3rd Quarter Reflection blog

3rd Quarter Reflection blog 

The area I think I made my biggest improvement in English Language Arts this quarter is in using the vocabulary words we got and using them outside of class. When I'm reading I see some words like weariness or morale and I know what they mean. Before I didin't know what those words were and It made me slow down on my reading. I guess you can say that it improved my reading skills. Now I use the vocabulary words when I speak to someone or use them in my writing for other classes. I wouldn't use the new vocab words in my writing or speaking before until now. Which I like because it makes my writing look more professional than before.

Something that I accomplished this quarter that I am proud of is getting all my vocabulary/root words correct all quarter. Last quarter in one of the vocabulary test I got one word wrong. I put the same definition letter for two words and ended up forgetting one of the definitions. But I knew it was the other definition but for some silly reason I put a different letter and got it wrong. Which is why now I double check my test before turning it in. My goal is to continue to get all my vocab tests correct until the end of the year.

The most challenging part of 3rd Quarter for me was using the vocabulary words outside of class. I would learn them but wouldn't really use them in my writing or speaking. It was hard for me to use them because I wouldn't know how or when to use them. (I didn't know how to put them in a sentence that would end up making sense.) But with time I used them little by little until they became a part of me.

Of the books I have read this quarter Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo has been my favorite because it has romance and magic in it. It got my attention and made me get attached to some of the characters. I got fouled by one of the characters and thought they were actually kind. But it turned out to be the enemy. Which was surprising. This book takes place in a time period where there are kings and queens. With powerful Grisha who help fight and protect. Then the romance between some of the characters is surprising.

Life is Beautiful

Life is Beautiful 

Based on the Holocaust literature and poetry we have read I saw some connections between life is Beautiful and our reading from the book Night. First of all, in both stories there was a family who was captured and taken to the concentration camp. ( Elie and his family as well as Guido and his family.) Once both families were taken to the camps they were separated. The males and females went separate ways. leaving Elie with his father and Guido with his son Joshua. 

In the end from both Night and Life is Beautiful Elie and Joshua survived the Holocaust and were freed by the Russians. They both had lost their father in the end. Which was very sad because they were so close to their freedom. But I guess some sacrifices had to be done in order for Elie and Joshua to survive. Both the book Night and the film Life is beautiful showed strong characters who didn't give up. Elie didn't give up nor did Joshua's father. They gave it their best until their last breathe. Which showed the audience that they should stay strong at all times and not give up. 

Ortho I really didn't expect Guido, one of the main characters to die in the film. Since he is one of the main characters in the film I never expected for him to get killed. When he turned the corner in the concentration camp and the Nazi shot Guido I was surprised. But I wasn't sad because I thought that Guido had been shot on the shoulder or leg or side and had faked his death. (Pretended to be dead). That once the Nazis fled with the others that Guido would get up and go for his son. But it never happened. It just showed Joshua and his mother Dora together again in the end. At least Josh was united with his mother again. 

Something that was different from the book Night and the film was that the book didn't show humor. The book was more serious and sad than the film. In the book it shows from the start how the Nazis started to take over little by little in different areas. While in the film it shows the people having fun and living their life in a peaceful and happy way. Even when Guido and his family got cent to the concentration camp the humor didn't die. Guide kept a positive attitude and kept his son happy and safe. 

Something that is similar about the mood was that in the begging of the lessons and movie it showed the audience the happy side of the Jewish people. Of when they were together and were treated like actual people. Before they got their rights taken away and they went go through a living hell. As well as the tone of the characters of the book Night and life is Beautiful was cheerful and full of hope in the begging. But still kept the main characters strong as the time went by. 

Life is shown as beautiful throughout the film because Guido always found a way to make the people around him/his son smile and forget about the bad things. He kept a positive mood and told his son that it was a game and that he needed to hide and stay quiet in order to win a tank. Which was a good way to save his son's life even though Guido didn't survive. The other way the movie shows humor is by having Guido be silly with others to make them smile as well. To make them happy again and have a better day. Or at least for most aside from the guy that kept getting his hat taken away and future wife away by Guido. 

Night

Elie's experiences during the Holocaust changed him as a person in some ways. It changed his personality. The way it changed his personality was that Wiesel stopped caring for others. In the beginning Elie and his sister help out the Jewish police bring water to the little kids. According to Wiesel “Water! Mummy! Water” The Jewish police from the ghetto were able to go and fill a few jugs secretly. Since my sister and I were destined for the last convoy and we were still allowed to move about, we helped them as well as we could” (Page 14). Showing how in the beginning Elie helps others because of his kindness and trust. But then later on in the book Elie doesn't even offer to help the other Jews that were with him. Such as when an old man was killed by his own son for a piece of bread. Elie watched but he didn't do anything to help the old man. According to the book Night by Elie Wiesel it says "Meir. Meir, my boy! Don't you recognize me? I'm your father . . . you're hurting me . . . you're killing your father! I've got some bread . . . For you too . . . For you too . . . He collapsed" (Page 96). This shows how Wiesel's personality has changed because he did nothing to help the poor man. He just watched without feeling sorry for him. Without caring that the man would die. He stopped caring and trusting others and became silent and shut down.

It also changed the way Elie is with his father throughout the book. In the beginning Elie was with his dad and wanted to be with him. He didn't want to lose him. According to Wiesel “My hand shifted on my father’s arm. I had one thought - not to lose him. Not to be left alone” (27). Showing how Elie didn't want to lose his father and be alone. Wiesel still cared for his father when they had been taken to the concentration camp. Later on in the book Elie doesn't care about his father. He does want his father to be alive anymore. He wanted him dead so that he wouldn't have to struggle to care for him.According to Wiesel “I went to look for him. But at the same moment this thought came into my mind: “Don’t let me find him! If only I could get rid of this dead weight, so that I could use all my strength to struggle for my own survival, and worry about myself” (101). As you can see Elie changed the way he was with his father. He went from caring and loving his father to wishing death upon him.

Eliezer’s beliefs changed as well. Before he got out into the concentration camps he believed in God. But then once he is in the concentration camps he stops believing in him. According to Wiesel “One day I asked my father to find me a master who could guide me in my studies of Kabbalah” (Page 3 online book). This shows how in the beginning Elie believed in God and loved him. That he was interested in learning more about God and the Kabbalah. He even asked his father to find a master who would guide him with his studies. But then later on in the book when Elie is at the concentration camps he stops believing in God. According to Wiesel“Why should I bless his name? The Eternal Lord of the universe, the All-Powerful and Terrible, was silent. What had I to thank Him for?” (Page 31). This shows how Elie slowly stops believing in God because God didn't help him and let the Nazis hurt him and the others.

Making Elie struggle to maintain his faith and continue living. As Elie is entering the camp and sees the furnace. He loses faith. According to Wiesel “Never shall I forget those flames which consumed my faith forever. Never shall I forget those moments which murdered my God and my soul …” (Page 32). Elie admits it himself. He says that he will never forget to see how his faith was consumed by the flames and the moments that murdered his god. He lost faith and stopped believed in god. When they are running in the cold snow to get away from the Russians he wants to die. According to Wiesel “The idea of dying, of ceasing to be, began to fascinate me. To no longer exist. To no longer feel the excruciating pain of my foot. To no longer feel anything, neither fatigue nor cold, nothing. To break rank, to let myself slide to the side of the road… My father's presence was the only thing that stopped me” (Page 87 online book). Elie wishes to die. It was a struggle for Elie to mantis his faith because if it wouldn't of been for his father and the idea of soon being free, then Eliezer would of given up and died. These are some of the ways Elie’s experiences during the Holocaust changed him as a person.

Wiesel, Elie. Night. New York, NY: Bantam , 1982 . Print.

Butterfly Projct

"Theresientstadt's Hospital"

Once, happier people lived here

in the gray building.

Now, death moves silently toward those other creatures,

those with typhoid, who moan and writhe

in their own diarrhea,

who lie here and don’t understand

why they are being fed bread and margarine.

I enter and become silent.

“You shiny new doorknobs,

you pretty painted walls in the bright ward,

can you make up for the stench of excrement?

Can you appease the hunger of those who are ashamed of their underwear,

and brought here to die,

day by day?’

The paint looks at me

and doesn’t answer.

“Why? I don’t understand why!”

It seems the doorknob would say,

when it opened for me,

a free soul, with a full stomach.

“I can tell you

and then you will come to me!”

Anonymous

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