Only 36 days left . . .

This summer sucks . Looking back on the last few months my freshmen year, I could not wait until the last day of school so I could celebrate the best summer ever, or so I thought . Now that I'm about half way through my summer I noticed I've made many mistakes & stupid decisions that have affected my summer and life so far .
Mistake #1:
Waste my time with someone I cared a lot about but apparently didn't feel the same way about me .

Mistake #2:
Not planning a summer trip to get out of California .

Mistake #3:
Allow stupid people to talk me into doing stupid things .

Mistake #4:
Sign up for a summer class because I hate getting up early for school .

Mistake #5:
Put my trust in the wrong person .

I'm hoping from here my last month of summer will be much better than the way it started since some people that ruined a month of my summer are no longer in my life and I have moved on from them . One thing I am not looking forward to is the first day of school because there are a few people God knows I don't want to see or have go to school with for another 9 months ! But I am glad that I will get to see my friends everyday again because I miss them a lot .
36 days left .

FiNaL RefLecTioN for 2o1o-2o11 :)

Over the course of this year, my writing has improved greatly. As I was looking back over my posts, I noticed one stood out in particular because it got the most views. It was my Final Book Review for “Unwind”. In the second paragraph, I was trying to explain as to how Connor was more brutal than Roland.
“Earlier in the book when Connor killed the bus driver. This was just a big freak accident because all he was doing was running from the Juvey cops, not purposely seeking out victims. Now, this was good too because the bus was full of Unwinds on their way to harvest camp and one of them was Risa”
Now this was a horrible way of explaining what was going on. I had punctuation and grammar mistakes. I could have written,”Earlier in this book, Connor killed a bus driver. Now, this was just a freak accident because he was trying to get away from the cops, not purposely seek out victims. Believe it or not, this situation was a good thing also. The bus was full of Unwinds going to camp and this accident helped free most of them; one who happened to be Risa.” AS you can see, there is a drastic difference between these two paragraphs.

Secondly, it has been much easier for me to write blog posts. Towards the beginning of the year, I struggled trying to reach the requirement. In my “Of Mice & Men” post, I used very long block quotes in order to meet the 500 word limit. I also dragged out explaining the situations of what was happening in the book to get more words.
Throughout the year, we’ve done a good number of response posts too. My third post of the year was a response post. The “ASTI Constitution”  was a response to any student's blog and I chose to use a quote from Rahni’s blog. She explained how she was never harassed and always stood up for other people. Reading this from her blog gave me an idea as to what to do for my post. In this case, I can say that she helped me do my post and I learned something from that that I had never looked back on and thought about.

A month later after that post, I did another response post to Leah’s blog about the N-word.  This was a very touchy subject to blog on and give my opinion about. But again I learned something I never thought about before.
“Now modern day, if a person calls another person the N-Word(usually black person to black person), it would mean homie. But on the other hand, if a white person says to a black person, "Whats up my nigga!" Then it's going to be interpreted as racist... Now some might say, well isn't that just as racist. Saying a white person can't say the N-Word just because they're white? No, because when a white person calls a black person the N-Word, it is racist. So a black person is not being racist if they say a white person can't say the N-Word because if they do, than it is going to cause a commotion, regardless.”
Now I had never deeply thought of why a white person couldn’t say the N word and a black person could until I read her blog. Overall, I learned a lot from doing response posts.

I believe the blog posts that have the most positive effects on my life are personal posts/ response posts. They allow me to reflect on my life and get things off of my mind that are bothering me.

One response post that a friend of mine wrote reflecting on a situation in my life really helped me get things off of my mind. In my response post to Andy T’s post “The One”, he touched on the subject of my relationship with his friend. I chose to reflect on how he said his friend and I barely knew each other and we were an odd couple because we are racially different. Now I had always thought about this, but never gotten a chance to speak about it until then. A segment of my response was:
“Being racially different doesn't make two people an 'odd' couple, neither does the fact they barely know each other. Would two people have to be the same race and be best friends for them not to make an 'odd' couple? No.”
At this point, the subject of this blog post ranges way beyond my school life, but rather my personal life. But it is also a good thing because if Andy was not bold enough to express his opinion about the situation, I would have never talked to anyone about it. However, it is not a very important topic at all because racially different or not, the only thing that matters is if you like the person or not.

In a more personal post I did more recently reflecting on almost all the important events that happened in my life, I got a chance to reflect on all the ups and downs throughout my 14 years on this Earth. In “A Little Taste of My Life”, I presented 5 vignettes of my life and one-about cancer- almost made me cry looking back on the memory.
“Another Life Claimed”:
“She would hardly eat anything but a bag of chips in an entire day, if that. She was just wasting away like an old memory.”
This was about my cousin Leilani who passed away because of Cancer and what was happening every step of the way. Although much of my family was with me while she was dying, I had never gotten deep down and personal with anyone on this subject. But blogging gave me the opportunity to do so and finally face what happened without breaking down and crying.

In conclusion, blogging as helped me greatly. It has allowed my writing to improve drastically and relieved my mind of much stress not needed in my life. I do not know if I will continue to blog only because of time management, but I hope I can because it betters me as a person.

Peer Review Comments

For Cristian:
Nice job relating this book to the Russian Revolution, the connections are made well . Although it is kind of hard to see where your second quote ends/starts.

For Devin:
Good job comparing your two books, but I think you could have a read a book that is a little more up to high school level . Just saying .

For Lhadze:
This is a very good review . I like how you compared the characters to yourself and your feelings toward the same subject as them . It made them seem more realistic .

BBR Draft

  Overall, this book was very interesting. Sisters in the Struggle by Bettye Collier-Thomas & V.P. Franklin, is a non-fiction novel based on the Civil Rights movement and what black women in particular did to contribute to it. It exposes what many inspirational, black female leaders had to go through in order to overcome segregation against blacks.
 
   Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. The story is about how many doors, or rights, have been shut to blacks and how it is vital that we must open those doors. She also states,
“There are very many doors...shut against the Negro, but all of these are not barred. They may be opened with tact, skill, and persistence(pg.16).”
   By this, Ms. Bethune is proposing that we must use nonviolence in order to get our rights. It just takes time and effort. I believe that because of this, she should be recognized in history just as much as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks. Ms. Bethune made a lot of sacrifices and began the present-day Bethune-Cookman College as an elementary school for blacks.
   Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. But as this novel continues, the eleventh chapter focuses on Ruby Doris Smith Robinson in depth.

At first, Smith seems like a strict, fair, bold, encouraging leader from Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960s. But as the chapter continues, the point of view on her changes when she becomes administrator of the SNCC(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). According to her colleagues she was sexist.
“...admittedly the structure, the administrative structure on paper was men.”
I do not think Ms. Smith was sexist, the women probably did not step to take leadership roles in the group.

Back in the South in the 1960s, Ms. Smith being the administrator of the SNCC would be considered unusual because she’s a woman. But because this is the civil rights period, many of the members of this group were raised with powerful women in their families.
‘...Michael Simmons grew up with this reality, he was convinced that Ruby’s administrative position was actually a traditionally female job. Curtis Hayes agrees and insists that “she[Ruby] was a normal figure for me.”
This is surprising to me. I did not know that there were men back then who were used to having women in charge. That is a reason I like this book. It reveals many things about that period of time that many of us never knew about because they leave things like that out ion textbooks.
In conclusion, Ruby Smith was a very strong black woman who was not sexist and did not let anyone push her around. And that’s why I chose her as my second character to write about.

This author of this novel gives us a pretty clear purpose, to inform on what important black  women did to contribute to the Civil Rights Movement and what they went through. But I believe the purpose is also to expose us to what really isn’t explained thoroughly in our text books. This novel really goes into depth and gives us personal experiences from the people who lived through this horrible period of time and I this is the strength of the book.
  This book does have some weaknesses too. Mainly because this is a college-level book, it has lots of notes at the end of the chapters which I believes clutters the book. There are many challenging phrases and vocabulary that makes it hard for me to follow along with the book. Something else that adds to the book’s clutter is all of the statistics. In chapter two alone, there are countless amounts of concrete details and statistics. I believe this book is a little complicated for my reading level, but this will only make me stronger as a reader.

Book Review #2

   This book is very interesting. Sisters in the Struggle is a non-fiction novel based on the Civil Rights movement and what black women in particular did to contribute to it. It exposes what many inspirational, black female leaders had to go through in order to overcome segregation against blacks.
   

Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. But as this novel continues, the eleventh chapter focuses on Ruby Doris Smith Robinson in depth.

At first, Smith seems like a strict, fair, bold, encouraging leader from Atlanta, Georgia in the 1960s. But as the chapter continues, the point of view on her changes when she becomes administrator of the SNCC(Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee). According to her colleagues she was sexist.

“...admittedly the structure, the administrative structure on paper was men.”

I do not think Ms. Smith was sexist, the women probably did not step to take leadership roles in the group.

Back in the South in the 1960s, Ms. Smith being the administrator of the SNCC would be considered unusual because she’s a woman. But because this is the civil rights period, many of the members of this group were raised with powerful women in their families.

‘...Michael Simmons grew up with this reality, he was convinced that Ruby’s administrative position was actually a traditionally female job. Curtis Hayes agrees and insists that “she[Ruby] was a normal figure for me.”

This is surprising to me. I did not know that there were men back then who were used to having women in charge. That is a reason I like this book. It reveals many things about that period of time that many of us never knew about because they leave things like that out ion textbooks.
In conclusion, Ruby Smith was a very strong black woman who was not sexist and did not let anyone push her around. And that’s why I chose her as my character to write about.

BBR #1: Sisters in the Struggle

    So far, this book is pretty interesting. Sisters in the Struggle is a non-fiction novel based on the Civil Rights movement and what blacks did to contribute to it; black women in particular. It exposes what many inspirational, black female leaders had to go through in order to overcome segregation against blacks.
   

 Mary McLeod Bethune is the star in the first chapter, which highly focuses on her story “Closing Doors”. The story is about how many doors, or rights, have been shut to blacks and how it is vital that we must open those doors. She also states,

“There are very many doors...shut against the Negro, but all of these are not barred. They may be opened with tact, skill, and persistence (pg.16).”

    By this, Ms. Bethune is proposing that we must use nonviolence in order to get out rights. It just takes time and effort. I believe that because of this, she should be recognized in history just as much as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., or Rosa Parks. Ms. Bethune made a lot of sacrifices and began the present-day Bethune-Cookman College as an elementary school for blacks.
   

This author of this novel gives us a pretty clear purpose, to inform on what important black  women did to contribute to the Civil Rights Movement and what they went through. But I believe the purpose is also to expose us to what really isn’t explained thoroughly in our text books. This novel really goes into depth and gives us personal experiences from the people who lived through this horrible period of time and I this is the strength of the book.
   

This book does have some weaknesses too. Mainly because this is a college-level book, it has lots of notes at the end of the chapters which I believes clutters the book. There are many challenging phrases and vocabulary that makes it hard for me to follow along with the book. Something else that adds to the book’s clutter is all of the statistics. In chapter two alone, there are countless amounts of concrete details and statistics. I believe this book is a little complicated for my reading level, but this will only make me stronger as a reader.

T.H.O.M.S : Esperanza's future

     What's next for Esperanza? What does her future hold? Those are the questions we are left with once the novel ends. The last part of this book is kind of an open ended conclusion. It tells us that Esperanza is coming back, but not specifically what for. This quote does give us a hint as to what Esperanza is going to come back to Mango Street to achieve.
In the last vignette Mango Says Goodbye Sometimes, Esperanza states,

"They will not know I have gone away to come back. For the ones I left behind. For the ones who cannot out.(110)"

     From this quote I can draw many inferences. But one that makes much sense would be saying that Esperanza will most likely go away, get her life together, and maybe get an education, so she can come back to Mango Street and help the people there. Some of the people that live there, have been there forever and don't know how to get out because they're so attached. But Esperanza wants to change that, she wants to help them know that there is more to life out in the world.

     Going back to the independence of women, earlier in the book there was a vignette named Rafaela, and it tells the story of how Rafael's husband wouldn't let her out of the house because she was too beautiful.

"Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams...(79)"

     I believe that Esperanza is going back to Mango Street to help the people like Rafaela, who can't escape out because either their husband's are controlling them or society is closing them in.
     That also leads me to the conclusion that Cisnero's character Esperanza might have written this book to help the women of Mango Street; or women all around the world like them. To show them that they can be independent and it's okay to achieve their dreams and bend the rules of society a bit. It is okay for women to fight back and stand up for themselves. And they should do so.

T.H.O.M.S : boyz & qirlz .

     Should parents raise their boys and girls differently or the same? Personally, I thought they should be raised differently and at first, I thought so did the author of The House on Mango Street, Sandra Cisneros. But as I was writing I realized that she really doesn't think they should be raised differently and neither do I. She gives us many hints throughout each vignette of the book as to why she thinks this.

First off in Alicia Who Sees Mice, Cisneros writes,

"...her father says...And anyway, a woman's place is sleeping so she can wake up early...and catch the hind legs hide behind the sink...Alicia, whose mama died, is sorry there is no one older to rise and make the lunchbox tortillas. Alicia, who inherited her mama's rolling pin and sleepiness, is young and smart and studies for the first time at the university.(31) "

      This shows that men believe a woman's place is taking care of house chores and waking up early to cater to the kids, not a man's. I think Cisneros opposes this statement because when she begins telling about Alicia's studies from Esperanza's point of view, Cisneros is implying that women should embrace their independence and make the most of themselves, not only stay at home and rot their lives away. 

     Secondly, in Beautiful & Cruel, Cisneros explains the relationships between boys and girls, but girls should embrace their feminine side but shouldn't let men control them.

"Nenny says she won't wait her whole life for a husband to come and get her...She wants things all her own, to pick and choose...(88)"

     It is exemplified here that society has shaped life to the point where the woman has to wait on the man. But from Nenny's point of view, Cisneros tells us that women shouldn't live this way and should be independent and not wait on a man. Not just parents, but society raises boys and girls differently. Boys should make the first move always and it's not ladylike for the woman to do so. This is what exactly the opposite of what Cisneros means in this quote.

     Lastly, in Red Clowns, Esperanza gets sexually harassed by boys.

"Sally, make him stop. I couldn't make them go away, I couldn't do anything but cry.(100)"

      In this quote, it obviously shows that boys are stronger than girls. And once again, this is how society raises kids. Cisneros adds this vignette to show that boys & girls shouldn't be raised differently because this is the result of that happening. Men embrace their power to the fullest and take advantage of women.

      In conclusion, I would say that Cisneros thinks boys and girls should be raised the same so society can be equal and there won't be any gender discrimination. This would make life much more fair and easier for everyone else.

A Little Taste of My Life .

Table of Contents

1. Another Life Claimed

2. "In Jesus Name...Hallelujah!"

3. A step to the rest of my life

4. My hair, your hair, their hair, our hair

5. Blame it on the flu, got ya feeling blue

Another Life Claimed

Cancer. The most deadly, ugly disease claiming thousands of lives every year. It is like the silent killer that can’t be caught. But in this case, her family killed her, she didn’t have to die. I have a family filled with religious souls, but this time religion was taken a bit too far. My cousin, Leilani, was a beautiful woman in her 30s and then she got cancer. Our family does not have any kind of history of cancer, so i guess she was just a not so lucky 1 in every 5. 

Anyway, her family is deeply religious and they believed that God would heal her and that she didn’t need the doctors help. Therefore, she rejected getting chemo therapy. The most awful decision she would make in her entire lifetime. 

I remember every time my mom and I would go visit her, she’d get smaller and smaller and smaller until she looked like an anorexic person. She would hardly eat anything but a bag of chips in an entire day, if that. She was just wasting away like an old memory. Fast forward about a month, she’s in the hospital.
I walked into her room. All I wanted to do was race back out into the hallway and cry. The site of her was almost frightening. I didn’t know who this person was, this mysterious dying woman looked nothing like my cousin I had once known. Her eyes were swollen shut and literally busting out of the sockets. Her body, swollen like a blown up balloon. All of the tubes going in and out of her throat and arms. I’ll never forget the sight.

A few days later, my mom and I got the call on our way to church. Coincidentally as soon as my mom’s phone rang, the song “Goin Up Yonder” began to play on the radio. Next thing I know, tears just flow down both of our faces.

“In Jesus Name...hallelujah!”

I was baptized once long ago as baby, but I had to get baptized once more when I got older. It was one of the most nerve wrecking events in my life. One, I was very afraid of going underwater and I thought I would drown if I did so; and two the whole church would be watching! Only in the second grade, I was about to take a major step in my life.
I was highly intimidated by the green colored pool tub on stage in the church. I didn’t want to go underwater and I would do everything in my power not to. But suddenly as I got in my white robe, I was no longer afraid of the water. A joyous sensation came over me and I was actually excited to get baptized. My mom was front row in the sanctuary with the biggest smile on her face. She was so proud and I loved that feeling.
Second in line, take a deep breath, and pray for the best as I stand by and watch my friend get baptized. Down the stairs I go into the lukewarm water, shaking as if I was going into an execution. The pastor is in there already and he has me sit on a bench in the tub. The water rises to my chest and I panic. Can you not put my head underwater? I whisper to the pastor and he gets an awfully confused look on his face. What? he asks me. I repeat my question. To this day I don’t think he heard me because as he hollered a few words to the church, he then said In Jesus name!
I’m underwater now. In a split second I am up choking on water, doing all I can to get it out of my nose, while everyone around me is lifting my hands up in praise. All I hear is Hallelujah here, Hallelujah there. The sudden dunking shocked me. I felt like I had been thrown into a tsunami.
I could barely walk out of the tub, shaking violently in shock. I couldn’t wait to get in the back room and change. Again, as I was taking off my robe I felt good. Something had overcome me, something changed in me. Eb where are you? I hear my mother’s voice. In the bathroom! I respond. To see the big smile on her face once she saw me made my world so much better.

A step to the rest of my life

High school here I come! Only a few hours more will I be a part of this 8th grade class filled with outrageous, relentless, evil teenagers. Never thought the day would come, always imagined what it would be like and who with, but it was here now. I would walk across the stage in only two hours. Wake up early; do hair, make up, and put together the perfect outfit. The next thing I know, I’m walking down the aisle of the Koffman auditorium to my assigned seat in the audience.
Cautiously looking for my family in the audience. There, over there! I excitedly wave at my family as if I haven’t seen them in years. As the long, grueling hour passed by for them to call my name, I impatiently waited and attempted to cheer the loudest when someone’s name was called in order to keep myself entertained, and from being completely overtaken by nerves.
My row then gets up and nervously walks to the staircase up to the stage. Millions of thoughts are raging through my mind at this moment. What if I fall off of the stage? What if my heel breaks? What if I forget to look at the camera? What if I trip walking off of the stage? What if people start to boo me? At this point, my hands are clammy and shaking. Ebone Qualls.
I grab hold of the railing as a precaution, smile big, and walk up the stairs as I hear people throughout the audience scream for me. Friends and family mostly I’m assuming. As I accepted my diploma and shook every person’s hand on stage I was overcome with joy and accomplishment. I was ready to take on the world and everyone in it. I had made it through pre-school, elementary school, somehow made it through hell in 7th and 8th, and got accepted into the school of my dreams. I had done it, ASTI here I come and you best as hell get ready for me.

My hair, your hair, their hair, our hair.

    Everybody in my family has pretty hair that grows fast. My sister’s hair is thin and like silky waves of angel hair noodles, all the way down her back. My mom has a short, curly hairstyle, but she has to cut it around twice a month because it’s like top ramen noodles that won’t stop growing. My brother recently cut his hair, but he had dreads that looked like a mop sitting on top of his head and stopped right above his shoulders. And my nephew’s hair is like soft, black curly fur, it’s almost as long as mine, and he’s only three years old!
    But my hair, my hair is like thick wool that has been cut off and won’t grow anymore. Ever since I dyed my hair, it doesn’t grow as fast. It makes my forehead break out whenever I have my bangs out, almost like an allergic reaction. My hair is hard to deal with when it’s not flat-ironed, like trying to tame a wild animal, hard to comb through, leaving my head sore after it’s been combed out, has a smell like burnt toast in the oven after being pressed, the pain of getting three shots a week, digging your car out of six feet of snow. The breakouts, the pain, and my hair that smells like burnt toast.     

Blame it on the flu, got ya feeling blue

Five days of weakness, coughing, throwing up, high on medication and not able to eat food. Five pounds dropped off as quick as you can say ouch. Cause? The flu. At first, I had just woken up with a little cough, the next day I could barely get out of my bed. As my case got worse, I began to wonder if I had swine flu. My mother didn’t agree with me and thank God she was right. Through the 3rd day, I began turning to God for help. I thought I was knocking on death’s door and I was desperate for life. All I could do was sleep because I was over medicated; full of Tylenol, Robitussin, Advair, Albuterol, Benadryl, and Zyrtec. I just wanted to be better; all I had was hope and God. 

On the fourth day I awoke feeling remarkably better, until I reached my bathroom. I had dropped an object and I bent over to pick it up. Not knowing I was coming up too fast, all of my blood rushed to my head causing me to drop to the ground, on the verge of passing out. I wasn’t going out like this. I hollered as loud as I could in attempt to wake my mom up and get her to come help me. Mom! I desperately screamed. Come here!
I could hear her jump out of her bed and run into the bathroom. She stepped into a horrendous sight, me lying on the bathroom floor. She quickly tried to pick me up and get me to her bed as I pleaded with her to just let me stay there on the floor. I was so weak and dizzy I couldn’t go anywhere on my own. But somehow she got me up and into her room and off to the hospital we went.

Windows symbolism

The House on Mango Street is composed of a series of vignettes. Each vignette has a specific subject in which the author uses symbolism as a deeper way of explaining the feelings of the characters. In My Name, No Speak English, Rafaela, and Sally, the author uses windows as a symbol. In my opinion, that is a rather strange object to choose, but when I read the stories, it actually makes a lot of sense to why she chose windows.
In My Name, the window represents how Esperanza’s great-grandmother was a wild, bold woman until she was stripped of her self expression when Esperanza’s great-grandfather forced her to marry him. 

“And the story goes she never forgave him. She looked out the window her whole life...”(pg.11). 

This shows that the window is where she lied all of her feelings and memories of being on her own and free, without anyone else for her whole life.   
In No Speak English, a woman named Mamacita and her little boy has recently moved in across the street from Esperanza. Mamacita never goes outside, ever.

“...whether she is fat, or can’t climb the stairs, or is afraid of English, she won’t come down. She sits all day by the window and plays the Spanish radio show...”(pg.77). 

Here, I think she just won’t go out because she doesn’t speak English so she is afraid of what will happen when an English speaker asks her something and she can’t respond. So just like Esperanza’s great-grandmother, she rests all of her problems by the window all day, everyday.
In Rafaela, there is a woman named Rafaela who has a husband who won’t let her out because she is too beautiful to look at. 

“Rafaela leans out the window and leans on her elbow and dreams her hair is like Rapunzel’s.”(pg.79). 

This story is almost exactly like Esperanza’s great-grandmother. She had a husband that locked her up just like Rafaela, and both of these women just dream by a window all the time.

Lastly, in Sally, there’s a little girl named Sally who lost her best friend and has become a completely different person. She is no longer sociable and goes directly home and doesn’t come out. 

“Sally, do you sometimes wish you didn’t have to go home? Do you wish your feet...would stop in front of a house, a nice one with flowers and big windows...”(pg.82). 

In this vignette, the windows are not directly used with a woman resting on them, they are a dream. The windows represent something better, a better life.
In all of these vignettes, a window symbolizes the hardships, memories, of a woman/girl who has been stripped of something in her life. Each window is used to represent something that has been or could be.     

The Color Purple *Celie & Nettie*

In this novel, Alice Walker shares with us the lifetimes of two remarkable sisters who are separated as teenagers. The Color Purple is inspiring and brings up various points that are wrong with the world. Celie and Nettie both suffer racial & gender inequality, as well as experiences with religious views that added to the difficulties of life growing up.

Gender inequality was a main issue in situations where both sisters were discriminated against by others although they were on different continents. Each of them experienced problems where women had restrictions on what they could do. At home, Celie was looked down upon by her husband and discriminated against indirectly. 

“Harpo ast his daddy why he beat me. Mr._____ say, Cause she my wife.” (22) 

This powerful statement is a prime example to why gender inequality made Celie’s life so hard as she was growing up, almost like he beat her so badly to where she was his little robot.  

In Africa, Nettie lived in a village as a missionary who taught young girls and boys. She quickly learned that women were basically nothing without a man.

“The Olinka do not believe girls should be educated. When I asked a mother why she thought this, she said: A girl is nothing to herself; only to her husband can she become something.”(155)

By this, we can tell the Olinka village is kind of just like the American society but more straight forward with their feelings towards gender inequality. Usually women think it is wrong, but the Olinka women are okay with it and this bothers Nettie.
Unlike Celie, Nettie was directly discriminated against by the men and women villagers in Africa.

“Do not be offended, Sister Nettie, but our people pity women such as you who are cast out.” (161)

Here, Nettie is told directly that she is looked down upon by the men and women of the village because they pity her. She is probably stricken by surprise by this statement but she remains mature about the situation.

Racial inequality is another thing both sisters experience. In this case, Celie sees it indirectly while Nettie lives through it directly. While in Africa, Nettie witnesses the Olinka village overran by black people under white control. They destroy everything in the village while the Olinka try to fight back but can’t. Nettie didn’t get hurt in this situation, but she was greatly affected by this because she was living in the village and at the same time was trying to prove a point that she would not just abandon the village like other missionaries. Celie, on the other hand, went through a less intense version of racial inequality. She saw Sofia being Miss Millie’s maid.  She noticed how Sofia never smiled, and was miserable. Although these two situations were not intense as each other, they still count as examples of racial inequality. In the end, Nettie overcame racial inequality but not gender inequality. On the contrary, Celie overcame gender inequality, but not racial.

Finally, the religious/spiritual views between the sisters are broadly the same. They both believe in Christianity. The difference between the two sisters and Christianity is that Celie really only uses God to vent and as someone to talk to because she was threatened to. 

“You better not never tell nobody but God. It’d kill your mammy.”(1) 

This is why Celie writes to god, because later on in the book she stops writing to him because she is no longer afraid of her Dad. Nettie really does believe in God though. She uses Christianity to help others, like the Olinka children. She spreads the gospel and studies it throughout her lifetime.

Overall, this book teaches us how women were and sometimes still are looked down upon, how being white gave authority, and that people turn to religion for different reasons. Looking closely at the situation, he two sisters lived fairly similar lives, just experienced differently. But in the end, both of them became much stronger.

Debate rebuttal

As I was reading over Victor's blog about how he thinks Faceook is harmful, I came over a point he made that actually contradicts his point.

" I admit that Facebook and Youtube helps me once in a while when i need to communicate with a friend or watch a video demonstration. Whenever i forget to write down a homework assignment or forget the instructions for it, Facebook easily connects me live feedback..."

Now here, I agree with Victor, hence I think that Facebook is helpful. Based on my personal experience, I get on Facebook at least twice a week to ask my classmates for help on an assignment. Besides that fact, Facebook also helps us remember all of our friends on facebook birthdays. At least according to Nicholas Carson.

Facebook makes it easy, without using up minutes on cellphones, to communicate long distance with friends and family members. You can also share hundreds of photos with them very easily without waiting hours to send them via email.
Another quote I got from Victor's blog is,

"I think that Facebook has a lot of unnecessary things like games and groups that are just plain distractions for someone who is trying to just get in, get an answers, and leave."

Now when Victor says, just get in, get an answer, and leave, I am not quite sure what he means. What does that have to do with anything? I have to disagree with him when he mentions that groups are plain distractions. They actually help people greatly in the real world. Jessica Lee points out the fact that,

"Pages Allow Marketers to Publish to the Stream
Pages Allow Marketers to Engage Fans with Rich Media
Pages Let Marketers Analyze How Fans are Interacting with the Insights Dashboard
Pages Let Marketers Increase SEO."

Just the other day, my friend invited me join his group on Facebook promoting his parent's Japanese Restaurant. That is a great way to get the word out about their buisness especially when there is almost a third of the U.S. using Facebook. Moreover, I believe Facebook is very helpful to everyone.

Color of Purple Quickwrite

Celie's letters to God tell me that she trusts God with her deepest secrets. This doesn't necessarily mean that she believes in God because she never puts her letters in the form of a prayer or anything like that, she just writes to him. Another reason would be that she writes to God in fear. 

"You better not ever tell nobody but God. It'd kill your mammy."(pg.1)

Her father told her this and this is probably the only reason why she writes to God, because she is afraid of him. Since her mom died shortly after that, she probably thinks he's going to kill her now if she tells anyone else. But in her letters, she shows no sign of hatred for anyone or writes anything mean, so far. She is a very sweet, innocent, and harmless person. She doesn't ever hurt anybody yet she takes multiple beatings and threats from others. For example, at a point in the story she calmly explains what a little twelve year old boy(demon) did to her.

"He pick up a rock and laid my head open. The blood run all down..."(pg.12)

She didn't do one thing back to him and all his dad, her husband, said was don't do that. Now I don't know about you but that just makes me straight up mad. But the point is Celie wouldn't hurt a fly and she doesn't mean harm to no one.

Her letters also show us that she has good intentions. She's always thinking about her sister and how she can do for her. Nettie is Celie's world.

"All I thought about was Nettie. How she could come to me if I marry him and he be so love struck with her I could figure out a way for us to run away."(pg.9)

Celie is willing to marry someone she doesn't even love just so she can save her little sister and get her safe. She is willing to change her entire life for Nettie because she doesn't want her to end up like her with her awful father abusing and molesting Nettie too. Celie has good intentions and puts others before herself all the time. 

Debate Opening Statement

If you are a child actor in a show marketed for young audiences, you are expected to serve as a role model for people their age. First of all, most of the children watching the show admire you, want to be just like you, and will do everything they see do because they think it's okay. Second of all, parents expect highly of the child actor their children are watching and if they do one thing wrong the parents will go crazy because it is influences their children to do wrong things. 


If you make the decision to be an entertainer on a children's show, you cannot be caught in the news smoking a bong and getting high like this very famous young child actress, with millions of fans did recently. The things that children/teenagers see on TV influences and affects their behavior in real life. For instance, if a child admires someone like Batman and he/she sees Batman doing bad things, they are going to think it's okay because their role model is doing it and do it themselves. 


From personal experience, when I was smaller, I loved Raven Symone and the Cheetah Girls. I used to try to dress like them and act like them because I wanted to be them. If I saw Raven Symone doing mean things to someone, I would've did it too because I adored her I tried to do everything she did. So if she did something I thought it was okay. But luckily she was a great role model for kids and didn't do any bad things that got leaked out into the media. Anyways, child actors are highly expected to set a good example for younger kids.


If a child actor does something wrong parents are going to freak out and completely flip out about it to protect their children. Once again, Miley Cyrus got into more trouble with her new video where she is seen rolling around in a bed in her underwear. I found an article with a parent's response and I think that Miley Cyrus is trying to break away from Disney a little too soon. Although her hit show "Hannah Montana"  has ended, her fans still adore her and look up to her. She should lay low before she tries to break in to her "sexy" adult stage. I mean she's only 17. 


But I think everyone expects child actor to set good examples for their viewers and be responsible role models.

Free post: Rumors, rumors, and more rumors...

Okay so lately I have heard lots of things floating about the Internet. First of all, apparently Facebook is being shut down March 15th which apparently is false. Secondly, I guess a new zodiac sign was added or one was taken away, I don't know. And lastly, Justin Bieber is supposed to be coming out with a movie.

If Facebook shuts down, that would be like taking away my teenage life. I mean yeah Facebook is very distracting, addicting, causes major procrastination, makes cyber bullying 1000 times easier, and has lots of spam that gives computer's viruses, but it's a great way to kill time and interact with your friends! It also let's you communicate and reconnect with friends from years back in your past. I spend at least 2 hours on Facebook a day, on average. Shutting it down would be a very stupid thing, especially since it's at it's peak right now and the owner is like a billionaire. So that would be really stupid, bit supposedly it's just a rumor.

Secondly, everybody on Facebook is freaking out and tripping balls because apparently their zodiac signs have all of a sudden changed. I'm a Libra so I guess I would be either a Virgo or a Scorpio now. But then I heard something else that these changes only counted for children born this year, which makes a little more sense. But don't you think it's kind of retarded and would just confuse people if a zodiac sign was added/removed. I mean we have WAY bigger issues than changing signs now. Like wtf? WE are fighting a pointless war & our troop are dying while we are worried about our Zodiac sign changing. Are you kidding me? But supposedly it's just a rumor.

And last but not least, Justin Bieber. I forgot who I heard this from, probably one of my Bieber fever friends, but apparently he is coming out with a movie. What it could possibly be about, I do not know. But I believe Never Say Never is the title of it. I know one thing, I will NOT be seeing it because that is just making someone only like 2 years older than me 100 times richer than me. So no, you can expect me to not be in the theatre watching that. But supposedly, for now, it's just a rumor.

Response post: one fourteen twenty-eleven

Today in class, we had a discussion on what are spirits or what is the spirit. Many people had very different opinions and it evolved into an in-class debate. Mr. Sutherland had to stop us because everybody had something to say about this topic. While I was looking through blogs, I came across one that pointed out the discussion about spirits in particular from Meriam's blog,

"From our class disscussion, many people reffered to the spirits as ghosts of people who died but didn't pass on. Others said that spirits could be in a sense a respect for the dead or things that are alive but dont move."

Some people might say that spirits don't exist at all and that all the things you see on TV is fake. Well I know that you shouldn't believe everything you see on TV, but once you've experienced it first hand for yourself, then I'm sure it won't be easy to say they don't exist. I am Christian so I don't really believe in "spirits" as far as paranormal activity, but I do believe in "the spirit" which is considered to be the Holy Ghost and also angels. I have grown up in the church and when you see what it's like to get the Holy Ghost and experience it up close in real life, it is a truly amazing thing. Also, someone else brought up a point that ghosts are just lost souls. If there are ghosts, I don't think they are just lost souls, they are people who died and can't move on to another life because there's something on Earth they can't let go of and have come back to claim or try to hold on to something that was theirs. I don't really believe in the whole paranormal activity hype because it's not anything to play with. Like if we were meant to come in contact with the "other world" then it wouldn't be so hard to connect with it. But since we are physical human beings and not spirits, I think we should just stay in our place and not mess with restless souls.

Elite Colleges Debate

After reading and brainstorming on these seven debates, I think the most persuasive was "What you do vs. Where you go" by Martha O'Connell. There were many strong points in this response, such as that successful people like Steven Jobs, Steven Spielberg, and Bill Gates dropped out of college! And Oprah Winfrey was an alumna at Tennessee State. She had efficient research and links to them to back up her points, and an engaging introduction paragraph. Her debate was easy to read, short and straight to the point. Unlike "Merit and Race" by Luis Fuentes-Rohwer.
I feel that his debate was crowded with big words that made it hard to read and fully understand the topic he was presenting. There were also lots of points he made that we obviously already knew and some that were confusing. Such as,

"Attendance at elite colleges and universities has a positive effect on the likelihood that a student will graduate; on future earnings;...and better health."

I mean of course going to elite colleges will look very good on a job application and most likely get you a high paid job, but most of us already know this. I don't see how going to an elite college will make your health better. Aren't they more stressful because you're surrounded with overachievers that you have to try and outshine? But Rohwer also made a kind of not-so-smart point concerning minority students.

"... minority applicants should think long and hard before turning down admission to elite institutions."

This opinion is true, but considering the fact that most minority students can't afford elite institutions, it would be very hard to go to Harvard, Yale, etc. without being on a scholarship or ending up with a lifetime debt in loans. It's easier said than done and the reason elite schools don't have many minority students is not because they turn down admission, it's because most of them can't afford it!