Chapters 2, 3, 4 Inquiry Activity

Joseph Cooper

Mrs. Parkinson

English IIIB

15 March 2016

The Effects of Dreaming on Survival

            What defines survival? Is it simply the ability to exist? Is it the ability to experience a satisfying, fulfilling existence?

In George and Lennie’s case during Of Mice and Men, it is. They aspire to escape a brutal life of continuous moving and searching. It’s because of this that they’ve advanced this far. Such dreams comfort Lennie when George tells him about how “We’d jus’ live there. We’d belong there. There wouldn’t be no more runnin’.” Without dreams such as these, there’s no reason to persist, or even to live.

It was 8^th grade—the first time that I watched the Mason High School Wind Symphony—that inspired me to persist. When I first saw them perform, I knew that I wanted to play in that band. After grueling hours of practice, and one classmate calling me crazy, such a dream became a reality. This has truly defined my survival.

Long Live the Renaissance

Over 200 years, America has lived. 200 years, and not everybody has learned how to overcome prejudice and hatred. Like the years preceding, the 20’s supported these practices. Many encouraged racism. Cullen contested the idea. The voice of his poetry transcends the plague of racism. It’s a plague that manifests itself even in our country today.

When someone mentions the terms, Ferguson and Baltimore, does that sound familiar? It should. Both cities were the settings of riots resulting from someone’s death. Some blamed the police. Some blamed the criminals. Whatever the opinion, it’s impossible to deny the existence of racism.

When we listen to Cullen’s Tableau, we can learn from “the black boy and the white” who are “locked arm in arm”. They prove that racism is learned, not innate. Race only becomes an issue if we make it that way. The most important issue is, “How can we improve?”