Job 1-2

QUESTIONS: 

What can we learn about humanity?

We can learn that people seem to blame others for their mistakes. They always want someone to blame it on. Jobs wife wanted him to curse God and blame him for his unjust actions. We also learn that people have a fear of offending God. He was always worrying about whether or not his children have offended God so he sacrifices lambs everyday for them.  Also, after having his children and wealth taken away form him, he immediately prays for forgiveness in worry that he might have offended God in some way.

What can we learn about God?

We learn that God sometimes seems unjust. He gave the devil the right to manipulate his favorite servant. He allowed Satan to destroy Jobs life by taking away his family and wealth. God seemed to have given this approval unfairly seeing as Job hadn’t done anything wrong. It seems that God may have done this for egotistic reasons. So what if Satan had planned that God would allow the destruction of his favorite servant. What if Satan manipulated God into letting him destroy Job? We don’t really learn much about that, but we get a thought in our head questioning who is in control.

What can we learn about relationships?

We can learn that some people have very close relationships with people, but we can’t tell until it comes to a breaking point. For example, when God allows all the destruction of Job we see a close knit relationship because Job denies what everyone, including his wife, is saying and continues to worship God. We may have not realized the closeness of the relationship between God and Job until now. We also see an interesting thing between Job and his wife that questions the relationship they have between each other. When everything is lost she tells him to “Curse God and die.” Why would anyone want a person that they have a close relationship with to die? I don’t think that was a good relationship and we wouldn’t really know what type of relationship they had until that breaking point. So you have to be careful who you trust.

What can we learn about Job and his family?

We lean that Job seems in a way disconnected from his family. Job’s wife wants him to die when things get bad. Job doesn’t even seem to mind that much when his children die. However, he did sacrifice his own sheep in order to try to protect his children from Gods disapproval but this is more of an act with the intention of pleasing God.  I think he has a closer relationship with God than he does his family. 

Thoughts?

Everyday people, teenagers in specific, are exposed to peer pressure. Many fail to reject the things that they are put up against because of fear. Whether it is in fear of losing the “friend” or the fear of being teased, they fear something and subject themselves to the things they should know are wrong.

The problem is they don’t take the time to think, or when they do their thinking lacks ethical reasoning. Teenagers act differently around certain friends in order to fit in. They even become rude to friends in order to impress other people who find it amusing. Even though they lose friends in the process, thereby ruining the initial plan of trying to become cooler, they think there is nothing wrong with it and do it because it’s what is expected and wanted out of them. Teenagers also get into drugs, alcohol, and sex because of the same type of fear. They are told by peers that it is relaxing and fun, and naturally teenagers are ready to try new things. They are even more for it if it will make them the slightest bit more popular even if it does hurt them. The motto “no pain no gain” shows a new meaning to them. I have witnessed and, sadly, been a part of these mindless followings and cruel leadings that control and change young souls into malicious beings that hurt people and themselves for the approval of others, but there is still hope.

There are people that have the courage and honor to stand up and think for themselves and realize what they are doing is wrong and realize that there lives will go on with or without the friends and with or without the teasing. People should just think about what they would want to do regardless of anything else except their thoughts and feelings and then decide what they really would like to do.

Trial Reflections

The entire trial was quite an intersting experince. There were many things throughout the trial that I enjoyed. I liked how real it felt and the feeling of accomplishment after the trial was over and the verdict was given. I liked when the people doing the characters really got into what they were saying and who they were, they made me feel like they were actually the character. I also liked the intensity of the open debates, hearing what other people had to say and seeing who could think on there feet when things were thrown at them was aslo intreging. There wasn’t much, if anything, that i didnt like. I thought it was a good experince. 

Homework for Feb 15 (the day after Feb 14(duh))

Homework:   Compare and Contrast Tom and Mayella. Use specific examples from the book to support your answer and draw a conclusion in your third paragraph answering this question clearly: Are Tom and Mayella more alike than the people of Maycomb would like to think or are they as far apart as the perceived gap between whites and blacks in 1930’s Maycomb?

            Tom Robinson and Mayella Ewell are more alike than the people of Maycomb would most likely like to think. They are both in a way stuck. Tom is black and will not be able to do a lot of things and will be discriminated against for the most part of his life. He won’t be able to get a good education, get a good job, and he won’t ever be thought of as an equal; he will be treated as trash. Mayella is on the same page as Tom as far as inequality. She can’t fit in with white people either. She is considered trash also because of who her family is, as does Tom. They both also in a way get abused. Mayella gets abused by her father both verbally and physically and Tom gets abused by society. So they may be different colors but they are more alike than Maycomb thinks that they are.       

     Then again, Tom and Mayella are quite different. Tom is black. Even with Mayella not being white she is still not black, therefore she is of higher standards than Tom. Mayella is treated kindly to her face by the white people whereas Tom is treated like trash everywhere he goes and to his face. Mayella also has a very different perception on people along with a totally different personality than Tom. Mayella thinks people are always mocking her because of her family. She has a very uncouth manner towards people. Tom on the other hand is a very kind and courteous person even when he is being treated very unfairly and unkindly. For those reasons, Tom and Mayella are diverse.        

  In conclusion, Tom and Mayella are very much alike with lots of differences. They are both exiles in Maycomb, though they can’t be exiles together. Even though they cannot be together, they know that they are alike; brining them closer than maycomb would like to admit and allow. Even with the fact of them being different colors they are still both different from everyone else.

TKM:Goodness of humanity or unrealistic portrayal?

In the book Scout saves her father from a potential lynching. This, to me, is realistic. Scout is eight going on nine, not eight going on 16. I think that she can not yet realize the truth of bad in the world. She hasn’t exactly been exposed to the harsh reality of the cruel world. Atticus it trying to keep it that way too, though the exposing Scout to the real world is inevitable he is trying to prolong it. For example Scout had heard about rape and asked Atticus about it. he replied with it is “carnal knowledge of a female by force and without consent”. This is not how you would describe something to a younger child and actually have them comprehend.  So I think she is being guarded of the bad things in the world so she wouldn’t recognize a bad thing if she walked right into it.Also I think it fits in Scouts character to have walked into a middle of a potential lynching and be unaware because of the earlier events. I think Scout thought that it would be the same group as earlier that came to her house. Since she wasn’t apart of it last time I think she was trying to be apart of it this time. Once she got there and saw Mr. Cunningham I think she knew something was different but that they were still there friends. I don’t think that Scout can understand that Mr. Cunningham a neighbor and friend could actually do a mean thing to her father because they always helped them.The last reason why I think Scout wouldn’t have realized that she was walking into a potential lynching was because Jem just found out about mobs and Jem is older than Scout. He has a little more wisdom and knowledge than she does. If Jem just now figured out what a lynching was I don’t think Scout would have even the slightest clue as to what a lynching was. Her lack of knowledge would have kept her from knowing what was going on. Her mind is not yet capable to understand a lynching or mobs in general. She has to be older to know what was going on. That is why she just ran into the crowd.

Mockingbird

I think mocking birds are a central metophor of the book becuase they represent the discrimination of the black people, which is inturn the main idea of the book. It says mockingbirds do nothing but make music for us to listen to. That is like the black people becuase they do nothing but help us. I think the quote is saying that you shouldnt kill something when all it does for you is help or please you.

In chapter 9 Scout punches Francias becuase he said cruel things about Atticus. With out even hearing Scouts reasoning he immideatly punished her. Later on in the chapter Scout makes her side of the story heard and Uncle Jack feels horribly about his decision of puniishing her. If Uncle Jack would have asked for Scouts side of the story or point of veiw on the situation he wouldnt feel so bad. It is always better to look at every point of veiw before making a decision that you make regret later, because if you dont look at the other sides you may never know the truth.

To Kill a Mockingbird: Part 1

On your own blog leave a post disussing the childhood world of Jem, Scout, and Dill and their relationship with Boo Radley in Part One. Do you have any idea what role Boo Radley is going to play in the book? Do you think that he is representative of anything?

Jem, Scout, and Dill are all very close friends and neighbors for the summer times. They always play and create games together. Even with their games keeping them entertained they have still found sort of a fascination with Boo Radley, the mysterious next door neighbor. Scout starts finding random things in a knot hole of one of Boo’s trees.  They begin creating games of Boo Radley and soon become overwhelmingly curious about Boo.  Jem, Scout, and Dill all decied to go take a peek at the inside of Boo’s house through a shutter. Boo catches them and shoots at them and Jem ends up losing his pants on his way out of Boos yard. When he goes back later that night he finds his pants stiched up and laying on the fence. I think the realtionship between Boo and the children is that Jem, Scout, and Dill are very afraid of Boo, and Boo wants them to be afraid of him, although I think they all share the same curositiy and fansacnation. Boo in a way represents diffrent perspectives because no one on maycomb actually knows about him and what hes about, only he knows.

What I think To Kill a Mockingbird will be about

I read a few book summaries, the back of the book, and some of the blogs that other people have written and what I got from it all was that it has a lot to do with racism. A young girl, her brother, and her dad will all have to go through a tough time dealing with racism. Her father, Atticus, being a lawyer, will defend a young black man who is presumably being wrongfully accused of rape along with 8 other black men. Scout, the young girl, and Jem, the older brother is not prone to racism, and actually enjoy the company of the black people. However, Scout, Jem, and Atticus all get treated very poorly for Atticus’s decision of trying to protect the black man of the accusation. This book will in all probability contain the ghastly journey this family went through because of discrimination of blacks.  Therefore, I think this book will mainly be about racism and how incredibly horrific it was and possibly is.

What can we use blogs for in english class?

WE can use blogs for dicussing topics of the books we would be reading. we could aslo discuss quotes, sayings, and lessons.

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