Ham+on+Rye

__Ham On Rye__
Ham On Rye is a story by Charles Bukowski. Our group chose it because it is a biography of a man with a tough childhood. As a group we thought it would be interesting to read. Our friend told us that he hates books but if there were a book to read, it would be this one. We also liked that it isn’t that long of a book, which is something, we all liked in a book. Also, another kid we know had to do a project on Charles Bukowski and said he was a very interesting and different person. By Charles Bukowski

Group: Shawn Adair, Dennis Cho, and Justin Sunseri


 * APPROVED**


 * BOOK CLUB #1**
 * __Week #1__**

A- Dennis Cho B- Justin Sunseri C- Justin Sunseri D- Shawn Adair


 * Summary**
 * We started of with answering our 5 questions. While we were answering we were eating the cookies and drinking the Capri Suns that Dennis brought in. We learned that we need more than 10 Capri Suns and 33 cookies between the three of us. Then we discussed the other character in the story. We dislike the father the most. He is abusive and isn't a nice person. He doesn't get along with anyone including his wife. He just isn't very nice. We feel bad for Henry because nobody likes him and his parents aren't around much. He means well but he has nobody that loves him. Then we said that we think he is going to find friends in the next 50 pages of the books and that he will start to fit in.**


 * Questions**

Answers
 * 1) What is overall theme of the book so far?
 * 2) What do you think of Henry, the main character?
 * 3) Why do you think Henry is so angry and fights all the time?
 * 4) Do you think that Henry’s alcoholic uncles had an impact on him?
 * 5) What character do you think you can relate to the most/least

We started off with question #2. We decided as a group that he didn't have a very good childhood. His dad was abusive and he lived in a very tough neighborhood. We also thought that he went through his childhood very well. By that we mean that he had it tough but was even tougher. Question number #5 was next. As a group, we decided that we each couldn't relate to any of the characters that we have met so far. Our childhoods were very nice and not tough like Henry had it. All the people around him seemed to have be rough people and that is not what we remember our childhood as. For question #3, we think he fights all the time because of the environment around them. It isn't a very wealthy environment and people feel the need that they should fight for a better position in the community. For Henry to keep up with the community children, he needed to fight, it was like the nature of the neighborhood. We had a discrepancy about question #4. Shawn believes that his drunk uncle is part of Henry's issue and why he fights. Me (Justin) and Dennis believe that the neighborhood ways and his dad are the real reasons why he needs to fight and that his uncle didn't really have an impact on the way that Henry is. We thought that for question #1, you should make friends early in life so that you can have friends for later. Henry's friends moved so he didn't have friends for a while. We think that you should do what it takes to make friends even if that means you should fight.

Main Characters:

Henry: he tends to get into lots of fights and doesn't have any friends. once in a while he would make one friend, but his friend would leave him later. Dad: he has a big anger issue and yells at henry a lot. he beats henry also many things when he does a little thing wrong.

Week 2 - Language

A - Shawn Adair B - Dennis Cho C - Dennis Cho D - Justin Sunseri

Discussion Questions: Why do you think Henry doesn’t have a relationship with his parents?

What is different between what was going on during his child and what happened during our childhoods?

Why do you think Henry and the other kids always were fighting?

Would you be friends with Henry if he was around your neighborhood?

How would you feel if you had acne the way he does with boils on his chest and other disorderly body markings (pimples and boils)?

Mr. Wagner is the gym teacher at the school. Does he remind you of anybody with his meanness and he tries to act tough?

What do you predict will happen in the next 56 pages?

Summary:

Today we discussed the book. All of us enjoy the book very much for some reason. We discussed how his dad is a jerk and he should just be nicer to his son. Even when, Henry was going through a tough time with his boils, his dad would still be yelling at him as if nothing has happened. We thought the funniest part of the book was when one of Henry's friend fought their coach. The coach first had no problem with the fight. Henry's friend then toughed it out and beat the coach up with several punches. For question 3, we said that Henry is always fighting with other kids because they have to fight to fit in. Henry lives in a very tough neighborhood and the kids in his grade have to be tough or else they wont be cool. For question #6, we said that the gym teacher in the book reminded us of an old gym teacher that we had in middle school called Mr. Mullins. Mr. Mullins is a old tough guy who looks like someone who would want to fight kids but we don't think that he actually would want to. = = =We also found out that 2 Liters of Coke is not enough for our group. We finished the 2 liter bottle of coke with 15 minutes left in the period. Week 3= =A - Justin Sunseri B - Shawn Adair C - Shawn Adair D - Dennis Cho= =Questions=
 * 1) How did Henry earn 1,000 demerits?
 * 2) What did Henry do about his acne?
 * 3) How did the school respond to Henry’s severe acne?
 * 4) How would you feel if you had acne as bad as Henry?
 * 5) What happened to the man next to Henry in the hospital?
 * 6) How do you think Henry is going deal with his dad in the next 60 pages? Is he going to fight back or keep on listening to him?

Today we discussed the mood/tone of the book. We think that the book has many sad parts.


 * WEEK 4

A- Dennis Cho B- Justin Sunseri C- Justin Sunseri D-Shawn Adair

QUESTIONS**
 * 1) What is your favorite part of the book so far?
 * 2) When henry is peeping on his neighbors, do you think he is acting like someone we know?
 * 3) When henry starts reading so much in the library, do you think he is going to change his ways?
 * 4) Do you feel that henry is starting to stray away from fighting and start learning and trying to improve his grades?

Symbolism is this weeks theme. As a group we have decided that the boils on Henry represent his tough childhood. He has many boils all over him and he goes to doctors that can't seem to figure out how to get rid of them. What also is symbolism is Henry himself. He represents how bad the early 1800's were. There was a depression and he was definitely depressed. He had very strict parents and that is what most people dealt with. Our favorite part of the book so far would most definitely be the fighting. It is ridiculous how nobody is friends with him and he is the toughest guy there is. Why wouldn't anybody try and want to be friends with somebody that could pummel anybody? It does remind us of somebody else that we know. He had a worse incident but it was somewhat the same. We think that the reading in the library is just so he doesn't have to go home and deal with his dad. Well, Shawn thinks he is actually trying to get better grades and is changing his ways. We do not think that Henry is going to get away from fighting. He has now graduated from High School, has a job, but then meats some of the jerks from high school at the store he works at and fights them. He is not changing, he will always be tough and be the same as always.

Week 5

A: Justin Sunseri B: Dennis Cho C: Dennis Cho D: Shawn Adair

Questions: How did you think the ending of the book was? How do you think it could be better? Do you feel Henry has changed since the beginning of the book? Do you think his changes were for better or for worse?

Summary: Today is the last day to discuss the our book, Ham on Rye. Today is the week we all finished reading our books. We all said that we fairly enjoyed this book. But we didn't like the ending too much. We all liked the middle better. We also disliked it because it never showed how he ever turned into a writer. All his life, he hated writing but then suddenly, he becomes a writer. We also didn't like how the book just suddenly ended when he was in college. The book didn't even show him graduating. They ended the book with him just walked away from losing to a 11 year old kid in a video game.

We thought that the video game represented him fighting since it was a fighting game. What he was fighting (like he had been doing the rest of his life) was nothing but himself. He just kept fighting people but for no point. It wasn't for a purpose. He was just fighting to fight. He had nothing else better to do so that is what he did. When he lost that video-game, it was like losing a cause in the world for Henry.