Journal 2

Once upon a time there was a bear and a squirrel. They both lived in the same woods and knew of one another but they never saw each other or dealt with one another because the bear lived in a cave and the squirrel lived in a tree. This system worked for both of them and they never crossed paths until one day in the middle of summer.

The friendly bear was roaming around in the woods when he came across the tree that the squirrel lived in. Up in the branches there was a huge beehive full of honey and once the bear saw it he began to climb the tree in pursuit of the hive. Now the squirrel who lived in the tree had no interest in the beehive because he did not particularly like honey, and he had started to become annoyed by the constant buzzing that the bees in the beehive were always making. Still, though, the squirrel in question was a selfish squirrel and when he saw that the bear was in pursuit of the honey in his tree he began to get very angry. Soon he went to his secret stash of acorns and various nuts and began throwing them at the bear as he climbed the tree. The bear, of course, became very upset with the acorns being thrown at his head and ceased climbing the tree. Although he knew that the squirrel did not want the honey, he still went about his way searching for another beehive for his afternoon snack.

Not too long later, the tree that the squirrel lived in was cut down by men looking for lumber in the woods. Without anywhere to go, the squirrel went off in search of another place to stay because all the other trees were already occupied by squirrel. Normally the other squirrels would have welcomed him with open arms, but this squirrel had a reputation for not being too nice to the other squirrels, so none of them welcomed him very kindly.

Soon it was dusk and the squirrel still had no place to sleep for the night. Desperate for shelter, he stepped into a cave that he happened to come across through the last rays of light. When he walked in he saw that it was the home of the bear that he had so selfishly sent away when he wanted the honey from the squirrel's tree. The bear recognized the squirrel as well and was about to send him away, but he then realized that this was his opportunity to be the bigger woodland animal. So the bear graciously showed hospitality and allowed the squirrel to stay in his cave until he could find a new home. Because he was so moved by the hospitality of the bear, the squirrel was forever changed, and as he went out looking for a new home he spread the story of how kind the bear had been to him. And from that day forward the squirrel never again turned away someone that he was in any way capable of helping.

Journal 1

We actually learned about Native American culture in American History this morning. Apparently the first Native Americans came here around ten thousand years ago over a land bridge from Russia to Alaska. They started off as hunter-gatherers, and they hunted woolly mammoths for most of their food. Eventually though the mammoths died off and they were forced to start hunting other things such as fish in order to survive. Then they learned how to plant crops and created villages because of the agricultural revolution. Each new civilization brought something new that the civilization before them did not have. First they began forming small villages. After that, because their cities were growing so large they began developing systems of government. Some of them created giant buildings called pueblos that were immensely large because they were wealthy due to trade. Eventually though, they wore out the land and they experienced severe drought so they all disappeared and their giant pueblos were left deserted. Next, a people called the Mayans developed a calendar that we still use today. The civilizations also began fighting each other for territory and goods and there was a lot of war. Also, some groups would keep their prisoners and sacrifice them alive as gifts to their gods in order to appease their anger and keep them from destroying them. They believed in multiple gods and each one was usually a god of some sort of element of nature or some sort of emotional feeling that they were in charge of. Because of their massive amount of gods they had to do a lot of sacrificing. The Mayan calendar is also the calendar that supposedly predicted the end of the world to be in 2012 because it is the end of their calendar.

Eventually the Native Americans were driven further and further west by the white men who were colonizing the New World and they were forced to live in reservations. As a result their numbers dwindled until today there are not many pure blood Native Americans left at all.

Symbols in Summer Reading

There were a few symbols in the summer reading that particularly stood out to me.

In Grapes of Wrath there were many symbols. Specifically, the birth of the stillborn child at the end of the movie seemed to me to be a general symbol of all of the suffering and pain that the Joad family had to endure, and it also stood for all the other families who had their own suffering to deal with. There were many Godly symbols in the novel as well such as the ending scene in which Rose of Sharon symbolizes the Virgin Mary caring for the dead Jesus. Also, the flooding in the final chapter reminded me of the flood that occurred with Noah and the Ark in the Old Testament of the Bible.

In Cather in the Rye I observed just in general that the main character stood for the teenager's struggle to find his place in the world. His story contained many of the problems that kids of every shape and size face on a daily basis trying to figure out what their role in the world is supposed to be.

In Old Man and the Sea I did not at first see a lot of symbols. Obviously I saw the reeling in of the big fish as a symbol of perseverance in the face of hardship and never giving up no matter what. After discussing in class how the old man was meant to represent Jesus, everything really started clicking in my head. In the way the old man is constantly struggling with the huge weight of reeling in that large fish that constantly is fighting against him, I saw the way Jesus is constantly struggling to bring the people that he loves to him as they constantly try to push him away. Also in the way the sharks came and bit chunks out of the side of the fish he worked so hard to real in I saw how different things and distraction in the world takes away groups of the people he is trying to real in, or you could also read it as the fish being one individual soul he is trying to save and the sharks are the distractions that are constantly pulling parts of you into different directions.

Horror of Prison in Grapes of Wrath

It is a scary thought thinking about how crazy it would be to be locked up in a jail for years like Tom is discussing in chapter sixteen of Grapes of Wrath. Although they discussed earlier that it is hard getting out of prison because you are so used to being there and the regularity of all the amenities that are provided to you, that does not mean it is as nice as that description makes it seem.

Although eventually you get used to the life of being a prisoner and having every day mapped out for you the exact same way, it cannot be an easy road to get to that point where you don't care anymore. There would be a point on that road to not caring that would seem as though you would never make it through. Some of them even go crazy to some extent as displayed in the following passage:

"Maybe I'm kinda stir-nuts. I'll tell ya about it sometime maybe. Ya see, its just sompin you wanta know. Kinda interestin'. But I got a kind a funny ideas the bes' thing'd be if i forget about it fora while. Maybe in a little while it won't be that way. RIght now when I think about it my guts gets all droppy an' nasty feelin'. Look here, Al, I'll tell ya one thing - the jail house i jus' a kind a way a drivin' a guy slowly nuts. See? An' they go nuts, an' you see 'em an' hear 'em an' pretty soon you don' know if you're nuts or not. When they get to screamin' in the night sometimes you think it's you doin' the screamin' - and sometimes it is."

This would be the hardest part of being in prison I think. It would not be the demons of living with whatever you did to get in, it would be to deal with the demons of the prison itself and all the people around you dealing with their own personal demons.

Faith Restored in Grapes of Wrath

Chapter fifteen of Grapes of Wrath was incredibly touching, so much so that it once again restored a little piece of faith in the goodness of humanity in general.

At first as the story went on about Mae and how much she had and how much she turned up her nose at the poor people who came into her diner begging for some kind of mercy, I was incredibly disgusted by her attitude. She was so taken by those truck drivers and the way they acted even though the jokes they told were inappropriate. It was horrible to me how she could find those poor, respectful people who just happened to be in a bad way disgusting and disgraceful while these men who had plenty and could be rude she surveyed reverently as if they had ever done anything worthy of her respect.

Then some of the poor people entered and she put on a show for the truck drivers, not showing any mercy and being stubborn about doing them one small favor. The man was clearly an honest man who did his best to be humble and respectful, and he was not asking for anything for free but just simply to be allowed to buy some bread to feed his family. Finally she allowed tem to buy a fifteen cent loaf of bread for ten cents. Then, in a moment that could practically move a reader to tears, she surveyed his poor, bedraggled children eying the candy with a sort of reverence that something so wonderful could even exist. The father, seeing this pitiful display, aasked Mae if the candies were penny candies. She quietly replied that they were two for a penny, and he bought one. Not until they elft did the reader realize that the candies were not in fact two for a penny, they were five cents apiece. And as this one blessing that she bestowed on the stunningly grateful children set in, the reader's faith in the goodness of people was once again restored.

We Instead of I in Grapes of Wrath

The author has figured out the way to fix the problem of the great depression in chapter fourteen of Grapes of Wrath. I know that sounds ridiculous and extreme because of course no one man could have perfectly found a way to solve something that great minds must have been working overtime to puzzle out themselves. No, I am not saying he had a quick fix to eliminate all the turmoil and trouble of that time. what I am saying is that he took a good hard look at all sides of the people during that time and realized the idea that would save them all. And that iea is that allof the people need to start thinking as more of a 'we' than an 'I'. This means that those people who have a lot can give of the plenty that they have to those who do not have what they need. I know this sounds like a ridiculous concept to those whohave much because that would just be ch arity and why should they give of what they have? Well, that answer is more shielded than the other. That answer is that those who have much need those who do not to keep their land alive. They need the heart and soul of the tenant farmers to keep the world from turning into an impersonal place where machines do what a man used to do with a sense of pride and dedication. Those with plenty will realize that if they can stop suspecting their fellow people and extend a hand of friendship and teamwork towards them. As the following quote states, the key is to make things more of a team effort.

"..For two men are not as lonely and perplexed as one. And from this first 'we' there grows a still more dangerous thing. 'I have a little food' plus 'I have none.' If rom this problem the sum is 'We have a little food,' the thing is on its way, the movement has direction.

Hope in Struggle in Grapes of Wrath

Chapter fourteen of Grapes of Wrath particularly struck me in its truth. The very beginning paragraph is talking about how the western states are growing nervous with all the pressure of the millions of people migrating there to seek refuge and fulfillment. It seems to be a huge burden as the population multiplies and the land fills with people desperate for help. But still, the chapter discusses how it is in these things that we place our hope. For as long as there are people out there striving to do what needs to be done to advance the world, everything will be okay as the following passage indicates:

"For man, unlike any other thing organic or inorganic in the universe, grows beyond his work, walks up the stairs of his accomplishments. This you may say of man - when theories change and crash, when schools, philosophies, when narrow dark alleys of thought, national, religious, economic, grow and disintegrate, man reaches, stumbles forward, painfully, mistakenly sometimes. Having stepped forward, he may slip back, but only half a step, never a full step back. This you may say and know it and know it. This you may know when the bombs plummet out of the black planes on the market place, when prisoners are stuck like pigs, when the crushed bodies drain filthily in the dust. You may know it in this way. If the step were not being taken, if the stumbling forward ache were not alive, the boms would not fall, the throats would not be cut. Dread the time when the bombs stop falling while the bombers live - for every bomb is proof that the spirit has not died."

And although not many people think of war and all the unspeakable things that are detailed above as good things, the author makes a good poitn when he talks about how all of these horrible things are necessary evils in that they mean that men are striving to take steps forward. And that is incredibly important.