Blog for April 12, 2011

Shane by Jack Schaefer revolves around a family who has settled down in the Western United States during the late 19^th century to live a life of farming. Content with their style of living, they are surprised when a stranger on a horse shows up at their house. Unlike any other visitor they have had before, one of the main characters, Bob, becomes fascinated with him. Shane, intending to only get some water and continue on his journey ends up staying for a couple of days so he is able to rest. Despite his father’s hesitations, Bob becomes obsessed with his new role model. Finding him mysterious and adventurous, the young boy finds any excuse to be around the visitor. As issues arise about land disputes, Shane decides to stay with the family to help out with the farming, and help protect their lands.

Personally, the connection between Bob and Shane is similar to what has happened with the kids I help tutor at Guilford Middle Elementary School. Some of the same kids have been coming each week to be tutored and by now, we have known to form friendships with these kids. Being an unexpected friendship, both in the book and in my experience tutoring, both parties are able to learn so much about the other. Some of the girls I have had the opportunity to work with come each week so they can have good grades. On several occasions, they have told me that next year they want to transfer to better schools. They know that by going to another school, they will be able to receive a better education and have the opportunity to attend college.

As the story of Shane unfolds, we discover that Fletcher, a powerful man in who lives in their area, wants to take over all of the farmer’s land so he is able to commercially raise cattle. At this point in the story, Shane decides to live with the family and be paid for his work on the farm. As the drama between Fletcher and the other farmers becomes more of an issue, this is where hints of Shane’s dark past are discovered. When one of Fletcher’s “lackeys” comes to try to get Shane to leave town, he “kept hold of [his] arm and wrenched it sideways and let the weight bear on it and you could hear the bone crack” (77). Although at this point Bob, as well as the readers, are unaware of this character’s dark past, we can assume that he has used tactics like this in the past. Unwilling to tell Bob about his reasons for treating Fletcher’s friend the way he did, Bob wonders about his past and if Shane will ever tell him about it.

This part of the novel really reminded me about my volunteer experience at Guilford. By helping out many of the same students each week, they have come to trust us as friends and tell us about their family lives. For example, some of the students, even though they have great grades, would rather stay after school to be tutored instead of going home. What fascinates me is that in a matter of weeks, I have developed such a bond with the students at Guilford that I was not expecting to happen when I decided to complete the service component of this class. This demonstrates that even the most unlikely of people can come together and forge a friendship that is beneficial to both parties. In the novel, both Shane and Bob benefit from being friends with the other—Shane gains a friend while Bob gains another role model in his life. In my volunteer experience, the students I have the opportunity of helping gain a role model to help them through school while I have the ability to not only help these kids, but myself in the process.

Blog 4/12/11

This week I participated in the “1 in 8 and 1 in 4” sexual violence awareness campaign by wearing a t-shirt that said “1 in 8” around campus. The 1 in 8 represented how 1 in 8 college men report being sexually violated in their lifetime. The goal of the shirts was “to be more aware of the impact of sexual assault and be motivated to change the statistic for the better.”

Over the course of the day, I had multiple people on the quad as I was walking, in Boulder and even in class ask what the shirt meant because they had seen it around all day. Everybody who I talked too was actually surprised at the statistic. Although statistics point toward women being more prone to sexual violence, men do experience the same about half as much as women. Most times however out of pride, a man is less likely to admit he has been the victim of a sexual crime because of the fear of feeling weak. It is sad that in today’s world crimes and violence of this nature can go unreported and sometimes not even mentioned ever. The psychological damage this does to individuals is sometimes unbearable and can take years and years to overcome, in some cases a lifetime to get over what happened. Overall I do believe the t-shirts were a success because of the amount of participants in the campaign and because of the design and cooperativeness of all involved.

For this week’s reading we had to read the first half of “Shane” by Jack Schaefer. “Shane” is about a mysterious man who arrives into a farm town, somewhere where he clearly does not belong. He ends up staying with a hospitable farming family, the Starretts. The Starretts are Joe, Marian and their son Bob. The story is told from the perspective of Bob, who admires Shane because of how unknown and mysterious he is.

Shane ends up staying multiple nights and Joe takes a liking to him. Joe gives him his full trust but Marian is not as easy to convince. She thinks that Shane is too much of a risk to her family because she knows so little about him. Joe and Shane end up bonding over uprooting a stump, which has been a nuisance to Joe for as long as he can remember. After many hours of labor, they finally uproot it. This is a symbol of triumph in the book, as Joe has gotten past one of his biggest obstacles of the farm. Impressed with Shane and for the fact that Joe has taken a liking to him, Joe offers him a job as a farm hand, which Shane accepts gladly.

Still wary of Shane’s mysteriousness, Marian notices that Shane has taken Joe’s normal spot at the dinner table. This goes on many nights until the family finally realizes that Shane has taken Joe’s seat because he wants to be able to see out the door. Joe remarks that because Shane is doing this that he is obviously running from something, which leads to more doubt about who Shane really is.


Problems then arise with Mr. Fletcher, a man who is attempting to take control of farm land for his own gain. Joe tells Shane of the problems that he has had in the past with Mr. Fletcher. A few weeks later Shane goes into to town for the sole purpose of confronting Fletcher. He arrives at a bar and sits down to order whiskey. One of Fletcher’s men, Chris confronts him calling him various names and essentially trying to humiliate him in front of everybody. Shane doesn’t react however, showing his dignity and keeping his intentions a mystery. I thought that this was an interesting part of the book because Shane is smart not to react in a negative way. He uses his ambiguous identity to help himself.

Eventually Shane ends up fighting Chris. Shane heads to the same bar again and buys Chris a drink. Chris then proceeds to throw the drink at Shane and Shane ends up breaking his arm. After this Shane becomes more and more separating from Joe and the rest of the family. They are worried about him and the fact that the fighting may not end anytime soon.

Take Back the Night

The book Shane, by Jack Schaeffer, begins in the summer of 1889 with a man riding into town. He is dressed in fancier clothes than the other men. He was wearing a black hat, boots, and a belt but they were tattered and dirty. Despite this he looks composed, strong, and dangerous. The narrator of the book is a young boy, Bob Starrett. Bob notices the stranger and is entranced by him. The stranger stops at the Starretts' house and asks to drink some water. Bob's father Joe takes a liking to the stranger and invites him to stay. The stranger introduces himself only as Shane. Despite the air of mystery, Shane gets along well with the entire family, even though they can he tell he is dangerous. Joe states that Shane is the safest person their family could have around. Shane stays the night, raves about Marian, Bob’s mother’s, cooking. The next day Joe asks Shane to stay again because it is raining. Joe and Shane create an unspoken bond while works at uprooting a very thick stump that Joe has been unable remove. Working tirelessly for hours, Shane and Joe finally uproot. With the realization that they are a great team, Joe asks Shane to stay on at the farm indefinitely to help him get ready for the winter. Shane accepts gladly.

Everyone adjusts quickly and happily to Shane's presence at the farm and soon forgets there was a time before he lived with them . Bob idolizes him as much as he does his father, Marian thinks he is a wonderful man, and Joe appreciates his company and his work. Not everything is perfect though. Fletcher, a powerful cattle rancher in town, wants to buy all of the farmers' property to expand his ranch. While Shane is staying with the Starretts, Fletcher increases his push to take the land. Shane goes into town to fix their pitchfork and runs into Chris, one of Fletcher's men. Shane refrains from fighting and is as nice as possible, but Chris continues to taunts. Chris makes comments about how farmers only drink soda and says that it smells like Shane and Joe raise pigs on their farm. Shane refuses to be goaded into fighting and returns back to the Starretts. While Shane was actually very strong in his self-control, Chris is able to spin the situation to make Shane look like a coward.

The book has a strong theme of what it means to be a man. One of the points stressed about being a man is never acting with violence unless there is no other choice. This struck accord with the event for this week about Take Back the Night. This Committee was created to bring awareness to sexual assault. Students wore shirts helping to visualize the statistic that 1 in 8 college men reported being sexual violated in his lifetime and 1 in 4 college women report being raped or attempted rape in her lifetime. During the course of the day, I was asked several times if I was part of an exclusive club in which only 1 out of every 8 men was able to join. After explaining the true meaning of the shirt, people were astounded by the statistic. Not acting violently is not on a defining trait for men, but for all of humanity. Respecting each other and our respective choices and boundaries falls into this trait. In respecting all of peers, and fellow humans, we become a stronger human.

Event Blog

The reading for this week was the novel Shane by Jack Schaefer. From the beginning this appeared to be a normal novel with all the elements and a lesson that the reader will typically learn. But after getting into the first half of the novel there appeared to be something special about this novel. It contained themes and lessons that are applicable in daily life and they were important lessons for a person to learn. When I looked at the cover previous to opening the book my assumptions were that it was about a outlaw/cowboy that does what he wishes and is constantly getting in trouble. He seemed like a man that would have little regard for the people around him. This is a story about a cowboy who wonders through a small town and eventually finds himself at a farmer's land. He appears to just be moving through but eventually stays for an extended period of time. During that time he built a relationship with the Staretts. Him and Joe become good friends and build a family like employer-employee relationship. Joe Starett faces problems with Fletcher a powerful cattle boss who want to clear everyone, including Joe and his family, off the land. He sends people to intimidate, threaten and harm the workers of Joe, in order to get him out of town. They attempt to harm, intimidate Shane but fail to do so. The only thing the accomplish is getting a broken arm and begin scared away. The relationship between Shane and the family builds but at a point the family questions whether it was a mistake or not to hire Shane and get him mixed up the trouble. The event that I attended this week was the Sexual Violence Awareness t-shirt. I wore the t-shirt for Take Back the Night, that had the statistic “1 in 8” on it. Before even reading the novel this t-shirt really opened my eyes to the amount of college students saying they were once sexually violated in their life. It is shocking to here that, especially males. I have heard the 1 in 4 statistic for females before but never the male. This event corresponds to the reading for this week in many ways. The first way is in a general lesson that many people have heard before, don't judge a book by its cover. In Shane, if I were to assume the book was about what the cover looked like, I would have gotten the wrong image. Walking around campus on a normal day it seems that everyone on campus is normal, a normal college student just living a normal life. But everyone has secrets or something people do not know about them. This was evident in today's event. You can not just judge a person and make assumptions. You can not just say that person is mentally, emotionally and physically fine and has never experienced something terrible. After today I realize that people may have experienced something that others have not. A person can not just judge a persons life by looking at them. Another correlating theme that can connect the reading to the event is people not really knowing other people. When I say that I mean, people may think they know another persons life and everything but they actually don't. Although I am not a statistic and have never been sexually violated, many people were unaware of why I was wearing this shirt today. This just made me see how people you may know, do not know everything about a person, as seen in Shane when the family does not know about his life or himself until he lives with them.

Blog Entry.

This weeks reading consisted of just one book entitled Shane written by: Jack Schaefer. This was a different type of reading from what we are used to because it is long and time consuming unlike short poems that take a lot of analysis. From the beginning of this novel a theme started to take part, which was, as I believe to never judge a book by its cover that then builds into loyalty. This is personified throughout the whole first half of the novel as Shane, a cowboy like figure comes into town and looks dangerous but Joe wishes to meet him and offers Shane dinner eventually leading to him staying indefinitely at the Starrett’s house. While staying at the house Joe and his family become extremely close and grateful to Shane, even though they all realize there is a dangerous side to him that they hope they wont have to encounter. This is shown by Shanes constant need to know what is around him and his ‘on edge’ feelings the Starrett’s get about him. Loyalty builds throughout the novel, as Shane and Joe get extremely close as friends and as Shane becoming a mentor to Joe.

These themes reminded me of a personal experience I had about a year ago as I was tutoring fourth grade students in deep west Philadelphia. At first, as most people would have been in the situation I was judgmental about the children automatically assuming they were bad kids and would be hard to teach because they would not want to learn. I was completely wrong about both. As I got to know each of my twenty individually they each had a story that I learned that I was able to take something from that ultimately led me to probably learning much more than I could ever have possibly taught them. A major part of this was loyalty and never judging things by the way they look. Just because these children were unfortunate and went to this school didn’t mean they were bad kids or unwilling to learn it just meant they had a troubling upbringing. Some teachers at that school were where I truly learned about loyalty. The teacher I had, ms. Lavenduski, was a great teacher and she ultimately wanted what was best for the students. She stayed afterschool to help them and kept them away from all the pressures they had at home and still brought her previous classes in to teach them after she could technically had gone home. This extra activity reminded me of the relationship between Joe and Shane with the loyalty they grew between each other. As Shane taught Joe so much by teaching him different things and he was willing to stay with Joe after hardly knowing him. Joe was able to trust Shane and learn from him straight away instead of being judgmental. These two themes I feel like come up a lot in the novel Shane and a lot more in real life situations that most people wont even recognize has happened because that’s just the way they have been brought up and always thought.

A person's actions has its own lasting consequences on the community

This week, we are reading Shane, by Jack Schaefer. This novel was written in 1949, so the novel is fairly old, yet its themes can still be applied to modern day life. Shane allows readers to see the value of working hard for a living, while also living in a sort of isolation that allows for a person to know many people, but only truly trust a few. The novel emphasizes how family dynamics can change after a single encounter with someone new. It is important to realize how a single person has the power to disturb the pattern of a family and a community. Through my service, I have met a lot of students with dreams of their own, yet some are threatened and will have a hard time fulfilling their dreams due to the environment they are living in.

Bobby, who is the young narrator in the story, is enamored by Shane, who seems to appear out of nowhere. Bobby’s family soon embraces Shane, and allows him to clean up, eat dinner, spend the night, and eventually stays at their house, where he will be paid to help Bobby’s father, Joe, run the farm. Marion, who is the mother, is preoccupied by the idea that Shane has travelled around the area; she hopes to impress him with her cooking and her outfits (specifically her extravagant hats), which proves that while Marion may be isolated from the rest of the community, she is still determined to prove herself to the rest of society and assert her status. Joe enjoys Shane’s company, especially because he seems to adapt to his new working life at the farm fairly well. However, despite this, there is still tension between the family and Shane. The family notices that Shane is rather mysterious, but cannot come to the conclusion whether or not Shane is actually running from someone. In fact, the one condition that Joe had before allowing Shane to stay with them was if he was running from the law or if he was in trouble. In addition to this, the image on the cover contributes to Shane’s mysterious image. The cover shows Shane riding on horseback, with his hand on a gun holster, looking back at something in the distance. The family notices that Shane always seems anxious, as if he is looking for something, or someone, yet he never carries a gun. Despite this, his gun skills surprise Bobby, when he shows Bobby how to hold, shoot and aim a gun. Also, he takes Joe’s seat at dinner, which faces the open front door. While eating dinner, Shane has the ability to look out of that window, as if he was keeping an eye out for someone that was chasing him. This sense of the unknown about Shane’s past, and his purpose in the present, alerts the family and the community. Because of this, it alludes to a possible struggle and fight that will happen in the second half of the book. A struggle and fight would emphasize a sense of disloyalty to the people that trusted him the most, as well as the distress a single person can cause to a community, and the chain reaction it causes.

A single person causes distress to a community, which causes a chain reaction that will eventually have drastic consequences of its own. Two weeks ago, I was paired up with a boy named Markel, who I could tell didn’t want to be there. I had never seen him in Coach Class before, so I could tell that he was uncomfortable with the situation. I tried making it as welcoming as possible, but I didn’t seem to help. Markel would yell at other students across the classroom, get up and walk around, or even leave the classroom entirely. I tried yelling at him to come back, but each time I yelled, he would walk away. Mr. Smith did little to help me, but eventually he saw that Markel’s actions were impacting the success of other students. After over an hour of struggling to help Markel to focus and study, Mr. Smith had to kick him out. Once Markel left, there were about 5 other students left in the room. They were no longer distracted by Markel, and they were able to memorize their study guide and another mini study guide to help them get ahead for next class’ lesson.

Another incident happened last week, where after school, Mr. Smith had to leave so there was no Coach Class. We were already at the school, and some of the girls still wanted to hang around school. As we were leaving the building, there was a huge fight between a few boys and a couple girls. I was amazed that I recognized a few of the people that were involved in the fight. When I worked with them, they seemed nice and even-tempered, but I was shocked at their actions! The two girls we were with, who we have worked with before, were annoyed because the teachers threatened to call their parents because they were outside during the fight. The two girls are only in 7th grade, but they are planning on transferring to a new school next year to better prepare for high school. They told us about their experience at Guilford and how they wish the government would close the school down entirely because of how dirty it is and how the students act there. They told us about the kids that don’t want to learn, and since they want to learn, it’s hard for them to perform to the best of their abilities in an environment that is so counterproductive. They complained of the school’s teachers, the cleanliness of the school, and the attitude of the other kids. They said that kids often fight, but while the girls take the fights off campus to a side road or alley, the boys are more defiant and fight in front of the school. The girls are annoyed at how much drama there is, and they hope that their last year in middle school won’t be filled with drama and other unnecessary distractions. I realized that this situation has a large effect on the mood of the school. As police cars filed in to the school parking lot, the two girls were visibly fed up and ready to be at a new school. I connected this to the beginning of Shane, how a single person’s actions have the power to affect the rest of the community’s mentality and their actions. If these kids did not fight, people would not feel the need to transfer to a new school. They would look forward to going to school each day, instead of dreading being the only person willing to learn in a classroom. It’s sad that two girls that are in 7th grade are already fed up with school, but I’m glad that they realize that they need to be in a more productive environment and are being proactive to help improve the quality of their education.

In conclusion, I realize that it’s great to be able to trust everyone, even someone unfamiliar to you. Each week at Guilford, we are greeted with waves from the elementary school kids and middle school kids that have never seen us before. Some kids will even wave and say, “Hi Miss Nicole!” which makes my service worthwhile, since I know that I’m making an impact on their lives. However, a single person’s actions still has the power to cause distress to a community, which can disrupt the pattern of a person’s life. These changes are sometimes necessary, yet they are not always easy.

Event Blog, Shane + The Mission - Outsiders

Shane, written by Jack Schaefer, shows the friendship and danger that outsiders (strangers) can bring to a family and community. Shane, a cowboy from the Mississippi region, is seen to be very polite, complimenting Marian’s cooking and her hospitality. He also is genuinely kind to Bobby and helps his father in the field, becoming his farm hand. Told in first person, Shane is seen through the eyes of the young boy, Bob (Bobby), and Shane is thus seen to be mysterious, dangerous, and a role model for the kid. Shane, though polite and a hard-worker, has a hidden past; he seems to be very good with a pistol, yet never carries it, and panics when teaching Bob how to aim and shoot. Shane’s ability to scare off rival farmers, knocking out Chris, foreshadows that his stay with their family may turn from civil and hospitable to dangerous. The lesson in weariness about outsiders can also be seen in the event that I attended.

The film, “The Mission”, nominated for many Academy Awards and the Golden Globe best picture award, featuring Jeremy Irons and Robert De Niro, is centered on the Reductions. The Reductions were 30 missions/plantations built by the Jesuits in order to help the Guarani Indians in Paraguay. The Jesuits and Indians of Paraguay live together in the nation. It is a combination of the spirituality of Christianity and social aspect of the culture, carrying the word of God to the Guarani people. The Reductions is a social experiment by the Jesuits to protect the Indians and provide a refuge from slavery, the dangerous result of profit-seeking Spanish and Portuguese mercenaries.

Through music, the missionaries (Father Gabriel) were able to gain the trust of the Guarani, playing soothing melodies to draw them out of the jungle and communicate with them. In the movie, after murdering his brother, Rodrigo is visited by Father Gabriel and joins him in protecting the Guarani people, changing his slave trading ways. Throughout the Reductions, the missionaries helped the Guarani set up advanced laws, built hospitals, taught them musical literacy, abolished the death penalty, shared resources, and free them from Spanish and Portuguese influence. The Church in Spain and Portugal, however, insisted that the missions be ceased, forcing the Guarani out of their homes, allowing slavery to persist. Many of the Jesuits opposed the Church’s decree, siding with the Indians who struggled to fight back. The Spanish and Portuguese armies raided the Reduction plantations, enslaving the Guarani, fighting against others, and ending the missionary movement with violence and self-seeking, nationalistic agendas.

It is remarkable to me that such an emotional, spiritual, and cultural connection could be made between the Jesuits and the Guarani. Due to their cohabitation and relations with the Guarani, the Jesuits, too, began to learn, picking up the native language and beginning to understand the culture. This experiment known as the Reductions lasted for 150 years, from 1604-1756. Over 150,000 Guarani Indians were involved in this missionary movement. In the end, however, Spanish and the Portuguese took over this Paraguay territory, forcing the Indians out due to the profitability of the land area and eliminating the Reductions. What is also important to consider, is that this Reductions movement took place shortly before the suppression of the Jesuit Order, and impressive mission preceding their decline, although it is extremely sad and unfortunate that the Europeans eliminated their mission opportunity, killing and enslaving the Guarani people.

Both “The Mission” and Shane show examples of the benefits and trouble associated with outsiders. Where as the Jesuits did a lot of good for the Guarani people, building houses, schools, hospitals, and sharing God’s word, many Spanish and Portuguese explorers sold the Indians into slavery. The same mysteriousness that the Guarani saw in the Europeans can be seen as Bobby sees Shane riding into town, awestruck and frightened. Shane, up to this point a good man, does a lot of good, helping the father on the farm, digging out the old tree truck, and protecting the farm. With his help though, comes a mysterious danger. Shane is wild, dangerous, unpredictable, and has a violence that, though controlled and righteous, even scares his self. These two examples of outsider influence show the pros and cons that come with explorers and the dangers and blessings that they bring.