Monday, April 27, 2015

Handfuls of Mud

Today, our word of the day was RESOLVE, which (in its verb form) means to decide with great force; to commit with determination as in this line: Little Man resolves to fight against the injustice of the school bus that guns down the kids each morning.

We did our Quick Write today on areas in which we want to resolve to do something, or be a certain way. After our Quick Write, we acted out the opening scenes of Chapter 3 from Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry, in which we see Little Man rage against the injustice of racism. Symbolized by the all-white school bus for the Jefferson County School, racism seems unstoppable. Relentless. A fact.

And yet!

After the school bus guns down the Logan kids and sends them flopping into the muddy gulley, Little Man grabs a handful of mud and chases after them, screaming out in anger and frustration. Against the machinery of racism, Little Man can do nothing but throw a handful of mud.

Yet his big brother, Stacey, has a different idea...

As we acted out these scenes today, running around our classroom and roaring out these lines, I hope we began to feel a tiny bit of what it is like to fight against something so seemingly big, vast, and impossible to defeat. And yet the Logan kids keep fighting! Even a handful of mud can go a long way, sometimes.

In your life, have you ever felt like Little Man? Have you ever felt like you were facing a problem so big with only a handful of mud? What was it? What did you do about it? Or, if you have not felt like that before, can you think of any other scenes from other books, or a film, or from history that are like this? What is that scene?

Share your ideas below, and I look forward to reading your wisdom and insights!

Peace,

Mr. R

53 comments:

  1. I've don't think I've ever felt like Little Man. An example of this is The Hunger Games, where the tributes not only faced other competitors, but the whole government as well.
    -Olivia Diodato

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  2. I probably have felt like Little Man before, but I can't remember. A time in history when that happened was with the Holocaust and how Jews were treated. Particularly Anne Frank and how her life played out.
    -Angela Xing

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  3. I have not felt like little man before. But in Habibi Liyana faces a big problem without anything to fix it.

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  4. So far I have not felt like little man like how he felt today. In the beginning of Habibi, Liyana likes Omer, since he is Jewish, they don't get along with there family's. But Liyana fights.
    -- Olivia Gomez

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  5. I have felt like Little Man when I heard about how some places treat homosexuals/queers in general. I was astonished that entire countries were against this group of people and felt so strongly towards this to the point where they would terrorize that one minority. I could not do anything – and still can not do anything – to prevent this from happening.
    -Gwyneth Smedley

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  6. I don't think I have ever been like Little Man before, but in history when slavery was In Full force black people were forced to work in plantations with no tool to fight back.

    --Colin McHugh

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  7. I recall several times in my life where something like this happened, (mostly by my own fault), an example of this would be a quiz that you thought that you knew everything on and would be easy turns out completely different and you feel as if you have nothing to use "against" it.
    --Collin Burns--

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  8. I don't think that I have ever felt like Little man before. An example that relates to this is the movie Selma, and how Martin Luther King tried so hard to get black people to have more freedom because they were being treated really bad.
    -Pasha Sahin

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  9. I don't remember ever feeling like Little Man! However, I can think of an example. I think Harry Potter, Hermione Grager, and Ron Weasley felt like that when they knew that Voldemort was back and nobody believed them.
    --Grace Acton

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  10. I have not felt like Little Man so far. But an example is Rwaldan Genocide in Nigeria Africa.
    -Alondra Pacheco

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  11. I have felt like Little Man in the past because of how others have treated me. I am not sure if I actually tried to do anything to stop it,or I did and it never worked.
    --Emily Rypinski
    :)

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  12. I think that life is a great challenge that everyone has to overcome in life, everybody feels like they were chasing the bus at one point in their lives, including me. Every challenge we face is that, but on a smaller scale.
    ~Magnus Miller

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  13. No, I don't think I have ever felt like Little Man in my life before. But one example of this situation is in the Divergent series. By the end of the series, the Erudite have taken over. They have convinced most the factions that the Divergent population should be erased, and Tris and her select comrades are forced to run to escape.
    --Shreya K.

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  14. I can't think specifically of a time like this. However in a lot of good books or movies there is a problem that has to be solved and to make the plot more exiting or to drive the character, the character has to get really mad, like little man. A far millibar example is Malala who handled the situation in a more mature way and with bravery, but it's the same concept.
    --Fiona Nash

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  15. I don't think I've faced anything like Little Man has but an example of this is Habibi and Liyana, there's a big problem but did nothing about it - Callie Frackiewicz

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  16. I don't think that I have ever felt like Little Man did. A scene from history would be how Ruby Bridges was the first black child to go to a white school. She probably felt exactly how Little Man felt.

    --Meili Stanten

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  17. Many characters in many books have felt like Little Man throwing a handful of mud. In Nothing But the Truth, many of the characters felt like Little Man when the problem got big. Ms. Narwin and Phillip were two characters who started the problem, and when everyone started to hear the wrong story, the problem grew big, and neither of them could stop it. All they could do was "throw handfuls of mud"

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  18. I haven't really faced that big of a problem. A few days ago I watched the film "Schindler's List" in which the jews were put in concentration camps, and were forced to work, and then they would be executed. The jewish people had no power over the nazis, because the nazis had equipment and power, just like the bus in our novel.

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  19. I have felt like little man before when I lost to a team in the championship of the playoffs but all I could do was hold in the anger so the coach wouldn't get mad. like in the outsiders how they are letting out there anger by fitting the socs.
    -Jacob elliott

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  20. I have felt like Little Man before when I went to the airport, and the airport security wouldn't let us go through as we 'looked suspicious'. We couldn't really do anything as they were security and when my father tried to reason with them, it was like throwing mud at a big bus. Our trip to Florida was kind of spoiled because of the racism we experienced. (This was right after 9/11)

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  21. I have felt like Little Man before when I went to the airport, and the airport security wouldn't let us go through as we 'looked suspicious'. We couldn't really do anything as they were security and when my father tried to reason with them, it was like throwing mud at a big bus. Our trip to Florida was kind of spoiled because of the racism we experienced. (This was right after 9/11)
    -Meenu Ramakrishnan

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  22. I have felt like Little Man before when I went to the airport, and the airport security wouldn't let us go through as we 'looked suspicious'. We couldn't really do anything as they were security and when my father tried to reason with them, it was like throwing mud at a big bus. Our trip to Florida was kind of spoiled because of the racism we experienced. (This was right after 9/11)
    -Meena Ramakrishnan

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  23. I have felt like Little Man before when I went to the airport, and the airport security wouldn't let us go through as we 'looked suspicious'. We couldn't really do anything as they were security and when my father tried to reason with them, it was like throwing mud at a big bus. Our trip to Florida was kind of spoiled because of the racism we experienced. (This was right after 9/11)
    -Meena Ramakrishnan

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  24. Yes, I have felt like little man running with a hand full of mud. When my mom was in a very bad car accident that changed our lives forever, I had to grow up a little fast and i wondered why did the world pick me. I was trying to face and understand a concept way bigger than I could handle at the time.
    ~~~Dylan Ashe~~~

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  25. I think I have felt like Little Man before, but there wasn't really an exact issue, I just felt like I there was nothing I could do to fix what was going on.

    An example of this is from the book The Lovely Bones. When Susie's Dad was trying to prove to the police that Mr. Harvey was the one who murdered his daughter. Even though the police kept assuring him that Mr. Harvey was just a quirky yet normal man living a boring life. Everything he told them, though, was barely thought over because to them he was just a man in distraught who wasn't thinking right and just wanted to find a closure to for the death of his daughter, but he kept fighting for them to see.

    ~ Allie Hunter

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  26. I think I've always felt like Little Man when I used to live in Chicago. Back then, the school and the neighborhood I went to was rough. There was a girl who used to get picked on all the time because of how she looked. Her mother had cancer, it wasn't right to pick on her. I felt a lot like throwing mud at bullies who were rude and started fights and picked on people. Another friend of mine who used to go there said he wanted to knock down the school building because he didn't like how he was treated.
    --Tommy Wacek

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  27. I have never felt like Little Man did but a movie I have watched that had a similar seen was in the movie 42 the Jackie Robinson story. The seen took place when Jackie went up to bat and the coach of the other team was yelling at him to distract him from playing a good game and Jackie couldn't do anything about it. :-(

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  28. I have probably felt like Little Man before because no one's life can be perfect. There are many examples that we have read in class, read last year, or even in independent reading books. Some quick examples are Liyana and Omer in Habibi and Philip in Nothing but the Truth. Another example is in the Harry Potter series when no one believes Harry, Ron, and Hermione when they say the Voldemort is back. Also, during racism many blacks such as MLK, Ruby Bridges, and Rosa Parks must have felt very small and they could only attack a big problem with a handful of mud.
    --Emmalyn Mirarchi

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  29. Several people in history who have faced a problem with 'only a handful of mud' are Martin Luther Kong Jr., Rosa Parks, and Malala. All of these people faced a big problem with only a handful of mud, and inspired others to join the fight against the problem. With all the people they inspired to fight with their own handfuls of mud the problem was abble to be resolved.
    Fiona Morrison

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  30. I probably have felt like Little Man before, but I can't remember. The security after nine eleven wouldn't let most Muslim people on the planes because they thought they were terrorists. Also just this past weekend people have been rioting in Baltimore because the police arrested a black man but in doing so they hurt him and they didn't get him to a hospital and he ended up dying.
    Clayton Hanlon

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  31. I have never felt like Little Man, but I think a good example would be how blacks were treated. They were a minority so it must of felt like they were this tiny group trying to stand up against something huge.
    - Rachel Shrives

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  32. I have felt like this when someone was making fun of my religion. So many people have prejudice against my religion, that it feels like I am a pebble to a world. I'm not saying that everyone is like this, but there are many. Sometimes you just feel like no matter how big you feel, there is always something grander and stronger, you just have to become stronger and move on to greater things.
    --Raiya Suliman

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  33. I have not felt like this although I feel like katniss from the hunger games has. She felt so small in a world were the children had to go into the hunger games. She however did a lot of things to protest against it.
    ~ Cierra Wilkins

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  34. I've never felt like this before. Someone who has is Martin Luther King Jr. He fought for rights for everyone. All he had was his voice he did not use violence just his voice. He made the rights even for African-Americans.

    Stefan Scornavacca

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  35. I feel like I am Little Man when I witness someone being judged based on how they look. One thing a person can do if they see a person being bullied based on how they look is comfort them and become their friend. It may not solve the whole bullying problem, but it is a start.

    ~Lwiza AitDowd

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  36. I have felt like Little Man before because I have faced problems that I knew I really couldn't fix even if I did do something that might change the issue a little bit. Once when I was little I wanted to go to my Grandparents house and my grandmother got sick, so we had to cancel. I don't know why, but I got so angry I slammed my bedroom door shut and cried for hours. Now I find it selfish that I was mad at something that I couldn't fix and my grandmother was sick. In Roll of Thunder Hear my cry Little Man couldn't fix the problem just by simply throwing mud at the bus.

    ---Lucy Bodtman

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  37. I don't think that I have ever felt like little man before but there are lots of examples of people in history that had to face huge challenges. An example could be Martin Luther king Jr. because he had to fight for his rights and rights for all black people.
    -George Earnest

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  38. I have not felt like Little Man. I think that Liyana from the novel Habibi can relate to him because she faces many problems and doesn't do anything to stop or change what is happening. They both face huge problems, but it's a lot easier to fix a problem just involving you, rather than everyone.

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  39. I believe that everyone has felt or will feel like Little Man! Even though this feeling could be really small or, maybe it could be very big. This could even be used as an example of not fitting in, even though you would probably want throw mud at everyone. You still would not have any way on your control in fix the situation. I really do not think I have felt like little man yet...
    -Anna Laursen

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  40. I really haven't felt like Little Man ever before but I know of one thing. The American Revolution. The patriots we being taxed and treated unfairly and they were so small to the English empire that when they went into some battles they felt as if they were throwing mud
    ~Caroline Mara~

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  41. In Nothing but the Truth the principle and Miss. Narwin had to decide what to do about how Philip had been treated. The principle had to decide what to do about Miss. Narwin and he ended up asking her to resign. This was a big decision that they had to make with only the little bit of information that they had that they knew was correct because the story kept changing.

    --Natalie L'Ecuyer

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  42. I have felt like little man a few times where I felt like the obsicle set in front of you is much too hard and the whole world is against you and all you have is some "mud" I have felt this before when my mom got breast cancer and feeling so very helpless. Little man if simbolizing that racism is this big machine and little man is the "mud" and that no matter how hard he threw the mud it still would not make a difference in the power of the machine meaning racism is so big and powerful that it needs to bed ought because It will not be forgotten in a couple of years and they needed a leader to guid them in the right direction to stopping this big machine because one small handful of mud will not do much but a whole bunch of people standing up for what the believe in "mud" will fight agents the big machine. In conclusion I have felt like little man multiple times in my life.

    --Brooke bourgeois

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  43. I have never felt like Little Man thankfully, but I assume I eventually. Everyone goes through something they feel like is too big that they can't handle or fix the problem, like throwing a small amount of mud at a large bus. An example that comes to mind is like when you ask your parents for something or to do something, they say no, you ask why, and they say "because I said so". There is not much you can do at that point, and you feel small.

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  44. I have never felt like little man. An example of this scene is in The diary of Anne Frank and how she feels like everything is so unfair and that she should revolt, but she cant because she is like the handful of mud compared to a bus.
    -Olivia Noyes

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  45. I sometimes feel like little man when I am having arguments with my siblings and I can't really do any thing about what t they're saying because my parents would yell at me, so then I am just left with anger and I can't do anything about it.

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  46. I have felt like little man before, but the problem turned out to not be as challenging as I had predicted. In life though, this often happens in the case of some people facing these problems like Martin Luther King jr. Rosa Parks and to a certain extent, the current preesident Barack Obama
    ~~~Ted Justicz

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  47. One of the people who "threw mud at a bus" was Rosa Parks. She was trying to get her rights as a colored person. Obviously she couldn't get better rights by herself. But with the help of many, many, many others, colored people were finally able to get the rights they deserve. Although there are still racist problems in society, they are slowly being fixed by throwing those fistfuls of mud.

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  48. I have felt like little man many times before, in many different circumstances. Most common for me though is talking to my parents. I'm constantly getting in trouble for things I didn't do and they won't ever stop talking about my grades. Whenever I try to stop them or reason with them, it doesn't make a difference. There will always be people who think they are higher or better than you and sometimes you will feel like you want to throw mud at them; though it wouldn't make a big difference.

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  49. yes, sometimes i am faced with anger and want to act out, but i dont think he should have

    -- Kellie Sundeen

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  50. I have felt like little man when I can not help the situation and mud would not help.
    Julia Proteau

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  51. Yes, I have felt like Little Man. I have felt like this when I feel so much smaller than the problem itself, although I have not had to face an issue as big as racism.

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  52. i can relate to little man and how he doesn't want to be treated like he is just another problem to the world and feel looked down on $$TGibs$$

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  53. I can relate to how little man feels, helpless. I think that we have all faced problems that we cannot overcome or do anything about it.

    -Chris Pickreign

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