Blog 6

     I know that the only word I could think to describe Middlesex was "weird." I guess I described it as weird because I have been exposed to many  straight and gay people my entire life but I haven't had any experience with intersexed people. I don't think that it is wrong, I am not used to it. We all had those weird first kiss and awkward situations when we were growing up, but it was different to hear it from a perspective I hadn't heard it from before.
    The Westboro church video was shocking to me. I had never seen or heard of them before. In class there were two good arguments made and one said that it is freedom of speech, but I don't think this should be legal. My cousin is a marine and if he died overseas and they came to his funeral I would be infuriated. I understand the free speech argument but I don't believe its morally right to tell people to die no matter how different they are from you.

blog 5: comparison

         Monster and Incognegro are similar because they both highlight racism in America. Monster shows present day racism. The jury look at Steve as a young black criminal and he is looked at as guilty from the start. Incognegro shows racism in the south when there was still a lot of hatred towards African Americans. The hate is more noticeable in this book because there are lynchings in this book as opposed to silent prejudices.   In Monster, Steve's lawyer says that his race might sway people to think he is automatically guilty. In Incognergo, the sheriff knows that Zane's brother is innocent, but it doesn't matter because he is African American.
          Both books create conversation about the topics we discussed in class. White privilege is shown in Incognegro because Zane can easily maneuver through the town when the people think he is white. He can     deceive the powerful people in the town because they see him as a white man. If Steve would have been white he wouldn't have been labeled as guilty from the start. Power is shown in both books because the white men are the most powerful. Years ago and present day in both books, the African Americans have less power than the white people. Zane and Carl gain power when they pretend to be different races and Steve gains power when he separates himself from the young black criminals.

Blog #4

          The videos we watched presented new ideas about racism to me. The way I have always thought is that in America, the amount of effort someone puts in leads to the amount of success earned. I have always thought if someone works hard enough they can get mostly anything they want. The first video discussed white privilege and that it might be that way for some, but it isn't for all. For some it doesn't matter how hard they work they still will not be as successful as white people purely because of race. I had never thought of this before. The second video was interesting to me because the children had still remembered the experiment years later. If that small class benefited so greatly from the activity I think that teachers should do it today. Trying to end racism is talked about a lot in schools but there are not many activities that put children in other people's shoes like that.
        The belief statement I chose is, "Hatred is Learned." I said that this statement was true in a sense that we are all taught hate, we are not born with it. Whether it is a sibling, a parent, or a peer, our beliefs are shaped by the people around us. Hatred of different races is born from prejudices of our family and our neighborhoods and learned when we are raised around it. Hatred isn't something we all posses, it is something that is taught and learned by each other.

Liesel Meminger

Liesel was the character that was the most interesting to me. The strength of this little girl almost brought me to tears at the end of the novel. She changed a lot throughout the story but she still seemed strong in the beginning when her brother died. Her brother died and her mother left her and Liesel still had more room to love. This love lead her to bravery that astonished me in the story. When she walked out into the street with Max it created a whole new level of hate for the Nazis to me. She stole books but Liesel still struggled to do what was right instead of what was wrong. I don't think Liesel was ever really innocent to the struggles of death throughout the story. Her brother's death seemed to make her more realistic and capable of understanding the gravity of the situation around her. She kept Max a secret even to her best friend because she understood the necessity of the secret. She definitely became tougher through her experiences in the book. From small things like being taken into the hallway by the nun to large things like reading during air raids and reading to her neighbor after her son's death. Liesel was definitely the character that impacted me the most. Her bravery and her love for her family and friends was unshakable throughout the  story and Death was correct in saying that her story was extraordinary and one to retell.

Comic within a Comic

Prisoner on the Hell Planet

I thought the comic within the comic was very interesting. The first thing I noticed was that the characters were drawn as humans for the first time and not mice. For me, this comic was the hardest part of the novel to understand. I had more questions about why he was in a mental institution than why his mother killed himself. It was three months previous to her suicide so I am not certain if that was linked to her break down. I also noticed a sign in the bottom corner of one of the panels that said " protect what you have." Maybe it was about the nice caskets his cousin was talking about on the phone, or maybe it meant that they should have taken better care of her while she was alive. The suicide didn't surprise me much because during the flashbacks, Vladek often had to convince her to keep going. It is easy for me to believe she was just too overwhelmed and Vladek was not there to calm her down.The part I liked about the story was the last panel. Artie is crying and someone in another cell tells him to quiet down they are all trying to sleep. To me, that meant that other people, maybe his dad or the family had issues also but they kept them bottled up.

Introduction

Hi, my name is Cara Miller. I am a freshman this year and I graduated from Owen J. Roberts High School in Pottstown, PA. I am undeclared with an interest in Psychology. I love going to the beach, hanging out with friends and listening to music. I love reading so I am looking forward to this class above a science or a math class. The last books I read were the Crank series. I think cultural diversity is exactly what it sounds like, just the differences between people in different cultures. I am expecting to learn a lot about different cultures through the literature in this class.