A Recipe for WW2 poem

A Recipe for World War II

Take one failed Treaty of Versailles,
A rotten League of Nations,
3 cruel and selfish fascist leaders,
And one communist country,
Add a cup of appeasement to start the bubbling,
And a few million fuming Germans,
Now a pinch of power-hungry Japanese should do the trick,
So stir the dish and leave it out to dry for a few years on a brick.

Movie Critique- Animal Farm

The book Animal farm and the Movie they made about it were both pretty good. They had close similarities but more differences in them. Some of the similarities between the two would include such things as the way that they made the animals. Like the fact that in both the book and the movie Boxer was a hard worker, Snowball, Napoleon, and the other pigs ruled over everyone else, Mr. Jones was the always-drunk farmer that the animals kicked out of his own house, and Napoleon's guard dogs followed him around everywhere. Other similarities would include the main story of both the book and the movie, because of-course the director had to keep the whole idea otherwise it would be a random film about animals living in a farm. Major events and other ideas that made up the story, such as 'The Battle of the Cowshed', the singing of 'Beasts of England', the Seven Commandments, the building of the windmill and its destruction, and basically most of the main points covered in the movie were taken from the book.
There are a few similarities between the book and the movie, but there are even more differences. For one, in the movie they never mentioned Clover, Boxer's close friend and companion throughout the whole book. Instead, the director wanted to make less characters which would make the film a little less complicated to understand, so he made Benjamin act as both himself and Clover. Also, at the end of the movie, the other animals broke into the farmhouse and killed all the pigs, but in the book they didn't do anything. They let Napoleon take over everything but had no power over what was happening. There was way too much killing in the movie, for example when they exiled Snowball in the book, they just threw him out of the farm, but they didn't harm him. In the movie they gave the impression that Napoleon's guard dogs tore him apart. Another difference was that they added two more characters to the movie that weren't in the book. The little duckling and the young sheep that appeared from time to time and had some of the funnier moments in the movie were not mentioned in the book. Overall, The movie had more differences that similarities, even if some points were missed in the paragraph above.




p.s- mr.coyle, because we started seeing the movie on Friday i forgot some of the things that happened in the beginning and my 'differences' paragraph is kinda short... :)

Animal Farm Character Reflection

Out of all the animals in the book, I think that I'm most like Benjamin, the old donkey. For one, as an eighth grader, I don't have power over the government. Unless I get a group of people to start rebelling against something the government has done, I have no chance to change something they decided. Like Benjamin, who knew what would happen and knew that he wouldn't be able to stop or change it, I am the same. As a part of the people living in my country, I know what's right for me and what we should do, but have no power to actually do anything, which leads to my second reason. Another one of Benjamin's characteristics is that he just doesn't care. He understood that he had no power over the pigs or any of the other animals. Even though he was smart enough to understand that none of this was going to work, he decided to step aside and look at what was happening, always saying in his mind that it was all going the wrong way. Sometimes, when I hear of something that the government has decided to do, like go into a war with a different country, I disagree (or sometimes agree) that it would be the right thing to do, and sometimes I think that I could have better resolutions except fighting and violence. But seeing as I’m not the president, I can’t change anything. Lastly, I think I’m most like Benjamin because I don’t have power over the government and can’t change their decisions, also, since I don’t have power to change what the government thinks is right, I just stop caring and let them make their decisions.

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.