[5] How are people in power portrayed in your books?

            Many books portray people in power differently. Some of the books I have been reading, notably The Day of Battle by Rick Atkinson, Champion by Marie Lu, and The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller, illustrate the diversity of portrayal of those in power. I think that all leaders should discover these essential qualities of leadership, some of which Atkinson, Lu, and Miller illustrate in their books.

            In The Day of Battle, a book that describes the Italian Campaign during World War II, the generals who are in power in the Allied army are shown as out of touch leaders who do not understand the capabilities of their soldiers. One example of this is when the army is advancing on the Germans. The Allies do not have enough trucks to supply the army for a march North, however the generals do not acknowledge this. They continue on, ignoring the pleas of the logistics department. After marching for a time, they run very low on supplies, and the generals decide to blame the logistics department for their failure. This is just one example of the generals' incompetence. They are quick to blame and headstrong.

            The book Champion, a dystopian novel set in America after a large part of it has been flooded, shows those in power as snooty idealists. They want the country to be perfect, however, they do not possess the means or the right ideas to make it so. They are deceived by the conditions in which they live about the state of the country, which may be suffering while the powerful aristocracy is still pampered. The senators of the Republic, second in power only to the Elector, the effective king of the country, are shown to be greedy politicians who compete for power whenever they can.

            The Song of Achilles, a book depicting a military expedition to conquer Troy,  describes a council of kings and generals who lead the expedition. All of the generals rose through the ranks themselves, and as a result of that they are much more conscious of the state of their army and are in much more frequent contact with their soldiers. They actively try to stay up to date on the morale, abilities, and general condition of the army. The majority of the council is extremely smart, a factor which helps in directing the army. The soldiers are greatly affected by the attention which they receive from the senior officers, and are encouraged by it to fight at their best.

            After analyzing these three books, I have come to the conclusion that power is often misplaced. In both The Day of Battle and Champion, the leaders are out of touch and overrate the capabilities of those who serve them. The council in The Song of Achilles is tremendously effective and manages to avoid the often indecision of a normal council, and instead works more like a team in solving the problems of the army. The most effective leaders are the most down-to-earth, knowledgeable, and accepting of criticism and redirection from their subordinates. This is a quality found in very few leaders, but can be achieved with education and appropriate training.

[4] Social Injustice in Our Schools

            Our modern society, imperfect as it is, has come a long way since the Civil Rights Era, when African Americans suffered from tremendous bias and social injustice, which often led to economic disadvantages. Progress has been made in the areas of some injustices which were once commonplace.  Many people in our country now believe that with the advantage of free public education, any member of society can rise to success. However, one of the more disturbing articles I have read in my independent reading life recently is "In Public Education, Edge Still Goes to the Rich" (Eduardo Porter, New York Times, Nov. 5 2013). This article exposes a tremendous injustice in our public education system which affects the poorer segments of the African American community as well as their counterparts in other ethnic groups. The problem is that many schools that serve wealthier school districts gain larger funding, in contrast to districts serving poorer areas. Current politicians have tried to resolve this issue but have failed to allocate adequate resources, which they must do in order to solve the issue of underfunded schools.

            According to research done by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, among thirty-four nations surveyed by the O.E.C.D., only the U.S., Israel, and Turkey allocate more resources to schools which serve wealthier districts, as opposed to their poorer counterparts.  The article "In Public Education, Edge Still Goes to the Rich" states: "In New York, schools spend an average of $19,000 per student. In Tennessee they spend $8,200. The Alpine school district in Utah spends only $5,321. And funding in some states is even more skewed than in New York." The article also says that rich enclaves like Bridgehampton and Amagansett spent $25,505 on each student, while poorer districts spent an average of only $12,861. An even more disturbing fact is that only seventeen states in the entire U.S. spend more on poorer districts than wealthy districts. Those in the seventeen which spend more include New Jersey, Vermont, and Massachusetts, according to the article. It also says that funding is the same for all schools in only fifteen states. And another sixteen states, which provide large sums of money for education and distribute it equitably, are regressively cutting the funding for their schools.

            This issue is one of the most heavily dodged in politics today. David Sciarra, executive director of the Education Law Center in Newark, an advocacy group for disadvantaged students, said on education reform, “To a large extent it is a huge distraction. We never get to the question of what resources we need to get the students to meet the standards.” Education reform and the government will not solve this tremendous problem, however, many activism groups are taking charge and attempting to dislodge this injustice. We can only hope that, in the precedent created by the No Child Left Behind Act, laws which stop this practice will be passed.

            

[3] Writing In Blood

            Sherman Alexie’s article Why the Best Books are Written in Blood, published in the Wall Street Journal, gives us a unique perspective on the issue of what material is appropriate for young adult readers. Alexie is the author of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, an autobiographical novel of a poor Indian boy. The story includes Alexie’s battles against both addiction and mental illness. The book is frequently challenged, and many libraries and schools have attempted to ban it. When he tells us about his thoughts on banning books. Alexie argues that not only does his book not hurt teens, but also it helps those teens who are in deep trouble similar to that of his protagonist. When Mr. Alexie describes himself as having once been a “poverty-stricken, sexually and physically abused self-loathing Native American teenager,” he shows us how he can relate to the problems of troubled teenagers, and he expresses that relation through his writing. One of Mr. Alexie’s main opponents is Meghan Cox Gurdon, a journalist for the Wall Street Journal; however, Mr. Alexie offhandedly dismisses her article, “Darkness Too Visible,” which, in a patronizing tone, attacks YA books as being “lurid.” Mr. Alexie says, “Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother . . . Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?” He gives examples of teenagers he has met who have said they were “inspired” by his book, contrary to what many of the people who want to censor his work have attempted to prove. He says “almost every day, my mailbox is filled with handwritten letters from students . . . who have read my YA book and loved it. I have yet to receive a letter from a child somehow debilitated . . . by my book.” He concludes his article by telling us how his book helps kids place their issues into perspective and how his book comforts them by knowing that others have gone through similar things.

            Mr. Alexie uses subtle craft moves to strengthen his argument, such as only using examples that support his point and not including contradictory ones. He dismisses Ms. Gurdon’s complaints about his work by saying “I laughed at her condescension.” In addition, Mr. Alexie uses powerful examples from his own life to reinforce his point, which help his side by showing the reader that these are real problems, even if they may be far from home. When he talks about conservative “would-be saviors” who were worried about his “moral development,” he uses loaded works that cannot fail to affect the reader: “They wanted to protect me from sex when I had already been raped.” Further, he incites teens by using imagery that creates emotion: “I write to give [teens] weapons—in the form of words and ideas—that will help them fight their monsters.”

            I agree with Mr. Alexie’s position. Describing and revealing things about the world for teenagers is a much better way for them to discover more advanced topics than to learn about them from actual personal experience. If they understand something from a book, chances are they will know more about it if they have to confront that issue in their own life. YA books such as Mr. Alexie’s can also offer inspiration and comfort to people with similar issues to those inside the book by showing readers that other people have the same problems, and that they are not alone. One of Mr. Alexie’s most powerful lines summed the article up for me: “I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed.” It is impossible to read that line and fail be moved.

[2] Reading Response on: Looking for Alaska by John Green

Reading Response on Looking for Alaska by John Green

By: Alex Williams

Class: 806

            Have you ever questioned the meaning of your life? Have you ever thought there was something more than just going through the motions of your daily existence? In Looking for Alaska, John Green explores the idea of seeking something more to life. The story centers around Pudge, a teenager who finds himself craving adventure. Weary of going to the local mediocre school in Florida where he is completely unexcited by his teachers, his classes, and his almost non-existent social life, he asks his parents to enroll him in boarding school.  His dad agrees to let him go to the school he himself once attended, Culver Creek, in Alabama. There, Pudge meets Alaska, a half crazy beautiful girl, aka his best friend, who influences him tremendously. Pudge's experiences with Alaska and at Culver Creek will change the course of his life.

            At the beginning of Looking for Alaska, Pudge has no direction in life. For years, he has been un-engaged in class, only studies for tests, and has achieved almost nothing. Pudge wants to do something meaningful that will help him determine his direction in life, or at least have some sort of adventure. An example of the pointlessness of his life at home is when his mom hosts him a going away party, which is sort of a joke, as Pudge has no friends. As Pudge says, his mom thought that he had been keeping his "popularity secret from her all these years." In reality, he had no social life at all, and he wants to change that. As Pudge says after he leaves home to go to Culver Creek,    "[I] left my family and the rest of my minor life."

            At Culver Creek, Pudge gains a level of freedom and self-discovery that he could barely comprehend in his old school. In some ways, the lifestyle of the new school seems crazy. There is much less supervision of the students, and the kids play pranks on the teachers and on each other. However, there is a certain ethos to the place. None of the kids is allowed to tell the teachers who performed a certain prank, and if someone does tell, they are shunned by all of the students. Kids misbehave regularly, and even though they must keep a fairly high GPA throughout their time at Culver, they have a fun time, too. Alaska helps him understand this lifestyle better and have a more enjoyable time, and as he later says, "She taught me everything I knew about crawfish and kissing and pink wine and poetry. She made me different." Moreover, the teachers are unique and far more interesting than at Pudge's old school. They give Pudge a great deal to think about.

            After Pudge experiences the stimulating and challenging lifestyle that is Culver Creek for just a few days, he knows that he belongs there. He embraces the large quantities of freedom, and he begins to understand that there is more to life than he had previously thought.  Even though at first he feels out of place with the wide-spread smoking and drinking at the school, as he used to have a life that was heavily constrained by his parents, he is soon enveloped in the lifestyle of Culver. This helps him loosen up and think about more than just the present, and more about the greater scheme of things in life. Pudge interacts more with the other students and has a better social life because he and his newfound friends, such as Alaska, are able to get together more and have more fun. Pudge has had a real taste of what he has come to Culver for, and he is opening up more and more to new ideas.

            Toward the end of the book, Pudge discovers what life is truly about for himself. He is shocked by the seemingly senseless death of Alaska, who is killed in a car accident, which devastates Pudge. In the aftermath of the incident, he thinks a lot about the death of the girl he had come to love, and tries to find some meaning in his despair. Ultimately, he reaches for something uplifting. As he says at the end of the book, "When adults say, 'Teenagers think they are invincible' with that sly, stupid smile on their faces, they don't know how right they are . . . like all energy, we can only change shapes and sizes and manifestations . . . but that part of us greater than the sum of our parts cannot begin and cannot end, so it cannot fail." Pudge has found his own equivalent of religious beliefs for himself.  These beliefs are that everyone becomes something more than themselves, and that the life force of his friend Alaska will never end. In this experience alone, his time at Culver Creek has managed to change him and his beliefs even more than he ever could have expected.

            Looking for Alaska is a deeply moving, eye-opening story of one boy's quest to find the meaning of life. This award-winning novel taught me a number of lessons, including about how it is good to not always be studying and to relax more and be open to new experiences, ideas, and people. I think the reason that John Green wrote Looking for Alaska was to awaken kids to the possibilities of life. I think he wanted to show kids who were uninspired by their lives that they could find a way to live fuller, deeper, more meaningful lives, which is a lesson that can offer inspiration to every teenager.

[1] Reading Response on: A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park

The story of the Lost Boys of Sudan is an extremely tragic one. The Lost Boys were roughly 20,000 refugee orphans who were caught in the middle of Sudan’s Civil War, which lasted from 1983 to 2005. In her amazing novel which was based on a true story, A Long Walk to Water, Linda Sue Park describes the Lost Boys’ story through the eyes of one child, Salva, who must overcome a series of enormous obstacles in order to survive. His tale is one of hardship, but eventual escape. Living the relatively sheltered life I live, it is extremely hard for me to even imagine how Salva survived.

Salva’s story begins when he is eleven and his village is attacked while he is at school. As gunshot after gunshot rings out, the schoolmaster shouts for the children to run. Terrified and not even knowing if his family is alive, Salva flees his home. "Go quickly, all of you," his teacher says. He tells them to go into the bush. "Not home. Don't run home. They will be going into the villages. Stay away from the villages-run into the brush." 

Salva joins a group of other refugees who are also attempting to escape the violence. He endures near starvation and terrible conditions. Fleeing from the fighting, he must run down a shrinking corridor. His village was in central Sudan, and so he runs between two armies, the rebels from Southern Sudan and the government forces from Northern Sudan. As both armies close in, he must get out of Sudan quickly or he will be drafted into one of the two armies or killed on the spot. He often wonders: "Where is my family? When will I see them again?" 

Eventually, he manages to find his uncle. They retreat, making narrow canoes to cross the Nile River. They narrowly escape the immediate violence by crossing the water. After braving crocodiles in the Nile River, the two must the face the incredibly harsh conditions of the desert. They persevere, but while crossing the desert, Salva’s uncle is shot and killed by a gang of marauding tribesmen with AK-47s. Salva is distraught, but must find a way to go on. In the desert, he reaches a refugee camp.

After all his struggles, Salva is selected for adoption by a family in Rochester, New York, but he never forgets his past. After ten years of life in America, Salva returns to Sudan in search of his mother and father, who, to his great joy, he disovers living in his old village. An adult, he founds Water for Sudan, a program in which schools in America sponsor wells for villages in Sudan.

All in all, I think that A Long Walk to Water was a fantastic, eye-opening book. It exposed me to what life was like in a third-world country in the midst of war, and how hard it is to survive in that kind of environment. Through the great obstacles that Salva was forced to overcome, A Long Walk to Water showed me what real hardship is like, and how far it is from anything that I have ever experienced. Even though I have read a great deal of history, this book opened my eyes to a terrible situation which I had never before heard about. Salva’s experience and the incredible strength he develops through his struggles are things that I will never forget.