SPIKEIT!

Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men explores themes of dreams, loneliness, equality and relationships that parallel many of the other texts we have read this year. Which theme do you think is most important? What is the "truth" about that theme revealed in the novel? I think the theme of equality is the most important. I believe that everyone should be treated equally, no matter who they are. In __Of Mice and Men__, Lennie is treated differently by some people because of his mental illness. For example, Curley tries to take advantage of Lennie by bullying him and fighting him. Curley knows Lennie won’t try to defend himself but is surprised when Lennie breaks his hand on George’s order. The truth about the theme of equality is that all people should be equal, because you never know when someone could surprise you because you have such low expectations for them. Think about the different ways Dickens uses the idea of "expectations" in his novel. What is the truth about our expectations, either those we have for ourselves, those others have for us, or those we have for other people? The expectations that other people have for us may not always come true. In __Great Expectations__, Estella expected Pip to leave her alone after she told him that she didn’t have a heart, and she couldn’t love. Pip didn’t leave her alone. On the contrary, he declared his love for her in front of Miss Havisham. Estella’s expectation for Pip didn’t come true. My volleyball team is not doing very well. My coach always says that she has really high expectations but when we lose every week, we don’t meet her expectations, resulting in punishment at practice. My coach’s expectations for us to play well and win are not met when we lose. Reflect on our reading from __To Kill a Mockingbird__. We looked at issues of education, growing up, justice, fairness, and others. In our writing, we looked for connections between our personal experiences and those of the characters in the novels. What "truths" can be found in this book that relate to our world today? In __To Kill A Mockingbird__, social status is addressed. Atticus teaches Scout and Jem that social status and race don't matter by defending Tom Robinson. A truth in TKAM is that social status shouldn't matter, and that you should treat everyone the same. Even though we live in the United States of America, there is still a social pyramid, and some of the people at the top of the pyramid still treat the people on the bottom rudely. In TKAM, the wealthy whites were at the top of the pyramid, while the poor whites were in the middle, and the blacks were on the bottom. Most of the whites treated the blacks very poorly. Also, they treated anyone who was friends with or even cordial to the blacks (people like Atticus) very poorly. Today, race isn't an issue with the social pyramid. The people on the top are simply richer than the people on the bottom. In our reading of William Golding's __Lord of the Flies__, we looked at issues of fear and evil, the "beast within." What can we learn and apply from Golding's work, either on a personal or societal level? What truths did you find in this novel or in our discussions about it? One of the truths that is seen in __Lord of the Flies__ is that the "beast within" is really the fear inside of you. Golding teaches us that everyone has fear inside of them, and that bad things can happen when you let the fear take over. I recently watched a news report about a 16 year old girl who was physically beat up for posting something on her myspace page. There was a group of about eight other teens who lured her into a house and videotaped themselves beating her up. She was seriously hurt, but that's not even the worst part. The suspects were taken into custody and they didn't seem to care or feel ashamed about what they did. One of the girls asked if she would be able to go to her cheer practice the next day. I think that there is a possiblity that the teens did what they did out of fear that their reputation would be harmed. Jack and the hunters did a similar thing. They were having a party because they caught another pig and they started doing the reenactment of the hunt when Simon crawled out of the forest. They were so into the reenactment that they thought he was the beast and killed him out of fear.
 * Prompt #5 (April 3): Truth in __Of Mice and Men__ **
 * Prompt #4 (March 30): Truth in __Great Expectations__ **
 * Prompt #3 (January 6): Truth in __To Kill a Mockingbird__ **
 * Prompt #2 (November 6): Truth in __Lord of the Flies__ **

The general term “mythology” encompasses the stories that a culture creates to understand the truth of the world they live in and their place within it. From a personal standpoint, it is about understanding who we are and where we fit in our world experience. What is the "truth" of mythology as we have studied it? What truth have you learned from our investigations? What personal truths have been revealed to you?
 * Prompt #1 (October 7 2008): What is the “truth” of mythology? **

Even though mythology is not true, it has many elements that are true, even though they are not always obvious. One of these elements is about the nature of humanity. It is revealed in the myths, legends, and fables. The ancient cultures knew a lot about the way that humans acted, maybe even more than we do now. Another truth in mythology is the culture that it reveals. When we were reading The Odyssey, we learned quite a bit about greek culture and what they did when a traveling stranger came to their house. For example, when Odysseus and his crew made it to the island of Aiolos, they were welcomed by the wind king and his people. They were given a meal and one nights rest but when Odysseus started telling their story, the king was so interested that they ended up staying there for a month, which was when Odysseus finished his story. Another truth in mythology is the truth that natural phenomena do happen. The only thing that changed in mythology about natural phenomena was the way that they happened. For example, Demeter made the seasons change in Greek mythology when in real life, it is about the way the earth rotates in comparison to sun.