The ending of The Book Thief by Markus Zusak is very impactful. It gives a lot of support to what I tookaway from the book. My takeaway was that if you can't control something, then find something that you can control.
If you have read The Book Thief then you know that Max (a Jewish man that Leisels foster family hides) was put into a concentration camp. In the end you get to know that he survived (""Max," she said. He turned and briefly closed his eyes as the girl continued." page 512) . Rudy and Leisels foster family all died in the bomb. Not to mention all the other people on Himmel Street. All die except for Leisel. It finally ends when Death returns the book to Leisel and then proceeds to take her sole away. Based on my takeaway, the thing that Leisel couldn't control was Hitler, poverty, and the bomb. However, during the book she overcomes a lot. She learns to read, learns to provide food for herself ("...Liesel and Rudy a dozen apples between them." Page 153.), and learns to trust.
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I am reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It is a realistic fiction novel about life during World War Two. It takes place in Germany and starts off before the war. When the main character Liesel is on a train with her mother they are surrounded by the poor. They are said to be easily spotted and are almost everywhere. This is because it is in Germany after World War One which means that the Treaty of Versailles had already been instated. This resulted in Germany's financial crisis that left many people living in poverty. They can be spotted easily in most big cities. In New York City alone, there are 63,343 homeless people which show that they are all over. Afterward, Liesel is put into a foster family. The parents already have kids but they are grown and have their own lives. However, once the War starts, the narrator predicts that they will be working in factories to create military weapons and goods. Today, a lot of people work in factories. Some even work in factories that manufacture military weapons like how the kids ended up doing in the story. All in all, events that take place in The Book Thief can still be compared to today's events and lifestyles because the War can impact society for a long time. Today we still have people living in poverty and people manufacturing military goods just like during World War Two and how it is represented in the book. There were so many major impacts of the War that are reflected in our society, but I think that overall it changed our lives for the better. I am reading The Book Thief by Markus Zusak. It takes place in Germany during WWll where the Nazi's were starting to take over. This eventually led to the Holocaust which will end up changing everyones lives. The narrator is a invisible figure of death that throughout the book is following a young girl it calls the Book Thief.
In the beginning Liesel (the Book Thief) is on a train with her mother. On the train the poor were very easily spotted (as said on page.9 of the book. "There were people of every stature, but among them, the poor were the most easily recognized.") This is like Nazi Germany at this same time. The Treaty of Versailles had left Germany in a financial crisis so many people ended up in poverty. Just a little later on in the book Liesel is taken to a foster family because her mother was a communist and feared that the Nazi's would come after her. This meant that her family had to split up even though they would've rather remained together (like on page.25 where it says "There was the chaos of goodbye. It was a goodbye that was wet, with the girl's head buried into the woolly, worn shallows of her mother's coat. There had been some more dragging.") This is an accurate representation of the holocaust because many families were split up during this time either to protect themselves or were physically split up by Nazi's. The foster home that Liesel lives in, later hides a Jewish boy in their house named Max (which is shown on page.207. "Max Vandenburg promised that he would never sleep in Liesel's room again...He was a Jew, and if there was one place he was destined to exist, it was a basement or any other such hidden venue of survival.") This happened all over Nazi Germany when the Jews were running from the Nazi's. They would go into willing people's houses and hide. Overall, although The Book Thief is a fictional novel, it still is realistic. It accurately portrays what life was like during WWll when many people where living in poverty and families were being split up/hunted for by the Nazi's. By: Madeline Townsend, Yasemin Bali, Musa Jeng and Samantha Levine Every minute an average of 2000-3000 household pets are born in the U.S. That means that every year more than 30 million dogs and cats are born (HSCL 18). Sadly, 8-10 million don’t get to settle into a home (Leigh and Geyer 1). Instead, they are abandoned on the streets or surrendered to an animal shelter. These dogs and cats can go off and reproduce which can crowd the streets and create danger for the community because they might have issues such as aggression or diseases. Our research group has a strong connection to this problem because we love animals and care about their quality of life. If homeless dogs or cats show aggression it's probably because they are scared and don’t know any better. This can cause them to be stereotyped by the community, but really they are (in most cases) misunderstood. Everybody in the community should care about these animals. We have all felt pain before. When animals have a poor quality of life or are given up by their family they feel pain. So we should be sympathetic and learn how to help these animals. In the U.S, there is a massive number of homeless animals. Unfortunately, of the 70 million, only about one-ninth of these animals enter the 3,500 shelters in the U.S yearly. Only a tenth of the animals surrendered to shelters have been fixed, meaning they have had their reproductive organs removed or altered so that they cannot reproduce. Because some owners don’t have their pets spayed or neutered, some unintentional litters get sent to animal shelters and when some shelters get crowded they have to put some animals down (with the exception of no-kill shelters). Most animals, household or not, are affected by humans/their owners. Only 1 out of every 10 dogs born will find a permanent home. The cause for the population boom in animal shelters is that some animals are given up by their owners to a shelter or the street. The animals on the street sometimes are found and put into the shelters which increases the numbers even more. Every year, about 2.7 million dogs and cats are killed, because shelters are too full or the animal isn’t getting adopted (DoSomething.org 2015). Everybody can help abandoned animals. Some things that people do to help neglected animals is spreading the word about pet adoption or recommend spaying/neutering pets. In Wake, County people help or volunteer to save stray animals. In one of the readings it says “ We work in partnership with fosters, volunteers, and local rescues, to treat and rehome thousands of homeless animals every year,” (Wakegov Animal Center 18). There are some no-kill shelters like SPCA (Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals) each year they find homes for over 3,400 animals through its innovative adoption programs. In recent news, it said that animals from Puerto Rico have been saved from the recent hurricane back in 2017 and have found refuge in North Carolina (ABC 11 Eyewitness News, October 6th, 2017). This organization in Wake County is helping those animals to find a safe home. “Rescue groups from across North Carolina partnered with the Humane Society of the United States to bring more than 100 homeless pets from Puerto Rico to North Carolina, including 40 dogs that the SPCA of Wake County will take in,” ( The News & Observer Oct 6, 2017.) What the organization is doing is awesome for our community and the dogs and cats being rescued will have a happy home for them to live in. These are examples of how people are helping banished animals find a home. There are different ways to contribute to the animal shelters. For example, you could have a fundraiser to raise money, volunteer at animal shelters, or you could inform others about all the stranded animals that need to be rescued and how to help get them in a home. Many civilians try to help out with wandering animals by adopting them. They need to think about all the other stranded and abandoned animals walking on the streets. Yes, adopting an animal definitely helps but we need to get all the other animals in homes or in no-kill animal shelters. Volunteering or donating is a fantastic way to help out. You can donate many things such as food, bedding, toys, and money. Some things the shelters may have you do when you volunteer are cleaning their cages, grooming, and walking. You do have to be a certain age to volunteer. It’s usually ages 16+. If you’re underage for certain places or jobs you are required to have a parent or guardian. Our main goal is to help uncared for animals find homes or get safe. Many animals get abandoned on the side of the road and some are living on the streets for their whole lives. If everyone could help animals find homes and/or shelters the animals will live better lives. Another one of our goals is to raise a bunch of money. Money can help the shelters so much. Then they can buy supplies to groom or bathe them. If they have a disease they can get the medicine they need. Money can do so much. Even $20 can probably save some animals. There are so many animals out there that need help. Just by doing something small like giving $5 can help so much. If you ever see an animal out in the city call someone or take it to a shelter. Something could happen to that animal like getting hit by a car or it can catch a disease. Many things happen to innocent animals and they don’t deserve it. Save a life, donate, volunteer, help. Works Cited “Humane Society of Central Illinois.” What’s the Problem? Jan.1.2018 <http://www.hscipets.org/tipgen21.htm> Leigh and Geyer, Diane and Marilee. “No Voice Unheard.” Problems and Solutions. <http://www.novoiceunheard.org/problems_solutions.html> SPCA. SPCA of Wake County. 2018 <https://spcawake.org/> News & Observer. Rescue groups partner to bring homeless pets from Puerto Rico to NC after Hurricanes. October 6. 2017. <http://www.newsobserver.com/living/pets/article177216191.html> ABC 11 News. SPCA of Wake County houses homeless pets from Puerto Rico. October 5. 2017 <http://abc11.com/pets-animals/spca-of-wake-county-houses-homeless-pets-from-pr/2493504/> Dosomething.org. “11 Facts About Animal Homelessness,” 26, 2015. January 26, 2018 <https://www.dosomething.org/us/facts/11-facts-about-animal- homelessness> Samantha Levine
NC Animal Shelter Problems There are animal shelters all over the world including North Carolina. Animal shelters are intended as a temporary home for animals which provides care to a mentally injured, physically injure, or surrendered animal before they get adopted. However, you can not be guaranteed the same level of care at every shelter. If an animal is not taken care of properly, there can be potential problems. Let's say there’s a dog that was found on the streets and is in an animal shelter . The vets don’t update any vaccines and decide to just put a dog outside to play with the other animals. If the dog had picked any disease up on the streets the other animals can pick it up, especially if those other animals vaccines weren’t updated as well. Another scenario is that this dog has aggression towards the other animals and can injure or get injured in a fight. If the dog is adopted, then when it is taken home and taken on walks, it could spread its diseases if the owner hadn’t taken it to the vet yet. All the other pets could pick this up, affecting the owners and community. So, it is very important that we make sure that all the animals are taken care of. I have had 2 dogs as well as many other interesting pets which makes this subject something I feel very strongly about because I have always loved animals and seeing sick/injured animals without care is not acceptable. Some things you can do to make sure that the animals are taken care of properly is to actually go and volunteer at local animal shelters to check on the environment and health of them. If you find anything wrong you should report it. When you volunteer you could get groups together to spread the word. This will likely motivate more people to make sure these animals are safe, so when (or if) they get adopted they are in good health. In addition, you could organise fundraisers to help the shelter maintain and improve their care and/or donate food and blankets for the baby animals. All the animals at these shelters have emotions just like us. Everyone has felt pain at some point in their life so you can relate to these animals. They feel pain, so it is critical that all of them are taken care of. state-gives-guilford-county-animal-shelter-warning-for-mistreatment-of-animals I’m always looking forward to the end of the year when you don’t have to worry about the summer heat. I believe that cool weather is better than warm weather. Back in the 4th grade we were going to go on a field trip to the tennis courts in the summer. We didn’t get summer break because it was a year round school so this was a big deal. Everyone got to school on time with a water bottle and a lunch all ready to go. As we waited in the classroom, I watched my teacher talking to our principle and checking their phones every single minute. Finally, the teacher quickly walked to the front of the room and without her asking everyone got silent. With an apologetic voice she said “It’s 92 degrees outside. We have to wait for it to cool down below 90.” Everyone slumped into their chair. This meant we had to do our school work. We were all working on our times tables for what seemed to be several hours when the principle once again walked in to talk to our teacher. She went up in front of the class once again and told us that we could go, but we wouldn’t be able to work with the tennis instructors. On the bus ride there everyone was fidgety because of the heat. We were all sweating like crazy. When we got there everyone was eager to get off the bus and into the air conditioned building. After all the students were out of the bus we had to line up so the chaperones could get a head count. Suddenly, there was a lot of commotion at the front of the line. My teacher was flustered telling us all to go into the building. As we walked by I saw that my friend was in one of the parent chaperones arms. She seemed like she was tired and they were giving her bottles of water. I couldn’t figure out what was happening and when I walked into the building I was almost too distracted by my friend to notice the strong chlorine smell of the indoor pool and the cool air.Everyone was smiling as soon as they walked into the air conditioned building. And i immediately ready to go play tennis. Later on, we were told that my friend had blacked out due to the heat and lack of water. Although there was really no lasting effect on her, the parent’s had submitted a report about how the school needs to not let students out in the heat. All in all, cool weather has better effects than warm weather. |
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