What makes a novel "a classic?"

In my opinion what makes a novel a classic is one that has a significant meaning and literary value. In order for a novel to be a "classic novel" it would have to be unique in its own way. For example many of the plays written by Shakespeare are classic because Shakespeare wrote in a unique way. He wrote in a poetic tone and in prose when necessary. A classic novel would also have to have significant themes and motifs. Many people in today's society can relate to the situations that happen in many of Shakespeare's plays. So classic novels would have to have universal themes, something that everybody that reads can relate to.

My Comments to Others

shelbyyyx3

I also posted a blog about how revenge is not justified in any situation. I totally agree with you on the fact that by seeking revenge, you are just lowering yourself to their level. In my blog I talked how by seeking revenge you are causing that person the same pain that you went through and you would just not feel right and feel guilty.

angelxshoe 

Angel,

I think that your perspective on people coming back from the dead is very interesting. I really never thought of a person coming back from the dead in that way. I guess it all depends on how you interpret things because some people might consider someone to be alive when they're physically alive or someone else may consider a person that is dead, but still talked about and still in our memories to be alive. 

I can relate to what you said about childhood friends not being the ones who are necessarily the most loyal friends. I know that many of the friends I had as a child are no longer my friends. Many of them live far away from me now and I have no contact at all with most of them.

taloush

Talin,

I liked the way you looked at two different perspectives on "dead people coming back to life." I absolutely agree with you. I don't think there is any way to bring back to life a "dead body," but in my opinion, the soul of a person can always come back to life. When a person dies, even though their heart stops beating and his/her physical form is dead, his/her soul can always come back to life.

Wuthering Heights Anticipation Guide

I think it is absolutely false that revenge is justified when someone beats you or insults you on a daily basis. I believe that revenge is something that can never be justified no matter how bad someone treats you or how bad a situation seems to be. By seeking revenge and trying to get that person back for what he/she did to you will just make you as bad as that person. You will be causing that same person the same pain you went through and even though that person didn’t care about how you felt, trying to get revenge will just make you a hypocrite. I think that the best thing to do is try to prevent future problems with a person that’s causing you trouble and try to talk with them about how you feel. 

            I also think that it is false that an adopted or foster child will never be accepted as a “real” member of a family. It doesn’t matter if that child is not genetically related to his/her foster parents. All that matters is that their foster parents love them as much as they would love a child of their own. I also think that it is false that children are responsible for their parent’s mistakes. Parents are mature enough to know what they do and the decisions that they make. I just don’t think children have anything to do with whatever decisions their parents make and even if they do have an influence in their parent’s decisions, it is the parents that make the final decision and they are the only ones responsible for their mistakes. 

My Comments to Others

brownie-jb

Jess, I totally agree with you about the fact that people should just be themselves. There are many people out there who like Malcolm X, try to change the way they look to fit in. I liked the personal connection you made to the way that you tried to change your self-image just like Malcolm did as well. People shouldn't worry at all about what other people think about them as long as they are happy with who they are.

angelxshoe

I can totally relate to you when you say that if you could, you would have loved to stay younger for longer (I would too). Time just goes by so fast and when you're just a child, you can't wait to grow older. But once you get to be older, more responsibility, problems, and stress come along with all that. Then it gets to the point where you just want to be a kid again.

 

 

esqueuch

I also think that Yacub's History makes no sense at all. What Mr.Yacub supposedly did just can't be scientifically correct. You just can't start with a black race and eventually change it into a white race. I just don't see how this is even possible. I also think that the people that did believe in this silly story, including Malcolm X, just wanted to use this as a way to prove that they were once the dominant or the "superior" race and that the white man was really the "devil".

techmanjones

Josh, I definitely agree with you on the issue about judging a person by the way they look or by their religion. I actually wrote a blog about how people shouldn't be judged without getting to know them better. I really didn't like how Malcolm used to blame the white race as a whole for the oppression of African Americans, but I am glad that he finally came to realize that there are white people out there who are good.

Malcolm X #5 (Jealousy)

Malcolm X had a lot of faith in Elijah Muhammad. Malcolm admired him more than anyone else in his life. He was the one who gave him the knowledge of the Islam religion and helped him escape from the life he once had. Although it is true that Muhammad did help Malcolm X, I think that he is a traitor and very selfish. I also think that it got to the point where he was even jealous of Malcolm. Malcolm was becoming widely known and praised by many Muslims and non-Muslims alike. Muhammad let Malcolm X down by suspending him from the Nation of Islam and not confronting the “adultery” rumors being spread about him. I think Elijah Muhammad was trying to get rid of Malcolm because he felt like Malcolm was becoming more powerful than he was.

I think this is very similar to the jealousy problems faced by people who have a very close relationship with one another, like other family members. This article (http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/395566/jealousy_can_destroy_a_family.html) talks about how jealousy can destroy a family. It talks about how the kid of a family would want all the attention and in order to get all this attention, this kid might do something to whoever and whatever gets in the way from getting all the attention. This is pretty much what was going on between Muhammad and Malcolm. Muhammad was starting to see that Malcolm was getting all the attention and so he found an excuse to suspend Malcolm from the Nation of Islam.

This same problem goes on within my family, especially my little sister. My little five-year-old sister gets very jealous when my parents turn all their attention to my brother or me. She starts crying and yelling at us just to get the attention back. She is showing the same type of jealousy that Muhammad was showing towards Malcolm.

Malcolm X #4 (Malcolm Changes his Point of View)

In my opinion, the climax of the book is when Malcolm goes to make the hajj to Mecca. His views on racism change completely. He once believed that the white man was the devil and that he was the one to blame for the oppression of the black man. Once he got to Mecca, he opens his eyes to a whole different world. He experiences a feel of unity that he could have never felt in America. He saw people from all different places and different races, praying together and getting along well. The white men he met during his trip were extremely friendly and treated him with respect. Dr. Azzam, one of the white men whom he met, even let Malcolm use his luxurious suite until Malcolm was able to go to Mecca. This is a huge turning point in Malcolm’s life because this is what makes him change the way he views the white race as a whole.

It’s almost like Malcolm judged the entire white race before really getting to know that there were some places in the world where white men got along well with non-whites, just like a person might judge someone before really getting to know that person. I remember there was this girl that used to think I was selfish and mean. She didn’t even know anything about me and she always gave me a nasty look. One day I decided to ask her why she always looked at me that way. We started talking and we got to know each other better. Once she got to know me for whom I really was, we became really good friends and after that moment she never gave me a nasty look ever again.

(http://ezinearticles.com/?Do-You-Judge-People-Before-You-Know-Them?&id=1050108) This article talks about how people judge others before getting to know them well. There are people that think that the wealthy are evil and commit more sins than the non-wealthy. It talks about how the wealthy characters in a movie are the ones most likely to be the evil ones. There are also people that judge others that cannot speak the English language correctly and those people who tend to be overweight. All of the examples in this article show how people judge others before really getting to know them, just how Malcolm judged the white race before getting to know all of the white people around the world.

Malcolm X #3 (The Islam Religion)

Malcolm sees many of the people who had the same kind of hustling life he used to have before he went to prison. When he sees what had happened to all these people, he realizes that he made the right decision to become a Muslim. I feel like the Islam religion really helped Malcolm X “escape” from the life he once had. The strict Islam religion got him away from drinking, drugs, and from doing any illegal acts. This religion gave him the strength to fight for the black man. Instead of coming out of prison and doing something else that would put him in jail again, he became someone that many black people looked up to.

There is an article (http://iblp.org/iblp/news/2004/04/001) that talks about programs being established in prison to help prisoners get ready for life outside of prison without committing another illegal act. The purpose of these programs is to reduce the amount of prisoners that return to prison after being released for another crime. I think that these programs are what the religion of Islam was to Malcolm X during his years in prison. 

Just like the Islam religion helped Malcolm become a more responsible person, the birth of my younger sister was also a point in my life where I became a responsible person. Before the birth of my little sister, I never helped my mom around the house and I was very disobedient. After the birth of my little sister, I noticed how much my mother cared for her and how much she loved her. I also noticed how much work she had to go through to take care of her. After seeing this I thought to myself that this was probably the same way my mother cared for me when I was just a little baby. I started helping my mom around the house and even helped her take care of my little sister. I came to love my little sister as much as Malcolm loved the religion of Islam at that point. I also started doing chores all the time and started being more obedient because I knew all the stress my mother would have gone through if she were to do all the chores and take care of my little sister at the same time. 

Malcolm X #2 (The Knife Will Still Leave a Scar)

One of the quotes that I think is very significant is “Four hundred years the white man has had his foot-long knife in the black man’s back –and now the white man starts to wiggle the knife out, maybe six inches! The black man’s supposed to be grateful? Why, if the white man jerked the knife out, it’s still going to leave a scar” (Haley 275). I think that this quote is very significant because it states that what happens in the past can be forgiven, but never forgotten. The black man has always been oppressed by the white man. It all started when the first ship of African Americans came to this country and the white man decided to make them their slaves. Even after the emancipation of slavery, black men where still being discriminated by white men. What Malcolm X means by this statement is that no matter how good the black man may be treated by a white man, the pain of once being oppressed will never go away.

There is a very interesting article about a survivor’s reaction to the genocide of Rwanda (http://www.dailycamera.com/news/2008/apr/06/headline-here/) that talks about the grievances the Tutsis have against the Hutus. The survivor states that he has forgiven the Hutus, but the genocide was a point in history that will be very difficult for him to forget. He went through a lot of hardships to survive the violent genocide and many of his family members and friends died. 

I know of a lot of things that have happened to me because of someone else's fault that I forgave, but are still within my memories up to this moment. I will never forget the moments that my brother made me go through a lot of pain like the moment he hit me in the mouth with a baseball bat or when he pushed me into a steaming pot while we were arguing in the kitchen. It took me a very long time for me to forgive my brother for what he had done, but I ended up forgiving him. But like I said, these are things that I will always remember.

Malcolm X #1 (Malcolm Changes)

It is amazing how drastic the change that Malcolm goes through is. During the early chapters, Malcolm is a person who steals and consumes a large amount of drugs. At first when he is in prison, his handwriting isn’t all that great and the people who he wrote to barely understood what he wrote. As he spent some time in prison, he decided to do something beneficial. He starts going to the library and reading books. He becomes so fascinated by the books he reads that he keeps on reading, even while everyone in the prison is sleeping. He starts reading the dictionary and copying down every single word along with the definition on a little tablet. After he is out of prison, he no longer consumes drugs and doesn’t do anything illegal. He no longer wears zoot suits or gets his hair conked anymore.

I admire Malcolm X for making the decision to get self-educated while in prison. There are many people out there today who break away from mistakes they made in the past and try to make a better future for themselves. I remember that when I was just in the second grade, I didn’t care much about school. All I liked to do was play on the computer and draw pictures. I didn’t like to do homework at all and I was very lazy. Midway through third grade, I was still the same way I had been in second grade. I stopped being this way towards the end of third grade. My mom was the one who motivated me to start reading books. She used to read me short stories, which I loved. I decided to challenge myself and started reading many chapter books from the Junie B. Jones and the Baby-sitter’s Club book series. I became extremely fascinated by these books. After reading all these books, I started to like school and do my homework. I even read during the summer. I changed from being a lazy, irresponsible student who doesn’t do homework to a hard working, responsible student who does all her homework, just like Malcolm X changed from being a druggy/thief to a respectful human being.

There is an article (http://www.gimundo.com/Articles/Daily/1231/11/12/2008/Former_Thief_Sends_Money_and_Apology_Note) that talks about a man who stole four hundred cigarettes from an Indian food shop owner in Bristol, England. The thief, like Malcolm X, used to consume a large amount of drugs. The thief sent a letter and some money to the Indian food shop owner as a way to apologize for what he had done. Like Malcolm X, the thief turned his life around in order to have a better future.

The Ethnic Notation Video

The video we watched in class a few days ago about ethnicity was really intense. I think it put a lot out there about what African Americans really were in the minds of white people. I did not know that Sambo, Zip coon, mammy, the brute, the pickaninny, and urban coon were stereotypes used to describe African Americans. I do not think it is fair that African Americans were discriminated in this way. I also do not think it is fair how African Americans were discriminated in the various cartoons shown in the movie. One of the ways African Americans were made fun of in these cartoons was by drawing big lips on these African American characters. African Americans were portrayed as monkeys and horrible beasts. Even little kids and babies were depicted with wild animals to show that they were animals themselves. This just shows how far white people have gone to discriminate African Americans. These stereotypes are similar to some of the stereotypes that still exist today. For example, I have seen recent pictures where African Americans are still portrayed with big lips. I have even seen from personal experience, people making fun of how African Americans look.I think discrimination and stereotypes still exist today, not only African American stereotypes, but also stereotypes of many different cultures and religion. 

As a Hispanic, I have never been personally criticized or made fun of because of my race. But I have seen many cases in the news were Hispanics are been abused by racists. There was one specific case of a hate crime in which three African Americans killed a Hispanic man by beating him with an aluminum bat. (http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/brooklyn/2008/12/13/2008-12-13_a_rally_cry_for_latino_immigrant_killed_.html
)

Malcolm X (Interesting Quotes)

So far, I think that Malcolm X is a great book. There are many quotes that really grabbed my attention. One of the quotes states "They all reported that Mr. Ostrowski had encouraged what they wanted. Yet nearly none of them had earned marks equal to mine" (Haley 38). I think this is a very deep quote because it shows how African Americans were considered to be inferior no matter how good they were at something. Even though Malcolm gets better grades than most of his classmates, Mr. Ostrowski does not believe that Malcolm could pursue his dream of becoming a lawyer because he is black. Mr. Ostrowski did encourage the white students, who got worse grades than Malcolm, to pursue their dreams of becoming teachers and doctors. I do not think it is fair that African Americans were "predestined" at that time. It is almost like their destiny is to have jobs not as superior as those of whites. 

Another quote states "I admire any Negro man who has never had himself conked, or who had the sense to get rid of it -as I finally did" (Haley 57). Malcolm went through a lot of pain when he got his first conk. His flesh was literally burning and he was suffering just so that his hair could be as good as a white man's hair. Looking back to when he got his first conk, Malcolm X felt ashamed of himself for being so ignorant at that time: for being like many of those African Americans who were brainwashed to think that they were inferior to white people and that they had to do anything to look like a white person.