Reading the World

         The past few weeks have been a great learning experience for me. I have always just ignored all bad and a lot of good going on around me. I've never put much thought to what it means to our world until our class was assigned the "Reading the World" Inquiry. Because of this assignment, I began to notice lots of things, good and bad. For now I will focus on what unsettled me. There was smoking, drinking and drugs, there was litter scattered over New York streets. I also found disturbing things in my independent reading, people of the world were treated horribly in the fictions books I am reading. Although these stories are not true, these acts of social injustice such as governments leaving behind their people were scary and could happen.

         In the book World War Z by Max Brooks a zombie war has begun and everyone is fighting for their lives. I noticed and was upset by how fast the government left its people and got themselves and the army to safety. Throughout the book numerous plans are enacted that make a safe place for "important" people in the country while leaving the main population of citizens to die. These actions, although fictitious, are extremely upsetting. In my time reading the world I didn't encounter anyone being left behind or singled out besides this, but that does not mean those things aren't present in our world or our books.
         Overall, after reading the world and noticing acts of social injustice and justice I have begin to think a bit differently. It could be me helping someone left out instead of just ignoring them, or it could be thanking my teacher for what he or she has done for me. I might also pick up some of the litter that many produce. I think my independent reading life connects strongly to noticing social justice acts. This is because the themes of social justice I notice inside of books help me grow and think about what can be done to help the world.