Chapter 5 The Grapes of Wrath theme

In chapter five of The Grapes of Wrath the main theme of the chapter was man's inhumanity to man leads to suffering. This is seen through out the entire chapter between the land owner and the farmer. When the land owner tells the farmer that he must leave his field and its because the bank is the one who is in charge and wants the land to now have cotton on it, the land owner doesn't think about what will happen to the farmer and his family before he tells the farmer that he needs to leave his house. The theme is basically when one man tells another man to do something without thinking it through all the way before acting and based off those actions the person ends up suffering from the other person actions. This happened in chapter five as we saw because the land owner told the farmer that he and his family needs to leave the house without giving them any warning and planning a place to go. This could lead to suffering by the family of the farmer because since they were told to leave their house and that they needed to get out right away, they had to time to plan for a place to go or a plan for anything.

Accept. Act. Accelerate.

When we look at the world as one big place, we are far from perfect. There is crime all over the world, political issues that arise daily, challenges constantly becoming present and many more issues that are common nationwide. However there is no way to change everything that is wrong to make it all become better and all the issues to be solved in a short amount of time. If we were to try and fix everything wrong in the world today, it could possibly take years on end with the end never being in sight to have these changes occur.

However if we look at small places, such as our school, SkyView Academy, there are things that have the potential of being changed. We can change things so that overall we have better environment and atmosphere to learn in.

When you walk through the hallways, you can hear many different views of what people think of the school. People saying that they hate it and wish they went to a different school, others saying that they like it but wish there were changes in many of the ways things are done and then you hear those who feel privileged to come to the school and like it a lot. But when you take a step back and listen to everything you hear, we have the ability to change what is being said.

With that being said our little community could be different. If everyday both the students and teachers chose to make different decisions we would be able to see those changes happening. If everyone chose to encourage each other, inspire others, show appreciation towards their peers, and believe in everyone, there would visible changes. If we all started to change the ways we speak, behave, and communicate among one another, a positive atmosphere would constantly be present in our school.

Cultural Change

During my lifetime, there has been a major change in food trends. Allergies and/or intolerance's are becoming more common everyday. People are becoming more health conscious and picky about almost everything they put in their bodies. This didn't start to really occur until about 3-5 years ago.

Having an allergy is different than having an intolerance. An allergy could be defined as sensitivity to certain foods that will cause a reaction with the immune system. Where as an intolerance is where the food can be eaten without a reaction, but overall you feel better when avoiding that substance. Having an allergy can be a serious thing and in some cases if the food is consumed, it can send the person in anaphylaxis shock and could potentially lead to death. Having an intolerance will not cause this to happen. However, most people assume they have an allergy to a substance rather than an intolerance, which now days its more common to have an intolerance rather than an allergy, but allergies are still common.

Today it is more and more common to hear about this. Over time people have become more aware of these issues and feel the need to change their diets to either make it healthier or to make themselves feel better. This has been a visible change during my lifetime. People are more cautious of what they feed their bodies and are constantly changing diets based on new information being produced and new discoveries being found.

Color

As you look around you at any moment, you are surrounded by an abundance of color. Color is in everything we see and can reflect feelings, emotions, meanings, etc. Color can mean many different things to many different people. When you look outside and see leaves on the tree changing, you know its fall and that winter is creeping up on us. When you see green grass under the bright yellow sun, you can assume that it summer. And after winter, when bright flowers appear, you know spring has sprung. Colors can indicate when new times are coming but also going. However, they can also indicate other things too. For example with the color of clothes you wear. Most people consider black clothing Gothic or widowed. People who wear bright colors wanting attention or to show that they like bright colors. Color can also have thoughts and meanings associated with them. When you think of blue, you could think of water, rain, the ocean, but also maybe associate it with the feeling of sadness. Yellow, you could think of the sun, but associate it with it being bright out. Red you think of blood, pink with hearts, white with snow, and black with death. So now when you look around again, you start to think what colors mean to you and what you associate colors with. Whether its from the colors you are wearing, the color of your room, or your favorite color, color means something to you. 

Why am I doing this again?

"Why am I doing this again?" is a thought that often goes through my mind. Whether it is from taking two AP classes this year or being involved in three sports and other school activities, there is often not a day that goes by that I don't think to ask myself "Why am I doing this again?". 

Taking two AP classes is not something I thought would be easy but looking back I'm not sure what made me say yes that's a great idea but I know that when everything is all said and done that all this work will pay off and become rewarding. Everyday there is something I have to do for either both AP classes or just one or the other on top on the homework I have for my other classes. Whether it be to continue writing an outline for a chapter for history or to finish analyzing an essay for  English language, there is always something to be done. If there is ever a chance that I don't have a homework assignment due the next day for one of my AP classes, there is always something that I could be doing to either get ahead or to finish for the week. On top of taking two AP classes, I also have my three other classes that have homework too. Many nights I find myself with at least a few hours of work to be done. However, there are those few nights that I have many hours of homework and those are the time when I ask myself "Why am I doing this again?". Although I get it done, sometimes I feel stressed out and feel like I will never get any of it done, when in reality I get it done even though I might have stayed up late. 

Being an athlete is what makes me ask "why am I doing this again" most often. In general, being an athlete takes a toll on you body, but add being a student at SkyView Academy and it takes an even bigger toll. Although I love being in sports all year long, there is no doubt that there are some days that are tough. Running cross country is not easy. My body always seems to be sore and tired. Having practice 6 days a week isn't easy either, especially with Saturday practice being a 7:30 am. But the fact of the matter is that I enjoy doing it. I like the feeling you get after a great workout and how you feel when finish a race. But its during those tough workouts when my legs are killing me and my lungs are burning that I wonder why am I doing this? Playing both basketball and soccer is the same way. I love the reward you feel after winning a game, but its the rough days in practice that I wonder why I play do sports all year long and why I put my body through so much. I am constantly pushing myself and feeling the affects that it all has on my body. Most days I am sore and tired and it never goes away because its the life of a student athlete and its what I want to do

Although I ask myself "Why am I doing this again?" at least a couple times a week, I enjoy everything I do. I would never trade taking two AP classes and playing sports all year long to have something that would be less demanding of my time and easier on my body. I love playing sports and the fact that I take two AP classes will only prepare me for college. So when I take a step back and look at it, its not all that bad because this is how my life is and how I want to live it. 

Dinner as a family

Coming home after a long day of both sports and school and being able to sit down at our table for dinner sometimes feels more like a privilege than not. With it only being my sister, my dad, and I there are times when things get very chaotic believe it or not. However one thing that keeps us all together is being able to sit down for a few minutes and eat dinner as a family. 

There are days when we just sit there around the table in silence, as not many words are shared, but there is present feeling of togetherness because when there is just the three of us, there are times when we don't all get along. But then there are other times where we share our days and laugh about the good things that happened during the day. We reminisce about the good and the bad and fill each other in on what our day was like. Together we sit around our table and eating freshly made food.

Research shows that eating together as a family at least 5 nights out of the week can increase a number of things and set good habits. Your kids understand and start to cherish family time, new foods are introduced and tried, healthy habits are set, test scores improve and for teens, dinner as a family can decrease the want to try and so such things like smoking and drugs.

http://www.health.com/health/gallery/0,,20339151,00.html  

Martin Luther King Jr.

Martin Luther King Jr had a unique ability and capability of using his words to make crowds move. The way he spoke, the passion he included, and his personal touches, were all qualities that enhanced the ideas that King was sharing with his followers. In his "Letter from a Birmingham Jail" King is responding to eight clergymen about peaceful civil disobedience. “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” Those words spoken by Martin were powerful. During this time the treatment of blacks in the United States was poor and many were looked down upon. Martin Luther was sharing his thoughts on how things should change and why they should change. He thought it wasn't fair for the colored people to be judged based off their color and he thought it wasn't right for them to be looked at differently. When he spoke the words “Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will.” he was trying to explain why he was becoming so frustrated. He was right, it doesn't make sense for good will people to act like they don't really understand, when in actuality they can understand, but they chose to make things difficult and act like they don't which is frustrating compared to ill willed people who try to understand but misunderstand the point. At least the ill will people try, whereas the good will people don't. So in all fairness it was acceptable to Martin Luther King Jr to become frustrated with the clergymen, because they had the capability of understanding why he wanted peaceful civil disobedience, but they chose to complicate things and act unacknowledged and question the thoughts of Martin Luther King Jr. 

To ban or not to ban books?

When we classify books, we put them into genres such as fiction, non-fiction, historical fiction, biography, etc.. We don't classify them as appropriate or inappropriate, suitable to be read in school, or not. For most people when picking a book they might pick it depending on a few different things. They might pick it based off of the author, the type of book, or maybe even because a got a certain award. Rarely do people pick it for what the content has to offer. 

However, this situation is different in schools. The books picked to be read in schools are picked for certain reason such as the type of book, the content, or so that they match up with the curriculum being taught. Each grade level has books that will read and a reason for reading them. Although most people seem to agree that the books being read in classrooms are acceptable, there are those select people out there who would disagree and would challenge  that the book should not be read and be banned from the reading list due to certain topics that appear throughout the book. Most times these people are parents who are very sensitive and want to protect their kids of what the real world is like. 

Most often these books are challenged due to the content and the overall theme of the book. Most would like to argue that its not appropriate for young audiences to be reading because the content is not suitable for this time and age, so why should we be deceiving our children and teaching them about things that happened in history which were way wrong? Now this maybe seem acceptable because yes, there are many events that happened in our history, like the mistreatment of the blacks or even Hitler, that we should not be proud of, but at the same time we should look back onto those times and see it as what is different now, why or how it has changed, and what caused the change. We only learn from our past, so why should we be banning books that explain and give an account of what happened or what it was like? 

A certain group or person may want to ban their child(ren) from reading a certain book because of the content again, or it could possibly contradict what they believe, it could be a sensitive subject that they wish to not talk about with their kid(s), or they do feel it is not necessary for their child(ren) to be reading such controversial matters, therefore they want the book banned from being allowed to be read in school. 

On one hand it could be deemed acceptable to possibly ban a book, but on the other hand these is going to be a time when these issues appear again, so why not learn about it now then later. There comes a point in a young adults life when certain things become apparent and should be known about. Its important to talk about these sensitive and controversial matters at a younger age, particularly in a school setting like a classroom where everyone can feel safe,  when they are still developing opinions and understandings, rather than later when opinions are already formed and they feel like they already understand everything and won't try to understand a different point of view. In books, the author writes the way they do for a reason. They address a particular problem and create a story line around it to show the problem and share experiences of those times. Sometimes it can be a real sensitive problem or a serious problem but students should be able to explore those matters. If they learn why it was wrong, chances are that they aren't going to be doing it. 

Also, reading books with sensitive matters or controversial problems, certain issues such as racism, stereotyping, and and poor choices could be broken and really looked at. Reading those certain books, could lead to discussion which in the end would have a positive outcome or affect and let kids see the issue, but also learn from it. 

So should books be banned? My answer is no. There are to many negative effects from banning books that far outweigh the positive effects of banning books. I personally think if a parent does not want their child(ren) reading a particular book because of the content, that the child should have to read the book but the parent could be the one having the discussion with them about the certain issues that they feel are unacceptable.

About me

My name is Kaley and I am a junior at SkyView Academy in Colorado. I am a full time student athlete so an off season means nothing to me. I run cross country in the fall, play basketball during the winter, and soccer in the spring. In my future I hope to attend college and become an Athletic Trainer. That is my dream job. I love sports and being athletic so I want to have the chance to share my love of sports while helping others who share the same love as I do.

This blog is an assignment for my AP Language and Composition class. This class is designed to be a college course taught to high school students, like myself. Sometimes during a blog post, I will being answering a prompt and others I will write about something of my choice. I look forward to writing this blog.