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Reading Response on Divergent

            When people think about character archetypes and science fiction books people tend to think about The Hero. But it is not only and always about the hero, it is also about many other kinds of character archetypes. In the book Divergent by Veronica Roth there are many hidden as well as exposed character archetypes that are important to identify to better understand the book. This is a book about a girl named Tris who lives in this futuristic dystopian like world where there is this large city that is divided into factions and that no one can leave. Each faction believes in a specific virtue: candor, abnegation, erudite, amity, and dauntless, and the protagonist Tris after being told that she is divergent, is more than one virtue, must choose which faction she wants to join.

            In this book Tris is the heroine who has to go through an initiation and must complete the quest to bring back peace and order to the city. In her initiation Tris crosses a threshold into a new much more dangerous world where she has to go through the dauntless initiation so that she can become a member of the dauntless. During this initiation Tris becomes much more mature and dependent and is little by little starting to discover a secret about the dauntless and erudite. The secret is that the erudite developed a serum that they injected into all the dauntless, except the dauntless leaders, to mind control them into following the erudite command. Because Tris and her mentor and boyfriend Four or Tobias are divergent the serum does not affect them so they must go on a quest to save the city. Also another very important figure to Tris is Tris’s mom, who in the book is the mother figure because she helps direct Tris, give her guidance and love. Other important figures in the book are Peter who is the shadow and Christina who is trickster.

            To sum everything up, Divergent is a very interesting book that has many different character archetypes that are in some cases easy and in other cases hard to identify. I thought this was a great book and I am sure that I will go on to read the next books in the series.

Writing Prompt on Coming of Age

            As I am transitioning from childhood to adulthood am starting realize and notice a lot of the differences as well as similarities between these two sections of my life.

            There are quite a few differences that I am beginning to experiences during this transition. One big difference that I believe to be the hardest to get used to is the independence. As I slowly coming out of childhood and nearing adulthood I am realizing how much more independent I am becoming. When I was smaller I used to heavily rely on my parents. They would be the ones who made the decisions for me and they were the ones who planned everything for. Now I am almost always the making my decisions and I am the one who my parents are now asking whether I have plans for the day or not. This feeling of independence is nice but can sometimes also be frightening to see myself detach from my parents more and more. All of this talk of independence brings me into another difference between childhood and adulthood. Now that I am becoming older and more independent, I have to start thinking of things like what I want to do for the rest of my life/my job and my own family. In my childhood, I never had to think about having a family of my own or what job I want to do when I grow up because I had to think about school and my education and I already had a family that I loved. Now that I am growing up I have to start thinking about the future not just the present.

            Although there are a lot of differences that I am going to have to get used to in this transition, there are also a lot of similarities. One big similarity is responsibilities. In both childhood and adulthood we always had big responsibilities for example: in childhood you have to take responsibility of work in school and your actions in and out of school and in adulthood you have to take responsibility for your work and family and once again your actions. Another big similarity is that throughout your life, childhood and adulthood, you never stop learning knew things. Whether it is learning how to do something, learning what something is, or learning about something that is happening on or off of earth you are never going to stop learning things whether you like it or not.

            All in all, in this writing prompt on coming of age I wanted to show the differences and the similarities that our childhoods and adulthoods have. In the piece I hope I said something that made think and or realize something new because I am sure I have discovered many things writing this.

Non-Fiction Article From Upront on "The Natural"

            “Zach Hodskins was born without a left hand and forearm, but that hasn’t dampened his basketball ambitions.” This is a quote from an upfront article called “The Natural” by Mike Tierney which is about a teenager named Zach Hodskins who despite his disability of having no forearm and left hand, became a great basketball player. His determination and passion for the sport led him into a spot in the University of Florida basketball team.

            Hodskins first picked up a basketball at the age of 5 and from then on never let go. He played through elementary, middle school, high school, and now college. At first even his own family thought that he would have a better chance at becoming the president of the United States of America then playing for a “college powerhouse.” That idea changed after he got accepted to that team and got a guaranteed entry for the next year. Hodskins, as said by his coach, was accepted to the team for his skills, nothing else: “We’re first and foremost recruiting you as a player. You are an inspiration, but you are here because you are a good basketball player.” At the height of 6’4” averaging 11 points a game last season, Hodskins is a great passer, amazing all around shooter, and has an incredible drive to play and win. About a year ago, a scouting service posted a short clip of Hodskins highlights on YouTube. The video now has over 4 million views. In one of his many games the coach from the opposing team kept shouting, “Make him go left!”– A command meant to force Hodskins to drive the side of his missing hand. Unaffected by this Hodskins says, “I tell them, ‘Keep forcing me left.’ I get more separation when they do that.”

            Hodskins motivation and love for the sport is what pushed him and carried him into becoming the inspiration and great player he is. He finds it upsetting when he sees young people who are embarrassed about their disability and try to hide it by put clothes over it and cropping parts out in photos. He says, “These kids need to be themselves, not hide it all their lives.” Hodskins never lets anything discourage him and never will, his disability is not be an obstacle for him, it is the thing that pushes him to do the things he does.

Reading Response On "Please Don't Take My Air Jordans"

Expensive Air Jordans are wanted and sold all around the world and teens will go through all kinds of measures to get them. The poem “Please Don’t Take My Air Jordans” by Reg e. Gaines is about a teen who kills another innocent teen just so he can have that teens Air Jordans to look good for himself and in front of his friends. This poem makes me think about murder and theft in the world and how it can happen because of peer-pressure and selfishness.

            Part of why this teen, or speaker, did what he did was because he wanted to look good in front of his crew or posse. The other reason is because it made him feel good about himself, it raised his self-esteem: “and the reason I have to look real fly/well to tell ya the truth man I don’t know why/I guess it makes me feel special inside/when I’m wearing fresh gear I don’t have to hide” (Gaines 13-16). This quote shows how the speaker feels and thinks about himself. It seems as though he doesn’t really care too much about anything else but what he is wearing and how he looks. He doesn’t only care about how others see him, he also cares about how he sees himself.

            When the speaker kills for these shoes one can just see how selfish he is. This quote is from after he commits the crime, “the very next day I bopped into school/with my brand new air jordans man was I cool/I killed to get them but hey…I don’t care/cuz now…I needs a new jacket to wear” (Gaines 53-56). One can see how he has no remorse about what he just did, he just moves on as though nothing happen. Not only does he not feel any remorse or regret, he is already thinking about the next thing he needs which he is probably going to kill to get. He literally states in the poem that he does not care, he does not care that he just killed another man for just some pair of shoes. All of this was caused by peer-pressure and selfishness.

            This poem also gives the readers a flash of reality and that murders and thefts of this kind unfortunately really do happen. An example in the poem of this murdering and theft is, “while laying there dyin all he could say was/please…don’t’ take my air jordans away…/you think he’d be worred about staying alive/so I took off with the jordans there were tears in his eyes” (Gaines 49-52). There is a lot going on in this part of the poem and one is the irony. After this teen get shot, as the speaker says, one would assume that his last words would be more of mercy but all he really asks is for the speaker to not take his air jordans. Another thing I noticed was that this relates back to this thirst for air jordans. This want and need for air jordans is shown when there are these two teens, one on the verge of death and he only cares about the shoes and the other killing for these shoes. This just shows how much people now a days want air jordans and other clothing in general.

            This text makes me realize that our world is no where near a perfect world and that there are people out there who have no respect or care for others. All these people care about is themselves. This text also reminds me of where I live because these kinds of things happen all the time in neighborhoods I have been in and that are around the corner. I think that whoever reads this poem should really take a moment to reflect on this reality and think about this the next time they by a pair of shoes or clothing.

Rant

        I absolutely hate and despise people who take things without asking and don't put it back. These people just come into your house and just start picking up random stuff and then they just leave it out. The thing that I hate the most though is that when you go to their house they expect you to not touch anything and they get if you do. When these people go to others house they don't care about that persons stuff so they just do whatever they want. Also, these people take all your stuff out and then when they go your mom yells at YOU for make such a mess and so then obviously you're forced to clean up after them. In the end people like this usually don't end up being my friends and if somehow they don't, they probably won't be coming to my house almost ever.

Reading Response to Feed

           Technology abuse and addiction is a huge social issue that is becoming more and more of a problem. The book Feed by M.T. Anderson focuses on this issue by showing how life is in a far yet near future all by the point of view of a teenager. This book is mostly about this new invention called the Feed. The Feed is basically a smart phone built into your, it is part of your brain. Technology addiction and involvement in human life is taking to another level in this book to make a point and show what can happen if human kind continues this way.

            I think that with this book, Anderson wanted to show and make us realize what to show and make us realize what our world is turning into. He shows us a world where you are being almost harassed with technology. I think he wants to warn us in some way by giving us an example of a realistic scenario of a technology-oriented world. One way he makes this book realistic the way he writes it, the style. Since it is all from the point of view of a teen, Anderson makes up slang for these teens by either making up some words or by using other existing words and giving them a different meaning. Some of the slang these teens use are words like: “unit”, which translates into dude or man, “mal” or “going into mal”, which is basically some king of drug-like thing, and “meg”, which means very or a lot. Also, in this world school is School™ and clouds are Clouds™ which shows how in this world even natural things or place have a trade mark. All this was done to and to the realism of it all.

            This whole book in the end makes you think about how it all relates to the social issue technology we have today and how it is affecting us. This book made me really reflect and think about what might and can happen in the future.