2010 September 7th
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2010 August 16th~21th
Showing Compassion can build characteristic
In the story ‘Thank you Ma’am”, a boy tries to latch onto Luella’s purse, but failed due to the strength of Luella. She takes him to her house and fetch him some food and let him wash himself, rather taking him to a jail. The boy tells his name is Roger and wanted to buy a pair of blue suede shoes with the money. Luella narrates the story about her young ages when she wanted things, but couldn’t get them. She understands about him and gives him ten dollars while she lets him go. I am sure showing care in someone can make one feel valued and make one’s life change. The protagonist, Luella, treats Roger with care and states him as her son, even though Roger just tried to latch onto Luella’s purse. On page 2, Luella said, “You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?” and on page 4, she said “Eat some more son.” After Luella meets Roger (in a bad way) she treated with him with compassion and acted as if she was his mom. She fetched him some food and let him wash his face. On page 3, ‘The door was open. He could make a dash for it down the hall. He could run, run, run, run!’, however, he didn’t run because he liked the kindness of Luella that he hadn’t feel for a long time. He felt like he has someone who cares and understands about him even though he has no one at home. He decides that he is not going to run away from the people from now but to face them and face the dangers like risking to be taken to a jail. On page 4, ‘The boy wanted to say something else other than “Thank you, ma’am” to Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones, ...’ and that explains that Roger’s personality or the character has changed since entering the house and exiting the house. Before meeting Luella, Roger was a snatcher who had no respect to anybody and the absence of his parents made him wonder around in agony. On the other hand, after meeting Luella, he learned how to say thank you, respect people and find his true potential. Luella actually became the turning point of Roger’s life. With Luella caring him with compassion, that made Roger think that he has someone who cares about his life and every single word from Luella made Roger more confident about himself. He also felt grounded and was shown that he could make a difference. As Roger and Luella’s story describes, showing compassion to one makes the one build one’s true character.
The electric novel I read is called ‘Three Letters from Teddy and I could get a definite theme from it, the power of compassion. Miss Thomson was the teacher of a 5th grade class and there was a kid named Teddy Stallard who was really unpleasant and that she actually enjoyed giving bold Xs and Fs on his papers. He didn’t get along with his classmates and his clothes were messy all the time. However, reading through his past records, she found out that Teddy was a bright kid who laughed a lot, had manners and always did his work neatly in his first and second year of school. The reason why he turned to a loner was because of his mother’s death and his careless father. Miss Thomson was surprised and tried her best to support him. Soon, he became the smartest student in her class and fifteen years later, he became a doctor. During the gap of fifteen years, Teddy had sent her three letters telling that she was the best teacher ever in his life. Teddy invited her to his wedding as the mother of the broom and said, “Thank you for believing in me”. I could come up with a theme statement by reading the novel. It is, ‘Treating one with care makes the one find their true potential and build up one’s character’. On page 37 of the electric novel, ‘Miss Thomson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind began to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest kids in her class, ..’ is said and this describes that Miss Thomson showed compassion towards Teddy and that helped Teddy find his true potential and lead him to get back to his real character. Without the help from Miss Thomson, Teddy would have lived the life of the loner and would not have been able to succeed or even become anything. For Teddy, his true potential was studying hard and furthermore, a doctor. The real reason why an excellent student like Teddy fall in agony is the death of his mother. He was blind about what he has to do as the haze of the death of his mother blocked his scene. I think the reason why he changed is because he felt Miss Thomson friendly and the friendliness of her filled up the gap of his lost mother. Miss Thomson was the one who saved Teddy from the mire of ‘the pain of loosing his mother’. Also the apathy of his father would have made Teddy lonelier and the loneliness would have made him want to lean on someone. On page 51, Dr.Stallard said, “Thank you for believing in me, thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference.” Even though they haven’t seen each other for 15 years, he still remembered how he felt. The fact that Dr.Stallard remembered how he felt when he was first really ‘taught’ by her, supports that the feeling that he got when he was young was so impressive and important to him that he even remembered it after 15 years later. Even Miss Thomson herself was feeling unpleasant about him before she knew the truth and so as his classmates. So, nobody would have wanted to give him attention or treat him with care. When Teddy was living in apathy, even the small cares and regards could make him feel that he is an important person and could make changes about him. Lastly, the electric novel I read, ‘Three Letters from Teddy’, describes that treating one with care makes the one find their true potential and build up one’s character, which is the power of compassion.
In both stories, Roger and Teddy are the ones who once lived a ruined life but became a better person with the help of the others who treated them with compassion. The ‘saviour’ of the boys are Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones and Miss Thomson. They both treated the boys with care, which resulted in making their lives get better and become a better person. Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones’ words and acts those seemed very trustful helped Roger learn how to respect the elders and live a good life. Also, Miss Thomson helped Teddy to forget about her mother’s death and concentrate on his future by supporting him to find his true potential. Without the help from his teacher, Teddy couldn’t become Dr.Stallard. There are two main protagonists for each story and both stories have the conflict of a boy struggling to find what he has to do or find his true potential according to many problems those lay upon them. The plots of the stories are simply, a boy learning a great lesson from an elder that will change their entire life upside down. They have the theme ‘To have compassion towards someone is helping the person for the person’s whole worth of lifetime’ in common. Lastly, I enjoyed reading these two different stories and learned that we, the humans have to behave with others with compassion
The electric novel I read is called ‘Three Letters from Teddy and I could get a definite theme from it, the power of compassion. Miss Thomson was the teacher of a 5th grade class and there was a kid named Teddy Stallard who was really unpleasant and that she actually enjoyed giving bold Xs and Fs on his papers. He didn’t get along with his classmates and his clothes were messy all the time. However, reading through his past records, she found out that Teddy was a bright kid who laughed a lot, had manners and always did his work neatly in his first and second year of school. The reason why he turned to a loner was because of his mother’s death and his careless father. Miss Thomson was surprised and tried her best to support him. Soon, he became the smartest student in her class and fifteen years later, he became a doctor. During the gap of fifteen years, Teddy had sent her three letters telling that she was the best teacher ever in his life. Teddy invited her to his wedding as the mother of the broom and said, “Thank you for believing in me”. I could come up with a theme statement by reading the novel. It is, ‘Treating one with care makes the one find their true potential and build up one’s character’. On page 37 of the electric novel, ‘Miss Thomson paid particular attention to Teddy. As she worked with him, his mind began to come alive. The more she encouraged him, the faster he responded. By the end of the year, Teddy had become one of the smartest kids in her class, ..’ is said and this describes that Miss Thomson showed compassion towards Teddy and that helped Teddy find his true potential and lead him to get back to his real character. Without the help from Miss Thomson, Teddy would have lived the life of the loner and would not have been able to succeed or even become anything. For Teddy, his true potential was studying hard and furthermore, a doctor. The real reason why an excellent student like Teddy fall in agony is the death of his mother. He was blind about what he has to do as the haze of the death of his mother blocked his scene. I think the reason why he changed is because he felt Miss Thomson friendly and the friendliness of her filled up the gap of his lost mother. Miss Thomson was the one who saved Teddy from the mire of ‘the pain of loosing his mother’. Also the apathy of his father would have made Teddy lonelier and the loneliness would have made him want to lean on someone. On page 51, Dr.Stallard said, “Thank you for believing in me, thank you so much for making me feel important and showing me that I could make a difference.” Even though they haven’t seen each other for 15 years, he still remembered how he felt. The fact that Dr.Stallard remembered how he felt when he was first really ‘taught’ by her, supports that the feeling that he got when he was young was so impressive and important to him that he even remembered it after 15 years later. Even Miss Thomson herself was feeling unpleasant about him before she knew the truth and so as his classmates. So, nobody would have wanted to give him attention or treat him with care. When Teddy was living in apathy, even the small cares and regards could make him feel that he is an important person and could make changes about him. Lastly, the electric novel I read, ‘Three Letters from Teddy’, describes that treating one with care makes the one find their true potential and build up one’s character, which is the power of compassion.
In both stories, Roger and Teddy are the ones who once lived a ruined life but became a better person with the help of the others who treated them with compassion. The ‘saviour’ of the boys are Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones and Miss Thomson. They both treated the boys with care, which resulted in making their lives get better and become a better person. Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones’ words and acts those seemed very trustful helped Roger learn how to respect the elders and live a good life. Also, Miss Thomson helped Teddy to forget about her mother’s death and concentrate on his future by supporting him to find his true potential. Without the help from his teacher, Teddy couldn’t become Dr.Stallard. There are two main protagonists for each story and both stories have the conflict of a boy struggling to find what he has to do or find his true potential according to many problems those lay upon them. The plots of the stories are simply, a boy learning a great lesson from an elder that will change their entire life upside down. They have the theme ‘To have compassion towards someone is helping the person for the person’s whole worth of lifetime’ in common. Lastly, I enjoyed reading these two different stories and learned that we, the humans have to behave with others with compassion
2010 August 16th~21th
One's identity is formed by societal expectations
One's identity is formed by social expectations is a paramount theme in the story 'Lamb to the Slaughter'. The story is written in old ages like 1950s and at that time, men were more important than women. Women were to do all the housework and stay at home all day while men were to go out and work. In the society's view, in order to be a normal or a 'perfect family', the husbands had to work and the wives had to treat them with care and kindness. No one could think about the wives and the husbands being friendly and hanging out together. The main character of Roald Dahl's story, Mary Maloney was once a 'perfect' housewife who served her husband with loyalty and had the identity of calm and kind housewife. One day, she hears a shocking thing from her husband and kills her husband unconsciously. Thinking about how she would look like by the others, Mary practiced her voice and tried her best to look normal after she killed him.('she sat down before the mirror, tidied her hair, touched up her lips and face. She tried a smile. It came out rather peculiar. She tried again.') She may have been frightened about getting caught by the polices however, she tried her best to act like what the others would think she would be doing. No one could ever believe or even guess that she killed her husband and it was easier for her to hide her sins because they just thought of her as a weak and kind lady. I believe that Mary Maloney's identities are formed by the expectations of the others according to the examples in the story.
The novel written by Lois Lowry, The Giver, describes a utopia like society that no color, poverty, sickness and violence exists but only the happiness of the people is 'suggested'. The novel is written in future and the main protagonist Jonas, lives in a city of 'sameness' that is isolated from other counties. In this society, when a child becomes twelve, the child is given a job through an event called ceremony according to his/her skills. The children are to do the chosen job for their entire life and they aren't expected to refuse their job. The jobs are given to balance out the society in order to make the whole society operate the same and remain neutral. People also don't have the freedom of picking someone to marry and their partner is given according to their personalities.This leads to form the identities of the people by the expectations of the society because if they are to do a job and live with a person for their whole life, their personalities and ways of thinking will change as what the society wants them to have. All people are watched what they are doing, to be aware of the population and balances. Jonas is chosen to become a receiver who gets memories and emotions from the past ages (when the society didn't have the 'sameness') from an old man named Giver. Jonas starts to see colors and things he couldn't experience before and he gets to know the truth of the society he lives in, and decides to escapes his society.
The main similarity between the novel, Giver and the short story, Lamb to the Slaughter is that the characters in the stories exactly have to be what the society wants or expects them to be, or else, they are treated 'differently'. Their identity, jobs and personalities are fixed and if anything is different, they are considered as 'not normal' and they are isolated from the others. The stories have the time gap of more than hundred years. However, they both have the same thinking of people who aren't what they are expected to be is not normal. I think the book Giver is more straight about who the person should be and act like and 'lamb to the slaughter' is less straight. People should be or act like what the society(other people) expects them to be or they are different from all of the others.
