Little Girl Raised By Monkeys?

Prompt: Give a summary of your book and how you feel about it.

  Tell me, have you ever heard of a 4 year old getting abducted from her home. Sadly, that happens in the world. However, have you heard of that little 4 year old getting drugged, put in a van with other kids then being abandoned all alone in the middle of the jungle? Probably not but thats not the whole story. After 3 days of being in the vast jungle, this little 4 year old girl found a pack of monkeys. Now, you wold probably think that this little girl would run away screaming, crying, scared out of her mind. Not, Marina Chapman. Marina (not her real name) just stood there. After a couple minutes, a couple monkeys came over and started playing with her hair, poking her, wondering what she was. After a while, the monkeys got bored and let her be.

     Over the next few months, the monkey befriend her and they start becoming closer. When Marina ate a fruit that was bad for her, she was in complete pains. You would think that the monkeys would ignore her but your wrong. The eldest monkey went up to her and rolled her to a stream. He forced her to drink the water and waited until she finished and felt better then left. From then on, the monkeys actually started treating her as a part of their group. Grooming each other. Playing with each other and treating each other as one.

Marina Chapman now.

     You might be thinking that this is a fiction story but you are in fact, wrong. Marina Chapman was a real little girl who was ripped away from her home. When I first read the summary of the book, I too thought that this was fiction but I then noticed there was pictures of Marina, the places she lived, and her rescuers. I just find it absolutely astonishing that a group of wild monkeys was able to accept a little girl. Did they know she was frightened? Did they think she was too little to cause harm? We will never know. However, we will know that they made her one of their own and that is amazing.

Is Life Really Beautiful?

The way she looks at him !!! <3

Prompt: Based on the Holocaust literature and poetry we have read, what connections can be made between Life is Beautiful and our reading?  What events, scenes, or situations are similar or different? What is similar or different about the mood or tone of the pieces? How is life shown as beautiful throughout the film. Pull out at least two examples from different parts of the film and explain your rationale.

     After viewing Life Is Beautiful, I noticed there are many connections with this film and other films, poems, and books about the Holocaust. Life Is Beautiful is able to show the reality of the horrible concentration camps without making the whole movie dim and upsetting. The music that they use most of the time is really uplifting an nice and slow. In most movies about the Holocaust, the music is very dark and fast a, frightening. Take The Boy In The Striped Pajamas. The movie itself is dark and sad but the music they use is very dark and mostly low notes making they mood very dark. However, in both films, they show the reality of the "showers." In life Is Beautiful and The Boy in The Striped Pajamas, both times, we see people and kids being tricked into taking a shower when they were really going to their death in the gas chambers. Another way Life Is Beautiful is similar to other works about The Holocaust is the father son bond we see with Guido and Giosuė. In Night by Elie Wiesel, we see the bond Wiesel has with his father. Although in Life Is Beautiful, Guido is looking out for his son in the film and Wiesel is looking out for his father in the book. Either way, we see a strong father son bond that has formed between the sons and fathers. Wiesel and Guido are trying to keep their family member safe and to live as long as possible.  One last difference between Life Is Beautiful and Night is the fact that the women lived. Throughout the movie, Dora survived along with many other women. In most camps,  after arriving, the women would be sent to the furnaces. This was odd for me. Why was this camp different? Did they have too much work? Who knows...

     Like I've said before, most Holocaust movies were completely upsetting, sad, and depressing. However, In Life Is Beautiful, we are able to see a positive and sort of happy humorous mood be created. Throughout the movie, we se Guido try his hardest to show his wife love and his son happiness. A lot of men and women fell into a depression or state of shock but in the film, Guido is able to hold himself quite together. One instance where we see that life really is beautiful is when both Guido and Giosuė went onto the loud speaker of the camp spoke to Dora. The fact that Guido and Giosuė took the risk of being caught and killed to show Dora their love for her is amazing. They just didn't forget her. Didn't let her just drift out of her memory. We see Guidos true love for his wife and how much of his life she takes up. Another instance where we see how life is beautiful is when Guido plays the one Opera song that Dora and him listened together out to the camp. Like the first instance, their was a possibility that he could of been killed on the spot but took the risk to show his wife the love and to reassure his wife that he was still alive. One last instance that I thought strongly showed how life was beautiful was when Guido was still able to stay happy and make his son laugh one last time when he probably knew that he was gonna die. A lot of people would of cried or been completely a mess but he thought of his son first and made sure he had another good memory of his father.

      Comments: Maria, Gianna, Athziry

Night : 2.2.15

Prompt:  How do Elie's experiences during the Holocaust change him as a person? Your goal is to identify at least two major changes, and 'prove' using textual evidence and interpretation, how Eliezer transforms by the end of his memoir. Please use TIQA as your tool for organization.Page: Finished

     Night by Elie Wiesel was an amazing book. It gave us a first hand account of what the Holocaust was and and how if really affected people. In Night, we see Elie Wiesel start changing. Theres a fluctuation in his faith. In the beginning, he was a devout Jew but as we see his story unfold, he starts losing his faith but then we see him start coming back.  Also, we see his compassion towards others change. He was only 15 when he had the mindset of, me over anyone else. However, we also see that change multiple times in the book.

      Another way we see Elie change in the book is his compassion towards others. As a child, most kids feel compassion and don't think twice about being sad if they lose someone. When Wiesel was taken, he thought about his sister and mother. He states in his book "From time to time, in the middle of all that talk, a thought crossed my mind: Where is Mother right now…and Tzipora…" Like any other child, he worries for his family. He missed them. Yet, his time in the camps starts making him hard minded and he starts forgetting about the life he used to have and his family. He states in his book, "I no longer thought of my father, or my mother. From time to time, I would dream. But only about soup, an extra ration of soup." Being in the camps caused him to think of his survival and his survival only. 

     In the beginning of the book, we see Elie as a devout Jew. He's constantly praying and has no doubt that God is real and that he loves everyone. When asked about why he prays he states, "Why did I pray?... Why did I live? Why did I breathe?” Praying, to him, was something routine. He didn't question it. He just did. Just like breathing or thinking, you didn't need a reminder. As we get deeper into the book, we start to see Wiesel question his faith. He doesn't understand why God is willing to let his people be killed as if they were animals. After being in the camps for some time, he states, "Why should  I sanctify His name? The Almighty, the eternal and terrible master of the Universe, chose to be silent. What was there to thank Him for?" Elie thinks that there is no reason to love and thank God if all God is doing is sitting around not doing anything.