Tasting the Sky Pt. 2

Tasting the Sky continues with the family moving again. They don't think much about it because this is now a natural occurrence for them. This is truly sad. Knowing that being forced from one home to another is "the norm" is pretty terrifying. Its sad that there are people in this world who find this normal. I hope one day that this will no longer be normal for us and that war will be a rare occurrence. After they move, two Israeli soldiers start to harass Ibtisim's mom. Ibitism talks about how her home in Ramallah will always be her one true home. Ibitism is so young when they move the final time. She is only in second grade. In a couple of years, she has survived a war, being a refugee, and having to move from home to home. She experienced things a six year old should never have to. Its sad to think about what she experienced but I think that's the point of the book. To shine light down on what war does to everyone, especially the young. Overall, I found the book intriguing but it hit that chord that makes everyone feel something. This could be guilt for living in a country that doesn't accept refugees, or feelings to try to help these people, or anger for the people who caused the war. I found the book to be a good read and I am glad I chose it for my lit circle.

Tasting the Sky Pt. 1

Tasting the Sky is an interesting story of a young girl's life in Palestine. It is written by Ibtisim Barakat about her experiences as a child during the Six Day War with Israel. Their father is extremely worried of a war between Palestine and Israel at the beginning of the book. When war breaks out, the family flees to escape the violence. The family tries to escape to Jordan along with others. Upon reaching a camp, only the women and children are allowed to stay. All men are forced to find refuge elsewhere. The war lasts Six Days. The families stick together and afterwards they try to return home. There, they find their homes riddled with bullets and the invading Israeli troops train nearby. The mom takes the family to the orphanage and claims that their father died so they can get in. Ibtisim's brothers are sent away from the orphanage for fighting. Afterwards, their father returns and convinces Ibtisim's mom to try again at a life in a normal house. From the beginning of the book, Ibtisim said she would never forget the war and she hasn't. Her memories of her life and the war makes the book very sad and goes to show that civilians are always the ones who are hurt the most by war.

Aristotle and Dante Pt. 3

The ending of Aristotle and Dante isn't surprising in some ways but it can also go in a direction you didn't expect. I was surprised by many of the things that happened when Dante came back from Chicago. There was a lot more tension between Ari and Dante and it seemed as if their friendship was breaking apart. There was also a lot of action that took place after Dante returned. Dante gets mugged, Ari and Dante smoke joints together, and Ari beating up Julian.
I didn't expect a lot of the action scenes that happened in the book. While some may be a little unrealistic they are written from a very realistic point of view. Ari beating up Julian is an example of this. He doesn't remember much and simply reacts to his rage. I also find Ari driving to the hospital to see Dante very realistic. He forgets everything that his brain deems as "unimportant" and doesn't remember anything until he is by Dante's bedside.
I was shocked that Ari never figured out that he was gay on his own. His parents had to tell him that he was gay and he still didn't accept it at first. I was very surprised that his parents noticed it considering he didn't follow most stereotypes of being gay. Ari never thought he was gay and always thought he was straight. Since the story is written from Ari's point of view, you can see that he never thought he was gay and wondered why he did what he did. That's one of the reasons why I was surprised with how the book ended up turning out with Ari and Dante getting together. My prediction that I made at the start of the book stating that at least one of the two main characters would be gay ended up being true.

Aristotle and Dante Pt. 2

The second part of Aristotle and Dante is mostly about Ari's recovery from his injuries after he dives in front of a car to save Dante. Ari wakes up after being unconscious after surgery for over thirty six hours. Everyone is concerned for him and Dante gives him his sketchbook which Ari doesn't open. Shortly before Dante leaves, Ari and Dante finally look through the book together and Dante tells Ari he's gay.
While Dante is gone he consistently writes to Ari about his experiences in Chicago. He talks about how he goes out to parties and how he experiments with drugs and alcohol. He also talks about how he kisses girls but doesn't really care for them and would rather be kissing guys. Ari also writes to Dante about things that are going on in his life.
Overall, I am enjoying this book so far. The book does a great job at building the characters and you can really understand them. The book is also relatable to struggles than many people undergo, focusing mainly on an identity crisis during youth. I feel that the book is extremely relatable in showing what happens for high schoolers in their everyday life. Their balance of school, work, and social interactions such as partying are pretty accurately represented in the book.

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe

Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe is an interesting book. This first part has been built around the beginnings of Aristotle and Dante's relationship with each other. Aristotle originally had no friends until Dante taught him how to swim. They then grew closer to each other and spent a lot of time together. They read poetry and literature and play games similar to a javelin toss. Ari soon gets sick and spend many days bedridden and delirious from a flu. After Ari gets better, Dante tells him that he's going to be moving to Chicago for a year and Ari is understandably upset. The chapter ends when Dante goes to rescue a bird in the street. While Dante is picking up the bird, Ari sees a car speeding towards him and Ari thinks that it must be a dream. The chapter ends right before impact.
This book is about finding oneself and also others in a world one is just starting to recognize. Ari still tries to find out who he is. He doesn't understand himself and doesn't realize some of the things that he does. He has nightmares and doesn't realize it until after he tells his dad while recovering from his fever. Ari also tries to understand his parents and Dante. He understands them to a point but doesn't understand them fully.
Since this book is about finding oneself, it has been dropping subtle hints. These hints indicate that Ari and Dante like each other more than normal. Since this book is about finding oneself, I'm going to guess that either Dante or Ari (if not both of them) are gay. I don't think Ari has realized this yet. I'm wondering how the next part of the book will go and if my prediction will be correct.

American Born Chinese Pt. 2

The second half of American Born Chinese ends in a way I was not expecting. In this second half, the Monkey King goes on a quest as the disciple of a man working for Tze-Yo-Tzuh. He became an emissary for Tze-Yo-Tzuh after completing the journey. Jin Wang transforms into Danny after renouncing his Asian heritage and breaking his friendship with Wei-Chen. It then travels three years into the future where Chin-Kee is visiting Jin-Wang/Danny for the third time. Chin-Kee and Danny get in a fight during which Danny unveils Chin-Kee to be the Monkey King. Danny then turns back into Jin-Wang. The Monkey King then reveals that Wei-Chen is his eldest son and that he has strayed from his path to become an emissary. Danny eventually rights this wrong and becomes friends with Wei-Chen again.
The ending of this book is pretty unexpected. I knew the story would come together somehow but I didn't expect it to be so literal about it. I thought each story would have a lesson that linked with the others yet the ending was written in a way I think I liked more.
My opinions on the book is that its a good quick read. The whole book didn't take me over an hour and a half. The story itself is interesting and the animations help the reader visualize. While this may not have been my favorite novel so far, it definitely wasn't the worst. I found the style the book had to be unique and would be surprised to see another book like it in this class. Overall, I give this book a 3/5. While the majority never had me extremely interested, I was never bored with the story and I greatly enjoyed the ending.

American Born Chinese Part 1

American Born Chinese is an interesting book. It is the first book of its kind that we have read so far in class. Its basically a large comic book. It uses pictures, speech bubbles, and other comic features and is the most unique book we have read so far. While not a big comic fan, I truly have enjoyed this book so far. It takes on a serious tone, especially for a comic, yet it still remains able to make a few bright and funny moments throughout. The pictures do a great job at illustrating what is going on. The book focuses highly around stereotypes and how they differ from reality.
The main character in the book is Jin Wang. However, there are a few other main characters in the book. The Monkey King is one of these. I don't know his main purpose in the book yet but I think it has something to do with underestimating people. The whole story of the Monkey King seems to revolve around people thinking less of others and being made brutally aware of it. Another two main characters are Chin-kee and Danny. Chin-kee is the extreme stereotype of an Asian person. He represents America's stereotype of a Chinese person by knowing everything and playing "jokes" on others. Danny is Chin-kee's cousin and simply wants Chin-kee to stop embarrassing him.
Jin does his best to be considered an American after moving to a new school. It follows his struggle to gain friends. At the end of the first half of the book, it follows his struggle to talk to a girl that he likes.
To be honest, I have never seen a book like this one before. The story is interesting and is given in a way I've never seen before. It has been a solid quick read. It is one of my favorite books read in this class so far.

The End of Brown Girl Dreaming

The second half of Brown Girl Dreaming starts to actually have a purpose. The book loosely revolves around Jackie's struggle to become a writer. This part of the book also brings in her family life and shows  how it influenced her decision to become a writer. For example: when Jackie's uncle was put in prison, she began to write about what he was experiencing there in poetry.
By the end of the book, Jackie grows old enough to recognize the racism around her. It starts to take mention in her writings. Mentions of groups such as the Black Panthers lead Jackie to want to fight for her equal rights. When one of her teachers says she's a feminist, Jackie is able to draw comparison's between her fight and her teacher's fight. These fights for equal rights also have some bearing on her writing.
By the end of the book, nothing new has really happened. Jackie becomes recognized as being able to write but there isn't much conflict there. I know the story is written based purely off of memories so her frustration isn't captured well in the book, yet the book never really feels as if it resolves itself. She becomes able to write but the story ends when elementary school ends. She never writes anything big. The book seems to end suddenly with a piece that is written by Jackie as an adult describing her life when she was in fifth grade.
My opinion of the book is that it was probably my least favorite to read. I've never really liked poetry and a book written through poems is not a good start. Then there's a large lack of conflict for the vast majority of the book. Not to mention the ending of the book that I discussed before. Overall, I think the book serves to sum up Jaqueline Woodson's early life, yet that seems to be the only purpose of the book.

Beginning of Brown Girl Dreaming

The first part of Brown Girl Dreaming summarizes the first few years of the Jacqueline Woodson's life. Jacqueline was born in 1963 in Ohio. Her dad wanted to name her Jack after himself but her mom refused and had her named Jacqueline. After a short period of time, Jacqueline along with her mother and sister leave her father. They move back to their mother's parents house in South Carolina.
Over the next few years, Hope, Odella, and Jacqueline were shielded from their surroundings. They were told to stay away from any children in the neighborhood. As marches go on across the country for equality, Jacqueline's mother, grandma, and grandpa support the peaceful marches and condemn violence on both sides. Soon Jacqueline's mother heads to New York to get a job and tries to find housing for them. Jacqueline's Grandma starts teaching the children to be Jehovah's Witnesses to keep them on track. She also lets them come in contact with other children around them. They end up learning more about the children in the neighborhood and it teaches them how to interact with others. Their mother returns with a new baby and comes to take them back to New York.
The book so far is just a summary of Jackie's early life. She is too young to remember a lot so a decent amount of what happens is very vague. The book is set during and after the movement for racial equality so it has a lot of potential to show how the population of the United States was reacting to segregation. Overall, there's not much to comment on so far in the book since nothing important has happened yet.

The Ending of Yaqui Delgado

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass ends in a way I didn't really expect it to end. I expected either a physical confrontation with Yaqui or Piddy running away. Neither of these occurred. Instead, in a stroke of irony, Piddy showed the disciplinary officer the video that Yaqui's friends took of Yaqui fighting Piddy. I find it to be quite ironic that the video of the fight is what stops Yaqui from being able to bully Piddy. However, the second I read that the video was put on social media I knew it would factor into Yaqui's downfall.
It angers me that Yaqui got immunity in this case. Assault, Battery, sexual assault, conspiracy to assault and more crimes caught on video lead to no charges because her friend group is too large. She literally gets a "get out of jail free for 10 years of your life because you are popular" card. I say everyone there should have been charged in Civil and Legal court. In legal court, they could have been tried for assisting a sexual assault and conspiracy to assault. Of course, Piddy would need some way to get away. This is where Civil court comes in. Physical pain and psychological damage can result in massive amounts of money for the person that was injured. While the families of those who mugged Piddy may not have much money individually, when grouped up there is enough for Piddy to be able to move to a nicer neighborhood. This ensures that Piddy is safe from those who attacked her and they get punished for the crimes they committed.
Veering back to how the story actually ended. I think you can guess that I don't like that Piddy was the one who had to move out. Although, I think she liked it because she got to go back to her old school. She had friends there and wasn't viewed as an outsider. I think she liked this option the most and would have chosen to move back to her old school if she could have anyways.
Overall, I find the ending of Yaqui Delgado to be brutally realistic. The government isn't willing to punish a group of individuals who clearly need punishment so their victims are forced to flee. Not to mention Piddy shows some signs of Post-Traumatic Stress a year later. I find this to make the ending even more authentic. While the book may not have ended in some grand confrontation, this made the book even more important. A grand confrontation would have spoiled the book's point on what bullying truly is. Ending it in this almost anti-climactic way shines a light of realism down on the book that makes it very authentic on bullying.

Youth Lens in Feed

In Feed, youth and adolescence are viewed in a different way than we view them today. The youth are viewed as being spoiled and don’t listen to their parents or others in power. The adolescents aren’t much better to be honest. Most who have the feed are spoiled by it. Only the lower class comprising of those barely able to afford the feed and those who can’t afford it are normal. Adolescents in Feed are also unable to think for themselves and need the feed to make decisions for them.

Adults in Feed view adolescents as young adults who have the right to do whatever they want. This can range anywhere from going out and getting drunk at a party to downloading a virus that causes their feed and brains to malfunction. Adults view these things as normal. Then again, they grew up in the same society and were the products of their environment.

Rich and poor are also viewed differently in Feed. The rich are definitely more spoiled and more self-centered. The poor work harder and do what they can to survive. This reflects down on the youth and can easily be spotted in Titus and his friend group and also in Violet. Titus acts like a complete jerk while Violet tries to act normal.

All characters, whether young or old are stereotypes of modern day people in Feed. With the adolescents being the main focus of the story, attention is focused highly on their attitudes and they wind up drawing the short end of the stick. These youths and adolescents may seem normal to the adults in Feed but they seem very different to us.

Yaqui Delgado Pt. 2

The middle half of Yaqui Delgado focuses on building the story up for the end conflict. There aren't many major plot points that occur during this part of the book. The one major part being that Yaqui Delgado mugs Piddy on the street at the end of the reading.
Before being mugged, Piddy tried to avoid Yaqui and her friends whenever possible. When Yaqui got caught by the police for stealing, Piddy was happy that she had ISS or a suspension. She was in such a good mood that when she saw inappropriate words on a locker she covered it up with a drawing. She got caught and had to serve a Saturday detention. While there, she ran into Yaqui and knew that no matter what she did, she would not be able to stay away from her. Later, while at work, Yaqui's friends tell Piddy to meet Yaqui at the park to fight. Piddy doesn't go and Yaqui eventually mugs her on the street.
I feel that the bullying in the book is starting to become a bit over the top. This is the most extreme case of bullying possible. I don't think many bullies would be willing to fight on an open street and then proceed to rip the victim's clothes off. However, cases like these do happen and people do get hurt. I'm hoping that this open attack by Yaqui will end up being her downfall. With all of her friends taking pictures, hopefully one will post something on social media that will result in Yaqui being expelled.

Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass

The book Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is a book based around bullying. Piddy recently moved from one neighborhood to another. The problem was that despite the two neighborhoods being close, they were in different school zones. Piddy ended up transferring to the new school at the beginning of the new school year. She is regarded as the "new girl" for the first few weeks and most people don't pay here any attention. Then she starts to get bullied.
Yaqui Delgado Wants to Kick Your Ass is highly aware of how real bullying works. When Yaqui Delgado thinks that Piddy is talking to her boyfriend Yaqui sets out to make Piddy's life miserable. It starts first with subtle warnings towards Piddy. But it soon escalates to where Yaqui is throwing chocolate milk containers at Piddy so they burst and mugging her and stealing her necklace. Even Piddy's friends start to stay away from her in fear. Piddy enters a daze similar to post-traumatic stress after losing her necklace. Her main goal is no longer school, its survival, and there's no room for the "space in-between."
Unfortunately, I think this book takes a pretty accurate view on bullying. One person bullies another because they find something wrong with that person and they know they can get away with it. This is perfectly exemplified in the book with Yaqui and Piddy. Then the bullied person's friends start to shy away to avoid being bullied themselves. It's something that is difficult to stop. Considering how far the book has come in under a hundred pages, I wonder what will happen next. Will Piddy's bullying get worse? Will she lose all of her friends? How will this bullying stop?

My Subvertisement

The subvertisement assignment was an interesting assignment. I enjoyed making my own subvertisement that made fun of McDonald's. I found the search process for the perfect ad to turn into a meme pretty easy. Once I saw the original ad I knew I could turn it into a great subvertisement. After thirty minutes of putting the subvertisement together I had a rough draft of the subvertisement. I also commented on the new subvertisement along with the original advertisement. After getting suggestions in class on Tuesday, I made some editions to the project. I revised my descriptions of the advertisement and subvertisements to fit the upgraded rubric. I used Microsoft Paint to edit the subvertisement to make it look slightly better. Unfortunately, Paint is the best "photo editor" that I have when it comes from changing blacks to reds and whites to blacks. I worked with it and it turned out okay. I've posted the final project below, I hope you enjoy.

This McDonald’s advertisement is made to show the giant size of McDonald’s burgers. They also make the burgers look extremely tasty and use “big.beefy.bliss.” along the top to describe them. This advertisement encourages you to go out and buy McDonald’s burgers because they will taste so good. The intended audience is any consumer looking to buy a quick meal that will satisfy their hunger. McDonald’s obviously think this advertisement will encourage people to buy

their burgers.

My subvertisement targets all consumers and shows what will happen when they eat McDonald’s burgers. With “big.beefy.bliss.” still along the top, this time it describes what is happening to those that are eating McDonald’s. The subvertisement calls attention to how unhealthy the burgers are for you and that eating such a “blissful” burger comes with the cost of increased body weight and its’ side effects. My subvertisement points out the reality of what is happening to those who eat McDonald’s burgers and turns McDonald’s own words against them. I hope that this subvertisement would turn people away from McDonald’s and prevent any health issues that would have been caused by their burgers.

The Ending of Feed

The book Feed ends similar to how I expected it to once I learned Violet was terminally ill. *Spoiler Alert* she goes brain dead. What I was not expecting was for Titus to completely withdraw from her once it started getting bad. Instead of trying to comfort her during her final days he acted like a total douche and did pretty much anything to stay away from her. When he turned down having sex with her, he didn't do it because he didn't have those feelings for her anymore. He did it because he felt like "she was already dead" and that it was wrong to have sex with her. She was willing to do literally anything for him and he just shoved her away trying to stay out of drama. He didn't want anyone to know and he wanted to keep it a secret that she was dying. He didn't want anything to do with her issue. Of course, after Violet goes brain dead and he acts like a total dick to her dad he finally realizes he still feels something for her. But of course, its too late for him to redeem himself. In fact, he dooms himself to the fate he was trying to avoid, he falls in love with someone who is gone. That's probably the number one thing that he was trying to avoid the whole time.
Outside of the whole love story, my predictions of a World War came true. The whole world goes to war with America over use of the feed while the so-called "media" does their best to cover it up. The corporations just show that they are only interested in making money and not human lives. This is shown when none pick up Violet's case to save her because her browsing and buying patterns were too unpredictable.
On top of that, I've noticed one major problem with Feed. The book ends with people losing their hair and the lesions getting worse. What doesn't make sense is how it happened. The feed has been around for generations. Titus's mom and dad had it for years with no side effects until suddenly everyone starts degenerating. How could that possibly happen. Was there suddenly some issue with the feed across the entire coding that causes this? It never gets explained in the book.
My overall opinion of the book is that it is well-written and I would recommend it for all readers. I would also highly recommend Feed to all Americans due to the current political situation that is occurring. The book shows how good intentions can lead to bad results. It also shows how corporations should not be allowed to become too powerful. I give the book 4 stars out of 5 for its relevance in today's world and for its depiction of a technology-filled world.

The Middle of Feed

The middle of Feed starts to sheer away from the good life that Titus and Violet are having in the beginning of the book. The book takes on a much more depressing tone as Violet's feed malfunctions more and more. There relationship still stays relatively strong despite this and all the differences between them.
I have many problems that I have seen with the society in Feed so far. One is that people are expected to be good looking through genetic selection. A good example of this is Link, who is considered not good-looking despite the fact that he's a clone of Abraham Lincoln. Abraham Lincoln was known for being handsome in his time and to think that that's now considered ugly shows that people like Brad Pitt or Ariana Grande would only be considered normal looking. This disturbs me that people would throw away their uniqueness and make their future generations all practically identical.
The people are also so uneducated or oblivious they cant see that they are mere puppets to the corporations. A hacker is beaten to death in a club, the President of the United States calls foreign leaders "shitheads", corporations own everything, the news is censored. These people don't notice these things, maybe because they weren't educated to see it. Or maybe they don't notice it because they don't want to see it. They don't want to believe that they are limited in their abilities, so they pretend that there is no issue. They shouldn't let this happen. Over the past week, I've noticed these things happening in our real world and if they continue, we need to put an end to them.
Lets leave that point and move onto a new one. There are many theories that I have about things that have happened so far throughout Feed. One theory is that Titus's dreams aren't actually dreams. I believe that his feed is connecting into world news and event and is broadcasting these events to him. I'm assuming this is a lingering effect from the hacker that the Corporations didn't detect. I'm hoping that these warnings will prove valuable to Titus and Violet and may help them.
Another theory I have is that Violet can be saved by the technicians. They simply choose not to because of her semi-radical views. Being a business, the owners of the feed will do what is best for business, even if it means letting Violet die. I am hoping there is some way to save her that can be brought around. Maybe if Violet and Titus leave to another country they can be saved by some sort of group working against the feed. With the grim way the book is turning, I can only hope for the best.

Feed

The book Feed, is set in a not so distant future where technology controls everything. The Feed is a microchip implanted in the brain that gives everyone access to the web. People can just take a trip to the moon whenever they want. The earth itself takes on a look of Coruscant from Star Wars. The Earth is layer upon layer of residential zones. The rich live closer to the surface with flying cars while the poor live at the bottom levels with ground transportation. There are no forests or animal farms, instead there are Oxygen factories and meat farms.
However, all is not well in this future world. There is no true education system. Everything including the "schools" are owned by corporations. The "President" is truly a puppet to the corporations with no real education and that angers other world leaders with his careless words and lack of diplomatic skill. Not only that but there are multiple groups that try to point out what's wrong with the feeds and these groups are kept silent one way or the other.
So far, I have found the book interesting. After reading the first 150 pages I can tell it is building up to something. It reminds me of a book trilogy by James Dashner (author of The Maze Runner trilogy and prequel) The Eye of Minds. This trilogy is set in the not so distant future as well, where virtual reality acts like the feed. People would enter "coffins" which created a virtual reality. One could spend days inside the coffin, fed by nutrients sent into their body. The virtual reality allowed anyone to do mostly anything. They could customize themselves to make them look better, they could eat whatever they wanted and not gain weight. The virtual reality in The Eye of Minds and the feed are similar in that most of the population spends all of their time using it.
There are some parts of the book I don't like so far. The language used by the main characters is difficult to understand at points. It would be similar to Shakespeare trying to understand us. He would understand parts of what we say but not everything. However, this is the only major flaw that I have with the book and am liking it more than Eleanor & Park which was read previously.

The Ending of Eleanor and Park

As the book came to its finish, I found that it was ending differently than I thought it would. I assumed that all of the references to Romeo and Juliet would result in the deaths of at least one character. I believed this character would most likely be Eleanor based off of the beginning introduction. Yet I was proven wrong. I believe that Rainbow Rowell intended to make us think that's what would happen in the end of the story. Eleanor even poked fun at Romeo and Juliet and I thought Ms. Rowell was setting the book up for some irony that they would die in a similar way. All the hints that eluded to Shakespeare were simply there to fool us. When the moment came where it seemed most likely our characters would meet their demise, the moment passed without harm to either character.
I'll admit that I thought there was going to be some tragic ending still after Park helps Eleanor escape the town. With Eleanor ignoring him and Park becoming depressed, I honestly expected a Romeo and Juliet style suicide with Park killing himself and Eleanor herself when she found out. I know, I'm a real cheerful guy to think those things but I blame Ms. Rowell for leading me that way. I think she did a good job at leading us to think that.
My overall opinion on the book was that it was well-written but not my style of book. I liked the character development that occurred because the viewpoints swapped between Park and Eleanor, allowing us to see their thoughts. Personally, I prefer books with more action in them such as the Maze Runner, Hunger Games, and Divergent Trilogies. However, I still think that the book was okay overall and would rate it a 2.5 out of 5 on a "how I enjoyed it scale" and a 3.5 out of 5 overall.

Eleanor and Park and Wealth Inequality in America

As I continued to read Eleanor and Park, the story started to turn more into a Romeo & Juliet type story. It seems like Park is willing to do anything for Juliet, I mean Eleanor, and that includes things that are detrimental to himself. He's willing to fight for her and if I bet any money I'd say he'd be willing to die for her. She also loves him but I think she's reacting to him like a damsel in distress. She likes him because he's the first person that was actually nice to her at the new school. The story continually references Romeo and Juliet and I feel that its supposed to be a modern-day version of the story. Especially when the beginning of the book shows that Park will end up without her one day wishing that she were still there with him. Maybe its actually Park 70 years down the road after they've lived a long and happy life and it is written that way to surprise us with how everything turns out. However, I doubt that the story will end happily. I'm going to make a prediction that Eleanor is going to be killed by Richie with his gun after he finds out about Park.
When it comes to income inequality, I've always known how bad the gap is. I've spent a lot of time looking into it. I already knew the top 1% held about 40% of the wealth. I've known that its been growing for decades with the introduction of larger Corporations and chains. However, I did not know that the poverty line in the United States was $12,000 for one person. I did not realize how many families were below the poverty line. I don't consider it possible to survive with less than that in our country anymore. I think something needs to be done to decrease the amount of people below the poverty line.

Eleanor and Park