Lit. Circles Post One

What is the What

Sunday, February 28th

Page 7, Paragraph 1

Quote: “I have had the fortune of having seen more suffering than I have suffered myself, but nevertheless, I have been starved, I have been beaten with sticks, with rods, with brooms and stones and spears…”

Significance: This quote is from when Achak gets robbed and he is reflecting on his experiences. I think this quote portrays the hardships of the main character, Valentino Achak when he was traveling to America. It also shows that America has been difficult for him and that he misses his native country. Even though he had faced so many difficulties and seen so many people killed when leaving Sudan, he still misses Africa. I think this is because he didn’t really want to leave his home town – before the men from the government came and destroyed his village, Achak was happy living with his mother, father and siblings and did not have any desire to leave. I think he also misses his native country because he is uneasy about America and Sudan, Kenya, and Ethiopia was a land that he was familiar with and knew how to act there.

Character Judgment: When I read this paragraph I felt sorry for Achak because he was younger than me when he witnessed all of the monstrosities that he did. To me, his thought that he missed Africa was expected for someone who didn’t care to leave their home country.

Question: When have you ever felt homesick and how was it different from the way Achak felt?

Page 15-16, Paragraph 9-1

Quote: “There is a circle of perhaps three hundred Sudanese in the U.S. who keep in touch, me with them but more often them with me, and we do so in a way that might be considered excessive.”

Significance: This excerpt from What is the What is from when Achak is talking about how all of the Sudanese in America call him. This quote shows that, although Achak came to America years ago, he assimilated to the new community but still kept in touch with his old culture. As noted, he often gets calls from the many other Sudanese and Lost Boys in the United States. Much of his culture still lingers – one example being that he and his roommate continue to cook in the “Sudanese way”.

Personal Connection: I relate to this quote because I understand Achak’s need to stay connected to his old culture. I know that if I were to come to a strange place would find comfort in talking to people from my old country and cooking in the tradition of that culture. It is a good way to keep one’s culture while still melting in with the American culture.

Question: What are some examples of how everyday Americans relate to their heritage?

Lit. Circles

Independent Reading - Blog Post Four

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Name: Alli
Date: February 9th
Time: Two Hours
Pages: 159 - 276
Total Pages: 117

Question One: How did what you read today make you feel?

Response:
In the last part of Elsewhere a lot happens. After Liz stops being depressed she gets an Avocation which involves dogs. Liz turns out to be very good at it and after her first day she meets Sadie who becomes her new dog. Liz becomes happy and friendly, interacting with her friends and family in Elsewhere. Reading this made me happy and excited for Liz because she was deprived of so much when she died and wasting away her time at the Observation Decks deprived her of even more.
Liz begins to enjoy her life on Elseewhere and gradually stops dwelling on her family still on Earth until she remembers her father's birthday. She remembers that she had bought a perfect sea green sweater months before with her own money. She wants to make sure he gets it because if she doesn't it will lie beneath the floorboards in her closet on Earth. I thought that this was a very sweet motion of Liz and would help her father cope with her death. Unfortunately to be able to do this Liz must make illegal Contact with Earth so she puts on her scuba gear and dives one mile to the Well. When she gets there she tries to make Contact with her brother, telling him where she hid the sweater but gets pulled out by by Owen Welles who is from the Elsewhere Bureau of Supernatural Crime and Contact. He enforces that no one makes Contact with the living and so when Liz watches her brother try to tell her dad where the sweater is she realizes that he had misheard her. Her father gets mad and thinks that Liz's brother was lying so he almost slaps him. Liz becomes heartbroken and I was disappointed as well because even though Liz tried to help her family it only turned out worse than before.
Owen (the detective) thinks that trying to give a sweater to her dad was a very unimportant cause, but when Liz leaves Owen dives down to the well to tell her brother the correct location of the sweater. He realizes that Liz wanted to move on and by stopping her from making the dive he hindered her from that process. Liz's brother gets the correct information to where the sweater is hidden and gives it to her dad.
Now suspended from his job Owen decides to tell Liz that her father received the sweater. Liz was very grateful and asked him to go to Thanksgiving dinner with Betty, Curtis, Thandi, and all of her friends. Liz and Owen's relationship kicks off and from there on they become close friends and eventually a couple. I thought that this was good for Liz because she needed a friend and Owen made her very happy, teaching her how to drive and even getting a dog as well.



Question Two: What has surprised you in this book?

Response:
One thing that surprised me was when Owen's wife, Emily, from Earth dies and arrives at Elsewhere. Owen chooses Emily over Liz leaving Liz heartbroken. When I read this I was surprised at the turn of events. It had a lot of results, one being Liz deciding to go back to Earth early, leaving her family and friends on Elsewhere. As she is making the journey to Earth along the River, Liz rethinks her decision and wants to go back, but despite her efforts to turn around she only sinks to the bottom of the Ocean.
In Elsewhere, Liz's family and friends are very concerned and go out to look for Liz. Liz sees them and uses all of her strength to swim to the surface, reunited with her family and friends. I believed this was a good decision because all of her friends and family back on Elsewhere would have missed her and she would have missed them, and even if she had gone back to Earth she would have never seen her family again.
Back in Elsewhere Owen chooses Liz over Emily and they become young together with their family and friends. When Liz is eight she receives a letter from her best friend on Earth, Zooey. She was going to get married and wanted to invite Liz to the wedding, so Owen, now the head of his department, suggests they dive down to the Well and make a toast. Unfortunately the toast is unsuccessful but Liz gets to talk to her brother. She had insisted that they could talk instead of getting anyone else and I thought that this was very nice for Liz so that she could see her family again and talk to her brother. I also thought that it was good because Liz never was able to say goodbye to them.
When Liz is retiring from her Avocation someone comes to meet her at her work. His name is Amadou Bonamy and he was the cabdriver who had hit Liz and caused her death. He had come to confess and ask for forgiveness from Liz. She forgives him immediately, saying that she knew he was a good man in the wrong place at the wrong time. While his appearance surprised me it also was a very nice ending. I though t was a good compromise, bringing back a memory from Earth but also allowing Liz to reflect back onto her time in Elsewhere.
Overall I thought that this book was very intriguing and I definitely will read it again. I loved the author's style of writing and enjoyed her idea of the afterlife. I hope that she will write more books and they will be just as good.

Independent Reading - In Class Writing Response Explanation

The main goal to me traveling into Elsewhere was to give Liz advise. I first said that she couldn't come to the Observation Decks (ODs) to watch her old life. From reading the book I knew that she would become depressed by being obsessed with her old life for too long. I then said that she shouldn't go to the Well, which is where residents on Elsewhere can make Contact with the living, although it is illegal. Liz wanted to tell her family the name of the man who had run over her so that he would "pay". I told her that she shouldn't because it would have been a bad thing to do. The man who had run her over was a good man who couldn't have told the police that he did it because he was very poor and trying to support a family. I also told her to get an Avocation. An Avocation is basically like a job, but you are supposed to like it. Liz had an option to take up an Avocation that involved dogs, which she loved on Earth. I knew that she would find joy in it so I told her to accept it. Finally I told Liz to talk to her friends more because I knew they would help her out of her depression.

Independent Reading - In Class Writing Response

Choice 1 -
My magical powers sparkle and shimmer around me as I feel myself disintegrating into the ink of the book.

I awake to the sound of waves crashing onto the rocky shoreline. I open my eyes and am blinded by the brilliant blue sky above me. Standing up, I look around and find myself on a sandy spit of beach. A sheer cliff hung with moss towers above and I can make out the top of a lighthouse. A set of rickety wooden steps hangs onto the side of the cliff. Finding no where else to go, I carefully start making my up those steps. At the top I find myself on a rocky path leading to the old, white-washed lighthouse. Soft green green grass surrounds the tower and as I walk along the path I begin to recognize my surroundings. I realize that I am actually in my book, Elsewhere. I race my way to the tower and rush into the elevator. It seems like hours until I get to the top, and I burst out of the elevator, racing past Esther and to Binoculars #15. Sitting on the metal stool I see a girl with short blond hair wearing stained and dirty white PJs. "Liz!" I call. The girl does not look up from the binoculars in front of her. I race to her and shake her shoulders. She looks up at me. Her eyes are sunk into her skull and seem empty. "Who are you?" she asks, but her voice seems uninterested. "Liz", I say, "You can't be at the ODs anymore. Do you know how much you could be doing with your life?" She glares at me. "But this is death. There is no point of living if it is death". "No Liz, you don't understand! You can't be wasting away your time at the ODs! I know you want to go down to the Well, but you don't understand that if you do, you are no worse than the cabbie!!!" "How do you know what I am going to do?!" I pause. "Well, if I were to say I were from the future, I would be lying, and it would sound cheezy. But I do know you are going to do, and I have to get you to stop!" She stares at me with empty eyes. "I actually believe you. What do I have to do?" I smile. "First of all, come with me back to Betty's house."

As we walk back to her grandmother's house, I tell Liz where I had came from. "You see", I said, "I have magical sparkly powers which can transport me into a book. You are in a book, and I really good one, actually." "That's so wierd. I can't believe it, but I do. If that makes any sense." "It doesn't", I say, smiling. Then my face become serious. "But you have to do what I say." She looks at me with understanding, nodding. "First, no more ODs. I know a lot have people have told you to stop, and as I said before, they don't do any good. Next, buy some clothes. Those old PJs are yucky." She frowns, and I give an apologetic smile. Then, you should really get that Avocation. You know how much you like dogs, and you will really enjoy it. Trust me, I know", I say, thinking about what I had read. "You should really let people in too. Thandi, Betty, Curtis. They all want to help you and be your friend, but you don't let them." She nods, then nods again. I can tell that she will do what I had said, even if she doesn't know why. "Promise me you will", I say, just to make sure. "I promise." There is bittersweet feeling, and I am sad to leave. "I have to go now", I say, "but if you do even one of these things I know you will feel better."I wave goodbye as the air around me shimmers again. The last thing I see is Liz waving back at me. "Oh ya!", I shout, "One last thing. Remember your dad's sweater, and don't shout!!!" I know she will not know what I am talking about right now but when she comes to the time she will.

I appear on my bed, the book lying open besides me. I watch the black text slowly switch and I smile to myself.

Independent Reading - Blog Post Two

Elsewhere by Gabrielle Zevin

Name: Alli

Date: February 1

Time: Two Hours

Pages: 1 - 159

Total Pages: 159

Question 1: What do you think about a particular character's actions? Was he/she right or wrong to do that?

Response: As I said in my last post, Liz was depressed and obsessed with watching her former life on Earth, never attempting to start fresh in Elsewhere. As she watches her family and friends through the binoculars on the Observation Decks, she tries to find the cab that hit her and caused her death. When she finds out the name of the cabbie, she wants to tell her family who it was so that they have to go to jail. "They should pay", she had said. To tell her family, she has to make Contact with them, which is strictly forbidden in Elsewhere. I thought that these were both bad decisions. The man who had hit Liz probably had a good reason for not stopping. From what Liz had learned from watching him, the cab driver seemed like a good man who wouldn't have hit Liz and not come back, without a good reason. But But before Liz tries to make Contact with her family, she watches the man once more. She sees him with his son who had gotten sick at school. He then offers to drive his son home, putting his family before his job. Liz then realizes that she could never turn him in. I think that this is the best decision she makes in the book, and leads to even better outcomes. From this Liz stops being depressed by getting an Avocation, making friends and getting a dog.

Question 2: What was one of your favorite lines (or sentences) in what you read today? Copy it down and tell why you liked it.

Response: In the park, Liz meets a dog who gives her some advise. "'My advise to you is to stop being lonely and stop hating it here. That always works for me," says the dog. "Oh, and be happy! It's easier to be happy happy than to be sad. Being sad takes a lot of hard work. It's exhausting."'

I especially liked this line because although this dog's message sounded cute, there is a much bigger importance to what it had said. I thought this was important but simple message for Liz. She is being depressed, and although I am sympathetic to her, she can decide whether or not she is happy or sad. No one is making her be depressed besides herself. Liz said she was lonely, but id she became closer to Betty, Curtis, Thandi, and everyone else who had tried to help her and be her friend, she would be lonely. She also said that she hated it in Elsewhere, but no one made her hate Elsewhere. If she had a better outlook on life and took this dog's advise, she wouldn't be depressed and lonely. It is all up to her if she wants to change, and in my opinion she should. It would make her feel better and benefit her in many ways.