MOVIE IMPACT

The movie's purpose was in trying to evoke feelings of sympathy from the viewer. By showing the gruesome reality and its effects, it points an accusing finger at the viewer for being blind to the subject. However, it also challenges the viewer to speak up about such issues.

The movie focused on the Tutsi's perspective. It showed them getting beaten, without refuge, and scattered across the country. It also bellowed in an angry voice to do something about the genocide. The movie implored for something more to be done than just a few troops to be sent to 'protect' the Rwandans.

Hotel Rwanda was a powerful film. It created a whirlpool of shock in the viewer as he/she steadily stepped into reality. The sad stories of each character was like a personal touch that cried for help. The movie made the viewer think "What was I doing all this time while these people suffered?" In addition, the film trumpeted a final cry for help. When the movie ended and the captions of the epilogue came up, the viewer was struck once again that the blood suffereing in the film was the truth of Rwanda. The bitter reality of the movie drove home to smack the viewer in the head.

Genocide in Rwanda

Unfortunately the genocide of Rwanda is grossly true. The reason for the massacre is a bit hard to understand when one is standing in a third person perspective. However, it was big enough for the death rate to go skyrocketing for a long time.

The effects of the killings is shocking. It wiped out a good chunk of the Rwandan populaion, not to mention the creating of the devastating scenes of death in every corner. The tactics to kill weren't clean and short. It was a battle armed with machetes that took multiple blows to finally take away the victim's last breath.

It is unbeleivable how the 'outsiders' took no action. While the murders were taking place, the outside world was debating whether the event was a genocide or just a minor tribal war. It is proposterous how no one took significant action to protect these people from manslaughter. In a Rwandan's position, it would have been heartwrenchingly frustrating: people dying around the clock, no proper refuge, and no one to run to.

At a time like this, world media would have been helpful. However, there wasn't enough information to create a big issue. This even, seems absurd. With the media not fully engrossed in the subject, it would have been hard for the world population to understand the massive scale of genocide. What the media presents is what the world knows. But with the media lacking information and not knowing what to do with the situation, it is only just that it is the same with the outside people.

Citation: links on Edline.

On the Idle Hills of Summer

A.E Housman (1859-1936)

On the idle hill of summer,
Sleepy with the flow of the streams,
Far I hear the steady drummer
Drumming like a noise in dreams

Far and near and low and louder
On the roads of earth go by,
Dear to friends and food for powder,
Soldiers marching, all to die.

East and west on fields forgotten
Bleach the bones of comrades slain,
Lovely lads and dead and rotten;
None that go return again.

Far the calling bugles hollo,
High the screaming fife replies
Gay the files of scarlet follow:
Woman bore me, I will rise.
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My Understanding:
This poem is talking about fighting for/protecting what you believe, in other words, having strong faith. The setting of the idle hill is very peaceful and comforting-it is like a comfort zone, the place a person feels at home, where nothing disrupts the calmness. However, when what the person believes starts to be at risk, the mood gets darker. Even if he is still at the hill, lying away in serenity, he will see people like him fighting with their lives to protect that belief. With dignity and faith, he won’t be able to cower and take refuge in that peaceful place. The person will get up, leave their idleness behind them, and step into danger to prove to the world that their belief is worth risking lives for.
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¿Q?:
① What is the purpose of laying out the setting in the way shown?
② What does the soldiers “marching, all to die” imply?
③ What does the author mean by the last line: “woman bore me, I will rise.”

We Wear the Mask

Paul Laurence Dunbar

We wear the mask that grins and lies,

It hides our cheeks and shades our eyes-
This debt we pay to human guile;
With torn and bleeding hearts we smile,
And mouth with myriad subtleties.

Why should the world be over-wise,
In counting all our tears and sighs?
Nay, let them only see us, while
We wear the mask.

We smile, but, O great Christ, our cries
To the from tortured souls arise.
We sing, but oh the clay is vile,
Beneath our feet, and long the mile;
But let the world dream otherwise,
We wear the mask!

My Understanding:

This poem talks a lot about a mask.

A mask is something to cover up what is true; a fake replica/imitation made to replace the truth.

The speaker in the poem keeps mentioning 'we', this indicates that he is talking for a group of people.

The phrase 'mask that grins and lies', gives us a decietful feeling in the poem.

Shades our eyes = eyes in a person is what reflects who they are. Sad people have sad eyes, happy people have bright eyes and so on. To 'shade our eyes' is to hide oneself, who they really are. (It could also mean to shade our shame)

dept we pay to human guile = (guile-> cunning deception to attain a goal) human guile is like human nature, our nature to be sinful. A dept we pay is blaming our wrongdoings on our nature.

Torn & bleeding hearts we smile = another indication of deceitfulness

myriad subtleties = a great number of delicate meanings, in other words, they talk with a sweet tongue.

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world be over-wise, counting tears and sighs = The speaker is saying that the world doesn't remember all our faults.

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O great Christ= Christ is either God or the speaker. Only God/the speaker knows of what is going on inside of them: thoughts, troubles, torment.

to thee from tortured souls arise = this sounds as if the 'Christ' is a place of comfort and also a place of total truth.

clay is vile beneath our feet = the ground the speaker stands on is not stable. He/she doens't feel safe. Clay can suck you in slowly. The speaker sounds suspicious and nervous of everything, even of the 'vile' ground he/she stands on.

let the world dream otherwise = Despite the truth that the speaker has on a mask that covers his real self, the world believes in the mask that they see. But what they believe is made of false reality.

we wear the mask! = The exclamation point gives us a feeling of victory or self-satisfaction. The speaker, despite that he/she is bleeding inside, is rather happy that he/she has the mask in posession.

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The author seems to be talking about the corruption of human nature. People, either because of past wounds or other reasons, tend to hide their true selves. They use sweet words to get what they want and only try to portray their optimistic sides. The world becomes a place where they have to watch their backs. Because they know that they are not the only ones who have a mask. The world, in a way, knows this; but there is always talk of utopias, or a perfect government. Although the hiding of the pain and sins is hard, the author shows us with the last line that we cannot survive without a 'mask' to cover ourselves us, thus leading to the conclusion that humans are deceitful by nature.

A Daughter of Eve

Christina Rossetti (1830-1894)

A fool I was to sleep at noon,
And wake when night is chilly
Beneath the comfortless cold moon;
A fool to pluck my rose too soon,
A fool to snap my lily.

My garden-plot I have not kept;
Faded and all-forsaken,
I weep as I have never wept:
Oh it was summer when I slept,

It's winter now i waken.

Talk what you please of future spring
And sun-warm'd sweet to-morrow:-
Stripp'd bare of hope and everything,
No more to laugh, no more to sing,
I sit alone with sorrow.

My understanding:

The title, "A Daughter of Eve" gives the poem a regretful, deafeated, and hopeless air.
Eve was a character in the Bible that made a foolish mistake and ended up getting kicked out of her home.
Saying that the speaker is a 'daughter of Eve' is saying that she also made a costly mistake just like Eve.
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The poem opens with the speaker calling herself a fool.
'Noon' is the time before night, before things get dark outside.
To 'sleep at noon' shows that the speaker was at unawares before the dark time instead of being ready.
'Wake when night is chilly' means the speaker came back to her senses when things had already gone bad.
'Pluck my rose' : a rose represents passion, love, and hope
'Snap my lily': a lily means purity
'A fool to pluck my rose too soon, A fool to snap my lily': the verse indicates that the speaker had given her passion,hope,love,and purity to someone or something 'too soon.'
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'My garden-plot','All-forsaken': after she had lost her passion and purity too soon, she stopped caring about her self, she had done nothing at all after her loss.
'Weep as I have never wept'=regreted more than I have ever regretted.
'It was summer when I slept': Everything was fine when she was making a decision.
'It's winter now I waken':Reality opened her eyes and she realizes the decision she made was a mistake.
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'Talk what you please of future spring And sun-warm'd sweet to-morrow'': The speaker doesn't care when others talk about future hopes and dreams.
'Stripp'd bare of hope': she doesn't have any hope.
'I sit alone': she is forsaken/she seperates herself from the world.
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I think the speaker is a teenage girl that has become pregnant, a single mom.
She thought that her man really loved her.
But as soon as she was with child, the whole world, including him, forsaked her.
And now she was only filled with remorse and regret.
The sacrifice of love and purity made me think of this.
Many people today risk mistakes they may make for little happinesses.
They don't think of what may happen in the future because of their decision.
They only think of here and now.
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The speaker could also be a person that has become adicted to drugs or gambling.
It can be anyone who had made one wrong decision that changed the course of their whole lives. They were stuck in their own decisions and had to carry the burdens of the outcome.
They have nothing but regrets.
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Theme: A decision you make for the happiness of a fleeting moment may cost you the rest of your life.