My first college English class

When I first started the Model Scholars I did not know what to expect. I fresh out of high school and tired from all my stresses from life. In your class I felt like I could be myself and at the same time learn. You taught me how to be efficient and how to not always worry. Ever paper I overthought and things never seemed to turn out exactly how I wanted them to. When gave us the option of having you for GE 103 I hopped on that train quick fast and in a hurry. You taught me there is more to English then just sitting in class writing and taking notes all the time. Our discussions were wide in their and often seemed like we were constantly getting off topic but nevertheless some how and some way you managed to tie it back to our topic at the time. It was a challenging and easy five weeks and even though I may never know how to use verb subject agreement, or comma splices and how when you gasp for air put a comma, and also how to write down my thoughts effectively and get to the point. You gave me one the best gifts anyone has ever given how to be fully dependent and believe in myself, and for that I say Thank You!!!! See you in the fall hope you enjoy the rest of your summer and congrats on your new house.

 

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Violence in the Media

Violence in the media definitely causes aggressiveness, problems with social skills, ability to retain information. I am to closely related with this topic, my younger brother suffers from autism and because of this I have to extra careful with everything I do around him. His name is Donnavin he is 12 years old and just by looking at him you would think that he is a healthy young boy, but looks can be deceiving. Every morning that he wakes up he needs help getting dressed, making his breakfast and receiving his medicine, remembering to brush his teeth and gets his book bag before he goes to school. When he comes home the only thing that is on his mind is his Nintendo DS. His homework obviously comes first but to him he thinks he might be able to do it later on. Along with the Nintendo DS, my brother also plays XBox360,PS3,WII and the Kinect. He does not like going outside because the only thing that is on his mind are his games, when my mother and I try to take it from him he resorts to throwing a temper tantrum and crying and yelling. As far as violence within the media it is in everything that young children view on TV. Shows such as Dragon Ball Z Kai, Avator the Last Airbender, Power Rangers, The Boondocks, Pokémon, Adventure Time and Transformers. If we do not get a hold on what are children are watching who knows that are liable to become in the future.

Make a video of your own at Animoto.

1941-It all comes crashing down!!!

You gotta be kidding me!?!?

In this chapter Sula has died and everyone in the bottom is joyful because they no longer have to be worried about Sula Peace. A day after she died it was a brighter day then usually but then all of a sudden it turned a silver color. A heavy snow had fell upon the city of Medallion that stopped all trade of food. They could not get from point A to point B. Once the snow had all gone away and everyone could come out of their homes successfully Shadrack came with his bells rope, and childish stirring up a good time in the community. Not even thinking that it is National Suicide Day they joined in on the fun with him. It was not Shadrack's intention on having people kill themselves it was just something that happened. While they were all singing and dancing they walked through the white part of town and destroyed it and the bridge they were promised to help build. While destroying the bridge it collapsed and everyone died besides Shadrack, he stood at the top of the tunnel and just watched. This closely related to another character we know to well Sula. She watched Chicken Little die and she watched her mother burn to death.

1940-Death

Nel and Sula have not seen each other years, and the word around the bottom has spread of Sula's sickness. Nel pays Sula a visit and just like her grandmother Eva, she misses the part about how you greet someone. She jumps in and starts talking about her prescription that she needs refilled. Nel went over to get the prescription and their was only a watch and the folded paper in her purse. Throughout the conversation Sula kept looking up at the boarded window, where Eva had previously threw herself out of. Instead of arguing with Sula she just went and got her prescription. I thought it was very weird for Nel to want to help after all these years of not seeing Sula and treating her like everyone in town does. During Sula and Nel's conversation Nel asks her " Why did you do it?" She wanted a reason an explanation as to why she has slept with her husband. And Sula being Sula she responded in a way that was very egocentric. She told Nel that he just filled space, there was nothing else that came along with it. That boarded up window meant something to Sula, it was like when she looked at the window she was escaping from everything around her. She felt peace and serenity, the one thing she had been searching for this whole time. Nel by this time she was frustrated and wanted nothing else to do with Sula at this point.

Sula's and Ajax Relationship

1939-Oh Hell Nah!!!!!

Well Karma is the worst Sula is definitely getting a taste of her own medicine. She took Nel's husband and slept with him and now her new lover Ajax, left her because she became clingy. It was expected that Sula treated Jude the same way she did her other clients, left them high and dry. Jude left on a bus to Detroit never to be heard of again. Sula is 29 at this time and for the first time she is having feelings for a man. She cleans up well for him cooks, clean and gets clingy. She wore a green colored ribbon in her and while I was reading it did not make sense why, Toni Morrison, chose green. When I looked up what the color green represented it meant fertility, well being and nature. Ajax being the man he is he was not going to stay with Sula because he was not looking for anything serious. So he left with no warning just picked up things and left behind him he left his driver license with his name on it the Sula did not know. Sula was appalled when she found out the Ajax's real name was Albert Jacks. She slept with him and did not even know his name. While all this is going on Nel and Sula's relationship is non existent anymore. Nel begins to think of Sula the same way everyone in the town thinks of her. The people in the town started calling Sula a roach and a bitch. With all this being said I want to go back to how Sula was raised and how her mother chose to deal with her out of the home activities. Sula is following in her mother's footsteps whether she wants to or not. I wont say that Sula is not responsible for her actions but I don't want to stray away that this has popped up in her family's history.

 

Sula Cheating

1937-Deceit,Lies, Fascination, Friendship

SULA SLEPT WITH JUDE ALERT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

 

I had to get that out, to me that was the most exciting thing in this chapter because she was interested in Jude's penis and all. It was hilarious my classmate and long time friend Camaria Flowers was sooooo upset because as she likes to call it you can not make a whore a housewife. She was ranting the whole night because Sula slept with Jude. Ok so let me rewind

1. Sula comes home after 10 years and she is just evil. There is a plague of robins dying and to me, girl you evil, you need to come back where you came from.
2. Sula has changed she is disrespectful to Eva, her grandmother, and tells her to shut her mouth and also she'll kill her the same way Eva killed Plum. Now if I would've said this to my momma my head would have been on the wall right next to the deer. Disrespect in any way shape or form in my family.
3. Nel has 3 kids and is married, she sees Sula for the first time after 10 years and is happy to see her best friend but the more they get into a conversation some of the decisions Sula has made Nel thinks they are not right.
4. Nel walks in on Sula and Jude having sex and does nothing. She just stands there and watches them on all four's and hopes for them to pop up but neither one looked back they just kept going. 
5. After this Nel feels lonely and feels like she wants to express how she feels but for some reason she can't she doesn't. I don't know whether she is afraid of but I feel like she should speak up for her and her three kids. 

I feel like Nel will transform into someone we do not even imagine and shock us all as readers. I look forward to reading the rest of this book and learn how Nel and Sula will both journey on and continue on their paths.                                 

1927-Weeding Bells

There is wedding fever in the air. Nel is getting married to man named Jude Greene and everyone is excited. A question on our quiz that I failed by the way was did him and Nel get married out of love? The answer to this would be no, Jude just wanted to get married because he wanted to feel like a man. He was trying to get a job by building a new road but he wasn't able to because of all the racism, they would not hire him because he was black. With all this going on Sula is going off to college and their was not as prevalent like in their younger years. The will not see each other for a span of 10 years and I wonder what this will do their relationship and how it will change the dynamics of their relationship. For the past couple of years they were best friends and now they are going into the real world to start their own lives. I don't know but in my eye's I would be scared as heck to be separated from my best friend. In class we discussed how did Helene feel about Nel getting married and I said that she was excited because it was her only child that she could plan a wedding for. She felt like all her hard work as raising her daughter paid off. I think as the book continues on Sula and Nel's relationship will further and further shape how their lives will continue to play out.

1923-Family,Tragedy,Hate

Wow now this chapter was good, it was juicy. In this Chapter Hannah and Eva both got hurt and while Eva managed to live Hannah did not. There was strange things happening and a lot of symbolism throughout the storyline. In the 1922 my class and I talked about how Sula might harbor her feelings towards what Eva said and in this me and my class both feel that is accurate. She stood on the porch while her mother was running around burning alive from the flames and did NOTHING!!! Now in the last blog I shared my personal experience with my mother and how I might not see eye to eye with her all the time. Just because we might not see eye to eye and damn sure not ever watch my mother burn in front of my eyes, we would be some burning people, for real. There is not enough hate in the world to watch someone that gave you life in this world to watch something that hateful and spiteful. Sula's birthmark is also changing from rose and to a rose with a broken stem. My class and I concluded that this could be due to her new actions it could be a visual representation of how she is changing for the bad/worst/evil.

1992-Sexuality Arousement

Who knew that a parlor were little girls and boys would come and get ice cream would turn out to be a place were perverted men would sit and prey on woman and girls. Ajax a handsome man spotted Nel and Sula going to the parlor and yelled his special saying "pig meat." Nel and Sula was not interested in ice cream at all when he called for them it fed into their simple young minds. In class we touched on different events that had occurred throughout this year: Chicken Little getting killed, Sula cutting off the top of her finger, Hannah, Sula's mother saying that she loved Sula but did not love her. Chicken Little's appearance was not expected and nor was his death. Sula and him were playing and he accidently got tossed in the water and drowned. A character that found there way back into the scene was Shadrack. He was known for Starting National Suicide Day and trying to enforce it on everyone. Upon leaving his house he said "Always" to her, this was heavily contemplated on what he could've meant by and my classmates and I. Another issue that arouse a good debate was whether or not Sula should've responded differently when her mother told her girlfriend's and daughter that, " She loved Sula but just did not like her." In my opinion I would say that should have responded very differently, my mother has once stated something very hurtful concerning my voice. She told me that "My voice ignores her and that she would prefer if I no longer would have one." As that being my mom I was hurt because it seemed like when I spoke it was always a problem. Now to this day I harbor the emotion of how I felt when my mother stated those words to me. I feel like Hannah in the long run will end up eating her words and that taste sour as a lemon. On the subject of Sula she is a wild one, she pulled a knife out on these boys that were messing with Nel and accidently cut off her finger. Now when she did that I just knew she would cry but instead she sucked it up and told me that she could do the same thing to them as she did to herself. I feel like little do we know Sula will be an overcoming character and as the story journeys on she continue to amaze us.

1920-Reality Hits

Helene, the woman who never lost a battle whatsoever besides the pronunciation of her name Helen. She was the daughter of a whore who is well known all around town. Helene has a daughter named Sula who she has not introduced to her mother. She is so protective of Sula that chooses to shelter rather than letting her explore the real world. Helene took ill and her and Sula traveled to see her before things got worst, little did they know there would a very awkward surprise waiting on them. Helene's mother was there and it took little Sula by surprise because of course this her first time seeing her grandmother but besides that she looked like a hooker. In class my teacher sparked up a good debate concerning whether if our parents was a whore or did drugs, would we let them visit our children. Of course the class was split some said no and others said yes. My reason for saying yes is when you hide something from someone and make it your priority so they will not find it out, that's hurtful. Even though I did not share this with my class I too with through the same thing. My mother hid my father and his family from me. Even he did not reside in the same town as I did his family was there all round. It wasn't until the age of nine that I found out who my biological father was. Still to this day even though I am eight-teen years old I still resent my mother for what she did. Who knows what could've happened in those 3,285 days. I felt like she took a piece of me away and I can never get that back. Even though Sula's grandmother was a bad influence on her that still does not mean that you can allow for the child's to not be involved in his/her life.

1919-National Suicide

Hands/The Bottom & The Top/Segregation

National Suicide was the weirdest thing anyone could come up, especially for it being a celebrated holiday. In class we spoke upon why Shadrack was so fascinated with his hands. We assumed that he did have hands because he was so dependent on everyone else to do things for him. The theme that we could come up for Chapter 1919 is because segregation because the book touched on the "The Bottom" and "The Top", which concluded that the white people stayed on the top because it was closer to heaven; while the coloreds stayed at the bottom because God and his angels could look down on them. A question that kept coming up in class was did he really have hands? The picture that was painted by Mrs. Morrison was that he could do nothing for himself. He was emitted to a mental institution which everyone concluded once they said he enjoyed being in a stray jacket. To me this chapter was a not interesting it didn't capture me in at all. It scared me more than it actually drew me in. I have yet to find out who Sula is exactly but I'm pretty sure it will come soon enough.Right now Sula seems like it has a lot more to tell and I just can't wait for the adventure.