Journal #2- Chapters 4-7 from the perspective of Dill

I was excited about summer because that meant I would be going to Maycomb to see Jem and Scout. I wonder what we would do this summer and what had happened to Boo Radley. I arrived in Maycomb two days later in a blaze of glory. I had ridden the train all by myself from Meridian to Maycomb Junction (a courtesy title- Maycomb Junction was in Abbot County) where I had been met by Miss Rachel in Maycomb’s one taxi; I had eaten dinner in the diner. I didn’t wear anymore those blue shorts that were buttoned to my shirts now I wore real short pants with belt. When I arrived I told Jem and Scout that I had seen two twin sisters hitched together get off the train in Bay St; also I told them that I had seen my dad. My dad is president of the L & N Railroad; he is probably taller than Atticus and has a black beard. As we were talking, Jem asked Scout and I what we would wanted to play today but all of us seemed tired. Suddenly, I started staring over at the Radley Place and told Scout that I could smell dead thanks to an old lady that taught me. After that, Jem said that Scout and I acted like if we believed in Hot Steams but I didn’t know what a Hot Steam was so I asked, “What’s a Hot Steam?”
“Haven’t you ever walked along a lonesome road at night and passed by a hot place?” Jem asked. “A Hot Steam’s somebody who can’t get to heaven, just wallows around on lonesome roads an’ if you walk through him, when you die you’ll be one too an’ you’ll go around at night suckin’ people’s breath-”
“How can you keep from passing through one?” I asked.
“You can’t,” said Jem. “Sometimes they stretch all the way across the road, but if you hafta go through one you say ‘Angel-bright, life-in-death; get off the road, don’t suck my breath.’ That keeps ’em from wrapping around you-”
“Don’t you believe a word he says, Dill,” said Scout. “Calpurnia says that’s nigger-talk.”
Jem scowled darkly at Scout, but said, “Well, are we gonna play anything or not?”
“Let’s roll in the tire,” Scout suggested.
Jem sighed and said, “You know I’m too big.”
“You c’n push,” said Scout.
Scout ran to the back yard and pulled an old car tire from under the house. She slapped it up to the front yard. “I’m first,” she said.
I said I ought to be first because I just got here.
Jem arbitrated, awarded Scout the first push with extra time for me. Jem pushed the tire down the sidewalk with all the force in his body. A little after that Jem and I started chasing the tire. Suddenly, the tire bumped on gravel, skeetered across the road, crashed into a barrier and popped Scout like a cork onto pavement. Scout lay on the cement and shook her head still. Later Jem said, “Scout, get away from there, come on!”
Scout raised her head and stared at the Radley Place steps.
“Come on, Scout, don’t just lie there!” Jem screamed. “Get up, can’tcha?”
“Get the tire!” Jem hollered. “Bring it with you! Ain’t you got any sense at all?”
“Why didn’t you bring it?” Jem yelled.
“Why don’t you get it?” Scout screamed.
“Go on, it ain’t far inside the gate. Why, you even touched the house once remember?” Scout said.
Jem ran down the sidewalk, treaded water at the gate, then dashed in and retrieved the tire.
Calpurnia appeared in the front door and yelled, “Lemonade time! You all get outa that hot sun ’fore you fry alive!” Calpurnia set a pitcher and three glasses on the porch, then went about her business.
Jem gulped down his second glassful and slapped his chest and said that he knew what we could play; he said we could play a game called Boo Radley. Later, Jem parceled out our roles: Scout was Mrs. Radley, I was old Mr. Radley: I walked up and down the sidewalk and coughed when Jem spoke to me. Jem, naturally, was Boo.
As the summer progressed, so did our game. We polished and perfected it, added dialogue and plot until we had manufactured a small play upon which we rang changes everyday. One day we were so busily playing Chapter XXV, Book II of One Man’s Family, we did not see Atticus standing on the sidewalk looking at us, slapping a rolled magazine against his knee. The sun said twelve noon.
“What are you all playing?” he asked
“Nothing,” said Jem.
Jem’s evasion told Scout and I that our game was a secret, so we kept quiet.
“What are you doing with those scissors, then? Why are you tearing up that newspaper? If it’s today’s I’ll tan you.”
“Nothing,” said Jem.
“Nothing what?” said Atticus.
“Nothing, sir,” said Jem.
“Give me those scissors,” Atticus said. “They’re no things to play with. Does this by any chance have anything to do with the Radleys?”
“No sir,” said Jem, reddening.
“I hope it doesn’t,” Atticus said shortly, and went inside the house.
Safely in the yard, I asked Jem if we could play any more.
“I don’t know. Atticus didn’t say we couldn’t-”
I remember asking Scout earlier in the summer to marry me, but later I just forgot about it. I remember Scout beating me up twice so I just grew closer to Jem. Jem and I would spend days together in the treehouse plotting and planning, calling Scout only when we needed a third party. I could see that Scout would spend most of her time with Miss Maudie now that Jem and I grew closer to each other. Jem told me that Miss Maudie was a widow, a chameleon lady who worked in her flower beds in an old straw hat and men’s coveralls, but after her five o’clock bath she would appear on the porch and reign over the street in magisterial beauty.
Next morning Jem and I were in the back yard deep in conversation. When Scout joined us, as usual we said go away.
“Will not. This yard’s as much mine as it is yours, Jem Finch. I got just as much right to play in it as you have,” said Scout.
Jem and I emerged from a brief huddle: “If you stay you’ve got to do what we tell you,” I warned.
Scout agreed so Jem and I told her about our plan to give a note to Boo inviting him out to get ice cream with us. We told her that we would try to stick the note in a window of the Radley Place with a fishing pole but as we started doing it Atticus cached us and ordered us to “stop tormenting that man” with either notes or the “Boo Radley” game.
“You want to be a lawyer, don’t you?” said Atticus. Atticus’s mouth was suspiciously firm, as if he were trying to hold it in line.
Jem decided there was no point in quibbling, and was silent.
Jem and Scout were coming tonight to sit by Miss Rachel’s fishpool with me, as this was my last night in Maycomb.
“Cross in it tonight?” I asked, not looking up. I was constructing a cigarette from newspaper and string.
“No just the lady. Don’t light that thing, Dill, you’ll stink up this whole end of town,” said Jem.
“We’re gonna miss you, boy,” Scout said. “Reckon we better watch for Mr. Avery?”
“I know what, let’s go for a walk,” said Jem.
“Where to, Dill?” said Scout.
I jerked my head in a southerly direction.
Jem said, “Okay.” When Scout protested, Jem said sweetly, “You don’t have to come along, Angel May.”
“You don’t have to go. Remember-”
“Scout, we ain’t gonna do anything, we’re just goin’ to the street light and back,” said Jem.
We strolled silently down the sidewalk, listening to porch swings creaking with the weight of the neighborhood, listening to the soft night-murmurs of the grown people on our street. Occasionally we heard Miss Stephanie Crawford laugh.
“Well?” I said.
“Okay,” said Jem. “Why don’t you go on home, Scout?”
“What are you gonna do?” asked Scout.
Jem and I were simply going to peep in the window with the loose shutter to see if we could get a look at Boo Radley, and if Scout didn’t want to go with us she could go straight home.
“But what in the sam holy hill did you wait till tonight?” asked Scout.
Because nobody could see us at night, because if Boo Radley killed us we’d miss school instead of vacation, and because it was easier to see inside a dark house in the dark than in the daytime.
“Jem, please-” said Scout.
“Scout, I’m tellin’ you for the last time, shut your trap or go home- I declare to the Lord you’re getting’ more like a girl every day!” said Jem.
With that, Scout had no option but to join us. We creep around the house, peering through various windows.
“Let’s try the back window,” I said.
“Dill, no,” Scout said.
I stopped and let Jem go ahead. When Jem put his foot on the bottom step, the step squeaked. He stood still, and then tried his weight by degrees. The step was silent. Jem skipped two steps, put his foot on the porch, heaved himself to it, and teetered a long moment. He crawled to the window, raised his head and looked in.
Suddenly, we saw the shadow of a man with a hat on and flee, and we heard a shotgun go off behind us. We escaped under the fence by the schoolyard, but Jem’s pants got caught on the fence, and he had to kick them off in order to free himself. We return home, where we encounter a collection of neighborhood adults, including Atticus, Miss Maudie, and Miss Stephanie Crawford, the neighborhood gossip. Miss Maudie informed us that Mr. Nathan Radley shot at “a negro” in his yard. Miss Stephanie added that Mr. Radley would be waiting outside with his gun so he can shoot at the next sound he hears. Later, Atticus noticed that Jem had no pants on so he asked Jem where his pants where, I interjected that I won Jem’s pants in a game of strip poker. Alarmed, Atticus asked us if we were playing cards but Jem responded that we were just playing with matches.
“Jem, Scout,” said Atticus, “I don’t want to hear of poker in any form again. Go by Dill’s and get your pants, Jem. Settle it yourselves.”
“Don’t worry, Dill,” said Jem, as we trotted up the sidewalk, “she ain’t gonna get you. He’ll talk her out of it. That was fast thinkin’, son. Listen….you hear?”
We stopped, and heard Atticus’s voice: “…not serious … they all go through it Miss Rachel…”
I was comforted, but Jem and Scout weren’t. There was the problem of Jem showing up some pants in the morning.
“ ’d give you some of mine,” I said, as we came to Miss Rachel’s steps. Jem said he couldn’t get in them, but thanks anyway. Scout and Jem said good-bye, and I went inside the house. I evidently remembered I was engaged to Scout, for I ran back out and kissed her swiftly in front of Jem. “Yawl write, hear?” he bawled after us. Later, I went to bed and as I was falling asleep I remembered all the fun times I spend with Jem and Scout this summer.

Journal #1- Chapters 1-3 from the perspective of Jem

When I was nearly thirteen, I got my arm badly broken at the elbow. When it healed and my fears of never being able to play football were assuaged, I was seldom self-conscious about my injury. My left arm was somewhat shorter than my right when I stood and walked. When enough years had gone by to enable us to look back on them, we sometimes discussed the events leading to my accident. My little sister, Scout, would maintain that the Ewells started it all, but I, who was four years older than Scout, said it started long before that. I’d said it began the summer Dill came to us, when Dill first gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out.
Our father’s name is Atticus. During his first five years in Maycomb, Atticus practiced economy more than anything; for several years thereafter he invested his earnings in his brother’s education. John Jale Finch was ten years younger than my father, and chose to study medicine at the time when cotton was not worth growing; but after getting Uncle Jack started, Atticus derived a reasonable income from the law. He liked Maycomb, he was Maycomb County born and bred. Maycomb was an old town where in rainy weather the streets turned to red slop; grass grew on the sidewalks, the courthouse sagged in the square. A day was twenty-four hours long but seemed longer. There was no hurry, for there was nowhere to go, nothing to buy and no money to buy it with, nothing to see outside the boundaries of Maycomb County. We lived on the main residential street in town- Atticus, Scout and I, plus Calpurnia our cook. Scout and I found our father satisfactory: he played with us, read to us, and treated us with courteous detachment. Our mother died when we were young, when Scout was only two years old. Our mother died from a heart attack that was said ran in her family. I don’t think Scout misses our mom because she was too young when she died but I do miss her and remember her clearly.

When I was nearly ten and Scout was almost six, our summertime boundaries were Mrs. Henry Lafayette Dubose’s house two doors to the north of us and the Radley place three doors to the south. We never tempted to break them. That was the summer Dill came to us. Early one morning as we were beginning our day’s play in the back yard, Scout and I heard something next door in Miss Rachel Haverford’s collard patch. We found a boy sitting down; he wasn’t much higher than the collards. Scout and I stared at him until he said, “Hey.”
“Hey yourself,” I said.
“I’m Charles Baker Harris,” he said. “I can read.”
“So what?” Scout said.
Then he told us that he was four-and-a half years old and that he was going on seven. He also told us that he was little but old. He kept on talking to us and told us that he was from Meridian, Mississippi, and was spending the summer with his aunt, Miss Rachel, and would be spending every summer in Maycomb from now on. Thus we came to know Dill as a pocket Merlin, whose head teemed with eccentric plans, strange longings, and quaint fancies. Dill was fascinated with the Radley Place. He gave us the idea of making Boo Radley come out. So Scout and I told him all we knew about the Radley Place. I told Dill that inside the house lived a malevolent phantom and that nobody knew what form of intimidation Mr. Radley employed to keep Boo out of sight, but I figured that Mr. Radley kept him chained to the bed most of the time. Then I gave him a reasonable description of Boo. Later, Dill told us that we should try to make Boo come out and see how he looks. Then Dill dared me to go over to the Radley Place. I had never declined a dare so I thought about it for three days and I decided to go. I walked to the corner of the lot, then back again, studying the simple terrain. Then I threw open the gate and sped to the side of the house slapped it with my palm and ran back past Scout and Dill. Dill and Scout fallowed on my heels. Safely on our porch, painting and out of breath, we looked back. The old house was the same, droopy and sick, but as we stared down the street we thought we saw an inside shutter move. A tiny, almost invisible movement and the house was still.
Dill left us early in September, to return to Meridian.
I condescended to take Scout to school the first day. As Scout and I walked at the edge of the schoolyard, I was careful to explain Scout that during school hours she was not to bother me, she was not to approach me with requests to enact a chapter of Tarzan and the Ant Men, to embarrass me with references to my private life, or tag along behind me at recess and noon. Also, that she was to stick with the first grade and I would stick with the fifth. Then I saw Scout go on to her first grade classroom. Later, I cut Scout from the covey of first- graders in the schoolyard. I asked her how she was getting along. She told me that if she didn’t have to stay she would leave and that a lady was saying that Atticus had been teaching her to read and that he had to stop.
“Don’t worry, Scout,” I comforted her. “Our teacher says Miss Caroline’s introducing a new way of teaching. She learned about it in college. It’ll be in all the grades soon. You don’t have to learn much out of books that way-it’s like if you wanta learn about cows, you go milk one, see?”
“Yeah Jem, but I don’t wanta study cows, I-,” Scout replied.
“Sure you do. You hafta know about cows, they’re a big part of life in Maycomb County,” I said.
“I’m just trying to tell you the new way they’re teachin’ the first grade, stubborn. It’s the Dewey Decimal System,” I said.
Having never questioned my pronouncements, Scout saw no reason to begin now. Later on that day I found Scout rubbing the nose of a boy in the dirt so I told her to stop. Then Scout told me that the boy’s name was Walter and that he didn’t have any lunch.
“Come on home to dinner with us, Walter,” I said. “We’d be glad to have you.”
Walter’s face brightened, and then darkened.
“Our daddy’s friend of your daddy’s. Scout here, she’s crazy- she won’t fight you any more,” I said.
“Yeah Walter, I won’t jump on you again. Don’t you like butterbeans? Our Cal’s a real good cook,” said Scout.
Walter stood where he was, biting his lip. Scout and I gave up, and we were nearly to the Radley Place when Walter called, “Hey, I’m comin’!”
By the time we reached our front steps Walter had forgotten he was a Cunningham. I ran to the kitchen and asked Calpurnia to set an extra plate, we had company. Atticus greeted Walter and began a discussion about crops neither Scout nor could I follow. After dinner, Walter and I returned to school ahead of Scout. By late afternoon Scout and I raced each other up the sidewalk to meet Atticus coming from work. It was our habit to run meet Atticus the moment we saw him around the post office corner in the distance.
Atticus and Scout kept reading that evening columns of print, which was reason enough for me to spend the following Saturday aloft in the treehouse. I sat there from after breakfast until sunset and would have remained overnight had not Atticus severed my supply lines. Scout had spent most of the day climbing up and down, running errands for me, providing me with literature, nourishment and water, until Atticus talked to her and she stopped. Later, I finally decided to come down of the treehouse.

Immigration Project Reflection

I was really happy with the LC book I chose because it was my first choice and because I thought it was a really interesting book that helped me understand a little more about the ways people from all over the world immigrated to America ad what challenges they faced as they arrive. I was given the book Ashes of Roses by Mary Jane Auch. The book was about a sixteen-year-old Irish girl named Rose Nolan that came with her family to America but their happiness was shattered when part of the family was forced to return to Ireland. Margaret Rose wanted to succeed and stayed in New York with her younger sister Maureen. The sisters struggle to survive and barely do so by working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Then, just as Rose was forming friendships and settling in, a devastating fire forces her, Maureen, and their friends to fight for their lives. Surrounded by pain, tragedy, and ashes Rose wonders if there is anything left for her in America. From my LC book I learned that a long time ago immigrants had to go through Ellis Island before coming to America. In Ellis Island immigrants were asked questions and had a health check, where officials would check immigrants for lies or any disease or sickness, and if an immigrant had a disease or sickness then he would have to stay in Ellis Island until he got better or he would have to go back to his home country. I also learned that immigrants couldn’t get out of Ellis Island until a family or friend of them would come for them. I learned that a big fire happened in New York called the Triangle fire. I thought blogging was interesting because as you read your group’s blog posts you would see their opinion about the book and what they thought a part of the book meant and how they could connect to it. I also thought it was interesting because I would write a question and would see the different answers my group had and how they were similar or different. One thing that I didn’t like about blogging was that sometimes my group members wouldn’t do their blog posts or they wouldn’t comment on my blog posts.


For my art piece I decided to do a famous painting redone to incorporate the novel. First I had decided to do a new book cover but then I thought it would be more interesting to do a famous painting redone to incorporate the novel. I decided to do for the famous painting the Mona Lisa. I decided to put the Mona Lisa with the face of the main character on top of the water. In my painting instead of putting the background of the painting of Mona Lisa I decided to put the Statue of Liberty with colorful buildings in the back and a boat in the side. I think the connection between my art piece and the LC book I read was that the background of my art piece represented immigrants coming to America and seeing the Statue of Liberty and seeing it as their liberty and freedom. From my painting I wanted the people to know a little about the book Ashes of Roses and how Margaret Rose (the main character in the book) arrived in America. From my painting I wanted people to see how it was for immigrants to arrive in America and how all immigrants would come in a boat and arrive in Ellis Island to be able to get to America. I thought my final product turned out really good because I spend a lot of time in it and I put a lot of effort into it. I think I could improve on it if I would have had more time. I learned from my experience of reflection on my LC novel with art that there are a lot of ways to express feelings, thoughts or scenes through a painting. For example, through my painting I showed the scene where Margaret Rose was first arriving in Ellis Island. I showed that by doing a boat with the Statue of Liberty and buildings.


The interview process went really good because the person I interviewed was a really nice person and answered all of my questions. At first I thought it was going to be hard to interview my participant 3 times in 3 different ways but later on it wasn’t that hard and I just had to do the 3 interviews in 2 different ways because the person I interviewed didn’t have an email so I did 2 phone interviews and one in-person interview. Interviewing an individual that immigrated to this country help me know more about the experiences that immigrants had when they would immigrate to America and how a lot of them would have to leave their entire family to come to America. Interviewing an individual that immigrated to this country also helped me to understand that immigrants all had a different reason for coming to America and that their reasons were not only because they wanted to make a better life. I decided to make the person that I interviewed a scrapbook. When I asked the person that I interviewed what they wanted they said I could make something that was easy for me to do but I decided to make something a little bit hard that would take me more time to do because I wanted to give the person that I interviewed a really good and nice gift. I wanted to make a really good and nice gift to the person I interviewed because I thought they deserved it for taking their time to talk about their experience of coming to America. I decided to name my scrapbook the culture scrapbook because in the scrapbook I talk about the different cultures in the places the person that interviewed lived in. In the scrapbook I made I decided to mostly talk about the culture of the places Fernando Balo (the person I interviewed) lived in, which were in Angola, Portugal and San Diego. In my scrapbook I put a lot of images that would relate to what I was talking about. My scrapbook was 10 pages front and back. I decided to do the first page the title page and I decided to make about 6 pages after that about Angola and different things about Angola like its food, landscapes, flag and many other things. I decided to make about 6 pages about Portugal and different things about Portugal like its language, religion, landscapes, weather, transportation and many more. I decide to do about 5 pages after that about San Diego like its history, sports and many more. I decided to do the page before the last page saying thank you to Fernando Balo.

I thought the immigration project was a really interesting project that helped me learn a lot more about things I didn’t know about immigration. I thought this project was fun in some ways and I really enjoyed doing this project and learning.

Post #6

Quote #1 “I looked to see what was wrong and saw flames outside the glass. At first it seemed like a picture show, only in color. Then I realized what was happenin’. The building was on fire!” Margaret Rose, Pg. 204

Significance: I choose this quote because it talks about the challenges the characters face upon their arrival. In this quote Margaret Rose has just finished her work and was barely going to go to the dressing room to wait for Klein and Bellini to go to the nickelodeon when a girl screamed and Margaret Rose saw that a fire had just started in the Triangle. In this quote Margaret rose compares the fire to a picture show, only in color.

Personal Connection: I don’t have any connection to this quote and I don’t wish this happens to me but I think this fire can kind off connect to what happen in September 11, the twin towers. I think the fire that happen in the Triangle can connect a lot to what happen in September 11 but I think what happen in September 11 was one hundred times worst. In both of these disasters many people died and suffer for the death of their loved ones.

Question: Did this fire happen in real life?




Quote #2 “I remembered somethin’ terrible. I remembered Maureen.” Margaret Rose, Pg. 212

Significance: I choose this quote because in this quote it kind off talks about the challenges the characters face upon their arrival. In this quote Margaret Rose is still trying to escape the fire but when she has finally escaped the fire, Margaret Rose remembers that Maureen was suppose to wait for her in the dressing room. Margaret Rose starts worrying about Maureen and tries to go back to the ninth floor to see if Maureen is all right but the policeman doesn’t let her go back.

Character Judgment: I think Maureen is really strong. I also think that Maureen is sometimes a trouble maker for example when she went and pull Hildegarde’s braids. I think Maureen is sometimes a sweet little girl. I think Maureen always does what she wants and gets what she wants. For example when she convince her mom to let her stay with Margaret Rose and when she convince Margaret Rose to work at the Triangle.

Question: How was Maureen able to escape the fire?

Post #5

Quote #1 “After all, wasn’t this why I had wanted to come to America in the first place, so I could make my way on my own instead of bein’ taken care of, first by my parents, then by a husband? Would Da and Ma be proud of me if they could see me now?” Margaret Rose, Pg.154

Significance: I chose this quote because it talks about why the characters in the book come to America. In this quote it talks about why Margaret Rose wanted to come to America. Margaret Rose wanted to come to America so she could make her way on her own instead of being taken care of, first by her parents and then by a husband.

Personal Connection: I don’t have any connection to this quote but my oldest step sister does have a connection to this quote. She came to the United States as the same as Margaret Rose and she wanted to come to America mostly so she could make her own way instead of being taken care of her parents.

Question: What do you think will happen next in the story now that Maureen will start working at the Triangle?


Quote #2 “We are just going back to get your coat, Rose. And the pay that Mr. Mosvovitz owes you” Gussie, Pg. 142.

Significance: I choose this quote because it talks about what challenges the characters face upon their arrival. In this quote Gussie and Margaret Rose are going to go to Mr. Moscovitz’s flower making sweatshop to go ask him for Margaret Rose’s coat and money. Margaret Rose had worked a day at Mr. Moscovitz’s flower making sweatshop and made three thousand stems for Mr. Moscovitz at home but now Mr. Moscovitz didn’t want to pay Margaret Rose for her work.

Character Judgment: I think Mr. Moscovitz is really unfair because he didn’t want to pay Margaret Rose for her work. I think he’s a dirty man because he wanted to kiss a sixteen year old girl.

Question: Why do you think Mr. Moscovitz didn’t want to pay Margaret Rose for her work?

Post #4

Quote “I tried to remember back when Da first started talkin’ about comin’ to America. It was mostly about work.” Margaret Rose, Pg. 106

Significance: I choose this quote because it talks about why Margaret Rose’s dad mainly wanted to come to America. Margaret Rose’s dad mainly wanted to come to America for work. At the beginning of the book Margaret Rose said that her dad wanted to come to America for a better life but now she says that her dad wanted to come to America for work.

Personal Connection: I think I can connect to this because when my family and I first came to the United States there were many reasons why my dad wanted to come to the United States. He wanted to come for a better life. Also, he wanted to come so that I and my brothers and sisters could have a better education.

Question: Why do you think Margaret Rose’s dad wanted to come for work?



Quote “Da was a coal man, fillin’ his bags at Sutton’s coal yard on the docks and deliverin’ them to his customers by horse cart.” Margaret Rose, Pg. 106

Significance: I choose this quote because it talks about what was the life/role of the characters in their home country. Margaret Rose’s dad was a coal man back in their home country. Margaret Rose’s mom was a seamstress back in Limerick.

Character Judgment: From what Margaret Rose talks about her dad I think Margaret Rose’s dad is responsible. I also think that Margaret Rose’s dad is a hard worker because he used to be a coal man back in Limerick. I think Margaret Rose’s dad cares a lot about his family and that is why he brought them to America so that they could have a better life with more opportunities and to have an education.

Question: Did Margaret Rose used to work back in Limerick or where Margaret Rose’s mom and dad the only ones that worked back in Limerick?

Post #3

Quote #1 “You’re in for it now. When Papa comes home, he’s going to throw you out on the street, where you belong”, Hildegarde, Pg.100

Significance: I chose this quote from the book because in this quote Hildegarde is talking to Margaret Rose’s family and treating them as if they were nothing. I choose this quote because it talks about how Americans treated the characters in this book. Hildegarde was born and raised in the US. Hildegarde, Elsa and Trudy were all against Margaret Rose’s family living at their house.

Character Judgment: I think Hildegarde is really mean and unwelcoming. In the beginning of the book Hildegarde wasn’t really mean and she seemed shy. Now she is as mean as Elsa and Trudy and she is not shy anymore. She almost acts and says the same things as Trudy.

Question: Why did Hildegarde suddenly became so mean as her mom and sister?




Quote #2 “I just want to die! Walter saw these…these…immigrants running a sweatshop in our home. I’m so humiliated,” Trudy, Pg.99

Significance: I chose this quote because in this quote it talks about how Americans treated the characters in the book. In this quote Trudy is talking to else about feeling humiliated because Walter saw Margaret Rose’s family doing the paper roses. She said that just because Walter saw Margaret Rose’s family he would not want to marry her. In this quote Trudy refers to Margaret Rose’s family as “these immigrants.”

Character Judgment: I think Trudy is like her mom, Elsa, and her sister, Hildegarde. She probably is a lot meaner than Elsa and Hildegarde. She thinks she is better than Margaret Rose’s family just because they are immigrants and she is not. Also because she was probably born in America and Margaret Rose’s family was born in Ireland.

Question: Was Walter Trudy’s boyfriend?