Similarities Make Friends

The book Staying Fat For Sarah Brynnes by Chris Crutcher is a very intense book dealing with many issues that people face everyday. The book also deals with an intense long lasting relationship that makes the two characters in the book friends. The main character is called Eric and Eric's best friend is called Sarah. I think that these two characters have a lot in similar and some things that are different.

The two characters have similarities, one similarity is that they both have an issue that troubles them, and also mocks them. Eric is overweight and Sarah has scars on her face and her hands which also mocks her. The only reason why they became friends was because they had this similarity, they have been friends for years and these issues are what kept them together. Eric starts losing weight by joining a swimming club, but then is afraid that his friendship with Sarah will break apart. He is scared that if he is skinny, Sarah won't be his friend anymore because they don't have a similarity. This is why Eric constantly eats throughout the book to maintain his weight and his relationship with Sarah.

The two characters also have differences. Of course, everyone is different and everyone is born with different styles and techniques. I noticed a really important difference in this book, I've noticed that Eric is usually the one that has a lot of strengths and that Sarah has a lot of weaknesses. For example, Eric reveals the secret of Sarah's father trying to kill her to the school staff to save Sarah. Sarah on the other hand was weak because she was hiding the secret and didn't want to tell it out. Eric has a lot of courage and does what it takes to save his friend, I think that this was very courageous and showed a true symbol of friendship. Sarah was also weak because she didn't tell everyone that her father use to abuse her and why she got her scars.

In conclusion, I think that the two main characters in the book have similarities and differences. When's the last time you've heard of child abuse? For me, not too long ago, this issue is happening everyday around the world. I think that confronting yourself is the best way to heal yourself. Even though Eric was fat and Sarah had scars, it's not the outside that matters. It's what matters inside and your personality. Eric stayed strong and ignored what others said about him. Teen issues are all over the place, many people face issues everyday. For example, in our school, there is this kid that somehow has a crippled leg and has to rely on a roller cart thing. I really feel bad for him because even though he's crippled, he's still going to school. I really wonder how it feels to be in his life, always walking slower than others. It must be bad to be in his life, but it's good that he's still fighting it.

Visual Art Assignment due 1/25

 

This painting is called Frida Khalo, The Little Dear by Frida Khalo. Frida Khalo has been a huge inspiration to me when I was in elementary school, I use to hear her name all the time from art teachers. I noticed that she did a lot of self portraits that were rather strange somehow.  Many people would have different perspectives on this painting but this is mine. I think that Frida Khalo must've drawn herself in a deer because of some kind of pain physically or mentally she's having.

One obvious evidence that I can point out is the arrows. She drew arrows all stuck around the deer's body with blood coming out. There is also an arrow on her neck, which has to be painful. I think that this painting portrays both physical and mental pain. In the background I see a nice blue sky, there's also a path that leads out of the forests. Frida could've drawn the deer moving out that path but instead  Frida draws herself around a bunch of dark trees. I think she did this because she thinks that there's no more hope for her for whatever the problem she's having. The blue sky represents hope while the forests represent darkness, it seems like she's trapped in the mentally with no way out. Drawing herself in a form of a deer makes me think really deep, she could've chosen any other animal, why a deer? Back to my theory about her experiencing pain physically and mentally, I think that she's experiencing pain physically also because she's put her body form into a deer form. This makes me think if she has some kind of bone fracture that injured her body. Even her face shows a sign of unhappiness and something that is bothering her.

I think this painting connects to humanity and the world because many people suffer these days from all kinds of things. They experience pain physically and mentally like in this poem, it can even connect to me. In face it can connect to everyone since I'm pretty sure everyone has experienced some sort of pain. They probably have experienced frustration to the point where you just give up.

All-Star Mentor Nomination!

I think that our All Star Mentor should be Leah. I really liked her reading responses especially her recent one.  What I like is how she compared each characters by their personalities. Her opinions were strong and the message was said clearly. She limits her retell and gets straight to her thesis, she is always using comparison to compare our real world or other characters in the book which I think is really unique.
Her blog: http://writinguponreading.blogspot.com/

Mixed Discussion-Thoughts

The book Burned by Ellen Hopkins is a pretty good book. I have just started reading it about a day ago. I happened to pick this book up at the library when I was looking for books. The cover was just so appealing to me that I had to pick it up. The paper actually looks burned, Ellen must've really thought about this book before she wrote it. Burned is another social issue book, but this time it's not about the main character's life. It's about the life surrounding her, her dad is an alcoholic who beats her mother.

Comparing to the outside world, I'm pretty sure that there are a lot of abusive fathers or mothers. This book just models the reality of our world and make us think more about the issue. Many parents abuse their kids and threaten them too, but kids are too scared to tell someone. I've seen a lady on the street scream and curse at her kid and I was just shocked.


What amazes me about this book was that the font and then placement of the text was really cool. I think that Ellen placed it in different places to represent symbolism, like when they talked about spaghetti, Ellen decided to place the words so that it looked like spaghetti. The text in her book is so different from other books, the dialogue is totally different from other books. At first, I thought the book was actually poetry.

Depression

The book Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson is a very moody book and can probably make you change your mind about some things after reading it. The book is about a freshman girl that is had a party during the vacation before school. She invites all her friends and they party off, but who knew that a friend would rape her in the woods. This scene would have a big impact for the rest of her life, causing many problems throughout her life. Thus causing her to have an extremely complicated life at an young age.

I think the author titled this book Speak was because throughout the book, Melinda didn't speak out for herself. She let others accuse her and she just didn't speak aloud and clarify the situation. I think the message the author is trying to get to us is that whenever there is a situation that is clearly a misunderstanding, then you should speak up for yourself.

Telling everyone that you got raped is a really hard thing to say, it would embarrass you in front of everyone else.

This one issue caused many issues to Melinda throughout the book. For example, Melinda falls into depression later on in the book. Depression is a serious condition and may kill you due to stress. Depression usually occurs when a loved one dies suddenly, but she just falls into depression because she got raped. Speaking up would help clarify all this and wouldn't have caused all this.

Another is that she's losing her friends, friends is a really important aspect of education life. Friends are there to help one another. Without friends, this is probably one of the reasons why she is in depression. Since at the time of the rape, she called 911 because she was getting raped. But then when the police arrived, they saw that the some of the people that Melinda invited were drinking when they were underage. Her friends thought that she did it on purpose trying to get some of them arrested, thus losing all her friends. Even worse, her friends treat her badly. They insult her and throws food in her face when they don't know the truth.

She also fails most of her classes, except for art because the teacher is really nice and encourages everybody. The teacher understands Melinda's pain and tells her to show it through art. I thought that this was really interesting because my old art teacher use to tell us this too. Who can you blame when you're in depression and you're failing class? Everyone would fail class, this is why depression is such a big issue. It affects people in a lot of ways, such as changing things they do daily.

I really pity Melinda because even in school, she feels anxious sometimes and nervous. She hides in an abandoned janitor's closet where she just sleeps throughout the school day. She has to go through all that, probably when she got raped, the nightmare still haunts her. I really like the ending of the book, because she finally had the courage to tell her art teacher what really happened to her. She also decided that she would move on with life which was a really good thing.

In conclusion, this book was a really great book to read. I really enjoyed it and it got me to think more about bullying in our world. Many people bully without realizing it which is a bad thing. Maybe if she reported her situation to the police earlier, then she wouldn't have had gone through such a harsh life. If I was Melinda, I would've probably not tolerated all that bullying and insulting. I would probably tell my friends what really happened, and if they keep bullying me, I would punch her and shake some sense into her.