TKAM Blog Post #5

 
Chapters 18-29
( Choice C )


So far I think that this book has to do with a lot things. I think that part of it does have to do with class. Aunt Alexander shows this when she treats the Cunninghams different because they are a lower class then them. They are very poor so Aunt Alexander thinks that it is okay to treat them different which I think it is not. I don't think you should treat someone different just because they don't have as much money as you do. I think that it shouldn't make a difference. People in this book are treated differently because of how much money they have so I do think this book has a a lot to do with class.

I also think that a huge part of this book is race. They don't treat black people the same as white people in this book. They white people treat black people very bad just because of their race. For example when Atticus was defending Tom Robinson a black man in trial a lot of people had hatred towards him because he was white defending a black man. They would say hes not any better than the trash he is working for and stuff like that. I think Atticus was made the right decision and decided to just keep doing the trial and not listen to everybody else. It show that Atticus isn't racist and doesn't care who he defends. He is going to defend them the same way he always does.

Another way that this book shows a lot of racism in it is during the trial. Atticus lost the case and Tom Robinson was guilty just because he was black and he was accused for raping a white women. The jury was all white so they obviously took the side of the white women Mayella. In the trial Tom Robinson was clearly innocent and everyone knew it but they didn't care because he was black. Now Tom Robinson has to go to jail for a long time for no reason. It's not fair but nobody will do anything about it and try to fight back because he is black. This shows how racism was a big part of this book and I think it is wrong. There a lot of big subjects this book is about but the biggest one I think is racism. All lot of the events in this book happen because of racism and it shows how bad things used to be.

TKAM Blog Post #4

Journal Entry
Aunt Alexanders perspective
( Chapters 13-15 )


I decided that I should talk to Atticus and discuss staying with him and the kids for a while. They needed a female influence especially Scout. She was getting older and needed to start to learn how to act more like a lady instead of one of the boys. She needed a women to be their with her when she started changing and needs a good female influence around the house. Right now all she has is Calpurnia and since I'm going to be there I think Atticus should fire Calpurnia but he thinks otherwise. I just think that she doesn't need to be there anymore because I am there and I can take care of all the house work now. But Atticus really likes Caplurnia and feels like the kids are really close to her and she is like a part of their family since she has been with them for so long. I disagree. I also feel like there is a lot more stuff Atticus is lacking on in telling the kids like having him tell them about their ancestors and everything. They need Atticus to be a stronger male influence in order to have things work more smoothly and hes got to learn. I hope I can really help him out during the time that I'm here. 

One night a little boy named Dill had came over to our house because he ran away from home. Atticus asked me if he could sleepover for a couple nights and I said it was fine. He had no where to stay and we couldn't do anything about it at the moment so it was ok. Apparently hes a friend of Jem and Scout that had moved away and couldn't visit anymore so he suck away. His parents obviously aren't paying enough attention to him and should really do something about it. They can't give a child a bunch of gifts to make up for spending time with him. It's just not a good influence. When Dill gets back home I hope they realize they aren't being good parents and change for Dills sake.

Atticus is also working on a trial that is coming up soon and I just don't think he should be doing it. It is a disgrace to our family and I've told him so. He doesn't think so and is still working on it. He doesn't think that its that big of a deal. But I do and we have been arguing about it lately. He just doesn't get it. Defending a nigger in a trial isn't a good idea and kind of risky. Who knows what people will think about him and its not a very good role model for the kids. I dont think that he should do the tiral and should drop out. Hopefully I can get some sense into him before it's too late.

TKAM Blog Post #3

Journal Entry
Atticus Perspective
( Chapters 10-12 )




Today while Calpurnia was watching the kids at the house a mad dog appeard. She immediatly called me and I rushed over as fast as I could so they weren't in peril for too long. When I got there the mad dog was still there roaming around. I went and got my shot gun and then came back outside. I was cantankerous about having to shoot the dog but I had to do it in order for us to be safe. I haven't shot anything in a long time. You know they used to call me "one shot Atticus." I aimed the shotgun towards the dog and slowly pulled the trigger. The next thing I new the mad dog was dead. I was happy I still had my skills but still sad because I had to shoot the dog. But oh well it was for the best. I made sure that Jem and Scout didn't go over there until someone got the dog. It was still just as dangerous dead than alive. It was obviously a sick ill dog so who knows what type of diseases it was carrying. I'm glad we got to it when we did.

Later Jem was getting into all sorts of trouble with Mrs. Dubose an old sick lady that always shouts to the kids when they pass. I told Jem to be a gentlemen and go over there and talk to her so he did. Apparently she made a rude comment about me being not as good as the negros I work with. But it doesn't bother me. I know I am making the right decision and I don't care what other people think.I new I would have to deal with people not accepting my choice in taking a negros side for a case and not very pleased so I just let all the rude remarks go. So I did but Jem wasn't too happy about it. He went over to her yard and destroyed all of her bushes. It was not a good decision and wasn't the right way to handle it the situation. So for his punishment he has to go to her house and read to her every day for a month. Scout is nice enough to go with him and keep him company while he is there. After his punishment I decided to tell him a little more about Mrs. Dubose and who she is. I told him that she was a drug addict and that reading was a successful effort to help her addiction. I then gave Jem a box that Mrs. Dubose left for her maid to give to Jem. Inside it was a single white cameilla. I'm not quiet sure what the gift meant but it probably meant something to Jem.

I then had to leave the kids everyday for two weeks to go to the capital of the state for legislation. I was a little worried to leave them alone but I had new Calpurnia could handle them alone. She was used to them and new exactly what to do. Everything was fine. While I was preoccupied with my work I was informed that Calpurnia took the Jem and Scout to a colored church on Sunday since they couldn't go to ours. The kids said it was a little awkward at first because everybody wasn't used to seeing two white children in the church but everybody seemed to be fine with it except this one women Lula but everything turned out fine I guess. They said that they enjoyed it but it was a little different from our church. Instead of everybody singing together they would echo one person standing at the front reading out of a hymnal book. It was pretty interesting to hear about. I had also heard that once they had got home from church Aunt Alexander was waiting for them. Well I don't really know much about that right now so I guess I will go talk to the kids right now and find out.

TKAM Blog Post #2

Journal Entry
Jem's Perspective 
(chapters 4-9 )


Lately Scout is being really annoying and acting like a total girl. I don't even want to hang out with her right now. I just hang out with Dill and try to ignore her so I don't get even madder. I really like hanging out with Dill we have a lot of fun playing games and talking about Boo Radley. But then Atticus got mad at us because we were playing a game that I guess was making fun of Boo Radley so we had to stop.We decided to obeyed Atticus so that we wouldn't get into anymore trouble.

We obeyed him until Dills last day in Maycomb when we decided to sneak over to the Radleys house and creep around the house a little peering in windows. It was really scary. When we were over there we saw a shadow so we started running away because we didn't want to get caught. But when we started running away we heard a shotgun go off behind us. Dill and I got really scared so we started running faster. We had to crawl under a fence to get back home and I was in such a rush they got caught on the fence and came right off. I was in too much of a hurry and scared to go back and get them so I just had to leave them there. I had to run all the way home in my underwear. It was pretty embarrassing.

When I got home I had to make up an excuse to Atticus about why I didn't have my pants. He seemed to believe it. I had found out later from Atticus that they think Mr. Radley shot a negro in his back yard. That was probably the sound we heard when we were running away from the Radleys house. Later that night I snuck out of the house to get my pants that had got caught on the fence earlier. When Scout asked about when I snuck out and got my pants I told her I found them folded and neatly hung up on the fence to freak her out a little and she was. 

TKAM Blog Post #1

 Journal Entry:   
Scouts Perspective  (Chapter 2)

Today was me and Jems first day of school. Jem said he would take me to school and Atticus told me that Jem would be delighted to show me where my class room was so he did. When we came near the schoolyard Jem told me that during school hours I was not aloud to bother him, Approach him with requests to enact a chapter of Tarzan and the Ant Men, to embarrass him with references to his private life, or tag along behind him at recess and noon. I had to stay with the first grade and he would stay with the fifth. I was to leave him alone.

When I got to class I met my teacher Miss Caroline Fisher who I don't think liked me that much. During the morning she hit my hand with a ruler and made me stand in the corner until lunch. Miss Caroline also made me read the alphabet, most of my first grade reader, and the stock-market quotations from The Mobile Register aloud. She told me to tell Atticus to stop teaching me to read and that she could do it on her own. She didn't want it to interfere with my reading. But I told her nobody's been teaching me to read and that Jem thinks I was just born reading. Miss Caroline thought I was lying and still insisted to tell Atticus to stop teaching me to read so I guess I just had to go along with it. Later I told Jem about what happened and he told me Miss Caroline was starting a new teaching thing she learned in college and not to worry about it. Miss Caroline then caught me writing today when I was trying to write a letter to Dill. She told me to tell Atticus to stop teaching me to write to, which is Calpurnias fault.

Later on before lunch time Miss Caroline asked to see everybodys lunch and when she got to Walter Cunninghams she noticed he didn't have a lunch. I then had to explain to her how Walter is a Cunningham and none of the Cunninghams take anything that they can't pay back. I had asked Atticus before if we were poor and he said yes. Jem and I got kinda worried. Jem then asked him if we were as poor as the cunninghams and he said no. It made me feel a little better but I don't want to be poor. Atticus told me and Jem more about the Cunninghams and how they got so poor and their backround. I wish I new all that when I had to explain things to Miss Caroline. It would have been a lot easier for her to understand and it would have saved myself from some inconvenience. But oh well it was beyond my ability to explain things as well as Atticus does. So I just told Miss Caroline she was shamin him and everything then moved on.

I got in quit a bit of trouble today with her. She kept on gettin mad at me for my behavior. She even wiped my hand with a ruler and told me to go stand in the corner. It wasn't a good way to start off the day. Hopefully it will go better tomorrow.

Novel Partner Post #3

NAME: Bailey Baker                 DATE: 2-18-11

TITLE: Pretty Little Liars        TIME: ?               HOURS: 2

AUTHOR: Sara Shepard           PAGES: 141-215

TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK 74 START FINISH

There are four main characters in this book Aria, Emily, Spencer, and Hanna. They are the four girls who were best friends with there old friend Allison who had been murdered. I think another main character other than these four girls could be Allison even though she is dead. I think Allison is another main character because she was best friends with these girls and throughout the book she is mentioned and the four girls reconnect because of text messages they have been getting from someone named A and that might be her. But how? Even though the book doesn't talk about her that much she is still a huge part of the book because nobody knows who killed her and eventually they will try to find out who it was. She is important to the story because she gives the story mystery and holds all the secrets of her old four best friends. If she wasn't in the book then it would be boring and would just talk about these girls lives and there wouldn't be a point.


This book always makes me wonder about who -A is and if the girls will ever reconnect and become friends again. I'm always wondering who A is because these girls are getting text messages from an unknown caller named -A and they don't know who it's from. -A always seems to know stuff about them that nobody else does and it's starting to freak them out a little. I'm also wonder about if the girls will become friends again because they are all getting text messages from the same person (-A) and I wonder if that will bring them back together to become friends.


One thing I would change in this book is at the beginning of each chapter the author should put the date of that day in the book as well as the chapter title because this book gets confusing about what day it is because each chapter is always changing characters. By telling the reader what day it is the reader could look back at each chapter and see if all of this stuff happened it the same day just in different character perspective or different days. By doing this I think it would help the reader understand the book more and whats going on.

Novel Partners Post #2

NAME: Bailey Baker            DATE: 2-11-11

TITLE: Pretty Little Liars    TIME: ?             HOURS: 2

AUTHOR: Sara Shepard       PAGES: 75-122

TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK  66  START FINISH

An exciting event that just happened in this book so far is that all four of the girls (Spencer, Hanna, Maya, Aria) got a text messenge/email from an unknown caller -A. The text messages/emails are about things only they know about and are know worried someone has been watching them and knows stuff about them that they shouldn't know about. They are worried that the secrets they hold might get out by this unknown person and are going to do anything so that they wont. They all are starting to get really worried someone might have saw them and are getting kind of paranoid because of it. They now always look around them before they do something so that they know for sure no one is watching them. If someone really does know about what happened they are going to be in big trouble and will have to do some hard things so no one finds out.

In this book one of the characters Hanna steels a braclet and earrings from Tiffanys. I think that she shouldn't have done that because it's steeling and she could get in a lot of trouble for it. It's wrong to steel and she shouldn't have. She should of just paid for it if she really wanted it or just not have gotten it if it was too expensive. Later on a police did take her to the police station because Tiffanys caught her on tap so she had to lie to get out of it. If she didn't take it in the first place she wounldn't have had to be in that position and lie. It was also a bad idea because when her and her friend were at a resturant and they saw the police man that arrested her just out with some friends hanna had to ducked under the table so that he wouldn't see her. Hannas friend then started talking about him and was going to invite him to a party because he was around there age but hanna tried to convince her not to go over and talk to him. Her friend still wanted to so Hanna had to tell her about what happend with the police which she didn't want to do and had to lie about it a little so she wouldn't seem un-cool. If she didn't steel in the first place she wouldn't have to tell her friend about what happened and lie a little about it so she would seem lame or anything.

This book can get confusing at times because each chapter talkes about one of the four girls (main characters) and changes to a different girl each chapter. It can get confusing sometimes because you have to make sure you know who the author is talking about and what day it is and everything because sometimes there could be like four chapters for just one day but in each perspective of each girl. You have to really pay attention to what your reading and stay foucused of the book when reading it so you dont get lost. You also have to remember what happend with each girl before so you have a better understanding of whats going on. The more you know and remember about what happend to each girl in each chapter the easier it is to understand when the book goes back to that girl and talks about her more. This book can get confusing but if you pay attention to what your reading and understand it you will be fine and really enjoy it.