Judgment Paper
In the book, My Antonia, Jake and Jim were traveling toward Black Hawk, Nebraska on a railway car. With them were the Shimerdas and
because of their foreign nationality Jake immediately assumed that they were disease filled and weren't worth talking to.
Even after Antonia is described to them, this stereotype in embedded in his mind. " They can't any of them speak English, except one little girl,
and all she can say is "We go Black Hawk, Nebraska" She's not much older then you, twelve or thirteen, maybe, and she's bright as a new dollar.
Don't you want to go ahead and see her Jimmy? She's got pretty brown eyes." This last remark mad me bashful, and I shook my head and I settled down to 'Jesse James' Jake
nodded at me approvingly and said you were likely to get diseases from foreigners." (Cather, 10) This stereotype does not last long, at least in Jim's mind, and he becomes
good friends with Antonia. Unlike them I have never had trouble judging someone because of their nationality. This may be because I grew up in the city near a lot of diversity,
but I did, and still do have trouble judging people on how they look and the way they act. For example, the first time I saw my best friend in her yard playing. She was small and was
tomboyish looking. I looked at her and thought that we could never be friends. But since they were our new neighbors my family went over and greeted them. I found out that the
little girl's name was Laura and they had just moved from Kentucky. As usual our parents went into an hour-long talk, and because I was easily bored I started to play
with Laura. She brought me to the backyard where we started to play some sport. From that day on we were best friends. Since then I have always tried
to put my initial judgment aside until I have met them and can pass judgment fairly. I realized then that what you see isn't always what is good. You need to look past the face
and into them to find out if you were really fair. I was pretty good at this until I was went into the eighth grade. I was going over my schedule with one of my friends when she
exclaimed that I was going to have all my classes with Rachel. I smiled and asked who that was, only to turn around and see this mousy looking girl standing in front of me. I tried to
cover the look of utter disappointment and started to talk to her. When I got home that night I realized I had been stupid and the next time I saw her I talked freely with out that
judgment. A lot of the people I have befriended have trouble making friends, and because I don't it is hard for me to understand why they treasure the ones they have so greatly.
Before I met Laura I didn't realize that every friendship is special, I thought only the big ones counted, the others were just there. I can look back on all my friendships and see
the ones I just let slip away with time, and now the people I used to talk to all the time don't even say hello in the halls.
