The Muffled Terror

             In the book, "Maus I: My Father Bleeds History," Art Spiegelman tells the story of all the horrible things his father and the rest of the Jews had to go through during the Holocaust. It is drawn with cartoon animals to make things less brutal because a few of the stories included are cruel and otherwise would feel a lot more gruesome to the reader. The way Spiegelman wrote the book was interesting because it is based on real events told by his father but he also makes the story a bit of a fiction book. Spiegelman uses a bunch of different ways to make the story more suitable for younger people and not as terrible.
             One technique Spiegelman uses to make the points of the Holocaust more soft is not using specific brutal words to describe things that happened. For example on pg.33, "and no one heard from him again." Here is when the narrating at the bottom is talking about a guy that the Nazis beat to death yet the author made the words a lot sweeter so that people could read the story without being completely hit with terrible facts. Another way the events his father told him about are less cruel is by making it a cartoon of animals. Even though you still know what is going on and see drawings of some of it, it makes it a lot less violent uses mice and cats instead of humans. It is amazing that Spiegelman was able to design the book this way so that it is enjoyable to learn about and also very fascinating by keeping the facts of the Holocaust straight.
             I am glad to be able to read this book as a kid to gain a lot of knowledge of this terrible historic event and not be to overwhelmed with hard writing or scary things happening. To start reading the book again is very great because a lot of things that are written in the book become a lot clearer and I get a better picture of how Spiegelman chose to write the stories. Hopefully things like this never happen again because they are terrible and ruin so many lives and families. Despite this kind of thing not currently going on things like dictatorship and bad power go on today and are quite a bit like the Holocaust. Maybe overtime people will show power up against this and it will not have to continue to ruin peoples' lives.

Books, Movies, and, Rock and Roll!

             In the article, "From Page to Screen: Hollywood Targets YA Fiction," talks about how the Hunger Games recently came out and was a big hit and how there has been a lot of movies within the past years that came from a book. Other great movies that came out that were based off a book and good or even great were Twilight and Harry Potter. Since movies like these were successes they are planning to and did make sequels with the final book split into two movies. People in this industry decided to make movies like this because it would hopefully make a lot more money and to attract mainly a teen audience to them.

             These movies weren't even big that far back and now they are normally a big hit that teens and many other people love to see. An example is, "It wasn't until the 1950s and '60s, when such stars as James Dean and Annette Funicello began being marketed to younger audiences." This is around when people started making movies more generalized to age and specifications were made. Awhile after this was when the "books to movies" movies started to rise into a roaring industry. If a movie was a big hit and the creators got a good profit then there would be question about a sequel based on a book they made. The Hunger Games was a very successful movie and now as it is written in the article they are planning on making sequels in the same way that Harry Potter and Twilight did.

            When I saw The Hunger Games I also thought it was very good though there may have been a lot of parts that were changed quite a bit and parts that were removed to shorten the movie. I like the idea of making books come out on the big screen because then a fan really gets to enjoy it visually and gets a much better picture. I hope as time goes on society finds even better ways to enhance our ways of enjoying entertainment.

The #@*king Annoying Bird

             In the poem, "A Minor Bird," Robert Frost use a continuous rhyme scheme and good writing devices to make the poem strong and beautiful. Frost makes such a small detail of his life into a descriptive analysis about the bird and his annoyance at it. The way the poem is written is very strong and makes you think, without him using strong words or talking about an overly fascinating topic. Frost uses a lot of literary devices in this poem to enhance the experience.

             Frost uses rhyme scheme throughout his poem a lot for rhythm and flow of the words. An example is, "I have wished a bird would fly away, / And not sing by my house all day." This is at the beginning of the poem when he introduces what is going on and his feelings against it. When reading those two lines it flows smoothly as you read instead of making you read it slow and methodically. There is a small amount of hyperbole because he says, "I could bear no more," when only a little bird is making noise throughout the day. This device enhances the writing because it makes the reader feel a little more interested with the over exaggerated feeling.

             This poem gave a strong impact on me because I can relate to it and see how it is related to the world. I definitely relate to it because I also get really pissed off at things that go on end for a long time and this makes me feel the annoyance he portrays in the character at the bird. It also can relate to the world as a whole because sometimes it is the little issues going on that can get people the most ticked off versus looking at everything as a whole and realizing how unimportant some things are. Like the poem at some point people realize why am I actually getting annoyed at this when really nothing is wrong with it or it is so minor compared to something else.

The Extraordinary Anger

             In the article, "Hug a Hoodie: What the U.K. Teaches Us About Making a Sweatshirt a Symbol," it talks about the sad event where Trayvon Martin was murdered for racist thoughts against him where the guy thought he was a threat. It still can't be taken into affect to prosecute the man because of Florida's controversial self-defense law. In respect of Trayvon millions of people wore hoodies to represent the anger against the law and their care for him. This has become such a big thing and people all over are sad about it and it will probably go down into history.
             People are angry because the state can't actually accuse him until they have set in stone proof, yet everyone knows that he still did kill him and that it was a hate crime. Over in the U.K. people still respect Trayvon and are angry at what happened but it is hated upon to where a hoodie over there. For example, "In the United Kingdom, the hoodie is also associated with low-income young people up to no good—but there, in response to public agita about crime, politicians from both sides of the political aisle—including former Prime Minister Tony Blair—have endorsed campaigns to ban hooded sweatshirts from public places in an effort to combat what the British call 'anti-social behavior.' " I find it absurd the it is such a big deal that it is actual enforced over there. It was a show of honor for the people there to stand up to the government and where the hoodies anyway for Trayvon.
             Certain events can strike big affects all over the world. This was an event that happened down in Florida and became an international issue that caused many reactions and feelings. This shows that there is still racial hate going on despite the years of fighting for rights. The fact that bad events need to happen for people to realize that there should be change is terrible. Even with that being true blacks and many other races still don't have their freedom and rights fully through all the horrible events that they went through. I am very happy to know that people in the U.K. took their stand and made it clear to the government and us that they care and are not happy with any of this.