Just like tweak this story is written by the father who went through his son's- nic- addiction. This biography takes us from the first baby steps his son took to the first steps his son took in the hands of drugs.
In the story Nic has already been to 1 rehab and is now entering another rehab in New York which before he went to a rehabilitation in San Francisco his main land. Nic was always troubled by drugs. He was always "pressured" into them and he was always liberal in using drugs. David always believed that his son was going to overcome this stage of this life just like he became his drug use when he was in college. During a family meeting in the rehab, the counselor tells the families that their loved ones addiction are due from someones fault. In other words the counselor said the person that has to change is not the addict but the "cause" of the addict.
How can someone blame damage to their bodies on someone else. David and Karen (ex-wife) got divorced and like other divorces, it affected their children. But is this reason to become addicted to anything?
Just like someone that isn't divorced but is also an addict, does it really being caused by the having of 2 parents, or any other reason? I believe that drug addiction is not caused by anyone or anything. Just like there are families intact facing drug issues or divorced families that don't face drug issues, why does this excuse others? I believe that the addict is wrong and I think that addiction is a choice, not a disease. Just like someone that suffers of high colesterol, wasn't it the persons fault for eating too much fried chicken? Just like people decide what to eat or put on every morning, drug users choose whether or not to try drugs or not.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Thursday, December 8, 2011
Tweak: Growing up on methamphetamines
Nic Sheff the author and character of the book has finally realized that he needs to make a change in his life, after asking his father for forgiveness and a 5th chance he was turned down and had to go to a friends house named Spencer who went with him through 12 step programs. But the real question is, Can a person guarantee rehabilitation easily?
I think not because although we want change getting out of any addiction- can't live without- isn't easy because there is always a fear of not making it through especially if it has to do with drugs. Just like someone who wants to eat healthy after so many years of eating yummy greasy food, they need time and patience. A drug taps into the brain raising the dopamine levels which is the "high" someone feels, how can we expect someone to change if they have to go through problems in the world compared to a brilliant world, and energetic life as one as a crystal meth addict?
Nic Sheff goes through difficulty staying sober because he is used to a life of energy, fun, popularity and going back to work at a beauty salon making minimum wage instead of dealing the drugs, going day to day slowly getting eaten alive with problems that he faces instead of a life where problems were a snort away. But then there is a life that can be changed to better, because in the long run we can save ourselves from feeling too much from feeling too little or feeling depressed when your not high because the body is so used to so much pleasure that it becomes like a daily vitamin supplement.
Is the change better or worse? Drugs damage you because they are not natural and so the promising effect they offer doesn't work safely, the drug usually has to go to unwanted places to get to the brain. So yes change is better.
I think not because although we want change getting out of any addiction- can't live without- isn't easy because there is always a fear of not making it through especially if it has to do with drugs. Just like someone who wants to eat healthy after so many years of eating yummy greasy food, they need time and patience. A drug taps into the brain raising the dopamine levels which is the "high" someone feels, how can we expect someone to change if they have to go through problems in the world compared to a brilliant world, and energetic life as one as a crystal meth addict?
Nic Sheff goes through difficulty staying sober because he is used to a life of energy, fun, popularity and going back to work at a beauty salon making minimum wage instead of dealing the drugs, going day to day slowly getting eaten alive with problems that he faces instead of a life where problems were a snort away. But then there is a life that can be changed to better, because in the long run we can save ourselves from feeling too much from feeling too little or feeling depressed when your not high because the body is so used to so much pleasure that it becomes like a daily vitamin supplement.
Is the change better or worse? Drugs damage you because they are not natural and so the promising effect they offer doesn't work safely, the drug usually has to go to unwanted places to get to the brain. So yes change is better.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Social Action Critical Thinking #3: Tweak-Growing up on Methemphetamines
In the book Tweak, Nic Sheff the character and author of the book (it's a biography) gets lost in Crystal Meth 2 weeks after getting out of rehab. He finds a girl named Lauren on the street that has also been looking to get high on crystal meth, they end up having a relationship. Nic has only $1,300 saved up in the bank from working 2 years at the rehab. Getting tweaked 10 times a week buying $300 worth of crystal the money was gone in less than 1 week. But he needed more so he turned into the dealing business with Gack-the person that sold drugs to him since day 1.
I think that the book, although it is a real life story we see the world 90% through Nic's tweaked eyes. He says at one point in the book, "I've always wanted to explore a world out of my reach, the only way to get it is with drugs. I would prefer live a short life with pleasure and joy, then live until 70-something being dull." This created a question in my mind that was, What is fun? Why does fun have to be life shortening? Why can't people have fun with justice?
To Nic, fun was getting tweaked, selling to 12 year old boys, and stealing from his own family and friends. In my life I have friends that want to have this life where they don't want to be themselves anymore, they want to experiment.
In this book, it represents justice to the author, but it may not represent justice to the authorities or the outside world. Nic thinks that to be righteous or fair you need to do whatever you want freely. To the outside world there has to be punishment for wrong. This is a problem because to Nic drugs are okay; doing heroin and crystal meth is okay, but to U.S.A authorities this is a big no-no.
In order to acquire justice everyone needs to have the same meaning of justice. Nic and authorities would never agree on something because they have different meanings of what justice is and what things break the law of justice.
I think that the book, although it is a real life story we see the world 90% through Nic's tweaked eyes. He says at one point in the book, "I've always wanted to explore a world out of my reach, the only way to get it is with drugs. I would prefer live a short life with pleasure and joy, then live until 70-something being dull." This created a question in my mind that was, What is fun? Why does fun have to be life shortening? Why can't people have fun with justice?
To Nic, fun was getting tweaked, selling to 12 year old boys, and stealing from his own family and friends. In my life I have friends that want to have this life where they don't want to be themselves anymore, they want to experiment.
In this book, it represents justice to the author, but it may not represent justice to the authorities or the outside world. Nic thinks that to be righteous or fair you need to do whatever you want freely. To the outside world there has to be punishment for wrong. This is a problem because to Nic drugs are okay; doing heroin and crystal meth is okay, but to U.S.A authorities this is a big no-no.
In order to acquire justice everyone needs to have the same meaning of justice. Nic and authorities would never agree on something because they have different meanings of what justice is and what things break the law of justice.
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Identical by Ellen Hopkins
In the book Identical by Ellen Hopkins we hear and see the story throughout Kaeleigh's eyes as well as Anneleigh. However, we need to hear the story from other important people so that we can fill in the missing gaps of the story much quicker, and see problems in the book with more proficiency. ex: at the end of the book we find out that Kaeleigh is so emotionally affected by the accident that her father had, that she has forced herself to believe that her dead sister was still alive, also contributing to this problem was her sexual abuse from her father. We need to have the voices or perspective of Kaeleigh's father and her mother.
Ellen Hopkins only lets us hear the voice of Kaeleigh although we also need to hear her father because he contributes to Kaeleigh's trauma with her double personality without her realizing it. We need to know the father's perspective because he is such a closed person on the outside where he doesn't let anyone know his problems so we never read the reason why he abuses his own daughter, what trauma happened in his early life that motivated him to do these actions. If we were to see the fathers inside we could see what haunts him, why he is so closed to the outside world, why he hides himself until he gets drunk and he lets his inner demon out. Later in the book Annaleigh (Kaeleigh) visits there grandfather that reveals the reason why his father is a monster. We find out through the grandfather that his father was filmed naked with another girl, creating child pornography and putting it all over the Internet. His father has had so much rage because he felt like he had no control, and so he has become the opposite of what he saw at home: strictness, good fame, money etc.
Kaeleigh's mother is missing and we need her because she is affected by the accident of losing her child. She is devastated like any mother would be, but she forgets that she has another child that is still alive and completely ignores Kaleigh. Kaleigh feels like her mother didn't save a little bit of love for her, and in part this is true, because, after her mother runs for congress woman staying away from her house for long periods of time, and she only stopped by because she needed to take pictures with her family, so that the media would have a "good" image of her. We need her voice because without it we cannot know for sure what's going on, if she really doesn't love her remaining daughter, if the reason she is away from home is because she doesn't want to spend time with Kaeleigh. We need to know what she feels and what she thinks in order to really understand the true story not just what Kaeleigh thinks is happening in other people's mind.
If we were to have all these opinions we would have a complete story, where we could hear a little bit of everyone's opinion on their surroundings, there family, and their life in general, because without it we wouldn't have the facts but inferences.
Ellen Hopkins only lets us hear the voice of Kaeleigh although we also need to hear her father because he contributes to Kaeleigh's trauma with her double personality without her realizing it. We need to know the father's perspective because he is such a closed person on the outside where he doesn't let anyone know his problems so we never read the reason why he abuses his own daughter, what trauma happened in his early life that motivated him to do these actions. If we were to see the fathers inside we could see what haunts him, why he is so closed to the outside world, why he hides himself until he gets drunk and he lets his inner demon out. Later in the book Annaleigh (Kaeleigh) visits there grandfather that reveals the reason why his father is a monster. We find out through the grandfather that his father was filmed naked with another girl, creating child pornography and putting it all over the Internet. His father has had so much rage because he felt like he had no control, and so he has become the opposite of what he saw at home: strictness, good fame, money etc.
Kaeleigh's mother is missing and we need her because she is affected by the accident of losing her child. She is devastated like any mother would be, but she forgets that she has another child that is still alive and completely ignores Kaleigh. Kaleigh feels like her mother didn't save a little bit of love for her, and in part this is true, because, after her mother runs for congress woman staying away from her house for long periods of time, and she only stopped by because she needed to take pictures with her family, so that the media would have a "good" image of her. We need her voice because without it we cannot know for sure what's going on, if she really doesn't love her remaining daughter, if the reason she is away from home is because she doesn't want to spend time with Kaeleigh. We need to know what she feels and what she thinks in order to really understand the true story not just what Kaeleigh thinks is happening in other people's mind.
If we were to have all these opinions we would have a complete story, where we could hear a little bit of everyone's opinion on their surroundings, there family, and their life in general, because without it we wouldn't have the facts but inferences.
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Rereading: Question 6
On page 63 in The Giver, the chief elder says "the acquisition of wisdom will come through his training." This quote is trying to tell us that the acquisition or gain of wisdom or experience/memory will come through his training as new Receiver of Memory. Rewritten as a new sentence it would mean, "Jonas will gain experience/memory through his training as new Receiver of Memory." a few sentences back on page 63 the chief elder was describing the requirements for every Receiver of Memory, and it also stated that no one in the crowd including the Receiver himself understood what this meant. The reason that they didn't understand this is because the community had gotten ridden of many things to create something called sameness, which later in the book, is revealed to Jonas. Sameness is what you would think of when you see the word. Equality. In this community everything is put in the same group and every group of age have the same supplies as one another. Every December each age group receives something new when turning 1 more year. Every household have the same number of kids, and every household have the same rights. There is no difference. The community got rid of color and weather.They have gotten rid of the past by not teaching it to the new generations.
This quote relates to the talk about Mountain of Action because Jonas community is the antagonist of the book because the community focuses so much on having a perfect society. They want to take out all pain and so they get rid of emotion all together. They get rid of weather because it causes starvation. The community also get rid of memory so that the community can start new with new traditions and rituals. The community gets rid of freedom of choice and freedom because they were worried humans would make wrong decisions and "contaminate" the rest of the community. So the community is involved in the book plot and without the community in this book there wouldn't be problems or a story at all that could relate to these kind of topic.
I have gained some wisdom throughout my parents and my own decisions. When I was 6 I broke my arm on he monkey bars because I went on with wet hands and slipped off. Now I know better than to go on any playground and part of a playground with wet hands. My parents have already lived more than I have, so they have experienced things in their past so they pass this wisdom by telling their offspring.
This quote relates to the talk about Mountain of Action because Jonas community is the antagonist of the book because the community focuses so much on having a perfect society. They want to take out all pain and so they get rid of emotion all together. They get rid of weather because it causes starvation. The community also get rid of memory so that the community can start new with new traditions and rituals. The community gets rid of freedom of choice and freedom because they were worried humans would make wrong decisions and "contaminate" the rest of the community. So the community is involved in the book plot and without the community in this book there wouldn't be problems or a story at all that could relate to these kind of topic.
I have gained some wisdom throughout my parents and my own decisions. When I was 6 I broke my arm on he monkey bars because I went on with wet hands and slipped off. Now I know better than to go on any playground and part of a playground with wet hands. My parents have already lived more than I have, so they have experienced things in their past so they pass this wisdom by telling their offspring.
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Rereading: Character Question!!
Jonas (the main character in The Giver by Lois Lowry) is a victim of his strict community where he doesn't have any freedom of choice. I think these are one of the most important themes that Lois tries to layout throughout the book, because she always tells reveals to us rules of the community (i.e. 8 yr. old girls and under must have ribbons, no more than 2 children per house hold, no sharing of bikes, no more than 2 chastisements,) He earns a lot of these unfair qualities that his community through memories he receives as he was assigned to be the future Receiver of Memory.
My question for Jonas is, why does Jonas see things change and not other people (like the apple or Fiona's hair, this was before knowing about colors which is illegal to have in the community and try to hide it)since all people are equal shouldn't all people have the same qualities as others. Jonas was chosen to be Receiver of Memory which is kind of saying every 12 was put in the lottery and Jonas was the lucky one.
My question for Jonas is, why does Jonas see things change and not other people (like the apple or Fiona's hair, this was before knowing about colors which is illegal to have in the community and try to hide it)since all people are equal shouldn't all people have the same qualities as others. Jonas was chosen to be Receiver of Memory which is kind of saying every 12 was put in the lottery and Jonas was the lucky one.
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