Social Issues 

 By: Joshua Langefels, Ronaldo Herrera, and Caden O'Neal

Jealousy

     Jealousy is an extremely bad problem in our society.  Because every time you are in a conversation it can lead to a fight because of jealousy. Most people don't realize how serious a problem it is. It can lead to lost lives for many innocent people. For example, if you were talking to someone about your successful business they might get jealous and rob/kill you so they can take all of your hard earned money. 

     In the books "Holes, Loose Balls, and Dear Martin" it shows how jealousy is a huge cause of bullying. There are many parts in these books where jealousy gets the best of the characters. Dear Martin specifically demonstrates how racism greatly impacts our society. Also that people can get jealous of the most simple things like skin color.

Thesis statement

Character Development

  In the books "Holes, Dear Martin, and Loose Balls" the characters develop good, strong character over time. Stanley Yelnats from the book Holes goes from a shy, awkward, and weird person to a kind-hearted, loyal,  and brave kid. Jayson Williams Goes from a scared non-confident and trash player to an over average NBA player that was very confident in his abilities. 

 I chose jealousy as my controversy because the other conflicts in my book were sort of bland and tasteless. For example, fighting you might think oh that's pretty cool but the fights in my book were very boring. They usually ended with"a big machete knife with holes in it," (loose) which scared off whoever wanted to fight. So yeah, I thought jealousy fit for my controversy well. It was the only real problem that is very common in the real world.      In my book Jayson is constantly put down because of how bad he was at basketball. Which made him jealous and more determined to work hard to get better than the haters. So he did, going to the gym early in the morning  and leaving late at night so he would become great. Which payed off because he did become better that the haters but still not all star level. Over all my book is about conflict and rumors in the NBA.   

Controversies

The controversy is that white kids are jealous of Justyce because was accepted into an ivy league college.  Justyce goes to a mostly white school. A white kid who had a little bit of a better score than Justyce was mad because he wasn’t accepted into the school and Justyce was accepted. Justyce was accepted because black kids didn’t have as many opportunities as the white kids. In the book, Justyce is an A student. A few kids don't like him because he is smart than most of them, has good behavior, and he got accepted into a good school. Later in the book, Justyce and his friend were at a light playing music loud. A white male told them to turn down the music. Instead of turning the music down an argument broke out. Justyce's friend took his hand off the wheel and the white male shot at them (with a gun) because he thought "he was reaching for a gun."  

Dear Martin

The controversy I chose was jealousy because in the book Stanley is framed for "stealing shoes" even though he was caught at the wrong place at the wrong time. He is then forced to go to a camp for "bad boys" Camp Green Lake. The Warden tells Stanley that they are digging to build character but they are really digging for a lost treasure. At the end of the book Stanley finds the treasure. The warden gets to Stanley before his lawyer. After all the fighting ends, Stanley gets to take about $600,000 worth of jewelry. He gave some to Zero which was his best friend who he taught to read. The warden tells the lawyer "He took my belongings, he grabbed all of jewelry and put it in his suitcase" The suitcase had Stanley's name on it. She tried to come up with an excuse to try to get the suitcase because she wanted the money.  I chose this over racism in my book because it's more common.

Holes

Loose Balls

Empty text

  Jayson Williams felt a strong urge to drink alcohol because of his sadness and  he was  jealous  of other better NBA players that had more experience  than him such as Charles Barkley; " One day we're running the floor extra hard, because we'd lost the night before, and there's Charlie, sitting on his bike stuffing pancakes in his big mouth."(Loose) This shows jealousy because Jayson wishes he could be doing what Charles was doing relaxing on a stationary bike eating whatever he wants, and not running full speed,  mile after mile. Because of this same problem he got into fights," Teammates get into it with each other sometimes. Sometimes they even yell at each other on the court. But the Philadelphia 76ers is the only team I've ever seen where two players started physically fighting with each other during a game. I was one of them." As you can tell from that quote he did not specifically like his teammates.    Article  He was also having problems with alcohol due to jealousy, so he was remembering terrible past experiences;" A reported reason for not using alcohol was having difficult past experiences such as violence and abuse." (doaj.org) The main bad experience he was remembering was his sister dying of AIDS from a blood transfusion gone wrong. Because of all the problems he was facing he ashed out experiencing", psychosocial problems."(doaj.org) This shows that not all people can handle the hate. Because he lashed out, he was an even worse person than he already was. Forcing him to become even more in his feelings about the NBA in general. Song  He was sad; "I'm sad I know, yeah.''(xxxtentacion)This shows that he was all knowing of his sadness. Xxxtentacion felt the same way when he wrote the song SAD! one of his most known songs to this day because only a little bit after he wrote the song he was killed so one of his producers published it for him. 

Loose Balls

     He was also having problems with alcohol due to jealousy, so he was remembering terrible past experiences;" A reported reason for using alcohol was having difficult past experiences such as violence and abuse." (doaj.org) The main bad experience he was remembering was his sister dying of AIDS from a blood transfusion gone wrong. But he did have others such as where he grew  up, Middle Village, Queens, it was a tough area to be in  the most "prominent New York crime families," lived there. Because of all the problems he was facing he lashed out experiencing", psycho-social problems."(doaj.org) This shows that not all people can handle the hate. Because he lashed out, he became an even worse person than he already was perceived to be. Forcing him to become even more in his feelings about the NBA in general. When I say that I mean about the media that goes along with being in the NBA.

Article

Song

     He was sad about the whole situation in general; "I'm sad I know, yeah.''(xxxtentacion)This shows that he was all knowing of his sadness. Xxxtentacion felt the same way when he wrote the song SAD! one of his most known songs to this day because only a little bit after he wrote the song he was killed so one of his producers published it for him. Jayson was sad and X was sad. They were both sad for the same reason, social pressure and hate from the public. They were both so emmersed in hate that they could't get a thought out. Leaving them hopeless and confused.

Quotes

Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit. Maecenas

non lectus sed sapien ultricies pulvinar ac id lorem.

Dear Martin

He was the quarterback for the state championship team, walked with arrogance thinking he was every girl’s dream- Never did his homework but it really never mattered, always got straight A’s as the woman teachers were flattered.   He, fought with the ones he always called geeks, thinking he was better than them and calling them freaks- Little did he know he’d get nowhere in life with that disposition, and those “geeks” would soon become lawyers or musicians.    This Relates to my book because Jared was a really good student but he was really mean to Justyce because Justyce was as smart as him.  Jared felt that he was better than the and thought it was ok to be mean to him.

"I'd like to discuss how affirmative action discriminates against members of the majority." According to my article affirmative action means, "The policy of affirmative action which is supposed to support people who are affected by discrimination." The second part of the sentence states, [“discriminates against men of the majority,"] this means that affirmative action discriminates against whites. For example, a white and black kid have the same GPA, and the affirmative action policy favors minorities. So the college will most likely accept the black kid because they are a part of the minority.  

Quotes

Poem

My article was "WHAT IS AFFIRMATIVE ACTION AND IS IT DISCRIMINATION AGAINST WHITE PEOPLE? HERE'S WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW"  and it relates to my book  because it talks about affirmative action. The quote from my article, "The U.S. Supreme Court last week agreed to rule on this emotion charged matter in a case from California. Allan Bakke, who is white, twice applied for admission to the medical school of the University of California at Davis, and twice was rejected. On the strength of his academic record, Bakke may well have deserved one of the 100 spots in the entering class. But up to sixteen of those places had been set aside for "disadvantaged" students under an affirmative-action program designed to increase the number of Chicano, black, Asian and American Indian doctors in the state." This relates to my book because in my book a kid named Jared (who is white) was mad because his test scores were as good as Justyce's (he is black) test scores but Justyce got accepted into to the school and he didn't. Jared blamed this on affirmative action.

Article

Article 

Holes

In the poem "The Problem" It talks about what it feels like to be bullied for being "wide"; "Called names like ugly, strange and fat, how am I meant to put up with that [...] My pillow is soaking with all my tears, School always gives me fears. The girls and boys scream and shout,In this cage of worries--let me out. I beg for all this hurt to stop. I feel like I'm falling like a raindrop"

This relates to my book because throughout the book Stanley is bullied for being bigger than everyone. It also shows what he must have felt like because in the book, they called him "Fat Stanley" at school. They also called him some other names.

Poem

Quotes

Add short body of text

Throughout the book, Stanley Yelnats is bullied for his weight. In the book, it says "On his last day of school, his math teacher, Mrs. Bell, taught ratios.   As an example, she chose the heaviest kid in the class and the lightest kid in the class and had them weighed themselves. Stanley weighed three times as much as the other boy. Mrs. Bell wrote the ratio on   the board, 3:1, unaware of how much embarrassment she had caused both of them."   (Sachar 14). This quote is talking about how Stanley is much bigger than the other boys and he's bullied for that, even his teacher, unintentionally. In the book   Holes, it says "Say Listen [...] If you find something else, give it to me okay? [...] You're new here right?   [...] I've been here for almost a year. I've never found anything. [...] I mean why should you get a day off when you've only been here for a couple of days?   If anybody gets a day off, it should be me." This phrase shows how X-Ray got jealous after Stanley almost got a day off.  X-Ray started to get mad, he was the one there the longest, so why did he not get a day off? Later in the book, X-Ray ends up turning on Stanley.     

Article

Body shaming is also a very big thing in real life. Many people are very insecure about their weight  According to "Body Shaming Effects Society" it says, "When seeing celebrities and models who are thought to have “perfect bodies”, individuals start to become critical of their own bodies and succumb to the pressure of living up to somewhat unrealistic standards. Despite their celebrity status, some celebrities have had to deal with body shaming" This phrase is talking about how people start to get jealous of celebrities. They look at the celebrities bodies, and then at theirs. They usually think "Why can't my body be like theirs?" Some people get really jealous so they criticize the celebrity if they get a little fat.   In the article it also says,   Miss UK, Zoiey Smale, handed back her crown after being told she was too fat for international pageants and was told to lose “as much weight as possible”. Smale, who is a size 10, also decided not to compete in a pageant in Ecuador in September, and later claimed that pageants have always discriminated against contestants based on their size, as slim contestants are kept at the front of the stage, while curvier women are Body shaming and its effect on society placed at the back." This shows how some people were waiting for the right moment to strike, they wait until the celebrity gets a little fat and then they start screaming all over the news. This shows how jealousy gets the best of people

Quotes

Sources

Hogeling, Lette. “Division of Coal Mine Workers' Compensation (DCMWC).” Directory of Open Access Journals,                 International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 2017,                   

        doaj.org/article/6669b8c86f92449486bdc500670647f3    .

https://kindredhealthcare.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/2012-qr-    

 “XXXTENTACION - Sad! Lyrics.” SongMeanings,       

      songmeanings.com/songs/view/3530822107859567087/. 

Willams, Jason. Loose Balls: Easy Money, Hard Fouls, Cheap Laughs, and True Love in the NBA. Crown/Archetype, 2002.

 STONE, NIC. DEAR MARTIN. EMBER, 2018.

Archives, Newsweek. “What Is Affirmative Action and Is It Discrimination against White People? Here's                               What You Need to Know.” Newsweek, Newsweek, 3 Aug. 2017, www.newsweek.com/affirmative-                                   action-   reverse-discrimination-645648.

Loo, Lu. “High School Politics - Poem by Lu Loo.” Poem by Subimal Sinha-Roy, Poetry Soup, 20 Apr. 2017,                            www.poetrysoup.com/poem/high_school_politics_894110.

Mukwamu, Sam. “Body Shaming and Its Effect on Society.” E-Max,           

     www.perdeby.co.za/sections/features/5774-body-shaming-and-its-effect-on-     

     society. https://www.familyfriendpoems.com/poem/the-problem“Poems / Social Issues Poems - The

      Best

Poetry on the Web.” By Tupac Shakur - Famous Poems, Famous Poets. - All Poetry,             

        allpoetry.com/poems/about/social-issues.