Chapter 7/8

"When I told her she was principal, that a misunderstanding on her part had projected me as the titular head of the school, the change which came over Mrs. Brown was as noticeable as the first freeze. She now did not make recommendations to me; she issues ultimatums. She did not give opinions; she threw out commands, orders, and laws with the signature of 'the man' on them." 

I chose this particular quote from the book because to me it highlighted exactly what kind of person Mrs. Brown truly is. Everything that Mr. Conroy had been thinking about her, along with the children's thoughts came through in these sentences. Mrs. Brown really upset the children and made them incredibly angry with how she handled the bed-wetting situation. It really angered me as well when she went on that tirade in chapter 6. I cannot even imagine saying that to a child that I was teaching. Her entire demeanor changed once she took back over as principal of the school. It makes me cringe whenever she pops into Conroy's classroom and wants to have a talk with the students. 

What really got to me in chapter 7 was when Mrs. Brown got Conroy to go to drop off that envelop at the school center. He left the class with the responsibility of creating a collage on a bulletin board and had given them old magazines for guidance with pictures. Mrs. Brown walked in and found that the children had put up pictures of "naked wimmin" or what she thought was naked women. She got up into Conroy's face and pretty much condemned him to hell for letting his students do this. Then, she showed him the pictures. They were pictures of Pablo Picasso's works of art. Yes, they were naked women, but it was in an artistic form. To me this just further proved how ignorant the people on the island truly were. They had no idea about the fine works of art that existed outside of Yamacraw. Even a principal of a school who prided herself on thinking she knew everything, had no idea that what she was looking at was in fact a priceless work of art. The people of Yamacraw are ignorant, but for most of them this is not their own fault. They have lived in a closed book their entire lives and have not had access to the things that most others would have. 

I continue to be surprised by what happens in each chapter of this book. I so enjoyed seeing that those children had a good time in Beaufort during their trick-or-treating outing. I'm really interested to see what is going to happen if Conroy ever really stands up to her and says exactly what is on his mind!