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The adventures of Huckleberry Finn - by Mark Twain
This book was a bit difficult to read because of the vocabulary used but was funny in the same time.Beside this aspect ,the book presents the hard conditions of colored people during the slavery period. Today for us is a normal thing to have friends from all nation and it was a little difficult for me to understand Jim s condition. If there was a situation or a problem to solve or a chore to accomplish it was his job nobody else was willing to do it.There is also presented a fragment from colored people’ s culture and superstitions and makes us understand they did have a world of their own, they were people like us all, why the white people considered themselves the best?!
Huck is an ideal ,probably ,white of those times because he sees beyond the color, beyond the society’ s beliefs and requirements ,he has empathy and sincerely helps Jim to be a free man. The whites freed the slaves but kept the tag “ free slave” a bit problematic. This shows that whites still wanted to keep their supremacy and-probably to feel proud that they freed the slaves that other shoul praise them for that ,like they wanted to wash the attrocities they committed.
Wonder -by R. J. Palacio
The chapters that were not discussed at the seminar show how August’s relation with his friends evolves and how his classmates learn to see beyond his appearance. During the trip they become a unified group there is no difference between them. Auggie s mates find out his true personality because they are away from any pression from parents that tell them what to do and can learn by themselves.
The trip also helps August be more confident in himself and in the same time it helps his parents have more confidence in Auggie, it’ s a two way process.
Another thing that we find out is about Via : she doesn’t want to participate at the school play because she doesn’t want to be known for her brother but for who she is , I would say a normal wish for her, because she is a teenager she is developing she needs attention but she can’t have as Auggie needs more of everything she feels a bit like an outsider.
The end of the book seemed to me to be a typical American ending, a bit too pushed , probably a few words of praise would have been enough the prize is too much. Yes, Auggie is a special person but so far he can handle by himself very well, how many children are there who have a disability probably more severe than August and just carry on?!
A typical American ending has to be great so this book had to respect the tradition.
OPTIONAL READING!
Jacob A. Riis - Childre of the poor
Children of the tennenments
Nisby’ s Christmas
These all books are a research work of the author that present how people of other nationalities lived in USA ,how they lived the American Dream in extremely poor conditions .
What is worse ,there were children ,too and I cannot imagine how is this possible in a world where are sooo many wealthy people soooo much of everything and still thee are victims of society ,a great number of people whom society doesn’t t give a penny.
For us it s normal to have Christmas ,to celebrate birthdays ,to have a walk on a sunny Sunday ,but they don’t have ANYTHING. The children died of hunger ,cold ,dirt and nobody cared. That s the most terrifying!
I read all this books just to find a silver lining but no there is not a single happy thing in these people’ s lives and what is strange that they are ok with that they are aware of their condition butthey accepted it and carry on!
Pollyanna -by Helen Porter
This book presents as minority a disabled girl who acquired the disability in an accident.
Pollyanna has an accident and as a result she hurts her spine and cannot walk.
Before the accident Pollyanna is the most optimistic person in the world she sees good in everything and helps people from the village to be more happy.
After the accident she manges to keep her optimism and tries to behave as normally as possible as she did before the accident.
In the final chapter we find out that she manges to walk again.
What is dominant in this book is her optimism that can overcome everything and probably is tesponsable for her recovery, but Pollyanna is a lucky girl too because she has the material possibility.
Her aunt helps her with the necessary money to go to that doctor.
As a conclusion the spirit is necessary but the money is compulsory.
The secret garden - Frances H. Burnett
The book is a praise for the rural life and the benefits of it.
It presents how a little girl manages to cure a “sick” boy and make him walk again. Master Collin is not actually sick he is kept indoors between closed doors from his father’s folly and his uncle’s envy.
They fear that the boy will die if just as his mother did. This reminds me of Ion Creanga’ s “Prostia omeneasca” where two women were crying and worrying because of a thing that had little chance to happen and instead of removing the baby from danger they were dieing of grief.
The little hunchback Zia - Frances H. Burnett
Falls in the cathegory of disabled.
This short story present a little boy who is hunchbacked and lives in Antiquity.
He is abandoned by his parents and taken by a witch and exploited. She sends him to beg and bring her money because he has very beautiful eyes. As a bad thing never comes alone he cathces leper and the witch send him away from her and he wanders around and ends up in the stable where Jesus Christ was born and gets cured.
The story shows how full of prejudice the Antiquity was, how sick people were considered evil and were not treated appropriately.
The Diddakoi by Rumer Godden
Ethnicity
The book presents a little girl Kizzy Lovell who is half gipsy and is bullied by her classmates. Initially she lives with her grandmother in a van. Eventually her grandmother dies and she is taken by one of her relatives who don’t treat her properly, even people of her won origin discriminate her.
She is taken into custody by a rich man and gradually becomes accepted by her schoolmates.
What is nice about Kizzy is that she doesn’t t hide her origins she doesn’t accept to be civilized by force and she never gives up her horse she is very confident in herself.
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