PQP

Dear Piri,
I enjoyed your writing in "DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS". Your writing was inspirational,vague, and creative. Some examples that you used that were composed with those 3 elements was the visit to the transvesties apartment, and the incident in the shower. The writing was very interesting. I liked that you used the word "corazon" often because you showed me an idea of what you meant by having heart.
As i read more of the book I wondered why you didnt include your brother's more in the book. I thought that your brother's would join you into the gangs and be your bestfriends as you grew older. Another question I have is why did you feel the need to be vague with chapter 6.
I suggest that you remain to write books the way you wrote "DOWN THESE MEAN STREETS". You were able to grab my attention and make me interested in what was going on. Your words were inspirational which showed me a lot of comparison on how your life is compared to many teens today.

reflection #2

Two things i learned in class were to import pictures to my blog and how to maintain a well organized blog.

Importing pictures was important because it makes my blog look better and it grabs peoples attention.
Maintaining a well organized blog is good because it makes things less complicated to find.

MY QUESTION/COMMENT FOR CHAPTER 6

One question i have for chapter 6 was what influenced Piri and his friends to go to the transvesties house?
One comment i have is that Piri had matured because i thought he would have wanted to fight the transvesties.

CHAPTER 6 RESPONSES

1. According to Piri to have corazon ( HEART ) means to be a strong person, to "throw a first punch" to "make people bleed there own blood" to be a known person in the "hood". The first time Piri thought someone had heart was the Italiano's. He realized Rocky had heart when his boy beat him up and Rocky walked him back to his house for saftey.

2. The illustration on pg 50 shows that gangs are very fierceful. They look for fights and fight with no limits. The illustration shows me that gangs use any kinds of weapons as a way of defending themselves. In the book im able to tell that Piri's gangs that he joins (TNT) are always determined to win their fights.

3. Piri feels very intimitated and grossed out by the transvestites in the apartment. Piri feels that he is going to get touched and had second thoughts about going to the apartment. But Piri is forced to go into the apartment or else he wont be able to stay in the gang.

4. Piri's attitude changes due to the fact that he is so high and drunk. Piri is touched and is very disgusted by what happened and rushes to leave the house.

5. Piri accompanied his friends to the apartment in the first place because he says " cause we wanted to belong, and belonging meant doing whatever had to be done. He felt that if he stoock up to going to the transvesties house it would make him look a lot better. If Piri did not go he would not be able to be in the gang.

DO"S AND DONT"S IN THE STREETS

DO'S
- respect your main leader
- show pride in the hood

DONT'S
- fight with a person who's been in the neighborhood for a long time

REFLECTION #4

While reading DTMS i was thinking about how interested i was in reading this book. I havent read a book since JHS and i was so hooked on to reading the book. I couldnt put the book down and finished almost half the book.

"Lit-Log #1 DTMS"- Down These Mean Streets

Piri is a very weak young boy who lives in Spanish -Harlem. Hes not like all the other boys in his neighborhood because he is Spanish. The other boys are known as "Italianos". This part is very realistic because Piri faces every day life problems that are faced today all around the world.

He is encountered by a bunch of kids who pick on him all the time and treat him differently because he is not there type. All over the world kids are threatened and hurt by other teens due to racism. Piri overcomes his fear of being bullied and joins the group of the Italian boys.

intro to down these mean streets

The opening pages of Piri Thomas's novel, Down These Mean Streets, show us that Piri dosent feel that his father loves him the same amount as he loves his other children. Another concern is the neighborhood bullying. For example, Piri tries to show his father how long he can hold his breath under the water in the bathtub. His father walks out the bathroom and Piri feels that hes not important to his father. He dosent understand because he was the first born child and feels like he should be loved more by his parents. Piri walks through his neighborhood scared to get beat up by the "italianos". Everyday the italianos pick on Piri because he is a "spic". These details illustrate that Piri is very self conscious about himself and always puts himself down. One reason Piri shows that he dosen't stick up for himself is because he lets other kids pick on him. He should feel happy about being Spanish and should stick up for his nationality other then letting people walk all over it.

GANG VIOLENCE

A gang is a bunch of people who organize a group that form violence. Many gangs hang around eachother and commit crimes which include gang colors,gang names, and gang apperals.

When joining a gang it usually involves of a ten minute beating by a set number of members. The term of being beat in is refferred to being v'd in. Some gangs dont allow to be hit to the head because it wouldnt be easy to hide. Cops,teachers, and family members would wonder why there face was all beaten up.

some reasons why people join gangs; 1. IDENTITY 2. PROTECTION 3. FELLOWSHIP 4. INTIMIDATION

- protection from rival gangs

-family or friends are already involved

-prevent boredom

-exciting by taking risks

-PEER PRESSURE

-make others fear them

-children may feel they dont have a purpose in life and look for gang activites for self esteem.

WARNING SIGNS!

graffiti is a marking of territorial labels. sometimes the graffiti left are used to communicate messages between gangs. Teens hanging around public parks,highschools, fast food stands, and convenience stores that frequently use pay phones by people who actually recieve calls there.

Increase in crime(vandalism,assaults,burgluaries,robberies,and random drive by shootings.

"ATTENTION CALLS"

As a teenager I know how it feels to want to get attention and fit in with different groups of people. Many teenagers feel that using drugs or drinking alcohol solves a lot of problems. One major problem that a lot of teenagers fear are cutting themselves. I have witnessed many friends that cut themselves. I always try and help them by speaking to them and mentioning to go see a therapist. Many times my friends who are in there teen age years do not listen to other peers because to them “the feel of cutting themselves makes them forget everything that happened”. People need to find other ways to solve there problems so people are not in danger of hurting their bodies. I have witnessed various encounters where my best friend and girlfriend cut themselves. These two people mean a lot to me so helping them is always my main priority.
My best friend lives a hard life. She lives with her mom because her parents are divorced. She has been cutting herself for a few years and never was able to understand why cutting herself was such a big problem. One time I witnessed a horrific time when she decided to cut herself deep threw her arm in front of my face and her own girlfriend. The blood dripped onto the floor like puddles that only grew bigger when my tears collapsed as well. She did not only cut herself deeply she was admitted to the hospital to get stitches. My best friend and I had many talks because I don’t appreciate people that cut themselves. In my opinion, I think people cut themselves for attention.