Comparison of Gladiators of Ancient Rome and Hunger Games

    Our class is reading the book Hunger Games and has already watched a video clip of Gladiators of Ancient Rome. From both reading and watching, I could compare the tributes and the gladiators and find some similarities between them. There are several main similarities and one of them is the fact that they both existed, for people's entertainment. Hunger Games, was an entertainment that would thrill those people in Capitol, the rich people and Gladiators of Ancient Rome, it was also an entertainment to excite other people who actually lived in Rome back then.  Even when it meant 'brutal' to the tributes and the gladiators, people didn't care, all they cared about was only the survivors and the fun they were having. 

    Another similarity is that both entertainments both have survivors, and which they will be kept in good condition by a 'trainer'. Since those people who were actually watching the 'games' expected a lot from the entertainers (not being killed lightly) for their enjoyment, the survivors had to go through exhaustive training,  and get all those medical attention. It would certainly have felt strange for those survivors and the entertainers to experience that. 

    The final person who wins through the fight of 'everything' is freed for both Hunger Games and for the Gladiators. However, during the actual fight they are definitely expected to fight to their deaths. These were the similarities between the Hunger Games and the Gladiators, and they must have had people died, innocent people and we shall never forget, their pain and their innocence. 

My Black Messiah

I chose to annotate the poem My Black Messiah because it shows not only Sonia's pain but also the pain of the black GI (members of the U.S. army). Apparently, Sonia believed the 'black Messiah' would at least set her free before she dies, when Jews including herself was going through a sickness of typhus and fever.

He'll set me free before I die, I thought...

This poem is very understandable, because I feel it as if all these things are happening to me. A black GI right in front of me, looking at me, horrified and going through his guilt which is on the inside of his heart... This poems explains very well about the reactions that 'black Messiah' had.

The shock, the horror on his face,
He didn't weep, he didn't cry
But deep within his gentle eyes
...A flood of devastating pain

In addition, I can clearly understand Sonia's point. Even if they went on their separate ways and somehow overcame those conflicts, all those conflicts will never be forgotten because it was that brutal and horrifying. Here at this point, Sonia is comparing herself to the 'black Messiah' by how they both went through hardships.
Sonia's hardship was actually overcoming all those violence and racism. The black GI's hardship was having to see how other people were in pain. He couldn't do anything about it, the Nazis were all holding its power.

Eventually, Sonia already have seen the innocence in the Black GI. She pities how his innocence had to do all the hard works, he innocence forever slain... From this poem, you clearly can see Sonia's point of view of seeing the 'black Messiah' and her experience. This is truly one of those memorable parts of her story.

The degree of choices

    A victim is known as a person that has limited or no-options about how to act to a certain situation to some people. I in particular, agree with this kind of statement. Since I have been learning about holocaust and how the Jews were recognized as victims, I've related the statement to the Jews.

    At first, Jews did have an option to leave the country, Germany, however the other countries stopped accepting Jews in their country. Even when some people like President Roosevelt would declare the Nazis' wrong doings, they couldn't follow their statements by their actions. They could have been afraid the same thing will happen to their own country. In addition, Jews didn't have a particular chance to stand up for their choices and opinions because the Nazis were all blocking it. The Nazis just blamed and insulted the Jews just by simple reasons. One of the simple reasons would have been going outside of their houses.  Apparently, that was the reality for the Jews, they couldn't do anything since it wouldn't do any better and they didn't have enough power to go against the Nazis.

    As I have mentioned, I believe that it is true enough that victims are known as a person that has limited or no-options to act to a certain situation. Jews only had little choices to make even at first. Later on, the choices they could have made wasn't better than immigrating to another country. One of the reasons why the Jews struggled with "not being the victim" was because the other countries couldn't easily help but just be by-standers. Standing up for their rights was obviously one of those choices the Jews could have made, but there were Nazis who could do anything to harm them, arrest them, and torture them. Another choice that could have been made is just ignoring the fact about them being the victim and going along with it, though, this choice would have been rather difficult. These are the reasons why I believe the statement is true, a victim doesn't have a lot of choices to make or choose...
 
 

Analysing The Eternal Jew (Propaganda)

    In this type of an image called The Eternal Jew, I see a person, man with his eyes closed holding a stick which probably was meant to describe how he is blind. This person is holding a kind of a rock or wood that has the sign of the communists on it (in red). Red mostly gives 'you' an idea of opposition so the person in the image is maybe against the communists. He is placed in the middle with a yellow background. The guy himself seems desperate reaching out his right hand but the background is really bright and this shows a contrast and tries to make the guy stand out. There is a writing at the bottom of the image in red. It seems to explain about the guy, the person in the image.

    This image is made by David Pinsk who was on the Nazi side. It's a bit obvious since the picture includes the writing in color red when the picture is called The Eternal Jew. I know the person is Jewish because he's wearing this hat that many Jewish men wore. The Nazis obviously want the Aryans, the people with pure German blood separated with those Jews who are non-Aryans. This image was actually a cover of the book and the book itself was published in 1937. It was probably intended for the voters who are aged more than about 20 years. The guy in the image is actually holding a rock-like object that has the communists sign in red so it kind of shows that the Nazis, don't want the voters to vote for the communists, one of those strong parties 'they' had to go against.

    I think this picture is suppose to mean that the Jews and the communists are both worthless. The creator intends to express them in a hopeless way. The guy's hand is already describing how he is so desperate, he certainly does have hopes. However, the way how the creator uses only neutral colors for the Jewish guy, the writings, and even the sign, it tells us their hopes is not going to get them anywhere. The people who actually saw the cover would rather feel as if their worthless just like how the creator expressed it as, and the voters certainly might have changed their minds to vote for the Nazi Party.

    This image does give lies and also misleading information just to give the message as they want it to be. They certainly don't have enough evidence to exclude Jews like the guy in the cover. The only evidence they have is that they are non-Aryans and they are not sure if all Jews are like that, just wanting things, blind, looking all worthless and monster-like... Actually the people who Nazis blame on should blame the Nazis back because they are the ones who all started the racism and also started showing their selfish side. 

The Treaty of Versailles

     The Treaty of Versailles, which all happened from the idea called "league of nations", is unfair. It just seemed to cause more failures than the actual successes made. For example, the Germans stabbing the Jews' back. The Treaty of Versailles definitely didn't work as well as Woodrow Wilson expected...

     Woodrow Wilson was a person that mentioned about how the effects of the wars were making things worse for all the nations.

"I am convinced that if this peace is not made on the highest principles of justice, it will be swept away by the peoples of the world in less than a generation." -Woodrow Wilson

This kind of 'thing' he decided to mention, caused the treaty to be created and that created the betrayal of the Germans. At that time, the Germans did not have anything to depend on and expected that the problem was their population of generation. As a result, they blamed on the Jews. The way how this whole treaty made the Germans, particularly Hitler, bring those rages on an innocent group can be shown as a failure. Another thing that makes the Treaty of Versailles unfair is how the Americans ignored the concerns of the conflict, Europe was having, not joining the league of nations, and how they declared war at the time of 1917.

After all, the success of Woodrow Wilson could just have been the popularity and the power he gained. After the popularity he gained, he still couldn't solve other problems since some people were against it and that it reflected a lot on the Germans. This the treaty itself was incomplete, and of course, unsuccessful.

My learning profile!

   Today Mr.Whiting came into our humanities class and talked about learning profiles. Then I remembered the activities that I did to know my learning profile, in grade 6. I was rather excited to actually do it again as a 7th grader.
   I learn best when I use my movements and my visual. For movements, I have to move dynamically and actively, especially the hands and for visual, I focus on the whole picture, not just the small details of a particular subject. However, if I do not keep myself relaxed I won't be able to visually look at something. In fact, I also learn finest when I listen to the aim, intention.
   I seriously need to work on "putting everything together". What I mean by that is organizing things clearly. For example, if I brainstorm for an essay that I am going to write about, I am going to have quite a hard time to put all those ideas into one idea. The other thing I need to work on is "communicating with direct and logical manner". Since I am gestalt, it is quite an obvious challenge for me to communicate with those who are logic. Those are two main things that I have to contrive on, as a NN learner.
   There are some activities/strategies that will help me in my learning. One of them is to do something with my hands, for example, doodling and playing with squashy ball while listening to new learning. Another activity/strategy is to do Lazy 8's for an improvement on visual. Moreover, few sports can also help me in my learning such as soccer and Tai Chi (martial arts).
   There is not really a thing that I really want my teachers to know about me but if I had to, it would be that I like being creative and that I am left-handed. The reason I want the teachers to know that I am left-handed is so that when there is an activity based on right-handed people they'll know for me, I need a different one. Most of all, I find the fact that I am left-handed, interesting so I want the teachers to be interested too!
   Surprisingly, my learning profile this year is different from last year. Fortunately, I was able to learn more about myself in a different way but some information were same because I am gestalt. Since I know what I can do to improve my learning, all I have to do now is, "WORK IT OUT!"

ME in Three!

Daisy  
My hand-phone:  
is probably uncommon to be an object that is really meaningful for people. However, there is a story about this object that shows my patience. It all happened when I was in 5th grade. All of my friends were getting their phones but I was one of those few people who did not have one. Whenever there were important calls I had to make to my mom, I could not because I did not have my own phone. By the end of 5th grade, my parents decided to buy me a phone. I was so happy that I could finally get a phone. I was expecting my new, brand phone to be pink, and nice.

When I actually went to all kinds of phone stores, I could not find any phone that had a pink cover, and had a good system. What I mean by good system is one that is simple, and helpful. To be honest, Samsung phones seemed to be a high-standard system of all the other phones’ brands but the design and the price were quite disappointing. After going to all those phone stores, I decided to wait. Waiting was absolutely hard for me. I was desperate to get a phone.

I was able to get a phone after 3 months waiting for it. At that time, I realized my patience had helped to get a phone that I really wanted. In fact, patience is the one thing that helps make ‘your’ dream come true. In conclusion, my phone is an object that shows I sometimes have a strong opinion, and I can be patient.  

My dance company picture makes me proud of how I kept my passion so strong that I had accomplished an achievement of dancing.  I also think this object’s part time job reminds me that, ‘Facing strenuous things is one of the steps that I need to follow to accomplish goals.’
I seriously have to admit that I could not dance well at all on the first trimester of 6th grade. However, I became to be a better dancer. In the middle of 6th grade, I even got in to dance company. To get into Dance Company, we even had to audition. Before the audition, I practiced a lot with all my effort, and I promised myself that I had to get into Dance Company.  So every day I practiced and time went by. Audition day finally had came and I had to get prepared to show my dance skills. I was totally ready to perform, and was confident that I did not care about people watching me dance. At the end, I was proud that I had finally shown my dance because I think that it takes a lot of a courage and confidence to go to audition and dance in front of other people. I also was impressed, and satisfied that I had worked so hard I worked on dancing. When I heard that I got in Dance Company I could not have been more elated. This was the story of how I got into Dance Company, and how hard I worked to get my dance company picture.

My bag:
This object is what I have been using since 6th grade, the beginning of middle school. It shows how I have grown to be a middle school student. It also shows me that it is a stage where I can gain higher levels in every subject, and become more mature. Try becoming more mature is not easy because it means you have to be ready for upcoming events, be organized, responsible, and respectful. Even though I am in 7th grade already, it is still difficult to do all those things. My school bag will be remembered as an object that I used for my first middle school. This object is meaningful because once again, it shows how I have grown. I want to use this object until the end of middle school so that I can be even more impressed after growing up even more.