Father or Dad

So does he identify as my father or as my dad
I do not know
Does he have to be responsible for my raising to be my dad
He is responsible for my life so I know he must be something to me
Which pronoun is good for the one who raised you
What do you call the man related to you only biologically
I do not know whether to call him my father or my dad

I do not know whether to call him my father or my dad
What do you call the man related to you only biologically
Which pronoun is good for the one who raised you
He is responsible for my life so I know he must be something to me
Does he have to be responsible for my raising to be my dad
I do not know
So does he identify as my father or as my dad

The Sky is Everywhere

     This book is about a young girl named Lennie. She had a good life, a great sister, and a happy family. She and her sister, Bailey,  lived with her grandma and uncle, because her mom had disappeared when she was younger. Its a mystery where she is and why she left. That didn't really matter to Lennie because she had her sister, her sister was her whole world. But, one day her world was taken from her and Bailey was killed. Only nineteen, that's how only her sister was, and Lennie was younger. When its finally time to go back to school after mourning, Lennie meets a boy, a new boy named Joe. At first she doesn't like him, but as the story continues she finds something in him that is special. Joe is in her band class so they have a connection through music. Joe started coming around Lennies house very often and he grew bonds with her family, this becomes a distraction from their loss. But, out of nowhere, Lennie grows interested in finding out who her mother is. She finds an item in her sister's things that could lead her there, to the arms of her mother. In doing so she uncovers some secrets about her family and even some dark ones about her sister. And Joe finds out secret information about Lennie from poems that were written by her and that she left around town. And to make matters worse and stress EVERYONE out, there is a love triangle with Lennie and Joe, including Bailey's boyfriend.
     I really did like this book, did I say like? I meant I absolutely loved this book. There's so much going on all at once but, that's what makes this book great. I never wanted to put this book down in my process of reading it for the first time. This book is very mature, it feels like you are watching a Drama TV series, but in reality, you are just reading a really great book with topics for an I older audience. There is so many twists and turns that make you wonder how could one, single author come up with this all on their own. It must have taken meticulous planning and great attention to detail to get every event in order and make the whole book come together perfectly. Its not a short book, but you can definitely read it in one or two days from excitement and anticipation. I definitely, 10/10,recommend to anyone looking for a good read.
                                             

Deep Green: Color me Jealous, Actually Color Me Intrigued

     One of the books I read this quarter is called Deep Green by Melody Carson. This book is about a girl named Jordan, she used to be best friends with a girl named Shawna. They had just recently contacted and were on the verge of being friends again, until Shawna breaks up with her boyfriend Timothy. Timothy expresses love for Jordan and then they start dating. This ruins Shawna and Jordan's friendship, and this is when everything falls apart. Jordan misses having a best friend so she goes out of her way to make her feel good about her self and make her feel happy. Jordan ends up cutting off time with her family and giving Shawna things that are valuable to her. Jordan just really wants Shawna to like her again. Her need to be liked gets out of hand, all the way to the point where Timothy notices and questions it. But, Shawna has a plan. A plan to get Timothy back and get Jordan out of the picture, completely put of the picture. Jordan that that Shawna was reliable so she didn't see it coming.
     I really liked this book because it had to offer readers, even if readers had a different view point on somethings.  This book mentioned about some things about God, and the things that were said in the book were vague, so you could either read a lot into it and get the religious aspect of the book, or you could completely ignore that message. The other message was more for the average American teenager reading a book about drama. That message was that jealously can make you do some crazy thing and those things can make you lose sight of what's important. I am in the middle of those two things so this book offered a lot to me and that is why I liked it so much. This book is part of a series and I can't  wait to read more.
                                                       

The Holocaust, Nothing Can Ever Amount

   The movie shown to the whole class today was the 1997 film, Life is Beautiful. This was a movie that gives a glimps of how the holocaust was, this was a very serious film. Although the film had somewhat of a fairytale ending, which isn't what all people got when they were involved with the holocaust, this was a very insightful and in depth film about the happenings of the Holocaust.Yes this was a movie, so many things are different, dramatic, or maybe there were even some things were taken out that would be too real to be put into a film like this. Things that would be considered the same from the movie and based off of what I read is how casual of a conversation the Aryan superiority is. Or was, so they thought. There is a scene in the movie where a woman and a man are causally having a conversation at a dinner table, during their conversation the topic of the Aryan race comes up. The two proceed to talk about how their race is the superior to any other, the two people have this mind set where talking down on other races is a normal. It's mindsets like these that slowly made the events of the Holocaust seem normal for the people involved. This was something that I previously wondered about, how could people talk this was about other people so nonchalantly? I personally think that showing people's attitude in a movie, is a great was to show people how thinks used to be, and how people used to think.
     Aside from things in the film that were very similar, there were things that were also different. The real people involved and hurt in the holocaust were beaten, tortured, and starved. Nobody of authority in the camp was in favor of the Jewish people so, all of the people were very vulnerable to being mistreated. There wasn't much people in the camp that looked as healthy as the actors in the movie. This is the sad truth, the people   Couldn't possibly have looked the way that the people in the actual holocaust looked, and have been healthy enough to act.  Another thing that, sadly, would it be a stool in the Holocaust is the fairytale ending that this had. The movie made it seem that all of the  action of affection that the man showed toward his wife while being held prisoner was an easy thing to do, but in actuality the man would have been beaten and killed for doing such things. And in the movie the mom and the son both survived to live and be happy afterwards, but the boy went throughout life in the camp with ease. In the actual holocaust that wouldn't have been true, I'm sure he was just as painful for the children as it was for the adults, emotionally and physically.
      The beginning of the movie was very lighthearted and funny, but towards the middle it started to become sad. The parts when it became said was the parts of the movie involving the Holocaust, but even during the scenes of the holocaust there were parts that were lighthearted and  could have made a viewer smile. Scene in the movie that could have been like these are times during bonding between the son and the father, times when the father wanted to make it known to his wife that he was alive, and times when the son was just being a kid. I'm guessing not too many of these times or events could have taken place within the gates and walls of concentration camps during the holocaust. This is why the moods of the movie and events of the actual holocaust differed.  Yes, there were times in the movie that made you see how people of the holocaust where affected very negatively and how they could've hurt them, emotionally and physically,  and that's what I think so many people like this movie. It's because you get a good look into life of the Holocaust, but you know it's a movie and you still get a laugh and fairytale ending out of it.
      Before I saw the movie I knew that Jewish people were kept in concentration camps and we're mistreated. I knew this before I had even stepped foot into the Holocaust Museum. But, being in the Holocaust Museum and seeing pictures and hearing stories about what went on with in the walls and gates of the concentration camps made everything very real. Everything  I took away from the museum, mentally, became more real than it was before. It was very terrifying for me to think about and keep this image in my head, it got even worse once I saw actors take out the actions of what went on in the camps. Seeing it actually happen is something that never came to my mind when it comes to thinking about the Holocaust, it never occurred to me that I could watch a movie and see the cruelty. Although, in my head, I know that no one could ever do, act, or have the same terrifying experiences that people Jewish people had within the walls of concentration camps during the holocaust.
      The movie was very sad and morbid, made very solid point across. Therefore the title fits, life is beautiful. One of the ways that the movie shows that life is beautiful, is when dad goes on the intercom, and risks his life, to speak on the intercom so that his wife can hear his voice and know that he and his son were alive and well. This little thing that the husband did, which wasn't really a little at all because he was risking his life, mad a huge difference yo the woman. Just hearing his voice made the woman smile and  cry happy tears. Her reaction was solely because she knew that her family was okay, even with everything she had been through just the thought of knowing that they were alive meant the world to her. And that's saying a lot because the movie showed how much the poor woman was worked and how much the woman work and how difficult her conditions were.  But for those couple of seconds her mood has totally changed.
       Another point in the movie that shows that life is beautiful is when the mother and the son are reunited at the end of the movie. The father had worked and gave everything he could to the son to keep him alive and healthy throughout his life at the concentration camp, he worked to his death to keep  his little boy life.  He even lied to his own son to keep his sons mental health at a point where the boy would be happy, even though his own father in the people that were around him every day weren't, at all. This shows that life is beautiful because the man gave his own, he devoted it to making sure that his son survived. And it all was appreciated  because the woman got to see her son after being worked and starved, it was like seeing her son had made everything better. I can also imagine that to the son, seeing his mother for the first time, in a long time, meant the world to him. So life is a beautiful thing because what you do with yours can determine how others live their's.
       To sum up the whole holocaust unit worked on, the Holocaust was a very terrible event that happened to a certain group of people just because of one thing that related them all. It led to a very large and terrible genocide that should never be repeated.  We should all learn from the Holocaust and learn about it, whether it's from going to museums that are dedicated to it, or watching a movie that exposes you to the experiences of it. The holocaust made a difference and affected us all.  Everyone should be exposed to this knowledge and look back at it and know the damage that was done. Maybe if everyone did that, it would never happen again. If it happened, it would be for the better.

I'd Like To Go Alone

Propaganda Needs a Boundary

     This photo I chose to talk about tries to show Jewish people as evil, propaganda has a purpose, the purpose of propaganda is get a certain point across to a certain audience of people, it doesn't matter how subtle or extreme your words are, just as long as you get your point across, this to me seemed odd because I always thought you had to watch what you were going to say no matter who you were, I was proven very wrong not too long ago when I heard the unmistakable words coming from Donald Trumps mouth, but I was proven even more wrong once I saw this poster. This poster displays the face of the devil and the face of a man. The words on the poster translate to “Satan has taken off his mask.” This was very odd to me because it would catch attention to many groups of people. One being people who are very religious, if a religious person where this much hate was displayed towards Jewish people, then they see a person like this, there must be something in the, that says " Oh well it must be true. Satan is bad so are Jews." Another group whose attention this would catch is people who already display that hate, this just gives them more reasoning to be cruel.  Also people who think that the government is a reliable source, they've been taught to have people think for them and they aren't able to develop their own thoughts. This would be just as affective on them, " The government put up this poster and authorized for it to be made, the words on it must be truth." I just think it is absurd to relate a whole group of people to Satan, something that is universally known and is controversial, you shouldn't set people up for so much hate to get a point across that is so absurd on its own.

In My Hands: Memories of a Holocaust Rescuer

     The nonfiction book I read this quarter is the book called In My Hands. This book is about a girl named Irena who was in the wrong place at the wrong time but, she uses this as an opportunity to help the people around her. She was training as a nurse when explosions started happening and everyone started fleeing, she decided to step up because the Polish army needed as much medical help as they could get. When she agreed to this, she didn't know that she would have to be in hiding because she is apart of the Polish army without a country, so her and her group are hiding in the woods. While in the woods she gets raped and left to die by Soviet soldiers. When she was there other soldiers saw her and took her to a hospital to be treated, but she is held prisoner because she has medical skills that are highly needed. She has an amazing journey from there to the point where she witnesses a mass shooting in a Jewish ghetto, where she swore to help as many people as she could, people who were vulnerable and needed help fighting for their lives.
     This book was interesting because it was told as a normal fiction story, at first I thought that I wouldn't like this book because I didn't like biographies nonfiction books because of how biographies give cold,hard fact but, this book seems like all the others that I loved and I really took a liking to this one because of the very true story that it told.  The Holocaust was something that was very real and scary, it was great reading texts that I could understand because of the excellent way that it was written,  and how much of history that I actually got out of it because this was real experiences and there's not many other ways you can get the very same experience.