Yes, we can!

-Lyrics-

It was a creed written into the founding documents that declared the destiny of a nation.

Yes we can.

It was whispered by slaves and abolitionists as they blazed a trail toward freedom.

Yes we can.

It was sung by immigrants as they struck out from distant shores and pioneers who pushed westward against an unforgiving wilderness.

Yes we can.

It was the call of workers who organized; women who reached for the ballots; a President who chose the moon as our new frontier; and a King who took us to the mountaintop and pointed the way to the Promised Land.

Yes we can to justice and equality.

Yes we can to opportunity and prosperity.

Yes we can heal this nation.

Yes we can repair this world.

Yes we can.

We know the battle ahead will be long, but always remember that no matter what obstacles stand in our way, nothing can stand in the way of the power of millions of voices calling for change.

We have been told we cannot do this by a chorus of cynics…they will only grow louder and more dissonant ……….. We’ve been asked to pause for a reality check. We’ve been warned against offering the people of this nation false hope.

But in the unlikely story that is America, there has never been anything false about hope.

Now the hopes of the little girl who goes to a crumbling school in Dillon are the same as the dreams of the boy who learns on the streets of LA; we will remember that there is something happening in America; that we are not as divided as our politics suggests; that we are one people; we are one nation; and together, we will begin the next great chapter in the American story with three words that will ring from coast to coast; from sea to shining sea –

Yes. We. Can.

Celebrities featured include: Jesse Dylan, Will.i.am, Common, Scarlett Johansson, Tatyana Ali, John Legend, Herbie Hancock, Kate Walsh, Kareem Abdul Jabbar, Adam Rodriquez, Kelly Hu, Amber Valetta, Eric Balfour, Aisha Tyler, Nicole Scherzinger and Nick Cannon

Week 10 “Of Mice and Men” Chapter one Question:

1.  In the story, what do the other men think of Lennie?  Use examples from the text.  Please go into depth why you choose your answer.

My view of this question, is that basically everyone thinks that Lennie is  strong (and big), weird and stupid:

• The reason why they think that he is strong, is because they have seen him doing some work such as lifting, but also because George keep bragging about how strong he is and that he can lift two men without any problems etc.
• The reason why they think that he is weird, is because though he is such a big and strong guy, he likes small things such as rabbits, and i also likes to pet them. Isn’t that ironic?!
• The reason why they think he is stupid, or not that bright, is because they way he talks and act, but also because George told them that he wasn’t the sharpest knife in the drawer!

“Of Mice and Men” Chapter one Question:

Question: How do you know that George and Lennie have known each other for a long time? Use words from the text to support your answer:

Answer: I know that George and Lennie have known each other for a long time because of these examples and facts:

• George mention a old lady that used to give Lennie mice. This lady was Lennie’s aunt, and George knew that very well.
• In the book you read that they both have worked together for a long time by moving from farm to farm (ranch to ranch)
• You also get to read about an accident that happened some time ago, were Lennie touched a lady on her dress because he wanted to feel the fabric. The lady did not like this and Lennie got in trouble, but George and him managed to escape from it.
• George is also saying that Lennie might not be so bright, but that he is a very good worker and that he can lift up to two men at once.

John Steinbeck Questions: Due Friday

1. Which one of John Steinbeck’s novels won a Pulitzer Prize?
John Steinbeck won the Pulitzer Prize for his novel The Grapes of Wrath.

2. Where and what year was he born?
John Steinbeck was born in Salinas Valley, 27th February 1902.

3. Name three of John Steinbeck’s books that were made into Hollywood films?
The three books by John Steinbeck that was made into Hollywood films was The Grapes of Wrath, Of Mice and Men and The Forgotten Village.

4. In what year did John Steinbeck write of Mice and Men?
Of Mice and Men was published in 1937 by Spangler (the publisher).

5. What did John Steinbeck do during WWII?
During World War II Steinbeck was a war correspondent for New York Herald Tribune. If Steinbeck was caught he would have been executed, but all his missions were successful. Steinbeck got the Haakon VII medal of freedom because he contributed with helping the norwegian resistance movement.

6. What US President awarded Steinbeck the United States Medal of Freedom?
Lyndon B. Johnson (president from 1963 to 1969), awarded Steinbeck the United States Medal of Freedom.

7. What is John Steinbeck’s Museum called?
The National Steinbeck Center is the name of his museum.

8. How old was Steinbeck when he died?
John Steinbeck died when he was only 66ages old.

9. What does the novel “The Moon is Down”, have to do with Norway?
The Moon Is Down is much like the German occupation of Norway during WWII.

10. Find out on the internet the two main characters “Of Mice and Men”. Tell me a little about them and what the story is about (8 sentences).

The two main characters in the story “Of mice and men” are George Milton and Lennie Small.
Gorge Milton is an intelligent man, but also a person that care for others such as Lennie Small. Lennie Small is a man who has mental problems but he is incredible strong, and this don’t mix so good together. Lennie simply can’t control his own strength, which gives him some problems. Lennie likes to stroke nice and smoothe things such as animal fur and hair and with an accident Lennie kills his puppy, and he is afraid that George won’t let him be near the rabbits anymore, so he hide the corpse. Both went to California to find work. They dream about owning their own land someday, but that dream is crushed when Lennie kills a woman by accident. He is also accused of attempted rape when he stroke a womans dress. He is beeing chased by a lynch mob in the end of the story, so George shoots him to give him a painless death.

Due Friday – Caught in a Vicious Circle (page 132)

Question 1: Write a list of all the characters in this story and describe what type of person they are.

- Elaine – Elaine is a good person, though she is struck in a vicious circle, the longer you stay in the circle the harder it gets to stop!
She is hanging around with friends that have bad influence on her. The “leader” of her friend-gang makes her do things that she doesn’t really want to do. She does not like Cordelia, but she still does whatever she tells her to do. I would like to call her a “dumb-nice” person.

Cordelia – Cordelia is easy described as a cruel person. She hate to be made fun of, and she always bosses others around. She makes Elaine do things she doesn’t want to do. She is dependant on her friends, but she still treats them like dirt.

Carol – Carol is not as bad as the other girls. I think that she can be a very nice person, but she always take orders from Cordelia and is bossed around, just as Elaine. Carol cares for others, and she takes things seriously. I think it would be best for her if she also did like Elaine, to don’t hang around with Cordelia and get new friends, like if she joined Elaine and her new friend Jill.

Grace – It’s not so much to say about Grace since its not so much about her, but in my opinion she is basically Cordelia’s puppet, or “mini-me”:Cordelia’s thoughts is her thoughts, and she she always takes orders from Cordelia.

Elaine’s Mother – Like all mothers do, she also cares about here child, Elaine, and she knows Elaine has a rough time at the momen and that her friends aren’t good for her. That’s why it was so easy for her to tell who threw Elaine’s hat from the bridge even if Elaine did not tell her.

Question 2: What is the theme of this story? What is the author trying to get across to the reader?

The theme in this story is about that people can have bad influence on others. The author is trying to tell you that you should have your own opinions, go your own way, make your own desision and don’t just do as others tell you to. In the end you are caught in a viscious circle and it is harder to stop. Stay away from people who have bad influence on you!

Question 3: What did you like/dislike about this story, please be specific!

Th theeme in this story is OK, its not my favorite though… The message the author tries to hand out is quite good, and the message counts just as much today as it counted for decades ago, it will always be one or another that bosses people around, even I have experienced it.
I am glad that Elaine discovers that Cordelia has bad influence on her, and that she finally decides to find new friends and that she don’t want to take revenge on Cordelia…

Essay – Huckleberry Finn

Some critics claim that Jim is Huck’s “true father.” Defend or refute this statement.

After reading the book and used some time to think about it, I would first like to start with saying that this book is much shorter and have less details then the film and the cartoons which went on TV a few years back. But then again, the book is a “beginner” book and is probably made for children at a younger age.

And when that is said. We all know now that if we had seen the film or the cartoons we would probably get another view of the story and on the question if Jim is Huck’s ”true father” or not since the film and the cartoons have more details and so on.

But lets not only talk about Jim as well, we also need to talk about Huck’s biological father, which is Mr. Finn. Mr. Finn is a very bad, selfish, drunk and dirty person that only thinks about himself and what’s best for him. Mr. Finn is usually drunk all the time and always hit and curse at poor Huck. And when Huck’s mum died when he was young Mr. Finn left him all alone. Which is very bad. The only times Mr. Finn comes back to Huck is whenever he needs something, like money for an instance.

And when we know all these facts, we kinda get another perspective of the questions. In my opinion we can already say that Mr. Finn wasn’t a dad at all though he was the biological dad, because who wants a “dad” that hits you, curse at you and is always drunk and only comes to you when he needs money? NO! No one wants their dad to be like that, which kinda lead us back to Jim. Is he the “true father” or not?

Well.. I would say both yes and no. why? Well, simply because they kinda both are “fathers” to each others in one or the other way in my opinion. The reason I’m saying this is because they both look out for each other, they are more like brothers, so I would rather call them for brothers because they both care for each other very much.

Examples for this is like the time Jim and Huck was going down the river on their raft and were going past the place called St. Louis. Jim was asking why the place was called St. Louis, and since Huck knew the answers he told him. And all such things happened quite often on their journey. Whenever Jim was insecure he always asked Huck for answers and advice because he knew that Huck had studied at school, which Jim has not since he’s a slave. And even if he did study he would probably study in his homeland, Africa. And I guess that they didn’t learn so much about American places and stuff on the schools in Africa back then anyway…
This is only an example on how Huck took care of Jim.

Examples on the opposite, that Jim also took care of Huck:
In the book, you get to read about a big flood. Huck and Jim took the canoe and started to search around the mess such as destroyed houses, huts, wagons and so on that was caused by the flood. They eventually found a tree hut and Jim carefully went through one of the windows so he could get inside the hut in hope to find valuables such as money. Jim quickly saw Huck’s dad dead in the hut and therefore refused to let Huck go inside because he didn’t want Huck to see his dad dead since it could hurt him. In my opinion though, hiding Mr. Finn’s dead body from Huck wasn’t necessary. Huck hated his father so much anyway because he got hit and cursed on by him, Huck was probably scared and hated him so much, that letting him see his dad that would maybe make him happier, because then he didn’t have so much to fear. But that is just my thoughts. But in general this deed was a very good thing to do and is a good example on that Jim is taking care of Huck and only wants the best for him.

So back to the question once again. Is Jim Huck’s “true father”, and what about Mr. Finn? I would indeed say that Mr. Finn was not the one taking the dad-role, it was Jim. Jim and Huck and more in common then Mr. Finn had with Huck. Together on their trip Jim and Huck grew a tight bond, a friendship that was built on trust and compassion. They always had the same thoughts and whenever one of them got in trouble the other was always there for him to help him out and support him no matter what. So it would only be natural for me to say that Jim WAS Huck’s “true father”, in other words I defend the statement though I would rather call them brothers.

Short answers – The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

1. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn was first published in 1884.
2. The Adventure of Huckleberry Finn can best be described as a classic novel.
3.  Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer each received $6000 when they found money that the robbers had hidden in the cave.
4.  Huck’s dad returns because he just found out that Huck got $6000 and he wants to take it.
5. When Jim first sees Huck on the island he thinks that he is going to snitch on him because he ran away from his owner.
6.  Jim runs away from miss Watson because she intends to sell him to a slave-trader.
7.  Huck escapes to Jackson Island and discovers that Jim is a runaway too.
8.  Mark Twain’s approach to the issue of racism in Huckleberry Finn is that: all people deserves to have and live a free life even though they have a different skin colour than the majority. He shows this because Huckleberry always is helping Jim out of trouble.
   (Lars Rudi – Couldn’t agree more)
   After reading the book I guess that Mark Twain is not a racist and he thinks it’s a bad thing.

 

10 facts about Mark Twain

1. He was born in Florida, Missouri, on November 30.
2. His real name is Samuel Langhorne Clemen.
3. Twain is most noted for his novels Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, which has since been called the Great American Novel.
4. Mark Twain liked gadgets.
5. He named his dogs I Know ,You Know and Don’t Know.
6. He HATED to go to school.
7. Mark thought he would die with Halley’s Comet because he was born when it came, and he was right. One day after his death the Halley’s Comet flew by the sun!
8. He had little education and instead of going to school, he worked as a journalist.
9. Mark Twain published more than 30 books throughout his career.
10. Mark Twain died April 21, 1910 (aged 74)
    Redding, Connecticut

Death in the Barn – Page124

I think Lennie is a good guy, but he don’t know his own strength and he is like a big baby. All he want to do is to stroke nice and soft things such as animals, but sometimes he stroke them too hard without knowing it and they die,  which is not what he want too and when he accidently do he get very sad. He simply don’t know were the limits goes.

I think Curley and his wife should help Lennie by telling him what is right and what is wrong. They should also stop with the yelling and screaming when Lennie do something wrong. Getting angry at him will only make Lennie lose even more control which is not good, because when he lose so much control he might kill something.  They should also talk more to him and trust him more, building trust with him would only make him more self-confident and be more accurate with his strength/feeling (so he won’t kill soft animals)! But its not strange that he wants to stroke those nice puppies! they are so cute!!!

King Kong’s Little Nose

Once upon a time in the cold north, while a big fat polar bear was fishing for fish in a carved hole in the ice, a big stupid monkey just happen to come by (don’t know what he was doing there..). The monkey noticed that the bear had a big amount of fish that he had fished up from the hole. He realized that some food wouldn’t hurt his stomach now since he was pretty hungry.

So the stupid monkey walked to the bear and asked: “Hello, I noticed that you have a big stack of fish there mate, and I was wondering if I could get a fish or two? I’m very hungry”. But the bear said no and had a very angry face. He didn’t like to get interrupted. The monkey walked back with a sad expression on his face…

But then, after some crying he went back to the bear again and asked: “Hello again, I was thinking, if I gave you these bananapeels you think you could give me a fish or two? (You could clearly see that the bear was not interested in that piece of crap) and therefore he said no once again and was getting even more angry. That monkey was really starting to be annoying he thought..

The monkey was very very hungry now and since he didn’t get any fish from the mean bear he simply started to cry in a desperately attempt to get some food. The crying started to have some effect on the bear; Because of the crying the bear wasn’t able to focus enough and failed several times to catch the fish. Now the bear was really really pissed! “That fucking monkey is so annoying” he thought…

After some thinking the bear almost gave up and was about to give the crying monkey some fish to shut up. But then he got this great idea on how to keep the monkey quiet!.

“You there! Stop crying” the bear said. “oh! Will you finally give me food?” the monkey quickly replied. “No… But I will teach you how to catch some!. The monkey thought it was better then nothing and decided to give it a go.

“Ok, first you need to dig a hole through the ice so you can at least touch the fish” the bear said to the monkey. After 15min. The hole was there.
“Then you need to put your nose down in the hole as bait” the bear ordered. -“but why can’t I use my hand instead?”-“Because the fish is more attracted to your nose than your dirty hand! Stop asking question and do as told, you want your fish or not?!” And after some moaning the monkey did as told, he took his nose down the hole into the cold water. …But already after 10min. He complained again:
“The water is so cold! My nose will freeze!”. “Of course its cold, but its worth it when you catch the fish, all you need to do now is to wait for a fish to bite on your “bait” and pull it up as fast as you can”.
(The bear clearly knew that the monkey would keep quiet for a while now since he knew that fishing with his nose wouldn’t work. But the monkey was desperate and the bear took advantage of this)

After this “lesson” the bear left the monkey alone so he could get back to his own hole to fish some fish… Now he could fish once again without getting interrupted. -Two hours later the bear had fished enough fish for one week, while the monkey haven’t got a thing though he was still trying. The bear just laughed at him every time he peeked at him.
The monkey could barely feel his nose at this point, so anything that would touch it would feel like a fish biting. The bear was thinking about this and was thinking to have some fun. He jumped through his own fishing hole and swam under the ice to trick him. First he swam to the monkey, then he carefully snapped the monkey’s nose with his paw; -The monkey reacted with the speed of light and pulled up his nose as fast as he could with a furious power! He really wanted to get some fish now!
…But the one thing he didn’t know was that the icehole had shrinked around his nose and frozen it. This led to something terrible for the monkey. Because when he pulled his nose up so fast as he did, he accidentally ripped of a big part of his nose… And that’s the reason King Kong got a little nose!!!