Eyes and Teeth

 Buzz's mama insults him about his skin color, saying that he's ugly and she likes her baby more than Buzz because he's not dark skinned and ugly like Buzz. Suddenly, Buzz is filled with pain, hatred and tears. Even mama's friends said that Buzz was gay, joined up with a black para-military group and was doing all kinds of evil, including dope.
 The point of view in this story is that Buzz's mama and also her friends are insulting Buzz in a hurtful way. The conflict is that mama is judging Buzz's skin color and is insulting him too. "Then suddenly something his mama and my mama are saying catches our ears and we listen. I'm so glad this baby didn't turn out black and ugly like Buzz. I can't stand to look at nothing' that black, and I feel so sorry Buzz is as black as he is ----------- tar black like his granddaddy.' And I saw hurt, pain and hate flood his face all at once." (p. 214). In this story, this shows that Buzz's mom doesn't like dark skinned color, only the light ones. And she likes her baby because he's light skinned and Buzz isn't.
 Twenty years later Buzz's mom dies, and he refuses to go to her funeral for things that has happened in the past. Buzz ends up with a beautiful wife, two babies and a new car. I think people judge the main character by the way he/she looks like or they way they act or talk.

The Tell-Tale Heart

 When you kill someone, it's a crime. When you don't confess, you have guilt.  You get a lot of pressure in you, you can't think straight, your head is spinning and you faint. People are criminals. They want to run away. They murdered someone.
 A guy had so much pressure in him. He heard the old man's heart and it got louder and it increased. "Villains! Dissemble no more! I admit the deed! ------- Tear up the planks! --------- Here, here! -------- It is the beating of his hideous heart!" (p. 5) The guy admitted to the police officers that he had killed the old man and pointed/directed to where he was hidden.
 Since the beat grew louder and stronger, the guy heard it and he got scared. He got a little crazy and overboard. He confessed and yelled, "The beating of his hideous heart!"
 The guy killed the old man because of his eye. It was troubling/bothering him. So he crept into his house, went inside his bedroom and killed him. "The old man was dead. Yes, he was stone dead. I place my hand upon the heart and held it there many minutes. There was no pulsation. He was stone dead. His eye would trouble me no more." (p. 4) The guy killed the old man because of his eye. He disliked his eye and so, he killed the old man, so his eye won't trouble him no more.
 The police officers came knocking on the door. They were told to search the premises of people's homes because a neighbor had heard a shriek during the night. "Suspicion of a foul play had been aroused; information had been lodged at the police office, and they had been deputed to search the premises." (p. 4) The police officers knock on each people's doors, looking around for anything suspicious. Were allowed to search premises of people's homes.
 You have to learn that if you hate or don't like something/someone, don't try to kill, try to talk/work it out. If you kill, you'll have lots of guilt in you and you later, confess. People in this world do a lot of crime, they escape or they might confess. People are criminals; evil, crazy and they want to run away to the fact that they murdered someone by accident, or maybe by purpose. The protagonist was the guy and the conflict was that the guy murdered the old man because his eye was troubling him. And the cops came and knocked on the door. The guy invited them inside and they look around. Then, they sat and chatted. The guy felt so much pressure in him and got crazy. So, the resolution was solved because the guy suddenly confessed because the pressure he had inside of him. This was basically, the main idea of the story. My opinion of the story is that if the guy didn't like the old man's eye, then he should've stop seeing/looking at him or don't look directly in his eyes. This is crime vs. self because you're facing yourself into a crime that you just did.

Bastard Out of Carolina

  The girl steals candy from the candy shop. Then, suddenly, she ends up telling her mom. Her mom tells her daughter a story, about when she was little and how she used to have a job with her friend and sell fresh strawberries, until her friend and herself started to put ripe strawberries under the fresh ones. And when her mama found out, she made them eat all the ripe strawberries that were sold. And while they ate it, they started to throw up. But that's what they got for selling ripe strawberries to the customers.
  Now, the girls' mom took her back to the candy shop and made her confess about what she did and she had to return everything she stole. And the little girl was frightened. The manager comes in and tries to settle things with her. But, then, suddenly, the manager comes up to the little girl and starts to flirt with her. The mother of the little girl notices and she grips her hand on her daughter's shoulders making sure that the manager doesn't violate her. The daughter is aware.
  The man makes a deal with her and her mom. When the girl has learned her punishment, she will have to go back to the store and tell the manager what she has learned. But the girl and the mom decide not to go back into the store or be near it because the manager was hitting on the little girl. And he was also fat, ugly, his breath smelled like alcohol and he smelled like aftershave.

 

Charles

    Many people like to fake that there's a kid in his/her class that is misbehaving. It could possibly be true or false. But, it could also actually be them. They blame others or make someone up. But when it comes to parent-teacher conference, they're busted!
    Laurie is a kindergarten little boy. He starts to make-up a boy named Charles in his class, to his parents. He tells them that he's a very bad kid. Charles is a bad influence. "Charles was fresh to the teacher's friend." This shows that Charles was being fresh and cool with the teacher's friend.
   Charles has mental problems when he doesn't want to listen, wants to do things his way and e.g. "Charles bounced a see-saw onto the head of a little girl. He made her bleed. The teacher made him stay inside during recess. Charles had to stand in a corner. He was pounding his feet on the floor during story-time. Charles could not use the blackboard because he threw chalk." This shows that Charles is a troublemaker. He doesn't care if he hurts someone, what he does or even cares about someone.
   Parent-teacher conference comes and Laurie parents go because they want to meet Charles' parents and discuss what's happening at school, that he's doing. When Laurie's parent’s mentions about Charles to the teacher, the teacher says there's no child named Charles in kindergarten. "Charles? We don't have any Charles in kindergarten." This shows that Laurie made this whole story up to his parents. But the behavior, it's all him, it's actually Laurie.
   Laurie snitched on him. Everything was all true, except for the Charles kid. There's no Charles in kindergarten. So, Laurie got himself in trouble for telling his parents what

class blog list

Mr. Schiff:324readers.blogspot.com
Mr. Donahue: samsreaders324.blogspot.com
Abdue: abduesreaders324.blogspot.com

Alexis: alexisreaders324.blogspot.com
Claude: claudesreaders324.blogspot.com
Daysa: daysasreaders324.blogspot.com
Edward: edwardsreader324.blogspot.com
Emani: emanisreaders324.blogspot.com
Erik: eriksreaders324.blogspot.com
Genesis: genesisreaders324.blogspot.com
Janssen: janssensreadersblog.blogspot.com
Juan: juansreaders324.blogspot.com
Julissa: julissasreaders324.blogspot.com
Lunes: lunesreaders324.blogspot.com
Marcus: marcusreaders324.blogspot.com
Mary: marysreaders324.blogspot.com
Melissa: melissasreaders324.blogspot.com
Sophia: sophiasreaders324.blogspot.com
Michele: michelereaders324.blogspot.com  
Marcelino: marcelinosreaders324.blogspot.com
Jonathan: jonathansreaders324.blogspot.com

The Monkey Garden

  A girl starts to cry because she just embarrassed herself. She wished and wanted to die, she wakes up, look at her feet and find them far away. As if they were disappearing. In this story, the girl was trying to save Sally from Tito and his friends. The girl took a stick and a brick and when she went to save Sally, Sally just told Tito and his friends to go home. But, Tito and his friends were telling Sally to leave them alone. But, they all turned around to look at the girl; she felt humiliated, dropped the stick and the brick and ran away, so they wouldn't find her.
  You have to learn that if you embarrass yourself, and you wished it never happened or if you were dead, you have to face the fact that it's reality and you have to live with it. The girl was just trying to save Sally from Tito and his friends, but she just embarrassed herself.
  This is reality vs. self because you're facing yourself in a reality that is happening and exists. You can't push it aside or pretend it's not there. It's part of you and you have to face the fact that it's your conflict, not anybody else's. People gets embarrassments, but be careful about what you do. Everybody is not always perfect. Everyone is different in each way.
  My opinion of the story is that if the girl wouldn't save Sally, she would have not been embarrassed. But, it seems like the girl has feelings for Sally. The girl cares about Sally and doesn't want her getting hurt.
   I think this story shows that if you ever care about someone, help him or her or try to talk it out. If it means risking your life, don't go too far. If you really care then, just do your best.