http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/isis-terror/california-couples-family-believed-captured-isis-n313346
Why did I Choose This Article?
This article is describing a supposed northern Californian family who's family members have been captured in Syria by ISIS. The family is "praying for mercy" so that their family can return home safely if this did in fact happen. The reason behind me choosing it is because of the similarities that this situation and my novel have in common. I wanted to connect this to a real life situation somewhere around the world and i feel like this is a real life replica of what happens in my book.
What are the Similarities?
The similarities in this situation and my novel are both the fact that people families have been captured by rebel groups, in this cause in the article its ISIS, and in my book its an unknown army. They both also show a state of helplessness because all the family in the article can do is hope and pray that their family returns safely. In the book at first its the same thing. They are not sure why this has happened and they don't have any idea what to do. All they did was hope that it would all come to an end. Another similarity is that both in the article and in my novel its basically the same situation, just in reality. In both, people come home to see that their families have been kidnapped by a dangerous rebel force. The only difference is that in the book, the characters rally together to make an attempt to take down the rebel force, whereas in reality that's not something that these people can do in this unfortunate turn of events.
Friday, June 5, 2015
Friday, April 10, 2015
ISU Blog Post #3
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2014/12/23/afghanistan-liberia-troops-christmas/20580809/
Why Have I Chosen This Article?
I chose this article because of the similarities that my novel and this article have. This article talks about and describes in depth what its like for soldiers to spend the holidays away from their families, specifically Christmas. In my novel the characters must face life without their families for an extended period of time that includes over the holidays due to their families being kidnapped by an enemy force yet to be named. Both the characters in the novel and the soldiers families must spend these holidays wondering if their loved ones are safe. Another similarity is that both the characters in the story and the soldiers in reality are all fighting for one thing, which is to get back to their families. This article specifically focuses on soldiers being away from their families on ONE specific holiday which is Christmas. That is what drew me to this article, the fact that this article directly relates to my novel.
How Does This Relate To My Novel's Social Issue?
This article relates to my novels social issue by explaining emotions that the characters in the novel are or could be feeling during this event but are not described by the author. This article explains not only how the families of the soldiers and the soldiers themselves feel during this time away from their families. Since both the article and the novel are focusing on this one topic of a person or a group of people fighting for their families I thought it would be an appropriate article to use. Perhaps the biggest relation the two pieces of writing that I chose have, is that both the soldiers in the novel and the soldiers in reality, celebrate the exact same holiday by themselves. Both of these people have celebrated Christmas alone. This is almost directly related, more than often either the characters in the novel of the soldier in real life, or their families have no clue about how their loved ones are faring.
Why Have I Chosen This Article?
I chose this article because of the similarities that my novel and this article have. This article talks about and describes in depth what its like for soldiers to spend the holidays away from their families, specifically Christmas. In my novel the characters must face life without their families for an extended period of time that includes over the holidays due to their families being kidnapped by an enemy force yet to be named. Both the characters in the novel and the soldiers families must spend these holidays wondering if their loved ones are safe. Another similarity is that both the characters in the story and the soldiers in reality are all fighting for one thing, which is to get back to their families. This article specifically focuses on soldiers being away from their families on ONE specific holiday which is Christmas. That is what drew me to this article, the fact that this article directly relates to my novel.
How Does This Relate To My Novel's Social Issue?
This article relates to my novels social issue by explaining emotions that the characters in the novel are or could be feeling during this event but are not described by the author. This article explains not only how the families of the soldiers and the soldiers themselves feel during this time away from their families. Since both the article and the novel are focusing on this one topic of a person or a group of people fighting for their families I thought it would be an appropriate article to use. Perhaps the biggest relation the two pieces of writing that I chose have, is that both the soldiers in the novel and the soldiers in reality, celebrate the exact same holiday by themselves. Both of these people have celebrated Christmas alone. This is almost directly related, more than often either the characters in the novel of the soldier in real life, or their families have no clue about how their loved ones are faring.
Thursday, March 26, 2015
ISU Blog Post #2
http://www.poemhunter.com/poems/war/
I have selected this poem because it relates to not just the aftermath of war, but life during war. Soldiers kept diaries during wars and they would often write poetry, this is what led me to choose this peace of poetry. This relates to my book because the characters in my book are currently in war and writing diary entries as soldiers often did as well as writing poetry.
I chose this picture because it shows how the soldiers fight for us, and how we have out freedom because of soldiers. In the picture it shows a couple standing on the beach, and the soldiers are holding that ground up. This is showing that we have what we have because of the soldiers. This relates to my book because in the book the characters families have been taken and they have to fight for their freedom, so the families are standing on top of the main characters.
I have selected this poem because it relates to not just the aftermath of war, but life during war. Soldiers kept diaries during wars and they would often write poetry, this is what led me to choose this peace of poetry. This relates to my book because the characters in my book are currently in war and writing diary entries as soldiers often did as well as writing poetry.
Thursday, March 12, 2015
ISU Blog Post #1
The social issue in my book is war and conflict.
http://costsofwar.org/article/us-veterans-and-military-families
This page describes in depth the cost of war on families, and how they deal with casualties of their loved ones, or the mental and emotional as well as physical issues they may go through should they survive the war. I chose this link because it really can describe what the characters in the book cannot. Their families are taken and they are forced to go to war to get their families back from the enemy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcps2fJKuAI
This song talks about what war is like on the soldiers and the video gives a visual representation of what soldiers go through on a daily basis. I chose this because for one it gives an excellent view of what war is like. It represents what the characters in the book are going through when in war, they must constantly be watching their backs and must fight and kill for what they want.
http://costsofwar.org/article/us-veterans-and-military-families
This page describes in depth the cost of war on families, and how they deal with casualties of their loved ones, or the mental and emotional as well as physical issues they may go through should they survive the war. I chose this link because it really can describe what the characters in the book cannot. Their families are taken and they are forced to go to war to get their families back from the enemy.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zcps2fJKuAI
This song talks about what war is like on the soldiers and the video gives a visual representation of what soldiers go through on a daily basis. I chose this because for one it gives an excellent view of what war is like. It represents what the characters in the book are going through when in war, they must constantly be watching their backs and must fight and kill for what they want.
The Sniper Summary
It was a long treacherous night in Dublin, The civil war between the Republicans and Free Staters has been stretched over a long period of time, as they cannot seem to come to an agreement. The two snipers on opposing sides, were set out to kill each other only to find that they were brothers.
The sniper had been tired and hungry for a long time. The sniper was just trying to do his job when the altercation between the two snipers broke out. At this point it was simple, its a fight to the death. The sniper had to think of a plan so he could emerge victorious in this situation. Others around him became aware on the confrontation taking place on the buildings above the street.
Quickly, the sniper began his plan of attack and decided to take the cap off of his revolver and place it over top the muzzle of his rifle, he pushed the rifle over the wall and pretended to be shot. The opposing sniper jumped up thinking that he had emerged victorious, the sniper shot is enemy and killed him, and he watched him fall over the wall.
The sniper was very surprised that his plan had actually worked, so he decided to go see who the opposing sniper was. He went down to where the body had fallen and turned over the body covered in blood to see a very familiar face. His brother.
Civil wars are extremely dangerous because you can see what the effects are on families. This story is a perfect representation of just that.
The sniper had been tired and hungry for a long time. The sniper was just trying to do his job when the altercation between the two snipers broke out. At this point it was simple, its a fight to the death. The sniper had to think of a plan so he could emerge victorious in this situation. Others around him became aware on the confrontation taking place on the buildings above the street.
Quickly, the sniper began his plan of attack and decided to take the cap off of his revolver and place it over top the muzzle of his rifle, he pushed the rifle over the wall and pretended to be shot. The opposing sniper jumped up thinking that he had emerged victorious, the sniper shot is enemy and killed him, and he watched him fall over the wall.
The sniper was very surprised that his plan had actually worked, so he decided to go see who the opposing sniper was. He went down to where the body had fallen and turned over the body covered in blood to see a very familiar face. His brother.
Civil wars are extremely dangerous because you can see what the effects are on families. This story is a perfect representation of just that.
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Retell, Reflect, Relate
Retell
The Boy in the Striped Pajama's
The Boy in the Striped Pajama's is the story of a young boy named Bruno, currently living in Nazi Germany. With his father being a SS Commandant for the Germans, he has been raised to have a mindset that all Jews are bad and must never associated with them. After his father has been promoted, Bruno and his family must move from the city to a house in the country. Bruno hates his new home because there is nobody for him to play with. After mentioning to his parents that he sees people working on what he thinks is a farm, but is actually a concentration camp, he is forbidden from going in the backyard garden. One day Bruno is extremely bored, and against his parents rules decides to explore beyond the backyard, while exploring he discovers the concentration camp for himself. He meets a boy who is the same age as him named Shmule, They become instant friends and talk about their upbringing so far. It is very clear that they have lived two very different lives being a Jew and a German. Bruno visits Shmule daily talking about each other and bringing him games such as chess. After an altercation between a soldier and a Jewish slave, Bruno's parents do not want to corrupt his childhood and decide to move back to the city. Bruno is sad to leave his friend, but remembers he has to keep a promise that he made to Shmule, which was to help him find his father. Bruno then digs a hole under the electric fence separating Bruno and Shmule and gets inside the concentration camp, Shmule brings him a set of their uniform so he doesn't stand out. The two friends then get caught in a group of men while searching for his dad, they then make it into a room with all the other men. Little do they know it is a gas chamber, the two are then killed.
Reflect
This movie was a great representation of how life was for Jews and Germans during the Holocaust and during Hitlers reign in general. It also shows how we put a name on things, for example if Bruno would have known in the beginning that Shmule was a Jew, i'm sure he would not have associated with him. They became very good friends before Bruno learned that Shmule was a Jew, and Bruno saw that not all Jews were bad.
Relate
I can relate this to discrimination. There was never a valid or legitimate reason for putting Jews through this horror. It was done because of the fact that one man, had beliefs that Jews were to blame for losing the first world war. The fact that Hitler had an antisemitic upbringing didn't help either. I can relate this to just after 9/11. After 9/11 many Muslim's was hated, whether they were Canadian or American. This was because of discrimination, a group of Muslims devastated America, and for it majority of Muslims were deprived some of the freedoms that they once had.
The Boy in the Striped Pajama's
The Boy in the Striped Pajama's is the story of a young boy named Bruno, currently living in Nazi Germany. With his father being a SS Commandant for the Germans, he has been raised to have a mindset that all Jews are bad and must never associated with them. After his father has been promoted, Bruno and his family must move from the city to a house in the country. Bruno hates his new home because there is nobody for him to play with. After mentioning to his parents that he sees people working on what he thinks is a farm, but is actually a concentration camp, he is forbidden from going in the backyard garden. One day Bruno is extremely bored, and against his parents rules decides to explore beyond the backyard, while exploring he discovers the concentration camp for himself. He meets a boy who is the same age as him named Shmule, They become instant friends and talk about their upbringing so far. It is very clear that they have lived two very different lives being a Jew and a German. Bruno visits Shmule daily talking about each other and bringing him games such as chess. After an altercation between a soldier and a Jewish slave, Bruno's parents do not want to corrupt his childhood and decide to move back to the city. Bruno is sad to leave his friend, but remembers he has to keep a promise that he made to Shmule, which was to help him find his father. Bruno then digs a hole under the electric fence separating Bruno and Shmule and gets inside the concentration camp, Shmule brings him a set of their uniform so he doesn't stand out. The two friends then get caught in a group of men while searching for his dad, they then make it into a room with all the other men. Little do they know it is a gas chamber, the two are then killed.
Reflect
This movie was a great representation of how life was for Jews and Germans during the Holocaust and during Hitlers reign in general. It also shows how we put a name on things, for example if Bruno would have known in the beginning that Shmule was a Jew, i'm sure he would not have associated with him. They became very good friends before Bruno learned that Shmule was a Jew, and Bruno saw that not all Jews were bad.
Relate
I can relate this to discrimination. There was never a valid or legitimate reason for putting Jews through this horror. It was done because of the fact that one man, had beliefs that Jews were to blame for losing the first world war. The fact that Hitler had an antisemitic upbringing didn't help either. I can relate this to just after 9/11. After 9/11 many Muslim's was hated, whether they were Canadian or American. This was because of discrimination, a group of Muslims devastated America, and for it majority of Muslims were deprived some of the freedoms that they once had.
Sunday, February 15, 2015
Teaching Kids to Kill
Connections
I can very easily make a connection to this text because it's reasoning for kids becoming killers is primarily media. This includes violent video games and movies that are leaving an impression on teenagers that this behavior is okay. I can connect to this because I play violent video games sometimes such as Call of Duty. The way that they teach kids to kill versus the way that kids in Canada learn in school is extremely different. They FORCE these kids to become what they want and not what these kids want, it becomes all that they know.
Challenges
I want to argue where is says "Where does a 14-year-old boy who never fired a gun before get the skill and the will to kill? Video games and media violence." They say that these should be banned, however I disagree. Kids that play these games for enjoyment, like me know the dangers that even attempting something like this would cause.
Concepts
I think that all the statistics that are presented in the text are very important. They are important because they show proof that media is having an impact on today's kids, and its a negative one.
Kids should not be exposed to violent media or games at a very young age, once they understand the dangers it presents in reality, then only I think they can be exposed. Also the way that they train their soldiers is extremely brutal and how they totally eliminate their individuality.
Changes
The changes that need to be made are worldwide. I think their should be a age limit so we can limit the amount of young children exposed to violence. There is also violence that they are exposed to that we cannot control, such as abuse in the home or seeing it happening around the world in different countries with the child solider's. Media is for entertainment, if kid's cannot handle watching it without becoming murderers then I do agree something needs to be done.
I can very easily make a connection to this text because it's reasoning for kids becoming killers is primarily media. This includes violent video games and movies that are leaving an impression on teenagers that this behavior is okay. I can connect to this because I play violent video games sometimes such as Call of Duty. The way that they teach kids to kill versus the way that kids in Canada learn in school is extremely different. They FORCE these kids to become what they want and not what these kids want, it becomes all that they know.
Challenges
I want to argue where is says "Where does a 14-year-old boy who never fired a gun before get the skill and the will to kill? Video games and media violence." They say that these should be banned, however I disagree. Kids that play these games for enjoyment, like me know the dangers that even attempting something like this would cause.
Concepts
I think that all the statistics that are presented in the text are very important. They are important because they show proof that media is having an impact on today's kids, and its a negative one.
Kids should not be exposed to violent media or games at a very young age, once they understand the dangers it presents in reality, then only I think they can be exposed. Also the way that they train their soldiers is extremely brutal and how they totally eliminate their individuality.
Changes
The changes that need to be made are worldwide. I think their should be a age limit so we can limit the amount of young children exposed to violence. There is also violence that they are exposed to that we cannot control, such as abuse in the home or seeing it happening around the world in different countries with the child solider's. Media is for entertainment, if kid's cannot handle watching it without becoming murderers then I do agree something needs to be done.
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