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Throughout this unit, I have improved on several reading skills. I have improved on my understanding of conflict, and subtext. I feel I can assess the main issues in the text, and infer the outcome of the situation. I have also improved my understanding of the feelings of the characters during certain situations, revealing more about their personality, giving me a better understanding of the character overall. I also have a better understanding of how much setting can impact plot. For example, in a book that deals with FNMI issues, the characters wouldn't encounter the same issues in Russia or Spain. Although I feel I've improved on some reading skills, I do have some that could still be improved. For example, I have some trouble imagining certain locations(ie. Lewis' house), which can cause some issues while visualizing the scene. Also, I think I can improve on remembering important details like character names or addresses. Even though there are several things I would like to improve on while reading, I think I have developed a lot of my reading skills.
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_Explain how the character from the novel you are reading lives his/her life as inferior or as someone who doesn't allow him/herself to feel inferior.
In this book, the main character Lewis often thinks of himself as inferior. It doesn't help that he's often harassed by racist bully Evan Reniger. The problem is that his father funds the school immensely, so whenever Lewis tries to file a complaint, it never gets dealt with seriously. I don't blame him for feeling so alone, when no one, not even teachers, who are supposed to be role models, aren't helping you when you're being physically assaulted every single day. Another thing that causes Lewis to feel inferior is his "friend" Carson. He constantly tries to one-up Lewis, and forces him into situations he feels uncomfortable in. Although, at some parts, he does stand up for himself, and doesn't let himself be treated inferior. Towards the beginning, Lewis realizes that Carson is constantly being rude to him and tells him off, proceeding to avoid him as best he can on a reserve. Although this causes a rocky relationship between them, Lewis goes on with his life better than before. Also, a little later in the book, when he's been bullied and tried to file a complaint about it, and it didn't work, he took matters into his own hands. He stops going to school for three weeks and notifies the school that he won't come back until it's safe. Even though several teachers harass him about getting Evan in trouble, he keeps his head up high and doesn't care what others say about him. Lewis is very much a character who stands up for himself in bad situations, not having to rely on others to back him up. Although he is sometimes treated poorly, he keeps fighting, and never backs down. Even though it is contradictory that he looks down on himself, he doesn't let anyone elso look down on him. In If I Ever Get Out Of Here, we don't get too much variety in setting; there are really only two different settings, which are the reserve that Lewis, our protagonist, lives on, and George's neighborhood. Although, both of these offer a lot of contrast and depth to the characters and story. A good chunk of the book takes place on a Native American reservation in the city of Niagara Falls. On this reservation, the police are negligent to crimes that are committed, the houses are in dire need of repairs, and most people live in poverty. Small details, like how it's so small, yet so packed together, and how kids learn to drive right when they can reach the pedals are what tell you that the author really did his research. For the parts of the book that took place on the reserve, these factors, like the oppressive poverty really set the dark, dreary, depressing scene that this book takes on. I found it startlingly easy to visualize, and I really enjoyed how in depth the author was about this particular setting. Another key setting in the story is George's neighborhood and his house. George lives in a community where military families live when the person in their family in the military, in this case, George's dad, gets deployed(as to why George's dad got deployed in Niagara Falls, I don't know). The community is very military like, in the way that there are no bright colors, nothing to really catch your eye. Everything is in unison, everything in order, much like how it is in the military. This clean, orderly community really contrasts from Lewis' reservation life. Furthermore, George's specific house contrasts with Lewis' because everything is neat and tidy, everything is working, there isn't any extreme need for any repairs, and nothing is really tattered and old, compared to Lewis' house which is falling apart. Although, everything in George's neighborhood feels very temporary, in the way that you might have to get up and leave at any second, which adds to the dark and dreary feel to the story. I can connect to George's neighbourhood, because I used to live in a neighbourhood similar to his. Everything was very bland and very orderly, almost robotic, and there wasn't any large amounts of contrast, so nothing was really personal. I feel that the setting is an extremely important and significant factor in this story because it sets the tone of the story that wouldn't exist otherwise. Over the past few weeks, I've learned several things about the FNMI(First Nations, Métis, Inuit) community, and there's a lot of interesting information that I've learned.
Some very interesting information that I learned is about about these ceremonies called Pow Wows and the Sweat Lodges. In Pow Wows, everyone sits around in an enormous circle, and cultural performances, mainly dances, are performed in the center. There are several different types of dances, such as Grass dances and Hoop dances, each with their own important legend or story behind them. Pow Wows are held to celebrate nature and Mother Earth. A Sweat Lodge is a spiritual, more calm ceremony used for prayer. These are held in huts made of natural materials. During these ceremonies, aboriginal peoples can sing, pray, talk, sit in silence, or meditate. The ceremonies are used to purify your mind, body and spirit. The most shocking information that I learned involves Residential schools. Residential schools are basically schools that aboriginal children were sent to to be separated from non-aboriginal children to be stripped of their culture, religion, faith and way of life. Residential schools had the worst conditions imaginable. You would be separated by gender, you wouldn't be able to talk to your siblings, if you threw up, you would have to eat your own vomit, and if you misbehaved you would get locked in a closet with no food and no light for at least a day. Although the last residential school was abolished in 1996, the effects haven't worn off. Children were abused, emotionally, sexually, and physically in residential schools from the time they were infants until they graduated. They were never raised properly, so they don't know how to raise their own children properly. The abuse that went on in these schools was so traumatizing, most the surviving ex-students have developed PTSD. I've learned a lot about the FNMI community over the past few weeks, and I hope to continue to learn more in school, and outside of school. So earlier this week I watched some ted talks, and one of my favorites was "Your Body is My Canvas." The speaker, Alexa Meade talks about how she went to college to get a degree in political science, and how she was so excited to go to Washington, and work in an office, but then decided to move back in to her parent's house to teach herself how to paint. But instead of using a canvas, she paints on real people, and then reduces them into a 2D photograph that looks like a painting.
I really enjoyed the talk, because it was very stimulating and engaging. The message was to not focus on one single solution to all problems, which I can relate to with school work, and I really appreciate that. It was very inspiring and I enjoyed the energy that the presenter spoke with. The presentation aspect was very well done, as well. She was very confident, and knew what she was going to say. She had very good visual aids, and a very strong voice. Overall, she had an inspirational topic, a strong voice, and overall a very effective talk. Do you ever listen to music, and you put your IPod on shuffle, and then
you get a string of your favorite songs, right at the beginning? It always feels amazing, because it gives you a little bit of an energy boost, especially if you're having a bad day. It's like getting a string of green lights when you thought you would be late for work or school. It feels like you won the lottery, because of all the songs on your IPod, those five or ten songs just decided to show up, and it always feels fantastic. It always feel so amazing, and it can lift you out of the dumps when you just have those first two or three songs play because they just describe you in every way shape and form. And it's always so comforting knowing there's someone else out there that shares your pain and your hardships, and decided to put it into song form, to share with people that share their hardships. Overall, it just makes you feel really great when all of your favorite songs are played one after the other, because it makes you feels like you've won the lottery. One of the best feelings in the world is when you're listening to music on a phone or IPod, and you drop your device, and your earbuds save it from falling onto the ground. It's like if an angel came from the heavens and just decided to just catch it because why not.
And it feels so amazing especially if you just got a new phone and you get that mini heart attack when you think you're gonna have to buy a new one, and then you don't. And it's just such a relief that you don't have to deal with a cracked screen until you can afford an new one or convince yourself that your stupid cracked IPod isn't good enough for you. It just feels so good to know that your IPod is safe and it only cost about 10-15 dollars for a pair of earbuds and it saves you like a few hundred dollars, and it feels so amazing. |
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