American Author Thesis Proposal

American Author Thesis Proposal

For the American author paper I found some connections between all the books that I read. The two main connections I found were that the main characters were all faced with changes they had to get use to and that they main characters seemed to have people surrounding them to either move forward or go backwards and mess up their future. I believe that both would be good to guide my paper, but I feel that facing challenges would be more interesting because a lot of people can relate to overcoming challenges. As my thesis statement I’m planning on writing something between the lines of: Everyone goes through challenges and they’re always hard but when you overcome them you become a stronger person.

This challenges my critical thinking because in some of the books that I read the challenges that were overcome are very noticeable but in other cases it’s hard to notice them or there is more than one challenge. In order to prove my thesis I will have to find a way to connect it to the life of the author and really come up with a reason on why his novels/books are based on overcoming challenges and having to get use to new circumstances. I do believe that I can guide my paper with this thesis because some of the books have one or more challenges that are faced by the main character, but I also believe that once I start writing my paper I might come up with a better idea or I would add other themes that I believe are relevant with all of the books I read.

I believe that with this thesis I will be able to analyze the writer’s style in some ways, but if not I will find a way to analyze the writer’s style by redoing my thesis or by adding things that allows me to analyze the writing style that is being use. Well, I understand that he himself had to get used to new things like a new family and that must have been very challenging. He also grew up in Harlem and his book take place in Harlem so he writes from what he has or is seeing which I feel is pretty unique because there are people who write about fantasy or things that have very little knowledge of. I feel that the stories he provides are things that he has witnessed and not everyone has the ability of fully expressing what they have seen or heard of in such good detail. I believe that his books are relevant to what he lived or saw people live through. I feel that my paper will do well with the thesis that I have chosen and if I put a lot of effort into it.

Reading Blog #6

I read all of my third book it was 170 pages long.

What I read was that the main character Anthony "Spoons" Whiterspoon is studying at an academy named Wallingford and he has a girlfriend named Gabriela "Gabi" and at the academy he makes friends but feels a little out of place. His friends names are Chanelle, Brand and Julie. He has been at the academy for five months and he goes back home on a train with Chanelle and on their way they talk about their families and what they are going to do during Christmas break. When they get to New York they each go their separate ways and Spoons goes to see Gabi. When he is with Gabi she tells him that her mom is sick and that she is responsible for her younger brother and her grandfather who's going blind. Spoons feels a little tense being back in his neighborhood because he was use to the life at the academy. During his break one of his friends from the neighborhood gets stabbed and he finds out that his true love Gabi is using drugs. He also hangs out with some of the kids from the academy and goes to play basketball and Chanelle invites him to her house and he accepts and when they were there they started to kiss and then they stopped but Chanelle told Spoons they were going to have to keep it on the down low when they got to the academy like they had an official relationship even though she knows that Spoons is going with Gabi. After that Spoons goes to met up with Gabi but she doesn't show up and then she calls him at 4 in the morning and tells him her mom died. The next day Spoons goes to her house and she is not there and he talks to her grandfather who tell him about the Dominican Republic. Spoons spend about three days looking for her and when he finally finds her she high and a mess. Then they went to Gabi's house and Spoons had to call Chanelle and borrow a dress because Gabi didn't have anything to wear to the funeral. Then Spoons didn't go to school because he helped Gabi find a place for rehabilitation and then he went to school and saw Chanelle again nothing romantic ever happened. He graduated that summer and went back to Harlem and he found out that Gabi's little brother was using drugs and he was also put on rehabilitation. Once the summer ended Spoons went to Brown University and Gabi went to visit him and they were still a couple but did not know where they would end up in a few years and Spoons is a little uneasy because if the streets got the better of Gabi they could get him too.

In this book I found a few different themes. One was drugs because some of the characters were using them. Another was changes because a lot of changes occurred like when Spoons went back after five months and found his girlfriend doing drugs. The last one that was not mentioned very much was the police because there was a part were some people were going to get taken to jail and they were not obeying the cops and they got beat up.

One of my thesis could be: It is hard to get use to new things, but when you do it is usually for the best.
The second idea is: There are times when people want to hold us back or push us forward, but we just need to know who to trust.

Reading Blog #5 1/2

I read from page 211 to page 266. I finished my second book and I'm beginning my third book.

What I read was that Slam's grandmother got out of the hospital and is doing better. Also Slam almost hit one of his teachers because he felt dissed and then he understood that the teacher was right and apologized. Slam finally finished his video for school and he played against Carver his old high school. He had to cover Ice his best friend it was a tough game because they knew each other very well. Slam and his team ended up winning the game and Ice invited Slam to a party. At the party Slam realizes that Ice is dealing crack and they start fighting after that Ice and Slam don't speak to each other any more. The next day Slam goes to school and everyone is congratulating him and saying he played very well. His English teacher asks him to show his video to the school and he invites Mtisha and when the scene that had Ice on it came up he looked away. The book ended with the coach telling them that they have to practice hard for the tournament of champions because they have to face Carver again and he gives Slam respect with it comes to his game.

I have not been able to come up with more ideas for my paper just yet but my idea of determination is strong because in the first book Steve is determined to get out of jail and he cooperates the whole time and he get out free and with out any charges. In the second book it seems that Slam is determined to a few things. One is to do well in school and by the end he is doing better because he's actually doing work. The second is to find out if Ice is dealing or not and he finds out that Ice is and that ends their friendship. The last and most important because it seems to be the main focus of the book is getting the respect he deserves on the court from the coach and he does. Now, I just need to find out if this occurs in my third book as well.

Reading Blog #5

I read and still am reading my second book, but I'm very close in finishing it I only need about 50 more pages. I read from page 154 to page 211 and the book consists of 266 pages.

What I read was that Slam's team was playing against Trinity and there was a white boy named Brothers who was on top of Slam's game the whole time. Slam and his team made a huge comeback and only lost by one point and the whole team was upset. I also read that Slam's dad broke his arm and that Mtisha invited him to dinner and made him 30 math problems which she wants him to solve. Mtisha also asked Slam if he had talked to Ice to see if he was dealing drugs and he told her he would do it in a few days. The I read that Slam went looking for Ice but Ice was not home so he talked to Ice's mom for a little bit and when he was leaving he ran into Ice outside. While they were talking some guy was having a heart attack across the street and Ice gave money to a girl who called 911 and to two guys who gave the man CPR. After that Slam asked Ice if he was dealing because he had a lot of money and a bunch of nice clothes and Ice answered that he was not. When Slam went home he was told that Mtisha had called and he called her back and she told him she had found the camera but that he had to go pay Carl (owner of a pawn shop) and that she would give it to him the next day at one of Ice's basketball games. Slam got the score to the PSAT and he got a 740 and a lot of his friends got 1100 or higher.I also read that Slam's team had a game against Hunter and Slam got mad that he was not starting and at the coach for dissing his game. The team was losing by a lot with one minute left to play and the coach wanted to put him in the game and Slam didn't go in because he felt like he was being used only when certain people wanted and after the half time Goldy (assistant coach) convinced him that he should play and he did.

I have not come up with a specific theme or idea I want to guide my paper on and it is because I find it very hard to make connections between my books because they are about different topics. What I have come up with previously was self-determination and I have come up a new ideas. The idea is being exposed to new things specifically a new culture. This came up because in the first book a young man had to get used to the life in jail which is very different from the real world because in jail you have to be tough and hide your emotion and in the real world you don't have to but sometimes you prefer to. In the second book the young man has to get used to a new school, new friends,new team,new coach, and new curriculum. The young man was use to going to a school were people really didn't care about the grades and at the new school it seems thats all they care about.

Reading Blog #4

I'm still on my second book because I have been reading it slowly. In these last few days I read from page 107 to page 154. What I read was that Slam had done really bad on his test and the teacher said he had a hard time giving him the grade he got. Slam is also upset because he's still not starting in the basketball games and he's told by the assistant coach that he needs to act as a team player otherwise he will not start any of the games and he is also told that he needs to raise his grades or the coach won't let him play. In the pages I read it also focuses on the health of his grandma and how it seems she's doing better but she's actually getting worse. Also since Slam wants to raise his grades he decides to talk to Mtisha and she agrees to help him with math. When he goes to her house for help he notice it's not going to be easy because she's not going to give him the answer and he gets upset an leaves. When he gets home his younger brother tells him that he lost the camera that Slam had checked out of school to do his project and he gets upset. After that he continues to try in his math work and he talks to a friend he calls Ducky about basketball and how in the next game they are going to play together and make Ducky look good because he's not that good at basketball. Then he talks to another teammate that tells him that a scout is going to come to the game and he needs to look good because he really needs the scholarship and Slam gets upset because the coach didn't tell him about the scout.
In this book I noticed that the language in it is very easy to understand and slang is used throughout it. I also noticed that proper English is also used depending on the character that is speaking. In the first book that I read was written as movie script and that good part about that is that you get different perspectives of the story and not just one perspective. There are many characters and they all recall the event in questioned in slightly different ways. The story is also seen as an outside view at points and the language is easily understood. For both books the description is incredible, it makes me feel like I watching everything happen instead of reading it and that is what keeps me reading these books.

Reading Blog #3

I'm still reading my second book. I read from page 61 to page 107. What I read in these pages was that Slam's grandma is getting sicker and he is still behind in his classes. I also read that his basketball coach is not impressed by what he is doing on the court because it seems like he is showing off instead of being a part of the team. Also, for one of his classes he has to do a project and what he and his partner decide to do is video tape what Slam does on his free time and what his neighborhood is like. Then I read that he had to take a math test and he did not know how to do it and he looked at one of his classmates papers and found out how to do and then he kept trying on all the other problems.
As topics from the book I'm thinking self-determination and motivation because Slam is determined to be in the NBA some day and he motivates himself and get motivated by his friend to keep playing. That is why I think this is a good topic. Also I connected self-determination in both of my books in one form or another. In the previous book it was by the main character believing in his innocence and never giving up for freedom even when things got rough and also because he was determined to use his experience as a film and show others that prison is not a joke.
In this book I have not seen any big symbols yet. But one thing that keeps showing up is the basketball coach. He seems to always be dissatisfied with Slam. I think it might be because the coach wants Slam to do better with the books and with sportsmanship (working as a team player) because his skills on the court are great. I'm not very sure if that's a symbol but I feel that the coach will have something to do with what happens to Slam.

Reading Blog #2

I started reading my second American author book during this break. The book that I'm reading is Slam! So far I have read up to page 61 (chapter 6). What I read in the book was that a 17 year old boy named Greg Harris has a deep passion for basketball and the only thing that makes him mad is not being able to play or getting dissed on the court this story takes place in New York. He was going to a school named Carver and he got transfered into a school named Latimer with is a magnet (integrated) school and he goes out for the basketball team. Greg is really good at basketball and all his friends from his neighborhood and old school call him Slam because he like to dunk a lot. In these chapters we also hear about two of his friends from his old school. One of them gets referred to as Ice and he likes to play basketball too and Slam has known him since they were little. His other friend is a girl named Mtisha and he has known her for a long time and he has a huge crush on her. I also read about Slam's family, he has a younger brother named Derek, a mom who's always worried about him and school, a dad who is alright when he has a job, and a grandmother who is very ill because she has a tumor that has spread. The basketball coach gives slam a hard time because he wants Slam to play with the team and not hog the ball and Slam is also getting a hard time from his principal because he is very far behind and since this school is more advanced than his previous one he needs to caught up.
A good topic for this could be passion because Slam is very passionate for basketball and will do anything to continue playing it. I find easy to use this as a topic because throughout the book I will read whether or not this passion for basketball will grow or become less and I will also be able to read what it is he's capable of doing for his passion of basketball. I think another good topic could be difficulties or hardships because from the beginning you read that he's faced with problems and he is most likely going to be faced with more throughout the story and he's going to have to find a way to over come them.