Choose one post. (My favorite? My least favorite? The one that surprises me the most when I reread it?) Analyze it in detail. Explain the "behind-the-scenes" of how it was written, what it truly means, where its inspiration came from, etc.
My favorite blog post from the second semester, is the post where we wrote about what we believed would happen to Esperanza after the story ended in the book The House on Mango Street. I titled this post Esperanza's Future. This was my favorite because I started out believing I would reach a certain conclusion, and it turned out that I came to the complete opposite conclusion. I based that post on a chapter that talked about a new life for Esperanza with new beginnings. I talked about how although she basically had a new life different from that on Mango street, all the things that happened to her on Mango street stayed with her for her whole life. The author hinted that Esperanza ended up writing a book about what had happened to her. This leads me to my original thought that she wrote a book to help all the people that lived on Mango street get out. This seemed pretty obvious to me because Esperanza was always sure to say how much she disliked Mango street. I said in the beginning of my post that “In the whole story Esperanza is being held back because she lives on Mango Street.” This is the first impression most people receive from reading the House on Mango Street. Later on in my writing I began to see that living on Mango street didn’t hold Esperanza back, it pushed her forward. I saw that Living on Mango street shaped the person she became, it didn’t destroy it. I later wrote “Esperanza realizes that living on Mango Street was perhaps the best thing that ever happened to her and her friends. In order to make the world a better place, she brings the one thing she always wanted to leave with her to the people of her future.” I ended up discovering that Esperanza kept what she experienced on Mango Street not only for her own good, but for the good of the people who grew up in near perfect homes on near perfect streets. They are the ones that need help, the people who grow up in poverty are the ones that know how to thrive when going through hard times. Along with this they are the ones that change the world because they see the things that need changing. This wasn’t my favorite post because of what I found out, it was my favorite because of how different my opinion was from when I started the when I finished.
What have I learned from my struggles with writer's block? Why do I tend to get stuck? How do I tend to get unstuck? Notice any patterns?
I had a much bigger problem with writers block this semester then last semester. I had a hard time writing my Vignette. I was used to writing about text not writing the actual text. I attempted to write about some events in my life that symbolized my personality at the time it was written. I travel from scared all the way to confident. To show connections between events I used common symbols in each. I used symbols for fear and failure. These themes were good, I just wasn’t able to integrate them well. Although all the required parts for this type of writing were in the short vignettes, I never seemed to write successfully. I wasn’t used to writing about things that aren’t real. Before I know that I loved writing stories much more then nonfictional things. What happened in my Vignette post, wasn’t necessarily writers block, i never ran out of ideas, I just ran out of ways to explain my ideas. I think that this happened because I felt much less pressure when writing creatively, instead of thinking hard to come up with a good piece of writing, I got lazy and wrote the first thing that came to my mind. this made my writing seem simple and not very well thought through. From this I learned that no mater what you are writing, you have to think for it to turn out good.
Where do I get my ideas for blog post topics? What inspires me to write?
It is hard for me to come up with blog topics, the best posts are actually when we are given a prompt. Although I am generally unsuccessful when coming up with my own topic, there was one post that I am proud of and enjoyed that used a prompt that I came up with. This was my post about gay marriage:
I enjoyed writing about this because I find writing about controversial things and expressing opinions on them fun. In this particular post, I said that legally gay couples should be allowed to marry, but If a church refuses to give the couple a ceremony in their establishment, then the anti gay culture must be respected and the couple not be allowed to marry in that particular church. I later continued to write that the couple can still get married, the ceremony just can’t be hosted by that particular religion. I wrote, “My personal opinion is that they should have the right to be married, but I can see why some people are against it.” I always try to show both sides of a situation or movement when writing. In order to cause change you must appeal to as many people as possible. Another post I enjoyed writing was a post for a debate about terrorism:
I think I enjoy writing about controversial things because my opinion often differs with another large groups opinion. I wrote “I believe that the best first step that can be taken against terrorists is to create an understanding between the United States Government and nonviolent Muslims.” I feel like I know what is write and the other group doesn’t, even though this may not be true, I love the struggle to see which opinion comes out on top. In this case, I took a more progressive stance against the threat towards America that can easily be responded to with violence Probably my favorite . part about English this year was the debates. I see myself as very professional and careful when arguing my opinion. There are still things that I need to work on though, for example, in the last debate, I didn’t site all of my sources so I lost credibility. This year my writing as well as thought process has matured faster then ever before, although I am not perfect, I now have a whole new perspective on my personal ability to grow along side my writing.
Tuesday, May 24, 2011
Wednesday, May 4, 2011
Basic Book Review
In A Child Called It, a novel by David Pelzer, the story shows the advantages of overcoming horrible experiences, how loving relationships can drastically change to hate, and finally how people take their anger out on others as well as how Children are able to overcome.
Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? How is the author's life reflected in the book?
In the Novel A Child Called It, Dave Pelzer’s life is not just reflected in the book, it is the book. All the experiences Dave faced as a character really happened to him. I think that this makes readers take the events much more seriously because anyone can write about child abuse, but you can only really tell people what it is like if you have experienced it. I did not know that the tortures made up by Dave's mom were real until I was about halfway done. It changed my whole perspective on the story. Something else that I think is significant about Pelzer’s life is that he was able to recover greatly from his childhood. This is actually one of the things that this book intends to show: how children are able to keep the will to stay alive in times of terror. I don’t know anyone who would be confident enough to say to the world the horrible things their parent or parents made them do. I think the reason that Pelzer is so open is that he knows that no one can be as bad as his mother, she may have had a positive affect on his future, but defiantly not his childhood. Because of his experience, he described the tortures he went through much more vividly. Pelzer writes, “Mother rammed the cold spoon deep into my throat… a moment later I couldn’t breath. My throat seized. I stood wobbling in front of mother, feeling as if my eyes were going to pop out of my skull.” It is easy to see that Pelzer was able to grow from his experience and use it to show the world what really happens to abused children. Because of what has been done to him, things can’t really get worse, they can only get better. Pelzer is the most optimistic person I have ever heard of, he didn’t have a good attitude, but honestly, if I had his mom, I don’t know it I could grow up with out making a few attempts to end my life. He as able to take these skills of optimism with him to adulthood and use them to become a far better person then either of his parents.
Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
There are two different relationships between characters that are very significant. The first is the relationship between Dave and his father; the other is Between Dave’s dad and his mother. At first, Dave and his father had a very strong relationship; his father would offer protection with little in return. As time went on his father began to see that he was only being hurt by offering his son love. David’s mother began to gain more and more power over his dad until finally, they weren’t even allowed to talk to each other. His father lost confidence that they could escape together. As a result he began to only do things for himself instead of doing things for the benefit of them both. He would stay longer at work to escape from his wife.
Without his father, Dave didn’t have anything else to live for; his father was the only source of love in Dave’s life. With him gone, Dave had to learn to keep himself occupied; he did this with the struggle to live. His dad eventually left and David truly then had no one, just himself. On a few occasions he had love from his mom, like when she stabbed him and let him play with his brothers. Also when the person came to evaluate the safety of his mom. These relationships did not change for the benefit of David; they changed based on whatever his mother had to do. These ups and downs were one of the things that made David’s life so hard. He would adjust to having a nice mother, putting so much energy into making himself believe that she had changed, only to have her immediately go back to the tortures. This made it so hard because it would seem worse when going from happy to sad then from sad to sad.
What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I believe that the purpose Dave Pelzer had in writing this novel is very clear, he shows how someone’s personality can change drastically and dangerously, and to show how people can overcome adversity. Dave Pelzer, author, writes,
“The story has two objectives: the first is to inform the reader how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster venting frustrations on a helpless child; the second is the eventual survival and triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The second objective is easy to see. David is always struggling to stay motivated. He is blinded by his mother of a world outside the “madhouse” they live in. Little things keep him going; even the lies that he knew were not true. No matter what it took, David stayed as optimistic as someone could be in his situation. Of course, David is not like every child, some do not make it, fortunately, David was special, he kept himself busy by staying strong and not letting his mother get anything out of hurting him.
Of course there was another objective for the book, this one harder to see. Pelzer explains that he wrote the book to show how a caring parent can turn into a monster. Based on what I have read, I believe that this happened because there was so much stress on David’s mom to be perfect that she cracked and blamed all of her imperfections on David. Pelzer explains that a lot of the time parents take their anger out on their kids. The weird thing about this situation was that the mother, at one point was a loving, caring parent. Another possibility is that there could have been problems in the marriage between David’s mother and father. Because she is completely unable to harm a grown man, she hurts David instead. This may also be a reason that David’s father was completely unable to help; he felt like his son’s hardships might have been his fault.
Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? How is the author's life reflected in the book?
In the Novel A Child Called It, Dave Pelzer’s life is not just reflected in the book, it is the book. All the experiences Dave faced as a character really happened to him. I think that this makes readers take the events much more seriously because anyone can write about child abuse, but you can only really tell people what it is like if you have experienced it. I did not know that the tortures made up by Dave's mom were real until I was about halfway done. It changed my whole perspective on the story. Something else that I think is significant about Pelzer’s life is that he was able to recover greatly from his childhood. This is actually one of the things that this book intends to show: how children are able to keep the will to stay alive in times of terror. I don’t know anyone who would be confident enough to say to the world the horrible things their parent or parents made them do. I think the reason that Pelzer is so open is that he knows that no one can be as bad as his mother, she may have had a positive affect on his future, but defiantly not his childhood. Because of his experience, he described the tortures he went through much more vividly. Pelzer writes, “Mother rammed the cold spoon deep into my throat… a moment later I couldn’t breath. My throat seized. I stood wobbling in front of mother, feeling as if my eyes were going to pop out of my skull.” It is easy to see that Pelzer was able to grow from his experience and use it to show the world what really happens to abused children. Because of what has been done to him, things can’t really get worse, they can only get better. Pelzer is the most optimistic person I have ever heard of, he didn’t have a good attitude, but honestly, if I had his mom, I don’t know it I could grow up with out making a few attempts to end my life. He as able to take these skills of optimism with him to adulthood and use them to become a far better person then either of his parents.
Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
There are two different relationships between characters that are very significant. The first is the relationship between Dave and his father; the other is Between Dave’s dad and his mother. At first, Dave and his father had a very strong relationship; his father would offer protection with little in return. As time went on his father began to see that he was only being hurt by offering his son love. David’s mother began to gain more and more power over his dad until finally, they weren’t even allowed to talk to each other. His father lost confidence that they could escape together. As a result he began to only do things for himself instead of doing things for the benefit of them both. He would stay longer at work to escape from his wife.
Without his father, Dave didn’t have anything else to live for; his father was the only source of love in Dave’s life. With him gone, Dave had to learn to keep himself occupied; he did this with the struggle to live. His dad eventually left and David truly then had no one, just himself. On a few occasions he had love from his mom, like when she stabbed him and let him play with his brothers. Also when the person came to evaluate the safety of his mom. These relationships did not change for the benefit of David; they changed based on whatever his mother had to do. These ups and downs were one of the things that made David’s life so hard. He would adjust to having a nice mother, putting so much energy into making himself believe that she had changed, only to have her immediately go back to the tortures. This made it so hard because it would seem worse when going from happy to sad then from sad to sad.
What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I believe that the purpose Dave Pelzer had in writing this novel is very clear, he shows how someone’s personality can change drastically and dangerously, and to show how people can overcome adversity. Dave Pelzer, author, writes,
“The story has two objectives: the first is to inform the reader how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster venting frustrations on a helpless child; the second is the eventual survival and triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The second objective is easy to see. David is always struggling to stay motivated. He is blinded by his mother of a world outside the “madhouse” they live in. Little things keep him going; even the lies that he knew were not true. No matter what it took, David stayed as optimistic as someone could be in his situation. Of course, David is not like every child, some do not make it, fortunately, David was special, he kept himself busy by staying strong and not letting his mother get anything out of hurting him.
Of course there was another objective for the book, this one harder to see. Pelzer explains that he wrote the book to show how a caring parent can turn into a monster. Based on what I have read, I believe that this happened because there was so much stress on David’s mom to be perfect that she cracked and blamed all of her imperfections on David. Pelzer explains that a lot of the time parents take their anger out on their kids. The weird thing about this situation was that the mother, at one point was a loving, caring parent. Another possibility is that there could have been problems in the marriage between David’s mother and father. Because she is completely unable to harm a grown man, she hurts David instead. This may also be a reason that David’s father was completely unable to help; he felt like his son’s hardships might have been his fault.
Monday, May 2, 2011
Book review comments
Billy:
Something that you can do is identifying things that the author is trying to show, for example you said there is no racism because everyone looks the same after digging a whole. Here you can say that the author is showing that digging holes makes everyone equal, there is no discrimination in their punishment. Also, you can clarify some of the things you said, like where you said everyone likes x ray even though he is short and black, be sure to say why that would cause one of them to not like him
Vinh:
Your book review seems to be more of a summary; the point isn’t to describe what the book is about, but to show what it means, or how it was written. Be sure that you respond to the questions like this and don’t simply say what happened, if we wanted to know what happens, we would read the book. Read over your book review to make sure all the grammar makes sense.
Karisa:
I would like you to not only talk about the girl’s life but also relate this to our lives, talk about how we can learn from this fictional experience. I believe the point is to discourage teens from taking those baby steps that can eventually lead to something as serious as Crystal Meth.
Something that you can do is identifying things that the author is trying to show, for example you said there is no racism because everyone looks the same after digging a whole. Here you can say that the author is showing that digging holes makes everyone equal, there is no discrimination in their punishment. Also, you can clarify some of the things you said, like where you said everyone likes x ray even though he is short and black, be sure to say why that would cause one of them to not like him
Vinh:
Your book review seems to be more of a summary; the point isn’t to describe what the book is about, but to show what it means, or how it was written. Be sure that you respond to the questions like this and don’t simply say what happened, if we wanted to know what happens, we would read the book. Read over your book review to make sure all the grammar makes sense.
Karisa:
I would like you to not only talk about the girl’s life but also relate this to our lives, talk about how we can learn from this fictional experience. I believe the point is to discourage teens from taking those baby steps that can eventually lead to something as serious as Crystal Meth.
Friday, April 29, 2011
Book Review
Find out about the author. How did they end up writing this particular book? How is the author's life reflected in the book?
In the Novel A Child Called It, Dave Pelzer’s life is not just reflected in the book, it is the book. All the experiences Dave faced as a character really happened to him. I think that this makes readers take the events much more seriously because anyone can write about child abuse, but you can only really tell people what it is like if you have experienced it. I did not know that the tortures made up by Dave's mom were real until I was about halfway done. It changed my whole perspective on the story. Something else that I think is significant about Pelzer’s life is that he was able to recover greatly from his childhood. This is actually one of the things that this book intends to show: how children are able to keep the will to stay alive in times of terror. I don’t know anyone who would be confident enough to say to the world the horrible things their parent or parents made them do. I think the reason that Pelzer is so open is that he knows that no one can be as bad as his mother, she may have had a positive affect on his future, but defiantly not his childhood. Because of what has been done to him, things can’t really get worse, they can only get better. Pelzer is the most optimistic person I have ever heard of, he didn’t have a good attitude, but honestly, if I had his mom, I don’t know it I could grow up with out making a few attempts to end my life. He as able to take these skills of optimism with him to adulthood and use them to become a far better person then either of his parents.
Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
There are two different relationships between characters that are very significant. The first is the relationship between Dave and his father; the other is Between Dave’s dad and his mother. At first, Dave and his father had a very strong relationship; his father would offer protection with little in return. As time went on his father began to see that he was only being hurt by offering his son love. David’s mother began to gain more and more power over his dad until finally, they weren’t even allowed to talk to each other. His father lost confidence that they could escape together. As a result he began to only do things for himself instead of doing things for the benefit of them both. He would stay longer at work to escape from his wife.
Without his father, Dave didn’t have anything else to live for; his father was the only source of love in Dave’s life. With him gone, Dave had to learn to keep himself occupied; he did this with the struggle to live. His dad eventually left and David truly then had no one, just himself. On a few occasions he had love from his mom, like when she stabbed him and let him play with his brothers. Also when the person came to evaluate the safety of his mom. These relationships did not change for the benefit of David; they changed based on whatever his mother had to do. These ups and downs were one of the things that made David’s life so hard. He would adjust to having a nice mother, putting so much energy into making himself believe that she had changed, only to have her immediately go back to the tortures. This made it so hard because it would seem worse when going from happy to sad then from sad to sad.
What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I believe that the purpose Dave Pelzer had in writing this novel is very clear, he shows how someone’s personality can change drastically and dangerously, and to show how people can overcome adversity. Dave Pelzer, author, writes,
“The story has two objectives: the first is to inform the reader how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster venting frustrations on a helpless child; the second is the eventual survival and triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The second objective is easy to see. David is always struggling to stay motivated. He is blinded by his mother of a world outside the “madhouse” they live in. Little things keep him going; even the lies that he knew were not true. No matter what it took, David stayed as optimistic as someone could be in his situation. Of course, David is not like every child, some do not make it, fortunately, David was special, he kept himself busy by staying strong and not letting his mother get anything out of hurting him.
Of course there was another objective for the book, this one harder to see. Pelzer explains that he wrote the book to show how a caring parent can turn into a monster. Based on what I have read, I believe that this happened because there was so much stress on David’s mom to be perfect that she cracked and blamed all of her imperfections on David. Pelzer explains that a lot of the time parents take their anger out on their kids. The weird thing about this situation was that the mother, at one point was a loving, caring parent. Another possibility is that there could have been problems in the marriage between David’s mother and father. Because she is completely unable to harm a grown man, she hurts David instead. This may also be a reason that David’s father was completely unable to help; he felt like his son’s hardships might have been his fault.
In the Novel A Child Called It, Dave Pelzer’s life is not just reflected in the book, it is the book. All the experiences Dave faced as a character really happened to him. I think that this makes readers take the events much more seriously because anyone can write about child abuse, but you can only really tell people what it is like if you have experienced it. I did not know that the tortures made up by Dave's mom were real until I was about halfway done. It changed my whole perspective on the story. Something else that I think is significant about Pelzer’s life is that he was able to recover greatly from his childhood. This is actually one of the things that this book intends to show: how children are able to keep the will to stay alive in times of terror. I don’t know anyone who would be confident enough to say to the world the horrible things their parent or parents made them do. I think the reason that Pelzer is so open is that he knows that no one can be as bad as his mother, she may have had a positive affect on his future, but defiantly not his childhood. Because of what has been done to him, things can’t really get worse, they can only get better. Pelzer is the most optimistic person I have ever heard of, he didn’t have a good attitude, but honestly, if I had his mom, I don’t know it I could grow up with out making a few attempts to end my life. He as able to take these skills of optimism with him to adulthood and use them to become a far better person then either of his parents.
Pick a character that interested you and write about them in depth. You can also analyze a relationship between two different characters.
There are two different relationships between characters that are very significant. The first is the relationship between Dave and his father; the other is Between Dave’s dad and his mother. At first, Dave and his father had a very strong relationship; his father would offer protection with little in return. As time went on his father began to see that he was only being hurt by offering his son love. David’s mother began to gain more and more power over his dad until finally, they weren’t even allowed to talk to each other. His father lost confidence that they could escape together. As a result he began to only do things for himself instead of doing things for the benefit of them both. He would stay longer at work to escape from his wife.
Without his father, Dave didn’t have anything else to live for; his father was the only source of love in Dave’s life. With him gone, Dave had to learn to keep himself occupied; he did this with the struggle to live. His dad eventually left and David truly then had no one, just himself. On a few occasions he had love from his mom, like when she stabbed him and let him play with his brothers. Also when the person came to evaluate the safety of his mom. These relationships did not change for the benefit of David; they changed based on whatever his mother had to do. These ups and downs were one of the things that made David’s life so hard. He would adjust to having a nice mother, putting so much energy into making himself believe that she had changed, only to have her immediately go back to the tortures. This made it so hard because it would seem worse when going from happy to sad then from sad to sad.
What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I believe that the purpose Dave Pelzer had in writing this novel is very clear, he shows how someone’s personality can change drastically and dangerously, and to show how people can overcome adversity. Dave Pelzer, author, writes,
“The story has two objectives: the first is to inform the reader how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster venting frustrations on a helpless child; the second is the eventual survival and triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The second objective is easy to see. David is always struggling to stay motivated. He is blinded by his mother of a world outside the “madhouse” they live in. Little things keep him going; even the lies that he knew were not true. No matter what it took, David stayed as optimistic as someone could be in his situation. Of course, David is not like every child, some do not make it, fortunately, David was special, he kept himself busy by staying strong and not letting his mother get anything out of hurting him.
Of course there was another objective for the book, this one harder to see. Pelzer explains that he wrote the book to show how a caring parent can turn into a monster. Based on what I have read, I believe that this happened because there was so much stress on David’s mom to be perfect that she cracked and blamed all of her imperfections on David. Pelzer explains that a lot of the time parents take their anger out on their kids. The weird thing about this situation was that the mother, at one point was a loving, caring parent. Another possibility is that there could have been problems in the marriage between David’s mother and father. Because she is completely unable to harm a grown man, she hurts David instead. This may also be a reason that David’s father was completely unable to help; he felt like his son’s hardships might have been his fault.
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
I will be responding to the same question as last week:
What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I stand by what I said earlier, but now I believe I can find out even more expanding off of what a previously wrote. Dave Pelzer, author, writes,
“The story has two objectives: the first is to inform the reader how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster venting frustrations on a helpless child; the second is the eventual survival and triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The second objective is easy to see. David is always struggling to stay motivated. He is blinded by his mother of a world outside the “madhouse” they live in. Little things keep him going; even the lies that he knew weren’t true. No matter what it took, David stayed as optimistic as someone could be in his situation. Of course, David is not like every child, some don’t make it, fortunately, David was special, he kept himself busy by staying strong and not letting his mother get anything out of hurting him.
Of course there was another objective for the book, this one harder to see. Pelzer explains that he wrote the book to show how a caring parent can turn into a monster. Based on what I have read, I believe that this happened because there was so much stress on David’s mom to be perfect that she cracked and blamed all of her imperfections on David. Pelzer explains that a lot of the time parents take their anger out on their kids. The weird thing about this situation was that the mother, at one point was a loving, caring parent. Another possibility is that there could have been problems in the marriage between David’s mother and father. Because she is completely unable to harm a grown man, she hurts David instead. This may also be a reason that David’s father was completely unable to help; he felt like his son’s hardships might have been his fault.
What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?
I stand by what I said earlier, but now I believe I can find out even more expanding off of what a previously wrote. Dave Pelzer, author, writes,
“The story has two objectives: the first is to inform the reader how a loving, caring parent can change to a cold, abusive monster venting frustrations on a helpless child; the second is the eventual survival and triumph of the human spirit over seemingly insurmountable odds.”
The second objective is easy to see. David is always struggling to stay motivated. He is blinded by his mother of a world outside the “madhouse” they live in. Little things keep him going; even the lies that he knew weren’t true. No matter what it took, David stayed as optimistic as someone could be in his situation. Of course, David is not like every child, some don’t make it, fortunately, David was special, he kept himself busy by staying strong and not letting his mother get anything out of hurting him.
Of course there was another objective for the book, this one harder to see. Pelzer explains that he wrote the book to show how a caring parent can turn into a monster. Based on what I have read, I believe that this happened because there was so much stress on David’s mom to be perfect that she cracked and blamed all of her imperfections on David. Pelzer explains that a lot of the time parents take their anger out on their kids. The weird thing about this situation was that the mother, at one point was a loving, caring parent. Another possibility is that there could have been problems in the marriage between David’s mother and father. Because she is completely unable to harm a grown man, she hurts David instead. This may also be a reason that David’s father was completely unable to help; he felt like his son’s hardships might have been his fault.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Child Called It Author’s Purpose
When Writing A Child Called It, author Dave Pelzer intended to show child abuse from the eyes of a child to help people better understand why abused children experience problems socially, and just to raise awerness for the huge problem that is very much present in America.
Most of the time when we hear about child abuse, we don’t get much detail on what happened. Many would think that this is because the truth is to graphic, but in my opinion, to really understand how evil something is, you must see it at its worst. Recently in history we learned about Gandhi, something that helped his gain support was the press coverage of brutality from the British Empire against Indians. I believe this is a tactic that Pelzer uses to get support for his cause. Now, a child’s point of view may be very biased when it comes to child abuse, but at the same time, the child is the victim, and it is his view that matters. This is a reason that parents and guardians must be extremely careful because something small can cause a lot of damage on kid. Reading o hearing about Child abuse in the media does not give you an idea of how an event really happened. It may tell you, but a child called it shows you. If we hear, “A ten year old was forced to drink cleaning materials.” Our minds wanting to shelter us will fill in the blanks to make the situation not as bad as it really was. However, if we were to hear “Mother rammed the cold spoon deep into my throat… a moment later I couldn’t breath. My throat seized. I stood wobbling in front of mother, feeling as if my eyes were going to pop out of my skull,” We would see the event as what it really is. It went from a kid force to eat something that tastes bad, to a near death experience. After reading the first half of A Child Called It, almost everything I had thought previously about Child abuse changed.
When Writing A Child Called It, author Dave Pelzer intended to show child abuse from the eyes of a child to help people better understand why abused children experience problems socially, and just to raise awerness for the huge problem that is very much present in America.
Most of the time when we hear about child abuse, we don’t get much detail on what happened. Many would think that this is because the truth is to graphic, but in my opinion, to really understand how evil something is, you must see it at its worst. Recently in history we learned about Gandhi, something that helped his gain support was the press coverage of brutality from the British Empire against Indians. I believe this is a tactic that Pelzer uses to get support for his cause. Now, a child’s point of view may be very biased when it comes to child abuse, but at the same time, the child is the victim, and it is his view that matters. This is a reason that parents and guardians must be extremely careful because something small can cause a lot of damage on kid. Reading o hearing about Child abuse in the media does not give you an idea of how an event really happened. It may tell you, but a child called it shows you. If we hear, “A ten year old was forced to drink cleaning materials.” Our minds wanting to shelter us will fill in the blanks to make the situation not as bad as it really was. However, if we were to hear “Mother rammed the cold spoon deep into my throat… a moment later I couldn’t breath. My throat seized. I stood wobbling in front of mother, feeling as if my eyes were going to pop out of my skull,” We would see the event as what it really is. It went from a kid force to eat something that tastes bad, to a near death experience. After reading the first half of A Child Called It, almost everything I had thought previously about Child abuse changed.
Thursday, March 31, 2011
Vignette Response
I will respond to Victor Liang’s, Melissa Ma’s, and Billy Lau’s Vignette
As I was reading the very first vignette I noticed that they chose to talk about family first. I believe they did this because your family defines who you are more then anything else. For example, if your parents beat you, you will most likely become a violent person, on the other hand, if your parents are nice to you, you will grow up to be a nice person. This, of course is a very general example, but the point is how a family acts towards a child defines the future of the kid.
An example of being defined by your parents is in Victor’s blog. He writes
“Unlike the old generations of Liangs, my siblings, my cousins, and I all realize our parent's flaws and have learned to behave unlike them. The main reason I am positive and caring towards others is because my father, a lot of times, isn't like that towards me, which I know makes me unhappy and left out in the world.”
This is an example of how you can learn. A lot of people say that you learn more from mistakes then examples. Victor’s generation has learned from the mistakes of his parents. Because of how they were raised, there is a better chance that they will become better adults. Now, of course the older generation isn’t naturally strict, but as a child, they may have seen that kids without rules lead bad lifestyles. When we become parents, there will still be problems with us, and in order to fix that, our kids will learn from our mistakes and become better adults.
This theme of learning from your parent’s mistakes appears again in Melissa’s post. She says
“But she said that if I did live with her, I would see Mickey Mouse everyday. I realize now that Mickey Mouse can't trick me.”
Once again, a child identifies the mistakes of their parents. Because Melissa was misled like this she will become a great adult. Later on in life, if faced with the decision of lying, chances are she will choose to be truthful because she has experience on the other side of the situation. The point of learning is not what happens to you, but what you.
Finally, Billy simply talks about the differences between him and his family members. He tells us that differences shouldn’t be gotten rid of, they should be celebrated. The theme of family shows up in many of the vignettes and is an important symbol of growth.
As I was reading the very first vignette I noticed that they chose to talk about family first. I believe they did this because your family defines who you are more then anything else. For example, if your parents beat you, you will most likely become a violent person, on the other hand, if your parents are nice to you, you will grow up to be a nice person. This, of course is a very general example, but the point is how a family acts towards a child defines the future of the kid.
An example of being defined by your parents is in Victor’s blog. He writes
“Unlike the old generations of Liangs, my siblings, my cousins, and I all realize our parent's flaws and have learned to behave unlike them. The main reason I am positive and caring towards others is because my father, a lot of times, isn't like that towards me, which I know makes me unhappy and left out in the world.”
This is an example of how you can learn. A lot of people say that you learn more from mistakes then examples. Victor’s generation has learned from the mistakes of his parents. Because of how they were raised, there is a better chance that they will become better adults. Now, of course the older generation isn’t naturally strict, but as a child, they may have seen that kids without rules lead bad lifestyles. When we become parents, there will still be problems with us, and in order to fix that, our kids will learn from our mistakes and become better adults.
This theme of learning from your parent’s mistakes appears again in Melissa’s post. She says
“But she said that if I did live with her, I would see Mickey Mouse everyday. I realize now that Mickey Mouse can't trick me.”
Once again, a child identifies the mistakes of their parents. Because Melissa was misled like this she will become a great adult. Later on in life, if faced with the decision of lying, chances are she will choose to be truthful because she has experience on the other side of the situation. The point of learning is not what happens to you, but what you.
Finally, Billy simply talks about the differences between him and his family members. He tells us that differences shouldn’t be gotten rid of, they should be celebrated. The theme of family shows up in many of the vignettes and is an important symbol of growth.
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