Conflict in ‘Of Mice and Men’

One conflict that I would like to elaborate on from Of Mice and Men is about Carlson insisting on shooting Candy’s dog. There was a conflict with Candy against the rest of the men in The Bunkhouse prior to the old dog finally getting shot, but I think the afterword problem is far more important to the plot. After Candy’s old dog was brought outside to be shot by Carlson, the text says, “Candy lay rigidly on his bed staring at the ceiling” Once Candy’s dog is killed, Candy is all alone. The old dog was his only family, since most people during this time seemed to lose touch with their family as soon as they went to find a job. Candy also feels useless since he is old and is missing a hand. As he lays on his bed, feeling empty inside, he knows that he will probably be fired soon, with nobody to be with him and nowhere to go. After Candy lay on his bed some more, listening to George tell Lennie once again about their dream, Candy says, “ ‘… Tell you what——‘ He leaned forward eagerly. ‘S’pose I went in with you guys… ‘“ Due to the old dog getting shot, Candy was all alone, which caused him to want to help Lennie and George fulfill their dream, as long as he could be in on it with them. Candy then offered to help them by putting in his three hundred and fifty dollars, which would have taken Lennie and George such a long time to get on their own. Now that Candy offered to help, Lennie and George’s dream started to become more and more real. So, the conflict with Candy, Carlson and the old dog actually had a positive effect on the plot.

Another conflict that had a large impact on the plot is with Curley. Curley thinks he is superior to all of the other men on the ranch because he is the boss’ son. He wants people to know that he is stronger than them and feels threatened by people just because he thinks that they might be stronger than them. In the beginning of the book, when Curley first meets Lennie, he dislikes him a lot. We then learn from Slim that this is because Lennie is big. Curley hates big people because he is a smaller man, and feels like they think that they are better than him, even if they don’t. This part was the beginning of the conflict which would have an impact on the plot. On page 62, directly after Lennie, George, and Candy had been talking about their dream life, the author says, “Lennie was smiling with delight of the memory of the ranch. Curly stepped over to Lennie like a terrier. ‘What the hell you laughin’ at?’ Lennie looked blankly at him. ‘Huh?’ Then Curley’s rage exploded …” The building up anger towards Lennie, only because he’s larger than him is the conflict that Lennie and Curley have. This one smile of Lennie was the last straw for Curley, even though Lennie didn’t direct it towards him. This anger that is filling Curley finally blows and Curley starts fighting Lennie, which ends with Lennie crushing Curley’s hand with his massive strength. Due to Lennie crushing Curley’s hand, Curley’s wife likes Lennie even more. I predict that this will cause an effect on the plot in the future, but in regards to the effect that it has on the plot so far, there is something. Now, Curley knows that he can be beat and it brings his power down a little. This is how this conflict between Lennie and Curley affect the plot.

Of Mice and Men Chapter 2

Describe the atmosphere of the ranch and bunkhouse. Be sure to include characteristics of different characters that were formally or informally introduced to us in this chapter. Support your choice with textual evidence and interpretation.

The atmosphere or mood that I get from the bunkhouse and the ranch is hopelessness. I see this in the text even before George and Lennie arrive there. On page 17, as George and Lennie are still on their way to the bunkhouse, the text says, “The bunkhouse was a long, rectangular building. Inside, the walls were whitewashed, floor unpainted… small, square windows… solid door with a wooden latch.” These few descriptions show the uninviting feel the place has, with no paint, little sunlight, plain white walls. This bunkhouse is a prison, being locked into the job, never knowing if you will ever leave. George and Lennie often talk about their dream of one day owning a farm of their own, and this job may be one of their only chances.

The characters that appear in Of Mice and Men also affect the atmosphere of the ranch. For instance, when a character that is friendly to Lennie and George, like Slim is, the atmosphere seems lighter and happier. There seems to be some hope when there is someone that they George can talk to and trust. “‘Course he ain’t mean… he gets in trouble… Like what happened in Weed—-‘ He stopped, stopped in the middle of turning a card. He looked alarmed and peered over at Slim. ‘You wouldn’t tell nobody?’... ‘You wouldn’t tell?... No, ‘course you wouldn’t.’ ” At this section George puts some of his greatest trust on Slim, this character that he just met. This trust brightens the mood and makes the ranch seem like a trustable place. But, the same thing can happen the opposite way. There are some characters that are not trustable, like Curley. Curly makes it clear that he doesn’t like George and Lennie, which makes a darker and less happy atmosphere of the ranch. These characteristics and other help to strengthen the atmosphere, one way or another.



Why doesn't Curley's wife have a name? What message, if anything, is John Steinbeck trying to send by not giving her a first name? Support your choice with textual evidence and interpretation.


Steinbeck might’ve chosen to not give Curley's wife a name to show how she is just an object to people. When men see her, they see her how she looks, not how her personality is. When George and Lennie first sees her, she asks them if they’ve seen Curley, thrusts her body forward to them, wearing tons of makeup and a cotton dress. According to the novella, “ Lennie still stared at the doorway where she had been. “ Gosh, she was purty.” He smiles admirably.” Steinbeck knew that if there was a woman who seemed to care only about looks, most people wouldn’t care about her name. Also, since the 1930’s was a time when women’s rights were changing, Steinbeck probably knew that there were still men who considered women as their property, and not having a name is a great way to dehumanize someone, so he gave Curley’s wife no name. Another instance where Curley’s wife is thought poorly of and talked about as if her looks were everything is on page 51. The text says, “ ‘Seen the new kid yet?’ He asked. ‘What kid?’ George asked. ‘Why, Curley’s new wife.’ ‘Yeah, I seen her.’ ‘Well, ain’t she a looloo?’”. A “Looloo” is an attractive woman. In this conversation, Whit starts it out by references Curly’s wife as “the new kid.” This seems like a term that is bringing someone down, not thinking of them as an adult. Then, they think of only her attractiveness and that is all Whit has to say about her. These may not have been Steinbeck’s intentions, but these are relevant anyways.


What are your overall impressions of Of Mice and Men thus far? Support your choice with a proper explanation.

Overall I am enjoying Of Mice and Men thus far. I have anticipated reading it for a year now, and I can barely stop myself from reading ahead. Of Mice and Men tells about a fictional journey of two men during The Great Depression in Salina, California. This novella is interesting because it tells you about how life was like during that time, but at the same time it also keeps you wanting to know what will happen next. Of Mice and Men tells about two men, George and Lennie, who are migrant workers during The Great Depression. migrant workers were a big part of The Great Depression, so it was a good idea for Steinbeck to include this. Steinbeck also gives small hints about other aspects of The Great Depression, such as lack of food, etc. This small way that he does it gives me a good overall impression of the book.

Morrie Aphorism blog

An aphorism from Tuesdays With Morrie is “... Love is how you stay alive, even after your gone.” This aphorism is saying that love is how we stay alive, even if you are just a memory of love. Morrie was saying that love is what we revolve around and if people love you, you will always be in their memories and they will always love you. And, when your memory is there, you are there. So, if you were loved when you were living, you will be loved once you are dead. Because, being loved is being alive. This aphorism may not just be talking about death, though. When you are loved, you are in the thoughts of your loved ones every time you are not with them. If you are just not home, or if you are on vacation, your loved ones will be thinking of you and loving you, and in a way, you are there.

I can relate this aphorism to a personal experience of mine, as can practically everyone since it is so relevant in life all the time. My personal experience may be different from other people’s, but the idea is still the same with this aphorism. A few months ago, I had a pet die. I loved her so dearly and was devastated when she was gone. But, through my love with her, I can feel her still alive in my mind and in my heart. This shows how this aphorism is relevant and true. With love, even if someone is gone, they are still alive. This aphorism shows how if your love is true, you will keep that love with you forever.

I agree with the aphorism “... love is how you stay alive, even after you’re gone.” because I can relate it to my everyday life. I can relate it to I being the one that remembers the people who are gone, because of love. If I didn’t love someone and now they are gone, they become extinguished from my memory and they are no longer alive to me. But, if I love someone, I remember them in my mind and I know they are alive in my heart and alive in my mind, even if they are dead. I can also relate this with how I treat others. I want to make people love me, so that once I am gone, I am still there in their hearts. This aphorism shows a phenomenon of everyday life, for everyone. If someone does good things in the world, and make people love them, they will be remembered daily because love makes people alive.

“All humans have one thing in common; that they are human” is my aphorism that I have made regarding to life. This aphorism is basically saying that everyone makes mistakes and I think it really summarizes life in general. People might feel sad because they think they are different than everyone else or because someone made them feel bad, but this aphorism would show them that they aren’t that much different from everyone else. And, just like they aren’t perfect, no one else is either.

End of The Year Reflections

As I sit here and reflect on my ELA class this past year, my brain fills with information, memories, and other nostalgic thoughts that I will cherish forever. I ponder about what was the most important, though, and my mind goes blank. Every piece of information, every word that was read is important to know and I almost cannot choose. But, I can narrow it down to the important things for life, since some of it just gives me a good laugh. The number one important thing I learned to do this year that will help me in the future, is annotating. Before this year, I never annotated. I’m not sure I had even heard of the concept. But, after many long chapters annotated to the fullest, I can honestly say that I know how to annotate. I have even found myself annotating books read on my free time, not even realizing it until it’s done. I know I will find myself annotating books in the future, just to fully understand the words being read. Annotating is a skill that I will hold on to forever.

I cannot tell what the future will hold, but I can predict what might happen, and what I will remember. One thing that I think that I will remember, for possibly the rest of my life, is the To Kill A Mockingbird unit. This unit included the most annotating I have done in my life, the reading of a complex book, the making of many tedious socratic seminars, and a feast. The feast was probably the most memorable event to me, since it was the finale to the unit. And, we all brought food and ate together, which was a very rare event I will probably remember this for a long time. All of these events were interesting to me, and gave me many stories to tell and memories to think about.

This class was, in general, very nice to me and other classmates. I remember countless times where a classmate filled me in on something I missed or explained something to me that I didn’t understand. It would be unfair of me to prioritize any of these everyday kind gestures. So, I do not have a “nicest thing someone in our class did”, due to there being so many nice gestures and so many nice people.

I would like to think that I have taught someone in my classroom something this year, but I don’t know because I haven’t heard anyone mention it. I’m sure that I have taught my classmates small things, like how to do an essay if they needed clarification or what to annotate about if they didn’t know. But, I haven’t taught anyone anything major, or I would certainly know about it. Honestly, I don’t think I have ever taught anyone a life lesson or anything major like that. But, I am fine with that because I do what I can and I try to always try my best.

As I look back on this past year, I can see many aspects that I improved in. I improved in my writing, my reading, my annotating, and even my social skills somewhat. But, I think the biggest improvement I made was in my reading and annotating. Now, I can fully understand the text being read, through my annotating, which is an improvement in both of the reading and the annotating aspect. In a way, these aspects are connected because they affect each other. So, it makes sense that these would be the two areas that I improve in. I have improved in annotating from all of the practice I have gotten from To Kill A Mockingbird, Night, and Of Beetles And Angels. Now, I have noticed that I am annotating in my free choice reading books not even thinking about it. This is something that I am proud of.

This year, I experienced the perfect amount of challenges in my ELA class. I wasn’t overwhelmed by all the challenges, but I also wasn’t bored by the lack of challenges. But, even with all these challenges there was probably one challenge that stood out among the rest. This challenge is referred to as “Socratic Seminars”. Socratic seminars were really stressful to me and I always just couldn’t do them right. Since I typically tend to be a quiet person, having a conversation with the entire class is difficult to me. I always found myself unable to talk even when I had something to say. But, after many of these socratic seminars, I had my best socratic seminar of the year, which happened to be the last one with Mrs.Larson present. I talked about four times during this particular socratic seminar, which is good compared to my average of one or two times. I feel like next year, this concept of socratic seminars will be less of a challenge for me.

I did lots of writing this year, through blogs, essays, stories, etc. When I look back, it is almost unbelievable how many words I actually wrote. So, I cannot say which was my “best” piece of the year. But, in this passage I will determine which of these pieces of writing isn’t the best. By doing this, I will find out which is one of the best. As I sit here and think about my writing, I realize that the passages I wrote in the beginning of the year were not the best. I had almost no experience with writing when I began this year. I recall not knowing what I was doing, and therefore rushing through them, not doing my best. I grimace when I reread my first writings of the year, noticing so many more mistakes, and so much more I could have done. So, I have to say that my recent writing has got to be my best, since I’ve had much more experience and have learned so much more things.

Most of the books I have read this year were enjoyable to me and I cannot possibly decide which of these was my overall favorite. But, I can say that one that I would consider a favorite was To Kill a Mockingbird. I liked this book a lot because it had a perfect proportion of fiction to history. In the reading of this book, I heard an interesting story, and also learned useful facts. I also learned about the events of The Great Depression, which I found interesting. Plus, I got to read about the classic story of Scout, Jem, and Atticus, which I had been waiting to read.

Now that I have almost completed my ELA class of the 2018-2019 school year, I have so much more experience, I am so much more wise, and I am so much better at things than I used to be. So, I must give the future students of Mrs.Larson’s ELA class some advice. The first advice I would give them would be to just try your best and you will do great. I would tell them to have faith that you will do good, and you will do good. Also, check your work again and again to make sure you did you best work. And, finally, I would tell them that less is sometimes more.

Tuesdays With Morrie Blog

“The Fifth Tuesday: We Talk about Family” was the most impactful on me because I could relate to it the most. It is important to talk about family because family is always there for you and they should be the closest people in the world to you. Family is who we rely on and family is the reason we live the way we do. Our family is who impacts our lives the most and makes us become the people we become. As Morrie said, “The fact is, there is no foundation, no secure ground, upon which people may stand if it isn’t the family.” Family is typically who keeps you through life, and if it isn’t for your family, you will fall. Throughout this chapter of Tuesdays With Morrie, Morrie explains to Mitch that if it wasn’t for his loving, caring family, he would fall, and let his sickness take over him. “Love each other or perish”, Morrie explained. I can relate to these words, because if I feel like I am not loved, and I would surely feel like I am dying, because love is how we keep going on in life. Even through just reading these sentences, I am impacted by the words of it. I become thankful for my family and for all the love that I have. I also develop empathy for those who have no love, or have no family. This is most likely what Morrie felt as he said these words many, many years ago.

Another point Morrie brings up is how wonderful it is to make a family. He says, “There is no experience like having children.” This aspect of this chapter doesn’t relate to me very much, since at this point in my life, I am a child myself. But, the ending part of it impacted me, Morrie says, “Even though there is a price you have to pay… Because I’ll be leaving them soon.” I worry about my family leaving me in this way, or I leaving them. The fact that someone else feels this way makes me feel better in a way. I know that I have to love them and appreciate them while I can, as Morrie told Mitch in this chapter. While Mitch is talking to Morrie about family, he starts to reflect back on his own family. He thinks about his siblings, his parents, and in particular, his brother. He reflects on how his relationship with his brother isn’t what he wants it to be. While reading this, I started to reflect on my own family. I thought about my own younger brother. We fight sometimes but we know that we love each other. As Morrie said, “Without love, we are birds with broken wings.” I feel like I know what Mitch went through because my brother and I have gone through that too at times. I am just glad that I have love, or ai would not be able to live.

SOL#18

“This is what deja vu must feel like”, I thought as I sat in my block three class just as I did the day before. I felt the hard, stone table that my hand rested on. and my ipad’s light shined in my eyes. I could hear the noise of screaming, laughing students around me, throwing a ball around the classroom. I wondered why my teacher lets his students be this crazy, as I had wondered the day before, and even the day before that. I felt as if this day had happened again and again. The only thing that changed was the date on the whiteboard. I sat, typing my slice of life of the day, as I had the day before, and for the past 17 days, typically in this class, but not always. Everyday, I write as fast as I can, then stop to read what I wrote. Then, I catch myself reading the same line I had just written again and again. I catch myself reading the same line I had just written again and again. I catch myself reading the same line I had just written again and again. Eventually, in these repeating hours, my teacher tells us to pack up our stuff, which I do, day after day after day. I found myself just wanting something to be different, even if it is something small. But, at this particular moment, it doesn’t. Or, at least I don’t notice it if it does. Soon, I was walking down the crowded halls heading to lunch, just as I had the day before. I walked with nobody, not being able to find my friends and just wanting to go eat. I get down to the lunchroom, which is actually called the “M.P.R”, and sit down, just as I did the day before.

Tuesdays With Morrie: Bucket List

The first few chapters of Tuesdays With Morrie focus on Mitch Albom’s young adult life and how Morrie affected, in some aspects, how he viewed life and death. One main theme in this book that I have noticed is to not take life for granted. I have only been around for thirteen years, but I already notice this in my own life. I have learned to not take life for granted and to just live in the moment. One way to do this is to make a list of things you want to do before you die, in order to plan out your life and not take it for granted, to use every moment of it. This list is called a bucket list, presumably because it is everything you want in life in all in the same place, like things in a bucket are. While making a bucket list, you think about life and how it only happens once and you come to the thought that you don’t want to waste life, and you need to use every moment and know what you want to do with every moment before it’s too late. Another important thing about making a bucket list is to follow through. If you write down what you want to do, then never do it, it is just a waste and you will regret it. In Tuesdays With Morrie, Albom said, “Instead of chasing my own fame, I wrote about famous athletes chasing there’s” With writing a bucket list, you are in a way committing yourself to trying to “chase” your dreams, instead of giving up. I am doing just that with this bucket list you are about to see.

My Bucket List:

Be a lead role in a play
Write a book
Get into a good college
Get a job
Buy a house
Get a dog/cat
Give a speech
Get a skinny pig
Travel the world

SOL#17

As I ran down the steps to my back hall, I could feel the anxiety of possibly missing the bus rise to the back of my throat. I then pulled my backpack off the hanger at the bottom of the stairs and ran back up. It was only a few stairs but it felt like too many at this moment. I hopped from step to step, maneuvering my backpack out of the way of the walls on either side of my. Soon, I was back to my kitchen table and flung my backpack around me an on top of the table. I could feel the presence of my friend standing behind me, watching my struggle to not miss the bus and also not forget any of my school supplies. I stuffed my folder and pencil case into my backpack and quickly zipped it up, as I almost simultaneously swung it around to onto my back. Then, I remembered that I needed my windbreaker, so I pushed my backpack off me as it flung to the floor. I ran back down the stairs to get my light jacket, pulled it on, and ran back up the stairs, zipping my jacket and running as fast as I could without looking absolutely ridiculous, although I am sure that I did. I then flung my backpack on me and grabbed my ipad and ipad bag as I rushed out the door after my friend and my mom. We all walked to the driveway and my mom saw us off to the bus stop. We ran down the alley and took a turn to see that the bus had not yet come and we were free to walk the rest of the way. We walked, gasping for air and trying to cool ourselves down from the dash down the street. We finally got to the bus stop, about to wait another ten minutes until the bus came. I wished I would have just stopped the rush and breathed while at home.

SOL#16

My work for the class I was in was finished and I now had freetime. I looked around for a few minutes and thought about what I might do. I looked at the book that was in my pile of things and thought about reading for a little bit. But, I decided to first check on my ELA class page to see if we were doing anything that day that I could get a headstart on. I clicked the link to get me on google and I saw the familiar pale grey screen that had the lighter grey bar on top. I clicked that bar and brought my hand over to the small white button in front of me that had an “e” on it. I brought my finger down and pressed it. I could see the smaller “e” appear on the bar at the top. Then I quickly typed “dmodo.com” after the “e”. This brought me to my ELA class page and I scrolled down to look at the schedule of the day. It said that we were writing down our vocab words of the week. I then was about to start writing down then but I decided that I should wait until I got to class. My teacher would give us time to write them down so I might as well use that time. So, I was going to go back and read my book. But, I decided to put a hold on my book reading a little bit longer and do some other work. I knew I had already done my slice of life blog for that day, but I decided to write one for the next day, so I would be free then. That is the blog you are reading at this moment.

SOL#15

Once I finished writing the last sentence on the poster I had been working on, I raised my hand. The substitute teacher walked over to the chair I was sitting in and I asked her to check my work over. She did just that and said that it looked fine. So, I flipped the paper over and wrote my name as she walked away to check on another student’s work. I then stood up from my chair, set down my poster, and picked up the scissors, glue stick, and ruler that were in the area that I worked in. I took these and went to the bins where my teacher kept that sort of stuff. I opened the drawers and slid the item into the correctly labeled bin. Then, I walked back to where my seat was and picked up the articles that I had been using. I then walked around the room along the counters and dropped the articles in their correct bin. I watched as the article fell and became just like the other articles just like it. Soon, I was back at my seat and sat down, sliding my pencil across the table so it was next to the rest of my stuff. Immediately, the pencil rolled down the uneven table due to the uneven floor and gravity, falling next to my ipad, which I had taken out in the meantime. I slid it back to and watched as the same thing happened. Frustration started to come to me and I hastily zipped open my pencil bag and shoved the pencil in it, then rezipping the bag and dropping it back on top of my notebooks. With the roll away pencil out of the way, my attention focused back on to my ipad and I continued the work I was trying to do.

SOL#14

I sat on the run-down couch that my family had had for my whole life. It was grey with white speckles on it and it smelled a little bit like guinea pig due to all the times my guinea pigs walked on the couch. Next to me was my brother holding our family computer on his lap. It was playing his favorite show on Netflix. I liked the show somewhat, but wasn’t quite as obsessed as he was. I was partially watching it but also partially doing my homework. I knew on the inside that I probably wasn’t doing my very best work in front of Netflix, but I could barely help it. I started to pay more attention on my homework than the show because personally, I thought the show was becoming boring. I was mostly just sitting there as support for my brother. Occasionally he would look at me and laugh or give me a sort of gasp. I would then copy his face and he would be satisfied and look back at the show. Soon, I was hooked on watching the show again and put my full attention on it. We were fairly far into the show, so it was getting to the intense part and I knew that I would soon need to put my homework away for later and just watch the show with my little brother.

SOL#13

I sat on the bed with my new book, reading and solving the puzzles lined up with the book. This book was by my favorite author and I had been wanting it for a while. Now, I was covered up by the blanket reading each word, enjoying the story and internalizing the information. I was beginning to get cold in this air conditioned house that I sat in. I reached to the bottom of my bed and grabbed a red sweatshirt that actually belonged to my little brother, but I was too freezing to care. I put my arms in it and left it like that because it was too small to put it all the way on. Then, I pulled the soft, blue blanket up to my waist and layed back down. I held the book out in front of me and continued reading for a few minutes. Then, I forced myself to close the book and look at the clock. We would be going to church soon and I had to get ready. So, I rolled out of bed, still trying to keep the sweatshirt on my arms. I walked to the bathroom and turned on the shower and jumped in to take a shower. Once I was done, I took the bathrobe and walked to get my clothes and got dressed. Then I walked to the steps and took my boots and sat on the steps to put them on. I laced them up and and tied them, standing up and running upstairs to get my jacket. I didn)t need it, but I still wanted to wear it. Soon, we would leave.

SOL#12

I stood in the light of the bright sun behind the window shining on me. I was leaning on the wooden counter that swooped down into the metal sink. I saw the blinding sun shining onto the reflective metal and into my eyes. I was forced to squint front the uncomfortable blindness. I dipped my hands into the plastic container of warm, soapy water in front of me. I picked up a bowl out of the water and took the sponge and rubbed it against the hard plastic to take the rotting food of it and it fell to the bottom of the sink. I rubbed the soapy sponge against the bowl a few more times for good measure and placed the soapy, but now clean bowl into the second part of the sink next to the one that had the dirty dishes in it. I continued this process through more bowls, plates, forks, knives, spoon,and many more eating utensils. Once I was done there was a pile of soapy dishes in a pile in one section of the sink. I then turned on the hot water and it rushed out of the spout and on top of the dishes, washing the soap off. I tried picking one up to rinse the soap off the bottom, but the water touched my hand and it felt like it was being burned alive. I quickly pulled my hand away. I added some cold water and the temperature was okay at last. I rinsed off the dishes and lined them up to dry.

SOL#11

I sat in board game club, on the brown rug on the floor next to my backpack and three friends next to me, laughing and shouting, while I sit, trying to do my homework. I wished that I could do board games in board game club, but no one else wanted to, I couldn’t. Everyone was instead yelling and laughing, throwing a ball around the room. This wasn’t my thing, and that was why I was sitting to the side of the room on the floor. Backpacks and ipads were next to me and all around me it seems. Sometimes I would look over at my friends and couldn’t help but smile at how crazy they were being. I sat thinking about life. I had just finished battle of the books. My group had gotten in 4th place, which I was satisfied by. Soon, I was back in reality and noticing what was happening around me. I heard my friend screaming/laughing next to me. I couldn’t tell which one it was. I honestly didn’t care what she was laughing at. I could just hear the craziness in my ears and the chaos in my mind. I just wanted to get my homework done so I could relax at home. Eventually, I did.

SOL#10

I walked into my block three, ready to work on the project we were currently doing in this class. We were building towers out of limited materials to see if we could build the tallest tower that would survive an earthquake. My partner and I hadn’t been doing very well in this. We had built one, then destroyed it because it didn’t work, so we had nothing at this point. So, I was excited to start again. But, when we got in class, my teacher started telling us stories and jokes. I would have normally enjoyed this but today I wanted to work. Then, my teacher pulled two tables to make a sort of triangle shape. Then, he made students stand in the triangle and tell the truth. He called it the “Truth Triangle”. This was sort of funny to me but I still wanted to do my work. Minutes later, we were dismissed to lunch. I walked down to the lunch room and quickly started eating my lunch and talked to friends until we were dismissed to go back to class. I went back to class, hoping my teacher might let us do the project. But, instead he gave us free time. It turns out that there were others who wanted to do work, though. So, he gave us the choice to either work or do free time. So, I finally got 20 minutes to work out of an hour long class. So, I did.

SOL#9

I sat in my math class, freezing cold, rubbing my hands together to try to keep warm. I look around me and see the light brown speckled table in which my notebooks, folders, and pencil case sit on. There is also a tissue box in the middle of the table for wiping off whiteboards or blowing your nose, which I personally thought was gross, but I wasn’t going to argue. I had finished my work and was just sitting there, waiting for the rest of my class to finish. Then I heard I heard my teacher talking. She was explaining how to do the math problem, which I already knew and I had already gotten the problem correct. So, I just stared off into space until I decided to just move on to the next slide. So I did, and I finished the problems on that slide and looked up, seeing what my teacher was doing. She was still explaining the problem on the previous slide, so I just sat there, feeling bored and wishing my teacher would just move on to the next page. Finally she did, but I had already done that problem so I moved on to the next slide. By the time I finished that slide, I decided to just do the whole lesson on my ipad. I did this with no trouble and finished quickly. My class had finally caught up with me and were doing the problem that I had just done. Soon, my class would be dismissed and I would move on to my next class.

SOL#8

The teacher came and tapped on our table signaling for us to go up and get lunch. So I got up and started walking to the line. Seconds later, I was there and I leaned up against the wall, waiting for the line to move. A few of my friends were next to me, but we didn’t talk. We just stood there, hungry and waiting. Finally, we were at the medium sized black cart with the plastic window covering the hot food. To me, all this food looked and smelled disgusting. The macaroni and cheese looked brown. The hot dogs were tinted a light green color and the nachos seemed very… cheesy. So, I skipped this part and signaled to the lunch lady that I wanted a cold lunch by pointing at the car next to this one. It was identical to the one that was currently in front of me, but didn’t have the plastic window blocking me from the food. I got to that second cart and took a sunbutter and jelly sandwich from the black plastic holder and put it into my empty tray. Then I took a juice and straw package and leaned in to say something to the lunch lady. I told her my id number because I had forgot my id and she needed to mark me down for getting lunch. Once she heard me, I walked off to my table to eat my lunch.

SOL#7

I woke up to the a snowstorm in April. I had been doing an argumentative essay on climate change so I was thinking a lot about it lately. Since it was about 70 degrees a week ago, I was now convinced that this was the end of the world as we know it. Then I heard that it was supposed to be 50 degrees the next day and I actually started to stress out. It became even worse, when later on in the day it started to thunder. And this may seem normal, but it was thundering while it was snowing. “This is the end!”, I heard myself say. Then, with all these thoughts and worries about Earth’s climate, I started to write my slice of life of the day. I am writing this in hopes of people finally realizing that climate change is a problem and that we have to do something about it. After my long thinking session, my mom brought me my lunch, which happened to be mac n’ cheese, I ate it up, listening to the snow and the thunder outside, which I hadn’t thought possible until today. I finished my lunch in front of the television and then put my bowl in the sink to be washed. Then I took out my ipad again to continue my slice of life for the day. Then, I finished it and continued on with my day.

SOL #6

I got into the car and buckled my seatbelt. I sat there for the five minute drive thinking about what we would do once we got there. Then, the car pulled over to the side of the road and my mom said goodbye to me. I said it back then opened the card door and ran to my friend’s house. Her mom opened the door and I said hi. She said it back and let me into the house. My friend was standing there and we walked to her room and sat on her bed. We opened the computer in front of us and got Netflix on. We discussed what to watch for a few minutes then finally came to a decision. We turned on the movie, which she had watched before but I hadn’t. An hour and a half later the movie was done. It was an okay movie, in my opinion. Then we scrolled the pages and found a movie that neither of us had seen before. It had the same actor in it as the previous movie and it had a similar plot. Then, another hour and a half later, the movie was done. By this point, I was becoming very tired because it was around 11:00 at night. I wondered why I was so exhausted because this was only a little bit later than when I usually go to bed. Then I remembered that I had gotten up at 6:00 that morning, so the mystery was solved. During the next movie, I fell asleep and by the time I woke up my mom was coming to get me and I sleepily went home.

SOL#5

We walked quietly to my house. The wind was very strong and our hair was getting blown all over the place and I could barely see anything. We had only been walking for a couple of minutes, from the bus stop, but it seemed like hours. Finally we came in view of my house and quickened our pace. My friend and I saw our brothers playing with their Nerf guns in my backyard. We said hi to them and went into the house. I yelled hello to my mom in the other room before we continued on to the front room. We stood there for a few seconds pondering what to do. My friend standing next to me asked if I wanted to go outside. I didn’t really feel like it but I said okay because anything had to be better than this uncomfortable silence. So, we went outside but still didn’t know what to do. So, we just sat there. Eventually,she got on her phone and I was left alone staring off into space. I thought about my day and what had happened and what I could have done better. Soon I got the idea to watch something on Netflix, because anything we could do would be better than this.

SOL #4

I took out my ipad and my headphones, as I was instructed to do by the teacher. Then, we were told to exit out of any apps except for one called TestNav. I almost never have any unnecessary apps open, but I checked just in case. I didn’t, as I thought, so I just went onto TestNav and sat there, staring off into space thinking about nothing in particular. Then my teacher gave more instructions and my attention snapped back into reality. I did as we had been told and the test was about to begin. After that it blew by like a breeze. I read articles, passages, questions, and answers. I wrote and wrote until my brain was sore. Then, I was done. I raised my hand and waited for my teacher to come over to log me out of the test. Then I put my ipad away and took out my book to read. I knew I needed to finish this before next Tuesday, which was the battle of the books competition. For some reason, I really wasn’t in the mood to read at that moment, though. It may have been because I just took the ELA IAR test, I thought. So, I took out my ipad and went onto edmodo.com to see what we were doing in class today. I scrolled down the list and saw “Thursday, 4/11”. Then I read what we would be doing and I wasn’t to excited for it. Then I remembered that I had to do my slice of life for today. So, I got on my Slice of Life google docs and started to write.

SOL #3

I opened the door to the band room and saw only a few people sitting in the chairs liming the room. I heard the teacher in the room tell me to get my guitar. So, I walked out the door and down the long stairs to the main office and found my guitar sitting against the wall there. I took it and headed back upstairs, maneuring my guitar through doorways and other students walking by. Finally I was back upstairs and in the band room, sitting in a chair, waiting for everyone else to arrive. My guitar was propped up against my legs until I decided to place it on the floor instead, Finally, my group came and we all went to the back row of chairs where there were spots open. Then, everyone gathered in the room and the vice principal told us to begin. I suddenly hear music playing, songs being sung, dances being danced acts being acted, and instruments being played. It was all a blur until it was my group’s turn. We walked up to the front of the room. I could sense my friends panicking but somehow I wasn’t. We were announced and I strum the guitar with all my might. Then the song began. I could faintly hear my friends standing there next to me, sing quietly, nervous at what others may think. I focused on playing and I tried my hardest to make it sound amazing. Apparently it did because I heard clapping all around me as I walked back to my seat. This was so intense for my group mates and I, and it was only the practice talent show!

Quarter 3 Reflections

My biggest improvement in English Language Arts has has most likely been in my note taking and annotating skills. During this past quarter we read and annotated both Night and To Kill A Mockingbird, which consisted of a lot of learning about how to do it and when to do it. At the beginning of this quarter, I was awful at annotating and I didn’t do very much of it. I got some practice with Night, but the main one was To Kill A Mockingbird. By the time I was finished reading To Kill A Mockingbird, I had piles of post-it notes, full of annotations. This felt like a huge accomplishment for me, and I feel like I couldn’t have done it before. Now, I have found myself annotating my independent reading books outside of school. These annotating skills from this past quarter might last a lifetime.

I cannot think of anything specific that I am proud of from this past quarter but there are many small thing that I have accomplished last quarter. I have read and annotated To Kill A Mockingbird, which feels like an accomplishment to me because I heard about it being so difficult and I was nervous about doing it at first, but it turned out to not be too challenging. I also read my books for Battle of the Books, which is a bit of an accomplishment because it is something not everyone did. Nothing very big happened to me this quarter, I just focused on getting through it, trying my best and getting good grades. By next quarter, I will have completed the Battle of the Book competition. I will have done the talent show also. And, I will have also finished my 7th grade year at Heritage Middle School and I will be moving onto the 8th grade, which is somewhat an accomplishment.

The most challenging part of English Language Arts this quarter was probably socratic seminars. I tend to be a quiet person, especially in front of people, so the idea of speaking in front of the class isn’t appealing to me. The first socratic seminar I was not prepared for. I didn’t do the organizer for it and I barely had my thoughts together for it. I didn’t speak very much at all during that socratic seminar. The next one I did better in with the aspect of being prepared. But, even until the last socratic seminar, I couldn’t find the voice to speak. This challenge of speaking I still haven’t gotten through, but I plan to work on it. I will work on finding my voice and speaking more in front of people to truly prepare myself for the next socratic seminar.

SOL#2

Each week on Friday I have a guitar lesson at a small store down my street where they have music lessons and I had taken 3 years of guitar and ukulele lessons. On this Friday I took my guitar and placed it into its case and clipped each of the small pieces of metal to secure it in order to make sure it didn’t fall out on the walk to the music store. My mom and I put on our jackets and opened the door to start our short little walk. We walked down the alley past our backyard and garden, then through the small gate at the back of our fence.Then, we hurried down the alley past garages and garbage cans. Soon we were at the Dunkin’ Donuts by my house. There we took a turn right and headed down that sidewalk with the cars zooming by us. Once we got to the intersection leading me to the music store, my mom kissed me goodbye and sent me off to cross the street and go to my destination. Once I got there, I opened the big door leading to the shop. Then I turned to the left and into the room where the lessons were taught. My teacher met me there and we went to a back room to start my lesson.

SOL#1

I sit on the couch behind the television working frantically on my math homework trying to get it done by the next day. My guinea pig, Andrea is sitting next to me, almost asking me to pet her. So I do, putting the homework aside for now. My full attention is on my pet. Then I start to think about the day and what happened in each block. Then something pops in my head that I had forgotten to do. I quickly get back on my ipad and scroll through the apps to find google docs. I quickly open a new presentation and title it, “sol 1”. I know this stands for “slice of life 1”. Then I press the little blue button on the right hand side of the screen and watch as the keyboard pops up. I think for only a couple of seconds before I know exactly what I will type. I press the first letter. It is an “I” and after this one the letters pour out of my fingers and onto the screen. My mind works hard to write each letter, each sentence and do it on time for me to get a decent amount of sleep. Soon I feel that I may have enough and I could possibly stop and just go to bed. I hear in the background my family talking softly to one another. Although I know I should be fast asleep, I continue to type and just can’t stop. Maybe soon I will be able to take a rest and breathe again, knowing I have completed this challenge for today.

TKAM Character Relationship

Dill and Frances both know Scout, but don’t live near her. Both of these boys need to travel a far way to get to Maycomb, but they have different perspectives about the people who live there. Francis, the cousin of Scout thinks she, Atticus, and Dill are losers who don’t act the way they should. From the conversation we read between Frances and Scout, we learn that Francis doesn't like Dill and thinks he is a “runt”. So far, we don’t know how Dill feels about Frances, but they are no doubt not friends. Frances is a very opinionated eight year old, who knows who he doesn’t like and makes sure they know it. He informed Scout that her father was not responsible for his children and lets them “run around like stray dogs”. Dill is a lot more respectful than Francis, even if he may be more unfortunate than him. Dill even asked Scout to marry him, which was kind even if it was a little strange at their age. Francis wouldn’t even say anything nice to Scout, only hurtful words would spill from his mouth. It seems like Dill and Francis are opposites, likely to never become friends.

Dill and Francis have very different relationship with Scout. Scout looks forward to Dill coming every summer and he could very possibly be the only thing that keeps her going all school year. At the end of their school year, Scout said, “Summer was the best season… but most of all, summer was Dill.” Summer is when Dill came and Dill was a reason they awaited the summers so greatly. During the summer Dill, Scout, and Jem played together and never purposely tried to hurt each other, even if they did sometimes. But, at Christmastime, Francis came with his grandmother, Scout’s Aunt Alexandria. To Scout, Francis was a completely different situation. Scout and Jem loved the Christmas season, except for one thing. “A flip of the coin revealed the uncompromising lineaments of Aunt Alexandra and Francis.” Francis is the part of the holiday season the Scout doesn’t like, which shows that they don’t have a good relationship, unlike her and Dill.

Both Dill and Francis have an effect on Scout, both positive and negative. Overall, Francis has a negative effect on Scout. Scout never looks forward to seeing Francis and Francis brings out the worst in Scout. After one conversation with Francis, Scout started fighting and swearing, when she had promised the people who she cares about that she wouldn’t do it anymore. It seems like if it weren’t for Francis, she would not be so aggressive towards others. Dill also has a bit of a negative effect on Scout, even if it isn’t as much of a negative as Francis’. Scout is mostly happy when Dill is around, but she also becomes sad or frustrated when he doesn’t pay attention to her. If Dill wasn’t there, Scout obviously wouldn’t care if Dill wasn’t hanging out with her, and she would have Jem to herself. Dill also may be a slightly bad influence on Scout since he is a bit of troublemaker, and gets Scout to do the bad things also. Dill has an overall more positive effect on Scout compare to Francis. Dill makes Scout happy and keeps her from fighting with people. These two characters show the differences of people people can have in their life.

Another pair of characters that are related to one another but are complete opposites are Aunt Alexandra and Atticus. Yes, they grew up in the same house, but they are very different from one another. Scout even says, “she had been swapped at birth, that my grandparents had perhaps received a Crawford instead of a Finch.” Their differences are even noticeable to an eight year old, which means they must be pretty different. Aunt Alexandra, Francis’ grandmother, thinks Scout and Jem are dirty, not well taken care of children who lack respect for adults. She must feel very strongly about it if her eight year old grandson knows about it and is talking about it to his cousin, Scout. “like Grandma says, so it ain’t your fault. I guess it ain’t your fault if Uncle Atticus is a nigger lover besides, but I’m here to tell you it certainly does mortify the rest of the family.” Atticus is a gentle man who wouldn’t purposely hurt anyone, unlike his sister.

Atticus is a very supportive character in “To Kill A Mockingbird” Scout. He tries to help her in any way he can, whether with fighting, swearing, or anything any questions she has. His motto is to answer kids truthfully when they ask a question to him. On the other hand, though, his sister, Aunt Alexandra puts Scout down and is not supportive. She calls her mean names and makes it known that she doesn’t like her ways. Their relationships with Scout are quite different from each other because not only because it’s her father and aunt. As discussed before, Atticus is supportive to Scout, so their relationship is much stronger that Scout and “Auntie”. Aunt Alexandra, in addition to Francis is a person that Scout does not look forward to seeing every year. I presume that Scout would lose her mind if she had to put up with Alexandra’s criticism all year long, she would not be as happy. She would probably not think of it, but she is lucky she has such a good, kind father who thinks about his relationship with his children and constantly tries to strengthen it.

To Kill A Mockingbird Setting blog

This photograph shows rows of corn and other plants. There isn’t very much food on the plants, though. The soil looks very dry and rocky. There are no weeds around. It looks like someone made a lot of effort to keep it looking good. This picture was taken in a time when people spent many hours farming, making sure there were no weeds and that the crops would grow well. The picture may have been taken during the Great Depression because the farmers needed to work extra hard to make up the money and it seems like the people working on this farm work very hard. In the background there are houses made of wood. They aren’t painted or look fancy but they look well taken care of. Since the houses aren’t painted and seem fairly small, I would assume that the people who live there aren’t very wealthy. There are big trees around them but no people in sight. It looks like a farm. The sun is shining bright and lighting up the houses and plants.The garden seems well taken care of, even if the soil doesn’t look the best. The soil looks dried out, which might be the case if the are was very hot. This picture would be more of a Cunningham house than a Finch house because the Cunningham’s were farmers and were among the people who didn’t have very much money, not knowing when they would eat next. The Finchs, on the other hand were more wealthy, more of a middle class family, so they would not have lived at a place like this.


There are multiple reasons why this photograph might have been taken. The person who took this picture may have been trying to record how well their garden was doing that year. Or, maybe they were trying to see how their garden started out as so they could compare it to how their garden turned out in the end. To me it seems like they were focusing on the garden, but they may have been focusing on the houses. Maybe, they had just finished building the house and wanted to document the occasion. There is no way of knowing the photographer’s true motive, all we can do is guess. In this photograph, there is a still garden with wood houses in the background. There are no people or animals and nothing seems like it is planning on moving anytime soon. It seems like a warm day with the sun brightly shining.

In this photograph, I mostly wonder why there are no people in the picture. In this picture there are crops and houses and sun. It seems like the perfect place for a person to be. Someone should be in this picture either working or just enjoying the beautiful weather. In these times, people were out of their homes most of the day, which is why it is weird that no person is in sight. Scout said, “Jem’n me ain’t ever in the house unless it’s rainin’.” I find it interesting that if they are almost never inside, you see nobody outside in this sunny, beautiful picture. Another thing about this picture that I was curious about was why the people living in this area are growing vegetables. Are they growing them to eat themselves, or are they growing them to sell? They are most likely planning on selling the food they grow to make money. In Alabama, especially at the time of To Kill A Mockingbird, there were a lot of farmers who had to work extra hard to get through the Great Depression. “Farmers… the crash hit them the hardest.”, said Atticus. The crash is all the money they are losing and all the troubles they are going through. Since the farmers are affected the most and it is probably a harder life for them, they might be working hard, making sure the food grows well so it can be sold to give them money. If the people in this photo were poor, it would make sense that their house wouldn’t be painted and they wouldn’t have any unnecessary items around their house.

Quarter 2 Reflection

The end of quarter two is here, surprising but true. And with every end to something, we need to reflect on what happened, what we accomplished, and what we could have done better. One thing I think I improved in this quarter is writing. During this quarter, we had to write blogs, AoWs, and more. Since I got lots of practice with doing this, I’m sure I got better at least a little bit. When I look back at my blogs from quarter one and earlier, I do notice my blogs this quarter being longer and more in depth than before.

When I am asked the question, “ What has been the most challenging part of quarter two for you”, I can’t think of anything in particular. For ELA itself, I first thought, “ The thinglinks were no doubt the hardest thing I had to do this quarter.” But now that I think about it more, it seems like it was challenging at the time but it would be fairly easy to do it again if I needed to. The beginning of this quarter I barely remember, so I can’t say if anything was difficult, but it seems like I would remember if it was very bad. So I came to the conclusion that the most difficult thing for me to do this quarter was present my butterfly project. Since I’m a quiet person, it is hard for me to get up in front of the class and speak. But since I did it once, I can do it again. And, to help myself with this, I will try to overcome my shyness and not be nervous. This could also be considered a goal I have for quarter three and beyond.

It has been merely seventeen days since the new year, but it seems I have accomplished so much already. The first thing that comes into my mind is finishing my butterfly project, since it happened very recently and it took a while to finish. I also finally started a new book after reading the same book for about four months. The book is the first in The Land of Elyon series and it is part of a three book series, which will most likely be my life for the next year or two, so that might be considered an accomplishment. These are just a couple of my minor everyday accomplishments, which I’m sure everyone has.

During this past quarter, I have learned so much about the world, I can’t even bring it all into one paragraph. But, I can tell you the general ideas of what I have learned. The biggest thing I have learned about is The Holocaust, which makes sense since it was the main topic in ELA this quarter. During the reading of Night, a field trip to a Holocaust museum, and the watching of two movies, I became very acquainted with The Holocaust and learned a lot about it.

“Life Is Beautiful” Blog

I noticed many differences in the way The Holocaust is portrayed in Life Is Beautiful and Night. The mood or tones in each piece are different, even though they are practically about the same thing; The Holocaust. The mood in Life is Beautiful is generally more light and happy than in Night. Night is more dark and not very optimistic. Elie Wiesel wants his readers to know how terrible The Holocaust truly was, while Life is Beautiful brings humor into the Holocaust and might make the illusion that the Holocaust wasn’t that bad. The differences in the two pieces are made by the point of views of two different people.

The movie in question is called “Life is Beautiful”. But, this brings up the question, How is life beautiful? Even though the movie is about The Holocaust and it would seem that there is nothing beautiful about the Holocaust, there are aspects about the movie that are beautiful. One thing I found beautiful about life, based on the movie, is being able to be with who you truly love and being willing to do whatever it takes for your love. In “Life is Beautiful”, as soon as Guido bumped into Dora, he knew he wanted to be with her, and I’m sure she felt the same. Guido tried continuously and finally married her, after many attempts and even breaking up Dora’s engagement. The beauty is, after tons of things stopping them from doing so, Guido and Dora got married and had a family, just like they wanted. Throughout the Holocaust, their love stayed strong and Wido even gave his life to save Dora, which is a beautiful thing.

There are many instances in “Life is Beautiful” where it gives evidence of why life is beautiful. One that I saw in the movie is the innocence and trust of children. Throughout the movie, Guido tells his son, Joshua, different lies to make their situation a sort of fantasy, and Joshua believes every word his father says. If Joshua were older, he wouldn’t have believed what his father told him and would have used his own common sense to see what was truly happening. But, young Joshua in the movie didn’t have common sense yet and believed what he was told, just like all other little kids do. Guido tells Joshua that they are playing a game and they need to win one thousand points to win a tank. Both Guido and Joshua were probably a little happier if they were in the mindset of it being a game. But, Joshua may not have played along if he were older and they would have both been in despair. That is why the innocence of little children is one of the beauties of life.

There were multiple instances in the movie, “Life is Beautiful” where I noticed similar scenarios to the book “Night”. One was when Guido and his son, Joshua were on the train going to the concentration camp. Practically the exact same scene happened with Elie Wiesel and his father during the Holocaust. There was a part in Night when Elie was squished between 80-100 people in one train car, just like Guido was. But, when I was watching the movie, I got noticed a different tone about it than I did when I was reading the book. While in the train in “Life is Beautiful”, Guido tried to make the best out of the situation by telling a story to his son to help him not be scared, which actually probably helped Guido not be scared as well. While the train ride for Guido is stories and laughs with his son, the ride for Elie Wiesel and his father was a very different experience. Elie remembers having to stand up squished among tons of people, fear overpowering all of them. There was no laughter, no talking, just a solemn silence. The mood in the movie, “Life is Beautiful is more light and less intense than the mood of this part in “Night”. From Elie Wiesel’s point of view, this train ride was dark and horrifying. This shows that the mood or tone of the same situation can be much different based on the point of view of the author.

Night Blog

In the book Night by Elie Weisel, I noticed Elie going through many changes in his life due to The Holocaust. Night shows how the life of a person can change completely because of one event. Elie changed in many different ways, both physical and emotional. Elie transformed in his faith, empathy, and his respect for himself.

The biggest change I saw in Elie was his change in his faith. Throughout the book, as terrible things happen to Eliezer and his family and friends, Elie starts to lose faith with God. On the very first page of the book, Elie said, “ By day I studied Talmud and by night I would run to the synagogue to weep over the destruction of the Temple.” Before The Holocaust started affecting Elie, he was very religious, dedicating his life to God. At this point, he never would have thought that he would turn away from God. But, he also didn't know the horrors that lay ahead for him. Once he had gone through deaths, work and malnourishment, he started to fall away from his God and give up on all he believed in before. During their fasting time, Elie said, “As I swallowed my ration of bread, I turned it into a rebellion against Him.” But, at this point, Elie still believed that God might still help. Then after many months and still no sign of his God saving them, Elie’s belief in God ended and the building anger towards God erupted. At the very end of his story, Elie said, “a prayer to this God in whom I no longer believed.” After all Eliezer Wiesel had gone through, from total pious to disbelief, The Holocaust changed him immensely.

Another major change I noticed Elie go through was his survival instinct kicking in. Part of his survival instinct is losing his empathy for others. Throughout this book, I came to the idea that as part of human nature, when humans get in danger they lose empathy and only care about their own well being. When Eliezer first got to the camp with his father, his father wa s hit and Elie barely even cared, which he was ashamed of but couldn’t help it, he was just glad it wasn’t him. Then later on, once had gone through so much more, he said,”At that moment the others didn’t matter.” If Elie was his old self, he would have cared, but not anymore.

Another way Elie changed was letting himself be dehumanized by S.S. The first instance where I noticed him letting himself not be human was when he accepted that his name is now A-7713 and he was fine with it. With him accepted that as being his name, he is letting himself be dehumanized. Before he was affected by The Holocaust, Elie was his own person, doing his own thing, with his own name. But, throughout his time in concentration camps, Elie became to accept more and more that he was no longer human. In the middle of the book, the S.S screamed at the prisoners trying to run to the next concentration camp. “Faster, you filthy dogs!” There was S.S making sure the prisoners know where their place is, not humans. Then, just a couple of sentences later, Elie says talking about him and the other prisoners, “like automatons.” Automatons are machines, not humans.” By saying this, Elie is agreeing with the S.S and declaring himself not human. During Eliezer’s imprisonment in the concentration camps, he lost his self respect and gave in to the dehumanization of the S.S.