Fences

Some questions to think about from Act 2, Scene 1....:

-Why does Rose want to build the fence? Does this symbolize something?

-Had Rose been suspicious up until that point that Troy had been cheating on her or did it completely catch her by surprise?

-Considering the "reasoning/explanation" Troy gave Rose on why he cheated, is it all right that Troy cheated or not?

-Troy justified his actions using baseball terms. Is this the only way the situation makes sense in his mind? Does it mean something?

Their Eyes Were Watching God (Chs. 4, 5, & 6)

Ch 4: Logan claims that Janie is spoiled and forces her to do manual labor. One day, she meets a handsome man named Joe Starks. They start flirting and hitting it off. They meet secretly and Janie starts to really fall for Joe (Jody). Janie ends up leaving Logan and marrying Jody.

Ch 5: Jody and Janie move to Florida and Jody opens a store. Because he opened a successful store and thus is named Mayor. Janie is asked to make a speech,but Jody thinks that wives shouldn't make speeches, so he won't allow it. Janie is very hurt by this, but does not say anything.

Ch. 6: Jody and Janie are still working at the store; however, they are having more and more problems. First, they buy a mule and when he dies Jody will not let Janie attend the funeral. He said it's "improper" for a woman like her to attend. Janie later accuses Jody of being "no fun" to which Jody responds that he is "just being responsible." Janie doesn't say anything in reply here, but before Jody had made Janie wear a head-rag, this way people will not look at Janie as much. Janie says nothing to these comments until she finally stands up for women to the men on the porch making fun of Tony Robbin's wife. Janie finally can't take it anymore and speaks her mind by telling these guys that they don't know anything about women. Jody is extremely embarrassed by her and tells her to be quiet.

Questions:

1) What is more appealing about Jody than Logan in Janie's mind?

2) Why is Jody so controlling?

3) Does Janie not do the right thing of not standing up for herself and what she believes in until the end?

Black Boy - Chapter 4

In chapter 4 the main idea that Richard struggles with is religion. Growing up in a religious family, which includes his Aunt Addie being a schoolteacher at a religious school, he often is the outcast when it comes to his feelings about religion. The whole family, especially Richard's grandmother, believe that Richard has a problem and needs to have religious help. Therefore, during a revival, Granny uses this as her last chance to sell Richard on the idea of religion. Richard believes that the concept of religion is nice and at times he listens to what has to be said in church (pg. 112). However, he is much more interested in the church elder's wife than the words of God (pg. 113). Whenever Richard leaves the church he often thinks outside that what they are saying may sound nice, but cannot be true at all. On his last attempt to please Granny he tells her, "if I ever saw an angel like Jacob did, then I'd believe" (pg. 117). Granny unfortunately misunderstands him and thinks that he had said that he'd seen an angel. She gets excited and tells that elder. Richard then embarrasses her by calling her out on her misunderstanding and thus forcing him to promise to pray every day, even though he does not believe in praying.

Because he know has prayer hour, Richard ends up using this time to write a story about an Indian girl. This is the first time in Black Boy that Richard talks about him writing for fun, possibly as an insight on how he began to start writing.

Beauty

The Handsomest Drowned Man in the World by Gabriel Garcia Marquez is a story about a handsome man's body that washes up in a village. The man in found under some seaweed and everyone is in awe of his beauty. The women flock to the body and tend to it, imagining what the man would have been like if he were alive. Because he is good-looking, they imagine that he was a great villager. They get him dressed up for his funeral and become attached to him. The men of the village become upset because their wives are obsessing over this dead man. However, once they see his beauty, they become enthralled by him as well. Both the men and women of the village work together to give this handsome man that they never knew a proper burial. 

Why is the village so obsessed with this man? Are they looking for something they don't have? 

Is it right that the villagers automatically assumed that he was a wonderful and great man based on his looks?

What message is this story telling us about beauty?

Role Play

            Chapter 14 is a new beginning for Okonko and his family because he has been cast out from his clan due to the death of the 16-year old boy. He has an extremely hard time adjusting to life as it is described his transition is “like beginning life anew, without the vigor and enthusiasm of youth, like learning to become left-handed in old age.” (131) and “like a fish onto a dry, sandy beach, panting” (131). He once had a great passion for work and to become one of the lords in the clan; however, his dreams have now been shattered.

            Also, the issue of how children react to theirs mothers and fathers is brought up. It is said that, “Nneka (Mother is Supreme)” is one of the most common names given to children, but it is said that the man is the head of the family and the child belongs to his or her father and the father’s family. A man also belongs to his fatherland and not his motherland. On the contrary, “when a father beats his child, it seeks sympathy in its mother’s hut.” (134) Children will always find refuge in their mothers. Does this mean that the role of a mother or father is more important or do both roles have the same amount of importance? The role of fathers seems to get a lot of credit for shaping their children, but does the role of mothers? 

One Day In The Life...

Ring. Ring. Ring. The sound on Amy’s alarm clock went off several times before she finally had the willpower to get up and turn it off. Just like every day, she the looked in the mirror. “Ohhh no!” she thought as she decided to take a shower to try to at least appear semi-decent.

After her rejuvenating shower, Amy headed to a warm bowl of oatmeal already waiting for her on the breakfast table. Amy looked at the time realizing that if she didn’t leave the house in 5 minutes she would be late for first period for the 9^th time this year. She was basically best friends with the Dean of Students at her school because tardiness was a major problem for her.

Scrambling to make sure she had everything, Amy darted to her car where she then sped to school. Running she barely made it to first period. She tried her hardest to stay awake, but in all honesty biology was not one of her interests. She couldn’t wait for second period when she would be able to escape to the beautiful world of French. She loved French because she could imagine herself living in France one day.

After French, Amy’s classes were a blur until finally it was lunch. She sat at her usual table with her friends as they went over the day’s events…who had hung out with whom over the weekend, who was being mean, who was being oddly nice, etc. Amy hardly concentrated on her lunch because the conversation became extremely intense and interesting.

Amy had the conversation in the back of her mind all day. She had history after lunch and her teacher, Mr. Black, decided to get really into the Battle of Saratoga today and acted it out. This really got Amy’s attention and she actually took very detailed notes on this topic. After history, Amy sat through her math and English class before finally the bell rung. The ending bell was probably Amy’s favorite sound in the world…well besides the music she liked blaring every day in her car.

Soccer was after school for Amy, so after talking and saying goodbye to some of her friends she hopped into her car and drove to practice. Her coach did not seem to be in a good mood and Amy suspected it was because of her team’s poor performance last weekend in the tournament. She wasn’t sure why, but everyone had just completely fallen apart. Amy thought her team needed a leader and she was going to do everything in her power to make sure this happened. She had arrived early to practice and would stay late. She would try to motivate the other girls and set the best example possible. Amy was so full of life and energy today that she felt excited and pumped up. Today was definitely going to be a good practice….she could just feel it.

After her 3-hour practice, Amy felt exhausted, but accomplished. She had impressed her coach and had hopefully impressed her teammates. Her team’s next game was Saturday and she really really wanted to win!

Amy cruised to her house for dinner (her favorite…pasta with meatballs!) where she conversed with her family about the day’s happenings and her weekend plans. After this she went to nonchalantly do her homework and finally around midnight it was time for bed. She had to go to bed earlier than midnight otherwise her 6 am start would be too much for her! (585)

The Suit I Sport

If someone were to give me the choice of removing one flaw, multiple flaws or no flaws what would I choose? Is my definition of a “flaw” the same or different as the person sitting next to me? Spiderman by Jim Hall really got me thinking about all of these questions. I definitely know what my biggest “weakness” is, but is it necessarily a flaw?

If I could change something about myself it would be the fact that I hold grudges like none other. I absolutely hate this about myself! Whether someone did something small or something huge I will never ever forget it. And even if I “forgive” a person or “forget about it,” there’s always something in the back of my mind that is reminded of what happened and can’t let it go. That is the phrase that my friends always tell me that I need to do. “Let go.” I understand what my friends are trying to make me do by stating this seemingly simple sentence – they want me to move on and get over whatever has happened to me. They want me to pretend like it never happened and they want me to live life happily acting like I was never hurt or even cared.

But I have a problem…I just can’t do that! If someone hurts me badly the pain can’t just go away and even if I try to “let go” and forget about it the pain and hurt is still there. So what can I do?

Too many times in my life have I wished that I could “let go” and pretend like something didn’t affect me at all. Unfortunately, I also wear my heart on my sleeve so whatever emotion I am feeling deep down on the inside, everyone around me knows because I wear the exact same emotion on the outside of me.

I know the reason why I hold these grudges is because when I really care about people I go all out and I really care about them. I try my absolute hardest to go all out and cater to their needs and make sure that I’m a good friend. Therefore, whenever I am betrayed by someone I get super offended and upset because in my head I don’t feel like I would’ve done the same thing to them.

That, by no means whatsoever, means that I am the perfect child. I have definitely made my fair share of mistakes in my life far too many times. I have personally benefited from my friends not holding as big of grudges I do or else I’m not even sure if I would be friends with some of the people I’m friends with today.

So this must make me a hypocrite…I act one way and expect something different from others. I have tried my hardest to act differently, but at the end of the day I’m all right with the fact that I hold grudges. It is a part of who I am as a person and I can’t do anything about it. I just have to learn from both my own and other people’s mistakes and hopefully in the future they won’t happen again.

If someone were to ask me what would I do if I could have my “fwame wesistent” suit be different than it is now I’m not even sure if I’d change it now. I have always been this way so I am pretty used to it. Also, if I were to get rid of it, would that take the caring part of my personality away? I wouldn’t want that. So maybe I would change my suit and instead make myself more compassionate and understanding when people make mistakes…that way I could build on the caring aspect of the suit I already have on. (639)