Thursday, June 7, 2012

Growing up in "To kill a Mockingbird"

In the book To Kill a Mockingbird it's a book about a girl name Scott and her coming of age moment. In the book To Kill a Mockingbird Scott's coming of age moment I guess would be when Tom (a black man her father has to defend in a case) is sent to jail for a crime he does not commit. And I guess this can speak to the coming of age experience because it's like in life racism over rules the right the thing. And so this can be Scott's coming of age moment because she releases that in life the hatred towards a persons race will sometimes over rule the right thing to do. I guess an other coming of age moment is when Scott finally meets Boo Radley and through out her life she's heard so many bad things about him. Like he cut (or stabbed) his father with a scissors, or that he eats cats for a living and things like that. so when Scott and Jem are in trouble he actually steps in and helps them. And this can relate to coming of age because it can be like if you meet a person you would think differently than hear a rumor about them and automatically make a judgment of them in your mind.

I guess what the author is trying to say when your a child you think the worlds to you. I guess you have a sense of innocents of what's going around you than when your an adult. And you get to be free and wild when your younger. And then when you become an adult you start to realize the things around you, like in Scott's case she really didn't understand why everyone hated black people. And then when her father started to pick up this case she started to realize that racism is a very big thing in her town. Also when she started to grow up she started to wear skirt and dress. And in the book people judge the way her father razed her saying that it wasn't right to let her run around in overalls, and in one of the quotes it says that it's one thing to have her and her brother running around like wild dogs but another that he's a black lover. And I guess she realized that people judge her for what she was wearing and this can say that in life people judge you for what you wear.

I guess what Lee Harper is trying to say about growing up is that you start to realize the things you didn't notice when you were younger. Like people aren't who you think they are. This can relate to growing up because you can hear something about this person and it can be the total opposite of what the person really is. And this works in the book because she hears so much gossip about Boo and she thinks he's a monster but in life he's just a regular person (who doesn't leave his house but you get the point). And then also that in life it isn't fair. Like you can see that in life people would go with their hatred towards a person than to what's the right thing.

And I think that this book shows us that you should stand up for what you think is right. Even if people shun you and they hate you and say terrible things to you. It's the right thing to do the right thing. In the book Atticus stands up for the right thing even if he is shunned in the town and he doesn't care because it's the right thing to do. And in the book it is told that there are a lot of people who do agree with Atticus but are to afraid to say this. And this can be related in life because people do stand up for whats right (most of the time) for what's right. And that the book title does have something to do without he tittle because in the book it's wrong to kill a mockingbird because they do nothing wrong to us. And it I think it does relate to Tom because he was innocent and he did nothing wrong so they killed a mockingbird or Tom because he was killed.  

Monday, May 28, 2012

HOW BOOKS CONNECT

So in class we had to discuss our books and see how they all connect. Well it was easy for 3 of our books because we were all reading the same books, but it wasn't that much easy for Atifa's book (which I can't remember the title to it). So basically in Atifa's book there's this girl and her father sends her way because he doesn't like her. And then another character in the book wants to be friends with this other character except their parent don't want them to be friends because they have different religions, one's Muslim and the other's Jewish. And the book Adam, Wei, and me are reading is To Kill a Mockingbird and in this book the main character Scott lives in a small town call Maycomb Alabama. And her dad is a lawyer and is defending a black man Tom Robinson (and every one is racist) of a crime, and everyone is discriminating against Tom.


So we saw that these 2 books connect because they both deal with discrimination. Whether it's discrimination of race or religion. In Atifa's book the main character deals with discrimination because he is Muslim and the parents of his friend doesn't want them to be friends anymore because they both have different religions. And in the book To Kill a Mockingbird Tom deals with discrimination because he's black and everybody's racist so they atomically think that Tom is guilty. That he committed the crime simply because of his race. And we decided that when growing up you deal with a lot of discrimination because of who you are make us who we are.


So in these 2 books they show us that when you grow up you can be discriminated for who you are and that things like these can make us who we are. In To Kill a Mockingbird Scott (and I guess you can say the people in Maycomb) I guess you can say becomes a better person. She learns that people shouldn't be pronounced guilty simply because of their race that you should hear their side of the story in order to pronounce guilty or not guilty. And even if they did hear Tom's side of the story and even if the evidence was clearly proven that he was not guilty. They still put him in jail (so the people of Maycomb are still racist) and Scott learned that this is what life is and that in life discrimination can over come the power of innocents.  


Monday, March 26, 2012

MAUS I

So I've finished reading Maus I like a while ago but I'm posting about it today. So Maus I is about a survivor telling his story, well its the survivors son who's writing the story. Anyway the book is about a man named Vladek and his son Artie is writing about his fathers life in Auschwitz. So that's basically what this book is about. And this book is written as a graph novel. I thought this was really interesting because most historical books are usually in a book format or you know what I mean. And art Spiegelman wrote this as a graphic novel. What I thought was also interesting was that instead of using humans as characters he used animal to represent people. Like the Germans as cats and Jews as mice.

I thought this was interesting because you know cats chase mice. And no one likes mice, I mean if you see a mouse in your house you'd probably kill it. So I guess it's showing that back then people thought of Jews that way. Or that the Jews were weak and were helpless and the Germans had power. But I think another reason Spiegelman used animals to represent humans was because people were treated like animals? I guess that race was all they saw in you, i mean all the jews were mice and they all looked alike because they all were drawn the same way and had the same pair of clothes on. So during the holocaust I guess you were only seen as your race and nothing else.

What I also liked about this book was that some of the pictures in this book. I mean the pictures aren't like there so amazing I can cry! There simple and they don't use color, all the pictures are drawn in black and white. And there are some pictures that I guess make you think. Like this one picture where there's Vladek and Anja both walking and trying to survive and the path they're walking is in the shape of a swastika and I guess this is really interesting because they're trying to rum away from danger and they can't because I guess everywhere they walk they can be in danger. So I guess he drew this as fear of his parents as they walked because they were in constant fear. Anyway I think this is a really good book and   everyone should read and that's it.

Tuesday, March 6, 2012

SLAM!!!!!!!!

So I just started this book yesterday and I'm only on page 61 so I'm not that far in the book. But this book is about a boy named Sam (we don't find out about his name until like 20 pages later ) and it's basically about his life. And the events leading to how he screwed up his life. It's pretty interesting. So sam has a mother who is a single mother and had  a teenage pregnancy so she's always putting pressure on him that he doesn't make the same mistake. And she wants Sam to go to collage and have a great job because everyone else inter family screwed up and didn't go to school because they thought they were going to be multi millionaires so he does get pressured into going into collage and having a good job. And Alice is sam's girlfriend and they've only been together for like I don't know a day and I guess their in love with each other.

So I guess Sam is having problems with his mom. Well they are having relationship problems. His mom is worried that same is going to make the same mistake as she did when she was his age. But Sam keep's pushing her away so she's worried that seeing Alice might be making him do the wrong choices. And that Alice might be the one making him do the wrong thing. Which I totally agree with Sam's mom because they haven't went on their first date and it was Alice's idea to have sex.

SO this book has to deal with child and parent relationships. And we can push our parents away because we think they'r not helping and we can feel old enough to make our own decisions but in reality they're actually trying to help us. Like in this book Sam's mother is trying to help him so he doesn't become a father at the age of 17. But sam thinks his mom is over reacting and he doesn't feel like this is going to happen. And I know sometimes my parents are trying to help me but I always push them away.

Wednesday, February 8, 2012

ROMEO AND JULIET "WATER"

So we finished watching Romeo and Juliet like a week ago. And everybody knows the story but I have to give a quick introduction. So there's this boy named Romeo and there's this girl named Juliet and there families hate each other to death (literally they really want to murder each other also some people die) and they meet each other at a party. And they were all like "I love you!!!!" so they can't be in love because of their families hatred toward each other. So they decided to fake each others death. So Juliet pretends to kill herself. And then Romeo kills himself because he thinks she's dead but she isn't. And Juliet wakes up and he's died so Juliet kills herself because she can't live with out her love. THE END!!!!!!!!!!!

Anyway so in this book it has to do a lot with symbols and stuff like that. So you can say that water has been with them for a very long time. I mean I guess it's like water has been with them when they first met and death. So Romeo and juliet first meet at a party but the thing that separates them is water. They could have went over and talked to each other except water was blocking them. And at one point water joins them. There in pool and they were kissing and at the end water breaks them apart because Romeo kills Tyblat and this cause Romeo and Juliet to never be together because Romeo is banished. So water has been with them when they first meet and when they died.

so you could say that their like water? Still coming up with a theory. You could say that water played a big important role in this movie. Because they meet at the fish tank and water was separating them. And then they were together in the water. And then water is what ended their lives. So all in all I'm excited for this unit. And this was a really good movie.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

BEAUTY POP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

SPOILER ALERT!!!!! I THINK................
So I just read a book called "Beauty Pop" and so basically its about this girl Kiri who is like a genus when it comes to hair cutting. She can pickup a scissor and make everyone beautiful. But she doesn't wan't to cut hair. But in the school there's this group called the Scissor Project where these 3 boys give makeovers only on pretty girls. So all the other girls who aren't "pretty" enough they don't make the cut and are left to beg. But Kiri does makeovers on the girls who were left to beg and helps them but leaves her name anonymous. And the Scissor Project is rally mad at Kiri (but don't know she's the one) because they think she's stealing the spot light.  

So this book is really awesome. I think the book isn't only about cutting hair and being the best in Japan. It's about you know true beauty and stuff like that. I mean the reason Kiri decides to do a make over on Kanako was because the boys in the scissor project were really mean to her and being such jerk. And I guess this book shows us that you know anyone can be beautiful. Because they believe that Kanako and some other girl int he book later on can't be beautiful. So they reject them.

But what message is this sending to us. I mean sure there's nice pictures and the story line is really nice and unique. But like you have to be pretty and get a total makeover to get the boy of your dreams. But then again Kanako ended up changing her makeover back to how she looked like and decided she didn't want to change her image for a boy. So this book was really good and did teach me you don't have to change you're image for a boy.    

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

ART WORK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So for this art work I picked Boy With Bubble. I really wanted to choose the one with the babies sitting around a table but the image wouldn't enlarge and I couldn't see much of the image. So this was the next beast thing. I've chosen this one because I just like the picture it's self. There's this kid with a cigarette in his mouth and he's playing with a bubble. And I really thought that this was interesting because he DOES NOT look of smoking age (actually there shouldn't be an age of smoking) and in the background there's this other little boy. And when I see this image I think of this kids youth and I guess how he's losing it.

So first of SMOKING KILLS!!!!!! And this little kid is smoking and he's so young. And he's killing himself. So he's losing his youth by smoking and killing himself and not having clean lungs so he could do fun kid stuff. He's also seem's to be much matured then his age. He's wearing this sliver ring, a button down shirt and he has a cigarette in his mouth. While the kid in the background is just wearing a simple plain t-shirt and some pants. But he's face is covered with paint. Unlike the kid with the cigarette who's face isn't and is clean.

So I really liked this image because of the message it is saying. How in some places children are losing their youth. Where its from wanting to grow up too soon. Or like in places were children are forced to fight in a war. I guess I really like this image because it's really sidle. There's just this little boy with a cigarette in his mouth playing with a bubble and an other little boy standing in the background. And I guess most people won't realize it that this little boy letting go of his youth (THE BUBBLE!!!!!) and trying to group up (THE CIGARETTE!!!!!) to soon.