Journal 4: Reading Response from Pernale Blake
I have never been an active reader, or much of a reader at all. I usually just read the book, and tried my hardest to remember most details. Actively reading has really helped me so far, I can easily find important details because they are right in front of my face. It has also made reading much more satisfying, mostly because I actually understand most of what I am reading now. A lot of the time I forget to do it though, because it is just not natural to me yet. I have been practicing actively reading throughout the book "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros. An example is on page 28, I underlines a little passage saying "All brown all around we are safe. But watch us drive into a neighborhood of another color and our knees go shakity-shake and our car windows get rolled up tight and our eyes look straight.' I marked this passage because I could relate to it. Whenever my family and I would go to Detroit, Atalanta, or even Cincinnati here in Ohio, my father would always quadruple lock his car because he was paranoid that the "type" of people around there would break into his car and steal everything. I thought this peace of writing produced a lot of imagery towards me, I could imagine everything that was going on.
Between "A Long Way Gone" by Ishmael Beah and "The House on Mango Street" by Sandra Cisneros, the one I prefer right now is "The House on Mango Street". I enjoy this book a lot more because the chapters are like one to three pages long each and it makes me feel like I am reading a lot more than I actually am. A theme that I believe is important is Hope. If these kids didn't have hope, or faith I honestly don't believe they could have survived. I know that during a workout or during football when I played I always used hope or faith to strive. Telling myself that I can get through this set or that I am strong enough. If Ishmael didn't have faith in himself or have hope he would have died during the war.
I agree with you where you said that active reading has made it easier to remember things, because I too tend to forget what I am reading. Imagery is a big part of Beah's writing, I used that as well. I also agree where you said faith is a big theme because if Ishmael didn't he would have died way back.
ReplyDeleteThanks man!
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