To Kill A Mockingbird - Setting

Jack, and Delano. Main Street of Greensboro, Alabama. 1931. Farm Security Administration - Office of War Information Photograph Collection (Library of Congress), Greensboro. 

          In the book To Kill A Mockingbird, the book focuses on a certain town called Maycomb in where the characters live. The picture that I chose makes me think of the town Maycomb, because of its description in the book. In the book, on page 5, it states that "People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of stores around it, took their time about anything." I think this quote supports the picture because there is people walking down the street, probably looking for the things they needed to buy. 

          Something I noticed in this picture, was the people in the picture. When I looked at this picture, several questions came to mind. I wondered if maybe this photo was taken on a weekday or on the weekend, seeing as there is many people walking around in the stores. I also wondered what that African American man was going out to do, was he picking up supplies so he could continue working? Or maybe he had to pick up a certain object, type of food, etc. for his family. One of the last things I had observed was how there wasn't too many people in the picture, but there were rows and rows of cars. 

Theme Blog - Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry

- Life is unfair

- Stand up for yourself

- protect the ones you love

- Segregation is unfair/ Racism is unfair

             These are some of many possible themes in the book Roll Of Thunder Hear My Cry. The most important one, or the one that really stood out to me being "Segregation is unfair". I chose this because the story revolves of a family right after slavery was abolished, but there where many signs of segregation still happening. The story talks about the hard ships of this poor family, because of the depression which was happening at the time. Adding in the segregation between whites and African Americans made it even harder to go about a happy life.

            In the story, there are so many different examples of Segregation, and how it affects the Logan's Family (The main family in the book). For example, in page 98 Mama had said, "The Wallaces did that, children. They poured kerosene over Mr. Berry and his nephews and lit them afire." The Wallaces, are an evil family that run a store in which many people purchased their farming supplies. They had set Mr. Berry on fire only because he had been accused of looking at other women while he was married, which he never did.

            Another example would be in chapter five, when Big Ma had taken Cassie, TJ and Stacey to Strawberry (a town). As Cassie was returning back to the wagon, she accidently bumped into Lillian, a white girl who hated Cassie more then anything. Cassie had already apologized but Lillian wanted Cassie to get on the street, when she refused Lillian's father shoved Cassie to the ground and demanded she apologized. When she was forced to apologize, she did, but went crying afterwards back to the wagon. Big Ma, the person who forced her was scared of what would happen to them if she didn't apologize, since they where African American and he was white, which could of meant severe punishment for disrespecting a white, or a higher class.

First Quarter Blog Reflection

          During the first quarter I have already learned many things. One of the things I learned being how to be a better organizer. Especially in books, I learned from my social studies teacher how, when I pick up my book I can set a specific amount of pages I want to read, or to the next chapter. This helps me be organized and to be time efficient because sometimes I would stay up late reading, so this helps me get more sleep. In order for me to be more active in school.

          In Mrs. Larson's class I've also, as always been learning more vocabulary. Which in term makes me more smarter and it makes my option of words to chose from more open. For example, a vocabulary word we had last week was "Incredulous", in a sentence before I had learned this word, I would have put "The man is skeptical," now that I have learned the word, I can say "The man is incredulous." This is one of many examples, based off of the new vocab words I have learned from just this quarter.

          In my 40 book challenge goal, I'm not that far. I've only read about four to five books just this quarter. I'm a bit of a procrastinator when it comes to homework, so I end up doing it late at night which doesn't give me time at all to usually read. However I try to catch up on weekends by reading all day on, for example Saturday or Friday night. I'm honestly trying to do my homework faster, so I can read, because I love reading very much.

Blog for 10/16/15 Thirteen Reasons Why

• What special way did the author write (for example, flashbacks, told in first

person, multiple voice narrative, foreshadowing, lost descriptive words that

create visual images in your mind, etc.)? Did that make reading it better or

worse? Explain.

* How does the way the characters act affect the theme of the story? Explain. 

          One of the main writing styles in the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is that when ever the main character, Hannah Baker is talking she italicizes her words. She does this because the book is about the main character, Hannah suiciding and leaving 13 tapes, one side for each person that "causes" her death because of this she italicizes her writing to show that it's her talking or the tapes talking. An example for this is in the book on page 166 it said, "So Zach, How many notes did you take?". The author does this every time Hannah is talking (which is almost the entire portion of the book).

          Another main writing styles in the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher is that when Clay, the other main character is talking, its in a regular font, which makes it easier to read the book. For example, in the book on page 166 it said, "I glance over my shoulder. Tony's still there, chewing a french fry and pumping ketchup on a hamburger." You can tell the difference between italics and regular font, which in my opinion makes it easier to tell whos talking. I think that the author specifically made it like that to try and help readers understand how to read it without getting confused, so they can understand the actual main topic (which is about the 13 people/reasons why Hannah suicide).

          The entire story revolves around how all these "sub characters" act towards the main character. As to why she committed suicide. These people that have been put in the tapes have all done something to her, maybe not knowing it, that pushed her ever so closer into ending her life. One of the main characters, is the one that currently has the 13 tapes, (each person has to hear all of the tapes before sending it off to the next person.) Which is how these characters affected the theme of the story, by doing all these little acts that made the theme of this story what it was. Which was that little things can affect a person in ways you don't know, so always try to be kind.

"Home is Where the Heart is" ~ A OBAA Poem

I must leave now. 
My community, my people, 
my family, my wealth, 
the status that I have earned
 through decades of service 
I leave all of this 
behind. 
I go to join the millions the refugees 
in Sudan

Would you go to paradise 
If it meant 
knowing 
no one? 

Would you give up
everything
You had ever
known? 

Please Remember
your country
Remember us
Your people

We entered a plane, 
First from Khartoum
Then Athens
And from there, 
Amerikha 
And there
A New Life 

When we arrived,
My father had told us
Tewolda and Salamawi,
Get your shoes on. 
We need to Adventure 
Outside
In our new home 

OBAA and AOW Comparison

            In the article "Holocaust survivors demand Israel help refugees" and the book Of Beetles and Angels have many connections between individuals. A connection in specific, Avital Collete, a main part from the article said she had remembered when she was "spending years hiding, afraid for her life". This connects to the book because it had said that Mawi had to leave his home as a refugee as well. This also connects both the article and the book by both of them still being kids when they had to leave (or hide) as refugees.

            In the article "Holocaust survivors demand Israel help refugees" and the book Of Beetles and Angels have many connections between its events. In the article it said that Avital Collete was "Being forced from her home by Nazi soldiers...". This connects to the book because Mawi also was forced out of his home because of the war, and then had left to America. I know this because in the book it says "Then we entered a plane and took off from Khartoum. Next stop, Athens. The Amerikha, and then there, a new life."

           War affects individuals and societies because it causes harm to both of them. It causes danger and harm to individuals because wars don't miss civilians, if they are caught in a shoot out, they will probably die. Also it affects them because it makes individuals and societies move to refugee camps, just to get away from the danger. For example in the book it says "Trace walking to the house's white exterior, laying her hands on it for a few moments, feeling its heartbeat - feeling her own heart beat - then kissing it, knowing that she might never see it again." For them, the war was about to hit their town and forced them to seek safety at a refugee camp. As for in my article, it says "... being forced from her home by Nazi soldiers and spending years hiding, afraid for her life." This meant that she had to flee and go into hiding because of Germany, when they where at war and wanted to kill all of the Jews.

Parents waving goodbye at a Kinder-transport train. Parents that where Jews and that had kids would send their kids away from Germany so they wouldn't be captured.

Summer Reading Project ~ The Secret Identity Of Devon Delaney Blog 2

What have you learned about life from what you’re reading?
Describe your most favorite character and explain why.
Describe your least favorite character and explain why.

          When reading The Secret Identity Of Devon Delaney I learned that in life its not good to lie. Also that a simple lie can escalate into many other lies resulting in people getting hurt. As what happened in Devon's case when she first lied to Lexi about being popular and dating Jared. The lies grow bigger as the story progresses and you can see the effects it has on Devon. From mini panic attacks to always looking behind her shoulder It made Devon a lot more stressed then she had to be in the first place.

          I would say my favorite character would be Mel or Melissa (Devon's best friend). I say this because she was so understanding when Devon couldn't hang out with her all the time from being with the popular group twenty four seven. She would help Devon out when she got to stressed and needed help, or just wanted to make her feel better by the rare times they got to hang out. I also liked how she would always meet Devon at the library for lunch so they could talk and get out all of her worries.

          I would say my least favorite character would be Kim (One of the popular girls). I say this because of the way she treats not only her so called "friends" (Lexi and Devon), but also just general people in their school. For example, Lexi had a crush on a guy from their school, and Kim ended up stealing him away from her just because she wanted to show who was the "boss" or "queen" of the school. She also threatened Devon when she had found out about all the lies, to not go near Luke (One of the popular guys) or she would tell them all. For the whole book she acted mean and selfish.