English 485: Expedition Adolescence

First and foremost, this is hands down my favorite book of the semester. I have thoroughly enjoyed all of our texts but I literally could not put La Linea down. I was going to wait to write this post until we’d finished with Zlata but I’m too amped up. I have been building a thematic unit surrounding illegal immigration and this piece is exactly what that unit plan is missing. The reason this text is so perfect for the classroom is that Ann Jaramillo’s characterization turns an unfathomable circumstance into a relatable situation. By framing Miguel as a lost soul (literally and figuratively) she creates commonality between her adolescent readership and the protagonist. “If I’d ever belonged in San Jacinto, I didn’t belong now” helps the audience connect with Miquel (Jaramillo 21). This connection is crucial for my unit. The entire point of the thematic unit is to get students thinking about the migrant’s perspective which is all too often lost in moralistic debates and political rhe...

  Is it important to teach Young Adult (YA) dystopian fiction in school?   ·        Why is/isn’t it important for these books to be taught? ·        What are some of the popular/important YA dystopian books that should be considered for school curriculum? ·        What are some YA books that have dystopian elements to them, but do not fall strictly under the dystopian genre? ·        Why are these books so popular? ·        Several popular YA dystopian books have been made into feature films. How could these movies be used in the classroom to help improve lessons?  ·        How can these books be used to help students’ asses and better understand the world today? ·        What are some characteristics/qualities that are present throughout books in the YA dystopian g...

       When I think back to my history classes in high school, I remember the discussions of war: massive destruction, tons of lives taken, innocent people losing their homes, etc. There are so many wars discussed in high school and it is hard to place yourself in those situations. Many of the details discussed are faint in my memory because I have never been in this situation, I could never even imagine. All in all, many things that have been discussed have been forgotten because war is so common, and I have never thought about what I would do if I were in those situations. Zlata’s Diary really touched me because I was able to vividly understand what life is like from an innocent individual placed in the conflict of war. Zlata says, “We’re innocent. But helpless!” (188.) Seeing war from the perspective of a young child losing many of her friends and family from death or moving away, losing electricity and water, losing rooms in her home, her music, school, and anima...

     The thing Zlata's Diary does best is highlight the fact that in every conflict there are always children in the middle who are damaged by the trauma that they live through. Zlata lives through a war, one that most people have probably never heard of. In the book, Zlata writes that "Some people compare me with Anne Frank. That frightens me...I don't want to suffer her fate" (Filipovic 159-60). So many more people know about Anne Frank because the conflict she found herself caught in was one of the two major World Wars, where million of people died. Anne Frank, unlike Zlata, died and her diary was published post-mortem. But there are so many more conflicts or contentious events throughout history and the world today that are effecting children. Climate change will results in mass migration; children and their family's will be forced to feel the place they have always known because of rising sea levels and unpredictable, violent storms. Systemic racism in the Un...

  Why are we not teaching our students about the dangers of human trafficking? What, if any, education is being provided to adolescents about this issue? How prevalent is human/sex trafficking in the Upstate? At what age are victims targeted? How can we start this conversation in the classroom? How can we (students and adults) work to mitigate/combat this phenomenon? Do victims of human trafficking having any commonalities in their backgrounds? What are “age appropriate” terms for discussing rape and forced prostitution with children as young as 10? What, if any, ethnicities are at the greatest risk of being victimized? How can I justify teaching such a controversial subject to the parents of my students? How does Sold relate to what we’re dealing with at “home”? Are there more “age appropriate” texts out there that I can use? Are there any texts that make the issue more relevant to our immediate area? I know next to nothing about this topic which is a big part of the reason I sel...

So, I’m kind of at a loss as to what to write about this particular piece. It hardly seems fair to critique or even analyze the traumatic recollections contained in the diary. As someone who has never experienced that side of a war, or even really had my daily life impacted by one my country started elsewhere, I do not feel qualified to offer anything more than my abject horror about Zlata’s ordeal. I will say that, at the tender age of 11, Zlata already had a greater command of images and symbolism than I could ever hope to possess. Her use of irony in describing the politicians as “kids” was almost humorous. That is, until you remember that their actions are resulting in the slaughter of innocent people. “The ‘kids’ are trying to come to some agreement again. They’re drawing maps, coloring with their crayons, but I think they’re crossing out human beings, childhood and everything that’s nice and normal” (Filipovic 167).  Zlata was forced to grow up and abandon childish whimsy a...

       Although New York Times Bestseller, The Secret Life of Bees, written by Sue Monk Kidd is set in 1964, it's theme surrounding the civil rights and irrationality of racism in the American South can be closely examined to fit into today's era of racial inequality and hardships faced by African Americans. To say that it is extremely heartbreaking that excessive ideals of racism continue to exist in America, after hundreds of years of attempted change, would be the greatest understatement. If not ever, the current year of 2020 has revealed the true colors of racism that reside in the souls of white supremacists. The repeated cycle of racism through generations have continued to burden, oppress and murder the innocent lives of African Americans. Kidd highlights the issues, stereotypes and prejudices clouded around racism through the storytelling of protagonist, Lily Owens.      For starters, my favorite characteristics of Kidd's novel are the...