Edouard’s blog

This past week for English we have been reading a graphic novel. A graphic novel is like a comic book except its one long story. Like there was the hobbit in a graphic novel form of the hobbit. It was quite fun to do this and interesting. When we finished we had to look at the different styles of drawing that were in the different graphic novels. Mine was a fantastic four graphic novel. It was quite a good book and quite amusing. The back round of the comic wasn’t so detailed but the main things were. The comic was quite good but one thing I didn’t like was that the way one of the heroes fought against the bad guy was always out of nowhere knowing exactly where the water pipes are.     

This time I read THe last six chapters. I liked these chapters allot more than the beginning ones. At the beginning of the book I thought that It could sometimes be quite boring when Richard would just describe everything so detailedly. Sometimes there was three whole pages of what he could smell see and hear. In the last chapter Richard saves money go to the north. Where it was against the law to be racist. When Richard had to tell his boss that he was going north he said it a special way. Because white people did not like it when blacks from the south went north. That is because in that time whites from the south thought they were better and smarter than black people. In the north it was against the law to be racist so black people start to realize that they are just as good as whites thats why no one want Richard to go north.

QUESTIONS AFTER READING CHAPTER 6-8 BLACK BOY

a) Why did Uncle Tom react so violently when Richard told him the time?
Because Richard said I think this clock could be a few minutes off (or something close) and then Uncle Tom got angry which confused me very much. I thought it was so weird Uncle Tom goes at 5 in the morning comes to Richard’s room and asks him the time. When Richard sais it could be he gets angry and threatens Richard that he will whip him which to me makes no sense at all. So I only thought it was logical that Richard protected himself with the blades because it made no sense that he would be beaten (to me)

b) How do people react to Richard’s dream of becoming a writer?
Well white people think its hopeless they think he should be like what they think of black people, nothing. Someone that works in conditions almost likes a slave. That people think are stupid, and people think they are better than him. Pretty much everyone doesn’t like the idea of Richard be coming a writer no one agrees to Richard having dreams and thinking about leaving to Chicago and write. If I were one of Richards’s friends I would encourage him to go like that I would do to my friends. But there no one agrees to have dreams of becoming a writer and saying what you think and writing what you want.

c) How did Richard react at and after his graduation ceremony?
At the graduation he just decided to read his own speech. The principle of the school made a speech for him but refused to read it. Even all of his friends told him so his uncle and the whole school told him to but he wanted to read his own speech because maybe it wasn’t as good as the principles but it was what he wanted to say.  After the graduation he was invited to a party but he didn’t go. Because he decided that he wanted nothing to do with any of his friends  he just wanted to make money and move away to become a writer.

This week I read chapter 6, 7 and 8. Actually to me these chapters where the most interesting to me so far and the best so far. In these chapters is his finishing grades of school and he gets allot of jobs in these chapters. But something i found most interesting is that at the end of his school (graduation) He was chosen to give a speech which is a great honor. So he is told to write a speech but then the principle one day tells him to come to office. There the principle gives him a speech and tells to say this speech. But Richard said “no i want to read my own speech.” But the principle said “but I am more experienced than you with talking to white people and white people are going to be there”. Richard still said “no I want to say my own speech” Then the principle starts to threaten Richard with things like if you don’t say my speech then you don’t graduate. But Richard stayed with his own speech. The principle had people coming to richard like his uncle and the whole school and even one of his best friends all told to read the principles speech. Even when the uncle came he asked Richard “can I see your speech” Richard handed him the speech. Then THe uncle (uncle Tom) asked “can I seethe principles speech.”  Richard handed him the principles speech. Uncle Tom went to his room then came back after a few minutes. Then he said “the principles speech is better.”I don’t care if the principles speech is better, is probably is. But I want to say my speech because it sais what I want to say” answered Richard.

This week I read chapter 5. In this chapter one of the things he does, is he gets a job. But it was hard for Richard to get a job. Because his grandmother forbade him to get one. In the end a friend of his at school, told him of a job of selling papers from Chicago. So he sold the papers for about two months. After two months of never reading an article and only read the magazine supplement. One of his buyers show him something. The man shows that the paper is actually a kkk paper. The man first asks Richard some question like did a white man tell you to sell these and so on. But then Richard told he him he never read the paper only the magazine. The man tells him that people are only buying them because they are scared that Richard would set the kkk on them. So Richard stops selling those papers right after that and tries to forget about them.

This week I read chapter 3 and 4. In these chapters his mother gets very sick and he has to go to his uncle house. he could chose which house wanted to go to. He decided to go to his house because he lives the closest to his mother. When he is there he goes to school. There he doesn’t want to get a bad reputation. So when he went out for recess a group of boys came up to him and Richard thought the more Im willing to fight the less I will need to in the future. So he did fight until the break ended. At the next break he was waiting for the boy to come back but he didn’t. After a couple of days this man came. His cild also stayed at the uncles house before. That man accidentally told Richard that This man’s child actually died on the bed that richard was sleeping in. After that richard could not sleep in his bed anymore and begged to sleep on the couch and tried everything to sleep somewhere else. But in the ned he just didn’t sleep.

This week i read Black boy chapter two.(Im also reading some other books at the same time)I can surely tell you that Richard moves allot. He moves back and froth from his grand mother and his aunt. At his grandmothers house he develops a sort of passion for reading even though he can’t read very well. Ella a girl that was living in the same house told him about the book she was reading. Bluebeard and his seven wives. But after a while Richard’s grandmother comes in and tells her not to tell the story. Says that, that story is the devils work and forbids her to tell him the rest. But after that Richard decides to read as many books as he ever can. He decides to go to Ella’s room and steal some books and as much sense of them as possible. I think this quite funny because now richard is a famous writer.

This week me and my class started reading a new book which is an auto biography by Richard Wright which is called black boy which is his life story from when he is 4-29. I have only read the first chapter. But its already quite interesting. The story starts somewhere near 1908 when he is four years old and he accidentally burns down his own house. Then allot of things happen and he moves allot and in one town he becomes an alcoholic. So already allot of things happen in the beginning of the story.  

Sinterklaas is a Celebration mostly celebrated by the dutch. Sinterklaas is kind of like Santa just a little bit different. Like Sinterklaas is on 5 december and instead of leaving for cookies you leave him a carrot for his horse and you bring your shoe out in front of the fireplace instead of stockings and Sinterklaas will leave you some pepernoten(translation pepper nuts but they don’t taste like pepper) and chocolate. If you want to know more about Sinterklaas like his story here is a link.   

Picture from google images.

 live in the Netherlands, which is located above Belgium and next to germany. In the Netherlands there are different provinces. On the map you can see them they each have a different color. There are allot of cool things in the netherlands. Like bike paths everywhere everybody has a bike and it’s very normal to bike. Like every North Holland is also where our capital is, Amsterdam. I live in Hilversum  which is a small Town South East of Amsterdam.

My school day normally starts with me waking up then getting ready for school. Then I bike to school for bout 15 minutes. I arrive at school at about 8:25. My school is not enormous I leave school at about 3:30 and that is really it.

If you come to visit the Netherlands I would recommend visiting Amsterdam because there are allot of cool things to see there and do there.