Red

It was pretty interesting reading Red. While reading this book I had so many mixed emotions with the book. There were times I was frustrated and annoyed while reading all the stories of these young girls. As frustrated as I was with their stories, somehow some of the girl’s stories were able to put a smile on my face because I could somehow relate to them. With some of the girl’s stories I was able to see myself at their age and how I was so much them. For example, Jocelyn’s story about the boy she had a crush on was one that took me back in my teen days. The story reminded me when I was thirteen years old and the day this new cute boy came to my school. I remember from the first day I saw him I had butterflies and I developed a crush that would last all the two years we had together in the same school. Unlike one of the girls in the book who had the courage to ask out the guy she liked, with me I never had the guts to even tell that boy how much I liked him. Even the day he asked me out, I refused to be his girlfriend. The fact that I was raised by parents who always told me I should never have a boyfriend until I’m done with school. I was young and afraid to have a boyfriend because somehow I thought my parents would found out, even though they were in a different continent. They surely would’ve been proud me.
After all, even though sometimes I was irritated reading the book, I believe that one of the reason was because I felt as if I was opening my diary and these days I can't stand reading my daily. Sometimes when I read it I see the naïve and vulnerable young girl I used to be, but yet at the time I thought I knew it all.

My young adult novel

Looking back at my past and present life, I feel as if I’ve been through so much in life that somehow if I decided to write a novel, my stories would have a little truth with my personal life. This story I will write on is somehow like my life, but most of isn’t really true about my personal life.
I would like to write about a story of 15 years young girl name Diana, who always had a dream to leave her home and go experienced the world. Diana grew up in a third world country where the community she lived in was full of people with broken dreams, no dreams or had never had a chance to fulfill their dreams. Unlike her friends, Diana had bigger dreams for herself. One of her goal was to leave her country and go to the United State. One day her school decided to give away few scholarships to some of the most outstanding student to go to the U.S.A, and Diana was one them. When Diana moved to the U.S.A, her life changed drastically. She had no family, friends, nor did she speak English. For few years she struggles to fit in the new culture, but founds it hard because she has nobody to relate to. Even though Diana had always had a dream to come to the U.S.A, she later begins to feel lonely and she starts to wonder if she made the best choice of leaving everything she knew. Throughout the book I’ll explain all the struggled she had to face with the new culture. In the end she has to choose to either go back to her homeland or stay in the U.S.A where she had many opportunities to fulfill her dreams.

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian

I really enjoyed reading this book more than any other books we read in the class. Not only because it was an easy read, but also because the humor the author had in the book. Before I began reading the book, I did not think I was going to like it because of my quick judgments by just looking at the cover. But to my surprise it was one of my favorite books. As soon as I started reading I found myself not wanting to put the book down. Before I started reading the book I was kind taken back with the cartoons because they made the book look childish. However, I found out the cartoons were one of the things that made the book even more joyful to read it. Sometimes while reading a book it is hard to create an image in my head just like the one the author tries paint in the book. But with this book it was so easy to look at the illustration and just be able to connect with the story more easily.

The other of the thing I liked about this book was the fact that the author was able to show the many struggles teenager faces while growing. Whether it was bullying, friendship, family, or cliques somehow any teenager or anyone who was a teenage at some point can confess of experiencing some of adolescence portrayals in the book. Bullying is one the struggle Junior faced while in school, and also something that many teenagers face. However, it was good to see that Junior never let bullying stop him from working toward his future. These days there are many students who decide to take their own life because bullying, so it was great to see Junior continuing to work on his future.

Betsey Brown

As I was reading this book I really felt sorry for Betsey and all the pressure her family put her through. For a young girl I felt that she was strong and very brave, the way that she was able to find her own escape sometimes when she couldn’t handle all the pressure and chaos in her house. Before Betsey ran away, I remember while reading the book I was thinking to myself that at her age I don’t know if I would be able to put up with all the pressure her parents put her through. I felt as if she was still a child and her parents had high expectations sometimes because after all she was a young girl.
Since, the period of time this book was written was a historical time, at times I understood Greer side in why he wanted his children to be a part of it. However, I felt as if that there were times he needed some limits. For example, when he took them to a protest, I think he went overboard with that. I thought he was putting the children in danger making them go on a protest which they might not even understand the meaning for it.
I was not very satisfied with the end of the book. Since, this book was during a historical time, I thought they would be more controversy in the book. I was disappointed that I did not get a full story on where Jane went and most of all disappointed that Carrie was not able to come back since she had became like a mother figure to the kids.

My essay outline

Introduction: In this introduction I want talk about pressures that many teenagers faces. I want to talk about where many teenagers get their influences that leads them to so many needs of wanting to be perfect. I want to talk a little about how many teenagers views themselves. I also want give the details of how so many times we spent a lot time worrying about how other people view us because the pressure we get from either our society or the media.
I. In the first paragraph I want to talk about the pressure that is cause by our society. In this paragraph I want mentioned, the pressure that we get from friends, schoolmate, and many others. I will explain how the society has an effect on teenagers.
II. I want to talk about media and how it affects many teenagers these days. Now that there are so many shows on television to watch, I’m sure I will be able to give enough examples on how media has corrupted many teenagers. I want to explain about the beauty that the media portray and how so many teenagers have became so obsess with the beauty that is shown on Television.
III. For the third paragraph I want to talk about how it sad that many teenager look for influences in the wrong places, trying to be perfect, but instead ends up going to the wrong path.
IV. Last paragraph will be my conclusion. I will sum up what I feel about teenagers these days.

Huckleberry

Reading Huckleberry Finn I was slightly disappointed because I thought I would enjoy it more than I did five years ago. When I was in 10th grade our English teacher made us read this book and during that year I hated it. It was like torture reading it, and I thought it was because I didn't speak English well at time or because I was not used to reading American novels. However, five years after my feelings towards the book hasn't changed much.While reading this book I found it a little bit disorganized and I had trouble trying to keep up with it because it was stories after stories. These stories were all over the place and random to a point where it seemed as if the author just wrote down every idea that came up in his head. Sometimes I felt as if there were so many details in the book to a point and some unnecessary. Another thing I didn't like was the last chapters of the book when Tom came back into the pictures. I felt as if those chapters focused a lot on Tom instead of Hucklberry who I wanted to follow till the end as a reader. I felt like I wanted to hear a different ending for Huck and Jim, and be able to see how they grew through their adventure, but instead it seemed as if Tom came and took over the spotlight. Through all the adventures that Huck went through I wanted to hear the author talk more about the growth of Huck. It seemed as if Huck still looked up so much to Tom. However, while reading this book it seemed to me as if Huck was a little wiser than he thought and somehow in the end I wanted Huck to see that and not try to always look up to Tom so much.

My version of Charlotte Temple in the 21st Century

Charlotte was a young and beautiful 15 years old girl from Poland. As a young girl Charlotte was raised in a very sheltered and religious family for her whole life in a small town. Charlotte was very naïve and innocent because the way she had been raise. One day her family decided to send to an all girl boarding school that was located in the capital city of Poland (Warsaw). While Charlotte was in boarding school she meant many girls from different places and countries. She became close to one girl name La Rue from France. Unlike, Charlotte La Rue was a trouble girl, whose dream was to go in America and marry a rich man. One day La Rue told Charlotte about how you can date a man from America online. At first Charlotte told La Rue that they was no way in her life she’ll ever do anything like that. But La Rue was very manipulative and got Charlotte to start online dating. While online Charlotte found a man name Josh from the U.S.A who falls in love with her and insist that he’ll come visit her. One day he comes to Poland with his friend Will, who he brought for La Rue to meet. When Josh was in Europe he falls even harder for Charlotte and does whatever he can to convince her to go back with him to the U.S.A. Charlotte thought there was no way she would accept the offer because her parent would be extremely upset. However, in the end with the help of La Rue, they were able to convince Charlotte to come with her back in the States.

When Charlotte arrived in the U.S, she didn’t know much about Josh and things started to turn around. In the beginning Josh told her he was a very wealthy man, and when they arrived he only had a small 1 bedroom apartment. However, that was not the only problem charlotte had. After a month in the state Charlotte became pregnant. During that same month Josh went to a bachelor party in Las Vegas, in which he ended up marrying a girl he meant at a club. Things kept going down during charlotte’s pregnancy because she was young and did not know much about the States. She decides to stay with Josh because he promised her he loved her and he will get a divorce soon, but he never did it.

In the end after Charlotte had Josh’s baby she decided to attend a church and meant a man who promised to take care of her. So, one day she leaves Josh and went to be with her new man who helped her with the baby and helped her go back to school.

Response to Charlotte Temple

While reading this book I found myself filled with a lot saddnes for Charlotte. So far I'm enjoying reading even though in the begining there were parts I was confused, but later I was able to catch up with it and found it enjoyable. As a reader I really like that while I was reading the book, I could totally feel all the emotions that Charlotte was going. I was able to feel a lot empathy for her and what she going through. At times there were parts which I thought the author exxagerated a lot in some situation. However, that did not stop me from having all these emotions while reading it. At time I thought the exxageration was pretty entertaining. When reading more of the book I was shocked how my feelings toward Montaville began to switch. At first I was against Montaville and what kind person. All I could think was how dare does he do something like that to Charlotte. Just when I had my mind set on how horrible of a person he was, I read more of the book and I began to understand the situation he was in. Even though I was starting to see that he wasn’t as horrible of a person as I thought, I still do not agree with how he left charlotte by herself. I know he felt inlove with another women and I also believe in marrying the one you love, but that was not excuse to leave Charlotte. Somehow I feel like he rushed falling for Julia and he never gave a chance to Charlotte to see what kind woman she was going to become. Reading Charlotte situation made think of how till these days there so many girls who are still going through situation like hers. Especially, young and naïve girls that let men take advantage of them and bring them to America, while making them believe they would take care of them and never do. I personally know few women who experienced situations like these and reading this book made me think of them.

When I think about what I want to write on my essay I have so many ideas, but I don’t know which one I want to pick. I feel like when it comes to a topic about adolescence, the topic is pretty wide and there are so many things to talk about.

One of the thing I want to talk about is accepting society or rejecting. With this topic I want to touch on how for many teenagers in this society has so much pressure in trying to fit in. I think so many teenagers try to put on this image which is accepted by everyone else and it is so rare to hear about the ones who choose to be themselves.

The other topic I want to touch on is the topic on the sexual pressure the society puts on teenagers. I feel like sex these days has become a common topic for many teenagers and a subject that is no longer taboo. I think that the media is a exposing more sexual image in firm, T.V and magazine. With the media there is a portrayal of the ideal image of beautiful woman which I think puts a lot pressure on teenagers to try to look or have that certain image. For example, a woman has to have a sex appeal; they need to have a certain body shape, body weight, and more. The types of women that are showed in the media with the sexual appeal to them are more likely to be idolized by these young girls.

I like these two topics and I’m not sure which one to pick. However, I feel like more strongly with the second topic which I think I will be try to find more information on.

As I read this book and the author description of an American teenager, I found it hard for me to relate to most of the characteristics the author uses in the book. The reason might be the fact that I was not born in America nor do I have a family member who was raised here, to whom I can relate the book to. It also might be the fact that I never went to a public high school to experience the whole American teenager life. Even though I was not able to relate to some description of an American teenager in the book, I was able to relate to some part of it.

One of the parts that caught my eyes in which I was able to see a similarity to my life or culture was the part where one Irish mother seemed to worry about her daughter’s behavior changing. She worried about her coming at two O’clock and also what other folks will think (186). The worry of children changing and adopting to different culture is something I see a lot among my family and family’s friends. I remember before I came to the U.S. and until this day, every time I talk to my grandmother the thing she tells me the most is to never forget where I came from. To always act like a lady and never become a different person than what I was raised to be. Just like the early immigrants in the U.S. who feared changes in their children I’ve seen a lot similar fears in my family and family’s friends. For example, in my country (Rwanda) whether you are a man or woman you can live with your parents until you ready to marry or get married. Most time if you live with your parents you are likely to go with their rules. That’s why many parents found it difficult when they move here and their kids start to adapt to the new culture. The fear that many parents has with their kids and having their kids turn into the type of teenagers Hine describes in the book. For example, they don’t want to see their kids going out late, smoking, drinking, having sex, and more. I’ve seen many cases where parents took their kids back to Africa because they feel like this could help their kids change and become better. However, in the end I believe that the behaviors of a child is not always about where you raised them but how you raised the.