Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Analysis of The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

In Sherman Alexie's The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian, The main character Arnold “Junior” Spirit goes through a lot of highs and lows psychologically. In the first few chapters of the book, Junior describes how miserable his life was compared to most Indians in the reservation and how in general Indians live a very poor and miserable life compared to people who live outside of the reservation. Later on, when he starts going to a new school outside of the reservation, he goes through a way new experience that makes him see life in a more positive way but also experiences one of the worst times of his life because of how bad life is at the reservation.

            While living and going to school in the reservation, the main thing that makes Junior's life very sad and miserable is his health condition.  He was born with “water in the brain”(Alexie, 1) which is  a condition that requires surgery. After Junior survived his surgery he grew up with a very big head, wearing thick eyeglasses and having a lisp and a stutter which according to him  made him "the biggest retard in the world" (Alexie, 36) . Because of these attributes he was usually teased and beaten up by a lot of Indians. A way for him to escape a little from being mistreated that way, was to spend a lot of time in his room writing and drawing. He would draw pictures of his family,friends and  dreams because unlike words, pictures can be understood by everyone.



            Even though Junior had issues regarding his health, he always was the brightest student in school. Unfortunately, his high school and the reservation were too poor to provide students with updated books and adequate labs. Therefore, this also made Junior feel frustrated and he concluded that “ Poverty doesn't give you strength or teach you lessons about perseverance. No, poverty only teaches you how to be poor.” (Alexie, 54).  This frustration and learning about his sister's dream was what
made him follow Mr. P's advice and transfer to a high school outside of the reservation in Reardan. At the beginning, going to this new high school wasn't easy for him. The fact that he was going to be attending a high school in a town that was full of white people was pretty intimidating and scary to him especially because these white people were known to be very racist with Indians. What actually made Junior gain some respect at Reardan for the first time, was his fist-fight with Roger after hearing the  racist  joke  “Did you know that Indians are living proof that niggers fuck buffalo?” (Alexie, 119).

            After that day, even though nobody ever bothered him again with racist jokes at Reardan he spent a lot of time lonely and without friends. Also at the reservation his best friend Rowdy stopped talking to him and most Indians there considered him a traitor for going to school in Reardan. Fortunately, this didn't affect Junior's ability to be a bright student in all of his classes which is what made him gain his first friend at Reardan, Gordy.  Gordy and him had a lot in common and therefore became good friends, this started to make Junior feel better and more positive. From this point in the story, everything starts to get better for Junior at Reardan. Not too further on, he also becomes friends with Penelope and starts dating her. This makes him popular and boost up his self-stem, he becomes friends with Roger and later becomes part of the basketball team.



            Everything goes great for Junior at Reardan up until he starts bearing with the death of his Dad's friend Eugene, his sister Mary and his Grandmother. Each and one of these deaths were caused by Indians addiction to alcohol. These deaths made Junior suffer more than he had ever suffered before.
He blames Indians for all this suffering and for all the bad things that Indians ever go through. At the end, after going through the best and worst times of his life on that school year, he and Rowdy go back to being friends and he realizes that Indians regardless of all their bad attributes always stick together. He also realizes that people can be multi-tribal and coexist with people from different cultures.

            In conclusion, during the story Junior went through a lot of positive and negative thinking. All of his positive thinking had to do with his experience at Reardan and with the fact that he actually took a step forward in following his dreams. All of his negative thinking, was caused by the depressed and and hopeless lifestyle of the Indians at his reservation and their addiction to alcohol. His perseverance made him keep going to school in Reardan and learn the good lessons that he learned at the end of the story.
           

 Works Cited

Alexie, Sherman. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian.
New York: Little, Brown, 2007. Print.

Analysis of American Born Chinese


            In the Young Adult graphic novel American Born Chinese by Gene Luen Yang, the central message of the story encourages teenagers to accept themselves for whom the really are and to never evaluate people just because of their appearance, culture or race. Throughout the story, the main characters are affected by a lack of self acceptance because of the way in which the society that they wish to become part of treats them. These societies treat them in a very discriminating way due to racial and cultural differences. Because of the lack of self acceptance that this treatment causes to them, these main characters do things that really just hurt themselves and the very same people with whom they try to socialize.
A good example of how generalizing and evaluating people because of their race or culture can cause harm to other’s sense of self acceptance, is the way in which Monkey King behaves throughout the story before he decides to follow Tze Yo Tzuh. Throughout the story it is easy to see that before Monkey King mastered the twelve Kung Fu disciplines, he was already as powerful as any of the other Gods that he fought against. What gave rise to Monkey King’s decision of becoming more powerful and decide that "all monkey must wear shoes" (Yang, 55), was they way in which he was rejected by the guards when he went to the party the other Gods were making.

Then, after he isolated himself and became more powerful he thought of himself as someone else other than a monkey. He didn’t want to be called monkey and because of this he abused of everyone that wouldn’t call him The Great Sage Equal of Heaven.  Later, after he frees himself form Tze Yo Tzuh’s punishment, he tells us “I would have saved myself from five hundred years' imprisonment beneath a mountain of rock had I only realized how good it is to be a monkey.” (Yang, 223).
            Another good example of how bad it is to generalize people and to don’t accept one’s self it’s the story of Jin Wang. As soon as Jin starts going to school in the United States the first thing he notices among his American peers is all the racist stereotypes about Asian people. When he was first introduced by a teacher in school, the teacher assumed “He and his family recently moved to our neighborhood all the way from China!” (Yang, 30) and one of his peers said “My momma says Chinese people eat dogs.” (Yang, 30). All these kinds of stereotypes make him to don’t want to be Asian and to become an American version of himself in high school which he calls Danny. But, before he becomes Danny, his lack of self acceptance is what makes him so insecure about fighting for the girl he liked Amelia and what leads him to destroying his friendship with Wei-Chen Sun.
            In conclusion, through this novel Gene Luen Yang teaches that not accepting one’s self have negative consequences and that also Evaluating and generalizing people because of their race, culture or appearance without really know anything about them can lead to non self acceptance and insecurity.
           
Works Cited
Yan Luen, Gene. American Born Chinese
New York: First Second, 2006. Print.

Analysis of M.T Anderson´s FEED


In the Young Adult novel “Feed” by M.T Anderson, Anderson describes a future in which most of society is completely shallow, uneducated and manipulated by consumerism. Throughout the novel, it is clearly portrayed how in the future most of teenagers don’t worry about their own level of intellect and how the feed has them completely ignorant of their natural sense of self. Education is not important anymore because through the feed students can find out any information they want at any time. Since with the help of the feed everything for teenagers is so much easier than nowadays, most of them only worry about having fun and consuming anything of interest that comes up in their feeds.
 In many chapters of this book, there are very good examples that show how shallow people are in this non-too-fictional future. One of the most evident examples is when the main character Titus begins to feel intimidated by the intellect of his girlfriend Violet. He begins to worry and starts to wonder whether he is considered smart or stupid. Because of this, he goes and asks his parents if he is considered smart or stupid. His parents tried to talk to him and convince him that he is smart and not stupid but they couldn’t. The only solution that they could think of, was buying him something that would make him happy enough to stop worrying about that subject. They bought him his own up car and sure enough he stopped worrying: “I could feel their feeds shifting towards a common point, some kind of banner they were pulling up.”…and it unwrapped in my head… a banner for a dealer… and I didn’t feel so stupid anymore.”(1138)

Something that takes part in making these teenagers so ignorant is the education system. The main purpose of school in this novel is to promote the consumerism that overcomes the world. Students really think that education is not necessary because through the feed they can access any information they want and that it makes everyone “supersmart without ever working” (425). It is this lack of work that makes them so stupid. Violet is homeschooled and the feed was implanted in her when she was seven years old. As a result she demonstrates to be smarter and more insightful than Titus and his friends and family. The truth behind these facts is that the more we rely in technology and external things to think and make decisions the more unintelligent we will become and our lives will be as shallow as Titus and his friends and family.
Finally, the key thing that makes this future society so shallow and unintelligent is the consumption of products that are constantly advertised through the feed. When it comes to advertising, the feed is like one of those websites where a lot of windows of advertisements pop up. Imagine having that in ones brain constantly; what would be the result? A perfect example of how this constant flow of advertisement influences Titus and his friends is when they are in the moon and they decide to go shopping because they are bored. They go to a mall and Titus tells us “I wanted to buy things but I didn’t know what they were.”(270). Violet, who is the one with more experience living without the feed and is more compelled to thinking out of the box tries to resist and defeat the feed creating a customer profile which is “so screwed no one can market to it. I’m going to become invisible.”(916).

Corporations pretty much control people with their advertisements; “they do these demographic studies that divide everyone up into a few personality types, and then you get ads based on what you supposedly like.”(906). Once the corporations do their demographic studies “they try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing. . . . they keep making everything more basic so it will appeal to everyone. And gradually, everyone gets used to everything being basic, so we get less and less varied as people, more simple. So the corps make everything even simpler. And it goes on and on” (906).
In conclusion, the futuristic society described in this novel is messed up due to how people over the time became more manipulated by consumerism. The feed is what makes this manipulation possible to its greatest extent and as a result people are unable to freely think on their own and be aware of the damages that this manipulation does to them. This novel helps the people of today become more aware of how technology is making us slaves to consumerism. Anderson did a great job exposing the truth behind this novel and hopefully enough people will get the message as not let the feed become a reality in the future.
Works Cited

Aderson,M.T. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2002. Kindle Version

Death Penalty Essay


Death Penalty
Introduction
The death penalty can be described as when the government takes a person’s life as a punishment for wrong doing (Kaye 6). The death penalty is also referred to as capital punishment or execution. Offences that can attract the death penalty are referred to as Capital Crimes. Currently, the death penalty has become a highly controversial and widely debated issue which has raised different opinions among different people and nations. Although many countries have abolished the practice, it is estimated that more than 60% of the world population still lives in areas where the death penalty is administered (Priya 1). The United States, China, India, Iran, Somalia and Indonesia are some of the countries that lead in administration of the death penalty as a form of rendering justice in the society (Priya 1).
Death Penalty Pros
There are several reasons as to why the death sentence as a means of administering justice is considered as an appropriate practice. To begin with, in the past, almost all human societies applied the death penalty as the most appropriate way of punishing people who committed serious crimes such as murder and rape and it really worked for them. Today, due to the fact that most justice systems have become reluctant and less functional, there is high rate of crime in the society. Thousands and thousands of people die every year as a result of increased rate of crime in the society. This situation, therefore, might call for reinstatement of the death sentence as a form of punishment in the society (Braswel, McCarthy and McCarthy 202).
In cases of murder, death penalty ensures that it gives a closure to the sufferings undergone by the victim’s family members and friends. Although it normally takes years to recover from loosing a loved one, executing the offender brings some kind of relieve to the victim’s relatives and hastens the process of forgetting. Continued imprisonment of the offender may not be received by the victim’s relatives well. They might feel being tortured by the offender’s continued presence (Kaye 8).
            On the other hand, the death penalty also saves the family members and friends of the offenders from long time suffering. Priya notes that this suffering can be in form of time and resources spent in appealing and in other legal processes (3). There is a lot of pain especially if one is innocently convicted. Therefore, if the offender is eventually executed, it means that the suffering and pain undergone by both his and her family members and friends is brought to a permanent closure.
It is assumed that giving murderers a parole or allowing them to escape will give them another chance of killing. On the other hand, continued imprisonment cannot prevent murderers from killing, even in prison. Therefore, in such a case, it suggested that it is better to prevent the crime from reoccurring by allowing the death penalty to take its full course. That may be the biggest reason for calls to reinstate the death penalty in the society (Braswel, McCarthy and McCarthy 202).
            According to Hugo, the death sentence is considered as the most effective form of crime deterrent in the society (79). Without an effective way of preventing crime in the society, the society will become unsafe as people will continue committing crimes knowing that there is no form of punishment that can scare them away from committing crimes. Therefore, the death penalty works effectively by ensuring that violent criminals are eliminated from the society. At the same time, those who intend to perform related crimes will be forced to uphold justice.
            The death sentence is seen as the most effective method of rendering justice for some specific crimes which are considered as being serious. Many people do argue that it is not wrong to execute people who brutally murder others. According to Kaye, other crimes considered as being serious in the society include treason, espionage, aggravated kidnapping, drug trafficking and aircraft hijacking (Kaye 8). Therefore, the death sentence might be seen as the best form of punishment that is equal in measure with such crimes.
            Other people like Priya do argue that the death penalty helps to reduce overpopulation and congestion in prisons (4). Most prisons in the world have been associated with the problem of having too many prisoners but less accommodation space and resources. This means that every extra prisoner added requires food, clothing, and space and guard time. Therefore, the death penalty can be seen as the best form of enhancing decongestion in prisons.
            With the advancements in technology in the world today, the uncertainty that an innocent offender will be executed has reduced (Hugo 81). In the past, most arguments against death penalty centered on the fact that people were wrongly convicted as a result of mistaken identity. Today, the DNA tests have helped in prosecuting and executing the right criminals. Additionally, other modern ways of crime identification, such as forensic investigations, have helped to ensure that death penalty is given to the right people.
            Braswel and his colleagues argue that although majorities of the people are normally guilty of the crimes they are accused for, nobody is ready to admit that he or she is guilty. The presence of the death penalty in the society can serve to scare such people so that they can tell the truth and plead guilty. Everybody in the society fears death and if threatened that he or she will be put to death, a potential offender will co-operate with the judges and this will help in enhancing justice in the society (Braswel, McCarthy and McCarthy 204).                 
It has also been argued that it may be less costly to punish somebody using death penalty than continued stay in prison (Hugo 81). This saves the resources of the tax-payer which is invested in administration of justice. A death sentence ensures that a lot of money is not used in prolonged appeals and other less fruitful legal processes. On the other hand, continued stay in prison calls for more resources that can facilitate the lives of the inmates.
World religions have varying opinions concerning the death penalty. Although a good number of them oppose the practice, there are some which justify it. Some sections of Buddhism say that the death penalty is allowed by their religious teachings. Hinduism also partially supports the practice of capital punishment. It is a majority view among the Muslims that the Quran allows capital punishment. Judaism also approves the death penalty (Priya 5).
Death Penalty Cons
The death penalty is seen as barbaric and a violation of the provisions of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Some organizations such as Amnesty International have openly criticized this form of punishing offenders as they view the death penalty as a denial for human rights. It is seen as a cruel and inhumane form of punishment rendered in the name of justice. The methods used in executing offenders are normally considered inhumane. Hanging, lethal injection, electrocuting and using firing squad are all practices not considered fit for human torture (Priya 6).
Kaye observes that death penalty may have no rehabilitative effect in preventing further crimes in the society (14). Some criminals prefer execution than life imprisonment. People serving long sentences may see life imprisonment as being an endless pain that continues for many decades. Therefore, such people may welcome the death penalty, where a lot of suffering is put over instantly. For instance, most terror groups in the world today fear no death. Therefore, the death penalty may have no impact on preventing such people from committing and recommitting the crime.
Hugo argues that death penalty might lead to cases where innocent people wrongly get convicted and subsequently executed (82). Well documented evidences have shown that some innocent people have normally been put to death as offenders. This is common in cases where poor defendants are likely to get less legal attention, especially if their cases are handled by less qualified judges who are unable to render justice in a competent manner.
Braswel and his colleagues observe that some people who commit offences are born with mental defects that may be responsible for their unacceptable behaviors and actions. To such people, there may be no rehabilitation and positive reinforcement that can change them. Therefore, it is morally wrong and unconstitutional for such people to be given death sentences, yet it is bad luck that they were born with a mental problem. Therefore, the judges need to be convinced that the offender they are convicting is not mentally ill (Braswel, McCarthy and McCarthy 209).
A death penalty might be seen by the societal members as a form of revenge for the offences committed by the offender (Priya 6). This will therefore create the mentality of “eye for an eye” in the society. This mentality never solves anything. It only enhances continued violence in the society. Therefore, it should be made known that revenging and avenging against the enemy only worsens matters than solving them and healing the situation.
In some cases, the death penalty has been discriminatively applied to affect the racial minorities and the poor. For instance, although African Americans make up only 13% of the population of the United States, more than 50% of the offenders who are on the verge of being executed are black Americans (Kaye 13). According to the United States’ Department of Justice, between the year 2001 and 2006, 48% of federal cases sought death penalties against African Americans (Kaye 13). On the other hand, most of the offenders who have been convicted are those who do not have enough money to higher expensive lawyers and defend themselves exclusively (Kaye 13).
In cases where the convicted are executed as a result of committing murder, a death penalty may send out a wrong message to the members of the society (Kaye 15). Many people will ask themselves endless questions as to why the offenders are killed yet killing is morally wrong. That the people who say that killing is wrong are themselves involved in killing. This will justify killing amongst the societal members and they may end up taking matters into their hands by killing anybody suspected as a criminal.
It has been argued that the financial costs associated with giving somebody a death penalty are 3-4 times higher than keeping the person under life imprisonment (Priya 7). The endless appeals involved and the additional legal processes called for all end up wasting the tax-payer’s money. Judges, court clerks, prosecutors and other court officials all need to be facilitated through the taxpayer’s money. Yet cases related to death penalties normally take many years before they end. This means that a lot of money will really be spent.
As Hugo observes, cases related to death penalties normally cause congestions in courts (83). The court systems and processes take a lot of time before rendering a death sentence. Judges, attorneys and other court officials spend a lot of time on the endless appeals, hearings, witnessing, motions and other legal processes. This leads to congestion of courtrooms and other court facilities and yet at the end of the day, many matters remain unresolved.
When it comes to rendering death penalties, some judges are normally reluctant in convicting such offenders. This in fact requires a stone-heart and a brave one. A judge may be against the death penalty but circumstances may force him or her to act against his or her consciousness. On the other hand, some prosecutors might find it necessary to go in for lesser charges than drive the judges towards rendering a death penalty. At the end of the day, under such circumstances, there is no justice observed (Braswel, McCarthy and McCarthy 212).
The family and friends of the executed person normally suffer emotionally from seeing their loved ones being killed in cold blood by the state. As Kaye notes, the appealing processes are normally weary and resource consuming (17). In some instances, the death penalty may trigger sympathy towards the crime perpetrators. Although criminals are despised by the society, the death penalty normally shifts sympathy to the criminals. Even if the criminals were merciless murderers, sometimes the society normally sympathizes with them.
The main intent of punishing an offender is to help him or her get transformed so that he or she can fit in the community on re-entry. Bad luck, punishing an offender by death penalty means that one is gone forever and there is no way he or she is going to come back. There is no amount of anger and revenge that can cure the emptiness of loosing loved ones. Even though a criminal, the offender will forever remain being treasured by family members and friends (Hugo 84).
Death penalty might tarnish the images of the countries which punish offenders through execution. Such countries may be seen by others as being violent and vengeful (Priya 8). Additionally, the death penalty tarnishes the reputation of the physicians who get hired to enhance the executions. It violates their oath of ensuring protection to people’s lives. On the other hand, members of the public come to lose trust in them (Priya 8).
From the religious point of view, although some religions advocate for the death penalty, a good number of them oppose it. Most religions hold human life as being sacred and that no human being is authorized to terminate the life of a fellow human being. Some sections of Buddhism do not allow the practice. Hinduism also opposes the practice of capital punishment, although partially. Most Christians completely condemn the practice due to the fact that killing is forbidden in the Christian context (Kaye 22).
Conclusion
Death penalty remains one of the highly controversial and the most widely debated issue in the Criminal Justice System and in the entire human society today.  It has brought about arguments for and arguments against it. However, since the reasons in support against the death penalty seem to outweigh the reasons in support for the practice, it is important that the death penalty is abolished. The practice is seen as inhumane and a form of vengeance that negates the human right to life. The death penalty can be replaced by other more reasonable means of administering justice, such as, life imprisonment and imposition of heavy fines.


Works Cited:
Braswel, Michael; McCarthy, Belinda and McCarthy, Bernard. Justice, Crime, and Ethics. Amsterdam; Boston: Elsevier, 2012.
Hugo Adam. The Death Penalty in America. New York [u.a.]: Oxford Univ. Press, 1982.
Kaye, Stearman. The Death Penalty. New York: Rosen Pub. Group's Rosen Central, 2007.
Priya, Johnson. Death Penalty Pros and Cons. New York: Buzzle.com, 2010.