Just Like Us

Second to last post so I'm nearing the end. 200 out of 300 pages complete. This week I came across an interesting chapter. It was interesting for me to read because I know its coming up soon for us in our class as well. The two parallels are family issues and school.

Family issues is big for kids our age. Our personal bubbles are growning so our parents are letting go as we find more people our own age to invest in. In the book, Toby writes to his brother who is at college in Princeton. They send stories they wrote back and forth. Toby believes his brother's stories are better, but his brother says the same. Stuck in Chinook with his mother and Dwight's family there isn't much fun Toby has to have. Toby, even though he hasn't seen his brother for 6 years, he misses the only real friendly voice around. The two wanted to link upm, "Geoffrey wanted to see me. That was plain. I had been wanting to see him for years, but before now, evern when I hatched plans to join up with him, I never knew whether he felt the same way" (201). Self doubt runs in Toby's mind because he believes Princeton University is superior to his little home in Chinook. Most would probably agree. However what makes the place truely unbareable is Dwight. The only father figure in Toby's life at this point and Dwight is a major failure. He is abusive and very bad at being sympathetic. This time, "He noticed a jar of French's mustard in the garbagte pain and fieshed it out. Who threw this away? he asked. I told him I had. Why did you throw it away? Because it was empty... Does this look empty to you?" (204). The two challenge each other with every sentence they fire back and forth. It escalates. After making Toby scrape the tini bit of mustard he could from the bottle, "Allright. Now-was it empty? Yes, I said. He leaned across the table and slapped my face" (205). Rarely do healthy families raise hands against each other, but Toby's is not a healthy family.

Being sympathetic to Toby's problem, a plan is set to get Toby away from Chinook. First the brothers go over Toby's strengths, "Yes, well, let's stick with the grades and swimming and the Scouts" (207). In today's world many of my classmates, including me, are beginning to look forward to college if we haven't started to already. To apply to colleges we put together our strengths and letters and send the full application in. The process is complex, "He sent a long list of addresses and deadlines. I would have to be patient. This didn't happen over night" (207). Its a long a irritating process to apply to colleges. To give yourself a chance to see if you even can attend the college. Then you have to visit it and register. All this takes much time and effort. Boy we are in for some fun.

Halfway through this book. Halfway through these posts.

A theme I find running wild this winter is "growing up." Its not a common used term, but I can see it every day. In this chapter of my book Jack tells of his early sporting experiences. With a rediculous father figure such as Dwight (there must be a reason they use that name in the office), coming away with new cleats wasn't something that was going to happen. This is that one thing in Jacks life that happens to every boy. At least once, your parents make you do something or wear something against your will. Mostly this happens quite freaquently. In this case, Jack has joined the basketball team. Dwight is forcing Jack to wear the same shoes he wheres to school. "I outgrew two pairs of shoes in 7th grade alone" (140). The shoes don't fit and they aren't meant for polished wood floor. Jack ends up clomping around the court, sliding and falling when he tries to stop, essentially looking like a fool. I can remember family pictures and visiting relatives and being forced to wear rediculous outfits. All in the name of saving money and looking cute. Jack just deals with it. This shows he is maturing. I think we're all maturing. With the new year coming can we say it isn't all too soon? As Ms. Freohlich says, "What are you thinking!? You're young adults now!" (Froehlich often during class).

Jack suffers another life event that I also am finding quite prominant now. Secretly Jack crushes on a friend named Norma. She is frequent in Jacks daily life and often hangs around with Bobby. Bobby is in college, as is Norma. They're schooling together. Jack never makes the connection of the two. They hang out alone all the time, they plan over the future after college etc. Finally on the ride home from one of Jack's basketball games, he realizes exactly what has been in front of him all this time he'd been crushing on Norma. "She called him Bobo, her pet name for him" (150). The evidence shines on one clear conclusion. They're in love! They're together! Jack loses it. Showing his maturity by "punching her, slapping her, calling her names!" (150). Jacks fit lasts and he kicks her out of the house. "Then I let her back in. There was no choice. Whenever I heard Ray Charles sing I can't stop loving you, I just had to stop and get sad for a while. A lot of us now are experiencing similar circumstances. Many of us end up like Jack, we just need to feel bad for a while.

That Boys Life

For our ethics unit this week I decided to go back to a chapter I read last weekend. We always talk about adults and how they go against ethics of society and such, but we never talk about children. Uncool is the name of the chapter in my book. Jack is 11 years old, but he acts like hes much older. Not in the good sense either. Jack is rebelious and terrible. At first he seems quite innocent. "I kept after him until he finally showed me the album," (50). This shows his child-like innocence due to the fact the he either doesn't understand the touchyness of the subject or he just doesn't care. Another example of Jacks childish ethics is expressed in his friendships. Taylor's mother was widowed and sometimes pulls him near and hugs him. Silver and Jack acted as very bad friends. "We saw the potential of this scene and we preplayed it often... we could bring taylor to tears just by saying 'Terrence, Terrence!'" (55). They tortured each other even as friends. This is probably creditted to their immaturity. With time boys learn and grow up.

Jack was also a very terrible child in an older ages' sense. As an 11 year old Jack was a theif and a vandel. "we palmed anything that wasn't under glass... standing on seats until the last second to send them crashing into cars... just to stare at guns in the windows of pawnshops," (56). These are acts often played out by older boys. Jack and his friends are obviously subject to very little parenting and have gone wild. On another occasion the boys throw eggs at a thunderbird down below the apartment (A thunderbird is a car). The man in the car circles the block. They keep throwing eggs until the man explodes in such fiery the boys jump back with the effect. "The silence made me uncomfortable and in my discomfort I grinned at Silver, but Silver did not grin back," (70). The boys have second thoughts. Though they are far above their time for vandelism they are also maturing as well. Learning their own ethics from themselves.

These questions raised and answered

On the Water Front shows us corruption on the docks and how people cope and feel about it. The mobsters believe anything that isn't dire devotion to the mob is treason. Many of the workers at the dock are in with the mob but not a part of it. When the Priet asks if anyone knows who killed Joey, no one answers. They don't like it, but telling would be squealing, and no one squeals on the mob. Terry shows an opinion more biased to the contrare. He is down due to the fact that he baited poor Jonny to the roof. He shows signs of inner struggle with his opinions on right and wrong. Perhaps its not right to bait someone to death, not right to the point that one should risk his own life to stop it? We are still early in the film but I predict he does just that. The mob will be taken down.

Tattle tails vs flag throwers. When we think of tattle tails we think of boys, but when we think of honest flag throwers we think of men. The ones who tattle are easily named for they are often disliked. Those who stand up against something wrong are, to the contrary, often idolized. However, these labels are a complete point of view. Which labels one gets is decided by the majority. The situation decides the majority. If a boy knows theres a fight on the play ground and he goes to alert a teacher, then he will end up as a tattle tail. That is, unless other boys who felt the same way make up the majority of the onlookers. Martin luther King was hated for standing up for the negros. The majority of the people were against him for a long time. However, he gained followers, and became nationally loved because the majority had switched to liking him. No matter the situation, you will find that this is the case. The majority decides who becomes what.

Question Numbero Two

As we read/discuss All My Sons, consider how many of the characters make choices on how to act depending on whether it benefits their family or society. In your blog post this week, discuss how characters in the play decide what is more important (needs of family or needs of society). Please cite examples from the play to support your answer (1 paragraph). In your second paragraph, discuss your personal opinions on the matter. When is it appropriate to put the needs of your family before society (and vice versa)?

The first few pages gave me the impression that this play was utterly pointless. However, it proved to be quite twisted by the pistol shot that ended it. Joe Keller is protrayed as "A man of stolid mind and build" (1). He seems like a guy whose got everything figured out, but when I thought about his habits, he seemed like that was just an image. His distaste for the news section seems sensible to me because I too don't like reading the news. Its all bad news... But I read the want/for sale ads on cars every day over a bowl of Lucky Charms so I can relate. But as the story moves we find Kelly to be the other side of this normal person. He runs a production plants that sold cylinder heads to the army (Go V12 monsters! Anyone but me know what heads are?). A batch came out crack (if you're curious I can tell you why this is bad), and he decided to send them to the military anyway. Why? "You wanted money," (76). "I'm in business; you got a process, the process don't work you're out of business; you don't know how to operate, your stuff is no good; they close you up, they tear up your contracts, what the hell's it to them? ... I never thought they'd install them. I swear to God. I thought they'd stop 'em before anybody took off," (69). Keller was pinned completely. He tries to blame it on money. Which is a good arguement. Money is everything in material world we live in. But for lives? "Chris I did it for you, it was a chance and I took if for you. I'm sixty one years old, when would I have another chance to make something for you? Sixty one years old and you don't get another chance do ya?" (70). Now he brings Chris in. The guts start to hurt at this part. Keller was cuaght between what he wanted and what was right. This is where I Wouldn't have done what he did.

When Keller put them on shipment I wouldn't have. He boxed those heads and sent them out because of what he wanted. What one wants is not more important then another man's entire life. One has no right to take another's life for any reason of his own unless the other cooperates, like a fight to the death (Yes, patronize me for my rediculousness). There are times when you can stand out against society. When others are benefitted from the standout then it is appropriate. If there are others who would follow you in a stand out the you should start one. But in the case of personal gain, there is no right to buck the trend. In the case of the 35W bridge. The gusset plates used were too small, endangering many people, but no one came out in fear of the money it would cost and the reputation that would be destroyed. Well it collapsed so it didn't really matter in the end, and thats what it amounts to. Keller didn't win in the end, the bridge builders didn't, the Challenger builders didn't. Those who have aren't known.

Characters intro and commence

A read another good section in This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff again this week. This section was the last of the intro of the book. Toby, now Jack, and his mother are settling into their new Utah apartment. Jack's mom gets a job as a secretary. Then Roy is introduced. No reason is given as to why Roy follows the two around all the time. He is around the mothers age and obviously loves her so I guess theirs you reason. He is described and turns out to be a good person who, is classically, a little rough around the edge, "He always seemed deep in thought, staring at the road through mirrored sunglasses. He had a tattoo and had been to war and kept a kind of silence about it that was full of heroic implication" (30). Roy seems like a powerful character. He has many little things about him that make him unique and interesting to read about. For instance, "He could fix the Jeep if he had to, though he preferred to drive halfway across Utah to a mechanic he'd heard about from some loudmouth in a bar." This seems like something I will do when I get my own car. Though I want to be able to fix it when I need to as well. Roy is a character I feel like I can relate to and he eases the tension of the family's situation by being an overprotective boyfriend. "He followed her home every day, idling down the street, pulling into a driveway here and there to let her get ahead." Once again seems like something I'd do once I have my car.

The main character Jack, whose point of view the story is told, goes through some childhood events that I can see in my own life. He attends church classes. He's catholic so confession is common. Being young Jack has never had a confession. He fails his first attempt and is convinced to go later. Sister James, his leading nun, gives him cookies and tries to help him. She tells him about her own sins. Next thing Jack does is go into the confession room and confess to the same sins. I found the irony quite humorous. Jack lies to the priest in confession. It amazes me how even in a true story the hilarious and ironic tails of childhood are there. They happen all the time. The next thing I noticed about Jack was a realization he made. I don't remember any age being given but I know he's early teens. While Sister James gives him Oreo's to sooth his tense soul, "But now, forced to look at Sister James across the narrow space of this gleaming table-I saw her differently. I saw an anxious woman of my mother's age who wanted to help me without knowing what kind of help I needed. Her good will worked strongly on me. I would have surrendered to her if I only knew how" (33). I can remember these same revalations from my childhood too. Adults are actual people!

This Boy's Life, by Tobias Wolff

So, I'm reading This Boy's Life by Tobias Wolff; a memoir. The first thing that grabbed me in this book and is exactly that, the attention grabber, was indeed, the attention grabber... My point moreover is that it started with a very good attention grabber. Starting with a boiling radiator, often caused by too much water, too little coolant, and a blocked aircanal (just for anyone who wants to know why a radiator boils..., oh and it could be a bubble too), Toby and his mom are stuck on the side of a hot mountain highway. Then a semi-truck goes flying by, horn blaring, carreening down the mountain. "He's lost his brake!" (1). The sickened feeling of knowing what comes next sank into my stomach as mother and son peered over the edge of the now gaurdrail free mountain curve. The truck was billowing smoke from its upside-down engine bay, the whole top of the trailor and tractor crushed by its own falling weight. Obviously this has no connection with the book, but it says a lot about Wolff's style. It is casual, almost too casual for me, so this is the perfect way to start the book because it grabs the readers guts and yanks them into the book and still managers to bring you into the story.

The plot thus far is relatively simple and cliche. Father and mother got an angry divorce and now the child and mother are going cross country to start anew. I myself find this to be an overexamined predicament in way too many books so already I can feel myself dragging. However this story is about a boy, not a boy and his mom. We are introduced to some early issues. Cliche as it is the mother pathetically fails at finding the uranium ore that the two have come cross country for and can't find a job. This applies ample amounts of stress to the nerves in the left side of my head. Despite this Wolff spends little time on it and proves this book is worth reading with focusing on him. Toby hates his name. He wanted to be called Jack. "Odds were good that I'd never have to share a classroom with a girl named Jack" (8). Even in just this one small part of him we see into Toby's personality. He ends up calling his father to talk it over. The father of course wants him to keep the name he rightfully gave him at birth. He didn't last long. Jack it was. His mother who had disapproved was now more excited about it to spite her hated ex-husband. Toby we see here is an almost classic hot-headed young boy, probably almost in his teens if not already there (age is not told yet). He even went to catechism classes to acheive his new name. One other thing readers can deduce about Tobias Wolff is that he is a rather random person. This is noted in his writing. In one page he jumped from being named Jack, to Archery Club, and on the the lady next door's cats. I found this mildly entertaining for he also tells it all in a mildly humorous light. That I don't mind however it is an abused writing style. So far I'd give the book a 5 out of 10. Its not boring, but I wouldn't read it unless I had to.