Lit Circle Post

Today we talked about the rough summary of Bel and the Serpent and the significant things of the chapter. We haven't picked out jobs, but since I think character analysis will be most interesting to do, I'll go ahead with that. I actually just want to focus on Leah because when I read Judges, I thought that Leah is finally beginning to grow up, and she will be making alot of changes in this book 4. As you read, you find out about the hunt, how she betrays her father and doesn't care about what he thinks. I believe that she is making a great change and is helping out the Congolese people especially with schooling help with Anatole. Later on, she gets kind of cocky, if that is the right term and just loses her temper at the festival place where Tata Ndu's eldest son complains about how she, a woman couldn't have done it, and he throws the leg at her, and blood spatters on her and she retaliates at him by throwing it back. Everyone saw it as a disrespectful action and decides to throw things everywhere and then at the end there is pretty much no food left... Rachel did mention that she doesn't want to say it, but it's true that Leah is causing problems and she blames Leah for all of their problems. She also causes people to be scared because she won the vote at the meeting and Tata Kuvudundu scared the crap out of everyone about the Leopards and how they walk around like a man. She is both troublemaker and helper, and in the majority, she is a trouble maker, but as Tata Ndu says, Majority rules would only put thepot in the fire.

Paragrpah analysis

"No one breathed. 'White men tell us: Vote, bantu! They tell us: you do not all have to agree, ce n'est pas necessaire! If two men vote yes and one says no, the matter is finished. A bu, even a child can see how that will end. It takes three stones in the fire to hold up the pot. Take one away, leave the other two, and what? The pot will spill into the fire'".

This paragraph is very important. This really speaks up about what the Americans think in Congo and how they're so different from each other. What Tata Ndu says is very true and is wise. If we follow what the white people do and only use 2 stones, the pot cannot balance and will fall, however in the Congo where everyone's vote matters, the pot can stay balanced and can stabilize the country. They will talk it out until it is properly been decided on. This is just like what Nathan thinks. He thinks that as long as he has authority, he can run things his way just as he has done ever since he first came, and make things better for this country. However, in church Jesus was voted out 56-11, majority rules, and Nathan lost in his own game. This is important because this is why Leah lost all respect for Nathan and totally disobeys his orders and does not care whatsoever what he may think or do. Nathan still does not understand that the Congo is different and the game is not his. He doesn't have home court advantage. The Congolese know how to play their game in their own field. Leah obviously understands that and has gotten over what America was like and has learned to live with what is offered here. Nathan on the other hand is totally stubborn and reads the bible and follows its ways literally, still believing that that is the key to success.

It's Egg Hunting season

As you all may or may not know, yesterday was Easter. I am definitely not a big Easter person and I have absolutely no idea whatsoever why we celebrate this day hunting eggs. I don't know scrap about Easter, but it's apparently the day Jesus died and got crucified or something. I really am not sure. My chemistry teacher told us how his daughter went Egg hunting on Easter. Well the interesting part is that she went hunting for golf balls rather than eggs, and the balls could be redeemed for candy. He then raised up the question of "How did Easter go from Jesus' death, to Egg hunting, to golf balls?". I thought that that was pretty funny and an interesting perspective to look at it. My mom has taken me Egg hunting maybe twice when I was around 7 or 8, and I didn't look at it much as anything, nor did I recognize what this day really was and why I got free candy. Everyone knows why we have Christmas and why we celebrate it the way we do. We also know what Thanks giving day is and why it is that we celebrate it by eating turkey and lots of food. But I JUST realized that I didn't really know what Easter was, and why the heck a Bunny/Rabbit hides eggs for kids to find. That's really really odd. Christmas is celebrated by giving presents because Saint Nick used to hand out gifts to everyone in his town at that time of year, giving you the fictional character of Santa Clause, which totally makes sense. I thought I'd put this topic on here because to me, it's interesting, and if anyone knows anything, it'd be cool if you could tell me.

Poison wood

In Judges, we got to see a whole new perspective of many of the characters because of various happenings within the chapter. For example, Rachel, who is always the pretty girl and is very conscious about what others think all of a sudden changes due to Tata Ndu. He starts visiting the Price family often and comes with gifts every week, and after a while, Nelson gives them the news of his desire for Rachel as another wife. Rachel then acts really stupid in front of Tata Ndu to attempt to change his mind. Orleanna is also another character you start to see change. She was sick in bet for a month, but after Leah and Rachel fight in the kitchen, she regains authority. She also says whatever she feels like whether or not Nathan is listening. Nathan doesn't change alot, but we find out the man he used to be before the war and how he is obsessed with the bible because the Lord saved his life. Ruth may is sick and is no longer the girl she used to be. As the family moves her into another room, they find all of her malaria pills beside her bed and they find out that she has never taken any of them before. Leah begins to take lessons from Anatole as she helps him out in school, and she receives a bow as a gift. This gift may or may not be a wedding gift just like Rachel's, but I think it's unlikely especially after the night of the ants. Adah doesn't change much, but after the night of the ants I bet she changed. She was betrayed by her own mother, who picked Ruth may over her. Adah was about to get trampled as she was all alone feeling betrayed, but Anatole manages to grab her and save her. The whole night revealed many, if not all of the hidden facts of each character that no one knew about. Perhaps maybe the characters never knew that about them selves either.

SAT practice essay

SAT Practice Essay

I believe that it is important for schools to help students to understand moral issues and social issues. Schools don’t teach students just to get them through high school and college. School educators help students succeed in life as a whole.

On one hand, it is very important to teach them math, English, and social studies skills. Doing that opens up a lot of doors for students which may or may not lead them to college. For most people, college helps them to further extend their success into getting a job which is a general goal for many of us students. There is that law that says everyone must pass the standardized test, and in that certain sense, it is extremely crucial to teach the correct subjects.

But when will you ever need to solve a math problem and solve for “x”? The students will be knowledgeable in many ways, but everyone makes many choices everyday, especially through out high school: to go to class or to cut it, drugs, sex, etc. If you look on the other hand, you can clearly see where moral choices and social issues are critical. For example, every school such as ours teaches the effect of drugs, sex, etc. But just teaching the mere facts just doesn’t cut it. Schools say what is right and what is wrong, but some students do it anyway. For most of them, the outcome wasn’t so great. Moral choices are for students to make, but should definitely be taught by educators.

The war on Iraq. Social issues world wide such as this and social issues in the community like homelessness creates different perspectives within each student which stays with them for life, which also greatly influences their thinking and decision making, which is absolutely critical in life. No one can say which should be taught more than the other because they both are absolutely important in life.