Social Problems in The Iron Witch

          In the book The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney, a big social issue is taking advantage of people and being selfish. In the book, the Wood Queen takes advantage of the main character, Donna, to get what she wants. Donna is an alchemist. Her best friend Navin has helped her through everything she's done since she started going to her school. Now she's home-schooled, but Navin is still her best friend. Xan (Donna's half-fey boyfriend) can open the Old Path to the Elflands, where wood elves, which are evil fey creatures, live. The Wood Queen took advantage of Donna's friendship with both of them to get what she wanted. Since Donna cared about Navin more than anything, the wood elves took advantage of that and captured Navin to lure Donna into the Elflands. Since Xan could get into the Elflands, they took advantage again to get Donna in there. Then, to make it even worse, the Wood Queen took advantage of Donna and Navin's friendship to blackmail Donna into giving her the elixir of life, which gives someone who drinks it immortality, because she knew that Donna would do anything to save Navin. Again, she took advantage of Donna even more, because just because Donna's an alchemist, she would be able to find it. Overall, the Wood Queen and the other wood elves took advantage of Donna to get what they wanted, and they didn't care about what happened to Navin or Donna, as long as they got what they wanted. This is also selfishness, because they only cared about themselves and not anyone else. For example, the Wood Queen blackmailed Donna to give her the elixir or else they would kill Navin. Therefore she didn't care about what happened to Navin, she only cared about herself.

          This is a big problem in the book because it puts Donna into a situation she doesn't want to be in. If she breaks into Quentin's house to steal the elixir and gives it to the Wood Queen to save Navin, she'll be breaking every alchemist rule and will get severely punished, not to mention that the enemies would have the elixir and would be immortal, so how would the alchemists defeat them? But if she chooses to be loyal to the alchemists and not give the wood elves the elixir, Navin will die. This puts Donna into a tough situation. Donna ended up getting the elixir but only staged giving it to the wood elves until the very last second when she destroyed it. Therefore she saved Navin without giving the enemy the elixir, but she will still be punished by the alchemists for stealing the elixir. This created a huge problem for Donna, because Navin might also be punished, and that's the last thing that Donna wants to happen. So because of the Wood Queen's selfishness and greed, Donna got put into a horrible situation. I think this could have been avoided if the Wood Queen hadn't blackmailed Donna, because Donna really didn't have a choice then. I know if Donna wasn't blackmailed she wouldn't have almost given the wood Queen the elixir, but it wasn't really fair to Donna because she didn't have a choice and she got nothing out of it. She ended up the same as before, just with added trouble with the alchemists and a lot of hate toward her from the wood elves. Therefore, taking advantage and being totally selfish can be a huge problem that is in the world today. People don' care about other people and will take advantage of them to get what they want, which isn't right. This is a big social issue that could be avoided and only hurts people.

Two Voice Poem

Both Voices

Voice 1 (girl)

Voice 2 (girl)

I'm in love.

I've been married to my husband for 5 years.

I'm looking forward to getting married to my wife.

I'm happy.

I get to live with my husband and daughter.

I get to live with my wife.

I have hope.

I want to move into a new house with my family .

I want people to accept my family and who I am.

My friends understand me.

They are happy I have enough money to move.

My friends are happy I have freedom now.

          This is a two voice poem I wrote about gay marriage. It compares the lives of two people--a straight person who is married (Voice 1), and a gay person who wants to get married soon (Voice 2). Voice 1 is happy and can finally move into her own house, and Voice 2 is happy and can finally get married. This shows two people in different situations, but both finally get what they've wanted for a long time. It shows how gay people are happy they finally have the freedom to get married.

Global Warming

I got research about global warming. These are the articles that I read (copy and paste them into website box to read them):

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S44-4241-0-4146&artno=0000291743&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=global%20warming&title=Why%20the%20World%20Is%20Getting%20Warmer%2C%20Even%20Though%20It%20Is%20Getting%20Colder&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N

http://sks.sirs.com/cgi-bin/hst-article-display?id=S44-4241-0-4146&artno=0000284380&type=ART&shfilter=U&key=global%20warming&title=Global%20Warming%2C%20Global%20Myth&res=Y&ren=N&gov=N&lnk=N&ic=N

          Global warming is a problem about the earth getting warmer because of pollution. These articles both explain why global warming is a myth. They both state that it's actually getting colder, not warmer. For example, in one of the articles I read, it says that people believe that carbon dioxide is the cause of global warming, but as more carbon dioxide is going into the air, it's actually getting cooler. This supports the main idea that global warming is not real.

          This makes me think that this is why it's been changed to climate change instead of global warming. I  know that it is actually getting warmer in some places, and colder in others, so to say that it's getting warmer I don't really agree with. This leads me to questions about climate change, and makes me wonder why some places are getting colder, and some are getting warmer. Why is the world getting colder and hotter at the same time? I understand that some places are closer or farther away from the equator, so those places are hotter or colder, but if one part of the world is getting colder, why is the other part getting warmer? I'm also curious if people changed the phrase global warming to climate change because of disagreements like the articles I read.

The Iron Witch Main Character

          I'm currently reading The Iron Witch by Karen Mahoney in The Iron Witch Saga. The main character in the book's name is Donna Underwood. She's part of a secret alchemist society that has to defend the world from evil creatures called feys. When Donna and her parents got attacked by wood elves, which are a type of fey, Donna got injured so badly, she had to get beautiful iron designs on both of her arms, so she has to wear long gloves all the time because she doesn't want anyone to see them, and she has enhanced strength. In this book, Donna's best friend, Navin, and her alchemist friend, Maker, get captured by wood elves and the only way Donna can get them back is to give the wood elves the elixir for eternal life. Now she and her fey--but not evil--boyfriend, Xan, have to find the elixir in twelve hours and give it to the wood elves or else they'll kill her friends.

          I think Donna's a really strong (not just physically, also mentally) character. Even though Melanie, someone who went to her school before Donna got kicked out, makes fun of her all the time for wearing gloves and for being abnormally strong, Donna lives through all of it, mostly with the help of Navin. Also, she's a really good friend to Navin: when Navin wanted to go to a party, he persuaded Donna to go with him, even though she didn't really want to, but she still went. At the party, she met Xan, and Navin didn't like him, but she still became his friend, and eventually his girlfriend, which shows that she's still open to new people.

          Xan and Navin really helped her throughout the book, and when the wood elves captured Navin and Maker, she and Xan went to the Elflands, which is where all the wood elves live, to save them. This shows that even though Donna's really scared of the wood elves for injuring her, killing her dad, and putting her mom into a hospital when the wood elves made her crazy, she would still do anything to save Navin. This shows how strong and loyal she is toward her friends, and what a good main character she is.

Social Awareness Response to Song

A song that is about social injustice is "Dear Mr. President" by Pink (feat. Indigo Girls). The lyrics are:

Dear Mr. President

Come take a walk with me

Let's pretend we're just two people and

You're not better than me

I'd like to ask you some questions if we can speak honestly

What do you feel when you see all the homeless on the street

Who do you pray for at night before you go to sleep

What do you feel when you look in the mirror

Are you proud

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry

How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye

How do you walk with your head held high

Can you even look me in the eye

And tell me why

Dear Mr. President

Were you a lonely boy

Are you a lonely boy

Are you a lonely boy

How can you say

No child is left behind

We're not dumb and we're not blind

They're all sitting in your cells

While you pave the road to hell

What kind of father would take his own daughter's rights away

And what kind of father might hate his own daughter if she were gay

I can only imagine what the first lady has to say

You've come a long way from whiskey and cocaine

How do you sleep while the rest of us cry

How do you dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye

How do you walk with your head held high

Can you even look me in the eye

Let me tell you bout hard work

Minimum wage with a baby on the way

Let me tell you bout hard work

Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away

Let me tell you bout hard work

Building a bed out of a cardboard box

Let me tell you bout hard work

Hard work

Hard work

You don't know nothing bout hard work

Hard work

Hard work

Oh

How do you sleep at night

How do you walk with your head held high

Dear Mr. President

You'd never take a walk with me

Would you

          This song has a lot to do social injustice. I think in the song she's talking to someone really important, like literally the president, and she's saying how there's a lot of social injustice and she doesn't know how this person can keep on living importantly without caring or doing anything about these things. She wants to know how he/she can "dream when a mother has no chance to say goodbye," "sleep while the rest of us cry," and "walk with your head held high" when there's all this social injustice that he/she isn't doing anything about. At the end of the song, she says "You'd never take a walk with me would you," and I think that means after all that she said about this person not doing anything about this, he/she wouldn't answer her questions and he/she wouldn't be able to answer any of them, because they're really not doing anything about social injustice. The message of this song is that there's so much social injustice in the world, and no one's doing anything about it.

          The song says a lot about issues when she's saying that she knows more about what hard work is than the important person does. Some hard things she talks about are "Rebuilding your house after the bombs took them away," and "Building a bed out of a cardboard box," to show that life is a lot harder for some people than we think. Then she says, "You don't know nothing bout hard work," so she's saying that this person really doesn't know anything about having to do something hard. I agree with this song and it makes me feel angry toward these people who aren't doing anything about social injustice.

Shimmer

          The book Shimmer by Alyson Noel is the second book in the Riley Bloom series. The series is a spin-off series of the Immortals series by Alyson Noel. The Riley Bloom series is about a girl named Riley, whose biggest dream is to become a teenager, but dies at only 12 years old. She stays on the earth plane for a while, before crossing the bridge to the Here & Now (sort of like the afterlife) and becoming a Soul Catcher, where her job is to persuade ghosts who are lingering too long on the earth plane to cross the bridge. In the first book, Radiance, Riley accomplishes what no other Soul Catcher ever has: persuading the Radiant Boys to cross the bridge. In Shimmer, Riley persuades a spoiled, but angry and mean girl named Rebecca to cross the bridge without her guide's or the Council's permission, which is forbidden. I just finished this book and my opinion on it is that it's really good and I really liked it.

          I really liked this book. Even though it was only 196 pages, and not that much really happened in the book, it still was really good. Not only did she save her friends from Rebecca, but she saved everyone Rebecca was torturing, let Prince Kanta (someone who helped Riley save her friends after they met) cross the bridge, and she persuaded Rebecca to cross over too. This shows how much Riley is capable of. Even though she's stubborn and doesn't follow directions, she's in the right direction and is a really good Soul Catcher.

          I really liked the message of this book. This book expresses the idea about how going by your instinct and by what you think is right to do is sometimes better than following the rules. Riley knew she had to free Rebecca and her dog, and even though she was told not to, she still did it, and it helped everyone in the end. Though Riley's disobedience doesn't always help people; if she didn't follow Rebecca's scary dog to her, Riley never would have gotten into the situation that she did, although she did learn a lesson: to follow the rules. The two messages about going by your instinct and following the rules are almost opposites, but they are still very important in life.

          I also like Riley as a character. I like how she's not perfect, like how she doesn't listen to the rules and what people tell her to do and not to do, but she always does what she thinks is right. I like that about her, because she doesn't care about what other people tell her to do, she sort of shrugs it off and goes her own way, which shows how independent and confident she is about herself. Riley also always tries to change herself to make herself better and for people to respect her more, which makes her really cool. It feels like she could be a real person in your daily life.

          I really liked this book and I would recommend it to anyone. It has a really good storyline and I like how Riley learns a  lesson, even though the book isn't totally cheesy, and it's really interesting. I'm currently reading the third book in the Riley Bloom series, Dreamland, and I expect it to be as good as the first and the second. I hope it is!