1. It was difficult to find out who was the narrator of In The Time Of The Butterflies was, seeing as how the book kept switching from the viewpoints of each of the Mirabal sisters. Although the Mirabal sisters spoke firsthand of what happened, it seemed as if we were being told how they felt, but not from the directly from the sister. Finally, I thought back to the very beginning of the story and realized that the narrator of the book was the reporter who went to Dede's house, which happens annually on November 25th. Through Dede, the reporter was an outsider who could tell the readers what happened, the sister's feelings and thoughts, and still talk about the story without speaking in the first person. When Dede invited the reporter in her house, the reporter walked the hallways of the house and observed the portraits on the walls. This was from an outsiders point of view, Dede wouldn't have noted certain characteristics of her own house. I believe the reporter is the narrator of In The…
For several years, World War II had been raging in Europe. In 1945, German soldiers surrounded Russia and tried to choke off the train of supplies entering the country. Leningrad, Russia remained under constant bombing by German aircraft. Leningrad was a key location for Russia’s war efforts due to its manufacturing facilities and needed to stay functional. Lev Beniov was on the roof of his apartment building watching the anti-aircraft balloons above the city. It was on this night that a dead German paratrooper landed in front of Lev’s building. As the news reached all the boys and girls on the roof, they rushed down to examine and loot the dead soldier. Within minutes, Russian soldiers appeared. Lev’s friends deserted him and he was arrested and thrown into the Crosses. After spending the night, Colonel Grechko gave Lev a chance to redeem himself for his wrongs and save his life. Through…
One man in particular name Alexander Kimel. Alexander said “Despite all the killings we believed that the Germans are going to lose the war and we will survive. My guess is that a young healthy person cannot imagine his death. The sun will stop shining, the birds will be silent, darkness will prevail. Death is hard to imagine. It is hard to imagine that with all the tragedies, pain and hunger, there was only one case of suicide in the ghetto. The more life is unattainable, the more it is desirable and the will to live is getting stronger and stronger.” Even at the worlds darkest hour the people still had hope. Alexander mentions in his memoir that even with each day being a struggle to survive people would still live. He recalled how people would fall in love, start families, and even get into petty arguments with their neighbors. Born in Galizia, 1939, Alexander grew up as a regular boy, going to school, enjoying the company of friends, and family, with his only worries being school exams. But after his town was “nationalized” by the red army, they moved, fearing that they would be sent to Siberia, into the ghetto of another small town named Rohatyn. They lived there between 1941 and 1943, watching the Germans kill almost all of the Jews in that area. Out of 10,000 people living there only 100 survived, luckily Alexander was never sent to a concentration camp. But on March 21, 1942, their ghetto was…
The Germans shipped the Jews by trains and buses to Auschwitz, also other concentration camps. Within a week the number of Jews held in the Vel’ d’Hiv had reached more than 13,000. (Gilbert,2011) Among those detained were Jews Germany, Austria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Russia. Cecile Winderman Kaufer was one of the innocent people to have lived through and survived to have her story told.…
In 1933 events took place that would change the lives of millions of people living in Europe forever. Hitler started his reign as Chancellor of Germany, and with that came the start of what is known as the Holocaust. Around 11,000,000 people were killed in a time period of only 12 years, victims of Hitler’s concentration and death camps. Chaim and Selma Engel are two people that managed to survive one of the worst death camps and made it through the war. Through the evil they witnessed and the struggles they endured, their love was what kept them going. Their love for each other gave them hope, even when all hope seemed lost.…
The Mirabal sisters undergo tremendous transformations throughout their lives. When Trujillo’s dictatorship begins affecting their families, they become upstanding women. As a result of their outspokenness, the sisters earn the nickname Mariposas, meaning “Butterflies”. Butterflies do not begin their lives as the colorful and graceful creatures many people initially think of. They begin as caterpillars. At a specific time in their lives, caterpillars undergo a change known as metamorphosis and become butterflies. The Mirabal sisters undergo a significant change, or metamorphosis, when they decide to speak out against Trujillo. As a result of the oppression the Mirabal sisters experience, they transform from passive young girls to upstanding…
The main characters are parallels to each other. For example, when Melinda and Cady start out in in highschool, they enter having no ideas what to expect. “My first class is biology. I can’t find it and I get my first demerit.” (Anderson 6). In the Mean Girls movie, Cady asked where her health class was and her friends made her miss her entire class. Another example is how they favourite one class and excel in it. For Cady shes so good at math that in Junior year, she takes senior AP trig. Melinda also favours art “Art follows lunch like a dream follows a nightmare.” (9). One final similarity is that they enter high school with no friends. On the first day of school, Cady gets denied seats in her first class because people didn’t want her to sit near them. When Melinda goes to school on the first day of school she has a hard time finding a seat on the bleachers because all of her friends abandoned her “I am an outcast. There is no point looking for my ex-friends.” (4).…
The Warsaw Ghetto was the largest ghetto in Germany. This resistance inspired other ghettos to fight back the Nazis. 300,000 Jews were deported to the Treblinka extermination camp leaving 70,000 jews in the Ghetto. Most of the jews were slowly dying from illnesses or starvation. Around 1000 men formed the Jewish Fighting Organization. Their main slogan was “Brothers, don’t die in silence. Let’s fight!” On January 1943 the organization fought back the Nazis. The Nazis lost 20 soldiers and 50 were injured. The Nazis soldiers retreated and left the ghetto alone. The Jews knew that the German soldiers were going to come back. On April 19, 1943, at 2 AM the SS soldiers return to liquidated…
Throughout the 20th century, individuals attempted to address problems within American society. Their efforts have had a significant impact on American life. Two individuals that attempted to address problems within American society were Upton Sinclair and Jacob Riis. These two muckrakers revealed the horrible working and living conditions of the lower class.…
-In those years, millions of Jews died in the Nazi HYPERLINK "http://www.deathcamps.info/" \n _blankdeath camps like Auschwitz, but HYPERLINK "http://www.oskar-schindler.varianfry.dk/index.htm" \n _blankSchindler's Jews miraculously survived. -To more than 1200 Jews Oscar Schindler was all that stood…
As the Soviet forces approach the main Gross Rosen camp the subcamps when on death marches. Men and women had to walk on foot under brutal conditions for hours or even days until they became weak to continue. If they became weak SS guards killed them and left them. All of these people many whom were Jews were not given food or water so many starved to death. About an estimated of 40,000 people did not survive the death marches.…
First, “The Literature of Americans,” Kimberly Koza writes: “By discovering the Literature of our neighbors, we may also learn about ourself.” The story I chose was The Day of the Butterfly by Alice Munro. The theme of The Day of the Butterfly varies resulting in a theme from the story; include the realization that the theme relates to our common desire and struggle to belong—to have a friend—and the cruel consequences for those who become outsiders. Additionally, the story Day of the Butterfly is about a sixth-grade girls Myra Sayla who is an immigrant, and responsible for her little brother, Helen a friend of Myra gives her a tin butterfly from a Cracker Jack box. Daring to reach out to Myra makes Helen feel both self-congratulatory and…
The stories told by the survivors are courageous, brave, and heartbreaking. They were forced to take huge risks and leave loved ones, so that they would not be caught. The risk involved should they be caught, they knew all too well, was death; but if they stayed in the camp, most believed they would only die anyway. Many spent countless days and nights planning their escape and relying on the honesty, integrity, and bravery of others to assist and cover for them.…
My life is a dreadful piece of work, at first living with my grandparents since I was six, now I got the “whole world on my shoulders”, begging me to make a choice, but now I’m by myself stuck in a whole. I guess I have to toss and turn with the devil to make my choice and if I don’t make a choice soon I’ll make myself go insane. To keep myself sane I learned a new saying and it is said “to pimp a butterfly” this saying makes me feel good about myself because when I say it in my head I feel I can make all of my problems go away cause the butterfly is going to float the problems all away.…
In several instances, as Vladek recounts, the Nazis would leave notes or make announcements about certain groups of people that would soon be transported to another area, or that needed to be “registered.” These notes given to the Jewish families made the area a specific group would “relocate to” seem magnificent--an obvious lie for readers--but these so-called relocations all led to the same place: Auschwitz. For example, when the Spiegelman’s receive a notice from the Germans, they believe that those over seventy-years-old will be relocated into a nice home, “‘All Jews over 70 years old will be transferred to Theresienstadt in Czechoslovakia on May 10, 1942…” “It doesn’t look too bad!” “Like a convalescent home”’ (86). After sending Vladek’s wife’s grandparents away, the Spiegelman’s heard that “they went right away to Auschwitz, to the gas” (87). This approach of suppressing the Jewish populations demonstrates a type of divide and conquer. The Nazis were able to take certain Jews and supervise them, before being taken to their deaths. Ultimately, this division of families caused great agony and anguish among each family member. Anja, Vladek's wife, bespeaks this suffering and distress upon understanding that her nephew will be transported to Auschwitz next as she cries, “‘My whole family is gone! Grandma and Grandpa! Poppa! Momma! Tosha! Bibi! My Richiev!!…