Week 5 Project 5A

Week 5 Project 5A

1. Write the story title and author name.

909 by Percival Everett

2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information. 


909 by Percival Everett, is a story about towns called Banning, Temecula, and Cabazon, located in the Los Angeles zip code area, but these small towns are separated from Los Angeles by “mountains or expanses of desert” (Everett, 121).  These tracts of small affordable houses are home to people who are blue-collar workers with simplistic names like, “Bob.” These simple but hardworking people reside on land that used to be home to orange groves and wheat groves. At one time, these small towns held some of the most impressive movie and millionaire crowds, making it the Palm Springs of California that is until; these millionaires and movie stars traveled further down the freeway to what are now known as Palm Springs. The beautiful mission style hotel in Banning once housed quite impressive crowds, including President Taft. The hotel even designed a special chair that still resides in the lobby today that held his extra wide derriere. This small town catered to some have the most regale and large names, until another area caught their attention. Now these small towns hold blue-collar workers and their horses, and the workers maintain the esteem of the town, for they have found the beauty and richness that lie in its untamed hills and mountainous areas. 909 holds some of the most untamed, majestic land that only burrows and their kind owners know about. It is here that the burrows and owners escape to the top of the hill and look out over the 60 Freeway that takes inhabitants to and from Los Angeles. It is high in these hills that the blue- collar workers know that they rival the white collar workers because they know the secret of success may not be the size of a manicured mansion alarmed system home, but it is the size of nature and the safety and beauty that regulates itself in their small towns.

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)?

My favorite quote echoes the simplicity yet richness of these small towns located on the 909. To an untamed eye, one cannot see from the freeway the beauty and freedom that lies in these hills. Everyone mostly from the freeway just sees an empty zip code where blue-collar workers can only afford to live. The author and his burrow, Monk” are witness to the calm and serenity these hills hold. They have learned that their zip code may sound simple and plain dull, but to them it is quite the opposite. “Between the lakes and me, between my hills and the distant hills of Hemet and Perris, is the 60 freeway. It is ever growing and ever too small for the volume of cars it supports. When we moved here ten years ago, we would see only a few cars on the road. We drove to Joshua Tree often because it was a pleasant drive. But 909 is in between It’s an in between where people live and where they want to be, apparently. Now on Sunday afternoons, the freeway is jammed with automobiles platinum blondes with BMW’s, SUV’s pulling jet skis, Jeeps with three-inch much lift kits, sporty purple cars with spoilers and decals of Calvin peering on someone or something. The traffic backs up like a bad septic system and does not move. I don’t leave the ranch during those hours. I have come to believe that the highway must be their destination. All of those people have left home to be there, on the 60, in 909. I can see them now in their air-conditioned boxes, from where I sit on Monk. They are little specks and that’s how I like it. For them 909 is the 60 or the 10.For me it’s these rugged hills. Hills that defy human occupation. Hills that are not on the way to anywhere. Hills that will let you know if you’re welcome. 909” (Everett, 125).

4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... )

I am one of those people who have been stuck on the 10, and I thought about the hills and who would live in such a place. I have always wanted to get off the freeway and journey through one of these small isolated towns to see who inhabits a place that looks so dry and lonely. Yet, this story made me realize that if someone drove down our freeway, the 101, north into Santa Rosa, they would never see the richness of such a town. They would not see the beauty of the SRJC, or Lake Sonoma, or the wineries that weave the Napa, Sonoma, Kenwood, Healdsburg areas. They would not see the funny little statues of Charles Schulz’s Peanuts Strip Characters scattered in front of different buildings in our downtown area and that the artist and creator of these statues lived and resided in our town. They would not see any of this, for they would be stuck on the small lanes of a freeway that need attention. They would meet drivers who have road rage and short fuses. They would see the freeways under construction with workers trying to expand the narrow two town lane roads. They would miss the richness that our town holds, but the person who merges off the freeway would know why we all desire to live and work in this town. I am beginning to learn it is all perspective.

5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)?

I did not know that the 909 was a place called the Badlands, and I wondered later when I learned by reading the 909 by Percival Everett that these small towns used to be home to meth labs and prisons if this area got its name, the “bad” lands,” from an earlier generation of inhabitants!

1. Write the story title and author name

The Line by Ruen Martinez

2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information.

A two thousand mile long line, known as the border between Tijuana, Mexico, and California, is one of the most infamous border crossings in the United States. Ruben Martinez, in The Line, describes how migrants have traversed, failed, and succeeded crossing the border. These migrants come from Mexico and as far as Iran, China, and Pakistan to try and reach California by crossing this one line. A line that means opportunities for a better way of life to the migrant culture that tries to escape from one side to another. Some migrants travel alone, hoping they can get across the line without being detained and sent back. Other migrants travel with their whole families, including grandmothers and grandfathers. The line used to hold a fifty-fifty chance for migrants, and if you couldn’t get across the first time, you would definitely on the second. Since the line attracted such an abundance of migrants, vendors decided to try and sell things they may need in order to get across, so vendors exploited their prices and lured the unknowing migrants into our land of prosperity with alcohol, prostitutes, music, food, magazines, and sheets of plastic in case it began to rain when they tried to cross the line. The migrants earned the nickname, “the coyotes,” for they would gather in packs to decide which way to run in order to have the best chance to cross while other packs became the decoys so each would have help getting across. A “million migrant footsteps” had carved deep paths for others to traverse and follow to freedom. At one time, the line was much easier to cross. Many migrants even celebrated and ate a meal with family and friends before packing up and crossing the line. Then the Great Depression hit, and many residents living in the United States lost their jobs. Governor Pete Wilson who had retained a migrant worker to clean his house became a hypocrite and decided to blame someone or something. He focused on the migrant workers, the “wetbacks” he called them, and he decided to do more than “pay lip service” to holding the line. Concrete, steel, infrared cameras, laser sensors, and United States soldiers armed with M-160’s reinforced “the line.” Now, the migrants had to find other means to get across the line, a fence that lit up at night and was patrolled twenty-four hours a day. Now, the migrants must create new footprints in total darkness, deep into the desert, away from all the lights, in order to try and get into a new country. They do not have a celebratory meal anymore at the line, nor do the “coyotes” try to outrun and outsmart the helicopters that patrol from high above.

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)? 1 percent


In order to try and cross the border then and now, the immigrants had to travel different routes and encounter different scenarios, sometimes leaving behind everything they owned and loved in order to secure a different life across the line. I chose this quote, for I feel it shows the sheer determination that lures more and more migrants to a better life even though they knew how dangerous the line could be to cross. “Sure, it was dangerous sometimes, especially along the line in Texas where migrants had to ford the trickster-currents of the muddy Bravo. But back then migrants were more likely to get robbed or beaten by border bandits than die of exposure in the middle of the desert” (129). And “To cross into California today you have to go east of the fence. You have to hike in total darkness, through mountains that block out the beacon of city-light from San Diego. You have to take a long walk in the dark” (131).

4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... ) .75 percent


I have never had to flee from one way of life to start another in order to survive. This made me think of the Jewish people; displaced suddenly from a way of life they loved and forced to live another. This made me think of the slaves shipped from Africa to work for another man’s betterment. Many cultures have not had a choice but have been forced to leave their own country. But, when men want to willingly leave their own country to escape poverty and suppression, I thought about how brave all the migrants must be and how much they must sacrifice in order to find work and make a better life for themselves and those they leave across the line. In a way, all these cultures: Jewish, African-Americans, Mexicans, Iraqis, and Pakistani, just to name a few, must have sacrificed and continue to in order to escape to a better way of life, and I ask this…Why is our government in Iraq fighting to help make a better way of life for others when our neighbors in Mexico just want a better way of life, too. This made me think of my own freedom, and how many fight to gain this exact thing that I have; that I cherish. Yet, how can our government be so hypocritical? We help one country learn to be independent but not another? Could it possibly be because there is no oil in Mexico?!?! There is nothing there that our government can make money with in Mexico, so we ignore and return its citizens without concern

5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)? 1 percent

I always believed that it was difficult to get across the border, but I did not know that it had become almost impossible. I also did not know how much our economic system affects other nations and cultures and determines whom our government chooses to help, ignore, and destroy.

1. Write the story title and author name.

Flirting with Urbanismo by Patt Morrison

2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information.

Flirting with Urbanismo by Patt Morrison allows many to understand that they have seen downtown Los Angles in many movies like Thorn Birds, television shows like Seinfield, and almost every cop show ever made, including Cagney and Lacey. Everyone at one point in time should have or will experience downtown Los Angeles. Most people, agreeably so, believe that downtown L.A. is grimy, and yes it has been and may continue to be, but as the story unfolds, Morrison allows his reader to see its majestic past, grimy illusive present and somewhat hopeful future. Downtown Los Angeles is a plethora of history that is “back in vogue” (135). From the Central Library, the new cathedral, and the old California Club, downtown is making a comeback. He points out to the reader that all cities have downtowns that are grimy and questionable, like immigrants New York tenements, or Chicago’s once crammed Jewish, Polish, and Irish newcomers. He also pointed out that the immigrants who came to Los Angeles were hardworking middle class people with talent, education, and money. They built Los Angeles into a moldable, plastic city with room for growth and change, for the better or worse; they married a way of life with the promise of a Southern California we all dream about.

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)?

My favorite quote shows how pliable and hopeful downtown Los Angeles can be re-created. Furthermore, I think everyone needs to have the hope to create, dream, and construct a life they want. “Downtown is the perfect plastic heart of a plastic city----plastic in the meaning of changeable, moldable. Its blocks are the most versatile, and thus the most filmed in the world; it can play almost anything----just as Angeleos ca make themselves into what they wish to be” (134).

4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... )

I think everyone needs a hopeful future or a hopeful dream to strive for and gain. I like how pliable cities can be and how change is inevitable, and one must adapt or be very displeased. Change allows us to refocus on what is still good and what needs to be rejuvenated. That is why I really like school, for if we all looked out the same widow our whole life we would only see one view. Opening up our minds allows more windows to open up and we can see more and understand more.

5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)?

I did not know how much beauty was really in downtown Los Angeles. The buildings on the outside are worn and dirty, but Patt Morrison made me want to visit the inside of these great places and witness the architecture. I appreciate how he saw the greatness in these old buildings, and I think it is wonderful that people want to re-establish the glamour and mystic of this city.

1. Write the story title and author name.

Waters of Tranquility by Carolyn See

2. Summarize the reading in one brief paragraph; be specific in your summary. Remember that your classmates will rely on you for this information.

Waters of Tranquility by Carolyn See was a spiritual journey as much as a visual one. No one can sunbath or frolic in the waters at The Lake Shrine, one can only walk around it and take in its beauty offered to the eyes and souls of the visitors. The Lake Shrine holds a visual pallet of beauty for the passersby, even a wayward soul. One can rely on its tranquil beauty of watching the baby waterfall or the swans, hens, a two-story houseboat painted white, or a rowboat moored to the shore; the passerby can also witness the beauty of nature that reaches around its walkways and structures, like the glistening gold and white temple up on the hill, but the author came to not only witness its beauty but its spiritual cleansing abilities, and she realized that many visitors never really see this beauty unless they have to endure something that makes them think deeper about life. She relied on The Lake Shrine to vent her fear about losing the love of her life, her boyfriend, to cancer. She would start her walk around once, cussing at whatever she could find; the second time around this majestic shrine helped her remember why she was there; the third time around she would ask for “courage, steadfastness and compassion” to help her cope with losing her boyfriend and helping him to die at home, and finally on the fourth time around, she would just “walk and watch” (145). The Lake Shrine taught her about the beauty of life and death. She realized that life might be as beautiful as a flowers bloom and death might be “the fall of one flower” (145).

3. Which was your favorite sentence or paragraph (include entire quote; use quote marks and page number)?

I believe that each part of nature can teach us so much about life and death, so that is why I choose this quote. “My life partner, John Espey, and I lived in Topanga Canyon for years before we moved to Pacific Palisades. I guess we’d learned to think of nature as harsh and flammable, heavy on the rattlesnakes. It was interesting to go from clearing brush to that peaceable and temperate walk around the lake. Wasn’t it just too pretty for words? Kind of a sissy place? Beautiful, of course, but not real, not like….life?” (145).

4. What did the reading make you think of? (be specific eg "There is a bridge in SF that spans 4 miles from SF to Oakland and in the middle of the bridge it crosses an island called Treasure Island. This story makes me think of that specific little island where I can see the entire city and bay area. That city was also in the news recently where .... )

This made me think of how beautiful, frail, and sweet life can be if we could all see the beauty in nature. We seem to take nature for granted and always expect it to rejuvenate our air, be a source of our food supply, or decorate our tables and homes, yet nature is so much more. It is spiritual and offers us the hope of blooming, growing, thriving, and helping others. I do see the beauty in nature, and I know it does have a spiritual cleansing to it.  It is important to decorate our life with the simplistic beauty that our world offers us; instead, of always looking at the things we can buy or achieve.

5. What is one thing you did not know before you started the reading that you now know (again, be specific using concrete examples)?

I have never heard of The Lake Shrine, but I would love to visit it. I do think it, specifically, the nature, the temple, and the water, have healing powers for people when they can see something’s beauty and effortless power to offer a passerby tranquility and peace.