Fatelessness writing task

1.-

   Fatelessness has a very important message, but did the author thought in the real message he was transmiting when he was writing the novel?

We may think that when Imre Kertesz wrote fatelessness he never considered the real message that the book has, because the vision of the holocaust we have today, is very different compared with the one we had in the times the novel was written. But in the interview we saw, the author said that when he wrote the story, he knew what he was writing.

    The message in the novel is the defense of the human rights, seriously violated in fatelessnes; and the idea of not repeting the mistakes the humanity did in the past, like the idea of the ideal race of Hitler. Different perople around the world may get message in a different way, but is the same and the author knew what he was transmiting when he wrote the novel.

2.- We see the novel fatelessness as very explicit, and as easy to get the main idea, and although the are a little bit hidden, we think we can get them easily and this can be percieved as an advantage because it is easier to get. But the story involves global cultural issues we rarely percieve, so did we understand the real thing Imre Kertesz wanted us to get.

     That is why we could see this as a disadvantage, everybody wants to be informed of what is happening around us, but when we can not get that because the real message is to hard to understand, it becomes a disadvantage for us. It is also a disadvantage that the novel presents itself as another Holocaust story, because it makes us think that we get the message and point of view expressed in the novel, when maybe it is not true.

3.-   In the novel fatelessness the narratives techniques used force us to put in the main characters place, and the point of view of gyuri changes in the story keeps going on. At the beggining is very naive and full of hope, and it ends in a completely fateless and the difference between the beggining of the story of the end is a very useful technique to make us realize the real effect the Holocaust had in the kid. 

  In this sense the author is very creative to seduce the readers and make the story easier to get. Emotionally speaking, the way it affects our minds, is the result of the creativity of the author and the contrast of the beggining and the end of the story and the new way the main character stars seeing life.

4.- The main theme in fatelessness is the Holocaust, so to unserstant the ideas, it is almost necessary to know what all this is about. We may understand the story in general, but just like in a lot of novels, having context is very important. Without history knowledge of the Second World War, a lot of things that are directly related with this in the story could not be understood by most of the readers. Names, cultures, places that we need to get order to understand what the author wants us to get.

    Of course it is possible to understand the story without the Holocaust and its atrocities, but in that case the reader is not getting the real message of the novel Fatelessness.

Fatelessness trailer link

http://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=05rCtEJgVls&desktop_uri=%2Fwatch%3Fv%3D05rCtEJgVls%26feature%3Dyoutu.be

Gyuri`s mind

1) At this point, Gyuri stills thinking  like an innocent child. He sees things in a very positive way.

2) 13 years old chilren focus in things they are interested in, like videogames. This is because they usually focus thing that can provide fan, so they in general see things they have fan with.

3) He mixes his feeling with language, so he focus things in a more positive way than he shouls, in a naive way.

4) It is not reliable at all, he shows everything with a lot of hope, while the theme of the book is fatelessness.

Imre Kertész interview

1) Those 2000 giant stone blocks, recreate the feeling of total vulnerability that the Jews felt in the concentration camps, because you are sorrounded by giants structures and they block you from seeing what is next to you.

2) He is now living in Germany, the place that wantes to kill him once, and he felt safer there than in his own country.

3) The antisemitism before Auschwitz wanted to eliminate the Jews. The antisemitism after it, wants another Auschwitz

4) It makes us much richer because it helps us to avoid making the mistakes humanity did in the past.

5) The metaphor he uses compares our souls locked in with the trapped feeling of remembering the Holocaust the book gives to us when we read it.

Fatelessness Language Analysis

Pages 90-91
Theme: innocence
"And just like us, free persons, he had a full head of..."
"We made the right choice back in the brickyard"
"I could see they were already set to recieve us, happily explaining..."

Pages 180->185
Theme: hopelessness
"Invariably gray sky"
"I could not help but notice that all the other sick people...before me"
"we were also taken off to the doctor less frequently"
"having maited in vain for it to subside"
"never before had I sensed a more hopeless struggle or a more stubborn"
"I gave up and just watched the gluttony,...the unconcealed happiness"
"I no longer engaged in combat with them, no longer disturbed them"

Pages 138-139
Theme: Language as a mean of interaction"
"Are known in the concentration caps as "Musulmäner", I was told"
"Among one another...business, of course

Letter analysis

http://letelierblog.blogspot.com

   The language my classmate used in his letter is very strong and effective, because of the vocabulary he uses. Words as feels like hell, awful soups, undrinkable water, harassing, etc. Thanks to this, the letter is very moving and vey shocking, so I would say my classmate's style is effective.

   In terms of context and time, he mentions the horrible conditions in the concentration camps, and he said the father have been there for one year so Gyuri can understand his situation in context.

Writing task

Dear father,

       It have been 45 days since I am in the camp. I am writing to you to let you know how much I love you and how much I want to see you again. I am not sure if that would be possible given the circumstances. I can barely survive, the food I recieve is not suficient and I have to trade with another interns to get some extra food. I feel dirty, I am hungry, I don't know what is going to happen to me. They force us to work hard every day and they don't care about my recent wound in my knee. I can barely walk and I feel they are doing this just for punishing us, but I do not have an idea of why are they doing this. They treat us like animal, yesterday one of the german guards punch me on the face without any reason.
   I met another prisoner(yes, we are prisoner) who is from Budapest, and he miss home just as much as I do. He helps me a lot dealing with this and carrying on, making me think in something different than sorviving, because that is my priority right now. But with the time I am getting tired of this and I am thinking on giving up...I feel hopeless.
   What do you think father, will they kill me like they do in another camps? Will they release some day? Please answer me back and tell me you are ok.
   Yours faithfully,
   Gyuri.

the curious incident

The Curious Incident:

 1)  What does this tell us about how Christopher's mind-and our minds-works?

  Normally,we just focus in general things, so our mind memorizes only a few things, but Cristopher's mind
consider almost every detail. We could say he isn't as "lazy" as we are in that aspect, in the example he even counted the amount of cows and visible houses!

2)What does most people choose to describe, and why? What do they see?

   Just the most important things, otherwise, we would really have to describe a lot of things. Although we see everything, we don't memorize even the half of the details.

3)Are people "lazy", as Christopher thinks? Or is that we select in a different way?

   No we are not. It is just a word to understand the type of thought, but Christopher just see thing differently as we do, in a more specific way.

4)Why should we select in a different way to Crhistopher - and reduce what we see?

   It is not important to understand every detail of something, we only need a general understanding, or we would take a lot of time to get a simple idea

5)What governs the way we select what we perceive?

   In general, we select what we think is vital to understand something.

6)What part does language play in the way we select our perceptions?

In language, we synthesis things, taking from all the information, the most important things.

7)What does this tell us about how Christopher's mind - and our minds - work?

   As he tried to understand everything, he gets confused being enale to procces so many details. In another words, he crashes.

Fatelessness chapter 1 analysis

 1) What characters are introduced in this chapter:

Teacher ,father, stepmother, gyuri (main character), Mr. Suto,shopkeeper,old lady(shopkeeper's wife) ,big busted blonde woman(bakers wife), baker,annamarie,the two sisters,uncle steiner ,uncle fleischmann,ravenous hydra,gyuri's grandfather and grandmother (father's parents),the stepmothes's mom,uncle willie ,uncle lajos,uncle dini or denes. 

2) Choose two characters and select a quote to describe them physically psychologically.

  Uncle Willie: "His head is pear-shaped, broad, bulging, and bald on top, but narowing ate the cheeks and toward the chin"

   Stepmother´s mama: "She has a narrow, sallow face, enormous dark eyes, and two withered flaps of skin dangling from her neck, which gives her the appearence of a very alert, discerning hunting dog"

3) What narrative technique? Provide evidence.

The point of view is a first person view, because the narrator is a character , this can be seen in the quote: "I didn`t go to school today."

The narration is an indirect one, because he is telling the story, but not to the reader, he is just telling it. Can be seen in the quote used before.

It uses a direct speech, because of the uses of speech marks and dialogues between characters.

The story is in past tense during this chapter, as if he wrote it during the night of that day, in the quote used we can see that is in past.

4) Describe the setting of this chapter

In this chapter they are in the city of Budapest, Hungary, in which the character goes through different places. The first one is the school, but he takes the day off. Then he goes to his father shop. After that they went shopping, then t their home, but the character had to go to the bakers. The chapter ends in the house of the character.

The time in which the story happens is a the beginning of the Second World War, in which they started sending Jews to Labour Camps, as was happening to the Father.

In the chapter the ambient is sad, because the father is going. This can be seen when they start praying.

Travel writing Maycomb in the 30`s

   When I woke I wasn`t at my home, I was somewhere else at night. I was in the middle of a town, but I couldn`t recognize this. I felt like in the 30`s or something because the arquitecture of the houses seemed to be very old and the cars too. The first house I saw had a porch with Eave Dentils and Tuscan Columns and as I continued walking I saw some shed roofed houses. I could`t belive it! I saw a Rolls-Royce Phantom II and a Cadillac Twelve, I was definetely in the 30`s!

   There was a lot of green, and as after I got out of the town I saw a river and a lot of cotton plantations. When I saw a huge plain terrain I decided to go back, there was no place to go but the town. The sun started to wake up and so did the persons. It was a very sunny and warm morning and almost everyone was using hats and no one was using shorts. I think it wasn`t a very rich year; everyone was using cheap clothes made of cheap materials. I saw a lot of men using black suits, it was probably important to have one around there. 

   I thought I should talk to someone to know where was I, then I approached to a very beautiful woman using a bib-overall. We had a chat and she told me I was at Maycomb. I was confused and I started to desesparate. Everyone walked very slowly and they were very careless. I was in the floor to wake up. I knew it was a nightmare, my agony was even bigger when I realized it was full of old people. I started to get very tired so I just laid in the floor and observed people.

   They acted very passively, I was in the floor! I think they were reserved people. not agressive at all, I would`ve like they were a little bit more active. And finally, I woke up. It was an experiment!

Word count: 348

Animal Farm Task 2, questionnaire:

1) What is your reaction to the animals' revolution? Explain

   At first I thought it was a great idea, they could get rid of a huge injustice, men. But the I realized it was just an change of leadership, from man to pigs, even worst.

2) Do you sympathize with the animals' complaints and goals? Why? Why not?

   Of course I do, the only thing they wanted was justice and freedom, and they just complained about what was between them and their goal. 

3) Describe how the rebellion takes place? How does the animals behavior during the rebellion suggest human characteristics?

   Everything started with Old Major's death, that was the motivator to such a huge revolution. Although in the movie every single animal is showed with human characteristics, but when things started to develope, pigs started to be every second more humanlike and to desobey every singe rule they wrotw at the beggining , until the end of the rebellion, when they were identicto men, they walked in two legs instead of four!

4) How do the pigs gain the rights to the cow's milk? Why do the other animals allow this? What does this event suggest about power hierarchy on the farm?

   They excused thereselves saying that they needed to think properly because apples and milk helped to their brains, so they can keep Mr. Jones away. They also used the T.V to distract the animals. This is the evidence that supports the fact that in a hierarchycal pyramid, pigs are on the top due to their mental superiority.

5)What was your reaction to Snowball's expulsion from Animal Farm? Explain.

   Really unfair, they abused with their power. It was really surprising because this was at the beggining of the revolution, when the pigs were just starting to take control of everything. It was a pity, because he could' ve head the revolution to the right path because his ethics were considerably more developed than Napoleon's. 

6) Identify three ways that Napoleon tries to solidify his leadership position on the farm. How does the process of decision making on the farm change under Napoleon's leadership?

   He washed their brains with videos, he threatened animals with dogs, and he lied to make them think everything he did was to help animals (for example with Snowball). When Old Major was the leader, they took decisions democratically, voting and making an overall choice. But then it became totalitarism, everyone was forced to do what Napoleon wanted them to do or they could literally die.

7)Why do the executions take place? What message eco these events send to the animals about their role in a future society?

  The chickens disobeyed Napoleon, because they did not wanted to help men giving them their eggs. The pig got angry and executed them, sending to the animals in the falrm the message of what could happen to anyone that disobeys him. Then animals realized how it was going to be in the future, obeying every single thing Napoleon says.

8) Do you think it's fair that those who are more educated or more skilled -like the- pigs in Animal Farm have more influence on the decision making? Who makes the decisions in your family, community and nation?

   It is true that more skilled people are able to make better decisions, but a decision must be ethically approved. That´s why in my opinion everyone should make the decisions, like in democracy, the system used in my country  and community. But in my family isn´t like that, because my parents make the decisions and I don´t have the right to complain.

9) By the end of the film it can be suggested that the pigs and political leaders are interchangeable. How might power change those who have it?

   In the case of the film, political leaders stayed unless they were removed by force. But they cannot change leadership when they wanted to, that is why they changed that much when powerful. When someone feels superior, he feels like he can do whatever he wants, like in the case of the pigs, who took control of everything transforming themselves drastically.

10)  In your opinion are the pigs in Animal Farm more intelligent than all other animals? What qualities enabled them to lead the others? Provide examples that support your answer.

   As language is power, the fact that pigs used it to handle animals s they want, makes them more intelligent. For example, when we must vote for a president in our country, we decide depending on what did they say and how. In Animal Farm, pigs were the leaders due to their skills and desire of power.

Animal Farm Task 1, Old Major's speech:

Select at least 20 phrases where the idea of language and power is present, or that represents an appropiate choice of words to appeal the audience. Explain 5 of them. Explain how these ideas help motivate the rest of the animals. Make reference to the film when necessary. Add a picture related.

1) Our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. 

2) No animal in England knows the meaning 
of happiness or leisure after he is a year old. 

3) This 
single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of 
sheep--and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now 
almost beyond our imagining.

4) Why then do we continue in this miserable 
condition? Because nearly the whole of the produce of our labour is stolen 
from us by human beings.

5) Man is the only creature that consumes without producing. He does not 
give milk, he does not lay eggs, he is too weak to pull the plough, he 
cannot run fast enough to catch rabbits. Yet he is lord of all the 
animals.  

6) You cows that I see before me, how 
many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year? 
And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up 
sturdy calves?

7) And you hens, how many eggs have you laid in this last year, and how many 
of those eggs ever hatched into chickens? The rest have all gone to market 
to bring in money for Jones and his men.

8) And you, Clover, where are those 
four foals you bore, who should have been the support and pleasure of your 
old age? Each was sold at a year old--you will never see one of them 
again.

9)But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end.

10) Is it not crystal clear, then, comrades, that all the evils of this life 
of ours spring from the tyranny of human beings? 

11) What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body 
and soul, for the overthrow of the human race! That is my message to you, 
comrades: Rebellion! 

12) Here is a point that must be settled. The wild 
creatures, such as rats and rabbits--are they our friends or our enemies? 
Let us put it to the vote. I propose this question to the meeting: Are 
rats comrades?

13) Remove man from the scene, and the root cause of hunger and overwork is abolished for ever.

14) We are forced to work to the last atom of our strenght.

15) The answer to all our problems  it is summed up in one word single word--Man.

16) Man serves the interests of no 
creature except himself. And among us animals let there be perfect unity, 
perfect comradeship in the struggle.

17) We are born, we are given 
just so much food as will keep the breath in our bodies, and those of us 
who are capable of it are forced to work to the last atom of our strength; 
and the very instant that our usefulness has come to an end we are 
slaughtered with hideous cruelty.

18) No animal in England is 
free. The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.

19) Weak or strong, clever or simple, we are all brothers.

20) I do not think, comrades, that I shall be with you for many months 
longer, and before I die, I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom 
as I have acquired.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

1) "Our lives are miserable, laborious, and short. "

   He uses the words miserable, laborious, and short in the perfect way to help the animals to realize the real situation they were living.

3) "This 
single farm of ours would support a dozen horses, twenty cows, hundreds of 
sheep--and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now 
almost beyond our imagining."

   Old Mayor uses an hyperbole to emphasize the situation and to make  sure he gets the audience .

6)  "You cows that I see before me, how 
many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year? 
And what has happened to that milk which should have been breeding up 
sturdy calves?"

   The rethorical question he uses, is to force the audience to think about it, that is why he did not just ask the cows, he asked every animal present in the barn in that moment, waiting no answer but waiting them to think and open their minds to what men were taking from then, and how much could they win with the revolution.

9)   "But no animal escapes the cruel knife in the end."

   A metaphor, one of the most common rhetorical devices, which is used to convey the audience and force them to relate their fate with something like a cruel knife. In addition, the word cruel is used to make the metaphor even stronger.

15) "The answer to all our problems  it is summed up in one word single word--Man."

   The whole phrase is directed to a single word, man. The language is used in such a way, that the emphisize in the enemy is maximum.

http://blogs.jds.org/grade8humanities/

word count: 822 

TCKs essay

STIMULUS: "SOME THIRD CULTURE KIDS HAVE NOTHING BEYOND THEIR PASSPORTS TO CONNECT THEM WITH THEIR HOME COUNTRY. TCKs LOSE AND GAIN FROM THE FACT THAT THEY GROW UP OUTSIDE THEIR PASSPORT COUNTRY

      When children do not belong to a single culture, they are often called third culture kids, because they belong to a third culture, which is the mixture of the ones they belong. So as they do not belong to any specific country, the only thing that connect them to it, are their passports.

   This is an advantage in the way they can see things in a more globalized way, seeing world issues from not only a point of view. This allows them to have an international mind opened to understand problems around the world, getting  more objective and less biased thoughts. Multilingual and adaptable kids, who can easily relate themselves with the world, in the future they could be the ideal citizen.

   But in a certain way, it could be a disadvantage because they feel like they don’t belong to a specific place. This means they do not have a clear sense of belonging, which is a very important feeling in every person because it is part of our identity. Who am i? A very difficult question to answer to these kids.

   So TCKs gain and lose at the same time due to their culture conditions. As they belong to more than a culture, they lose their sense of belonging but they get a globalized vision of the world.

Word count: 220

Power Point english oral presentation (Language in the Arts)

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B04snTs2pHPUU1VWOWYxb3pMcnM/edit?pli=1

Describing myself:

Descibing myself:

 1) Lazy: I hate working and I love sleeping.

 2) Gamer: I like playing online games, specially LoL (League of Legends)

 3) Winner: I usually don´t play to just have fun, i reall enjoy winning

 4) Curious: I like to investigate and reaearch about things I like

 5) Empathic: I usually to think how do another persons feel due to my actions before doing them.

Pygmalion discussion

1) English can be pronounced in many different ways, and usually the most powerful people have the "most correct one". This doesn't mean that the powerless people deserve no rights, and that is why I do not agree with the Note Taker, because with effort and perseverance everyone can progress in life. This means that her progress is determined by other factors and she is not staying in the "gutter" forever because she can move on conserving her identity (idiolect). 2) He is a generous man because he is just trying to convince the flower girl to learn how to speak correctly. But he can`t notice that she likes the way she speaks.

Spanglish questionary (Gloria, modern family)

1) How did you feel when listening to Gloria’s accent?

   I felt like I could easily notice that her english was mixed with her spanish, and sometimes it was very hard to understand what she was trying to communicate.

2) Is this variation of language identifying a particular community for good or bad ?

  

   This variation of language is identifying spanish people who might not speak english perfectly, but the tv show is not trying to criticize it neither as good or bad, it is just trying to make it funny.

3) Is this an inferior variation of the English language?

   .Yes, it may be consider inferior. This is called an hybrid variation of english and it may be a little bit harder to unserstand for some people.

4) Do you usually judge people’s accents? 

   I think my english accent is not even good, so how could I judge people's english? But, I could judge people`s spanish but I don`t unless it is very bad.