Blog Post #5- Social Issue

     The book I'm currently reading is The Secret Life of Bees. The social issues present are inequality and discrimination. Having inequality and discrimination as part of the social issues it helps us to further understand the time period this book's placed in and allows the things that happen in it to be plausible. In this part of the book Rosaleen and Lily are walking in town. There were Caucasian men sitting outside as they passed by. ""Where're you going, nigger?""(p. 31) Rosaleen is an African-American who's a nanny for a Caucasian girl named Lily, Rosaleen was in town to register her name to vote. The men then began discriminating Rosaleen by making fun of her skin colour.

     "By then Rosaleen lay sprawled on the ground, pinned, twisting her fingers around clumps of grass. Blood ran from a cut beneath her eye. It curved under her chin the way tears do." (p. 33) The men waiting outside ended up beating up Rosaleen they didn't want her to vote because she wasn't white. They were discriminating and were being inequal.  

    

     When the cops came this is all they said ""You're under arrest," he told Rosaleen. "Assult, theft, and disturbing the peace."" (p. 33) Since she was black it was automatically assumed she was the one disturbing the peace and also the one who assulted the men.

     Without discrimination or inequality this book wouldn't work very well. It is based on how Rosaleen and Lily run away and stay with a family of African-American bee-keeping sisters. Without the inequality or discrimination Rosaleen and Lily would be able to stay with any family, but since Rosaleen isn't white she isn't accepted in a white household.

Blog Post #4- Significance

The Communists Daughter- Dennis Bock

Significant Elements:
1. The War
2. Bethune's Daughter

The war helps create or maintain the atmosphere of a place, contribute meaningfully to the plot, create conflict or a complication for the main character, establish the theme of the text, establishes setting, and contribute to the visual appeal of the text. It creates a sad atmosphere, it helps the plot and creates conflict or complication because it stops him from being able to see his daughter making him write these series of envelopes to her. It's theme is the constant battles Bethune goes through the war is one of the many. Since our common sense is that the war was a terrible muddy dark dreadful thing it helps us get a visual appeal of the text. Since the war happened we've learned where it was and helps us know time period this book is placed in and also props.

Bethune's daughter (whom he has never met) helps reveal character traits about the main character, helps the audience undersand the character's motivations, create a plausible character in the mind of the reader, provide insight into the character's feelings or emotions. It shows that Bethune cares for his daughter or else he wouldn't be writing his life story to her. It helps the reader understand that he didn't just get up and leave his daughter that he still loves and misses her and he's motivated to live through the war and not leave her life empty not knowing what happened to her mother and father. This makes Bethune seem like a plausible character because he loves and cares for his daughter like any other loving father. It shows how he feels towards her, that he truly does miss her.