letter from the color purple

In the beginning of the story i got a sense that the letter was going to feel angry. The woman writing it sounded disappointed the way her life was and was blaming God for this problem that she had. Her anger, caused by disappointment, lead way for the rest of the letter to be the same way, yet it wasn't. The person that the Celie was talking to changed her views on God. She got her to realize that God was really a good man who looked out for her best interests. The mood of the story changes from angry to peaceful through this other character explaining to Celie why she shouldn't hate God. Her views towards her the evil people in her life, such as her husband, still remain the same, but she comes into realization that these problems were not caused by God. She sees now that God doesn’t want these things to happen just as much as she does, but now she realizes that some things in her life, he just can’t fix.

Da vid... again

I really just feel annoyed, as said in the other blog, mostly because it’s so hard choosing a side in this situation. It’s just terrible that race was involved in this accident because if it wasn’t people still would’ve have been pissed but at least this war wouldn’t have started between the two groups of people. It’s apparent that people would’ve reacted in a terrible way towards the killer, but if he were black killing a black person the race wouldn’t go against itself. I like what one of the last characters said about how Hispanics don’t try to kill people, whites don’t try to kill people, blacks don’t try and kill people and so on. It’s completely true though when you think about it. What that Jewish man did was an accident; he didn’t intentionally try to kill this man. I think that Anna Deacere Smith was trying to show was how hard it is to choose a side when you listen to both of them. Throughout the movie my ideas on what happened changed because of the character’s views bringing up new points. I think what she’s trying to tell everyone is that it’s impossible to choose a side because there really isn’t enough information. Each side doesn’t understand each other enough to feel what they’re feeling. Since they feel the other side doesn’t understand them they try and force them to by reacting the way that they do. All I think she’s trying to do is show you that this whole war between the Jewish people and Black people is just pointless.

da vid

Currently between the Jewish people and the Black people I can’t seem to choose a group. The blacks are acting in extremes, which they really shouldn’t without giving time to think of it. A Jewish man crashes his car and right after he gets out of the car he gets beat up. At least give the man some time to get better! If they would’ve allowed him this maybe the Jewish van would’ve picked up the black child in need. It’s also annoying me hearing that the Jewish man could’ve been drunk. If this were true I honestly wouldn’t blame them for trying to kill him. Someone being so selfish as to drive drunk and risk the lives of others is just wrong. If you think about this though, the black community shouldn’t blame the Jewish community for this because it’s basically one man’s actions. If a black man killed a black man there wouldn’t be this controversy. Sure they would’ve hated this man for taking a life, but maybe then would they have seen the logic in not blaming an entire community for one man’s actions. In a way you can’t blame their reactions though. They feel that they’re still not accepted and that what happened would have no consequence so they reacted harshly trying to take matters into their own hands. What they should’ve done was wait it out and then if nothing’s happening take action! They can’t let people take over them and should react in someway to show this.

Malcolm X

Malcolm X is certainly an opposite of Martin Luther King. Both of these people wanted freedom but went about it in different ways. Martin Luther King was more peaceful in his approach saying that it is possible for us to live together if we just try. He didn’t want to go any further than telling the whites that they should try accepting the blacks for a change. Malcolm X had a more violent approach to giving blacks their rights. Instead of trying to get us to live together in peace, Malcolm was more concerned about getting rid of the whites, which used to seem like what the whites wanted to do to the blacks. Malcolm seemed to think of the whites as the enemy, more of a bowser in a game of Mario. Malcolm thought that the only way to get what they wanted was to defeat bowser instead of talking to him and trying to gain peace. He thought of blacks as superior beings compared to the whites and that they needed to take force and show who is the bigger man between the two. His views are that whoever fights harder is the one who ends up on top rather than trying to gain peace from the enemy like the way Martin Luther was going about it.

Sonny's Blues

It's interesting how the author related Sonny's addiction to the music that he played. The author noticed that when Sonny played the piano, he always had an emotion on his face. What the author got from this was that playing the piano was Sonny's way of channeling his problems. It was through music that he channeled this as apposed to drugs. Drugs were always his way to deal with the problems but instead of bottling them up and using drugs to make them go away, the author sees Sonny now using music to express the problems. Sonny can play out his problems through the blues, which is mainly what the blues are about. Blues are a way to express all of your bottled up emotions through music. All that Sonny needed to do was unbottle his emotions, though in the beginning he didn't there was an easy way to express them without actually talking about the problems. With the blues, you can describe the emotion of the problems without directly saying what the problems are, which makes it a lot easier to express these said problems.

ethics

I think that the way that I act is mostly affected by the people I'm around. I remember reading "The Social Me" in Mr. Priest's class last year that dealt with this kind of idea. Ever since i read that piece, the ideas have stuck out in my head as the only way to explain my actions towards people. When I'm around people that are higher up than me, such as a teacher or adult, I tend to, believe it or not, not talk as much. I think things through because I know they have more power over me. Around friends and family I'm more open and say whatever is on my mind. I feel that no matter what I say the person I'm talking to won't put me into a place I don't want to be in. Around people like cops or other authority members that I'm not completely fond of is when I'm at my worst. My body shuts down and for some reason I stutter. Being around these people puts me into a terrible state where I can't think because I know that whatever I say has to be perfect or I'm screwed. What the short writing said was true, no matter how hard we try to not act to best suit the people we're around, we'd still be acting like we don't care. This way of showing how I react to people is odd but seems to be best explanation of why I act the way that I act around people

english freakin b

What does a school mean?
Does it mean waking up at 6:37 sharp, lying down for 5 more minutes, and coming to your senses and making your way to the shower?
Does it mean driving to school with all the slow traffic and worthless school zones that make life almost unbearable?
Maybe school means getting to the last class and realizing you have to run at least 3 miles after; out in the cold; and maybe the rain.
Possibly ohhh possibly, maybe school is getting in your car right after running and sticking to the seats while you try and cool the car that's been cooking up since the beginning of the day.
School is all of these to me.
but once it does end you realize that home is the place you can finally get to, a place that has the perfect temperature where you don't stick to the seats, where you go and take a long nap to makeup for the terrible morning, where you do your homework but mainly live off of ichat.
Home can never be like school.

hughes and mckay

An obvious fact about both of the poets is that they both compare the white and black races to each other. Another item of business that both authors felt they needed to address was what life was like back in Africa and how it compares to here. Though they both discuss these things, they go about it a different way. Claude Mckay uses sonnets to convey his message to the people in order to show a sense of high class. Sonnets are the same form of writing Shakespeare did, which is why that type of writing was looked upon so highly. Langston Hughes didn’t really stick to form of writing and didn’t really focus on making sure it rhymed or not. Both of the authors both had different messages in addition to the difference in how they conveyed their messages. Mckay talked about how the black race was basically better than the white race. The black race can do all of the things that the white people do but they choose not to; they choose to be the better people because they feel that fighting back would just continue a horrible cycle. Langston, on the other hand, said that blacks and whites trying to live together at all is just a lost cause. He thinks that it’s worthless trying to force these two races to live together when clearly both of the races hate each other. He feels sort of the same way DuBois felt about the African Americans. Both DuBois and Hughes felt that the blacks should just start a new community because the two races will never be able to live together in harmony.

Booker T. Washington

Booker T. Washington wrote, “The Atlanta Exposition Address” in order to help the slaves decide on whether it was best to stay where they are in the south, or seek better respect and freedom from the north. It seems that Washington was leaning towards the slaves staying in the south, even though the north would sound like a much better place to be in. The south may have a lot more racism, but there are just so many jobs in the south that the slaves would need to stay there for the south to survive. This seems to be the main reason as to why Washington would want the slaves to stay down there. Without them, the entire south economy would fall and the slaves would probably be the ones blamed for this. In the north, the slaves would have more opportunities and rights though the economy there may too fall if they all rush towards it. There are only so many jobs in the north and too many slaves migrating there would destroy what the north already has going for it. Washington is thinking more about he future and he knows that in time the south will become like north. The slaves just need to “offer up their buckets” to the people in the south and in time they will fill the buckets with everything the newly freed slaves would need.

Venture and Equiano

There were many differences and similarities in the stories about the two slaves, Venture Smith and Equiano. The main difference between the two would be the way each of then told their stories. Venture Smith sort of skipped over most of the bad things in his life and just focused on what life was like as a free man. He told stories of how he found his family and had to pay to get them. This was greatly different than the way that Equiano told his story. Equiano used just about every detail he could to show the reader just how horrible it was that a person would ever have to be put through what he got put through. As discussed earlier, a reason for this was probably because of who was telling each story. Equiano’s story was told by himself, which means that everything that he wants to convey he can make sure first hand that it’s added to his piece. Venture Smith on the other hand could not read and write. This means that his story was told by him but transcribed by what was probably a white man. The only reason that this could be a bad thing was that Venture Smith was trying to tell a story of how bad the white men treated him and the other slaves. If a white man if writing this story, chances are that he’s going to skip over the bad things that Venture would talk about and only talk about the parts that didn’t involve the white men. This is exactly how Venture’s story came out because he basically skipped over how horrible the boat ride was and most of the details on his kidnapping but kept in great detail everything that happened post slavery. In Equiano’s story, he talks about how horrible everything was using every detail he can to get the message across. His message was aimed at the white people who did this to him, which is probably why his message was more explicit. The endings of the two stories also differ greatly. In Venture’s story, he sets out and tries to buy his family back out of slavery and also some other slaves along the way. In Equiano’s story, we get the ending of him trying to abolish slavery all together. It seems as though Equiano’s has more value to it only because he just wants everyone to be equal, while Venture Smith is sort of buying into slavery when you think about it. He’s basically paying for people’s freedom, while Equiano is saying that people should just be free and that they shouldn’t have to buy their freedom from people.

Each of these three pieces of writing used forms of writing and ideas that some of the other pieces we’ve read have. One thing that really stuck out for me was the use of repetition in each of the writings. Just like in previous writings, two of these songs used repetition to make sure that the point of the song was showed. The repetition gave the main idea more meaning and made the message stick with the reader. Another thing that one of the songs, We Shall Overcome, did was convey the message of hope and freedom, just like some of the other pieces we’ve read. We read a couple of pieces that talked about how the people believed that some day they will be free and all that they have to do is keep believing that someday that will happen. This is exactly what this song did and its main message was that someday we shall all be free. The song Strange Fruit did a great job of comparing the hanging of black people to fruit on trees. What the author seemed to do was created a hidden meaning that said that the way that black people are being treated is just like how we treat fruit, but in a much worse way. This song compared to a couple of writings we read that used metaphors to show the message they wanted to tell. One last thing that the poem Ain’t Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me ‘Round did was telling the message that nothing should keep you down. It was saying that no matter what may get in the way you should always keep marching, which is what most of the pieces we’ve read discussed

John Henry Comparison

I would have to say that there is little that is similar between the pieces Ballards and the other two songs by NAS. Ballards was more of a story with hope in the beginning that John would beat the white man in a race. The beginning gave a somewhat sense of happiness (or at least happier than the NAS songs). In the end however John beats him but still ends up dead. The tragic ending is the only connection I could really make between the two pieces of writing. Nas created songs about what a hard life it is and what surrounds them. There is some sense of hope in the songs because some of them discuss how things are really bad, but they could be a lot worse. Nas also made you feel like the “main character” in the songs was basically on their own. The character didn’t have anyone supporting them or cheering them on through the hardships that he or she faced. Ballards on the other hand made the reader feel as if they weren’t alone and that people were there to support them and do anything. It seems as if NAS is trying to show us how hard life is when you’re living on the streets with bums outside of where you sleep. I felt that Ballards was trying to tell the story of what happened to John, but didn’t try to show us what a hard life he had. The piece did however end on John beating the white man but still dying, sadly due to his own actions.

Shakespeare lines 80 through 115

In the beginning, Marcellus is wondering why guarding the land has become so strict and why cannons and other implements of war are made in foreign places. He also wonders why the shipbuilders are working so hard that they don’t even have Sundays off. Horatio replies to Marcellus saying that the king that they just saw as a ghost was a rival with the king Fortinbras of Norway who challenged him to a battle. The battle was won only because of the courageous hero Hamlet. The lands that Fortinbras used to own now belonged to Hamlet. Fortinbras’ son hired people to fight back and recover the land that his father had lost. Those were the reasons, according to Haratio, as to why the guards were so strictly posted recently. Barnardo then chimes in confirming what Horatio said seemed right and that is also explained why the king was haunting them when he did.

FEED

Feed is a story about a futuristic community that has chips implanted in the backs of their heads, which sends them information. This information can be anything from taking them to a place, to ads, to telling them what they should do and buy. The book’s two main characters are Titus and Violet. Titus had his chip implanted in him when he was born but Violet didn’t have hers implanted until she was 7 years old. Not having it implanted until she was 7 caused her to develop more social skills and let gave her the opportunity to learn in School (Trademark). Since Titus had his implanted when he was young, he doesn’t have as much social skills and can’t think for himself as much as Violet can. Violet did end up dying at the end because of her feed being added at such a late stage in her life however. I personally did not like the story because of the way it was written, but the book did get me to think about how technology affects our community and what life could be like in future years. I started thinking back to what it might’ve been like living a hundreds of years ago. How weird life must’ve been having no phones, Internet, or even gps systems. I’m sure that it must’ve been crazy not being able to call someone when you needed to contact him or her. Even when they had phones it still must’ve been hard without cell phones. The world of technology has come to far to make our lives convenient so maybe having these feeds in our heads will be something good. People in the past may have thought that having telephones would be the weirdest things, but we treat it as the characters treat their feeds. Feeds are a lot more different than telephones though. I would never want to get a feed put in. Thinking that people would be forced to receive information about hotels and their prices is just weird. It’s as if the feed is telling these people how to live. Telephones never force us to have banners and say what we should do. I honestly don’t think that feeds will ever be created but the book did a really good job of making it seem like something that could happen any day. It’s impossible for a company to be given the rights to implant a system that tells people basically how to think. The fact that this device interacts with the human brain is enough I think for the government not to allow this to be used. The device could malfunction like it did in Violet’s case. It’s very doubtful that people would ever consent to this, but who knows maybe in the future it will become a common thing just like cell phones. People used to be suspicious of getting cell phones because of the fear that they would cause cancer but now just about everyone owns a cell phone.

Black In America

I thought that the Black In America documentary really helped me get closer to understanding how the problems of racism in America are affecting people. I never thought that racism was this much of a problem anymore but I guess that it still is. The fact that only 3% of management jobs were given to African Americans really surprised and bothered me. It never really comes to my mind that black skin could be a deal breaker for getting a job. I do understand that the amount of African American graduates is a pretty low number but I didn’t think that it was low enough to cause the amount of African American managers to be as low as 3 %.
Another statistic that really bothered me was the one about the amount of African Americans that will grow up with no father. This statistic doesn’t deal with racism but is still a big problem that needs to be fixed. It’s hard believing that 60% of African American children will grow up with no father. The father that was in the video seemed like he didn’t care about his child at all. I didn’t feel bad for him at all I more felt anger towards him for acting the way he was. He showed no care at all towards his child and you could tell that he didn’t. The way that he responded to the reporter made it seem like he wasn’t even bothering listening to her. It just frustrated me how someone could just abandoned two human beings like that and only go into their lives when they feel like it. It’s hard to even imagine what growing up like that would be like; thinking that your own father left because of your birth.
60% of African American high school dropouts was another fact that disturbed me. I can’t believe that that number could be so high because not all dropouts are going to end up being criminals. The fact that the video brought up about African Americans being suspected of doing crimes does seem to explain part of why that number would be so high. I don’t think that that many cops go through the trouble of planting evidence on African Americans just because they don’t like their skin color. The video did make another point that explains why the number of dropouts is so high. The media is depicting African Americans in a negative way whether it be through music videos or the news. It was surprising seeing that the news would rather do a story on an African American doing one crime rather a Caucasian doing the same exact crime.

LAST DAYS OF SUMMER

Although the novel “Last Days Of Summer” has been styled in a different way than normal books, it still made sense and got the point over. I liked the way it was organized because while I was reading each conversation I felt as if I were one of the characters in the book. It was sort of like I was Joey when reading Charlie’s letters and that I was Charlie when reading Joey’s letters. When reading I really didn’t feel like I was reading a book but more looking back at the conversations that I had had. At times it was good but it sometimes got confusing like when an event happened. This was harder to follow because you weren’t at the event; you only had what Joey and Charlie had said about the event so you had to piece it together to form the image that the author was trying to portray. This was confusing but after reading for a while you got the picture. This happened to me during the one part in the story where Charlie went to visit Joey. The story just jumped from them talking about hanging out to them talking about how they had already hung out. After a couple of pages you got the gist of what happened but everything was told in order of importance to them instead of the order that it had happened that night. As the book went on you got used to putting all of the stories together though. The conversations that Joey had with his psychiatrist were also told in a different way than the traditional novels. Their conversations were more like reading a play. The author did do good job though in making you feel as if you were Joey talking to the psychiatrist. The way that the novel was told kind of reflected who Joey was as a person. Joey was this unique kid that was different from everyone else; just as this novel’s form of writing was different than traditional novels.
The beginning of the novel was very confusing. It starts out with random facts about people that you don’t really get to know until the books starts to come together. The author doesn’t really tell you who is writing or why he’s writing. He even had Joey at the psychiatrist with the reader having hardly any idea why he is there. It is in this meeting though in which we learn that Joey is not the typical kid. He is this smart-alecky boy who knows a lot more than people would expect for someone his age. As the book goes on you see Joey progress into more of an adult and you see him start to control himself and learn important life lessons. Some of the things that Joey does doesn’t seem like it has any importance at all but later in the book he’s usually right about it. For example, the downstairs neighbor that Joey and his friend thought was a Nazi really turned out to be one. To the reader it looked like something funny that the two of them were doing but it actually turned out to be something legit.

Tragedies

It seems that people initially react to a tragedy with fear. People also feel they need to be with people they know or even just people to make them feel as if they're not the only ones that will go through this. After the tragedy it seems that people either mourn or try to resolve the damage that has happened. Every tragedy it handled different it seems. 9/11 and Katrina were both assisted with by the government and volunteers. The earthquake in San Francisco, however, didn't get assistance immediately. San Francisco didn't have the technology that we did and couldn't get the rest of the world to know about it as fast. The government did later help but it was mostly the people that were responsible for handling the tragedy and trying to rebuild the city.