Maus-night blog

There are so many similarities between the bboks Maus and Night that one would wonder if the authors were twins who underwent the same conditions. Well maybe not. Anyway, not only did both protagonists go to Auschwitz, they both had similar feelings and experiences. In both books, there are rumors of the Nazis burning jews: before or after their death. Also, in Maus and Night alike, the main caracter ends up injured and in the hospital, where they recieve better treatment and more meals. In both cases, the historical event of the evacuation of Auschwitz promoted similar feelings, like the fear of being shot, but also the desire to stay and attempt to escape the Nazi's oppressive grip. But sinse they both end up leaving, they end up going on the imfamous "run". 

Even though both caracters underwent similar emotions and experiences, their pre-war lives gave them different paths in the camp. In Maus, Art's father was a skilled craftsman and shoe-repairer. These advantages gave him good work that paid off during his stay at the camp. The survivor in Maus also could speak Polish and English. He used this knowledge to teach his Kapo in exchange for good food and low work. However; in Night, the protagonists' situation was much different. Elie at the time was just a child, and needed to take care of his father constantly. He was also easily controlled by other Jews in the camp. At one point he was told to abandon his father and fend for himself, and he did end up contemplating it. Furthermore, sinse he was just a kid, he had no special skills or talents that would help him get work.

In my opinion, Maus is more reader-friendly. It uses cartoony caracters, hence the pigs, mice and cats, and is formatted like a comic strip. Night is more dark and the main caracter seems more hopeless as he must fend for himself AND his father, with no particular skills. Maus includes a crafty and intelligent main caracter which takes away from some of the melancholy of the subject. I preferred the book Maus.

slaughterhouse 5 rewrite ( i didnt know how else to upload it)

Noah Boltik

Slaughterhouse five

“If I hadn’t spent so much time studying Earthlings," said the Tralfamadorian, "I wouldn’t have any idea what was meant by 'free will.' I've visited thirty-one inhabited planets in the universe, and I have studied reports on one hundred more. Only on Earth is there any talk of free will." A reoccurring theme in the novel Slaughterhouse Five is that free will is just an illusion, and seeing as this book is an anti-war book, it can be concluded that Billy keeps telling himself that he could not change the events that happened in the war so he could psychologically deal with the senseless destruction he has witnessed, there is also no doubt that he created the fantasy world of Tralfamadore for the sole purpose of trying to explain to himself why humanity is so cruel. The book promotes this idea: War is such a horrible and meaningless thing that it will cause all of those who have seen it to try to cope with it by getting lost in self-pity, losing faith in one’s ability to control things around them, and making themselves try to find ways to take away the guilt of being the destructive humans they think they are.

In the third chapter, the author explains how Billy had framed a prayer in his office. This prayer was supposed to make people “keep going”, although Billy soon after subtly claims to have no enthusiasm for living (because of his war experiences). The prayer says “God grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, courage to change the things I can, and wisdom always to tell the difference.” The book goes on to say “Among the things Billy Pilgrim could not change were the past, the present, and the future." This quote explains that Pilgrim greatly pities himself with the belief that he cannot control the things around him. He does this to handle his war memories.

In chapter 4, Billy tells how the Tralfamadorians see all of time as a simultaneous and reoccurring spectrum: “All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is.” This quote explains how Billy believes that all events are unexplainable; that one cannot control events, and that one should not try to begin to understand life around them. He loses faith in his ability to control things to try to manage his feelings and memories about the war.

            In the next chapter, Billy is still on Tralfamadore, and is trying to urge the guide to tell him the secrets of peace so that he could go back to Earth and stop the humans’ wars before his planet destroys the Universe, but the Tralfamadorians tell Billy that they know how the Universe ends. They say “We blow it up, experimenting with new fuels for our flying saucers. A Tralfamadorian test pilot presses a starter button, and the whole Universe disappears.” Billy creates this scene in his head to take away some of his guilt about war; even his guilt about being a human. The alien also later explains that humans should ignore awful times and concentrate on the good ones, further expanding on the idea that Billy is just trying to live with what he’s seen in Dresdon.

restrpo, fallen angels

Watching Restrepo helped me understand Fallen Angels better. Watching two of the marines "friendly fighting", for example, in the barracks reminded me of the scene in Fallen Angels where Monaco pulled out a fake grenade and pretended to try to kill everyone; in both cases they show their manliness for fun. When a marine in the movie Restrepo calls the barracks a "hooch" this reminded me of when Perry learns the same word in Fallen Angels. When Jenkins is killed by a random landmine explosion, it is kind of like the explosion by the jeep in the beginning of Restrepo. When the marines in the movie first go into a local village and try to build relations, its like when Perry's squad goes into the hamlet and talks with the locals. But the villigers are threatened by the enemies of the Americans, just like in the movie. There are many scenes in Restrepo where it shows the marines just waiting around their outpost, then suddenly a firefight breaks out; this resembles the theme in Fallen Angels of "hours of waiting, seconds of terror" Also, the scene where a marine is playing his guitar resembles the chess games Perry played in Fallen Angels. Furthermore, in Restrepo, they named the outpost restrepo in honor of a fallen soldier. This is much like the squad praying for Lieutenant Carrol's death. In battle, the book would describe Johnson setting up behind sandbags and lighting up anything that moved. This is a lot like when the machine gunner in Restrepo shoots off many shots towards the enemy. Finally, when you see the bombs being dropped off on the hills it reminds me of Perry's description of mortar showers

Both the book Fallen Angels and the documentary Restrepo showed me all of the difficulties of war. For one, watching your squadmates die is a horrible burden. Whether it's when Jenkins dies by a landmine, or Restrepo bleeding out in an evac heelicopter, the squad gets very emotional for their passing. Also, working on local relations seems to be a difficulty shared by Perry and Restrepo's squad. In the book, Perry had to go and risk his life and defend a village from Viet Cong, but in Restrepo, the leader had to try and negotiate a refund for the death of their cow, where no compromize was actually made. Finally, in both the novel and the documentary, the military squads are forced to go on dangerous missions. In Restrepo, operation "Rock Avalanche" was the worst mission the squad went on; they were ambushed, flanked and picked off. In the Fallen Angels, when Perry was separated from his squad, it was a horrible experience for him