Sunday, February 8, 2015

Week #1 - Connection Captain - Chloé C.

         When I started reading the book Maus I noticed it talked about the Nazis and it intereted me that what the story talked about still wasn't quite what I expected to hear. I thought that in this part it would talk more about what happened to jews during the Holocaust but in this part the Nazism didn't reach Vladek's city. But from this bit of the story that I've read I can make a few connections already.


         To begin with, my first connection is to the book The Boy in Striped Pyjamas, just like I did to the book Red Scarf Girl. In The Boy in Striped Pyjamas  the story is about a boy who is he son of an important soldier who befriends a jew that's in the concentration camp (Auschwitz) nearby his new house. I think both of the stories of Maus and The Boy in Striped Pyjamas are connected because they both talk about some people's bad experiences during the Holocaust.


         My second connection is Diary of Anne Frank. Once again, both of the stories talk about experiences of Nazi Germany and WWII. However, Diary of Anne Frank is much more deep since it is more realistic by the fact that it talks about two real stories of people who were fighting back from what the people were doing during WWII.

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5 comments:

  1. Chloe,

    To me, you connections were really strait forward. Good job. After reading your post, it left me curious because I've never read these books. Therefore, it caught my attention that you connect it to these two books relating to the time period around the World War II. After reading a couple of summaries about these books, I wonder if there are specific connections that can relate to Valdek's life, maybe a specific event. For example, Shmuel, the secondary character, can talk about how he was forced to work all night. This event can relate to how Valdek dug up wholes to even out the road for the Nazis. Finally, I wonder how you can relate Maus to The Boy in the Stripped Pajamas?

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  2. Chloe,

    I liked the connections you made with the novel, however I must say that I don't see what you meant in your second paragraph when you talk about "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas", because his father merely befriends a jew, where as in Maus, Vladek, who is basically the narrator of the story, was a jew. Evidently making Maus a more graphic and profound story, regarding the Holocaust since Vladek, was a victim and the father of the boy in the movie you mentioned was not one.

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  3. Chloe,
    I really liked what you connected the book we are reading with. I only wish you had extended you thinking more because you started you connections so well, and I was hoping to read a little further to why this graphic novel connects to any of those. For example, what you could have said on the second one is how "The Diary of Anne Frank" is based on a true story of someone during the Holocaust, and so is "Maus".

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  4. Chloe,
    I really enjoyed reading your post! In the book Boy In The Striped Pajamas I think that is really related with what we are doing now in humanities. In the book I really think that it is touching how one other buy who is not jewish comes to see him. I think that, that should be a way of saying even though we are different religions we can still be friends. I think that the book is a metaphor to say that religions don't make you different in a good or bad way. The jews never did anything to hurt, and they never did anything bad to anyone else. The way that the little kid comes to visit the other one is a way of saying "he is different but we can all be friends".

    In the Anne Frank book I really think that it is ridiculous the way they had to hide for two years and could not live normal lives. During the summer I went to Amsterdam and I visited the Anne Frank house. At first I thought that it would be small but enough to fit the amount of people that where up there. When I walked inside I could not believe what I was seeing. Every room was tiny, the stairs where all very steep. When I walked into the room that Anne would sleep in I felt really touched. I could not believe someone had to spend two years there and not even be able to move for half of their day. Something that also really surprised me was the windows. Ever window was covered in black and you could not see anything that was happening in the outside. They had to live in a squished place, and could not even breathe fresh air.
    Thank you,
    Helena

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  5. Chloe,

    When I was reading Maus last week, I also thought about The Boy in The Striped Pj's and how they related in a way. Both stories show how difficult it was to be living during WWII if you were Jewish but I believe that in The Boy in The Striped Pj's it showed both perspectives. It showed how the jewish boy, very little to no amount go food lived in the camp, and how the son of a wealthy important soldier to Hitler was living. Their religion didn't intervene in the friendship once. They got to know each other, and became the closest they could become considering their circumstances. Since the little boy couldn't get out of the camp and the other had to sneak out of his house to visit, they couldn't do much but somehow tossed a ball over the fence, told stories, and helped each other when help was needed.

    When I read Diary of Anne Frank, I connected to a book called Number the Stars. I'm not sure if you've read it, but it is about a family helping a Jewish family go undercover and escape. I could connect to it in so many ways. One way is the living condition, they once had escaped to a cabin and had to be careful with everything they did. They also didn't get much food, and had to share around. Just like in Anne Frank, they took in families. Even though they didn't have enough space, they helped other Jews in need of hiding.

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