The Memory Keepers Daughter by Kim Edwards

In this book the father delivers his wife’s two babies at a hospital, but upon seeing that his daughter has down syndrome, he tells the nurse that is working to take the baby away from him and his wife and never speak to his wife about it. He planned to lie and tell his wife that his baby daughter died at the birth. I believe that the author named the book "The Memory Keepers Daughter", because he keeps all of these secrets about his little girl and begins to see as these forbidden memories inside his head and lingering ones in his wife’s tear his family apart.

I think that the thing that is really overwhelming her is not only the grief that she never really got to see her daughter but the fact that she knows somewhere inside of her that her daughter did live. When the dad hit the baby back it cried out as it took its first startling breath, I think that somewhere deep within her sleepy state the wife heard that cry and made her first connection with the baby, listened and somehow registered the first sound her little baby made. That is why I think in all her dreams she is looking for something she lost- she is not grieving over memories she was never able to have- she is tortured by the ones she did.

I also believe that the father is not really upset about his wife, or even the fact that his only son has to be raised by him alone without the help of the mother I think he is so upset over the rash decision he made to throw the precious daughter he could have had that he chose to throw away. My opinion is that he should be the one that is having the dreams of lost things, because to have to lose something you have to be able to posses it first, and though technically the wife did have the baby carried inside her as part of her body, the dad held her in his hands looked over her face, saw her and took her in as part of this world and then in a split second rejected her as ever being there. To me the way he lost something is his sense of reality- because in those few moments the world and time just didn’t exist as she disappeared from his arms. The most haunting thing about this is that no matter where he goes she could a step, a mile, a universe away, and yet the fact that she is hi, that he first one to look at her, to hold her, to know her as phoebe. Again this brings me back to memories and how for his situation the actual reality is much different- in fact the opposite from the wife’s- that though he shred these few tender moments, he is more upset over all the years he lost when he left her. 

To conclude the wife, and the father have had the reality of their states of mind completely wrong and confused and that memories are the most dangerous thing to enter a human’s fragile mind.

Ash by Malinda Lo

In this book there is a girl named Aislinn who is referred to as ash. In the beginning of the story it explains how her mother died, though ash was grief ridden she had the shoulders of her father to lean on, and his arms to run into when she cried- but then her father died as well. Previous to the death her father had remarried to a cruel woman with two daughters, so when he passed on ash was left with these sad remains of a “family”, and was eventually forced to move from her home she had lived in since birth and adapt to the royal city life. In past books and from real life experiences I often saw that when people went through traumatizing events or lost something that they loved and that was very important to them, they took another look at their life- at the people around them and at the world itself, this loss led them to reassess themselves and change for better. But in this story Ash does not do a 360 and look again at the aspects of her life, she turns to fairytales, stories, and legends that she can follow aimlessly and forget the pain. I believe that all the hurt that ash has been through only made her flee to a dream state, and not brought her to terms with reality.

One example of this is when she meets the fairy Sidhean. All her life by her mom, her caretaker, and the entire town, she had been told to never trust a fairy- to never sip from their cup- to never follow the fairy hunters or step into the fairy ring. But all of a sudden she stumbles upon Sidhean and instead of turning away and running she goes closer- and began looking for him every night, going as far as to wander the forest alone on cold nights in unfamiliar places searching for the danger she had always been told to run from. I think ash does this because since she has lost so much of the reality around her she must feel like she is gripping with her fingernails onto the last bit she knows is still there: herself. She looks for danger because she wants to be hurt, she wants to feel an emotion again, to feel movement within her so that she knows she is not just a simple presence but a being that lives and breathes. I think she cannot feel as strongly as before because all the pain swallowed her long ago, she drowned in the hurt until she couldn’t tell the difference between this pain and all the feelings she once had, so she is searching for reassurance.

Another example of this is how she searches desperately for love in everyone. Even though her step mother treats her no better than any other servant or maid, ash still insists on doing everything she can to please both her mother and her sisters. Also when she meets the huntress she becomes almost immediately possessive and desperate for the huntress to show affection love and care back to her- this desperation also appears in her a Sidhean it is another reason she went chasing after him, in search of someone to show an interest in her no matter what kind.

This connects to the world because it shows how while a lot of people will face the pain head on and embrace it and slowly work through it, others will live in a world of shadows hiding In the corners of denial and refusing to come out from their shelter and face the storm. They will wander around in search of something that they feel they have lost, when really the emptiness they feel is really the cut in their heart that they never gave a chance to heal- that they just ignored and left gaping open. This kind of thing I believe will lead people to do irrational things. An example of this is 9/11 when so many people lost their loved ones and had to see the scene repeated on news broadcasts and in pictures scattered around the world;  some chose not to accept this loss and slowly start to get better but to turn around and blame others, to distract their minds  from all the pain. It was incidents like this that made discrimination against Muslims so prominent. It is not anyone’s fault that these things happen; it’s just the fragile state of the human mind that is often overestimated in its strength.

Social Awarness problem #3

A HARD DAY

TONIGHT WAS COLD.
The radiator in my room broke.
I had nothing to cover me but a newspaper.

TODAY I AM SO TIRED.
I stayed awake too late watching TV.
I couldn’t get comfortable on the park bench last night.

LIFE IS UNFAIR.
My mom won’t buy me that new sweater I really want.
I ripped a huge hole in my only shirt.

PEOPLE CAN BE SO CRUEL.
These girls started a rumor about me and it spread throughout the whole school.
A man laughed in my face when I asked for a quarter today.

I CANT WAIT TILL I AM OLDER.
I can go to college in California and get away from my parents.
I can get an actual job and maybe have a place to live.

                This two voice poem is about the issue of homelessness. It comes from the perspective of a regular girl in high school or middle school and a girl that is about the same age who is homeless and trying her best to make ends meet. It is meant to show how the two girls both have similar thoughts on life or people but their problem is reflected differently. The regular girl experiences problems like fights with her mother or idle rumors, while the other teenage girl lives out a life of poverty and each day faces the issue of money and shelter and her wellbeing. What I meant to show by writing this was that these two girls may be the same age the same intelligence level and quite similar in the aspects of their personality, but the regular is oblivious to issues that the other girl faces and doesn’t think of how hard people like her have it when she complains. The ending is there to show that each girl along with their troubles has dreams, and while one girl thinks of a likely future that is soon to be, the other one dreams of something that has only the slightest bit of possibility.

Animal cruelty

There is a time when the entertainment we seem to enjoy so much, just becomes harmful and wrong. There is a point where we must learn that what we are doing is wrong, and that what is right is more important than the money in our pockets. Animal cruelty is an issue that has been going on for a very long time and as the days go by, it does not seem to be getting any better; the message just does not seem to be getting through the peoples thick minds. animals to a lot of people are their family, they treasure and love them like a child to take care of, but others view them as useless and unintelligent things there to hurt when angry, to use as a toy and punching bag. If a child had a learning disability and could not learn at the rate of its other students or comprehend things exactly the same way, would the child be hit? Animals may not speak English or do math or be able to understand the actions and objects of humans, but that doesn’t mean that they are unintelligent, it doesn’t mean that they don’t understand ANYTHING they just comprehend and see it a different way. Because they can’t tell us, doesn’t mean that when hit it doesn’t hurt, just because they are not human, doesn’t make hurting them any less wrong. Bull fights, circuses, elephant rides at the zoo, can all be harmless and fun, but could also turn very horrible if you look a little closer.
In both these articles it says that humans treat animals so badly because they use them as a way out, a way to release all their anger or frustration or stress on something that is weaker than them. In one of the articles it says that there is a connection between domestic violence and animal cruelty. It says that not only are the people that have already abused their partners, or children are hurting animals but also those who have grown up around this kind of abuse. I believe they do this because they walk a thin line between knowing what is right and what is wrong. They have lived all their life with those around them hurting others or getting hurt, and though they know it may be bad from the tears shed and the long lectures they might have received from school or others, they have been born into and can’t help but feel it is natural and view it as a solution to anger. because in their mind they know that it is wrong to raise a hand to a person, or hit the people around them, they feel that when angry it is a valid solution to hit something, so they hit their animals because they view them as less important and small therefore it is not wrong to do it since it is just a cat or a dog.
The reason I am so strongly against this is because of the two cats I have at home. I love my cats very much and view them as a part of my family because I have had them for as long as I can remember. when it think of animal abuse it think how one of my cats could have been placed in some horrible persons home and hurt and abused, how I could have ended up with any animal and loved it just as much as these ones, and how that animal could be out there right now being deeply hurt. I am glad that there is organizations out there helping to put a stop to animal cruelty and helping the police locate animals in need. I try to donate as often as possible to foundations like the ASPCA and PITA but sometimes donating is just not enough, if you want to change this a lot of people are going to have to take a stand.

Social Awarness problem #2

I look up and see the expanse of sky,

Not the broken shards of blue.

I look around and see the trees blowing in the wind,

Not the great oaks surrender at the hand of an axe.

I look upon the earth and see its mask,

Not the face I have destroyed so long ago.

I close my eyes I cannot see.

I cover my ears I cannot hear.

I silence my voice and I cannot speak out.

Like this I have reached perfection.

Like this the world is beautiful.

I wrote this poem to show how oblivious people are to the world and the problems around them. Continuously we are told that the ozone is being destroyed, that the amount of trees is slowly dwindling, that animals are being innocently killed; and yet we choose to do nothing. Each and every one of us lives in a world of hurt and anger, hunger and poverty, yet still we walk past those begging for a coin, we ignore the kid being bullied at school, we continuously tell ourselves that just one person died, just one person was hurt, “it won’t happen again”, there’s no reason for us to take a stand. People seem to think that if they just ignore the problem, if they turn their head from the danger then it will stop, then it will not happen. It reminds me of how some little kids play hide and seek, they cover their eyes and assume that if they cannot see, then they will not be seen. Most of  us are no longer children, we can no longer just  shield our eyes, it is time that we stop switching the channel when ASPSA commercials come on, or throwing out the charity organization letters, they don’t lie when they say that one quarter can make a difference. Not everyone can join a foundation, or donate, but there is always other ways to help, one small change made by each and every person on this planet and can make a change.

My writing inspiration for this was the book terrible things, how each animal tried to ignore the problem hoping it would go away, but each time the terrible things came back, and each time again they tried to ignore it until no one was left. I thought of some of the things I have often found myself doing, that in a smaller way could relate to the animals in the book; and mine was the homeless, the starving, the hurt, and uncared for, how each day without realizing, I heedlessly ignore these problems, because they are not in front of me, because I do not have to live them, I don’t think of them. Realizing this I will try to make more of an effort in donating and helping people and our earth.

Sharp Objects

I just finished this book and found it particularly compelling in many different ways. This book was about a young reporter that returns back to her home town after a number of years to write a report on two little girls’ murders. In this book the main character Camille is a heavy drinker and does many irresponsible things both now, and has in the past. The reason why I think she commits so many reckless actions is to make up for the dark secret she was living, and the people around her. I think for her drinking she is trying to drown out the voices that keep telling her to leave to run; she doesn’t want to believe what she is actually thinking, so she distracts her brain with alcohol. I believe when she is drinking she finds herself able to slip away from reality, and the further she slips away, the less she has to wake up and face her current situation. As for her reckless actions presently, I believe she does them to compensate for her mother, so that her mother doesn’t look so bad, so that everyone is looking at her the "screwed up little child", instead of having eyes on her mom. I think that even though Camille in the beginning of the book refuses to admit it, she has known all along what her mother has been doing and has been desperately trying to hide it. In one of her mother’s journal entries, there is a passage about when Camille was younger she pulled away from her mother Marian; she hated Marian, and refused the special attention and care her mother tried to show her. To me the mother is wrong and is just not able to see the way her daughter was really trying to show her love. By committing so many horrible things, and doing such dangerous things at such a young age, she calling out to her mother, trying to grab her mother’s attention. She wanted her mother to tell her stop, to beg her to be good to give her the time of day in a normal motherly way. Camille looked for affection in others and other things, because she felt so deprived of it at home.
I am glad that Camille has finally opened her eyes and taken a good look around her, I just wish that she had grown up sooner. Before she was too afraid to face her mother, to help her sister, to really solve the murders or at least lead the police in the right direction. She stayed for too long in the shadows pretending that light and sunshine could still reach her even when she was so consumed within the darkness. if only she had come back to her hometown and remembered how horrible things were, had processed how horrible things still were; if she had just stopped drowning herself in alcohol and irresponsible "fun", and reckless actions, and stopped trying to distract herself with other people around her then maybe she would have been able to take control of thing before they spun so completely out of control. This reflects on the world, because to many people try to avoid trouble; they try to turn their heads and pretend they can’t see what is really going on. People would rather close their eyes then reach out a helping hand. It sort of reminds me of the book the "Terrible Things", how all the animals tried to make everything still seem okay and ignored how all their friends were being taken away. It also reminds me of a line from the song, Blowing in the Wind by Bob Dylan: "How many ears must one man have, before he can hear the people cry."

Social Awarness problem

The things that affect my surroundings the most is the people around me, the way that they react to things, the things that they do to cause reactions.... these people become most of what makes up my surroundings, but there is one thing in particular that a lot of these people do that annoys me the most. It’s okay to try out new things, to experiment with a different way of doing things, or just be the person you are every day, this doesn’t give anyone a reason to be ridiculed for it. I hate when people judge others by just looking at them, at what their wearing, what they’re doing, who they are hanging out with. It’s such a sadly common thing that happens almost every day when walking down the street and by strangers mostly, which to me makes it even more upsetting. If you don’t know the person then there is no reason that you should immediately assume things about them, you never know their reasons for it. This sort of thing happens a lot when it comes to girls, but it happens to guys as well. They just as harshly judge others as they are judged themselves.
Because I think this is wrong, it doesn’t mean that I don’t do it myself. It seems almost impossible not to look over at someone and at least come up with an idea of who they are based on what you can see on the outside, it seems impossible not to think they are unfashionable, nerdy, too uptight, too happy, too weird based on what is visible. It doesn’t matter if they are not any of those things... to me it seems like a natural reflex. I think the reason that we do this is partly because of self-esteem, it is to make up for any insecurities that we have about ourselves, and we seek flaws in others to make ours seem less bad. It could also be that all our lives we have been taught to judge things based on their appearance. If a marker has a purple cap we can only assume its purple and pick it up to use, but underneath the marker might be yellow or red, and the wrong cap was just placed on this marker. It’s the same thing with people, you see one thing, one action and your only left to assume by what you can see, if you really want to know you have to get to know them a.k.a take the cap off the marker to reveal the yellow marker inside. I am not justifying the fact that people judge others, because the affect this has on people can be quite sad. Things like, people will never try new things again, become very self-conscious, develop shyness, go through life being scared of others. This doesn’t always happen; sometimes people realize that when being judged if they don’t know the person it doesn’t matter. unfortunately I don’t suspect there is any real solution to this, people don’t just wake up and decide that they will never judge another human being again, it just would never happen. I think the only real solution would be for people to stop caring so much, so then maybe our surroundings and the people in them won’t be so affected.