Sixth ISU Blog Post

           Elsewhere is a book all about the death of a girl named Lizzie and the adventure that comes afterwards. Lizzie is in an alternative universe called Elsewhere, filled with every other dead person. As the story progresses we learn that there is a sort of exception or condition to this alternative universe. You age in reverse and when you become the age of seven again, you are simply reincarnated. So, now in this book we have the aspect of an after life and Reincarnation. These are two things that a lot of people in today's society believe in, because it brings them comfort and relief.

             Since I believe that there is not life after death or reincarnation I found this picture to be very funny. It made me think about whether someone who believe in a life after death would actually knowingly want to die. If they are not ready to die in order to go live another life, then do they actually believe in it? If they are not ready to die in order to live this other life they think that will be given to them, then I think it is fair to say that it is just a comfort tactic.

Fifth ISU Blog Post

Video: http://wgntv.com/2015/02/05/ohio-family-convinced-son-lived-another-life-as-a-chicago-woman/

          The link I have posted above is to a video showing a boy whose family that believe he was once a female who died in a house fire. He seemed to recall who the female was, how she died, and even how she looked. In the book Elsewhere, the author writes that when people hit the age of 7 they will be reincarnated
and live another life. Personally I believe that this is not true and that the video of the child is simply a hoax. The book is based on common beliefs that our society has and you can really see the influence it had on the author. There is not a lot of originality, the author is just taking unproven ideas and creating a story out of it. This is fine considering it is just a book that is not meant to be taken literally, but when we do take it literally we can see the flaws it has. You may be thinking about who would be willing to go through all the trouble of creating a hoax like that video, but I think we've all heard of crazier lies. This ties into my belief that you should not make assumptions on things like life after death or reincarnation, until you have facts that prove it.
           

Fourth ISU Blog Post

            Coping with death and grief can often times be very difficult. It can cause the strongest of people to break down. People can blame themselves, develop bad habits, convince themselves that their loved ones are in a better place, and etc. In my book, we can see these ways of coping with the death of a loved one. First we have Lizzie's parents who find comfort in thinking that Lizzie's death was a quick and painless one. They don't know this for a fact, but they are really convincing each other and portraying it as a fact. Lucy, who is Lizzie's dog, doesn't realizes that this is just a way of finding comfort for the parents, chooses to deal with the death in her own way. Lucy chooses to act as if Liz has just gone off to college and doesn't want to come back to visit. She knows that this is not the case but it is just another way of coping with the death.

               This picture is showing the five stages of grieving, which was created by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross, a Swiss psychiatrist. These 5 stages are shown as hurdles that we must get over in order to be okay with the death of a loved one. From reading the book, I believe that Lizzie's loved ones are still in the denial stage. They are not thinking clearly and are blocking out the facts. This is true especially with her dog Lucy who knows that she is death but chooses to convince herself that Lizzie is alive.

Third ISU Blog Post

Slam Poetry Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0JAq6VpmgB0

              The video that I have chosen is showing a slam poem written and presented by Michael Lee that is called "Pass On." The poet has great delivery as he manages to show his emotion thoroughly but still keeps himself controlled so that he enunciates effectively. What he is saying is personal but easy to relate and sympathize with. It's powerful and convincing but he is not speaking with facts, he is only speaking using what he believes is true and correct. For example he speaks about a friend of his that was murdered and how he was searching for "him" in someone else for nine years. The person he found was a young male that was playing basketball. As Michael asked him how many years he had been playing basketball for the basketball player responded, "nine years." This is something that does not prove a life after death as it could merely be coincidental. Michael Lee is essentially talking about how the dead live on through random people all over the world, whom haven't even met the deceased. I guess you could say that he is speaking about one possible form of life after death. In the book Elsewhere, which is my ISU book the author writes about another possible form of life after death which consists of you staying yourself but travelling to another world, with other dead people. The video and the book present two different perceptions of the issue that is life after death. This is one of the reasons that I personally don't believe in life after death. It is something that is easy to start believing in to comfort yourself but when you take a step back and look at it you can see the flaws in the idea.

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Retell: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a movie based around the time period of the holocaust. It focuses on a boy named Bruno whose father is promoted in the military to a concentration camp commandment in Berlin, where he does not currently reside. When Bruno and his family move to Berlin things change drastically for them. Bruno no longer has any friends and is constantly bored, as he is living in a very rural area. His boredom causes him to explore and this is when he discovers the concentration camp that lies just past the large forest next to his house. Here he meets another boy named Shmuel who is around the same age as him and as he talks to the boy through the guard fence he realizes the realities of concentration camps. Shmuel tells Bruno that his father is missing and would like to find him. As a result, Bruno takes his place in the camp and unluckily the same day all the Jews are sent to the gas chambers and joining them in their deaths is Bruno.


Reflect: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas is a movie that does a great job at portraying the type of tragedies that occurred during the holocaust. It really has shocking and vivid scenes that make you realize how horrible the holocaust actually was. For example in the ending scene when all the Jews are taken into the gas chamber and killed it feels very real. The movie showed their naked bodies that portrayed there level of malnutrition, it showed how scared and hopeless the Jews felt. It has a way of making you want to put yourself in the Jews shoes and this causes you to think critically. The fact that this movie addresses something real and significant that occurred in our history and has an effective way of doing so, to me makes it an iconic movie that will never get old.


Relate: This movie revolves around the holocaust and the tragedies that took place. Just like the holocaust many other genocides have occurred in history. For example in 1762 thousands of Sikhs and people that helped the Sikh people were slaughtered and captured by afghan forces. While it may not be as large as the Jewish genocide, they contain many similarities. In the movie you can see that the Jews were captured by Nazis and held in concentration camps until they were most likely killed in the gas chambers. The afghan forces captured Sikhs and killed them after gaining any information they needed. Also in the movie you can see that anyone who helped the Jews was look at as a traitor and was also punished. The same thing happened to the Hindus who tried to help the Sikh people.

War Artifact

             I have chosen this picture to be my artifact related to war. It seems to show a young soldier who is lost in his thoughts while sitting on the train in the country he is fighting for. I chose this picture because it really made me think critically about war and brought a lot of questions to my mind, and I really thought it would do the same for everyone else. Is he going to war or has he just come back? Is he thinking about something horrible he has witnessed? What kind of stress is the war putting on him? How is his life different from mine? These are some of the questions that came to my mind and they really help me look deeper into the concept of war. War is sometimes glorified and we don't realize that it is people just like us who are fighting wars. Seeing this young individual really puts war into perspective and makes you question it.

Sniper News Article

The Sacrifices of War
By: Jaskaran Singh
January 20, 2012

             Last night In Dublin two snipers were seen fighting on rooftops across the street from each other, one had been killed.

            

The now barren block where the fighting occurred.

           The fight between Republicans and Free Staters is not showing any signs of slowing down and what happened last night's firefight proves this to be true. The sad part of the firefight is that the two snipers turned out to be brothers, but this was a fact discovered too late.

            

            In the dark of the night they could not tell it, but the two snipers were in fact brothers. If they had known this it is easy to imagine a very different outcome. Instead, the sad truth is that one of the brothers fighting for the Republicans has killed his brother who was fighting for the Free Staters.

            

            One civilian witnessed this fire fight in action from his city home. "The shots kept going and when they finally stopped, I had a feeling that something horribly bad had happened. Although I never thought it was be something this bad."

            

            There are a lot of opinions and point of views on this topic looming around. It is important to discuss things like this so that there is a larger comparison to the whole war. Please mail in your opinions and discuss this issue with us. We would love to hear your opinion!