Reading Log #7

Title: Like Father, Like Son

Author: Kevin Brook

Text type: Novel

Date Finished: 21/09/17

The book Like Father, Like Son is a book about a young boy named Johnny on the search to find out who killed his father. Johnny had a little help from his friend Marcus as Marcus knew a lot about the drug dealing business and the gang affiliation life. Like most other teenagers who may not know about one of their parents. Johnny had a million questions about what happened, how it happened and most importantly who did it. Johnny eventually finds out the truth after doing some investigating himself with the help from his friend Marcus and other people who had known what was going on to the point where Johnny’s father passed away.

The situation in this text was different to my situation and how my life is. Johnny grew up not knowing a lot about his father and being the only child his mother cared for. When his father was still alive; he was a really busy man when it came to the drug dealing business and gang affiliation life. Johnny’s father had an affair with Johnny’s mother when he was married to some other woman. Johnny also found out that his father had a child with his wife which made him think that he could have a step sister. I on the other hand know both my parents and they are well and alive and I have siblings that I live with too. I don’t have gang wars going on in my neighbourhood and my father isn’t involved with drug dealing or anything like that. But one thing I can relate to with Johnny is having a step sister that I had no idea about until 3 or 4 years ago. I felt sorry for Johnny because he was dealing with a lot. From his father’s death to gang wars going off in his neighbourhood to looking after his mother. Johnny was a very curious, very strong minded and brave. He had a goal and that was to find out who killed his father, as stated in the book, and he wasn’t going to stop till he go what he wanted. I can relate to this in a way where I set goals in life whether it has anything to do with my personal life or school; for example my personal life goals aren’t as big as Johnny’s but it’s the simplest things like getting a job and learning how to drive so I’m able to get my license. Johnny was also strong minded when it came to wanting to know all there was about his father’s death. An example of this would was when he questioned Marcus about who knew what might have happened the day his father was killed and he wouldn’t leave the situation alone till he got the answers. They then went to look for these people Marcus had mentioned. One person they came across was a young girl named Tisha. After talking to Tisha, Johnny discovers that the person who killed his father was sent by a well known man in the drug dealing business, Jack Taylor. The person that was sent by Jack Taylor was Tisha’s brother Robbie. After finding this out Johnny was determined to see Jack Taylor. I am strong minded most times but it just depends on what situation it is but Johnny has showed me that he is a very determined person and won’t stop even when he has challenges in front of him. As stated in the book; Johnny went to visit Jack Taylor but the receptionist wouldn’t allow him to see Jack as he was a very busy man. It even got to a point where she was going to call for security because Johnny was refusing to leave. Jack Taylor then comes out of his office a few moments later and has a brief conversation with Jack. This goes to show that even though he didn’t his father that well that he was going to do defend his father and help him get revenge on Jack.

The book Like Father, Like Son shows characters personality of determination and bravery. This could be an example to us that if you are really determined and strong minded about something that you really want to do or find out about; it’s important to go ahead with it being 100% confident with what you do. Even though there will a lot of challenges on the way it’s important to fight through them because in the end it’ll all be worth it. As Johnny witnessed himself, the person who set up Robbie to kill his father had been shot in the head by one of his security guards.

Reading Log #6

Title: White Fang

Author: Jack London

Text Type: Novel

Date Finished: 20/09/17

The story White Fang written by Jack London is a story about a half wolf, half dog called White Fang. He was one of 5 cubs his mother gave birth to. His father had died when he was very little because a wild cat had attacked him. So he was left to help his mum survive with the rest of his siblings, as he was the tough one out of the 5 cubs. One day while White Fang and his mother went out into the woods to look for food to feed him and his siblings and their mother; they came across a wild cat. Whenever White Fang came across another animal he thought of them as the enemy. White Fang was also the type who loved to fight, kill and eat dead animals and they did exactly that to the wild cat they came across. One day White Fang was found by a group of Native Americans who took him in and looked after him until he was passed onto the chief to be looked after by. When he was passed onto Beauty Smith, one of the chiefs, he used White Fang to fight all the dogs that were put in front of him. People in the village loved to watch dogs fight and loved watching White Fang kill other dogs within minutes. One day White Fang had to go up against a tiny but heavy dog called Cherokee. Unlike other fights White Fang fought, this fight lasted longer. During this fight two men spotted what was going on and ran over to stop the two dogs and tried to pull them apart; while everyone else was cheering on the dogs. One man called Scott asked the other man called Matt how much a sled dog cost and they discussed the prices and everything. Once they had finished Scott turned to Beauty Smith and said he would give him $150 for White Fang but Beauty Smith refused it and said White Fang wasn’t up for sale. But Scott didn’t take that as answer and still handed Beauty Smith the money and left with his partner Matt and White Fang. Months on in and Scott slowly taught White Fang how to love and that everything that happens doesn’t need to be solved by killing everything.

An important lesson to learn from this is that people do change. But in this case it’s animals. An example of this was in the beginning of the book White Fang was a vicious and dangerous dog/wolf. But towards the end of the book he learnt to become a caring and loving dog/wolf. I reckon this was because throughout the book whenever White Fang did something wrong he was always punished for it. So when Scott spotted White Fang killing all the chickens in the barn, Scott punished him lightly by hitting him with the whip. Then having Scott explain to him that he wasn't allowed to kill the chickens and that he should never do it again. As White Fang grew up being brutally beaten up by whichever master that took care of him at the time, he grew up knowing that violence was the answer to everything. But further on down the road when someone came White Fang’s way and taught him how to be caring and subtle; I think White Fang realized that there was better ways of dealing with things other than using violence. This can relate to some people who may have grown up with no one there to love and care for them but when being surrounded by the right people and being taught a few things you start to see that they do change. It just takes someone to take them under their wing and they will eventually learn how to love and care towards others.

So I think that people do change it just takes the right people to show them what love and care is. Instead of using violence as the answer for everything. It may take longer for some to get their heads around the fact that everything doesn’t need to be solved by starting a fight but they will eventually come around and they will learn from their mistakes. We just need to learn not to punish them and yell things at them as no one really learns from that. If you’re wanting them to do things differently then it’s important to talk to them nice and calmly and they will understand.

Reading Log #5

Title: A Day of Weeping

Author: Benjamin Nicholls

Text Type: Short Story

Date Finished: 12/09/17

The short story, A Day of Weeping, is a story about a Cook Island family. The father was an alcoholic and was very abusive towards his wife. One day when their eldest son was coming back home, after a day's work at their plantation, there was something happening in their family home as multiple people from the village gathered around. Teiva, who was the eldest son, asked what was going on and his little brother filled him in saying that their mother had been beaten up by their father. Teiva was mad at his father for this as this wasn’t the first time it had happened. Teiva thought that it was about time they had done something about this issue; because Teiva was fed up with his mother being poorly treated by his father. So Teiva wanted to get away as far as they could away from their abusive father. Teiva, his mother and his brother were offered to stay at a relative's house for the night just so that Terekino, the father, wasn’t able to harm them during the middle of the night. In the middle of the night Teiva was woken up by a sudden voice that sounded like it was screaming out for help. Teiva goes out in the dark to find that the cry for help was coming from their house and the lights of their cook house was on and people had gathered around to see what was going on. When Teiva got closer to the scene he was informed by a fellow villager that his horse had kicked his father; breaking his ribs and also given him a swollen face. Teiva wasn’t actually bothered by this at all as he thought that his father deserved it. His father was then sent to the hospital and was in there for a good 2 weeks. During his time in the hospital Teiva’s mother had planned to get boat tickets and travel far away as they could away from Terekino. The day came around for Teiva and his mother and brother to pack up and leave the Island and Terekino was still lying in hospital. When Terekino received the news that his wife and kids were leaving the island for good; he ran out of the hospital and made his way to the wharf where the villagers were farewelling everyone who was leaving. A loud cry had bursted out and everyone had turned to see Terekino struggling to make his way to the wharf to stop the boat from leaving with his famliy. As the boat was leaving Terekino had kneeled and just started crying even more begging for the boat to return with his family but his famliy was free at last.

An important lesson to learn from this was that if you do bad things towards others, bad things will happen to you. This was seen in the story where Terekino brutally beat his wife up and then later on in the story he was kicked by a horse. Just like that famous saying “What goes around comes around.” As a result of Terekino’s brutal actions towards his wife; his wife had enough of it and said to her two boys “I have three tickets for the boat. We are leaving tonight.” I can relate to this in a way where I grew up with a certain relative who was an alcoholic and beat up his wife. It even got to a point where he was reported by the neighbours and was arrested too and was sent to jail for a decent amount of time. His wife had enough and wanted to move in with other relatives and keep her children safe as they were so young and she just didn’t want her children to watch her go through something so painful. This also got me thinking about family abuse. Most polynesian families are known for family abuse and alcoholic relatives. I’ve never liked being around my alcoholic relatives or being around my relatives when a fight was about to break out. I never liked the idea of family abuse either; it just didn’t seem like something that should’ve have been happening in these families. It isn’t ok for someone you love to beat you up because they want to take their anger out on you; especially when being under the influence of alcohol. So when these things happen you shouldn’t be surprised when your family decide to move away from you.

So if you want to carry on treating people with disrespect and abusing them because you're angry with something else; don’t be surprised when they finally had enough of your rudeness and decide to leave you. So start treating people like you want to be treated like everyone else says. Because if you don’t change; it will get to a point where you will be left alone with no one by your side when you’re in need of support.

Reading Log #4

Title: Freedom Writers

Director: Richard LaGravenese

Text Type: Film

Date Finished: 03/06/17

The film ‘Freedom Writers’ directed by Richard LaGravenese is a film about high school students who have grown up in a violent environment. Woodrow Wilson High School started off as a high achieving school but were later on faced with difficulties as the school adopted a new racial integration system. Mrs Gruwell who was a new teacher at Woodrow Wilson High School, was a really enthusiastic teacher. These kids were not your typical high school students; some of these kids were involved with gangs, had been in and out of refugee camps, homeless, or were drug dealers. These students grouped themselves into their own small groups of Africans, Cambodians, Latinos and other racial groups.  

Mrs Gruwell is faced with a lot of challenges while being at school; not only does she have to earn the students trust she is also facing little support from her fellow co-workers. This is seen in the film when Gruwell turns to the Head of the Department for help with damaged resources, but she is denied. Instead she advises Gruwell to teach the students about self discipline and respect. She overcame this by seeing the Ministry of Education and asked him to allow her to let the students read books that were more advanced than their vocabulary. These students ended up reading the diary of Anne Frank and most of them  enjoyed this book as they were able to relate to various difficult situations Anne Frank faced in her time

In the film the director displayed a number of important ideas. One of these was tolerance. This was shown when the students in room 203, an english class, learnt to respect and understand that their differences should not affect them. After this they began to work together and become more successful with their education as they had learnt to tolerate each other. This happened after ‘Mrs. G’ confronts the students about a drawing they drew of Jamal. This picture of jamal was drawn with big lips just like the Nazi’s propaganda poster with jews and their big noses. The teacher then compared it to the way the Nazi’s labelled the Jews by their ‘big noses’ in the times that the Holocaust occurred.  This idea allowed me to have a better understanding of how students presently tend to judge each other for being different. Teens tend to judge each other for being a different race or not being the type of person they should be. This idea is important because people are letting others control how they should look with what they say. We may have been brought up differently, in different areas of the world but we are not all that different. We all breathe the same air, we are all entitled to our own opinions and because we are different to each other we shouldn’t let other people’s words justify who we are. We were not bought into this earth to be exactly like each other or even live up to everyone else’s expectations. We are the way we are because that’s apart of being a human; being different isn’t a bad thing it just means you’re brave enough to be ourselves. The students in room 203 later on in the movie realise that they have all been through similar situations; for example they all had lost someone close to them because of gang purposes. This allowed the students to open up to each and help each other heal from the pain they had endure from losing someone due to gang related incidents. You may think to yourself sometimes that there isn’t anyone out there who wouldn’t understand what you’ve been through. But if you take the time to talk to other people and get to know about their background a little bit; you’d be surprised with what you and that other person would have in common.

A lesson to take from this is that we should never judge people by they way they showcase themselves; but actually take the time to get to know people and understand why they’re the way that they are. There’s that famous saying “Never judge someone without knowing the whole story. You may think you understand, but you don’t” this clearly states that you can never fully understand why people are the way that they are till you get to know and understand their situations.