Outside Reading #5

For this outside reading, I am going to talk about the new graphic novel that we are reading called Persepolis. I started reading this book yesterday, and have already found myself at page 140. I have really enjoyed this book, and the pictures have been a really nice change from the normal all-text books we have been reading. The novel is about a young girl in Iran that has to grow up during a time of war. She undergoes a lot of changes, and matures as the war goes on. She is a very rebellious girl, but usually for the right reasons. She slaps her teacher, but only because her teacher was trying to get her to practice the religion of the fundamentalists. Many of her close friends and relatives die in the book, but she perseveres and stays strong through times of hardships. Right now I am at the part where her parents are considering shipping her off to Austria.

Outside Reading #4

For this outside reading, I am going to comment on the rest of the book, "Slaughterhouse Five" by Kurt Vonnegut. I really liked this book, and I thought it was really interesting. Basically, throughout the rest of the book, I got more familiar with the whole time travel aspect, which really helped me understand it better. Once understanding that, I was able to familiarize myself with his thoughts and the significance of the "flashbacks." I really liked the idea of the Tramalfadorians capturing Billy and how they placed him in a zoo on their homeland. The whole 4 dimensional thing was really cool, and Kurt Vonnegut gave a good way of describing it with still leaving much room for imagination. Moving on towards the end of the novel, I liked how the book ended, but I thought that I would be open to different endings. I thought it was strange that such a dreary and dismal book could end in such a happy and satisfying way. Anyway, I am overall pleased with this read and happy that I chose it.

Outside Reading #4

For this outside reading, I am going to switch topics and blog about the book that I am reading for english. The book that I have just started is Slaughterhouse Five. I am only sixty pages into this book, but already I really like it. The first thirty pages or so are just about Kurt Vonnegut, the author, and how he has decided to publish this book and why he wanted to write about it. At first, he thought it would be an easy topic to talk about, because he had experienced it firsthand, but he soon realized that he didn't remember a lot of what went on. He ends up calling some of his old commerades from the war to ask them if they remember. After writing the book, Vonnegut says that the reason for publishing was to talk about anti-war, and the tradgedies of what goes on. In the next thirty pages, it switches to the young boy in the forests of Germany toward the end of WWII. He is walking around with his commerades, when to are shot. The other two are captured in a riverbank and taken to a cottege by the Germans. The German troops just took pictures of the Americans, trying to show that they just captured them.

Outside Reading #3

Okay, so starting on where I left off last time, Reacher found out that the murder was indeed due to natural causes. Reacher drives to the dead General's house to break the news to the newly widowed wife. As he enters the door, he finds the wife dead on the ground with a blunt would to the head. The coincidence of the couple dying within twenty-four hours of each other is too much for him to handle. He decides to look in to it and goes back to the hotel. He then goes to the strip club next to the bar to question some of the girls. The owner and bouncer of the club sees what is going on and tries to fight Jack. Although Jack is outweighed by over 50 pounds, he has the skills necessary to take down the large man. The man runs forward as Jack stuns him with an elbow to the face, followed by a strong kick to the kneecap. The bouncer's kneecap bends backwards, and he falls on to the floor screaming in pain. Reacher then casually gathers his coat, and walks back to his Humvee.

Outside Reading #2

For this outside reading, I am going to comment on the movie that we have been watching in class. This movie is called "Duel" and is written by Steven Speilberg. I really enjoyed this movie even though it was a little old. Speilberg used a lot of interesting camera techniques to portray different things. For example, to make the truck look bigger he shot with an angle low to the ground. Also, to make the truck and the car look as if they were traveling faster, he had them shoot up against a landscape. Seeing the landscape whiz by the truck made it seem a lot faster. Although I'm a little upset I didn't get to see who the driver is, I still really enjoyed this movie and would recommend it to many people.

Outside Reading #1

For these next few blog posts, I will be commenting on a book that I am just starting to read. It is called, "The Enemy" by Lee Child. I have read just the first twenty pages, and already I am really enjoying it. It is about a man named Jack Reacher who works for the Army. The book opens with Jack receiving a call from an officer saying that there is a dead general in a hotel 50 miles out of town. He goes down to check it out and finds out that it is an Army general. I stopped reading where Jack is waiting for the autopsy report to see if the mysterious death was natural or a murder.

Research Paper

The Holocaust
The holocaust was a gruesome and terrible experience for millions. It started in 1933 when the German Nazis invaded other European countries to gain control of as much land as possible. While they expanded territory they tried to make a single superior race, which of course would be blond-haired, blue-eyed Germans, or Aryans as Hitler called them. Their leader, Hitler, was himself a Jew which was incredible because he was murdering millions of Jews.
The persecution of Jews was fuelled by many different reasons. First off, Adolf Hitler, the leader of Germany believed that Jewish people were lower than everyone else, and that they were a direct threat to the German people. Also, the persecution of Jews helped Nazi Germany fund their war. Germany was in an economic depression, and needed more money. One reason why the Jews were picked was because after World War 1, the Germans needed someone to blame for their loss. Because of this, the Germans were able to take out all their anger on the Jews.
One reason why Jews were blamed and persecuted was because Adolf Hitler believed that Germans were inherently superior human beings, and that the inherently inferior Jews threatened them to their very existence. They believed that the threat was so great that the only option was to exterminate them as though they were vermin. About six million Jews were killed in the genocide. Jews were considered the scapegoats to Germany. Germany didn’t want to take all the blame from the first war, and needed someone to blame it on.
The effects of the holocaust were horrific it left thousands dead and changed Judaism forever. Some people say that it was a war every day they got up and they struggled to stay alive. This is just how it was if you weren’t killed as soon as you got to the camp they would work you to death. This affected not only thousands of Jewish family’s but countries as a whole. Germany would have to live with this reputation forever. After the war was over the Jews were freed but this wasn’t the end of the fighting for them. They protested for many years, the lucky families that made it through the camps had no idea where their loved ones went. The Nazis hardly kept records at all just a simple tattoo on your arm. Before the war Jews were outcasts and no one wanted to be associated with them. After the war the Jews were furious with their government a large amount of them moved. The long lasting effect on this is that the Jews were falling asleep every night wondering what happened to their mom or dad, or brother and sister but they would never find out.
Hitler the leader of the Nazis was killing not only Jews but Christians and other religions as well. He built concentration camps and started to starve and gas all that got in his way of his single race. Hitler’s actions were inexcusable and when the Americans started to take back control Hitler committed suicide. When Americans got to the concentration camps they could not believe what they have seen. The holocaust was truly a terrible thing that happened.

WORKS CITED

Holocaust - Direct Cause." Holocaust Understanding and Prevention by Alexander Kimel. 20 Mar. 2009 .

How was life for the Jews during the Holocaust?." United Jewish Federation (2002) 26 Mar 2009 .
The Holocaust." USHMM. 2009. United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. 26 Mar. 2009 [http://www.ushmm.org/wlc/article.php?lang=en&ModuleId=10005143]
The Effects of the Holocaust on the Children of Survivors." About Judaism. 20 Mar. 2009 .