Inequality in Looking for Alaska by John Green

Looking for Alaska, by John Green, is centered around main character, Pudge, and his group of friends at Culver Creek boarding school. Though the book isn't focused on inequality, two of the characters, Alaska and the Colonel, are very affected by it.

Alaska's character comes off as a strong feminist, who has many opinions. I noticed, surprisingly, that her actions aren't true to her stated opinions, and she instead reacts hypocritically. For example, at Thanksgiving (perfect timing, right?), Alaska points out that it's really stereotypical for the women to be preparing the meal. However, she cooks anyway, stating that she wouldn't want "crappy boy-prepared food." This reveals that Alaska is very aware of gender inequality but does no more than verbalize her opinion. 

The Colonel, whose real name is Chip, grew up with his mother in a trailer park with close to nothing. He never needed more than he had, but he started a completely different lifestyle when he enrolled at Culver Creek.  Culver Creek is divided into two groups: half of the kids have scholarships, and half are wealthy kids who pay full tuition. The wealthy kids, nicknamed Weekday Warriors (because they go home over the weekend), are despised by the Colonel. The Colonel hates the Weekday Warriors because they are wealthy, and they typically don't respect anyone economically below them. This situation represents two forms of inequality. One is the huge difference between the Colonel's economic stature compared to a Weekday Warrior's, and another is the fact that the Colonel hates all rich people, even beyond the Weekday Warriors, due to his specific past. It is unfair for Chip to judge people by their wealth and not their personalities. 

This book showed me that inequality appears in ways that I had not previously noticed, and I am motivated to act on my opinions. I find it interesting that many people talk about social injustice, yet change is slow in coming. Being true in our actions to our opinions is a solid first step to making changes. 

Social Justice in Wintergirls

Have you ever felt unhappy with your body image? The book Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson is about what happens when you become too caught up with your weight.  Unsatisfied with their figures, Lia and Cassie decide to have a competition for who can loose the most weight. This conflict really shows how affected people are by what the media portrays as right or good.

As the competition endured, the girls developed anorexia and bulimia, drinking problems, and got in huge fights. They completely forgot about their strong friendship and the reason they even started the competition. They were constantly depressed, all because they thought they weren't good enough for the media's image of a women. This is really upsetting to me because it is common in our current society for people to focus on what is wrong about themselves because they think they aren't good enough.

This is an important issue of social justice because what the media puts out is a negative influence on confidence and overall happiness. How can we be happy if, like Lia, we are too busy counting calories to notice how much our friends and family love us? I hope that one day, body image won't be an issue of social justice.