B-Day Students - Today was your last day with me! I hope that it was good for you because it was for me. Here are your reminders for what you need to accomplish before Friday's class as well as a bit of information on Friday.
Honors English II:
Tonight I would like for you to read "War" by Luigi Pirandello which is in your Elements of Literature books. The piece itself is very short, but be sure to read the biographical and textual information. Once you have done that, please respond to the following question:
Both Pirandello and Levi focus on the impact that war has on a group of people - what do you see as the most important similarity and difference between these two pieces? How do these similarities or differences help the authors to show a larger point about war's impact on humans?
This question should be answered as a comment to this post or via e-mail. I will check them at 11:00 AM EST - any answers not posted by then will earn a zero.
Next class you will watch a film called Die Welle (The Wave) - it's an interesting German film about a classroom experiment which goes horribly wrong. The substitute will give you a viewing guide. Please work on the guide in class and then keep it as we will need to finish the film before starting our study of Night after break. If you are going to buy a copy, be sure to get one soon.
ESL English III
Tonight you have no homework since you finished your essays in class. Next class you will finish watching The Kite Runner as well as work on some journal writing. Enjoy the day!
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16 comments:
I feel that the most important similarity between the two pieces is the idea of loss. The most important difference is the perspective of the loss. These help express a greater idea by the fact that loss has a greater impact on people that are not in the conflict. The concentration camp prisoners felt loss of food, family, and identity. But, they were still able to find find things to be happy about. On the other hand, the people on the train were devastated by the fact that they were losing family to the war. As much as they tried to look at the positive side, they still ended up extremely sad.
The most important similarity that I see in “War” and “A Good Day” is the similarity in the way the group comes together. In times of distress, people often come together and unite in order to remain strong. In “A Good Day”, the prisoners form a family-like connection. This bond is what allows them to remain hopeful for the future. In “War”, the fat man’s words unite the group and they settle their argument and comfort each other. The biggest difference between the two pieces is the end result of coming together. In “War”, the group is unable to withstand the sorrow of losing their sons. They become heartbroken and seem to give up at the end. In “A Good Day”, the prisoners remain strong. They are even able to joke and tease, almost as if they are free men. This ability to stay tightly knit is what differentiates the prisoners from the group in “War”.
Alex Bird 2B
When i had read Mr.Pirandello and Mr.Levi's pieces, it had felt to me the the biggest similarity between the to is that they had both talked about family. In Levis piece he was saying that everyone was trying to help out and look out for one another. In Pirandellos piece, he had really been talking about how families miss their suns that are on the front lines and just wish they could have the with them. Though on the flip side i think the biggest difference between the too is that, compared to Levis piece it felt as if Pirandellos piece was almost sugar-coated and was not telling full details. Only because Levi was telling it how it was and gave all the worst of the worst and the best, if there was any.
I don't think it's fair to place War and A Good Day in the same category of being 'About War'. The Holocaust, while perhaps one of the greater tragedies, was not a war over territory or ideology of government, but rather a metaphorical war on a group of people. The excerpt from Levi's memoir focuses solely on his time in the camps, and his difficulties therein. War, however, is focusing on some ambiguous conflict and is truly focused on combating the ideologies of jingoism and aggressive nationalism.
The only meaningful similarity is the focus on conflict, while they exist in different spheres of philosophy- Levi is musing on what is perhaps the basis of humanity, while Pirandello's work is a wholly political piece.
The most important similarity that both pieces have is the optimism in their plots. In "A Good Day", Levi focuses on the hope that all the victims will be freed one day and they all should be thankful for still being alive. In "War", Pirandello focuses on the bright side of the soldiers and their purpose of dying for their country, and dying satisfied. That is their most important difference, which is their plot. These similarities and differences help the authors show their larger point about war's impact by showing a bittersweet vibe. The two pieces explains the suffering going on, the horrible conditions in concentration camps and the hurt someone goes through for a loss, but both authors shows there is always at least a little bit of happiness in anything with their detailed words.
After reading both texts I feel the important similarity is the author's tone towards war in general, and how people are affected by it. They both talk about the affects of war, and how it changed their lives. The most significant difference that brings these two pieces apart would be the ending of "War". When the man finally realized that his son was gone forever. With the ending of "A Good Day" the author ends with the group being able to stand strong together even with the problems they face. I feel that the idea of the Country ties them together to show a larger purpose. That they must go through pain and suffering, so that others not fighting in war will not have to go through what they went through.
The biggest similarity between "War" and "A Good Day" is the way in which people come together during conflict. In "A Good Day" Levi shows that when all is lost, the only thing that is left is each other. These slaves that most likely never knew each other until they were placed in the camp have become a family almost. They are able to sit down at the end of the day and joke around and reflect on memories, just like families do. In "War" a group of strangers that are on a train together again bond over a tragedy in their lives. Although this tragedy is not as terrible as the Holocaust losing a son, or two, is still quite tragic. In this case a group of people unite as a "family" to help each other get through a tough situation. By the end of the story these strangers are comfortable enough to cry, mourn, and comfort one another. Again these actions mirror a family's actions. The biggest difference between the two pieces is definitely the scale of the tragedy. In "War" a few young men are lost, some dead, some sent to the front lines, both a commonality of any war. This is a tragedy for the parents of course but looking at the large picture, it seems insignificant. In "A Good Day" millions and millions of men, women, and children are brutally murdered for no legitimate reason. To compare the two events would be ridiculous. Pirandello and Levi are both trying to show the terrible effect that war has on humans. War can take somebody down to lowest of low, to the point when a good day is one in which they receive extra garbage to eat. War can also bring a strong man to tears in front of strangers. War has terrible effect on all humans and that is what Levi and Pirandello are trying to show the reader.
The stories focus on accounts of war by the two authors, while one gives an account of people affected by the war when their families are sent to war especially their sons, the other gives a personal account of the war. The two wars were set in different times but the personal tragedy appears to be similar. The sadness appears to be an effect of the personal experiences of the authors. Pirandello believes that “We desire to deceive ourselves by changing reality.” An example of this would be the fat man deceiving himself telling everyone to be happy about their family being sent to war when in fact he was not happy. One can see this when the lady asked the fat man if his son really died and he begins to cry. If he had truly accepted this reality of his son’s death, he would not have cried about it. The most important similarity is the human response to war was the grief and sadness and a feeling of tragedy. The most important difference is that Levi appears to have accepted the way things are as he quotes, “At the end of work, they were satiated, no quarrels and they felt good.”. The similarity indicates that humans may try to feel the good even in a senseless war with significant impact on human lives. Humans do this to avoid the harsh reality of how much they are hurting on the inside and to rationalize their feelings.
The most important similarity between “A Good Day” and “War” is that in both stories the characters are going through a tough time. In a “War” the characters all have kids in the war that they mourn for. In “Good Day” the prisoners are in a concentration camp, which alone is a huge struggle.
The most important difference between the stories is the characters true characteristics come out in the end and they are totally opposite. I saw this in the beginning of war when everyone was comparing their situations and trying to make their situation worse. But later on in the story they come together a little and agree with each other and listen. In “A Good Day” the slaves were together in the beginning, they shared bread and comforted each other. At the end they became single minded because of the extra rations.
The difference helps to show a larger point about war’s impact on humans by showing that war can either bring out the better in a person or the good in a person.
I found the most important similarity between the two pieces to be the large impact political disturbances have on the characters' perceptions of happiness. In "A Good Day", Levi observes the limitations of the human capacity for happiness and unhappiness, an idea the becomes particularly significant in his situation. This philosophy allows him to cope with the misery of the camp by revealing to him that his unhappiness is not absolute, that everyone is both happy and unhappy.
Pirandello writes about happiness by describing the emotions of families whose sons have gone to war. The families first debate whether or not the number of children lost would have an effect on their level of happiness as parents. Later, a man argues that they should not be terribly sad or mournful because their sons loved their country, and thus died happily.
Both authors write about people's need to reevaluate happiness when tragedy strikes. However, they use very different tones to describe this topic. "A Good Day" has a persistently optimistic tone, while "War" is very dismal, with the parents even coming off as somewhat selfish.
The most important similarity I see between, Pirandello and Levi is their compassion and love for one another. In "War" Pirandello shows his compassion and love for the twenty year old men, who have to go to war and stand on the front. In "A Good Day" Levi focuses on his compassion for the other prisoners in the concentration camps. In both text they focus on the event's effect, not just for themselves, but for others around them. The most important difference between Pirandello and Levi is the event taking place and who it is affecting. In "War" the event is World War 1 and it mostly impacting the family of twenty year old men. While in "A Good Day", the event was the Holocaust and affected anyone who did not meet Hitler's requirements; but it was mostly Jews. These similarities and differences help Levi and Pirandello show a larger point about war's impact on humans, which is that War does not just affect one person, but it affects the people around them, as well.
Makenzie Elam; 2B
The most important similarity between "War" and "A Good Day" is the inability of the people to fully grasp the severity and the hopelessness of their situation. In "War", the fat man cannot truly accept his son's death until the very end, when he "broke into harrowing, heart-rending, uncontrollable sobs". He ignores and avoids his grief by proclaiming his pride in his son. In "A Good Day", Pirandello claims that the prisoners can only focus on one bad thing at a time, so they think of their mothers and wives last (after their natural needs for warmth and food are satisfied). In both pieces, the desperation and sadness of the victims is masked, whether through hunger or false pride. The situation is too horrible for them to truly accept and process, so they find ineffective ways to cope with their pain.
The biggest difference in "War" and "A Good Day" is that in "War" the people are much harder on each other and more critical of each other's loss. In "A Good Day", the prisoners seem to understand each other, and they speak encouraging words to cheer each other up. They do not try to one-up each other with the scale of their heartbreak as the people in "War" do. "War" feels like a competition, while "A Good Day" feels more like an alliance. I think this is true because the prisoners in "A Good Day" are in a worse situation than those in "War". The prisoners in "A Good Day" depend on each other for survival, but the people in "War" are not in a situation that is quite as severe and therefore feel more freedom to argue and converse.
The main similarity between "War" and "A Good Day" is the way people behave in times of tragedy. In both pieces the characters are experiencing great hardships, and they all try to manage their pain as a larger community of those who share a similar experience. Both pieces discuss happiness and unhappiness, and the effects of both. In “War” they discuss the effects of the death of family, and the characters attempt to find the positive side of such a sad occurrence, but appeared almost unable to. In"A Good Day" Levi presents the idea that unhappiness is experience of the free, and in times of constant struggle ones immediate needs overpower the need to understand how oneself is feeling. These similarities in theme show how differently the authors view the human experience, and the effects tragedy has on ones life. Levi’s perspective has an underlying optimism which likely helped him survive, while Pirandello’s in piece the unhappiness engulfs the characters, and though comparatively the tragedy in “War” is less tragic than that in "A Good Day" the characters in “A Good Day” are able to handle it much better, which maybe was Levi’s point surrounding the idea of unhappiness being an experience of free men. In "A Good Day" the characters come together they know there is no use in unhappiness, and that they should hold on to hope, while in “War” the characters by allowing unhappiness to come into their lives begin to split apart.
The most important similarity is h\the focus on the most basic level of human connection: compassion. Pirandello writes in “War” about the relations between strangers on the train. They have connection, one of conflict and argument, but at a more simplistic level, they connect around their own concepts of pain. In “A Good Day” Levi has a mirrored structure and focus on the connections between the prisoners in the concentration camp. He focuses on how they help each other, and the fact that all of these strangers come together only because they are all related by their suffering.
The main difference is the settings of the stories themselves, and the differing effects of where the characters are. In “War”, the characters are suffering for others (their sons) on a train, on the way back to their broken yet safe homes. Though their lives have been changed, they aren't facing death, as the prisoners in “A Good Day” are. Levi depicts a dark and gloomy setting in the death-ridden camp.The settings of both create a much different tone for each piece. These similarities and differences show Pirandello’s feelings of how war affects everyone, on a larger scale, while we can see Levi’s feelings of individual and community unhappiness in times of war.
The comparison I see between the two text is the love for everyone except themselves. Levi and Pirandello are both men that are like the father figure to their peers. Both of them are optimistic character's and look out for everyone. Levi makes sure that the prisoners do not panic. Pirandello helps everyone and gives them hope that everything will be okay
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