Tyranny, Injutice, and Self-determination- Animal Farm

Tyranny- Despotic abuse of authority
Injustice- violation of rights of others
Self-Determination- wanting to take over and determine the rules for yourself


One example of each of these words used in Animal farm is:
Mr. Jones was the animal's master, but they suddenly went mad and took over. They kicked Mr. Jones out of his own farm and his own house and now they are ruling by themselves, not allowing even their master to come inside his home. It was unjust of the pigs to take more food than the other animals and to trick them into believing that it was the right thing to do. It was also unjust of them to kick Mr. Jones out, because, frankly, we humans don't really understand that animals might have feelings too. We just take it for granted that they don't really understand anything, and that they don't really know anything about the life they could have if they were freed. It's like the people sitting in the cave their whole life, they don't know what they're missing out on because they don't know it exists. So Mr. Jones never even realized that it wasn't right to just not let them eat the whole day, or overwork them and then take their milk and eggs, because he never realized that they cared about it. Lastly, self-determination is practically the whole point of the first three chapters. The animals taking over the farm and making a 'government' and rules of their own is an example of self-determination. At first, there were all these 'races' of animals that lived together under the rule of humans. The animals got bored of being controlled and never given anything back, and they decided to take over the 'government' (Mr. Jones) and rule by themselves. At first, everything went OK, The animals worked well enough and produced more that what Mr. Jones and his man could do. But by the end of the third chapter, we see that the pigs are starting to take everything over and deciding the rules. They think that not they are the sort of Kings and Queens of the animals and should be getting more benefits than the rest of them. Like getting more food that others, or getting to decide all the rules. Overall, I think that Self-determination would be a kind of concluding word for the whole first three chapters.

Alone in the Trenches

It seems there’s no hope,
With the despair they’ll have to cope,
Down in the trenches they’ll live for five years,
The rains will wash even the tiniest of tears,



And their feet will get soaked,
And their boots will get torn,
And with their families gone,
They’ll be all alone,



The battles will go on,
More lives will come to an end,
But they’ll stay in the trenches,
Living above the dead,

And with no clean water,
And with no nice clothes to wear,
For five years,
They’ll live in despair.

Sources:
http://www.army.mil.nz/nr/rdonlyres/5d0f436d-ad66-49bb-af53-b0bdbc6ae291/0/aw0608046.jpg

http://www.diggerhistory.info/images/trenches/turks-trench-anzac.jpg

http://www.firstworldwar.com/photos/graphics/cnp_us_trenches_01.jpg

http://www.bharat-rakshak.com/LAND-FORCES/Army/Images/0377.jpg

http://www.bridgeboymusic.com/ad1918/gallery/images/imag1006.jpg

Feedback: Is military in your future??

In Israel, you have to join the military after high school. Boys have to stay for about three years and girls for two. Since Israel is an extremely small country, if people weren't required to join the military, we would have a very small and weak army as well. I think its important to join the military in the case of Israel, to help defend our country and the people. My mom told me that we have a war there about once in ten years, which is a lot for only one country. I think that because of the conditions and location of Israel, its important to build a strong army, and we did. Though I heard that the food there is really bad and you hardly get any sleep, (having to wake up early every day and keep watch at night,) I don't really mind joining. Its kind of scary if you think about it, because if a war breaks out they gather the whole military up to fight. I don't like fighting or blood ( :-| ) so that's kind of a problem.. But I would join just to defend my country from invaders. Other people did it before me, and they survived. My cousin in there fighting now in the Gaza Strip, and she likes. In conclusion, I think that in the case of a small country like Israel, they made a right choice in making people join the military after high school.

Alliances Cartoon Reflection

• What are the main visual elements?

People standing around two kings and trading gold with each other. The people represent different countries. On the outside, there are two other 'countries'. One of them is crying, and the other really poor. They're not trading like the other countries but sitting outside.

• What issue is this political cartoon about?

Alliances between countries. How people trade and how some are left out.

• What is the cartoonist’s opinion on this issue?

They think that the powerful countries like Germany have more connections and are able to trade more things and bring stuff into their country.

• What evidence in the cartoon supports your opinion on how the cartoonist feels?

The two most powerful countries are standing in the middle, and they also have some kind of crown on their heads. The countries standing around them are connected buy little tickets that I think say gold on them. The two people on the outside have no connections and are either sad or very poor.

• What other techniques could the cartoonist have used to make this cartoon more persuasive?

Show if some of the countries are in a war, or show some kind of conflict, except the people on the outside, going on.

• How does this cartoon relate to the Great Powers Game?

In the game we had to make connections with people that would help us. During the game we defeated other people and took all their things, leaving them with nothing. There were mainly two powerful countries, Germany and Great Britain, that were sort of controlling everybody else. If either of them went to war against another country, they would surely win because of their many armies and connections to people who would help them. The cartoon shows exactly this.

Great Powers Game

1. Which country were you? How did it feel to build your empire? Which countries had the advantage at the start of the game? Why? How did your empire compare to other empires?

1 A. We were Great Britain, and it was actually very fun building our empire. We kept buying a bunch of industries and doubling our money and then we bought like 300 armies. So we were rich and powerful. The countries with the advantages at the beginning were USA and us, Great Britain, because we both could buy four things at the beginning, and so we got bigger quicker. Except we killed USA later... I think we were pretty powerful. We had many industries and loads of armies so we could take on practically any other country. Except Germany, which we would have been able to defeat if Italy hadn't helped them. Some of the other empires were really weak, and depended on their allies to help them in case of a war.


2. In the long run was it more important to buy armies, navies, industries or colonies? Why?

2 A. It was most important to buy armies, but in order to do that you had to have many industries and colonies. You always had to be ready for a war because you never know when someone was going to attack you, so it was important to have armies.


3. What did you do well? What would you have done differently?

3 A. I think we did well in getting powerful. We planned what we were going to buy and when and ended up with many industries and armies. If I could change something, I would have never attacked Germany and then both of us would have been winners. Or I would have been allies with Italy so they would have helped us in the war against Germany.


4. How successful were your alliances? Did they help or hurt you? Could they be trusted?

4 A. Our alliances weren’t very successful. They depended on us to help them in case of a war. They didn’t help us because we didn’t need their help, except in the war with Germany when all of them joined in to give us armies. Our alliances, except USA, could be trusted. I wouldn’t tell them everything incase they were going to attack us and needed to know how many armies we had, but otherwise we trusted them not to go to the other side.


5. What are three specific things you learned about conflict from this simulation?

5 A. I learned that you can never trust anyone. Your closest friends will stab you in the back when they see that the other side is getting more powerful. I also learned that in order to be powerful, you need to have a lot of money to buy armies with.

Quarter 3 goals

In quarter 2 my goals were: participate more in class, read more books and get AR grade up, stay on grade higher than B.
I met all my goals because I think I did participate more, i definitely read more books and finished the Twilight series, and my grade is B. (could be better...)

For this quarter, my goals are:
1. get an A
2. do my best on classwork and homework
3. Participate more and be a part of more class discussions