Coffee Will Make You Black by April Sinclair is an excerpt from Black Like Us edited by Devon W. Carlado, Dwight A. McBride, and Donald Weise is about a girl who starts addressing her attraction to females while hiding it by ignoring her boyfriend. The most interesting part of this story was when to me is when Carla is telling Stevie that if she did not give Sean, Stevie’s boyfriend, her virginity then he would find another prom date that would be more willing. The reason why I like this part the most is because the same stuff happens today. In high school there are a lot of people who feel that they need to do something like that on prom night and if not then their prom date will leave them for another willing date. I felt she made a good decision to not do it with him because she had goals and so did he and things could happen if they did do it. Even though she had some other reasons why she did not want to do it she still made a good decision that a lot of people choose not to make.
After reading this story one of the people I liked the most was Carla because she was very straightforward with what she had to say. She seemed to be kind if bossy and also like the kind of person who people put you in those peer pressure situations. She also could be one reason why Stevie was afraid to tell anyone about her feelings for Nurse Horn. Stevie felt the need to fit in and fitting in would mean acting like she was in love with her boyfriend and staying on good terms with Carla.
In this story I fell that Stevie valued her secret attraction to Nurse Horn. She hinted on it a lot but she seemed as if she wanted to keep it secret. I felt that whenever her friend mentioned things she wasn’t used to she was hide and act like it was something new as if she never heard of such things. It would have been interesting to see how her friend would have felt if she would have told her about her real feelings for Nurse Horn. Seeing how Carla seemed to be so straight forward, it would have been interesting to see what smart thing she might have said about Stevie.
Friday, April 9, 2010
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
English Lit. 2010
When I first started this class I knew I would like it. I like it because one, I knew the teacher would be teaching from some interesting books and two, because I like literature. In this class I have read The Mee Street Chronicles by Frankie Lennon, which was a pretty good book to read. The reason why we read this was to show us what a memoir is. But that was not the only thing I’ve learned. In this class I also learned more about finding the setting, theme, plots, conflict type and things of that sort in the stories we have read.
To me it is important to know how to find these things in stories because many times we just tend to just read a book and not think about any thing else. If we look for things as plot or theme we tend to see more imagery and we are able to relate to what the author is trying to say. Also it is important to know these things because in many higher level books some times when reading a college level book there can be times where a whole chapter might be confusing because there is no setting or theme that you can find. This class is like a guide to help when situations like that come up.
After reading The Mee Street Chronicles and some of the other stories in this book I feel that I learned a lot about how to recognize what the plot or conflict tyoe is in a story. I feel that if I were to become a writer I would remember reading The Mee Street Chronicles and what I learned in this class so that I can reach my readers as Ms. Frankie Lennon did.
To me it is important to know how to find these things in stories because many times we just tend to just read a book and not think about any thing else. If we look for things as plot or theme we tend to see more imagery and we are able to relate to what the author is trying to say. Also it is important to know these things because in many higher level books some times when reading a college level book there can be times where a whole chapter might be confusing because there is no setting or theme that you can find. This class is like a guide to help when situations like that come up.
After reading The Mee Street Chronicles and some of the other stories in this book I feel that I learned a lot about how to recognize what the plot or conflict tyoe is in a story. I feel that if I were to become a writer I would remember reading The Mee Street Chronicles and what I learned in this class so that I can reach my readers as Ms. Frankie Lennon did.
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Plaits
In “Plaits” of Mee Street Chronicles by Frankie Lennon all girls including African American girls wanted to have Shirley Temple curls because to them Shirley Temple resembled beauty. Although the narrator wanted the beautiful Shirley Temple curls, her mother seemed to rather put plaits, or braids, in her hair with barrettes and clothespins. The narrator did not like plaits with all the extra accessories and was teased for having them. And because of that the narrator took the situation into her own hands and cut off majority of her hair destroying her idea of being beautiful for her kindergarten play. Plaits is story centered on the narrator who had an internal conflict with her hair.
In this story the little girl was determined to not get plaits or braids.
Her and her friends didn’t like having plaits because it resembled terrible things from the their past heritage. In the story the narrator referred herself to Buckwheat, who was an African American child star (The Little Rascals) whose image looked as if he were a poor rundown kid with nappy hair that did not speak proper English. She also mentioned how she did not want “Topsy-hair”. Topsy was a slave girl in a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe around the 1850’s. Topsy was also known to be a wild and untamed slave, which went the same for her hair. By the end of the story the narrator realized that if she waited a little more she would have had Shirley Temple curls instead of “topsy-hair”.
Shirley Temple was a very famous child star that was presented as one of America’s prettiest girls. The reasons why the Shirley Temple curls were more popular was because one, she was white and two, she also was a young child star whom everyone thought looked adorable. To fit in with everyone else back then certain girls thought that they had to look like her. The narrator wanted Shirley Temple curls but ended up with a lot of plaits, which she called “worm salad” hair. When a person has irony it usually comes with an intention that produces a result. The irony of this situation is that instead of waiting a couple of weeks to get her hair done the way she wanted, she ended up cutting her own hair and being left with hair that was known to draw a lot of attention that she would not want. The narrator mentioned that “there was no way she could be a dew drop fairy with topsy hair” in her kindergarten play.
At the end many would say that the narrator learned a good lesson on being patient and not letting others bring her down. Having nice hair, which meant having hair like Shirley Temple curls or some American beauty star, was very important to the narrator. She did not like being teased for having Buckwheat or Topsy hair. She just wanted to be pretty. Going through what she went through would make anybody feel as if they were not beautiful enough. But, as many people say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
In this story the little girl was determined to not get plaits or braids.
Her and her friends didn’t like having plaits because it resembled terrible things from the their past heritage. In the story the narrator referred herself to Buckwheat, who was an African American child star (The Little Rascals) whose image looked as if he were a poor rundown kid with nappy hair that did not speak proper English. She also mentioned how she did not want “Topsy-hair”. Topsy was a slave girl in a book called Uncle Tom’s Cabin written by Harriet Beecher Stowe around the 1850’s. Topsy was also known to be a wild and untamed slave, which went the same for her hair. By the end of the story the narrator realized that if she waited a little more she would have had Shirley Temple curls instead of “topsy-hair”.
Shirley Temple was a very famous child star that was presented as one of America’s prettiest girls. The reasons why the Shirley Temple curls were more popular was because one, she was white and two, she also was a young child star whom everyone thought looked adorable. To fit in with everyone else back then certain girls thought that they had to look like her. The narrator wanted Shirley Temple curls but ended up with a lot of plaits, which she called “worm salad” hair. When a person has irony it usually comes with an intention that produces a result. The irony of this situation is that instead of waiting a couple of weeks to get her hair done the way she wanted, she ended up cutting her own hair and being left with hair that was known to draw a lot of attention that she would not want. The narrator mentioned that “there was no way she could be a dew drop fairy with topsy hair” in her kindergarten play.
At the end many would say that the narrator learned a good lesson on being patient and not letting others bring her down. Having nice hair, which meant having hair like Shirley Temple curls or some American beauty star, was very important to the narrator. She did not like being teased for having Buckwheat or Topsy hair. She just wanted to be pretty. Going through what she went through would make anybody feel as if they were not beautiful enough. But, as many people say, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder.
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