Jordan Belfort, the main character in The Wolf of Wall Street, is a very charismatic person that focuses on his success. He will do whatever is necessary for him to live a luxury lifestyle which includes putting himself above others. He constantly uses drugs, money, and sex to cope with all his problems, which makes him a terrible role model for others. He said that in the morning, he would head to his sauna to, “Sweat out five Quaaluds, two grams of coke, and three milligrams of Xanax that he had consumed the night before.” That statement right there from Jordan just blows my mind on how someone could do that. I totally disapprove of Jordan’s use of drugs and I believe he should be punished for that. His lifestyle is full of illegal activities, so that right there makes him a bad influence for the audience and an unreliable author.

In The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, it shows the harsh reality that African Americans face when encountering the police, and the stereotypes that can be made from hearing only part of a story. This quote explains the feelings and emotions characters in this book go through everyday, because they are uncertain how police officers interpret them: “We stop at a red light. A Riverton Hills patrol car pulls up beside us. Seven straightens up and stares ahead, barely blinking and gripping the steering wheel. His eyes move a little like he wants to look at the cop car. He swallows hard.” If they don’t act with their best behavior, they are scared that they could end up killed, just like Starr’s friend Khalil did. Another thing I have noticed so far in the book that nearly no one knew why Khalil was killed and just assumed that he was doing something wrong, when in reality he didn’t. They took his past life decisions in life and made assumptions about his death: “Did he realize that if he does become a hashtag, some people will only see him as a drug dealer?”

At first, I approved of Arnie’s actions/views up until he bought the Plymouth Fury, “Christine” from that old veteran. Ever since then, Arnie drastically changes to the point where Arnie wasn’t really himself anymore, even his best friend notices and is scared for Arnie. I personally believe that both the ghost of the old veteran who sold Arnie “Christine” and the car itself has their fangs deep in Arnie, controlling his every movements. I especially saw this in Chapter 45 when Dennis was invited over to Arnie’s house for New Years Eve.

“I got to give it an eighty-five, Dick, it’s got a good beat and you can dance to it” Arnie said, but it wasn’t Arnie’s voice at all. My mind made a sudden and hideously unexpected cross connection (best smell in the world…except maybe for pussy) and my hand tightened down convulsively on the telephone. I think I almost screamed. I wasn’t talking to Arnie; I was talking to Ronald LeBay. I was talking to a dead man.

“What are you going to do?”

“I’m taking off,” he said. “I’m going to get in Christine and we’re going to motorvate right the Christ out of this one-timetable town. You understand?” His voice began to rise, to become shrill, and I felt horror sweep over me again. I was helpless against that unmanning fear and could only hope that it didn’t show on my face. Because it wasn’t just LeBay’s voice now; now it was even LeBay’s face, swimming under Arnie’s like some dead thing preserved in Formalin.

(This is all from Arnie’s best friend’s perspective by the way)

These are a few example texts from the book that shows how Arnie isn’t himself anymore, even his best friend notices Arnie’s strange behavior. His best friend has known Arnie for a long time and knows that this wasn’t the Arnie he knew. That Arnie was being possessed/controlled by something/someone. (in this case, the ghost of Ronald LeBay)

Prompt: Which lines seem to be important to the novel so far in your reading?

“Sometimes you can do everything right and things will still go wrong. The key is to never stop doing right” (154)

While reading the novel, The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas, this is one of the quotes that really stood out to me. This theme runs throughout the book, and I think it is important that everyone should understand. The main character Starr goes through a lot of challenges, the greatest being the loss of her best friend Kahlil. Many of the challenges she faces are out of her control, and she continues to be optimistic.

“That’s the problem. We let people say stuff, and they say it so much that it becomes okay to them and normal for us. What’s the point of having a voice if you’re gonna be silent in those moments you shouldn’t be?” (252).

Racism is the major theme of the novel, and it is exhibited through violence and conflict with the police. Starr realizes that she cannot just stand by and watch this go on, and she has to stand up for herself and for others. Starr doesn’t want this behavior to be normalized or jokes to be made about racism.

Out of all of the characters so far in American Assassin, Mitch Rapp seems most similar to myself. He wants to do good but sometimes he gets lost in the heat of the moment. There have been multiple occasions where he has started fights or done things that were questionable but in some way, he always thought he would do something to benefit the greater good. Sometimes he has seen his own self interest as the greater good which is something that everyone does at some point, but it can make him come off as selfish. For instance, Rapp is fighting with Victor, who is seen as a bully, and Rapp gets him in a hold with the potential to do long-lasting damage. Instead of letting up and calling the fight, Rapp continues to squeeze harder and then there is a pop. Rapp broke Victor’s arm. Doing so was not the moral play, but it was what Rapp thought was the greater good for the rest of the trainees because they would be without a bully for a period of time. I can personally relate to that feeling and even though I have never broken anyone’s arm, I have lost temper in sports and laid a big hit on a kid on the other team that is playing the game in a dangerous way. Even though Mitch Rapp is a fictional character, I can relate to a lot of the decisions he has made and some of the mistakes he has made are ones that I have made, just on a smaller scale. 

Louis Zamperini was admirable to me from the moment I begun the novel “Unbroken” by Laura Hillenbrand. From the start of the novel, his mischief and his title as a “one boy insurgency” (44) intrigued me. As the novel progressed, his treatment of other characters is what begun to stand out to me. While on a raft with two other man, he consistently puts their lives before his own, even failing to get mad at his companion Mac when he awoke to find all of their food gone and in Mac’s stomach. He gives Mac some of the minuscule water he has and is always trying to stimulate Mac’s brain to stop him from going crazy. Although his efforts to save Mac don’t end up working, from the moment that Louis takes over control of their raft to the moment they land on Japanese soil, he doesn’t let the others down. His determination as a runner showed through and is the reason him and Phil survived, and therefore I greatly approve of his treatment of other people.

​How does this book compare with other books you’ve read/other books by this author/other books in this genre?

I chose the first option to respond to on powerschool. In my opinion this book is extremely different compared to the other books that we have read. I enjoy it a lot more due to the depth and uniqueness of the story. I also really enjoy that this is a true story. This book inspires me and allows me to dig deeper and have a change in perspective. I have always been someone who needs to love the book to really get into it. For me, if I am not interested, the reading becomes extremely difficult for me to read. In grapes of wrath, I was intrigued with the story but not as much in the other books we have read. In this novel however, I am so invested in it and find myself not wanting to put the book down.

A Tree Grows in Brooklyn is very similar to the other books we have read in this class as the American Dream is a big part of the book. Francie’s parents, Johnny and Katie, had been working as night cleaners in a local school before Francie was born. They made around fifty dollars a month which was a nice amount at the time. Francie’s parents believe she is destined for greatness. “The only notable thing about the birth was that the infant was born with a caul which was supposed to indicate that the child was set apart to do great things in the world.”

The mothers in these books also look up to and love their own mother. Like Ma and Granma from Grapes of Wrath. Katie Nolan, Francie’s mother, was talking with her mother after giving birth about how she was fearful for Francie as both she and Johnny only had a sixth grade education and they can only teach Francie what they know. Her Mother said, “This child was born of parents who can read and write, to me, this is a great wonder.” She also said, “The secret lies in the reading and the writing. You are able to read. Every day you must read one page from some good book to your child. Every day this must be until the child learns to read. Then she must read every day, I know this is the secret.” Katie Nolan took this advice very seriously as Francie is reading a book everyday now.

Another similarity is that in the past books if a woman was pregnant she or her baby usually died. One of the parent’s sisters in A Tree Grows in Brooklyn keeps getting pregnant and has a stillbirth every time. I think she has had about eight babies. In this book and A Farewell to Arms, the fathers were not present for the birth of their children.

The Call of the Wild is quite different compared to the other books that we have read so far this year in Great American Novels. The most noticeable discrepancy that separates The Call of the Wild from other books is that the story is not told from the perspective of a human. It’s told from the perspective of buck, a St. Bernard dog. This allows for the author, Jack London, to get creative in his storytelling by going in depth on themes of the primitive, savage nature of dogs and the wilderness. Wilderness and being in the “wild” is a big theme in this novel as it takes place during the Yukon Gold Rush. This is something that we haven’t really seen in other novels. Although “the Grapes of Wrath” somewhat took place in the wild and explored nature, you are surrounded with lot’s of other characters who are always talking. In “the Call of the Wild,” you feel more alone and isolated in nature. Books like “a Farewell to Arms” and “Day of the Locust” took place in crowded urban cities and had a completely different vibe. I like London’s writing style and how the story takes place in the “wild.”

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas is a novel depicting the violence and brutality present in America today toward African Americans. It’s told from the main character’s point of view; her name in Starr. As a girl who grew up in the “bad part of town” but goes to a privileged, mainly white high school, she often finds herself feeling out of place and needing to act a certain way in order to fit in and be accepted among this group of people. She often refers to herself as “Williamson Starr”, basically saying that when she’s in her school environment, she must act as students at Williamson High School expect her to act: “Williamson Starr doesn’t use slang–if a rapper would say it, she doesn’t say it, even if her white friends do” (Thomas, 71). Starr feels the need to conceal her authentic self so she can have an easier experience in high school.

Though I don’t necessarily feel out of place at school, I still feel I have to do certain things to make my experience in high school easier for myself and as stress-free as possible. Most high schools today emphasize STEM courses and require students to study these topics extensively. For the most part, I succeed in these classes, though I’m not really passionate about the subject matter. When I tell people that doing art is how I express myself and find a voice and want to study it in college, they often seem a little dismissive that I’m not doing something more “useful”. I feel similar to Starr in that I have to hold myself to a certain standard to be viewed as intelligent.