To Kill A Mockingbird -Connection- Ted Talks

Natalie Warne: Being Young and Making an Impact

My connection to my novel this week was a Ted Talk. I listened to Natalie Warne speak about her experiences of being young and inspired. There were many connections that I made while listening to her inspiring and motivating speech. At 17, Natalie Warne became inspired to do something for a country thousands of miles away in the continent of Africa. She began working with the Invisible Children movement that has inspired many to help with the Kony fight or to just be inspired to work for something they believe in.

MY CONNECTIONS:

1) Young and uninformed
  In To Kill A Mockingbird, Scout and Jem are both young and uninformed with the racial war going on in their country, in their town. Their father, Atticus, is a lawyer who is defending an African American man and the town of Mobile is in an uproar. Opinions are being thrown around, while Scout and Jem are left to question what they all mean. The two kids don't know what to think of it all, because they don't know what some of the words people are saying mean and they don't know why people are acting a certain way towards "colored" people. In Warne's talk, she explains how young she was as she started this huge project. She also explains how uninformed she was about the 25 year long war that had been going on over in Africa.

2) Race
 A small connection would be Natalie Warne's childhood that was affected by racial comments due to her mixed family. Her mother is an African American and her father is white. In To Kill A Mockingbird, one of the main focuses that pops out as you read the novel is the war between the whites and blacks. Not only is this an important part of the book, but it makes you not look at just race, but at the good vs. evil perspective that every person in the world has to make.

3) Inpsire
Scout inspires us as a reader. Her conflicts that she experiences as a 6 and 8 year old are conflicts that we as teens and adults face. Scout is young and innocent, so her actions and words are set aside because of her age (although she is taught throughout the book what is wrong and right). But what is our excuse to our actions and words that we do and say? Reading To Kill A Mockingbird puts many things into perspective and shows us that no matter our age, we can act foolish; that is why Scout inspires me to think and act before I speak. Words and actions can hurt and once they are done they can't be undone. Natalie Warne inspires me in a completely different way, but she inspired me and isn't that the goal? Her strength at 17 years old showed me that anything is possible as long as you have the dedication and drive to go out an make a difference. Not only did Natalie's talk make connections to the book, but she also made connections to my life and is now part of my drive for my project to do something inspiring.