"Space" - Growing Up

In this section of Space a memoir, Jesse Lee continues through the fourth grade, still not wanting to go to do school or do homework, just content spending her time playing outside with her best friend Marly. However, she reveals what we would considered very old-fashioned ethical beliefs, that would even be considered racist and sexist. Lee explains how in her fourth grade class the children are split into different "supposedly like-minded groups," which were all supposed to be equal but as she explains it is clear that her group is the "advanced" section of students. She makes a harsh observation of the way the groups are formed saying "You don't have to be Advanced to figure out how the system really wored. Almost all the black and poor kids were in Basic and seeed to spend most of their school days helping the janitor." This seems like a harsh analysis of the school system however, coming from a fourth grader is simley an innocent observation. Even at a young age she recognized that other poople were getting diferent treatment because of their skin color or social standing. She doesn't seem to understand really why this is but also doesn't seem to be terribly bother by it, that was just how things were in her mind. Today, though, this is despicable, and rightly so, why should kids be grouped by the ammount of money their families have or by what ethnicity they are. The SHOULD be grouped however into "like-minded groups" because people who are at roughly the same level will be easier to teach as a group than kids who are at all different stages of learning. However this does not make one group "better" than another.
Lee also makes a comment about the occupations of women vs. the occupations of men. Refering first to her and her classmates specifically and then women in general she says "We were too busy talking, too busy with our bodies to keep up with science. No wonder women weren't the first ones on their way to th moon". I would concider this a very sexist comment except for the fact that it is coming from a fourth grade girl, reflecting on the connection between how her and her classmates on and the fact that there aren't many female astraunats. I don't think that she is saying that women couldnt have been the first people on the moon, after all she herlself want to be an astraunaut when she grows up. I think that she is almost expressing dissapointment at women for getting distracted and not reacing their full potential. In her memoir this is really the first section where we see Jesse as more than an innocent and ignorent child. It is clear that even though all she really wants to do is have fun, and has no interest in school, she is by no means uninteligent and has an observation based understaning of the world.

On the Waterfront

In the film On the Waterfront there are three main social groups involved. There are the mob members, the dock workers, and the cops. To the mob bosses, any worker who speaks out agains what the mob is doing is a traitor or a "stool pigeon." They believe that the workers owe them loyalty, after all they are the ones who proviede them with work and money so that they can provide for themselves and their families. Therefore exposing their secrets and revealing what they have done is a staunch betrayal. The bosses constantly push the workers around and make them do things they don't want to do but the workers are just suposed to take it because they "owe the mob" for everything that they have. The workers hate the way the mob runs the docks and they despise how they are treated but they are to affraid of the consequences they would face if they revealed the truth about the mob activity. However, at the same time they feel a certain loyalty to their fellow workers and even to the mob bosses because they have all leaned on each other and provided for each other for a long time. After Terry stands up against the mob, all the men who used to be his friends refuse to talk to him, they don't want the mob bosses to think that they are associated with Terry. However, after a time they come around and realize that all their loyalty should be to Terry and their fellow workers NOT to the corrupt mob. Meanwhile the cops are just trying to find out the truth about the mob which, until Terry testifies, is extremely difficult because noone will betray the mob and be an "infomant on criminal activity."
I believe that what Terry did, which was reveal what the mob had done, was the right thing to do. He ended up losing his brother and was beat almost to the point of death because of it but in the end it bennefited all the dock members and made the mob pay for the years of abuse they had inflicted on the workers. I believe that when you see any sort of injustice it is your duty to speak out against it. When people in power are taking advantage of the little people, if all the little people would stand up and unite against the people in power they would be able to overcome them. But often everyone is to afraid of the consequences to stand up and do anything so they let the unjust behavior continues. However if you stand up and make a stand, then others will be able to follow suit and you can change the world for the better. On the same note though, it is not ok to stank up against society or be "a tattle tale" if you are doing it only for your own good. The fundamental differents between a "stool pigeon" and an "informant on criminal activity" is that a "stool pigeon" is one who betrays their friends for their own good while an "informant on criminal activity" stands up against what they believe is wrong for the good of the society as a whole.

Society vs. Family in All My Sons

In All My Sons, we see a stark change in Joe Keller. In the beginning he is portrayed as a relaxed, easy going man who plays with the neighborhood children and lovingly teases his family. However, as the play continues, Keller becomes anxious and defensive when anyone mentions the death of Larry or the cracked cylinder heads. Keller snaps on Ann when she suggests that it could be possible that Larry died as a result of the cracked cylinder heads. He says "Those cylinder heads went into P-40's only. What's the matter with you? You know Larry never flew a P-40"(32). He seems to be convincing himself more than he is concerned with convincing Ann, but never the less, he flies off the handle on Ann who he practically raised. When we find out that it was indeed Keller and not Ann's father who decided to patch up the cylinders, it becomes clear why he was so quick to stand up for Steve. Yet when he confesses to Chris, he continues to justify what he did, saying "Chris...Chris, I did it for you, it was a chance and I took it for you. I'm sixty-one years old, when would I have another chance to make something for you"(70). Keller looked at the situation as having two possible outcomes. Either he could take responsibility for his actions and suffer the consequences, or he could put the blame on Steve and pretend that he did nothing wrong. He justifies the decision he made to put faulty supplies in the hands of young men who would depend on them for their lives, because he knew that if he threw them all away and started over, the business would not be able to make it back from the lack of income. Also because he knew that the government would not be happy that he was behind in supplies that they badly needed. He wanted to be able to make something for his son to take over when he returned from the war, so he sacrificed others lives for his family's welfare.

I strongly disagree with the decision that he made. It is one thing to want to provide for your family and try to give them a better life then you had, but it is another to put the lives of others in jeopardy in the process. Plus, not only did he kill the men flying in the 21 planes, he also essentially ended Steve's life by naming him as the one responsible for trying to patch up the cracked cylinders. There may be circumstances when it is ok, or best to put ones family before society but this definitely was not one of them. When it becomes a question of money and comfort, versus life, in my opinion life always wins. By choosing to put others in danger so that your family will be wealthy, you are basically saying that your family's comfort is more important than someones life. Sometimes you have to make sacrifices for the common good, it may not be easy but in the long run it will pay off, if not for you than for your children and your childrens children. You will never be looked on highly for your chances for personal gain before the welfare of others, but you will forever be looked onto with respect for commiting a selfless act for another.

"Space" - The move

As "Space" a Memoir of Jesse Lee continues, we see Jesse Lee's family slowly growing apart, as a result of the families’ recent move to Cocoa Florida from Washington D.C. At the age of 10 Jesse has an open, idealistic mind that welcomes the new opportunities and exciting adventures she believes the move will bring. She has a fascination with space and she can't wait to see a live shuttle launch from her own front yard. Her anticipation of the move and her disappointment that time seems to be against them is shown, "we missed the Surveyor 1 launch, then four days later, Gemini 9. We could have been right there." Jesse is speaking to her sister Carol who was two years older and, like her mother, was not terribly enthusiastic about moving to a hot new state. Whereas Jesse could not wait to be done with school to saying "when I looked at my history lesson, the world swam in incomprehensible rows over the page, like I was still staring at the ocean's waves." This not only shows her impatience but also that there really wasn't anything important that she felt like she was leaving behind and would miss. We see the optimistic young mind of a girl who, instead of looking at the negatives looks at the positives, seeing Florida in a very idealistic way. We could all learn a lesson from Jesse Lee, that no matter what situation we are forced into, if instead of dwelling on the unfortunate situation, we see it as a new opportunity, a new adventure, our lives could be much happier.

In sharp contrast to Jesse, we see her sister and especially her mother; look at their approaching move with a sense of impending doom. Though Jesse seems oblivious to the depth of her mothers sadness and irritation at having to move, we see it clearly when her friend comes over to say goodbye and says " think about it Mary, it's not too late to change your mind." She then responds saying "the girls, besides, my furniture is already there." Though Jesse at such a young age dismisses it as nothing, we can see that the move was very hard on Mary and she had even considered leaving her husband so she would not have to uproot and move across the country. Only continuing to verify the idea throughout the memoir that the relationship between Jesse's parents is anything but close. Her father goes to work everyday but her mother stays home drinking, smoking and lying around because there are no jobs available in her line of work. Sadly Jesse begins to realize that her mother isn't the same person that she was when they lived in Washington. She seems to have given up, but on what we are not sure. Carol, who is only two years older than Jesse, seems to have taken on the motherly role or caring for both Jesse and her mother. We see this especially when Jesse says to her mother, after cutting her foot because she was running barefoot which her "mother" told her not to, "Carol's going to kill me." Then "my mother nodded, as if now we both understood...we sat there a minute more, like we were kids hiding out." It is a sad realization that 12year old Carol is trying to play the mother to keep her family together by trying to prevent anything from going wrong. It is becoming clear as the book goes on that the family situation is deteriorating and Carol feels responsible for holding it together, while Jesse’s young mind fails to see the signs. As I read I can't help but wish we were all still like Jesse, viewing every day as a new and exciting adventure instead of a dreaded event that can't be avoided.