To Kill a Mockingbird - Photo Analylis

                                                                                             Sidewalk Scene in Selma, Alabama. 1935. 

                                                                                             Selma, Alabama. By Evans Walker.

Observations:

This picture is of people in front of a building with a sign that has numerous items written on it. The people are all sitting and not walking into or out of any shops. Nobody is walking anywhere and they are all talking. The store has a Coca-Cola sign in the window. The sign says "trading post" on the top.

Inferences:

The sign that says trading post and names items tells that the building is a shop and those items are what it sells. The people do not have anywhere to go or are not being rushed to where they need to be because they are sitting and talking. This location is a long time age because there is a lot of space between the shops and the road there are no cars visible.

Questions:

What was the rest of the community like?

How many people lived here?

What are these people doing?

What do these people do?

Could this be Maycomb?

This could be Maycomb because it matches the how Harper Lee describes the town of Maycomb in To Kill a Mockingbird. Lee writes, "People moved slowly then. They ambled across the square, shuffled in and out of the stores around it, took their time about everything." The people in this image are not moving quickly. They are in what could be a town center and are near a store. This matches up with how Lee describes Maycomb.

Into the Wild: 11/19/14

Prompt: What were some problems the main character faced.
Pages: 131-end

     This part of the book talks about what difficulties the main character faced while in Alaska and what caused him to die. The biggest problem that Chris McCandless faced was that he did not have a map of the area. This led to two problems. The first was that he crossed a small stream that would soon turn into a large river when the ice and snow melted. He did this while traveling from the main road to the area he would attempt to survive in. Another problem not having a map caused was that he did not know that a river crossing was nearby. This resulted in him being trapped in the woods for a very long time and ultimatly caused his death.

     The second problem Chris McCandless faced was that he ate moldy seeds. He had eaten many of these seeds before and knew they were safe but ate seeds with mold. This crippled him and could only be flushed out by extra protiens or fat in his body because surviving in the wilderness had weakened him and taken away these proteins and fats. He could not go out to look for food and starved to death because of this. This was one of the main reasons he dies.

     Finally Chris McCandless was very self confident. He left his home and traveled across the United States. He hitchhiked from Mexico to Alaska. He went on many journeys. He canoed from California into Mexico and Hiked along the Appilacian trail. Finally he hitchhiked to Alaska. He brought very little fod or equiptment. He did all of these things because of his self confidence. This confidence helped him have a self satisfying journey and ultimatly led to his death.

Nightjohn: 11/12/14

1- Analyze the impact word choice has on the meaning or tone of a text.
2- Analyze how dialogue or specific incidents reveal information about characters. Make sure to include textual evidence.

Pages: 1-end

Word choice in this piece helps develop the meaning of the text by helping better describe the conditions of the slaves. When Nightjohn arrives he has marks from being whipped. The author describes this by saying, " The skin across his shoulders and down was raised in ripples, thick as my hand." The word choice also helps show how little education the slaves had. The word choice in the whole story uses bad grammer to show the lack of education of the narrator. The line says, "There ain't no light allowed in the quarters." This shows the slaves had very little education.

Dialogue reveals that the main character is eager to learn. The main character says, "To read what I just put there in the dirt– can you teach me?" This shows that the main character is eager to learn. Dialogue also reveals that Nightjohn wants to improve other's lives. Dialogue between mammy and Nightjohn said, "You came back to teach reading' John nodded. 'That's half of it.' 'What's the other half?' 'Writing." This shows that Nightjohn wanted to teach people.

Specific incidents revealed that Sarny was scared of Waller. When Waller catches her writing words in the dirt she runs. The author writes, "I crawled-ran to get away. Ran to the only place I knew." This shows how scared Sarny was of Waller. Specific incidents also reveal that Nightjohn takes responsibility for his actions. When Waller is torturing another slave to find out who taught Sarny reading and writing Nightjohn confesses. He also locked himself up. The author writes, "He walked to the spring house and put the bracelets on." This shows Nightjohn would not allow other people to be punished for his actions.

Into the Wild: 11/4/14

Prompt: Summary
Pages: 1-102

This book as about a man named Chris McCandless who hitchhikes across he United States, walks into the Alaskan Wilderness, and dies. The author is a non-fiction writer who was tasked with writing a narrative about McCandless for a newspaper. He became so interested in McCandless that he decided to write a book about him. McCandless started in Atlanta, Georgia. He donated all his money left in his collage fund after collage for law school to charity and changed his name to Alexander Supertramp.

He then drove to south California and left his car under a tarp. He removed the license plates and put a note in it saying that anyone who could get it out could have it. He than took everything he might want out of the car and burned all the money he had with him. He hitchhiked to Lake Tahoe and hiked for a week on the Pacific Crest Trail. He was offered a job in northern California but stole a bike and ran away because the man never payed him.

By this point McCandless' family had become very worried. Police started a search for Chris but could not track him. He bought a canoe and paddled from California to Mexico. He was caught by border patrol while crossing back into America and lost his pistol. He buried his backpack and went into Vegas with no money or ID. When he retrieved his backpack he discovered that his camera was ruined. He stopped taking pictures and writing in his journal.