Speak Discussion 3

After three long week of reading Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, my group has finally finished our last discussion. During the Lit Circle, my group agreed that Melinda has somewhat changed her perspective of the rape incident and is finally letting go of her belief that keeping silent will allow her to forget about being raped during the end-of-summer party. Melinda started her freshman year alone in denial, depression, and silence but by the end of her freshman year, she is able to verbalize rejection and unwillingness. This is exemplified when Melinda rejects the offer to help her former friend with the prom decorations because that friend abandoned her due to Melinda's lack of popularity and rumors of being crazy. Then I proposed a question: "Which is more important: friendship or popularity?"
My group agreed that friendship is more essential. Although it is true that many popular people have many friends, how many of those friends are their friends because they like them as who they are and not because of their popularity? (I'm not saying that friends of popular people are all fakes but how many of them are true friends and would not abandon them at the time of need or when their popularity ends?) I believe that having friends whom I can trust is more important than being well liked or famous. If I cannot trust those who I am suppose to trust, who can I trust then?
In addition, I believe that all people need friends because everyone eventually needs someone to rely on. I do not know why, but some people are able to open themselves to friends more than their families. Sometimes, people choose to tell their friends about situations that they wish to avoid consulting with their families. This can also be exemplified through Melinda because she told (actually, she wrote) her ex-best friend about the rape incident but never even hinted the incident to her parents. This also applies to secrets because some people are able tell their friends some, or maybe even all, of their secrets but not their parents. Why? What makes friends so reliable and trustworthy?

Alameda or Oakland Response

In his post, David sates that even though many people have their own opinions about whether Oakland is better than Alameda or vice versa, both cities are essentially equal:

There doesn't seem to be any difference on other areas. In both cities, the people are nice. In my school, there are many people that come from Oakland and I don't have a problem with them. They are actually pretty cool people to be with. Both educational environments are similar. There are those that drop out and those that continue to become successful.

Everyone has opinions about whether one location is or is not better than another location. When they are asked what makes that location better than the other location they are comparing to, some of the most popular responses may include: safer, cleaner, more peaceful, etc. However, there is no concrete evidence that would support their claim. Everything would only be opinions.

To me, Alameda is a much safer place to live and people are much more peaceful here. When I lived in Oakland, I got robbed and there were so many places in which people were hurt or raped. Oakland is much dirtier where I live and there are a lot of homeless people there. In Alameda, the streets are much cleaner and I don't see any homeless people around here. There are much more events in the city of Alameda compared to Oakland. 

David personally believes that Alameda is safer and more peaceful than Oakland because he has been robbed in Oakland before; however, some people believe that Alameda is safer simply because it is Alameda and Oakland is a dangerous, neighboring city where murder can happen at any moment. I do not have anything against what other people want to believe in, but I believe that these people should consider some factors before leaping to whatever conclusion they want to reach.
I do not have any statistics to back up these factors, but I think Oakland has a bigger population than Alameda. In addition, Oakland has Chinatown and many people from different locations go there is buy groceries and stuff they need. If there are more people wandering the streets of Oakland, accidents are bound to happen. On the other hand, Alameda barely has any shopping places except for South Shore and maybe Park Street, making accidents less possible.

Technology

     Crystal's post questions whether technology is a good or bad thing for human society:

In the modern society were technology is commonplace and accessible, many of our decisions are based off of what computers tell us. Even our identities are controlled through computers through our social security numbers or ID numbers. These numbers are assigned by society in order for computers to easily keep track of information about each citizen that resides in a particular state or country. On a more personal scale, whenever a person creates a social networking account, they identify themselves on the net by what they choose to reveal or say about themselves. Then people around the world will solely identify that person by what they see on their computer and not take the effort to know more about the person other than what is written on their screen.

     I believe that although technology cannot be seen as either a good or bad thing for human society, there are positive and negative effects that result from technology. What Crystal states above is true and it also support the claim that technology can be neither and/or either good or bad to society.
     In short, technology changes the way we live. As we become "more modernized," we no longer have to live the lives of farmers where prosperity depends on the quality and quantity of the crops. Instead, we now live the lives of convenience. We have cars that can take us to our destinations, we have supermarkets that allow us to get all the food we need without having to undergo the troublesome seasons and days of planting, plowing, and harvesting, we have phones that allow us to communicate with people halfway across the world if we take the time to make the call, and we have computers and the internet that allows us to gather all the information we need for research and projects. We can even choose to send email if we find calling and talking to bothersome.
     Technology has made lives in human society become more convenient; however, technology can also be seen as both positive and negative. I do not think there is a right or wrong answer if a debate arises.

Speak: Discussion

     During my group's latest Lit Circle Discussion, we talked about the idea of rape. After reading to the end of the second paperclip, which is also titled as the "Third Marking Period," we find out that Melinda was raped during the end-of-summer cheerleader party Rachel, her ex-best friend, brought her to. My group proposed the question "Why did Melinda call the cops when she was not able to speak up about the incident?" which lead to the question "Why does rape take place?"
     My group decided that there are many reasons to why rape happens and that the resulting reaction from the individual who is raped can vary between not having a second thought about the incident, depression and silence, and/or committing suicide. It all depends on the individual because some people are able to accept what happened sooner than others, allowing them to move on with their life; however, those who are unable to accept the incident eventually leads to the incident controlling them, leading to minor cases like not talking and becoming unsocial, or to the point of choosing death.
     I commented on Melinda's resulting effect by saying that it was not very smart of her to not speak up when the incident was impacting her negatively. Even she realizes that revealing the incident may be able to improve her ability to accept what happened but she constantly holds back.
     I also think that the people around her are not helping. For one, she somehow seems disconnected from her parents. They do not really communicate and even when they try to, something always seem to come up. Melinda also does not try to communicate with her parents. The way Melinda and her parents seem to operate is as though they all do their own things and they only discuss their needs when they have to. Two, it does not help when Melinda no longer has any friends to help her through the situation. All of her friends disappeared when Melinda decided to call the cops during the party but she does not tell them the reason why. If a person does not speak up, no one can tell what they are thinking so it is kind of impossible for Melinda to expect her friends to understand her when she keeps silent.

Behind Silence and Defiance

     Speak, a novel by Laurie Halse Anderson, is about a girl named Melinda who is an outcast - an individual rejected by student and teachers alike in school. The title names the one thing she has given up: speaking. She no longer expresses herself or her opinions. One can say that she has chosen to become mute and interpret the denial towards speaking as a way to protect oneself, a form of defense.
     In our discussion, one of the topics we talked about is the immigration debate. Mr. Neck, Melinda's history teachers, opened this debate after criticizing immigrants for "stealing" jobs from "true" Americans. He believes that his son, who wanted to be a firefighter, should get the job he wanted because the Neck family has been in America for over two hundred years: built America, fought in every war, paid taxes, and voted, but is denied the job he wanted because of immigrants. This leads me to believe that Mr. Neck is one of those conservative whites who believe that they should be given first priority simply because they are white.
     In addition, Mr. Neck deeply believes that America's borders should have been closed in the 1900s so that "real Americans can get the jobs they deserve," (pg. 54) and disagrees when a student argues that everyone are foreigners and that the land should be given back to the Native Americans. This leads me to believe that Mr. Neck is one of the individuals who are racist or prejudice because they believe they should have the first opportunity towards everything because they are "special" individuals simply due to their belief in a certain god, have a certain characteristic, or something. Moreover, I half agree and half disagree with the student who contended that the land should be given back to the Native American. I agree when the student state that everyone are foreigners because no one truly originated from America. This leads to what I disagree with because the land does not belong to anyone if everyone are foreigners and so there is no reason to "return America" to any group of people.

Response to Phuong's "Jaejoong"

     To tell the truth, I don't know why I am responding to Phuong's post on Jaejoong. I guess it is because I want to make fun of Phuong due to her great preference towards Jaejoong and DBSK's group members.

I will dedicate my post to a korean idol that I have been stalking a few year ago: Kim Jaejoong. he is also known as Hero, Youngwoong, or Jejung.

     Like Phuong, I know who he and DBSK are and I also like many of their songs. Unlike Phuong, I do not make a habit of stalking him and DBSK, nor do I know much of their backgrounds since I do not wish to research them.

one of his comment on a variety show when he describes how a real man cry on the inside and that a real man must cry three times in his life. His humor caught me laughing hard on my stomach because his demonstration of a man crying inside was a sleeping post and his explanation on the three time that a man must cry was: when they were born, when the girlfriend broke up with them, and when their managers don't feed them. I laughed from the last comment because I thought that it would be something serious.

     I agree with Jaejoong two-thirds of the way. Not just a man, I think that everyone cries when they are born and that not being fed should be a good reason to cry. However, for a man, breaking up with a girlfriend should not be a reason to cry because there is a saying that "men should not cry" - unless Jaejoong does not see himself as a guy, then he can cry all he wants. Whether he cry or not, I still have to agree with Phuong that Jaejoong's third comment is funny.
     The one thing I do not know if I should or should not agree with is Jaejoong's comment that "men should cry in their hearts." I have no clue what this means since I do not know if I have ever cried in my heart. Then again, what does crying in your heart feel like? One thing I know for sure is that the heart cannot shed tears.I don't know, maybe it's something he made up on the spot.