Water For Elephants 4

            From 1920-1933, transporting and drinking alcohol in the United States of America was against the law, this is referred to as prohibition. Prohibition was national law and was actually part of our constitution, the 18 amendment. It is hard to believe that something so ordinary and person al was regulated by the government to such an extent. We live in a world today where bars are on every street and restaurants make the most money from the sale of alcohol. To think of a time where this was illegal, is difficult. Water for Elephants takes place during this period in American history where people brewed their own liquor and everyday citizens became criminals just because they had a beer.

            Life on the circus train was full of adventure, hardship and colorful characters with nowhere else to go. The Benzini Brothers train car was, not surprisingly, full of illegal alcohol. At any time, performers, workers and owners could be seen drinking alcohol from cheap homemade moonshine to expensive brandy or champagne. Jacob was confused about how so much alcohol made it onto the train. “We always head through Canada in the beginning of the season…their laws are much more civilized” pg 92.  When the train went through Canada, the staff would smuggle huge amounts of alcohol in the animal cars, the ones border patrols were less likely to search on there way back into the U.S. Prohibition didn’t seem to work at all, The Benzini Bros. staff was drunk all the time, like the rest of the country they had little regard for this law.

            Illegal drinking took place all the time in Prohibition America, it made ordinary people into criminals. I think it was a very ineffective policy because 13 yrs after the 18^th amendment was passed into law, it was overturned by the 21^st amendment and alcohol was legal once again. As we see all the time, alcohol can be the undoing of many people but I’m not sure that I agree with the government telling you can’t make your own decisions about it. At least when it is legal it is regulated and safe to drink. Illegally made liquor was not always safe to drink as Camel, Jacobs working man friend would find out the hard way. He drank some illegal Extract and ended up becoming paralyzed and disabled. There was a compound added to the extract to get around certain laws, this compound caused paralysis. Tragedies like this would not have occurred if liquor was legal at the time.

Social Awarness #3- Steroids in Sports

            I am a huge fan of baseball and follow just about every aspect of the sport; statistics, players, teams, news, and rules/laws. For my social issue, I decided to research the topic of the usage of steroids by athletes. Particularly, the usage of steroids in baseball. In baseball, steroids are illegal and I have mixed feelings about it.

            On one side, I think that steroids should be legal. Steroids make the game more interesting and more fun to watch. It may not be right, but I enjoy watching people knock 60+ homers, and pitchers throwing 103 mph. That’s how it used to be when steroids were legal, but now that steroids aren’t legal, the best hitters in the league are getting 50 home runs- if that. It’s not as exciting to see the most RBIs (runs batted in) be 126. A couple of years ago, people would get 146 RBIs. Also, players need to recover from injuries quickly. When Mark Texiera pulls a hamstring, I don’t want him to be out for the next year. I want to see him in a couple of weeks, stretching and scooping poorly thrown balls while nearly in a full split. From a fan’s point of view, I want steroids to be legal; it makes the game more interesting and helps it run more smoothly.

            On the other side, I don’t want steroids to be legal. All of the greats; Mantle, Dimaggio, Ruth, Aaron, and more all set the records before steroids were even circulating in sports. Talking About the Past from the NY Times sheds light on how these icons are getting beaten by people who take the drugs. Why should Roger Maris’ record of 61 home runs in a single season, without steroids, be broken by someone who is using performance enhancing drugs? Shouldn’t it at least be noted that the person did use some? It isn’t fair that all the legends records are getting beaten by people with an extra boost of strength and energy. From an authority’s point of view and a statistics junky’s point of view, steroids should remain illegal because it isn’t fair that the greats are getting their records broken by people who have used performance enhancing drugs.

            The article which I formed these feelings from; Talking About the Past by the NY Times, talks about the St. Louis Cardinal’s 1^st baseman and hitter Mark Maguire, a man who retired from the sport a couple of years ago after beating Roger Maris, a NY Yankees hitter from the 1950’s-60’s for the most single season home runs (61), in 1998. Mark Maguire was caught with steroids and till this day, it is still debated whether Maguire’s record should be taken off the record book or not, or if Maguire should even be considered to be inducted into the Baseball Hall of Fame.

            The issue of Performance Enhancing drugs being used in major league sports is a difficult and complex one. I can’t make out a clear cut conclusion on this issue. Both sides have valid arguments, I don’t know yet if I am for drugs I sports or against it.

Articles I read:

 http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/13/sports/baseball/13rhoden.html 

http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/health/diseasesconditionsandhealthtopics/steroids/index.html

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/magazine/03/11/steroids1/index.html

2 voice poem

Bold line-Both speak

Underlined line-Person 1

Italicized line-Person 2

I live for baseball

I am a player

I am a true fan

I speak for what I believe

Everybody is doing steroids, I’m not the largest, fastest or strongest person in the sport and I need to get signed for a new contract

 I believe that steroids should stay illegal, in my day, players didn’t have steroids and were smaller, but also naturally better athletes. I want today’s stats to be honest; it’s not fair to have the legends’ numbers to be broken because of a drug

Times have changed

If everything is becoming more extreme; scary movies are scarier, racy movies have become racier, and I’m competing for your entertainment dollar, come see the home run show

Everything moves so fast, why can’t baseball stay the same? Maris’ 61 in ’61 was real, a record not broken for over 30 years, a record broken by a needle, not an athlete

If he’s doing it, and he’s doing it, what choice do I have?

Water For Elepahnts 3

Uncle Al, the owner of the Benzini Brothers circus, lucked into that position. In 1928, the Benzini Brothers ran out of money and couldn’t make it to the next town. The manager fled and left everything behind. The railroad company sold the entire train to Uncle Al for a very low price because they just wanted to free up their rails. At this time (the late 1920’s), before the invention of television, circus trains were very popular in America due to the entertainment factor. Where else would little Johnny Whipple who lived in the middle of Kansas see a Polar Bear or a Lion, let alone together? After the stock market crash in 1929, many circuses went down. When Uncle Al would get word that a circus was closing, he would rush to that town and pick up some pieces for pennies on the dollar. A camel here, a tiger there, some stranded performers, and of course, freaks.

            “What Uncle Al craves above all else, what Uncle Al dreams of at night, are freaks. Not made freaks…Uncle Al craves real freaks. Born freaks.” (78). There’s a freak Uncle Al is looking for, he worked on a circus that collapsed. Charles Mansfield-Livingston was a good looking man with a parasitic twin growing out of his chest. He named this infant-like twin Chaz. He dressed Chaz in mini suites and black patent shoes. This description of dressing up Chaz is disturbing, and that’s just why Uncle Al wanted him. He wanted people that the audience would cringe at, rather than someone who had learned a freaky skill or decided to tattoo their body from head to toe. He wanted the freaks of nature.

            Last month, I went to a freak show where there were both freaky performers and freaks of nature. One guy swung a bowling ball from his ears, and one midget who was about 4 feet tall had no arms, only hands growing out of his shoulders; the freak performer and the freak of nature. They called the midget The Penguin. I felt sad for this guy because his job was to be cringed at and at times, laughed at, it was all because he was born different from the rest of us. In 1929 or today, life must be very difficult for The Penguin or Charles Mansfield-Livingston. On one hand, it’s sad that their job is to be put on display and mocked, but on the other hand, life would be hard regardless, living the life of a performer, which is a pretty descent one, gives them respect, income, and a place in a world that wouldn’t accept them because they are different.

Social Action 1

Politicians hide themselves away
They only started the war
Why should they go out to fight?
They leave that role to the poor [

Time will tell on their power minds
Making war just for fun
Treating people just like pawns in chess
Wait 'til their judgement day comes
Yeah!

A band not usually well known for their social agenda is Black Sabbath. On their second album “Paranoid”, released in 1970, the song War Pigs is one of the most powerful anti-war songs of its time. Black Sabbath is often seen as a Satan worshiping, drug fueled band when really they were pioneers of Heavy Metal and highly politically influenced. The song “War Pigs” is about the people who sit back and gain from war while the others give their lives. It is a song released during the brutal Vietnam War and it calls attention to the ultimate penalty for the politicians who “treat people like pawns in chess”. Black Sabbath calls these decision makers “war pigs”.  In the lyrics it is clear that the “war machine” is profitable to someone, but not the poor who are often the people on the front lines of war. Although this song was written in 1970, it is still relevant today in our current war situation, big defense companies and their friends making tons of money while less educated, ordinary Americans losing their lives and their health in a violent war. According to the song, on their “judgment day” they will be “begging mercy for their sins, Satan laughing spreads his wings”.

Overview of good blog posts 2

One good blog post I read this week is by Mahdi Taye (803). Mahdi is reading Nineteen Minutes by Jodi Picoult. I especially liked Mahdi’s post because it was focused, he used engaging and articulate vocabulary, and all of his paragraph etiquettes were on point; correct grammar, indented paragraphs, underlining only the title of a book, and everything else. His post read smoothly and was agreeable. Mahdi’s blog post was an inspiring one.

            Another good blog post I read this week was Roy Wagner’s (803). He talked about sophisticated topics, used text evidence, and formed a very organized and focused reading response. Roy is reading the Vampire Diaries by L.J. Smith. Although Roy’s post was awesome, I have some suggestions for him; there are little nuances with writing responses and essays. First off, indent each  paragraph-you skipped a line and I’m not sure if that is the correct way to break up paragraphs. Also, remember to underline or italicize book titles (not the author’s name). Besides that, good job.     

Water For Elephants part 2

In the book Water For Elephants, like in the world we live in today, there are very distinct differences in social classes. The rich are in their own class and the poor are in their own class too. Every day in the world around us, we are reminded of how the lives of people in different classes don’t look anything like each other. In our city, it would not be unusual to see a woman with a $1000 handbag stepping over a homeless person near her doorway. This is an extreme example of class difference but there are many less obvious ones. The school you go to depends on where you live so if your parents pay more money, you are given better education opportunities. The distance between the classes is widening. The circus train is like a small scale city, it has its leaders ands its workers and they all seem to know their place on the ladder.

The Benzini Bros train illustrates the difference of classes very well. For example, the lower class workers on the train are called roustabouts. Many are often not paid and work only for food and shelter. These roustabouts are the manual laborers. Their jobs consist of taking up and putting down the tents, lifting heavy equipment-basic grunt work. They live in poor conditions; “The odor of unwashed bodies and clothes is overwhelming. The bunks, stacked three high, hold at least one and sometimes two men, as do the spaces beneath them” (55). The author clearly shows the difference in classes because when you compare that setting to what is described later on in the train car that held Uncle Al (the owner of the circus); “I can see burnished wood and intricate light fixtures…” You can tell that this room, which has a waiter to refill the Brandy Snifters, is a completely different living situation than that of the roustabouts. Another example of Sara Gruen showing class difference is the working class character Camel is described as “Staggering, holding a flask in one hand and a roll-your-own in the other” (54), while Uncle Al is described as “Twaddling a fat cigar… a snifter of Brandy rests on the table in front of him.” (56). While Camel is making do with a homemade cigarette and a small bottle of cheap Moonshine, Uncle Al has luxuries like fat cigars and getting refills of expensive liquor (which wasn’t even legal at the time), and they only live a few train cars away from each other; much like our city.

Right now in our city, there are people living like roustabouts trying to make a point about the injustice of class difference. Countless people are sleeping outside in a park on Wall Street to call attention to this issue. Although I understand their cause, I don’t always agree with their tactics. Humans have been living with class differences since the beginning of time, but in our modern, more progressive world, the class gap should not be widening, we should be moving forward together.

Overview of good blog posts 1

One good blog post I read this weekend was Stephanie’s. She wrote about the Hunger Games, which she obviously really enjoyed. She used inspiring and articulate vocabulary which engaged the reader from the start. She did a great job, but there is one suggestion I have for her. I who can speak for myself and many others do not read fantasy, I don’t know what the Hunger Games are about, so if you wouldn’t mind, could you give some more general background on it, so that we can understand even more what you are taking away from it and why you are having such good input on it. Otherwise, great job.

Another good post that I read was Terrence’s. He wrote about Jim and Me by Dan Gutman. Terrence had a good focus and good details, but one this I suggest to him is that he uses more specific quotes with more page numbers. His evidence is good, but there is a time for general evidence, and there is a time and place for specific quotes from the text. Not all evidence can be general; a balance of both makes a perfect response to a book.

Water For Elephants part 1

            I wish I didn’t know what Jacob meant when he talks about “the silent ones, the ones with Frozen Faces and withering limbs or whose heads and hands shake too violently to hold utensils…” (8). But, I know exactly what he’s talking about; as a young child, I had taken many trips to a nursing home visiting my great grandmother (my dad’s dad’s mom) in which case I had to experience and internalize the images of old women either not doing anything, or telling me that they would get presents for me from their closet. They didn’t have a closet. I remember other people’s great grandparents shriveled up and sometimes repeating the same sentences to themselves or screaming in the hall ways for no reason. I experienced what people who suffered dementia and other illnesses that took away their senses and ability to take care of themselves. It was all really difficult watching these people losing their minds.

            In the first chapter we meet Jacob Jankowski, the main character in Water For Elephants by Sara Gruen. He used to work in a Circus, but now he lives in a nursing home because of age, but mostly injury. He doesn’t belong in the Nursing Home-the crowd is too dull for him. His body is aging quickly, but his mind is still sharp. All his choices are taken; he has to eat what he’s given. He longs for crunchy apples and corn on the cobb even more than a women. Jacob had been married for a lifetime, “Being the survivor stinks,” (13).  I find Jacob to be very selfless because even though he hates being the survivor, he’s happy that he was the one to suffer through loneliness, loss, and being put into a nursing home by his family, rather than his love having to go through that.

            Water For Elephants apparently is a book that jumps from one time period, Jacob at 23, to the present day, Jacob at 90 or 93 (he can’t quite remember). A Cornell educated Veterinarian who was in his last week of Veterinary school was given the chilling news that his parents had died in a vehicle accident. The year was 1931. The country was sinking into the Great Depression. Jacob’s dad, a Veterinarian as well, died in debt and left Jacob with nothing. Nothing but his Ivy League education. Jacob returns to school to take final exams, but can’t finish a test. He runs out of the hall and keeps running until his feet are blistered and he finds himself hopping onto the Benzini Brothers’ Circus train. Already Jacob has lost so much, his parents when he’s 23 and his freedom at 93. I wonder how much loss there is in the 70 years in between. We’ll soon find out.