2. Group B–ESmith25

My book Border Child by Michel Stone, shows a family, Hector and Lilia, who lost their child, Alejandra, while trying to cross the border into America from Mexico. It shows their struggle to find Alejandra, where Hector finds someone who gives information about where she could be, and he starts taking on other jobs to get enough money to pay for the bus fares to go north to find Alejandra. As Hector continues to find and take on jobs to help pay, he finds a fishing job offered to him, where the boss eventually offers Hector a job that would pay much better, where he would have to pick up coolers with unknown contents and bring them back to shore, Hector suspects that this job is involved with criminal activities, but he takes it anyway due to needing the money. After a little while Hector finally gets the money to travel and tells the boss that he is going to be leaving, this is where I left off in my book.

In my book Lilia feels constant guilt because of losing Alejandra while crossing the border, while not knowing if Alejandra is dead or alive, or if Alejandra would still love her because in her eyes she was abandoned by Lilia. “. . . but that her suffering has been immeasurable, her scars too deep for me to knead out . . . How can we pick up the pieces and be a family,  a mother and daughter, if I’ve failed her in irreparable ways, ways that will define her, ways that have broken her?” (Stone 172)

In my Novel The Brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao by Junot Diaz there is a family of 3, Oscar De Leon, his mother Belicia De Leon, and his older sister Lola De Leon. Oscars is an overweight nerd who is obbsessed with science fiction and fantasy novels, he is also obbsessed with falling in love as well as the curse that has plauged his family for years. As Oscar has grown he has gotten bigger and more of a nerd he struggles with not being able to get a girlfriend, he also struggles with his family because his mom and sister fight a lot, especially after his mom develops cancer, which eventually drives his sister to run away. Oscars feels a lot of self doubt and is always insecure, "Spent a week looking at himself in the mirror, turning every which way, taking stock, not flinching." (Diaz 30) Oscar is looking at himself in the mirror because he wants his appearance to be changed he wants to look more like a Dominican and less like he does now.

In my book Rez Ball by Byron Graves, Tre Brun has dreams of leading his school's team to a state championship for basketball and making it to the NBA. He had an older brother who died in a car accident who was the leader of the team. Almost everyone knows him as Jaxon’s younger brother, except Khiana who came to the school recently and are spending a lot of time together. Tre works really hard for the sport he loves and just needs to make varsity for the first time. Team selections come around and he does not make varsity. A couple of days later 2 of his teammates get busted for drinking and Tre gets his chance on varsity. The first game he struggles with the plays and fouls out. A few games later they are playing Minneapolis, a team way above them, and Tre leads them to beat them. The next game they play Nevis and they are dominating, Tre goes in at the end of the game to secure the win and ends up beating his brother's all time scoring record. The next game Tre has a scout from the University of Minnesota, dealing with bad refs he starts a fight and gets a technical foul.

Tre definitely does experience guilt because until recently Tre’s parents didn't believe that he could ever be anything close to Jaxon’s skill level. Tre felt guilty for this, but unlike the Ted Talk he worked for it physically and kept his feelings about it away from his parents. “He’d cross people over so bad they’d fall over, then hit a jump shot on them. Only one to ever be as good as him was your brother.” (Graves 75). His family mentions that his dad was one of the best and how his brother was able to beat him. Tre wants to live up to the expectations of being a great basketball player, but he also wants to exceed the expectations.

In my book Breathe And Count Back From Ten by Natalia Sylvestor is about a seventeen year old girl who moved to America from Peru when she was eight. Her parents don't fully understand how teenagers in the US act. She just got a new job as a mermaid at Mermaid Cove, but her parents don't know that she's a mermaid; they think that she works in the office at the cove. She found out that  when their green cards arrived they spelled her name wrong, and it would need to be fixed. She forged her mothers signature on the paperwork for her new job because she didn't think her mom would approve.

Veronica doesn't feel as much guilt as her parents. Her parents both kept secrets from Veronica that could affect her life tremendously. Her parents both talked to her doctor about a hip replacement without her even being present. Her parents feel guilty because Veronica found out before they could tell her and they feel bad that she had to hear it from him. “ Once, years ago, my parents told me I'd need a hip replacement someday. They said it was so far into the future I shouldn't bother worrying about it, like it was a meteor souring billions of miles away. Now it's closing in on me…”(Sylvester 100). Her parents felt guilty because they were trying to not make Veronica feel the way she is currently feeling, but she ends up feeling that way anyway. 

in my book Written in the stars by Aisha Saeed Naila has been able to make her own decisions her whole life but her family's one rule was they will choose her husband. when time comes Naila finds someone she is in love with but her family does not agree with her finding her own person and does not want her speaking to him anymore. naila feels guilty for not being good enough for her family. naila feels like this because she doesn't want her parent to choose her husband and shes acting out."I know their glances their smiles their frowns but his ? this was a look completely different"(Saeed 91) she is talking about how the looked at each other after the argument with her she feels guilty for not being what her parents want her to be.

The Novel “the poet X” by Elizabeth Acevedo is about a girl with the name Xiomara Batista. She lives in Harlem, New york. Her parents are strict and dominican. Her Parents are really religious and don't really support her. The Quote "I should hate caridad. she's all my parents want in a daughter. She's everything I could never be." shows me that she can't be like her parents want her to be. She wishes she could be like her friend caridad. Xiomara feels guilty that she can't complete the expectations of her parents.

in my book how it all blew up by Arvin Ahmadi the main character Amir is dealing with the struggles of coming out to his parents and telling them he is gay. Throughout his life his family has enforced this strict rule that he has to follow what they think is good for him. His parents always criticize the LGBTQ+ community and this is why he is scared to come out to them. And because of this Amir runs away from home and because of this he feel really guilty. "i also noticed that i didnt have any missed calls or texts from my parents." (Ahmadi 85) Amir does go through some of the hardships that you have in your book, ESmith25. 

In my book, the main character Gabi's best friend comes out as gay but she does help him through getting kicked out so Im sure she understands their feelings of guilt.