Post 5

Character: Dill
Chapter: 13-15

Mom had just gotten married, to a guy that I really liked. He promised me that we would build a boat and I couldn’t wait to start building. Suddenly days and weeks had pasted and nothing happened. He did not even mention the boat idea again, I kept asking mom when we were going to build it but she would just tell me to go away and play with my toys. One thing that had changed for the better was that I was getting a lot of new toys. Every weekend my family and I would walk around downtown and go in and out of stores. Whenever I would see a book or toy that I really wanted, mom or her new husband would get it for me. We would then go home and I played with it for a while, and then it was just another toy. I whenever I felt bored I would just go with my mom and we would do something together, but ever since she got married again whenever I wanted to be with her, she would just tell me to go away and play with my toys. I would usually just sit in my room thinking about the plans I had made to get Boo Radley emerge from his house. I would think about Scout and Jem so long I would be oblivious when my mom and step-dad left. After a while it seemed like I never saw my parents and I would just in my room all day thinking about Scout and Jem. It got so bad one day I knew what I needed to do, run away. I waited ‘til the dead of night and then packed up all I needed, toke $13 from my mom and headed out on the road. I got on the train to Maycomb, the one place I was truly happy.

I sat on the train, looking pensive while thinking about my soon to be wife, Scout. The train lasted for a long time and when it stopped I had to walk man miles in the dark by myself. While I was walking, I started thinking about what I would do when I got to Maycomb. Would I knock on their door, sneak into their room or treehouse or just go straight to Aunt Rachel. I soon came to the conclusion that the best thing to do was to sneak into Scout’s room and hid under the bed until Scout found me.

I heard Jem and Scout fighting about something, I wanted so much to go into Jem’s room and help Scout. Jem was twice as big Scout and he could beat her up so easily. I was about to go and help Scout out, but then I heard Atticus’s voice and then Scout came in. It was dark and she stepped on my stomach. I then went back under her bed, and Scout turned on the light and went got Jim who then went downstairs to get a broom. He started swiping the broom under the bed trying to hit me. He suddenly stopped and I came up from under the bed. Scout and Jem looked shock to me, but suddenly the shock turned into excitement. They asked me how I got here, and I told them that my step father had locked me up in chains and I had to break free and join the circus, washing the camels. I told them that I traveled with the show through all of Mississippi until my infallible sense of direction told me that I was close to Abbott County which was just across the river from Maycomb. When I finished telling them my story, Jem ran down stairs got Atticus and brought him to Scout’s room. I then told him that I ran away from my home and begged him not to send me home or to Aunt Rachel’s. Atticus then called Aunt Rachel’s to tell her that I was here, and ask her if I was able to stay. After many phone calls and much pleading on behalf of me, the defendant, it was decided that I could stay. After a week of staying with the Finches I was off to Aunt Rachel’s and one night as I was reading, I hear a knock on my window. I looked out to see Jem and Scout, and I then got dressed and went outside to go with them. We went downtown to try and find Atticus and we found next to the jail next to a group of people that I had never seen. Scout went up to Atticus and started talking to a man I have never meant. Jem and I followed slowly and made up to Atticus and the group of people. Scout then started talking to a lot of people, while everyone else just kept quite. Soon everyone left got back in their cars and we walked home and I offered to carry Atticus’s chair home. Atticus then started talking to a man named Tom Robinson. They talked for a while and we walked home in silence was I was encumbered by the chair.

Post 4

Character: Calpurnia
Chapter: 10-12

Scout and Jem came into the kitchen this morning looking sad. They started telling me about how Atticus couldn't do anything and that because he was the same comtemporaries of their fellow classmate's father, they had nothing to say about him at school. They asked me if I knew anything that Atticus could do, I told them that he could do many things, but I couldn't think of anything spefic. I then sent them on their way while I started thinking more about Atticus and his talents. Jem and Scout were walking out through the neighbor while I was cleaning the kitchen. Suddenly Jem ran into calling my name, yelling about some dog that was sick. I told him that I was far to busy to deal with any dog, but he insisted that I had to come out and see this dog. I walked down the street, but didn't see any dog. We almost reached the Radley house when Jem pointed out old Tim Johnson. I saw the dog walking like he had a limp but then I saw that this dog had Mad dog. When I first saw it I couldn't believe it, mad dog happens mostly in August and it was February. I then knew for sure that it had mad dog and I rushed the children back inside while I called Eula May. I told her to call anyone with a phone and inform them not to go out side for there was a mad dog outside. I then asked her to call the Radleys because the dog was so close to their house, but she told me that they didn't have a phone. I hung up the phone and ran to the Radley's house, I ran up their porch and started banging on their door. No one answered. I started yelling for anyone, but no one was there. I started banging again, but then I ran back. I then called Atticus to tell him to come down with the Mr. Heck, the town sheriff. Atticus and Mr. Heck got down there a few minutes later. I saw them come out with a rifle and I showed them where the dog was. By the time they got there, Tim Johnson was almost in the Radley House yard. I could hear Mr. Heck and Atticus talking about what they should do. I then saw Mr. Heck give Atticus then rifle, and I then remembered his great skills with guns, but I also remembered that he didn't want his children to know. I looked over to them and I could see their eyes widen in confustion when they saw Atticus put his glasses off of his eye and raise the gun and with a single shot the dog fell. Poor Tim Johnson didn't know what was coming to him. Atticus lowered the gun and went over to Tim. Jem and Scout walked out slowly and Atticus turned to see them. Mr. Heck yelled at Scout and Jem, telling them not to come over near the dog. Atticus and Mr. Heck walked back to their car and drove out of sight.

The next day Jem and Scout went off into town so they could some things. I stayed at their house making super and cleaning the kitchen. They came back really inconspicuous. Jem stayed in living room, stilling alone in a chair while Scout stayed in the kitchen. She didn't talk and kept to herself, looking somewhat scared. I knew that something happened, something was wrong. I figured that Jem most have done something to make Scout upset. Atticus came home yelling for Jem, he started asking him about Mrs. Dubose and her flowers. I then knew what happened, Mrs. Dubose was the meanest lady on our street, and hated the kids. I knew that she must had said something to Jem that made him so angry that he must had went over there are chopped off all her flowers. Jem told him that he must go down and talk to Mrs. Dubose and tell her that he was sorry what he did. Jem's "Yes sir" was inaudible. I have heard many things about Mrs. Dubose, and for one thing I knew that Jem would be regerting his move of cutting her flowers very soon. Mrs. Dubose told Jem that he would have to come over to her house every day and read for him for two hours for a month. I couldn't believe that that was his punishment, but it was. And before long Jem had finished his month, and Mrs. Dubose had died.

Time pasted quickly and suddenly Jem was 12. Scout was still reading and playing and Atticus had been working hard on Tom Robinsons case. One weekend he told me that he had to go away for two weeks, and that I was left with the children. Most of the time Scout and Jem would be outside, but during the day I found that Jem would be up in his room while Scout was left alone. She asked me what was going on with Jem, I told her that Jem was just growing up and that she needed to leave Jem alone and if she was ever feeling bored, she could come on it to the kitchen and we would find something fun to do. She came in many times, and we always had fun baking something or playing a new game. She liked to talk mose of the time, mostly about Dill. She told me about the kiss he gave her and the fact that she had a finance, was compensation for him not being with her this summer. The week pasted and it was Saturday when i got to thinking about what I should do with them on Sunday. I thought about leaving them home while I went to church, or just dropping them off at their church and then I would go to mine, but then I got a great idea, they would come to church with me. I told Scout about it and she seemed mighty happy to come with me. I then couldn't wait til I could show them my church.

On Sunday I woke Jem and Scout early to get them dressed and looking nice. When they looked prefect we went one our way down to my church. We walked in and many people looked at us with both happiness and confustion. Jem and Scout were looking around, noticing that there were no pianos, hymnbooks or any other ecclesiasticals. We sat down in the front and started with our prays. Service let out and I walked Jem and Scout home. Scout then asked me more about Tom Robbinson's case, and what he did. I told her all I felt that she needed to know, and told her to ask her father when he got home. We walked the rest of the way of in silcence until I saw point over to the front porch where Ms. Alexandra Finch was waiting for us.

Post 3

Character: Jem
Chapter: 8-9

I woke up to a cold morning. I looked outside to see something I never thought that I would see, snow! I rushed down stairs to tell Atticus about the snow outside. We then got a call from Eula May, saying that their was no school today because of the weather. Whenever something happened we would always get a call from Eula May. She was entrusted with informing everyone any important news. Scout woke up soonly after me and we went outside to play in the snow. There was hardly any snow on the ground and what was there was watery hard to play with. So Scout and myself went outside to try and build ourselfs a snowman. We went over to Miss. Maudie's to collect any snow that we didn't want. When we were walking over to Miss Maudie's house we saw Mr. Avery, when we saw us he started yelling at us. He was saying that this sudden weather change was our fault because of our recent bad havior. When we got over to Miss. Maudie house she was outside putting bags over her flowers. We then gathered all her snow and moved it into our yard. Scout and I then got busying working on our snowman. I had a sudden idea to create our snowman to look like Mr. Avery and when we were done it looked very much like him. When Atticus saw, he made up change our snowman from Mr. Avery to Miss. Maudie because we knew that she would not mind us making something that looked like her.

We went to bed that night frozen. All of our fireplaces where going but it was still as cold as every. That night I went to sleep very easily but woke up to Atticus shaking me. He gave me my coat and robe and while I put everything on he went and got Scout. He moved us outside and made us stand in front of the Radley's place. I looked around to see Miss. Maudies house on fire. Everything in her house was in flames and her house was bright red and orange. Scout and I stood in front of the Radley house while we watched Miss. Maudies and the adjacent house go up in smoke. I was holding Scout for warmth until it got so cold she just couldn't stand it. She started dancing in the streets, but all I could see was Miss. Maudies house burn.

Finally the house fire had been stopped and Scout, Atticus and me went inside our house. Atticus made us all some hot chocolate while we talked about what happened. Suddenly I saw that Atticus was looking at Scout strangly. I looked over and saw nothing wrong until Atticus asked whos blankets she was wearing was. I thought back and remembered that she wasn't wearing that blacket when we first went out of the house. I thwn realized that Boo Radley must have drapped the blacknet over Scout when we were watching the fire. I was debating weather to I should be scared for my sister or be mad at her for not turning around to see Boo Radley.

Scout, Atticus and I made our trip up to Finch's landing, a place that we always went for Christmas. I looked going up to see Uncle Jack but I hated going to see Aunt Alexandra and her grandson Francis. He was always to mean to me and Scout and he didn't respect us at all. When we were up there the first thing that happened was that Aunt Alexandra became fanatical with Scout's outfit. She kept on saying that she didn't dree ladylike and she shouldn't be wearing pants, but dresses. I couldn't imagien what Scout would look like in dress, I wanted to find out but knew that I never would. When we were at Finchs landing, I saw that Aunt Alexandra had began to isolate Scout from Francis and myself ever since we moved to the big table. I was somewhat happy to be away from Scout, but then at the same time I missed her. Then one night Francis was talking to Scout about Dill and Atticus, calling them mean names. Then Scout went over and beat Francis. Then Francis tells Uncle Jack that Scout hit him, and without hearing Scout, he slaps her.

Post 2

Character: Jem
Chapter 4-7

School had finally ended and it was summer which means that Dill comes back to Maycomb to stay with his Aunt Rachel. I couldn't wait until Scout, Dill and I could play all summer again and he could hang out like last summer. One thing happened before Dill came, which was that Scout had found something in a hole of a tree that got me thinking about how had left it there. I started thinking more and more about this until Dill finally showed up. He didn't really look any different, he was still the same Dill that I had missed all school year. As soon and he saw Scout and I, he raced to us and we started playing again. The first thing that we did was get an old tire to play in. Scout was the first one in the tire, she had been tormenting before, so I pushed her real hard. The tire rolled as fast as it could go and I didn't think that it was going to end until she hit something and went flying into the Radley's yard. I ran as fast as I could to her and when I got to her she laid still until she looked up and saw who's yard she was in. She ran over to me but forgot the tire so I ran back to get it. I hated being anywhere near that house but I had to get the tire for two reasons. One reason was that we needed it to play and the second reason was that I wanted to show Scout that I wasn't scared even though I was. 

Through out the summer Dill and I became very close usually leaving Scout out of our games until I cam up with a new game, Boo Radley. Dill would be Mr. Radley while Scout was Ms. Radley and I was Boo Radley, spending most of our game hiding under our porch steps. As the summer pasted we got very good at our game, we had talking and many different scences. We played everyday and only stopped when we saw a neighbor look up at us, or when we saw Mr. Radley pass by. One day we started play as usually but then Atticus walked by and heard us playing. He asked us if our game had anything to do with the Radleys. I lied and said no, and gave Atticus a quick evasion, letting Scout and Dill know that our game was a secret. Atticus then walked into our house and Scout began to think that we shouldn't play our game anymore. Soon we did stop playing our game and Dill and I began playing different games while Scout began sitting with the chameleon lady, Miss. Maudie. Before long Scout started talking to Miss Maudie everyday. I started to wonder what they were talking about but then Dill suddenly got an idea, we were going to write Boo Radley a letter. The letter was going to ask Boo to simply come outside more, so that we could see him. We were going to deliever the letter when Scout came with us. Dill and I found a place to put our letter in, and just when it was almost in the house, Atticus found us. We were told never to brother that house again and that we couldn't go near the Radleys ever again. I wanted to argue with Atticus and explain what we were doing, but at this time there was not point in quibbling with him. 

Summer pasted along quickly and finally it was Dill's last day here in Maycomb. Scout, Dill and I had obeyed Atticus's rules by not going near the Radley's house. The Dill had another idea, we were going to go at night to peak through one of the loose shutters on the Radleys house. We were going to see if we could see Boo Radley for our self. We waited until dark, and then we moved secretly to the Radley's house. We went into the back yard of the house and we went up to a loose shutter. We each peaked through the shutter but didn't see anything, all we saw was a light off in the distance. I then wanted to see if I could see Boo through the door up in the porch. I jumped onto the porch, and teetered for a moment until I gained my balence. I looked in the door but couldn't see anything. The after a moment of looking in the door I saw a shadow of a man in a hat. I quickly jumped off the porch and dashed behind a bush with Scout and Dill where I had saw that I created a huge hole in my pants. Suddenly we heard a gun shot and we all ran out of the yard. I was getting Scout and Dill out when I got my pants stuck on wire and was forced to kick my pants off in order to get free. We ran towards the school yard and towards our house. We then saw a group of our neighbors all headed towards the Radleys house. We went towards and heard that Mr. Radley thought that he had shot someone and that we should all be looking for him. Suddenly Miss Rachel looked over to see that I had lost my pants. Dill then told her that we were playing strip poker and that he had. Atticus then sent me to go get my pants and then to return home. We all walked home in silcent thinking about what we had done. 

Scout and I spent that night outside on our porch. I couldn't sleep at all and was thinking that next morning they would find my pants the Radley's yard and then they would all know that I was the one in the yard that night. It was about 2 in the morning and I had made the decistion that I was going to go and get my pants. I sneaked over to the Radleys yard to find my pants unhooked. I also found that the hole in my pants had been fixed. I walked home thinking about who might have done something like this. I crawled back into my bed and couldn't sleep the rest of the night. 

Post 1

Character: Miss Caroline
Chapter 1-3

I have just gotten into the town of Maycomb to start my new job as a teacher for the school. This year I will be teaching first grade which is a great year because I get to be the person who teaches the kids the most important thing, to read. I walked into my classroom ready to teach and as the children started piling in i began to notice a lot of them had no shoes and were very dirty. Never the less I started my lesson by telling everyone my name and letting them know that I was not indigenous to Maycomb. I then began the day with writing the alphabet on the black board. I then called on a little girl, Ms. Jean Louise Finch, to try and read it, when came up to the board she started reading it perfectly. I was so surprised to hear this girl read the alphabet perfectly that I gave her another thing to read to see if she could read perfectly. She read everything perfectly and I couldn't believe it. I had then came to the conclusion that her father must have taught her, but when I confronted her about it she told me that her father had never taught her to read and that it just came naturally. I didn't believe her of course and I insisted that he stop reading with her. Then she said that she wanted to read and write in this class. I could not believe that a girl in the first grade would have such a eccentric plan. I then sat her down to begin my lesson.

After a while it was lunch time. I then asked who was going home and who had a lunch, everyone raised their hand except for one little boy, the one who didn't have any shoes, Walter Cunningham. She told me that he didn't have a lunch to eat, so I tried to give him a quarter just like any teacher would do, and I would have thought that this boy would have just taken it and then paid me back tomorrow, but this boy just sat in his seat. I told him to take the quarter but this boy shock his head and sat. I insisted that he take but then Ms. Jean Louise Finch stood up and started explaining to me that he was a “Cunningham” and that he would not take the quarter because she would not be able to go. She was quite a malevolent child and her different pronouncements began to irk me very much. I then got very angry with her and called her over and hit her 6 times with a ruler and then sent her to the corner.

After lunch I again started teaching like normal, when I turned my head to see a cootie crawl out of a boys hair. I screamed and all the kids turned to see my face is horror while I pointed my figure at this boy. Everyone then came to me and told me that I was not to fear and that it was only a cootie. I was then given a glass of cold water and I order the boy to tell me his name. He told me that his name was Burris Ewell. I told him to go home and take a bath before coming to school the next day. He stood up and he was the dirtiest little boy I had ever seen, I told him to go home again, but he refused. Then another boy stood up to tell me that he was an “Ewells” and that they were all over the school. He continued to explain that they only go to school for the first day and then they never come back. He also said that I was just supposed to mark him absent for the rest of the year and that they avoid trouble with the law by going the first day. I could not believe that what I just heard, a boy that only goes to school for one day. I then told him to sit back down but then Mr. Burris Ewell became very angry and started yelling at me, saying that no one could ever make him to things and then he started using such language and calling my such thing that I broke down into tears.

Immigration Project Reflection

Literature Circle Books/Blogs

The book that I had to read was Brother, I’m Dying by Edwidge Danticat. When choosing my book this was my first chose and I am very happy that I was able to read this book. This book is a powerful book about the hardship that many people face when moving to a new country and leaving another country. This book also showed how hard it can be to get into this country, but how great it can be once you get in America. From reading this book I have learned a lot more about Haiti history and the many hard times the people of Haiti had to go through. I also learned about how horrible things that could happen to a person if the government of America believe that you are an illegal immigrant.

For this project instead of meeting in a group to discuss the book, we had to post what we think about the book in our blogs. There are many things that I really liked about this way of doing blogs, and there are things that I don’t like about working with the blogs. The things that I liked when working with the blogs, was that we got to focus on the two quotes that affected the book. The things that I didn’t like about working on the blogs was that we had all of our meetings online instead of in person, and I liked when we had in person meetings better then doing all of our meets online. When working with the blogs some problems that I had was that some people would write little posts and they didn’t add much detail when posting, so it was hard to really understand why they would like a quote and why they thought that it was significant in the book.

Art and Literature

When I was choosing what painting that I wanted to have, I didn’t know if I wanted to create a new cover for the book or create a important scene from the book. I liked both of these ideas because I was able to have lots of freedom when creating my paint, but finally I decided that I was going to create a new cover for my book. I decided that I wanted to create a book cover because I thought that this would be a good way of expressing what I thought about the book and I would be able to make something new for the book. When making my book cover I didn’t really know what to do at first. Then I started thinking about the different things that happened in the book, and what the author was trying to show in the book or how she felt in when immigrating. In the end I wanted to create a book cover that showed how the author felt when she was leaving.

When making a book cover you have to make a big connection to the book, so in my painting I thought that I made a connection through my painting because I created what I believed the author felt when immigrating to America. I think that because my book had such a big message and the author talked a lot about how she felt, so it was very easy to create a connection between my painting and the book that I read.

I think that my painting turned out okay because I think that I could have added more things to make it look more detailed, but I did what I wanted to do which was to show the two parents and the two countries that the author was caught in between. I think that I could have enhanced my final painting by adding more detail to the painting. I think that I could have also redone the America, because I feel like I could have redone it to make it look better and cleaner.

Interview Process with Participant and Gift

For my interview process I was given Mrs. Abbassi, which is Ms. Abbassi mother. Ms. Abbassi’s parents live up near San Francisco, I wasn’t able to have an in person interview, but one email interview, and two phone interviews. When interview Mrs. Abbassi, I think that I was able to get a lot of important information about her immigration experience. I think that our interviewing process went very well because Mrs. Abbassi was able to share a lot of information with me, and I really understood what she went through when immigrating. I also got to learn a lot about how she misses her home country of Iran, and how America has affected her life, and her children’s life.

I think that one of the reasons that my interview went so smooth was because I got to learn a lot more of Iran from the information that we had to collect about our interviewees country. When collecting the information, I learned that I really didn’t know that much about Iran, and because we had to fill out the fact sheet, I was able to learn a lot more about Iran. So in the end I was very happy that we had the many fact sheets, because in the end I learn more about Mrs. Abbassi’s home country, Iran.

When interviewing, I liked interviewing on the phone the best because when emailing sometimes the people wouldn’t elaborate on their answers, but when we were on the phone you were able to get a more detailed answer. I wish that I was able to have an in person interview because I think that I would have liked that even more, but I also liked doing my phone interview as well.

With this project we got to learn a lot about immigrants from reading about their experiences in books, but I think that because we were able to talk to an individual immigrant, each of us were able to learn more then any book could tell us. When interviewing our individual immigrant we were able to learn about their story and hear they have to tell us about their life and how it has been affected by immigrating. If each of our were to not interview an immigrant, I don’t think that we would have learn and get all the information that we now have.

When I was going to make my gift I was going to make a painting, a calendar, or a scapebook. Mrs. Abbassi ended up choosing a painting for her gift. When she was explaining what we wanted in a gift, she said that she didn’t want any flags in the painting, and she wanted something that was netural in both countries, Iran and America. So for my painting I choose to make two types of flowers that had to do with both places that she had lived in. The California state flower, Poppy and the national flower of Iran, which was the red rose. So in my painting I made one side of my paintings poppys, and the other side roses so that they come together in the middle. So I wanted to show that America and Iran can come together to create something new.

Final Post for Brother, I'm Dying

Quote 1: "Looking into my daughter's eyes, I thought of my mother, who had faced these first hours alone after I was born. She had been made no promises, been offered no guarantees that either she of I would even live past that night. If something had been ruptured inside of her, no one would have noticed. If something had been broken inside of newborn me, perhaps no one but my mother would have cared. My daughter's quiet yet well-monitored first night was perhaps the one my mother had dreamed for me, for herself, a dream of kind words, kisses, flowers." Edwidge thought this on page 255.

Significance: I think that this shows how different life was back then back in Haiti. I never would have thought thought that their would be a group of pregnant ladies ready to give birth on a stone floor. I always thought that most people would give birth in a hospital with a doctor helping them give birth, but for Edwidge's mother, she was all by herself when she was giving birth. So when Edwidge was giving birth I think that all she thought about was her mother, and how lucky she was to give birth in a nice place.

Character Judgment: I think that Edwidge mother showed a lot of courage to give birth in such a horrivle place. I also think that this quote shows how much Edwidge's mother loved Edwidge ffrom evey moment.

Question 1: Why do you think that in Haiti pregnant people give birth in groups like that?

Quote 2: "Look, Papa, I'd say. You've waited for her. You've lived long enough to see her. Today is not just her day, but all of ours. And we're not the only one who will cradle and protect her. She will also hold and confort us. She too will be our repozwa, our sacred place to rest. " Edwidge wanted to say this to her father on page 255.

Signifiance: I think that this quote shows that no matter happens Edwidge father will always be in her mind. That no matter how different or happy or sad or angry Edwidge get's she will always end up thinking about her father and her uncle.

Character Judgment: I think that this shows how much Edwidge loves and cares and thinks about her father. I also think that this shows how self-less Edwidge is and this quote shows that she doesn't what to think about herself, and she is always putting other people before herself.

Question 2: Why don't you think that Edwidge said this to her father?