FTKMF Part 8- Journal

Timed Writing
Part 8

Loung refers to their escape to Thailand as part of the "human export operation" (page 216). Explain how she and Meng made it from Cambodia to America and your opinion of the process...... should it have been done differently so that the refugees were better cared for? Or was this the best (and only) way?

FTKMF Part 7 Journal

Timed Writing
Part 7
Would you categorize the events in Part 7 as JUSTICE or REDEMPTION? Or both? Why?
Or like she says on page 206, "it is too late for my parents and my country." Was it too late for justice or redemption?

FTKMF Part 6 Journal

Timed Writing
Part 6 (Chapters 18-21)

Describe the RESOURCEFULNESS of the 3 Ung children (Kim, Chou, Loung) after they are reunited again.

FTKMF Part 5 Journal

Timed Writing
Part 5 (Chapters 14-17)

Describe the use (and power) of REVENGE in this section.

AT8 REJSER

What are the motivations of people who travel (and people who do not).

What problems/disappointments/frustrations can travel cause?

What are the long-term effects of travel-- how does it impact our future and who we are as people? Does it change us? Does it change the location to which we travel?


An analysis of 6 films:

1. Crossing Over


2. Under the Tuscan Sun


3. Into the Wild


4. The Time Traveler's Wife


5. Titanic


6. The Holiday

The Role of Media in our Lives

How much influence does the media have on our lives?




Do we, as the human race, have the power to block out what they are telling us and make our own decisions and choices?



Who is ultimately responsible for what the media "feeds" us?

Think about "messages" that the media has given you in the past about a story or a situation or a group of people. Have any of these messages ever angered you?
How far does a journalist go to "get a story"; or how far SHOULD he go to get a story?

And now the 6 million dollar questions:
SHOULD THE MEDIA EVER BE CENSORED?

What about this example of a regular radio broadcast in Rwanda prior to the genocide of 1994:
"You have to kill the Tutsis; they're cockroaches.
All those who are listening, rise so we can fight for our Rwanda. Fight with the weapons you have at your disposal: those who have arrows, use arrows. Those who have spears, use spears. We must all fight.
We must all fight the Tutsis. We must finish them, exterminate them, sweep them from the whole country. There must be no refuge for them.
They must be exterminated. There is no other way."

Your task for next class:
Bring in a news story (in Danish or English) that is somehow connected to HUMAN RIGHTS (can be a violation of or a preservation of). Read this article before class and be prepared to share the story with your group as it relates to these questions:
1. How does this article make you feel when you read it?
2. Do you think the reporter did a good job reporting the story from a human rights' perspective?
3. Why or why not?
4. Could this article have an influence (positive or negative) on the reader?

Here is an example... MOSQUE AT GROUND ZERO

FTKMF Part 4- Journal

Timed Writing
Part 4 (Chapters 10-13)

On page 108 Loung says, "My heart hardens at her words, knowing I cannot allow myself the luxury of hope. To hope is to let pieces of myself die."

How has this little girl changed since we first met her? How has survival, the mere fight to live, affected her?

FTKMF Part 3 Journal

Timed Writing
Part 3 (Chapters 7-9)

Describe the Angkar's view of Capitalists and why the Western World was seen as such a threat. Was there any validity to their claims?

Part 2 (Chapters 4-6)

Describe Loung's behavior in these chapters. Is her behavior that of a "typical spoiled five year old"?

Journal- Part 1 FTKMF

Part 1 (Chapters 1-3)


Describe "Loung's Cambodia" as she presents it to us in the first two chapters.

Options to Fight Genocide

Genocide exists.
It has existed for centuries.

Genocide as defined by the United Nations in 1948 means any of the following acts committed with intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a national ethnic, racial, or religious group, including:

• Killing members of the group;
• Causing serious bodily or mental harm to members of the group
• Deliberately inflicting on the group conditions of life calculated to bring about its physical destruction in whole or in part
• Imposing measures intended to prevent births within the group
• Forcibly transferring children of the group to another group

One would think that with the increase of knowledge about the world and its people that has occured since the beginning of the 20th century, genocide would not be as prevalent in today's contemporary society.

However, genocide plagued the world throughout the 20th century and we already have evidence of that pattern repeating itself today.



Are we not learning from our mistakes and the mistakes of our ancestors? Or do we just not care enough about the world OUTSIDE our own borders? You decide. HOW do we, as an INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY, fight Genocide?
You have 4 options.





*Note: Option 4 refers to the US as we have seen that "as the US goes, so the world follows".

What were The Killing Fields?

This film was released in 1984 and follows the story of an American journalist, Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran, his Cambodian interpreter and fellow journalist. They have been working in the Cambodia, reporting the events of the civil war that was going on in the early 1970s. However, in 1975 everything changed.

On April 17, 1975, Cambodia's capital city, Phnom Penh, fell under the control of the Khmer Rouge, the communist guerilla group led by Pol Pot. They forced all city residents into the countryside and to labor camps. During the three years, eight months, and 20 days of Pol Pot’s rule, Cambodia faced its darkest days, an estimated 2 million Cambodians or 30% of the country’s population died by starvation, torture or execution. Almost every Cambodian family lost at least one relative during this gruesome holocaust.

________________________________________
Pol Pot's Year O

Pol Pot declared 'Year Zero' when Khmer Rouge captured Phnom Penh on April 17, 1975. He immediately directed a ruthless program to "purify" Cambodian society of capitalism, Western culture, religion and all foreign influences. He wanted to create Cambodia into an isolated and totally self-sufficient state. Anyone who opposed was killed. Foreigners were expelled, embassies closed, and the currency abolished. Markets, schools, newspapers, religious practices and private property were forbidden. The police, public servants, military officers, teachers, ethnic Vietnamese, Christian clergy, Muslim leaders, members of the Cham Muslim minority, members of the middle-class and the educated were identified and executed.

The country's entire population was forced to relocate to the agricultural labor camps, the so-called "killing fields". Inmates lived in primitive conditions. Families were separated. Former city residents were subjected to unending political indoctrination and brainwashing. Children were encouraged to spy on adults, including their parents.

An estimated 1.5 - 3 million worked or starved to death, died of disease or exposure, or were executed for committing crimes. These crimes which were punishable by death included: not working hard enough, complaining about living conditions, collecting or stealing food for personal consumption, wearing jewelry, engaging in sexual relations, grieving over the loss of relatives or friends and expressing religious sentiments

________________________________________

"We will be the first nation to create a completely Communist country without wasting our time on the intermediate steps." -Khmer Rouge Minister of Defense, Son Sen

"To spare you is no profit, to destroy you is no loss." -Khmer Rouge slogan


________________________________________

It is at this point we find Sydney Schanberg and Dith Pran. Sydney has been sent back to the United States, but his Cambodia colleague is forced to stay and sent to a work camp in the Killing Fields. Sydney is struggling to understand just who is responsible for these atrocities while his friend is struggling to stay alive.
________________________________________

An Introduction to "First They Killed my Father"

Watch the following photo story and answer these questions: What do you see? What do you know? What do you feel? What do you wonder?



The Cambodian Killing Fields lasted 3 years and 8 months and 20 days. But what were they? Who were the victims? And who were the guilty parties that caused them? All of these questions, as well as many others, will be answered as we follow the journey of Loung Ung in

Question of Humanity

As we enter this study of "The Face(s) of Humanity", look at this picture recently released by the Dansk Folkeparti and share what you think about when you see this image.

And Still I Rise....

What connections can you make between the Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun and this poem by Maya Angelou?

Ending Jim Crow?

Once African Americans were given the right to vote (1870), less than 5% of them actually exercised that right because southern states set up literacy tests that had to be passed in order to vote. For the white man, these tests were not a problem, but for a black man or woman these tests were a huge barrier. After years and years of slavery followed by years of inequity in education and schooling, many blacks did not know how to read or write. This helped the white man ensure that although the black man had the right to vote, he would never be able to act on it.....

Because of these situations throughout the south, many Civil Rights' activists were determined to make a change. They set up voting clinics throughout the south where they worked with African Americans, helping them to pass the literacy tests and become officially registered to vote. Their efforts were met with violent repression from state and local lawmen, White Citizens' Council, and Ku Klux Klan resulting in beatings, hundreds of arrests and the murder of several voting activists as seen in this clip from the film "Mississippi Burning".




After watching this clip, discuss in your groups how it is possible to have laws on paper that are not enforced in practice. What examples of hypocrisy do we see in government and policy in the 1960s and still today? How can this double standard be stopped? Or can it be?

Raisin in the Sun...and the Jim Crow South

It is important to understand what was happening in the US at the time that A Raisin in the Sun is set and the place to start the understanding is finding out... WHO WAS JIM CROW?

Describe this picture of "Jim Crow" and discuss in your group how you feel when you look at it. Are the feelings positive, negative, happy, entertaining, degrading, or something else? Why?

If you were to learn that this image represents a white man dressed up with black paint on his face, meant to mimic the black man, does that change your thoughts about the image at all?

A little background information:
The minstrel show was an American entertainment consisting of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music, performed by white people in blackface. Minstrel shows lampooned black people in mostly disparaging ways: as ignorant, lazy, buffoonish, superstitious, and musical. The minstrel show began with brief burlesques and comic acts in the early 1830s and emerged as a full-fledged form in the next decade.


Watch 2 examples of an old Minstrel skit.
As you watch it, think about the following items:
1. Is this type of entertainment appropriate or not?
2. What is the message behind this type of entertainment?
3. Should it have been allowed?
4. What was its purpose?
5. How did it make you feel as you watched it?
6. And finally..... would you have felt differently if you were an African American watching this?







Now look at the following images associated with "Minstrel entertainment".

Are these images examples of FREEDOM OF SPEECH or are they examples of BIGOTRY?





How far does FREE SPEECH "cover" you?

Or are there consequences of our exercising our Freedom of Speech? What are the consequences of things like the MINSTREL SHOWS and these ads?

And what about the consequences of this example of FREEDOM OF SPEECH? Should there be a "limit" to our freedom of speech?

A Raisin in the Sun

The Civil War in the United States was fought from 1861-1865.
In 1863 President Abraham Lincoln signed the

which formally abolished slavery in the United States and declared all men free when it said:

"That on the 1st day of January, A.D. 1863, all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free...."

So how is it possible that ONE HUNDRED YEARS LATER, the Jim Crow Laws could still be in effect?

Your group's task:

Look at each of the following pictures which are examples of Jim Crow Laws throughout the southern United States in the 20th century.

How do they make you feel?

What do they make you want to do/say when you see them?

What about statements such as these about Jim Crow Laws:

1. One rationale for the systematic exclusion of Black Americans from southern public society was that it was for their own protection.....

2. Allowing Blacks in White schools would mean constantly subjecting them to adverse feelings and opinions which would not be fair for them to experience....

How do these make you feel when you hear them? What could members of society do to actually change these opinions, these laws, and these ways of thinking?!!? Could they do anything?

Sure....they could move NORTH because things must be better there, right?!

A Final Reflection on GOW

We heard former first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt's thoughts about GOW the day we began this journey with the Joads.

"The Grapes of Wrath, by John Steinbeck, both repels and attracts you. The horrors of the picture, so well drawn, make you dread sometimes to begin the next chapter, and yet you cannot lay the book down or even skip a page. The book is coarse in spots, but life is coarse in spots, and the story is very beautiful in spots just as life is...Even from life's sorrows some good must come. What could be a better illustration than the closing chapter of this book?" ~ Eleanor Roosevelt, 1939

Along that same vein about the effect The Grapes of Wrath should have on its readers, John Steinbeck wrote to his editor:

"I've done my damndest to rip a reader's nerves to rags.
I don't want him satisfied."

Did he succeed in doing that to you?
If so, how did he accomplish it?
If not, why weren't you affected in that way?

and what more appropriate music to wrap up our study than one more tune from The Boss.....

Quote Analysis

In preparation for GOW Writing assignment #2, today's journal is a quote analysis from part 1 of the novel. Your task is to analyse this quote for its literal/figurative meaning, the message it has (who said it, why he said it, what the context was for the quote, etc)for the story as a whole, and Steinbeck's intention in writing it.


"This here is my country. I b'long here. An' I don't give a goddamn if they's
oranges an' grapes crowdin' a fella outa bed even. I ain't a−goin."
--Granpa, Chapter 10, pg. 143

Against the wind...

As the Joads face the final leg of their journey to the Promised Land, we see clearly how much adversity has plagued this family.

For example in Chapter 18 we see several examples of how this new land, this Promised Land, does not even want the Joads or others like them to be there to the point that is wears on even Ma.....


So how does a person or a family keep going on in spite of the adversity? What causes some people to keep going while others give up? And where do you see yourself along this continuum of perseverance.....do you keep fighting and moving no matter what? Or do you quickly give up and move on?

Steinbeck's symbol of the turtle

One symbol that is referred to numerous times in The Grapes of Wrath is the land turtle. We first meet him in chapter 3 as he attempts to make his way across the highway as he foreshadows to the reader the journey of the Joads and many other families just like them.

Your task today is to analyze this symbol through Chapter 17. Why does Steinbeck keep coming back to this creature as he unfolds the story of the Joads and other migrant families?

A few facts about land turtles to help you make some connections:

1. The land turtle is characterised by a special bony or cartilaginous shell developed from their ribs that acts as a shield to their bodies.

2. Like other reptiles, turtles are ectotherms which means they can vary their internal temperature according to the environment.

3. Most turtles that spend most of their life on land have their eyes looking down at objects in front of them.

4. Turtles are thought to have exceptional night vision due to the unusually large number of rod cells in their retinas.

5. Turtles do not molt their skins all in one go, as snakes do, but continuously, in small pieces.

6. Land turtles have short, sturdy feet. They are well-known for moving slowly, in part because of their heavy, cumbersome shell, which restricts their stride length.

Ch 12-13 GOW

Listen to this song and the message of the lyrics.....how can you connect it to the story of the Joads and so many others who are on Route 66, headed to their Promised Land?





All The Right Moves Lyrics

All the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
They've got all the right moves in all the right faces
So yeah, we're going down

Just paint the picture of a perfect place
They've got it better than what anyone's told you
They'll be the King of Hearts, and you're the Queen of Spades
And we'll fight for you like we were your soldiers

I know we've got it good
But they've got it made
And the grass is getting greener each day
I know things are looking up
But soon they'll take us down
before anybody's knowing our name.

They've got all the right friends in all the right places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down
They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down

Do you think I'm special?
Do you think I'm nice?
Am I bright enough to shine in your spaces?
Between the noise you hear
And the sound you like
Are we just sinking in an ocean of faces?

It can be possible that rain can fall,
Only when it's over our heads
The sun is shining everyday, but it's far away
Over the world is death.

They've got,
They've got all the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down

They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
Yeah, we're going down
They said, everybody knows, everybody knows where we're going
http://www.elyricsworld.com/all_the_right_moves_lyrics_one_republic.html
Yeah, we're going down

It doesn't matter what you see.
I know i could never be
Someone that looks like you.
It doesn't matter what you say
I know i could never face
someone that could sound like you.

All the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down

All the right friends in all the wrong places
So yeah, we're going down
We've got all the right moves and all the wrong faces
So yeah, we're going down

They said, everybody knows everybody knows where we're going
Yeah we're going down
They said, everybody knows everybody knows where we're going
Yeah we're going down

Grapes of Wrath Writing Assignment #1

Writing Assignment #1- The Grapes of Wrath

First--
Watch the following youtube about one man's view of how the story of the Grapes of Wrath is being repeated in the 21st century.



Second--
Watch the youtube excerpt from Michael Moore's documentary "Sicko" where he takes a group of US Citizens without healthcare (who also happen to be 9/11 rescue workers)who cannot get treatment in the US to a different kind of "promised land".



Your writing task is a response.....
What do you think about the idea that the Grapes of Wrath is being repeated in the 21st century? What about this idea of people who need help in the US not being able to get it? The theme we are currently studying is the "American Dream", but both of these clips are lacking "dream-like" elements.

Using the first 11 chapters of The Grapes of Wrath, these 2 youtube videos, and your own knowledge and the current situation in the world (based on news sources that you have read/heard) and write a PERSONAL RESPONSE, as if it were a "Letter to the editor". A "letter to the editor" of a major newspaper is PERSONAL, PASSIONATE, and ARTICULATE. You must communicate your opinion about something in a way that others will pay attention to it and hopefully be motivated to ACTION.

Guidelines:
No less than 2 full pages, double spaced
Must have at least 2 text citations from The Grapes of Wrath (noted in the footnotes and on a bibliograpy page)
Must have at least 2 citations from a news source (Danish, American, or others)
Must be written from the 1st person perspective
Must be written in a way that I am moved......

Leaving Oklahoma

Listen to this song by Chris Knight called "Broken Plow" as it tells the story of the migrant farmer who has been forced to leave his home. How does the song make you feel? What does it make you think of from The Grapes of Wrath as you listen to the lyrics and to the melody?



Load up the old Dodge truck
We’ll leave what we can’t sell
Nobody needs a sharecropper’s tools
or a dust filled well
Take you one last look around
shed you one last tear

For the broken plow, the broken dreams
And the life we’re leaving here

Pull the lines down tight
The kids can ride on top of the load
In the cool of the night
They can crawl underneath the tarp
To stay out of the cold
Eleven hundred miles of mountain and sand
We’ll cross ‘em tired and torn
If this beat up truck can carry us
Far enough away from the storm


We’re going to California
There’s work there for a man
Too proud to beg for charity
Too poor to make a stand
Pray it’s just the land we’re losing
Not my life’s blood that I leave
On the handles of that broken plow
That haunts me in my dreams

A man at a roadside station
Don’t like dealing with my kind
He’d beat me out of my last dollar
And never look me in the eye
I heard ‘em call us Okies
Hell I don’t know what that means
But something tells me the promised land
Ain’t as promising as it seems

We’re going to California
There’s work there for a man
Too proud to beg for charity
Too poor to make a stand
Pray it’s just the land we’re losing
Not my life’s blood that I leave
On the handles of that broken plow
That haunts me in my dreams


This restless road is full of strangers
They ain’t no stranger than I am
Hardened faces damn the dust and curse the wind
That drove us from this life and home
We’ll never know again

We’re going to California
There’s work there for a man
Too proud to beg for charity
Too poor to make a stand
Pray it’s just the land we’re losing
Not my life’s blood that I leave
On the handles of that broken plow
That haunts me in my dreams

This land is your land...or is it?

Woody Guthrie is known for the songs he wrote about the same time that the Joads and many other families were experiencing what we see in the story.....

Bruce Springsteen, as well as a few others, did a remake of Woody Guthrie's old song "This land is your land"...considered to be one of the greatest songs in American history....

Before singing it recently at a concert , Bruce said that he is not sure if this song is true anymore, but that it "oughta be"...

Listen and reflect on the words Woody Guthrie wrote as Springsteen sings....

Do you hear promise? or despair?

Do you hear hope? or disappointment?

Ghost of Tom Joad- Group Project

Bruce Springsteen wrote a song about The Grapes of Wrath protagonist, Tom Joad. In fact, it was the title track for his album in 1995.

For most song writers this might be a strange topic for a song or for an album, but Springsteen tends to write lyrics that are about real life in America....about the working man...about the struggles that people go through in their everyday lives.

Your group's task is to analyze the music of the Boss, Bruce Springsteen. His WEBSITE has a comprehensive list of all of his albums, songs, and lyrics. You must find between 7 and 10 Springsteen songs that tell the story of the American dream.....(either the realized or unrealized dream)

You should not use the full lyrics from all the songs you choose, but you must choose 7-10 pieces (one piece from each song you choose) that you can put together to tell the story from beginning to end... where the dream begins, what man experiences in life, and what those experiences do to his dreams. You are actually DEVELOPING A PLOT that builds as you add one more element........ You should:

1. Create the setting
2. and introduce the character(s)
3. Then you will create actions/conflicts/situations for the character to experience
4. as you build up the rising action to the climax (highpoint) of the story
5....which leads to the falling action
6. ....and finally the denouement (resolution)... The Denouement is derived from the term in French and Latin for "untying the knot".... It may not be an ending that your character wanted, but it is a resolution from the events/struggles.

(Note: There is a "search the lyrics" feature that will help you find key words or phrases to get started.)

After you put these together to tell your story, you will tell it to the class as an electronic story book.....(using PPT or another format). Each piece (from each song) should have its own slide. AS you present it to us, one person will read the text as it cycles through the slideshow but with no commentary or explanation.....just the lyrics as they tell the story.

The GOW "Family"

What is your definition of "family"? Is a family made up of only relatives or are there others that could be included? What keeps a family together? And of what importance is family today as compared to the time of the Joads?

Surviving the Dust Bowl

The Dust Bowl was not like any other natural disaster. It was not a hurricane that lasted for a few hours....or a tornado that lasted for few minutes. Rather it was a disaster that went on for days....months....years....

This was the situation in which the Joads found themselves. The home, the land, and the work that they had known for so long had drastically changed to the point that it was replaced with dispair, disappointment, and destitution.

Watch this video called "The American Experience- Surviving the Dust Bowl" and make notes about what this natural disaster did to the farms, the communities, and the families across the southern US states.

Meaning of the Title

John Steinbeck took the name for his novel from a very well-known song in US History "The Battle Hymn of the Republic".

First read through the lyrics and talk with your group about where the title came from. Then lsten to the song as you read the lyrics again and see if the tone of the music helps you decide why he chose a line from THIS SONG to represent 570+ pages....

An Intro to the Grapes of Wrath

The situation:
Due to a situation beyond your control,your family is being forced to leave the only home you have ever known; the home where you and your siblings have all grown up; the home where you come to at the end of a long day when you just need a place where you feel safe; home....

The dilemma:
You cannot take everything with you. There is very limited space in the truck that will move your family, so you have to prioritize what you will take and what you will leave.

The questions:
What do you take with you and why?
And what things would be the hardest to leave behind?