In this few pages that I read I reminded myself of many things but there was very big one. There was one word that came to my mind the whole time that I was reading and that was slavery. In the book the people are forced to do whatever they tell them to or else there would be big consequences. Ivan is a guard, which is sort of considered the "nice one"because he did not throw people in the prison. Of course, the book is kind of based in slavery because the people are forced to wake up very early, and if they don't do the things that they are forced to they can have really bad consequences. In the book when Shukhov did no wake up he was forced to clean the floor. That reminded me of something that I once heard that if the kids did not kill their parents they would kill him and their parents. Also what I was reminded was what was happening in Africa that a person was getting little kids and forcing them to do really horrible things.
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http://www.instablogs.com/child-slavery-and-prostitution-not-enough-being-done-to-stop-it.html
Secondly what it reminded me was when they said the weather was really cold. In São Paulo right now the weather is extremely cold and I could not imagine staying outside without proper clothes. So when Shukhov said that it reminded me of my past few days. I felt bad because you never know if the person feels a lot of coldness or not. I have a friend who is never cold and we are always asking her "how are you not cold?" so if Shukhov was a person who felt cold easily I felt really bad for him because I know how that feels. What that part also reminded me of was that there are many homeless people that don't have proper clothes to wear when it is cold, and whenever I pass through them I feel very bad.
http://tameeksb.blogspot.com.br/2013/01/priorities-whats-more-important.html
Helena,
ReplyDeleteYou post is very informative. I will agree with you because the word slavery caught my attention almost all the time. It really stood out to me, just like it did to you. Your connection with the kids in Africa was good, but very broad. Maybe next time you could dig in and find something more narrow and deliberate.
Your second connection was great. You used a friend (me), like a person that helped you make you connection better.
Overall, I think that you did a good job on your connections!
Helena,
ReplyDeleteGreat post! I really liked how you included specific details about what the reading reminded you of.
I agree with you in the aspects that you included, as the read also reminded me of some of those similar topics. However, one of the things that most stood out for me when I was reading this book was how similar a gulag could be to a Nazi concentration camp. This made me think this way because the prisoners are tortured and treated like animals in the gulags. A gulag, in Soviet Russia was a camp where "traitors" of the nation -- those who didn't agree with Stalin's communist philosophy -- were sent to. The people sent there could be soldiers, politicians, and civilians. Inside the camp, people were killed constantly because they didn't agree with the governmental regime. Similar to a Nazi concentration camp, the gulags were also secret from the public, as the government didn't want the people to realize what was happening in secret. Last but not least, both camps were held in (mostly) the same period in time, or, World War II. Overall, I have seen plenty of similarity between both types of concentration camps when I read this section of the book.
Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me!
Thiago Rossi
ReplyDeleteHelena, I also think you did a great job not only for your overall post but also connecting his situation with your daily life basis. Though, when you say that Ivan was a slave in the book I think that he wasn’t he was just a war prisoner that is treated like a slave which basically brings us back to slavery so I agree with you. I also really like the way that you talk about your personal experiences with the cold. The only advice that I would give you to do next time for you other connecter’s post you could do some research on what you remember for example when you said that you remembered that you once heard a story about kids that had to kill their parents and if they didn’t they would kill them. So, you should do some research on that like saying were you heard it from and who said that kids had to kill their parent or else he would kill them and their parents. Which I agree with you that you once heard it and I think it was what Hitler did so you could put some background information on that.
Helena,
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, you had connections that are happening right now, and connections that already passed. Good work.
On your first connection, you said that the word and even the meaning of "slavery" in the book reminded you of people getting slaved in Africa, and even children getting threatened to get their parents killed. In my opinion, I can see why you made this connection. In both cases (book and real life), we can see that the person enslaving has power. I can see that because in the story, Ivan was forced to do his job by cleaning the floor, since he was commanded to do so. In your real life example, the children were forced to kill their parents. As you can see, both of the happenings contain a ruler that maintains all power.
Something that I wondered in your post was, how do you think the person (in real life) was able to get power to force children to do something for him?
Going to the second connection, you wondered how Ivan would feel in the cold weather, and connected it to São Paulo. I agree with your connections because of the details in the book, and because of real life events. In São Paulo right now, the weather sometimes (not always) gets to freezing temperatures. This is because it is winter, and winter obviously means that the weather will get colder than usual. Comparing it to the book, the book describes how the place looks like. It says the place they are in has a frozen window, and that Ivan was feeling cold, even in his bed sheets. This shows the place is cold because windows normally freeze at winter, and because Ivan felt cold even in his bed sheets.
Overall your post made me think about the aspects of the book, and the world.
Daniel