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.

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.

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. 

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.