Wise White

http://blog.chloeveltman.com/2008/03/masque-of-red-death.html

            In “The Masque of the Red Death” by Edgar Allan Poe, the fifth room, which is furnished and lighted with white, represents the ages of fifty to sixty year old people. The color white explains the knowledge, wisdom, and aging of that part in the life cycle. It also means settled down and simple. It is the age of a grandparent, and the people that age are accepting their life. The white stage of life is close to dying from old age because it is two rooms away from the black room. The life cycle is almost complete.

            The color white represents the close to ending phase of life. People are not as colorful and energetic as they would be in the previous life phases. They are more of a colorless white, but they are still bright. By this, in other words, it means that the people this age are still living, but they are not as active as they were before when they were younger. They tell stories of the earlier times, so they are not as fun. They know what has been done and is needed to be done before their time is up and life is over. They are the wise people of society that know many things. They are on their way to become the violet people of society, who are the oldest ones that are prepared to die. The white room is the last chance of having a good time on earth. In this part of life, the ebony clock is almost ready to strike. The ebony clock of life is ticking and is all set to ding when a person dies. Old age is approaching the life of the human in the white room, and death is soon to make its arrival. The white room exemplifies the last bright part of human life.

            Though I am not fifty years old, I can still relate to this part in the life cycle. I can imagine how it would feel to be that age. When I think of white, I think of the white hair that the people in this part of the life cycle have. My grandmother died in her white phase of life. She skipped the violet phase of life because she died from a heart attack. I was only two years old when it happened. This shows me that some people can actually skip any part of the cycle and go straight to the seventh room because death can catch anyone at any moment. The white room is very important because it is one of the seven stages of life. It is like the “almost there” stage. A person in the white room is very close to the violet and black stage and still has the ability to live in the white stage. I hope that when I die, I will be able to experience each room and stage of life.



White room
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Niebor%C3%B3w_Palace_-_The_White_Room.jpg





Edgar Allan Poe Web Quest



http://medchrome.com/extras/stories/berenice-by-edgar-allan-poe/


Website Questions:
1.  Poe's was born on January 19, 1809 in Boston, Massachusetts. He died on Sunday, October 7, 1849.
http://www.poemuseum.org/life.php
2.  Being a foster child because his mother died when he was two influenced his writing.
http://www.poemuseum.org/life.php
3.  Five theories on how Poe died are that he had tuberculosis, epilepsy, diabetes, rabies, or a combination of alcohol dehydrogenase deficiency syndrome and brain disease.
http://www.eapoe.org/geninfo/poedeath.htm
4.  According to the Edgar Allan Poe Museum, Poe considered Richmond, Virginia as his home.
http://www.poemuseum.org/life-richmond.php
5.  The Poe Society of Baltimore claims that Baltimore defines the beginning and end of Poe's life. Although he was known as a Virginian gentleman, he was in Baltimore during many important parts of his life.
http://www.eapoe.org/balt/poebalt.htm
6.  In 1831, the famous military academy, West Point, expelled Poe.
http://www.poemuseum.org/life.php
7.  Poe married his cousin, Virginia. He was 27, and she was 13.
http://poestories.com/biography.php
8. I think that Poe marrying his cousin is inappropriate. They are first cousins, and she is less than half his age. I guess it was legal in the 1800's.
9. "Murders in the Rue Morgue" is the first detective story Poe had written.
http://poestories.com/stories.php
10. "The Raven" was published in 1845.
http://poestories.com/read/raven

        Last year at St. Margaret's, we read "The Black Cat" and "The Tell-Tale Heart" by Edgar Allan Poe. We had a whole unit about him, and we watched a movie, too. We learned a lot of these things about him. I remember knowing that he went to West Point like my dad, and a lot of the people that Poe knew and loved had died from tuberculosis. I can't wait to read more from Poe.

We're Back!

         It's a new quarter, so I refreshed my blog! I changed the background and added gadgets. I even got a Shakespeare gadget for the theme of our short story unit. I can't wait to learn about William Shakespeare and Edgar Allan Poe! It will be an adventure while we read A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare. Poe's eerie stories will become a great introduction for Halloween. This will be a great short story unit!

This is a picture of my friends and me before the John Carroll Homecoming!

The Handling of Juvenile Delinquency

           The complications of juvenile delinquency cases have caused a social issue in the United States. When juveniles are charged as adults and go to prison, they are negatively affected by their experiences. They have the urge to sell drugs to make money and end up in jail again. There should be more restraints on the verdicts in the juvenile justice system and more things done to prevent the crimes because juvenile delinquents are being treated too unfairly.

            Mental disorders, moral panics, family environment, peer pressure, labeling, and strain are all causes of juvenile delinquency. Gangs and gang violence have also been major sources of delinquency. They have caused patterns of delinquency in the poverty-level neighborhoods in the city. Internationally, the rate of delinquency cases are higher in the more technologically and economically advanced countries. Teenagers that are emotionally ill with disorganized family situations have a higher chance of delinquency (‘juvenile delinquency”).   According to Brenda and Charles Griffin, “unstable families, drug abuse, failure of school, violence in the mass media, and the weakening of religious bonds all have had popular support as explanations for delinquency.” There are a lot of causes of teenagers in prison, and they have become life-threatening cases. For these cases, they are being charged as adults and sent to the criminal justice system.

There are too many juveniles being charged as adults in the justice system. Most states debate whether to charge teenagers as adults because of the offenses they have committed. Society states that people under the age of seventeen are unable to drink, smoke, or join the military, so they should not be treated as an adult for a crime (Update: Juvenile Justice). Stahl mentions that, “the judge can waive jurisdiction on the juvenile, so he or she can be tried as an adult in criminal court.” Juveniles should not be going to jail with adults.

            Juvenile delinquents are being negatively impacted from jail and need to leave with the confidence and reassurance that they can succeed. Teens are better off going through the juvenile justice system than going through an adult prison. They have a higher chance to be psychologically damaged if they go to an adult prison. Juveniles that have attended adult detention centers are the ones that stay criminals for the rest of their lives (Update: Juvenile Justice).  It is shown by the conduct of the ones that have been released. In Update: Juvenile Justice, critics argue that, “Juveniles can be more greatly influenced by certain factors, such as abuse, than adults can, and their treatment by the law should reflect that.” There are many alternatives to making the juvenile justice system more effective. One of the ideas is teen courts.

            Teen courts are courts which use teenagers to serve as jurors. Some people argue that there should not be teen courts, and the verdict of a crime should be left to a professional's decision. They also think teen courts are pointless because teenagers are too naive to know how to administer the law (“Teen Courts”).  In reality, there should be more teen courts because they are an additional way to solve juvenile crimes.  Teen courts are for nonviolent crimes, and teenagers have the chance to tell the offenders why their crimes were wrong.

If a juvenile has committed an extremely bad crime, he or she should get the appropriate consequences. The death penalty is used when the offender deserves it, and the juvenile is tried as an adult, depending on the crime. Juveniles should not be in the criminal justice system when they are too young for it, even though it has proven to cause a drop in juvenile crime. Additionally, attorneys argue that executing a teenager violates the Eighth Amendment to the Constitution (Update: Juvenile Justice). Juveniles in the adult criminal justice system will stay as offenders for the rest of their lives.

When juveniles are out of jail, people should help them get treatment, so they will live a controlled life. The best way for parents to make sure their children don’t turn into a delinquent is by preventing the causes of it. To prevent juvenile delinquency, parents should have their children join programs and become involved in their community at an early age. Helping children avoid becoming delinquents will ensure that they will not be treated unfairly.

 

http://rolemodels.jou.ufl.edu/rolemodels/studentissues/juvcrime.shtm

Works Cited

Griffin, Brenda S., and Charles T. Griffin. "Juvenile Delinquency." Encyclopedia Americana.      

        2010. Grolier Online. 27 Sept. 2010.

"Juvenile Delinquency." The Columbia Encyclopedia, Sixth Edition. 2008. Encyclopedia.com.     

        Web. 3 Oct. 2010

Stahl, Anne L. "Delinquency Cases in Juvenile Courts, 2004." OJJDP FACT SHEET. Feb. 2008:            

        1-2. SIRS Government Reporter. Web. 24 Sep 2010.

"Teen Courts." Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File       

        News Services, 10 Mar. 2006. Web. 30 Sept. 2010.        

Update: Juvenile Justice. Issues & Controversies On File: n. pag. Issues & Controversies. Facts On File

        News Services, 14 Dec. 2006. Web. 20 Sept. 2010.