Fatelessness: Book trailer!

Rationale

My written task, as some of you may notice, is a magazine article. The reason of why I chose to follow this structure is simple: it gave me freedom enogh to express myself, but also allowed me to do things that I wouldn’t be able to do with another format. It allowed me to decide by myself the order in which I wanted to state my ideas, I mean; I wasn’t obligated to follow a specific pattern in order (chronological order or something similar). At the same time, because it was an article, I needed to add concrete facts. This helped me, I believe, in the development of ideas, because at the moment I was writing about history, I was also comparing it with what we see on the novel “Fatelessness”. The language I used, of course, was formal. By using a formal language, what you say sounds more truthful, and so the reader gets more convinced with what you write. The use of historical facts, mixed with a sorrowful and melancholic tone are components of the work that I added, in order to create interest on the reader about the holocaust consequences. The end of this article is somehow open, so the reader can continue researching about these consequences, and state their own opinions. 

Holocaust: Terrifying truth

On today’s article, we are going to talk about something that shocked the world during the 40’s, and still does: the Second World War, but more specifically, the holocaust. This, taking as a point of reference, a novel by Imre Kertez, called “Fatelessness”. Even though this novel is an invented story, we can appreciate that certain things between this one and what historically speaking happened are amusingly related. Consequences of the Nazi ideology, within the suffering this way of thinking brought to Jewish people are few of themes presented in the novel. This is basically what the following text will be about.

Watching images of the “Auschwitz” concentration camp is something very sorrowful, and also hard to believe. The first thing that comes to your mind when you do this is: Who would be able to do something like this? What is even more impressing is that actually not a small amount of people survived to this extreme confinement. Such as our fiction character, Georg, who survived to this unfair imprisonment. Although this encouraging fact, the whole period of the holocaust is, unfortunately, one of the most remarkable cases of genocide. But, how did this happened? The answer to this question can be found in history, just a few years ago.

When Adolf Hitler rose to power, minorities, such as the Jewish community, thought the worst. Everybody knew Hitler’s ideology of racism and anti-Semitism because of his book, “Mein kampf” (my struggle). This book, with autobiographical content, was published in 1925, in order to express his thoughts and conclusions. After invading Poland years later, in 1939, the war was unleashed, and within, Hitler’s plan about minorities. He ruled that every Jewish was suppose to wear a yellow star. He also dictated that Jewish, and gypsies, between others, should live from now on, on some class of semi-detached houses, that were built on special places, away from what Nazi called ”normal society”.  These places were Jews were supposed to live without basics conditions and small spaces were called “ghettos”. We can appreciate in the book I already mentioned, that Georg actually lives in a ghetto. The lack of space is evidenced in some passages of the book, in which he meets and shares a lot with his neighbours. The Nazi regime continued acting under this ideology of racism, and this is appreciable on events such as the “night of the broken glass”, in which Nazi forces destroyed Jewish shops, because they didn’t wanted them to participate on the Nazi economy. But the most important event was the declaration of “the final solution”. This was, sending as much Jewish as possible to concentration camps with only one purpose: massive extermination of people. One of the most remembered camps that where created with this end was the Auschwitz concentration camp, already mentioned at the beginning. People who unfairly was designated to being killed at a concentration camp like this one, should suffer a painful dead, inside a gas chamber. “Fatelessness” actually shows us the obligated evict to this camps, over the Jewish community. First, we appreciate Georg’s father departure, and after a few chapters, Georg’s departure. We can take a brief description of what the concentration camp he arrived was like: “They led us into a maze of gray buildings, ever farther inward, before we suddenly debouched onto a huge open space strewn with white gravel- some sort of barracks parade ground, as I saw it”.

This is the beginning of the real story. The presence of death, but more important, the struggle for survival. The consequences of this way of thinking were horrible: six million people were killed by the Nazi regime. Jewish people were lead to the main yard of the camp, for the first selection, where they separated Jews on two groups: the “useful” ones, and the rest. This last group, formed by women, children and older people, were sent to the “showers”, the name that guards gave to the gas chambers. This people died, hoping to have some water after an exhausting journey. The other ten percent who were selected, was sent to heavy work, after being marked with a number. This people (after a few months) were at the point of starvation, because of the poor conditions they were exposed at. This lead a lot of prisoners to death during work, or to commit suicide. When war was about to finish, and the German empire was falling down, authorities from the third Reich in charge of concentration camps forced prisoners that left to walk to nowhere, with the only objective of killing everyone left. This, to erase as much as possible evidences of massive murder, or genocide. Even though all this horrible events, people survived, maybe because of their will, or because of their strength, but under my point of view, it is the will for living. 

Chapter three: quotes

1-"he turned toward the gendarmes, ordering them, in a bellow that filled the entire square, to take the whole Jewish rabble off..." This, once again, shows us that the threat given by the ones who believed were better that Jewish, was awful. They, practically, were treated like trash.

2-"It said that we were to make our way to the higher authority". Under my point of view, this shows the belief of superiority from part of the Nazi regime. This event happened when they were moving Jews to concentration camps.

3-"we went on for a while longer, after which everything happened very quickly, unexpectedly..." As I apreciate, this quote  talks about how fast everything happened: They didn't even realised that they were being opressed by the Nazi forces.

7 pillars of Jewish life

Hanukkah , also known as the Festival of Lights, is an eight-day Jewish holiday commemorating the rededication of theHoly Temple (the Second Temple) in Jerusalem at the time of the Maccabean Revolt of the 2nd century BCE. Hanukkah is observed for eight nights and days, starting on the 25th day of Kislev according to the Hebrew calendar, which may occur at any time from late November to late December in the Gregorian calendar. Mezuzah is a piece of parchment (often contained in a decorative case) inscribed with specified Hebrew verses from the Torah (Deuteronomy 6:4-9 and 11:13-21). These verses comprise the Jewish prayer "Shema Yisrael", beginning with the phrase: "Hear, O Israel, the LORD our God, the LORD is One"

A mezuzah is affixed to the doorframe in Jewish homes to fulfill the mitzvah (Biblical commandment) to inscribe the words of the Shema "on the doorposts of your house"

Tefillin, also called phylacteries are a set of small black leather boxes containing scrolls of parchment inscribed with verses from the Torah, which are worn by observant Jews during weekday morning prayers. Although "tefillin" is technically the plural form (the singular being "tefillah"), it is loosely used as a singular as well. The hand-tefillin, or shel yad, is placed on the upper arm, and the strap wrapped around the arm, hand and fingers; while the head-tefillin, or shel rosh, is placed above the forehead. 

A shofar is an instrument made from the horn of a ram or other kosher animal. It was used in ancient Israel to announce the New Moon (Rosh Chodesh) and call people together. It was also blown on Rosh Hashanah, marking the beginning of the New Year, signifying both need to wake up to the call to repentance, and in connection with the portion read on the second day of Rosh Hashanah, the Binding of Isaac (Genesis, chapter 22) in which Abraham sacrifices a ram in place of his son, Isaac.

Kosher foods are those that conform to the regulations of kashrut (Jewish dietary law). Food that may be consumed according to halakha (Jewish law) is termed kosher in English, from the Ashkenazi pronunciation of the Hebrew term kashér , meaning "fit" (in this context, fit for consumption). Food that is not in accordance with Jewish law is called treif.

In Judaism, tzedakah refers to the religious obligation to do what is right and just, which Judaism emphasises are important parts of living a spiritual life. Maimonides says that, while the second highest form of tzedakah is to anonymously give donations to unknown recipients, the highest form is to give a gift, loan, or partnership that will result in the recipient supporting himself instead of living upon others. Unlike philanthropy or charity, which are completely voluntary, tzedakah is seen as a religious obligation, which must be performed regardless of financial standing, and must even be performed by poor people. Tzedakah is considered to be one of the three main acts that can annul a less than favorable heavenly decree.

Sabbath or a sabbath is generally a weekly day of rest or time of worship observed in Abrahamic religions and other practices. Many viewpoints and definitions have arisen over the millennia. The term has been used to describe a similar weekly observance in any of several other traditions; the new moon; any of seven annual festivals in Judaism and some Christian traditions; any of eight annual pagan festivals (usually "sabbat"); an annual secular holiday; and a year of rest in religious or secular usage, originally every seventh year.

Fatelessness: Chapter 2

• Author: Imre Kertesz
• Genre: Historical novel
• Setting: Budapest
• Historical context: Nazi regime, the holocaust.
• I believe the author wrote this piece to show us how was the moment Gerog was living without his father, and also to show Gerog's change from being a boy to a grown up.
• What the author wants to show us is that there is nothing bad in being different.

• Protagonist(s): Georg Koves
• Antagonist(s): Nazi Regime 
• Static Characters: Mr Sütó
• Dynamic Characters: Georg

• The author use specific literary devices on this chapter: an allusion, with the story of "the prince and the pauper"; a flashback, when he tells us how was his experience when he kissed Annemarie.
• The tone of the author is something like matter-of-fact, or straight-forward.
• This piece is told in first erson, because it is Georg the one who is telling the story. As I said before, we just need to read the first line to notice this: "I didn't go to school today".
• Some internal conflicts could be that he is changing from being a kid to an adult; confusing feelings about Annemarie.
• Some external conflicts could be his continuous struggle against his mother, or the fact that he is now being obligated to work.

Few literary terms

Alliteration: repetition of the same sound in a sequence of words.
Allusion: a brief reference to something specific.
climax: the point in the plot that creates the greatest intensity.
dennotation: dictionary definition of a word.
gothic: use of mysterious or old elements in literature.
hero: a character whose actions are inspiring.
hyperbole: boldy exaggerated statement.
setting: time and place of the story.
tone: the writer's attitude toward the story.
similie: direct comparison between two objects
personification: human attributes are given yo a non-human object.
Mood:general atmosphere created by the author's words

.....between others!

If you want to know more: http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/allam/general/glossary.htm

Fatelessness: Chapter 1!

Some analysis questions:

1. What characters are introduced in this chapter?
2. Choose two characters and select a quote to describe them physically or psychologically.
3. What is the narrative technique? Provide evidence
4. Describe the setting of this chapter

Answers:

1-Some characters introduced on this chapter are, of course the main character, Georg Koves, a 15 year old Jewish boy; Georg's Father, Stepmother and Mother; Mr. Suto, a friend and buisness partner of Georg's father; Uncles of Georg, including uncle Lajos; Annemarie, his neighbour.

2-Mr.Suto: "Yellowish, red light-spots were dancing like busting pustules all over his round, brownish-skinned features, with the pencil moustache and the tiny gap between his two broad, white front teeth."

Georg: "Being a big boy, now in my fifteen year..." 

3-At the beginning of the book we notice two things: it is writen in present tense, and also that it is a direct naration. an example of this is the first line:"I didn't go to school today". What we apreciate is that It is a first person narration, because is the main character the one who is talking to the reader. As we said, it is a direct narration, and also we notice a direct speech, I mean, the characters speek directly throughout the story. 

4- The story takes place in Hungary, but more specific, in Budapest. The Nazi forces are moving Jews to labor camps, And the ones from this community who are not going must wear a yellow star.

Some useful tips: Narrative techniques





On this post, I will give you a list of some useful narrative techniques that you can use when you are writting any piece of literary work.

Point of view : the one who tells the story. This means, the narrator of the story. It can be first, second or third person.

Narration : this is, who is the narrator speaking to. It can be direct, frame, or indirect narration.

Speech : How do the narrator and the characters of a story speak. This means, how the dialogue of characters is presented through the narrator. It can be direct, reported or free-indirect.

Tense : When did the events of a story happen or take place. This means, the specific time when events happened. The same as time, it can be past, present, or future.

Apart from this basic narrative techniques, we have some "optional" resources when writing a piece of work, such as the following ones:

Flashback: it is a moment of the story when you go back in time to tell an specific event. Most of the authors use this as a memorie of a character in the story.

Foreshadowing: it is when the author gives the reader clues or signs about what will happen. This clues can be obvious or subtle.

Third-person omniscient: it is the same than a third person narrative voice, but with the difference that with an omniscient voice the narrator is able to tell character thoughts and ideas.

Dual Narrative: it presents us the story but with different point of views, and is commonly used to give the reader more details about something specific from the story.

Related stories: Anne Frank!

Annelies "Anne" Marie Frank was born in 12 of June of 1929, and died in early March of 1945. She was one of the most discussed Jewish victims of the Holocaust. Her diary has been the basis for several plays and films. Born in the city of Frankfurt am Main in Weimar Germany, she lived most of her life in or near Amsterdam, in the Netherlands. Born a German national, Frank lost her citizenship in 1941 when Nazi Germany passed the anti-Semitic Nuremberg Laws. She gained international fame posthumously after her diary was published. It documents her experiences hiding during the German occupation of the Netherlands in World War II.

The Frank family moved from Germany to Amsterdam in 1933, the year the Nazis gained control over Germany. By the beginning of 1940, they were trapped in Amsterdam by the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands. As persecutions of the Jewish population increased in July 1942, the family went into hiding in the hidden rooms of Anne's father, Otto Frank's, office building. After two years, the group was betrayed and transported to concentration camps. Anne Frank and her sister, Margot, were eventually transferred to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they both died of typhus in March 1945.

Otto Frank, the only survivor of the family, returned to Amsterdam after the war to find that Anne's diary had been saved, and his efforts led to its publication in 1947. It was translated from its original Dutch and first published in English in 1952 as The Diary of a Young Girl. It has since been translated into many languages. The diary, which was given to Anne on her 13th birthday, chronicles her life from 12 June 1942 until 1 August 1944. Her diary is one of the most popular symbols of the holocaust, because it is a clear evidence of what this period did to Jews.

Imre Kertez: interview analysis

Since we are now starting with the novel "Fatelessness" by Imre kertez, it would be proper to listen and analyse an interview of him. The video is the following one:

The questions are the following ones: 

1. Before the interview, the presenter visits a monument to the Holocaust created by the American artist Peter Eiserman. Considering the shapes, architecture and general design, in what ways do you think he represents the reality in the concentration camps?

2. Which is the paradox the presenter mentions regarding Imre Kertész and the place where he lives?

3. Refer to antisemitism before and after Auschwitz according to Kertész.

4. In what way do reminders of the past in historical books make us "much richer"?

5. Which metaphor does Imre use to exemplify the effect of FATELESSNESS on its readers?

Answers:

1- It makes you feel vulnerable, and for me, it makes you feel trapped, because it is like a maze.

2-He mentions that he is now living in Germany, the country that once tried to kill him. The paradox comes when he also tells us that Imre feels free in Germany, even more than on Hungary.

3-Antisemitism before the holocaust was basically just words, they didn't know how it would be to act, following their ideals. There is some people now on days, antisemites, that want what happened during the holocaust; this is the antisemitism of the days we are living.

4-It means that we already know, or will know, about what happened, so, supposedly, we won't do it again. It somehow prepare us for what we may face in the future.

5-Not knowing about the holocaust is like a box on our souls, that, one day, will be released, and it will start doing what already happened.

Holocaust

Image analysis: Holocaust

On this post, I will be giving to you my own and personal analysis of a picture I chose, which I chose.

 

Observation:

On the image, we see a sad men, wearin old and spoiled clothes, and looking through a fence, with dead people behind.

Inferences:

Jewish pople on concentration camps, during the Wolrd War II, and torture and confinment on this prisions. Death turns into an everyday image, within the impossibility of scaping.

Questions

What is the meaning of the fence and the corpses in the image? What does the artist wants to tell us with this symbols?

Mood of the image

Sadness, hoplessness; freedom is impossible. There is no way of scaping an unfair death. The fence represents hopelessness, because it is avoiding you to get what must be yours: your freedom. The corpses mean the presence of death, as an inevitable end.

Already known information

The holocaust was one of the most sorrowful and horrible periods in mankind, because of the antisemitism that ended on series of murders, or genocides, developed by the nazi regime, under command of Adolf Hitler.

Men writing as women and women writing as men

The totle might sound sort of confusing, but is actually very simple. What I will talk about on this post is about men writing stories about female character, and the same but otherwise with female authors. Some male authors have famously succeeded, such as Gustave Flaubert in “Madame Bovary” and “Anna Karenina”, by Leon Tostoi.
The same happens with female authors, with novels such as George Eliot’s Daniel Deronda, Mary Shelley’s Victor Frankenstein and Edith Wharton’s Ethan Frome.

I believe that this style of writing brings more complications than benefits. Eventhough you are able to experience, and to change the way of thinking of your characters, I think that to write as the opposite gender means a problem because of the way different genders think: while the men is more superficial, the women is more interested in emotions and feelings. This is why I believe that most authors prefer to write as what they are.

On the movie, there is a particular, and under my point of view very well produced, scene, where we see french and british soldiers on a beach, and between them, is Robbie, who was fighting for the British army. This images are part of what we know as the "Dunkirk evacuation". But, what is this about?

The Dunkirk evacuation, commonly known as the Miracle of Dunkirk, code-named Operation Dynamo by the British, was the evacuation of allied soldiers from the beaches and harbour of Dunkirk, France, between 27 May and the early hours of 4 June 1940, because the British, French, and Belgian troops were cut off by the German army during the Battle of Dunkirk in the Second World War. The evacuation was ordered on 26 May. In a speech to the House of Commons, Winston Churchill called the events in France "a colossal military disaster", saying that "the whole root and core and brain of the British Army" had been stranded at Dunkirk and seemed about to perish or be captured. In his We shall fight on the beaches speech on 4 June, he hailed their rescue as a "miracle of deliverance".


From 28-31 May 1940, an event known as the Siege of Lille involved the remaining 40,000 men of the once-formidable French First Army in a delaying action against seven German divisions, including three armoured divisions, which were attempting to cut off and destroy the Allied armies at Dunkirk. According to Churchill, "These Frenchmen, under the gallant leadership of General Molinié, had for four critical days contained no less than seven German divisions which otherwise could have joined in the assaults on the Dunkirk perimeter. This was a splendid contribution to the escape of their more fortunate comrades of the BEF".

On the first day, only 7,011 men were evacuated, but by the ninth day, a total of 338,226 soldiers (198,229 British and 139,997 French) had been rescued by the hastily assembled fleet of 850 boats. Many of the troops were able to embark from the harbour's protective mole onto 42 British destroyers and other large ships, while others had to wade from the beaches toward the ships, waiting for hours to board, shoulder-deep in water. Others were ferried from the beaches to the larger ships, and thousands were carried back to Britain by the famous "little ships of Dunkirk", a flotilla of around 700 merchant marine boats, fishing boats, pleasure craft and Royal National Lifeboat Institution lifeboats—the smallest of which was the 14 ft 7 in (4.45 m) fishing boat Tamzine, now in the Imperial War Museum—whose civilian crews were called into service for the emergency. The "miracle of the little ships" remains a prominent folk memory in Britain.

Atonement: dunkirk evacuation!

Atonement: some analysis questions!

Following Jane Austen's novels, we are now on Ian McEwan's "Atonement". After watching some short clips from the film, I will now answer (as usual) some questions analysing characters and themes of these deep love strory.

1. What sort of social and cultural setting does the Tallis House create? What emotions and impulses are being acted upon or repressed by its inhabitants?


2. A passion for order, a lively imagination, and a desire for attention seem to be Briony's strongest traits. In what ways is she still a child? Is her narcissism - her inability to see things from any point of view but her own - unusual in a thirteen-year-old?


3. Why does Briony stick to her "version of the story" with such unwavering commitment? Does she act entirely in error in a situation she is not old enough to understand, or does she act, in part, on an impulse of malice, revenge, or self-importance?


4. As she grows older, Briony develops the empathy to realise what she has done to Cecilia and Robbie. How and why do you think she does this?

Answers:

1- We can clearly apreciate from what we see on the film that the well known as "Tallis house" is a huge country-side house, where people who live there are a wealthy family, part of the higher society. Under this circumstances we see the impossible love between Robbie and Cecilia, because of social differences.

2- She is in almost all aspects still  child. The best example of this is the lively imagination, as mentioned on the question. She actually creates stories about what she sees, because, under my point of view, she prefers not to believe in what reality shows her; she prefers to create her own versions of reality, and that is why she is such a good writer. Is in here where her naecissism takes places, because of what I just explained: she prefers her story, her own reality.

3- I believe that she sticks to her version because, as I said before, she doesn't like what reality shows, and, in this case, the love between Cecilia and Robbie. She was jealous, because she wasn't the centre of attention any more. This si the same thing that happens to children when they have a younger sister; it is a very childish behaviour. Maybe she did this because she thought that what she was doing was correct, this as the result of a mixture between imagination and reality.

4-Everybody grows up. This is what happened to Briony, who, now being a grown up, realises that what she had done practicaly destroyed Robbie and Cecilia's life together. She is no longer a narcissist, so she is now open to new ideas and point of views. She accpets reality as it is.

Jane Austen and women's emancipation

What this post will be about is basically some questions, about the already mentioned novel "Pride and prejudice", but more specifically, its relation with women's emancipation, as said in the title. The questions are the following ones:

1. What degrees of emancipation and/or conservative reinforcement of 18th-Century family values does Elizabeth Bennet's marriage to Mr. Darcy support?

2. What attitudes to marriage does 'Pride and Prejudice' convey? What other options did Elizabeth Bennet have?
3. How does the introduction made by Vivien Jones affect your reading and approach to the novel?
4. How could the social circumstances and contexts of 'Pride and Prejudice' apply to different cultures and contexts today?
Answers:
1-Emancipation in this case is showed by Elizabeth's attitude 
over this marriage. He wanted to live her life as a free person, just like men did.
2-As we already have been studying, women in that time where supossed to marry "their best choice", or in other words, a man who would be able to give her a wealthy life. The idea of the author is to show the opposite, that women can stand by themselves, with no need of an arranged marriage. Basically because it is written under a feminist point of view.

3- It tells you what the novel is about, the context, the themes that are covered, and somehow, it also shows you that what you are about to read is written under a feminist point of view.

4- As I mentioned it on a post before, everybody can feel identified with the problems that characters from the novel must encourage, because these ones are related with emotions and feelings that belong to humans.

Pride an prejudice: Questions related to context

Throughout this classes, we have been spending our time in watching trailers of different versions of Jane Austen's "Pride and prejudice", what I think it has been quite productive. This, because this novel is deeply related with the context, both of production and reception. That is why I am answering the following questions related with this:

1. Why do you think "Pride and Prejudice" continues to be a referent for modern tales? 

2. What do you think is the effect that these different authors (film directors, producers, modern writers) want to achieve in today's audiences?

3. If you had to choose one of the previous versions to analyse, which would be the one and why?

Answers:

1- Because it doesn't envolve themes specifically from that times, but more themes that are related with the human itself; human being's emotions and feeligns are not from a specific period of time, or as I said before, context.

2- I believe that author or producers want to make the audiece feel identify with the characters and their problems, becuse, as I said before, those are human's problems. I also believe that they would like the audiebce to take as an example some specific characters, because thew show a value that is worthy to be followed.

3- I thing it would be interesting to analyse the last and less classic novel, "Pride and prejudice and zombies", because it will implie the struggle for survival, a problem that mankind encourages everyday. Also, I believe that it would be more entertaining than the original one.

Writing techniques: PEE

When your plan is to explain or demostrate a thought of yours, the best way of doing this is usin the P.E.E structure or method. This technique is based on writing your point, then your evidence, and finishing with your explanation. Moreless, this is how it goes:

Point: it is your idea, your basic thought.
Evidence: it is the proof that you got, the backup that is going to defend your point.
Explanation: as the name of this step says, here you must explain your evidence, why you chose it, what is the relation between this one and your point, etc.

Once you are using P.E.E structure, you thoughts and ideas will be more clearly stated and also more convincing!

Boo Radley's Diary

• Dear diary, once again you are my only company, the one who I can talk to. The whole town is very agitated because of the Tom Robinson's case. I don't know why people attack in such an intense way poor Tom. I don't know him, but I had been told that he is a good man, not as the Ewells. They are bad people. I am sure they invented all these just because they don't like colored people. The Finch family is really having a bad time with this. People in the streets say bad things about the Finch's, specially when they are out in town. Jem and Scout must be very confused, because they know their father is doing the right thing to do, but people talk bad things about them because of this. I sometimes  think that black people are better than white people, because they don't leave other people aside jst bacause their skin color.

• Terrible things hapened today. It is very late, the judges had just deliberated about Tom Robinson: they find him guilty. My brother just came from there and told me. I must say that I am very disapinted but not surprised. I had hope in Atticus, and I know he did his best, but I knew that people would find Tom guilty, no matters what Atticus or anybody said. I don't know how Jem and Scout are taking this, but one thing I do know is that Bob Ewell is a mean person, and i know that I must watch the kids and protect them from this man.
• I'm confused, but I think I've done well. I always knew that Mr. Ewell was a threat, specially for the children,  because I know what kind of man is he, and I don't like men like him. It has alredy night time, and Scout and Jem haven't reached their home yet, so I feared for them. I was just in the kitchen making myself a sandwich when I decided to go and check for them. I walked to the Shortcut they always take, hiding behind the trees to avid being seen. Sudenly i heard screams and brunch sounds, so i decided to go and se what was happening. I knew it was abou the kids. When i arrived, I saw Mr. Ewell fighting Jem, But I didn't see Scout. So i helped Jem. What happened then wasn't my intention; simply hapened. All the way I walked i never noticed that i was carring the knife i used for my sandwich. I took Jem home as fast as I could. After a while, Scout reached the door. After that moment, i was finally relaxed because I knew they were safe.

"The help" movie: fun and reality

This great movie was seen by my class as an aditional content to what we have been learning from "To kill a mockingbird". This activity will talk you about some topics of the movie

1. In your own words, write what was meant by "separate but equal." How did people in Jackson, Mississippi - including the ladies of the Junior League in "The Help" - try to apply this principle?
It was an idea that reffered to the fact that coloured people are still people and deserve to be treated like that, but, because of the fact that they are coloured, they must be separated from white people. This is shown in the movie with the clear example aof the bathrooms: people builded special bathrooms only for black people, because they believed that black people carried dangerous infections and other kind of wrong thoughts.

2. Do a simple online research about Jim Crow Laws. Identify what outcomes - forced upon domestic workers - were present in "The Help".
The Jim Crow laws were state and local laws in the United States enacted between 1876 and 1965. They mandated de jure racial segregation in all public facilities in Southern states of the former Confederacy, with, starting in 1890, a "separate but equal" status for African Americans. The separation in practice led to conditions that tended to be inferior to those provided for white Americans, systematizing a number of economic, educational and social disadvantages. De jure segregation mainly applied to the Southern United States. Northern segregation was generally de facto, with patterns of segregation in housing enforced by covenants, bank lending practices, and job discrimination, including discriminatory union practices for decades. I thonk that a very graphic example of this showned in the movie was the special neighborhood for black people, were the housemaids of the movie lived.
Some examples of Jim Crow laws are the segregation of public schools, public places, and public transportation, and the segregation of restrooms, restaurants, and drinking fountains for whites and blacks. The U.S. military was also segregated.

3. Explore the themes in "The Help" and develop your ideas by continuing the following sentence:
"The maids in The Help took a risk by telling their stories. Even though they knew they could be shot to death in their front yards, they went ahead with the project. If people are not willing to take risks..."

What the maids of this movie did is the correct thing to do. You must always do what you want, although it implies a risk. You must fight for what you want and step over the obstacles, just as this African-american maids did, in order to show the world what they were fighting for.

"To kill a mockingbird" Part 2: More questions


Ch. 15
1. What is the Ku Klux Klan? What do you think of Atticus' comment about it?
2. How does Jem react when Atticus tells him to go home, and why?
3. What persuades the lynching-party to give up their attempt on Tom's life?


Ch. 16
4. What sort of person is Dolphus Raymond and what is your opinion of him?
5. How does Reverend Sykes help the children see and hear the trial? Is he correct in doing so?


Ch. 17
6. Choose three quotes from chapter 17. Explain the context of each, the characters involved, and their relevance for the story, themes and overall message of the novel.

Answers:

1-It is a group of people who discriminates almost everything that is not part of "the white culture". Atticus mentions that it is noting to worry about, that he doesn't fear about the KKK. Probably he is right, because they wouldn't attack an insignificant case from a town like this, but I do thing that it would be correct to be alert.

2-He doesn't follow this order, because he wants to protect his father from the mob that wants to attempt on Tom's life.

3-Scout, who talked to the father of Walter Cunningham in a very cordial way, eventhough he was there to kill Tom.

4-He is a white men that live with the coloured people, because he thinks that in most of the times, they are better than the white ones. I thing he is a very decided person, that, no matter what people would think about him, he would do what he wants.

5-He led them sit on the black people's balcony. I think it is, because, under my point of view, they have the right of watching his father doing such an honoured act.

6-"every town the size of Maycomb had families like the Ewells". In this quote, Scout is telling us that the Ewells are a very known family in town, also known as white garbage. This because they lived near the town garbage dump, and where very mean persons in general. "Mr Finch know you are here? This ain't fit for Miss Jean Louise or you boys either". This is said by reverend Sykes, as he saw the children in the courtsoom. This shows us that the reverend knew this was going to change the way the kids were used to see things. "Will you write your name and show use please". This is said by Atticus, who gives a clear evidence that was Mr. Ewell the one who hited Mayella and Not Tom.

 

Analysis Questions of chapters 12, 13 and 14

Ch. 12
1. Comment on Jem's and Scout's visit to First Purchase Church. What does Scout learn about how black people live?
2. Explain why Calpurnia speaks differently in the Finch household, and among her neighbours at church.


Ch. 13
3. Aunt Alexandra thinks Scout is "dull" (not clever). Why does she think this, and is she right?
4. How does Aunt Alexandra involve herself in Macomb's social life?
5. Comment on Aunt Alexandra's ideas about breeding and family, in contrast to Atticus' visions. Who's right, do you think? Why?


Ch. 14.
6. Comment on Atticus' definition of rape. How suitable is this definition as an answer to Scout?

Answers:

1- They were welcomed in a very cheerful way, saying it somehow, because although they were black people, they were happy to had them there. It is now that they notice that coloured people carried a very poor way of life, full of dangers and unjustices.

2-Because she was able to spoke a much more formal english than other black people. and she didn't wanted to offend other coloured persons by using it.

3-Because she is not the way she would like her to be. She didn't dress like a girl, or acted like one. It is because of this that Aunt Alexandra thought that she didn't understand society.

4-She liked to talk and meet a lot of people, and talk to them about her family.

5-She thaught that a family should be gided by its traditions, while Atticus thaught that someone should be like he wanted to be. I think that Atticus is right, because he allows his children to be the way they wanted to be and think what they wanted to think.

6-He describes it in a very complicated way, so that Scout would understand that it was a bad thing, but not what exactly was.  I think that the right thing to do in this situation was to explain her what it was, because sooner or later she was supossed to know.

Essay task: To kill a mockingbird

As I has been posting before, we are reading at class the book by Harper Lee's "To kill a mockingbird". Our first task to develop with this book was an essay of the first part of this one. I chose, to inspire myself in building my thesis, a question that said:  

What impact does setting have on your understanding of the central ideas or themes presented in Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird"?" 

Under this stated question, I fromulated my thesis, that after a few attempts, stated the following: "the setting presented in the story help us to understand the ideas of  H.Lee, by developing a contrast between this ones and the thoughts and ideas of 1920's society" I also added that this ideas of the author were expressed in the story by some characters, such as Scout, Atticus, or Jem. I think this was a really constructive activity that helped us to develop our critical thinking as active readers. I really enjoyed, although it implied a lot of writing.

TKM Part 1 Analysis


1. What is the reason for the author's choice of a young narrator?
2. How does Jem and Scout's views of Boo Radley change during part 1 of the book?
3. Atticus tells the children several times that they need to walk in someone else's shoes before judging the person. Describe times when Atticus, Scout or Jem walk in someone else's shoes. How does this change how they view the situations? What role does this advice play in sympathy and compassion?
4. How do you think Atticus managed his role as a single parent?
5. Discuss race issues in part 1 of the book.
6. From your reading of part 1, What does To Kill a Mockingbird teach us about how people cope with issues of race and class? Do you classify people in your world as different "folks?" Do you see those sort of distinctions today?
7. Who is your favorite character from part 1 and why?

Answers:

1- The whole idea of a young narrator is basically because she tells and describes everything she see through her eyes; I mean, with innocence. This, under my point of view, is used by the author to show us the bad things as incomprehensive acts, just as Scout, that, because she didn't knew the "real world", she wasn't able to understand this mean acts.

2- First they think that he is a very creepy man, almost a monster or a ghost, and that is why they attempted so much to get him out of the house. Then, they noticed that he was aperson, just like them, that was just apart from society. An event that changed their minds was the "folded pants".

3- A clear case for me is when Jem invites Walter Cunningham for lunch, because he didn't had money for one, and his education was not to borrow something he didn't have. He accepted the offer and ate a lot at Finch's house. Jem didn't make any trouble about this, because he felt compassion for Walter, and knew that he didn't had money for lunch, neither today or tomorrow.

4-He really did it well. he taught their children very well, not to discriminate, and to understand and respect others, just as he did.

5-This part of the book shows us a lot of racism situations, specially at the end. The other children from school bothered Jem and Scout becaus Atticus was deffending  a "negroe" who suposelly commited a rape. We already know about racism in the US by this time, as I showed you in one of my previous entries.

6-What we can learn from the ideas expressed by H.Lee through this part 1 of the nobel is that eventhough a big amount of people is racist, this is a bad acting way, it is not the correct thing to do. I think that we are all humans and we deserve the same rights, no matter who we are, or our skin color. Unfortunatelly, racism is still exixting in the world, but less than in that times.

7-I think it is Scout, because he is not afraid of telling what he feels, although she knows that a lot of people is going to think bad things about her. Her childish innocense leave us a very important lesson on good and bad things.

To kill a Mockingbird: First chapter!

1. What do you learn in this chapter about Maycomb, Atticus Finch and his family?
2. Describe Calpurnia as Scout depicts her in Chapter 1.
3. What does Dill dare Jem to do?
4. The townspeople of Maycomb have some fears and superstitions about the Radley place. Describe these fears and superstitions.
5. How important is bravery to Jem?
6. What do you notice about the narrative voice and viewpoint of the story?

Answers:

1- It is a small southern town, very poor because of the great depression maybe, and also very old. Atticus Finch was the father of Jean Louise Finch (Scout) and Jeremy Atticus Finch (Jem). Their mother died few years ago, so they are basicaly Atticus family. There is also Calpurnia, their housekeeper.

2- Scout desbribes her as an african american woman, skinny but huge hands, and sometimes very though tough with Scout.

3- To knock on Radley place's door, in order to take Boo Radley out of the house.

4- People in town believed that the Radley Place was cursed, that Arthur "Boo" Radley was somwthing similar of a ghost because nobody ever saw him; the door of that house was always closed since they catched Arthur involbed in something like a gang.

5- It's one of the most important things for him because of mainly one reasons: he was the older brother of Scout, so he felt that he needed to show her that he was able to protect her.

6- Everything is told by Scout, who, as a child, shows a very innocent perpective of everything she is able to see, even bad things.