Looking back on Thompson

31- I think that Thompson is setting this picture up like this for reasons more shown later in the book. He shows Phil's face as very innocent and young, and Craig kind of scrunched up in the corner of the box helpless- wanting you to think of this scene when Craig describes how he wishes he could have helped his younger brother in this very situation.
87+ 128- on both of these pages Thompson shows how the hmmmm of the heater beasically is surrounding young and then older Craig. In one instance when he is affraid, cold, and alone and in another instance when he has the perfect company.
145-147- This sounds kinda odd, but I do like how Thompson made such a scene out that can be seen as incredibly sexual and maybe even gross to some people to read about, but with this I really like how he made it not perverted. He made these pages out to be just as if Raina were to be with Craig and they were sharing this passion amoung one another, but they weren't. But to me it still felt like and looked like a scene where it shows their longing for one another.
207- On this page I feel like the parents are in a way being just as childish as they son. It appears like they would rather not being talking about this sinful situation no more than Craig does, but they have to. It just makes them come off as two people that obviously don't understand or want to understand children are children and are going to go against what they should not sometimes, that they are going to grow up a little more than they should sometimes and yes some things they do are going to be appriote and some other things aren't, but it is just how his parents handled this situation that struck me as odd in a way.
223- This page I honestly never even realized before. Having all of the stuffed animals around him while in the guest bedroom at Raina's house. This shows to me how all of these young toys or animals brought him back to his own childhood asking but knowing the same question of who touched me?

Persepolis the Movie

I loved the move ten times more than reading the book. I think that it was because the movie put you right in their situation being able to live it with them instead of trying to understand what they are feeling through reading. The movie showed you visually how affected Marjane was when the bomb had hit the area where they had lived and when she was the braclet that she knew looked familiar. While reading that part I didn't put the same emphasis on her facial expression of just how affraid she really was. But actually seeing her face it made this whole situation so much more realistic to me. The movie definitely made me appreciate this book so much more because she is truly telling her story of her home life. Having to deal with bombings and worrying if your own mother is still alive to even showing how she was so focused on this war and just how frustratd her parents had gotten with her. I never realized how serious she was to the point where they would just have to send her out of the room, for her pure misunderstanding sometimes of what was really going on with the war. I loved the same in the movie as I did in the book how outspoken she was to her teacher. The one thing that I never really got from the book was her students reaction towards what she had said. The fact that they were chearing for her and clapping just solidified how wrong they were teaching even in the school systems, and trying to lie to the children so that they would believe the way of the government.

180- End of Persepolis

Going through the second half of this book it was very difficult to get through. It was very drawn out to me- and sometimes wordy in different situations. It seemed to turn me off when blocks of dialogue were lots of writing and long lengthy speachs from when she was in a class getting a lecture. It just seemed that the reader could have gone without having to read all of that. I don't think that the political stuff would have made much of a difference in the book anyhow whether we read and remembered it or not.
What I did enjoy about this book was how it told a true story of a young woman trying to find herself. Trying to make her own mold and not conform to society. Marjane was taking the risk of stepping out of the boundaries in a country where they killed people, where speaking or out doing some of the things that she had been accused of doing such as speaking out in such a manner, I am suprised that she wasn't killed for. I did love that she did stick up for what she believed in though, she wasn't about to let anyone tell her a lie when she knew that she knew and understood the truth. I loved also her parents in this book to allow her to grow up. Though I don't think that sending her to Austria was a way to make her not be so dependent on her family it worked in that same when. She returned home knowing that there is definitely more of a world out there and she lived it and not the easy way. She returned home depressed but picked herself up. She learned from her own mistakes which is exactly what her parents seem to want to let her do. Live life learning from her own experiences. For example her marriage, her father says that he knew all along- he just needed her to do it on her own.

Persepolis -179

I find it amazing how young children want to help everyone around them, first off in this book that surprised me was her wanting to be a prophet; not for the attention she would get but because of what is around her. Helping her grandmother not have pain anymore, and so her maid could eat with them. Also, her wanting to participate in the revolution makes you think what other children thought about or wanted to do related to the revolution. At the same time I think it is in a way comical that she is a tape recorder, she takes in what any adults tells her and plays it back to anyone where the topic realtes. She is completely unsure if it is true or not but she simply goes with it anyway. But as Marjane grows up you learn that she is very outspoken. She begins to learn about her culture and debatable topics and sticks people with them. She always seemed to come off as a very young and independent girl, always saying by a teen that she could take care of herself. That obviously had shown through when her parents had decided to send her to Austria. Thats when comments such as "I'm only fourteen! You trust me?" came into her vocabulary, not being so big and bad any more now that she was going to be on her own. I found it very interesting how she was really trying to find herself in Austria, it was interesting to see how long she would truly allow herself to stay with certain groups. Such as the nuns- that was bound for failure from the beginning just because of how much of a true spirit she had.

Maus complete book

This rest of this book reveals even more the odd relationship that Artie and his father share. It also reveals how the Holocaust took its affect on not only his father, but how Artie feels about many situations as well.
Having to go out to visit his father, he doesn't want to do it but he goes. I couldn't imagine then pawning him off on my fathers next door neighbors to keep an eye on him because I, his child does not want to watch after him myself. I think that it is incredibly frustrating to Artie obviously tha this father is such a horder of unnecessary items but what can he do?
On the other hand Vladek is affected with how he buys things, especially food. He even admits on page 78 how he cannot throw away food after Hitler. How awful that must be to have an event so large as the Holocaust completely take control and affect your life not only during, but for years after the event occured. I also wonder how it affected those Germans who were killing all of those people each and every day. I could only assume how that could maybe drive a man crazy, needing to kill more and more every day. How was their life affected after the Holocaust was over? Did they feel the need to keep killing?
I also found it interesting again in the remainer of this book on how Vladek survived. How he used craft to get into the infermatory to get better treatment and food; but to also help them out as much as he could so that they would like him. He was constatly gainning more and more friends for help along the way that honestly in the end saved his life. Thinking of all of the small things that he did such as giving bread so two men would carry him to the train; I would never be able to think of such crafty things in order to stay alive. But I suppose when your life is on the line then everything changes.
The last thing that I found very surprising about this portion of the book was Vladek racism towards the black "dog" I guess in this book. I was and at the same time was not shocked at how he ached. The man was completely nice and polite but just from simple expereince Vladek didn't like him at all.

Maus II chapters 1-2

In this section it was interesting to see how Artie responed t0 his fathers past. For instance, he was feeling in a way guilty because he father had survived the Holocaust, or guilty over the fact that his life is a lot easier than their's was. Even when he describes sibling rivalry between him and a photograph of his dead brother. I think that he wants to know more the people that died such as his mother and brother rather than who was given to him; his father and Mala who bother don't seem to be much of a help.
I think that he avoids as much as he can the problems between his fathers relationship with Mala because he truly has no intrest in it. I think that he just wants his own mother for his father so that he could stop worrying about him and so his father would stop complainning about Mala.
Their relationship continues to be so odd between father and son. Only staying through the weekend even though he knows that his father is so alone and feels completely by himself. He even tried to pawn off his own father on the neighbors, who don't want to look after him any more than Artie does.

Maus 1

This book was a good story to me, I think that it portrayed the story of that time period very well. It showed step by step what Jewish people of that time really had to go through. What was a real eye opener for me what the time period of which all of this took palce. Now I have read a lot of the other books about the Hollocaust but I never realised that it occured in the fourties, that was shocking to me ralizing that that was around the time of WWII and things like that.
I really liked how crafty they had to be to simply survive. No one was family anymore, but just people trying to survive. That is astonishing becaue no one could really just help others out of the kindness of their hearts because brutal death was the consequence.
For my groups discussion there was a lot of instances where the text was related to the pictures. For example when Vladeks son comes back to his home in the beginning of the book and he hadn't been back in a while, and Mala put his coat on a wire hanger, and how upset and frustrated Valdek gets with her. Another isntance was when Anja was reading the letter from Lucia about Valdek, and how it shows her crying as she is reading.
This was book was really good, though I do get confused in some points simply because of the talking about how the book makes them speak in broken english sometimes. but otherwise I enjoy oddly reading about the Holocaust and Jewish victims of this awful time period because it is history, and it really happened to people. I think what makes this story so amazing to me is that there are still people that are alive today that lived through this, that can relate to stories that are told about this time in history.