Life is Beautiful if you make it that way

In the movie Life is Beautiful and what we read articles on in class are similar. They both talked about the concentration camps and uniforms. They all had the same uniforms and they all had the same living conditions. The place they stayed in had bunkers and they basically slept on wood with blankets. All of them were in terrible living conditions, which is why most of them kind of looked the same. The movie also showed that they had the same tactics such as when a person in the movie got hurt they just pushed along told him to keep working and all they did was give him a band-aid. Another tactic that they used was with the kids and the gas chambers. They would tell the kids that they had to take a shower but in reality they would send them into a room and gas would drop from the top of the ceiling and they would die. Overall I think this movie had more similarities than differences with all of the articles that we read in class. However a huge difference was the point of view. In the movie he looked at everything so positively, but the majority of the articles that we read as a class pointed out all the negatives and talked about all the bad stuff that happened. The only part that was positive was when we read the resistance and upstander articles.

Some similarities and differences that the movie had were mood and and perspective. Guido had a more positive way to look at things throughout the movie. In every situation he was in he found a way to make it funny and happy. For example when he was on his way to the concentration camp he told his son Joshua that they were going on a trip. He told him that the camp was a game and each day you would earn points. He made up all these rules to the "game" and how you had to score one thousand points to win. Even on his worst days at the camp he still manged to stay positive. He had hope and by the way he would live his life you could automatically tell that he lived life to the fullest and never took anything for granted. He was different than everyone else, he was living in the worst time of his life along with others, and while everyone else was miserable he found the positives. I think he even cheered up a lot of other people as well. For example when he would talk to his son and explain to him how many points they had gotten that day, it put a smile on other people's faces. They knew that even though he was lying to his son he could still be grateful that his family was alive.

Life was shown as beautiful throughout the movie when Guido took any opportunity he could to talk to his wife (Dora). When he was supposed to be "working" he would go into the announcement room and play the song him and his wife first danced to. This way Dora would also have support and hope, she knew that he was still alive and she was always on his mind. Another way life was beautiful was when he knew that he was going to die he still had a smile on his face and was goofy about it. He had hope that his son and wife would live and be free and his hope turned into reality when the United States came to help everyone. Even though he didn't survive he manged to keep his family happy and I think that was goal. As long as he had his family nothing could upset him because just seeing his family happy brought joy his eyes. Life was Beautiful to him no matter what the scenario was he didn't care about his living conditions or that eventually he knew he was going to die, he persevered and in a way he brought his family back together even though he wasn't there to see it happen.

Butterfly

Fear

Today the ghetto knows a different fear,
Close in its grip, Death wields an icy scythe.
An evil sickness spreads a terror in its wake,
The victims of its shadow, weep and writhe.

Today a father's heartbeat tells his fright
And mothers bend their hands into their hands.
Now children choke and die with typhus here,
A bitter tax is taken from their bands.

My heart still beats inside my breast
While friends depart for other worlds.
Perhaps it's better-who can say?
Then watching this, die today?

No, no my God we want to live!
Not to watch our numbers melt away
We want to have a better world,
We want to work-we must not die!
 

Lockdown

The book I read was called Lockdown. This book is about a juvenile detention center and how each kid in the book got into Juvy.  The book mainly focuses on a boy named Reese and his friend Toon.  Reese wants to get out of juvy before he goes into the real jail but his best friend Toon is going to get jumped. So he has to make a decision, get out of Juvy early or heall out his friend. Later on Reese finds out that he actually has a chance to get out early. They assign him to a nursing home and the person he gets a assigned to gives him a hard time. They gave a second chance and he has to prove that they made the right choice.

Personally I really liked this book because it shows how Reese is really determined to have a better life. It shows how he really wants to get a second chance and it proves that people can turn their life around. It made me realize that everyone deserves a second chance and that people can actually learn from their mistakes. I really enjoyed this book and I would recommend it to people who are struggling to forgive themselves for things they've done and it helps you get closure on your past.

Nazi Propaganda

When I was looking at Nazi Propaganda in my ELA class I came across an interesting one. I think what this picture was try to show is they needed to brainwash the adults first so that it would be easier for new generations to get normalized. This picture demonstrates two kids and how they're so young and already used to what's happening. I think the intended audience would be the adults to teach their children their new lifestyle and beliefs. I think this does alter ones perspective because the children are young and they already know the new things their parents were brainwashed to learn, so I'd say this Propaganda was effective. Personally I think this is an explicit picture and I think it shows easy it was to follow the "herd" back then. It shows me that there was a lot of bystanders and there was a lot of things that were done that could've been stopped or never have even started to begin with.

Regrets

One day during the summer break to 7th grade I was hungry. So I went into my kitchen and looked in the pantry and I saw an express macaroni and cheese bowl. Basically you can pour water into the bowl and you heat it up in the microwave and you eat it. So I grabbed that I opened the packaging and I put it in the microwave for 3 minutes. I was patiently waiting for the microwave to beep when it was done but then I smelled something burning. I turned around to see what it was and I hear this popping noise along with a lot of smoking filling up the room. I immediately pressed the stop button on the microwave and I took out the bowl. I was really discombobulated because I didn't know why the bowl was burning but then I realized that I forgot to put water in the bowl. At this moment I felt mortified because the instructions are really easy and I forgot the most important part. Then the kitchen was still really filled with smoke and the smoke alarm was going off and I didn't know what to do. So I yelled for my sister to come downstairs and she was really mad and confused but she helped me anyway. We both grabbed mini towels that we keep in the kitchen and I waved it to the smoke alarm and she waved it around the room and she opened the windows. Eventually all the smoke cleared out but it took a while. If I could go back to redo this day I would probably choose something else to eat because that way I would avoid the whole situation and nothing would have burned in the first place.