Reading and Wrtitng for Social Justice

The Television show Red Band Society, is about a group of misfit teenagers living in a hospital, who all suffer from different disorders. In this TV show, a group of unlikely friends turn out to have a lot in common. Teenagers in Fox’s Red Band Society, are from every social group you could think of. For Instance there’s the shy girl, also known as Emma, who’s suffering from an eating disorder. Then there’s your soccer star Leo that due to cancer has had his leg amputated. In every Hollywood production show our age, there’s always the bitchy head cheerleader and that is Kara. We also have our bad boy Dash, and the new kid Jordi. According to this Television show “normal” teens are age are portrayed to be tall, and skinny. In this show is there is one black, one Hispanic, and a larger group of white kids. In this TV show, the amount of money the children have differs. For instance Kara comes from a very wealthy family, and her moms are celebrities. Whereas Jordi comes from a very poor family, and used to live in a very small home in Mexico. I feel like teenagers in the 21 century, are perpetuated to be young and hip. And they are always popular and have everything they ever wanted. These images of teenagers makes kids feel like, if they are not like what they are portrayed to be on Television then they are social outcasts in society.

 

 

·       Kids playing basketball

·       Old lady taking cans from the garbage

·       Men asking for change outside of Key Food

·       A group of kids yelling at a boy to get off the swing

 

I feel that the group of kids yelling at the little boy to get off the swing, were violating his rights. I feel this way because the little boy has the freedom to be on the swing, and the older kids didn’t have to be bullies and take that right away from him. They were bullying him, and no one deserves that. The group of kids weren’t physically bullying the boy, but they were verbally bullying him. What this really means is that instead of the bully beating up the boy, the bullies used insults to bring him down. And by doing this it breaks down your confidence, and makes you feel like your nothing. I feel that in the 21^st century the two types of bullying that I feel are a major problem are Cyber bullying and Verbal bullying. I feel this way because, instead of being physically bullied, these bullied are breaking down their victim’s confidence, which in the end could cause more damage mentally.

 

On August 9 in Ferguson Missouri, an 18 year old African American, Michael Brown was shot and killed by a Police Officer. Many people feel that the shooting of Michael Brown was an injustice. This is because, the shooter Police officer Darren Williams who is white, shot an unarmed black man. This is an injustice because, Brown was unarmed, which means this is an act of pure racism. It makes me feel like anyone could be shot and killed just out of an act of racism. It kind of makes me scared for my life in a sense. At the time Michael Brown wasn’t doing anything illegal, so there was no reason for him to be shot and killed. This wasn’t an accident, it was racism.  But I feel that at the same time, the people of Ferguson, shouldn’t be rioting in the streets, because they are causing for havoc for the people of Missouri.

Press, Alan Scher Zagier Associated. "Officer Who Shot Michael Brown Resigns in Ferguson." ABCNews.ABCNews Network, n.d. Web. 30 Nov. 2014. <http://abcnews.go.com/us/wirestory/15-arrested-demonstration-return-ferguson-27247709>.

Recently in the news, the newscasters have been reporting about the Ebola crisis. Eighty percent of the people who have contracted Ebola in the United States have survived. If I were one of the people who contracted Ebola, I would be scared for my life. This being because, it is a fatal disease and it is also not curable. It would make me feel like people are scared to be around me, because they are scared to catch this terrible disease.  At the same time it would also make me want to live everyday like it’s my last. But at the same time, I would feel like the country hates me, because I could infect a lot of people if the situation isn’t handled properly. It would be all my fault that hundreds of people contract Ebola. I couldn’t handle living with that burden.

“Mean” – Taylor Swift

You, with your words like knives and swords and weapons that you use against me
You have knocked me off my feet again got me feeling like I'm nothing
You, with your voice like nails on a chalkboard, calling me out when I'm wounded
You, pickin' on the weaker man

Well you can take me down
with just one single blow
But you don't know what you don't know                                                         

Someday I'll be living in a big ol' city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean

Why you gotta be so mean?

      You, with your switching sides and your wildfire lies and your humiliation
You have pointed out my flaws again as if I don't already see them
I'll walk with my head down trying to block you out 'cause I'll never impress you
I just wanna feel okay again

I'll bet you got pushed around, somebody made you cold
But the cycle ends right now 'cause you can't lead me down that road
And you don't know what you don't know

Someday I'll be living in a big ol' city
And all you're ever gonna be is mean
Someday I'll be big enough so you can't hit me
And all you're ever gonna be is mean

Why you gotta be so mean?

                                                                                                                                           

            The song “Mean” written by multi – platinum artist Taylor Swift, is about standing up to bullies or “haters”. Swift wrote this song after critics wrote nasty things about her. This song makes think that you should stand up for yourself. It also makes me think that people bully other people, because they are upset with themselves or insecure. The overall meaning of this song is that being bullied can’t stop you from perusing your dream. In fact it should just make you push even harder to accomplish it.

 

Good about our World	Unfair about our World
-       People caring for each other	-Hunger
-Freedom/ democracy	- Poverty
-working to end sickness	-war
-working to end world hunger	-under privileged people taken advantage of

 

      I interviewed my father, Nicholas and he felt that one of the good things about our world is how much people care for one another. For instance people help random strangers in the fight to end world hunger. People even go overseas to help countries end sickens. This is recently scene in the Ebola crisis. One major thing that is great about this world that some countries don’t even have is democracy. But in comparison there are a few unfair things about our world.  For instance there’s world hunger. But what’s most upsetting about this is that people take advantage of these under privileged people. What I also think is unfair about our world is that we have war and poverty.

 

 

I interviewed my mom, because she always gives back to the community. For instance at my old school, she created a music program for children to learn how to play an instrument. She would also run a canned food drive, and she also did the Marty- Markowitz Brooklyn Borough toy drive. My mom inspires me, because she is very community orientated. She taught me to always give the community, because there is always someone less fortunate than you are. She changes the world every day in my eyes. She recycles, she donates, and she also cares about the environment.  

 

The Fault in Our Stars

            The book, The Fault in Our Stars, written by John Green is about a seventeen year old girl named Hazel Grace Lancaster. Unlike most girls her age, Hazel Grace suffers from thyroid cancer, which has spread to her lungs. Hazel attends a cancer patient support group, where at one of her meetings, becomes acquainted with Isaac and Augustus. As Hazel and Augustus’s friendship develops, they start to realize that this world is not a “wish –granting factory.” They also realize how insensitive the world truly is. This is seen when Isaac’s girlfriend dumps him after he becomes completely blind. We can also see the frustration that Augustus feels with the realization that there is no sense of heroism in dying from cancer. John Green describes the young adults in the cancer patient support group to give us an insight into their emotions.

One of the patients in the group is named Isaac, and suffers from eye cancer. He is partially blind in the beginning of the story, and is expected to undergo an operation, which will leave him completely blind. As the story begins Isaac says, “It’s looking like I have to get surgery in a couple of weeks, after which I’ll be blind … being blind does sort of suck. My girlfriend helps, though.” Once Isaacs’s girlfriend, Monica, realizes what is going to happen to Isaac she tells him, “she couldn’t handle it.” Isaac is totally destroyed by her decision, not to live up to their promise to always be there for each other. “I kept saying always to her today, always always always, and she just kept talking over me and not saying back. It was like I was already gone, you know? Always was a promise! How can you just break the promise? “Isaac realizes that sometimes people don’t understand the promises they’re making when they make them. He understands how cruel the world can be at times.

Augustus Waters like most of the characters in Greens the Fault in Our Stars are dying from cancer. For him, the biggest fear he faces is that his seventeen year life span would be wasted if he did not leave a mark. Augustus says, “I fear oblivion.” Hazel tells Augustus about a book called Imperial Affliction, where the main character dies of cancer during the authors account, and in fact in the middle of a sentence. Augustus relates to this because he feels that he will be dying in the middle of his life. Because of this, he tries to track down the author Peter Van Houten and finally succeeds in meeting him with Hazel. Both Hazel and Augustus are looking for comfort and direction from Van Houten. However, when they meet Van Houten he says, “ I regret that I cannot indulge your childish whims, but I refuse to pity you in the matter to which you are well accustomed…Like all sick children you say you don’t want pity, but your very existence depends upon it.” This comment reminds Augustus that from the time he was diagnosed with cancer, most people pitted him. However what he was really looking for were people to understand that he was scared of dying, and not leaving his mark on the world. Augustus doesn’t want people to pity him, but rather to remember him for what he has accomplished up to the middle of his “sentence”.

John Green writes a story based on how insensitive the world truly is. Each of the characters in the book is part of a cancer support group, which is faced with the reality that their young lives will be cut short. They come to realize that the world does not only not understand, but is also cruel and unjust. Isaac realizes this when his girlfriend dumps him, because she cannot handle the fact that he will be totally blind. For Augustus, he struggles with the idea of oblivion and leaving his mark on society. After Augustus does die, Hazel posts a comment that reads, “We live in a universe devoted to the creation, and eradication, of awareness. Augustus waters did not die after a lengthy battle with cancer. He died after a lengthy battle with human consciousness, a victim- as you will be-of the universe’s need to make and unmake all that is possible.” Hazel, Isaac, and Augustus learn that the world is not a, “wish- granting factory,” but they still left an impact on the world around them.

 

The Hunger Games

 Most teens are not asked themselves until they become adults. However, in the book The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins, a sixteen- year old girl named Katniss Everdeen takes part in her country’s annual Hunger Games after her sister is chosen at the age of only twelve. The Hunger Games started as a punishment to the districts after they rebelled against the Capitol. So every year as a reminder of this, each district is required to send one boy tribute and one girl tribute to fight it out in the arena until the lone victor remains. The only decent thing about the Hunger Games is that if you win, you receive fame and fortune for the rest of your life. As Katniss starts to prepare for the Hunger Games in the Capitol she starts to realize the inequality between the rich and the poor people of Panem.

            One way Katniss starts to realize this inequality between is when, she travels to the Capitol. There she notes how in District Twelve she had to hunt illegally, because there isn’t enough food to eat, whereas in the Capitol, there are lavish feasts and elaborately prepared dishes. For instance, on Peeta and Katniss’s first night on the train to the Capitol Katniss says, “The moment I slide into my chair I’m served an enormous platter of food. Eggs, ham, piles of fried potatoes. The basket of rolls they set before me would keep my family going for a week.” She realizes how in the Capitol the food is rich and abundant, whereas in District Twelve many of its residents don’t have enough to eat. Unlike Katniss, they are frightened to venture off into the woods.  This is the first time Katniss starts to notice how the Capitol never shares its wealth with any of the districts, and how they just watch the other districts suffer for their entertainment.

            Another way Katniss Everdeen comprehends that there is inequality between the rich and the poor is when, she grasps that the idea of the tessera system, which is the way the tributes are selected for the Games. She notices how it is really just a way for the Capitol to single out the rich from the poor. The tessera system keeps track of the number of extra rations of oil and food that are requested by the citizens. The more request for rations the more the children become qualified for the Hunger Games. In theory this means that the pools by which tributes are chosen, named “the Reaping,” is random and anyone can be picked. But in reality, what this means is that the poor citizens will take more food in order to survive, which means their name would be entered extra times in the Reaping. In the story Katniss has a flashback of the first time she took tessera. She explains that, “So, at the age of twelve, I had my name entered four times. Once, because I had to, and three times for tesserae for grain and oil for myself, Prim, and my mother. So now, at the age of sixteen, my name will be in the reaping twenty- two times.” This makes me think that at a young age, Katniss realized that for the rich tributes, it is an honor to compete in the Games, while for the poor tributes; it is basically a death sentence. This is also because the rich tributes don’t take tessera, and most of them are well trained for the Hunger Games and often volunteer to take part in it simply as a sport.

             The Hunger Games written by Suzanne Collins teaches us about the inequalities between the rich and the poor. Katniss learns that the Capitol indulges on lavish foods and feasts, when they know that the districts are struggling to survive. Katniss also starts to learn that the reaping is arranged for the poor to automatically have their names entered more times than the rich citizens of Panem. However, even the Games are usually set up for the poor to be the victims; Katniss defies the odds and becomes the victor, achieving fame and fortune.

Ashes

“Ashes”

          It’s not unusual for teens to have problems with their parents when growing up; this is the case in the short story “Ashes”, written by Susan Beth Pfeffer. It is about a girl named Ashes, whose parents got divorced. In the story, Ashes faces a tough decision, because her father is pressuring her to steal money from her mother. He does this by manipulating her and by promising her things that she knows will never give her. Susan Beth Pfeffer wants the reader to know that relationships are complicated and that they can also affect the decisions we make.

          One example of a way that Ashes starts to learn that relationships are complicated is when her father asks her to “borrow” money from her mother; in fact he says to Ashes, “I just thought maybe you could borrow the money. Just for a day or two, until I straighten out all my finances. Your mother would never know the difference”. What Ashe’s father really wants her to do is to steal the money, that way he doesn’t end up getting in trouble with the person to whom he owes it. What this shows is that Ashes father really doesn’t care if Ashes gets in trouble for taking the money; he just doesn’t want to get in trouble himself. Also this shows that her father is using Ashes for her to steal her mother’s money to pay this person back. He doesn’t care about the effect this will have on Ashes and his relationship, he just cares about himself. This also makes Ashes realize that whatever decision she makes it will affect the relationship she has with her father. The way Ashes father behaves makes Ashes feel like her father never wants to have a real relationship with her.

          Another way that Ashes starts to learn that relationships are complicated, and that they can affect the decisions we make, is when her father makes promises that she knows he will never keep. For instance in the passage it says, “When I was little, Dad used to promise the stars for a necklace, but like most of his promises, that one never quite happened.” What this quote means is that her father makes empty promises and never fulfills them. This affects Ashes and her father’s relationship because this means that she will never really trust him. In-fact this makes Ashes realize that her father will never be reliable. This is proved when her father forgot to pick her up at school, and when he forgot to give her the money for the class trip. This makes Ashes realize that her father always forgets about her and manipulates her when he needs something.

          “Ashes”, by Susan Beth Pfeffer teaches us that relationships are complicated and that they could affect the decisions we make. Ashes learns this when her father manipulates her in order for her to make the decision to steal money from her mother.  She also learns that relationships can get complicated when her father makes empty promises that she sadly knows will never come true. In today’s society, we see money examples of divorced parents, and the effect this has on teenagers. The story “ Ashes” gives us a very interesting view on this very delicate problem.

         

The Giver

The Giver by Lois Lowry is about a boy named Jonas, who lives in a futuristic society that has eliminated all pain, pleasure, hatred, and fear. In this society, there is no prejudice. This is because everyone looks the same, basically acts the same way, and competes the same. One major thing this society has eliminated is the freedom to choose. For instance, every child in their society at age twelve is assigned a job based on their interests. Everything changes when Jonas is assigned the highest honor in their community. He is to be the receiver of memory. Jonas receives memories from the past, which might be either good, or bad from an old wise man, the wise man has asked Jonas to call him The Giver. As Jonas starts to receive more memories from the Giver, he starts to learn the difference between pain and pleasure, two emotions his society has taken away from everyone.

One way that Jonas has learned about pain is when he starts receiving memories from the Giver, Jonas realizes that the memories he receives that involve pain open him up to the idea of love and comfort, these are two feelings his community doesn’t show towards one another. The problem with Jonas’s community is that since no one has experienced pain, they don’t have anything to compare their memories to; this means that, they cannot value the experience. Another problem with Jonas’ community is that they don’t feel grief. This means that they don’t honor life. In fact when a baby is born in their community, if the baby doesn’t pass the community standards, the baby is put to sleep. Since the member of his society are emotionless, they are not concerned with this including Jonas’s father, It is his job as Nurturer to perform this responsibility.

One way that Jonas’ community takes away pleasure from its members is that they took away people’s “stirrings”, which are emotional feelings toward another person. Jonas experiences this during a dream, when he shares the feelings he’s having about Fiona. His parents, instead of explaining what he was feeling, took away his stirrings, and gave him a pill, that he would have to take every day, so that the feelings wouldn’t come back. Another day Jonas learns about pleasure is when the Giver passes on the memory to him about the meaning of the word, “love”. Jonas gets upset when he asks his parents if they love him, and they reply, “You used a very generalized word, so meaningless that it’s become obsolete” (pg. 127). The Giver teaches Jonas about how pleasure is an important emotion to feel in life.

The Giver by Lois Lowry, tells us about two important emotions. The Giver teaches Jonas, that without feeling pain he will never feel love and comfort. The Giver also teaches Jonas that without being able to feel and show love towards another person, he will never truly understand the value of life. Lois Lowry teaches her readers that without pain and pleasure, they will never understand life. Jonas learns the difference between pain and pleasure through the memories he starts receiving from the Giver.