Empathy

"Parvana was tired she wanted to sit in a classroom and be bored by a geography lesson. She
wanted to be with her friends and talk about homework and games and what to do
on school holidays. she didn't want to know any more about death or blood or pain."
(pg.130 The Breadwinner)

Empathy. 7 letters with a big meaning. This passage enables you to understand and share the feelings of others. in short it creates empathy. I absolutely love the Breadwinner because it is not just a few paragraphs that allow you to relate to Parvana in so many ways. Instead Deborah Ellis has managed to create this feeling throughout the whole book. There are so many passages like this one which makes me relate to Parvana, her thoughts, her feelings and the situations that she is in day after day in Afghanistan.

It is defiantly a good piece of writing when empathy is created. The question is how do authors make this happen? You need to create a character who your readers can connect to. Parvana is almost the same age as me and sometimes her personality reminds me of myself. For example she seems very determined which is like me. You also have to have to have situations which readers can either see themselves in or imagine themselves in. As an author the most important part of empathy is emotion. How does your character feel about certain things happening? Does your character feel many different emotions on a day to day basis? Are these the same as what your readers feel? These are all questions that go through an authors mind when they are forming a book which their audience will want to read because it is full of empathy.

My burqa

I hear the yells before I see the commotion. I round the corner and there they are. Three Taliban are beating a woman who is struggling to get free from their grasp. Two more soldiers are holding a man who is screaming and clutching a loaf of bread. He must have stolen it and is now paying the price. I close my eyes and pull my burqa around me. This is the one good thing about the light blue material that covers me from head to toe. You don't have to watch scenes like these, which happen on a daily basis on the streets of Afghanistan. You can just creep away without the screaming woman and children ever knowing you were ever there. You can't feel guilty about something that you didn't see can you? Anyway it's not like I could have helped. I'm a woman who can hardly see or walk because of the burqa.



Burqa. I hate that word more than anything else in the world, it conceals you, hides you, makes you feel worthless, it's the Taliban's way of saying that the world doesn't want to see you. It wasn't always like this though, I remember when I used to have many different clothes, when I could show my face. Different. The burqa has made me realize how important difference is. I miss seeing different faces in the market, different colours everywhere. Now it is just a mass of a few colours moving around. This makes me angry because it is one more thing to add to the list of what the Taliban has taken away from me. If I understood why they took my freedom and everything else away, maybe I would feel better about it. But I don't understand so I don't feel better, this is how things are and no matter how angry I am maybe I should just except it.

Eva Olsson a Holocaust Survior

Hate. That's how six million Innocent people got killed. Not one of them did anything wrong they were just hated by a few people for being alive. That's what happened in the Holocaust six million people were killed but many more went through the hardships of the Holocaust. Eva Olsson was one of the lucky ones to survive. But was she lucky? Is suffering for 2 years, watching your family get dragged away from you without being able to say goodbye feeling every last bit of hope leaving you. You may think she is lucky but I don't.



On Monday we heard her story. The story that made me realize how lucky I am. Apart from telling us her terrifying story of her and others experiences of the Holocaust she spoke of valuable Lessons for all of us. Never hate, you can dislike but hate is what caused the holocaust. A bully is who causes this but bystanders let it happen. Her story started when the Nazis took Jews from her country telling them that they would find a better life, money and work. Now its true that it was the Nazi bullies were the ones that got those Jews on that train and made sure they didn't find a better life when they got off but what about all those people lining the streets just watching. Did one of them even make one move to try and stop the bullies? NO. not even one. They were bystanders who proved that they were just as bad as the bullies. One of Eva Olsson's biggest regret was not being able to tell her mother that she loved her one last time when her mother was taken to the gas chamber and Eva was sent to the camp. Remember its never a bad time to tell someone you love them because tomorrow you might not have the chance. When the Holocaust ended Eva found her best friend in her husband however even after everything she lost it wasn't over. When her husband was 38 he died because of a drunk driver. That was her last message to us please don't drink and drive it takes innocent lives just like the Holocaust.



What amazes me most about Eva Olsson's terrible time at Auschwitz is how she got through it. How she found the courage to live every second of every minute of every day. No matter what happened to her she kept going. Could you find that in you? I'm not sure if I could. I think that Eva felt that if she couldn't keep going for herself she had to keep going for her younger sister who was with her. What matters most is that you have to be a truly spectacular person to find that hope and courage to get out of that horrible place.



After being silent for 50 years Eva has found even more courage to come and talk to millions of people about her horrible ordeal. What makes her do it? I think she wants everybody to know because of all the lessons that come from it but also that this must never happen again. Personally I don't understand how someone can do this to someone else. However it has already happened even if it wasn't to the same extreme. It has happened in Rwanda, and Croatia just to name a couple. To see her face when she told us about her family being sent left towards certain death was enough to stop anyone with an ounce of humanity from doing this. Her speech was definatly something I'll never forget and I hope I and others will be able to put her lessons into practice.

Middle School Team Building day

Team building is important. Why? Teams are everywhere work, sports, school everywhere. If you can't work in a team enviroment then people aren't going to hire you for a job or want you on their soccer team . That's why on Monday the entire middle school traveled to Norval. After we got there we were divided in to teams of 8 or more and started some team building activities.

Our group did really well at the second activity zig zag and were the only team to get it done. I think that by that time we had figured out that we needed to listen to each other and cooperated really well. When we needed to get something done like moving planks around one person did it with other peoples support rather than just everybody rushing forward to do it with the result of people falling off and getting hurt.

The first activity, wizards walk was not as well done. That was because we hadn't learned enough from our mistakes and although we did it it took a really long time. We wern't cooperating as well everybody was trying to help each other at the same time. For example when sombody needed help instead of just one person jumping off and going back so that they could help more easily two or more people would do it. This caused alot of confusion and as a result the whole thing took alot longer. We also wern't listening to each other all the time which doesn't help.

I thought the whole day was really fun and it was more of a challange to work together than we thought. I think everyone learned something. I know I learned that it is possible for everyone to come together and work together. The drum circle proved that. Team building is important and so is this day outside at Norval.

Does Clothing Shape You and Me

I don't think that clothing shapes us at all. In my opinion it's what's on the inside like our personalities, decisions and experiences that make us who we are. I mean, if there is someone who is really mean and everyone thinks that they are a bully, then chances are that they're still going to be a bully whether they are draped in old rags or wearing the latest Abercrombie sweater. What I'm trying to say is that a piece of material can't do anything to shape you as a person.



However, clothing is a way to express yourself and people can tell a lot about you from what you wear. For example, if you are a really outgoing happy person then you would probably wear bright neon colours rather then jeans and a plain, boring shirt. People definitly judge you on how you dress, somtimes this can be a good thing or a bad thing. If you are wearing really nice clothes then people might have more respect for you and if you are trying to make a good first impression for a job or university then nice clothes might help. The bad part of people judging you by your clothes is that they really do make first impressions. If a new kid walks into your class wearing the latest and greatest clothes, then a lot more people might want to be their friend. However, if that same new kid was to walk into your class wearing an old baggy shirt not as many people would want to bother getting to know them, even if they are always really nice.



That is why the clothes that you wear are important, but I don't think that clothes shape who you are they are a great way to express yourself, but it is your thoughts, feelings, decsions and actions that shape who you are.

My first blog entry

This is my first blog entry it's very cool