Prompt:
In Chapter 1, T. Ray punishes Lily by making her kneel on the Martha Whites for an hour.
Response Requirement:
Kneel on the grits yourself. (no quotes necessary)
* What did you expect? What did they feel like?
* What does this punishment say about T. Ray? Lily's childhood and maturity?
When T. Ray punished Lily in the first chapter, I was not surprised and had actually suspected something of that sort to happen. As soon as T. Ray told Lily she would have to kneel on the Martha Whites, all I could think was how painful it was going to be for her. In the previous pages, Lily had briefly brought up the Martha Whites, and from the sound of it, I knew it wasn't good. As described in the book, the feeling was excruciating, and similar to kneeling down and glass. What surprised me though, was that Lily admitted the punishment no longer seemed out of the ordinary since it had become so common in the house. This punishment alone says so much about T. Ray. It shows that he cannot control a situation by himself, so he relies on painful punishments to teach Lily a lesson. This makes him look weak and selfish. I've realized that Lily's childhood is extremely unfortunate and upsetting. She is isolated from the world around her because of T. Ray. Although, I do think this bad life situation has only helped Lily grow stronger and more independent. She has become so mature at such a young age that she can live and learn from life experiences and turn them to her advantage. I have no doubt she will show this even more in the chapters to come.
ReplyDeleteThe martha whites were a form of punishment, but when I saw them they look like harmless grains mixed with salt. When you touch them lightly they feel like a powdery substance. Though as one continues to put pressure on the grits it becomes painful like tiny pieces of glass seeping into your skin. The grits also depend on whether they are spread out or in a big clump. For myself, it took a minute or two before I started to feel the pain because I increasingly put on more pressure as time went on.
ReplyDeleteThe martha whites show that T. Ray is a disciplined parent and does not want his child acting all willy nilly. One could say that T. Ray feels punishment is the answer to solving problems with your kids. The punishments like martha whites show that Lily had a really hard childhood life. The punishments also show that Lilies maturity is high and that she is brave enough to go through the pain, especially for what she may or may not have done.
>> I expected the Martha Whites to hurt, maybe burn. I also expected her to get hit. They hurt when you shift, scraping and cutting your skin. The grain is hard and rough. It burns after a while and when it gets in open wounds.
ReplyDelete>> This punishment says that T Ray is soft enough, not to slap her or beat her until she's bleeding, but makes her get scrapes and minor cuts, and a burning sensation. To me, this isn't as bad as most punishments other parents could have chosen. Lily's childhood must have been rough. As a little kid, punishments feel worse, but as you grow, you learn to except the punishment. She handles the Martha Whites well, which makes me think that she's getting old enough to except the punishments, even if sometimes they don't make sense.
I expected the grits to hurt a lot. When i looked at them they looked very innocent but i knew they had evil inside, like an evil midget. They felt likemy skin was absorbing a strange chemical, forcing them to burn and crack. It hurt a little,but felt weird. I think this punishment shows that T.Ray is a coward and does not love or respect Lilly. I feel this way because it is such a brutal punishment, and no father should ever bring that upon his daughter. I think this shows Lilly has had a tough childhood, dealing with T.Ray all the time, but also shows she is mature for taking his bologna for 14 years, and showing little signs of depression. She is a very strong minded person.
ReplyDeleteWhen I went to kneel on the grits with my bare knees, i expected them to feel like sharp daggers digging in to the rough skin on my knees. AT first, they didn't hurt too much, but once i started to shift my weight back and forth, from knee to knee, it started to feel more like what i imagined. If I were on the grits for an hour, i would think that i would start to feel like Lily and the way she felt about kneeling on them. The grits, or Martha Whites as T. Ray and Lily call them, make T. Ray look like a child abuser. I am currently in chapter two and i have realized that they are used quite often and for long periods of time. It makes T. Ray look like a bad guy even though he is saying that he was the one who stayed and Lily's mother was the one who left. Lily must have had a very hard childhood, encountering many hardships and pain. However, all of the misery and pain of having to stay on the Martha Whites for so long shaped her, and they still do. She will learn good discipline from the long hours of pain. It may even shape her in to a better person when she grows up.
ReplyDeleteFrom the descriptions in the book, I expected the grits to be like powdered glass, very coarse and sharp. It said that it left serious welts in Lily's knees, so that made me think they were going to be painful. However, even though I rolled my knee and put all of my body weight on one leg, the grits felt more like coarse sand, although kneeling on them for much longer should've been very painful. This punishment says that T.Ray is a cruel person and doesn't care about Lily if he makes her do such things. Lily must've had a difficult and miserable childhood, and matured a lot from the suffering, more thean most people her age.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter one, Lily faces a punishment of kneeling on grits for an hour because T. Ray thought she was out with a boy. I was expecting the grits to be like small shards of metal, and was suprised when it was food. I was further suprised when I kneeled down and it instantly hurt, and can not imagine having to kneel on grits for an hour. The pushishment for Lily tells that T. Ray is a very harsh man who doesnt feel any simpathy for his daughter, and wants her to be as perfect as possible. Her childhood is already hard enough having killed her own mother, but now her father abusing her is no better on her mind. She may have some problem as an adult because of her rough childhood.
ReplyDeleteIt felt worse than leaning on sand. It felt very gritty and more corase. I wasnt expecting it to hurt as much. Since I don't have fine skin so I thought that it might give me some sort of advantage. But it didn't. This punishment said that T-Ray is a very mean man and that he probably had a very bad childhood of his own. And he is recreating that life for his daughter. Lily I bet didn't really have a great childhood, because most kids get sent to their room for a time out or they have to sit on the step for ten minutes like I did. Most kids get presents for their birthday, Lily doesn't. And almost all children get hugs and kisses from their dad while Lily doesn't have that.
ReplyDeleteBefor i kneeled on the grits i expected it to feel like sand not that bad. Or maybe even just a little pain. to be honest i could understand like the hardwood floor and for an hour i understand how much that would hurt. i only went on tham for five minuetes and i was on carpet. but to be honest it didnt really hurt. i even had kids put their weight on me and still nothing, but when i started to move around it started to hurt. i cant even put myself in hur shoes havung an awefull dad like that and the punishments she endured she is pretty strong.
ReplyDeleteWhen i did it. it didnt hurt as bad as i thought , i know i may get arguements on this but i feel like she thinks it is bad because she is a girl. girls cant take a lot of pain so she was hurt. i expected it to hurt more on her reaction...guess not.this puniishment says that t ray is brutal and he is vicious.
ReplyDeleteGator 11
When reading the "punishment that only T. Ray could think of", the Martha Whites, I was left wondering how bad this punishment really could be. When Rosaleen wondered, "What did he do to you?" I realized how bad this must actually be. In class, the grits looked soft like sand but felt like salt. I couldn't imagine that they could make me bleed. But as soon as my knees were on the grits, I knew I was wrong. The pain started as soon as I felt the grits! I now understand the unusual but painful punishment that Lily had to undergo.
ReplyDeleteWhen I knelt on the Gritz, I expected something completely different. What I expected was something very powdery and soft. What it really was that it was quite hard and prickly. This punishment seemed to be like a punishment that only the devil would have had to send to a man to become thought of because it is so painful. It says that T. Ray is a very cruel and strict man who has no other care for the world. And because she had to get this punishment she grew up with real no joy in life and because of that her self esteem fell a lot.
ReplyDeleteUNFINISHED
ReplyDeleteI expected the grits to feel soft, because when you held it in your hand, it felt like as soft as sand. But when you kneel and put pressure on it, it stings and hurts when you try to move. When I got up, I had little red marks on my knees and it still stung even though I wasn't on it anymore. It took a while for the stinging to go away. If that were a punishment for me, I would never want to do that.
This punishment says a lot about T. Ray. I would have never even thought of grits being painful. It shows that he is creative, but is also very mean and very strict. If I were a parent, i would never make my child kneel on grits for an hour.
Lily kneels down on the grits as a punishment from T-Ray. When I first knelt down on the grits, my knees began to burn and felt uncomfortable. I thought it would just feel like sitting on carpets and having the rugburn marks or somesort of a feeling like that. But after feeling the grits, I can't believe that Lily can walk after sitting on the grits for about an hour. It shows how much strength and courage she has to go through the pain. This shows Lily will be very mature and able to control pain in her future, it also shows that T-Ray is a strict parent that will not stop to discipline Lily.
ReplyDeleteWeek 1 Option7 True Life
ReplyDelete-I expected the grits to feel like rice. I expected soft, smooth, rich grains. I would have never expected them to be used as a form of punishment. But, then as I set my elbow onto the pile of grits the glass like grains dug into my skin. It was painful and actually hurt. It felt like millions of tiny peices of sharp glass spearing my skin. I can't imagine kneeling on it for hours, having your body weight pushing you into the torturous sharp grains.
-This punishment says that T.Ray has harsh yet creative forms of punishment and has a very strict and cruel outlook on life. And although harmful and cruel, T.Ray's punishments can only make Lily stronger and more mature as a person. If Lily can face T.Ray, I believe she can face anything. Lily's childhood has made her a stronger and wiser person. She has seen so much pain and sorrow in only 14 years, that she is ready for the world.
T. Ray forced Lily to kneel on the grits after he finds her in the orchard at night. When I first read this, it didn't sound that bad. I thought it would be uncomfortable and itchy. Little did I know just how painful it was. I just put my elbow in the grits, and it hurt a bit. I knew could only imagine how painful staying on your knees on them for hour must be. It really shows what kind of person, specifically what kind of father, he is. A lot of children get penalized for doing something wrong, bu that punishment is pretty horrible. He makes Lily do it so often she doesn't even think twice about it. I feel very bad for Lily; her childhood doesn't sound very pleasant. I could tell that Lily definitely had to grow up very differently. Having to grow up without a real mother must be so hard, especially when it seems like your father doesn't love you.
ReplyDeleteIn chapter one T. Ray makes Lily kneel on the Martha Whites for an hour. I, myself knelt on Martha Whites for less than a minute it and it hurt like crazy. I can only imagine what an hour feels like. Before I experienced it, I was expecting it to feel like sand, nice and soft, but instead it felt almost life glass. This punishment says a lot about T. Ray. It says that he is a cruel man, and he does not love his daughter. If he loved his daughter, he wouldn’t do anything like that. No loving father would. It brings out the abusive side in him. On the other hand it also says something about Lily’s maturity and childhood at the same time. If Lily was fully mature she wouldn’t do anything to get her in enough trouble to deserve the Martha Whites. And during her childhood, she didn’t have a mother to teach her right from wrong, and her father wasn’t much help either. Now, having grown up she gets the Martha Whites more often than she would if she had a proper childhood. I really don’t have an experience close to this, because as a child, growing up I had two very loving parents and they would never do anything to hurt me.
ReplyDeletewhen i put my elbows in the grit i didn't think it was going to hurt as bad as i thought it did. They felt like i was leaning on dirt in a softball field. This punishment says that T-Ray is cruel to his only daughter that doesn't even have a mother, why would he want to make her life worse. her maturity towards the way her father treats her is pretty good, considering she is only 14.
ReplyDeleteIn Chapter 1, T. Ray punishes Lily by making her kneel on the Martha Whites for an hour. Before I decided to kneel on grits myself, I expected it to not hurt or be painful. I thought that it would just feel as if you are kneeling in the sand at the shore. I didn’t think that Lily bleeding from kneeling on the grits was very realistic. I definitely did not think it would feel like it did or be so painful. Kneeling on grits felt as if you were kneeling in the street. Like the little rocks and pebbles were stabbing into your skin and scratching you like they would if you have fallen in the road and scraped yourself. It also felt like the grits were tiny pins and needles stabbing into your knees. It’s a very unpleasant feeling and I believe it to be a cruel and unusual punishment.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment says a lot about Lily’s father T. Ray. It shows that he doesn’t very much care for his daughter. It also shows that he is very strict with his punishments and gets mad easily. I mean, what kind of cruel person makes their child do something for hours until they bleed? I think that this punishment shows that T. Ray really just is not a nice person. It shows that Lily is very mature though. This is because she takes her punishment without a fight and deals with it. Many kids at her age would complain or even refuse, but Lily knows that wont get her anywhere with T. Ray. This also shows that Lily had sort of a hard rough childhood. Being punished with extreme punishments for doing something that really wasn’t all that bad. Going through life scared that you may get punished for doing something, or even perhaps not doing anything at all is not a way to live a childhood. But, that is how Lily lived under T. Ray’s roof.
I expected it to not hurt because when I felt it, it was soft, but when you kneel on it really hard, it hurts. My knee was alittle red when I got off. This punishment makes T ray very strict and mean. Lily isn't even immature or behaves bad, so why would T ray even make her kneel on grits for an hour? To torture her?
ReplyDeleteWhen I was first reading, and heard the word, "grits", I thought it was some sort of rock or something. I tried kneeling on them, and I thought it would feel like sand. It looks very soft and it doesn't look like it will hurt at all. I kneeled down onto the grits, and when you put all of your pressure down onto them, it hurts so bad. It felt like glass was being implanted into me. I also tried moving around a little because Lily had to sit there for an hour, and at some point she had to move. So i moved my knees around back and forth, left to right, and it felt like my knees were getting skinned off. They burned so bad, i had to get up. Sitting there for an hour, or even more would probably make me cry. I would not be able to sit there in that much pain. I can't believe that it would hurt as much as it did.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment tells a lot about T. Ray. T. Ray is very mean, strict, and is straight to the point. You would have to do everything he says, or you would get beaten up verbally or you would be sitting and kneeling on grits for a couple of hours.
This punishment will also effect Lily's childhood and maternity. Throughout her childhood, I think that Lily will be very disciplined. While growing up, I think she will have that strict mind set, but when she gets to the point of having kids, I don't think she will ever to that to her kids. Lily probably doesn't want her kids to go through what she had to with T. Ray.
I thought that the grits were going to kind of sting. That is because they look a little like the thick sea salt that you can buy. They ended up feeling exactly like that. Expect to me they felt a lot worse. I had just gotten a large scrape and it was still a little raw so it stung me really bad. For T-Ray to have done this it means he is messed up. That punishment is not only cruel, but unusual too. Lily must be really mature to handle this. I would expect her to have grown up fast.
ReplyDeleteAndrew Lawson
ReplyDeleteMs. Drosdick
Language Arts, Period 7
March 18, 2011
T. Ray, Lily’s father, punishes Lily in a very weird but painful way. This choice of punishment is to make his daughter kneel on grits or what they used to call them, Martha Whites. He made her kneel on these rough little grains for one hour and on a hard wood floor. I thought kneeling on grits would be easy and not much of a punishment, just a boring “time out”. When I tried to kneel on the grains, at first it did not hurt, but after a few minutes, the grits were really bothering my knees. The thing is, I was kneeling on a rug with grits instead of a hard wood floor and it was still painful. Also, if I needed to readjust my knees, the pain was doubled since I had to scrape my knees through the rough grits. This punishment is very unusual and severely cut up knees would be the result of one hour on the grain.
This punishment that T. Ray gave to Lily speaks a lot about him on the inside. If T. Ray acts this cruel, he must have been abused or given harsh punishments as well. He is probably taking out all his frustration and anger on his daughter like his own parents might have done to him. This also tells me that Lily probably does not have a good relationship with her father because she has to be treated so poorly. This is a very harsh punishment for someone not doing anything wrong. She is very mature because she can handle the pain time and time again.
When I knelt on the grits I expected it to hurt a lot. What I found was that it didn't really. I suppose it depends on how sensitive your are to that sort of thing. Mostly it felt like kneeling on a prickly rug or one of those chairs with the woven twigs for a seat.
ReplyDeleteBased on Lily's pain and the discomfort that this punishment caused her, I would say that T-Ray is fond of cruel and unusual punishment. He is not a very understanding parent, nor is he very kind. I do think he cares about Lily though. Otherwise why would he punish her for acting like a slut as he thought. If he didn't care about her, he would let her do anything she wanted, even if it was not what she should be doing.
I'd say that Lily had a rather short-lived childhood. She's had to cope with the loss of her mother and a nearly abusive father. Lily seems rather mature for her age, she knows how to care for herself and has been through a lot.
Kneeling on Grits is the worst punishment to give to a child. I expected the Grits to have no pain effect until I tried them for myself. They were hard as pointy little rocks jabed into your skin. i even tried putting my elbows on the grits and it was very painful. it left me red indents throughout my skin. When i stood straight up it was a lot more painful then kneeling on them. i counldn't imagine the after effect of being the grits for an hour.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment obviously tells a lot about T-Ray. T-Ray is an abusive father who gives unreasonable punishements to his daughter. If i was the parent of Lily i would just give her a slap and then tooken away something that she loved to play with. Making Lily kneel on grits is torcher not punishment. the punishement Lily gets tells us that Lily matures more faster than the girls her age. Aslo that in her childhood she must have gotten mmany beatings and torcher like that.
Kneeling on grits was not fun. Not fun at all. They stung, pinched, and dug needlessly into your skin. Once I got up, my knees were bright cherry red and covered in little dents. It was not something that I would be doing again anytime soon.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment tells me that T.Ray was as dumb as he seemed. Mean maybe, but not dumb. He knew an efficient way to punish Lily, with the least trouble. He obviously believed in punishment, possibly because he didn't know how else to act. Lily must of have an unpleasant childhood filled with neglect and punishment. But she knows pain and how to tolerate it. in the story, she's accepted it as a part of her life. Which is a terrible thing in itself.
I expected the grits to feel rough and I expected them to hurt a lot, from the way Lily described them. When I knelt on the grits, it did not hurt at first, but then started to sting after I shifted from knee to knee. I only stayed on the grits for a couple of seconds. I can only imagine how it must have felt for Lily to kneel on grits for a whole hour.
ReplyDeleteThis cruel punishment speaks for itself. It proves that T.Ray is very harsh on Lily, to the point where it can be considered abusive behavior. Lily must have had a rough childhood, since she said that T. Ray has been making her kneel on grits since she was only 6 years old. Therefore, Lily must have matured faster than other kids her age, since she learned the harsh way of punishment early.
The grits felt very different than I thought they would feel. I did not think they would be so sharp. I thought they would be like salt, sort of thin and soft. As I put my elbow on them they didn't hurt that much. When I pushed down harder, that's when it started to hurt. Once i got deeper down it felt like small pieces of glass with a sharp end.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment says quite a lot about T.Ray. It makes me question where he got the idea of grits. I was thinking that maybe grits was the punishment he got when he was a child. Until reading this book, I would of never thought of grits as a harsh punishment. Lily said to Rosaleen that she is used to the grits. This shows that in Lily's childhood, she must of been a troublemaker. It shows that she is probably not a mature girl if she is getting punished many times with the grits.
Even though I only knelt on the grits for a few seconds, the feeling was rather curious. I expected little pain and that was why it was meant to be done for a long time, but it actually hurt more than I expected. I also did not expect the feeling to carry on after a while. It felt like small, ant-size daggers grazing my knee with every turn. The fact that this punishment is meant to go on for hours shows that T-Ray is a merciless, inhumane, and severe man. The real torture is the fact that you yourself are creating the pain by moving. I find that fact haunting.
ReplyDeleteWhen you hold grits in your hand it is fairly soft. The little grains are so tiny you would think you wouldn’t feel a thing. Once you kneel on the grits, that’s when you started to feel the pain and sharp little grains piercing into your knees. Whenever you reposition your knees so it would hurt less, it ends up hurting more. The little grits feels like you take sandpaper and try sanding down your knees. When you get up from the grits, you can still feel the singing on your knees and you can see the little red marks that is now indented into your knees.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment says a lot about how T-Ray doesn’t care much for Lily. If he did care for her he wouldn’t let her go through that much pain and agony. It shows he is so mean and strict to her even if she did the slightest thing wrong. With all of the pain Lily goes through, while not complaining about it, it shows that she really maturing. She had an extremely hard childhood.
Writing Option # 7
ReplyDeleteWell, I did not expect it to hurt as much as it did. I can’t imagine having to kneel on them for hours on end. The most pain comes when you shift your weight for some relief but, you get relief on one of your knees and horrible pain on you other from all the weight. The feeling was like a whole bunch of little pins being pushed into my knees. It was uncomfortable and painful and I’m really glad I don’t have to do something like as a common punishment.
This punishment shows me that T. Ray may have had to do it when he younger and it also shows that he has no problem hurting his daughter. My Dad will send me to my room to contemplate what I have done, he would never cause me any harm. I am very pleased I don’t have T. Ray as my father. The punishment also shows me how Lily has grown up with this and is actually used to the pain and the look of what has been done. It shows that she has a mature personality because she never had someone to take care of her, she had to take care of herself and if she did something wrong she had to suffer the consequences.
I expected the grits to feel soft, because when you held it in your hand, it felt like as soft as sand. But when you kneel and put pressure on it, it stings and hurts when you try to move. When I got up, I had little red marks on my knees and it still stung even though I wasn't on it anymore. It took a while for the stinging to go away. If that were a punishment for me, I would never want to do that.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment says a lot about T. Ray. I would have never even thought of grits being painful. It shows that he is creative, but is also very mean and very strict. If I were a parent, I would never make my child kneel on grits for an hour. It affected Lily too, and how she grew up. She grew up thinking the tiniest little things in life are scary and hurtful.
I expected the grits to feel kind of soft, but a with a little pain. Before I knelt on them, they felt softish, and almost like sand. But once I put my knees on them and applied pressure, it hurt! Afterwards, I had red marks all over my knees. I also had rug burn looking indents in my knee! If I had to this as a punishment for an hour, I would not be happy and perhaps even cry!
ReplyDeleteThis shows a lot about T. Ray. It shows/says that he is very strict and cruel. He also assumes the the worse and doesn't want to hear her side of the story. It shows that Lily is also mature. She didn't really complain about, she just did it. She also didn't whine and cry about it afterwards. Lily had probably done this before, and she has gotten used to the pain
The grits looked unitimidating, and not at all threatening. They were tiny, little pockets of whiteness. What harm could they do to me? I rolled up my sleeve and lowered my elbow into the 'Martha Whites'. I applied some pressure, and smirked. No sweat, no nothing, it was all good. For about five solid seconds. Then pain shot up through my elbow, and I yanked my elbow from the white little teeth digging into my precious skin. ( In my defense, I jabbed my funny bone...psh.)It left tiny, red, but not very deep welts. I ran my fingers over them, and it was bumpy, and i stung if I touched them with any pressure.
ReplyDeleteThis form of punnishment says alot about T. Ray. It tells me that he is very strict and has high standards. Im sure T. Ray knew that Lily had gotten the message across long before the hour of kneeling in tourture was up. T. Ray seems not to care too much about his daughter at times, but in other cases, he seems to care too much, by gving excessive punnishment. It was almost as if he was asking Lily to rebel against him by giving her a whole hour on the grits! I also think T. Ray is so upset about what happened to his wife and the whole situation with her trying to leave, that he was taking his anger out on Lily, and he is also afraid or something. Afraid of something happening to Lily, maybe?
Lily is a very stong person, and she deals pretty well with everything, in her circumstances. She deals with kneeling on grits, like a passing cold that comes every now and then. It was a normal punnishment in her childhood and upbringing, and this shows how mature she is. She is mature because she handles the grits, without throwing a huge fit. She deals with it, and goes on with her life.
I expected the grits to be rough and pointy. Before I knelt on them I held some in my hand. They felt like hard sand. Even at the beach, the sand can be hard and hurt. When I knelt and put the pressure of my body on the grits it stung and felt like glass. It hurt even after knelling on them for 5 minutes, and I couldn't imagine the pain of knelling on them for an hour.
ReplyDeleteI think that making a child do this is cruel and nearly abuse. It says that T. Ray is a mean father that wants his child to be in pain in order to learn a lesson. Lily was hurt and wounded after knelling on the grit and it doesn't seem like a good punishment. Lily doesn't learn lesson by this and it has made her hate T. Ray even more. Her childhood was ruined by her hatred for T. Ray. She is a very welled mannered and mature girl but I do not believe this has come from her knelling on grits.
I really expected them to not hurt at all. I mean when you hear about kneeling on grits you think that it wont hurt at all. You are compleatly wrong though they really hurt. The grits were like hard pieces of sand that just dug into your knees. This shows how ruthlesss Tray really is and shows how he doesnt care about Lilys feelings.this shows how hard Lilys life is to live with Tray.
ReplyDeleteI really expected the grits to be like a smooth sand. Some sand is very rough like the grits. When i first put my knees in them, my legs started to sting and as i moved the pain got worse and worse. When I finally got up after one minute of terror, I had red indents in my knees.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how T-Ray could make a small girl feel so much pain while just sitting there doing nothing. This says so much about T-Ray. This says that he has no consideration for others, especially his family.
I first Expected the grits to feel soft, because when I held it in my hands if felt soft like sand. When I actually got a chance to push my elbows in the grits as hard as i can, it took a little bit to actually start to hurt, and it just felt like pins and needles all over my elbows.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment says about T-Ray is that he is creative, but it also says he is very strict. When I will be a parent I would never make my child kneel on grits for and hour. Also, after that I don't think Lily will ever do anything bad again or she will have to deal with all of that suffering again.
It really didnt hurt that bad. I have to say it didnt bother me that much. My knees were practically bleedy by the time I was done, but it didnt hurt. Now then I realzied that if a girl was doing it on a hard wood floor that would absoultly kill, but for a guy it wasent that bad. It really does say a lot about T Ray. That guy is so mean to a girl who practically did nothing wrong. He has some issues.
ReplyDeleteThis guy is so mean to his only daughter. Yes, it did hurt a lot kneeling on those grains. No girl should be allowed to do that at all. He is hurting and driving away his one and only daughter. The grains felt soft but, not kneeling on them for an hour for an hour would hurt a lot.
ReplyDeleteI thought they would hurt and sting. I was expecting my knees to be cut up and bleeding like they did to Lily in the book but it didn't. They felt weird but they did not hurt at all and i wouldnt have cared if i had to kneel on gritz. T.Ray is mean and stuburn and doesnt know hw to punish correctly. He thinks pain is the answer to everything. Lily has a hard painfully life. She has been kneeling on gritz for about her whole life. She will never get used to the feeling and pain they cause to her knees. Everytime she gets the MArtha Whites she will be in pain, bleeding, and not able to walk for a little because it hurts so bad. She has a rough life living with T.Ray.
ReplyDeleteThe grits felt like little pins and needles, I thought it was going to feel more like sand. It made my skin very dry, and scratched it a bit. I am glad its not a punishment for me.
ReplyDeleteT-Ray I think thought that the only way to make Lily understand things was to make her feel pain. He is also very mean and strict, but this punishment I think went a little to far.
Hen I knelt on the grits I expected it to hurt a little bit because Lily was on the grits for an hour and said it didn't bother her. When I actually got down on my knees and knelt on them, the pain came right away. There was so much pressure being put on the grits which made it hurt more than I thought it would.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment shoes how cruel T.Ray really is. I could not stay on those grits for longer than a minute and he makes Lily kneel on them for hours. I would neve be able to live with him. This punishment shows hard Lilys childhood must have been. One little mistake and she would end up kneeling on grits for ar least an hour.
When i put the grits in my hand they were soft and not at all painful. I poured the grits on the ground. I was kind of scared but I kneeled and it didn't hurt that bad but after 15 seconds it was burning it felt like they were digging into my skin. I was in pain.
ReplyDeleteLily was abuse as a kid. She had to do that for a hour. Pour girl. I would defiantly cry and runaway or tell a adult with change power. That parent does not deserve me if i would have to sit on grits for an hour. Lily should have ran away earlier.
In class, I decided to kneel on the grits. I expected them to be a little painful, but no that much. When I kneeled in them, I was surprised that they didn't hurt that much. That thought changed when I started moving around in them, though. They started to hurt a lot more then. When I got up, I could still feel the stinging sensation, and it wouldn't go away for a good 5 minutes. And to think these weren't even real grits, I feel really bad for what Lily had to go through.
ReplyDeleteThe grits punishment says a lot about T. Ray. This shows that he is a very strict parent, and is very serious about consequences. I also think that as a child, he had to kneel in them, too. Maybe he wanted Lily to feel his pain from when he was a child. The grits also tell me a lot about Lily's childhood. I suppose she had a very miserable childhood, with that punishment given to her at a possibly very young age. As she got older, she maybe seemed to get very scared of T. Ray, and knew not to get him angry. The grits are a very major part to The Secret Life of Bees.
I personally expected shards of glass from the way Lily described them in the story. "A punishment only T-Ray could think up," doesn't exactly sound pleasant, especially knowing T-Ray's character and his cruelty. Although, they weren't as bad as I thought they'd be, I wasn't on there very long. A few seconds is absolutely nothing compared to an hour. They felt sharp and provided dull stings, but I've felt much worse things.
ReplyDeleteThis punishment says everything about T-Ray and the bitter man that he really is. I felt bad for Lily and the fact that this was the person she had to look up to, taking pleasure in her misery. Lily's childhood wasn't what it should've been, one of adventure and learning, of fun and happiness. Instead she got a childhood of agony and anguish, her only comfort in Rosaleen. I believe she gained a false sense of maturity and was forced to grow up to early, keeping a part of that child inside of her.
Before kneeling on the grits I expected them to feel like kneeling on rough sandpaper. What looked like sand, turned out to feel like pebbles digging into my knees. I had to be on the grits for an hour, I would imagine the pressure and the friction would cause them to bleed. The grits entering open wound would cause a lot of pain. This pain is a form of torture. This punishment shows that T. Ray is abusive towards Lily. It also shows that he lacks the ability to feel for others. Growing up, Lily felt constricted because she always had to worry about punishment. The fear has caused her to not mature because she is being held back. She is afraid to experience thing because she is afraid of punishment which limits her from maturing.
ReplyDeleteI think that making Lily kneel on the Martha Whites was cruel. I somewhat understand that T. Ray felt that he needed to punish her, but making her kneel on grits was terrible. His punishment towards Lily makes me assume that he is a very strict parent. I think that maybe his parents made him kneel on the Martha Whites and that was the only punishment he knew because that's what was done to him. The way Lily described it in the book made it sound like she went through excruciating pain. I feel really bad and I understand why she ran away with Rosaleen.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was putting the Martha Whites on the floor I wasn't expecting it to hurt much. At first it didn't hurt it just felt uncomfortable but as more time passed and I was put more weight the pain kept on getting more unbearable until it truly did feel like my knees were sitting on glass. I never expected this much pain out of something so innocent. I am truly disgusted that T.ray would make Lilly endure this type of punishment, I even think this is on the verge of abuse.
ReplyDeleteThis type of punishment reveals that T.ray truly is a horrible person who doesn't love Lilly what so ever. For Lilly to have to endure punishments like this for her entire life is horrendous to think about. This shows us that Lilly is much stronger that she appears to endure that for so long to have nobody to vent to no mother or siblings. Lilly is very strong headed and mature for somebody her age.