'Life is Beautiful' Blog

The film Life is beautiful and the memoir Night has many similarities as well as many differences. An example of how they are similar were some of the events, the fact that both in the book and film the main characters and other Jews received a warning of some sort of what was coming. In Night their warning was Moche the Beadle, a character who was a foreign Jew that was taken by the Nazis. Moshe was able to escape from the slaughter that the Nazis were doing with Jews. Afterwards  he wanted everyone to the atrocities he saw being committed towards Jews by these men known as the Nazis. Unfortunately no one believed him, they let their positive thinking get in the way from taking Moshe the Beadle’s story and trying to figure out if it was true or not. In the film Life if Beautiful they too had a warning. The Nazis spray painted the white horse of the uncle of Guido with green paint and wrote “Danger, Jewish horse” in German, Guido was a positive man that didn't pay no mind to the warning.
          Life is Beautiful and Night didn't only have similarities they as well had differences. For example in the film Guido had made up a game for his son as they were going to the work camp. Guido basically made his son believe that they were going there as a vacation and that if they stayed there they would earn 1000 points and that would get them a tank. Of course the child believed it. Guido found a way to make his child avoid being traumatized by the camp itself. But in the memoir, Elie and his father were already older so they just took in the reality of being prisoners of the work camps.
          The mood was very different but at the same time it was the same. In the movie the main character from Life is Beautiful, Guido, made the film have humor. The reason why he used humor was to not make his son, Giosué, feel frightened in the camp. Not only did he add humor to the film but he also gave hope along with the humor which was a bit refreshing. Unlike in the book, Night, there wasn't any humor at all. It was all very serious and a bit depressing. But then again the film was all fiction and the book was a memoir of a Holocaust survivor, Elie Wiesel. The similarity though was the sorrow that was seen in both. At the end of the film Guino dies trying to keep his child safe and in the movie Elie’s father dies, the last family Elie had.
       Even though the end of the film Life is Beautiful was very sorrowful there was some parts within the movie that really did show how beautiful life is. For instance some part during the middle of the movie there was a party in which Dora was announced to be engaged to a man when all of a sudden Guino comes in with a horse and basically asks Dora to go with him. She accepts and they have a child. I found this part really beautiful because Dora fell in love with Guino and left what she had for him while Guino really obtained what he wanted, to be loved by Dora. The best part was the fact that they had a baby which gave the audience the feeling that they would have a happily ever. Another event that I found beautiful was when Guino and his son were in the camp and Guino made up a game for his son. He told made him think that they were there to earn a prize. Guino did everything in his power to keep his son from suffering. It caught my attention because Guino was willing to do anything to keep his son from finding out what was really happening in those camps.

           

3rd quarter Reflection Blog

This quarter has been one of the craziest yet, I've had many ups and downs. I don't think that I did so great in ELA for 3rd quarter. And yeah you would expect a student to have everything together by the end of 3rd quarter. Unfortunately I didn't. I’m pretty sure my grades went down, and I don't think I was focused nor do I think I tried my best. But there is something that I have taken from this experience, and something that I will improve on in the future. I've realized that I need to manage my time to get work done. I also come to realize how to be more focused and be even more responsible so that I don't fall behind like I did this quarter.

 Everything wasn't so bad this quarter, from the blogs that I've recently done I have seen improvements. For example compared to my blogs from August you can tell that I'm doing a better job of organizing my thoughts. Other improvements that I'm very proud of is how easy it is to write in an objective tone when it comes to a topic. It has become like an instinct to not put subjective words such as I, we, and I think. I'm positive this will help me do a better job in debates etc.
 
A goal that I want to accomplish for 4th quarter is to have a better vocabulary when it comes to writing. For instance I don't want to keep using basic words to describe emotions. I also would like my writing to be more meaningful. I want it to have some sort of effect on the reader's thinking.

Night blog

        People change in many ways all the time, especially after a very tragic event. An example of change in a person can be seen in the memoir that I've been reading called Night by Elie Wiesel, here he goes back and talks about his experience as a Jew in a concentration camp during WWII. He describes scenes that can’t be unseen. Elie changes both physically and mentally. For example a change that can be easily seen is his connection with God and his religion.

       In the beginning of the memoir Elie is a young boy who was only seeking to serve god in any way he could, in other words he was very pious. An example of his devotion for God is in the book where it says, “He had watched me one day as I prayed at dusk. "Why do you pray?" he asked after a moment. Why did I pray? Strange question. Why did I live? Why did I breathe? "I don't know," I told him…”(4.) In this passage Elie’s master, Moshe the Beadle, asks questions that even Elie can’t answer about himself. When he’s asked about why he cries when he prays he makes it seem as it it’s something necessary to live and compares it to breathing and living. Young Wiesel believes that he was born to serve God. Unfortunately when he arrives in the camp his beliefs change. In the text it says, “ Never shall I forget those moments that murdered my God and my souls and turned my dreams into ashes.” (32) Elie feels as if as in the moment that he was prisoner in the concentration camp his God wasn't the one he thought He was. Elie saw so much death that it actually destroyed his view on God.

        Wiesel’s faith wasn't the only thing that changed through the book, his relationship with his dad also did. In the book as Elie and his father arrive at the concentration camp a traumatizing moment for any child happens, in the text it says, “I did not move. What had happened to me? My father had just been struck, before my very eyes, and I had not flickered an eyelid" (37) As Elie’s father gets beaten up by one of the guards Elie gets paralyzed and does nothing, he himself was even surprised. Before Elie was ever in the camp he would've definitely done something if one of his parents was ever disrespected like that, but the fear made him freeze and be a bystander. If you think about it Elie and his father were there for a small amount of time, which means that it only took a bit to change Elie. It also shows how cruel and terrifying the atmosphere was.

Butterfly Project

"It all depend on how you look at it"

Terezin is full of beauty.
It’s in your eyes now clear
And through the street the tramp
Of many marching feet I hear
In the ghetto at Terezin,

It looks that way to me,
Is a square kilometer of earth
Cut off from the world that’s free.

Death, after all, claims everyone,
You find it everywhere.
It catches up with even those
Who wear their noses in the air.

The whole, wide world is ruled
With a certain justice, so
That helps perhaps to sweeten
The poor man’s pain and woe.



        I commented on Claudia's blog
        I commented on Nathaly's blog
        I commented on Jack's blog
        I commented on Isaiah's blog
        I commented on America's blog

Berlin Memorial Activity

          Based  on the Berlin memorial activity I learned that when laws for the Jewish were made they were small changes, at first, such as Jewish people not being able to join clubs or prohibiting them from going to the beach. Now this all started in 1933 and as the years went by all the way to 1945 the laws made for Jews became more extreme and specific, for example, in 1942 Jews HAD to have a "Jewish star" displayed outside of their homes. There are many other absurd laws.

           I think that monument was build stop making people feel like it's okay to talk about the Holocaust. Of course some people may think that that's disrespectful but I'm sure those aren't the intentions of the people who put the signs up. It's more of a symbol that they were able to get through that and see it as a big life lesson.

           Something that I noticed about the number of laws passed in certain years was that it was all  definitely planned out because in 1933  there was a ton of laws that were being made for Jews, and it wasn't laws that immediately made them go into concentration camps or anything like that they were more of small things being changed like Jewish actors and actresses not being able to continue their career. As the years progressed the laws were very specific and were more serious. One thing that I know for sure is that Hitler was a very smart man that had the talent to talk people into things. Unfortunately he didn't use his brains or his talent for anything positive.

           A restriction  that I would have the most trouble doing with would be the law passed down  that said that you werent able to have any pets at home. The reason why is because back when I used to own a dog I know that you get attached to your pet. And I know what it feels like to have your pet taken away. It always feels lonely and you miss even the smallest things of them.

2nd Quarter reflection

          As this 2nd quarter ends there are many things that have contributed to my writing and to my learning in ELA in a positive way. For example an area in language arts that I have improved on a lot is my writing. Now it’s more easier to have my ideas come out on to my writing. In the beginning I wasn’t the worst writer but I wasn’t writing in the level that I wanted. Now it’s more easier for my ideas to flow and make my writing sound more professional. Annotating was another big accomplishment too because at times I would annotate information that was irrelevant to what I was supposed to be looking for.
          Another improvement that I have accomplished in this class since the new year is being more attentive to the world. Before I didn’t really see the news or anything of that sort. Me being involved with my surroundings has made me analyze to what's happening in the world. It also helps me in my writing. For example me reading the newspaper has influenced me to try to mimic some of their techniques into my own work.
          The most challenging part of 2nd quarter was to keep up with the assignments. Even though I didn't miss any it was hard and challenging because Mrs.Larson was already expecting us to have a more professional writing. Along with a lot more reading. We made about two blogs on books that we had to read on our own. Another thing that I had a bit of a hard time on was on research. Even though I love doing research it’s a lot more challenging when you have to make sure your sources are trustworthy.

Written transcript: "Flipped" by Wendelin Van Draanen

       The title of the book that I'm currently reading is called Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen. The genre of this book is Realistic fiction. The setting in which the book takes place isn´t very specific of when or where the book happens but we do know that it's in a small town called Mayfield. The book happens within two places in the town, a school called Maywood Junior High and a neighborhood in Mayfield. The main characters of Flipped are Bryce and Julianna. We go through the journey along with them of growing up from a seven year old to a teenager in 8th grade with both characters. Even though Juli and Bryce narrate the same situations in the book they remember things differently since they have different mindsets. It makes both of them very different. Bryce for example is a character with many fears. He's afraid to climb the Sycamore tree, too scared to eat Juli´s eggs or even talk to her about them. Bryce isn't brave enough to stand up to his dad when he's being a jerk. He has been called a coward many time through the book as well. In the other hand Julianna is a free spirit who is very kind hearted. She also happens to have a big crush on Bryce since they were seven. Julie is a great daughter and great friend but she does go through some tough times as she grows up.
          The main conflict in the story is more like two problems in one. While Bryce was being a jerk by making fun of Julie’s disabled uncle Julianna realizes that Bryce might not be the one. At the same time Bryce is slowly noticing how great of a girl Julie is and how she might be the one for him. In other words the roles get ‘Flipped’. Since there are two narrators in the book, Julianna and Bryce, there are a variety of different moods. For Julianna the moods that she brings to the book are very passionate and exclamatory. She makes the book have more excitement and brings lots of deep emotions as well. For Bryce the type of mood he brings into the book is more of a laid back type of feeling. Don't get me wrong he also can bring a very cringy feeling as well. The theme of the book Flipped is to never exclude anything to anyone. What I'm trying to say is to never overlook something or just assume that what you see is all a person has to offer. It's basically like that saying “Don't judge a book by it's cover”.

        

            The book Flipped by Wendelin Van Draanen is by far one of my top three favorite books. The reason why I really like this book is because I really liked the way the reader got to see both main characters change. It also has a lot of unexpected details that you could've never guessed. Something that I remember most of the book is the conversations Julianna and her dad had. For example I liked that advice he gave her about to not only focus on the small details of something but to look at the big picture. Someone that I would recommend this book to is to anyone that likes books that end up turning out completely different of how one imagined. The viewer should definitely try to read this book because I think it's a book that really makes feel like your part of the book. I mean you're basically watching the main characters grow and change.