Anna

Last night as I was reading I noticed something. I noticed how different the relationship of student-teacher was in the time period of A Lesson Before Dying, rather than today’s relationship between a student and a teacher. Back than all the children were scared of the teacher, they would never call out or be smart with the teacher, or even talk to the teacher about something that was not school related. Today I notice that a lot of people have lost this amount of respect for their teachers, and see there teachers as an equal and think that they have the right to yell at their teacher, to stand up for themselves when they feel there teacher has been unfair, ask there teacher about their personal life, etc. In this book if a student felt that Mr. Grant was being unfair they would just keep it to themselves. All kids today are guilty of not having this amount of respect for their teachers, even I will admit I’m guilty of this.The students nor the teachers are responsible for this, I feel that it is todays society that is impacting our schools. 

Outside of class I watched the modern day Shakespeare play Much Ado About Nothing. It was in the Shakespeare language, and was in the modern day, along with popular modern day actors/actresses. Since it was modern I was able to understand it far better than I would if it wasn’t. I never really enjoyed Shakespeares writing because I always found it to be very boring. This movie changed that for me, I realized that Shakespeares plays had amazing storylines I just didn’t understand them which made the play’s boring. I really enjoyed this production of Shakespeare, although I would like to see more productions of Shakespeare similar to this one. I know that there are many other students that find Shakespeare’s writing to be boring and if directors could establish more modern day plays of Shakespeare, similar to Much Ado About Nothing, his writing would be more appreciated amoung students.

President Bush was misinformed going into Iraq by the Iraqi government so we would become afraid. Iraq only caused us to protect ourselves by sending in our troops. The job that our troops had taken on is not as easy as President Bush thought it would be. The wrath of their country has fallen onto our soldier’s shoulders; when the Iraqi’s should be dealing with their country themselves. Iraq is not America’s responsibility. Soon enough
Iraq will entirely depend on us, and without us their nation will not be suitable as a home for many.  Our troops need to be removed immediately, to save both the lives of our soldiers, and the country of
Iraq from collapsing.

“Iraq is a “little war” compared with Vietnam, but Americans are learning, once again, that the indigenous people we “liberated” do not love us. Many want our occupying army to withdraw. Insane as it may seem to Americans, they are willing to die for this objective. But what about the schools and roads we built for them?”(Greider)

This proves that, as much as we think we are doing for Iraq and helping them, they do not appreciate anything that we are doing, and have done for them. We’ve built them roads and schools, but yet just to see us suffer they would kill themselves. Why are American troops inIraq helping the Iraqi people after what they did to our country on September 11? I think we are too neighborly, because in this situation, kindness has done nothing for us, except leave us with more holes to fill from the lives that have been lost.   Greider, William.“ Iraq as Vietnam.” <http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0416-11.htm>  

This book gave me knowledge of romance, honesty, and women suffrage. The scarlet letter, in my opinion, is what truly held Dimmesdale and Hester together. When they were with each other Hester’s scarlet letter did not represent who she was, like it did in the community. When Pearl refused to approach her mother without her scarlet letter on I was absolutely not surprised. Pearl, like the community, only knew her mother with the scarlet letter on. And everyone feels more comfortable with the familiar, which is what the scarlet letter was to Pearl. But Dimmesdale saw past this, and loved Hester for who and what she was without her scarlet letter.

The women suffrage is what truly pulled my attention in this book though. What women had to go through, in my opinion, was horrible. Especially because Hester’s sin was committed by both her and Dimmesdale, and she was the only one shunned upon in the community. I truly did respect Dimmesdale’s honesty at the end of the book. I feel that his honesty is what made it his time to go. For so long he had been sick, and when he died he died with dignity. He found the courage to tell the community the truth about himself at his final sermon, and not one thing about his life will have followed him to the grave. 

I would have liked to find out more in the end about what happened toPearl and Hester when they disappeared from the community. As I was reading I felt that the author gave a very brief description as to the fact that they disappeared from the community shortly after Dimmesdale’s death, and only Hester later returned. What happened to Pearl? Is she even still alive? Although the book left me with many questions, I feel that this book was one of the most worthwhile books I have ever read. I left this book with more knowledge of the puritan’s way of life than I thought this story would have been able to teach me. I’m glad I read this book, and now I’m more open-minded to reading other books similar to The Scarlet Letter.