Who Are You Thankful For (in 6th per. English)? 

There are a lot of things and people to be thankful for. In my sixth period english class the person i am thankful for is Natea. I have sat next to Nayea since the first day of the school year and she has always helped me when I needed it. Natea happens to have the same birthday as me and we also take to same train home so we have quite a few things in common. Natea and I also have another class together but we dont sit near each other. If it wasnt for our sixth period english class I probably wouldnt even know her that well.Out of everybody in our english class I see and talk to Natea the most outside of class. I dont think i know anyone else in my english class as well as i know Natea. That is why I am thankful for fellow student Natea who is in my sixth period english class

I Celebrate Myself

                           I Celebrate Myself

   I celebrate myself sometimes but mostly on special occasions. I celebrate myself once every year on my birthday, I might also celebrate myself if I obtained some sort of achievement or were to win a contest. Wedding days, birthdays, parties are all things people use to celebrate themselves. I don't win contest 24/7 and everyday is not my birthday, these celebrations only happen once or twice a year. Am i celebrating myself enough? Do I reach the transcendental standard for self honor? I don't think I could ever reach such high expectations of self glorifying.

   Transcendentalists believe in dropping all duties of society in order to pursue happiness. This pursuit of happiness is a celebration to yourself because you overcome the corruptions of society to be rewarded this happiness. I don't think i could ever celebrate myself to this extent. I couldn't give up everything i worked for for the chance that I might be happy. I could just except the celebrations society provides for me rather than looking for honor on the outskirts of nowhere. Why venture into the wilderness when I could throw a party. To me, transcendental  celebration is a bit extreme and not always needed. Many of people have discovered what makes them happy while still remaining within the confinements of society.

   I celebrate myself often but not to the extent that would please a transcendentalist. I don't think I need to spiritually connect with nature to be happy or to reward myself. Society can be just as rewarding as nature.

Poe

                               Poe
 Edgar Allan Poe was an american author and poet who's work is very famous today. Poe's poems are known for being dark and creepy or dealing with the supernatural. The pieces Poe wrote fit the ideas that were common during the romanticism period in United States. I would think that Poe's poems were not only influenced by the new ideas of his time but also the life he lived. I think what Edgar Poe has been through during his lifetime (along with his intelligence) enabled him to write his stories.
   Poe didnt live the easiest life but rather a life of hardship and loneliness. A lot of the events and circumstances that he endured in his life were reflected in his poems. For starters, his mother died before he was even 3 years old then he was adopted by a married couple. His new mother also eventually died while he was in his teens and his "father" didnt really like him. Poe had to deal with the absence of  a loving womanly figure on several occasion in his life and so did subjects in his poems. In The Raven the narrator is mourning the lost of his beloved Lenore and in Ligeia the main character loses his love interest twice. Isolation was another recurring factor in Edgar Poe's life. Poe lost two sets of parents and grew up with few friends so isolation was probably his closest companion. In The Raven the narrator seems to be isolated from society due to his mood and in The Fall of the House of Usher the narrators friend is very seclusive. Also in the Fall of the House of Usher the partaking of incest is suggested and Edgar Allan Poe married his 13 year old cousin (he was 27 at the time). Im not sure if that was normal at the time or not.
   I think Edgar's life really shaped the themes in his poems and it just so happened to accommodate the new ideas being developed by other artist of his time. Many of the things Edgar Allan Poe lived through can be seen in his poems.

         What It Means To Be American 
 Americans are known for many things around the world like being lazy and being rude. Americans are also known to be very close to their electronics. America has no set culture attached to it so it doesn't take much to be considered an American.
     America is supposedly the "melting pot" of the world because it has so many different types of people living in it. America has people of different races, religions, and cultures living in it so you could say it is pretty diverse. This same diversity makes it almost impossible to define what an american is. How do you create a definition or classification for millions of different people? The fact that America doesn't really have a culture only makes it that much harder to call someone an American based on a definition. Most people identify with the culture their family practices and uses that to define "what" they are even if they weren't born there. On technical terms, if you're born in America, you are American but where a person is born often doesn't define who they are as well as the traditions they practice. Since America doesn't really have any cultural traditions people don't usually deem themselves Americans as often as they use their ancestors to define who they are.  
      I would say that there is no real way to explain what it means to be American other than the literal meaning of being born in America. America is a younger country and lacks the distinctive cultural characteristics  that a lot of other countries have. America's mixture of races and cultures also makes it hard to specify what an American is. I think any U.S citizen who claims the title of an American is an American.

The Modern Puritan

                  
                      The Modern Puritan 
     The Puritans were a group of people who strictly followed their religious beliefs and rules set by their society. In the puritan society, anyone who broke the rules or was believed to have "danced with the devil" was punished or killed. Today there are many groups that have the same mentality as the puritan groups did. The gangs of today are a great example of a group that acts similar to the puritans.
   In the puritans eyes their main enemy was the devil. They resented the devil and anyone who had anything to do with him. If you were to worship the devil or try to conjure spirits you were betraying your religion. If you were caught, you would most likely be killed. When your in a gang your main enemies are other gangs and of course the police. To a gang one of the worst things you could be is a snitch and that applies even if your not part of the gang. To pay for their betrayal, snitches are often killed and their death is used to warn others not to snitch. Even if you arent killed for this betrayal you will be stuck with this label for the rest of your life and you will lose the respect of everyone around you (This is very similar to what happened to Hester with her scarlet letter). So basically any puritan who is a traitor to their religion or any gang member who is a traitor to their gang is ousted by their peers.
Another similarity between the members of the two groups is that they like to show respect for their groups beliefs. If your a puritan you show your respect by going to church every sunday and knowing biblical material. If your a member of a gang you show respect for your gang by wearing certain colors, using signs and dressing a certain way.
  These two groups are a lot alike because they both have strict policies that they abide by. Anyone who disobeys these policies are killed or rejected from the group. So if your a witch or a snitch you probably wouldn't last too long in these groups.

John Proctor :Hero or Stooge

      John Proctor in my opinion was a brave man and not the least bit of a stooge. A stooge is defined as someone who serves merely to support or assist others and the word itself is often used in an unpleasant way. To me, John was a servant to no one but he was a hero who tried to help others who he believed deserved justice. When you think of  heroes like Superman, Captain American or even a common day hero like a policeman they are all people who fight for justice. John rose against the court for the justice of his friends and his wife. Just like your classic hero, John put his life on the line for the safety of others. John Proctor could have taken the easy way out and dropped his charges when given the chance by the judges. If  Mr. Proctor would have dropped the charges after the person he cared for the most, Goody Proctor was promised another year he probably could have saved himself. Instead of cowardly dropping the charges and trying to keep himself as far away from the court as possible to avoid being charged, Proctor stands his ground and helps others with their depositions.
     A stooge follows the orders of others and i would think for a reason. A stooge may follow/serve others because they are afraid to go against their leaders ideas or because they cant think/speak for themselves. John proctor has no reason to fearfully follow the orders of someone else. Proctor isn't a stooge to his wife (whipped) like some men tend to be. Proctor made his opinions clear to his wife and doesn't take orders from her. I realize that women had a different place in society at that time, but I think its still a valid point. Even after confessing to the court, John refused the judges' orders to sign the court documents making it clear to the judges how he felt about his name. John Proctor heroically fought for justice even though he knew it could lead to his death. John was the hero of the entire story and through his bravery he proves that he is no where near a stooge.
(Obviously demonstrated in the story, being a hero gets you no where. Don't be a hero unless you have super powers, other wise be smart and save yourself. )

There goes the neighborhood

There goes the neighborhood 

     Places don't always stay the same forever. Places can change and the people in those places can too but change isn't always something that is accepted by everyone. Change can cause fights, wars, and pure hatred between people. When a neighborhood changes and a new group of people arrive its not uncommon for the two groups to have there differences. Conflicts may occur between the two groups for a number of different reasons. One reason evident in history is because the new arriving group tries to change the people that already live there. Christopher  Columbus makes a good example because his initial intentions upon meeting the natives were to convert them and conquer there land. Of coarse that didn't fly too smoothly with the natives and so there was conflict. I don't think Christopher Columbus was justified in what he did so i think that conflict was totally all the arrivals fault. The arrivals aren't always to blame though, hatred or fearing the unknown can also cause controversy between groups and other times the reasoning may not be so clear. When my grandparents first bought their house (about 40 years ago) their neighborhood was entirely occupied by white families with the exception of one other black family which were the Wilkersons. Within the first few months of my grandparents arriving to that neighborhood somebody had set their garage along with the Wilkersons garage on fire. Over those 40 years the neighborhood has changed a lot though because now not one other race aside from black lives on or around our block. Whether the neighborhood changed for the better or worst is a matter of opinion.

     "ME"

        My name is Aajeanna Brooks and I attend Whitney Young High School. I live on the far south side of Chicago so getting to school sometimes takes a while. I have no brothers or sisters but a ton of cousins. Some people may think being an only child is better opposed to having siblings but I don’t find it all that great. My interest include music, art and sleeping. Sleeping as an interest may sound lazy but I like sleeping away my problems and also the dreams that come along with sleeping. As for music, I listen to almost all genres excluding country, jazz, gospel and classical. I like adrenaline, adventure and I’m mildly intrigued by violence.  I know how to ride a motorcycle and I hope to get a motorcycle license one day. Having a gun license later on in the future wouldn’t hurt either because I want be able to use those one day too. Come to think of it, I kind of have a thing for weapons but I’ll divert from that particular interest to avoid the raising of eyebrows. Things I hate are nasty vegetables, being stuck between decisions and wet doorknobs. That’s basically me, my likes, my dislikes and interest.