I recently reread the book "Hatchet", by Gary Paulsen, and realized that it does not take much to survive. In this book a young man by the name of Brian was on his way to see his dad when his single engine plane went down. The only things Brian had was a hatchet, and a little hut that he had built. Today people think that you need the newest stuff and premade food. In this book Brian shows not only the public but the military that he can survive with one tool.…
All American Boys by Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynolds is about two young teenage boys, one black and one white, who have to face the repercussions of a devastating act that would leave their friends, family, school, and community bitterly divided by racial tension. Brendan Kiely and Jason Reynold both met while staying in the same hotel room while on tour. They both quickly became friends after bonding over their similar racial views. What sparked both Brendan and Jason to start writing a book was the tragic death of Michael Brown. In the novel, Kiely and Reynolds use repetition, imagery, and logos to create the main theme racism.…
The book Hatchet, by Gary Paulsen, is about a boy named Brian who lives in New York. One day he is sent to visit his dad in the summer on a one passenger plane. On his way there, he suddenly realizes that the pilot is having a heart-attack. So Brian does what he thinks he should do and crash lands the plane in the middle of a lake. So from then on into the book, Brian is stranded in the middle of nowhere with nothing but a hatchet he had gotten from his mother a few years back.…
In the modern day book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, the author takes us on a descriptive journey through the Canadian wilderness. Brian the main character is still getting over his parents divorce and his dad not living with him anymore. After Brian's mom drops him off at an airport Brian encounters many obstacles. As we follow Brian through this dramatic book, we learn that when it comes to survival, there is no limit on what a person can do.…
While I read There Are No Children Here by Alex Kotlowitz, I had literally had…
Black Boy is an autobiography of Richard Wright who grew up in the backwoods of Mississippi. He lived in poverty, hunger, fear, and hatred. He lied, stole, and had rage towards those around him; at six he was a "drunkard," hanging about in taverns. He was surrounded on one side by whites who were either indifferent to him, pitying, or cruel, and on the other by blacks who resented anyone trying to rise above the common people who were slaves or struggling.…
When we have been exposed to a specific role of gender all our lives, it is difficult to accept different scenarios. A different scenario would be when society would not be able to accept a powerful and non-emotional woman, or a very sensitive man. An example of this is children are educated of what roles a man and female play. In Disney movies, such as Aladdin, children are shown roles of women and men. A young girl is given to a man just to own more land. It shows society what role a man has over a woman. Anna Quindlen author of a short essay “Gay” and Gillianne N. Duncan author of “Why Do We Hate Our Bodies?” are examples of how the norms of society shape and make people judge others only because they are different. In “Gay,” Quindlen tells a story about her friend’s friend, about how a family would rather lie about the sexual orientation of their dead son, than tell the truth and be judged…
Audre Lorde, in the article I am Your Sister: Black Women Organizing Across Sexualities, provides a clear assessment of the traditional and contemporary difficulties that Black Lesbian Feminists have to deal with everyday. Lorde illustrates, for the reader, among her own personal experiences and stories, the struggles that not only Black women, but Black lesbian women and gay men continuously live with. She explains that we should not try to become identical to each other in order to attempt to…
Dear Gary Paulsen: The first time I read Hatchet was when I was in the fourth grade. I have always liked survival stories and Hatchet made me really about how fast our world can be turned upside down. I really appreciate the section when Brian tells how his teacher, Perpich, told him to "stay positive and stay on top of things" and "You are your most valuable asset. Don't forget that. You are the best thing you have.…
There are a plethora of oversights and insults throughout Frye’s essay, including her assertion that female heterosexuality “is central to the way sexism and racism are knit together,” seemingly under the delusion that lesbians are untouched by the patriarchy and the prejudices thereof because, obviously, as lesbians, there is nary a man in any of their lives (131). At all. Not one. Clearly, they all live a man-free, not-women-but-girls-only existence on a commune in upstate New York. Also implicit in her claim is that lesbians are not and cannot be perpetuators of patriarchal norms--sexist, racist, or otherwise, which ignores the wide variety amongst the gay community and assumes its members to be upstanding individuals.…
The most important thing in the world is time. Time is everything, and it sometimes feels as if there isn’t enough of it. There is a book called Eat That Frog! 21 Great Ways to Stop Procrastinating and Get More Done in Less Time. By Brian Tracy and the book is a self help book that gives advice to those who struggle with procrastination such as me, and learning how to prioritize your time.…
G.B.F (Gay Best Friend) is an American teen comedy film written by George Northy. The movie was directed by Darren Stein and produced by School Pictures. It was released in 2013, and is about an hour and half long. Some of the actors are Michael J. Willett who plays Tanner Daniels, Paul Iacono who plays Brent Van Camp, Sasha Pieterse who plays Fawcett Brooks, Xosha Roquemore who plays Caprice Winters, and Andrea Bowen who plays ‘Shley Osgood.…
Men and women are considered discrete and are expected to follow specific gender roles, otherwise they are viewed differently. These gender roles are “derived from classical thought, Christian ideology, and contemporary science and medicine.” Since women were paid less than men and had certain jobs, the expectations for them were “derived from these virtues and weaknesses.” men and women, who were poor, sometimes had to do both types of jobs “in order to survive.” There were few cases when stepping out of the gender roles were accepted. Sometimes, men would crossdress and woman would dress as men “in order to gain access to opportunities.” In the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries” the “separate spheres” began to emerge and many women who didn’t live up to the “mother's” expectation “were censured as prostitutes with uncontrollable sexual desires.” Citizens finally realized “women were excluded from some occupations and activities” so “towards the end of the century new jobs outside the home became available.” Many men were treated harshly if they weren’t masculine, so the expectation for them increased drastically. Though the majority of both genders (male and female) act differently, their “separate spheres” became less and less “separate” at the end of the nineteenth…
From the 1920s to the mid-1930s in Harlem, New York, the movement known as the Harlem Renaissance took place in which not only inspired many to young writers, singers musician and other artists to put themselves out there and to not be afraid to be themselves. Of the Harlem Renaissance, the ones who stood out the most were, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Bessie Smith,and Lucille Bogan to name a few. In this list actually there is many whom consider themselves to be apart of of the LGBTQ community such as Gertrude “Ma” Rainey, Langston Hughes, Bessie Smith and Lucille Bogan. The African American Women of the Harlem Renaissance fought homophobia and heteronormativity by sharing their thoughts and feelings through their lyrics, about being bisexual, gay or lesbian.…
Boy, directed by Taika Waititi, isn’t exactly a comedy, even though it will make you laugh, and it isn’t a feel good film. It’s a film about crushing failure, personal identity, and the possibility of hope as experienced by a young lad from a Maori family, in 1984.…