The News is Crazy, Isn't it.

     Imagine an enormous contradiction. Now, multiply the size of it by 10. I bet it still isn't as big  as the contradiction in the article, "An Inmate and a Scholar", by Alison Leigh Cohen, which features Orhun Hakan Yalincak, criminal and graduate of Oxford University and Durham University. Pretty large contradiction, right? Alison Leigh Cohen captured the extent of it amazingly, and I am excited to tell you more.

     The article, "An Inmate and a Scholar" is about the story of Orhun Hakan Yalincak. This story starts at New York University, where Mr. Yalincak was in his fifth year. During this year, he and his family promised N.Y.U $21 million, which inspired them to start a hedge fund which was very successful, making $7 million. Of the $21 million owed, Mr. Yalincak only coughed up a tiny morsel of it, $1.25 million, which they had to refund to the investors that Mr. Yalincak stole it from. The next chapter of the story takes Mr. Yalincak to prison for 42 months for wire and bank fraud, though he only spent 17 months in prison because of time he had previously spent in a Connecticut detention center. He then turned his life around by graduating from Durham and Oxford Universities. Thus ends the roller coaster ride of this part of Orhun Hakan Yalincak's life.

     The craft moves Alison Leigh Cohen uses in this article are well used and help express the ideas of the article. One craft move she uses are metaphors. At one point, she compares the $21 million Mr. Yalincak owed to NYU to a feast, and the $1.25 million he gave NYU to a morsel. I believe she does this to empower the numbers to show how much trouble Mr. Yalincak really was in . Another craft move the author uses are quotes. She doesn't overuse quotes, as many authors do, and also uses them, when she does, in great places. I think she does this to help the reader understand just how contradictory his life is. These are some of the craft moves Alison Leigh Cohen uses in the article, "An Inmate and a Scholar".

     The author of this article seems to think that the bouncing-back of Mr. Yalincak was very improbable, and now that he has bounced back, he is trying to keep his previous problems hidden from view, as shown from an authors note in an article that he was part of writing. I disagree with the authors position. I think that he was just very influenced by his mother, who was a felon, and he just got off track for some of his life. I believe this article shows that anybody can get their life in order, no matter how messed up it is.    

Craig's Personality in, It's Kind of a Funny Story, by Ned Vizzini

     In the book, It's Kind of a Funny Story, by Ned Vizzini, the main character, Craig, is a depressed teenage boy, whose friends push him to smoke marijuana and drink alcoholic beverages. After  close reading for Craig's thoughts, emotions, and actions, I was able to figure out more about Craig's personality, which is helpful because Ned Vizzini keeps it relatively hidden from the reader.

     First of all, Craig  is not open about himself with his friends and family, which I think makes his depression worse. He keeps his feelings and thoughts to himself. This tells me that he does not have good friends . He hasn't told his friends he has depression I think because he fears they will make fun of him. This tells me that Craig also wants to fit in. It is different with his family. I believe Craig doesn't want to burden them with his thoughts, which is reasonable, but isn't healthy for him. I predict that the cause of Craig's recovery will be because he get's new friends and starts communicating with his family.

     Second of all, Craig has strange ways of coping with his depression. These methods include being sarcastic about it and thinking about it as ridiculous. these coping methods make me think that Craig believes that he shouldn't be depressed and it is a mistake. They also tell me that Craig has become a relatively laid back person, which is a severe change because previous to his depression, he had spent a year studying for the test to get him into his high school. Overall, it seems apparent that Craig's depression has completely changed his personality.

     Overall, Craig's personality is only clearly visible to those that look for it, and if you do find it, it is a very intriguing one. Craig's personality and problems could be applicable to real life . People suffering from depression might be able to find comfort in this book and how he ends up solving his problems and would be able to relate. Though some might not be able to relate, it is still a very well written book.

Short Stories Have Large Impacts

The short story, The Stolen Party, is a story about a girl named Rosaura, who is  the daughter of a maid. She wants to go to the birthday party of the girl, Luciana, whose parents are the people Rosaura's mother works for. After arriving at the party, she feels she is a guest, but realizes that the work she did to help Senora Ines, another maid, made her just the maid's daughter. Close reading has allowed me to see into this story more than i would have otherwise.

The first close reading lens I used was for word choice. While using this lens, I noticed that during the story, the author spent a considerable amount of time speaking about Rosaura's thoughts about her mother, which usually aren't good. My thoughts on this lead me to believe that Rosaura's mother criticizes her a lot, or has a generally upset attitude. Another thing that I noticed while looking for word choice, was that Rosaura doesn't read people's signals.  This happens during the party, while she is doing maid work. Because of her lack of understanding of other people, I have analyzed that Senora Ines was using her to either help Rosaura's mother prove a point, that Rosaura was just the maid's daughter, or just to help her. This is what I recognized while using the word choice close reading lens.

 The second close reading lens I used was for possession and resistance to power. While using this lens, I noticed that Senora Ines had power, especially at the end of the story, while she is handing Rosaura money for the maid work that she did. I have inferred that Senora Ines' power came directly from Rosaura basically handing it to her while working. Another thing I noticed, was that Rosaura resisted Senora Ines' power, by hesitating to accept the money Senora Ines was handing her. The reason this was such a large resistance of power, was because if Rosaura didn't accept the money, I believe she would be disrupting an economic hierarchy, which was very hard, and dangerous, to escape from. This is what i recognized while using the power and resistance lens.

Overall, this relates to the real world in many different ways. Many people are very different from their parents and have very unlikely hopes and dreams. I have this happen in my life a lot. I have disagreements with my parents on almost every subject, ranging from when I have to do my homework to how long I should spend on the computer. But after all these fights, we always realize that we love them, no matter what. In fact, recently, my uncle ended a feud he had had with his father for many years. This just goes to show the power of family.