Fahrenheit 451

Fahrenheit 451 is an interesting yet odd book to read. The world described in the book is so much more different from our world. Montage is a firefighter but unlike the once you and I know , rather than put out the flames , he starts the flames and so does every other fire fighter in the community. When I read that I was just like okay this guy and every other firefighters are incendiary's. Then I kept on reading I was introduced to this world of such myopic thinking. There where no books because they where believed to have no meanings and if you're caught with a book in this "Utopian " world of theirs your house will be burned and everything in it. Soon after our introduction Montage starts to think and question the world around him. The world that Ray Bradbury has envisioned is one that scares me. The book had a few similarity's to our world, like the use of technology is almost taking over with phones, TV's, computers and in Montages society there is nothing but technology. this book makes me think about the possibility of weather or not this could happen in our world. Maybe its already happening and we just don't know it. I really cant wait to finish the book, I want to see if Montage gets the answer he has been looking for. This is a book that I would recommend to people to read. I guess the only part that I don't like at the moment would be the fact that Clarisse had to die. I thought she still had something else to give the story but her life was cut short.
Word Count:278

Native American post

In my opinion the emblem of Native Americans are not offensive has people think it is. I think that people just put way to much emphasis on what teams are trying to portray when they have a Native American mascot. I feel when schools chose the mascots they do not chose it to be racist but to show the strength or the good parts of there school. People make it seem that schools pick there mascots to mock the native people but in my opinion the schools use the native symbols as something they are proud of and something they believe in.

Most people are stuck with the preconceived notion that there is only one definition of a mascot:an aggressive animal representing the schools fighting spirit. The truth is that it does not have to be an animal. Anything can be used to symbolize bravery, resistance and strength . This is why I believe that using the term "Indians" does not necessarily saying offensive. It is more of a show of admiration to the native Americans strength and resilience despite the hardships they have been through. So when people get hot headed about the fact that a school has an Indian or a name resembling that of an Indian name , they need to think about it before they go around wanting the name removed. I under that  some school used to use the symbols as mocking but then again not all schools are the same so when people think of them as all doing the same thing it's just barbaric.
Word:263

The American Dream

The American Dream in the Great Gatsby and in A Raisin in the sun were quite different in a lot of ways but in some ways they were also similar. In the Great Gatsby Nick could tell that the people that where around him were only concerned with materialistic things like getting rich.  For Gatsby it was about getting rich and getting daisy. Meanwhile for characters like Daisy, Tom and Tom’s mistress it was just getting rich and increasing there social statues. However in a raisin in the sun there were different kinds of dreams for everyone, some were materialistic while the others where about family and heritage For Mama it was getting house, for Walter it was for owning a business and for Ruth it was for family.  In both books it show how there are many types of American Dream and how it just depends on who you are. The American Dream in the Great Gatsby seemed it surround wealth and it showed how people had different view about what the American Dream is. Benita cared about the survival of the African culture which shows that the American dream isn't just about ones self, it can also be about a heritage. The representation of the American Dream might have been different due to the time period.
 In A Raisin in the Sun it was harder for African Americans to achieve there dreams. While some of them just didn’t have an American dream, for some others there dream was to survive the next few days and to be able to feed there kids each day. So in the Raisin in the Sun the dream seems to be the basic American Dream of family and wealth.

For mama her American dream was to have a house for her and her family to live in. Compared to the dream in the Great Gatsby this seems like a small dream, but for mama this was a big deal, this was at the forefront of what the American Dream is to her. The Great Gatsby what seemed to be at the fore front of most of the characters American dream was social status, power and wealth. Especially for Daisy, it seems to me that she would do anything to keep her statues. She let Gatsby go, and she stayed with Tom even though she knew he was cheating on her, just so she could keep her reputation and her statues in the society. Benita’s dream was to keep and better understand her African heritage and culture, and she tries to active that by hanging out with someone from Africa.
In both stories the characters where all trying to active there  American Dream or some form of the Dreams everyone else but each were doing things in there own way, like Daisy ignoring the fact her husband was cheating on her, and Mama working hard so she could get her self a house and also taking care of her children. Both books were just about how different people form different backgrounds views the American Dream and how they choose to achieve the American Dream.

Word Count:520

Written Reflection

In my community inquiry project I investigated the American dream in the wicker park area.My believe of what the American Dream might be for the residence was completely wrong and this challenged me to think outside the box of what other aspects of the American dream might be.I thought the American dream would be about money and big houses but I found out that the American Dream is also a dream one has for there family and that , most people really do not believe in the American dream. The American Dream has turn into an ever changing personal goal that people have to improve themselves.
This project was challenging for me because I wasn't sure if I'd be able to get a different view on what the Dream is and or was about. I also wasn't sure how id get this project done and I'm quiet glad that it is over. This project thought me a few things I didn't know about my community, I always thought there were a lot of African Americans but I found out that there are mainly Caucasians that live  in my community. This project forced me to get out of my comfort zone and to actually explore my community and in doing that I learned something new.

Community Inquiry Project/Proposal

What neighborhood do you live in?
–Noble Square by wicker park 

Demographics

African American 

Africans

Young and old 

A few Asian Americans 

People I'm going to interview

My mother

Indya 

Neighbor 1
Neighbor 2 

I think that the American dream of opportunity is represented in my neighborhood. Such as the opportunity to own your own business, to own your own house and also the opportunity of an education. I think I am going to find the aspect of Education to be the most strong from what I see in my neighborhood, but then again I might be wrong. I'm hoping that my idea of the America dream is challenge, I want to learn about what makes up someones american dream and what makes it different.

Success of Immigrants and The American Dream

The article Success of Immigrants’ Children Measured by SusanSaulny was about; the 2^nd generation American immigrants are doing better than foreign born Americans. Especially when it comes to education they have really done exceptionally well.  I believe that Education is one of the great things that America has to offers. To some foreign born the American educational system is incumbent part of a kids life, but to others like an immigrant it’s a privilege, its part of the American dream to have the opportunities to learn things that other wise wouldn't be made available. To me parts of the American dreams are the great opportunities in which we are presented and with the education in which we are given and the fact that there are people who take it for granted is just ludicrous .Thinking of what Thomas Paine says “What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly”, I believe the same goes for the education in which we has Americans receive. The education we receive is what it is, just an education but to someone else who doesn't have the same opportunities that are given to us, it just might be the American dream. To have an American education when I was a kid was a mere figment of my imagination but I believe that the article is evidence that the American dream really is accomplishable. 

Word Count:229

Scary Movie Review

The Grudge is one of my all time favorite scary movies. It was one of the few scary movies that actually scared me. It was about an in house nurse who goes to a house to treat a patient, but has she’s there she can sense that there's something not quite right about the house. While she’s at the house she learns about a curse that’s full of anger and revenge, which jumps from one person to another making them go crazy then eventually killing them. Soon after one by one, people around her where dying, not wanting to be next she tries to break the curse. The way the director created the scenery was, just perfect in my opinion. The scenes outside where light ,warm, with a hint of gloominess but when the scene changes from outside to inside the house is when it gets dark, that is when the audience understands that something scary is hiding in the corner. The fact that the director didn't show a lot of the dead girl, but showed all the curses actions made me even more scared. It made me think that even though we can’t see something doesn't mean they’re not there. Watching this movie at night, in the dark, might have made me experience it differently but I still think that it was one of the scarcest movies of all time. The movie over all was great, the actors really became there characters. The movie seemed so real. After watching this movie I couldn't sleep I had to turn on all the lights and tried my best not to fall asleep.
Word Count: 271