Blogging Journal Questions for "Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden"
1. Write about something that surprised you, angered you, delighted you, or evoked any strong reaction as you were reading. Write about anything that stays on your mind after reading.
2. Explore a social or ethical issue raised in the writing. Judge the behaviour of the characters or the views of the author. Are they right or wrong in your opinion?
3. Write about any difficulty or frustration you felt while reading.
Write an answer of no more than 150 words (and no fewer than 100) to one of the questions. Your answer will be a comment to this post. Please provide a word count.
Link to a copy of the story (Word 2003 format) for your use.
26 comments:
Question 2:
E. L. Doctorow raises an interesting ethical issue in his story, “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden.” Roberto Guzman, only six, dies a terrible death with “bulging eyes,” all because, where he lives, no respirator is available. The air near his home is polluted by the power corporation, Utilicon, and “smells like burning tires.” Roberto clearly experiences a horrible death, fighting to breathe. Secretly, Chrissie Stevens, daughter to Utilicon’s CEO, transports the boy’s body to the rose garden to make those in power “[feel] the connection.” Alas, the men she tries to alert instead claim a racoon has entered the president’s compound. In Steven’s view no matter where you live, it’s always “horribly awful.” Doctorow seems angry at his own country and, particularly at those who destroy the environment for monetary gain. But, those in power are not listening; to me, that seems true.—144 words
The story, "Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden" by E.L. Doctorow, greatly reflects the reality.
World is ruled by money, and even though the government claims to work for society's well being, they do not care much about people living in their country, as long as they can make profit. It's all about power and money. That's why the whole issue about dead boy was covered, so the truth wouldn't come out. Everybody works for their own benefits, even the woman who used the boy's body, as she didn't concider how his family would feel about it. Nothing in this story comes as a surprise to me, it only deepens my view on how rotten the world is.
According to the story it is easy to the secrat of the white house authorities that how they care for their power instead of their socity. For exaple, the horrible death of the "a child in the rosen garden" by respiratory problem shows that the careless of the power full authorities towards the polution of an air. Rather than doing what is neccessary to the population,they prefer to follow their profit. Even though they want to cover the reality of the terrible dead of innocent people like "Roberto Guzman, only six" because of the smell of burning tires,some persons like E.L Doctorow publicated the secret of the vethical issues and how the authorities and their relatives care to each other than fof people in the story,"Child,Dead, in the Rose Gardon." The witter is upseted to the authorities and Crissie stevens attempted to connected the death to Alas. everybody tried to blame each other while the authorities follow their will. -153words
Q1:
“Configured to win. And fuck all else,” Chrissie Stevens said. She was referring to the government officials and agencies—CIA, FBI, Special Agent B.W Molloy included. If she, indeed, somehow, was able to get her deceased brother inside the White House, into the Rose Garden, what was her motive, motives? What was she trying to say, prove?
It was all about winning, and fuck all else; it was all about winning, and fuck the cold-blooded young boy, wrapped like a cocoon, in the Rose Garden. They were not interested about the kid. All that mattered to them was how did the culprits managed to get through the whole Security System. They might’ve felt that were people (or groups) capable of toying with their well thought-of and laid-out Security plans. That there’s someone better than them; that they were losing. As if the whole thing was just a board game.
Q1
At the last sentence of the story, Agent Molloy stated that, Roberto Guzman (the deceased boy) rested in peace at the Arlington National Cemetery—why?
Why is it important for Molloy to tell the boy’s parents about it? I see it this way: it was because he wanted the parents to know, the their kid was buried with “American Heroes” — their son was an unsung hero. That even though they were deported, their son, remained and always will remain “American”.
Perhaps, Chrissie knew that all these would happen. She knew that the Security Agents would bury the kid in an unmarked grave at Arlington’s (Let’s not forget that she was in the inner circle.)
"Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden," by E.L. Doctorow, describes a presidential administration that is secretive, arrogant, and conceited. However, when the bureaucracy is contemptuous of ordinary citizens, someone puts a dead boy into the Rose Garden. It seems like an irony; however, it brings me some suspense. Why does Chrissie Steven choose Roberto Guzman who has asthma to put into the Rose Garden? In fact, the plant of Steven’s father, the Utilicon, makes the severe pollution-“the ochre cast of sky.” She deprecates the monetary business between the government and some power companies and criticizes the cynical abuse of power. Nevertheless, who does consider the feelings of Roberto’s parents after loosing their child and facing their deportation? Nobody accepts the responsibility. Doubtless, their child merely is a victim in the egregious event. Fortunately, “Roberto rested in peace at the Arlington National Cemetery among others who had died for their country.”
(150 words)
Answer 1:
This writing uses the style of mini suspense novel. It exposes the mysterious tension between the two forces: one who wants to find out the truth and other trying to hide it. But in the end truth about the dead boy is exposed.
Author also exposes the human greed and exploitation of systems by the politicians and industrialist. The setting refers to 21st century technology, terrorism, environmentalism, power plants, Republicans, White House, Texas, and Louisiana etc. These clues indirectly refer to President Bush.
The author instead of using a title related to Agent Molly, President, Environmentally hazardous industry, White House, FBI, CIA, health, or eco-terrorism etc., chose a title “Child, Dead, In The Rose Garden”. That connects all of the above very well and gives us a sense of mystification.
I’m also delighted to read how the character of Agent Molly, Peter Herrick, Glenn Stevens, and Christina is revealed.
-149 words.
Answer 2:
The writing raises an issue of industrial pollution and its ill effects on human health especially on more vulnerable children. It is also exposed how ethic less the politician, industrialist and Government’s agencies become to cover up their failures, and how much helpless an honest employee or common man is in today’s society.
The behavior of main character Agent Molly is revealed by his seriousness and dedication to assignment, effective tie ups with various agencies, and handling of Peter Herrick – “But he detested politically driven interference in a case”. Later he flew to Houston to have well calculated conversation with Father Mendoza, Guzman’s family, Glen, Dr. Leighton, and Chrissie to unveil the truth. In the end he resigned and made sure that dead boy Roberto Guzman and his family gets the justice shows his integrity and incorruptibility.
The issues raised and behavior of Agent Molly is right in my opinion.
-150 words.
Answer 3:
Even with the excellent plot, careful vocabulary, and good imagination and characterization, there are some peculiar defects in this writing which may give some frustration to some of the readers. We are not sure whether these defects were there in the original writing OR were introduced by our teacher Brad when he converted it into the MS Word document. Anyway, followings are the observations:
• First few words of some of the paragraphs are capitalized without any observed pattern. It seems that these indicate the start of a new scene or episode.
• Quotation marks are missing in most of the conversations.
• Exclamation marks are also missing.
• Some of the single person’s conversations are split over lines, while at other places two person conversations are put on same line.
• Some of the abbreviations and foreign language words may be incomprehensible by an average reader.
-147 words.
"Configured to win, and fuck all else," is what Chrissie Stevens said to Agent Molloy. What did she mean by that. Was she trying to say the government was only looking out for themselves. Or did she want the government to feel what real people feel everyday. The things that the government does not feel. Roberto did experience a horrible death. Every day he struggled to breathe. He couldn't go outside his house without having an asthma attack. He was confined to the walls of his house. All this because the government could not provide a respirator for him. The last sentence was also something that stuck in my mind. What did he mean by "he rested in peace at the Arlington National Cemetery among others who had died for their country"? 147 words
Question 1:
While I was reading “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden” story, it took me back to the appalling, Fahrenheit 9/11 documentary that I saw. In reality, Roberto Guzman, only six, who died of an untreatable illness caused by environmental pollution from Utilicon, is a small part (Problem) of the “Iceberg”. To be honest with you, this sad story didn’t surprise me at all especially as it took place in the United States of America.
As the world knows, the American government generally considers that any “crime” which reaches and defends the American interest is “crimeless”.
American government generally uses their power and money to achieve their goals either inside or outside of country-unfortunately, this is the way the world is going. However, while the superpowers administer this kind of policy, we will discover more files resembling to Roberto Guzman case. --145 words.
After reading “Dead child at the rose garden” written by E. L. Doctorow, confirmed my personal skepticism how government deals with ethical issues. They choose to side with corporate America because of their financial contribution to their personal and political life. The courageous act of individual citizen who blows the whistle against those who feel above the law or when they use their power to cover up for corporate America can always make a difference. Governments fail to act within their rights, they always think of their next campaign and another term. They rarely think of ordinary citizens such as “the dead child at the rose garden”. It is always some individual who come out and speak against some dirty government secret like Officer Molly in the story. I thought of his sacrifice, but what would he have done if he just started his job at the white house? (150 words)
Question 1
It is not amazing what technology can do? Everybody lives are in CIA files! They have information about every “wrong” movement you had made in your life. That makes the government powerful: “information is power,” and they have it, and thus, they control it. This is story about power that reflects what is happening not only in the United States, but also in the entire world. The people, who govern the countries, use the information for their own benefit; call it industry, political or economic issues. The least they are interested is their people –Vietnam, Iraq, Afghanistan- are proof it. This is only one of the stories where we can see how the government covers the information up, even in their own official departments; imagine outside their headquarters. They can tell whatever they want us to believe. Everybody thinks is well informed by watching the news and reading the newspapers…but, are we?
Reading “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden" definitely had me surprised at times. I always knew that the ethics of powerful politicians weren't always the greatest. When it comes to a person dead, let alone a child, I thought that the White House management would have taken a different turn. What I would have hoped for was that the “entire incident became known to every American who watched television or read a news paper” which was stated by Molloy if Roberto’s family was not allowed to return home. This story just shows us the gap in the White House and ordinary citizens and the lack of communication between them. Doctorow tells us that government will do anything in there power to keep anything negative from being released, which does happen in our society.
133 Words.
Question 3:
In my first reading, I struggled with many abbreviations of institutions, places and people’s names. Many “interagency cooperation” and doctors popped out; I couldn’t figure out who was who and who did what. On the other hand, maybe I watched and read too many problematic movies and articles these years, I wondered if the higher levels could control over all cases. Why they put Molloy in charge and let him do something different. I was also frustrated by Molloy’s thinking. Anyhow, he was “a twenty-four-year veteran” in the Criminal Investigation Division and will retire in a few months. Was this case he felt unfair the most in his entire career? How could he didn’t think about his retirement? I thought he should have been more sophisticated.
-126 words-
1. When I was reading this story, I recalled a famous detective, Sherlock Holmes. Holmes always used to solve the problem unexpectedly. The dramatic reversal gave to the reader an emotional satisfaction and amusing entertainment.
I think Holmes and Molloy had much in common. Both of them had special senses that no one can catch up with their excellent taste. In this case, many agents came form FBI, but Molloy travelled to Texas. In order to investigate on his way, his sixth sense reacted like Holmes’s. Their incredible, powerful observation is out of knowledge, so it makes more interesting. The child, dead, in the rose garden, the title showed an intimation about a violence accident, but it was a kind of demonstration to acquaint for the serious pollution. (130 words)
A body of child was found in the Rose Garden. Agent Molloy of Criminal Investigation Division was ordered to find out the fact. After he got a hint from a letter stamped Houston postmark, he asked FBI field officer to collect all the obituary notices of newspapers in Texas. Finally he found appropriate one whose name is Roberto Guzman.
Next day he fright to Houston to meet the controller in Dulles. After that he visit Beauregard and has a meeting with priest, boy’s elder sister and grandmother and Glen Stevens. Next day, he visited Dr. Leighton and finally Chrissie Stevens.
Chrissie said “they always win. They know how to handle it.”
Here I can understand whole story. Bringing the boy’s corpse to the Rose Garden is executed by Chrissie Stevens and her boy friend to make alert to his father about the living of the poor people in Beauregard.-149 words
When I was reading “Child, Dead, In the Rose Garden” by E.L. Doctorow, I felt upset. This is an important problem for society. No power, no care. Who cares this boy, only six, dies a horrible death. On the other hand, somebody trail American’s government coat. So, they put the dead body to the Rose Garden. This event was reminded me 9/ 11. The terrorist opposed White House. “Configured to win. And fuck all else.” Pollution is another important problem. All of people are attentive about this problem. This boy had asthma. “Roberto did not need a respirator, he needed another plane”. He is also a brave boy. The sky is grey, and “the air smells like burning tires”. This is a circumspect voice going into my heart. Although they are righteous and virtuous people, they have terrible suffering. I saw a pitiful boy, and my heart trembled.
Question 3
When I read “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden,” for the first time, I did not understand it well. I had to read the story more than once to understand it completely. To be honest, I thought the story was a bit confusing and boring. One of the confusions was that there were no quotation marks in dialogues as there should have been. Thus, differentiating the text from the dialogue was hard. Another confusion was acronyms. An example sentence is “You’re the SAC on this one.” The acronym word “SAC,” and others such as NSA, CIA and EKG were too complex to memorize. However, I think there were some good imageries as well as lots of specific details in the story.
-123 words
Question 1:
I felt delighted after reading the story, though it is odd to think that way. At the beginning of the story, it looks like a terrorist or murder story; as the plot develops, it turns out to be a personal issue within the family. But the story doesn’t end there; the cause of the death has evoked the audiences. The story addresses the environment issue (which has been common issue) in such a mystery way, which gives everyone a “shock treatment”. It awakened me to such a way that only a fragile child could possibly do. It delights me when I realized the life of daughter of the wealthy Utilicon Power Company, the FBI investigator, has been transformed by the child, so is the readers. It is pleasing to know that child has been honoured in the Arlington national Cemetery who has died for their country.
146 words
In the story, “Child dead, in the rose garden,” by E.L. Doctorow, what I thought to be a social issue is how callous and politically incorrect the investigators and specialists we’re when it came to examining the situation of the dead child. Right off the bat when they we’re trying to figure out the boy’s heritage, he was simply, “white,” which is a bit vague considering that they’re investigators. Later when Molloy and a psychologist tried to piece together why this took place they immediately came to a scenario of terrorism, with one consultant stating that, “This feels to me like an Arab thing.” I hope that isn’t the way law enforcement officers begin their investigations pertaining to minorities, how they’re about it just seems ambiguous. Finally what appalled me the most is the investigators we’re again considering the boys origin the Psychologist said, “Then he could be from where they hate us.” Really what does that mean?
159 words
While reading this story I found my self in suspense, because I was wondering who? why? how?. Molloy plays the part of the detective very well and something that really delighted me was how the writer made him so real to the reader. Molloy like any detective wants the truth and is frustrated with the lack of cooperation from the White House. If not for his friend John Felsheimer showing him the written evidence stating, “You should know that a child was found dead, in the Rose Garden,” Molloy would not have known that there was such a document. I see that Molloy is at the end of the road with the white house personal, because they are treating this case as if it never happened by hiding evidence, as if the child did not matter enough to make a full and public investigation. Molloy risks its all for the freedom of incident people.
-154 words
After reading, two people remained in my thoughts: Chrissie and her father, Glenn Stevens.
Chrissie is known to the public as a “flake”. Of course, her colorful history can back it up. However, I wonder why she started doing weird things at such a young age and continues an eccentric lifestyle.
Then, bringing Roberto to the hospital and the dead body to the Rose Garden are another lunatic conduct of the flake? If so, I wonder what the sensible people were doing while the boy was dying because of the pollution.
Glenn Stevens, meanwhile, a prominent guest in the White House, is considered as an influential patriot since his company “provides power for five states”. I wonder where was he while his “ill daughter” was struggling to converse with him about Roberto Guzman. He probably was busy being faithful to the government and his bank account. (146 words)
The “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden.” Story written by E. L. Doctorow conveys social and ethical concerns. Discriminative behave in higher level of government agencies clearly included in the story. An impression from agent Molloy, “He might be Hispanic”, expresses original partiality. “This feels to me like an Arab thing”. “A white kid. He could be anything “.”He could be a Muslim kid”, are other prejudice from a psychologist consultant of CIA, terrorist modalities specialist. Does the foundation of violence come from differences of skin color, nationality and believe? For sure not, but, misleading the society and following a certain political issues and ambitiousness which negatively affect minorities in the society.
Roberto Guzman, only six, was a young sacrifice of disorganization and unfairness in the society who rested in peace.
Lets hope nations all over the world, regardless of their skin color, ethnic and believe, live equally in peace. (150 words)
A strong feeling of sadness wouldn’t go away while I read this story - CHILD, DEAD, IN THE ROSE GARDEN by E.L. Doctorow. Little Roberto’s death was a typical story about how the life of ordinary people might be juggled by the POWER GROUP - the BIG CORPORATIONS and their representative - the Government. Certainly there were some defending against the injustice - Chrissie Stevens seemed one of the positive characters. However, to me she was only a rebel of her class. The hopeless situation of living “to pay Daddy back for the life he’s provided her” made her try everything fighting against her father – “a family matter”. The corpse of the six-year-old was only a stage property in her show. Moreover, in this modern society, the chance of Roberto’s parents being saved from deportation had to be dependent upon a cowboy-style hero added yet another act to the tragedy.
(150 Words)
The story “Child, Dead, in the Rose Garden” by E.L Doctorow shows that love does not choose the blade of grass on which it falls.
Chrissie Stevens, daughter to the utilicon’s CEO, from a wealthy family, “prestigious money members” preferred to be ill-treated, “send me to the devil Island” rather than enjoy the elite family of wealth and security that she came from. Her consign for the less privileged; the people who live in an “air polluted” area are well noted by her action.
Roberto Guzman, “age six” that died of a respiratory failure was horrible, and she wants the people in power to “fill the connection”. Weather or not her action was justified is what I can not say, but I can tell you that she was simply trying to make her voice heard.
Hopefully one day love will surpass every other thing.
Word count 145
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