The Piano Lesson 3

Something that caught my attention while reading was when Boy Willie is talking about Berniece he said: " She believe in anything if it's convenient for her to believe. But when the convenience run out then she ain't got nothing to stand on" (35). I found this interesting because it seems to me that Boy Willie is always saying negative things about Berniece and always undermining her feelings and acting as if what she feels or says doesn't matter. Another example is when he tells the other boys that he is going to go ahead and sell the piano even though Berniece said that she wasn't going to sell it.

Comment:I think you have a very interesting point there. There could possibly be a real ghost but the thought that everyone is covering up acts of a murderer actually makes sense. If people just say it's a ghost there really isn't anyone to blame for the deaths.

The Piano Lesson 2

Something I found interesting was when Doaker was talking about the railroads, at first he was simpling talking about railroads but then he he uses the railroads as a sort of metaphor for life. He talks about how there is always a train going in your direction, even if you miss it there will be another one. With the "trains going every whichaway", it shows how people and their lives are constantly moving and changing and paths are crossing and everyone is just going everywhere. Then Doakers feelings towards his own metaphor changes, he doesn't want people going everywhere, he thinks it would be best if everyone just staid where they were. This interested me because it almost seems as if Doaker set up this great metaphor to show us our flaws and things that we shouldn't be doing.

Comment:
I also think it's interesting that they all fight but that is also what siblings do. Me and my siblings fight all the time but not like the characters in the story. I am interested to find out if your prediction that their family had a previous problem before now comes true.

The Piano Lesson 1

In the begginning of the play on the first page I was suprised to see the word nigger used. I've always known it to be offensive to black people and didn't expect to see it in a book we read in class. I was also thrown a little off guard when I started reading by the way the charecters talked I wasn't expecting to read that kind of dialouge.

Comment: I also found the differences in the characters to be compelling because they were related. Other than the characters telling us that they are related I didn't see a connection between them.

Cry, the Beloved Country Chp. 32 Tabs

Three pages into chapter 32 the narrator says that the drought will break today with no doubt. I tabbed this because I thought it was interesting how this is such a good thing for the people living in the valley yet with the way it is worded it seems like it is just an quotidian thing.

Later in the chapter I tabbed the part where the land is being described again, "... all red with the blood of the earth". I did this because it reminded me of the first chapter in the first book when the earth is being described as torn away flesh. I see this description of the earth as a motif accruing through out the entire story.

Land Paralleling Family- Cry,...

Looking through out the book I see that the land is paralleling Kumalos family. It is doing so by represtenting how Kumalos family is falling apart and broken how nothing is able to keep them together. Kumalo went to Johannesburg to bring back his sister and her son and his own son. The only people he could bring back are the ones he's not really related to, his grandson and his daughter-in-law. The soil represents this with this qoute from the noval, "They are valleys of old men and old women, of mothers and children. The men are away, the young men and the girls are away. The soil cannot keep them any more".

Ashoks Fellows

Marie-Noelle Besancon is revolutionizing long-term health care for those with mental illnesses. By providing low affordable health care and homes they can live in so they live more like regular people.

Jean-Claude Decalonne is helping to provide more adequate teaching to youths who live in at-risk areas. By getting parents teachers and school boards more involved in teaching using more effective and different styles of teaching.

Caroline Casey is helping Irish people adapt their businesses to serve and employ people with disabilities. By providing them ways to change things so they better suit the disabled.

Cry, Nameless Characters

In chapter 30, Paton revisits a character that was first introduced to us right before Kumalo left for Johannesburg. He never gives this man a name, we can only identify him by the conversation he has with Kumalo. I believe Paton does this to emphasis the conversation and the subject at which the two men are talking about. They talk about how a girl disappeared in Johannesburg and her family was looking for her. The nameless characters in the novel help put emphasis on what the reprsent and stand for in the story.