Speak by Laurie Anderson the Term Paper

Unfortunately, some of these young people seek to express their own sense of worth be denigrating that of others. T.J. is a young man already angry at life for his lot, and he expresses his sense of worth by seeking revenge for the way another member of the swim tam has treated a brain-damaged student. T.J. himself is both black and Japanese and has experienced prejudice himself. He sees the brain-damaged student as another person suffering because of prejudice, though his need for revenge is for himself as much as for this student.

Students can relate to these characters and to the situation, similar to their own roles in life and to behaviors they have seen in their own world. The story shows several characters facing the same sorts of dilemmas and testing different responses, and this can be used to enlist suggestions by the class about the nature of each character and of the way ach reacts to these events.

Touching Spirit Bear by Ben Mikaelsen

The theme of this novel is anger and the damage that emotion can do to the spirit of the individual who lives by that emotion.The main character is Cole Matthews, a young man who is angry without anyone knowing quite why. His anger causes him to lash out at others with violence, leading him to the possibility of doing time in prison. This sort of outcome has been experienced by many young males just as angry as Cole and often for just as little reason. He is given the chance at an alternative in the form of a Native American program called Circle Justice, sugeting that thre whole community is part of the healing process as others have to forgive the anger as the offender has to rid himself of that anger.

This lesson is a good one for a class to learn and to see as applicable not just to their on anger but to that of others so they can become part of a process of healing and not of increasing the anger and the damage it does......