Bullying And How We Can Learn

    This Blog Post Is About An Article Posted On The Website Of Miami Harold

     

      I've just finished reading an article about a victim of a very unfortunate bulling attack while at school. After finishing a football game the student had gotten tackled by 3 of his other teammates.
  
      From this point on he had become to scared to return to football practice and games. He felt he might get attack again. He feared returning because of another anticipated encounter. He was also experiencing severe pain while on leave from the team. He found this to be a broken hip bone from the attack. Once it was clear of the real damage done, he hadn't wanted to return to school until these students had been taken care of. The attackers had been expelled from school and the team.

     He had not been able to return to the team due to his injuries.

     This relates to how bullying is wrong and cruel. Physically this boy was attacked and was not speared a physical aspect of his body. He was left with a broken hip and the constant fear of returning to ay social areas. Bulling can damage many aspects of a person and is shameful. Bulling is a problem and needs to be taken care of because kids experience these kinds of things everyday and no one is ever aware of them. Unlike many children and teens this boy wasn't afraid to confide in a trustworthy adult and this is the lesson that must be taken from this boys story.

<not good at all. dont read this>

   

The Fault In Our Stars - SPOILERS BEOW DONT READ IF YOU HAVENT READ TFIOS

In TFIOS, John Green introduces two characters Hazel-Grace and Augustus Waters, both with caner. In there own way justice is served and not served for both characters.

For Hazel justice is in a way both served and not served. Hazel wanted to live a normal life and be like others but because of cancer. She was forced to get her GED at 16 after having to drop out of school at 13 because of the severity of her cancer at the time. She had also in a away become a test monkey for a drug that was suppose to help stop the cancer from mutating and doctors used her as a test subject.

Cancer is the blocker of justice and doesn't let Hazel live the life she always wanted. It prevents her from experiencing the thing that are "normal".

But in a way justice had been served because for so long people have loved and talked to Hazel because she had cancer. When she met Augustus he hadn't payed attention to the fact that she had cancer.

Justice is served to Hazel because he shows her that there is a side to her besides the caner and helplessness she sometimes feels and he teaches her that cancer is cancer and she is Hazel and cancer will never be her nor will it ever define her.

Justice for Augusts isn't served at all through the book.

Augustus doesn't live log enough to survive the cancer and show people who Augusts is and that Augustus isn't Cancer, this is what he waned for himself, butt in the book he teaches Hazel to believe that in herself. Before he dies we don't really see this change in him but when Hazel reads his letter to Peter Van Houten we can see that he learns this and is able to show it and prove it to himself.



"My thoughts are stars and I can't fathom to constellations"

"I do, Augustus.
I do"

The Darker Themes

    Dre Ferreira                                                                                                                                      810


     YA books with suicidal and "dark" themes/content shouldn't be banned or limited from schools, classrooms or libraries. Students should be given the freedom to read what they want and what interests them.

     In a sense YA Fiction could be very good and helpful for a young person (12-17) to read because in these books are situations that some of these kids may be going through, they can look to these books for comfort or as an escape or just simply a way to feel to good and know that other people (even fictional) are going through the same thing and can come out better. Sherman Alexi author of "Why the Best Books are Written in Blood", a rebuttal article to Megan Cox Gurdon's says "Does Ms. Gurdon believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother" By saying this Alexi is trying get across that many YA novels are made for comfort and to help others and give them the confidence to push on and "explicit" detail is added for a more realistic story (since a huge aspect of YA Fiction is the realistic side).

     Along side this children in YA novels do many bad things from thievery to murder. However it isn't likely that a child who simply wishes to read the book is going to go out and do the bad/dark things they read about. William Potter quotes Adams, a librarian, in his article "Teen Plots are Getting Darker and Starker" saying "I think sometimes adults shortchange teens and their ability to grasp complex material and make deeper connections. They're not going to go out and do the dark things they're reading about". This just basically means that teens are able to understand the material and understand that to a degree most of the stuff and actives in a certain novel are wrong and shouldn't actually be attempted.

     Although many authors and reviewers such as Megan Cox Gurdon feel it (YA Fiction) should be banned or limited because it my scar a young reader this is not and rarely ever is the case. YA Fiction in many lights teaches children and teens about the world around them and that their are people with bigger more serious problems than what shoes to buy. Many YA books go into the things that parents want to hide from their kids about the world for as long as they can, however they know they can't for long. For many children who may not go through problems at home or get bullied, this may be a large eye opener. Or for some kids and teens they just seek to learn more about a topic head to YA Fiction because of the "realistic" aspect to it and getting you to believe and connect with the character.

     To conclude I believe YA Fiction shouldn't be banned nor limited from students access. These books for many teens are eye-openers to the world around them and all in all may just be comforting to others facing difficult times. YA Fiction may be already and getting darker but so is the world and just one type of book may not be the biggest  problem.

The Perks Of Being a Wallflower

Over the summer i read the novel The Perks of Being a Wallflower by Steven Chobosky. The novel is an endaering powerful fiction tale that navagates throught the eys of a 14 year old freshman in high school. He is a quiet child who doesnt really socialize with anyone until he meets two seor siblings that bring ou the better siodes of him.

Charlies is a person that is always thinking about life and trying to analyze it. Through out the novel he always has the ideas of what he wants to be and how that might help other and not really benifit himself. He is ultimatly guided by Sam and Patrick whjern he recives a typewrittee from christams from them. Through out the novel he writes various storuies and continues to write his letters using the typewriter.

Charlies also brings up his anut many times in the novel repeating the idea that she was bthe one person the "always understood him". It is easy to infer one of themany resons he keeps to himself and is always on the glummer sider of the spectrum is because of his aunt dieing. he latter being to hae a breakdown telling himself that it was his fault she is dead and that it will always be him that killled her and tries to kill himself but is stopped.

He starts to reevalute this after he stays in the hospital and learns that just being things are down doesnt mean you have to be too. he ends his story saying that him and his friends are infinate.