Our america is a phenomenally emotional read. It will give any reader better insight to the conditions that people go through in the projects. For readers that are not from the same situation as Loyd and LeAlan it will allow them to see what people in the projects have to go through on a daily bases. This insight will allow readers to gain empathy and understanding for these peoples terrible situations. For readers that are from the same situation as Loyd and LeAlan it gives them motivation and Hope as they look at How they have been able to grow and still succeed especially LalAlan Jones. If you do the right thing like stay in school and away from drugs. It is awsome read that will tear at your hart strings and change your perspective on Our America

         Our america addresses the central ideas of the american dream and equality most directly. As Lloyd Le Alan go around interviewing people we get a good idea of life in the projects, and the daily struggles that these people go through. Things like violence and drug/alcohol addiction. when we read this book, we compare their lives with our own and through that find the inequalities in our society.  This also attacks the american dream by showing how not everyone has the same shot. This is especially apparent when they interview that lady that works at the school and she talks about how the students at her school have been exposed to adult experiences like drugs and violence before they could walk. People are getting killed every day children are growing up surrounded by violence with nothing to cling to for comfort besides the idea of survival. They are also extremely poor not getting full meals lots of the time and our constantly battered by the materialistic ideas our society imbibes. how would you expect them to do anything else besides turn to gangs and crime in the hope that it will provide safety and comfort.

          I believe that this text is relevant to current american literature as Fredrick douglass was to american litteratur back in the day. it gives us a look at life through the perspective of people that live in the projects, which gives us the insight to understand the social cultural situation on a deeper more personal level. Because lets be honest we don't know and cant imagine is any other way. This is essential because if people outside the projects that are the only ones with the resources to help don't understand the problem they wont be able to and wont want to help.

Emma Pradarelli; Our America

 In Our America, I think the biggest theme that is followed is either the American Dream and/ or race equality. This story is all about how unfortunate many families, especially kids are in the Ida B.Wells housing. Kids daily are shot and killed, steal from other children, rob stores, join gangs, drop out of school and get pregnant at a very young age. These children are constantly trying to just survive and stay alive, never having a normal childhood, and growing up too quickly. Also, I think it's so unfortunate that there used to be actual homes where these buildings went up and children were, at some point in time, able to play outside on playgrounds and without supervision, knowing that they would be safe. When one of the men that LeAlan interviewed said something about how stacking poor people on top of poor people doesn't help anybody and make their community better, he was absolutely right. These conditions are horrible and nobody is able to climb the ladder in society living in these conditions and in these neighborhoods.

My big questions for this story are two; 1, How can people live in these conditions, and 2, how can people who live and/ or don't live in these neighborhoods not try to better the community by cleaning up these trashy parts. If an entire community comes together, they can get the attention of the city and possibly the nation by asking for help, starting to move in a better direction and tearing down these high rises. Just like how the nation payed attention for a while after the death of the five year old, which actually didn't have a positive affect in the end, in which the nation said they would help, yet didn't. But maybe a positive thing such as the community coming together would help them.

What was the most powerful part of the text? The most exciting?

The most dynamic aspect of this novel, to me, was the level of grittiness that ran through the pages. Already, I found myself biting my lip in astonishment at the encounters that these people go through on a day to day basis. Hardships are difficult on different planes, whether it's the mother that can't provide for her children, the man that flees his responsibilities as father, or the children dealing drugs — this novel has really opened my eyes. I never knew that such things happened in America. Well, I knew of the drug dealing and the fathers running away from paying checks, but I didn't comprehend that people were essentially living in poverty. 

It was impossible for me to imagine that mere kindergartners understood copulation, when I didn't learn about it until years afterwards. These same kindergartners grow up to be gangbusters and drug deals to grow up to be full on murderers and addicts. It's an extremely vicious cycle and I wonder if people are ever able to escape this life.

As far as the most exciting part of the novel, it has to be the murder of the small boy, as terrible as that sounds, the literary work's focal point is said murder. I want to keep reading to find out about the case! I want to know the two boy's personalities and what becomes of them.

The Assignment and the How-To

Hi Everyone,
In order to post, you need to click that Blogger logo in the upper left corner.  See it? The orange box with the squiggly thing in it?  Then, click on the pencil next to your blog title.  That will allow you to write your post.  When you are done, click "Publish."

Here's Your Assignment:

One thing that we have said repeatedly in our class is that American literature is an ongoing conversation about a few central topics.  These topics are ingrained in our national narrative, the story of who we are as people.  This week, you will begin thinking about topics that connect to this American narrative, and these topics will become the focus of your research after winter break.

To get you started generating topics for research, use your lit circle books.  I'd like two written responses from you this week, both posted to your group blog.  I also expect you to read and respond to each others' posts.  If you were to type your response in Word first, it would be about a page.  DO NOT JUST ANSWER A LIST OF MY QUESTIONS.  Instead, generate two or three paragraphs on the questions that interest you most.  The questions to consider:

• What do you like best about your book?  What do you like least?
• What was the most powerful part of the text?  The most exciting?
• Which of our central questions (American dream/possessions, nature, race and equality, individual power, etc.) does your text address most thoroughly?
• What questions does this book raise for you?  What does it make you wonder?
• What are some topics that you could research (based on your book)?
• What place do you think your text has in the body of American literature?
• How does the text "talk back" to some of the authors we've already read?
• What do you know about the author of your book?  Are you curious to know more about the author's story?