Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Jeanne Huston's It Can't Be Helped

It Can’t Be Helped is a story where the author Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston is the main character of the story. She is a very young Japanese girl, so the story is about how hard it was for her growing up here in the United States during the 1940’s with world war two going on. She loses her father real early in life because he gets taken away to prison. This happening was real hard on her family because he was the backbone of the family. He made all the decisions, he got food on the table, and he was just a jack-of-all-trades as they refer to him in the story.
She started off living in Ocean Park, near Santa Monica in a big house where they were the only Japanese family in the neighborhood. Her father liked it that way, but when he got taken away her mom not knowing what to do moved them to terminal island where it was a lot poorer it was a ghetto. Her house nothing more than a mere shack. They had family there that was the Jeanne’s Aunt an Uncle that was there reason, I believe, for them moving there. This was Jeanne’s first time ever being around other Japanese or going to school with them. And she was terrified of them because they where a lot tougher and meaner kids than her brother and her. Her brother and her would meet up after school and decide if they should run straight home or spilt up and take off. "At the time it seemed like years but in fact we had been there for two months", Jeanne commented. But the navy decided to clear Terminal Island completely. They were given forty-eight hours to clear out.
At this time in the story it shows just how strong a woman her mom is. What happens is the second-hand dealers are walking around just offering embarrassing prices for the goods on the island from the people, most of the time the people would take the money just because they needed it so bad and because they only had forty-eight hours to clear the island. When they offered Jeanne’s mom fifteen dollars for a three hundred dollar china set she got so angry that she smashed everyone of the dishes on the floor hurling near the dealer. This might not have been the best reaction, but I think it defiantly shows character in the fact that she wouldn’t settle for just any price.
The government then moved them to another little ghetto this time in downtown Los Angles. Here she experienced a lot of racism for example even in school she said her teacher would ignore or and would never help or with her work. They finally would make their third and final move. Her and all her brothers were relived to get out of downtown L.A because recently there had been numerous attacks on the Japanese there. They were moved to a camp called Manzanar where everyone was Japanese and greeted them as they got off the bus.
The author’s reason for writing this story I think was to share her experiences with the wold so we would know and have some understanding of how hard it was her and her people growing up with the war going on. Jeanne and I quote said, "writing about Manzanar was a way of coming to terms with the impact of the experience on her whole life." I think it was just something that was bottled up for so long and writing about it was a way to get it off her chest.
I am not to sure exactly what the author intended the reader to come away with after reading this story. But I know I came away with a sense of just how easy I got it in life. Sure life’s not perfect but after seeing what she went through growing up being forced to move every few months and having no say so in where that move is either and just seeing that she overcame all this. That just lets me know whatever obstacles in life I may come across I think I will be able to deal with it.
Summary
I picked my second article because it’s about something I do all the time. It’s all about poker and how it’s not as innocent as it looks. I personally think the article is ridiculous. They go so far as to say gambling could lead to drug use, unprotected sex, and criminal activity. That’s just absurd, I mean if gambling could lead to those things you could write an article with just about anything saying it would lead to criminal activity.
Then they give you all these statistics. Such as people who gamble before the age of twenty are three times as likely to come addicted to gambling, 50% of people who gamble before the age of twenty will become binge drinkers, and 75% of the people will smoke weed. Where did they even get these crazy statistics I know didn’t check every person whose gambled before the age of twenty.
The article is for the most apart about gambling addiction being a problem. I can agree with that. Gambling addiction can lead to many problems such as owing money and stealing to pay off these debts. I just think the article takes it a little bit far saying gamblers will most likely binge-drink and smoke weed.
Quotes & Questions
The first quote that really stood at for me was, that experts say television is one of if not the main reason for so many teens playing poker. Which I would guess is probably true.
The second quote that stood out was that people who gamble early in age would most likely be binge-drinkers and do criminal activity. I think that’s non-sense.
The first question I would ask is. Where did they get those statistics that, 50% of people who gamble before the age of twenty will become binge-drinkers, and 75% of the people will smoke weed? Because I don’t think it could be accurate
Another Question would be Is that guy who wrote this really just mad because he’s no good at poker?
Main Idea
The main idea of the article is that gambling addiction is a serous problem.
It says gambling can lead to spending money that was suppose to be for other things on gambling such as rent, insurance, collage money
It says gambling can lead to stealing to pay off debts.
It also says gambling can lead to missing important events like school

3 Comments:

At 7:43 AM, Blogger D a n a said...

You have done some good work here.

You may be interested to know that I wrote that article. I am pretty good at poker too; I could probably clean you out pretty quickly.

I wrote the article with evidence I found in USA Today and other places (the sources are at the end of the document). I wrote it because I thought it was a current issue young people may find interesting.

I am not sure I believe all the facts either. Somebody does, though, and that it what I used to help illustrate the points a little better.

I am happy that something I wrote got such a reaction.

Good work.
Thanks.

 
At 7:43 AM, Blogger D a n a said...

You have done some good work here.

You may be interested to know that I wrote that article. I am pretty good at poker too; I could probably clean you out pretty quickly.

I wrote the article with evidence I found in USA Today and other places (the sources are at the end of the document). I wrote it because I thought it was a current issue young people may find interesting.

I am not sure I believe all the facts either. Somebody does, though, and that it what I used to help illustrate the points a little better.

I am happy that something I wrote got such a reaction.

Good work.
Thanks.

 
At 7:44 AM, Blogger D a n a said...

You have done some good work here.

You may be interested to know that I wrote that article. I am pretty good at poker too; I could probably clean you out pretty quickly.

I wrote the article with evidence I found in USA Today and other places (the sources are at the end of the document). I wrote it because I thought it was a current issue young people may find interesting.

I am not sure I believe all the facts either. Somebody does, though, and that it what I used to help illustrate the points a little better.

I am happy that something I wrote got such a reaction.

Good work.
Thanks.

 

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