3. Group E---astark27

In the book Brighter than the sun by Daniel Aleman, a Mexican immigrant named Sol is having to travel back and forth between the U.S. to go to school and also work in the US because she gets paid more there than she would in her home town in Mexico Tijuana. She eventually moved into her best friend's house in the US as it was easier for her to live there compared to going back and forth on the border every day and night.Sol dreams of college but is forced to take on burdens as she supports her family, splitting her life between her home in Mexico and working across the border.The story explores themes of the ability to adapt to adversity, bounce back from difficult experiences, and manage stress, financial pressure, the reality of immigration, and finding one's own identity despite overwhelming family obligations. Sol struggles with guilt over enjoying her new life in the U.S. while her family struggles, as well as the exhausting reality of her double life. It is an emotional, and in the end a hopeful story about finding strength and finding what it means to be part of a family. Every morning, sixteen-year-old Sol wakes up at the break of dawn in her hometown of Tijuana, Mexico and makes the trip across the border to go to school in the United States. Though the commute is exhausting, this is the best way to achieve her dream, becoming the first person in her family to go to college. Throughout working she meets a boy named Nick and they get close; he eventually asks her out and he becomes a big love interest for Sol in these last few chapters. Sol goes back to Tijuana one weekend to find out the restaurant they've been struggling to keep open that her dad finally chose to shut it down. Sol was very upset as this was the last thing left from her mom. Sol gets asked to speak up for a boy she was kind of friends with on the border named Bruno. He got in big trouble because he fought a white boy in the lunch line for Sol because he was flirting with her but also just being a bad person. But Bruno gets called the bad guy and the other kids' parents decide to try and press charges against Bruno so Bruno's friend asks Sol to stand up for him, Sol says she can't because she's scared of public speaking and doesn't want to risk getting kicked out of school. She was working and enjoying her shift talking with Nick and her other staff members, eventually she gets called to the staff room and finds out she's getting accused of stealing a really expensive dress that's worth three of Sol's paychecks. Sol tells them she didn't steal anything but they have to put her on leave till they figure out who actually stole it. Sol then decides to go back home early since she can't work anymore and she knew she had to tell her dad. Sol got home back in Tijuana and told her dad and grandma the three of them knew they needed Sol to have this job without it, how would they pay the bills, debt, and get food on the table? Sol decides that she needs to find another job and fast. Sol eventually said yes to talking to the school board about Bruno and his situation as she didn't really have anything else in line anymore since she doesn't have a job anymore. Sol plays a significant role in helping her friend, Bruno, overcome his expulsion hearing, sol supports Bruno through this tense situation helping him win the “case”. Sol is the only member of the family who is a US citizen. She was born on the other side of the border due to her mother’s complicated pregnancy. Her family hopes for her to be the first person to attend college. They want her to do better than they did and in the process, lift up her younger brother, Diego, in particular. But the challenges of living in poverty are not lost on Sol. Before she can realize her dream, she wants to pitch in and do everything she can to put more food on the table and make living conditions better for her family. Hence, Sol makes the decision to move to San Diego and stay with her childhood friend, Ari, and her mother, Nancy. A character's challenges and environments shape what makes them unique by giving them different challenges and experiences from others in their lives. I feel people develop their own unique character over time like in my book sol is very different from the people around her though some people around her have similarities like how both Sol and Nick both work at a young age yes that's similar but sol has to travel to go to school and work while Nick works full time to help his mom and doesn't go to school.  In the ted talk Fish Cheeks by Amy Tan is about a girl named Amy. She is Chinese and fell in love with the minister's son named Robert who happened to be white caucasian. Her mom and dad had invited the minister and his son for Christmas dinner. Amy was terrified about what Robert would think of her and her traditions. Her parents brought out the dinner that happened to be very non american foods like raw cod, fungus, squid, fish cheek, and much more and these were all kind of American but how they were cooked and seasoned they were not. She was scared how Robert would see her now. Her father told them how it was polite to show your satisfaction with a big belch. The minister was awkward but managed a little one. They left awkwardly and her mom knew Amy was embarrassed so she told her she had to appreciate their culture and not worry about what others think. “”You want to be the same as American girls on the outside.” She handed me an early gift. It was a miniskirt in beige tweed. “”But inside you must always be Chinese. You must be proud you are different. Your only shame is to have shame.””

what if everyone understand each other's thoughts? 

Towards the end of the book, “How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents” By Julia Alvarez, the Garcia sisters childhood was shown more and how they grew up in the Dominican Republic. It shows how they had a lot of political danger that made them have to move away from their home in the U.S. When Yolanda was young, she saw a kitten, which highlights the beginning of her identity, and language struggles. 

In the book, How the Garcia Girls Lost their Accents, by Julia Alvarez, Yolanda’s uniqueness is shown through her challenges of where she was born, and going between the Dominican Republic and the United States. With her moving between, it makes her have to adjust to a new language and culture. She starts to feel as if she doesn't belong and struggles heavily with her identity. I think that in Yolanda’s uniqueness is developed overtime. Her environment plays a bit of a role on her uniqueness, because of her having to move so much, “ Now she knows guns are illegal” (Alvarez 197). This quote shows how at a young age, Yolanda had to learn things about guns and hiding, which definitely shaped her uniqueness and caused her to mature earlier than most kids. 

 In the TED Talk, Why Children of Immigrants experience guilt– and strategies to cope, by Sahaj Kaur Kohli, she talks about ways to help immigrants and explains why they experience so much guilt. Since Yolanda is an immigrant when she is in the U.S., she experiences much guilt and she is forced to adapt at a young age. The TED talks show how they relate when it says, “ You know, the guilt of feeling misunderstood, the guilt of feeling like you can’t do things that you want, the guilt of feeling like you’re not enough are tied to a grief of something that you didn’t have” (3 Kohli). This quote helps explain how Yolanda and other immigrants feel the need to impress their parents and make sure they make them proud. They all fear losing their original culture while trying to fit into a different culture.

In my book “the tyrant’s daughter” by J.C carelson, my main character, Laila, is taken from her home in the mid-west by an American CIA agent and put into the U.S under certain conditions, while in the US she experiences many new things that shape her personality a bit differently. She experiences short skirts, school dances, boys, and her mother letting her experience these things, she was born unique and she knows shes different

“I could say that my mother won't allow it. In another life-time, she wouldn’t have. But here, she is newly permissive–liberated by the distance from rules from our past,perhaps.” - J.C. Carlson The tyrants daughter.

these experiences of liberation shape her behavior in the later sections of the book.

In “Out of Nowhere” by Maria Padian, there are two main characters, Tom, who is a popular white boy from Maine, and Saeed, a Refuge from Somalia. It takes place in Maine after 9/11. The story is told from the perspective of Tom Bouchard, who is very popular in his high school and is a captain of the soccer team. Saeed is from Somalia and had to escape because of danger in his country. Everyone struggles with the change of refugees living in the town, as well as getting used to language barriers when it's hard to communicate. i personally think that uniqueness is developed, because tom becomes more unique after meeting Saeed. i also think his challenges did shape him. near the beginning of the book, tom vandalizes school property with his friend donnie and he's told he needs 100 hours of community servuce just to graduate. later in the book, he barely mentions his friend Donnie, and he becomes more of hus own person, not relying on his girlfriend or friends. "i havent seen much of Donnie. I mean, this usually happened during soccer season, but this year it really felt like he'd dropped off my radar."(Padian 193) this shows how much he's grown distant from his friends, and he is starting to become his own person.