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.

Non-Fiction Article From Upfront on “The Fly in the Ointment"

            An idiom is a phrase that means something completely different from its literal meaning. We use idioms everyday without even noticing, for example: “riding shotgun” or “spill the beans” or “Achilles’ heel”, sound familiar? Of course it does. Have you ever wondered where all these idioms come from? How they were made? It all comes from real things from the past.

            The example I mentioned earlier about “riding shotgun” comes from the days of the Wild West. In the days of the Wild West traveling by stagecoach was dangerous because it could take hours, and sometimes, even days, to get from town to town and so bandits and Indians often carried out attacks or ambushes. For protection, an armed man would usually ride near the driver to serve protection. Nowadays, “riding shotgun” usually means riding in the front seat next to the driver.

            The second example I used was “spill the beans” which comes from ancient Greece, where people would give their vote by dropping an either black or white bean into a jar. If someone were to knock over the jar all the beans or votes would be exposed, the secret of the votes would be exposed. Today, we say “spill the beans” when we are trying to convince someone to tell their secret.

            The last example was “Achilles’ heel”. Achilles is one of the great heroes of ancient Greek mythology. When he was a baby his mother took him by the heel and dipped him into a river with special powers that made him immortal called the Styx. Years later Achilles was murdered in the Trojan War when an arrow stuck in the one heel where the water had not touched him. Nowadays the “Achilles heel” means a flaw or a weakness.

            All of this is a different way of showing what the past was like and what ways people would do things differently from us today. I found this really interesting when I first heard about how and where these phrases came from. There where many of these idioms that I was shocked to hear where they came from. These examples are only three of hundreds of other interesting idioms that exist. Try thinking of and idiom, look up its origin, and get your mind blown.

Second Critical Thinking Question on The Death Cure Publish

For my second critical thinking question I wanted to focus on: Who has “power” in your text? How does that power get shown? At the moment I am still reading The Death Cure by James Dashner and I feel that this question is really one I thought a lot about as I read this book. What I find interesting about this question is that it not only relates to my book but it relates to the real world.

I think that it is pretty evident who has power in my book: WICKED. WICKED is the organization assembled by all the surviving governments around the world and it has been created to find a cure for the Flare. The problem is that all these remaining governments have devoted every last cent to create WICKED and allow it to have the best equipment and people. Because of this, this makes WICKED very powerful and respected. Also, not only does WICKED have all the money, people around the world believe in WICKED and this makes them even more powerful. The only reason though why people believe in WICKED is because that is all people can believe in. If WICKED fails, there is no more hope and the whole world will go to ruins. Another way this power gets shown is that WICKED can practically do what ever they want and can’t be stopped by anyone because of all the power and money it has, this shows total power. One way this is shown in the book is that to find the cure WICKED creates in experiment that basically tortures teenagers, the worst part is that they don’t know anything because their memories have been taken away, so from when they are put into the trails to when they die they will never get to remember their childhood or their parents. All of this, once again, shows you how WICKED was able to do such a thing without out anybody stopping it.

            The way power is shown and who has power is shown in this book relates to how power is shown and who has power in the real world. It all falls back down to the governments and other organizations that have money and how they are always making big decisions whether it is international, national, or in a certain area/state. What I realized in reading this book is that power almost always comes from money – without money you usually can’t have power.

Second Critical Thinking Question on The Death Cure

For my second critical thinking question I wanted to focus on: Who has “power” in your test? How does that power get shown? At the moment I am still reading The Death Cure by James Dashner and I feel that this question is really one to think about as you this book. What I find interesting about this question is that it not only relates to my book but it relates to the real world.

I think that it is pretty evident who has power in my book, and that is WICKED. WICKED is the organization assembled by all the surviving governments around the world and it has been created to find a cure for the Flare. The problem is that all these remaining governments have devoted every last cent to create WICKED and allow it to have the best equipment and people. Because of this, this makes WICKED very powerful and respected. Also, not only does WICKED have all the money, people around the world believe in WICKED and this makes them even more powerful. The only reason though why people believe in WICKED is because that is all people can believe in. If WICKED fails, there is no more hope and the whole world will go to ruins. Another way this power gets shown is that WICKED can practically do what ever they want and can’t be stopped by anyone, this shows total power. One way this is shown in the book is that to find the cure WICKED creates in experiment that basically tortures teenagers, the worst part is that they don’t know anything because their memories have been taken away so from when they are put into the trails to when they die they will never get to remember their childhood or their parents.

The way power is shown and who has power is shown in this book relates to how power is shown and who has power in the real world. It all falls back down to the governments and other organizations that have money. What I realized in reading this book is that power comes from money – without money you can’t have power.

Reading Response on Critical Thinking Question

          The question that I decided to focus on is how the book The Death Cure by James Dashner, part of a 4 part series, relates or involves the issue of justice in the world. I chose this question because I felt that it is a big issue in these books as well as in the world. The main focus in these series is that there is a disease spreading throughout the whole world called the Flare, so the remaining governments in the world that have survived have come together to create and organization called WICKED – World In Catastrophe Killzone Experiment Department. This organization has been created purposefully to find a way to beat the Flare. To do this though they have created an experiment by wiping out teenagers’ memories and using them like lab rats. All of this makes you think about the decisions governments/organizations have to make and whether or not these decisions are fair.

            I think, justice comes in account in this book because there are really two main views of which one can agree with: One is to wipe out any memories of these teenagers’ family, childhood, and everything else and make them go through torturous trails and experiments just to study their brain responses and potentially find a cure for the rest of the world, or, not do any of that and find another solution to this problem, maybe less torturous. I don’t really know which is worse and which is better but it is definitely an issue in the world that the government always has to make a very difficult decision in society, for example: sacrifice tens of thousands of people to save millions more or not sacrifice anyone but risk losing many more than the other. These are all situations and problems that I think all fall in the category of justice and fairness. In this book, The Death Cure, the teenagers and Thomas, the protagonist, piece by piece have put together ideas and solutions and so they all rebel and escape WICKED believing that there must be another way. Trust is also an issue that comes up because after all WICKED has done to them they simply cannot believe a word they say anymore.

            All in all, I believe that the main issue that this book brings up is justice in society and in the world. Justice and injustice is everywhere in the world and it will never change, but that doesn’t mean it is not important and that nobody should try and do something about it.

Monday Muses Promt: Inspiration in Art

Fine arts is my greatest passion. For all that I can remember, I have always had a pencil in my hand. When I was a toddler, I started out drawing creatures and monsters from my imagination and then, in kindergarten, I extended my interest into drawing people, portraits, and landscapes. From then on I never stopped following my love for art and I kept trying to improve. Drawing is a hobby of mine; I often do it on my free time. Whenever I get new art supplies I can’t wait to get my hands on them. In fact, just two days ago, my mom brought me back from her trip to Paris three really cool color sets: soft pastels, oil pastel, watercolors. I have already tried them all!

Drawing is very relaxing and stress relieving. I find it much easier to concentrate on what someone else is telling me while I draw. When the teacher talks to us in class, I like to doodle on post-its as I take notes because I can focus more on what the teacher says. Sometimes, I even use my doodles as visual notes.

Drawing for me is also a natural way of communicating with others. For example, I love to draw “characters” from my imagination that express my feelings. I portray my friends to emphasize their unique facial features showing how I see them. I draw comic strips of what happened on a certain day or to express my thoughts on the world. In elementary school, I made bookmarks with my funny monster drawings on them to give in class as “valentines”. I was so proud to see that my friends appreciated and actually used them!

I’m lucky that my mom is an art restorer and she comes across many famous paintings, so I have opportunities to see all these beautiful works of art. My mom also brings me to many museums and galleries of contemporary and modern art, antiquities and jewelry. I visited art museums in many different cities in America and Europe, like New York, Philadelphia, London, Rome, Florence, Arezzo, Pisa, and Venice. A really great experience was to go to the Biennale in Venice, a huge art event with artists representing countries from all over the world. I took lots of pictures and also made a few short videos.

I think that my passion for art has helped me in many other activities. In group projects, for example, my group members ask me to illustrate and organize information with diagrams and images. In social studies, I enjoy drawing political cartoons and laying out maps and timelines. In math and science, I find organizing my work/data into graphs and tables easy. It may sound weird, but even in soccer art helps my vision of the game. I see the movements of the players, the lines of passes, and the trajectories of the shots as one big moving drawing.

Art connects everything.

First Draft of Argument Essay

            Throughout America books are being banned and stripped from our school libraries preventing kids, teens, and in some cases adults from reading what they want. One of the many books that is high up on the banning book list is “The Catcher in the Rye” by J.D. Salinger. Although “The Catcher in the Rye” has been challenged many times, I believe that access to this book should not be limited because of the important message it delivers and because it is unfair and banning books unconstitutional.

            One reason “The Catcher in the Rye” should not be banned is because of the important lesson it teaches. The lesson and the meaning of this book is a very universal lesson that can be applied to any kid. The lesson Salinger gives is that if one does not work hard enough in school, then their future will end up being awful. The whole book is about the protagonist, Holden, living a life out on the streets with no where to go and no one to help him after getting kicked out of school because he failed in four subjects. As said in his words: “They kicked me out. I wasn’t supposed to come back after Christmas vacation, on account of I was flunking four subjects and not applying myself and all.”(Salinger 6). He was also too scared to tell his parents so he decided to try and wait until the end of the school year. Although he “couldn’t” tell his parents about what happened he did need someone to help him out morally, an example is: “I thought of maybe hanging up if my parents answered, but that wouldn’t have worked, either.”(Salinger 87). In this scene he was thinking of calling his little sister Phoebe for some comfort but he decided to not take the chance of being caught by his parents.

            Another reason this book should not be banned is because it is unfair to people who want to read it and because banning books is unconstitutional. As said from the article Eve Samples: Martin County mom trying to get 'Catcher in the Rye' banned from classes: “It would not be right, however, for the school district to ban it [The Catcher in the Rye] from English classes simply because it does not mesh with her values.”(Samples). This is an article about a mom who wants to ban “The Catcher in the Rye” mostly because it takes the lords name in vain. The point, however, is that it is unfair to restrict others from reading a book just because it does not meet someone else’s book appropriateness. In addition, banning books is unconstitutional because it breaks the rule of the first amendment in freedom of speech, meaning that taking away someone else’s words is taking away freedom of expressing themselves however they want.

            The other side of the argument claims that “The Catcher in the Rye” should be banned because it inappropriate for kids and teens because it includes prostitution and underage drinking. For example in this scene Holden asks for a prostitute in his room:     “ ‘Okay. I’ll send a girl up in about fifteen minutes.’ He opened the doors and I got out. ‘Hey, is she good looking?’ I asked him. ‘I don’t want any old bag’.”(Salinger 119). This is not a valid point, though, because these are real life problems that many adolescents come across in their life and it is right for younger people to know about and know the effects of this. Also, this book brings up another deep feeling problem; Holden had a younger brother named Allie who, as said near the start of this book, died a while back because of leukemia. I believe that this is a problem Holden faces every day and that it is the cause of some of the issues he has in his life. As said in the article The real message of 'The Catcher in the Rye': “Throughout the story, Holden tells us it's all about Allie… For me, that is the thread that links all of Holden's good and bad choices together, that is the layer we must reach to really understand this story, and that is what we adults can look to in order to really recognize the weight and beauty of Salinger's book.”(Kahane). This shows how hard life is for him and how this affects him a lot in his action.

            The writers main purpose of this book is to show how hard/depressing life is for some kids who have lost someone in their lives and how important it is to keep up hard work in school and to have your loves close to you in times of trouble. Salinger really wants to emphasize how hard life is for many adolescents by bringing the reader into the shoes of an adolescent who has big problems of his own. The best thing to do is to just keep pushing forward fight through all the hard and painful times because out there is a great future awaiting every single on of us.

Monday Muses On "Lean On Me"

One of my favorite songs is definitely "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers. The first time I heard it I was 4 year old and it was played at my Pre-k graduation and from then on I have been listening to this song many times. The two main reasons why I love this song is because of the great lyrics and because it is a very comforting song. This song is about friendship and makes you reflect on what being a friend really means.

            The artist is able to deliver a very simple message: a friend is always there for you. The whole song is about Withers describing his thoughts on what real friendship is and I like it because I completely agree with him. He has many lines throughout the song that I truly like, for example: “Lean on me / when you're not strong / and I'll be your friend / I'll help you carry on / for it won't be long / 'til I'm gonna need / somebody to lean on”. In this verse, he is essentially saying that friendship is trusting and understanding each other, and it is an exchange of help and support. Withers is showing that real friends should always be there for each other. Another line I like is: “If there is a load you have to bear / that you can't carry / I'm right up the road / I'll share your load / if you just call me”. This is probably my favorite verse in the song because Withers gives an example of friendship by using an everyday common experience.

            "Lean On Me" by Bill Withers is my favorite song because I grew up with it and because friendship is a value I believe in very much. I think it is very important to have friends in anyone’s life.

Theme Oriented RR on The End Of Infinity

        In the book The End Of Infinity by Matt Myklusch the theme is how valuable trust is and how it can crush friendships. The rustov, or the enemies, virus infects Jack, the protagonist, and he has admitted that in the future he is supposed to be a super rustov warrior but he believes that he can not only prevent this future but be that only person who can stop the war. Because of his virus, though, no one except a couple of friends still have trust and faith in him, the rest just want him dead.

            Throughout the book Jack does not only search for the solution to his grave problem he also is on a search for the trust of his friends and the trust of the people of Imagine Nation. Jack understands why everyone hates him and is afraid of him because deep down he is afraid of himself and he doesn’t really know if he will be able to defeat his future and save the world. The thing that I found funny or I should say ironic is that he is trying to save the world from himself. Every once in a while the author throws in some small jokes or funny scenes and I feel that it is a nice addition to the usually intense and almost stressful writing.

            All in all, I like how the author incorporated the theme of trust in such an action and adventure filled book. Myklusch throughout the book includes even the smallest details to hint at the theme of trust and I found that very interesting and cool.

Character Analysis on The Secret War

        In this book the protagonist, Jack, has many issues he has to face and many problems that only he can solve. Throughout the book, Jack has to go against not only the enemy but also his friends. Jacks life is complicated and so he holds many secrets, this causes trust problems between him and his friends, so in addition to having to fight the enemy he also has to solve his problems between him his friends. Jack has many enemies in this place and only a few friends who he can really trust. Jacks main enemy in this book is a man named Smart.
        Smart is the antagonist and his power is his intelligence, he is the smartest man on earth but only the super humans in Imagine Nation know this. The problem with him is that all he cares about is money and power which he both has a lot of. He was a circleman, more or less the presidents of Imagine Nation, but the he was voted out of office. Smart would do anything to get rid of Jack, the boy who caused him to get voted out. Smart accuses Jack of every criminal action happening and for working with the Rustov. Ironically, the only thing Jack has been doing this whole time is fighting against the things Smart said. Smart, being rich and owning many news programs, was able to also turn all the people of Imagine Nation against Jack. Smart wants Jack dead or jail.
        Jacks power is that he can control machines, do if there is anyone who can stop the Rustov, it's Jack. But he can't do it alone, not without the help of his reliable and trustworthy friends. Allegra, Skerren,Trea, and Zhi. Allegra is able to control the molecules of her body, meaning she can turn liquid, solid, and can stretch as much as she wants. Skerren is an outstanding sword fighter and his swords can cut through virtually anything. Trea is able to split her self up into three people with three different abilities. One is a great fighter, one is extremely smart, and the last one is her, a mix of both. She can also make each of the three have the same ability. Finally, Zhi's power is that he can summon mythical dragons and keep them under his complete control, he is also an excellent fighter. Without them Jack could never accomplish what's right and save the world. Even though Jacks friends are mad at him because of all the important secrets he keeps from them, they still know that he is doing the right thing.
        All in all, this book has taught me one main thing and that is: trust is one of the most important thing in a team and amongst friends.

         One of the books I read this summer is The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. This book is about a 14 year old boy who lives with a poor family in a Spokane Indian reservation and has many medical problems. This boy's name is Arnold and he has a friend who starts hating him after Arnold moves into an all-white school. Despite all the people in the rez (reservation) who now accuse him of being a traitor, Arnold finds the power within himself to push that aside and move on. What impressed me about Arnold is that what other people said and thought about Arnold affected the way he thought of himself.

        After all those years of being bullied and being made fun of, Arnold believes that those people are right and that he is in fact weird and stupid. The negative influence that Arnold has experienced and has been exposed to throughout his life causes him to run into a sort of depression where he becomes almost ashamed of himself. But when he moves to the white school to obtain a better education he also finds the possibility for a fresh start. Some events occur where he starts to gain respect from other people. For example, he stood up for himself in front of kids who were bulling him by showing no fear of them. In basketball games, he plays his best and stands out by scoring points and leading his team to victory. In class he meets a girl and she becomes his girlfriend. All these cases lead people to change their view of Arnold and to respect him. Arnold then starts to realize that he is not as weird and stupid as he used to think he was and he gains self-confidence.

        All in all, I really liked this book and I think that Alexie did a great job in developing this character and his unique characteristics. I also liked very much the main problem he created in this book because the issue of identity in young adults is very important but it is not commonly talked about with the sarcastic tone used by the character.