"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.

"Space"

For my second quarter outside reading I am reading "Space," a memoir by Jesse Lee Kercheval. In the prologue we are given an idea of what Jesse's life was like at the time she wrote the book and we are given a glimpse of her life through a brief explanation of why she had written the memoir and we get an idea about what roles her different family members played in her life. She starts the process of writing the memoir by having her sister send her some family pictures. We can tell that up until she decided to write it that she was more than happy to put the past in the past, forgetting about any childhood trouble. As she explains the pictures we are continually given the idea that her mother was not really where she wanted to be, she seemed distracted in all the pictures, like she was stuck. Before you even start the official book, you are prepared for a very emotionally detached family.

Jesse was a child during the time of the vietnam and where she begins her memoir she is ten years old, her sister Carol is 12, and they are just beginning to move from Washington D.C. to Florida. She is young and ready for new experiences, wile her mother and sister are less willing to accept the change, all so her dad can switch jobs. She explains how her mother and her mothers mother grew up in families where emotions were not public affair and even the diner table is public. The only really private place is your head, and if at only 10 years old Jesse would begin to show to much emotion her mother would seemingly drift away until she stopped. This is a continuing pattern in the book, the dialogue is very cold, straight to the point with no person feelings clouding it. Even though both her parents had jobs it is evident that the male was considered the bread winner and ultimately the head of the family.

"His Name is Jimmy"

I happened apon this story and at first didn't really feel like reading a whole story, short or not but as I began I was moved by the authors writing and the message she was sending. The story is narrated by a woman who is recalling her childhood and specifically her relationship with Annette, her familys maid. The narrator describes Annette a like a second mother to her, always there when she need her and wise beyond the times. The setting is not described but it is portrayed as being durring a time of partial racial seggregation. Annette was an African American woman who belived that everyone should be treated equal, no matter what their color, religion, or background. This was a belief that she implanted into the narrators mind forever. And which the narrator has carried with her through life and has passed down to her own children and the children she tought. She reminisces in the story about a time when she was 15 years old and was working at a resturant. She became friends with a boy named Jimmy, she talked of him as if he was just like anyone. So you are taken aback when you read on and the owner of the resturants threatens that unless she stops associating with him, she will lose her job. She couldn't understand this and refused, the next time she was at work Jimmy was gone. He was African American and her associating with him "didn't look good." It really reminded me of how hard it is for people to move forward and accept the idea that everyone was created equally. You see in the innocence of the young girl and wonder, why can't everyone think that way? It seems obviouse to me that the color of your skin does not affect your personality or anything about who you are. If everyone was blind, and there were people with white skin or the people with black skin could you tell who was who? NO! Yet to this day people judge others and treat them differently because of the color of their skin. This was a very touching story about the innocent life of a girl who we can all learn something from, and I would definitely recomend reading it.

http://www.jhedge.com/story/nofic/namejim.htm

Photography in the Beginning

When photography first came out, artists (such as painters) were afraid that their work would be replaced by photography and so they began to learn the "art of photography." In the early days of photography, it was not really an art form but a way of capturing a scene, in a very rigid and lacking artistic values that made them more that simply a record of light and shadow. The original cameras were very large and unmanageable, making them difficult to transport. They also had extremely long shutter speed so the subjects had to remain completely still for quite some time. By the 1860s, shutter speeds had decreased and photographs began to be printed onto cards that could be given to friends and family, or sent to people further away. Photography really took off when it began to be printed on paper beginning the production of magazines such as the National Geographic which vastly influenced americans views on the world around them. Through pictures they were able to view different parts of the world that they would most likely not have the chance to see first hand. There are many uses of photography from art, to magazines, to capturing family memories it plays and integral part in todays society and helped increase the knowledge of the early american society.

Analysis Photograph

Sleep Deprivation

I decided to write about sleep, I know almost everyone I know seems to feel perpetually tired. Multiple studies have been done showing the affects that lack of sleep can cause, especially on teenagers. In an article in a Psychology journal, it was said that lack of sleep in teenagers can result in poorer grades, more car accidents, inability to focus, ADHD, and depression. They even went to far as to say that when tested, areas where teenagers get the most amount of sleep there is a substantially less amount of teen related car accidents and crime. For a long time people believed that as people got older there need for sleep gradually decreased, however, it is now known that in fact, teenagers need more sleep than younger children and adults. In fact, teenagers need about 9.2 hours of sleep wile adults need only 7.5-8 hours a night. Wile this is all very interesting to me, I had to think "yea right," as if I have the time to sleep that much during the week! For that reason people have been trying to push back school start time, because it is believed that something in the brain causes teenagers to want to go to bed, and get up later. And so by starting school later, they will be able to focus more, and get more sleep. I think this is a good idea, but at the same time, if school starts later, than it gets out later, leading to less time for homework. It seems that the problem is not when school starts as much as with sports and the piles of homework we get every day, there is very little time for sleep.

http://www.apa.org/monitor/oct01/sleepteen.html

Homer, a Feminist?

It seems to me that Homer was closer to an early feminist than and old-fashioned sexist. He repeatedly shows thins in his portrayal of the goddesses as well as the Penelope, and other female characters. Athena, the goddess of wisdom and warfare, shows immense power over Zeus when she convinces him to turn the tied of the war to favor the Greeks. Even thought she is a woman, her opinion is respected, and her power is not debated. Also, the Greeks goddess Artemis was called the god of the hunt and wild things. This shows that the Greeks did not believe that the only thing women could do was stay at home and have children. Not only was this true among the gods, but among mortals as well.

When one glances at the women of ancient Greece, it would be easy to see why they would say they were portrayed in a very sexist manner. However, if you really read, and understand how Homer portrayed women, you would easily see that this was not the case. When Odysseus writes about the relationship between Penelope and suitors, he shows that no matter how much they want her to marry one of them, they cannot lay a hand on her. She stands her ground against a crowd of men and is shown to be the head of the house, temporarily taking the place of Odysseus. Also, Penelope and the wives of other prominent Greek figures evidently have an influence over the decisions of their husbands. In this, Homer shows that their opinions were valued, and they were not considered to be just property. Throughout the Iliad and the Odyssey, Homer seems to express an early sense of feminism rather than the expected, sexism.

Halloween.."

Because it is starting to feel more and more like fall everyday I decided to write my article about the strange holiday, Halloween. A family in Farmington has built a haunted house in their backyard to raise money to support the soldiers fighting over seas. This year, the sixth annual "Support our Troops Haunted House" goes from the Farmington family's backyard to the Dakota State fair ground where it will be open to the public for the first time on October 10th and 11th. The Beyls currently have two sons serving in Iraq, and their goal is to raise support for all the soldiers through earnings from the haunted house. All money raised will go towards care packages, memorials, cards, and letters. I thought this was I great article because it turns a fun, crazy event into something more. A way to support the people who make it possible to freely express your beliefs.

Aquion, Jeannine."Scarring up some support for the troops this Halloween." Star Tribune.com. September 17, 2008. Star Tribune. October 1, 2008 .

Michael Phelps is my hero.

Michael Phelps, a 23 year old former student at the University of Michigan, is now considered the greatest swimmer in the world. He has won 14 gold medals, 8 of which he won at the Beijing Olympic games in August of 2008. Phelps trained at Canham Natatorium in Ann Arbor, Michigan for four years and served as a volunteer assistant coach at the University of Michigan. Because of his success at the the Olympic Games Michael Phelps has become a celebrity in the world, helping to increase the membership of the USA Swimming organization and increase interest in the sport. He received $1 Million dollars from Speedo which he used to start the Michael Phelps Foundation. His foundation supports swimming and other youth activities. I wrote about this article because after watching him at the olympics I was amazed at his athletic abilities, and how he seemed to be perfectly built for the sport. I think it is so cool how he is using the money he has received for endorsing various companies to encourage more people to become a part of the sport he is clearly so passionate about. He is not only an incredible athlete but a great role model and he contributes so much to society.

Enriched English 10

Hey, this is Callan's blog for EE 10. I will be reading short stories, magazine articles, newspaper articles and other blogs or webpages. I will then write comments about them in my blog. I'm going to try and post at least once a week so read them and comment =) I'll try to make them interesting and fun to read so that you don't fall asleep.

Thanks ~ Callan