I finished reading the book All the Light We Cannot See, by Anthony Doerr.
You might respond, "So what?" Well, this book is beautifully written, and has a wonderful message; Not everyone is to be blamed. All the Light We Cannot See takes place during the last few years of World War II. There are two main characters, a blind French girl, Marie- Laure, and a smart German boy, Werner. During the book, Doerr writes about how, for Marie- Laure, she was unable to do things on her own but adapted to the home of her Great Uncle in Saint Malo, and how she learned how to do things on her own when others were scared, running away, captured, and dead. Werner, who is an orphan, rises up in the government, becoming a Nazi soldier, but how he doubts himself due to the people he knew. Werner and Marie- Laure, on the last day of the war, meet each other and help each other escape. Werner is taken to a hospital for former nazi soldiers, and gets more and more sick before committing suicide. Marie-Laure grows up and gets married, and later meets with Werner's younger sister. This story highlights both sides of World War II, and shows that not everyone is bad. Many would say that because Werner was a Nazi soldier, he was a terrible person. But during the book, it shows how Werner really had no choice and was trying hard to get the best future for both himself and his sister. For instance, on page 194, it says, "Six more times he hears Rödel swing and the hose whistle and the strangely dead smack of the rubber striking Frederick's hands, shoulders, and face..... Werner opens his mouth but closes it again; he drowns; he shuts his eyes, his mind." This shows that Werner does have a conscience, but he just is too afraid to speak up. During the story, Marie- Laure's great uncle broadcasts news and information over radio. The Nazi army hates it, and thinks of Marie and her great uncle are scoundrels. However, they feel like they're helping the English or give hope to listeners. On page 332, it says, "He imagines two or three dozen listeners up and down the coast- maybe more tuning in out at sea, captain's sets on free ships hauling tomatoes or refugees or guns- Englishmen who expect the numbers..." There are many different point of views in the book, All the Light We Cannot See, but they all help prove the point that sometimes, not everyone should be blamed. Bibliography: Doerr, Anthony. All the Light We Cannot See. 2014.
0 Comments
The past is often redone throughout time. Mistakes can be made in the past that are just replayed in the future, just in different ways.
In the book I am reading, All the Light We Cannot See, there is a blind girl who lives in Saint-Malo. She wishes to go outside and just to live in peace, but she cannot because the Nazi army has been staying there too. For example, on page 279, it says 'The electric bell rings at Number 4 rue Vauborel. Etienne Le Blanc, Madame Manec, and Marie-Laure stop chewing at the same time, each thinking: They have found me out.' This shows how paranoid people were during this time. On page 233 it says, ' Marie Laure climbs all five flights and raps on the door of Etienne's study and stands before him, we sand stuck all over her face. "You were gone a long time," he murmers. "I worried." ' This shows that when someone leaves for longer amounts of time, people fear for the worst. I actually found a connection in real life about this. After the 2016 U.S. Presidential Election, many Muslim Americans didn't feel safe to leave their house with their hijabs on. '“I’m genuinely scared for my wife, who wears a hijab. I told her don’t go out shopping at night alone. I told my kids as well just be careful,” said Qadhi.' Foreign Policy writes. 'Immigration bans. Police patrols of Muslim neighborhoods. Identity checks. All promises made during the Republican campaign. The specter of internment camps no longer seemed quite so unthinkable.' This compares what is happening now to World War II. Bibliography- Pintak, Lawrence. "For Muslim Americans, Fear and Shock at Trump Presidency." Foreign Policy. November 10th, 2017. May 1st, 2017. http://foreignpolicy.com/2016/11/10/for-muslim-americans-fear-and-shock-at-a-trump-presidency/ Doerr, Anthony. All the Light We Cannot See. 2014. Recently in my LA class we have started to read books about conflicts after the start of World War II and I have chosen the book All the Light We Cannot See, which is roughly about a blind french girl and an orphan boy with a radio who is recruited for a German Nazi army school. Well, on that topic, I found an article from BBC that is similar to one of the characters. The article is called "The teenage radio enthusiasts who helped win World War II." from BBC. It's about a person named Bob King, who starting at the age of 16, started incepting radio messages from the Nazi army. "We knew it was highly important, everything was marked 'top secret,' but only many years later we discovered that it was German secret service we were listening to," Bob says to BBC. And as well as many other departments in the war, Bob King was told to stay quiet about what he did many decades after the war. "Mr King says that they were not even allowed to mention anything to their families. His wife only found out about her husband's secret past in 1980 - more than three decades after he had stopped his interception activities." In my book, Werner was recruited at a young age to go to a Nazi Training school. There, he used his brains and his talents in math to help Germany with their radios, as well as other electrical devices. On page 82 for instance, Werner fixes a radio for a local officer. It says; "He tries to envision the bouncing pathways of electrons, the signal chain like a path through a crowded city, RF signal coming in here, passing through a grid of amplifiers, then to variable condensers, then to transformer coils.... He sees it. There are two breaks in one of the resistance wires.... Could two men have missed something so simple?" That was when he fixes a radio and first gets noticed by the officer. Then, later, in the war, Werner tries to fix the radio on page 204. "The power cable has been severed and the lead to the aboveground antenna is lost and Werner would not be surprised if the selector panel is broken. in the weakening amber of the field light, he stares at one crushed plug after another." Bibliography- Moskvitch, Katia. "The teenage radio enthusiasts who helped win World War II." BBC. July 5th, 2013. April 23rd, 2017. http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-23162846 Doerr, Anthony. All the Light We Cannot See. 2014. IntroductionA clean environment is good for more than just looking pretty. As the North Carolina Public Safety website explains, “Everyone knows that litter creates an eyesore and an image problem. But littering is not only ugly, it can be dangerous.” Not only that, “Exposure to nature not only makes you feel better emotionally, but it contributes to your physical well being, reducing blood pressure, heart rate, muscle tension, and the production of stress hormones. (University of Minnesota).” Even Scientific American describes how studies have shown the positive impacts a clean environment has on health (2012). So, shouldn’t we strive for the cleanliness of our environment? As children, many people visit parks, go to pools, and walk on green ways to enjoy the environment. These public areas of our state are part of our childhoods, and they will be a part of the future too. Future children and animals will visit same parks, breath the same air, and drink the same water we are using today. That’s why everyone should work to protect these important facilities. According to the NC Department of Public Safety, “In 2015, the North Carolina Department of Transportation spent more than $15 million to remove approximately 7.5 million pounds of roadside litter.” The government has done a lot to help, but there are still things we can do, but what exactly are we up against? the issueThe excessive pollution is due to major issues in air quality, water quality, and roadside litter. This could lead to an unhealthy community. Since the parks are as dirty as they are, no one will want to go to them, and the companies who run the parks will lose money. Then, they will be unable to provide us with more parks and greenways to supply our recreational needs. If you think about it, water has to come from somewhere. If one water source is infected, it could spread to the whole watershed. However, trash here and there doesn’t cause all pollution. There is also ozone and diesel pollution. Clean Air Carolina explains to us that ozone pollution happens when car exhaust reacts with sunlight, causing nitrogen oxides to form. Diesel pollution comes from trucks, buses, trains, and construction equipment. Throwing out trash or other harmful things into our environment has been a problem for almost as long as humans have been around. Throughout the previous centuries, humans he have had poor sanitary conditions, which Mother Nature mostly took care of herself. Unfortunately, as time went on, throughout Industrialization in America and all the other countries, this little bit of trash here and there, and all the energy sources that were used resulted in severe air quality issues all over the world. The amount of trash that the average North Carolinian generates each year, is equivalent to the weight of 7,866,666 cars. Today, places with high industrialization have incredibly high Particulate Matter Concentration(PM). India, has a PM of a massive 75. Egypt, has a PM is 73. Turkey, is also 73. And in China the PM is 71. In America, the Average PM is 10. Current SolutionsPeople are doing what they can to protect our environment from pollution. Pollution is a serious matter in today’s society. The greenhouse gases that we emit from various sources, such as cars and burning other fossil fuels, badly damages the environment, by releasing greenhouse gasses. Many organizations are trying to minimize the amount of greenhouse gas in our atmosphere, like the Clean Air Carolina organization mentioned above. Their goal is to inform citizen the types and dangers of air pollution. You can find their website in the sources listed below. Air pollution is not the only way we’re hurting our environment. We are also tossing chemicals and waste into our water under the impression that it will be cleaned out at a plant. Instead, the waste is going to the nearest stream or pond. This water is contaminated with fertilizers, paint, oil, and other devastating chemicals we overlook. This can heavily affect the wildlife in the area that gets its drinking water from the water source. The City of Raleigh is a government body that handles some of the everyday things that happens in Raleigh. They have decided that the runoff pollution we cause has gone on long enough. They are asking that you report anyone you see that is disposing anything other than storm water into a storm drain. They plan to clean up the water we have so long polluted. You can find a link to their website in the sources. Aside from air and water pollution, there is also littering itself. We see people doing it on a regular basis, despite the fine for it. Littering is not only an environmentally menace, but a safety hazard as well. For example, on June 9th, a sofa fell out of the back of a pickup truck onto I-40 and caused a crash that destroyed $20 million dollars worth of insulin. This is a larger scale of littering, but it conveys the point. NC Public Safety is another government body that encourages people to make a “ Litter Free NC”. They inform people of the hazards of littering and what it could do to you. Littering is a problem we can end today! See the NC Public Safety link below. Our Service ProjectPollution is a big problem, and the solution requires everyone's participation. Air pollution and water pollution might be difficult to deal with, but litter is a direct result of us. So it’s our job to fix it. We have to pick up after ourselves, or other people, to ensure that our community stays a healthy, safe place to live. We will organize a litter clean-up and walk to House Creek trail, split up into small groups, and pick up trash for two hours. Some things we would need to do before the clean up are:
Although pollution is such a big issue, if we all work together we can make a difference. Achieving our goal will make our neighborhood will be a little bit cleaner. BibliographySources for Intro:
Franklin, Deborah. "How Hospital Gardens Help Patients Heal." Scientific American. March 1, 2012. March 20, 2017. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/nature-that-nurtures/ Larson, Jean. "How Does Nature Affect Our Wellbeing?" University of Michigan. 2016. March 20, 2017. https://www.takingcharge.csh.umn.edu/enhance-your-wellbeing/environment/nature-and-us/how-does-nature-impact-our-wellbeing Sources for Intro: "Issues." Clean Air Carolina. 2017. March 20, 2017. https://cleanaircarolina.org What Others Are Doing: "Protecting Streams from Water Pollution." City of Raleigh. August 22, 2016. March 20, 2017. https://www.raleighnc.gov/environment/content/PWksStormwater/Articles/WaterPollution.html "Litter-Free NC." North Carolina Public Safety. March 20, 2017. https://www.ncdps.gov/DPS-Services/Crime-Prevention/Litter-Free-NC "Issues." Clean Air Carolina. 2017. March 20, 2017. https://cleanaircarolina.org HERE’S THE SITE FOR OUR ACTION PLAN: https://docs.google.com/document/d/17VsxdL2Qa9WIkFQOkxEWbcQ7Rc0IAdjNCfTZ7o-Tgvo/edit Defining one's personality is something many people try to do. In the great wild world of the internet there are personality tests and personality 'types', dividing people into 'sections.'
Personality, to me, is how someone is with other people and alone. It's how they express themselves and what they enjoy to do. I'm the type of person who thinks creatively and prides myself in being unique. North Carolina has no laws surrounding euthanization, the process that kills stray animals. Records show that nearly one thousand two hundred animals are killed at shelters each year. This means a lot to me because After my dog died in third grade, my family wasn't able to adopt another one, despite how much we pleaded. It saddens me greatly to find out that many die because many don't adopt animals when they can. I was looking at other websites and realized that the adoption of animals depends on how behaved they are and how healthy they are. These two things can be helped to save the lives of animals. If people volunteer at shelters and help train and clean the animals, as well as donating to shelters to help them pay for medications for sick animals and to expand them. If we all chip in, we can help stop this problem. Sourceshttp://www.wral.com/nc-shelter-kills-99-percent-of-animals-records-show/11778189/ http://dogtime.com/dog-health/general/231-choosing-a-shelter-dog Animal sheltershttp://www.careforanimals-nc.org/animals/browse?Page=1&Courtesy=No&Status=Available,Sponsorship
http://www.wakegov.com/pets/adoptions/Pages/default.aspx https://www.secondchancenc.org/ HB2, a law restricting those that are transgender to go to the bathroom corresponding to the gender that they were born with. Ever since it was enacted, North Carolina has been an issue both economically and socially. Concerts and travelling celebrities have cancelled coming to the state, as well as companies that were planning on expanding. In fact, North Carolina lost around $400 million because of this law. Since the law, the LGBTQA+ community has been protesting and there have been all sorts of protests and support around the state. The idea of someone being transgender has become a controversial topic. As a person of a newer generation of people and as a LGBTQA+ supporter, I think that this topic should not be controversial at all. I know people affected by this law and I think that in a growing world people should be more accepting of things that aren't as traditional as other things. These people are my friends and their lives are much harder because their parents or friends leave them or go into denial because of their sexual orientation. I think the main way anybody can help is to help spread the knowledge and properly educating about the LGBTQA+ community because most accusations and assumptions made are mainly currently due to ignorance. Spreading facts is a simple and easy way to help this complex problem. We live in a newer world and one way to help this world is to stop stereotyping groups that people have little or no knowledge about. transgender informationhttp://www.glaad.org/transgender/transfaq Sourcehttp://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/12/21/nc-legislators-consider-bathroom-bill-repeal/95693468/
Way back in the Industrial Revolution in the USA, jobs were plentiful. During this time period, machines were being built and helped manufacture many of the goods shipped around the world. Goods were now being built by the dozen instead of one by one. Jobs were booming due to the amount of goods being sold. The US was doing quite well. Because there were many many jobs to be found in the US, there were also many many people immigrating into the country. And because of that, there were many hardships that the immigrants faced. Just for starters, did I mention that there were loads of people entering the US? Immigrants coming into the US had to pass a series of tests just to become citizens. People left their own countries to go to the US for jobs. Which meant that there were many migrating in who did not speak English. They probably had no plan until they got into the country either. People needed jobs and they needed to be paid. They also needed supplies to live off of. Finding jobs that paid well was hard. Children had to work hard and long hours to get a measly three cents at some jobs, instead of going to school.
|
AuthorSydney Porter. ArchivesCategories |