All I Asking For Is My Body, Part II, Dialogue

Why does Kiyoshi believe Obaban is a substitute for his mom?

Kiyoshi believe Obaban is a substitute for his mom because it was a Japanese superstition that his mother and he believed that when someone got away with doing something bad Bachi was a punishment. Bachi was a punishment that happened to someone else in your family because you did something bad and was getting away with it. When Obaban died Kiyoshi believed it put things back into a natural order. You see Obaban was substituted for his mother and that it saved his mothers life. Know that Obaban dies it took out the bad luck and gave their family good luck or at least put it back in the natural order again because it’s good when people die in the way they are supposed to. The parents die and then the children and so on and so on. Since Obaban was his mothers Hawaii mother she dies in the normal order of things.

I'm not sure that the mother just finally started feeling better or that she too believed that she was saved because Obaban passing. I do believe that people's beliefs can sometime be more powerful then normal cycle of medicine. If people believe they are going to die or something horrible will happen to them it seems to come true. I 'm not sure that their will is just pushing them in that direction or if it’s something else but I know that there are a lot of studies that show people becoming well when there would normally be no hope. I don’t know if it’s because of their belief and that belief is strong so strong that they get better or its just a miracle.

All I Asking For Is My Body, Part I, Dialogue

Who is Makot? Do you feel sorry for him? What are your thoughts about him and the way he copes with his parents?

Makot was a Japanese boy that grew up with his wealth Mother and Father in the Filipino camps Pepelau, Hawaii. Makot was older than the other three boys that he hung around. He didn’t hang around boys his own age because they teased him. Makot’s family wasn’t well liked by the other Japanese’s families and this made it hard on Makot. Makot was alone most of the time and he learned to do things for himself. He cooked and fed his friends. He even bought them treats and took them to the movies. He tried to pay them for their attention because his only family wasn’t around. You see most of the other families couldn’t afford to do this. The other families didn’t have much but they did have each other.

Makot hung around the younger boys because he was respected more and I suspect because they were not persuade easily by society and what others may think. Unfortunately for Makot his best friend’s family was. Kiyoshi mother and father worried that if he hung around Makot that they would look like beggars. Makot had it pretty hard the one thing that he had going for him was the same thing that made him an outcast and that was money. Slow but surely Kiyoshi family had him stay away from Makot.

Essay 3 Rough Draft- Does Arnold have integrity?

When I think of someone that has integrity, Arnold isn’t a person that comes to mind. According to the definitions in order to have integrity one must have a belief system without faltering, no matter how dangerous it is or how unpopular it is with others.  A person must keep one’s word and agreements, honesty, truthfulness, ethics, fairness and justice. According to that definition I do not believe that Arnold has shown much integrity.

One of the first things that happen in the story there is a 4^th of July party and everyone passes out for drinking too much. Arnold thinks that it’s a great idea to light off fireworks in the house which causes a fire where the boys become entangled in this terrible lie that Arnolds almost takes to his grave. Arnold if he wanted to show integrity he would have came forward and stopped worrying about what would happen to him. After all people just died, there was more concern on the family and the son who survived. Arnold was afraid of what people thought and not the consequences of his lack of integrity that he showed and the effect that it would take on his family.

Another proof of Arnold’s lack of integrity was him walking out his wife. Even though I may believe that there is more to a marriage than a contract it is still a contract. Marriage is a contract between two people that links them together for better or worse. Arnold did not honor that contract when he left. There are legal ways to end a marriage but riding off into the sunset because his wife says they are not going to drink anymore because of the effect that it is having on their son is it.

That brings me to Arnold leave his son, the one person that he should have loved unconditionally. Arnold was not only running away from his demons and his remorse for what he did but his family. His son regardless of having a contract or not a parent when they have a child is basically stating that he or she will do everything in their power to provide emotional and financial support for them until they can be able to provide for themselves. Arnold did no such thing he just left.

The fire it was an accident and if Arnold would have taken responsibility for his part in setting the fire and deal with the consequences of his actions he and his family would have came out better for it. Remember your actions or lack of actions have affect not just on you but people around you.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_is_the_definition_of_integrity#ixzz1KDWic9HI

"This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona” Dialogue

The main difference that the movie and the reading had was the reading never spoke of any fire or at least no mention of Victor’s father saving Thomas’s life. For Victor the movie evolved around this knowledge and the fact that his father never saved him. This is what made him feel that he was worth anything. Thomas was looked at by his father as someone special enough to save and yet his own boy wasn’t even worth him staying around for.

I feel that the movie portrayed two boys having had this experience that would ever tie them together and until they had the experience of needing each other, Victor would never be able to work together and understand that Thomas and Victor completed each other like brothers. The reading told another story. The two boys were joined together for no more reason that they lived on an Indian Reservation. One needed what the other had and regardless on how important and gracious Victor was for Thomas giving him the help, their friendship would end after they came back to the Reservation.

Victor was not going to have enough integrity to stand up against his peers and tell them that he likes Thomas and that it wasn’t right to treat another human being the way that they treat him.

I feel after reading the story it seemed more like what really happened and there was no big ending were the main character discovers this big change. The reading is more like true life. People treat people how theirs peers do and many people do not have the courage to change. I feel that the movie portrayed two boys that started into this world with this big devastating fire and how both came out of it with two different views on life. And that just wasn’t reality.

Writing Topic:Chapter 12 Repair misplaced dangling modifiers.

Modifiers no matter if single words, phrases, or clauses should point clearly to words that they modify. It is important for a sentence to be clear to a reader that there are certain steps that should be taken. One using limited modifiers such as-only, even, almost, nearly, and just appear in front of a verb. Put the limiting modifier in front of the word that it modifies. Even though phrases and clauses can appear I different parts of a sentence it is a good idea that when a reader is reading they know what is being modified.

There are certain things that you can do to prevent awkwardly placed modifiers. Makes sure that sentence go from subject to verb to object, keeping the verb and the object together prevents an awkwardly placed modifier. Next do not split to and a verb to avoid another awkward sentence structure. Repair any dangling modifiers. If you put a modifier in the wrong place it may suggest something other than what you have intended. If you do all these steps you will have put together a clear sentence that will aid the readers to understand what you are trying to tell them.

I have chosen this chapter because I realized that I needed the help to keep my sentence clear. I have to realize that each sentence must be able to stand on its own. Having to keep in mind subject, verb and object will aid me in my future writings. I have realized in past writing that I us dangling modifiers and changed what I was trying to say.  Writing this way only confuses the reader and I then loss what I was trying to say. Now after I have read this I hope to be able to write more clearly.

Smoke Signals, the movie Dialogue

Thomas and Victor were two boys who dealt with the lost of their loved ones in two different ways. Thomas lost both his father and mother in a fire, later we learned that Victor’s father set that fire. Victor grew up without his father because his father wasn’t able to deal with the lost he caused. I guess in a way Victor’s father didn’t want to live with something that he took from someone else, a family.

Victor grew up as an angry boy who was devastated by the father that left him. He went on the next ten years hearing Thomas a boy that was a little mentally handicapped on what a great person Victor’s dad was. Victor’s of course all he remembered was a man that drank, hit him and his mother, and in the end never came back for him. Thomas was a very caring boy who loved telling stories to Victor and remembered things that may have not been very true. However I think that Thomas always just tried to bring Victor to forgive his father and to let Victor see his dad how he saw him.

I feel that Victor and Thomas completed each other. Victor being the one that really never trusted anyone and who know how the world worked. Thomas was the dreamer the one that saw something good in everything especially his hero. Victor’s father after all he did catch him when someone threw him out the window of his burning house. Luckily when Victor was able to find out the reason for his father living he never told Thomas that his hero was a killer. Victor needed Thomas to show him his knder side, just like Victor's mother said she took help from others. She wasn't the only one that made her famous bread so famous she had help from others.

"Happy Endings"

When I was reading “Happy Endings” I actually thought Lovely was an orphan. If I didn’t read all of the stories I believe I would have continued thinking that. Lovely and Jerry weren’t good enough for the kind of love Shirley had every Sunday. (page 4) In that sentence I thought that she was referring to family but she wasn’t it was acceptance. I then realized that Shirley Temple didn’t mean family for Lovely, but more of what she thought was happiness.
 She related Shirley Temple with always having the happiest ending and none of the feeling that she felt growing up.  She never had realized or even paid attention to the story or the heart ache that went on before. She wanted a family to be what she saw and all American family. Not a poor Hawaiian family that didn’t speak proper English and the family that wasn’t going to ever amount to anything because of not being that “All American” family. She saw Shirley Temple as the girl that everyone should be and that was what she seen as a happy ending. Leaving a life that wasn’t hers.
It really got to me when I read “Happy Ending” when your growing up kids wish for things and sometime things that they will never have, but to wish that you could be someone else because you didn’t feel that you were good enough or worth it. That’s just got to me. Sometimes I felt that I didn’t belong but what was always there for me was my family and I hope that she did finally feel that for herself.