On The Pursuit of Happiness

Be Free and happy. Live on Purpose. Ask Me anything

[jduong0909-blog]

Aye let's go get some criticism. But first we have to wait outside for an hour because of a FIRE

[jduong0909-blog]

Part 5 reading the work

The final stretch of the book, and the falling ending of the story. This is after the climax, after Amir and Hassana’s son escape the taliban. He decides to take Hassana’s son as his own, to adopt this boy in honor of Hassana’s death. It has to be because of the guilt that he must feel. Hosseini is not tying loose ends in the story, and I think the ending was one that was well deserved. The kite runner, the kite is what makes Hassana’s son speak again, is what brings him joy. Just like his father, he loves kite running. I saw this as a good finale, instead of Amir and Hassana kite running, it is now Amir and Hassana’s son. Overall, it is a beautiful ending, Amir finishes his story with this. Like father, like son. Hassana’s old moves is used by his sun in a kite battle, and Amir is their to watch it, like its deja vu from years before.

[jduong0909-blog]

Part 4 reading the work

When Amir goes to find Hassana’s son, whose name will be unmentioned because I keep forgetting it. Looks like sobriety to me, so that’s just not gonna work out. But he goes to find this kid and goes to the orphanage, only to find out that he was taken by the taliban a month ago. Ok, so why does he continue this journey, to go deal with the taliban. The taliban, he must have loste his mind to think that he will be able to just get this kid back. But like every hero or heroine, he has no fear, only utmost confidence. And then the reader finds out that the man that is holding him is Assef, the guy that raped the boy’s father, Hassana. This is a confusing part, where he begins to beat Amir, for revenge? I don’t remember Amir really doing anything to him, only Hassana. But ok Hosseini, you write this story that flowed well, but I just connect the pieces on this final piece. Oh and the part where the taliban were stoning those people to death, that may go down as the most painful and brutal death possible

[jduong0909-blog]

Part 3 reading the work.

So now we are moving through with the book, and Amir’s father has passed away. But he isn’t alone yet, he now has his wife. I was not aware about this whole muslim culture of proposing to the father too, follow traditions if you want to get married to the daughter. What would happen if the father had passed away? Hm, I also wonder how old they both are, I may have missed that part but I would really like to know. And then right away, Hosseini shifts the story back to Hassana and his wife, and how they had a son. They sorta just made it aware to the reader, that Amir did have a wife, but now we need to get back to the main plot, the rape of Hassana and now his son being an orphan. I would have liked to know more about the wife, but I’m fine with the killing and going back to the home country and place of Kabul. Hosseini does a really good job in my opinion of connecting each point together, to flow the story. The imagery that she puts together, I think worked out well in making the story give me a picture in my head, I was not as confused.

[jduong0909-blog]

Part 2 reading the work

What I find hard to keep track for this piece of writing, is keeping track of the dates and the ages of the people. Amir, the main character recounts on an old story that changed him. I understand that, but then he fast forwards to a different date, years later that isn’t the present. So Now I’m dealing with all these ages, he is in high school now and what not. But the characters are very interesting, and you can sort of see how they all change towards what society changes them to be. Because they are muslim, you can see how they act, as you enter Amir’s thoughts when he is finishing up high school and enter college. I think Hosseini did a good job of that, and it definitely helped me with analyzing their the different characters and another perspective of the Muslim community. Also, Hosseini doesn’t really include the kite running that much. Why I don’t know. Its a game, a way to compete and also bond. But she doesn’t use that much, only as a symbol. Maybe I’m missing something, but I wouldn’t even consider this as a motif, only just the title.

[jduong0909-blog]

Part 1 reading the work

This book got a lot of reviews, so that got me to really want to read this. While reading this though, it started to make me feel a little uncomfortable. A man telling a story that changed his life, so he starts at the beginning. Set in a time of war and also hate towards Muslims, it was hard for me to handle reading the parts that included violence to children and the appearance of them after getting beat or violated. So in a specific part, where Hosseini describes a boy being raped by another boy and his friends holding that boy down, was extremely uncomfortable. Yes, because this demonstrates homosexuality, but also because Hosseini is very descriptive in the way that it happens. So the whole kids hurting other kids doesn’t bother me in concept, but how descriptive and violent Hosseini can be is what gets to me. Kids taking advantage of other kids is insane, but it is also hard to relate. I don’t think that this happens to an extent in this country, considering that homosexuality rape is something that occurs rarely

[jduong0909-blog]

Picking The Work

Choosing “Kite Runner” by Khaled Hosseini was not a difficult choice at all I believe. When given this assignment, and told to find a book of literary merit, I didn’t really think about picking a book of my interests at first. I am not one to get bothered by a book that it is boring, I’m perfectly fine with reading any story when I think about it. So I started on google, and searched in “Books with literary merit”. That search lead me to the first website, which ended up being http://www.goodreads.com/shelf/show/literary-merit. That list I realized didn’t narrow down my search as much as I wanted, considering the book had to be fiction. So I narrowed it down, and added the fact that I needed a fiction book into my google search. From there, I ran into another goodreads website, http://www.goodreads.com/list/show/1425.Best_Literary_Fiction_. I skimmed through the list, where I focused on the rating that the website gave each of the books. Turned out, even though that Kite Runner was number thirty four on the list, it had a 4.20/5 rating. It was one of the highest reading, so I choose that one. I also had my backup book, which I choose Fahrenheit 451 by Ray Bradbury. I partially chose that one because I know Ray Bradbury as an author and I would expect his work to be a good read. I took those two and searched them both on google, and I just become more intrigued by Kite Runner, after reading the small plotline that was given to me. Barnes & Noble had given the book a 4.5/5. Fahrenheit 451 had gotten a 3.9/5 and also a 4.0/5 on both their ratings, which gave me a little more assurance that picking Kite Runner would be a good decision, if the general population had better interest in this book and it would be a good book then. And also to be honest, Kite Runner also had a movie that came from it, which kind of implied that the book was good, so they created a movie out of it, right?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Kite_Runner would definetely help me give me a short symnopsis about what it was sort of about, before actually reading the book.

[jduong0909-blog]

Remix Me

My identity as an asian-american comes with two different perspectives. On my asian side, I have to follow all the asian traditions and do things that my parents want to do. I seem to have to follow the stereotypes too, considering they follow me where ever I go. I am expected to attend some prestigious school and become a world-renowned surgeon. It gets annoying considering that I really don't know my purpose, but tradition is trying to push me into what they want. I have tried my best to do things that I want, and it has become very annoying. Living on the pursuit of happiness is what I have tried to do, but because of my asian family and parents it has stopped me. On the other side, because I was born in America, I am a little different from the normal Asian that is extremely studious. I seem to be a little bit of a rebel, doing different things then the original asian.

[jduong0909-blog]

The first group masked-men danced crew.

[macymccafferty-blog]

Movie Night!!

People:

Macy M, Ben R, Andrew L, Laura L, Renee M, Karrigan L, Madeline H, Arnold H, Garret R, Michael M, Kayla W, Madi D, Anna H, Max S, Justin D

[jduong0909-blog]

Rebel Without A Clause is a movie that does not accurately portray teenagers. Teenagers that are known as the "cool kids" don't walk around with bikes and try to pick a fight with others. It just does not happen in real life and in high school. Kids are definitely not allowed to have knives in their pockets and they don't play chicken with cliffs. I think the problems between the family and the kids does happen in houses. The characters were not really believable, but i blame the movie being so old. The movie consists of all cheesy lines and awkward situations. Considering the rhetorical triangle, the audience of this movie would be viewers that believe kids are dangerous and irresponsible. The purpose of this movie could be informing parents and viewers that you never know how crazy a kid can be. On the other hand, it can also be talking about Jim and that teenagers are not dangerous, and that sometimes they have a purpose and a heart. That they care about others and are not selfish and wild. The speaker of the movie would be someone that is trying to show the audience a different perspective. A speaker that is asking parents to look at what their children do. It may be a little too wild, but the speaker is trying to say that parents need to watch out for what their kids are up to.

Ferris Bueller's Day off shows a teenager riding motorcycles, smoking cigarettes and just having fun. The movie portrays a cute and popular kid that is out having all the fun that he wants. No rules, no anything. He is determined to have a day off from school, despite of what the principal thinks of it. It does not portray teenagers very well either, considering a principal would not go that out of his way to prevent such a thing. If a kid wants to take a day off and have fun, thats his decision with his parents and his parents will probably punish him. But the school have thousands of other kids to deal with, not just one. The audience I believe goes to the students and kids that enjoy having fun. Just a movie that shows a kid having fun. The purpose is to show that kids don't enjoy school and they really want to have some fun. Audience would be parents that see how kids might hate school. This movie could be a message to parents about how school is like a prison.

When talking to my parents, my mom didn't agree with the fact that kids are this insane of rebels. Like they play games like chicken and carry around knives to fight each other. Also, kids might hate going to school, but they usually don't take days of to do things like what happened in Ferris Bueller's Day off.

[jduong0909-blog]

Judging by Assumption

I behold the wretch- the miserable monster I had created.

                                                             -Mary Shelley

A major connection between Mary Shelley's quote and Brent Staple's essay would be that people are judging others by assumption, and not well reasoning. In Shelley's Frankenstein, Frankenstein was labeled as a monster because of his appearance. Those who caught a glimpse of him were immediately afraid, and would run away. They saw him as a monster, and assumed that he was dangerous. So they would flee, frightened and scared. Connecting to Staple's essay, there is a stereotype that all black people are dangerous and violent. That if you are one-on-one with a unknown black person, that it's risky and you may want to flee the black person. In the story, a white woman runs from a black person she sees walking behind her, because she is frightened and does not want the outcome to be bad for her. But the black man was simply walking in the same path as her. She assumes that because he is black and she is by herself, that he will harm her. But stories involve assuming people as something they are not. Frankenstein may have looked scary, but he was not. Same with Staple's essay. Black people may seem scary because of stereotypes and other black people that have ruined the reputation, but not all black people are dangerous or harmful. Pre-judging people because of stereotypes or appearance is wrong, and it needs to be stopped.

[msnbc]

Many Americans expected a real change in the nation’s gun laws after the killing of 20 first-graders in Newtown. But three months later, the outcome looks unclear. No fewer than four pieces of legislation have passed a Senate panel over the past two weeks to move to the Senate floor. “It’s a step forward,” Debra DeShong Reed, spokeswoman for the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, told MSNBC.

(Photo credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

[jduong0909-blog]

"No fewer than four pieces of legislation have passed a Senate panel over the past two weeks to move to the Senate floor." Well, it seems that the people of the United States have finally seen the destruction of guns. It takes a massacre of children too open the eyes of Americans. Legislation now takes action to stop guns and the violence. The everyday killing is not seen as highly as people dying at the same time. But even with people trying for gun control, the sequester still is looked at more. But at least people are looking for gun control, and trying to stop all these murders that are happening every day. People need to start supporting gun control, and not wait to do something when another massacre occurs.

[nationaljournal]

Gun Control. Sandy Hook vs Any Other Violent Day

The NRA Is No Match for the Parent Lobby

The NRA is a mighty thing. But as mighty as it is, it is no match for the political power of the “parent lobby” in this country. If we parents ever decided to take a stand between our children and the gun lobby, we would perhaps be shielding thousands of our kids from the deadly bullets yet to come.

READ MORE from Andrew Cohen

(AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

[jduong0909-blog]

Does gun control matter to the people of the United States on any regular day? Why does an incident like Sandy Hook have to spark all of this gun control. The NRA has been making a lot of money now that Sandy Hook has occurred and parents are FINALLY WORRIED about violence in schools. "The fact that gun violence kills 10 times more americans each year than September 11, 2001." It's unbelievable that parents aren't looking at every day to step gun violence and finally make an amendment towards no gun control. The NRA makes more and more money each time there is a mass shooting. The whole country is in tears after Sandy Hook, but no one shed a tear when some kids are killed everyday. The people of the Untied States needs to create an amendment for gun control.

[thenationmagazine-blog]

[jduong0909-blog]

In this article, the NRA and other gun companies are looking to earn money from a massacre. I find this unbelievable considering that they don't care about the death of children, but instead money. It is all about gun sales across the country and making the most money out of a awful situation. Why should an incident like this lead to a wave of new sales. This is why i believe that gun control should be constitutional. They are stores and people just waiting for a massacre and killing so they can benefit. When I read this, I am completely disgusted by the fact that people would even find a positive outcome. This is why society is corrupt, with no peace and unity in this country. This country cannot mourn all together, but instead have to be different.

[jduong0909-blog]

Human Value

Do you really believe that all people are worthwhile?

No I don't believe that all people are worthwhile. People that kill, lie, steal, or cheat should be punished for what they do. These kinds of people should be killed from this world. That may seem cruel, but i feel that taking someone else's life when they did nothing wrong is an awful thing to do and should not be looked with mercy. They may have a reason, but I don't believe it matters. Killing someone is taking someone's life when they did nothing wrong and they were innocent. Their punishment should be death. People have committed different acts of evil, and should be punished by the value of their act. Someone who has lied to their parents doesn't deserve a punishment as much as someone who has killed their parents. The value of people is taken away when they kill or commit acts of violence that harm others. So no, i don't believe that all people are worthwhile, and that some people must be punished for the crimes that they committed.

[jduong0909-blog]

Unit II: Politics

"Political Power grows out the barrel of the gun." - Mao Tse-Tung

When I read this quote and think about it, I immediately think about all the wars that have occurred for political power. Wars and creating fear in their own people. It seems that gaining political power easily is from killing innocent people and creating fear in their own countries people. Dictators that want to control power or even like Hitler with his mass-genocide.

Mao Tse-Tung created fear from taking power away from his people, and instilling it into his own government. No guns allowed by the citizens, but basically only for the government. Mao is saying that the best way to contain power would have to be take away guns from the people, forcing them to listen and be in the control of his own people. People like Mao believe that keeping power comes from the best weapon, instead of actually being liked by its people.

[jduong0909-blog]

Etymology

B.C. (Before Christ)

Definition :

1. Abbreviation of Before Christ, in chronology.

2. Used to indicate that a date is before the Christian Era.

First Use: In use by 1660s.

Importance and History: B.C. was used to abbreviate Before Christ. When looking at history, "Before Christ" become a time period in the Christian faith. Present day, it is used in history books and naming historical events.