Day 3 response

response Eddie- In the book They Poured Fire on Us from the Sky, the main character, Ben, is often called out by his parents for being lazy. He mentions how he would always complain when he had to work. A quote on page 27 shows this when Ben’s father says, “You are lazy like a pumpkin. You wait for your mother to cook you food.” This is one of many instances when Ben is made fun of for being lazy. Ben was also ridiculed because of his childish acts he would always commit. He mentions on page 11 how he would rudely question people that would come into his house, asking them if they only came to steal goats. He talks about how he would mess around with his older brother Benson, and he would never do anything about. On page 11 he says “I’d pinch him and run, but he’d just shrug and forget it.” Ben would even eat his food and then say he never got any just to get more. You can tell all of this really bothered his mother when she said, “If I was not here, who you going to be complaining to?” on page 12. I guess you can say Ben’s goal is to get a lot by doing as little work as possible and having as much as he can during the process.

One time I’ll never forget when I was ridiculed was actually not too long ago. I was with my band and I was discussing what I was going to school for and how it would really conflict with me being in the band. I told him that I wouldn’t be able to practice with them as much and I was unsure if it would workout. When I told him I was going to school to study jazz, he looked at me like I was a clown or something and questioned why I would want to do that. He thought it was weird because the music I listen to is far from jazz but still has influences of it in there. I explained that I could easily incorporate jazz into our music and he understood after a while. I never thought twice about my choice, it just bothered me how ignorant about it he was.

response to Kevin- Most of the characters in They Poured Fire on Us are very similar to one another. All of Ben’s older brothers resemble his dad in a way considering they are all strong and hardworking people. Even though Ben is very different from most of his family because he is lazy, he still resembles his younger brothers in a way that they all still kids and probably aren’t expected to do as much as the older brothers and elders. Ben would probably most resemble his nephew Majok. He talks about how they are best friends and they never get into arguments. This shows that they are probably very alike because usually people that are alike don’t fight as much as people that are completely different.

I feel like I fit in my family well, but not compared to others. My family is usually very loud and I am the only quiet one in my family.