English Class

I truly cannot believe that the first marking period is over when it feels like school just started. So much has already happened in this marking period though. So far I like the curriculum of this year. I really enjoyed how we were very involved with technology. Most classes are still pen and paper, but this class is more technology based which I believe is actually helping to set me up for the future. Technology is becoming more prominent in our world, for college and jobs and this was good preparation. This year was also my first fishbowl, and I have to say I was very nervous, but I really enjoyed getting the chance to REALLY delve deeper and discuss the topic with others in the class. We were very involved with each other—always interacting—whether it was through, editing, blogging, discussing, or other projects. This course is more thought provoking than others that I have taken and it has really made me think. I also think the pace for this class is perfect, it is a fast paced class with more work; it really challenges me. I love the challenge because it makes me want to prove something and that I’m actually doing something. I don’t really have anything that I want to change about this class, even the vocabulary test. Again, it was a challenge and it was a different take on how to learn vocabulary and is how you would actually use it in real life. I hope that this first semester was a good example of what the rest of the year will be like. Though I do wish Mr. Juliani would put his grades in Sapphire a little faster.

I chose the scene of the trial of Tom Robinson to pick music for. To me I went with the lyrics of the song rather than the background of it. I chose the song Waiting on the World to Change by John Mayer. I chose this song because I believe a lot of the lyrics fit into the view of Scout in this time of her life. The song really connects to how Scout feels with how she is seeing all this bad in the world and she wants to change it, because she doesn’t understand why people are acting the way they are during the trial. She’s waiting for the world to change, for the world to see the racism and social hierarchy that she sees within her own town and the injustice against Tom Robinson. Some lines fit the story perfectly and some you have to think more to connect. I picked this song because in my mind it portrayed perfectly what was going on in the town and what Scout was feeling and dealing with.

In 1955, Emmett Till was beaten and shot to death by two white men, who then threw his body in the Tallahatchie River. Emmett Till was in Mississippi visiting family when this happened. He was a 14 year Negro, who did nothing more than talk to a white woman. The trial of the two white men who killed him was only three weeks later. The jury was a completely white jury and led to the unfair verdict of not guilty. This trial was a year after segregation was outlawed, and therefore the nation was watching closely. This struck a chord through the nation, and exposed the inequality that was still occurring the South. This means that his murder was a spark and an inspiration to the civil rights movement; it was a major turning point for Negros. Since then, the nation has been able to achieve more equality, although not in all cases. For example, Jena Six was a more current social injustice. This injustice occurred at Jena High School in Jena, Louisiana, which was 86 percent white. This event all started in August 2006, when a black teenager tried to sit under a shady tree that was “understood” to be a place where only whites sat. The next day, three nooses were hung on the tree, and the white teenagers who admitted to doing it only got a three day suspension. Days later, more black teenagers tried to sit under the tree in protest. The police came and gave them a lecture, telling them that they could end their life with the stroke of a pen so they better be careful. That same year in October a black boy attended an all-white party, getting beaten with no consequences to the white boys who beat him. Then it really got ugly, in December of 2006 a fight broke out on school property. Six blacks males were in that fight, along with one white male who was beaten and taken immediately to the hospital. He was taken care of and then let out while all six black teens were rounded up by police and charged with attempted second-degree murder and conspiracy to commit second-degree murder. The normal penalty for fighting at Jena High School was a three day suspension. Also, they were tried as adults, as minors with an all-white jury. So as you can see through this example that all social injustices have not yet been expelled. The connections between the two are somewhat eerie, since between the time of Emmett Till and Jena Six we as a nation have dropped segregation and come closer to equality. Both trials had an all-white jury giving them slimmer chances to begin with as the whites would of course take the word of whites over blacks. It seems that in both cases, neither Emmett Till nor the Jena Six deserved what they had gotten. In Emmett’s case, death but for Jena Six, being tried as adults with second degree murder? Neither adds up. I believe as a nation we have come far from where we were in the time of Emmett Till’s death and the injustices that were displayed then, but I do feel that we can still improve, and hopefully get rid of such injustices altogether.

Though there are many differences between the economy now and the economy during the Great Depression, there are still many similarities that link the two together in comparison. First, during the Great Depression, unemployment rates were at an all time high, 25 percent, and now during out Repression, we having been climbing to 9 percent. 9 percent doesn’t seem as bad, but that is about 8 and a half million jobs that have been lost now, the same problem that occurred in the Great Depression. Also during the Great Depression, something that occurred was inflation, which is too many dollars and too little supply of goods. Inflation was so high in the Great Depression that money was losing some of its value. Although we aren’t exactly seeing that now, we are going in the opposite, and seeing deflation, which is too little money and too many goods. During the Great Depression you would think that due to these problems that were occurring that taxes would have been lowered, to help families have money and circulate the money, but it was the opposite, taxes during the Great Depression were some of the highest the United States has seen. Even now we don’t have taxes as high as they were then, although ours are also on the rise now.  In the era of the Great Depression, the Federal Reserve, who has a lot of say in money, did not act. They didn’t add money into the circulation of the economy to keep us going, so that just made everything drop for longer, and in our Repression currently the Federal Reserve DID act, they added about 600 billion dollars, doing the opposite of what was done in the Great Depression, trying to avoid the same outcome. The world around us also played a lot into the Great Depression, as a lot of the world around us was in the same situation, and we were pulled into the Great Depression, our Repression now is not the same case. We are capable of pulling out of it if we find the middle ground, and work with the rest of the world, whose economy is doing better off. If we don’t we may be repeating history and go into another Great Depression, expanding the already huge gap between the rich and the poor. If that gap continues to expand, the unemployment rates might also go back up, the same as back then, because people won’t be able to afford the education that is necessary to get a good paying job here. Education is a link to unemployment, which is in turn a link to our economy. Everything is interrelated. The only thing we can hope for is the best, and that we can pull out of our Repression before we fall into a Depression once again, because as of now the similarities are quite eerie. We are always connected to our past, but we must learn from it, not become it.

Watch: http://www.cbsnews.com/video/watch/?id=7120553n

Gossip is very prevalent in the novel To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee. In her novel Harper Lee uses gossip in a very interesting way. Throughout the beginning of the novel her character Arthur “Boo” Radley is completely built off of gossip and the opinions of others. Boo Radley hasn’t been seen outside of his house since he was an adolescent because his religious father kept him in there for the crime he did in the past. Therefore the last image the town had of Boo was a bad one, that bad image has led the people in the town to make more stories about him. They say that Boo stabbed his father with scissors once upon time, and that he sneaks out in the middle of the night to do terrible things, yet no one has any proof of these things actually happening. You haven’t met Boo straight out at any point in the story, yet he has been characterized by gossip. Another character in the book sheds light on how these might be rumors, Miss Maudie, because she remembers Boo as quite the opposite of what he is being shown as. Gossip is depicting this character and changing the way people look at him. People are scared that the fruit from his tree is poisoned, that they have to run by his house, when in actuality, the only thing they’re scared of is the gossip that has been spread. To Kill a Mockingbird relates to the movie ‘Doubt’ because they both have gossip in them. In ‘Doubt’ a priest is approached by a woman who has gossiped about another, asking if gossip is a sin. The priest says yes, and shows an example of what gossip is. The woman is told to cut open a pillow on her roof, the feathers then go everywhere, just as gossip goes everywhere and that you could never pick up every feather that has flown away, or every lie that has become, due to the gossip. Gossip not only sets a prejudice against what looks to be an innocent character in To Kill a Mockingbird, gossip also sets prejudice against anyone who is or acts differently. When Atticus, Scout’s father, goes to take on the case of a Negro, Tom Robinson, the town sets him apart for defending someone who is “not like them”. They in a sense look down upon him, because he is doing something out of the ordinary and instead of asking him why, they make things up.  Gossip can clearly set people apart, pushing them away from society, family, or living life such as Boo. What rings true in To Kill a Mockingbird, also rings true in real life. We tend to base opinions based off of what others say, whether true or not. As shown, gossip can be distorted, and out of your control. It is without a doubt, that Harper Lee is sending a message about gossip, weaving it into all parts of her book.

Your post was very detailed. You really delved into Harper Lee’s childhood and connected it to the events of To Kill A Mockingbird, such as her lawyer father and the trials in her home town. I thought it was interesting how she was going to follow her father’s footsteps in law before realizing she would rather write, even though she’s only published one major story and doesn’t do many interviews. Great job, Emily!

Nelle Harper Lee was born the youngest of four on April 28, 1926 in Moneroeville Alabama to mother Amasa Coleman Lee and her father Frances Cunningham Finch Lee who was a lawyer, and a true inspiration to Lee’s character Atticus in the book To Kill A Mockingbird. When she was young, she was an avid reader, a tomboy, and had a close friendship with Truman Capote, who was the man behind Dill in her novel. Harper was only five when her story basis first appeared to her. In Monroeville, trials regarding two white women being raped by black men was occurring. She saw that through her life experiences that it would be a way to show not only how her town was during the time period, but how most of the South itself was at the time.

Haper Lee first studied at Huntington College, before going to study law at the University of Alabama. She then took a year abroad to study at Oxford University in England. When she got back, she didn’t go into law, instead she was a reservation clerk in NY. After that, she decided to devote herself to writing instead. She worked on her book, editing and reviewing her novel for about two years. She also worked as an assisant for her childhood friend in researching for another book that he was working on. Her book To Kill A Mockingbird was then published in 1960. In 1961 her book won the Pulitzer Prize, and sold over 15 million copies before being made into a movie in 1962.

Since then Harper Lee has become a part of the National Council of the Arts, and gotten many honoarary doctrates. Harper Lee continues to live in New York and Alabama, living a more reclusive life than most, only publishing a few more short stories and accepting very few interviews after To Kill A Mockingbird was published.

We are introduced to the characters in To Kill A Mockingbird in chapter one, Jean Louise, who is the narrator of the story, Jem, who is her brother, Atticus who is their father, and Calpurnia who is the help.  You learn about how each of them interacts with each other, and the background behind them. Jem and Jean make a friend Dill who only comes during the summer, from Meridian, who dares Jem to touch the Boo Radley place, which is a place that is mostly left alone due to the past you also learn about. The kids then go to school, where Jean gets in trouble with her teacher, and that is where chapter two leaves off.