READING JOURNAL

Date: 5/22/2018
Pages:
Role: Boo Radley
• Research
• Plot
• Character
• Style
• Questionner

The image that I have chosen is a slight exageration, but it represents the theme and idea that Boo is seen as a monsterous, dangerous creature (a shark), but means well, and is a kind hearted humanbeing (saving the man’s life) through multiple acts throughout the novel. Here are some:

I believe that the readers perception of Boo Radley, as well as his character’s development is largley based on Jem, Scout and Dill’s views of him throughout the story. In the beginning of the book, Boo is described as a monster, who eats raw squirrels and, and who looks through windows in the night. “Boo was about six and a half feet tall.. he dined on raw squirrels and any cats he could catch.. his eyes popped, and he drooled most of the time..”. To the children in the story, Boo was seen as a mystical creature, something unkown and dangerous. This sense of unkowiness drives the children to want to know more of Boo, and through their curiosity, they become obsessed with discovering who he really is, for example. “..As the summer progressed, so did our game. We polished and perfected it, added dialogue and plot until we had manufactured a small play upon which we rang changes every day..”. Showing how, even though Boo’s goal of staying away from his community to not have to endure their harsh jugements, they are still just as present while he is not there.

The reader’s perception of Boo begins to change, when we discover that Boo has been leaving gifts for the children in the trees. It sheds a new brighter light on who Boo is, but still leaves a curiosity of why he is doing this. When Boo put the blanket around Scout, while she was watching the fire at Mrs. Maudie’s house, this was the beginning of the children gaining a new understanding of Boo, furthing their curiosity, but also shedding a brighter light upon who he really is. When Atticus says, “..Boo Radley. You were so busy looking at the fire you didn’t know when he put the blanket around you..”. This shows the light that is beginning to shine upon Boo’s character, as the audience learns he knows humanity, and cares for others.

After the children witness the Tom Robinson trail, thier new understanding of Boo Radley furthers, and they begin to understand that he might not have been locked away for years, but had chosen to stay away from his community based on how they can react and behave towards outsiders. When the children begin to gain a better understanding of who Boo Radley is, this is also a beginning of a turning point for Boo.

When Bob Ewell attacked Scout and Jem, Boo protected them. Although Tate believes that Boo stabbed Bob, he choses not to send him to prison, as he believes that that would be no

punishement to him, but rather to put him into the town’s “limelight”, which he thinks Boo would not appreciate, as he is shy. Boo’s character is now no longer seen as a monster by the children, but the perspective of his character has completley changed, from a misunderstood monster in the beginning, to now being seen as an kind, well meant humanbeing.

Date: 5/22/2018
Pages:
Role:
• Research
• Plot
• Character
• Style
• Questionner

There are two images showing the similarities of each other. The first is a map of Maycomb, the finctional town in which To Kill a Mockingbird takes place, and the second, is a map to Monroeville, which is a real town in Alabama that Harper Lee grew up in.

The story of To Kill A Mockingbird written by Harper Lee is very autobiographical to Lee’s childhood. The story takes place in a small fictional town in the south called Maycomb, which is based on the real town that Haper Lee grew up in, Monroeville. Many of the characters in the novel are also brought from Harper Lee’s reality; Scout being a representation of Lee in her childhood (both being tomboys, and going to her father’s trails with Dill / her real friend who Dill is based on), Atticus Finch was strongly based on her father (him also being a southern lawyer, and her mother in real life had a condition in which she was mentally and emotionaly absent from her childrens lives, so her father did much of the parenting alone, much like Atticus), Jem is four years older than Scout (the same for Lee in real life), the family had a black housekeeper who came to work in thier homse each day (much like Calpurnia), Dill Harris was based on one of her childhood friends (as he would come to visit every summer), and itt is thought that Boo Radley was based on one of her neighbours, as there was a man very similar to him (mysterious, and frightened local children, and left gifts in the trees for children).

The trail in the story was similar to one Lee had experienced in her childhood; a white woman near Monroeville fasley accused a black man of raping her, and the man was sentenced to death. However, after letters claiming that he had been falsey accused, his sentence was changed to life in prison, where he died. The story as well as the trail where published in her father’s newspaper (basing Tom Robinson’s character after him). It is also probable that the trail in the book was influenced by the Scottsboro Boys, where nine young black men where falsey convicted of raping two white women (on very poor, different evidence), after having gotten into a fight with five white men, which they won, and then the white men complained to a train guard at the next stop of what happened. The Scottsboro case held the same purpose as the trail of Tom Robinson did in the novel, the point being to show the still very alive prejudice of the south. Lee published this novel in the 1960’s during the civil rights movement, and although it is set in the 1930’s, Lee is very much showing how she believes in the fair treatement for black people.

Connection to Inquiry Question
Find one non-fiction source that also answers your question. Look for a source from a reputable news site such as CBC, CTV, Macleans, Global News, an Encyclopedia, The Vancouver Sun, The Province, Globe and Mail, or The National Post. Be sure to include quotes.
Source 1:
Inquiry Question: What effect does racism have on a person / culture?
Title of the news source: Global News
Title of the article: ‘It’s a traumatic moment’: How everyday racism can impact mental, physical health
Author: Leslie Young
Citation (use EasyBib or Citation Machine): Works Cited
Young, Leslie. “’It’s a Traumatic Moment’: How Everyday Racism Can Impact Mental, Physical Health.” Global News, Global News, 6 Apr. 2018, globalnews.ca/news/4119857/racism-mental-health/.
Notes (summarized and paraphrased):
• “People who experience a moment of racism “put it away in a box,””
• “Next time they experience something similar, they might not just react to that single comment, but to all the other ones they have already experienced throughout their lifetime.”
• ““We have research over the past 20 years that shows some pretty definitive links to just about every major mental illness and experiences of racism and discrimination,””
• “People come in with depression or in some cases symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder as a result of repeated racist interactions.”
• “And some people get depressed because they feel like they can’t keep trying to fight the system and just give up.”
• “Some people might also deal with stress by resorting to drugs or alcohol as a coping mechanism”
• “PTSD, “That’s because these events tend to be unpredictable so you never know when they’re going to happen””
• “Repeated racist interactions”
• “The constant stress of racism has also been associated with physical health problems, like high blood pressure, stroke and diabetes”
• ““It’s been pretty consistent and strong, this link between racism and poor physical health as well as mental health.””

The answer to the question:
Not only a person’s self worth, but mental health as well as physical, can be affected by racism. Each comment builds up, until it can no longer be contained, and it bursts out, seeming to over react to one comment, getting them in more trouble and creating a worse image, when in reality, it wasn’t that one comment, but all of the ones they’ve received in the past as well.

Now find a literary source that answers the question. This can be a movie, book, short story, poem, spoken word or song. Be sure to include quotes.
Source 2:
Source genre: Song
Title: The Story of O-J
Author/director: Jay-Z
Citation: Works Cited
AZLryrics. “The Story of O-J.” AZLyrics, AZLyrics, http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/jayz/thestoryofoj.html.
Notes (summarized and paraphrased):
• “Light ni–, dark ni–, faux ni–, real ni–
Rich ni–, poor ni–, house ni–, field ni–
Still ni–, still ni–”
• “House ni–, don’t f– with me
I’m a field ni–, go shine cutlery
Go play the quarters where the butlers be
I’ma play the corners where the hustlers be”

The answer to the question:
In this song, Jay-Z explores how, no matter what social status you are of, your skin color will always be what truly defines who you are or the only thing you will be judged on. He explaines through the lyrics of “House n–, don’t f— with me..” that he doesn’t support the racist comments that affect him, nor the people that believe in racism, as house slaves generally liked their masters a little more, as they where heald and treated at a higher level, while field slaves where treated much lower, and treid to escape from their masters. He expresses his personal struggle with his own black identity through this song, showing how others may also feel towards racism.