Blog #6

So far I have found the novel, Middlesex, more intriguing than I first thought it would be.  At first I was repulsed by a brother and sister falling in love with each other, marrying and having a family, but by the time they were on a boat headed to America I was rooting for them. The author made me like the characters, made me see them differently. He did too good of a job because now I’m not so sure where I stand on issues like gay married.

 The introductory material was very thought provoking as well. The Westboro Church video we watched in class left me with a sense of hatred for those people and what they stand for. I, myself, am a religious person with conservative beliefs,  but those extremists were completely over the line. American soldiers didn’t die in battle because two people of the same sex were in love or because no one stopped them for being together. They seemed almost like a cult to me. I think they give religious people a bad name just because they believe god intended marriage for one man and one woman. I’d like to know just what the Westboro Church would say about an intersex person. I’d also like to know what they would do if someone in their inner circle was born sexually different from them. Maybe they too carry a gene that for ordinary or unordinary circumstances comes forth after years and years of going undetected. It’s not Cal’s fault that they were born as they were. Would the Westboro church say it was the price Cal has to pay for his families choices?

Blog #5

Monster and Incognegro are both about African Americans who find themselves mistreated and judged by people of other races. Discrimination and white privilege are present in both novels.  In Monster the main character, Steve is discriminated against and has to try to overcome white privilege.   The jury is already thinking he is guilty just because he’s a young black on trial.  In the story Steve’s lawyer tells Steve repeatedly that she has to make him apart more human or that he has to find a way to separate himself from the other person on trail. In Incognegro the main character, Zane, is a fair skinned African American. He passes for white and therefore enjoys all the benefits of white privilege. Discrimination is also present in this book because lynchings were a popular pass time in the south at the time in this story. It can also be see when you consider the sheriff is holding Zane’s brother for murder when he knows he didn’t do it. Race can also be discussed in this unit because in Incognegro Zane says that race is just a bunch of rules and that it’s a strategy. This brings a lot of questions to the surface for discussion. Is race something someone just made up and if so what are the rules of race? Can the rules be changed?

Blog #4

The videos that were assigned for this unit had very personal accounts of experiences with white privilege and also an exercise that forced children and adults to consider discrimination. The second video, A Class Divided, really made me think about how easily people, not just children, can be brainwashed into believe or doing something they know is wrong. The teacher in that video had her students turned against each other in a matter of minutes. I can only image how it must have been in Nazi Germany looking back at unit 1. Young people are very impressionable and the look up to adults. If society encourages discriminator behavior it would spread like wild fire, but if all of society were to do the opposite would discrimination disappear?

I think the experiment was a little risk to do on children. The teacher herself said it could be damaging if done incorrectly. It seems that the risk was worth it because as you see in the video those students who are know adults still remember and are pasting on what they had learned. Those individuals know that you don’t judge someone but looks or stereotypes, but on who they are.

Blog 3

To me Hans Hubermann is someone who appears at first to be a gentle man with a kind heart.  He takes in Liesel and treats her as his own daughter. She’s afraid when she first arrives at the Hubermann home and Rosa, Han’s wife, yells at Liesel to try to get her out of the car. Han knows better and instead gentle coaxes her from the car. They soon bond over cigarettes, nightmares, and books. Hans teaches Liesel to roll cigarettes, comforts her every night when she wakes up for a nightmare about her dead bother, and teaches her to read. He understand Liesel’s need to read the Grave Digger’s Handbook and never tells her it’s strange or that he won’t help her read it.

As the story progresses we learn more about Hans and realize he’s a more complicated character than was first thought.  We learn that he is one of the few Germans not to be a member of the Nazi Party. He chose not to join a group that blamed a group of people for something they weren’t responsible.  He was a fair man and he owed his life to a Jew.  When it came time for him to return the favor and save the life of his savior’s son he does it.  He knows it’s the right thing to do so he doesn’t think twice.  Hans is also a man who takes care of his family. He wants to speak out, but he doesn’t for fear of what will happen to his family.  His son calls him a coward, but he loves with still.

Hans faced war and death, but still he manages to be a kind and loving man. He knows what’s right and he stands up for it. He risked everything to help a Jewish storeowner that resulted in him not being accepted into the Nazi Party. He risks it all again later in the story by hiding a Jew in his basement, but he does all these things because he knew what was right.  That is why Hans Hubermann is my favorite character in The Book Thief.  

Blog #2

The relationship between Vladik and his son, Artie, is very complicated. Vladik has seen and been through so much that he seems to have a hard time living in the now. He’s so consumed with his past that he spends all his time in the present planning for the future. A Clear example of this is when he picks up the wire that is in the street. It’s trash, but he sees it as valuable because it was rare and useful during the Holocaust. He wants to be prepared in case something of that nature happens again. Artie seems so wrapped up in his father’s story that he dismisses who his father became. Maybe Artie feels that by hearing his father’s survivor story he can better understand who he is now.

Towards the middle of the novel it seemed as though Artie and his father were going to put aside some differences and become closer until Vladik revealed that he had burned his wife’s journals. As soon as Vladik told Artie that he had burnt the journal because they were too much of a reminder after his wife’s death Artie immediately called his father a murderer. I wasn’t sure why exactly he called his father a murderer because Anja committed suicide. Maybe Artie meant Vladik killed his mother’s memory. I think that by looking at this story not only from the text, but from the images allows us to see the story more completely. It’s like reading two stories at once. There’s Vladik’s story of the holocaust and then there’s the story of Artie and his father’s relationship.

Intro

Hi, I'm Hattie. I'm a sophmore at Ship this year.  My major is Middle Level Education which will allow me to teach in grades four through eight.  I decided to minor in Language Arts because reading is something that I really  enjoy.  I spend most, if not all my weekends back home hanging out with my family and boyfriend. I wish I had more time to read, but sadly the last book I read was The Other Boleyn Girl over Christmas break.

To be honest, I was required to take this class or one similair to it and it just so happened that this one was the one that was open when I had to schedule.  After learning more about what the course is about and what is involved I think its going to be very interesting and I hope to learn  a lot.  Cultural diversity in society  to me means the differences and unique things that make one culture stand out from the others.  I think it also deals with the hardship and struggles that each culture has to endure when it is ridiculed for it's differences.  Lastly, I hope to gain more knowledge of the subject and have a better understanding of its effects on not only a country or culture, but also on the individuals of that country or culture.