What Is The What by Dave Eggers
Review by: Ramon Chavez
I always though that life had it in for me from me being teased about my physical appearance, to me failing class and having to work twice as much to keep up with the rest of my class. I always felt sorry for myself, that was until author David Eggers made me realize that they are things much worse than being made fun of or failing things like the main character in my book, Achack, had to go through. The story of Achak starts out with him in his present day life, in which he lives in a condominium with his friends and goes to school, pretty much like your or anyone’s else’s life. Everything goes downhill when a lady knocks on his door and asks to uses his telephone, unknowingly he allows her in after her attempt to keep the door open. She immediately locks herself in the bathroom, and calls someone, a while after when he goes to check on the lady he’s ambushed by a man who works with the lady in the red dress, Tonya, he is then stolen of his property and is put in place of a young boy.
One of the main reasons I really liked this book was because it made me feel if I was the person he was telling the story to because in between scenes he pretended to be telling the little boy, which he called T.V boy, his story of all the unfortunate things that had happened to him, the story progresses which, Achak when he was a small boy.
The way the book is written, which is a past-present type of change makes you feel more and more anxious about what’s going to happen next. I know that I was personally anxious when he starts to think in his mind all the terrible things that have happened to him. Though he is telling the story of his life he is still conscious that this boy had been involved in the theft of his home. The fact that’s it’s a first person view also makes it really interesting because it’s like the popular phrase “Walk a mile in my shoes” you feel as if you were Achak, as if you had been right alongside him when he went through all of this.
Achak has a very interesting personality because his father was a wealthy business man, and he was son of his father’s first wife. He has a normal boys’ life. He lives with his family, he plays with his friends. As you know nothing last for ever, and that’s when the rebels in Sudan show up in his dad’s store. They ask him if they have any sugar, he asks how much they want and they respond all of it. Achak tells them the price and all they respond is thank you for your contribution. Achaks father tries to stop him but they brutally beat him up. This was one of the many things Achak has seen and experienced.
What is The What is filled with many interesting and thrilling moments but is equally filled with sad, depressing moments. The character seems to come alive as you get closer and closer to the end of the book. You will find things more and more incredible from him escaping the rebels to the long journey he has to endure.
Although there are many other characters Achack is mainly the one that everything seems to happen to, some of the other characters include Achack’s family and his friends it also includes different people he meets along the way good or evil. You get the idea that a small boy wouldn’t last long by himself in Africa, but he endures, being hunted by the rebels, animals, people, and the war.
The larger themes of this book would be about how the war affects everyone, how there are things that we know but that there are also things that we don’t know, that many people immigrate not of their own choice but are forced by certain circumstances, with this themes one can really relate to present day life.
Even though the book is fiction one really believes that he or she is listing to someone tell this story. That is why this is such a great book. It shows that you shouldn’t feel sorry for yourself but feel sorry for those that truly suffer. Once on his journey with a group called the Lost Boys he hopes to finally reach a safe and sound sanctuary.
In a moment things can go from great to worse, so you should enjoy life while you can, though to find out if Achack ever recovers what he once lost, his life and his family, if he ever reaches the end of his journey you’ll have to read the book.

Reflection

Ramon Chavez

03/31/09

Immigration Project Reflection

Immigration Project Reflection

Part 1

My experience with the Lit circle was not all that great, I was confused in some part but otherwise it is a really well written book, I enjoyed it very much. I had some trouble with the commenting and the posting of the responses because of technical problems. I was not necessary ecstatic about my book but I didn’t hate it. I was happy to have been assigned this book because it really tells a lot about the human nature like what people can and will do to another living person without think of their past or what a person might be going through.

Well there were a lot of significant events and scenes that occurred in my book but I think Ill go with the one I chose for my painting, the scene I had chosen was at the very beginning, the scene included the main character, Valentino, and 3 other characters. The scene starts out with valentine opening the door when he hears a knock, once he opens it he finds a lady with a red dress in his front steps, she ask him if she can use his telephone because her car broke down, he tries to close the door, but she puts her foot in the way and ask him again this time he lets her in right away she locks herself in the bathroom with the telephone, while distracted her accomplice comes from behind and hits Valentino. The book I read is what is the what by Dave Eggers. I learned that my group sometimes have difficulties understanding one another because we didn’t have like set chapters and so I was confused.

I feel that if I had finished on time and showed to Ms. Abbassi, I would have found out that many people were doing scenes of him in Africa, so I had to recreate the drafts to fit when he was in America. I think that was the only difficulty I experienced during the draft process and the painting process. I think that overall my painting was really good because I had some really good examples to base it off of, I also included parts from one of my prior homes. I was surprised how well the actual sidewalk and grass came out because I thought it was going to be a lot messier than it was.

I personally like the Lit Circle groups better when we had to write them instead of having to do it on the blogs because it just make the whole process much harder that it has to be, I would add teachers know where everyone is at or if they have any difficulties. I would also take out the character analysis because it really isn’t needed or you could just have them focus on the reactions to what the characters do.

Part 2

I had originally had chosen a scene from when the main character in his home town when the rebels had decided to attack the shops and kill innocent people all for no reason. I had drawn some buildings on fire, and I also people dead and an helicopter. I had to change my scene because since it took in Sudan allot of people were already doing scenes there. My new scene included Valentino in America when he was opening the door to see a last in a red dress in his front steps. I had originally for my 3 sketches had chosen the book cover, the scene that struck me and my last one had been a interpretation of the scream.

I think the connection in between my painting and my book might be a little hard to understand unless you look at it carefully, my painting is very deceiving. I think for me the connection was really clear and it was easy to understand.

I feel that my final product of my painting turned out really well except for the fact that there 1 or 2 things here and there that I could have fixed if I had taken more time and been a bit more careful. I think otherwise my final product of my painting turned out really well because it did look realistic the colors complemented each other and so did the scheme. I think the interpertation of Edwards’s hopper summertime is really shown in my painting.

I think that taking more time and bit more careful it would have turned out better.

I learned that quality and punctuality are really important life skills because with out them ones work will never go anywhere and neither will the maker go anywhere. I have been told the quality is better than quantity.

Part 3

Well, the interview process was a bit shaky from the beginning especially because the person I was supposed to interview was always busy, or couldn’t meet. So I was forced to conduct almost the whole project through email and when I did sent it to her she took a while to respond. The process was difficult because we had trouble with the communication part of the project.

I thought that the overall idea was really good but I think that it would had been easier if the person had been more accessible or if there had been a planed meeting schedule so we could have done it without all those difficulties. I also liked the idea of doing the 3 different methods because it was a really cool way of finding out the information like hearing them or seeing them and getting to get closer to them.

Well from the first interview I learned that she has a very interesting first impression of the U.S, she said, USA a big country, with lots of open space and rural areas – a contrast to Hong Kong which is a large city but very crowded with a high population and not much open space. People seemed wasteful – they drive large cars that use a lot of gas (in Hong Kong, most people use public transport like bus, taxis, underground trains), they use a lot of disposable things like paper ware. There are many overweight people, and portions of food are huge – most Chinese people tend to be thin and when we eat, we typically share two or three dishes. But the country is generally very clean and well organized. For the second interview I learned the necessary items, like where she was born when and what states she’s lived in. For the third interview I learned that more personal information like her favorite music, if she’s married or if she has any children.