Money is my pursuit of happiness

Jeff Yeager’s opinion in “Less Is More” is that happiness is more important then money.  Yeager quit his job that he was extremely successful in and was making a lot of money. He decided to become a writer and is now happier then he could ever be just by living within his means and doing a job he loves.. My opinion is that money is happiness because I favor working and making money rather then anything else. I love to be making money and that makes me happy. 

Melting Pots are gross, I'd rather eat a salad bowl!

In the short essay by Hannibal B. Johnson, the author fights the saying of the American Dream and America being a huge melting pot full of different kind of people. Johnson states that a melting pot makes it seem like everyone coming to America should blend in with everyone else. The thing is, people from other countries and different races shouldn't be trying to blend in and fit in the American dream. The great part of America is that there is SO much diversity! Anywhere you look, you can see a blend of different colors of skin, different races, and different languages. If I wasn't born and raised in America, I feel like I would embrace where I am from. Show Americans how cool my country is and how my culture works compared to theirs. Johnson says in his short essay, "The concoction in our mythical melting pot looks, feels, and tastes like Pablum. Compare that with the richness and zest of the colorful assortment in my salad bowl. Each ingredient retains it's individual integrity. Each ingredient adds unmistakeable character to the whole. Together, they flavor a vibrant, all-American piece de resistance. Forget the melting pot. Make mine a salad bowl!" (Johnson, Page 210) I couldn't have put that in any better words, he explains it so clearly that all of the different kind of people shouldn't be melted together but put together in a big bowl to show all the different kind of people and flavors America has to offer. A salad bowl has lots of wonderful taste in every single bite. I love the new expression of America being a salad bowl, the only kind of melting pot I want to see is this! http://www.meltingpot.com/our-menu.aspx

Quotes from Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

            1) “But Rowdy hated me. And Roger hated me. I was good at being hated by guys who could kick my ass. It’s not a talent you really want to have. “ Page 68.

            I thought this quote was very funny. Junior was going through a hard time transferring between schools and he didn’t have many friends. The fact that he said guys who could kick his ass hated him was a talent he didn’t want to have cracked me up! He took something that was a struggle for him and made it into a joke. The quote shows the theme of Junior not fitting in anywhere. After he left Rowdy at the reservation, he no longer had his best friend. Then he went and knocked out the popular guy at his new school. Nothing was going right in the friend department for Junior.

            2) “And that made me cry. Man, I’ve always cried too easily. I cry when I’m happy or sad. I cry when I’m angry. I cry because I’m crying. It’s weak. It’s the opposite of warrior.” Page 75.

            I liked this quote because it reminded me of myself. I cry over a lot of things that aren’t very necessary. When he says that crying is weak and it is the opposite of being a warrior makes me think about how I feel when I am crying and how I am being weak. I don’t always like when I cry because sometimes it is for dumb reasons. When I think I am crying for a dumb reason I know I am being weak.

This quote shows the theme of Junior trying to be the strong warrior he wants to be but never acts like it. 

            3) ““Where do you want to go?” I asked “Everywhere. I want to walk on the Great Wall of China. I want to walk to the top of pyramids in Egypt. I want to swim in every ocean. I want to climb Mount Everest. I want to go on an African safari. I want to ride a dogsled in Antarctica. I want all of it. Every single piece of everything.”” Page 111

            Penelope says this quote when Junior and her are talking about their dreams. When Penelope says this in the book Junior laughs at her at first, then he sees that she is being serious. Penelope wants to get out of the small town she was raised in and wants to travel the earth. I liked this quote because I want to travel the world more than anything else. That is one of my big dreams in life. When Penelope says this, I am reminded of dreams of my own.  I dream about swimming in an ocean like the picture above.

My Six Word Memoir

Don't tell me what to do.

Alexie Questions

1) Junior/Arnold is not the same person. Junior is the reservation boy who is shy, smart, and somewhat a dork to other Indians. Arnold is a completely different person then Junior. Arnold goes to Reardan but is the only Indian boy who attends that school. Arnold is outgoing, popular, and smart but not as smart as some of the other kids at hid school.

            Though Junior and Arnold are the same person, they share different lives.  Arnold was his birth name but on the reservation the Indians call him Junior for a nickname. Junior never broke out of his shell, always faded into the background and tried not to get beat up. When Junior went to Reardan, his teacher called out Arnold because that is his birth name. From then on, everyone at Reardan called him Arnold. At Reardan, Arnold was given another chance, no one looked at him at weak little Junior.  He was a new person and could portray himself as whatever he wanted himself to be portrayed as by his peers at his new school.

            5) Alcohol is a big part of this book. Junior faces alcoholics and alcoholism almost everyday. His father is a major alcoholic and practically every Indian on the reservation has a problem with alcoholism. Junior gets to witness all of the tragedies alcohol does to people so he swears he will never take a sip of alcohol. A lot of things need to happen to a person for them to never want to touch the drink in their life.

            Junior faced two big tragedies in his life that had to do with alcohol. His grandmother, who was one of his best friends and also one of the best grandmothers to ever live, died from a drunk driver hitting her on the side of the road. Even though she was not an alcoholic, she was walking home one night and a drunk driver hit and killed her. Junior was so sad after that happened he didn’t know if he could go on with his life. Only about a month later, Juniors’ sister died in a fire in her house. Juniors’ sister and her husband threw a party in their trailer one night. The oven was left on all the night and the trailer burned down with them married couple fast asleep. They were so drunk that the fire didn’t wake them and they died in their home. Alcohol has done a lot of bad things in Juniors life, it’s a good thing he will never touch it in his life. 

Fish Cheeks

I liked the way Amy Tan wrote about her embarrassing childhood with her Chinese family. Her describing words made it seem like I was there in her dining room watching the two different ethnic families enjoy a Christmas Eve dinner. She reminded me of my own childhood, growing up in a house with hippie parents. Going to the public schools in Sebastopol, your not around the other hippie kids that are in the charter schools. My friends had very straight parents and that is what I wanted. I was always embarrassed by the foods my parents bought, the clothes they wore, and the way they acted. Reading Fish Cheeks reminded me of how I use to be ashamed, now that I am older I see now I couldn't ask for any better parents.