Social entrepreneurship project
Business proposal
project reflection
TJ Rifkin
5-12-15
Sellers ⅗
Social Entrepreneurship Project Reflection
Project Description:
In this project, the students in each group were given the task of creating a business/product that could solve a global issue while creating a better world for the people in their target area. For example, our group sought to solve the issue of human waste in India. Once we had an idea of what we wanted to do we went ahead and created our preliminary business proposal, this included things like our companies mission statement and initial problem statements. We had to address topics like how we would market our business to the public, which we used a ton of social media including facebook, instagram, and a weebly website. We then put together a final project portfolio, this contained all of our work from the beginning of the project. The complete portfolio went with us to our final exhibition.
Learning Reflection:
Coming out of this massive project, I have gained a complete new understanding of globalization in a way that I can now see the massive benefits and major detriments that it has placed on society. I can now see that social entrepreneurship isn’t for the person behind the counter to make money, but rather to benefit a group of people while being sustainable for the people running the business. This project has changed the way that I think about the world because it has helped show me that there are a ton of people in the world who still care about helping other people. Through all of our prior research, I found out just how many other social entrepreneurships are active in the world today.
Collaboration Reflection:
Collaboration is when a group comes together to work with each other to achieve a common goal. This type of collaboration was key in this project because in each group we had to really depend on each other. If the collaboration wasn’t present then our group would have failed miserably. I have grown personally as a collaborator in this project because normally I am a total control freak in group projects, but in this situation I really just had to sit back and trust my partners in a lot of areas that I wasn’t comfortable with. Our group had several instances where collaboration was key, for example I was gone for many days during the project to to away games for lacrosse. During my absence, I wrote back and forth with my group and facetimed them to keep up with the project so that I was pulling my full weight. I learned that it is beneficial in a group setting to be present as much as possible. In my future as a teammate, I can be more prepared for final exhibition and be more well rehearsed.
Mindset Reflection:
The fixed mindset and the growth mindset are very different. The fixed mindset is a steal cage, it holds you back mentally by limiting your creativity and ability to perform. For example, the fixed mindset holds you back from trying new things. Using the fixed mindset makes you think that you won’t succeed at something before you even try it. The growth mindset lets you think that anything is possible, and even if it isn’t working for you right then and there, that you can achieve it in the future. Instead of thinking that you can’t do something, it allows you to think that you can’t do it yet. In this project I had to use the growth mindset and let myself think that working with the numbers in the financial portion would be easy as long as I tried my hardest. Luckily in the end I ended up not having to do the financials at all! The mindset affected everything as far as effort, whenever I found myself trapped in the fixed mindset, I would feel “flat” and didn’t want to work. I would often complain and say, “This project is stupid.” The growth mindset let me work diligently without distraction. I wish that in the middle of the project I use the growth mindset more. I could have kept a positive outlook and helped my group members do the same.
Exhibition Reflection:
At exhibition, it was an emotional roller coaster. Initially I was super nervous, but as the night progressed everything became a lot easier. As the night went on I knew that or group was flowing well when a board member came up and announced that they were on the board to me. I was scared at first but then thought, “Hey, I can do this.” From that point on, all of the nerves were gone and I had no more problems. The hardest question I was asked, was, “How will you convince people to eat the food that is grown in human feces?” My success strategy was to keep my cool, and just let it flow and use the facts. Next time I would memorize my elevator speech a little better, that way I wouldn’t have to improvise as much. Overall the exhibition went really well, and I loved the project.
5-12-15
Sellers ⅗
Social Entrepreneurship Project Reflection
Project Description:
In this project, the students in each group were given the task of creating a business/product that could solve a global issue while creating a better world for the people in their target area. For example, our group sought to solve the issue of human waste in India. Once we had an idea of what we wanted to do we went ahead and created our preliminary business proposal, this included things like our companies mission statement and initial problem statements. We had to address topics like how we would market our business to the public, which we used a ton of social media including facebook, instagram, and a weebly website. We then put together a final project portfolio, this contained all of our work from the beginning of the project. The complete portfolio went with us to our final exhibition.
Learning Reflection:
Coming out of this massive project, I have gained a complete new understanding of globalization in a way that I can now see the massive benefits and major detriments that it has placed on society. I can now see that social entrepreneurship isn’t for the person behind the counter to make money, but rather to benefit a group of people while being sustainable for the people running the business. This project has changed the way that I think about the world because it has helped show me that there are a ton of people in the world who still care about helping other people. Through all of our prior research, I found out just how many other social entrepreneurships are active in the world today.
Collaboration Reflection:
Collaboration is when a group comes together to work with each other to achieve a common goal. This type of collaboration was key in this project because in each group we had to really depend on each other. If the collaboration wasn’t present then our group would have failed miserably. I have grown personally as a collaborator in this project because normally I am a total control freak in group projects, but in this situation I really just had to sit back and trust my partners in a lot of areas that I wasn’t comfortable with. Our group had several instances where collaboration was key, for example I was gone for many days during the project to to away games for lacrosse. During my absence, I wrote back and forth with my group and facetimed them to keep up with the project so that I was pulling my full weight. I learned that it is beneficial in a group setting to be present as much as possible. In my future as a teammate, I can be more prepared for final exhibition and be more well rehearsed.
Mindset Reflection:
The fixed mindset and the growth mindset are very different. The fixed mindset is a steal cage, it holds you back mentally by limiting your creativity and ability to perform. For example, the fixed mindset holds you back from trying new things. Using the fixed mindset makes you think that you won’t succeed at something before you even try it. The growth mindset lets you think that anything is possible, and even if it isn’t working for you right then and there, that you can achieve it in the future. Instead of thinking that you can’t do something, it allows you to think that you can’t do it yet. In this project I had to use the growth mindset and let myself think that working with the numbers in the financial portion would be easy as long as I tried my hardest. Luckily in the end I ended up not having to do the financials at all! The mindset affected everything as far as effort, whenever I found myself trapped in the fixed mindset, I would feel “flat” and didn’t want to work. I would often complain and say, “This project is stupid.” The growth mindset let me work diligently without distraction. I wish that in the middle of the project I use the growth mindset more. I could have kept a positive outlook and helped my group members do the same.
Exhibition Reflection:
At exhibition, it was an emotional roller coaster. Initially I was super nervous, but as the night progressed everything became a lot easier. As the night went on I knew that or group was flowing well when a board member came up and announced that they were on the board to me. I was scared at first but then thought, “Hey, I can do this.” From that point on, all of the nerves were gone and I had no more problems. The hardest question I was asked, was, “How will you convince people to eat the food that is grown in human feces?” My success strategy was to keep my cool, and just let it flow and use the facts. Next time I would memorize my elevator speech a little better, that way I wouldn’t have to improvise as much. Overall the exhibition went really well, and I loved the project.
globalization comparison poster
true education collage
educational autobiography
TJ Rifkin
1-6-15
Stephen Sellers
Periods ⅗
Educational Autobiography
This lyric from the song ice ice baby by Vanilla ice, “If there’s a problem yo I’ll solve it” really shows how my highschool career has been so far. I have run into a lot of problems that have been hard to solve academically but through perseverance I have pushed to learn what I need to. I have always loved the song ice ice baby so it was a no brainer for me to use this line from the song to describe my high school experience. In high school I have had a lot of time to learn how to problem solve for myself and not be so dependent. Therefore, in highschool, when there’s a problem, YO I’LL SOLVE IT.
This lyric from Linkin Park “And the shadow of the day, will embrace the world in grey” describes my middle school years well because I was having a hard time in a lot of my subjects and I wasn’t really active in my learning. Throughout the process of middle school I learned to embrace my struggles and learn from them. I felt like I was in a dark sort of grey area in my learning and I shut off my apprehension for a while. But eventually I turned my “thinking cap” back on and tuned back into school and started thriving in 8th grade.
This lyric from the band Needtobreathe, “Everybody needs someone beside them shining like a lighthouse from the sea” describes my elementary school experience well because I had a hard time when my Grandfather died in 5th grade. This experience in my life made me struggle to learn the content in school because my mind was occupied with other thoughts. But my teacher Mrs. Oles helped me understand the content even in my time of struggle thus connecting with the song lyric. She reached out to me and that’s what I really needed in that situation. Overall She pulled me out of a dark time and showed me what I needed to do to learn the content.
1-6-15
Stephen Sellers
Periods ⅗
Educational Autobiography
This lyric from the song ice ice baby by Vanilla ice, “If there’s a problem yo I’ll solve it” really shows how my highschool career has been so far. I have run into a lot of problems that have been hard to solve academically but through perseverance I have pushed to learn what I need to. I have always loved the song ice ice baby so it was a no brainer for me to use this line from the song to describe my high school experience. In high school I have had a lot of time to learn how to problem solve for myself and not be so dependent. Therefore, in highschool, when there’s a problem, YO I’LL SOLVE IT.
This lyric from Linkin Park “And the shadow of the day, will embrace the world in grey” describes my middle school years well because I was having a hard time in a lot of my subjects and I wasn’t really active in my learning. Throughout the process of middle school I learned to embrace my struggles and learn from them. I felt like I was in a dark sort of grey area in my learning and I shut off my apprehension for a while. But eventually I turned my “thinking cap” back on and tuned back into school and started thriving in 8th grade.
This lyric from the band Needtobreathe, “Everybody needs someone beside them shining like a lighthouse from the sea” describes my elementary school experience well because I had a hard time when my Grandfather died in 5th grade. This experience in my life made me struggle to learn the content in school because my mind was occupied with other thoughts. But my teacher Mrs. Oles helped me understand the content even in my time of struggle thus connecting with the song lyric. She reached out to me and that’s what I really needed in that situation. Overall She pulled me out of a dark time and showed me what I needed to do to learn the content.
vietnam project
TJ Rifkin
Artist Statement
In this Vietnam art project I chose to express my viewpoint on the Vietnam War by portraying the setting of gallows. My perspective statement is, “The fight to stop communism caused thousands of unnecessary deaths of innocent Vietnamese men, women, and children. I drew three Vietnamese people hanging by their necks, a man, woman, and their child to be specific. In the background I drew hills with rows of rice paddies. Also there is a plane dropping agent orange in the background that kills all of the vegetation below it. There is a mushroom cloud in the hills to represent the carpet bombing in Vietnam. I wanted to do this gallow scene because I have always been greatly impacted by the thought of women and children dying, and I thought that my audience would be impacted in the same way. On the left hand side of the drawing there is the lever that dropped the floor out from under the Vietnamese people in the drawing, and on side of the lever represents capitalism, and the other communism. The lever is pushed to the communist side by a man wearing a shirt that represents the U.S.S.R., and an american man has lost his fight in pushing the lever the opposite way. My perspective is that the fight to stop communism was what caused the death of thousands of innocent Vietnamese people.
The refinement process for me was long and grueling. The gallows were hard for me to draw over and over again but I knew that I had to do it in order to make my piece the best that it could be. I relied on the feedback of my peers and teachers to help give me critiques as to what I should change or refine on my art piece. I ensured that my piece was at the final stage by making sure that there was no feedback left available by peers, I had done all that I could to make it the best it could be. In the end I finished the project with 4 drafts, which was the minimum. My first draft drafts was all in black and white, and was on lined paper. As the drafts progressed I used cardstock drawing paper. Then finally I added solid color using colorful sharpies.
I was influenced to create this piece because not only was it a required project, but because the Vietnam War interests me greatly. It was easy for me to be inspired after watching war films and reading stories that depict such vivid environments and the horrors of war. We did not get to watch the intense film Platoon until I was already in the final draft of my project, but either way the intense imagery in these types of war films had a great impact on the way I see war. After researching testimonies of Vietnam veterans and hearing our janitor Dominic’s story of the war, I knew that this would be a great project for me. I was never bored in lectures or video’s about this war, and the movie Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks is my favorite movie. The scene in the movie where Forrest loses his best friend Bubba in Vietnam made me see war in a whole new spectrum the first time I saw it. Overall, the details about the war always kept me interested throughout the project, and I was easily inspired to create my piece. If I could do this project again I would, I had a great time getting the opportunity to be creative with art.
Artist Statement
In this Vietnam art project I chose to express my viewpoint on the Vietnam War by portraying the setting of gallows. My perspective statement is, “The fight to stop communism caused thousands of unnecessary deaths of innocent Vietnamese men, women, and children. I drew three Vietnamese people hanging by their necks, a man, woman, and their child to be specific. In the background I drew hills with rows of rice paddies. Also there is a plane dropping agent orange in the background that kills all of the vegetation below it. There is a mushroom cloud in the hills to represent the carpet bombing in Vietnam. I wanted to do this gallow scene because I have always been greatly impacted by the thought of women and children dying, and I thought that my audience would be impacted in the same way. On the left hand side of the drawing there is the lever that dropped the floor out from under the Vietnamese people in the drawing, and on side of the lever represents capitalism, and the other communism. The lever is pushed to the communist side by a man wearing a shirt that represents the U.S.S.R., and an american man has lost his fight in pushing the lever the opposite way. My perspective is that the fight to stop communism was what caused the death of thousands of innocent Vietnamese people.
The refinement process for me was long and grueling. The gallows were hard for me to draw over and over again but I knew that I had to do it in order to make my piece the best that it could be. I relied on the feedback of my peers and teachers to help give me critiques as to what I should change or refine on my art piece. I ensured that my piece was at the final stage by making sure that there was no feedback left available by peers, I had done all that I could to make it the best it could be. In the end I finished the project with 4 drafts, which was the minimum. My first draft drafts was all in black and white, and was on lined paper. As the drafts progressed I used cardstock drawing paper. Then finally I added solid color using colorful sharpies.
I was influenced to create this piece because not only was it a required project, but because the Vietnam War interests me greatly. It was easy for me to be inspired after watching war films and reading stories that depict such vivid environments and the horrors of war. We did not get to watch the intense film Platoon until I was already in the final draft of my project, but either way the intense imagery in these types of war films had a great impact on the way I see war. After researching testimonies of Vietnam veterans and hearing our janitor Dominic’s story of the war, I knew that this would be a great project for me. I was never bored in lectures or video’s about this war, and the movie Forrest Gump starring Tom Hanks is my favorite movie. The scene in the movie where Forrest loses his best friend Bubba in Vietnam made me see war in a whole new spectrum the first time I saw it. Overall, the details about the war always kept me interested throughout the project, and I was easily inspired to create my piece. If I could do this project again I would, I had a great time getting the opportunity to be creative with art.
excerpt reading part i
excerpt reading part ii
WWI and wwii creative historians
TJ Rifkin
Short story
11-5-14
As The Ashes Fall Final Draft
As my eyes open to the light of day, my heart sinks. I have to leave home today; and I may never return. I am leaving my mother, my baby sister, and the most important person in my life, my fiance Martha. As I roll out of bed and my feet touch the ground, my body feels weak. It is like there’s no strength left inside of me, and I haven’t even begun my day. I throw on some clothes. Downstairs I find my family and all of my closest friends waiting for me. The table is covered with the most wonderful food I have ever seen. There is a golden breakfast ham, pastries from my favorite bake shop, and even fresh berries. A colorful banner hangs across the ceiling saying, “We love you Roger”. I can tell this is hard for my mother, I see the pain in her eyes. She has tried so hard to provide for us our entire lives. She hasn’t always been the best mother, however she has always done the best she can. When my father died in WWI she was left to raise us alone. A debt that I can never repay. This is the first time she has ever prepared this much food and worked this hard on decorations. I can’t help but shed a tear considering the circumstances. I am being drafted into the war. I only have about an hour before catching the bus to Fort Dix, NJ. For now I need to cherish this short time with my family and friends. I look to Martha and see tears coming from her eyes. I sit down and begin to eat as though it is the last meal of my life. I attempt to speak with Martha about what should happen if I do not return from war, and she will not listen to me, instead she tells me to just come home safe. She says to me, “When you come home, we will be married happily and our lives will be complete.” The hour with my loved ones goes by in what seems to be ten seconds. But these are the best ten seconds of my life.
The next thing I know I am on the bus, and one minute away from arrival at Fort Dix. The anticipation of arrival is too much to bear, my heart is racing at the speed of a galloping race horse. Shortly upon arriving at the military establishment, I am stuffed into a manilla tent and then sit down abruptly. Our Sergeant introduces himself as Mitchell Anderson. Then he quickly proceeds to explain to us that what we are about to get into is no joke. The idea that one mistake can mean your life or your comrade’s life shocks me. Now I don’t only have to worry about my own ass, but my brothers in arms as well. We spend several weeks at the camp training with our weapons and becoming sharp with our accuracy as well as techniques. After we are outfitted with our guns and uniforms, we are put on large capacity trains and sent to the harbor to board the boats. We are outfitted with the finest guns existing at this time. I am given an M1 carbine semi automatic rifle, which I have taken a particular liking to. The bigger men have the automatic guns. Brutus is given the BAR. The best weapon goes to the Sergeant, the Thompson M1A1, the most coveted weapon in the war at this time. Once we all have our weapons we are shipped out. We are aboard the boats for weeks. Each day feels like a year. Everywhere we look there are soldiers throwing up from seasickness. Arriving at our destination seems like heaven compared to the hardship on the boats. Or at least that is what we think, as we have not arrived yet.
As we arrive, the war on Germany has already been advanced heavily. The Battle of the Bulge has just ended. We are there to pick up the scraps and stop Hitler’s Holocaust. Originally, there was no knowledge that these concentration camps existed until the first American and Russian men on the scene came across them. In the past months we have narrowed down the remaining camps that are still active. Just as we begin traversing into Germany it is snowing heavily. Our vision is made blurry by the dense snowfall. The date is January 28th, 1945. We press on through the snow for a while. But after half a day of this, we become restless and make camp.
As I eat my food every night I think of one thing, that damned morning when I left the ones I love. That morning we had feasted, and now I am eating dehydrated carrot soup by myself, I miss my family. This is not nearly as compelling I must say. Just since entering this war I’ve lost 20 pounds but I’ve gotten much stronger. The food in the war is atrocious and we are lucky if we have bread. It is mostly dehydrated soup and MRE’s (meals ready to eat). I should not have any room to complain when I imagine what the Jews are eating in the concentration camps. I do not know for sure, but I would think that they are not fed well. I don’t know how much longer I can take this environment and diet. It’s cold and snowy. Half of my comrades are suffering from frostbite or hypothermia already. I have been fortunate to say the least in that regard. While we are sitting around this dying campfire the light disappears. Our Sergeant explains to us that we will make great advancements in the war on Germany within the next week. It seems like a shock to me, merely because this war has been raging on for years and I just got here in the grand scheme of things. And now this could all end so soon? Or end with Germany at least. The Sergeant stands up quickly and says, “Anyway we have a big day ahead of us, so get some rest.” During the nights it is so consistently cold that in the morning the ground is always frozen. It depends on the day, but there are days where it snows the entire day, and others where there is bright sunshine. This particular region of Germany has extremely unpredictable weather. If you have to go to the bathroom in the night, you have to hurry, and get back inside quickly so that you don’t freeze. It’s hard to believe that we have to fear death of the cold as much as we do from the Nazis. As I finally begin to fall asleep, I feel a tap on the shoulder by the man sleeping next to me. It was so dark in our tent I can’t make out who it was at first but I soon found out. It’s Daniel, Daniel Brown. The weakest, most naive, and sweetest kid in this damn army of ours. He was roughly 5 foot 8 inches with a weak build. But what he lacked in strength and size he made up for with his enormous heart and dedication. You can’t help but enjoy his company. But for now I think I’d rather sleep. He asks me a question that shocks me. “Do you have anything riding on this task?” Stopping the Holocaust he means of course. I say to him painfully, “Yes.” My great grandfather and grandmother are somewhere in the concentration camps. Hell, they may be dead already. I return his question. He tells me that he is not attached to the Jews by direct relation, but he is scared and horrified by the idea of such a genocide, as anyone should be. “Goodnight Daniel”, I say to him abruptly as I roll over and go to sleep.
As the light begins to creep into the cracks in the tent I jump up as quick as I can. By this time the MD’s have the food prepared already. This is the last day that we will have a meal cooked for us as our mission will press farther on and the food will not be made for us anymore. The early bird gets the worm for the best food in our case. Beside, knowing what we have to do today I will want to eat now because I might not be capable later. As I race to the front of the breakfast line, I get knocked down on my face by Brutus. I must say, his name fits him. Of course knowing my luck by the time I get up there is already a line of 30 men. Isn’t that just great. By the time I get my food it is cold and measly portioned compared to the frontrunners. When I’m done eating my scraps, everyone has already packed up and began leaving. As I rush to gather my things and exit the camp, I am sure I lost a few items; I just don’t know what. I’m sure I will find out later and regret my hurrying.
When we are walking through dense trees and snow cover, we can’t help but notice the various scents the forest is casting upon us. It seems to always be either be pine sap or gunpowder. It doesn’t seem to bother us considering what we have to accomplish in the following week. We all know there will be much worse to come in this mission. My platoon and I are the ones that have to invade the single largest concentration camp in Hitler’s fleet. Auschwitz is the camp that we have been told is the largest by three times, and has killed more than all of the other camps combined. On top of that, it could be the camp that my relatives are in, or have been killed in.
I look to Daniel for some good conversation to keep me from becoming bored. Daniel is very smart. He should be in Washington running this country not fighting a war with his life on the line. I proceed to ask him about his family back home. He tells me that he was married in April of the last year and has a 1 year old girl. It is hard for me to think of him as a father, but I feel like he is a good one. Our conversation ends as we near the outskirts of one of Hitler’s smallest concentration camps, Gross Rosen. It’s a concentration camp that is known for miserable living conditions before the prisoners are transferred to Auschwitz Birkenau to be killed. We discuss our strategy for taking over this camp. Sergeant Anderson explains that we will attack from the western gate. Although it is small, we have been told it is heavily armored. Therefore we cannot be careful enough. Sergeant Anderson proceeds to tell us the dangers that lie before us. Some are scared and others bloodthirsty. I don’t know where I fall between the two. As we near the outside gates from the woods, we immediately make out guard towers. Our snipers take care of those at once and the gunshots raise an immediate alarm among the Nazis. It seems that at this time there is also a large locomotive arriving at the camp on the other side of the land, full of Jews waiting to be distributed to the death camps. But no matter, there is already heavy gunfire showering my platoon, and then all of a sudden I can’t move. It seems like my limbs are covered in lead clothing. I am physically paralyzed and bogged down. Fortunately I am behind cover as this is happening, therefore I am safe for a moment. In my moment of greatest need, my body fails me and I think of Martha. The thought of her wonderful smile loosens my limbs and I begin regaining my agility. But in my moment of trouble, I watch as Paul, Stephen, and Daniel get gunned down right in front of me. Daniel, the innocent boy who’s too young to die. This sight instantly electrifies me and makes me jump to my feet. I rush over to my comrades and assess the damage. At this moment it is clear that Paul and Stephen are gone. I then look to Daniel see him gurgling his own blood, barely clinging onto his life. I drag him to cover and try to help him. The rest of the soldiers have already advanced and I am left behind with Daniel. Daniel cannot speak as he is dying in my arms but his eyes tell me all I need to know. I start sobbing uncontrollably as I watch the light die out from his eyes. I start shaking him desperately in an effort to wake him, but my pal Daniel is no more. He can not die so meaninglessly, he means too much to the world. He has a baby and a wife at home. He can’t die, he simply can’t! His family needs him to come home, and I need him here with me. Even though we haven’t grown extremely close, he is my only friend. I rip off his dog tags in anger and frustration and grab my gun from the ground. From there I sprint to catch my comrades dodging bullets the entire way. I am blinded as I run by the torrent of tears flowing from my eyes for the loss of Daniel. As I approach Sergeant Anderson, I dive behind a small brick wall with him. I wipe away the sadness from my memory and focus. Anderson yells to me, “WE’VE ALMOST GOT THEM, PUSH ON!” While I am so busy thinking about staying alive, I look to my left and see children. Hundreds of children pushing up on a sharp barbed wire fence looking at us. They are all wearing old and torn black and white striped pajamas. Like inmates in a prison but they have done nothing wrong. They don’t deserve this, I can’t stop to feel emotion. But I can’t help but feel pain for them. As we make a final push in the last row of Nazis hiding behind a building Men are dropping next to me like flies. I run forward and with precise accuracy and hit the last two men. As we clear the camp for Nazis we assess the damage and body count of our own. Immediately we tend to the wounded and call for backup. As our reinforcements arrive we free all of the prisoners and feed them with our supplies. This is a very emotional time for the Jewish soldiers in my platoon. Looking at all these kind people I see them starving and filthy. It is a miracle to me they are even alive to interact with us. Sergeant Anderson sits all of the remaining men down to discuss today’s events. If we follow the train tracks for 42 kilometers we will arrive at Auschwitz which is our main objective. We load up all of the Jews into trains and send them back to neutral Germany where the Americans and Russians are in control. This process takes all night into the morning. We have to start a forty-two kilometer journey with no sleep. Half of our men don’t understand the metric system, due to poor education. Therefore I have been telling them that 42 kilometers is 150 miles. In reality it is only twenty six.
As we send off the last train, we are exhausted. But we have to begin our journey to Auschwitz in order to maintain our schedule, no matter the level of exhaustion. As we begin to advance through the front gates of the camp and onto the train tracks, the sky is overcast with a dark grey overtone. It’s as though the sun has disappeared from us. I will not lie, some sunshine sounds very pleasant to me right now.
An hour or two passes by, when I hear Brutus yell from the front of the crew, “STOP STOP STOP!” Immediately everyone’s reaction to this is to hit the deck. Brutus placed his right foot on a mine to the right side of the tracks. This could only mean one thing. That Brutus was about to die, or it was a dud as claymore mines sometimes are. As the men scattered to the surrounding tree cover, Sergeant Anderson attempts to dig underneath the mine. With extreme caution Brutus stays still as a statue. The Sergeant exclaims, “No way out of this one boys”, he shouted to us in the bushes. At this point the best we can hope for Brutus is that it’s a dud. The Sergeant jogs over to us in the trees. Brutus and I haven’t always gotten along, but I have been keeping a letter to his wife he had given me in case something like this happens. He has trusted me to make sure his wife knows how much he loves her. And that’s a responsibility that is greatly honorable. Brutus looks over to all of us and exclaims, “Give them hell boys”. With tears in his eyes he takes his foot off of the mine a distinct click rings through our ears, Brutus falls to the ground weeping with joy. The mine was a dud. He jumps up and shouts with joy. But then the worst happens, a delayed explosion. Brutus had walked about twenty feet toward us by this time, but instantly a shock courses through his body and he becomes motionless. As shrapnel shoots through his chest, his body instantly becomes engulfed with fire. An enormous scream emits from the mouths of our entire platoon. Brutus is dead. The strongest man in our platoon, gone. So is this is we signed up for? The truth of war is death, and sadness. Daniel didn’t sign up for this, nor did Brutus, let alone any of the other men that have fallen on this short mission. I can only help but think of when Brutus had helped pick me up, the one time that I tripped, and he simply said, “I didn’t see anything.” He saved me that embarrassment from the rest of the platoon. And just that one time made me understand his compassion. As the Sergeant tells us to push on, many if not all the men are in tears. Just as we thought our friend was in the clear, boom. He was gone from us in an instant. And now we have to keep on moving like he was nothing? This surely is not what God had intended for mankind. For life to pass so easily and carelessly. But now I have more reason to stay alive. So I can carry on Brutus’ legacy to his pregnant wife and future child that will never have a daddy. The emotions are too much to bear.
Once again as we find ourselves walking with our heads held low, and I can sense the distance to Auschwitz Birkenau is shrinking rapidly. As another hour draws to a close the horrid scent of rancid flesh hits our nostrils like a train. And within minutes of this happening, we see massive smoke billows barreling into the sky in the distance. We have arrived at Auschwitz Birkenau. The pinnacle of all that is wrong in the world. If there was hell on earth, you would find it here. And we were standing within a mile of the entrance. We dodged into the tree cover. By this time it was no more than twenty degrees outside. We had to stop in the trees as it has been a long and emotional day for us all and darkness was closing in on us rapidly. By the time camp is almost set up it is already dark outside. We make a very small fire to keep from being detected by the Nazis patrolling the area. Everyone is going to bed early. Everyone is sleep deprived, including myself, and I do not blame them. As everyone disperses from the fire to go to sleep, I am left alone staring at the campfire. I pull out my pocket Bible and begin to read until my eyes hurt. I have been a Christian my entire life, as the majority of the men in this army are. But I have never really looked to God for help in my life, or complained to him about all my problems. I guess I have just never felt the need to do so. However now with the loss of two of the best men in my platoon, I can’t help but question why a loving God would let things like this happen. I think about the Jews, they hold onto their religion even when it seems like God has turned his back on them in these damn concentration camps. I don’t know if Daniel or Brutus were Christian for sure, but I hope they were. Maybe there really is something out there after we die. Men like them deserve heaven if there is one. I can’t help but start crying for Daniel and Brutus. They were both good people. Daniel was one of the sweetest people I have ever met and he died too young. Brutus didn’t always know how to show compassion or respect, but he always meant well. I will never forget either of them. As I struggle to pull myself together, I bundle up and go to sleep.
We wake to the snow covered ground, and we crawl out of our sleeping quarters to dress for the big day. “This isn’t snow!”, screams David as he stumbles to the ground in disbelief. “It’s not melting!” Shortly thereafter Sergeant Anderson exclaims, “It’s ashes, boys.” The disbelief shocks the camp. The burned ashes of the Jews were literally falling from the sky like snow. The Nazis will pay for this. We rush to get ready to invade the giant death camp, simply because everyone is more than eager to get this nerve racking mission over with. Once we get all of our things together, we begin traversing through the dense trees. The snowfall has not melted under the shade of the trees so we are sinking. Many of the men complain that their boots are wet. As the scent of rancid flesh grows to be too much to bear, we know we are about to walk into hell. We keep walking until the outskirts of the camp become visible. We see the barbed wire fences and follow them until we find a small field where there is virtually no chance of being seen. One of the men starts clipping the barbed wire to allow us to enter the camp. As soon as the clipping is finished, the men start piling inside the camp then lay in the tall grass growing through the thin layer of snow on the ground. The last man to come through the fence is Sergeant Anderson, and as he steps one foot through the fence a crackle comes from the bushes outside the fence. Sergeant Anderson turns around to find a young Nazi soldier trip out of the bushes. Before he can scream a word, Anderson sprints over to him before he can stand up from his stumble. The Sergeant climbs on top of him and chokes him to death silently. This is a huge relief he did not alert anybody that we were present. Anderson drags the boy into the bushes to hide his body.
We start advancing into the camp and discover that Auschwitz is much larger than we anticipated. There was no way that this 30 man platoon could kill as many Nazis as there are in this camp. “We have two options men”, exclaims the Sergeant. “We can take this death mission on our own, or we can call backup that may take days. If we wait for backup we run the risk of being detected.” All the men look around to each other without saying a word. The unanimous decision is to attack now. The Sergeant explains to us how proud he is of all of us, and that he loves each and every one of us. I know now that I may die in the next hour, and to a point I am ok with this. I am here to end something that is more important than my life. Everyone loads up and prepares for the worst. We are all exchanging letters to our families in case of the worst. Finally everyone begins to move. The first thing we see while we are moving is guard towers just like in Gross Rosen, but these ones are different. There are no guards in them, and the spotlights aren’t on. We keep advancing, and eventually we split into two groups, one takes the west side of the camp and the other takes the east. We continue to find that there are no Nazis to be found. We see thousands of Jews lined up along the fences grasping the barbed wire, and they are screaming for us to help them. We have to focus, we are not out of the woods yet. We keep walking along the fence diving behind cover at every turn. After passing thousands of dead bodies just stacked in rows outside the furnaces, I don’t know how much more I can take. We come to a point where the two groups meet at the other side of the camp. We have found by this point that the camp has been completely evacuated by the Nazi soldiers. This was also where Hitler was suspected to be hiding in Germany. The boy outside the fence must have merely been left behind. How could this be? The great Nazi army has just fled their biggest concentration camp? This can only show how much of cowards they are. They can’t even stay and face their consequences. The thousands of bodies laying in the streets of Auschwitz are a disgrace to mankind. Seeing the women and children sickens me. I can’t comprehend the motives of Adolf Hitler. It appears to me that the Nazi’s killed as many as they could until they ran out of ammunition, and from there they fled like pigs. They knew that their time to pay the piper had come, and with the Russians closing from the east, and Americans from the west, it would have been ugly for them. The fresh bodies are all scattered with no order, the Nazi’s do not deserve a description as low as pig, but lower, filthier. For now we must help the people in the camps and get them food and water as soon as we can. Days pass while we send busses of Jews to allied Germany. The work is far from over, but for my platoon it finally is. We board a truck to go home. We drive for about a day before we reach our forward operating base. Sergeant Anderson tells us that we are making the final push on Hitler and the Nazis. All I can do is hope now for the success of our military and our allies. From the operating base we travel to the docks to board the ships back to Fort Dix, NJ. As we board the boats I can’t contain myself. In a few short weeks I will see my beloved Martha and my family.
Two and a half weeks pass in what seems like ten years. As shore comes into sight, I begin to cry with excitement. We arrive at Fort Dix late in the afternoon on March 4th, 1946. I haven’t seen or heard from Martha since I have been gone. I am anxious to see her. I gather my small amount of belongings and get off the boat as soon as I can. I sprint down the dock and see my family in the distance. The closer I get to my mother I realize she is crying, and then I notice that I don’t see Martha. I run up to my mother and pick her up and hug her. I ask excitedly, “Where is Martha?” At that moment she starts balling. I ask, “What’s wrong, mom?” I had originally thought that she was crying with excitement of seeing me. But then she says to me, “Martha became sick shortly after you left Roger, we found out after two weeks that she was terminal with cancer.” “Roger she died in a month.” My heart sinks as I realized the love of my life was gone. There was nothing worse I could have heard after coming home from war. I sob uncontrollably. I have so many questions, how could this happen in such a short amount of time? I go home with my family and sit on my bed and cry. When I left here just a few short months ago I was happy. Now I have lost everything I love in the world. At least I still have my family. But now I feel alone, so alone. Right after finding out about Martha I think of the Jews. I have it easy. I simply cannot understand how it could be possible for the Nazis to do what they did. I need to be thankful for my life even in such hard times. A short time ago I was fighting in the war, now I am finally home. With or without the love of my life, I am content. Roger Hawkins, signing off.
creative historians project reflection
In this project we were given the task of conveying what we think the truth of war is, through the eyes of a character that we created in a short story. This short story had to take place in either WWI or WWII. It also had to be between 5-7 pages long. In the weeks leading up to this project we learned about all of the contributing factors that led to both world wars, and who was on which side. We learned about why each country was inclined to fight, and about the details of war. Before this project we also read two books, we read All Quiet on the Western Front and Slaughterhouse V. AQTWF took place in WWI while Slaughterhouse V took place in WWII. The project had certain historical requirements and we had to specify things in the setting of our stories, such as climate and season.
The thing that I do the best in my story is I create a very solid plot. I also do a very good job with showing my audience things, instead of just telling them. “From there I sprint to catch my comrades dodging bullets the entire way. I am blinded as I run by the torrent of tears flowing from my eyes for the loss of Daniel.” I do a good job showing in this instance by not just saying, I was crying as I was running to catch my comrades. This use of showing and not telling helps the reader understand the character better. It is very important because it makes things easier on the reader and doesn’t leave anything to their imagination. In my story I use the art of hyperbole well to help the reader really become engaged with what’s happening in the story.
I feel like in my story I don’t truly have any literary elements that were weak, however I feel like I could have improved on my use of round characters. In my story the only true round character is my protagonist. The rest of the characters are rather flat. It was hard for me to create round qualities to go into my characters. I believe that this was hard for me because I spent the majority of my time making my plot solid. I overcame this challenge about halfway through the writing process and made other characters much more round. I did this by giving more attributes of the characters physically and emotionally.
“We arrive at Fort Dix late in the afternoon on March 4th, 1946. I haven’t seen or heard from Martha since I have been gone. I am anxious to see her. I gather my small amount of belongings and get off the boat as soon as I can. I sprint down the dock and see my family in the distance. The closer I get to my mother I realize she is crying, and then I notice that I don’t see Martha. I run up to my mother and pick her up and hug her. I ask excitedly, “Where is Martha?” At that moment she starts balling. I ask, “What’s wrong, mom?” I had originally thought that she was crying with excitement of seeing me. But then she says to me, “Martha became sick shortly after you left Roger, we found out after two weeks that she was terminal with cancer.” “Roger she died in a month.” My heart sinks as I realized the love of my life was gone. There was nothing worse I could have heard after coming home from war. I sob uncontrollably. I have so many questions, how could this happen in such a short amount of time? I go home with my family and sit on my bed and cry. When I left here just a few short months ago I was happy. Now I have lost everything I love in the world.”
^^^Originally I never had planned for my character’s fiance to die, but in the writing process I was looking for more to juice up my story with more emotions. This really makes my story stronger because it doesn’t end up happy. My initial goal in my story was to convey the truth that war sucks. And I think that this really put the nails in the coffin in that regard. Another large revision that I made to my story was I invaded 1 more concentration camp than I was going to originally. This extra invasion really strengthened my story because the main camp was evacuated, therefore this smaller more intense camp invasion made the story much more engaging and intense to read. This change affects the reader and makes them more interested and not bored.
The thing that I do the best in my story is I create a very solid plot. I also do a very good job with showing my audience things, instead of just telling them. “From there I sprint to catch my comrades dodging bullets the entire way. I am blinded as I run by the torrent of tears flowing from my eyes for the loss of Daniel.” I do a good job showing in this instance by not just saying, I was crying as I was running to catch my comrades. This use of showing and not telling helps the reader understand the character better. It is very important because it makes things easier on the reader and doesn’t leave anything to their imagination. In my story I use the art of hyperbole well to help the reader really become engaged with what’s happening in the story.
I feel like in my story I don’t truly have any literary elements that were weak, however I feel like I could have improved on my use of round characters. In my story the only true round character is my protagonist. The rest of the characters are rather flat. It was hard for me to create round qualities to go into my characters. I believe that this was hard for me because I spent the majority of my time making my plot solid. I overcame this challenge about halfway through the writing process and made other characters much more round. I did this by giving more attributes of the characters physically and emotionally.
“We arrive at Fort Dix late in the afternoon on March 4th, 1946. I haven’t seen or heard from Martha since I have been gone. I am anxious to see her. I gather my small amount of belongings and get off the boat as soon as I can. I sprint down the dock and see my family in the distance. The closer I get to my mother I realize she is crying, and then I notice that I don’t see Martha. I run up to my mother and pick her up and hug her. I ask excitedly, “Where is Martha?” At that moment she starts balling. I ask, “What’s wrong, mom?” I had originally thought that she was crying with excitement of seeing me. But then she says to me, “Martha became sick shortly after you left Roger, we found out after two weeks that she was terminal with cancer.” “Roger she died in a month.” My heart sinks as I realized the love of my life was gone. There was nothing worse I could have heard after coming home from war. I sob uncontrollably. I have so many questions, how could this happen in such a short amount of time? I go home with my family and sit on my bed and cry. When I left here just a few short months ago I was happy. Now I have lost everything I love in the world.”
^^^Originally I never had planned for my character’s fiance to die, but in the writing process I was looking for more to juice up my story with more emotions. This really makes my story stronger because it doesn’t end up happy. My initial goal in my story was to convey the truth that war sucks. And I think that this really put the nails in the coffin in that regard. Another large revision that I made to my story was I invaded 1 more concentration camp than I was going to originally. This extra invasion really strengthened my story because the main camp was evacuated, therefore this smaller more intense camp invasion made the story much more engaging and intense to read. This change affects the reader and makes them more interested and not bored.
creative historians project self assessment
Showing VS. Telling:
Sentence Craft:
Historical Content Integration:
Round Characters:
- “We wake to the snow covered ground, and crawl out of our sleeping quarters to dress for the big day. “This isn’t snow!”, screams David as he stumbles to the ground in disbelief. “It’s not melting!” Shortly thereafter Sergeant Anderson exclaims, “It’s ashes, boys.”
Sentence Craft:
- “Tripping over objects on the ground, we rush to get ready to invade the giant death camp.”
- “This sight instantly electrifies me and makes me jump to my feet.”
Historical Content Integration:
- “We get outfitted with the finest guns existing at this time. I am given an M1 carbine semi automatic rifle, which I have taken a particular liking to. The bigger men have the automatic guns. Brutus is given the BAR. The best weapon goes to the Sergeant, the Thompson M1A1, the most coveted weapon in the war at this time.”
- In my research I learned about the weapons that the men carried in WWII, and specifically in the invasions of concentration camps. The element represented here is weapons.
- “That morning we had feasted, and now I am eating dehydrated carrot soup by myself, I miss my family. This is not nearly as compelling I must say. Just since entering this war I’ve lost 20 pounds but I’ve gotten much stronger. The food in the war is atrocious and we are lucky if we have bread. It is mostly dehydrated soup and MRE’s (meals ready to eat). I should not have any room to complain when I imagine what the Jews are eating in the concentration camps.” I would have liked to incorporate more detail into what food the soldiers ate in WWII.
- I want to research the food for soldiers in WWII more simply because it would have made this portion of my story much more rich in detail.
Round Characters:
- My character wants nothing more in the world than to be home with his family. He cannot be there because he was drafted into the war.
- My character goes through a large change when he goes into the war as a young man who is just there because he has to be and wants to stay home, but in the end of the story he realizes why he’s there and recognizes that what he is doing there is more important than his own desires. Therefore he had a change in heart and desire throughout the story.
- I think that I did the best on my rising action, because the invasion of the Gross Rosen concentration camp really leaves a longing for more action and builds to the climax at the invasion of Auschwitz Birkenau. Throughout the entire rising action of the plot I did a very good job of not making the plot plateau and get boring. I continue to keep the story juicy with detail and rich with interesting information and events.
- I feel like I could improve a little bit on my falling action in the end of the story. I ended my story sort of abruptly, I initially meant to do this but in the end I wished that I had put more detail and thought into the resolution of the story. It made the readers feel a little bit empty after finishing the story, and I wish that I had done a better job in that regard.
slaughterhouse v seminar reflection
Slaughterhouse 5 Seminar Reflection
TJ Rifkin
Two of the most interesting ideas and topics that were said that I noticed during the Slaughterhouse V seminar was when we discussed the idea that we all don’t have free will and that everything is pre-determined. This basically meant to me that while we feel like we are controlling our own lives, everything we do isn’t really unique. It’s all supposed to happen. This really sent me into a very deep thinking about our lives. It made me think about whether life is worth living if nothing we do is our own doing. It also made me think of who holds the pre-determination of what we do. Being a Christian I would ultimately assume that God holds that for me. But from the perspective of an Atheist it made me really think about, If we really aren’t free willed creatures, who do they think controls the things they do. This type of critical thinking made me think deeply from another perspective and not just from my own personal views.
The Major question of the seminar for me really was, is Slaughterhouse 5 an anti-war novel? I believe that Vonnegut’s overall goal in writing this book was not to bash war and its ideals. Rather I firmly believe that Vonnegut is using this book to make us decide for ourselves. He uses this writing as a stepping stone for us to dig deeper and find out for ourselves if the tragedy of war is bad? Or rather something that Vonnegut depicts as a story of something that unavoidably happens in our modern world. On page 122 Vonnegut illustrates a picture for our minds that in war when they are so tired from fighting and somebody passes away, “everything is beautiful, and nothing hurts.” I think that what I had an epiphany with in this part is that war is tireless. So in this case He made me against war. But in other parts I’m just as hooked as when I’m reading a completely fictional story. So overall it was very hard for me to tell whether or not Vonnegut was dissing war or rather promoting it with his humor.
I can connect Vonnegut’s style of writing to sometimes how I like to think of our society personally. Sometimes when I just get out on the college rim and set up my hammock in the trees, I watch the sunset and just think for a while and I question reality and the way we see things. I connect this to my own life because it seems like every time I think like that I never really come to a conclusion. I see the way Slaughterhouse makes me think and the topic of free will, and the topic of an alternate reality to our own with the tralfamadorians. When Lane said in the seminar, “Are we all really just wandering and acting with no control”? In my life it made me think if life is really fun or if the good times we are having are just temporary and we don’t control them. Like if we can do right by ourselves, or if this “upper hand” that’s controlling us makes us feel like our accomplishments mean nothing. I don’t know but Lane’s quote and Vonnegut just made me think of my own life comparing to the book.
During the Slaughterhouse 5 seminar I made several connections to All Quiet On The Western Front. The first connection I made to our first book reading was also brought up in the seminar, it was about the scenes in both books involving the hurting horses. The consensus between everyone was that, It’s not the animals fight so it is a sad undertone anytime an innocent animal is caught in the crosshairs of war. Another connection that I made was when Vonnegut proceeds to say on page 183 about his wife dying in the tragic accident, and how he just said “so it goes” and moves on. It made me think of AQTWF because of when Franz Kemmerich dies and they just take his boots like he is another piece of meat that is fighting just as aimlessly as everyone else. This made me kind of sad because also in AQTWF when the doctor in the hospital once the man is dead he just carts him off like its nothing and said “I’ve got ten more laying on the floor in the hallway.” Vonnegut makes this idea similar to AQTWF to when so much worse has happened, things like death become less important and they are desensitized to it.
TJ Rifkin
Two of the most interesting ideas and topics that were said that I noticed during the Slaughterhouse V seminar was when we discussed the idea that we all don’t have free will and that everything is pre-determined. This basically meant to me that while we feel like we are controlling our own lives, everything we do isn’t really unique. It’s all supposed to happen. This really sent me into a very deep thinking about our lives. It made me think about whether life is worth living if nothing we do is our own doing. It also made me think of who holds the pre-determination of what we do. Being a Christian I would ultimately assume that God holds that for me. But from the perspective of an Atheist it made me really think about, If we really aren’t free willed creatures, who do they think controls the things they do. This type of critical thinking made me think deeply from another perspective and not just from my own personal views.
The Major question of the seminar for me really was, is Slaughterhouse 5 an anti-war novel? I believe that Vonnegut’s overall goal in writing this book was not to bash war and its ideals. Rather I firmly believe that Vonnegut is using this book to make us decide for ourselves. He uses this writing as a stepping stone for us to dig deeper and find out for ourselves if the tragedy of war is bad? Or rather something that Vonnegut depicts as a story of something that unavoidably happens in our modern world. On page 122 Vonnegut illustrates a picture for our minds that in war when they are so tired from fighting and somebody passes away, “everything is beautiful, and nothing hurts.” I think that what I had an epiphany with in this part is that war is tireless. So in this case He made me against war. But in other parts I’m just as hooked as when I’m reading a completely fictional story. So overall it was very hard for me to tell whether or not Vonnegut was dissing war or rather promoting it with his humor.
I can connect Vonnegut’s style of writing to sometimes how I like to think of our society personally. Sometimes when I just get out on the college rim and set up my hammock in the trees, I watch the sunset and just think for a while and I question reality and the way we see things. I connect this to my own life because it seems like every time I think like that I never really come to a conclusion. I see the way Slaughterhouse makes me think and the topic of free will, and the topic of an alternate reality to our own with the tralfamadorians. When Lane said in the seminar, “Are we all really just wandering and acting with no control”? In my life it made me think if life is really fun or if the good times we are having are just temporary and we don’t control them. Like if we can do right by ourselves, or if this “upper hand” that’s controlling us makes us feel like our accomplishments mean nothing. I don’t know but Lane’s quote and Vonnegut just made me think of my own life comparing to the book.
During the Slaughterhouse 5 seminar I made several connections to All Quiet On The Western Front. The first connection I made to our first book reading was also brought up in the seminar, it was about the scenes in both books involving the hurting horses. The consensus between everyone was that, It’s not the animals fight so it is a sad undertone anytime an innocent animal is caught in the crosshairs of war. Another connection that I made was when Vonnegut proceeds to say on page 183 about his wife dying in the tragic accident, and how he just said “so it goes” and moves on. It made me think of AQTWF because of when Franz Kemmerich dies and they just take his boots like he is another piece of meat that is fighting just as aimlessly as everyone else. This made me kind of sad because also in AQTWF when the doctor in the hospital once the man is dead he just carts him off like its nothing and said “I’ve got ten more laying on the floor in the hallway.” Vonnegut makes this idea similar to AQTWF to when so much worse has happened, things like death become less important and they are desensitized to it.
all quiet on the western front seminar reflection
All Quiet On The Western Front Seminar Reflection
TJ Rifkin September 12th, 2014
Paragraph 1: Reactions
There were a few comments that stood out to me in the seminar yesterday, One of them had to be when somebody said, “do you think Paul was a different person after Kat died? Or even think he had nothing left to live for when he died?” for me this showed that people were interested in what Paul was feeling in the latter part of the book. I said that I thought that paul had a sense of emptiness once Kat was no longer alive. Another comment on the same topic was when Emily said, “I think that Paul was ready for death at that point.” The analysis that I had come up with for both those comments was that people were kind of putting themselves in Paul’s shoes. Showing that if they had to put up with all of their friends dying they too would be ready for death. This made me think of my Grandfather Reuben Rifkin. Reuben’s best friend Eddie in WWII was in a hospital halfway around the world because he was wounded in the field. My Grandpa came to visit him and within an hour of him getting there Eddie was dead. Reuben became bitter as I would imagine Paul would as well. Listening to my friends talk deeply about this subject of Paul losing a friend in the war conjured up some deep personal feelings for me.
Paragraph 2: Detailed response
I think that my perception of war has truly changed after reading this book. Before I thought that I had a good perception of WWI and war in general. After reading this book, I see the war much more vividly. I felt like I was one of Paul’s friends and I was a character in the book. I came to realize in this book that in war there is no privacy in war, (chapter 2, page 28-29). The men are so vulnerable with each other and they see past each others petty things. I think that this is “ok” in war because there is a constant sense that there are “bigger fish to fry.” Just the idea that they could die at literally any moment shows why. Because in our society today this is considered the type of thing that you keep to yourself because it is a private thing.This showed me and changed my perception to see that war is the place where the lowest and dirtiest part of our being is brought to the surface. The young men fighting in the war are exposed to this and it might seem weird. I know I would feel very uncomfortable to go to the restroom even in front of my very best friend.
Paragraph 4: Connections
I don’t know how this might sound, but I can take what we discussed in the seminar and the last few chapters of the book and compare it to the last page of the book the giving tree. In the book the giving tree there was a little boy who grows up in front of the tree and as he grows old and the tree has nothing left to give in the end. I feel like Paul seems like the boy who in the end when he see’s everything he loves perish in front of him. He feels like there is nothing left for him in this life and he is ready. In the end of the book when Paul is laying there I see the boy in the giving tree just sitting on the stump. Wishing he could have maybe done things in his life differently. Both books leave us with a longing and sad undertone. I don’t know if that comparison sounds crazy but thats just what I think of in the end of both those books.
TJ Rifkin September 12th, 2014
Paragraph 1: Reactions
There were a few comments that stood out to me in the seminar yesterday, One of them had to be when somebody said, “do you think Paul was a different person after Kat died? Or even think he had nothing left to live for when he died?” for me this showed that people were interested in what Paul was feeling in the latter part of the book. I said that I thought that paul had a sense of emptiness once Kat was no longer alive. Another comment on the same topic was when Emily said, “I think that Paul was ready for death at that point.” The analysis that I had come up with for both those comments was that people were kind of putting themselves in Paul’s shoes. Showing that if they had to put up with all of their friends dying they too would be ready for death. This made me think of my Grandfather Reuben Rifkin. Reuben’s best friend Eddie in WWII was in a hospital halfway around the world because he was wounded in the field. My Grandpa came to visit him and within an hour of him getting there Eddie was dead. Reuben became bitter as I would imagine Paul would as well. Listening to my friends talk deeply about this subject of Paul losing a friend in the war conjured up some deep personal feelings for me.
Paragraph 2: Detailed response
I think that my perception of war has truly changed after reading this book. Before I thought that I had a good perception of WWI and war in general. After reading this book, I see the war much more vividly. I felt like I was one of Paul’s friends and I was a character in the book. I came to realize in this book that in war there is no privacy in war, (chapter 2, page 28-29). The men are so vulnerable with each other and they see past each others petty things. I think that this is “ok” in war because there is a constant sense that there are “bigger fish to fry.” Just the idea that they could die at literally any moment shows why. Because in our society today this is considered the type of thing that you keep to yourself because it is a private thing.This showed me and changed my perception to see that war is the place where the lowest and dirtiest part of our being is brought to the surface. The young men fighting in the war are exposed to this and it might seem weird. I know I would feel very uncomfortable to go to the restroom even in front of my very best friend.
Paragraph 4: Connections
I don’t know how this might sound, but I can take what we discussed in the seminar and the last few chapters of the book and compare it to the last page of the book the giving tree. In the book the giving tree there was a little boy who grows up in front of the tree and as he grows old and the tree has nothing left to give in the end. I feel like Paul seems like the boy who in the end when he see’s everything he loves perish in front of him. He feels like there is nothing left for him in this life and he is ready. In the end of the book when Paul is laying there I see the boy in the giving tree just sitting on the stump. Wishing he could have maybe done things in his life differently. Both books leave us with a longing and sad undertone. I don’t know if that comparison sounds crazy but thats just what I think of in the end of both those books.