Retzer,+Alexx

=Alexx's Portfolio=

-Letter-
As a writer, I think I do okay. I try to make my writing on point and focused. I try paying attention to punctuation and grammar when I write. I think I've gotten better as a writer and developing more creative ideas for writing. In my writing, I try to be as descriptive as possible and use imagery words. I think it makes the writing more interesting if you add descriptive adjectives. I don't really like writing in my free time, but I don't mind writing assignments because writing can be easy to do if you organize your information. My weakest points in writing are introducing and concluding my essays and information. I think that I try to put too much into my introduction that I have nothing left to write about in my concluding paragraph. Overall, I think that I could improve my writing by becoming better at formatting, organizing, and concluding.

=Portfolio=

Many of us fear being killed by a gun, fire, or even a shark. The odds of these occurrences are much less likely than the deadly situation we put ourselves in everyday. We might not always think about it, but everyday drunk drivers are on the road. Every minute someone is injured in an alcohol related crash. Drunk driving may be deadly, but it is completely preventable. The effects of driving under the influence include death, injury, and having your license revoked. Whenever drunk driving comes to my mind, the first thing I think of is the deaths it causes everyday. I remember a few years ago when my best friend called me asking for help. Her dad had just been killed when a drunk driver slammed into his vehicle. She told me that the worst part of all was not being able to say good-bye. She had just expected it to be a regular day and for her dad to come home that night as he always did. But instead, she had been at the hospital grieving. There's one thing I took away from her experience: you never know what the day's going to bring. Thousands of other people must go through the same experience of losing a loved one in a drunk driving accident. In 2001, drunk driving caused 17,448 deaths. The number of deaths continues to rise. I think that the most important part of all is that every one of those deaths could have been prevented. Drunk driving also affects those who choose to drive under the influence. If charged with a D.U.I., convicted drunk drivers have their licenses revoked. This may stop some convicted drunk drivers, but 50-70% will continue to drive under a suspended license. Each year in America, 900,000 drivers are charged with a D.U.I. One third of these people convicted are repeat offenders. These crimes can be prevented, but people must make the effort to pledge not to drive under the influence or have a designated driver every time they decide to drink. As time ticks, every minute someone is injured in a drunk driving accident. Injuries can be as little as just a few scratches or as serious as a coma. If you get away with just a minor sprain or scratch, then you are one of the lucky ones. The majority of people involved in drunk driving accidents are either killed at the scene or given life-threatening injuries. Drunk driving affects everyone somehow. Whether it's losing a loved one or having to deal with criminal charges. Drunk driving costs each adult in America roughly five hundred dollars per year in insurance. Drunk driving is so easy to prevent yet its consequences can be severe. Make the choice to not underestimate the effects of driving under the influence.

Vladek's story is different from Elie's because Elie was taken as a Jew from his home and Vladek was a war prisoner. He was captured by the Nazis and put in a concentration camp for war prisoners. He later signed up for volunteer work in a German company where the conditions were much better. Later on the gestapos came there and they were able to be released. Vladek had a dream that on a certain Jewish holiday, they would be released and that dream did come true. Vladek didn't have his father there with him like Elie did. Vladek mainly lived for himself and to see his wife and kid. I think Vladek had it a little easier than Elie because Elie was in the camps for much longer and was younger.

“I see a fire! I see flames, huge flames!” Mrs. Schachter was yelling this on the train. At first, there was no fire outside of the train. The other Jews thought she was crazy. This foreshadowed the fire that would come later on when they arrived in Birkenau. “In the air, the smell of burning flesh.” When they arrive in Birkenau, the smoke from the chimney lingers over the camp. As the Jews get off the train they smell the stinging smoke. The chimney represents death in the crematoria. “The same smoke hovers over all our heads.”The Polish prisoner tells the Jews this to show that they are all going through the same emotions and need to have faith in each other.

What does it mean to be human? Being human isn't just a way of life, it's a right. Humans can think, speak their opinions, and make choices. Most human beings have the right to make choices and have the freedom of speech. However, not all humans have the same rights given to them. Many people still fight for their own natural rights. Humans can be creative in ways beyond other animals. One person can inspire other people through creativity or art. We can communicate in different ways than other animals. Technology has advanced humans' abilities. Most every person has the right to get an education, work, and make money needed to live. We have culture, race, and religion that separates us, yet also brings us together through accepting individuality. Humans have morals and know whats right and wrong. Every person has individual morals; they have the right to choose their own beliefs. Being human means that you're always moving forward and learning from the past.

Throughout Night, Wiesel loses his faith in God. One of the places where he first loses his faith is when he first arrives to Birkenau, right after the selection. The other Jews begin singing praises to God asking for him to help them. But Wiesel sees no reason to worship God. He feel anger at God for bringing him to such a place. Another place where he loses his faith is when he watches the hanging of the young pipel. A man in the crowd asks “Where is God?” and it makes Elie wonder that maybe He's not there for them. He also loses his faith when one of the prisoners asks him and other men to say Kabbish when he dies. However, they break their promise and forget to say Kabbish. This makes Wiesel feel even more anger in himself.

Wiesel uses the word “human” throughout the book. He has a self-conflict with losing his human values and rights. One of the places I remember him using the word “human” is after a Polish prisoner talks to them about where they are and what's happening. Wiesel describes what he says as the first human words at the concentration camp. Other voices were monotone and careless. He also describes how the prisoners have changed after they evacuate Buna and are herded into cattle cars. The prisoners have become animals and kill for food. Wiesel implies that they have lost their human abilities and are now only thinking of themselves. They now feel relief when a relatives dies because they now only have to worry about themselves.

“A truck drew close and unloaded its hold: small children. Babies! Yes, I did see this with my own eyes... children thrown into the flames.” This quote had some of the most meaning to me. I can't imagine seeing anyone, much less babies, being thrown purposely into a pit of flames. Seeing a sight like that would probably make me go insane. And not being able to do anything about it would make me feel guilty as the people doing it. I think Wiesel put this in his memoir to show his audience the reality of the camps. He wanted to show that even the unthinkable can happen.

From reading Night, I learned the struggles that prisoners went through in the Holocaust concentration camps. The jews lost their faith along the way, but keeping their faith was the only way to survive there. Eli didn't give up on himself or his father, but did lose his faith at some points. I learned how the Jews' tormenting got worse over time starting with what Moshe the Beadle told Eli about what happened to the foreign Jews. One jew said he had the most faith in Hitler because he had kept every promise he'd made to the Jews. I learned that the prisoners had to be transported from camp to camp throughout the book. The prisoners feared selection and hoped to be in good working blocks. The people got turnt into animals from being in the camp so long.

Aftering browsing through the website, it seems to me that Auschwitz is symbolic and is a reminder to us not to let genocide occur again. One of the first images is of the entrance to Auschwitz and the overhead sign that reads "Arbeit Macht Frei" which ironically means "work sets you free." This doorway to the legendary death camp goes to show the decieving ways of the Nazis. The SS Guards convinced prisoners that they were only here to work and would be released upon completing their time. To their suprise, most of the prisoners never made it out and never saw life past concentration gates again. In Night, Moshe the Beadle was told that he and the other foreign Jews would be migrated to an unknown country to live a better life. They were instead decieved and taken as prisoners. Moshe and the other foreign Jews were forced to dig they own graves. In this way, Auschwitz is symbolic as a reminder that even the unthinkable can be delivered.