This week in class we finished up The Scarlet Letter. I personally wasn't really a fan of the way it ended. I think how Hawthorne makes all the characters just die, isn't very clever. For such a "negative" book, there should have atleast been a happy ending. If not a happy ending, it should have been more interesting, in my opinon. There were so many places the story could have gone. I thought Chillingworth should have died and Hester, Pearl and Dimmesdale should have escaped to England because they already recieved punishment for their sins.
      We also watched the movie. It was SO bad. Not gonna lie, the acting was horrible and so was the movie in general. It was interesting to see how different the movie was from the way I pictured it from reading. I pictured the scaffold to be a lot more roomier than it was shown in the movie. Chillingworth was depicted a lot more uglier than I thought he would be. The jail was not as I pictured it either. I thought the jail would be like an actual jail but smaller and with grey brick walls or something. Pearl wasn't as annoying as the book showed her to be. She didn't really do anything in the movie that made her seem like the devil's child.
     Hester's eyes in the movie were so creepy! I understand that they were trying to single her out from the rest of the townspeople because she was supposed to be beautiful, but the contacts just made her seem scary. They looked so fake. She seemed depressed throughout the movie. From reading the book I pictured her to be more lively after the scaffold scene. She just wasn't happy as the book made her seem when she was doing charity work and whatnot. The Scarlet Letter was not the best book I have read, but it wasn't to bad either. I guess since the book is so popular, I expected it to be a lot more interesting.

      This week in class we talked about the Scarlet Letter. We read most of the book and talked in depth of Hester's scarlet letter. So far in the book Pearl, Hester's daughter, has been having major issues according to her mother. She really wants to know who her father is, but Hester doesn't think it's a good idea to tell her that at such a young age. Pearl also asks Hester about the scarlet letter that she wears around all day. Hester wears it due to the sin of adultrey that she commited with Dimmsdale. She hesitates to tell this to Pearl, thinking that she is young and not mature enough to handle the fact.
     Pearl's bad behavior towards the world and especially her mother, worries Hester. Hester worries that when Pearl grows older she might commit the same sin. Pearl seems like a rebellious child also and it's hard to think that she may not also commit the same sin. Hester hesistates to let Pearl know who her real father is. It seems as though she already knows when they all are standing on the scaffold and Pearl asks Dimmsdale if he will stand on the scaffold with them next time. Dimmsdale says he can't and Pearl becomes upset.
     Hester and Dimmsdale decide that they will take a boat back to England and live as a complete family. This is when Hester  finds it appropriate to inform Pearl on who her real father is. I personally think Hester should have told Pearl when she was younger, or when she matures enough to understand. I think this because at the stage of her life she's at now, Pearl feels the need to act up and do things that she is not supposed to do. Knowing that her mother has commited the sin of adultrey, may cause Pearl to also commit the same sin. This is why I think it would be better for Hester to have told Pearl who her father was at a safer time.

      This week in class we had a debate about whether or not the swastika displayed in the library window was right for school. The class, overall, believed that the swastika should not have been displayed for many reasons. I also agree with the class. I personally don't think a swastika should be displayed publically because it avoks many different emotions in people.
      I don't think it is wrong to display symbols, but it is the way it is displayed. In our library, the first thing that a person would see when walking by is the swastika. It's huge, and the gay pride symbol is hiding behind it and barely noticible. I am not jewish, but I understand why jews in our school would feel hurt with it up there. Other symbols that are displayed in public don't symbolize millions of people getting murdered. The swastika could bring back memories of relatives that may have been killed by the nazi's. Mr. Bresnick had a similar experience where the swastika brought back memories of realtives that were also killed during the holocaust.
     Some people think that it's freedom of speech and anything they want can be displayed. Sure people can display what they want, but they need to think it through. If what your doing is going to hurt someone or is negative, then it shouldn't be allowed to be publically displayed. People do have the right do say/ do what they want, but having such a strong symbol like the swastica openly diplayed in a public school just doesn't seem right.
     Most likely everyone knows what the holocaust was or what the swastika symbloizes. Our school knows that the reason it is up there is to show how gays were not openly excepted during the holocaust and were singled out and also killed. Other people that come into the school may not know the reason behind putting up a huge swastika, and think other whys about how our school functions. I personally think it doesn't lokk good in a public school and should be diplayed in a different manner.

The Crucible Book vs. Movie

            This week in class we talked in depth more about The Crucible and also watched the movie. I personally thought the movie was better then the book. There are many reasons for this. I think the book was very compact and there were so many ideas and events taking place rapidly. It was hard to keep up with all that was going on. The book was also very short. Not that I wish the book was longer, but I feel that the ending was not as great as i would have hoped. Maybe a little about how the accused witches went about getting themselves out of this mess.
         I also believe the movies are always better then the book. Maybe it's just the fact that I rather have a visual about what is going on. I feel that the book didn't really do much justice to the characters either. The whole scene in the woods wasn't even described as much in the book, so i thought of it as the girls just chilling in the woods around the fire. In the movie, that scene was way more intence... and awkward, but it was definitly better then the book. The characters from the book, in my mind, seemed dull and not fully built up. For example, Abigail seemed like a quite girl who randomly got the desire to fight for what she wanted. In the movie, she seemed like a total jerk who always got what she wanted. The way she threatened those girls to keep their mouths shut definitly showed her bad side.
       The book was kind of hard to comprehend becasue they spoke old english. I'm not a big fan of books where old english is spoken because then you kind of lose the whole jist of the story. We didn't get to finish the movie yet in class, but I would really like to finish it though. I want to know if the book is diffrent from the movie, like if the girls get caught lying. Also, if the towns people listen to John Proctor and release all the accused witches. In the movie, they didn't say that they killed any of the accused witches up till where we watched. Both the book and the movie were great, but I personally liked the movie better.