How free were the African Americans?

In the times of slavery in the United States there was no white man slaves. There were African American slaves in the United States. I believe that no matter what gender or race that you come from that you should not be sold or traded for being a slave or anything else. During this time the whites made the blacks have some freedoms, but they really weren’t anymore free in the long run. To then get to the point, blacks weren’t free at all in my point of view.

African Americans did have some rights at the time but for sure not as much as they should have had. The blacks did have some political rights but not all states had them. Here is some example of how free the blacks were when it came to voting. In the New England states 1/6 of the states did not let the blacks vote at all and the male Jury Duty. To add on to that 5/6 of the states could not have a male Jury Duty. In the Mid-Atlantic state 2/3 of the states did not let the blacks vote or have a male Jury Duty. Lastly for those states 3/3 did not let the blacks have a male Jury Duty. Lastly for the Mid-West states 3/7 of the states did not let blacks have voting or a male Jury Duty. Finally 7/7 of the states did not allow blacks have a male Jury Duty.

As you can see so far, the blacks did have rights but most of them did not have it. Moving on to the blacks Economic freedoms you also learn they had rights but only so many of the blacks had them. In the 1800’s threw 1860 the whites had said that the blacks have the right to live, right to pay taxes, do duties. Those are pretty fair laws but they didn’t really turn out like that. For example of the blacks want to become a merchant know one would let him in his office and white clerks associate with them. So that would be useless just like other job that the blacks could not do. As you can see the blacks had a right to do that job but no one would hire them so that is another reason how the blacks really weren’t free. Finally since they had no jobs they lived in the least desirable places to live (neighborhoods) and their homes.

As you can see that was not fair ether. Also that did not have good rights in Economic freedoms ether. In the Social Freedoms how the whites dealed with at one point having to deal with the blacks is they separated each race. For examples the whites and the blacks had their own bathroom and their own bubblers. And for most of the events for the blacks they all had to be in the church. What they would do there is literary club, ran Sunday school, published newspaper, hosted abolitionist meetings and provided a refuge for fugitive slaves.

Lastly as you can see the blacks weren’t has free as the white people really thought they were. Also with all of the information above you can see that they weren’t as free as you might have thought. In the end I still believe that the blacks weren’t free even though they did have some rights.

It's gone

In the poems Big Yellow Taxi by Joni Mitchell and Field Below by Regina Skektor both have a very similar meaning in both of the poems. In both of the poems there meaning is you don’t know what you got until it’s gone which is described well in both of the poems. For example when they say “I wish I'd see a field below” that is what that person is missing. As that is an example of what that person is missing in that poem. That meaning is in both of the poems.

Second of all, what was the author’s purpose of writing the poems? As I said before the overall meaning of the poems is “you don’t know what you get till it’s gone”. Why the author wrote those poems are because they want to make the audience feel bad for them and understand why they feel that way. That was probably why those author’s wrote what they wrote.

There are many ways to describe the poems mood and tone but the best ways to describe them is that there heartbreaking and depressing for those people. Why they both feel that why is because there are both missing something. In their case that is nature getting replaced with something else. That is why they feel that why as they describe in the poems. That is the meaning of both of those poems.

As I said in the last paragraph the moods and tones in the poems are basically sad and depressing. But that is not always how it is why the poems turn into songs. A great example is the Big Yellow Taxi song being turned into a happy song. When the person sings the song I can almost picture her smiling while singing the song because she does not sound sad at all. But on the other hand the song Field Below sounded like a very sad song. How you know that is there is a piano playing and by the sound of the singers voice was sad.

As you can see not all songs and poems are alike. Overall that is what the meaning of the poems mean and also what was the author’s purpose of writing those poems.

Forgive me

 Authors Note: This parody is based of the book Teen War Stories. This is when the main character in one of the short stories in the book experiences. This Parody was done by Brennan Zimmer

 I have shooting all around

One by one people 

Come falling to the 

ground

And which I thought

there would be no way

through

Forgive me for not

helping you but I

also had to make it

through

This relates to the novel is the book Teens at War. And it's poem is based off of  "This is just to say". The speaker is the soldier who got through the war. The audience is basically him telling all the soldiers left behind sorry but since there died he is almost also saying it to himself. The overall tone of this poem is sad because he is telling all the died soldiers sorry for just living you behind.

It's never clear

Authors Note: This is a short response piece for the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes.

In the poem "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes there are examples of figurative language used in the poem. Some examples are like in the story the metaphor is that life she is talking about is that it is not a crystal stair (It’s not perfect). Also the meaning/purpose of the figurative language used in this poem is to describe what the mother is trying to say to the son. (Meaning whatever the son is facing it is never clear, but keep on going is the mother’s message). Lastly the mood and tone of the poem is the language and style how Langston put together, at least that is what it is to me. Overall out of examples of figurative language, meaning/purpose and mood and tone that is what I think the poem is like for those categories.  

Swindle

Authors Note: In the book Swindle by Gordan Korman, I am doing a Main Idea/ Topic piece for the book Swindle

To summarize the beginning Griffin the main character ends up taking a dare and sleeps over night in an old house that is scheduled for demolition. When they first got at the house they started snooping through the house. Then they came to a drawer, they opened it then to find an old Babe Ruth baseball card. Griffin did not know how valuable it was since the house was abandoned so he thought it could not be worth much. But he thought the next day he would bring it into a shop and sell it.

After finding the card, the house, at first everything was going just as planed or normal, but in the next morning, Griffin got woke up with a loud noise. The noise of the house being knocked down! Right away Griffin wakes up but his friend that went with griffin has not woked up! So then Griffin sakes Ben and they start running out of the house.The house started crumbling then falling! Then in the end they get out of the house safe. Which one example about bravery being the theme of the story.

After getting out of the house Griffin and Ben go either go to a pawn shop or a card shop and the owner ends up ripping them off by about $999,880! Meaning only giving them $120 compared to 1 million dollars! And for that part of the story really creates the main Idea of the story by Griffin trying to go after that card and trying to steal it back. In the book in order for Griffin to do that he needed some friends to help out on the plan. which is another example of how bravery is the theme of the story. Griffin’s first plan was to break into his shop being just Ben and him. The funnies part of this part of this book was that it did work, but the problem was the card wasn’t there! Then they had to make a new plan and find out where the card is.

Shortly after Griffin and Ben break into the shop and see that there card is not there, Griffin thinks of a new plan. To add on with the new plan Griffin knows where the card is. As proof that he knows is in the book Griffin was spying on in the people in the shop and he saw them taking things out of the shop, then into their cars. Griffins quote “I know where the card is, it’s at swindle house!”. In the end of the book Griffin gets more of his friends help out and try to steal the card but Griffin triggers alarm and the police ends up getting them. All of the money was donated to charities. Swindle the shop owner does not press charges and then they all live on.

I can make a connection with the book because if a got a baseball card worth that much I would like a million bucks too. But the difference for me is how far I would go. Meaning there is no way that I would just go break into a shop. I would get my parents involved somehow and try to work something out. In the end that is the book Swindle and also how I make a connection to the book and the theme of bravery in the book..

The Hero

Authors Note: I have just finished the book Heroes don’t run by Harry Mazer and I’m doing a writing piece about the description of the character.

In the book, Heroes Don’t Run by Harry Mazer, Adam the main character in the book ends up going off to boot camp for going into World War 2. Then later in the book goes off to war of course after boot camp. What Adam's job is he is almost like a guard at night. If he sees someone he is suppose to wake up everyone. Finally in the end of the book, Adam goes home early because he got hurt by getting shot and that is basically how the book ends.

Adam is a young adult meaning that he is about eighteen years old. Overall Adam is a skinny person. And has blue eyes as blue as blue as the sky. Also as strong as steal. In most of the book his community is everyone getting ready for war and recovering for getting hurt durning the war. I would think that would be very hard to deal with. That’s the community that Adam has to deal with in the book.

Finally my likes and dislikes. My dislikes in the book is that it did not answer some questions. For example Adam getting to know Helen more (meaning whatever happens to him and her) Do they become Boyfriend and girlfriend? Because she has a big impact on Adam. Also it did not answer what he did for the rest of his life (What happen to him after he recovered). Lastly The likes I have for the story is it is overall a good story. Because it moves very fast and there’s some action in it. Overall that is the book Heroes don’t run.