Monday, June 18, 2018

The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas


http://angiethomas.com/books
Sixteen-year-old Starr Carter moves between two worlds: the poor neighborhood where she lives and the fancy suburban prep school she attends. The uneasy balance between these worlds is shattered when Starr witnesses the fatal shooting of her childhood best friend Khalil at the hands of a police officer. Khalil was unarmed.  –– ADVERTISEMENT ––  Soon afterward, his death is a national headline. Some are calling him a thug, maybe even a drug dealer and a gangbanger. Protesters are taking to the streets in Khalil’s name. Some cops and the local drug lord try to intimidate Starr and her family. What everyone wants to know is: what really went down that night? And the only person alive who can answer that is Starr.

DISCUSSION QUESTIONS – with just one or two of the comments we had in general and for this question.

1. As Starr and Khalil listen to Tupac, Khalil explains what Tupac said “Thug Life” meant. Discuss the meaning of the term “Thug Life” as an acronym and why the author might have chosen part of this as the title of the book. In what ways do you see this in society today? (Chapter 1, p. 17)
- (LIFE) “Little infant fucks everybody” means the hate you give little infants fucks everybody as they grow.

2. Chapter 2 begins with Starr flashing back to two talks her parents had with her when she was young. One was about sex (“the usual birds and bees”). The second was about what precautions to take when encountering a police officer (Chapter 2, p. 20). Have you had a similar conversation about what to do when stopped by the police? Reflect upon or imagine this conversation.
- Some of us said we were taught to go to police when we have an emergency.
- Others were taught to show hand, be nice, talk slowly, etc. so as not to be seen as a target
- Others were taught not to talk to anyone

3. Thomas frequently uses motifs of silence and voice throughout the book. Find instances in the book where silence or voice and speech are noted, and talk about the author’s possible intentions for emphasizing these motifs.
- Pauses are ways for Starr to talk to herself or the audience (break the third wall)

4. At the police station after Starr details the events leading up to the shooting, the detective shifts her focus to Khalil’s past. Why do you think the detective did this? Discuss Starr’s reaction to this “bait” (Chapter 6, pp. 102–103).
- “Are you putting Kahlil and Star on trial?” is her comeback because she knows it is shifting focus from the murderous cop

5. Once news of Khalil’s shooting spreads across the neighborhood, unrest arises: “Sirens wail outside. The news shows three patrol cars that have been her poor, urban neighborhood. This gripping debut novel by Angie Thomas echoes conversations about police brutality dominant in the news and moves readers beyond Twitter hashtags. Readers will feel energized to promote and advance social justice against police brutality and racism set ablaze at the police precinct . . . A gas station near the freeway gets looted . . . My neighborhood is a war zone” (Chapter 9, pp. 136–139). Respond to this development and describe some parallels to current events.
- Rodney King verdict
- Riots when police officers do not receive consequences
- Is it mob mentality?

6. How do you think Starr would define family? What about Seven? How do you define it?
- biology vs. supportive relationships vs. community

7. Chris and Starr have a breakthrough in their relationship—Starr admits to him that she was in the car with Khalil and shares the memories of Natasha’s murder (Chapter 17, pp. 298–302). Discuss why Starr’s admission and releasing of this burden to Chris is significant. Explore the practice of “code switching” and discuss how you might code switch in different circumstances in your own life.
- how we identify is different social/cultural groups
- how strong accents are, if you are from another country
- “native” speaker or user of technology vs. learning a language or technology
- boss vs. peers
- public vs. private

8. How does the neighborhood react to the grand jury’s decision and why (Chapter 23)? How does Starr use her voice as a weapon, and why does she feel that it is vital that she does? Refer back to “Thug Life” and discuss how the acronym resonates in this chapter.
- in the face of racism, finding your voice
- she takes the microphone and tells her story

9. Starr pledges to “never be quiet” Chapter 26, p. 444. After reading this book, how can you use your voice to promote and advance social justice? Reflect on how you and your community discuss and address inequality.

Monday, June 4, 2018

Human Acts by Han Kang



In the midst of a violent student uprising in South Korea, a young boy named Dong-ho is shockingly killed.   The story of this tragic episode unfolds in a sequence of interconnected chapters as the victims and the bereaved encounter suppression, denial, and the echoing agony of the massacre. From Dong-ho’s best friend who meets his own fateful end; to an editor struggling against censorship; to a prisoner and a factory worker, each suffering from traumatic memories; and to Dong-ho’s own grief-stricken mother; and through their collective heartbreak and acts of hope is the tale of a brutalized people in search of a voice. 

Questions to Consider:
1. What did you think of the use of second person perspective?
- Places you into the story but removes you from the character
- Makes it

2. Did this make the stories feel more or less personal?    
- In the action, but removed from the people

3. Do you see Human Acts as a novel or a collection of short stories?
- The second person made

4, Did you have a favorite (memorable?) chapter/story?    
- Torture scenes were terrible

5. Throughout the different perspectives, we missed the perspective of one of the soldiers fighting in the uprising. Would you have liked to read about this as well and was there another perspective you missed on the story?
- We didn’t feel that anything was missing
- If soldiers are killing innocent people, they don’t deserve a story

Our own questions
6. What do you think the story is about?
- What’s in the minds of people with trauma from war
- That traumatic stuff impacts your ability to relay the traumatic experience
- Koran War in the 1980’s

7. Emotional thoughts?
- Graphic details
- Difficult to read
- Rated a 6 or 7 out of 10 (best)

8. What did we learn? How do we feel about not having learned this?
- Historical context was unknown before reading this (We were alive during this time)
- There was a Korean Civil War and teenagers were rising up
- There is very little value placed on Asian folks
- Things would be very different in this country if the true history of the USA was being taught
- News stories didn’t even carry these stories
Eloquent rage: a black feminist discovers her superpower / Brittney Cooper
I’m still here: black dignity in a world made for whiteness / Austin Channing Brown

Why Rich Kids Are So Good at the Marshmallow Test
Ultimately, the new study finds limited support for the idea that being able to delay gratification leads to better outcomes. Instead, it suggests that the capacity to hold out for a second marshmallow is shaped in large part by a child’s social and economic background—and, in turn, that that background, not the ability to delay gratification, is what’s behind kids’ long-term success.

The failed replication of the marshmallow test does more than just debunk the earlier notion; it suggests other possible explanations for why poorer kids would be less motivated to wait for that second marshmallow. For them, daily life holds fewer guarantees: There might be food in the pantry today, but there might not be tomorrow, so there is a risk that comes with waiting. And even if their parents promise to buy more of a certain food, sometimes that promise gets broken out of financial necessity. …poverty can lead people to opt for short-term rather than long-term rewards; the state of not having enough can change the way people think about what’s available now. In other words, a second marshmallow seems irrelevant when a child has reason to believe that the first one might vanish.

These findings point to the idea that poorer parents try to indulge their kids when they can, while more-affluent parents tend to make their kids wait for bigger rewards. Hair dye and sweet treats might seem frivolous, but purchases like these are often the only indulgences poor families can afford. And for poor children, indulging in a small bit of joy today can make life feel more bearable, especially when there’s no guarantee of more joy tomorrow.

Summary: Human Acts by Han Kang

The following version of this book was used to create this study guide: Kang, Han. Human Acts. Hogarth, 2016.
Dong-ho is a middle school boy who wanders into the Provincial Office looking for the corpse of his best friend, Jeong-dae. There, he meets Eun-sook and Seon-ju, two girls who are volunteering to tend to the corpses. They ask Dong-ho to help them out, and the three soon become friends. In the main square, memorial services are carried out to honor the dead civilians.

One night, the army enters into the city, invading the Provincial Office. Even though Jin-su, one of the young men in the civilian militia, warns Dong-ho to go home to his family, he does not leave. He and a few other middle school boys are ordered to surrender to the army with their hands above their head. Dong-ho and the boys follow the instructions, but are shot down and killed.

The narration switches to Jeong-dae’s perspective after he has been killed. His body is piled up with hundreds of others and set on fire. Jeong-dae recalls the strange nature of being a soul stuck to one’s body after death. He is finally freed once the fire totally consumes his body.

The novel travels five years forward through time to 1985. Eun-sook is working as an editor in a publishing company, and she gets slapped seven times in an interrogation room, even though she has committed no crime and has no answers to help the police. She picks up a manuscript of a play from the ledger’s office, only to find that it has been severely censored. Later, she attends the play in person. The actors do not speak the words that were censored, but silently mouth them. Having read the manuscript dozens of times, Eun-sook is able to read their lips and recognize that they play is about Dong-ho’s death.

Five more years forward, the narrator takes the reader to a Gwangju prison in 1990. The prisoner explains the harsh beatings that he frequently received in the interrogation room, along with the minimal food and water that the guards provided for them. He reflects on his friendship with Jin-su, who was also held prisoner. Years after being released, they maintained their friendship, but struggled to deal with the pain of the past and became alcoholics. Eventually Jin-su took his own life. The prisoner frequently asks himself why he survived when Jin-su died.

The next chapter features Seon-ju’s experiences before and after working in the Provincial Office. As a young girl, she was part of a labor union and worked in a factory under inhumane conditions. She and several hundred other girls from the factory went on strike, and protested naked in the streets, under the impression that the police would not dare to harm bare, young girls. But the police brutally beat the girls, and Seon-ju was sent to the hospital. In 2002, she works in a small office as a transcriber for an environmental organization. Yoon, a professor writing a dissertation on victims of the Gwangju Uprising, contacts her and asks to interview her. She declines, unable to bring up the pain of the past once again.

In 2010, the novel shifts to the perspective of Dong-ho’s mother. Thirty years after the death of her son, she is still dealing with grief and loneliness. She remembers some of the most precious moments she shared with her son, and she reflects on his friendship with Jeong-dae.

In the epilogue, the writer, Han Kang, explains her connection to Dong-ho. Before the Gwangju Uprising, Kang and her family moved to Seoul. Her father sold their childhood home to Dong-ho’s father, so he ended up sleeping in the same bedroom in which Kang herself had slept. She remembers hearing about the violence unfolding through her parents’ hushed voices when she was a child. In the present moment, it is 2013 and she returns to Gwangju to visit her brother and do some research for the novel. She meets with one of Dong-ho’s brothers and he tells her, “Please write your book so that no one will ever be able to desecrate my brother’s memory again” (157). In the final scene of the novel, in a silent and somber moment, Kang visits Dong-ho’s snowy grave.