Some of what you've learned!

In this passage from her autobiaography, Rosa Parks describes the event which started a yearlong bus boycott which ended only after the US Supreme Court ruled that segregation on buses was unconstitutional.


People always say that I didn’t give up my seat because I was tired but that isn’t true. I was no more tired than I usually was at the end of a working day.

Sometimes the sudden actions of one person can be the beginning of a great event.


How can you connect the words: happiness, sadness, responsibility, innocence, childhood and adulthood to your everyday life?

The beginning of April was fine. The sun shone from a clear blue sky and it was warm enough to melt some of the snow. Mud and grass began to appear in Annie’s field.

The morning of the fifteenth, however, was windy and dull, and Annie changed. She didn’t come into his room with his tablets until nine o’clock, and by then he needed them quite badly- so badly that he nearly got some from under the mattress.


She began to pinch her lower lip between the finger and thumb. She pulled it out and twisted it, while pinching it to hard. Drops of blood began to fall down her chin. She turned and left without speaking another word, before his astonished mind could persuade itself that he had really seen her do that. She closed the door and locked it.


In her other hand was a rat- trap. There was a large grey rat in it. The trap had broken the rat’s back. There was blood around its mouth, but it was still alive. It was struggling and squeaking.


I’m closer to death than I’ve ever been in my life, he thought, because she means it. She’s as insane as the husband who murders his whole family before killing himself - and who thinks he is being a good husband and father.

‘Misery?’ she asked, and Paul thought - or hoped - that there was a tiny sign of life in her eyes. ‘Yes.’ What should he say next? How could he stop her killing him? ’I agree that the world’s an awful place. I mean, I’ve been in so much pain these last few weeks, but-’

‘Pain?’ She interrupted him. ‘You don’t know what pain is, Paul. You haven’t  any idea at all.’ She looked at him with contempt.
’No, I suppose not- not compared with you, anyway.’
‘That’s right.’
‘But I want to finish this book. I want to see what happens to Misery. And I’d like you to be here too. Don’t you want to find out what happens?’


My relationship with Mom drastically changed from discipline that developed into a kind of lifestyle that grew out of control. It became so bad at times, I had no strength to crawl away- even if it meant saving my life.

When Mother decided that the ‘corner treatment’ was no longer effective, I graduated to the ‘mirror treatment’. In the beginning, it was a no-notice form of punishment. Mother would simply grab me and smash my face against the mirror, smearing my tearstreaked face on the slick, reflective glass. Then she would order me to say over and over again, ‘I’m a bad boy! I’m a bad boy! I’m a bad boy!’ I was then forced to stand, staring into the mirror. I would stand there with my hands locked to my sides, weaving back and forth, dreading the moment when the second set of television commercials aired. I knew Mother would soon be stomping down the hall to see if my face was still against the mirror, and tell me what a sickening child I was.

Mother then reached over and turned on the gas burners to the kitchen stove. Mother told me that she had read an article about a mother who had her son lie on top of a hot stove. I instantly became terrified. I wanted to disappear. I closed my eyes, wishing her away. My brain locked up when I felt Mother’s hand clamp my arm as if it were in a vice grip.
    ‘You’ve made my life a living hell!’ she sneered. ‘Now it’s time I showed you what hell is like!’

Carl Lee takes avenges on the perpetrators who raped and almost killed his little girl Tonya. What do you think about his actions? Does anyone have the right to revenge a crime committed against a loved one? Exlain your opinion by referring to the film.

The speech explains how Dr. King visioned a more equal world. Can you find themes that are in common in the two texts? Use quotes to exemplify and explain you choices. Are there any phrases or sentences that especially move you heart and mind? Do you have a dream of your own about something in society that you think could improve or change? What do you hope for and how do you imagine the future?