Blog #6

Barriers faced by gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered people are starting to become clearer in society today. Personally, I don't care if you are gay or not, and I am going to treat you the same no matter what your sexual preference is. Sometimes, I slip up and say "that's gay" or something along those lines, but it is just a habit I have from being around influential people and friends. I know that this is wrong, and I am working on solving this problem. Gays and lesbians are being hated every day just because of their feelings toward other people of the same sex, and this is a horrible thing.

After reading Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, I was left confused and upset. I did not really understand the book at all, except for the fact that the main character is a lesbian and she is outcasted by the Church and her mother. The book seemed to skip through the life of Jeanette, and I am not even sure of how old she was throughout the whole book. I do feel that Jeanette is not treated right in the book, and that may have caused her to become a lesbian. Perhaps the whole reason for the book being called Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit is because it is saying that heterosexuality is not the only way to live your life.

The Westboro Church is filled with a lot of horrible people. The way that they use reasoning to explain things is ridiculous and absolutely insane. They believe that soldiers are dying in war because we allow gay marriage in our country. In class, the person in the movie even proved the leader of the Westboro Church wrong by saying that there is nothing in the Ten Commandments about gay marriage. Overall, the "Church" goes about doing things in a terrible way, and I feel that even though there is a right for free speech in this country, there should be a line drawn somewhere.

Blog #5

Monster and Incognegro are both books that deal with cultural identity, racisim, and stereotypes. Both books are very similar because both main characters are black. Steve Harmon, in Monster, is on trial because he is falsely accused of being an accomplice in a felony murder. When Steve is first in the courtroom, the first stereotype occurs. This stereotype is that black people are automatically guilty of a crime because of their skin color. Many of the jury members think that Steve is already guilty before they even hear the what the case is about. In Incognegro, Zane is the main character, and he is a lighter skinned African American. Because of this, he can go undercover as a reporter in the white world, and get stories without being known about.

Both books definitely create a "conversation" about cultural identity and privilage because it is very evident that in both books, white privilage prevails. If Steve Harmon were a white male on the stand being accused of a crime, the story would most likely not work or be a much shorter story. Likewise, in Incognegro, if Zane was a true white American he would be able to get stories about what happens in the white world much easier, and the book would probably have a different title as well. In the books, it is obvious that racism exists and causes the lives of the main characters to be much harder.

Incognegro and Monster have similar themese because they both deal with someone trying to live their normal lives, but having a difficult time doing so. Zane wants to be an undercover reporter, but his brother is spending time in jail down in Mississippi. When Zane goes down there to try and free his brother, he sees that the south is a much different place than where he is from. It takes a big deal of time before Zane can officially free his brother from jail. In Monster, Steve is just living a normal life until he is accused of being the look out for a conveniant store robbery. Another theme is that both books deal with white supremacy. The main characters of both books deal with white supremacy in two different ways. Steve cannot help that he is a darker skinned African American, so he has to rely on his defense attorney, a white person, to help him out to bring the verdict of "not guilty." On the other hand, Zane is a lighter skinned African American, so he goes with the white society and does not try and expose himself.

Both texts relate to the discussion we had of power and privilage because the white people have the most power in both books' societys. The blacks have pretty much no privilages, and Incognegro is slightly more brutal than Monster because of the violent lynchings. Both books definitely show that because white people have all the power, race becomes a very important factor in the lives of anyone who is not white. If both main characters were white, the books would simply not be as effective in teaching about racism being prevalent in society today.

Blog #4

We were assigned to watch two videos: "A Class Divided," and "Mirrors of Privilege." These two videos related to the text that was assigned in this unit, according to my group. The topics of the video dealt with racism, and Monster is a novel that definitely exploits racism. In "A Class Divided," the teacher of a small elementary group of students is taught about racism and segregation in a very interesting way. I liked how she seperated the students into groups of kids who had blue eyes, and groups of kids who had brown eyes. The first day, the kids with brown are were said to be "inferior" in a way, and the blue eyes kids were inferior the second day. This really helped the kids relate how racism is prevalent in society, and how it is a thing in society that is not needed. I personally believe that racism is a pointless thing, and everyone should be created equal in society. Even so, in Monster, Steve (the main character) is a black male living in a bad neighborhood, so when he is accused of a crime he is percieved guilty in the eyes of the jury on day one.

In the video "Mirrors of Privilege," many testimonies are given by people explaining different ways that they have seen racism. One particular story intrigued me. The one testimony involved a female at a race conference. At the conference, a female black professor said she gets up every day and says "she is black." She then proceeded to ask everyone else is they get up and say "I am white." I thought this was incredibly interesting because I never thought about that before. I think this relates to Monster, because the jury thought about the case from a different perspective, much like me, and decided to reach the verdict of Steve Harmon "not guilty." Overall, the novel and movies were very interesting, and I think they should be showed to anyone who believes racism is not prevalent in society today.

Blog #3 The Book Thief

Max is first seen as a person in a basement, and not much is really known about him. By the way he is sitting in a basement, hungry and tired, you can pretty much assume that he is a Jew because of the time period. Max seems frightened and alone in a scary world. Max then travels to the home of the Hubermann's to try and escape danger. Max's perspective on the situation at hand is that he feels extremely guilty that he left his family behind, but living is the highest priority for him. Max knows that being under the protection of the Hubermanns puts them in danger as well as himself, but he must do whatever he can to get out of Nazi Germany. Even though Max is not a well known character until midway through the book, he still has many conflicts. The most obvious conflict he is facing is the fact that he is Jewish and living during the time of the Holocaust. This is the most important conflict, because it is a life or death scenario for Max every single day he breathes. Another conflict is his family conflict that is eating away at his conscience, and he always regrets leaving his family behind the day he left to safety. In fact, Max has nightmares every night regarding this issue. Max's perspective isn't as unique as some of the other characters' in the book, because he is just a regular man who is Jewish in Nazi Germany. One thing that is unique, however, is that Hans Hubermann owes Max the favor of keeping him a secret in his basement because Max's father helped Hans survive during a war when Hans was drafted. I like Max because of his personality and how he is pretty much best friend's with Liesel. These two characters create more interest in the book, and they even teach other a thing or two throughout the novel.

Blog #2

Vladik's Holocaust experience was very different in the narrative as compared to other books that I have read. For instance, Vladik never really went to a legitamite labor camp as opposed to other Jews being exposed to harsh labor. It seemed that Vladik always found a way out of going to a concentration camp. I thought this was very interesting, and the experiences remain pretty much the same throughout the entire book because of the fact that he is always running from the Nazis. Of course, at the end he does go to Auschwitz, but the war is almost over and he makes it out alive.

I think the story that is being told visually and not by words is the fact that mice are preys of cats and the mice were the Jews in this case while the Nazis were cats. This also seems to dull down the severity of the Holocaust, even though the Holocaust was no laughing matter. More information is told by the story because of the images. For instance, some parts of the novel are not actually said, but are expressed in the visual boxes of the comic. One example of this is on page 38, in which is shows how Anja is going in the opposite direction of Vladik very drastically.

The narrative was a very good piece of literature, and i enjoyed reading it. I did not like the ending because it left me confused as to what happened next and how Vladik escaped the concentration camp, but that could also be a good thing as well. Maus I My Father Bleeds History is definitely a book that deserves attention for it'd graphics, and interesting storyline.

All About Me

Hello my name is Matt Gruver and I am currently a sophmore at Shippensburg University. I like to play baseball and am interested in almost every sport. I also like to play videogames in my spare time. I am currently Undeclared, but I am going to major in Business Marketing hopefully. I was interested in this class because I think that being more culturally diverse will help a lot with my life. I was also interested because I enjoy reading certain things and I knew that reading would be a requirement in the class. I think the last book I read was Life Along The Silk Road. I only read this book, however, because it was a requirement for one of my classes. I believe that cultural diversity could bring together the world today. With different cultures all over the world agreeing with eachother, the world will be a much more peaceful place. Cultural diversity to me is the congregation of different ethnicities, religions, and race in a certain area. I hope to learn about different cultures and ethnicities in this class, because I am intrigued and want to learn a vast amount of things.