At the beginning of the novel To Kill A Mockingbird, Jem and Scouts relationship with Boo Radley wasn’t really a relationship at all. Jem and Scout were afraid of Boo and Boo didn’t associate with them. The point in the novel where the relationship between the children and Boo began to form, was when Boo started to leave little gifts in the knot of the tree that Jem and Scout always passed. This was the start of their relationship, as Boo had started to take a curiosity in the children, just as the children had taken a curiosity in him. When Dill, Jem and Scout would play in the yard and reenact stories they had heard about Boo, they started to weave this horrible cruel person in their imaginations, so when Miss. Maudie's house fire occurred, and Boo put a blanket around Scout, Jem and Scout were horrified. After a certain point in the novel, Jem and Scout grew bored of their imaginings surrounding Boo, the reason they grew bored was because they were both growing older and less naïve and then the Tom Robinson trial occurred and life got a little harder for them, so by the time the trial had passed and Maycomb grew settled again, Jem and Scout had forgotten about Boo, until the night of the pageant when Bob Ewell attacked them. Boo was the one who killed Bob Ewell the night he attacked Jem and Scout. After the attack, Scout met Boo for the first time. It was at that moment that the relationship between Boo and the children changed into somewhat of a friendship. The children realized that Boo wasn’t so scary and Boo learned that he had two allies in Maycomb, and even if he didn’t come out of his house often, he knew that Jem and Scout would be waiting for him when he did.
Atticus and his children have a unique relationship, Jem and Scout's mother died when they were young, and despite having a single father who works frequently, the children do alright. This might be due to the fact that they have their cook/nanny Calpurnia, Calpurnia makes up for the lack of maternal affection. Atticus respects his children and they respect him. Jem and Scout call their father by his first name, Atticus, rather as opposed to sir or father. This is one of the reasons why their relationship is so unique. Atticus truly wants his children to respect him for who he is, not because he is their father. This can be seen throughout the chapters, demonstrated in his choice to take on the Tom Robinson Case. Atticus explains to Scout that if he didn’t take the case, then he wouldn’t have been the man that he wanted his children to look up to.
Though Jem and Scout had received a lot of ridicule on behalf of their father's choice to pursue the Tom Robinson Case, Atticus didn’t drop the case or take the children out of school, he told the children to hold their heads high and ignore what the other townsfolk were saying about him and his children. To me, Atticus Finch’s parenting style, cannot be criticized. Atticus does his very best to be a father, a role model, a provider and still discipline his children when they need to be disciplined. Atticus does all of this with a humble and gracious nature, never taking things too far, and always stopping to nurture his children. Although Atticus’ parenting style is unique, uncommon and often frowned upon, it’s his children and the way they have grown to be unique and mature people at such young ages that contest to his parenting style and its benefits. No, I do not think fear can only be found in books. I believe the opposite actually, that fear can be found in real life and books are a place to safely experience feelings like fear. Fear can be found in books, but it is a safe kind of fear, a fear that is not real, made up of events you personally have not experienced. In real life, you experience fear when you're in a situation and it is you going through those dangerous events. You can fear for your characters but you yourself are not in that situation and in that danger. When people are under extreme stress and in danger, adrenaline can take over, and people tend to not feel things like pain or fear. I think that Scout and Jem were frightened when Bob Ewell attacked them, but they had so much adrenaline pumping through them that they could not feel it. I argue that there are two types of fear, real and virtual. When you read books and experience fear, it's a virtual fear, and fear in real life is a real fear.
I believe that the children were terrified of Boo Radely because they over thought the danger of Boo Radely, they fantasied the rumors that were said about him, and turned him into this big scary dangerous monster. I also think that the children's young age contributed to the fact that they were so swept up in the rumors and the alleged danger of Boo Radely. Though the children were often scared by various things, there’s no arguing that by the end of the book, the children had nothing to be scared of. Throughout this mega unit, I have improved on my writing I think. We've had to blog a lot and write our thoughts down, so I think I've improved on it. It was just practice I think, and obviously I'm not the perfect writer or speller, but I think I'm getting better.
I had big groups during this mega project, so during the conversations we had, we all had to wait out turn. In the beginning everyone would try to talk at the same time, we all worked on it and would stop ourselves if we tried to talk out. By the end of this project we had really made progress. This is how I developed my listening skills. I have mostly been a talker most of my life so far, well all of my life so far, this mega project really helped me to become a better listener. I think I need to develop my self regulation. I'm the kind of person who will procrastinate until I actually really need to get it done. But after the procrastination period I work my hardest. I think I need to improve on this because it's really inconvenient for tests and big projects. I have learned so many new things, many new horrifying things. The most shocking thing I heard was that at residential schools, if children vomit while being beaten they have to eat it. That is just cruel. Their 'timeouts' would be sitting in a cupboard for 24 hours, in the dark without food or water. They couldn't speak to their siblings, if they did they would be beaten. Imagine not being able to speak to your own flesh and blood. Speaking of which, in the summer, only some students got to go home. But many stayed, for unknown reasons, but we do know it wasn't the child's decision.
They would use the backyard of the Residential school as a makeshift graveyard, which was filled to the brim because of common colds that led to death. The children were forced to care for themselves when they were sick. Most of the time those children died. These schools were not eradicated until 1996. That is not too long ago. These schools will effect our Aboriginal people forever, until we do something to stop it. Though people that have actually been to Residential schools are slowing disappearing, they have had children, they had no idea how to parent their children, because of the childhood they had. No one cared for them, so they do not know how to care for others. Most likely, their children won't be able to parent properly. This will effect their children, and their children's children and so on. Residential schools have imprinted a scar on Aboriginal people, but they have definitely not beat the Aboriginal out of them. For my First Nations Research project, I have been researching about the importance of Elders. I've learned a lot of things. I've learned that you don't always have to be old to be an Elder. If someone acquires a certain amount of wisdom and knowledge, the Elder title could be bestowed on them. Now, the community has a lot to do with this, if the community does not respect the person about to become an Elder, then the odds are that person isn't going to become an Elder.
There are still some things that I want to know, like, When did Elders get so important in the First Nations community? How do the Elders remember their stories so well? All of these questions I'm sure I will learn in my further research. Finally Meade decided she was ready! She starting getting clients and would paint on them o make them look 2D. Her artwork is so good! sometimes, if the client is willing, she takes them out in public to a local subway station or bus and watch people reactions. There are no videos of the reactions only photos, but they were all very impressed with the painted man. Alexa Meade is a very talented painter and will aspire to do great things. I grew up around coffee drinkers, not just your average one cup a day, I'm talking like four cups a day..four caffeinated cups a day. At family get togethers there always three or more jugs of coffee. My thirteen year old cousin is drinking coffee now, but I'm holding out because I still have suspicions that it stunts your growth. Again, even if your family doesn't drink a lot of coffee, or even if you can't stand the taste of it, the smell of coffee is still magical no matter morning or night. It fills the room with an uplifting, homey, warm cuddly feel, that lasts the whole day...or you know, it could just be the caffeine. Finding out if you've gotten into a play/musical is great. There is that feeling of suspension as you wait for the cast list to go up. Sometimes you have to wait all weekend, sometimes you only have to wait a day or even a few hours.
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