Reading+Reflections

Reading Reflection #1

I feel like Anna sees herself as an important person only when she needs to help Kate. She wants to change this to actually feel needed without dealing with Kate. I see that Anna wants to be herself as she imagines being in another person's life when she went to the laundromat. On page 98, Anna says "If I owned that satin cape, I might have season tickets to the ballet. And then I try to picture myself doing any of these things and I can't." Also, I feel like Sara is ignoring Anna and Jesse causing them to try and get as much attention as possible. Sometimes I, myself, may feel neglected as one of four children, but I don't think I have felt extremely ignored like Jesse or used like Anna.

A friend of mine once described as "bubble gum" taste -- you take on the flavor of whatever you are chewing. I think most of us wonder who we are without our relationships with friends, families, etc. and imagine what/who we would be if that person was no longer a defining character of our own identity. I think this is also a form of "denial" in the Kubler-Ross framework. When we face an unlikable present or future, it is easy for us to imagine ourselves as someone else, that the sickness or illness is not really happening to us or the one's we love. However, I think your view of Anna may change by the end of the book; her relationship with Kate is more complicated than is first presented by Piccoult. I definitely agree that Sara is "ignoring" (although not in her own mind) her other children, but has taken a position that she is doing what is necessary and is also wrapped up playing the role of the "good mother" while she and her family may be falling apart -- or to use Piccoult's metaphor -- burning up.

Mr. Brunelli.

Reading Reflection #2

In the novel so far, I feel as if Sara sees Kate as her top priority. As she witnesses her husband going through depression, her son committing dangerous acts, and her "other" daughter Anna get neglected, Sara focuses only on Kate. I can tell that Kate is in a way he"favorite" child when on page 100, Sara says "I have not really considered the specifics of this child. I have thought of this daughter only in terms of what she will be able to do for the daughter I already have...I plan for her to save her sister's life." After reading this,I concluded that Sara only wanted Anna for one reason which is to save the first daughter she had who is Kate. I feel like Sara feels that its her fault for Kate having Leukemia. Therefore, she projects her insecurities by worrying about Kate only. This relates to people and being mentally unhealthy. I feel like Sara would need a therapist in order to release her insecurities. However, Sara might even think that going to the therapist for herself would be selfish being that it didn't include Kate's well-being.

Reading Reflection #3

The novel, __The Sea and Poison__, Shusaku Endo makes Dr. Suguro seem like a peculiar character from the viewpoints from one of his patients in the prologue. The patient, who is a man suffering from pain in his lung, feels unusual about Dr. Suguro's personality but sure that the doctor knows what he's doing. I feel that Dr. Suguro is a man who has dealt with a lot of pain in his past as his wife left him and took his daughter. I also feel that Dr. Suguro is quiet and straight to the point in his conversation with people because he doesn't want to personally engage in talking with others due to a traumatizing past. It is noticeable that Dr. Suguro is purposely being anti-social with the man who is his patient from page 24, where the patient says "He was staring into the window of the men's wear store. When he(Dr. Suguro) noticed me approaching, the doctor averted his gaze and abruptly walked on." When reading this quote I felt that Dr. Suguro was looking at the manikin in the window of the store. He possibly feels like the manikin which shows no feeling and talks to no one. Health-wise, Dr. Suguro is obviously quiet and anti-social from his traumatizing past causing is him to have certain mental issues. In health, even if people are physically healthy, their minds must also be healthy in order for the whole body to be completely well.

Reading Reflection #4

In the novel so far, chapter one and two are narrated by Dr. Suguro and show his past when he was an intern to become a doctor. So far, Doctor Suguro seemed like a social intern who asked his peers questions and worked together with them. In the middle of chapter 2, I feel like Suguro will finally start the experiment that traumatized him for the rest of his life. During WWII, the Japanese and Americans were opponents, therefore many Americans were held prisoners in Japan. I noticed that the novel started to make the doctors suspicious in the hospital that Suguro worked in. On page 47 "'They're some American prisoners over in Second Surgery,' Suguro informed Toda when he came back to Laboratory Number Three. ' A truck brought them.'" I think Suguro is curious, surprised, and suspicious to see American soldiers arrive to the hospital where only Japanese citizens are supposed to be taken care of. It relates to the Japanese environment during WWII, which was so Anti-American. It was obvious that they were prisoners and were going to be tested on because that was the only thing the prisoners were worth to the Japanese.

Readin Reflection #5

So far, Dr. Suguro is handling and experimenting with the American patients. Dr. Suguro and the doctors are tormenting the patients to experiment and observe to see if the human can withstand certain health issues. One of them is when the doctors slowly kept cutting off a patient's lung to see how long they can live and how much of a lung they need. This reminds me of what Americans do to their prisoners of war. In Guantanamo Bay, American held prisoners where they not only tortured them, but see how much they can withstand. Its scary to think that during war, prisoners of war can used for anything and the prisoners can't do anything about it.

Quarter 2

Reading Reflection # 1

As I read on in the book, I find out that the American prisoners are going to be experimented on. The Japanese doctors and students including Suguro will test where "air is to be injected into the veins of the second prisoner and the volume at which death occurs is to be ascertained," on page 77. I feel like this is a smart idea because the prisoners were going to be killed anyways so they might as well be used to advance Japan's experiments. For healthcare advancements, this helped Japan a lot as they never tested the extremes of what the human body can withstand. Although the prisoners will die, the facts of the experiments could be used later on when doctors have to know how much medicine the body can take.

Reading Reflection # 2

In part two of the book, I am introduced to the new character. Her name is Nobu Ueda and she works as a nurse in Japan with Suguro and the doctors. She seems to have a depressing life from her past where she had a stillborn baby and she found out that her husband cheated on her. However, she doesn't let that bother her as on page 90 "When I thought to myself that I'd never see this sort of thing again, or the city itself, I felt even more as if a big weight was off my mind." She seems fit for the medical field as she wouldn't get attached to her patients. One of the qualities required in healthcare is that a medical worker shouldn't get too emotionally attached to a patient because they will leave if they get well or if they are really sick they will die.

Reading Reflection # 3

As I read the __Thank You For Smoking__, I'm introduced to this character Nick Naylor. I see that he works for the tobacco company and lies to people for a job. It angers me that a person can be so cold and not be able to be blamed for many deaths that happen around the nation every year. On page 9, it says as Naylor is walking with his son in front of publicists, "Nick beamed like any proud and said yes, whereupon she hit him with the follow-up,'And how does he feel about your efforts to promote smoking among underage children?' " This shows me that Nick knows what he's doing as a job is extremely wrong even if he doesn't want to admit it to the publicists. This novel relates to New Visions Health as the tobacco companies continue to be persistent and sell there dangerous product as millions of people are either suffering or dead from cigarette ingredients.

Reading Reflection # 4

In __Thank You For Smoking__, it angers me that people could be so dedicated to telling lies. The people of the tobacco company, including Nick Naylor, continuously lie and state that smoking isn't related to any illnesses. Even when it is a scientifically proven fact " 'the tobacco industry disputes the NIH's report and claims that there is no ... scientific evidence that heavy smoking by pregnant mothers is harmful to unborn fetuses." I wouldn't want to work as one of these tobacco industry as I wouldn't be able to lie so easily. It would be even more difficult to stand by a lie when its scientifically proven.

Reading Reflection # 5

Further along in __Thank You for Smoking__, I could conclude that people from other industries besides Nick Naylor's were selling dangerous products to the public. Calling themselves the M.O.D. (Merchants of Death) Squad, Nick Naylor's friends were employees of tobacco, alcohol, and firearms industries. I find this ironic as these employees can agree on the fact that their products are dangerous to people's health and are aimed at the public, but would never admit it to the press. I could also tell that these employees were corrupt after being told their childhood and background. For example, Bobby Jay and his father were corrupt as they worked for the police department and Bobby Jay "would hide in the bushes and change the signs depending on how fast the person had been going while his father pulled him over and berated him for driving so recklessly through downtown..." as said on page nineteen.

Reading Reflection # 6

As I begin reading __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time__, I see that the main character, Christopher, is unusual because of a mental illness he has. It seems to me like its unfortunate that he can't understand people's emotions. I knew that Chris was incapable of interpreting emotions when on page 3 he said "I got Siobhan to draw lots of these faces and then write down next to them exactly what they meant. I kept the piece of paper in my pocket and took it out when I didn't understand what someone was saying." I feel that Chris will encounter many more problems that have him deal with emotions. Also, I think that Chris will be forced to overcome obstacles he meets.

Quarter 3

Reading Reflection # 1

Reading __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time__, I notice that Christopher's autism gives him more of an issue than I thought. Not only can he understand emotions, but he can't understand metaphors. It must be frustrating to be incapable to understand them as they are used in typical everyday conversation. He couldn't understand the metaphor on page 8, "his face was drawn but the curtains were real." I could infer that he doesn't like metaphors because there are no exact answers. He wants life to have exact answers like in math class, which isn't possible because life isn't that easy.

Reading Reflection # 2

As I'm, reading __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time__, I continuously learn something new about Christopher. Christopher can't understand what a person's feeling by reading one's body language. On page page 14, Christopher says "I find people confusing...people do a lot of talking without using words." This explains that people with autism also have difficulty translating what a person feels not only through one's facial expressions. I think this is another unfortunate set back of having autism as everyday life is stunted as communication is more than just saying words.

Reading Reflection # 3

__The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time__ continuously shows more about Christopher. Christopher believes that goo people don't tell lies. What was interesting is that he also believed that lies were different possibilities of a something being not the truth. When he thinks of lies, he thinks of random things that have nothing to do with the situation. He says "A lie is when you say something happened which didn't happen. But there is only ever one thing which happened at a particular time and a particular place" on page 19. Once again, Christopher is viewing the truth from a logical perspective with math where there is always a definite answer.

Reading Reflection # 4

This is my second time reading __The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.__ However, I only remember some parts of the book. On page 45, Christopher says "I used to think that Mother and Father might get divorced. That was because they had lots of arguments and sometimes they hated each other." I like that the author foreshadowed that the problems that Christopher's parents had. It shows that the mother didn't, in fact, die, but left Christopher's father due to their disagreements.

Quarter 4

Reading Reflection #1

I recently started reading The Hot Zone by Richard Preston. I like how the book instantly catches my attention by talking about the virus "Ebola." What makes it even more interesting is how it is a mystery even to the health professionals in the hospital didn't know exactly what they were working with. One of the characters, Charles Monet, is introduced then dies mysteriously from the "unknown" virus. II feel like this book is going to be very interesting as I never heard of Ebola before and I can't believe that it was so deadly.