The Story Of An Hour

Final Reflection:

1. When I read the final sentences of The Story Of An Hour for the 1st time, I didn't understand it completely until I read it with students from my class and got their interpretation from those last sentences. It was clear that the wife was happy to hear her husbands death. as I read the story for a 2nd time, the wife knew she was finally free from her husband. She was finally able to live her life the way she wanted to live it. When I got to the part where they mentioned "a joy that kills" I knew that in that sudden moment when she walked out of her room and saw that her husband was still alive she would have to go back to conforming to the life she had with her husband that she suffered a heart attack and died.

2. The message that I got from the story was to not settle for something or someone who makes you feel like you have to live for them. This reminds  me of the famous speech my father gives me every time I see him. He tells me he wants me to be a professional someday and if his time was to ever come before he sees me succeed in life he wants to know that I won't stop doing what I have to do for me, live the life I want to live and not settle for anything or anyone. Reading a story of an hour opened my eyes to knowing that I can never settle to live for someone else other than myself.


3. Yes, I have this one friend Kimberly who has been my friend for a decade now and I learn to realize that I know her more than she knows herself. She has been involved in a relationship with a man who is 10x older than she is. Because of their age difference, I can see that he takes the fun out of her. Over the years they been together she learned to conform to his life style and she now does things and lives her life pleasing his needs 1st before hers.

4. This story relates to conformity because the wife conformed to living her life style due to her husbands lifestyle. She was living his life instead of her own, doing the things he only agreed with. That going hand in hand with my friend Kimberly who seems to be going down the same exact lane.

Quick write

The only area that I need support in with this course is completing the missing work that have yet to be completed. I don't need help with completing them, nor starting it. I just need to be consistently on task with finishing the work that needs to be finished.

Tradition in "The Lottery"

"`Tradition': one of those words conservative people use as a shortcut to thinking."


Today in class I was introduced to this quote and was asked to interpretation it. In my own words, my interpretation of this quote is that conseratative people chose to not expand their mind. They only want to stick with what they know, a shortcut to thinking allows them to not have to do all the work by stretching their mind and asking questions, instead they stick to their own tradition. 

Girl Poem - Questions

1. Who do you infer is the narrator? Who is he or she speaking to? Support your answer with specific details from the story.

When I began to read the poem, the narrator sounded like that could have been her mother, her sense of tone and her demanding request made it seem like it could be the mother speaking to the girl.

2. Describe at least two specific instructions the narrator gives? Why do you think she gives these instructions?
One specific instruction that was given to the girl was to walk like a lady on Sundays and not like the slut she is, another instruction was for her to stay away from wharf-rat boys. She gave these instruction's because she wanted to make sure Jamaica was at her very best every Sunday and she wanted to make sure she stayed away from boys who would distract her and do her no good.

3. Find the two sentences in the story that are in italics. Why do you think they are in italics?
"but I don't sing benna on Sundays at all and never in Sunday school" I think the reason why it was in italics was because that was Jamaica talking to the narrator.
4. What can you infer about the setting of this story?
That it was in a different time period where younger girls had more responsibilities than they do today.
5. What tasks or chores does the narrator associate with being a girl? Support your answer with specific details from the story.
Doing the laundry, having to cook and making sure she holds her self like a respectful young lady.
6. What behaviors do you think the narrator associates with being a girl? Support your answer with specific details from the story.

7. What is the listener’s reaction to the narrator? What is the narrator’s reaction to the listener? 

The listeners reaction seems to be overwhelmed yet calm and the narrators reaction is a bit more demanding.

8. If a girl follows all of these instructions, what kind of person do you think she will become? In what ways could a girl establish her individuality if she follows all these rules?

I believe if a girl were to follow all of these instructions she will grow up to be a responsible woman. Teaching young ladies how to handle their priorities allows them to absorb it at a young age so that they can be able to handle responsibilities on their own later on in life. 

Quick Write 5/4/2015

I have several specific strategies for taking charge of my education and moving myself forward. One strategy I have is, taking notes down when I don't understand something. Helping others when they don't understand the lesson of the day helps me move forward in my studies because it shows that I understand whats being given. Another strategy would be coming to class regularly making sure I don't miss an given assignments and last but not least, encouraging myself to keep moving forward and giving my best effort regardless of what I get as a grade.

Creating Our Own Prose Poems - Quick Write

The expectation's my family expects from me as a woman, are completely different from the expectations my family expects from my younger brother and the boys in my family. For woman in my family we are expected to know how to cook, clean and keep ourselves in order. We are expected to be professionals and have an education, and be the best that we can be. For guys on the other hand, they are expected to work hard, to protect their family, to be selfless and generous and to put themselves on the line. This goes in line with conformity because it gives us a structure to follow and obey. In another way, it gives us a form on how to live our life and how to get our priorities in line.

Interpreting Literature Through the Lens of Conformity - Quick Write

• Expectations I have for myself: Be successful, to be well educated,

• Expectation my family have for me: To become a Doctor, or a professional at anything i put my mind to,

• Expectation from society and culture: To be well educated, well dressed and be kind/respectful to one another     

What does it mean to be apart of a group?

To be apart of a group means your not alone, and you guys become one all together. it means together you guys have mutual responsibilities.

The consequences that might occur if society is not convinced by my argument?

If no one agreed with the fact that the bystander effect proves that we are all social creatures then no one would realize that we all take our cues from each other and we'll all be  anti-social. Being that we are social creatures we all take care of each other.

Reading "The Lottery"

One tradition my family follows every year, is celebrating St. Michael's Birthday. He's known to be an angle that defeated satin, my mother has a statue of him in front of our home. On the 29th of September we celebrate his birthday by having all my family members together, feeding the statue wine and peanuts then my mom speaks out a couple of verses from the bible and we begin to dance to music that's called palo that established in The Dominican Republic, and my mom then splashes us with this holy water and makes us write down 1 thing we want to accomplish and we have to burn the piece of paper. I believe this tradition started with my grandma.

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1. Where does the story take place? How does this setting affect the story? How do you think the story would change if it were to take place in the Bronx?

The story took place in the village in a rural setting, in the early 1950's. If this were to take place in the Bronx, thing's would have gone differently because we as a community like to know what we are involving ourselves in before we do it.

2. In what ways are the characters different from one another? Why might you think that Tessie Hutchinson is singled out as the “winner”?

Everyone seems genuine, Tessie Hutchinson was singled out as a winner because she was the chosen one.

3. What is the meaning of the title, “The Lottery”? What does it make you think about before you begin reading the story?

The meaning of the title means picking out a draw, when I 1st saw the title I automatically thought of a raffle event.

4. Re-read the opening description in the first paragraph. What does this make you think the story will be about?

When I 1st read the opening description, the story sounded like it would be about a village gathering together on a beautiful day to celebrate an annual event that goes every year in their village.

5. Re-read the description of the black wooden box in paragraph five and the black spot on the “winning” slip of paper. Explain the meaning of these objects.

These objects mean something important to them, because the event is an annual tradition they don't feel the need to change the black wooden box either.
6. Were you surprised by the ending of the story? Why or why not? If not, at what point did you know what was going to happen? How does Jackson start to foreshadow the ending in paragraphs 2 and 3?

When I first read the story I was angry at the end, their reason for killing was stupidity to me. The reason it got me upset was because people were blinding following orders without any concern, they only allowed things like that to happen because it was traditional. When Tessie began to rant about how unfair things were, that's when I knew that the story had turned into something bad. 

7. Define ritual. Then explain how this relates to conformity.

The definition of Ritual is a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order. This relates to conformity because it allows people to follow some kind of structure. 

8. Why do you think people reacted so angrily when the story was first published in The New Yorker?

Because the plot of the story was innocent people in families being murdered by the villagers in their own town. 

9. Based on analysis, what would you say is the major theme of "The Lottery"?

The major theme of "the lottery" will be the town getting together to perform their annual event at harvest time.



10. What do you believe Shirley Jackson was trying to say with this short story? Do you agree or disagree with this viewpoint? Why?

The message Shirley Jackson was trying to say is that people blindly follow orders, which is also referred as, blind obedience. I agree with the message she had put in this novel because it connects with the war that occurred right before this novel was written. We all follow traditions without asking questions about why it's being done.

Introducing your claim

The reason why I chose the claim "Does the bystander effect prove that we are all weak-minded and dumb" was because I wanted to get further and deeper information about why is it that we perform the way we do when it comes to a emergency situations while being in a group. I also wanted to do more research into how would society be if we weren't social creatures. My claim helped me discover a lot of answers to questions I had when I began to learn about the bystander effect and it also developed even more questions about thing's I wasn't quite sure of. In that case i'm glad I chose the claim I did, because it managed to really make me think deeply about the world we live in.

Quick Write 4/17

No I don't think the government should control conformity. The reason why I say this is because the government already controls almost everything that goes around us on a everyday basis. Conformity should stay as a choice we decide to make, something that comes within us, not something that should be controlled. We're already viewed as puppets and by having the government control conformity we're setting ourselves up for failure.

Quick Write 4/16/2015

During class, we were asked if we think following orders would be considered as a sign of weakness? In some cases, I don't think following orders would be considered as a sign of weakness. In my opinion it shows that you have respect for what has to get done. The weakness in character only comes along when you continue to follow something that doesn't feel right. As we like to call it "blind obedience."

Final Refelection - 2 paragraphs

When reading the scenario i was given,  I came up with several factors that can possibly influence an individual One factor that would influence an out looker to help is if the man is being brutally beaten, or the way the person is dressed can be another factor. As social creatures we often go by psychical appearances and the way a person is dressed can result in how a person would approach them. Another factor that can influence people in helping the victim is by them screaming out for help. That often catches peoples attention and it results in them helping out in the situation



We've all heard the term before, but have we all gotten a clear understanding of what it really means and how often it effects us in every day life? The Bystanders Effect is known to be one of the most things that cause us to not involve ourselves in tragic situations when an individual is at harm. This effect goes hand in hand with conformity in the sense that, we are all reacting to each others social decisions. When being in the scene of someone being at harm, if one person out of the group does not react to the situation, we begin to think we don't have to act either. One factor that makes up the bystanders effect is "diffusion of responsibility." This factor is known to be, when everyone in the group assumes one person would act, but eventually no one does. That results them in not involving themselves in helping someone out in a harmful situation. Knowing about the bystander effect and the Kitty Genovese incident, can help us a lot because it shows us how influenced we are by our surroundings and it also shows how quickly we are to help in non emergencies then when a real emergency occurs.

Quick Write

“The essence of obedience consists in the fact that a person comes to view himself as the instrument for carrying out another person’s wishes, and he therefore no longer considers himself responsible for his actions.”

• My interpretation for this quote is, when an individual is being told to obey. The person no longer sees himself as being responsible for the actions they make, once they are told to follow the order that has been giving to them they are no longer in charge of the outcome that occurs.

Writitng Work Shop

Question 1: Based on this sentence, write down your own definition of “conformity” or “conform.”

• "David and Bobby wanted to go Sam's party tonight but everyone agreed they were going to Leslie's. Eventually Bobby and David conformed and agreed to go to Leslie's Party instead of Sam's."

Question 2: How do you think conformity and obedience are similar? How do you think they are different? 

• In my opinion, conformity and obedience are similar in a way that their both related to you doing something and following rules/society. The difference between the two is, to conform is a choice and to obey is a demand. 

Question 3:
(a) What does the Asch Experiment demonstrate? Explain.

 

 

The Asch Experiment demonstrated that, when we are in a large group and everyone is agreeing on one thing it is hard for us to go with our own opinion or by far it's hard to think for ourselves because we get our social peers from our surroundings.
(b) Given what you’ve learned, do you think you're more of a conformist or an individual? How has this benefited you and/or worked against you in the past?

 

In my opinion, when I look back at how I use to be in a large group I often found myself conforming a lot, but as I began to learn more about how being a conformist works and how much we go through it throughout life. I have been able to think more for myself as an Individual.
(c) Is conformity good or bad? Consider these situations: driving laws, Nazism, the Holocaust, body image, religion, and clothing styles.

 

Conformity is good when it is used for its own good, obeying could be applied to certain things as laws and religion because those are things we have no choice but to follow living in the society we live in today, it's what keeps things maintained in structure and order.
(d) Can you think of other instances where people might conform?

Hanging out with a large group, working, when being in school and at in public places when emergencies occur.

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Do Now - "A time you did something because other people were doing it"

There was a time when I was younger and me and my friends would attend all these big events. They were fun and all but by the end of the night the event was always shut down because a problem always seemed to occur. This one particular night, me and my friends went out to this party and someone shot fire, the moment we heard the fire shot we all scattered but for some reason we found ourselves following this big crowd. The only reason why we found ourselves running with the crowd is because as a large group and in the mist of danger occurring we couldn't think and we had figured they knew the way out. Eventually one of my friends decided to go the opposite direction getting away from the crowd and we all found ourselves in a much calmer state of mind, it was then we figured out what was the next step from there.

Identity -- Who Am I ? What Am I?

5 Most Important Things That Make Up My Identity.

1. Sense of humor
2. My desire of the human mind
3. My smile
4. My old soul  

Looking at the image in the blog, I agree with the fact that we are influenced by the world around us. Every day we make choices and most of them involve whether to conform to society or not. When it comes to the music we listen to, the clothes we wear and social media, it's easy for us to be influencer by what goes on in the world everyday. On the other hand as an individual, we are the ones who get our social cues from each other, it begins with one mind and suddenly you and your peers agree on the same thing. It's a on going cycle between the world/others and us as individuals. We are what makes the world and the world is what makes us!

Me, Myself and Chey..

My name is Cheylin Minaya, and I am a senior in Crotona academy, my biggest goal in life is to succeed, I hope to learn new things this following term. I'm currently still living in the Bronx, I've always dreamed of writing a book someday. I hope this term becomes the start of me strengthening my vocabulary and getting stronger in my writing skills. My question to you is, how can you help me better my speech skills?

Essential Question #1

In class today we were asked to answer essential questions on when and why is it important to conform to society, Click here to see my answer!