Journal #7 TKAM

Journal #7

Prompt: so far, is this a novel about race? Class? Gender? Coming of Age? Place? Select and defend your answer.

*I believe that this book is about race. Here is my reasoning:
A) One of the main points and issues of this book is the case of Tom Robinson. He is obviously completely innocent, but because he is black, the jury charges him guilty. This was his predicament.This had nearly everything to do with race. If a jury of white men, chooses a black man over a white man that makes them look bad, so he must choose white over black. Also, I think that if the jury voted in favor of Tom, that Bob Ewell would over-react and harm them.

B) The Ewells are outcasts, but they are still higher than the black people in Maycomb. Even the most respectable black man is thought lesser of than a pauper white man. It is irrelevant how respectable the man is if he is black.The Ewells are in exile out where they live, but if they lost the case, they would be either subtley talked to by bypassers, or shunned. This means that they would be thought lesser of than black people, which is a big deal, but it should not be.

C) The cooks are a big aspect of this book as well. Every family has a cook and every cook is black. They speak to them like they are of lesser value. They speak down to them. They speak to them like they feel sorry for them, which is not good. The color of their skin is a major reason why they speak like this to them. These people are very prejudice.

Journal #6

Journal # 6

Prompt: Are there people in your neighborhood who are like any of the character types in the novel?Change the real person's name so his/her identity remains anonymous and describe how he or she is like a particular character.

Simple similarities between two people can be nauseatingly a like despite two major factors separating them from being identical: gender and age. Despite these two factors, people may still be nearly identical in personality. I have found that my neighborhood consist of people that are similar to people in Maycomb County.
Stephanie Crawford: tattle-tale, rude, snoop, gossiper, liar, over-exaggerator.
Rod Hanson: tattle-tale, rude, snoop, gossiper, liar, over-exaggerator. The two people are nearly identical, aside from the fact of gender. I have witnessed him tell on my brothers for doing minor things, but over-exaggerating and stating something to my parents that is far from accurate (tattle-tale, over-exaggerator, liar, gossiper, snoop, rude).
Aunt Alexandra with Scout: a strict, untrustworthy, and disappointing relationship
Matt Hill and his Aunt: a strict, untrustworthy, and disappointing relationship. The relationship between Scout and her Aunt reminds me of the relationship between my neighbor Matt, who is my age, and his Aunt. Matt has a curfew of 6:30 on week nights because his Aunt does not trust him. She is very strict, just how Aunt Alexandra is strict with Scout.
The fact that I have discovered through comparing my neighbors to the Finch’s neighbors, is that age and gender is beginning to matter less and less in our lives. People are becoming more similar to each other everyday because people are becoming role models, so other people want to be them, and they turn out to be. This is why people are becoming more and more similar throughout generations.

Jounal #4

Journal # 4 .

Chapters 10–12
Perspective: Jem

Dear Journal,
So Scout and I were out hunting, when I Tim Johnson, the old huntin’ dog, moving funny far away. Cal said that he was mad. Scout and I saw Atticus shoot him in one shot; now that’s real hard. Miss Maudie says that Atticus used to be—and still is I reckon—the best shooter in all of Maycomb and Abbott County. She said they used to call him One Shot Finch, er Ol’ One Shot. This made Scout mighty happy, cause she’s been havin’ a hard time with our CONTEMPORARIES talkin’ ‘bout their dads bein fit and playin’ with em. She was not proud in any way of Atticus.
Scout and I walk past Mrs. Dubose’s house every day on the way downtown. She’s awful in 3 major ways: she’s rude, disrespectful, and ANTAGONISTIC. I got mighty mad at her one day for sayin a mean thing ‘bout Atticus. I’m used to hearing the kinda stuff she said, but from chillun, not adults. I got so mad about what she said that I destroyed every flower in her garden with a baton that I gave Scout. I knew I was in considerable PERIL, for if she came out she might blow my head off. My punishment was cruel. I had to tend to her garden and read to her for an entire month. This was horrid, but the time reading to her was alright because she wasn’t awake for most of it. She would always have fits before I started reading and whenever I tried to CONTRADICT her she would yell at me. But Atticus went over to her house one day, and returned hours later, and nearly INAUDIBLY pronounced her dead. I was in shock even more when he explained that she was a morphine addict and that’s why she was so mean. I felt horrid.
Atticus left to deal with political issues for a couple weeks, so Calpurnia took us to her church on Sunday. My assumptions that this would not be a good idea was INFALLIBLE, within a few minutes of arriving at the church, LuLu insulted us and bugged us. But Reverand Sykes explained to us why LuLu was like that. Aunt Alexandra also came to live with us for a little while.
Until next time,
-Jem

To Kill A Mockingbird Journal #3

Journal #3
Chapters 8-9
Perspective: Scout

Dear Journal,
This winter has been crazy. First of all, it was the coldest winter since 1885. Mr. Avery says it is because Jem, Dill, and I have been acting crazily; 'says it's on the Rosetta Stone. Ms. Maudie reckons he's got his head on wrong. When I woke up and saw snow outside, Jem and I decided to build a snowman with some of the snow, but there wasn't enough, so Jem built it out of mud, and put snow on the outside. We made our snowman look like Mr. Avery. We also found out that Ms. Radley died. Jem and I thought Boo cracked after all these years and killed her, but Atticus said she died of natural causes. Jem and I debated wether or not this was accurate, and decided that Atticus would not lie to us.
Ms. Maudie lost her house that night. She reckons the fire started from the stove in her kitchen. Atticus told Jem and I to isolate ourselves from everyone so's not to get in the way, so we stayed in front o' the Radley place the whole night. Despite Jem's attempts to warm me, we nearly froze the whole night. In the morning when we went back home, Atticus asked me where I got my blanket. I did not even know that I had one. I stayed in front o' the Radley Place the whole night. I was completly perplexed. Atticus told me Boo must have put it on me without me knowing. I was shocked. I was surprised how acquainted I now felt with Boo, though I never even saw him.
This Christmas I went crazy. Atticus is defending a black man named Tom Robinson, and people have been giving me grief about it like Cecil Jacobs and Francis(Aunt Alexandra's grandchild). I almost faught Cecil, but Atticus told me I 'ought to ignore him and anyone else that gives me grief. So on Christmas day I went to Aunt Alexandra's house, and Francis was calling Atticus a nigger-lover, and I flipped. I came up with a not so ingenious plan to punch him in the mouth. Uncle Jack held me to the ground, but later talked it out with me. I decided that I still loved him even though he made me mad by favoring Francis.

TKAM Post 1

Journal #1
Chapters 1-3
Perspective of Jem

The past few days have been crazy. Scout and I met a new friend, and he's testing me. The biggest thing that I think has happened recently is Dill trying to get Boo Radley out of his house. We told him he was crazy but he perservered.He dared me to slap the side of his house... and I did it. I just ran up and slapped the side of his house, and sure enough, the blinds in his house twitched. I felt so very scared at that moment, but I would never tell Scout or Dill. I told them that I had to watch out for my sister, but Dill just said I was scared and he irked me so much I just went for it out of impulse. Those few steps to the side of that house felt bitter in my mouth, and shattered under my feet. As I slapped the house, I felt it splinter away into my palm, but when I pulled my hand away, there were no splinters in it. My stomach thumped with its own heartbeat. Dill, Scout and I ran to our house. The whole time I had my back to that house, I could feel his malvolent, senile, and intimidating eyes digging into my back. Before I turned around, I wanted to pronounce that if I died, I would blame Dill. But when I turned around, he wasn't there. I looked to his house, and that is when I saw the blinds in the house move. I wanted to just fall onto the crunchy brown grass and feel the safe warm sun on my shoulders.

Liturature Circle Last Post

How do the characters in the book maintain their cultural ties?
“Te preguntó el Mr. Barone, you know, lo que querías hacer when you grow up?” I asked.
“Sí, pero, I didn't know. ¿Y tú?”
A conversation between Esmeralda and Yolanda, a new 9th grader.
Page 258
This is a conversation in half Spanish half English because both of the girls were immigrants. This shows that Esmeralda continues to hold her language from Puerto Rico. Language is important to Esmeralda's family because learning English was a hard thing for Esmeralda to do. Esmeralda feels more comfortable speaking in Spanish than speaking in English, so it is really nice for her to be able to speak Spanish with one of her friends.
This quote doesn't really relate to me, but it reminds me of when I go to England because the accent wears off on me. I can remember playing with my cousins, and I sound nearly exactly like them. At first though, its uncomfortable for me to speak in that accent, but the more I am with my family, the easier it is to speak like them. It also is uncomfortable to speak in my American accent around them, because it makes me different them.

Have you ever experienced a time where it was hard to speak the way you speak?

How do Americans treat the characters?
“I'd like to be a model,” I said to Mr. Barone.
“A model?” His voice was gruff, as if he were more comfortable yelling at people then talking to them.
“I want to be on television.”
A conversation about Esmeralda's career between Esmeralda and Mr. Barone.
In this conversation, Esmeralda is discussing the career that she wants to be involved in with Mr. Barone, and Mr. Barone is disagreeing with Esmeralda's decisions. He doesn't think that she will be a good model, she offers an actress. He is more open to this but still not as open as another choice of career. This might have crushed Esmeralda's confidence. I am not sure if Mr. Barone was doing it intentionally, but I do not think he was treating her very well. I think that it would have been nicer to offer a modeling school anyway.
This quote reminds me of Christmas in 2 ways.
a. When you open a present you don't like and you aren't very good at convincing the gift giver that you like it.
b. When you give a gift to a person and you can tell that they don't like it.
Either way it is hard to deal with this because you either feel bad for not being good at hiding that you don't like the gift, or you feel bad for giving a really bad gift.

Have you ever been in an awkward situation like Esmeralda's?

What hardships do the characters endure as they make a new life?

Are ju slippin? Are ju slippin?
Bruder John, Bruder John.
Mornin bel sar rin ging.
Mornin bel sar rin ging.
Deen deen don. Deen deen don.

The song that Esmeralda sings in Miss Jiménez’s class to learn Spanish.
Page 77, paragraph 1

This quote is really interesting to me because it shows that even though Esmeralda knows the song, she doesn’t know the words. Esmeralda isn’t really learning English through this song—which is the whole point of it—she is learning how to pronounce words. The only real word in that entire song—from her point of view—was the word ‘are’ in the first sentence. This is something that would be very hard in learning a new language.
This quote connects to me because I have been in a situation quite similar to this one. I am a fluent Spanish reader; I can read and pronounce correctly almost all the words I read, but I do not really know what I am saying. I also don’t know how to spell the words, even if I know them by ear.
Have you ever tried to learn a language? If so, what were some of the hardships that you faced in learning that language?

How do Americans treat the characters?

“I suppose you find it less repugnant to go hungry every morning!”
“I’ve never gone hungry!” I screamed. “My Mami and Papi can feed us without your disgusting gringo imperialist food!”

Mrs. García and Esmeralda fighting because Esmeralda shattered a glass of sour milk.
Page 83, paragraphs 7 & 8

This fight really shows me how badly even an American teacher can treat an immigrant. The reason that these girls are fighting is because Esmeralda tasted very sour milk and dropped the glass, spilling milk all over her uniform and the floor, and also shattering the glass. If this happened to an American, the teacher I think would have reacted differently. If this happened at our school we would have just cleaned it up no questions asked, but it is understandable that Esmeralda would retaliate if Mrs. García shot out at her with anger.
This quote relates to me because sometimes I mess up, but it is an accident, or maybe I say something or write something that comes out wrong, or looks wrong, and my parents get angry when really I didn’t mean to do anything wrong. Even if I tell them I was sorry over and over and that I didn’t mean it like that, they don’t believe me. I know how Esmeralda must have felt right now.
If your teacher yelled “Now look what you’ve done!” at you when you knew what you did wasn’t your fault, or it was an accident, how do you think you would react?