Ava's Blog

In the book I Have Lived a Thousand Years , Elli, the main character, has changed tremendously after her experience in the Holocaust. One change she went through was how much she could endure, physically and emotionally. In the beginning of the book Elli was very weak and she didn’t have much endurance. On page 60 it said, “The taste of the ashes in my mouth is laced with a sudden surge of nausea… I vomit, again and again. But the taste of ashes is not extricated from my insides”.  Just from the taste of the ashes, Elli throws up. She can endure very little. On the next page she is given a backpack full of their things and she toppled over. She is not strong enough to carry the backpack of essential items and she can’t keep herself from vomiting after tasting the ashes of the burning books and pictures.     As the book goes on, Elli starts to be able to endure more. Although there are many examples of how Elli grows to endure more there is one on page 89 t...

In what area do you think you made your biggest improvements in English Language Arts?     I believe that my biggest improvement was my participation in the classes’ Socratic Seminars. In previous years I hadn’t drawn many people into the conversation but this time, I continued to engage with others who weren’t talking very often. Socratic Seminars can be very intimidating to some of my classmates and because of this, they often don’t share their thoughts or ideas. It has been a goal of mine to help the frightened students come out of their shell and share with the class. The reason for this is because I really enjoy hearing other people’s feelings or opinions of the text. Oftentimes the conversation is very nondiverse and you hear the same opinions every time. I enjoy giving people the opportunity to share out and speak their minds, which is why this has become my biggest improvement.     What has been the most challenging part of 2nd ...

    I am a Star  by Inge Auerbacher is about a young, Jewish girl and her struggle to survive the Holocaust. To begin, Inge talks about the how the discrimination began in her town of Kippenheim when, “Some people began to say that Jews belonged to a different race and that Jews were racially inferior” (10). From this belief, many thing changes for the Jews including who could buy from them, deprivation of their German citizenship, where they could go, and what occupations they could have. Christians were forbidden to associate with the Jews, while some had no problem with this, others disobeyed and left food and saved important items for after the war. Inge then describes her experience as a child at the camp, “We slept on the floor or, if lucky, on straw-filled mattresses... The rooms were smelly and steamy in summer and freezing in winter... The most important words in our vocabulary were bread, potatoes, and soup ” (43). Inge also highlights the other conditions of t...

    One conflict I see arising is how the workers such as Carlson and Slim took it to their decision to kill Candy’s dog. On page 45 Candy says, “‘No’ he said softly. ‘No, I couldn’ do that. I had ‘im too long.’” This shows Candy’s resistance to killing his dog. Candy had owned him for a long time and he didn’t want his dog to die even if he didn’t do any good. As the page wears on, Carlson and Slim keep pushing him to kill the dog and eventually he gives in. This shows that, although they are all workers making the same pay, Carlson and Slim have more power over him. This could prove as a conflict because, If Carlson and Slim have more power they can start getting what they want. The only reason the dog was killed was because he was smelly and Carlson didn’t like that. Candy eventually bowed down to their power and let in to them. His dog was shot and Candy only regretted his decision.    The other conflict I’d like to address has to deal with Crooks and his rela...

They atmosphere in the Ranch is very lively. In the book it states “In the middle of the room stood a big square table littered with playing cards, and around it were grouped boxes for the players to sit on.” (17). This shows that the camp is lively because of the things they have. In the bunkhouse there is a large table where people can go after a long day to play cards. You can tell by the character interactions that the people in the bunkhouse have come to be friends and the cards were littering the table as though they’ve been played with. After a long day's work, everyone can go to play cards and hang out with each other.     Curley’s wife might not have a name because of many reasons. The first thing that comes to mind is sexism. Since she is female they might only think to call her Curley’s wife, but I doubt that’s the real reason. They see her as more of a possession than a real person and her identity is only confined to the role she plays in her ma...

The aphorism I chose was “ Don’t assume that it’s too late to get involved.” This aphorism means that you shouldn’t assume that it’s too late to get involved with something. The main message that the aphorism teaches is that you shouldn’t be scared to get involved, don’t assume that you are too late to make a difference. I related this aphorism to a This I Believe essay. The This I Believe essay was titled The Power of Presence and the it was saying that it’s never too late to get involved even if the only thing you can do is be there. I agree with this aphorism more than I initially thought I would. In Tuesday’s with Morrie, Mitch had a falling out with his brother when his brother was diagnosed with cancer. They hadn’t talked in years but even so Mitch tried to connect and be involved in his brothers life. He believed it wasn’t to late. One of the reasons I believe this is because you never know what a person is going through. If someone was going through something but you ...