essay
The books we have read so far, Shane, Call of the Wild, and The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, have relations to what I have learned in history class. I have learned a lot from these books, like the cultures, their ways, and a little about the time periods. In Shane, Bob experiences a new life during the western era with a new person entering his life. In, The Call of the Wild, a house family dog is kidnapped and his life totally turns head over heels. The book, The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, is more about the slavery time, a lady telling a story about her hard life, struggleing to be alive and free.
First of all, in Shane by Jack Schaefer, The narrator is a little boy, Bob, living in a little town in the western side. The mood of this book sets you in the "western movie" era. Bob and his family lives on a farm happily until a strange man dressed like no other comes into town asking for a little break for him and his horse. I felt that Bob and him had a special relationship without actually interacting. He seems very curious about Shane and follows him around. Shane keeps a secret from the family and the whole town is scared of him. Although he seems dangerous and mysterious, Joe lets him stay with the family. This relates to my history lessons because of what we learned about the Westward Movement. It was in the same time period and era. Not only because they both talked about cowboys but also the fact that everyone had to work hard and many lived on the farm. I also learned how different everyone talked and how they cared about wealth so much.
Second, in The Call of the Wild, by Jack London, it talkies about the relationships of man and dog. Buck, the main character and a house dog from a very wealthy family, is captured and kidnapped by the gardener. This is when his life turns upside down. Thinking that all man are nice and kind like his master, loyalty is out of the questions when dealing with the people he encounters with. At first as I read this, it was hard for me to read what he went through at first innocent, and then learns to adapt his surroundings. I learned how harsh people were back then for money, it reminded me of the movie "Balto" when the sled dog saves the children by brining medicine. This relates to the gold rushes and how the love of gold was obviously more important than the love of friendship.
Moreover, the The Autobiography of Miss Jane Pittman, by Ernest J. Gaines, tells the tale of an old lady who lived through slavery during the 1960's. This is mostly about Miss Jane struggling to live under the pressures of slavery. I thought she was EXTREMELY lucky how she lived through all of the mishaps. She learns a lot through the journeys and meets new people both mean and helpful. It talks about the legacy of slavery and classes in different races. In history, we learned about the experiences of slavery and from how it started to how it ended. This book era is in between, mostly the ending part. After the Emancipation Proclamation, the Civil War starts and she is right in between that. The book also talks about the punishments and how badly the slaves were treated. In history, we saw and read about how that was like. Also, Jane seems to have no relatives, we learned that slaves were separated from their families at auctions and it was most likely that they were never able to be seen again.
In conclusion, all of these books were really great to read and I enjoyed most of them. I have learned a lot about history from these books about all of their ways of different life styles. I really enjoyed the different dramas of the different books and the good events and bad ones. All 3 books tells a different story and sets you in different moods and time periods.
posted by Hanabananananananananana @ 9:50 PM
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