Choose a short passage from your novel that made an impact on you as you read it, that made you stop and think maybe even say "Oh wow" to yourself. It may have made you stop and think because you made a personal connection. It may have made you wonder and ask a question. It may have made you react in some emotional way to the words on the paper. In your response, quote the passage and list the page number that it can be found on. Explain, in detail, why you chose this passage, what reason did you have that made you stop and think or had you reacting in some way. Include your feelings and emotions as well as state any connections you made (text to self, text to text, text to world). An example from another novel of how to start is this:
"Big signs were posted at the pool saying"No Jews or Dogs Allowed". pg 14
As I read this passage I couldn't believe that this could happen. How could the Jewish even be compared to dogs?"
As I read this passage I couldn't believe that this could happen. How could the Jewish even be compared to dogs?"
"Brown wooden buildings, brown sandy streets, as if it were a faded photograph. Yet it was real".pg 61
ReplyDeleteThis really made me stop and think for a moment, because the fact that Hannah is admitting to the dream being real (regardless of whether it actually is) really shocked me. Earlier on in the book, we found evidence of Hannah struggling to stay herself and to deny the fact that in this 'dream' she was Chaya. I feel like this was an important part in the book, because it shows that Hannah is losing who she really is in the madness of this dream. Imagine if you all of a sudden got transported back in time and people started calling you by a name that you had almost never been called. Eventually you would have give in and just accept the fact that you may never get back. This is what I think Hannah means when she says without a second thought that the village was real. I think that as we get further into the book, Hannah's struggle with staying true to herself will get a lot harder. :)
Your perspective in this part of the book really made me think. I had not thought of that before and I'm glad you said it, because it's almost like the book has two ways of viewing it, you could see it as if Hannah was truly Chaya, and it was as if Hannah didn't exist, or you could see it as if Hannah was just having a lucid dream in someone else's eyes.
DeleteAnother thing that I was wondering is, if it all is a big dream, who's eyes is she seeing through? Earlier in the book, it states that Chaya was Hannah's Jewish name. Chaya was also given to her to honour her aunts dead friend. I wonder if Hannah is reliving the life of her aunt's dead friend?
Deletepg. 113 "J because I am - like you - a Jew. The 1 is for me because I am alone. The 8 is for my family because there were eight of us when we left our village. And the 2 because that is all that are left now, me and Wolfe, who believes himself to be a 0. And when we are free and this is over, we will be 2 again. God will allow it."
ReplyDeleteThis is a very long and meaningful quote. Rivka, who is saying this, shows that they can always find meaning in life, even in a concentration camp. Jewish people, at the time, put their heart and soul into God, and, like I said, even in a concentration camp, pray and believe that god will make this better.
This is sort of a religious book, since they pray a lot and always believe that god is helping them, but most of the people in the concentration camps have given in. It is interesting to see that even if there is a chance that they'll die just for believing in something that Hitler believes is wrong. It doesn't matter to them because if they believe in something they deserve to believe. Do you think that there was any chance that any of the people in the concentration camps converted to a different religion in hopes that they'll survive or get out of the camp early?
DeleteThis shows how strong some people are. They can be treated like animals. Be called by numbers instead of names. Some people will break down. The ones who don't, the survivors, the ones who won't forget there real names. They change there numbers and change them to be about them. The ones who keep the will to live inside them. They are the survivors.
DeleteTacos, I couldn't agree with you more. The people who broke-down, or the rebels, were usually the ones who got chosen, and the people who stayed strong, and followed the rules were the ones who stayed alive!
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Delete"That was when they discovered that three old women had died and a fourth was near death and could not climb out of the car. All four of the bodies were slung out by the soldiers onto a siding. The dead baby was torn from its mothers arms and cast behind a horse's watering trough." As I read this passage, I could only think of one thing "How cruel!". The Nazis believed that Jews were of a lesser value to the human race that if a Jewish baby died, they'd throw behind them and move on with their lives, as if it never happened. The older women was still alive, but she was thrown out to die and be with the three other older women and baby. Nazis act like they have no sympathy for any of them, under the influence of Adolf Hitler. Some say that they had no choice, since Hitler was the president of Germany, and whatever he wants to do must be down. Others say that they did have a choice because they chose to be a soldier, they chose to vote for Hitler, this was as much of their fault as Hitlers. Most of the blame would go to Hitler, I don't disagree with that, but doesn't he realize that he killing innocent people? Grown up, teenagers, Children and babies! 6 million dead because of what they believed in. Some would say that they wish there wasn't a World War, but if we didn't have one then, there's a chance we might have had one now.
ReplyDeleteI absolutely agree with you, Teddy Sprinkles. There have been several wars caused by religion in the past, but this is by far the most cruel. First of all, the fact that the soldiers even put them in the cattle cars was horrible! It was probably even worse for Fayge and Scmull because it was their wedding! Imagine if it was you in Hannah's place, and you knew everyone around you, your new friends, new family, everyone was going to die but no one believed it. The biggest question is, what would you do?
DeleteI don't think it was all hitlers fault. One man with a very crazy plan, is not fully responsible for six million deaths. Im not saying what he was doing wasn't wrong, which it was, but the soldiers could have refused or rebelled.
DeleteI admit it. I would have voted for Hitler at the time. His original plan was to build an army, not kill 6 million Jews in concentration camps! When he made an army, he needed people to make weapons and get paid for that. Then, the people who were building guns could buy food, but they needed people to grow those crops. I could go on and on. But, you see, Hitler had some emotional issues or a personality disorder or something like that. I understand why people wanted Hitler to be president. They thought it would build their economy back up, but in the end, it brought it more down then the people could imagine.
DeleteI think that most of the soldiers were forced to become soldiers, not because they chose to. (I'm sure some of them did choose). I also don't think that it was their fault. Of course, they were the ones putting them into camps, and burning them alive, but they were under orders. And if they don't follow those orders, they don't get paid.
DeleteOn the other hand, the ones who willfully chose to do these cruel things, and laugh at the Jews while doing so, deserve to be blamed.
@Julia Child I agree with you but did he actually plan on killing the Jews before and didn't share his plan? Hitler was a very persuasive person, he became president but did the people realize what he was doing is wrong? If he told the people his plans on killing the Jews then it wasn't exactly Hitlers fault because the people voted on him. Give me your thoughts, do you get what I'm saying?
Delete@Ya Turkey I totally agree with you, I remember Mrs.M talking about Hitler, when he got elected as president he made everything into a dictatorship. It wasn't the soldiers fault that they got chosen or that they were forced to kill but were they actually getting paid? I don't think they were... I also think that it shouldn't be the innocent soldiers that should be blamed but the ones who had a problem with the Jews and mean't to kill them.
Delete@tina karami, I would think that they were getting paid, because it IS a job. Germany was not doing very well back then, so one thing Hitler did when he was elected was provide jobs. I'm guessing that being a soldier was also one of those jobs. (Sorry if this doesn't make any sense at all, I wasn't sure how I could say this).
Delete@tina karami, I think that Hitler made people believe that what he was doing was the right thing. He told people that the Jews were the reason for the (I don't know what to call it, lets just say Great Depression) Great Depression. I'm sure that SOME people obviously didn't agree with what he was saying, including the Jews, but lots of them also didn't have the power to do something about it. What do you think?
Delete@tina karami, I think that Hitler made people believe that what he was doing was the right thing. He told people that the Jews were the reason for the (I don't know what to call it, lets just say Great Depression) Great Depression. I'm sure that SOME people obviously didn't agree with what he was saying, including the Jews, but lots of them also didn't have the power to do something about it. What do you think?
DeletePg. 64: Don't ask me how I know, I just do. We have to turn the wagons around. We have to run.
ReplyDeleteHannah was very brave when she didn't run. She new where there were taking them. She new all about the six million Jews that died. But she still went with them to stay with a family she had known for 2 days. This is very brave knowing that most people would break down before they even thought about running away. Hannah didn't do either, she stayed.
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ReplyDelete"These were not camps, even though they were called so. These were FACTORIES designed for the effective murder of human beings.
ReplyDeleteThere is no way that fiction can come close to touching how truly inhuman, alien, even satanic, was the efficient machinery of death at at the camps. Nor how heroism had to be counted: not in resistence, which was worse than useless because it meant involving the deaths of even more innocents. 'Not to act, not to lift a hand against the Germans had become the quiet passive heroism of the common Jew.'
That heroism-to resist being dehumanized, to simply outlive one's tormentors, to practice the quiet, everyday caring for one's equally tormented neighbours. To witness. To remember. These were the only victories of the camps."
Although this is technically not a part of the book, it was a part of the epilogue, it's still really meaningful. It talks about how helpless the people and Jews actually were.
Pg. 71 "Sir, give me a piece of bread, Look at me,so pale and dead."
ReplyDeleteI really got hit at this, are they being taken to the camps? Was Hannah right? Why didn't anyone listen to her? I can connect to this because when I read books like "The Devil"s Arithmetic" I have to be there, I want it to happen. This is so disrespectful and mean and it rips my heart out and crushes it when I read about the Jews being treated this way...! I love that Hannah can finally realize what was happening and she can feel the fear her ancestors had felt. This is a clue that the author is going to teach Hannah a lesson, is she going to learn how important it is to be a Jew or learn why the family gathering are important to her and her family? I can't wait to find out. Will there be a hero in this story? Is the hero Hannah? She has already shown a lot of bravery by staying and not running when she knew it was the Nazis who had come to take them into the camps.
"Hannah moved close to them. "Now-six million Jews will die in camps like this. Die! There. I've said the word. Does it make it more real? Or less? And how do I know six million people will die? I'm not sure how, but I do." This part really made me stop and re-read. It would be incredibly terrifying knowing that you could easily be one of those six million. Why did their need to be six million Jews killed. That is six million to many, and why did people have to feel that terror. What was wrong with Hitler.
ReplyDelete"And across the field, stepping in the furrows, marched a shadowy figure. He had a shapeless cap on his head, a hoe over his shoulder, and he was singing: Who asked you to be buried alive? You know that no one forced you. You took this madness on yourself." -pg. 20-21
ReplyDeleteI found this passage meaningful to the book because I think that it has a lot of deeper meaning. Could you imagine celebrating a holiday ad when you get to do the special tradition you oddly get transported back in time. To top it all off, you don’t know you have been transported back in time, no one tells you straight up that you are in the 1940’s. You have to put together the pieces. One minute you are with your family and the next minute you are not. The deeper meaning that I think is in the passage is when Hannah hears the man singing in the field. It is not everyday that you hear a man singing these words “Who asked you to be buried alive? You know that no one forced you. You took this madness on yourself.” This brought many of questions upon me. Is Hannah hallucinating? Dreaming? In a coma, dead or dying? Or is this all a sort of joke? Only to find out later that she had been transported back in time. How? I think that it has something to do with the fact that Hannah doesn’t like remembering the history of her religion. If I were Jewish I would definitely not like remembering World War II, so I don’t blame her. It says in the book that when you open the door Elijah is supposed to come in for safety and comfort and I am guessing that he is the God of her religion. I don’t have much background knowledge of the Jewish religion so I am not sure. What I was able to put together is, if hannah doesn’t like remembering special things about her religion is Elijah trying to teach her a lesson by making her go back in time? If you were Jewish would you like remembering World War II and the horrific things that happened to other Jews and/or your ancestors?
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