Rationale words: 250 Patti Calaboose-Benson's The Outside Circle is a graphic novel based on a story of a young aboriginal man, Pete, who was a member of a gang at the beginning and afterward became part of the warrior program, after being imprisoned for killing his mother's boyfriend. It is set in Alberta, Canada, and centers on the situation of indigenous people in Canada and healing program that is established for the incarcerated native young men. I have chosen to write a diary entries on behalf of Pete's brother Joey. I will write two dairy entries, first one is after he was taken to the group home and second one after his mom died. I felt that Joey would be keen to record his days of struggle in his dairy. Although Joey was alone when …show more content…
he was taken away from his family, he seems to have courageous nature. By writing a diary while adopting Joey's perspective, it will enable me to delve into how the essence of patience, tolerance, and courage are illustrated by Joey in this story. Since it is a graphical novel, we can see Joey's physical actions, but his inner thoughts are unexplored. Hence, I compose this diary for explaining the less explored side of Joey by using his inner voices and mental procedures. My intended audience of the diary entries is Joey himself so that after ages he would read this diary and tell his stories of struggle to his children. Thus, the diary will be in informal style. Diary Entries of Joey (words:588) First Diary Entry: Sunday, February 9th, 2014 This week is the worst period of my life.
After living in the group home without Pete and mom, I realized that even though I was surrounded by Pete's gang and mom's drugs, that was a right environment for me to live. I deeply miss them and want to go back. However, I have heard my permanent guardianship is given to the government of Alberta. I envision , like all other aboriginal kids, I have to serve a major part of my life in the group home. When I imagine of this, I want to cry harder. Who should I blame for my situation? my mom? Pete? the government? My identity? my existence? I do not have an answer to this question. I am neither physically nor mentally stable. I was hugely shocked seeing Pete shooting mom's boyfriend, Denise, over the fight, on the night I was taken away from home. That horrible incident is still waking me up in the nights. Pete was taken to the prison. I wonder what the police did to Pete. I hope he is …show more content…
okay. I am terrified for mom, how did he survive alone at home?
What did she eat? I imagine her taking heroin day-and-night without eating and sleeping. She was extremely upset when I was taken away. She cried and begged to let me stay with her. I also cried, yet no one listened. I heard the officers saying, my mom cannot take care of me because she is a heroin addict that's why they took me away to expose me to a better life. I do not call this a better life! no one cares for me here; no one is here to love me and encourage me when I am feeling down. I get bullied sometimes. This makes me hate myself and my identity. I have decided; I do not want to live here anymore, I will go back to
home. Second diary entry: Friday, November 13th, 2015 Today is a terribly heavy day for me. I am writing while crying because my mom died yesterday. I am feeling extremely helpless since I could not do anything to save my mom. Today I went to her funeral, Pete was there too. Besides, I met uncle Ray there. He is my mom's brother. They separated when the government took them to the residential school when they were young. Hence, they did not see each other after that. Uncle Ray only found out about my mom after reading her obituary in the newspaper. I observed a change in Pete's attitude. I did not see the anger in his eyes today. I think the rehabilitation program is working for him, I really hope he will never join the gang. When I ran away from the group home, I went to my home but did not find my mom there. Then I went to see Frank, Pete's gang friend. I worked for him like Pete because I have not had a place to stay. However, one day Frank beat me on the road over the money, an officer saw and took me to a local family. This family is better than the group home, yet I can't call this place my home. I am excited for Pete to finish his warrior program and take me from here. I want to go to my real home where there would be someone to love me and to care for me. I can see, that day is not far away.
Some of the residential school students were so scarred from the way they were treated in the schools, that they even started putting the same abuse that they had received in the schools, onto their own children. The abuse has left the students with mental trauma and many of the students were unable to erase the memories of abuse from their minds. Many the survivors of the Canadian Residential Schools have been inflicting their children and spouses with physical abuse similar to the abuse that they had received previously in the Residential Schools. In an article talking about the victimization of aboriginals they stated, “Males who had experienced abuse as children were found to be at a significantly high risk to repeat the cycle of violence with future spouses” (Scrim as cited in McGillivray and Comaskey 1996). This sad cycle shows that even though the last Residential School closed in the late 1990’s, the experiences that students had during their time is still negatively affecting their lives today. Many of the former students of the Canadian Residential Schools have turned to substance abuse in hopes to try and cope with their struggling mental health. It is shocking to see that a school this harsh could have such long lasting impacts on its students. In an article related to helping people understand the trauma
Chris McCandless "I think that Chris McCandless was bright and ignorant at the same time. He had no common sense, and he had no business going into Alaska with his romantic silliness. He made a lot of mistakes based on ignorance. I don’t admire him at all for his courage, nor his noble ideas. Really, I think he was just plain
Parental influences from each generation leads to chain reactions affecting the behaviour of future children. The instructor of the Warrior Program states that “they (the children separated from their families by residential schools) didn’t learn to be parents and instead just passed on their hurt to their children” (LaBoucane-Benson, 2015, p. 49). As told from Uncle Ray Carver, Bernice Carver was taken by the government as a child to stay of in a residential school. She did not remember her family, as seen in Peter’s small and incomplete family map. Charoenwongsak et al. (2017) conducted a lab observing the relation between parenting styles and drug abuse in Thai adolescents. This study concluded that neglectful parents (or the absence of parents) put Thai adolescents in a risk for substance use. The lack of attention and warmth from parents creates dependency needs, leading children to rely on substances to fulfill dependency. Therefore, it can be inferred that Benice Carver depended on drugs caused from the separation from her family, which lead to poor parenting skills resulting in Peter’s drug association. The current Canadian education system needs to put an end to the chain reaction of disturbed parenting styles within the Aboriginal community caused by the residential schools. Research of personal family members, teaching correct parenting styles and training
In The Outside Circle by Patti-LaBoucane-Benson, the main character, Pete, spends a significant amount of time as a criminal. Pete is affiliated with the gang Tribal Warriors. He engages in violence, crime, and has a bad character. Moreover, the cause of these actions are because of the fact that he is confused about his identity, comes from a broken family, and lives a rough life. A song that expresses this phase of Pete’s life is “People Like Us” by Kelly Clarkson. The lyrics “Here’s to the damned to the lost and forgotten, it’s hard to get high when you’re living on the bottom,” describes Pete’s situation. Young Indigenous men like Pete live “a hard life in the inner city...don’t know who they are… [and] [are] living in pain and confusion.”
This year, the applications to enroll in medical schools increased by 6.1 percent to more than 48,000, breaking records set in 1996 (Lopatto). Job openings for doctors and nurses sparked the interest of the younger generation, and this, I believe, is because of the enthralling and captivating experiences that result from these fields. The article “The Central Line” by Atul Gawande covers an example of what these future surgeons and medics learn while in the field. However, the student will not perform perfectly the first time. Of course, the techniques of using the tools and how to perform the procedures take practice and time to perfect, exhibited through Gawande’s writing. Repetition and training is needed to excel at any skill or act. In his article, Gawnde motivates his readers through the use of his credibility and emotional appeals to the learning curb.
In this mysterious story “The Eleventh Hour” the story was about a fantastic party the animals go to but while they are playing someone and steals the grand feast. My initial pre-reading prediction for “the Eleventh Hour” was that there were lots of animals who went to a fancy dress party and a big mystery unfolds during the story. My pre- reading prediction was kind of right. When Horace turns 11he celebrates in a grand style by inviting his friends over for a spectacular party. As they were playing someone from the party secretly sneaks into the banquet hall and gobbles down all the food.
Toronto: Pearson Prentice Hall. The Justice System and Aboriginal People: Child Welfare. n.d. - n.d. - n.d. The Aboriginal Justice Implementation Commission. Retrieved December 12, 2013, from http://www.ajic.mb.ca/volumel/chapter14.html.
Self-government gives greater control to and law-making authority over a complete range of control including governance and social and economic development. Self-government provisions may include health care and social services, police services, housing property rights, and children warfare. Unconditional support, meeting the diverse economic conditions of Aboriginal communities, encouragement of taxation and many other provisions for equity among Aboriginal governments and adjustment to fit the range of powers exercised and services delivered all help Aboriginals. The more the organizations of administration match the social originations of their constituent groups, the more noteworthy their authenticity and viability. Living conditions were raised to much higher standards when the Aboriginal self-government formed. It provided great help in the lives of Canada’s Aboriginal
For decades First Nations people1 faced abuse in Canada's residential school system. Native children had their culture and families torn away from them in the name of solving the perceived “Indian Problem” in Canada. These children faced emotional, physical, and sexual abuse at the hands of residential school supervisors and teachers. Since the fazing out of residential schools in the 1960's the survivors of residential schools and their communities have faced ongoing issues of substance addiction, suicide, and sexual abuse.2 These problems are brought on by the abuse that survivors faced in residential schools. The government of Canada has established a Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to address these issues but it has been largely ineffective. Though the Government of Canada has made adequate efforts towards monetary reparations for the survivors of residential schools, it has failed to provide a means to remedy the ongoing problems of alcohol and drug addiction, sexual abuse, and suicide in the communities of residential school survivors.3
The activity of understanding Alice Williamson's diary begins prior to reading the first word. The reader begins to identify part of the reading experience based upon their feelings on diaries themselves in the moments of suspension between knowledge of type of text and the reading of the first entry.
After reading both Dragonwings and Let the Circle Be Unbroken it is easy to see the connection to the real life events happening in those time periods. In Let the Circle Be Unbroken it is easy recognizable that the events that take place with the Logan family can be compared to real life experience that African American families went through during the time of racism and segregation. In Dragonwings we see the struggle that Chinese families went through in the transition for a world that they were completely used to into a world that is the polar opposite. The difference we see in Moon Shadow and Black Dog shows how the transition affects people different and how life can change.
...ed in out-of-home care during those years were Aboriginal, yet Aboriginal children made up less than 5% of the total child population in Canada (Brown et al., 2005).” The number of First Nations children from reserves placed in out-of-home care grew rapidly between 1995 and 2001, increasing by 71.5% (Brown et al., 2005). In Manitoba, Aboriginal children made up nearly 80% of children living in out-of-home care in 2000 (Brown et al., 2005). These staggering numbers are the reason why researchers and advocates blame the residential schools as the main historical culprit for today’s phenomenon of the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system. The sections below will highlight how residential schools shaped child welfare system in Canada today, which help to explain the over-representation of Aboriginal children in the child welfare system.
Although mine differs than her in style, through studying hers I realized I very rarely write about my family, nuclear or otherwise.. Although our two diaries are different in nature, there is difference in value that we share. For Chloa, her family is her main social circle and their health and happiness is one of her main concerns and so it is reflected in her diary. For myself, I focus more on the health and happiness of my peer group, as well as personal exploration. By comparing the two, a shift in values away from family and towards a more personal, independent self identity can be seen. That being said, we do both share the tendency to record popular cultural events in the same
This story was set during the middle ages, in a small village and a forest.
The Magic Circle The Magic Circle, by Donna Jo Napoli, dealt with three main characters. In the story, a woman named The Ugly One possesses the power to heal. The woman has a beautiful daughter named Asa. The Ugly one is a sorcerer who also helps sick people who are possessed by demons. The Ugly one becomes a witch after biting the finger off a deformed baby child and desiring an exquisite golden ring.