First Semester Essay

Okay, since Mr. Mueller said to...

Amanda Shih

Honors

January 24, 2005

First Semester Essay

In reading all the books so far required for honors humanities credit, I’ve learned a surprising amount of information about history. In fact, it seems like I learned far more than I originally thought, or probably even realize. While all three books varied in many ways, like genre, character view etc. each book seems to represent another leap farther forward in history. And each book seems to prove that while it may have taken a while, America has changed quite a bit since the time of Johnny Tremain. Sometimes changes were made for the better, sometimes for the worse, but either way, the books helped to lay out history before us in a way that was more understandable and more on our level of thinking.

The first book we read, Johnny Tremain, definitely touched back on things I had learned in my history classes both now and growing up, since I lived several years in Massachusetts. Compared to what I’ve learned, it was definitely an interesting way to think of how things could have been done back then. What I found most interesting was that while in history class, we focused mostly on the US Constitution and what came after that, and the book in turn, focused more on why it was written. I can only barely remember reading an explanation of what Whigs and Torys were in those times in my history textbooks, but in Johnny Tremain, not only did they go into detail about what Whigs and Torys were, the author went on explaining about the way that each group worked and thought. There always seemed to be a sort of secret language within each group, so to speak. It was as if every person knew everything and had a role in every plan. In our history classes, the Sons of Liberty etc. didn’t seem quite as close. Over all, I found that this book was surprisingly informative and interesting to read.

The second book we read, The Witch of Blackbird Pond managed to teach me more than Johnny Tremain had managed to, as I had never studied the Salem Witch Trials before. In our history class, we learned about the British leaving America when America had finally won the right to govern themselves. In The Witch of Blackbird Pond however, Matthew Wood gets extremely angry when Reverend Bulkeley questions Kit’s allegiance to King James and she asks how it was possible for a person not to be loyal to their King. The Reverend seemed to imply that living with Matthew Wood would place her loyalty in danger. I believe during this argument, Matthew also mentions “freedoms given to them in the charter”. We just recently learned in history that a charter was an official document saying that a certain piece of land belonged to the King or Queen, despite who actually lived there. This book was also an exciting read, though it would have been interesting to be getting into details about the Salem Witch Trials while we were still reading it.

The third book we have been assigned to read, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer places some diversity between the lives of people living in different states and towns during the same time period. It clearly proves that not every town was full of deeply religious people. Though I have not gotten very far into the book myself, it seems to tie nicely into what we have recently been learning in history about pirates in the Caribbean, when the boys are playing their pretend games. It also proves that America was slowly beginning to settle a little, though even in this book, going to Church seems like an extremely important thing. In history, we learned that in ancient Rome, going to Church was a way for people to forget about their horrible lives and a way for them to have something to believe in. I believe that the people in this book had the same general idea, though not so much as to forget any horrible life they may have. This book has so far been very enjoyable and I hope to learn just as much from this one as I did the other two.

In conclusion, the books we have read so far in this semester have only helped us understand the things we are learning in history better. My history teacher, Mr. Leander has said that most students find history boring because they can’t relate to it at all. I think that in reading these books, we are more able to place ourselves in these time periods because we’re reading from the point of view of someone close to our age. All the books so far have been both well written and informative, and I look forward to reading the other required books this year. Other people may or not have found these books interesting, but I’m sure the ones who did are the ones who enjoy the stories we hear in history more.