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.

John Proctor- Hero or Stooge?

According to dictionary.com, a stooge is "any underling, assistant, or accomplice" and a hero is "a man of distinguished courage or ability, admired for his brave deeds and noble qualities." John Proctor, in my opinion, is neither a complete stooge nor a complete hero. 
Had I only read the last Act of the play, I would definitely say John Proctor is a hero. The fact that he refused to allow the chain of blame to continue was very brave. I think he understands that, chances are, no good will come to him through this but he accepts this and decides to confess to witchcraft without blaming anyone else anyway. He seems to be a martyr for the truth. 
However, knowing about John Proctor's previous actions make it harder for him to be categorized as just a hero. Proctor doesn't instantly decide to stand up to Abigail and tell the truth. He doesn't instantly decide to confess and it doesn't initially occur to him to just end the continuous blame. It seems very possible that if John Proctor had just said up front that Abigail was lying, the story could have turned out very differently. He does, at least for a while, stand as an accomplice to all of the craziness that occurs in Salem when he doesn't say anything. 
This also brings up the question of what really makes a hero, or a good person? Is it something people are born with, or do you have to make a conscious decision at some point along the way?

There Goes the Neighborhood

"Finders keepers, losers weepers," is something that most people probably said at one point in their life upon finding something that didn't seem to belong to anyone. Though often thought of as something that only little kids say, it seems to be a mentality that is common throughout modern day society and throughout history. Part of the problem though is that when people find something that isn' theirs, they often take it without wondering about the person who it truly belongs to.
When Christopher Columbus (or any other settlers) first arrived to the Americas, they seemed to give very little consideration to the people whose land they were taking. When they first arrived, the natives were probably fascinated. They had never seen people like this before, and probably had no idea that soon, these people would be trying to take over their land and kill them. They didn't know that, eventually, their population would be dramatically reduced and that their culture would be almost completely taken over by the European culture. They didn't know that, hundreds of years later, they would still be struggling for basic human rights and looking for recognition and still asking people to repay them for what happened so long ago. When Columbus and other settlers arrived, they paid little to no attention to the thoughts and needs of the Natives.
Currently, gentrification is an issue in Chicago and around the United States. I have lived in the Logan Square/Humboldt Park area for almost eight years and in that time, the neighborhood has changed drastically. It went from being a primarily Mexican-American neighborhood to one that has been overwrought with young, mostly white, hipsters. As the demographics of the neighborhood change and it becomes more "hip," the price of rent goes up, and as a result many of the poorer families and businesses that have been here for years are forced to leave. Similar things are happening around the United States in Harlem, New York City, all over San Francisco, and in so many other places. In cases like these and with the Native Americans, the people moving in do all the keeping and those who are forced to leave are the weepers.

Me

Hi, my name is Iris. I am a sophomore at Whitney Young. I graduated eighth grade from Lincoln Elementary school and before that, I went to Inter American Magnet School. I currently live in Logan Square with my mom, my younger brother, and soon, my stepfather.

I am on the cross country and track teams. I have a love hate relationship with running but I clearly like it enough to go to practice every day. When I have free time, I like to hang out with friends or relax. I have always loved reading and some of my favorite books include A Tree Grows in Brooklyn by Betty Smith, The Poisonwood Bible by Barbara Kingsolver, and Harry Potter, but really there are so many that they would be impossible to name. I also love listening to music and going to concerts. Some of my favorite artists are Andrew Bird, Bon Iver, Vampire Weekend, Tune-Yards and Bob Dylan but there are so many more. One of my favorite things is being able to see a band or musician that I love live.

For the past six years, I have gone to summer camp at a co-op in Delton, Michigan called Circle Pines Center. All year long, I look forward to the three weeks that I will spend there and I believe that without the things I have learned there, I would not be the same person. In the future I hope to be able to travel more. I would love to visit Spain to see the culture and also greatly improve my Spanish but I would be open to traveling almost anywhere.