Why To Kill A Mockingbird? (Final)

I finally finished the fantastic novel To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee. From this book the thing that stood out to me the most was the last chapter. That was my favorite chapter in the book. The last chapter was mostly about Arthur Radley aka Boo Radley. It was sort of awkward for Jean Louise aka Scout to meet Boo. She always wanted to see him because he never came outside. He always stayed inside his house because he didn’t want to come outside. No one ever saw him except the doctor. He never let anyone in the house except the doctor. Scout never saw Boo but Boo always looked out for Scout.

When Mr. Ewell attacked Jem(Scout’s brother) and Scout, Boo was the one who saved them from being killed. When Ms. Maddie’s house was on fire, Jem and Scout were standing outside in the cold and Boo was the one who put the blanket on Scout. It’s like Boo always watches out his window to make sure that everyone is safe and comfortable. Now, let’s go back to the last chapter.

At the very end when Atticus was tucking Scout in for bed, Scout was mumbling whatever she recalled from the book that Atticus was reading to her. The small conversation that went on was very important. Scout was saying, “An’ they chased him ‘n’ never could catch him’ cause they didn’t know what he looked like, an’ Atticus, when they finally saw him, why he hadn’t done any of those things...Atticus, he was real nice....” After that Atticus said, “ Most people are, Scout, when you finally see them.” I think this part related back to Boo Radley. They thought that Boo was mean before when they never saw him. Now Scout noticed that he’s really nice. Exactly what Atticus says. I think that was my favorite line in the entire book. This was definitely one of my favorite books.

Lessons and Craft of Stay

            I just finished the book Stay by Deb Caletti. It was a pretty interesting book. I think there were two main lessons in the book. Before I talk about the lessons I want to mention how the author wrote this book. It was about Clara’s life only. The first chapter was the past and how she met Christian. The second was the present and how she was getting away from him. Both of these stories continued alternating by each chapter. At the end they merged into one story which was the present. It was cool how the author did this and managed to pull it off. Sometimes it was a bit confusing. At one part I was like wait, what happened before this in the chapter about her past? Overall I thought it was a good book.

                The first lesson I thought that the author wanted to teach was be careful about who you trust. A lot of books are about this and it’s a big thing. Trusting the wrong person can lead to many other problems that you might not even imagine happening to you. It was just like how Clara trusted Christian in the beginning. Towards the end of her relationship, she just wanted to get away from him and couldn’t. It was like she couldn’t be free.

                The second lesson was to improve on your mistakes. Clara went through this in the book. Christian didn’t like her to joke with others and she listened to him but only at the very beginning of their relationship. Later, when Clara went out with Finn, she was careful not to joke around with his friends at first. When she noticed Finn didn’t really care whether she joked around or not she understood that he was the right one. This might be a different kind of example but there are many other situations that you can improve you mistakes in. 

Theme of Martin Espada’s Poems Essay

Martin Espada is a famous poet.  He was born in New York in 195. He has published more than 15 books full of poems. His poems have been published in Spain, Puerto Rico, and Chile. His poems have different themes. Some of them do have the same theme but in different ways of expressing them. Some of his poems are based off of pictures or they are just experiences or moments that he thinks about probably. Three of his poems stand out to have the same theme but expressed in different ways. The three poems Revolutionary Spanish Lesson; The New Bathroom Policy at English High School; and Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877 have the theme that separation is wrong because of the words that he uses in his poems.

            In Revolutionary Spanish Lesson Espada writes about how a guy feels when his name is mispronounced. He writes it from a first-person point of view. He says that when someone mispronounces his name he wants to “hijack a busload of Republican tourists from Wisconsin, force them to chant anti-American slogans in Spanish”. His description is so specific. He shows how there is a separation between the white people and Spanish or any other ethnicity. He shows that there is a border that separates the Spanish and the whites and he is writing this poem to show these whites to try to pronounce names correctly to make this border disappear. It’s like a message for the white people who make no move to pronounce someone’s name correctly.

            In the second poem The New Bathroom Policy at English High School Espada writes about a principal in an English High School using the bathroom while listening to boys talk in Spanish. He doesn’t understand what they are saying except that they are talking about him. He decides to ignore them and relax. This is another example of how there is a border between the Spanish and whites. It’s like the principal doesn’t care about the Spanish kids and he’s like speak your own language and I’ll stick to mine. It’s the principal creating the border by not trying to figure out what they are saying. If there was no border he would at least try to find out what they were talking about which indicates he cares, but that’s not the case.

            In the third poem Two Mexicanos Lynched in Santa Cruz, California, May 3, 1877 Espada writes about a photograph of forty white vigilantes lynching two Mexicans and showed their pride by crowding into the photograph. This is a very clear example of separation. It supports the fat that the whites didn’t care about the Spanish people and were proud to hang them. Except that this photograph was from 1877 which means that this was a long time ago. It’s a message for the people now not to repeat the same thing. It’s so that the separation between Mexicans and whites don’t get so strong that the whites begin to hang the Mexicans. It’s to teach a lesson.

            Overall these three poems represent the theme of separation and how it’s not right. He expresses this message in the same form but in three different ways. He shows it through history, through a first-person point of view, and an example of someone creating it. It’s an attempt to diminish the separation between whites and Mexicans and other ethnicities. It’s so that everyone respects each other and each other’s language. It’s to show everyone separation is wrong.

"Hate List" The Other Side of Bullying

            I just finished the fantastic novel Hate List by Jennifer Brown. When I first opened this book it reminded me of the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary in Connecticut. This story was a bit different but similar. I think this is one of my favorite books. At the end it gets really sad. The main character is Valerie and as the author said in her author’s note, it’s about Valerie’s story. This is one powerful novel. It teaches the importance of being nice to people and not bullying anyone.

            Nick is Valerie’s boyfriend in the story. Valerie and Nick are the quiet kids in Garvin High School. They both get bullied all the time. They started a hate list. On this hate list they put all the names of the people that were mean to them or expressed they didn’t like them. Nick kept on giving hints to Valerie about how they could get rid of the people they hated. Valerie didn’t think that Nick was serious.

            One day Christy Bruter (who was on the hate list) broke Valerie’s CD player on the bus. She told Nick the whole thing and he said that he would handle it. She didn’t really get what he meant but when they went inside the school, Nick started shooting. Valerie stopped the shooting and saved Jessica.

            Even though she was the one who stopped the shooting everyone saw her as a threat. People turned away from her and didn’t want to talk to her. No one wanted tot be around her when she went back to school. Even though she also got shot everyone thought she was involved on the plan to shoot people on the hate list. Jessica was the one who started to talk to her. She started to be friends with Valerie. As the book went on, people started to get more and more comfortable around Valerie. Her mom was the one who saw her as a threat. Her mom thought Valerie was a threat to all of the students. At the end Valerie let’s her mom go so that she wouldn’t have to worry about Valerie all the time.

            Bullying was an important part in this book. It teaches that you should always be nice to everyone. You never know, the person you bully might hurt you. You can’t read anyone’s mind. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t trust anyone. I’m trying to say that avoid this by being nice. Bullying someone just might turn around and harm you.

Response on "Forever"

            I just finished the book Forever by Maggie Stiefvater which I figured out is actually a good book. From the cover and the blurb on the back I really didn’t think it was going to be a good book but it actually was. The main characters; Sam, Grace, Cole, Isabel, and Rachel; taught some very important lessons. Some people might think that this book is useless but it actually teaches a lesson.

Grace had everyone thinking that she had disappeared but she wasn’t. She just didn’t want everyone to know that she was a wolf and so was her boyfriend Sam. She didn’t even want to tell her parents. When Sam got taken in to be questioned about Grace’s disappearance, Grace said she wanted to tell the public that she was still alive and show them that she hadn’t left. Sam didn’t want her to tell everyone because then it might lead to everyone finding out that she was a wolf. Grace said that it’s better than Sam possibly going to jail for being accused of doing something to Grace. Grace was ready to give up her happiness to get someone to stay out of trouble and that should happen in this world too between people.

When Grace revealed to her friend, Rachel, that she is a wolf Rachel was first shocked and thought she was joking. She even said that if Grace is a wolf, she’s a zebra. That was her first reaction but later on she actually accepted. She didn’t stop talking to Grace or even avoid her; she accepted her and continued to be best friends with her. It just shows that is you’re friends with someone and know that they’re trustworthy, you should accept them however they are.

Sam was fighting with Shelby while they were both in wolf form, Cole sensed that Sam wouldn’t win and would go down. He shifted into a wolf, told Sam to leave with the rest of the pack, and fought Shelby. He knew Sam so well because he was friends with him and lived with him that he didn’t want him to die. He was ready to sacrifice his life for him. That’s how close their friendship was. It shows how if you really love someone, you should be ready to sacrifice something for them if not your life.

Isabel saw that Cole went down, while fighting Shelby in wolf form, because of people in helicopters shooting at him. She thought that he was dead and didn’t want it to happen to the rest of the wolves. She thought that since she couldn’t save Cole’s life she should save all the other wolf lives that were in danger because of the people, including her father, who were trying to wipe them out. She drove to the middle of the clearing where the people were shooting at from the helicopters and she looked up at the helicopter through her sunroof and looked up at the helicopter until they saw her. The shooting stopped and her father texted her to get out of there but she told him not until he did and stared at the helicopter until the wolves got out of the way. She risked her getting punished for other peoples’ (who turn into wolves) lives. This doesn’t happen that often in this world because people aren’t that close or they are too selfish.

These are very important lessons that are for people everywhere. They are shown through a book that people might think is useless it actually isn’t. It’s actually very interesting. I think that these lessons were what the author might have been trying to get through to the reader. I just really want to read the other books written by Maggie Stiefvater.