Wartime Letter Assignment

I decided to do my letter about being a German U Boat sailor because it'll let me know more about how submarines were in that time. Submarines are powerful and stealthy war machines and they seem interesting to me. I had to do further investigation to have a clearer view of how a German U Boat was exactly. I could have done this by hand, but having a dirty paper in my backpack for the whole vacation week wasn't a plan I liked...

Dear Family,

It's been 3 years since I enlisted for the Navy of our country. I have to say it has been an amazing experience. Well, I send you whis letter to inform that I was promoted to work un one of those Undersea Boats. I'm now a 2nd Weapon Assistant in my assigned U-20 boat. I basically control the 3.5 in. anti-armor and anti-personnel naval gun and help to track and locate enemy ships. I really like my new position in the boat, handling heavy weaponary has always been my "passion".

This boat has a lenght of about 210 ft and we have a tripulation of 35 men, can you imagine how much space we have? We can barely breath! We can't stay much time underwater or we would run out of oxygen. I knew almost half my crew as I remember them from the bootcamp. Also, 4 member went to the same high school as me, and 2 of them are officers of the boat (remember Walther?)

As of today, we have gone through 3 operations (I just came back from the last one), 2 of the which were succesful. These new German inventions have been tremendously succesful, we have high hopes of winning this war, as we seem have the naval advantage now. On the 1st mission, our torpedo (underwater missile) missed the British merchant ship and we were spotted. Luckily, we were able to escape the warzone before it was too late (these boats are slow!).

Our 2nd mission was a controversial success. You should have read something in the newspaper about this, as it brought some neutral nations against us! Including the United States! Let me explain this: basically, our operations are commercial blockades along with other U-boats (as we call them) to prevent war supplies from arriving getting to the British. While patrolling, we spotted a ship that looked exactly as a carrier, it was the Lusitania. We were ordered to destroy any ship that wanted to cross the blockade. Walther ordered to fire a single torpedo to the ship, making a direct critical hit. We when then ordered to turn back to the blockade and let the ship sink, as Walther told us he couldn't fire another torpedo at a ship full of suffering people trying to save their lives.

The Americans went crazy about this, and demanded us for that "cruelty". We warned them not to cross the blockade or otherwise get attacked! Well the ship resulted to carry no supplies and had VIP civilians in it (most of them, American).

Still, our commander thinks we did a good job and I'll keep my position in the boat. We just hope this situation doesn't make those nations raise arms against us. I promise I will keep you up with letters at least once a month.

Wish me the best of lucks!
Tschüs!

Book Assignment

"The boy in the Striped Pajamas"

This is a very famous book written by John Boyne in 2007 and has gone around the world with great success. I got lucky because some weeks after I asked you if I could read this book for the assignemnt, we also reviewed this book and talked about it a lot in Spanish class. We did essays and compared the story in the book with what really happened, so I have an extensive understanding about this novel. I will explain what it's about:

This novel is about a German family who lives in Berlin formed by a daugther named Gretel, a father, a mother, the servants and the son, named Bruno. They have a high social class because the father is a very important commander in the German army of that time (mid-XX century). The story is narrated from the point of view of Bruno, the little boy of the family. He is very respectful but has a hard time understanding what the world was going on on that time (World War II).

One unexpected day, the family had to move near a concentration camp in Auchviz because Bruno's father had just been promoted. Nobody liked it in there, because their house there was smaller and Bruno had no friends there. When Bruno saw the people on the other side of the day he was astonished. He thought they were the neighbors, but he didn't understand why they all wore striped pajamas. Bruno was bored, he had wrong ideas about what was going on. He only had a correct thought: most of the soldiers were very mean. 

One day, he decided to go exploring, something he loves to do. He went all the way until he reached a side of the fence where he saw a boy of his age sitting on the ground, depressed. His name was Shmuel, he was a jew retained in the camp under terrible conditions. Bruno approached the boy. They started talking and got to know each other. Bruno had gained a new friend.

He visited Shmuel every day he could and got him food. They always talked but could never touch or play together. Shmuel couldn't understand completely what was going on too. One day, almost after a year living in Auchviz the family decided to return to Berlin, so Bruno and Shmuel had an idea. Shmuel got "lost" a couple days ago (he was executed in the camp), so they agreed in getting another uniform for Bruno to wear and be able to enter the camp through a small hole in the fence, so they could search for Shmuel's dad together. Inside the camp, they were driven into a chamber (a gas chamber). The kids thought it was because it was raining, but it wasn't. They were executed. 

Bruno was never seen again, his family wasn't the same. They looked form him everywhere only to find his clothes on the ground next to the fence...

In my opinion, this novel is based on the events of World War II and describes them from a German kid's point of view. It doesn't describe how cruel those events were for some people, full of racism, injustice, abuses, explotaition and genocides. The Germans just woke up feeling they were superior than anyone else, so any race, cullture, religion and tradition different from theirs should be erradicated to "purificate" the German culture.

For me, this is a heartbreaking story, and I remember seeing people cry at the end of the movie based on this book. Both the book as the movie were great in my opinion, but I always prefer movies over books... The story has a nice script and is entertaining by itself. Only that it is very, VERY slow, but I understand this is because the author wants to give an extensive but subtle description of how the situation and events were. That's what I think was the idea and purpose of the novel.

So, to sum all up, I really liked this novel and it is a great way to explain how people lived like in that age, around World War II using a drama that is fictional but at the same time is real  and veridical. It's a nice story that include lots of morals you should follow and not follow. Shows also the contrast between the high and low class separation that ocurred, specially the situation rich people live and how they treat both the German and jew servants. It presents the point of view of the high classes and their opinion about this situation (how their lives changed), because it's very probable that their wealth  increased, gaining resources from the almost "slave" work from jews in concentration camps, as well as the money gained by the army and soldiers (Germany had victories for a while). Remember what this war was for: TERRITORY.

Last, this book, being about history, will help me giving me backgroung information about this war before we review it in class (we're almost in that topic in the historic timeline). This may be just a novel, but it's one about history!

Upstairs, Downstairs assignment

My opinion about this series is that it's nice for people who like the XX century and want to learn more about how life was in that time. This series shows you how it was from a point of view from a wealthy family who is divided into the upstairs part of the house were the nobles live and the downstairs part for the servants. The relation between them is fine.

This specific episode is about the family having King Edward VII as guest of honor for dinner. Everyone is excited and the servants work as hard as they can to make sure everything is perfect, from the food Mrs. Bridge will prepare to the list of guests arranged by the servant chief, Mr. Hudson. The dinner was going fine until an unexpected visitor shows up. It was Sarah, she was a maid in that family before until the noble James Bellamy impregnated her. Now she shows up and her baby is coming. The servants secretly take her upstairs and call a doctor, while taking care of the guests of the party.

Sadly, Sarah's baby couldn't make it. The dinner was a success at least. The servants decide to make Sarah work with them again and she accepts.

This relates with history by showing the aspects of a rich family, with servants, and a colonial-type house. The first decades of the XX century in England are shown, when it is still a monarchy. Some art styles, house designs, gourmet dishes and clothing are shown, giving us ideas of how life was for the wealthy. This episode never shows a single scene where we could appreciate the street, it only shows the family inside the house. We can also appreciate the behavior and aspects of the family, which are based on obedience, lots of respect and formality.

The character with which I'm indentified the most is Mr. Hudson, the head of the staff, because, apart from being my 2nd favorite character (the 1st one being Mrs. Bridge), formality, responsability and perfection are the behaviors I'm trying to follow. Also, most of the times I prefer giving orders and guiding others rather than being ordered and directed. 

Modernism in the Arts Reactions

Modernism is one of my favorite art styles because it often refers to innovation, technology, industrialization and urbanization, some of my favorite topics. I like what is new and makes a change, not the rutinary. This is exactly what this style is about.

First of all, I read some of the poems and some of them talk about the changes in the cities, like "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d", written by Walt Whitman. It refers to the "sparkling" new vision of the country, and includes some of the new major inventions like ships. He refers to city growth and urbanization when he says that the cities "envelop man and land".

Some other poems talk about the change in the thoughts of society and government. For example, the poem "The Second Coming" by William Butler Yeats talks about the reforms and anarchism (it even mentions it literally). It states that the people no longer heres the government nor the religion, "the centre can not hold".

Concerning to images, some of the most famous (or at least, the ones I know about) were created in this style, which is cool. Sunrise, The Slave Ship, The Starry Night, A Sunday on the Grand Jatte, The Scream, The Persistence of Memory, they all are paintings I like. Some of them talk about the urban life, a scene of "the common day", while other present abstraction and fragmentation.

The music is another aspect of this art style that I like. While some of the songs are calm, slow and have little emotion, some other songs include lots of drama and "epicness". They are the kind of background songs you find in the older movies from the 80's and 90's, which I really enjoy. Some of the songs combine both styles and start slow but get to a very dramatic moment.

To sum all up, the Modernism style of art is one of my favorite styles respecting to music and painting. I like anything innovating, dramatic or epic. This style combines all of those aspects!

Historical Biography Assignment

"Albert Einstein"

I chose this specific character because I really like science (especially physics and chemistry), so this famous person is indicated for this essay. Also, I already know a lot about Albert Einstein, his life and inventions because a couple years ago I read a book written by Jess Brailler, named “Who was Albert Einstein” (convenient title for a book…). This is a very interesting book about a great scientist. It tells you all about Albert Einstein´s life. It's full of funny pictures and excellent explanations that anyone would perfectly understand. It even explains most of Albert´s theories, discoveries and creations, but not all of them as they are very numerous. He was a 24-hour thinker.

Although we learned many important historic characters in the Industrialization session, we didn’t mentions Einstein, who was very important, so it’ll be nice to investigate about him. Also, we will probably mention this character on the next semester in Science class, as he is crucial for many discoveries and inventions that we will most likely review. It's always nice to have your ideas fresh.

He was born on March 14, 1879. As a boy, he rarely talked but he loved reading. He loved peace and violence frightened him. Albert was always asking lots of difficult and curious questions everywhere: In his house, in school, with his partners, with everyone. His parents saw interest in science from him so they started buying books and scientific tools. Albert was fascinated, but his family hadn’t too much money.

Albert loved music. He played the violin. Albert didn´t went to elementary school, he taught himself reading as much as he can. He went to a German high school, but he didn’t like it, as all was very unfair in there.

Albert slowly started to publish papers, then magazines and finally books. Albert married a friend named Mileva Maric. He always was writing new ideas to publish them. He published many famous ideas and theories that revolutionized the world and the science world.

As Albert published more brilliant ideas, he was becoming more famous and well-known. But there was a problem: during his life, World War 1 and 2 started and Germans wanted to kill Albert because he was Jew, intellectual and pacifist (every aspect the Germans hated! Albert was constantly moving around the globe in an attempt to escape the Germans until the war was over, which he accomplished.

Albert was distracted with all his thinking and he forgot everything like eating and taking care of his hygiene. He invented the atomic bomb and with it, he stopped war. Albert leaved Mileva in Germany and married with Elsa to have a normal, pacific life after the war ended. He died on April 18, 1955, but never stopped thinking…

Consider this: Maybe the information is not that extensive, but remember: it was done only with my own knowledge from a book I read years ago. Also, the book is simple and for all ages, so this information is simple and short.