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.