Heart of Darkness by Marlow and Hotel Rwanda Movie - Essay Example

? Heart of darkness Part II On the second Part of Heart of Darkness, Marlow became interested in Kurtz. The first time he heard about him, was when there were people on the boat talking about Kurtz. In the beginning of the second part, we cannot tell who is Kurtz and what type of a person is he. There are many questions that come to mind about Kurtz; if he is a normal person, a respectful man, or is he a god? One of the interesting things was when they wanted to hang a man to set an example for others and when they said, “Anything--anything can be done in this country” (32). The repetition of the word anything is to prove that there are a lot of things can be done over there. The corruption in Congo allowed people to kill and to do what ever they want. Those people knew that there is no one to judge them. The more time Marlow spend in the Congo, the more darkness he discovered over there. Going more into my reading, I realized that Kurtz is a man the people were scared of. Another thing that was interesting in the second part was the Russian. I always wonder why the Russian was there till I realized that he was helping Kurtz. Chris Hedges' War is a Force that Gives Us Meaning: Katie Pearman What I understood from Chris Hedges “War is a force that Give Us meaning” that Hedges did not mean the physical force where someone get forced to do something. Here the meaning of the force is when we change the meaning of what we have done. Force is more close to our feeling. For example, if someone did a bad thing to me, I might have the feeling that I want to be bad to him. The feeling could be the thing that forced me to be bad. The same thing happened in war where the winner is the hero. If we look to what this hero did in this war, we would find that he killed, wounded, and destroyed his enemy. The people waiting for this hero to come back will make a celebration for this hero and he would be greeted for what he has done. However when you might ask those people about what this soldier has done, they will say that he has defeated the enemy, which is for them different from killing the enemy. Those people have been forced according to Hedge’s book. After reading Chris Hedges book I have changed the way I look at things. Candle Holocaust Museum It was my first time to visit a holocaust museum. During my life so far I have never thought about what the Jew felt during holocaust; I just knew that it happened. Visiting this museum was a new experience to me. When I entered I saw a lot of certificates on the wall. Most of those certificates were for Eva one of the survivor of the holocaust. One of those certificates that belong to Eva Kor who was the “HERO OF FORGIVNESS.” I could not believe that there is someone who will forgive the people who killed his family or fellow members. I believe that Eva deserved this certificate because she had controlled her anger. When I was going over the museum, I found a part for the Nazi that has the Nazi flag and picture of Hitler. The presence of the Nazi section implied that Eva did not forget, but forgave the misdeeds that she had faced. I believe the purpose of this Museum is to educate people on how to forgive others and even a sinner. If people did not forgive each other; fight and war will become a part of their life. Revenge will initiate revenge. Eva is educating people because she want people to know that we as human being shall help each other to have a successful life. Levi ch 1-5 One of the most interesting passage and really close to me was the question that was asked, “If you and your child were going to be killed tomorrow, would you not give him to eat today? (15). My answer to this questing is “I don’t know.” knowing that you will die tomorrow may make someone suffer more than actual death. In this passage there is a child, which mean parents would not only think about them self; they have a child for whom they care and it will make them suffer even more. Levi wants to show what really happened in those death camps. Also, he wants to transmit the feeling of those people to us so we can realize their sufferings and feelings. Another interesting question by Levi was “how can one hit a man without anger.”(16) Levi used these questions to show that what happened in those death camps is not the normal way that human being act. If you are not an angry mean then you are normal, happy or sad. If you hit someone and you are not angry that means that you are insane. Those how have died in those death camps died of the insaneness that compelled the Germans to act that way. Hotel Rwanda The Hotel Rwanda movie had a lot of impact on me. I did not know that the movie would be based on what happened in 1994. It was my first time to see a movie that is based upon genocide. It was really sad when those people of the Tutsi origin are trying to hide from the Hutu militia but they can’t. The Hutu militia had no problem killing Tutsis regardless of their age and sex. In the movie there was a member of the Hutu militia who has stacked a toy with his stick, which means they had no problems killing kids. Hutu militias were equipped with guns, which gave Tutsis no chance of defending them self. Another interesting thing in the movie was when Paul trying to help those people at the hotel. When I was watching the movie I felt that the UN could have helped the people of Rwanda but they did not want to. There were no efforts to save the Rwandans. Paul was able to save his family more than one time buy paying money or giving whisky to those people in power. Life of those Rwandans was negotiated by money. I felt that they are like tings that you can buy from any grocery store. The point of killing all those people was to end the truth at its very route. Ghosts of RWANDA This documentary video was a real shock. Rwandan people were facing the genocide and the world governments were not taking any action to stop the genocide. 800,000 to 1 million Rwandans were killed because of racism. Previously, I thought racism is a factor that exists between white and black, however I did not know that it could exist between the same people belonging to different tribes. Hutu militia convinced their people that the Tutsi people are their historical enemies. Hutu propaganda said that the Tutsi people abused the Hutu in the past. After their propaganda, the Hutu wanted to eradicate the Tutsis from Rwanda and control the country all alone. The people who were in Rwanda knew what was happening over there. But governments around the world did not recognize what is happening over there, however, there were pictures and videos of the genocide. The Hutu killing the Tutsis without any reason, which reminds of Levi when he said, “there is no why…every stranger is an enemy.” What happened in Rwanda was the same. The Tutsi is the enemy of the Hutu because they are different. I believe that the only thing that tried to help the Tutsi was the media. Without them the world would not know anything about those people and their state. An interesting thing about the documentary video was when the UN commander went to negotiate with the Hutu; he said that he felt like he was negotiating with the devil. The devil would exist because of the hate that Hutus have for the Tutsi, because they are “stranger.” Levi ch 5-10 “ Why dose it happen? Why is the pain of every day translated so constantly into our dream, in the ever-repeated scene of the unlistened-to story?” Levi basically wants to show us that those people not only suffer in the daytime when they are awake, but they also suffer when they go to bed. The horror stay in their mind and it follow them even in their dreams. When the guy from Darfur came to our class, he and his mother had the same situation when they go to sleep. They always have those bad dream that remind them of what happened in Sudan. When they turn their apartment’s light off, his mother remembers the militia who used to kill their people. She felt that those militias are hidden in their apartment. It is true that those people did survive from the killing that happened in their country; on the other hand, their imagination did not survive from the scary scene that they have witnessed there. These memories and dreams will always follow them, and it is hard from them to forget. Alfadel said an interesting thing, while is telling his story to others. When Alfadel tell his story to other people he feel better. Also, after telling his story he can sleep better and those bad dreams stay away for a while. Rupert Brooke (III THE DEAD) In this poem, Brooke wrote about the British soldiers and those people who lost their life while protecting the country. He wrote about how brave they were and the level of honor and nobleness they have reached. Blow out, you bugles, over the rich Dead! This is the first line of Brooke poem where he wants people to be proud of their dead fellows. By saying “rich dead,” Brooke referred to those soldiers, who received the opportunity to serve their country and died with honor at their service. But, dying, has made us rarer gifts than gold We knew that gold is expensive and hard to find, but to die with honor and nobleness for the motherland turns gold inferior to death. These laid the world away; poured out the red Those dead people will be rested from the world so they would be relieved. As their body lay in blood hence Brooke referred to the blood by saying “the red.” Honour has come back, as a king, to earth, When those brave soldier die with honor and went to the grave, the earth got honored and the soldiers lied beneath the earth turned into a king. Shake hand with the devil When the United Nation first arrived to Rwanda by the command of Dallaire, the situation over there was quite. The UN commander Dallaire did like the country but he had no idea of the culture over there. Dallaire felt the need to get deeper in the Rwandans culture. Dallaire had the opportunity to meet both leaders of the Hutu and Tutsi. The Hutu were waiting for any event that should trigger the killing of the Tutsi. The death of the president who was one Hutu by origin provided the spark that started the killing. The Hutu hold Tutsi accountable of the death of the president, however there was no evidences of the involvement of the Tutsi in the situation. The killing began; Hutu militia went outside to the street in a killing spree of the Tutsi. Every Tutsi member was conceived as an enemy to the Hutu. For the Hutu , it dose not matter the sex or the age of the Tutsi because all of them are enemy, The UN troops in Rwanda, was not qualified or authorized to interfere into this situation. Dallaire the commander of the UN knew that it is going to be genocide, so he demanded more troops to stop the killing. Because the UN did not want to interfere in this situation, Dallaire’s demands were canceled. The Hutus ended up killing 800,000 Rwandans, and the UN was unable to stop it. Read More