description


 * Description entries:**
 * 1) "[I] saw him kick her with his foot off the bus and onto the sidewalk. She landed on her hands an knees and her purse flew open and coins rolled all over."
 * 2) This is a scene where Helen describes the first time she witnessed the manifestation of racism. She talks about her childhood and how protected she was from the outside world, which she compares with her life now.
 * 3) P. 7
 * 4) Tyler Peterson


 * 1) "Death by electrocution in the United States began in 1890 at Auburn prison in upstate New York, when William Kemmler was killed by the state of New York"
 * 2) She is describing the method of electrocution and begins by telling it's history.
 * 3) Page 18
 * 4) Patrick Hickman


 * 1) "The hands turn red, then white, and the cords of the neck stand out like steel bands..."
 * 2) This is a description of witnessing someone put to death by electrocution.
 * 3) Page 19
 * 4) Nicole Burnett


 * 1) "When the post-electrocution autopsy is performed the lives is so hot that doctors said it cannot be touched by the human hand... the body frequently is badly burned..."
 * 2) This is the description Sister Helen gives us about the bodies of those who have been a victim of the electric chair.
 * 3) pg 20
 * 4) Justin Brimley


 * 1) "There are red and yellow zinnias all along the road, and the grass is neatly trimmed. Molted black and white cattle browse in a field of green. I see a column of inmates, most of them black, marching out to soybean and vegetable fields, their hoes over their shoulders. Behind and in front of the marching men, guards on horseback with rifles watch their charges."
 * 2) This is the dismal description that Sister Helen gives the prison as she first approaches it while on her way to visit Pat.
 * 3) pg. 24
 * 4) Olivia Start


 * 1) "He chuckles remembering how his mother would help them with the rabbit hunt and it was always her job to put the dead rabbits in the sacke and to "finish them off" with a stick if they weren't dead yet. And we'd be stalking along and behind us we'd hear //whack, whack, whack -// Mama beating the hell out of those rabbits."
 * 2) This is when Sister Helen is talking to Pat Sonnier about his past life. Pat Sonnier has not explained to Sister Helen about the murders yet. She is waiting to give him time so that he will tell her when he's ready.
 * 3) Pg. 29
 * 4) Shiona Smith


 * 1) "Pat looks thin, sallow. He has dark circles under his eyes. He has not been able to keep his food down and has lost thirty pounds in two weeks. He keeps going on coffee and cigarettes."
 * 2) This is the way Sister Prejean describes Pat during the time leading up to his execution. She describes just how he has been affected by the stress and anxiety nearing his last hours.
 * 3) pg. 35
 * 4) Andrew Stuck


 * 1) "Yes, his poor mother. She had bee raised by her grandmother, lived out in the middle of cane fields, and at a young age had married an older man. The marriage had brought a trail of sorrows, no companionship, just poverty."
 * 2) This is where Helen described Pat's mother to the reader. Pat had talked about his mom and was thinking about her before he was to be executed
 * 3) P. 38
 * 4) The JoshuaTrotman


 * 1) "Please don't let me be buried here, and I have promised I won't let that happen. This means getting a funeral home to perform the services, a suit of clothes for him to be buried in, a plot of ground. ... Kathleen says she'll go to Goodwill to pick out a burial suit. What size do you think he wears? How tall is he? ... He's a good six feet and not thin. He's a big man."
 * 2) This is the talk Sister Helen has with Kathleen about Pat Sonnier's burial situation. She explains how he wants a proper burial even though he is to be 'fried' in the electric chair. Kathleen agrees to get him a suit to be buried in, and Sister Helen describes Sonnier's size to her in order to get the suit.
 * 3) Page 66-67
 * 4) Josh Oelsner


 * 1) "My driver stops and parks in front of the green cinder-block building, an ordinary building except for the large generator to the left. Across the front of the building in four neatly painted cans are geraniums, brilliant red. Just across the road, ducks swim in a lagoon. In front of the glass doors at the entrance sits a blue-uniformed guard with a rifle across his lap."
 * 2) This is when Sister Helen is driving to the death house. She is describing what she sees before she has to go in and see Pat Sonnier. The outside sounds somewhat peaceful even though it is the death house.
 * 3) Pg 72
 * 4) Cassandra Cokl


 * 1) "I can't imagine ever being so powerless. I think of Camus' description of the condemned: //everything goes on the outside of him... He is no longer a man but a thing waiting to be handled..//."
 * 2) This is Sister Prejean's description of how she feels after reading Pat's letter to Governor Edwards. Pat had not been able to attend his own court hearing and is asking the Governor for another court hearing that he can attend.
 * 3) Page 74
 * 4) Adrienne Burr


 * 1) "At last the rain has stopped. The sky is wide and arching blue."
 * 2) This is her description of the day before she visits Sonnier. She always describes how great it is to be outside with flowery language to compare the freedom of the outdoors to the confinement of jail.
 * 3) Page 79
 * 4) Paige Fery


 * 1) "He's in his mid-fifties, a tall man, his hair thinning. He's soft-spoken, reflective. On the bookshelf behind his desk is a photograph of his family."
 * 2) This quote explains the first face to face encounter between Helen and Mr. Phelps. Helen has been very curious about seeing and meeting the man that sets up the witnesses, designing the protocol, even though he thinks the death penalty is not morally right.
 * 3) P. 102
 * 4) Nina Allen


 * 1) "Phelps is so reasoned, so soft-spoken, so professional. My heart weights a hundred pounds."
 * 2) This quote describes how Phelps conducts his work, and how others view him.
 * 3) Pg. 103
 * 4) Alex Clark


 * 1) “It is a May and the air is drenched with sweetness of the pink mimosa blossoms and there is a cool breeze coming off the river. On the sidewalk in front of us gaggles of chattering children meander home from school, and I know that one of the gifts I have now, after the death house, is to know how precious life is and how I want to savor it and taste it and use my power to the fullest and not niggle them away.”
 * 2) This is a description of a walk she took with the reporter Liz Scott. She uses all of the details to show how great her appreciation for life really is, instead of just saying it is.
 * 3) Page 111
 * 4) Elisabeth Barrows


 * 1) "... there's a child sitting inside this tough, macho dude."
 * 2) This is Millard describing Robert Willie to Sister Helen Prejean.
 * 3) Page 119
 * 4) Zoe Wheatley

1. "His handwriting is a tender scrawl and some of the words are misspelled." 2. In this quote, Sister Prejean describes Robert Willie's penmanship based on the letter she received from him. 3. Page 120 4. Chris Coombs


 * 1) We can all go home now,and my thoughts are turning toward the free and airy bus ride home,//sitting,// not walking, and knowing I'm not responsible for all these people and the myriad details of organizing.A full moon has come out and is shinning its white metallic light towards the capitol steps.People are drifting down the steps toward waiting yellow school buses and cars."
 * 2) This passage describes Sister Helens relief after three days of marching for the abolishing the Death penalty and attaining a positive influence on the media and public's belief towards the issue.Describing the capitol steps and people going into buses ,Sister Helen is describing the end of her long march and ending of the publicity surrounding it with every one packing up there things and leaving.
 * 3) Page 131
 * 4) Aaron Ershler

1. "The pale October sun has been sliding steadily downward and through the window I can see the trees turing into dark purple silhouettes. Inside, darkness has been slowly seeping into the room." 2. This is Sister Helen describing the night after she has spoken to Vernon and Elizabeth. 3. Page 137 4. Paige Fery

1. "As indicated earlier, public opinion surveys in a number of states show that support for the death penalty drops significantly when the public is assured that murders will remain behind bars for life." 2. In this passage Sister Helen is describing statistics which show that the public actually feels safe when a Govenor commutes a death sentence and less eager for the death penalty. 3. Page 144 4. Seamus Appel


 * 1) "And here re photographs: Robert when first arrested, with wild, long tangled hair; Robert, head shaved, ands and feet cuffed, looking at Vaccaro and grinning as they walk into the courthouse; Robert with a bandana on his head, caught close up by the camera, sneering."
 * 2) Sister Helen reading up on Robert Willie's background describing the photographs featured of Willie and Vaccaro's trial.
 * 3) Page 152
 * 4) Shiona Smith


 * 1) "He has a broad, square face, fair skin, and a thick brown mustache. His dark brown hair is neatly combed except for a thick shock that falls in the middle of his forehead. He has light brown eyes and wears glasses. He is a troubled man."
 * 2) This is a description of Major Kendall Coody who is in charge of death row.
 * 3) Page 180
 * 4) Sarah Anne Nakamura


 * 1) "big juicy steaks fixed...throw over the side"
 * 2) This is a basic description of the type of steaks he is eating however it is a goo example because it uses both adjectives and adverbs as well as a prepositional phrase as opposed to the simple noun+adjective such as big steaks.
 * 3) Page 206
 * 4) Emily Strand


 * 1) "...there would be rats "as big as dogs and cats" in the grain..."
 * 2) This is just a simple description of how big the rats were using a simile.
 * 3) Page 206
 * 4) Nicole Burnett


 * 1) "His head looks whitish gray and shiny. His hair is gone now, eyebrows too. He looks like a bird without feathers."
 * 2) This is a description of Pat right before he was executed.
 * 3) Page 90
 * 4) Katie Stefanich