Synthesis Page

Steve doesn't see himself when he look in the mirror.

The author shows how jail isn't just losing freedom, but a lifestyle of paranoia and helplessness.

The author shows that Steve has no words that can explain how much he hates jail.

The author describes the jail as "this place" which is how Steve refers to jail.

Steve wonders if after he gets out of jail if he will look like himself again.

Teen Fiction plots are becoming darker and starker

In the article "Teen Fiction Plots Are Darker and Starker," by William Porter is about YA fiction and how YA fiction topics are becoming more and more dark and explicit.  The author William Porter uses a lot of "loaded Words" such as anorexic, disfigurement along with other words which makes the reader envision very horrific things.  The author's word choice provokes very uncomfortable and horrific type of emotion in the reader.  These emotions must not bother the teens because the author says these books have "gained popularity." the books as they become more and more popular include more profanity.  The author's  main concern is "who are the gatekeepers?"  "Does anyone monitor what the kids read?" The author comes to the conclusion that the librarians don't limit the content that kids read, they simply "tell them where it is."

Faithful Elephants

     In the story "Faithful Elephants" by Yukio Tsuchiya, Japan was at war with America.  Japan was fighting not only America but their own people and they didn't even know it. 

     When the army gave orders to the Ueno Zoo to poison all their dangerous animals to death, in the army's eyes, they just saw animals, but the trainers and zoo keepers saw more than that. They valued them as if they were their own children.  In the text it says, "All this while, the elephants' trainers loved them as if they were his own children," which showed what a loss the elephants were to the zoo.

     Poisoning the three elephants was very hard on the trainers.  It was as if they were poisoning their own family.  In the story it said "All the keepers could do was pace in front of the cage and moan, 'you poor, poor pitiful elephants.'"  The fact that the trainer was pacing in front of the cage really showed the trainer's emotions and that the trainer and the zoo were in a conflict of person versus self because they had to follow orders to kill the elephants, but as they had to follow through with the orders, it was simultaneously tearing their hearts apart.  But the conflict then becomes person versus society/war because in the text it said "Still clinging to the elephants, the trainer's raise their fists to the sky and implored stop the war!  Stop the war!  Stop all wars!"  

     But in the end, the trainers realized that the tragedy of having to kill the elephants made the once at war Japan seem so much more peaceful.  And they gained the life lesson of learning what peace truly is.