The tension socially between those who either abide by the law or enforce the law, and those who commit crimes and are considered to disrupt society are present throughout the entire text. When Wendell Bolden is being questioned by the prosecutor, Petrocelli, Myers uses one of the statements Bolden makes to create a connection between illegal activity, lower-class neighborhoods and hidden motives corresponding with the lower class and cigarettes. “Bolden: I got some cigarettes from a guy who told me he was in on a drugstore robbery up on Malcolm X Boulevard. I knew a dude got killed, and I was thinking of trading what I knew for some slack.” p. 48 The first thing to correspond with the cigarettes in these two sentences is the illegal activity, the robbery. Bolden also states that he is aware of the more serious crime, the murder. The next thing to tie the lower class with the negative notions is the mention of the low income neighborhood, Malcolm X Boulevard, immediately after mentioning the robbery. What should also be noted is that Myers decided to go with Malcolm X Boulevard, a neighborhood named after one of the most historically powerful people in the African American community. The use of Malcolm X’s name in this moment forces rotten perception towards black people. Furthermore, Bolden admits that his reason for testifying that he had been sold the cigarettes is merely for his own benefit, potential “slack” on an assault charge.
Category Archives: Group E
project check-in, group e
Group E, Monster: Harris, Dylan, Tiffany
WHAT: The current intention is to first collect a number of court room transcripts from hearings where black and/or latino kids (may not limit to juveniles) are being charged, then collect transcripts of hearings where white kids are being charged with similar crimes. The aim is to evaluate the language that is used by the prosecutors, defense attorneys, and judges; and to make note of any similarities and potential differences in the language used to address and describe the white kids on trial and the black/latino kids on trial. We would theoretically post each compared transcript, side by side, on a website with minimal design (possibly just a solid colored background). We may caption each pair of cases with a comparison of the language used, but have not determined if that would dissipate the intended effect.
WHY: In Monster, our protagonist is a black male that is, with the other men he is arrested with, labeled a “monster” by the prosecution. We, as readers, however, have insight into the life of our young protagonist, and are moved to sympathize with him. Although his lawyer successfully defends him, she is suspicious of her client and refuses to celebrate his win with him.
A black male who goes into trial does not enter the court room as himself, the individual–he enters with all the biases, stereotypes, and judgements that precede him. Prosecutors need only use a handful of words, insinuations, and allusions to win their case. Fear, ignorance, and conditioning of the American people do the rest of the job. Language, which is taught and learned, is the foundation of our understanding of the world, and while we as a group (Group E) have not yet sought out any of the transcripts we would potentially use, we are confident we will find stark contrasts in the lingual treatment of minorities and white defendant. Access is a most important factor of education, and we feel that compiling these transcripts so that they are easily accessible can only serve as a positive addition to any viewer’s self-education.
Group D: Final Project , Shatavia, Jeleah, Kye, Angel
What: For our group project we are going to create a scrapbook. A scrapbook is a book of blank pages for sticking clippings, drawings, or pictures in. The scrapbook is going to be designed exactly how we think Jefferson, Grant, or a character from the book would create it. We will be filling up the scrapbook with Jefferson’s important memories, moments, recipes, and his time in jail. In order to do this, we will be looking for symbols in magazines, things from the internet, clippings in newspapers and physical objects. Being in jail and confined to one place causes a person to use their imagination. Similar to Jefferson and Grant they are both trapped in situations that cause them to do a lot of imagining and thinking. Something our group will be doing in order to create the perfect scrapbook that represents “A Lesson Before Dying”.
Why: In the book “A Lesson before Dying” a lot of the book has to do with symbols and teaching. Jefferson is being taught a lesson by being sentenced to death. Grants job as a teacher is to teach and he is also asked to teach Jefferson how to become a man. Since teaching plays a huge role in this book, the scrap book will be created to teach others about our insights, thoughts, and main ideas about the book. We all thought it would be a good gesture to create a visual. This way our imagination and how we views things from the book can be brought to life.
Frankenstein
A reoccurring theme for the first couple of chapters in Frankenstein seems to be death. While it does not seem obvious at first, it is hinted at as being the inevitable. Victor had a free and blissful childhood, much due to the allowance of his parents. However, Victor’s open mind leads him to question everything, specifically things in regards to nature and its cause. His happiest thoughts happen when he is young. As he gets older, at the end of every wonder regarding natural mystery, the recurring answer is demise. The deeper Victor is in his personal studies, he subtly lets the reader know that he is aware of his fate. Victor states, “I feel exquisite pleasure in dwelling on the recollections of childhood, before misfortune had tainted my mind and changed its bright visions of extensive usefulness into gloomy and narrow reflections upon self.”
The death of Victor’s mother reaffirmed what he already knew about destiny. This ultimately led Victor to slightly shift his direction of interest. He was still fascinated with nature, but more so it’s relation to mortality.
The unknown and the secret are scary. The outcome for the unknown is death, both literally and symbolically. To be dead is to lose your humanity. Victory loses his humanity the more he indulges in the science. The more he focuses on creating the monster, the more out of touch he becomes with society.
To further assert the idea that the unknown is scary. The monster goes to make friends in chapter fifteen, hoping that they will look past his physical features. Instead, he was attacked and ran off.
I believe one of the ideas the author is trying to convey is that, what is unknown will get deserted and left to their own fate. “Monsters” in our society are those that do not fit the norm. The norm is created by the popular; heterosexual, able-bodied, white male. If you do not fit in any of those groups, you are considered a monster. If you do not fit in ALL of those groups, you are DEFINITELY a monster.
What is a Monster?
What is a Monster? In class we all had different and similar views to what a monster is. In this article most of those views were explained. This article defines a monster to have certain qualities whether it is physically, mentally or just by behavior. I say behavior because it explains that a person can be a monster due to their actions that can cause harm. The example of the dentist who shot the lion; he was viewed as a monster because in the public’s eye he did a monstrous thing. The article also stated that monsters have distinctive looks. They don’t look “normal.” During various times, normalities took on different forms. Animals that didn’t have any limbs were considered monsters and even those who contained characteristics or multiple ideas were monsters. Some deformities were viewed as monstrous, even babies that were born deformed. According to this article monsters are considered to be beings that do not apply to the social norm. People who commit murder, animals that seem different, and other ideas that create fear are monstrous.
Many examples were applied to what a monster is however it caught my attention that animals that are part of the norm today were considered to be monsters such as walruses and armadillos. In paragraph six of the article it tells us that armadillos and walruses were brought into Europe as exotic beasts and made into monsters. It makes me think back to the drawings that we did in class. Some of those monsters had horns which look similar to a walrus tusks. Long, pointy objects can be intimidating and frightful so it makes me think that in some ways the Europeans associated those tusks to be somewhat monstrous because it created fear within. As I’ve mentioned some people saw animals as monsters because they had no limbs so this can be a reason as will. A walrus appears to not have any limbs and move around using their entire body. As for the armadillo, their shell makes them seem out of place and seem a bit frightening.
Questions:
- Dr. Palmer was considered a public “monster” for shooting Cecil the lion. According to the text what were these public “monsters” considered to be similar to?
- Why do you think that animal without limbs weren’t considered “normal” and were made to be monsters ?
- I agree that people who cause harm to others intentionally and brutally are considered to be monstrous. What’s your take on that ? and why?