Monday, October 6, 2008

Fortunate Son (T/TH A)

Welcome to the discussion.

16 comments:

gerl said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
gerl said...

I am reading the novel Fortunate Son, by Walter Mosley. So far, I am really enjoying the book. It starts off with Branwyn, a black woman, in the NICU of the hospital with her newborn son, Thomas. Thomas has a hole in his lung and he has to remain in a glass-enclosed, germ-free environment for the first few months of his life. Branwyn would go to the hospital every day after work to be with Thomas. Eventually, Branwyn meets a doctor named Minas Nolan, who insisted on driving her home every night. Branwyn and Minas become very close. Minas’ wife had died and Thomas’ father had left before he was born. Minas talks to the other doctors about Thomas’ condition and finds out that he most likely won’t survive. Minas gives this news to Branwyn and urges her to take Thomas out of his encasement and hold him, but explains that he will have to be in an oxygen tent for a few hours out of the day. Minas invites Branwyn and Thomas to come live with him and his son Eric until Thomas is better because he owns an oxygen tent. Branwyn accepts his offer and she and Thomas go to stay with Minas and his son. Minas and Branwyn fall in love and Thomas and Eric become good friends. When Thomas and Eric are about six years old, Branwyn gets very sick and she dies. Thomas ends up having to go live with his real father, Elton, and Elton’s girlfriend, May, in a run-down house. The first night that Thomas is with them, they get in a huge fight and the police come and arrest both Elton and May and they take Thomas to the police station with them.
I have a lot of expectations for this book and I think that it will be really good and I will end up liking it a lot. I chose this book because it sounded really interesting and sounded like it had a good plot. I went on the internet and looked up books that had to do with classes and identity, and this novel was on a list of books about differences in class. I went to the library and found the book. When I read the back of the book, it sounded really good, so I decided to check it out. So far, I am really liking it. It is easy to read and is going by quickly because it has a lot of suspense. I can’t put the book down!
The theme of the book so far is related to class. It is about a black boy and a white boy who grow up as step-brothers, but end up living totally different lives because of the different classes they were born into. Thomas was born into a lower class and is treated worse than Eric, who was born into an upper-class family. A quote from the book says, “Eric had scores of cousins, four grandparents, and more uncles and aunts than Thomas could count. At least one of these relations brought Eric presents every week. They never gave Thomas anything, nor did they pay much notice to the little black boy”(22). This quote is talking about how no one ever cared about Thomas because they thought that Eric was so much better than him and that Eric deserved more than Thomas did. Another quote says, “ ‘He’s a nigger, so he can’t be your brother,’ Billy said. ‘Black and white can’t ever be brothers.’”(53). This quote is talking about how the other kids would ridicule Thomas and Eric for claiming that they were brothers. One kid, Billy, came up to Eric and told him that because Thomas was black, he wasn’t as good as Eric and that they couldn’t be brothers.
I think that Fortunate Son is a really good book. It keeps the reader interested and grabbed my attention from the first page. It is a page turner because it leaves the reader wanting to learn more after every chapter. I think it has a really good plot that is deep and involves the reader emotionally. The theme of differences among classes is one that we can all understand. Although I am liking the book, I don’t think that it is superb or “the best book ever written”. The novel is written at a very easy reading level, which is not a challenge at all, but I am still enjoying reading it.


(it wouldn't let me italicize the title or use paragraphs)

King said...

In the book Fortunate Son written by Walter Mosley, an African American woman named Branwyn spends everyday in the NICU because her son Thomas was born with a hole in his lung. A man name Minas Nolan who worked as a doctor in the hospital insisted on driving Branwyn home one night. I later learned that Minas also has a newborn son name Eric. His wife died while giving birth to Eric a few months earlier. Branwyn and Minas become very close because Minas begins giving Branwyn a ride home every night. Thomas’ father had left Branwyn before the baby was born so both of the new parents were very lonely. Dr. Nolan (Minas) begins to talk with other doctors to see how Thomas is doing. He learns that Thomas most likely will not survive if he stays in the conditions he is living in now. This is when Minas encourages Branwyn to ask the hospital to release Thomas because Minas thinks it is important that Thomas gets to spend time with his mother (and in her arms). Minas warns Branwyn that Thomas would need to be kept in an oxygen tent for the first couple of weeks after being released from the hospital. (Minas slides in there that he has an oxygen tent). He makes an offer for Branwyn and Thomas to come live in the house with his son Eric, his “nanny”, Ahn, and himself. Branwyn accepts his offer. Over the next couple months, Branwyn and Minas begin to fall in love. Minas had asked for Branwyn’s hand in marriage several times, but she always said no. Despite her refusal to marry Minas, everybody began to become one family. When the boys turned six years old, Branwyn became very sick and died. As soon as Branwyn died, Thomas’ real father, Elton, takes his son home with him even though neither Thomas nor Minas wanted him to. Elton lives in a dangerous neighborhood where crime is frequent. Elton and his girlfriend, May, give Thomas the back porch to be his bedroom. The first night Thomas was living at his new house, Elton and May got into a very violent fight and the police came and took both adults away in hand cuffs. They took Thomas back to the police station where he spent the night behind bars because he had no where else to go (until Child Services came to get him in the morning).
I have many expectations for this book. So far, the beginning really grabs the reader so I hope it remains interesting throughout. I think this book will touch a lot on different classes which is one of our focal points of the year. I chose to read this book because Shelby researched it and said it seemed really interesting. When I went home that night, I ready the overview from the book, and it immediately grabbed my attention. Even when I began reading the book, I was immediately interested which is a good sign in the first few chapters! I read right before I go to bed, so I end up staying up pretty late because I cannot put the book down. I always want to see what happens next!
The main theme of this book is class. The book is about a white boy and a black boy who were raised in the same house. They had different parents, but they grew up in the same house and were therefore given the same rules and expectations. But when Thomas was pulled out of his house the difference in their lives becomes very evident. “They had different lives” (23). Even Branwyn realized how different the lives of their families were. One family was lower class, while the other was wealthy upper class. In the eyes of all their family, friends, and peers, they believed that an intermixed family like theirs was not only impossible but unheard of. I’m excited to see the theme continue throughout the book.
So far, this book is one of the best books I have read in a while. This book is one of my favorites because it addresses issues from everyone’s point of view. This book is considered an easy read for me because it doesn’t use any challenging vocabulary and at the end of every chapter there is a cliff hanger. With those, it always pushes me to read the next chapter. This keeps the book exciting and interesting for me. I think this book will be a book I will always remember in my mind because it has topics that I have interest in. Although the book is not personally relatable to my life, it definitely deals with issues that were of our country’s past. Although the book, is not a best seller or on Oprah’s list, I think if people actually read it they would enjoy it a lot. For me, it has a very interesting plot which will always stand the test of time. I cannot wait to see what happens in the next few chapters!

caraboolad said...

Mrs. Branwyn Beerman is a black woman who’s son, Tommy, lives in a glass box in the hospital due to a hole in his lung. Although almost all doctors told Branwyn that her son wouldn’t survive, she believes that with her presence and love, he would live. She goes to the hospital every day to visit him. She reads and talks to him, expressing her love for him in as many ways possible. One night, as Branwyn was leaving the hospital, a doctor named Dr. Minas Nolan, asks her out to dinner. Without hesitation, Minas takes Branwyn to a local restaurant owned by a man named Ira Fontane. Over the next couple weeks, Minas takes Branwyn out to dinner almost every night, sharing stories and talking about their lives. Minas believes in Branwyn’s philosophy that Tommy can and will survive, so he suggests that Branwyn move in with him and put Tommy in Minas’ widow’s sterile box. She accepts this offer, and shortly after, she and Tommy move in with Minas and his son, Eric. Eric is a big and loud child, while Tommy is a small and quiet one, yet their opposite characters attract and they seem to have immediate chemistry with each other. Since they removed Tommy from the glass box in the hospital, he frequently gets sick, but because this is so common for Tommy, he is still able to obtain the same aspects of a normal boy’s life. One day, Tommy and Eric were playing catch with a baseball in their yard. Eric had successfully persuaded Tommy into throwing the baseball overhand, which mistakenly broke the window of the greenhouse. Being unusual for Eric’s character, he stood up for Tommy and tried to take the blame for the whole thing. Branwyn viewed Eric a lot differently after this, because he took the initiative to become a better person. A few days later, Tommy’s real father, Elton, had visited Branwyn at a florist shop where she works. When Tommy was still in his mother’s womb, Elton had walked out on Branwyn’s life, leaving her alone to be a single mother. After the several attempts to convince Branwyn to go to lunch with him, Elton had finally received the answer he wanted to hear. Shortly after, Elton, Tommy and Branwyn gather together for lunch. Elton explains to Branwyn how he had left his girlfriend and how he wants to be a part of Tommy’s life. Of course, Branwyn felt that she was well off living with Minas, Eric and Tommy so she declined Elton’s request. Soon after, Eric came down with the flu and Branwyn had stayed with him every night until he got better. But to everyone’s despair, Branwyn became very sick and died in her sleep. The whole family mourned over her death, and they had a formal funeral for her three days later. During the funeral dinner, Elton storms in to take Tommy away, claiming that he owns Tommy, but Elton was stopped by Ira Fontane, and Tommy went running back to Minas. Unfortunately, Tommy has to live with his father now due to legal issues, but within the first day of arrival at his new home, Elton gets into a fight with his girlfriend ending up in jail. Subsequently leaving Tommy in jail to fend for himself until child services pick him up.
Upon receiving the book, I didn’t know what I was getting myself into. I wasn’t aware of the theme or even summary of the story. My peers had told me that the book was well-written and really good, and I have to say that I am overly pleased with the story line and the compelling combination of words. Walter Mosley creates a story of a boy who carries with him a sense of luck, yet he seems to have multiple bad situations thrown at him. There’s a sense of relation in this story, to a certain extent, which draws me towards it to continue reading it, living through the boy’s life.
Tommy Beerman is a young, lower class black boy who, at the early stages in his life, lived with his black mother, and Dr. Minas and Eric, who are both white and middle class. They all discover the similarities within each other that they have, and how even if people are in two different classes, have less paying jobs, and have different skin colors can relate to each other and share their lives with one another. A white doctor, who has a nice life, falls for a black woman who works at a florist shop, showing how people in two seemingly separate worlds can live together.
Although this book may not seem relevant to my life, or the lives of my peers, but it’s story line engages me in a way that I feel as if I can relate to the young black boy who has to deal with family, money and racial issues, yet who seems to be “lucky”. I find myself always wondering what’s going to happen next to the young boy, so I can’t help myself but to keep reading the story. It’s a quick read for me because my mind becomes engaged in the story shortly after picking up the book and opening it up to the right page. This book is of social value because it’s opening up the world to a life that may seem inexistent, when many people have similar lives to Tommy’s in our world. Not many people share the same experiences as Tommy, and it’s helping us put our feet in his shoes to experience the burden and despair, yet happiness of his life. This book is very memorable because of its success in being able to connect someone to its meaningful content, because it portrays a different view of one’s life in our world which people ignore.

gerl said...

group entry #1 (shelby,tricia,katrina)

So far, Katrina, Tricia, and I are really enjoying the book. We discussed it earlier today and we agreed that we really like the storyline. It keeps you hooked and leaves you wanting to know more. We discussed a few things we did not like about the book as well. We do not like the character Elton, who is Tommy’s biological father. We decided that he is a bad influence and will only negatively impact Tommy’s life. Also, we agreed that some of the author’s word choices are not very good. When discussing what we have read so far in the book, we came up with some predictions as to what will happen next. We left off with Elton and May getting taken to jail, which left Tommy without a home. We predicted that Tommy will soon end up living with his grandma. We came to this conclusion because we know Elton and Tommy’s grandma worked hard to take Tommy away from Minas, and we do not think that Tommy’s grandma will allow Tommy to visit Minas and Eric let alone go back and live with them. We also discussed the characters in the book. We decided that we like May, who is Elton’s girlfriend. She is very nice to Tommy and treats him well while he is living with Elton. She might turn out to have some sort of positive impact on Tommy’s life somewhere down the road. We were also perplexed by the character Ahn, who is Minas’s housekeeper, and Eric’s nanny. Ahn had a dream about Eric, in which she realized that he is always lucky and never loses. She came to the conclusion that Eric killed Branwyn. Ahn believes that Eric is a dangerous boy. She realized that whenever Eric wins, someone else will suffer a great loss. This part of the book confused us. We are eager to read more about Ahn’s feelings towards Eric and what will happen between them in the future. We noticed two themes in the book so far: family and difference in classes. Family is a big theme because the whole storyline is about Branwyn and Minas merging their families, and then having their families break apart after the death of Branwyn. Class differences is another big theme because they book describes how differently Eric and Tommy are treated based on the classes that they were born into. A question that we are keeping in our minds is, “Why didn’t Branwyn marry Minas?” It could be the fact that maybe Branwyn still loved Elton. We also wonder if Branwyn even loved Minas at all. We are curious to see if we will find out more about this question later on in the book.

caraboolad said...

The beginning of this second section of the book, starts with Eric life progressing. Like his father, Eric was really smart, causing him to skip the sixth grade. Before Minas knew it, his son was in junior high. He was very popular in those years. The idea that nothing bad happens to Eric was still apparent. Eric and Minas wrote a letter to Tommy, but Tommy’s grandmother never gave it to him. The story then rewinds back to the day after Elton and May were arrested. Madeleine Beerman, Tommy’s grandmother, picked Tommy up from the cell and took him to her home. A few days later, Elton was released from jail and picked Tommy up from his grandmothers and took him home. Tommy learned to not be afraid of Elton anymore. Tommy was enrolled in a new school called Carson Elementary. On his first day, he met a boy named Bruno who sat next to him. For reasons even Tommy couldn’t explain, he began to cry. He was then sent to the nurse’s office. When Tommy returned to class, his abundant pronunciation skills were unintentionally shown off, which seemed to frustrate his teacher since all the other students couldn’t pronounce three letter words. On his way home from school, kids attacked him. The next morning, the bullies repeated their actions on Tommy. To Tommy’s luck, Bruno’s older sister, Monique, stopped the boys and showed Tommy the secret way to school. Now we forward to Eric’s life. At this point, he is fourteen years old. He plays a senior in high school in a tennis match and wins. The senior’s girlfriend, Christie, felt a sudden attraction to Eric, and showed her interest in him. They began meeting up secretly in his car and hooking up. Lastly, we return back to Tommy’s life. Now that he had learned the secret way how to get to school, he got to school safely every day. One day, Tommy decided he wasn’t going to go to school anymore, but he would pretend to got o school for the sake of sparing Elton’s anger. Tommy grew a small crush on Monique, for she was nice to him, and he brought her home one day to meet Elton. One day when Tommy came back into the house while he was supposed to be at school, he saw May. He let her in and she began cooking dinner for them. Tommy left his house, and went to his clubhouse where he found a teenager who had runaway from his foster home.
As the book continues on, the type of black society they live is revealed more and more. The fact that kids in Tommy’s class couldn’t even pronounce the word “are” seemed like a large deprivation of education for these kids. It’s very noticeable that the black people in Tommy’s town didn’t receive as good of education as white people in a nicer town. Tommy and Eric’s differences are very obvious in this section of the book. Eric is from a white family, with a rice father, in a good school, while Tommy is from a black family, with a poor father, in a terrible school (which he dropped out of).
I believe that as the book goes on, the storyline gets better. Yet, it does get a bit confusing because the author progresses Eric’s life faster than he progresses Tommy’s even though they are the same age. Walter Mosley makes sure that his main characters, Tommy and Eric, personalities and lives are revealed. He shows the difference in their education, lives, friends and home. Fortunate Son has opened up a new world of the contrasted lives that are present in our society. It’s hard for me to think back in the book and remind myself that Eric and Tommy were very close friends, even though they are from two separate worlds. That’s the main thing I like about this book.

gerl said...

Individual Entry #2

I left off reading Fortunate Son when Tommy had been taken to the police station for holding because Elton and May had gotten in a fight and taken to jail. Eric soon finds out that he will never be able to see Tommy again. Eric writes Tommy letters and sends them to Tommy’s grandma, but she never gives the letters to Tommy. Eric never hears back from Tommy and proceeds to live his life without him. Eric is the strong, popular boy in school that everyone likes. Whenever Eric gets into a bad situation, everything always turns out fine for him. He seems to be very lucky in life, and his housekeeper, Ahn, notices. Ahn had a dream that it was Eric’s fault that Branwyn died because, she says, “Every time he wins someone else loses”(73). The day after Elton and May are taken to jail, Tommy goes to live with his grandmother until Elton is released and takes him back to their little run-down house. Tommy transfers to a new school to finish the first grade. At his new school, Tommy only makes one new friend, Bruno, who calls Tommy “Lucky”. The other children laugh at Tommy because he is sensitive and talks in a proper way. On the way home from his first day at school, Tommy gets beaten up by a group of third graders. After this incident, Elton ridicules Tommy for not standing up for himself. After this, Tommy decided that he will never go back to school again. Tommy decides to stake out during school hours in the alley behind his house. He makes a fort and plays with the animals, and no one ever notices that he does not go to school. Next, the book fast-forwards eight years to when Eric is fourteen years old. Eric is popular in high-school and challenges an upper-classman to a tennis match. Everyone at the school is at the game and Eric wins the match as well as winning over his competitor’s current girlfriend. Eric and his new found love, Christie, fall in love. The book then goes back to when Tommy is in first grade and hiding out in his fort in the alley. Tommy has a visitor in his fort, who escaped from the orphanage, and he allows him to stay in the fort. Elton takes May back, and all three of them are then living together again.
So far, the book is meeting my expectations very well. Each chapter still grabs my attention and makes me want to keep reading. The book was even more interesting when the author was writing about when Eric was in high-school. I liked this part because I could relate to it because I am in high-school as well.
“Class” is still a big theme in the book. It is probably even more prevalent now in the later chapters because Eric and Tommy are both immersed deeply in two totally different class cultures. Tommy is living in a lower-class neighborhood and goes to an all-black school. Eric is living with his father in an upper-class neighborhood and goes to a private high-school. There are distinct differences shown between the two lifestyles.
Fortunate Son is a good book and I would recommend it to anyone. I am enjoying reading it and it engages me to evaluate my lifestyle and compare it to others in many ways. It gives a greater understanding to differences in classes. I cannot wait to read about when Tommy and Eric are both in high-school

king said...

Previously on Fortunate Son: Thomas had to move in with his biological father, Elton, but the first night he was the Elton and May got arrested.
Since then, Thomas was picked up by his grandmother, Madeline, and lived in her apartment for a couple days. Meanwhile, Eric missed Thomas a lot. He missed the way Thomas looked at life. When Elton was release from jail, he picked up Thomas. On the way home, Thomas wanted to sightsee so he sat up on his knees. All of a sudden, a kid skateboarding rode right in front of the car. Elton hit the brakes. Thomas flew forwards and hit the dashboard. He ended up having to go to the ER and Elton had to pay a visiting fee which he was very upset with. Elton had enrolled Thomas in Carson Elementary. He made a new friend named Bruno. Then, he started crying, so he was sent to the nurse’s office. When he returned back to class, his teacher was very frustrated with him because he was able to pronounce big words! The rest of his classmates had trouble pronouncing three letter words. After school, Thomas got beat up by bullies. The next morning the bullies beat him up again. Luckily, Monique, Bruno’s sister came and stopped the bullies. She also showed Thomas a new way how to get to school so he could avoid the bullies. Then, the story goes back to Eric. Eric is now a fourteen year old boy in high school. He plays tennis and has a match against a senior and ends up winning. The senior’s girlfriend named Christie is somewhat interested in Eric. Soon after the match, Eric and Christie began hooking up. Finally, they switch back to Thomas’ life and he decided that he did not want to go to school anymore. But he pretended like he was going to school so he would not have to deal with Elton. One day, when he was supposed to be at school, he saw May and let her in. At the very end, Thomas went to his clubhouse and found a runaway foster child! (Cliff hanger).
This book is still meeting my expectations. It is very captivating and I always want to see what will happen next. The theme of this book still deals with the different lifestyles between two different classes. For instance, Thomas is from a lower class black family while Eric is from an upper class white family. The black family lives in a run down neighborhood where violence and crime is a regular occurrence. The book emphasizes the extremes of the two societies.
So far, I really enjoy the book. As the story goes on, the book becomes more interesting. I am interested to see where the writer will take me next. The author does a good job of grabbing the reader’s attention! I think this book has social value because it is interesting to see how two boys, who were raised in the same house, end up growing up in totally different environments. The main reason why I enjoy this book is because it compares their lifestyles.

caraboolad said...

The last section that I read in Fortunate Son ended with Tommy meeting the teenager, Pedro, who had runaway from his foster home and found his way into Tommy’s clubhouse. As I go on to read, the story switches back to Eric’s life, explaining how he skipped the 11th grade and has been hanging out every day with Christie. They often find themselves talking about their future, and she explains to him how she doesn’t love Eric, but something in her desperately “needs” him. After one particular hookup that Eric and Christie had, Christie found out that she was pregnant. Eric wants to support and love her as well as his child. When Eric is eating breakfast with his father the next morning, he confronts his father about Branwyn. He was curious to know whether or not Branwyn loved his father, and these questions led Eric’s father, Minas, to believe he has neglected his son. Now for Tommy, after he quit school, has been fixing up his clubhouse everyday, hanging out with Pedro and eating lunch with May, Elton’s girlfriend. One day, Tommy found a dead body in the alley next to his clubhouse. He had named the girl Alicia, and he had Pedro help him hide the body. Shortly after, Pedro had bought a gun and shot himself in front of Tommy. Tommy had tried to stop him by jumping for him but he fell out of the clubhouse and broke his hip, causing him to be in the hospital and have May and Elton arrested. Social services assign Tommy a new family to live with who have three other boys as well, but Tommy wandered away from the home, finding himself living with Bruno’s older sister, Monique, who has a baby named Lily. In order to make money to support Monique and Lily, Tommy started selling drugs on the street. On one drop-off, Tommy was almost raped and was all cut up. During a drug bust when Tommy was twelve, he was shot in the chest and was unconscious for about a month. After he was released from the hospital, he was sentenced to nine years in prison, but he only stayed for two years until he was sent to a minimum security home, and one again wandered away from the home. He then goes to stay at Monique’s new house with her new husband, Harold, and Lily. Successfully, Eric had graduated and had been accepted into UCLA. In the midst of this, Christie had her child who she named Mona. Since Eric has the fear of killing another human being, especially Mona, when he gets sick he stays at his friends Michael’s house. When he was there he met Michael’s sister, Raela, and became immediately attached to her, but he knew deep inside he couldn’t allow himself to be with her. Quickly turning back to Tommy’s life, we are informed that he decided to leave Monique’s only to become homeless. While on the streets he gathers money to call his Grandma Madeleine who he talked to for comfort. Tommy was inspired and began his journey to Eric’s house. Meanwhile, Eric had asked Christie to marry him, and she left him, only to go cheat on him with her ex-boyfriend Drew. When Tommy arrived at Eric’s doorstep to wait for Eric to come out, Christie had already come back to Eric to accept his proposal. As Christie, Eric and Lily were walking out of the apartment, Drew came up with a gun and shot Christie and Tommy. Unfortunately Christie had died but Tommy was left in a coma in the hospital. Eric visited Tommy everyday until Tommy woke up. The two became close again sharing their stories and how much they missed each other. Minas apologized for letting Tommy into the world without putting up a fight for him, and he asks Tommy what he would like to do with his life. Sadly for Tommy, a court trial awaits him for all of the crimes he committed while living on the streets. I now wait for what is going to happen to Tommy’s fate.
The theme of work and class is constantly maintained throughout the book. The two separate black and white, rich and poor lives are still present. The author emphasizes how hard it is being black and poor, and how it’s hard to realize that from another person’s view. The work theme is emphasized when Tommy has to work on the streets as a drug dealer to make money for Monique and Lily, for he is too young to get another job but he clearly needs money. The differences between the two classes and the two working environments are made very obvious.
To my surprise, Walter Mosley keeps up his complex plot with exciting and thrilling turns. I can never seem to guess what’s going to happen next to either main character, and it keeps me into the book. I can definitely say that this book has exceeded my expectations, and it’s a truly enjoyable book to read. I am able to stay engaged in the book, yet not overly engaged where I can’t take my eyes off the page. It truly is a good book to sit down a read, and listen to the life of a person who struggles, Tommy, yet whose character and attitude isn’t affected by it. While there’s a whole other life, Eric, presented in a seemingly other world and has everything he needs, yet has a huge part of him missing. Fortunate Son really makes itself a distinctive book because of its ability to fully connect these completely different people with their different lives together.

king said...

The final section that I had to read in Fortunate Son started with Thomas meeting a boy named Pedro who had run away from his foster home and was now living in Thomas’s clubhouse. In the next chapter, the storyline goes back to Eric’s life and shows how he has been hanging out with Christie every day. Christie constantly is telling Eric that she doesn’t love him. One day, Christie told Eric that she was pregnant. Eric, maturely, told Christie that he wanted to support not only her but their child. The next morning at breakfast, Eric began asking his father if Branwyn loved him (Minas). Minas did not know how to respond to his questions. The story line switches back to Thomas’ life! Thomas continues to fix his clubhouse while hanging out with Pedro. One day, while working on his clubhouse, he found a dead body in an alley nearby. Pedro and he decided to hide the body, who they named Alicia. Not long after they hid the body, Pedro pulled out a gun and pointed it to his head. Thomas tried to stop him by jumping from the clubhouse, but he was too late. While Thomas was trying to stop Pedro, he fell out of the clubhouse and broke his hip. He had to go to the hospital which had May and Elton arrested. That was when social services had to step in and assign Thomas a new family to live with. They assign him to a family with three boys. Thomas did not like his new assigned home so he lived with Monique and her daughter Lily. Thomas wanted to support Monique and Lily so he became a drug dealer. When Thomas was twelve, there was a drug bust and he was shot in the chest which left him unconscious for a month! He was sentenced to nine years in prison, but only served two years and was released on a minimum security home. Instead, he stays with Monique, again, and her husband Harold and Lily. (Switch to Eric) Christie had her baby named Mona. Eric had graduated high school and was accepted into UCLA. Eric was still scared of what Ahn had said earlier in his life, so whenever Eric got sick he would stay at his friend’s house. Eric’s friend, Michael, had a sister who Eric had liked (he knew he couldn’t). Eric asked Christie to marry him, but she cheated on him with her ex-boyfriend. Meanwhile, Thomas is now homeless, and decides to go find/visit Eric. Thomas arrived at Eric’s apartment. Also there was Christie because she wanted to accept Eric’s proposal. As everyone was walking, Drew, Christie’s ex-boyfriend, shot Thomas and Christie! Christie died immediately and Thomas was left in a coma. Eric visited Thomas every single day! Eric and Thomas had become very close through this and shared their experiences. Minas regrets not fighting for custody over Thomas. Unfortunately, Minas is too late. Thomas had a trial for his previous crime.
I have noticed throughout the book that the theme is the same. In the beginning of the book, the theme was class. The theme is still class this far into the book. The author shows us that there is a difference between a poor black boy and a rich white boy. He is trying to show us different perspectives as readers. The author also shows us how different their lifestyles are. Thomas had to work for everything he got which most likely he needed. Whereas, Eric, seemed to be coasting through life.
At the beginning of the book, I said I cannot wait to see what happens next. I honestly feel the exact same way. The author does an excellent job of keeping the reader interested by leaving us with suspense. I don’t know if it is because the author jumps back and forth between two different lifestyles, but what ever it is I always have to guess what is going to happen next. This keeps me interested in the book. (Normally, I read at night, and I can never put the book down so I always stay up later than I want to because I am always reading ahead!). This is a great book to show different perspectives on life through two different people’s eyes. This book is still meeting and surpassing my expectations from the beginning.

gerl said...

Individual Entry #3

The last section of the book left off when Elton took May back into his home to live with him and Tommy. The next section starts off talking about Eric's life as a senior in high-school. Eric would go to Christie's apartment every night and they would hook-up, but Christie would consistently tell Eric that she loved Drew and that Drew was the man she was going to marry, but that she could not live without Eric and that she needed him in her life. She told him that there was something about him that she was drawn to. The author writes, “Years later he would be able to see it coming, to recognize when women, and men, felt so drawn to him that they were willing to leave everything to see if maybe he could satisfy a yearning in their hearts”(133). This quote describes how most people felt about Eric. Everyone thought he was special and everyone wanted to be acquainted with him. Soon, Christie finds out that she is pregnant with Eric's baby. She tells Drew, and he says that he will marry her and raise the baby as his own, but Christie ends up staying with Eric, even though Eric and Christie do not really love each other. Next, the book goes back to Tommy's life in the alley. Tommy now has a dog named Skully. His best friend Bruno was diagnosed leukemia and Tommy visited him once a week. One day, Tommy and Pedro find a dead body in the alley that they name Alicia. Instead of telling anyone, they decide to hide the body by putting cinder blocks all around it as a make-shift coffin. Tommy makes it his duty to keep the alley clean for Alicia and he enjoys sitting next to her coffin and talking to her. One day, Tommy scrounges up the nerve to find the Nolan's phone number and to call it. When he does, Ahn answers the phone and tells Tommy to never call again. Ahn knows that Eric is cursed and that if Tommy comes back that he will suffer because of it. Tommy is stricken with grief and thinks that the Nolans never loved him at all. Next, Elton loses his job and we find out that Pedro's father was killed in a shoot-out over drug money. Pedro got a job selling drugs near the alley. One night, Tommy went up to the clubhouse and saw Pedro with a gun in his mouth. Tommy tried to stop him, but Pedro shot himself, and Tommy fell out of the clubhouse to the ground. Tommy had to stay in the hospital for six months to recover from his broken hip, and Elton and May were arrested for child abuse, even though they were not responsible. Tommy was told that he would have to go live with the Rickerts, a foster family, but he didn't want to, so he went to live with Bruno's sister, Monique, and her baby, Lily. In order to support his new family, Tommy started selling drugs. When Tommy was twelve, he was shot in the chest in a drug-bust, which left him unconscious in the hospital for a month. After his time in the hospital, Tommy served two years in jail, and was sent to live in a minimum security home. He ran away from this home and went to live with Monique and Lily again, and her new husband, Harold. Fast forward to Eric, who has graduated high school and is living with Christie and baby Mona. Eric meets Raela, his friend Michael's sister, and wants to be with her, but knows that he cannot. Back to Tommy, who leaves Monique's family and becomes homeless. Tommy goes to his grandmother for advice and decides to journey to visit Eric. When Tommy arrives at Eric's house, Eric, Christie, and Mona are walking out, and Drew shows up. Drew went up and shot Tommy and Christie. Christie died and Tommy was left in a coma. Eric visited Tommy every day, and when he finally woke up, the two bonded and Minas apologized to Tommy for everything that happened and for not trying to get custody of him. Unfortunately, Minas is too late, and Tommy soon has to go to court trials for the crimes he has committed. The book is continuing to meet my expectations and is getting even more interesting as the chapters go on. The plot is thickening through every page, and I am really enjoying all of the suspense. I am really glad I chose to read this book. The theme of class is still prevalent through the extreme differences in Tommy's and Eric's lifestyles. When Tommy and Eric finally reunite at the hospital, I am eager to see if their differences will be too great for them to have anything in common. I cannot wait to find out what will happen at Tommy's trials and what his future entails.

king said...

Group Entry #2
(king, gerl, caraboolad)

Since our last group entry, a lot of things have changed in the storyline. When discussing with Katrina and Shelby we decided to come up with a list of questions and try having them answered.
• Why do you think it took so long for Eric and Thomas to re-unite?
• Do you feel that Eric’s life affects whether or not a person dies?
• Do you like or dislike Drew?
• Do you think Christie should have been with Eric or Drew?

The reason why we think it took so long for Eric and Thomas to re-unite was because Madeline took the letters that Eric wrote and hid them from Thomas. Also, when Thomas tried calling Eric, Ahn said that Thomas shouldn’t call anymore (to save Thomas). To answer the second question, we decided that Eric’s life does affect whether a person dies because there is always a winner and a loser, and ERIC is always the winner. So even though sometimes the situations aren’t as serious as life or death, Eric always comes out on top. We decided that Eric has some sort of curse that he always comes out as the winner. Our answer to the third question was somewhat unsure. Although Drew’s seemed to be a normal guy who was upset that his girl left with someone else, Drew’s ultimate decision was poor and truly reflects on his true identity, character. This eventually led to our decision that we did not like Drew. The answer to our final question was that we believe Christie should be with Drew. We believe that she should have never left Drew, but because Eric is always the winner, he gets whatever he wants. The situation was made tough when she found out she was pregnant with Eric’s child. Because of all that has happened, Christie should stay with Eric so they can raise their child together. A
As we begin to near the end of the book, it is agreed that the story continues to stay interesting. Like most of us have said in our individual blogs, the author is really good at leaving us “wanting to find our more”. Another question I wanted answered, and I brought up during our discussion, was whether the author purposely transfers back and forth between the two boy’s lives. We decided that the method he uses to switch back and forth between their lives helps keep the book interesting. That is one of the strengths of the author; he knows how to grab the reader’s attention with continuous movement. The theme throughout the book has been unbroken. Family and differences between classes has been carried throughout the book in several different ways. For instance, the different life styles of the boy’s lives after they were separated. Then how they reunite is the perfect example of the two themes of this story. Even though we are close to completing this book, we believe there are still many unanswered questions that will hopefully be answered soon.

caraboolad said...

Individual Entry #4

In my previous blog, I finished my summary when Tommy had been sentenced to a trial for the crimes he had committed while living on the streets. Eric thought up the idea for Tommy to go to New York, where he can settle there without the police finding him. They traveled together on a train for hours and days. On the train, they met a woman named Clea Frank. Clea was a black woman who became very close with Tommy during the train ride. When Tommy and Eric arrived in New York, they stayed together at a place called the Y. During the days, they would both venture off their separate ways and then meet every night for dinner to talk about their day; Tommy would go to the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Eric would go to Wall Street. During Eric’s time on Wall Street, he met a woman named Constance (Connie for short). After sharing a conversation with her, she was able to get an internship for Eric at the investment company she worked at. Besides visiting the art museum everyday for hours analyzing the exquisite artwork, Tommy spent a lot of his time with Clea. Meanwhile, Michael, who we previously know as Raela’s sister, flees his home to a motel in response to his father’s anger and neglect towards him. Raela is incomplete without Eric with her, and she can’t help but to deny her father’s love for her, and he becomes upset with her. Raela convinces her father, Kronin Stark, to fly Tommy and Eric back to Beverly Hills where they live with Minas. Kronin only accepts Raela’s request because he knew she would be happy again. Kronin picks Eric and Tommy up at the airport, and speaks with them in the car about how they can repay him. He wants them to work for his business as a repayment of some sort. Tommy feels that he doesn’t owe Kronin anything, for he doesn’t even know the man, and hasn’t done anything to hurt him, and Eric, after talking with Raela, decided he wouldn’t take the job as well. After Eric came back home, he and Raela moved in together and Tommy received at job for Ira Fontane as a smoker at the Rib Joint. At Tommy’s new job, he met a new worker named Michael Cotter. He and Michael became quick friends, and Michael drove him home after work almost everyday and they would talk and share life stories. Little did Tommy know, Michael was hired to be undercover for Kronin so that he could get blackmail on Tommy and his family, most importantly on Eric. Kronin invited Tommy in the car with him and Michael so they could talk about important issues. Kronin explained that he would put Eric in jail under the testimony that he helped Tommy escape from his convictions, and in order to save Tommy’s family, Kronin wanted Tommy to testify that it was all Eric’s idea to have him escape. Tommy became furious at this idea, so he grabbed the steering wheel and jerked it around until everything turned black. He woke up in a hospital to find out that he had been in a car crash, and both Kronin and Michael had died. At the hospital, Clea visits Tommy and confirms that she is coming to live with him and go to UCLA. While in the hospital, Eric, Raela and Ahn had visited Tommy. Ahn had told Tommy an important story about how she saw a man die, and how she knew she couldn’t save him no matter what she did. This brought the realization into Tommy’s mind that he couldn’t save his mother, and that she is dead, concluding the story.
As I have written before, the theme of Fortunate Son had not changed throughout. It held up the constant theme of the two different cultures, races and people (Eric and Tommy) coming together as they were destined to be, even between their differences. Class is a major theme because Tommy was discriminated against by the police who stopped and arrested him for no reason at all. Work also maintained as a main theme because of the work Tommy had to do to stay alive, even though it barely supported him. On the other hand, Eric didn’t have to experience much work at all yet he was able to support himself through his father’s money. Tommy work’s harder than Eric for his money, but sadly he receives less, the unfairness in the world. These two themes were brought together coherently in Fortunate Son. In America, work and class are two major things that separate and control our society, which is why Fortunate Son remained very relevant to the standards and experiences we share in this world.
This book turned out to be a very moving book. It brought aspiration into my eyes, and realization that everyone has different experiences and lives, and that we cannot judge one based on first glance. People like Tommy struggle day after day trying to survive, and no one even pays attention to that. We like in a world of demand, we always “want” something, but rarely “need” it. Tommy’s life shows us how thankful we should be for everything we have and how we should live our lives based on love and care and aspirations, not material needs. I learned a lot from this book, especially about the lives of other people, even though it’s a fiction novel. I was fascinated at all the different lives in the book, and how they somehow connected with each other in some way or another. The twists and turns of relationships and events in this book kept me reading, and I would definitely recommend this book to someone who would be interested.

gerl said...

Individual Entry #4
The final section of Fortunate Son started off with Eric and Tommy running away to New York City in order to try to hide from the cops so that Tommy would not be put on trial for his crimes. While in NYC, Tommy meets a NYU student named Clea that he soon falls in love with. Eric meets a successful business woman named Constance who gives him an internship. Meanwhile, Raela’s adoptive father, Kronin Stark, receives clemency for Thomas so that he will not be convicted of any of his crimes. Constance realized that she had a deep need to have Eric in her life, just like so many other women had, and she ended her previous six-year relationship because of him. At the same time, Thomas had sex for the first time ever with Clea, his first true love. The next day, Raela called Eric and told her about Thomas’s clemency and that Kronin would be sending a jet to get them the next day. Eric and Thomas get on the jet and have a long talk about how blessed both of their lives have been. Eric tells Thomas about how he is always lucky and it is always at someone else’s expense. But Thomas replies with a deeper feeling about luck. He tells Eric, “We all lucky. And the luckiest ones are the ones happy about bein’ alive” (279). When Eric and Thomas arrive back home, they are greeted by Kronin, who is expecting some type of gratitude back from them. Eric agrees to work for Kronin, but Thomas does not, and Kronin becomes angry. Thomas got a job at the Rib Joint, working for his mother’s old friend, Fontanot. Thomas works as a meet smoker, and becomes good friends with Mike Cotter and spends a lot of time with him telling him his life story. Meanwhile, Eric is living a happy life with Raela and Mona and he no longer feels like a threat to his family. Eric noted that on their vacation, “he broke his leg, and she didn’t even sprain an ankle” (297). This instance made Eric realize that he no longer had the curse he had for so long believed in. A year later, Clea decided to transfer to UCLA where she could be with Thomas, her love. One night, Thomas has a dream and knows that something bad will soon happen to him. The next day, the man he knew as Mike Cotter, took him to a bar where he saw Kronin sitting at. They all got in a car and Kronin explained that he was going to hurt everyone that Thomas cared about if he did not testify against his brother Eric for hiding him in NYC when the cops were after him. Kronin wanted Eric to feel betrayed because Kronin hated that Eric had taken Raela away from him. Thomas felt that the only thing he could do to save the people around him was to steer the car off the cliff. He did so, and Cotter and Kronin were killed, but he miraculously lived. While Thomas was in the hospital, he had a talk with Ahn about fate and how everything was meant to happen for a reason. He realized that his mother was dead and that his search for her ended there. That night, Thomas died and went into heaven where fate had taken him.
The theme of the book was and continued to be work and class. Throughout the novel, the differences between lower class and upper class were depicted through Tommy’s and Eric’s totally different lifestyles. The theme of work was also present because of the identification of the cruel types of work Tommy had to do in order to make a living, in contrast to the effortless life that Eric led.
Fortunate Son was a really good book and I am really glad that I read it. It made me think differently about the lower-class. Sometimes when I am driving through a bad neighborhood, I get judgmental about the people living there, but this book put a different thought into my head about the underprivileged. It made me think deeper about class differences and the different situations that people have to deal with in every day life.
Fortunate Son definitely met my expectations and was a very enjoyable and intriguing read. It kept me interested throughout the entire book. I would recommend it to many.

king said...

The final portion of the book that we had to read began with Thomas and Eric moving to New York. Both went their separate ways but would meet up later in the day. Eric went to Wall Street where he met a woman named Connie. Eventually, Connie was able to get Eric a job at the investment company. While Eric visited Wall Street, Thomas visited the Metropolitan Museum of Art and his friend Clea, who he met on the train ride to New York. Meanwhile, Raela misses Eric and convinces her father, Kronin Stark, to fly Eric and Thomas to Beverly Hills. Stark picks them up at the airport and gives each of them a way to repay him! Neither of them wanted to take Stark’s request. Otherwise, Raela and Eric move in together while Thomas receives a job at the Rib Joint. On Thomas’ days off, he babysits for Raela and Eric (Mona—a little girl). Michael Cotter takes the spot of Bishop Ladderman at the Rib Joint. Michael offered to drive Thomas home and on the ride they would discuss life stories and previous experiences. Unfortunately, Thomas does not know that Michael was hired by Stark to get blackmail on Thomas and his family. One day Stark invited Thomas in the car so they could discuss issues. Stark told them that he would turn Eric into the police (for helping Thomas escape) and force Thomas to testify against Eric (saying it was all Eric’s idea). Thomas was extremely mad, and decided to jerk the wheel! When he woke up, he found out that Stark and Michael had died. In the hospital, Thomas had many visitors. Ahn told Thomas a story how one day she couldn’t save a man from dying which showed Thomas that he couldn’t ever save his mother from dying.
At the beginning of this project I was not sure what to expect from this book. Throughout each chapter my expectations were either reached or surpassed. I really did not know what to expect from this book, but as I have read I have noticed how well the author keeps his reader interested! Walter Mosley did an excellent job of leaving the reader hanging. Now, finally, to be finished with the book I am so happy Shelby introduced me to it. This book connected family, class, and hardships all on family’s life! The story of the family who has two boys who grew up in different classes had to work hard throughout their lives in different situations. (Walter did an excellent job of closing the book, by not continuing the story line. (All the ends of the chapters had some sort of continuation, which kept the readers interested. And I was worried that he would somehow leave us hanging at the end of the book.) This book was like nothing I have ever read before and could possibly be one of my favorite books. This book was always interesting! I would recommend this book for anyone because it appeals to a diverse group of people.

caraboolad said...

Group Entry #3

Our group can fully agree on one thing: we all enjoyed the book and felt we were continuously tossed new interesting things to ad to the plot. Yet, Walter Mosley left us all a bit confused at the end of the book. He writes, “When Thomas awoke in the morning, he was exhausted and felt more alone than he’d ever been. It was as if his body had been cut away from his soul and he was floating somewhere above himself on the bed […] he knew that his mother was gone, and that he was a criminal, a murderer. He looked out the window into the light-filled sky and thought about dying. Then he was filled with wonder at all the pathways that came together in him on that day in grace” (313). Mosley hints at the idea of Thomas dying at the end, but we all share different opinions on this. Shelby believes that Thomas definitely died, especially because Mosley speaks about Thomas feeling his body floating in the air above his bed. On the other hand, Tricia and I don’t believe he died, because he was barely injured in the crash, and it may have just been his mind wandering around. In our discussion, we also brought up the topics of Kronin Stark and his daughter Raela. We all concur that Kronin is a terrible man who has nothing but the good of himself in mind, rather than the common good. However, we are indifferent on our opinions of Raela. We believe that it’s good that she makes Eric happy, but she’s a bit too young. Another thing is how none of us suspected Michael Cotter to be a spy for Kronin. It was extremely unexpected, and he seemed to be just a normal worker and friend to Tommy. Although it may seem wrong, we felt that what Tommy did in the car was partly justified for his situation because his life, family and relationships would have been ruined forever, but he found a way to avoid it, even though he went to the extreme of accidentally killing two men. His ignorance and vulnerability took over his actions. Overall, we really appreciated Fortunate Son and the lessons and experiences it provided us. Even though it left us confused, we really liked the ending of the book because it gave us a mystery.