Blog #10: Red Fired ME Up!

Amy Goldwasser picked exceptional young women to feature in her novel. Each of them told a great story: some made me cry, some made me laugh out loud and they all touched my heart.
My favorites were the ones that depicted the inner over-reactive child which lies beneath the young women who wrote the tales. For example, Grace Habegger, who wrote about Jonny Depp really displayed the opposing forces inside of a young woman! She is very childish in her obsession, but the more mature young woman inside of her requires that she admit this silly side of her reverence of him along side of her more advanced admiration of his acting ability. It portrays a phenomenal dichotomy which is present in all of us, and certainly extreme within young women.
Also, I was pleased with how relatable I found their stories. They discussed real-life issues, issues I have dealt with or that someone I know has dealt with. September 11, suicide, friend’s dying too young, problems understanding their parents or vice versa. All of it affected me. I cannot wait to share this book with my cousin who is struggling with an eating disorder and my best friend who is adopted and my mother struggles with mental illness and my brother who could just never understand girls, and my grandmother who always asks why young people think dancing and dressing the way they do is ok, and my father who doesn’t trust lesbians, and my friend who got lost in the ash of the twin towers and struggle for days to call home to say she was ok, and my aunt who is the biggest Jonny Depp fan I have ever known. This book has insight to offer to everyone and that is what I love the most about it. It made me feel special and normal all at the same time.

Becca

Blog #9: Diary of a Girl Becoming a Woman

In an adolescent novel created in the form that Alexie lays out for us, I would tackle the issue of growing up with a mentally ill mother and an abusive boyfriend. My introduction would tell about my parents: how my father works so hard and my mother is unstable at best. We struggled but we were loved. My saving grace, much like Junior’s cartoons are his, was theatre. I loved it and was good at it, giving me a way to stay busy and out of the house while staying out of trouble. My conflict is when I met my boyfriend, who I would date for five years, Sam. He was awful to me: controlling, abusive, and over-concerned with putting me down to keep me in my place. There are many little events that would make great chapters depicting the challenges I dealt with while dating him. Much like Arnold tells his “rules” and how he doesn’t understand why the Reardon kids don’t follow them, I felt that way with Sam. I didn’t understand the new rules of dating him and could not align my experiences with his, despite trying for years. The adult most important to my ability to make better decisions and get out of the relationship was my teacher and dear friend, Wendy. She was so important in guiding me to value myself. I know now that she probably saved my life.
I rebelled a lot against Sam’s rules and that usually just got me in more trouble. But I think including some of those choices and their repercussions would add a lot to my story. I think I would end with the day I started my sophomore year in college which is when I really knew I was free. I finally understood that I did not need to rebel in order to feel good. I could just be me, but first, I had to figure out who that was.
Becca

Blog #8: Junior is a Brave little dude

Junior has such overwhelming optimism that it is infectious. I cannot comprehend where he gets it from! He is ailed by physical problems, held back by a society with no goals or dreams and has friends who are poorly equipped to deal with any of the challenges that lie outside the reservation. His parents are, perhaps I am being pessimistic, failures. How did he turn out so strong and brave? I guess it is the old adage that God doesn’t give us more than we can handle, but his is a truly exceptional case.
I’m also absolutely enamored by the accessibility of this book. It tells a heart-wrenching AND heart-warming story with a fabulous moral all at a level that adolescents could read and enjoy (especially with the cartoons) and yet it is fascinating and riveting for adults as well. I love when authors are able to do this. I feel it gives adolescents an opportunity to bond with parents or teachers discussing something that they all find enjoyable. The illustrations absolutely make this book for me. They are funny and one-hundred percent honest, sincerely enriching the story and the depth of Junior’s character.
This is a novel I will definitely consider involving in my classroom when I am a teacher. It has so many learning points: peer pressure, eating disorders, overcoming fears, disagreements amongst friends, death, alcoholism, physical disabilities, bullying, the list goes on and on. Alexie genuinely captures the inner dialogue of Junior in such a way that youth cannot help to identify with him (as can all the rest of us)!
Becca

Blog # 7: Response to Betsey Brown

I had a little trouble following the plot some of the time. Shange's writes the words how she wants them to be pronounced. This can get confusing sometimes, particularly since I don’t speak the way her characters do so I was left in the dark every now and then. However, despite that, I really think this is a wonderful way to write her dialogue. I think it adds so much dimension and reader comprehension to the characters personalities, especially when we examine the dialect used by different characters. Since I am a white woman in the 21st century, I often found it difficult to relate to the characters struggles. By the end though I started to really get a feel for them and I am so glad I stuck it out because although we have studied so much about civil rights across various fields of our education in America, this is a fabulous way to gain insight into what the people of that time were actually feeling. It means so much more than just reading about it in a history book.
I relate so much to Betsey. I have a secluded spot that I call my “happy place.” It is by a river with a little waterfall and no one ever goes there but me (that I know of). I go there when I need to think or make big decisions. Understanding the sanctity of such a place really helped me to understand Betsey's perspective when Bernice reveals her safe-haven to the world. I tried to run away from home as a child. I was in charge of raising my brother because my mother was very sick and my father had to work terribly long hours to support us. I was extremely independent. I think these things also helped me to understand and respect her. I love her independence and that she is not afraid to admit her mistakes and try to make things right.
The adults in the novel are incredibly flawed. Greer is so busy and active in civil rights that he forgets that his children are people, not players in a revolution. His decision is undeniably admirable and influential and I fully believe it was correct to attempt to integrate his children into while schools; someone has to be the trend setter and his fearlessness in this regard is inspiring. However, I wish he had been more sensitive to his children’s concerns about the transition; Allard for example, is terrified and his father could have alleviated his fear if he had noticed it. Vida is not quite ready for the changes of the civil rights movement and this makes her an obstacle in their house. And Jane is simply too self-absorbed. She loves her children very much, but is more of a friend than a proper mother – another thing I can relate to.

Becca

Blog 6: Outline for Teen Sexuality Paper

I. Changes in American society and familial roles and relationships, increasing adolescent independence
A. History of teens: 1750-2010 (use Hine)
1. Role of teen in family
2. Role of teen in society
3. Teen sexuality
B. How do changing societal norms affect sexuality?
1. Age of: sexual maturity, adulthood, independence don’t match (use Fantasia AND Atkins)
2. Marriage later in life; leads to more sex before marriage (personal experience and Hine)
3. Education (including struggles of sex education)
4. Religion vs. sexuality
5. Availability of birth control
C. How does changing human biology affect sexuality?
1. Longer lives
2. Earlier sexual development
3. More STDs (use Fantasia)
II. Cyclical ability of literature to affect culture thus affecting media then culture and so on
A. Literature
1. 1794: Charlotte Temple (Susanna Rowson)
a) Parents
b) Negative role models
c) Pregnancy and abandonment
2. 1959 (setting): Betsey Brown (Ntozake Shange)
a) Crush on Eugene
b) Experience at Maureen’s
c) Social times (race/family)
3. 1974: The Chocolate War (Robert Cormier)
a) Honest depiction of sexuality of teenage boys
i. Jerry
ii. Janza
iii. Fear of being gay
iv. Crush on a stranger
4. 2007: Red (Amy Goldwasser)
a) 21st century social norms of sex
b) Caro Fink (homosexuality, social trauma, cutting, sex with Devin)
c) Eliza Appleton (grinding as sexual expression, fear of parents)
Society today in America allows adolescents more independence thus allowing adolescent sexual behaviors to become more prevalent in the 21st century than ever seen before.
A) Literature moving to represent actual teen behaviors!

Blog #5: Huck and Peer Pressure

I think Huck is a very weird character. He demonstrates incredible independence for a boy his age, even within just the first few chapters. He doesn’t want to be educated or learn religion or any other thing that the grownups want him to do with the exception that he does follow some rules, for example studying the bible, because he understands how important it is to those who have been good to him. This is extremely mature. He knows enough to not trust his father, which proves to be a great instinct. He is resourceful and smart. He has good morals despite what society has set as the “norm” and even how some of them judge his actions. For example, he feels bad that it is against the rules to travel with Jim and to help him escape, but he does it anyways because he sees Jim as a person! He loves adventure like any young man and enjoys their journey, but he does not ever forget how serious what he and Jim are doing is considered by the world. He knows how much trouble they could both get into and has exceptional foresight for a young man.
Despite all of these things, he is susceptible to peer-pressure from an unreliable, unpredictable friend. I understand that Twain is going for building the depths of his characters by crossing stories and books, relying on their history together and such; but by the end of Huck’s book he is no longer the same boy he was at the beginning of Tom’s book. In my opinion this is the fatal flaw that ruins the book. Tom should not be able to control Huck anymore into doing all of that nonsense to rescue Jim; Huck has grown up and changed and I truly do not believe he would have done all of that. The character of Huck grows so much but then Twain ruins him in the last plot cycle so much that his choice to go off alone at the end is almost not believable to me at that point. Someone who could be controlled in that way would not decide to just go off independently and explore the world. Further, since one of Twain’s themes in the book is the hypocrisy of society, it is almost counter-supportive to portray Huck with this weakness.
The book is hard to get through and significantly too long, but I could tolerate all of that if I could understand or even simply support the path the Huck takes from the start to the finish of the novel. I strongly dislike Tom and I am very disappointed that Twain’s portrayal of Huck is so undermined by Tom’s appearance in the end of this novel.
Becca

Blog #4: 2010: Charlotte Temple's REAL Story

Charlotte Temple is a beautiful girl attending an entirely female boarding school for her entire life thus far. She is kind to her friends and a wonderful daughter to two loving parents, to whom she is an only child. She has attended this boarding school her entire life because her parents know she is so stunning and incredibly intelligent and so they want her to be able to go to college without having added teenage complications like boys. They trust her Headmistress, as she went to college with Mrs. Temple, and believe that she is protecting Charlotte from the world (except study and prayer). Charlotte unsurprisingly receives good grades and spends most of her time studying quietly and alone.
The Headmistress, LaRue, pities Charlotte because she thinks that she deserves some romance and a chance to experience adolescence. However, La Rue turns out to be not balanced and a dreadfully bad influence. Charlotte gets seduced by the power of making her own decisions; she begins to resent her parent’s decision to hold her back so she rebels by drinking and making out with boys from the boarding house up the street. One night, while out with some fellow rebels, she drinks too much but La Rue hasn’t noticed because she has been arranging a round of seven minutes in heaven for Charlotte and the older boy she has a crush on, Montraville. He is pleased that they both do well in school and are able to party a lot while doing it. He sneaks her into his room at his school. They have both had too much to drink and their persistent teenage sexual urges take over.
Charlotte gets into a lot of trouble with La Rue for staying out all night and begins to understand that La Rue is not incredibly stable and doubts some of the choices she has been making lately. She starts to focus more on school until she realizes that she is pregnant!! She cannot turn to her parents; they would be so disappointed and probably pull her out of school! She goes to Montraville’s school to talk to him about what they should do. She and Montraville approach La Rue for help and she tells them that they should get married, which she only recommends because she knows that Charlotte’s parents will be furious with her and thinks they won’t be SO mad if Charlotte simply runs away. They decide to take her advice because they don’t know what else to do. La Rue helps them to get married, in a courtroom, and find an apartment which is in a terrible part of town because they can’t ask for their parents for money.
One night it is raining horribly and Montraville wakes up from the storm. He looks over at his formerly beautiful, currently disgustingly fat and pregnant wife and completely freaks out. He calls his best friend, Belcour, and tells him the situation. He comes over and gives Montraville his car to get out of town and offers to handle Charlotte for him. When Charlotte wakes up, Belcour tells her that Montraville left her for his ex-girlfriend and that she must leave the apartment (mostly because Belcour knows it is paid for the next two months and he needs a place to live and doesn’t want to live with a pregnant girl: bad for the reputation, you know). Charlotte tries to get help from La Rue but she sees Charlotte coming and locks the front doors pretending that she has left school for winter break. Charlotte is trapped outside in the blizzard with nowhere to go. She turns up at Planned Parenthood where they help her deliver her baby. She tells them she wants to give the baby up for adoption and leaves. She goes back to her parents and apologizes. They put her in rehab and she is just glad that they do not hate her. She never tells them about the baby.