Second to Last Post for this Quarter

In Helene Cooper's The House at Sugar Beach danger is a constant in Helene's life. There are many forms of danger and they seem to be growing as the years go by. Cooper describes a situation that happened to one of her friends, Richard, and heartmen which are men who murder the unsuspecting. Cooper writes, "The watchmen followed the heartmen, and saw two others join him just down the road. They had machetes, too. And garbage bags, presumably to carry away Richard's carcass" (157). Cooper talks about this as if it is nothing, an everyday occurrence, but reading it made me shiver. The constant threat of dying is just another part of her life, one that doesn't seem to faze her, or Liberians in general, too much. Luckily, Richard escaped and lived to tell the tale. Cooper talks about how, "The next day at school, all Richard could talk about was his escape" (157). Richard faced a traumatic experience and instead of being scared about what he went through, he was bragging about it the next day in school, making it seem like a hero. The possibility of danger is enough to make some stay away, but for Helene and her friends it is just a fact of life.

Another terrible incident that happens to the Cooper is family is when their house is raided by soldiers. Cooper describes the terrifying event, "They were brazen. They had nothing to hide from and nothing to fear, and they could come into our yard and into our house and take whatever they wanted and so whatever they wanted" (171). Helene is around thirteen years old when the soldiers come and it's just her, her sisters and mother there. She knows there's nothing she can do to stop the men and this passage shows she realizes this. She doesn't know what to do because there is nothing to do and she's afraid about what's going to happen. This has to be bloodcurdling. Just as Cooper says, the soldiers do what they want to Helene's mother, "'Those damn soldiers gang-raped me,' she said" (177). Helene and her sisters can hear the men and what they're doing to their mother, these are sounds that will haunt Helene the rest of her life, something she'll never forget. Since Liberia is revolting and her family have power in the country Helene is faced with horrific catastrophes, shaping who she becomes.

More Outside Reading!

Near where the author, Helene Cooper, lived when she was young a riot broke out about the price of rice. Cooper was still pretty young when she this happened. Although, this is no big deal to her family, it is to others who are less fortunate. Cooper describes how the violence started, "...the Monrovia police weren't quite so restrained, and quickly forsook the tear gas they were supposed to be using and started firing indiscriminately into the crowd. The planned demonstrations quickly degenerated into a full-fledged riot" (140). I can't imagine what this would be like if you were young and how you would handle it being so close to home. Also, it is difficult to understand what made the police attack innocent protesters simply because they were protesting. Cooper also feels the same way looking back at it now. She talks about it in a shocked tone. Summarizing what had happened she says, "A protest that began with some two thousand students demonstrating peacefully had degenerated into riots with foreign fighter jets roaring over the capitol" (141). Although this is horrible, it is not the worst thing that Helene will have to endure in her growing years.

Looking on the lighter sides of things, Cooper talks about growing up in Liberia and what it felt like going through puberty. This is a much more relateable topic than riots, since everyone has or will go through puberty at one point in their life. She descirbes her transformation from girl to young latdy, "I was suddenly tall. I, at long last, had acquired breats. People were suddenly telling me how much I looked like Mommee" (149). This is something all girls through and as Cooper puts it, it seems to happen over night. Cooper easily recalls her past childhood and makes the reader sometimes feel that she still is a child, this adds a very interesting depth to the story. Not only do we see the bad, but we also see that Cooper had a relatively normal childhood, just like the rest of us, this makes the reader connect more with her. She continues to talk about becoming a teenager. In one of my favorite lines so far, she bluntly states, "And during this year, the last tragic year of the Congo regime in Liberia, I finally discovered boys" (149). Again, she reminds of the problems going on, but in the same sentance she talks about what she was going through. I like the contrast of her evolution and the evolution of her country.

Outside Reading

My outside reading book The House at Sugar Beach by Helene Cooper is very interesting and thought provoking because it takes place in a completely different part of the world, Liberia. Even so, the people there are very aware of the US. At one point Cooper says of when she was young, "Standing in my bedroom looking at myself in the mirror, I tried to relax my cheeks and drop my consonants like the American kids did, and added extra r's. 'Hey thar. How ya doin? What's up blood?'"(94). There fascination seems so odd because living here it doesn't seem like something special, it's easy to take the country's uniqueness for granted. But reading this book shows the "American Dream" is very much alive in other places. Helene strengthens this fact, but from her view as a young girl. She says, "In my fantasy, I looked fresh and hip and American or British as I swept off the plane after a year living in the States or London" (17). Her dream isn't to succeed in America, but to act and seem like one. It's a different take on the dream, but interesting still.

Even though the book does take place in a different hemisphere, there are still common things, such as Santa Claus. Cooper describes one of her Christmas experiences, saying, "Eunice and I were in my bedroom working on our Christmas lists when we heard the drums sounding in the distance, from the top of Sugar Beach road...At exactly the same time, we realized who it was. 'Santa Claus!' we yelled..." (107-108). It's fascinating to think that while children here are asking Santa for gifts, so are children across the world. It shows the unity of the world, that we are truly all connected, even though we aren't physically near. Still, we're reminded of the differences too. Later on the page Cooper describes her version of Mr. Claus, "...on stilts and wearing a grass skirt, a wooden mas with eyeholes, and a long blond wig, loped into the yard" (108). The Santa we know is old, fat and dressed in a large red robe. This is not Liberia's though. Even though we have eventually the same holiday, the takes are different. It reiterates the fact that, even in our unity there is differences which makes each place unique and interesting.

On the Water Front Post

There are two sides to every ethical arguement and in On the Water Front there are two literal sides that start meshing as one. In the beginning there are the priest and Esy, people who don't understand how the docks work and just want to make everything right. Then there are the people who work on the docks, who play "D and d" because they are on the inside and have to protect their own and themselves. The workers and the mob see as anyone who stands up and tells how it really is on the docks as a squeler because it puts everyone of them in harms way. On the other hand, the priest and Edy see the ones who tell as strong and good human beings. They see it this way because they're outsiders when it comes to working down there, they don't know how it is. As the movie continues and Terry starts to think that maybe he should tell the truth, the two groups blob together. First it's Terry who sees, becuase of his brother's death, that pretending you don't know anything isn't best, people still get hurt, but if you tell the truth things turn out better in the long run. Still, the other laborers don't see it that way until the last scene where Terry and Jonny Friendly fight. Then, they too realize that it's okay to say what's going wrong because it will be best for the majority. This is emphasized when Jonny Friendly is lost in the sea of men, on his own showing that now he is the only one who says people should act is they don't know anything. Proving that truth does triumph over lies.
Personally, I don't agree with Jonny Friendly. Loyalty and fear only get you so far before you have to face reality and see the world how it is. This sad, I sympathize with Terry because it takes a while to realize this and everyone has to take their own path to get there, no matter how long or short. Ethical values are a personal belief and they must be found on one's own terms, no one can force them upon someone else. On the Water Front shows this very well when Edy tries to give Terry Joey's jacket, but he won't take it. He needs to deicde for himself, and eventually he does. Plus finding what you're ethical values are makes them more obvious and one has a stronger pull to follow them. Watching movies like these help me decide what my ethical values are, and for right now they go along with Terry's.

Quarter 2 Blog Question

Arthur Miller's play, All My Sons, focuses on when you should stay loyal to your family and when it's appropriate to conform and follow society's ethics. One of the most interesting and shortest ways Miller explains this is through Larry, the son who was lost in the war. Even though Larry is dead, much of the tension between the Keller family centers around him. Kate Keller, his mother believes that he is still out there somewhere, but her son and husband don't feel the same way. In the end of the book the audience finds out that Mrs. Keller is wrong, Larry is dead, not only that, but Larry ended his life on purpose. In a letter to his fiance, Ann, Larry explains he is so disgusted by his father's crime that he can't live with it. Larry says, "Yesterday they flew in a load of papers from the States and I read about Dad and your father being convicted...I can't tell you how I feel- I can't bear to live any more" (83). Larry is so ashamed and embarrassed my his father causing the twenty one deaths, that it's too much for him. In this situation Larry is choosing society over his family in a very extreme way. His death has many repercussions in his family. Although the play takes place three years after the loss of Larry, the pain of not having him there is a central topic. His mother explains her pain by saying of Larry, "Because if he's not coming back, then I'll kill myself!" (22). Since Larry payed attention to what society said then what his family needs he causes a great deal of pain, especially for his mother. If he had not overreacted and ended his life, essentially noticing that the security of his family was more important, the Kellers would have had less pain. Miller shows that one should side with their family through Larry by showing the horrid trouble his death caused his family.
I don't agree with Miller's view on ethics, your family is important, but not important enough to kill for. Everyone is related and has family, which means that if you kill a person, there is someone out there mourning just as you would be if a relative of yours was murdered. If what you're doing is hurting others, even if it is for your family, it isn't okay. It is more surprising to see that a father killed his son rather than just some stranger murdering a boy, but it is the same crime and either way a life was ended. People are all equal and to sacrifice one for another becuase you share blood or closeness is not right. A life is a life.

Quarter 2, Post 3

The House at Sugar Beach takes place when the main character, Helene, is almost eight. I have forgotten, really what it's like to be that age and this is a great reminder. In my reading for this week, Cooper describes her fascination and fear of death. She explains how she would keep repeating, "If I should die before I wake, I pray the Lord my soul to take" (23). Saying this gives her a sense of security, but it seems to help her somewhat. Death seems like an odd and mature subject for a young girl to fret about, but as you keep reading it becomes obvious why she is worried about death. In Helene's house there are many precious things because she comes from such a upper class family, things like ivory and jewels. Since they have all this amazing treasures, rouges come in at night and steel from the house. This must be very traumatizing for Helene, knowing that she is upstairs in bed while dangerous people are only a few floors below. I can't imagine how I would react to that. Helene becomes very scared and starts making stories up about the rouges. She decides, "after the rouges' third visit, I realized the rouges were actually heartmen...they weren't coming for ivory and paintings. They wanted me!" (24). Since she is only seven, Helene has a huge imagination and must be very scared, so this her way of rationalizing what she doesn't understand. With this stress and burden on her there is no way she can live normally, I know I wouldn't be able to.

Quarter 2, Post 2

My reading this week for The House at Sugar Beach explains the lineage of Helene, the main character. Since it is an auto-biography it's in first person and as Cooper talks about her amazing family history she writes it as if it is nothing and very matter of faculty. She talks about one of her less accomplished relatives like this, "Cecil Dennis, the minister of foreign affairs, was my cousin, although we called him Uncle Cecil" (12). Cooper is related to these amazing historic figures of Liberia, but show that her eight-year old self doesn't see them as anything but aunts and uncles. The position that Helene is in is like being somehow related to all four of America's founding fathers. Or as Cooper describes it, "Daddy had clout, but Mommee ruled Sugar Beach" (13). It's very interesting to view the royal class from the perspective of a young girl when the royal class is all she knows.