Reading Response

in the book Memos from Purgatory by Harlan Ellison it talked about the time that he had in the first book Web of City which was about street gangs and crime, but he got research from actually joining a street gang in Red Hook which at the time he said that it was the most dangerous place in Brooklyn. So he made this book to show people what actually happened.

It was surprising to see Harlan to do this because he just came back from a different state and he is willing to lose everything again. He was working in the docks and saw that the employees had guns which he didn't know why. He then got interested that he to see the gangs that were attacking the docks. When he went to a store, he noticed that the clerk was scared and he was very surprised to see the gang in that store. He wanted to impress them so he buys them all coke a cola. It showed that he wanted to be someone different that what he does will always end up boring because you do it over and over again. It looked like he wanted to have some excitement in his life.

When he joined the gang and they accepted him, he was excited, he felt accomplished, he was doing something where they accepted him and he was part of the most dangerous gangs. This was the part where everything he did would matter the most because rival gangs knew about him because they saw him in the docks and the weapons he had access so they even more dangerous than ever. The cops were trying to look for them so they can make all the gangs in New York go to jail and make the streets safer. He was also one of the top gang members too so he couldn't have just leave them like that. He made the gang stronger.

After the police caught him because they found a gun a knife, he went to jail and the gang tried to save him and they did. It showed the loyalty and how powerful he was in the gang. After that incident he thought it was time to leave because he thought he made them powerful and wanted to do something good. He then joined the army.  

Reading Response

In Romeo and Juliet by Shakespeare it showed how big rivalries are really are because of the history of the two people, what the person did to the other person or other things. It showed how even if you are enemies that you can still be friends or not be enemies at all. That even the smallest or youngest people in a side can really make a difference.

In the beginning of the book, Scene 1 it showed how the simplest things can make a huge problem and that might be because of the time period it is. Or it can be about how much these people don't like each other because of the history of these two families might go way back. The book also showed that both the parents of both families really care about their children. Capulet has lost all of his children and believes that Juliet would be the special one he has been waiting for, that Juliet would have a happy life. Montague only has one child which is Romeo which is why they care for Romeo  a lot. When it comes to family, these two fathers and mothers leave out the rivalry for they care about their children.

In Act 2 it showed the love between these two people. Juliet wasn't first interested, but then she was starting to realize that Romeo is nice and when they started to know each other more, it was harder and harder to separate these two. It showed how they were building their love and if no one couldn't stop them, they wouldn't separate them. When Romeo was going to be banished and said that he was going to kill himself, it showed how much they loved each other. Juliet did the same thing because what Romeo did was bad for killing Tybalt, but then she looked at the innocence of Romeo because no matter what she did love him.

Reading Response

In the book Bec by Darren Shan showed how you can do a lot of sacrifices, do the right choice and be so close in accomplishing the goal but there will be times where you still lose and you don't know why. The girl Bec was with her tribe and were fighting demons that were everywhere, fearing that her tribe was going to be destroyed, she goes with a group of people that want to destroy the demons.

Lord Loss gave Bec the Ka Gash which is a key that has the power to destroy the demon world gives Bec the power without knowing. Yet Bec still couldn't beat the demons even with the power she had. I think that Lord Loss wanted to give them false hope or to make a statement showing even with his help they aren't  as strong as him. Bec dies at the end with everyone else too because of Lord Loss kills them all and makes Bec die of a slow death.

They did everything they could have done. Maybe there are times when bad actually beats good even with strong powers. Though Lord Loss showed everyone that he is the strongest, but what was strange was why didn't he take back the power he lost to Bec? The part that gave that destroyed their plan was when Drust's brother Brud was the one doing all of this so Christianity wouldn't spread. This surprised me the most because he killed over 1000 people just for this? The greed he has just for his reasons.

It destroyed everyone because his brother was waiting for them and they outnumbered them. There was only 3 of them left. At the end Lord Loss said he wanted Bec to destroy all of this so he can still kill. He is the only demon in the whole demonata universe where he has a brain or thoughts.