Maddie's Reading Summatives

The first one is the "Short Stories Paragraph," I chose to write mine about Thank You Ma'am.

Mrs. Jones changes Roger, and how he thinks about his mistakes in a very short period of time. In an early scene Roger, who is the main character, has just stolen Mrs. Jones purse:“ Now ain’t you ashamed of yourself?” Firmly gripped by his shirt front, the boy said,”Yes’m.” The woman said, “ What did you want to do it for?” The boy said, “ I didn't aim to.” She said, “ You a lie!” In this early scene from Thank You Ma’am, Roger has tried to steal Mrs. Jones' purse. In short, it didn’t go too well for him, but as Mrs. Jones is literally dragging him by the shirt in the middle of a sidewalk, she is already shaming him for what he did. She is yelling at him down the street, and it’s all embarrassing for Roger. Even this early in the story, Roger is already regretting what he did, even for a little bit of embarrassment, and this is just the start of how Mrs. Jones changed Roger. In this next scene, Roger is still being dragged down the road, but Mrs. Jones has started to get to know him, even inviting him to her house to wash his face:

 “ ‘You ought to be my son. I would teach you right from wrong. Least I can do right now is to wash your face. Are you hungry?’ ‘No’m’, said the being dragged boy. (...) ‘ Was I bothering you when I turned that corner?’ asked the woman. ‘ No’m’ ‘But you put yourself in contact with me.’ Said the woman ‘ If you think that that contact is not going to last awhile, you got another thought coming. When I get through with you, sir, you are going to remember Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones.”

In this scene, Mrs. Jones starts to show him a bit of empathy, even offering him food, and telling him that she can teach him right from wrong. But, as she is offering these things, Roger is still keeping quiet, not knowing what's next, and what she’s going to do. She ends her sentence with her full name, which also could be seen as Mrs. Jones is trying to say, I’m in control now, and I'm going to teach you a lesson, whether you like it or not. In this scene closer to the end, Mrs. Jones begins to talk about her past: “The woman said, ‘Um-hum! You thought I was going to say but, didn’t you? You thought I was going to say, but I didn’t snatch people’s pocketbooks. Well, I wasn’t going to say that.’ Pause. Silence. ‘I have done things, too, which I would not tell you, son—neither tell God, if he didn’t already know. So you set down while I fix us something to eat. You might run that comb through your hair so you will look presentable.” (...) ‘The boy took care to sit on the far side of the room where he thought she could easily see him out of the corner of her eye, if she wanted to. He did not trust the woman not to trust him. And he did not want to be mistrusted now.”As Mrs. Jones has opened up about her past, Roger has a change of heart. He no longer wants to be mistrusted by her, and he certainly regrets his decisions. As seen in this scene, by Mrs. Jones talking about things she doesn’t even tell God, and showing a bit of empathy to Roger, he has changed for the better. He wants to be trusted and he regrets stealing, and attacking her in that street.

Next is the "Fakie Summative Paragraph," I went in-depth into Alex's emotions, which resulted in a 10/10.

In Tony Varrato’s Fakie, Alex’s internal conflict is much more difficult for him to handle, because Alex has been taught his entire life that when trouble arrives, you need to run, which contributes to his internal problems and proves to be one of Alex’s biggest struggles. In a scene pretty late in the book (66), Alex is in History class, when his thoughts first dive deep into his past, and then how it affects today: “ Mr. Lankford gave them the freedom (...) He gave them life, even though Danny didn’t feel he deserved it. As Danny- now Alex- stared at the article breathlessly in his classroom, he could feel the guilt enveloping his heart and creeping back into his lungs. He knew he had killed Mr. Lankford too.” Readers can see that Alex is (and was) struggling. He carries all of this guilt by himself, never telling a soul about it, and it has all come back to re-live itself again. Even things like the newspaper trigger his internal feelings, but he just pushes all of his emotions aside, until trouble actually comes, and when it does he runs away, yet again shoving his feelings down until things like this article come back to say hello. These struggles continue in a scene a little bit later (69-70) when Alex’s internal conflicts challenge his external conflicts when his friend Tim confronts him for all of these things that he keeps from everyone: “ ‘I can’t tell you anything,’ Alex said picking his head up and dropping it back against the bathroom wall. ‘ Not yet anyway…And really, by the time-’ He cut himself short before he could say anything else and closed his eyes. ‘ What?’ Tim prodded. ‘ You’ll be gone? Is that what you were going to say? Is that why you guard everything so well? You move every time there’s trouble?’ Silence. ‘ You’ve got to quit running sometime!” (...) ‘ My friends are important enough that I don’t want them dead.” Readers can now see that Alex is not only struggling with his past, but he is also afraid of his future and what he will bring upon his friends and others. But, when Tim brings up all of these things to Alex, he has to face his problems and trust a little. As Alex is confronted, he lets go of the guilt a bit, and he gives Tim a bit of the story, and why he has to keep his personal life a secret. Now this confrontation doesn’t cure all of his problems, and Alex still struggles a lot with balancing his internal feelings, but readers can finally see that Alex maybe wants to trust people and stop hiding from real life. Alex’s internal feelings play a big part in the plot of this story, and readers can only hope that one day Alex will trust in people, and cure his problems.

The third one is the "Childrens March Essay," I found this story to be very interesting and eye-opening, which led me to the theme of my essay.

In Cynthia Levinson’s “Why the Children of Birmingham Marched” she shows both danger and courage in an inspiring article about these children and they’re mass amounts of bravery during this march.

This article showed tons of examples of courage, but it also showed us the cruel and harsh danger that these children and adults had to face: “A Baptist minister named Fred Shuttlesworth also tried to end segregation in the city. Starting in 1956, he held church meetings every Monday. Audrey heard him preach that the police force should hire black people as well as white. Children should go to school together, regardless of race, he said. Black people should be able to sit anywhere on the bus. (...) Because of Shuttlesworth's views, a white man named "Dynamite" Bob Chambliss bombed his home.” As seen in this paragraph from early on in the article, readers can already see that if African Americans lived in Bombingham, (Birmingham) they were never safe; one wrong move and your house got bombed. This extremely unfair and unsafe lifestyle had an effect on everyone, whether you were white or black, and the people of Birmingham had not the slightest idea of what the children (yes children) would bring to the city, and overall wind up saving it. 

Later on in the article, Levinson dives into the strong amounts of courage the children had as the march began, “Audrey and James decided to protest. On May 2, 1963, they and about 800 other children marched out of 16th Street Baptist Church (...)When more children marched the next day, he told his men to attack them with forceful fire hoses and snarling police dogs. Teenager Arnetta Streeter said, ‘The water was piercing.’(...) During the first week of May, almost 4,000 children marched. Day after day, they were arrested. Children filled Birmingham's jails.” Words cannot express the amount of courage these children had. Most people who had lived in Birmingham during this time, were terrified of the outcome, while these courageous children were almost signaling to the cops ‘Bring it on, we’re not scared of you,’ which takes up more courage and bravery than most people have ever had in their entire life. Even after hearing that mean dogs and piercing water were coming their way, they marched on, which takes so much bravery. 

After these children showed their large amounts of courage and bravery and fought for their rights, they eventually won, and this had a massive effect on the rest of the country: “Because "Bull" Connor could not enforce the segregation laws, the city repealed them that July. Audrey, James, and other black children could play in the reopened parks, sit anywhere on the bus, and eat in any restaurant. Inspired by their bravery, young people in other cities protested segregation, too. Then, in August 1963, 250,000 adults and children held a March for Jobs and Freedom in Washington, DC.” This last part is even more impressive; the children of Birmingham who were marching to try to save their rights and the city ended up helping save the rest of the country. This is amazing to think about how kids from ages four and on had a massive part in ending segregation for everybody, without knowing the MASSIVE effect on everybody living in America. 

All in all, The Children’s March in Birmingham is one of the most significant events in history for not only having a super large effect in ending segregation but also for the children’s ability to look for the light in this situation, instead of the darkness. 

The last one is my "A Long Walk to Water Essay," I found this book to be very well written, and impacting to readers

In A Long Walk to Water, Linda Sue Park shows Nya and Salva’s physical and emotional conflict by explaining every single detail each of them goes through, without disregarding any of their emotions, no matter which one.

Nya, a girl from South Sudan in 2008, has plenty of physical conflicts she has to worry about from her seemingly never-ending walk to get water. But when it comes to her emotional conflict, she keeps everything bottled up, never revealing what she’s feeling to her family: “Nya could hear him. ‘This is the spot, halfway between the two largest trees. We will find water here.’ Nya shook her head. What are they talking about? She knew that place like the back of her own hand. [...] There wasn’t a single drop of water on that spot unless it was raining!”(57) Even in an almost life-or-death situation, Nya still cannot seem to speak up. She spends all of her days alone getting water and providing for her family, which seems to reflect on her life around other people. Nya is a rule follower, she doesn’t step out of line and follows all orders thrown at her, which forms what her family thinks as independence, but really is viewed as loneliness by readers, and honestly herself: she spends all day getting water FOR her family, and the second she returns, she is sent back out to retrieve more water. She has no time to even think about talking to anyone, and her whole life is based on ‘Just one more trip to get water today,’ she has no experience in socializing, so when it comes to the thought of simply telling these people that they are in the wrong spot, it’s appalling to her, and it all circles back to her trips to get water.

Salva, a boy from South Sudan in 1985, has his version of a perfect life. He has an almost angel-like mother, siblings to play with, and a hard-working father, until one day it all comes crashing down when war comes booming into his village in the middle of the school day, and he is forced to run away from his whole entire life: “In the smoke and dust, he couldn’t see the school building anymore. [...] Salva lowered his head and ran. [...] No one else was in the barn.  Salva stood so quickly that for a moment he felt dizzy. He rushed to the door and looked out. Nobody. Nothing. They had left him. He was alone.”(8-13) This is Salva’s biggest physical conflict; he depends on his family. So when he has to flee his village, and everything he knows, it’s not an easy transition for him to make. He has nobody to soothe him, or say ‘It’s all going to be alright,’ instead he is all on his own, practically fighting for his life, and he doesn'tdoes not even know the basics like finding water, because his family has always been there to support him, and in this current moment he has nothing, physically or emotionally. 

Nya and Salva are not in easy situations by any means at all. Nya can’t seem to speak for herself, on top of going through a blistering walk every day, and Salva has nothing left in his life after his family disappears out of his life in the blink of an eye. But there is something that connects them and their situations: They have a lot to lose. There is no option for either of them to say ‘Alright guys I’m done, this is too hard,’ No, instead they have to pick themselves up no matter what's happening to them, hard or easy, and this is a dangerous bet for them to play. Sava has hit rock bottom, he has no one left in his life. No one. But if he just decides he doesn’t like the fact that he’s stranded, he’s dead. The same goes for Nya, she can’t sit around and throw a fit because she has no water, or because she doesn’t know how to properly interact with people. Nope. She has to get water. Every. Single. Day. And while Nya is independent, and Salva is dependent, they are fighting opposite roles; Nya wants to be able to lean into someone’s help, while Salva craves to break away, and find peace without his family. Whether they like it or not, each of them would rather take a pretty much impossible path in life, and survive.  

Now while these situations seem pretty different, Salva and Nya both have a crucial role in their lives, and if they just decide they are done, everyone they know and love is going with them, and this proves to be more powerful than anything else.

Salva and Nya are both in compromising positions, emotionally and physically, but the diction and imagery used to convey these emotions make it all more apparent to readers.