Mr_Shank

Madame Defarge is always knitting when she is around people, she is knitting names into a register and these people will be executed.  What Madame Defarge is doing reminds me a bit of voodoo dolls, maybe because you sew them and just the fact that she is knitting the names is strange.  What do you guys think about her knitting the names of people who are to be executed?

Also, after Lucie and Charles are married we see Dr. Manette return to his old habit of making shoes again because he thinks he is losing Lucie.  When people get depressed so drink, smoke, do bad things to themselves or others, what Dr. Manette does really reminded me of a drinking problem because he can stop for a bit but as soon as something goes wrong he returns to his old ways.  Then when Lorry sees him in this state he chops of the shoemaker’s bench and hides the tools in the garden so Manette can’t make shoes anymore.  This to me is kind of like rehab in a way because he cut Dr. Manette from his shoe making supplies like alcoholics are at a rehab center.

-Rebecca Krick

This may seem corny but the connection I made was in the movie cinderella.  Catherine reminds me of Cinderella who was once dirty and did all the chores. Blue collar almost. Mr. Linton would be the fairygod mother who changes Cinderella into a “princess” just like he changed Catherine into more of a lady. And Mr. Heathcliff would be the step-sisters becuase the step-sisters are jealous of how Cinderlla got more attention. I think this connects with Mr. Heathcliff becuase when he finnally meets her once agian she treats him lower and he is jealous of this. Do you guys agree with me?? Can you find any other connections in Cinderella to Wuthering Heights???

I believe that War of the Worldscan be connected to the movie Independence Day. In the movie, aliens come and attack earth. However, in the movie the battle is in the air, where as in the book the attack is on the ground. In both the movie and the book the people are intrigued by what is going on. They all run out of their houses to see what is going on. In both cases the people are being sucked into the trap. In their minds they know that it is dangerous, but yet they have this drunkenness to them where they need to see it. Kind of like in the Lord of the Flies. The boys on the island get in this stage of mind where they can’t control themselves. It is a very scary thing.

I leave you with a question: If extraterrestrial landed in the United States (for real) how do you think we would really react?

So far in the first 4 chapters Taylor leaves her home in Kentucky and ends up with a stranger’s child.

Some aspects of this remind me of a movie I once saw called “Where the Heart Is”. In this movie there is a pregnant woman who was abandoned at a Wal-Mart by her husband. There she meets a woman who eventually takes her in. She ends up living in the Wal-Mart for some time. One night she goes into labor and is about to have her baby in the middle of the store when a man walks by and notices her in the empty store. He breaks in and delivers her baby. After she gets out of the hospital she lives with the woman she met that day she got abandoned. So after she has her child she finds a family and they help her in anyway possible.

To me this relates to The Bean Trees because in both the women have a small child and are trying to fins their way in the world. Both of them seeking help from others. Taylor getting help from Mattie and the woman who gave birth to the Wal-Mart bay from the woman she met that one day. In both cases they are trying to find their way in the world and be good parents to their children, whether they are their real children or not.

Do you think that in these circumstances, Taylor seeking help from others is acceptable? Should she just give up the child all together, or keep getting help until she is stable enough to take care of the little girl on her own? Or should she keep the child without getting help and no stable future?

The Situation that Miss Manegette is in is very similiar to Will Smith’s character in French Prince of Bellair.  Miss Manegette has never met her father.  She does not know what to expect and was forced to live in an orphanige.  In Will’s case his father left him at a very young age.  When Will meets his father he is unable to understand him and their relationship becomes bad and frusterating.

  So I must ask, will Miss Manette relationship with her father not go well because she is used to not having a father?  Will the role of father ruin this relationship because the daughter isn’t used to having that figure?  These are very important questions to ask for the rest of the book.  This will determine the mood between these two characters.

-Julian Garcia

This story, Return of the Native, is pretty complicated to read. It reminds me of a book written by Jane Austen called “Pride and Prejudice.” They relate because of the wording first of all. The way the story is written, it sounds very proper and uses many different difficult words. Also, in “Pride and Prejudice,” it is very important to be an important person and to be married to an important person because it makes the family look good. So, that explains why Thomasin Yeobright’s family is embarrassed about the wedding getting mixed up. The family does not want to be ridiculed about the wedding because it is important to them and their daughter that their name keeps a good reputation. The way this connects to “Pride and Prejudice” is because the Bennett family wants one of their daughters to be married to a rich man who is new in town because then they’ll have bragging rights in their town and their name will be known all over. Therefore, the simalarities in both stories is the fight to have a good name by having a good wedding. My question for you is that in the end of part 10, the bride to be says that she will never give up on the husband to be. Do you think she really intends to be loyal to her future husband?

~Laurisa Varela

I believe that this novel can be connected with Lord of the Flies. in the War of the Worlds the people are attracted to the crater were the martians have landed. There is a hidden danger in the hole though. When the martians fell out of the ship they started killing.  Havoc began to break out among the people. The same occured in the Lord of Flies. The boys had believed that the island was going to be fun, there were no rules, no adults, and there was a lot of space to play. Soon power struggles broke out and people were being killed. Just the same as the little boy with the birthmark who had disappered, the shop keeper had fallen in the hole and they never knew what had happened to him. The was that hidden danger that must have been in the spectators minds but they were so excited about somenthing new that they had dismayed it, the same as the boys on the island they knew that there was danger but they were so excited about being on the island that it temporarily put that out of their minds. Obviosly there will be violence and war in the story, but will the martians provide a sense of false comfort like the island did?