POST 3.3

This text reminds me of The Diary of Anne Frank. I had to read this story maybe three times in high school. And everytime I read it i liked it more and more. Although both of these stories are generally informing about the Holocaust, when I read, and watched both of them, there was obviously something more that was trying to be said. Not one of the stories reflects love better than the other. In The Diary of Anne Frank, Anne was taken, but not before her and her family fought for as long as they could for their safety. It was clear that the family loved eachother so much and were willing to fight for their lives together. In Life is Beautiful, Guido fought just as hard to keep his family together and safe. Love is love, and family is family. There is no way to say that Guido loved his son and wife more than Anne loved her family and her family loved her back. They are the same story to me in that way. And watching Life is Beautiful last week, I could not help but relate it to The Diary of Anne Frank.
I can also relate it to the reading we read earlier in the semester about memory. And how memory can deceive us  at times. Our memories tell our past and we can only work off of what we trust oursleves to remember. Joshua is telling us this story through memory. Our knowlege of what really happened will only be as correct as Joshuas memory is reliable. If we do not tell people about our life and past accomplishments, or regrets, there would be no history for us to uncover. Which is exactly what Joshua did for us, the viewers. He told the story of his family during the Holocaust the way he remembers it, and the way he was probably told. I can'not recall the name of the text we read earlier this semester but it talked about how we have to tell people things we remember, or there will be no history. Thanks to people like Joshua, (although it is just a movie) we are knowledgable about the Holocaust and keeping family close during it.

History and Memory in Life is Beautiful

Right away when reading this text by Scott Ryan, I could tell that he was writing to us to prove that no matter how evil and bad things may get in life, happiness and laughter can overcome any amount of evil. Referring to the character Guido from Life is Beautiful, we are presented with ways that Guido himself showed evil no mercy. It seems to me that Guido never really took anything too seriously. This way, letting the better aspects of like shine brighter than the ugly. This was especially expressed when Guido and his family were send on a train to an unnamed death camp. Although Guido knew for the most part that what they were about to have to overcome was not easy, he was not about to let his son see. It could be said that perhaps that was not the smartest thing to do, because of the atmosphere of the train ride, and especially after arriving to the camp, was no "surprise for his birthday", like Guido had told Joshua when they first arrived to the camp. Not to mention other victims at theses camps were telling Joshua exactly what was going on.
Scott Ryan suggests in this passage that aside from the fact that these Nazis are practically dehumanizing the Jew's, there is still the connection that we are all human that some of the Nazis can't overcome. "Guido’s innocent fantasies highlight the far-reaching mendacity of the Nazi regime: that they hid their intentions from their captives and some may say from themselves".(Ryan Scott) No matter how bad things can get, there will always be the obvious that we are all human and equal in more ways than we can imagine. Family will overcome individuality any day in my opinion. No matter what little amount of good Guido may see in any situation, there is no doubt that without his family present in the short time they had together, Guido would have approached his situation a lot differently. Perhaps with more fear. It is amazing what family can do to someone. The presence of a family member to me, can make any situation better in an instant.
It is pretty straightforward what Scott is trying to get across in his text. "While the film can be accused of simplifying historical events into a fight between good and evil, it nevertheless reaffirms the protective sanctuary of imagination as it was necessitated and tested by the holocaust. It is ultimately a parable about the capacity for human creativity to transcend life’s banalities and our entrapment in historical circumstance". (Ryan, Scott) These feelings explained by Scott Ryan are nothing of a surprise. It is not unusual in anyway how he feels about the movie. Or how he thinks although the movie was not to inform us about the holocaust, but to show us that happiness and laughter can overcome any evil. I don't think that many people could really argue with that. Personally I agree with mostly if not all, of the things Scott talks about in his text.

Post 3.1

When reading The New Colossus: Exploring the Idea of Border, by John Washington, I felt a sense of anger in his voice. But not the kind of anger like he wanted to hurt someone. The kind of anger that just wanted to be heard and wanted anything for things to change. Reading this story, I get the side of the author that is giving us all of this information and facts because like he said, his mother crossed over the border illegally as well. Perhaps this passage is not only about the Mexicans that struggle everyday, but the anger he has inside knowing that his very own mother went through the same thing at one point in her life. Judging by all that he has done for the migrants, he is possibly giving back to his mother. But in a way that is not really giving to her, but actually to the millions just like her. He has a heart for these illegals and shows it in the best possible way he can. He believes that there should be a better way of handling the immigration laws a lot better. "Asking migrants why they cross the border, why they leave their homes and family, the answer is almost always, in some form or another, to survive, to give their children or their spouses or themselves a fighting chance".(pg.253) And thanks to people like John, the unfortunate migrants being sent back to cities they have never seen once in their lives, have someone waiting with aid and a good face to look up on. The fact that some of the migrants actually let out their feelings and unfortunate events  to John, means only one thing, that they were comfortable with him. "I think of Ignacio, a 57-year-old man I met in Nogales last summer. He told me his story of trying to cross the desert to reunite with his daughters in Atlanta. He got lost in the desert, spent days wandering, following cows to water tanks, drinking dirty water, succumbing to bouts of diarrhea, vomiting, delirium". (pg.253) I'm sure it doesn't take a lot for a migrant to feel comfortable with someone who is trying to help them especially after the horrible things they have been through for the past days or weeks, it still says something that these people that know not one thing about John, can confide in him and trust him. It is definitely clear in the story that John believes in helping make better lives for Mexicans. This is told through personal stories, and tough facts to even read about. To me, it sounds like John is an angel in the form of a man to these migrants. All that he does for them is something that he is not bound to. He does not have to be spending his time giving back to people that really have done nothing for him, but the fact that he does only says so much about his character. John is obviously comfortable enough with his identity, that he can speak so supportingly about those of migrants. John seems like a good person that only wants better for migrants, and I am happy I was given the opportunity to read this story by him because things I have heard previously about immigration were nothing like the facts I read about in this story.