Melissaghoneybee's Blog

Research post

melissaghoneybee — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 21:10:57 +0000

Provide the full MLA citation for your source (and despite new formats, would you please include the url so that someone else in class can locate the source.)

Sandberg, John F, and Sandra L Hofferth. “Changes in Children’s Time With Parents: United States, 1981-1997.” Demography. 38.3 (2001): 423-436. Print.

In as comprehensive terms as possible, what is the author’s argument? What terms or contexts might you need to include/explain/define for someone that has not read it as carefully as you?

The article is looking at the time children spend with their parents in 1997 as compared to 1981. They look at different types of familes-single parent and two family, and different types of parents, such as mothers who are working vs stay at home mothers. They also look at the education of the parent(s) and how that affects the time chidren spend with their parents. The article says that “children spend less time with parents today than several decades ago because of changes in maternal labor market behavior and in patterns of family formation and dissolution.”

Give at least two of the author’s main points of support for his/her argument, and explain how they work to support it.

The argument is based on research that was done to look at the changes in children’s time with parents.

“The expected structural effect of increased female labor force participation is a reduction in children’s average time with their mothers or with either parent.”

Single parenthood constrains children’s time with mothers in ways not related simply to employment or unemployment. An example would be scheduling constraints at work.

Note at least three other minor ideas/references that the author makes that people might find useful in their papers.

“Education of the household head exerts a significant effect on children’s time with either parent. Children who had parents who had four years or more of college spent more time with them.”

The number of children also affects how much time parents spend with their children. “If mothers and fathers have fewer children, they might spend less time at home and therefore less time with an individual child.”

“The time spent with parents is thought to be important for their cognitive and social-emotional development.”

Finally, give at least two examples of arguments or points that a writer might use this article to support. (Be specific here: mention particular themes, relationships, ideas, texts, etc.)

Children are now spend less time with parents due to an increase of women in the workforce, and family formation patterns.”

Some other reasons that affect the time children spend with parents is the level of parents’ education and number of children in the family.

Caucasia Continued

melissaghoneybee — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 03:43:33 +0000

Ok so I did read ahead a little bit but that’s ok. There is definately a lot going on in this book. Birdie is trying to figure out who exactly she is. Sometimes she says that she feels like Jesse Goldman because she’s been pretending to be her for so long…4 years? I’m not really sure of the exact number but I know it’s been a couple of years. I can’t believe she hasn’t seen her sister or father in a couple years. She was so close to Cole and relied on her for a lot of stuff. Cole was the only one who really got Birdie and understood her. Now Birdie has to figure out who she is on her own. She obviously doesn’t look black, and there are barely any blacks where they live. There is one black girl named Samantha who Birdie’s friend despises because she stole her spot on the baton team. I’m not sure if that’s what it’s called exactly but I know it has something to do with Batons lol. There is also a black guy in the school, and there were some people trying to hook up the black guy and Samantha but they don’t even talk to each other. I’m really interested in the scene where Birdie is talking to Samantha outside of the party. Birdie goes outside to pee in the woods and Samantha is there. Birdie asked Samantha to wait for her after she pees. Birdie asks Samantha what she thinks Birdie is, as in what race she is. Samantha says “I heard you were Jewish, and I know you wear the star of david around your neck.” Then Samantha says that Birdie is black, like her. It was interesting how Birdie asked her what color she was. She wanted to see if a black person could recognize another black person I think. I’m interested to see if anything happens because of this. I’m also interested to see what happens when Birdie runs away.

Caucasia (pg.131-289)

melissaghoneybee — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 02:02:41 +0000

I read a little bit ahead in this section and this section had a lot of stuff going on. I really like how Birdie now has friends. Before she was alone and always with her mother traveling from place to place, but now that they’ve settled in New Hampshire, Birdie has found a group of friends. I feel like Birdie is always trying to figure out who she is. Obviously some people see her as white and some see her as black. Everyone in New Hampshire thinks she’s white and Jewish because of the star of david that she wears. Birdie sometimes feels as though she has become Jesse Goldman in some ways and doesn’t feel like birdie anymore. Nobody even knows her as birdie. I love the little romance that Birdie and Nicholas have. They’re so cute together riding Mr.Sensitive and smoking pot together lol. I was suprised she smoked with him. Maybe I’m going a little too far into the story lol. I’m not really sure where the cut of point is for all of the information. I also like how Nicholas’ family has sort of become birdie’s second family. They let her come over whenever she wants and hang out. This family is definately suspicious of Birdie and her mother and are always talking about them. Birdie is definately afraid that she is gonna give away their secret. I really like this book and I’m curious to see where it goes from here. I hope the family can hopefully get back together and Birdie can become reunited with Cole again.

Caucasia (pg 83-131)

melissaghoneybee — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 20:20:21 +0000

Wow…a lot of changes in this section of the book. Their father gets a new girlfriend named Carmen, who is a black version of barbie. She adores Cole, but does not like Birdie for some reason and i’m not sure why. She basically ignores Birdie when they are all together and seems upset when Birdie tags along, as if Carmen just wants to be with Cole. I feel as though Birdie is really disliked because of her skin tone. She’s still black, but very light skinned and I feel like Carmen doesn’t like that for some reason. I’m also very confused as to why their father went to Brazil with Carmen and Cole. I know they’re probably going into hiding just like Birdie and her mother are, but I’m confused as to why they picked Brazil. I’m also confused as to why their mother needs to go into hiding and get out of boston. I know the FBI are looking for her and Birdie, but I’m curious as to what their mother did and why she needed to borrow money from their grandmother. That was a really strange visit that they had. Their mother seems racist, and sees Birdie as being white. She doesn’t like the fact that the girls go to an all black school because it’s not safe. Another thing that was sort of strange was when Redbone came to their school and took a picture of Birdie on the playground. It was very random that he was there. Maybe he was taking a picture of her to send to the FBI so they could see what she looks like and be able to catch them. Redbone is very shady to me and I’m curious as to what he is up to as well as their mother. The scene with her and the black men who had the green van was weird. I’m curious as to what was in the duffle bags. We’ll just have to read more and hopefully theses questions will be answered.

Caucasia (pg 1-82)

melissaghoneybee — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 22:59:59 +0000

I really like this book. There’s definately a lot going on in this book but it’s interesting to read. I love the relationship that Cole and Birdie have. Cole watches out for her little sister and is probably the only person that knows her the best. She protects her in school when she gets picked on by the other girls because they think she’s white. I couldn’t believe what the girls did to her in the bathroom. I felt so bad for birdie. She’s so confused about who she is. I think it’s kinda weird how the children have to say “black is beautiful” every day in class. I don’t really like how their father favors Cole over Birdie and is closer to her. I’m glad that Birdie got a chance to spend one on one time with him in the park, even though the police interrogated them. Race is definately a big theme in this book. Everything revolves around race…the family, the school, the people in their community. The family is being excluded from everyone in their community. Birdie was excluded at school, but now that the other children know that she’s black, she now fits in. Birdie tries to change her image to fit in as well. She buys new clothes and gets her hair done by her friend (I forgot her friend’s name). I’m glad that she’s finally fitting in, and now she has a new group of friend’s called The Brown Sugars. I think it’s funny that girls can only be in the group if they have a boyfriend. How old are these girls…9? lol it just seems so funny. I’m interested to see what new things we discover when we read the rest of the book.

The Incredibles

melissaghoneybee — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 04:28:13 +0000

I’ve actually never seen this movie before but I really liked it! I especially love dash…he was so funny and cute! Violet kinda reminded me of Margot Tenenbaum because of the way she looked and how she was very quiet. This family definately values their identity and making sure they keep it hidden. They got into a lot of trouble in the past with lawsuits and everything so they wanted to make sure that the public didn’t know that they were super heros. They do everything they can to be as “normal” as possible, such as not letting dash play sports or do track because everyone would see how fast he can run and realize his super power. The external forces that impacted this family are the media and the public in general. They sued Mr.Incredible because he saved someone who was trying to commit suicide and the man didn’t want to be saved. The man also got a neck injury because of Mr.Incredible saving him. Also, the passengers on the L train sued him because of the train accident and they got injured as well. Because of all of this, Mr.Incredible had to give up his job of saving people and entered into the superhero relocation program. He tried to live a normal life, got married and had some children, and ended up gaining a lot of weight. He would sneak out on wednesday nights with Frozone and say that he was going bowling but really was going to save people who were in need. Later on in the movie, Incrediboy who kept annoying Mr.Incredible and tried to be his sidekick, ends up becoming his enemy and tries to destroy him and his family. Incrediboy is another external force that has an impact on this family. He threatens them and becomes their enemy. This movie was really cute and I really enjoyed it!

Idea for the paper

melissaghoneybee — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 22:34:08 +0000

I was contemplating a couple of ideas for the paper. I’m thinking about writing about love, which I know is pretty easy but I want to talk about more than that. I know that love is the driving force for most of the characters that we’ve read…Beli, David, Lola, Oscar, and sort of Yunior. I want to talk about how love has driven them to do things that they never thought they would (having sex in a closet), and how the characters would go out of their way for love. I also want to talk about how mistreatment and hatred have been things that the characters had to deal with in the name of love. One example of this is david’s trial. David (in his mind) loved Melanie and loved being around her. But because of what he did and the circumstances, his job was on the line and he quit his job because of what he did. The university did not like him because of what he did and what he said or didn’t say at his hearing. Another example is oscar. Oscar didn’t have many friends because he wasn’t very sociable and was a loner. He had always wanted a girlfriend but was too shy to ever talk to one. People made fun of him because of how he looked. Oscar didn’t care that he didnt have friends, he just wanted a girlfriend. He was very happy to have Yunior as his roomate, even though Yunior just wanted to get closer to Lola. Lola is another example. She ran off with that guy because she was “in love” and didn’t care what her mom thought. All of these characters had to deal with hatred and mistreatment in the name of love.

The end of Disgrace

melissaghoneybee — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 01:06:03 +0000

Ok so I didn’t really like the way the book ended. It just ended with David giving up a dog to have him euthanized. I didn’t really think that the book would end that way. I thought it would end with David and Lucy becoming closer or something like that. Also, this last section of the book showed me that Lucy is definately not thinking clearly. She wants to stay on the farm even though she knows that the three guys are still around and the young boy is related to Petrus and lives with him. David was trying to talk some sense into her and telling her to leave and start a new life but she wasn’t having it. In this section, I felt that Lucy was not making any sense when she was making her decisions and David was the one that had his head on straight. He went to Melanie’s parents house and apologized (which suprised me) and he was trying to help his daughter in any way that he could. I wasn’t really suprised when Lucy said that she was pregnant. Three guys raped her and she hadn’t gone to her gynocologist so I knew that something like that would happen. One part in this section of the book that was kinda weird and random was when David went to Melanie’s play. Her boyfriend was throwing spit balls at David. That seems pretty childish to me and Melanie’s boyfriend is in college. He seems a little immature to me by doing that. And also, he told David that Melanie would spit in his eye if she ever saw him again. What’s up with Ryan and spit? Anyway, I think the ending of the book was kinda boring and just ended with David staying in Africa and working at the animal clinic with Bev. Overall I liked the book but just not the ending.

Disgrace (pg 106-150)

melissaghoneybee — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 21:30:43 +0000

Ok so I’m really interested in David’s fascination with animals. He stares at the goat at the animal clinic and can’t get the picture out of his head, he watches the dogs get shot and the book describes it in very disturbing details, and David feels bad for the sheep and doesn’t want them to be killed. Is all of this trying to make the reader see David as a changing person and a person who has sympathy towards others? I’m not really sure. Sometimes I wanna think that he’s changing, but then he goes back to being the selfish guy he has always been. He doesn’t like taking care of his daughter and says “that is not what I came here for.” Well, sorry buddy but it’s not like your daughter wanted to get raped. It happened and you shouldn’t thinking such negative thoughts toward your daughter. Speaking of his daughter, I find it very interesting how she always tells her father that what happened to her was a “private matter” and her father shouldn’t know about it. Maybe that’s how the culture in south africa is, who knows. Maybe in the future she will tell him what happened. One part of the book that really shows David contradicting himself is when he’s talking to Petrus and says on page 119 “I am Lucy’s father. I want those men to be caught and brought before the law and punished. Am I wrong? Am I wrong to want justice?” Ok buddy, that’s exactly what the people at the hearing were thinking in their heads when you were being convicted of having sex with a student. They wanted justice on you and have you brought before the law and punished, but you never went to jail. You just got your job taken away. David is still out on the streets and could do it again to another girl or Melanie again if he could. David really contradicts himself and I don’t think he even notices it. Hopefully he’ll get some brains and get his head on straight at the end of the book.

Disgrace (pg 47-105)

melissaghoneybee — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 02:26:04 +0000

Woah, this book definately took a turn that I was not expecting. I wasn’t expecting David to go live with his daughter and get beat up and burned by two men and a little boy. I thought that the book was going to talk more about David and Melanie but I guess not. It did talk about David leaving the university and his hearing. I was suprised at how David just kept saying I’m guilty and that’s it. He didn’t want to say anything else and left it at that. He didn’t even want to look at the statement that Melanie wrote. David was asked if he was guilty and if he would admit that he was wrong. David never admitted that he was wrong and I don’t think that he thought what he did was wrong. He liked what he was doing to her and would keep doing it if he wasn’t caught.

I was suprised to see David living with his daughter. They don’t seem very close to each other. Lucy calls him David and doesn’t show much emotion towards him, especially after he was burned by the men. “My child! My child!” he says, holding out his arms to her. When she does not come, he puts aside his blanket, stands up, and takes her in his arms. In his embrace she is stiff as a pole, yielding nothing.” I feel as though she has something against her father. Maybe she is disgusted by the way her father has acted with his student. Hopefully we will find out as we read further. I’m curious to see how they interact with each other and if they ever become closer.