At Seventeen

The main idea in the poem “At Seventeen” by Janis Ian is, the pretty girls get all the love while the less pretty girls have to make up their own.  In the poem it says “I learned the truth at seventeen that love was meant for beauty queens” (Ian 1^st stanza).  It also states “Desperately remained at home inventing lovers on the phone” (Ian 2^nd stanza).   Because it says love was meant for beauty queens we know that the less beautiful girls don’t get love.  Also because it says desperately means that the less pretty girls feel bad about themselves and are upset that they don’t get any love.  It also says “remained at home” which tells us that the pretty girls are out somewhere with their lovers while the less pretty girls are at home.  The last thing that it says is “inventing lovers on the phone”.  That tells us that they want lovers badly and are very upset.

 

                The most effective literary device used to give us this message is the diction used.  The author used words like “Ravaged”, “ugly”, “beautiful” and “desperately”.  These words really emphasize the sentences meaning.  The use of the word desperately was great.  The author could have used any other word but they chose desperate.  That tells us that the person is probably depressed or upset or frantic with what they are doing.  The use of ravaged is also good.  The author could have said mad or upset or depressed but they chose ravaged which tells us that the person is so mad they are breaking things.  The word beautiful tells us that the person they are talking about is beautiful.  Not just good looking or pretty but beautiful.  The last word is ugly.  The author uses this to describe the narrator.  When the narrator calls them self ugly that tells us that they are upset with them self and are probably jealous of the beautiful girls.  The use of diction was great in this story and I think it helped us find the message in this poem.

Holocaust quote

The quote I will be talking about today is  "All night we went to bed with all our clothes on, falling into a restless sleep, listening for the ring."(Garfield,87) in the book “Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors” edited by Belle Millo.


I chose this quote because it shows how bad life was in the ghetto.  The fact that the jews slept in their clothes means that it was very cold.  It shows that if they had a blanket it was not enough to keep warm during the winter.  In the summer or spring when you could survive without wearing clothes through the night the jews still had to wear their clothes or else another jew or a Nazi would steal their clothes.  Their clothes were needed during the holocaust to survive.  If you didn’t have them you would be cold get sick and die right away.  You would have nothing to protect you from the wind and the winter you wouldn’t have a chance in survival.  The other thing in this quote that shows how bad life was in the ghetto is it says “falling into a restless sleep”.  This shows that the Jews could not sleep in the concentration camps because they didn’t know what was going to happen or they were really scared.  The Jews would also be listening for air bombing alarms and their work shift bell.  It also says “listening for the ring”.  I think that means that they couldn’t sleep because if they missed the bell they would be killed, in public to make a statement saying, this will happen to you if you miss the bell.

PEA Protagonist & picture

The protagonist in the book "Voices of Holocaust Survivors", in the short story "Family of Belle Millo" is named Samuel Jarniewski.  He was in the holocaust.  His strongest character trait is he is very positive.  It shows this by saying, "His life in the holocaust was tinged over and over again with tragedy, and yet he continued - as always - to lead a productive and positive life filled with the joy of ever day living.``(Belle Milo, 149)

This shows he is positive because it says he lived with the joy of every day living.  It also says that he is positive right in the example.  I think this is his strongest character trait because if your life can be tinged with tragedy over and over and your still positive, than you must be really positive to stay that way.  It also shows he is determined by saying he is still positive in the holocaust.  He would have to be determined to stay positive in the holocaust.

This is a picture of Samuel Jarniewski

Blue bead by Noah Burke summary

In the story "the blue bead story" by Norah Burke, there is a girl named Sibia. She and her mom are going to get some paper grass to sell at the market. The mugger crocodile lies in the water along the path the women take to get to the paper grass. The women leave to go harvest the grass. On their way they passed a small campsite for graziers. When they cross the stream they make a lot of noise because it keeps the crocodiles away. It works this time.   They climb up the steep gnat and get to the grass. The women start to toil.   The women leave, and Sibia stays there on her own. Later Sibia leaves with her hayfork. When crossing the stream another woman from the village comes to the stream. She hops onto a rock in silence. She leans over with a gurrah and dips it into the stream. As it starts to fill it up. Then Sibia sees the head of a crocodile just a few feet away. But it’s too late, it all happened in a second. The crocodile lunges out of the water and grabs hold of the women's leg. She grabs onto the rock.  The crocodile pulls the women and she loses her grip. She ends up grabbing a log caught between two rocks. Sibia jumped into action, jumping from rock to rock. In all the convulsion going on crocodile slapped its tail. Water flew all over but Sibia didn't stop. She drove the hayfork into the saurian’s eye as hard as she could.  The mugger let go and disappeared.  Sibia dragged the women back to her campground, then Sibia goes back to get her pitch fork. .  Sibia is ecstatic. Beside it there is a blue bead.

Book report #1

Hi I'm jack and this is my book report.  The story I have been reading for the past couple of weeks is called "Voices of Winnipeg Holocaust Survivors".  It is edited by Belle Millo.  There isn't just one author in this story because it is hundreds of short stories writen by family members of holocaust survivors.  Some of the stories are writen by the survivors themselves.  This book is about people living in Winnipeg, who have been in the holocaust and survived.  It shows the hardships these people had to overcome.  It also shows how bad life was in the ghetto.  These are true stories in this book.  It is a sad book, but a very good one.  I chose this book to read because I like to read and learn about the holocaust.



All about me



My name is Jack Mackid.  My favourite subjects are hockey because its a lot of fun, science because its interesting, and gym because its fun.  My hobbies  are hockey, ultimate, hunting, and riding pine. My favourite hobby is hockey.  I also like dirt biking and golfing.  I have a yz 85 dirtbike and I ride it every day.  I play golf about 4 times a week but I'm not the best golfer.  My favourite color is blue.  I have two pets, a dog named Eva and a hedgehog named Olive. My dog is a golden doodle, she is 4 years old and she is all white.  My hedgehog is a year and a half old. Her quills are brown and white with white fur underneath. My favourite book is "The Hunger Games", and my favourite movies are "21 and 22 Jump Street".  My favourite kinds of books are war novels and my favourite kinds of movies are war and comedy. I like them because war movies are sad and interesting.  My favourite songs are "Country on the Radio"and "Yeah".  My favourite kind of music is country because it is sad. This is my all about me, by Jack Mackid