The Reservation

In a way, I cannot fairly compare my expierences to Junior's. I have not felt the same things he has, and I cannot pretend to have felt those things. However, I think that there is some way in which everyone can relate to some part of Junior's life. Junior, and the other Indians on the reservation are unique in that the things that are holding them back are very physical. The lack of opporutnities and hope that are very evident on the reservation are things that could be left behind if everyone were to seek those things elsewhere, as Junior did when he started going to school at Reardan. But, as with many of the books that we have read this year, there is also an underlying fear. People on the reservation do not want to leave the reservation because that would mean leaving what they know, which is very scary. Junior, even for 5 days a week, has to leave his friends, his family, the rules and the lifestyle that he knows and will most likely eventually leave it all for good. Because so much of who the Indians are lies on the reservations in their communities and traditions and ways of life, leaving the reservation is also leaving all of those things, which means that the decision to leave would not be an easy one. 

In many ways, living almost anywhere in the world in some way is like living on a reservation. Where you are born greatly affects what you are able to do in life. We have all, in some ways, won the lottery of life in that we live in a developed country with lots of opportunities where we are able to receive a quality education and have hopes for the future. There are so many places in the world where people live in great poverty, and are not able to receive education and are therefore not able to break the cycles of poverty. Even the city of Chicago is split into reservations- deeply segregated neighborhoods varying dramatically in opportunity and socioeconomic status. Even though legally people can come and go as they please, they city has changed very little in the past century. The difference is that many of these "reservations" are not challenged in the same ways that the Indian reservations are, which makes them seem less like reservations.

Native Sons

By including Max's very long presentation of his case, Richard Wright is leaving very little to be guessed by the reader. By reading this, the reader pretty much knows exactly what Richard Wright is trying to say by telling Bigger's story because he essentially spells it out.
In the end, though, it did not matter how great of a speech it was that Max made because Bigger still got charged, but this likely would have been true regardless of what Max had said given Bigger's situation. I think that Max knows this, and that is why he says the things he says. Max is just trying to tell the truth, to bring the issues at least into public eye, while also trying as hard as he possibly can to save Bigger's life.
Part of the reason that Bigger's life is not saved is that Max's speech makes the trial not just about Bigger. Max makes the trial about everyone. Every black citizen, and every white citizen. He argues that Bigger's crime is much more than just his crime, that it is instead society's crime. And this means that everyone is to blame. If Bigger were not to be given the death sentence, that would have been seen as an acknowledgement of the jurors that something in the society is wrong which would mean that they were wrong, which is something no one wants to admit to. Max brings to light the deeply flawed society that they all live in, but because the flaws do not necessarily affect them, they feel no need to change them.
Buckley's speech, which is not nearly as eloquent or thought-provoking as Max's is the one that "wins" because Buckley tells everyone exactly what they want to hear. This case was not about what was right or wrong, it was about what the white people wanted, and so that is what prospered, as it did all throughout Native Son and throughout history.

A Principle to Keep

In all honesty, I think that the most important principle to keep is to stay true to your own beliefs and morals.
For every single principle that I came up for before this, I thought of some extreme thing that would make me at least question that principle. I do not believe that there is one straightforward, right way to live because things are constantly changing.
The life that the boy and the man live in The Road is extreme, things have clearly changed for them, and they have had to do things that they could probably never imagine doing before, but I do not think that they have done anything completely wrong. A principle that I think (I hope) most people live by and that I live by right now is not to kill, and this is a good thing, but in The Road, the man has to kill the man to survive, and I think that put in that situation no matter how hard it may be, many of us would do the same if it were life or death.
Things change, people change. They adapt and they learn. I might not be able to imagine a time or place when I would be okay with certain things, but if I were, that would be okay.

Janie

There are many things that can be said about Janie as a character, many things that can be argued about her, but I believe that she is definitely not a boring, static character. She is often unpredictable and throughout the book, she has gone through many changes.

Janie is alive during a time in which her circumstances of living are not exactly desirable: she is a black woman during a time when both black people and women were second class citizens. Janie is also missing parental units and she herself comes from something broken. Despite all of these difficulties, Janie is a strong person. I think that she understands that there are factors in her life that she cannot change, no matter how much she may want to, and because of this, she does not fight, understanding that she does not want to cause more damage. But she is also not completely sedentary. There times when she fights back, because she knows that she can, like when she insults Jody after he has been insulting her for years. And she knows what she wants, and she is not afraid of this, of what others think of her. Her one true desire seems to be love, and regardless of whether or not this is something she can achieve and whether or not it is worth working so hard to achieve, I appreciate that she is not willing to give up, regardless of what everyone around her says.

Janie is not without faults. She makes rash decisions and does not always think about those around her and is not always the kindest person, but all in all she is not an awful person and I think she is someone that many people can find something to admire in. 

Thankful

Even though it is cheesy, I truly am thankful for everyone in our 5th period English II class. I am thankful that it is an environment that I am comfortable enough to share my thoughts in, and I think that it is that way because of the people in the class.

Some of the people I am most thankful for are Gisselle, Veronica, and Kate. I am thankful that all of them put up with me and listen to the things that I say even though they often make more sense in my head than they do when I say them out loud and that we have the ability to do out work while still having fun in class. I like knowing that they will always be there for me to work with, which makes working in groups less stressful. Even though I did not know Kate before this year, I am thankful that I have gotten to know her. I am also very thankful that I have gotten to know Gisselle and Veronica outside of track and cross country and that they will always make me laugh, and I am thankful that Veronica is always there to run with and will tell me funny stories about her day or her childhood or Scooby Doo.

I am also thankful for Emma Unterseher because even though she is not in our class she always tells me what the homework is and we often discuss the things we talk about in class and how they often connect with the stuff we have done in the English classes that we have had together since pre-school.

I hope everyone has a nice thanksgiving and eats lots of yummy food!

Hemingway

Ernest Hemingway was without a doubt a talented writer but he was also not a perfect man. I think that his lifestyle and personality should not be admired but that his writing should. He always strove to make his writing as truthful as possible and so his writing says a lot about him. What he saw as the truth in the stories he wrote may not have been the truth for everyone at that time, but they were the truth to him. Especially in his stories about Nick Adams, Hemingway revealed a lot about himself in his writing.

If anyone looked at a list of things Hemingway did in his life and places he had traveled, they would think Hemingway had lived a very full life. His life was certainly full of adventure- he lived in Paris, Cuba, Key West, and spent lots of time visiting Spain and hunting in Africa. He had many 4 wives and was involved with many other women. He was a celebrity during his life and spent lots of time fishing and boxing and enjoying the nightlife of cities like Havana. Even though Hemingway spent so much time busy and seemingly full of life, he also seemed to always kind of empty. He treated most of the people in his life like crap, including but not limited to the many women in his life and his children. He might not be entirely to blame for this- he grew up in different times and didn't always have an easy life.

Hemingway was a very talented writer but all in all, his talent did not give him the right to be misogynistic and disloyal to the people in his life however hard his life might have been. 

6 words, 1 story

Not always alone but always lonely.


She had everything but wanted more.


They knew he'd be eating alone.


Nobody asks what he was wearing.


Not prepared for everything to change.


Nails bitten, speech given, still shaking.