The secrets behind the first 50pgs of The Secret Side of Empty

The Secret Side of Empty might be one of the last young adult novels I might ever get to read, so I might as well enjoy it right? The The Secret Side of Empty takes place in modern times and follows around our main character M.T. It’s a nice change of pace reading a story that happens in a place that is tangible to me. It’s not in the distant future and it’s not in an alternate universe, it’s just simple New Jersey. Our main character has pretty nice back story, she is a high school girl that I also an immigrant. When I hear the word “immigrant” I relate that word more to the 1900’s, and the old days of Ellis Island . All the people I have come in to connect with my life most of time are at least 2^nd or 3^rd generation Americans. It’s just an interesting fact that you have to remember sometimes that immigration is happening all the time and it may bring a lot of stress and problems to all kinds of people.

But anyways we see M.T is blending in quite nicely. She has a best friend like a normal high school girl and her name is Chelsa. We find out that these two like to take trips into New York City, and that’s a perfect teenager thing to do and it’s something that I can easily relate to. Although I have only been to New York City only a handle full of times. But I don’t have the same problem as M.T has, you see M.T isn't here legally, she is undocumented. Which means she can easily be deported at any time from the United States. This scares her because she states multiply times throughout the text how “This might be her last year to a formal education”(Andreau 32). This is easily relate able to how she wants to pursue the American Dream, she wants an education, she wants to succeed, but can she? I am really concerned that this story might that a left hand turn with her secret being found out. 

-Richard Plattel

-Andreu, Maria E.. The Secret Side of Empty; Philadelphia: RP Teens, 2014

But…You Don’t Look (Insert Race and/or Ethnicity Here)

                                       But…You Don’t Look (Insert Race and/or Ethnicity Here)  

“But you don’t look Spanish.”

This is where the book really started for me. “But you don’t look Spanish.” I can’t even begin to tell you how many times I’ve gotten a variation of that accusation.

“But Bri you don’t look black!"

My face on the outside 

My face on the inside 

                                                                                                                                                

My eyes furrow and a thousand things cross my mind.

“What does black look light?”

“What doesn’t black look like?”

“Is it because I’m light-skinned?”

“Is it because I’m not dark-skinned?”

Or just, “Why?”

M.T. has a similar response, she really knows the struggle. I've fought the same urges to say what I’m thinking.

Once the character who says the ignorant comment, Siobhan, realizes how ignorant and stupid she sounds she tries to make up for her mistake. I’ve been in this scenario so many times. The person who is in the wrong tries to make up for their fumble.

“Well you know what I mean Bri. You’re just…you...well. You know what I mean right?’

Reluctantly and begrudgingly but smiling on the outside, “Yeah I know.”

“Siobhan looks relieved that she averted a Racial Incident, the kind she’s heard about on some MTV reality show.’ Pg.9 (See example below)

                                                  

Now, for the most part M.T is really just an average girl. She hangs out with friends, goes to school, loves her little brother flirts with boys. Also she’s really sarcastic,

“She may just need to rethink this whole college thing with a catastrophe like that looming.” Pg. 7                 

  This was in reference to “not cute looking” long twin bed sheets.

The invisible but not intangible elephant in the room is that she and her entire family are “illegal”. This means she doesn't have the same rights are her rich friend Chelsea and her annoying ass stubby cousin Siobhan. She is like them in so many ways, but they will never know this kind of struggle. While Chelsea is eating with a silver spoon, M.T and her family would be lucky if they even get a plastic one. 

“I wonder if generation after generation of living in big houses and having everything makes people prettier somehow.” Pg.6

Reading this book has been easy so far. It is just sad seeing how little of a choice she essentially has. These were the cards she was dealt. The fact that she's doing everything right ( she's a nice girl, she cares A LOT about her studies, she's a great big sister) just makes it harder to see how little options shes had. It also makes me think back to my pre college days. Did I know anyone with this predicament? Would I have been shocked had they told me? What could I have done to help them? If I could have done anything at all. 

All in all this was a good 50 pages. 

Andreu, Maria E.. The Secret Side of Empty. Philadelphia: RP Teens, 2014. Print.

- Briana W

FINALLY!

Finally! For once in my life I am reading a book that has taken place in the same location and time frame I live in; not in some distant future or dystopian world. Rather, the here and now in New Jersey, which is where I happen to be from as well. The Secret Side of Empty, written by Maria E. Andreu, tells of a story about a young high school student, M.T., who happens to be an immigrant living in the United States with her mom, dad, and younger brother.

So far, this novel has been an easy read due to the ability to connect to the characters. For example, M.T. and her best friend Chelsea take trips to New York City, people watch (Andreu 33-34), flirt with boys in fancy cars (12-14), and struggle with the concept of college (10, 35). Having been M.T. and Chelsea’s age once before, I can totally relate to each of those things—it’s actually kind of creepy how alike we are. Everything that has been mentioned in the book, I have done with my friends in some shape or form.

Not only do I relate to the characters in this book, but M.T.’s situation also instills empathy among readers.

While M.T. was discussing with Chelsea their classes for the next school year, Chelsea is baffled as to why M.T. is taking so many advanced classes when she should be ‘livin’ it up.’ M.T. thinks:

“I want to say that this could be my last year I get a formal education. Instead I say, “Don’t worry about me and these classes. We’ll have plenty of fun” (32).”

Later on Chelsea says how lucky M.T. is for being so good at school and M.T. just sits there saying to herself,

“I’m lucky, she thinks. I want to laugh but it would come across as mean” (32).

M.T. has finally come to the realization that being undocumented may not turn out well. This may very well be her last chance to get a real education, so she is going to take advantage of it.

 While reading the story I feel myself becoming connected to M.T. and her family and having compassion for them. I think of them all having to share a two bedroom apartment. Her little brother running up and giving her a bear hug when she finally returns home. The horrible association she has with her father (18). Andreu’s ability to stir up emotions in the reader is extraordinary. I feel bad for M.T. because she is such a bright girl and when I read that her father wanted to just lock her up in the house all day, I didn’t really think too fond of him either.  

Up to this point, I think that M.T.’s situation is unfortunate, especially for a girl with so many amazing abilities. I can’t wait to see how this story pans out: Will her and her family get to stay in America? Will they be deported? Will M.T. go to college after she graduates high school? Will she skip college altogether? Stay tuned…

Andreu, Maria E.. The Secret Side of Empty. Philadelphia: RP Teens, 2014. Print.

Nicole S.

M.T and the All American Struggle

The secret side of Empty visualizes a pretty recent dilemma that America has been facing for quite some time now: Immigration and the feeling of crushing poverty. Sadly enough this novel actually does do a phenomenal job of showing us what it’s like to have a breadbox for a home stuffed with an overworked mother, a stressfully energetic son, an abusive husband and a daughter who just wants a normal life.

…oh yeah, and her entire family is illegal. Woops, forgot that part!

         

      So we follow around a character by the name of MonsteratemyTheremin (Monserrat Thalia) and her daily struggles as a teenage girl who just wants to party and have fun.

No, im just kidding about that

                

      The story is about how M.T (thank GOD they abbreviate it) is trying to live out her life in a world where she feels she doesn’t belong. Her entire family is from Argentia, and they all had the ideal image of what they were trying to achieve: The American Dream.

However, as easy as it may sound, this dream is as lucid as they come.

                It’s difficult for M.T to be at home, with her mother scuffling around the apartment, a shadow of her former self, her rambunctious younger brother Jose and her abusive father Gorge. She’s extremely smart but is considering not going to college, strictly because she has no paper…well that and her family isn’t exactly financially stable. It’s not rare for them to eat the same thing every night for long stretches at a time. And it’s not like their actual properly portioned meals or anything…just lentils.

                “Lentils are the best motivation for a starvation diet when they are the only thing in the house to eat.” (Andreu 22)

                That being the case, however, M.T. has made some pretty high-class friends. Chelsea, M.T’s best friend lives in a massive mcmansion up the hill from her apartment, and has always been there with her through thick and thin.

                A question that has been asked throughout the novel thus far is is it really okay to keep living in America when there is little to be gained from it? M.T would like to stay In America, which is actually a major conflict in the novel. She wants to stay where she herself doesn’t even feel she belongs.

Heavy stuff, right?

Her father wanted to be an architect; well he’s been waiting tables for seventeen years, and her mother stays at home taking care of Jose. It’s great that M.T is smart, but without money, there’s really nothing you can do in America.  

            

    -Taylor R.

                                                Andreu, M. (n.d.). The secret side of empty.

Let Me Be Your Hero

Type in “I need a hero I'm holding out for a hero” into Google’s search window. A majority of the images you see are either pictures of lyrics or pictures of men in shields and masks. Men. Men in shields, men with masks, bulky strong men ready to yet again save the day. The song I referenced in the first sentence is feeding into the idea of a man swooping in to save the day.

“Where have all the good men gone
And where are all the Gods?
Where's the street-wise Hercules
To fight the rising odds?

Isn't there a white knight upon a fiery steed?
Late at night I toss and I turn
And I dream of what I need

I need a hero, I'm holding out for a hero
'Til the end of the night
He's gotta be strong
And he's gotta be fast

And he's gotta be fresh from the fight.”
            All the third person singular pronouns are he’s. What about us? What about the women? More recently we’ve been getting more exposure in the hero category, but not enough. Certainly not nearly enough to contest with a man. When people close their eyes and think of a savior more often than not they will see a strapping burly man (maybe in spandex, maybe not. The spandex look can be an acquired taste.) They usually don’t see a woman and if they do she’s in heels and the shortest shorts found in the galaxy or has a boob window (i.e. Power Girl). Through media, whether it be movies, TV shows or books, we are getting better representation. Take the Hunger Games trilogy by Suanne Collins. Her main character is a girl doing her best to deal with the cards she has been dealt while under extreme scrutiny and pressure.
            Katniss Everdreen. A provider, a celebrity, a survivor, an object of affection. A hero? A HERO? Is she a hero? Many might think no due to a plethora of reasons. She’s too young, she’s not outspoken, she’s petite, and she is a woman. I believe in that in certain aspects she indeed is a hero. Katniss is a sympathetic character and this character trait in turn makes her relatable. While she has her faults, like every other human does, overall she does what she believes is right. Katniss does what she needs to do to keep the ones she cares about alive and safe, regardless of what she longs for.

“If it were up to me, I would try to forget the Hunger Games entirely. Never speak of them.” Katniss Everdeen, pg. 3

Yet she has to relieve it every day for the rest of her life because of the fear she’s instilled in President Snow. After her encounter she realizes that her choices are not limitless. To appease Snow she must adopt a life that is forced upon her or the world as she knows it will cease to exist. To me what she is willing to give up, her freedom to make her own choices, is in itself an instance of her heroism and valor.

“He means there's only one future, if I want to keep those I love alive and stay alive myself. I'll have to marry Peeta." Katniss Everdeen, pg. 44

 Although it isn’t blatant and outright. Katniss is meant to be read as a hero, reluctant or not. I think that people forget to take certain things into account when thinking about Katniss Everdeen. She lost her father whom she was close with at quite a young age, she is a teenager (Need I say more? Please reference My Chemical Romance’s “Teenagers” if need be.), she is the provider in her household and she is extremely poor and living in squalor. Not to mention she’s living in a place that thinks it’s all in good fun to have children fight to the death on television. She deals with all of these adversities the way any person would, but she does not crumble. Most of her behavior should be emulated and probably would be if you were in her position. I believe that Katniss is a role model and a pretty good one at that. Katniss at her core is a hero, a protector. That’s how she ended up in the games. Her motivations are to do all she can for those she believes she can help.

-Briana W

Power and Control

            The young adult novel “The Hunger Games: Catching Fire” has shown us how people separated by many factors can still gather together to fight for a common cause. I feel like that the author is trying to teach us all a lesson on change. See for change to happen in this modern age, there needs to be mass agreement and a constant push for modification of a law or idea that isn’t right. In this book we see many different districts, that are heavily separate and none only the basics about each other. No these districts can be compared to the many different groups of protesters across the globe. They are all fighting for a change and for a common good, but they can’t support each other. The real question here is how many people and how long will it take for a protesting group to get what they want. Well in recent events we haven’t seen a lot of change. There has been a lot of push on many different ideas such as the Occupy Wall Street protest group, Ferguson protesters, and or the recent protests in Atlanta after the death of Anthony Hill. Will any of these groups succeed in their plea for change?  We have seen slight changes in political laws in Arizona thanks to the Occupy Arizona movement. This group protested in a peaceful way, in our book we don’t see peaceful protest. We can see the being sparks of a full blown out revolution. Rumors being spread, sparks lighting up and a massive outbreak of violence could happen at any time. Rumors spread like wild fires in today’s society, we can thank our massive incretions of social media for that. In the Hunger Games  these districts don’t have the technology we do in fact  their only source of information comes from government programs and scared winners of the Hunger Games.

            These districts are separated by walls and electric fences, what is really separating all of us from bounding together and fighting for a common good?  There are plenty of able human beings like you and me who can easily say “I support that cause” but we don’t go out there and protest with them.  It’s because we all don’t want to get in trouble. It’s as easy as that, we have been taught from an early age that if we get that one bad “X” on our record that we want be able to get a job. Without a job we have been told that we wouldn't be able to eat, buy a house, or start a family. This is all true I haven’t been able to go to the streets and riot because I feel like my hands are shackled to my house by these ideals.  Even something as basic as the recent protest in New York, where plenty of New Yorkers took the streets and peacefully protested their want for more action pertaining to climate change. This is a cause I would love to willing support but, I don’t want to run the chance of being locked up in NYC jail cell. Especially with all the recent news about NYC cops and all their controversies, but that’s a different can of worms.   

            But that’s not really pertaining to our young adult novel The Hunger Games: Catching Fire, although Katniss has angered the capital she can still live freely in Penam. The only catch is almost her every move is being watched and monitored by the capital. Even in our society after you have been arrested for a crime, you still have a chance to becoming a normal functioning member of society again. But your life will be much harder and a lot tougher to reach the goal of your own personal American dream.  It’s a hard restricting factor on one selves, being labeled as a criminal would make everyone turn the other cheek at you.  These are all reasons why our recent generations don’t want to cause trouble or have the black x’s labeled on our foreheads. But in the end the real question is, how similar are we to the people of Penam?

-Richard Plattel 

Katniss and her fickle, fickle heart

                           VS.

The Hunger Games as a series is very nihilistic, but simultaneously there is a love triangle between Katniss, Gale and Peeta. It’s also very true that I’m going to write thi

s blog post about this love triangle…despite how much I loathe it.

*deep sigh*…okay…here we go.

So throughout Catching Fire, the second book in The Hunger Games series, we watch Katniss’ struggle with her feelings for Gale while living a lie with Peeta as her husband. The hints that Katniss likes Gale are pretty clear…I mean, they’re not even hints, she flat out says it:

“Gale is mine. I am his. Anything else is unthinkable.” (117)

In today’s social standards, she would be called a cheater! Hahahaha…ahem.

                Well okay, so yes, Katniss loves Gale and is pretty neutral about Peeta, right? WRONG, YOU ARE WRONG! As seen in the first book as well as this one later on, Katniss has her moments of weakness where she truly does show feelings for Peeta as well. She is constantly battling herself and her feelings for Peeta. Example; after having a terrible nightmare about Clove turning into a werewolf (teenwolf? Lol) she thinks:

“ I wish Peeta were here to hold me, until I remember I’m not supposed to wish that anymore.”(121).

Oh come on that was only four pages later!

                Then a couple of pages later (125-126) she starts freaking out about kissing Gale. I really wish Katniss would be a little less emotionally compromised given her current situation of needing to pretend to love Peeta (or actually loving him, I don’t even know anymore) in order to prevent President snow from killing her and her entire family. I mean really.

                Well let’s look at the background Katniss shares with her love interests: Gale has been her friend forever, while Peeta isin’t someone she really cares for all too much, despite him being a really nice guy. So we have a childhood friend and a guy whose madly in love with someone who doesn’t share his feelings… both of those are kind of lost causes when it comes to romantic literature.

                To make it easier for everyone, I think that Katniss should just become a forest hermit who lives her life hunting and bringing food in secret to those who need it most, like a hero or something! It seems like that’s the kind of person she’d rather be, anyway.

                -Taylor R.

Collins, Suzanne, and Elizabeth B. Parisi. Catching Fire. New York: Scholastic, 2009. Print.