Tuesdays With Morrie By: Mitch Albom / Week 04/23/2015

What are your initial reactions to what you have read in Tuesdays with Morrie thus far? One of the main themes developing in Tuesdays with Morrie is not to take your life for granted. Based on this premise, what is on your Bucketlist? You can write a paragraph leading up to a bulleted list of what you would like to do/accomplish in your life.

I normally wouldn't even be close to reading these type of books. I have always wanted to, but every time I go to find one I end up picking a fantasy book instead. I was really looking for word to this book when our teacher told us we were going to read it in class. Once we started reading it I was hooked, this book is so entertaining there is just something about it that makes it entertaining for me.

What I have read so far has taught me many things, it has taught me many different life lessons. One of the more talked about life lessons is that you shouldn't take life for granted. Everybody always has something they want to do before they die. What Morrie wanted to do was to tell people his story and help further research in ALS. They were many other simply things he wanted to do before he died, which was kind of his bucketlist. This brings us to my bucketlist.

Bucketlist~

Graduate from High school ,College, and University
Skydive
Street race
Run over roofs
Go hunting
Have a family
Go to Britain
Own a house
Play beer pong in college
Read 100,000 books
Work at google
Be homeless for a week

Life is Beautiful

Based on the Holocaust literature and poetry we have read, what connections can be made between Life is Beautiful and our reading?  What events, scenes, or situations are similar or different? What is similar or different about the mood or tone of the pieces?

Night by: Elie Wiesel and Life is beautiful both had a handful of connections and differences. These differences and connections help show the true nature of what the Holocaust was. In both stories there was a father son connection that was evidently broken by death, by showing these father son connections it showed how the holocaust can rip families apart. In Night it was the connection with Elie and his father that helped you understand how the holocaust can really break people down to just give up. In Life is Beautiful there were many instances were Guido risked his life to save his sons which showed the connection Guido had with his son. Guido helped show how the holocaust can make you do crazy things for your family. In both stories they showed how the holocaust affects families and make them do irrational things.

The two stories were also very different because in Life is Beautiful the story was trying to have a more happy but at times serious tone. In Night they had a serious and sad tone throughout the book. In Life is Beautiful they try to have a more uplifting tone with how Guido would protect his son Joshua. Guido would protect his son by making up a game that would protect his innocents and help him live with the little food they gave them. In Night the father wasn't really taking care of his son the son was taking care of  this father. Elie would take care of  his father by giving him extra food and giving him the will to keep going.

Lastly the biggest difference through both Night and Life is Beautiful was the connection that each family would have. In Night Elie and his family stayed together until they got to the concentration camp then they complete got separated and couldn't talk to each other again. Before they went to the concentration camps though there family would take care of each other, except Elies dad. Elies dad would always be working on religious things. In Life is Beautiful Guido and his family kept in touch. Guido would send signals to his wife any way he could. This showed that they cared for each other even if they knew they might not make it.

Night 03/23/2015

Title: Night
Author: Elie Wiesel
Pages:0-finished
Prompt: How do Elie's experiences during the holocaust change him as a person?

The book Night by: Elie Wiesel is about Elie's experience through the holocaust. He touches upon most of his experiences that truly left in impact on him. If you were to look at him from the beginning of the book, you would notice that he was very religious. Elie was a very religious as a child he would spend his time praying to God "one day as I prayed at dusk". This shows that he would pray everyday  to prove himself to God. Another example is that Elie would try to find a person to teach him the Kabbalah which he should not learn till he is around 30 years old. His father would always tell him he was to young when he would ask for a master to teach him, until Elie found one on his own. This also tells us that he was very religious as a young boy. Later in the book you notice that he starts to loss his faith in God drastically when he says "Why do I pray?", "Why do I breath?", and "Why should I bless his name?" This not only tells us he is losing faith but it shows he wonders why should he even live. He thinks living while he is being tortured is a waste.

Elie Wiesel does a good job staying alive in the concentration camps, but he still changes drastically in appearance. In the beginning he is a young health boy, but after he is a skinny teenager. Elie is also very changed mentally from the loss of his father and from all the deaths he witnessed. One that scared him was of his father dyeing slowly with no help from the other Jews or guards. The last words his father told him were "Eliezer.." and Elie had not answered him or even helped him. After the day his father was taken to the crematory. The only words he could think of was "free at last!"

This brings another change into the book because more then half of the book there were mentions of sons leaving fathers to die.Each time Elie heard one of these stories he would only hope that he would never do that to his father. He mentioned several times about how his father is the only thing that keeps him going. There were little parts were he would regret it though, he would hope his father would die so he could be free. Then when that day came that his father died he wouldn't even pray for his father. He wouldn't even weep, but it was because he couldn't. There were no more tears for him to shed for his father and "it pained" him. This shows us that in the end he didn't feel much for his father just pain and relief at the same time. Overall Elie changed physically, mentally, and religiously.