Poverty

So I was confused and read the wrong essay for my group. We were assigned "What is poverty" It was also a very intereting article. It was originally a speech which would've been more compelling. It was still a very strong, emotional article. The author, Jo Parker, addresses the audience using you, so directly. This forces the reader to get involved while reading. It's a way of attacking but also pulling at the readers thoughts and emotions. Parker uses very detailed imagery with tons of descriptions. She talks about everything from sights, events, feelings, smells and feel of things around her. She is a reliable source because she isn't describing something she researched, she lived and possibly is still living in poverty. She describes the awful situation and the hopelessness that comes with it. She relates to the reader and makes them feel like it could be anyone in poverty. It's not a certain type of person. It's not any easier for her to deal with then it would be for the reader. I went through pity, disgust, anger and sadness while reading. It's interesting that she refused to give biographical information. I think everyone is left curious as to how she is doing now. I think lots of people would offer help and she could be in a much better situation. I wonder if that is the reason why she doesn't want anyone to know, she doesn't want the help. I don't know. She is a very good writer, which disproves another stereotype about poverty that people are in poverty because they are dumb or have no skills. i think she could make a living or at least some money by writing. She already has the popularity needed to sell a book or essay. It's all just very intersting and leaves the readers with a ton of questions. She does give everyone a realistic look at poverty and disbands many stereotypes about it. If that was her point that she doesn't need to keep writing even though it would be beneficial to her and her family.

Review of Friend Game

So I missed class on monday because my classes for my trip to Korea decided to start on Monday at 1, the same time as my usual class. I was a little upset because it was supposed to meet on Sat but people complained so the teacher moved it to Mon. So frustrating. That being said I missed the explanation of what we're supposed to be doing in our groups for this assignment. Two classmates tried to explain it but they didn't totally understand either. Hopefully I'll get more direction today in class. I read the article about Megan, the girl who committed suicide because of some drama on MySpace. I think it's so tragic especially because she did it when everyone was home and the neighbors didn't get punished. It's crazy that the girl was talking to her mom, ran past her dad and killed herself less than an hour later. I always thought that people killed themselves in private, when no one was around. It must be awful to live with the thought that your daughter killed herself when you were around. I don't know if I could handle that!
I was also sad to read that Megan's parents tried to monitor what was going on. It seemed like they read some of the messages and gave permission to who she could be friends with. They tried to screen what was going on online. That's more than most parents and it still couldn't stop this situation. This also brought out the bias in the article. I could tell the author was on Megan's family's side. He/She wrote all the things Megan's parents did to protect their child and portrayed the neighbors as generally disliked, mean/ at least annoying people.
It shocked me that the neighbors got upset when Megan's parents started to bug them, like smashing the Christmas present and telling everyone that they were responsible. Did the neighbors think that there would be not repercussions for their actions? I would've thought something would have happened to the neighbors, at least forced to move.
It's not surprising that the teen-age girls would make up a person and be mean to Megan. Things like this happen in real life all the time. Middle school is all about cliques and being mean and dealing with all kinds of lies and drama. It is expected at school. Everyone knows that's how girls act. It just seems more personal online for some reason.