Fences by August Wilson: revised

Fences by August Wilson

After reading fence’s by August Wilson I was generally moved by the text. It’s about this baseball player named Troy Maxin and how he treats his son like dirt and cheats on his wife Rose. Troy wasn’t able to play real baseball in the Negro leagues because he was too old by the time it was made. So he married rose and had Cory. Cory like troy was very athletic and he had gotten a scholarship for football but only if Troy signed the paper, otherwise his coach wouldn’t let him…turns out his father wouldn’t sign the paper because he wasn’t able to pursue sports so he didn’t want Cory to be able to…he was jealous. He’d always treated Cory badly.

I don’t get why he would do such a thing to his son? Maybe it was because that’s all he knew after all he has been through. Troy was kicked out of the house at age 14…he had to fend for himself and had some really tuff times. But isn’t it the parents job to make sure their children get as good a life as they possibly can? This made me think so I looked back to the text and found that he didn’t want Cory to be anything like him, and that’s why he didn’t let him do sports. He won’t let Cory live his dreams. If I was Cory id probably get real depressed because his own father doesn’t like him. But then I’d get real mad. And that’s exactly what happened!

He confronted and fought his father because he had had enough. I can really connect to Cory. There are times when my parents piss me off so much that I just lose it. I just want them to be gone. I want to show them that they can’t control me anymore. But I’ve never really had the guts to really fight any of them. I might talk back and get up in their face but I would never hit them. But that’s one thing Cory did. He knows that his father can’t beat him anymore and he took his chance. He was just so fed up everything he’d been holding in for years finally came out. At the same time Cory wanted to cry and wanted to beat the living out of his father.

I chose do a scene from this book as my monologue for drama. Partly because, it was such a deep, realistic play. I really wanted to try and portray this character as much as I could. So I kept re reading this play over and over again until I felt like I could feel exactly what cory was feeling toward his father.

Overall I think the relationship between Cory and Troy is complicated because I feel like they both love each other but they don’t know to show it until they no longer have each other. One example is when Cory came back from the marines to go to his father’s funeral, his daughter that he had with another women said that Troy used to say that the room she slept in was called ‘Cory’s room’. Even in that small thing you can still tell that Troy missed his son. This reminds me of ’ X-Men fist class’ because Xavier and magneto were fighting and were being ‘mean’ to each other but when Xavier got shot magneto jumped to his aid and was ready to kill anyone that would hurt him because he really loved him like a brother. And he didn’t truly fully realize that until he thought he would lose Xavier.

I really liked this book not only because I could relate it to myself but all the action and words were so powerful. This was a truly amazing play.

social awarness #3

So Cool

By: Gabriel Cano-Garraway

He's so cool everyone wants to hang with him after school

He never did what he was told cause he was just that cold

Hanging at his corner when he was introduced to the stuff, the dust it soon became a must a precious lust

He’s at the top of the world glowing like a pearl; he’s so cool

Smiling his smile when he started seeing things

He started hearing things

Dreaming things

People laughed

People pointed and his family was disappointed

Sweat beading down his forehead

He had just entered the race of survival

Huff, huff

He was behind

He never came in last; but that was a thing of the past

He wasn’t cool…he was just a stupid fool

I wrote this poem on the theme of drugs. This is related to my book ‘Glass’ by Ellen Hopkins which is about this girl who became addicted to drugs and it just totally changed her life around. She started doing things she would never even dare to think of doing before getting on drugs. It also sort of gave her a double personality. She became scitafranic. I feel like drugs is a major issue in the world and it really need to stop. I hope this poem will help others see what is reality

2 articles reading response

These articles really made me think. They talk about poverty and world hunger. It’s more serious than anyone can have imagined!

According this article a person dies every 3 and a half seconds. And unfortunately most of these victims are children who cannot eat and live in extreme poverty, most of this is happening in third world countries like Africa and India. There is plenty of food for everyone but not everyone can afford it. Now I will start thinking differently when I have food and want to just throw it out. I don’t want to waste. We eat about 3 meals every day. Some of the people out there don’t even get 1 meal every couple days.

Unfortunately they is very little we can do about it because its just out of our reach. Of course you can donate food or money…but how much of that will actually get there?

Not everything is how it seems. I feel like this is a very important issue in the world and this could be a really good picture book. It can teach people more about the world and teach people to be to be more thankful. I mean people complain about eating vegetables or mashed potatoes. But some people have to eat bugs just to survive.

Over all these articles really opened up a window for me about the world and some of its depressing issues.


links: http://www.poverty.com/

http://www.globalissues.org/issue/2/causes-of-poverty

Social Awareness: two voice poem

Voice#1                                 both                             voice#2

                                                           I'm 21 years old

I love to eat                                                                                     eating makes me sick

                                                           I feel

Strong when I eat                                                                         I feel weak when I eat

I love it so much I never stop                                            I hate it so much I never start

                                               I didn’t realize I had a problem

Until I had a heart attack                                                    until my bone snapped

                                                           I need to stop

Eating                                                                                    starving my self

                                                          I don’t want to die

social Awareness

- Ah Love, Love, … Love, Love, Love, Love, Love.



What is it with Love
That makes me
then breaks me?

When in love
Do I truly love?

Is it really love
Or do I think that I love?

Maybe I just love being in love
Or love the idea of being in love?

I spent my whole life chasing love.
In the end the one thing I truly love
Could just be the meir pursuit of love.



At first this poem wasn’t very interesting to be. It was boring. But the more that I kept reading it…the more I started thinking and it made me think about my out feelings and about the world and how important this poem is. This is now my favorite poem because it’s so deep. It’s so honest. It’s like the poem is begging for forgiveness. This poem is saying that love is confusing and you’re not sure why you love. You just do. This poem makes me think about why we as humans say we love someone when two months later we don’t. This also makes me thing why we want to love so bad, is there something in our brain that does this to us to get reproducing? Or is it just a feeling that sets of false alarms. The way this poem was crafted was very unique. I like the way the author put questions almost like he was asking himself why this is. I also think that the breaks in the poem were perfect. it kept you interested and made your gears turn. When you read this poem once it’s like you have to read it again. Also I liked the word the author used. Simple but complicated like 'truly' and 'love' and 'pursuit'. This poem is almost like a conversation with yourself but no one knows the answer.

Monsters

In the book monsters I feel like something deeper is going on. It’s about how two young children named Jon and Robert who at age ten killed two children they started by taking apart dolls… then drowning cats when they eventually moved on to human beings. This is very scary to think about and at times hard to read.

The text is mostly narration which I feel gives it a creepier tone and it feels like there solving a mystery. Why did they kill the boy? How did they kill the boy? Do they feel the least bit guilty? To me these are the questions that they need answers for in order to prove them guilty. But at this point the boys are staying strong. There not cracking. They seem unusually calm about this. They are treating this whole thing like it’s not a big deal when it really is. Keep in mind that this is a TRUE story. I find it very freighting that these boys don’t seem to realize what they did was wrong.

Usually when I get into trouble and my teachers or parents ask me questions I normally stay calm, but if I was in this situation, I would pee my pants every time I saw a cop. In this case I can’t really relate to any of the characters because I’ve never been in such a complicated situation. Not many people do…unless you’re a criminal.

I’ve been thinking about the children more and more and I wonder how they are going to be trialed. They’re too young to go juvi or jail. Will they be trialed as an adult? I was once looking at the news and they was a kid who shot his mother with a pistol and it took weeks to decide if he should be trialed as an adult or a child. A child doesn’t know what's right from wrong yet so they couldn’t tell if it was intentional or not…but it was still firsthand murder. And he did have motivation. They later did trial him as an adult. Sometimes kids don’t even get trialed. They might get him a physiatrist and 5 day a week therapy but that’s about it. This also takes place in the 80s and the laws were probably different back then.

Overall I think this is a very scary story and I will continue reading cause I cant wait to find out what happens next.

Social Awareness

Interview

Me: how do you feel you change the world everyday even just a little?

Habib: I feel like I change the world everyday because as a teacher I feel like I'm educating the young and our youth is the future and by passing on my knowledge to them I'm making the world a better place

Me: do you enjoy teaching?

Habib: yes I love it so much, I’ve been doing it for over 20 years

Me: do you think teaching in the classroom is enough?

Habib: if I could I would say kids need 18 hours of school…but it’s not. But instead I do do private tutoring which I feel is a big help in the community especially for those who need it.

It seems to me that Habib really feels like he’s making a change in the world. He’s teaching these kids everything he knows and he enjoys doing it. I feel like this person is making a change as well because he’s putting education in everyone’s day. I mean what would life be in we never had an education? No one would know how to write or how to solve a simple math problem…it would be terrible. I also feel like being a teacher comes with great responsibly and can also act as a role model for his students and maybe inspire them to become a teacher one day. I feel like no one really realizes how hard it is to be a teacher and that they don’t get enough respect. Even though some teachers may seem mean…and some are just down rite  evil…there good people. And this interview proves it.

Fences By August Wilson

After reading fence’s by August Wilson I was genially moved by the text. It’s about this baseball player named Troy and how he treats his son like dirt and cheats on his wife rose. Troy wasn’t able to play real baseball in the Negro leagues because he was to old by the time it was made. So he married rose and had Cory. Cory like troy was very athletic and he had gotten a scholarship for football but his father wouldn’t sign the paper because he was joules. Hed always treated Cory badly.

I don’t get why he would do such a thing to his son? Maybe it was because that’s all he knew after all he has been through. But isn’t it the parents job to make sure their children get as good a life as they possibly can? This made me think so looked back to the text and found that he didn’t want Cory to be anything like him, and that’s why he didn’t let him do sports. He won’t let Cory live his dreams. If I was Cory id probably get real depressed because his own father doesn’t like him. But then I’d get real mad. And that’s exactly what happened!

He confronted and fought his father because he had had enough. I can really connect to Cory. There are times when my parents piss me off so much that I just lose it. I just want them to be gone. I want to show them that they can’t control me anymore. But I’ve never really had the guts to really fight any of them. I might talk back and get up in their face but I would never hit them. But that’s one thing Cory did. He knows that his father can’t beat him anymore and he took his chance. He was just so fed up everything he’d been holding in for years finally came out. At the same time Cory wanted to cry and wanted to beat the living out of his father.

Overall I think the relationship between Cory and Troy is complicated because I feel like they both love each other but they don’t know to show it until they no longer have each other. One example is when Cory came back from the marines to go to his father’s funeral, his daughter that he had with another women said that Troy used to say that the room she slept in was called ‘Cory’s room’. Even in that small thing you can still tell that Troy missed his son. This reminds me of ’ X-Men fist class’ because Xavier and magneto were fighting and were being ‘mean’ to each other but when Xavier got shot magneto jumped to his aid and was ready to kill anyone that would hurt him because he really loved him like a brother. And he didn’t truly fully relized that until he thought he would lose Xavier.

I really liked this book not only cause I could relate it to my self but all the action and words were so powerful.

2 blogs

Bashirs blog: this was a very memorable blog post because it was so detailed and you could tell right away that lots of effort was put into it. And I also feel like his blog is only made to satisfy his teacher but to satisfy himself and in a way I think enjoyed writing this. I can really hear his voice in this piece and reading this piece really made me smile. Here is one example from the text ‘I can relate to Nina in this situation in the fact that I don't accept how I quit a lot of things. I remember in 5th grade I played the saxophone and I was really bad at it so I quit. And I had a period of time where I quit skating but I went back. I also relate to Nina how I now do accept that I quit things and can go back to my normal life. I think that if you don't accept the truth it will drown you and you will keep’
                                             
Sumiyas blog: I liked her blog because it was very detailed and really explained he thoughts. I like how she was just honest about her piece which I find is ‘rare’. Her elaboration was great. I will defiantly continue reading her blog posts.

Between a rock and a hard place #2

I’ve noticed that a lot of the book is about his memories. They seem to have a great significance in his life and play a really important role in the book. You know how people say that their life flashed right before there eyes moments before they get into a car accident? Well the same thing is happing here but instead he has 127 hours to think about. I’ve also noticed that he doesn’t just think about anything, he thinks about stuff that is important to him, like his family and his friends. One example is when he was thinking about how he moved to Colorado when he was younger but he was scared because he thought that there was snow year round and that you would have to even ski to school, until his parents told him otherwise. And ironically he starts to love skiing and even joins the ski club at his middle school.
In a way I can connect to Aron. Even though I’ve never but stuck under a rock I do get board a lot and tend to think about my life a lot. Mostly I think about all the dumb stuff I’ve done and i would give anything to take those stupid actions back. But sometimes I think about other stuff like good moments in my life that i will never forget like countless times I’ve gone upstate with my friend and done fun stuff...and dangerous stuff.
One time me and my friend were at this place called the ice caves. I was about 7 or 8 and there was this very narrow cliff that i decided to check out. I was just walking when i slipped and fell...lucky instead of falling to my death there was a thorn bush growing right under(about 5 feet bellow and it was growing on the rock which was convenient) the cliff that broke my fall. then my friend pulled me up.

Between a rock and a hard place

Aron must be a really strong because he’s been there for a while now and he still hasn’t given up yet! Every couple of hours he coming up with new idea to get out of his situation...yet none has worked.  Aron is trying really hard to stay sane. He’s recording himself, taking picture and all of that. But it seems to only work for a short period of time. He’s illuminating a lot and is apologizing for a lot as well. He’s in a tough situation and I don’t know if I could last as long as he is. But he seems to be going back on things, and he thinks this all happened for a reason.
I can connect Aron too Darran Shan from cirque du freak because they both have methods of overcoming almost impossible obstacles. They both have guts and they both have hearts. Like when Darren had to kill Steve and jump into the river to save himself and the world. Aron on the other hand is sharpening his knife and drinking his own pee to survive! These are both really strong characters and I wonder what’s going to happen next in the book.

This is a poem about the book