Blog Review on Naomi Giancola's Post

I believe that Naomi Giancola’s blog post on banning books is very strong. It has a hook that is although isn’t very engaging to make you want to read it more, but it makes you think deeper about about the topic, her essay also states some interesting points that I hadn’t thought of when I was writing my essay on banning books, also the different sources that she uses is very diverse and don’t all come from one source.

The beginning of Naomi’s essay lacks the thought- provoking details that are needed to engage the reader, like me, to think about the topic. What did interest me about her introduction is how she put the word “terrors” in quotations. I find this interesting because in the first sentence of her essay she is discreetly giving us her own position. Because she put in quotations she’s telling us “I don’t actually believe that they are scary or dangerous, but this is how other people think of it.” And then besides putting it in quotations she’s going to clarify to us why it is such a terror to read these books at a young age.

Naomi and I chose the same opinion on the topic of banning books, and now from reading her essay she has shown other standpoints on why banning books is a bad thing. For example she tells us that people who are reading the books are learning about the problems in our world, and with out the books that are being challenged people will never know about those issues that happen. And this is true because we don’t always read books for the fun of it, we can read different genres of books to gain different intel from that topic. If they are banned then we won’t be able to know about it, and we will be lacking information.

Altogether this is a very well written blog post because personally it made me think deeper about the topic that I wrote about two month ago, and there are different hook techniques that could help me improve the type of hooks that I can potentially write in the introduction of my essay.


Naomi Giancola's Blog http://naomigiancola.blogspot.com/

Social Action Critical Analysis

The article “Gay Rights and the Justice Department” by the editorial board of the New York Times wants us to know that the Justice Department wants Gay and Lesbian couples to have the same rights as opposite gender couples. The changes that the Justice Department wants to bring will help the Gay and Lesbian couples. One example is how Attorney Eric Holder Jr. made “a bold effort... to eliminate the distinction between same sex- couples and opposite- sex married couples in the federal justice system.” By breaking the distinction of the the same- sex couples and the opposite- sex couples in the justice system it will give them more rights. Another example is the Justice department is reaching out to other departments  for helping people, like the Federal Bureau of Prisons, and they are telling them to give the same types of privileges to the same- sex couples as the opposite sex couples.

The editorial board of the New York Times told us this information because they want people to know that they are accomplishing and what they are doing is more helpful work than harmful progress in getting the same governmental rights for gay and lesbian couples. One way that they are able to show the reader is they give us a couple of people who raise awareness to colleagues informing them about how same- sex couples should be treated the same way as opposite- sex couples. Another thing that they do is they share people who have an importance and have an impact on other people. One example of this is how one of the coaches at the University of Missouri shared his story of one of his football players was feeling that he can be more open about being gay, according to the article it “would make him the first openly gay player in the National Football League if he was drafted in the spring.” By using these techniques the authors are able to show us that there are changes in the rights that gay and lesbians are getting.   

For those who are lesbian and gay, if they read this article then they will be able to feel some internal security, they will know that there is progress in getting the rights as americans that they deserve. After reading this article some people can gain that there is still a lot of controversy and argument over giving support and governmental help to those who are gay and lesbian, and everyone should help and support those who are and not let them down like so many people are.  

The Revenge of Seven Blog Post

The story “The Revenge of Seven” by Pittacus Lore is about children that were sent to earth after the villains, the mogadorians, destroyed their old planet Lorien. Now that they are on earth, the mogadorians are still trying to kill the Loric children off. The reason that the nine children were sent down is to restart the legacy of Lorien. The mogadorians don’t want this and they want what they call “mogadorian progress” where they control every planet in the galaxy by turning every living thing into a mogadorians. In this book they show the side of the Loric children that were sent down to earth, opposed to the antagonists who are the mogadorians. The reason that Lore doesn’t show the opinion of the mogadorians is because he wants us to know that the Loric are the hero's while the mogadorians are are the villains, Lore only want us to see “the black and the white” of the winners and losers.

One of the characters names is Ella, she is the tenth of the Loric children, her father was selfish and rich and wanted her to get to earth and continue the legacy. All her life she thought that she was the same as the others. She ends up finding out that her grandfather is the evil mastermind behind the mogadorians, Setrákus Ra, he ends up kidnaping Ella and raises her as a the mogadorians royalty. The whole time Ella tells herself that Setrákus Ra isn’t her grandfather and that he is the most evil person, but after a while she sees that there is a possibility that they’re related, but regardless she refuses to believe that what Setrákus Ra plan is for the earth is appropriate. “Glorious, isn’t it?’/ His booming voice is like a bucket of cold water dumped on me. I spin around and press my back against the glass, feeling like the void behind me might be preferable to facing him./ Setrákus Ra stands behind one of the control panels, watching me, a hint of a smile on his face.”. This is an example of how they show what Ella is feeling and thinking, but doesn’t show what Setrákus Ra is feeling or thinking when he sees Ella looking completely defenseless, he may be thinking a thousand things that are positive and all the plans that he has for Ella, but because in the past books we see him as the bad guy we think when we read this that he is up to no good and extremely mischievous. Because Lore fails to show the side of Setrákus Ra it doesn’t let us have our own personal opinions on Setrákus Ra.

Another example of how the mogadorians opinions aren’t shown is when one of the mogadorians actually starts to fight with the Loric. This characters name is Adam, he was a the mogadorian who was sentenced to death by his father because he didn’t conform to the mogadorian way. But instead he ran away and wanted to help the Loric. Because the Loric have Adam it makes their work easier to hack into the mogadorian information and also translate the mogadorians private documents. Throughout the story Lore puts examples of where Adam is being insulted or annoyed, but doesn’t say anything. “Marina’s still figuring out just how angry she wants to be, and I’m  not going to get in her way. Besides, I don’t think putting a little fear in our mogadorian companion is such a bad thing./ I assume he’s just going to let the conversation die, but after a few minutes Adam speaks up.”This being told from the perspective of one of the Loric, Six, and they say things like “I think” instead of Lore telling us what Adam is thinking. Also during the few minutes that Adam was thinking he probably had a ton of things that he could say to make the girls upset, but Lore didn’t show us the thought process that he was having. Lore doesn’t show us the side of this mogadorian, because it could show us that a mogadorian could be growing weak and that they easily let go of things, but because of this missing opinion we can’t know.

Pittacus Lore doesn’t want us to see the side of the the mogadorians thoughts or feelings because we are supposed to see them as the bad guys that make the Loric childrens lives miserable and horrible. By representing the mogadorians characters as evil he wanted to show to show that all of the the mogadorians are the enemy regardless of who they are fighting for and that the reader should be “rooting” for the Loric to win. But if we were able to read the opinion of the mogadorians, then the way that we look at the character in the book could change because the mogadorians have a strong belief in the taking over the galaxy and they have legitimate reasons, so if we could read the mogadorians opinions as we do for the Loric children then we may change our side depending on how we feel about their plan.

Second Critical Analysis on "How Does it Feel To Be A Problem"

The story “How Does it Feel To Be A Problem” by Moustafa Bayoumi has many stories in it of young Arab, muslim, Iraqi, and Palestinian men and women that struggle to live in New York City after the terrorist attack on the world Trade Center, they struggle to live because of different societal issues. One of the stories that Bayoumi takes us through is a man named Omar. Omar is a man who is looking for work in the media, but having no luck getting a job. He believes that this is because the different companies don’t want to hire someone who’s Arab or muslim. This is an example of racism, which is a major social issue, Bayoumi shows this concept of racism in many ways. One way that she show this is when Omar is telling us about how he is having a problem getting a job, he also has acquaintances that are having trouble finding jobs. “But Omar’s worries over employment discrimination in the new age of terror are hardly unique. I hear the anxiety echoing everywhere around the young people I encounter, and some of their stories are cautionary tales.” Showing us that this is an issue that Bayoumi has often seen in our society and that telling the stories are ways for people to know the issues that people are going through. Another example is Bayoumi telling us different examples of people who are losing their jobs because they are Arab and muslim, “An earlier case involved twelve Muslim, Arab, and South Asian workers who filed a claim with the EEOC (Equal Employment Opportunity Commission) against the ‘severe and pervasive harassment’ that they underwent at the Plaza Hotel months after the terrorist attack.  According to the suit, managers wrote ‘Osama,’ ‘Bin Laden,’ ‘Al Qaeda,’ and ‘Taliban’ instead of the employees’ actual names when handing out key holders with room keys.  the employees were repeatedly called ‘terrorist’, ‘Osama’, and ‘Al Qaeda’, “Taliban’ and ‘Dumb Muslim’.  They were accused of destroying the World Trade Center and cursed at for ruining the country.” This upsetting thing to think about that just because someone of their race did something badly, everyone starts to think that everyone that looks like that person is a terrorist. When those people were hired they probably weren’t even accused of being terrorists, but when the 9/11 plane crash came around everyone turned their back regardless of what they had to say just because someone of the same race did something horrible. This a major example of racism that occurred just a few years ago in our society and we are still recovering from the loss of jobs. This is how Moustafa Bayoumi shows the societal issue of racism in Omar’s story.

Moustafa Bayoumi want you to feel like you are in the same situation as Omar. She tells us, the reader, little anecdotes to help us make an image of what other people are going through. Because we live in New York City we can read this and think about how we may not be confronted with this issue of racism everyday in our life, but Omar has friends that are being sent falsely being accused of being a terrorist daily. One example is when Omar gets a part-time job at the Non-profit Housing- Development Organization, Omar recently worked at  Al Jazeera it was an Arab media show, but he just had an internship so it ended after five months. Al Jazeera isn’t a good thing that he had on his resume because many people assume that the Arab people are saying bad things, but really no one knows what they are saying because mostly none of them speak Arabic. “‘I used to work for Al Jazeera,’ Omar said ‘And it’s actually one of the best new organizations in the world today.’/ Brian was unconvinced ‘How could you support something that promotes beheading? That promotes terrorism?’ he said blandly./.../ ‘Then how do you know what they are saying?’/ ‘Because Fox tells me’ Brian said./ ‘But it’f Fox’s interest, as their competitor, to show them in a negative light.’ Omar tried to explain” this is how rumors turn into lies and then people start believing them, because Brian thought he knew everything he thought that he was right, but he was actually making a false accusation.

In reading his story Moustafa Bayoumi does a good job to show us that there's a lot of racism in New York City and some people don’t even notice it on a daily. Because Bayoumi Omar’s story and everyone else’s story we can gain a better sense of what racism is in our city.

Young Adult Fiction Book Banning Argument Essay

There are many people who would argue that young adult fiction should be banned. But why should these books be banned if they can give kids a chance to reflect off of similar issues that they many be reading in the book? If you think about it, how much damage can these books do to the minds of children? The books that will be banned consists of classics, favorites, and other well known books like the Hunger Games, Catcher in the Rye, and Harry Potter. These books shouldn’t be banned based on the minuscule amounts of profanity and crude images. The books also may be banned if it has subliminal message that may be too horrendous and terrifying for a child to read

When the children read young adult books some parents believe that they will disturb the child's mind, but when they get a chance to read a wide variety they can be introspective.  One example is an article written by an author of one of the banned books "The Diary of a Part-Time Indian" Sherman Alexie. He writes his article against criticism recently written in "Darkness too visible" by Meghan Cox Gurdon which says that his book “Hideously distorted portrayals.”  He disagrees with the statement by saying “I can’t speak for other writers, but I think I wrote my YA novel as a way of speaking to my younger, irredeemable self.” From this we can realize that when he was younger he had a hard time, and if he was able to have (as a child) something that could help him, or make him see that someone else was going through the same exact issues, then he would have been more confident. Another example is an article that is against Meghan Cox Gurdon’s main idea that young adult books should be banned because the content has grotesque images. But Mary Elizabeth Williams (who wrote the article "Has Young Adult Fiction Become too Dark?") doesn’t agree with this when she says "We can't shut them off from the outlet of experiencing difficult events and feelings." She’s telling us that if we take these books off the shelves, children will lose the experience of being able to read about reality, even though authors may manipulate the view of reality in some books.  If children only read the “age appropriate and happy” books then how will they be able to express their feelings and issues, if they can’t read about how other people manage their feelings.  Reading is an important way that a child gets the chance to read about the reality of our gory world and can reflect on their own personal problems.  Reading can help make sure their mind will not be congested and confused.

It is believed that when children read books it can manipulate a child’s life. But how badly can it actually affect the child? In the article by Sherman Alexie he disagrees with a statement made by Meghan Cox Gurdon that children can change their morals just from reading a book. “Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother? Does she believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow shock a teenager whose life has been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?” He's making an important point that just from reading one book, or a few, no matter how many, it can’t hurt a child. Someone can't get scared just from reading a book, the only negative thing that can actually hurt them are actual life events.  There are some children that don’t go through the same problems as the children that get raped, beaten, or bullied, but if they read the books about these situations then they can get a sense of what happens to that kid on a daily basis, and they can try their hardest to prevent these things from happening those. Another example is from "Has Young Adult Fiction Become too Dark?" by Mary Elizabeth Williams she writes to counter all of the points made by Ms.Gurdon. "She fails to acknowledge the coarseness and misery already inherent in adolescents." Williams is telling us that children already have problems, irrelevant if they are big or small, children already know that this world isn't perfect and that it had flaws. When Meghan Cox Gurdon writes she makes it seem as though initially children or anyone don’t have problems and then when reading young adult fiction they can get rid all of their problems. We can learn that reading young adult fiction can't hurt a child and it also can't change the way a child will think.

There are some books that do have very grotesque content, but that doesn't mean they should be banned. There could be a level of agreement in which there's an age rating. The article “The 'sick-lit' books aimed at children: It's a disturbing phenomenon. Tales of teenage cancer, self-harm and suicide…” by Tanith Carey, is about kids most favorite books are actually all the same and cliche, and also that kids of younger ages shouldn’t be reading the books. “It's not just the fact that these books feature terminally ill teenagers that makes them so questionable - they're also aimed at children as young as 12.” They want us to know that the content in these books are too much for a 12 year old, but if they gave an age limit that would say “Don’t read until 14 years of age, may contain: very little profanity, sexual scenes, and depressing topics.” If there was a warning like this and the child couldn’t buy it without the consent of the parent. Another example in the same article is when Children’s Book expert Amanda Craig shares her thought on the reading and writing of young adult fiction. “‘When you write for children, you have a moral and social responsibility,' says Amanda. 'I think there is a cavalier attitude towards this in the publishing industry, especially as children as young as 11 are likely  to be reading these books.’” She’s telling us that when people write books they should realize that they have to be aware of who’s going to be reading. If they stick a label that tells what age group should be reading the book the author won’t have any moral limitations because they are writing for the age group that they specified to. Having this label could eliminate the need to ban books because people will realize that the amount of horrific detail is pertained to that age group that would be written on the label.

Banning books isn’t right, they can’t harm children. When you think about banning books you should remember a few things. How much harm can books do to a child, versus how much it could actually help a child. Also consider the book’s content, could a restricted label somewhere in the book help solve the issue? These questions don’t only apply when reading young adult fiction, but in real life as well. For example if you have an argument try to think about both sides. You should also think, is there a simple solution? If these controversial YA books get banned then what will our lives be like without all the exciting, action packed ideas that might be gained from reading? If books get banned then we are handing children an excuse to go and watch television, and that’s a whole other argument.

"How Does it Feel to be a Problem" Critical Analysis

“How Does it Feel to be a Problem” by Moustafa Bayoumi tells various stories of Arab and Muslim men and women around the time of the World Trade Center was destroyed, and the people around them that are being rude and racist. One of the women is named Yasmin, she was a student of Fort Hamilton for high school. Her story is about how she couldn’t stay on the student council because it was a requirement to go to all school events, but based on her religion she couldn’t attend any of the dances so the school kicked her off, all four years of her time at Fort Hamilton she always tried to run for a spot in student council but always got rejected. So she got a lawyer made a governmental case that made it so the school changed it’s policy of having to go to dances for religious purposes, it subliminally stated the school was being racist. Yasmin went through the process knowing how to deal with racism because it happened in her everyday life, she shares a story with us about how she was sitting in the B63 bus and there was an Arab woman with a hijab on and she was holding a baby. There was a white couple on the bus and they were whispering, asking each other whether the woman actually had a baby of if it was a bomb. Yasmin heard their conversation and thought that it was a stupid question because if a white woman got on the bus with a baby they wouldn’t have thought any different. But the white couple requested the bus driver to stop the bus and check that the woman actually had a baby, which she did. This an example of a ridiculous situation that she was in where she stood up saying that it really was just a baby, but now she is defending herself where the school is being racist.

Moustafa Bayoumi probably received many stories with children that faced different types of racism, but when writing this story she made sure that this was the third story because at that point the people who are reading are getting the gist of what she’s doing, but she wants us to know that a fourteen year old girl used all of her socializing and homework time to do do research about something she believes. She wants us to know that having a lot of commitment and belief in something is a good recipe for success and achieving things that you want to get complete. For example Yasmin had a conversation with her father about how she’s investing too much time in the background research in making a case. “Yasmin’ he would say sighing ‘what are you doing?’... ‘Stop wasting time.’” Her father tells her directly that what she is doing is hopeless, but she still continues to do the research and in the end she gets what she wants, but Bayoumi wants us to know that you would really do anything for something you believe in.

Bayoumi is absolutely correct to state that you have to stand up for things that you believe in and she is able to beautifully display that through Yasmin’s story. Also racism is everywhere and when taken care of properly it can lead to successful ending.

Critical Analysis of YA fiction Article

In “Has Young Adult Fiction Become too Dark? By Mary Elizabeth Williams she wants to share that the main idea of  Meghan Cox Gurdon recent article “Darkness too Visible” that stated that young fiction was too grotesque for children to read and that it will harm that child’s mind because of the imagery it will cause, is incorrect and children can actually learn from these books and it can be beneficial for children growth.

In the article she wants us to know that the ideas stated by Meghan Cox Gurdon is incorrect, and doesn’t have much strong and supportive evidence to prove her point because Williams is able to find loopholes that counterclaims Gurdon's work. Williams does this through using sarcastic comments that makes her side of the argument feel like the answer to the main question should some young adult books be banned? One example of this sarcasm in her article is when she uses the imagery of someone pushing up their sleeves because the problem at hand is getting too much pressure while the answer is so obvious. Another example is when Williams uses the expression “ Oh jeez” making us think about when we use that expression in our world and when we use it we aren’t usually happy, we sound kind of exasperated and annoyed tone after you have to describe something more than once for someone to explain. This is how Mary Elizabeth Williams proves her point that people may actually over exaggerating an issue that has such an easy solution in Williams eyes that state: just don’t ban the book.

Although Mary Elizabeth William does create a very strong case for us to believe that banning books is should be frowned upon and not the main thing that the public feels like they need to do when they see a book that portrays a bad image, what she fails to show us a strong opinion that may be shown by someone who works officially in the act of book banning. She has a very strong built main idea and evidence, but if she was able to show what the banners opinion is after reading these articles, and they conclude that they have no control over what happens to a book once it’s placed on the list it would be an interesting perspective to show that could make her argument stronger.