How To Kill a Mockingbird Short Analysis

Why is it necessary to understand the historical and cultural context of the Novel?

How does it help to understand the author’s background? Is it necessary to learn about the author’s background?

Is it possible to appreciate the text without pre-reading about the historical and cultural context of the novel/background of the novel?

It is necessary to understand the historical context of the novel, as because nowadays, prejudice is less common (though it is not eradicated) Therefore, we might not be able to properly understand the nuances of the novel itself. For example, a person who did not understand the background of the novel would not understand the true meaning of the novel, and would also miss out on some of the parts of the novel.

Knowing the author's background is important, and would help with understanding the novel, and the author's reasons behind it. However, it most books and cases, it is not really necessary to understand more about the author. Harper Lee (Actually Nelle Harper Lee). She wrote the novel in 1944, approximately 79 years after the conclusion of the American Civil War, which was fought to free Negroes from Slavery. The book is actually set a few years after the American Civil War, in a Southern State (Which supported Slavery and fought against the Union during the Civil War).

First post of Sec 2 LA Online Lesson - Prejudice

For our first LA lesson in 2011, we have a short free writing exercise. For today, the exercise is on Prejudice.

What I already know about Prejudice:

Prejudice is a form of discrimination against an individual, institution or group of individuals. The prejudice may be racial, religious, etc. For example, when Adolf Hitler tried to exterminate all the Jews, the unsuccessful genocide may be viewed as Religious Discrimination or Prejudice.

Such Prejudice was also seen in the USA during the Civil War period, where a war was fought between the Confederate and the Union, to free negro slaves. Although the war was won to free them, they did enjoy complete equality, until recent years. However, since Mr Barack Obama became president, it might be seen as a milestone that the country and its people have managed to overcome such racial prejudice.

What I want to know about Prejudice:

I want to understand more about how a prejudice can develop, and affect a society.

Malay Dance at Bukit Panjang

Today was the Malay Dance @ Bukit Panjang. We learnt 4 types of Malay dance. Listed in order from slow to fastest, they are:

1. Asli,
2. Inang,
3. Zapin
4. Joget/Rong geng

The introduction of the zapin (Zar-Peen) is called Taqsim (tug-seem). This introduction is by the Gambus, which is a Malay Stringed instrument. It looks like a guitar, but instead of having a flat underside, the underside is concave. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Qanbūs The Taqsim can last for 5 to 15 minutes.

The ending of the zapin is called "wind up". At this point, the dancers will yell "wind up". At this point, the music is at its fastest.

The dances were quite interesting. All of them, with the exception of the Zapin, start with the right leg. For the Asli for example,we would move from right to left with different arm movements. The dancing is mainly repeated steps.

However, it was a fun experience. This is the second last BPGHS session. Unfortunately, next Tuesday is POP (Passing Out Parade), so it is likely that I will not get to go for the BPGHS exchange.

Performance by Wild Rice, and other news.

Wild Rice - The importance of being Kay Poh

We had a performance by Wild Rice. The title as seen above is rather satirical. The play focuses on 4 neighbours and how they try to tolerate each other. More on this later.

The main characters were:

1. A Policeman
2. A Indian Resident from the HDB block
3. A Chinese Housewife
4. A Malay singer

In the story, the Chinese Housewife goes to the Void Deck to complain about the Singing of the Malay Singer, who is practicing before her sister's wedding in which she is performing. They both get into an argument as the Singing has a permit to perform at the void deck, while the housewife says that it is distracting her daughter from studying for "a very important exam".

At this point, the policeman shows up. He had lost a cat, Blacky, which his supervisor had ordered him to take care of. He is searching for the cat, a stray, so that he would not be scolded by his superior. At this point, the housewife tries to engage the policeman to help her quieten the singer. However, the policeman is tricked by the singer, who tells him that she saw Blacky.

At this point, while heading home, the woman is almost hit by clothes thrown down by somebody. It turns out the the clothes belong to the Indian resident. His wife threw the clothes down as he did not reserve a seat in their favorite restaurant for their wedding anniversary.

After this, the play goes on, and the characters manage to solve their problems. The play was packed with humour and was very interesting.

Other News:

Well, As you might have heard, a HCI student posted some grievances on STOMP. (http://singaporeseen.stomp.com.sg/stomp/sgseen/what_bugs_me/418626/teacher_takes_students_belongings_to_teach_them_a_lesson.html) He complained that his belongings were "taken away" by a teacher. However, this student certainly omitted certain points:

1. The teachers were safeguarding the items for them. Safeguarding. If they had been lost, he wouldn't have seen them again. (The last sentence is a quote from another student)
2. The classroom was not locked. All the classrooms involved had perfectly functional locks. It only takes 5 seconds to turn the locking knob.
3. The teachers posted a EMB message to the students whose belongings were safeguarded. The message was posted immediately after the belongings were taken. (The EMB is a sort of message board for teachers to send messages. The messages can be addressed to CCA groups, the entire student cohort, each level of the student cohort or private groups)

Furthermore, the incident has caused HCI to come under fire from many people, who only have a warped understanding of the issue.

For example:

horowitz said on 26 Jul, 2010

how can HCI allow its teachers to possibly commit theft within the school compound itself? the teacher should be sacked!!

We should reflect on this incident. Why did this happen?

Helping out with DSA

Today, I went to help out with the HCI DSA batch 2. This batch was the non-GEP batch. (There are two dates for the DSA exercise. The earlier date for GEP was about 2 weeks earlier, but I was unable to go as I was supporting the SJAB team at the SYF opening Ceremony.) Anyway, the people helping reported to LT3 at about 7.15. We were briefed first while we waited for the students to arrive at 0800. When we reached Kah Kee Hall, we saw groups of children and parents waiting to enter the Kah Kee Hall. We were arranged into groups - 1A to 1L and 2A to 2L and 3A to 3L. We were arranged in a line and among each number, we were given folders, as we were meant to collect and submit the papers of each student to the General office. After we took the attendance [of our groups], we left for the next location (either Interview, General Ability Test or Maths)

My group was first for the interview. While waiting for the other members. I chatted with the other members of the group. It turned out that one of them was from HPPS (aka my primary school). It was quite enjoyable talking to them.

The rest of the day was unremarkable as we were mainly bringing the students to the different locations. However, I did enjoy pointing out some of the landmarks to them. At about 2 pm, the exercise concluded and everyone headed home.

Racial Harmony Day. And Other News.

As I mentioned in a earlier post, I was performing during Racial Harmony day. The performance was done with the 11 HCI students and the Bukit Panjang students. We were playing two gamelan pieces. The first piece was Kebo Giro, and I was playing the Saron (on the right).

The piece sounded like this youtube video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hlap5WulHOw

However, we had to perform the pieces four times for the Secondary 1 to 4 levels. Thus, we only got to explore the cultural bazaar after most of the stalls had packed up. Also, we missed the Indian Mass dance. The experience was quite interesting as I have never performed in front of such a large crowd. I was wearing A Jacket with a white shirt and Black trousers. (But because I had no black trousers, I had to wear track pants) There was also a cap for us to wear.

The cultural bazaar was also quite interesting. Most stalls were selling food, such as éclairs, Nasi Lemak and Chicken Curry. There were some stalls which sold snacks and drinks as well as some game stalls.

Other News:

I sprained my ankle last Sunday, accompanied by a cold. Thus, I had to wear a rather uncomfortable ankle support and I was unable to go for CCA.

News.

Well, I've been rather busy.

SJAB National Comp.

Recently, the HCI SJAB AC team made it to the National Competition, so most of us went down to support them @ Nan Hua Primary School. It was very exciting, and there were separate components, for each prize. The components included Transportation of Casualties, CPR, Footdrill, First Aid Long Case, and First Aid short case. (PS, It was on Sunday, 11th July, for pretty much the whole day.)

It was quite interesting watching the Footdrill, and certainly a good experience. The First Aid Long Case was also interesting. For one of the cases, a woman was worrying over her son, and was hindering the first aiders, but she was very resistant although they tried to get her to calm down. In the end, she became a casualty due to hyperventilation. However, I must agree that the casualties were very good at acting, and very convincing! It sent chills down my spine watching the woman trying to stay next to her son, as it was very realistic.

In the End, we swept the National Champions for AC and First in each category!! :)

http://www.hci.edu.sg/ViewBreakingNews.asp?BID=226 Yay!

A Bunch of tests.


Hmm... Another Reason why I took so long in posting this was that I have a lot of tests.

1. 13th July- Maths Test on Inequality and Statistics
2. 14th July - English ICAS
3. 15th July - English Comprehension -40% of Term 3 LA marks.

And many more to come...

Racial Harmony Day.

As you might or might not know, I am in the Bukit Panjang Government High Exchange Program.

So, for the first part of the year, the BPGHS people came to HCI for some activities:

1. Dumpling Making
2. Calligraphy
3. Dragonboating (I didn't go coz I was ill :( )
4. Lantern Making.

Then, it was our turn to go to Bukit Panjang:

1. Kueh Making (I brought mine home for my family. Sadly, the results were inconsistent. For example, when we bit into the kueh, sugar would occasionally spurt out, or you might get a mouthful of dough, of pandan flavoured dough, but still dough all the same.)
2. Batik Painting
3. Gamelan Practice

Gamelan is quite fun, and it is a form of traditional Malay or Javanese Music. The instruments are very varied, including a gong, some xylophone like instruments, drums, and stringed instruments.

We are performing on Racial harmony day. We must wear a traditional Malay costume which our friends @ Bukit Panjang have kindly provided. Being the first time I have performed to so many people, I am very excited and frightened.

Also, we had to go for another Gamelan practice today, so I had to miss my CCA.