Book Assignment #2 – 2019
Please include the title of your book in your response.
a. Summarize your reading for that part; also, this might be the part to examine bias in the book w/ specific examples.
b. Connect a historical thinking skill to your book segment – contextualization, comparison, change and continuity over time, synthesis (comparing time periods), cause and effects, periodization (including turning points).
c. Pick a quote from your book, either this section or previous section – that you think captures the essence of your book. Explain why this quote is a good encapsulation of the book.
d. Look back at the questions that you had in your previous book post. Has the book answered them? What were the answers? If the book hasn’t answered your questions, which questions still remained unanswered? Have you revised or come up w/ new ones? What are they?
e. Looking back at your first book post, how has the author developed the main theme / thesis of your book? Did you correctly identify the theme / thesis now that you’re 2/3 done w/ the book? If not, what’s the new theme / thesis?
So far my book has been a nail biter, This book is a roller coaster. Its soooo good. So where I am right now is a few weeks into the siege against the POW camp in Cabanatuan. In the beginning of the ⅔ of the book. Colonel Mucci is called upon to bring his troops to recover the POWs. His ranger’s have been waiting for a call for along time and this is finally there time to shine. The main thing of the mission though is that No one knows about other than the Rangers and One, General Krueger. The rangers have to march 30 miles to the camp while not being seen even once. There is this one portion of the book where they have to cross a highway so they wait till the traffic dies down. When there crossing they see a tank 100 yards away from them sitting in the middle of the highway with the turret pointed right at them. Thanks to the quick thinking of Colonel Mucci he advised a plan to get around the tank without being seen once. The troops are soon to find out that where they are headed just became the main spot for the japanese retreat, so instead of coming across a few posted guards, they might run into an 8,000 man army. One historical thinking skill I have noticed throughout this whole novel is compare and contrast. Throughout the whole story so far there have been a lot of comparisons made between the Japanese POWs and the American POWs. The main one is what happens when a soldier is captured. For instance when an American is captured it will go where it is led and it will either wait to be rescued or serve his time or escape. When a Japanese soldier is captured he will either commit suicide in honor of his country or charge the enemy in a suicidal manner. One quote that captures the essence of the book is “ Never had the U.S. Army fought against an enemy about whom it knew so little.” (pg 51). This quote really summarizes the first ⅔ of the book because the whole time the soldiers are marching, they have to been on their toes. They have to stay radio silent, so they don’t know when or where the enemy will be or attack next. The soldiers know very little about, even thr own mission let alone the enemy they were fighting. I didn’t really have any questions but I said I was very excited to see the progression of the characters which I have for sure. I have seen the evolution of a stand still platoon who one day was starving to the next where they are on a top secret mission to save their fellow soldiers. One question I have is if the Japanese find out about the attack and kill the POWs before the raid happens. I did correctly identify the main theme and the author does a very good job at setting it up. At first the book was a bit crazy with all these different backstories, but as the story progresses these backstories all connect to present day in their own way. I am very excited to see the ending of this story and where it goes.
Before we were Free by Julia Alvarez
A. Susie, the Washburn’s daughter, is having her 15th birthday and they decide to have a birthday party. However, at the birthday party El Jefe, the dictator of the Dominican Republic, shows up to wish her a happy birthday. Although after the party Lucinda, Anita’s sister, got a letter with roses from El Jefe wanting her. Anita’s parents start to look for a way to get Anita to safety in the United States. Their Papi finds a family with the consul who are looking for a tutor to learn spanish and so they are able to get Lucinda out of the country and stay once her visa was expired. Having just lost her sister, Anita begins to lose her voice with everything that had been going on. Tio Toni, Papi, Mr. Washburn, and other men start to meet at the De la Torre’s house. They meet on the back patio next to Anita’s bedroom where she can hear what they are planning a way to defeat and kill El Jefe. Finally the night comes and El Jefe is killed only Pupo, the leader of an army, was supposed to support the murder, however, backed out. This brought chaos and the SIM arresting Anita’s Papi and Tio Toni, as well others and their families involved in the act. However, Anita, Mami, and Mundin, Anita’s brother, were able to get out to a safe house.
B. The dictatorship, ruling the country, caused many people to risk their lives in order to gain freedom. This led to the death of El Jefe and more oppression from the SIM searching people’s houses and arresting everyone who could have been involved or know something. This is like when Hitler went after the Jews. Hitler, as a dictator, decided to arrest people and kill them because of their race and because he wanted to. This led many Jews in search for safe houses, but not all were safe. In both situations the dictators were oppressing people and forced situations were people had to hide, were arrested, or were killed. Although there were different causes for the two situations. Dictators for decades have oppressed people and they have fought for their lives and for freedom.
C. I think that the quote to represent the book would be, “‘you’re going to look back on all this and think, I really was a strong and brave girl… I want my children to be free, no matter what. Promise me you’ll spread your wings and fly’” (Alvarez 80). This quote was of Papi telling Anita to be brave and strong no matter what happened to them. It shows the desperation and want for freedom as well as the struggles that have to be endured for flying to freedom. Later on in the book Oscar tells Anita that in order to be brave you have to be afraid first. This, having heard what her father said, really brings Anita to be brave and stay positive.
D. The book had not answered my earlier questions. However, I do have another question. Why did Pupo not follow through with his part of the plan for Anita’s Papi, Tio Toni, and the others apart of the conspiracy when they had killed El Jefe? Why did he back out and not support them?
E. Throughout this third of the book, Alvarez has developed her theme of fighting for freedom as I said in my first blog post. Through this section we see how the fighting for freedom comes with a cost. As the people stood up for freedom they faced being arrested and death. Anita has started to see these costs of freedom.
This part starts out with Vivian and Molly working together to clean out Vivian’s attic. With hours going by slowly already, Vivian asking Molly a handful of personal questions makes it feel even longer. Vivian tends to hold on to her stuff as if she were holding onto her life. Meanwhile Dorothy wakes up in the house to find out that Mr. and Mrs. Bryne don’t want her attending school, which was part of the deal when getting sold. Dorothy or Niamh feels very lonely and mistreated; she is even threatened to be sent back to the children aid society. Mrs. Bryne is unsatisfied with Dorothy’s cross necklace, telling her that her catholicism and red hair don’t mix or look well. Mr. Bryne announces that the stock market has crashed and that this would be a huge problem. They tell Niamh that she must be relocated, due to their failing business. Niamh goes to a family to help out with the kids, with a promise that she can attend school.
The historical thinking skill I will be connecting to my book is synthesis (comparing time periods). Orphan trains were regular from the time period of 1854-1929, in which Niamh’s story takes place in v in 2011, where Molly’s story takes place in. We know what Molly is considered an orphan and travels from family to family. She is to go to school, do no hard nor harsh labor, and keep out of trouble. This last one is a little hard for Molly, due to her reckless behavior; she is now put with no choice but to do community service or head to juvie. However compared to the time period in which Niamh took place in, Molly had it pretty good. Niamh was taken on orphan trains and placed in front of people to take her as “family”, like a stage dog. The rule was for her to attend school, however her Mr. and Mrs. Bryne did not follow through. She was worked hard every day and almost acted as more like a slave than a child. These 2 time period face the same plot of an orphan, but are completely different because of the social norms of the time.
“The charms are all she has left of what used to be her life.” I chose this quote from chapter 1 because I think it perfectly captures the essence of the book. Both protagonists, Molly and Niamh, were in opposite time periods, but somehow lived through the same thing. Both girls lost their family when young, and had to fight hard to stay strong enough. The “charms” of Molly was her necklace from when her parents were alive. The “charms” of Niamh are all her pieces of treasure in her attic that she just can’t seem to let go of. Both girls had to let go of their past lives and move on, but they both have memories and objects to cherish them forever.
My question has not clearly yet been answered about how Niamh’s name has turned into Vivian. But now I can predict that another family she is brought to will change her name to Vivian. I think this because beforehand I thought Niamh would stay with Mr. and Mrs. Bryne for the whole novel, however due to the stock market crash, she was relocated.
In my opinion, the author has developed the main theme of belonging and connection in the novel. I think I correctly identified this theme. We keep finding more and more reasons to connect Molly and Niamh to each other, even when they shared their stories in two total different decades. I also am starting to see more of the resemblance of how Molly and Niamh are both girls who do not belong in the world they are living in, or at least the families they are put in.
A.) In this section of The Private Thoughts of Amelia E. Rye by Bonnie Shimko, Amelia’s relationship with her mother continues to be a source of tension. At the beginning of this part, her older sister and brother-in-law went to visit. While there, they accidentally reveal to Amelia that her mom has heart problems, and if she dies, they have to take her in. This is difficult for Amelia to understand because even though their relationship is not strong, she most definitely doesn’t want her to die. After this revelation, Amelia continues to spend much of her time with Fancy, her best friend. One day, at the home where Fancy’s mother is a maid, they discover a birth certificate that shows that the man that employs her mother, is actually her dad, Fancy’s grandfather. This is supposed to be a secret, but Amelia accidentally tells her Grandpa one day when she visits him at a rehabilitation center where he’s recovering from his stroke. The news quickly spreads, but rather than cause issues, Fancy’s newfound grandfather is actually grateful for the mistake. Towards the end of this section of the book, Amelia is invited over to Margo LaRue’s home, this is the woman that her father had run off with years ago. At the end of this third, Margo is apologizing and explaining her side of the story to Amelia, while she sits and takes in the story.
B.) One historical thinking skill that can be applied to this segment is continuity and change. I think this most directly connects to Amelia’s mother. She continues to have very strong, negative opinions towards African Americans being around her and her child. This has carried on throughout all of the book so far. However, she seemed to change slightly at times after discovering who Fancy was. Because Fancy had the connection to her grandfather, Amelia’s mother is less discriminatory and that seems to be a change that Amelia isn’t actually prepared for.
C.) The quote that I think captures the essence of this book is on page 109, it says “It’s strange how you can just be in a place, minding your own business, when trouble comes and finds you” (Shimko 109). This is very representative of the book because Amelia always seems as though she’s getting into some type of struggle. Whether it’s a small argument with her mother, disobeying her teacher at school, or fighting with the bullies at school. She doesn’t outwardly look for these problems, but they almost always seem to arise for her.
D.) One question I had from the first section was whether Amelia’s grandfather would recover from his stroke. In this section, he was making progress. When Amelia visited him at the rehabilitation and recovery home, he was able to start moving his hand. This may have seemed like a small victory, but he had been essentially paralyzed for quite a while, so to be able to move even small amounts was very special.
E.) I think the theme of coming of age is still true. The novel has continued to show Amelia grow up and move through issues that many children face. This includes, bullies, family struggles, and problems with friends. None of these will likely plague her entire life, but as she grows up and moves towards adolescence, they are major aspects of her experiences daily.
In my reading of the second part of The Astronaut Wives Club, the other group of astronaut wives has been introduced. They were called The New Nine, they would be the next people that were manning the next part of the new space program. It was named Gemini, it featured two-man space capsules. They created this because they wanted to take America all the way to the moon. Houses were also built for the original families in Texas, closer to the space stations. In this part, they also talked about how Kennedy set up a naval blockade around Cuba because Russian ships were getting closer to Cuba. When both of the groups met, they weren’t the biggest fans of each other, they didn’t like how each other did things or how they acted. There is room for some bias in this book so far because it only comes from one news source, the news might have been changing and twisting some of the words.
B. The context during this time period was during the Kennedys presidency. At this time the United States and Russia were going head to head during the space race. The Soviet Union beat the US to the first successful launch, with October 4, 1957, orbiting of Sputnik 1, and later beat the US to have the first human in earth orbit, Yuri Gagarin, on April 12, 1961. The “race” peaked with July 20, 1969, US landing of the first humans on the Moon with Apollo 11. Also at this time, the Civil Rights Movement was in full swing and affected Americans everywhere. Television also became normalized in the 1960s and around 60 million homes owned them nationwide.
C. “We tend to fall back on comfortable phrases and words like ‘happy, proud, and thrilled,’ and we feel so much more.” This quote shows that in the book, when Americans went to space, it was one of the most monumental moments in history and will be remembered forever. This quote was when Rene was talking about when her husband had just been found floating in a raft after he succeeded in the flight. This illustrates how the boom is because after every wife sees her husband land back onto earth, they feel enthusiastic and are often left speechless.
D. The first question that I wondered from last time was answered just as I started reading the next third of my book. In this part of the book “The New Nine” were introduced and they huge out with the originals at one of the wives homes. I also realized that this book switching topics is important because although they are all about the space race, it is better to see more perspectives and more travels to space. If there was to only be one story about the one set of wives, the book would be shorter and would have any conflicts.
E. Looking back on the theme I chose when first reading, I still believe that this theme fits well into the book. Since this book is based on the wives of the astronauts it goes into detail about their personal lives and what they do. Family is apart of the book because everything the wives think about is if their husbands are safe and how they are doing in space.
The ⅔ portion of my novel “Manhunt: The Ten-Year For Bin Laden from 9/11 to Abbottabad” begins with the 6th chapter titled Closing in on the Courier. This chapter focuses in on different steps it took to locate the courier, hence the title. Bergen explains that the process began with Mohammed al-Qahtani, the man Al-Qaeda was grooming to become the twentieth hijacker in the months before the 9/11 attacks. Qahtani spoke no English and was became evasive and angry when a U.S. immigration officer picked him off and denied his access to the States. He was later arrested in Pakistan and interrogated and tortured for 48 days in Guantanamo. Qahtani eventually spilled the location a significant player in the organization KSM which led to his arrest and news on Kuwaiti, the man that trained the 9/11 Hijackers. These men were brutally tortured, but the CIA made very little progress until 2010. Bergen explains that the CIA had a series of significant breakthroughs regarding the elusive courier, Kuwait. The CIA tracked him in Abbottabad where they later discovered that Bin Laden had been living in a compound in the city.
On September 11, 2001, 19 militants associated with the Islamic extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four airplanes and carried out suicide attacks against targets in the United States. Two of the planes were flown into the twin towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third plane hit the Pentagon just outside Washington, D.C., and the fourth plane crashed in a field in Pennsylvania. Almost 3,000 people were killed during the 9/11 terrorist attacks, which triggered major U.S. initiatives to combat terrorism.
“The percentages suggested a kind of precision that didn’t exist in reality. Bin Laden was either living in the compound, or he wasn’t.” I believe that this quote is a good encapsulation of the book because it illustrates the uncertainty and the long haul process of tracking down Bin Laden. The book’s sole purpose is to describe each step taken after the 9/11 terrorist attacks to capture the man in charge, Osama Bin Laden. The book goes on to examine the uncertainty and the lengthy decision-making process for each of these steps.
One question I asked that was answered was, how did Bin Laden’s life shift after he left Tora Bora? The book describes Bin Laden’s life after Tora Bora and goes into detail about the Compound in Abbottabad that he lived in. The book hasn’t answered my question, how will Bin Laden manage to reconstruct his terrorist group Al Qaeda that is in shambles? My new question is, did Bin Laden really die after the B2 strike to the compound?
The central thesis of this book is to deliver a taut yet panoramic account of the pursuit and killing of Osama bin Laden. The author has developed this thesis by continuing to analyze every single step taken in the very long road to catching Osama Bin Laden. I believe that I correctly identified the thesis of this novel after reading 2/3rds of it.
The Orphan Train Blog Entry #2
The second third of The Orphan Train by Christina Baker Kline is an intense and emotional section of the book. Dorothy (Niamh) is treated absolutely terribly in her foster homes. During this section, the stock market crashes. In Dorothy’s “home,” the Byrne’s are forced to lay off all but one of their workers. Dorothy is receiving less food, more work, and no school. She is treated like labor, and only labor, not like a normal 10 year old girl. When the Byrne’s can’t even afford the little they give Dorothy anymore, they send her back to the Children’s Aid Society. Dorothy is happy to leave the Byrne’s unloving home, but is sad to leave her very close friend Fanny, and is very scared for what’s to come. She is then sent to a new family. This time, she would also be used for labor, but instead of sewing, she was just a mother’s helper. In her new home, there was several uncared for children, Mr. Grote, and Mrs. Grote. Mrs. Grote is very lazy, and probably mentally ill. She never gets out of bed. Mr. Grote is just plain disgusting and inappropriate. He ends up raping Dorothy. She was 10. It was very difficult to read that section of the book. I can’t even imagine how Dorothy felt. That was it for Dorothy in the Grote’s home. Mrs. Grote kicked her out. She walked 4 miles to school. She told her teacher, Miss Larsen, everything. When Miss Larsen alerted authorities, they told her that young girls are “dramatic” and that Dorothy is probably lying. Miss Larsen takes her in temporarily because she was disgusted with the authorities. But, she couldn’t stay with her forever. Now, they are trying to find a new foster family for Dorothy. This book really shows bias against the foster care system. It exposes the dark truths of it. It includes modern parallels with Molly’s story to show that things really haven’t changed that much since 1929. Right now, Molly is still doing her community service with Vivian. The government really doesn’t care what happens to orphaned children – the children are treated more as burdens as anything else. It’s really sad that while this novel isn’t true, it’s based off of real events. There really were orphan trains. It’s very sad to read this book, but it is teaching me a lot I didn’t know about in the form of an amazing story.
Contextualization: Most of this book is based around 1929 and the early 1930s. At this time, America was experiencing extreme economic difficulties. It was during the peak of the Great Depression. High unemployment, a low Dow-Jones scale, and low wages plagued the nation. There was high anti-immigrant sentiment and nativism, because people thought that they steal their jobs. Life was hard for American born citizens, but even harder for immigrants. People were starving and being laid off. This is all evident in The Orphan Train through Niamh/Dorothy/Vivian’s experiences as an immigrant orphan.
One question I had was “how did Niamh become Vivian?” This still remains unanswered. But, I know Niamh became Dorothy, who I assume with become Vivian. They are all the same person, but her name keeps being changed as she switches families and the parents want to Americanize her Irish name. Another question I had was “why did nobody care that these children were being exploited?” This still isn’t really answered, but this section showed that some people do care – like Miss Larsen and Mrs. Murphy. They were normal, everyday citizens, who didn’t have much to give. But they helped Dorothy out anyway. The government includes the people who don’t care. They act like orphans aren to their responsibilities, and their foster care program is unorganized and exploitive.
The author has developed the theme of fitting in/ belonging well. I did correctly identify this theme now that I am two thirds of the way through this book. Niamh and Molly both are still struggling to find a place in the world. Their stories mirror each others, almost a century a part. Niamh was an orphan, and Molly is an orphan. Niamh felt so unwanted and unloved. She felt so alone. She was constantly moving to new homes with parents who only used her for labor or other cruel intentions. She wanted to be loved. Molly lives in a foster home with her foster parents Ralph and Dina. Ralph is okay, and tries to connect with her, but Molly never really bonded well with him. Dina does not try to understand Molly at all. She ridicules her piercings and clothing, and won’t accept her vegetarianism. The vegetarian thing really bothers Molly. Dina always packs her ham, when Molly always says she won’t eat it. Dina just wants Molly to be “normal.” All Molly wants is to be accepted, and not feel out of place in her home.
a) With this book being based on the racial tensions throughout the 60s it expresses the racial tensions. Although in this portion it was extremely high due to it expressing how african americans reacted to the assassination of Martin Luther King. Sams, family has become divided due to this. With Stick joining the Black Panthers, and his father being a spokesperson for the peacefulness of this tension, their views of retaliation are extremely different. Stick begins to sneak out of the house, and during the day skip school to partake in the panthers meetings and gatherings. One night at dinner, while discussing the death of MLK, Stick blurts out about his membership with the Black Panthers. His father and him fight about this and Stick decides to move out. This affects Sam greatly. With them sharing a room their whole lives, and always being open with each other, sam feels all alone. In attempt to understand his brothers views, Sam goes to a meeting of the Panthers. He begins to understand more issues and gets more riled up to stand up for his race. After seeing his family friend Bucky attacked by the police for doing nothing, his trust in white people deteriorates.
b) They discuss topics in the chapters that we have learned such as slavery. At the Panthers meeting, the spokesman claims, “‘It’s a hundred years since slavery and we ain’t got nothing to show for it. If we wait for the government leaders to change their minds and their laws, we’ll be waiting another hundred years. We dont need anyones permission to be free,”(124). Through this quote it is expressing that although slavery is banned, blacks are still being held back, and not given the same opportunities as whites. This is explaining that although time is continuing on, nothing has changed in the treatment of blacks.
c)
Quote:
“‘In order to change out future, we have to transform the present. You all know we are fighting in a war. … Im talking about the ways we fight right here on the streets in Chicago!’”(124).
I believe this captures the idea of the book as a whole, through the theme being expressed of races fighting for their freedom. This shows how this has evolved into a war between whites and blacks, and not just a topic you can overlook. With groups such as the Black Panthers beginning to evolve, the people are standing up for what’s right and retaliating against the American society.
d)What motivated Stave to join the black panthers?
This questioned in Sticks conversation with his dad. Stick said, “‘It’s not happening. Dr. King tried the peaceful way. They came back with bullets. They brought this war on us! It’s time to fight back,’”(113). This is explaining how Stick feels unsafe. He believed in retaliating with peace, but with people he cares about being killed or injured, he believes that the only way to be looked at as a serious threat is to fight with violence.
Why would Sam, stand there and say nothing while the police were brutally beating his close family friend?
In the beginning, when this part was happening, Sam didn’t have his voice. He didn’t know how to speak up for himself or others like his dad and brother. Although as the book progresses, he begins to speak up for what he believes to his father.
e)The author has developed the main theme through the events that has occured. With the Black Panthers becoming bigger throughout Chicago, the theme of racial change is increasing.
a. To build the foundation of the story, the author gives a rundown of how roads began to develop in the country and described stories of some of the first road trips on horse and wagon. In 1806, Thomas Jefferson signed a bill authorizing the federal government to build a road through the mountains. The National Road was completed in 1818. Truman’s ancestor Solomon Young took a road trip between 1846 and 1866 with at least a dozen wagons. The author goes on to explain the history and development of roads, describing that nineteenth-century roads were little more than dirt paths that were ruined when it rained. But, in major cities roads were better developed. Streets were paved with stone or brick which was more durable. The emerging of bicycles (a new mode of transportation) came with the “good roads movement”. But, Algeo stressed the importance of the manufacturing of automobiles that spurred more road development. The author digs into Harry’s childhood revealing that his love for road trips started in 1915 when he took his first road trip with his mom, documenting the event in a letter to Bess. Algeo goes on to further develop the foundation of Truman’s by describing the history of the construction of the road. In ww1, the federal government began financing state road-building programs. New materials were being used to build roads, such as earth materials and mainly asphalt because it was smooth. While Truman was President, he addressed the issue of neglected roads during world war one. As the Truman’s continued on their adventure the author also documented his experience on the same road trio by staying at the same hotels and visiting the same restaurants.
b. The book shows the historical thinking skill of change and continuity over time by describing the process of developing roads and the effects of new technological advances on the country. The author starts the section off by setting the stage for Truman’s road trip by describing one of the first instances in which roads had developed in the country. In 1808, Thomas Jefferson signed a bill authorizing the federal government to build a road through the mountains. At first, roads were just made of dirt and were nothing more than a simple path taken by travelers on horse and wagon. People started moving goods on wagons across these roads. As time went on, the conditions of roads improved. In major cities, roads were made of paved stone or brick. The creation of a new mode of transportation, bicycles, spurred the “good roads movement”. But, automobiles were most impactful on the progression of road development. The Cumberland roads were made, connecting major cities and states across the country. As new resources were discovered, asphalt was used for roads and worked nicely. The author uses change and continuity over time to develop the story about Truman’s road trip.
c. One quote that captures the essence of the book is “But it was the automobile, of course, that turned the trickle of road building into torrent”. I think this shows the author’s intention to create a story that travels through the history of the country while flashing back to Truman’s childhood and documenting the contents of his amazing road trip. it also ties into the theme of Harry’s love for cars which reveals parts of him as a regular citizen instead of President
d. A. Will their daughter Margret be discussed more? Margret was mentioned a few times in the novel as it progressed. Harry and Bess traveled further across the country and intended to meet Margret. It was revealed in the novel that Margret was ambushed by reporters questioning where Harry was.
B. Will I learn anything new about Harry Truman that I didn’t already know? I learned that Harry Truman was related to Solomon Young. Solomon was Truman’s Grandpa who traveled across the country with a fleet of wagons piled high with goods.
C. Is Harry a different person as a citizen than he was as a president? So far, all evidence in the book had shown that Truman was kind, loving and truly cared about issues during his presidency which reflected his hobbies. When Truman was in office, he was loved by the White House staff and addressed issues that concerned him. Although he was more relaxed when he was a normal citizen, he still maintained his positive and lively attitude.
e. The author had developed the theme of uncovering who Harry Truman actually was
despite being under all the spotlight of the presidency by revealing discoveries of Truman’s childhood. The author digs deep into Truman’s life after he was president in order to find out what kind of person he was. The book documents a letter that Harry wrote to Bess after taking his first road trip. He developed a love for road trips and cars at a young age and was happy to escape reality for a little while. The author also describes a glimpse of Truman’s presidency and what he was like in office. After describing what the road conditions had deteriorated, Truman addressed the issue while he was president. I think this highlights the theme of the book and the author’s purpose to discover if Truman as a regular citizen was the same as he was as President. Harry addressed issues while he was President that he seemed to truly care about such as the issues of roads and his love for cars.
a.) This part of The Front Runner, by Matt Bai, has began to dive into the scandal of Gary Hart and how it occured. It all started when Hart and one of his colleagues from his campaign were in Miami Florida for a week off during Hart’s busy campaign schedule. His collegue, Broadhurst, rented a yacht for the day and they had an informal meet and greet where passersby came and greet Hart. The problem began when Donna Rice and her friend Lynn Armandt greeted Hart. Rice and Hart struck it off and he invited her back to the boat later that day. They later drove around in the yacht and ended up spending the night on the boat in Bimini, a close island. This weekend went unnoticed until months later when the Miami Herald received an anonymous call that instructed them that Hart was having relations with a woman starting from that night on the boat and saying that Hart had kept contact with the woman and called her often. The caller clearly knew Ms. Rice as they told the Herald that this woman was going to visit Hart in D.C. right now. The caller was later revealed to be Dana Weems, a friend of Armandts who rather despised Rice. So Tom Fiedler, the writer at the Herald, flew to D.C. and his crew set up near Hart’s townhouse to investigate. They found a blonde woman walking into Harts place that night and not leaving until the next afternoon, with Hart accompanying her. They then confronted Hart and he was very startled, but claiming that the woman left that night and did not stay there. The herald published an article later that week about the incident and it became huge news. Hart was being stormed with questions about his so called “womanizing” and it became a huge problem for the presidential candidate. He began to crumble as these questions flooded his campaign and focus shifted away from his ideas and policies. His campaign also began to crumble, Bill Dixon quit after hearing that Hart had done this in Miami and became infuriated with the man. At the same time, The Washington Post was looking into Hart so they could write an article that would shine over the Herald’s. This came when a tip was received about Hart sleeping with a woman in Virginia. This was discovered after someone hired a private investigator to tail him.
b.) One thinking skill that connects to the book is change and continuity over time. This is a great example because this book shows the turning point with media conduct in politics and towards political candidates. Before Hart, you would have never seen a newspaper crew stalking a politician’s townhouse so try to find information on the man. Also, many papers tried to stay away from diving into scandals of politicians, and focus mainly on the candidate and his beliefs and ideas. With the Miami Herald and Hart, a huge change in the media occured. After the Herald published their piece on Hart every paper wanted to have a story about the man and his womanizing issue. Every paper was digging deep into his background trying to find more scandalous moments from the man. We can see this change today as political scandals are everywhere and are always big news.
c.) “Hart decided to confront the press at a new conference that afternoon… and instead of explaining himself, or showing some humility and candor, he chastised the media like you might have a kindergarten class.” I think this captured the essence of the book because it displays the poor relationship with Hart and the media. Much of the scandal could have been avoided by Hart if he had just shown empathy for the press and revealed his actions and intentions. Instead Hart chose to lie and swallow up his true thoughts, creating a bigger deal of the situation as the media would uncover the truth and Hart would continue to deny it.
d.) The book has answered my questions from the first blog. I now know how the scandal arose and what it was truly like. I know that it started in Miami and was hidden there for a while. It then progressed to the Miami Herald investigating Hart and revealing that he was having an affair with Ms. Rice. I also know what the scene was like when the news was circulated and it was rather crazy. Hart was being stormed with reporters and had to hold press conferences to try to clear up the situation. At the conferences, reporters would rush him with questions that he didn’t want to answer but would mutter responses hastingly. I now wonder how Hart completely collapsed and fell out of the race from where he is now? What will happen to him after and what will happen to Ms. Rice?
e.) The author has developed the thesis by diving into the media’s role in the Rice scandal and how they affected Hart and his campaign. Without the bravery of the Herald, this affair would’ve gone unnoticed and Hart may have been elected President after never being found for this. But, the changing role of the media in his life brought this scandal to life and caused Hart to lose his chance at President. While the author has been focusing more on the scandal and Hart at the moment, I still think my thesis is pretty good as the main point of the book has been the media and their role in the scandal, and their changing role in politics and society.
I am reading When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka.
a) The second section of reading for this book consisted of journal-type entries of what daily life was like in a Japanese internment camp. Everything is to be shared, food is limited, each person gets only two blankets to sleep with at night, dust is everywhere, etc. The father in the story gets arrested, accused of being “disloyal” to the United States, along with many other Japanese men. The mother longs for her husband and missed their old home more than she ever thought she would. The daughter becomes ill and delirious. The boy is still full of youth, but the moods of his mother and sister and the absence of his father puts a strain on his joy. I believe this book does contain bias because the author’s family went through this same situation. It is likely that she would want to highlight the hardships that Japanese people endured during the internment of World War II. For example, Otsuka highlights how hard it was for the boy to sleep at night: “… the boy often fell asleep shivering. His hands were often red and chapped from the cold. His throat was always sore” (Otsuka 92). This quote shows the emphasis that the author places on the adversity in these camps.
b) My historical thinking skill is contextualization. After World War I, the winning nations assembled to create the Treaty of Versailles. The treaty ended up neglecting Japan’s needs among the others’, thus making them upset. Tensions rose between the United States and Japan. FDR’s commitment to isolationism prevented conflict between the two for awhile. But when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, the United States declared war on Japan. Many Americans grew skeptical of Japanese people, including Japanese Americans who had lived in the United States their entire lives. The disdain and fear that Americans had for Japanese eventually led to the internment of Japanese people that is seen in the novel.
c) “One day she couldn’t bare it anymore. . .She hung a white sheet from a rope and called it a curtain and behind the white curtain she lay down on her cot and she closed her eyes and she slept. She dreamed” (Otsuka 94). I think this quote captures the essence of the novel because it portrays the spirit of the Japanese through these hard times. No matter how bad the internment camps treated them, they got by with the hope that it would soon be over.
d) In my last blog, I wondered how the children would adapt to their new surroundings and if they understood what was happening. After reading more, I understand that they do indeed understand what is happening, but they handle their feelings about it differently. The daughter tends to have a more cynical approach, but the boy is still plenty hopeful. I also wondered what would happen to the father. At this point, he is in jail. Now, I wonder if he will ever get out. In addition, I had hoped to learn more about the mother. From my reading, I have discovered that she still has an imagination; she is very strong. I still am questioning if they will ever leave the camp.
e) I still believe the theme involves perseverance. I think the thesis of the novel is no matter how hard life gets, keep going. Otsuka’s use of mentioning the oppression that Japanese faced during internment and then explaining how each character coped with it develops this thesis.
The Lynching of Louie Sam
a. The 2nd part of the book is after the lynching, and is more centered around the drama and mystery behind both deaths. After the funeral where we left off, the townspeople (primarily the men) take it upon themselves to get revenge/ justice for what happened to Mr. Bell, even though a majority of them didn’t like him all too well and weren’t close with him. This fact makes me think that they just wanted to have a sort of reason to kill an innocent native american out of the hatred in their hearts. Before the men leave, George and Peter are told to stay behind, but their curiosity gets the best of them and they follow along behind the group. Eventually, they are found out by the group and scolded. After a day of riding, the mob breaks into the Canadian sheriff’s house who’s looking after Louie Sam as he awaits trial. They take Louie Sam, who’s only fifteen. After a short while, they decide to hang him in a tree close to the border. The mob comes back, and not too long after the Stó:lō tribe finds out and rumors start that they’re planning on getting revenge for Louie Sam’s death. Later in the chapter, we see a hint of a young romance with George and one of his classmates, Abigail; who stands up for him and his family when the other kids call them Indian lovers because their dad wasn’t as hostile and hateful when he was in the mob. This section of the book ends with George getting lots of warnings from the members of the mob, his parents, and his neighbor, a mixed white and native american boy, who’s Louie Sam’s cousin.
b. The historical thinking skill I picked is contextualization. Before this time period that the novel takes place, America is in the second industrial revolution, which is a likely reason why George Gillies and his family migrated to America. Some other important events were the eradication of slavery in 1865, which is interesting because there has been some jabs at the south in this section. After 1884, there is an increase in immigration, which is the second wave of immigration, which the Gillies are a part of.
c. The quote that I chose is “Think about what you’re doing, Bill.’ said Mr. York, addressing Mr. Moultray … ‘This isn’t the south. We don’t hang a body just for being colored.’” (Stewart 77). I chose this quote because it’s a very different perspective then the ones that are being shown from the townspeople. Mr. York treats everyone equally, even though racial tensions still run high in America at this time period.
d. So far, the book hasn’t answered any of my questions so far, but reading this section gave me some ideas for some new ones. One of my new questions is will the leaders of the mob ever be found out and or prosecuted for their crimes? And my second question for this section is will the Stó:lō tribe confront the men who were in the mob, or will the Canadians and the government calm them down?
e. The author has developed the main theme/ thesis of the book revolves around the mindset of these people, and how there are outliers in how they treat each other and how they think. Some of these families are very racist and clearly have a massive amount of hatred towards natives, while some have good relationships with some natives and don’t think that they should be harmed just because their skin is different. The story so far has kept up with this.
The title of my book is “The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid”. This section starts off with explaining the toys of this time, again from Bill’s point of view but not in story format. It describes the popular toys, and then shifts into comics. It says that everyone loved comics, and soon they put sexy female heroes in. One story of Bill is that he walked in on his parents having sex. IT then talks a lot about sex, then about him as a young child and girls around the area and how they would strip naked. IT then shifts into atomic and hydrogen bomb testing, and the cold war. A few bomb testings are described, as well as the plans for them. It speaks about the red scare, and how communists were feared even where they didn’t exist. It then shifts back into childhood life, and talks about schools and the lead up to Christmas. It spoke about vacations, and about school trips and alarm drills. Bill is delivering papers and gets bitten by a dog, and the results of the encounter. Then it suddenly goes into describing Iowa, and what Bill would do there with his grandparents. The bias presented in this book is very clear and certain. It is a memoir, so it follows the childhood life of the author, Bill Bryson. First off he was a child, but wrote this as an adult. This means that the big events happening around the world, especially politics, were very strange to him, as well as regular things that adults would understand. A few pages are even dedicated to him describing his experiences with sex: sexy comic book characters, walking in on his parents “fixing their teeth”, and asking his sister, who was at the time, a staggering eleven years old. Second, he was an American citizen living in the time period. He was biased because of this as he saw things from inside the country, not watching outside.
This book definitely falls into the contextualization category. This is because while some of the book focuses on Bryson as a character and his life, a lot of it is simply describing the culture of the time as well as notable events. It does show how these events and ideas changed the country, and it does compare, but it mainly describes. All the stories of Bryson as a child all somehow connect back to how these events were common in the culture of America in the 1950s.
“Quite how a shag in the haymow helped the relentless march of Marxism was never specified, but it hardly mattered. The point was that once an action was deemed to promote Communism, you knew you were never going to get anywhere near it”(110). The context of this quote is that lawmakers in some states thought that having sex outside of marriage was not only morally wrong, but also supported Communism. I chose this quote for two reasons. First, it captures the humour of this book. The entire point is to depict a funny childhood life of a kid who believes he is a superhero, and it has jokes like this in almost every page. The other reason is how it shows Communism. It is not a main theme, but is mentioned quite frequently. This is how a lot of other big events are. It starts with a story, here about how Bill wanted to know more about the mysterious world of sex, and then moves into a more mature issue.
1. I think that the answer is yes. The book does talk about his superhero persona, but he still has many funny stories that don’t relate to it.
2. The answer to this is an astounding maybe. He seemed to live a strange life to me, and compared to modern times he did, but back then he was just a normal kid living a regular life.
3. It still doesn’t answer this, but I don’t think so. He doesn’t seem to be crazy.
I do not have any new questions.
e. I think the theme of the book is enjoying childhood. Even though bad things have happened in every point in history, children rarely have to experience it, and this story is no exception. We get to see and enjoy the humourous life of a child living in the 50s, which at times is outright alien compared to our modern childhood lives. We see him interact with things and people around him, and how he views them. He thinks things adults do are strange, and views most things in a happier manner.
This section starts off by bringing us through one of Jimmy, Tommy, and Henry hijacks. They have two main types; trucks and airports. The truck hijacks aren’t really hijacks in the fact that most are pre planned with the driver being in on the crime. But if not then Tommy usual comes towards them with a gun in a paper bag and tells him to leave the keys in the truck. They take the truck driver and drop him off in a city nearby with $50, and if he tries to tell the cops they’ll find him and kill him. The airports are similar because they also have people from the inside helping them. They steal cargo, tickets, and anything else they can find and sell everything at a lower price than before. Throughout the book he continues to show the link between the gangsters and the workings of all the industries of their entire neighborhood. They are involved with almost every business, company, police force, and many politicians. Without them everything wouldn’t flow as smoothly, and they are benefiting tremendously from it. They continued to perform robberies racking up a total of 45 robberies worth 2.2 million dollars. But those robberies cost a lot to put together with so many people until Henry found out about an attempt to steal $480,000 in cash. This was the first major robbery at the airport and was a changing time for Henry. When recounting the event he was still extremely proud of his plan and performance stating he even did it without a gun. By the time the robbery was reported all the money was dispersed among the crime families or in Henry’s makeshift banking account. After this big win people start coming to Henry for business ventures. Henry accepts one and is now in the restaurant business. Paul makes sure to tell Henry to keep the place clean because Henry has two daughters, but it soon becomes a hangout for all his gangster friends. The next aspect this section talks about is murder in the mafia. He says it’s normal for there to be murder in the mafia and it keeps everyone in line. If you cross someone you would get killed, if you were warned to leave someone alone and didn’t, you would be killed. One time Tommy, Jimmy, and Henry was at a small get together with a gangster named Billy. Billy made some comments that upset Tommy and got Tommy riled up and wanting to kill him. So about a month later Jimmy and Tommy set up a plan to kill Billy, and they did. The problem was Billy was a made man and couldn’t just be killed for a random reason. So they secretly buried the body but was worried if anyone found out. Tommy continued to murder people and henry was starting to think he was going a little crazy. Hill is becoming more successful and by gangsters, that means having a girlfriend along with a wife. He goes on date with his girlfriends on Friday’s and starts seeing her more on the weekday. Karen becomes suspicious and keeps confronting Henry about it. Eventually she took Henry’s gun a pointed it at his head because of Linda and Henry leaves to live at Linda’s place for a couple weeks until Karen “calms down”. This pattern continues for the next couple years. Eventually Henry goes on a trip to Florida with Jimmy and gets into a bar fight. The problem was the guy he fought had a brother in the FBI and told about Henry to him. Henry got busted in his house and was sentenced 10 years. It seems funny that of all the crimes he has done and gotten away with in court, getting into a fight got him caught. Prison life is great for Henry. He has respect from all the other inmates and guards because of his gangster status, and starting to profit off smuggling things through the prison. He even gets a rabbi’s note to let him leave prison for religious instruction weekends but just gambles with Karen and his other friends. After prison he’s low on money and wants to get some back soon. So he starts selling marijuana. All types of drugs are banned by Paul so Henry had to be very sneaky. He starts to whole sale many different drugs, guns, jewelry, and liquor. The theme that keeps getting repeated is that wiseguys control everything in their neighborhood and can find ways to get money in any sorts of ways and very easily.
B. I would choose change and continuity over time. He changes from just being interested in the mafia to be a full pledged gangster. He slowly becomes more and more involved with bigger and more illegal activity. But he stays the same because he always does it because of the thrill he gets from crime. It’s not necessarily the money, but stealing and living like a gangster is what Henry loves most and motivates him to keep doing it.
C. “At the age of twelve my ambition was to be a gangster. To be a wiseguy. To me being a wiseguy was better than being the president of the United States. It meant power among people who had no power. It meant perks in a working-class neighborhood that had no privileges. To be a wiseguy was to own the world. I dreamed about being a wiseguy the way other kids dreamed about being doctors or movie stars or firemen or ballplayers,”(Pg 17). I think this encapsulates the book because it first talk about how Henry always wanted to be a gangster because it fascinated him and it seemed like a great lifestyle. That is the same way we see the book as this interesting dangerous lifestyle, but Henry thrives in it and needs it. This quote also shows that gangsters owned and controlled everything. If they needed something they could get it. They had influence on everyone and everything.
D. The book has answered my question. Karen and Henry’s relationship is very toxic. They seem to hate each other and it frustrates Henry enough to get another girlfriend. He even leaves for weeks at a time to live with his girlfriend even though he has kids. It seems pretty messed up but to be fair his whole life seems messed up. My next question is if Henry should be more worried about Paul or the feds now that he is in the drug business? I want to know how much of an influence Paul has and if it’s worth being scared of over the feds.
E. I think I got the main them correct of corruption throughout everything, but I think in addition it’s that the gangsters and wiseguys have control of everything. They use the corruption to their advantage and basically own the city. This is shown time after time with more example of how gangster live their lives and control the ins and outs of their city.
A. There are really too many characters in each chapter to be able to identify and stick with one. Though the author does do a good job of describing what there situation is adding 25 characters each chapter makes it confusing. I frequently find myself getting confused on what happened to character prior to when there mentioned, there are so many I get it mixed up. So really the only thing I can follow in the story is time. I’m not getting emotionally attached like I thought I would but the book is still interesting in terms of it’s flow and what’s going on inside the buildings. It gives you a look you’ve never seen before. Most 9/11 stories are told from the perspective of people who saw the towers fall live or on a TV, but this book gives you an in depth look at what was going on inside the buildings, that difference makes It interesting. As for bias I don’t really see any. Obviously there’s sympathy for the people in the buildings so I guess that would make it biased in America’s favor but the book doesn’t really talk about the terrorists that much. An example would be that the authors of the book only counted the victims when tallying up the dead and not the people who caused the attack. Another could be how the book painted people who went into or stayed in the buildings to help others as heroes.
B. Change and Continuity over time is a good historical thinking skill to use when describing this book. Even before both towers fell people were still becoming more desperate too get out of the being as time went on seeing as how they knew something was wrong. Planes don’t just crash into buildings. However the change and continuity can really be split up into two parts, before the South Tower fell and after. Before the South Tower fell there was panic, but people were mostly trying to figure out what had just happened and of course get to safety. However after the South Tower fell and the people in the North saw panic broke out. At that point the only thing people cared about was getting out and when some realized they couldn’t they tried to except death and make peace.
C. My quote actually comes from the prologue, “In the struggle to live, those who survived and those who did not sent out hundreds of messages. They gave us the history of those 102 minutes.” This quote obviously encapsulates the book, it describes how it was written. The authors took a long time, years I believe to gather all the information they could before making the book. Without the messages these people left and the actions they made the book never would’ve been written.
D. Some of the questions I had have been answered, some people died and some got out. I’m not done with the book so obviously all my questions haven’t been answered and I still find myself frequently forgetting who did what but some of my questions were answered. The new ones I came up with still concern who survived.
E. The author has developed the main theme into that of a tragic one. The building is compared to the Titanic in terms of it was such a marvel that no one believed serious harm would befall it and so when harm came it was ill prepared and people died because of it.
1. During this part in X, Malcolm decides to get greatly involved in his community by buying new suits, going to parties, and working at a shoeshine place. However the people that he works with, Shorty, Frankie, and generally anyone in Roxbury that knows him, are all perceived as threats to Malcolm’s step-sister Ella, who he is staying with at the time. Once Ella finds out that he has been handing out condoms and reefer joints (marijuana) to customers for an added tip, she scolds him and forces him to work as a soda fountain in the nicer part of the neighborhood. Despite this, Malcolm still persists at delving deeper into Roxbury, buying another suit on credit and meeting a few girls on the side. This however causes him to pay more to keep up with his habits, and he eventually works a higher paying job at a restaurant. After a long night of partying, he wakes up tired and late for work, and fearing that he may be fired from his job he rushes to the restaurant, only to find that nobody is working, as they are instead watching a news report of the Pearl Harbor attack. With the war on his mind, Malcolm worries about both him, and Shorty, being drafted into the military as his eighteenth birthday approaches.
2. During the time period that X takes place in, being before during and after the Great Depression, racial divide is commonplace in the book. In many of Malcolm’s flashbacks to Michigan, he remembers the blatantly racist rules he had to follow (‘NO NEGROS AFTER DARK’), as well as the terror from the Ku Klux Klan’s splinter group, the Black Legion. This is also coupled with the thematic topic of economic struggle, specifically when Malcolm relates the economic and personal freedoms he is having in Boston that he never could have had if he stayed in Michigan. Both of these tie back to the generalized idea that comes to mind whenever someone thinks about the Great Depression.
3. I believe that the quote, “Maybe, if the world was fair. As it is, we got to look out for each other”, is great for summarizing the book. This quote is said by an old miner to Malcolm in the beginning of the book, but it’s purpose is echoed throughout different sections of the book. Supporting characters like Ella, or Shorty, are closely tied to Malcolm and look after him in case he does something questionable. In many cases however, the world isn’t very fair for Malcolm and when he is split up from everyone he’s known and put into a foster home, it seems like the world is against him.
4. While this does unsurface a lot of what Malcolm X’s life was like for a while, I’m still wonder how someone who grew into being somewhat of a hustler turned out to be Malcolm X. As I have not finished the book yet, there could still be a significant development that I am missing that shows how Malcolm Little became Malcolm X. But as the story is right now, I’m a bit surprised.
5. Like I said before, the idea that the characters should actively stick together for safety is a very common theme throughout the book. Shabazz further envelopes the book in this theme by showing Malcolm’s growing relationship with Shorty, and his weakening relationship with Ella, as well as also conveying a tragic scene when Malcolm’s mother was taken to a mental institution and his family was split up into different homes. This theme may still be evident later on in the book, as Malcolm worries about being split from Shorty now that World War 2 has reached America.
In part 2 of my book “September 11: An Oral History”. The author, Dean Murphy continues to talk to more people and ask what happened to them the day of the September 11 terrorist attacks. He talks about what happened to himself and other people as the day went on into the afternoon of September 11, 2001. He talks to Firefighters, Police Officers, People working in the WTC, people working in the Pentagon, people who lived in NYC and Washington DC, and many others that had a connection and memory to that fateful day. In this book when he was talking to people as the day went on one thing was happening and that was more and more people were finding out about what was really happening, people were in shock and everyone in the country was very scared. First responders and other public safety people around NYC and NJ were rushing into Manhattan to help out near the WTC. As the day went one all top government buildings in Washington DC were being evacuated. The White House and the Capitol building were believed to maybe be the next target of an attack so they made sure those buildings were evacuated. All planes flying in the US were grounded and nobody was allowed to fly. Dean Murphy interviews a man who was working on top of the Federal Reserve bank of NYC, which was two blocks from the WTC. The man, Ed Stawarz was on the roof of the building and saw the plane so close he could see the people through the windows sitting on the plane. When he saw the plane hit the building he said it looked to have just gone straight through. “It was like the tower consumed the jet, just sucked it inside. I saw the tail end going and going and then it was all gone. I was just stuck there for a moment in horror and shock.” (Murphy 119) This quote really encapsulates the feeling of this day many people around the country were just feeling shock and horror, especially people in NYC and Washington DC. The author continues with his main theme from the first part of the book where Dean Murphy talked to people and the memories of that day. Most people were all filled with shock and horror. Lots of Americans didn’t know what was gonna happen next if another plane was gonna hit somewhere or if another attack was gonna occur. People in NYC had no idea what was happening, all they knew was that the twin towers were on fire. Rachel Landman was a senior at Stuyvesant High School which was only four blocks away from the WTC she got off the subway that morning and saw the smoke coming from the towers and a hole ripped through the side and was in disbelief. People had said a plane hit the towers while she was watching the news on a TV in her High School cafeteria and everyone was shocked. Most schools in lower Manhattan were shut down that day for the safety of the students. Stuyvesant was one of them and used by the NYPD as a command center. Dean Murphy interviewed people in this part of the book in shock of what happened in NYC and summarizes the feeling in NYC on September 11, 2001.
a.(unbroken) after he competed in the nineteen thirty six Olympics in Germany Louie was scheduled to participate in the nineteen forty Olympics Japan however this was interrupted by the bombing of pearl harbor and the united states being pulled into the second world war. Where Louie would be drafted in to the United States military eventually he was assigned to the army air corps. Louie would be trained as a bombardier to fly in a b-24 liberator stationed in Oahu Hawaii where he would fight with his crew mates against Japan in the pacific theater. At the beginning Louie waited idle for battle for some days until he and his crew successfully bombed a Japanese base at the island of wake atoll and many other Japanese controlled pacific islands. Strangely enough the thing that brought down their plane was not the participation in bombing raids but a Mechanical failure of their bomber; ironically they crashed during a search and rescue operation. The place where they crashed was the middle of nowhere in the middle of the pacific ocean, once they got out of their sinking plane all they had was two small life rafts and very little food and fresh water all for three different people. While drifting out in the ocean they faced not only dehydration and starvation but sharks and storms as well. They drifted at sea for forty six days until they saw land which to their misfortune happened to be occupied by Japan. If this book was written during the war I believe that there would be much more anti-Japanese bias, This book is a real story that actually happened Louie Zamperini is a real person, Louie after the war met with the Japanese officers that held him and forgave them which is why I believe that this book is free or minimal of bias.
b. During World war two there was a lot of anti-Japanese sentiment many Americans did not have positive views of the Japanese because of Pearl Harbor and that their family members could be fighting them. If this story was written during this time period I there would be much bias towards the Japanese in it as it could potentially be considered war propaganda since the protagonist was an American soldier.
c. “The paradox of vengefulness is that it makes men dependent upon those who have harmed them, believing that their release from pain will come only when their tormentors suffer.” This quote does hold the essence of the book because Louie is beaten and bruised by the Prisoner of war Camp officers particularly on called the bird but in the end Louie forgives even him and does not hate the Japanese and overcomes the conditions he faced. “Dignity is as essential to human life as water, food, and oxygen. The stubborn retention of it, even in the face of extreme physical hardship, can hold a man’s soul in his body long past the point at which the body should have surrendered it.” I think this quote reflects best what Louie went through being stuck on the life raft because for many days they run out of food and water yet are able to survive none the less.
e. I though the theme of the book was survival, adapting and overcoming which I think still is true because Louie survives being stranded, a plane crash and imprisoned by the Japanese. But I think the theme will switch to forgiveness because Louie in the end forgives the Japanese that tortured him.
Summarize your reading for that part; also, this might be the part to examine bias in the book w/ specific example:
This part of the book elaborates more on the violence of the war and the main character’s, Robin Perry, moral dilemma while fighting in the war. In this section, we learn more about how he hates the thought of killing people and hates the fact that children are involved in this war. We learn about groups that use children to shoot at Americans and beat children if they don’t comply. In this section, we see children that present with sucking chest wounds and head injuries far beyond repair. This section also details the real dangers of IEDs, in this section at least four soldiers have died as a result of bombs. I can’t really identify any protruding bias in the book. I would expect the author to talk about how the war is unnecessary and a waste of time but, the author doesn’t do that. I think that Walter Myers centered his story on the real experiences of the soldier and not much political stuff that would present with bias.
Connect a historical thinking skill to your book segment – contextualization, comparison, change and continuity over time, synthesis (comparing time periods), cause and effects, periodization (including turning points):
The contextualization of my book would be about the Iraq War. The Iraq War was about overthrowing Saddam Hussein who the president of Iraq at this time. The invasion was authorized by George W. Bush.
Pick a quote from your book, either this section or previous section – that you think captures the essence of your book. Explain why this quote is a good encapsulation of the book:
“The plane circled and dropped one bomb or fired one missile or something. It hit the truck and there was a great explosion. … One little girl began to scream. The horror of it swept over them all but one little girl whose brother was in the truck. She found what was left of him and tried to pull him home.” (147-148). This quote is a village elder explaining to the United States Army soldiers what had happened and why this little girl was shaking. I think this is a great encapsulation of the book because this is the type of violence the author keeps making us aware of. The main character and some of his fellow soldiers are contemplating morals here and trying to hold back their emotions. I think this one quote captures the entire book because the part of the book I have read so far has to do with violence and reaction to violence.
Look back at the questions that you had in your previous book post. Has the book answered them? What were the answers? If the book hasn’t answered your questions, which questions still remained unanswered? Have you revised or come up w/ new ones? What are they?:
On the first blog entry, I had two questions. My questions were about Jonsey, and about why the author portrays the Civilian Affairs soldiers as weaker. I have a theory that Jonsey will die because I feel like the author keeps foreshadowing it. I also think that they seem weaker because they aren’t the stereotypical hardened Speical Forces soldiers, they are regular soldiers that react to death like everyone else. I have no new questions.
Looking back at your first book post, how has the author developed the main theme / thesis of your book? Did you correctly identify the theme / thesis now that you’re 2/3 done w/ the book? If not, what’s the new theme / thesis?
I think I was correct in thinking that the theme was bravery. I think that the author keeps developing this theme by creating horrible scenarios and detailing how the main charaters react.
a. My independent reading book is “Adams Vs. Jefferson: The Tumultuous Election of 1800” by John Ferling. In the second third of this book, the author continued to explain each of the four candidates for the presidency in the 1800 election’s backgrounds and personalities. Ferling started with Aaron Burr, the youngest of the candidates in 1800. Baur was born in 1756 and was raised by relatives since his parents had died when he was an infant. He graduated with honors from Princeton at age sixteen and planned a legal career. When the Revolutionary War began in 1775, Burr volunteered to fight. In 1782, Burr opened a law office in Albany and married Theodosia Prevost. His law practice flourished and he lived a sumptuous lifestyle while being mired in debt. Until he was in his thirties, Burr evinced little interest in politics but in 1789, his interest in public affairs had reawakened. When his wife died, politics became the focal point of his life. A second candidate in that election, Charles Pinckney was born in 1745 at South Carolina but at the age of eight was taken to England by his parents after his father was appointed the colony’s agent in London. After sixteen years abroad, Pinckney returned in 1969 to a South Carolina that protested against Parliament’s American Policies. Pinckney devoted his energies initially to establish his legal practice and in the beginning, he played little role in the popular protest. However, after the war erupted, Pinckney supported America. The author continues to explain that Jefferson and Adams were once very good friends. Jefferson had a lonely and unhappy childhood and longed for a caring family. He found what he was looking for when he met Martha Skelton and married her. He was drifting away from public life and preferred to remain at home. However, when Martha died in 1782, Jefferson sunk into a depression and got assigned to an office in France, near the Adamses’ house. The two often had a very good friendship. When Adams was reassigned to Britain, Jefferson often wrote to both John and Abigail Adams. However, their experiences abroad changed them and their beliefs about what a government should be.
b. A big turning point in this section of the book is when Thomas Jefferson’s wife, Martha Skelton, died following childbirth. This was influential because it caused Jefferson to focus on politics and to seek public life again. This corresponds with the lives of a few other important men, such as Aaron Burr. Before, Burr evinced little interest in politics but when his wife died, politics became the focal point of his life.
c. A quote that captures the essence of the book is: “In the space of a single generation, the America that these four men wished to govern had undergone a major transformation.” This is a good summarization of the book so far because these chapters mainly talk about the candidates of the 1800 presidential election and the changes America underwent at the time.
d. In the last blog, I wondered how each of these candidates got to their positions and what inspired their ambitions. This third of the book answered my questions by providing specific details about the background and beliefs of each of those men.
e. I believe that one of the pivotal themes of this book is the change of the individual over time. This novel demonstrates the shifts in people’s personalities, beliefs, and viewpoints. This is sometimes caused by a significant moment in their lives. An example of that is shown in the book when the deaths of Burr’s and Jefferson’s wives led these men to concentrate on politics.
A. In the novel Fever 1793 the plot develops immensely in the second half. Matilda had just been kicked off of the wagon with her Grandfather. They were trying to get away from the fever, but it seemed to follow her grandfather. He got sick, but it wasn’t the fever. They were out of the town miles from Philadelphia, and had no food or clothes. In her search to look for more food, Matilda finds herself exhausted and under a heat wave. She then fainted, and wakes up in a hospital in Philadelphia. Matilda slowly recovers from her illness, and her and her grandfather go back to their coffee shop. Matilda’s mother is nowhere to be found, she isn’t sure if she died or left the city to meet them on the farm they were going to. While in the house Matilda and grandfather make the best of it. They find that the coffee shop had been looted and broken into. A few nights after their arrival back to the house, robbers come in again, but this time Matilda and her grandfather are there. Matilda tries to stop them, but she gets captured. Her grandfather tried to save her, he had his shotgun and shoot at the robber. The robber attacked him. This killed grandfather, he was already week from his sicknesses. Now the story is just Matilda, in the city with no one else, and no family. There isn’t really any bias in the novel. Since this is a fiction novel, you can say that it is biased to Matilda, and it doesn’t give other points of view of minorities that are going through this epidemic.
B. I can compare this epidemic back to another epidemic that hit like a wildfire. The aids epidemic happened more recently, it broke out in the 1970’s and 80s. The yellow fever epidemic ravaged through Philadelphia, killing off thousands of people of a small 40,000 town. This was the biggest city for the time period. Currently, around 1 million people have died from aids. Change between these two periods are that in 1793 the city all evacuated. They tried to take care of sick people. The brave ones stayed to try and healed the plagued. This is different from the the aids epidemic. Since it only hurt homosexuals the government didn’t get involved. But once it was seen that you could get this illness despite sexuality the government stepped in. This is a major difference, if the government would have tried to make an attempt and help patients with aids maybe many lives could have been spared. Some continuity between these two outbreaks are that when they got too bad, they were casted aside. In 1793 and in the 1980s if they were too sick they were casted aside. This similar to the two time periods, it just shows that people bail when things get too hard.
C. In this quote Matilda is mourning the death of her grandfather, after she fought off the robbers and is left alone: “The first tear gave way to another, and then another. I passed the night kneeling by the side of the finest man I had ever known, praying that the morning would not come” (Anderson 149). This quote captures the essence of the book because it shows such raw emotion. It shows the tragedy that all of the families had to face i n 1793. It brought chills to me when I read this quote at the end of the chapter. It shows what the whole book is about, which is death.
D. My main questions were if the characters were going to be advanced deeper in the novel. Eliza’s character hasn’t been enhanced that much, all we find out is that she is a hard worker, and cares for others. This is said by Matilda. On the other hand, Matilda’s character deepens a lot. We get to see that she is scared of being viewed as childish, and that she doesn’t want to fail. We also get to see how she lets go of herself after the death of her grandfather. This brings her character to a more extend and important character to the readers. My new questions are how will Matilda survive alone? Will her mother return? How does she handle the death of her grandfather moving forward in the novel? I believe that these questions are essential to the novel.
E. I think that the author has developed the main theme of mortality a lot in the second section. She develops mortality by showing us the death of grandfather. The death of Matilda’s grandfather makes Matilda question her own life. She starts to walk on the line between life and death. I think that the author has also brought in new themes into the novel. Family was present in the novel, but I think in this section it really popped out, and you felt more deeply connected to the novel because of how much the theme of family was in it. The theme of family and mortality start to walk hand in hand, these two themes will later develop the book until the end. Leaving a main thesis question, that in the heat of death and pain, family can prevail and can be reunited against all odds.
1. The book finally dives into the 6 American that escaped the embassy. Bob, Lee, Cora, Mark, Joe, and Kathy all escapes the embassy before the Iranians took it over, and the book talks about how they relied on people they had met overseas in the government to house them. They stayed in apartments and such and then went on to stay in the British embassy before the Brits got scared and made them move to the Canadians. Canada saved our butt and housed them, half with Ken Taylor and half with Jake Sheardown. Lee didn’t join the group until after he needed to move for safety purposes. Mendez thinks that the 6 with the Canadians isn’t a big deal compared to the embassy that was still control by the Iranians, but he ends up needing to focus on the 6 because he’s the man for the job. This RAPTOR gives feeds the CIA intelligence, and Mendez finally gets to working by looking for a cover up. There might be some American bias as it portrays the Iranians obviously as horrible people, but they just wanted the Shah back that they thought was a tyrant. Mendez shows a lot of love to Canada as he only mentions them in a good light. He says that Ken Taylor provided them with all the alcohol they wanted and even disposed of it himself in a way that no one could find it and be suspicious. Jake Shesrdown also didn’t have a lot of room for house guests, but he took in 5 of them anyway. Taylor also takes in Lee from the Swedish embassy later on. Chapter five is also literally called “Canada to the rescue”.
2. The biggest cause and effect is that of the Shah and the Iranians. We implemented the Shah in 1953 after Iran’s previous elected Shah cut us and Great Britain off from their oil. The Shah was a ruthless leader that lives a lavish lifestyle while he people we starving and tortured if they tried to retaliate. The Shah was over thrown after he attempted to westernize Iran, and he fled to America were we kept him safe from the Iranians. This causes the Iranian people to be mad in the first place, and all they want back is the Shah so he can pay for what he had done. The effect of that was literally the taking over of the American embassy, and the reason we were in this bug ole’ mess.
3. My quote is “F*ck me, he thought. This does not sound good.” I chose this quote not only because it’s kind of funny, but because it really does sort of sum up the book. I mean our embassy gets taken over, everyone thinks that it’s the same as the February threat and that it will be back up and running in no time, we have 6 escaped Americans hiding in the most anti-America country in the world, and now we need to trust this CIA guy to get them all out of this mess. It is a “heck me” story, but I haven’t even gotten to the cover up of how they plan to get the 6 of them out of there.
4. My question has not yet been answered, but I’m literally right there to figuring it out. My question was how goes the Argo idea spark, and why does the CIA sign off on something so silly. Another question I have is I’m wondering how smoothly this plan will go, or if there are some bumps in the road ahead (there has to be).
5. My theme I came up with last time was strength, and there is still plenty of that going on in the reading this time. Canada clutched up and showed they have our back even though Iranians are crawling everywhere looking for American blood. Canada waited it out for us and helped our 6 Americans, showing immense strength. The hostages also show how strong they are as they themselves have to stay inside all day, fearing that they might be discovered while changing locations or even just going outside at all.
Back To Our Future by David Sirota
A. In this section of the book, Sirota went into depth on how different movies and tv shows in the 80s started to show the government in a bad light and try to make them seem useless and make the public seem more useful. It talked about E.T., the Ghostbusters franchise, The A-Team, Nightmare on Elm Street, and several more. These programs depict the government as if they don’t know how to do anything. It even shows them as saying that they couldn’t do anything to help. These programs specifically targeted law enforcement such as the police, FBI, and CIA. Sirota also went on to talk about how these programs, meant for little kids, targeted their political opinions onto these kids. He explains that this is a problem because kids are very impressionable. He goes on to talk more in depth about the Vietnam War. He not only explains the events of the war but more about how the thinking during the war parallels today. He explains that he believes that the 80s are in a sense repeating themselves. He explains that he believes that then and now, many people believed that the solution to all their problems was war and that everything can be solved by war. Similarly to this, he explains the same thing with tv. He largely believes that the 80s are paralleling today’s society.
B. The 80s was a very distinct time in our past that is hugely remembered today. This era was filled with large hair (the bigger the better), iconic movies, and widely popular video games. But the 80s were not just known for it pop culture. For one, the Cold War started to die down yet tensions over communism in places like Vietnam and China remained high. Major government distrust spread throughout the country over Richard Nixion and his Watergate scandal.
C. “It is impossible to consider the enduring legacy of the 1980s without first returning to and prostrating ourselves at the altar of Micheal J. Fox” (Sirota 1). This quote captures the essence of the book because it shows the writers love for the culture of the 80s and willingness to share not only the political side but the fun, pop culture of the 80s.
D. My question from the last section was: why have the other decades not influenced us as much as the 80s have? This question has not been answered yet. The 80s was such a prominent time in our history and everyone has something to take away from it no matter how young you are.
E. I got the theme of the book mostly right. The theme is that the 80s have greatly influenced us today. Everywhere you are there is something there that has been influenced by the 80s. But the other part of the theme is that the 80s parallel our world today. Sirota goes through the individual events and prominent features of the 80s and explains how they influence and parallel today. He not only goes through the political side but also the pop culture side.
In the book Detroit the second part starts off with temperance movement in the progressive era. Detroit was the center of smuggling alcohol from Canada to the U.S. the were gangs and mafia who specialized in it and they often fought with each other. Then came the roaring 20s where Detroit boomed with new skyscrapers and factories. The city got paved roads and started a early freeway system in Detroit. With the roaring 20s came the KKK a group called the Black Legion was a white supremacist group that was terrorizing the midwest and had many attacks in Detroit.
The contextution is the british using detroit as a fort. They had fought lots of indians. Then Detroit was used in the war of 1812 where Detroit was used as the united states of America had invaded Canada. Over time Detroit had become one of the biggest industrialized cities in America. There were lots of factories as the auto industry became big. The turning point is the auto industry booming in Detroit with Ford, GM, and Chrysler with factories employing the majority of the city and creating a large middle class in Detroit.
“Detroit becoming the capital of cars in America and the world” ( pg 57). This shows how big the auto industry in Detroit was and its global effects on the world. The auto industry is the heartbeat of Detroit and throughout the 20 century, the shape of the city followed the car industry. During the low points of Detroit history, the car industry is almost always failing too. In the book, it describes a city built around the factories and people live around the factories.
The questions I had before was how bad was the early racism in Detroit and the answer to that question is that it was bad with klans like the black legion terrorized the midwest and especially Detroit which other then Chicago was the biggest city in the Midwest. Another question that had been answered is that there was mafia in Detroit and it was big. I did not know much about the mafia in Detroit. A question I had was what if the factory’s stayed in the city and not the suburbs of the story of Detroit would have been different. Another question is how the black legion go away in Detroit they did not say much about its down fall in Detroit and where it goes after. Because they had a lot of power and looked like they were going to be the klan in Detroit but some how went away.
Looking back the author had put Detroit in its glory days and where it was at its most success and that was the early 20 century during the 20s and world war 2. The theme I identified was the city built around the auto industry and the them e was right as city was booming as the auto industry was booming. It was the final growth of the city before its dramatic fall.
Orphan Train
This part of the book went into greater detail about Niamhs upbringing as an Irish orphan.She firsts goes to a family that owns a seamstress company. Quickly, she begins to realize they only adopted her because they wanted her for free labor. She is expected to act way more mature than she actually is at 10 years old. She is given a huge set of rules like no snacking and no going to the bathroom in the house, only use the outhouse. As a 10 year old living like this makes Niamh very upset. Later during this part of the book, the family’s seamstress company starts to decline and the owners can no longer take care of her or pay the workers. The owners call the childaid company and say that she was acting out and don’t want to take care of her anymore. She is then sent to a family who lives in a cabin in the woods. The house has no electricity and no running water. This is a very different change that she is not used to at all. These people wanted to take her in because the mother wanted her to take care of her kids. The dad is out hunting all the time so he doesn’t have time either. Right away, Niamh gets a very weird feeling from her new foster father. He reveals to her that he doesn’t love his wife and only married her because they had children accidentally. The kids come down with a bad case of lice and she is forced to cut her hair. She returns to school and her teacher is very supportive of her, but mentions she is nervous of her poor hygiene and dropping grades. Niamh assures her teacher that she is fine. Then one night her foster father molests her and is about to rape her when his wife comes in. The wife blames it on Niamh and kicks her out. She walks to the only safe place she knows which is her school. She falls asleep on the floor and tells her teacher everything that happened when she arrived at school. She then goes to live at the boarding house with her teacher and that is where I stopped reading. All of these stories are being revealed to Molly by Vivian (Niamh) while she helps her clean out her attic. I don’t see much bias in this book. The only thing that would be close to bias is when Molly is in class learning about Native Americans and a boy comments how their life wasn’t really that hard on reservations. Molly is offended by that because she is Native American. Other than that, I don’t see bias. This book is clearly synthesis. It goes between the two characters stories. They are both orphans but in different time periods. The contrast of the harsh life of being in the foster care system between those two times.“I like the assumption that everyone is trying his best, and we should all just be kind to each other.” This quote is the perfect representation of this book. It shows how the two in their bad situations constantly try to make it better. This mostly relates to Niamhs character and how she constantly tries to see the bright side of everything. Some new questions I have are is this going to be Niamhs final foster home until she moves out and what will she do when she is older? I also wonder if Molly will start to except herself. A major theme in this book is still definitely acceptance. We can see how Vivians influence of acceptance is influencing Molly. All of her stories are showing her how to make everything better by embracing her situation.
As the story goes on the book likes to slip so many sideline stories that I’ve given up on the irrelevant main story and started to focus on the story of the people in Dalhart. As the stories tell of the lives of the various people there has been a tendency of most of them end up going dirt poor. Yet no matter how many go poor there is always a pattern for why these people end up poor: Land failure. Most of the story is about how the land betrayed them and took their money away. A Cowboy that goes by the name of Andy James would be a perfect example of how one would go broke due to land failures the James family were forced to sell a big chunk of their land due to bankruptcies; the reason why the family went bankrupt is mostly because they based their profit from cattle farming and so did everyone else until there was a huge drop in the market for cattle due to the surplus of cattle from the west and so they had to sell some of their lands back to the bank. Now what he did afterward was instead of going to the wheat business like most farmers did he thought cotton would become much more profitable and used the rest of his land to grow cotton and after two failed attempts of growing cotton the James family was out of the race he did make one more attempt at riches by borrowing money from the bank and purchasing a drill which he would use to find an oil vein and of course this didn’t work and James was now penniless and in debt.
Contextualization for this would be people going west hearing they could make a quick buck which was promptly why people went to the west another piece of contextualization or more like cause and effect would be the AAA act that F.D.R. passed making a deal with farmers to produce less since during this time in the book farmers were making a surplus due to inventions of the tractor.
My quote for the book is “Andy James looked so sad then, a broken man in a time of fast fortunes”(pg154). The reason why i think this quote captures this book is that it means that even though the west makes it look like everyone was having a fun time like the story says not everyone was having a good time this man from the somewhat high mid-tier to rock bottom.
The Questions i had in the last book assignment were answered because i found the reason why people went through such harsh conditions to live in the west for, it was for money which seems a little bit obvious before but I just couldn’t believe what people would do for money but I have my answer now.
The main theme of the book has stayed the same from previous chapters the wild west wasn’t easy to live in but it could be very rewarding physically and mentally and the book shows this theme time and time again with its several side stories.
A. The 2nd third of the book, The Plots Against The President by Sally Denton, starts with an attempted assassination of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. After a speech in Chicago, a man fired five failed shots at Roosevelt, one of which hit the Mayor, Cermark, and Roosevelt was able to save him. The gunman was an Italian immigrant named Giusseppe Zangara and the first few chapters of this section are spent following the police trying to find out what his motives are and who he was associated with. The book then shows the effect of Roosevelt’s survival of the attack and uncovers a larger plot against the Roosevelt administration and “all presidents”. Sally Denton appears to be quite pro-Roosevelt (as pretty much every American is) and doesn’t really show Zangara’s side of the story, which, while not a controversial stance, is not completely unbiased.
B. The attempted assassination of one of history’s greatest leaders came dead in the middle of multiple anarchist terrorist attacks in the U.S. and Mussolini’s transition of Italy into the fascist Axis Power it was during World War II. In the 1910s, America began to have a great fear for anarchy due to multiple terrorist attacks by people of that thinking and Italians were discriminated and racially profiled due to a stereotype that they were anarchists. This is similar to McCarthy’s Second Red Scare because people were similarly scared of a certain way of thinking, however, instead of the fear of communism, there was a fear of anarchy. This pre-war racism to Italians is also similar to the discrimination towards the Japanese after Pearl Harbor because in both cases they felt threatened by them because they had a connection to the enemy. This is connected back to the assassination attempt because Guisseppe Zangara was a fascist anarchist with a bitter hatred for the upper class (which Roosevelt was apart of) who wanted to “kill all presidents”. Zangara had built up resentment for the government because it had not treated him and people like him well.
C. “‘As a man I like Meester Roosevelt. As a president I want to keel him. I want to keel all presidents.’” (Denton, p. 107). This encapsulates the book because it is a quote from Zangara after his arrest and shows the mystery as to the motives and organization of the non-fatal shooting. The most interesting part of the book is finding out why somebody would ever want to kill FDR. It is also a testament to Roosevelts strength as a politician that even his assassin was somewhat a fan. With the mocking of Zangara’s accent in the spelling of “mister” as “meester” and “kill” as “keel” also shows the racial tension of the time.
D. Most of my questions have been answered, but am still interested in whether Zangara was in association with anybody regarding his plans to kill Roosevelt.
E. The thesis is essentially the same. However, I did not provide a theme. One of the themes of this book would be destiny because the shots fired at a completely immobilized FDR missed due to an unsturdy chair, a faulty gun and other such happenstances. FDR grew up to wealthy family, expected to make many achievements. He was meant to do great things so he did not die on that fateful day.
a. While still traveling to toward California, the Joad family meets a couple named Sairy and Wilson, who they decide to travel with, until they reach California. In the first place they stop in California, Sairy gets very sick, so the couple has to stay behind. Noah, one of Tom’s brothers decides to stay there too because he feels it will be best for him and his family. Along this journey, both Grampa and Granma die. Grampa dies before they reach California and Granma dies pretty soon after they go there. Along the journey, they learn that people don’t like the “Okies” which they are, and they are told it will be much harder to find work than they think because there are thousands of people just like them that received handbills encouraging them to move West. Once they get to California, they stay in a Hooverville, which is a camp of shacks and tents that very poor families live in. There they learn of the poor likelihood of finding work and the poor wages that they might receive if they are lucky enough to find work. They decide to leave this Hooverville and look for a government camp, which they eventually find and stay at, because they were told it had nice amenities and good people. There, Tom meets two guys who are able to get him a job, so that the family can have some money. Some bias seen in this section can be the awful portrayal of all of the officers. They are always portrayed as mean, rude, and controlling, especially toward the Okies. This prejudice against Okies is one that the author portrays every town in California of having. This might be exaggerated, as it is doubtful that as many people as shown in the book actually despised the Okies.
b. The Hoovervilles are a main topic in this segment of the book. The causes of these makeshift towns were the Great Depression and the huge number of migrants that went West looking for work. They migrated because they lost their jobs or their land to the banks and were given advertisements for jobs West. The Great Depression caused many people to lose their jobs and have to find new work; however, there weren’t enough jobs for everyone to work, so many went unemployed. This lack of money and places to stay caused the creation of Hoovervilles. The effect of them was that many families lived in unsanitary and malnourished conditions within close quarters. In addition, the locals did not appreciate the Hoovervilles, so many of the residents were harassed and sometimes the towns were even burned, as exemplified in the novel.
c. On quote that encompasses much of the book is said by the preacher, Casy, “’There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do’” (23). This captures the essence of the book because it seems that everyone is just doing what they can to make it through. The characters in the novel have made mistakes, but they have to realize that no one is perfect and move on with their lives. They have to do what they can to make it through the present and leave the past in the past. That is what this quote is saying.
d. My past questions have been answered about the book. I wondered about Grampa’s future in California, but he died, so unfortunately, he did not get to enjoy it, but his death did cause a bit of a bump in the road because the family had to figure out what to do with his body. I wondered about how crowded California would be, and so far, it has been extremely crowded and hard to find work, just as fellow travelers warned. I wondered about Tom and his father finding work, and so far, Tom has only recently found work, but his father has not yet. I wondered about how Tom’s criminal record would affect his future, and it hasn’t really, except briefly when he had to hide from the police because he would have been breaking parole for being out of state. Finally, I wondered about Jim Casy’s future plans; he ended up sacrificing himself as the one who hit a police officer in the Hooverville, so that the Joad family could stay together and move out of the Hooverville. As a result, he went to jail, and I don’t suspect the reader to hear about him again.
e. I think I correctly analyzed the main theme of this book as overcoming hardships because the author has continued developing this theme through the next third. One hardship that the family overcame was reaching California finally after a long and trying journey. Another is surviving the Hooverville and their poor treatment as a result of being Okies. Another is Tom finally finding work, even though it wouldn’t have been likely for him to do so. Finally, the family has endured losing family members, whether by death or by staying behind, which is extremely hard. They persisted and kept marching toward their goal of prosperity in the West. Despite the challenges, they are stronger because of it.
The middle chapters of Idiot America are radio nowhere and god and judge jones. The author analyses the new niches filled by “cranks”, or people who come up with outlandish theories that keep the nation on its toes in terms of making sure that the government isn’t doing anything shady. The author talks about a convention for radio show hosts in Radio Nowhere, he portrays a couple of the more popular and “interesting” hosts and covers the origins and evolution of the radio talk show, and the various strategies and advantages employed by these hosts to keep an audience and say crazy things without consequences. The second chapter, “God and judge jones” is about the role of religion, specifically Christianity, in America. The author mostly provides a relatively unbiased work, he mostly makes fun of obviously ridiculous people with even more ridiculous theories.
This entire book is a synthesis of different eras of conspiracy theory and a comparison of these eras to our own current time period. The author illustrates his points by explaining and analyzing various instances of conspiracy theorists getting to deep into their theories and other “cranks”. He often mocks the crazier ones and then compares how far we have moved from the country these people lived and theorized in. Most of the sections tell a new story from a different time period that he uses to explain a new part of his thesis, which he adds onto at the end of the chapter.
“Idiot America is a strange, disordered place. Everything is on the wrong shelves. The truth of something is defined by how many people will a test to it, and facts are defined by those people’s fervency. Fiction and nonfiction are defined by how well they sell. The best sellers are on one shelf, cheek by jowl, whether what’s contained in them is true or not. People wander blindly, following the gut into dark corners and aisles that lead nowhere, confusing possibilities with threats, jumping at shadows, stumbling around. They trip over piles of fiction left strewn around the floor of the nonfiction aisles. They fall down. They land on other people, and those other people can get hurt.” This quote goes through his thesis by using a metaphor of a bookstore. The first part shows his belief that America had become a backwards place where everything is strange. The second part shows how informations accuracy doesn’t matter, only whether or not it sells does, and that no one distinguished truth and lie for these popular “bestsellers” this confuses the customer who represents the American citizens and leaves them to choose one side to believe and try to sort everything out for themselves only for some to get lost in a pocket of darkness and bring others with them. All because of how information is sold, not shared.
Neither section has left me with many unanswered questions, this book just isn’t really written in that kind of style, it’s more of a huge essay that’s told through short stories.
The author has added a fair bit to his thesis. I did identify it correctly in the first half, and he expanded upon it by showing to contrasting times and comparing their importance to the eventual willful indifference America develops
Captain turner begins to make his circle course across the atlantic ocean. At this time of year he was extremely worried, along with the other warship captains, about icebergs in the ocean that could sink the ships if they were not careful. On their trip across they become extremely paranoid on a sunday when heavy fog and rain sets in, making iceberg less visible than before. Turner always put his passengers first and made sure they were oblivious to the potential hazards. Larson starts to personally introduce the passengers of the lusitania and breaks down their personal lives to give context and back story. Some of them are William Meriheinina and Theodate Pope. It talks about Meriheinina being a young race car driver and why he’s on the ship. Captain turner was receiving memos and crating plans to avoid surprise submarine attacks. The admiral also advised the rest of the navy to do this as well, but i would increase the length of the voyage. Room 40 was a german messaging room that was intercepting messages from large ally ships such as the HMS Orion. The ship crew and company learned about this and began to change, plot, and plan alternate courses to secure the ships safe voyage. The german submarines were harassing all types of american liners, germans would mine certain sections of the ocean the funnel ships into hostile territory. The Fleet containing the HMS jupiter, HMS duke, and the HMS gloucester all were cleared to take alternate routes to mislead room 40 interceptions. naval.mines were cleared from the waters in the alternate route allowing for ally ships to go through hostile waters. The book proceeds to talk about dck life for passengers on the ship, how people were becoming more and more threatened by submarine attacks. This led to Turner increasing protections from these attacks and establishing emergency boats and positions. Turner also sends out extra lookouts and other safety precautions to keep his boat safe.
A historical connection to this is the increase in U.S and british preparedness for the war. It also goes into depth on the ruthlessness of the U boats on all allied liners. The safety measures taken by captain turner are just a small part of the changes that britain and america made to protect themselves from spontaneous german attacks. This also shows the intensity of the naval warfare during the war and how it affected a lot of people. This is shown through captian turners preparation for attacks by sending out scouts and extra life boats.
C.”Turner put 22 extra men on lookout that Sunday” in encapsulates the tensions during the voyages across the Atlantic for the captian and passengers of the Lusitania. They try to stay out of harms way by sending out extra scouts
D.no, the book hasn’t answered any of my questions from before. I haven’t seen Turner and schwieger meet or even indirect make contact with each other. The book in this part is largely focused the life of passengers and the threat of German you boats. But this still makes me believe that the two captains might come in conflict with each other given that the Lusitania is sunk by a German U boat.
E I think that the author largely developed the theme of tension. This theme is slowly and exponentially increasing in the book with the U.S and British preparedness for the war. I think that he also sheds light on the German side too and how the U boats are treating the British and us ships. The increasing tension have been a theme throughout the book and I think it’s going to stay one throughout the book.
The second third of Vietnam- Book 1- I Pledge Allegiance by Chris Lynch follows that main character, Morris (Mo). Mo is in the navy while each of his other three best friends are in different branches of the military. Mo feels the responsibility of his friends the most as he has always been the adult of the group. When the boat cruiser that Morris is stationed on, the US Boston, gets shot at by the Viet Cong off the coast of South Vietnam, the American men are beaten pretty bad. The US Boson and their sister ship endured quite a bit of damage during the fight. Furthermore, one of Mo’s shipmates and friend, Vera, drinks bleach and jumps overboard the ship during this time. Because of the brutal beating that the cruiser took, then men are allowed to return home while the ship was being fixed. Morris gets to go home to Boston and see his mother but because his friends, Ivan, Rudi, and Beck, aren’t home with him, he does not feel as if it is really his home.
The context of this book is obviously the Vietnam War. In 1954 the French lost a major battle to the Vietnamese and decided to pull out. At the time, between 1955 and 1975, the country of Vietnam was in a brutal war between the communist North and the government of South Vietnam. America decided that it was go time and entered on the assumption that it would be a quick win. It was not. The United States followed the policy of containment, so it aided the South in trying to kick communism out of Vietnam while the Soviet Union supported the communist North. Because of this, the Vietnam War was considered a proxy war.
“When one of us were drafted, we all were drafted.”
This quote encompasses the whole book because throughout the story Mo’s main goal is to keep the pledge. He and his friends had been doing everything exactly the same for so long that the war and Rudi’s drafting wasn’t going to change that. Because of this, even when Mo is by himself on the cruiser, all he can think about is how to protect his friends.
The question that I was wondering about in the last post was why Morris, Ivan, Rudi, and Beck all joined a different branch of the military where if they wanted to stay together to protect each other they should have all joined the same branch. This question still applies and has not even been mentioned in the story so far. If they were stationed in the same place, keeping an eye on the group would have been as easy as talking to one another instead of writing letters back and forth.
In the first post, I said that the theme of the book was coming home alive. I still think that this is relevant and probably the main claim at this point. We still see Mo as a scared teenager worrying about his friend and even taking punches to defend them. Even though they are worlds apart in the same war, Morris feels an obligation that he has to make sure that everyone survives the brutality of the fighting.
The second third of the book introduced two new sparring parties in government, which included the Federalists, which were led by Hamilton, and the Democrats, which were led by Jefferson. The first bank was chartered; however, with the right ideas in mind, failed. However, due to this event, some Federalists began to oppose the idea of a new national bank, or the Second Bank of the United States. This bank opposition failed, and in 1816, the Second Bank of the United States was chartered, and the president of said corporation was Nicholas Biddle. In terms of the second BUS, he represented the Federalists, and Jackson represented the Democrats. The first bank was partly created due to the need for funding in the War of 1812. The second third of the book also talked about the solutions in transportation and other mechanics, including steamboats, canals, and even railroads. This led to the first transcontinental railroad to be built following the outcome of the Civil War. During this time period, the California Gold Rush began to occur, and Jay Cooke was introduced. He sold a plethora of war bonds, which ultimately led to the funding of the union cause in the civil war. He along with Hamilton and Biddle, have been the main characters, or the “Money Men” of the book, hence the title.
Cause and effect can easily be used to describe the position of the First National Bank. The
American army desperately needed funds to support themselves in the War of 1812. Due to this, the first bank of the United States was utilized. Soon afterward; however, the bank was forced to close. This device can also be used to describe the Second bank, as the financial status of the nation was in peril, and needed a solution. It was created in hopes to assist with this issue. The nation was also expanding westward, and the need for easier transportation was essential. The railroad system in which was constructed allowed for faster travel in the older colonies, and further west with the first transcontinental railroad.
One quote from the book that shows the purpose of the book is “The Bank … is trying to kill me, but I will kill it!” For the entire book, debates between views of the Federalists and the Democrats had been occuring. This started back to the times of the Articles of Confederation, while they were supported by the Democrats and only needed a little change to fix them, and to the Federalists, a entire new system of government had to ben created in order to impact the nation for it to be successful. Jackson was against the national bank, and it was against what he stood for in government. He believed for it to be chartered, he would do and commit many actions and use his powers in office to remove it. This quote, again, is an example of the opposing views between the Federalists and the Democrats, which had been occurring since the founding of the nation.
There were many questions in which the book had not answered. Although it stated the relationship between Hamilton and Madison was complex, it didn’t go over the reasons for it and how each other affected the views of one another in government. Many new questions also arose in this section. What were the specific causes of the ratifications of both banks? The book’s answer was general for both banks, and didn’t address the specific details behind their creations. Also, the book didn’t give much background on Biddle, and I was left confused in certain areas of his section.
To my reading ability, I identified the theme to be reform, which included the changes and its impact of the early days of the nation. The author has developed this theme by including specific examples of change throughout the history of the United States, including the type of government and how it separated itself from monarchy, national bank debates, and new transportation methods in the mid 19th century. Now that I am ⅔ the way into the book, I believe I was right in my assumption of the theme.
The Big Short
a: The bond trader Gregg Lippman attempts to convince Daniel and Eisman to short the subprime mortgage bond market. Daniel and Eisman were difficult to convince and suspicious of the bond market. The AIG FP insurance company’s role is then expained in detail but this explaination can be summarized as the company transitioning to insuring riskier and riskier loans until it was insuring subprime, personal loans. Lippman then explaines how Goldman Sachs used the Collateralized Dept Obligation system to disguise the lowest rated B loans along with other loans to create the highest rated and signifigently more valuable AAA rated bonds. Banks continued to uuse the CDO system to repackage B rated mortgages into packages and have the credit rating agency rate them as AAA bonds before selling them off at a massivly inflated price. While CDO’s were meant to be insurace but were more a gamble against the subprime mortgages that were too complicated for most investors to explain to backers making them a grat oppertunity for Lippman when he made this realiztion. We then switch to the prospective of Gene Park and his realization of the low quality of many subprime loans. He even got a more personal warning sighn when his freind told him about how many mortgages he had been offered that he coulden’t afford. Park is eventually able to convince his boss Joe Cassano of his relization who subsequently takes credit for the idea. With all of this explaination and the fact that Eisman already being very skeptical of the market Lippman finally manages to overcome Eisman’s skepticicsm of him. Daniel and Eisman do further reasurch into the blind spots of credit raing agencys and then after all of this go about betting against subprime mortgage bonds as Lippman suggested. We then learn that Lippman convinced hundreds to at least somewhat bet against the market but only a handful took his direct advice including John Paulson. We then learn of another example of a group predicting the crash in Ledley and Mai who managed to predict the imminate crash and buy just weeks early going for the long shot of betting against double A ratings which proved to be monumnetially profitable. Finally we go back to Eisman who is talkinf to Wing Chau and of his digust with his total incompetence. This is unsuprising and is explained by imcompetent people purposely being put in CDO managments because AAA ratings were always assumed safe. This interaction leaves Eisman so disgusted he personally shorts against Chau’s managed CDOs.
b: The olbouss comparison is between this time perioud and the roaring 20s. The 20s were a time of balloning person dept, deregulation, and soaring markets. This lead to shady mismangment of funds in an attempting to maximise personal gain that was ignored because of soaring markets. While the specifics and ways to actually benifit vary wildly but the main factor leading to both crashes is deregulation and dept. One was in stocks whiile the other was in subprime mortgage bonds and both involved unprecidented public participation by the ‘average Joe’.
c: “What are the odds that people will make smart decisions about money if they don’t need to make smart decisions–if they can get rich making dumb decisions? The incentives on Wall Street were all wrong; they’re still all wrong.” This quote encapsulates the entire message and waring of the book. It explains how a mixture of incompetence and indifference is incentivised in a system where people make money by gambling with other people’s money and don’t even need to do so efficently. It is what convinced banks to repackage subprime loans and pay credit rating agency’s to assighn the package a high credit rating. It still applies today though the market is groming again making it hard to notice.
d: I diden’t really have any questions answered from last tiem as almost everything in the book is expained in great detail and alluded to adnausum. This mean that I never had any lingering questions to begein with.
e: I still believe that the most important theme in the novel is that the stock market is a place of great incompetence and exploitation. This is supported by the most representative quote shown above as well as the autobiography from the last blog post. This means that from the framing of teh autors own life story to two thirds of the way through the book the most important theme has not changed one bit.
In the 2nd part of my book, The River of Doubt, the story has really started to take fold. Previously, Teddy Roosevelt and his group had just arrived and started exploring the forests close to the river. People back home and from Brazil had previously warned the group of men how difficult this journey would be, especially for Roosevelt in his mid fifties. Regardless, the group set off to explore and begin trekking towards the river. Like suggested many times earlier, the trip was much more difficult than expected; almost too much to bare for some group members. The hundreds of animals (such as bison) they brought with them were dying out quickly, making Roosevelt decide to let go many members. These people included Father Zahm and Fiala, both who helped plan and prepare the trip from the beginning. On top of this, the overall health of the group was quickly deteriorating, especially Roosevelt and his son Kermit. Diseases were spreading very rapidly, as many of the group were already infected with countless diseases, including Kermit with worsening malaria. Even worse, the group had to be careful with the environment, as the group had constant ugly confrontations with animals like piranhas and leopards.
Contextualization
Roosevelt had just gotten done with the his third presidential campaign, losing by a wide margin to Woodrow Wilson. As he was a member of a third party, Roosevelt was able to steal many of Taft’s votes, almost ensuring Wilson’s victory. During this period, however, he received a letter from Father Zahm wanting to know if he could journey with him to Brazil and the Amazon. After Roosevelt’s defeat in the election, he quickly accepted zahm’s offer, and they began extensively planning their trip for many months.
“‘I think this [the trip] had a saddening affect on all of us’” statement by Cherrie.
I feel that this quote describes the feeling of the book very well, as the trip was not pleasant for many members of the group overall. Originally, many people were excited to explore the Amazon, encouraged by the extensive trip planning at the start. However, because Roosevelt wanted to explore the river of Doubt, the trip turned into a deadly nightmare.
One of the questions I had in the last section was how Roosevelt was so easily able to convince the group to change plans and cross the river of doubt instead of following their extensively planned trip. While the answer was not blatantly stated in the story, I feel that Roosevelt’s previous presidency and popular status among the group allowed him to sway the other’s opinions.
With more input from the second part of this book, I now feel like the theme revolves around determination. Roosevelt and his gang had firstly tried to do the impossible by crossing the unexplored River of Doubt, which most people believed he was crazy for wanting and believing he could do. Secondly, he and the rest of the group had to push through terrible conditions, ranging from bad weather, lack of food, terrible diseases like malaria, walking for insane distances and much more. Unlike Roosevelt’s exploration group, most people probably would have given up instantly, but his stubbornness and perseverance kept him and the group going, something completely unexpected, especially for someone his age.
A. Through the second section of the novel, the author is exploring and informing the reader of his alter ego, The Thunderbolt Kid. Bryson also continues his narrative of growing up in the late 1950’s around the boom of television and radio. This part of the novel becomes comical, as Bill Bryson describes his childhood, and how he believed that he was adopted, and sent from another world to vaporize those he thinks are “moronic”. From this point in the novel, Bryson struggles with family trips and school experiences, where he often lives the life of a “generic” kid in the 1950’s. Bryson recounts the change America was going through in the 50’s and shows the light and dark sides of the times. In the second portion of the book, the author talks about how the era was a time of “looking forward to the future”, and fearing it, as nuclear war, polio, and Communism are all themes in the section. I don’t think there is bias in the novel at all, as bryson covers the harsh realities of life perfectly.
B. Bill Bryson uses Synthesis by comparing the 1950’s to today in his book by vividly describing his growing up in the old days, and showing the drastic changes that the country went through in the 60 years that have passed since. For example, Bryson talks about Polio, which was feared by most Americans back in the day, and how it has now been eradicated and is no longer a fear in families lives today.
C. My quote from Bill Bryson’s novel is,“Happily, all this suited my father. His palate only responded to two tastes – burned and ice cream — so everything suited him so long as it was sufficiently dark and not too startlingly flavorful. There’s truly was a marriage made in heaven, for no one could burn food like my mother or eat it like my dad.” I think this quote summarizes the novel because it shows the storybook perfectness of living in the 1950’s as a suburban family. The happy mother and father of Bryson are a perfect representation of this. The passage is also a common theme in the book of a story told in a humorous narrative by the author.
D. The questions from my previous blog have been mostly answered. Early on in the novel, I wondered if the entire book would be in the narrative of Bill Bryson as a young child or if he would grow older as the book progressed. It seems that the entirety of the novel will be from the perspective of bryson as a child. An unanswered question I still have is that I wonder if the author will mature as the novel proceeds mentally or if it is a humorous narrative.
E. The author has developed the main theme of the book progressively from the beginning of the book by following the story of coming of age. Early in the novel, I failed to catch this theme, but as the book progresses, the narrative changes to a story of growing up in the era of the 1950’s.
Vowell, a contributor to NPR’s This American Life and the voice of teenage superhero Violet Parr in The Incredibles, takes readers on a pilgrimage of sorts to the sites and monuments that pay homage to Lincoln, Garfield and McKinley, visiting everything from grave sites and simple plaques (like the one in Buffalo that marks the place where McKinley was shot) to places like the National Museum of Health and Medicine, where fragments of Lincoln’s skull are on display. An expert tour guide, Vowell brings into sharp focus not only the figures involved in the assassinations but the social and political circumstances that led to each and she does so in the witty, sometimes irreverent manner that her fans have come to expect. Thus, readers learn not only about how Garfield found himself caught between the Stalwarts and the Half-Breeds, bitterly divided factions of the Republican party, but how his assassin, Charles Guiteau, a supporter of the Stalwarts and an occasional member of the Oneida Community, “was the one guy in a free love commune who could not get laid.” Vowell also draws frequent connections between past events and the present, noting similarities between McKinley’s preemptive war against Cuba and the Philippines and the current war in Iraq. This is history at its most unusual and most interesting and, luckily, one doesn’t need to share Vowell’s interest in murder to fully enjoy this unusual tour. This book has a lot of imagery, especially when Vowell is speaking about her interest in the death of Lincoln and the other U.S Presidents. The book has answered most of my questions except for my main one which is why is she so obsssed with the presidents death?
A-B.)During this section of the Autobiography of Mark Twain, Samuel Clemens describes his life as a young child to Jane Clemens, formerly Jane Lampton, his mother. He is the sixth child of seven in the family, born in rural on November 30, 1835. He describes different stories from his childhood, some of which could still be related to experiences in this time period, such as when his golden-child-of-a-brother breaks a sugar jar, and he himself is blamed for it. Parents, and other adults in charge of children, generally rely on a responsible child to follow the rules set out for them. These children who follow the rules have wiggle room for breaking the rules when they seldom do, which is portrayed with Samuel’s brother after breaking the sugar jar. This is easily relatable to the modern day, but other experiences, however, are completely unique to this time-period in America. This is plainly evident when he talks about slaves. A young slave from Samuel’s childhood, Sandy, sang obnoxiously from dusk to dawn, without apology. He was separated from his family in Maryland, never to see them again. Samuel’s mother said that as long as he sings, he isn’t filled with undeniable sorrow. The auctioning of slaves tore apart families, almost always permanently, which contextualizes the era in which Samuel lives in.
C.) “In my schoolboy days I had no aversion to slavery. I was not aware that there was anything wrong about it. No one arraigned it in my hearing; the local papers said nothing against it; the local pulpit taught us that God approved it, that it was a holy thing and the doubter need only look the Bible…” (Twain, 12)
This quote summarizes the themes applicable to APUSH in the novel: those who grew up in an era where the “positive good” of slavery was enforced, had few moral qualms to the institution.
D.) The questions I had about the novel pertained entirely to Clemens’s father, who up until this point had not made a strong appearance in Twain’s recollection of his life. His father, John Marshall Clemens, had purchased land rich of resources in Tennessee for the prosperity of the children after he died. Unfortunately, this investment was fruitless for the family, as the oil reserves on the property had not become useful until after it had been sold, and leaves me with more questions about his father than answers. The main one involves his mother, meaning how did a middle class man (Twain’s father) marry the southern aristocratic born lady that was his mother?
E.) Clemens doesn’t appear to have a specific theme for his Autobiography, and is rather a collection of his thoughts and memories over the period that was his life. In a way, his memoir is more of a scrapbook of his life rather than the gritty realism you would expect from growing up poor in the South during the 1800s, becoming a wealthy Author of classics such and Tom Sawyer and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Many of his anecdotes are stories about the people in his life who parallel the characters in his novel.
Big Ma takes T. J., Stacey, and Cassie to the market in the town of Strawberry one day. While Big Ma is visiting the office of Mr. Jamison, trouble-making T. J. convinces the other children to go ahead and do some shopping. In a general store, the clerk waits on white customers and ignores them. Cassie assumes the man has forgotten about them, and so she tugs at his sleeve and reminds him. He yells at her and tells her to get out. She walks out onto the street and stumbles into Lillian Jean, Jeremy’s sister. She and her father push Cassie out in the street, trying to force her to apologize. Cassie is furious when Big Ma makes her apologize. When they arrive at home, they are surprised to see a car that looks like Harlan Granger’s sitting in the barn. Inside the house, they find that it belongs to Uncle Hammer who has come to visit. When Hammer hears about the abuse Cassie received, he runs off with a gun to find Lillian Jean’s father. Mr. Morrison goes with him and manages to talk him out of doing anything foolish.
In this part of the book, segregation is playing a big role in the main character’s life. Since she had only really stayed in her own community she never experienced much segregation. At the beginning of the segment, Cassie doesn’t understand that she was being ignored because of her skin color and just assumed it was a simple mistake. Over the course of the segment of the book, Cassie becomes more aware of segregation and gets accustomed to it. However, her dislike for it is constant. Throughout the whole segment, Cassie comments on the unfairness, but at the end is not as confused.
“‘Then you get her out of here,’ he said with a hateful force.’And make sure she don’t come back till yo’ mammy teach her what she is.’” (147). This is when Cassie is being thrown out of the store because she didn’t understand that the store clerk was favoring whites over blacks. This is a major turning point in the book because it is the place where Cassie realizes that she is being discriminated for the way she looks. After this event, Cassie sees the world in a different way and interprets her experiences differently. She starts to see how unfair her life is because of some uncontrollable factor in her life.
I wonder if Cassie will ever stand up for herself. Every time in this part of the book that she was faced with racism, she was held back, whether it was by her brother or her grandmother. Since they all have a better understanding, they are playing it safe, but will Cassie be in a situation in which she is faced with racism by herself, and will she play it safe or Stand up for her beliefs?
In the first part of the book, the author spent most of the time focusing on the characters and building them up and not much of a plotline. However, from interactions between characters, a theme of racism and segregations was apparent. Now that the characters have been introduced, the author builds a plotline, establishing a theme of learning about racism. This didn’t just apply to Cassie; the other Logan kids were experiencing discrimination in their own ways. The younger ones saw it in school, with the type of materials they had. The older ones saw it outside, in their accident interactions with extremely racist whites such as Mr. Simms when Cassie runs into his daughter.
The book is developing nicely. Although it was off to a slow start, we are beginning to get into the real “tea” of the story. Skeeter is becoming a woman of braveness in my opinion. She has sass and is so strong with all her opinions. Skeeter is developing her story and the help begins to come around to telling their stories for her to write about. I think this book is biased towards the side of the help but I also think that is the entire point of the book. Stockett paints the help as helpless a lot and by taking the book slow she connected us to the characters and that makes us hate many of the white women in the story (Hilly. That woman makes me want to rip my hair out, But that’s beside the point). The bias is shown through never looking into why people such as Hilly think this is right.
Cause and effect. The white women (and men) of this time period were so convinced they could treat these african americans so different just because their skin produces more melanin. The cause of this is years of prejudice against certain groups, mainly african americans. The effect is all of the anger and sourness becoming too much for the african americans of the time period and rebelling against those who “own” them. This was shown in real life through all of the riots (LA riots, Bus Boycott) and in the book through the ladies speaking out in the book about what really happens in their homes.
“You is kind. You is smart. You is important.” This quote is said by Ms. Aibileen Clark to Mae Mobley. I really enjoy this quote because of the meaning and compassion it holds behind it. Mae Mobley is just a child and does not see race but is currently being taught by her mother’s negligence so many bad lessons of life, leading to her awful self esteem. I picked this quote because I think Stockett did such a good job of making us feel for the “help”. This quote exemplifies Aibileen being a good and true person. Mae’s mother has never been the best to her but Aibileen will not give up hope for Mae. This quote is often looked at by people who know the story behind it and people who don’t and there is a reason for that. When you read this quote, you cannot help but feel overwhelmed with feelings.
I realized that Stockett most likely did make it slow moving in the beginning for us to build a relationship with the characters. We, as the reader, feel for the help every time something happens to them because we feel as if we have such a history and bond with them. Stockett does not answer why people ever thought slavery was okay but I don’t think anyone will ever be able to answer that.
A big theme is courage. With Skeeter standing up to her family and all the slaves breaking out of their shell this book deals with the courage of few that helped many. I didn’t see this because of how slow the book was but as it moves you see it loud and clear with every page. No matter if the women are scared of what will happen, they still push on and go through with what they know they need to do.
1) In the second section of White Trash by Nanny Isenberg, it explores further the concept of class division in America. It discusses the product of slavery, the antebellum South, and the civil war had on these classes issues. Isenberg explains that the civil war era created a group of low class, destitute whites in the south. But even they could look down on slaves. It perpetuated class divides and racism simulatenously. She also elaborates on how the southern slave owners used their wealth and influence, furthering wealth divisions, and creating a cycle of poverty and racism for lower class whites.
2) One historical thinking skill that can be easily applied to this book is cause and effect. Isenberg uses this book to explain the causes of class division and their effects throughtout history. For example, the idea of slavery perpetuating class division. As I said previously, southern slave owners created a continuous cycle of poverty for low class whites, which created an even more racist culture. This upper class southerner influence not only directly led to harsh racism and class division, but indirectly led to the future racial conflict during the 1900s and even now. It also indirectly led to similar class divisions now. Slavery created a systematic disadvantage for black people, and all minorities. This disadvantage is still extremely prevalent today. Racist legislation in the post slavery era also allowed for this disadvantage to increase with time, and is now beginning to become less obvious.
3)”However,the reality is on the ground was and is considerably different.” This quote is on the first page, and is contradicting the American ideal of equal opportunity. Isenberg states that, although America prides itself on being a land of equality, freedom, and opportunity, it has since the beginning been divided. The poor, discarded people from Britain were sent to America, and were cast aside as the rich determined going to America was beneficial. I think this quote covers the idea of the book because it highlights the theme of the book for the rest of the story. The idwa that America was never fully equal, and that the idea of equal opportunity was a fallacy.
4)Yes, the book has answered the questions from the previous post, but after further reading new questions arise. What other effects did slavery have on class division? How did it affect the Northerners? What effects from that time period still remain today, and what would Isenberg recommend to solve them?
5) the author has developed the main theme very well. She continues on the storyline of class division, and focuses on new aspects as she progresses through history. The story is more interesting now as I can link past issues to current issues and class failures. I think I correctly identified the thesis from the beginning, and it seems to be clear still.
a)I actually started a new book because I did not like my old one, and so far it’s better. It talks in old English, so it’s a little bit harder for e to understand, but it’s more of a story. It’s about a boy named Octavia and his mother. They are slaves but not normal slaves. They are being researched to see if black people can be as smart as white people if they are given the education. Octavia’s mom, Cassiopeia got pregnant with Octavia when she was only 14 years old. So instead of turning them into slaves, some scientists and researchers decided to take them in to experiment and observe them. They live in a college in Boston Massachusetts where the College men observe them. They think they are free, but they really aren’t. The men shaved their heads and they have to wear white wigs. The men choose their food and clothes and daily routine. They like to see how they react to different things. They also teach them not to feel feelings, and instead just to observe. There was an instance where Octavias dog was poisoned and his master made him sit there and watch his dog die.
c)”That I had murdered my own dog by my own hand; for that excellent and affectionate creature had been poisoned by the same food I gave him daily” I think that is a very good quote to sum up the book, because it shows how cruel these people were, and they didn’t really care about Octavias feelings, they only wanted him as data and could care less about how he felt. And it also shows how they trained Octavia not to feel anything because he even says he didn’t feel anything. Mr. 03-01 is trying to make Octavia believe he killed his own dog and makes him watch him suffer. This is so inhumane and he doesn’t even think twice about it.
b) This compares to the way that slave owners treated their slaves. With no respect. No care at all for their feelings. All the masters care about is themselves and could care less about what happened to the slaves. Just like the college men, the researchers and scientists, don’t care what happens to octavia and his mother, and don’t care that they are taking away their lives and their freedom. Octavia doesn’t even know he is a slave until quite later in his life, because he never sees anyone else, so he thinks this is normal.
d) I started a new book so my old questions don’t apply to this. But I have so many questions about this book. First of all what inspired the author to write this book. She made a disclaimer at the beginning that she made up the story, but did she base it off of something in real life? Was it just slaves or were there people who experimented on people like the college men do? It reminds me of the hunger games or Divergent or something like that.
e) Again I started a new book, and the theme of this new book I think is freedom. Lots of different people have different definitions of freedom and Octavia thinks he is free until he has someone to compare himself to.
In this part of the book, the Rangers continue to travel to Balincarin. When they arrive there many people that had been killed for supporting anti-Japanese groups. The citizens were happy to see the Americans. There is a bias in this book showing pro-American soldiers and anti-Japanese ones. The author only shows how Japanese citizens support American soldiers and are against Japanese soldiers. When the American soldiers go to the town they are happy to see them. The Author never mentions how some citizens were for the Japanese soldiers. This shows a bias of how he thinks that all Japanese citizens were for help from Americans when that really wasn’t the case. In the city, they try to come up with their plan to save the soldiers in the camps. They are worried because they don’t know how the camp is set up and it is a very risky idea. They learn there are many Japanese in and around the camp. The soldiers in the camp are trying to survive. They know that they are going to be killed soon because the Japanese are very low on supplies.
Ghost Soldiers takes place during WW11. The war had already been going on for a couple years now and all sides were becoming weaker and running out of supplies. The Americans did not want to keep fighting many fronts so the basically had ditched the Americans in Asia and went to the Western Europe fronts. Italy had backed out and Germany forces were becoming weaker. The Japanese belief was to never give up and fight till death. Many were getting tired of fighting. The Japanese were running out of food and supplies but they kept fighting. The Japanese never really stopped fighting until America dropped the nuclear bomb on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.
I think the quote “You make close friends. You become part of a tribe and you share the same blood-you give it together, you take it together (9). I think this captures the book because it shows a main theme that you have to stick together. The soldiers go through so much together that you end up becoming brothers.
I think an answer to my question about how can soldiers keep their mind straight in such harsh conditions is different for everyone and there really is no answer to the question. Some of them can’t keep their mind straight and the go crazy or even kill themselves. I also think if you have friends with you or you keep yourself social, the chances of going crazy are less likely. This is why some soldiers come back from fighting and have PTSD, which I’m sure many of the solider in this book had if there were able to make it home. I now have a question about the Japanese raised their men to be so cruel and how that is even possible to do such a thing?
I don’t think I really got the theme right before I said before the main theme was not to give up and try your hardest, but I think that is wrong because I learned sometimes it is okay to give up and you don’t need to fight so hard and how people need to be able to compromise more. I now think it is more about the study of how people act under pressure. What makes them do what they do and how to they act under these pressures? The soldiers have to endure diseases, extreme heat, starvation, and much more. The author shows what soldiers are willing to do. He also shows how the two cultures clashed under these conditions and how some are sympatric and others are vile. He shows its not so much about your culture but how you act as a person. He shows this through the soldiers. At first, the Americans saw them as all evil and mean, but some of them ended up being nice. One of them let a prisoner get water while another Japanese soldier killed someone who tried to get water.
In the “Rock and the River” by Kekla Magoon, Maxie invited Sam to a Black Panther meeting which Sam has no idea. Sam asked his mom if he could go out but she said no he couldn’t go out because it was too late and the dangers out on the street. Sam thought of how it felt when stick would sneak out each night how exhilarating it was. Sam walked into where Maxie told him to meet and he saw Stick there so he followed him but didn’t want to talk to him. There were so many people that Sam bumped into Stick, he turned about surprised but also disappointed.Sam was worried about stick but didn’t want it to show, using blunt responses. Stick asks how mama was doing but Sam responses bluntly and says fine but he really wanted to tell him that she is sad and misses him and is worried but didn’t want to tell Stick. Sam walks over to find Maxie where she was saving a seat for him. The meeting began, and Sam became interested but also scared for betraying his father’s rules. After leaving the meeting Sam is walking home where he is stopped by his father who questions him why he is out so late. Sam lies and says that he was with Maxie and his mother knew. They drove home together where Sam is sent to his bedroom and his parents are having an argument which rarely ever happens. Sam listens in on their argument and his mom talks about what his father was doing around same age probably the same thing. Roland (Sam’s father) talks to Sam about the dangers of walking in the streets at night alone. Sam tells Roland that he wants to be more active in helping with the movements. Sam wakes up the next day where his mother has made some hot chocolate and an extra one for which Stick would normally have. Sam dumps out the hot chocolate and goes to school but before he could leave he was told to come straight home after school for now on where Maxie waits for him. At the end of the day while they are walking home, Maxie asks how the meeting was and sam forces a smile and tells Maxie that he has to go home straight after school for now on. Maxie notices something is off and asks Sam is all flustered and says that stick hasn’t been home in over two weeks and it’s because of the Maxie. Which he implied that since his brother is associated with the black panthers that she is also associated with them to and that the panthers are taking stick away from him. Maxie responds saying that she thought sam was not like the way he was eating at that moment she thought that just because he lived in the upper part of town having money and she was on the lower that it wouldn’t be that much of a difference.Sam goes deeper and retaliates and talks about her father who doesn’t even live with her. Maxie storms off and doesn’t speak to sam for the next week. One night Stick shows up knocking on the window Sam opens the window to find stick injured and bleeding. Sam aids stick through the window to find that he was even more damaged than he had, though. Stick had bruised ribs a swollen eye, and a beat up face. Mrs.Childs knocks on the door of Sam’s bedroom and comes in but enough time for stick to hid. The next morning stick is gone, but a note is left behind, “where is it. I need it”, wondering where sam had put the gun. Sam goes to school finally working up the courage to apologize to Maxie and having a chat with her brother because he needs to protect her and having a boy interfere with her dream and happiness is not okay with him.
The causes of the civil rights movement were the discrimination towards colored people and the inequality. Protests, demonstrations, and meetings were formed to put an end to discrimination. After many years of fighting their own war they finally got equality but it was never really equal in the end. Discrimination still happens today but it’s just not as vast
“In order to change our future, we must transform the present. You all know we are fighting a war. I’m not talking about the war in Vietnam, though that is certainly on all our minds. Im talking about the ways we fight here on the streets of Chicago! … I’m talking about the cops who beat down brothers for no reason except that they are black…” (124). In that quote it ties the whole meaning of the book together. That trying to fight for equal rights and equality is a war because there are so many factors that get in the way and the only way to reach the government is by reaching other citizens. It’s not a brawl it’s a war.
Maxie has grown some character and is revealing more about her life to Sam so we get an insight of what it’s like to see how it was to live in a poor urban area. Compared to Sam who lives in the middle class.
The author has the same theme but has broadened it to make sources of what happened during the civil rights movement. The rivalry between the black panthers and the other groups who are nonviolent protesters. But in the end they reach the same message one just comes across stronger.
(For some reason it wouldn’t let me turn it in maybe because the wifi was poor but this is me trying it again)
A. So far, the story of the 3 characters have progressed and the plots have all thickened. Aibileen has continued to help Miss Skeeter with her book. Instead of Skeeter writing out what she says as she speaks, Aibileen uses her own writing skills and gives the papers to Skeeter. Minny decides to help Skeeter, however, she’s very hesitant and closed off. Stuart apologizes to SKeeter, they go on a date, then proceed to date; nonetheless, he doesn’t tell her what patricia (his ex-fiance) did to him. Additionally, the civil rights activist, Medgar Evers is gunned down on his front lawn, sparking uproar in the black community in Mississippi. Aibileen’s friend’s grandson was beaten and blinded by a group of white men. This event caused many more maids to want to speak to Skeeter, raising her hopes from the previously failing book.
B. The Help displays problems that have had a moderate change in America today. The entire novel was based off of discrimination and racism in the South, which is obviously still a trending topic today in some states (mostly the South). In comparison, things have gotten much better for black; however, we still face conflicts do to out race to this day.
C. On Page 308, in Minny’s section, she states, “… I say, but in the back of my head, there;s the voice asking me, real calm, like we’re judy having tea out here, Is this really happening? Is a white woman really beating up a white man to save me? Or did he shake my brain pan loose and I’m over here dead on the ground…” This quote encapsulates the premise of the book because between Aibileen helping white people by raising their children and Miss Skeeter helping blacks by writing a book about their oppression as maids, it gives a new look towards the interracial relationships than what is in the book. Aibileen is EXPECTED to raise white kids during this time, meanwhile, Skeeter could be killed and get others killed if anyone found out what she was doing. Minny asking about a white woman saving and caring about a black woman genuinely gives a dichotomy between how black and whites were “supposed” to act with each other.
D. The book still has not summarized itself nor give itself a prominent moral. The only thing that hasn’t been answered is how Skeeter’s book is going to turn out and if Ms. Hilly tells Celia what she did. I am still learning things that I didn’t know. I knew the brutality of raging racists in the South, but I didn’t know that events surging from racism was so closely knit together in time. As well as this, I didn’t know Mississippi was AS racist as it was, I always thought Alabama was worse.
E. Again, Kathryn Stockett has not developed a clear main theme, I am beginning to believe it has something to do with change never being made if risks aren’t taken. I say this because as many maids that are helping Skeeter, the danger factor does nothing but grow as other white people are becoming more suspicious.If this is not what Stockett was trying to get across, I have no idea what the thesis would be.
Vietnam Book One I Pledge Allegiance Blog two
A. The second part of my book starts off with Morris receiving a letter from Rudi who is in the Marines. Rudi tells Morris how he feels as he fits into the Marines as he has never fit into a place before. This is a surprise to both Morris and Rudi. Eventually, Morris and Moses are talking about the letters they got when Moses starts to make fun of Rudi. Morris takes this very seriously and tell him they are going to take this outside and fight about it. When they fight Morris doesn’t even get a punch in and Moses knocks him out lightly. After the fight Morris starts to think about the tradition he and he friends spend on the Fourth of July, shooting off fireworks. Eventually, they are put into combat. Where many are firing down to land and the ship is getting attacked. At first it seems like they are winning but they the ship gets hit. Morris beginning an electrician is supposed to check to see if the ship is working with his co-worker Vera. When the ship gets hit they get yelled at they didn’t get there in time to fix it. Eventually the ship has to return to Boston due to the damages. Later that night Vera and Morris both can’t seem to sleep and end up having a deep conversation about what keeps them up at night. Vera explains how it was a family tradition to go into the war as his day is a Marine Colonel. He also says how his dad thinks that Navy’s are lightweights. Vera says he needs a true friend to be around, because they all die not knowing each other as friends. Morris agrees to be his friend and Vera commits suicide by jumping into the ocean. Eventually, when they return to Boston, everyone gets to stay for a day. Morris spends it with his mom and eats lots of food that see cooks him. He promises her that he will take her to a fancy dinner that night. When he gets dressed in normal clothes his mom tells him to get back into his uniform so she can show off he son. Back in his uniform his mom sees a red stain on it from the food earlier and begins to cry because it looks like blood.
B. Change over time, throughout my book you can see how the characters get effected from the war over time. Rudi especially because he finally feels as he belongs to a group from being in the war. This is very different from his thoughts coming into the war because he was very scared about being changed. We also can see this with Morris, he had always seemed to be afraid about leaving his friends behind and not protecting them. Now in the war he feels as he can’t do this and seems to feel useless. So, the characters have been changing over time in the war.
C. “We had a pledge for just about everything” (Lynch, 17). I think this quote really represents the whole book because their pledges lead them into the war and it shows the promises the boy kept to each other in the friendship. The major theme throughout this book is friendship and trust because the boys trust each other to have each other’s backs when making these pledges.
D. I didn’t really have any questions about my book but overtime I have thought of some. Will Rudi stay in the war because he feels as he belongs there? To me I think that Rudi will because it will feel as he has a new family. I also wonder if Morris will finally get some sleep or stop having his PTSD flashbacks? I hope so because in the war he seems mental unstable and will need help when he gets back.
E. The author has shown a lot about trust and friendship as I said earlier. I think that the boy are really close and act almost like a family which shows they will always trust each other. I also think the author has shown the theme of change because everyone of the soldiers seem to be changed by the war and we can see it through their character development overtime.
My book Assassination Vacation, by Sarah Vowell, is about the interesting facts of Presidential Assassinations, and the history that accompanies it. We follow the author as she takes us on a deep historical journey explaining the truth as to how the Presidents were assassinated and the decisions they made that might have gotten them there. The time leading up to the killings are also explained in great detail. “In 1861, Abraham Lincoln designated the fort as a Union soldier, most of the deserters…”. Also, the book does seem to have a bias towards Lincoln. This comes as no surprise, seeing that most people hold him as an American hero. A definite Historical thinking skill that would relate to the book is contextualization, cause and effect, and finally periodization. These skills can be seen in the text like on page 22, “But I paused on the balcony stairs for a second, thinking about how these were the very stairs that Booth climbed to shoot at Lincoln and how sick is this…”. Another skill can be how the American Government over the course of time has modernized and changed. Although the last trait is not frequently used by the author, cause and effect still sometimes appears in different parts of the text through the book. “Thankfully, the story of Garfield’s death is more interesting than the story of his life”. This quote couldn’t have been more spot on about the overall message being sent in the book. Each President, regardless of if he was assassinated or not, seems to have a far more fascinating outro story than intro story. In the quote, the word thankfully is used, which shows the overall pleasure, anticipation, and excitement for the stories of these Presidents. Even though I have made good progress into the book, some of my questions still aren’t answered. I still don’t completely know where the point of the story is heading. Along with some old questions, I also have been trying to think of new ones as I continue to read. So far I have thought of only a few. first, which President is her least favorite and interesting, and second who in her opinion is the most interesting American in general. At the time of my first post, I was not as far into the book than compared to now. The author now is trying to set the general theme, that learning about Presidents deaths can be more interesting than learning about their lives.No I sadly did not get the correct theme. Going forward the theme will be about how the entire life of the president is interesting.
A.) By this part of the book, Malcolm begins to get a little order and is now interested in getting a job. He first starts out with just shining shoes, a job that his friend Shorty got for him. He wants this job for the purpose of trying to save money, but he later finds out that he will also be selling marijuana to patrons at the pool hall. With the influence of being around Shorty all the time he begins to learn about life on the streets and the trends that many people did. Shorty begins with giving him the nickname of “Red”, Malcolm also starts to change his style and invest in trendy suits as well as change his hairstyle to a popular trend that many hipsters wore. The reader also begins to see Malcolm become a party person, this is when he begins to smoke weed and drink frequently. Malcolm’s half sister believes that this isn’t who Malcolm truly is on the inside and she doesn’t like how he has changed. Malcolm’s relationship/affair with Sophia begins to strain some, due to the fact that they don’t see each other that often and that she is already married, until Shorty decides that it would be best if Malcolm buys her a necklace from a jewelry store. Malcolm finds the perfect one, but it is out of his price range. Shorty encourages Malcolm to steal the necklace, Malcolm does this even though it doesn’t feel right to him and he ends up regretting his decision. He decides to finally meet up with her again and go dancing at the Roseland, Malcolm gives her the gift, the only downfall to this date is that Ella sees them together. Since Malcolm spends so much time at bars, he lets drugs and alcohol take over his life, which leads to him getting fired from his job.B.) During the time period that this book takes place, World War II is on the rise and America joins during this time, right after the Pearl Harbor bombings. Even though this isn’t mentioned in the book, these are the events that are currently going on.
C.) The quote that I think fits best to capture the essence is in chapter 2, “It stung like a betrayal, but I know better now. Mom talked a good game about the power of blackness, but she knew that the white world held even more power.” This really wraps around one of the main themes of the book which is racism. The whole book shares the small disadvantages of being a black man in a white america that is not always recognized in history.
D.) Currently, I feel like the book has not really necessarily answered my questions because I feel like the characters are still developing and changing. I think that Malcolm getting fired was just the start of many doors that have yet to be opened yet. My new ones, is how and when will Malcolm get out of this dark time in his life.
E.) I think that the biggest theme of this book is Racism. That’s was most of the book orbits around and manny of the events that happens. I think this was identifiable from the start due to what the book was about.
In this portion of the reading, you learned more about what the SLA stood for and how they got away with many of their acts. It also went deeper into the reasons that the SLA had for capturing her. For one thing, Patty Hearst was the daughter of a rich millionaire who many saw as a capitalist bully and he would never give to charity. But since the family was so well to do, their young beautiful daughter Patricia was often in the spotlight. Many people knew about her and her life, for example, the press talked about her engagement to her ex-professor which many found inappropriate. However, Patty and her fiance promised that nothing ever happened between them while she attended the university. The SLA thought she was the perfect target because she lived very close to their headquarters and she was famous enough to cause a big commotion when she was kidnapped therefore giving them the ability to require a larger ransom and they were able to get their names out there into the general public.
A comparisin to this is when people do acts of terrorism for recognition or to attract attention from the media. For example, many bombing and assassinations are because people are trying to bring attention to themselves or get fame. One example of this can be the bombing of a government building in Oklahoma City. It was done to gain attention for those who opposed the removal of the cult from there two years prior.
An important quote from the book is “The biggest police gun battle ever to take place on American soil had begun, and it was on live television. —” It was important because it really changed how the media reacted to crime and terrorism and it was one of the first cases that were being widely followed and televised throughout the who period of time. Later, cases like the OJ Simpson trial would follow in its path.
Most of my questions in the book have been answered, I realize that most of the members of the SLA were very charismatic and that’s how they were able to persuade people so well including Patty. They seem trustworthy in some instances but you can see they are very manipulative and only want the best for themselves
I think the theme of the book is that you can’t always trust the people you think you can. Whether it was the media sharing false information or the SLA members constantly betraying Patty. It is also hard in many cases to tell if Patty was telling the truth in every situation or if she was lying about certain details to protect herself or to protect others. It is also a difficult case because she was very much brainwashed and she was at a stage in her life where she was very impressionable. As I said before this is one of the first cases that were so closely followed by the American people so it left a lot of room for misconceptions and rumors about Patty and the SLA.
While the first part of the book explored the lives of the human computers that were women in the 1940s, this next part goes through the lives of some human computers in the 1950s. Specifically, it talks about the experiences of Barbara Lewis Paulson, Janet Lawson, Helen Lee Chow Ling, and Susan Finley. It began with the topic of calculating trajectories of rockets with different types of fuel that would eventually be used in combat, but it also brought up how and why the ladies’ calculations led to putting a man on the moon! There definitely does seem to be a bias against men in this book, however, as they are often portrayed as lovesick dogs, and the supervisor of the human computers, Macie Roberts, as made it clear many times that she will never hire a man to work for her. This is because she believes that they will start to see themselves as the superior by default since they are men.
Continuity and change over time plays a big role in this novel, as it demonstrates the inferior technology the ladies’ had to work with in order to put data together for the rockets. They had to calculate everything my themselves, and to check their numbers to see if they were accurate, the girls had one calculator the size of a typewriter that could only add, multiply, subtract, and divide. Now, we no longer have the need for geniuses like these women because we have machines that can spit out numbers in an instant, and they can fit in our pockets.
“She found herself spending her days with one other woman, surrounded by equations. They were given the raw data from the company’s rocket tests as well as the equations the engineers needed solved. From this the two computers would write out each step of the solution by hand… it was far more than simple arithmetic; it required all of Sue’s training in geometry and calculus” (Holt 47). I feel that this quote perfectly encapsulates the novel because it explains the basic process of computing in just a few short sentences. It was a lot of work, and, as someone who greatly struggles with mathematics, it is truly awe inspiring to read about what these girls can do with the numbers they are given.
My one question from the last blog still hasn’t been answered unfortunately, but I do have a new question: Why is it that now the book treats the men involved in the operation like some sort of burden for the ladies rather than like a piece to a larger cooperative effort? I feel that this is becoming part of the larger theme or idea of the novel as a whole. That it was solely the women who accomplished all of these great things without the efforts of men, but we only hear about the men because of the anti-feminist agenda of the mid-1900s… I really don’t want this book to turn into another one of those things that promotes feminism by putting men down…
a.After giving lincoln’s backstory, the book goes onto describe his road to the emancipation proclamation and the great change that he brought upon this country. It details his famous debates with stephen Douglas and how he eventually lost to him, giving douglas another term in office. Then it goes to explain the more radical section of the pre civil war era were slave rebellions were common such as John Brown’s raid which struck fear into southerners and how this affected the civil rights movement by having more people join this cause while also enacting african american slaves into a recognizable position of power, and let everyone see that they had the power to cause great change. Next, the Kansas nebraska act put into place by douglas which allowed new states to vote on certain policies like slavery, which caused uproar with anti-slavery northerners. Surprisingly, lincoln didn’t do any campaigning or protests during this time. Finally the book describes the sectionalism issue between the north and the south, and how slavery was the main issue that was separating them.
b.A good connecting historical thinking skill is periodization because this vbook does a good job at splitting up the important events that Lincoln influenced or caused. Along with showing Lincoln’s influence it also shows how these events affected both the north and south and led to the growth of sectionalism. So far the two major events brought up are the Kansas nebraska act and John brown’s raid. The kansas nebraska act threatened to overturn the previous notion, the missouri compromise which was a clear line that separated slavery from non slavery, and abolitionists were enraged by this. John Brown’s raid asa I said above, struck fear into southerners who owned a lot of slaves and caused paranoia that a massive slave uprising cold start.
c.”privately, Lincoln made his innermost feelings clear.”As I would not be a slave, so I would not be a master” he jotted down on a scrap of paper” This really captures the whole idea of the civil rights movement and the exact reason why it changed. Its saying that if you would not be a slave yourself, you do not have the right to enslave other people. The latter half of Lincoln’s life was completely devoted to making change with this social norm that needed to be stopped.
d.The book hasn’t really answered any questions I had because this being a recount of Lincoln’s life doesn’t leave anything unanswered.
e.The main theme is sectionalism and how Lincoln influenced that, and they advanced it slightly by talking about important events that he caused and how it would further sectionalism. Another theme that would fit better would be how dedicated Lincoln is to the cause of stopping slavery, and he shows this throughout most of his life, even when he was just a teenager passing through a slave market, he was disgusted by it.