Nonfiction Critical Analysis

  In the article, "Smoke Signals" by Alessandra Potenza,  they talk about the new e-cigarette.E-cigarette is an electronic cigarette that doesn't include tobacco, unlike the regular cigarettes, therefore, its healthier. Potenza talks about how some e-cigarettes are unregulated and are becoming more popular among young people. She talks about how some U.S officials are very worried that the e-cigarette is becoming popular among young people because they contain nicotine, which is the same addictive chemical in tobacco cigarettes. They are worried because more than 1.8 million middle and high school teenagers have tried e-cigarettes, and that the amount of young people using these have doubled in 2012 from the previous year. They are afraid that they would become too addicted to these cigarettes, especially because they come in different flavors. Adding on, they don't trust these cigarettes because 1.7 billion electronic cigarettes remain unregulated. I understood this text because Potenza keeps saying how the cigarette has bad chemicals, many young people use it, and  how people have been trying to ban it. For example, she says, "In 2009, after finding several toxic cancer-causing chemicals-including an ingredient used in antifreeze- in various types of e-cigarettes, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) tried to ban them, calling them unapproved drug-delivery gadgets", meaning that they should be banned because they may have some chemicals that are unhealthy for you.
   While reading this article, I noticed that Potenza is trying to make us feel as if e-cigarettes aren't as good/healthy as they seem, that we are being lied to. For example, she says, "Because most e-cigarettes contain nicotine-the same chemical found in tobacco cigarettes- they have stirred debate all over the world." Adding on, her attitude throughout the article proved that she didn't approve of the cigarettes. For example, she says, "Part of the issue with e-cigarettes is the way they're being marketed: They come in flavors like chocolate, bubble gum, or vanilla, which are known to appeal to young people". Overall, Potenza feeds us facts to make us think that e-cigarettes are bad, therefore, making us feel betrayed in a way. 
    After reading this article, my whole perspective on e-cigarettes had changed. I no longer believe that e-cigarettes are healthy, that it can really help some people when it just makes them addicted to some other drug. In addition, I no longer want to try it, I used to see kids my age, or even younger, smoking e-cigarettes, which made me want to try them, to see how it feels, but now I know that it wouldn't be good for me. Instead, I believe that e-cigarettes should be banned because they are addictive, unregulated, and are making some young teens smoke. However, I do want to know a little more about why the e-cigarettes aren't regulated and how they got through without being regulated. Also i would want to know why they would put nicotine in the cigarette if they wanted people to stop being addicted to smoking. Overall, I think that e-cigarettes should be banned or at least stop from being sold to young teens, like they should have an age limit, like regular cigarettes.
   All in all, i think that e-cigarettes are as unhealthy as regular cigarettes are. Moreover, I think that they should be more cautious about who they are selling it to and what they have in the cigarette. 

What Difficult or Complex Things Happen In the Text?

   I am currently reading the book, "Forever in Blue" by Ann Brashares. This book is about 
four friends named Tibby, Carmen, Bridget, and Lena. They all go to college in different 
locations so they are always mailing each other things, especially the "Traveling Pants". The 
traveling pants are jeans that they all wrote on and they all share it. Adding on, they all are studying different things in college, Tibby is and Lena both have an apartment, Carmen is moving on with her job of helping backstage fir the drama club, and Bridget is in Turkey studying bones. However, a lot of difficult and complex things occur in the text.

  The most difficult thing to understand is why they were all in a room, except for Carmen, with candles and snacks surrounding them with the jeans in a big triangle in the middle of the floor. Its difficult to understand because I don't know why they did that or what was going on. In addition, I was wondering if the jeans were good luck or magical to them because they made the jeans seem so sacred. I also wondered why they wrote all over the jeans, was it a new trend in school? Is it a tradition? Did they write on it by accident and then just kept writing on it? All these questions made me think about how they started this tradition or whatever it is. I think that they probably started this by themselves, like one of them bought the jeans and kept getting good luck or something. In addition, whichever one bought it probably came up with the idea of writing on it, to claim it only theirs so nobody would still this good luck from them. Or they could just be witches with magical powers, which could explain why they had candles everywhere. They could have been doing some spells to make the jeans even more magical or powerful. Overall, this was difficult to understand because it was very confusing to understand because i didn't know what they were doing and why they were doing it.

  In conclusion, a lot of difficult and complex things happen in this book because there is no reason for why they do this or what they are doing. In addition, it makes me thing about the many different possibilities of why they do this, which makes me even more confused because I get mixed up with everything. Overall a lot of difficult an complex events occur throughout this fascinating book.