of it.
DAY 5:
I found an article in The New York Times called "Haiti Fears Cholera Will Spread In Capital."
The article claims that a total of more that 2,674 cases of Cholera have been found, which is very extreme. Because of how bad the Haitian economy is, and how little funding it gets from other countries, treating the sick will be nearly impossible. Cholera is a disease usually spread by dirty water, and we had thought we had gotten rid of it completely.
This article addresses the social issue of poverty, and does this in a really touching way. It brings social awareness to everyone who reads it, and I applaud the author. It is truly upsetting how little help Haiti (Port-Au-Prince) gets.
Final Reflection:
This experience really did make me much more socially conscious. I came into the project with the mindset of "Yeah, I already know that there are tons of issues that exist-Our world is much less than great." Although I did know already about most of the issues I wrote on, I was informed of some things that were really just so terrible. So bad. This assignment did not inform me of many things that I didn't know about, but it did make me learn more about the cruelties of the world. In some ways, I hate this assignment. And I hate learning more about our world, because the more I learn, the more I lose faith. Sometimes it just hurts me how screwed up our world is.
But in other ways, this assignment is great. Because the more I learn about these issues, the more I appreciate my own life. And the more I want to change it. Because sometimes I just can't bear this world, and it doesn't do me anything to sit here.
I appreciate this assignment because it made me appreciate my own life, and want to do more.
Respond to a Song/Poem on Social Issues:
Working Class Hero- John Lennon
Although this is not a song to be proud to decode, the message is still great as any.
Lennon complains in this song about the woes of society. He complains that "As soon as your born they make you feel small/By giving you no time instead of it all." He complains that throughout life, your peers and the people you look up to only try to make you working class. Nobody expects to get to the top, and nobody aims for the top. And that's just one of the reasons he is against society. Also, he addresses the issue of how everybody is subjected to conformity. Everybody strives to be working class, and the authorities "hate you if your clever/and despise a fool."-Verse 2. John Lennon writes about how the authorities torture you throughout your whole lives until you become one of the mold.
And that's an issue we all have-None of us want to be just another kid. We all want to be something more, but nobody wants to let us. They tell us that the top exists, but don't help us find our way up.
Observations Of My Surroundings:
1) My neighborhood has become very wealthy very quickly, and we can barely afford our tiny apartment. It seems like Everyone I see on the streets around me is either a hipster/yuppie, banker, banker's wife/mother with $2,000 stroller, or just another rich young thing. (Well, that's not including all of the old Italian ladies). And you know what-Nearly none of these people are black. It's almost surprising to see someone black on certain blocks of my neighborhood. It almost comes as a shock. I think this is extremely unjust. It could mean that for some reason, african americans just don't like Carroll Gardens. OR it could mean that despite all of our countries achievements in anti-racism, white people are still earning more money. And that's just sad.
2) Why in the world do adults sell drugs and cigarettes to kids my age? That really is just sick. It shows how far people go just to scrape up a little bit of money, which can show how depressing our economy is. It also shows how society pushes kids my age into thinking that drugs, cigarettes and alcohol are cool. And it shows how much peer pressure affects us.
3) I realized that well, most of my friends are white. I'm not saying that I don't have black friends, but most of my friends are from pretty much the same background and financial situation. At first I felt really bad, but then I got to thinking that I wasn't the only one. At lunch today I watched all the cliques pass me by and realized that all of the friends were alike. Most cliques were just hispanic, white, black, rich, "ghetto", and whatever else. We don't mingle with anyone besides people similar to ourselves.
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Tuesday, October 26, 2010
Entry # 9: Mother to Son Langston Hughes
The poem Mother to Son is beautiful in a simplistic kind of way. When I first read it, I thought I already knew all of what it was about. I was sure I had grasped every single bit of symbolism. However, as the class discussed their opinions on what the poem meant, I realized that I did not know all of the poem at all. The beauty of this poem is that parts of it had a different meaning for everyone, and everybody can connect to it in different ways. In the poem, what everyone agrees on is that the stairway symbolizes life. I'm sure it's not just life, but the journey of life.
In brief, The mother figure in the poem is recounting to her son about the hardships of her life, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair, it's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up." But, she says, I've kept on going. She tells her son about how even though her life had been hard, she's kept on living it and persevered through it. "I'se been a-climbin' on." She says that she has kept on climbing, " and reachin' landin's, and turnin' corners." Basically, she is saying that her life has been tough, but she's struggled through, found the strength to live to live on, and has been rewarded with good times too.
When I read this poem, I envision an old, dark woman sitting in a rocking chair. She's one of those southern women that you can tell is frail in body but strong in heart. And she's Langston Hughes' mother. I imagine Hughes sitting by her, you can tell he feels weak and sad. --This is how I think the poem was born. Hughes was going through a rough time, so his mother gave him a pep talk.
But oh what a beautiful pep talk it was. And, oh, how I wish my mother would talk to me like that. Whenever she tries to talk to me, it just ends up sounding cheesy and insincere. This poem could sound Cliche, cheesy and insincere-But it is pulled off really well, and it doesn't. It just sounds beautiful, and maybe because it's so real. While we can all say that our lives are imperfect, and "haven't been no crystal stair", I can almost assure you that the Mother has actually had a life with tacks and splinters. Well, we all have-But you can tell her problems were big. It may be from the limited knowledge I have of Langston Hughes, and I know that his mother was a black woman in the times where women and people of color had no rights. So we can all complain about our lives sucking, but there are bigger things than just our petty problems.
There are so many ways you can reach deeper into this poem. I believe it was Fiona Socolow who called the crystal staircase "Cold perfection," and someone else pointed out that crystal is sharp. Which led me to thinking deeply about the crystal staircase. Because I feel that there is nothing worse than being cold, frigid. Like the Ice Queen in Narnia. If there is a Hell, I doubt it's burning. More likely it is ice cold, and you're alone. So I went into questioning whether the Crystal Stair is really good. Because if there is one thing that I've learned from my life- Your problems build your character. I know if I had gone through life without the problems I've faced, I'd be be a completely different person. Living your life in complete perfection gets you nowhere as an actual human being.
This poem is great because you can dig so deeply into it- And everybody can have a different idea about it. For instance, you don't even have to consider this poem as actually from a mother to a son, but more of a lesson to society. There are so many ways you can think about this poem, and that's what makes it beautiful.
In brief, The mother figure in the poem is recounting to her son about the hardships of her life, "Life for me ain't been no crystal stair, it's had tacks in it, and splinters, and boards torn up." But, she says, I've kept on going. She tells her son about how even though her life had been hard, she's kept on living it and persevered through it. "I'se been a-climbin' on." She says that she has kept on climbing, " and reachin' landin's, and turnin' corners." Basically, she is saying that her life has been tough, but she's struggled through, found the strength to live to live on, and has been rewarded with good times too.
When I read this poem, I envision an old, dark woman sitting in a rocking chair. She's one of those southern women that you can tell is frail in body but strong in heart. And she's Langston Hughes' mother. I imagine Hughes sitting by her, you can tell he feels weak and sad. --This is how I think the poem was born. Hughes was going through a rough time, so his mother gave him a pep talk.
But oh what a beautiful pep talk it was. And, oh, how I wish my mother would talk to me like that. Whenever she tries to talk to me, it just ends up sounding cheesy and insincere. This poem could sound Cliche, cheesy and insincere-But it is pulled off really well, and it doesn't. It just sounds beautiful, and maybe because it's so real. While we can all say that our lives are imperfect, and "haven't been no crystal stair", I can almost assure you that the Mother has actually had a life with tacks and splinters. Well, we all have-But you can tell her problems were big. It may be from the limited knowledge I have of Langston Hughes, and I know that his mother was a black woman in the times where women and people of color had no rights. So we can all complain about our lives sucking, but there are bigger things than just our petty problems.
There are so many ways you can reach deeper into this poem. I believe it was Fiona Socolow who called the crystal staircase "Cold perfection," and someone else pointed out that crystal is sharp. Which led me to thinking deeply about the crystal staircase. Because I feel that there is nothing worse than being cold, frigid. Like the Ice Queen in Narnia. If there is a Hell, I doubt it's burning. More likely it is ice cold, and you're alone. So I went into questioning whether the Crystal Stair is really good. Because if there is one thing that I've learned from my life- Your problems build your character. I know if I had gone through life without the problems I've faced, I'd be be a completely different person. Living your life in complete perfection gets you nowhere as an actual human being.
This poem is great because you can dig so deeply into it- And everybody can have a different idea about it. For instance, you don't even have to consider this poem as actually from a mother to a son, but more of a lesson to society. There are so many ways you can think about this poem, and that's what makes it beautiful.
Monday, October 18, 2010
Appreciation Draft 1
A Wrinkle In Time is one of those beautiful books that you can never stop learning from. No matter how many times you read this book, you can always come out of it with new knowledge of the book, and the world. It's wonderful how Madeleine L'Engle incorporated so many lessons, so many ideas into a couple hundred pages. And what I truly appreciate is this: You can tell that these lessons and ideas mean something to her. They aren't just BS to give the story props with the parents. Madeleine L'Engle herself hates conformity. L'Engle herself has had issues with being the odd one out. I'm sure that she has felt the ways Meg feels, in feeling insignificant and not special.
It's a problem I've always had in writing; I find it hard to connect my personal problems to others. Well, it's not even just a problem I've had in writing-It's a problem I've had in life. It's hard for me to understand that the problems that I have, other people have too.
L'Engle realizes what I haven't quite yet, and she channels this into her books. She writes about problems that not just her and I can connect to, the whole world can connect to. She really hits home with all the issues in the book, to a point where I want to reach out and comfort Meg myself, tell her that she really isn't the only one. I want to scream to Charles Wallace, No! Even if it sounds good to have everyone think like you, you know conformity isn't right!
Last year i had a lot of trouble in my independent writing piece. One night as I went to bed I listened to A Wrinkle In Time, and felt the soul in the piece. I realized that as I listened, I felt as if I were Meg. I felt her own emotions, and for that time as I was half-awake, I was Meg. I realized what my piece was lacking. In the morning I brought the book to school and used it as a mentor, and it really helped. Now I know this was a cheesy connection, but that is the magic of the book. It's the difference between the argument you make just for the sake of argument, and when others can tell that your argument is coming from within.
Madeleine L'Engle is my idol. She learned how to channel her emotions into writing so she did not only create this one brilliant book, but over sixty more. And all her work paid off-She received a Newberry Medal. One of the things that really upsets me in my life so far is that I feel like I can't connect. Although a little part of me knows that many many people feel the same way I do, I can't bring myself to find out if the people I know understand. In this way, I'm caged. I can't get out of this personal bubble of mine, because I can't talk to people. Madeleine L'Engle has popped the bubble that is more like a steel wall to me. I know I'm only thirteen, but if I keep on doing this I know I'm only going to start hating myself.
Everybody can fall in love with this book. Everybody can love and hate the characters at the same time, in the exact same way you love and hate yourself.
This book is fabulous, this book is life-changing. This book is one that not just I could appreciate, but anyone.
It's a problem I've always had in writing; I find it hard to connect my personal problems to others. Well, it's not even just a problem I've had in writing-It's a problem I've had in life. It's hard for me to understand that the problems that I have, other people have too.
L'Engle realizes what I haven't quite yet, and she channels this into her books. She writes about problems that not just her and I can connect to, the whole world can connect to. She really hits home with all the issues in the book, to a point where I want to reach out and comfort Meg myself, tell her that she really isn't the only one. I want to scream to Charles Wallace, No! Even if it sounds good to have everyone think like you, you know conformity isn't right!
Last year i had a lot of trouble in my independent writing piece. One night as I went to bed I listened to A Wrinkle In Time, and felt the soul in the piece. I realized that as I listened, I felt as if I were Meg. I felt her own emotions, and for that time as I was half-awake, I was Meg. I realized what my piece was lacking. In the morning I brought the book to school and used it as a mentor, and it really helped. Now I know this was a cheesy connection, but that is the magic of the book. It's the difference between the argument you make just for the sake of argument, and when others can tell that your argument is coming from within.
Madeleine L'Engle is my idol. She learned how to channel her emotions into writing so she did not only create this one brilliant book, but over sixty more. And all her work paid off-She received a Newberry Medal. One of the things that really upsets me in my life so far is that I feel like I can't connect. Although a little part of me knows that many many people feel the same way I do, I can't bring myself to find out if the people I know understand. In this way, I'm caged. I can't get out of this personal bubble of mine, because I can't talk to people. Madeleine L'Engle has popped the bubble that is more like a steel wall to me. I know I'm only thirteen, but if I keep on doing this I know I'm only going to start hating myself.
Everybody can fall in love with this book. Everybody can love and hate the characters at the same time, in the exact same way you love and hate yourself.
This book is fabulous, this book is life-changing. This book is one that not just I could appreciate, but anyone.
Wednesday, October 13, 2010
A Wrinkle In Time research
To understand more deeply the themes in A Wrinkle In Time, I first looked up the author. I found her Official Site, and was informed of many things that surprised me.
I had picked up throughout the book that the Murray family was undeniably Catholic, but I had no idea what christianity actually meant to the book. L' Engle worked as a librarian at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine for over 30 years, and was always extremely devout. One of her books is titled "Walking On Water" and she writes repeatedly of God and greater powers than humans in her various poetry books.
The idea of greater powers is very much in fact what sparked the idea of A Wrinkle In Time. Madeleine L' Engle often dabbled in thoughts of what was outside her own world, and Meg is thrown out in to a whole, huge world. Bigger than she ever imagined, where she learns that there are powers much greater than herself-Good and bad.
The three witches are on the good side, and Calvin even calls them "Guardian Angels, Messengers of God." They represent some of what God stands for: Love, individuality, free will, and moral.
The Black Thing and IT are on the bad side, and represent Biblical sins. On Camazots, IT controls everyone's mind (DEFINITELY against the bible), and leads a nation through conformity.
The way IT leads Camazots has been called over and over a communism, and communisms, are, well, not saintly. (Look, I don't know much about God and religion, but I'm pretty sure these things are not good.)
If IT's ways don't actually fall under the seven deadly sins, I'm sure God still disapproves.
Also, when Meg and her comrades are on Uriel, the creatures sing a song that translates into the words of Isaiah. AND the Gospel of John is quoted.
I'm sure I could keep going, but I really don't know anything about religion. So I'm going to stop here.
Another deep connection in A Wrinkle In Time is to the Cold War. Camazots, with everyone under the control of IT, can be thought of as the soviet union. Our world, Meg's life is the West. When fighting a mind-battle against IT, Meg quotes The Declaration of Independence.
"... All men are created equal."
"But don't you see, Meg, that is what life on Camazots provides us......."
"Like and equal are not the same thing at all!"
In quoting The Declaration of Independence, it becomes clear that the author is speaking about the Cold War.
Another theme in the book is the moral intelligence of children. Madeleine L'Engle never got very good grades, but she was always very smart, with lots of things going through her brain. In her introduction to the audio-CD version of the book, she complains about having to go to many publishers before finally getting someone to publish her book. She says that, well, it's because they were grown-ups.
"The trouble with grown-ups, you see, is that they spend too much time in their little offices with the closed windows and the closed doors; and they are never open for new ideas, whereas children are always open for new ideas."
In the book, Charles Wallace is the smartest of them all. Although he doesn't talk, and everybody says her and his sister are "not all there", they are two of the smartest children around.
I wonder If Madeleine L'Engle meant to connect them to herself. She was quite an interesting person, and i wish I could have met her.
I had picked up throughout the book that the Murray family was undeniably Catholic, but I had no idea what christianity actually meant to the book. L' Engle worked as a librarian at The Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine for over 30 years, and was always extremely devout. One of her books is titled "Walking On Water" and she writes repeatedly of God and greater powers than humans in her various poetry books.
The idea of greater powers is very much in fact what sparked the idea of A Wrinkle In Time. Madeleine L' Engle often dabbled in thoughts of what was outside her own world, and Meg is thrown out in to a whole, huge world. Bigger than she ever imagined, where she learns that there are powers much greater than herself-Good and bad.
The three witches are on the good side, and Calvin even calls them "Guardian Angels, Messengers of God." They represent some of what God stands for: Love, individuality, free will, and moral.
The Black Thing and IT are on the bad side, and represent Biblical sins. On Camazots, IT controls everyone's mind (DEFINITELY against the bible), and leads a nation through conformity.
The way IT leads Camazots has been called over and over a communism, and communisms, are, well, not saintly. (Look, I don't know much about God and religion, but I'm pretty sure these things are not good.)
If IT's ways don't actually fall under the seven deadly sins, I'm sure God still disapproves.
Also, when Meg and her comrades are on Uriel, the creatures sing a song that translates into the words of Isaiah. AND the Gospel of John is quoted.
I'm sure I could keep going, but I really don't know anything about religion. So I'm going to stop here.
Another deep connection in A Wrinkle In Time is to the Cold War. Camazots, with everyone under the control of IT, can be thought of as the soviet union. Our world, Meg's life is the West. When fighting a mind-battle against IT, Meg quotes The Declaration of Independence.
"... All men are created equal."
"But don't you see, Meg, that is what life on Camazots provides us......."
"Like and equal are not the same thing at all!"
In quoting The Declaration of Independence, it becomes clear that the author is speaking about the Cold War.
Another theme in the book is the moral intelligence of children. Madeleine L'Engle never got very good grades, but she was always very smart, with lots of things going through her brain. In her introduction to the audio-CD version of the book, she complains about having to go to many publishers before finally getting someone to publish her book. She says that, well, it's because they were grown-ups.
"The trouble with grown-ups, you see, is that they spend too much time in their little offices with the closed windows and the closed doors; and they are never open for new ideas, whereas children are always open for new ideas."
In the book, Charles Wallace is the smartest of them all. Although he doesn't talk, and everybody says her and his sister are "not all there", they are two of the smartest children around.
I wonder If Madeleine L'Engle meant to connect them to herself. She was quite an interesting person, and i wish I could have met her.
Monday, October 4, 2010
Entry # 6- A Wrinkle In Time
On page 40 of A Wrinkle In Time, Charles Wallace and Calvin discuss the facts of them being "special."
Charles Wallace says to Calvin, "She'd be delighted. Mother's all right. She's not one of us, but she's all right."
"What about Meg?" Questions Calvin.
"Meg has it tough." Charles Wallace said, "she's not really one thing or the other."
This is one of the paragraphs that most sticks out to me from the entire book. The first thing that interests/annoys me is Charles saying, "She's not one of us, but she's all right...Meg has it tough, she's not really one thing or the other."
This classifying, analyzing is terribly annoying to me. Children of that age are not allowed to already be tainted by society's flaws, the ways in which we group each other. "Not really one thing or the other."
What a blunt, harsh statement.
Which leads me to my other thoughts on this paragraph. I just criticized Charles Wallace for being harsh, yet if it were me I wouldn't know what to think. If I put myself in Megs' shoes, how would I feel?
I really want to say that I'd mostly be proud. Proud that I didn't fit into one thing or the other, proud that I don't conform. But I'm not sure that would be my overriding feeling.
I have never really been able to fit in. It's getting to a point in my life where people are beginning to accept me more for who I am, but it hasn't always been that way. And I'm sure it will never fully be that way.
To start off, I'm a little bit odd. And on so many levels, I couldn't be called one thing or the next. Not gorgeous or ugly, bone-thin or obese, Caucasian or fully Hispanic, horrible or really nice.
So I can connect to Meg feeling like there's everything wrong with her, as she expresses in the first chapter. I can connect to her feeling kind-of outcast. But I also have pride that I am who I am, am from where I'm from. I am proud of my little quirks that can make me something, that keep me from being nothing at all. I can't say I'm proud of my whole self. But I'm proud of a good portion.
Which is definitely not to say that I haven't been influenced by society. I, like Charles Wallace and the rest of the world, have a good idea of what "normal" or "cool" or "special" is supposed to be. And I, like the rest of the world, have no idea what it really is.
I know this is straying off topic a bit, but I want to expand to this idea of society telling us we're one thing or the other. Because we've all been told the same thing.
In the book, a character quotes that Dennys and Sandy "seem to be perfectly normal, nice kids," while Meg "the unattractive older sister" and Charles Wallace, "the baby boy", "certainly aren't all there."
What makes Meg so unattractive? What is our idea of beauty? What makes kids "not all there."
What makes me one of those people that people can't really classify when I ask them to? Although I'm not sure if the reason is that they simply can't or are afraid that they'd hurt my feelings, people who aren't afraid of naming kids "the popular crowd," or "those smart kids" are suddenly confused when I ask them about me--Why is that?
Who created these ideas of what normal and attractive and special are? How did they spread around, and REALLY, how can we prevent these kinds of labels?
Charles Wallace says to Calvin, "She'd be delighted. Mother's all right. She's not one of us, but she's all right."
"What about Meg?" Questions Calvin.
"Meg has it tough." Charles Wallace said, "she's not really one thing or the other."
This is one of the paragraphs that most sticks out to me from the entire book. The first thing that interests/annoys me is Charles saying, "She's not one of us, but she's all right...Meg has it tough, she's not really one thing or the other."
This classifying, analyzing is terribly annoying to me. Children of that age are not allowed to already be tainted by society's flaws, the ways in which we group each other. "Not really one thing or the other."
What a blunt, harsh statement.
Which leads me to my other thoughts on this paragraph. I just criticized Charles Wallace for being harsh, yet if it were me I wouldn't know what to think. If I put myself in Megs' shoes, how would I feel?
I really want to say that I'd mostly be proud. Proud that I didn't fit into one thing or the other, proud that I don't conform. But I'm not sure that would be my overriding feeling.
I have never really been able to fit in. It's getting to a point in my life where people are beginning to accept me more for who I am, but it hasn't always been that way. And I'm sure it will never fully be that way.
To start off, I'm a little bit odd. And on so many levels, I couldn't be called one thing or the next. Not gorgeous or ugly, bone-thin or obese, Caucasian or fully Hispanic, horrible or really nice.
So I can connect to Meg feeling like there's everything wrong with her, as she expresses in the first chapter. I can connect to her feeling kind-of outcast. But I also have pride that I am who I am, am from where I'm from. I am proud of my little quirks that can make me something, that keep me from being nothing at all. I can't say I'm proud of my whole self. But I'm proud of a good portion.
Which is definitely not to say that I haven't been influenced by society. I, like Charles Wallace and the rest of the world, have a good idea of what "normal" or "cool" or "special" is supposed to be. And I, like the rest of the world, have no idea what it really is.
I know this is straying off topic a bit, but I want to expand to this idea of society telling us we're one thing or the other. Because we've all been told the same thing.
In the book, a character quotes that Dennys and Sandy "seem to be perfectly normal, nice kids," while Meg "the unattractive older sister" and Charles Wallace, "the baby boy", "certainly aren't all there."
What makes Meg so unattractive? What is our idea of beauty? What makes kids "not all there."
What makes me one of those people that people can't really classify when I ask them to? Although I'm not sure if the reason is that they simply can't or are afraid that they'd hurt my feelings, people who aren't afraid of naming kids "the popular crowd," or "those smart kids" are suddenly confused when I ask them about me--Why is that?
Who created these ideas of what normal and attractive and special are? How did they spread around, and REALLY, how can we prevent these kinds of labels?
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