3. Group G---jlanglois25

In my book the surprising power of a good dumpling by Wai Chim this novel relates to yours in some ways due to the children in my novel also struggling with issues with parents. In my novel the oldest daughter takes care of her two siblings majority of the time due to her mom having a mental illness and her father having a Chinese restaurant that takes up most of his time. In my novel I found that the oldest daughter overcame alot of difficult circumstances due to her parents and she ended up finding a boy who she fell in love with and ended up making money within helping her dad at the restaurant sometimes which gave her a since of reality. The question I have for you is how do you think things would have been if the child in your book handled things in a more mature way? would things become better or worse? 

In my story “Indivisible” by Daniel Aleman, there is a boy and a young girl that start the book by living with their family. Their mother and father own a corner store, and that is their source of income. Both of Mateo’s (the older brother) parents came from Mexico, while he and his sister Sophie, were born in the United States. This makes both of them American citizens but not their parents. One day when Mateo gets back from school his parents are not there and his sister is at a friend's house. Mateo later finds out both of his parents have been taken by ICE, and deported. Mateo goes to get his sister and brings her to their house and explains what has happened. So far in the rest of the story, it is about the struggles that they are both facing without parents, to show them what to do. Mateos major problem is him not being able to have a adult to help him, he resolves this by reaching out to his uncle and asking for help. he uses his uncle as a resource witch helps him with his little sister and in order to keep his parents shop open.

Wow, I feel terrible for Mateo and his sister Sofie. I’m glad Mateo has his uncle as a resource. My question is, what if Mateo didn’t have his uncle to reach out to? How do you think the story would change?

In my book Tre aspires to make it D1 and to the NBA. His brother, Jaxon, who died in a car accident was the leader of the basketball team, the top scorer. Jaxon his sophomore year, after a long summer of training, tries out and does not get varsity. After a couple of teammates get caught drinking he takes the position, but he keeps it. He is a commander of the team, and eventually the top scorer for his highschool, beating his brothers and dads previous records. The book ends with a few major events. Wes reached out to SLAM magazine and got them to come to their school to interview the team. The warriors are on their way to states. With them running over every other team leading up to the regional finals they just had to beat Bemidji. A game they lost earlier. A close game the entire time it ends with Tre landing a huge dunk and a free throw for the win. This took them to states. They play Crestview Christian Academy, an undefeated team. Playing as close a game as he could while coming down from a shot, Tre bruised his ankle badly. After a few minutes on the bench he told the coach he was going back in, even with his wobble he was able to get the lead. With barely any time left on the clock Crestview throws a long ball that hits nothing but net and they lose. 

Tre has had to overcome a difficult situation. Although it may not be similar to other difficult situations in other books it was still a tough situation for him. Tre was the one on the team who trained hardest during the summer, because he really wanted the varsity position. After reading the list and finding out he didn't make varsity it was incredibly rough for him. “Moments later, I crank the heat in my car. Should I quit basketball?” He felt worthless and bad at basketball. This all changed though, and now he's about as happy as anyone could be for almost winning states as a sophomore. In terms of resources he could use to help him there really wasn't any, he just had to pick himself up and keep going.

In my novel "the brief Wonderous Life of Oscar Wao" by Junot Diaz, there is a Dominican family who has been cursed by a fuku for as long as they can remember, the novel surrounds a boy named Oscar, Oscar is someone who struggles to find community, a sense of identity, and all above love. Oscars lives with his mother and his older sister Lola, their mother Beli develops cancer and it sends Lola in increase grief and a rebellious side. Lola plans to run away and leaves to live with her boyfriend near Jersey Shore, she tells Oscar to come bring her money and hopes he will stay with her, but instead he brings their mother and they bring Lola home. As punishment they sent Lola to live with her grandmother in the Dominican republic. Oscars is in college and is still an outcast, he met a girl and instantly fell in love with her but fell into a dark spiral when she saw him with another man, he attempted suicide by jumping off a bridge but survived. Though physically broken he embarked on an ambitious writing project hoping to become "The Dominican Tolkien". Over the next three years Oscar grew severely depressed. One summer he traveled to Santo Domingo with his family, while there Oscar fell in love with a girl who already had a boyfriend named "the Captian". One day when Oscar was found kissing Ybon (the girl) "The Captian" had henchmen take Oscar to a cane field and beat him, he survived and his family traveled back home, but Oscar could not stop thinking about Ybon so he went back to see her and this time "the Captian" had Oscar executed. His mother died not to much longer after Oscars funeral, Lola broke up with her boyfriend Yunior, she moved to Miami and had a baby with another man. Yunior imagined that her daughter, Iris, might one day put an end to their family's curse. 

In my Novel the Wao family overcomes alot of small difficulties, but one of the biggest ones is depression ecpessially with Oscar. Over the years Oscar struggles to find love and friends and he falls into a deep cycle of depressed feelings that he just cant seem to shake, everytime he falls in love with a girl they let him down or they end up with another man. Oscars tries to kill himself, and after it doesn't work he gets severely depressed and he doesn't really have anyone to help him, his sister and his mother have their own challenges that they face and Oscar is all alone to fight his battles. "From what he would later recall, he stood on that bridge for a good long time. Watching the streaking lights of the traffic below. Reviewing his misrable life." (Diaz 190) In this quote Oscar is sitting on the bridge just thinking how miserable his life is. 

Wow, I feel terrible for Oscar, he didn’t deserve any of that. Neither did the rest of his family. Having a curse on the family seems like a big adversity in your book. Constantly feeling depressed, because you can never find love, dealing with rejection, and being treated differently seems like a lot. Then returning to a place for love, just to be executed, is just horrible. My question is, what if he wasn’t executed? How do you think the story would have ended?

In my book The Buddha In The Attic by Julie Otsuka, is about a group of Japanese women who are sold off to husbands in America and have to deal with hardships the moment they get there. Their husbands are nothing they claimed to be, they raped them and some of the women were only 14. After this, they would have been forced to submit to them or they go back to Japan and be a disappointment to their family and never married again. "They took us violently, with their fists, whenever we tried to resist. They took us even though we bit them. they took us even though we hit them. They took us even when we insulted them...and screamed out for help (nobody came)" (Otsuka 20) These men were also fishermen and farmers, the book talks a lot about the farmers and how they bought the women for a playmates and as someone to work in the fields. "Our husbands worked us like slaves. They import those girls from Japan for free labor. We worked in the fields all day long without stopping for supper. We worked in the fields late at night by the light of one of our kerosene lamps. We never took a single day off. A clock and a bed are two things a Japanese farmer never used in his life. (Otsuka 35) These two hardships I think are the hardest they have to succumb to. They really have no choice, either they leave their husbands and have nothing to work with because of the severe racism that was in the early 1900's, or they are sent back and belittled for the rest of their lives. 

I feel truly sorry for all those women and everything they have had to go through. Having no resources while enduring such difficult circumstances. In a way our books are similar. Ranis’ mother was sent away, and into a forced arranged marriage to a man who treated her poorly. The father, Pradip raped and sexually abused Rani for years, and had no one to help her. So in a way the circumstances are kind of similar.