Reading Log Questions #1

James McAuley

Professor Young

ENGW 1101 3G

February 4th, 2016

Reading Log Questions #1

1. What is the meaning of the good lord bird? What does it represent?  How does it connect to to the title of the book?

The Good Lord Bird itself is an actual bird, and it is a symbol of both God, but also of hope.  It is connected to the title of the book, because John Brown is an extremely religious man, but also represents hope; he brought hope to the slaves he was liberating, he brought hope to his followers, and he brought hope to the abolitionists of America.  And it was this hope which eventually sparked the American Civil War, and ended slavery in the United States.  (McBride 25, 33)

2. What is Henry’s nickname?  How did he earn it?

Henry’s nickname is Little Onion.  He earned it after devouring John Brown’s good luck charm, an old, rotting onion.  Afterwards, John Brown reckoned that it was a sign of the Lord, and then christened Henry as Little Onion, or just Onion for short.  (McBride 24-25)

3. What was Henry’s rationale for continuing to live a lie?  Was it justifiable?

From what I was able to tell, Henry just didn’t want to get into trouble with Old Man Brown.  Henry figured that telling the truth was more trouble than it's worth, and that since he was technically John Brown’s prisoner, he better not cause any trouble for him, in case it would lead to his own life in danger. (McBride 28)

Works Cited

McBride, James. The Good Lord Bird. New York: Penguin, 2013.  Print.  

Is Lying Permissible?

James McAuley

Professor Young

ENGW 1101 3G

February 1st, 2016

Is Lying Permissible?

A lie is a deceptive statement meant to hide the truth from the person who the lie is transmitted to.  Normally, lying is frowned upon in society, while honesty is valued.  However, this does not mean that lying isn’t permissible in certain situations.  There are numerous situations where lying is a beneficial thing to do, and in fact can make someone’s day a little bit better.  To provide an example for this, I’ll reminisce about a time two weeks ago, when my brother tried to cook.  I use the word tried, because frankly, what he made could barely be considered food.  However, I didn’t care about how bad his food was. So, instead, I ate what was supposed to pass for chicken pot pie.  I ignored the fact that the crust was burned, I choked down the dry and tasteless chicken, and I scooped up the still-frozen peas (I still have no idea, for the life of me, how the peas were possibly frozen when the rest of the dish was way too overdone).  After I tried it, I convinced my brother that it was good, and suggested just one or two things to improve, so that his next attempt at chicken pot pie would be slightly more edible.  From what I have heard from my parents, he is trying again sometime this next week.  And so, anyone can see, that lying was beneficial in this situation.  If I told my brother the truth, that the food he made was something I would hesitate to feed to a starving animal, he would have lost hope and stopped cooking, at least for a little while.  He would lose what little self-confidence he has left, and would just give up.  However, the lie that I liked the dish provided him with enough confidence to try and try again, and get better at cooking each time.  He’s almost 24 years old, it's about time he learned how to cook.  So, in this situation, lying was not only permissible, but it's beneficial, because in a world like ours, sometimes the ugly truth needs to be hidden from people for their own good.