Final Essay

Here it is.

Amanda Shih

June 5, 2005

Honors English

Final Essay

As the school year draws to a close, it surprises me that most of the people who were involved in Honors English this year managed to read their way through seven books. Though we were required to read books that we probably wouldn’t normally have read on our own, I believe that we all benefited from the experience. Each book we read this year had its interesting points, and each taught us more about some of the country’s history. The books that were chosen were written in a way that helped to keep our interest and keep the books relatable, and therefore taught us more than our textbooks would. So, in this essay, I’ll tell you everything I learned from the books we read, and from my history class this semester.

In Shane, we entered a fairly rural, farm-type setting that we hadn’t really seen in any of the previous books. In the book, when Fletcher kept trying to find ways to blackmail and fight their way into getting the Staretts’ land, I was reminded of when we talked about the Indians and early white settlers in history class. In Shane however, Joe Starett was offered a fairly decent amount of money to give up his land. The white settlers, on the other hand, presented Indians with fake deeds, and cheated them out to get more land than they were offered. The main difference between the two though, is that the Staretts managed to protect their land, while the Indians, who were at a disadvantage, did not.

In The Call Of The Wild, the book begins with Buck being stolen from his home by his owner’s gardener and sold off to become a sled dog. As I read the book, I continued to come by instances where the dogs were greatly mistreated by their owners. I felt that most of the mistreatment came from Charles, Hal, and Mercedes. The constant beating, starving, and trading of the dogs in the book strongly reminded me of the things we learned about slavery in history. Just like the dogs in The Call Of The Wild, the slaves were stolen, beaten, starved (for the most part), and traded amongst different owners. It’s a pity that, just like the slaves, the sled dogs were seen as an inferior race, existing for the sole purpose of doing their owner’s bidding.

Strangely enough, it was The Call Of The Wild that brought back thoughts of they things we learned during our slavery unit in history, and not The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman. Things that did match up were the laws that were passed. For example, in the book Jane mentions that she’s hearing stories about slaves up North getting captured and returned to their masters in the South. This coincides with what we learned about the Fugitive Slave Law in history class, which allowed owners to recapture runaway slaves. Also, the Secesh are mentioned in the book, and in the book we are currently reading in our English class, Across Five Aprils, the secesh were also mentioned. The thing is, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman is set after the Emancipation Proclamation has been passed, and we have yet to reach that point in our history classes yet. However, the book definitely helped me get the general idea of how hard and unfair life still was for black people in those times.

In conclusion, I have greatly enjoyed being part of the Honors English program this year. I was introduced to books I never would have read on my own, and was at times, pleasantly surprised. I find it interesting how people can listen to their history teachers talk and not feel a connection to the stories they’re hearing at all, but then read one of these books, and feel a complete connection to the characters and the time period.

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Mueller: I realize that there may be a couple lines missing from the end of the essay. Sorry about that. I hadn't been able to save the document when I wrote it, so I had to use the Auto Recover today. I'm not sure it actually recovered the whole essay. I'd be happy to edit my post when I get my essay back and fix it up.

To everyone else: It's been fun blogging with you guys. I'll see you around. ^_^

Last Post!

Wow, so this is the last post for this blog. Depressing...ish... o.0 But then again, there's still the final essay, so we may need to post that later on too.

Anyway, here's my last Jane post.

I really liked this book. I'd probably give it a 8.5/10. It was descriptive and the way the story was written made it seem real, but at times I got confused by the flow of the story. The ending was kind of another one of those cliffhanger type things, though you can assume that Jane Pittman lives through the demostration and continues to live at Samson. I find it kind of sad that Jane never actually made it to Ohio, and ended up staying where everyone kept saying she was (Louisiana). I guess after a while, Ohio didn't seem so important. I think that maybe Jane's hope of getting to Ohio and finding Brown was what kept her going as a child, but as she grew older, she found security right where she was. I wonder if Jane would ever think of her determination to get to Ohio in her later years.

But like I said, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman was one of the better books that we read this year in Honors English.

Hmm, I guess that means it's 'bye bye' to the bloggie now yeah? Well, I'll save my parting word until I'm sure we won't be posting our final essays on here. ^_^

Second Jane post

Okay, so later on in the book, Jane "marries" Joe Pittman. I was wondering...does the ceremony really represent anything in particular? It might have said in the book, but I don't remember. I thought that it was sad when Ned was killed, but I think that it's better that he died trying to do something rather than doing nothing at all. I have to wonder though, if Ned knew he was probably going to get killed, was he scared at all? He didn't seem it on the outside, but he still might have been. It's sad though, that Albert Cluveau was kind of Jane's friend before he killed Ned. It's almost as if he had no conscience, or maybe he was just so scared of what would happen to him if he didn't do as he was asked that he did it to save himself. I just think that Jane should have meant more to him, considering that he didn't really have any other friends.

1 more post, 2 more comments.

First Jane Post

And the week of organized procrastination begins...

I really like this book so far. Like we mentioned in the book talk, I think that Jane was really snobby at the beginning of the book. Even though she was young, she was too stubborn to accept help from anyone! It makes me wonder what would have happened if she had really waited patiently with all the people that tried to help her. I don't think Jane realizes, maybe not even when she's older, that she was extremely lucky to have run into the people that she did. I was actually kind of suprised when I found out that the story wasn't real. The introduction of the book and the way the book is written just makes it seem very real. It took me a while to get used to reading the specific way of speaking that is used in the book, but now it's gotten easier.

Two more posts...3 more comments (?)

Last Post!!

Okay, last Call of the Wild post. By the way, you people who haven't posted on the book yet make it extremely challenging to make 5 decent comments, I went through every single blog trying to get all my comments in. >_<

Anyway, I thought that over all, this was one of the better books we've read this year. I would give it a 9.5 out of 10. It was well written and descriptive (sometimes a little too discriptive) and I loved the way the author gave every single dog and person a personality. I also loved how at those final moments when Buck was battling with his need to live in the wilderness and his love for John Thurston, the author was very in tune with Buck's thoughts, feelings, and all his senses. This was a pretty good book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind a little gore.

Post Four

Okay, so I know I'm kinda jumping around in the book with my posts here, but work with me peoples!

Anyway, when I was reading the part where Buck was pulling the sled for a bet, I really couldn't put the book down. Scary eh? I think it was this part in the book after Buck meets John Thurston that really spells out how much they love eachother for the reader. When Buck attacks the person in the bar for hurting John, I was actually reminded of all the bar fights in Shane.

One more post, two more comments.

Oh my...posty posty post...three

I think that the primitive looking man that Buck keeps seeing in the fire is a caveman. It was really odd to read about the man going to sleep hanging from a tree though...I never knew people used to do that. I had to force myself not to think of George of the Jungle on the tree swinging bit though...

I really liked the way the author wrote about Buck's instincts coming alive in him though. It almost makes you wonder... If we all set our dogs free like that...would the react the same way? o.0



Oh, and Anne: "Mm mm mm uh huh uh huh"

2 more posts 4 more comments.

Oy biscuits. Blog #2

Okay, so, diving right in...

I really didn't like Hal, Charles and Mercedes. They not only seemed completely clueless, but ignorant of what the dogs really needed. Which obviously, eventually ended in their deaths. The one of the group that really bothered me was Mercedes though. She whined, and complained, and played the "damsel in distress" role. I "strongly dislike" it when people act like that. I realize that the conditions were bad, but really, it was her choice to go on the trip in the first place. Suck it up and walk woman! But I suppose that what karma's for...

Three more posts. 4 more comments.

First CotW Post

Ehh and as the due date week gets under way...my well planned procrastination kicks into gear. *breathes* Okay, here we go...I'm done with the book by the way.

Okay, so at the beginning of the book, I thought it was sad that Buck got sold by his owner's gardener's helper, Manuel. But it was interesting to see how quickly Buck learned from the other huskies and adapted to the life he'd been dumped into. I have to admit, I was kinda happy when Buck overtook Spitz, just because Spitz was so overbearing to all the other dogs. I mean, I understand that that's the only way they gain their respect, but when you attack another dog just for the fun of it, that's just dumb. Anyway, new post coming tomorrow...