TBWCD Blog

Take the in-class writing we did last week on Wednesday/Thursday (the prompts that were sitting around the table). Expand and revise that writing to create one coherent, well thought-out blog entry.

During the Roundtable that our class did for TBWCD I started to realize how the author used pictures and stories to remind us that this story was real and happened to real people. The table that had the question, "How did the use of family photos affect this novel?" got me to think about how the pictures of her family in the refugee camp was a way that she could remind the readers that this was a real thing that happened not just to any family but to her own family. Then later in the book when the author puts in a drawing of her writing the book it it again makes the book seem more real. Knowing that someone who experienced these things made the book more interesting and personal. By also incorporating her parents history and the way they grew up it gave the reader in-site into how her parents shaped into the people they are and where they got their parenting style from. From the stories that Thi put in the book her parents acted and treated their kids very similarly to the way they were raised. All the personal aspects that Thi added to make the story come alive helped the book have more meaning. The book wasn't just a story that somebody wanted to tell because it was "cool" or "interesting" it was a book that explained someones past, how that impacts them now, and how it will impact them in the future.

How do you think the setting helps the story? Use evidence from the text to back up this discussion.

[The setting in the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find," was very important to the story because it helped isolate the characters.] In the short story the characters were traveling through Georgia on their way to Florida, when the family gets in a car crash on a gravel road off of the main road. The mother stated after the crash, "Maybe a car will come along," because this was not a well traveled road and the family was in immediate need of help. When somebody came along to "help" them it seemed as if the family was going to be okay. Having the story be set in such a secluded area the reader was kept focus on the area immediately surrounding the family. The reader would not be focused on anything going on outside of the families interactions with "The Misfit." Once The Misfit killed the grandmother the setting also gave the reader a sense of helplessness for the family because they had a broken down car in the middle of nowhere. If the story had been set in a less secluded place then the story would have gone very differently because they would have been able to get help from somebody else or have had easier access to help when The Misfit began to shoot. 

Oral History Project Reflection

I found the OHP to be really interesting and also very difficult. I have always been someone who works well in group project because splitting up work and doing my portion has just always been one of my strong suits. However, in the past I have never taken a lead on a group project. I used to sit back and let other people disperse the work and I would take whatever people didn't want to do. In this project I was forced to take the lead and keep my group organized. I got the sense early in the project that nobody else was willing to step up and I am glad that I did and was able to get the project done. I did have difficulty with someone in my group doing absolutely nothing but at one point my whole group just decided we had to pretend they weren't in the group and do things on our own.

The advice I would give to somebody else doing this project is to not be too focused on exact information you want to get out of somebody. The questions in an interview that give the interviewee more room to explain almost always give you more meaningful and explained answers. If you go into an interview thinking you want an exact story from somebody you will most likely get them to share it with you from just asking them to elaborate on some things. It is also very important to have everyone in your group understand their responsibilities from the start so that there is less confusion about what you should and shouldn't be doing to help. Once everyone understands what they should be doing if someone doesn't you then have a very clear picture of who is slacking and you can then figure out if this person just needs more explaining and help to get their part done or if they are just being lazy and don't plan to do any work. I loved this project and it has definitely taught be a lot about how to be a leader for a project and I was already able to use those skills on the collaborative section project that we did.

In what ways did Marjane find it difficult to fit back into Iranian society? In what ways did this surprise you (or not surprise you)?

Marjane did not feel like she was fitting back into the Iranian society because she had grown and changed so much in the four years she was gone, and after she returned nothing and nobody seemed to be the same as they used to be. The years that Marjane was gone was a time when she was growing and becoming an adult. With those changes she had a change in interests, opinions, and personality. After being away from home for so long coming home had both a sense of comfort and unfamiliarity. As it states on pages 248 and 249 her desk was now too small for her, the art she had drawn on the wall was no longer of interest to her, and the music she used to listen to was not what she wanted to hear. Coming home may have felt like the right thing to do because that gave her a sense of comfort and familiarity but in reality it was an eye opener to show her how much she had changed and how different her home land had become. Marjane was also made uncomfortable on page 259 when she saw her old girl friends and could not remember what they use to have in common. The girls she used to be friends with had followed a different course in life than she had, and after spending four years apart Marjane was really able to see how her personality had changed. After Marjane returned to Iran and everything felt so different than it was before I am not surprised that she had such a hard time feeling comfortable in her own home.

Why did Marjane's parents decide to send her to Europe? Do you think this was the right decision? Why or why not?

Marjane's parents sent her to stay with a family friend in Europe because she is a very opinionated young women. If she was not sent to another place she might be caught in the wrong place at the wrong time and be injured or even killed. I think if her parents had found out about her being brought to the committee of nuns on pages 133 and 134 she would have been sent away even sooner. Her mom mentioned to her that her rebellion could lead to her imprisonment or murder and that really upset her mom. Marjane has a very interesting view on who a hero is and since she had thought of her uncle as a hero, her parents may have been seeing her actions and thought she was going down the same path as him. Going to Europe was the safest place for Marjane at the time even though she didn't get to stay with the family she was expecting because she ended up with Julie who she was very happy and comfortable staying with. For Marjane getting out of Iran was a way to avoid a very cruel death for fighting for what she believes in.

Summary of Milk and Honey by Rupi Kaur

The book Milk and Honey written by Rupi Kaur was a collection of poems that were split up into 4 sections and each section was poems about a different topic. The sections were called The Hurting, The loving, The Breaking, and The Healing.
The first section, The Hurting, had a lot of poems about a daughters relationship with her father. The poem, "A daughter should not have to beg her father for a relationship," was one of the poems I was affected by most because I have always had a special kind of bond with my father and I have always taken that for granted but after reading that poem I realized some people don't have that and I can't imagine what I would do without my dad. The first section also had a lot of poems about rape and I am sure that a person who is a survivor of rape would find it to be very comforting but at the same time probably bring up some feelings and memories that they have tried to forget about.
The second section, The Loving, had poems that talked about how a guy can make a girl feel. I was able to connect with this chapter a lot because a lot of the feelings she brought up I could remember a time were I had felt the same way. There was a poem in the section that said, "I am learning how to love him by loving myself." I found that poem very interesting because that was the first time in the book she had talked about a women loving themselves, before that she had only talked about how people love women or the difference between someone saying I love you and actually being loved.
The third section, The Breaking, felt a lot like a chapter to support people after a break up. This section had poems about guys leaving and a lot of ideas about how a guy will not be over a girl but the girl will have already moved on. My favorite poem from this sections was, "Don't mistake salt for sugar if he wants to be with you he will it's that simple." I liked that poem because it talks about how if a boy loves you then he loves you for you and he will stay.
The fourth section, The Healing, talked about self love and how everything will be okay. One of my favorite poems from this section was, "you must want to spend the rest of your life with yourself first." I really liked that poem because to me it meant you have to love yourself and be happy with yourself before you can love somebody else and be happy with somebody else.
This book also had a very nice aesthetic. There were a few simple drawings that seemed to look like a sketch on the page. Everything was in black and white and all the poems for the most part were very short. There was no capitalization used in the entire book which I thought was interesting. I really liked how the book looked because it was all very basic and simple.
I would definitely recommend this book to everyone. I have personally not had to face a lot of the struggles this author has faced but I still really enjoyed it. I have not found myself enjoying a book as much as I enjoyed this book in a long time. This book is great for anyone who has gone through a break up, been affected by rape, had boy issues, girl issues, broken heart, family struggles, or just any struggle someone can have is addressed in this book in one way or another. One of the best parts is that the book is made of poetry so the reader has the freedom to read the poem and make it apply to their life in someway and make them not feel so alone.

Of all the texts that we've read this year, which one is your favorite, and why? Which one is your least favorite, and why?

Out of all the books we have read this school year my favorite has been The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas. It was the first formal book this year but as I reflect back on what we have read I was able to enjoy that book the most. I have always had a hard time reading about slavery and I just always feel so horrified knowing what used to and in someways still exist in our society. I found The Narrative of the Life of Fredrick Douglas to be very informational and also inspirational in a way because he was able to never give up even when put in very very difficult situations. My least favorite book this school year was The Merchant of Venice. I found the book very hard to read mostly because of the language that Shakespeare's plays are written in. I also didn't find the story very compelling. I did like how we learned about how much Shakespeare's writing has influenced today's writing and learning basic structures of a play. I would probably enjoy The Merchant of Venice more now because after taking Theatre I learned a lot about how to read Shakespeare.