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. 

"Preparing for The Commissioners Visit" -Helga Weissova

Comments: Isabella, Nadrian, Autumn, Jesus, Abdiel

Night- I kind of read ahead... *SPOILERS?*

     I cannot explain how I feel towards this book. It sickens me that all these events actually happened to Elie Wiesel because of something so small as his religion. The book is the story of a jewish man named, of course, Elie Wiesel. So far, we have read about Wiesels  home town, the experience he had in the ghetto and the first few days of being at the Birkenau concentration camp.

     The book is very graphic. We learn, from Moshe the beadle, that the Germans were using "foreign" babies as targets and shooting them. We learn from Wiesel himself that he was put in a cattle car with 80 other people. They were given very little water and very little bread. He watched a lady go mad because of being deprived of water. Because of her going mad, her fellow Jews started beating her to get her to be quiet. We also learn about how Wiesel saw children from the age of 17 and down, including babies, be thrown into a pit of fire and burned alive. Personally, I don't know how Wiesel was able to make himself look sane. I would of probably ended up mad like the lady.

      In the book, we also learn about how Wiesel and his parents had to lie about their age. Wiesel had to lie and say he was actually 18 even though he was 15. His father had to lie and say he was 40 instead of 50. If it wasn't for a prisoner who came up to them and told them to lie, we would of never been able to hear Wiesels story...

Comment: Gianna Nik Marisa

Holocaust Reflection Blog

     This weeks AOW gallery walk was probably my favorite one yet. I Liked how even though the topic of the articles were really restricted, people were able to find many articles that circled around the idea of The Holocaust. One article that I found quite shocking was Isabella's. In her article, she talked about a survivor who was able to hide away for 2 years and detour the death camp Auschwitz. However, he decided to keep this a secret.For 60 years, he didn't tell anyone about his secret. Nor his wife or children knew about his story until his wife died and decided to come out and tell the truth.

     Although a lot of the articles this week were positive in the sense they talked about survivors but there were a few negative articles. Marisa's article talked about a specific death camp named Ravensbruk . It was an only female camp used predominantly for medical experiments. When the camp was liberated by the USSR, instead of helping all the women who survived, the "liberators" raped the woman causing them to become more scared than they were. Another negative article was Nik's article. It talked about a former Nazi. He was 90 years old and they just found out he used to be a Nazi. He worked at Auschwitz and is thought of to been an experimental scientists. he is currently being charged for war crimes. For me, i'm kind of twisted on what I think about him being charged. It was an awful thing that he did but the man is 90 years old. He's already living with the horror and guilt of his actions. Having him die in a jail cell just sounds kind of wrong to me. He only has so much life left.  It's a sensitive topic that I would have to be more informed on to make a clear decision. however, there were many positive articles like Diego's. Diego's talked about a survivor named Ivor Perl. he was taken to a camp at the age of 18. he had to lie and live off of very little food. However he pushed through everything and was eventually liberated.

Berlin Memorial Activity- Reflection

1- What did you learn?
2- Why do you think this monument was built?
3- What did you notice about the number of laws passed in certain years?
4- Which restrictions do you think you would have the most trouble dealing with and why?

     During today's activity, I was completely shocked about how Jews were treated and restricted even before the concentration camps. I learned how the Nazi party created over 400 stupid and unnecessary laws restricting Jews from living a normal life that most people then and now take for granted. Some laws were that there was a specific curfew for the Jews. They could not be out at night past 8-9 PM. Jewish doctors, writer, artists, actors, and more could not do their job. if they were allowed, they would not be paid and eventually fired. Jewish people could not go to the beach, pool, or movies. Besides taking away Jewish peoples entertainment which was possible to live without, their basic necessities were taken away from them. Jewish people could no longer buy shaving cream or soap. They were no longer able to but new clothes and certain foods/drinks like milk, eggs, and specific meats. The Nazi party was also trying to get rid of any Jewish history behind the city as well. All streets named with Jewish names were renamed and Jewish peoples houses of worship were torn down and prohibited from being rebuilt. The Jewish were slowly losing their life piece by piece. Being dehumanized.However, they still believed in what they did and were not gonna change for anyone.

     I think this monument was built because they don't want all the new generations to forget what happened. It's so easy to forget things. No matter how big. This monument is a forever reminder of what happened. Something horrible that manipulated so many people and caused people their lives. The laws passed in all of the years of the holocaust were kind of weird. However, understandable. When they first laws came out, there were so many at once. They just threw so many laws at these people out of no where, The next year however, there were so many less laws made. I think it was because they didn't want any other countries being suspicious. They wanted to be on the down low. Towards the and of the Holocaust, like the 3 to last year, there were hardly any laws made. This was because there were really no other ways they could make Jews lives any harder and because most Jews were in concentration camps.

My Brother thought it was a good idea
to give our dog, Buddy, eyebrows...

     I think the 2 restriction that would be the hardest on me are 1, I am no longer to draw, read, or write. Although I don't write much, I think that if I was in that time, i would need some outlet. Somewhere where I can just rant on and on and not be harmed by it. Also, I love to draw. I may not be very good but it makes me feel better. Without drawing or writing then, I would have no real way to express myself. I would feel like i had a straight jacket on. Being constricted and having no way out of it. Lastly, I may not read much but if I would not be able to entertain myself by going out in public and I can't write or draw, reading would be the only thing I have left and I wouldn't be able to do that either. I would be bored all of the time. Being useless. Without being able to do any of these things would probably make me go ... crazy. the second restriction that I would have the most difficulty with would be that I can't have pets. My dog is like one of my best friends. I would probably have no friends back then because I would not be able to play with them or I was too scared to go outside. Without my dog, i would have no one to talk to. Although I know he would never respond, he would listen. I already can write and draw or read so I would honestly have nothing to do. My dog is always there for me, no matter what. Without my dog, I would feel... alone. Like a big blob of nothing. These 2 restrictions are definitely the 2 that would be hardest with me to deal with.