Many parallels can be drawn between the book ‘In the Heat of the Night’ and Racism in Canada. One obvious parallel is the belief that people who are part of visible minorities are “below” Caucasian people. I, as a white person, have had the privilege of not being treated like Virgil and believed to be stupid or below anyone in this way. I can however connect it to my experience of being a girl. As a girl I have been treated as weaker than the boys or less “sporty.” Though racism is much worse than a problem like that and people of minorities can sometimes be paid less because people feel their work is of less value. Additionally, people in minorities are mistreated, and called slurs in their daily life. I personally can only imagine what it would be like to be bothered, going about my day by someone who just didn’t like the way I looked. Friends of mine though, have been bullied for these exact reasons. They have been called names by people they went to school with. To add to such a touchy topic, people who are part of minorities are often assumed to have done something wrong or falsely accused of crimes. This is clearly a parallel to how Virgil is treated at the beginning of the book. He is assumed to have committed the murder and, adding to the last point, called names. The only reason Sam has for his behavior is because Virgil is black. This behavior happens in real life and although it has never happened to me all you have to do is turn on the news and find a perfect example. ‘In the Heat of the Night’ and its parallels to Racism around me has made me more aware of small things in life I otherwise would have not fully noticed.
Category / English 9
In the Heat of the Night: The Movie
My Movie
Character, Setting and Mood
In this story it was very important to look back throughout the chapters we’ve read to check for information. Often you had to make an educated guess on pieces of information about your character. In his project I learned how knowing or figuring out the setting of a story can be very important in your understanding of the material and themes presented. The mood is also affected by the setting of the book. Mood is a word to describe the tone and emotional impact the story is evoking. My group personally decided our movie should have a more dramatic tone because of the subject matter and the internal battle within our character, Sam. Overall, looking back on information presented throughout the book allowed us to make educated guesses to better our understanding of the mood and themes in the story.
Core Competency Reflection
Some things I think about before dividing tasks among group members include…
I often decide if I think they will be able to actually finish their portion. If not I would divide work to give them a smaller part or an easier task to complete. I also consider people’s skills such as writing or drawing. I will even try to adjust our project so a skill could be used instead of giving that person a job they will struggle completing.
I seek, develop and weigh options as demonstrated by…
My techniques in helping my group write the timeline of our PowerPoint/movie on ‘In the Heat of the Night’. I suggested we write out all the important points for our character then choose points to remove, keep, or elaborate on. We did this and ended up with a concise, reasonable length story.
An example of an idea I developed that was new to my peers is…
An idea I came up with in Drama class. We were tasked with mashing two fairy-tale stories together into a small skit to perform the same day. My group first got together and were unsure at first about which two fairy-tales to use. I put forward an idea and although we did not end up using it, the rest of my group felt more confident about putting forward ideas or tweaking mine to create more ideas and we put together a great skit.
When I need to boost my mood or re-focus, I…
I often take a few deep breaths. Depending on the situation I will maybe take a quick break or take a sip of water which is often a good way to calm myself down and focus on any tasks that require completion or just give myself an emotional boost.