Crank---Chan

By -


                When most readers open a novel, the characters in the story are who we become as we read.  I get into the characters head because I am reading their stream of consciousness, and their response to the things received in the characters environment and surrounding. I read to escape into a different life and world and Crank by Ellen Hopkins brought me into dark. The reality of living in a fallen world is that innocent people are invited to darkness and in this case Katrina was invited by the monster. As creatures of free will, she took that bait and is now in an everlasting battle, but the darkness in her life continues to win.
            When I was in high school teachers always said, “We are preparing you for the real world”. The thing they don’t want to face is that when the students exit school doors, they are in the real world. Teens face challenges that are life threatening and if their parents don’t warn them, then teachers have a responsibility to. Sadly, the tough issues are not in the realm of comfort for teachers to talk about. With books like Crank, it could bridge that discomfort between the teacher and student, and open an important discussion about addiction, rape, drugs, and sex.
            It’s important to note that the names Kristina and Bree have nothing similar or are in comparison. “Bree shrugged, Kristina silently screamed at the angry green pocket of pus (195)”. Hopkins does this on purpose to draw the line between the life before meth and the life after meth. It is drastically different, and the ironic thing is that it’s all happening in one person. 
           The constant battle of what is good and wrong seems to drive this character crazy to where she becomes numb. She didn’t know who to listen to internally. “and this person named Bree, growing stronger inside me, convincing me to be someone I never dreamed I’d want to be(253)”. This gives students an opportunity to realize that all it takes is that one individual to change your life rather good or bad. Kristina never imagined a life with meth-until she met someone who gave her the opportunity to see how life would be with meth. That one person who she never thought she would be is now consuming her, vanishing Kristina.
           It’s a crucial concept for the readers to understand how choices and decisions can make or break you. And as teenagers dealing with many (hormonal) temptations, it’s great Hopkins compresses those temptations  to the extreme in Crank.
           

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Growing Pains - The Symbolism of the Tree in Speak

By -
I have felt the paralyzing pain of internal disease. The kind of trauma that causes your mouth to curl in and swallow you whole. I, like so many other women, are walking the halls in Melinda’s shoes in “Speak.” I thought Laurie Anderson did a phenomenal job of twisting all of the tribulations a high school girl goes through, into the tree that Melinda is. Whether we’re as strong as an oak or weak as a bush, we have all gone through the disease that strikes Melinda from the inside out. Melinda is like a half-dead tree. Some parts of her strive to blossom and create beauty. Other parts are broken and diseased. Like a dead tree, Melinda needs to save herself and “cut off the damage, [so it] is possible for the tree to grow again” (187). The symbolism of a tree is significant in “Speak.” Trees reflect her growing process. In the beginning, Melinda is a sick and lifeless tree. Her view is negative and dark. She’s so far past repair, bursts of sunlight do her no good. Sunlight would be pe...
Read more

How Starr Goes from Acting to Embracing in The Hate U Give

By -
In The Hate U Give, Starr Carter is caught between two worlds. She lives in a predominantly black neighborhood, but her father sends her and her brothers to a private school where she is surrounded by white people. She talks about acting differently depending on what group she is around, which can create some identity problems. She says on page 11, "Funny how it works with white kids though. It's dope to be black until it's hard to be black." When at Williamson, she sees white kids that think it's cool to engage in black culture, but she knows they don't understand what she goes through in her Garden Heights community. She witnessed her friend Natasha's death when she was 10 years old, and she sees gang activity in her community all the time. When she is among her black friends, like at the party, they tease her for hanging out with the white kids. This reminds me of a Drake song where he says, "I used to get teased for being black, and now I'm...
Read more

Postmodernism in Curious Incident

By -
Before I start writing, I first want to acknowledge that I just really loved this book! It seemed like a lot of the class had trouble enjoying or appreciating the novel because it's so different stylistically, which is understandable, but all of those unique elements helped make the novel more authentic. The main topic I want to focus on (also what I'm writing my paper on) is how a lot of postmodernist elements were used in the novel to make Christopher come to life. While obviously not every postmodern novel is about an autistic kid, I think Haddon really used a lot of these elements to his advantage and they ended up working out really well to characterize Christopher. One of the major postmodern elements which helps this book really craft an authentic portrayal of autism is the fact that it's metafictive. Basically, this means it's a "story within a story." Readers would be extremely limited just reading the parts of the novel which are meant to be C...
Read more