Journal #6 Chpt. 16-19 prerspective: Helen Robinson

My Tom was persecuted! I can’t believe they did this. The judge knew that he was innocent. So why didn’t he say anything to the jury when they consented that he was guilty? I respect Mr. Finch even more then I did before because he tried his hardest to prove the truth to the judge. My father in law told me that I had dropped to the ground when I found out what had happened. I hate that Mr. Ewell who said my husband allegedly raped his girl. He’s always being an inconvenient to someone. I saw him spit in Mr. Finches face, and I wanted to hurt him, but he would have hurt me even worse.

I heard what had happened to Scout and Jem on their way home. My assessment of the event was that whoever hurt them, should be ashamed of their doings and what had happened to Mr. Ewell. Why did that man have a knife anyway? Now Tom is dead for no reason. And the man who got him killed is dead too. I am somewhat happy and relieved because now I can walk past his house and not be worried of what he is going to say to them. But I also feel bad for his poor children. What are they supposed to do? Because Miss Mayella is going crazy herself.

Scout and Jem must be so happy. They have finally seen the one person who they have been wanting to see. I heard that Scout had a dream of meeting him in person. So I’m glad that it happened

TKAM #6 Perspective: Mayella

Dear Diary,

Hello. My name is “Miss Mayella”, as Mr. Finch likes to call me in the court room. I don’t like him much. He keeps asking me the same questions over and over again. People say that’s just his way of being polite to me. He was asking me things like how Tom Robinson got me. I told him that he came up behind me, and grabbed me by my neck. And that he was trying to hurt me. He also started asking me about my mother. I felt uncomfortable talking about her. So good thing it was only one question.
I knew people were going to find out what my father did to me. But I didn’t think that Mr. Tom Robinson would tell what I did. I am trying my best to keep it unknown that I did what I did. I know that Mr. Finch believes that he is telling the truth, but I know not a lot of other people do. After hearing the nice things that Tom was saying about wanting to help me, it really made me feel good. But I don’t know what came into me when I decided to kiss him. I guess that everything my dad does to me rubbed off on me. I never thought I would show these kind of emotions to a negro man.
This just makes me think, when they find out the whole truth, my father will be taken away. And what will my brothers, sisters, and I do if we’re alone? Or, what if they put me away somewhere because I was after Tom? I am really worried about what will happen. I never should have lied in court after I had sworn to tell the truth. I guess I was just willing to do anything to make sure that my dad wouldn’t be taken away.
I never thought I would really say anything like this before, but I really don’t have friends. So when Mr. Finch asked about people that I hang out with, I felt weird because I don’t have friends. None! I wish I did. I see the kids walk by the house when I’m watering plants, and they look so happy. I am nineteen and I don’t have any friends. I bet if my dad would stop spending money on drinks. I want to go to school and make friends.

TKAM #5 Chapters 13-15 Perspecitve-Atticus

Raising the kids would have been much harder without Calpurnia. Every since my sister moved in, things have been different. She keeps telling me that I don’t need Cal. The day Alexandra arrived, the kids were in shock. They thought she was coming for a visit, but she was coming to stay a while to straighten up the kids. She had a talk with Scout. She said that she needed to be more like a young lady, and that both her and Jem needed Feminine Influence. I don’t find it much of a bother that she is her, but when she talks about me not needin’ Cal it makes me mad. The kids started their regular daily routines with my sister in the house. They didn’t talk with her much. Which made me wonder, how were they supposed to act right if she wasn’t correcting them? It seems as if Scout had a grudge with her aunt, but it was probably because she didn’t want to change much. At dinner the other night, it was silent. After that, I did my usual; go off to my chair by the window and read the paper. I was just sitting there until Scout asked me a very unusual question. “Atticus, what’s rape?” I wasn’t expecting a question like that from her. I explained it to her, but kept asking her reasoning of why she asked me. She had said that she asked Calpurnia first, but then Cal sent her to me so I could explain it. Scout probably got tired of telling me why, but I still didn’t know why Calpurnia sent her to me.
That night, when Jem had called me to the room, I saw Dill. I knew he wasn’t supposed to be here. I wanted to ask him questions but I didn’t want to frighten him more then he already was. I was very calm and welcomed him to the house. We finally got Dill to contact his mother, and might I say, it was a long phone call. But we had to do what we needed to, to make sure that his mom would not worry.
Jem is getting worried a little to much. Since those men where outside of the house, he thought they were out to get me. He related them to The Klan. I don’t know what to do about it. But I’m just going to let him ask me as many questions as he can while he has the chance.
Once again, me and Alexandra were at it. She would not let me be with the fact that I was representing Tom Robinson. I almost heard her say that I was a disgrace of the family. Now I see why the kids are worried about me. People are saying many things. But like I always tell them, it shouldn’t matter what people say about me. I’ll be fine.

TKAM chapters 10-11 Perspective of Jem

The other day, Scout and I saw that mad dog, Tim Johnson. He was walkin’ up our street. We told Calpurnia and she thought we were fibbing. We told her to take a look outside and there he was, walking as slow as a snail. She called Atticus and he told her to call everyone she could. A few minutes later, Atticus and Mr. Heck Tate arrived and saw him. Mr. Tate spoke with Atticus. He said that Tim would walk right into the Radley’s front yard, but the gate was there to stop him. Before we knew it, there Atticus was, holdin’ a riffle gun in his hand, aiming at the mad dog. Scout and I couldn’t believe what we saw. Atticus had shot him right in the middle, and down went the mad dog. I didn’t know that Atticus had skills like that, but I have a feeling that I know why. He didn’t want anyone to remember. Which is why he had stopped shootin’ animals. He says that it wasn’t something that God wanted.

Scout and I just came back from another part of town. I bought her a baton and myself a train. On our way back, we walked pack that mean old Mrs. Dubose. Payback was raging inside of me. I took Scout’s baton, and cut off the tops of Mrs. Dubose’s plants. That’s what she gets for callin’ Atticus a nigger-lover. We ran back home. Once we got in the house, I sat in that rocking chair that Atticus was always in, awaiting his presence in the house. When Atticus got home, he opened his hands and showed me some flowers from Mrs. Dubose’s house. They were the same flowers that I cut off. I knew that I was in very much peril but it didn’t matter. I knew that what I had done wouldn’t be inconspicuous. Atticus told me that I must apologize to her. So I did. She told me that I would have to go to her house every afternoon, including Saturdays to read to her. I knew that their was no use in me contradicting with her.

After school, Scout and I had gone to Mrs. Dubose’s house. She would spend two hours making rude comments about Atticus. It was had for me to be inaudible, but I knew that he would want me to keep quiet. I thought that she was very cantankerous and so did Scout. About a month later, someone had called Atticus. He said that it was Mrs. Dubose and for us to stay home and wait for him to get back. I couldn’t help but think of how made she made me. Atticus came back and said that Mrs. Debose had died only a few minutes ago. I did feel bad, but not enough to have any emotion on what had happened. Atticus told me that she was a very brave women. And he wanted me to learn from her. Although she said rude things, i partially agreed with him.

Journal #3, Chapters 8-9, Perspective of Ms. Maudie

All I can think about is that fire that burnt down my little farm house. It was very fanatical for me to think of my new home that I will live in. It will be the most apealing house in the town of Maycomb. Jem and Scout always explain how adjacent the fire was to them and it was horrble to see it in flames and to see Mr. Avery in it. They were more worried then I was. There was a big perplexity between the three of us. I guess they just didn't understand why I was so glad to be out of my home. It would be a great time for me to start my new front lawn.

Journal #2 - Chapters 4-7 - Perspective: Scout

Hello. My name is Jean Louise Finch, but I would perfer if you were to call me Scout. The other day, as I was walking past the Radley place, I layed my eyes on an austeticly pleasing piece of aluminum. It was a wrapper, tightly wrapped around a piece of gum. I was tempted to get it, yet afraid because the piece of gum was on a tree that was part of the Radleys' property. I took it anyways. I ran to my front pourch and nibbled a piece of the gum, trying to figure out if the gum was good enough to eat. Which I thought it was. Later that day, Jem and I were quibbling about the gum. I guess he was just trying to do what was right. I finally proved to Jem that there was a piece of gum on the tree right outside of the Radley place. We grabbed the gum once again but started an evasion so we couldn't get cought. Talking of the Radley place, it is very un-clear to me that Cecil Jacobs walks around the whole town to avoid the Radley place. I mean, I know it is very frightening, but it is always good to swallow your gut and go for it.

We had found a nice, small box on the ground that looked like it held wedding rings. The owner of the box was unanimous so we took it. On the inside were wrappers of chewing gum, and it held two very shiney and onld pennies. One was from 1900 and the other one was from 1903. Jem claimed that they were pretty old. Miss Maudie Atkinson thought it would be good to keep the box until we could find someone that would be the owner of it. We did not want to keep it forever because it was obviously very special to someone. You could tell that they kept the pennies looking new and clean.

Immigration Project Reflection

To start off the immigration project, we chose a literature book that had to do with kids our age or older and their stories about immigration and how the American culture effected them. The book I chose to read was called Once Upon a Quinceanera by Julia Alvarez. The book talks about many teen girls preparing for a Quince and the struggles they have to deal with. But before they can start preparing for one, most of them immigrated to America. At first, it was very new for them. But once they started hanging out around different people, they got influenced by American culture. They dressed differently and their personalities were changing too. I was glad to have the chance to read the book because I never really understood the hardships that an immigrant had to go through when coming to America. And also, that we influenced them so much that they started to forget about what their culture was. There were three other girls reading the same book as I was. Over our blogs, we got to discuss our feelings of the book. We mainly felt the same about the book and how we could see the American culture seeping into the girls.

Another part of the project was that we were required to design an art piece that connected to our book. I chose to do a re-make of the book cover. I made the background of the last dress pink. Pink was the traditional color for a girl to wear when she turned fifteen. But when most of the girls started coming to America. The dresses were either white or really light blue. I think that many people would be able to tell what the connection is between the book and the cover that I made. I chose to make my dress a copy off of on of Andy Warhol’s piece. He is a Pop Artist which I thought related to the book. Most of the immigrants were changing their personalities and doing what they thought was “popular” and what everyone else was doing in America. When people look at my painting, I want them to be able to tell what the painting is describing. I also want them to want to read the book because they think that the cover is so significant to the book. I liked being able to create an Artist Statement to go along with my piece because I was able to describe what my feelings were while I was re-making the cover. And for people to understand why I chose to pain what I did. My other choice to paint was a crown, which would have represented the final product of the Quinceanera. Meaning, the girls had to go through so much to just be able to have a Quince. For example, some of the girls parents were struggling with money, but it is a tradition that the girls have a Quinceanera so they had to keep it running. But I am glad that I decided to do the four dresses instead.

Last but not least, we were able to interview and immigrant and their process of immigration. I got the opportunity to interview a woman from Venezuela. She told me the reason why she immigrated and how she felt. She said that she was excited to immigrate because she had heard a lot about America. I found interviewing her a fun part of the project because it was really interesting being able to hear her story and how she felt. Since I was born in America, I wouldn’t know how it would be to immigrate. I think being required to interview out person was a good part of the project. I also liked that it was split up into three different interviews. The first one was so you could introduce yourself. The second one was to get the questions going. And the third was an in person interview so that way we could get more in depth of our persons story. Throughout interviewing her, I learned that not all people immigrated to America because their country was bad. Because she described to me that Venezuela wasn’t bad at all. It was just that her husband had gotten a Job in France and then she had moved to America.