Maus-Night Blogging assignment

In both books, Maus and Night, one mutual pattern i noticed is that family and friends work as hard as they can as a team to survive the war.  I also spotted that there is a great deal of compassion between jewish prisoners helping each other become free from Nazi influence and the death camps.  For example, in the book Maus I and Maus II, Vladek trys his hardest to stay alive in the death camps because he desires no more but to see his wife again, and in the book, Night, the only thing that keeps Elizer alive is the desire to live with his father at home, and not in the concentration camps.  In both books, Vladek and Elizer's father both do their best to keep their children informed of how bad the nazis actually were.  In Maus I and Maus II, Vladek explains verbally to his son, Artie, about his times during the war and what it felt like to be a jew during the time.  In the book Night, Elizer and his father both live together during the tough times and struggle between life or death at all of the concentration camps that they venture to.  Then also in both books, they discuss certain details about the life in concentration camps.  They both explain how important food was, and in order to get some soup or stale bread for your food ration of the day, you have to either paass the prisoner exam, the lice exam, or maybe even both.  Vladek and Elizer explain the essence of food, and how hard it was to have such little food in a day, while working hard and doing tough manual labor all day.  All the prisoners crave food as a delight in the concentration camps because everyone is starving, and will do whatever it takes in order to get some scraps of food.  For example, in the book Night, Germans throw some stale bread or scraps of food onto the train car, and watch the jewish prisoners fight to the death for it.  They do this for enjoyment, to watch starving people try to seriously injure or even kill for some food, and it entertains them.  Elizer mentions that he feels completely like he is in a zoo and lives with a bunch of wild animals who fight eachother so they can survive.  Similar pranks to taunt the jews are committed by the Germans in the book Maus also.  For example, some German soldier once snagged a prisoners cap from him in a concentration camp, and threw it then he yelled at him to go and get it back.  The German nazi soldier then shoots and kills the poor innocent prisoner for the "attempt of an escape".  The German then is awarded many honorable war metals, and is granted a few days of vacation time.  Also, the Germans lie completely to the jews in the book Maus.  Once, the jews were marching to another death camp and they offered the Germans all of their gold and possesions if they could escape.  The Germans then agree and when the jews try to escape, the Germans all open fire on them and completely break their promise.  I recomend to future classes to read both books, Maus I and Maus II, and Night, because they are both so similar, but they show the different expierences that the people have to go through along with their views and opinions.  Personally, Maus I and Maus II were a very easy read, and it caught my attention so i was never bored with it or disliked it, because it incorporated a real life story along with a whole comic strip storyline.  Night was good too, because it was short and the book made sense.  Night also was very interesting because it is a book based on a true story of surviving during the holocaust.  I also feel that if you read one book, you might as well read the other one because they are both super easy, short, and enjoyable.  I am glad that I had the opportunity to read both books.

Restrepo Blogging Assignment

In the Book, Restrepo, and Fallen Angels, There are many similarities and perspectives one can tell during war.  For example, in both Restrepo and Fallen angels, it explains how terrible the feeling is when one of your friends passes away in combat, Jenkins in Fallen angels, and Restrepo in Restrepo.  Also, the soldiers explained their feelings towards the combat in the war with everyone during the nighttime in the base, while the soldiers in Restrepo do the same.  There are also some funny parts to the war, like in Fallen angels, how Perry and Peewee are in a spiderhole, and also in Restrepo, when the opening fights start, the soldiers have fun with each other fighting the enemy.  There was also some humorous parts in the book, like when a soldier tans in the sun, and in fallen angels, when peewee puts cream on his face, which makes it swelled.  Also, in  restrepo, when they work as a team in battle against the Taliban, in fallen angels, Peewee and Perry, and their squad do the same.  When the soldiers in the afghan war are scared in battle of their enemy, Perry and his squad feels the same because they are fighting on the enemy’s homeland, and use guerilla tactics.  The feeling is also mutual when the American soldiers in Afghanistan write home to their loved ones, American soldiers in Vietnam do the same because they are not for sure if they will live or not.  When the American soldiers let out a flair for Restrepo, the enemy spots their location, and same in fallen angels when they let out a flair for help. 

Fallen angels and Restrepo both showed many similarities and differences during wartime, specifically the Afghan war and the Vietnam war.  Both watching the movie Restrepo and reading the book Fallen angels has taught and showed me many of the reality events that happen during the war.  Such as in Fallen Angels, when Perry loses his close friend, Jenkins, at the beginning of the book, and when one of the soldiers loses his close friend, Restrepo, in the movie Restrepo.  War is not pretty, and it is never like that of what they advertise of television.  To realize what war truly is about and to experience what it feels like to be a soldier, you have to go to the war yourself and experience it hands on, by yourself.