"The Rwanda Girl Who Refused To Die," and "Children of the Genocide."

In the article, "The Rwanda Girl Who Refused To Die,"  the author re-counts her interactions with a young girl that had the horrible misfortune of seeing and experiencing the Genocide.  I think the author did a very good job at telling the story as if she were just talking to you, the reader.  She used words such as brutality and evil, as well as terrifying, killing and hatred to express the utter devastation of the Genocide.  The author integrated imagery into the article by using actual experiences from the children she encountered. 
" First they asked people to hand over their money, saying they would spare those who paid. But after taking the money they killed them anyway. then they started to throw grenades. I saw a man blown up in the air, in pieces, by a grenade. The leader said that we were snakes and that to kill snakes you had to smash their heads."
 This one quote alone shows the utter brutality of the Genocide.  Further in the article the author explains how the Genocide still affects the girl.

"The aunt told me that Valentina has a recurring dream. She imagines her mother coming in the middle of the night. They embrace and then Valentina shows her mutilated hand to her mother, saying: "Mother, look what's become of me. Look what has happened to me." And Valentina wakes up crying and sees that her mother has vanished into the darkness. Then she remembers that her mother is dead and gone forever."
The poor girl still lives with the memories of her brother and father being murdered, as well as the image of her mother laying unmoving and expressionless on the street.  This is a perfect example of how the author conveys darkness and evil.  Furthermore, she explains that the children would see their friends, and neighbors apart of the horrible killings.

Beth Macklin

RESPONSE TO THE TWO ARTICLES

I read the stories, Children of the Genocide, and The Girl Who Refused to Die.

Explain how the authors convey and integrate imagery, setting and work on mood.

In both stories, each author describes what they each saw when they visited Rwanda, and the horrors they experience while they were there. You can almost see what they saw, as they describe the murder, and destruction that occured there. you can feel a dark mood coming from the author as they each retell their tale's.

Think and explain the techniques the authors are using-are the articles similar or different?How are the authors conveying the sense/tone of evil? ex. word choice, images etc…What patterns in society or contexts contribute to the layers you are seeing?

Both articles are similar in the sense that they both talk about what the children of Rwanda experienced during the genocide. In the article about the girl named Valentina, we hear about what happened to the children though her story. The Hutu's slaughtered everyone, and children were not an exception. Children of all ages were murdered cruelly in various ways by heartless soldiers. This shows great evil in the Hutu people.

How do the authors convey the evil, darkness in humanity? Events, people, imagery,setting etc.

When the authors describe what happened in Rwanda, we get both feelings of evil and darkness, and we get a picture of the setting of the post genocide Rwanda.

What impacted you the most and why?

The thing that impacted me most is when Valentina described what happened inside the church. At one point she says that they cut open a pregnant woman, then took the infants and drowned them in human refuse, really affected me greatly because of the fact that anyone could be so cruel as that.

Victoria V.

The Rwandan Girl Who Refused to Die:

By reading this short story you start to realize that evil and darkness does exist. The author does good job at describing what the child went through and making you picture the darkness within the town. By explaining how the child was witnessing everything and was apart in getting hurt you feel and understand what was going on in that time. Valentina was a 13 year old girl when her family had been killed in a massacre carried out by Hutu soldiers and a militiamen a few weeks before in the nearby parish of Nyarubuye. The evil in this story took Valentina's life away and she will never be able to regain it. She is lost because of the darkness. The author does a great job in making you understand emotionally what the survivors are going through even though we have yet to experience anything as harsh and devastating. When the author clearly explains the scenes of the 4 day killing you automatically get a visual in your mind of what was happening. The author at one point started talking about how some of the children would pretend they were dead to fool the killers. After that part in the story I started to imagine what I would do if I was ever faced with evil or darkness like that. However, the author makes me wonder if anything can beat evil or darkness? The part that impacted me the most was the describing of the killing and thinking that children actually saw their families being killed and could do nothing about it. This makes me upset because I could never even begin to think that if I was faced upon by evil or darkness I would do anything I could just to try and save my family from it.

Children of the Genocide

"These children were faced with having to deal with feeding themselves, clothing themselves, whether they went to school or not and just determining their own future," The author of this story gives you the overall understanding of how the children were affected by the killing and what was left of it. When the author writes statuses you begin to wonder why the evil chose the people they killed? Also I started to think about the setting of the rest of the children's lives, whether they'd be okay or suffering everyday till death. "In the wake of the killings, at least half a million had been killed and over two million had been forced to flee." I think this story does a good job in telling you what happened and how everyone, especially the children were affected. The part that impacted me the most was all the information on how many were killed and hurt because of this. As well as how many lives were affected and what the children are left to deal with now.

By Hillary Wolthers

Children Of Rwanda's Genocide

So my essential question is "What does power have to do with fairness and justice?". My first story was Children Of Rwanda's Genocide. My essential question connects with this because the hutu militia had lots of power and were not put to justice for killing hundred of thousand of tutsis. The Hutus were able to take control of Rwanda and did not meet any justice for their relentless killing spree. What was worse was that the Hutus really destroyed the lives of thousands of kids. The author really conveyed imagery and setting through the mood by telling us about their densely populated country being slaughtered by the Tutsis. It made me think that the conditions were absolutely horrible. My second story was The Rwandan Girl Who Refused To Die. My essential question connects to this story because the Hutu militia who entered the church massacred everyone there and showed no mercy even to children. The militia had tremendous power over everyone and fairness, and justice was obviously unachievable because the militia could not be stopped. The author conveyed imagery and setting through the mood by telling us the story about this 13 year old girl who was injured and got to witness her family and friends being killed. The mood I think is extremely depressing when the author describes Valentina's harsh wounds. I believe the two articles are similar because they were both about the cruel genocide in Rwanda and describe horrible and disturbing stories. Both of the authors convey evil when they describe the actions the militia is doing, the authors then tell us about the outcome of the militia's actions and they are often disturbing. One other thing the authors conveyed was the lack of humanity by the Hutus. Their militia killed many men, women, and children like it did not matter to them.

In class media critique for Friday jan 29

In class today you are to read any of the two articles linked below.  Then, I would like for you to write on your blog or on paper and post or submit by the end of class how the articles address an EQ of your choosing. Please make sure that you support your answer with specific evidence that you explain. I also want  you to think about the different layers exposed in the article to help you see the depth.

• Explain how the authors convey and integrate imagery, setting and work on mood.
• Think and explain the techniques  the authors are using-are the articles similar or different?How are the authors conveying the sense/tone of evil? Eg word choice, images etc…What patterns in society or contexts contribute to the layers you are seeing?
• Remember to keep thinking about all the layers in the texts and how they are similar and/or different.  Back up and explain your examples!!!!!!
• How do the authors convey the evil, darkness in humanity? Events, people, imagery,setting etc
• What impacted you the most and why?
  

BBC- select one of the 3 stories. This counts as 1 of the choices.
Children of the Genocide
The Rwandan Girl Who Refused to Die
10-years-later-in-rwanda-the-dead-are-ever-present

Sweeny Todd

The movie we chose was Sweeny Todd. There are many factors that can contribute to how characters can represent darkness. In Sweeny Todd, the dialogue and lyrics in the movie was very depressing and evil. It always talked about having revenge, and killing, and how no body deserved to live. Their physical appearance was also big because it gave you an idea of what kind of character they were from the first time you saw them. For example, the dark long clothes, the hair, their pale skin, their dark make up, and above all the seriousness and anger on their faces, especially, during or while they were committing the murders. You can also tell that they were bad by the way they were put in their setting. When they were on a nice bright beach, or on a boardwalk in the sun, they would still have a unique look to them that just called out evil. A character can also represent darkness by the actions that they perform.

Brianne and Stephanie

Saving Private Ryan

The movie I chose to use is Saving Private Ryan.
My question is: How does the film maker convey evil or darkness?
In Saving private Ryan, Steven speilberg really brings forth darkness in a few ways. The first I noticed was the always overcast skies and the overall lack of brightness throughout the movie. Even when the sky was sunny the scenes still felt dark. I think he made it this way to always make the scenes have a depressing somber tone. Another way darkness was brought forward was through the shooting and the killing scenes. This movie definitely had a lot of that because he wanted to remind us of the realities of World War 2.

Mulan- :D

How can a character represent darkness?

In classic disney style, a character represents darkness and evil very clearly.  In Mulan, Shan yu (leader of the Huns) was always shown in a dark/dull enviroment.  Also, it seemed as though he was constantly being followed by a cloud, so tat even when he is in a scene with the good guys, he still appears to be shadowed.  Furthermore, the general shape of his face and body makes him look inhumane (his sharp features and large frame).  A charaters darkness is not just shown through appearence.  It can also be shown through voice and personality.  For example, Shan yu's voice is very deep and raspy giving him an even scarier feel.  Also his actions showed how dark he was.  For instance, there is a scene in the movie where the Huns capture 2 members of the imperial army.  In this scene, Shan yu tells the captured men to return to the emperor with a message.  As the men leave, Shan yu gets one of his men to shoot one of the captured men because "It only takes one man to deliver a message."  This action alone shows just how cruel and evil Shan yu was. 

Mulan clips
Shan yu:

Movie respose: Disturbia

I chose the movie Disturbia, which is about a boy who is put under house arrest and during that time, Kale discovers that the new neighbour, Mr. Turner, is responsible of the countless number of missing women.
I chose to answer the EQ: How can a character represent darkness?
I find that a character can display or give the impression of darkness mostly through their actions. In this movie, the person who displayed the most darkness was Mr. Turner because he showed no mercy towards innocent and helpless women. He also represented darkness by deceiving people giving the impression that we was a harmless and friendly neighbour. He took the lives of the innocent with no justified reason. Mr. Turner is a very dark and evil man because he inflicts pain on others for his own pleasure.

Celeste

Pearl Harbor - Jessie and Christine

This is a link to a clip from the movie Pearl Harbor. It is the part ofthe movie when the Japanese attack Pearl Harbor.
There are many layers of context in this film. First of all there is the story of the two childhood friends who fall in love with the same woman. Then there is the bigger picture, the second world war; the attack on Pearl Harbor and multiple other attcks that Rafe and Danny take part in. This film takes place All over the world, in japan, the united states and in Europe.

Blood Diamond

The expressions of darkness that had the most impact on me was the way that they would take lives and torture innocent citizens to have posessions over diamond's. They would capture villages, and kill the young and the weak who can't work, and take the strong one's to use them as slaves to find more diamond's. Also, they would take some of the little boys, and brainwash them into thinking that all the innocent people are evil, and to kill them by giving them guns. This impacted me the most because they were being unfair to the society in general, and making everyone around scared, not knowing if they will attack they're village or not.
This movie expresses darkness and evil in many ways, and is a good movie for showing how these traits can be involved.

Silence of the Lambs.

Watching this movie for the first time kind of gave me the creeps, and the expression of darkness that had the most impact on me was the way Hannibal Lector talked to others. It had this eerie feeling that gave chills up my spine because he talked so confidently. Too confidently, and that's what scared me about him, and you just knew he was evil. Another expression of darkness that intrigued me was the instant image of the two police guards, one hanging, and one almost dead on the ground. They were covered in blood, and it looked horrifying. It hurt me, and scared me! They were but up, and the one hanging looked like the killer, Hannibal had made the killing look like art! It was disgusting and too scary and dark for my eyes. =(
~Krista

Movie Response: LOTR

For me, the expression of darkness most poignant was that it can consume even the best of us, given enough time. Frodo was chosen because he was least resistant to the lure of power by the ring, but even his resolve broke down as he tried to keep it for his own. This impacts me the most because I think we all know of someone who we believe is wholly good and can keep on going no matter what the hardships, yet it is shown that it isn't entirely true. They do have moments of weakness, just like every one of us. We all aren't invincible, and we need to realize that.

ryan and mitch's movie responce

we watched the movie District 9 and the question we chose to answer was:
How does the film maker convey evil or darkness?

The film maker shows evil and darkness through the setting, plot, and the imagery. The setting is the slums. Its disgusting, full of garbage,disease, prostitution, war, and just filth. Its a hell hole. The governments murderous activities to a new race of "prawns" (aliens) almost seems racist. They take control and kill all aliens that show resistance. The image that stuck out to us displaying evil was when Wikus (the main character) had to brutally murder a prawn for absolutely no gain. Another strong image was when a prawn was in a government medical lab and came across his best friends dissected body. It was actually quite sad to see.

The setting and context of this film are, everyone is out for themselves, living in a poor location they all have next to nothing and need everything. Everyone is in distressed because the country in politically unstable. People are constantly hoping and praying the rebels don't take them or their families. The people are constanly living in horror of the evil and darkness.

By Hillary Wolthers & Victoria VanderBos

Movie Project

Homework




Individually or with a partner find a movie on “evil” or “darkness” and share a short (5min) presentation (formative).



1.A brief synopsis of the plot



2.A discussion of one of the following questions:



What are the layers of context/setting in this film?

How does the filmmaker convey evil or darkness? Is it through the plot, imagery, characters, setting? What expressions of darkness had the most impact on you and why?

How can a character represent darkness?



3. A connection-What can you connect your film to and why-please be sure to explain in detail. (T-T, T-S, T-W)



If you can find a quick clip of the movie, please post it on the class blog.



On the class blog please post in writing your thoughts to one of the questions It may be a comment to another’s movie posting. It can be your reaction, your opinion, your thoughts on the way the media has tackled our EQ’s. You may have seen something else in their movie and may want to enrich it.

What are the layers of context/setting in this film?

What expressions of darkness had the most impact on you and why?

Why do people do evil things?

You have read a short story. Think about all the techniques the author used to convey a sense of "darkness" evil, or violence. Write a response either on your blog, as a comment to this post, or handed in as a journal entry. Think about what impacted you the most and why? How did the author do it? Use the questions to guide you and bring in SPECIFIC EXAMPLES FROM THE TEXT TO SUPPORT YOUR ANSWER.

Short stories

Find a copy of one the stories and listen to it on the internet or read it on line.


YOU will need to record your thoughts in a summary response on either the class blog or your personal blog!!! This is a formative piece of writing.


“The Destructors”-Graham Greene   The Destructors

“The Cask of Amontillado”- Edgar Allan Poe  The Cask of Amontillado
Lit 2 Go will help you

As you read make note of how the authors convey and integrate imagery, setting and work on mood.


What techniques are the authors using?

How is the setting developed?

How is the author conveying the sense/tone of evil? Eg word choice, images etc…

Is it the character that is the symbol/representation of evil?


What factors contributed to the characters actions?

What patterns in society or contexts help and/or hinder the characters behaviours?

What are the roots of this persons behaviours?

Think about layers…


Is the evil, darkness conveyed through;

plot

imagery

characters

setting

What impacted you the most and why?

Our Essential questions for the unit

Does evil or fear lead one to the following; experience of violence, infliction of violence and/or observation of violence?







Why is it important for people and cultures to construct narratives about their experiences?






What does power have to do with fairness and justice?






Are we implicated in injustice and what can we do about it?






What allows some individuals to take a stand against prejudice/oppression while others choose to participate in it?






How can a reader/viewer infer the author’s intentions based on the text?






In what ways are narratives influenced by bias and perspective?


What is the relevance of studying multi texts?






How does the media shape our view of the world/ ourselves?






How does the study of fiction and nonfiction texts help individuals construct their understanding of reality?

Enduring Understandings for the Unit

Our perceptions around evil, war, and violence are influenced by our contexts and our experiences.



People and cultures construct narratives about their experiences.


What we create is a representation of what we think and believe; our representations of meaning can be constructed consciously or unconsciously.


A good thinker uses interpretations, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation to deepen and enhance understanding.

The Essay is in and we are back.......

Here we go again. You will be able to check here for some of the work we have covered in class and to view comments of what occurred in class each day. (The daily log).

I am going to link the 3 video clips I showed in class to start our unit. This way you can see them at home.

Good Bye Earl

The Saddest Song I've Got Annie Lennox   I didn't get a chance to show you this one in class.

Angel Sarah McLachlan

Good Bye Saigon Billy Joel

Here are the questions for you to think about and to help you with your placemat:

What do these terms mean?


What do they feel like?

What do they sound like?

What do they look like?

How are evil, violence, war, darkness demonstrated in society?


How are they influenced, supported, and manifested in society?

Why do they exist?