Mason Faux
English 1109 at 10:30, M-W
9-9-2020
Journal Three
Active reading is going pretty well for me. This is the first time a teacher has asked me to write inside of a book before so it’s taking a little time to get used to it. After every class I feel like I am getting better at it. Once I hear what the other students underlined it makes me go back and think about how I missed that the first time. Some stuff I can relate to in both of the books, but a lot I can’t. I never grew up in a rough neighborhood, but I’ve been in some. So most of the connections I can make are just from tv or from what knowledge I know. Coming up with questions to think about has been going well for me, but I’m struggling with finding good sentences to think about. Over the coming weeks I hope to get better at that.
The strengths I have for One and Done is that I can’t put the book down. I enjoy football and I know about Maurice from some sports documentaries. Although I’m a Wisconsin fan, it’s still cool to hear different peoples stories and where they came from. I don’t have a problem with The House on Mango Street. I just don’t find it as interesting. The House on Mango Street is making me better at identifying metaphors and sentences that don’t seem like they mean much. Except when you look at those sentences they open up your mind and make you think.
A question that I wrote from chapter 3 is why praise people when they go to jail? I get that I don’t live in that environment, but I’ve always had the idea of doing the right thing and never get in trouble. When you get in trouble not only with the law but just in general you try to not make the same mistake again. A podcast called Serial that I listened to did a whole season on this type of stuff in Cleveland and I think it does a good job of showing this.
In chapter 5 Maurice says that after the loss against St. Ignatius that that was the first game he had ever cried about. He finally wasn’t in the streets doing bad things and he was working toward something only to come up short. Which is very hard when you’ve been through what he has. After this he decided to put in even more work to be the best at football which I think is inspiring. Once you get knocked down you have to get back up and try again. If he had that same mentality when he was a kid in the streets he might not have done all those bad things. After he went to juvie he could’ve focused on school or football.
Mason, you wrote a really thoughtful Journal. Thank you! I am glad you are open minded and working to get better at active reading. It is a skill and you would not expect to be a master carpenter after only a few days on the job, so it's the same with deep reading. Takes time, but hang in there!
ReplyDeleteOne theme you notice is the glorification of criminality, or the overlooking of delinquent behavior in young people, just excusing it as being young or going through a phase. Much of this comes from music, TV and film. The influence is everywhere, but the important thing is to stick to what you think is right no matter what the culture tells you.
Hi Mason, I am the same with you this is really the first time that when I was asked to actually annotate a book. Most times when teachers ask I kinda just did random things so that I could the points for it, But now I can see that its really helping with my reading also as I can stop and actually understand what is going on.
ReplyDeleteI feel like the answer to your question in chapter three is that they come from a different community then us and jail is kinda a normal thing to them, so when someone can come out of jail and succeed like Clarett did they deserve the credit because it is hard when you don't have the advantages like some people do in this world.
I also am trying to get used to writing in the book but I love hearing what other people found was important in the story because it makes me feel like I missed so much. I agree about the idea of is he had a different mentalitiy growing up he never would have put himself in those terrible situations. But I also think it is hard when you are so young and everyone around you is doing it.
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