Let's talk about TKAM At this point in time, I have finished TKAM and I have had some time to sort out my thoughts on the book. I think that this book is one of the few classic novels that I believe is important for teens today to read. We are often told to read things such as Romeo and Juliet and The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. While they are decent pieces of text, none of them have had me as hooked as this novel. I feel like TKAM has interested me in a way that none of the other books have. The plot and characters have kept me invested in the story which in turn helped me see the meaning behind the novel. I think many of my other peers would agree with me about that. MyCharacters If you have read my last few blog posts, you would know that I have been following the characters Boo Radley and Calpurnia. Since I have two characters to discuss today, let's dive right into my thoughts on them. Let's start with Calpurnia. Throughout the book, it is evident that Calpurnia is meant to be the mother figure for Scout and Jem. She treats and cares for the children as if they were her own. She tries to teach them right from wrong and how to act. One example of this can be found in chapter 21. After it is discovered that Scout and Jem were watching the trial, Atticus instructed Calpurnia to take the children home. She tells them," Mister Jem, I thought you was gettin' some kinda head on your shoulders— the very idea, she's your little sister! The very idea, sir! You oughta be perfectly ashamed of yourself—ain't you got any sense at all?" In this moment, it is shown Calpurnia acting as a mother would in a situation like this. She is trying to understand why these kids did this when she taught them not to do such careless things. Now that we have addressed my first character, it is time to talk about Boo Radley. For the majority of the book, we don't see Boo or and he doesn't even speak. He is kept in the back of our minds until the very end of the book. Even when he is actively in the scene, he only has one line of speech. His one line has stuck with me for some reason. His only line is,"Will you take me home?" When I first read it, I was let down by how anticlimactic it was. I expected him to have more to say. However, I soon changed my mind about this line. Boo didn't really need to say anything else. His actions spoke for him. The simplicity of this line showed who he actually was: a simple and kind person who just happened to be misunderstood. He wasn't some scary monster. He is just a guy who happened to be judged for something he did when he was younger. Discussion #1 As always, we had a class discussion about the text that we read. We talked a lot about who the death of Bob Ewell. Someone questioned why Mr. Tate was trying to cover up the killing and why he was trying to hide what happened. We also mentioned who would actually care about his death. One of my classmates said that the people who defended him would care and want justice. However, other people, including myself, said many of those people actually wouldn't care. In the trial, the jury didn't convict Tom because they believed in Bob Ewell. They likely only convicted Tom because he was black and Mr. Ewell was white. Instead of looking for the truth, they probably only came to their conclusion based on the color of their skin. Discussion #2 Two days after the first discussion, we had another one. We based this discussion around an essay by William James. This essay, "On a Certain Blindness in Human Beings", talked about how humans often don't take into account the experiences of others. We are often confined to our own thoughts and opinions without considering those of others. In our discussion, we talked about why children such as Scout, Jem, and Dil are able to see more than others. We believe that it has to do with how they are raised and also their experience with life in general. Children haven't had the chance to decide their opinions completely as they have not had as much experience with life. Because of that, they are able to look past their own thoughts and see the world from different perspectives. As we get older, we become more stuck in our own opinions and ideas that it is harder to look at something in a different way. In the society of Maycomb and the South in the 1930s. the blindness of humans is blatantly caused by racism and a feeling of superiority. Back then, racism was extremely present and even part of the daily lives of some people in the South. Those people saw themselves as better than black people which lead to blindness to their experiences. As for blindness in humans in our modern society, it can be caused by many things. For some, it is still caused by racism and a feeling of superiority for one's race. For others it is caused by a sexism and believing one gender is better than the other. This leads to misunderstandings in our society today and can lead to tension between those who are blind to the thoughts of others. This novel highlights the issue of blindness and how it can impact a society. It shows us how blindness can be damaging to many people.
2 Comments
5/7/2017 04:37:16 pm
Em,
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5/8/2017 08:53:23 am
Hi Emily! Your blog was really nice and I love the formatting of it with the pictures. I think adding some links would help your information go into more depth, but besides that it was good.
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