotypes, just be sure they don’t learn it from you. 

  The image here was used in the article by Ta’Chelle Nichollete Ashley Jones titled Stereotypes Exist for a Reason. This article mentions how stereotypes are seem as a joke and are used as comedy for the most part in the United States. The examples given were very popular television shows such as Family Guy or South Park, which I in fact have seen a lot and laughed at the racial jokes they made even if it was about me. This leads me to the most interesting part of this article, it was not the article itself but one of the comments by the user fefefe made on July 6, 2013 that said, “I’m Spanish and this makes me laugh. We should have a little sense of humor.” This got me thinking YES somebody actually gets it the same way I do. Yes sometimes stereotypes go too far but listen to that sentence alone, SOMETIMES. Which means other times they are not a bad thing. Everyone has their own sense of humor and that could include taking stereotypes lightly in the right crowd but still can be offensive when under the wrong crowd. Going back to the actual article it does have this same main point, it simply depends on the viewer. Whatever the viewer sees as okay is okay only to him/her, what is offensive is the same way. Only the individual can decide what’s offensive and what isn’t, it’s a pure opinion. 

  In the NY Times there was an article published by Annie Murphy Paul titled It’s Not Me, It’s You that talks about feeling better and worse than other people. This one can connect to just about everyone because we have all been in these kinds of situations where we feel superior over some people and feel like we don’t even compare to others. It continues to mention how social factors play a role in all of this, since we have ideas (or think we have ideas) on many different groups of people we already have ideas of what they will be like even if you have barely met the person. This causes our own abilities to be suppressed. The example given in this article is that they gave a test to white males that have a good mathematics background and before taking the test tells them it was intended to investigate, “why Asians appear to outperform other students on tests of math ability.” With that in their minds they do worse because they get that little thought of, “why try if Asians are going to do better than me anyways” which is what suppresses their true abilities. This is what I think starts the whole idea of social factors becoming a bad thing, this goes back to an earlier idea mentioned, and should be taken out of our heads. Since we almost immediately judge people based on how they look we instantly start ranking ourselves and comparing the things we expect that person to be able to do to the things we do. Once we start that process we become competitive and even at times begin to hate that other person because we believe that they are better than us. During my sophomore year there was a new kid in my math class and I did not like him even though I did not know him. You see I was one of the top of that class and then there’s a new kid coming in and just suddenly gets to be right there with me. It seemed to come so easy to him that I was actually just mad that he picked it up so quickly. Now what about this goes with the current topic? He was Asian, and that was the kicker of it all. 

While still on the topic of the NY Times we covered an article that mentioned racism still being part of the way we judge which was called Racial Profiling Lives On. This is the case where they claim that we accuse people just based on their color. For example if a policeman were to see a dark skinned man placing things into a car he has the right to go up to him and start investigating him having no proof of anything but what he’s seen. Stuff like this has happened to me as well, about a good month or two ago. I was at practice with my crew and we were packing up to leave the school. I began to pack our speaker in the trunk of my car when a cop pulled over behind me. He began asking me many questions and was curious as to what I was doing and where I was going. I could tell he didn’t believe me when I mentioned that the speaker was mine and that I was about to head home, that is until my friends came up to me. It wasn’t until then that the cop concluded his little investigation and left. So I can say that yes racial profiling does still exist and yes it is racist. Racial profiling shows a lack in communication on the accusers part because they merely go based on intuition, unless the actions of the person are truly suspicious and seem to be going somewhere bad then yes by all means go ahead and accuse them of something. Still people should really think first. 

There have been many different perspectives about racism and stereotypes, and for the most part they all say the same things. There stereotypes are a bad thing, the differences we’ve seen have to do with when are they a bad thing.  Some have argued that they are always a bad thing, that simply starting to make fun of friends instantly leads to a social crisis in this word. Others however believe that every person is different, that they all have their own lines and their lines will always be different. That to me personally has made more sense than saying that all of it is bad, and thinking of it isn’t saying that all stereotypes are bad simply a stereotype itself? It sure seems that way, and that is why I believe that saying everyone is different is a better way of putting things. Stereotypes will always be around, and they will change, but only you make them to be racist. It is truly what you think and how you use your words that create a racist tone. How will you use your words then? 

Works Cited

Abate, Frank R. The Oxford Pocket Dictionary and Thesaurus. New York: Oxford University

            Press, 1997. Print.

Carbado, Devon W. “Racial Profiling Lives On.” New York Times 2013. 14 August 2013. 10

November 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/08/15/opinion/racial-profiling-lives-on.html?smid=pl-share

Cardwell, M. (1996). Dictionary of Psychology. Chicago IL: Fitzroy Dearborn.

Katz, D., & Braly, K. (1933). Racial stereotypes of one hundred college students. Journal of Abnormal and Social Psychology, 28, 280-290.

Grobman, Gary M. "Stereotypes and Prejudices." Stereotypes and Prejudices. N.p., n.d. 

            Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://remember.org/guide/History.root.stereotypes.html>.

Jones, Ta’Chelle Nichollete Ashley. “Stereotypes Exist for a Reason.” Social Constructions

Deconstructed. Wordpress. 15 June 2010. 10 November 2013. http://tachellejones.wordpress.com/2010/06/15/29/

McLeod, S. A. (2008). Stereotypes - Simply Psychology. Retrieved from

            http://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html

Nittle, Nadra Kareem. "What Is a Stereotype?" About.com Race Relations. N.p., n.d. Web. 10

November 2013. http://racerelations.about.com/od/understandingrac1/a/WhatIsaStereotype.htm

Paul, Annie Murphy. “It’s Not Me, It’s You.” New York Times 2012. 7 October 2012. 10

November 2013. http://www.nytimes.com/2012/10/07/opinion/sunday/intelligence-and-the-stereotype-threat.html?_r=0

SCT, Eric. “Stereotyping and Racism.” The Blog of Memories. Blogger. 24 March 2012. Web.

10 November 2013. http://thecommoneric.blogspot.com/2012/03/my-research-stereotyping-and-racism.html

"Stereotype." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

            <http://www.thefreedictionary.com/stereotype>.

"Stereotype Examples." Stereotype Examples. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.

            http://examples.yourdictionary.com/stereotype-examples.html

"Stereotype Threat." Stereotype Threat. Social Psycology/ Miami University, 18 Apr. 2002.

            Web. 11 Nov. 2013. <http://www.units.muohio.edu/psybersite/primetime/threat.shtml>.

"Urban Dictionary: Stereotype." Urban Dictionary. N.p., n.d. Web. 10 Nov. 2013.            

            <http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=stereotype>.

Webster’s Dictionary. USA. Kappa Books Publishers, LLC. 2013. Print.

Yosh, Kanati. “Racism & Stereotyping: The Affects on our Children on our Future.” 25 October

            2000. 10 November 2013. http://www.tuscaroras.com/graydeer/pages/racism.htm

7 TIMES

1. Ericas tone was very emotional, and somewhat confused. She became emotional when she began to talk about when the kid was shot, it was like she was there watching it all happen. She seemed confused however when the shots were fired. She repeatedly asked why 7 shots? That it was not necessary and was too quick of a reaction to do on that kid.
2. The facts given to us that are for sure facts are that the young boy was shot 7 times, he did in fact carry a fake gun that looked realistic from a far, but did the young boy really point the gun at the police officers? Or was it simply him turning around ad the police overreacting?
3. Erica makes her conclusion really clear and obvious to anyone who reads this response. She believes that the actions of the police officers were understandable but shooting the boy 7 times is outrageous.
4. To me a good tactic used by Erica was repetition. If you notice through out her entire post she would repeat the question 'Why 7?' This showed her main points of view and completely eliminated the question 'what side is she on?'
5. The two posts are very similar, but Javier's post gives one clear image that Erica's doesn't the picture comparing the fake gun to a real one. That alone gave us an extremely clear image of what this whole situation really looked like.

RACIAL PROFILING LIVES ON

• as the title says racial profiling is still taken into account
• it is taken into account when enforcing immigration laws
• Fourth Amendment plays a big role in this
• the amendment applies even when being chased
• the courts rely heavily on the the policeman's judgement 

Overall the main message I got from this is that racial profiling can still happen pretty easily, I mean it seems to say that police officers can do this to African Americans or Latinos very easily.

Vocabulary #9

ultimate- being or happening at the end of a process
The ultimate aim she had was to get into college.
interactive- influencing or having an effect on each other
In order to be sane every human being needs to be interactive with other human beings.
principle- fundamental truth or proposition that serves as the foundation for a system of belief or behavior or for a chain of reasoning
He must learn that one of the basic principles of this class is to actually do your work.
guidance- advice or information aimed at resolving a problem or difficulty
We all look to an adult for some inspiration and guidance.
collaboration- the action of working with someone to produce or create something
In order to finish a project she had to collaborate with her partners.
formative- serving to form something, esp. having a profound and lasting influence on a person's development
His formative years were the best of his life, he did exactly what he needed to do.
summative- the process of adding things together
The summation of numbers of small pieces of evidence were finally put together.
racism- the belief that all members of each race possesses characteristics or abilities specific to that race
Anywhere you go there is more than likely some form of racism.
intelligence- the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills
His intelligence level is through the roof, he learned how to play the guitar in 2 weeks.
hyperbolic- exaggerated
He was very hyperbolic when he says he could eat a horse.
consent- to agree to do something
No changes could've been made without the consent of the others.
doctrine- a belief or set of beliefs held and taught by a church/political party/other groups
Have you ever heard of the doctrine of predestination?
hunch- a feeling or guess based on intuition rather than facts
I had a hunch that the lady was stealing makeup.
predominant- present as the strongest or main element
By the looks of the picture, the predominant color was white.
discretion- freedom to act or judge on one's own
He was very discrete in saying that the teacher was wrong.
provision- providing or supplying something for use
There were new contracts for the provision of services.
seizure- the taking possession of something by legal process
There was another seizure of power by the military.
warrant- a legal document that authorizes the police to make an arrest, search premises, or carry out some other action relating to the administration of justice
They had a warrant for his arrest.
infraction- a violation or infringement of a law, agreement, or set of rules
The policeman gave the women a ticket for her driving infraction.

TOOLS THAT CHANGE THE WAY WE THINK

When reaching the topic of technology I do think that it has a big influence on me. Now with all this technology I have been led to believe that I do not have to work hard to achieve things, that everything I could ever need is within arms reach. If we were to go back 50 years we would see that you truly had to work for everything, the value of hard work and the value of a dollar still existed back then. Back then the average person did not have access to everything at their fingertips like we do, they had to seriously look for sources in order to find what they are looking for. Now this is also why we are called the lazy generation, everything is handed to us and we never truly had to work for anything. That's how technology changes our thoughts.

FILTER BUBBLES

a) This was my first time being exposed to the idea of filter bubbles and I was surprised by a few things. Although I already knew that google and other search engines would keep a history on you but I didn't know that they completely personalized your computer.
b) Even though I do not like the idea of having my computer personalized without me knowing I'd have to say I do think more about the internet. I always thought that I made smart decisions on the internet but even when I think I do there's still things that happen and I can't really control. There really is no privacy anywhere on the internet.
c) I am one who tends to think about the future a lot, so after hearing about what search engines do I'm wondering if people would really change their ways. I mean people know what fast food does to them but they still eat it. Same concept here, will they really change their ways?
d) How I could improve my searches is by using DuckDuckGo since it does not save anything, but will I effectively use it? That's another question.

Literary Analysis #3

Book: Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne

TOPIC(S) and/or EVENT(S)

1. [a] This book is about a persons’ mistakes and the punishment not seen through all the way. Hester should not have been the only one punished, for this deed required 2 people in order for it to have happen. Now she has to handle her life that way and now raise a young daughter who is stranger than most young children.

[b] This book is about a mistake that affected the life of one women who is now having to deal with the entire town looking down on her and raising a child who seems to have a hard time fitting in.

2. I believe that Hawthorne wrote a book about this event because like me he found it interesting and exciting. He saw this event as the best way to get the idea of thinking before you act out there since what happened here was so dark and twisted that it just had to be written about and read by everyone. With that the hopes that everyone would actually catch on to one of the morals then we would all have spent the time reading it well because we’d all walk away learning something we already knew but now take more seriously. That being think before you act.

3. I chose this book because I liked the whole story, one mistake messing up one persons’ entire life and the other person being in deep guilt about what he had done. A story like this really appealed to me because it showed me that one simple mistake could mess up everything and leave the people involved in some life changing problems. The way this whole story unfolded was always causing me to keep turning the page, I mean first the women is being ridiculed and out of nowhere the man is standing in front of his audience and is admitting to everything he had done. This book was unpredictable.

4. This book seemed very realistic, mostly due to the fact that there have been many versions of this story told and the fact that this could happen to everyone in a different way. With that said I can say that I can relate to Dimmesdale who felt much guilt after doing what he did. Now I can say I have made mistakes that gave me similar results, although my mistake wasn’t like his at all, I still felt guilt afterwards because everyone but me got punished. This was an event that happened last year and I couldn’t believe that everyone but me got caught. At first I felt HUGE relief because I was the one that got away but after that passed I felt bad for everyone that did get caught. So I can say that in this situation I was a lot like Dimmesdale but I never admitted what I did.

PEOPLE

1. I would say yes, if we met the actual characters we more than likely would see them differently. That tells me that Hawthorne was one who interpreted certain things in his own way, every single little detail is not going to be right. I believe he wanted to write this book because he found this whole situation to be very interesting, I mean there was such a big consequence to that one action. The authors overall tone was more dark than anything and this tells me that the author really enjoyed stories that had twists and turns and not so good results.

2. Hester is a women on the tall side, she is very attractive and has long beautiful black hair. She is more of a quiet one, but once she wants to can be the most talkative person you can imagine. She is only shy around newer people. To write about her I would use direct characterization mostly because she is quiet so I would have to tell the audience what she is like. Now Pearl is a strange little girl, she is light skinned, short for her age, very thin, and also has that long black hair. She is also very quiet and does not get along with other kids. For her I would also use direct characterization since she just stays quiet a lot.

3. I liked these people because they seem the most real. I feel like these are actual people that I would meet in life and I can’t see that with other people.

MORE

1. When the author says that Hester was in a darker place and was only seeking the approval of the rest of the town were forms of direct characterization, we would not have known this is if Hawthorne had not told us. Also indirect characterization happens when we see Pearl in the woods and when we see the struggle Dimmesdale is going through, we are told all of this and have to realize that Pearl is not like most kids and Dimmesdale is one that feels much guilt for what he did. Hawthorne uses both method in order to make the story more interesting, if everything was told to the audience it would not be as interesting.

2. Overall the author’s diction and syntax does not change when he is talking about characters. If you notice throughout the book his sentence structure does not change and his word choice seems to stay constant.

3. The protagonist in the story is a dynamic character as well as a round character. I say this because as the story began she was one who kept to herself and tried to just get by. Then as the story progressed she started to look for help with her daughter and also with herself. She began to obtain the traits of a normal human being and finally became part of the town again.

4. After I finished the book I did feel like I had met Hester because of how I analyzed her throughout the book. I feel like someone like her is one that I could actually meet at some point in life, I was stunned at the similarities with her and actual people I know.

STYLE

1. Hawthorne used many tools from fiction writing, the one that was most common was foreshadowing. One of the times we see foreshadowing a lot is when Hester and her daughter are in the woods and the daughter is off in the darker parts of it. It tells us a bit about her, showing us that she is one that is very different from other kids and even though we do not know a lot about her we can assume that she is one that keeps to herself and might be called a freak by other children or by somebody else later in the story.

2. The author here focuses more on the actions and dialogue than on descriptions. With that in mind then the book becomes open to imagination, I mean since Hawthorne does not fully describe the town or anything then you could imagine how it looks and everything. I love that about books because I can make the setting however I see fit.

3. In order to create a mood and tone the author used actions that demonstrated what the character was thinking and doing. With the characters actions being put there we can instantly imagine a tone or mood being placed there. For example when we see Hester’s daughter in the woods we get a darker mood from this because she wonders off a bit alone and her surrounding area is darker that other parts of the woods. This is how he was able to create a tone or mood.

4. Towards the characters I would imagine that the author’s attitude would have been more joyful and interested. I say this because he actually took the time to write an entire novel about this topic and about these people, although he more than likely thinks that the punishments were a bit harsh on them he was still into the idea that all this really happened.

5. The author did not really offer any resources so it did not matter to my thinking of the book/story because there was nothing to interfere with my thinking.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS

1. The key people learn that it is better to confess what you have done than to keep things secret and watch them slowly get worse. The finally learn this after seeing the affect it had on poor Pearl, finally Dimmesdale confessed what he had done in front of everyone. The book slowly revealed that this turn of events was going to happen and just led me to believe it to happen which it did.

ENDUING MEMORY

            The main idea I got out of this book is to always think before you act because you never know what can happen with the choices you make and once they are made there’s no going back. I chose to always remember this one because I feel like this is something I can actually use on a daily basis, other ideas I can’t see myself ever using. Every single day I am faced with choices to make and I can always remember that once one is made I can’t go back with my eraser and change it, I have to deal with it. This causes me to be more careful with the things I do, I have to learn now that there are consequences to any choice I make. This is something everybody can relate to because everyone and I mean EVERYONE has to make choices at one time or another, and they have to know what they are choosing before they actually decide on it. We have to learn to think before acting. 

VOCABULARY: FALL #8

cursory- hasty and therefore not thorough or detailed
He gave a cursory response to the teachers question. 
impetus- the force or energy with which the body moves
A trampoline usually gives the user more impetus than they would originally have. 
pinnacle- the high/most successful point
I have reached the pinnacle of my high school years.
contumely- insolent or insulting language or treatment
Many religions consider similar religions words to be contumely and should not be spoken by anyone. 
bereavement- be deprived of a loved one through a profound absence esp. due to the loved one's death
The man was bereaved of his daughter who was taken by cancer. 
cache- a collection of items of the same type stored in a hidden or inaccessible place
There is a cache of baseball cards somewhere in this house.
consummation- the point at which something is complete or finalized
After 6 hours of typing his essay has come to a consummation and was ready to print. 
calamity- an even causing great and often sudden damage or distress; a disaster
Leaving a cigarette near a grassy area may lead to a calamity so we must all try to prevent it. 
avarice- extreme greed for wealth or material gain
In out lives we have at one point been an avarice, only wanting more and more money. 
fortify- strengthen with defensive works so as to protect it against attack
When an apocalypse comes every town will be fortified in order to defend itself. 
erratic- not even or regular in pattern or in movement; unpredictable
His breathing became erratic after a long run. 
ubiquitous- present, appearing, or found everywhere
After receiving his car it was ubiquitous, he saw the same one everywhere he went. 
fortitude- courage in pain or adversity
She endured her pains with great fortitude. 
nonchalant- feeling or appearing casually calm and relaxed; not showing enthusiasiasm 

He receive a nonchalant shrug after asking if she was okay. 
affect- have an effect on, make a difference to
A public speaker can have a great affect on the people listening. 
effect-a change that is a result or consequence of an action or other cause
There are lethal effects from heavy drinking. 
misappropriate- dishonesty or unfairly take something for ones own use
As a kid I would misappropriate money, taking it from wherever I found it. 
pragmatic- dealing with things sensibly and realistically in a way that is based on practical rather than theoretical considerations
In tough situations always find a pragmatic way to deal with them. 
metacognition- awareness and understanding of one's own thought or process
She is a metacognition now that she knows how to use his thoughts and Interprete them into something useful. 
devout- having or showing deep religious feeling or commitment
Many parents of Mexican decent are devout to Catholicism. 

Ripley's Value of Life

Prereading

Activity 25

1. No, I actually have not read anything from Time magazine. However I have read articles about obesity on CNN’s news page online.

2. Its publication was mainly due to the amount of obese people here in the US and how we could prevent it. That was its main purpose and hopefully it did reach out and help people.

3. Well considering it is a local news station I’d say there are many kinds of articles are included in it. Anything from murders, to laws being changed, even a dog saving people from buildings, anything that seems important.

4 I’m not sure what the question is asking but I do believe that most of the people who read articles like this have been affected by them in either a good or bad way, this depends on their views. However that is the case, in one way or another we are all impacted by the articles written that seem important enough to put on the news.

Activity 26

1. This subtitle tells me that it will be based on the victims of 9/11 who were impacted the most. Also that the government has come up with some kind of system that gives residents that lost loved ones in 9/11 money for the ones they lost. I can assume that this is all one system that calculates how much each one should get depending on how many they lost and also I can assume that this is a way that the government is trying to keep people from talking about that situation.

2. The main thing these texts have in common is that they are all related in how we value our lives. Although they are placed under different views, such as economic terms and philosophical terms.

3. I anticipate that this next text will follow the pattern of being in the first person perspective, it sounds more like a personal story than anything. If it is written in third person then I would love to see how they interpreted it and how they actually found a way to put that under the third person.

Activity 27

Commodify- to turn something into an object of monetary value

Tort- a civil lawsuit to remedy a wrongful act

Garish- offensively bright and showy

Balk- to resist

Concoct- to put together from various materials

Reading

Activity 28

Life in this text is defined as a human body, they use that as a count and just that count to give people the money they think the person deserves. Now the human that is being given a value is actually dead, not a living being. This is surprising because they are putting a price tag in the ones that have passed on and give it to the families that have lost them in the hopes that they would feel better after receiving that money. Also they tend to pay out more on the one that was more successful and not as much as the ones that were more unknown in the world. So not everyone is equal, they favor the ones that have done more for people than the ones that just seemed to be there.

Postreading

Activity 31

1. Well I can say that the text tries to be unbiased but ends up being slightly biased when it comes down to it. It wants to keep this type of balance between the two perspectives of the families that suffered but in the end doesn’t necessarily do the right thing.

2. The evidence that the author gives are things like his personal stories, with those we can really see how she went through things and how she dealt with them. Those tend to be more compelling because they relate to our emotional appeals and really tell us more about the author herself.

3. Considering this was published by Time and written by a women who seems to have personal experiences with this topic I’d say this information is pretty accurate. I mean I’m pretty sure that Time Magazine would carefully check everything before actually publishing it and putting their names on it.

4. This text uses more emotion than anything, considering most of it is a personal story and then the other parts are talking about victims that have died and the families that have suffered through everything. Also we see that the readers are mostly impacted with emotion so its pretty clear that was the authors objective the entire time. Compared to Shakespeare and Ebert, Ripley focuses on more than one perspective. She gives her own story and gives the perspective of the others, Shakespeare and Ebert only give their own perspective.

LITERARY ANALYSIS #2

Literature Analysis #2

Book- Island of the Blue Dolphins

Author- Scott O’Dell

TOPIC(S) and/or EVENT(S)

1. [a] Overall my book is based on a true story of The Lost Women of San Nicolas. In 1835 it is said that an African American girl jumped off Captain Hubbard’s ship and ended up on an island off the Californian coast known as La Isla de San Nicolas. Then, miraculously, Captain Nidever traveled toward La Isla de San Nicolas and found that same girl 18 years later! They say she was found living in a hut with a tamed dog that she had befriended, she was able to befriend it and use it to hunt. It turns out she had jumped off the ship because she knew that her younger brother had been left behind, unfortunately he had been killed by a pack of wild dogs. This is her story. [b] This book is the story of the Lost Women of San Nicolas who lived alone on La Isla de San Nicolas for 18 years and lived.

2. I believe Scott O’Dell decided to write about this women because it was just an astonishing event. This is the 1800’s and women were seen as very inferior compared to men. Now this story of a women who lived on an island for 18 years, survived in a hut, and tamed a wild dog comes up? Well how can’t this catch someone’s attention. At that time it was probably the story of the century.

3. I chose this book because it really caught my attention, not so much because it was a women that survived 18 years on an island but because a HUMAN survived there. I loved the idea that someone was smart enough to live off the resources on an island and also tame a wild dog. Now what separated this from other stories like this was the fact that this one is true, that blew my mind when I figured that out. So after realizing that it was about a women who lived off resources given to her on an island and befriend the wild animals there how couldn’t I stop reading it.

4. Yes I found this book to be very realistic because of the background story that inspired it. I did make one connection with the book and that was losing a loved one. In this case the women lost her brother to a pack of wild dogs and it was pretty cruel how he died. In my case I lost my grandmother before I was able to tell her what I needed to tell her. Both bad ways to go, and I really felt her pain when she lost her brother. That was the main connection I made with her throughout the book.

PEOPLE

1. In this book the authors choices tell me that he can really paint a picture for the reader, I mean you can pretty much place yourself there on La Isla de San Nicolas and just see everything happening as he describes it. I believe Scott decided to write about this book because, just like me, he found it amazing that a women knew so much about survival and was able to use those skills to survive for 18 years on one island. Over the entire story the authors tone tends to be mysterious, going through the pages you are always wondering what’s going to happen next.

2. Karana is a young women who is tall for her age, fit, has long black hair, and having rugged clothing on at all times. How I see her, she resembles a Pocahontas type of character because she is out in the wild and is on an island for a good fraction of her life. She at first was an outgoing girl who really didn’t listen to reason but was fairly quiet most of the time. It is because she is quiet that I would use direct characterization to describe Karana, nobody would know how she really was unless I used that kind of characterization. The second character I chose was Ramo, Karana’s six-year-old brother. He is a little one, dark skinned from always being outside, slightly long hair, and having small rugged shorts that barely fit him. Imagine him like Mowgli from The Jungle Book, he seems to fit the role perfectly. Now he is very enthusiastic and extremely energetic so because of this I would use indirect characterization since the author would get an idea of how he is just by all his actions.

3. What made these two interesting enough to write about is that they resembled characters from my childhood but seemed to be more adult modernized considering Karana went through really hard times and Ramo ended up being killed by wild dogs. That’s what made them interesting to me.

CHARACTER/PEOPLE

1. A form of direct characterization happened more with Rontu, the wild dog that Karana befriended. How the author directly characterizes Rontu is, one, by his physical appearance. He is said to be the biggest dog of them all, the leader, and that he is strong and quite the hunter. Secondly he is directly characterized through his actual emotions, such as when he first met Karana to when he began to warm up to her. A form of indirect characterization happens mostly with Ramo, considering his actions spoke louder than anything. By seeing how energetic he is we can easily tell that he is one that does not listen to others and really does what he wants. Also that he can be hardheaded and this is shown through how he fights with his sister, saying how he is a man already and shouldn’t be treated like a child. The author uses both approaches because there were times when he could obviously describe how a character is without having to tell the audience directly about a character. Now with both of these being used I can see that these characters are not slackers, they are hard-working people and there is not a doubt in my mind that they really know how to handle a situation at first seconds notice. There’s a reason Karana survived for 18 years, she knows what she’s doing.

2. I don’t think the authors diction changes when he focuses on character because he seems to keep his tone no matter what is happening. For example, after Ramo was killed he did not change the overall tone or use of words when describing Karana’s reaction to all of this. It remained mysterious and still kept me wondering what she was planning to do next.

3. The protagonist, being Karana, is more of a dynamic character and also a round character. She is dynamic because she undergoes a huge change after her brother is killed and spending so many years on that island. She is a round character because the ways the author describes her gives the reader a pretty clear picture of what she looks like and how she acts.

4. After everything I really do feel like I’ve met Karana because of how she became after her brothers’ death. I can really relate to her because how she got was exactly how I got after my grandmothers death, she blamed herself and I did too until a lot of time went by. We pretty much are the same in that area so I feel like I’ve met her.

STYLE

1. Scott O’Dell used many tools such as foreshadowing, there was actually a lot of that. For example through Ramos actions (being that he never listened when he should have) we could imagine that something was going to happen to him. For one he did not make it to the ship that left with all his family and friends on it causing Karana to jump off and go back for him. Also his death, he did not listen to his sister and the dogs took advantage of that.

2. Typically the author focused more on actions because those alone would help create a good description of what is going on at that moment and how people must be reacting. The effect on the book was that it made it more action packed and just more interesting because you can place yourself in that setting and perfectly see what is occurring at that moment.

3. The author tends to use foreshadowing to keep things interesting, considering the tone is mostly mysterious that really helps him. Helps keep the reader wondering about what is going to happen next.

4. Toward the subject I believe the author was nothing short of amazed, he can see that in the 1800’s women were seen as less superior and did not appear to be able to do something like this.

5. Now the author does not really offer resources but he does mention the real story title of what he based his book on, The Lost Women of San Nicolas. With that alone I can find the real story and get the real insights about that story.

ENDURING MEMORY

            With this book I can see that Karana took a big risk when she jumped off that ship, and this tells me that when you believe that something is right then the risk is well worth taking. This does relate to our current topic of taking risks and that when it’s the right decision it is worth taking. I found this important because we seem to live I fear of taking said risks and that we can’t seem to shake that fear. We are all afraid of the unknown. Such as now as a senior I am about ready to head off to college and stat a whole new life, which is one of the biggest risks any of us have to take. I do not think I’m ready but you know what it’s to do it now than later, I AM ready for it and I will not back down from it. 

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

Now in the soliloquy Hamlet talks about making his decision, he is so unsure about what he should do. If this were me in the situation then I would more than likely go through with the decision. I mean the only reason he is unsure is because he is afraid of what would happen afterwards and because he can't predict it he is scared of it. I do not work that way, if I know what the right decision is I will make that decision 90% of the time even if I don't know what will happen later. That is my decision, I would go through with the right decision. 

TO ACT OR NOT TO ACT

The biggest difference in Hamlets speech and Steve's speech is that Hamlet takes the role of the guy that gave up and Steve plays the role of the person that always took the risk. Overall Hamlet seems to be the one that's afraid of taking a risk, he entitles people to give up when things start looking bad or things simply start getting too tough to handle. In reality it more than likely just seems like a lot to do but can be taken step by step. That is the way Steve thinks, he believes that taking a risk is better than just quitting. He speaks through experience which leads me to believe that he knows more than Hamlet ever did and has the benefit of the doubt when it comes to risk taking. It is in fact the fear factor that stops all of us from taking all the risks we want to take, but they are all worth the risk if we truly believe they are. 

DEAR STEVE

Well after reading Steve's article in the section The Value of Life I have come to a conclusion, foolishness and curiosity aren't always leading to nothing. I mean Steve here dropped out of an expensive school because he couldn't find any inspiration there, and instead went with his friend to work in his parents garage on a project that everyone more than likely thought wasn't going to work. Although in the end Steve ended up starting a $2 billion business that all started with him saying, what if. This gets me thinking, what if the basic way of thinking isn't fully true? The basic way of thinking is that after high school everyone will go to college and be successful. Well in this case he went but dropped out and still made something of his life. Although this may be a rare case it still makes me wonder if everyone were to try to pursue their life changing ideas would most of us make it like Steve made it? We won't know because too many of us are afraid to take a risk. Although sometimes risks are worth taking. 

THE VALUE OF LIFE

(a) After reading the section I really like the idea of reading for understanding. It seems like we can all read but not all of us can comprehend what we read over the past few days and just seemed to keep reading knowing we don't fully understand what is happening. 

(b) I would like to squire the skill about the so called life schedule. It seems like everything in our lives needs to be ranked and set to a point where we can choose what is most important to us. We are dong something similar with the TIP's but this one seems to get into full detail. 

DECLARATION OF LEARNING INDEPENDENCE

Throughout this year I want to achieve my smart goal of learning when I have finally reached the future me I'm always trying to picture. Honestly I look into the future and see myself still getting ready for the future. By that time I would more than likely have forgotten that when I'm in college I would already be living out as the future me. Which brings about a question, how will I know when I have reached the future me? Is it not possible that I would continuously think about another future me and not realize that by the time I am out of college I would already be the future me? Now this may only make sense to me, but that's something I wonder about. 

Vocabulary:Fall #6

accede- agree to demand, request, or treaty
The authorities didn't accede to the strikers' demands.
brandish- wave or flourish as a threat or in anger or excitement
comprise- consist of; be made up of
The country comprises twenty states.
deft- neatly skillful and quick in one's movements
The deft piece of footwork was one to be admired.
destitute- without the basic necessities of life
Every charity will care about destitute children.
explicit- stated clearly and in detail, leaving no room for confusion or doubt
The speaker's intentions were not made explicit.
extirpate- root out and destroy completely
The use of every legal measure to extirpate this horrible evil from the land.
inopportune- occurring at an inconvenient or inappropriate time
A storm blew up at an inopportune moment.
ironic- happening in the opposite way to what is expected
It was ironic that now that everyone had plenty of money for food they wouldn't go buy it.
musty- having a stale, moldy, or damp smell
A dark musty library was filled with old books.
officious- assertive of authority in an annoyingly domineering way
A policemen came to move them on, an officious, spiteful man.
ominous- giving the impression that something had or unpleasant is going to happen
There were omnious dark clouds gathering this morning.
pinnacle- the most successful point; the culmination
The man had reached the pinnacle of his career.
premeditated- think out or plan beforehand
The criminal had premeditated the robbery.
rampant- of something unwelcome or unpleasant
Political violence was rampant in the US.  
solace- comfort or consolation in a time of distress or sadness
She sought solace in her religion.
stately- having a dignified, unhurried, and grand manner
The man has a tall and stately wife.
supple- bending and moving easily and gracefully; flexible
She has very supple fingers.
suppress- forcibly put an end to
The uprising was savagely suppressed.
venal- showing or motivated by susceptibility or bribery
Why should these venal politicians care how they are related 

adroit- clever or skillful in using the hands or mind
He was adroit at tax avoidance.
amicable- having a spirit of friendliness; without serious disagreement
There will be an amicable settlement of the dispute.
averse- having a strong dislike of or opposition to something
As a former CIA director, he is not averse to secrecy.
belligerent- hostile and aggressive
A bull-necked, belligerent old man.
benevolent- well meaning and kindly
She had a benevolent smile.
cursory- hasty and therefore not thorough or detailed
A cursory glance at the figures.
duplicity- deceitfulness; double- dealing
This man was duplicitous, never knew how to tell the truth. 
extol- praise enthusiastically
He extolled the virtues of the Russian people.
feasible- possible to do easily or conveniently
It is not feasible to put most finds from excavations on public display.
grimace- an ugly, twisted expression on a persons face, typically of disgust, pain, or wry amusement
She gave a grimace of pain.
holocaust- destruction or slaughter on a mass scale
There have been several threats for a nuclear holocaust.
impervious- unable to be affected by
He worked, apparently impervious to the heat.
impetus- the force or energy with which a body moves
Hit the booster coil before the flywheel loses all its impetus.
jeopardy- danger of loss, harm, or failure
Michael's job was in jeopardy.
meticulous- showing great attention to detail
He had always been so meticulous about his appearance.
nostalgia- a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past
I was overcome with acute nostalgia for my days in college.
quintessence- the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class
He was the quintessence of political professionalism.
retrogress- go back to an earlier state, typically a worse one
She retrogressed to the starting point of her rehabilitation.
scrutinize- examine or inspect closely and thoroughly
Customers were warned to scrutinize the small print.
tepid- showing little enthusiasm
The applause was tepid.

FREEDOM OF CHOICE

Pros: 

-you don't have to wait for anyone else, making your own choices means you decide what you want to do when you want to do it 

-you have the freedom to be creative, you set your own limits and there could be no limits if you want it that way 

-ultimately it does seem easier since you create your own pathway instead of waiting for someone else to create a path for you 

Cons: 

-when given the option to make your own choice there is a struggle to get started because there is no topic present 

-if you are making your own choice there is a chance not many people or absolutely nobody will agree with your choice leaving you to back up the choice and do it all on your own 

In the end I'd say I'd prefer to make my own choice because I like the idea of letting my choices be creative and be able to make my own pathway. 

NO CHILD LEFT UNTABLETED

This whole idea seems to be one step further than what this class seems to be doing. In this class we are allowed to use our electronic resources to learn and create our own ideas on just about everything. Now in this article the schools of Guilford are being given tablets as an actual learning tool, this to me is an idea that seems to have been talked about for a long time. Now since they're given the opportunity I think they should actually use it. I mean if you have the ability to use a resource wouldn't you use it? Wouldn't you take full advantage of every resource possible? Well this is how I see these people in Guilford, they are being given a chance that hardly anyone else is getting so I believe they should just take it despite how the author feels about electronics. We are in a new age of technology and if we don't take advantage of all that we have now we aren't going to get as much experience out of our world as we could. Don't you agree? 

Vocabulary: Fall #5

adroit- clever or skillful in using the hands or mind
He was adroit at tax avoidance.
amicable- having a spirit of friendliness; without serious disagreement
There will be an amicable settlement of the dispute.
averse- having a strong dislike of or opposition to something
As a former CIA director, he is not averse to secrecy.
belligerent- hostile and aggressive
A bull-necked, belligerent old man.
benevolent- well meaning and kindly
She had a benevolent smile.
cursory- hasty and therefore not thorough or detailed
A cursory glance at the figures.
duplicity- deceitfulness; double- dealing
This man was duplicitous, never knew how to tell the truth. 
extol- praise enthusiastically
He extolled the virtues of the Russian people.
feasible- possible to do easily or conveniently
It is not feasible to put most finds from excavations on public display.
grimace- an ugly, twisted expression on a persons face, typically of disgust, pain, or wry amusement
She gave a grimace of pain.
holocaust- destruction or slaughter on a mass scale
There have been several threats for a nuclear holocaust.
impervious- unable to be affected by
He worked, apparently impervious to the heat.
impetus- the force or energy with which a body moves
Hit the booster coil before the flywheel loses all its impetus.
jeopardy- danger of loss, harm, or failure
Michael's job was in jeopardy.
meticulous- showing great attention to detail
He had always been so meticulous about his appearance.
nostalgia- a sentimental longing or wistful affection for the past
I was overcome with acute nostalgia for my days in college.
quintessence- the most perfect or typical example of a quality or class
He was the quintessence of political professionalism.
retrogress- go back to an earlier state, typically a worse one
She retrogressed to the starting point of her rehabilitation.
scrutinize- examine or inspect closely and thoroughly
Customers were warned to scrutinize the small print.
tepid- showing little enthusiasm
The applause was tepid.

Literary Analysis #1

Jorge Garcia

Period 0

Literature Analysis

Book: Flat Broke in the Free Market How Globalization Fleeced Working People

Author: Jon Jeter

Topic(s) and/or Event(s)

1. (a) My book is about a man who grew up during the economic crisis. Throughout the book we see him grow up and we see how he deals with all of the hard times handed to him as a child and an adult. He always seemed to be poor, living on conditions that a normal person could not even think of, also we see that he grows up pretty much being an orphan. Tough times made him mature fast, and he never really had a childhood.

(b) Jon Jeter wrote about his life which took place during the economic crisis and because of that grew up in poverty.

2. I think that Jon Jeter wrote about his life because it helped shape who he is and why he became that way. He believed that how he grew up was important enough to make a whole story about because he was a black man living in a white mans’ world and at the same time facing many problems with the one thing everyone needs, money.

3. I chose this book in particular for several reasons. First off when I first saw the book at my local library the title itself reeled me in. In addition to that I also saw that the author was a black man, now I liked the idea of that because I have read many stories about a crisis that were all written by white folks and I was interested to see these same situations seen through the eyes of a person of color (who at the time were not equal to the white man). Then once I started the book I started realizing that I have read about those events before, but all seen through the eyes of people that were actually given all their rights and not through those of a man who really had no rights. What made me want to keep going is my curiosity as to how those events effected his life considering he was not seen the same as a white man.

4. Overall I did find this book to be realistic, I see most of his experiences as being able to happen to anyone. I can relate because my parents went through things like this too. When I was young my parents didn’t always have enough to make ends meet and had to cut back on a lot. They would go days without food yet made sure I was properly fed, in fact they at some points begged for money from their friends or relatives just to keep getting by. So I can honestly say that everything that happened to Jeter could easily happen to anyone, even nowadays.

People

1. Throughout these nonfiction books it is true that it is all told by how the author sees it happening, and there is always the chance that the author doesn’t remember exactly what happened so they would change up the story a little bit to get their main points across. Jeter’s choices in particular tell me that he was one that took notice of everything that went on around him by just noticing the actions of others. He was a man who noticed everything. Now with all the observing he chose to write about this because he wanted everyone to see things through his eyes, to see how the world could really be.

2. To begin with I always see the Jon Jeter himself as a little guy, he had a strong mental mind but as a kid he seemed like the little guy. Then as a young man he grew up with a dramatic change and hard a hard workers look to him, he was in pretty good physical shape and still kept his mind strong. He was a guy who kept to himself most of the time, and we would learn plenty about him just by the way he described things and acted towards others, in other words he was an indirect character. Also the economist that is mentioned, Nouriel Roubini. He is one who is very intelligent, he is a tall man who is on the thinner side but doesn’t seem to mind. He is a guy who gets along with people but at the same time knows how to act when around a certain type of people. He is not mentioned more than twice so he is one I would use direct characterization.

3. Well Jeter was interesting to write about because of course he is the author and wrote this whole book. He has so many back stories that made up his person and was still able to become a pretty well known author who is educated and everything. Also I wrote about Nouriel because I liked the fact that he was remembered by a phrase he said, “the worst housing bust ever” after a house bust that affected a great amount of people. By just being there and saying that phrase on a day to be remembered it became a phrase many now remember and more importantly now seem to remember the guy who said it. That just caught my eye.

Style

1. Jeter used a journalistic style to write this book, its noticeable by the way he tells the story since he doesn’t seem to know what will happen next even though he really does. He goes about as if he is reliving all these events as they go.

2. For the most part Jeter used pretty lengthy descriptions to describe his surroundings and overall it helped me get a good image of what he was really seeing and it let me use my imagination to create the scenes he was in.

3. The author starts to create a mood when he describes the area he was surrounded by. The way he describes things always makes the imagination believe that the area was a bad place, that someone was watching them all, and that he was only there temporarily.

4. Throughout the story I could tell that the authors attitude toward his life was very passionate, he truly cared about what happened to him throughout his life. Just think about it, he took the time to go back to all those memories that were clearly painful to him and write them each down on paper and in detail. This is why I can say he is passionate about what he writes, because he was able to write them all down to his audience.

5 This author in particular did not leave me with many resources, however I do not think that it would’ve mattered because I already had a good idea of what I thought about the book. The book was a good one and it really gave me a better idea of how the world can really be when the only thing that’s different is the color of your skin, and it is cruel.

Enduring Memory

            From this book I do expect to remember this lesson, the lesson being never take a good thing for granted because anything can happen and it can happen to you. Now I learned this from the book, but not just in one specific spot but in the whole book. There just seems to be a domino effect that happens after you start hitting hard times, there just seems to be more and more problems as the book demonstrates. I remember there was a time where I was getting ready for an important test in school and I stopped studying for it. After I pretty much gave up I began to get this weird feeling in my gut, to this day I’m not sure if it was guilt but I know that after I got that feeling I also started to lose focus on other things. Finally after that I started getting into fights with my parents and my girlfriend, then I started thinking what was happening to me. That things just kind of started going downhill. What I’m getting at is that I made one bad decision and it led to more bad things to happen. This book showed me that and I know that I won’t forget that any time soon.