Marbles

Shyima Hall was an eight year old girl who was later sold into slavery. She was mistreated, abused, and her justice was not given till she later grew. Shyima had been staying with her captors "The Mom" and "The Dad". She wasn't able to play while she stayed with them, but she remembered one game she considered herself good at, was "Marbles". "To play we drew a circle in the dirt or outlined a circle on the street with chalk. Then each of the players put some marbels inside the circle. When it was my turn, I'd take a slightly larger marble and try to knock some of the others out of the circle. Any marbles that I knocked out, I got to keep. I had a lot of marbles!" said Shyima. So even when Shyima was suffering through the thoughts she was, this memory meant so much to her because she remembers that being one good part of what she was able to live. That "memory moment" was something she came to remember while seeing the kids that she took care of play, also proved how different they were.

" Why, why, why"

                                       

Shyima Hall, also known as Shyima El-Sayed Hassan from the book "Hidden Girl" by herself with Lisa Wysocky,  was an eight year old girl from Alexandria, Egypt. Shyima was given into slavery for a debt her sister Zahra had caused, but although Zahra caused it, Shyima was the one to pay. A day came around where Zahra had caused far too much trouble for " The Mom & The Dad ", the owners of the household. Shyima & her mother had made the decision to swing by, around the wrong time. " The Mom " & Shyima's mom had come to an agreement " that the fair thing for everyone was for another girl to work in Zahra's place." , " the pit of my stomach lurched when I realized the girl they were talking about was me", Shyima said to herself. " Why did my mother not say no?" " why did she not fight for me?" , Shyima told herself over, and over again. Later on as she began working in the house hold day & night she'd continue asking herself, "why me". She was only eight years old and she had been given to pay off a family grief her sister had caused, " I was expected to become their domestic slave". Shyima just wasn't able to find the answer, at least for now. It was a hard question, with even an harder answer.

Emma's Reaction.

                                

In the book Blind, Emma Sasha Silver the main character suffers from an accident of her being blind, which causes her to have a lot of confusion with not only herself but with others & frustration. In the book her family tried to help her overcome and help her adjust with the incident she had suffered. In the book Emma has a hard time trying to accept the fact of her being blind along with many personality issues. Her family as well has a rather had time adjusting so they try their best in finding ways that they could help. In one scene of the book her father tries to convince her that going back to school was something that had to be done sooner or later, her mother on the other hand said with time she could go back when she felt ready. With frustration Emma replies angrily or with frustration, "I'm not going anywhere"  and sends her dad off with a feeling no parent wants to be given which is not being wanted in general nor the help. I question myself why she would respond this way to her parents because I get that out of frustration she might have said the things she said and gave them that feeling, but why would you want to reject or deny help from someone else that actually really cares about you? Why didn't she give it off to other people who maybe we're just showing pity? That is just a question that pops up in my head every now and then, because a lot of people are like that, but many don't suffer from the same incident Emma did. 

You Will Never See Me Fall & Blind.

The book Blind by Rachel Dewoskin and the poem You Will Never See Me Fall by Joyce Alcantara both contain a type of thought where both of these authors had the idea of them giving up, wasn't going to be in the picture. The book contains a 15 year old girl who suffers from the incident of her being blind, in the poem it says no where that she/he is also blind, but not stating it doesn't mean it isn't implied to that person too. In both writings they both struggled, with reading the book Blind, Emma was suffering with her adapting to the new lifestyle she had to get used to because of the situation she was in. Not clearly being stated what struggles the person in the poem was going thru, but as said " you may see me struggle, but you will NEVER see me fall" states that she must've been going for thru her own type of problems but not maybe alike to Emma's obstacles. Comparing those two, I found that they both struggle but try to not have the world "fall" or "give up" in the picture. They might've had different type of problems, but both "struggle" and don't give up.

Center Of Blind

                                      

The book Blind by Rachel Dewoskin, gives you the opportunity to read about the experience of another. In the book Emma suffers from an accident where a fun celebration turns into a never ending  dark, nightmare. Emma & her father were celebrating the fourth or July watching fire works close, but a little to close. Unfortunately, Emma had been hit with one of the fireworks that had been lit, and not only feel then pain among her face, but losing her sight. " Where am I?" " What is - Take this off!"she said to herself as she laid in the hospital bed the following day. Not being able to see her parents but hear them say " you're awake; Emma you're okay, youre, Emma. Emma. Emma". From then on "progress" was what she was doing. Attempting to go back to school, adapt to the many changes that had came her way due to this incident. With the help of her parents, siblings and her friends she over time is able to accept and adapt. Not giving up would just be a plain simple theme, so all in all the message I was able to get from this story was even though times get rough, to keep trying & with time things can fall into place with your effort and the help of others. Without Emma's parents or family & close friends, Emma would've just gotten angry with herself and always questioning herself why that incident has happened to HER, but she didn't. So Emma became her own person, and was also able to find herself again.

Déjà Vu

In the book Blind by Rachel Dewoskin, something that seems to always come to Emma's mind is the money. If her parents were spending too much, if they'd have enough for the rest of her siblings, "Worth four laptops?". Emma kept thinking that her sister was just complaining to rub it in her face or since she didn't agree that the man that has stepped on to speak with Emma's parents was hot. "The best" for Emma wanted to be provided due to her accident, and Emma felt thankful but worried again because she had other siblings her parents needed to worry about & provide certain things. Flashbacks would come back where she never noticed if they were struggling to provide those certain things for her siblings or her. With the accident then did she only realize that she had two amazing parents & she couldn't be more thankful. Even though her siblings would try bringing up the fact of the money being used for her supplies, she would try to ignore them due to the fact her mother moment after moment would always tell her to not even worry about it. Those memory moments say a lot because she might have had some adjusting to do and gave to realize a lot that was going on around her that she didn't realize before, but now? She couldn't be more thankful & aware.

Limiting Anne.

Anne Frank thirteen years old went on living three more years of her life living in an attic with her family, another and a 50 year old man. From day to night having restraints if the time, the things they were able to do at a certain time. She had to restrain herself, from being herself due to the fact of if the green police were to find them, her and her family would've been sent to concentration camps, or be punished severely for hiding and not giving when they called. Anne and me would have nothing in common with the adversity she faced, because she had limits and thanks to now having laws that are able to give me my freedom I am able to do things she could not do, and feeling but but glad at the same time I can do those things. I wouldn't have been able to do what she done. So she was courageous and something similar would be that we tried seeing these in positive ways even if they weren't all good at the moment. Anne and me, are two very different people. Thane grew up with two very different lifestyles, both good, and bad.