TBWCD Blog Entry

• In the first chapter, we found out that Thi's father Bô was not in the delivery room with Má when their children were born. What do you think about that when you read that? And by the end of the book,  did you ideas shift? If so, how and why? If not, how and why not?

When I first read that Bo was not in the delivery room with Thi's mother I thought that he was not very compassionate and very selfish for not wanting to be in the room with his wife. I think this went along with what I thought of his character in the beginning of the novel. As the book progresses we also are told stories of his being very mean and cold, this lead me to believe that as a person this was who he is, and that the reason he was not in the delivery room was because he just did not want to be. However, as the book progresses we learn a lot more about Bo and what he went through in vietnam. We learn that him and his wives first child was stillborn, And their second died very young. This gives a whole new level to how I think of Bo now. Now when I think of why he was not in the delivery room I immagine a scared father who was so scared of losing another one of his children. This is something I think TBWCD does very well. There are a couple parts in the beginning of the novel that seem completely different once we learn about the struggles for Thi's family in vietnam.

A Good Man is Hard to Find Blog

1. What character do you find most interesting in the story? Why? 

[When presented with the question of which character is the most interesting in the short story titled "A Good Man is Hard to Find", I could not help but find myself drawn to 'the misfit' character.] The misfit character is first introduced in the first page of the story. Right off the bat, I knew the character would be reintroduced later in the story but I assumed he would be presented as a cheesy murderer from the movies we all love. However, I was blissfully surprised by the character, he turned out to have a lot of depth. His first encounter with the family is on page 13, the grandmother at first does not realize who he is but quickly finds out. He begins talking about his father and I started to get an eerie vibe. He goes on to say why he was locked up. on page 19 he says "The head-doctor in the penitentiary said what I had done was kill my daddy but I know that for a lie". The misfit then goes on to explain that his daddy died of the flu and was buried. I feel this adds a lot to the character, it made me wonder whether or not he was crazy and imagined his fathers death by the flu, or maybe he was actually innocent. The story also leaves a bunch of questions for the reader. For instance, what was his connection with the grandmother? why did he kill the family? All of these instances and characteristics lead me to believe that the misfit character has the most depth and is the most interesting.

Blog #4

Sage Griffee

When I first learned about the OHP I was dreading what the next few weeks would hold. I thought that I could never enjoy an oral history. However, coming out of the project I feel quite the opposite, the project was actually very eye opening. One thing I really enjoyed about the project was the insight I got into the life of Maura Joyce during and following harvey. I thought going into the interview that we would just get a very boring recount of roughly  two weeks of Ms. Joyce's life, what I actually got was an emotional and very important tale of the rebuilding of our school and the importance of generosity.

If there was one thing I could change about how my group went about our interview it would be how we formed our questions. There are two things I would change about them, one would be to have more questions, and the other to change the type of question. The reason I would want to change the types of questions we had is because a lot of our questions were based on factual events and not about Ms. Joyce's mental state during the Hurricane. I also believe that more questions would have greatly benefited the project and given us more material to work with. Overall, I really enjoyed the project and thought that I learned a lot from it.

Blog Post #3 (One I Want Graded)

Sage Griffee

Dr. Cobos

ELA

27 October 2017

What led to Marjane's grandmother yelling at her? Was the yelling justified? Why or why not?

In the chapter titled “The Makeup” marjane starts wearing makeup in order to please her then boyfriend, as he had made remarks about her appearance(pg. 285-287). While waiting in the streets to meet up with him she sees guardians of the revolution coming her way, in order to not get in trouble she throws a citizen under the bus. Her and her boyfriend then laugh about it,(pg. 287) When she later brings this up with her grandmother later that day her grandmother snaps and yells at her, saying that what she did directly disrespected her ancestors. What her Grandmother said could not be more true she did not even begin to contemplate the wrong she was doing. (pg. 291) Marjane was raised to be passionate, stand up for her beliefs, and to be kind to others. The reason her grandmother yelled at her is because what she did went against everything she was taught as a child,(pg. 291) all she cared about was getting out of a troublesome situation not pausing to think of what the consequences could be. Her grandmother's actions could not be more justified, what Marjane did was horrible and could very easily have lead to the man she threw under the bus being seriously hurt. I think most would agree when I say Marjane's actions were unlike how she was raised and how most readers viewed her up to that point. I Believe this was a direct result of moving to Austria, perhaps the things she had to go through made her forget the struggles of her country. Nonetheless this experience definitely affected Marjane moving forward with life in Iran.  

Blog Post #3 2017-2018

Sage Griffee

Dr. Cobos

ELA

26 October 2017

In what ways did Marjane find it difficult to fit back into Iranian society? In what ways did this surprise you (or not surprise you)?

When Marjane first moved back to Iran I knew that it would be difficult for her to adjust, a lot of what she did in Austria was forbidden in Iran so it would obviously be difficult to hide all she did. When she gets home she does her best to avoid people as she thinks they would be disappointed about her life in Europe(pg. 261). However, what surprised me is that later in the book she wants everybody to know that she had been through so much and they should almost pity her. She doesn't people to find out about her life in Austria and she also wants people to know that just because she did not go through a war it does not mean that life was not hard. All of this lead to her being depressed. When reading along marjane's journey I thought that moving back to Iran was exactly what she needed, she could forget the past and get to know her family. However, when she arrives the opposite happens, she can not relate with anyone because they either judge her for her westernisation or bring up the war of which she feels she ran away from. Eventually Marjane reinvents herself and began to fit into Iranian civilisation once again but I don't think she will ever forget her journey in Europe.

Blog Post #2 2017-2018

Sage Griffee

Dr. Cobos

ELA

29 September 2017

Why did Marjane's parents decide to send her to Europe? Do you think this was the right decision? Why or why not?

The events leading up to Marjane being sent to Europe made it so that I was not very surprised when her parents approached her about the topic. Like Dr. Cobos said in class it might be a possibility that the adult Marjane was trying to only include these events to almost hint at her being sent away. Her friend and neighbor's house being bombed was probably the final straw. I think that her being sent away was the right decision. The danger of her staying was too much for her to remain in Iran. You also have to consider her acting out and her “punk” attitude, just prior to her being sent away she was stopped by the Guardians of the revolution on page 132. They stopped her because she was wearing “punk” clothing.  This made me realize that it was probably unsafe for her to stay.

final blog post

For my book I chose to read The Old Man And The Sea, by Ernest Hemingway. I will give a short summary of the book. in the beginning of the book we meet an old fisherman named Santiago. Santiago lives in Cuba and has recently been struck with terrible luck when it comes to his fishing. Because of this his friend named Manolin, who has fished with santiago since he was a kid has to leave to join a "lucky" boat. When the old man leaves to fish he finally hooks a fish. it is the biggest marlin he has seen, measuring at 18 feet. the struggle to catch the fish lasts days and the old man sufferes many injuries along the way. eventually he catches the fish, finally. however, when he tries and pull it to the shore sharks attack the marlin and eat all the meat. Santiago gains nothing and is sorry that he killed the fish, thinking that it would bring him happiness.

 I feel the setting of the book was incredible, Hemingway recreates Cuba in a way that I feel I am really there. however, when I think on what I read I can't help but be confused as to the message of the book was. on one hand I can see and subject in the book of the old man never giving up even though he misses the times when he had a partner to fish with. towards the middle of my reading I thought the book was about never giving up and that you will get what you set your mind to. however, I do not think that is the case anymore, as we learn that the fish is eaten and he gains nothing. because of this I believe that the theme of the book is "when striving for material things you are not guaranteed happiness". my reason for this is that throughout the book the old man is always saying how much he wants the fish and how the young boy Manolin will be able to fish with him again. furthermore, later in the book after he has caught the fish he wishes he had not caught the fish saying that it is not good to kill beatiful things you love.