Journal Entry 6

Pages 117-139

5 comments

• I was right, witches that confessed were no longer interest to the accusers.
• Every time there is a court case, the witch was always seen as the puppet master in the courtroom amongst the accusers.
• This accusations of witchery pushed to the point that nobody knew who was who anymore. nobody could tell who was a witch and who was a saint.
• A new minister is approaching the trial to see if he could get the witch to confess.
• To me the Devil's seem to attack the followers rather than the popes, and ministers of salem village.

4 Questions

• Why they are saying that he the devil is a Black man?
• Was the judge trying to push Rebecca into telling them that she is a witch?
• How did the minister's wife and daughter die?
• Why arent't the ministers having fits?

3 Literary Techniques

• Simile- " Sounding a bit like John Goodwin he urged his former congregation to understand they had brough these ills on themselves ( 120)"
• Personifcation- " Corruption, rot, and evil had pentrated everywhere( 121)"
• Man vs Man- " Accusers began to file complaints against sarah"

2 Vocabulary Words

• Consternation- A state of paralyzing dismay
• Ineffectual-powerless

1 sentence Summary

The minister tries t unravel the mysteriy of the tormented Rebecca Nurse inside the courtroom.

Journal Entry 5

Pages 94-116

5 comments

• To me based on the continued apperance of the three accused women of being witches i am starting to believe that they are truely witches.
• It seems to me that the people of the town were trying to find small traits about martha in order to try and concede her to be a s a witch.
• It seems like Ann Jr. was behind all these accusations being brought up aginst to these innocent people.
• The obvious way of being a witch was that there was always a yellow bird that was sucking between the fingers of the witch.
• The nine witches were coming forth into church.

4 Questions

• Could the belief of being able to contact god Dirctly have pushed them to act the way they did when they did get closer to him?
• How were that people in church having fits from demons inside the house of god?
• Where were these other Marthas coming from that were appearing in church?
• Why were all the other nine witches named Martha?

3 Literary Techniques

• simile- " god spoke as thunder" ( 95).
• personification- " as if fairy tales stepped out of the pages" ( 94).
• Man vs. Man " abigail began to struggle with the shadow of Rebecca Nurse" (99).

2 Vocabulary Words

• Vile - wretchedly bad( 96).
• Gloated- A feeling of great, often malicious, pleasure or self-satisfaction (97).

1 Sentence

• Ann Putnam becomes the center of every trial where she is tormented, where she starts accusations against Martha Corey for being a witch

Journal Entry 4

Pages 71-93


5 Comments

• The idea of not following the Puritain decorum points to Sarah Goodman, and Sarah Osbourne as being witches.
• Every time the supposed witch Sarah Goodman said she didn't do no evil, it would push the girls into frenzies.
• I think that the accusers were purposly acting like they were being tormented only so they could seal the fate of the accused witches.
• Ann Putnam always was the tormented everytime there was a case against a witch.
• Tituba's life was spared possibly to keep using her to find the other witches mentioned in the devil's bible.

4 Questions

• Who was the Mistress that called Tituba into the room before she signed with the devil?
• Why were they only targeting the important families of Salem Village?
• Why they are questioning who is the leader if they know the devil is behind it all?
• Why was Tituba's Life Spared if she was a witch? weren't all suspected witches executed?

3 Literary Techniques

• Simile- " hairy creature that walked on two legs like a man"( 85)
• Simile - " a head like a woman" (85)
• Metaphor-" she was speaking in the form of visions and dreams"

2 Vocabulary Words

• Apparition( pg 92)- a supernatural appearance of a person or thing,
• Guise( 82) - general external appearance

1 Sentence

• Tituba is tried as a witch and is sent to prision but with no sentence, until people finally forget about her.

Journal Entry 3

Pages 48-70

5 Comments

• The ministers seen a devotion to commerce as a threat to religion.
• new rules were being enforced, these rules included: limiting what kinds of clothes people could wear, and who could join the congregation.
• But there was a group that seemed to live by different standards, such them being able to wear lavish clothing, building fine homes, and loosining rules for church members.
• Parris the new minister of the church of salem village preaches about one theme; that the clash between good people banding togther in a christian community and liars who pretended to be good but schemed and plotted for their own ends.
• Ironic that he preaches this because he only became the minister of Salem village after he failed at just being the kind of merchant who was prospering in salem town. which is the enemy to Salem Village.

4 Questions

• Since the putnams were so "easily" able to sense evil, why didn't they sense the evil in Paris who was and still is a enemy, that is preaching them the word?
• what do they mean when she died with a "diabolical molestation"?
• why did abigail the neice disappear from records after tampering with satanic tools?
• how is it so that only abigail suddenly "dies" from witchcraft, and eveyone else who has done so has slowly recovered?

3 Literary Techiniques

• Society Vs. Society: (Page 49) " shook in every squabble that pitted the Putnams against the Porters".
• Personification (Page 52) " The church was created in order to serve the needs of the people"
• Simile: (Page 59) " till there came up a coffin, that is a a specter in likness of a coffin"

2 Vocabulary Words

• wracked (Page 60): To be wrecked
• astute( page 49):of keen penetration or discernment

1 Sentence Summary

• There is a major conflict between the teachings of the Porters and Putnams.

Journal Entry # 2

Pages 25-47

5 comments

• Anybody today who feels that the Americans have a special destiny as a force for religious faith or democracy or economic opportunity is sharing and carrying on the Puritans' vision of this land.
• The Puritans believed they had the divine right to take the life of people who went against the teachings of the lord.
• Back then people who wanted to protect their children from witchcraft used the " Passing through tree" method.
• According to the Puritans, killing off people who performed abortions, or taking land was divine right according to god.
• If a child got very sick and died, according to people who believed in witches, it was the act of witches that did it, and nothing Else.

4 Questions

• What was Puritanism?
• Were the Puritans basically trying to live like the people from biblical times?
• I wouldn't know the prayer by heart, so wouldn't that mean to them i was a witch?
• How was it that a "true witch" who possessed children and practiced other witchery actually accept god as her savior if she was for the devil?

3 Literary Techniques

• Personification- "They built their faith on clean, simple planks" (Page 26)
• Simile- " They built their faith on clean, simple planks like the timber on their churches, on the word of god as written in the bible" (Page 26)
• Man Vs Society- " Puritans especially feared being attacked by the devil, the enemy of god". (Page 28)

2 Vocabulary words

• Unprecedented (Page 30)- without previous instance; never before known or experienced
• Pious- having or showing a dutiful spirit of reverence for God or an earnest wish to fulfill religious obligations.

1 Sentence Summary

• Witches accounted for everything that happened in life, and in order to kill them off the Puritains felt it nessasary with great distrcutive force to kill off all the people who commited acts against god such as performed abortions and stole land.

Witch Hunt- Journal Entry 1

Pages 3-25

5 Comments

• The women in the courtroom, are trying to make it seem as if there is a "black man" standing in the courtroom, and Martha, the accused woman can see him.
• Now the women are accusing Martha of killing 13 people in Andover.
• The accusers of Martha's visions are not scrutinized. Therefore they take seriously what they are saying no matter how many times Martha can say she didn't do it.
• Martha's Daughter Sarah says that she was converted to a witch by her mother.
• Witch craft cases in early sixteenth and seventeenth century England show that 80% of court records of the accused were women.

4 Questions

• In sleeping Beauty how were the King and Queen able to have a child since they were originally unable to do so?
• How could somebody who suffered, and the turned angry and vengeful be called a witch?
• Why would a person that didn't follow the decorum of social life come to terms as being a witch?
• If the transcripts that were written at the time were biased, how could these historians make conclusions from them?

3 Literary Tecniques

• Simile- " A walk in the sunshine for Phoebe was like the plot of a horror movie for us" (Page 13)
• Personification- " When a dark shadow skitters across the floor" (Page 15)
• Man Vs Society- " The Laundress attacked Martha Glover with terrible words". ( Page 23)

2 Words I Dont Understand

• Ailments ( Page 14)- A physical or mental disorder, especially a mild illness
• Homespun (Page 11)- A plain-weave cloth made at home, or of homespun yarn.

1 Sentence Summary

• Witches were basically people that disrupted the decorum of social life, and the fairy tales told today were created based on these witch incidents that occured such as Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella.

Journal Entry 10

Pages 292-315

5 Comments

• Miriam is in abusive relationship with Sabelo, in which she is kicked, and punched and beaten.
• Miriam has been so traumatized by the beating that she starts having feelings again of wanting to killing herself.
• Miriam finds out that her father has cancer. it has strated in his prostate and spread to his rest of his body.
• In order to try and slow it they had to remove his "manhood".
• No matter what she has been going through such as being forced to abandon finals she is still determined to matriculate

4 Questions

• what are enemas?
• why does mama laugh when papa tells her and them how he was approached by men with machetes and spears?
• Why arent they overjoyed that their familydidnt lose a inportant figure in their life?
• has papa losted his courage to standup to the Inkatha because he doesnt go to the clnic anymore?

3 Vocabulary Words

• Galling (Pg. 294)-Causing extreme irritation or chagrin
• Fomenting (Pg. 294)- To promote the growth of
• Disembowled (Pg. 281)- to cut or slash open the abdomen of, as by bayoneting, so as to expose or remove the viscera.

2 Literacy Techniques

• Simile (Pg. 291) " dispite my head feeling like lead".
• Metaphor (Pg. 281) " he's stone dead"

1 Sentence Summary

• When Miriam starts to get back on track with school, war breaks out in Alexandra between ANC supporters and Inkatha supporters.

Journal Entry 9

Pages 261-291

5 comments

• Miriam still regrets having a baby because she could be going to school in america instead of taking care of a baby.
• Miriam lies in order to evade a bad confrontation with miss jones if she tells her that she was pregnant thats why she wasnt in school.
• Miriam dearly wants to go to school in america that she doesnt care if she has to start back at first grade.
• Miriam continues to regret the fact that she is a mother and she has to scrafice her education for her son.
• She keeps making these promises to go back to school, even though she knows the odds are against her favors of returning back to school now when she has a son to take care of.

4 Questions

• Is there such thing as adoption so that miriam can give her baby up?
• is it taboo to give a child up for adoption?
• Whey did they develope a Kentucky Fried Chicken in africa?
• Why doesnt gertrude think about herself when it comes to her happiness and the wellbeing of her son?

3 Vocabulary Words

• Prams ( 261)- A baby carriage.
• subdued(263)-quiet; inhibited; repressed; controlled
• curtailed (264)-To cut short or reduce

2 Literacy Techniques

• Personification (Pg 261) " The sky is threatening rain"
• Metaphor (Pg. 264)- 'fuel my determination to matriculate"

1 Sentence Summary

• Miriam accepts her responcibilies as a mother and then clears doubts about school so that she can do wha shat she always wanted to be and thats a nurse.

Journal Entry 8

Pages 233-260

5 Comments

• Miriam is now pregnant because she was raped.
• She does not want to disappoint her mother and give her mom the burden of help raising her and her baby.
• Miriam wants to kill herself now because now that she is pregnant she will be unable to become a Nurse like she has always wanted to be.
• Latisha loses her second baby to stillbirth possibly due to the beating she has been enduring by her husband Buti.
• After the TV being outlawed for disgracing public moral, they buy a TV anyways.

4 Questions i have?

• What is "fresh?
• How are they to afford a 27 inch Tv which now today costs like a good couple hundred dallors?
• Why does mama continually keep george under her roof if he keeps tealing from her?
• How did Johannes get to have such a connection that he persuades Oprah Winfrey to bring his family to america?

3 Vocabulary

• Effemincy (pg 232)-or womanly behavior
• Incensed (pg 229)-none given
• Wean ( pg 231)-cause to lose the need to suckle or turn to the mother for food.

2 Literary Tachniques

• Metaphor ( pg 237)- " papas eyes light up"
• Metaphor pg 252)" nobody slept a wink"

1 senence Summary

• Miriam has her baby and now is a mother. she has a chnace to go to america to visit johannes and accepts the offer. she still planes to go back to school to become a nurse.

Journal Entry 7

Pages 202-232

5 Comments

• Bantu Education has just be overthrown and replaced with people's education.
• Under this new education reform nobody has to repeat a class for fighting in the liberation struggle.
• Under this new reform now kids have become lose under no guidance.
• Kids in the classroom are now hurting teachers by either stabbing them, shooting them or beating them.
• Miriam is not becoming interested in Sex because of the AIDS virus which has become a epidemic in the ghetto.

4 Questions

• What is to be " necklaced"
• why arent children being placed under order?
• why arent the kids being held accountable for their crimes against the teachers?
• what is a IUD?

3 Vocabulary Words

• Apartheid (Pg. 203)-
• Quake (Pg, 202)-
• Admonition (Pg. 203)-

2 Literacy Techniques

• Metaphor (pg 207)- " had instituted various townships as a mean of pacifying africans in the wake of protests"
• Man vs Man: (Pg.208)- " during one week police and soldiers kill nearly two dozen comrades, most of them youngsters"

1 Sentence Summary

• War is now official between the comrades and poice and soldiers. A all out battle has now begin in the streets of Alexandra.

Journal Entry 6

pages 171-201

5 Comments

• Markos and Khatuchera get sick and tired of ebing punished so they rebell and fight the teacher.
• Miriam passes standard five and is on her way to Venda to attend standard six.
• My name Lydia is the name of Papa's Brother's wife.
• There is a situation in which young women such as angie are kidnapped and killed just to be added to potions.
• Since Angie was gone for a year and held captive she is no longer herself. meaning that she donesn't speak her language anymore, she is uncomprehendable of Shangaan her past language.

4 Questions

• While held captive by her father, did he do anything bad to her to make her the way she is now in this section of the book?
• what is spring day in october according to them?
• How did Miriam's brother know that something bad was going to happen if she went on the field trip?
• What kind of accident was it?

3 Vocabulary Words

• Parry (Pg. 171)-to ward off (a thrust, stroke, weapon, etc.), as in fencing; avert.
• Coax (Pg 175)-to manipulate to a desired end by adroit handling or persistent effort
• Liberation (pg 178)- The act or process of trying to achieve equal rights and status

2 Literary Techniques

• Personification (pg 180)- whenever violence breaks out.."
• Personification(Pg 182)- "my heart thumps in my throat"

1 Sentence Summary

• Miriam has moved on to standard six into a new town and new school. In which then she escapes death and once agin confronted by it when a riot breaks out in her city.

Journal Entry 5

Pages 142-170

5 Comments

• Fikile is so upset with her stay in Giyani due to the fact that she is unable to eat meat.
• Tikhomba are adolesent girls who've undergone initiation into the mysteries of womanhood, in preparation for marriage.
• Miriam and Fikile say they will never step foot in Giyani because their stay was so unplesant due to the food and their experiences there.
• " you should stop robbing cradles" is what mama says to uncle freddie for continuing to marry these young women when they should be in school.
• A man can acquire a wife so easily.

4 Questions

• Even at 13 your supposed your supposed to have kids when your married?
• if Christmas is the Day in which you celebrate the rebirth of christ why isnt it special if your a religious person such as Mamahulu?
• How old does a girl need to be in order to go throught with Tikhomba?
• what is utulating?

3 Vocabulary Words

• Destitute (pg. 151)-lacking food, clothing, and shelter.
• Subtly (pg.152)- So slight as to be difficult to detect or describe
• Singe (Pg. 156)-to burn superficially or slightly

2 Literary Techniques

• Simile (Pg 155)- " Burns like hell"
• Metaphor (Pg. 159) " she is the apple of my mind"

1 Summary Sentence

• Leaving off from this section, Miriam gets a chance to make up for her " insecurities" that get her picked on by people. The physical changes that she goes through is getting her hair strengthened from nappy.

Journal Entry 4

Pages 111-141

5 comments

• Papa now earns 5 rands a week, in now in which he then begins to gamble to earn more money.
• Jus find out that the reason why papa keeps drinking is becuase according to mama "he can't help it".
• Miriam wants to be a nurse when she gets older just like Mrs. Kobi because of the kind of lifestyle that she lives.
• Even the teachers are corrupted with greed becuase he takes money from the already impoverished students in his class.
• Mama and her family are so poor that in times of deperate need of care from a clinic they cannot afford to treat the bad wounds

4 Questions

• why doesn't the man come to the aid of Miriam when she is attacked by the Dog?
• If the dog is dangerous to people why are these specific elderly people able to handle this meab dog?
• Why would the uncle teach Miriam to do wrong against her christian beliefs in god?
• Why does The uncle force Miriam to partcipate in these bad actions knowing that she will get in deeply trouble with her parents and put her at a bad place with god?

3 Vocabulary Words

• Arbitrary (pg 114)- subject to individual will or judgment without restriction;
• Livid (pg 114)- having a discolored, bluish appearance caused by a bruise
• Pinion (pg 115)- to disable or restrain

2 Literacy Techniques

• Personification- " beat the shit out of me" (Pg. 115)
• Man vs Society- " I have a problem, because people keep calling me a coward" (Pg. 127)

1 Sentence Summary

• Miriam has chnages so dramatic that it changes her perpective on what kinds of decisions she makes there on after.

Journal Entry 3

Pages 81-110

5 comments

v The father continues to spend his money gambling leaving his family to try and survive on their on for the week.
v The mother believes she is receiving blessings from god in the form of money in which one time is stolen due to a lie by amanda’s mother claim to be hers.
v At birth Miriam had to go through a sort of coming of age ceremony as a child in which she was pierced with a razor and baptized in a specialized bath of roots and special herbs
v Mama has gotten to the point where she is so sick that she fuses to eat food calling it shit. She also sometimes has violent streaks.
v All the names of Miriam’s siblings came from the experiences and emotional changes that her mother had gone through as a result of her husband’s gambling and drinking problems

4 questions
v If a wife in a marriage was unhappy couldn’t she divorce him and marry another man?
v What do they mean when they say, “wait until my bones closed”?
v How did they get the idea that America was a better place to live than in Johannesburg?
v Is there a limit of authority to how far the police officers can go when it comes to invading homes?

3 vocabulary Words

v Latrines (Pg. 75)- A communal toilet of a type often used in a camp or barracks
v Decrepit (Pg. 83)- worn and broken down by hard use
v Illegitimate (Pg. 89)- born out of wedlock

2 Literary Terms

v Simile- “she was thin as a matchstick (pg. 97)
v Personification- “Dawn is breaking outside” (Pg. 94)

1 Sentence Summary

v As they pull through almost getting arrested for not havin a pass, Miriam family begins to suffer another loss, their mother becomes violently Ill turning against her family.

Journal Entry 2

Pages 53-80

5 Comments

v Miriam is happy that her father gives her mother half his weekly earnings.
v Pap loses money gambling and drinking that night.
v Florah is away attending a rites of passage ceremony in Tikhomba, in which she is away for four weeks and is taugh all the mysteries of being a grown woman.
v The father beats the mother if she doesn’t do as he says. In this case she refuses to give the money that they need in order to survive the next week and then he starts to beat her.
v I feel the same way that Miriam feels in which she hates her father for beating up her mother, and doing wrong things usch as gambling with their life.

4 Questions

v What pushes the father to drink and gamble?
v What is florah’s fainting sickness?
v What is Matric?
v Why does he continue to drink after the priest tells him that it is bad for his children to starve if he does?

3 Vocabulary words

v Gaudier (pg 57)- brilliantly or excessively showy
v Mete (pg 61)- to distribute or apportion by measure
v Welt (pg 60)- a type of skin lesion

2 Literary Terms

v Man Vs. Man- “ I don’t like teachers and mistresses because of all the harsh punishment they mete out to students”. ( pg 61)
v Personification- “ a cloud of acrid black smoke hangs over the ghetto” (pg 68)

1 sentence Summary

After reading this section rioting breaks out between BC (Black Conscious Movement ) and white police officers, in then in which the leader of BC dies while in custody of the police officers, and Miriam and others lose their innocence.

Journal Entry 1

Pages 23-52

5 Comments

v Miriam goes to a poor school in which they have to sit on cold frosted concrete ground during the wintertime. And are cooped up in a non-conditioned room that is stuffy and has few windows.
v Education is so important that they banned Television believing that it corrupted public morals.
v Children are forced to be inspected in their underwear to make sure that they are presentable for if a “white inspector” so that they may continue to receive funding from the Department from Bantu Education.
v They take their representation very seriously that they beat the kids if they do not follow the cleanliness guidelines.
v Corporal punishment is very high on their Education guidelines.

4 Questions

v Why doesn’t the Department of Bantu education put regulations on the Health guidelines in school?
v What if a kid is seriously hurt while a corporal punishment is being carried out on a child?
v Is there is a Limit to corporal punishment on a child?
v What if a kid’s parents are too poor to supply their needs for school? Do they get penalized?

3 Vocabulary Words

v Pious (pg.49)- of or pertaining to religious devotion
v Brazier (pg. 44)- a metal receptacle for holding live coals or other fuel, as for heating a room.
v Skepticism (pg.50)- doubt or unbelief with regard to a religion, esp. Christianity

2 Literary Techniques

v Man Vs. Society- “..Abide by the strict discipline rules set high by the Department of Bantu Education.. But papa doesn’t give a damn about the rules”. (Pg 27)
v Man Vs. Society- “ Papa is opposed to our attending a school where the medium of instruction is Shangaan, my mother’s language, and not Venda his language.

1 Summary Sentence

v After reading the section of this book Miriam says prayers for five things: to help her mom and dad get jobs, they always have food, keep the horrible police away from their house, that she gets a new pair of shoes, and that the mistress stops beating her.