Journal Number Four

I finally finished "Of Mice and Men," and boy does the ending take an unexpected twist! Lennie is a good-spirited man with the mind of a little kid. He doesn't mean for any harm to come to anyone. However, that is exactly what happens when he starts petting Curley's wife's soft hair, he liked petting it so much though that he pulled on it. Curley's wife started screaming, so Lennie covered her mouth, and started to shake her. Lennie ended up breaking her neck, and she died shortly after. Lennie knew that now, George wouldn't let him tend to the rabbits at the farm that they were going to own. Lennie was so scared that he ran off into the brush like George told him to earlier. George came across the body not long after and knew that Lennie had done it. Candy went to inform the boys, and Curley started off to look for Lennie to kill him. Then, George knew that if Lennie was going to die, he would be the one to kill him. So rather than a bunch of angry men lynching him, George finds him, reassures him, and peacefully shoots him in the back of the head.

The idea of George, Lennie, and Candy owning their own farm, was such a far off dream that even when George suggested it, he knew that it would never happen. This was the American Dream that a lot of people had during the Great Depression, to make enough money to make something of themselves. My senior study question, has to do with comparing the Great Depression of the 1930's; the family life, the workforce, and our current recession in 2011, having to deal with those same issues. How are they the same? How are they different? How have they grown and changed? These issues were relevant then, and ironically, are still relevant now. These issues are prominent in the book "Of Mice and Men." I am going to try to answer these questions in my study. I am also going to study how George, Lennie, and laborers in general of the 1930's have to do with these issues. These laborers were searching for a dream, that was far off, but sometimes, it was the only thing that kept them going.

Journal Number Three

In the next section that I have read so far in "Of Mice and Men," Lennie an George arrive a their place of Labor. George tells Lennie not to talk, for fear of losing his job. Lennie agrees. They first meet Candy, who gets to know them, and gives them advice. Then they meet the boss, who is skeptical as to why Lennie doesn't talk. Then, they met Curley who is the bosses son. They both get a bad vibe from Curley and dislikes him instantly. However, they get their job assignment, which is to work under a man named Slim. Slim appreciates how Lennie and George travel together, and offers Lennie a pup of his from a litter that one of his dogs just had. On the other hand, Candy's dog is old, good for nothing, can barely walk, and smells up a room. Carlson, a farm hand, offers to kill the dog, put it out of his misery, and he will hardly feel a thing. Candy reluctantly agrees. Curley then walks in looking for his wife, someone then said that they were both in the barn. Curley walks off, steaming mad. Then, George tells Candy and Lennie of hos dream of putting a down payment on a barn house. Lennie sits and dreams about the farm, meanwhile Curley and Slim come back, Slim was in the barn alone. However Curley was still angry so he takes it out on Lennie and starts beating him up. Soon after that, George tells Lennie that it is okay to fight back. Lennie breaks his hand effortlessly.

For my research paper, there are a few topics that I am considering researching. One of them is racism. It was a huge issue then, and I find it amazing that it still is today! I could question: what has made it still such an issue? Has it been society, or other outside forces? Or, has it simply not been enough time for this to pass? The other issue in this novel, noteworthy of research, is depriving people with mental disabilities from having rights. Just because they don't think the same way that we do, does that mean that they should be stripped of their freedom of speech? These are the ideas that I have for now about my research paper. They will probably grow and change as the week goes on.

Journal Number Two

Just for the record I have had this hand-written since Tuesday, I just hadn't blogged it yet. Sorry.

The book I have chosen to read is "Of Mice and Men." This is tying into my theme of banned books from school districts. Anyways, in the parts that I have read so far, there are two main characters; George and Lennie. George is sort of the smart one and the leader. Lennie listens to whatever George tells him to do. George sort of thinks for both of them. They are traveling through the woods to find a good job as laborers. George and Lennie balance each other out well. Lennie had a mouse tail in his pocket that he liked to rub, but George disposed of it, saying that he shouldn't be doing that. Lennie was upset, but he was okay with it in the end. So when they finally got to the work site George ordered Lennie not to talk, because he would probably say the wrong thing. So, when the people who owned the place tried to talk to him, they thought he was dumb because he couldn't talk.

They use the "n" word already, in the part that I have read. That word is offensive to many people, and it is understandable as to why it is banned in some areas. I have decided to do a contemporary research paper on this book. So, the question that the book raises is; what criteria should there be, that goes into banning a book? Is the "n" word really enough to ban a book?

Blog # 3 "The Color Purple"

In writing this blog, know that I have finished the book; "The Color Purple." Celie’s final letter shows the extent to which her character has developed through the course of the novel. Celie’s first letters simply related events without really attempting to understand or interpret them. Gradually, Celie began to make astute observations of others and to articulate and analyze her own feelings. In her final letters, Celie not only analyzes her own feelings, but she has the confidence and insight to articulate the feelings and motives of others. The novel ends with an interesting thought, Celie’s comment that though her generation is growing older, the family reunion has made them feel younger than ever before. In this way, at the end of the novel, Celie acts as a voice not only for herself, but also for all the characters her age. This is a huge step forward from where she was, again making choices for herself and doing things for herself.

I would also like to say a word or two about the author, and how some of her signature styles show in this novel. In the section where Celie starts writing to Nettie instead of to God, Walker presents personal religious belief as an important aspect of a strong sense of herself. Celie has always imagined God as a distant figure who likely does not listen to her concerns. She sees God as a white man who behaves like the other men she knows and who does not listen to “poor colored women.” This image of God held by Celie—and, ironically, by Nettie, Corrine, and Samuel in their missionary work—is limiting. In thinking of God as an old, bearded white man who does not listen to her, Celie implicitly accepts white and masculine dominance and makes the assumption that her voice can never be heard. Shug’s concept of God, on the other hand, is much more personalized and empowering. Unlike Celie, it appears that Shug does not ascribe a race or gender to God. Instead, Shug believes that each individual sees God in his or her own way. Celie’s recognition that she has control over her concept of God and does not have to blindly accept the religious viewpoints that are handed to her is an important step in her quest for self-respect.

Throughout The Color Purple, Walker makes it clear that storytelling and communication are crucial to self-understanding. This is the only way that Celie was able to achieve that. She was able to achieve that by writing letters to God, and more successfully to her sister. Through these letters she realized things about herself that made her who she is, she was able to come to terms with them and eventually, value them.

"The Color Purple" Blog #2

For the second part of this novel, it dives into some new themes and ideas, and we also see the characters develop and unravel more. Shug Avery is going to leave soon, but Celie doesn't want her to because when Shug isn't there, Mr. doesn't abuse her. So, Shug stays a little longer, she sing's a song at Harpo's place, and she dedicates a song to Celie which makes her love Shug...in a lover kind of way. Shug and Celie's relationship grows even more intimate. They talk about sex, and Celie says that she is not a virgin, for her step-dad raped her and she is now sleeping with this Mr. guy, but she has never had sex with a man she truly loved or wanted to have sex with, so in Shug's eyes, she is still a virgin.

Then, at Harpo's Juke Joint one night Sofia comes back with her new boyfriend and she sees Harpo's new girlfriend. Harpo's girlfriend, named Squeak, slaps Sofia across the face and calls her a b**** for what she did to Harpo. Not knowing how tough Sofia is, she knocks out two of Squeak's teeth. This boldness gets her into trouble when the mayor's wife asks her to be her maid, Sofia says "Hell no," the mayor slaps Sofia for her sass, and Sofia knocks him down--this offense lands her in jail. Squeak is the niece of the prison warden so she goes and tries to get Sofia to be released. The warden does not release Sofia, but he brutally rapes Squeak. Sofia, rather than be released from prison, is sentenced to work for the mayor's wife. In her new job Miss Millie asked Sofia to teach her to drive. In return during Christmas she took her to see her children, whom she had not seen in 1 year. However, only a few minutes into the visit Miss Millie tried to drive back into town but got stuck in the driveway because she did not know how to operate the car in reverse. Frustrated that she had stripped the car’s gears, Miss Millie refused to allow Sofia’s brother-in-law to drive her into town, saying she could never ride in a car “with a strange colored man.” Miss Millie demanded that Sofia drive her home, even though Sofia had been able to spend only fifteen minutes with her children. Whenever Sofia mentions this incident, Miss Millie calls her “ungrateful.”

Shug now has a husband named Grady, who rubs Celie the wrong way. Shug asks if sex is any better beteween her and Mr. . Celie says no and that she is still a "virgin." Celie tells Shug that she fears Nettie is dead because she hasn't heard from her. A week later Shug recovers letters from Nettie from Africa, that Mr. has been hiding from her. It turns out that Nettie is doing missionary work in Africa. Celie gets so mad that Mr. has been hiding these letters from her this whole time that she gets an overwhelming rage to kill him, but she tries to keep her peace.

The whole new theme in this set of pages is that Celie starts to think for herself, and make actions in her life that are going to please her, not others. The other is love. Celie is very confused about who she loves, and therefore, what she is feeling. She feels nothing but hatred and scorn for Mr. , however, she think she might have strong feelings for Shug, a woman. She likes her looks, she likes it when they lay in bed together, she likes to watch Shug sing, and she all in all just likes to be around Shug. Is this so bad for her to be feeling this way? Are these real feelings of love in the first place? Answer: we don't know yet. We will have to see how the story further develops their relationship before we can know for sure.

The overall theme of my study has to do with banned books from school districts. These pages definitely show why it is banned in some areas. First of all, they swear, slap and rape each other. These are all pieces of sufficient evidence as to why the book should be banned. Though they don't use the f-word, they do use the b-word in a bad enough way to get the book banned. Also, Sofia and the mayor get into a slap fight which leads to the raping of Squeak. Raping in general is horrible, and definitely enough of a reason to get a book banned, but when you add violence in there, that makes matters much worse. So, in my last blog I asked if the situations posed in the last set of pages were enough evidence to get the book banned. Now we know that not only that evidence, but with this building on top of it that it is.

Blog #1: "The Color Purple" by Alice Walker

The main theme that I have going with the three novels that I chose is; banned literature. In the first 72 pages of this novel, the main character's name is Celie. She has a dad, a mother, who dies on the first page, and a sister named Nettie. Her dad physically, and sexually abuses her. Her dad impregnated her twice. The first baby the dad killed, and the second he gave away.

A man named Mr. is interested in Nettie and wants to marry her, however, her dad says that Nettie is too young to get married, and she is smart so she needs to continue with school, Celie, however, her dad claims that Celie is too dumb to continue with school so he should take her. Mr. takes a few months to think about it and finally agrees to do it.

Celie does all the housework for Mr. and his family. After a while however, Mr's son Harpo helps with it. Harpo eventually gets married to a girl named Sofia, she gets pregnant, and Harpo gets jealous of her bigness and power so he starts to eat so much that he gets a potbelly. Sofia gets mad and leaves him. As for Celie, she becomes friends with Mr's ex-mistress Shug Avery because she is living at their house because she got an STD, and no one else would take her in. Celie gets mixed feelings from her, and admits that she feels sexually attracted to Shug.

There are many different reasons and aspects as to why this book is banned. One is the many forms of racism that appear. Another is the fact that Celie's own father impregnated her, which deals with incest, and the fact that he killed both of the babies, is extremely gruesome. There is also a big theme running throughout the novel of physical and sexual abuse. Banned books can teach us things. It can open our eyes to things in the world that are happening. That's exactly what this novel does, it opens our eyes to things that did happen. So, is that such a bad thing? However gruesome, it builds our character. So is this bad? Decide for yourself!