Figuring Yourself Out

What I read: Trevor explains how he was naughty when he was a little boy.  His mom always tried to find ways to discipline him. She used to make him write letters instead of arguing with her, and she would write letters back to him.  Once he burned down a white family's house, and this was during apartheid.  It's unbelievable to think that this actually happened.


Trevor talks about other things in these chapters too.  For example, he talks about the time he had a dog that was called Fufi.  Trevor and his mom thought that Fufi was really dumb, but in fact, she was deaf.  Trevor also talks about how as a young adult he tracked down his father, who he hadn't seen in about 10 years.  He tried to get to know his father but found out that he was really secretive.  Trevor also tells more about his step-father in these chapters, and we find out that his step-father, called Abel, was a really abusive alcoholic.  Trevor describes Abel as being sinister and tells a terrible story about how Abel beat up some neighborhood kids who were picking on Trevor.  Abel was a full grown man and he publically beat a 12-year-old boy.  Trevor Noah writes, "I have never enjoyed anything as much as I enjoyed that moment.  Revenge truly is sweet.  It takes you to a dark place, but, man, it satisfies a thirst.  Then there was the strangest moment where it flipped.  I caught a glimpse of the look of terror in the boy's face, and I realized that Abel had gone past getting revenge for me.  He wasn't doing this to teach the kid a lesson.  He was just beating him" (Noah, Location 1810-1815). 











What I thought about: In these chapters, Trevor gets into the adults in his life who raised him and influenced him to become a man.  This makes me think about my own life and the adults I have in mine.  My brother and I have been raised in the same household and it seems like we should have the same adults in our lives.  That's not all true, though because my brother has a different mother than me. So I have major influences from my mom and my dad, and so does my brother but he also has his own mother who is not really an influence in my life.  She is really important in his life, though.  At the same time, he has my mom and so do I since we've lived together since he was really young.

Reading these chapters, I also thought a lot about discipline.  Discipline is viewed differently by children and their parents.  Trevor talks about his experiences of being under his mother's rules.  It seems like he thought about it differently as a kid than he does now.  I wonder how I will see things differently when I'm an adult.  For example, my mom is annoying in many ways.  I think that in the future I might actually appreciate her for being annoying.  I might.

What I conclude:  By reading these chapters, I learned more about Trevor's life with adults during apartheid and after.  Sometimes I think that when things don't go my way it's the end of the world.  Then I think about how it would feel to be Trevor Noah during apartheid.  He had many issues with this mom that feel normal in my world.  But then I think about how Trevor and his mother had to hide the fact that they were mother and son, and that seems like a much more difficult life.  

Living In Apartheid

What I Read: In the new book I've started reading called Born a Crime by Trevor Noah, the author talks about his life in South Africa.  He was born in the early 1980s when apartheid was still happening.  This was a major problem for so many people but especially for him since his father is a white man from Switzerland and his mother is a black Xhosa woman from South Africa.  that's why the book is called Born a Crime - because Trevor was literally born a crime in his country.

Trevor Noah today

Trevor as a little boy with his mother

Trevor and his father

In the first chapters of this book, there's a lot of information. Trevor starts the story by talking about going to church with his mother. They went to three different churches every Sunday - white church, black church, and mixed church.  Trevor's mother is very religious and believes that God controls their lives and destinies.

Trevor and his mother were very poor when he was a child.  She was a single mother with a mixed child and all of that made life hard.  Still, they had lots of family around them.  They often lived without running water and electricity and they had an outhouse. Trevor tells a really funny story about going to the bathroom on the kitchen floor because he it was raining and he didn't want to go to the outhouse and get wet.  The other members of his mother's family didn't really know how to treat him since they thought of him as the "white" member of the family.  He didn't get beat by his grandmother, aunts and uncles as much as the other grandkids in the family because they were afraid to hit a "white" person.

When Trevor was growing up he and his mother moved a lot and he went to a few different schools.  It was always hard for him to fit in, especially in a new school because he didn't know if he belonged with white kids or black kids.  Most people thought he was "coloured," which is the word for people with two mixed parents in South Africa. but really he wasn't because he wasn't part of that group and culture in his country. 

Children who were classified as "coloured" under apartheid

At school one time, a white woman talked to Trevor about the class that he was in.  He got put in the A Class for smart students and it was mostly white kids.  He wanted to move to the B Class.  The passage below comes from the book:

     "Oh, no," she said.  "I don't think you want to do that."
     "Why not?"
     "Because those kids are... you know."
     "No, I don't know.  What do you mean?"
     "Look," she said, "you're a smart kid.  You don't want to be in that class."
     "But aren't the classes the same?  English is English.  Math is math."
     "Yeah, but that class is... those kids are gonna hold you back. You want to be in the smart class."
     "But surely there must be some smart kids in the B Class."
     "No, there aren't."
     "But all my friends are there."
     "You don't want to be friends with those kids."
     "Yes, I do."
     We went back and forth.  Finally she gave me a stern warning.
     "You do realize the effects this will have on your future?  You do understand what you're giving up?  This will impact the opportunities you'll have open to you for the rest of your life."
     "I'll take that chance."
(Noah, Location 900-914).

What I Thought About:  In the passage above, it's clear that even after apartheid ended, racism was and still is a real problem in South Africa.  This reminds me of Ecuador and the United States and most other countries that I've seen.  Sometimes people aren't openly racist but like the lady in the quote above you can tell that people have racist attitudes right under the surface.  She might not have said anything racist, but she showed racism in her attitude about the white class and the black class.

The other thing that I really thought about when I was reading this book is the part when Trevor talks about language.  He says that in his life, it's language and being able to talk to people that unites people even more than race.  "That, and so many other smaller incidents in my life, made me realize that language, even more than color, defines who you are to people.  I became a chameleon.  My color didn't change, but I could change your perception of my color.  If you spoke to me in Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu.  If you spoke to me in Tswana, I replied to you in Tswana.  Maybe I didn't look like you, but if I spoke like you, I was you" (Noah, Location 853).

I can apply this quote to my own life because if I weren't bilingual, I wouldn't be able to communicate with my mom's or dad's side of the family because if I spoke only English, I couldn't talk to my dad's family and vice versa.  When I think about my friends, I realize how lucky and I am to be able to communicate with them.  If I go out in the world and meet someone who looks like me and I want to be friends with them, if that person speaks a language I don't understand, we're not likely to end up becoming friends.

What I Conclude:  In conclusion, I've already learned a lot from the first five chapters of this book.  I didn't used to know about the classifications of race under apartheid in South Africa and I especially didn't know about people who were called "coloured."  Trevor Noah thinks of himself as black and I think of myself as black too, but under apartheid, we would both be classified as a crime.  This is weird to think about because we both look most like the group called "coloured."  It's hard for me to accept a government deciding my race for me and I can't believe that Trevor Noah and everyone else in South Africa had to put up with that.  I also can't believe that apartheid happened so recently.

Below is a video of Trevor Noah singing a song in Xhosa with clicks in it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baEiWB2aM9Y

A Flower Shop... Maybe

What I read:  After Joseph and Bull meet, Sumiko's auntie gets a job in Chicago.  The plan is that Sumiko and her brother Tak-Tak will move with the aunt to Chicago, but Sumiko doesn't want to.  Sumiko also realizes that Bull is going to join the army and fight in the war.  Sumiko feels scared about all these changes.

Sumiko is determined not to leave with her aunt.  She tries asking other family members to take her and her brother in.  Nothing works.  She even talks to Frank and Frank says that she should go with her aunt to Chicago.

Finally at the end, Sumiko realizes it's best for her and her brother to move to Chicago and leave the camp to start a new life.  On the last day, Frank comes to say goodbye to Sumiko and to wish her luck. They promise to write letters and stay in touch.  Frank is one of the first friends Sumiko has ever had.  Sumiko thinks about opening a flower shop in the future when she is grown up and the war is over.

What I thought about:  Even though it hard to start a new life, I believe that Sumiko and her family made the right choice.  It was also the bravest choice.  They were comfortable living in the camp, but they realized that they couldn't be imprisioned as the war is going on.  No one knew how long the war would last.  Making the choice to leave the camp is risky but it reminds them that they have the right to be free.  They make the hard choice to be free over being comfortable.

When Sumiko talks to Frank about moving to Chicago, Frank says that she should go because he's trying to be a good friend and help her have a good life.  Sumiko doesn't understand this at first and thinks that he wants to get rid of her.  Sumiko has never had any friends before and so she doesn't really understand the meaning of friendship.  She doesn't think about how Frank would rather have her there but tells her to leave because leaving is the best thing for her.  I think that a friend like Frank is truely a good friend and the best kind of friend a person can have because he wants what's best for her instead of himself.

What I conclude:  I learned a lot from this book about how Japanese, Japanese Americans, and American Indians were treated during world war II.  Despite the fact that this isn't a true story, you learn so much about interracial friendship, stereotypes, and freedom.  For example, Japanese and Japanese Americans are forced to live in internment camps and American Indians aren't supposed to have names of their culture.

I recommend this book to anyone who likes learning about history or who likes historical fiction.  But I also recommend this book to people who think that interracial friendship is a topic worth reading about. 

Interracial Friends

What I read: On Saturday morning, Sumiko takes her cousin Bull to the river where they meet Frank and his older brother Joseph.  At first, Joseph and Bull introduce themselves respectfully but a little distant.  But later Joseph and Bull talk about their different farms and they warm up to each other.  By the end of the meeting they seem friendly.




Joseph is about the go fight in the war in about a month. This upsets Frank because all of his older brothers are already fighting.  This is obviously dangerous because they might die in the war.

  

What I thought about: When Sumiko brings Bull to meet Frank and Joseph, she asks Frank why they have English sounding names instead of "Indian" names.  Frank says it's because the state of Arizona won't let them.  This makes me think about how unfair it is to not follow your own culture.  For example, in the state of Arizona American Indians aren't allowed to have names from their own culture.  

They must have English names like Frank and Joseph.  I think this is wrong because it's horrible to lose your culture. 
Another example is that my name is Nia.  My name can be pronounced in both English and Spanish, but my name is actually Swahili.  My parents thought this was a good name for me.  It seems unfair that some government would tell them that they couldn't name me that.  

What I conclude: As I read these chapters it reminded me about how possible it is to have friendships between people that come from two different races.  In the book Bull and Joseph accept each others differences and cultures.  So do Sumiko and Frank.  It can be hard to break barriers sometimes, but once you do you discover that you have more in common than you think.  For instance, my best friend in Los Angeles is white and her parents are from Australia.  I'm black and from Ecuador.  My mom is white and my dad is black.  Just because my friend and I are from different places and races doesn't mean we must hate each other.

The Wall

What I read: In the last chapters, the American Indians decide to build a wall between their reservation and the Japanese internment camp.  They say it's to keep cows "inside" their own farms.  But the Japanese disagree and therefore hate what the Indians are doing.

Sumiko and Frank become friends after Sumiko saves Frank from getting beat up by Japanese boys.  In fact, Sumiko herself hits a Japanese boy with a stick and breaks his nose.  She does this to defend Frank.

Sumiko and Frank are planning to meet with each other and introduce their older family members.  Frank's older brother is a farmer and wants to meet Sumiko's cousin Bull so that they can talk about farming practices.  Bull is a very skilled farmer with lots of experience, but it's not clear if he'll be okay to meet with a Native American.

What I thought about: Reading this part reminds me of the Berlin Wall and Donald Trump saying that he wants to build a wall between the United States and Mexico.  First, the Berlin Wall was built to separate Eastern Germans from Western Germans because both sides were part of different countries.  They didn't have the freedom to go back and forth across the city of Berlin just like Donald Trump wants to stop people crossing the Mexican-American border.

In the book, the Japanese people enclosed by the wall that the American Indians have put up.  It's sad for Sumiko because it's ruining her garden that she keeps with her friend Mr. Moto.  It's not nearly as bad having a wall blocking your garden as it is having a wall blocking your freedom.

What I conclude: 
 Thinking about the fact that Donald Trump wants to build a wall makes me think that the United States hasn't learned from their mistakes they have made in the past.  For example, sending Japanese and Japanese Americans to internment camps was a huge mistake in history.  Now many Americans are excited about discriminating against a group of people again.  We think that we learn from our mistakes in the past, but that's not always the case.  That's not happening now.  By reading these chapters, it makes me think about how ignorant Americans have been throughout history and continue to be.  It makes me really sad to think about this.

Japanese and American Indians

What I read:  Sumiko and her family arrive at a camp in Poston, Arizona.  This is an internment camp for Japanese and Japanese American families during world war II.  It's called the Colorado River Relocation Center, but really it's more like a living prison for the people who are stuck there.



When Sumiko arrives, she is surprised because she hasn't experienced this much heat. She is originally from California and this is her first time in the Arizona desert. She can't believe how hot it is.



She meets an American Indian boy called Frank soon after she arrives. Frank lives right next to the camp, but outside of it.  Sumiko and Frank are about the same age.  At first, Frank acts like he knows the camp and the area around the camp better than Sumiko does. Because of this, he acts a little condescending towards Sumiko.  Also, when Frank talks to his friends, it's clear that they have a lot of stereotypes against Japanese people and a lot of wrong ideas.





At the same time, there are a lot of people in the camp who have negative stereotypes of the American Indians who live around the camp.  So this prejudice goes both ways.

Later on, Frank and Sumiko learn more about each other's differences and they become more friendly.



What I thought about: I thought a lot about the prejudice parts of this book.  It makes me think about the racism between two different cultures and the hatred they have towards each other in the story.  In the story, the time is the 1940s.  It might seem like it makes sense to have fear and hatred when there is a war going on, like there is in the book. But this is not really true since today there is a still a lot of fear, hatred, prejudice, and misunderstanding between groups, even if there is no war happening currently.  

One group that I think about a lot is Muslim people.  Right now in the United States, and especially with the election happening between Clinton and Trump, there is a lot of prejudice against Muslim people.  Some Americans feel like it's okay for them to have this prejudice.  They even think that all Muslim people are terrorist.  I think that this is terrible and that it shows that we still have a long ways to go to make thins better.

What I conclude: I think that by the end of the book, Sumiko and Frank will become amazing friends. They come from different cultures and racial groups and this means that they have more bridges to cross to make a friendship between them.  I think they will, though.  I'm excited to see if I'm right and how they might live their lives after the war is over.  

Sumiko's Life Before Pearl Harbor

What I Read:

I started reading the book Weedflower by Cynthia Kadohata.  It's about a girl names Sumichan (Sumiko for short), who is a Japanese-American middle schooler that is living her life in the U.S. before the attack on Pearl Harbor. When Sumiko gets invited to a party by a student in her class, she gets so excited because she almost never gets invited to a white American party. On the day of the party, her classmate's parents give her a slice of cake and tell her to leave, just because she's Japanese. 

Sumiko lives with her family in a Japanese neighborhood in southern California. Everyone in her family works on their farms growing crops, picking flowers and taking care of their animals, especially Baba (their horse). One day Sumiko and her family listen to the morning radio and hear that Pearl Harbor had been bombed by the Japanese. A few days later Sumiko's uncle and Grandfather (Jiichan) are told to go to the police to be "checked". A few days later, Sumiko and the rest of her family are sent to Internment Camp. WHAAAAAAAAAAAAT? 

What I Thought About:

As I start reading this book, I like that this story is being told from a Japanese-Americans' point of view. In the past, I've heard of many Pearl Harbor and World War II stories that are normally told from a white Americans', Nazis', or Jews' perspective of the war or Holocaust. Still, when Sumiko and her family get sent to an Internment Camp it reminds me of what happened to Jewish people at the start of the Holocaust. This story keeps on reminding me that what happened to Jews was terrifying, but look at what was happening to Japanese-Americans in the U.S. after Pearl Harbor. 

Something that seems really interesting yet shocking to me at the same time is that the offensive word referring to Japanese people is already being used. This is demonstrating to me the hatred that Americans had toward people from different races.

·      

What I Conclude:

I can't wait to read the rest of this story and see how Sumiko lives her life during the Second World War. Despite the fact that this is a historical fiction story, I think I'll learn a lot about American history during the Second World War. I think that Sumiko will survive the Internment Camp and start a new life. However, her life and perspective of life will change a lot because of her experiences there.

Also, I think that it's really unfair that the Japanese and Japanese-American people were treated like that during World War II.   It's understandable that people get scared during a war, but Japanese-Americans never planned for the Japanese to bomb Pearl Harbor.  So, it's unfair to take away their rights and freedom when they didn't do anything wrong.  It's embarrassing to think that this happened in American history.

The Final Journey

What I read:
Its been almost a year since Jonas started his training.  On the day in which his father says that he will release a twin baby, Jonas goes to the Giver and they both watch the release happening.  While Jonas watches the tape, he sees that one of the babies is injected with something lethal.  He realizes that being released actualy means getting killed.  He feels horrified at what his father does at work. He never knew about it before.





Jonas realizes that Gabriel will be released also.  The Giver and Jonas create a plan so that Jonas and Gabriel can escape and leave the community forever.  Jonas sneeks out of his house during the night with Gabriel.  The journey is very difficult.  There are long roads on his bicicle, long walking distances, and weather problems.  Finally Jonas sees a bunch of lights in the distance.  Next to him there is a red sled.  He gets on the sled with Gabriel and they ride down towards the lights.

What I thought about:
"The worst part of holding the memories is not the pain.  It's the loneliness of it.  Memories need to be shared" (154).

The quote struck me because its actually true because the Giver kept those memories for 10 years.  Now Jonas and Gabe will have those memories until they die unless they share them.  The loneliness is because for a long time they don't have anybody to share happy memories with.  When I can't share happy memories, it feels like I can't express my feelings.  So its really hard for me to think of what it would be like for the Giver to never be able to share.



"Listen to me, Jonas.  they can't help it.  They know nothing... It's the way they live.  It's the life that was created for them.  It's the same life that you would have, if you had not been chosen as my successor " (153).  


This is something that the Giver tells Jonas when Jonas cries after seeing his father kill an innocent baby.  The giver reminds Jonas that its not really their fault that they murder people because they are ignorant.  Its hard to think about what they people do and now how to feel about it.  One the one hand, they are killing inocent children and other people which is totally unfair and horrible.  On the other hand, they don't even know what they are doing so its sort of hard to blame them, although you can feel hatred towards them.

What I conclude:
Its hard to know to know exactly what happens at the end of the book.  We don't know if that is actually a town that Jonas sees or if it is an illusion.  When I first finished the book, I thought that he actually reaches the town, but the more I think about it, the less sure I am about it.  I think that's why this is such a good book.  You can debate it with people.

I also think that this is a good book because I can think about that their distopian world and our world can be similar and different in many ways.  Its really difficult to decide if a society that is so peaceful like theirs is actually better than ours knowing that they still do things like kill people unfairly.  It makes me wonder if its better to no know what's going on, or to know the truth.

All and all, I really liked this book a lot.  I recommend it to people who like to think and compare and contrast.  One of my favorite parts was when Jonas starts to se color and the apple.  Its exciting to read that and not really know what he sees, but know that something cool is about ti happen.

Dark Memories

What I read:
Jonas continues his training with the Giver.  He starts getting darker memories past on to him.  For example, the last horrible memory that he gets is been the middle of a war with thousands of soldiers dead or wounded.  In a different memory, he also breaks his leg when riding down on a sled.  

Jonas and the whole community have a free day because its a holiday.  One that day Jonas goes to find Asher.  He finds his friend in the meadows playing war.  When Jonas walks into the middle of the "battle field" Jonas's friends points an imaginary gun at him and start shooting him.  This reminds Jonas of the horrific memory of the real war that he has seen.  When Jonas asks them to stop playing war, Asher gets upset because he doens't understand how bad war really is.  Fiona tries to cheer Jonas, but instead Jonas goes to the Giver.  Jonas talks to the Giver about love.  The Giver tells Jonas the story of what happened to the last failed receiver before Jonas.  Her name was Rosemary.  Rosemary did the same training as Jonas but when she got her first dark memory, she asked for release.  She never came back.








Something else very important that happens in these chapters in that one night Gabe sleeps in Jonas's room.  When Gabe wakes up Jonas goes to his crib to calm him down.  Jonas starts patting and rubbing his back.  Then a memory comes to Jonas and he suddenly losses it.  He realizes that he has past it on to Gabe by accident. 







What I thought about:
"They have never known pain, he thought.  The realization made him feel desperately lonely, and he rubbed his throbbing leg.  He eventually slept.  Again and again he dreamed of the anguish and the isolation on the forsaken hill" (110).

Pain is obviouslly negative.  No one likes pain.  But its important to think about how pain can make us learn.  Without pain there wouldn't be relief.  Without pain you can't really know what comfort is just like without night night you can't really know what day is.  This quote is important because when Jonas learns about war and pain, he basically starts to lose his friends.  That's because he feels so alone and isolated from other the rest of the community because he feels like he can't express himself. He can't tell them what he really things and feels.





"Jonas started at them.  Meaningless?  He had never before felt anything as meaningful as the memory" (126-127).


This memory is about love.  Jonas asks his father "Do you love me?"  The father's response is that he shouldn't say that word because its meaningless.  Jonas realizes that nobody in his community knows that love is.  I think that this is shocking because how do you get married when you're not in love?  More importantly, parents can't tell their children that they love them because they don't even have love.  Its sad to think about a world with no love in it.




What I conclude:

This book has changes a lot since the beginning.  At first the society looks well organized and like a nice place to life.  But now we realize that everyone is color blind, there's no love, and there's no real families, since there can only be four members in each family and no one has grandparents, or even know what grandparents are.  While it would be great to live in a world without war, it would be hard to live in a world with no real families and with no love at all.