Chapter 23 (IKWCBS)

Students, parents and esteemed colleagues. You have all come so far in these past 4 years. Many of the goals that you had set for yourselves in your freshman year, you have accomplished. And this now shows you, that you are capable of achieving your dreams.

To see how far African-American people have come in the past 40 years is incredible. There are absolutely no limits to the things that you can become and the things that you can do. For people like Barrack Obama, Oprah Winfrey, and Martin Luther King Jr., who saw how hard it was to work you're way up in a world that saw them differently and thought little of the things that they could do proves how strong you really are. It also shows what can be accomplished if you keep working towards your goal, no matter what stands in your way.

All of you intelligent men and women have proven that you are capable of doing anything if you just set your mind to it. No matter the color of your skin, or what you religion may be, each one of you is a strong individual who has worked their way up and proven time and time again that we are all equal. And that success should not be about what you look like or you believe in, but how you got to where you are now, and what you had to overcome.

4/18/09 7:15 PM

tomtom84: hey maya sup?

mayabaybayxo: ayy tommay, nm, hbu?

tomtom84: nm, just thinkin boutchu (;

mayabaybayxo: oOo.... lol

tomtom84: is dat all u got 2 say?

mayabaybayxo: idk... r u sayin u like mee??

tomtom84: i think so....

mayabaybayxo: idk wut 2 say

tomtom84: well...do u like me back?

mayabaybayxo: idk lol nvr rly thought bout it

mayabaybayxo: maybeee, im kinda surprised.....

tomtom84: oh haha i thought u might have known by noww

tomtom84: cuz ive liked u 4 a long time

mayabaybayxo: rly!? how long?

tomtom84: idk a long time lol

mayabaybayxo: oo kk

tomtom84: u wanna think bout it??

mayabaybayxo: sure 8)

tomtom84: saweet...sooo i guess ill c u 2moro at skool?

mayabaybayxo: kk c ya (:

Chapters 17&18

"The lights hanging slack overhead, the soft ground underneath the canvas wall that faintly blew in and out, like cheeks puffed with air, made for the feeling of a county fair."(pg. 123)

This quotation is a description of the "church" that Marguerite attends with her family. Obviously, it is not your average church. Marguerite tells us that it is actually a collapsable tent that is used. Of course, there are no caucasian people that go to this church. The African-American community is extremely poor. They do not have enough money and can not afford a real church.

This is important to the story because is shows us the hard times that African-American's had to go through. It shows us how difficult it was for Marguerite to do simple things such as going to church. It also shows us exactly how poor these people were. The fact that they could not afford a place to perform their religion is horrible. It also shows us that the caucasian people would never help out the African-American people with anything.

Marguerite's Dream

In Marguerite's dreams, she sees herself as a white girl. "Wouldn't they be surprised when one day I woke out of my black ugly dream, and my real hair, which was long and blond, wold take the mass of the kinky mass that Momma wouldn't let me straighten? My light blue eyes were going to hypnotize them, after all the things they said about 'my daddy must have been a Chinaman' (I thought they meant made out of china, like a cup) because my eyes were all small and squinty."

After she describes her dream, she tells us how she really looks. Black hair, skinny legs, broad shoulders, big feet, and a huge gap in between her teeth.