The Lorax

Josef Reuther

811

  The book "The Lorax" written by Dr. Suess personifies the danger of large industries on the environment using the "old Once-ler" to represent the industries and the "Lorax" to represent the environment. Unlike many recent stories and pieces that focus on criticizing large industries for what they are doing is wrong, however the story of the Lorax is told from the perceptive of the large industries who seem not to be able to defend themselves in recent pieces.

  The "Once-ler" finds the "Truffula Trees" and sees an economical opportunity that he quickly takes. He chops down the Truffula Trees and knits the soft tufts of material that grows on the top into "thneeds" which become the main product of his future industry. The Once-ler's industry grows quickly and he comes up with new technology to cut down the Truffula Trees quicker and more efficiently. The Lorax stands up for the trees and the animals being effected by the Once-ler's deforestation and warns him about the potential consequences that cutting down the trees could have. The Once-ler, however seems not to care about the well being of the animals who may be affected by the cutting down of the trees and is driven sheerly by financial reasons as many large industries today are too.

  The Once-ler and large corporations and industries often tend to lack foresight on how their actions may have affects on the environment and other people. The Once-ler was unable to see how cutting down the Truffula Trees would effect the animals and didn't know until he had done irreversible damage to the nature there turning the once colorful environment there into nothing but gray soil. I think that by telling the story out of the perspective of the Once-ler the book shows how he recognized that he made a mistake. 

  As can be seen the Lorax gives the large companies a voice this is achieved by having the old Once-ler represent the large industries that cause the environment to deteriorate. Large industries are not given much of a voice and seem to be incapable of defending themselves in the Lorax, however "big industries" have their voice and it shows them acknowledging that they have made mistakes and would like to reverse them.

The Sneetches

Josef Reuther
811

  The book "The Sneetches" by Dr Suess deals with two different groups of creatures, on the one hand the star bellied sneetches and on the other hand the sneetches with no stars on their bellies known as plain belly sneetches. The star bellied sneetches think that they are superior to the plain belly sneetches and so they prohibit the plain bellied sneetches from socially associating themselves with them.

 Sylvester a seperate creature comes into play with his "Star On" "Star Off" machines allowing the plain bellied sneetches to become like their more elite counter parts. Once all of the sneetches seem to be equal and all of them have stars, the original star bellied sneetches claim that having no stars is better than having stars on their bellies and so they all passed through the "Star Off" machine removing the stars off their bellies. The now plain belly sneetches are fixated with being superior over the other sneetches and want to be different from them and better. However the now newly star bellied sneetches want to be exactly like their opposites. From here on the two competing groups go through the machines again and again the original star bellied sneetches always wanting to be different and the other sneetches following to become just like them. In the end the sneetches are unable to remember who started of as a star bellied sneetch and who didn't. The sneetches are all at once struck by an epiphany that the sneetches are not very different from one another that really they are basically the same and that they can coexist in harmony.

  The story of the sneetches is very similar to the persecution of Jews during World War II and how Jews and Nazis were very similar they lived in the same towns and ate the same foods and were virtually indistinguishable people. Like the sneetches it presents us with a lesson that race and ethnicity should not be the markers dividing our societies. The original star bellied sneetches were initially competing with the plain bellied sneetches and believed that they were better than the others, however by the end of the book they realized that they should instead live in harmony with the other sneetches.

  As can be seen the sneetches who are initially competing with another and the star bellied sneetches who won't let the the other sneetches associate themselves with them because they feel superior learn realize that they almost exactly the same kind and should be able to peacefully coexist.

"And Tango Makes Three"

Josef Reuther

811

  The story "And Tango Makes Three" by Peter Parnell and Justin Richardson talks about a pair of penguins in the Central Park Zoo and how their sexualities are different from the other penguins. It mirrors the gay rights struggle occurring currently in the United States. The story also portrays the idea of cooperation between two groups in this case homosexuals and non-homosexuals.

         One piece of evidence that corroborates this idea about the book is that unlike the other penguins in the Central Park Zoo who find mates of the opposite gender Roy and Silo find each other. Although they are both male penguins they act as if they were not and like all the other penguins they built a nest, however when the time came for the penguins to raise offspring Roy and Silo found themselves at a loss. Their zoo keeper who had been observing them noticed that they seemed to be "in love" and eventually brought them a penguin egg. The other penguins also didn't treat Roy and Silo differently they accepted them for who they were. Roy and Silo treated the egg as their own and ultimately raised a penguin chick called Tango. 

         Another aspect of the story is that despite the fact that Roy and Silo are different from the other penguins they are treated as equals and respected just as the other penguins are by both the zoo keeper and the other penguins. I think that the book is showing that instead of treating homosexuals differently and depriving them of certain rights they should be treated as equals to non-homosexuals. The zoo keeper treated Roy and Silo as equals to the other penguins and even went out of his way to get them an egg to make them feel like equals to the other penguins. Homosexuality is believed to be wrong by some people and that it can be fixed by religion others even believe that homosexuality is a sickness that can be cured by certain healing options. This book gives you an example that homosexuality occurs in nature and that it can't simply be cured by religion.

         The story "And Tango Makes Three” deals with two different groups specifically homosexuals and non-homosexuals.  I think that Roy and Silo's story should influence others to treat gays like anybody else and not deprive them of certain rights like marriage especially in such a diverse city as New York. As can be seen homosexuality is not simply a illness of sorts that can be cured it occurs all throughout nature, and I strongly believe that Gays in our modern society should be treated as equals. 

"Justice Denied"

Josef Reuther

811 ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

“Justice Denied”

            The article “Justice Denied” by Upfront Magazine authors Dan Barry, Campbell Robertson, and Robbie Brown talks about a series of racially motivated murders. It focuses on several killings that primarily targeted African Americans during the 1960s in the South of the United States. The great majority of these homicides were never solved up to this day. Frank Morris for instance a black merchant in Ferriday, Mississippi who owned a shoe repair shop was in it when two white men burned it down. Morris died 4 days later from his wounds without ever naming or describing the men who burnt the shop. He most likely feared that if he

named the men to the authorities they would seek retribution on his family. His family was never able to figure out who killed Morris as much as they might have sought revenge. Morris’ case was one of many unsolved cases that were racially motivated.

Many families also were too scared or reluctant to come forward with charges many lacked faith in the judicial system even more they feared retaliation from groups like the Klu Klux Klan. However even when the F.B.I recently decided to investigate some of these cases more closely, they often came up with nothing. The main factor leading to this was simply the passage of time between the murder and when it was being investigated. The families of the people who were killed received  no justice. Personally, I think that they should have received the justice that they deserved and should not have been muted out of fear for retaliation. Racism has scarred this country for so long and even does today. Although people don’t kill each other over their race anymore, I do hear the N-word so often it’s unbelievable. Before saying it people barely think about where and under which circumstances the word came about. I think the fact that people use it all over is not fair and just to the African Americans who believe the word is offensive.

Banning Books

Josef Reuther

811

Dear Ms. Berner,

            It has come to my attention that you intend to ban several books with in the 6^th grade library. I think this is absolutely wrong. School officials should not misuse their authority to ban books for a student community, instead young readers should be able to make their own literary choices. Students at M.S. 51 are capable of deciding what they can read and what may be inappropriate.

            One piece of evidence that corroborates my claim about literary decisions is that most of the time books are being banned for senseless reasons. At St. Joseph’s Catholic School for instance the “Harry Potter” series by J.K. Rowling was banned for its depiction of witchcraft. “Reverend Ron Barker, removed the books, declaring that the themes of witchcraft and sorcery were inappropriate for a Catholic School,” as Tania Deluzuriaga wrote in her article “Man of Ministry.” Banning a book for talking about magic and children who have magical abilities is ridiculous. To read about children who have magical abilities is truly harmless and banning these books for that reason for an entire school community is going too far. The students of this school should be able to choose, which books they want to read. If they do not find that witchcraft and sorcery are inappropriate for themselves there should be no one preventing them from reading the “Harry Potter” books. There may be children in the current 6^th grade who do not feel that the young adult fiction books are inappropriate, and banning books for these children is illogical.

            Another piece of evidence that substantiates this claim is that there may be children who are dealing with certain issues in their own lives that they read about in books. These books can potentially help these children deal with their own issues and make them feel that they are not alone. Each year approximately 6 million children in the United States are abused, mistreated or neglected in some way, according to childhelp.org. “The United States has among the worst records among industrialized nations- losing an average between 4 and 7 children everyday to child abuse and neglect,” the website also stated. “I spoke to sixty students, who’d come from sixteen different districts, and had survived depression, attempted suicide, gang warfare, sexual and physical abuse, absentee parents, poverty, racism, and learning disabilities in order to graduate,” as Sherman Alexie wrote after visiting a Seattle alternative high school in his article “Why the Best Kids Books Are Written in Blood.” All of these poor and innocent children who in some way are neglected or mistreated may be able to better cope with their issues if they have books that depict other children going through similar issues.

            One last piece of evidence that further validates my claim is that a single person banning a book for a larger body of students is rather absurd and intolerant. In a high school in a small town named Caney Creek in Montgomery County, Texas the book “Fahrenheit 451” by Ray Bradbury was banned. A tenth grader at the school, Diana Verm claimed that the book was not fit for high school students because of its “inappropriate” language. She also believed that the book targeted Christianity, because of the burning of the bible, as ABC channel 13 reported. Although Diana Verm was given an alternate assignment her father pressed on and went to the school committee. Alton Verm, Diana Verm’s father wanted to ban the book in the high school. Banning this book for an entire school merely because it uses “Gods name in vain” is extremely narrow minded and does not take into perspective the other students at the high school who may not have the same opinion on the banning of “Fahrenheit 451.” Ironically the message of the book is to have a greater tolerance for books. As can be seen, some people think that young adult fiction talks about issues that teenagers should not yet know about when indeed other teenagers are experiencing these problems first hand. “It is also possible- indeed, likely that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures,” as Meaghan Cox Gurdon wrote in her article “Darkness Too Visible.” Some people do believe that young adult books are too extreme, however it should not be the decision of people like Ms. Gurdon to ban books for children. Banning certain books at our 6^th grade library would be just as wrong.

            It is clear that the 6^th   graders at Middle School 51 should be able to make their own literary choices. People are banning classical books, best sellers, and even the Merriam Webster Dictionary has been banned in some schools for “inappropriate words,” as the website “Top 10s” referred to it. Parents of these students should receive a form in the beginning of the year asking them if they give their children permission to read young adult fiction and other books that talk about the very real issues of teenagers in our day. Books should not be banned because of the opinion of a single person or even a group of people if it makes a decision for a larger body of people. School officials should facilitate and assist students in understanding books rather than banning them.

“Censorship is the enemy of truth even more than a lie. A lie can be exposed, censorship can prevent us from knowing the difference”- Bill Moyers.