Blog 4: Plunked

So far in my book "Plunked" Jack has been acting sort of childish or scared. The reason I say this is because in the previous chapters Jack has been nervous and terrified to play or practice for his team. His teammates have also noticed his change in feelings and they are doing their best to make him feel better, but he will not give in.  Jack just missed his first game of the season by faking an injury because he was afraid of getting hit again. Jack's parents are getting suspicious, and they are going to find out what is going on.

A signpost or note and notice I found while reading my book is memory moment. I found this when Jack kept having his memory of getting hit for the first time at practice, and how he just kept remembering himself laying on the ground. He kept having this moment in his head where it replays him getting beamed in the ribs by that huge kid who hit him. This is important because every time he reminds himself of that very moment, it affects the way he plays and it makes him terrified, not wanting to play his beloved sport. Every time he has that replay in his head, he loses confidence and love for this sport.

Assignment 3: Plunked

So far in my book "Plunked", Jack Mogens ended up earning up his spot in left field over his opponent Geoff. Geoff does not seem to be upset by the coach's decision, but Jack seems extremely happy and he has showed it to the coaches in their previous practices. But that was until at one of Jack's games where he had lost his confidence and happiness. During the first game of Jack's final season he ends up getting hit in the head by a pitch. He was not allowed to play and did not want to practice anymore. Jack so far has also been acting different in his character at school and at baseball practices due to being hit by a pitch at his game. At the end of the final chapter I read, Jack had gotten bitten again in practice while batting and said that he wanted to just ignore the whole world, and quit baseball.

Right now, I would say the most exciting thing that is sort of causing the climax would be how Jack is being afraid to play baseball and how he wants to quit. This is an interesting part of the plot because Jack stated that he loves baseball and that he would die to play baseball for the rest of his life. But of course something happens in the story which is starting to cause a conflict and cause the climax. Right now the falling action has not taken place but I am pretty sure that during the next few chapters I read, there will be a falling action to tell you about. Something that surprised me when reading this story was the fact that Jack did not want to play his sport. It surprised me because when I read this story I put my self in his shoes since this is very relative to me, and I picture myself quitting baseball and giving up because of getting hit. That surprises me a ton.

Assignment 2: Plunked

I am reading the book "Plunked" and the author is Michael Northrop. The book so far after reading 14 chapters is about the main character Jack Mogens. Jack is in his final year in little league baseball which means more competition. Jack really wants to start in left field, and wants to start even more when he finds out he has a competition named Geoff. The little league team has had many practices and enough to finally finds out who is starting for their first game. That is when Jack finds out him and his friend Andy who plays a different position of second base are both starting for the first game of the season.

I decided to read this book for three different reasons. The first reason is because it is about my favorite sport baseball, two because I once had to fight for my position in little league, and three because of the genre. The genre of this book is realistic fiction. I know this because even though this story is not real or based on a true story, these events can still happen to any kid on any team.  I like this genre because usually when I read a realistic fiction story it is connected to something similar to what I do like sports and then I can learn a lesson from the story. I have read this genre before and I do plan on reading another realistic fiction book.

Assessment

In the article I read about not buying nike products, the argument was really about why we should not buy nike products and how the workers are suffering just to make us happy. One piece of evidence was that the worker who help making the nike products get paid a low minimum wage of $1.25 a day.  The article also stated that the workers would be abused such as being slapped, kicked, and even shoes being thrown at them for not working hard enough. I think that workers should not be able to work for being treated like this. This issue should have been taken care of years ago instead of continuing. One thing I learned about this topic that was interesting was that with their pay from work, they could only be able to afford to rent an 8 foot by 8 foot apartment, get some drinking water, only buy two meals, and secure transportation to work.

In the poem " The Sweatshop" I think the argument is that these workers have to work endlessly and for so long that they have no time to care or be themselves. I think that with all of this non-stop working they don't have anymore feelings and they really don't want any part of social life. One piece of evidence they used to back up this claim was a line that said " I have no feelings, no thoughts, no understanding." Another important line that I found in the poem is towards the end when it states " the slave that is awake in me seems to fall asleep." The difference between reading this poem and reading the article was that in the poem it makes you feel like you are part of this situation. The poem makes you feel like you are this worker being treated poorly rather than the article which states important facts but does not help you understand that much about this problem. This form helped me understand what I was reading because I understood more about what I was reading and understood more about what these workers go through. I understood it more because it was easier to read the words and have a feeling for those words I was reading.