Month: November 2019

The reading was about a man named J.D Vance who talks about the events of his life and how they affected him. He goes into depth about many events and shares his thoughts of what he was thinking during these past events. He first starts off by introducing himself and who he is today. He lives happily married and has a job, graduating from yale. He says the purpose of the reading is so that people understand “what it feels like to nearly give up on yourself and why you might do it.” He then goes through his past and the poverty that he lived in. Poverty impacted his life in many ways, such as the relationship between his parents and the home where he lives. It sounds like the reader accepts poverty into his childhood and is hopeless to fight against it. I believe this can relate to Dave in “Green”, although Dave might not be as poor as J.D Vance, he is poor and helpless about it. Dave tries to make some money and seems to always fail making him turn to college as the only means of being successful in life. In J.D Vance’s reading, he states “To move up was to move on. That required going to college.” Although I don’t think that applies to the society that I live in, I do believe that in a society of low-class people education is the only way to move up. Many jobs are low paid which is why a professional career can lead to financial success. J.D Vance then talks about an event where he got sick for working too many hours and not giving his body enough sleep. I thought this was not right for him to do, although we should be working hard, we should not be taking sleep that we need for our bodies to rest. This reading has shown me the many hardships of trying to rise in a society of low-class people and how important education can be.

In chapter 8, Dave and Marlon are back to being friends but their relationship has changed between them. They are not as close as they used to be and chat less. I believe that both boys do want to talk to each other and feel the same way, but events that have happned keep them apart. In the chapter Dave and Marlon attend a audition for a play. Dave and Marlon meet Meghan, who Marlon falls in love with. Meghan is jewish like Dave is, and she says the Dave is not a real Jew. I thought this was the most intresting part of the chapter as it revealed alot about Dave. Although Dave does not like being a Jew, he is offended when someone calls him out for not being someone that he is supposed to be. This brings Dave to think about who he is, and about him converting to christianity.

In chapter 9, things start off with Marlon coming late and absent at school. The book has been building this weird suspision around Marlon but yet reveals anything about what happens in Marlon’s personal life. Chapter 9 goes more in depth between the relationship of Dave and his dad. They go on a trip to a holocaust mesuem during Dave’s one week off. I believe that Dave’s dad is trying to show him more about Jewish heritage hoping that Dave will be more understanding of his own heritage. Then back at the school a fight brakes out, in which one kid stabs the other using a knife. This is an eye opener for Dave realising the power of the switch knife that he wanted the get and the postion that the knife would have led him to. Outside the school a news channel is able to get some words out of Dave. Dave’s parents watch him on t.v and are hurt by the things that he said on t.v, which was him saying that he too has also been threatened by someone with a knife. The chapter then moves back to Dave and his dad. They are at a baseball stadium in where his dad starts doing the wave. I believe this part had alot of meaning to Dave, showing him how great his dad is and maybe changing his perspective of what is possible in the world around him.