11.30 - My Word

At this moment I would not say my life could be described as any of these words. My life is not exciting, but not dull, and is decidedly unorganized. I would like my life to be exciting and adventurous, but such things are hard to achieve living in South Portland.

11.28 - The Monkey's Paw

The story begins with a family, an old couple and their son, sitting by the fire and playing chess in the evening. They are visited shortly after the game ends by a sergeant-major, who begins to tell them stories of far off places, peoples, war and plagues. The old man replies to his tales by wishing aloud that he could go to India, to which the sergeant major warns against, which raises the subject of some story about a monkey's paw, one he shows to the family. The sergeant-major explains that it had a spell put on it by a fakir in India, to grant three men three wishes, to show that fate should be left as it was. When asked whether he had three wishes, the sergeant-major confirmed, but not happily. He aslo explained that he had come by the paw because the first man's third wish had been for death. After being asked whether he would have had his wishes, the sergeant-major threw the paw onto the fire in an attempt to destroy it, but the old man took it up and asked that he might have it if the sergeant-major didn't want it. After such events, the sergeant-major takes his leave, and the story proceeds to show that the family thinks the monkey's paw is just a tale, and they think nothing of it, but still, the old man wishes on it for £200 with which to pay off their house. The son left and the couple went on to bed. The next morning, the family continues in their disbelief of the talisman, and the son, Herbert, goes off to work. Later in the day over dinner, the wife notices a well-dressed man fussing over whether to approach the house or not, and she realizes it may be related to the £200. Hoping to make a good impression, she removes and hides her apron and answers the door, where she is greeted with an unpleasant surprise. Her son Herbert was caught in the machinery at work, and died. As compensation, the company gave the family £200. Days later, as the wife cries one night, the idea comes to her to wish on the monkey's paw for her son back alive. The old man knows to be wary, but his wife is hysterical for grief of her son, so she commands him to wish, and he does in fear of her. During the night, as the couple lies awake unable to sleep, there comes a knock at the door. Knowing it is her son, the woman tries to rush downstairs, only to be stopped by her husband. However, she breaks free and hurries to open the door. Unable to reach the bolt, she calls for her husband to help her, but instead he goes to find the paw, wishing his son gone before the woman could open the door, which she opens anyway, only to find empty street.

11.21 - Culture Shock

having met exchange students here at SoPo, I would say this is pretty good information. The advice to ask Americans things and learn how to use English is particularly good. I would only add that they should be worried about not being liked, because almost everyone is interested in meeting new people and learning about different cultures.

11.15 - Penn Law Change

I believe the law should be changed. Sexual abuse is illegal, and therefore, it should be reported to law enforcers and government officials.

11.8 - American Culture- Funny in Farsi

It seems that food was a somewhat difficult part of American culture for Firoozeh to adjust to. I say this because in the book she and her family fall into step with most of the other parts of America culture, but they held on to their preference for Iranian dishes. She writes a lot about how despite her father trying everything he could, they still found it unsatisfactory.

11.4 - Genocide

Genocide is the deliberate mass slaughtering of a specific racial, political, or religious group. One example of a genocide is the Rwanda genocide in 1994.

11.2 - The Giant's Garden Story

This story is about a Giant and his garden. In the beginning of the story, the Giant has been away for seven years visiting a friend, and all the children in the town play in his garden after school, because it is very beautiful. But then the Giant returns and he doesn't like the children to play in his garden, so he builds a wall around it and posts a sign to keep ou the children, which saddens them because they have no where else to play. Because the Giant is selfish, Spring, Summer, and Autumn punish him by not returning to his garden. So it is always Winter there, and the weather is terrible and cold, and all the while the children look for a way back into the garden. But then, the next Spring, the Giants wakes to a bird singing outside his window, because the children found a way back into the garden. And because the children returned to the garden, the trees bloomed and the flowers grew and Winter left all but one corner, where one of the children was too little to climb into the tree and have it bloom. And that made the Giant sad, so he went out and picked up the child and put him in the tree, which showed the other children that he wasn't selfish and cruel anymore, and the Giant knocked down the wall so they were allowed to play in the garden from then on. But the little boy the Giant helped never came back, and no one knew who he was. But then, years later, the boy came back to the garden, when the Giant was very old. And the Giant happily ran out to him. But when he reached him, he saw the marks of nails in his hands and feet, and the Giant wanted to know who had done it so he could hurt whoever had done it to him. But the little boy told him they were marks of Love, and that he had come to take the Giant to his garde, Paradise. And the next day the children came and found the Giant dead under the tree, covered in white flowers.