How do different characters deal with social justice in their societies?

     In the book I recently finished, Brave New World by Aldous Huxley, the characters face a lot of different kinds of social justice issues in their society including some they don't even realize to be issues. In the book, the government has completely dominated every aspect of human life throughout the country. The Ten World Controllers have conditioned people from birth to believe in certain ideals and be disgusted by any old, traditional ways of the people before the Nine Years War when the government seized control of everyone's lives. Many of the people in the society are afraid to act out against things they think are unjust because they have been raised and programmed to believe that certain things are okay or natural, such as people being born in test tubes and raised in schools instead of having parents or families. Lenina, an average Beta society member thinks that something is wrong with the flaky relationships people have instead of actually dating or getting married, but is too afraid to let that thought grow because no one else thinks the same way. When she meets John who's a Native American living by the old traditional life style, nothing seems the same anymore. Overall, the different characters in Brave New World find different ways to deal with social justice issues in their society by either trying to voice their beliefs or silence them.
     To begin, in the book, John copes with social justice issues in the mainstream society by facing them head on. For example, in the text, visiting people at the hospital when they are very ill or an a terminal condition is unheard of in society because kids are "death-conditioned" so they have no feelings about death. So when John visits his dying mother Linda in the hospital, the nurses and medical students act like it's an obscene and completely outrageous thing to do. But to John, who grew up in a society like our modern one, it was a completely justified action to want to visit the woman who raised him for the last time in life. To deal with this social justice issue of children being programmed to resist emotion about death, John tries to express his ideas about family to the nurses and students in the hospital. His mother dying was a turning point in John's life that inspired him to fight social injustice in society. Throughout the rest of the book, John tries as hard as he can to voice his beliefs to anyone who will listen in order to let people know that emotion is okay and that they can't let the government leech onto their lives. In contrast to John's great efforts to protest social injustice, Lenina's response to social justice issues are too simply ignore them. Rather than go with her beliefs of what's wrong, she choses to see the world in the picture perfect way the government wants her to. For instance, in the text, John tries to explain the concept of family and marriage to Lenina to make her understand that he wants to have a serious relationship with her. But Lenina just tosses all his ideas aside and parrots the sayings the government conditions children to believe. There are different times in the book where Lenina can tell that something is not right with her gut instinct, but unlike John, she chooses not to act on it.
     Furthermore, the character Bernard has a mixed response to social justice and struggles throughout the book to decide whether to silence his thoughts or try to share them. In the beginning of the book when Bernard is first introduced to the reader, it is made clear that Bernard is an oddball in the society. He disagrees with almost every single thing the government does and is always mumbling to himself instead of socializing like all the other society members. Most people ignore Bernard or don't think much of him because he doesn't only care about playing golf or going on dates like everyone else does. But when he discovers John in the New Mexico reservation, he becomes famous and highly respected throughout all of the society. The most  important government leaders want to meet him and everyone wants to be his best friend. This fame and success get to Bernard's head and cause him to ignore all the ideas he was passionate about before and just try to fit in with the rest of society. Instead of facing the apparent social justice issues he notices, Bernard decided to ignore them because his sudden popularity overrode his need to share his ideas with others. Additionally, Bernard's best friend Helmholtz tries to convince Bernard not to let the fame of discovering a "Savage" get to his head. Helmholtz is an Alpha lecturer and a manager at the College of Emotional Engineering. He writes many instructional books to inform different groups of people of the government's expectations and guidelines for how to do their jobs. But even though his whole career is based on society's excessive government control, Helmholtz has very different personal ideals. He believes that people should be independent of the government and make lives for themselves instead of being conditioned. Also, he strongly believes in people having the ability to think for themselves instead of being taught in school how to parrot the government. But unlike Bernard, who established himself as a strange person to others in society, Helmholtz keeps his beliefs between Bernard and himself in order to live peacefully under the government's rule and not raise suspicions about himself. Helmholtz dealt with social justice issues in society by hiding his thoughts behind a high level, respectable government job instead of making his beliefs public.
     In conclusion, different characters in Brave New World deal with social justice issues in society differently depending on what their life intentions are. John intended to change society and encourage new morales so he decided to voice his beliefs. Alternatively, Lenina, who intended to live by government rule and focus on having fun instead of risking getting in trouble, decided to keep her disagreement with government ideals secret. Bernard at first ignored society's rules but after becoming popular, decided to silence his thoughts so he could fit into society and be celebrated by his peers instead of teased by them. Helmholtz also kept his ideas secret in order to be accepted and respected by society and not raise government suspicions about himself. Since the government in the Brave New World controlled most aspects of the people's lives and the rules in society, the Ten World Controllers acted quickly to eliminate people who are seen as government threats from society and sent them to live far away. Independent people who have their own thoughts and ideas such as Bernard, Helmholtz, and John are all people that the government feared because they could tell others of their different ideas and thoughts which could cause a rebellion. The fear of being banished causes the characters such as Lenina and Helmholtz to silence their beliefs. But since John was raised in a different kind of community, he wasn't afraid to be banished and tried to voice his beliefs as much as he could. Overall, the different characters in the book dealt with social justice issues differently because they all had different needs and wants in their lives.

Social Justice in Society

         Have you ever imagined what Earth would be like six hundred years into the future? The book Brave New World by Aldous Huxley is about new society hundreds of years from now. In this new, future society, science and technology has taken over every simple aspect of life. The first few pages of the book begin the whole story by showing how birth is now a scientific procedure done with test tubes and freezing and tons of babies being made in the Fertilizing Room every day in the Central London Hatchery and Conditioning Centre. Brave New World presents an entirely different view on society where everyone is under specific instructions and technology dominates life. Along with this new society is the uprising of many social justice issues that relate to the current time now. The biggest social justice issue is one that is very big today as well. This issue is government interference and control in everyday life. In the future society, the government has taken complete control over the human population and has too much interference in daily life.
         To Begin, in the book, the government controls birth and human genetic structure. Instead of mothers and father having children like in today, the government scientifically makes children with Fertilizing Rooms and by chemically altering human DNA to make the exact kind of people they want. In the text, the people created are made specifically to fit into certain social groups such Alpha Plus, Beta, Gamma, and others. Some groups are made very smart to go on to be powerful rulers including being one of the 10 World Controllers. Alternatively, some groups such as Gamma are made with less intelligence to serve different purposes in the world. The government also alters DNA to make children grow to their full heights and become fully developed faster so they can go on to work earlier in life. In this society, the government really sees no need for childhood. They believe that while people are in a physically childhood state, they should simply be formerly educated according to the government's ideas and then go on to become an adult in society immediately afterwards. This shows how the government has already interfered with people being able to be who they really are inside and have put people into groups so they are limited to the government's forced ideals and won't have their own goals and personal ideas. And without a real childhood, they never learn how to form their own opinions. Overall, the government doesn't want people to have childhoods because they don't want them to be creative and think outside the government's regulations, rules, and methods.
          Secondly, the government controls what children are brought up to believe. Children are raised without families, which don't exist in this society, and are instead raised with nurses who act as teachers. Three times a week for several hours, while the children are sleeping, the nurses use hypnotic technique to repeat certain sayings hundreds of times to imprint them into the children's minds. Then, after the children are forced to do this for their entire elementary school lives, they have certain ideals stuck in their heads forever. These ideas are things that the government wants the children to believe in order to better control them and make sure they don't have any political or social ideas of their own. Furthermore, the government also controls how much people know about the past, or the current ways of Earth's society today. In the text, the Director explains to science students how people had mothers and fathers and lived with their families. The students think this is outrageous and inconvenient. Everything the students hear about the old society disgusts them because they have already been brought up by certain government ideas. This way, people won't understand how life was before the government was so involved in it. Overall, the government controls the what children are brought up to believe and how much people hear about the past in order to make people only believe in the society the government has created.
          In conclusion, in the book, the government interferes in humans' daily lives in this future society to make sure they have complete control and that no one disagrees with their ideals. In the future society, the government  has even used hypnosis on people to make sure they don't rebel or disagree with the government. Today, government interference in daily life is a big social justice issue that I not only see popping into my book, but popping into my life. Many people are very opinionated on how much the government should be involved in and where the limit of government interference really is. For example, government surveillance is a big issue in the US. Some people are very supportive of the government videotaping and checking emails and keeping tabs on people in order to protect the country. But others strongly disagree and believe that the government is already too involved in daily life and should be respecting peoples' privacy. Also, government control in big business transactions is a very controversial issue because peoples' opinions differ on whether or not the government has the right to interfere in the world of big business. Last month, I read an article on the issue of government control and surveillance that presented both sides of an argument. On one hand, I think that the government is already involved too much in daily life with excessive security and surveillance, but I also understand that they want to make sure that there are no security risks. For me, it's hard to see where the privacy of the people starts and the responsibility of the government ends. Overall, government control and interference is a big social justice issue that I see in my book and in my life that can determine the freedom and privacy of the people.

   

Books Written in Blood Shouldn't be Banned

     The article "Why the Best Kid Books Are Written in Blood" by Sherman Alexie published in the Wall Street Journal presents the idea that dark issues in Young Adult books help teens deal with and face the dark issues in their own lives. Throughout the article, Alexie references the dark issues he's faced in his own life such as rape and both sexual and physical abuse in his family. He explains how reading dark Young Adult literature didn't hurt him because he was exposed to so much darkness in his own life, and that writing and reading helped him through it. Furthermore, Alexie supports his idea by using examples from other people in real life. He tells some stories of people from both poor, wealthy, and all kinds of schools and environments he's visited who have shared their hardships and life struggles with him after relating to his book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian. Sherman Alexie also contrasts his ideas with those of Megan Cox Gurdon in "Darkness Too Visible" to further support the idea that teens should have access to dark Young Adult literature. In the end of the article, Alexie closes with powerful words to further convince the reader of his claim. His closing sentences are about how he writes "in blood" or writes about dark and "monstrous" concepts because he remembers what it was like to deal with dark issues as a teen.
     Throughout the article, Sherman Alexie uses a lot of craft moves to support his claim. For example, he backlashes at Megan Cox Gurdon by giving examples of people who have suffered hard times and who read dark Young Adult books for inspiration in their own lives. He talks about how a seventeen year-old was already "destined to join the military" and "old enough to kill and die for his country" and but Megan Cox Gurdon believed he still shouldn't be exposed to the darkness in banned books. The way Alexie writes about this and directly addresses Megan Cox Gurdon's counterclaim evokes anger from the reader and encourages the reader to agree with him instead of Megan because they feel for the seventeen-year old whose story Alexie told. In addition, Alexie uses specific word choice and imagery to support his claim. In the article, Alexie says "I read books about monsters and monstrous things, often written with monstrous language, because they taught me how to battle the real monsters in my life." Alexie's choice to repeat the words "monster" and "monstrous" strengthens the image readers get of battling monsters in real life.
     I agree with Sherman Alexie's claim because teens should be able to read about dark issues in Young Adult books since they are issues they are going to face in real life. Reading about dark topics in YA books such as drinking, drugs, death, sex, and more can help teens figure out how to overcome and deal with these issues in their own lives. This article gives examples of people who have talked to Sherman Alexie, telling him how simply reading his book made a big impact in their life. This shows how the ideas books present and how protagonist characters overcome issues and obstacles gives teens inspiration to overcome those obstacles themselves, and it gives them hope that they can turn their lives around from a bad place. In this article, there were certain lines that stood out to me. These lines were the last two of the article, "I give them [teens] weapons-in the form of words and ideas-that will help them fight their monsters. I write in blood because I remember what it felt like to bleed." These lines stood out to me because I think it's really interesting how Alexie's book and many others can be used as a way for teens to fight the monsters in their life, whether their monsters are homework or tests or something more serious like abuse. And the very last line really made me think about the article on a whole new level. The line means that Alexie writes about teenage hardships because he remembers what it was like to go through them himself. Overall, I agree with Alexie's claim because reading about real issues can help teens overcome obstacles in their lives.

To Be or Not to Be "Cool"

Have you ever wanted something so badly that you'd sacrifice anything for it? Have you been so desperate to fit in that you'd break the law to be considered "cool"? In the book Be More Chill by Ned Vizzini, a teenage boy named Jeremy struggles to fit in and be accepted into the popularity-obsessed world of high school. In his school, Jeremy’s labeled as a nerd and a loser. But when Jeremy illegally buys a mini supercomputer called a squip that tells him how to act and what to say, Jeremy's whole life turns around. From new friends, to girls, to parties, the squip guides Jeremy through the exciting world of high school popularity and being "cool". The squip is always in Jeremy's brain, reading his thoughts and gathering information to figure out how to make Jeremy “cool”. But as Jeremy learns, having the squip and being “cool” comes at a price. The book Be More Chill is meaningful to teens because it discusses the common high school ideal of being "cool".

One way Be More Chill discusses the idea of being "cool" is through what the squip tells Jeremy to do. For example, the squip tells Jeremy who to be friends with and who to be on bad terms with in order to boost his social status. In the text, the squip tells Jeremy not to be friends with his best friend Michael, who is considered very "un-cool" and weird. To make him more “cool”, the squip helps Jeremy get on good terms with the popular kids such as the football quarterback Brock, who's one of the most popular guys in school. Furthermore, the squip also gives Jeremy advice on how to act around the popular girls because having a girlfriend is considered a big part of being "cool" in high school. The squip tells Jeremy what to say to Chloe, the "hottest girl in school". With the squip telling him what to say, Jeremy gets Chloe to like him, making him very “cool” to his peers. Chloe invites Jeremy to go to a party with her where they do drugs and Jeremy drinks to look "cool" in front of the other kids at the party. This shows how teens believe that drinking and doing drugs and having girlfriends are all what make teens think each other are “cool” whether they’re intelligent and kind people or not. Overall, the things Jeremy does and says and the way he acts and what he does under the squip’s instruction shows and discusses what the typical high school ideal of being "cool" really means to teenagers.

Another way Be More Chill discusses the meaningful idea of being "cool" is by showing the controversy of whether the people the squip made Jeremy hangout with were really his true friends. When Jeremy gets the squip and becomes super popular and "cool" at his school, many kids suddenly decide to become his friend and everyone is much nicer to him. For example, Chloe decides that she likes Jeremy when she sees how he's acting more "cool" even though she didn't even know who he was before he was popular. But Chloe wasn't Jeremy's true friend because she didn't like him  for who he really was before he was "cool". Some people truly liked Jeremy for who he was. For example, Jeremy's best friend Michael didn't like Jeremy for his squip. Michael liked Jeremy when he was considered a dork and acted like his true self, not when he let the squip tell him how to act "cool". Also, under the squip’s influence, Jeremy was unable to impress Christine, the girl he liked. Christine had liked Jeremy before he had the squip telling him what to do. She actually liked Jeremy for his true personality and not the personality the squip created for him. This shows how making a sacrifice to be "cool" isn't necessarily worth it because you’re true friends will like you even if you’re not popular. I know that my friends are true friends because they like me for who I am inside and they don’t care if I’m popular or “cool”. Overall, this book discusses the idea of being "cool" and that you're true friends are the ones that like you for your true personality and not because you're popular.

In conclusion, Be More Chill is meaningful to 8^th graders and teenagers because it discusses the common high school ideal of being "cool". The book discusses what being "cool" means to teens and that you're true friends are the ones that like you whether you're popular or not. This book connects to teens in real life because many teens want to fit in and be popular. Some teens do things like drinking and smoking to look "cool" in front of their classmates. I know that I've had times in school where I just felt like I didn't fit and thought that being popular and having lots of friends was the most important thing in the world. I remember in 6^th grade, I didn’t know anyone in my homeroom though many other kids already had friends in the class. But I knew I should be myself and I made lots of friends in only the first week. No one cared that I didn’t know anyone else or was smaller than everybody else. I made true friends who didn’t care if I was “cool” or not. Jeremy had true friends that didn’t care if he was “cool”. Christine and Michael didn't like Jeremy because he was popular, they liked him for his true self and he didn't need the squip to impress them. Overall, Be More Chill discusses what the idea of being "cool" is to teens and that you’re true friends are the ones that will stick by you, popular or not. This book spreads the message that life shouldn't be about being "cool", it should be about accepting and embracing who you are. 

Reading Response to It's Kind of a Funny Story

     

     It's Kind of a Funny Story by Ned Vizzini is an inspiring story about a teenage boy struggling with depression throughout his high school life. The main character, teenager Craig Gilner, goes to a prestigious, elite Manhattan school called Executive Pre-Professional High School where academic and social stress make Craig stop eating regularly and he becomes more and more depressed until one night, Craig almost tries to kill himself. Criag ends up checking himself into the hospital and gets placed into the adult psychiatric unit. There, Craig makes many new friends and finds the root of his depression. I learned a lot from Craig's journey throughout It's Kind of a Funny Story. From wanting to kill himself to wanting to be an artist, Craig's crazy life taught me a lot about anxiety and coping with stress by finding an outlet. A big part of Craig's depression is academic stress that results from challenging classes and homework from his school. He has a lot of trouble balancing social time with homework time and then trying to find a moment to just relax. Sometimes I get stressed from having a lot of assignments due the next day and balancing hanging out with friends with homework and studying and extra-circulars. Sometimes homework can seem overwhelming, which is why it's important to make sure you leave yourself a little time to relax and focus on a hobby or something you like to do as opposed to something you have to do. Craig discovers in the book that art is a great creative outlet for him and it allows him to focus on what he's drawing instead of stressing about studying and homework.
     Throughout this book, Craig changes a lot as a person as he struggles with depression. In the beginning of the book and before he's hospitalized, Craig is very stressed out about school and life after school. Craig wastes time doing drugs with friends, counting down until the next day where he goes through the same daily routine of slacking off and stressing. When Craig calls the suicide hot line which sends him to the hospital, Craig makes the life-changing choice of deciding to voluntarily check himself in the hospital. Craig begins his stay in the hospital by getting a room in the adult psychiatric unit because the children psychiatric unit is under renovation. In the adult psychiatric unit, Craig meets many adults with different problems and disorders that brought them to the hospital. Craig immediately starts socializing and over the course of only a few days, Craig gets to know and befriends almost everybody in adult psychiatric. He learns the stories of President Armelio, Noelle, and many others that have a big affect on the way he views life. Craig learns from the other people not to take everything for granted or judge anybody for their past or for simply being in the hospital. Meeting these people helped Craig realize what real friends were and that friends should actually care about what you're going through and not just expect you to hangout. This lesson about friendship is a big breakthrough for Craig and helps him get closer to beating his battle with depression. Craig also takes an art class in the hospital that allows himself to express his feelings and ideas creatively. Through his drawings, Craig lets go of all his stress and just enjoys what he's doing. He learns that having time to relax with a hobby can be very good for you. When Craig eventually leaves the hospital, he's confident, excited, and ready to take charge of his life without letting stress take over again. Overall, what Craig learned in the hospital about friendship and relaxing helped him change as a person and beat his depression once and for all.