Nonfiction reading response

The book, The Story of Stuff, by Annie Leonard, is about the impact of overconsumption on the planet, our communities, and our health. Leonard discusses many solutions on how we can make our environment better, but also some ideas that she says are not as good. In the section, “And Then There’s Recycling,” I think the point that Leonard is trying to make is that recycling is not as helpful as it seems. I think that the point of this section is to compare and contrast the effects of recycling. Recycling can prevent pollution, give everybody a warm feeling, but also may distract us from the bigger picture; we are producing too much stuff in the first place.

Recycling does a lot of good for society. When people recycle, they get a good feeling, because it makes them feel like they have done their part. More importantly, it is helping to save our environment. Recycling allows many materials to be reused, so the demand for production will decrease. Also, it delays the point in which a material is considered waste. When you slow production, less green house gases and emissions get released into the air. Annually, the U.S results in a benefit of 193 metric tons of CO2, which is equivalent to removing 35 million cars from the road. Recycling also creating better waste management jobs. This demonstrates how recycling is progress in cleaning up our planet.

Recycling may have a bad effect on our society too. It is distracting people from the bigger picture. People think we are making good progress because recycling is increasing, but total waste production is also increasing. “Our goal should not be to recycle more, but to waste less. Focusing on the wrong end of a question can point our efforts in the wrong direction.” Programs that are supposed to be promoting recycling are making many mistakes. For example, at one program, residents recycling bins are weighed and heavier bins are awarded. That means people who buy single-serving bottled water are given more points than a family who installs a filter and drinks tap water in a reusable bottle. This shows how recycling is leading us in the wrong direction.

The author uses a very questioning tone throughout the section, as if she were trying to uncover a secret about recycling; and see beyond the pros of it. Her tone is also very argumentative, as if she were debating someone. She said, “even if the material isn’t toxic, large scale municipal recycling requires trucks and factories that use a lot of energy and create even more waste.” “Just because it’s called recycling doesn’t mean its green.” Words like “even if,” or “just because” makes me question the actual effect of recycling. In conclusion, Annie Leonard has changed many of my opinions about recycling. Now, it is not as helpful to society as I used to think it was.

J. Cole: "Let Nas Down" Close Reading

Jermaine Lamar Cole, better known by his stage name, J. Cole, is a hip-hop recording artist in America. I have closely studied one of his songs, called “Let Nas Down.” Nas is an old-school rapper from New York City. By studying the lyrics of “let Nas Down,” I have determined quite a few things about J. Cole’s life. His lyrics demonstrate his inspiration for rapping, and the goal of his music. The inspiration for his rapping career is old-school rappers, especially Nas. People like Nas and 2pac are idols to him, and he wants to be like them. His goal for his music is to rap from the heart, and be different from modern rappers.

            Many of J. Cole’s lyrics in the song demonstrate his motivation for rapping. One part of the chorus is, “Yeah, long live the idols may they never be your rivals/Pac was like Jesus/Nas wrote the bible.” Here, he is comparing famous old-school rappers to Jesus and the Bible, which emphasizes the fact that he idolizes and models his music after theirs, just like people pray to Jesus and study the Bible. He also says, “I used to print Nas raps and tape’em upon my wall/My n****s thought they was words, but it was pictures I saw.” I think that J. Cole saw “pictures” in Nas’s lyrics because he saw something deeper about his words that differentiated them from other rappers. I think that what was special about Nas was that he often rapped from the heart, which means a more honest, calm style of rap. Because of that, Nas’s music connected to J. Cole, which inspired him to follow Nas’s path. Also, J. Cole met Nas once, shook his hand, but later found out that Nas did not like his new single. Nas said “You the one, why you make that s**t?” I think this put down J. Cole a lot, but pushed him forward to keep trying, especially because Nas believes that J. Cole can become a great rapper.

            J. Cole’s, goal of his rap and career is built around his childhood dreams. His goal is to rap from his heart, just like Nas and 2pac. “They don’t know, they just study the charts/Me, I study the shows, the fans, study their hearts.” That means that he is not looking at other modern, successful rappers. Instead, he is studying the fans’ hearts, because he wants to connect to the fans in is music and shows, because that will make his music deeper. “I always believed in the bigger picture/If I could get them to listen outside my core, I could open a door.” I think this means if he gets people to listen to his music enough, they will understand him a lot better, because he is rapping from his heart. The “door” is two things. It simply means that J. Cole is opening himself up in his music, so behind the door is his heart and soul. The “door” can also mean that he is starting to show people the kind of rap he makes, and introduce it to the modern hip-hop/rap world. So, what is rapping from the heart to J. Cole? In the song, he says, “Reintroduce them to honesty, show’em that they need more/The difference between the pretenders and the Kendrick Lamars.” This demonstrates that J. Cole wants to show fans his heart and honesty, and give them more than other rappers are. Other current rappers are pretty much just focusing on drugs, money, and women. Those are the “pretenders” he is talking about. Kendrick Lamar, a modern rapper, has more sophisticated lyrics in his songs; more heart.

            When J. Cole talks about the honesty in his music, it means that his music is very deep, and has better meaning that the fans can connect to. He could rap about his childhood, relationships, or his views on the world. In most rap/hip-hop today, most rappers focus on drugs, money, and women. Older rappers like Nas and 2pac did not rap about this too often, but now they are gone. Can J. Cole reintroduce the honest music from the heart that 2pac, Nas, and many other rappers once focused on? He is off to a good start.

Response to Fox: A Complex Inner Character

Fox, a picture book by Margaret Wild and Ron Brooks, has very complex characters. The Fox is especially complicated because he has two sides of himself. One side is his outer-self, which is very easy to see. The fox is a sneaky and cunning guy on the outside. What makes him complex is his inner-self, which really adds meaning to the book. Internally, he is lonely and disconsolate.

On the outside, Fox seems like a fly, suspicious, or even scary person. He shows up randomly, and “flickers through the trees like a tongue of fire.” Magpie feels like he is always watching. Eventually, the fox tricks Magpie into riding with him, and he leaves her alone in the dessert. Internally, fox is lonely and envious. He has no companions, and no friends either. I think when he stares at Magpie while she was enjoying dog’s company, he was jealous on the inside. I think that the authors said that the fox only joined Magpie and Dog now and then to show that he didn’t really belong. After that night, Fox’s smell filled the cave, “a smell of rage and envy and loneliness.” At that point, I think Fox was jealous, and felt more isolated, so then he got the idea to separate Dog and Magpie because it was painful for him to see their companionship.

Another way that the authors showed Fox’s despondence is by showing his desperation. Fox tries three times to take away Magpie from Dog. “I can run faster than dog. Faster than the wind. Leave Dog and come with me.” When Magpie finally betrayed Dog, I thought that the Fox would be happy at that point because he had a companion, but then I soon realized that Fox was just lost in his own envy and desolation. I figured that out when Fox left Magpie in the dessert and said, “Now you and Dog will know what it is like to be truly alone.” I don’t think Fox was satisfied with what he’d done; I think he did that to attempt to relieve himself of his pain by watching others feel lost. Fox is like a bully in the schoolyard, because he tries to make others feel as isolated as he is internally, but he can’t hide from the fact that he loves no one, and no one loves him.

Best Read of 2013

In 2013, I read many books, magazines, and articles. The best thing I read overall was a series in the New York Times called “Invisible Child.” This great 5-part series was very long, and took hours to read, so it can be considered a story if not a book. The series, by Andrea Elliott, is about the life of a homeless family in New York City. The main focus of the articles is the Family’s eldest child, Dasani, a talented 11-year-old girl who faces many daily challenges. This was my favorite read of 2013 because it was heartbreaking, but and incredible story that changed my life.

I enjoyed this series so much because it amazed me how the family and Dasani can endure and keep on living. The family has eight young children, including a baby and a legally blind girl, raised by Supreme, the father, and Chanel, the mother. For three years they shared a 520 square-foot room at Auburn Family Residence, a homeless shelter in Forte Green. “It is a place where mold creeps up walls and roaches swarm, where feces and vomit plug communal toilets, where sexual predators have roamed and small children stand guard for their single mothers outside filthy showers.” In school, the children try their best to hide the truth of their home from other children, which is very sad. Their parents have struggled to provide for the family, partly because of their on and off addiction to drugs. Dasani is like a beacon of hope for this family, because she is always striving for greatness. Despite all her responsibilities at home, she still manages to work hard at school and get onto the honor roll. Dasani’s capabilities amaze me, especially because she still finds the time to do pull-ups every day, even at her age.

This series definitely had a large impact on my life. When it said “for children like Dasani, school is not just a place to cultivate a hungry mind; it is a refuge,” I realized how much more grateful I should be for having a proper education, rather than treating school as an annoying, boring part of my day. I should embrace school as a precious part of my life, because for others, school is all they have and can hope for. Also, why should I ever complain about doing dishes when an 11-year-old girl has to look out for 7 small children. Sometimes while reading the series, I just felt horrible for these people, considering that there are 22,000 homeless children in New York City alone. I feel so lucky and grateful to be born into the family I was born into because it isn’t the children’s fault that they were born into poverty, raised by drug addicts, and it isn’t necessarily the parent’s fault either because they were born poor too. I didn’t even mention all the tragedy the family goes through, which is more than I could possibly imagine. Now, I wish I never complained to my dad for not letting me have 200-dollar Jordan shoes, because any name brand is a dream for thousands or millions of kids living in poverty. It gave me a heartwarming feeling when the family finally got a small apartment by the end of the story.

In conclusion, “Invisible child” did more than become the best thing I read last year, it made me rethink many aspects of my life. I think reading about a poor family in great detail, a family that seemed to strive off of nothing, was a great experience for me. I learned so much and became much more grateful for everything I have. This series was beautifully written with great detail and deep emotion, and can change anyone’s life.

Unfair Aspect of Teenager's Lives

In the book, Be More Chill, by Ned Vizzini, the main character Jeremy, starts out as a loser, but later becomes much more popular. In teenagers’ lives, the kids who have a lot of friends, and are cool and popular, tend to not get picked on. The kids who have less friends and attract much less attention tend to get picked on by popular kids, which is a very unfair part of many teenagers lives. Jeremy is a great example of a kid who doesn’t have a good social life and gets picked on because of that. What made me sure of this connection between Jeremy and certain teens, is the humiliation sheets Jeremy keeps with him, which is a paper where he writes down every type of humiliation he goes through.

Jeremy struggled to even make the smallest conversations with girls in the beginning if the book. Once, he tried talk to this girl Christine, and he was going to give her this chocolate bar he got for her, but the conversation did not go well and he didn’t even give her the chocolate. After his failure, Jeremy went to the bathroom to clean out his pocket, because the chocolate melted. Then Rich came in, a pretty popular and muscular guy, and started picking on Jeremy. “What you do, crap your pocket?” “Meanwhile, Rich laughs and calls me a b**** again.” This shows how Jeremy gets picked on in school because he is so unsocial. Jeremy even says, “It never ends with this school, and with Rich, and for everyone one of them there are mini-hims like George or Ryu.”

In school, some girls were making fun of Jeremy because he is so weird in their opinion. “Ooh, I heard Christine Caniglia has new stalker,” on of the girls said, and they were clearly referring the Jeremy. After this, Jeremy makes marks on his humiliation sheets. I think the fact that he even keeps humiliation sheets shows how low his social status is, and how much he gets picked on.

This book proved that teenagers get picked on not because they look ugly or they’re fat, but because they have no social life. This is just an unfair part of teens’ lives, and it’s just how people are. Popular people pick on unpopular kids just because they can, and that’s the way it works. Later, when Jeremy became more popular, Rich acted acted like he was his friend. This relates to so many teenagers in the world, and I’ve already started to see a little of this before in my life.

Making strides in social justice

Social justice is a major issue around the world, and they are tons of social issues in many places important to many people. There are things that are unfair in the world that can be changed or may not, and people fight for what they believe is right. Peoples’ actions can really make a difference when it comes to social justice. Unfair things in the world include racism, treatment of the poor, and discrimination.

A good example of an injustice is the large number of times black and Latino people are stopped by officers in New York City and frisked, or searched. In 2011, about 685,000 people were stopped, and 87% percent of those people were black and Latino. Only 9% of the frisked people were white. This is racial profiling because officers are stopping people just because of their race and skin color, which is very unfair. Searching these people randomly is also unconstitutional because officers are only allowed to search people when they see a good reason. The police are just frisking them because they are black and Latino. There are people who are trying to fight against this unjust practice in NYC. The New York Civil Liberties Union and some people who were frisked unnecessarily took their case to court, and a judge agreed with their cause and demanded that unconstitutional frisking stop. The case is still going on, but all the attention to the issue has greatly reduced the amount of stops since 2011.

Another example of a social injustice is that many states in the U.S. prohibit same-sex marriage. It is not fair for some people to not be allowed to marry the people they love just because they are the same gender. There is no good reason to keep gays and lesbians from marriage. Many people are pushing forward and making strides towards legalizing gay marriage in many places. There are constant rallies, protests, and letters being written to state governments to push forward for gay rights. People are electing government officials who support gay marriage and others even take their cases to court to justify it. All these social actions have caused 15 states to allow same-sex marriage.

There are many things that are unjust in the world, and not much is being done about it. Many people are still discriminated against. But, when people push forward and take action, they can get their way and make a big difference for their cause. 

Non-Fiction Blog Post Reading Response: Are Banned Books Actually Bad?

Stefan Engquist 812         

            Sherman Alexi’s article, “Why the Best Kids Books are written in Blood,” a response to Meghan Cox Gurdon’s article, explains that books should not be banned because of exposure of domestic violence, drug abuse, poverty, and many other things because these are what makes the best books. She thinks that books don’t actually disturb kids who may or may not live through tough conditions, because the kids actually enjoy these books. She uses her own book, The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, which has been banned across the country, as an example to support her claim. She says that almost every day, she receives many letters from students, including teens and pre-teens, saying they loved her book but Alexi said that “I have never received a letter from a child debilitated by the domestic violence, racism, poverty…” She also uses her many encounters with kids who have gone through things book bans are trying to protect kids from. She claims that these kids are inspired by her book, and not negatively affected in any way.

           Sherman Alexi uses a very sarcastic and surprised tone in a lot of the article, as if she was making fun of book bans and Gurdon's opinion. She says things like "does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother?" She uses this tone to show her view on book bans; she thinks the reasons books are banned are ridiculous and don't effect kids much at all. Alexi also addresses a common counterclaim very well by using short stories. The proponents of book bans claim that the bans are protecting kids from many horrors of the world. Alexi argues against this be recalling many conversations she's had with kids who can't be protected because they already live in poverty or go through abuse or many other things. She criticizes Gurdon by saying "Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?" She uses this approach for a counterclaim because she thinks that reading books about monstrous things will help kids battle monsters in their life.

           I definitely agree with Sherman Alexi's claim and opinion because there were some lines in her article that stood out to me as great reasons why books should not be banned. "And there are millions of teens who read because they are sad and lonlely and enraged. They read because they live in an often-terrible world. They read because they believe, despite the protestations of callow adults, that books-especially the dark and dangerous ones-will save them." These lines mean that many many kids read books that are often banned, because it helps them deal with their conflicts because they can relate to those issues. Thats why these lines stood out to me, because kids out their need those dark books in their lives. Also, her YA book is one of my favorite books, and I would hate if it was banned in my area or school district.