In the “Wolf Town” by the name of DeLisle, it has been filled with nothing, but the misfortune deaths of young black men in Mississippi. Five of these deaths include friends and family of Jesmyn Ward, the author behind Men We Reaped. Ward begins with three quotes, one beinglyrics from Words 2 My Firstborn by Tupac Shakur. Shakur states “Young adolescents in our prime live a life of crime,Though it ain’t logical, we hobble through these trying times.Living blind: Lord, help me with my troubled soul.Why all my homies had to die before they got to grow?”Ward uses her upbringing in Men We Reapedas an extension of what Shakur was conveying in his lyrics. Ward relays the death of her loved ones in a reverse time sequence, starting with Rog in 2004 and ending with her brother, Joshua, in 2000. Besides addressing the issue of young black men dying so young, Ward highlights the troubles many young African American faces in-and outside their households, especially broken in families. “It seemed I had been able to keep nothing of my father. His leaving felt like a repudiation of the child I was and the young woman I was growing into,” said by Ward. “I looked at myself and saw a walking embodiment of everything the world around me seemed to despise: an unattractive, poor, Black woman. Undervalued by her family, a perpetual workhorse. Undervalued by society regarding her labor and her beauty. This seed buried itself in my stomach and bore fruit. I hated myself.” In We are Here, the final chapter of Men We Reaped, Warddescribes the struggles she faced in her lifetime and what she viewed her mother going through as “how a transplanted person survived a holocaust and slavery,” and “how a mother teaches her daughter to have courage, to have strength, to be resilient, to open her eyes to what is, and to make something of it.”
Revision
In this book report, I was very last minute with writing it, so many of my sentences and reasoning's behind my theme were vague. Many of the themes were explicitly stated so this report was very quote driven and I had to further explain the significance of the quotes and how they related to the themes portrayed throughout Men We Reaped by Jesmyn Ward.
Hot Chips: are they worth it?
Is there ever a time that you find yourself craving some Flamin’ Hot Cheetos? While you’re eating them, have you ever checked to see what exactly you’re eating? If not, it’s okay, I made the same mistake until my English teacher, Ms. Taylor, informed me on the dangers of eating these snacks. The ingredients used to make Hot Cheetos can cause severe abdominal pain, ulcers, erosion's, peptic ulcer disease, and gastritis. One of everybody's favorite part of Hot Cheetos are the red seasoning, but it’s actually the worst part. For example, “The red chili powder in Cheetos does more than just leave your fingertips smothered in red-orange residue. When unreasonable quantities are ingested, the powder acts as a dye causing feces to be discolored. When this occurs, unaware consumers or doctors may confuse it for bleeding in the lower intestinal tract, including the large intestine or rectum. Though you may not actually be bleeding you will still feel pain when the feces (most likely diarrhea) is released: the powder is still active and will give your anus a ‘flamin’ sensation” (thrashersaf). This quote explains how the outer seasoning of Hot Cheetos affects your digestive process. I used this quote to because as I said before, many kids eat Hot Cheetos, so this is causing kids nowadays to have trouble using the bathroom or trying to prevent from going to the bathroom so they don’t have to experience the burning from the chips. In addition, these Hot chips can do more than just burn your anus, in fact, “Because the spicy snack contains a lot of red food dye, it can turn the stools of people who eat large quantities red or orange. Parents and kids may mistakenly assume that it is a sign of blood in the stool, leading to panicked trip to the hospital” (Castillo). Can you imagine eating so many chips that it shows when you go to the bathroom and wasting a trip to the hospital? There is no reason why chips you eat should affect the color of your poop. All in all, the seasoning used to make the chips hot is only the beginning of the dangers used to make Hot Cheetos. Many kids nowadays still eat Hot Cheetos and deal with the burning from using the bathroom but they do more than just affect how you poop. For example, “Additionally, the snack will cause acute gastritis- when the lining of the stomach becomes inflamed or swollen for a short time. Symptoms may include nausea, vomiting, and a burning ache or pain in your upper abdomen” (thrashersaf). This quote proves how these delicious snacks are tearing up your insides. If eating Hot Cheetos causes all these problems and make you sick, you would think this would encourage people to stop eating them, but that’s not the case. Besides getting sick, you are also at risk for many other things,as stated on Is It Bad For You, “Hot Cheetos are mostly made out of corn (most likely GMO) and sweetened with high fructose corn syrup (HFCS) which can increase the risk of various ailments including obesity, metabolic syndrome, and liver damage. Because they are also high in salt, eating them as a regular snack could potentially cause dehydration and high blood pressure” (Cook). Hot Cheetos are so danger, they can permanently damage you internally. The ingredients used to make these chips really hot just how we like it, can put you at risk for many illnesses, that aren’t even worth it. In conclusion, Hot Cheetos can damaging to your body and people should consider all the effects that come with eating them before they buy another bag.