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shavon1218

Martin Amis's "The Zone of Interest" - 24 views

www.newyorker.com/...death-factory

shared by shavon1218 on 03 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • t “one does not look directly into the sun.
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      What does this phrase mean?
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 04 Oct 14
       
      I was also perplexed by this quote.
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 04 Oct 14
       
      Pretty confusing!
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      This quote is hard to understand 
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      I think because the younger generations are writing about characters who experienced the Holocaust from the outside, though they were effected by the writer's saying it's easier to view this event from another perspective. "The conflagration must be glimpsed indirectly...one does not look directly into the sun." You can't look at the horrors dead on but it's easier from another view instead.
    • warreng14
      warreng14 on 05 Oct 14
       
      Not really understanding what this means
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      The quote is trying to state that your not purposely going to hurt yourself.
  • heir remains deposited in the euphemistically named but foul-smelling Spring Meadow.
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      Interesting that we are discussing dead bodies and spring meadow in the same sentence. 
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 04 Oct 14
       
      I find this highly intriguing also!
  • After all . . . somebody’s got to do it
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      It is mind-boggling to me that they thought someone HAD to do it. 
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 04 Oct 14
       
      It is crazy that someone would go around murdering a race just because they "think" the race would kill them.
  • ...37 more annotations...
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 04 Oct 14
       
      This word choice is very powerful.
  • There is no why here.” Perhaps that terse reply is the only adequate response to all questions of “Why?” relating to the Holocaust. ♦
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 04 Oct 14
       
      This one was confusing altogether to read and follow.
  • (“If what we’re doing is so good,” the commandant wonders, “why does it smell so lancingly bad?”)
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 04 Oct 14
       
      I really don't like this because it shows what they really thought back in the Holocaust time
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      here we experience the psychological control that hitler had over an entire nation, so much control that he got them to do unspeakable things to their "neighbors" and labeled it the right thing to do
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 06 Oct 14
       
      Oates uses this quote from the book to show how people of that time period didn't think any bad of their decisions and wrongdoings to the Jewish.
    • shavon1218
      shavon1218 on 06 Oct 14
       
      The vocabulary used in this paper is very...educated. She uses a lot of big words that makes someone take the time to sound it out. 
  • Amis’s great gift is a corrosively satiric voice, often very funny, zestfully profane, obscene, and scatological.
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 04 Oct 14
       
      I like how he explains his voice because it's interesting to thin of how he talks
  • The author’s rage at Holocaust horrors is portioned into scenes and sentences; it does not gather into a powerful swell, to overwhelm or terrify.
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 04 Oct 14
       
      I like how this is explained. 
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      All the names that are included in the beginning are ver confusing and hard to keep up with!
  • vainglorious
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      what does this work mean?
    • kproper
      kproper on 06 Oct 14
       
      This word is another word for being bigheaded or conceited. They think they are a very important person
    • shavon1218
      shavon1218 on 06 Oct 14
       
      So if he is bigheaded or conceited, why does he self pity himself? That's kind of opposite.
  • “She is a personable and knowing young female, albeit too flachbrustig (though her Arsch is perfectly all right, and if you hoiked up that tight skirt you’d . . . Don’t quite see why I write like this. It isn’t my style at all).”
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      the language used in this piece is hard to comprehend.
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 06 Oct 14
       
      I agree with this piece being hard to comprehend as well as other parts of this writing.
  • recent novels by Susanna Moore and Ayelet Waldman achieve their emotional power by focussing upon characters peripheral to the terrible European history that has nonetheless altered their lives.
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      Their writing proves that even if someone wasn't directly apart of or in the middle of an event like this doesn't mean they weren't changed by it. -AIeshah Thomas
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      This could also relate to how peoples attitudes changed after 9/11 even though they weren't directly effected by it themselves
  • risky Nazi novel
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      I think this is a funny choice of words since Nazis are pretty much terrorists, how risky can the novel be? -Aieshah Thomas
  • “the man who controls the appointment book of the Deliverer.” (For some reason, no one in “The Zone of Interest” calls Adolf Hitler by his name; elevated circumlocutions are used.)
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      This really reminds me of Harry Potter. Not many wizards called Voldemort by his name out of fear. Always 'He Who Must not be Named' or 'You Know Who'. Nazis called Hitler 'Deliverer' or 'Wolf' but I think this is out of respect as well as fear . -Aieshah Thomas
  • He sits through Nazi concerts calculating “how long it would take . . . to gas the audience.”
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      This is like a scene out of Inglorious Bastards when the rebels plan a way to assassinate all of Nazi leadership at once. They end up starting a fire in a movie theater during a show and they all die. -Aieshah Thomas
  • One could argue, just as plausibly, that Hitler and his henchmen were not at all “exceptional” in a human history that has always included warfare, unspeakable cruelty, and attempted genocide; what set the Nazis apart from less efficient predecessors was their twentieth-century access to the instruments of industrialized warfare and annihilation, and a propaganda machine that excluded all other avenues of information for an essentially captive German population.
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      I think this is extremely significant because the Hitler people and followers were very well organized and horrifyingly thorough which is why the writer quotes earlier "the exceptionalism of the Third Reich". They got their message across through their infamous propaganda, murdered millions of people (not just Jews but the disabled, blacks, and some religious groups), and seriously utilized the technology of the time. -Aieshah Thomas
  • “The Sonders have suffered Seelenmord—death of the soul,” as if a German-speaking character would translate his thoughts in this way. The author of the novel, not the narrator of the chapter, wants to highlight certain phrases for the benefit of the reader, but the mannerism is as distracting as a nudge in the ribs.
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      In the novel the character's thinking that survivors will suffer death of the soul. The author thinks this is important for the reader to understand so he makes the character think and explain in English. -Aieshah Thomas
  • “I used to be numb; now I’m raw.”
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      I really like this quote. It makes me want to read Zone of Interest and find out more about this character. -Aieshah Thomas
  • We went along. We went along, we went along with, doing all we could to drag our feet . . . but we went along.
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      just shows again hitlers control and how german citizens just "went along"
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 06 Oct 14
       
      It seems like he used repetition to make it more important and to draw the readers in.
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 06 Oct 14
       
      I believe this quote shows maybe, the officers didn't like what they were doing but they were just following "orders"
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      People are afraid to say what they believe. The fear of being discriminated was to great.
  • The novel, in its most inspired moments, is a compendium of epiphanies, appalled asides, anecdotes, and radically condensed history.
  • Obersturmfuhrer Angelus (Golo) Thomsen, a mid-level Nazi officer in charge of the Buna-Werke factory, and the favored nephew of the high-ranking Nazi Martin Bormann
  • The effect of the Holocaust isn’t singular but cumulative.
  • The author’s rage at Holocaust horrors is portioned into scenes and sentences; it does not gather into a powerful swell, to overwhelm or terrify.
  • The author’s rage at Holocaust horrors is portioned into scenes and sentences; it does not gather into a powerful swell, to overwhelm or terrify.
  • uthor’s rage at
  • uthor’s rage at Holocaust
  • author’s rage at Holocaust horrors is portioned into scenes and sentences; it does not gather into a powerful swell, to overwhelm or terrify
  • “To produce a mighty book, you must choose a mighty theme,” as Melville declares in “Moby-Dick”; but such mightiness may be precluded by a mode of writing whose ground bass is irony rather than empathy.
  • hen Theodor Adorno declared, in 1949, that “to write poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric,” he could hardly have anticipated the ensuing quantity of poetry and prose that actually concerned itself with the Holocaust, still less its astonishing range and depth.
    • dbloom7106
      dbloom7106 on 06 Oct 14
       
      At first I felt apprehensive about commenting on the first sentence of the article because it seemed lazy, but then I stopped myself.  This one sentence strikes a chord because imagine if his words were taken literally.  We wouldn't have amazing novels like Ellie Wiesels Night and the critically acclaimed graphic novel series Maus.  The stories of everyone in the Holocaust would not have been told.
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      I believe what theodore was trying to say is that it is barbaric to write about the experience of the holocaust because essentially you relive it
  • “dumping ground
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 06 Oct 14
       
      This makes me think that it is compared them to garbage or unwanted materials.
  • The Zone is a place to which Jewish “evacuee
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I like how the author explains what The Zone is for readers who are unfamiliar with it.
  • With virtually every page of the novel reporting some horror, including the awful stench of death en masse,
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 06 Oct 14
       
      The author describes the book as having a lot of imagery and descriptive wording to emphasize what it was like.
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I think that authors need this quality because without it, books and other things keep the reader interested
  •  ” Amis joins in a general bewilderment among historians about “understanding” Hitler: “We know a great deal about the how—about how he did what he did; but we seem to know almost nothing about the why.”
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I really enjoyed the quote because I can relate to it.  Growing up my history teachers always told us about Hitler and the Holocaust, but we never discussed WHY Hitler did it.
  • Yet, when such cruelties are repeated and repeated, even the satirist is apt to lose heart and concur with Thomsen:
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 06 Oct 14
       
      Oates shows that some of the actions were repetitive and tiresome.
  • One could argue, just as plausibly, that Hitler and
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      extremely deep 
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      what does he mean when he says "hes raw"
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      Don't like how he ended this passage.
  • The Death Factory
    • tthomasuscu
      tthomasuscu on 06 Oct 14
       
      title reflects the setting and time period
  • stricken with self-pity for being ill-treated by his wife
  • troyharrison3 on 06 Oct 14
     
    Its was quite confusing understanding this quote.
shavon1218

'The Giving Tree': Tender Story of Unconditional Love or Disturbing Tale of Selfishness... - 13 views

www.nytimes.com/...rbing-tale-of-selfishness.html

shared by shavon1218 on 04 Oct 14 - No Cached
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 04 Oct 14
       
      This is as very insightful quote. They are saying that the treatment of this tree is often how men treat women.
  • The plain language complexes through each repetition, until it’s as insided-out and upsided-down as the language of “Runny Babbit: A Billy Sook,” the one book, worked on for more than 20 years, that Silverstein, the prolific writer who gave us the peppermint gale of most every elementary-school literature syllabus, kept not quite finishing.
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 04 Oct 14
       
      I don't think I would have enjoyed a book with language as plain as this.
  • ...20 more annotations...
  • The boy and the tree are both “flawed,” and in the most old-fashioned way, their flaws, which are also their characters, determine their fates.
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 04 Oct 14
       
      I was quite confused about what the book was actually achieving or about but I think the sentence sums it up.
  • For those who need a recap: Boy meets adoring, obliging apple tree and eventually, through a combination of utter impotence and blatant manipulation, makes off with her branches, her trunk and, of course, the literal fruits of her labor. (I’m not even going to get into the biblical implications of Silverstein’s decision to make the tree of the book’s title apple-bearing.) “And the tree was happy,” reads the last line of the 52-page story, a sentiment repeated by Silverstein so many times that it sends some, like me, into paroxysms of reflexive indignation.
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 04 Oct 14
       
      I like that Ms. Holmes did a recap. Provided me with info I needed
    • shavon1218
      shavon1218 on 06 Oct 14
       
      Her opinion is negative and its biased. For someone like me, who has never read the book, would think the book is negative
  • O.K., maybe I’m exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea.)”
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 04 Oct 14
       
      I like how she kind of puts a little side note right here to end the paragraph. Kind of helps to make the book review hit home.
  • What are we to make of all those happys like poppies dense in a simple, flat field? Each happy alters the happy that follows it.
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 04 Oct 14
       
      Galchen gets really technical with the story here. Even quoting it specific words
  • important to him that he keep what he called the sad ending.
    • dbloom7106
      dbloom7106 on 06 Oct 14
       
      Well, I have yet to read the giving tree but I think it is unique that the last word is "happy" but the author says he's trying to make the storie's ending somber. In the broad spectrum, I am wondering is this author okay to think that all the positive adjectives used in the story as well as the end could imply a sad ending?
    • dbloom7106
      dbloom7106 on 06 Oct 14
       
      Well, I have yet to read the giving tree but I think it is unique that the last word is "happy" but the author says he's trying to make the story's ending somber. In the broad spectrum, I am wondering is this author okay to think that all the positive adjectives used in the story as well as the end could imply a sad ending?
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 06 Oct 14
       
      Galchen explains that the adjectives in the story contradicts what happens following them.
  • “to have a conversation about what it means to take, and to give, too much.”
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 06 Oct 14
       
      Maybe this book is about taking advantage of things, people, opportunities based on this statement.
  • I’d say that I’m not so sure Silverstein, who dedicated the book to a former girlfriend, “Nicky,” was writing an indictment of what men assume they can get way with
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 06 Oct 14
       
      Holmes feel as if, the author has had an past experience with mistreating women.
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      Why did Anna Holmes read the book 3 times if she wasn't fond of it?
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      Needed to give more examples to why she thought the author was writing about an indictment of what men assume they can get away with
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      Don't like how she says "(OK, maybe I'm exaggerating a bit, but you get the idea.)"
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      Admire how Rivka Galchen gives the example of how the story ends in the word "happy" but he calls it a sad ending
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      Rivka Galchen should have given more examples as to why she likes "The Giving Tree"
    • Kendall Helms
      Kendall Helms on 06 Oct 14
       
      Says the boy and the tree are both flawed. How?
  • “One star or five, there is no middle ground,” declared another.
    • dbloom7106
      dbloom7106 on 06 Oct 14
       
      Initially, I had no clue what the phrase "...no middle" meant. i had to ask a friend who told me it meant people were radical in their opinions about the book. This book creating controversy among individuals is the product of a distinct belief and and blunt portrayal of a multi-domentional moral. Some believe the moral is participating in selfless acts of kindness to help others and on the other hand there are people who take and take without giving back.
  • The boy uses the tree as a plaything, lives off her like a parasite, and then, when she’s a shell of her former self and no longer serves any real purpose, he sits on her
    • shavon1218
      shavon1218 on 06 Oct 14
       
      She compares this to a boy having a girlfriend. How a boy would use a girl until he can't get anything else form her, then throw her away. If the girl is the tree, it wouldn't make the female happy. But this is a children's book, so how would a child be able to interpret this in the way that they have?
  • What are its adjectives, after the one in the title, “giving,” which never appears in the story itself? Little, tired, happy, older, alone, happy, too big, happy, happy, long, sad, happy, too busy, warm, happy, happy, so happy, too old, sad, happy, happy, long, sorry, gone, too weak, gone, too old, gone, too tired, sorry, old, sorry, quiet, very tired, old, good, happy
    • shavon1218
      shavon1218 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I haven't read the book, but I agree. That's weird to not have the adjective ,giving, in the book, but its in the title. But the word "happy" appears a lot.  
  • troyharrison3 on 06 Oct 14
     
    I absolutely agree with the quotes as well because men tend to treat women as property no an actual human being. Its quite bad on our behalf.
mlrykard

'The Giving Tree': Tender Story of Unconditional Love or Disturbing Tale of Selfishness... - 9 views

www.nytimes.com/...rbing-tale-of-selfishness.html

shared by mlrykard on 04 Oct 14 - No Cached
  • A passionate and very vocal minority of reviewers on sites like Amazon and Goodreads seems to find the story an affront not just to literature but to humanity itself. “Most disgusting book ever,” said one. “One star or five, there is no middle ground,” declared another. “The Nazis would have loved it,” one man raged, proving that everything up to and including beloved children’s picture books will eventually fall prey to Godwin’s Law — that as an online discussion grows, so does the likelihood that someone or something will be compared to a Nazi.
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 04 Oct 14
       
      Jeez, did they really not like this book at all?
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      I guess it depended on the reader, whether or not the book got a one or five stars
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I'm confused about why they had to be so harsh on the book. It's a book for children.
  • The boy uses the tree as a plaything, lives off her like a parasite, and then, when she’s a shell of her former self and no longer serves any real purpose, he sits on her — which makes her happy? (“That book is the epitome of male privilege,” a friend groused.)
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 04 Oct 14
       
      Okay. I could see this being something a bit different. It makes sense, but still....
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      A representation of the sanction of marriage possibly?
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I could see how it could be viewed as this since the boy did use the tree for his own selfish needs after the tree lets the boy play with her his entire childhood.
  • “I don’t want to hold the tree accountable,” she continued, but she thinks there could have been a happier ending: “If only she’d set limits, she wouldn’t be a stump today!”
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 04 Oct 14
       
      You wrote it, shouldn't you have written a happier ending?
    • forzaazzuri
      forzaazzuri on 06 Oct 14
       
      certainly but can the tree in the story talk? and let the boy know that she doesn't want him to take her branches
  • ...8 more annotations...
  • I never liked Shel Silverstein’s spare, twee little book, not the first time I read it, back in the late 1970s, or the second time, in the mid-1980s, or the third time, just a few weeks ago, in preparation for this column.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      She comes right out and states her opinion. She does not beat around the bush.
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      This quality is admirable in writers. I like that they just express what they feel than trying to be subtle about it.
  • I’m not alone.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      She has facts that back up her opinion. This is very important.
  • Here we have a story, fewer than 650 words long. What are its adjectives, after the one in the title, “giving,” which never appears in the story itself? Little, tired, happy, older, alone, happy, too big, happy, happy, long, sad, happy, too busy, warm, happy, happy, so happy, too old, sad, happy, happy, long, sorry, gone, too weak, gone, too old, gone, too tired, sorry, old, sorry, quiet, very tired, old, good, happy. “Happy” is the last word of the story, and in interviews Shel Silverstein explained that it took him years to find a publisher for “The Giving Tree” — that it had been important to him that he keep what he called the sad ending.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      She includes the words that show up the most in the book. And HAPPY ends the book. However, it's contradictory to the story line.
  • “And the tree was happy,” reads the last line of the 52-page story, a sentiment repeated by Silverstein so many times that it sends some, like me, into paroxysms of reflexive indignation.
  • The story describes honestly something that is, which is very different from proposing what ought to be.
  • those who would say that Silverstein’s book is a moving, sentimental depiction of the unyielding love of a parent for a child, I’d say, Learn better parenting skills.
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 06 Oct 14
       
      She obviously has her opinion and is not open to anything else. Some people interpret things differently. 
  • I didn’t remember it that way, because too many people had told me about it since I’d last read it.
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 06 Oct 14
       
      People influenced her opinion, making her forget what her own opinion once was
  • The boy and the tree are both “flawed,” and in the most old-fashioned way, their flaws, which are also their characters, determine their fates.
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 06 Oct 14
       
      I agree with what she said. Flaws represent character.
anthony121195

W.E.B. DuBois Critiques Booker T. Washington - 47 views

historymatters.gmu.edu/40

shared by anthony121195 on 29 Sep 14 - Cached
    • tthomasuscu
      tthomasuscu on 29 Sep 14
       
      It is interesting that DuBois summarizes for this audience/
  • To gain the sympathy and cooperation of the various elements comprising the white South was Mr. Washington’s first task
    • tthomasuscu
      tthomasuscu on 29 Sep 14
       
      Interesting Philosophy
  • Next to this achievement comes Mr. Washington’s work in gaining place and consideration in the North
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      Why was the North his second task and not his first? 
  • ...45 more annotations...
  • it is easier to do ill than well in the world.
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 30 Sep 14
       
      This is a powerful statement Mr. Dubois says. It is true to the time this was written.
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 03 Oct 14
       
      It is amazing that he could do such good things and be recognized for them still today.
  • In the South especially has he had to walk
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 30 Sep 14
       
      This can relate to the text, Kindred- Dana has to always watch herself and not say something she isn't supposed to say, and to avoid the harsh judgments of Weylin and Rufus.
  • warily to avoid the harshest judgments
  • In answer to this, it has been claimed that the Negro can survive only through submission. Mr. Washington distinctly asks that black people give up, at least for the present, three things, —
    • dlocke26
      dlocke26 on 30 Sep 14
       
      I find this article interesting- two African Americans almost working against each other. Both have different approaches to reach freedom.
    • pstegall
      pstegall on 30 Sep 14
       
      This time period put material things ahead of fellow human beings simply because of race.
  • When sticks and stones and beasts form the sole environment of a people, their attitude is largely one of determined opposition to and conquest of natural forces.
    • pstegall
      pstegall on 30 Sep 14
       
      When people resort to acting like animals, the rest of the world will fall.
  • But, nevertheless, they insist that the way to truth and right lies in straightforward honesty, not in indiscriminate flattery; in praising those of the South who do well and criticising uncompromisingly those who do ill; in taking advantage of the opportunities at hand and urging their fellows to do the same, but at the same time in remembering that only a firm adherence to their higher ideals and aspirations will ever keep those ideals within the realm of possibility.
    • pstegall
      pstegall on 30 Sep 14
       
      Two groups believe in the same thing- freedom. But they both have different ways of demanding it.
  • But the hushing of the criticism of honest opponents is a dangerous thing. It leads some of the best of the critics to unfortunate silence and paralysis of effort, and others to burst into speech so passionately and intemperately as to lose listeners.
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 01 Oct 14
       
      This is true. If we don't critique, most people will keep quiet and those who think they know will give out too much.
  • The question then comes: Is it possible, and probable, that nine millions of men can make effective progress in economic lines if they are deprived of political rights, made a servile caste, and allowed only the most meagre chance for developing their exceptional men?
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 01 Oct 14
       
      Can we make and develop exceptional men without political rights?
  • To-day even the attitude of the Southern whites toward the blacks is not, as so many assume, in all cases the same; the ignorant Southerner hates the Negro, the workingmen fear his competition, the money-makers wish to use him as a laborer, some of the educated see a menace in his upward development, while others—usually the sons of the masters—wish to help him to rise.
    • christenr18
      christenr18 on 01 Oct 14
       
      This sort of sounds like in the present today. Apparently ignorant Southerners hate Negros, fears competition. This is all now happening even though not all of us see it
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      Some people believe if anyone does not look, talk, or even think like they do, then they should not be equal to them. It's harsh but some people's minds cannot be changed
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 02 Oct 14
       
      This is a very insightful quote. I think he is saying they can be separate but equal.
  • one of the most notable figures in a nation of seventy millions
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 02 Oct 14
       
      Booker T. Washington's speech made him very famous. He is one of the most notable out of seventy million.
  • Among his own people, however, Mr. Washington has encountered the strongest and most lasting opposition, amounting at times to bitterness, and even to-day continuing strong and insistent even though largely silenced in outward expression by the public opinion of the nation.
    • rbyers
      rbyers on 02 Oct 14
       
      The strongest opposition from Mr. Washington has come from his own people. I wonder why that is?
  • “In all things purely social we can be as separate as the five fingers, and yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 02 Oct 14
       
      This quote is very true. I love the way that it's worded, in terms of people coming together as a whole. That was very clever.
  • Among his own people, however, Mr. Washington has encountered the strongest and most lasting opposition, amounting at times to bitterness, and even to-day continuing strong and insistent even though largely silenced in outward expression by the public opinion of the nation
    • jayjackson
      jayjackson on 03 Oct 14
       
      Mr. Washington focused on his goals even when he did not have the support.
    • shaylas_
      shaylas_ on 03 Oct 14
       
      To have been able to dine with President Roosevelt is an amazing accomplishment and an honor, especially since Washington was a black man.
    • shaylas_
      shaylas_ on 03 Oct 14
       
      I wonder why they envied him and tried to bring him down instead of trying to be like him. His own accomplishments should have motivated them.
  • In the history of nearly all other races and peoples the doctrine preached at such crises has been that manly self-respect is worth more than lands and houses, and that a people who voluntarily surrender such respect, or cease striving for it, are not worth civilizing.
    • shaylas_
      shaylas_ on 03 Oct 14
       
      "Self-respect is work more than lands and houses"  This quote really sticks out to me. It goes along with my This I believe paper. 
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 03 Oct 14
       
      Whites and blacks were at a stead-hold of integration. Many whites didn't accept the fact that society was changing no matter what they thought about it. All men are created equal.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 03 Oct 14
       
      The "Atlanta Compromise" in my opinion, was the turning point for the acceptance of integration. Whites were faced with a situation where there was no option but to end slavery and treat the blacks as they would want to be treated. However, the world isn't perfect and racism continued and is still present today.
  • he spiritual sons of the Abolitionists have not been prepared to acknowledge that the schools founded before Tuskegee, by men of broad ideals and self-sacrificing spirit, were wholly failures or worthy of ridicule.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 03 Oct 14
       
      Many said that Mr. Washington was uneducated. However, he was very intelligent in the civil rights movement. How can a man of barely any education be so popular and strong willed? Tuskegee, is this the first school to become integrated? 
  • Then came the Revolution of 1876, the suppression of the Negro votes, the changing and shifting of ideals, and the seeking of new lights in the great night.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 03 Oct 14
       
      Blacks were now faced with the right to vote! This was a right that Price fought for in his time. Now that blacks were privileged to vote, every man had the same rights. 
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I am sure that some blacks were afraid to vote because they were so used to not being able to say what they thought wihtout being criticized verbally and even physically
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 03 Oct 14
       
      This list of importance seems odd to me. You would think education would not be last. Especially since education was seen as the key to freedom during slavery. Now that blacks are free it has dropped importance.
  • but as Mr. Washington knew the heart of the South from birth and training,
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 03 Oct 14
       
      He was born in the south and knew the ways of the south.
  • he learn the speech and thought of triumphant commercialism, and the ideals of material prosperity that the picture of a lone black boy poring over a French grammar
    • mlrykard
      mlrykard on 03 Oct 14
       
      He soon learned the ways of the north such as speak and grammar.
  • His programme of industrial education, conciliation of the South, and submission and silence as to civil and political rights, was not wholly original; the Free Negroes from 1830 up to wartime had striven to build industrial schools, and t
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 03 Oct 14
       
      Booker T. Washington was trying to start an education system and build schools
  • indissolubly
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 03 Oct 14
       
      When I came across this word, it confused me.  I will have to look up the definition in order to understand the sentence.
  • So Mr. Washington’s cult has gained unquestioning followers, his work has wonderfully prospered, his friends are legion, and his enemies are confounded. To-day he stands as the one recognized spokesman of his ten million
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 03 Oct 14
       
      Question: Why is the author giving Washington so much credit and complimenting him?
  • demagogues
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 03 Oct 14
       
      Had to look up this word- According to Dictionary.com: "A person, especially an orator or political leader, who gains power and popularity by arousing emotions, passions, and prejudices of the people."
  • it startled and won the
  • it silenced if it did not
  • Mr. Washington’s cult has gained unquestioning followers
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 03 Oct 14
       
      DuBois' wording reinforces that he does not support Washington's ideas. The speech seems negative: instead of 'movement' he uses cult and instead of 'devoted' he says unquestioning. -Aieshah Thomas
  • Discriminating and broad-minded criticism is what the South needs, — needs it for the sake of her own white sons and daughters, and for the insurance of robust, healthy mental and moral development
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 03 Oct 14
       
      In this entire paragraph W.E.B. DuBois explains that we shouldn't fault the current generation for the past, but the rest of the nation needs to judge the South to insure we move forward for their children so they don't grow up in hate. -Aieshah Thomas
  • Mr. Washington apologizes for injustice, North or South, does not rightly value the privilege and duty of voting, belittles the emasculating effects of caste distinctions, and opposes the higher training and ambition of our brighter minds
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 03 Oct 14
       
      I think DuBois respects Washington for trying to be proactive and receive help from the whites, but DuBois thinks there will be no change (higher education and economic partcipation) by black men being idle. -Aieshah Thomas
  • a veritable Way of Life.
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      Not sure what a "veritable Way of Life" means. 
  • rich and dominating North, however, was not only weary of the race problem, hut was investing largely in Southern enterprises, and welcomed any method of peaceful cooperation
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 03 Oct 14
       
      We know that the North was always more lenient when it came to 'the race problem' but did they actually care about Douglas message? -Aieshah Thomas 
  • To gain the sympathy and cooperation of the various elements comprising the white South
  • Negro advocating such a programme after
  • Some of this opposition is, of course, mere envy
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      Even though he was envied by many people, he still managed to push towards his goals... Determination. 
    • anthony121195
      anthony121195 on 06 Oct 14
       
      It's intere that one man could make such a difference 
emilyelizabeth94

'The Giving Tree': Tender Story of Unconditional Love or Disturbing Tale of Selfishness... - 4 views

www.nytimes.com/...rbing-tale-of-selfishness.html

shared by emilyelizabeth94 on 03 Oct 14 - No Cached
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      Very opinionated vs analytical. Almost child-like in a sense. 
  • “Happy” is the last word of the story, and in interviews Shel Silverstein explained that it took him years to find a publisher for “The Giving Tree” — that it had been important to him that he keep what he called the sad ending.
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      Interesting that Silverstein wanted a "sad ending" but the last word of the story was "happy". 
  • ...10 more annotations...
  • “Most disgusting book ever,” said one. “One star or five, there is no middle ground,” declared another. “The Nazis would have loved it,”
    • Courtney Campbell
      Courtney Campbell on 03 Oct 14
       
      Only the negative comments were presented. Possibly biased? 
  • I never liked Shel Silverstein’s spare, twee little book, not the first time I read it, back in the late 1970s, or the second time, in the mid-1980s, or the third time, just a few weeks ago, in preparation for this column.
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 06 Oct 14
       
      The introduction already had me dreading the article because the author is complaining.  I wish she would have lead us into some of the main points in the introduction.
  • (I’m not even going to get into the biblical implications of Silverstein’s decision to make the tree of the book’s title apple-bearing.)
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      I think it would have been interesting. Kids could compare this to the bible and learn: better to give than receive or not to give into temptation like the Adam and Eve story. -Aieshah Thomas
  • repeated by Silverstein so many times that it sends some, like me, into paroxysms of reflexive indignation
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      I think this writer has had some kind of lapse in memory. There's repetition because the book was meant (as far as I know) for children and that's how kids learn. So of course an adult would be kind of annoyed. -Aieshah Thomas
  • As for the argument that “The Giving Tree” is somehow a commentary on the ways humans ravage the environment, I mean, maybe?
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      I think this environmental message is more likely than the male privilege commentary. Even though the former makes sense: men have an inborn power to take whatever they want until the resource has shriveled up but this is true for all of humankind as well (deforestation, pollution etc.) -Aieshah Thomas
  • “I don’t want to hold the tree accountable,” she continued, but she thinks there could have been a happier ending: “If only she’d set limits, she wouldn’t be a stump today!”
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      But I don't think we should hold the tree responsible. I think the tree would be the victim (since this is so in depth) and even if she wanted to she can't control the boy's actions, which made him cut her down, because she loves him too much. -Aieshah Thomas
  • The boy and the tree are both “flawed,” and in the most old-fashioned way, their flaws, which are also their characters, determine their fates.
    • aieshah_t
      aieshah_t on 05 Oct 14
       
      Being that the child constantly takes while the tree always gives. -Aieshah Thomas
  • prey to Godwin’s Law — that as an online discussion grows, so does the likelihood that someone or something will be compared to a Nazi.
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I'm not quite sure why the man said "the Nazis would have loved this book."  This confuses me.
  • The boy uses the tree as a plaything, lives off her like a parasite, and then, when she’s a shell of her former self and no longer serves any real purpose, he sits on her — which makes her happy? (“That book is the epitome of male privilege,” a friend groused.)
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 06 Oct 14
       
      I know and fully understand the author has a right to an opinion, but a CHILD will not examine the book in this matter.  A child wouldn't see a book from this point of view because he/she doesn't have that mentality yet.
  • It’s possible Silverstein was attempting to be subversive, and in that sense, this little Rorschach test of children’s literature seems to have succeeded
    • emilyelizabeth94
      emilyelizabeth94 on 06 Oct 14
       
      The author is looking at all aspects of Silverstein's book and trying to figure out the purpose for the book.
troyharrison3

The author of the novel, not the narrator of the chapter, wants to highlight certain ph... - 0 views

When reading this it made me wonder what type of horror the book presented.

started by troyharrison3 on 06 Oct 14 no follow-up yet
troyharrison3

With virtually every page of the novel reporting some horror, including the awful stenc... - 0 views

Being that the book offers horror I would have been interested in reading it and also learning about the Holocaust because I believe it was quite similar to slavery.

started by troyharrison3 on 06 Oct 14 no follow-up yet
troyharrison3

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/05/books/review/the-giving-tree-tender-story-of-uncondit... - 0 views

Some parts of the text were quite confusing being that the book was written in plain language I believe I wouldn't have really wanted to read it.

started by troyharrison3 on 06 Oct 14 no follow-up yet
troyharrison3

When I read the book again these 30-some years later, my only brief reservation - that ... - 1 views

Say for instance you read a children's book when you was younger you tend to have a better meaning of something when you read it several times or simply reading it when you're older.

started by troyharrison3 on 06 Oct 14 no follow-up yet
kaylaallison

'The Giving Tree': Tender Story of Unconditional Love or Disturbing Tale of Selfishness... - 1 views

www.nytimes.com/...rbing-tale-of-selfishness.html

shared by kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14 - No Cached
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      The reviewer came on with a strong comment of wether she liked the book or not. It surprised me how sudden she made her remark.
  • I’m not alone.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      The short and to the point sentence that she is not the only one who dislikes the book. This takes on a very negative opinion of the book. It makes me not want to read it.
  • Most disgusting book ever,” said one. “One star or five, there is no middle ground,” declared another. “The Nazis would have loved it,” one man raged, proving that
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      The direct quotes from other sources gives facts that support her opinion.
  • ...1 more annotation...
  • Learn better parenting skills.
    • kaylaallison
      kaylaallison on 05 Oct 14
       
      This comment is very rude! I do not like her opinion. Some parents raise their children to the best of their ability and their children still end up as a "bad child." This is present with my uncle. My grandma raised her children very well but he still gets himself into a lot of trouble. I am offended!!!!
troyharrison3

These same men admire his sincerity of purpose, and are willing to forgive much to hone... - 1 views

This statement displayed that he Mr. Washington was greatly respect by a huge group of people and many agreed with his opinion, values and ideas.

started by troyharrison3 on 02 Oct 14 no follow-up yet
troyharrison3

In Philadelphia and New York color-prescription led to a withdrawal of Negro communican... - 1 views

The separation of blacks in churches played a huge role in their religion because most slaves were very religious and believe one day they would be freed from slavery. To sum things up I guess you ...

started by troyharrison3 on 02 Oct 14 no follow-up yet
troyharrison3

The liberalizing tendencies of the latter half of the eighteenth century brought, along... - 0 views

During the 1750's African American slaves still had hatred in their hearts for whites but as time progressed during the 18th century they became a bit more forgiving in a sense.

started by troyharrison3 on 02 Oct 14 no follow-up yet
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