Dillon!

In this season of Thanksgiving I am reminded to give thanks for the things I have. I am thankful for many things, such as my friends, family and everything that I have in my life.  In particular I am thankful for my friend Dillon. Not only is he a very good guy, he is also a very fun and humorous one. I am glad that this year we have two classes together, PE and English, not just so I can beat him in basketball, it has also allowed us to grow closer and be the good friends that we are now.  Dillon and I get along very well, we both can make each other laugh and I think that we both enjoy each others company. So I would like to thank Dillon, for becoming closer with me and making me laugh, thanks bud.

Poe

Edgar Allan Poe had a very rough early life.  His mother died soon after his father abandoned them.  He was then taken in by John and Frances Allan, but they never formally adopted him.  He attended the University of Virginia for one semester, but dropped out after due to lack of money.  Poe then enlisted in the Army, but failed as an officer's cadet, and began his publishing career.  He originally published anonymously, crediting his works to "a Bostonian."  Poe switched his focus to prose and then began to write for various journals and periodicals.  Poe married Virginia Clemm, his 13 year-old cousin, published "The Raven" which was an instant success, but his wife died 2 years after its publication.  He was planning to start his own journal, The Penn, but died very mysteriously, in the streets of Baltimore, before it was produced.

I enjoy all of Poe's work very much.  His gothic and mysterious style provide interesting and different tones than what I am used to.  All of his works are fairly hard to understand, and require a lot of analytic thinking, but once that is done, the many interesting meanings become visible.  The deep thinking that is required and the mysterious tones of all of Poe's works are what makes them so intriguing to me.

What is an American?

Anyone from the continents of North or South America are technically "American", but the term "American" has become associated with citizens of the great country of the United States of America.  The country that above all else, "promotes" freedom and equality for all, and that is made of entirely of immigrants, who we now reject.  Every American is supposed to be given equal opportunity to have their own pursuit of happiness and to live out the American Dream.  The American Dream, the dream of becoming a business man, marry a beautiful wife, have two kids, and live in a house with a big backyard and a dog.  This however, is rarely achieved.  Nowadays, the stereotypical American is one that is fully immersed in the Western Culture.  Addicted to every sort of technology and TV show, constantly looking for ways to be more lazy, and completely self absorbed.  If one was to picture a typical American, they would think of an obese man, sitting on a couch, eating copious amounts of extremely unhealthy foods, and sitting in his own filth, while watching his favorite TV show.

Modern Puritan

I do not think that there is a group of people that can be accurately compared to the Puritan society.  The Puritan society was very influenced by the religious views of the people, which is something that we try to avoid in today's societies.  When there is not separation between church and state, radical things like the witch trials of Salem happen.  If a government is affected by religious views it can have biased views on things and can be an unfair and unfit form of government.
I also do not think that Puritans would be accepted in our modern society.   They would be made outcasts due to how different they are from us.  Their views would be found strange by everyone and they would live in seclusion, similar to the Amish.  The way they dress and the way that they act would also make them social outcasts in today's society.
I do not necessarily think that the Puritans not being around anymore is a bad thing.  As we can see in the Scarlet Letter, when they ridicule Hester for sinning, they are a very cruel people.  They would try to shame everyone for their sins, which would be hard because every sins.

John Proctor...Hero or Stooge?

Throughout this play, we see John Proctor change and evolve a lot.  In the beginning, I see him as a stooge and foolish.  John cheated on Elizabeth with Abigail, a nasty young lady.  As the play progresses, I see him especially evolve when he starts to see the accusations as being completely made up, and as he starts to try to do something to stop them.  When John admits to cheating on Elizabeth with Abigail, at the cost of his own name, which he cares so deeply about, he demonstrates how good of a man he is.  He willingly sacrificed his reputation and invited the punishments that came with adultery, all to help prove that Abigail and the other girls were lying.  The final big decision that John makes is what truly shows if he is a stooge or a hero.  John willingly lies about doing witchcraft, in order to save his life.  At the last second, he decides that he would rather die than live and lie about his accused crimes.  He rips up the confession and makes the men of Salem put him to death.  The court knew that John was an innocent man, but he made them put him to death, just because they wanted to conserve their own image.  I think that John Proctor is a hero, because he had too much integrity to lie, even to save his own life.

Arrivals...There Goes The Neighborhood

Chicago, Illinois, the city that I live in, is debatably one of the most segregated cities in our whole country.  This city is divided into large sections; the North, South, and West Side, and each one is associated with one specific race.  The North Side consists of primarily white neighborhoods, where the inhabitants are mostly Caucasian.  The West Side is made up neighborhoods where mostly Latino families live.  The South side is associated with African-American people.  I do not think that there was a literal push where the races were separated, but I think that it happened more slowly and gradually.  The split between these races probably happened back when segregation was bigger and more of a problem.  White people would create havens of people that were only the same race as them, not letting people like the Latinos or African-Americans live by them.  That created a cycle, not ever allowing the races to mix together, and still the problem has not been fixed.   The African-Americans and Latinos never wanted to try and integrate themselves, because they were so heavily discriminated against, so they never even tried to mix themselves with the others.

My full name is Peter James Zajakowski Uhll.  When I started high school, I dropped the Zajakowski, because it is too hard for people to pronounce.  Unfortunately, Uhll seems to be too hard to pronounce also.  The reason I have two last names is because my mom was too stubborn to give her name up.  It is very Polish, my grandfather took it with him while immigrating from Poland.  Uhll is a German name, even though my dad is a mutt, when it comes to ethnicity.  Peter James is my first and middle name because my brother got to choose my name.  He wanted to name me Thomas, because Thomas the Tank Engine was his favorite show, but my parents did not like that name.  He settled for the name Peter, because it was the name of his favorite babysitter.  James was his favorite train on Thomas the Tank Engine, so that is what he chose to be my middle name.