Class Response 10/27/14

I started with the bias test. My results were little to no automatic preference between black and white people. I was not surprised by this. I do not care about how someone looks, I care about how they act. I have met good and bad people of all races and am glad that I have no bias to them.

Next, was the face to face stories. While listening to them, I took note of how parents were telling their children to be careful. I was shocked how easily the Americans turned on their own citizens when the bombings happened. The Americans blamed the race of the attackers and not the people who actually attacked them.

It was sad to hear about children who lost friends because of their race. The Americans were too quick to discriminate against the Japanese and the Muslims. It was childish how they could think of a friend they had known for years, as a monster in one instant. The Japanese and the Muslims themselves were horrified by the attacks. It seemed like others thought they didn’t have the right to cry for their country. They were American citizens, and in one moment, they became the enemy.

The final blue and brown eyed test was the most interesting. It was interesting how the children began to become what others thought of them. When the blue eyed children were better, the brown eyed children seemed to become less intelligent and when the brown eyed children were better, the blue eyed children were less intelligent even though they were better the day before. This really shows how you should not put people down, because they will fall with your expectations.

Reading Response #4: Article 5

         Article 5 is set in a future America where citizens have little to no rights, every religion other than Christianity is forbidden, girls and boys cannot date, and 'immoral' books and materials are banned. The Bill of Rights was rewritten into the Moral Statutes. The main character, Ember Miller, and her mother are arrested for violating Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. Article 5 prohibits women from having children outside of wedlock. The two are arrested and Ember is sent to the Girls Reformatory and Rehabilitation Center of West Virginia.

the Girls Reformatory and Rehabilitation Center of West Virginia

Chase Jennings, a soldier who Ember loves, develops a plan to get Ember away from the reformatory school and reunite her with her mother. They encounter challenges along the way. While gathering supplies at closed mall, other soldiers find them and attack them. Chase almost kills one of them with his bare hands, but Ember intervenes.

            “‘They were going to hurt you.’ His voice was low and uncontrolled.

            ‘So that makes it okay?’ I countered. No, I didn’t want to be hurt- I certainly didn’t want to die- but that didn’t excuse murdering someone, however foul, based on speculation!(pg. 171-172)”

He later states:

 “‘Yes, that makes it okay’, he said between his teeth, eyes flashing with the lightning. ‘And don’t pretend you wouldn’t have done the same thing.’

            ‘I would never!’

‘Never? Not even if they’d threatened your mom?’

His words pierced clear through me. If I had been Chase, and my mother had been me, nothing in the world could have peeled me off of Rick.

            I realized then with a terrible clarity that maybe Chase and I weren’t so different after all. Everyone knew that a dog backed into a corner bites. I’d just never actually considered that the dog could be me. (pg.172)”

There are people we know and love who we would go to the ends of the world for. For some it’s family and others it could be friends. There are no limits to the devotion people could feel for each other. Some could not endure the thought of their loved ones being hurt by bad people. Chase was right to defend Ember and I feel that the soldier’s death would have been justified.

 

Reading Response #3: Proxy

   

       Proxy takes place in a world where the rich could pay someone to take their punishments. The people who pay are called patrons while the people who take the punishments are called proxies. Some proxies are lucky. Their patrons hardly ever get into trouble. Those proxies get credit (their form of currency) for just being around. Other proxies are not so lucky. The main character Syd is one of the unlucky ones.

Upper City (where the wealthy live)

 

 

 

       Syd’s patron is an irresponsible boy named Knox. Knox lives in the moment. He gets into all kinds of trouble and Syd takes the punishment. One night, Knox gets into a horrible wreck and kills a girl. Syd, who is two years away from being free of his proxy life, is going to be sent to a harsh labor camp for sixteen more years because of the accident. Syd is angry with the system and decides that he will not go quietly.

        “He refused. It was that simple. He was not unredeemable and he was not a terrorist and he was not just a body they could discard and replace to teach some patron a lesson.
    He was Sydney Carton-or whatever his name had been before-and he was a human being and he wasn’t just going to lie down and take this. He had to do… something. He had to escape before they came to take him away.” (pg. 74)

    Knox usually didn’t care about his proxy being punished. It was the punishment from the accident that made him feel bad. He wanted to help his proxy. He went from a rich kid with no cares to a rebel who cared too much.

        “I’d tried it all those years with everything from stealing to getting tweaked out of my head, but it never really helped. I figured maybe sneaking Syd away would do it.” (g.351)
        “Now I want Syd to get to safety because he’s earned it.” (pg. 352)