Essay

Fatelessness has a message and it is something that Imre Kertesz did thought or considered when he was writing this novel as in the text we can see the criticism, the opinion behind the words that the author gives, reflected in the experience of Gyuri

The message that novel gives us is that all atrocities, the breaking of the human rights, the harm, the pain, etc., that is summarized in the Holocaust, must not happen again, we must learn from our mistakes. Imre when writing this novel, tried to clarify this message and make it effective by the use of examples of how people and families got affected by this (Gyuri and his family plus all the people that died in the story in the concentration camps), how unmoral humans beings can be as they keep harming people who were dying from thirst, hunger, diseases, or making kids work like animals.

2.-

The understanding of the points of view expressed in fatelessness may be hard or easy depending on many factors like the age of the readers, the level of knowledge of the readers about the theme, but mainly, it depends on the readers cultural background.

In terms of age, this affects a lot the understanding as the maturity of the readers may impact on their reasoning, for example a 10 year old kid would not get the real importance of the points of views expressed, he may not understand how difficult and tragic would be to live in a concentration camp as his mind is not prepared yet.

3.- Fatelessness has different narrative techniques that seduce and affect our minds, this can be seen in terms of the use of certain characters, strong words, etc. to impact the readers.

The use of certain characters like a child as the main character or protagonist, makes the whole story more tragic as its more painful for the readers to read how a child is suffering rather than to reading about how a man is suffering, all of these things including some important situations that happens in the story like how their father had to go to a labor camp and left the family alone, how he was forced to work and because of that he got captured, how he became even more alone as his friend with the glasses took another direction, also the infection he had in his knee and how he was bitten by the bugs; helps to seduce and affect our minds.


4.- The context is a key factor in the creation process of a story as the Holocaust and its atrocities have helped us understand Fatelessness much more.

Context, is one of the most important factors as it is like a "guide" for the authors when they write, because the context helps to define many things that are part in the stories, for example: the setting, the environment, the perspective, etc.

This can be seen in most of literature classes, as when we analyse some stories, one of the first aspects we search and look for is the historical background, as for example: Frankenstein is written in Victorian Times, because of that the use of gothic elements which we can easily understand if we know the background, the context.

Fatelessness Book Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nj9pkYdjj1k

Listening Activity

1. Before the interview, the presenter visits a monument to the Holocaust created by the American artist Peter Eiserman. Considering the shapes, architecture and general design, in what ways do you think he represents the reality in the concentration camps?

- He represents the reality in the concentration camps with the monument as these many and big stone blocks represent how alone and tiny were the jews (in terms of power, rights,etc) compared with the germans.

2. Which is the paradox the presenter mentions regarding Imre Kertész and the place where he lives?

- The paradox the presenter mentions, is that Imre Kertész now lives in Germany, the country who tried to kill him years ago.

3. Refer to antisemitism before and after Auschwitz according to Kertész.

-Antisemitism after Auschwitz according to Kertész refers to the desire to recreate what happened years ago, the Holocaust, the concentration camps, etc. But before Auschwitz it was something smaller, an idea only.

4. In what way do reminders of the past in historical books make us “much richer”?

-The reminders of the past in historical books make us "much richer" as they teach us the problems that they had in the past and how they solved them and the consequences of them so we can learn of they mistakes and don't commit them again or know how to handle them if we commit them.

5. Which metaphor does Imre use to exemplify the effect of FATELESSNESS on its readers?

 - Imre uses the following metaphor: "I continued to worry our souls, and now it knocks from inside the cabinet where we thought we had locked it up." With this metaphor he exemplifies the effect of FATELESSNESS on its reads as it shows that the problems, and all the horrible things that happened are not gone, they are still in our memory and can be remembered with the book.

My Classmate Letter

What language (specific words) did your classmate did you classmate use to appeal the audience? If there is no language appealing the audience, suggest some words.

My classmate used a lot of specific words to appeal the audience, like: "The desire of seeing you again", "physical and mental pain", "suicide has crossed my mind", "A light of hope", between others. These words are very strong and have an important emotive effect on the audience.

How moving is the letter ? Do you think that your classmate's style is effective?

The letter is very moving as it focus the pain the father is suffering but also how strong he can be just to see one more time his son, because of these and many other elements my classmate gather the audience attention, to finally say that his style is very effective.

Explain to what extent the letter includes elements of contexts and time.

The letter includes elements of contexts and time as some words like "labor camp" or even directly referring to the Holocaust by saying: "we will see each other again and live like a happy family that survived the Holocaust!". Thanks to these phrases and the global theme of the letter, we can understand that the context is the II World War, specifically the Holocaust. 

Writing Task

Exchanging Letters 

Dear Father,

It had been a rough and long time without you, I have been waiting for this chance to talk with you about what is going on here. A bit after you left us, I was captured by the nazis and now I have been taken to Auschwitz Birkenau, a concentration camp. This time here has been the worst experience I ever had, the treatment here is awful, we eat and drink almost nothing, we use some ugly clothes that don't help us to keep warm, we are always dirty... I have seen many people die because of different reasons : hunger, thirst, coldness, diseases and even asassination, all of these terrible things without any significant reasons, and even if the nazis had reasons, I shouldn't be here, i am only a child and I haven't done anything to harm them. But they don't understand... I don't find a viable way to get out of here alive, I tried my best to stay awake, I have a friend who is also from Budapest who has been helping me but even with his help I can't keep any longer, this is my last effort to survive, I NEED YOU.

I hope you read this father,
Gyuri

Fatelessness Language Analysis

Pages 90 and 91

Theme: Innocence

"I realized: the fact that I saw no sing of movement, of life, around them. But then it occured to me that this must be only natural". We can see that Gyurka doesn't really understand what is happening and has an innocence explanation for everything, in this case he thought it was "working hour".

"It was al very clean, tidy and pretty" In this case he also dind't knew what was going on, he thought it was a good place.

"The latter was very squad of jovial appearance, and exceesingly fat, his belly beggining at his neck." By last, as said before, Gyurka is very innocent, he doesn't know the harsh time he will had by now.


Pages 180-185

Theme: Hopelessness

Explanation: Hopelessness can be seen in these pages in many ocassions, is the case of the use of words like "gray sky", "perpetual", "furry hoarfroast", "hopeless struggle", "I gave up". All of these phrases, help us understad the harsh life of Gyurka, he was starting to lose hope, he became depressed.

Even when he saw the bus eating his wound, he described the following: "the gluttony", "the teeming", "the voracity", "the appetite", "were vaguely familiar", which really meant what he was feeling from inside. Also as he was so alone and sad, he started to like the presence of the bugs, as if they were his friends.

Pages 138 and 139

Theme: Interaction

Explanation: "Bandi Citrom promptly warned me away from them: 'You lose any will to live just looking at them'". In this case we can see that Gyurka tries to interact with the muslims but he was warned to better keep aside as they where "dangerous".

"Their first question was 'Rayds di Yeddish?' when I told them that not... I became a nonperson, they looked at me as if I were this air".

On this ocassion, the hungarian tried to interact with the muslims but as the hungarian are different and don't speak Yiddish, the muslims dind't care about them and so the muslims did not accept to interact with the hungarian.

The Curious Incident and Gyuri's Mind.

The Curious Incident

1.- It tells us that Christopher's mind receive and collect a lot of information, he haves a very good memory, but he doesn't know or have the ability to decide wherever if the information he receives is important or not to remember.

2.- People choose to describe what is important or significant to them because it have a meaning for them.

3.- Both, some people are lazy as they don't want to receive information and also people select in a different way what they receive because of the different significances and meaning people give to different things.

4.- We should select in a different way that Christopher and reduce what we see because if we select like him, we would be full of meaningless information that will overpass our limit and finally make us stressed.

5.- What governs they way we select what we perceive is our ability to detect what is important or not for us.

6.- The part that language plays in the way we select our perceptions, is that it helps us describe and understand what we see as we can explain our perspective.

7.- It tells us that Christopher's is an untrained one because he doesn't have the ability to detect what is important or not and because of that he is stressed as he is over passed by information. Our one's are trained by many years of school, analyzing different information so we can define what is important or not.

Gyuri's Mind.

1.- This tell us that Gyuri's mind works like a child one, as his thoughts were very innocent, for him everything was good, as his mind couldn't let him realize the horrific things that would come next.

2.- Most 13-year-old children choose to describe what they want for their future, their accomplishments, what they need, and how successful will they be on their lives. Usually in Chile we see all of these in terms of football, most of the 13-year- old children want to be professional football players, some of them say they will play for Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile, etc. and they say they will be very successful and they even compare with some of the greatest football players.

3.- Language plays an interesting part in the way Gyuri selects his perceptions as he uses the language to express his feelings, all mostly positive as his childish and innocent mind just let him look at good things he is living, or turn the bad things into good things.

4.- Based on the whole novel, this passage is not reliable in relation to the rest of the story, as this was just the beginning of a "nightmare", which would finally change his way to see things, so at this time he had not experienced what really matters to the rest of the story.

Summary Fatelessness

Summary Fatelessness Chapter 1-5

This history tooks place in Budapets, Hungary where the mood was very tragic and sad in terms of the jews because of the conflict with germans, the context is previous "Holocaust". The main character belongs to a jewish family and they start doing the preparations to confront the situation of the father leaving for "Labor Service". After a big and sad family reunion were Gyuri had an amazing experience with his uncle praying for his father, which made him change his thoughts, more mature, Gyuri the main character assumes the role of "the man" of the family. Because of that he had to get a job to afford all the costs of the family, on his way to his job, the bus on which he was got intercepted by a german officer and all the jewish inside were taken to some kind of a jail. After some time

Fatelessness Reading Task

Fatelessness Chapter 1 Analysis

1)What characters are introduced this chapter?

In this chapter, many characters were introduced: Mr Suto, Gyuri, Gyuri's Father, Gyuri's Mother and Stepmother, also his Grandfather and Grandmother, the shopkeeper and his wife, the baker, Uncle Willie, etc.

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

Grandmother: "Even wearing spectacles with bottle-thick lenses she is blind as a bat and just as deaf to boot".


Uncle Willie: "His head is pear-shaped, broad, bulging, and bald on top, but narowing ate the cheeks and toward the chin", "His views are listened to with respect in the family".


3) What narrative technique? Provide evidence.

In terms of narrative technique, the first one to notice is the First Person narration, as the main character narrates the story on his point of view. This can be seen on the text when Gyuri, the narrator says: "I didn`t head home." Also the story is narrated in past tense as shown in the following quote: "I also handed him" and also in the past quote.


4) Describe the setting of this chapter

This chapter took place in Budapets, Hungary, where the main character, Gyuri, and his Jewish family are having a bad time because of his Father going to war. The context is previous of the "Holocaust", at the begining of the II World War on which Jews were seen like a "plague". On this chapter whe can see this very detailed as how the family went to different places and the treat to Jewish was very bad (Ex: They received half of bread), and also that the Jewish family shared some place. All of this makes a sad mood and prepares the readers to what should come next.

Analysis

Important info: How communism twist the reality, killing jews, identity, fate.
audience: people who wants to know what really happened in the concentration camps, or in that era, social studies interested people, historians, etc.
inform, explain by his point of view, persuade the people of how some politicians or countries twist the reality, ommit information, entertain, compare, etc.

Essay 2.0

“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."

We can affirm this because TCK's have many cultures in one, by that they don't feel completely part of any, because of this we can say that they have nothing beyond their passports to connect them with their home country as their beliefs, education, etc. are given from a different culture.

In terms of gain and loses from the fact they grow up outside their passport country, we can say that they gain an open-minded view of the world, they learn to be more comprehensive with other cultures and ideals, they are good to realize the social problems in the society they are part, they can compare between the different lifestyles, etc. Because of this, usually TCKs have an important role or position in political structures on differents countries, as they can realize and help the society with their problems. One example of this is Barack Obama which is the president of United States and also he is  TCK.

About the lose, we can say that they are very lonely as they don't feel part of any culture, they don't know much about they "passport country", also usually as they don't feel part of the society, they tend to became friends of another TCK's.

To conclude, we can say that TCK don't connect much with they country of origin, they don't know about it, they also don't learn much there or maybe they didn't even live there, and maybe they aren't interested on their origin country, because of this they called it "passport country". Because of they they have some gain and loses which really affects who they are.

Number of words: 269

Travel Writing

Visit to Maycomb in the 30´s

 

I came back to Maycomb, Alabama, in the 30`s,  and I saw what It used to be, "Maycomb was an old town, but it was a tired old town". Firstly, I was amazed because of the architecture as I didn't remembered it, the typical house look, shared by everyone, this included: gable dormers, eave dentils, doric pilasters, the porch, etc. but with different orientations, or size, made me feel like I was back in home. As I kept walking in the town, I start to sense a patron in all of the people, they were all wearing bad looking clothes, wrinkled, they all seemed very poor which made feel very bad, as I had forgotten how harsh was life in that time, but suddenly I heard the sound of an a amazing car coming by the street and as it came closer I figured out it was my favorite car, the Cadillac Twelve, but that made me feel the incredible difference between economic and social strata. Anyways, after a while I asked the owner if I can go for a ride, and inside the car, while driving, I saw an incredible look of the town, people were very happy even with the finance problems, kids were playing in the streets, life seemed to be beautiful, but all this changed as I was coming back, I saw all the neighborhood screaming and throwing things towards an Afro-American woman, this discrimination to the black lady was a shock for me as It was very hard to tolerate. Finally, after I came back to my house, I felt the emotions of all the day, the nostalgia was running throught my mind, I wanted to get back to Maycomb, but the idea of discrimination made me angry. Anyways I had a really good time and I am wishing to come back.
 
Numbers of words: 307

Link to My Scientific language presentation

My Scientific language presentation can be seen here:


https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B7uhd2LgGf5QaWMtbF9hVGxzcms/edit?usp=sharing

Questions "to kill a mockingbird" Part2

a)  If Miss Caroline is NOT an important character in the story, how does the author effectively use Miss Caroline’s character in chapters 2 and 3 to introduce important background information about other characters and the setting  of Maycomb in the 1930s?  Describe using examples from the text.

The author effectively use Miss Caroline in chapters 2 and 3 to introduce important background information about other characters and the setting of Maycomb in the 1930s because as she wasn't from the zone, and she dind't knew anybody, she started asking questions to their students and that gave use information of the different realities and how do the people in maycob live.

B)  Imagine you were Miss Caroline after her first day teaching.  Write a brief letter to your family in Winston County describing your day.  (1 paragraph)
                                                                        
                                                                                        20-05-2013

Dear Family,

I am writing you from Maycomb to inform you that I am fine and survived my first day here. I mean "survived" as it was a very hard day, I figured out that this education here is worst than I thought, some kids dind't wanted to study and left the class, others were very dirt, but the case that took more my attention was a poor girl called Jean Louise Finch, she thought she knew how to read and write as it seemed someone taught her but I am not sure if what she learned is good and also she is still not in age to do that things, I must take action on this. Many other bad things happens but finally the day came to an end. I am hoping this week will be better.

Wish you my best,
Caroline.

Essay

"We are unaware that we are communicating in many different ways even when we are not speaking.. we are rarely taught about this non-verbal form of communication in school... we informally learn how to use gesturees, glances, slight changes in tone of voice, ... to alter or emphasize what we say and do... we learn these culture-bound techniques largely by observing others and imitating them."

There are many ways of communicating, and we use them every day,  even if we are unaware of it, because we learn them unconsciously.

When we speak, we usually do some tone variations or start to shout to make what we say more interesting, also you can see in many speechs that the speakers use some gestures to get to audiencie, for example when talking about taking action in a problem, they point to the audience so they can feel their responsability on the problem. Also there are more ways of communicating that appear when we try to express our selves..

To conclude, we can affirm that there is a non-verbal forms of communication that we unconsciously use, these may vary between different cultures as the cultures are the ones who teach us this.

Animal Farm Questions

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

My reaction was good as I felt that the humans were treating bad the animals and not as they deserve, because of that I think the revolution was a good idea as it was the time to stop the suffer.

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

Yes I do, as their complaints and goals seemed to be fair enough compared with what the humans did with them.

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

The rebellion takes place when the animals got together and started a fight against the humans to finally get rid of them to start their own farm. The behaviour of the animals during the rebellion suggest human characteristics as they start doing human actions such us "Reading, Writing, Drinking, Sleeping in beds, trading animals products for their own benefits, etc.

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

The pigs gain the rights to the cow's milk by telling the other animals that it was for the "benefit of the farm". The other animals allowed it because they thought that the pigs were the most capable of leading the farm and also because they tought they were doing it for good purposes.  This event suggest about power hierarchy on the farm that it belongs to the pings and not to all the animals.

5) What was your reaction to Snowball´s expulsion from Animal farm? Explain.
I felt bad as Snowball was a good leader but because of Napoleon he died. Also i felt bad because Napoleon was evil and this had its consequences.

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?

Napoleon tried to solidify his leadership by: - Getting rid of his opponent in the leadership, Snowball.
-By controlling everything that happened in the farm with his guards. And by showing that he wast the best and those who were against him, were traitors and must die. The process of decision making changed under Napoleon's leadership because Napoleon turned it into a Tyranny, all the decisions were taken by him and some pigs, they dind't followed the rules and the opinion of the other animals were worthless.

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

The executions take place to keep the farm controlled as it made the animals feel fear so that will make them behave. This events sent the animals a message of tyranny by the pigs so their role in a future society will be to do everything the pigs want them to do.

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 in the decision making? Who makes the decisions in your family, community and nation?

I think it's fair because if they are more educated or more skilled that means they are more prepared to make decisions than whose that are not educated or skilled. In my family usually my parents makes the decisions but most of the times they ask me and my brother for our opinion on which decision to take. In the case of my community, the decisions are made by the Headmaster and in my nation the President takes the decisions.

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

Power doesn't change those who have it, it just show us who really they are, as Lincoln said "Give a man power and you will reveal his true character". 

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

In my opinion, pigs were more intelligent than the other animals because of that they became the leaders. Also because of their ability to control others, "leadership", and their knowledge on the farm issues enabled them to lead others. An example of this is can be seen when they started by making a list of rules/laws and also when they start giving ideas to improve the farm by the build of a windmill ,etc.

OLD MAJOR'S SPEECH

 Select at least 20 phrases where the idea of language and power are present, or that represent an appropiate to appeal the audience. Explain 5 of them. Explain how the ideas help motivate the rest of the animals,  make reference to the films when necessary. Add a picture related.

1) I feel it my duty to pass on to you such wisdom.

2) Now, comrades, what is the nature of this life of ours?

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

4) 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.

5) The soil of England is fertile, its climate is good, its is capable of affording food in abundance to an enormously greater number of animal that now inhabit it.

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

7) No animal in England is free.

8) This single farm of ours would supper a donzer horses, twenty cows, hundereds of sheep-- and all of them living in a comfort and a dignity that are now almost beyond our imagining.

9) Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?

10) 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.

11) 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.

12) You cows that I see before me, how many thousands of gallons of milk have you given during this last year? ... Every drop of it has gone down the throats of our enemies

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

14) Almost overnight we could become rich and free. What then must we do? Why, work night and day, body and soul, for the overthrow of the human race!

15) Only get rid of Man, and the produce of our labour would be our own.

16) The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth.

17) That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!

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

19) All men are enemies.

20) All animals are comrades.

Explanations:

16) "The life of an animal is misery and slavery: that is the plain truth."

In this phrase Old Major starts by giving an statement that the life of an animal is horrible, just misery and slavery, so they must do something.

9) "Why then do we continue in this miserable condition?"

In this sentence, we can see that Old Major tries to incentivate the animals to take action on the fight humans so they can start living in the way they deserve.

10) "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."

This sentence explains the animals that man is worthless, it just consumes and do nothing so its no fair that man rules them as the animals do all the work.

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

This is a key sentence as Old Major tell the animals the answer to all of their problems, to remove the man.

17) "That is my message to you, comrades: Rebellion!"

This sentence concludes Old Major's ideas, it gives the animals the way to remove man, by rebellion.


By all these ideas, the Old Major changes the mind of the animals, now they can realize that they have being suffering and this must stop, its time to take action.

My Identity

My Identity


1- Football: It's one of my motivations in school, I am always expecting for the Saturday Match. I love this sport, also that I am not so good at it, its amazing to play it.



2- Intelligent: I think I am intelligent, as I resolve most of the problems I confront.

3- Happiness: Its very important to be happy, is what gives you motivation on life, makes you enjoy everything. I like to be happy.

4-Lazy: I am very lazy sometimes, I don't want to work, I don't want to study, etc. Sometimes I just want to rest.

5-Independent: Its a thing I think once in a time, but when I get the idea of being independent its very difficult to forget it. I imagine living by my own on another country, how would I survive, meeting new people, start my business, etc.

6-Entrepreneur: I am always looking for new ideas, how to do something, how to get money.

Reading Activity

1- I agree with the Note Taker's statements as her kerbstone english will keep her in the gutter, it's not because I look bad the people that speak different, It's because most of the other people do and much more on the time the story was written. So because of that, the flower girl woulnd't had a chance of getting off the gutter. Also there are other factors that determine her position on society, her family, her wealth, her job, etc.

2- Yes, it is possible to transform a Cockney girl into a duchess by teaching her to speak differently, but also by teaching her manners. That plans ignores her sense of identity and dignity but also it may be a generous offer as it could take her out of the "gutter".

SPANGLISH

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

   I feel disgusted as it make us (latin american's) look bad.

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

   This variation of language is identifying a particular community for bad because, not all the latin american's speak like that, so it's stereotyped.

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

   Yes, this is an inferior variation of the English language, but not the worst.

4. Do you usually judge people’s accents? 

   Yes I do, I guess it's because I am not used to it.