Blog 5

While reading Snow Crash, I can't help but feel sorrow, sadness, and a sense of fear for a far majority of people who live in this futuristic, 21st century America. To sum America up in this story, it isn't America!!! It is, instead, broken down into many, many sections which are run by big corporations, powerful individuals, and corrupted governments.

On page 26, it says, "There are somewhere between six and ten billion people [on Earth]. At any given time, most of them are making mud bricks or field-stripping their AK-47s. Perhaps a billion of them have enough money to own a computer; these people have more money than all of the others put together." How can I not feel anything but sorrow for the majority of these six to ten billion people? They are building mud bricks for their homes or fighting in wars killing each other when only 1/6 to 1/10 of the world has more money than the other remaining fraction of the world put together! Poverty and unsuitableness in the world is still a huge concern in this future world. On page 26, it says, "These are slum housing, 5-by-10's and 10-by10's." People, in **America** of all places, are now living in slum housing because they don't have enough money. Besides poverty being an issue in the world and America, racism still exists. On page 32, a sign on a gate into a section of America reads, "WHITE PEOPLE ONLY. NON-CAUCASIANS MUST BE PROCESS." It's sad to see that racism still exists in America in the future.

Not only do the non-equal economic classes and settings these people live in make me feel sorry for them and scared for them but so do the situations some are put into. For example, Y.T. is a fifteen year old girl. While making it to Greater Hong Kong with Hiro, a jeek throws a hand grenade at her (page 94). How scary is it to think that in this future America, people are throwing hand grenades at people, even if these people are fifteen year old girls?! This makes me feel sorry and scared for Y.T. and what she may have to experience in her daily life.

As far as me feeling empathy at some point in this book that I have read so far, I can't really feel it. I haven't been put into any situations in this novel that some of the characters are, but I can understand how some people may feel empathetic for a character. For example, I can see how some feel empathetic for Y.T.'s mom. On page 94, it says, "Mom works for the Feds. Feds don't make much money, but they have to work hard, to show their loyalty." Plenty of people have worked hard for little money to show their loyalty to their employers or to people that they require something from. An example could be someone working for a drug lord or a guerrilla leader. This person may have to fight for this leader to simply get food and not be killed by the leader's supporters. So they would be able to relate to Y.T.'s mom working simply for loyalty.