Revised Blog Post "The Revenge of Seven"

         The story “The Revenge of Seven” by Pittacus Lore is about a group of teens that were sent to earth after the antagonists, the mogadorians, destroyed their old planet Lorien. The mogadorians are all about succeeding and progress so they came to earth too so that they could use all of their resources. The mogadorians also are tracking down the group of Lorien children, because those children can bring down the mogadorians. Another reason that the nine children were sent down is to restart the legacy of Lorien. The mogadorians don’t want these Loric teens to stop them. They promote what they call “mogadorian progress” where they control every planet in the galaxy by turning every living thing into a mogadorians. Through out the book they refrain from showing the opinions of the antagonists, the mogadorians, and only show the opinions of the Loric children that were sent down to earth. The reason that Lore doesn’t show the opinion of the mogadorians is because he doesn’t want us to believe that the mogadorians could actually be good, he wants us to believe that there are only two sides, those who are bad and those who are good.

          One of the characters 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 her family legacy. All her life she thought that she was the same as the other nine that she was sent to earth with. 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 very evil because he killed many of the loric children that were sent to earth, but as we read through the book we see that 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 Pittacus Lore gives us really strong details to describe Ella is feeling and thinking, but barely shows us what Setrákus Ra is feeling or thinking when he sees Ella looking completely defenseless, he may be thinking about things that are helpful or the plans that he has for Ella, but because in the previous books we see him as the bad guy, when we read this we predict and assume that he is thinking about harmful and mischievous plans that will happen. Because Lore fails to show the side of Setrákus Ra it doesn’t let us have our own personal opinions on Setrákus Ra. Pittacus Lore has set up the two sides that we have to see, and is spinning us towards the protagonists.

Another example of how the mogadorians opinions aren’t shown is when one of the mogadorians actually starts to fight with the Loric. This character’s name is Adam, he was a mogadorian who was sentenced to death by his father because he didn’t conform to the mogadorian way. Instead of being executed 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, she say things like “I think” or says  “I assume” instead of Lore telling us what Adam is actually thinking. Also during the few minutes that Adam was thinking he probably had many things to retort to the girls to make them feel more uncomfortable, but Lore didn’t show us the thought process that he was having. Lore doesn’t show us the side of this mogadorian, because showing us this side could make the reader think that the mogadorians has emotions, then that would make the reader wonder “are all of the mogadorians like this one” and then that would take us off the perspective that Pittacus Lore wants us to see.

            Pittacus Lore doesn’t want us to see the perspective of the mogadorians because we are supposed to see them as the bad guys that make the Loric lives miserable and horrible. By representing the mogadorians characters as evil he wanted to show that all of the mogadorians are the enemy regardless of whom 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 possibly the way that we view the characters in the book could change, and the mogadorians strong belief in the taking over the galaxy could be legitimate. 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.
The Original Blog Post

Blog post on "Confessions of a Sociopath"

“Confessions of a Sociopath” by M. E. Thomas is sort of a memoir explaining her life. She explains how she is a sociopath, and clinically diagnosed. She shares with us what separates “normal” humans from sociopaths. She uses many examples in the few pages that I have read about how sociopaths are very similar to “ordinary” people and the probability that we too or someone close to us is a sociopath too.

One example of how M. E. Thomas shows us people we may see everyday could be a sociopath is using a some what  relatable situation. One example is she starts off the book by telling us a story of herself about to kill a baby opossum, it was in her pool and was already struggling to stay alive, she was planning to drown it but didn’t because it wasn’t worth her energy. She didn’t find moral issues to killing the opossum she just didn’t want to waste her energy. But she tells us how she was canceling a swim lesson so that she could kill the opossum. The parents of the child that was receiving the swim lessons doesn’t know that the woman that is teaching their child is a sociopath, who almost attempted to kill a baby opossum with no problem at all. This shows us how the most unexpected people can be a sociopath, and that they can seem just like the most normal people, but in reality they are the most idiosyncratic people there are. Another example of how anyone could be a sociopath is another story that she tells us from her life where she is in the Washington D.C metro station and she gets stopped out of her way. “HIM: That’s trespassing! Don’t  you know it is wrong to trespass! The escalator was closed, you broke the law!’ … I felt so sure of myself, so focused on this one thing I felt I had to do. An image sprang to to my mind of my hands wrapped around his neck, my thumbs digging deeply into his throat, his life slipping away from under my unrelenting grasp. How right would that feel.” Here is an example of how someone that is simply telling her the right thing to, and her reaction is that she wants to murder him because he corrected her. This makes you think that you may tell someone to stop what they are doing, but they could be a sociopath and in their mind may be planning a way to kill you because you proved them wrong. This is also showing us that someone very random that you could bump you on the street could be a sociopath and you wouldn’t have any idea. These are two examples of how someone you really trust or a complete stranger could be a sociopath and you wouldn’t know.

To conclude M. E. Thomas is showing us that sociopaths are everywhere. She isn’t telling us be careful, cautious, or paranoid everywhere we walk. In this particular chapter she really telling us that you have to accept that there are sociopaths and that you really shouldn’t be in constant fear, because it’s normal and your whole life you hadn’t been afraid, but only now, while reading this book, you decide to be afraid.

"Stolen" Blog Post

“Stolen” by Lucy Christopher is about a girl named Gemma, who kidnapped by a man named Ty. Ty has taken Gemma out to the middle of an Australian desert, to a house that he made himself, and expects her to be happy and calm about the fact that she was kidnapped. In the book both Ty and Gemma have to change as a character in order for there to be comfortability in the household. Gemma has to become more open minded and Ty has to be more open about the questions that Gemma asks.

Gemma has a lot of trust issues, although you shouldn’t blame her. She was drugged and taken to the middle of a desert by a man who she has no idea who he is. But her trust issues are hurting not only Ty, but also her. “‘It’s no use,’ you yelled. ‘You won’t find anything. You won’t find anyone.’/ I started to cry then, great sobs coming out of me like they’d never stop. You open the door [of the car] and grabbed my T- shirt at the back of the neck. You pulled me towards you, my elbows scraping against the ground. I turned my head and bit your hand. Hard. You swore. I know I drew blood. I tasted it.” This is an example of how because Gemma is being so resistant she isn’t only hurting herself, like how she scraped her elbow on the ground, and she really hurt Ty, while he was just trying to keep her safe because Gemma wouldn’t survive outside in the desert without food or water. In this situation she just has to believe that she won’t be harmed by Ty and that he is actually a good thing. Another example of Gemma struggling to have trouble is when Ty finally gets Gemma into the house and he puts her into the bathroom and expects her to clean herself, but instead she does more harm to herself. “What do you want?’ I was sobbing now, curled up tightly. I dabbed the book on my feet, scratches in the mess I'd made from running./ I heard you slam your hand, or your head against the bathrooms door. I heard the rasp in your voice./ 'I won't kill you,' you said 'I won't, OK?'/ But my tears only came heavier. I didn't believe you." Here is another example where Ty is trying really hard to make Gemma's stay enjoyable, but Gemma's lack of trust is making her feel more harm than comfort. But if Gemma had more trust she wouldn't be hurting herself or Ty, so if Gemma had a more open mind about Ty, she wouldn't be in so much pain. If Gemma views Ty as someone who is caring and trying his hardest to make her happy, Gemma wouldn't be making such a fit over being in Australia.

In conclusion because Gemma didn't have an optimistic view what Ty was doing she caused herself pain, and not only in this situation but others as well throughout the book. From this we can be taught that although we may be really upset about something, you should think about how much effort there was done to make this happen and you should eventually come to realize that you have to be more open to ideas and that whatever made you upset was actually done as a good thing.

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.