Salt to the Sea is a book by Ruta Sepety about WWII but mainly about the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff, a giant ship packed to capacity to try and get refugees from the war to safety. There are four main character, and every chapter is from on of their perspectives. The book starts of with a girl named Joana, a nurse in training from Lithuania. She is a caring character who looks out for the good of the other characters. On the other hand, there's Florian, who is Prussian who escaped. Throughout the book, Florian seems defensive and has an every man for himself mentality. Alfred is a Nazi soldier who believes in everything Hitler says. And finally, Emilia is a Latvian girl who gets pregnant at the age of 15 unwillingly by a Nazi soldier. Joana and Florian fall in love and they learn a lot from each other. For example, Florian learns to care more for others and learns to stay loyal to those who are good to him and only want the best for him. Joana learns to be smart about her decisions and how to think quickly in stressful situations. I feel like this is an important message because it teaches us that we can learn to be better people from each other. It also teaches us that working together is more beneficial and makes a lot of tasks easier to do.
At the beginning, for the most part they all dont know each other, but as you read it, the book takes you along their journey to the Wilhelm Gustloff. By the end of the book, they all know each other, some better than others. I think that it is interesting that the author also put in the perspective from one of the Nazi soldiers who believed in Hitler's teachings. I think that Alfred has a mental disability because he seems to not understand social cues and simple instructions. Generally he is arrogant and thinks that Hitler's way was the only way. This mentality speaks to similar problems that we have today with people not being open minded. People need to understand that they might be wrong about something, and that's ok. I think this book is important to today because it directly teaches us more about WWII and important things that might not seem important from our perspective. The book also indirectly teaches us the importance of working together and the meaning of being open minded. I fully recomend this book, it taught me so much about the different people who were victimized by WWII.
4 Comments
Now a days, hate crimes are more common than they used to be, or at least are about more than just race. The real question is if World War two made hate crimes worse. Before the war. hate crimes were common against LGBTQ people and people of different ethnicity and races, but World War two opened a whole other wound for hate crimes. The Nazi party was mainly focused on getting rid of people where were Jewish or from Jewish decent in their close family. If your grandfather was Jewish and you were not, that means that you are from Jewish decent. Before World War II, hate crimes against people of Jewish decent or Jewish people were much less frequent than they are now and especially during the war.
In the Book, salt to the sea, the main characters didn't want to expose their true identities because they didn't want to be seen for who they were or what they practiced or where they came from. I think this reflects a similar mentality now where some people are afraid to be seen for who they are. In Salt to the Sea, there is a Latvian, Lithuanian, a Prussian, A polish girl, and a delusional young Nazi who believes in Hitler's propaganda. The whole point of the book is for all of them to try to get to the Wilhelm Gustloff, a ship that could bring them to freedom. They all start off in different places and by the end of the book, they all meet each other. World War II was one of the deadliest wars in history, but no one remembers the sinking of the Wilhelm Gustloff which was deadlier than the sinking of the Titanic. When the enormous 684 feet ship launched, it killed 9,343 people of the !0,582 people that were packed into the ship. The book Salt to the Sea is based on all of the characters trying to get to this ship, hoping that it would bring them to safety. Little did they know what would actually happen. In 1945, the time the Wilhelm Gustloff sank, FDR was getting sworn in for his 4th term in office, Soviet troops liberate Auschwitz and Birkenau Concentration Camps in Poland, and so much more happened in just the year 1945.
In 1945, the common point of veiw in Germany was that people who were not of the Aryan race, in other words, 100% christian, blonde hair, tall, with blue eyes. "it's all your fault, the voice whispered. I quickened my pace and caught up with a small group. The Germans would march us off the field road if they found us." (Sepetys, 2016) this quote signifies that they are trying to escape the Germans and that they blame themselves for being different. "Fear is a hunter" is a reocurring phrase throughout the book. To each charater it means something different, to one it might mean that fear kills, to another it might mean that fear has all of the power. Fear was something that motivated World War II. source: Sepetys, Ruta. Salt to the Sea. Philomel Books, 2016. Mentors are a necessity for some kids.“1 in 3 young people will grow up without a mentor.”(Mentor 2018) True, there are many kids who don’t need mentors, and thus, don’t get any, but, there are those who genuinely need mentors for both educational and psychological support. Many of said children don’t get any. Mentors are people, either student or adult, who help a student in need. The mentor can guide the student in their studies, be a friend, or even play with them. Being a mentor means supporting a student who needs support, but, unfortunately, there aren’t enough mentors
We are interested in helping children of younger ages with their educational needs, and becoming friends with them. We understand that lack of education is a major problem in today’s society, however common or rare it is. Education is more valuable than many people think. In a world with ever-accelerating technology, and knowledge at our fingertips, children need to be able to gather, process, and put information that they gain to use. We believe that Education is a topic that is important to all people around the globe, and should be a topic commonly talked about when problems arise. Now, is one of those times. One day, a world where only the rich few, who are born into a world where only they get mentors and proper education might exist. And in that world, the less fortunate people descend into a pit of uneducation that they won’t be able to get out of without help. This is a world that we are trying to avoid, and the only way we can be sure, is to bring all types of people to equal positions in education. Surely, you want to avoid a place like that, don’t you? The issue is that there are not enough people mentoring, so not enough kids get the education they deserve. This problem as been going on ever since people have started to care about their education and since we’ve transitioned to the digital age. For some kids, learning on a screen is too hard, so when “everything goes digital”, they have trouble learning. They need face to face learning but it is a whole lot harder than it sounds. The cost of a mentor can be expensive, especially for families living off of minimum wage. “kids born into less-stable families are at much higher risk for bad outcomes in life – education, health, income, you name it.”(Dubner 2017) Some kids can’t pay online to be taught by a computer that they can’t ask questions to. You have to take into account that one of the reasons kids get mentored online is because it is a lot easier for the company to be online than having to hire someone and have them mentor. The company will make more money and will take less time to establish a mentoring program. After all, time is money. Other kids, (specifically those who request mentors or are recommended for them, but don’t get any) aren’t able to get the full experience that they could have with a mentor. In Wake County there are many different mentoring programs. Ages vary, but most of the Mentees range from Elementary to High School.(Wake County Network of Care 2018) Many of these programs include educational aspects and also try to help the kids find a better quality of life. A tutor is someone that helps you with homework and helps you study. One thing that makes mentoring better than plain tutoring programs is that the mentor acts like an older sibling or a friend, which helps build a stronger connection. Most mentorship programs around the triangle use mentors. A few of these mentorship programs also help to build a stronger faith. A large part of all of these programs is to have mentors be there for someone when they might not have anyone to support them at home. After our research in the mentorship programs in North Carolina, we found that there are multiple programs helping our community, but we believe there is always more that can be done. We feel that there is still a need for help, even with all the organizations that are helping. What most groups do is help the kids after school. A group like this is the Boys and Girls club. They have kids, usually Elementary School through Middle school age, come to their organizations after school and help them with their homework and studies. They also teach the students structure and learning methods since most kids in this program do not come from the best areas, and thus, aren’t taught such things. We feel that we should go to the schools during the school day and understand how they feel in school. Also, we can actively help them understand the information they are given during the school day, instead of helping them after school. We could also find out vital details such as what makes them succeed and what makes them struggle. As an 8th grade middle school student, I, and other students, can help by offering volunteer mentoring services to youth (elementary school children) at their various schools. At these schools, we could read books to children, help young students with basic math, and more importantly, provide support. The benefits of giving information to the young students or helping them to understand certain information are tremendous. Children with mentors have increased intellectual ability, more self confidence, and a healthier social attitude. There are two major categories where students with mentors profit; academic and non-academic. On the academic side, mentored children can learn to have more, higher quality participation as well as intellectual gains. These children can also learn about future planning and goal setting as well as having more self confidence and a better social attitude. We propose that we send 15-20 mentors to Bugg Elementary for the Bugg Expo. According to this source, mentoring in a youth school setting is shown to be a “cost-efficient way of increasing the positive relationships students have in their lives, while also having the potential to boost factors that can lead to educational success, such as connectedness to the school environment and peers, improved relationships with teachers and staff, improved feelings of academic competence, and greater access and use of other supports, such as tutoring, credit tracking, counseling, and postsecondary planning.” This site also includes lots of studies about school based mentoring that is beneficial/important information to know. Along with providing support educationally, student mentors can act as friends to support and provide guidance. “Although it takes place at schools, our School-Based Mentoring program isn’t limited to the classroom. Of course, some Littles do talk with their Bigs about class, or do homework, or read together, but it’s perfectly fine to shoot hoops in the gym or play on the playground. At the end of the day, it's really all about starting a friendship, providing guidance and inspiring them to reach their potential. (Big Brothers Big Sisters of America, 2013b)” Work Cited “School Based Mentoring.” National Mentoring Resource Center, 2017. 2018 <http://www.nationalmentoringresourcecenter.org/index.php/what-works-nin- mentoring/key-topics.html?layout=edit&id=182> Bayer, Amanda, Grossman, Jean, and DuBois, David. “School-Based Mentoring Programs: Using Volunteers to Improve the Academic Outcomes of Underserved Students.” Aug. 2013 24 Jan. 2018 <https://www.mdrc.org/sites/default/files/School-Based%20Mentoring_Programs.pdf> Gordon, Janet, Downey, Jane, and Bangert, Art. “Effects of a School-Based Mentoring Program on School Behavior and Measures of Adolescent Connectedness.”School Community Journal, vol. 23, no. 2, 2013 <https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/EJ1028864.pdf>Accessed 26 Jan. 2018 Dubner, Stephen. “When Helping Hurts” Freakonomics. July 12, 2017. January 29, 2018 <http://freakonomics.com/podcast/when-helping-hurts/> “Mentoring Impact” Mentor. 2018. Jan. 24 2018 <http://www.mentoring.org/why-mentoring/mentoring-impact/> “Wake Network of Care Mentoring Program” Wake Network of Care. 2018. Jan. 24 2018<http://wake.nc.networkofcare.org/mh/services/subcategory.aspx?tax=PH -1400.5000> “Benefits of Mentoring” Mentoring Partnership. 2018. Jan 26 2018 <http://www.ncmentoring.org/about-mentoring/impact/> https://www.dur.ac.uk/hr/mentoring/mentoringguidelines/mentoringbenefits/ Written by Owen Wing, Ethan Flood, Nick Mauro, and Olivia Dubay I believe that happiness is a given. From the second you are born you are happy. Before anyone can touch you, before anyone can take away your innocence, you are happy. Now that could all change in a matter of seconds. Someone could hurt you, emotionally or physically, and all of that happy, could be taken away. Some people work their entire lives to be happy and some never get it back. Either way, there’s not a person that I know that doesn’t want to be happy. I won’t ignore the fact that there are places that make it impossible to be content. In war zones and in countries run by tyrants life is hard for the people there. They probably don’t have much time to have fun, to relax, or to just be happy.
About a year ago, I moved from Charlotte, NC, to Raleigh, NC. Even though Charlotte and Raleigh aren’t that far apart it was, and still is, a big change. It took me a while to adapt and it was even harder to let it go. At first I was excited to move somewhere else. Since my dad was in the military, we were used to moving to different places after three-ish years. The difference in this was that when we moved to Charlotte, since my dad had retired from the military, I was told that we were going to live there forever, or at least until I went to college. Charlotte was my forever home and I wasn’t ready to let it go. As the days got closer and closer to the day we would move, the more it started to get real. I started crying in the middle of class, pushing my friends away instead of making the best of the time I had left with them. When the would ask me to come over I would say no or make up some stupid excuse even though I was doing absolutely nothing. After a while of pushing everyone away, I started to get really depressed and realized that I needed to try to take back all of the time I spent pushing everyone away. I started to talk to my friends more, I started to try my best to be happy. My best friends, Greta, Sonia, Sabrina, and Angeline, meant the world to me, I think that the reason I pushed them away was so that I didn't have to deal with leaving them. The one thing that I remember the most was the last day of school. Everyone was sad because we had to leave and the majority of the class was confused because they had no idea what was going on. I remember vividly someone asking why we were all crying in the corner of the classroom hugging each other. Since out classroom was in the very back of the library we were constantly being shushed by not only the teachers but the other classmates too. Of course all of the shushing and questions only made us cry even more until the point to where I could barely breathe. Then something remarkable happened. Since most of my friends were in my homeroom, including my sister Emma, I had the chance to say goodbye but there was one friend, one of my best friends, who was in a different class and it made it even harder to know then I wouldn't be able to say goodbye to her at school. Then miraculously, she bursts through the doors and comes running down the long library and every second felt like it was in slow motion. It felt like a scene from a really sappy movie where the best friends reunite and it’s like they are seeing each other for the first time. She hugged us so hard a couldn’t breathe and she kept on asking us why we had to leave and how much she loved us. That was the moment that I realized that I had gotten my happiness back in life. I realized how lucky I was to have such amazing and supportive friends and how unlucky some people are who can’t get what I have as easily. I believe that happiness that happiness is a given. Even in your worst moments, you can be happy, you just have to look at something in a different way to get there. Some things that tell you if you’re happy ae little, some are hidden, and some are self-evident. Either way, everyone has a chance to be happy, it’s just your choice to take it. I think that people should be more aware of animal cruelty because it is a huge problem, especially in America. According to the ASPCA, “every 60 seconds, another animal is abused.” There are different forms of animal abuse. they are dog fighting, puppy mills, animal hoarding, farm animal welfare, and many other smaller forms of abuse. The most common are dog fighting (which is when people force dogs to fight one another usually until one of them dies), puppy mills (when people force breed dogs even if there are so many dogs in shelters in need of a home), and animal welfare (farmers or large buisnesses will often be cruel to farm animals such as keeping them in confined spaces and treating them as if they aren’t living things). I think that animal cruelty is not talked about enough and the word needs to be spread.
|
Details
|