Honors Novel #2

The Delights of the Scarlet Letter

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne has the “uncivilized free and wild thinking” that Henry David Thoreau speaks about in his essay “Walking.” “It is the uncivilized free and wild thinking… not learned in schools, that delights us.” The story of Hester Prynne captures the reader within the first visualization that the narrator gives us of her. We are given a scene of a large number of people gathered in the center of town to watch the conviction of a young woman holding her baby in her arms. The only part that the townspeople pay attention to is the letter “A” upon her breast. “A” standing for adultery, is what captures the reader into this story and will later on delight us with the “uncivilized free and wild thinking” of the story.

            The character of Hester and her daughter Pearl make the story of the Scarlet Letter complete along the lines of the “uncivilized free and wild thinking” that Thoreau speaks of in his essay. Pearl is the product of the mischievousness acts of her mother. The fact that an affair that was unknown to everyone else other than the Hester and Arthur Dimmesdale is what makes the story a whole, as a piece of literature, that pulls in the reader. It took seven years for anyone to find out about the affair and to find out who Pearl’s father was. It is even a mystery to the reader who the man in the affair is until the very end of the story.

            The narrator in the story not only uses the actions of Hester Prynne to show the uncivilized and wild, but the actual thoughts and the way she thinks of herself is what makes her that much more of a strong character. “She had wandered, without rule or guidance, in a moral wilderness. . . . The scarlet letter was her passport into regions where other women dared not tread. Shame, Despair, Solitude! These had been her teachers,—stern and wild ones,—and they had made her strong, but taught her much amiss.” When Hester is first given the scarlet “A” that she wears upon her breast, she was ashamed and thought so much lower of herself than she should have. But who wouldn’t? Hester had full obligation to feel this way, but it was the steps that led her to the character that she became within those seven years that made her so admirable. Of course she wouldn’t be admirable in the sense that she had an affair with another man while she was married, but having the strength to pull away from the reputation as well as the self-doubt is what made her strong.

            Along with Hester comes along her daughter Pearl. Pearl is a character within herself and has the outgoing side that helps make her mother stronger. Although Hester has the strength within herself, Pearl was a large contribution in those efforts. Just as any other seven year old does, Pearl still obtains the naïve state of mind and does not really understand the whole concept of her mother’s scarlet letter. Hester has worn the scarlet letter since her daughter was born and does not know any other than that. ‘“Mother,” said little Pearl, “the sunshine does not love you. It runs away and hides itself, because it is afraid of something on your bosom. . . . It will not flee from me, for I wear nothing on my bosom yet!”’ Pearl knows that she wants to be exactly like her mother and of course that also includes the letter “A” upon her breast. The idea of adultery is not comprehendible to her and she has been told her whole life that the heavenly father is in fact her father. What Pearl does understand is the sadness that her mother has lived with her entire life.

            The “uncivilized free and wild thinking” that we read about here that is delightful to the reader, is the personal struggle that Hester has to go through to reach the character she is by the end of the story. A life filled with pain is finally brought to an end when the father of the child presents to the public that he was the one responsible. It all ended for Hester when this occurrence happened and she is able to pursue the life that is beyond the scarlet letter that represented adultery for seven years of her life. What was unbelievable and delightful to me was the fact that Hester still loved Arthur after all the years. After being left and completely alone and isolated by the man, she was able to still be madly in love with him and he obviously felt the same after dying for her. The symbol of adultery became removed from Hester in a literal sense, but it already had been a while before that because as Hester became stronger, the letter just became a hypothetical symbol of shame that no longer worked to make her strength disappear again.

            

Blog #18 Newspapers and MSB

What lessons did you learn from the Industrialization Newspaper that you carry forward into the MSB project?

Write a reflective piece in which you identify specific things, content, skills, or habits that you will address in MSB as a response to your experience with the newspaper project.

While doing the Industrialization Newspaper, I realized that it was okay to talk to other people about the topics that I was writing about and to collaborate together. For example.. I worked on my article with Deejay. We both had a topic that related to each other so we shared our information with one another. It's always been a little difficult for me to talk to someone about sharing information because I've always kind of just gone and done it myself. But it was nice to hear someone else's opinion on a topic and incorporate that into my final piece of work. I'm working on the calendar as my final project and I really need to collaborate with my group and working on the newspaper helped me be more open to other ideas and being able to ask for help from someone in my group. 

Blog #17

For the calendar group we are working on contacting people concerning sponsorships for the calendar. So far we have come up with contacting small local places but also bigger organizations such as Sea World and Belmont Park. We are hoping to get donations from the companies and possibly sell some of our calendars at the stores to make a profit for the HTHMA funding. We arent really sure if that will happen yet... but its a potential idea.

Honors History #2

McKinley for President

Willing to make change for the public

Election time is coming up within the next few months and the voters are right up neck to neck for the two candidates, McKinley and Bryan. While the two are close, the reasons for casting the vote for McKinley over Bryan is very clear and should be known to all.

For the past years we’ve had the issue of our government taking no action for the people of our nation. McKinley is ready to make a change for the people from our communities. He wants to make it a priority of listening to the public as well as having self-righteousness for the people. "Unlike any other nation, here the people rule, and their will is the supreme law," says McKinley. The first priority for McKinley is to hear out the people of the United States and help make it a society where our people are happy with their lives.

Aside with listening to the public, McKinley is also in favor of equality for all. Not just including the work situations for all workers, but he is for having equality between the different races. Racial equality is something the McKinley is reaching out for. We are in a moment in time where many immigrants are still coming to the United States and thousands are working and living in environments that would not be tolerable for the majority of America. The numbers of immigrants coming to the US has greatly increased the past years and equality is on the list of important national goals. This also includes equality for the African Americans in our society. With support for the civil rights movement, he wants the enforcement of the fourteenth amendment to help with the equality movement.

Just like all Americans, we all have experience with work and we know the difficulties of having to make money to put food on the table and put a roof over our heads. Everyone knows that money doesn’t grow on trees and to get what we want in our life, it usually comes with a little more than just wanting. A huge load of work is what brings the cash in now a days. Unlike the other presidential candidate, McKinley knows what its like working for what he wants and is the most relatable candidate in the election. Starting from a small town family in Ohio, McKinley has worked from having absolutely nothing to being a presidential candidate in the election of 1896. Being a man that worked up from poverty, he knows the good work ethics as well as what we, as a mainly working class nation, needs. The majority of America is in either the working class or middle class, and having a president that knows what our people need would make him the most desirable candidate out of the two.

Being of the working class, most of us are in a labor union and have the responsibility of working everyday to not only bring money home, but to work to make our community the place that it is. While being in support of the unions and the union workers, McKinley is also a huge part of why he is the best candidate. McKinley is in favor of the safety, civil rights and well being of the working class. It is safe to say that this includes all people of the unions.

Another one of McKinley’s goals is to unite all of the United States. The past hasn’t left all of our states in great unity and to have all our states in unison is greatly desired. McKinley has a desire to expand to the American national frontier.  Meaning, having a combination of different religions and economic cooperation between the different states.

As for the governmental causes, McKinley is also the candidate that is in favor. He not only knows how to handle the public, but when put in a governmental situation, he would know what to do as well. McKinley favors civil service reform as well as protection of voting rights for all US voters. He is also for tariffs, which will greatly impact the American industry in a positive way. Our industry has not been the best in recent years because of the Democratic free trade causing the depression and unemployment. The tariffs will help enable you as workers and will also provide a protection wage for your family. This is certainly a win-win situation for all.

The candidate that is voted into office in the next months will be the one that changes our nation. McKinley is for the people and wants our opinions to be taken into consideration. He is for the families in our community and wants to make our work environment a place that we want to be and want to have successfulness. A nation based on the public opinion is what we need and McKinley can make this happen for all of us.

MSB #16 comments, ideas, critiques

From Kim's blog about her idea with doing a picture essay, I thought that her idea of doing something at the Children's Pool was a good idea. For the calendar group we could do something having to do with the children's pool in la jolla. We could possibly take a picture of the seals.. but not just a picture of one seal but to also have background in it as well. There was one picture of a seal in the calendar last year but it I dont think that it was the best picture and maybe one that isnt a close up would be a better choice if we choose to put Children's Pool in the calendar.


I looked at the other posts from the calendar group and most of the ideas are all the same that we want to incorporate into the calendar this year. I liked Emilie's idea of doing the smaller pictures on the bottom part of te calendar, below the main picture. I liked Audrey's idea of doing landscape photos but also doing some pictures that have a main subject in the photo.. and not necessarily doing the rule of thirds for every picture but also having the subject in the middle main part of the photo.

Blog #15 MSB

CALENDAR!

I am a part of the calendar group and we have decided on maybe doing a theme of the beaches and what they have that makes them each significant and what people know them for.

I personally am a die hard fan for the surfing calendars. For as long as I can remember I've always had a surfing calendar. They really inspired me to do the calendar for Media Saves the Beach and I'm hoping to maybe get a page on the surfing. Torrey Pines has an amazing surf and all of my friends go there to surf so maybe we could focus on something like that for the TP page.

Do we have any light houses in San Diego???? Maybe we could do something to that effect.. I'm really not sure if we do but maybe a page could be dedicated to a light house at a certain beach if we found out where one is?? OH! I guess there's one in Point Loma at Cabrillo National Monument. So that would be something that I could look into about.


Would it be impossible to get a picture at night with a full moon? I dont know if that would be asking too much but that would be so amazing if we were able to make that happen.

Blog #14 MSB

What are the important aspects of the beaches? What are the different beaches in San Diego known for?

• Ocean Beach... the pier
• The Children's Pool.... seals
• Torrey Pines
• Sunset Cliffs
• La Jolla
• Mission Beach
• Del Mar

Let's maybe take some pictures of the places at the beaches or lets do some research and see what's important and significant to those beaches... maybe a certain animal or certain marine life in distinct to the beach.. or something they are known for. For example.. the OB Pier. Starting with pictures could be a good idea but we might not necessarily know what we are looking for so some research might be good for a little heads up on what we need to photograph and then we will have an idea of the captions and information that will be on each page with each picture.

Blog #13: Industrialization and Coastal Environments

"In a striking change of direction, the California Coastal Commission yesterday voted 8-4 to give San Diego its third exemption from pollution standards set by the federal Clean Water Act.

Just two months ago, commissioners voted overwhelmingly to deny the five-year waiver from secondary treatment levels at the Point Loma Wastewater Treatment Plant. The facility processes sewage from more than 2.2 million people in and outside the city's limits.

The commission's reversal saves San Diego from having to retrofit the facility at a price of up to $1.5 billion. The last major step is the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, which already has granted a preliminary waiver.

San Diego is the only city in California that hasn't committed to meet the secondary treatment level for discharges to the ocean."

http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stories/2009/oct/08/wastewater-plant-gets-exemption/?metro&zIndex=179167

This article was talking about how San Diego has been exempt from the pollution standards for a third time now. The votes were 8-4 so they won by a large amount. The article said that we were the only city in California that hasn't agreed to these standards and there are many people that are upset about it.

The article could have included more opinions from the other people that had voted rather than the one woman that they talked too. It says that they changed their mind but it doesnt really  say why they did.. so maybe they could have gone a little deeper into the reasoning for why they changed their minds. 

For a follow up article, it could say the reasons for why they changed their minds and if they were going to go further into changing the votes. At the end of this article they say that they might do something so San Diego wont be exempt from the standards. Maybe opinions from the opposing side could be used as well... maybe some quotes from the opposing view points.

Honor's Novel #1

Identity to Be Found

Beloved by Toni Morrison depicts a character that is caught between colliding cultures of the past she lived and the present life she is living now. Sethe’s conflict clash is trying to find who she is and moving on from the past that she cannot forget. The main character Sethe goes through a time in her life where everything that had overwhelmed her twenty years earlier comes back to her again. 

In the beginning of the story Paul D, a man whom Sethe hadn’t seen in 20 years, shows up at her home. Paul D brought back the passion and love that she had once felt for her husband who disappeared. Paul D had a promising love for her until he found out that Sethe had murdered her own daughter. The images of her three children who had been lost in her mind years before, came back to remind her of what she had done. With these memories causing so much hurt and regret, Sethe’s daughter Beloved reappeared which only made things worse.

 With Paul D reentering her life, everything from Sethe’s past came back to her. This also literally included her daughter whom she had murdered. All the horrible events and occurrences that Sethe had left behind two decades before, came back to haunt her until something so real as the daughter she murdered entering her life again. It had been 19 years later and the daughter who had been lost so many years ago came back to reinforce the regret upon Sethe. Beloved sang the songs her mother had sung to her, she knew about the earrings Baby Suggs had given Sethe and she had the identity of someone who Sethe couldn’t quite recognize.

While Beloved represents Sethe’s past, Denver represents the present and future for Sethe. Denver is Sethe’s youngest child and the one who Sethe prided herself to live for and be made into her entire life. While Sethe couldn’t make Beloved’s life the best that it could be, she made sure that she lived for Denver and filled her life to its fullest. Although Denver loved her mother very much, she was always afraid of the acts in her mother’s past. When Beloved comes along, Denver and her become close, as if they had been sisters their whole life.

Sethe eventually got to a point where she let her entire past overtake her and she ended up being so caught up in her regret that she literally would do anything to make it better. Sethe felt so bad about what she had done to her daughter that she wanted to make things better and have Beloved forgive her. She becomes so consumed with Beloved that she literally did everything for this woman. Beloved began holding her mother hostage in their home and she would not let her leave. The months and weeks that the two were in Sethe’s home, the characters did a character swap with each other. Sethe became so weak and so fragile while taking care of her daughter and Beloved became the motherly figure to Sethe.  Denver had seen this happening and went for help.

The character of Beloved and Sethe contrasted each other and Beloved was used to help Sethe become content with her past and to move on from what had happened. Sethe subjected herself to the captivity of Beloved. When she actually faced her past instead of hiding from it, her past went away. Well at least the fear of her past disappeared. Sethe had been living years and years of a fear that she didn’t want to deal with. When the opportunity came up for her to forget she started off cowering from the past but then faced it head on. 

Media Saves the Beach Questions

What can be done to help decrease the trash in the North Pacific Gyre?
This interests me because the North Pacific Gyre is said to be 2 times he size of the United States. They tell us what we can do to lessen the effects and such.. but I want to know what we can do to help reduce what is already there. 


Would more trash cans at the beach reduce trash?
When we were doing the water testing we were located at Sunset Cliffs. The amount of trash there was incredible! The trash was everywhere and when my group and I started picking up trash, we had no place to put it because there were no trash cans within sight. If there were more trash cans it would probably reduce trash instead of just dropping your trash right where you are.


How many gyres are there located in North America?
I would like to know how many there are because maybe something can be done to reduce the amount of trash going into these areas in the ocean.

Blog #11

      Our “Modern” America 

      When the topic of the Civil War is brought up, most people automatically think of a war between north and south or those that wanted equality versus those content with the way things were. There are events even to this day that are acts of hatred towards other people of different ethnicities. Although many people will say that the Civil War was America’s “second revolution,” in reality the Civil War was the beginning of “modern” America.

      In 1865 the Civil War officially ended and on December 6, the Thirteenth Amendment was passed which ended slavery. The era that began after the war was known as the Reconstruction Era and the goal was to help the south rebuild after their loss to the north in the war. Most southern states were not thrilled about the fact that the north was trying to help them with their transformation into a “modern” America. The people of the south were content with having slaves and people of darker skin being treated lower than their own. The people of the north were all about equality and fairness for all no matter what a person’s skin color is. The opposing views of the two sides caused controversy and each put up a stand for their own opinions and beliefs. 

      When the war ended there were three amendments that were ratified and passed which were instrumental in the beginning of our “modern” America. The thirteenth amendment abolished slavery; the fourteenth amendment allowed blacks to become citizens of the United States, and the fifteenth amendment allowed blacks the right to vote. The Civil Rights Acts were put into action in 1964 and 1968 and started the equalization of every individual in America. The laws passed in our nation’s history have made it so that equality is something far more realistic in our modern day. In Pre-Civil War days, blacks did not have any rights at all. It was unheard of for whites to even speak to someone with darker skin than their own. Now there are blacks and whites in classes together, working side-by-side, and living next door to each other. There are interracial relationships and marriages, and the numbers of biracial Americans is increasing daily.

      In American history there hasn’t been a good track record for equal rights between different races. People have the same legal rights, but some Americans will still look down on another who has a different color skin, it happens every single day. Equality is what we aim for. We still fight for equality 150 years after the Civil War is over. Our “modern” society has changed our ways dramatically and made opportunities for people equal. Equality is attempted, but just because we have those rights doesn’t mean that people are treated the same by others. We can live in a society where we pretend that everything is perfect, but most of the time it isn’t. There are many that still can’t get over what happened in the Civil War and those that still think and speak degradingly of another because of skin color. 

      In the article “Dying for Dixie” from Confederates in the Attic, there was a woman interviewed and she said, “Kids today, they’re weaker and wiser.” This woman was a black storekeeper from Todd County after the murder of Michael Wasserman, a case that occurred in the south in 1995. In actuality, the way she spoke of kids being weaker and wiser is real in the world right now. To this day there is still violence and stereotypical remarks coming from the north to the south. People are weaker and hurtful things cause lashing out and hostility towards those of the other race. Maybe people just don’t know about the steps that have moved racial discrimination way down and made equality between individuals more reachable now than in earlier years.

     People have opinions that make equality very difficult. Many point out the lows after the Civil War which still affects our society today.  However, there are many changes that have expanded and made our society grow. If the Civil War hadn’t ended the way that it did, there would be a large number of the population that would be greatly affected. Right now we have an African American president. That could not have even been imaginable 150 years ago. Even 50 years ago that would never have happened. Our society is integrated with people of different races at the work place, in our schools and even in our very own government. Before the Civil Rights Acts, African Americans couldn’t even receive an education with those who were white, let alone be in the same room with them. Equality is what we aim for. People will speak about not living in an equal society but equality is not an option because of people that don’t want it to happen.