Rough Draft "All I asking for is my body"

Myra Alvarez

English 100

Mrs. Servais

Rough Draft

December 9, 2010

      Freedom

            Growing up now-a-days we have a choice with our lives, some of us choose to go to school and get a education, while others choose the lazy life of dropping out of school and working a job that only pays minimum-wage. We all have to thank our parents, there our motivators in our life’s, they push to get an education so we can get far in life and not have to worry about income. Parents want us to live a better life, than they did. What some of us don’t realize is that we take our life’s for granted. There’s kids around the world who re either missing a body part, or they already have a life chosen for them before there born.  We should be thankful that we wake up every morning knowing we have every body part there and also that we have the freedom to choose what life we want to live.

            For those who have there life chosen, some cant break out of the cycle. It’s almost like a religion for them, it reminds me of 2 boys named Tosho and Kyisho from the book, “All I asking for is my body.” These two boys live in a plantation in Hawaii, where they have to work to pay off there parents debt of $6,000. For them to pay that debt off, would mean they would have to give up school and work for the rest of there lives. Well you would ask how is that fair? To them there live is already chosen for them, they have to work since there parents don’t work as much anymore and there was not enough money coming in for the boys to get and education. To this family dropping out of school was like a religion “Tosh was to quit High School and work in the cane fields to help support the family. It was what every number one son was expected to do. Father had done it for twelve years, turning over his entire pay to grandfather every month.” (27)

            Kyisho is the youngest son. He’s very smart in school like his bother, but later he finds himself dropping out of school after graduation and becoming a irrigation man just like his parents wished. Before he graduated he had a teacher named Snooky, everyone found Snooki a little weird, because he wouldn’t teach the kids what they were suppose to know, instead he would give them advice. “”Freedom means not being a part of a pecking order. Freedom means being your own boss.” Kyisho didn’t know what Mr. Snooki was trying to say, but as he got older he finally knew what those words meant. Kyisho even admitted to being like his mother, believing in superstition when it never really existed. Kyisho didn’t want to disappoint his parents by turning out like Tosho. He wanted to help his parents out, meaning he’d be there by there side working until he was dead.

            On the other hand Tosh was very different from his bother Kyisho. His parents found him to be very rude and disobedient. Don’t get him wrong he was a very smart student and had a lot of knowledge but Tosh didn’t believe in paying the debts that his parents got into. He didn’t believe it was his fault his parents got in a big debt. He would always tell his parents “ Boy you Japanese are really blind. It’s there in front of your eyes and you say, it’s a lie! You just cant see! You don’t see what’s out there, you only see what’s inside your head. Like grandfather. he takes your money, you say you gave it to him…. Black is white and white is black. Inside your head he’s like a god. But by his actions, he’s a thief.”(44) Tosh wasn’t fond of the idea as being the number one son. He got that name taken away when he saw the real truth, that he didn’t have to work for them, that he had a choice too, just like his parents did, except he didn’t want to be like them, he wanted to go to school and become something of himself but he couldn’t. His life was already chosen for him, but he wasn’t going to let the cycle keep happening.

            I believe it’s not the kids responsibility to pay there parents debts. If you got yourself in a debt, then you can get yourself out of it. In the book they kept having kids knowing that there was barely enough income just to feed them. Tosh wasn’t blind and he wasn’t dumb either. He knew if he really put his mind to it, he could go far in life but with his parents tradition it made it a bit harder. I was  on Tosh’s side the whole time. I didn’t believe that it was fair for them to have that big responsibility of paying off someone’s else’s debt.

            Sometimes I sit and think what my life would have been if I didn’t have any freedom. It’s sad in this case to see someone so young have to suffer from other people’s mistake, its not fair but like they said it was a tradition to them. Sometimes parents guide us the right way, while other guide them a different way. Reading this book taught me to appreciate life and appreciate having freedom to choose what kind of life I want to live.  Like Tosh said” All I asking for is my body. I not even asking them to send me to high school. Hell I can work my way.” (55)

           

All I Asking for Is My Body part III

 “Freedom means not being part of a pecking order. Freedom means being you own boss,” Snooky said. (34)

These quote really touched me. Snooky was Kiyoshi teacher. A lot of his students didn’t like him because of the way he would teach his class. He wasn’t teaching them what they were supposed to learn, but telling them the truth, the sad truth that no one in the village wanted to admit. These teacher wanted them to break the cycle, wanted them to actually get an education, instead of being the parents slave.

I can understand why he would tell this to the kids. He wanted them to see the real world, that they didn’t have to be slaves, if they broke the cycle, it meant that they would live a way better life then the life they are living now.

 To me this is really sad. My parents never made me to pay there debts, they would always say that they wanted me to get far In live, they would always push us to succeed and get an education. Here in the story its different, seemed like they would only have kids just so they could work young and work themselves to death. I don’t understand why someone would do that, but like they say, its religion to them, and they called it Filial piety.

All I asking for is my body II Dialouge

In the book “All I asking for is my body,” Kiyoshi mother believed in superstition. She felt that every new year she had to start clean by “all debts paid, all the food cutting and cooking done by midnight on New Year’s Eve.. you bathed in the morning on New Year’s Day.” (21)  Everything that she did, she was always cautious about it.

My Mother is also old school. She believe in bad luck, like if we step on a crack she believes it’ll crack her back. I’m not sure why people believe so much in superstition, some of it just sounds so phony and so unreal, but my mother says when they were younger a lot of people believed in bad luck.

Another thing I noticed about Kiyoshi’s family, is that they don’t make enough money to  buy themselves goodies, it seems that the only money they make is enough for only food. In the book it says that they loose all there teeth, that says a lot about them. People who aren’t rich, seem to only worry about food, nothing else. Its sad to see that they cant afford to buy toothpaste for there teeth.

Chapter 57 "Supporting a Thesis"

It is true, most assignments require that when you write an essay you either have a thesis or a main idea, and have well organized paragraphs to support you thesis or main idea. To form a thesis there's a couple of steps that can help you achieve a well organized essay.

First they require that you make a thesis sentence. A thesis can either appear at the beginning or end of the introduction. Its basically a one sentence statements of your main idea.

Then you need to organize all your evidence. The standard model is, Method, Result, Discussion.

Then they may ask you to use sources to inform and help explain your thesis. The author says that the sources can play a big role in developing your essay.

I plan to use this when i have to write essay's for this class. I know how important the thesis statement is. Thad's why when we have essay's to write I'm very careful about the things i want to say. I find this really helpful and i also plan to use this for English 1a.

All I'm asking for is my part, Part I

  Who is Makot?  Makot is this young boy who lives with his Japanese family. He is the an older boy who likes to hang out with younger boys. The older boys don't like hanging out with Makot. So Makot buys the younger boys anything they want so he can be there leader. If the younger boys don't do what Makot says, he puts this fuzzy face and makes them feel bad until Makot gets his way. Do you feel sorry for him? In a way i do because it must be hard for a boy his age having to deal with his parents being in the prostitution world. Everyone gives him a hard time and it makes me sad that he has to deal with it all by himself.
 What are your thoughts about him and the way he copes with his parents? I think the way he copes with it is by having control of younger kids, making them rebel against there parents and making them steal. I think when he does this it makes him feel great, like if he get some kind of enlightenment by this. I also believe that he wants all the younger kids not to listen or obey what there parents ask them to do. Since Makot has no one telling him what to do, he feels everyone should do the same.

Essay Workshop 3

Myra Alvarez

English 100

11/10/10

Rough Draft

 The Value of Forgiveness

            To forgive someone who has hurt you not only physically but emotionally, can be hard. Some say it’s easier said then done, but you may also ask yourself, would you forgive someone who put you through torture? Could you find the strength to go up to that person without yelling at them?

            Hearing the word forgiveness reminds me of the young boy named Victor from the movie “Smoked Signals.” Victor was an Indian boy who lived on the reservation with his tribe. Victor’s father Arnold had a bad habit of drinking, he was an alcoholic, while under the influence, Arnold seemed to build anger remembering his past, out of anger, Arnold would hit his wife and Victor. Arnold soon started to realize that he wasn’t only hurting himself but he was hurting the ones that loved him the most.  He decide to one day get the nerve to get up and leave his family.

            Growing up without a father figure in Victor’s life wasn’t an essay obstacle. He had to learn how to be a man by himself. Victor became this young boy who had a lot of anger inside of him. When you see him, you could tell that he kept all his  feelings to himself, he acted as if he had no one to talk to. Thomas was his tribal childhood friend. Thomas was this young boy who had a creative imagination, he loved to tell stories, especially to Victor about his father Arnold. Thomas would tell Victor stories about Arnold to make him remember all the nice things Arnold once did. Victor just couldn’t believe his father was ever nice, the only memories he carried were the ones where Arnold would be hitting him.

            Victor felt that his father no longer cared for him, soon he got the call that they found his father dead in his trailer. Victor knew that he had to go pick up his father ashes but couldn’t finically go, except the fact that Tomas offered to pay only if he could go. Victor wasn’t to fond of the idea, but soon agreed that he could go. As they arrived, his dad’s neighbor Suzy, let Victor go in the trailer where they had found his father. Victor found Arnold's wallet with a family picture of them. As he turned the picture he saw the words Family. Victor couldn’t seem to understand how someone who abandoned him at a young age, could still carry a picture of his family. He soon started to realize that his father never forgot about him or his family. Suzy made it clear to Victor that all his father talked about was going home.

            Although Victor didn’t believe in forgiving, he soon learned that forgiving was the first step towards finding happiness in his heart. We all sometime in our life have to forgive someone who has hurt us, it isn’t easy and I don’t believe it was meant to be easy either. My mother once told me in order to find happiness within yourself, you have to first learn how to forgive others who have done you wrong, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have to forget the torture you went through, but you need to learn to forgive in order to live in peace not only with yourself but within your heart.

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

In the story “This is what it means to say Phoenix, Arizona,” I fount a couple things that seemed unusual, for instance Victor personality in the story wasn’t the same as the movie. In the movie he acted like the bad guy, always had a tough attitude and seemed mad all the time. In the book he seemed laid back, actually acting like a regular teenager. As for Thomas he is still the same dorky kid in both the movie and story. Victor did seem the same towards Thomas, except he wasn’t as me as he was in the movie.

I believe that if Victor was anything like the story in the book he would be more popular and everyone would want to hang out with him. I know that at a young age its hard to act normal when you’ve got so many things running through your head like for example the death of a father or mother. I enjoyed the book for than the movie. It seemed the characters were more relaxed.