Wednesday, January 16, 2008
Chris Crutcher's Perfect Writing Technique
All I can say about Chris Crutcher's writing is double WOWSERS! He completely mastered the entire technique of writing in one 279 page book. I am usually not a negative person but right now, I don’t even have one word to say about the story that is negative. He used every single one of the six Traits of Writing like a pro. (Which technically, he is a pro.) Looking at Ideas and Content, I would like to point out that his topic was very focused on a main point but still left room to fill in imagination. His views were bluntly shown, in a good way, and all of his opinions were supported. I especially enjoyed how he went in to the life of a teenager and explained every aspect of that teenager’s life even though he is a grown man. Now on to Organization. It was almost angelic. The entire plot flowed together like one ongoing river. In the story, Crutcher had Bo, the main character, write to a radio talk show host named Larry. These basically posed as diary entries but in a less girly way. These small entries helped the entire book along and added details where they needed to be added and still I wanted to know more. Up to bat now is…Voice. Let’s all give it a round of applause. Holy Cow does Crutcher have a voice in his writing. Listen to this: “I think anyone who wants to get his temperament firmly under control should stand in the doorway of Mr.Nakatani’s anger management group for about 60 seconds or so, and let the member felons cast their gaze upon him. What you say to yourself at that moment goes something like this: Dear God, I will never again raise my voice in anger against anything—living or dead- on your sacred planet, I will besmirch not one of your creatures no matter how disgusting, not even my brother or hi puppy-mill cocker spaniel who watches television seven hours a day and gets so excited when he snatches food off your unattended plate that he pees all over the floor; and I will eat leafy green vegetables as the main course of every meal with a smile on my face if you will, oh please, just turn back the hand of time to the moment I did whatever I did to get me here and make me a good boy.”(Crutcher pg 44). These were my favorite lines from the entire book. He puts so much humor and voice in to one paragraph that I had to read it about six times to actually be satisfied and move on to the next paragraph. Imagery also puts you right in to the door of Mr. Nakatani’s room, shaking from fear. In all the books that I have read in my life, this was the only one that caused me to stop and stare at the page in amazement that someone of the same species of me could write that incredibly. Included in that little segment of splendor was also amazing word choice. He specifically chose his words one by one to give it the perfect amount of zest and humor. That paragraph made me laugh out loud. Even though they are not as fun, I have to finish talking about the rest of the six Traits of writing. Since this book was probably read a million times by editors, I obviously couldn’t find any convention errors. (Believe me, I looked hard.) Sentence fluency was also shown in that tiny tid-bit of the story. The sentences flowed like a waterfall. (What is it with me making similes comparing to water all the time?) Well, that seems to pretty much sum up Chris Crutcher’s amazing writing technique. I hope someday I’ll be at least half of the writer he is.
Anger+ No Control= Anger Management
Did you know that anger can create and contribute to Heart Disease? Well, it does. Anger comes in many different forms and styles. You can always see the signs when someone is angry. Whether it is a best friend that is simply upset about too much homework or a student that freaks out at the teacher day after day because of problems at home. Anger is a problem that every single person goes through. Just for the record, though, not all anger is a huge traffic-stopping problem. You need to let your feelings out sometimes but you need to know how to control it to a certain extent. Anger is what’s called a Secondary Emotion which basically means it’s caused by something that happened or is happening. It could be set off by anything you can imagine, depending on the person. Some possible triggers are stress, fear, worrying, negative thinking or abuse. Kathy Garber said “Anger is a learned behavior. We imitate how others handled anger.” This quote is especially proved in Ironman because Bo’s father was what you would call and extremely angry man and that came out in Bo. Nowadays, there are many more abuse cases, thus more angry people, in my opinion. Anger is present in our communities everyday. We just need to learn how to take action to keep that anger under control. If we do this, many people’s lives would be much easier.
Not all people show their anger right up front. Many keep it tucked away, only to release it in outbursts or a diary. Anger Management is attended so that you can learn how to control that anger. The instructors want to teach positive ways to release it without hurting others. This is very important to the people around you. No one can feel safe if there is pure anger bottled up inside the person sitting next to them. I think that people have a sense that can tell what different emotions are occurring in someone walking by. You can even look at the way they walk. A lot can be interpreted by looking at the way someone walks. Anyway, back to Anger Management. When Bo goes to his first class, he is very nervous and is experiencing quite a bit of apprehension. He thinks that all the people in the class are going to be bone-crushing mob members that want to eat him. That’s not a surprising stereotype but it is usually a wrong one. Just like him, they had past problems that made them act the way they did. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t take responsibility for their actions, just that situations in the past, like abuse, could have helped contribute to the angry outbursts. That is another aspect of Anger Management. During your course, you are taught to not over-react. Acting spontaneously can cause you to have some serious regrets. I think that anyone who truly needs Anger Management should have it offered to them. I don’t, however, think that a murderer should just get out by promising to attend anger management classes. Murder could be one of the effects of bottled up anger which is why Anger Management is so important. Angry people could definitely be a threat towards everyday, normal people. Also, Pauline Wallin said, “Research shows that among all the risk factors for heart disease, chronic anger is the most significant predictor -- more than smoking, obesity and high blood pressure.” Like I said before, anger can come in many forms. The more important thing to think about is how you are going to control and deal with your own anger.
Not all people show their anger right up front. Many keep it tucked away, only to release it in outbursts or a diary. Anger Management is attended so that you can learn how to control that anger. The instructors want to teach positive ways to release it without hurting others. This is very important to the people around you. No one can feel safe if there is pure anger bottled up inside the person sitting next to them. I think that people have a sense that can tell what different emotions are occurring in someone walking by. You can even look at the way they walk. A lot can be interpreted by looking at the way someone walks. Anyway, back to Anger Management. When Bo goes to his first class, he is very nervous and is experiencing quite a bit of apprehension. He thinks that all the people in the class are going to be bone-crushing mob members that want to eat him. That’s not a surprising stereotype but it is usually a wrong one. Just like him, they had past problems that made them act the way they did. I’m not saying that they shouldn’t take responsibility for their actions, just that situations in the past, like abuse, could have helped contribute to the angry outbursts. That is another aspect of Anger Management. During your course, you are taught to not over-react. Acting spontaneously can cause you to have some serious regrets. I think that anyone who truly needs Anger Management should have it offered to them. I don’t, however, think that a murderer should just get out by promising to attend anger management classes. Murder could be one of the effects of bottled up anger which is why Anger Management is so important. Angry people could definitely be a threat towards everyday, normal people. Also, Pauline Wallin said, “Research shows that among all the risk factors for heart disease, chronic anger is the most significant predictor -- more than smoking, obesity and high blood pressure.” Like I said before, anger can come in many forms. The more important thing to think about is how you are going to control and deal with your own anger.
Wednesday, January 9, 2008
Parenting Newsflash (Blog 1)
BOOOOOOO!!! Hey Kelsie, is that a good enough attention grabber? Just Kidding. I am going to say that this blog is all about stupid, unfair parents. I can't imagine how much it would suck to have these kinds of parents because my parents pretty much ROCK. Well, they at least come close.The parents shown in this novel were the extreme cases of the negative sides in all parents. Everyone has a bad side to themselves but the parents in this story didn’t seem to have any good side present. Almost every character’s parents/ fathers were abusers. That may have been a little drastic in my point of view because I don’t think everyone in Anger Management has abusive parents. Still, I didn’t realize that so many families have to deal with problems like abusive parents, poverty and just plain cruelty. Many times throughout the novel, the words “For your own Good” came out of the mouths of the parents. I can’t count how many times I’ve heard my own parents say that. They usually have a better statement to go along with it, though. Often times, grown-ups pretend to give you advice but just want to control your lives. Hudgie’s dad (a character from Ironman) shot his own puppy and claimed that it was for his own good. I didn’t believe that at all. I don’t think that it’s fair that parents can completely control most of your life when they are clearly making the wrong decisions. We can weigh the choices well enough to at least make small decisions.I see so many out of control parents that it’s no wonder their kids are mentally messed up.
On the other hand, a parent doesn’t have to abuse their child in order for them to have a difficult relationship. Sometimes kids can be so much like their parents that they continuously argue. This especially happens when both sides of the argument are equally stubborn. I think that some grown-ups need to develop more patience and tolerance towards their teenage son or daughter. I mean, come on, give us a break! We argue a lot, so what? It’s part of growing up. It’s not our fault that we want a chance to run our own lives for once. I think that that is a huge part of the problem in bad parent/child interaction. We want to be more independent but our parents cannot let go. I understand that most of the time they are only doing it so we don’t take the wrong course in life but we need some space.
It’s a whole different story, though, when the child proves that he/she cannot handle making certain decision. There is definitely a fine line between helping make decisions and completely controlling everything on a parents part. If a teenager chose to stay out late all the time and their grades started to slip, then a parent should be able to step in and take action. I think that maturity levels also determine what can be accepted and what cannot. A more mature adolescent should be able to have more freedom than one who is crazy and irresponsible, in my opinion. I think that is why the it is legal for 18 year olds to finally choose their own way in life without complete parent intervention. By that age, most people should have matured enough to make their own decisions.
When I look at my parents now, I try to understand their points of view and it helps when they look from my point of view, too. Every parent should give his or her child room to make mistakes and learn on their own. The parenting shown in Ironman was not a model job for others to see. It is truly sad to know that the situations presented in the book happen everyday to innocent kids.
On the other hand, a parent doesn’t have to abuse their child in order for them to have a difficult relationship. Sometimes kids can be so much like their parents that they continuously argue. This especially happens when both sides of the argument are equally stubborn. I think that some grown-ups need to develop more patience and tolerance towards their teenage son or daughter. I mean, come on, give us a break! We argue a lot, so what? It’s part of growing up. It’s not our fault that we want a chance to run our own lives for once. I think that that is a huge part of the problem in bad parent/child interaction. We want to be more independent but our parents cannot let go. I understand that most of the time they are only doing it so we don’t take the wrong course in life but we need some space.
It’s a whole different story, though, when the child proves that he/she cannot handle making certain decision. There is definitely a fine line between helping make decisions and completely controlling everything on a parents part. If a teenager chose to stay out late all the time and their grades started to slip, then a parent should be able to step in and take action. I think that maturity levels also determine what can be accepted and what cannot. A more mature adolescent should be able to have more freedom than one who is crazy and irresponsible, in my opinion. I think that is why the it is legal for 18 year olds to finally choose their own way in life without complete parent intervention. By that age, most people should have matured enough to make their own decisions.
When I look at my parents now, I try to understand their points of view and it helps when they look from my point of view, too. Every parent should give his or her child room to make mistakes and learn on their own. The parenting shown in Ironman was not a model job for others to see. It is truly sad to know that the situations presented in the book happen everyday to innocent kids.
Works Cited
Works Cited
1. "Anger Management." The Release Technique. Online. Internet. 16 Jan. 2007. Available:
emotional_management/anger_management.htm
2. Crutcher, Chris. Ironman. New York: HarperCollins Publishers, 1995.
3. Garber, Kathy. "Anger Management. Anger Management Online. Online. Internet. 16 Jan.
2007. Available: http://angermanagementonline.com/articles/022003_5.html
4. Wallin, Pauline. "Myths and Facts About Anger." MaxHealth. Onlinel. Internet. 16 Jan. 2007.
Diving in to the Teenage Way of Life (Blog 2)
To tell you the truth, I loved the way Chris Crutcher wrote Ironman. He showed the teenager’s perspective, for once, on issues presented in the novel, such as abuse and homosexuality. Many authors display adolescents as corrupt crazy machines but we are not that oblivious to the world around us. It’s as if half the population of adults can’t remember what being a teenager felt like. We are trying to control our lives as much as we can. Crutcher went in to the head of a typical confused teenager, Bo Brewster, and wrote down what he thought his thoughts and opinions would be. During the entire book, Bo tells part of his story through letters to a radio talk show host. He will probably never actually send these letters, but it is his way of journaling. It made me wonder if other people do things like that instead of just keeping journal or diary. It probably helps get your opinions and dreams out on paper instead of keeping them bottled up.
The issues presented in Ironman were smart issues to write about. They are common topics in many everyday conversations. Bo comes face to face with the topic of homosexuality because his good friend and teacher admits that he is gay. At first, Bo is completely taken back and avoids Lionel Serbousek (his friend and teacher) at all costs. I think that confusing thoughts were running through his head during this time. Avoiding his friend proves to be difficult because Bo is supposed to train with Lionel’s swimming team every morning. Training for the triathlon is on the top of his list of priorities and he has to find other ways to squeeze alternate training in to his tight high school schedule. It’s just not worth giving up a great relationship because of one tiny thing. Mr. S. feels gets really hurt because of how Bo acts. He doesn’t understand what a shock Bo felt when he found out. I think he expected Bo to take it more maturely. Since I am exposed to this often in the real world, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal to me. Luckily, in the end, Bo accepts the way Mr. S. is and treats him like a normal friend again. This was a major step in Bo’s life. It was a hard decision to make but he handled it well after thinking about it in depth. After all, Mr. S. was still the same person. Chris Crutcher has Bo explain to Mr. S. why he felt the way he did, which was interesting. He moved on but still carried that important experience with him.
Another reason that I enjoyed reading Chris Crutcher’s masterpiece was that he dove in to the teenage way of life, not just their perspective and opinions. He talked about developing a relationship between opposite genders and showed you that even adolescents can fall in love. Typical teenage relationships have many stop signs and speed bumps. This was the same way with Bo and Shelly’s relationship. It was not a fairy tale ride- it was reality. To show the connection between two people through words is extremely difficult but Chris Crutcher did an amazing job with it.
When Crutcher described the horrible lives of the other Anger Management members, I felt like I would never complain again. It really made me appreciate what I have and what I don’t have to deal with. After that, I thought about something else. How can you rate your problems compared to other people’s problems? Some people might think that a world changing event occurred when in some one else’s eyes, it could be miniscule. Then I realized that the effect that a difficult situation has on each person is different relating to what they are used to. If someone has been through tragedy after tragedy, a dying pet fish might not matter to them as much as it would matter to someone who has not experienced much pain in their life. To that person, it could be devastating. It’s just like some people think that spiders are the worst thing in the world when others simply ignore them. We should not look at our problems and say they don’t matter because someone else’s sister just died, for example. Everyone is different and everyone’s problems have some significance.
The issues presented in Ironman were smart issues to write about. They are common topics in many everyday conversations. Bo comes face to face with the topic of homosexuality because his good friend and teacher admits that he is gay. At first, Bo is completely taken back and avoids Lionel Serbousek (his friend and teacher) at all costs. I think that confusing thoughts were running through his head during this time. Avoiding his friend proves to be difficult because Bo is supposed to train with Lionel’s swimming team every morning. Training for the triathlon is on the top of his list of priorities and he has to find other ways to squeeze alternate training in to his tight high school schedule. It’s just not worth giving up a great relationship because of one tiny thing. Mr. S. feels gets really hurt because of how Bo acts. He doesn’t understand what a shock Bo felt when he found out. I think he expected Bo to take it more maturely. Since I am exposed to this often in the real world, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal to me. Luckily, in the end, Bo accepts the way Mr. S. is and treats him like a normal friend again. This was a major step in Bo’s life. It was a hard decision to make but he handled it well after thinking about it in depth. After all, Mr. S. was still the same person. Chris Crutcher has Bo explain to Mr. S. why he felt the way he did, which was interesting. He moved on but still carried that important experience with him.
Another reason that I enjoyed reading Chris Crutcher’s masterpiece was that he dove in to the teenage way of life, not just their perspective and opinions. He talked about developing a relationship between opposite genders and showed you that even adolescents can fall in love. Typical teenage relationships have many stop signs and speed bumps. This was the same way with Bo and Shelly’s relationship. It was not a fairy tale ride- it was reality. To show the connection between two people through words is extremely difficult but Chris Crutcher did an amazing job with it.
When Crutcher described the horrible lives of the other Anger Management members, I felt like I would never complain again. It really made me appreciate what I have and what I don’t have to deal with. After that, I thought about something else. How can you rate your problems compared to other people’s problems? Some people might think that a world changing event occurred when in some one else’s eyes, it could be miniscule. Then I realized that the effect that a difficult situation has on each person is different relating to what they are used to. If someone has been through tragedy after tragedy, a dying pet fish might not matter to them as much as it would matter to someone who has not experienced much pain in their life. To that person, it could be devastating. It’s just like some people think that spiders are the worst thing in the world when others simply ignore them. We should not look at our problems and say they don’t matter because someone else’s sister just died, for example. Everyone is different and everyone’s problems have some significance.
Don't Judge a Book by its Cover (Blog 3)
How many times have you heard that saying? After awhile, it gets pretty cheesy but I'm all about cheesy!! Anyway, stereotyping will always be around, no doubt about it. You can try to stop it but the truth is that you can only help to slow it down by not doing it yourself. This is the first step. (Wow, how cheesy was that?!:)) Anyway, during most of the book Ironman, the scene is set in Mr. Nakatani’s Anger Management classroom. Everyone there is there for a reason, but most of the time, that reason is not shown on their face. They don’t declare it to the world. The teenagers in the group are Elvis, Hudgie, Shelly, Shuja, Joey and the main character, Bo Brewster. After hearing everyone’s story, you won’t ever want to judge or stereotype again.
Let’s start with Elvis. On the outside, he looks like the typical “Give me you lunch money!” bully. He has handmade tattoos all over his body and is built huge and bulky. Bo looks at him and says to himself, “…and the permanent expression of a pit bull about 15 seconds before a fight.” (Crutcher pg 46). He was describing the look on Elvis's face when he first met him. This quote definitely describes Elvis perfectly. If you look behind the whole “tough guy” image, you’ll see why everyone says “Don’t judge a book by its Cover.” Elvis’s mom committed suicide a few years ago and his father just left him by himself with his little brother and sister. He finally opened up and told the entire group that he had been stealing food for his siblings because they were starving. When you look at it that way, don’t you see the whole point? At times life can suck. No one should judge someone else by how they seem to act and the filtered version of their life. Now moving on to Hudgie. Hudgie is a boy who dresses like a hippie. He is one of the sweetest kids you could ever meet but unfortunately, he isn’t completely there. He cares about everyone in the group and actually listens to what everyone has to say. During the whole book, I can’t remember one time that I heard a complaint come out of his mouth. His clothes are filthy and tattered but he still doesn’t whine. Looking at people in my school, I can’t say that about many. Everyone has to be perfect looking, but why? Hudgie is far from perfect looking and but still has a huge heart. All the group members treat him with the same respect that they treat everyone else with, even though he acts a little crazy. It turns out that all the kids at school tease him, laugh at him and spread rumors about him that are, of course, all lies. His dad abuses him and I read just about one of the saddest things I’ve ever read in a book before. Hudgie had forgotten to feed his dog for one meal and the next thing he knew, his father had shot his puppy. He didn’t even think of the hurt it caused. Just shot him right then and there. He claimed that it was for Hudgie’s own good-that he wasn't taking care of him so he had to be taught a lesson. Yeah right. When the cops got there, (the neighbors heard a bunch of noise and were worried) Hudgie was sitting on the porch crying and in a daze. He was rocking his dead dog back and forth, saying sorry over and over. I felt my heart crack when I read that. Here is this poor kid with a dead dog that his own dad shot saying sorry to the deceased thing because he forgot to give it one measly meal. That’s what I would call a horrible life. No one should have to live like that. The story about Shelly is a bit less dramatic. She has a huge problem-filled family and chooses to come to Anger Management. Her dream is to become an “American Gladiator” on TV. She is more built than most guys I know and doesn’t take crap from anyone. On the outside, she is just a thoughtful, hard-headed body builder. The rest of the characters have relatively the same story- they have an attitude that needs to be taken care of. Like anyone in the world, that attitude is present for a reason and they attend Anger Management in order to uncover that specific reason. On the outside, every single one of these characters looked different from who they really where inside. Leaving you at that, think about how bad these plain teenagers’ lives were and remember to never take things for granted- even your pet dog.
Let’s start with Elvis. On the outside, he looks like the typical “Give me you lunch money!” bully. He has handmade tattoos all over his body and is built huge and bulky. Bo looks at him and says to himself, “…and the permanent expression of a pit bull about 15 seconds before a fight.” (Crutcher pg 46). He was describing the look on Elvis's face when he first met him. This quote definitely describes Elvis perfectly. If you look behind the whole “tough guy” image, you’ll see why everyone says “Don’t judge a book by its Cover.” Elvis’s mom committed suicide a few years ago and his father just left him by himself with his little brother and sister. He finally opened up and told the entire group that he had been stealing food for his siblings because they were starving. When you look at it that way, don’t you see the whole point? At times life can suck. No one should judge someone else by how they seem to act and the filtered version of their life. Now moving on to Hudgie. Hudgie is a boy who dresses like a hippie. He is one of the sweetest kids you could ever meet but unfortunately, he isn’t completely there. He cares about everyone in the group and actually listens to what everyone has to say. During the whole book, I can’t remember one time that I heard a complaint come out of his mouth. His clothes are filthy and tattered but he still doesn’t whine. Looking at people in my school, I can’t say that about many. Everyone has to be perfect looking, but why? Hudgie is far from perfect looking and but still has a huge heart. All the group members treat him with the same respect that they treat everyone else with, even though he acts a little crazy. It turns out that all the kids at school tease him, laugh at him and spread rumors about him that are, of course, all lies. His dad abuses him and I read just about one of the saddest things I’ve ever read in a book before. Hudgie had forgotten to feed his dog for one meal and the next thing he knew, his father had shot his puppy. He didn’t even think of the hurt it caused. Just shot him right then and there. He claimed that it was for Hudgie’s own good-that he wasn't taking care of him so he had to be taught a lesson. Yeah right. When the cops got there, (the neighbors heard a bunch of noise and were worried) Hudgie was sitting on the porch crying and in a daze. He was rocking his dead dog back and forth, saying sorry over and over. I felt my heart crack when I read that. Here is this poor kid with a dead dog that his own dad shot saying sorry to the deceased thing because he forgot to give it one measly meal. That’s what I would call a horrible life. No one should have to live like that. The story about Shelly is a bit less dramatic. She has a huge problem-filled family and chooses to come to Anger Management. Her dream is to become an “American Gladiator” on TV. She is more built than most guys I know and doesn’t take crap from anyone. On the outside, she is just a thoughtful, hard-headed body builder. The rest of the characters have relatively the same story- they have an attitude that needs to be taken care of. Like anyone in the world, that attitude is present for a reason and they attend Anger Management in order to uncover that specific reason. On the outside, every single one of these characters looked different from who they really where inside. Leaving you at that, think about how bad these plain teenagers’ lives were and remember to never take things for granted- even your pet dog.
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