EmKangas

Oh my God, this was a very intense ending.  First off, yay to Carl Lee, who was set free.  The trial and jury scenes and the mob scenes outside of the courthouse were so well described and action packed that I could picture it in a movie.  One note, I noticed that as the trial went on, Jake drank more and more.  I think that reflects how these sorts of trials affect lawyers; the stress, media, publicity, and danger that goes with these controversial trials drive lawyers to drink their problems away.  Especially Jake, since he lost basically everything in the trial; his house, his dog, his money, his secretary of 20 years, and possibly his wife (but it all worked out in the end for them).  I'm so happy that they let carl Lee off, he really didn't deserve to be put to death.  All he was doing was protecting his family by doing what he thought was right at the time.  I mean, there's no way that anyone can think rationally if their child was raped and beatened.  There's no way that any sane person would be able to just leave it to the system without at least some thought of what Carl Lee did.  So yay to a happy ending to a not so happy book.

Woah.  This section really revealed the racial tension between the whites and the blacks in not only Clanton, but also Mississippie.  First, the NAACP wanted to convince Carl Lee to use their lawyer, instead of Jake Brigance.  It was a very enticing offer too, the best psychiatrists, lawyers, jury analysists (spelling?), and other resources available.  The NAACP raised a lot of money, more than Carl Lee could pay for Jake.  But I'm glad that Carl Lee declined the offer.  This trial means everything to Jake, so much so that the Klan even burned a cross in his yard and tried to bomb his house, and Jake still stayed on the case.  Then there were the protests in the town square.  First, the vigil the African Americans held, chanting "Free Carl Lee!"  Then there was the KKK protest.  Actually, they were pretty peacefull...then a bomb was thrown and all hell broke loose.  I guess, though, you can't really have a peaceful protest with the KKK, so, considering the situation, either the demonstration petition should've been denied, or there should've been more police officers to control the riot.  Then, the Klan attacked Jake's secretary and her husband.  He died.  And then the Klan burned crosses in 20 people's yards.  With all the Klan activity going on, wouldn't the police get more involved?  I mean, I know it's like terrorism and you can't really predict what's going to happen, but can't they get more officers from other counties to help out?  And with Mickey Mouse (the Klan informant), they know what sort of really harmful activities are going to happen beforehand so...shouldn't more action be taken?

Also, one last note, I really like this new character, Ellen Roark.  Not only is she really smart, but she's funny, and can hang with the guys.  Also, I keep picking up this chemistry between Jake and Ellen.  I think they're curious about each other, but Carla Brigance is in the way.  But I don't really like Carla that much.  I understand that the situation is very dangerous, but I don't think she understands that this case is so much bigger than she thinks.  And I think that Ellen is much more interesting than Carla...but I don't want Jake and Carla to break up, so I'm torn...

I can't believe the book is already over, it went by so fast.  This was definitely one of my favorite books we've read in American Literature.  It was interesting, meaningful, and fast paced.  There werent' long descriptive paragraphs that bored me to tears, instead, the pictures provided all the description needed.  As the book went on, and Vladeks experience in the camp and as a prisoner came to a close, I really thought about how resourceful he was, and how he took advantage of his skills.  He used the snow as basically money to get sugar, the blanket he used as a hammock sort of thing to keep him above everyone else, protecting him from getting trampled in the crowd, and his remaining strength helped him to survive the journey to Dachau.  It was in Dachau that he got typhus, and we see how his friends really helped him out by carrying him to the train when they were evacuated from the camp.  It was strange how fast everything fell apart for the Nazi's, prior to them letting the prisoners go, I had no idea that things were going badly.  I at least thought that there would be some foreshadowing that Vladek's situation was going to get better eventually.

 When Vladek finally was free, he was taken to Garmisch-Partenkirchen with the Americans.  The funny thing is that Garmisch-Partenkirchen is the town that I lived in when I was in Germany.  The building in the panel and the little wall surrounding the camp is so familiar, I know exactly where it is and what buildings are there now.  The building is a part of the George C. Marshall Center where my dad worked for 8 years, he still consults there sometimes actually.  I knew that the Americans took it from the Germans in WWII, but I had know idea that on the very ground that I went to church on, and that my father worked on were a camp at one point.  I've been there so many times, I just had no idea that that is what the place was like before.  It's kind of funny actually.

I didn't realize that there was such a time difference between Maus and Maus II, I thought that Spiegelman just wrote the second one right after the first.  Maus II is, so far, a lot darker and more intense than Maus I was, but this is the book that shows Vladek's Auschwitz experience, so I would assume it would be.  The pictures are more graphic in terms of content, like the drawings of the corpse piles.  I guess that's probably why Spiegelman had such a hard time writing Maus II, because 1) he didn't want to think about it, and 2) the actual writing and drawing would be very difficult. 

 In Maus II, we also see how Vladek's death has affected Artie.  He's feeling guilty about it, and feels as if everything is overwhelming.  I think he feels guilty because of the way he treated his father.  He wasn't particularly patient with him, and is trying to justify his actions with the arguement that his father was never really close, and always compared him to his dead brother.  I think Artie also feels guilty because he had such an easy life, and his family really didn't.

So this reading led us up to the point where he's captured, it's here that we see how bad things really are getting for Vladek and his family.  As "The Noose Tightens" (quite literally actually), we see how slowly Vladek's family is falling apart, and how Vladek is losing his influence and finding it harder to evade the Nazi's.  First, the Nazi's take away their furniture, ripping off Vladek's father-in-law in the process.  Then things steadily get worse, they have to move to a ghetto that's not really closed off, and then must move to a ghetto that's completely closed off, people are rounded up and taken to Auschwitz because of age or lack of influence.  I didn't realize how important having money or power was in order to keep you safe.  It was definitely Vladek's father-in-law's influence that kept him from the camps, well, until he got captured in the final chapter.  And I also didn't know that there were a few Jews that actually made a police force to find other Jews, I thought that they all tried to stick together, or at least, wouldn't turn each other in.  How quickly things to to the point where it was to each his own is astonishing- just a couple of years for families to break up.

So far I like this book, it's a lot different that the other John Grisham's i've read before.  The other books I've read before are The Client, The Partner, The Runaway Jury, The Belican Brief, A Panted House, The Rainmaker, The Appeal, and The Broker.  Those are all "courtroom" books, which I guess A Time to Kill technically is, but not really.  This book does have lawyers and trials and such, but there's a lot more personal aspects and moral issues.  Ok, so aside from what differs this book from the others, I think it presents a very interesting question: what would a father or a mother do if this happened to their child?  and is it right?  The rape scene with Tonya was probably the most graphic horrific scene I've read, and if that actually happened- I can totally believe that her father would kill Billy Ray Cobb and Willard.  I don't think a jail sentence would be enough justice for him.

 Another thing that really made me think about is if it's right for Jake Brigance to represent Mr. Hailey and try to get him set free.  I know that Jake is really doing this case for the money and publicity, but I think he's having some issues with representing Mr. Hailey in this case.  He knows what he did was wrong, but he understand where Mr. Hailey is coming from.  I think we'll see more of this struggle later on.

"She was the first 'nice' girl he had ever known.  In various unrevealed capacities he had come in contact with such people, but always with discernible barbed wire between." (148)

This quote ties back to what we talked about in class yesterday, how Gatsby, though he had money, would never be a part of Daisy's world.  Coming from a poor farming family, Gatsby (or Gatz, as he was known then) could never live up to Daisy's standards, and even if she loved him without the money, there's no way her father would've let her marry him.  So he lied.  He pretended to be rich, but still felt this separation between his pseudowealth and her wealth.  And even when he got the money, the people he hung around with, the "vulgar" (in Daisy's opinion) parites he threw, and the shady people he worked with were everything against what Daisy's world was about.  In her world, East Egg, it's not enough to just have money, one must be born with it, or work for it the right way.  Etiquette and poise and how educated one was were the standards they hold for everyone.  I think though, that when Daisy got back with Tom, Gatsby realized that he would never be a part of their world, and the dream he had of living with Daisy forever ended.  And then he died.  I was confused about how Gatsby died.  Did Wilson shoot him?  Did he just...die?  It was sad, though, when Gatsby's father came for the funeral, and seemed so proud of his son.  The torn creased picture of the house Gatsby bought for him meant so much to Mr. Gatz, and he thought that his son was so honest and hard working.  I'm glad that Nick didn't tell Mr. Gatz the truth about Gatsby.  I think that it would've broken his heart, like Gatsby's was when he realized that Daisy wasn't who he thought she was.  Maybe there's a connection there?  But that could be a stretch.

Addenda: (166) a list of things to be added

When I left to do my errands, I suddenly remembered that I needed an addenda for my trip to the grocery store.

Amorphous: (161) lacking definite form; having no specific shape

A lover of tight fitting clothes, Bethany didn't like wearing the muumuu because it was amorphous.

"'The God dammend coward!' he whimpered.  "He didn't even stop his car.'" (141)

I think at this point, we all knew that Gatsby's car had killed Daisy, (we just didn't know that Daisy was driving).  This scene was, for lack of a better adjective, sad.  Throughout this book I didn't like Tom, I thought he was rude and brutish and a horrible person for cheating on Daisy.  I even applauded Daisy for having an affair with Gatsby.  But after seeing his reaction to Myrtle's death, and how it made him seem almost caring (like how he took care of Wilson), and how his rough exterior was stipped away.  In one chapter, Tom went from a flat stereotypical character, to a round character who seems to have developed through the story, or at least has the potential to develop.  After reading this, I feel some disdain for the Gatsby/Daisy affair, and I can't help but to want Daisy to break it off and return to Tom.  I think that he does love her, but has made some mistakes- which he said when they were arguing in the hotel.  And I feel bad for him that Daisy wants to leave him.  But I also want her to be with Gatsby because they seem so much in love.  Oh my God, this is so confusing.  I don't know how to feel about this chapter because I want Gatsby to be happy, but I don't want Tom to get hurt because if Daisy leaves him, he'll have no one.

Portentous: (135) ominously significant or indicative

Maggie knew to go inside before the rain because of the portentous dark clouds outside.

Tumult: (135) violent and noise commotion or disturbance of a crowd or mob

In some conservative towns, the election of the president had a tumultuous reaction.