Reading

            This year I grew as a reader tremendously. I grew by reading books in genres I had never read before. At the beginning of the year, I hate reading but as the year progressed I enjoyed reading more and more because of the new enjoyable genres I found. Some of these genres were postcolonial fiction and books about life lessons. 

Books I read this year:

-      Lord of the Flies by William Golding 

-      Macbeth by William Shakespeare 

-      Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie 

-      Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche 

-      It by Stephen King 

-      A Matter for Men by David Gerrold 

-      Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs 

-      Make Your Bed by William H. McRaven 

Two Pieces to Show my Writing

Piece One 

 Poverty influence multiple people’s lives in The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie. Poverty directly influences Junior and the people around him especially Penelope. Junior was scared of how Penelope would think of Junior if he told her that he was poor. He even almost faked being sick at Denny's because he did not have enough money to pay for Penelope and his dinner, but Roger gave him the money to pay. After dinner Penelope asked Junior if he was poor and he tells her that he is. Junior eventually tell her what he goes through by hitchhiking home and walking some days and she responds by saying, "Oh my God, Arnold, you can't do that, I won't let you do that. You'll freeze. Roger will drive you home. He'll be happy to drive you home" (Page. 129).  Roger does drive Junior home and drive Junior home other days too.

     Poverty does not change the way Penelope perspective at Junior, but makes her care for him more and made her want to help Junior. Poverty effected Junior in his actions because he was scared because he did not know what to do because he could not pay for Penelope and his dinner. Junior perspective was changed of poverty because he was scared people were going to judge him but they did not.  Junior's future will be altered still be altered by poverty because he will still have to find his way through life with being poor. Poverty does change the way characters act in the book but people do not judge Junior because he is poor. 

Piece Two 

     The book Purple Hibiscus by Chimamanda Ngozi Adiche has been a very delightful and fascinating book to read. So far in the story we have seen different ways of culture throughout the whole book. Such as the native foods and drinks Sisi makes for the family, some of the foods are Jollof Rice, cashew juice, and mango juice. We see Nigerian culture also through the market where Kambili, her mom and Jaja go. She describes the market of being very busy and filled with different types of vendors and shops. The culture is very different than the culture I am used to in America. I think Adiche makes the culture very evident in this book for a reason so that people that are not from Nigeria learn Nigerian culture while reading.

     Tradition plays a large part in the book too. Such as the tradition that the whole family must go to the alter and receive communion. When Jaja does not receive communion, it makes his father very angry because Jaja broke a family tradition. Another family tradition is how they pray before and after every single meal. The tradition I find very sad is how the mother cleans the étagère and spend a lot of time on each individual piece of it. Adiche shows these traditions to show how religious the family is.