English 12
A Complicated Kindness
1. Discussion: Chapters 1 and 2.
2. Read Chapters 3 and 4.
Points to Consider:
A. What does Ray's declaration of "living quietly with [his] disappointments" tell the reader about his character? 
B. How could talk about music "test" someone's "potential"?  Do teenager you know judge other

     teenagers by the music they listen to?

C. How is the description "little islands of grief" successful in describing Nomi and her father?
D. Why would Nomi's father "resent vegetables for prolonging his life"?

Notes:

Naomi - Bible

The Book of Ruth is one of two in the Hebrew Bible that bears a woman’s name (the other is Esther). Ruth depicts the struggles of Naomi and Ruth for survival in a patriarchal environment. Though the story takes its name from the younger woman, the older is the dominant character. Naomi’s plight shapes the narrative, and her plan brings it to resolution.

Scene one (1:1–22) opens with a famine that sends a Judean family across the Jordan to Moab, a foreign land. In introducing the family, the storyteller subordinates Naomi to the man Elimelech. She is “his wife,” and their children are “his sons” (1:1–2) (emphasis added). But his death changes the situation. He becomes “the husband of Naomi,” and she is “left with her two sons” (1:3) (emphasis added). They marry Moabite wives, Oprah and Ruth, but die without progeny. So Naomi shrinks again. From wife to widow, from mother to no-mother, this woman is stripped of all identity.

Feminist assessments of Naomi diverge widely, depending often upon the cultural, social, ideological, and experiential biases of readers. A sampling includes the following: Naomi is a cipher for male values that find fulfillment for women in marriage and children. In contrast to the loss of status for childless widows in patriarchy, Naomi achieves importance as a mother-in-law and an independent character. Naomi is an overbearing, interfering, and domineering mother-in-law. Naomi is a caring, gracious, and altruistic mother-in-law. Naomi the Judean rejects Ruth (and Oprah) because she is a Moabite. Naomi embraces Ruth the Moabite within the family of Judah. Naomi and Ruth are rivals, with Naomi eventually achieving the greater prestige. Naomi and Ruth are friends, indeed sister like, each seeking the good of the other in a world over which they have little control. Naomi schemes, connives, and manipulates. Naomi plans, reflects, and executes. Naomi is an embittered old woman who denounces God for her troubles but fails to thank the deity when she recovers. Naomi is a profound figure of faith who experiences God as enemy but then wrestles blessing from adversity. All such disparate judgments attest to Naomi’s commanding, if ambiguous, presence in one of the few biblical stories focused on women.

Psychology 11Module 61. Review p. 108-109.
2. Complete 6-3 in-class.
3. Homework: Complete 6-5 Letter (due tomorrow).

English10E
To Kill a Mockingbird1. Chapter 16-18 Quiz.
2. Read Chapter 19, complete questions.
3. Homework: #1 from Journal 7 topics (two journals due tomorrow).