The song "Don't matter-Akon" reminds me of how most of the society didn’t want to see the African-Americans and white folks living together. However, some wanted to be equal with each other, they didn’t care about the skin tone or colour. The song talks about how no one wants to see “us” together and in this case, “us” are the blacks and white who don’t mind being together. The song also explains how men will chase down her and women will change down him, this can relate to how the citizens would chase any blacks having interactions with whites or any whites having interactions with blacks. The chorus explains how the singer and his partner want the right to do certain things, this can relate to the African-Americans because they have no rights to do anything and they also want rights for their race. Another verse of the song is that they want to fight for their rights and for people to accept them being together. This is also like the book because although the whites and blacks don’t admit wanting to be together, they want to fight. Along with the pretend drunk who pretends to be drunk in order to be with his black wife. So overall, the song has many verses about a guy and a girl together and no one liking that or wanting that so they reject the couple. In Maycomb, some whites and blacks don’t mind being together yet the rest of the society will not accept such things and would kick anyone who would do that. This is why I think this song can closely relate to “To Kill a Mockingbird”.
Thursday, May 27, 2010
Outside connection
I find that the book, "To Kill a Mockingbird", is very similar to Apartheid. I find these two topics similar because of their racial prejudice. The book has many racial comments and the whites give no respect to the blacks along with little rights. Shown on the trial, Tom Robinson was murdered because he simply felt sorry for a white woman. Apartheid is similar because the whites in Africa didn't give the blacks any rights and even though more than half the population were blacks, they had absolutely no control. In both cases, the blacks were provided with poor education and poor residential areas. In the book, the black's church is way less funded than the whites, as shown when Scout questioned about the lack of stuff Cal's church has (because she was used to her own church). An example of racism would be the isolation of the black community and white community. The fact that Mayella tells everyone that Tom Robinson raped her is just so she wouldn’t get in trouble with her father. It’s clear that the black’s were treated as trash, Mayella rather avoids trouble and gets Tom murdered. Also, Apartheid had a couple whites who did not like the idea of pushing the blacks around, but they couldn’t do anything due to the majority of the whites who did not like the blacks. This is the same in the book because Atticus supports the blacks and even has Calpurnia, who’s a black woman, live in his house to raise his kids. There will always be someone or some people who do not agree with the current situation and this occurs in both topics. Racism, isolation, no rights and unfairness all contribute to why the book, “To Kill a Mockingbird”, is closely related to Apartheid.
Response on "To Kill a Mockingbird"
Harper Lee’s book, “To Kill a Mockingbird,” is, in my opinion, is a book that I did not get bored of because of its many themes and symbols that can easily be related to reality. I found this book very intriguing and interesting, many scenes surprised me, made me laugh or caused me to feel upset. As the title shows, the symbol of a mockingbird is quite thoroughly demonstrated through the book. This symbol is introduced as confusing and unknown but as the book ventures on, the symbol can be very understanding. My understanding for this symbol increased over time and as it increased, my interest for this book went up as well. I learned a lot, such as how the respect towards black people was horrible, it was like nothing. As it showed in the end, Tom Robinson was convicted of murder just because he felt bad for Mayella which emphasises to me just how bad things were and this showed me how grateful I am now. Furthermore, I liked how Harper Lee wrote the book in Scout’s perspective because it made everything seem more real and authentic. I also liked the several themes that were in this book, my favourite is “growing up” because it awfully seemed like me when I was young and perhaps still does (:D). Another theme that I really enjoyed would be “parents and children” because every family in this book were different. It gave many perspectives on each family and it gives you a very clear image of what each family goes through, their status and how their parents treat their children. In conclusion, I really had a fun time reading this even though I initially thought I would dislike it.