Bronx - Character Development

In the book Bronx Masquerade by Nikki Grimes, various characters changed almost completely throughout the book.  For example, Lupe In the beginning of the book she felt unloved and lonely because she felt like no one wanted her. She had a boyfriend that she never saw, so it made her feel like he didn't really want her either and the same with her family. She always talked about how having a baby was the only way to get someone to love her and make herself feel loved. But the truth was, while she was saying all of this and doing all of this, she was actually really pretty. Others in the story would say that all of the guys would drool over Lupe, but she would never notice or wouldn't care. She puts herself down sometimes and feels really negative, she is a dreamer of love. In the beginning she says, "...if I had a real baby, she would love me..." She keeps telling herself that in order for her to feel loved, then she would have to have a baby. But towards the end she says, "...So I don't have a boyfriend now...Neither does Janelle. Or Gloria. Or Leslie. But we have each other..." Towards the end you can see how Lupe is sort of changing and understanding that she is not alone and that she has people that love her truly, At the end of the book, she says, "Him and me had our first date over the weekend...it's great having somebody to study with...I should be able to get into a decent collage when I graduate. That's what I'm planning on..." She is finally noticing that other people do love her and that there is more to life than having a baby. She is now thinking about her relationship with Raul and what collage she wants to attend to. 

Another character that changed was Devon. In the beginning he was very shy about enjoying reading and would hide from everyone because people thought that since he was a jock that he shouldn't be into that kind of stuff. No one, but Janelle knew about his secret love for books because of a time when she caught him reading in the library. But towards the end of book, he begins to not care about people knowing about his secret love to read. He starts to read in front of people and actually say that he is going to the library to just read for fun. He even stood up to one of fellow jock friends named Max and told him that he likes to read and that he doesn't care what others think and he hopes that everyone knows. In the end, he says, "Mike slams his tray down beside me and sits...'What's that you reading?'...'Oh. Right. You got that class.'...At first I don't say anything. Then I decide. 'No man. It's not for class. I'm reading it for me, actually..." He speaks up and tells that he is reading for himself and that he enjoys it too no matter what anyone says, he loves reading. 

In the book, the setting plays a huge part in what many of the characters are like. For example, Tyrone is a huge character in the book and he is affected a lot by where he is from. He is very scared of dying/being killed because of where he lives and the people that live there. He is so concentrated of being afraid that he is going to die that he doesn't think that he is going to live long enough to do much with himself and his school priorities. The setting also affects the other characters too because some characters like Leslie and Raynard. Leslie feels like she doesn't fit in to where she is from, but Raynard feels like if he were to move from where he is from that he will lose sight of his dream because his neighborhood is what pushes him to achieve it. All in all, the setting of the story affects them all in a different way. For example, it can make one fearful, one feeling like they don't belong, and one want to stay because it was what mede him/her so strong and a dreamer. 

Found Poem - "One Change from a Dozen"

Poem-

A thought of caution
crossed her mind
We don't have many rules
but the rules we do have
might well include no personal thoughts
First after all A blast of country-
Hell for Leather
Put the change in her
what a person can buy, 
In a tour of more than a dozen
Caught her attention:
forty-five cents-
ninety-nine cents-
forty-four cents-
seventy-nine cents-
Even a price-tag, seemed
exciting or significant enough...
Ride to the skylight towers

The theme of this poem is need for change. I chose this theme because in the beginning of this poem talks about how she changes. The message of this poem is that even if you are one out of a million people, you can still change. I think this is a good message for this poem because it expresses what I believe the poem is about and what I was thinking as I reading this page.

The main point of this poem is to show how a person can change no matter what. I think this is the main point of the poem because it is what sticks out the most as you read it and everything that it describes represents this main point. The poem is describing how she changed and why she changed. For example, in the poem it says, "...Hell for Leather put the change in her..." It shows how one thing changed her out of a dozen other things.

           

Spine Poem - "Divided Pain & Beauty"

        The theme of my spine poem is the overlooked. I chose that theme for the poem because if you overlook the pain of something, you are really able to see the beauty of it. This makes the message of the poem, so much more important. The message of the poem is that something can start out really painful because it says, "A Night Divided...Nothing Left To Burn..." But as it continues to go on, it stops at "...Beautiful Creatures," which really gets you thinking about how something can go from bad to good. So I made the message to be and show that no matter if something starts out in pain, it soon becomes beautiful and happy.

The main point of this poem is to show the difference from pain and beauty. When I was putting this together I wanted for people to see that there is nothing left to burn and beautiful creatures, that is the main thing that I wanted to get to stick out more because nothing besides the last line was happy or close to happy. 

"Where I'm From" 2/18/16

Bronx Masquerade - Comparison and Contrast

        The book Bronx Masquerade written by Nikki Grimes is about a group of teens that all go to the same high school. Their english teacher is having them learn about the Harlem Renaissance in class, so they are starting to write poetry about the event. As they start to write poems for class, they all soon discover they're secret passion for writing poetry. Their english teacher sees how many students love writing poetry, so he starts "Open Mic Fridays" where students can come in and read some of their very own poems that they have written. As this continues, the students start to use poetry as their outlet to write what they feel and whats on their mind.

        Two characters that I found were similar in the book Bronx Masquerade are Diondra Jordan and Devon Hope. These two students are similar because they both want to show people who they truly are without being afraid of what will be said about them. Diondra is one of the tallest girls in school, so people feel like she should be good at basketball, but she isn't. She is an artist and wants to show people that, but she isn't very confident and she feels like people would make fun of her. Devon is like that to. He is a basketball player and he's really good at it. He doesn't just like basketball though, he also loves to read, but not many people know that. He is afraid to tell people that he actually enjoys reading because he doesn't want to be judged like Diondra does. 

        Two characters that I found to be very different are Lupe Algarin and Judianne Alexander. These two students are different because they both have very different stories and problems. Lupe feels unloved and neglected, so she wants to have a baby in order to have someone love her. On the other hand, there's Judianne. Judianne feels like she isn't pretty enough and doesn't think her mother loves her because she is ugly. Judianne feels like Lupe has it easy because she is so pretty and every guy falls for her, but she doesn't think or see that. She even says, "Lupe has no idea how pretty she is. You should see how Raul and some of the other guys-Black and white-sniffing around her." All in all, Lupe doesn't feel like anyone loves her, so she wants a baby, and Judianne, feels like she isn't pretty, but Lupe is.