#aplang19reading

This is a very insightful article. It addresses the many stereotypes that are placed on people who live in poverty, and focuses on a specific family and their struggles.

In 2006, Nakamura had a match for the IWGP Heavyweight Championship against an American wrestler named Brock Lesnar, who held the title at that point. He lost the match, and it was the first time he cried after a match. The reason being that he didn't see that Brock had a love for wrestling. "It felt like he was just doing his job." He felt that Lesnar was looking down on Japanese people and didn't respect them. He's been on and off wrestling and doing MMA since the early 2000s, but the question of if he actually cared is still a thing today. The entire chapter of the book just reminded me of an article talking about if he does or not, and the conclusion seems to be that he doesn't.

I really loved this whole page. Thomas seems to be producing lots of stories with lots of optimism, hope, acceptance. I love the way she describes how it’s okay and you just got to keep going to achieve something. It won’t always be good the first time around, but you can’t give up. I also enjoyed reading this part since I think everyone can relate to it. Whatever you’re apart of, you might do something amazing. If you’re into art, you love a piece you made and want to make more like it since that one turned out so good. If you’re into sports and scored a goal or did some cool new thing, you want to do it again since it produced good results. What Thomas points out is that it’s hard to create the same thing, or do it again. But you have to try and have faith to achieve something. Also, she related it back to writing very nicely. She connected the two ideas so readers can see that this feeling applies to many other things, not just painting or art.

In this part of my book Alvarenga is finally home and reunited with his former girlfriend, his daughter and her mother. The author really uses emotion to show how sentimental this moment is, “I love you, and I am not going to let you go!” in this moment Alvarenga and his daughter, Fatima, Are hugging for the first time in over a year. I thought that this was the most genuine and cutest part in the book. However, Alvarenga is scared and traumatized. On the first day home he barely spoke a word to her besides the part when they hugged.The author claims that they didn’t speak for weeks after that, But only smiled at each other. When he finally got the courage to talk to his daughter, It didn’t quite play out the way he wanted. Fatima was doubting of her father saying “Why didn’t you come back for me? You forgot me!” In my opinion, their relationship is going to be bumpy. However, Fatima should realize that her father was lost at sea for over a year. I Don’t think he forgot about her. 

Link to source about the problems with The Feminine Mystique: https://www.theatlantic.com/sexes/archive/2013/02/4-big-problems-with-the-feminine-mystique/273069/

After finishing the book there is still one big question that’s on my mind, is Ross good or bad? Everyone he’s encountered, from his family and friends to a lady at a flower shop, say he was always wholesome and nice. The kind of person to help an old lady cross the street or rescue animals in his free time. His whole purpose for starting the website was to make an impact on society, like any other start up technology company. His website gave people freedom of what they put in their bodies, with no rules, regulations, or limits to what you could and couldn’t sell on the site. But this came at a price. The range of products on the site ranged from weed and mushrooms to guns, human body parts, hardcore drugs like heroine that could ruin someone’s life. He trafficked drugs, ordered for murder hits, and went against the basis of the United States government (giving him his 2 life sentences without the option of parole). I think what sums it up best, is what Judge Forest said before delivering Ross’ sentence, “There is good in you, Mr. Ulbricht, I have no doubt, but there is also bad, and what you did in connection with the Silk Road was terribly destructive to our social fabric.”

The more I read my book, the more invested I get. I realized that each chapter is like its own little story, and that they all connect in some way. I think that this chapter has been my favorite so far. Not only did the story really stick out to me, but the writing that the author did, stuck out too. There were parts that he used specific words and changed his tone to bring out important parts. I haven’t really seen this in other chapters, but I really noticed that in this one. I’m not quite sure why, because all the stories are so sad, and terrible, but this one specifically, I just noticed something different. The author talked about about a 14 year old boy named Charlie. In this chapter, it talked about how Charlie mother had an abusive boyfriend, George. One night George came home drunk and staring abusing Charlie’s mother. A lot went down, and then later Charlie found his mother on the floor bleeding, and not breathing. Charlie then went on to shoot George so nothing else would happen, and Charlie was then sentenced to jail. That was a BRIEF summary. but in that chapter the authors ton had changed a lot, especially when he was describing the scene, and he made Charlie seem so very innocent. Later the author went on to talk about how he visited Charlie in jail and Charlie talked about how he has been raped and the jail officers wouldn’t do anything about it. Bryan Stevenson talks a lot about how messed up the world is and how insane some people can be. He also further goes to talk about how people are put in jail for wrong reasons, and crimes they didn’t commit, and then ties together a bunch of people’s stories. I just think it’s very interesting, and i really like how this one specific chapter stood out to me.