Blog Post 5- NYC Activism Museum Trip

Steven Sinchi
11/9/14
ELA Trip

What The Trip Made Me Feel/Think/Wonder

       To start off, the trip was about the history of activism in New York City and how that shaped our current New York City, including our role in today's social issues all around the world. As a student in the eight grade, activism isn't a large part in what we learn today in schools. This trip made me think that perhaps bringing more awareness to the topics that we discussed, such as religious discrimination, suffrage, segregation, LGBTQ rights, and even bicycle rights (I didn't know that a modern issue included bicycle laws) is extremely critical. This made me wonder that some of the issues present are extremely hard to solve, but solvable if everyone does works together.

       In addition, the methods that the tour guide explained to us made me wonder if some of them ever work. In the nonviolence method that Dr. Martin Luther King had done, it did inspire a lot of ways to fight for a cause without hurting anyone, but it was only a few rare cases that the nonviolence method worked. What I had seen was that violence was usually the way people were able to get attention and actually get a problem solved. In addition, the trip made me wonder how many other issues were out there and what I was able to do about it. We created pins and that made me feel like I was able to represent something, even if it was as small as a single pin.  

 Extra Credit:

Blog Post 4- Perks of Being a Wallflower Reading Response

Steven Sinchi
11/6/14
ELA Reading Response/Literary Essay

Reading Response/Literary Essay- Why this book may be banned: Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky

       Teenagers grow up, not knowing exactly what adulthood may be like, whether it can be extremely dangerous or very fun. Because of this unsure trait going on, authority, including teachers, schools, and parents, may not want the content to be exposed to their kids due to the maturity it takes to comprehend the book. Perks of Being a Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky happens to be a book about a boy named Charlie who embarks on the journey for the transition to teen hood. This means explicit words and parts may contain sexual activity, drug abuse, and violence, topics that authority may want to shield students from. Though mature and harsh, the topics of sexual content, drug abuse, and violence should be exposed to students thirteen years and older.

       Sexual content is dappled all over the book. For instance, Charlie's aunt, Aunt Helen, is illustrated as a great person in this book (Aunt Helen is one of the few people in the book given a name), someone Charlie could really connect to. But in reality, Aunt Helen had gone through an extremely rough childhood which was gone into detail about drugs, domestic violence, and most importantly molestation, "My Aunt Helen drank a lot. My Aunt Helen took drugs a lot. My Aunt Helen had many problems with men and boys. ...She went to hospitals all the time." Taking advantage of Charlie's innocence and trait of a wallflower, she molested Charlie and he did not know how or why to respond properly. Because of that, years later he came to the conclusion that what aunt Helen did was not her fault (it wasn't, in a way, but she still made the decision to molest Charlie anyways) and that it was okay that she sexually abused him. This may not seem appropriate for teenagers to read, but authority should keep in mind that the world isn't a soft place where everything will be okay, because that clearly isn't always true. World topics that include molestation should be widely known about so that teenagers could be aware of how to take action when these types of events due occur.

       Drug abuse is also heavily mentioned in the book. To what I comprehend, drugs is a means of escapism and allows for troubles of reality to leave temporarily. Specifically, there was a moment in which Charlie's cousins invited him to a "joint" to smoke, and all he could do was deny, "I went with all my Ohio cousins, who promptly pulled out a 'joint' and passed it around. I didn't smoke any of it because I wasn't in the mood, and they said what they always say. 'Charlie, you're such a pussy.'" This may be encouraging smoking to students that don't understand what this section actually meant. In addition, Charlie's dad also used liquor as a temporary "escape" from reality, "I should mention that my dad usually just sits real quiet and drinks. My dad is not a big drinker at all, but when he has to spend time with my mom's family, he gets 'loaded,' as my cousin Tommy says. Deep down, I think my dad would rather spend the holiday with his family in Ohio. That way he wouldn't have to be around my grandfather. He doesn't like my grandfather very much, but he just keeps quiet about it." As shown, liquor and cigarettes serve as a way to take a break from life, and this may be misleading because now kids will want to take a break by smoking and drinking, which is not the way to actually solve problems. The reason this book should not be banned is because it teaches people that drugs isn't the way to solve issues, and being aware why people make the mistake of believing that.

       Violence in the book can be a way of expressing power and abolishing problems, like bullying. Going through the teenager phases, every one knows that bullying comes somewhere in their lives, and for Charlie it seems to be in others, not him. For example, Patrick and Brad are two men who are privately gay. Brad doesn't want this to be out there because it may ruin his reputation, so what he does is call Patrick a "faggot," which commences a brawl between Brad's friends (excluding Brad) and Patrick. With the intentions of protecting Patrick, Charlie enters the fight and threatens to "blind" Brad's friends. Another example can be when Charlie recalls a time when his sister was slapped by her boyfriend because she told him to stand up to his bully (which was ironically her). After the slap, she continued to stay with him. All of these examples are promoting the wrong kind of violence, that problems can only be solved with violence. This is not true, and rather than promote violence, it can strengthen the fact that in the end of these situations, no benefit of the violence was ever received.

       In retrospect, the topics of sexual content, drug abuse, and violence may be harsh because it can be misleading, but if the right teachers and the right lessons are being taught, then banned books like Perks of Being a Wallflower can be extremely beneficial in explaining the transition of childhood into teenagers into adulthood, which is why it shouldn't be banned. Exposition to these topics bring awareness, and they not only teach us how to face them, but it also gives us the freedom to read at any maturity level at any age but knowing that reading these topics early don't make a big difference.

Blog Post 3- Perks Of Being A Wallflower (Synthesis Page)

Steven Sinchi                                                                                                                  11/14/14
ELA                                                                                                                                              

The Perks Of Being A Wallflower by Stephen Chbosky: Synthesis Page

Claim: Charlie is having a difficult time adapting to the world he is recognizing as he is going through this phase of growing up and maturing. 

Symbols:

The Rocky Horror Picture Show:

This is a location, an auditorium, in which Charlie and his friends get to forget about all the stress and hardships that are happening in all aspects of everyone's lives. In this location, Charlie and his friends find a way to connect as opposed to worrying about others, and through acting in a play, it strengthens their bond. As readers, we also remember that in the 80's and 90's, there weren't many efficient ways of communicating, so acting was a great way of socializing. "I won't go into detail about the whole show, but I had the best time I ever had in my whole life. I'm not kidding. I got to pretend that I was singing, and I got to dance around, and I got to wear a 'feather boa' in the grande finale, which I wouldn't have thought anything of because it's part of the show, but Patrick couldn't stop talking about it."

Books and Music:

Charlie isn't someone who generally focuses on reality. For example, reading books is a way that Charlie can find himself (the books are mostly classic books) and he doesn't profoundly connect with the book, but use it as a tool of keeping himself stabilized in the real world. In addition, Charlie makes several references of songs from the 60's, 70's, 80's, and early 90's, and although he doesn't make deep analysis, he lives through the books and movies as the protagonist, "I think it would be great to have written one of those songs." This shows how Charlie may have been thinking about the books and movies, but doesn't go into depth about it.

Archetypes:
Reluctant Hero/Wide-Eyed Innocent Hero:
Growing up, Charlie doesn't have a choice on what happens around him, but he does have a choice to do something about it. As a reluctant hero, Charlie isn't given an opportunity to grow up, but it is forced upon him, resulting in confusion and a realization about how the world functions. Charlie is exposed to new experiences that may seem nebulous at first, such as a social life, drugs, sex, family, and adjusting to all of these topics that were never imposed on him. 

Mother Figure:
Although they may be friends, Patrick shows Charlie that problems do occur in the world, and that they are normal, but they can be solved with patience and right choices. For example, when Charlie makes the decision of choosing to kiss Sam, his friend, versus Mary Elizabeth, the girl he is dating, Charlie creates a lot of tension and unsettling feelings in everyone, and Patrick was there to guide him through these issues, "When he dropped me off, Patrick told me the best thing to do was keep away for a while. I guess I already told you that. He said that when he knew more, he'd give me a call. 'Thanks, Patrick.' 'Don't mention it.'"

Blog Post 2- Thirteen Reasons Why (Book Club)

Steven Sinchi
9/30/14
ELA

Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher

     Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher depicts the struggles of Hannah and the impact of her issues and her suicide on Clay. Hannah Baker was a freshman in a new high school, in which she had difficulty fitting in with. Through many back stabs, hardships, and love problems, she finally decided that taking her life was the solution. Hearing Hannah Baker's words shook Clay, and so he couldn't stop listening to the 13 tapes from beginning to end. Hannah was excited in life at one point, but as time passed on, she found herself more isolated every day, resulting in a suicide. 

     In the beginning of the book, Hannah was thrilled to be able to make new friends (Jessica and Alex) and was exhilarated at being able to achieve her first kiss. She didn't expect anything bad to come out of what she was doing. "I couldn't believe it. Justin, you lied to my mom. So why did that make me so happy? Because our lies matched. It was a sign." This shows Hannah's enthusiasm for little things such as matching lies with someone she likes. After she had her first kiss, everything seemed fine until rumors started spreading about Hannah being a "slut" because of her first kiss. She began to realize that everyone started seeing her differently, and her good image as a person deteriorated from there.

     After that, Hannah's rumors started getting worse and worse. One of her supposed friends, Courtney, back stabbed her by telling lots of people about Tyler, a guy from the school who was supposedly peeping in on Hannah and Courtney in her room, which created a lot of suspicion on Hannah. In addition, this bullying went on in a form of a list. Hannah was named in a list of "who's hot/ who's not" as "hot" which stirred up sexual issues. Following up to the past rumors, Hannah was touched by another one of her peers in a bar. "You know I'm not even going to interpret this. I'm just going to tell you why it pissed me off. I've had my butt grabbed before -no big deal- but this time it was grabbed because someone else wrote my name on a list. And when this guy saw me upset, did he apologize? No. Instead, he got aggressive. Then, in the most condescending way, he told me to relax. Then he put his hand on my shoulder, as if by touching me he'd somehow comfort me." Here, we can see the negativity it has influenced on Hannah, almost as if traumatizing her. Adding on to this sexual abuse, Tyler Down was a creeper in Hannah's room, taking pictures of her. This made Hannah feel insecure and in danger in her room, a private place that was supposed to be her only safe space. Again, another incident occurred in which Marcus Cooley was Hannah's Valentine. He promised a date in a diner, and in the end, he appeared extremely late. When he did arrive, he brought Hannah to the back in private so that he could take advantage of the time and place with her. She felt desperate for someone to calm her down and understand how she is doing. As you can see, Hannah is having trouble event after event having people realize who and how Hannah actually is as opposed to fake rumors.

     Towards the end, Hannah has trouble beginning to connect to people at all, and as a result, becomes isolated from everyone else. The one moment she did have a chance to connect with someone is with Clay, but after the scene in which they have a conversation and kiss, she throws a tantrum so that Clay would leave. This was the only chance Clay had to maybe turn around her ideas of killing herself, which failed. After this final connection with a person she might have had her life saved by, she continues to force down her mind into this depression against her will. She explains that around the end of her life, she gave signs about her suicide. She asked a boy if she could give him her bike, which is one of the signs. She also asked for a handheld recorder to record the tapes. "The haircut. Averting your eyes in the halls. You were careful, but still, there were signs. Little signs. But they were there. " In the end, Hannah could not have taken any more, so she willingly gave up and suffered the suicide.

     All in all, Hannah suffered a slow pattern of people taking her spirit as a person a little by a little which ultimately resulted in a big part of Hannah that was gone. She felt empty by the end, something that wouldn't have been inevitable if someone could have acted properly. In the end, this comes to show how little or big actions can have equal impact on a person going through deep depression/reflection of life, and if we could in one way or another, help that person.

Blog Post 1- A Long Way Gone (Summer Reading)

Steven Sinchi                                                                                                                9/13/14
811                                                                                                                                 English

A Long Way Gone by Ishmael Beah

      Ishmael Beah sees the world in a different perspective than most people have seen. In the book, "A Long Way Gone", Ishmael is trapped into a society in which kids are trained and forced into a bloody war. This maltreatment is what the soldiers are obligated to, and one of these teens being Ishmael, he grows up with a sense that all is savage and brutal. Growing up in the bloodshed that is Sierra Leone, Ishmael learns that life is bleak and full of danger that may end with him even losing his own life, which leads me to believe that Ishmael is a fighter and tenacious.

     Ishmael learned to sharpen his instincts as a child, since the war had traumatized him to a feeling that death is right around the corner. You normally wouldn't have to look every corner, not sleep nights, double check behind yourself, and wait until a loud noise stops, because safety is everywhere for us. Ishmael does all those things, because as a twelve year old in a battlefield at Sierra Leone, he isn't safe. At one point in the book, young Ishmael's area is attacked and ransacked by enemies, and he is stunned when he finds out that he has to leave his family in order to stay alive. "It was during that attack in the village of Kamator that my friends and I separated. It was the last time I saw Junior." Junior was Ishmael's older brother, and he was separated from Ishmael. At this point, Ishmael only relied on the trust of his friends and no one else. The community that he was in when he got separated from his family was also perishing from the rebellion, "Mothers lost their children, whose confused, sad cries coincided with the the gunshots. Families were separated and left behind everything they had worked for their whole lives." Ishmael was too young to comprehend the seriousness that this was, and like a sponge, he absorbed all of it in. The lesson that Ishmael learned at this point of his life was to expect the unexpected.

    As a teenager, the war was the pinnacle of his life, since it was that at this age he would begin to understand what was happening around him and to him, and Beah begins to accept the tragedies knowing that the moment of freedom and peace may be a long way gone. For example, the moment he was finally going to reach to his family, a place he was desiring to reach ever since he lost contact, was taken away because another attack consumed the district into piles of bodies. This is life-changing for Beah because at this point he realizes how grim this entire experience may be, "I didn't care. I wanted to see my family, even if it meant dying with them." Stuck in this mindset, Beah was getting used to the violence, and in the next few years, he decides to confront the challenge of rehabilitation. In other words, Beah will attempt to forget about the life he has been living for the past decade or so and relearn how to live in a society. This is extremely difficult, as having been discommoded with the struggle of surviving every minute of his life and flash-backing to the children that he might of killed, Beah strives to be in the now, "But we were still traumatized, and now that we had time to think, the fastened mantle of our war memories slowly began to open." This part of the memoir emphasized the fact that it will be extremely difficult to forget the bloody kills and deaths that a young man had to experience. At these moments, though, Ishmael works to his fullest to stay strong, and will do whatever it takes to succeed.

    As a pre-adult going through a unstable rehabilitation, Beah decides to take the route in which he will learn from others of how to live in a stable society. In this case, Ishmael is placed in his uncle's home that's fairly far away from the attacks. Living with his uncle, Beah values company from someone who is willing to give it to you. Unfortunately, Beah's uncle was only able to live for so long,  "I was always losing everything that meant something to me" "Why did this happen to us in these difficult times?" Beah knows he loses what is dearest to him, but he is an indefatigable person who won't stop until he knows what's right, what he should value the most and find the most important things in life and prioritize.

    In retrospect, Ishmael has illustrated to us that growing up in his conditions is transformational because he had to live in the bloodshed of losing friends and family through killing others. By seeing the world of violence through Ishmael Beah's eyes, we can see how difficult it can be to expect the unexpected, stay strong, and be determined to never give up.