Speak blog

Jenny McDonald
Priest 2
3/12/10
Great Books
In a robust (longer than usual) blog entry, write about the ways in which you define who YOU are? Extend that to the characters in the novel Speak - how do they define themselves

I am me. I’m Jenny, I’m unique, and I’m weird. According to William James, we all have different selves, which others define, so everyone has their own perception of me. The me inside my head is my perception of me. I define myself by who I want to be. I see successful and happy people everyday and I’ve also seen unhappy people or what Zionsville considers “unsuccessful” people. I want to be happy because I have seen so many people live unhappy lives and I don’t want to be that! I only have this one life, I want it to be a good one, so I try and make decisions to make myself happy. For me to be happy, I have to be happy with myself.

In public schools, we are so often judged and a lot of us just accept that. When I was in Zionsville, I was a nerd because I was in the “smart” classes and liked to answer questions. I stopped doing things because I didn’t want to be labeled that. In middle school we all wanted to be cool and be accepted, which is simply human nature (James would agree).

Melinda from the novel Speak, by Laurie Hulse Anderson, defines herself of what others make her. She calls herself an outcast, when really she isn’t, but the student body created her to be like that, judging her because she crashed some party and how she acts. It’s all bullshit. That kind of bullying can ruin people; send them into depression. It doesn’t even matter. In 5 years it won’t matter if I was popular or not in middle school, it doesn’t even matter now that I transferred.

However, no matter how much your mommy tells you to ignore the mean kids and says that you’re special, you still hear them. You hear them gossiping in an Elite circle and some part of you longs to join while the voice in your head is telling you how much nicer your friends are. I don’t want to be defined by others, but it is hard to resist.

I define myself by my decisions and the way I treat others. I have and will make mistakes, but it is learning from them that matters. I want to think freely and be myself because after escaping the evil grasp of middle school, people can accept me for who I am and I’m no longer afraid to be it.

great books second semester blog #1

Jenny McDonald

Priest 2

2/4/10

Great Books

For a lot of classes at school, the question of “when am I ever going to use this later in life” often comes up. In math and science, it’s knowledge needed only for your education, or if you choose one of those fields when you grow up. In my previous English class, I got into an argument with my 6^th grade teacher because I didn’t understand why I needed to learn how to diagram sentences, where you separated the subject, the verbs, and all the different phrases. When I’m 50, I will never be reading and think, “hmm I think I’m going to diagram a sentence!” However, this class is different. My great books class continues to prod at the way I think and the way that I feel about certain things.

The novel Little Brother, by Cory Doctorow, is a novel that has made me think about many things happening in the world around me that I have never noticed before. What would I be willing to do for my security? This boy that we are reading about is a teenager like the rest of us, and I found myself constantly putting myself in his situation while reading the novel. I found myself wondering what I would be thinking of when I returned to my parents after being captured for five days. While I was reading the beginning of this novel, I thought that it was completely set in the future because of all the advanced and complicated technology that was used, which I later found out is all real and used today.

This isn’t literature as what we think of it. All of our in-class discussions can change the way we think as well as teach us new things. When we read and study and analyze these novels and essays we get the big ideas out of them. These ideas are all relatable to real life. When we studied A Social Me by William James, we all realized that we do care what others think of us and how we act around people. Why Americans are so Often Restless by Alexis de Tocqueville portrayed my family’s dreams to always want to have more than everyone else, not because we need it, but simply because it is put out there for us to reach. This literature class isn’t just stories about enchanted lands long ago that don’t relate to the world that we live in, everything that we learn about and study has some way of linking directly to our lives, whether it is through ideas or actual tangible similarities.

The Dumbest Generation? Don't Be Dumb.

This article was quite frustrating to read in the beginning. The author goes on about how dumb our generation is, and then completely changes direction and writes about how our "minds are more flexible." So what's wrong? Our generation is the first to have grown up in this "digital age" and we still don't know what the long-term effects are. The article argues with itself about the effects of video games and multi-tasking, but when it comes down to how much we know, I don't think that our generation is to blame. The article itself states, "it reflects not stupidity but a failure of the school system and of society." Then the article goes on to talk about how this generation thinks that different things are more important to know than what previous generations do, which I completely agree with. Times have changed, new things seem more important to Gen Y than the older generations. The author states, "Gen Y's ignorance of facts (or of facts that older people think are important) reflects not dumbness but choice." Just because this generation doesn't know random facts that old people ask does not mean that this generation is dumb. These people probably know 10 times more than the older generation about computers or more modern age things. It all depends on what you think is important. We often talk about why literature is important, why are we in school, and why is Mr Priest teaching?? This article explores our western style of learning and if it is accurate or not. It also relates back to On Studing by Ortega y Gasset. He also talks about the ways that we learn and teach, and how the western way of learning is a false way of learning. I disagree with this because if you are learning what you are interested in, then it works. It just takes a good teacher to get you interested.

Why Americans Are Restless Interpretive Questions

Jenny McDonald
Mr. Priest
Great Books Period 7
22 October 2009

Why Americans Are Restless Interpretive Questions

1. When a society tries to create equal opportunity for every individual, it weakens each of
them because of the competition they face. De Toqueville states, “ When men are more or less equal and are following the same path, it is very difficult for any of them to walk faster and get out beyond the uniform crowd surrounding and hemming them in.” (197) By this, de Toqueville is demonstrating the idea of running up a mountain with all these equal competitors around you. It makes it very difficult to get ahead when everyone is running the same race at equal odds.
2. De Toqueville thinks that Americans are restless because their desires are always changing, or because they only want things better than what they have. De Toqueville speaks of the freest and best educated of men when he states, “…whereas the latter never stop thinking of the good things they have not got.” (164) He goes on to speak of their changing desires, and he writes, “They clutch everything but hold nothing fast, and so lose grip as they hurry after some new delight.” (165) Americans always strive for the best, and once they reach it, they quickly move onto something better, never being satisfied with what they have, which makes them become restless.

What Others Think

Why is it difficult not to care about what others think of you? Do we control the way other people see and think about us?
Most people act in ways to please others. Well, at least I know I do. Around my family I can be weird, loud, and annoying to them, because I know that they really and unconditionally love me. Around my friends that are loud and vivacious, I'm also outgoing and giggly. With friends that are more serious or just not as loud, I act quieter and not as obnoxious. I do this to not offend others or create strange situations, and I care what they think of me. I don't want to come across as weird and annoying to everyone, so I let my family suffer with that part of me. When you act a certain way around people, they judge you and sometimes do or say mean things. To some extent, we can control what people see in us, because we can change who we are. I wouldn't go up to a teacher or a classmate that I didn't know right now and start teasing them and provoking them like I do to my brother. They would think I'm weird and annoying! So I act differently around them, and they probably see me and think of me differently than my brother. We can't really control what people think of us, but we can put on a different skin or a different personality to hide or flaunt other traits. And, if people really didn't think what others cared about them, we would probably have a bunch of naked, drunk people running around. No one wants that.

Is war ever a good thing? Is there any cause for which you would go to war?

War can be a good thing, when people are fighting for just reasons. I would go to war to fight against persecution and to free people if there is not a peaceful option available, and if it makes the lives of the people a lot better. I disagree with fighting for religion in most circumstances. Fighting people because they are not allowing you to practice your religion is one thing, but fighting because you simply don’t agree with their religion is absurd. Overall, war should be avoided because innocent lives being lost when they don’t have to be is, of course, never a good thing!! The other bad thing about war is how it tears up and damages the land, therefore displacing people. I understand that there are plenty of legitimate reasons to go to war, like if a group of people is doing unjustified things to innocent people, war should be initiated. I also think that people should go to war only if they think that the outcome will be better for the people involved (in the long run) and if whoever starts the war seriously thinks they will win. The reasons that the United States went to war in Iraq (or, not war, “operation Iraqi freedom”) were completely justified! However, the war ended up making the Iraqi people suffer and I don’t really know who’s winning anymore. That whole thing got pretty messed up, but I liked the reasons for going to war. I would go to war for the right reasons, if there was a good chance of winning, and if the people wouldn’t get more hurt in the act of war than they were before.

Beloning

Being born in England made me a British citizen for most of my life. Despite living in central Indiana for 12 out of my 14 years of life, I only became an American citizen last summer. My family and I try to go back to England every other year to visit family and close friends. When I was younger, I remember going back and feeling like I belonged. The children that I played with and the adults that I visited had known me since the week I was born. Everything in America was so foreign. My mom had to use a map just to get from our house to Marsh. I don't have many real memories of all this, but I know one thing. Going to America, was torture to me. The look on my face in my Visa picture was one of pure hate. I had been crying the whole day about not wanting to go to America, about wanting to stay. Now, I know how different things would be if I was still in England. Being young and innocent gave me ties and ways to relate to the kids in England. Last year when my parents and I visited for my aunt and uncle's wedding, I was shocked. I did not belong at all. My American accent and clothes were not the only things that set me apart. Our friends houses probably cost the same amount as our house in Indiana, but they are basically 2 bedroom apartments compared to an average-sized house in a neighborhood with a yard and a dog. I was 13, and was offered an alcoholic drink at a bar. I was completely appalled, I knew I didn't fit in at all here. My parents changed around their friends and siblings, so nothing was familiar anymore. I was a lonely hoosier, in the middle of a bunch of loud British people, as if I had nothing to do with them at all. I like to think of myself as different from people in Indiana, like being born in a different place makes me an outsider, but it really doesn't. I fit in here, I belong here, maybe not in Indiana (too close to the Bible belt for me) but somewhere were there are horses and neighborhoods. My dream used to be to have a horse farm in Florida, but the high-end tailored pants and high heels at horse shows isn't really my style either. Maybe somewhere like Virginia is my place? Who knows....