Friday, July 24, 2009

Tom and Huck


This movie is about an adventure of Thomas Sawyer, who goes by Tom and Huckleberry Finn, who goes by Huck. Tom and Huck are best friends. Tom lives with his aunt, half-blood brother, and half-blood sister. In addition, he likes to do pranks with his friends. He tries to run away from home and go down a river with his friends. He is very clever guy and he is a hero in his group. He sometimes lures his friends to whitewash instead of him and gets their treasures. Huck lives alone in a forest and he has never gone to a school, so he cannot write down words even his name.

One day, Tom and Huck go to graveyard at midnight and they see Indian Joe and Muff, who is a drunk and Tom’s friend, digging a grave for Doctor Robinson. The doctor finds a box and he tries to run away but Indian Joe notices and he kills the doctor with Muff’s knife. In the box, there is a treasure map. Tom and Huck run away from the place, but Tom drops a green marble from his pocket accidentally. Tom and Huck promise not to talk about the murder to people because they protect themselves. After that, they go home.

Next day, Muff is arrested for killing the doctor. Even though, Muff denies the suspicion, Indian Joe testifies that Muff kills the doctor and he claims there is not the treasure map. Then, Indian Joe discovers that Tom dropped the green marble, and Joe threatens Tom that he will kill him, if He tells the truth in a trial. On the day of the trial, Joe testifies that Muff killed the doctor by his knife. When the judge tells a sentence, Tom takes the witness stand and tells the truth to save Muff. Then, Tom became a hero in the town, but Joe escapes from the trail. Then, Huck packs and goes to a travel to hide from Joe. After that, people held a party, and children and Muff go to a cave to explore during the party. Tom and Becky, who is Tom’s girlfriend, go into the cave by themselves during the exploration. Nobody notices that Tom and Becky are gone. Unfortunately, Joe is hiding in the cave and he tries to kill Tom. At that time, Huck comes to help Tom, and they fight with Indian Joe in the cave. Finally, they win the fight and find a lot of money from the cave. After the accident which Joe dies, Tom became a hero in the town for the second time. In addition, Huck is adopted by nice rich old woman.

This movie was based on “the adventure of Thomas Sawyer”. Some parts are different. There are no slaves or African Americans, but this movie helped me to understand the story of Tom Sawyer easily. I would like to recommend this movie to Mei and Joey who are going to take Freshman Core class because all characters used modern American English, so we can understand the movie very easily. In this movie, there were many elements, such as suspense, love, comedy, and friendships. One of my favorite scenes is when Tom tries to get the treasure map from Indian Joe’s pocket while Joe is sleeping. At that time, he fails because he sneezes, so Joe wakes up. This scene was very funny for me. Other my favorite scene is when Tom tells the truth at the trail in front of everyone including Indian Joe. If I were Tom, I could not tell a truth in front of a person who aimed to kill me, however, Tom did it. Then, I noticed that Tom is a hero because he helps his friend at the risk of his life. This movie was not long movie, but the story was very interesting and thoughtful. I enjoyed watching this movie, and it helps to understand me Tom Sawyer's world well.

Monday, July 20, 2009

30 Days as an Illegal Immigrant



Can people change their mind in only 30 days? I think it is difficult to change mind completely if people have a lot of confidence about their opinions. In this show, a man named Frank George (Francisco Jorge) stays in tiny apartment with illegal family, the Gonzales for 30 days. The Gonzales family comprises seven members who are father, mother, three daughters and two sons in one bed room apartment. The parents and three older kids do not have papers, and two younger kids they were born in the U.S. are American citizens. Frank is originally from Cuba, and he came to the United States with his parents when he was seven years old. Now he is working as a Minuteman who patrols around American border and stop illegal immigrants from coming into the U.S. His idea for American immigration problem is that illegal immigrants are bad if they have any problems in their countries. If they want to immigrate to the U.S., they should come legally. He had very strong opinion about this problem. In addition, he did not accept any other different ideas of immigrants at the first time. For example, discussion about legal and illegal immigrants with Armida’s high school teacher, they argued very strongly. His idea is everyone should follow the American law. Other countries situations do not matter. However, his strong ideas changed gradually while he spent a time such as working as a day laborer, discussing about the immigration problem, and going to Golf lesson with the family. In addition, he noticed how difficult it was to live in Mexico when he visited Gonzales family in Mexico. In the end of the show, he started to think about illegal immigrants in regard to amnesty. Actually, he still has his opinion which he does not accept illegal immigrant. However, he left border patrolling to other Minuteman. He plans to pursue border security enforcement by appealing directly to politicians.

After I watched this show, I still think illegal immigrants are bad because they are breaking American law. Even though I saw the real situation of Mexico, I cannot agree with illegal immigrants. Both sides have ideas. In Frank’s opinion is everyone should follow American law, so every immigrant should come legally as him. However, the Gonzales family opinion is that they could not live there enough in Mexico. They did not have any choice at that time. They do not want to work as a day labor, and they did not think they are taking jobs from American. If they can, they get paper and get good job and live with their other family who are in Mexico. Armida said that pilgrims were illegal immigrants because they did not have any visa and permission from Native American. This idea is true, however, we did not have system such as visa at that time, and we cannot compare pilgrims and legal immigrants. I can understand both sides, but immigration problems are very difficult to solve. In Japan, we have serious problems about illegal immigrants as American. Illegal immigrants come to wealthy counties to get a job and earn money because they cannot get money and jobs in their own countries. Therefore, Mexico should take some action to solve the illegal immigration problem. It is not only American problem.

http://www.hulu.com/watch/56908/30-days-immigration#s-p3-so-i0