Dogeaters by Jessica Hagedorn

Pentecost (2014) compares The Distance Between Us: A memoir with Rudolfo Anaya and Tomas Rivera’s major work as an attempt to capture the cultural identity of Mexican Americans concluding that the main protagonist of these works had to set outside their cultural boundaries to find their cultural identity. Ruf (2009) unlike Pentecost (2014) emphases the uniqueness of Grande’s work as she highlights that even though Across a Hundred Mountains is a fiction work it is based on Grade’s real experiences and fears. Unlike most immigration novels that are usually narrated from a male perspective, Grande’s narrative of a young girl denounces attention to gender inequalities and intersectionalities among immigrants (Bürkner, 2012) (Ruf, 2009). In addition, critics see Reyna Grande as an honest writer that uses her personal experiences for the development of an immigrant narrative and whose novel is underscored with personal truths (Olivas, 2006) (Coca, 2009). While this literature explore Grande’s work they do not pay attention to the representation of her personal and/or her fictional character Juana’s identity formation, when it is a fundamental characteristic of her

In the book Girl, Interrupted by Susanna Kaysen, Susanna Kaysen was only 18 years old when she agreed to enter a medium security psychiatric facility in Boston, McLean hospital in April 1967, after a failed suicide attempt. She insisted that her over dose on aspirin was not a suicide attempt, but after a 20 minute interview the doctor decided she needed to be admitted to a hospital. During her prolonged two-year stay at the hospital Kaysen describes the issues that most of the patients in her ward have to deal with and how they all differently deal with the amount of time they must stay in the hospital for. While in the hospital Kaysen experienced a case of depersonalization where she tried to pull the skin of her hands to see if there were bones underneath, after a failed escape attempt. Soon, after going to therapy and analysis she was labeled as having recovered from borderline personality disorder. After her release she realizes that McLean Hospital provided patients with more freedom than the outside world, by being free responsibility of parental pressure, free from school and job responsibilities, and being free from the “social norms” that society comes up with. Ultimately, being in captivity gave the patients more freedom then in society and created a safe environment in which patients wanted to stay in.

Sanity is subjective. Every individual is insane to another; however it is the people who possess the greatest self-restraint that prosper in acting “normal”. This is achieved by thrusting the title of insanity onto others who may be unlike oneself, although in reality, are simply non-conforming, as opposed to insane. In Susanna Kaysen’s Girl, Interrupted, this fine line between sanity and insanity is explored to great lengths. Through the unveiling of Susanna’s past, the reasoning behind her commitment to McLean Hospital for the mentally ill, and varying definitions of the diagnosis that Susanna received, it is evident that social non-conformity is often confused with insanity.

Girl Interrupted is Susanna Kaysen 's memoir a series of recollections and reflections of her nearly two year stay at a residential psychiatric program at McLean Hospital in Belmont, Massachusetts. She looks back on it with a sense of surprise. In her memoir she considers how she ended up at McLean, and whether or not she truly belonged there. Each chapter focuses on one aspect of her experience. Founded in the late 19th century, McLean Hospital had been a facility for troubled members of wealthy and aristocratic families. By the late 1960s, however, McLean had fallen into a period neglect. This was a time of great change in the mental health care field. Kaysen grew up in a wealthy and prestigious family. Like most teenagers, she was rebellious at times, confused and unsure about her future. She didn’t want to go to college and slept with her high school English teacher. She witnessed firsthand the widening generation gap that was developing in the late 1960s. Older generations looked at Kaysen’s generation 's world with alarm.

Science fiction is a way for an author to express their concerns in the world while using fiction to bring up controversial ideas. In Unwind , Neal Shusterman is able to incorporate science fiction in a way to not only get his points across but to also make the reader think, and adjust the message to relate to one's own life. Unwind takes place in the future where it is an option for parents to choose to have their child unwound, meaning they would be taken from their family and taken apart. Their body parts would then be given to someone who is sick or injured. The reader is introduced to the main characters: three teenagers who have relatable backgrounds to teenage readers in order to help one connect and feel a part of the story. As readers start learning about these characters, Lev, Connor and Risa, new issues develop which create life or death situations that these adolescence have to deal with alone. While this story is science fictional the plot of these kids struggling to find who they are and what their purpose is, while their parents have given up on them, is something most readers can relate to in one way or another, whether it’s being unsure about the future, having family problems, or being told something can’t be done. In Unwind, the author, Neal Shusterman,

Through my understanding of the book, Homeward Bound by Elaine Tyler May explores two traditional depictions of the 1950s, namely suburban domesticity and anticommunism. She intertwines both historical events into a captivating argument. Throughout the book, May aims to discover why “Post-war Americans accepted parenting as well as marriage with so much zeal” unlike their own parents and children. Her findings are that the “cold war ideology and domestic revival” were somewhat linked together. She saw “domestic containment” as an outgrowth of frights and desires that bloomed after the war. However, psychotherapeutic services were as much a boom then as now, and helped offer “private and personal solutions to social problems.” May reflects her views on the origin of domestic containment, and how it affected the lives of people who tried to live by it.

While reading the story Opening Skinners Box wrote by Lauren Slater there was a chapter that made me look at the world like I do and how sometimes the world relates to a story. The chapter was On Being Sane in Insane Places” while reading this chapter I seen and I was thinking that some of the things being said in the book was true. Sometimes people make wrong choices and they chose paths that lead them to bad consequence. Then we have those people that are born with this, bad consequences. Sometimes we have to face the world and how the world is. Sometimes it is not their fault that they are the way that they are. Some of them are just born that way because of their chromosomes that are way too much or some that don’t fully develop.

For the past few decades, the development of technology and the expansion of the knowledge has enriched our life, especially for our childhood life. However, relatively speaking, kids now are getting less freedom than the past due to the world has more potential dangerous such as the increased rate of abduction. Dealing a complicated problem with a very simple violent way may result in a worse impact in the near future. Because of parents excessively protect their own children and outside world is too horrible to play alone, more and more kids lost the opportunity of touching the nature, instead they indulge in the virtual world created by electronic products. In the story “The Shortening Leash”, Jessica and Hanna give us a relatively accurate and unbiased information about the situation that kids now lost freedom a lot according to the board surveys and three statistic graphs. While they mentioned that we are not supposed to latch our kids due to over-protection. Otherwise, let children pursue free exploration is not equal to stop your ear to them.

Throughout the novella, The House On Mango Street, author Sandra Cisneros conveys Esperanza's ideas and thoughts through her everyday surroundings. The metaphors in this bildungsroman exploit Esperanza’s maturity growth from start to finish. Without these metaphors, it would be a significant challenge for the reader to comprehend and connect with Esperanza. Cisneros demonstrates the themes of the evolution of thinking and personality through the metaphor of balloons, trees, and bums.

In Drown, a collection of short stories, author Junot Diaz presents readers with an impoverished group of characters through harsh, but vivid language. Through the voice of Yunior, the narrator throughout the majority of the stories, Diaz places the blame for Yunior’s negativity and rebellious nature on the disappointment caused by his father and the childhood illusion of America. Diaz, through language and symbolism, forces readers into an emotional bond with Yunior while exposing the illusory nature of the American dream. Although intertwined with each story, “Fiesta, 1980” allows for a more concise discussion of Diaz’s purpose. Diaz’s language, even at first glance, appears very different from conventional authors:Mami’s younger

For this paper, I read the graphic novel, One Hundred Demons by Lynda Barry. Barry’s novel is similar to Kochalka’s series, American Elf since her life is the main plot and focus. Like the title, Barry divulges into instances from her life that could be considered a demon, or something negative. For example, the first demon she discussed was about her first love and how much he differed from one of her boyfriends. This was considered a demon to her because of how he treated her and how she felt better off without him. In a way, this novel is Barry’s method of expressing her negative moments and sharing them to the public. Not only does this graphic novel encourage others to speak about their demons, Barry is healing herself from her negative

Ghost Singer by Anna Lee Walters is a tale of the historical injustices suffered by Indigenous peoples and the modern consequences of those injustices. Although it is clear that the spirit people in the novel serve as the most outwardly fearsome people in the novel, it is important to take into account the overall systemic injustices that the characters of Native American heritage suffer under throughout the histories presented in the novel. Walters addresses fearsomeness and sympathetic characters through the use of dangerous characters and situations presented directly and indirectly to the characters. The fearsomeness of the characters and the sympathy felt for the characters is dependent upon the perspectives of the readers since these fearsome figures are “a cultural construct and a projection” of that cultures fears (Cohen 1). The fearsome figures in the novels are presented to initially be the spirits haunting the artifacts, but upon closer examination the larger more entrenched issue of outdated models of thought in relation to Indigenous peoples appear to be the most important fearsome figure. The protagonist of the novel is dependent upon the views taken, and the fearsome figures that the historians, such as David Evans, and characters are attempting aid the spirits, such as George Daylight. Walters addresses the fearsome nature of a system dependent on examining and judging indigenous societies based on white values, which is problematic since both cultures do not

Bulosan notes that he “could fight the world now with [his] mind, not merely with [his] hands” and refers to literature as his “weapon” (Bulosan 224). As white Americans repeatedly and brutally mistreat Filipinos, Bulosan reflects on his own capacity and influence in enacting change in the realities of a newly developed Filipino America. Rather than rejecting America, an Americanization becomes an embrace of a new identity and a new home for future Filipino Americans. He demonstrates to the reader that this Americanization is not assimilating into American colonial ideals, but advocating for a welcoming home for future generations of Filipino Americans. The reader begins a conscious transformation with Allos (the given nickname to Bulosan in the novel), acknowledging how American imperial endeavors in the Philippines can render Filipinos to become complacent with their position in society. From forcibly signing

Once upon a time, there was a sheep named Luke who lived on a large farm in Ireland. Luke really enjoyed living there because it was so peaceful and there was plenty of room to run. Also the farmer named Joe who took very good care of Luke an all the other sheep was really nice too!

“The House on Mango Street” by Sandra Cisneros is a perfect example of feminist theory in literature in the twenty’s century. In “The House on Mango Street,” Sandra Cisneros pictures the lives on Mango Street. She shows us how differences between the roles of men and women in Esperanza’s life, and Latino women’s lives are influenced by the Spanish culture. She also lets