Wednesday, September 20, 2017
Witness Act V annotations and discussion
As we finish this act, please post your best insights on this blog. Today, you should post 2-3 great ideas: label them with the appropriate reading strategy and link your thinking to text. Focus on great questions, inferences about characters, insights about big ideas/themes, responses to others' ideas, and answers to purpose questions. To receive full credit, you must adhere to blogging expectations and use textual support.
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why did the kkk torture johnny and brand him
ReplyDeleteI believe that the KKK branded Johnny due to his actions without their consent and his outward statement. Their branding was a statement that Johnny must surrender and bend to the wishes of the KKK and follow them only.
DeleteWho branded Johnny Reeves?
ReplyDeleteDoes Merlin's flee have any correlation to the shooting of Mr. Hirsh, or another unknown circumstance having to do with KKK or another party?
ReplyDeleteI believe it does have correlation to the shooting of Mr. Hirsh, because Hesse makes it very obvious that Merlin did not shoot him, so that leads me to think he must have been involved in some other way.
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ReplyDeletedid johnny kill himself because the clan knew or did something to him that he couldn't handle?
ReplyDeleteJohnny Reeves has kind of been the background and was a character that didn't share much of any information,except for what was given. I believe that Johnny was put on so much pressure and gave so much anger to everyone that he kind of just gave up. Johnny has had a close relationship with God just like when he said there is, "only one way to redeem myself with god." That statement made me infere that something else was happening with Johnny and that is why he killed himself.
DeleteJohnny felt the need to kill himself because he felt guilty for his past. It's like he was a white cloth and he was stained many times but when he tried to wash out all of his sins and guilt they wouldn't wash out or leave him. Maybe that why he felt like he couldn't live like the evil man he was anymore.
DeleteOften times negative events strongly change people's actions, but how do deaths change peoples actions (compared to other events)?
ReplyDeleteIt is very true that negative events change peoples actions, but a death has a different effect it almost seems like it will change their actions so much that they seem like a different person and it's almost as if the person has had their eyes opened and they felt they needed to do something so they started doing all they could.
DeleteAlthough negative events do change ones actions, a death can change not only your actions but who you are as a person.
DeleteWhat does Merlin mean by "and she was a colored girl but she wasn't just a colored girl,"?
ReplyDeletei think he means that her skin is black but she does not act like one.
DeleteI think Merlin means yes she colored but there's more to her than just the color of her skin.
DeleteI think this is implying that for the first time, Merlin had seen her as a person with family and life rather than just a "colored girl" he once was disgusted by. The realization that he could have just poisoned a whole family caused him to understand that the color of ones skin doesn't cause them to be lesser than a white person, because we all value similar things and have our own personality to be seen. Or it at least showed him his wrong-doings in judging her just as a "colored girl".
DeleteMaybe he means just because she is a colored girl doesn't mean she isn't capable of doing stuff that a white girl is capable of doing.
DeleteI think he means that she´s a colored but she has done some heroic acts and has made a name or herself as unique in a way, that would make her different from others.
DeleteDid Merlin come back because he was tired of running, or because he felt guilty and wanted to face the problems of what he had nearly done?
ReplyDeleteWell, I mean the book said it was because Johnny was following him, but I think it was more of a guilt factor and out of fear. Johnny was the person who encouraged Merlin to do unjust things, so maybe Johnny is just like a mental manifestation of the bad things and guilt that Merlin had left unresolved in his home.
DeleteI think Merlin came back because he wanted to clear everything up. He ran away because he was scared, but now that constable Johnson knows that it wasn't him who shot mr. Hirsh, he can be trusted. The klan is still angry at him for not poisoning the Sutter's well, but now people know that he is not the bad man.
DeleteI feel like Merlin was just going to accept what happened and make sure the story was straight. I feel like running away made Merlin clear his head and realize a part of what he has done wrong and how he has treated people. Merlin was just guilty and needed to be away.
DeleteWhy do you think Merlin talked about the buck in the ice at the end of the book? What is he connecting it to?
ReplyDeleteI think that he was comparing it to himself, because he had a couple of times where he could leave the Klan. When the buck was pulled out of the river it took a little time to stand back up again, then just jumped through the same hole that it just got pulled out of. That's what Merlin was doing to himself with the KKK, he just kept going back into the same hole, then when he did finally get out of the Klan he just ran away. That's exactly what the buck did after it got pulled out the second time.
DeleteMerlin was in a trap at the end of the book between the other characters beliefs and his own opinions. I think the buck in the ice with the dog trapped between the ice was a symbol of Merlin's situation and what he was going through. At the end of Merlin's text with the dog he mentions that the dog falls back into the hole, representing how Merlin never figures out the situation of people accusing him of shooting Esther's dad.
Delete(Responding to the thing that Fitzgerald said on p.154)"to those who swear our young are on the road to perdition take comfort in this-- every generation has felt the same for two or three thousand years and still the world goes on" I think that's a really good statement actually. It's this idea that people always see the present issues in your life like this huge brick problem, you know like something that's a really bid deal. However, as out lives go on we can begin to look back at those things and see them in a light where we know more exists out there. It's kind of like when you first go to your elementary school and can see the walls towering over you, and then seeing the same school now and everything becomes so tiny and less intimidating. In the same way that's how our conflicts start to look less scary after we've moved past and learned more about life.
ReplyDeleteDid the KKK brand Johnny or was it someone else?
ReplyDeleteIt was Johnny but they could have branded more people
DeleteNear the end of the book on page (157) when Viola said the she remembered why she fell in love with a man like Harvey, I think that deep down Harvey is actually a good man and has a heart despite being apart of the KKK. In the book the line says ¨Viola remembers why she fell in love with a great mule of a man in the first place, And all he´s done to make things right¨ meaning that even people full of hate can change and still be good inside.
ReplyDeleteI agree with that, and I think that Harvey's character is in the book just to show the moral struggle with being part of the KKK and how maybe hate and evil isn't just black and white.
DeleteWhat did Johnny Reeves mean by he was redeemed?
ReplyDeleteMaybe Johnny knew everything he did was wrong and he felt regretful of his actions, so he knew that he could be relieved of his sins by being beaten and everything by the KKK.
DeleteMerlin said that the reason he came back was because he said every town he stopped in he saw Johnny I think that was his mind doing the best he could with the guilt and found it easier to make it into something that he saw instead and he eventually just gave up and came back then he was able to clear his name and make his peace all while never understanding why Johnny was there or maybe it was really Johnny trying to bring him back in his own way
ReplyDeleteWhat did the deer falling through the ice represent?
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ReplyDeleteIs the KKK torturing and branding Johnny working as a source of karma for all the things he has done to people or the way he treats others?
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