Beta reading questions for chapters 8-9

Author: Billy Lau // Category:

1. The dialogue in this story is okay. On some parts, the dialogue went a little too crazy as in boring. I think you are going a little too over the top with this dialogue thing on some parts. I like how it really reflects how a teenager would talk like. Like I said before about it being boring; that is because there was little to no emotions in it. It did not seem so real when reading the dialogue.
2. The folklore seemed a bit irrelevant. It is cool, don't get me wrong, but also a little cheesy. Magical and mythical stuff do not entertain the teenagers. Some might find it interesting, but most of us think it is lame. I also think you should cut back, and make that folklore part shorter.
3. I think Dorthy's reaction was not realistic at all. It was a little weird and like before, not descriptive. An idea that you might want to add in might be Dorthy's feelings towards Adrian's knowledge on folklore. Was she surprised? Stuff like that.
4.  I would say that the cultural elements are sort of forced. Teens do not usually talk about magical stuff anyway, making it seem unrealistic. I think you should change some and add some about the differences between the characters.
5. I personally think that Dorthy should be of another ethnicity who finds Filipino culture interesting. I do know some girls that could relate to her. She is a bit colorless and boring at times, even though I am sure you can add a whole lot more about what she feels like to add more flavor to her.
6. Adrian is alright the way he is. I like how he has a strong knowledge about his background and how he tells his folklore. He is one of the most important charters in the book and therefore should have more feelings.
Ultimately, I would give the story a 6 out of 10. 10 being super awesome and 1 being horrible. Just revise some parts and continue writing. Maybe the rest of the story will improve the whole thing.
Comments (0 )

What's next for Esperanza?

Author: Billy Lau // Category:
        "The House on Mango Street", by Cisneros is a book response of her life coming back to Mango Street. All of these vignettes are her stories of what happened in the past. Now, Esperanza has to return back to Mango street for the ones she left behind.   I predict that she will help the other women in her neighborhood do what she did. In the last vignettes, Esperanza meets strangers who have magic powers that can make wishes come true and can see the future. These strangers grant her a wish. Esperanza's wish was her ultimate dream of leaving Mango Street. The stranger's response was...
    When you leave you must remember always to come back, she said."pg 104.
Esperanza promises in a way that she will return back to Mango Street. Even though she is very reluctant of coming back  
"You live right here, 4006 Mango, Alicia says and points to the house I am ashamed of. No, this isn't my house i say... I don't belong."pg 106
Esperanza wants to leave and never come back. She does not feel so welcomed in her own house. In the future, I think she will come back to Mango street, and live by herself privately. She will live without society telling her that boys are the more superior ones.  When she comes back, She wants to live in a different street than Mango street so that she can show her neighbors that she is not trapped in society's expectations. She will influence her peers like this. Everyone will see that she came back free and they will follow her lead and break out of the world's web. 
      In conclusion, Esperanza is going to keep her promise to the strangers even though she is ashamed of her house. However, she will influence her peers and neighbors when she comes back and help them find a way to spring out and undo the world's expectations. She'll be there for all of her friends and teach them how to get out of Mango street and to chase their dreams. We will not know how her rest of her years will be because her future is left for us to choose.
Comments (0 )

Cisneros' Perspective

Author: Billy Lau // Category:
       In a short book of vignettes, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros; is about a young girl, Esperanza, who learns about the true society of life between boys and girls. Esperanza was born in a poor ghetto on Mango Street. In her every daily life, she sees and experiences many different issues. Her dream is to leave Mango street, but one day to come back. One of the many different situations she faces everyday is between boys and girls. Gender inequality really plays a major role in her world. The author illustrates that boys and girls should be raised completely differently.  In her vignettes, Cisneros show that boys are to be more free from chores or other daily jobs.  Boys get to go outside and hang out with their friends at anytime. On the contrary, girls are shown as a tool for parents and are given less privileges of freedom. In some of the vignettes, Cisneros feels that girls are more loved and cared for by their parents then boys. In Red Clowns, Esperanza is left vulnerable while Sally leaves her alone with another boy.
"Sally, make them stop. I couldn't make them go away...Please don't make me tell it all." pg 100
Esperanza is not being taken care of here, and we can see why parents should worry more over and restrict girls than boys from freedom in this vignette. 

       In the neighborhood that Esperanza grows up in, women are expected to wait for a hand in marriage then they are allowed to leave the house. They have to take care of the new kids and home that they will get.  In Alicia Who Sees Mice, the importance of having a woman in the household is expressed in this vignette.
“Alicia whose mama died is sorry there’s no one older to rise and make the lunch box tortillas.” pg 31
Since Esperanza is a girl, she has a lot of expectations from her family. She has to inherit a women's duties once there is no one else to help out. Cisneros shows that girls have different jobs and should not be educated because it is useless for them. However, In Alicia Who Sees Mice, she also symbolizes how she does not agree with her father for not letting her get an education. I think that Cisneros thinks that girls are raised to do more than just the everyday petty house chores, but that they are raised to achieve their own dreams.

Comments (2 )

My World

Author: Billy Lau // Category:

My World


Table of Contents:
Eyes
Black ops
Otis
Saturday Mornings

Eyes
Everybody has different pairs of eyes in my family. My mom’s eyes are sharp and brown. They are like an eagle’s eye, with keen eyesight but fast and always moving. My mom always catch me do everything with her slick eyes. They dart up and down and side to side, never missing the sight of a single air molecule. My mom’s eyes are one of a kind.
My brother’s eyes are always changing to the different moods and emotions he has. Sometimes you can see him smile with his round brown eyes, and other times you can see him boil with anger.  There is no changing his eyes, only he can change the way his eyes are based on his attitude.
My eyes are unique and special. They are the biggest pair in the family. Sometimes, I can keep a straight gaze at something for a long period of time. However, I can never have eye contact with anyone, because my eyes are super hyper and wants something else to stare at. My eyes also have a playful side in them, especially when they lock on to a stack of cash or a pile of food. I like to watch for anything interesting or search for anything that is fun to stare at with my eyes.

Black Ops
            Let’s do this thang, I yelled. Alrite, my brother replies, Imma get ten kills. Naw, I replied, I can get 16, highest I got was about thirty. What are you going to use? I asked. Famas with extended magazines, my brother replies. That sucks, I yelled, Spas 12 with suppressor all the way. Then the match finally starts.
            Throughout the whole game, my brother and I yell and groan when dying or getting a kill. I look over my shoulder and I see my brother furious jabbing his controller and tilting right and left like he is in a restaurant making food while there is a long line waiting outside. Sometimes after dying, my brother would run to the bathroom and frantically scram back in the living room like there was fire in the house. I, on the other hand, when playing Black Ops, remain calm. I camp throughout most of the game, and only run if I see an open lane. I watch my brother as he takes chances and dives straight for the other team’s flag without looking around to see if there are any enemies. In the middle of the game, I always boast, because of my ranking compared to him. I was always the better Xbox player.
I never really felt so competitive with my brother in anything besides Black Ops or grades. He usually beats me in the category of grades, but I beat him in Xbox. We do things different in this house. Other brothers usually bond by playing sports or doing something lame like that, but not us, we get competitive with our Black Ops game and play to our heart’s content.


Otis
            The air smelled nicer today. The sun shined brighter. The trees looked friendlier, and overall the whole day just felt better than the other days. It was not because there was no school, but because everything just seemed so right today. I wanted to do something today, because I had all afternoon. I wanted to do something I rarely did; something my parents have been nagging me to do for years. It was to go outside and exercise. It did not seem so exciting at first, but who cares, I felt like exercising was meant to happen today.
            I dragged my brother along as always. We brought a basketball and some tennis rackets with some tennis balls to Otis, our elementary school. When we got there, the basketball seemed lazy and flat, so we did not play with it. We played tennis and all of a sudden an epiphany went in my head. I could become a tennis star. When I smacked the ball it went as fast as a nerd trying to finish their homework. My accuracy was dead-on bulls eye, and my strength could send the tennis ball to circle around Earth twice! I was star struck at my skills from my new hobby.
            This completely amazing day became even more amazing when I had that amazing dream of becoming a tennis player. That day could have been the best day of my life, if only my report card was sent to the wrong house. My parents sent me to my room immediately without letting me explain why there was a C in my English grade. That report card was like a bomb, arriving at my house and exploding my dream into little pieces. From then on, I never stepped out of the house to play tennis, because I fear of another bomb arriving and destroying my high hopes of becoming a tennis star.

Saturday Mornings
Only on Saturday mornings, do I wake up early with my brother. Otherwise, I would not get out of my bed until my dad drags me out. Ii was the same for every Saturday morning. I wake up, brush my teeth, wipe my face, eat breakfast, then I would turn on the TV and watch cartoons. The cartoons would last until 12:00 and my whole morning would be over just like that.
My brother and I would fight between which couch to sit on. There are two couches in the living room: a soft black one and a leather brown one. The soft black couch would always get fought over between my brother and me. He would always win, but if I kept trying to take it from him he would just shut the TV off and not let me watch anymore. Some of my favorite shows are Xiaolin Showdown and The Replaceables. These two were the main shows we would be looking for throughout the whole morning.
For every Saturday it would be the same. Today, I miss these Saturday mornings. Ever since, I started attending middle school, Saturday mornings changed. Now it is homework instead of Xiaolin Showdown or fighting with my brother over which couch to sit in.
Comments (1 )

The Color Red:House on Mango Street

Author: Billy Lau // Category:

     In The House on Mango Street, the symbol red is very important and it shows up in many different situations. I think red means the social world problems and or situations that affect her. She grows up in a very poor environment, and one of the many things she does not like about her poor life is her house on Mango street.
"It's small and red with tight steps... Bricks are crumbling in places..."pg 4
She completely does not like her house at all. In her dreams, Mama and Papa would look for a house that is real, and that she can stay in forever and not move ever year. The color red in this is a symbol signifying that her life has rough edges that she can not change. Only her environment changes and she has to adapt to it. 
      In one of the most important chapters, Esperanza is being sexually abused. Although the chapter is filled with hidden meanings and is definitely hard to understand, it still gives the reader a central understanding that she is being forced to do what she does not want to do. In Red Clowns on pg 99
"I was waiting by the red clowns... I went to be with you because you laugh on the tilt-a-whirl, you throw your head back and laugh." 
Sally forces Esperanza to stay at the carnival, with a bunch of  "Red Clowns". Red in this means uncomfortableness. Esperanza is stuck in a tight situation either to run away from the scary red clowns or listen to Sally and stay at the carnival. I think this chapter's importance is not just about being raped it is about the color red itself.
        The idea of red signifying uncomfort reappears in "Our Good Day". 
“Until then I am a red balloon, a ballon tied to an anchor,” pg 9
I think this quote means that uncomfort drags her down and she is unable to reach up. She is not able to express herself because of her environment and her place in the social status. She is like a balloon tied to an anchor, stuck at the bottom forever until someone cuts her string. Then she can fly away freely. Her struggles are the anchor while the string is in her inner self.
Comments (0 )

The Significance of Windows

Author: Billy Lau // Category:
        In the book, The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros there are many vignettes. In these vignettes there are hidden symbolisms, like feet and windows. In class, we read many vignettes titled My Name,No Speak English, and Sally. 
        In My Name, Esperanza talks about her grandmother Esperanza who is forced into marriage and who spent most of her days sitting by a window. Esperanza said that she does not
" ... but I don't want to inherit her place by the window." pg 11
I think this means that both of these women are trapped and they do not accept their prison inside the window but they also understand that  the outside world is not made for them. 
         In No Speak English, Mamacita moves in to Mango street, and she never comes back down. People think she is too fat to get down, but Esperanza knows that she doesn't come down because she doesn't know english. So everyday, Mamacita sits by the window and listens to the radio. 
"She sits by the window and plays the Spanish radio show."pg 77
Just like the other vignette, Mamacita is trapped in her own world. It is America, and she can not speak english, so everyday she looks through her window and dreams of knowing how to speak in english.
       In Sally, a girl named Sally is always completely under her father’s rule. At school she is gossiped about from all the boys. Her father thinks it is her beauty that makes it dangerous for her to go outside of the house, so her father restricts her from going out. Sally wishes she didn’t have to go home after school all the time.  Esperanza says 
"And if you opened the little window latch and gave it a shove, the windows would swing open..."pg 82
I think in here, the window is an emotional feeling. Sally feels like a prisoner in her house, and she wants to be free. She just has to open the latch to freedom. Esperanza thinks Sally is wonderful and she should be free to be Esperanza's best friend. 
        In all three vignettes, the window represents as a barrier to true life or happiness. The window pushes them back from getting their wishes and desires. In conclusion I think that the window is like a wall, and one side is where they are at while the other side is their imagination.  

Comments (0 )

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber

Justin Bieber

Labels

Response post (1)

Followers