Tom Robinson

Author's Note: This is a piece from the perspective of Tom Robinson from To Kill a Mockingbird. 

I do what I'm am told to do, that's the way I was raised. So when young miss Mayella wanted my help, I obliged. I felt sorry for the lady, she didn't seem to have any friends. She was always alone when I passed by her house, with no help to do all those chores that needed to be done. So when I passed by her house this morning, she wanted my help as usual, and she invited me into her home to fix her door. I intended to do so, but the door seemed fine to me, so I got to wondering what was going on. She took me into the bedroom, and wanted me to get something down, and I tried, and the next thing I knew her arms were around me, babblin about something, and I tried to run but I didn't want to hurt the poor woman. I started to panic, not quite sure what was happening, when I saw Mr. Ewell in the window, and heard young miss Mayella scream. I booked it, not wanting to stay around any longer. Poor old Mayella, she'll probably in some hot water with her father.

To Kill a Mockingbird Scene Analysis

"If you shouldn't be defendin' him, then why are you doin' it?"

"For a number of reasons," said Atticus. "The main one is, if I didn't I couldn't hold up my head in town, I couldn't represent this county in the legislature, I couldn't even tell you or Jem not to do something again." […]

"Atticus, are we going to win it?"

"No, honey."

"Then why-"

"Simply because we were licked a hundred years before we started is no reason for us not to try to win," Atticus said (84).

This quote takes place when Scout is not understanding why Atticus is defending a black man. Atticus tries to explain it to her that he couldn't respect himself enough to hold up his head or even tell Scout or Jem not to do something. He knows that he has to try, because it is the right thing to do no matter what anybody says. So when Scout asks him if he is going to win the case, he simply says no, because he knows it is hopeless, yet he has to try. He says we already got licked a hundred years ago, referring to slavery and the racial prejudices that have been going on for a long time. But that doesn't mean that it is right even if it has been going on for a hundred years, and he still needs to try to change it, even if he is ahead of his time and knows it is hopeless. I think this scene describes the hopelessness of the novel; knowing that Atticus is doing the right thing, and people seem blind to that fact. You as a reader know that Atticus is doing what is right and it is frustrating that he has no power to change anything.

Speak Scene Analysis

Author's note: For an assignment we were supposed to choose a scene from the book Speak that changed the book. I chose the scene where Melinda is at her first day of high school and at a presentation about the year to come.

In one scene, we find Melinda in the auditorium on the first day of school for a first day presentation. None of her old friends talk to her, because of what she did. She called the cops at a party where there was drinking, and now all her friends hate her. They whisper mean things about her behind her back, and completely ignore her. I believe this is a major scene in the book; it is the point that Melinda becomes an outcast. The whole book up to the point I am at, it mostly remains this way. This scene pretty much sums up how rejected Melinda is by her former friends and piers.

Fahrenheit 451 Quote Response

 Author's Note: This was an assignment where we had to choose a quote with figurative language and analyze it. So I did.

"One of them slid down into your stomach like a black cobra down an echoing well looking for all the old water and the old time gathered there"  Pg. 14

This quote takes place when Guy's wife, Mildred, takes to many sleeping pills, and has to get her stomach pumped and blood replaced. They used a machine to execute this task. But the tone of this simile is definitely dark. The personification from the machine to a snake gives a kind of hopeless feel, seeing as the snake is an ironic symbol. As for going down a well, it is like descending into blackness and gloominess. The old water at the bottom of the well is like the insides that they are pumping out. The whole quote feels dark and dismal.

Harrison Bergeron Retelling

Author's Note: We read the short story Harrison Bergeron and I had to write a retelling of it so I did. 

Harrison Bergeron takes place in the future when everyone is equalized by some sort of handicap. Two people see their son Harrison escape from prison. He takes over a TV station, rips off his handicaps, defies gravity, and tells everyone he's the new Emperor. But then the he gets killed by the government, and his parents, who witnessed the event on TV, soon forget what happened.

A Christmas Carol Assignment

Author's Note: This was an assignment where we had to take a quote from A Christmas Carol and analyze it. 

Quote:

"I don't know what to do!" cried Scrooge, laughing and crying in the same breath; and making a perfect Lacoon of himself with his stockings. "I am as light as a feather, I am as happy as an angel, I am as merry as a school-boy. I am as giddy as a drunken man, A merry Christmas to everybody! A happy New Year to all the world! Hallo here! Whoop! Hallo!" (pg 81)

A Christmas Carol

Charles Dickens

This quote is from Scrooge, when he gets back from his journey with the third ghost, and wakes up on Christmas morning. This passage represents the change that happened to Scrooge. He is no longer the grumpy old man, and now is filled with joy and happiness. The tone of this quote is obviously happy, because some of the symbols; like similes such as happy as angel, lights as a feather, and merry as a school boy. This just shows how happy Scrooge is, giddy with happiness, and a new man.

Assignment #1

I think that in Milkweed that Misha will escape the camp. Right now he is able to escape but he keeps coming back because his friends are there. I think eventually they will leave the ghetto for the concentration camps because that is what happened to the Jews during World War 2. But Misha will play dead and escape, because the same thing happened in the book Elephant run. In Elephant Run this kid's dad was trapped in a camp by the Japanese, but he pretended to die and got out. So I think the same thing will happen in Milkweed.

Assignment #3

Author's Note: This is an assignment about a character in our book. We had to analyze a character and their motives and if they were dynamic or static. 

The main character in Milkweed is Misha, an orphan boy who's age is not known, and is not smart. Misha just wants to survive, and help his friends survive in the ghetto. When he sees his friend dangling by his neck from a street light, he barely notices. He does this by stealing food from the outside and bringing it back in. The character is dynamic, because he changes the lives of others. The Milgroms probably wouldn't have survived without Misha. Misha is pretty much their only source of food, like when he gives them eggs. He is kind of like Pi, because his only motive is to survive. He doesn't really understand enough to have any other motive.

Assignment #2

Author's Note: This is the assignment about how the point of view of our book is important. I thought the point of view was really important because the main character had no clue what was happening. 

The point of view in Milkweed is extremely important. It is told from the point of the orphan kid, who's age is not know, but has no clue what is going on. When the Nazis come, he likes them because if their big, shiny, black boots. Some times he describes events vividly and they turn out to be the least important. Then he'll sum a large event in a page or two, like when he was on the farm, he talked about it for a couple pages. It turns out he was on the farm for three years. Disturbing images are described by him so blandly, like how dead bodies of Jews littered the streets, he seems completely unaffected by it. There is one event that comes to mind that I didn't understand at all. Misha finds his friend and the leader of the band of boys, Uri, in a hotel for the Nazi soldiers working as a busboy. At the end, he shoots off Misha's ear. I think this was so they thought he was dead and wouldn't put him on the train to the concentration camp, but the reader is never sure. Both these events are examples of what I am trying to say. He just doesn't notice what is going on around him, and can't describe the things he does understand. This changes how the story is viewed.

The story would completely different if it was told from a different perspective or third person. If it were told through the eyes of an adult, the reader would have a different take on the story. It would be so much about a kid not knowing that he is in a desperate fight for survival, and into just another historical fiction novel about the holocaust. If it were told from third person but still followed Misha, it would also be different. The reader would get more details and have a solid view of what is happening. With Misha's poor descriptions, the reader never has a concrete idea of what is happening.

Milkweed Perspective

Author's note: In Milkweed the perspective is from the point of view of a kid who doesn't understand what is happening. I changed it to his "uncle" Uncle Shepsel, who is trying to convert from a Jew to a Lutheran so he can get out of the ghetto where they keep all the Jews. 

I realized that was no way out of the ghetto, at least if I remained a Jew. So I decided to become a Lutheran. It started when I got a book about Lutheranism. I read the book front to back a thousand times, memorizing all the words. I taught myself how to be Lutheran, and I was no longer a Jew. I was free, free at last. It made me happy just thinking about the prospect of going home and living a normal life again. But it didn't last all that long. When they started the deportation, I was confident I would not have to go, because after all, I was not a Jew. But they didn’t listen to me. They took me anyways, despite my pleads that I was no longer a Filthy Son of Abram. Why didn’t they listen?

Life of Pi response

Author's Note: We had to respond to what we thought this meant: "The idea of a religious boy in a lifeboat with a wild animal struck me as a perfect metaphor for the human condition. Humans aspire to really high things, right, like religion, justice, democracy. At the same time, we're rooted in our human, animal condition. And so, all of those brought together in a lifeboat struck me as being... as a perfect metaphor." It's the author talking about his book. So here is what I thought.

I think that what Yann Martel meant was that it his story symbolized humans. What I think he meant that humans are always worrying and thinking about things that are really out of our control and humans worry about things that we really can't change. We're constantly thinking about religion and justice like the author said. But really we're just animals trying to survive.

Are you proud of your country?

I guess I am proud of my country. We did after all win our freedom against like the strongest army. Also we are a free country which is good. But sometimes I don't agree with things our country does and all the corporate stuff and all that junk. But I would have to say that overall I am proud of our country.

Satire

Author's Note: This is our own Satire that we made as a response after reading the book Animal Farm  by George Orwell. We tried to stay up to date on the real-life issues, seeing as we were creating it as it was happening.

(Link to project)

Robin Hood

A while ago I watched the movie Robin Hood. I was trying to figure out what mode of literature it was. It was really hard. I came to the conclusion that it was an irony, but took a loop at the end to end good. One thing is that the main character, Robin Hood is not weak and stupid. Unexpected things do happen, like people get killed that seem like they shouldn't. It starts out the world is in chaos with war. Then the King of England dies. This really evil guy gathers an army of French and invades and destroys city after city. Right about when they should have destroyed another city, Robin Hood and an army stopped them. Then there was a huge battle with Robin Hood's army and the French. The French should have won if it was an Irony, but Robin Hood's army won. Robin Hood was tossed out of England for doing crimes but he and his new wife lived with these outcast people and with her narration at the end it seems like it was okay because she said everyone was equal and there weren't any laws with the outcasts. So I think it should have been an irony but ended good.