Book post #3

In today’s discussion one of the main things we talked about was the growth of Christopher.  How he was able to go from a confused child who was scared to do almost anything new, to a mature young man who was able to go all the way to London by himself.  In the beginning of the book, Christopher was not able to process any emotion, he couldn’t tell when he was happy or sad, and when he tried to tell what other people felt, he would get frustrated and scream or groan.  At the very end of the book, we get a sure sign that his condition will get better when he is able to process the feeling of joy that came from passing his math exam and tell readers exactly how he felt.  I wish my group had a little more time to go over more though.  I don’t believe we covered other Characters in the story as much as we could.  I think his mom had also grown a lot since she left, and I think his dad had worsened after Christopher left.  Also I wished we spent more time discussing his social problems.  It seemed that whenever he tried to communicate with strangers they would get mad at him.  I am still curious about if people are aware of his disorder, they might have thought Christopher was a bad kid who was being smart with them.  From what I can tell from reading the dialogue Christopher responded to people just like a bad kid would.  I think we can get a lot out of this book.  I have changed my mind about people with disabilities like autism.  I used to not be able to see how they could think, it seemed impossible t tell what was going through their heads, but now I see why.  Their minds are simply not able to process emotion, but the effects of this go way beyond not being able to tell if someone is happy or sad.  They can’t interact with others properly, they cannot think about certain things, and they do not have the same feelings as you and me.  The reason that someone like Christopher seems so weird to us is that we seem even weirder to him.

Oakland response

Here’s a response to Jesse’s response to my earlier post on Oakland

“Well I saw on the news a while ago that a lady that was in Mont Claire or some other really nice part of Oakland left her 6 year old daughter take care of 2 or 3 of her baby siblings for an entire day. The lady came back the next day and the police came and arrested her (I don't know how they found out). That's just an example that some nice places turn out to get a bad reputation, so these peaceful places and Alameda will probably get that. The shooting in Alameda 3 years ago is another example. A little girl got shot by some kids at a park in Alameda, so that's another sign. I heard that all of Oakland used to be a nice place, but it just slowly turned into a bad place. I predict that Alameda and the rest of Oakland will share the same fate. It's only a matter of time.”

I think that this post makes since, but I do not agree with what he is saying about places not being what they seem and Alameda soon turning out like Oakland.  Jesse said that Oakland started out nice and then turned bad, and that Alameda will do the same.  I did some reading on Wikipedea, and I do not believe that this is the case.  Here is what happened that turned Oakland into a dangerous place:

During World war two there was high demand for war supplies.  As a result manufacturing jobs quickly appeared all around the country.  One place where manufacturing became very successful was Oakland California. 

At the same time this was happening, many African Americans in the south, in order to escape oppression, moved to these places that offered these factory jobs requiring little mental skill (Southern Africans were for the most part uneducated because of the poor quality of black schools).

These manufacturing jobs did not last long though.  After the war there was no need for excess supplies.  This caused the jobs to disappear along with the richer people of Oakland (mostly white).  This period of time where whites left the poorer cities was known nationally as the White Flight.

In the 70’s, just like the rest of the country, drugs became more common and accessible.  As a result of this, the crime rate increased dramatically, so much that it was double that of New York City.  Because there was a higher crime rate, whites did not return, and with the richer people gone, there was no one to employ the poor.

Property in Oakland was very low because of the bad conditions.  This made the city an excellent place for immigrants from Mexico (legal or illegal) to settle down in.  For the Mexicans, it was just as difficult, the increase in population did not improve things at all, it just increased the poverty.

On top of all of the social difficulties, the Earthquake and fire caused a huge economic loss for the city.  This is about where Oakland stands today; not enough jobs, drugs and crime everywhere, almost uncontrollable population, and low funds. 

This is why I don’t think it will happen to Alameda.  Alameda is a small suburban town, whose pulpous is not to employ, but to give people a place to live.   

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time response post # 2

            In our discussion, my group and I discussed Christopher’s social problems.  After reading the second third of “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, we got our first look on how Christopher interacts with people and solves problems in populated areas.  We see Christopher try to make it to the train station, but on the way must ask people how to get there.  Also we see the people who aren’t used to interacting with people like Christopher, and they display anger when talking with him.  In the Discussion, I asked if his parents made the right decision when his mom left him, my group mates told me that it was not right when at first his dad hid the letters, but after Christopher believed for a while that his mother was dead, it was the wrong for his dad to tell him she was alive.  I would have liked to spend more time on this, I want to hear what people’s opinions are on Christopher’s mother’s decision to leave, if it was right or not.  I believe that it was write because she was doing it for Christopher’s own good, not her own.  She was not a good parent for an autistic child, and was not offered any support from Christopher’s father.  I also would have wanted to talk more about how Christopher’s mind worked.  There was a great example of this when he showed us constellations, he said the stars aligned in a certain way and made a man, but he said that there were many other ways to connect the dots.  I believe that this is an example on how he sees faces.  They have certain characteristics, but he can’t connect the dots to see what they are thinking.  In this section of the book, he shows us an example of his photographic memory.  He goes into a room for a few seconds, and is able to draw a map of it much later.  Also he plays a game in his head involving moving several boxes around, he is able to create a very complex figure using memory of previous moves.  He doesn’t only remember what he sees, but also what he thinks.

Response to Oakland post

I am doing a response to Aleah’s post about Oakland.

She writes:

         “When I first read Luis's response post I thought Alex Noble had posted this, but in fact it was Alex Tang who lives in Oakland. What the hell Alex, are you stupid. If you didn't notice this Oakland is not as violent as people portray it to be.Honestly. I live in West Oakland where there are shootings every know and again, but I've been living there for five going on six years after moving from Berkeley and I've never been Shot at.”

I happen to live in Alameda, but I still can see the frustration that people who live in Oakland have.  Just because things happen, doesn’t mean that it will happen to you.  This is of course connecting to what she said about there being shootings on occasion, but her never actually being shot at.  No matter where you live people will assume things about you and your community based only on where you come from.  I admit that I do this sometimes. Sometimes seriously, and sometimes as a joke.  I am sure that people in Oakland have plenty of stereotypes about people living in Alameda.  The main problem with these stereotypes is that they make people scared on things they are not used to.  Living in Alameda, I might sometimes be scared to go to Oakland because I feel that something bad will happen.  But if people never go there, it will become isolated, not allowing conditions to get better, only continue to get worse within their community.  The majority of Oakland is safe; it just has a much higher crime rate then many other places.  What defines how dangerous a city is, is how it compares to other places.  If people from a perfect planet were to visit Alameda, they would view it as Dangerous because that is how it compares to where they come from.  Honestly the amount of people killed there is nothing compared to the total population.  Everyone I know from Oakland is turning out fine.  I know just as many people from Alameda that are struggling as people from Oakland.  This of course is just me and I know far more people from Alameda then Oakland, but the point is that crime is not limited to one place, it is just well known in one place.

Discussion post

During my disscussion on “the Curious incident of the dog in the night-time” my group and I disscussed the effect of Autism on Christopher’s life.  He doesn’t fit in with society because of the weird habits his disability causes him to have.  One very interesting part of the discussion was when the question that Christopher’s mother might still be alive.  If you think about it, it make since because Christopher was not allowed to see her in the hospital, and she was cremated, making it so there would b no actual opportunity to see a body.  In the discussion I brought up many examples of how his disease limits him, like how he can’t make friends easily, and also how people confuse him.  Some of the topics that we discussed that I would have liked to spend more time on was the fact that it might have been Christopher’s issues that destroyed his parents marriage, not simply his parents not getting along.  I also would have wanted to elaborate on how his mother possibly leaving instead of dieing might connect to the murder of Wellington.  Obviously someone was mad at her, but I doubt it was Mr. Shears because he had already done enough harm to Mrs. Shears, and wouldn’t want to hurt her any more, because obviously it was his fault for leaving Mrs. Shears for Christophers mother.  I would have also wanted to talk more about the way Christopher learns.  We only briefly discussed the fact that despite Christopher’s disability, he is still very intelligent.  I believe that the point of this book is to give readers an inside look of the life of an autistic person.  I love how in the book many habits are explained in a way that people with no problems can relate to them.  One thing that I still don’t under stand in the story is why he uses colors to determine if a day will god or not.  I believe if he wants to be more successful in life he should treat every day the same, making a day that might not have been great if he determined it by looking at cars, into a great day that he determins is a great day by giving it a chance.

The curious incident of the dog in the night-time response post

In “The curious incident of the dog in the night-time”, Mark Haddon, the author shows us the struggles of an autistic person as they attempt to move through life with the rest of us.  Christopher, the protagonist of the novel faces many problems, all revolving around the fact that he doesn’t function mentally as others do.  This affects his social life, his academic life, and his family life.  One significant thing I noticed right away when I began reading this strange novel is the fact that whenever Christopher meets someone new, he puts extra emphasis into the description of people’s feet or shoes, and completely skips describing peoples faces.  This is because, as he states in the story, he doesn’t trust strangers.  He doesn’t trust them because they can lie, and the slight possibility that someone would lie to Christopher is too much for him to handle.  This is why he avoids people’s faces.  He can’t tell what people’s expressions are, so for example, if someone were being sarcastic, he wouldn’t be able to tell, he would think they are being serious and believe that they were lying.  People’s faces confuse Christopher even more then people are confused by Christopher.   Christopher was talking to Siobhan in the beginning of the story and she said that things that he did make people confused.  Christopher got mad because of this.  He was mad because he was just as confused as others and not even Siobhan seemed to realize this.  Something that I find very significant in this book is the intelligence of Christopher.  He doesn’t learn from finding simple facts and connecting them to find a completely new piece of information.  Because of this he has to learn everything from facts.  He is very good at science and math because both subjects are a large collection of facts, just like Christopher’s mind.  Christopher’s autism not only limits him when reading other people’s expressions, it also limits him on having emotions.  Christopher never seems to be able to express how he feels, and instead of expressing feelings in words, he screams or groans.  His own limit of emotion is so small, that he doesn’t even feel bad when he finds that his mom cheated on his dad with Mr. Shears.

Response post

I found this quote on Alex’s essay on The Kite Runner.

“Even Hassan`s play mate, Amir, doesn’t consider him a friend because the culture tells him that he isn't worth his time. I think this connects to American society, because African Americans were discriminated against for the same unreasonable reasons the Harzaras were: Just small differences in features. I think the author wanted to show that racism not only happens in America, it happens everywhere and sometimes it is even more brutal.”

I completely agree with what Alex is saying.  Racism is not simply limited to whites hating blacks, or well known hate groups like the KKK, it is very much more then that, and sometimes indirect forms of racism can harm someone even more then direct forms.  Assef is for sure a direct racist.  He openly says everything on his mind, especially his hatred of hazaras.  Although Assef constantly harms Hazaras, he never really hurt Hassan, of course he harmed him, but who really hurt Hassan, was Amir.  Amir is an indirect racist, he is the best friend that Hassan has, and because of this, he can hurt him the most.  If your enemy were to say he hated you, would you be hurt?  Probably not, because you share the same feelings, and don’t even want him to like you.   Best friend said that he hated you, then would you be hurt?  The answer would be of course, because you like them, and want their love.  I believe that what caused Hassan to finally move what I just explained.  Hassan knows that Assef is evil so he is not harmed by what he does.  After Assef does “it” to him he looses his best friend.  Although Hassan completely understands why Amir shuts him out of his life, he still can’t live with a friend that pretends to hate him.  It makes him feel unimportant and insignificant in Amir’s life.  Indirect racism is much more common then direct in America, and happens when someone stays away from someone because of their race, or denies someone a job because of subconscious stereotyping.