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.