Ender's Game 1

The book I'm currently reading is called "Ender's Game." It is a book by Orson Scott card. The plot of the story is simple. It tells of the life of the main character Ender who is a military genius. He has been chosen to lead an army against he buggers, who are a notorious race of ant like creatures who will kill anyone without mercy like a robot. Ender is a 6 year old boy who is confused and hated for his genius-ness.
In this story there are chosen ones and unchosen ones. In the beginning everyone is chosen and they receive monitoring from the government. After a year or two, many of them are eliminated and they return to their normal 4 year old or 5 year old lives. Losing their chosen one privilege is like saying that they are not talented enough to help out in the war between humans and buggers. There are some, however, that keep the chosen one privileged for 3 years like Ender. These are the ones that go into military tactic school out in outer space.
At the age of 6, Ender is chosen to go into the military academy in outer space. Ender doesn't want to leave his family but the only one who truly loves him is his sister. Due to his 3 years, the other kids hate him. His own brother resents him because he was only chosen for 2 years. His parents love him but also resent him because he is the past of which they tried to avoid (because of both of their children (older brother and sister of ender) only were chosen for 2 years). His older brother oftentimes bullies young Ender and his older sister stands for him.
Ender is a fragile child. Even with his extreme brilliance and superior strength, his mind is injured by the life he lived and is forced to live. His worst fear is to be alone with no one who cares or loves him. He is young flower stranded in a wide open grassy area with his sister flower next to him. He is forced to leave his sister flower and travel into another wide open grassy area with no one around him but resentment.

Vignette Name Review

In our last vignette project that we were assigned, I noticed that everyone wrote about some similar and different things. There were many stories that specifically talked about their own life, but also some that had the same theme. For example, In Kathy's blog, Victor's blog, and Yen's blog,, all three of them had a vignette dedicated to their name. Their name expressed their heritage, and their past. For me, heritage is a very important because it symbolizes who we are.
In Kathy's "My Name," post I found a quote where she explains her last name. 

My last name is Douglas; it’s from my dad’s side of course. It’s a Scottish last name and somehow there are these two Douglass in Scottish history. The black Douglas (no pun intended) and the red Douglas. I guess this infers that I have some Scottish in me from somewhere.

Kathy's last name "Douglas," comes from Scotland. This is important to know, because heritage shows who you are. Past ancestors have worked hard to past down their last name into the next generation.To know heritage is also to know how one truly is. Heritage is also the energy runs through the generations, inheritance, and much more.
In Yen's blog post "My Name," he also shares the origin of his last name. 

These are all Vietnamese names, but my brother’s and my names are all America sounding....They told me that Yen and Ian sounds alike, and that it would make me fit in better. Then I ask why they didn't just name me Bob or something.  Then I regret it.  My name represents who I am.  I can’t give up who I am.  My name is mine.  

First, This quote does a lot about his heritage, but at least it tells where it is from. It also shows he knows that his name represents him. Secondly, In this quote I can extract two major details about his heritage. One, he is from Vietnam, and Two, he knows who he is. Both of these are important to know and
Names and heritage tell a lot of what someone's background. They are important because everyone should be proud of where they come from. Heritage connects the past to the present.
I have enjoyed reading my peer's post, but I didn't really know what to write about. I couldn't find any similarities that other people haven't already written about so I decided to write about one of the standouts topics.

The Future

In the book Manga Street by Sandra Cisneros the main character and narrator Esperanza goes through a story of her life. She begins as a child who knows nothing of the world and lives in a poor broke down house on Mango Street. As the story continues she grows up and goes through a bunch of changes mentally, physically, and . At the last 3 chapters/vignettes, she meets a bunch of old ladies who "predict her future." What is this future? 
In my opinion Sandra Cisneros is portraying herself as Esperanza in the book. Therefore, Esperanza's future can be shown as Sandra Cisneros future. On the last page of the last vignette, it says, 

"Friends and neighbors will say, What happened to Esperanza? Where did she go with all those books and paper? Why did she march so far away?

In this quote, I can draw many inferences. For one thing -all those books and paper- can mean that she went to get herself an education. An education can let her lead a better life and even -come back- to Mango street to     -help- all those who couldn't leave. If Esperanza really was Sandra Cisneros and went to get an education after leaving Mango Street, this story THOMS could be how she comes back to Mango street to help. This also explains 

In another quote on page 106, Esperanza talks with Alicia about "Mango Street,"
No, Alicia says. Like it or not you are Mango Street, and one day you'll come back too.

Esperanza really hates Mango Street, but she can't fight the fact that she's from there. She intends to leave and come back when things make it better, but nothing will. Therefore she has to either help other people leave Mango Street or help make Mango Street better. On page 105, three old mysterious ladies tell Esperanza's future from her hands. They say, 

"YOu must remember to come back. For the ones who canot leave as easily as you. You will remember? She asked as if she was telling me. Yes, yes, I said a litte confisued. 

In this quote, Esperanza's future is already given to her, she must remember to come back for the others.The only way to get this is for her to get an education. After she gets and education, she'll be able to return to Mango Street. I believe that Esperanza will leave Mango Street to seek her education and then she'll come back and help other who wish to have and education but cannot.
  

Sandra  Cisneros is a very peculiar person. In her book Manga Street, her feelings are spread out through the whole book. From what I can see and tell, Sandra Cisneros thinks that boys and girls should not be treated the same.

In the book Mango Street, the main character Esperanza encounters many people around her in little neighborhood of Mango Street. Everyone of them are different. Everyone of them is raised different. The way they are raised are all points of views from Sandra, her opinion of boys and girls are shown in Mango Street. In one of the quotes on page 8, “Since she comes right after me, she is my responsibility.” (8)  It shows here that Sandra wants girls to be treated more differently then boys She believes that parents should raise their girls to be more responsible. Esperanza shows this responsibility from her caring for her sister. Sandra believes that parents should raise girls to be more responsible then boys.

Another example of Sandra's feelings are showed on page 80 and 81. It states, “Her father says to be this beautiful is trouble. [...] She can’t go out. Sally I mean.” (81) “[...] and nobody could call that crazy.” (83) In this quote, Cisneros shows how families might raise girls differently because girls can more easily bring shame to the family. The implication is that this is unfair. This also shows how girls shouldn't be too beautiful because it might attract alot of guys. In conclusion Sandra shows that she thinks that girls shouldn't be too beautiful, and girls should be raised diffrerently for guy because girls can bring shame more easily than the guys in the family.

Most of what Sandra writes in her book symbolize something. In one of other paragraphs she shows tha girls are very different from boys. “Sally, make them stop. I couldn’t make them go away. [...] Please don’t make me tell it all.” (100) This quote shows that Esperanza can't defeat the boys. Which implies that boy can never step up ibn society and will always never be able to beat the boys. 

Sandra thinks that girl and boys should not be treated the same because they are different in responsibility wise, soceity wise, and shame wise.

My World

1. Fear

2. Confusion

3. Hair

4. My name

Vignette 1- Fear

It was cold, and dark. The phone rang like it was crazy as we spun in circles. Fear build-ed up in my heart, as I had no idea what was going to happen
Saturday, December 25 2009. It was the time for snow. My cousin invited me to Tahoe that year, because my parents couldn’t go. On Saturday he came to our house to pick me up.
“Hey come on let’s go,” David said.
“Alright hold on, let me get some stuff,”
“Kk, be in the car in 5 minutes,” david said.
I rushed to get my pack of stuff I wanted to bring to Tahoe, my ipod, psp, and goggles, etc. After I finished I rushed to the car like I was told.
“About time,” said Brian (one of my cousin’s friends)
“Shut up, I was getting ready’
“You guys hungry?” David asked.
“No, it’s cool I ate”
“I am, let’s stop by taco bell.”
“Ok, lets”
We drove to taco bell, and stopped to pick up some food. When we stopped, my cousin handed me his new phone.
“here, check this out, it’s a new phone I got called the Nexus One, google made. It’s not even in stores yet.”
I took the phone and and I turned it on. A funny looking robot appeared on the screen and it gave me this weird peculiar look. At the same moment, Brian bumped into me
“HEy , watch OUT!”
“sorry man, didn’t see ya there”
i glared at him, sending him a mind signal  that I knew that was on purpose.
“Never-mind,” i said, “lets’ go”
As we drove on the freeway, i played with my cousin’s phone. Every game I played, I lost. It was like the phone hated me. fortress game, fuitcutter, this fishing game, and some other games I can’t describe. After so many losses, I decided to listen to music instead. I gave my cousin his phone back and took out my ipod and earphones. I dozed off after a few minutes of listening to music.
…...
“Hooonnnkkk!!”
I jumped.
“Hey Watch Out stupid car”
“OH SHIT, OH WATCH OUT!!!!!”
My eyes closed as it happened.
“SCREEEEEEEEEEEEEECH”
Everything was blurry, Nothing made sense. My world was upside down, left was right and horizontal was vertical. I was hung out.
“SCREEEEEEECH”
I tumbled onto the ground and something dropped into my right arm. I could feel the car doing exactly 2 perfect 360 degree spins and I could feel the tires underneath rejecting the snow: grasping for the road. My arms and legs were bracing around my head, my body cold and stiff. I could hear the cars in the back beep as if they were cheering at us like it was a show.  
-Silence-
“You... you guys alright?”
“ya... I’m o.k”
“Dang, I thought we were gonna die”
“Ya.. me too,” I said, “Ughhh, my back hurts”
When I got up from my seat, I remembered that I was still gripping something in my hand.
“...... dude, I got your phone.”

Vignette 2 = Confusion?

It all started on a fine Friday morning. I woke up drowsy, light headed, and extremely tired at 7:00 clock. At 7:02, I went to do the usual.After i brushed my teeth and washed my face, I started to eat a bowl of cereal on the kitchen table. At 7:30, my mom drove me too school and we arrived at 7:55.
….....
    After school, I stood outside to wait fro my mom. I was extremely tired and it just wasn’t my day. It was a long crucial wait. Time seemed to have lost all meaning, Seconds became minutes, and minutes became hours. The sun kept leaving the sky and the moon showed up after every dawn. My eyes rolled up and down, right and left, and my beard grew longer every second. Then it came. The time where everything didn't even make sense anymore. Cars flew in the air, birds drove around the road, and humans oh humans slithered on the ground like a snake struggling out of cast off skin.Suddenly a car appeared in front of me and beeped in my face. Everything returned back to normal. The cars were on the round parked into a space. Geese flew in the sky--- BEEP! Suddenly my mom's car appeared in front of me and beeped in my face. I got in and didn't even want to think if this was a dream. Sure enough this was reality. It was 3: 24, 14 minutes after i gotten out of school. My mom drove me home and left me with a key to open the doors. I walked up the each step and inserted the key into the door's keyhole. It didn't budge. I turned the key back and forth waiting for an opening sound but none came. Dashing down the steps i yelled for my mom's car just turned away from the street. I reached for into pocket and then I remembered, I had forgotten to bring my phone.

Vignette 3 = Hair
Everyone within my family has different types of hair. My mama’s hair is wavy. Her bangs are wavy, her sides are wavy, and her back is wavy. My papa’s hair is short and straight. His hair dosen’t need combing nor any special treatment. In fact, he barely has hair. And me, my hair is like my mom’s wavy and a slightly bit curly. Sometimes it gets into knots and really annoys me.
But my sister’s hair, my sister’s hair is special, like blackish brown threads, like dozens of black thin strings and pretty because it’s straight and always obeys her. Her hair is like my dad’s except her’s is longer. Her hair is a little straight and wavy, but mostly straight. Her hair needs some combing.

Vignette 4 = My Name
My name is Eric Lau. My name does not have alot meaning to it, but it has history. My first name “eric,” was given to me by my cousin. He was totally into this one baseball player and his name was “eric.” My name was then decided to be eric. Aside from it being my cousin’s little reason, there is no other.
My last name is different though. My last name “lau,” is actually not my true last name. My actual last name is “lu,” but my dad decided to change it when he came to America. My dad origninated in Vietnam. When he was young the Viet war was happening, so he had get away (one of the boy responsibilities I think..). He told me that he lived in the mountains for a few months before it became a battlefield. Before it got ugly in the mountains he stowed onto a ship. He left all his brothers and sisters and family members to do this. The ship, however, was then caught by pirates and he then had to jump overboard. Luckily they were pretty near shore so he got to China (somewhere). He then traveled to singapore and met my mom. Considering what my dad had to go through, I’m happy that I was avle to receive his last name.
From what I’ve heard, “Lau” also means angry guy or tyrant in some other language.

Windows

The story The Store on Mango street is a beautiful book that uses vignettes as symbolism in it. In there the author tries to portray her thoughts in a symbolic way for the readers to try and figure out as they read along the book. There are a number of vignettes in this book, but a good one is windows.

Windows in this book means a very symbolic thing. In my opinion, the windows reflect on who she is and who she becomes as the story progresses. In "My name," she talks about how her grandmother used to look our the window her whole life. I think that this means that she's looking back at her past self and she's sad that she had left it. On page 102, Esperanza narrates her friend Sally who got married before 18 and went off to live with her husband. Sally is described to be happy as a married women even though her husband can be a jerk. It is also mentioned that she was not allowed to look out the windows. I think that this means that she can't look back at her past, because she likes it the way she is now. In page 79, a girl called Rafaela leans out the windows and dreams her hair was like Rapunzel. I think that from this, the windows can also be who she wants to be. Past, Present, and Dreams. It also talks about how she's locked inside her house, so the windows symbolism could also mean that she looking at her past as well. In page 82, the windows symbolism doesn't really match what I had been thinking about. Instead it talks about how Esperanza dreams about how she had a house where there were big windows, and if you open the little window hatch and gave it a shove, all the sky would be visible. In my opinion, this somewhat is also talking about her dream, and I mentioned that the windows also had something to do with dreams so maybe the windows actually do have something to do with dreams.

In the end, after reading the few chapters with the windows symbolism in them, I really do think that the windows mean the past, present, and dreams. I have to say that I'm not sure how i can elaborate on that, and that this window's symbolism is pretty complicated.

Nettie and Celie's Comparison Essay

Celie’s and Nettie’s Comparison Essay

Celie and Nettie are indeed very different people They are looked upon as sisters, but sisterhood does not simply mean that they have everything in common. If it did, Celie and Nettie would be a perfect example for an counter argument. Celie and Nettie differ in many different areas, but the main three that are the most important are religion, inequality, and personality. First of all Celie’s and Nettie’s belief in religion are ranked in different categories, Celie a little higher than Nettie. They also have inequalities in their life even though they share the same blood and share a similar childhood; also their personality differs greatly. Celie has no courage, while Nettie has courage. the difference between them in Religion, Inequality, and Personality are what make Celie and Nettie stand out from any other siblings.
Religion plays an important role in Celie’s and Nettie’s relationship.Both sisters believe in god and in the past went to church, but their level of belief has changed as they grew up. Celie believes in god,because god is the only one that Celie can believe in, in the beginning. God to Celie is a person who listens to her, helps her, and someone who she wants to answer her. In the first part of the book she states, “Dear God, I am fourteen years old. I have always been a good girl. Maybe you can give me a sign letting me know what is happening to me (pg.1).” In this quote Celie expresses a little of how she’s feeling to god, fear. Celie plans to keep on writing to god, in hope that God reads her letters and helps her find herself. Nettie on the other hand, doesn't have much belief in god as to write to him daily basis. Instead, Nettie, shows her belief in god in her travels with a missionary. This is where Nettie gets her belief in religion from as she grows up. As to say she’s from a missionary, Nettie’s experience is unlikes Celie’s and is more on a separate plane of belief. In one of Nettie’s letters she says, “The reason I am in Africa is because one of the missionaries that was supposed to go with setting up a school suddenly married a man who was afraid to let her go, and refused to come to Africa with her (pg. 130). This quote doesn't tell if Nettie actually volunteered to go, so not much information of Nettie’s personalty can be extracted, but it does say that Nettie was very exited to go (not from her own will though). Nettie’s belief in Christianity is also portrayed as she is a teacher in these subjects as well. One difference between Nettie and Celie is belief.
Nettie and Celie are both the same gender, but the way they are treated is dramatically different. First off, Celie is treated like a rag doll because of Albert, and worst of all she doesn't know how to fight back. Everyone treats Celie like an alien, except for a special few people who respect her, Nettie, Shug, and Sofia. This show the difference between them. In the quote, “That’s it, say shug, pack your stuff. You coming back to Tennessee with me.” Here Shug shows her concern for Celie. Celie also differs from Nettie in knowledge. Celie didn’t attend school while Nettie did. Celie’s foster father didn’t believe that Celie needed education, because he believed that she was useless. Nettie, on the other hand had the chance to be educated. An example of Nettie’s chance of education is shown here, “But only if they would teach me everything they knew to make me useful as a missionary and someone they would not be ashamed to call a friend. They agreed to this condition, and my real education began at that time (pg.132).” Here, Nettie received a chance to education that Celie never had. Celie’s life was decided by her father while Nettie made her own decisions. Nettie even had the chance to continue her education in a missionary and continue on to become a teacher. Nettie’s range of education is way higher than Celie’s even though they are sisters.
The last and most important comparison to Nettie and Celie is their personality. If they were together as one person, they would have no flaws. Their personalities differ greatly even thought they are born with the same blood. Celie is a shy girl with no courage whatsoever. All Celie does is follow what other people say. If someone tells her to do something, she does it with no questions, better yet she’s too scared to ask questions. This is not entirely her fault, but she still should stand up for herself sometimes to show that she’s not some robot. Her feelings are portrayed here,”But I don’t know how to fight. All I know how to do is stay alive (pg. 17).” This shows that Celie has no courage. She should think about the other ways of how she would stay alive first, and that is to fight back. If she doesn't let the kids get to know who has the upper hand first, they could play with her too much that her life would be worse than dying. If she could control the kids, she would not only survive but have a better life. Nettie, though, is different. She also believes that Celie should fight back, and gain the courage to do so. “Don’t let them run over you, Nettie say. You got to let them know who has the upper hand. They got it, I say. But she keep on, You got to fight, You got to fight. (pg 17).” Here Nettie tries to persuade Celie to fight, but Celie thinks differently. Celie believes that the only way to live is to follow orders, of what?, of children. They’re little kids, what could they do? If Nettie and Celie were the same person, Celie would be fear, and Nettie would be courage. Nettie and Celie differ in personality.
Overall, Celie and Nettie have many things that they are different in. Celie’s and Nettie’s belief in religion are ranked in different categories, Celie a little higher than Nettie. They also have inequalities in their life even thought they share the same blood and share a similar childhood. Last but not least, their personality differs greatly. If Celie has Nettie’s courage, Celie’s life may have been way better. These three differences are what Celie and Nettie stand out from one another, but also what brings them together. The both need each other.