ISU Blog Post #6 - Loss

The last social issue that i am going tho write about is loss. Loss is the state or feeling of grief when deprived of someone or something of value. Throught my book, Anne Frank has to deal with multiple losses. She is sent to an all Jew school which separates her from her friends, she has to go into hiding, and she loses her privileges as a human because she is labeled as a "Jew." All of these thing impacted her mental state and often gave her suicidal thoughts. This shows that loss is very bad and if humans are stripped of their basic human rights such as equality, it can be catastrophic on their mental and physical health. The picture shown below related to Anne Frank. She often has very harsh thoughts such as commiting suicide or leaving her family. 

       

ISU Blog Post #5 - Identity

Identity plays a major part in my book. Throught Anne Frank's(the main character) life, she goes under many identities to the point where she is unsure of who she actually is. During the holocaust, all people who had a Jewish background were labeled as a "jew". This is the first identity that she goes under. While she is hiding in the secret annex which is inside of her fathers building, she goes through the identities of  a daughter, lover, sister, friend, war reporter, philosopher, historian, religious scholar, student, and writer.

ISU Blog Post #4 - Racism

Racism is the belief that all members of each race possess characteristics or abilities specific to that race, especially so as to distinguish it as inferior or superior to another race or races. This social issue plays a major role in my book because the race that is distinguished as inferior to other races is the Jewish race. In my book, the Jewish race is discriminated because the were blamed for the loss of World War 1 and the Great Depression. The Germans were enraged by these losses and in anger, turned to the Jewish race as a culprit. The article that I have linked is about the riots in Baltimore. It talks about how the city was torn apart by racism wars and how the place is in ruins. This is similar to the Holocaust except the Germans overpowered the Jewish people by using force. The Holocaust and this article both have one central issue, racism is wrong and it only causes conflict. This is why we should be working together and trying to decrease the amount of racism to have a more just and fair world.   

ISU Blog Post #3 - Separitism

For this ISU blogpost, I chose to theme it around the social issue of separatism. Separatism is the advocacy or practice of separation of a certain group of people from a larger body on the basis of ethnicity, religion, or gender. This relates to my book because the Jewish people who were living in Germany during WW2 were separated from the non- Jews. They were forced to go to special Jew only schools and can only go to certain supermarkets.Anne Frank, the main character of my book also mentions that they were forced to wear special clothing to show that they were separate from the rest of the people. This picture is of a sign  that was posted in Germany during World War 2. It shows that the place was a Jew-restricted area. I believe that the idea of separatism is wrong and that everybody is equal. Creating the borders for the Jewish people only enraged them more and caused them to fight more. The Jew- restricted areas accomplished nothing as they made the Jews more tempted to enter them.

ISIS Article Summary

This is a very interesting article that I found online talking about the war against ISIS. As everyone knows, many countries are trying their best to solve the issues in Iraq and stop ISIS from getting new recruits. What I like about this article is that it is talking about the negative objective that U.S is hiding instead of saying that they are doing a great job at fighting ISIS. "While the US seems to be engaged in a psychological war against ISIS, it is equally involved in a systematic campaign of sabotage against those forces that are actually fighting ISIS on the ground."It claims that the U.S is secretly trying to get rid of the ally forces so that once the war is over, they can easily gain control over them. The article also explains the whole psychological aspect of war instead of the fighting aspect. It explains that our propaganda posters that are meant to stop new ISIS recruits are poorly designed and are actually angering them more, this is causing them to come at us with more vengeance and power. 
Click here for the article

ISU Blog Post #2 - Slam Poetry

For the second blogpost of the ISU, i decided to write my own Slam Poetry of my novel instead of finding some poetry online. Below is a poem that I made which is about the social issue of isolation. It describes a scene that Anne Frank faces when she is in hiding a house.

Hidden in a room, I watch as my own are being taken away
Helpless and useless, I have nothing to say
There is only 1 of them and 10 of us
We could have gotten together and made a fuss
We have the numbers, but they have the guns
We scream, we shout, but still the Nazi's don't know what about
They say, "The Jews are the devils, we must eliminate."
What did we do, why do we have to compensate
Here i am, Hidden, Isolated from the world
I watch my own being taken away while i am in a corner, all curled

ISU Blog Post #1 - Isolation

The book that i have chosen for my ISU is called The Diary of a Young Girl by Anne Frank. This story is about what Anne Frank, the main character had to go through while she and her family were in hiding from the Nazi's during WW2. A major social issue in this book is isolation due to the fact that Anne and her family are isolated from the rest of the world in order to survive. Also, many of the Jews were isolated by being put into concentration camps and jail. Furthermore, the Jews had special boundaries and restrictions put onto them, for example, Jews could only go to all Jew schools or only buy certain foods from the grocery market. The article that i have linked to this post is about how over 10000 citizens are in hiding themselves inside of caves in order to survive and escape from the civil war in Syria. This article is very similar to Anne Frank's situation as they are also isolating themselves from the rest of the world by going into hiding. This shows that although much time has passed from WW2 to now, people are still being forced to go into hiding in order to save themselves.


Tens of thousands of people are hiding in these immense Syrian tunnels and caves - Article