“On the reconnaissance foray into
the bowels of the great closet that harbored the jetsam and flotsam washed into
the schoolroom over the years, I unearthed a brand-new automatic movie
projector.” This is the first sentence in chapter five, and it made me want to
go get a dictionary. It took me several times rereading it to realize that
Conroy found an automatic movie projector in the closet. In the beginning of
chapter five it talks about how Mrs. Brown tried to sabotage the film program.
She felt as if Conroy was wasting valuable time. I disagree with Mrs. Brown
because as illiterate as these children were, exposure to anything would have
helped them.
It surprised me that the children
had seen The Wizard of Oz. They knew
what had happened in the movie, and they were able to recite different parts of
the movie. It states in the book that the children had seen it on television.
It also says that they get parts of The
Wizard of Oz with an episode of Bonanza.
Two white men also came on the
island in chapter five. They were students from California and attended Cowell
College. The two men were there to do a study about the people on the island.
They were to communicate and live with in the island culture. The men were also
supposed to communicate with the islanders and help them with whatever they may
need. This was supposed to give the men the experience of life on Yamacraw.
What Mrs. Brown said on page 124
really threw me for a surprise. The real reason she did not want the two white
men to help out in the school were because they were white. She did not want
the white boys and colored girl to “bump too many elbows.” Mrs. Brown did not
want them to have too much contact because she was scared that they would make
“half-breed cows.” It shows the amount of racism that was actually on the
island.
Conroy seen one of the students
break the legs off of a frog to watch it suffer. He ended up giving the class a
lecture on treating their animals better. He told them that their animals
should be full if life instead of miserable. Zeke’s dog was having a litter of
puppies, so Conroy told the students if they would treat them right they could
receive a puppy. That day Conroy released seven of the puppies to new homes.
When Conroy went to check on one several months later, the dog came out and bit
Conroy on the boot.
I agree that Mr. Conroy’s movie showing was not a waste of time. These students have very little background or prior knowledge about anything that is outside of the island confines. Exposure to different cultures, attitudes, beliefs, mannerisms, etc. through film was great for those children. How better to learn about other places and people (besides actually going and meeting them) than through film? The children were also motivated by the films and tape recordings. They were excited to recount the stories they have heard or seen which was a great practice in summarizing. It was also kind of shocking to me that the students had heard of and knew the story of The Wizard of Oz. My mom said it was her favorite movie growing up. It’s neat that classic movies like that can touch lives of all ages across all cultures.
ReplyDeleteI do not think Conroy was wasting time by showing the films either. These student were being expose to a type of technology that apparently Mrs. Brown had never used. They got to see films and expand their thinking ability about what these movies were about. I thought is was surprising that they new about The Wizard of Oz, but what a great movie to talk about with them as well.
ReplyDeleteMrs. Brown was just down right ugly about not letting the boys from California help in the school. They could have help Conroy accomplish some extra learning because all Mrs. Brown seemed to know was the basics and they leather strap. She frustrates me some kind of bad. Her prejudice towards white people really shows. Just as racism existed back then it is still real in the schools today. I find it so sad. Someones skin color whether it's white, black, red, or yellow can hinder a child from climbing the latter because we as adults can not get passed the skin.
That sentence actually scared me. I had no idea what half of those words meant. To be completely honest I didn't look them up and just hoped that the context clues would help me figure them out. I was hoping after reading that first sentence that the rest of the chapter wouldn't be written like that. I was surprised as well that the student had seen The Wizard of Oz. I guess I was surprised that they not only had televisions on an island of this poor quality but the copy of the movie and a device to play the movie as well. As they were retelling the story they were actually doing a reading exercise. It would have been good for Mr. Conroy to read to them the story or have them watch the film again and have a follow up discussion about the story. I also find it kind of odd that Mrs. Brown doesn't see the benefits of all that Mr. Conroy is creating by using the technology. She needs to teach her class and let Mr. Conroy teach his.
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