Recap Here we are again with another blog post. Since the last blog post, I have now read up to and including chapter 14. I think the book has been getting a lot better. We are starting to get to see the secret lives of the characters and learn new things about them. At this point, readers are able to see the struggles and secrets of the characters. Character Analysis- I've been tracking two characters in this book, Boo Radley and Calpurnia. Last week I mainly focused on my main man Boo Radley. However, this week, I will be talking about Calpurnia. I feel like in these last few chapters we have learned more about her character and her personality. We get a look into her morals and her thoughts. An example of this can be found on page 126 when she states, "You're not gonna change any of them by talking right, they've got to want to learn themselves, and when they don't want to learn there's nothing you can do but keep your mouth shut or talk their language." This shows her viewpoints on interacting with other people. While she was talking about respecting the language people use without trying to change them if they don't want to learn. I feel like this also applies to issues outside of language. For example, I feel like this could apply to political views. With her reasoning, you won't be able to change the way someone sees an issue if they are not willing to think differently. If people are unwilling to look at things for a different perspective, you will not be able to impact their views. As readers, we also learn about Calpurnia through what others say about her. Atticus, for example, talks about her on page 137. He states, "She tried to bring them up according to her lights, and Cal's lights are pretty good." This gives us an insight on what Cal is like, but it also tells us her role in the book. She is there to give the kids moral guidance. In that way, she is somewhat of a mother figure to Scout and Jem. Discussion In class, as always, we had a discussion on the chapters we had read. During this discussion we talked about a couple of different things. We talked about the role of Calpurnia and her role in the story. The class talked about the role of the character Dill and why he was important to the novel. While we talked about those topics, one of them really caught my attention and intrigued me. We talked about what the mockingbird symbolized in the novel. It obviously has some importance as it is included in the title. One person said it represented African Americans and the struggles they were facing in that time. I on the other hand said the mockingbird symbolized the innocent. In the book, Miss Maudie describes the mockingbird as something that only brings joy to people and doesn't harm anyone. That is how I came up with the idea of a mockingbird symbolizing the innocent. Someone else said that maybe the mockingbird could easily represent both the innocent and African Americans. They were innocent, but still treated poorly and falsely accused of crimes. In the next discussion, I hope that we discuss these two questions:
Conclusion In conclusion, I am really enjoying this book. I feel like Scout is an interesting narrator as we get to see things from a child's perspective. I also think that this novel will allow me and my peers to learn more about the issue of racism that could be found in this time. I feel like it is easily shown in this book in comparison to novels such as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (which we just finished reading).
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One of the most well known pieces of American literature is To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. As we are currently reading this book in my English class, this post is going to involve my reflection on the book so far. I have only read the first 9 chapters, but I am already becoming invested in this novel. I like having Scout, who is a young girl, as a narrator instead of a third person narrator. I feel like it brings us more into the story and shows us the story through the eyes of a child. I think all of the characters are well written and I am intrigued to learn more about them and see them grow. As for the the themes that are seen in the book so far, one main ones is based around the understanding of others. One of the characters, Atticus, mentions how we cannot truly understand a person until we walk a mile in their shoes. This relates to a topic we have addressed in our class which is about the secret lives we live. As Atticus mentions, we do not know the secrets people are hiding and therefore we are unable to fully understand a person. They might be going through things that we have no idea about. As we read this novel, we are supposed to track a character and analyze them. We have to take note of what they say,do, hear, think, and feel. I was assigned the characters Boo Radley and Calpurnia. Today, I'm going to focus more on Boo Radley. In a way, Boo is a very mysterious character. He has been hidden away for many years by his father and uncle and no one from the outside world has been in contact with him. The townspeople do not know much about him so they create these myths about him and make him out to be a monster and someone to be feared. As the story has progressed, we start to learn more about him. We do not learn about him through his words and what he says, however. His actions reveal more about his character than anything else. For example, on page 58 it is discovered that Boo had helped Jem, Scout's older brother, by fixing the pants that he had previously ripped when trying to run away from something. This was the first example of the reader learning who Boo was though his actions. It showed the first glimpse of kindness from him. It makes the children realize that Boo might not be the monster that people say he is. After reading the first couple of chapters, we had a discussion in class about what we had read. I learned some new insight on this one moment in particular. At the end of chapter 7, Jem is said to be crying. I originally thought he was crying because he would not longer be getting the gifts from Boo and he was upset about that. However, someone brought up another reason for his crying. Jem had finally realized how lonely Boo must feel and how important the connection Boo had started to form with the children was. He realized that Boo had lost his only connection to the outside world when Nathan Radley, Boo's uncle, stopped them from communicating. In the next discussion, I hope we discuss the situation Boo is in as well as how Scout and Jem are changing throughout the story. In thinking of these topics, these are two questions I hope to talk about:
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