Thankful

Hmm, this is a hard question. I don't really know anybody in this class as they are a year older than me and I hardly talk to them. Maybe try asking me this question again at the end of the school year. Since, I don't know most of the people in this class, I'll just write this blog about the person who I know the best. That person happens to be Keilani Williams!

I first met her in the 7th grade because we shared the same business class. This year on the first day of school I was nervous because I didn't know whether I was going to be the only frackie in the class or not. Seeing Keilani walk into the classroom made me super happy as I wouldn't be the lone frackie in the class. Without her, I probably wouldn't really like this class. She is someone that I can just turn around and have a quick conversation with. Also without her, I probably wouldn't be talking to Karmyn (another very cool and funny person) as she kinda introduced me to her (which was basically her talking to Karmyn and me just joining the conversation). Keilani is very intelligent and a hard worker. Just recently I found out she was a pretty good artist after seeing one of her doodles on a set of group work questions. She starts very interesting discussions and adds to the discussions that we have in the class (something I will never be able to do). Kelani is an amazing dancer and even made it onto the cheer squad, which is very cool! I hope you achieve your goal of becoming a sports agent. Good Luck!

Happy Thanksgiving everybody!

I Celebrate Myself

This topic is very much related to the transcendentalists and their idea of individuality. These three words actually come from Walt Whitman's Song of Myself. Whitman, like the other examples of transcendentalists we talked about, was very into nature and getting away from society. They think that we(society) are too much concerned about materialism and wealth. In Into the Wild, Chris just donated or left everything and tried surviving in the harsh and unforgiving wilderness. Chris was basically the epitome of self -reliance. This seems too ludicrous for me as I can't even imagine myself leaving or destroying everything of wealth and surviving in a desolate location. Though, I can see their idea of being individual and going away from norm. What these transcendentalist did to celebrate themselves was doing what they felt was right and what made them feel happy.

Although, I'm not a true transcendentalist, I still somewhat celebrate myself. I celebrate myself for not trying to be like everyone and getting every new piece of technology just to fit in. I celebrate myself just by being myself! Being content and happy is another achievement for me as I believe you can't "celebrate" yourself if you aren't proud or happy with who you are. I celebrate myself for even the smallest achievements, like making it past a level in a game or pouring out some water without spilling. I celebrate myself for getting the grades that I get (straight A's) and having a relatively simple approach to school and life, just try my hardest.  Even though there things in our lives that we'd rather not celebrate, we should learn from them and celebrate what we accomplished. Being different and not conforming is probably the biggest thing that we can celebrate.

POE

Poe's life was full of sorrow and misery. He was known for his “romantic” style of writing which was dark, dreary, and full of mystery. His terrible beginning years seemed to have a great effect on his life and his writing later on in his life. I feel as if his works were basically based on his life, almost like a biography which he wanted to share with others. This man was basically sad his whole life with all the mourning of his dead family members! He had his dad leave at a young age, mom die when he was young, and many others die, most of who died from the same thing, tuberculosis. From a young age he was probably lonely and depressed. This left him without any parents, though; he was shortly taken in by a rich merchant named John Allan. John Allan wanted Poe to be a businessman but instead he wanted to be a poet. He went to college at University of Virginia and ended up being very broke, desperate enough to burn furniture for some sort of warmth during the winters. Some years later, his foster family ended up dying as well. It was almost normal for him to lose someone in his life. This probably screwed him up in the head.  In The Raven and Ligeia, the narrator was mourning the death of a loved one, probably what he was doing in real life when he wrote the literary works. Poe, in real life, was probably wanting to know more about his loved ones and wanting to be with them. This could have been linked to his lost fiancé, who left him for another guy. He made the situation alive for the readers with the amount of description he gave in the stories, like he was just giving an account of what actually happened in his life. His incestuous relationship with Virginia, his cousin, may have been his premise for The Fall of the House of Usher. After she died, Poe was described as being a drunk and mentally unstable, just like Roddrick (for the mentally unstable part at least). His dark gothic style of writing had the same themes that embodied Poe as a person. Some examples would be mourning, the supernatural, and death. Though Poe’s life was cut short mysteriously (mysterious just like his stories!), he has created some amazing literary works that brings to life the story and whose meanings are still being debated today.  

What is an American?

Usually, this word is used to describe a person living in the United States of America, but to a lesser extent is also be used to describe someone living in the Americas. But I don't think the second part of the definition is accurate as their demonym is just based on whatever country they are living in. 

Describing what an American is can be quite hard as we all come from different walks of life. There is no definition that really encompasses all "Americans". To add to that, I think the definition of what a true American varies according to who you ask. There are some stereotypes of what an "American" is. According to these stereotypes, an American is fat (morbidly obese, owns a gun or multiple guns, lazy, uncivilized, and is super patriotic. Do I agree with these? No. Most of these are inaccurate and doesn't truly show what an American actually is. An American can come from all parts of the world, speak different languages, and practice different religions. As Crevecouer said, America is a melting pot and not every American is a native to this country. There are over 300 million different Americans, most likely not one that is the same in terms of background and interests. We might all have different jobs or different views, but we are all bound under freedom and opportunity.

As Americans, we were either born here with some previous generations going through the legal process to get citizenships or are currently doing that. We or our ancestors came to this country looking for the highly valued freedom and opportunity that this country. We are able to speak our opinions without the threat of being prosecuted and are able to have a fair justice system that many countries may not have. But in order to have all of these perks of being an American, we have to be humble and not take for granted any of those perks that we got over almost 250 years ago after breaking free from the shackles of the British monarchy. An American needs to be open and accepting of other religions and ethnicities.

Nowadays in everyday occurrences, when someone asks what you are, we tend to say we are American but add a word or two in front of it. The reason why is that we want to be unique or to be more specific. Most everybody you meet on the street is American so just saying you’re American doesn’t make you unique or special anymore. That question has now transformed into asking what people’s ethnicities or background is and not just what country they are from. Back when this question was originally asked, the world was not as integrated and culturally diverse as we are now. In one country, there are now numerous ethnic groups.

An American, regardless of race or religion, is one who works hard in pursuit of happiness and a better life, values and cherishes their freedom and opportunities, impartial to other religions and ethnic groups, and is proud to be a citizen of the United States of America.   

Modern Puritans

As we saw in our reading of The Crucible and The Scarlet Letter, the Puritan society is very strict. They are very intolerable for anything outside of what they think. Anything ideas outside their beliefs or if you break some sort of rule would be taken very seriously. Though. I don't think there are Puritans still in this society, but characteristics of that group can still be found in the modern day.

Being a Puritan in modern times would be horrible. You won't be able to enjoy that many things as their beliefs did not allow it. Also, it'd be hard to follow every rule and not break even a small, trivial law. The children had to not act like children and act as adults. That probably goes against what a lot of parenting books are saying. There will be no games or really anything that is fun. With the temptation of electronics and whatnot, its no surprise there really aren't that many "puritans" anymore. 

Nowadays, some aspects of the strict Puritan society can still be found. For example, gangs or cartels are very strict on their rules. Leak on word out and it'd be over for you. They take these rules very seriously as it may result in a shutdown of the whole gang. Like in The Crucible when Hale said about no crack in the foundation being small. Even some teachers are strict on their classroom or homework rules. The student will get punished by receiving a bad grade.In everyday life our parents can be strict, but like the school and teachers, they aren't as harsh. 

There are some groups that are extremely intolerant. Not sure if this qualifies as modern, but Hitler was pretty intolerant himself. He created ghettos separate from everyone else to place the Jews. Along with the Jews, he didn't like gypsies or gays. Currently, we see Russia being pretty anti-gay as being LGBT can get you in pretty big trouble over there. We are all intolerant or ignorant in some ways even if its not as extreme as the Puritans were. Even in school, I still see some intolerance, whether it is through verbal slurs or actions. I know there are still some bigotry towards the African-American community or even towards the Muslim as some associate all Muslims with terrorists. The Ku Klux Klan are still a pretty big hate group operating all over the US. They support the notion that white are supreme and that blacks, along with gays, should be killed or discriminated.

Some aspects of the Puritan society are still a part of our modern day society and I don't see it going away completely any time soon. 

John Proctor-Hero or Stooge

John Proctor is neither a hero nor a stooge, but somewhere in the gray area in between. Though, to me he is more of a hero than a stooge. He shows some heroic characteristics but also had some flaws. Like everyone else, no one is completely perfect; everyone is flawed in some way.

Proctor had his own belief in things and didn’t want his life to be controlled by the church. The definition of stooge, according to Merriam-Webster, is one who plays a subordinate or compliant role to a principal. Was Proctor used as a puppet? No. He was open to the fact that he didn’t attend church and that he saw no religious worth in Parris. When Hale was questioning his fate, on page 1301 he said,” I like it not that Mr. Parris should lay his hand upon my baby. I see no light of God in that man. I’ll not conceal it.”

Though, he committed adultery with his maid, Abigail, which was very stooge-like.  In the Puritan society, this was a big sin. This was the only major flaw I could see in him. But as the story progressed, he did what he could to fix this whole witchcraft commotion and to save the innocent from the growing power of the group of young girls caught dancing in the woods. Proctor could’ve easily just did whatever he needed to do to just save his butt like what everybody else was doing. Abigail, Proctor’s mistress, didn’t like Elizabeth, Proctor’s wife, after she was fired as a maid. This whole situation was started when Abigail drank a charm to kill Elizabeth. When that wasn’t enough, she accused Elizabeth of witchcraft. Proctor knew the girls were going too far with this nonsense so he tried to talk sense into her. At the same time, he was trying to fix the rift between him and Elizabeth. He was honest with his wife what he did with Abigail. On page 1294 he said, “I should have roared you down when first you told me your suspicions. But I wilted, and, like a Christian, I confessed. Confessed!” He realizes what he did was wrong and apologized for it. He later testifies against Abigail and tells everyone that he had an affair with her. Also, unlike the others, he didn’t believe there was witchcraft in the town and tried to think sensibly.

At the end, when they asked about Rebecca Nurse, he didn’t want to ruin her name or speak about anybody else. Proctor kept the questions focused on himself and not others. He ultimately lies about seeing and working with the devil but unlike others, he didn’t accuse anyone else. Proctor didn’t want to sign the confession because he didn’t want to sell out his friends and ruin his name as a result of signing. On page 1356 he says, “I blacken all of them when this is nailed to the church the very day they hang for silence!” He shows that he still has dignity when he doesn’t sign over his soul to the lies.  His honest and good character from this outweighs the affair he had with Abigail. He dies with his dignity still strong and name not ruined.

"Arrivals...There goes the neighborhood"

I feel that this saying can be applied to when the explorers came to North America. Before the explorers arrived, the natives were happily living off the land. These people worshipped the land and used it as part of rituals. Then when Columbus and the rest of the explorers came, everything changed. Columbus was more concerned about gaining land taking everything he could as he would profit more from doing so. To him, the land was his and basically it was now his “neighborhood”. They harvested a bunch of natural resources, destroyed villages and animals, and killed many with diseases as the natives didn't have a strong immune system. There goes the neighborhood as now some European guy they had never met was in charge. He and many other explorers were only exploring for personal gain. They had far different views than the natives and thought of them as primitive.The Europeans, being monotheistic, wanted to convert the natives, who were polytheistic. The Native Americans probably knew that there would be change coming to their nation when they saw strange, white-skinned people arriving at their coasts.I doubt anyone would just change their way of life just because some stranger told them to. Maybe at the beginning, the natives were welcoming and hospitable to them like in “Plymouth Plantation” but soon realized those people weren’t who they initially thought they were. To try to resist the change, they did what they could and attacked back.

Fast forward a bit to the Puritans. These people were super strict and followed the bible down to a T. Step out of line one bit and you’d be in big trouble. They didn’t like newcomers and unlike the Native Americans, weren't hospitable to them at all. The natives at least gave them a chance, but the Europeans took advantage of it and then just took over, forcing the natives west to live in reservations.

Nowadays, this saying can also apply, though, we are more open to new people. This was not always like this as we used to be very discriminatory toward some immigrants and ethnic groups. They felt that these immigrants would destroy their culture with their own and take over, just like how the Europeans did with the Native Americans.

In present day, my former neighbors could also have been said to have ruined the neighborhood for the rest of us. Everybody else in the neighborhood was pretty uniform; moms and dads go to work, the elderly staying home or working on their yards, and the kids going to school. But not these people, I don’t think they worked at all but somehow had the money to buy a bunch of tattoos, six-packs of beers everyday, some weed, and afford to take care of their family, which included a 2 year old kid. They had parties with music blasting into the morning hours basically every night and the smell of weed lingering in the air for a few hours. Then decide it is a good idea to throw their garbage wherever they want, whether it was in their yard, my yard, or right in the middle of the street. Everyone on the block was affected by their behavior. Well, there goes the neighborhood.

Me

Hi! My name is Connor (not Conner or Conor as some people think it is spelled) Szeto. I was born on February 24, 1999 in a hospital on the south side of Chicago. I am a freshman here at Whitney Young but went to this school previously as I was part of the Academic Center. This is a big step-up from the small neighborhood school I used to attend. For this reason, I have most classes with sophomores.

School has been super important in my life ever since I started going to school back in pre-k. Though, I'm not really a sports type of guy so I probably won't be joining any sports teams at my time here. I've always had the mentality to try my best and get the best grades in school, not just because my parents told me to, but because I really try to get the best possible. The subject I like most in school is math ( and not just because I'm trying to follow the Asian stereotype). I enjoy the feeling of accomplishment when I correctly solve a problem. So far at my years here at Whitney Young, it hasn't been too terrible. I felt that the workload hasn't been too much, but I'm sure that even with the extra work, the teachers have prepared me enough.

During the time I have not doing homework and not actually in school, I would say I mostly play video games. I like games where you actually have to think and not just mindlessly shoot stuff. Though, there is one game I do enjoy that doesn't really require me to think that much and that is Minecraft. To me, Minecraft is amazing, it allows me to create these monumental buildings, statues, houses, etc.! It lets my creatively run rampant. The possibilities are endless in that game. Other than playing video games, the other time-consuming thing I do is sleeping! It gives my body some rest so it can function correctly the next day. Aside from eating and doing these activities, this is what I basically do everyday.

Yes, I am not that interesting of a person (mostly because I'm probably too busy studying), but I am willing to find new hobbies, join more clubs, and make new friends this school year!