English 485: Expedition Adolescence

Feed by M.T. Anderson is a powerful foresight into our technological future.   Although there were aspects I disliked about Feed , namely the language used, Anderson’s portrayal of a dystopian future in which humanity is worryingly reliant on technology is a compelling warning.   Although Feed was written in 2002, before social media became prevalent and technology was inescapable, it’s shocking how accurate aspects of Feed are to today’s society. One aspect of the world Anderson paints in Feed that I found particularly troubling was the immense influence corporations had over every aspect of life.   In Feed , schools are owned and operated by corporations, and the feed, the technology that is directly wired into the brains of 73% of Americans, has the primary purpose of promoting consumerism.   When Violet’s feed malfunctions and she attempts to have the matter resolved with FeedTech, the corporation simply gives the apathetic reply that, “We’re sorry, Viol...

The book  Feed  is a book that was way ahead of its time in my opinion. The book was written in the year of 2002 and M.T Anderson does a great job at showing his view and ideas of what the future of technology would look like. The points in the book that were most compelling to me was that fact that not all Americans had the feed inside of their brains. This meant that about seventy percent of Americans were not gifted with certain databases or able to experience certain features of rare technology. In the book Titus considers himself normal to the kids around him but we see as the book starts to transpire and Titus is using the feed inside of his brain that he starts to become more captivating.  While in class we discussed the different types of themes that were displayed in the book and the biggest one that stood out to me was consumerism. On page 97 in the book it says “ They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up with—the stories on th...

Feed proposes many interesting and insightful ideas about the possible and unknown future. We can already see how some of the aspects in the book can apply to life and culture today. For example, consumerism as portrayed in the novel almost creepily relates to the world today. The way that the Feed constantly sends advertisements to the characters, telling them what is in and what they now need to be considered "cool" closely resembles the online advertisements that we find on a lot of social media sources like Facebook and Instagram. These "Feeds" use active listening so that they can get to know the host and then recommend certain products that the owner will most likely be open to purchasing. With these constant advertisements swarming the minds of the characters they begin to become diluted and washed out of all the authentic American culture. This includes so much as their language and writing. They view Violet as this strange and outlandish girl simply becau...

My overall reaction to this novel varied from Part One to Part Four. In the beginning, I was a little biased because it is a science fiction novel and I do not particularly care for them. I read this novel initially as something I was going to try to get through for class and that is it. The broken language that Titus and his friends speak did not help my opinion at all. After reading the majority of Part Two my mind changed. I began to be invested and was genuinely hoping that Titus would try and understand Violet and become more sympathetic. My biggest issue with  Feed is that Titus is insensitive until literally the last three pages and it broke my heart. Titus angered me when he mentioned to Violet, “We’ve only been going out a couple of months. And I’m supposed to act like we’re married. A couple of months. It’s not some big eternal thing (271-272).” That is almost one of the worse things to say to someone dying because they already do not have time on their side. There is no...

Feed was my favorite book we have read so far. I'm really starting to think that M.T. Anderson has a time machine because of his spot-on portrayal of technology from this novel, written in 2002 before the internet and social media began to take off. I was really impressed with how he presented the characters and themes in this novel, and it was a book that I could not put down once I started reading. One problem was obviously the word choice in this novel. It made it challenging to read through quickly, but the language served a specific purpose. I think Anderson used it to show how impressionable teenagers can be when they think something is "cool". For example, Violet uses "salad" as a replacement for happy on page 60 when she says "Maybe these are our salad days." Later on page 68, Titus says "the salad days couldn't last forever." Anderson uses this to show how language can catch on and take different forms based on its perception. ...

Feed  by M.T. Anderson focuses on a ground of teenagers living in a dystopian future where each of them has a direct connection to the internet implanted in their brains. The obvious theme of the book is the danger that the rapid advancement of technology can have on society, but I think it's important to focus on how media can influence one's adolescence. Throughout the novel we see the main character, Titus, interacting with his friends in ways that is seen to be normal, until he meets a girl his own age that the audience can more closely relate to. I think the novel heavily focuses on how excessive use of technology can negatively impact someone's social skills. Another aspect that feed focuses on that is relevant to teenagers is the impact that technology can have on one's self image.  In the novel, Titus befriends a girl named Violet who is immediately different from the rest of his friend group and it is later revealed that she has been home-schooled and only go...

We have all heard about the new movie called  The Hate U Give hitting theaters this October, but when we were given the chance to read the book in class I was very excited. We all know that often times a book will explain a story much better than a movie. By the movie trailer you could tell that this movie was going to be about a young black boy getting killed by the police. Although we did not know the full backstory or what said or done it was intriguing to many people already just because this is a big issue that we are facing today.  My overall reaction to this book was to this book was that is was realistic. I truly enjoyed that the author Angie Thomas made sure to give the real facts behind what we are experiencing within the black community today. Although we know that this problem did not just start we do see how the issue has started to progress. We see movements such as the Black Lives Matter movement where they protest and shout the names of the men and women t...

      Going into reading Looking for Alaska , I'll admit that I was hesitant.  I've never been partial to John Green himself, and the young adult genre has always been something I'm somewhat uncomfortable with because I never felt like it's done very well.  I was pleasantly surprised by this novel, especially how it portrays friendship as a loner teenager.  The main character, Pudge, has never felt a calling in life, except for memorizing famous last words.  He's almost thrust into his group of friends, and even though he has a good relationship with his friends, it never seems like he knows them super well.  He starts drinking and smoking just to fit in with his friends, but it's never clear whether or not he does this just to fit in, or because he actually wants to.  I think this portrayal of that type of "outsider" teenager is a lot more accurate than other books.  Pudge isn't an outsider because people don't like him, he just never r...

Sold by author Patricia McCormick is a painful yet necessary book for young adult readers to study.   McCormick’s story recounts the life of Lakshmi, a thirteen-year-old Nepali girl who is sold into slavery in India, and demonstrates that adolescent experiences are drastically different across the world.   The language and style of Sold are simple and easy to comprehend, making it a quick read, but the topic covered in the novel is far more intense.   Although many young adult readers are aware that sexual slavery still exists today, Sold forces westerners to recognize the prevalence of slavery in developing countries today. In Sold , McCormick masterfully paints a world and experiences that differ so greatly from the everyday lives of western readers of this novel that the circumstances Lakshmi faces come as a jarring realization.   In America, in particular, poverty has a shockingly different meaning than it does in Lakshmi’s home country of Nepal.   E...

In The Hate U Give, readers watch quiet, reserved Starr Carter transform into practically a minority and discriminatory activist after the passing of her childhood best friend, Khalil. Starr is forced to overcome adversity in her poverty-stricken neighborhood, at her predominantly white private school, and as the face of the only witness to the murder of one of her own by a white police officer. Throughout the novel, Starr is aided by her family, her friends towards the end of the novel when she finally decides to come out to them, and the team of activists she has working as her lawyers on her behalf. Although, justice is not served in Khalil's defense at the end of the book, Starr emerges as a determined, fighting individual and leads her community into protesting against police brutality in the neighborhood and at a national level. Personally, my favorite aspect of the novel was the tone and language that author Angie Thomas decided to use for each character. Being a novel w...

Sold by Patricia McCormick is a beautiful novel that young adults should read as they are transitioning into mature adulthood. The book is written simply but, the content is dense. I admire this book because the set up of the novel eases the heartfelt and heartbreaking moments that occur in Lakshmi's evolving childhood. I am appreciative that this book was the Literature Circle pick because we got to experience a different type of depression and trauma than what usually happens in tragic Young Adult novels. Besides the content of human sex trafficking, it is equally important to expose young readers to lives on the other side of the globe. Poverty is a major theme in Sold and it allows readers to examine their privilege especially if they do not or have not lived in a third world country. McCormick's portrayal of adolescence is completely accurate especially since Lakshmi is so young. Lakshmi is naive to a lot of things that a twelve year old would not be exposed to naturall...

Looking for Alaska by John Green tells the story of a guy who transfers to a boarding school in Alabama to search for something eventful to fill his dull life. I think that this novel works as an accurate guide through the mind of an adolescent boy as he stumbles his way through life, because there are many times where the main character has conflicting ideas and other times where he is completely in the wrong. Pudge is not an ideal character to be a protagonist but I think that's what makes him more relatable; he is jealous of other people, he is not always a considerate person, and he forgets about his own girlfriend. Another important part of this novel is the idea of someone being in love with a constructed idea of a person rather than the actual person. I think the difficult subject matters in this book combined with conflicting ideals of the main character make this book perfect for many older adolescents. Pudge being someone who makes bad decisions makes him an interesting...

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...

John Green is always very clever with his writing, particularly when it comes to writing very memorable and real characters. In his novel Looking for Alaska  he does something unique with the way he constructs the book. From the beginning you open to the first page and it starts with "one hundred thirty-six days before," this sets the tone for the remainder of the novel, a tone of suspense because you know that something is going to happen but you don't yet know what. Then, a little over half-way through the novel, you find out the incident that the suspense was leading up to and the book is divided and the divisions of the story are now titled "__ days after." This way of constructing the novel helped Green get across his theme of "change" in his characters, and not just change like all people must change with time, but deep and emotional change that occurs only after a traumatic experience. The "Before" in his novel tells the story of  a pa...

     One of the major motifs I found when reading The House on Mango Street  was characters being bound or kept to one place.  This is usually physical, such as Sally, who "sits at home because she is afraid to go out without his permission (102)," or Esperanza's aunt, confined to a bed because of her illness.  Esperanza herself is bound to Mango Street, both living with her family with no chance of moving away (yet), and even though "Mango says goodbye sometimes (110)," she acknowledges how she will never completely leave Mango Street.  To Esperanza, Mango Street represents a dead end, a place where the only residents are people with nowhere else to go.  Those who do have high hopes, such as Sally or Marin, are married off to live a life of misery.  Esperanza's mother is also confined to her role, working around the house all day, even though "she has lived in this city her whole life.  She can speak two languages.  She can sing an...

In reading The House on Mango Street , I was intrigued by Cisneros' style. You can see in her work that she relied heavily on her Hispanic background. Small things such as the Spanglish that was spoken and mixing the grammatical rules of both Spanish and English novels each I believe contributed to the book's unique tone. Clever uses such as italicizing all of her quotations was sone way that she accomplished this. To many readers it may come across as confusing but personally I found it beautiful and easy to understand. I have always been taken by Hispanic culture and this novel showed a glimpse at what a more modern Hispanic school girl may actually be thinking. I believe that this novel is extremely important to teach in our schools, particularly in high schools today. The Hispanic culture is only continuing to grow and this novel does such a beautiful job at combining the two culture sand pin-pointing some of the struggles that that a multicultural student may be going th...

Overall, I enjoyed reading The House on Mango Street. In the beginning, I did not know what to expect. I thought that I was missing the point of the novel because there was not a consistent storyline occurring. Towards the end I gained a greater insight as to how Cisneros meant for the novel to be read. Since it is a novel written with poetic lines, there is a lot of vibrant language. The intensely detailed wording and figurative language is my favorite aspect. Cisneros writes beautifully and expresses Esperanza's longing for self eloquently. One of my favorite lines from The House on Mango Street comes from the chapter "Sally." At the end of it Cisneros writes, "...all you wanted, Sally, was to love and to love and to love and to love, and no one could call that crazy." This run-on sentence is a great example of Cisneros' voice. It is expressive and genuine. The House on Mango Street reminds me of the novel The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot...

I thought The House on Mango Street was enjoyable to read. The biggest issue I had was that it was hard to keep up with because of all the different characters introduced. Since there isn't really a plot line, this becomes less important though. The narrator's voice was the most important element in the book, and the descriptive language added a lot of perspective to the reading. Sandra Cisneros has a true knack for putting the reader inside Esperanza's head. It feels very realistic as you read about the stories that occur on Mango Street. Innocence stood out to me as a theme in this book. Esperanza witnesses a lot of adult issues on within her community, and it leads to her maybe growing up a little faster. For example, when their grandpa dies Esperanza is put into a situation where she has to be a parent figure for her siblings. "Because I am the oldest, my father has told me first, and now it is my turn to tell the others. I will have to explain why we can't p...

I really enjoyed reading  The House of Mango Street  because it related to culture and also I loved that it was displayed through the life of a young girl. There were even more themes that stood out in the book to me and that was language, society, family, and gender roles. Sandra Cisneros definitely did a great job showing the reality behind many minorities that live in America.  While in class we discussed the question that many of us had on our minds and that was, “Why does Cisneros decide not to use quotations when dialogue is taking place?”. I learned something new when we discussed it because I never knew that this was the way that Spanish authors write. That was definitely the biggest question for me when I first began to read the book but as I continued on it definitely was easier getting used to and I enjoyed reading it.  One of my best friends who is from Colombia moved here while in elementary school. She explained to me that she did not know any En...

The House on Mango Street, I hear, is very appealing to many people who read it. While it is full of personification, imagery, and hones in on a different culture that isn't heavily represented in today's adolescent literature, it did not particularly strike my fancy in any way. To be completely honest, it was incredibly hard to get past the first fifty pages. I had two issues arise while reading the text. My first issue was the lack of quotation marks around dialogue. This is a part of Sandra Cisneros's craft, who predominantly writes poetry and prose pieces, and constructed The House on Mango Street in the same structure as prose and poetry. Without quotation marks or prior knowledge of how to read poetry, readers can become confused when coming into a scene that contains heavy dialogue. My second issue were the randomness of the chapters. The chapters were written into very short one or two pages and would ramble along about a different topic every chapter. They all en...

I think that this novel works a young adult literature because the main focus of the novel is the physical and mental development of the main character that is similar to what many adolescents go through on a daily basis. I had a harder time connecting with this book than the others that we've previously read in class, but one aspect I heavily relate to with Esperanza is the desire to move out of your house and make it on your own. The novel is much more than the story of Esperanza wanting to be independent but it seems to be the force that drives her. Many young adults find the need to try and make it on there own for a multitude of reasons, many being the relationship with their parents or the desire to move to different area and see the world. I don't feel that Esperanza hates where she is but recognizes that she wants to leave, "Those who don't know any better come into our neighborhood scared. They think we're dangerous. They think we will attack them with shi...

When I read The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time , I found myself getting very frustrated and upset with Christopher’s parents in the novel.   Parenting in itself is certainly not easy, and having a neuroatypical child with special needs adds further emotional and practical difficulties, however, Christopher’s parents were often cruel and insensitive.   I was shocked at the treatment of Christopher by his parents over the course of The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time .   I volunteer every week at HALTER, a therapeutic equestrian center in Spartanburg.   Through this program, I’ve had the opportunity to work one on one with handicapped and neuroatypical children, many of whom are on the autistic spectrum.   Although it is definitely challenging at times to work with young individuals who may get intensely focused on inappropriate things during a session or can get very overwhelmed, it never helps to get frustrated and tense with a...