Themes in Night

• no matter how tough life gets, just keep going.
• the human race is capable of horrors beyond our belief.
• live your life to the fullest because you never know what might happen next.
• humans are capable of inhuman acts.
• many possessions can be removed from us, but relationships are lasting.
• don't judge people.
• treat people with respect, even if you don't like them.
• we can learn from historical events such as the holocaust.
• value the simple things in life.
• we never really know how strong we are until we are put in a situation where we have to be strong.
• the human body can only take so much stress.
• don't hate; it's okay to dislike. hate only leads to things that people are gonna regret.
• never complain about your life. someone always has it worse than you.
• through rough times, you rely on relationships to get you through.
• life is short; cherish it.
• anything is possible.
• keep your faith and hope strong, even when it seems impossible.
• those that look only to the past and the present are certain to miss the future.
• never give up on life because life will never give up on you.

End of Night

I learned that being put through tragic events such as the holocaust, can make you loose total and complete faith in God.
"It's over. God is no longer with us." (p 76.)

If Elie were to give us advice, he would tell us to not let antisemitism exist. He would tell us that we should never, ever use the word hate, because it leads to nothing but destruction. Even after everything Elie went through, he still doesn't use the word hate. I believe he would also tell us that revenge is not the answer. The best thing we can do in life is to take the things that we've been through and use it to make us stronger because anger and violent acts will get you no where.

What Would You Do?

1. I think that if they can't convince him to stay alive, the underground should kill him themselves for the better of the rest of the group. It's not fair to the rest of the group to get punished for his rash actions.

2. If the mother is okay with giving up her baby, then I think it's okay to make the baby a stillborn. It's not worth the mother going through labor just to have her and her baby both killed. She should stay alive because she might end up being a survivor.

3. No, the father should not attempt the escape. It's not fair to the son to be abandoned by him father if it's not his fault he can't get away with him. The man needs to be a father to his son and that means not leaving him. A father would do something like this for his son because he loves him. If he leaves the son, in my opinion, that makes him a horrible father.

Night: Chapter 3

Concentration Camp:

• there was a cross roads in the center of the camp. "We did not know, as yet, which was the better side, right or left, which road lead to prison and which to the crematoria." (p32)
• men and women were split up into two different parts of the camps.
• men who were healthy and able to work were sent to the cabins and the men who were unable to work were sent to the crematoria.
• the crematoria was right near the barracks.
• there was smoke all around the camp from the crematoria.
• the barracks weren't very nice. one of the ones they were in didn't have a floor, it was just made of mud.

Class Concentration Camp:

• smelt like death.
• crossroads in the center of the camp- selection process.
• Dr. Mengle lead the selection process.
• SS officers every few yards.
• babies being burned in a ditch.
• second barracks were two stories and cement.
• sign that read "work makes you  free"
• smoke.
• crematoria's.

Night = darkness that blanketed his life.

Dehumanization

• forced to remove clothing.
• beat prisoners.
• brand a number on their arms.
• transfered in cattle cars.
• stuffed prisoners in the barracks.
• shaving their heads.
• taking their valuables.
• given clothes that didn't fit them.

Stein of Antwerp

• Elie lies to Stein to give him the will to live on because his family knows he is alive.
• Stein disappeared after he was given the real news.

Fire/Flames

The role of Mrs. Schachter is to foreshadow. Seeing fire and flames symbolizes the way they are going to die, and it also symbolizes that the world is going to go up in flames.

Class Significance

• Mrs. Schachter reveals madness of the incident.
• Mrs. Schachter foreshadows the future.
• Hate breeds more hate.
• The fire symbolizes the ovens and cremation of Jews.
• The fire symbolizes death.
• The fire symbolizes burning of religion, culture, memories, etc.
• The fire symbolizes hate.
• The fire symbolizes hell.
• The fire symbolizes chaos, friction, conflicts, etc.

Foreshadowing in "Night"

1. All foreign Jews were expelled from Sighet.
2. Moishe tried to warn people of what's to come, but no one listened.
3. Elie's father was called to a meeting. They were all being moved to ghetto's.
4. They were moved to a smaller ghetto.
5. They were expelled and had to spend 24 hours in a destroyed synagogue until they were sent away.

Class Foreshadowing List

1. The foreign Jews were removed from Sighet.
2. Dirty smoke when leaving the train station.
3. Wearing the star of David.
4. Moishe the Beatle--->Tells us Jews were being slaughtered, Jews were digging their own
5. "What do you expect? That's war"
6. Ghetto--->Jews were held captive and kept in specific living spots.
7. Transporting in the cattle cars.

Night Scavenger Hunt

1. The Holocaust is the mass slaughter of 6 million Jews, and 5 millions others by the Nazi's and Hitler. It happened because the Nazi's had different religious/political views, and because these people failed to be of the Aryan race, which is blonde hair and blue eyes. It occurred in Europe, mainly in Germany, Poland and Austria.


2. The "final solution" plan was a code name for the Nazi's total extermination of the Jews, gypsies, and other's they were persecuting.


3. A "ghetto" was a city district in which the Germans concentrated the Jewish population and forced them to live under horrible conditions.


4. The living conditions in the ghettos were crowded. Jews had to wear the yellow star of David on their clothes to show they were Jewish.


5. Concentration Camps were where Jews were taken to live, and essentially be killed.


6. 1) To incarcerate real and perceived enemies of the Nazi regime and the German occupation authorities in Poland for an indefinite period of time.
    2) To have available a supply of forced laborers for deployment in SS-owned, construction-related enterprises (and, later, armaments and other war-related production)
    3) To serve as a site to physically eliminate small, targeted groups of the population whose death was determined by the SS and police authorities to be essential to the security of Nazi Germany. 


7. Approximately 1.1 million Jews were deported to Auschwitz. Approximately 200,000 other victims were deported. At least 960,000 Jews were killed. Other victims included approximately 74,000 Poles, 21,000 Gypsies, 15,000 Soviet prisoners of war, and 10,000-15,000 members of other nationalities (Soviet civilians, Czechs, Yugoslavs, French, Germans, and Austrians.


8. The Jews who were assigned to work in the factories had a much greater survival chance because factory workers were considered too valuable to kill, at least while they were still able to work.
Elie Wiesel worked at Monowitz.

What do I know about the Holocaust?

What do I know about the Holocaust?

• Hitler conducted it.
• Hitler wanted to kill all the Jews, homosexuals, and gypsies.
• The people were all put into concentration camps where they were treated horribly.
• Millions of people died and were killed.
• Hitler's perfect vision of a person had blonde hair and blue eyes.
• It happened during WWII.
• Anne Frank's diary was found and it told about what she went through to try and stay alive and hide from the Nazi's.
• Nazi's were the followers of Hitler who were also trying to kill the Jews.
• One of the main forms of execution was putting the prisoners into gas chambers.
• Hitler had a plan of "total extermination" of the Jews.
• Hitler's dad was abusive as a child and Hitler loved his mother very much. His mother came down with cancer and died and it is believed that her doctor was a Jew, and Hitler blamed the doctor for his mother's death. It is believed that that's why Hitler hated Jews so much.

What do we know about the Holocaust?

• U.S. troops found the first concentration camps in 1944.
• Hitler hated the Jews.
• Hitler wanted the Aryan race- blonde hair, blue eyes.
• Hitler was also prejudice to the gypsies, gays, and the mentally challenged.
• Anne Frank wrote a diary about it.
• Scientific experiments were performed on the Jews.
• Dr. Mengele performed the experiments.
• Experiments included splitting twins, cutting out people's eyes, face transplanting, etc.
• In the concentration camps, crying meant you were mentally unstable and you were kill.
• There were both death camps and work camps.
• There were mass killings and gas chambers.
• The Holocaust took place in Europe, mainly Germany, Poland, and Austria.
• 6 million Jews were said to have been killed, and 11 million people total were exterminated during the Holocaust.

Book Report

http://letterpop.com/newsletters/?id=174226-2d8fac

The Lottery: 9 Sentence Paragraph

In Shirley Jackson's short story, "The Lottery", irony is portrayed through the community event of the lottery. As the reader begins to read the story, they assume the lottery is something that is celebrated, but as the story progresses, the reader realizes that the lottery is nothing but a death sentence. In the beginning of the story, the setting sets the mood of a perfect summer's day. The first sentence states, " The morning of June 27th was clear and sunny, with the fresh warmth of a full summer day, the flowers were blossoming profusely and the grass was richly green" (1) When people think of summer, they think of happy, joyful, good times. This makes the reader think that there will be no harm done and the results of the lottery will be something positive and good. As the reader gets more in depth into the story, he or she will realize that the lottery is really negative and bad: a death sentence. After everyone had picked a piece of paper out of the black box, they began to look around the crowd to see who had "won" the lottery. Bill Hutchinson was standing back quietly, staring down at the death sentence in his hand. Tessie Hutchinson started yelling at Mr. Summer's, saying "You didn't give him enough time to take the paper he wanted. I saw you. It wasn't fair!" (6) Since Tessie had "won", she finally came to the realization that the lottery wasn't fair and that it wasn't a good thing only because it was happening to her. That shows that winning the lottery isn't a good thing at all.

The Lottery

Pre-reading: Justice is when everything is fair and right.
One tradition my family has is, every christmas, when we're opening presents, we always go in a certain order. We go youngest to oldest.

Plot/Reaction: The town is obviously very old school. They still believe in giving sacrifices in hopes for good crops. For whatever reason, they think killing people for good crops is okay. Mrs. Hutchinson was chosen to be stoned to death so the town would get good crops that year.

Questions: Why does the town think that killing someone will give them good crops?
Why does it take Mrs. Hutchinson's life being in danger to realize that killing people for good crops isn't right?

Quote: "The children had stones already."
"Someone gave little Davey Hutchinson a few pebbles."

By the Waters of Babylon: Quotation Sandwich

Claim: It is better to take information in little by little, instead of taking it in all at once.

Quote: "He was right- it is better the truth should come little by little. I have learned that, being a priest. Perhaps, in the old days, they ate knowledge too fast."

Commentary: It is better to take in information little by little instead of all at once because if you take it in all at once, it can become very overwhelming. It could ultimately result in the demise of things.

By the Waters of Babylon

Author: Stephen Vincent Benet

Date Read: 10/21/10

Pre-reading: I believe that some people process information faster than others, but it sometimes can be processed too fast because people just want to get things done quickly. My view on technological advances is that it's a good thing. In order for our society to progress, we need new advances in technology.


Plot/Reaction: He visits the Place of the Gods, the banks of a great river, and the ruins of a great temple in the mid-city.


Questions: Where do they live?
Why does holding a piece of metal decide if you are a priest or not?


Quote: "Sometimes signs are sent by bad spirits."

There Will Come Soft Rains: Quotation Sandwich

Claim: Progression and technology can backfire.

Quote: "At ten o'clock the house began to die."

Commentary: Progression in technology can lead to bad things such as corruption, and the demise of an entire society. The technology would take over the people that created it and the people that use the technology.

There Will Come Soft Rains

Pre-reading: In the year 2026, things will be very advanced. Technology will be more advanced and we're gonna have a lot more cooler and high-tech things.

Plot/Reaction:

7:00 – time to get up

7:45 – breakfast time
8:05 – off to school, off to work
9:15 – time to clean

• 10:00 – the sun come out from behind the rain
  10:15 – the garden sprinklers whirled up
  12:oo noon –  a dog whined, shivering on the front porch
  2:00 – the regiments of mice hummed out
  2:15 – the dog was gone
  2:35 – bridge tables sprouted from patio walls
  4:00 – the tables folded
  4:30 the nursery walls glowed, animals took shape
  5:00 – the bath filled with clear hot water
  6,7,8:oo – the dinner dished manipulated
  9:00 –  the beds warmed their hidden circuits
  9:05 – “which poem would you like this evening?”
  10:00 – the house began to die
• Questions: Who is Mr. Featherstone?

• - Why is there a dog on the front porch?
• Quote
  -”Today is August 4, 2026…in the city of Allendale, California.”

Harrison Begeron: Quotation Sandwich

Claim: The society Harrison Bergeron lives in is not at all equal.

Quote: "He  is a genius and an athlete, is under-handicap, and should be regarded as extremely dangerous." pg. 136

Commentary: Even under the handicap, Harrison is still smarter and more athletic than others. This means that not everyone is equal. Harrison was different from the others and the government didn't like that.

Harrison Bergeron

Title of Selection: Harrison Bergeson
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Date Read:


Pre-reading:
Equality is being equal and people are treated fairly.


Plot/Reaction
Harrison Bergeron is the son of George and Hazel Bergeron. He was taken away by the government because he is a genius and athlete and in the government’s eyes he was not “equal” with everyone else. Harrison challenged the government’s handicap program by escaping jail, going on tv, declared himself emperor, and took off the handicaps on people so they could be true to who they are.


Questions
Why does everyone have to be the same?
What's the "criteria" you have to meet to be given a handicap?


Quotes
"Forget sad things," said George.

Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket

Title of Selection: Contents of a Dead Man's Pocket
By: Jack Finney
Date Read: 10/8/10

Pre-reading
Top 5 priorities in my life:
1. family and friends.
2. school
3. volleyball
4. soccer
5. my faith

Plot/Reaction
The yellow sheet of paper was full of facts, quotations and figures that he needed for work. Tom retrieves the paper by climbing out of the window, onto the side of the building.

Questions
1. Why did he insist on working instead of going to the movies with his wife?
2. Why did he not care about the paper the second time it flew out of the window?

Quote
He thought of all the evenings he had spent away from her, working; and he regretted them. He thought wonderingly of his fierce ambition and the direction his life had taken; he thought of the hours he'd spent by himself, filling in the yellow sheet that had brought him out here. Contents of the dead man's pockets, he thought with sudden fierce anger, a wasted life.

Literary Elements Terms

Theme

Definition: a unifying idea or image repeated or developed throughout a piece of work

Example: In Romeo and Juliet, the theme of the movie was love and tradgedy.

Showing vs. Telling

1. The room was a mess.
- It was a disaster of a room. There were heaps of inanimate objects strewn across the room. I couldn't decipher what was what. The room was an eye sore to look at.

2. I was surprised.
- I was in utter shock. My eyes popped right out of my eyes, and my mouth was open as wide as the sea is big. I was at a lost for words.

10 Events in My Life

1) When I was about 5 years old the skin on my ears grew over my earring because I never took them out, and my dad had to peel the skin off and all I remember was there was blood everywhere, I was crying and screaming the whole time, and that it hurt really, really bad.

2) When I was in 5th grade, my grandma, the only grandparent I ever knew, died.

3) The day my best friend since the day I was born moved to Brookfield. I hardly see her anymore.

4) 8th grade class trip for D.C.

5) 8th grade graduation.

6) The weekend my family and I had to move out of the house I had lived in for 14 years.

7) The day I made varsity volleyball as a freshman.

8) My first day of high school. We were still moving the day I started and I was stressed out about that, I was stressing about volleyball and starting high school was something totally new and strange to me.

9) My very first volleyball game on varsity. I started! (and we won)

10) Freshman retreat. One of the greatest experiences of my life.

Collective Noun Comic

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Six Months to Live

If I only had six months to live, I would do everything that I've never done before. I would keep parts of my life the same, but change other parts about it. I would definitely want to skydive, scuba dive (even though I'm terrifed of open water), rock climb and maybe even backpack across Europe. The one thing I would for sure want to do would be to travel the world. I want to visit every single place that has ever existed. I would try all new foods and experience things I've never experienced before. If I only had six months to live, I would do everything.