James's Change In The Treatment, By Suzanne Young

Everything started going downhill from there and that's where the conflict of interest begins. James left the house in the mornings but didn't go to school and says himself that he was practically a dropout. "I spent as much time away from home as possible. I quit church and avoided my deeply religious godparents. I was the first kid on my block to smoke cigarettes and reefer" (McBride, 138) shows the ways he was acting out, also including stealing from freight cars with his friends. He was even caught by the police once. With James out of the house all the time, his mother suffered more because no one was there to help her with her young children. He was hurting but was too stubborn to admit it and "reefer and wine helped me to forget any pain, and as the pain and guilt increased, my problems with drugs worsened" (McBride, 142). All the while his mother knew nothing about it. Until one day when he gave her a forged report card with a grade unlike his usual ones and she called the school only to find out something way worse than what she expected. From then on, James spent the summers with his sister Jack in Kentucky who his mother thought could straighten him out. Jack's husband lets James run free with him and he finds himself often at a place called the

James retorts, " I never knew who I was. It wasn 't ' so much of a question of searching for myself as it was my own decisions not to look." It was only when James uncovers the life of his mother does he begin to understand the complexity within himself, noting that, "the uncertainty that lived inside me began to dissipate; the ache that the little boy who stared in the mirror felt was gone." By uncovering Ruth 's earlier life, James could understand his own singularity, thus creating the identity he sought his life to achieve.

James grew up in a racist and segregated part of history. Often times racial slurs were used to describe people of African descent during the time James was growing up. Even during school James would be called these horrendous names: “...someone in the back of the class whispered, “James is ni**er!” followed by a ripple of tittering and giggling across the room” (McBride 89). The fact that small school children call blacks these names shows how racist the many people are and the hatred and discrimination that blacks face. These experience taught James how people treat those that appear to be different. Another experience that taught James this was when he and his family went to the Jewish store and were discriminated against. McBride had many experiences in which he and his family were discriminated against whether it was by the police or store owners: “Some of these Jews can’t stand you” (86). All in all, incidents with people who have a particular dislike for blacks shaped James into the way

Despite the fact that he respected his mother, James grew to question her unorthodox strictness and unusual teachings. Eventually, he graduated college to become a press writer and a jazz musician, yet he still felt incomplete. James says "Play sax, write books, compose music, do something, express yourself, who the hell are you anyway? There were two worlds bursting inside me trying to get out. I had to find out more about who I was..." (330). Even though James has a great job that pays well, he still quits because he wishes to figure out who he is. By saying this, he proves that he wants to find his identity and reason for continuing his line of work. I chose this quote because it clearly demonstrates how James feels about finding his identity.

This is fueled by, not only the changing emotions that teenagers typically endure, but also by the death of his stepfather, whom he saw as his own father. After his death, James cannot bear to see his mother suffer, for she no longer knows how to control the dynamics of the family and "wandered in an emotional stupor for nearly a year." James instead turns to alcohol and drugs, dropping out of school to play music and go around with his friends, which James refers to as "my own process of running, emotionally disconnecting myself from her, as if by doing to I could keep her suffering from touching me." Instead of turning to his family and becoming "the king in the house, the oldest kid," James "spent as much time away from home as possible… absolve[ing] [himself] of all responsibility…" As a result, Ruth sends James to live with his older half sister and her husband, in an attempt to straighten her out her son's life. James distracts himself with the life he found there, spending the summers on a street corner with his half sister's husband, Big Richard, whom he adores, and the unique men that frequented the area. During these summers, James discovers "[He] could hide. No one knew [him]. No one knew [his] past, [his] white mother, [his] dead father, nothing. It was perfect. [His] problems seemed far, far away." Instead of facing the realities of loss and anger in his family, James seeks distractions

There is an absence of men in the novel. James is one of the few men seen throughout the story and because of this, the story suggests that he holds a lot of power. He is a difficult character to understand because his true intentions and feelings are hidden beneath what is being portrayed on the outside. James begins as someone who is displayed as positive, respectful and loving of women, but as the story progresses, it is revealed that he views women more as a sexual object or a slave to men. He tricks the reader into believing that he values and considers women as equals to

Suzanne Young’s second book in The Program Series, The Treatment, is all about The two main characters Sloane, and her boyfriend James, and how they have to run away from the program. The program is supposed to be a cure for the epidemic that has been going on all across the United States. So many people have been trying to kill themselves and when they start to show signs of depression, they are forced to be sent into the program where all of their memories will be erased. Sloane and James both had their memories of each other erased by the program but they found each other again when they returned. Now they are on the run trying to hide from the program so they don’t have to have their memories stolen from them for the second time. While

Towards the end of therapy the family was adjusting to health crises that have become chronic. Parental anxiety had increased due to the fear that Melvin would be left alone and would be unable to take care of himself or interact appropriately with the outside world. Had therapy been affective, there would have been some sense of relief, knowing Melvin would be safe without the assistance of his

The book begins talks about other conflicts that arose with James and Ruth. James took a downward spiral during his teenage years,

James would often be plagued with problems in his life by the government. Personal problems also plagued his life divorce, and the death of his first child. He also had problems with drugs that landed him in prison for three years during 1988 (Brenchley, 2003, DVD). In 2004, his most recent problems with the law are the domestic violence issues with his spouse. Through all his problems he always seem to find away to bounce back.

During his life, James experienced a great deal of racism. At school, when he was bothered by his classmates, he sat quietly and did nothing. James was a shy and passive as a child. He says that later, anger would come to him, fiery and powerful. He was surprised by it and wondered where it came from.

James appears to be using limited cross-checking behaviours. Self-correction behaviour is nil, at least in this instance. Evidence shows he is using mostly meaning and visual cues and not drawing on structural cues. As a result of not utilising all the sources of information afforded by the text his understanding and comprehension of the text is quite limited and there is no evidence he has really connected with the text. In recent years there has been much research on reading

One of the more interesting parts of the movie is James’s reaction to the real word. It shows that James cannot cope in a civilian lifestyle. This is very evident when he goes back home to the States. In the supermarket he seems lost, a feeling he never really seemed to have in Iraq. He hesitates when he picks out a cereal; James never hesitated back in Iraq. His inability to cope with civilian society is also very evident when he is in his house. He tries to tell his ex-wife all about the stories he has from Iraq but she does not listen. It appears that being in a bomb squad is the only thing that he talks and cares about. The defining moment that explains James’s inability to be a civilian is when he talks his son. He says that there is only one thing in the world he loves. The next scene shows him going back to Iraq and putting the bomb suit back on. This scene in particular highlights his addiction to war. He was unable to have a happy life at home so he needed to go to the one place that made him happy. It can be compared to a drug addict going back into a relapse after a break. Although one can argue that James’s addiction to war is an effect of the war which would make the movie anti-war, the last

For example, the text says” I hold Isaac’s hand as we cross the street.” Just a small action like that proves that James doesn’t want Isaac to be in danger or, in hazards of going out, even though being there is dangerous already. Now, I think James has more care for his brother, seeing that he put himself and Isaac at risk. He probably knew that this would be dangerous from the start, but still did it because he wants to be cool. I think James is also regretting his decision of being attractive , and wishing that he just followed the rules and stayed home with

In James’ case he knew that if he worked hard at school he could gain his fathers approval. However it seemed that he was in the shadow of his brother, who was also under the same pressure. He had turned to cheating to get better marks to avoid his father’s disapproval. James’ own sense of right and wrong were being clouded by his loyalty to- and competition with his brother, also his need for approval from his father and his sense of duty to protect his frail mother by “not