Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan

In this chapter that I just finished reading, a new character gets introduced to try and help her solve her "popularity" problem.  The book does a really good job trying to show the difficulties in, Jeff, the new character's life that brought him to point where he can hate just enough, yet still have the brilliant insight to provide Laurie, the main character, with an easy way out.

It is interesting to see the relationship between the two of them, almost an unspoken understanding, yet you can tell they never hang out.  It's at a point where she was never good enough for him when he was popular, but now, with his half burnt face you can tell she's trying to understand him.

The way their conversation is conducted makes it seem very formal and non-judging, but you can tell that both characters are in fact judging one another.  It is also relevant that they both require something from one another, and are talking to each other solely for that purpose.  I believe that Laurie gets what she wants, or more likely, needs, however I think that Jeff is still longing for more.

This chapter really shows build of plot through these two characters, and is a great lead into the rest of the conflict of the story.

Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan

In the book, Stranger With My Face, there is a huge lack of trust between the two characters, Laurie and Gordon, where they both make assumptions in which they hurt one another.  This just proves that communication, and trust, are extremely important in a relationship.

After spending an entire summer together dating, one mis-communication leaves Laurie without friends, and accused of wrongdoing for the entire next school year.  Laurie was being a completely honest and honorable person, while Gordon was 100% in the wrong.  First, he was cheating on Laurie at a party while she was sick, and second, he didn't believe her at all when she told him that, in actuality, she was not lying about being sick.

This shows how lying, and jumping to conclusions can shut down a persons life in just one day, if things are all taken the wrong way.  Honesty is vital to all friendships, relationships, and families, and this chapter does an excellent job of showing it.

Sonnet One

Keep the beat in time with crashing visions

Footsteps on cold sand with inches between

Done for the better, all wrong decisions

Pain as second nature, with love unseen

Separation comes after words blind meaning

Connection seems so far away with you

Above my head, no point intervening

Between the three, closed out, my voice withdrew 

I'll miss the days of family that last

Box of pictures show smiles, hand in hand

Trying to remember pleasant days past

The world is spinning, it's so hard to stand

With loss comes pain, losing you both hurt most

Family stays, for me, as ends draw close

Stranger With My Face by Lois Duncan

This week I began reading Stranger With My Face, and, starting a new book every weekend I'm finding that I'm really going to love this one! The narrator did a really good job of depicting the setting and also including the dynamic of her family through the setting.  The autor's description words are beautiful and placed extremely well throughout the writing, and the plot, though just developing itself seems to be intriguing and particularly complex.

Reading the first section of the book was really interesting because it was basically just backup information for the story the girl is about to tell, yet the word choice makes the reader want to know every little detail then, rather than going through with the entire story.  The first section was written so cautiously so that there is that longing for information but not enough to get stuff away.  I am increasingly interested in the girl lurking in the hallway by the sentence, yet I havw no clue who she is or her relations to the plot yet. Such a good start, I can't wait to finish the book this week.

Martín Espada Poetry Analysis

Martín Espada's poetry shows a clear common theme of discrimination based on ignorance and selfishness.  This is developed through the word repetition and stanza focus in the three poems "The New Bathroom Policy At English High School," "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson," and "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cru, California May 3, 1877."

In the poem, "The New Bathroom Policy At English High School," the words have a tendency to be based on the views of the principal.  The first two lines talk about the boys, but the rest of the poem is about the principal.  The words "him," "his," and "he" are repeated throughout the poem all relating back to the principal, but only mentions the boys once, as a general group.  This makes me think that Espada is trying to represent the power and authority the principal has against "the boys," who get categorized rather than specified.  I think that Espada was trying to show how, through the principal's eyes, the boys are all the same, and deserving of nothing but his own culture, and language, English.  This shows how the principal is completely oblivious to the importance of all cultures, and enforced the rules of no Spanish just because of his lack of understanding.  The poem displays power to the English principal, who takes away all other power of the Spanish culture.  The theme occurs in this poem that the principal discriminates against these boys because of his oblivion on the Spanish language, and selfishness to be able to understand all of the boys’ words.  Taking away their language shows this theme of unfair policies.

In the poem, "Revolutionary Spanish Lesson," Espada is trying to show the ignorance of people and their lack of respect towards different cultures.  He went to the extremities using hyperboles to show how much it bothered him when people mispronounced his name, or anyone’s name that may have cultural significance.  From this poem I got that Espada felt that it was wrong to either not care enough about a person's history to get a persons name pronunciation right, or even turning a persons name into a more American name.  This poem is trying to show the selfishness that Americans can have in thinking a name is wrong unless it is familiar, and the discrimination that can come from the ignorance of "Republican tourists from Wisconsin," and all white Americans.  

In the final poem, "Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cru, California May 3, 1877," this reoccurring theme of discrimination based on selfishness and power continued to develop.  The poem repeatedly used the words "more than..." before each stanza talking about the two Mexicanos that got lynched, and used the last stanza to show what the gringo vigilantes wanted.  This poem talked all about the sadness of the lynching, yet used those words more than to degrade them, and show how through all the pain and torture and discrimination the lynching party was proud, and supposedly, "the more important aspect."  That the photo that all the lynching party had squeezed into was what remained.  The selfishness of these people was shown through this word choice trying to explain how the lynchers were focused on rather than the deceased, giving this selfish discrimination its power.  

Through all of Martín Espada's poems, he shows the readers the reoccurring theme of discrimination based on power, ignorance and selfishness.  The word choice and main focus on the people who were discriminating helped to get the point across and show this main idea.  

Ballet Perspectives

I only read a little bit of this book, but it seemed really interesting and showed the power and hurt behind the topic of ballet under neither the prettiness of the dance.  It was written in a poetic format making it really interesting to be able to view how the author wanted the text to be read and flow.  Also, being a dancer I enjoyed reading about the pain and struggle, knowing about it first hand, from another persons perspective.

From first person point of view it was interesting to see how the girl described dancers like their stereotype, with perfect hair, leotards, skinniness; yet also be able to see her thoughts on herself.  The fact that she loved the dance yet hated it so much at the same time was really interesting to read about. I do very much hate ballet, but dancing is one of my favorite things to do.  Being inside a different teenage girl dancer's shoes was cool and I really enjoyed reading the small portion that I did.  Thanks Zoe for letting me borrow your book! I hope I can read it fully through sometime.  I was written fluently and well.

the Mission by Jason Myers

"The car creeps to the end of the driveway and turns onto the gravel road, the tires kick up a small cloud of dust that whips into a spiral in the dead air before disappearing just as quickly as it came.  I roll my window down and swallow a heavy gulp of humidity and look at my mom and take a deep breath."

The book The Mission by Jason Myers starts really beautifully using in-depth description that gets the reader interested in the characters, setting, and "mission" just form the first page.  That line was just the first two sentences of the book, and judging from the fluidity and poetic sense of the writing, I am going to love this story.

"My mom guides the car onto the boiling asphalt in front of us, turns the radio up, and rolls her window down halfway.  Her long brown hair blows in the breeze coming in and shines in the sunlight."

The story continues with great description, and just from this first page, no madder how awful the plot may turn out to be, this writer can catch the readers eye and make each sentences flow beautifully, giving each line a seemingly "hidden" message.  I'm excited to see were this book is headed, and know from my peers thoughts, that this book will not have an awful plot, but that I will ened up loving it.  It seems really tough and has ome pull and struggle on the plot.  The beauty of the writing combined with the importance of the plot should make this book fun to read.