"The Giver" By Lois Lowry blog post

What would happen it we lived in a world where we lived off of rules and fear. What if we had to live everyday knowing just as little as everyone else, knowing something was missing from life but never completely understanding what that certain things was. This idea of a world with no difference is played with in the book "The Giver" by Lois Lowry. Jonas is forced to live in a world of sameness, unknowing of the past left behind by his society. Jonas is left in the unkown just like everyone else, well that is until he is chosen to become the new receiver and his view on his entire world changes forever.
            Sameness, was created in this community to create a perfect world in which no one knew of death, hungry, war, and everyone was treated the same. This idea seems pretty fair until you get into the consequences they cause in everyday lives. Once this idea of "sameness" entered this community many things were forced to be forgotten by everyone, that is until Jonas finally receives the memories of the past these memories containing all the things that were forgot by his community when they transfered to sameness. Thinks like the feeling of affection, colors,  seasons, the ability to lie, and so much more were stripped away from this community keeping them in sameness. With the power of the memories of the past Jonas tries to show people in his community that their is more to life than just living by rules and sameness, but how do you teach someone something that's never been done.
            The book introduces the reader to the idea that being the same and living by rules isn't all that great. In fact it seems to have more consequences than benefits from all that is taken away in the world your forced to live in. Knowing about a world where sameness is not what people live by makes Jonas restless and eager to change the way people in his society look at things in their everyday lives. But which is better, a life of sameness without feelings at all or a life of color and life and diversity but living with things like death and war?

            Hana Jang
            Blog Post
            November 25, 2014

                         Most books now a days play with the idea of power, both large and small and the idea of overcoming the power or fighting it off. In the book Insurgent, the second book in the Divergent series by Veronica Roth uses this as one of the main conflicts in the book. It not only includes one big fight between the powers of each fraction. It also includes smaller conflicts over power between person to person. 

                        The story portrays the idea of having an extremely powerful group/fraction trying to take over everything and control everyone in every fraction. This group is known as the Erudite in the book. They implant divices into the physically strongest fraction to create stimulation, using them to take over. But the fight doesn't end there. 

Not going down without a fight the dauntless, fractionless, and divergents refuse to be controlled and riot breaks out. Unable to fight the dauntless and fractionless without an army and not being able to contoll the divergent's with stimulations the Eurdite are left with a huge weakness. A weakness so large that the dauntless, fractionless, and divergent may finally be able to fight back, but only if they team up.

Hana Jang
803
Ela Current Event


            In the article "Role Reversal" By Patricia Smith found in the October 2014 Upfront "World Affairs 2015" By the New York Times, the article talks about how much times have really changed for people of color. Not only now are do we have a varity of different judges of different races, but we also have developed in equaltity a whole lot over time. This article shows just how much change we had to go through just so everyone, no matter what race or gender, had equal rights. 

            In the piece, the author includes various ways of showing how much times have really changed for people of color. She shows things such as this when she includes quotes like how " A black woman judging a white man would have been unthinkable under apartheid". She says this because of the recent murder trial of Oscar Pistorius a famous white man who was judged in court by Judge Masipa, one of the two black woman to be appointed to the judiciary.  This was a huge step from in the 20th century, when "blacks were exluded from the judiciary and all facts of government. In a nation that was than 70 percent black, a white minority ruled, denying blacks with basic rights". Not only were things like these inforced, but "nonwhites had to use separate facilities" This was known as being under apartheid" showing that not only was it blacks that were treated unfairly, but anyone who wasn't white. These quotes really give the reader a visual of what times were like before, and how much they have drastically changed over time for the better.
           

Response: "Darkness to Visible" By Megan Cox Gurdon

Hana Jang
803
ELA

     
             In the article "Darkness to Visible" By Megan Cox Gurdon written in the wall street journal on June 4, 2011, the author explains how young adult books have drastically changed for the worse. Gurdon states that her and many others feel "thwarted and disheartened" at the sight of the current young adult books on display and are being sold now. She wants the reader to understand that these types of topics are not appropriate for these books targeted audience of young teens. She describes young adult literature as a "fun-house of mirrors, constantly reflecting back hideously distorted portrayals of what life is". This shows me that the author wants me to believe that the current topics of many young adult books are unacceptable and much too negative for someone so young.
           The author wants the readers to feel just as aggravated and upset as her. She does this by doing things like spinning the retells of some young adult books. By doing this she only highlights and displays the negative and dark themes portrayed in these books. When she does this she tries to further prove her claim of being against young adult book topics, instead of telling a full retell of these books including the positive parts. Gurdon also constantly repeats words like dark in her article to represent her negative opinion on teen novels. By doing all of these things she makes the reader constantly look at these young adult books in a negative way.
            I personally totally disagree with the way Megan Cox Gurdon sees and writes about young adult books. Not only does she not get the opinion of the targeted audience of these books but it seems more like these book disturb her more than any teenager. Just because she personally doesn't like a book topic shouldn't give her the right to take it away from a young reader who may enjoy it. Throughout the article she never states the good aspects to these somewhat darker books. They teach important lessons and whether there extremely unlikely to happen or happen to every teenager they show how wrong choices can lead to better decisions in the future, the consequences of some serious mistakes, and more. I think that every reader knows their own limit, and no adult, teacher, or anyone has a right to control what teens or anyone reads.

Final Draft

ELA

Hana Jang

803

            Tradition. A word that has the ability to plan out our entire future and life. Something we’re expected to follow without question.  But what exactly happens when we stray from our traditions and start to explore who we really are, the person that that has no limits or planned out life. This idea is played with in the book Divergent by Veronica Roth, as it tells the story of Beatrice Prior and her adventure in finding her true self and proving that her somewhat perfect world isn’t as perfect as it seems. To show how Beatrice rebels against her planned out life and tradition the author includes many symbolic objects that change Beatrice’s life.

One of the main symbols is the drop of Beatrice’s blood she uses during the choosing ceremony. With this small object she goes against her entire fraction and goes against tradition even though there were harsh consequences. This teaches that a break in tradition can sometimes be good and that going with what you truly want is better than what everyone else wants you to do. The chose Beatrice made in the book cost her a lot including her family and friends but she went with who she belonged with and in the end it helped her a lot.

Another important symbol in the story was the gun in the book. It shows how change can be good even if it feels strange at first. In the book trice feels as if the gun she is given in the dauntless fraction during training is wrong and is not used to having such a powerful object. She explains how the gun is nothing like she’s ever held before and has an obvious powerful energy. A change can be helpful and needed in the future even if it doesn't seem that way at the time. The simple change in learning how to use the gun helped save Trice’s life in the future even though it seemed unnatural at first. Change can be scary but helpful and useful. The new skill Trice was forced to learn from her change in fractions was one of the main things that kept her alive.

            And finally the tattoos Trice got at Dauntless are one of the largest symbols in the book. They represented her attachment to both of her fractions. Both Dauntless and Abnegation are huge parts of her, which is why she didn't just get one tattooed on her. These tattoos symbolize that people aren’t just made up of one thing even when those two things don't seem compatible. This symbol teaches that everyone has different sides and different parts that make them who they are.

             These objects in the story have a much deeper meaning than just what they look like. They all showed small ways Trice strayed from her tradition and what was expected of her until she became who she truly was. Each teaches an important lesson that not only helped Trice in the story but kept her alive. All the objects symbolize a lesson that helped the book progress and advance in it story. They add more to the story and are needed through out the book to help show the change Beatrice prior goes through.

Divergent by Veronica Roth

In the book Divergent by Veronica Roth the main character Beatrice Prior is born in a world where everyone is split into five separate fractions depending on the characteristics of the person. These five fractions include The Abnegation, The Erudite, The Dauntless, The Amity, The Candor, and if one does not make a fraction they are left fractionless. So far Beatrice's main problem has been which fraction she belongs in because she was claimed as divergent. This is a problem because Beatrice comes from an Abnegation family but doesn't feel as if she fits in and acts of selflessness never seemed to come to her mind automatically but a fraction switch is frowned upon by many. This choice is made even harder when her older brother Caleb chooses Erudite when he was expected to pick Abnegation during the choosing ceremony. Beatrice feels as if, if she doesn't pick Abnegation she will let down her parents especially her father but she must also think about herself because this one choice changes her entire life forever.