Janie

Janie is a very opinionated character. She really sticks to what she believes in. She will not let others dictate the way she lives her life. Janie, as a young adult, was searching for love. She thinks she finds love with Logan Killicks. Janie soon realizes she really isn't happy with Logan and meets Joe Starks. Soon after she meets Joe, she leaves Logan (they had been married for less than a year) and marries Joe. She admires Joe for his strong ambition and drive. At first Janie admired Joe's determination but soon realizes his need for control and power. Janie feels very restrained and unhappy in her relationship. "A feeling of coldness and fear took hold of her. She felt far away from things and lonely." Joe believed he had the right to do these things and boss her around and dictate her actions. Joe did not view Janie as an equal, he almost viewed her as an accessory or pet, as if she were his property. He made her wear a head rag because other men would look at her head and Joe was jealous. "This business of the head-rag irked her endlessly. But Jody was set on it. Her hair was NOT going to show in the store. It didn't seem sensible at all. That was because Joe never told Janie how jealous he was." Joe was very focused on being seen as a strong power figure, because of this he kept his emotions to himself so as not to be seen as weak. "The years took all the fight out of Janie’s face. For a while she thought it was gone from her soul. No matter what Jody did, she said nothing. She had learned how to talk some and leave some. She was a rut in the road. Plenty of life beneath the surface but it was kept beaten down by the wheels." Their relationship was very toxic. They were married for twenty years before Joe died. Now Jody is with Tea Cake and I think she is much happier.

Thankful for Classmates

I really love our fifth period English class. I’m thankful we have such a great group of kids in our class. I am especially thankful for Yaira and Sylvia. Also quick shout out to Veronica Ortiz and Maday as well, you guys are awesome!

I’m thankful for Yaira J. She’s a really fun person to talk to and have random conversations with. Yaira’s the best, we always manage to make each other laugh and I hope she doesn’t get too annoyed by me. She’s also really nice and I’m happy we’ve gotten to be better friends since last year when we met in bio class. Hope you have an amazingly awesome Thanksgiving!

I am quite thankful for Sylvia as well. She’s pretty, pretty cool. We have bonded a lot this year I think. Biology was the best with Sylvia and all our other friends last year, it was so fun and we made jokes about everything. I admire Sylvia’s ability to keep her head high in times of trouble. I love talking to Sylvia during lunch sometimes when we have yummy coffee and hot chocolate. I like the fact that I can talk to you about lots of different stuff and we’ve gotten closer because of it. Sylvia is incredibly sweet and she manages to perk me up when I’m ever feeling down. Have fun tomorrow Sylvia, eat lots and lots of delicious food!

Love you guys! Everyone have a good Thanksgiving.

Ernest Hemingway

It seems Ernest Hemmingway had a pretty eventful life, and a pretty difficult one at that. I feel that his experiences in war and his upbringing took a toll on him from early on in life.  In my opinion, from watching the documentary he seems sort of corrupt. I understand that he suffered from some mental issues, it just seemed he could have handled things differently. In the documentary, when his children spoke, I felt bad for them; they didn’t get the father figure they deserved. Hemmingway’s elusive relationships with women had something to do with it. He managed to have four different wives over the course of his lifetime, not to mention the women on the side. It seems he wasn’t able to put what mattered most first. His writing was always put above everything else, including his family. I wish that he could have had other ways of dealing with his problems, besides drinking or finding other women. He could have tried harder to make things work out with his relationships. Something that could have spawned this way of life could be the influence of super masculinity from when he was younger. It seems that he was insecure about his masculinity from early on because of his upbringing. This influenced his way of writing and possibly relations with others. It was said that he might not have been the best father because he set his standards to high and always expected the most from people. He felt he had a certain reputation to always uphold; this led to him not living the most moral life.

6 words

The change no one can remember.
Funeral that no one did attend.
You know, typical high school stress.
Sun rose in the west today.
No one knows why, do you?

John Proctor: Hero or Stooge?

John Proctor has had some pretty tough decisions in the play. Does he confess to his fatal flaw of adultery and prevent the problem escalating as much as it did in the story? Or does he cower away from the truth, trying to protect his name and how others view him in Salem? Eventually he tries to disclose part of the truth, but his attempt fails. No one believes his information when he names Abigail a fraud, finally he confesses to adultery in a final attempt to stop the madness. He then releases he is too late and nothing else can be done and results in his own arrest. Until this point, John Proctor isn’t much of a hero, he tries to make things right, but lacks complete honesty and is too worried about his reputation. Due to his heavy conscience and guilt, he realizes all this too late. During the witch trials, he has the option to confess of his wrongdoing and live. He makes the final decision to refuse the already written confession. This decision shows the heroic side of John Proctor. To confess would be to dishonor his fellow prisoners and has enough integrity to tell and furthermore, accept the truth. Even though he still wants to save his name, he is doing so for more personal reasons, rather than motives of public approval. Even though John Proctor didn’t make the best decisions early on, he did what he felt was right and what wouldn’t hurt others.

There Goes the Neighborhood

When the very first explorers came to America, the native people seemed to be hospitable towards them and had a great deal of respect for the explorers. The Native American’s not been in contact with any outsiders and may have thought the explorers were gods. As it seems, the Native American’s and explorers were on good terms with each other, were negotiable, created treaties and there wasn’t too much conflict between the groups. Eventually as more settlers and explorers came to America and as more treaties were broken, conflict arose. As these inhabitants came, many viewed the native peoples as savages because of their different cultures and ways of living. The explorers thought they were better than the natives and wanted to push them out so they could live where they wanted to and take over this newly found country. The Native American’s, as you can imagine, were not very happy about this at all. They had been living in these areas for thousands of years before these explores came and wanted to take the land as if it was rightfully theirs. Whenever there are two groups coming together, there is almost always conflict, whether it’s about religion, lifestyle, or even the way someone dresses. As long as there’s a new concept or idea, there will be someone to go against it. This type of thing is still relevant in modern times. Take the topic of gay rights for example, conflict is created due different viewpoints and religious perspectives.