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Born To Kill
This book was an extremely captivating read that I had a hard time putting down. This exciting novel was about an upstart gang of Vietnamese youths that formed in Chinatown who violently made their presence felt, they were known by the name Born to Kill. This book had many legal issues that we discussed in class and only a couple of issues that were not handled correctly in my eyes. This is a book that anyone that is interested in Asian organized crime should read.
During the Vietnam War many people fled from Vietnam to America in order to start a new life of prosperity and to forget the horrors of the war. When many families fled they were either separated, or the parents only had the money to send one child. The latter was the case with most of the boys in the Born to Kill gang. They all came to America as refugees and were placed in foster homes that were some times no better than the camps that they had recently survived. When they found other people from Vietnam that offered an alternative solution, they were willing to do anything to repay the debt of loyalty they felt to there benefactor, in this case David Thai.
The book mainly revolved around one main person Tinh Ngo, a member of the gang. Through out the book Tinh or Timmy as he was called, ran the entire gambit of emotions from total loyally to being flipped and being the key witness in the federal case against the main players in the gang. The gang committed every kind of crime from petty robberies to murder. Tinh started his career as a criminal by robbing a message parlor in Chinatown that was in rival gang territory this robbery was a simple one that went off without a hitch, it gave him a false sense of ease in committing robberies. Over the months Tinhs involvement in crimes escalated until he was arrested, for the first time, and he spent some time in prison.
This disenchanted him some about the gang life and killed some of his feeling of invulnerability. When Tinh was released from prison he resumed his role within the gang, starting right back up with the robberies and such. As time passed Tinh became a trusted member of the gang and became very close to the main players such as David Thai, Lan Tram and others.
The “Thug” series written by Wahida Clark is urban fiction, and the novels from the series have become bestsellers (New York Times and Essence). This series has taken the world by storm, and is full of sex, drugs, murder, and drama, and has set the world of urban fiction on fire. Clark has been called “Queen of Thug Life Fiction” since writing the novels. Clark calls her novels Thug Love Fiction, which is one of the subgenres of urban fiction.
Kody Scott was born into the gang life weither he liked it or not. Born on 1963 in South Central Los Angeles Kody?s life would be affected by the growing number of gangs inevitably. Kody knew he had a choice to be made, be a gang member or be a pedestrian. He viewed pedestrians as spineless nerds who were always victims of someone?s ridicule or physical violence, who never responded to an affront of any type. He himself had a taste of pedestrian life in grade school were he was picked on and had his lunch money taken from him. ?Early on I saw and felt both sides of the game being played where I lived. It was during my time in elementary school that I chose to never be a victim again, if I could help it?(Shakur 100). Being in a gang gave Kody a feeling of security in a city of violence. ?I felt very different, older, more attached than any of...
Killing Reagan is a book written by Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard. The book’s focus is to take readers behind the scenes, through the life and times of Ronald Reagan. From his Hollywood days to his days in presidency, near-death experience, and the nearly impossible obstacles he had to overcome in order to carry out the duties as a man and as President of the United States. The authors wanted to create a portrait of a “great man operating in violent times”, and that they did.
And an example of this can be when he used the korean slang word kotjebi this can be seen here “ “go home.. Go anywhere else but here. Kotjebi can't sleep in this market”. (Lee 99)This can confuse the reader to what the word means thus you having to google the word for yourself in order to fully understand. Although there were very few weaknesses. there were many strengths though such as the strong lessons you learn from reading this book such as Lee does an excellent job catching the reader's with details. Describing personal feelings on what extreme hunger feels like or the conditions of a corrupt prison. While still keeping the positive motivational memories alive, like how an example being how no matter what, they were able to go back to the feeling of hope and friendship. An example would be when they were discussing the rules of the gang, the main rules were, “we are family now, as brothers we have to protect,trust,never fight against each other, always stick together, and care for one another” (Lee 140)this shows how they set rules to make sure they will maintain friendship. Which helps prevent the reader from becoming too drawed out on what can be a sadistic story. Lee and the other kotjebi (homeless kids) do whatever they can to survive out in those
This book also has the perspective of the police, which show the gang violence as a more black and white or good versus evil issue, and their militant approach to gang reformation. Jorja Leap holds a view that to stop gang violence, the same members that were once gangbanging need to divert the youth away from the same lifestyle.
The second half of the book follows Mr. Bragg's developing career and family. Mr. Bragg covered various events like the Miami riots, the Haitian atrocities, and the Susan Smith case among others for his job.
...suppression, and incarceration. That ended up costing American an estimated 10,000 jobs. The government had complete control over the media, educational system, and any literature that was available. Books were illegal, and were burned in the novel by the government enforcers, the firemen. We saw the comparison with the time period in when the novel was written, and post September 11. It is great how the author's work still has great meaning in today's society.
This is evident in the persistence of elderly characters, such as Grandmother Poh-Poh, who instigate the old Chinese culture to avoid the younger children from following different traditions. As well, the Chinese Canadians look to the Vancouver heritage community known as Chinatown to maintain their identity using on their historical past, beliefs, and traditions. The novel uniquely “encodes stories about their origins, its inhabitants, and the broader society in which they are set,” (S. Source 1) to teach for future generations. In conclusion, this influential novel discusses the ability for many characters to sustain one sole
As typical human beings we all want to know why someone could randomly take the lives of several innocent people all at one time. It is frightening and scientists figure if they can figure out why, then it can be prevented in the future. The documentary, Mind of a Rampage Killer, tries to solve the mystery and really dive deep into the minds of people who could potentially create such a horrifying situation. Through the use of ethos, logos, and pathos, this documentary concludes that every killer had something in common; they all struggled with mental disorders, depression, or outbursts of violence, all stemming from early childhood or an internal battle throughout growing up, some could have even just been born with a violent rage.
The entire story essentially centered on a man named Henry Spearman who is an economist professor at Harvard that decided to go on a vacation with his wife to get away from his work that he always seemed to be doing. The events that ensue on this island make the economist work more than he probably would have if he had not gone on this vacation to Cinnamon Bay. The entire book contains many characters, each of which has something to do with the two murders that happen on this island in their own way, and it is not until the end, that we find out the connections. Some of the characters include Matthew Dyke (who works at the same college as Henry) and his wife; General Decker (who is one of the men who is murdered in the book); Curtis Foote (the other man murdered in the book), Doug and Judy Clark (a couple that is vacationing on Cinnamon Bay who has just had their children picked up when Spearman met them, meaning they can now freely go to the clubs), Detective Vincent (the detective of the murders who hasn’t had a lot of experience investigating murders), along with many others.
Gang Leader for a Day by Sudhir Vankatesh portrays the vicious gang lifestyle in one of our countries many urban cities. In Vankatesh ' book, he tells the story of a community who live a lifestyle way different from what most of us, living in the suburbs, Vankatesh especially, are familiar with. Some of the major themes in the book include the relationship between the Black Kings and the community, the variance of power between men and women In the community and whether or not their lifestyles portray a culture of poverty.
Chinatown builds upon the film noir tradition of exploiting expanding social taboos. Polanski added an entirely new dimension to classic film noir by linking up its darkness with the paranoid and depressed mood of post-Vietnam, post-Watergate America, thereby extending the noir sense of corruption beyond the mean urban streets and to high governmental and privileged economic places. Chinatown may be set in 1930’s L.A., but it embodies the 1970’s. The film stands as an indictment of both capitalism and patriarchy going out of control. It implies that we are powerless in the face of this evil corruption and abusive power that is capable of anything, including incest: one of the most horrible breaches of human decency and social morality imaginable.
The book begins with Zoyd Wheeler waking up one summer morning with some Froot Loops with Nestle's Quick on top. He lives in Vineland County, a foggy, fictional expanse of Northern California which makes a great refuge for wilting flower children. Zoyd is one of them-a part-time keyboard player, handyman and marijuana cultivator who acts publicly crazy (he jumps through glass windows once a year on television) to qualify for mental disability benefits. He and his teenage daughter Prairie both mourn the disappearance of Frenesi Gates, who was mother to one and wife to the other. Frenesi was a radical filmmaker during the 60's until she was seduced by Brock Vond, a federal prosecutor and overall bad-guy/nutcase who turns her from hippie radical to FBI informant. With her help he manages to destroy the People's Republic of Rock and Roll.
Lo, Chun-Nui, A Social Model of Gang Related Violence, Free Inquiry In Creative Sociology, Vol 19 no. 1, May 1991, pg. 36-43.
...ming Explosion of Teenage Crime," Policy Review, Winter 1995, Heritage Foundation, 214 Massachusetts Avenue NE, Washington, DC 20002, (202) 546-4400