WEEK 9: Black and White

In the book Black and White, Paul Volponi uses many of his personal experiences working with prisoners in his work. Although many critics may argue that Volponi is exploiting these experiences with disadvantaged people, I believe that he is doing just the opposite and is paying tribute to the struggles that some people face. Volponi worked in Rikers Island, where he witnessed that the overwhelming majority of inmates were black or hispanic, and were in poor living conditions. He places Marcus in this area in order to show the unbalance between blacks and white, and to further illustrate the line that separates black and white. In this scene, Volponi is paying tribute to those who were incarcerated, not expoiting them for entertainment in his book. Volponi later uses the experience he had a with a crazy drunk man on a subway train going off on a racial tirade. Volponi uses this experience and has Eddie and Marcus witness this man, and while all of their friends find it funny, it strikes a certain spot in Marcus and Eddie's hearts, thus showing that Volponi is paying tribute to the lessons that he learned from this man's racial ignorance. Finally, Volponi uses his experience as a basketball coach in a game where a fight broke out and a student was killed for no reason to further drive home the seriousness that the lines between black and white has drawn. Volponi uses these experiences in his work to teach lessons about racial divides to students, thus paying tribute to those who took part in these times in his own life.

Week 8: Linguistic Characteristics

There are many similarities and differences between word use in children’s literature and adult fiction. Children’s books are usually used to convey an idealistic world through the use of narrative words like, “said”. The use of direct speech is more prevalent in children’s literature than in adult fiction, due to the popular story style in children’s literary works. Johnson’s study found that adult and children’s fiction are closely linked by certain linguistic characteristics that are prevalent regardless of the designated audience. Although these styles are linguistically similar, children’s literature is often definable by the use of certain words and sentence structures that are characteristic of writing for children and how they see the world. After reading several of the books that we have completed this semester, I can see how Johnson’s observations are true, such as in The Copper Sun. Although adults can read this book and draw more from it, when children read it, the style and word usage is appropriate for the mind of a child while still getting the point about slavery and hope across. In my opinion, I think that Johnson’s observations are for the most part correct and can be seen while analyzing literature.

Week 7: Fairy Tales

Growing up, I read fairy tales all of the time. The ones that really stick in my mind are the tales that really spark the imagination while conveying good moral actions from the reader. I believe that fairy tales are used to convey lessons to children in more creative ways so that children subconsciously understand the lessons without becoming disinterested by hearing a lecture on how to behave. When I was little, I really liked Little Red Riding Hood, Snow White, and Cinderella. Each of these tales were very imaginative and definitely not something that would occur exactly the same in real life. These stories tell children to avoid strangers, not to take things from strangers, listen to your parents, and that every life, no matter how hard it may seem has happiness, and that you are not confined to simply one societal level. I believe that certain fairy tales cater towards certain groups of children, such as Cinderella is more of a female empowering story that is targeted at young girls who have the common "little girl" dream of becoming a princess. This story gives every girl, no matter her societal status, the hope that one day she too will meet her Prince Charming and will live a very happy life. Although these stories are very empowering, they are often criticized for being unrealistic. I disagree with this argument some what, because I think that the young age that these stories are targeted for are at an age where children need to dream and use their imagination. Children are very impressionable at a young age, and I think that fairy tales do a good job of teaching them valuable lessons while also sparking their dreams and imagination at the same time.

Week 6: "A Single Shard"

The article, High School Students Responses to Alternative Value Stances Associated with the Study of Multicultural Literature by Beach et al really relates the cultural divide that most students face when analyzing multicultural literature. The article gives multiple students’ reactions to cultural issues in various books to further demonstrate the need for students to be better informed in matters that people from other cultural backgrounds are facing. This article stresses the need for teachers to help children broaden their worldly views by exposing them to multicultural literature and providing background information before they read the literature so that they have a better understanding of the issues exposed in the literature. This book directly relates to the book Fresh Girl that we have read in this class because without prior knowledge about the Haitian culture, students would not be able to fully grasp the messages in the story. In the story, Marti faces a lot of discrimination for her Haitian heritage, even though she is American in nationality. The students in the book fail to understand Marti and make fun of her accent and clothes. Although I am older, and more educated culturally than the target middle school audience of this novel, I had a hard time connecting with Marti’s feelings and experiences of being discriminated against. Like many students who have read this book, I have not been physically exposed to many people from Haiti and other countries, thus making it hard for me to completely connect with Marti’s issues early on in the novel. I agree with the article when it suggests that students need to be better educated culturally in order to better understand the cultural issues addressed in many multicultural books.

Week 5: "Fresh Girl"

I am not sure why this did not post last weekend when I thought that I had posted it, so here it is:

The article, High School Students Responses to Alternative Value Stances Associated with the Study of Multicultural Literature by Beach et al really relates the cultural divide that most students face when analyzing multicultural literature. The article gives multiple students’ reactions to cultural issues in various books to further demonstrate the need for students to be better informed in matters that people from other cultural backgrounds are facing. This article stresses the need for teachers to help children broaden their worldly views by exposing them to multicultural literature and providing background information before they read the literature so that they have a better understanding of the issues exposed in the literature. This book directly relates to the book Fresh Girl that we have read in this class because without prior knowledge about the Haitian culture, students would not be able to fully grasp the messages in the story. In the story, Marti faces a lot of discrimination for her Haitian heritage, even though she is American in nationality. The students in the book fail to understand Marti and make fun of her accent and clothes. Although I am older, and more educated culturally than the target middle school audience of this novel, I had a hard time connecting with Marti’s feelings and experiences of being discriminated against. Like many students who have read this book, I have not been physically exposed to many people from Haiti and other countries, thus making it hard for me to completely connect with Marti’s issues early on in the novel. I agree with the article when it suggests that students need to be better educated culturally in order to better understand the cultural issues addressed in many multicultural books.

Week 4: Research Proposal

I plan on doing my research paper on the transition from innocence to experience that is a common theme in a variety of adolescent literature books. I am still working on tweaking my thesis, but it will sound something like this: The transition from innocence to experience is a common strand found in a diverse array of adolescent literary works. I will be using references from parts of The Call of the Wild, My Side of the Mountain, Esperanza Rising, The Outsiders, To Kill a Mockingbird, as well as other literary works that I come across in this class. I also have several literary criticisms collected on the transition found in The Call of the Wild, which will help to provide a good foundation for the transition from innocence to experience found in literature, and how it is an important theme in adolescent literature. I think that I want to focus on the transition that takes place through nature as one of my main points, the transition that takes place through oppressive times (such as The Copper Sun and Esperanza Rising), and one more main point that I have not yet discovered. If I could get your help and opinion on good main topics for this research paper, it would be much appreciated. I picked this topic because throughout my years of reading works of adolescent literature, I have noticed that there tends to be a common transition from innocence to experience found, and I believe that it has great impacts on the readers and am interested in looking further into the impact of this theme of transition. I love nature related works, and I think that this transition through nature is very interesting and kind of relates to Emerson and Thoreau’s works. I may want to twist this research topic to be more focused on the transition through nature, but I would like you input on this idea, and what I could further do with it.

Week 3: "Esperanza Rising"

After reading Esperanza Rising, and the article by Yu Ren Dong, I have gained a better perspective on the importance of teaching multicultural literature to students. Esperanza Rising, along with the other books that we have read so far in this class work to convey the importance of representing many different cultures and writing styles in teaching a literature class. These books move students away from the traditionally “white” novels, and push their minds to expand and gain a better understanding of many different cultures.
Esperanza Rising moves away from the typical black and white cultures that are seen in most multicultural literature, and expands the children’s understanding of the Latino culture. Esperanza is a young girl that is faced with many different hardships which she must overcome, and ultimately serves as a beacon of hope for all children going through hard times. This novel is important to be taught in classrooms because it helps to give students a better grasp of the Latino culture and hardships that those people have had to endure. The more cultures that are represented in classrooms, the better students are able to relate to stories, as well as broaden their perspectives on life.
Yu Ren Dong’s article, “Bridging the Cultural Gap by Teaching Multicultural Literature”, serves to illustrate the importance of providing works spanning over a great assortment of cultures to students. I agree with Dong’s belief that the more diversity that students are exposed to, the greater and more informed their worldly views will be. Dong also makes a point of expressing the importance of the educators to be well informed themselves of different cultures, so as to better express the importance of cultural diversity to students. I believe that all of the novels and articles that we have read so far in this class have helped to better educated us in the importance of multicultural diversity and have expanded our worldly views as well.