The Voices of "The Color of Water"

      The voices in this book are developing the mood and the structure of the lives the author tries to describe his and his mother's life growing up from the middle school ages to now older to college and marriage.As usual, you see your favorite character grow in maturity and responsibility, but in this book you see everyone grow up into different roads that make you see how one another affected each other. The narrator James turns from a 14-year-old child who cared the most about his family, especially his mother.
     When we go deeper into the book you see he starts to rebel with being in the wrong crowd and doing the wrong decisions like doing drugs and stealing. He changes back to his past self and get a scholarship and graduates with a degree in journalism.This affects the things his mother had to do his little sister's view on him and the best of all it made him into who he is today by giving him an ability to speak of his rise from the dumps/lowest of his life.
      The voices also add different description for different moments meant for both good and bad events and to add humor in normal situations that happen in everyday events. The narrator uses description and humor to show the mood if it's serious and dreadful to a normal and casual to sad and disappointing scene of someone losing their loved one. Mother is very tough on her kids but loving to a point they understand she really loves them but they sometimes do things that will never go unrecognized in the real world. They also you subtle commas, periods, ellipsis and many other formal writing punctuation to provide the dramatic emphasis which makes "The Color of Water" such a great book to read.
                                                            James McBride's Family

Glass Castle Blog #4

http://glasscastleness.blogspot.com/

So this week I chose to do a link to another blog that really was what I was thinking. The blog consisted of different lessons that were noticed in the Glass Castle. The one I agreed with the most was blog #3 which was about telling the truth. In the Glass Castle, Jeannette Walls talks about how poor they really were. They would scavenge for food, her parents were homeless, and had sugar and alcohol addictions. She wore the same dress 2-3 times a week--without washing them. All this she went through and she did not once regret it. She wanted to make the most of life and what little things she did have. In the blog that I attached, the writer talked about how now and days people blame each other for the smallest things, especially when you are poor. Jeannette not once blamed anyone for her the mistakes her family made. The blog also talked about forgiveness. The Walls children were super respectful to their parents and their friends that even when something happened it was forgiven. I am using this from the blog but one of their examples was the part of the book when a teacher came and observed her mother's class. We can all relate to the fact that when a assistant principle comes in to watch the class the teachers actually follow the rules and don't goof off with their students. During this part of the book her mother whipped her own child to show that was a punishment for misbehaving. Jeannette's mother was afraid to hit the other children that she just hit Lori. Her mother did pass that test. I believe people should be forgiving even when your first instinct is to react. When a person is forgiving there is a deeper respect for each other because you have the ability to control your actions. This to the other person is a power because let’s say someone steals your earrings or shoes. If you forgive that person before going after them like a lunatic, then they know you won. Brain wins always over aggression.

Fear of Parents and How Different People Deal With It

That’s one of Rose Mary Walls’ paintings.  

What’s the first thing you think when you look at it? Me, I think, “Hey, that’s not bad.” It’s not good either. But like, it’s not terrible. 

And I that’s an interesting insight into her character. 

See, she lives in this space of dependence. She wants to be self-sufficient, she even needs to be self-sufficient, so much the she begins to believe that she is. But she’s not. She’s lying to herself. And, it’s kind funny, ‘cos she does that a lot. 

She believes that her writing and her paintings should warrant fame, but they don’t. And instead of blaming herself for it she goes off and blames someone else. She honestly believes they’re amazing. She also believes she’s a good mother. 

But when the opportunity presents itself to her to make something more of herself, she brushes it off. ‘Cos she doesn’t want to bother actually doing that. She wants to live in her happy little world of denial and pretend that everything’s fine. 

And that denial has made her a selfish person. Because, when she blames everything on someone else, she can pretend that what she’s doing is fine. So she rationalizes.  

“I need more energy than the kids.” So she goes and buys chocolate bars, and eats them all herself, despite the fact that her kids are starving. 

But maybe it’s not just that. 

She seems scared to do anything else. When Jeannette asks her why she won’t leave Rex, all Jeannette gets is some horrified expression and an aghast short answer. She’s so scared of turning into her mother that she lets herself live in deplorable conditions. 

Rose Mary Walls is too scared to move out of where she is in her life, and it shows. 

And Jeannette talking about it, accepting it, embracing it shows too. Because she’s finally come to terms with it. She’s not running away from her past the way her mother did. Because, this act, the act of writing the memoir proves that she’s strong enough to face her past, and I think it provides just enough closure so that she can truly forgive and forget. 

Glass Castle #2

I'm using the "Literary Device Admiration" prompt.

Jeannette Walls is very competent in using symbols to show other meanings in her book, and some of them almost seem like a motif, which is a style that people use which involves having the same pattern or thing hidden or very obvious within because she repeatedly shows the main character's personality or inner thoughts.

In page 38, Jeannette and her mother are talking about the Joshua tree, which are trees that grow in arid, windy areas. Because of the harsh conditions, Joshua trees must adapt by growing with the wind, and grow to be bent and strange. When Jeannette says that she wants to protect a Joshua tree sapling nearby their house, the mother states: '"You'd be destroying what makes it special".' '"It's the Joshua tree's struggle that gives it it's beauty."'. This is a small section of Jeannette's writing where she makes great use of symbolic writing. Jeannette lived a hard life throughout her younger and early-adult years because of her impetuous parents, who did whatever they wanted, even if it wasn't in the best interest of their spouse or children. Jeannette repeatedly implies this with small, off-handed comments like this that have deeper meanings in the book. When she talks about the Joshua tree's struggle, she is referring to herself, who grew up in a situation where she had to adapt, and in the end, she turned out contorted but as functional as any other person.

Blog post # 1 The Glass Castle

   "Isn't this wonderful? I'm such an excitement addict!" This is a quote that was said by the mother of the 4 children in The Glass Castle. I chose to write on this quote because I think that it has multiple meanings, and was used for a reason. The mom says this when she is talking to the kids on the way to  yet another "home" , in Phoenix.
   So far in the book, it is pretty clear that the parents of Jeanette, Lori, Brian, and Maureen are very, adventurous. Not always in a good way either. They are always moving the children around and not being very loving. They are all about being tough and not emotional and being strong. Their intentions for this are sometimes confusing. Sometimes i think they are doing this to their kids because they actually care and want them to lead a strong life when they are older. A lot of the time though it seems like they are just doing all these things because they can't financially provide for their family well and also don't have a great relationship with each other.
  The quote I picked isn't just about how the mom loves adventure and excitement. It is way more in depth. The word "addict" is put into this sentence. Usually when that word is put into a sentence it isn't good. Addiction is an actual problem. Even if someone just says that they are sugar addict or something, it is still an issue. Addiction is like a disease and can cause lots of problems. In this case I think being an addict for excitement isn't good.  
 I think the author used the word addict in this quote to make the people who know the story second guess what the mother is saying.  The moving around is due to them being followed by the "mob" and also money issues. There isn't good excitement in moving all the time. There is just the hopeful wishing of something good coming out of all this. When the mother says that she is an excitement addict i don't think she really means it. i feel like she is covering up how she really feels which is most likely stress and worry and want for something new. The mothers relationship with the father isn't great. There its verbal abuse from him when he is drunk which is a lot of the time. The mother could just be saying that she is an addict for excitement to make sure the father is happy and to raise the mood.
   Over all i really like how the author used these words. If someone read this quote without reading the whole book then they would just be like cool, the mother likes excitement. But if you read the book and know the characters then you know that even though the mother is saying this and wanting people to believe her, it isn't true. She is masking up all the things truly going on with her. The author didi a great job with creating tis sentence into a disguised meaning.
 

Blog post #3 Into Thin Air

(If this repeatedly trails off apologies because its late i'm tired and angry at politicians)

In this blog post i'm going to focus on some i think writers and my self will and have faced in writing memoirs. This as well as the process and possible hang that I will be facing when writing my own memoirs.

One thing that I've noticed about Jon Krakauer is that when he is writing he has a difficulty telling this account as a story from his experiences and emotions. Instead he tells the story very blandly and ti me it has more of a ton as a documentary or report. There really is not a large trace of his personality in this story. I can see this also may be a problem for me considering my personality which in no part enjoys or cares to share.

The process of writing these is a very far off concept for me because I have to talk and tell stories about myself and experiences. This I really see as a hang up for me not just involving the sharing but I also have a trash memory so this will likely take a long time.

A large hang I am worried about is the amount of detail that i will put into my writing because i will have no clue if its to little or to much. If its to little it will make my story bland and sound like a children's book. Then there is the chance i add to much and it makes my story and experiences to dragged on and almost mind numbingly due to the length that it would cause it to be

The Glass Castle Post #3: Voices

     The personality of Jeanette's writing is child-like and somewhat innocent at first. Throughout the story, the reader can see her growing up. In the beginning of the book, Jeanette is only a child and she just allows and accepts what her parents tell her. I think that her use of dialogue helps to show that personality. "A few days later, when I had been at the hospital for about six weeks, Dad appeared alone in the doorway of my room. He told me we were going to check out, Rex Walls-style. 'Are you sure this is okay?' I asked. 'You just trust your old man,' Dad said." Here, Jeanette is only two years old. She has no other choice but to follow her dad, even if she doesn't want to. However, it doesn't seem as if she doesn't want to. There was no indication of resentment that her parents had taken her out of the hospital, despite previously describing how nice the hospital was and how good the nurses were to her. This is because Jeanette was a child. To show her innocence, she asks about what is going on in the dialogue, but after being reassured that it is okay by her father, she just goes on with it. 
     As Jeanette grows up, the personality of her writing develops with her, both becoming more mature. Again, dialogue helps to express this maturity. “'Mom, you have to leave Dad,' I said. She stopped doing her toe touches. 'I can’t believe you would say that,' she said. 'I can’t believe that you, of all people, would turn on your father.' I was Dad’s last defender, she continued, the only one who pretended to believe all his excuses and tales, and to have faith in his plans for the future. 'He loves you so much,' Mom said. 'How can you do this to him?' 'I don’t blame Dad,' I said. And I didn’t. But Dad seemed hell-bent on destroying himself, and I was afraid he was going to pull us all down with him. 'We’ve got to get away.'" There is a more serious tone to the reading in the second half of the book, as she realizes that both of her parents need help. In this quote, the dialogue expresses that leaving her dad is the right thing to do, even if it isn't his fault. This shows a lot of maturity, not blaming his father despite all of the things he had done to her and her family. 
     Although most of the innocence is lost in the writing, there is still a bit of a child in the personality of the writing, the child who believed in her father. This can be seen in the dialogue between Jeanette and her father when he asked her for money. "'I need money to make money. I'll pay you back.' He looked at  me, defying me to disbelieve him. 'I've got bills piling up,' I said. I heard my voice growing shill, but I could't control it. 'I've got kids to feed.' 'Don't you worry about food and bills,' Dad said. 'That's for me to worry about. Okay?' I put my hands in my pocket. I didn't know if I was reaching for my money or trying to protect it. 'Have I ever let you down?' Dad asked... I gave him the twenty dollars." Jeanette has a soft spot for her father that she probably can never let go of. She still believes that he will do some good, even though she knows he will almost certainly not. Her own belief carries on into the writing and it shows hope.
     Since my entire life has been childhood up to this point, I think that I can use a personality and tone similar to the beginning of "The Glass Castle" as I write my own memoir; child-like and innocent. I will most likely choose to write my memoir about events that happened when I was younger, so that innocence will be very prominent. I hope to use both indirect and direct dialogue to give my writing a very distinct voice. In bad or sad events, I hope to be able to capture the innocence of the writing through conversations with others and possibly with figurative language. Even if I am describing more recent events, I think that dialogue concerning misunderstandings or confusion over something will show that I am still a child. I think that we can all use dialogue to show an innocent tone for our memoirs, considering we are all kids. It could really add to the writing and make the reader sympathize with us. 

Blog Post #3: Reflections on Truth-Telling

The Glass Castle

      I think that the part where Jeanette is almost sexually abused by her uncle Stanley, is definitely a memory that Jeanette had to fill in the blanks when she was writing it. Even though I'm sure this was a pretty strong memory for her, because of how disgusting and creepy it was, and how she wasn't super young, she still describes it VERY specifically in the book. She talks about where in the house every person was at that moment, AND what they were doing. For example: "...and Mom was at the table in Grandpa's room working on a crossword puzzle." She says not only that her mother was in her grandfather's room, but that she was at the table, and that she was doing a crossword. Jeanette also writes not only that she herself was watching TV, but also what TV show she was watching. I think she explains all these things that were going on right before the incident (even if she didn't actually remember all of them) because she wants to show how important or memorable the event was. She gives you the details so you can imagine it more clearly and somewhat try to understand what it was like. She also, afterward describes how she went and told her mother what happened. This is another place where she probably had to fill in the blanks. She doesn't just say, "I went to my mom and explained what happened, and she told me to toughen up." (even though that's probably all she remembered), but instead she describes the conversation that they had.
     I think the reason authors fill in the blanks and exaggerate, could be because they want to make it more interesting, and they want to connect the memories to actually tell a somewhat full story, and maybe get across a certain message or point to the readers. If authors just wrote down what they actually remembered, it would be a bunch of random unrelated, memories, that wouldn't quite fit together. Also, they would be very vague, and not include the little details that actually make a story, a STORY! (make it interesting.)
     When writing my own memoir, I would for SURE fill in lots of blanks, and definitely exaggerate, because I have an awful memory, and I don't think I have a very interesting life (like what most people think when it comes to writing their own memoir.) But I bet even Jeanette Walls thought that, and I think if I dug deep enough and wrote my memoir more like story that people could enjoy, than an actual record of what I have done in my life, than I think I could pull of a pretty interesting, somewhat well written memoir. But the other thing is that I feel like I would want to read over MULTIPLE times, each part that I stretched a bit, or filled in the blanks for, just to make sure everything fits together and it actually makes sense, since parts of it wouldn't have actually happened.

Voice


I believe the voice in this memoir is mostly anger, if not depression. The mood that I get when I'm reading this book is definitely not happiness or a bright tone. The main character, Walter, gets into trouble a lot at school and that is a potential bad tone for the reader. The voice does lighten up eventually when, for example, Walter talks about a girl that he likes and that he writes about her. That is a positive mood/voice because it is showing Walter's more soft, sensitive side compared to the tough-like mannerisms that he has when he gets into trouble.

The darkest part of the book was mostly at the beginning when Walter would be bullied and he'd get into fights. The bullying was more negative because it was about something that Walter couldn't control, which was his reading incapabilities. And Walter was of course embarrassed and ashamed of this because he didn't want to get teased by his students. His relationship with his mother is sort of strained and/or forced, which adds more negativity. This adds more negativity because the most important relationship to have in your life is the one with your mom and if that relationship is strained, that can make you even more upset, due to the fact that you can't talk to your own mother about your issues or accomplishments. And maybe that's how Walter feels, like he can't talk to his mother about certain things because he's afraid of the response or outcome. In conclusion, the voice in this story is anger and/or depression, so far. Things may change near the end because that's typically where issue get resolved but we'll see in the future.

Voice: I Know Why The Caged

In the book that I am reading the author uses a lot of figurative language, she also uses humor with jokes that are racist. I really like how she has that sense were she doesn't make everything so serious. If I was an author I would do that same because its a way were the audience don't get such a serious book. What I have read so far the personality of the writing is kinda rude but also very humorous. I like how she sometimes skips through things in her life. I think she does that because she either doesn't quite remember or nothing much happened in that period of time. She also compares a lot of things with things that are bad but she compares it in a way were the audience won't get mad and were they can take it as a joke. If I was a writer i would do the same because if I didn't then people wouldn't buy  the book and it also would be really really boring. I like how the author uses a lot of words that are out there and that make the sentence and/or the statement pop out and be bold. She uses a lot of good nouns and verbs to describe a place or a person and as an audience I like that because it makes me imagine the character or the person who the author is describing. The author uses a lot of similes and metaphors to let the characters or herself come out, she sometimes describes them in good ways or sometimes in bad way but I as an audience really like that because it makes the book 10 times more interesting. The reason I picked this picture was because it reminds me about the jokes that are in the book. The jokes in the book are funny but kinda bad but it's a better way to put the jokes instead of being so serious. 

Character Descriptions

So far, my favorite character is Esmeralda's mom.

"Mami hummed softly, the yellow and orange flowers of her dress blending into the greenness: a miraculous garden with legs and arms and a melody. Her hair, choked at the nape with a rubber band, floated thick and black to her waist, as she bent over to pick up sticks, it rained across her shoulders and down her arms, covering her face and tangling in the twigs she cradled."

The author creates great characterization by describing her mothers outfit as a garden which can show that her mother has a colorful personality and many layers to herself, since no garden is completely uniform. I think it would be fun to describe my sister, since we've been stuck with each other since i was born. She is a very happy, peppy person. Shes always dancing around the room or singing any song shes heard in the past 48 hours, or laughing and telling corny jokes. Every aspect of her life has music in it. Her colorful and crazy personality is matched by her colorful outfits. Her constant loud singing can be annoying, but its who shes always been and how shes always acted so you get used to it. Shes taken dance classes since she was little so she constantly dances as if shes performing every where she goes.

BLOG 3

                Right now a lot is going on in my book, but some of the things that have stuck out to me the most are the little details. I think that a lot of details in my book were in fact very much exaggerated, and I think that almost gives the story more humor and/or makes it more serious. The fact that she remembers the look and feel of the room or what she was doing before the incident , although that may not have been exactly what she was doing or sensing, gives the reader a sort of false feeing of just how scarring the event was. Not that that is bad but rather the opposite, as a reader, hearing all the details leading up to some major event in an author’s life exaggerates not only the little details, but the entire situation as well, which is what you want as a writer.

I think this is key because when I have to write my memoir I will have to use details to exaggerate things such as in my book. One of the hardest part of writing my memoir will be having to give details about the little things, less that describing made up things will be hard but more describing the things in a way that doesn’t bore the reader half to death. So basically I have to find a way to strike some sort of middle ground because either my life is very bland or no one wants to continue reading my memoir because they are so bored by all my extra details. Anyway this assignment will be really interesting for me because it will probably actually be horrible but at the same time a great learning experience because I will hopefully learn how the establish this middle ground in writing details and that will help me with future writing assignments.  

Into thin air #3

I was looking for an article that shows the truth about how Jon Krakauer felt about the expedition. Here's what I found: http://www.cnn.com/2015/08/18/living/jon-krakauer-everest-feat/.

I chose this article because it had many quotes from him personally about ho he felt about deciding to go on the trip. He repeats in different ways how he wished that he had never gone. He says it was "the biggest mistake of my life", "I wish I had never gone". He even gets a question from an 11 year old asking what advice he has. That kid wants to climb the highest peaks in the world on each continent. But Jon tells him that Mt. Everest is unlike any mountain and that he should think twice. That advice come from the experience after the expedition that caused him awful physical and mental pain. The things that he has seen are described in extreme detail throughout the book. The way he expresses the advice he advisees to the kid is very eye-opening and that he feels so strongly about it that he curses. It exactly reads that he said "I'm the last person should tell people not to do crazy s**t, but think twice about it," He knows that going on the expedition was a crazy decision and even though he did decide to do it and can tell people that it was the worst decision ever. He not trying to scare them into not going or try to force their hand, he's simply just warning them of what could happen and telling them what did happen to him. I really sad to hear how much he regrets it and that it cause him to have PTSD. A question I have is, how badly did it affect his life after he got back including the PTSD. Did he go back to work or devote his life to telling his story? Does he use it to educate other people climbing or try to discourage more climbers. Was his book written o get across either of those points?

Into Thin Air Post #2

In the last few pages of chapter six, Krakauer talks more into his relationship with his wife Linda. Linda herself was a talented climber as well as Krakauer. But after the day she had an injury with her arm, Linda stopped climbing due to the risks that can occur as a result of climbing. Linda also didn't like/want her husband to be climbing either. Later on in their marriage, she had finally come to realize how important climbing was to him. It was like the idea is embedded in his DNA, and is something you can't change without lots of force. "Linda came to accept my climbing: she saw it was crucial (if perplexing) part of who I was. (Page 87, paragraph 4)"

When a person tries to accept a fact of another person that could lead the other person to injury, danger, or death, they may try to say that they accepted it. But they probably really didn't, at the least its probably unknown to them that they can't really take the pain of the risked loved one. Some examples can include the relationship between a parent and a child, another relationship that this could include is the relationship between a wife and husband. I am pretty sure that Linda is not OK with Jon (Krakauer) climbing all those mountains, especially Mt. Everest.

Linda makes a very good point at the end of the chapter. "If you get killed...I'll have to pay, too, you know, for the rest of my life. No matter how close Krakauer is to his wife he puts all of that aside to accomplish his childhood dream, is it worth the unlikely risk? I honestly don't know. I can also relate this to people that commit suicide. It's is not just themselves who they hurt but also the people who care about them. And don't you even ask; what if no one cares for them? There is always someone who cares for you, (I'm not just talking religiously but this can also include religion) even if it is someone you don't know. Even out of the people who read/make the report of your death, someone will care.

The Color of Water #3

My favorite character in the book so far is Andrew McBride, the author's dad. "He called himself by his middle name, Dennis. That was your father. Now that was a man there. By that I mean he was inquisitive and funny and easygoing and secure. Dennis was an excellent leather-maker and was an artisan type and he quickly became Aunt Mary's best worker...but he'd always offer a kind word to me, or just make a joke. What a sense of humor that man had. That man could make a dog laugh...He was the kindest man I'd ever met to this day and if I had any sense I would've snatched him up right away and married him"(The authors mother).

The author creates a great character description of his biological father. By not just describing his father in his own words. But by using someone else's description of his father, His mother's description. Since his father died early in his life her description would be more descriptive and detailed than his own. The author's mother made a great descriptive description of Dennis. by using figurative language. That described his mannerisms in an understanding and admiring way. Showing a point of how she feels about him. Showing how she loved and admired him when he was alive. The author's mother also showed what type of person his father was. Meaning that she spoke about about how he was hard working and that he was a very kind heart man.

A person who is very important in my life is my father. He's a hard-working man who doesn't give up on anything. He has a very confident and friendly spirit, that anyone could befriend. But he has a very stern exterior. Most likely implanted by being in the army. Serving during Desert Storm, and returned from the war being 1 of 2 people in a group 1800 of earning a bronze star. He's a strong-heart father and I love him.

Into Thin Air Blopost #3

In my opinion the author use the literary device of foreshadowing extremely well. He uses it to do exactly what's in the name-foreshadow, or indicate that something important will occur in the future. He usually does this at the end of  a chapter or after something positive happens. For example:

"Fifteen minutes of dicey, fatigue crampon work brought me safely to the bottom of the incline, where I easily located my pack, and another ten minutes after that I was in camp myself . I lunged into my tent with my crampons still on, zipped the door tight, and sprawled across the frost-covered floor too tired to even sit upright. For the first tor time I had a sense of how wasted I really was: I was more exhausted than I'd ever been in my life. But I was safe. Andy was safe. The others would be coming into camp soon. We'd fucking done it. We'd climbed Everest. It had been a little sketchy there for a while, but in the end everything had turned out great.

It would be many hours before I learned that everything had not in fact turned great-that nineteen men and women were stranded up on the mountain by the storm, caught in a desperate struggle for their lives."

I would use foreshadowing in my own writing probably the same way that Jon Krakauer did. I would use it to signal that in the future something interesting would happen and that there would be a turn of events. I don't think that I would use foreshadowing much because I would like there to be an element surprise. When I would use it though, I would make it really subtle instead of outright saying that "things would change" because in my opinion that would make things much more interesting.

post #3

Reflection on Writing Memoirs
Some problems I think writers face when trying to write a memoir is trying to piece back together past events. Some, or more like most, writers seem to use extreme detail in describing things which I find highly difficult to even remember. Those details include not only things like what you ate for breakfast but what you ate for breakfast when you were 10! Another problem that writers might have is not to exaggerate wha happened, I mean you can do that a little bit so you can get a certain point across, but it's way too easy to put yourself in a better light or to paint someone in a worse one. It can also be difficult to, in some cases, keep the story interesting without fabricating whole sections of a memoir. I wonder how writers choose which memories deserve to go into a memoir. I know that milestones would go in, like your first best friend, when you had your first crush (and then got to date said crush), when you went to college, first job, and the list goes on. What about those memories that aren't necessarily "important" but are just random memories that for no reason stick out to you? Also, how DO authors remember so much? I know small details are most likely made-up, but they do remember a lot of different events that happened to them that are important but not character defining, like when they add something about a picnic but nothing out of the ordinary happened to them at that picnic -it was just a fun little picnic. Some of the things I'm wondering about when I have to write my own memoir are which memories will I put in it and which event will be most interesting to write about. WILL my memoir be interesting at all or will it be just a pile of word vomit that I'll spew out? Will I be able to convey what I want to say like the way other memoir writers are able to do? My biggest fear is that I won't have anything interesting to write about, which I think is almost everyone's biggest worry. So at least, we are in the same boat. As the saying goes, there IS comfort in numbers.

The Color of Water #3 :Links and Videos

This is a video of the author James McBride's oldest brother being interviewed. His name is Andrew McBride Jr., but he goes by his middle name, Dennis. He is the oldest out of twelve children. I think this video is interesting because usually people would just interview the author, and this interviewer decided that she also wanted to see what one of his siblings thought of the book. Dennis answers questions like what he thinks of the description of himself in the book, and how he thinks the stories told in the book connect to reality. After watching this interview, I saw another side of the story of their family. He talks about how failure was not an option, him being the oldest. I also saw another side of how the mother ran things in the house from his point of view. Everyone in the family who was alive at that time, including the mother, admits that the father helped them stay structured, but later, the mother filled that position. When their father died, Dennis felt he needed to step up and become the man of the house. His plan was to quit school and get a job to help support his mom, who at that time had seven kids including him, and was pregnant with the author. I was surprised at this, because based on what I had read about their mother, she seemed very independent, and determined to send all of her kids to school. But as I kept watching, I saw that his mother refused to let him go through with his plan. When the interviewer asks if he thinks most of the stories are accurate, he responds by saying that he is proud of his brother, and the one thing he disagrees with the most is how torn their mother was between the black and white community, in that he didn't think she was as torn as the book made it seem.

When I Was Puerto Rican #3

When I Was Puerto Rican #3

"Why?Why can't they?" I croaked. "Because," she sprinkled a spoonful of sugar into the bowl, "if you hit your mother, when you die, your arm sticks out in front of you, like this, and it stays like that so you can't fit in your coffin."

I really like this section of the book and find it very comedic for a few reasons(some being obvious). First off the comedy of this is very clear as this tale she is being told is the biggest and most unbelievable lie ever, but because of her young age, respect for elders, and inexperience she actually whole heartedly believes it. She punched her mother in rage and believes that her arm will be stuck straight and she won't fit in her coffin so she can't go to heaven. This just kind of expresses how gullible kids can be in regard to made up tales by grownups. These types of stories are very often told to children to scare them out of doing something bad or to influence them in some way as they will believe mostly anything they are told. I remember as a kid these types of fables where often told to me to keep me out of trouble or to make me believe anything thats not true for that matter. One very good example that a large portion of us can relate too is santa. Obviously other religions don't tell this lie but even they know very well of it. Quite honestly now that I think about this  santa is probably the biggest lie ever fabricated and told to children. Adults make billions and billions off a lie told to children. Anyways back to the point of influential lying, I feel like this is a cheap way to control kids in essence and should be frowned upon. Taking advantage of any population because of low knowledge shouldn't be a thing even though in this stories case I must admit its quite funny.

When I Was Puerto Rican #3

When I Was Puerto Rican #3

"Why?Why can't they?" I croaked. "Because," she sprinkled a spoonful of sugar into the bowl, "if you hit your mother, when you die, your arm sticks out in front of you, like this, and it stays like that so you can't fit in your coffin."

I really like this section of the book and find it very comedic for a few reasons(some being obvious). First off the comedy of this is very clear as this tale she is being told is the biggest and most unbelievable lie ever, but because of her young age, respect for elders, and inexperience she actually whole heartedly believes it. She punched her mother in rage and believes that her arm will be stuck straight and she won't fit in her coffin so she can't go to heaven. This just kind of expresses how gullible kids can be in regard to made up tales by grownups. These types of stories are very often told to children to scare them out of doing something bad or to influence them in some way as they will believe mostly anything they are told. I remember as a kid these types of fables where often told to me to keep me out of trouble or to make me believe anything thats not true for that matter. One very good example that a large portion of us can relate too is santa. Obviously other religions don't tell this lie but even they know very well of it. Quite honestly now that I think about this  santa is probably the biggest lie ever fabricated and told to children. Adults make billions and billions off a lie told to children. Anyways back to the point of influential lying, I feel like this is a cheap way to control kids in essence and should be frowned upon. Taking advantage of any population because of low knowledge shouldn't be a thing even though in this stories case I must admit its quite funny.

Ms. Braker's Students - Please Read

We ran out of author permissions on this blog, so our class is over at dsamemoirs2.blogger.com

#3 glass castle

https://youtu.be/naAy_juIOQk

This is an exert from the Oprah show about my author. She begins telling Oprah the story that she starts the book with about how her parents are homeless. At first she is very very ashamed of her parents and embarrassed because of them. As time goes on she begins to realize that she doesn't have anything to be ashamed of and she shouldn't keep this a secret. Then Oprah helps her discover that she's only ashamed because she kept it a secret. If she hadn't have kept it a secret she wouldn't have any shame.

This might as well be the motto of the book, because they doesn't have the most luxurious or admirable lifestyle. As a young kid they never had new or nice clothes and everyone was always picking on them. Furthermore they never had food so they couldn't bring lunch to school or buy it when everyone else could. At first they were embarrassed of everyone picking on them. Just after a little while they build up a tolerance and don't care. They unite as a family and fight back at everyone, and stand up for themselves.

Not to get too off topic, but i really just ahem to bring this one thing up because it affects the dads life , and its really scary. When they are staying at their grandmas house grandma takes Brian into the other room to "fix his pants". Jeannette walks in and sees quite a scene. Brian is standing still encased with fear as grandma gropes him, and molests him! Now as and good sister Jeannette attacks grandma to make her stop. When the parents get back home the kids rush to tell them what has happened, and what grandma did to Brian. To their disbelief there parents are mad at Jeannette for hitting grandma to make her stop. Now I'm having a very very strong hunch that this has everything to do with the way their dad is now. This would also explain why their dad wanted them to stay away from their grandma so badly. It also provides a a reason that might help explain why he drinks to much, and why he can be so abusive sometimes.

The Color of Water Blog #3: Close Reading

        "I'm dead. You want me to talk about my family and here I been dead to them for fifty years. Leave me alone. Don't bother me. They want no parts of me and me I don;t want no parts of them."
         This quote was at the very beginning of the book and it has been replaying in my mind over and over again. The author's mother said this when he was interviewing her. I love how a few words have so much emotion in it and have so many different meanings. What I love about it is the way she worded how she felt about her family with just a few little words.
         Its's kind of interesting how she didn't use a lot of descriptive words but you still were able to understand what she was saying and where she came from. the way she said she was dead to her family was straight forward and didn't really leave room for readers to figure it out on her own.
         Overall, I love the way the authors mother is honest and straight forward.

Black Boy #3- Voice

        The "voice", or how the author chooses his words and descriptions, is very interesting in Black Boy. It changes throughout the book, growing more complex and having more understanding as Richard grows older. At the beginning, Richard still writes in very descriptive text, but the view of his mother and the situations around him are more tilted. He seems to stumble through life in the beginning, everything being a little hazier and magical as a child. Or this could be a consequence of trying to remember things from a very young age, as some memories get scrambled and changed to a different story.
         Richard keeps a curious tone, being nosy and willing to poke what he doesn't understand even at fifteen. Though he has a better judge of what's going on, he still wants to learn more about the world around him. He seems constantly surprised by what's going on, from his burning the house down to accidentally selling Ku Klux Klan propaganda.
         Finally, I feel like I have to mention the detail in this book. Frankly, it's phenomenal. Every word seems to have some sort of meaning behind it connecting to his feelings at the time. For example:" I saw a bare, bleak pool of black life and I hated it; the people were alike, their homes were alike, and their farms were alike." He's using the same sentence structure to enhance how he feels about the plantations he sees as he rides on a train.
       

Bad Boy #3. By Walter Dean Myers

Voice

         Well its obviously a memoir so its telling a story about his life or his childhood.  He uses a lot of anger in his writing especially at the beginning when he gets in a ton of fights which make the mood sound angry.  He loves writing so when he describes what he reads and then writes something related to it gives off a sense of passion of his that he grows in to a lot quicker buy the time he is in 6th grade.  He is a passionate young man but he has a lot of arrogance which shows he is not scared but it puts him at risk.  He is a very special kid and he is to young to realize what he is doing was doing something wrong but he knew he was doing it to either make people bow down to him or to try to get attention.  He was treated with very little respect in school but his actions caused that but also his teachers had hatred for him.  He would say he would be good every year but he never could stay out of trouble which made him look like a dangerous person.  He stopped fighting at school which made him seem more grown up but he was still arrogant but in a funny way.  He ended hurting himself but he felt it was worth it so let him learn what to do and what not to do.  He has the choice to be a smart and willing person or an arrogant stupid person and he is in the middle of that.

James McBride Interview Blog #3

James McBride Interview

In this video, they interviewed James McBride about his life. He explains how his life, his family(mostly his mother), his career and his previous gigs. He talks of his life how he was naive and very narrow-minded. He doesn’t speak of how ignorant he was as a teenager but he does talk about how he respects teenagers and how they need to

know more about literature and writing. To me, this is very similar to the book  because after he started writing he changed from his old ways of basically coping/rebelling. He speaks of things I believe he wishes someone had done to him as a teen giving him a different aspect of his life and to take him to another path that may not have made this possible.

The video goes more into the depth of James McBride life after the book with his journalism and what his life of jazz, misbehaving, history, and family. He has his moment of he talking about this life and as you watch he tells you the things that happen in the book making him show the nonfiction struggle of him through his memoir. He brings his thought of his mother how she was widowed twice and overtime accepted it because of her knowledge of always knowing that there is going to be a change. For me, my perspective of the story was a child with a troubled life of losing his fathers. He goes on to find out the history of his mother and her journey from Poland to America. As the story goes he changes from a good guy to a bad boy but recovers from moving and getting a scholarship to Oberlin college to study music and get a degree in journalism. In the end, he grows as an author and ends up being the James McBride we know and love reading. This was my perspective of James and his family but he is much more. He all the problems of the past that makes the story even more interesting to read to see how it affected him and his family. My opinion on the interview is best for getting to know more about James McBride to his life after college.

6 word memoirs; Bad Boy Blog number 3

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ejndNExso9M This is a video about 6 word memoirs.

     It doesn't have to be a hundreds of pages long to be considered a memoir. For some memoirs, you only need six words. All that is needed is enough to get your point across and tell what happened in the situation you are describing. You don't need to over use detail just to be super wordy or descriptive, if you just get straight to the point, then the reader will have no problem understanding what you are trying to say. This is why i chose to talk about 6 word memoirs.

     In the video I saw one 6 word memoir in particular that I really liked. It was by someone named Teagan E. and it said, "finally "weird"  is a compliment". This quote stood out to me because, now in this time, a good chunk of the worlds population may be considered by others to be weird. Now rather than gibing the whole backstory and going more in depth about why they started to take being called "weird" as a compliment, Teagan just straight up said it how it was. That 6 word memoir may work different ways for many people but in the end it will be the same with being called "weird", being a compliment.

     In the perspective of Walter Dean Myers, I believe his six word memoir would be something like, " bullying sucks, especially for loving reading ". I say this because Walter loved to read. The only problem was that his classmates thought that reading was not so cool, so they would tease Walter for reading in general, but also for the way he read and spoke. So I would definitely say Walters 6 word memoir would have something to do with bullying as well as his love for reading. 

amanda's blog number threeeee

                                       THIS ONE IS SLIGHTLY BETTER!


 Okay, so last blog kind of sucked, but this time I've got it together. I mean it. I'm writing about how I relate to chapter 12 (or at least some of it). The author writes about his Uncle Henry, who is kind of a weird old country guy, and that reminded me of my grandfather on my mom's side, who is also kind of a weird old country guy. In one bit, the author says that his "Uncle Henry got drunk and was driving his Oldsmobile down the highway a hundred miles an hour, with me, my sister Judy and my Uncle Walter inside", which is sort of like this one time that my grandpa decided for whatever reason that it was smart to take all of my cousins and my sister (separately, of course) out on his motorcycle and to ride around the countryside really fast on this really old, lumpy, patched road that hadn't been paved in like, 20 years. They all survived without a scratch of course, but it still sounded pretty traumatic. I wasn't but like 2, so I didn't get to ride around on the motorcycle. Another time something like this happened was about 3 or 4 years ago, and it was my mom, and my grandparent's ANCIENT Corvette something or other. It had no seat belts, no airbags, and no safety features to speak of. my mom got in, and had to really squeeze into the seat because it was so teeny tiny and old. And to make matters worse, my grandpa is a speed freak, and went super fast right down that old busted up road again and had no concept of speed limits. Yep. He went tearing down some old country road to show off his favorite car to my mom. old people are weird.

Close reading

The passage that I picked for the Close Reading activity was: “I thought the Joshua tree was ugly. It looked scraggly and freakish, permanently stuck in its twisted, tortured position, and it made me think of how some adults tell you not to make weird faces because your features could freeze.” (pg 35, paragraph 3) This quote stands out to me because the description doesn’t just show you what the tree looks like, it also shows you what the author thinks of the tree. The author first describes the tree and what she thinks of it and then she compares it to something most people experience in their childhood. The combination of these things really make the quote more interesting and much more memorable as well. Also, I think describing it first was a good move. If the author had compared it to adults telling kids not to make weird faces first it would have been somewhat confusing. This way she sort of lays it out on the table for whoever is reading the book and then adds humor to the whole experience. The author’s voice is also very clear in this quote. You can tell from hearing it that whoever is talking is probably not an adult. In addition, it seems like this person is very smart and knows a lot of words most people that young probably wouldn’t know. This could be the author’s doing and not necessarily exactly the way her younger self would have thought about it. However, it kind of just seems like the author was very literate from a very young age. I personally think the part where the author says it reminded her of “how some adults tell you not to make weird faces because your feature could freeze” is the best part. I enjoyed it the most because of the humor and because of how relatable it was for me. I remembered how weird it was to hear that myself from adults in my life. I don’t think I believed whoever told me, but it felt like such an odd thing to have someone say to me that I remembered it.

The Glass Castle #1 (reflections on truth-telling)

In many sections of The Glass Castle, it seems that the author is exaggerating about what's happening. Like when she moves to Phoenix to live in her grandma's house as she was giving all these extravagant details on her neighbors, what the house looked like, and that it was infested with mites that they kept creating holes in the floors.

I think many of the details are exaggerated or made up for example; when the author writes that her mom holds up a dish to show how them how to tell what the finest quality of china is. These details seem so little to remember from when you were an adolescent. Also, your brain has to make space for new knowledge/memories that it discards the ones that you don’t need to remember. That's a reason is why I think she made it up because she ended up writing this when she got older. These small little details were probably insignificant to her as a child, so later on she forgot about it. The fact that she also lived there for a short amount of time makes me wonder really how much she remembers about living there. When the author exaggerates the story I think it's to convey what they were going through. With fiction an author can use as many details as he/she wants to paint a beautiful picture, but writing a memoir is different to me. Writing a memoir that tells the reader what they’re going through without lying about what happened seems tricky.

The advantages of using these techniques in a memoir is that it creates a story that has and uses more imagery. If authors didn’t exaggerate or make up any details in the book then how would the reader be able to engross themselves in the book. If the author didn’t have these details because they wanted to stick to just the truth, then I believe the writing would be more elusive. Maybe some of the details of how the author feels is made. Nevertheless, the advantage to that is it gives the reader a sense of metacognition, but with the advantages there are also some disadvantages with using these techniques. If an author can make up or create any details they need or want in the book then how do the readers know what’s the truth and what’s not. I like to think that the authors wouldn’t lie about what happened in there life to make it seem more pretentious than it actually is.

The Glass Castle- Character Description: Week 1

        So far my favorite character is the author of the book, Jeannette Walls. Jeannette is a stubborn, redheaded girl, who is very pale and tall. She lives with her mother, father and three siblings. She has a very close relationship with her father, but is distant from her mother. She is also very self-conscious about her teeth. I think that the author, Jeannette Walls, creates great characterization throughout the story by adding amazing details about the people close to her, and those not. By adding these specific details, the author creates imagery.
      To me, most of the events in this book don't seem like they really happened. They all seem so crazy. I think that Jeannette had a really hard life, and I think that make me look at life differently. This book made me realize that other people have it a lot harder than me. Most of the time you can't even begin to understand the hardships that they face. I think that some people, especially in this day and age, take a lot of things that they have for granted. They don't realize how bad other people have it. Jeannette and her bothers and sisters slept on cardboard mattresses, and had to eat cat food if they didn't have enough money to eat.
      I think that someone in my life who I would have fun describing would be my brother. My brother is really funny, and he likes to make up games and play them. He talks nonstop about every single thing, and sometimes he annoys me, but I love him anyways. He's a couple years younger than me, and he has dark brown hair, and sparkly blue eyes. He likes superheroes, and evil villains. He doesn't like to get messy, and he likes to collect rocks and sticks. I think it's really fun to describe things, people and experiences. These thing make up Jeannette Wall's memoir, The Glass Castle.

Into Thin Air #3

Alright, so I'm nearing the end of the book (approximately 3 chapters left) and as much as I hate spoiling a book I really kind of have to because I need to express my love for a certain character and I can't do that without giving away something that happens. So basically, my fav man, Rob Hall. He does not make it through the book. When I found out, no joke, I was devastated. I may or may not have cried but hey I'm a sucker for these things. I'm not going to get into the details of his death BUT I will say why I think I liked him so much. As I have conversed with the other members of my book group we have all decided that he was a likable character and we're all depressed that he's dead. I believe that the author does this on purpose (makes him a like able character) so when the time comes , you will feel more empathy and be sympathetic towards him than say some other character that also dies. I noticed that when another member of the team died (I'm not saying who) I did not feel the same kind of heart ache as I did when rob died. That could be because Jon didn't describe or make the other person sound as good of a person or make him as likeable. That may make me seem like a bad person because I didn't care that the other guy died but I just didn't feel the emotion. This entry is all of the place I am so sorry but I can't really describe my thoughts. I feel like Rob is everyone's favorite character because Jon goes into depth about how cool and whatever Rob is and then just leaves other character's lives blank. I also just want to say that I really do not enjoy Jon. He's so boring and his writing is not interesting. I feel like he should make himself sound cooler I mean he is the one writing the book so like come on pick it up a notch.

The Glass Castle #3 "Links and Videos"

http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/columns-and-blogs/soapbox/article/32463-truth-and-consequences.html

By Publishers Weekly

This is a link to an article/review about The Glass Castle. I chose this article because it doesn't just talk about what I agree with. There are some parts in it saying that memoir writers are known as liars. Or parts where the opinion of the author took over what the other people said. But most of the writing  I read, I agree with 100%. It is talking about the flaws in the parenting, and the heart warming issues the book covers. So I chose this article because it reminded me of my book club discussions in class. Where we really do question, agree, and speak-out about the writing we just read. There are many sides that this article covers, just like we do in class.

One of the main topics it covers is, reviews of the book and how other people interpret it. The author did a lot of research in stores, online websites, and talking to people in general. Asking whether or not they agreed on the same topics, and to get different points of views.

The author also included scenes from the book. The important ones like, how the kids were let down by the parents, how the kids were being raised, and what was going on inside the parents head. For a majority of the book, you are kind of wondering why the parents are the way they are. And why is it so hard for the parents to see what they are putting their kids through.

I found the article that reminded me of how I think while I am reading this book. It was showing different points of views, based on how other people thought. And since you learn from other people, this was a good putting the facts and opinions together.

Into Thin Air Blog Post #3

Voice:

    In the book Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer, the voice has a very serious and factual tone. Little or no humor is put into his writing and it can get boring at times. Although I haven't counted exactly, but I bet a thousand exact dates and times were put into the memoir. It's a great book and Jon Krakauer is truly a great writer, but in order to appeal to a wider audience, I would suggest putting in more of his own voice instead of the standard textbook tone. Krakauer uses words that we don't use in our everyday life very often. We don't speak using such carefully planned out phrases. We often use a sense of humor in our speech, in which Krakauer doesn't do much. You can tell that Krakauer is a very well-educated man who is quite serious. Even if you are trying to write in a nonfictional tone, those who are normally very humorous add a wry tone into their writing without even knowing it. Krakauer also uses literary devices in his writing to show how he vividly remembers the disaster at Mount Everest. They're used especially when he's describing the scenery, and this gives the reader a glimpse into his views.

       "The world beyond the rubber mask was stupendously vivid but seemed not quite real, as if a movie were being projected in slow motion across the front of my goggles." 

    I think that for this type of memory that Krakauer is writing about and expressing to his audience, it is the right approach. It has to be factual because there was too much content he would have missed otherwise. When I write my own memoir, I doubt it would be like that because there really isn't much going on in my life. This leaves more room for humor. If Krakauer had incorporated humor into his writing along with all of the necessary historical facts, the memoir would be the length of the thickest Harry Potter book. Plus, I'm pretty sure that Krakauer was too busy trying to survive to think of any humorous situations :/

The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie

When I started reading this book, I assumed it would be one of those touching, emotionally deep type memoirs, and believe me it is, just in a completely different way. It's written in a way that almost makes it seem like your talking to one of your classmates, or a close friend. When you start reading the book, it immediately starts off with this super poetic sentence, which is pretty funny to me because when you get further into the book it seems like the author can't even bear to be poetic and serious for too long. Even though the author gives the novel a lighthearted appearance, he deals with some pretty serious emotional trauma.

Reading about his struggles make me feel eternally gratefully for my life now, but I also feel ashamed, because I so easily take it for granted. Its so easy to become absorbed into the memoir and his writing because of how he makes sure to include one of his cartoons for everything important to him, and how he makes these experiences seem casual and funny. Even reading the first part of the novel, I feel like I gained more knowledge on how badly racial segregation can be on reservations and how most people can suffer from it.

I'm excited to keep reading this book so I can keep forming new ideas. Being able to learn so much from even one section from a memoir is an entirely new feeling for me. Reading about how wanting to be better can be seen as betrayal and how alcohol can be a monster of its own for some people is a really crazy thing. I'm really hoping this memoir continues to stand out to me, and that it won't stop making me laugh. Even if it can be pretty depressing at times. 

Write-Alike

The Color of Water Blog Post #3

There was a part of the book that I was reading that made me think about something in my life that seemed like it was just yesterday. The mother of the main character was hysterically crying on the floor and couldn't get up because she had received news from her husband (sort of) that her mother had passed away. The people around and her coworkers at her job tried to calm her down, but she simply couldn't control herself. I almost cried myself a little bit when I read that. I remember when my favorite grandparent died (I know I shouldn't have favorites, so my bad) I cried so hard that I made myself sick. I was in the hospital room when I realized her heart rate had reached zero, and she was just lying there on the bed. It pained me so much, that I had to watch my grandparent die right in front of my eyes, that I had to watch her leave this planet within a blink of my eyes. When I got home, I was completely numb. I knew she was dead, but I didn't want to believe it. I just went totally blank. I fell to the ground right in the middle of the kitchen floor and cried until I couldn't see or breathe. I was gasping for air and I just couldn't stop crying. In the moment it felt right to cry like that, but now I look back and I'm like, "dang, I knew I missed her, but did I have to stop breathing?" Anyway, the passage reminded me of what it's like to lose someone that you honestly love so much. I'm so sorry this is kind of depressing, but it's all I've got right about now, and there's nothing I can really do about it because the book is kind of sad and depressing as well.

into thin post three

So far in the book I think there are some parts the Jon Krakaure  had to make up to fill gaps left by his memory or to make the story longer and more interesting.

The first way he does that is by adding background info about Everest. "Hall carped that the Americans were "violating the spirt of the hills" and practicing a shameful form of alpine extortion, but Jim Frush the unsentimental attorney who was the leader of the American group, remained unmoved. Hall eventually agreed through clenched teeth to send Frush a check and was granted passage through the Icefall.  (Frush later reported that hall never made good on his IOU.)"  This dose have to do with the charters but its is not directly about them climbing the Everest. He goes on and does other  little bits of info like that throughout the book.  The whole beginning of the book was about the first people to have climbed Everest not any thing a bout the team or the present day mountain.

Also I think he had to have made up some of it or at least spiced up a couple chapters. For example he could not have know what the other teams were doing at the same time he probably guessed at there actions to make it seem like he knew what was going on and to make the reader feel as if the text is more organized. With all the chaos that went on, on the mountain if it was truly a first hand account it would not have any structure and be hard and boring to read.

I also feel the author prolongs the text with very in-depth sensory details in description. For example "The night had a cold, phantasmal beauty that intensified as we climbed. More stars than I had ever seen smeared the frozen sky. A gibbous moon rose above the shoulder 27,824-foot Makalu, washing the slope beneath my boots in ghostly light, obviating the need for a headlamp. Far the southeast, along the Indian-Nepal frontier, colossal thunderheads drifted over the malarial swamps of the Terai, illuminating the heavens with surreal burst of orange and blue lightning."                                

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings by Maya Angelou

In the beginning of the book, when Maya or then called Margarite lived in Stamps, Arkansas life I was very interested in the life style she lived. I liked how I was able to see the segregation through the eyes of a young girl and not someone older with a more cohesive sense of thought. Segregation is something that people don't really enjoy going full detail into, leaving me curious and confused but this book is helping to quell those thoughts. The white people in the town harassed, Margarite's family multiple times, exerting their power over the oppressed. These parts in the story made me extremely sad because I kept thinking how this would be all Margarite would ever know. She wouldn't strive for something beyond that life because she doesn't know she can.

A part in the story that has really stuck with me is when Uncle Willie pretended to not be crippled when the teachers stopped by their house. This part was important to me because you can see how Uncle Willie tries to strive for something he has never experienced. He wants to be not crippled for once in his life. I think that the author included this event in her book because many people can relate to it. Everybody wants to get out of their life for one day, to be someone who they typically aren't. It is freeing and thought provocative experience because you get to see life from another person's point of view.

I think the book will press boundaries of what society is accepting of and will enlighten me of others point of views. Maya use of figurative language also increases my curiosity for what my happen. She seemed to foreshadow a part of the book in the prologue with the poem that she can't remember. I'm hoping that this book will change my views on memoirs and their meaning.

Into Thin Air Blog #3 Chace

"At 25,900 feet, I paused on the crest of the Spur to drink some water and take in the view. The thin air had a shimmering crystaline quality that made even distant peak seem close enough to touch. Extravagantly illuminated by the midday sun, Everest's summit  pyramid loomed through an intermittent gods of clouds. Squinting through my camera's telephoto  Lens at the upper South East Ridge, I was surprised to see for aunt light figures moving almost intercepted bully toward the South Summit." 

 I like this quote from, Into Thin Air, because it uses great description and imagery in it.  The way the author uses "crystaline quality" and "gods of clouds"  really adds a positive connotation to the quote.  This is an example of slanted imagery. 

 The blog https://juliahoneswritinglife.blogspot.com/2013/01/description-of-places-in-creative.html?m=1  talks about using description of beautiful sites, etc.  The blogger gives examples of authors using good description. 

 This video explains that you need to use your senses to describe experiences.  For example if you visited the Grand Canyon, how did it look, sound, smell, or feel when you touch the rock ( I would've included taste but, would you really ever taste the Grand Canyon? ;)).  The point is, when describing views, events, people, experiences, or anything really, you need to  really think about how things fet to your different senses. 

 The author of my book really does a good job describing things. In fact he almost uses too much description.  I feel like using too much can make the story a little boring.  Some of his descriptions are amazing, such as the one I included above. But others, can be a little too much.  They take away the real focus: the plot.  If you talk too much about what you see, hear, feel etc., it will take the focus away from the storyline which can bored readers. 

The Glass Castle - Blog 3

Your Words Become Mine :
     "The blue water sparkled and churned white with foam...."

      It was July 29th, and my family drove up to a beautiful, white Floridian house. The palm trees in the yard danced around in the wind, and a salty smell drifted through the air. It was a sunny day in Palm Coast, Florida, and it was the first day of my summer vacation.
     My best friend Olivia, who I took with me on the vacation, jumped out of our Subaru with excitement. Neither one of us were wearing shoes and the pavement felt like we were stepping on fire, but we had no cares in the world.
     My aunt and uncle opened their welcoming front door and greeted us with hugs. We stepped inside and were immediately cooled by a gust of much needed air-conditioning. The house was huge, and everything looked new. There were Floridian touches everywhere, such as the extravagant turtle decorations, shells scattered about the house, and a radio that played Bob Marley music. To me, it was paradise.
     Once we had taken all of our things inside, and unpacked it in our rooms, Olivia and I went to help my aunt prepare our lunch. We made paninis with mango, chips and salsa, and tall glasses of water. I snuck a piece of mango, and it tasted like heaven in my mouth. My family all helped carry the food outside to the dock where we would be sitting.
     My aunts house was on the Intracoastal Waterway, which was absolutely beautiful and filled with wildlife such as manatees and dolphins. My hair was tied into a neat bun, but as soon as I got outside I let it free. It flowed gracefully in the wind. I walked down the path to the dock, in my flip-flops and hot pink T-shirt, and handed the food to my aunt. I stood at the end of the wooden dock and gazed at the beautiful scene in front of me.
     I watched a group of birds flying in the distance and a boat pass by. I heard the small waves gently slapping the surface of the tiny shore, and my light brown hair glided lazily through the air behind me. My favorite thing that I saw was the water. It sparkled in the afternoon sun and was a deep dark blue. Just the sight of it mesmerized me.
     My family sat down in bright red beach chairs and ate and laughed together. Though it was the end of July, that was the moment when my summer truly started.