A Day In Life: Photo Essay

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The Twelve Presentation

Understanding The Bolshevik Revolution

Book I Essay

Book 1 "Cry the Beloved Country"

            Stephen Kumalo is a pastor from Ndotshei. He is a very round and dynamic character because he has encountered conflicts and he somewhat changed by it. Stephen is a very trusting person and pleasing person. Throughout Book 1, he changes. Reasons are, his family, and the new experiences. He changes from faithful to unfaithful. He changed because of what he went through.

            Kumalo started a new journey to Johannesburg. He isn’t used to living there and that changes him. His home town is peaceful, delighted, and admirable. Johannesburg is depressing, stressful, and remorseful. Kumalo wasn't ready for Johannesburg, he feared it. "The journey had begun. And now the fear back again, the fear of the unknown, the fear of the great city where boys were killed for crossing the street, the fear of Gertrude’s sickness. Deep down the fear for his son. Deep down the fear for a man who lives in a world not made for him. Whose own world is slipping away, dying, beyond any recall? (pg.44)" The purpose of the author writing this is to state Stephen Kumalo's fears. These are problems that he soon faced in Book I. This shows that he is a concerning person, and he cares about his family.

            Kumalo's family is plays a big role in him changing throughout Book I. His brother John never wrote to him because of business. John stopped going to church and everything witch made matters worse because Stephen's family are supposed to go to church it's what they believe in. His sister Gertrude turned out to be a prostitute instead of searching for a husband. She is also not a good mother. Stephen was very upset with his sister. "You have shamed us, he says in a low voice, not wishing to make it known to the world. A liquor seller, a prostitute, with a child and you don't know where it is? Your brother is a priest. How could you do this to us? (pg. 61)" The author used this to explain how upset Kumalo was at his sister. I to would be ashamed for her. The things she has done are wrong and unfaithful. Stephen's son also plays a huge role, because Stephen soon finds out that his so killed a white man. His son's name is Absalom. He ran away too and never wrote to his father. With all of this, Kumalo started to think that God has given up on him. “It seems God has turned on me." The purpose of that was to show how Stephen is losing faith. This is how he changes. He starts to not have faith, and he doesn't know what to do. This is how his experience in Johannesburg changed him.

            Is Stephen Kumalo a realistic character? Yes, very much so. There are tons of people in today's world that go through some of the things Kumalo went through in Book I. There are people who change from a nice and humble person to a worried and stressed out person. All of us go through things like that. Some people know people that have sibling not doing the right thing. Some people have family members that haven't heard from in years. “His brother he did not recognize, for the light from the street was on the backs of his visitors. (pg. 65)” This quote is letting the readers know that they haven’t seen each other in a while. Everyone goes through things like this in today’s world. This is why Kumalo is a realistic character.

            In conclusion, all of these things have made Stephen Kumalo himself. They have changed him also. He started off as a humble, trusting, and faithful man. Soon he changes because of his surroundings. He wasn’t used to Johannesburg, because it was so different from his home town Ndotshei. He went through with his sister, the prostitute, and his brother the business man. Most of all, his son changed him. He didn’t think his son was capable of killing someone. Again all of these things made Stephen Kumalo the character that he is.

This I Believe

Monkey See, Monkey Do

            Many people in our society like to do a lot of things, but not because they want to.  They do it  because someone else is already doing it. When I was younger, my mom always told me to be my own person. She didn’t want me to do what others did just because I saw them doing it. I feel that, this is how many people go through with doing certain things.

            I remember a time when I was about twelve years old. I was at my aunt’s house with my two cousins. One was a year older than me, and the other was just three. After we woke up I noticed that my little cousin’s hair was messy from sleeping. I decided to do it, but my older cousin insisted that we wash it. I knew it was a bad idea and told her we shouldn’t do it.

            Knowing that I should not do what others do, I decided to go along and help wash her hair. When we washed it, we ruined it. Some of her hair had come out and it was tangled. When our parents got home, my mom decided to do her hair. My cousin and I did get in trouble, but we never told the three year olds parents.

            I would have thought that my little cousin would have told on us, but she didn’t. My aunt of all people told. The bad thing is that she told them that I washed her hair. She didn’t mention her daughter or anything. I felt that it was wrong of her to tell anyways because she is a grown woman, and it wasn’t her hair. She didn’t even know what really happened in the first place. Her telling my little cousins parents resulted in a lot of controversy. My mom and her siblings were not talking afterwards for a while.

            When my aunt told on me, I told everyone that my older cousin made me do it.  I knew I messed up there. She didn't make me do it, but it was her idea. I should have been my own person, and told my cousin “You can wash her hair if you want, but I’m not.” I feel that this is an example of my belief because I did an action just because my cousin was going to do even though I knew it was wrong.

            There are many examples of my belief in our society. Many teens are getting peer pressured to do drugs. They should know that if they feel in their gut that they shouldn’t do it, then it’s wrong. Also some teachers think that certain students are influenced to act a certain way. That is not right because if a child has bad behavior, it’s because they act that way. I feel that it is time for people to take some responsibility for your own actions and own up to your mistakes.

Christmas Day Snicker Salad

Ingredients:

• 3-4 Snicker Bars
• 3-4 Granny Smith Apples
• 1 Tub of Cool Whip
• 1 container of Caramel

This would make one bowl, but in my case I would be making six.

Preparation:

 On Christmas Day, the family gathers around. We are all constantly awaiting for Christmas dinner. While doing this, we talk about what we got for Christmas or what we wish we got for Christmas. Finally, the Grandparents are finished with Christmas dinner. While we eat dinner, there is a silence until someone asks about a special dessert

 “Are we going to fix the Snicker Salad?”

A Snicker Salad is an easy recipe, maybe the easiest one fixed on that day. Just not anyone can fix it; the children have to fix it because we like to put our part in Christmas dinner.

 There are about nine of us, so we get into three groups of three. One thing to make sure of is to always have at least one teenager in each group because you will have to chop up the apples and snickers. What we like to start doing is making sure that we have everything we need. We are making 6 bowls of Snicker Salad so therefore, we will need about 18 snicker bars, 18 Granny Smith Apples, and 6 tubs of Cool Whip. Some of the children are sad because they aren’t with a certain group of children.

“It doesn’t matter, and you are going to be with them all day,” says my nanna

Also there are some children who aren’t taking part in this recipe because they are too young. They are always running around the kitchen playing. My dad always has to get on to them.

 “Get out of the kitchen, when you get older you will have a chance.”

 Someone always respond, “But Travis…”

 “No buts or ifs”, always says my dad.

Now that we have the ingredients set out we began to prepare the Snicker Salad. It doesn’t really take that long because it’s a short recipe. When I began to chop something, my little cousins always have something to say.

"Can I please chop up at least one snicker, please?”

“No, you are too young, plus I will get in trouble”, I say.

Make sure that you don’t chop the ingredients to small or too big. Now we are at the point of mixing the ingredients. This really won’t take too long, but in my case it will because the little children are always trying to take the ingredients. They always get in trouble for that main reason.

After you mix the ingredients, you have to let it chill for about 2 hours. Sometimes we freeze it, but not today. After 2 hours, we take out the Snicker Salad. We sometimes let it sit out for about 10 minutes. While waiting for the 10 minutes to past by we start preparing the dishes that we would use.

“Man, I can't wait to eat some of that Snicker Salad," always says my cousin Kendrick.

 The 10 minutes are up and everyone gets them a bowl and digs into the Snicker Salad. We sit in the living room talking about the "old days", laughing and jiving. In the background, there is always Christmas music playing. The men don’t like the fact of music playing, because they like to watch football on Christmas Day. Sometimes we sing along with the music, and sometimes we don't. After we finish the salad, we all just sit back and relax.

thINK

 "The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World"

      In story " The Handsomest Drowned Man In The World" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez, people from a village find a drowned man in the sea. The women of the village clean the man up, and notice that he is the most handsomest drowned man they have ever seen. They even think of him more than their husbands, wich is kind of rude. Women should never forget about their husbands over another man. Plus they are forgetting them over a dead man. Women should always like their men more than other men.

     How could a woman compare her husband to another man, and think he is more handsome than her husband. In the story it states, " They secretly compared him to their own men". They shouldn't have thought of their husbands that way. They thought of things that the drowned man could do and their husbands couldn't do. Obviously their husbands aren't going to be able to do things that the tallest and biggest are able to do. They should have not thought in that way towards their husbands.

     Women should also never forget their husbands either. In the story it stated "they ended up dismissing them deep in their hearts as the weakest, meanest and most useless creatures on earth". Why would they even dismiss their husband deep in their hearts. If their husbands were to think of them in this way over another woman, they would have been jealous and angry. I think that it was rude of them to think of them in that way.

     Women should never put their husbands below any other man. They should alway think that their husbands are more handsome than any other man that they see. They should also never forget their husbands, and think of them in bad ways.

thINK

    

Florida Bans Smartphones and Computers

     TIMES online magazine published an article written by Doug Aamoth named, " Florida Bans Smart phones and Computers: I, for One, Applaud This Decision". This article talks about how Florida has recently banned Internet café that offer slot-machine like games. One Internet café owner acknowledged to this by suing the state, because her legal team found that the ban was so hastily worded that it could be enforced to any computer or device connected to the Internet. Basically Florida has banned any device or computer with the Internet. Writer Doug thinks that Florida should enforce this law, but I disagree tremendously . What would happen if someone has an emergency? How would this law affect businesses around Florida? How does this law affect people in Florida. Those are question that need answers before enforcing this law.
 

     By banning smart phones, people wouldn't have opportunities to communicate with family. What if you had to go out in town, and someone kidnapped you. How would people get help? How would they call they police? They wouldn't be able to because their phones wouldn't be banned if they were live in Florida. By enforcing this law, Florida is putting people in danger.
 

     Most businesses have customers through the Internet. For instance, hotels wouldn't get as many reservations as they used to. People use the Internet to reserve hotel rooms. Some people even shop online, but without the Internet they wouldn't be able to do so. This means that some clothing companies would get as many customers as they used to. Businesses would collapse if Florida enforces this law.
 

     This law is considerably an exceptional idea for one reason. With social networks and the Internet, people are always inside their homes. They don't pay attention to the what's going on around them. Doug considers that people will now go on tours and will actually be involved with what they are going to see. With your phone you will always be looking down, and not up. Children will now have a reason to go outside and play, because with computers and cellphones they are always occupied. This is one thing that I agree with Doug about.
 

      Florida's banning smart phones and computers by accident is a raunchy idea. This is putting people in danger. It's tormenting businesses. One acceptable idea about this law is that people would not stay inside all day long. I believe that this is a deficient law to enforce. I disagree with Doug's applauding to the idea of enforcing this law.

  Link to article used: http://techland.time.com/2013/07/09/florida-bans-smartphones-and-computers-i-for-one-applaud-this-decision/