Inquiry Question Response

      The book I am currently reading, The Visibles by Sara Shepard, is about a girl named Summer Davis, the sudden disappearance (or what might as well have been, as the reason is unclear) of her mother shattering her family, but most obviously her and her dad. The inquiry question my group came up with was "What pressure does society put on the characters in our books?", which is perfect, because of the position Summer is in socially. Throughout the book, Summer makes these social choices, that seem so stupid and low to me, but it's because society puts lots of pressure on her to make these choices. This question and the examples in my book led me to conclude that characters in books often make dumb choices, and choices that they really don't want to make, but are influenced to make because of the people and ideals around her. I believe that the we should learn from the way characters sometimes let this pressure get to them and understand that we shouldn't ourselves, because we should let our inner self make the choices.

        There were a few lines that really got me thinking about how Summer is under a lot of pressure caused by society. On pages 36 and 37 it says "Summer should have more girlfriends," my mother whispered to my mother whispered to my father..." Yes, yes it mattered... That we were talking, that I was getting them coffee, it all seemed like such a step in the right direction." Summer is referring to how she gets coffee for the popular "tall and straight-haired and pink-cheeked" girls in her French class. She thinks that she will somehow become more popular by doing them favors. Society and people in general have all these twisted ideals about how being popular will make you better or more happy, but they're not totally true. Yes, maybe somebody may be happy if they become popular, but what they don't realize is that it's an artificial kind of world. Having so many friends, everybody just means less and less to you, even if they may not realize that.  Society is putting a lot of pressure on Summer to have more than what she has, to have more friends and she may not even be thinking about what she really wants. Maybe if she had stopped and thought for a minute and pushed everything else aside, she would have decided that she was just happier being alone for a while or just waiting a while until she was ready to just go up to someone (not run them favors). But in this situation, she doesn't have the consciousness to admit this to herself. A lot of people don't and they really should.

        Overall, some of Summer's choices are that of someone socially influenced (not in a good way) and because they are choices I disagree with, it shows me that I shouldn't let myself become influenced by outside opinion in my own life. This message relates to many teenagers, because often they don't have enough courage to stop and think about what they know about things before they jump into a bad and potentially upsetting experience.

The Visibles

       The Visibles, by Sara Shepard, the book I have just started is about a girl named Summer Davis, a loner, an outcast. A few things have just stirred up in her life. First of all, her mom has just left her, her father and her brother, her reason scratched out on a short, unclear letter, which her father receives in the mail, devastating him to the point of crying at an ice cream parlor. All Summer seems to do about it, though is form the impression that “She’s on a trip”. Also, Claire, a previous friend has just moved back from France, where she had been living before, causing at first awkwardness, but the old friendship starts to bloom shortly. In some ways and in some moments, I can really feel a strong connection with Summer, but in some ways and in some moments, I can’t.

         At some parts, I could feel myself truly connecting with Summer. One of these parts that stood out was on page 32, when her dad was sobbing in an ice cream parlor. If this was my father crying, a complete mess, I would be doing everything I could to stop it. And like Summer, I would tell him-not a lie, but something I didn't quite believe. I would give him the hopeful little drop that my mom was "probably just... overworked" "just on a business trip." Right at that point, I just felt a connection. What went through my head was something like "Yes! That's what you should be doing! That's what you should say to make your dad happier, more hopeful." Another two of those moments where I felt those connections were on page 57 and page 65. These pages both have to do with when her and her dad and brother have just arrived at her great-aunts house and a girl named Samantha-or Sword, as she calls herself is there too. On page 57 when Samantha smiles, Summer assumes she has gnarled yellow teeth. On page 65, Summer is surprised Samantha is smoking on the porch and her aunt lets her. It seems like she regards the girl with a bit of disgust and this is exactly the way I would feel, totally understandable. Samantha seems like a creepy and cool (in the unfriendly way) person.

         At some parts in the book, I suddenly got a strong "No that's not right" sense about her actions and words. For example, one thing Summer does that I can't connect to is offer her services (meaning bringing them all coffee) to a group of snobby, popular girls, just for the chance of a brief conversation. At this part, when is risking herself to the shoving and possible roughness of the hallways, I see Summer stooping too low. I definitely wouldn't willingly volunteer myself to pack of snobs. Even though she thinks she's heading in the right direction by doing so, she really isn't. Another part in the book when I  don't connect with Summer is when she declines Claire asking her to write if she goes to an art program in San Fransisco. She even thinks to herself "Dear Claire, I don't want to write to you. I already told you I don't want to talk to you. You should leave me alone."When she says to Claire that "she should write to the corpses she was now friends with", she probably comes off as slightly rude. Instead, if I were Summer, I would not only say yes, I would also say something comforting. I can't connect to Summer, because she isn't taking advantage of, or even realizing how nice and friendly Claire is being towards he and that's something I would be doing.

"The 51st State?" Response

        The article “The 51^st state?” describes the recent (also past) pushes to create an additional state out of an existing one among people living in rural areas including Michigan, Southern Oregon and specifically Colorado. Many important people (lawmakers in 11 counties) in the state of Colorado have started a movement to leave Colorado and form a separate state. Their goal is clear: to break off from the suddenly very democratic, liberal leaders of the state and live in a place of peace and good values. Overall, I think that this article proves a good point—that despite having its section in the Constitution, the act of creating a new state proves to be a very stressful, weary and almost impossible process to go through.

        In Article IV of the constitution, it says the creation of states is allowed. But that doesn’t truly intend to make things easy for people in the future, or be much help with the attempts and proposals at these new states. Dating back to the early 1900’s, Texlahoma, Jefferson and New Colorado are just a few of the past hopeful, but failed state proposals. It’s especially a struggle for determined people who are currently going through this process in Colorado. Things have really changed there: gun control, green-energy and immigrant support laws and values, a more Democratic perspective in general. And if they do all vote on creating the state, it’s not only lawmakers and volunteers who must give their support on taking action in the new movement: Colorado has to vote to let them go and afterwards, the Congress must agree on allowing the 51^st state, which is not so easy. The last time such a thing was in 1863.

        This article seems to connect to a more universal theme, which is that when trying to do big things that involve many people, it's not a simple or joyful process. Aside from just the pure determination to get to a certain place or succeed in a rare act, one of the most important things to have is the complete support and voice of others who can help. Without this, achieving what you want is impossible. The article proves this through the several examples of denied state proposals. Of course these people wanted so badly to break away from existing areas including Texas, Western Oklahoma, Michigan and Montana and to a better place, but that wasn't enough. If people were always supportive and thought of only the good, it would be more fair, but they aren't and don't and that's good to keep in mind