One of the sentences is says; "The men of the 82nd, who'd been digging those holes half a day without a chance of getting warm, ... " While reading the book, the first thought that came to my head was another book called " Holes. " These two books are very alike and in my opinion they are also at that camp for something they didn't do. They are both in camps that they get a lack of supplies in. Although, the camp that Ivan is in, is much more serious and painful than the other camp. In the quote, it states that they were digging holes half the day. In the other camp, the more childish one because the book " Holes " is about a little boy. In his camp, he digs holes the whole day, everyday.
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My second connection, is when they are handing out food. While reading these pages, I thought about how in Africa, I saw many volunteer houses that would serve food. They would bring one section at a time and they would feed from different ages. Normally, one person would get a sufficient amount of food he or she needs. It was mainly for people that could not provide enough food for themselves, and other people help them. In the book, it is one section going one by one to get food, some of the got 2 dishes and others didn't.
Bethany,
ReplyDeletewhat a brilliant post! I really liked your connections and how you made a connection of the book with your real life experiences.
To begin with, I would like to share my own connections as I read this section of the book. During this rotation, I was a connection captain as well. Nevertheless, in 2012, I went on a trip to Germany for a couple weeks. When I was there, one thing I requested my family to take me to was an ex-nazi concentration camp, called Sachsenhausen, close to Berlin. In the end, I ended up visiting this museum. The actual camp was enormous, truly endless and it contained, several small buildings, a seawall firing place, and ovens. It was very disturbing to see the actual things that happened inside there in the past, absolutely shocking. Inside these small buildings, there were many gas cameras that were used to poison the prisoners and kill them. Near this place, the crematory ovens were located, which were used to burn the corpses. Even though it was very interesting to learn about this, it truly made me very impressed about it, and it was a very marking experience for me to see these things up close. Apart from all this, there was also the dormitories of the prisoners and their bathrooms that still remain in a good state. All of this also reminded me of two movies I have watched recently: "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas" and "The Pianist" *. If you haven't checked my own images of this concentration camp, please do and share your thoughts with me.
Moreover, these gulags also remind me of the Japanese concentration camps. They were locate in the middle of the jungle in these other countries Japan had conquered at the time. Still, no good basic sanitation or food were available to the prisoners, similar to a gulag. However, "traitor" civilians were not sent there, only soldiers that disrespected the nation. In addition, ancient Japanese tradition, that was still alive at the time, says that if a Japanese person loses their honor, being it by being defeated or by treason, they would need to kill themselves. This custom comes from the times before the "occidentalization" of Japan, the time of the samurai where if a warrior lost a battle, they would need to perform a primitive, suicidal ritual called "Arakiri", which involved sticking a sword inside their abdomen. Therefore, the prisoners of the Allied Nations during World War II used to call these Japanese prisoners "living dead" or "zombies" because if they were soldiers, they would have to kill themselves in order to regain their honor. If you have watched "The Last Samurai" or "The Bridge of the River Kway" *, then you must be familiar to these subjects I just mentioned. Please, if you have any doubts, read my post of the connection captain for a slightly more detailed text.
Bethany, your connections are absolutely great! Thank you for sharing your thoughts with me!
*Cannot use underline