TKAM Setting Blog - 11/24/15

 Evans, Walker. Sidewalk Scene in Selma, Alabama. 1935. Library of Congress, Selma, AL. 

 

Prompt: You will be selecting a photograph that represents your idea of Maycomb, AL based on Harper Lee’s description. Incorporating the different criteria from the Visual Literacy Guide, write a thoughtful, thorough, and well constructed response relating the photograph to Maycomb, AL.

        In class we started to read the novel To Kill a Mockingbird (TKAM) by Harper Lee, which takes place in Maycomb, Alabama. Maycomb is described as,"...a tired old town," where,"...grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square." This shows that Maycomb wasn't like a big active city and that it was poorly taken care of. Scout, the main character, also said that her father, Atticus, knew everybody by blood or marriage. This means that the town was also a small town, once again showing it's not a city. I went off of these descriptions pick my photo.

        The first thing I noticed were the prices written on the grocery store. In TKAM they mention prices for food being in the cents. For instance, Miss Caroline insisted that Walter should take a quarter and said,"Go and eat downtown today," showing that the prices and time periods are close together. In the picture it looks like a sign is knocked over and the paint is chipping away on the wall. This can mean that the town isn't that clean and taken care of.

        I also noticed that the sidewalk and street is smooth. Scout said,"In rainy weather the streets turned to red slop," this shows that the streets are made of clay. From what I already know clay is a really smooth material, the street and sidewalk look really smooth in this picture, so it could be made of clay. In the picture you can also see that the men are just sitting around outside and nobody is walking by in this picture. I think this can be the town not being active or the towns population isn't that great, like Maycomb

Theme Blog - 11/19/15

The Eleventh Plague

11/19/15

Pages: 148-222

Spoiler Alert

        The book The Eleventh Plague has many themes throughout it, but there are two big ones survival and war. I will focus on survival because the theme of war doesn't show as much the further into the book you get. Since this focuses on theme there might be some spoilers. As you read the book you see the main character, Stephen, wants to survive and start a new life.

        At the beginning of the book Stephen wants to continue surviving with his father. He wants to start a new life. They have to survive the winter, injuries, hunger, and most importantly the disease, P11. His father later gets a concussion and they are helped by a settlement. Now Stephen has help from the settlement, but in a way he still has to survive. He has never had contact with other kids his age, so he has to adjust to their living style and he has to think about the future of him and his father when his father recovers.

        This theme was introduced from the plot. This story follows Stephen as he tries to survive after a war caused P11, a very strong and deadly strain of influenza. This caused many people to die and left others to survive in very harsh conditions. Stephen survived this becuase he was born after the war, so  he has to survive the aftermath not the war.