Class Notes 2/2

Today we went over the poem "Shema", written by a Holocaust survivor. He addresses all of those "who live securely in their warm houses". In other words, those who are not threatened by the Holocaust victims. He urges that we must repeat this to our children and we should remember those who are less fortunate than us. The author portrays a struggle to put food in the mouths of his family after the devastation of the war. They used to have something. He works at a gruesome job while he watches his wife (dream) slowly die. He urges people to share money with the needy and being empathetic towards those in need. 

The next poem we discussed was "When Death Comes" by Mary Oliver. Her version of death is portrayed as sudden and unavoidable, strong and powerful. She imagines the arrival of death in several ways. As a bear, a man with a coin purse, a disease, an iceberg. She tells us that when death comes, she wants to dies full of curiosity. She explains that because she will die and/or because she wants to die full of curiosity. She compares each life to a flower, in its commonness but also its individuality. When she dies she wants to be able say that she knew the world intimately, and embraces it with open arms. She tells us that she doesn’t want to be afraid or angry. She wants to have truly lives in this world, not just experienced it as a visitor. 

The third poem we talked about was by Wislawa Szymborska, "On Death Without Exaggeration". She portrays death as weak and awkward, powerless, messy, lazy, not efficient "comes too late", pointless and unpredictable. She suggests that in order to cope with the inevitable existence of death, one must downplay the seriousness of its nature and characteristics. It can't take a joke, find a star, make a bridge. And we compared these three poems to The Book Thief. We concluded that Death in the novel is sympathetic, methodical, and it isn't something we should be fearful of. 

Then, we went around the room and each person talked about what stood out to us in the reading. We talked a lot of the link between Death and Liesel, the foreshadowing of death, and the corruption of youth. In the beginning and end of the story Death says he would visit Liesel three times, and each time she escaped Death. Death did not catch hold of Liesel. Diesel symbolizes the glimmer of hope for the people who didn't die. She and Max are the ones who weren't suppose to live, but did. The foreshadowing of Death says that he would take three people in the book. We talked about how it doesn't really have an impact on us towards the beginning of the book because we haven't gotten a feel for the characters yet. But, as we read and develop an attachment to certain characters, the deaths revealed at the end of the book make it extremely difficult for readers to come to terms with. The corruption of the Hitler Youth camps are hard to read, especially when young boys are acting malicious towards their own peers such as, Rudy. The youth are the the future leaders of the country and Hitler brainwashes them with propaganda and persuasive tactics to get them to be loyal to him. In the book, Rudy was beaten when he was making light of not knowing Hitlers birthday. Well, the Hitler Youth didn't think it was all that funny, and beat Rudy up.
Then, Professor West went over the PowerPoint covering the Holocaust. The Holocaust was the killing of six million Jewish men, women, and (1 million) children and millions of others by Nazi Germany and its collaborators during WWII. Hitler's goal was to exterminate the whole Jewish people and subordination and control of other races. He believed that humans can be organized into separate and distinct races. He also believed that some people are more fit to rule than others, and they have obligation to exercise their natural dominance, said Hitler. He enacted the Nuremberg Laws that slowly excluded from all forms of German life. But, what we know is the race is not a biological category, homosapiens contain no sub classes, and we have this christian perspective that all humans are made in God's image.