Importance of telling History

Chelmno, Treblinka, Sobibor, Maidanek, Belzec, and Auschwitz/ Birkenau are just a few of the Nazi extermination camps that were in Poland during World War II. Looking at the front cover of Spiegelman’s Maus, it told me that the book was going to be a survivor’s tale. It was the back cover of the book that got me really interested in reading it. Being 100 percent Polish and a first generation American I could easily relate to the book. Although my family were not mice, we would have been pigs, many of the stories that I have heard from my family are similar to the stories that Vladek told his son Artie.
One particular part of the book that hit home was when Vladek was trying not to get drafted into the army. I could see my grandpa telling my uncle exactly what Vladek’s father told him. Vladek said, “…the next year Father wanted I would again do the same thing. But I begged him and went in 1922 to the army…” (Maus 47). My uncle was a soldier in the Polish Army in the early 1980s just as Vladek was in 1922. Just like Vladek’s parents my grandparents didn’t want one of their sons to be part of the army in fear that he would not come home alive. The determination, persistence, and will of Vladek and my uncle is what led them both to becoming soldiers for Poland. While my uncle didn’t fight in any war like Vladek did, it was very easy for me to visualize my uncle taking Vladek’s place in this book.
Like Vladek, my uncle would not want to shoot a gun. It wasn’t because he didn’t know how to shoot a gun; it was because he couldn’t kill anyone. Vladek asked himself, “Why Should I kill anyone?” (Maus 48). I never asked my uncle if he had killed anyone while in the army, but I highly doubt he did. I believe that like Vladek if someone was shooting at him than he would shoot back just like Vladek did to stay alive. It was spine chilling to visualize any relative of mine being a soldier during this time, since if they didn’t die they most likely would have became a Nazi soldier. Polish soldiers hated Hitler, but being a soldier for Hitler was better than dying or being sent to an extermination camp to die a painful death.
Another part of this book that I can relate to was the description of how Vladek’s family had to use food coupons to feed their family. Vladek’s father-in-law explained to him that “each of us gets coupons for 8 ounces of bread a day, and a tiny bit of margarine, sugar a gram per week. That’s all,” and that is exactly what my parents had while growing up (Maus 45). Food was scarce and you ate just enough to get you through to the next meal. Candy and special treats were far and few between. Unlike Vladek’s rich family-in-laws my family didn’t have the money like they did and couldn’t simply go to the black market to get what they wanted.
As if not having enough to eat wasn’t enough, your family’s safety was always in jeopardy. Seeing that Poland wasn’t the safest or best place to live Vladek wanted to get out of Poland and seek refuge in Hungary. Artie’s father explained to him that “For a longer time it was better there in Hungary for the Jews…” (Maus 147). and for Vladek the decision to move to Hungary was easy. Both my parents came over to America when they were in their 20s and neither one regrets their decision to move to America. Vladek wanted to move so his family could be safer for a few more months, and my parents moved so that they could live a better life then they could ever imagine in Poland. Relating my own families story to Vladek’s I could make many connections. Theoririst Hayden White had theories that could also be connected to the book. This theorist had a unique way of looking at history.
Theorist Hayden White forced people to look at history in a different light. In one of Hayden White’s books about metahistory White makes a statement that when history is converted to a narrative then “ the narrative actually produced, becomes a content, an object of reflection on the basis of which the truth about history-in-general can be asserted on the rational grounds…” (93). This being said my reading of the ten pages shows Spiegelman trying to tell the story of the Holocaust through truths of tragedy. White goes on to say, “…but these truths are only poetically figured there as the forms of historical representations whose contents are the actual life dramas lived by individuals and peoples at specific times and places” (93). This shows that the story told in Maus wasn’t just a reiteration of what really happened during the Holocaust. It was a story that tells historical accounts of what actually occurred during the Holocaust for Vladek and his family.
According to White history is not reproduced; history evokes reality. Thus Vladek is reminding himself and his son of the life he lived during the Holocaust instead of reproducing the story of his life. Not knowing it when I replaced Vladek with my uncle I was evoking reality through history and not reproducing it. When I was reviewing the 10 pages in the reading I was doing what White argues history does which is evoking reality. History that evokes reality goes deeper than the words on the page. It goes behind the events and focuses on the emotions and hardships that Vladek went through.
To help explain history four modes of emplotment may be used to revisit history and they are: romantic, comedy, tragedy, satire, or a combination of the four modes. Art Spiegelman uses the emplotment tragic for his book Maus. “Tragedy approaches the culmination of an action, carried out with a specific intention, from the standpoint of the agent who sees deployed before him a world which is at once a means and an impediment to the realization of his purpose” (White 94-95). At the end of Vladek’s life story during the Holocaust he realizes he was fighting a battle that he could never win. Vladek’s purpose in life was not to save his family by becoming a soldier, using money to buy extra food, or moving his family out of harms way. His number one purpose was to tell his family’s story to his son Artie.
Another way Spiegelman uses the satire of tragedy is with the fall of the protagonist. Vladek is trying to be the master of the world when he tries to save his family, but in actuality Vladek sees “some festive occasion, [just to realize they are] false or illusory ones; rather, there are intimations of states of division among men more terrible than that which incited the tragic agon at the beginning of the drama” (White 9). When Vladek became a soldier he was trying to play the role of the hero in which he kills everyone and saves his family. As Vladek’s story goes on he gradually realizes that he is going to lose and lose badly. There is hope when Vladek and his family can go into the black market to buy more food, which the food coupons will not give them, but everything is taken away from them bit by bit. The story of Vladek’s family started with hope and ended with despair and un-repairable damage. This story is I fear will be how many stories of the Darfurian’s will end.
The Holocaust has affected millions of Europeans many of which were Jewish. Reading Maus and other Holocaust literature made it seem that surviving that Holocaust was like trying to win a game where the odds of winning were 1 in a billion. No matter how careful or tactful you thought you were being it was just a matter of time before you slipped up. In 6th grade I read the book The Devil’s Arithmetic and reading Maus reminded me of it. In The Devil’s Arithmetic Hannah, the main character, goes back in time to find her relatives trying to survive the concentration camp one day at a time. This happens because Hannah needs to learn to be proud of her heritage and to discover why it is so important to remember traditions. This is exactly what Artie is trying to do by writing his fathers story down.
While I read this book in 5th or 6th grade I still remember what Aunt Eva’s tattoo stands for. These numbers remind me of the way Vladek lived his life. Aunt Eva’s said, “J is for Jew. And 1 because you were alone, alone of the 8 who had been in your family, though 2 was the actual number of them alive. Your brother was a Kommando, one of the Jews forced to tend the ovens, to handle the dead, so he thought he was a 0” (Yolen 163). Hannah finished explaining Aunt Eva’s tattoo by saying to Aunt Eva, “….you said when things were over, you would be two again forever. J18202” (Yolen 163). The importance of Aunt Eva’s tattoo would live with her forever, not that she could ever forget, and Artie’s father’s tattoo would hold the same importance, but for slightly different reasons.
In Maus the reader is never told the number of Vladek’s tattoo, but I believe it would read something like this. It would begin with J because Vladek was a Jew. Next, would be 1 because he tried so hard to keep the family safe and out of harms way, but in the end everyone had to battle to stay alive on their own. Another 1 would follow because Vladek believed that he was punished by God for not saving his family. Since he had the chance to get his family out Poland that the very beginning. Vladek’s second chance for life would be represented by the 2. The final number would be zero, because Vladek tried to protect his family by being a soldier but failed. It would also represent him being poor, because he tried to use money to keep his family safe. All the money in the world couldn’t save his family from Hitler. According to Vladek he had failed life and had killed or pushed away everyone in his life that meant something to him following his experiences during WWII and Auschwitz.
Being a soldier only showed Vladek that he was trying to single handedly save his family, and it was to big of a task for him to take on by himself. Food coupons combined with money helped Vladek’s family live comfortably, although it only prolonged the inevitable. That everyone was going to die before the war was over. Finally at the end of the book Vladek finally realizes that leaving Poland was the only way he was ever going to be able to save his family, but he leaves Poland because he could not continue to live in a place where his family was exterminated. Aunt Eva and Vladek will never forget WWII and the concentration camps for as long as they live.
History repeats itself and this holds true to the story of the Holocaust. In the current media they are always talking about Darfur. Similar to WWII it took too long for people to step in and stop the extermination of human life. The Holocaust took place in Europe during World War II and Darfur is taking place now in Sudan. The current problems in Darfur were some of the exact same problems that millions of people suffered during the Holocaust.
While reading Maus I couldn’t help but start seeing similarities with what Vladek was going through with what people are going through in Darfur. I can’t start to imagine what the millions of people in Sudan are going through on a daily basis, but looking at Vladek’s story is a starting point.
Artie’s dad, Vladek, chose to be drafted into the army even though his family was trying to convince him not to go. Vladek wanted to fight for his country and for his family, but like many other Polish soldiers, including Vladek, they were overpowered by Hitler. In Darfur its soldiers are being overpowered just as the Polish soldier were. According to the Save Darfur website the people of Sudan need protection and the U.N. Security Council authorized 17,000 additional UNAMID peacekeeping troops to be sent to protect the people of Darfur. (Learn) These additional soldiers have never made it to Darfur to help its people and this leave many people displaced from their homes.
Hitler and his Nazis accounted for the death and displacement of millions and millions of Jews. Vladek’s family was no exception. To try and preserve the existence of his family Vlaked enlisted in the Polish army only to discover he couldn’t shoot a gun at another human being. For Hitler, the government in Sudan and the Janjaweed this was no problem. Seven of the eight largest displacements during Darfur in 2007 resulted from government or Janjaweed attacks. Not only did the government kill its people it also refused basic needs to them, such as food.
In Maus Vladek explains that his family needs to ration their food because food coupons limit the amount of food a family can get their hands on. For Vladek’s family they were able to eat until they were full, because money could be used to buy additional rations of food for the family. The Darfurians do not have this luxury. Starting off the 2008 year the World Food Program’s Humanitarian Air Service received no funding. (Learn) This meant that Darfurians would continue to die from malnutrition and starvation, because there was not enough food available to feed the refugees. Six million dollars were funded last minute but by May 2008 all this money was dried up and used. (Learn) It is very difficult to see many these people suffer and not do enough about it.
My heart goes out to all those that have suffered from the Holocaust. It is even harder for me to watch the news and see Holocaust II happening all over again with Darfur. For Vladek and his family money was not issue. If they would have known that the main goal of the Holocaust was to exterminate the Jewish population than they would have left as soon as possible. Vladek’s family was wealthy enough that they could have fled Poland without any of there belongings and just buy new things when they got to America, Hungary, or anywhere they wanted.
For the people suffering in Sudan money is a big problem. The people are dirt poor and most only own the clothes on their backs. The area is very there is not humanitarian assistance being send to help Darfur. Government power is so strong that millions of people are going to be killed before any significant action are done to stop the genocide. According to the former U.N. undersecretary- general no less than 400,000 people have been killed as the conflict in Darfur continues and at most 2.5 million Darfuris have fled their homes. (Learn) Refugee camps have been set up in Chad and the Central African Republic but more action is needed.

Works Cited
“Learn.” SaveDarfur. June 2008. 24 Nov. 2008 .
Spiegelman, Art. Maus: a survivors tale: my father bleeds history. New York : Pantheon Books, 1992.
White, Hayden. Metahistory: the historical imagination in nineteenth-century Europe. Baltimore : Johns Hopkins University Press, 1975.
Yolen, Jane. The Devil’s Arithmetic. New York, N.Y. : Trumpet Club, 1991.

Gotta Be Somebody

The main character, Alison, seems to be lost in life and she doesn't know what she wants. One thing that she wants but hasn't found is someone else who feels what she feels and who can relate to what she is going through. Veronica was someone who Alison could relate to but once Veronica died Alison was all alone. There relationship was one that they could both share the pains of life experiences together.
Alison wants to be somebody but the person she is on the outside doesn't fit with how she feels on inside. On the inside Alison is so confused and hurt but on the outside it seems like she is blessed with beauty. Nobody wants to feel that no one cares about them or how they feel. Everyone wants to have someone who is going through the same struggles as themselves and for Alison this is a hunt that has come up short time and time again.

Emotional distress

The main characters in Veronica and Secretary both seem to be emotionally disconnected from life. Debby from Secretary is dealing with an abusive father and I don’t think it’s a stretch to say that she was physically and emotionally abused by her father. Also, Debby has been witness to her mother and sister being abused by her father. Alison, the main character of Veronica, is emotionally distressed too but for a different reason. This main character is suffering from hepatitis C and like Debby seems to be emotionally disconnected from the world and life.
Both characters may be alive but they are living life as if they are dead. These two women only want to get by life and not deal with any problems that may arise. For Debby she chose not to deal with her boss because she either didn’t want to confront her boss or she didn’t want to deal with the fact that they had an S and M relationship. Alison is still a bit of a mystery to me but there has to be a story behind her lack of emotion.

WTF No More

I guess I have to recant my previous statement that Gibson is trying to hard in my last blog. After talking about Neuromancer in class on Tuesday many of the problems that I had with the book were explained and some were even solved. The lingo is still foreign to me but at least many of the terms were defined for me in class on Tuesday. It was a good tactic on the author’s part to make the book read like a movie script, because he was trying to make the reader feel like the main character Case.
This book is a very difficult read but the plot line is keeping me interested in this book. Armitage’s character is very silent and this makes me want to know more about him. There has to be a motive why he chose to save Case and I want to know what it is.

Neuromancer

William Gibson is trying to hard for me in this book. It reads too much like a movie script and there are so many character names in the book that it makes it hard to keep all the character straight. For me, all the computer lingo that the author uses makes it difficult for me to grasp what the author is trying to say. I have a grasp of what I think is happening in the book, but I don’t think I get certain aspects of the book.
If the author would have just taken it down a notch or two, I believe, that I would have been able to enjoy the book more. This particular book is the first Sci-Fi book that I ever read and it shows because I cannot keep the characters straight in the book and I don’t understand what a coffin is.
Is the coffin a bed or is it just simply a room where Case sleeps. What is a Sprawl? I know what the word means but why is it capitalized? The rest of the book might change my opinion of the book but I guess I will have to keep reading to find out.

Butterfly Effect

If I was Dana and was stuck in a time that wasn’t my own I don’t know what I would do. After watching the movie Butterfly Effect, with Ashton Kutcher and then reading Kindred I wouldn’t want to change the world to much because if you change one thing everything is affected by that. For example, if Dana were to try and meet up with Harriet Tubman and tell her at a young age that she was going to free many slaves, maybe history would have changed. It was like Ashton Kutcher’s character trying to stop those kids from blowing up a mailbox and when he returns to his time he has no arms because by preventing the mailbox his arms will blown up in the explosion and life as he knew it was changed forever. I wish we could have known what information Dana and her husband could have found about Rufus and his family before all this time travel started to see if she did change the course of history in some way and if so if it had some sort of butterfly effect.

Smart Choice

Butler did a smart thing by making Dana a female in the book. It got me thinking that if Dana was maybe a Daniel that was helping Rufus that the story would look very different. If this new character would have done or tried to do the things that Dana did Daniel would have been labeled as a gay man because he would try to care for and watch over Rufus.
It would have been even worse if the main time traveler was a man and he was trying to help a character just like Rufus who happened to be a girl. Like Margaret this character would live an almost perfect life with only having to answer to her parents and have control over the slaves. Not only would a female Rufus not live an exciting life I couldn’t really see how she would get into trouble causing the time traveler to be her knight in shinning armor.
Overall, Butler’s story had the most profound effect on the readers because the damsel in distress was a male and the knight in shinning armor was a female. The setup for the book laid a good groundwork to get the slave narrative such a good and different story line to it.

What kind of reader are you?

George Washington was the best president ever, right? Every time someone reads any type of literature like the previous sentence they form an opinion. The reader relates the text to one of the three main reading analyses. That is the reader relates the text to their self, other texts, or the world. For those that relate the text to their self could have thought that the first line in this paper was very subjective and that they personally thought that George Washington was a good president but maybe not the best. The next type of reader, those who relate the text to other texts, could have compared and contrasted multiple texts on their views of George Washington. The final type of reader relates the text to the world. For this reader they would have read the sentence and thought of all the things that George Washington did that helped shape our nation. Every form of literature can potentially be interpreted by using three separate stages of reading development or analyses by a single reader.

            Prior to this semester my personal reading development included all three stages while I observed that I stayed mostly between the first and second stage with a periodic use of the third stage. Depending on the subject matter that I was reading I found out that I was more prone to using a certain stage of reading development. For example, when I read for fun I tend to think about why or why not I liked the book that I read and I read just to read and for nothing else. Another example of my reading development prior to this semester was my women’s history class in which I focused mostly on text-world. Last semester in my women’s history class I did a presentation on Marie Curie. In this presentation I was relating the life of Marie Curie with other scientists of her time as well as showing how she made scientific advancements that helped the science and medical fields immensely. In this presentation I also related texts to other texts because some sources had conflicting information and it was important to give my class as accurate of a biography of Marie Curie’s life as possible.

            During the same semester as my women’s history class I also took an ethics course. Personally I didn’t like this course and I found myself skimming through readings and constantly saying this reading is so boring and putting it down. It was a struggle to read for this particular class but we were always asked to relate what we read to the world around us. This was pretty easy but having to read the reading was not fun at all. In this particular class I mostly used the reading development of text-self and text-other texts. Following this courses and semester I saw myself develop as a reader.

Looking back at this current semester I was amazed to discover that I was using the second and third stage of reading development a lot more than I did in any of my previous reading. Part of that has to do with the courses that I signed up for and that I really enjoy the courses that I signed up for. In my sociology of work class with Dr. Keith Mann we are constantly being asked to read excerpts from Working in America by Amy S. Wharton and more importantly our seminar style classes also revolve around how the readings have affected the sociology of work. In these readings we relate them to other texts and to the world. Two particular excerpts were compared and contrasted in regards to the working conditions during a particular time. While we had compared and contrasted these excerpts we also were answering question regarding the economy and politics of the time and how they affected future policies and laws.

            My weekly blog was a great way to look back and try to see what reading development stage I am at. My very first post entitle is “Lost In The Funhouse” and this blog was a great example of how I related a text to the world. In this particular blog I said, “After reading “Lost in the Funhouse,” it got me thinking that we are all living in our own funhouse….Life itself is confusing and like the narrator when someone else is looking at your life they are more confused than you are” (Skorusa). Not knowing it at the time I was trying to relate something that I read to class with the rest of the world. It might not relate to any politics or huge issues that affect life but it was just a statement on how life in general was a big funhouse.

            Another example of what stage of reading development I am at is my final blog entitled “Judith Butler” which is a good example of me relating a particular text to the world. In this blog I wrote a statement that reads “in the next 10 years I can see many more countries allowing civil unions while there will be some countries that are still completely against it….Gradually women will go against the stereotypes which will give gays and lesbians room to go against the stereotypes as well” (Skorusa). In his particular blog I explore the future of gays and lesbians when it comes to civil unions and how I can foresee many more changes coming in the next 10 years when it comes to civil unions for gays and lesbians.

Relating texts to other texts and texts to self was also shown in my blogs. One blog that shows this is the “You Don’t Love My Yet” blog. In this blog I state, “I didn’t realize it at the time but doing the screen play was my way of saying “I like this,” and “we don’t need that”…. Our task was to think of how this novel could be converted into a screenplay to adapt it into film form I tried to use other books that were converted into movies to choose what to include in our screenplay” (Skorusa). This blog showed the thought process I had when I looked back at the mini-screen play assignment and how I was using two out of the three reading development stages.  This semester I have seen a good amount of reading development growth which I would like to continue to improve on in the future.

            In order to further advance my reading development I have to continue to take business classes and constantly try to think about how what I am reading can be relate and affect the world are me. After I finish reading any type of literature I will have to ask myself some questions as to how do these texts show the current views of society, how will this authors views change the views of society, or can this text affect others in the world.

            Being a business major I have taken and will have to take courses that focus on how business law, accounting, and marketing have affected the business world and in effect people. If I have a set mentality to think about how the texts that I have to read relate to the world I will be able to greatly advance my reading development. Simply be always thinking about the world when it comes to my business classes I will have to form opinions on how texts can or will affect the world in many aspects.

            George Washington may or may not be the best president in the history of the United States but every form of literature can be interpreted by using three separate stages of reading development by a single reader. The simple statement about George Washington can be taken differently with each of the three sages of reading development. Using my weekly blogs it was evidence of how personally as a reader I have developed through the semester. 

Judith Butler

            Judith Butler’s article got me thinking about how other counties view the queer theory. America can be at the forefront of these views but they can also be behind other countries. Canada has gay marriage but other countries do not value this civil union. It’s not too far of a reach to say that since gay/ lesbian marriages are not accepted that society is still trying to force people into stereotypes.

            Over the past 5 years many advances have been made with countries allowing civil unions between gays and lesbians. In the next 10 years I can see many more countries allowing civil unions while there will be some countries that are still completely against it. The acceptance is going to start with women entering the workplaces that are dominated by men. Gradually women will go against the stereotypes which will give gays and lesbians room to go against the stereotypes as well.

            

You Don't Love Me Yet

The mini-screenplays created in class are good examples of the text-self stage of reading development. Personally while collaborating with the other member of my group we had the power to choose what to put in our screenplays and what to leave out. I didn’t realize it at the time but doing the screen play was my way of saying “I like this,” and “we don’t need that.” Also, the mini-screenplays were examples of text- other texts.
Our task was to think of how this novel could be converted into a screenplay to adapt it into film form. In doing so we choose what people could relate to, what was funny, and what could be easily converted into a possible movie. In a way when we were converting the pages of words into a screenplay I tried to use other books that were converted into movies to choose what to include in our screenplay. Not knowing it I was using two of the stages of reading development.

Plagarism

According to the Marriam-Webster online dictionary the term plagiarism is defined an act to steal and pass off someone else's work as your own. Also to present a new idea as an original. With this definition we are all plagiarizers the only difference is that someone thought that there words meant enough to claim them as their own. 

With this definition Lucinda plagiarized the phone complainers words. Lucinda used someone else's words to inspire someone else. If we use the definition from the online dictionary than Lucinda did plagiarize but in this instance I believe Lucinda doesn't have to give credit to the complainer who spoke those words first because those words didn't mean anything to the complainer. The complainer did not come up with the lyrics to the words but simply inspired someone who inspired someone else. 

America is just a bunch of selfish plagiarizers that think they are always right. You can't read the newspaper or listen to the news without someone suing someone for stealing their original idea when in fact that original idea was not formed by them first. America needs to take a chill pill and use others works to inspire themselves and forget about suing everyone because they stole a few of the same words or tunes.

"I"

At the end of City of Glass I was extremely confused. To me it seems that the author Paul Auster is doing exactly what Don Quixote did in his life adventure. The four main character are actually one person, but who is the "I"? The entire book is told in third person except for the last two pages where the story take a turn and begins being told from the first person point of view. I'm confused at which for of the main character it is being told from. 

We know that Paul Auster is there but is he with Quinn, Work, or Wilson? From the story we get a sense that Work's character died sometime when he was living in the alley watching the Stillman's apartment. Quinn could be the second person but if he is than why would he wish himself luck? The last possibility is that Wilson could be the second person because he does not want to read the  red notebook. This is just like Quinn becuase he doesn't want to hear about the opinions of the girl that reads his book while waiting for Stillman to get off the train. Overall, we will never know who the "I" is but it is interesting to think about each main character being that "I". 

nothing was real except chance

Chapter 6 in the book The New York Trilogy by Paul Auster confused me why it was in the book. There has to be a greater meaning to this chapter because every word has the ability to have great meaning according to the author. Reading this book confused me to the point that I was trying to make connections and to relate things to one another in a way that made more sense. Chapter 6 does the same thing.

The main character Quinn tries to explain why Dr. Stillman is so weird. Dr. Stillman cannot simply pick up objects from the ground for nothing. There has to be a greater meaning to it. According to Quinn nothing was real except chance so this makes me want to conclude that Auster doesn’t believe that nothing was real except chance because there has to be an explanation for everything. This chapter explains to Quinn that Dr. Stillaman collects items to try to recreate the universal language or at least that is what Quinn tells himself to explain Dr. Stillman’s actions. 

Lost in the Funhouse

After reading "Lost in the Funhouse," it got me thinking that we are all living in our own funhouse. Your funhouse is different than mine but we still have similar characteristics. If you think about it we are all confused like the narrator. Life itself if confusing and like the narrator when someone else is looking at your life they are more confused than you are. 

Like the narrator everyone thinks events should happen in a certain order but life has order and it reminds us of this daily. We would all like to have our lives be a fairy tale or a metanarrative but it rarely ever happens. As college students most come to school thinking we know what we want to major in, but many change their majors throughout the course of their college education. It would have been much better for things to happen like you wanted them to, right?