presentation on The Twelve

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How the land connects with Paton's theme

           Throughout out the book Paton mentions the land in South Africa. When he is describing the land he always describes one part of the land to be beautiful, and well fertilized, then he goes on to describe another part of land to be rough and not well taken care of. I think there is a deeper meaning behind the descriptions of the land. I think the different descriptions represent the social classes of the blacks in South Africa and the whites in south Africa.

          The beautiful and well fertilized land symbolizes the whites in South Africa, and their living conditions. Paton says "the land is rich and matted you cannot see the soil " meaning that the grass is thick and well preserved. I feel like this is being claimed as the land of the whites in South Africa because they were treated better than the blacks. So of course they had the best land.So I feel that this the first sign of symbolism that Paton has used by saying that the whites of South Africa had better quality land.

           In the second paragraph in chapter one of Cry,The Beloved Country Paton uses symbolism to describe the different environments between the blacks and whites in South Africa.The text says "the rich green hills break down", "they fall into the valley below", right here is where the first scene is ending and a new scene is being introduced. This is transitioning into a change in environment. The second paragraph in chapter one said “[the land] holds the rain and the mist, they seep into the ground, in the third paragraph in chapter one it says"[the land] cannot hold the rain and mist. in my opinion this is just say that the whites had the better quality in their land  with that being said  i am going to assume since they were segregated  and since the whites were treated better they also had better clothing, nicer  living conditions, and they actually had rights. The blacks didn't have any of that.With that being said the blacks lands were over crowded with cattle and their streams are dry and they had too many fires burned upon it.

        In chapter 10 Paton introduces the readers to shatny town. This town is to be described in my opinion as a town that was thrown together over night with no good craftsmanship and no cares. What stood out to me was when Paton said "even here the children laugh in the narrow lanes that run between these tragic habitations", this stood out to me because i interpreted it as that even though this town is run down the children aren't depressed or sad they are happy they have adapted to this environment this is all they know this is home. They haven t been introduced to the life of the whites in south Africa so they aren't wishing to have their life they are happy here. This ties into the over all theme of the book because this is just one of many examples of how the whites were treated better that the blacks they lived in better environments they had better farm land and they had rights.

Narrative

Ashley Scaife

19 November 2012

Ms. Harmon

Pre AP English 10

What Happened to Tradition

            I am walking down the hall to my room and I open my door. There’s my scrapbook on the bookshelf over there. I hear my mom calling me “Ashley let’s go! We don’t want to be late.” Every day since the day I was born we have celebrated Thanksgiving at my grandmother’s house, and we are never on time. I respond to her by saying”oh so trying to break tradition and try to be on time for once.” (Oh how I love sarcasm) As I am running out of the house my feet skid across the concrete as I suddenly came to a stop. My mom is telling me to go back into the house my camera. Wow I really would not want to forget that!

            As we are driving to grandmothers house I can practically taste the warm tender ham drowned in glaze can smell the aroma of spices flowing in the air. I can almost taste the warm fluffy vanilla cake. Wow I must be hungry! Knock, knock, knock, and knock!”Ashley (whispers a voice) Ashley, Ashley, ASHLEY!” The voice is getting louder, why am I shaking? Wake up Ashley we are getting ready to leave in 3 hours.

“Ugh” I groan. “Well, that dream was great while it lasted.” I feel like reality smacked me in the face.

“You are not getting out of this one,”my mom says.

“But it is not fair mom”

“Don’t even start this morning; we are going to your sisters’ house for thanksgiving to celebrate with her in laws.”

“They are not my family.”

“Yes they are.”

“No they are not, well by marriage only that means nothing.”

“I don’t know how much more of your disrespectful tone I can take Ashley.”

“Call me selfish but my family shares the same blood as me, and they don’t therefore they are not my family.”

“Well Ashley you don’t always get what you want so grown up.”

“Whatever!”

I honestly don’t like change. Why can’t things stay the same? I am walking down the hall way into my room. I collapse on the bed with a long, tired, angry groan. I sit up in my bed and I see my scrapbook on the bookshelf, so I grab it and flip through the pages. Scrapbooks are filled with memories that we sometimes forget. As I am turning the pages in the book I come across some pictures of my extended family. I am smiling as I flip through the pictures. I am thinking about all of the fun time we have together. How we sit around the table and tell stories and share laughs. They like to get up and act out scenes and stories, which is the funniest thing ever. My favorite things to do with them are playing card and board games. No matter what we do I always have fun; even I am usually always the youngest. I only get to see them once every year for thanksgiving, unless there is a death in the family or a big family birthday celebration. Basically when there is an event when the whole family needs to get together. That’s why I love to cherish every single moment with them, and missing one thanksgiving is like skipping a whole year of not seeing them.

Let’s be honest my sisters in laws are like complete strangers to me, so spending thanksgiving with them is going to be weird, but I guess if I never try to get to know them they will forever remain strangers. So I guess that it will not be so bad going over there. Who knows I may actually enjoy myself. I turn on some music and dance around my room. I think it is strange how bombed I was just a few minutes ago no I am a little curious. I go to the car and we pull out of the garage and drive away to my sister’s house to make more memories. In the end I found out that I should not always assume the worst. Who really knows I may enjoy my sisters in laws as much as I enjoy my family. I will never know until I give them a chance.

How I learned to read

    I don’t remember a lot of things from my toddler days. There are a few things that I remember.  The only reason for that is because my dad used his video camera to record things like me opening my first Christmas gift or my first birthday party, my first steps, learning how to walk, and ride a tricycle for the first time, he even recorded me running around the house playing and interacting with my big brother Jay,  playing and making noise in my older sister Candice’s room, and dancing to TLC’S No Scrubs( I still happen to love that song) ,  he even got me dancing around before going trick o treating in my ballerina costume. I find is funny that I can remember all this but when it comes to knowing how I learned to read my mind goes blank.

    When I received an assignment I English that said I had to write a story about how I learned to read I had no idea what to write about. I went home and asked my mom do you remember how I learned how to read and she replied “No.” I was shocked I asked how can you not remember how I learned how to read. She said all she remembers was that I leaned in kindergarten. She said I came home on day and I started repeating my phonics. As she recalled it sounded like this “aaaaaaat,bbbuuuut, aaaaaple, bbbooy.” She said one day when I came home I had a picture book with basic words in it and I would love to read it to her. The book consisted of words and things like A apple, B boy, and so on.

    I was surprised the in kindergarten was the way I learned how to read on my on. Of course I could talk but when my mom would read me bedtime stories I only listened and picked up on key things like the title so I could request the book. Most kids would have has things like Leap Frog, and my baby can read, and Baby Einstein. I kind of wondered why my mom never bothered to give me any of those, but all that mattered was that I could read.

    As I became older I really loved reading. I caught on to book series. The following are some examples: Horrible Harry Series, The Boxcar Children, A-Z mystery, Magic Tree house, The Bailey School Kids, black lagoon, and Goosebumps. My all time favorite book series would have to be Junie B. Jones series. I have read every single book in the series. In the first, seconded, third grade those were the only books I read. My teacher had a book shelf full of them and I read them all. There was something about those books that I got pure enjoyment from. Even to this day if I found a Junie B. Jones book I would read it that’s how much I loved reading the series.

     Now days I have turned to a different series the Twilight Saga. That is very different from the Junie B. Jones books, but what they do have in common is that they are my favorite books to read.

 

 

I am........

I am shy and quiet
I wonder what my future holds
I hear the future calling my name
I see the years passing me by
I want to belong
I am she and quiet

I pretend I'm not in pain
I feel my emotions puring out in class
I touch the heavens in hope of light
I worry what people think of me
I cry when i feel alone in a crowded room
I am shy and quiet

I understand that I am different
I say someday I will find my place in this world
I dream I will start my own path
I try to express myself but i always get knocked right back down
I hope to finally let the world see the real me
I am shy and quiet

A Cruel Word

      The world is made up of all sorts of people. Different races, heights,facial features,body shapes,and personalities, but we are all human. in my opinion people are just mean. plain mean for no reason at all. that's where i would like to start my story at.


      As i was reading the story "a very old man with enormous wings" some signature parts stuck out to me. certain things that were said , told, and done. for example the text reads the following: "before going to bed he dragged him out of the mud and locked him up with the hens in the wire chicken coop." i thought it was mean of him to lock him up in a chicken coop. especially after the neighborhood woman said he was an angel. who would lock an angel up with the farm animals. it also says "got the idea of fencing in the yard and charging 5 cents admission to see the angel." they were show casing him as a carnival attraction instead of an angel.


     Another thing that caught my attention was this "They found  the whole neighborhood in front of the chicken coop having fun with the angel without the slightest reverence, tossing him things to eat through the openings in the wire as if he weren't a supernatural creature but  circus animal." I thought that was cruel. If he were suppose to be an angel why would you throw things at him through a fence that's rude. An angel should be treated with respect not displayed as some kind of freak show. "He was lying in the Conner drying his wings in the sunlight among the fruit Peels and breakfast leftovers that the Early risings had thrown at him."they didn't even throw whole food at him they only threw scraps. they should love the angel not disrespect him and look down at him. why not wash his feet . clean off his wings lean him up, because that's how an angel should be treated.

      There are mean people everywhere. for example i was on youtube.com under a video reading the comment section and people were saying all  sorts of rude disrespectful and evil things. another word for this is cyberbullying in my opinion i think that is the worst kind of bullying of them all.Even that what you say is over the Internet words still hurts. it is not necessary to be this rude. I feel like some people have some sort of mental power over the Internet. It's like they are tempted to say anything , because what can you really do to them. They can be anywhere in the world but cannot do anything about it.