“At this time of my life a black
man could probably have handed me a bucket of cow piss, commanded me to drink
it in order that I might rid my soul of the stench of racism, and I would have
only asked for a straw.” This sentence stood out to me because it shows Conroy’s
remorse for the negative behaviors he committed in his younger years. To me this
sentence shows that Conroy is truly sorry for his past, and will obviously
go to extreme measures to rid himself of his past negative behaviors.
At the beginning of chapter five,
Conroy begins by showing films to the students. Conroy is a firm and
uncompromising believer in the audio-visual age. All the students loved watching
the films, so Conroy and the students voted to watch at least one film every day.
Once Conroy showed a film on the Salem Witch Trials, talk soon changed to the
movie The Wizard of Oz. “Every child
in the room knew the legend of Oz by heart, the importance of the yellow brick
road, the incarnate evil of the wicked Witch of the West, and the ultimate
hypocrisy of the great wizard himself.” I found this statement to be very encouraging
in regards to the student’s education on Yamacraw. Even though the students in Conroy’s class were
on different academic levels, they all showed the ability to learn at an
advanced level.
The most upsetting thing I read in
this chapter was the way the students took care of their animals. Being an
animal lover I found their behavior to be appalling, but at the same time I can’t
really judge their behavior, just as I can’t judge Conroy’s, because they have all learned this behavior from someone. After Conroy saw the
awful things his students did to animals, for some reason he felt the need to
give eight of his students puppies. I
know some people might think I’m crazy, but I honestly couldn’t live with
myself if I gave puppies to young children when I’ve already seen their behavior
toward animals. If I was put in Conroy’s situation I would have adopted one puppy,
and made the puppy a classroom pet. If Conroy would have done something like
this he could have shown the proper way to care for an animal during class hours,
and taken the puppy home after school hours. I believe that Conroy was one of
the best things that ever happened to the students at the Yamacraw School, but
this was one situation where I couldn’t stand by his decision.
I also saw that statement about Conroy feeling remorse towards his younger days and how he treated African Americans. Of course, then I think about the time period where all of this took place and with her surroundings, it was inevitable for him to act that way. Compared to his remorse, I'm sure that there are things that we have done in our pasts as youth that maybe we should at least like to go and change it, but of course we cannot. I was also able to pin point that the students are able to learn on advanced levels, and it would be seen much better if people, especially Mrs. Brown, would give them a real chance. On your third point, I also agree with your heart in pain over how the kids treated the animals because I have 3 cats and I would hate for anybody to torture them in any kind of way; they are almost like my babies.
ReplyDeleteKelsey,
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed this quote from the book by Pat Conroy. I feel like this quote is so powerful in describing what was going on during Pat Conroy’s life as a boy and now what his life was like as a man. You talk about Pat Conroy’s remorse for the negative behavior and I think what he is saying is that no matter what it takes he would do anything to get rid of who he was as a child. Not many people can understand that what they do as a child is wrong, even when they get older. Conroy is realizing that he made mistakes in his life by judging and starting now in this book I feel like both the teacher and students are learning from each other. Great Post!
Sammie