Blog #2

In chapter 2 of Always Running, we start to see the shift in Luis Rodriguez's personality and character. He begins to follow the wrong crowd, which he was accustomed to seeing, growing up around that environment. Rodriguez uses negative diction to emphasize how his education is lacking obedience and control. He attends Richard Garvey Intermediate School, which the reader can see, nobody takes their education seriously. However, can the fact that nobody is pushing them to follow the right path or their lack of materials or qualified teachers for the kids be to blame? Luis Rodriguez writes, "Most of the time, there was no pencils or paper. Books were discards from other suburban schools where the well-off students turned up,". The phrase "no pencils or paper", show how this school lacks the materials needed for a kid to be successful. Also, the books were "discards", meaning the other school books, that were thrown out or removed. If the kids at this school is aware of this, they may feel less than other students attending a school who has the materials. This causes a strain in a student's motivation to try because they see their surrounding, and they feel like they are at the bottom of the barrel. In addition, Luis Rodriguez uses words like, "well-off students" to show the separation of the two types of students and environments. He refers to them as being "well-off", because the kids who he's around are not for their education, instead,he sees and takes part of the chaos. He writes, "Gang graffiti on every available space of wall. Fires which blared from trash bins. Fights every day...Dudes who sold and took drugs...sometimes heroin which a couple of dudes shot up in the boys' room..". He uses negative connotation such as "gang graffiti", "fire", "fights", "drugs", and "heroin" to emphasize the amount of gang activity and lack of control this school has. This is what he witnesses every single day of school, and it may be the cause of his choices. Sometimes, our environment influences our actions and perspectives because that is what we are accustomed to and that's all we know of. There is no clear role model or authority to count on which makes these students act out. And like monkey sees, monkey do.