Prejudice in To Kill A Mockingbird

            In chapter 9 Jem and Scout receive air rifles for Christmas. In chapter 10 Atticus tells them that they can shoot at any blue jay they see, but not mockingbirds, killing a mockingbird is a sin.  Later, Miss Maudie says this is because mocking birds don’t harm anyone and provide beautiful music. I predict that throughout the book black people will constantly be ostracized by others, specifically the black man that Atticus is defending in court, Tom Robinson.  If we get to hear about his case, I think that it will come to a result that was made up because of others prejudices.  For example, I think that the evidence will not be enough to completely convict Tom of whatever crime he is being accused of, but the jury will still vote guilty because they are from the south and it isn’t too long after the civil war, so there must still be a lot of racism toward blacks in this book.  However, I don’t think that prejudices’ will be completely directed at blacks in this book. Another person that I think that will be affected by people’s prejudices is Boo Radley.  He hasn’t been seen for a while and there are many rumors going around about him.  I think that when and if he comes out he will be treated like a monster for some time, despite the possibility that he is probably very harmless.  If he does eventually become seen as a harmless man, I think that it will be a while because of what everyone thinks of him already.  All in all, I think that there will be a variety of people affected by prejudice throughout this book. Whether it be Tom Robinson, Boo Radley, or someone else, we may even meet another character that if affected by prejudice later on.

Boo Radley Character Devolpment

                Boo Radley has so far been portrayed as a creepy, animal-like man.  As the book progresses, I think that this portrayal will change.  I predict that when the children first meet Boo, he will seem like an animal, because he has always spent his time inside.  However, as they spend time with him, he will start to seem less and sell like the stereotypes that they have heard for their entire lives.  He could very well only go out at night, but I don’t think that he peeks inside homes and eats animals raw. I think that as the story progresses Boo will come out at times and have subtle influences on what is going on, up until the point where they actually get him to come out. All of the rumors are most likely just that, rumors. How crazy he actually is still remains to be seen. While he may not seem like a completely sane human being at first when they meet him, by the end of the book he might seem more sane than he does now. 

Mistakes of the Judicial Branch

     Our Judicial Branch has a bit of a rough history.  While it has made mostly good calls in its lifetime, I believe that it has there have been some times when they’ve made some bad choices, or weren’t completely in control of what they were supposed to be. One such instance was when the issue of whether or not to make the Native American’s move to designated areas.  The Supreme Court was charged with making the decision, and they decided that it was unconstitutional to make them move, which I think was the right choice.  However, the president didn’t agree with them and decided to go ahead and make all of the Native Americans move to the places that we weren’t going to use.  The system didn’t work the way it was supposed to. There were also times when the judicial branch has made decisions that were completely unfair, especially when looking at them by today’s views.  Back in the 1920s a black man named Homer Plessy filed a lawsuit against a railway system because they forced him to sit in a separate train car than white people.  Courts kept ruling against him, and he kept bringing the case to higher and higher courts. Eventually the case made it to the Supreme Court.  The Supreme Court ruled against Plessy, saying that separating people by race still kept them equal.  This introduced segregation as a lawful and accepted practice.  Back then it probably wasn’t so easy to realize the unfairness, but today almost everyone sees it.  As you can see, courts around America have made many mistakes, even the Supreme Court.  The judicial branch has not always worked the way that it was supposed to, and will probably continue to make mistakes in its judgment, even if those mistakes aren’t recognized for years to come.

The Hobbit Book Log #10

12/16/2012

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 140-151

           

            This section begins when Bilbo and the dwarves plunge into the mysterious forest of Mirkwood.  A soon as they enter the forest they get a gloomy feeling about it.  They grew to hate the forest more than anything on their adventure this far.  They soon came about a river, which they were warned not to touch or drink from, and crossed it using a boat that was there.  However, the fattest of the dwarves, named Bombur, fell in and ended up in a deep sleep when he got pulled out of the water. They had to go on and carry Bombur, making seemingly no progress.  When Bombur finally woke up, he wept over there not being any more food, when suddenly, one dwarf saw something shining in the woods.

           

            “His heart, that had been lightened by the sight of the sun and the feel of the wind, sank into his toes; there was no food to go back down below.”  This quote that Bilbo says when he is up in the tree gives us a feel of worry for the dwarves.  They are lost, without food, and are unable to find any way out of the forest.  Bilbo, who was not so enthusiastic to go on this adventure, was able to find a shred of joy in being atop a tree and feeling the breeze.  They are lost in a forest, and have hardly any hope.

            In this section, the dwarves send Bilbo up a tree so that he can see what is all around their position.  He is not too ecstatic about having to climb this tree.  I can relate to that because I am afraid of heights.  I can go up Eagle Tower in Peninsula State Park, but that’s pretty much it. I can never get up to high on a climbing wall.  Every time I try, I just freeze once I get to a certain point.  Bilbo is a braver man than I, because he was actually able to climb that tree, and I would never be able to.

The Hobbit Book Log #9

12/9/12

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 125-139

           

            This section starts out with our group of adventurers eating dinner with Beorn.  Afterwards Beorn leaves to take a look outside and the dwarves go to sleep.  When they awaken, Beorn is gone and now so is Gandalf.  Around supper time Gandalf returns and tells the dwarves that he was tracking bear prints.  The next morning Beorn returns and tells them that he was checking to make sure that their story was true.  Beorn gives the dwarves traveling advice and soon after lunch they leave, back to their adventure with refurnished supplies. As they reached the edge of Mirkwood (a forest), Gandalf leaves the dwarves, causing a large worry among them.

            “I am not sending the horse back, I am riding it back!” When Gandalf says this, it is easy to tell that the journey is about to get a lot harder for the dwarves.  Gandalf has been the dwarves’ everything.  He was their connection to hospitality, the one who saved them from the goblins, and the one who saved them from the trolls.  One can only imagine how they will manage getting through the forest without Gandalf.  Also, if his doesn’t come back by the time the dwarves get to the dragon, they are in for a big fight. It will be quite interesting to see how the story progresses from here, we will see if Bilbo is finally ready to toughen up or not.

            As I stated before, the dwarves are very worried of their current situation because they now must journey fourth without Gandalf.  This reminds me of when Bret Favre left the Packers.  All the fans were upset and worried that the Packers would start to do worse as a team.  Not long after Favre left, Aaron Rodgers started to prove himself as a quarterback and break many of Favre’s records.  The Packers were ready to move on without Favre, and now the dwarves need to be ready to move on without Gandalf.  It’s time for Bilbo to become the dwarves’ Aaron Rodgers.

Hobbit Book Log #8

12/1/12

The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien

Pages 112-124

            After our adventurers wake up from their night of feast, the eagles kindly take them down off of the mountains so that they may continue their adventure.  Once they get off the eagles and are ready to once again begin their adventure, Gandalf announces that he will not be continuing on the adventure for much longer.  All the dwarves (and Bilbo, who I wish to remind you is a hobbit) become worried when they hear this because they would have never gotten this far without him.  Gandalf then takes them to someone’s house who he knows of, but this man, named Beorn, is not familiar with Gandalf.  Still, Beorn eventually welcomes them all in and offers them dinner.

            “Indeed we are now a good deal further east than I ever meant to come with you, for after all, this is not my adventure.  I may look into it again before it is all over, but in the meanwhile, I have other pressing business to attend to.”  When Gandalf says this, you can practically feel the dwarves get nervous.  Without him, they surely would have never gotten this far.  While he still hasn’t left at the end of this section, one can only wonder how the dwarves will fare without Gandalf guiding them through the many dangers of this adventure.

            As I have been reading this book, it has started to remind me to the Percy Jackson series.  Much like the Percy Jackson series, this book has many different kinds of warriors, and the different kinds of warriors between the two books are very similar.  For example, they both have warriors who use traditional swords and shields, and they both have people who are able to use elemental-type abilities.  Also, in both books they fight various kinds of creatures. In The Hobbit they fight trolls and goblins, and in Percy Jackson they fight minotaurs and cyclopses.  I find it interesting how books then and now can be so much alike.