Contemporary Novel

The Red Tent

Anita Diamant

In this book the main character Dinah is the only daughter out of twelve sons. She has four mothers who are all sisters and one father named Jacob. Her real mothers name is Leah, and her three aunts are Racheal, Zilpah, and Bilhah. In this book Dinah sets an example of what it means to be a quintessential American. She comes from a family that shares a man to have many sons and daughters. Dinah has beauty which comes from her mother Racheal, she gets her spirit and happiness from her other mother Zilpah, her shy and quiet side comes from her third mother Bilhah, and from her real mother Leah, she gets nothing. Leah is very outspoken and determined. She is the sister that stands up for herself and runs the household. Dinah as a child is a quiet and intelligent girl. She learns how to sew, cook, take care of children and be a midwife by watching her mothers in the red tent. As Dinah gets older however she finds herself wanting to leave her home and wanting to explore something new. She goes to Shechem where she is set up with Shalem and gets pregnant. When she returns home her brothers find out about this and kill Shalem and his whole city. Her brothers Siman and Levi thought that Shalem raped Dinah, although Dinah actually did have feelings for him so it causes Dinah to hate her family and run away.

The meaning of being a quintessential American is to overcome challenges and obstacles put in your life and to make the most out of them. Everyone has problems, tragedies and fears but not everyone can overcome them. To be a quintessential American you have to get through the problems, tragedies and fears. Dinah was brought up in an environment where she had a father, and his wives were all her aunts. She grew up with twelve sons and four mothers who were very diverse and different. After getting the father to her child murdered by her own brothers, and Shalems mother claiming Dinah's child as her own, Dinah overcame it and moved on. She met a great and respectable man named Benia that she fell in love with and married. She forgave her family and started one on her own. She grew up into a lovely young woman that resembled her own mother more than any of her others. She turned into a strong, independent quintessential American.

Benjamin Franklin

The virtue that I chose to do was industry. Franklin's definition of industry is "lose no time. Be always employed in something useful. Cut off all unnecessary actions. I chose this virtue because I am always busy and usually doing useful things and not wasting my time. I like Franklin's definition of industry because he is saying to spend your time on things that matter and that will benefit others or yourself. It's to prevent a person from sitting around all day and doing nothing. To master this virtue I plan on keeping my normal schedule and maybe cut down on the whole 1 hour of TV time I have time for and other things similar to watching TV and do something more productive with my time.

Monday: I woke up at 6 today and went to work. It was hot and tiring but it's okay because it gets you money. I left work at around 12 o'clock to go home and babysit my little brother. While I was home I did chores for my mom and did a little bit of reading. At about 3 o'clock I left to drop my brother off at a friends house and went to pick up Mary and headed over to Nokomis for our soccer game. We practiced and then we played Charleston and won. After the game I went back home, read a little bit and went to sleep.

Tuesday: Today I woke up at 6 again and went to work. It was still hot and tiring just like everyday out in the field picking those lovely vegetables. Today I got out of work around 1, picked up Heidi and headed over to the rope swing in Hartland. I suppose that is an unnecessary action but a kid has to have a little fun in their life! After the rope swing Heidi and I went to softball in Brewer and then after softball headed over to our basketball game Bangor. After the the game I went to Heidi's house and went to bed because it was 9 0'clock and that's my bedtime.

Wednesday: Today I woke up early again except today I didn't go to work. I left Heidi's to go get my little brother and then went back to Heidi's to go to the beach. I did a bad job at spending my time wisely today because I should have gone to work and done some reading but I didn't I went to the beach instead. After getting back to Heidi's from the beach I got my brother ready and headed home. When we got home my mother wanted us to do some chores and then we went out to eat. Going out to eat and doing chores was a waste of precious time to but I didn't have a choice. When I got home I went to bed.

Thursday: Today I woke up at 6 and went to work. Came home around 1 to babysit my brother. It's pretty much my daily schedule. Being home all day I was actually able to get some summer work done so that is what I did all day. After that I had a basketball game in Bangor at 6. When I got home from that I ate supper and went to bed.

Friday: I woke up at 6 again and went to work. I also got my check so that was a plus. Didn't have to babysit my brother today because Fridays my dad is home from New York. I spend the day with him, my mom and my brother. At 5 o'clock I went to Nokomis for basketball practice and from there I went to Heidi's to go to sleep and get ready for our games in the morning.

Saturday: Today I woke up early once again to go to Brewer for a basketball tournament. Our first game was 9 and our second was at 2. After that I went home to do some chores and do some reading. Later that night I spent more wonderful time with my family before my dad left again. Then I went to bed.


During this week I feel like I did a fairly good job at practicing industry. I am usually a very busy person doing lots of things so I don't feel like I wasted much time doing unnecessary things. I suppose you could say doing all the sports I do is an unnecessary action but it's not to me. I feel that sports make me a happier person because I stay in shape and I love to play. Also always playing and practicing makes me a better player.

Mini Report Week 2

When Cole first returns to the island Garvey and Edwin stay with him a few days to help him settle in and build his shelter. At night Garvey and Edwin tell Cole to do a dance around the fire that imitates an animal they saw during the day. By doing this Cole learns qualities that each animal has and also learns a lesson about life. I found this very interesting and decided to look up Indian dances. Native American dances are a source of entertainment but also a spiritual celebration for man and nature to come closer together. Native American dances can be used as prayers and a way to express emotion. The dances are said to have a healing power for the person dancing and for the people close to the dancer. The dances are kept with a drum beat that is said to "beat with the heart of Mother Earth".

There are many types of dances, each having a special meaning and form of healing. The "Ghost Dance" is said to "regain the life once known to the tribe". These dances have been around as long as the Native Americans have. They are different than the dance that Cole, Garvey and Edwin did but they still have the same meaning and healing. Dances are usually performed with the tribe and done with drums and animal skins. People dress up in costumes and dance around the fire with a drum beat to have fun and celebrate different events in life with their tribes whether its birth or death. Like Edwin said in the book "everything is a celebration".



Sources:

http://impurplehawk.com/naspirit.html
http://www.ewebtribe.com/NACulture/dance.htm
http://www.angelfire.com/co/MedicineWolf/dance.html

Mini Report, Chapters 1 & 2

I decided to research the Spirit Bear because it seemed like that would be the huge factor that is going to change Cole's life. The book is called Touching Spirit Bear also so I wanted to know more about the Spirit Bear and if they really exist. I found out that Spirit Bears really do exist and they are actually called Kermode Bears and are a type of Black Bear with a recessive gene that makes their fur white. Kermode Bears are found in Princess Royal Island and the central coast of British Columbia. The island the Kermode Bears are found on is a place where the logging industry is looking at to clear trees. It is said that because of it's habitat being put into danger the film industry is looking at the bears for a film. If these bears are in danger they shouldn't be put into movies like "Ghost Bear" and being looked at for more films. They should be put on an endangered list and being moved to safer environments where they can live freely and peacefully. The Kermode bear or "Spirit bear" is also known as the Moksgm'ol to Native Americans. The Tsimshiam people have a story of the Spirit bears origin that is told like this:

"Long ago, the world was covered in ice and snow. One day, the raven, the creator of the world, came down from heaven and turned the world green. But as a reminder of the time when all was white, the raven went among the bears and turned every tenth one the color of snow. The raven decreed that the white bear would live forever in peace."

In the story Garvey states that the spirit bear has "pride, dignity, and honor." To the Indians this is what the spirit bear resembled. Native American symbols have deep meanings that they strongly believe and live by. Like said in the book the spirit bear symbolizes pride, dignity and honor. I believe this is why the author choose this particular type of bear to put in this book, because bear symbolizes three of the most important things Cole needs to learn.





Resources:

www.wikipedia.com
www.thefreelibrary.com