The Piano Lesson 2

The Piano Lesson is turning out to seem pretty fast paced and more fun to read because you can kind of tell what kind of voice to use when saying your part because of the dialogue they use.  One thing about it that is kind of frustrating is that they seem to stay on the same topic for like four or five pages, just talking about watermelons and the piano or some other thing.  One of the things I tabbed was that Boy Willie didn't really care about Avery's dream even though he was the one who asked about it.  The reason I think that he didn't really care was that he immediately changed the subject after she was done telling about the dream.  He seems just really selfish and narcissistic and he also mentioned that he wanted to be a preacher so people would call him "Reverend Boy Willie".

Andrew S said to Olivia C...

Yeah I also noticed that he was really selfish. After Avery's long story about her dream, Boy Willie changes the subject and immediately goes back to talking about selling watermelons or the piano or something (can't remember which).

Piano Lesson 1

When we were reading in class, I thought, "wow, all of these people sound like complete rednecks in the way that they talk," and I turned out to be right as we read on.  The language that they all use make them sound like they are from the south.  The writer uses slang and crude wording to portray the setting and each persons character.

Andrew S said...

Yeah, it does seem like an earlier time period because of the language they use and I also thought that it would start out just being about music and such but i was wrong..... horribly wrong.

Cry journal 9

The first thing i tabbed was when he said "the lawyer told him,in gentle and compassionate words, that there would be no mercy" because it is just another one of those parts where Kumalo's hopes get crushed by bad news.


"When he had finished he went out to look at the clouds, for it was exciting to see them after weeks of pitiless sun" (275).  I tabbed this because I remember analyzing a sentence from somewhere in the book that called it a "pitiless sun".   Paton is repeating the phrase because it gives a good image of what the conditions are for Kumalo.

Ashoka Fellows

Abdelfattah Abusrour is helping Palestinian children find different ways to express themselves other than violence.  His goal is to make kids able to express their dreams and hopes in a more calm manner that does not involve violence.
Ola Abú Al Ghaib is helping women with disabilities and their integration into society.  she wants do give disabled women more ability to assert themselves as able citizens that can help society.
Jaqueline Sfeir is making the eduaction system something that provides more interaction, critical thinking, and community interaction.  She wants to create an education system for children that accommodates the nature of kids.  She is also making the a more just educational system.

Oppression in North Korea
http://civilliberty.about.com/od/internationalhumanrights/p/northkorea101.htm

Oppression in China
http://www.religioustolerance.org/rt_china.htm

Cry Journal 3

A phrase that repeats is that "All roads lead to Johannesburg".  This meant literally because all roads do lead to Johannesburg.  It is meant in other ways because whenever people lose their jobs or are out of work when they live elsewhere, they come to Johannesburg for work.  An image he uses is prostitutes, I think he does this just to reinforce the idea that a lot of people are to poor and too desperate for a job so they just go into prostitution to earn money.  A concept that repeated was in chapter 9 when the book keeps saying things about white women dying or getting hurt and abused by the black people.  This is another example of the sexism and prejudice in Johannesburg.

Cry Journal 2

In Cry, the Beloved Country, women are treaded much differently than men.  They are not respected as much than men but they are recognized for their good-heartedness.  They are not introduced when there is a guest in the house unless they are the person meeting the guest.  Men are more recognized and it reminds me of the renaissance because back then women didn't have rights to land or anything else.