Tuesday, May 24, 2011

Night Book Review

Elie Wiesel's book, Night, was a saddening book that helped me realize what the Holocaust really encountered.

A theme of this book would be to never give up. In this book Eliezer didn't want to give up and let himself die. Eliezer wanted to stay with his father in the camps and still have hope of returning home with his family. He had faith in this and throughout the book he shows it. When his father is trying to give Eliezer his belongings because he thinks that he is about to die, Eliezer would not allow it. Eliezer had hope that his father would not die. Elizer also did not give up hope when he was temporarily separated with his father. He had hope that they would be back together again and that came true.

In this book the main characters are Eliezer and his father Chlomo. They are both Jewish and sent to camps where Jews are slaughtered. They both struggle to stay alive in these camps. They both have to work because they are strong enough to. When Eliezer has foot surgery he is separated from his father. All he wants to do is really see him again. His father feeling the same thing. They both want to stay together to feel safer. Chlomo is always trying to protect Eliezer and Eliezer is always trying to protect Chlomo. They both do not want to lose each other since they have already lost the rest of their family.

I personally can not make any connections to this book but I am sure that the Japanese Americans can. The Japanese Americans were sort of in the same boat when Japan and the United States were in war together. The Japanese Americans were rounded up and sent to camps similar to the ones in the Holocaust, although I am sure the Japanese camps were a little nicer. Both parties can probably tell similar stories of being rounded up like cattle and sent to camps being treated unfairly.

This book is 119 pages and counts as one book.

Friday, May 20, 2011

Jr. Year Completed

I am ecstatic to know that my junior year is coming to a close. To be honest, I can hardly believe it. When I look back at the past year I just have to stop and say to myself, "Where did the past year go?" It seems just like yesterday when I was driving myself to school for the first time, getting to know my new teachers, and catching up on what I missed over the summer. I think that my junior year was pretty great. I really do not have anything to complain much about.


Some things that I will definitely remember from my junior year are the football games, the lunch table, and the late nights. Football games are always fun, but for some reason I just thought that this year's game were really good. It must have been since we were pretty good this year? I will probably never be able to forget the times at the lunch table, even if I wanted to. From Andy surprising us every once in a while by sitting with us to the badomp, badomp, badomp story, I will always remember those good days. Who could ever forget the late nights we have as teenagers? I sure will not be able to either.


Junior year was great, don't get me wrong, but I seriously can NOT be any more excited for my senior year to start. Every kid dreams of being a senior in high school and it is finally here for me. No more being looked down on by the older kids. It is now our turn, we are the old kids. It sounds kind of funny to say that I am one of the older kids but I just have to get use to it because it is now a reality. I am ready to have some fun and remember the days of being a senior for a long time!

Tuesday, May 17, 2011

Research Topic

Martin Luther King Jr. was a very inspiration character in the field of dehumanization. King lead many marches and inspired many to follow him. With his nonviolent philosophy, he moved right along with the changes in Blacks rights. King had many challenges with discrimination that certainly made him feel dehumanized, but he used faith in God and resiliency against others discretion's to get through his tough times.

I certainly think that Martin Luther King Jr.answers the question, in the face of dehumanization, how do faith and resiliency validate the human spirit. Martin Luther was dehumanized with racism and black rights. He took a stand and was a very recognized civil rights leader and lead many civil, nonviolent marches to fight for their rights. He had faith in God to get him through those times. King was resilient enough to recover from all of the discrimination's and jump right back into working for freedoms. Unfortunately, King was assassinated but his journeys led to many great opportunities for blacks.

The most interesting fact that I learned from my research was that Martin Luther's philosophy of nonviolent action still got him arrested 30 times. I would have thought that since his philosophy was so well thought out that he would not have been arrested that many times. As history shows, things do not always work out for the best, but with King's situation he was one of the many few that had to pay the price to get what they wanted.