The Boy in the Striped Pajamas Blog #1

As of right now, I am halfway through the book. I am reading The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, and so far Bruno has just moved into “Out-with”. I have enjoyed the book a lot so far. At where I am in the story, Bruno has just met Shmuel. It took awhile for things to progress, but it didn’t make the beginning of the book boring. If I haven’t already stated, Bruno is the main character and Shmuel is the “boy in striped pajamas”. One thing I extremely like about the book, is how its being shown through the eyes of a 9-year old boy. I like how we are seeing things through fresh eyes; children see the world clearer than adults do.  Bruno treats everyone as if they are someone, and it will be different for him to see people being treated as monsters just because of their culture and religion. All of the Holocaust books that I have read have been in first person and usually of someone who experienced the holocaust first hand. Yet, Bruno’s experience with the Holocaust was extremely different. He watched it happen through the eyes of child. His innocence and naïve personality show how once child can see so much death and fear in only the first steps of his life. He felt that his whole life was falling apart because he moved into a new place that he did not like. He found so much wretchedness because he had to leave his 3 “best friends for life” and he felt his life was falling apart. Yet, little does he know, that those people outside his window have lost any sense of dignity they once had. They were being stripped of their identities and torn from any sense of family, yet Bruno was just so devastated about moving. In my opinion, stories told by children truly show the real pain that they saw or felt. They see every bad thing and know how to explain it in the easiest terms. As I read the book, I cannot help but wonder what Bruno’s next move will be. I wonder if he will tell his father about Shmuel, or stand up to his dad. I wonder how Bruno will react to realizing the new information he will hear from Shmuel about those people. If I didn’t already know that Bruno and Shmuel would become friends, I think I would have thought that Bruno would be afraid of Shmuel at first. Then I think he would realize quickly that Shmuel is just another boy, who likes to swing on tire swings and probably explore new places. I am looking forward to finding out what happens between the two boys and what actions Bruno takes towards his reaction to what his father is contributing to. I wish this book was non-fiction. I would feel more emotion if I knew that a little boy would befriend another little boy in a concentration camp. I fell like when I read this, everything is just made up. It’s as if everything is a lie, and that is why I don’t read fiction, I don’t like hearing about things that could never happen. This book is different from the other fictions books, its based off of a major true event and I bet parts of the book are true. I have truly enjoyed reading this book.

Books

There are two books that I am interested in reading. One of which is called Look Me in the Eye. The book is a memoir about the brother to the author of Running with Scissors. It is the story of how he was diagnosed with mental retardation, but at the time, that diagnosis didn’t exist. He grew up with insane parents and he just tells his story of trying to grow up. I would also like to read Her Last Death by Susanna Sonnenberg. It is about her own childhood, while growing up with a psychotic mother and trying to fight cocaine addictions at a young age. I would want to read those two books because they are true stories. I don’t like reading stories that are made up, because I feel like I can’t learn anything true from it. I am not much of a reader, but if I have to read, I would prefer to read memoirs. I think they are interesting books and I find it entertaining to read about drug addicts overcoming addictions or just really messed up books. Two books that I recommend for people to read are Go Ask Alice and Olive’s Ocean. Go Ask Alice is a memoir about a girl trying to find herself. She battles through drugs, addictions and sex. Although, it is slightly a disturbing book when it gets into the descriptions of her actions, it is a good book. Olive’s Ocean is a book I read in fourth grade, so it is probably a very easy read for freshman, but it has been one of my favorite books since I read it. 

So Much Unfairness in Things

The story So Much Unfairness of Things is a story about a 14-year old boy who cheats on a Latin exam and ends up getting caught. The lead character, P.S or Phil, attends an all boy boarding school called Virginia Preparatory School (V.P.S). All the boys in his family had attended V.P.S and had all succeeded in academics and extra-curricular activities during their years there. P.S felt pressured by his father the entire two years he had been at V.P.S. He failed the Latin exam every time he had taken it. Before he took the test for the third time, he had said how much he studied and how he was going to “kill” the test. He sat down to take the test and realized how much he did not know. He started to freak out and answer the questions he knew the answers for. He began to add up the points he knew he would for sure receive and realized he needed to translate one more question to pass the test. He then had an epiphany and realized that the passage that he was supposed to translate from Latin to English was inside his desk. He began to wonder if he should cheat and slyly slip the paper out of the desk and copy the answer. He decided to do so and cheat. He felt guilty about it afterwards and began to worry if someone had seen him. He went to the bathroom to smoke a joint and he started to freak out about it. He was then called into the Headmaster’s office. His friend Jumbo who sat next to him during the Latin exam had seen him cheat and reported him to the headmaster. He was expelled. P.S’s relationship with his dad was like an agreement in a way. He called his dad “ sir” and he constantly felt like he was disappointing him. When his dad actually opened up to his son, they ended up bonding and P.S was so worried about how his father was going to react to him being expelled. Yet, his dad wasn’t angry with him, he understood his son. I think it was good that P.S got expelled from school. I mean he shouldn’t have cheated, but when he got expelled, he and his father had a “moment” and they realized how distant they had gotten from each other. I think every teenager goes through a time when they feel like all they do is disappoint their parents. It is a part of growing up, because at one time their parents are going to be disappointed in them. If your parents never were disappointed in you, then you must have been living the life they wanted for you and not your own. Every parent has a dream for their own child and they honestly might just want their kid to follow their dreams and be happy. But, no matter what you have an ideal image for what you want your child to be. I think this because well I don’t have children, but I have 4 parents and I’ve gone through feeling like a disappointment to them. I’m not going to lie; I have cheated on tests. It’s not that I’m lazy; I just might not understand the subject and feel like I have no other options. I can’t say I have felt guilty for it either, but I know its wrong and it’s a bad thing to do. You are not only cheating on a test, your cheating yourself, thinking you just can’t pass it. That’s what P.S did; he didn’t have faith that he could pass the test. He knew he was going to fail it. Maybe if he hadn’t given himself the short straw, he would have passed the test. To relate to the title, how is there unfairness in cheating? You’re the one who is being unfair to yourself.

Facebook Privacy and Athletes

The Internet has made many things easier for students, parents, and basically everyone. But along with the positive things that the Internet has brought along, it has also brought upon many difficulties for high school and college students. The Internet is a dangerous place where everything and anything can be found. You can create any type of website and put anything you want on it. Facebook was created a few years back, and its popularity is continuing to draw in more students and even older adults. If you were to go into a high school and ask the students if they had a Facebook, the majority would raise their hands. Facebook has created something like a utopia for teenagers on the Internet. You can say what you want and be whomever you want on Facebook. A recent problem going around is that teens have been misusing the advantages that Facebook gives you. This has been causing athletic coaches to monitor the athletes Facebook commenting and pictures.

I honestly think that is violating the athlete’s privacy. This just doesn’t make sense to me. If a student was to comment a friend venting about a teacher, then I mean obviously they are going to say things that they don’t mean. What the coaches don’t realize is that students also vent to their friends over the phone. They will call their friend and say all the over-dramatic things and then it will be over, they will have forgotten about the issue by the next day. Yet, I don’t hear about the teachers or coaches monitoring phone calls, both ways your equally guilty of saying derogatory things. I mean there’s an extent to where the “venting” comments turn into threats. If a student posts something that doesn’t even sound threatening, but is offensive to the teacher, then the teacher shouldn’t do anything. Teachers probably vent to their “special someone “ all the time about their students, whether their student is a pain or just never pays attention. It isn’t fair if the teacher or coaches can monitor the student’s sites, if the student doesn’t reserve the right to do so with the teachers. Most teachers do not have Facebook, but most derogatory words are through word of mouth. There have been many incidents told on the News about students holding in their aggression and going crazy. They brought guns to school and killed teachers and other students. Yet there are also stories of teachers killing students. . It’s a mutual action.

What goes on outside of the school boundaries shouldn’t be taken care of at school. On the other hand, if the issue or argument gets to a more serious level and is affecting the student’s academic performance, the teacher should get involved. Something I just recently learned was that if you post anything on the Internet, it is public. Even if you delete, it still remains in the Internet system. I will agree, Facebook has made it easier for teenagers to call each other names. Most of the rude things we say to one another on Facebook, we wouldn’t say to the other persons face. It is easier to say the things you feel on the Internet because you just type it out and press “send”. You don’t have to worry about the fear or intimidation of the other person. I would have to say I am on both sides of the argument. I think that students reserve the right to privacy. If the student is posting provocative pictures or derogatory comments and other students or athletes find it bothersome and then tell the coach. The coach should be able to take action and reprimand them. Obviously, there are many different ways of seeing the argument and I’m sure a teacher’s view of this subject would be quite different than a students. This is a difficult issue to discuss because you go can go in so many directions with it. It is hard to stay on one side of the argument because on both sides there’s always another problem.