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.

Harper Lee: life and times

We are by this time in class reading the book "to kill a mockingbird" by Harper Lee. As I have mentioned before in my entries, there are two main contexts, and today I am going to show you a few information about Harper Lee's history and experiences.



Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28, 1926, in Monroeville, Alabama, a sleepy small town similar in many ways to Maycomb, the setting of To Kill a Mockingbird. Like Atticus Finch, the father of Scout, the narrator and protagonist of To Kill a Mockingbird, Lee’s father was a lawyer. Among Lee’s childhood friends was the future novelist and essayist Truman Capote, from whom she drew inspiration for the character Dill. These personal details notwithstanding, Lee maintains that To Kill a Mockingbird was intended to portray not her own childhood home but rather a nonspecific Southern town. “People are people anywhere you put them,” she declared in a 1961 interview.


Yet the book’s setting and characters are not the only aspects of the story shaped by events that occurred during Lee’s childhood. In 1931, when Lee was five, nine young black men were accused of raping two white women near Scottsboro, Alabama. After a series of lengthy, highly publicized, and often bitter trials, five of the nine men were sentenced to long prison terms. Many prominent lawyers and other American citizens saw the sentences as spurious and motivated only by racial prejudice. It was also suspected that the women who had accused the men were lying, and in appeal after appeal, their claims became more dubious. There can be little doubt that the Scottsboro Case, as the trials of the nine men came to be called, served as a seed for the trial that stands at the heart of Lee’s novel.

Lee began To Kill a Mockingbird in the mid-1950s, after moving to New York to become a writer. She completed the novel in 1957 and published it, with revisions, in 1960, just before the peak of the American civil rights movement.

Critical response to To Kill a Mockingbird was mixed: a number of critics found the narrative voice of a nine-year-old girl unconvincing and called the novel overly moralistic. Nevertheless, in the racially charged atmosphere of the early 1960s, the book became an enormous popular success, winning the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and selling over fifteen million copies. Two years after the book’s publication, an Academy Award–winning film version of the novel, starring Gregory Peck as Atticus Finch, was produced. Meanwhile, the author herself had retreated from the public eye: she avoided interviews, declined to write the screenplay for the film version, and published only a few short pieces after 1961. To Kill a Mockingbird remains her sole published novel. Lee eventually returned to Monroeville and continues to live there.

As we can see here, a lot of things presented in her nobel are based on what he lived. Other things that involved her childhood were the economic crisis, called the great depression, that affected almost all the United States, having as a resault a lot of poorness and bad life conditions for the ones with no money. She also lived the segregation of african american people. As an example of this: Jim Crow laws; the thaught "separate but equal", between other things involved in racism in US. This are the experiences that helped

 H. Lee in the development of the story she called "to kill a mockingbird".

More interesting facts:

Some information about context!

First, I am going to give you a short definition of context, taken from www.dictionary.com, that says:

• The parts of a written or spoken statement that precede orfollow a specific word or passage, usually influencing itsmeaning or effect: You have misinterpreted my remarkbecause you took it out of context.
• The set of circumstances or facts that surround a particularevent, situation, etc.

We can distinguish to different types of context: context of reception and context of production. The second one alludes to de sircumstances, historycal facts that surrounded the author by the time the book was written. The first one alludes to the background that the reader is living, bay the time he reads the book.

To explain this in a more graphic way, I think it would be proper to mention some examples. The most common contexts of produccion are war, poorness, racism. Although, it can be anythink that the author experienced through his life that has useful for him as an inspiration for writing the book.

Some questions about "the leopard" and "Notable american women"

This questions were stated by me, after the reading of extracts from both texts, presented in page 272 and 273 from our Course Companion book. 

First, the questions for "The leopard":


Why does the author gives such a detailed description of the setting ?
Why he uses mythology characters and features ?
 Why in his description he makes this paintings seem like they are alive?

Questions for "Notable american women":

What does "father of distinction" means in THIS text ?
Why does the author mention himself in the text ?
About the question before, why the narrator mentions the capacity of the author to change everything in the text ?

Gender ads activity!

Throughout this classes, we have been learning about de diferences between genders in general, specially the way they use language. This is the reason why we did this activity. We were said to do two ads, one for woean, and the other for men. My partner, Joaquin rodriguez, and I, did this advertisings about a new axe deodorant made for men, and a new HP notebook, designed and made for women. I reallu enjoyed this activity, because we learned through practice and aplication how is the language used dependin on if the one who is speaking is male or female.