English Final V2

Describe the world you come from — for example, your family, community or school — and tell us how your world has shaped your dreams and aspirations.

I had a grandpa that was very close to me. He raised me from when I was 2 years old until I was 13. He was someone that I looked up to immensely, and he influenced my life tremendously. One day, he was suddenly diagnosed with lung cancer, and he had to stay in the hospital. No longer could I wake up and see him as I walked to the bathroom, and no longer could I see him in my house, like always, a reassuring presence. Now, if I wanted to see him, I would have to visit the hospital and see him, because he was too weak to live with my family anymore. I watched as he slowly got weaker and weaker, as the cancer spread to his throat, so he could not eat solid foods anymore, instead, he had to get a hole in his stomach and had protein shakes through the tube because he could not swallow. Eventually, he weakened so much that his body could not handle it and he died. I was inspired to become a doctor or at least get into the medical field, so I could help others who either had family members, or they themselves were inflicted with a debilitating medical condition. I want to have the knowledge to ease their pains or to cure whatever they are inflicted with. I did not like seeing a once strong healthy person slowly become weaker and weaker and eventually die. It is painful to see something like that happen, and to watch the disease progress through the stages. A doctor or many people in the medical field have the knowledge to either ease the pain or to cure it, and I find it very inspiring to be able to help ease a person’s pain that way. I do not want others to go through what I have, because of the painful memories and emotions that I relate to those memories. I want to be able to help people, no matter what I have to do.  

Tell us about a personal quality, talent, accomplishment, contribution or experience that is important to you. What about this quality or accomplishment makes you proud and how does it relate to the person you are?

There are many things that I have done throughout my high school career that are important to me. I have been part of an after school program that has helped me develop as a an individual. It was a program called McCulum Youth Court. It was the first extracurricular activity that I was a part of that that actually made me feel as if i was part of something bigger. I felt as if I made a difference in my society, and that I was doing something important, instead of wasting my time on frivolous unneeded activities.
McCulum Youth Court is a program that practices restorative justice. It is a real court system that is recognized by the law. Every 2 weeks, we have a court night where we hear the cases of real youth who have committed crimes. Each court night, I have had to help strangers that are new to the program find their way through their program, and help them through the program every step of the court night.
During court nights, I have to speak with all of the volunteers that go through the program to work as jurors for the court night. I also have to speak individually with each and every judge that comes into the courtroom, and explain to them what they have to do during the court nights.  I talk to the youth offenders and their parents and tell them where they have to go and what they have to do during the court nights, each and everyone of these people being strangers. I also have to help brief each and every judge on what they have to do in court nights, and each and ever one of the judges change from one court night to the next, always strangers to me.
I have had to improve my public speaking skills because I have had to constantly use those skills each and every court night, I could not just be some kind of wall flower and hang around in the background, never speaking.

I have developed a joy of helping others in my community, and I have earned skills that are necessary for having a job that is easily accessible by the public for information, such as pharmacists, where regular people can go up to them and ask for help. In this program, I have developed public speaking skills that I can use to communicate better with other people, and I have also earned experience that is necessary to help influence people’s lives in a positive direction. I have also grown less intimidated by others, because I have grown desensitized to it due to the multiple times that I have had to face my fear of meeting and talking to new people during my volunteer work at McCulum Youth Court.

English Final

My school is an interesting place. It was an alternative school of a sorts. It is different from a traditional high school in the sense that it’s school curriculum has college classes built into it. It also has a much smaller student population, so it is easier to form stronger bonds with more people.
Before I came to this school, I was an extremely lazy person. I would procrastinate on everything, and all I would care about would be to finish my work as fast as possible so i can go play games or go on Facebook. I would never think about the work that I did nor the quality of work that I would hand it to the teachers just to get credit. After I went to ASTI however, that all had to change. I could not just procrastinate and do my work last minute. Now the teachers looked at the quality and quantity of work that was turned in, not just the quantity. I had to up the standards of my work and do all my work in a consistent timing or else I would not keep up with the work load.
Since this school was an early college high school that had college classes for he upperclassmen years, they did not offer a choice for an elective class. Instead, you had to take a Writing class, which was supposed to improve your writing skills and to bring them up to College Writing Levels. I was woefully unprepared for that class. For my freshman English class, it was practically a free A. There were not many assignments in the class, and to get an A on the assignments, all you had to do was turn something in that looked moderately like you followed the rules and instructions. There was literally only 1 or 2 people who had lower than A’s in my Freshman English class. When I went into the class, I went in thinking that I would ace everything that went in my way, after all, I had gotten an A in the last English class right? Oh how wrong I was.
Her writing class was hard, there was no doubt about it.  There was nothing that I did before that prepared me for it. I had to change my style of writing, and to improve on the vocabulary, the integration of quotes, the redundancy, almost every aspect of writing. The sudden shock dropped my A grade down to the C grade the first semester. I was crushed. Never before have I gotten such a low grade. However using the things that I had learned the first semester, I improved on my writing and managed to raise it to a high B the next semester. I had to work on losing my procrastination and developing better work habits and writing skills.
Through the school, I met a lot of people who are very focused on their futures and know either what they want to be, or have a general idea in the field that  they want to work in in their adult life. For example, David, who has already decided to go into the medical field, and be either a doctor or a pharmacist, and Vincent, who is aiming to be a lawyer.  

Before, I was unmotivated and I did not have many goals in life, nor did I have many ideas about where I was headed in life. have heard about my classmates wishes for going to schools that were related to the field that they wanted to major in, and their wishes for their futures, such as what jobs that they have wanted to get. Their dreams and aspirations have rubbed off of me, and now I feel more confident in my life’s goals. I actually have dreams and aspirations now, I want to get into the science and medical field. After hearing my classmates discuss their futures and the confidence that they have in themselves to succeed in life, I now have a lot more confidence in myself to succeed in life and to overcome whatever obstacles appear in my path to my future.

There are many things that I have done throughout my high school career that are important to me. I have been part of an after school program that has helped me develop as a an individual. It was a program called McCulum Youth Court. It was the first extracurricular activity that I was a part of that that actually made me feel as if i was part of something bigger. I felt as if I made a difference in my society, and that I was doing something important, instead of wasting my time on frivolous unneeded activities.
McCulum Youth Court is a program that practices restorative justice. It is a real court system that is recognized by the law. Every 2 weeks, we have a court night where we hear the cases of real youth who have committed crimes. Each court night, I have had to help strangers that are new to the program find their way through their program, and help them through the program every step of the court night.
Through this program, I have developed many skills necessary in life. I have had to improve my public speaking skills through phone calls that I have had to make for the program, and the things that I have had to say in the courtroom’s during court nights.  
During court nights, I have to handle most of the youth and adults that go to our program. When the court night begins, I am the person that the judge always goes to for help when they need it, I am responsible for them doing their job correctly.
I am a more self-confident person now, I am not intimated by the new and the unknown. I my be apprehensive about what the future holds, but I will not be so intimidated that I will not move on.


Hey Sutherland, I'm Just adding a link to a different version that I wrote, can you tell me which one is better in the comments?
http://mycjapan.blogspot.com/2011/05/english-final-v2.html

Comments on Rough Draft's

For David:
Even though you provided a lot of background information, you should do what you told me to do and provide more background info regarding what the reaping is, and describe the relationships between different people. Could there also have been another reason for her to have written the book? Wanting to put your feelings out for the world to see in the form of a book seems to be the generic reason to write a book, it doesn't seem special in any way.

For Amber:
What is the point of the fire? I would like to know more because you just seem to though it out there, but you don't explain what it stands for or what it represents. Also, does the is the gem only there because it was the initial thing that the fought over, and it was how they met? I would like to know more about that.

Hunger Games Book Review Final Draft

My book, the Hunger Games,  is about the American government in the future and how it changed from a democratic government into a dictatorial government. The Nation went through another Civil War with the “Capitol” on one side, and everything else on the other. The other side was a group of 13 districts.  In the end, the capitol won, and the opposing forces were defeated, with the 13th district being obliterated. The Capitol then assumed total control over the affairs of every district, taxed them heavily due to their defection, and created something called the Hunger Games as a punishment. The Hunger Games were an event where every district had to offer up 2 tributes, 1 male, and 1 female, every year in a fight to the death. This was a way to show the districts that the Capitol still had overwhelming power and could destroy any district, like they did to district 13, if they disobeyed.

There are a lot of themes in this book, and the author may have had a lot of different purposes or reasons to include all of the things that she had in the book, such as some hidden messages or hidden themes that she wanted readers to find out. One of the things that I found interesting was the theme of genetic engineering, and a foreshadowing of the future of a nation.

Her book could be talking about how power can corrupt a person/government.

I think that the authors purpose in writing this book was to talk about what might happen in the world if the government had too much power over their people, and what happens when the governments has absolute and unquestioned control over the citizens of their country. They could endue famines and economic downfalls just to control their citizens. This book may also show what may happen when there are TOO many scientific breakthroughs in life, such as in genetic engineering and genetic modification, as shown in the books creatures which do not exist in real life, and only exist because they have been genetically engineering into the world by scientists who have experimented with to much animal DNA. This is also shown by the “tracker jackers” in the book. They were created by genetically modifying the DNA of bees were turned into weapons to use in a war.

Another point that I find it brings up is whether or not it is ethical to genetically engineer new species into the world. It is a controversial topic because human beings are torn on the issue of whether or not we have the right to “play god” in a sense and bring new species into the world.

It also shows the government is manipulative, and how cruel they can be just to put on a show to their citizens, and to prove their superiority over others.

When food is scarce, the game makers will invite players to a banquet, somewhere known to all like the cornucopia, as an inducement to gather and fight. (Pg. 244)

The game makers purposefully go make an even where they try an gather people and make them fight, just to produce more fights or to produce more deaths and meaningless suffering. There is no other reason for them to do this except to prove their superiority to the citizens of the country, and to remind them of the fact that this could happen to every single one of them if they misbehaved.

This is a dictatorial government, and it is nothing like the government that we have presently. This book could also have been written to talk about the government that we have right now, the US government. The author could be implying that, even though our government may not be perfect, at least it is not like the government in the book, at least we still have the right to vote our officials into office and they do not rule our county with an iron fist.

The news sinks in. Two tributes can win this year. If they’re both from the same district. Both can live. Both of us can live. Before i can stop myself, I call out Peeta’s name. (Pg. 244)

This part shows how the Capitol, the government, manipulates the emotions of people just to try and make their point. This was when they changed the rules to draw out more love and other emotions from Katniss, but later on, they try to reverse this rule when it is fulfilled. They try to crush the hopes of Katniss trying to go back home with her “boyfriend”, and then, they suddenly have to kill each other. They purposely make new rules up and go back on them just to draw a reaction out of the crowd, and to crush any hopes of escaping together and to destroy the spirit of Katniss and Peeta. They play on the emotions of people just to prove their superiority, which may be a part of the authors message, that the government may eventually have too much power over the lives of citizens, and that the government begins to give little thought to the worth of human lives.

There are many interesting themes in this book that not a lot of people may have thought about deeply or have discussed about with other people. There may also be a lot of hidden messages in the book that not a lot of people can see or catch, and there are also a lot of hidden messages that may have not been left purposely in the book, but were caught or made up by readers that dived a little deeper into the book. The themes and other things that I have talked about, such as the genetic engineering and the possibility that the book may be foreshadowing the future were themes that the author may or may not have purposefully put into the book. These themes however, were included in the book, and a book is made to be interpreted by everyone in different ways.

Hunger Games Book Review #2

What was the author's purpose(s) in writing this book, and how can you tell? How well was this purpose achieved?

As I had said previously, I still think that the authors purpose in writing this book was to talk about what might happen in the world if the government had too much power over their people, and what happens when the governments has absolute and unquestioned control over the citizens of their country. This book may also show what may happen when there are TOO many scientific breakthroughs in life, such as in genetic engineering and genetic modification,

It also shows the government is manipulative, and how cruel they can be just to put on a show to their citizens, and to prove their superiority over others.

When food is scarce, the game makers will invite players to a banquet, somewhere known to all like the cornucopia, as an inducement to gather and fight. (Pg. 244)

The game makers purposefully go make an even where they try an gather people and make them fight, just to produce more fights or to produce more deaths and meaningless suffering. There is no other reason for them to do this except to prove their superiority to the citizens of the country, and to remind them of the fact that this could happen to every single one of them if they misbehaved.

This is a dictatorial government, and it is nothing like the government that we have presently. This book could also have been written to talk about the government that we have right now, the US government. The author could be implying that, even though our government may not be perfect, at least it is not like the government in the book, at least we still have the right to vote our officials into office and they do not rule our county with an iron fist.

The news sinks in. Two tributes can win this year. If they;re both from the same district. Both can live. Both of us can live. Before i can stop myself, I call out Peeta’s name. (Pg. 244)

This part shows how the Capitol, the government, manipulates the emotions of people just to try and make their point. This was when they changed the rules to draw out more love and other emotions from Katniss, but later on, they try to reverse this rule when it is furfilled. THey try to crush the hopes of Katniss trying to go back home with her “boyfried”, and then, they suddenly have to kill each other. They purposly make new rules up and go back on them just to draw a reaction out of the crowd, and to crush any hopes of escaping together and to destroy the spirit of Katniss and Peeta.

Hunger Games Book Review #1

I think that the authors purpose in writing this book was to talk about what might happen in the world if the government had too much power over their people, and what happens when the governments has absolute and unquestioned control over the citizens of their country. They could endue famines and economic downfalls just to control their citizens. This book may also show what may happen when there are TOO many scientific breakthroughs in life, such as in genetic engineering and genetic modification, as shown in the books creatures which do not exist in real life, and only exist because they have been genetically engineering into the world by scientists who have experimented with to much animal DNA. This is also shown by the “tracker jackers” in the book. They were created by genetically modifying the DNA of bees and turning them into weapons of mass destruction.
Another point that the book brings us is the use of genetically engineered animals as weapons of mass destruction in wars. This is a serious moral issue because many people are torn on the issue of whether of not humans should be able to create weapons of mass destruction out of animals and to use them to fight other people in wars. It could be considered inhumane and cruel because you have brought something into the world just to use as a weapon in a war. That seems to be something that is unethical and wrong to some people, including myself.
One last point that I find it brings up is whether or not it is ethical to genetically engineer new species into the world. It is a controversial topic because human beings are torn on the issue of whether or not we have the right to “play god” in a sense and bring new species into the world.

Connections with Immigration

There were a lot of family stories that had people fleeing China because of the communist government or because of the ruler, Mao ZeDong. This seemed somewhat consistent with the stories that my families had told me. For example,  my father would sometimes tell me stories about how good China was back then and that the only reason that he had moved was because of the little job opportunities that they had they had in China. However, my mother usually talked about how bad some of the living conditions there were in China and how glad she was they they immigrated.

So, my uncle’s father was a mayor in Zhongshan, a big city in Grangzhou. During the Cultural Revolution in China during 1966 to 1976, under Mao’s leading, the upper-officers tried to find out the corrupt in every city with every kind of torture. So, they not spared to get information from different city and people, to find out the Corrupts. As I know, many loyalty workers also die during that period, because the governors did not give so much patients or trustings on them. Unfortunately, my uncle’s dad got attention from those people, and getting into a big trouble—those people wanted information of how people corrupted each one no matter you did it or not—of course everyone would say they never did so, which the officers would use torture on the mayors, until you make something up and they have enough evidences to “kick” you into jail. This is what really happened to my uncle’s family, when he was a teenager. It was impossible for his father to escape anyway, at the end; his father asked one of his best friends brought them away as far as he can because he feared that his family would get involved into it. Thus, my uncle follower his two brothers, from China, then shipping to Macau, to Hongkong, and lastly took airplane to United States.

This seemed to be a consistent reason of why people had moved out of China and immigrated to the United States or to other areas, Mao ZeDong was a iron fisted ruler that not a lot of people liked. he was disliked by a lot of people, and the people that he had wronged usually left the country. This was from Peter’s blog, and it talked about how even in present times, the influence of Mao ZeDong is still far reaching.

In 1951, about six years after World War II, my great grandfather passed away but not because of natural causes. After the world war, Communism was on the rise in China and Mao Zedong became the first chairman of the communist party of China. During his rule, one of his terrible actions is that he ordered the imperial army to arrest all of the wealthy people, in which one of them was my great grandfather, and placed them in jail to rot. The jails had horrible living conditions and eventually, my great grandfather died of starvation because the food there was unbearable. The family wealth was never returned and the family had basically dropped from the elite class to the poor class within a few years.

This was a quote from David’s blog that talked about how Mao ZeDong and communism basically screwed his family over and over. It seems consistent with Peter’s blog post because it talks about how Mao ZeDong was a ruler that somewhat brutalized his people and deprived them of the things that they had achieved in their lives.

At the time, there were people in China who believed that he was a great leader, while there were also people who despised him and wanted to get rid of him. Personally, my mom stated how she thought Mao was a good and just ruler because he brought positive change and was helping China move forward technologically, militaristically, and in other ways. My mom stated how she does not understand why almost all Americans view Mao Zedong as an evil dictator. She believes that the people used propaganda to show all of Mao Zedong’s negative aspects and hid his numerous accomplishments as leader.

This was a quote that I found on Andy’s blog. This interested me because his mom’s views were similar to my dad’s views on the issue of Mao ZeDong. Andy basically talked about his mom and how his mom thought that Mao ZaDong was a pretty good ruler/ governor, and that the only reason that people think that he is such a bad person is because people use propaganda to make his bad deeds outshine his good deeds.

The thing that connects all of these family stories together is that they all talk about relatives that fled China and Mao ZeDong, no matter if he was a good ruler or not.

Cycles in Travel

One thing that I feel is cyclical in the Joy Luck Club are the journeys that the mothers and daughters take throughout the story. For example, in the beginning of the story, the mothers come from China to the United States, the beginning of the cycle.

“This was the year my mother and father left China with one stiff leather trunk filled with only fancy silk dresses and nothing else.” “When they arrived in San Fransisco, my father made her hide those shiny clothes. She wore the same brown-checkered Chinese dress until the Refugee Welcome Society gave her two hand-me down dresses all too large in size...” (Pg 20) This is when Jing-Mei’s mother an father initially came from China to America. It is the beginning of the immigration and vacation cycle. The reason that the mother had come was because she wanted to escape her past, and wanted to make at least some part of her past become a forgotten part of history that no one would ever remember.



The end of the cycle, or at least, a part of the cycle was when Jing-Mei went back to China after her mother died to go and see her older, never before seen, twin sisters. “At the airport, I am exhausted. I could not sleep last night. Aiyi had followed me into my room at three in the morning, and she instantly fell asleep on one of the twin beds” (Pg 286) “Wake up, we’re here,” says my father. And i awake with my heart pounding in my throat. I look out the window and we’re already on the runway, It’s gray outside.” (Pg. 287) This is sort of the end of the cycle because this is when the daughter goes BACK to China FROM America. It was the opposite of what her mother had done, and one of the only reasons that she did it was to “bring an end to something”. She wanted to go and end her curiosity about her mother’s past, and she wanted to figure out all of the unknowns that she had about her mother’s past, such as the two twin sisters that Jing-Mei had that her mother left behind in China.

Blog Post: Family Story

When my mother was young, she went to an “advanced” math class at her school. She was an extremely studious and hardworking student that never slacked off or screwed around in class, (according to her anyway). She was apparently so hardworking that she was a well respected person in her village. They respected her as a student and as a hardworking member of society. One day, there was a competition or a test between all of the people in her school district. It was somewhat like an Advanced Placement test, as it was only for people that had a certain class placement, which were the “high achievers” at the school, and the test had everyone in the Chinese equivalent of a school district taking it. She was excited because she was one of the only people in her school that were chosen to compete in that contest and/or test. She felt special and honored that she was one of the few people that were chosen to be able to participate in such an activity that was only available to certain people. She had scored second out of everyone who had competed in the contest / test, and everyone cheered for her. Apparently, the school principal had personally given her an award and had announced to the whole school that she had scored the second highest out of all the people on the school district that were allowed to take the test. They had celebrated a lot because she had achieved such a “high position”, second out of all the people who had competed. The whole school had cheered her on and had a huge celebration because of her “grand” achievement/s. She told me however, that even though she was the second highest scoring person, she had only scored sixty out of a hundred, and the person that was in first place had scored only seventy out of a hundred. She said that even though she had scored so low on the test / exam, she had still felt extremely proud because it was still an extremely hard test on an extremely high level math course that few people were allowed to take.
To me, she had sounded somewhat conceited and / or extremely proud of the fact that she could achieve such a thing. However, I can understand where her pride comes from, and why she wanted to tell me about this kind of story. It was an exciting and memorable event that happened in her childhood, and she wanted to share it with me because, experiences are to be shared, and if you do not share your experiences with someone else, then what it the point of having that experience? It becomes something meaningless, because you cannot talk to any one else about it, and the only person that will know it happened would be you.

She told me this because she was proud of her past school experiences and wanted to motivate me to do better. I was complaining of how school was stressful and how it was a lot of work, and she told me about her past school experiences. She told me about how she used to be a very good student and home work she was a very studious person that was excelled at a lot of the things that she attempted to do. Either she was bragging about her past scholastic achievements, or she was very proud of what she had done and wanted to motivate me to do just as well or even better than what she had previously achieved.

I had a feeling that it was a story told to help encourage me to have a better work ethic in school. They might have also been telling me that you should make your best effort at everything, because you never know what might end up happening. They could have been telling me to try be best at everything, because even if I fail, then they will still feel proud of me. It might relate to how she was praised and admired even though she scored a D- on the “test”. However, it might have been the fact that she had scored second place that made everyone respect and praise her, so that may not have been one of the messages that she was trying to get across to me.

It seemed to highlight my laziness and tendency to procrastinate things. She may have been comparing her studious habits with my procrastination, and wanted to make me see how different I am and what I had to change about my life in order to be more like someone that she admire more. It was either that or she wanted to shame me into doing well in class, as if she were saying “If I can do it, then so can you!”. It is a story that is used to motivate family members to go and put more effort into the things that are going on in their lives. It is significant to my family because my family really values hard work and personal success. Because they value personal success and hard work so much, they have a lot of stories that inspire my family members to go and put a lot of effort into things like jobs, education, etc. They also want us (the children) to go and make something of ourselves, even while we are still minors and cannot achieve many things that adults could achieve.

I learned that my parents had expected that my role in the family was to do whatever they told me to do because it was “good for me” and that it was my duty as a son. I had to be obedient, and I had to be a studious person, just like how my mom was in her story, and overachiever, not an under achiever. Sadly, that has not happened so far in my life, and I am still a procrastinator that does not put a lot of effort into the work that I do unless I feel that it is something so extremely important that I could not afford to avoid doing it. I believe that my parents have already realized how much of a lazy person I am and are trying to motivate to procrastinate less, to be more hardworking, and to manage my time better, especially since I am already in my sophomore year of high school. It may be a last ditch attempt for her to try and motivate me, or it may be the beginning of a long series of talks and lectures telling me to get my life together and to plan out what I want to do in my future, because my future is near, and I have to get my life together before it is too late.

My parents have also talked about the American schooling / education system and how unfamiliar they are with it, and so they have to rely on outside information from relatives and friends in order to plan out “my” future. They cannot rely on their own personal educational experiences to help them, because with my mom’s experience, her being able to compete district wide and being ranked for it, is not that similar to the American educational system. Because of that, they have tried to use their own educational experiences to go and motivate me to learn more and to focus on my future.

In my mother’s case, she tells me about all the things that she has done and how I should do just as good as her or even better, while my dad talks about how he never really got a higher education. He then goes onto talking about how he would have probably had a better life if he did, and how he would have an easier job. He then tells me about all of the hardships that he has to face in his life, and how he hopes that I would avoid a lot of them since I would have more educational opportunities than he ever did.

This may be why my parents tell my family and I  “educational stories”, and why they have so many hopes and dreams for us, because they have both lived a hard life, know how / what it feels like, and never want their children to go through the same things that they have gone through.

They sometimes act as if they have a moral obligation the tell me about their lives since it is so different from mine. They used to be farmers and villagers, and so education was different for them. It was optional, and it was full of other kids that were also farmers. Here in American however, we have people from all different types of backgrounds, mandatory schooling, and it is always emphasized that you can not achieve anything in life if you do not first have a good education as the foundation of your “life”. The change from optional schooling in China to the mandatory schooling here may have been a huge change for my parents and they did not know how to address it.

Twenty-Six Malignant Gates Post

There are a lot of similarities between the “Tiger Mom” article, and the chapter/section “The Twenty Six Malignant Gates”. For example, in the tiger mom article, the mother talks about how she made her daughter do everything until they got it right, and she would spend hours upon hours forcing their children to practice and practice until they did what they were doing correctly.

“I rolled up my sleeves and went back to Lulu. I used every weapon and tactic I could think of. We worked right through dinner into the night, and I wouldn't let Lulu get up, not for water, not even to go to the bathroom. The house became a war zone, and I lost my voice yelling, but still there seemed to be only negative progress, and even I began to have doubts.”  

It is similar to what happens in the Joy Luck club. For example, in the story, “Two Kinds” Jing-Mei is forced by her mother to go and practice the piano over and over to become successful at it, and her mother brags about it.

“Our problem is much worser than yours. If we ask Jing-Mei was dish, she hear noting but music. It’s like you can’t stop this natural talent.” (Pg. 138)

The two stories are very similar because in both of them, the mother tires to get their daughter to play the piano, and does it until the daughter knows how to play the piano well.

“My mother slapped me. “who ask you be genius?” She shouted. “Only ask for you be your best. For you sake. You think I want you to be genius? Hnnh! What for! Who ask you!” (Pg. 136)

This is where the mother in Joy Luck club hits her daughter and forces her to practice even though the daughter does not want to, and has no motivation to go and practice the piano at all. This is also true in the Tiger Mom article, when the mother hits her daughter and forces her to work and work at the piano until she gets the song right and plays it perfectly. She does not let her daughter go or have a break until she does what the mother asks her to do perfectly.

“Back at the piano, Lulu made me pay. She punched, thrashed and kicked. She grabbed the music score and tore it to shreds. I taped the score back together and encased it in a plastic shield so that it could never be destroyed again. Then I hauled Lulu's dollhouse to the car and told her I'd donate it to the Salvation Army piece by piece if she didn't have "The Little White Donkey" perfect by the next day. When Lulu said, "I thought you were going to the Salvation Army, why are you still here?" I threatened her with no lunch, no dinner, no Christmas or Hanukkah presents, no birthday parties for two, three, four years. When she still kept playing it wrong, I told her she was purposely working herself into a frenzy because she was secretly afraid she couldn't do it. I told her to stop being lazy, cowardly, self-indulgent and pathetic.”

The Twenty-Six Malignant Gates

What is Amy Tan's purpose behind this introductory piece? What thematic elements, characterization, or plot foreshadowing connect it to the stories that follow, particularly "Rules of the Game" and "The Voice from the Wall"?

There are a lot of things that Amy Tan foreshadows in her introductory piece. In the introductory piece, a little girl is told by her mother to not do something, but the girl is too headstrong and does it anyway. Because of that, they girl got hurt and has to learn things the hard way instead of the easy way. In the story “Rules of the Game”, Waverly Jong acts like the girl in the introductory piece. In the beginning of the chapter, she does almost everything that her mother tells her to do, 

“The next week, I bit back my tongue as we entered the shop with the forbidden candies. When my mother finished shopping, she quietly plucked a small bag of plums from the rack and put it on the counter with the test of the items.(Pg 89). 

This was a time when she listened to her mom, and so she did not get hurt and she got treats for what she did. However, later on in the story, she disobeys her mom and things get bad for her. For example, in the later parts of the story, she decided to run away from home because she is so angry about how her mom controls everything that happens in her life. Later during the day, she eventually decided to come back come and meet her family again. 

“Standing there waiting for my punishment, I heard my mother speak in a dry voice. “we not concerning this girl. This girl not have concerning for us.” Nobody looked at me. Bone chopsticks clinked against the insides of the bowls being emptied into hungry mouths.” (Pg 100) 

However, the damage had already been done to her family relationships and she had to learn the hard way that there were some things, if they happen, then they will hurt your life and your relationships irrevocably, and your life will never be the same again.  

Quickwrite: Scar

How do you think An-Mei and her mother would respond? Would they think the statement is true or false? Would they be somewhere in-between?

I feel that An-Mei and her mother would have differing opinions on the question. An-Mei’s mother may have been someone who spurned family traditions and left her family for a man with 3 wives, but in the end she still showed that she felt that she had some obligation to her family. Even though her family somewhat hated her, she still came back in the end to take care of her mom in her final days. When her mom was dying, she still came back in the middle of all their hatred and did everything she could, she even cut a piece of meat from her arm off and fed it to her mother in hopes of it healing her. This shows that she had a lot of family devotion in the end because it takes a lot of devotion to go and cut a piece of meat off your arm by yourself without hesitating or giving up the the middle of doing it. She may be somewhere in the middle most of the time, but during certain incidents, she would flip to either extreme of the spectrum.

I feel that An-Mei herself though is somewhere in between in the debate weather family honor was more important than individual rights. She does seem to have some loyalty to her family. This is shown when she was almost going to die. When she was in danger of dying, her grandmother told her that if she did not get better, then she would have a lot of unpaid debt left to her family and that even her mother got so sick of waiting that she picked her things up and left. An-Mei suddenly hurried onto the road of recovery and she stopped complaining of dying and how bad that she felt, all she did was try to consciously get better. Even though you cannot consciously force yourself to get better, her grandmothers words still motivated her to get better and she treid to act upon her grandmother’s words.

Response to "Why Chinese Mothers Are Better"

In the article “Why Chinese Mothers Are Superior” I found an interesting paragraph to talk about.

Second, Chinese parents believe that their kids owe them everything. The reason for this is a little unclear, but it's probably a combination of Confucian filial piety and the fact that the parents have sacrificed and done so much for their children. (And it's true that Chinese mothers get in the trenches, putting in long grueling hours personally tutoring, training, interrogating and spying on their kids.) Anyway, the understanding is that Chinese children must spend their lives repaying their parents by obeying them and making them proud.

This paragraph/quote seems to be extremely controversial. Some people think that since the parents gave birth to the child, that the child should do whatever their parents tell them to do because their parents have gone though so much pain and suffering to give birth and raise the children to adult hood. Other people feel that the parents should not force their children to do anything and that their children owe them anything because the children had no choice in who their parents were.

I personally believe that children owe their parents some things. For example, raising a child from birth to adult hood is not an easy feat. I believe that since the parents go through so much effort to raise their kids, that the kids should have at least some obligation to help the parents. If it was not for the parents, then the children would have a hard time surviving to adult hood. However, I do not believe that  children owe their parents EVERYTHING. Just because their parents gave birth to them does not mean that the children should obey every last command that their children give them. The parents also have no right in ordering their children to do whatever their parents want them to. The children are their own people, and just because they are their parents, does not mean that they have absolute control over their children.

Quickwrite: Revolutions in the World

There are many similarities  between the revolution that happened in Honduras and what happens in the book “Animal Farm”. For example, both of the places, stories have a person that is already in power or has someone that is in a position of potential power. In Honduras, they  already have a Constitution in place that limits the powers of the president and the terms that they are able to serve as president. In animal farm, they have constitution that is supposed to limit the actions that the animals can take against each other. It is a set of laws that EVERYONE must follow, not just the people that are “lower” than the people in power. For example, in this article (to be added later) it talks about the Honduran president. He did what I talked about before. He was nearing the end of his presidential terms, so he decided that he wanted the power for a little longer. He then tried to extend the amount of terms that he had and the amount of time that he would stay in power. He tried to do this even though there was  amendment in the constitution that prevented the president from being able to do that. He tried to violate the laws of the constitution in what he attempted to do. That is a lot like what happened in animal farm. Napolean tried to take over the farm and tried to give him self absolute power. He even violated some of the amendments in the Constitution, or “changed” them to suit his needs.

For example, there were Constitutional amendments in Animal Farm that prevented the animals from being abused by other animals. Napolean changed those rules or adjusted them to suit his needs. For example, they had first outlawed alcohol in animals, However, Napolean changed that rule when he found out the alcohol was something that he liked. That showed how much of a hypocrite he was. He was like any corrupt leader, changing the rules whenever they suited his needs, and enforcing them when ever it suited or benefited him.

Chapter 11

Jay Pan

Sutherland 5^th Per

2/9/11

The Anger of Benjamin

The sun was setting, and the day had almost come to an end. The coming of the humans and the subsequent argument had confused the animals. The humans had stormed off and vowed anger at the cheating animals. Clover walked around that farmhouse, thinking about what she had seen that day, the cheating between the humans and the pigs. After the farmers and Napolean were discovered to have been “cheating”, Napolean had kicked the human farmers our of Manor farm. They had ran out the gate and down the road, chased by the guard/attack dogs that Napolean and the pigs had set on them. It was unknown who had started cheating first, but it was suspected that it was it was Napolean and the pigs who had started the cheating, judging by the smug looks on the faces of the pigs, and the indignant ones on the faces of the humans.

“This farm seems to get worse and worse.” thought Clover. “I may be wrong, but I will ask Benjamin what the farm was like before.” “He would remember everything that had happened since Jones was here, he has such a great memory!”

She walked over to Benjamin and asked him to tell her about how life was like before Napolean had come into power. He was extremely reluctant to do so, but when he remembered the death of Boxer, he could not contain his anger at Napolean anymore and told Clover. He told her about how lif was like when Jones was still there, the lack of animal freedom, the small amount of rations (and sometimes none at all) , the whippings, the cruel punishments, and intolerable tyrannical ruling fist of Jones etc etc. But when he thought back to Napolean, his anger grew. He told Clover how Napolean had started out as a shifty person, how he seemed to be the least trustworthy even when Snowball was still around. He also told her about the suspicions that he had about Napolean framing Snowball and chasing him away so that he would have no competition.

When Clover heard about all of this, she grew angry. She could not believe that someone could do such a thing to their fellow animals. She had decided that something had to be done about it, so she decided to try and start her own revolution on the pigs. She tried to convince Benjamin to join, but he had denied her, saying that he had seen too many things and did not want to see her go through more hardships. Clover felt betrayed, but did not scold him. She went to the old barn where old Major used to give his speeches and prepared everything. When night came, she held a speech trying to convince the animals to rebel against the pigs and convinced them to sing beasts of England once again. They animals were afraid at first, but as time went on their courage grew and they sang it more and more with more and more feeling. The animals sang and sang until the pigs grew suspicious and came to investigate. The animals scattered, ran, and tried to go to sleep before the pig arrived.

Later that week, the pigs called Clover in. They talked to her about what she thought about the farm, and what she thought about life on the farm. She said that it was not so bad, but it would be better. The pigs dismissed her and then held a secret conference. They had found out that Clover was planning a rebellion due to the spies that they had within the animals. They decided to go and poison Clover's food and pretend that she was sick.

The next week, Clover had come down with an illness. The pigs had no idea what was wrong with her, but they told everyone that they would take her to a doctor, jus tlike what they did to Boxer and take care of her. They animals, suspicious but still believing the pigs, accepted that statement and let Clover go. However, Benjamin saw that the truck that came to pick her up was the same as the on that picked Boxer up and rushed to get Clover, but it was too late. By the time that Benjamin arrived, Clover had already been taken away.

Days later, the pigs told the animals the same story about Clover that they told them about Boxer and buried Clover. Benjamin, shocked and angry to the extremes at the pigs for lying and killing Clover, decided to take over the rebellion. He plotted for days but could not come up with a plan until he had heard that the humans that Napoleon had wrong had planned to go and attack the farm. He plotted wither the other animals and told them how to act during the battle that was inevitable.

When the day finally came, the pigs called all of the animals out into the yard. Squealer convinced the animals to fight, and that they were fighting for a good cause. However, the animals had already been convinced by Benjamin on what they should do. When the humans came, the animals got into position. As the humans came in, the animals rushed to the sides, opening a path between the humans and the pigs. The humans, enraged at the pigs for cheating, aimed at them first and shot and killed all of the pigs. The animals then rushed in from the sides and killed the humans. Benjamin cheered, they had finally completed a rebellion, and he had avenged Boxer and Clover. However, this time around, he would personally monitor the development of the new “animal government” so that some one like Napolean would not rise up into power every again.

The End

Rebuttal: Human Population Control

Today, I am going to look at Ianna’s Post about controlling the human population. She said that

Instead of going on a rant killing millions of people it would be better to invest in something that would be placed in the body during infancy that would keep the individual from obtaining an accidental pregnancy, like the IUD used for women. This would still allow the individual to have sex they just couldn't get/get someone else pregnant. Which brings up the question that if only physical females can hold a child would men really need this device? I think not, but if the device can prevent STD's or STI's everyone should have one. If the product does prevent STD's and STI's then it would help people live, so it counteracts the purpose of lowering the population-if this is product is used as a drastic measure if not then it would be better to help people live without the hard ship of getting a disease or infection due to sex.

Ianna has a good point, but I am wondering if people have the choice of putting in the contraceptive or not. What if someone wanted to have a child, but they were unable to because the contraceptive prevented them from doing so? Also, what if the contraceptive has problems? What if it causes infertility in people, or is extremely hard to remove from a person and may cause injury from removal?

We talked about contraceptives and STD’s in Anatomy class before, and we discussed how STD’s and STI’s could be passed from skin to skin contact. Something like the IUD would not protect anyone from it, because it offers no physical protection against the STD or STI.

I also want to know if there was an age limit for the contraceptive. If everyone had contraceptives and could not have children, then would the human race not die out? If no one could have children, then we would have no descendants and the human race would cease to exist. It would seem to be like a permanent sterilization technique and it would be required by law to have it. Unless there was an age where you could remove it and have kids, or you had the choice to remove it and have kids, then you would be dooming the entire human to extinction.

FWI, I agree with Ianna totally on what she says on this topic, I just wanted to rebut it because it was such an interesting topic. No offence to you Ianna, your post was nice.

Animal Farm Essay, Prompt 1

I have chosen to analyze Major and Squealer in my mini-essay.

Major seemed to be a person that actually cared about everyone on the farm. He seemed to care about EVERYONE, not just the people who would benefit him the most by befriending them.He even cared about the wild animals who did not have much independent thought and did not have much intelligence. He does not speak in a condescending manner, but treats everyone as equals, even the people who look up to him and revere him. He also tells people to look towards the future, and to follow their hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Major acts like a revolutionary, trying to free the animals from their chains. For example, “And among us let there be perfect unity, perfect comradeship in this struggle. All men are enemies. All animals are comrades.” (Pg. 31) He actually CARES about the livelihoods of the other animals.

Squealer on the other hand, seems to treat the other animals as if they were second class citizens. He does not seem to give them the respect that they deserve and treats them as if they were stupid animals that did not hope to see the difference between lies and the truth. He also seems to trick the animals. When ever something happens the benefits the pigs but hurts the other animals, he would say that it was for the greater good. He would also threaten them by saying that if they did not shut up and do what they were told, then Farmer Jones would come back and mistreat them worse then they were already mistreated. This was a gesture used to help pacify the animals who thought that they were being treated unfairly and to scare them into doing whatever the other pigs told them to do. This shows that he has no respect for the livelihoods of the other animals and that all he cared about is himself. He also never talks about the animals hopes, dreams, and aspirations. Instead, all he talks about is how “great: if on the farm is and how bad it would be if they were in any other place. He also lies and talks about how Napoleon does so many things, but is instead really trying to rewrite history to put Napoleon in a better light and to make the other animals want to follow Napoleon more. He seems to be the type of person that is sneaky and would do anything to achieve their goals. “Are you certain this not something you have dreamed, comrades? Have you any record of such a resolution? Is it written down anywhere? And since it was certain true that nothing of the kind existed in writing, the animals were satisfied that they were mistaken.” (pg.77) This shows how Squealer tells half-truths and lies to the animal populace.

The Major was very persuasive. He painted a picture of a land of freedom and a land where everyone could do whatever they felt like doing, as long as it was not hurtful or morally wrong. He appealed to the animals long lost sense of hope. “Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labor would be our own. Almost overnight we could become free and rich,” (Pg. 30) It was effective because it awakened long lost desires within the animals and gave them hopes and dreams.
Squeal was also persuasive, but for another reason. Unlike Major, who used the animals hopes and dreams to influence them, Squealer uses the animals fears against them. To influence them, he uses their fear of Farmer Jones coming back and enslaving them again. He says that Jones will come back and enslave them even when it is highly improbably the Jones is even in the area. “One false step, and our enemies would be upon us. Surely comrades, you do not want Jones back?...Certainly, the animals did not want Jones back; if the holding of debates on Sunday mornings was liable to bring him back, then the debates must stop.” (pg.70) It is effective because he preyed on the animals fears, and fear is a strong emotion that influences people enourmously.