https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg By Ajay Mohanraj en-us 2020-09-03 22:29:46 UTC 2025-04-10 00:16:53 UTC hello@padlet.com https://padlet.net/icons/png/1f4d6.png ajamoh22 https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719627597 By Avi
This book is a historical novel taking place in the 1830s and features Charlotte, a radical awakening to male-dominated crews aboard ships, and Zachariah, a free black crew member who helps stage mutinies to combat the ship's tyrannical captaincy. This was the first book introduced in my school curriculum where I began to understand the complex social reforms of the 19th century. Women's rights, abolition, and labor reforms all contributed to this era of immense civil progress in equality for all. Avi impacted my thinking when reading texts because it forced me to research the settings of books to truly understand the magnitude of certain events. After reading this book, I understood why certain characters that represent free black men and strong women were a stark contrast to the socially conservative texts of the same. Both Avi and characters impacted my thinking on historic texts in comparison to contemporary texts.]]> 2020-09-03 22:42:25 UTC https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719627597 ajamoh22 https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719628355 By Natasha Preston
The Cellar features chapters from three perspectives in a kidnapping tale. Clover, the kidnapper takes a young girl named Summer from her boyfriend Lewis and imprisons her in his basement to routinely rape her. This book was recommended to me by my teacher and it was my first exposure to how cruel the world can be and how fiction can seem so true. It was also fan-funded on Wattpad, so it was rather interesting to see such a colloquial book make it to the shelves. Preston impacted my thinking by introducing different perspectives and how the reader is usually so preoccupied with the protagonist, that they forget to evaluate the mind of the antagonist. In this case, a psychopath rapist,  Clover, tries to justify imprisoning a human and raping them.]]> 2020-09-03 22:43:05 UTC https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719628355 ajamoh22 https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719642598 By Marjane Satrapi
Satrapi conveyed to me how truly lucky I am to be in a country that respects freedom of speech and has had a history of peaceful transitions of power. Often when we think of revolutions in America, only positive images spring up like the American Revolution, where we defeated the British, or the Civil War, where we ended slavery. Satrapi challenges that and conveys how the Iranian Revolution made things worse for her family, at least socially, as the country became less Western and more conservative. The Shah had been overthrown but Satrapi's family did not have it any better. My thinking that all revolutions bring about radical, positive change has transformed into an outlook where only the victors reap the seeds of freedom, and opposing factions are subject to the same treatment. Partisan politics plagues Iran, but it also plagues America in its current political climate as well.]]> 2020-09-03 22:54:22 UTC https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719642598 ajamoh22 https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719661538 By Charles Wheelan
Charles Wheelan has taught me a lot about the world we live in and how intertwined economics and politics are in our daily lives. Wheelan impacted my thinking in a profound way in this easy to understand book by revealing how many practices we view as necessities may harm people in impoverished nations. For example, deforestation and sweatshop exploitation are both inescapable issues of markets. In many developed nations such as the US, we choose to protect trees and pass labor laws; however, in other countries banning cutting trees and sweatshops will not only starve the working class, it is also detrimental to the economy. Often times our view of simple, effective government is taken for granted, whereas other nations do not have the luxury of our relatively efficient bureaucratic services.]]> 2020-09-03 23:10:55 UTC https://padlet.com/ajamoh22/e4chvg2x0i5fmvvg/wish/719661538