Classic Novels

What makes a novel "a classic"? A classic novel doesn't have to be written by an extremely old person who is all wrinkly and has white hair. A novel that is read throughout the world and has an impact on people's lives is what makes a novel a classic. A classic novel is able to open new ideas and horizons for numerous amounts of leader. It has the ability to influence change in a time period and open new ideas to the public. Classic novels usually influence turning points in history and it is a story that has been passed down from generation to generation. A classic novel is read for hundreds and hundreds of years.

my comments to others...

angel,
on your first point, i really enjoyed reading your blog because it gave a new sense at how to look at things. I really was intrigued by your views on how a person can come back from the dead; not physically, but mentally.

I also enjoyed reading your second point. However, i do believe that childhood friends are the most loyal. Whether someone is best friends with that person in 10 years, or whether the two had a falling out, there were so many secrets shared with one another that i believe that person would bury those secrets in their soul. Even though the two people may not be the best of friends anymore, i do believe that the relationship that consisted between the two people will overcome the urge to go and rat that one person's secret or whatever the case may be.

March 19, 2009 6:43 PM

Shayna,
You had interesting thoughts and i do understand what your are trying to get across to your readers. However, although i do agree with you that the consequences that come with a bullies actions are justified, i'm looking at it in a different way. I feel that if someone wants revenge, the best revenge is to simply not give a hoot. Ignore what is being done or said to or about you, because honestly, if the words or actions that come out of one's mouth don't mean a thing to you, the bully is not going to have any satisfaction in doing these acts. If someone doesn't acknowledge what the bully is saying about them, it just shows that you are the bigger person and it just makes the bully look like a complete moron. And i think that is the best revenge.

March 19, 2009 6:51 PM

JJ
i completly agree with you 100% on everything that you blogged about. You couldn't be more on key with what you said. Like you i agree that no, not all rich people are snobs; however there are handfuls who take their money for granted, have things handed to them, and become these greedy brats. I feel that is partially the parents fault because they are the ones who do the initiating. Instead of teaching their children the understand of money, they just hand them however much they ask for right when they ask for it. These types of kids never hear the word no. But there are those few families who, like you said, teach their children the morals of money. So like you said, "no not all rich people are stingy and selfish, many are but there are some who are well rounded and perfectly satisfied".

March 19, 2009 7:03 PM

adopted/foster children

An adopted or foster child will never be accepted as a "real" member of a family.  I think this question is a false statement because one does not have to be blood related to be family. A family consists of people who love and care about each other. It consist of people who will go to the end of the world for that one member of the family, whether blood related or not, and help that person out not matter what the circumstances are. Just because the adopted child is not the families biological child, it doesn't mean that the family won't care and take that child into their home (as their own). No matter blood or non-blood related, if a family wants to make someone apart of their family, they will. Families are about people who care for one another and worry about them.

A foster child will be accepted as a "real" member of a family because the parents will take them in as their own, nurture them, and be their providers. The families would support this adopted/foster child just as they support their own. Just because a child does not live with their biological family, their new family would love them as their own, and support this child through everything they go through.

Although best friends are different than foster children in many ways, my family considers my best friend, danielle, as part of our own family. She is always hanging around the house and the rules that apply to me and my siblings also apply to her. If anything were to happen to her my parents would worry just as much as they would worry about their own children. It's the same situation with my sister's two best friends, Mollie and Jackie. They are around us 24/7 and every time i walk into the kitchen there they are. They are apart of our family, not because they're always over but because we trust them with our hearts and love being in their company.

Being a family is more than having a blood relationship. There needs to be a strong bond between a group of people, there needs to be trust, and love between these people. So whether a child is adopted or biological, it doesn't matter, because they will be accepted just the same.

P.S. even though kevin buonadonna is not apart of our family he is accepted into our family as one of us because of all the heart worming, loving, cherish-able time he spends with us. 

My Comments :]

Shayna

I can't stop thinking about Brother Tyreak when he sat us down to teach and speak about his religion. I too liked the way the Brother approached us. Like you said, he wasn't at all intimating and he was very easy to listen to. I was actually interested in what he had to say and i learned a lot from him. The Brother was an interesting person to listen to and learn from.

At one part in his "speech" he mentioned how you can't base a relationship around love. Even if you have all the love in the world for a person, it may still come apart at the seams. I have been thinking greatly about what Brother Tyreak had said (and now that it's down i think i will blog about it later lol) but i felt it related to my situation with "the boy". I felt that what Brother Tyreak said to us during the field trip wasn't just some little speech that we will just toss away in a few days, i feel that everything he said was reassuring and like you said, the minute i walked in i felt welcomed and respected by the Brother. 

great blog...it got me thinking :]
- gabrielle

March 9, 2009 6:28 AM

Shayna

This really was an interesting blog to read because of how personal you made it. I respect you so much for sharing this. I think a majority of someone's life is written down, except the ending to all the experiences. I believe it is the way that person acts towards what is happening to them or to someone close that ends that part of the story. For example, although it was a really hard and terrifying time in your life, your sister's, parents and brother's lives, i believe that you all decided to learn from this illness your sister had. Your didn't let it destroy your lives. Each and everyone of you learned from it and grew as a person. Each one of you grew stronger from this unforgivable illness that changed all of your lives. Although no one deserves to get sick, i think one reason a force pushes illness on someone is so that person and the people around them become stronger and closer to one another.

March 1, 2009 2:15 PM

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Kimberly

I too wrote about how reading can change or even save a person's life. And Jodi Picoult is life. She has taught me so much through reading many of her books. When I'm down in the dumps, annoyed, or frustrated, I always open up one of her books because my worries at the current moment get drowned out by the words that sit on the pages of Jodi Picoult's books.

March 1, 2009 2:47 PM

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Angel

i too also get mad at malcolm x when he generalizes whites into the one basic group. It really ticks me off because not all whites were like that; not all whites think black people are terrible people. I also agree with you when you say that depending on where someone grows up, it determines how they view other races. Like you said, the south still hasn't moved away from the past; they still discriminate against people who are of a different skin color and that bothers me immensely because how is someone going to judge someone based on their skin? How can a white person stand there and judge a black person mainly on their outside appearance without getting to know them and the person they are on the inside? They can't; people can't pass judgment on someone they haven't met because all they would be doing is making an assumption. I find it mind blowing that if a person was to grow up in a different section of new jersey, or even a different part of the united states, they wouldn't be the same person they are today because of how the people around them have different beliefs and views.

March 1, 2009 2:40 PM

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Jaime


I really enjoyed reading about how you view people as ignorant. I agree with that statement as well. There are many things people can be ignorant towards such as different religions, races, political views, and so on. But one thing that most people can admit to being ignorant towards is definitely other races. Like you, i haven't truly been exposed to other races as much as others have. I myself was actually ignorant towards the Muslim religion (so i learned on the trip to Harlem). However, by sitting and listening to Brother Tyreak, his words made me open my eyes to many more new thoughts and ideas. I feel that people should go out and meet and learn about other races in order to open new vistas in their lives. Great Job blogging. (i couldn't open up the link, but it seems interesting but at the same time shocking and upsetting).

March 10, 2009 6:25 AM

Harlem trip...#5

Neal Shoemaker said in the beginning of the tour, Harlem has been through major change. Everything in Harlem is changing for the better. I went online and researched how people were viewing the change and this website links to different people who have different opinions on how change has impacted their lives and what they think of it. Although Neal viewed the change as good, other's had different thoughts and the subject.

Walking around the streets of Harlem were a lot more exciting than i thought they would be. Every step i took i said to myself, "so many heroic black people walked these same streets i am walking; so many heroic black people have stepped in the same places i am stepping". Then when we stepped into the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, i really got a sense of the struggle black people have been put through. In one part of the Schomburg Center, there was a section focused mainly on Barack Obama. This section opened my eye's and it showed me how far African American's and blacks have really come.

Yesterday's field trip to Harlem really opened my eye's especially when we walked into the mosque. I think it was the first thing that Brother Tyreak said that really got me thinking and wondering 'what if'? He said that Muslim's don't have a set idea of what God himself looks like. They do not need to know what he looks like because he is in their mind and that is all they need to know who he is and what he is there for. This differs from my religion greatly because i always grew up with a set image of what God looks like. God to me is a man with long brown hair, milk white skin, and is very tall. But maybe that's the problem. Maybe it's that a majority of people have this set image of what he appears to be. Ever since i was a little girl, there were always pictures to lead me to believe what God looks like. But that's the thing. They were all just pictures and paintings. It surprises me how much you can take away from a religion that is not your own. To this day, the beliefs of Brother Tyreak linger in my head, and they always come up at random but useful times. What the Brother spoke about really made me change the way i view God. Is it wrong of me to view him as this white man? Should i not have this set image of him? Because all he really is is someone a person can turn to, someone a person can trust with all their secrets, and a person to turn to when life gets tough. I believe that Everything Brother Tyreak said really touched my heart.

The Apollo Theatre was gorgeous! i didn't want to leave. It was one experience i will never forget. So many famous singers have stepped into that stage and there is so much history located in the theatre. Billy, the man who showed us around, was so funny and he made the experience that much better. Having him explain the history behind the theatre really impacted how i viewed it. To think that the Apollo Theatre was one a hooker house really blew my mind because how can something that low get built up into something magnificent? I think the Apollo Theatre is significant to Harlem because it is a symbol of what can be built when someone strives for something.

I believe everything we saw, observed, and even ate, has so much symbolism in it. The buildings, i couldn't stop looking at them. Almost every building we passed was exquisite. People always think of Harlem as the dirty, dangerous area of the city. But if people would take the time to drive through, get a bite to eat, and look at all the gorgeous building structures, they would really get a better sense of what Harlem is. There is so much to Harlem that doesn't meet the eye. And if people would open their minds to new things, they would see that Harlem isn't just a place, it's a place filled with years of history.