In humanities, we wrote essays about 3 different time periods in history and a theme that goes throughout them. The time periods were 1692, when the play The Crucible, takes place, the 1950s, when Senator Joseph McCarthy started making accusations about communists, and now, when President Donald Trump is in power. The theme that I chose to write about was power and how people are willing to do anything to get it. I learned a lot while writing this essay. I learned a lot about connecting time periods and how that helps me think more deeply about current events.  I also wrote a lot more analysis than I normally do. Before, I would only write about 3 or 4 sentences for analysis, but for this I wrote at least 6 sentences for analysis in each paragraph.

Based on the feedback that I got on this essay, I’m very proud of the effort I put in. Suzanne commented on how strong my analysis is, which is something I have struggled with in the past. I broke down all of the quotes and used strong evidence for each point. I think that I connected these time periods very well. The only thing that I would improve on is the writing conventions. I did well on it, but there were a few words that I misspelled. When I work on this in the future, I’m going to read my essay over a few more times when I’m done, just to check over again. Also, my writing partner, Eli, helped me edit this really well. Overall, I’m very proud of this essay!

This is my essay:

Power Through The Ages

We live in a world where people are willing to do almost anything to gain power. They are willing to make false accusations against innocent people who can then be put in jail and in some situations, even killed. When you have power, people respect you. They do what they can to stay out of your way when you’re angry. This came up with the girls in The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, who started accusing people of being witches. It came up in 1950, when Senator Joseph McCarthy accused many people of being communist. It’s also coming up now when President Donald Trump isn’t allowing people from seven different countries into America to show these countries that he has power. Power and control have been important themes throughout history. When you have power and control people respect you, and many are willing to do whatever it takes to gain that respect, including making false accusations against innocent people. These people often think that they can get away with anything. The girls in The Crucible are an example of this, and so is Joseph McCarthy, as is Donald Trump today.

In The Crucible, by Arthur Miller, Mary Warren, a servant of the Proctors, came into more power in her society as she started accusing people of witchcraft. She was someone who didn’t have much power or say in her society. When she started accusing people of witchcraft, the town started noticing her because no one wanted to be accused. Mary Warren gained power by ruining other people’s lives. When she accuses people of witchcraft, she gains power and influence in her town. “ELIZABETH: It is a mouse no more. I forbid her go, and she raises up her chin like the daughter of a prince and says to me, ‘I must go to Salem, Goody Proctor; I am an official of the court!’ ” (Miller, 1953). This quote shows that Mary Warren, who, in normal circumstances would have little to no power in Salem, now has influence because she has started accusing people. Once the people in Salem realized that she could ruin their lives, people started respecting her. When Elizabeth says “It is a mouse no more. I forbid her go, and she raises up her chin like the daughter of a prince,” she is saying that Mary rose above her station as a servant and acted like she was more important than everyone else, which is something no one would have done then. When she says “It is a mouse no more,” she is saying that Mary is no longer shy and mouselike. When Mary Warren was just a servant, she could have gone to jail or been whipped for anything, even something small, let alone something this important. Now that she has power, she could have gotten away with more than she usually could. Abigail Williams, the girl who was leading the accusations, makes her feel like she is powerful in the society and that makes Mary want more power and respect than anyone else. Mary Warren came into power and she didn’t want to let it go, exactly like Senator Joseph McCarthy.

Joseph McCarthy, the senator from Wisconsin, started accusing people of communism so he gain more power. When Joseph McCarthy became a senator, no one really noticed him. After he started making accusations, people started listening to him and respecting him. Wisconsin Senator Joseph McCarthy made his first speech about communism in February, 1950. This was the first speech in a series of speeches that made this senator well known. “The 41-year-old McCarthy had done little to make himself known since he was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1946.” (The Red Scare, Fitzgerald, 2007). Joseph McCarthy was a little known senator in 1950. He hadn’t tried to make himself known to the public until 1950, when he made his speech that put him on the map. His speech was about communism, but he didn’t reveal any names until a while later. This could have been on purpose. He might have been withholding the information on purpose, so he could stay in the spotlight longer. McCarthy was a senator who didn’t have much influence to begin with. Much more than some people at the time, but in the senate, he wasn’t in that much control. When he came into the spotlight, he started to think about power and how important it was to him. That’s why he didn’t reveal the names of the people on his list, because he wasn’t ready to let go of his influence. Besides staying in power, there’s no good or real reason for McCarthy to withhold this information. The only reason could have been for his own personal gain. Just like in The Crucible, people started respecting McCarthy because they didn’t want to be accused. This is much like our current president, who will do almost anything to stay in power and gain as much as he can.

Donald Trump thinks that he can do anything he wants and because he has so much control, get away with it. He has lots of power over many people and he thinks that because of this, he can do whatever he wants. Donald Trump said this quote at one of his campaign rallies. “I could stand in the middle of 5th Avenue and shoot somebody and I wouldn’t lose voters.” (Donald Trump, January 23, 2016, CNN.com). Trump is a person who thinks that he has so much influence that he can get away with anything he wants. When he said this, he was probably thinking that he could do whatever he wants because he’s rich and has influence. So many people support him and agree with what he is saying that he thinks no matter what he does, people will still vote for him and he will still win. He said this during the election, and he started being so cocky that he thought he could shoot someone, and no one would care. This shows that because he is in so much power, he believed that he could get away with anything he wants. In an article about Trump’s immigration policies, this was stated. “Under the new directives, the agency would no longer provide privacy protections to people who are not American citizens or green card holders,” (New York Times, February 22). This is talking about how Trump’s administration has stopped giving immigrants privacy protection. This shows that he thinks he can do anything he wants. This policy was established at the end of the Bush administration, and now Trump is trying to undo that. Another thing that he has done to show his control over people, was to fire his attorney general, Sally Yates, for not defending him. She said something that he didn’t like, so he fired her. He was trying to keep his power because if people started listening to her, then he might lose his power. This all shows that Donald Trump thinks that he can do whatever he wants, just because he’s in power.

All throughout history, many people have done whatever they can to gain power. They are willing to do almost anything for the respect and control. Unfortunately, this means that some people are affected by those trying to gain power. Many people were accused during the Salem Witch Trials because of the girls trying to gain power in their patriarchal society. Others were accused in 1950, when an unknown senator from Wisconsin made a desperate grab for power by accusing people of being communist. Many immigrants from different countries are being affected by President Trump’s immigration ban now. Power is something that is desireable to many. When you have power, people respect you. When people who are trying to gain power realize that by doing this, they are hurting many people in this community, then people will stop being afraid of others who aren’t like them, and stop scapegoating them. When the people in power realize that hurting people in order to gain respect and control is something that shouldn’t be done, then the world will be a much better place.

This is my science presentation about ecology action.

We were asked to think about the different types of comparison statements we’ve been writing and our work with rates and unit rates. In this video I’ve addressed 2 questions: 1) How have you found these ideas helpful. 2) Make up an example comparing two items using unit rates. I hope you enjoy my video!

https://app.letsrecap.com/public/r/39edcc6c4be63dc4a5a5f7027f107c5e

This poem is Friendship.

She was my best friend,

And we would depend,

On each other.

We did everything together

We said  friends forever.

But promises never come true

We froze our friendship

We were friendless

It had ended

The new start of the year changed everything

No one thought it would change anything

But it changed everything.

The inspiration behind it is my friendship with Dora. We were best friends when we were younger, but then we drifted apart.

This isn’t a certain type of poem.

The element of poetry in this poem is repetition. We use repetition in the end.

I like how the poem turned out. I think that we need to add a little bit to the end.

The title of this poem is The Glass Ceiling.

They’re standing up there,                                                                      

Triumphantly

I wonder,

How did this happen?

If I had been born differently, would it be different?

Would I be triumphant?
Instead of sitting here,

Watching their success.

Their happiness.

Their non-existent sorrow.

Why are they standing there?

Not even breaking a sweat,

While I’m down here, sweating hard,

Earning 79 cents to their dollar.

I would raise my voice if I thought it would make any difference.

But as I look up at them, and they work unseeingly, I realize,

They feel no remorse for me,

Or anyone else down here.

They only care for their own prosperity,

That should have been mine.

They say I’m not working hard enough,

Deep down, I’m wondering if it’s true,

If they really are working harder than I am,

And as I sit beneath them,

I ask myself why

I’m looking up at a glass ceiling, while they look at the sky.

My inspiration for this poem is sexism. When Margaret and I wrote this, we were trying to convey our feelings about sexism.

This isn’t a certain type of poem.

The element of poetry in this poem is imagery.

I am REALLY proud of this poem because it conveys everything that I wanted it to and I think that it could really make a difference in the world.

The title of my poem is Autumn.

The crisp autumn breeze

Wind whistles through the branches

Leaves fall to the ground.

My inspiration for this poem was the season fall and how I feel during that season.

This is a haiku. A haiku has to have 5 syllables in the first and last lines, and  the middle lines have 7 syllables.

The element in this poem is beat. You have to read it slow, so it doesn’t seem like the poem is going by really fast.

I really like how my poem turned out. I’m proud of this poem because it really expresses my feelings about fall.

My favorite project this year was the Fabric Collage. I really liked the project because we got to combine Guilds, which was really fun, and felt, which was really fun to use. Also, the project was good because we were all doing something different that went with our characters. I liked this project because I thought that I did a really good job with showing who my character was. 

In Mandarin, the 8th graders wrote pen pal letters to us. We got to choose who we were going to respond to, and I chose to respond to this letter:

你好。我叫罗壵春，十三岁，你呢？我的家有五个人。我的头发是深棕色，我的眼睛也是深棕色，你呢？我的头发不长，不短。我喜欢穿运动衫，裤子，和运动鞋。我的眼镜是黑色。你有眼镜吗？

你有宠物吗？我没有那个宠物可是我想有一只狗。我喜欢鱼和猫，你呢？

我喜欢垒球(softball)和排球(volleyball)，可是我不喜欢打篮球和高尔夫球(golf).

我是美籍华人，你呢？我的爸爸和妈妈是中国人。

我喜欢中国菜系！我最喜欢的中国菜是干炒牛河和饺子。你喜欢中国菜吗？你最喜欢的菜系是什么？我不喜欢吃汉堡和热狗。你不喜欢什么菜？我喜欢喝奶茶。

我最喜欢的颜色是紫色和黑色。你呢？我最喜欢的课是体育。你最喜欢的课是什么？我不喜欢作业。我喜欢看书，你呢？

Once we chose our letters, we wrote letters back. In my letter, I talked about food, pets, my family and other things too. This is the letter that I wrote:

你好罗壵春！

我叫左玉， 我今年十二岁。我上六年级Lynne的班。

我是美国人。我的妈妈是美国人， 我的爸爸是美国人。我会说一点中文，也会说英文。

我的家有四个人。我有一个妈妈，一个爸爸,一个妹妹和我。我的妈妈最喜欢的颜色是黄色。我的爸爸最喜欢的颜色是橙色。我的妹妹最喜欢的颜色是紫色。

我最喜欢的颜色是粉红色。

我最喜欢跑步。你喜欢垒球和排球，  我也喜欢垒球。

我的朋友是Kate, Ruby, Emily, Dora, 和 Margaret。 Kate有咖啡色的头和咖啡色的眼睛。Ruby有咖啡色的头和咖啡色的眼睛。Dora有咖啡色的头和咖啡色的眼睛。Emily有钱咖啡色的执法和咖啡色的眼睛。 Margaret有黄色的执法和蓝色的眼睛。

我有一个狗。她叫 Midnight。她是黑色的。

我的最喜欢吃是巧克力蛋糕。我喜欢中国菜。

你的笔友，

左玉

Translation:

Hello (Pen Pal’s name)!

My name is Zoe and I am 12 years old. I am in 6th grade in Lynne’s class.

I am American. My mom is American, my dad is American. I can speak a little Chinese, also I can speak English.

My family has 4 people. One mom, one dad, one little sister, and me. My mom’s favorite color is yellow. My dad’s favorite color is orange. My sister’s favorite color is purple.

My favorite color is pink.

My favorite sport is running. You like softball, I also like softball.

My friends are Kate, Ruby, Emily, Dora and Margaret. Kate has brown hair and brown eyes. Ruby has brown hair and brown eyes. Dora has brown hair and brown eyes. Emily has light brown hair and brown eyes. Margaret has blond hair and blue eyes.

I have one dog. Her name is Midnight. She is black.

My favorite food is chocolate cake. I like Chinese food.

Your pen pal,

Zoe

In art, we are making map art. My idea is to cut out Manhattan and put the letters H, O, M, and E. I colored letters in yellow. Then, I ripped up the map and glued it down for a background. Here are some pictures:

My next step is to glue on Manhattan and use water color to color the background, so that you can tell the difference from Manhattan and the background. In the feedback that I got, a lot of feedback that wasn’t very useful. I was able to use some of the ideas and I think that I’m going to make the letters 3D.