Schindlers List - what makes a hero // memorial day

In honor of memorial day, I'd like to not only thank those who have fought to protect our country, but those who go unrecognized as heroes every day. We often forget how privileged we are to live in a country with rights and freedoms that other nations do not, and even though at one point our founding fathers were indeed terrorists they found a nation built on independence and freedom, which I believe is something worth fighting for.  So thank you, because every once in a while, everyone needs a helping hand. 

The following is an analysis on the characteristics that make up a true hero, specifically in Schindler's List by Thomas Keneally (another book I highly recommend). While the following is a pretty straightforward essay I believe there is something sad about turning in a paper and then letting it sit on your computers hard drive until it eventually becomes deleted years later in order to free up space for god knows what; therefore, I am sharing them with you. If you like them, and wish for me to share more essays, leave a comment below, if not, leave a comment below as well. Feedback is always welcome. Enjoy. 

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When we think of a hero, the names that most frequently come to mind are those in colorful outfits with nonhuman superpowers. Yet we often forget that a hero is not determined by whether or not one looks good wearing their underwear on the outside, but rather if they exhibit specific personality traits that actually make them heroic. While heroism is often overlooked in everyday people, real life hero do exist. Heroism is defined as being brave, selfless, and caring; and it is these traits that make Oskar Schindler, in Schindler’s List by Thomas Keneally, a hero. 

Throughout Schindler's List Oskar exhibits extraordinary amounts of bravery and courage by defying the Natzi Party, and helping Jews. Being that the SS believes that “whoever helps a Jew helps Satan” (Keneally 97) and is therefore as bad as a Jew, Oskar constantly puts himself in danger by helping the Jews. By creating the “Schindler list,” (Keneally 280) which is filled with the names of those who Oskar intends to save, and establishing a “heaven” (Keneally 72) of a factory that “does not [actually] manufacture” (Keneally 342) Schindler faces the possibility of execution if anyone were to find out about his crimes. This action in the face of sever danger characterizes Oskar as someone who is courageous, and therefore exhibiting heroic tendencies. 

In order to be heroic, one must also be selfless and make personal sacrifices for the betterment of others. While at one point Oskar went “to Cracow to get rich” by the end of the book he “had no manufacturing ambitions left” (Keneally 304) and his main goal was to help the Jewish people despite how that would affect himself and his livelihood. While Schindler estimates that he spent over 18,000 US dollars a week for his labor in Brinnlitz, his fortune wasn't his only sacrifice. By moving his enamelware factory to Brinnlitz Oskar had to break up with his beautiful girlfriend Klonowska due to it being a long distance relationship and him moving in with his wife. This sacrifice along with the possibility of him becoming extremely wealthy if he were to stay in Cracow shows Oskars selfless nature and his heroism. 

The most important aspect of a hero that Oskar exhibits is how he truly cares for the well being of his laborers. Oskar was known to have been a “humane” (Keneally 73) “direktor” (Keneally 172) who was interested in the “permanence of his labor force” (Keneally 242) rather than how much money he could make, or how many lives he could ruin with one sweep of his rifle. Rather than abusing his laborers, he gave them the “intoxicating freedom” of being able to work at “half-pace and still survive” (Keneally 311). This kindness furthered the laborers view of Schindler as their “father”, “mother” and “only faith” promising to “never let [them] down” (Keneally 330). Through being kind to those who worked for him, and refraining from taking advantage of them, Schindler exhibited the most essential characteristic of of being a hero, compassion. 

While Batman and Robin make for a wonderful comic series, they aren't real life, and they miss out of the essential characteristics of what a hero really is. A hero is one who acts in the face of danger, who makes personal sacrifices for others, and who truly cares about those that they help. Oskar Schindler exhibits all of these characteristics through Schindler’s List and is therefore a hero.

Catch - 22 an analysis of Nately's whore // the hypocrisy of the bureaucracy

5.21.2015

I have a new favorite book. While I didn't love it immediately, the more I read the more I understood the symbolism and purpose behind every word. Once I finished Catch-22 I was enamored. The way the story pieces together to show how ludicrous war is and how trauma can effect people is astounding and I highly recommend it. The following is a paper written for an independent study (entitled "Classic Literature") that I am taking. While it isn't the most eloquent, and the thesis is indeed listed (to my dismay), I believe that it provides an interesting perspective on the bureaucracy and the craziness or the world in which we live, and therefore would like to share it with you. For those of you who have not read Catch-22, get off your electronic device, head to your local book store, and pick up a copy. You won't regret it. Even if you're thinking "Oh gosh, a book about war?? I don't want to read that," you will enjoy it. It is the funniest book I have ever read, and I can't wait to read it again, because I'm sure I will notice more things the second time around that I failed to notice the first. Thus, without further ado, I present to you, "The Hypocrisy of the Bureaucracy" a paper by Carly Hughes. 

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While those who have read Catch-22 know how bizarre it is, many fail to realize the symbolism and the method within the madness. Throughout the book, author Joseph Heller uses commentary to demonstrate how Nately’s whore is a symbol of the bureaucracy that is trying to control Yossarian. He does this through having Nately’s whore become murderous at the same time that Yossarian begins to rebel, having her appear more frequently throughout the text as his capture comes ever closer, and having her successfully attack him when he finally submits to the ways of the bureaucracy.  

The murderous whore who is after Yossarin first appears as a symbol for the bureaucracy that is out to get Yossarin when he begins to rebel. When Yossarian discovered that the amount of missions needed to fly had been raised to 80 he had had enough. He “refused to fly any more missions” and “marched backward with his gun on his hip” as to be aware of anyone coming up behind him to try and force him to fly more missions (Heller 393).  At the point when Yossarian begins to cause a ruckus within his squadron, his commanding officer sends him to Rome in the hope that he will find his senses and come back willing to fly the extra missions. However, Rome is the place in which Nately’s whore comes into the picture. When Yossarian’s commanding officer sends Yossarian off to Rome as a way to deal with his rebellion, Nately’s whore is reintroduced and “trie[s] to stab him to death with a potato peeler” (Heller 393). While Yossarian’s rebellion and the reintroduction of the murderous whore may not be a cause and effect, Heller connects these two events in order to symbolize the control being exercised over Yossarian by the bureaucracy. While some may say that this is purely a coincidence, one must consider the clever timing Heller uses to demonstrate the dangers of defying those in control and using Nately’s whore as a way to symbolize this danger. 

As the story progresses and Yossarian continues to defy his commanding officers he continues to have run-ins with the deadly whore. She attacks him multiple times always seeming to be waiting just around the corner ready “to ambush” Yossarian with her “carving knife” (Heller 397, 398). The persistence of the whore and the disguises she dawns (Heller 397, 398) demonstrate the stealth and the relentlessness of the bureaucracy to control Yossarian. From “hiding in the bushes” to “waiting with her steak knife exactly where the plane had stopped” Nately’s whore never appears to give up and nor does the bureaucracy. By having Nately’s whore continue to show up through the book as Yossarian gets closer to succumbing to the bureaucracy, Heller furthers the connection of the symbolism. 

At the point when Yossarian finally gives in to the ways of the bureaucracy, Nately’s whore finally is successful in her attacks. The correlation between Yossarian making a deal with Colonel Korn and Colonel Cathcart and then being promptly attacked by Nately’s whore furthers the connection between the whore representing the bureaucracy. Moreover, one can attribute Nately’s whore’s failed attempt to murder Yossarian to him changing his mind about the deal and thus escaping the bureaucracy. This attribution can be seen as how the bureaucracy had Yossarian within their grasp, but letting him slip away.

Throughout Catch-22 many strange things happen, but none so strange as a murderous whore chasing after Yossarian throughout the final chapters of the story. Yet, within further inspection, the crazy whore had a specific purpose. Though reintroducing her when Yossarian rebells, having her show up more and more frequently while Yossarian gets closer and closer to succumbing to the hypocrisy of the bureaucracy and her only successful attack taking place moments after a deal with Yossarian’s higher-ups Heller users Nately’s whore as a symbol for the bureaucracy. 

green

2.22.2015

"It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. Winston Smith, his chin nuzzled into his breast in an effort to escape the vile wind, slipped quickly through the glass doors of Victory Mansions, though not quickly enough to prevent a swirl of gritty dust from entering along with him."

– George Orwell

(Please note that all pictures that feature me were taken by Hayley Davidson)

Snowball 2015

2.14.2015

In the midst of taking the ACT and celebrating my dads 55th birthday the Junior Council and myself threw a winter formal. High school dances awkward and stinky but fun just the same. In a stroke of genius the night before, my dad and I went on a crazy adventure to set up a Photo Booth for willing participates to take pictures with a remote while simotaniously seeing what they're taking a picture of on a computer screen in front of them. These are a few of 200+ photos taken. If you're interested in how we set it up, just shoot me an email, and I'd be happy to help. 

for the time being

1/14/2015

"Is it not late? A late time to be living? Are  not our generations the crucial ones? For we have changed the world. Are not our heightened times the important ones? For we have nuclear bombs. Are we not especially significant because our century is?–our century and its unique Holocaust, its refugee populations, its serial totalitarian exterminations; our century and its antibiotics, silicon chips, men on the moon, and spliced genes? No...we are not and it is not. These times of ours are ordinary times, a slice of life like any other. Who can bare to hear this, or who will consider it? Though perhaps we are the last generation–now there's a comfort. Take the bomb threat away and what are we? Ordinary beads on a never-ending string. Our time is a routine twist of an improbable yarn.

We have no chance of being here when the sun burns out. There must be something heroic about our time, something that lifts it above all those other times. Plague? Funny weather? Dire things are happening. In fact, we are witnessing a mass extinction of animals. According to Oxfords Robert M. May, most of the birds and mammals we know will be gone in four hundred years. But there have  been five other such mass extinctions, scores of millions of years apart. People have made great strides toward obliterating other people, too, but that has been the human effort all along, and our cohort has only broadened the means, as have people in every century. Why are we watching the news, keeping up with the new? Only to enforce our fancy–probably a necessary lie–that these are crucial times, and we are in on them. Newly revealed, and we are in the know: crazy people, bunches of them. New diseases, shifts in power, floods! Can the news from dynastic Egypt have been any different? 

A hundred years ago, Americans saw frenzy consuming their times, and felt the whole show could not go on much longer. These people had seen electricity come and buffalo go. They had settled the country from shore to shore, run telegraph wires across the sea, and built spanning railroads that shortened the overland trail journey from five months to five days. America had surpassed England in the production of steel. Surely theirs were apocolptic days. Rushed time and distance were converging on a vanishing point before their eyes. They could, by their own accounts, scarcely bear their own self consciousness. Now they seem innocent; they sang "A Bicycle Built for Two" and endured their times' moral and natural evils. Since those evils no longer theaten us close to home–neither slavery, civil war, nor bacterial infection–they do not, of course, seem so vividly terrible as our own evils. 

The closer we grow to death, the more closely we follow the news. Year after year, without ever reckoning the hours I wasted last week or last year, I read the morning paper. I buy mass psychotherapy in the form of a lie that is a banner year. Or is it, God save us from crazies, aromatherapy? I smell the rat, but cannot walk away....

The blue light of television flickers on the cave wall. If the fellow crawls out of the cave, what does he see? Not the sun itself, but night, and the two thousand visible stars. Once, I tried to converse with him, the fellow who crawled out of his blue–lit cave to the real world. He had looked into the matter of God. He had to shout to make himself heard: "How do you stand the wind out here?"

I don't. Not for long. I drive a schoolkids' car pool I shouted back, "I don't. I read Consumer Reports every month!" It seemed unlikely that he heard. The wind blew into his face. He turned and faced the lee. I do not know how long he stayed out. A little at a time does for me–a little every day."

An excerpt from, For the Time Being by Annie Dillard.