Karl's Struggle With Tension in The Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes

Karl's Struggle With Tension                                                    Charlie Muller 806

“... once you were in, they put a note in your file that said you were in therapy, and all your teachers saw that file. They might as well have tattooed CRAZY on your forehead. The next year every teacher would be watching you for the first weird thing you did—and has there ever been a kid who never does anything an adult considers weird?

”

― John Barnes, Tales of the Madman Underground

In the book Tales of the Madman Underground by John Barnes, Karl the protagonist, lives in the small town of Lightsburg, Ohio. Karl is in his senior year of high school, and wants to be normal for a year. For his other three years of high school Karl has been in the "Madman Underground" a group of teens who, according to the school, need group therapy. But things are different senior year for Karl, he didn't get his "ticket" into the "Madman Underground", and  when Marti moves to town Karl is able to see his friends through another lens. Set in 1973, this hilarious (and wildly explicit!) compelling coming of age novel won't let you put it down. Throughout the novel, Karl faces a lot of tension and responds in different ways.

         Karl  has power when there is tension and other times he resists someone else's power. One example of Karl having power, Karl has physical power over Paul when Karl punches and teases Paul. Karl thinks that he has authority, so he hurts Paul. Paul is unable to resist Karl's "authority", because he is physically in pain and injured, because he got punched and didn't react (dodge) in time. Also when Karl was emotionally hurting Paul, Paul did not stand up for himself. Reading this, I realized that people express their anger and other feelings inappropriately, with violence or hurtful words. Karl could have handled his anger differently, but because he was so upset he didn't think about the consequences of his actions. An example of Karl resisting power in a moment filled with tension,  Karl's mother has the power of a parent or mother, she has authority in this way. Karl resists her power with his actions. At Karl's mother's party, Karl tries to clean up the messes in the house, "embarrassing" his mother. Karl also tries to ignore the people and what's going on at the party. Sometimes in life parents try to control their children; what they do or don't do, or who they hang out with. Youth need to explore what they like to do, adolescence is a time of exploration of oneself. Youth need to discover what truly makes them happy.

      

 How people, and especially youth deal with or respond to tension is very important. People need to have the skills of dealing with a conflict in a mature and appropriate way, that is respectful. Violence is not a way to solve problems. If we can't learn how to problem solve then, friendships and relationships will fall apart. Compromising and thinking about your happiness are also important to do, so you can be relaxed and content. In the novel Karl confronts a lot of conflict and reacts in contrasting manners.

Changing Times in South Africa

Charlie Muller                                                                                                                                        806

11/12/14                                                                                                                                           English

Changing Times in South Africa

In the article, "Role Reversal" by Patricia Smith, Smith describes the story of Oscar Pistorius a South African Olympic, double-amputee runner, who was found guilty of premeditated murder in the shooting of his girlfriend. Throughout the article, Smith expresses how out of the ordinary the fact that a black woman is the judge of a white man. Smith also conveys that it was a challenge, overcoming "apartheid", the rigid policies that segregated black people from white people. Smith wants the reader to think that many South Africans were surprised by Pistorius' actions, as he was a national hero. The author wants me to feel that the judge of Pistorius, Judge Masipa would ultimately decide the fate of Pistorius, one person deciding your future is unfair.

Throughout the article, Smith used quotes from people to show what she thinks. For example, Smith quoted Nomavenda Mathiane a former newspaper colleague of Judge Masipa, “Whoever thought that one day a black woman would be standing judge over a white boy?” Smith includes the perspective that Pistorius killed his girlfriend, with narratives and quotes about that, “...Pistorius broke down in tears and even vomited during testimony”. But, Smith does not include the opinion of someone that thinks Pistorius did kill his girlfriend on purpose. Smith also talks a lot about how well Judge Masipa handled the case. But, there aren’t any criticisms of Judge Masipa included. This leads me to think Smith admires Masipa.

It is difficult right now to know why Pistorius killed his girlfriend. But, I think he didn’t kill her on purpose and it seemed like he really loved and cared about her. I learned that there is a lot of pride in South Africa right now because many black people are coming in to government, for the first time. They are in a way taking back their place in South Africa. I was also able to learn more about apartheid in South Africa from this article.