Theme Discussion Sept 26

In-class exercise

Part I - Group talk

1. What do you think is the main theme in the book?
2. Why? Explain your answers using passages, sentences, etc. from the book. I this theme possible?
3. Record your answers below

My own thoughts about the book has already been shown in the previous post. Below you will see the thoughts from Lu Lin and Xinfa Zhou which they shared during class.

Thoughts about the theme in the book


Lu Lin and Xinfa Zhou both thinks hat the main theme in the book is love. Love between one or more persons, between family members, male and female and between parents and children. This was also the theme we later chose to present to the class.

Love is displayed in different ways and in different strengths. From the book we can locate love between the Boatwright sisters, the relationship between Rosaleen and Lily and then of course the connection between Lily and Zach.
All of these relationships show the element of love.
Some events in the book, that can show that these people love each other, is for example,the part when august tells Lily how it comes that they got a pink house - May wanted that color (page 147), the part when Zach gives Lily a notebook which she can practice what she loves the most - writing (page 135), and then of course when he explains to her what he thinks about her and why their interaction cannot work (page 135).

Another example of love is for other living organisms and abstract things.
The first example on that kind of love is August's love for her bees (page 149), this is a kind of love, love for other organism. It may not be as strong as her love for her sisters but it's love towards something that is not human and at the same time a love for something she loves to do.
Then there is also love for abstract things, like freedom. August tells Lily (page 146) that she once loved a man but she loved her freedom more. This kind of love is strong if you really believe in it.

Question: What can you do when you love someone but when your relationship is not socially accepted?
Message: Love is complicated

Part II - Presentation

Group 1
Theme: Change
Question: How do you think Lily has changed?
Message: Change is necessary

Group 2
Theme: Forbidden
Question: why did Lily and Zach fall in love?
Message: -

Group 3
Theme: Love
Question: What can you do when you love someone but when your relationship is not socially accepted?
Message: Love is complicated


Group 4

Theme: Hope
Question: If Lily didn't have any hope, do you believe she would have gotten so far?
Message: You can go anywhere and overcome obstacles as long as you got hope

Group 5
Theme: Love regardless of race
Question: How did people in the past deal with the friendship between different racial people?
Message: -

Book report #3 Due Sept 26

The Secret life of Bees

Neil (surname unknown) is, according to Lily, the tallest Negro man she has ever seen. He is a follower to June and a good friend to the Boatwright sisters.

Quotations from the book that let us know about Neil’s appearance

“I found the tallest Negro man I’d ever seen working on the truck...” Page 102

“He wore blue jeans and an undershirt with grease smears on it, along with horn-rimmed glasses. He looked like a very studious mechanic.” Page – 104

June Boatwright is the middle sister in among the Boatwright’s sisters. She has very short hair and she seldom smiles. She is cautious and suspicious and very back drawn. She is musical talented and she works at funerals, playing music.

Her hair is cut short and she is unmarried. She is very serious and has her principles.

Quotations from the book that let us know about June’s appearance

“..Her hair cut so short it resembled a little gray, curlicue swim cap pulled tight over her scalp.” – Page 68

“Her face stared at us, suspicious and stern.” – Page 68

Best part

“– you know, some things don’t matter that much, Lily. Like the color of s house. How big is that in the overall scheme of life? But lifting a person’s heart – now, that matters.”

This is a fantastic part in the book. It shows so much love and sacrifice a person will do for another person’s happiness. Here August dislikes the color that May wanted for the house but because May really liked that color and makes her happy, August set aside her feelings about the color and put May's well being in front of some stupid non-important thing as the color of their house. Is that not love or what?

The Theme of the book

I think that the scheme in the book is search. lily's search for her history,background and identity.
Lily is on her own way trying to find out everything about her mother, how she was and what kind of person she was. She is at the same time trying to find her identity and her own place in life. When you are so young that Lily is, you do not know yourself and your place in life. And with your mother gone you have plenty of questions and loose strings that you want to attach.

"We're going to Highway Forty and thumb a ride to Tiburon". - Page

With this sentence we can see that Lily, that really do not know where she is going decides to go to the one place that has some kind of connection to her mother.
She then later, when she notice the label on the honey jars in a local market, finds out that these labels are the same labels as the one that her mother have written Tiburon on and which she carries around. At that point she decides that she has to go to where the honey is produced and ends up at the hand of three sisters, that, probably, in some way have some connection to her mother.

 P. 101 P.94 P.79

Newspaper Article Discussion Sept 24

Group Discussion 

In the group: LU LIN, Xinfa Zhou and Jose.

Himalayas avalanche sweeps away climbers in Nepal

Where did this happen?

It happened in the Himalayas in Nepal.

Can you explain what is happening?

A flood snow hit a couple of European climbers when they were climbing Mount Manaslu, the 8^th highest mountain in Himalaya

What would result if the avalanche never happened?

The climbers would probably, if no other problem occurred, reach the top without more difficulties and they would have a better chance to survive the adventure.

What conclusions can you draw about the expedition?

You have to be prepared for every occasion, everything that can happen during the climb – Change of weather, resources, accidents, injuries, etc. – and be aware of the consequences.

How can you change the plan?

Climb another day, look at the weather forecast more thoroughly and choose days when there is a very low risk of a snowstorm to sweep in.

What is the opinion of climbing high mountains?

We think that if you want to climb the 8^th highest mountain in the world you should prepare good, coordinate your expedition well and be aware of the consequences that can happen during the adventure.

The Civil Rights Movement Timeline

In-Class exercise Sept 19

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B_T41YkENOrZZFBYWHNfVmd2eXM/edit

Article #2 Due Sept 24

Himalayas avalanche sweeps away climbers in Nepal

This article is about a couple of European climbers and guides that has been struck by an avalanche in Nepal. The climbers were climbing Mount Manaslu when a ‘flood of snow’ hit them and killed what is believed, nine persons. The number of dead can though be higher due to the fact that they do not really know how many climbers it was in the party. It is said that five climbers have survived and have been rescued and flown to the hospital for recovery.

Word 1
1. Word: Avalanche
2. Part of Speech: Noun
3. Definition/synonym: Snow Storm, Flood of snow

Word 2
1. Word: Deterioration
2. Part of Speech: Adjective
3. Definition/synonym: Failure

Book Reading #2 Due Sept 19

The Secret life of Bees

By Sue Monk Kidd

August Boatwright is the eldest of the Boatwright sisters. She is humble and generous and she is acting like the big sister she is and taking care of her younger sisters.

August is tall, has ginger eyes and she looks younger than she is except for her wrinkled face and her flour dusty hair.

Quotations from the book that let us know about August’s appearance

“She was almond-buttery with sweat and sun, her face corrugated with a thousand caramel wrinkles and her hair looking flour dusted, but the rest of her seemed decades younger.” – Pages 71-72

“She put down her glass. I had never seen eyes that color, eyes the purest shade of ginger.” – Page 74

May Boatwright is the youngest of the Boatwright sisters. She is not altogether normal and acts differently from everybody else. Though she is not like everybody else, she has a good intentions and a good heart. Due to earlier life event, May act differently from the rest and takes in all the bad things that is happening and gets affected. She is carrying around heavy feelings that are not hers.
May is in the book described as simple minded but at the same time intelligent in some areas.
May wears her hair in braids and

Quotations from the book that let us know about May’s appearance

“– I’m May Boatwright, she said. – I’m August’s sister, too. She smiled at us, one of those odd grins that let you know she was not an altogether normal person.” – Page 69

“May was simpleminded. I don’t mean retarded, because she was naïve and unassuming, a grown-up and a child at the same time, plus she was a touch crazy.” – Pages 84-85

Zachary Lincoln Taylor is a handsome young man with broad shoulders and a narrow waist. Zach is a well-mannered, thoughtful and a loving kind of person. He is very handsome and his skin shoots of mystery.

Quotations from the book that let us know about Zach’s appearance

“He had broad shoulders and a narrow waist and short-cropped hair like most of the Negro boys wore, but it was his face I couldn’t help staring at. If he was shocked over me being white, I was shocked over him being handsome.” – Page 116

“The dark, dark look of it. The mystery of his skin.” – Page 125

“..Zach showed up with the prettiest notebook – Green with rosebuds on the cover. He met me coming out of the pink house. – This is for you, he said. – So you can get a head start on writing” – Page 135’

Main Events

Event 1

“I walked toward black Mary with my hand lifted. But just as I was about to reach her, June stopped playing. She stopped right in the middle of the song, and I was left in the silence with my hand stretched out.
Drawing it back, I looked around me, and it was like seeing everything through a train’s thick window. A blur passed before me. A moving wave of color. I am not one of you, I thought.” – Page 111

It is during this event that Lily really feels the color of her skin. She feels like an outsider and like a person that shouldn’t be there and interact with these people.
She haven’t really experienced that before due to that she is white and now when she experienced it, she feels sad about it.

Event 2

 “That’s fine with me, –I said, a little annoyed. I’ve just never heard of a Negro lawyer, that’s all. You’ve got to hear of these things before you can imagine them.”

“– Bullshit. You gotta imagine them”

“I closed my eyes. – All right then, I’m imaging a Negro lawyer. You are a Negro Perry Mason. People are coming to you from all over the state, wrong-accused people, and you get at the witness stand.”

“– Yeah, he said,–I bust their ass with the truth. When he laughed, his tongue was grass green from Kool-Aid.” I started calling him Zach the ass-busting lawyer. – Oh, look who’s here, Zach the ass busting lawyer, I’d say.” – Page 121

This is the time when Lily and Zach connect. They interact with each other from this point and forward and it is now they feel comfortable together and a new time of discovery begins.

Best part from the book

The best part from the book and these chapters is when Lily cries and realize that the things she is doing is not sustainable, they are not going to last forever. She needs to catch up with the real life and realize that the truth must be told and the consequences of that action must be made.

“That night, when the darkness was weighed down with singing crickets and Rosaleen was snoring right along with them, I had myself a good cry. I couldn’t even say why. Just everything, I guess. Because I hated lying to August when she was so good to me. Because Rosaleen was probably right about dream worlds. Because I was pretty sure the Virgin Mary was not back there on the peach farm standing in for me the way she’d stood in for Beatrix.” – Page 123

I also liked the part in the book when Zack gives Lily a notebook to write in. It was really thoughtful of him to think about her and give her something she was interested in. From the earlier event when they connected, they have now a deep interaction with each other.

“..Zach showed up with the prettiest notebook – Green with rosebuds on the cover. He met me coming out of the pink house. – This is for you, he said. – So you can get a head start on writing.”

“That was when I knew I would never find a better friend than Zachary Taylor.” – Page 135

Researching the Civil Rights Movement due Sept 17

Researching the Civil Rights Movement

Listed below is three important events that associates with the Civil Act Movement

1. Mississippi Freedom Summer, 1964

"In the summer of 1964, COFO brought nearly 1,000 activists to Mississippi—most of them white college students—to join with local black activists to register voters, teach in "Freedom Schools," and organize the Mississippi Freedom Democratic Party (MFDP).

Many of Mississippi's white residents deeply resented the outsiders and attempts to change their society. State and local governments, police, the White Citizens' Council and the Ku Klux Klan used arrests, beatings, arson, murder, spying, firing, evictions, and other forms of intimidation and harassment to oppose the project and prevent blacks from registering to vote or achieving social equality.

On June 21, 1964, three civil rights workers disappeared. James Chaney, a young black Mississippian and plasterer's apprentice; and two Jewish activists, Andrew Goodman, a Queens College anthropology student; and Michael Schwerner, a CORE organizer from Manhattan's Lower East Side, were found weeks later, murdered by conspirators who turned out to be local members of the Klan, some of them members of the Neshoba County sheriff's department. This outraged the public, leading the U.S. Justice Department along with the FBI (the latter which had previously avoided dealing with the issue of segregation and persecution of blacks) to take action. The outrage over these murders helped lead to the passage of the Civil Rights Act."

Source:

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/African-American_Civil_Rights_Movement

Thoughts:

As it says in the text, this event was one of many events that lead to the Civil Right Act and it was with this act that changed how people in the U.S. thought and gave a way for a new era. This action pushed the subject closer to a final act and it upset/touched people all over America.

2. Civil Rights Act of 1964

"Although President Kennedy had proposed civil rights legislation and it had support from Northern Congressmen, Southern Senators blocked consideration of the bill by threatening filibusters. After considerable parliamentary maneuvering and 54 days of filibuster on the floor of the United States Senate, President Johnson got a bill through the Congress. On July 2, 1964, President Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 that banned discrimination based on "race, color, religion, sex or national origin" in employment practices and public accommodations. The bill authorized the Attorney General to file lawsuits to enforce the new law. The law also nullified state and local laws that required such discrimination."

Source:

Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Civil_Rights_Act_of_1964

Thoughts:

This action led to a new era in the world. It was now against the law to discriminate other people of various ethnicities and beliefs. The Civil Right Act prevented discrimination regarding ethnicity, gender, religion, race, physical or mental disability, origin and sexual orientation.

The Civil Right Act ensured people of their integrity, life and their safety and it also protected them from discriminations as those listed above. It was with this act that allowed everybody the freedom of speech and beliefs and it was against this act to have them discriminated.

People would still discriminate after the Civil rights Act had gone through but they would now be punished for their actions.

3. The Voting Rights Act of 1965

The Act was sent to Congress by President Johnson on March 17, 1965. The bill passed the Senate on May 26, 1965 (after a successful cloture vote on March 23), by a vote of seventy-seven to nineteen. The House was slower to give its approval. After five weeks of debate, it was finally passed on July 9. After differences between the two bills were resolved in conference, the House passed the Conference Report on August 3, the Senate on August 4. On August 6, President Johnson signed the Act into law with Martin Luther King, Jr., Rosa Parks, and other civil rights leaders in attendance.

Source:

The United States Department of Justice

http://www.justice.gov/crt/about/vot/misc/faq.php

Thoughts:

The Voting Rights Act made it against the law to deny the right of citizen of the United States to vote because of race or color. The act protects the voting right of every American citizen against racial discrimination and other similar factors.

This act stands for that everybody’s vote is equal and should be respected in the same matter.

This act is now considered a breakthrough in civil-rights legislation and is a permanent federal law that never will expire.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1TPEnWnYjAnajx6FMp2NkYziO6FC4NoOyVVwTKCbka_c/edit

Book Reading/Presentation - Lecture 5 Sept 12

Book reading/Presentation - Lecture 5 September 12

 Exercise 1 – Flag it

1. Mark words you do not know

• Chapped 
• Herringbone 
• Cantaloupes

2. Find details – Characters and events

• “My hair was black like my mother’s but basically a nest of cowlicks, and it worried me that I didn’t have much of a chin. I kept thinking I’d grow one the same time my breast came in, but it didn’t work out that way. I had nice eyes, though, what you would call Sophia Loren eyes…” – Page 9

3. Mark a part that you liked

• “I took a breath to steady myself.
  You could say I’d never had a true religious moment, the kind where you know yourself spoken to by a voice that seems other than yourself, spoken to so genuinely you see the words shining on trees and clouds. But I had such a moment right then, standing in my own ordinary room. I heard a voice say, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open”

4.      Mark a fact or an opinion

• “The police ask a lot of questions, but it was just one of those terrible things. You didn't mean to do it.” – Page 19 
• “He made a thin sound, intended for a laugh. – Now, if we let everybody borrow a fan that wanted now, the church wouldn't have a fan left.” – Page 30

Exercise 2 – Post-it

1. Answer a question 

“What kind of person is against reading?

 A person that’s not interested in books and in reading.

Character Profile – Lily Owens

About Lily:

• Her mother died when she was 4 years old 
• She is now 14 
• She lives in Sylvan in South Carolina 
• Lily is a determined young girl. She is also independent, adventurous and sensitive. 
• Lily is smart for her age and a problem solver
• She doesn't have a lot of friends and she is a lonelier 

Friends and family:

• Lily has a selfish father – T.Ray 
• Her best friend/caregiver is Rosaleen, a colored woman who works for her father 
• Mother is dead 
• We do not know about other relatives 

Activity and Interest:

• She doesn’t have the possibility to do any sports, her father does not encourage her to do it and therefor she can’t get involved in different activities. 
• Lily is interested in books and she likes to read a lot and to write stories and novels. 
• Lily is also fascinated of bees

Book report #1 Due Sept 12

Book Title: The Secret Life of Bees

Author: Sue Monk Kidd

Lily Owens is a brave and determine young girl with an open mind. She only lives with her father since her mother past away which can be due to the fact that she does not dress in the latest fashion for young girls. She doesn’t cut her hair regularly and she doesn’t take care of her hair since she doesn’t have the tools for it. The “only” woman in her life is Rosaleen, a colored woman that is under employment of Lily’s father T.Ray- Rosaleen who, along with her duties, also acts like Lily’s caregiver since she's been with Lily for almost all of her life.
Lily is a black-haired, chinless little girl that, and possibly because of the absence of a mother, can’t fit in among other girls in the same age as her.

Quotations from the book that let us know about Lily’s appearance

“You can tell which girls lack mothers by the look of their hair. My hair was constantly going off in eleven wrong directions...” – Page 3

“My hair was black like my mother’s but basically a nest of cowlicks, and it worried me that I didn’t have much of a chin. I kept thinking I’d grow one the same time my breast came in, but it didn’t work out that way. I had nice eyes, though, what you would call Sophia Loren eyes…” – Page 9

“In a matter of seconds I knew exactly what I had to do – leave. I had to get away from T.Ray, who was probably on his way back this minute to do Lord-knows-what to me. Not to mention I had to get Rosaleen out of jail.” – Page 41

Rosaleen Daise is an ageless woman that works for Lily’s father T.Ray. She is described in the book as a big and colored woman with a bit of an attitude. Rosaleen is despite her boldness a caring and loving person who doesn’t want any fights but cannot, with the situation she is in, let injustice and inequality go pass.

Quotations from the book that let us know about Rosaleen’s appearance

“She had a big round face and a body that sloped out from her neck like a pup tent, and she was so black that night seemed to seep from her skin.” – Page 2

“We walked along the ledge of the highway, Rosaleen moving in the pace of a bank-vault door…” – Page 28

“– Where did you get that fan, nigger? – Stole it from the church, She said. Just like that” – Page 32

Mr. Avery Gaston is a policeman that is not suited for his job. He is an unfair and conservative racist who “sees between his fingers” when the situation needs it. Mr. Gaston is also called Shoe and is described in the book as a person with small ears.

Quotations from the book that let us know about Mr. Gaston’s appearance

“The one thing about him was the smallness of his ears, the ears of a child, ears like little dried apricots.” – page 34

“His smile appeared in the rearview mirror. – I can’t say what men riled up like that will do.”
– Page 35

Main events in the book

I think that the main events in these chapters happens during a short period of time and the first is when Rosalee pours snuff juice on three of the town’s worst racists. This triggers Lilly’s and Rosaleen’s escape from not only their home but also from the law. Here you see the difference between people and how much hate there is in the world; something that neither Lily nor Rosaleen wants to be part of.
Next event is when Lily and her father go through a fight about whether Lily’s mother loved Lily (and/or both of them) or not and about the day Lily’s mother died. This certain event is the main reason why Lily decides to run away from the life she has. The importance in this is to understand that Lily, though not having a physical relationship to her mother still wants to believe that her mother is still with her even though she does not longer live. During this dispute T.Ray says a couple of things about Lily’s mother that affects Lily and almost sets her life upwards down.
That dispute also makes us move on to the third event that is, in some ways, connected to the dispute; the event when Lily jailbreaks Rosaleen from the hospital. This do not only show how determine Lily is as a person but also that Lily understand that she needs to start a new life and get away from her old life, forever.

Future thoughts

The next thing that will happen in this book is that someday the past will catch them running and it will probably not be that kind. Of course, T.Ray, though he does not really care, will search for Lily. Probably because he feels a need of it rather then that he wants and to not become embarrassed in the city he’s living in. Eventually the three racists that has been “assaulted” and the police will search for them as well, to for the first men; get their “justice” and for the later; keep everything in order by the law and for himself.
They will also during their escape have to pretend that they are somebody else and lie to everybody around them. They will also feel afraid of being caught and have the feeling of looking over the shoulder all the time. It is going to interesting to see how this evolves..

Best part from the book

The best part so far in the book is when Lily realizes that she has to make a change in her life and do something about her life situation. In this particular episode she realize that she has to find a new way, her own way and to do something different about her non-fascinating life. She realizes that she can't live together with T.Ray and that she has to get away from everything about him and the life they're living.

“I took a breath to steady myself.
You could say I’d never had a true religious moment, the kind where you know yourself spoken to by a voice that seems other than yourself, spoken to so genuinely you see the words shining on trees and clouds. But I had such a moment right then, standing in my own ordinary room.
I heard a voice say, Lily Melissa Owens, your jar is open.”

Newspaper Article Discussion

Class Notes from Sept 10, lecture 4

Part II - Group analysis about articles

• What is the article about and why did we choose it

The article is about a new way of transporting drugs and we chose it because it is an important and a global issue today and it affects a lot of people around the world.

•  What kind of news is the article

This article is in the section breaking news/world news from The New York Times

Summary: The article is about a new way of transporting drugs. According to the article the drugs came from South America to the coast of U.S. It was supposed to travel from Ecuador to Los Angeles but it got caught before it reached the American coast.

• Gather three words

Word 1: Sophisticated – Adjective – High degree of complexity

“American authority has discover three new and sophisticated drug traffic submarines”

Word 2: Emphasized – verb – understate the importance, underline

“..though they emphasize that no use of submersibles by militant has been detected”

Word 3: Envy – noun – feeling resentful, longing after something that’s not yours and that you want

“...submarines that would be the envy of but a few nations”

•  Other group's articles

Health article about children that are bullying other children, that have autism, in school

What can the society or the schools do to prevent this from happening?

What can the parents do to prevent their children from bullying other kids?

Local news about an economic company that moved their company to a different place and the people working there couldn’t (understandably) move along so they lost their jobs.

How will this affect these people and the society around them?

What will happen to the company/the workers?

Traffickers and the way the use to smuggle the drugs – look above for more information

Health article about parents who want their under aged children to be able drinking in their presence.

Why should they be allowed to drink in their parents present if they are not allowed to drink under the law?

Article #1 Due Sept 10 2012

Organic food - better for you or not?

As the headline explains this article is about if organic food is better for us or not. Scientist at Stanford decided to explore in this subject and look up the difference between organic  and conventional food.

Word 1

1. Phenol
2. Noun
3. Phenol is an organic compound

Word 2

1. Pesticides residue
2. Noun
3. Pesticides residue is remains of insecticides (remains of spray that eliminate insects)

Word 3

1. Contamination
2. Noun
3. Contamination is also defined as pollution to the environment

Article found online, Los Angeles Times:

Organic Food - better for you or not

When I was fourteen...

...I started working at a cafeteria in the city, I began listening to underground Hip Hop and I got a little sister.

I grew up in a suburban to Stockholm, the capital of Sweden. My parents divorced when I was eleven, for the better, and I mostly lived with my mother during my education.
When I was a teenager I was like everybody else, trying to fit in to the society of young people. Like a teenager I wasn't hard to deal with and I didn't need that extra attention that people do need sometime. I was, and still am, very independent and did my homework by myself without extra help from my parents. I think that the divorce made me stand on my own legs and take care of myself.
In school I was ambitious and I went in my own direction, I did not really follow everybody else like other do (only dead fishes follow the stream) and after being raised with two brothers, I was not the typical girly girl that started using make up at the age of thirteen.

When I was fourteen I started working during the summer and sometimes during weekends at a cafeteria in the city. From then til now I can see how life was so simple when you were so young, you did not need to pay any bills, you did not have to think about any insurance and you always had dinner at the table when you got home, well most of the times you did. The only thing you thought about was the weekends and what you wanted to do on your free time. It was not simpler than that.

When you are that young, everything matters. You try to take in so much impressions and trying to figure out what you are about to do with them, how to respond and how to act. Being so young is not the easiest thing, not when the society and the world around you simply express how you are going to behave and how you suppose to be as an individual.

With this in our backpack - we can look back, see how easy it was back then - and carry on with the knowledge that everything changes and that life goes on.

Knockdown

On this blog of mine I will post all of my assignments that I get during my English 70 class.
I will, instead of having a hard copy of a binder, have an electronic binder. This will not only save paper and the environment but it will also, with today's technology, make it more easy for me to access it whenever I want and wherever I might be.

Best regards,

Natacha