Blog #7

Choice B: Tell how the following characters respond to the jury's verdict: Jem, Aunt Alexandra, Dill, Miss Maudie, and Bob Ewell.

After the jury’s verdict, Jem wanted to cry. He was very upset about what happened. Right before the verdict during questioning, Dill left the courtroom with Scout, crying. When they found out about the verdict, it said in the book, “It was Jem’s turn to cry. His face was streaked with angry tears as we made our way through the cheerful crowd. ‘It ain’t right, Atticus,’ said Jem.”

Jem was clearly upset and did not like the verdict at all. Nobody supporting Tom Robinson’s side was happy. Aunt Alexandra had mixed feelings. Right after the verdict we didn’t see too much of her feelings, and she seemed to have mixed emotions. But, in the end of chapter 24, we find out that Aunt Alexandra really did care. She was very upset when she found out that Tom Robinson had been killed. She cried and was more upset than Scout, and Calpurnia. It was very surprising to find out that she really was like Atticus and did care about him.

Bob Ewell was angry at Atticus for many things, defending Tom Robinson, embarrassing him in front of the town, and for ruining his name. Bob’s reaction to this was by spitting in Atticus’ face and yelling at him.

“According to Miss Stephanie Crawford, however, Atticus was leaving the post office when Mr. Ewell approached him, cursed him, spat on him, and threatened to kill him.”

Atticus didn’t do anything except wipe his face. He said that he was too old to be fighting. He also told Jem and Scout that he would rather Mr. Ewell take out his anger on him rather than Mayella.

Miss Maudie didn’t go to the courtroom to watch the trial. She wanted to stay home. Miss Maudie made a cake and gave it to Jem, Scout, and Dill. Miss Maudie seemed to be upset, but felt bad for Atticus and his children. She knows how they feel about black people and about Tom Robinson and the case. She knew the verdict was wrong, and I think she was really starting to realize what was happening in Maycomb and was beginning to understand that there is no difference between black and white. She was beginning to see things like Atticus did.

TKAM Blog #5 chapters 13-15

Journal #4
Chapters 10, 11, & 12
Perspective: Tom Robinson

I've heard that Atticus' sister Alexandra has gone to live with them. Nobody really talks to me to inform me about the Maycomb gossip, I've just acquired my information from what the people around me talk about. Apperently Scout has been antagonizing her aunt because Alexandra is trying to take over the family and Scout has obviously noticed it. Alexandra is very preocupied by family trends and history, but that isn't how Atticus had raised them. The children don't know too much about their family, and that bothers Alexandra.

It's Sunday night and tomorrow we are going to trial. I was extracted from the previous jail, to the Maycomb county Jail. Atticus had come to visit me. I wasn't too sure why, but it cam clear later that night. Atticus brought a light and sat in front of the Jail reading his paper. Later that night, a group of men pulled up in front of the jail. They sat there for a while, then suddenly emerged from the car by two's and one's. They formed a mob in front off the jail and that was when i realized that Atticus was there to protect me. He knew they were coming. Suddenly, a little girl emerged from the darkness and into the crowd straight to Atticus. It was Scout. Two other boys came following her, I reckon it was Jem, and Dill. Scout must have thought that this would make the men go away and that Atticus would be pleased to see them. But he wasn't, and they didn't go away. I could see Scout analyze the crowd. She spotted a man, she Called him Mr. Cunningham. She was in the same class as his son, Walter Cunningham. She said how she beat him up, but he was nice about it. Then Jem and her invited him over for dinner. She talked a bit about his son. She told him to say hey to him for her. He was unresponsive. We were all stunned. She then went on about entailments and how they were bad. Mr Cunningham interupted her by saying that he would tell Walter that she said hey. He told all of the men tp get back in the cars and that they were done there and to leave. I wish I could have thanked that young lady for saving me. I wasn't sure what would have happened or if the men would have gotten to me. But if they did, it would have been bad. The men left heading back the way they came. I spotted Mr. Underwood accross the street looking out with a double barrel Shotgun. Him and Atticus talked a second, then Atticus was off into the darkness with his children.

Journal #4

Chapters 10, 11, & 12

Perspective: Scout

Today while Jem and I were shooting our air guns, Jem spotted Tim Johnson, the town’s dog. He was walking kind of funny and Jem said she thought he was sick, so we ran home to Calpurnia. Jem told Calpurnia that there was a sick dog. Cal said that she had no time to patch up a hurt dog and told us that there was gauze by the sink in the bathroom. But then once Jem told her it wasn’t that and he acted out how the dog was walking. Once Cal had seen that, she then ran out to see the dog. She saw Tim and made us run inside with her. She called Atticus and told him that there was a mad dog. Although it was February, Calpurnia said she knew a mad dog when she saw one. She called Atticus to tell him about the dog and quickly hung up. When we tried to ask what he had said, she shook her head and dialed again. She called Miss Eula May and told her to notify everyone with a phone to stay inside because there was a mad dog. I was scared, I was struck with complexity about the situation and I was frightened. Atticus came home not too long after with the sheriff. They waited for Tim to see which way he was going, and to determine whether or not he was sick, or just tired and old. He started getting closer and the sheriff gave Atticus the gun to take the shot. Atticus was hesitant and finally took the shot. He killed Tim, and Jem and I were in awe of the situation. Especially because he wouldn’t even teach us about our air guns, he left that to Uncle Jack. Earlier that day, I was complaining about Atticus and how he was much older than the other parents of my school contemporaries. He would play tag, and football, but was just old and didn’t do the same things other parents did. But, after he shot Tim, my perspective on him changed. He was a hero and I was proud of Atticus. Miss Maudie told Jem and I about Atticus when he was younger and how he was the deadest shot in Maycomb. Jem and I were surprised. I wanted to tell everyone at school on Monday. But Jem told me not to say anything because Atticus obviously didn’t want us to know about or else he would have told us.

Mrs. Dubose was the meanest lady I have probably ever known. The day after Jem’s twelfth birthday, he was dying to spend his money. Mrs. Dubose lived on the way to town. Jem wanted to buy himself a steam engine, and was going to get me a twirling baton. While passing, Mrs. Dubose was on her front porch. Immediately she started hollering at us asking why we weren’t at school Jem replied “It’s Saturday Mrs. Dubose.” She was harassing us, and asking why we were walking alone. Each time, we would reply kindly. She then talked about the Finch’s and how Atticus gave our family and our town a bad name for defending a nigger. She told us, “Your father is no better than the niggers and trash he works for.” Mrs. Dubose had gotten to Jem and I and she knew it. We kept walking. On our way back home, Mrs. Dubose was not on her porch. Jem grabbed my baton, jumped through the fence and chopped the top of every Camellia bush. Broke my baton on his knee and threw it on the ground. I was yelling at him and he told me to shut up and pulled my hair, then kicked me to the ground. He helped me up roughly, but looked sorry. We went home and didn’t talk about it. Atticus got home and had my baton in one hand, and Camellia buds in the other. Jem immediately went to Mrs. Dubose to apologize. When he came home, he said that Mrs. Dubose wanted him to read to her every afternoon for two hours for a month. That month went by long and hard. When the month passed, she said she wanted another week. Every day, she would set her timer to be longer and longer. Finally, she told us that was all and to have a good day. We left her house and never went back. About a week later, Atticus got a call and went to Mrs. Dubose’s house. When he got back, we were informed that she had died. He gave Jem a chocolate box which had a Camellia bud. He threw the box in the fire. Angry, I did not understand why, but when I went off to bed, I saw him playing with the pedals.

Atticus was gone for the week and we were with Cal. It was Saturday night and church was the next day. Cal didn’t want us going alone, so she said we could go with her to her church. I was excited. Morning came and we went to First Purchase, a church that was purchased by Negroes and freed slaves. It was much different from our church. They had no hymn books, decorations and other things that most churches had. They sang differently too. A woman named Lula was not happy about Calpurnia bringing us there. She said we didn’t belong there and that we had our own church. Cal fought back and spoke in ways that I’ve never heard her speak before. She spoke nigger talk like the rest of them when at home with us, she spoke more proper. She talked like her acquaintances I did not understand this and when we got home, I asked her why. She said it was because she had to speak like them because people don’t like it when others know more than they do and that she didn’t need to talk like white folk.

Journal #3
Chapters 8 & 9
Perspective: Atticus

Autumn turned to winter this year, and for the first time since 1885, it snowed. Mr. Avery said that on the Rosetta stone it says that when children act up and bring violence, the seasons will change. Mr. Avery Always has reasons for things that come from the Rosetta stone. Mrs. Radley died this winter, but didn’t make much of an impact on the town. Everybody hardly ever saw her. My kids had thought that Boo had finally got her, but I informed them that it was due to natural causes. Scout and Jem had never seen snow before, so when Scout looked outside, she thought that the world was ending. During breakfast I got a call from Eula May, Maycomb’s leading telephone operator informing us that there will be no school due to the fact that it hadn’t snowed since 1885. Jem and Scout wanted to make a snow man even though I told them there was hardly enough snow to successfully make a single snowball. When I got home that day, a snowman was there to welcome me. Turns out, Jem knew how to make a snow man by using mud and snow. I told him how wonderful of a job he did. The snowman resembled Mr. Avery, so I told Jem to fix it or remove some parts of the snowman.

That night, although the snow had stopped, it was very cold. I offered Calpurnia to stay the night with us, but she said she would rather go to her own house. So, I drove her home so that she didn’t have to walk in the malignant weather. Before bed, I put more coal on the fire in Jem and Scouts room. Later that night, I was woken up by commotion due to a fire at Miss Maudie’s. I quickly went to the kid’s room and teetered through the door way to wake up Jem and Scout. Scout took awhile to wake up and was in a daze and quibbling. We evaded our house and I instructed Jem and Scout to stand off by the Radley’s place and out of the way. All of the men of Maycomb were helping, and I carried out Mrs. Maudies favorite rocking chair. Mr. Avery was up in the top window pushing out her mattress. We then started yelling to him to get out and that the stairs were collapsing. He began climbing out the window and got stuck but made it out alive.

I am in the middle of a case right now defending a Negro, and apparently, it is bringing trouble to Scout during school. I told her that everything would be fine and to keep her head high and keep her fists low. I didn’t want her to fight anymore. I told her that I had to take this case because if not, I wouldn’t be able to represent this county in the legislature.

To Kill a Mocking Bird Blog #2

Journal #2-
Chapters 4-7
Perspective: Jem

On the day before the last of school, I cam home and Scout had found gum in a knothole of the tree in front of the Radley's place. I told her to spit it out because it was found and was found in front of the Radley's place. The next day when walking home with her from our final day of school before summer, I saw something shiny in the knothole Scout was talking about. I looked around, pulled it out and we ran home. On the porch, I opened the small box patch worked with bits of tinfoil. Inside the small box I found two Indian Head pennies, one from 1906, and the other of the year 1900. I knew these were important to someone.

Two days later Dill came in to town for the summer. He came two days later because Mississippi gets out of school a day later than Maycomb, Alabama. As soon as Dill got there we started playing and getting into character for games. When we got bored of our usual games, I decided that we should play Boo Radley. In this game, we would act out different parts of the Radley life. We played this game for a long time until Atticus caught us playing. He didn't know we were playing this Radley game, but suspected it. We stopped playing for a bit so that Atticus would loose his suspicion. While not playing the Radley game, Dill and I kicked Scout out from our conversations. While Dill and I were together, Scout would talk with Ms. Maudie, our next door neighbor. She talked to her about Boo Radley because I had told her that Boo was stuffed in the chimney and that was why he didn’t ever come out. Ms. Maudie told her that that was a lie and that Boo, or Aurthur Radley was very alive, and that he chose not to come out. This helped give Dill and I get the great idea to write a letter to Boo and kindly ask him to come out. We simply said that we just wanted to talk to him and we would even buy him an ice cream. We planned to put the letter through a loose shudder with a bamboo stick. While doing so, Atticus caught us and took the letter. He told us to stop tormenting Boo Radley.

It was Dill’s last night, and Scout and I went over to talk to him. Although Atticus had strictly informed us to leave Boo Radley alone, we had to make him come out. After all, it was Dill’s last night before he went back home for the next school year. We saw Mr. Avery, who lives across the street pee off his porch while we were starting towards the Radley place. We went through the back gate and looked through the shudders, then went to the porch. While on the porch, a shadow hovered over us. When the shadow stopped about a foot from me, I jumped off the porch over to Dill and Scout. I threw the gate open and told Scout and Dill to run to the gate at the school yard. We hurried and Scout fell. Suddenly a shot from Mr. Radley’s shotgun shattered the whole town. We dropped to the ground then hurried to the fence. My pants got stuck on the barbed wire and I had to loose them in order to get out alive. We ran back to the house and saw a crowed formed in front of the Radley place. We hurried there so that the town didn’t suspect anything. We stood next to Miss Stephanie and she explained that Mr. Nathan Radley shot at a Negro. She asked where my pants had gone and Dill explained that he had won them, from a game of strip poker. We got in a bit of trouble for playing such a thing, but Atticus left us off with a warning sending us home ordering me to put on some pants. Dill goes to his Aunts house while Scout and I get some sleep. That night, I went back to get my pants. I had to get them so that Mr. Radley didn’t find them and showed them to Atticus. I ran there, and came back with my pants.

I didn’t talk much for the next week or so, and Scout didn’t bother me about it. School started again and I was starting the sixth grade, and Scout started second. I told Scout about the night I went back for my pants. They were folded on the gate, and sowed up like somebody was waiting for me to come. We walked past the tree and I saw a ball of grey twine. Scout told me not to take it, and that it was some kids hiding spot, we left it there for two days and no one took it back, so we claimed it as ours. In the sixth grade I learned a lot of fun things like the Egyptians which just baffled Scout. Next we spotted two figures sculpted from soap, a boy and a girl, me and Scout. A few days later, we got our best prize yet. It was a pocket watch that didn’t run on a chain with an aluminum knife. We showed Atticus, who had thought that I swapped it for the one that had been my grandfathers. Scout suggested that we wrote a letter to whoever was leaving these little trinkets. I agreed and we simply thanked this man, signed our names, put it in an envelope and waited for the next day. We went to leave the note to find that the knothole had been filled with cement. I asked Mr. Nathan about it, and he said that the tree was sick and when trees are sick you must fill them with cement. This was hard to come about, but we had to deal with it.

NAME: Adam Martineze DATE: Feb. 19, 2010
BOOK: A Long Way Gone
AUTHOR: Ishmael Beah
PAGES: 98-160 TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 62

QUESTION 1: What has surprised you in the book? Why?

RESPONSE 1: In this book i was surprised by how many times the main character, Ishmael, and his friends were almost killed. Ishmael was almost killed many times, not by the rebels, but by villages thinking that they were rebels. Every time they were almost killed, the were always saved by the cassettes of hip-hop music that were in Ishmael pants pocket. They would play the music, and Ishmael would tell the chief about how him and his brother and their friends would dance to this American music. I thought that this was funny because the only thing that ever convinced the chief's of villages that they were just kids and not rebels, was this old school hip-hop music that Ishmael listened to and carried around.


QUESTION 2: Which character would you like (or not like) to be your friend? Why?

RESPONSE 2: I would like Ishmael to be my friend because he is really cool and has a lot of courage and motivation that drove him through day and night knowing that at one point he could be killed. I like this characteristic in him because it is a very impressive thing to see someone keep their chin held high even through times of death and fear.

NAME: Adam Martinez
DATE: 2/11/10

BOOK: A Long Way Gone
AUTHOR: Ishmael Beah

PAGES 43-98
TOTAL PAGES THIS WEEK: 37

Q 1: How did what you read today make you feel? Why?

A: What I read about today made me really think about the how the kids who are going through this now are feeling. It is a very sad thing that is going on in this part of the world and is hard to imagine this happening to me. The main character, and the group that he is currently with in this part of his story, are 13 like I am now. It is very hard to just imagine walking through war day to day knowing that you could be killed. One of the pages that i read today talked about one of the main characters dying. I couldn't even fathom the thought of watching my friend die right there in front of me, or in this case, wake up and find that your friend is dead. I also read about how all of the group of boys had ended up where they were and what they saw or where they were when the rebels attacked their village, their home, and their family.

Q 2: What in the book upsets you or bothers you? Why?

A: One thing that upsets me is what was going on and still to this day is going on in Sierra Leone. I find it disappointing that there is nothing being done, or nothing to be done to help fight off or get rid of the rebels in Africa. I also thing that it is scary that this really happened and is happening and bothers me in the sense that these people would kill their own kind for money power and to prove themselves. It bothers me that these rebels have gotten so powerful and that there has been not much in his book to try and stop them.

-Adam M.