Blog Post Number Three - Respond to one of the Critical Thinking Reading Questions for Social Action - Choice 8; What really hard things are happening in this text? Are these things happening in the world now? Where?

In the book 'Fallout' by Ellen Hopkins,

The story is told by the perspectives of Kristina's (main character from 'Crank') three children. The children Hunter, Autumn and Summer are all split up. They have no idea who each other are. But Hunter and Summer know that there are three of them in total. Autumn has no idea that she has any siblings at all.

Hunter is the oldest of the three. He also has the best life of the siblings. He has followed in his moths footsteps by taking drugs. But he refuses to take meth (monster) that way, he doesn't end up like his mother - an addict.

Autumn is the middle child. She also has OCD and panic attacks. She is the only child that doesn't know about Kristina. But she does know who her father is - Trey.

Summer is the youngest of the three. She is the only one who knows the truth about both of her parents.

I think that difficult things that are happening in this book are disowning because after Kristina had her children, she left them. And separated then from each other. I don't think that was the right choice because why wouldn't she want to see her kids ever again?

I also think that things like this happen to children everyday because Kristina had these children when she was young and she didn't know what to do after she had them. So usually people who also have these issues give their child up for adoption. But she gave one to adoption, one to her mom and the other to the child's grandfather.

Social Awareness Writing Project - Choice 4; Write a reading response on a social issue in a literary work (on independent reading book)

'Burned' by Ellen Hopkins

 

In the book 'Burned' by Ellen Hopkins, the main character Pattyn is a part of a Mormon family. But Pattyn doesn't believe in the Mormon religion anymore. She doesn't want to be forced to have numerous babies and not have any say or control in her own house when she becomes married. In other words, she doesn't want to end up like her mother. Who is always being beat by her husband (Pattyn's father) because every baby she has is a girl. Pattyn's father is so upset at her decision to not want to be Mormon anymore that he beats her just like he does to her mother. He then disowns her and sends her to live with her Aunt J. When Pattyn's there, Aunt J teaches Pattyn about the true meaning of love.

 

I think that the issue in this book is child abuse and disowning. Because during the whole time Pattyn was living with her father, he would always beat both her and her mother. Even if they didn't do anything wrong.

 

The message in this book is to find the true meaning about yourself. Because her family is Mormon and pushing Pattyn to marry a "good Mormon boy" and follow the Mormon religion, etc. But she doesn't want that for her future. But when she moves in with her Aunt J, she learns about the true meaning of love and that God won't hate her if she doesn't choose to follow the Mormon religion.

 

This book makes me think a lot about child abuse because that seems to be what Pattyn's father does a lot. I also came to the conclusion that the father believes that men control women and also that women must completely obeh\y their husbands. I think that is sexist.