Empathy

In the book The Breadwinner, the author, Deborah Ellis, made me feel empathy throughout the course of the book. I think it is good to make the reader feel empathy because it can get the reader emotionally involved with the book.

The first example of empathy from The Breadwinner is just after Parvana's father was sent to prison. Parvana and her mother attempted to go beg for her father's freedom, but their plan failed. "Nooria tried to help, but Mother just waved her away. She threw her burqa down on the floor. Her face was strained with tears and sweat. She collapsed onto the toshak where Father had taken his nap just yesterday." In this example the author made me feel empathy for Parvana's family because they may never see their father again. The strategy that the authour is using is to make the reader feel empathy by talking about memories of the father. When the author said " She collapsed onto the toshak where Father had taken his nap just yesterday." you can only imagine the thoughts that would be going through her mother's head about how her father lay there just yesterday and now he is gone.

Another example from the Breadwinner where Deborah Ellis made me feel empathy was when Parvana and Shauzia were walking home and Shauzia kicked a wall. " Shauzia kicked at the wall in a rythm, but Parvana stopped her. She'd seen the Taliban hit a child for banging on an old board like it was a drum. The Taliban hated music." The author made me feel empathy for all of the people affected by the Taliban. This example of empathy really shows the readers how restricted the people are in the affected areas of the Taliban. The way the author made me feel empathy in this passage was by describing how few rights the people have, if they can't even hit something in a rhythm. When the author said "The Taliban hated music", that really puts our freedom in prespective. It makes me realize the freedoms we have and how much we take it for granted.

These are just a few examples of when Deborah Ellis makes her readers feel empathy. It is a useful wirting strategy because it makes the reader feel more involved with the characters and their lives. I know from reading The Breadwinner I was able to better understand the situation and struggles of the people in Afghanistan by becoming involved with the characters in the book and their lives, and feeling empathy for them.

Covered

Imagine yourself living in a world where you couldn't show your full self. You wouldn't be able to leave your home unless you were covered from head to toe in a burqa. For many women in the world, including those in Afghanistan, this is the case. They are not allowed to go anywhere without being fully covered.

There are quite a few adjustments that would have to be made about the way you go about your day to day life, if you had to be fully covered. First, as you can imagine, you would feel like you mean nothing to society, if people told you that they didn't want to see any part of you. Also, you would get very angry because you would probably not be able to do everything you would like to do. The burqas would make it diffucult to do some things. Finally, you might also feel like you are invisible to everyone around you, because no one would pay attention to you if no one could really see you. These are some of the ways women in Afghanistan would be affected by having to be fully covered when going outside.

From reading the Breadwinner, I have a better understanding of the struggles that woman face in Afghanistan. I can't imagine how difficult it must be to even do the simplest things. For example, when you go out to the grocery store, just to buy some milk, suddenly men with guns might pass you and you would be afraid that they might hurt you. This might be an every day situation for women in Afghanistan. They constantly live in fear. I know this might sound strange, but maybe some woman think of the burqa as an advantage. Think of the grocery store situation. Maybe you would want to hide yourself, and not get noticed so that the men don't hurt you. Maybe some of the woman think of it as a way to hide from the men walking in the streets.

Eva Olsson Holocaust Speech

Going into Eva Olsson's speech about her experience with the Holocaust was very exciting, because I didn't know that much about the Holocaust. For that reason, I was excited to learn more about her experience.

Her speech had a very strong message from start to finish. During her speech, I heard a lot of good lessons and stories to think about, but the strongest lesson was about hate. Her message was basically that hate killed her family and many more people. She said that the next time we are going to say the word "hate", we should think about what hate did to her. I think that I will definitely think about that the next time the word hate crosses my mind.

I thought that the camps that she described in her speech sounded very scary, and I felt very sad for her, her family, and all of the victims. From what Ms. Olsson said in her speech, she coped with the situation extremely well and made it out alive and very strong. From the details that she gave to us about the characteristics of the camp, I think I would be most scared of the Gas Showers. First of all, just the thought of putting someone in a shower with gas coming out of the showers sounds horrible. But to make things worse, they wouldn't turn off the showers until the person was dead.

I think what I'm trying to say is that her speech was very powerful. I think Ms. Olsson's speech is important for everyone to hear. Her message is crucial because as she pointed out, hate is shown in many ways, including bulllying in schools. I would highly reccomend Ms. Olsson's speech to everyone.

Norval Team Building Day

On Monday, October 19th, the Middle School went to Norval to learn about team building. The purpose of the day was to help the kids in Middle School work well together.

My team did a lot of things very well, and there was a lot of individual effort that went into the success of the team. A great example of the team's effort to work together was in the activity where we had to get a tire off a big pole. Every member of the team thought of a different strategy to complete the task. In the end, we didn't get the tire off the pole, but we put in a great effort. So, as I said, we did a lot of things well, but the thing we did best was working together and combining our thoughts and strategies.
Now of course there were a couple of things that our team could have done better. We could have done a better job talking to each other during some activities and helping each other out when we were actually doing the activities. For example, when we were trying to walk across the wire to get to the other little islands, I think people could have been communicating better with the other team members. In the end we overcame this by starting to talk to each other and we found a way to complete the activity. I'm sure we all learned that communication is important for teams to work well together.
Overall, the day at Norval was fun and inspiring. Out of all the activities, I think my favourite was the drum circle. I wasn't quite sure what to expect, but I was amazed at the great sound the drum could make. As someone who plays the drums, I was pleased that we included this activity. The only games I didn't like very much were the tag games we played when we first arrived. They weren't my favourite activity because I have played the games before, so it was nothing new to me. I think the Norval trip was a good experience, and should be continued for Middle School students and teachers in the years to come.

Does Clothing Shape Who You Are?

Does clothing shape who you are? I think there are two different ways to look at fashion, you can look at it like it's something you take very seriously. If you do take fashion very seriously, then you might think that clothing shapes who you are. Then there is the other way to look at fashion, which I think is the way that most or at least some people look at it. The way I look at fashion is that it definitely doesn't shape who you are and it is just something that isn't worth getting upset about. An example is at our school, everyone wears the same thing, but that doesn't mean we are the same. So, what I'm saying is that you can look at fashion two ways, and hopefully see that it doesn't shape who you are.
Now, you might think that yes, clothing shapes who you are because look at people like Lady Gaga, whose fashion would make someone think that she's a crazy, out of this world person. Or take a look at the Jonas Brothers, whose fashion makes them look like they're cool and nice guys. These are the people who "set the trends". Then there are the people who follow the trends, who think that you're not cool unless you wear the latest trends. Which brings me back to my point that clothing doesn't shape who you are, because you can be cool even if you're not wearing the latest trend. So, you can still think that clothing does shape who you are, but next time you're in H & M looking for a new pair of skinny jeans , just think to yourself, does this really make me cool.

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