Monster & Incognegro

Monster and Incognegro, even though are two different books in many ways they have a lot of the same issues. Some of Incognegro bigger themes deal with "passing" which is acting similar to different race, or a different attitude, behavior. This in other words is a stab at cultural identity, not being able to be who you are because you will be refused certain privileges is unfair. Zane, the main character in Incognegro had to deal with this when he went down south. He had to dress and do his hair like a white man in order to be able to walk freely and not be lynched. Monster you could say also deals with "passing" Steven is not a "bad" kid, however he wants to fit in with the "Tough" guys so he starts mixing around with them. Both these books relate to power and privilege because for example, Monster if it was a group of white young adults, they may have gotten off easier, or not had the chance as automatically seen as guilty because they were of color. And in Incognegro, if Pinchy was white he wouldn't have gotten blamed for the murder of the women found in the woods. The police officer even said I never thought you did it, but we needed someone to blame. This shows that in these books white people do have more privilege.       

Unit #2

We were assigned to watch two videos, The first one was called the Visibility of Whiteness, and the second one was about a third grade experiment. I did not agree with everything the first video said. For instance not all white people are racist, also white people should have to be ashamed to be white anymore then people of color should be ashamed. Does racism still exist in today's society? yes it does but I believe its more hushed up, its a private matter. I also do not believe that racism will ever be gone. However with help from people, like in the second video we could start teaching other generations to look past color and just see people. The second video was very affective, I agreed with what the teacher decided to do in order to get her young class to understand what its like to have the situation reversed. I also like how she used the technique on the adults. The world could use more people like that.

Death

Death is the narrator of this story. This its self is rather unique, I have never read a book in such a way. He is a pretty compelling character, during his narration he pauses and gives background story, or provides us with a description of the town and its people. Death sees all, he knows everyone's story. Which if you think about it does not give him one perspective, but many. The conflicts he faces is the fact that he is death, but for some reason is infatuated with this young girl. Hes not sure of the reason for the infatuation but he knows that he thinks about her a lot and knows her story well as he says in the beginning. I very much like this character, I love reading her story through his eyes. I also like his pauses which help explain whats going on in the book.   

Vladik and Artie

Vladik and his son Artie, did not have a good relationship. Through the book their relationship seemed to get slightly better. However at the end of the novel Artie seemed to lose all respect that he had gained for his father when he found out that he burned all of Anjas notebooks. He even went as far as to call him a murderer. You could tell from the comments that Artie made about never liking to do anything with his dad because he always tried to compete with him, that even when artie was growing up they never got along. I wounder if the relationship was always on the rocks because Vladik lost his first son during the war? The actual pictures provided also showed that he did not enjoy his father company. For example when Mala called Artie at home to tell him that Vladik fell off the roof he was mad in the picture that she even called. The pictures really help you understand and put together what is going on in the novel and also helps provide a visual of the hardships that the characters did in fact face.

Me

Hello peers,

My name is Lynnsae Powers. I am twenty years old and my birthday is june 7th. I currently do not have a major but im looking around. I love to read, my favorite author is Mary Higgens Clark so the last book I have read was just about a month ago called Little Girls in Blue. I enjoy playing sports, I am apart of The Heartbreakers which is a flag football team. Also plan on joining the girls Rugby team this year. I took this class because the majors I am looking at require another english. Todays society is very culturally diverse; everyday we interact with people from different culturals. I expect to learn and be introduced to different ways of thinking, I would like to read books with more of an open mind then i do now.