13 Reasons Why

In the Young Adult book, "13 Reasons Why", written by Jay Asher, Clay Jensen finds himself in a far from desirable situation. His former classmate, Hannah Baker, who just recently took her life, leaves him along with 13 other kids tapes describing how they are each somehow responsible for her suicide. The book takes place mainly over a span of one night, filled with truths being revealed, rumors proved wrong, and an unimaginable amount of regret because of the words uttered from now dead Hannah Baker.
     The tapes lead readers through the story, with Hannah's "voice" shaping the story's plot arc. The author's writing style is very poetic, with a great deal of thought provoking imagery. One of the lines spoken by Hannah on the tapes is particularly meaningful, as she describes the feeling of having someone she thought of as a friend choose to believe rumors over her own word. This line, "…It's more than a scratch. It's a punch in the stomach and a slap in the face. It's a knife in my back because you would rather believe some made-up rumor than what you knew to be true.", represents both the arc of the story, as well as messages conveyed throughout the whole book.
I think this line really shows the arc of the story and how the plot builds towards the climax. For example, the idea of the growing pain, going from a punch to a slap to a knife in the back, represents how increasingly worse and worse issues in Hannah Baker's life got. At the beginning of the book, Hannah is still optimistic, with no intention of taking her life, or having no reason to. Throughout the story, each of the 13 classmates' actions seem to grow more harmful, causing Hannah to feel more and more pain. The story goes from her being invaded by a creepy kid taking pictures of her in her house, to her almost being raped. These are obviously two extremely different invasions, and show the surreal increase in the seriousness and pain Hannah suffered. By the end, in the story she says, "The night was over. I was done." This clearly shows how easy it is for one issue to build on top of the other until life is too much to handle. 
Also, these escalating circumstance really shows how one person's actions effect another's, and how that can spiral into something horrible. This is clearly shown within the story when one of the teens on the list, Justin Foley, reappears throughout Hannah's narrative. He is the start of the tapes, her first kiss; the boy who decided to spread a rumor making a simple kiss appear as something scandalous. His actions made other people make judgements about the kind of person Hannah was. Even Clay, the narrator and main character, says that when he heard things about her he thought "she was building quite a reputation in a short amount of time." The fact that Clay Jensen, a really sweet guy, came to this conclusion displays the influence a rumor can have. Later, the whole story comes back to Justin again, where Hannah witnesses him raping another girl. This is close to Hannah's breaking point, and it shows how she got to that point of being so miserable with her life from the simple rumor in the beginning of the book. The author uses this as a lesson, showing that your actions have much greater consequences that what you could imagine. 
This line also represents a bigger picture; it sums up the idea of teen suicide. Issues build on top of each other that cause teens to go down into an unimaginably deep depression, which they can no longer be pulled out of. The line says, "… you rather believe a made-up rumor than what you knew to be true." This line really acts as a lesson and message that applies to the whole story. The idea that believing a rumor is a choice is really powerful. The idea that YOU yourself make the decisions in YOUR OWN life is something that everyone could learn from. 
I think teens who read this book can really use the lessons and themes shown in that line in their own life. Being able to choose whether you want to "be the bigger person" or just be a follower is a choice that almost everybody is faced with at one point or another in their lives. It is so important for us to understand the consequences of our actions, and have the ability to stand up and make a change. Especially when you see someone suffering, it is our job to help them out of that dark place before it gets to a point where no one can do anything any more. This book shows the way problems in life escalate, and unless someone steps in, it can get to an unimaginably dark point. 

Synthesis Page for 13 Reasons Why

Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood

       "Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood", by Sherman Alexie, argues that young adult books are the most powerful books because they are the ones that get teens reading: teens can relate to them, escape from their lives with them, and seek advice from YA literature. Sherman Alexie goes into detail on how shielding teens from YA fiction is only shielding them from issues they are already dealing with in their lives. To support this idea, Alexie passionately disagrees with Meghan Cox Gurdon's article, "Darkness Too Visible" which defends the opposing argument that YA books should be banned. He makes multiple points in his argument, such as that taking away these books is like trying to shield poor kids from the idea of poverty. Alexie also relates back to his own experiences to enforce his ideas. He recounts a recent visit to a high school, where he heard "individually tragic” and "collectively agonizing" stories from teenagers about their own lives. These real life stories support the position that many young adults are experiencing the very issues that the critics feel should not be published for those same young people to read. Alexie also discusses an interaction with a young man whose father wanted him to become a solder and join the military, while he himself wanted to be a writer. He uses this situation to make readers understand how ridiculous it is that if a boy is "old enough to die and kill for his county" and "old enough to experience the infinite horrors of war", some still feel he is too young to read a YA book that describes those same infinite horrors. 
The author's passionate writing style causes me to think that the opposing argument is ridiculous. He wants readers to think it is unfair of people to suggest that books containing such raw, dark material should be banned. One powerful way Alexie gets his point across is by describing, in detail, his own youth, and the positive effect YA books could have had on him. For example, he describes, "When I think of the poverty-stricken, sexually and physically abused, self-loathing Native American teenager that I was, I can only wish… that I'd been given the opportunity to read 'The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian' (written by Sherman Alexie himself) … or 'Speak'." Both books are filled with the young adult issues being critiqued, such as tragedy, self- harm, abuse, and sexual content. Understanding this connection to his own personal struggles makes me feel sympathetic to him, and it really brings home his point that YA books can create an escape and a source of advice for teens experiencing similar issues. Sherman Alexie also really enforces his ideas and opinion by just simply throwing opposing ideas back at Meghan Cox Gurdon. For example, he says, "Does Ms. Gurdon honestly believe that a sexually explicit YA novel might somehow traumatize a teen mother? Does she believe that a YA novel about murder and rape will somehow shock a teenager whose life had been damaged by murder and rape? Does she believe a dystopian novel will frighten a kid who already lives in hell?" Alexie's passion is like a slap of reality, making me get passionate and worked up over the injustices in the world. By making the tone of the piece so forceful and filled with honest passion, he wants to make readers think that it is ridiculous to ban books that only echo the realities of what many young adults suffer through. 
After reading this article, I went from being slightly unsure of whether banning books may be a good thing, to feeling passionately that it is absolutely ridiculous. As Sherman Alexie so brilliantly put it, "They (cultural critics) aren't trying to protect the poor from poverty. Or victims from rapists. No, they are simply trying to protect their privileged notions of what literature is and should be. They are trying to protect privileged children". If YA fiction allows teenagers who struggle with pressing issues in their everyday lives to have an escape, or a way to relate and seek advice from something, then why would anyone suggest taking these books away from them? Why make their already hard lives harder to struggle through? This article so clearly shows that banning books won't protect teenagers from issues already present in their lives. They are too late for that. The only thing left to do is to give them something to grasp onto for help and reassurance. And that is exactly what these YA books provide. 

Faithful Elephants

     In the story, "Faithful Elephants" by Yukio Tsuchiya, the cherry blossoms carry significant meaning throughout the passage. "Faithful Elephants" is a heartbreaking story told by a zoo employee in present day at Ueno Zoo in Japan. The story takes place during World War II, a time during which the United States was dropping bombs on Japan, and Ueno Zoo was in danger. In fear that a bomb would hit the zoo, releasing animals from their cages, the zookeepers had no choice but to kill the animals. The story focuses in on three elephants; John, Tonky, and Wanly, who were slowly and painfully starved to death. 
     In the beginning of the story, the author describes the cherry blossoms that are in "full bloom" at the zoo. In this part of the text, the blossoms represent a hopeful, light mood, before any of the pain from the past is revisited. The author writes, "Their petals are falling in the soft breeze and sparkling in the sun," By using the words "soft breeze" and "sparkling", the author is creating a very quaint, peaceful mood, which contrasts significantly to the other moods presented later in the story. I think that the reason the author uses cherry blossoms as this beautiful setting in the beginning is to really differentiate the past and present. 
     Throughout the story, the mood switches, and as the elephants are being killed, the setting changes to a painful mood and environment. At the end of the story, the author powerfully shows this change in mood through the description of the cherry blossoms as falling on the ground "like snowflakes". 
     I think this line really shows the author's attempt to contrast the multiple moods and feelings in the passage. As we know from the beginning, cherry blossoms are a very sweet, peaceful, beautiful object, whereas snow can give off a cold, harsh feeling. Winter is a time of death in nature- although a snowflake still signals something beautiful. This contrast makes me think of a bittersweet ending; although it is peaceful now, the past was far from it. 
     Another thing that the cherry blossoms represent to me is the passage of time. The idea of a tree changing with the seasons is a visual sign of time going by. When the cherry blossoms are in full bloom at the beginning of the story, the atmosphere is very different. The mood is much softer, and by the time the blossoms fall at the end, the mood has completely changed, and it feels as though a significant amount of time has passed as well. 
      I think that what makes this story so beautiful and powerful is that there is so much meaning in the simplest things. It makes me realize how much beauty and emotion can be held in little things in our everyday lives. 
      "Faithful Elephants" also makes me appreciate the world I live in, which is much like the world at the beginning of the story. Our world changes over time and as years and generations pass, it is important to keep the past alive, even though it may cause us pain. This story shows the meaning in our everyday life, and how lucky we are to live in the world we do, where every day, at least in America, we do not face the fear of praying a bomb won’t be dropped on our heads.