TKAM 3

Example:

Journal #1

Chapters 8-9
Perspective of: Jem

Dear Diary,

Yesterday and today brought good and bad. Scout and I saw our first snowfall. We were very excited to be acquainted with snow. We made an ingenious snowman out of dirt and snow that looked just like Mr. Avery. To make it slightly less obvious, Atticus had us put Miss Maudie's hat and hedge clippers on it. I thought it was pretty impressive myself, so did Atticus and Scout I think.

Later that night Atticus woke me and told me to get on my robe and coat quickly, then to meet him in Scout's room. Once we were both dressed he rushed us out side. I was perplexed until I saw that Miss Maudie's house was on fire. Atticus was going to help remove her furniture, and told us to stay put in front of the Radley's gate. Soon the fire had spread to our adjacent neighbors house and then to ours. Scout wanted to get our stuff but I told her that Atticus would tell us when it was time.

Mr. Avery was in the second story of Miss Maudie's house, throwing her possessions out the window. Then he almost got stuck in the window climbing out. Three fire trucks were trying to isolate the fire (one being pushed from town due to the cold.) After all of the houses were put out, the fire trucks left and we went home. That is when we discovered that BOO Radley had come to call on Scout. She had a brown blanket draped over her shoulders that had not been there before. Mr. Avery could not have done it because he was helping with Miss Maudie's house.

TKAM 2

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

WOW! Today was the last day of summer with Dill and I almost got shot by Mr. Nathan. Then I almost got caught by Atticus, when I lost my pants. Dill covered for me by saying that we were playing strip poker – whatever that is. I am sure that I just made no sense what-so-ever so I will start at the beginning.

It was the end of summer vacation and Dill was going to be leaving soon. It was our last night with Dill and we had this fabulous plan. Dill and I were going to get a look at BOO Radley. Scout decided to come along after I accused her of acting like a Girl again. Once we got to the street lamp, I gave Scout one more chance to chicken out but she kept her cool. I was scared that Boo Radley would come and get us , but I was not going to show any fear in front of Dill. Not to mention give Scout the satisfaction.

We crept in the back gate making sure to evade the collards. After what seemed to be an hour, we got to the window with the broken shade. I was the tallest and I was still a few inches short. So Scout and I lifted up Dill. All that he said he saw was darkness and a light in the distance. I was determined to prove to the others that I was not scared of the Radley place, so I decided to go up the stairs to the back porch.

The first step creaked, so I skipped the rest and just jumped onto the porch. I teetered there for a long wile to make sure that no one had heard me. Then I crawled to the window and peaked in. Before I could figure out what was inside I heard one of the others take in a long breath. Then a shadow fell over me and I tried to hide curled up in a ball. The shadow went away again and I hurried down the steps. We did not have to quibble to come to an unanimous decision. We ran out the gate and through two rows of collards.

I was so scared, but maybe whoever it was had not seen us. Who was I kidding? We were in plain sight.

I lifted the fence for Dill and Scout. Then I hurried under, only my pants got caught on the fence. I was so scared and was in such a hurry that I just kicked off my pants and ran to the oaks in my shorts. We ran back the way that we had come and after we had caught our breath we walked out front. A huge group of people had gathered out front of the Radley place. Miss Maudie told us that Mr. Radley shot over a negro in his collard patch. Then he announced with much tyranny that next time he would not aim high.

Then Atticus came over and asked where Jem's pants were. That's when Dill stepped in with his strip poker excuse. Ms. Rachel got mad at Dill, but I got off safe. Later that night I went back out to get my pants, despite Scout's warning and threats. I got back alright without Atticus knowing, but I was scared out of my mind and would think more than twice before doing something like that again.

TKAM 1

Journal #1

Chapters 1-3

Perspective of Mrs. Caroline

Chapter 3
I came into my first grade class room on the first day of school to find a lovely assortment of young minds. Some were dirty, some were clean, one boy had no shoes, but they all looked ready too learn. I started the class by reading them a childrens story about sweet little cats. Then we went on to the alphabet. I was amazed by how many of the kids already knew what they were. I called upon Scout whom I had met the week before. To see what level she was on I had her start to read the book My First Reader then parts of the stock market quotes in The Mobile Register. It was obvious that her father must have taught her to read. This was going to make my job so much harder.

I would have to first brake her of her bad habits. Then I would have to teach her all over again. I had to ask her to tell her father to stop teaching her. That was my job of course. If the parents taught them everything they would not be coming to school every day. And if they did not come to school every day I would not get payed and that would be bad, very bad. The the poor darling started going on about how her father did not teach her anything and that she was born a bullfinch reader, or something like that. I had to put her strait. You can't just let things like this go or they will grow too strong to fix. After Scout went back to her seat I started the next lesson. Then the children went out to recess to burn off some steam.

After recess I started teaching the class how to read simple words like: “the”, “cat”, “man”, “you”, and “rat”. I noticed that scout was not paying attention and so I went to get back her attention. I found her writing a letter to someone. I had to re-insist that her father should not be teaching her these things and to try to forget them so that we could start anew. She was starting to frustrate me and that was bothering. Instead of pursuing this problem I asked the kids about lunch arrangements. Some of the kids went home to eat and others brought out their lunch pales. There was one little boy though that did not have any lunch but was not going home to eat.

I asked him if he had forgotten his lunch, but he just mumbled. I got out a quarter from my purse and told him to come get the quarter and buy something for lunch and that he could pay me back tomorrow. He just shook his head and said “No thank you Ma'am”. When I asked him again Scout stood up and stated that he was a Cunningham then sat back down as though that made everything clear. I was shocked at her tone. Just because his last name is Cunningham, that does not mean that he can not take a quarter for lunch. When I asked her what she meant, she just stated once again that Walter was a Cunningham. I did not see what that had to do with anything. Then she went on to criticism this boy's family. Stating that he was poor and never took things that he could not repay. Then she continued to tell me that I was shaming Walter because he could not repay me in quarters or in firewood. This girl irked me and was going to need some straitening out, I could see.

I grabbed her arm and pulled her to the front of the classroom, told her to put out her hand and proceeded to slap it with a ruler. I felt like I had condescended to the level of the children, but I could not let this go unpunished. Then I made sure that she staid in a corner until lunch time. The children laughed at her, but she still did not seem to understand her wrong doing. Then to make everything a little worse, Miss. Blount came to advise me on controlling my class. Finally it was lunch time and the children left for home or the playground. I put my head in my hands. This was going to be harder then I thought.

Chapter 4
After lunch we returned to class and as I was walking through the desks looking at the students I saw this thing crawling in and out of a boys hair. I screamed, right there in the middle of class. The kids came rushing up to see what was wrong. They must have thought it was a rat because they asked me which way it went. I asked what the thing in the boys hair was and the children told me that it was called a cootie. One of the kids brought me some water wile another got the cootie out of the boy's hair. I had to insist that he should go home and wash. When he asked me what for, I told him to get rid of them cooties. I found him a remedy in a book I had. Then I asked him to come back tomorrow nice and clean.

One of the kids made a pronouncement just like Scout had, that he was a Ewell. Apparently all of the Ewells in the school come to school for the first day and then they leave. The kids told me that he was a bad boy and that I should just let him go home. After one of the kids threatened to kill him, he left the class. It seemed like a silent compromise between the two. Ewell would leave and nobody would get hurt. When he was far down the hall he called me a bunch of nasty names and ran off. It was the first day of school and more bad things had happened to me then in my entire teaching carer. I could not help it. Right there in front of all the kids I broke down and cried until I had run dry. Then I read the kids another story and dismissed them for the day. This town and these kids are very eccentric.

Post 4

Q: 1

“'We are a miscegenation-happy people,' Ed Morales concludes.” Pg. 231

First Miscegenation means crossbred. So now knowing this, I think that people have adapted very well in the US. They are mixing and assimilating well. Americans are more than accepting these new comers. People are adapting to the situation at hand.

I think that we now see the crossbreeds that they have created. Almost no one is full anything. I myself am some of almost everything.

How many people do you know that are a single race/culture?

Q: 2

“That's why I tell young girls, you have to stand up for yourself. Be bien preparadas. If you can't fight for yourself, how can you fight for family, your country your community.” pg. 262 Dolores.

I can relate to this because, my mother has always taught me to stand up for myself. Just like Dolores states “If you can't fight for yourself, how can you fight for family, your country your community.” Though I am an American I still need to be able to stand up for myself, my family, my friends, and my rights.

It must have been a challenge for young girls to be confident in their selfs when not in their own country. They already must feel like they don't fit in. But now on top of that they are shy and/or uncomfortable, as a teenager. Adapting to this culture as a teen ager must have been very difficult.

Have you ever had to stand up for someone or something?

Post 3

"All we got is what you see on our backs," one African American woman tells me, pointing to her two little boys in basketball jerseys with numbers on them.”

pg. 136

The journey coming to America must have been a hard trek for this woman and her family. They could not bring very much only what they can carry with them. They would have had to leave many things behind. It must have been very sad for them.

This reminds me of what my mother says in the grocery store. We only buy what we can carry. If you compare a trip to the grocery store to the hard trek to America, our life here seems pretty great.

Do you think that it is the same for people immigrating to the U.S. now?

“They keep the economy going, she concluded.”

Julia's Aunt pg.140

This reminded me of something that came up in class the other day. Someone said that immigrants help keep the economy smooth. I think that this is an interesting topic. Immigrants may help the economy by having more people to buy goods, but they also hinder the economy buy taking jobs away from the natives.

This person is acting like these immigrants are just here to help with our problems. “They keep the economy going,” she says. But they came here for a new life, not to be treated like extras to buy more goods from people.

Do you think that people feel this way now a days?

Post 2

“I do as many quinces a year as weddings,” pg. 92 Father Jorge Perez

I think that this quote shows just how many people maintain their cultural ties to their homeland while living in America. It also show how many people of this culture came to this part of America. This Father either has very few weddings, or there are a lot of people maintaining there cultural ties. This is an example of one church in the entire country. Think of how many Latinas there must be in the rest of the country. True it may be that this area has more Hispanic people in it. Still remains the fact that a lot of girls celebrate there quinces.

I am amazed at how well these girls are adapting to their new lives in the U.S. I am one to comfort new people and outsiders. I hope that people also did that for these girls and that is why they are getting more comfortable in America.

Why do you think that these churches are having as many quinces as weddings?



“If we could, we'd bring the whole family.” pg 124 Rosie

I feel bad that a lot of people had to leave family members behind. I hope that people like Rosie eventually get enough money to pay for the rest of their family to come to the Americas. This shows how hard it must have been to travel to the U.S. All the heart ache and the stress is unimaginable. I am glad that we have risen above that. Nobody should have to go through that, anymore.

I find this very sad that they could not bring their entire family with them. I can't imagine how it would feel to have to leave someone behind or to be the one that must be left behind. I am glad that it is now easier to bring your entire family over to the U.S.

What percentage of the families that had to leave members behind, do you think made enough money to get those members voyage to the U.S.?

Post 1

Most of the book Once upon a Quincenra, deals with people that are already here, not actual immigrants. The only person that was an immigrant so far, is the actual author of the book. The only quote that I have found that applies to immigration, was when the author refers to her family having moved to the U.S.

In 1963, when she moved to the U.S. She and her sisters had been told by passersby on the street who herd them talking loudly in Spanish: “Spics! Go back to where you came from!” Yet in spite of this and other racist incidents happening, there was no question that her older sister was still going to have a quince.

Pg.26

I think that this quote shows that the author was discriminated upon when she was young and is trying to show that despite any racist problems, the coming of age ceremony was still a very big part of their lives. I think that if she wanted to write about being an immigrant in the U.S., she could have just written her life's story. This book is not really about immigrants, but girls of a different nationality celebrating one of their traditions in the U.S. Despite the fact that she had trouble immigrating here, this does not mean that all immigrants had that bad of an experience in the U.S.

Why do you think that keeping to tradition is more important then fitting in?

If You were in the author's place would you still have a quincenra?