Social Awareness Writing Project

            

            


SOCIAL AWARENESS WRITING PROJECT

1)

( write a reading response on a social issue in a literary work)

Poem: And What About Freedom?

By:RIC S. BASTASA

http://www.poemhunter.com/poem/and-what-about-freedom/

       The issue that this poem "And What About Freedom?" is focusing on is freedom. Throughout the poem the poet mentions things that he has in mind of being free from. The idea of freedom is given loosely. Its not introduced as in how in genernal people use it. Often people discuss freedom as in rights they should get or they have. The poet is talking about being free of things. He talks about freedom from Freedom itself. The way that the poet talks about freedom is an social issue because other people also have their own ideas of what freedom is. They either use freedom as want they want to feel free or they talk about freedom as what to be free of. Yet both of these definitions are the same. This is because to some people want they want to be free of is the freedom they want and are struggling for.

      

      The poet Ric S. Bastasa starts off his poem in an interesting way, he says

  "sad indeed, there are other freedoms still". What i think that he was trying to say was about the freedoms we don't pay much attention to. Since we mostly focus on the freedoms being talked of in our society. "Freedom from long bored, to death, freedom from having nothing, to say and comment, freedom from this feeling of emptiness, this bigotry". This text from the poem makes me wonder how many other people are going through the same feeling. This makes me think about how some poeple want to be free of these feelings that make them miserable. The second text from the poem connects to the first in a sense that the first starts with 'sad indeed". I feel that the poet is talking about the freedoms from sadness that poeple are struggling for. 

         The overall message that the poet is tryingto send out is that there are many types of freedoms, and everyone is struggling for their own type of freedom.This is because he discusses manythings that poeple could want to be free from. He doesnt only mention freedoms that are global and in general. The author uses personal freedoms that someone might want. To different people the freedom they want is personal or has been influenced by society. Society has influenced many people in their idea of freedom. It also may have influenced them in their goals of freedom they want to achieve.




2)(Write an Original Literary Piece Responding to a Specific Social Problem/Issue)
(Used notes from class on society)


In My Own Perfect Society

In my own society,

In my own perfect society,

Only I influence my identity,

I set my own standards,

I am not influenced by what i see,

By what I hear or watch others do.


But in the real society,

In my real life society,

The people that surround me,

The people like Government, Family, & Friends,

They influence who I am,

They influence my identity,

They set their standards for me,

Unlike,

In My Own Perfect Society



      In my process for writing this poem I thought back to what had been discussed in class. It made me think about how many people are influenced by the society that they live in & surrounds them. The issue I was talking about was how society has a strong influence over many people.I used the definitions of society that were being discussed in class. I thought of the influence of society on people as important because its something thats happening evrywhere.It can be happening in either good or bad ways. The influence could be helping some people while destroying others or bringing them down. 


3)(observe your surroundings)

   list:
    ~violence
    ~censorship
    ~bullying 
    ~gang fights 
    ~racism

  Censorship is both unfair and/or not right in some way. This is because what a person may say, hear, or write is subject to control by another. So that takes away the chance of the other person from seeing something else other than what they alreday know.Censorship takes away many opportunities from people. This is because they base things on only what they have been allowed to say, hear, or do. Censorship is wrong because someone else is controlling and limiting what a person is able to see, hear. 
  
  The use of censorship cann effect the way a person acts toward others. It can cause people to make unfair decisions. This is because they have only been allowed to see & hear from one side of the story. The person is being limited to only ceratin things that they have been allowed to see &hear.Censorship is unfair because a person should be able to chose what they want to see and hear. They shouldnt be limited to just what one person allows them to see. 
   
   Some possible solutions to end Censorship would be to try and make the other person understand the wrong being done. If a person/ young adult is being censored they should try to stop that from happening. For example if a parent is Censoring their child to what things they can learn about they should try to think about how it would benefit the child. People who have been censored could try and help fine more ways to end Censorship.

reading response

The book “What My Mother Doesn't Know” by Sonya Sones is about a girl named Sophie. The book is on the times that Sophie has fallen in love. One of the guys is Dylan, who she eventually starts seeing only as a friend. Another guy Sophie met on the web. And the last boy that Sophie falls in love with is Murphy a guy who she least expected to fall in love with. Throughout the rest of the book she tries to find a way to tell her friends who the guy she has fallen in love with really is. I think that this book relates to the quote “never judge a book by its cover”

One way that the quote relates is that Sophie didn't really know Murphy. She sometimes felt bad and went to be his partner. For example when they were in art class she went to be his partner for the assignment on drawing your partner. Later on in the book she looks back at that drawing and notices how handsome Murphy really is. When before her and her friends didn't really think much of Murphy. When she starts to fall in love with him she sees how different she is from what she thought he was like.

Another way that the book relates to the quote is that Sophie didn't expect to fall in love with a guy like Murphy. Sophie was more into guys that seemed attractive to most girls and that were outgoing and popular. She used to think that Murphy was not like that. As she got to know him better she noticed that really there was no difference. She had had as much fun as she would have with a popular guy or even more. Like the quote she didn't really judge Murphy from the start but she didn't think that she would like him.

This book has changed my way of thinking because now I know that people aren't always how they seem. And that based on how one group of people acts you can’t use that to judge others. This relates to the real world because in many places people are judged for something they’re not. And like in the book they eventually get recognized for who they truly are.  

Hurricane Sandy: After a Devastation, a Daunting Recovery

The article “After the Devastation a Daunting Recovery” informs the reader on the impacts of hurricane Sandy. The article also mentions how afterwards people are trying to recover from this. Hurricane Sandy impacted the lives of many people. Some people lost their lives during the hurricane, others lost their homes. Many other people had to leave their communities in order to be safe. Many communities are now trying to recover, with the help and support from the president, and the mayor. The impact of the hurricane was harsh but people are starting to slowly recover.

The hurricane changed many people’s lives. Some people lost their lives during this hurricane.  “Accidents claimed more than 40 lives in the united states and Canada, including 22 in the city.” This is informing us on how many people lost their lives by some of the accidents caused by the hurricane. Many of these accidents such as trees falling or flooding  either hurt or killed people. This makes me feel upset at how many people must now be going through hard times of having lost their friends and family.

Even though some people have started to recover, they still have much work to do. “This is going to take some time”, he said. “ It is not going to be easy for these communities to recover.”  This excerpt is informing people on hard it will be to recover from the hurricane.  It is informing us that even though communities are starting to recover from the impact of the hurricane they still are going to need even more time to fully recover. This makes me feel hopeful that communities have already started to recover from the hurricane.

To recover from the damages caused these states will need a lot of money. “ There was no immediate estimate of the losses from the storm, but the scope of the damage- covering more than half-dozen states- pointed to billions of dollars.” This is informing us that the cost to fix everything is a lot. Even without knowing exactly how much the recovery will cost the government has already estimated that it will cost billions of dollars. This makes me wonder if all the damages and repairs will soon be taken care of at this cost. This could possibly take a while to fully recover from.

After reading this article I have come to understand how difficult it has been for others in the past few days. How some people got hurt really badly by the hurricane.  It has changed my way of thinking because I knew people were suffering but not that it was that badly. Also having to see what others are now going through. I already knew about a couple of tragic stories but this article added more to the list. This differs from other places because some people don’t have to struggle as much to get everything they lost back. Also because not everyone got hit at the same level of impact by hurricane Sandy. This article makes me wonder if this situation will have a greater impact on us in the future.